"Actor: Brian Cook"

• Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Dark Star is absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described it as "Waiting for Godot in space." (It's also, surely, one of the primary inspirations for Red Dwarf.) Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. The story concerns the Dark Star's crew who are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation. The smart bombs they use to effect this zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike Star Trek, in which order prevails, the nerves of this crew are becoming increasingly frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff," says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life. "Find me something I can blow up." When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope", has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. --Jim Gay

• Dark Star | DVD | (17/01/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The crew of the spaceship Dark Star are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation by using smart bombs which zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike the orderly inhabitants of Star Trek's Enterprise, the nerves of this crew are becoming frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff", says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life, "Find me something I can blow up". When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's short story "Kaleidoscope" has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. Absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described Dark Star as "Waiting for Godot in space". Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. --Jim Gay

• American Gigolo | DVD | (05/03/2001) from £8.10   |  Saving you £4.89 (60.37%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Julian Kay is on the prowl and looking for someone to please. Boyish and sensual he speaks five or six languages and is equally comfortable as a chauffeur for a wealthy middle-aged matron and as a translator/companion for the lonely wife of an executive. He is the 'American Gigolo'. But Julian's love-for-sale lifestyle turns deadly when a client is murdered and Julian became the prime suspect. Richard Gere is electrifying as Julian in this stylish sexually charged drama from Pa

• The History Of Tom Jones A Foundling | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £19.98   |  Saving you £-3.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The classic tale of Tom Jones a boy who is adopted in childhood by the kindly Squire Allworthy adapted from the novel written by Henry Fielding. As a result he becomes a privileged gentleman but one with a roving eye. Soon an amorous indiscretion results in him being exiled from his home...

• Prophet Of Evil | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £8.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-49.90%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The true story of Ervil LeBaron a fanatical cult leader who ordered the death of anyone who dared to challenge his beliefs. Investigator Dan Fields is determined to bring this figure of pure evil to justice even with a price on his own head...

• A Christmas Carol | DVD | (04/12/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Standing out in the crowded field of screen adaptations of the classic Dickens novel A Christmas Carol is hard to do, but this version pulls it off. When a transparent Jacob Marley walks through Ebenezer Scrooge's apartment door, you know you're seeing something both timeless and contemporary. Other strategically placed special effects--a funnel cloud that transports Scrooge and the ghost of Christmas present, the hollow spectre of Christmas future--keep you riveted without slipping into anachronism. But, as good as the technology is, the performances are what really power this 93-minute television interpretation. Patrick Stewart brings a depth to Scrooge that allows the character to go beyond the cartoonish qualities that have made him a Christmas mainstay. That doesn't mean he's any less heartless with his hapless employee Bob Cratchit (Richard E. Grant) or any less dismissive of his well-meaning nephew. A frail-looking Joel Grey makes an excellent ghost of Christmas past, and a superb cast ably fill the remaining roles. Director David Jones, shooting on location in England and at Ealing Studios, has achieved a balance of science and sentiment that will help this version hold up for many years to come. --Kimberly Heinrichs

• The Magical Christmas Farm | DVD | (14/11/2016) from £21.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Mumbo Jumbo | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In Pythonesque fasion Tom runs into good fortune when a magic amulet takes him on a distant journey where he becomes the hero in a fantasy world.

• Dark Star | Blu Ray | (13/10/2023) from £12.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Stash | DVD | (12/04/2010) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-3.19 (-24.60%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Stach follows the misadventures of Jimmy Fox (Brian King) a good-hearted nebbish who hits on the business idea of a lifetime. For a modest fee he and his cousin Bobby (Will Clinger) come to your home (in the event of your death) and secretly remove all your porn before your spouse or children have a chance to find it. Jimmy calls the process 'PMR' (Post Mortem Retrieval). But major trouble is on the horizon. Jimmy's long suffering wife Alice (Mary Kay Cook) is at her wits end. Jimmy's in-laws The Bookenlachers (Marilyn Chambers and Tim Kazurinsky) are threatening legal action. But it finally comes to a head when a mysterious client known only as Mr X (Jim Carrane) walks through Jimmy's door. A sinister-looking children's entertainer a man obsessed with clowns Mr X touches off a deep-rooted vein of paranoia within Jimmy. But when Jimmy finally works up the nerve to sneak into Mr X's basement crawl space the story takes an unexpected turn. In the end Jimmy learns that nothing is as it seems. Steeped in pitch black satire told in the style of a mock documentary Stach is a delicate balance of character richness and knife-edged parody.

• Blackadder - Series 1 | UMD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

• Dark Star | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  What would you be like after 20 years aboard DARK STAR the spaced-out spaceship. The ultimate cosmic comedy! In the mid twenty-first century mankind has reached a point in its technological advances to enable colonization of the far reaches of the universe. Dark Star is a futuristic scout ship traveling far in advance of colony ships. Armed with Exponential Thermostellar Bombs it prowls the unstable planets. But there is one obstacle that its crew members did not count on - one of the ship's thinking and talking bombs is lodged in the bay threatening to destroy the entire ship and crew! Director John Carpenter and writer Dan O'Bannon combine their writing creative and technical talents to bring you this thrilling and extraordinary science fiction parody.

• Dark Star | UMD | (30/01/2006) from £4.03   |  Saving you £11.96 (296.77%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In the mid twenty-first century mankind has reached a point in its technological advances to enable colonization of the far reaches of the universe. Dark Star is a futuristic scout ship traveling far in advance of colony ships. Armed with Exponential Thermostellar Bombs it prowls the unstable planets. But there is one obstacle that its crew members did not count on - one of the ships thinking and talking bombs is lodged in the bay threatening to destroy the entire ship and crew! John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon combine their writing creative and technical talents to bring you this thrilling and extraordinary science fiction parody.