Action

• Colors | DVD | (09/07/2001) from £8.14   |  Saving you £4.85 (59.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Directed by Dennis Hopper, Colors is a superior 1988 action movie set among the street gangs of LA that teams up Robert Duvall as Hodges, the elder cop, with young hothead partner Danny McGavin (Sean Penn). Investigating a murderous feud between the “Bloods” and the “Crips”, Duvall attempts to impress upon the impetuous Penn the value of a more cautious, easy-going approach in dealing with gang members, rather than trying to charge in among them. The film as a whole was one of the first to take a serious, unromantic and unstereotypical look at gang culture, at how youngsters are sucked into it, how few options are actually open to these macho hoodlums and how little they have in the way of family, community and stability other than the gangs. The partnership between Penn and Duvall by contrast, though well played, is pretty much the standard old cop/young cop set-up, right down to Duvall’s frequent, ominous remarks about how close he is to retirement. While the action is sometimes disjointed and the relationships between the gangs at times confused, it at least helps to dispel the usual Hollywood good vs. evil dynamic. Instead, there’s a more ambient sense of violence, desperation, retribution and recrimination. Penn’s doomed relationship with a “homegirl” indicates that while the LAPD may capture a few felons, they’ve little chance of capturing the hearts and minds of the criminalised poor. Later films such as John Singleton’s Boyz 'n the Hood (1991) would go further in exploring how life looks from the gangsta perspective.On the DVD: The films is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen version, with the usual chapter and language selections. The only other feature is the original, detailed but run-of-the-mill trailer. --David Stubbs

• Normandy: The Last Rescue | DVD | (01/06/2015) from £6.98   |  Saving you £10.00 (200.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Autumn 1944, in a French countryside torn by conflict Private James Lewis hesitates in battle, endangering his commanding officer Captain Beckett (Brett Cullen, The Dark Knight Rises, Ghost Rider, Lost). While desperately trying to save Beckett s life, surrounded by blood and shell fire, the field hospital is overrun by Nazi forces who capture the soldiers as prisoners of the Third Reich. Heavy with mud and despair, the journey to a POW camp is cut short by gunfire, as American paratroopers launch a counter attack, taking the Nazi officers as hostages. As Beckett's condition worsens, they begin a long and harrowing trek through enemy-occupied territory. With the enemy fast on their trail, their treacherous journey leads them through forests and farms and deeper into the Nazis' clutches. As their path to escape grows increasingly hopeless, Private Lewis, haunted by his prior failures, has to muster courage and strength to mount a last-ditch rescue and lead his brothers to freedom.

• Die Hard With A Vengeance | DVD | (01/02/2010) from £4.69   |  Saving you £13.30 (73.90%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The second sequel to the mould-making action film Die Hard brings Detective John McClane (Bruce Willis) to New York City to face a better villain than in Die Hard 2. Played by Jeremy Irons, he's the brother of the Germanic terrorist-thief Alan Rickman played in the original film. But this bad guy has his sights set higher: on the Federal Reserve's cache of gold. As a distraction, he sets McClane running fool's errands all over New York--and eventually, McClane attracts an unintentional partner, a Harlem dry cleaner (Samuel L Jackson) with a chip on his shoulder. Some great action sequences, though they can't obscure the rather large plot holes in the film's final 45 minutes. --Marshall Fine

• King Kong | Blu Ray | (09/03/2009) from £8.83   |  Saving you £11.16 (126.39%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Peter Jackson revisits the classic creature feature for this spectacular remake.

• Ironclad | Blu Ray | (11/07/2011) from £13.91   |  Saving you £9.08 (65.28%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In 13th century a determined group of Knights Templar defends Rochester Castle against the tyrannical King John.

• Planet Hulk | DVD | (15/02/2010) from £6.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (109.85%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Planet Hulk

