Comedy

• Addams Family Values | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £2.91  |  Saving you £10.00 (77.00%)  |  RRP £12.99

  This slightly more cohesive follow-up to The Addams Family has the same director, Barry Sonnenfeld (Men in Black), but a better story line. Joan Cusack plays a busty gold digger who ingratiates herself into the Addams home and convinces Uncle Fester (Christopher Lloyd) that she wants to marry him. Besides Lloyd, the cast includes Anjelica Huston and Raul Julia, ideal as those Brontëan lovers, Morticia and Gomez. But Christina Ricci again walks away with the best moments as the chilly Wednesday Addams, making life miserable for two camp counsellors (Peter MacNicol and Christine Baranski) who want her to fit in with other kids. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• That Mitchell & Webb Look - Series 1 | DVD | (29/10/2007) from £2.85  |  Saving you £17.14 (85.70%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Does Numberwang mean anything to you? Relive the entire hilarious series 1 of That Mitchell and Webb Look on DVD. The DVD is bursting with well loved characters such as Sir Digby Chicken Ceasar Angel Summoner and BMX Bandit as well exclusive extras including outtakes behind the scenes and an M&W documentary. A must for any fans of Mitchell & Webb and the hit series Peep Show.

• High Spirits | DVD | (12/01/2009) from £4.49  |  Saving you £11.14 (69.70%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Aging aristocrat Peter Plunkett has managed to turn his ancestors remote Irish castle into a lacklustre bed and breakfast. But as the debt collectors start closing in and threaten to repossess his inheritance Peter must find a way to keep the family home from prying hands. In a ruse to draw in American Tourists Peter Plunkett advertises the hotel as the most haunted castle in Europe. Along with his faithful members of staff Peter makes a shambolic attempt at convincing a coach of holidaymakers that deathly apparitions roam the halls and corridors and banchees scream at the stroke of midnight. What Peter didn't expect was the appearance of several actual ghosts rising from the grave and becoming romantically involved with the guests. Directed By Neil Jordan (A Company Of Wolves Interview With The Vampire) High Spirits is a brilliantly whimsical entertaining spooky comedy featuring one of film legend Peter O Toole's funniest performances. Also starring Steve Guttenberg Daryl Hannah Liam Neeson Beverly D'Angelo and Jennifer Tilly.

• Legally Blonde | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £2.49  |  Saving you £17.00 (85.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  An extraordinary comic performance from Reese Witherspoon makes Legally Blonde a winner. Witherspoon’s Elle is a ditzy blonde forced by circumstances to metamorphose into a strong-minded and academic lawyer, without losing her strong sense of self in the process. After majoring in fashion sales, she applies to Harvard Law School to pursue the boy who jilted her, and discovers that she is smart as well as beautiful. Much of this is standard fish-out-of-water fare, with drab "intellectuals" snubbing the colourful and well-meaning Elle. Yet feminists will be disconcerted to discover that, apparently, a life of manicures and accessorising will teach you as much about female solidarity as decades of consciousness-raising! Recruited to the defence team of a fitness guru, she takes the defendant’s innocence for granted rather than feeling superior to her. Gradually, she and her ex's new fiancée build a fragile friendship that matters to both of them; Selma Blair is excellent as the snobbish vulnerable Vivienne. It might be a predictable self-help fairytale, but it’s also well-observed, cute and funny. On the DVD: the DVD is presented in 1.78:1 ratio with 5.1 Dolby digital sound as standard. The disc also comes with a wealth of features, including a documentary on the film's obsession with hairstyles--outlining the struggle to keep its heroine bleach blonde from day to day--and a bubbly commentary from Witherspoon and director Robert Luketic. There are also promos, a theatrical trailer and an optional trivia track. --Roz Kaveney

• Sean Lock - Live | DVD | (17/11/2008) from £4.53  |  Saving you £14.56 (72.80%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Sean Lock one of Britain's favourite comedians and star of TV's Mock the Week and QI stars in his very own live stand up DVD.

