"Actor: Nancy La Scala"

• Species 2 | DVD | (29/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  They could fuck the human race out of existence!" warns Michael Madsen in this inevitable--and inevitably contrived--sequel to 1995's surprise sci-fi hit. He's referring to a celebrated astronaut (Justin Lazard) infected with alien DNA from his history-making Mars landing, and the half-alien Eve (Natasha Henstridge), who was created from alien-human embryo splicing by biochemist Dr Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) in an effort to discover the alien species' vulnerabilities on Earth. While the astronaut sows his gruesomely wild oats with doomed women (resulting in a bevy of creepy kids in alien cocoons), Eve goes into heat until she and the astronaut can consummate their procreative lust. Sex and death are served up like money-shots in a porno flick, with an emphasis on gory flesh-regeneration, explosive pregnancies and slimy-tentacled intercourse. All of which makes this is the kind of derivative schlock that only a true fan could love, but it's boosted to a tolerable level of entertainment by the returning cast (Madsen, Henstridge and Helgenberger) from the previous film. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Guardian | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £5.91   |  Saving you £13.07 (447.60%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Though the Guardian opens with a nod or two to Three Kings, it really offers a cut-down version of Fallen, with Los Angeles Detective Kross (Mario Van Peebles) facing Telal--a body-hopping Sumerian demon he encountered at an archaeological site in Iraq during the Gulf War--entrusted by ritual scarification with the task of protecting a 12-year-old boy who will grow up to unite the three great monotheistic faiths (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and thus set the Devil's work back millennia. A sub-plot deals with a red powder drug ("Chaos"), imported by the demon's minions, which catches on in LA sending coke-sniffing agents into murderous frenzies (the funniest scene) and briefly giving guest star dealer Ice-T superpowers until an ambiguously angelic hit lady (Stacy Oversier) tosses him off a building. There are elements of The Matrix stirred in, with Oversier and Telal dead ringers for the Carrie-Ann Moss and Hugo Weaving characters, but it inevitably boils down to a Fallen-style formula. It's stripped-down demonology--ever since The Evil Dead, those Sumerian demons have been getting a bad press--with direct-to-video action, but is by no means unlikeable. On the DVD: Along with the trailer, this disc offers IMDB filmographies for Van Peebles, Remar, Ice-T and John Terlesky (who used to be a busy B-actor in the likes of Chopping Mall and Valet Girls and now directs quickies such as Guardian). The transfer is augmented for 16:9 and looks significantly better than the video version, giving this low-budget effort a relatively lush feel, though the Iraqi desert does look as though it was an hour or so drive out of Los Angeles. --Kim Newman