• Starsky And Hutch - The Complete First Season | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  In the rough-and-tumble, wildly entertaining world of Starsky & Hutch, impatient cops--anxious to join a foot race in pursuit of a villain--throw themselves out of moving vehicles and roll to a bruising stop. Undercover detectives Dave Starsky (Paul Michael Glaser) and Ken "Hutch" Hutchinson (David Soul), hardly imbued with the powers of Spider-Man, routinely scale walls, hop from rooftop to rooftop, and fling themselves down steep hillsides to stop bad guys from doing what bad guys do. Years later Hill Street Blues would redefine the cop genre as a mesh of overlapping storylines and workaday frustrations, but Aaron Spelling's iconic 70s show portrays LA's finest as madly heroic creatures of reckless determination and physicality. This first season is also startlingly brutal for a primetime US show—it was later significantly toned down, much to the regret of fans—while maintaining a delightful, often incongruous, self-deprecating humour. From the series pilot on, partners and best pals Starsky and Hutch work a fine line between predator and prey, relentlessly pursuing suspects while also snared by crime chieftains or short-sighted superiors. In "The Fix", Hutch's secret romance with the former girlfriend of a mafia boss (Robert Loggia) results in the lawman's kidnapping and forced addiction to heroin. Similarly, in "A Coffin for Starsky", a mad chemist injects the wisecracking cop with a slow-acting but lethal poison. "Jo-Jo", written by Michael Mann, finds our guys at loggerheads with federal officers over a dumb deal the G-Men make with a serial rapist. The 23 episodes in this set are all fun, if sometimes shocking, viewing. Expect each character to take as much abuse as he dishes out. Still, the comic sight of Starsky and Hutch (in "Death Notice") trying to conduct business amid busy strippers is well worth the surrounding violence. --Tom Keogh

• The A-Team - Series 2 | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £25.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (34.63%)   |  RRP £34.99

  In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem if no one else can help and if you can find them maybe you can hire the A-Team! Featuring all 23 episodes from season 2! Episodes comprise: 1. Diamonds 'n' Dust 2. Recipe for Heavy B

• Spy Kids 3 | DVD | (18/04/2011) from £7.74   |  Saving you £12.25 (158.27%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Spy Kids are back again. This time their trademark action delivers a motion picture event that pushes family fun to the next level. Secret agents Juni (Daryl Sabara) and Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) set out on their most mind-blowing mission yet: a journey inside the virtual reality world of a video game where awe-inspiring graphics and creatures come dangerously to life. As they face escalating challenges through increasingly difficult levels of the game the Spy Kids must rely on humour high-tech gadgets and the bonds of family in order to stop a power-hungry villain (Sylvester Stallone) set on controlling the youth of the world. Also featuring familiar faces Antonio Banderas Carla Gugino and Ricardo Montalban in an incredible all-star cast.

• Manhunter | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £6.38   |  Saving you £11.61 (181.97%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Released to box-office indifference in 1986, Manhunter introduced Hannibal Lecter and established the rules of the modern race to find serial killer thriller five years before The Silence of the Lambs packed cinemas everywhere. This was Michael Mann's third feature, reuniting William L Petersen and Dennis Farina from his debut Thief (1981) as FBI agents hunting the killer dubbed "The Tooth Fairy". Petersen's Will Graham is the man who put Lecktor (as it is spelt here) behind bars, and as in Lambs consults with the Doctor, played with understated malevolence by Brian Cox. Manhunter is an exceptionally well-photographed film: Mann's regular cinematographer Dante Spinotti created sparse, elegantly framed, often mono-chromatically lit compositions which are essential to the shifting psychological moods. The performances are very good, and the typically 1980s, Vangelis-esque electronic score effectively sustains tension. Once the killer is introduced the scenes with Joan Allen have a genuinely unsettling, almost surreal quality. There is at least one serious plot flaw--how does "The Red Dragon" get his letter to Lecktor? Manhunter never packs the sheer excitement of Lambs, nevertheless, it is a powerful and compelling thriller which remains far superior to the third instalment in the series, Hannibal (2001). On the DVD: In addition to the trailer there is a revealing 10-minute conversation with Dante Spinotti in which he explains how he created the very distinctive look of Manhunter. Also included is a more general 17-minute retrospective "making-of" documentary. This is good but too short, the extras failing to live up to the wealth of material on the Lambs and Hannibal DVDs. The anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image is generally very good, being just a little soft in one or two early scenes. The sound is listed as Dolby Digital 5.1, but appears to replicate the main stereo signal in the rear channels. Audio is none the less powerful and clear, though lacks the sheer edge and atmospherics of some more recent thrillers. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £6.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle suffers from a problem common among live-action movies that are based on beloved cartoon characters--the humans are never as flexible, unpredictable, or just plain goofy as their animated counterparts. In this blend of animation and live action, Rocky and Bullwinkle remain animated characters (trapped in our reality), while Boris and Natasha (Jason Alexander and Rene Russo), along with their boss, Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), are transformed from cartoons to human reproductions when they escape from rerun land. They've come to our world to take it over; the FBI springs Rocky and Bullwinkle from the second dimension to stop them. But the writing in Kenneth Lonergan's script lacks the throw-away flair of the jokes that characterised Jay Ward's much-beloved animated series of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Part of the problem is that Russo, Alexander and De Niro are so obviously working at acting cartoonish, instead of simply being cartoons. And part is that the script rarely comes up with the kind of wonderful wordplay in which Ward specialised. The moose, as usual, gets all the best lines, but they're too few and far between to salvage this underachieving summer film. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Hitman: Agent 47 | 4K UHD | (11/04/2016) from £19.95   |  Saving you £0.04 (0.20%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Introducing Ultra HD. 4 Times Sharper than HD. Offers Brilliant Brights and Deepest Darks with HDR (High Dynamic Range) and Wider Colour Spectrum adding Dazzling Colours to your viewing experience. Hitman: Agent 47 is now available in this new format. Rupert Friend stars in this exhilarating action adventure based on the award-winning video game series. A genetically engineered assassin with superhuman abilities, 47(Friend), and an equally gifted young woman (Hannah Ware) turn the tables on a sinister organisation that's out to create an army of unstoppable killers. Also starring Zachary Quinto, this spectacular fi lm, filled with breathtaking effects, will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish!

