"Director: Jake Scott"

• Plunkett And Macleane | DVD | (06/09/2010) from £10.43   |  Saving you £-0.44 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  No-one will be neutral about Plunkett and Macleane. Either you go with its notion of cheeky, stylish fun or you want to grab first-time director Jake Scott by the ear and slap him silly. Your inclination may depend on whether you recall his dad Ridley's own directing debut, The Duellists (1977), and savour the correspondences. Dad took a Joseph Conrad tale of the Napoleonic Wars, cast it with the ultra-contemporary Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel, and filmed it with a swooping, mobile camera. Son Jake has made a feisty period piece about a pair of thieves (Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller) in 1748 London and filled it with blatant anachronisms. A decadent aristo (Alan Cumming), asked whether he "still swings both ways," replies, "I swing every way!" A ballroom full of revellers dances the minuet (or is it the gavotte?) while our ears--if not theirs--are filled with a trance ballad. And so forth. Is this sophomoric? Maybe. But it's also often fresh and inventive. Why shouldn't a filmmaker be allowed to speak directly to a contemporary consciousness, even flaunt it, as long as he also delivers startling imagery and convincing period detail? The solid cast includes Michael Gambon as a corrupt magistrate, Ken Stott as a very nasty enforcer named Mr Chance (who favours a thumb through the eye socket and into the brain as a mode of execution) and Terence Rigby as a philosophical jailer. Even Liv Tyler looks more interesting than usual. In the end pretty frivolous, Plunkett and Macleane is nonetheless a lively debut. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com

• Radiohead -- 7 Television Commercials | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-3.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Tracklist: 1. Paranoid Android 2. Street Spirit 3. No Surprises 4. Just 5. High And Dry 6. Karma Police 7. Fake Plastic Trees

• The Smashing Pumpkins - 1991- 2000 - Greatest Hits Video Collection | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-5.24 (-35.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Smashing Pumpkins: 1991-2000 Greatest Hits Video Collection visually charts the progress of the band from grunge rockers to AOR stars. Shot on Super 8, the grainy early videos ("Siva" and "Rhinoceros") depict the progressive psychedelia of their early sound. Despite the continuation of an alternative music style on Siamese Dream (the group's first album with Virgin), the videos from this era become more mainstream in a blatant attempt to get MTV airplay. Matching the commercial and accessible style of the album, the Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness videos are big-budget numbers. Drawing on their long-standing fascination with 70s youth culture, the "1979" video provides another romanticised depiction of that period, while the awarding-winning "Tonight, Tonight" is a clever remake of Méliès Trip to the Moon. The epic style continues on later videos, with "Perfect" being a sequel to "1979". Also included is the harrowing short film by Jonas Akerlund, "Try" (a 15-minute extended version of the "Try, Try, Try" video), which follows the last days of a homeless, pregnant young woman. Also included are live performances from their final concert. This is a fitting anthology of both the Pumpkins' restraint and excess. On the DVD: Due to the extensive number of bonus features available with each video (including commentaries, outtakes and behind the scenes footage), the initial selection process is far from straightforward, which is why the title menu includes a Help option to guide the viewer through the complex procedure. DVD-ROM users can also access exclusive Smashing Pumpkin art.--John Galilee

• R.E.M. - In View - The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 | DVD | (22/12/2014) from £9.94   |  Saving you £4.05 (40.74%)   |  RRP £13.99

  In View is meant as a companion piece to REM's best-of album, In Time, but it works well as a collection in its own right. A video history of some of the Athens, Georgia band's biggest songs, its focus is firmly on the latter part their long career, with videos from Automatic for the People ("Everybody Hurts", "Man on the Moon", "Nightswimming", "Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite"), Out of Time ("Losing My Religion"), Monster ("What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"), New Adventures in Hi-Fi ("E Bow the Letter", "Electrolite"), Up ("Daysleeper", "At My Most Beautiful"), and Reveal ("Imitation of Life", "All the Way to Reno"). There are just two videos from their pre-breakthrough album Green ("Orange Crush" and "Stand"), though admittedly they shied away from making videos early in their career. Still, nobody can fault the presentation of In View. Of course, the promos are spectacular, if occasionally too self-consciously artsy, but there's even more here. There are three live videos, recorded in Trafalgar Square, and six additional, rarely seen videos ("Tongue", "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us", "New Test Leper", "Bittersweet Me", "Lotus", "I'll Take the Rain"). Best of all, though, is the ability to watch them with or without brief, introductory interviews with the band, which give a window into REM's ongoing appeal: as talented as they are, they're still refreshingly human pop stars. --Robert Burrow

