"Actor: Steve Allen"

• The Pembrokeshire Murders | DVD | (18/01/2021) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two unsolved double murders from the 1980s cast a shadow over the work of the Dyfed Powys police force.br/In 2006, newly promoted Detective Superintendent Steve Wilkins decided to reopen both cases. Employing pioneering forensic methods, Wilkins and his handpicked team found microscopic DNA and fibres that potentially linked the murders to a string of burglaries committed in the 80s and 90s. The perpetrator of those robberies was nearing the end of his prison sentence, but if Steve Wilkins was right, he was also a serial killer... Could Steve and his team find enough forensic evidence to charge their suspect before he was released to potentially kill again?

• The Benny Goodman Story | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £6.35   |  Saving you £5.64 (88.82%)   |  RRP £11.99

  The music of Benny Goodman comes to life in this wonderful musical biography of the famed King of Swing. Featuring all the outstanding songs and instrumentals made famous by the immortal clarinetist the story follows the innovative musician from his childhood in Chicago to his historic concert at Carnegie Hall in 1938. Steve Allen (Casino The Player) Oscar winning actress Donna Reed (It's a Wonderful Life From Here to Eternity Dallas) and Sammy Davis Sr. star in this unforgettable tribute to Goodman and his music with performances by the original Benny Goodman Quartet (Gene Krupa Teddy Wilson Ben Pollack Edward Kid Ory and Lionel Hampton) along with Harry James Martha Tilton and Ziggy Elman. The priceless soundtrack highlights Goodman himself with classic renditions of Sing Sing Sing One O' Clock Jump Stompin' At The Savoy Moonglow Goody Goody and many more.

• North V South | DVD | (21/12/2015) from £7.79   |  Saving you £7.20 (92.43%)   |  RRP £14.99

• Blue Juice | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Wax up your boards and hang 10 (or whatever) where the big waves come crashing in: off the English coast at Cornwall. Huh? No endless summer? No two girls for every boy? No, but in Blue Juice one can see what most of us probably never even thought about: the British Isles are indeed islands and, not incongruously, there's a considerable surfing culture with a handful of home-grown legends. One of the latter is JC (Sean Pertwee), a skilled surfer so driven by the challenge and so dedicated to his mates that it threatens his meandering romance with the long-suffering Chloe (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The two have planned an extensive, around-the-world trip as a kind of prelude to discussing marriage, but the arrangement is threatened when three of JC's old childhood chums arrive from London. One of them (played by Steven Mackintosh) is a famous record producer who has sold his soul (in every sense) to reap profits from fashionable electronica. Another (Ewan McGregor) is a chronic screw-up resorting to hustling junk to unsuspecting customers. The last (Peter Gunn) is an anxious sort, terrified of marrying his long-time girlfriend. Together, these four guys look like a pack of nowhere men and they know it: while the story largely focuses on JC and Chloe, there's plenty of material for the supporting characters to indulge in mucho self-loathing. The film never quite jumps off the screen and the script may be hampered by too many layers of character eccentricity, but this is still an enjoyable piece with some fine comic performances. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Blue Juice (Repackage) | DVD | (10/05/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sean Pertwee, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ewan McGregor star in this British drama set in Cornwall. As he approaches his thirties skilled surfer JC (Pertwee) considers settling down with his girlfriend, Chloe (Zeta-Jones), who has ambitions to own a cafe. However, the arrival of his friends from London prompt him to take on more surfing challenges and relive his hedonistic days of youth. But will his relationship with Chloe survive if this behaviour continues?

• The Day After | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The TV drama that had America mesmerised in the 80's about what could possibly happen after a nuclear bomb hits.

• Puppet Master 2 | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Those nasty little puppets are back to wreack more havoc and take care of some unfinished business. Joined by 'Torch' the newest member of the sinister troop the puppets exhume their beloved creator 'Toulon' and gather the brain matter that keeps them alive. Yet the puppetmaster has a deadly plan of his own.