• Tristan + Isolde | Blu Ray | (27/05/2013) from £8.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Luscious cinematography and even more luscious stars make Tristan & Isolde a feast for the eyes. Adapted from the medieval love story, the movie begins with with young Tristan (played as a child by Thomas Sangster, Love Actually) as he sees his parents killed by the tyrannical Irish, who ruled over a fractured Britain after the Roman occupation. Taken in by Marke (Rufus Sewell, Dark City), who rules one of the British tribes, Tristan (James Franco, Spider-Man) grows up to be a young prince and a mighty warrior--and when he's believed slain in battle, he's given a royal funeral, which sends him out sea in a burning boat. But the fire goes out and Tristan washes ashore on Ireland, where Isolde (Sophia Myles, Art School Confidential), the daughter of the Irish king, nurses him back to health. Being a lovely pair of young folk bursting with hormones, they fall madly in love... and set in motion a tragic tale that's lasted for centuries in many variations. Some reviewers have criticised Tristan & Isolde for deviating from the most common classical version, but the movie's storyline--though certainly altered to appeal to modern audiences--is fairly strong. Myles and especially Sewell turn in strong performances; Franco, however, though surprisingly persuasive as a warrior, never burns as a lover. Nonetheless, the loving shots of Franco's muscular physique will make this a must-have for his fans. --Bret Fetzer

• Constantine | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  Irreverent detective John Constantine (Keanu Reeves) teams up with a skeptical policewoman (Rachel Weisz) to investigate a murder and the world of demons and angels that exist just beneath the landscape of L.A.

• Truck Turner | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £12.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Truck is a bounty hunter who gets a job to track down a guy named Gator. When he and his partner find him, a chase ensues and Gator is killed. This makes Gator's woman, Dorinda, very angry and she puts a hit on Truck. The man who agrees to kill Truck is named Blue. The question is whether Truck can survive with Blue and his gang on his trail.

• 3-Headed Shark Attack | DVD | (21/03/2016) from £16.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When a group of scientists embark on a mission to study an ocean garbage patch, a clutch of mutated sea species are discovered. With the grotesque mutations displaying aggressive behaviour and advanced intelligence, the scientists are spooked and prepare to raise the alarm, but before they can, their lab is violently attacked by the mother of all predators a giant, three-headed shark! As the ferocious killing machine wreaks havoc, it starts eating its way from one end of a cruise ship to the other. For the mercenaries chasing its tail, it quickly becomes apparent that three heads, means more deads! Starring Danny Trejo (Machete, From Dusk Till Dawn, Con Air), Karrueche Tran and WWE's Rob Van Dam, Three-Headed Shark Attack is three times as deadly, three times as razor-sharp and definitely, three times as unforgettable!