• Plunkett and MaCleane (Blu-Ray) | Blu Ray | (09/07/2018) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  For the first time in High Definition, from director Jake Scott comes Plunkett & Macleane, the action-packed tale of two highwayman in 18th-century England who form an unlikely alliance, starring Trainspotting's Robert Carlyle and Jonny Lee Miller. After meeting in prison in the wake of a botched grave robbery, two strangers from different echelons of English society, scheming lowlife William Plunkett (Robert Carlyle, The Full Monty) and gentleman-debtor Capt. James Macleane (Jonny Lee Miller, Trainspotting), decide to join forces. The two become highwaymen and set out to steal their way to a life of leisure. But as their infamy increases, Macleane falls for the beautiful Lady Rebecca (Liv Tyler, The Lord of the Rings), and begins to wonder if he should go straight.

• Welcome To The Rileys | DVD | (27/02/2012) from £5.39   |  Saving you £10.60 (66.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Welcome to the Rileys is an emotional journey that takes us through grief, self-reinvention and healing. The Rileys have been struggling in their marriage since losing their teenage daughter eight years prior. Once a happily married and loving couple, Lois (Melissa Leo) and Doug (James Gandolfini) have grown distant. Lois has become agoraphobic and won't leave the house while Doug tries to stay away, finding their home depressing.Looking to get away, Doug goes on a business trip to New Orleans. He meets Mallory (Kristen Stewart), a teenage runaway. Despite her unsettling demeanor, Doug immediately recognizes an innocence in Mallory. He realizes she is in desperate need of paternal guidance, something he has been longing to provide. The opportunity to care and protect Mallory supplants the void Doug's marriage has left in his heart, and brings new meaning to his life. Doug decides to sell his business and stay in New Orleans to give Mallory the attention and help she can't bring herself to ask for.Lois overcomes her phobia and ventures to New Orleans to reclaim her marriage. What initially seems to be the final straw that will derail their marriage turns out to be the inspiration for Lois and Doug to renew their love for each other. From Scott Free and Argonaut Pictures comes an unusual story of love lost and found.

• Plunkett And Macleane | DVD | (24/12/2001) from £11.60   |  Saving you £1.39 (11.98%)   |  RRP £12.99

  No-one will be neutral about Plunkett and Macleane. Either you go with its notion of cheeky, stylish fun or you want to grab first-time director Jake Scott by the ear and slap him silly. Your inclination may depend on whether you recall his dad Ridley's own directing debut, The Duellists (1977), and savour the correspondences. Dad took a Joseph Conrad tale of the Napoleonic Wars, cast it with the ultra-contemporary Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel, and filmed it with a swooping, mobile camera. Son Jake has made a feisty period piece about a pair of thieves (Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller) in 1748 London and filled it with blatant anachronisms. A decadent aristo (Alan Cumming), asked whether he "still swings both ways," replies, "I swing every way!" A ballroom full of revellers dances the minuet (or is it the gavotte?) while our ears--if not theirs--are filled with a trance ballad. And so forth. Is this sophomoric? Maybe. But it's also often fresh and inventive. Why shouldn't a filmmaker be allowed to speak directly to a contemporary consciousness, even flaunt it, as long as he also delivers startling imagery and convincing period detail? The solid cast includes Michael Gambon as a corrupt magistrate, Ken Stott as a very nasty enforcer named Mr Chance (who favours a thumb through the eye socket and into the brain as a mode of execution) and Terence Rigby as a philosophical jailer. Even Liv Tyler looks more interesting than usual. In the end pretty frivolous, Plunkett and Macleane is nonetheless a lively debut. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com