"Actor: A"

• Nine Queens | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  If David Mamet had been born in Buenos Aires instead of Chicago, Nine Queens is most likely the kind of movie he'd be making. An intricate, playful scam caper, where not only the characters but we the audience are constantly trying to suss out who's screwing whom--and how, and why--it's a movie very much in the Mametian mould. But at the same time the Argentinian setting gives Fabian Bielinsky's debut feature a specifically Latin pungency and the urgent sense of a society teetering over a financial abyss. Which is all the more remarkable since, even though a key plot-point turns on a bank going bust, the movie was made a few months before the Argentinean economy went belly-up. The intrigue grips from the very outset as Juan, a young con artist, overreaches himself in a grocery store. He's rescued from disaster by Marcos, an older and more experienced grifter, who then takes him on in a master-pupil relationship. When the chance of a major coup involving some rare stamps (the Queens of the title) turns up, the partnership starts coming under strain; can either one really trust the other? And is either who he pretends to be? The plot suffers from a few implausibilities and loose ends, but sustains its momentum beguilingly. Ricardo Darín, as the saturnine Marcos, and Gastón Pauls as the fresh-faced, seemingly ingenuous Juan play off each other beautifully--but the dominant character is the seething, hustling city of Buenos Aires itself, where social mores are fluid and uncertain, and everybody has his eye out for the main chance. This is a society Bielinsky (who also scripted) clearly knows intimately, and like a true con-artist he makes shrewd use of his expertise to keep us guessing right up to the final twist. –-Philip Kemp

• The Galloping Major (Vintage Classics) | DVD | (08/08/2022) from £10.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This brand-new restoration of the 1951 British comedy The Galloping Major directed by Henry Cornelius is based on an idea by Basil Radford. After a successful day at the races, Major Arthur Hill (Basil Radford) and Harold Temple (Hugh Griffith) decide to raise a £300 syndicate to buy a certain racehorse. With excited help from their friends (Janette Scott, Jimmy Hanley, Rene Ray, Joyce Grenfell, A. E. Matthews) they get the money, but things don't go so smoothly from here. First, they accidently buy the wrong horse which proves to have more of an affinity for jumping than racing. They then decide to train it themselves as a jumper under the new name The Galloping Major . However, on the night before the Grand National, the horse mysteriously disappears... Product Features NEW Locations featurette with Historian Richard Dacre Betting On Success - Matthew Sweet On the Galloping Major Stills Gallery

• Creature From The Black Lagoon | DVD | (02/10/2002) from £4.49   |  Saving you £5.50 (55.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Scientists drug and capture the creature who becomes enamoured with the head scientist's female assistant. The lonely creature escapes and kidnaps the object of his affection. leaving it up to the chief scientist to rescue his assistant and cast the ominous creature back to the depths from which he came.

• Narcos Season 1 & 2 Boxset | DVD | (04/09/2017) from £13.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Dubbed The King of Cocaine , Narcos traces Pablo Escobar s rise to power between 1977 and 1992, a time in which he was responsible for smuggling 80 per cent of the cocaine supply into the United States, making himself a billionaire in the process. This is the next box-set that you absolutely have to own and binge watch, taking its rightful place in your collection alongside iconic series such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad and House of Cards.

• Tom & Jerry The Movie | Blu Ray | (24/05/2021) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Everyone's favourite cat and mouse team bring their classic rivalry in the animated comedy adventure Tom & Jerry The Movie. When Kayla, a new employee at a posh hotel spots Jerry, she fears the pesky mouse will ruin a glamorous wedding and hires alley cat and wannabe musician Tom to get rid of him... which proves far easier said than done. But soon, Tom and Jerry find themselves allied against an even bigger problem: a jealous staffer looking to make trouble for all three of them! Special Features Deleted Scenes Home Destroyed-Tom and Jerry's rivalry gets them thrown out of the house. Job Hopper Task in Park-Kayla is hired to break up with someone's boyfriend. Tom Hit by a Truck-Tom crashes into life in the Big Apple. Kayla's at Sadie's Apartment-Kayla's roommate forcefully kicks her out of the apartment. Tom on Stilts-Tom tries to sneak into the Royal Gate, while Jerry finds a sweet new place to crash. Kayla Shown Hotel Room-Kayla's new job comes with a fancy new place to live. Tom Dream-Tom daydreams about musical fame and true love. Terence in the Car on the Phone to London Hotel-Terrence learns a secret about Kayla's past. NY Tour / Tom and Jerry Street Portrait-During Tom & Jerry's selfie tour of New York City, they stop and have their caricatures painted. Jackie and Kayla at Cake-Tensions are high at the Royal Gate as the staff prepare for Ben and Preeta's wedding. Gag Reel-With Tom and Jerry, there's never a dull moment on set! Bringing Tom & Jerry to Life-The cast and crew of Tom and Jerry discuss bringing the classic cartoon to life in a contemporary world. Tom & Jerry's World-Explore the world of Tom and Jerry in this behind-the-scenes feature about the set, production, and props. The Feud: #TeamTom vs. #TeamJerry-Are you Team Tom or Team Jerry? Discover what it was like to work with these two feuding rivals. Jerry's A House For a Mouse -See how Jerry Mouse found and decorated his forever home in an iconic hotel in New York City. The Tom & Jerry Guide to New York City Wildlife-Tom and Jerry may be our dynamic duo, but they're not the only animals in this movie. Meet the other animals roaming the Big Apple! Inside the Wedding of Ben and Preeta-New York City's favorite couple is tying the knot at the Royal Gate Hotel. Get the scoop about the big day from the cast and crew. A Scene Comes to Life: Scene #1 - Ben and Preeta's Wedding-Find out how the cast and crew of Tom and Jerry pulled off the planning (and destruction) of the incredibly lavish Indian wedding scene. A Scene Comes to Life: Scene #2 - Animal Lockup-When Tom and Jerry get hauled away by animal control, the creators had to play a game of cat and mouse to pull off the prison scenes.

