"Actor: Kevin Scannell"

• Deadly Pursuit | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (200.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Deadly Pursuit is the polished chase thriller which marked Sidney Poitier's return to the big screen 11 years after A Piece of the Action (1977). Poitier, already 61 but not looking a day over 45, is an FBI agent hunting a killer who takes mountain guide Tom Berenger's girlfriend hostage and heads into the wilds of Washington State. Inevitably Poitier and Berenger reluctantly join forces, going through the usual mismatched buddy arguments with commendably straight faces and lending a quality of acting which elevates the movie above its routine screenplay. The girlfriend meanwhile is Kirstie Alley in one of her first major feature roles, providing little more than eye candy and enduring her ordeal with hardly a beautifully flowing tress out of place. Director Roger Spottiswoode maintains the suspense well and mounts the action set-pieces with a taut, lean style, though the film lacks the sharp edge of his Under Fire (1983) or the sheer scale of his Bond outing, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). One major asset is Michael Chapman's gorgeous mountains-and-rivers cinematography, actually filmed in British Columbia. Without the star cast and strong production values Deadly Pursuit could be any of a thousand straight-to-video action flicks, but as it stands is a superior formula adventure. The film was also released with the title Shoot to Kill. On the DVD: Deadly Pursuit comes to disc with no extras bar numerous subtitle options and a choice of a Spanish dubbed version. The original Dolby SR soundtrack has been given a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix and is effectively atmospheric, clean and clear, if lacking the firepower of a more recent equivalent. The anamorphically enhanced picture is a little soft in places and somewhat grainy, but otherwise good. The film was presented theatrically at 2.35:1 and has been reformated for DVD at 1.78:1. As the movie was shot in Super-35, a format designed to allow widescreen theatrical films to be more easily recomposed for television and video, the result here is visually quite different to the cinema original, with some shots losing information to the sides while others gain additional material at the top and bottom of the frame. Mostly the compositions look fine, as if the film had been shot at 1.85:1, though the mountain landscapes inevitably lack the sheer visual sweep and majesty of the big screen original version.--Gary S Dalkin

• Turner And Hooch | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £6.00   |  Saving you £8.99 (149.83%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Much better than your average cop-and-dog movie (such as K-9), Turner and Hooch is really a love story about a control freak (Tom Hanks) who gradually resigns to the messy chaos of a sweet hulk of a pooch named Hooch. The excuse for this relationship is that the dog can identify a murderer and Hanks needs him, but the film is really about such hilarious moments as Hanks bathing Hooch with a long brush, and a wild chase through the streets when the sharp-eyed mutt spots his suspect. Layered over this is a healthy love story between Hanks and animal vet Mare Winningham, who share a terribly sexy scene together--while fully clothed--doing no more than making breakfast. (Hanks directed this scene, though Roger Spottiswoode directed the rest of the movie.) --Tom Keogh

• Milk Money | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £27.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Starring four times Oscar-nominated Ed Harris as the widowed Father and Melanie Griffith as the 'tart with a heart'; the film explores themes of acceptance and love through the eyes of a young boy. The relationship between father and son is played out with sensitivity and understanding between Harris and the young Michael Patrick Carter. The bond the two actors share allows the film to create an authentic family environment into which Griffith's good-hearted prostitute enters and even

• The Bill - Volume 6 | DVD | (15/10/2012) from £19.99   |  Saving you £30.00 (150.07%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The Bill went from strength to strength in 1988 when it was restructured into the half-hour format that stormed to the top of the ITV ratings and the show remained a Top Ten UK drama for over two decades – becoming the longest- running police procedural drama ever screened on British television. Starring fan favourites Sgt. Cryer (Eric Richard) WPC Ackland (Trudie Goodwin) DS Ted Roach (Tony Scannell) DC Lines (Kevin Lloyd) and the ever irascible DI Burnside (Christopher Ellison) this set contains 48 consecutive episodes – originally screened in 1989.

• Monkey Trouble | DVD | (27/03/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Monkey Trouble is a movie only a kid could love, which was the whole point. Harvey Keitel plays a small-time thief who performs as an organ grinder on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. His scam involves his monkey, which has been trained to pick pockets. Now a mob boss wants to borrow the monkey to pull off some big scores--but the monkey runs away and is adopted by a lonely little girl (Thora Birch). She finds herself in increasingly hot water when her new pet starts bringing her the valuables of everyone in the neighbourhood. Birch is a natural young actress, while Keitel hams it up shamelessly (he reportedly made the film to amuse his young daughter). --Marshall Fine