"Actor: Sam Wells"

• Morvern Callar | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Eerie, morbid, yet somehow life-affirming, Morvern Callar stars the superb Samantha Morton (Sweet and Lowdown, Minority Report) as the title character, a young Scottish woman whose boyfriend has just killed himself, leaving behind a cassette of assorted songs and an unpublished novel. Instead of reporting his death, Morvern puts her name on his novel before sending it off to a publisher, then uses the dead man's bank card to pay for a trip to Spain with her friend Lana (Kathleen McDermott), where she tries to lose herself in sensation and chaos. The events of Morvern Callar suggest a story, but director Lynn Ramsay (Ratcatcher) focuses on moments of ambiguity and ambivalence between the sequences of dramatic action--and when Morvern does take decisive action, her choices are unnerving. The movie's striking images and rich use of colour vividly capture a dislocated state of mind, when life has come unmoored from meaning. --Bret Fetzer

• The Last Broadcast | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £12.92   |  Saving you £-9.93 (-332.10%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Only one member of a documentary film crew returns with his footage from a trip into the wilds of New Jersey in search of the legendary Jersey Devil

• Rossini: Semiramide | DVD | (31/12/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Bel canto can be translated as "pretty singing", and that definition seems tailor-made for this production, which offers grace, charm, and a fine-tuned sense of style in abundance to compensate for its limited psychological and emotional impact. The four principal singers are all specialists in the bel canto style and this opera has played a key role in building their substantial reputations. For its sweeping musical imagination and technical wizardry, Rossini's epic about royal assassination and misdirected lust in the ancient Babylonian Empire deserves a place in any inclusive opera collection, and we are not likely to have a better video recording of Semiramide in the foreseeable future. June Anderson has an attractive appearance and sounds exactly right in the music's florid melodic lines. But she is not dramatically compelling as the wicked queen who had her husband killed and fell in love with a man who turned out to be her long-lost son, Arsace. Marilyn Horne rose to the highest levels of international fame in the role of that conflicted son, and her presence alone would be enough to give this video classic status. Her voice was a bit past its prime when this performance was recorded in 1991, but still there is no other voice quite like it, no other voice so suited to Rossini's heroic mezzo roles. Samuel Ramey is a close bass counterpart to Anderson: great tone, agile florid singing, and a rather wooden but visually appealing stage presence. Sanford Olsen has a small role and sings it near perfectly. James Conlon gets excellent musical results; John Copley's staging is massive and static. --Joe McLellan, Amazon.com

• The Return Of The Superfly | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Ex-drug dealer Superfly is persuaded to return to America in order to trap the current dealers....

• Les Vampires | DVD | (19/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Les Vampyres is one of the most stylish and erotic vampire themed films to be produced in years and stars some of the adult industry's most beautiful and accomplished actresses. Winning just about every award the adult film industry has to offer Les Vampyres is an erotic thriller filled with evil passion and some of the most sensual scenes ever committed to film...