"Actor: Christopher Martin"

• Ghost | DVD | (11/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The biggest hit of 1990, Ghost is part comedy, part romance, part supernatural thriller. Patrick Swayze, previously best known for Dirty Dancing, stars as Sam, the banker who is killed following a mugging. Caught in a limbo between here and the afterlife, he uses Whoopi Goldberg's fake psychic as an intermediary to warn wife Molly (Demi Moore) that his death was no accident but a murder and that she is in danger too. Ghost's original popularity and notoriety originally arose not from its dealings with the supernatural but the scene involving Moore fondly astride her potter's wheel fashioning a somewhat phallic-shaped vase, with Swayze fondly astride her. So infamous did this scene become that it's now more likely to raise a chuckle than a sultry sigh. As for the rest of the movie, it still somehow manages to engage despite the awkward juxtaposition of lachrymose melodrama and zaniness. Demi Moore, whose massive Hollywood success was always a mystery to some, is a little flat as the tomboy-coiffed Molly, her tears occasionally seeming onion-induced. Swayze, however, delivers as Sam while Whoopi Goldberg turns in the best performance of her career, delivering the requisite zip and sass to what otherwise might have been a morose movie. On the DVD: Though well restored, DVD enhancement has only served to emphasise the slightly quaint feel of the special effects here--Ghost was made just prior to the digital era. Otherwise, this is a good package and an essential purchase for fans. There's a 22-minute featurette, "Remembering the Magic", in which scriptwriter Bruce Joel Rubin explains that the film was inspired by the scene in Hamlet in which the Prince meets his Father, and how initially appalled he was that his masterpiece of the supernatural was to be directed by Jerry Zucker, previously responsible for Airplane!. They also reveal that Tina Turner was originally cast for the Goldberg role. Zucker and Rubin team up for a funny commentary track. --David Stubbs

• Catch Me If You Can | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Inspired by the extraordinary true story of a brilliant young master of deception and the FBI agent hot on his trail, Catch Me If You Can stars Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks. From three-time Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can follows Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. as he successfully passes himself off as a pilot, a lawyer and a doctor – all before his 21st birthday!

• Anastasia | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £2.83   |  Saving you £3.16 (111.66%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Stomping out their usual cuteness and carbon copying Disney's grand animation style to a tee, directors Don Bluth and Gary Goldman (An American Tail) create a successful musical comedy from the story of the lost Russian princess. Adapting the story of imperialism and revolution is tricky, and subsequently the film's opening is weak. Once Anya (voiced by Meg Ryan, sung by Liz Callaway) is a teenager and on her own (suffering from some degree of amnesia), Anastasia is quite pleasing though never refreshingly new. 20th Century Fox's big-money gamble to horn in on Disney's realm is worthy. The songs, especially the recurrent "Once Upon a December" by Broadway team Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, are better than Disney's recent efforts. It's worth picking up the soundtrack. The mix of cell animation and computer work is vivid. The collection of vocal talent is also strong, from John Cusack (as Dimitri, who wants to earn the reward by bringing Anya to Paris) to Hank Azaria as an amusing albino bat. Kelsey Grammer helps turn a roly-poly sidekick into a warm and strong supporting character. The biggest drawback is Bluth/Goldman's insistence on having a typical villain. Surprisingly, the story would be strong enough without one and the undead corpse of Rasputin (Christopher Lloyd) is unneeded and unoriginal. --Doug Thomas

• Clue - 80s Collection | DVD | (27/08/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Return to the disco days of the 1980s in this exclusive collection, featuring ALL NEW ARTWORK that celebrates Generation X's neon dream decade, and the movies that defined it. Here is the murderously funny movie based on the world-famous Clue board game. And now, with this special DVD version, you can see all 3 surprise endings! Was it Colonel Mustard in the study with a gun? Miss Scarlet in the billiard room with the rope? Or was it Wadsworth the butler? Meet all the notorious suspects and discover all their foul play things. You'll love their dastardly doings as the bodies and the laughs pile up before your eyes. Featuring all three surprise endings!!