• Ridley Scott Box Set | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £9.99   |  Saving you £30.00 (300.30%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Titles Comprise:Gladiator: The great Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe) has once again led the legions to victory on the battlefield. The war won, Maximus dreams of home, wanting only to return to his wife and son; however, the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) has one more duty for the general - to assume the mantle of his power.Jealous of Maximus' favor with the emperor, the heir to the throne, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), orders his execution - and that of his family. Barely escaping death, Maximus is forced into slavery and trained as a gladiator in the arena where his fame grows.Now he has come to Rome, intent on avenging the murder of his wife and son by killing the new emperor; Commodus....Robin Hood: Outlaw. Warrior. Hero.Discover the untold story of the man behind the legend as Robin, a heroic warrior, turns outlaw when he assembles a band of skilled marauders to confront injustice and lead an uprising against a weak and corrupt English King. When the rebellious hero falls for the spirited Lady Marion (Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett), he must first save her village and then confront a growing storm of threats from near and afar if he is to win her heart. As Robin and his men answer a call to ever-greater adventure, these unlikely heroes set off to battle for their country and return England to glory... and ride into Legend.American Gangster: Drug-kingpin Frank Lucas smuggles heroin into the US by hiding it with the bodies of soldiers killed during battle in Vietnam. By delivering a product that is far superior to his competitors, Lucas has rapidly established his status as Harlem's most innovative drug dealer.While Lucas delicately constructs his own criminal empire, Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe), one of the few honest detectives in a corrupt system, senses a sizeable shift within the hierarchy of the drug underworld and sets out to investigate this hitherto unknown power player that has come out of the shadows to dominate the drug trade. But with Detective Trupo (Josh Brolin), Roberts' crooked and jealous colleague, wanting to obstruct and ruin the integrity of his idealistic counterpart, Roberts is left with little option other than to take desperate measures to end Lucas' rule in Harlem.Hannibal: Having escaped the asylum in 'Silence of the Lambs', Dr Lecter goes into hiding in Florence. Back in America, Mason Verger, an old victim of the doctor's, seeks revenge. Disfigured and confined to a life-support system, he plans to draw Lecter out of his hiding place, using the one thing he truly cares for: Clarice Starling...Black Hawk Down: Ridley Scott directs this fast moving action adventure about the disastrous mission in Somalia on October 3, 1993 where nearly 100 U.S. Army Rangers, commanded by Capt. Mike Steele, were dropped by helicopter deep into the capital city of Mogadishu to capture two top lieutenants of a Somali warlord which leads to a large and chaotic firefight between the Rangers and hundreds of Somali gunmen which destroys two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters in Mogadishu.Someone To Watch Over: A stunning New York socialite and a down-to-earth city cop are caught in a deadly web of illicit passion and heart-stopping suspense in this taut, stylish thriller.Newly-appointed detective Mike Keegan (Tom Berenger) finds his life turned upside-down when he's assigned to protect Claire Gregory (Mimi Rogers), the beautiful eyewitness to a brutal murder.Lured into danger and the dizzying heights of Gregory's glamorous lifestyle, Keegan struggles to walk the line between protection and obsession - while trying to stay one step ahead of the psychotic killer.

• Jean-Claude Van Damme Box Set | DVD | (19/09/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  6 feature collection from the best of Van DammeDerailed: A train rockets across Eastern Europe. On board are agent Kristoff (Van Damme) and Galina, a beautiful high-tech thief. Holding the passengers hostage are a band of terrorists who have come to steal the bioweapon on board. With the train off course and on a collision course for danger, Kristoff becomes a one-man army, taking on the terrorists and trying to save the lives of everyone on board.The Order: Action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme is back in The Order, a fast-paced, high-octane thriller set in the Middle East. From the director of Double Impact and featuring screen legend Charlton Heston (Planet Of The Apes, Any Given Sunday), Ben Cross (First Knight, Chariots Of Fire), and sexy newcomer Sofia Milos, The Order is an exciting adventure packed with extreme fight choreography, exotic locations, and non-stop action.In Hell: Kyle Lord (Van Damme) is arrested and convicted for the vigilante killing of his wife's murderer. Kyle must survive life in a maximum-security prison where inmates are made to battle to their death in a brutal no holds barred fight called The Shu for the warden's entertainment and profit. Kyle fights his oppressors and is quickly sent to The Shu where his unbridled rage catapults him to the victor's circle. Kyle has become one of the monsters he despises and must now battle within himself to survive...Second In Command: Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as an official appointed second-in command to the US ambassador to a tumultuous Eastern European country. When the ambassador is murdered in an attempted coup, it's down to JC and a small group of US marines to fend off the attackers!Wake of Death: Action superstar Jean-Claude Van Damme is back and at his hard-hitting best as Ben Archer, an ex-mob enforcer seeking revenge against a ruthless Chinese kingpin responsible for his wife's brutal murder. When Archer joins forces with his old underworld friends, an all-out war is waged against the Chinese Triads...Hong Kong favourite, Simon Yam, faces off against the Muscles From Brussels in this pulse-pounding action thriller!The Shepherd: A rogue American Special Forces unit schemes to smuggle $35 million worth of heroin into the United States, and all that stands in its way is border patrol agent Jack Robideaux (Jean-Claude Van Damme), an ex-homicide cop with a hidden agenda. Taking on suicide bombers, sadistic torturers and traitorous officials on both sides of the border, Jack shows no mercy as he single-handedly attempts to destroy the cartel in this explosive action thriller.