• Zoolander | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £1.98  |  Saving you £12.24 (76.50%)  |  RRP £15.99

  Ben Stiller originally created the vacuous male model hero of Zoolander for the VH1 Fashion Awards. In his big-screen appearance, Stiller's Derek Zoolander is New York's top model and proud creator of the tight-lipped "facial expression" Blue Steel. However, competition comes in the shape of equally empty-headed young buck Hansel (Owen Wilson), who wins the coveted male model of the year award, much to Derek's dismay. When Derek's vapid friends are then incinerated in an unfortunate petrol station incident he is left vulnerable and alone, perfect fodder for fashion designer supremo Mugatu (a brilliantly surreal Will Ferrell) to hatch a plot of Manchurian Candidate-sized proportions in which Derek is brainwashed into assassinating the Malaysian Prime minister at a fashion show. Derek enlists the help of investigative journalist (Christine Taylor) and even Hansel himself in an attempt to thwart Mugatu's devious plot. Zoolander works thanks to the central performances. Stiller is endearing in his one-dimensional ineptitude, Wilson is shallow hippie cool personified, and there are some great cameos by the likes of David Duchovny as a Deep Throat-esque informer, Milla Jovovich as the eastern European sadomasochistic henchwoman and Jon Voight as Zoolander's coal mining dad. A constant parade of other celebs pop up throughout playing themselves. Admittedly it's a one-joke film, but there are some classic scenes along the way and at its best Zoolander is an entertaining dig at an industry that takes itself far too seriously. On the DVD: Zoolander comes to DVD in an anamorphic 2.35:1 widescreen presentation that's clear and crisp with strong colours, which perfectly shows off the cartoonish style of the film. The audio is consistently sharp. Extra junkies will find plenty of material: deleted scenes, including an extended "Mine" scene and Winona Ryder trying to pick-up Hansel; amusing outtakes; and a great commentary from Ben Stiller with writers Drake Sather and John Hamburg. Best of all is the original VH1 Fashion Show skits which were the inspiration for the film. --Kristen Bowditch

• Everybody's Fine | DVD | (28/06/2010) from £8.95  |  Saving you £3.04 (25.40%)  |  RRP £11.99

  Everybody's Fine

• Meet the Fockers | DVD | (19/06/2006) from £2.21  |  Saving you £17.00 (85.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Meet the Parents found such tremendous success in the chemistry produced by the contrasting personalities of stars Robert De Niro and Ben Stiller that the film's creators went for broke with the same formula again in Meet the Fockers. This time around, Jack and Dina Byrnes (De Niro and Blythe Danner) climb into Jack's new kevlar-lined RV with daughter Pam (Teri Polo), soon-to-be son-in-law Gaylord (Stiller), and Jack's infant grandson from his other daughter for the trip to Florida to meet Gaylord's parents, Bernie and Roz Focker (Dustin Hoffman and Barbra Streisand in a casting coup). The potential in-laws are, of course, the opposite of Jack, a pair of randy, touchy-feely fun-lovers. The rest of the movie is pretty much a sitcom: put Bernie and Roz together with Jack, and watch the in-laws clash as Gaylord squirms. As with the original, there is a sense of joy in watching these actors take on their roles with obvious relish, and the Hoffman-Streisand-Stiller triumvirate is likeable enough to draw you in. But the formula doesn't work as well in Fockers mostly because much of the humor is based on two obvious gimmicks: Gaylord Focker's name, and the fact that Streisand's character is a sex therapist. As a result, the movie itself is more contrived and predictable, and a lot less fun than the original. The casting is grand, but one wishes more thought was put into the script.--Dan Vancini, Amazon.com

• A Cinderella Story | DVD | (28/03/2005) from £2.80  |  Saving you £11.00 (78.60%)  |  RRP £13.99

