"Director: John Duigan"

• Lawn Dogs | DVD | (14/02/2011) from £7.29   |  Saving you £5.70 (78.19%)   |  RRP £12.99

  No review of Lawn Dogs can adequately describe this extraordinary movie, nor can the title or any simple synopsis. In fact, there's no way of knowing what Lawn Dogs is really about until the very end when the last 90-minutes takes on a whole new significance. The basic story follows the formation and fruition of a simple friendship. Devon (astounding newcomer Mischa Barton) is a 10-year-old girl born to glamour magazine identikit parents who live in the plush US suburban Camelot Gardens Estate. Trent (Sam Rockwell) is a 20-something lawnmower man whom everyone considers trash and who lives in a forest trailer. As secret friends they fill the holes in one another's lives. She has no other friends because she thinks "other kids smell like TV". It's all perfectly sweet and innocent. But naturally there's no way the uptight neighbourhood would perceive it that way. A creeping sense of doom begins to overtake events; but it is where this seemingly obvious tale twists at the end that makes the community's darker quirks a revelation. On the DVD: Lawn Dogs on disc comes in a 16:9 transfer that retains the superb cinematography of endlessly stretching flat horizons. The three-channel sound is equally of benefit to a subtle bluesy score. Regrettably the only extra is a trailer. As a winner at numerous International Film Festivals, this picture really deserved something more. --Paul Tonks

• The Parole Officer | Blu Ray | (04/07/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Although there are one or two belly laughs along the way, for the most part The Parole Officer gets by on the pleasantly old-fashioned charm of a latter-day Ealing comedy. And despite a handful of gross-out moments (involving a roller coaster at Blackpool, a severed head and a wasp) most of the humour comes from the interaction of a good ensemble cast. It’s the first big-screen vehicle for Steve Coogan, who plays the titular officer as a watered-down, more likeable version of his most famous creation, Alan Partridge. After being set up by a corrupt detective Coogan’s hapless Simon Garden--in fact always identified as a Probation Officer, so presumably the film’s title is an attempt to attract a transatlantic audience--must recruit a motley gang of his ex-con clients to plan and execute a bank robbery in Manchester. Indeed, one of the film’s principal attractions is its affectionate use of that city centre as a setting instead of the more usual seedy London locations of most British caper-comedies.Coogan’s gang are a familiarly dysfunctional bunch, redeemed by sympathetic performances from, notably, Om Puri as irascible serial bigamist George and the young Emma Williams as serial car thief Kirsty. Not enough effort goes into fleshing out the characters, though, and in particular Lena Headey as Coogan’s policewoman girlfriend is far too thinly sketched to seem convincing. However, much fun is had by all as the team bond, bicker and construct, A Team-style, the tools they need for the big heist. The bank raid itself is the film’s highlight and features a surprising deus ex machina appearance from a very distinguished guest star. If The Parole Officer never stretches to the sublime heights (or psychological depths) of I’m Alan Partridge, it does play out in a brisk 90 minutes like an extended episode of Coogan’s Run; which is to say it’s got plenty of easygoing charm even if it never pushes any boundaries. On the DVD: the handful of extra features include a surprisingly serious commentary from Coogan, cowriter Henry Normal, director John Duigan and producer Duncan Kenworthy. More interesting is the handful of deleted scenes, in which we find that some precious character development was sacrificed in the interests of pace (as well as a couple of perfectly good jokes). There's a 22-minute featurette, which isn't really a "making of" but just a series of interviews with the principal cast, plus the trailer and Atomic Kitten's "Eternal Flame" video. The picture is a good anamorphic (16:9) ratio with Dolby 5.1 sound. --Mark Walker

• The Parole Officer | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £5.75   |  Saving you £4.24 (73.74%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Steve Coogan (TV's Alan Partridge) stars in this comedy about a hapless parole officer who finds himself being set up by a crooked police chief. The only way out is to set up a heist, with help from some reluctant ex-cons.

• Sirens | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £14.96   |  Saving you £0.03 (0.20%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sirens is an affectionate, semi-fictional comedy of manners set in 1930s Australia. In an audacious stroke of casting Hugh Grant plays a stereotypically awkward and diffident Englishman, in this case a Church of England priest. The priest is despatched into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in an effort to press the Good Word upon Norman Lindsay, an artist whose lurid works are scandalising the upright citizenry. Lindsay--capably played here by Sam Neill--really existed and though he fancied himself as a dashing Bohemian artist, his paintings were dreadful. Sirens sees Grant's rigidly decent young priest and his equally prim wife (Tara Fitzgerald) gradually tempted further and further into the rustic bacchanalia that Lindsay has founded up in the bush. This sensual world is represented by Lindsay's young muses, played by supermodel Elle MacPherson, a pre-Ally McBeal Portia De Rossi and Kate Fischer. The three are more or less unclothed for most of the film, and spend what seems an unnecessary amount of time washing each other in rock-pools. This may or may not reflect awareness on the part of the producers that the film's predictable plot and overwrought dialogue weren't going to fill a lot of seats without some help. On the DVD: Sirens is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen, but there are no extra features.--Andrew Mueller

• Romeo | DVD | (03/02/2010) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-11.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The powerfully explicit account of a savage dictatorship that massacred and tortured hundreds of thousands. He spoke the truth in a country torn apart by social injustice. He stood for human rights during an era of shocking violence and torture. But the brutal dictatorship chose not to listen and he was assassinated for his beliefs. His name was Oscar Romero Archbishop of El Salvador. And this is his courageous - and true - story.

