"Actor: Mark Murphy"

• Booze Cruise - Series 1-3 | DVD | (18/09/2006) from £10.03   |  Saving you £9.96 (99.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  All three comedy-drama features featuring the mis-matched neighbours on another booze cruise to France...

• Take The Money And Run | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £13.47   |  Saving you £-0.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Woody Allen's feature-film debut, Take the Money and Run, a mockumentary that combines sight gags, sketchlike scenes, and stand-up jokes at rat-a-tat speed, looks positively primitive compared to his mature work. Primitive, but awfully funny. Allen plays Virgil Starkwell, a music-loving nebbish who turns to a life of crime at an early age and, undaunted by his utter and complete failure to pull off a single successful robbery, continues his unbroken spree of bungled heists and prison breaks even after he marries and raises a family. Narrator Jackson Beck, whose stentorian voice of authority makes a perfect foil for Starkwell's absurd exploits, lobs one droll quip after another with deadpan seriousness. Though spotty, Allen tosses so many jokes into the mix that it hardly matters and when they hit they are often hilarious: the chain gang posing as cousins to their old-woman hostage ("We're very close", Virgil explains to a dim cop), arguing with a dotty movie director who is supposed to be their cover for a bank robbery, Virgil's escape attempt with a bar of soap. Allen spoofs decades of crime films, everything from I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang to Bonnie and Clyde, but you don't have to know the movies to enjoy this goofy, sometimes clumsy, but quite clever comedy. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Drive | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £8.67   |  Saving you £-2.68 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Drive takes the standard American mismatched-buddies action comedy formula and turbo-charges it with furious Hong Kong wirework and martial arts. The result is a three-and-a-half million dollar "B" picture which looks like it cost 10 times more. The perfunctory story crosses Universal Solider (1992) with Rush Hour (1997) as a biologically enhanced Mark Dacascos flees a small army of Hong Kong assassins through California, teaming up with comedian Kadeem Hardison and delivering an almost unbelievable amount of bang per buck. Director Steve Wang stages the action with flair and clarity, the stunts, wirework and fights being exceptionally well-choreographed and shot. With Hardison's patter, two offbeat redneck assassins and a TV show about a frog with Einstein's brain there's abundant surprisingly genial humour, aided by Brittany Murphy's ditzy performance as a Twin Peaks-like teenager with hormones in overdrive. The cyborg aspect simply justifies the superhuman combat, but nevertheless a huge showdown in a retro-space age club is clearly styled after the "Tech Noir" bar sequence in The Terminator (1984), adding motorcycle killersstraight out of Rollerball (1975). Drive captures the rush of Hong Kong action movies yet almost has the feel of a musical, the mayhem replacing song and dance and offering more popcorn entertainment than many a bloated summer blockbuster.On the DVD: For such a low budget movie the 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced image puts many far bigger features to shame, being pin-sharp throughout, with strong and accurate colours and minimal grain. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is equally strong, with sound-effects and music both having considerable impact, explosions ripping thorough the room like the latest Arnie shoot 'em up. There is a 47-minute retrospective documentary which is particularly interesting on the way the film was cut and restored for American release--this DVD presenting the director's cut which runs over 16 minutes longer than the US version. Six deleted/extended scenes are presented in a variety of formats, and it's easy to see why they were deleted. Also included are the original theatrical trailer, three photo galleries, cast and crew biographies and interview galleries with director Steve Wang and four of the main stars totalling about 20 minutes of material. The informative commentary track has Wang, Dacascos, Hardison and stunt co-ordinator Koichi Sakamoto revelling in their sheer enthusiasm for the movie and for Hong Kong action in general. --Gary S Dalkin

• Spiders | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  The future of the human race hangs by a thread! Assigned to cover the space shuttle landing college newspaper reporter Marci and her colleagues head out to a restricted area of the desert where they are also attempting to prove the existence of aliens they believe have landed there. When the shuttle crash lands nearby they sneak into headquarters and stumble upon a secret unauthorized experiment that has gone wrong: a spider on board that was injected with alien DNA is now on the loose...and each time it kills it gets bigger and hungrier!

• October 22 | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• Drive | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When a bio-energy module is placed in Toby Wong's chest his martial arts skills are tuned to a superhuman level and the Army begins to hunt him down! Desperate he forces hostage Malik to drive him to freedom in Los Angeles. But can they beat the ammo-packing posse chasing them?

• Sugar Ray-Music in High Places | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The innovative new series MUSIC IN HIGH PLACES mixes the format of a travel show with that of a music video in what turns out to be an entertaining and educational musical documentary. This episode which features the funky rock group Sugar Ray films the band as they journey across some of the most breathtaking locations in Australia. Making music and playing acoustic sets against these amazing backgrounds Sugar Ray also takes the time to delve into the rich history and culture of the land Down Under. Music tracks include 'Someday' 'Ours' 'Just A Little' 'When It's Over' 'Fly' 'Falls Apart' 'Stay On' 'Waiting' and 'Every Morning'.

• Mark Murphy, Murphy's Mood | DVD | (24/08/2009) from £22.41   |  Saving you £-4.42 (-24.60%)   |  RRP £17.99

  New York native Mark Murphy has carved out a legacy as a consummate Jazz Vocalist and Lyricist. He carries the improvisational torch with his masterful scat style, while his performances are rooted in a Jazz sensibility. He has also penned Vocalese lyrics to the Jazz repertoire, reworking songs such as Oliver Nelson's 'Stolen Moments' and 'Red Clay' by Freddie Hubbard, among others. Murphy released a few albums, but found genuine success after recording his album Rah. Succe...