• Rawhide: The Complete Series | DVD | (11/08/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Camp | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  After a series of Broadway flops, songwriter Bert Hanley goes to work at a musical camp for young performers. Inspired by the kids, he finds an opportunity to regain success by staging an altogether new production.

• House Of Games | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  David Mamet's 1987 directorial debut House of Games is mesmerising study of control and seduction between two kinds of detached observers: a gambler who is also a con artist and a psychotherapist who is also an emerging pop-psych guru in the book market. The latter (played by Lindsay Crouse) meets the former (Joe Mantegna) when one of her clients is driven to despair from his debts to the card shark. Mantegna's character agrees to drop the IOUs in exchange for Crouse's attention at the seedy House of Games in Seattle, a mecca for conmen to talk shop and hustle unsuspecting customers. The shrink gets so caught up in the arcane rules and world view of her guide over subsequent days that she observes--with no false rapture--various stings in progress inside and outside the club. Mamet's story finally becomes a fascinating study of two people protecting and extending their respective cosmologies the way rival predators fight for the same piece of turf. The psychological challenge is compelling; so is the stylised dialogue, with its pattern of pauses and hiccups and humming meter. Mostly shooting at night, Mamet also gave Seattle a different look from previous filmmakers, turning its familiar puddles into concentrations of liquid neon and poisonous noir. --Tom Keogh

• Mommie Dearest | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £33.44   |  Saving you £-17.45 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  'Mommie Dearest' is the outrageous and controversial story of legendary movie star Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) and her struggle with the dual roles of fading actress and tormented mother. The public Crawford was strong-willed glamorous and admirable but Mommie Dearest reveals the private Crawford the woman desperate to be a mother adopting her children when she was single and trying to survive in the movie industry. The rage the debilitating strain and the terrifying descent in

• Agent Cody Banks 2 - Destination London | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Teen super spy Cody Banks (Frankie Muniz) has to go undercover at an elite London boarding school to track down a missing mind control device.

• Great Balls Of Fire | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £14.28   |  Saving you £-1.29 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The meteoric rise to fame of living legend Jerry Lee Lewis; the escapades that shot him to the top of the charts as well as his controversial third marriage to his thirteen-year-old cousin threatened to wreck his career...

• Undisputed | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £6.47   |  Saving you £8.52 (131.68%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In Undisputed, Rocky gets a prison-block makeover and the generic combination packs a vicious one-two punch. Owing much to the macho, gut-busting B-movies of Hollywood's golden age, this no-nonsense drama gets right down to business, beginning when heavyweight champ "Iceman" Chambers (Ving Rhames) enters Sweetwater prison on a rape charge. The prison has a boxing programme, and convicted killer Monroe Hutchen (Wesley Snipes) is the 10-year undefeated champion. A challenge bout is coordinated by an aging mobster prisoner (Peter Falk) and the head guard (Michael Rooker), and Undisputed pummels its way to its brutal and unpredictable conclusion. Colourful characters abound (foul-mouthed Falk is the hilarious standout), and seasoned director Walter Hill (coscripting with his Alien partner David Giler) brings them together with invigorating focus. There's not an ounce of fat on this tough-minded movie, and even its inevitable outcome seems freshly unexpected. Obviously inspired by Mike Tyson's ill-fated escapades, Undisputed turns fact into potent cell-block fiction. --Jeff Shannon

