"Actor: Sharon Wyatt"

• Commando | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £6.86   |  Saving you £0.39 (6.96%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and... well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem. The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? --Roger Thomas

• Class of 1999 | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £13.48   |  Saving you £2.51 (18.62%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When Miles Langfore (Malcolm McDowell) the head of Kennedy High School decides to take his school back from the gangs robotics specialist Dr. Robert Forrest (Stacy Keach) provides ""tactical education units"". These are amazingly human-like androids that have been programmed to teach and are supplied with devastatingly effective solutions to discipline problems. So when the violent out-of-control students of Kennedy High report for class tomorrow they're going to get a real education... in staying alive!

• Class of 1999 | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £20.97   |  Saving you £-11.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Even though this violent indie film has "exploitation" stamped all over it--with its gratuitous car chases, shootouts, and anarchistic characters--it is a guilty pleasure. Unfolding in the future--well, at least at the time of its release it was a decade ahead of schedule--this movie shows how US urban schools have deteriorated to the point that gangs run the classroom and the police, scared to even go near these educational wastelands, use hired goons to keep law and order there. (In fact, the US government now has a Department of Educational Defence.) In Class of 1999, a corporate representative (Stacy Keach), eager to rake in potential billions in government contracts, convinces a Seattle-area school principal (Malcolm McDowell) to test out three lifelike android teachers (including Pam Grier). This technological trio possesses intelligence and superhuman strength, which offer to both educate and discipline the bad apples at school. Unfortunately, the androids quickly move from harsh discipline such as spankings and beatings to murder, and Keach's corporate scumbag convinces McDowell's educator that despite this, the program needs to stay its course. Thus it is up to a newly paroled ex-gang member (Bradley Gregg) and the principal's daughter (Traci Lind) to uncover the teachers' identities and alert students and rival gangs to the impending danger. Despite its formulaic approach and some plot implausibilities, Mark Lester's film is entertaining to watch, especially with such exchanges as this: "So they've been waging war with my students." "Well, isn't that what all teachers do?" --Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com

• Class Of 1999 | DVD | (08/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Even though Class of 1999 has "exploitation" stamped all over it--with its gratuitous car chases, shoot-outs, and anarchistic characters--it is a guilty pleasure. Unfolding in the future--well, at least at the time of its release it was a decade ahead of schedule--this movie shows how our urban schools have deteriorated to the point that gangs run the classroom and the police, scared to even go near these educational wastelands, use hired goons to keep law and order there. (In fact, the US government now has a Department of Educational Defense.) In Class of 1999, a corporate representative (Stacy Keach), eager to rake in potential billions in government contracts, convinces a Seattle-area school principal (Malcolm McDowell) to test out three lifelike android teachers (including Pam Grier). This technological trio possess intelligence and superhuman strength, which enable them to both educate and discipline the bad apples at school. Unfortunately, the androids quickly move from harsh discipline such as spankings and beatings to murder, and Keach's corporate scumbag convinces McDowell's educator that despite this, the programme needs to stay its course. Thus it is up to a newly paroled ex-gangbanger (Bradley Gregg) and the principal's daughter (Traci Lind) to uncover the teachers' identities and alert students and rival gangs to the impending danger. Despite its formulaic approach and some plot implausibilities, Mark Lester's film is entertaining to watch, especially with such exchanges as: "So they've been waging war with my students". "Well, isn't that what all teachers do?"--Bryan Reesman, Amazon.com