• Lawn Dogs | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  No review of Lawn Dogs can adequately describe this extraordinary movie, nor can the title or any simple synopsis. In fact, there's no way of knowing what Lawn Dogs is really about until the very end when the last 90-minutes takes on a whole new significance. The basic story follows the formation and fruition of a simple friendship. Devon (astounding newcomer Mischa Barton) is a 10-year-old girl born to glamour magazine identikit parents who live in the plush US suburban Camelot Gardens Estate. Trent (Sam Rockwell) is a 20-something lawnmower man whom everyone considers trash and who lives in a forest trailer. As secret friends they fill the holes in one another's lives. She has no other friends because she thinks "other kids smell like TV". It's all perfectly sweet and innocent. But naturally there's no way the uptight neighbourhood would perceive it that way. A creeping sense of doom begins to overtake events; but it is where this seemingly obvious tale twists at the end that makes the community's darker quirks a revelation. On the DVD: Lawn Dogs on disc comes in a 16:9 transfer that retains the superb cinematography of endlessly stretching flat horizons. The three-channel sound is equally of benefit to a subtle bluesy score. Regrettably the only extra is a trailer. As a winner at numerous International Film Festivals, this picture really deserved something more. --Paul Tonks

• The Leading Man | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £5.79   |  Saving you £7.20 (124.35%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Indecent. Immoral. Irresitible. It's the role he was born to play... Robin Grange a hotshot Hollywood actor positively dripping with charisma and sex-appeal is about to make his debut in London both on stage and between the sheets. The writer of his new play Felix Webb is loved by the critics and in love with the new leading lady the gorgeous Hilary planning to desert his wife Elena for her. Enter Robin Grange who quickly grasps Felix's dillemma and begins weaving a web

• Molly | DVD | (29/01/2001) from £7.35   |  Saving you £8.64 (117.55%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Imagine experiencing life through the eyes of an innocent child...forever. Beautiful and vibrant Molly McKay might have a mental disability but she's not about to let the world pass her by. Starring Academy Award nominee Elisabeth Shue in an inspired performance Molly is a joyous celebration of the irrepressible human spirit. Autistic since birth 28-year-old Molly (Shue) is a carefree young woman with an incredible zest for life. Her brother Buck (Aaron Eckhart) a 32-year-old

• Sirens | DVD | (20/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sirens

• Head In The Clouds | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £16.90   |  Saving you £3.09 (18.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Parisian apartment is home to Gilda Besse, an aspiring photographer, Guy Malyon, an Irish teacher, and Mia, a refugee from Spain. When war breaks out, the three friends go their separate ways, seemingly forever...

• Flirting | DVD | (14/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Here's to risks ... In a wonderful tale of misfit adolescents who find their independence through a forbidden interracial relationship Noah Taylorstars as Danny a gangly stutterer with a wry wit few friends and a big crush on Thandiwe (Thandie Newton) a Ugandan student whose father is in some political danger back home. Danny goes to a boys academy and Thandiwe boards at a girls school nearby. The two meet secretly and deepen their doomed affair exploring adulthood for the first time on their own terms....

• Paranoid | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £6.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Paranoid tells the story of Chloe a fashion model who tired from her hectic schedule agrees to spend a weekend in the country with her new boyfriend and some of his friends. Things soon start to turn bad when his wife arrives and Chloe is left alone in a house full of people she doesn't know.

• Drop Dead Fred/The Parole Officer/Guest House Paradiso | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-15.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Drop Dead Fred (Dir. Ate De Jong 1991): When Elizabeth returns to her mother's home when her marriage breaks up she recreates her imaginary childhood friend Fred to escape from the trauma of losing her husband and her job. In between the chaos and mayhem that Fred creates Elizabeth desperately attempts to win back her husband and return to normality with comical results! Parole Officer (Dir. John Duigan 2001): Simon Garden (Steve Coogan) a useless parole officer

• The Journey Of August King | DVD | (20/07/2004) from £8.18   |  Saving you £6.81 (83.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This passionate uplifting celebration of the human spirit received outstanding acclaim from critics coast-to-coast! Jason Patric (SPEED 2: CRUISE CONTROL SLEEPERS) is August King a young man whose life is changed forever when he risks everything to help a beautiful woman (Thandie Newton -- THE TRUTH ABOUT CHARLIE MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II) on a courageous -- and very dangerous -- search for a new life. Desperate yet determined the two set out on a harrowing journey toward freedom ..