"Actor: Mark Crompton"

• 101 Dalmatians / 102 Dalmatians (Live Action) | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £11.99   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  This Disney 2-Pack collection will have you seeing spots as it includes Disney''s live-action 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians. 101 Dalmatians Cruella De Vil dognaps a litter of Dalmation puppies--as well as every other Dalmation pup in London--and the litter''s parents must rally all the animals to their rescue. 102 Dalmatians Cruella De Vil is released from prison and is soon plotting another fur-ocious scheme to get her ultimate dalmatian coat.

• Rita, Sue And Bob Too | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  British films about sex are fairly rare, and mostly embarrassing: from the painfully anxious (Brief Encounter) to the hopelessly naff (the Carry On films). What a treat then is Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Alan Clarke's filming of a stage play by young Andrea Dunbar. It's an unsentimental, gleefully lewd comedy about shagging. Tagged for its cinema release in 1987 as "Thatcher's Britain with its knickers down", it even provoked a minor moral hullabaloo in the newspapers. Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two giggly Bradford lasses stuck on a ramshackle housing estate. They keep themselves in fags by occasional baby-sitting for nouveau riche couple Bob (George Costigan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). Bob fancies himself rotten, but Michelle has ruled that sex is off the menu. So one night, driving Rita and Sue home, Bob detours to the Yorkshire moors and offers the girls a little something extra in his front seat. Rita and Sue decide to grab it while they can. Alan Clarke's cult following is founded on his bleak, brilliant films about violent young men (Scum, The Firm, Made in Britain). But Rita, Sue is a tribute to Clarkey's ribald sense of humour. It even sports a cameo from novelty pop-act Black Lace, performing their non-hit "Gang-Bang". Teenage debutantes Holmes and Finneran are terrific--just watch them dancing lustily around Bob's red leather sofa to Bananarama. In support, Clarke wisely cast skilled northern comedians like Patti Nicholls and Willie Ross, as Sue's foul-mouthed mum and dad. Amid the laughs, Clarke as usual doesn't stint from showing us the harsh, unlovely side of life. He shot the film on location at Bradford's Buttershaw estate, where Andrea Dunbar grew up and where, tragically, she died of a brain haemorrhage only a few years after the film's release. --Richard Kelly

• Blood | DVD | (10/06/2013) from £2.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (434.78%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A contemporary Greek Tragedy set around the investigation into the murder of a young girl. Blood follows two brothers - both respected police detectives - whose lives begin to collapse under the weight of their father's illustrious shadow.

• Blood | Blu Ray | (10/06/2013) from £9.43   |  Saving you £5.56 (37.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A contemporary Greek Tragedy set around the investigation into the murder of a young girl. Blood follows two brothers - both respected police detectives - whose lives begin to collapse under the weight of their father's illustrious shadow.

• 101 & 102 Dalmatians (Double Pack) | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £22.98   |  Saving you £10.00 (50.03%)   |  RRP £29.99

  It's hard to know who thought it would be a good idea to make a live-action version of Disney's animated classic, 101 Dalmatians (and originally Dodie Smith's classic children's story). The one bright notion anyone had was casting Glenn Close as Disney Übervillainess Cruella de Vil; her flashing eyes and angular features are a perfect match and do credit to what is one of the most indelible animated characters Disney has ever created. The story remains essentially the same, focusing on Cruella's plot to kidnap the puppies of a young married couple (Jeff Daniels and Joely Richardson) and make them into a coat. But the dreaded John Hughes, who wrote this script, fills it with sadistic slapstick and far too few genuine laughs. The human actors work hard, but to little avail; thankfully, there's a posse of puppies to regularly steal scenes when the going gets dreary--although there are only so many laughs to be had from inappropriate dog puddles. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com Don't be fooled by the title, there are four reasons to like 102 Dalmatians, the sequel to the successful live-action remake of Disney's 101 Dalmatians. There are the 101 spotted pooches, Glenn Close back in fine form as Cruella DeVil, Oddball--the spotless Dalmatian pup--and Waddlesworth, a parrot who thinks he's a rottweiler (and is voiced by Monty Python's Eric Idle). There are just as many reasons to be disappointed: like most sequels, the story line is virtually a rewrite of t he first; the secondary casting isn't as interesting; the dialogue merely serves to move the plot along; and the third act substitutes mean-spiritedness for comedy. After a period of rehabilitation, Cruella has returned to her old tricks. Once again, she simply must have a spotted coat and will go to any lengths to get hold of the 102 Dalmatians needed to make one with a hood. She sets her sights on the pups owned by her probation officer, Chloe (Alice Evans), and the owner of a local animal shelter, Kevin (Ioan Gruffudd). Her servant Alonso (Tim McInnerny) and flamboyant furrier Monsieur Le Pelt (Gerard Depardieu, in one ridiculous outfit after another) are drafted to aid in her quest. It should come as no surprise that Chloe and Kevin fall in love, Oddball helps to save the day and Cruella is defeated. Children should enjoy the animal high jinks, but adults are less likely to be enamoured by this perfectly competent, but relatively charmless affair. --Kathleen C Fennessy, Amazon.com.