• Resident Evil: The Complete Collection | Blu Ray | (12/06/2017) from £34.35   |  Saving you £-4.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Given that Resident Evil is a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it's probably unfair to complain that it hasn't got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit. As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers with nary a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer--which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram--fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film's need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It's tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate. On the DVD: Resident Evil on disc has the expected trailers, both teaser and theatrical; a half-hour making-of; zombie make-up tests; featurettes on music (with Marilyn Manson), production design and costume. A lively commentary track features Anderson, Jovovich, Rodriguez and producer/zombie Jeremy Bolt--Jovovich upbraids Anderson for talking about different gradings of film stock over her nude scene and everyone else talks about how much she hurt them by punching them out during action sequences. Anderson mentions an alternate commentary track with visual effects designer Richard Yuricich, but it isn't included. --Kim Newman

• Taste The Blood Of Dracula | DVD | (28/06/2013) from £4.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (260.52%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Taste the Blood of Dracula is one of the best of Christopher Lee's Dracula series for Hammer. A group of businessmen who, out of sight of their families, like nothing more than to frequent brothels and generally behave in sensation-seeking ways, are persuaded by Dracula's servant (a splendidly manic Ralph Bates) that summoning up the orthodontically-challenged aristocrat would be the ultimate thrill. They warily agree, purchasing relics for the necessary ritual from a shifty dealer (Roy Kinnear--who else?), but panic halfway through the proceedings and decide to kick their initiator to death instead. Unfortunately, it's too late, and Dracula materialises as they make good their escape, swearing to avenge the murder of his servant. While the subsequent descent into paranoia by the three villains-Dracula himself hardly counts in comparison with this odious bunch--isn't exactly the stuff of Rosemary's Baby, it still infuses the plot with an element of psychodrama that is unusual for a Hammer fang-fest. There are strong performances pretty much all round, but Peter "Clegg" Sallis quakes exceptionally nicely as one of the trio of miscreants. The sets, props and costumes are of an unusually high order, too. --Roger Thomas

• The Dead Zone | DVD | (07/11/2011) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A man awakens from a coma to discover he has a psychic detective ability.

• Tom Hanks Collection | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £19.95   |  Saving you £-9.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Titles Comprise: Cast Away: Tom Hanks is Chuck Noland a man in a hurry. His job for Federal Express has him traveling the world on a moments notice exhorting the company's employees to speed things up--never turn your back on the clock. When he's suddenly called away for business on Christmas night his tolerant longtime girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) drives him to the airport. They have their Christmas in the car--and Chuck plunks an engagement ring into her lap right before he gets on the plane telling her I'll be right back. But an unexpected storm cuts the plane's crew off from radio contact and blows them off course. Chuck is the sole survivor of the resulting crash and washes up on a completely deserted island. Stranded there he must give up everything that he once took for granted and learn how to survive all alone in the wilderness. Saving Private Ryan: Seen through the eyes of a squad of American soldiers the story begins with World War II's historic D-Day invasion then moves beyond the beach as the men embark on a dangerous special mission. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) must take his men behind enemy lines to find Private James Ryan whose three brothers have been killed in combat. Faced with impossible odds the men question their orders. Why are eight men risking their lives to save just one? Surrounded by the brutal realities of war each man searches for his own answer - and the strength to triumph over an uncertain future with honour decency and courage. Catch Me If You Can: Steven Spielberg directs this incredible-but-true story of the young life of Frank Abagnale Jr. Following the traumatic divorce of his beloved parents (Christopher Walken and Nathalie Baye) in the 1960s at age sixteen Abagnale (Leonardo DiCaprio) goes AWOL becoming a prodigious cheque forger and impersonator of a Pan-Am pilot a doctor and lawyer. Soon he has the FBI fraud squad on his trail in particular dogged agent Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks) who carries on a game of cat-and-mouse with Abagnale over a few years. Forrest Gump: The movie triumph that became a phenomenon. Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture Best Director (Robert Zemeckis) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks). The Terminal: After arriving at New York's JFK airport Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) gets unwittingly tied in bureaucratic glitches that make it impossible for him to return to his home country or enter the U.S.! Now caught up in the richly complex and amusing world inside the airport Viktor makes friends gets a job finds romance with a flight attendant (Catherine Zeta-Jones) and ultimately discovers America itself...

• Sleepy Hollow | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £3.20   |  Saving you £14.05 (724.23%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Tim Burton's unique take on the tale of the headless horseman, with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.

