"Actor: Sy Richardson"

• Catchfire | DVD | (23/09/2007) from £13.48   |  Saving you £2.51 (18.62%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When murder is your business you'd better not fall in love with your work. Jodie Foster stars as Ann Benton a self-possessed artist who stumbles across a mob hit in progress. She manages to escape and report the crime to the police but recognizes Mafia soldier John Luponi (Dean Stockwell) at the station and takes off becoming a fugitive. Meanwhile mob boss Lino Avoca (Vincent Price) has put out a contract on the artist with hit man Milo (Dennis Hopper). While Ann does her own informal witness relocation Milo begins to research the artist's life looking for clues that might help him find her and he becomes increasingly fascinated with her. When the hit man finally runs Ann down stealing her out from under the nose of Detective Pauling (Fred Ward) he offers her a deal that anybody could refuse: Be killed or become his private chattel.

• Losing Isaiah | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £11.45   |  Saving you £7.53 (89.01%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An African-American baby abandoned by his crack addicted mother is adopted by a white social worker and her husband. When the mother struggles through rehab to kick her habit she then seeks to reclaim her lost son...

• Catchfire | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Previous UK releases of Catchfire have listed the pseudonymous Allan Smithee as director, but this version proudly opens with "a Dennis Hopper film". Also known as Backtrack, it offers a plot that advances by illogical leaps and bounds while whole scenes seem to go astray. With prominently billed actors getting almost nothing to do while major players go un-credited, a bland music score that might have been laid in from another film entirely and an ending that makes a lot of noise without actually resolving much, the film certainly has its bad points. However, it's also one of Hopper's more eccentric films, and more fun than Colors or The Hot Spot (which he had no trouble owning up to), partly because the director also takes a quirky lead role and his own personal interests are stirred by the modern art frills of the chase plot. The film opens with LA-based conceptual artist Jodie Foster, looking chunkily terrific just before her adult career took off, suffering a minor breakdown on the freeway and happening on a gangland execution. Pint-sized mob boss Joe Pesci sets his killers on her but the crooks ineptly murder Foster's boyfriend (Charlie Sheen, taking a very early bath). Pesci calls in Hopper, a professional hitman who immerses himself in Foster's life and art in order to track her down only to develop an obsessive crush on the woman. When he finds her, he gives her the choice between getting rubbed out or becoming his property. Hopper retains the knack for finding odd-looking byways of rural America, but is uncomfortable with helicopter chases and shoot-outs. The leads, despite great chunks of missing story, are both interesting--Foster sexily vulnerable and Hopper doing a wry New York drawl as the sax-playing hit man. Catchfire also offers an amazing supporting cast of the director's friends, including Dean Stockwell, Vincent Price, Catherine Keener (Being John Malkovich), Tony Sirico (The Sopranos), Bob Dylan (with a chainsaw), Helena Kallianotes (Five Easy Pieces), Julia Adams (The Creature from the Black Lagoon), and John Turturro.On the DVD: the film itself comes in a good-looking widescreen transfer, but the lack of special features let the disc down, with only feeble notes for three cast members (and no Smithee filmography). --Kim Newman

• Eyes Wide Shut | HD DVD | (24/03/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Stanley Kubrick's daring last film is many things. It is a compelling psychosexual journey. A haunting dreamscape. A riveting tale of suspense. A major milestone in the careers of stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. And a worthy final chapter to a great director's career. Cruise plays Dr William Hartford who plunges into an erotic foray that threatens his marriage - and may even ensnare him in a lurid murder mystery - after his wife's (Kidman) admission of sexual longings. As the story sweeps from doubt and fear to self-discovery and reconciliation Kubrick orchestrates it with masterful flourishes. Graceful tracking shots controlled pacing rich colours startling images: bravura traits that make Kubrick a filmmaker for the ages are here to keep everyone's eyes wide open.

• The Alex Cox Collection | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  THREE BUSINESSMEN:; Two lone businessmen, Bennie (Miguel Sandoval) and Frank (Alex Cox) find themselves alone one night in the dining room, of a large Victorian hotel in Liverpool, England. Abandoned by the staff of the wierd dining room, they tentatively join forces and go in search of food, in a city neither of them knows. But restaurant after restaurant fails them.; ; Without realising their destination, Bennie and Frank travel halfway around the planet, via public transport. Prattling abo.

• Walker (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (12/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A