"Actor: Timothy Vahle"

• It's In The Water | DVD | (08/07/2002) from £10.78   |  Saving you £9.21 (85.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  We're not talking about monsters of the deep here. It's In the Water is set in the imaginary town of Azalea Springs, Texas, where the community is blighted by wealth and smugness and where the greatest crime is not to fit in--and that includes being gay. When the outrageous and fearless Spencer (John Hallum, camping it up) playfully lets on that there's something in the water supply that encourages homosexuality, the temperature of local gossip rises as fast as the sales of bottled water. Kelli Herd, in her directorial debut, aims to cast scorn on such phobic behaviour by sending up the straight guys and idealising the gays. Thus we have our central character, Alex (Keri Jo Chapman), whose life consists of lunches and charitable works, and who is married to Robert, a cold Action Man lookalike (and about as plastic in his acting skills). It's enough of a scandal when she gets enthusiastic about working in the local AIDS hospice, but when she has a lesbian fling with an old school friend, Grace (Teresa Garrett), who has returned to town, freshly divorced after discovering her true leanings, then even Alex's own mother--a complete nightmare of a woman--turns against her. The movie does have occasional witticisms, but it's too cliché-ridden and too sanitised (dying of AIDS was never this pretty) to do more than raise an occasional grim smile. Yes, there's a serious message underlying the film, but it would have needed more plot, stronger dialogue and less histrionic play-acting to give it true power. On the DVD: It's In the Water has only the most basic additional features: two trailers for similarly themed movies, but no subtitles or additional languages. The picture quality is bright and sharp, sparing us no detail in the Versace-inspired interiors and relentlessly garish mode of dress favoured by Azalea Springs inmates. --Harriet Smith

• Christmas in the Clouds dvd Reg 2 | DVD | (08/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Back from the city Ray is the new manager of his band's struggling ski resort. Convinced that the hotel's beautiful guest is an incognito critic for the exclusive Worthington Travel Guide he sets out to garner a good review. But the guest - actually a Mohawk Indian - has her own agenda: she's come to the reserve hoping to find the man with whom she's been exchanging romantic emails. When she mistakenly confuses the over-solicitous Ray for her amorous pen pal the comedy of errors kicks into high gear. Especially when the real critic arrives and encounters the hotel's vegetarian chef who whips up fabulous meals for his guests then kills their appetites by telling them the pet names and life stories of the animals they are eating. Add to the mix chambermaids who insist on bringing their children to work a resident handyman who constantly hits on the ski bunnies and Ray's father the retired Chief who just wants to win the new Jeep Cherokee at the big holiday bingo.