Drama

• War Horse | DVD | (07/05/2012) from £8.99  |  Saving you £9.00 (50.00%)  |  RRP £17.99

  From director Steven Spielberg comes War Horse, an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows Joey?s the extraordinary journey as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets ? British cavalry, German soldiers and a French farmer and his granddaughter ? before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man?s Land. The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse ? an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war ? a best-selling book by author Michael Morpurgo, it was turned into an award-winning stage production and now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

• The Iron Lady | DVD | (30/04/2012) from £11.97  |  Saving you £8.02 (40.10%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Phyllida Lloyd, who directed Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!, takes a less exuberant tack in this unexpectedly poignant biopic. In the script, written by Shame's Abi Morgan, Lloyd depicts the elderly Dame Thatcher (Streep in a thoroughly convincing performance) as a frail figure replaying key moments in her life while her mind still continues to function. Her trajectory begins with grocer Alfred Roberts (Downton Abbey's Iain Glen), who became the mayor of Grantham, instilling in his daughter, Margaret (Alexandra Roach), a passion for politics. After graduating from Oxford, she felt ready to enter the fray, at which point she met Denis Thatcher (Harry Lloyd), who cheered her along on the road from Parliament to 10 Downing Street, where they lived during her time as Britain's first female prime minister (Jim Broadbent portrays the grey-haired and ghostly Denis). While closing mines, dodging IRA hits, and overseeing a war, the blue-clad titan built alliances with Airey Neave (Nicholas Farrell) and Geoffrey Howe (Anthony Head), but she would lose them both. If her will was strong, she had no time for feminine niceties like conciliation and forgiveness. The film goes on to suggest that she never cultivated the kinds of female friendships that might have sustained her in retirement, though her daughter (Tyrannosaur's Olivia Colman) did what she could. Instead, Denis remained her closest confidante until his departure, after which she had nothing but fading memories. The upshot is an uneasy combination of admiration for her leadership qualities and disappointment in her interpersonal skills. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (DVD + Digital Copy) | DVD | (25/06/2012) from £11.95  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  A group of British retirees travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel. Less luxurious than its advertisements, they are forever transformed by their shared experiences, discovering that life and love can begin again when you begin to let go of the past. From the Director of Shakespeare In Love and featuring an all-star British cast, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a charming, life affirming comedy drama about life, love and new beginnings... Special Features: Behind the Story: Lights, Colours and Smiles

• War Horse | Blu Ray | (07/05/2012) from £14.95  |  Saving you £8.04 (35.00%)  |  RRP £22.99

  From director Steven Spielberg comes War Horse, an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows Joey?s the extraordinary journey as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets ? British cavalry, German soldiers and a French farmer and his granddaughter ? before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man?s Land. The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse ? an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war ? a best-selling book by author Michael Morpurgo, it was turned into an award-winning stage production and now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

• The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 | DVD | (12/03/2012) from £9.99  |  Saving you £10.00 (50.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1 delivers strongly for the rabid fan base who have catapulted the young adult novel series and subsequent movie adaptations to the worldwide phenomenon that it's become, but it alienates a broader audience with a lack of any real action. Similar to the tone of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1, the first film of the two-part Twilight conclusion is heavy on romance, love, and turmoil but light on fight scenes and gruesome battles. The movie doesn't waste any time getting to the goods and opens with Bella and Edward's much-hyped wedding scene. It works--the vows are efficient and first-time franchise director Bill Condon (Dreamgirls) moves the party along quickly and amusingly with a well-edited toast scene and some surprisingly moving moments between Bella and her father, cast standout Billy Burke. The honeymoon plays as a slightly awkward soft-focus made-for-TV movie, with a lot of long moments spent staring in the mirror and some love scenes that feel at once overly intimate and completely passionless. It's a relief when Bella retches on a bite of chicken she's cooked herself and quickly concludes she's pregnant with a potentially demonic baby. From bliss to horror, the Cullens return to Forks, where Bella spends the second half of the movie wasting away and Edward and Jacob are aligned in their anger and frustration over her decision. Throw in some over-the-top scenes with Jacob and his pack--including a strange showdown where the wolves communicate in their canine form by having a passionate nonverbal fight in their minds (a plot point that works much better in print, it's portrayed in the film via aggressive voice-over)--and the film overshoots intensity and goes straight to silly. The birth scene is horrific, but not as gruesome as in the book, and by the end, Bella has of course survived, though is much altered. The final scene features a delightfully campy Michael Sheen as Volturi leader Aro and makes it clear that the action and fun in Breaking Dawn, Part 1 is ready to start. Fans will just have to wait until Part 2 to get it. --Kira Canny