  Meet high school student Sam (Hilary Duff) who scrubs floors at a diner copes with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and all the while dreams of Princeton (the perfect spot for a would-be princess to find a prince). But maybe she has a Prince Charming already: her anonymous e-mail buddy (Chad Michael Murray) who arranges to meet her at the Halloween dance. Sam panics when Mr. Anonymous turns out to be the coolest guy on campus. Can he love a girl who isn't part of the in crowd

• Seinfeld: Season 4 | DVD | (13/06/2005) from £8.85  |  Saving you £26.14 (74.70%)  |  RRP £34.99

  It's hard to believe, but for the first three seasons nobody really knew that Seinfeld was about, well, you know. It wasn't until season 4--unleashed here in a four-disc set that's equal in scope, quality, and quantity of bonus material to its predecessors--that the show really became something. In a series which can claim every installment as classic, the two-parter on disc 1 titled "The Pitch/The Ticket" truly stands out as a defining episode and, in retrospect, marked Seinfeld 4 as the breakthrough season. It's the one where (fake) NBC executives express their interest in working with Jerry Seinfeld on a TV show, then moves to the who's-on-first shtick of George successfully pitching Jerry on creating "a show about nothing." Scattered throughout the discs in commentaries by cast and creators and in numerous "Inside Look" documentaries, nearly everyone expresses some anxiety about the season having a story "arc" depicting Jerry and his "real" life becoming a sitcom. The show had been only marginally successful up to that point anyway, and with the edict, "no hugging, no learning," still in place, maybe messing with nothing was a bad idea. What makes the arc so arch is the self-reflexive way it details the reality of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David coming up with the concept and pitching it to (real) NBC executives as a show that really was about, well, you know. In one of the many informally informative interview segments, Jerry remembers hitting a stride during this time when a lot of crazy ideas started to make sense. "Everything was just a wild guess," he says, "and it takes a while to get confident that you're guessing pretty good. I think sometime in season 4 we realized we were guessing pretty good." Oh, that we could all be so good at nothing. Season 4 also gave us the episodes "The Bubble Boy" ("He lives in a bubble!"), "The Pick" ("There was no pick!"), and, perhaps most memorably, "The Contest." Recalling how nervous he thought NBC might be about a show based on how long a person can remain--ahem--master of his domain, Larry David says that he kept the idea hidden for a long time. He may have had NBC sweating, but the episode goes by without anyone uttering the word that it's really about. The curmudgeonly David also observes that another famous season 4 episode, "The Outing," only made it on the air due to a network "note" about making sure it wouldn't be offensive to homosexuals. Hence we have the addition of another standard to the Seinfeld lexicon of American pop culture: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Not only wasn't there anything wrong with it, the episode won a GLAAD Media Award. Season 4 also brought Seinfeldits first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Stay tuned for season 5 (and a move to the coveted Thursday-at-9 slot) when the volcano we now know was always brewing really blew its comedic top. --Ted Fry, Amazon.com

• Miss Congeniality / Miss Congeniality 2 | DVD | (11/07/2005) from £4.49  |  Saving you £12.50 (73.60%)  |  RRP £16.99

  Miss Congeniality Sandra Bullock stars as a bumbling female FBI agent assigned to go undercover as a participant in the Miss United States beauty pageant when it is discovered that one of the contestants is being targeted for murder. Benjamin Bratt leads the undercover team while also playing the reluctant love interest. Candice Bergen and William Shatner manage the pageant and hire Michael Caine to turn Bullock from rough and tumble agent to stunning beauty queen. The physica

• Fawlty Towers - Complete Fawlty Towers | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £14.00  |  Saving you £10.99 (44.00%)  |  RRP £24.99