• Little Secrets | DVD | (13/01/2003) from £7.80   |  Saving you £12.19 (156.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Little Secrets is a delightful cautionary tale about modern childhood. Blair Treu's film manages to be reassuring about the reality of a world in which kids are perceived to grow up too quickly, without patronising them about the scale and scope of the problems that preoccupy them. At 14, Emily (Evan Rachel Wood) has it all mapped out. Wise beyond her years, she is a musical prodigy who also runs a neat sideline keeping the secrets of the neighbourhood children for a small fee: broken china, kittens hidden in the bedroom, money stolen from dad's wallet to buy his own birthday present. These enjoyable scenes owe a huge debt to Peanuts. But Emily has a secret of her own, and over one cataclysmic summer the burden of this and all the others she is keeping on behalf of her friends becomes insupportable. Moralising is kept to a minimum as events resolve themselves in a dramatic way and saccharine levels are modest thanks to the determinedly unsentimental performances of Wood, David Gallagher and Michael Angarano. All told this is a pleasing family film of some quality. On the DVD: Little Secrets might be a small film, but it has a big picture feel, enhanced by the anamorphic widescreen presentation and a super-clear Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Extras include a good director's commentary in which Treu stresses the childish truths that make the story so touching, a short making-of documentary and a not particularly funny blooper reel. --Piers Ford

• Final Destination 2 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kimberly, a regular teenage girl, ends up escaping the clutches of death, and saves others, as well. But soon the survivors start dropping dead and Kimberly realizes you can't cheat Death.

• Jackass Forever | Blu Ray | (02/05/2022) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Older but not wiser, Johnny Knoxville and the crew are back for the most unbelievably outrageous Jackass yet. Brace yourself as they reach new levels of immaturity and with a little help from some brave new friends and guest stars, their wildly outrageous pranks and dangerously bone-crunching stunts will have you laughing until it really, really hurts. Some people never learn.

• Crimes of the Future | Blu Ray | (11/09/2023) from £18.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In the near future, a couple of performance artists push the boundaries of taste and decency with daring shows of mutilation and organ mutation. All the while a shadowy government agency is closing in on a terrorist group that are pushing for the next evolution in the human experience. Product Features New audio commentary by Caelum Vatnsdal Undeniably a Love Story: an interview with Director David Cronenberg Things Change: an interview with Actor Viggo Mortensen The Chaos Inside: an interview with Actor Léa Seydoux The Heat and the Grime: an interview with Actor Kristen Stewart The Bureau Man: a new interview with Actor Don McKellar Painkiller: a new interview with Producer Robert Lantos The Most Wonderful Dream: a new interview with Cinematographer Douglas Koch The Code of David: a new interview with Editor Christopher Donaldson New Flesh, Future Crimes: The Body and David Cronenberg - a video essay by Leigh Singer The Making of Crimes of the Future Production Design Materials Short film: The Death of David Cronenberg

• The Texas Chainsaw Massacre | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Madam Secretary: Season 3 | DVD | (25/09/2017) from £10.98   |  Saving you £3.35 (41.93%)   |  RRP £11.34

  A political drama which looks into the life of the Secretary of State as she tries to balance work with family