• Resident Evil: The Complete Collection | DVD | (12/06/2017) from £14.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (66.71%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Given that Resident Evil is a Paul Anderson movie based on a computer game which was itself highly derivative (especially of George A Romero and James Cameron films), it's probably unfair to complain that it hasn't got an original idea or moment in its entire running time. In the early 1980s, Italian schlock films such as Zombie Flesh Eaters and Zombie Creeping Flesh tried to cram in as many moments restaged from American originals as possible, strung together by silly characters wandering between monster attacks. This is a much-improved, edited, photographed and directed version of the same gambit. As amnesiac Milla Jovovich remembers amazing kung fu skills and anti-globalist Eric Mabius mutters about evil corporations, a gang of clichéd soldiers with nary a distinguishing feature between them (except for Michelle Rodriguez as a secondary tough chick) are trapped in an underground scientific compound at the mercy of a tyrannical computer--which manifests as a smug little-girl-o-gram--fending off flesh-eating zombies (though gore fans will be disappointed by the film's need to stay within the limits of the 15 certificate) and CGI mutants, not to mention the ever-popular zombie dogs. It's tolerably action-packed, but zips past its borrowings (Aliens, Cube, Deep Blue Sea) without adding anything that future schlock pictures will want to imitate. On the DVD: Resident Evil on disc has the expected trailers, both teaser and theatrical; a half-hour making-of; zombie make-up tests; featurettes on music (with Marilyn Manson), production design and costume. A lively commentary track features Anderson, Jovovich, Rodriguez and producer/zombie Jeremy Bolt--Jovovich upbraids Anderson for talking about different gradings of film stock over her nude scene and everyone else talks about how much she hurt them by punching them out during action sequences. Anderson mentions an alternate commentary track with visual effects designer Richard Yuricich, but it isn't included. --Kim Newman

• Catch Me If You Can | Blu Ray | (29/04/2013) from £7.00   |  Saving you £12.99 (185.57%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Inspired by the extraordinary true story of a brilliant young master of deception and the FBI agent hot on his trail, Catch Me If You Can stars Oscar nominee Leonardo DiCaprio and two-time Academy Award winner Tom Hanks. From three-time Oscar winning director Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can follows Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. as he successfully passes himself off as a pilot, a lawyer and a doctor – all before his 21st birthday!

• Lovejoy - Complete Series 6 | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £40.48   |  Saving you £-10.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Golden Globe winner Ian McShane stars as a lovable rogue antiques dealer Lovejoy in this final series of the popular BBC TV drama. The curtain finally comes down on Lovejoy's dodgy dealings with stories set across ten episodes. Includes appearances from guest stars such as Christopher Fairbanks John Bardon Martin Jarvis Frank Finlay Gavin Richards Phil Cornwell and Julia Sawalha. Episodes comprise: 1. Fair Exchange 2. Day of Reckoning 3. Somewhere Over the Rainbow 4. Do

• Catch Me If You Can | DVD | (02/07/2006) from £7.17   |  Saving you £12.82 (178.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the true story of Frank Abagnale Jr., the youngest man to ever feature on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list who managed to pass himself off with several identities with an FBI agent hot on his trail.

• Speechless | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In the screwball comedy Speechless, Michael Keaton and Geena Davis are political speechwriters with bad cases of insomnia who meet, fall in love, and then discover that they are working for opposing candidates. The subsequent short-lived war of dirty tricks and one-upmanship is one of those contrivances that is soon (and thankfully) discarded in light of their instant rapport and mutual respect. In a world where candidates are for sale and campaigns are fought like poker games, these idealists are made for each other--they just don't know it yet. Director Ron Underwood (City Slickers) has a light touch with comedy and a nice feel for romantic fun, but it's the charm of Keaton and Davis that puts the bounce in an otherwise limp political satire. --Sean Axmaker

• Buster | DVD | (23/07/2001) from £14.99   |  Saving you £-9.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  In 1987, Buster was as much an experiment in film as its subject matter was in robbery. Could audiences ignore the rock singer status of Phil Collins in the lead role? Would audiences still be interested in a 25-year-old cash grab that had been considerably devalued by a currency gone metric? By and large the answer to both was "yes", helped considerably by a high budget (for a British film) it perfectly remade the 1960s experience. Collins as Buster Edwards is only one of a gang who all seem doomed to be captured after their £2.5 million train heist. The caper is over within 30 minutes. However, the film is really about the love story between Buster and his doting yet long-suffering wife June (an excellent Julie Walters). When the action switches to sun-drenched Mexico, you just know her loyalty is going to be tested to extremes because that's when Collins' award-winning songs kick in! "Two Hearts" and "Groovy Kind of Love" may not be 60s-styled, but the message is that love always conquers time and place.On the DVD: The transfer is rather average, as are the talent profiles of Collins, Walters, Ralph Brown (the legendary Ronnie Biggs), and director David Green. Making up for them is a 50-minute "Making of" featurette that interviews everyone involved, including the real-life Buster. There's lots of on-set tomfoolery, and some first attempts at the hit songs that hardly flatter Collins' live singing voice! --Paul Tonks

• The Sentinel | Blu Ray | (22/03/2021) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A fashion model moves into a house inhabited (on the top floor) by a blind priest. She begins having strange physical problems, has trouble sleeping at night, and has some nasty flashbacks of her attempted suicide. She complains to the real estate agent of the noise caused by her strange neighbours, but finds out that the house is only occupied by the priest and herself, and ultimately discovers that she has been put in the house for a reason.

