"Actor: Nicole DeHuff"

• Without A Trace - Season 1 | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £11.99   |  Saving you £52.00 (520.52%)   |  RRP £61.99

  It has not taken long for Without a Trace to emerge from the shadows of CSI and become a ratings force in its own right. Jerry Bruckheimer produced both series, and both feature the-face-is-familiar character actors with extensive and diverse resumes who have been catapulted to primetime stardom. Jack Malone, head of a crack FBI missing persons unit, is the Australian-born Anthony LaPaglia's breakout role after years of portraying enough Italian mobsters and criminals to populate a season of The Sopranos. LaPaglia was a surprise Golden Globe Award-winner for this inaugural season. Without a Trace is instantly arresting. "The clock is ticking" in each episode, as Malone and company race against time to find a missing person. "After 48 hours," Malone explains to the rookie member of the team in the series pilot, "they're gone." To solve each baffling case, Malone and fellow agents Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste of Secrets and Lies), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), and new guy Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close), must work from the inside out. "Once we find out who she is," Malone says of one victim, "odds are we'll find out where she is." Among the inaugural season's most wrenching episodes are "Between the Cracks" and "Hang On to Me," both featuring Charles Dutton in his Emmy Award-winning performance as a father whose son has been missing for five years. The powerful season finale, "Fallout," presented in this four-disc set in a "creator's cut," concerns a man who lost his wife in the 9/11 attacks. The riveting episodes mostly stand alone, but some cases do return to haunt Malone, as witness "In Extremis," a case that ends tragically and leads to an internal investigation that threatens to subvert the close-knit unit in the episode. "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" Sharp writing, authentic procedurals, taut direction, and effective use of music make Without a Tracea series worth finding on DVD. --Donald Liebenson

• Meet The Parents (Special Edition) | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This new comedy from the director of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me follows Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) in his doomed attempts to impress his would-be father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro)

• Meet The Parents | DVD | (02/07/2006) from £3.85   |  Saving you £12.14 (315.32%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Randy Newman's opening song, "A Fool in Love", perfectly sets up the scenario of Meet the Parents: "Show me a man who is gentle and kind and I'll show you a loser". Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is the fool in love. Just as he's about to propose to his girlfriend Pam (Teri Polo), he learns that her sister's fiancé asked their father, Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro), for permission to marry. Now he feels the need to do the same thing. When Greg meets Jack, he is so desperate to be liked that he makes up stories and feebly attempts to ingratiate himself with his prospective father-in-law rather than having the courage of his convictions. It doesn't take an elite member of the CIA to see right through Greg, but unfortunately that's precisely what Jack is. Directed by Jay Roach (the Austin Powers films), Meet the Parents is a well-crafted comedy that makes for a pleasant contrast to the sloppy excesses of the Farrelly brothers. Stiller is great at playing up the uncomfortable comedy of errors, balancing just the right amount of selfishness and self-deprecating humour, while De Niro's excels as the intimidating father. Blythe Danner as his wife, the Gracie to De Niro's George Burns, is the true heart of the film and Owen Wilson turns in yet another terrific comic performance as Pam's ex-fiancé. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com

• Meet The Parents & Meet The Fockers Box Set | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Meet The Fockers (2004): And you thought your parents were embarrassing. Domestic disaster looms for male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) when his straight-laced ex-CIA father-in-law (De Niro) asks to meet his wildly unconventional mom (Streisand) and dad (Hoffman). It's family bonding gone hysterically haywire in this must-see comedy! Meet The Parents - Special Edition (2000): First comes love. Then comes the interrogation! Male nurse Greg Focker (Ben Sti