• A Bittersweet Life (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (22/07/2024) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A loyal gangster falls foul of his gang when he's assigned to keep watch over the young mistress of his crime boss. Things take a violent and bloody turn when he is unable to carry out an order to dispatch the girlfriend and her new lover.Special Features Dual format edition including both UHD and Blu-ray with main feature and bonus features on both discsUHD presented in Dolby Vision HDRNew scene specific audio commentary with Director Kim Jee-woon and Academic Areum JeongNew audio commentary by Pierce Conran and James MarshAudio commentary with Director Kim Jee-woon and Actors Kim Young-chul and Lee Byung-hunAudio commentary with Director Kim Jee-woon, Director of Photography Kim Ji-yong and Set Designer Yoo Seong-heeMaking of A Bittersweet Life with optional commentariesArchive featurettes: Art; Music; Sound; Action; Gun Smith; Special Art; Special Effects; CG; Tell Me Why; A Bittersweet Life in CannesDeleted and Alternate Scenes with optional commentaryMusic VideosTeaser, Trailer and€TV Spot Limited Edition Contents Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Michael Bolland120-page book with new essays by Dr Lindsay Hallam, Rich Johnson, Michael Leader, Daniel Martin and Alison Peirse6 collectors' art cards Rigid slipcase with new artwork by Michael Bolland120-page book with new essays by Dr Lindsay Hallam, Rich Johnson, Michael Leader, Daniel Martin and Alison Peirse6 collectors' art cards

• Dances With Wolves | Blu Ray | (26/10/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Rewarded for his heroism in the Civil War Lt. John Dunbar (Costner) wants to see the American Frontier before it is gone. He is assigned to an abandoned fort where a Sioux tribe is his only neighbour. Overcoming the language barrier and their mutual fear and distrust Dunbar and the proud Indians gradually become friends. Eventually he falls in love with the beautiful Stands With A Fist (McDonnell) a white woman raised by the tribe. He learns the culture of the Sioux lives with them and even experiences the breathtaking excitement of a buffalo hunt but his knowledge of the fate that will ultimately befall the tribe torments him. Finally he is faced with a crucial decision that will cause him to examine his heart and soul before making a heroic choice that determines his destiny.

• Hot Shots & Hot Shots Part Deux! | DVD | (13/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Hot Shots: A renegade pilot an incompetent commander a beautiful psychiatrist and a blind flyer are just a few of the characters in this hilarious spoof featuring an all star cast. Hot Shots Part Deux: The CIA track down Topper Harley who has retreated to a mountaintop Buddhist monastery. They need him to lead a mission into Iraq to rescue the rescue team who went in to rescue the rescue team who went in to rescue... Only Topper with the help of President Tug Benson can sav

• The Preacher's Wife | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £4.75   |  Saving you £10.24 (215.58%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This tedious remake of the classic Christmas movie The Bishop's Wife falls on its face by significantly altering the careful design of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert E Sherwood's story for the original film. In Sherwood's version, a rather wooden, inept bishop and his lonely wife unknowingly take into their lives a heaven-sent angel who aids the former and ends up falling in love with the latter. In this unnecessary update, an inner-city preacher (Courtney B. Vance) and his estranged spouse (Whitney Houston) are visited by a celestial goof (Denzel Washington), whose unsolicited offer of help is enough to galvanise Vance's character to fix his own problems. What that means is this: by the second act, there's no reason to have Washington's angel in the story. Even his infatuation with the missus isn't enough to warrant his hanging around this movie; the change is a colossal blunder by director Penny Marshall. Vance ends up stealing the film from Washington, but it's a Pyrrhic victory; for the most part this movie just seems like a series of random scenes between opportunities for Houston to belt out songs. --Tom Keogh

• Scooby Doo - Live Action Movie | DVD | (25/11/2002) from £5.32   |  Saving you £8.67 (162.97%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ghosts haunting spooky old factories? Hip kids being brainwashed? The Darkopalypse about to engulf the world? Scooby-Doo, where are you? But the gang have all fallen out and dissolved the Mystery Inc partnership for good. Jinkeys! Luckily a strange invitation to solve a mystery on Spooky Island has unwittingly reunited the now-flopped members of the team. Can ghoul-getting gang get along again? The latest in a long line of live-actioned-up retro cartoon faves, Scooby-Doo features superb action set-pieces and seamlessly blended live actor/CGI interaction--our eponymous hero is rendered with particular panache. What's more, the special effects are backed by a scarily well-written script and some frighteningly good performances. The Buffy-tastic Sarah Michelle Gellar was born to be Daphne, and Matthew Lillard is show-stealing as the dream-to-play Shaggy. The characters themselves are darkly developed--Fred is now a vain egotist, Velma a last-picked-at-sport geek and Daphne a Clueless-style airhead. Happily, Shaggy and Scooby are still a pair of snack-happy gormless goofs for whom friendship outweighs all else. Scooby-Doo manages to be great fun for the kids without neglecting the fans of the original (1969!) series. Alongside the fun, frights and frantic action are clever in-jokes and even a few hints at some rather adult goings on--Shaggy getting "toasted" in a smokey hippy-style camper van may explain why he's always so peckish. Throw in a surprise appearance from a love-to-hate familiar face, some Charlie's Angels-style wire work and a storming rap-rock soundtrack and this'll frighten the life out of the competition. If you're thinking of missing it--Scooby-Don't. On the DVD: Scooby-Doo is beautifully realised in this anamorphic widescreen transfer--the picture is crisp, the colour dazzling and the sound crystal-clear. The menu screen is entertainingly presented with plenty of extras to explore. Highlights include the "Daphne Fight Scene", the Outcast music video and the "making-of" short "Unmasking the Mystery", which features a rare appearance from an ancient Joseph Barbera and reveals the cast and crew to be a personable, fun-loving bunch. The real stand-out here, though, is the "Alternative Scenes" section. The dropped scenes--which include a superb cartoon intro sequence--really add an extra level of understanding to the film, and one suspects that it's only because of today's attention-span challenged audiences that some of the best bits ended up on the cutting-room floor. --Paul Eisinger

