"Actor: Ker Wells"

• Universal Soldier | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Universal Soldier offered director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter Dean Devlin their first venture before going on to make a mountain of money as the creators of Independence Day and Godzilla. Teaming up for this action flick disguised as a science fiction thriller, muscle hunks Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren play embattled Vietnam soldiers who kill each other in combat. They are subsequently revived 25 years later as semi-android "UniSols" in a high-tech army of the near future. Their memories were supposedly wiped clean, but flashbacks occur to remind them of their bitter hatred (Lundgren committed wartime atrocities; Van Damme had tried to stop him) and the warriors resume their tenacious battle while a journalist (Ally Walker) uncovers the truth about the secret UniSol program. With energy to spare, the standard action sequences are adequate for anyone with a short attention span. And besides, with Van Damme and Lundgren in the lead roles, who needs dialogue? --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• John Mayall&The Bluesbreake/In The Shadow Of Legends | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The story of this vibrant night of Blues, filmed over a decade after the so-called Blues Boom in the UK stimulated a worldwide rediscovery of the roots of Rock 'N' Roll, is the story of John Mayall, the pioneer of British Blues, and roving global ambassador fro the genre. Memphis and Chicago Blues legends joined British Blues icon John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers on stage, one special night in June 1982 at New Jersey's Capitol Theater. The concert turned out to be a summit gathering of some of the greatest names in Blues music, when guitarists Albert King and Buddy Guy, harmonica player Junior Wells and singers Etta James and Sippie Wallace, all showed up to sit in with the band.

• John Mayall and the Bluebreakers - Live at Capitol Nj | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  John Mayall is known as the White King of Black Blues. His way of singing his harmonica playing and his typical Hammond organ sound reigned supreme in the realm of the blues during the sixties and seventies. I never made commercial compromises; everything I did I did for myself and nobody else Mayall confessed - words that are as honest and credible as his music. In 1982 Mayall decided to reunite the Bluesbreakers in the original line-up for a tour. In June of that year there was a spectacular extravaganza at New Jersey's Capitol Theatre when John Mayall & The Bluesbreakers open a concert night titled Jammin' With The Blues Greats: white blues from Britain meets Chicago and Memphis blues. The audience paid homage to the Bluesbreakers who accompanied five blues immortals through the night. Tracklist: 1. An Eye For An Eye 2. Baby What Ya Want Me To Do feat. Etta James 3. Messin With The Kid feat. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 4. Dont Start Me Talkin feat. Buddy Guy & Junior Wells 5. My Time After A while 6. Shorty George feat. Sippie Wallace 7. The Dark Side Of Midnight 8. Why Are You So Mean To Me? feat. Albert King 9. Born Under A Bad 10. Sign feat. Albert King 11. Call It Stormy Monday feat. Albert King 12. C. C. Rider Jam Allstars 13. Room To Move

• Till The Clouds Roll By | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £4.99   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  A fascinating and colourful screen biography of Jerome Kern (Robert Walker). It starts with the opening night of his smash hit Showboat and flashes back to his beginnings as an almost penniless songwriter. The film follows his friendship with James I. Hessler and journeys to England where the best songwriters are reputed to be and where he finds his early successes - and the future Mrs Kern (Dorothy Patrick). After some difficult times in the USA he collaborates with Oscar Hammerstein; the result being the classic adaptation of Edna Ferber's Showboat. The picture's grand finale features Frank Sinatra singing Ol' Man River. This is one huge and lavish theatrical feast; great entertainment!

• Harlan County War | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (33.39%)   |  RRP £7.99

  It's Her Turn To Fight Back. Academy Award-winner Holly Hunter (The Piano) stars as Ruby the wife of a coal miner in Harlan County Kentucky. After two senseless deaths the union calls a strike against the mining company. What follows is one of the most violent bitter and notorious union battles in history. With no end to the strike in sight Ruby decides to fight the company her way. Ted Levine (Georgina) and Stellan Skarsgard (Good Will Hunting) also star in this fictional

• Vivaldi: Orlando Furioso | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  For those with any interest in Vivaldi's operas Orlando Furioso is essential viewing, being a 1989 San Francisco Opera revival by Pier Luigi Pizzi of his own 1979 production which was largely responsible for beginning modern interest in Vivaldi's stage work. The composer first premiered Orlando finto pazzo in 1714, but the Orlando Furioso finalised in 1727 was so heavily reworked as to be virtually an entirely new opera, and so successful Handel set the same epic poem by Aristo under the title Alcina in 1735. Vivaldi's opera is not of that calibre, offering rather too much functional recitative and only a handful of truly memorable arias. However, the cast perform with such commitment and style as to make the work thoroughly enjoyable. It is a tale of romantic and magical intrigue on a small island, inevitably echoing Shakespeare's The Tempest, and the classically elegant set-design and colourful costumes evoke a suitable sense of fantasy. Mezzo-soprano Marilyn Horne makes the title role her own while Susan Patterson is a characterful and strong-minded Angelica. William Matteuzzi makes a sympathetic Medoro, notably outmanoeuvred in love, while as the sorceress Alcina Kathleen Kuhlann is a appropriately complex and powerful in revealing the loneliness at the heart of her corruption. On the DVD: There are no features other than the two trailers which appear on almost all Arthaus releases. The production is presented in the original television 4:3 and the image is little better than a good video. The picture is not especially detailed and too often the performer's faces are slightly out of focus while the sets are pin-sharp. Overall the image suffers the usual problems from originally being shot on professional video, in addition to which some compression artefacting is noticeable. The prologic sound is fine, though appears simply to down mix the main stereo signal to the rear channel and the result is more accurate if switched to straight stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Pirates of Blood River | DVD | (08/01/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A