• The Flamingo Kid | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As The Flamingo Kid amply demonstrates, there's always room for one more rites of passage film if it's made with care and affection. Garry Marshall's 1984 study of a young Brooklyn poker player who thinks the grass is greener at a Long Island beach club, nails the bad guy, realises he got it wrong and returns to the bosom of his "humble" family certainly satisfies on both counts. It also has a strong cast: Matt Dillon as Jeffrey, whose niggling aspirations create the inevitable barrier between himself and his parents; Richard Crenna as his prospective role model who turns out to have feet of clay; and Hector Elizondo as his bemused father. But Jessica Walter (Clint Eastwood's stalker from hell in Play Misty for Me) almost steals the show as an acid-tongued beach-club wife. If the whole thing lacks the depth and warmth of, say, Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs, it succeeds on its own merits as an homage to a more innocent time when a young man didn't need to stray far from his own tenement block in order to find himself, with the help of a suitably nostalgic early-1960s soundtrack of course. On the DVD: As far as extras go, this is a budget offering. There are detailed actor biographies but precious little on the film itself, apart from the snippet that Richard Crenna earned a Golden Globe award nomination. There is an adequate scene index and, for those who want to study Dillon in detail, a reasonable stills gallery. The picture is presented in standard format, and hardly distinguishable from ordinary VHS or telecast quality, but the stereo audio certainly helps pump out the period soundtrack. --Piers Ford

• Go Toward The Light | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The emotional true story of a family's powerful love as they unite to save their eight year-old boy's life from AIDS...

• Mr Jerico | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £7.09   |  Saving you £2.90 (40.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This TV pilot stars Patrick Macnee as the charming con-man Dudley Jerico.

• Rancid Aluminium | DVD | (17/07/2000) from £5.97   |  Saving you £14.02 (234.84%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Rancid Aluminium's unlikely hero, leery Liam Gallagher-look-a-like Pete (Rhys Ifans), is wholly unprepared for promotion to head of the family business after his father dies unexpectedly. To make matters worse, no matter how hard he tries he can't impregnate his wife Sarah (Sadie Frost), and believes he's shooting blanks. Unable to handle responsibility, Pete turns to scheming Irish accountant Deeny (Joseph Fiennes) for help, who recommends that the company seek foreign investment to pay off its debts. What Pete doesn't know is that Deeny is trying to do him out of the business and has arranged a "loan" from a Russian Mafia warlord, Mr Kant (Steven Berkoff), whose raven-haired daughter Masha (Tara Fitzgerald) is set on seducing Pete. Given its all-star British cast (which also includes Dani Behr, Keith Allen and Nick Moran) and bestseller source material, Rancid Aluminium must have looked like a sure-fire comedy hit. But first-time director Ed Thomas (better known as a playwright and theatre director) can't seem to keep a handle on the convoluted plot and the laughs are entirely incidental. Ifans's irritating mockney voiceover doesn't help, nor the fact that Tara Fitzgerald's accent keeps slipping between Stalingrad and Sloane Square. Fans of the James Hawes original may get a thrill from seeing his characters come to life, but it's unlikely anyone else will. --Chris Campion

• Schizopolis | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Both a kind of home movie and a salute to the hip, pop-up sketch comedy of 1960s/early 1970s television--Laugh-In, Monty Python's Flying Circus, that sort of thing--Schizopolis is a hit-and-miss series of gags with vaguely connecting threads of Kafkaesque paranoia. Soderbergh himself stars as two people--one an ineffective dentist and the other a speechwriter for a cult movement called Eventualism, which has set out to "question all answers"--connected by their romances with the same woman, played by Soderbergh's real-life ex, Betsy Bramley. There isn't so much a story as a series of bits in which these characters often (though not necessarily) turn up, from press conferences on the subject of horse urination to old footage of nudists to a scene of an Eventualist exchange between husband and wife: "Generic greeting!" "Generic greeting returned!" None of this leads to a literal point but after a while an undercurrent of disease about making sense of the modern world becomes apparent beneath the jokes. Soderbergh (sex, lies, and videotape, Out of Sight) is certainly a filmmaker who goes his own way in life, always hitting his target in one spot or another and occasionally getting a bull's-eye for his trouble. Schizopolis is no bull's-eye and it has just as many detractors as admirers but it's impossible not to appreciate Soderbergh's conviction that making a film out on the fringes is a worthy endeavour. --Tom Keogh

• Strange Wilderness | DVD | (04/08/2008) from £9.65   |  Saving you £6.34 (65.70%)   |  RRP £15.99

  With the ratings dropping for a wilderness-themed TV show, two animal enthusiasts go to the Andes in search of Bigfoot.