• Jet Stream | DVD | (03/08/2015) from £6.48   |  Saving you £7.51 (53.70%)   |  RRP £13.99

  While flying across the vast Pacific, a huge cargo plane is hit by a devastating funnel of wind which pulls the plane downwards to crash and perish in the cold depths of the ocean. Miles away in Washington, Steve, a local weatherman, has been following a series of strange and cataclysmic events: plane crashes, towns obliterated and, most recently, the disappearance of a cargo plane into the ocean. His daring research is unveiling a terrifying phenomenon: massive jet streams which normally occur in the upper atmosphere are heading closer and closer to earth, and with winds moving at over 500mph, their destruction is unstoppable and deadly. As the end of the planet as we know it approaches, a government convoy arrives at Steve s home and he is called upon to join a scientist on-board an airborne weather research facility. Merging their research, they quickly realise that the only way to really tackle a jet stream, is to head directly into the centre of one...

• From Dusk Till Dawn Trilogy (Box Set) | DVD | (03/10/2004) from £12.95   |  Saving you £5.04 (38.92%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This box set collects From Dusk Till Dawn and its two lesser-known sequels, plus a wealth of associated material. None are horror classics, but taken as a trilogy the series offers above-average thrills and an interesting invented mythology. The original is a trashy but fun crime spree/vampire movie, directed by Robert Rodriguez, with Quentin Tarantino doing one job too many as producer, writer and co-star. The crime movie half is suspenseful and flavoursome and the left turn into horror begins wonderfully, but the script makes the mistake of getting rid of the flamboyant monster villains too quickly, replacing them with an orgy of rubbery Evil Dead II-style effects. It never gets boring, there's a terrific Tex-Mex-Gothic soundtrack and Rodriguez stages shoot-outs better than anyone not called John Woo. It was a big enough hit to warrant sequels made for the video market, shot back-to-back in South Africa (doubling for Texas and Mexico). From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money begins as another cowboy noir, with ex-con Robert Patrick playing cat and mouse with Texas Ranger Bo Hopkins. It segues into horror as heist man Duane Whitaker runs into a bat on the highway and proceeds to turn his gang into vampires who engage during a total eclipse in a Wild Bunch-style bank raid-cum-shootout. Switching genres and playing the prequel game, From Dusk Till Dawn 3: The Hangman's Daughter is more distinctive. A cod-spaghetti Western, it takes a plot nugget from history as the aged Ambrose Bierce (Michael Parks, the Sheriff killed before the credits in the first film) tangles with vampires in Mexico in 1914 en route to his mythic disappearance. Though it has the best storyline of the trio, it still degenerates into a compilation of horror gags in its carnage-strewn climax. On the DVD: From Dusk Till Dawn is identical to the previous collector's edition release, while the sequels here appear on disc for the first time in great-looking 1.85:1 widescreen, which shows off the attempts made by directors Scott Spiegel and P.J. Pesce to add visual quality to reruns of the original's plot. A second disc included in the first movie's keepcase features "Full Tilt Boogie", a light but informative feature-length documentary about making an effects-heavy film on the cheap; there's also a Rodriguez-Tarantino commentary; alternate and deleted scenes (more gore effects); excerpts from the film intercut with on-the-set-footage and commented on by Rodriguez and effects man Greg Nicotero; the trailer; Rodriguez music videos; a still gallery; cast and crew bios. If you count the sequels as extras in their own right, it's not that disappointing that they only rate one tiny extra between them, a deleted snippet from The Hangman's Daughter originally intended as an after-the-end-credits punchline.--Kim Newman