• For The Boys | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £13.14   |  Saving you £2.84 (27.98%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bette Midler poured her heart and soul into For the Boys, the story of a pair of entertainers who repeatedly took time from their careers to entertain US troops at war, from World War II to Vietnam--and it sank like a stone at the box office. Granted, it's corny and emotionally over the top. It is the tale of an unlikely team of singer and comedian (played by Midler and James Caan), who are brought together for a reunion show in their dotage. As they nervously anticipate seeing each other for the first time in years, they are flooded with memories of their earlier days as a hot show-biz couple whose own troubles always took second place to their patriotic urge to buoy the boys in uniform. Some say this was a veiled film version of the Martha Raye story; Midler gives it her all and Caan isn't bad. But director Mark Rydell lays on the schmaltz so thickly at times that it overpowers the tougher material. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• 9 (Nine) | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £4.50   |  Saving you £15.49 (344.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Visionary filmmakers Tim Burton (The Corpse Bride Charlie and The Chocolate Factory) and Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted Nightwatch) join forces to produce wunderkind director Shane Acker's distinctively original and thrilling tale. 9 stars Elijah Wood John C. Reilly Jennifer Connelly Martin Landau Christopher Plummer and Crispin Glover and features the music of Danny Elfman. When 9 (The Lord of the Ring's Elijah Wood) first comes to life he finds himself in a post-apocalyptic world. All humans are gone and it is only by chance that he discovers a small community of others like him taking refuge from fearsome machines that roam the earth intent on their extinction. Despite being the neophyte of the group 9 convinces the others that hiding will do them no good. They must take the offensive if they are to survive and they must discover why the machines want to destroy them in the first place. As they'll soon come to learn the very future of civilization may depend on them.

• The Terminal / Catch Me If You Can / Cast Away | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Includes the following films:The Terminal:Starring Tom Hanks and Catherine Zeta Jones. Viktor Navorski (Hanks) gets caught in bureaucratic glitches that make it impossible for him to return to his home country to enter the U.S. Now, caught up in the richly complex and amusing world inside J.F.K. airport, Viktor makes friends, gets a job, finds romance and ultimately discovers America itself.Catch Me If You Can:Inspired by the true story of a brilliant master of deception and the FBI agent, hot on his trail, Catch Me If You Can stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hanks in one of the year's most acclaimed hits! From director Steven Spielberg, Catch Me If You Can follows Frank W. Abagnale, Jr. as he successfully passes himself off as a pilot, a lawyer and a doctor - all before his 21st birthday!Cast Away:Tom Hanks stars as Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer whose ruled-by-the-clock existence abruptly ends when a harrowing plane crash leaves him isolated on a remote island. As Chuck struggles to survive, he finds that his own personal journey has only just begun...

• Quiz Show | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £5.38   |  Saving you £9.61 (178.62%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This vigorously entertaining film, sharply directed by Robert Redford fr om Paul Attanasio's brilliant screenplay, is based on the game-show scandals of the 1950s, when TV quiz shows were rigged to attract higher ratings and lucrative sponsorships. The fact-based story focuses on the quiz show Twenty-One and popular contestant Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), a charming, well-bred intellectual who agreed to win the game by using answers supplied by the show's producers. This unfair advantage turned Van Doren into a prototypical media darling at the expense of reigning Twenty-One champion Herbie Stempel (John Turturro, in a bravura performance), a working-class Jewish contestant who, according to the show's sponsors, had worn out his welcome in the public eye. When a congressional investigator (Rob Morrow) catches on to the scam and Stempel blows the whistle on this backstage manipulation, Quiz Show becomes a smart, political exposè about the first generation of television, the corrupting effect of celebrity and success, and the ongoing loss of innocence in American society. Bristling with superior dialogue and energized by an excellent cast including Paul Scofield as Van Doren's morally upstanding father, Quiz Show succeeds as history lesson, intelligent thriller, and morality tale, setting the stage for the countless scandals that would follow in a nation addicted to television. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com