"Actor: Michael Collins"

• For All Mankind (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (26/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Something Weird Collection | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There's schlock-horror movie-making par excellence from producer Dick Randall in this Something Weird Collection 1 twofer. Meat Is Meat (1971) finds mad butcher Otto Lehman back in the Viennese community doing what he does best. With its Sweeney Todd overtones this is not for the faint of stomach, but those who enjoy seeing nagging wives and creepy sidekicks transformed into sausages will lap up accordingly. Victor Buono is perfect casting as Lehman, with Brad Harris stylish as the bored American journalist who rumbles his activities and Karen Field looking good as the housekeeper next door. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1973) is less OTT than the title suggests. Rossano Brazzi (earlier of South Pacific!) is a thoughtful Count Frankenstein, while Michael Dunn is seriously unlikable as necrophile dwarf Genz. As anthropologist-cum-sex kitten Krista, Christiane Royce brings a welcome sophistication to this gloss on the hoary Karloff classic, whose opening "location" sequence and standard of dubbing has to be seen to be believed. On the DVD: The Something Weird Collection 1 DVD presentation is of the no-frills variety usual with Siren releases. With decent remastering at 1.33:1 aspect ratio the lurid colour of both films comes through unadulterated. An added attraction is the poster gallery of low-budget shockers with mildly psychedelic soundtrack to boot. It's good, if not so clean fun for all the family. --Richard Whitehouse

• DVD PARKER | DVD | (20/11/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Action Collection | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (25.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Box set featuring nine action movies. In 'Skinheads' (1989) a group of Los Angeles neo-nazis are forced to move to North California when one of them shoots a black man. When they arrive in the small town they continue on their path of hatred harrassment and destruction until they come across two resilient college kids determined to stop the skinheads' reign of violence. When a Hollywood film crew travel to shoot on an isolated desert location they are attacked by CIA-backed mercenaries. At first the film people fight back using their special effects equipment but as the carnage mounts they sustain heavy losses and soon the director's daughter is the only one still alive. She then teams up with one of the embittered mercenaries to better her chances of surviving. 'Hiroshima' (1990) paints a dramatic account of the race to develop the atomic bomb the ethics and politics behind it and the events which led to its use at the end of World War 2. In 'Emperor' (1988) Tony (Alex D'Andrea) is a Bronx street hustler an old-fashioned low-level operator who finds himself forced off his turf by vicious crime boss Falco (Anthony Gioia). Teaming up with an ex-con and sultry songstress he learns a few things about the way of the world and makes an attempt to get back on the right side of the wrong side of the tracks - taking the fight back to Falco. In 'South Bronx' (1985) two young children are being brutally exploited as their foster home moonlights as the headquarters for one of the city's largest pornography rings. Amazingly the two children escape to the streets where they enlist the help of an undercover cop (Mario van Peebles) and his partner to capture the porn king and his accomplices. In 'The Swap' (1969) Robert DeNiro plays Sammy Nicoletti an adult film director who is murdered. His brother Vito (Anthony Charnota) vows to find the killer and avenge Sammy's death. When Vito is released from prison he begins his own investigation encountering deceit and blackmail. The final days of Sammy's life unfold from a party on Long Island back to the big city. As Vito draws nearer to the truth his own life hangs precariously in the balance. In 'Death Collector' (1975) it's 'all in the family' for a young streetwise hood as he becomes a collector for the mob. He quickly rises run by rung up the ladder of the underworld in this violent crime saga. Blaxploitation legend Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson stars in 'Black Cobra' (1987). When fashion photographer Elys Trumbo (Eva Grimaldi) sees one of her neighbours being murdered by a member of the Black Cobras a psychopathic motorcycle gang she manages to catch the killer's face on film. The Cobras' leader comes after her but luckily tough police sergeant Malone (Williamson) has been appointed to protect her. In 'Born To Win' (1971) George Segal stars as as an ex-hairdresser who struggles to support his expensive drug habit and to avoid arrest turns 'narc' informing on his fellow junkies. Eventually Segal's sense of self-hatred threatens to overwhelm him. In 'Revenge' (1988) the gun-crazy right-wing terrorist group 'Strike Force' have set their sights on the deadly NK-2 which is a very large weapon indeed and will do everything in their power to get hold of it. Vietnam vet Jason Shepherd (Roger Rodd) is approached with the job of tracking down these vicious killers and preventing them from doing any more damage. He accepts the job but when the group gun down two of his most loyal friends it suddenly becomes personal.

• Nina Takes A Lover | DVD | (27/05/2002) from £12.85   |  Saving you £7.14 (35.70%)   |  RRP £19.99

• The Best Years Of Our Lives | DVD | (30/12/1996) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A