"Actor: Christa"

• 13 Going On 30 | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £17.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (25.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jennifer Garner plays a put-upon 80s teen who wakes up as an adult in this high-concept comedy.

• Madama Butterfly - Puccini | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Of all Puccini's major operas, the intimate tragedy of Madama Butterfly is least in need of elaborate staging and might therefore benefit most from the close scrutiny of film. The story is domestic, the setting Spartan, the incidental characters kept to a minimum. This 1974 version, however, demonstrates that Butterfly still needs a healthy injection of proscenium arch melodrama. Director Jean-Pierre Ponelle's production strives for realism but remains unfortunately studio-bound, having neither the benefit of location filming nor the heightened reality of an opera stage. The exterior is a perpetually fog-shrouded heath of indeterminate locale; the interior is cramped and unadorned. The setting is just too prosaic to contain the epic emotions of grand opera. Thankfully, the cast is superb, headed by Placido Domingo's rakish Pinkerton and Mirella Freni's rubicund Butterfly. Their singing is incomparable, as is Herbert von Karajan's musical direction of the Vienna Phil. The singers mime to pre-recorded music, which is occasionally disconcerting since when film demands close-ups opera provides broad gestures. Musically, this Butterfly is impeccable. Visually it adds nothing that could not be seen to better effect in a stage version. On the DVD: Madama Butterfly is presented disappointingly on disc in a poor NTSC transfer full of distracting graininess that makes every scene, both inside and out, look like it takes place in an omnipresent drizzle. Sound is reasonable stereo and adequate 5.0 surround. There are subtitles in the major European languages as well as Chinese, and the booklet contains a background essay plus synopsis. --Mark Walker

• Homefront | Blu Ray | (31/03/2014) from £6.78   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Former drug enforcement agent, Phil Broker (Jason Statham: The Expendables) is a family man who moves off the grid with his daughter, to a seemingly quiet bayou backwater to escape his troubled past. However, Broker's world soon becomes anything but quiet once he discovers that an underbelly of drugs and violence riddles the small town. Soon, a sociopathic methamphetamine kingpin, Gator Bodine (James Franco: Spiderman) puts Broker and his daughter in harm's way forcing Broker back into action in order to save his family and the town. Supported by an all-star cast including Winona Ryder (The Iceman, Black Swan), Kate Bosworth (Movie 43, Superman Returns) and Rachelle Lefevre (White House Down, The Twilight Saga), Homefront is adapted for the screen by the legendary Sylvester Stallone (The Expendables, Rambo) and is the directed by Gary Fleder.

• Cougar Town | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.99

  Meet Jules Cobb. She's a successful 40-year-old real-estate agent with a nice house, good friends and a relatively well-adjusted teenage son.

• Cougar Town - Season 4 | DVD | (06/04/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The complete fourth season of the US comedy starring Courteney Cox. In this series, 40-something divorced mother Jules (Cox) has now remarried but her and her husband Grayson (Josh Hopkins) discover that married life is not all plain sailing. The episodes are: 'Blue Sunday', 'I Need to Know', 'Between Two Worlds', 'I Should Have Known It', 'Runnin' Down a Dream', 'Restless', 'Flirting With Time', 'You and I Will Meet Again', 'Make It Better', 'You Tell Me', 'Saving Grace', 'This Old Town', 'The Criminal Kind', 'Don't Fade On Me' and 'Have Love Will Travel'.

• 2001 Maniacs: Field Of Screams | DVD | (26/07/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When a round of unsuspecting Northerners fail to show up for their annual Guts N' Glory Jamboree the residents of Pleasant Valley take their cannibalistic carnival on the road and head to Iowa One of the rare sequels that surpasses the original - John Landis