  This Special Edition marks the 30th Anniversary of one of the greatest situation comedies British television has ever seen. Every episode of the BAFTA winning sitcom has been fantastically remastered and for the first time ever John Cleese provides audio commentaries on all 12 episodes. Episodes Comprise: 1. A Touch of Class 2. The Builders 3. The Wedding Party 4. The Hotel Inspectors 5. Gourmet Night 6. The Germans 7. Communication Problems 8. The Psychiatrist 9. Waldorf Salad 10. The Kipper and the Corpse 11. The Anniversary 12. Basil the Rat

• Two Weeks Notice | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £2.79  |  Saving you £11.00 (78.60%)  |  RRP £13.99

  Although Sandra Bullock and Hugh Grant display little on-screen romantic chemistry in Two Weeks Notice, by having them do what they do best the film manages to work around the missing key ingredient. Bullock is on top form as a bumbling but clever woman who is left ashore by her eco-warrior boyfriend and begins to work (against her better judgement) for Grant, the well-spoken and charming yet inept public face of a multi-million-pound building empire. Although sparks conspicuously fail to fly between them, the two make for genial pals and, as a result, the fact that little romance is evident until the end is actually a bonus. It would be easy to dismiss this as just another Hollywood star vehicle, a formulaic rom-com that could have been produced anytime in the last 50 years or so. But it is impossible to deny that, although offering nothing new, the script does at least work well. In casting the stars exactly to type, making no social comment and leaving the audience happily gorged on feel-good vibes by the end, if nothing else Two Weeks Notice at least offers universal appeal. --Nikki Disney

• Hannah And Her Sisters | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £3.60  |  Saving you £12.10 (75.70%)  |  RRP £15.99

  ""Warmhearted wise and fiercely funny!"" -The New York Times Brimming with laughter tears and subtle beauty Hannah And Her Sisters is a magnificent ""summation of (Woody Allen's) career to date"" (The New York Times). Winner of three Oscars and featuring a brilliant all-star cast Hannah And Her Sisters spins a tale of three unforgettable women and showcases Allen ""at his most emotionally expansive working on his broadest canvas with masterly ease"" (Newsweek)! The eldest daught

• Curb Your Enthusiasm - Series 1 | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £6.99  |  Saving you £18.10 (69.60%)  |  RRP £25.99

  Curb Your Enthusiasm is the brainchild of star-creator Larry David, who cocreated Seinfeld and was the basis for the easily rattled George Costanza. Like George, David has a tendency to speak too much, blow things out of proportion, and, most often, fail in the end (and often liking it that way). David's new show is also like its predecessor; it's about "nothing" except following the day-to-day ramblings of a sometime writer and comic (this time in LA). Eternal questions stemming from universal daily dilemmas are honed to perfect comedic absurdity. A notable exception is that the show is only scripted by plot; much of the action is improvised. The first season starts with a one-hour mockumentary following David's return to stand-up for the first time in years. The other 10 episodes follow a more traditional sit-com setup. David plays "himself" (as does his friend, Richard Lewis) although his manager and wife are played by comedians Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hines. Although this first season is a comedic gem, one can't take more than an episode or two at a time--it's caustic, biting comedy. The episodes are often built like a house of cards, which the irritable David will surely collapse by the end. --Doug Thomas

• The Sting | DVD | (28/11/2005) from £3.49  |  Saving you £16.50 (82.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  All it takes is a little Confidence. After the huge success of Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid George Roy Hill re-teamed with Hollywood stars Robert Redford and Paul Newman for this dazzlingly inventive tale about revenge in 1930s Chicago. The Sting is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of all time. Set in the 1930's this intricate comedy caper deals with an ambitious small time crook (Robert Redford) and a veteran con man

• Last Of The Summer Wine - Series 9 And 10 - Complete | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £7.15  |  Saving you £17.12 (68.50%)  |  RRP £24.99