• The Artist | DVD | (28/05/2012) from £9.99  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  The Artist is a love letter and homage to classic black-and-white silent films. The film is enormously likable and is anchored by a charming performance from Jean Dujardin, as silent movie star George Valentin. In late-1920s Hollywood, as Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he makes an intense connection with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break. As one career declines, another flourishes, and by channeling elements of A Star Is Born and Singing in the Rain, The Artist tells the engaging story with humour, melodrama, romance, and--most importantly--silence. As wonderful as the performances by Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo (Miller) are, the real star of The Artist is cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman. Visually, the film is stunning. Crisp and beautifully contrasted, each frame is so wonderfully constructed that this sweet and unique little movie is transformed from entertaining fluff to a profound cinematic achievement. --Kira Canny

• The Help | DVD | (12/03/2012) from £8.49  |  Saving you £6.40 (35.60%)  |  RRP £17.99

  There are male viewers who will enjoy The Help, but Mississippi native Tate Taylor aims his adaptation squarely at the female readers who made Kathryn Stockett's novel a bestseller. If the multi-character narrative revolves around race relations in the Kennedy-era South, the perspective belongs to the women. Veteran maid Aibileen (Doubt's Viola Davis in an Oscar-worthy performance) provides the heartfelt narration that brackets the story. A widow devastated by the death of her son, she takes pride in the 17 children she has helped to raise, but she's hardly fulfilled. That changes when Skeeter (Easy A's Emma Stone) returns home after college. Unlike her peers, Skeeter wants to work, so she gets a job as a newspaper columnist. But she really longs to write about Jackson's domestics, so she meets with Aibileen in secret--after much cajoling and the promise of anonymity. When Aibileen's smart-mouthed friend Minny (breakout star Octavia Spencer) breaches her uptight employer's protocol, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) gives her the boot, and she ends up in the employ of local outcast Celia (Jessica Chastain, hilarious and heartbreaking), who can't catch a break due to her dirt-poor origins. After the murder of Medgar Evers, even more maids, Minny among them, bring their stories to Skeeter, leading to a book that scandalizes the town--in a good way. Not since Steel Magnolias has Hollywood produced a Southern woman's picture more likely to produce buckets of tears (and almost as many laughs). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• The Notebook | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £3.99  |  Saving you £16.00 (80.00%)  |  RRP £19.99

  When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon

• Friends With Benefits | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £5.24  |  Saving you £11.04 (61.40%)  |  RRP £17.99

  At a time when mainstream comedy has been overtaken by rambling, pleasingly sloppy Judd Apatow-type improv-fests, director Will Gluck has been quietly doing his part to remind folks that sticking to the script and having a destination in mind can be fun, too. Much like his earlier Easy A, Friends with Benefits is a clever, just-this-side-of-painfully-hip relationship comedy that knows when to linger over a punch line and when not to break stride. A few minor speed bumps aside (filmmakers: can we can it with the musical montages, already?), it goes down extremely easy. The story in a nutshell: frustrated by the lack of viable dating options in their vicinity, two platonic friends (Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake) decide to embark on a casual, no-strings-attached physical relationship. However, as a briefly glimpsed clip from Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice foreshadows, things don't stay simple for very long. As opposed to the standard PG-13 rom com, things get surprisingly raunchy here, but organically so, with the slight snafus and briefly major embarrassments that should ring true to most relationship veterans. As in Easy A, Gluck has assembled a fantastically game supporting cast, including Woody Harrelson, Jenna Elfman, and especially the great Richard Jenkins and Patricia Clarkson as two vastly different parental figures, but it's really the two leads' show. Whether arguing the virtues of the band Kriss Kross or engaging in activities unprintable on an all-ages website, Timberlake and Kunis display the snappy back-and-forth of a classic cinematic coupling. When they're cooking, you don't want to be anywhere else. --Andrew Wright

