"Actor: Michael Dowd"

• Shiloh | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £22.49   |  Saving you £-8.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  When a mistreated beagle pup follows 11-year-old Marty Preston (Blake Heron) home one day, it sparks a passion in the boy that leads him into a web of moral and emotional turmohil. Marty knows the dog belongs to his irascible neighbour, Judd Travers (a spittin' mean performance by Scott Wilson); he also knows Judd breaks local gaming laws and abuses his hounds. But Marty's father (Michael Moriarty) is a stickler for the first rule of pet ownership: he who owns the pet rules the pet. Marty seeks advice from the wise Doc Wallace (Rod Steiger), who tells the boy about his own struggle to claim legal guardianship over his granddaughter following her parents' death. The story inspires Marty to fight for the creature he has come to love. With a believable blend of nerve, conviction, and a hint of fear, Marty works every angle to beg, buy, or (finally) strike a trade with Travers to save Shiloh. While its pace runs a bit slow, the film provides a thoughtful lesson in weighing right and wrong and should appeal to families with children under 12. Based on the Newbery Award-winning book Shiloh, by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. --Liane Thomas

• Apt Pupil | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Bryan Singer's follow-up to his post-modern caper-thriller The Usual Suspects trades in the flamboyant narrative flourish of that film for a moody meditation on the allure of evil. Based on the Stephen King novella (featured in the collection Different Seasons), Apt Pupil follows the disturbing downward spiral of a bright young schoolboy, Todd (Brad Renfro), who discovers a wanted Nazi war criminal is living in his town and then blackmails him into telling stories ("everything they're afraid to show us in school") of the horrors of the Holocaust. The old man, Dussander (a terrifying performance by Ian McKellen), comes alive while telling his tales and is soon reliving his past glories in a SS Halloween ordered byTodd. It's not long before Dussander's homicidal streak is unleashed and he is pulling Todd along with him. Although set against a backdrop of Holocaust history, the issues raised in the stories are ignored in favour of shocks and suspense and the film ultimately sacrifices the opportunity to be a fascinating psychological thriller about the seductive power of evil for a trip into Stephen King territory. Despite such limitations, Singer delivers a stylish and sometimes unsettling horror picture, which is largely due to McKellen's chilling portrait of a slumbering sadist awakened. --Sean Axmaker

• Shiloh Season | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The big-hearted little beagle and his resourceful master return in Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season the second movie in the trilogy based on Phyllis Reynolds Naylor's Newberry Award-winning novels. Zachary Browne plays seventh-grader Marty whose run-ins with a neighbor (Scott Wilson) who mistreats his dog put Marty on a problem-filled path called growing up. Marty's caring father (Michael Moriarty) and genial Doc Wallace (Rod Steiger) help him confront his troubles responsibly. But Shiloh te

• Precinct Seven Five | DVD | (28/12/2015) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Tiller Russell directs this documentary about corruption in the New York Police Department during the 1980s. The feature chronicles the corrupt practices of East Brooklyn's 75th precinct during the city's widespread crime wave at the height of a crack cocaine epidemic. Featuring interviews with the precinct's serving officers during the decade, the programme focuses on crooked cop Michael Dowd as he recounts his descent into criminality which began with a small bribe and escalated into working for Dominican drug kingpin Adam Diaz. Other contributors, including Dowd's partner Ken Eurell, explain how the officers were able to receive a cut of the crime wave without losing their jobs or being investigated by their colleagues in Internal Affairs.Technical Specs: Languages(s): EnglishInteractive Menu

• True Crime | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £11.96   |  Saving you £1.02 (11.37%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Once in a while, studio heads actually make sensible decisions. Kudos to whoever at Trimark screened the embarrassing True Crime, an overwrought, under thought, "mystery" and decided, "You know, we really don't need to let the American public see this," and immediately sent it straight to video. Probably the one most pleased by the decision was Alicia Silverstone, who didn't need this type of thing getting a theatrical distribution and hurting her blossoming career. As for Kevin Dillon? Well, he was probably happy just to get paid. Silverstone plays the teen Nancy-Drew-meets-Encyclopedia-Brown protagonist who teams up with fresh-faced police cadet Dillon to try to bag a serial killer who's been butchering teenage girls at travelling carnivals in various cities. Writer-director Pat Verducci packs his thriller with implausible detective work and numerous plot twists, all visible 20 minutes away. The "shock" ending can pretty much be worked out within the first act, leaving viewers another hour to watch Verducci concoct several amateur dream sequences, and explore a disgusting sexual relationship between Silverstone and Dillon. By the end, the question isn't so much "Whodunit?" as "Who cares?" --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com

• Watchers | DVD | (26/12/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  They were created in a top secret government laboratory enhanced by genetic masterminds given superior intelligence and bred to be the perfect weapons. Now they are on the loose. From the pages of Dean R. Koontz's best-selling thriller Watchers explodes onto the screen with relentless fury more terrifying than any nightmare. Corey Haim (The Lost Boys) stars as Travis Cornell who befriends a magnificent golden retriever. Little does he know that this extraordinary dog is about to

• True Crime | DVD | (21/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Once in a while, studio heads actually make sensible decisions. Kudos to whoever at Trimark screened the embarrassing True Crime, an overwrought, under thought, "mystery" and decided, "You know, we really don't need to let the American public see this," and immediately sent it straight to video. Probably the one most pleased by the decision was Alicia Silverstone, who didn't need this type of thing getting a theatrical distribution and hurting her blossoming career. As for Kevin Dillon? Well, he was probably happy just to get paid. Silverstone plays the teen Nancy-Drew-meets-Encyclopedia-Brown protagonist who teams up with fresh-faced police cadet Dillon to try to bag a serial killer who's been butchering teenage girls at travelling carnivals in various cities. Writer-director Pat Verducci packs his thriller with implausible detective work and numerous plot twists, all visible 20 minutes away. The "shock" ending can pretty much be worked out within the first act, leaving viewers another hour to watch Verducci concoct several amateur dream sequences, and explore a disgusting sexual relationship between Silverstone and Dillon. By the end, the question isn't so much "Whodunit?" as "Who cares?" --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com