  Episodes Comprise: Series 9: 1. Why Does Norman Clegg Buy Ladies' Elastic Stockings? 2. The Heavily Reinforced Bottom 3. Dried Dates and Codfanglers 4. The Really Masculine Purse 5. Who's Feeling Ejected Then? 6. The Ice-Cream Man Cometh 7. Set the People Free 8. Go with the Flow 9. Jaws 10. Edie and the Automobile 11. Wind Power 12. Big Day at Dream Acre Series 10: 1. The Experiment 2. The Treasure of the Deep 3. Dancing Feet 4. That Certain Smile 5. Downhill Racing 6. Day of the Welsh Ferret 7. Crums

• My Best Friend's Wedding | DVD | (18/02/2002) from £3.83  |  Saving you £16.06 (80.30%)  |  RRP £19.99

  One of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s, My Best Friend's Wedding not only gave Julia Roberts a delightful vehicle for her crowd-pleasing comeback, but it further distinguished itself by avoiding the conventional plotting of the genre. She plays a prominent Chicago restaurant critic whose best friend (Dermot Mulroney) is a former lover from her college days with whom she'd made a binding pact: if neither of them were married by the age of 28, they'd marry each other. Just when they're about to reach the deadline of their agreement, Mulroney arrives in Chicago to introduce Roberts to his seemingly perfect fiancée (Cameron Diaz) and announce their wedding in just three days. That leaves the shocked Julia with just three short days to sabotage the wedding and marry the man she now realises she's loved all along. With potential heartbreak waiting in the wings, she'll either get what she wants or pay the price for her selfish behaviour, and Ronald Bass' cleverly constructed screenplay keeps us guessing to the very end. It's no surprise that this was one of the box-office smashes of 1997. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: My Best Friend's Wedding is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and there is very little grain or noise, the only blurring coming from those soft focus moments. There are two "making-of" documentaries, one produced by HBO and the other a general behind the scenes mix of fly on the wall footage and interviews with cast and crew. Masquerading as helpful hints for the soon to be wed there's also a short featurette called "Wedding Do's and Don'ts". You can also sing along with one of the film's more bizarre moments; the fish restaurant rendition of "Say a Little Prayer", check out the pictures in the wedding album and read the filmographies. --Kristen Bowditch

• Patch Adams | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £3.37  |  Saving you £6.62 (66.30%)  |  RRP £9.99

  Patch Adams raises two schools of thought: there are those who are inspired by the true story of a troubled man who finds happiness in helping others--a man set on changing the world and who may well accomplish the task. And then there are those who feel manipulated by this feel-good story, who want to smack the young medical student every time he begins his silly antics. Staving off suicidal thoughts, Hunter Adams commits himself into a psychiatric ward, where he not only garners the nickname "Patch" but learns the joy in helping others. To this end, he decides to go to medical school, where he clashes with the staid conventions of the establishment as he attempts to inject humour and humanity into his treatment of the patients ("We need to start treating the patient as well as the disease", he declares throughout the film). Robin Williams, in the title role, is as charming as ever, although someone should tell him to broaden his range--the ever-cheerful, do-gooder à la Good Will Hunting and Dead Poets Society is getting a little old. His sidekick Truman (Daniel London) steals the show with his gawky allure and eyebrows that threaten to overtake his lean face--he seems more real, which is odd considering that Patch Adams does exist and this film is based on his life. Monica Potter is the coolly reluctant love interest and she makes the most of her one-dimensional part. While moments of true heartfelt emotion do come through, the major flaw of this film is that the good guys are just so gosh-darn good and the bad ones are just big meanies with no character development. Patch Adams, though, does provide the tears, the giggles and the kooky folks who will keep you smiling at the end. --Jenny Brown

• Hobson's Choice | DVD | (11/08/2008) from £5.83  |  Saving you £10.16 (63.50%)  |  RRP £15.99

  A story of feminism in 19th Century Salford Hobson's Choice deals with the empowering of female characters. Henry Hobson is a widower with a weakness for the pub and the owner of a successful bootmakers. In order to save his finances he denies his three daughters the right to marry. So in rebellion against her father eldest daughter Maggie starts up a relationship and rival bootmakers with Henry's star employee Will.