• My Week with Marilyn | DVD | (16/03/2012) from £6.95  |  Saving you £13.04 (65.20%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Anyone doubting the layered, nuanced, and heartbreaking acting abilities of Michelle Williams will find My Week with Marilyn a tremendous revelation. And Williams fans will enjoy it even more. In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams's Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn't let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe's life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already "the world's most famous woman," still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to co-starring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos--mostly Olivier's and Monroe's--collide in a fiery near-disaster. Kenneth Branagh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the exasperated Olivier, resentful of the "new blood" in Hollywood that the young Monroe represents, and disdainful of her cult-like devotion to Method acting. (And of Monroe's chronic tardiness, which threatens to undermine the veddy, veddy strict British work schedule.) Eddie Redmayne plays Clark with a sweet, gentle veneer, someone who grows to care genuinely about the complex Monroe. Julia Ormond is clipped and proper as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, and Emma Watson shows a lovely gravitas as Lucy, Monroe's acting coach. But it's Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat. "Excuse my horrible face," she blurts out, while looking nothing less than her usual radiant self. Where does this tragic insecurity come from? My Week with Marilyn doesn't attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend. --A.T. Hurley

• Breaking Bad - Season 2 | DVD | (26/07/2010) from £2.68  |  Saving you £14.00 (56.00%)  |  RRP £24.99

  As Breaking Bad's first year concluded, chemistry teacher Walt (two-time Emmy-winner Bryan Cranston) and his meth-making partner, Jesse (Emmy-nominee Aaron Paul), hooked up with drug kingpin Tuco (Raymond Cruz), and the money started to roll in. They expected some degree of danger--but not a homicidal maniac. When DEA agent Hank (Dean Norris) starts to close in on Tuco, he kidnaps the duo, who eventually escape, but the experience creates a host of new complications, leaving Jesse temporarily homeless and driving a wedge between Walt and his pregnant wife, Skyler (Anna Gunn), and their 15-year-old son, Walt Jr. (R. J. Mitte). In his commentary, creator Vince Gilligan explains that the "chickens come home to roost" in season 2 as Walt's criminal activity catches up with him. In effect, he lives out the psychological version of The Fly, with his double life merging into one, such that he starts to become as ruthless as Tuco. Hank, meanwhile, gets a promotion that expands his jurisdiction to El Paso, while Skyler takes an accounting job that could cause her to "break bad" in season 3. If this AMC hit lacked a sense of humor, it just might be too hard to take. Aside from Walt's incurable illness and Hank's post-traumatic stress disorder, there's a head crushing, a shooting, an explosion, and an overdose. Though Walt and Skyler get few humorous moments, Jesse, Hank, and ambulance-chasing attorney Saul (Mr. Show's Bob Odenkirk, an inspired addition) make the most of theirs. Jesse even gets a girlfriend (Krysten Ritter), who comes with a wary father (John de Lancie)--but there's still more shadow than light (not counting those panoramic desert shots). Strong stuff, but it's impossible to look away. Extensive extras include commentaries, deleted scenes, and featurettes on every episode. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Warrior | DVD | (20/02/2012) from £6.95  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  Warrior stars Tom Hardy (Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) and Joel Edgerton (The Thing). An inspirational and exhilarating roller-coaster of a film, Warrior centres around Tommy (Hardy) - an ex marine haunted by a tragic past, who enlists the help of his estranged father (Nick Nolte) to train up for the fight of his life. A former wrestling prodigy, Tommy blazes a path towards SPARTA - the biggest 'winner takes all' Mixed Martial Arts event in history. His brother, Brendan (Joel Edgerton), an ex-fighter-turned teacher, also returns to the ring in a desperate bid to save his family from financial ruin. So when Brendan's unlikely, underdog rise sets him on a collision course with the unstoppable Tommy, the two brothers must finally confront each other - and the forces that pulled them apart - in the ultimate face off.

• The Way | DVD | (31/10/2011) from £5.00  |  Saving you £10.99 (68.70%)  |  RRP £15.99

  An American father travels to France to recover the body of his estranged son who died while traveling El camino de Santiago from France to Santiago de Compostela (Spain).

• The King's Speech | DVD | (09/05/2011) from £5.49  |  Saving you £14.50 (72.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  The untimely death of King George V (Michael Gambon) means that his son will be crowned as King Edward VIII (Guy Pearce), however due to his desire to marry a woman whom the church do not approve of, Edward has to step down. Bertie (Colin Firth) is appointed as leader of the country and named King George VI. Unfortunately Bertie has suffered from a speech problem for the majority of his life and can barely speak in private, let alone public. At a time when the country is at war and desperately needing a leader they can trust, King George VI is not the ideal candidate. His wife Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) is forced to take it upon herself to fix the problem and hire an eccentric and unconventional speech therapist; Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush). A conflict immediately ensues between the teaching style Logue uses and the King. However, after an unorthodox course of treatment the two become good friends and eventually cure the problem, leaving the King to lead his country to victory. Based on the true story of King George VI, The King’s Speech tells the story of the royal and his battle with his stammer. Nominated for 12 Oscars including Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush). Special Features COMMENTARY WITH DIRECTOR TOM HOOPER AN INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF AN UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIP - THE MAKING OF THE KING’S SPEECH AN INTERVIEW WITH MARK LOGUE (CO-AUTHOR OF THE KING’S SPEECH: HOW ONE MAN SAVED THE BRITISH MONARCHY) SPEECHES FROM THE REAL KING GEORGE VI PRODUCTION SKETCHES FROM ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED PRODUCTION DESIGNER EVE STEWART PHOTO GALLERY INCLUDING A LOOK BEHIND THE SCENES