• The Gate (Vestron) | Blu Ray | (26/02/2018) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In 1987 The Gate was at the forefront of what came and went as a purely 80s genre: Kiddie Horror. Just like The Lost Boys or The Monster Squad of the same year, the idea was to let a couple of younger-than-teenage kids loose in a well-worn horror scenario and play it for as many laughs as scares. Its 15 certificate (PG-13 in the States) meant The Gate had an enormous opening weekend, and a considerable shelf life. The kids in question here are a very young Stephen (Blade) Dorff as Glen and his best friend Terry. After some tree felling in Glen's seemingly miles-square back yard they discover a hole full of precious rock. This is of course the Gate to a demonic dimension. As things start levitating, Glen's dog dies and moths get into the most awkward of places, it becomes obvious that the Gate is open! A teenage sister does little to help early on, but naturally the story develops into one about banding together under extreme circumstances. The make-up and stop-motion animation effects remain impressive in scope and there are a couple of frights still just on the right side of cliché. Since it was so successful, the writer and director went on to make an inferior sequel some years later. On the DVD: Viewers should note this is a very murky transfer that's in an unspecified widescreen ratio. There's also an unspectacular (equally unspecified) sound mix. But a gallery of 10 photos and the theatrical trailer makes up for that, right? --Paul Tonks

• The Pyramid | DVD | (13/04/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The ancient wonders of the world have long cursed explorers who've dared to uncover their secrets. But a team of U.S. archaeologists gets more than they bargained for when they discover a lost pyramid unlike any other in the Egyptian desert.

• Spiders | Blu Ray | (14/10/2013) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The City is crawling! In New York City's subway tunnel a new species of poisonous spiders is discovered. Inadvertently the spiders mutate to gigantic proportions and wreak havoc on the entire city.

• Cougar Town - Season 1-3 | DVD | (03/12/2012) from £12.99   |  Saving you £6.47 (49.81%)   |  RRP £19.46

  Come on in and make yourself at home on the wackiest cul-de-sac in America. Join the high-spirited action, lightning-fast banter and hilarious complications as newly divorced mum Jules plunges back into the dating scene, only to discover that nothing goes as expected. But no matter what happens, the loyal friends and neighbours of the cul-de-sac crew have each other's backs! Special Features: Taming Cougar Town Deleted Scenes Bloopers Stroking It With Bobby Cobb Andy's Dreams

• Cougar Town - Season 2 | DVD | (07/11/2011) from £13.48   |  Saving you £14.51 (107.64%)   |  RRP £27.99

  TV's funniest mum (and the cul-de-sac crew) return for more laughs in their not-so-quiet Florida neighbourhood. Courteney Cox leads an all-star cast in the hilarious second season of ABC's hot hit comedy, Cougar Town.It's a new year of uproarious changes as Travis prepares to leave for college, Jules and Grayson's relationship reaches another level and Bobby tries to stand on his own. Meanwhile, Andy and Ellie fi nd clever new ways to keep their marriage lively, and Laurie ramps up her search for love - in her own unique way. Relive all 22 episodes and every laugh-out-loud moment of ABC's Cougar Town: Season 2 Box Set, with never-before-seen bonus features, in this sensational 4-disc box set.

• Renoir | DVD | (21/10/2013) from £10.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (63.69%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Côte d’Azur 1915. The great painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir is in his twilight years tormented by the loss of his wife and the news that his son Jean has been wounded in WW1. When a young girl enters his idyllic Mediterranean world Pierre-Auguste rejuvenates and becomes newly inspired by her beauty and spirit. But when Jean returns home to convalesce - and in the face of his father’s fierce opposition - he falls in love with the muse and within the battle-shaken Jean a filmmaker begins to grow.

• Cougar Town - Season 3 | DVD | (03/12/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Jules Cobb and her hilarious circle of friends are back for more laughs in the fabulous third season of television's hit comedy, Cougar Town. Courtney Cox stars in this brilliant series about a divorced mum facing the hysterical challenges and rewards of life's next chapter. Wedding bells are ringing! Jules and Grayson are excited to tie the knot, but friends, fiancs and past relationships threaten to derail their big day. Emotions get even hotter when Travis sets his sights on Laurie, and Bobby tries to take his relationship with Angie to the next level. Plus, Jules throws a memorial service for her beloved Big Carl. Experience every outlandish moment of Cougar Town: The Complete Third Season, featuring never before-seen bonus material available only on DVD! Special Features: Bloopers Deleted Scenes: Sometimes You Just Get A Bad One Cookie Pocket Wall Art I Dont Want Your Sugar Gratitude Spooning With Intent We Got A Gusher