• Gimme, Gimme, Gimme - The Complete Third Series | DVD | (11/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Gimme, Gimme, Gimme took situation comedy to new peaks of vulgarity when it returned for a third and final series in 2001, thanks to the full-on performances of James Dreyfus (Tom) and Kathy Burke (Linda) who suck up Jonathan Harvey's innuendo-laden scripts and spit them out like a couple of thespian tornados. "I don't think anything could relax my lips, baby," leers Burke, milking the endless supply of double entendres. "Mind you, after a couple of vodkas they're usually flapping around like flip-flops." Tom's descent into self-parody--when he looks in the mirror, he sees the new Noel Coward--can have only one logical conclusion: the offer of a bit-part in Crossroads which eventually splits up this dysfunctional friendship. Sex-crazed Linda is deluded beyond all reason--when she looks in the mirror, she sees Catherine Zeta Jones--and here we finally get some insight into the reasons behind her grotesque traits: visits from her old Borstal wing governor (the excellent Ann Mitchell, sending up her Widows character), and the long-lost son she gave up for adoption. Like all successful comedy, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme has its dark side. It also becomes increasingly surreal as the episodes pass: Tom fails miserably in a walk-on role in a conceptual Japanese drama presented in a fire station; and Linda turns the back garden into a campsite. Sophisticated it isn't, but it's often wickedly hilarious and occasionally brilliant. On the DVD: Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is presented in standard 14:9 format with a stereo soundtrack, replicating the sitcom viewing experience. Apart from the episode index, there are no extras. At the very least biographies of Harvey, Burke and Dreyfus would have been useful. --Piers Ford

• Aladdin | Blu Ray | (23/09/2019) from £18.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From Disney comes the thrilling and vibrant live-action adaptation of the animated classic Aladdin, the exciting tale of the charming street rat Aladdin, the self-determined Princess Jasmine and the Genie who may be the key to their future. Directed by Guy Ritchie, Aladdin features an all-star cast including Will Smith as the larger-than-life Genie, Mena Massoud as the clever scoundrel Aladdin and Naomi Scott as Jasmine, the beautiful, courageous princess of Agrabah.

• Bellini's I Puritani: Juan Diego Florez / Nino Machaidze / Ildebrando D'Arcangelo / Orchestra e coro del Teatro Comunale di Bologna/ Michele Mariotti | DVD | (08/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In this high-definition film of Bellini’s historical bel-canto drama, I Puritani, tenor superstar Juan Diego Flórez is partnered by new young Georgian soprano Nino Machaidze, in her first appearance on Decca DVD. Joining them in a striking new staging by Pier’Alli at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna is celebrated bass baritone, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo. The context is England’s Civil War between the Roundheads (the 'Parliamentarians' or 'Puritans' of the title) and the Cavaliers (Royalists). A love triangle between Arturo (a Puritan), Riccardo (a Royalist) and the beautiful Elvira results in a drama of escapes, disguises and captures, during which Elvira loses her reason, before a final pardon restores her senses and unites her with her beloved Arturo. This new production benefits from the use of a new critical addition, with significant added material i.e. all the music that Bellini wrote for the opera. It makes this release, apart from the excellent cast, even more interesting for the opera lover.

• Tom Jones | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £26.81   |  Saving you £-13.82 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Picture and featuring a cast of superb actors headed by the young Albert Finney and Susannah York Tony Richardson's wickedly funny adaptation of Henry Fielding's novel (scripted by John Osbourne) is a rollicking picaresque period comedy to savour. No one has ever lived so freely and carelessly as Tom Jones (Finney). Abandoned at birth and raised by a wealthy squire (Hugh Griffith) Tom romps through English society leading a lusty li