• The Descendants (DVD + Digital Copy) | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £10.99  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  Only Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne (Sideways) would think to cast the famously handsome George Clooney as a dishevelled dad in his outstanding adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings's tragicomic novel. Clooney dials down the glamour to play Matt King, a Hawaii real-estate attorney with a propensity for unflattering shirts and ill-fitting trousers. When Matt's wife, Elizabeth, ends up in a coma after a water-skiing accident, Matt must learn to balance the parenting of his resentful daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), with the sale of a pristine plot of Kauai land that stands to make the King cousins, including scruffy Hugh (Beau Bridges), a fortune. As Elizabeth's condition worsens, Matt contacts friends and relatives, like her fiercely protective father (Robert Forster), so that they'll have the chance to say goodbye. In the process, he finds out she was having an affair with realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, effectively cast against type), so he and the girls, including Alex's hilariously mellow friend, Sid (Nick Krause), go on an island-hopping trip, ostensibly to add Brian to the mix, but Matt really wants to find out what his wife saw in the guy. His journey from naiveté to knowledge brings out Clooney's soulful side, creating a believably flawed, deeply sympathetic figure. If Payne leans too heavily on the slack-key soundtrack, his love for his characters, including Judy Greer as Matt's female counterpart, results in his most emotionally satisfying movie to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• One Day | DVD | (06/02/2012) from £6.95  |  Saving you £13.04 (65.20%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Twenty years. Two people...Directed by Lone Scherfig (director of An Education, Academy Award-nominated for Best Picture), the motion picture One Day is adapted for the screen by David Nicholls from his beloved bestselling novel One Day.After one day together - July 15th, 1988, their university graduation - Emma Morley (Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess, The Way Back, 21) begin a friendship that will last a lifetime. She is a working-class girl of principle and ambition who dreams of making the world a better place. He is a wealthy charmer who dreams that the world will be his playground.For the next two decades, key moments of their relationship are experienced over several July 15ths in their lives. Together and apart, we see Dex and Em through their friendship and fights, hopes and missed opportunities, laughter and tears. Somewhere along their journey, these two people realize that what they are searching and hoping for has been there for them all along. As the true meaning of that one day back in 1988 is revealed, they come to terms with the nature of love and life itself.

• Episodes | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £7.49  |  Saving you £12.50 (62.50%)  |  RRP £19.99

  Episodes

• Moneyball | DVD | (19/03/2012) from £8.00  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  Oakland A?s general manager Billy Beane (Brad Pitt) challenges the system and defies conventional wisdom when he is forced to rebuild his small-market team, on a limited budget. Despite opposition from the old guard, the media, fans and their own field manager (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Beane - with the help of a young, number-crunching, Yale-educated economist (Jonah Hill) - develops a roster of misfits and changes the way the game is played forever.

• Of Mice And Men | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £4.29  |  Saving you £8.70 (67.00%)  |  RRP £12.99

  We have a dream. Someday we'll have a little house and a couple of acres. A place to call home. John Steinbeck's timeless classic comes magnificently to life in this beautiful and stirring film starring Oscar nominees John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich) and Gary Sinise (The Green Mile). Directed by Sinise from an adaptation by two-time Oscar winner Horton Foote this ""flawless miracle of movie-making"" (Susan Granger ""American Movie Classics"") is a must-see for all audiences.

• The Bridge | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £26.00  |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)  |  RRP £N/A

  The body of a woman is found in the middle of the Oresund Bridge. Half of it belongs to a Swedish politician, the other half to a Danish prostitute.Trapped in the middle of the bridge connecting Sweden and Denmark, a bi-national investigatory team is put together to solve the crime. Laid-back Danish family man, Martin, and Swedish single woman, Saga, have to work together to stop the horrific staged murders before the terrorist wins over public opinion with his anti-corruption agenda.