• The Andromeda Strain - The Mini-Series - Complete | DVD | (21/07/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the makers of American Gangster and Deja Vu and based on Michael Crichton's classic sci-fi novel The Andromeda Strain stars Benjamin Bratt (Law And Order) Rick Schroder (24) and Eric McCormack (Will And Grace) and is directed by Mikael Solomon (Band Of Brothers). It all started with a brilliant flash of light - and then a thunderous explosion. In the desert in a sleepy town in the middle of nowhere something has just fallen from the sky! Within the hour all the townspeople - except a single infant and a drunkard old man - are dead. Now an elite scientific unitare sent in to study the deadly virus determine its origin and figure out a way to stop it... Before its too late!

• Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen -- Metropolitan/Levine | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £45.99

  The James Levine cycle of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen is humane and emotionally powerful rather than monumental or spiritual; Levine is more interested in finding our sympathy for the characters than inspiring pity or terror. These are very traditional productions in which you see a rock where you need to see a rock, a dragon where the libretto says a dragon (the Metropolitan Opera has never been a place for experiment). What Levine and the Met can and do offer is excellent orchestral playing and some of the best singers in these roles in the world. Siegfried Jerusalem is boyish and naive and touching as Siegfried, and he is also surprisingly good as the detached mischievous Loge of Das Rheingold. James Morris is uniformly impressive as Wotan and makes the character evolve from the young ruthless god of the first opera to the tired old god of Siegfried, who seeks nothing more than his own necessary defeat and death. As Brunnhilde, Hildegard Behrens makes a convincing shift from goddess to woman, from callousness to tenderness and on to vindictiveness and self-sacrificing wisdom. Overall, this is an attractive Ring cycle, well-cast and beautifully played; others have greater strengths in some areas, but Levine is reliable across the board. On the DVD: Der Ring des Nibelungen has all four operas, which are also available individually, contained in a single box. All the DVDs come with a photo gallery of the Metropolitan Opera productions and with menus and subtitles in German, French, English, Spanish and Chinese. Its a little disappointing, though, that they are presented in American NTSC format, not European PAL, and the picture ratio is standard TV 4:3. On the plus side, they all have an excellent clear acoustic in the three audio options: PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1. --Roz Kaveney

• Mahler-Complete Symphonies | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £63.99

• Detention Of The Dead | DVD | (26/08/2013) from £4.98   |  Saving you £8.01 (160.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When a group of oddball students find themselves stuck in detention they have no idea that their classmates and teachers have turned into a horde of bloodthirsty zombies. As the undead try and get into the detention room to tear the kids apart the students have to put their differences aside and work together to survive the night.

• Beethoven - the Symphonies (Von Karajan, Berliner Po) | DVD | (21/11/2005) from £17.59   |  Saving you £7.40 (42.07%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Now being released for the first time ever on DVD these performances pay tribute to the legendary Herbert von Karajan who recorded the complete Beethoven symphonies three times for Deutsche Grammophon.With the Berliner Philharmoniker and a stunning cast led by soprano Gundula Janowitz these performances remain the benchmark recordings unsurpassed by subsequent readings. Along with his role on the podium Maestro Karajan was also responsible for the thrilling visual direction.These recordings from the late sixties and early seventies offer insight into Maestro Karajan's role not only as a leading conductor but also as a pioneer in new media and filming techniques. This production set a new standard for the interpretation of Beethoven's Symphonies and in terms of music filming in general.

• Bernstein, Leonard - Candide (Bernstein, Lso, Hadley, Gedda) | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The historic concert that preceded Bernstein's only recording of Candide. Videotaped at the Barbican Centre, London, 13 December 1989.

• 2001 Maniacs: Double Pack | DVD | (26/07/2010) from £8.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (100.11%)   |  RRP £17.99

  2001 Maniacs: Double Pack