"Actor: Val Carpenter"

• Network | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £17.11   |  Saving you £-1.12 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Media madness reigns supreme in screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire about the uses and abuses of network television. But while Chayefsky's and director Sidney Lumet's take on television may seem quaint in the age of "reality TV" and Jerry Springer's talk-show fisticuffs, Network is every bit as potent now as it was when the film was released in 1976. And because Chayefsky was one of the greatest of all dramatists, his Oscar-winning script about the ratings frenzy at the cost of cultural integrity is a showcase for powerhouse acting by Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight (who each won Oscars), and Oscar nominee William Holden in one of his finest roles. Finch plays a veteran network anchorman who's been fired because of low ratings. His character's response is to announce he'll kill himself on live television two weeks hence. What follows, along with skyrocketing ratings, is the anchorman's descent into insanity, during which he fervently rages against the medium that made him a celebrity. Dunaway plays the frigid, ratings-obsessed producer who pursues success with cold-blooded zeal; Holden is the married executive who tries to thaw her out during his own seething midlife crisis. Through it all, Chayefsky (via Finch) urges the viewer to repeat the now-famous mantra "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" to reclaim our humanity from the medium that threatens to steal it away. --Jeff Shannon

• At First Sight | DVD | (01/02/2000) from £9.43   |  Saving you £6.56 (69.57%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The tagline states, "Only love can bring you to your senses." Well, your senses have to be pretty dulled to love At First Sight. On paper the story--based on the writings of medical writer extraordinaire Oliver Sacks (Awakenings)--is intriguing: a blind man regains sight after surgery yet can never connect with what he sees, including a lovely new girlfriend. Indeed, maybe blind was better. From such interesting stuff (and a talented cast) comes a tepid love story and an unconvincing drama. Val Kilmer plays Virgil, a serene resort worker who plays hockey in the dark and is the best masseur this side of the Catskills. Onto his table comes Amy, a bone-weary NYC architect (Mira Sorvino) who cries the first time Virgil does his magic. Instead of a voyage into the world of blindness, Amy's first instinct is to take Virgil to an eye doctor who can restore sight (Bruce Davison). Virgil receives sight, crumbling the trust between him and Amy. The clichés start building up and by the time Amy is wooed by her ex-husband (Steven Weber), her boss no less, one's patience wears thin. The medical curiosities of the story--Virgil can see an item but can't grasp what it is until he touches it--do not translate well on screen. The film's liveliest character is Nathan Lane as a teacher of the blind. A scene with Virgil that gets to the heart of his ailment is so filled with spontaneity, one wonders if it was scripted or simply Lane's own extemporaneous dialogue. After an admirable start as a director (Guilty by Suspicion), Oscar-winning producer Irwin Winkler has not been able to put cinematic highs or believable angst into his films (The Net, Night in the City). At First Sight may look good but it is blind where it counts. --Doug Thomas

• Hardwired | DVD | (18/01/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hardwired (Fight Factory)

• Port Authority | DVD | (17/12/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Exorcism Of Emily Rose/Gothika/The Grudge | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Exorcism Of Emily Rose What happened to Emily? Based on a true story. In 1976 the Catholic Church officially recognised the demonic possession of a German college freshman. During her exorcism the young woman died and the priest stood trial for causing her death. Academy Award nominee Laura Linney plays an attorney who defends the priest. The case reawakens her faith. (Dir. Scott Derrickson 2005) Gothika: ""Just because someone is dead doesn't mean they're gone."" A brilliant psychiatrist wakes up as a patient in the very asylum where she worked with no memory of having killed her husband.... (Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz 2003) The Grudge: American nurse Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) living and working in Tokyo is drawn to an odd house and exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim... Produced by Sam Raimi 'The Grudge' sees Sarah Michelle Gellar changing tack from her 'Buffy' guise in this superior chiller directed by Takashi Shimizu adapted from his own Japanese horror classic. (Dir. Takashi Shimizu 2004)

• After Sunset - The Life and Times Of The Drive-In Theatre | DVD | (14/03/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It represents an entire era of culture ranging from the space race to the automobile to the emergence of the teenager. But today, in the age of the multiplex, the drive-in theatre is a dinosaur. With hopes of better understanding the past, filmmaker Jon Bokenkamp (screenwriter, Taking Lives) and his ragtag crew hit the road. Using drive-in theatres as their only map, these four young men travel the backroads of America in search of a simpler time. Talking to those who built and lived the dri...

• Gate to the Mind's Eye | DVD | (30/01/1998) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.20