"Actor: Dan Jones"

• Bad Girls - Series One | DVD | (07/02/2011) from £12.46   |  Saving you £12.53 (50.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Hard-hitting original and controversial Bad Girls depicts the trials and triumphs of prison inmates and officers in a notorious women's prison. It's a tense and sexually charged atmosphere and it's a hidden world where anything can happen.

• Love Story | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Strife-torn America wanted a meat-and-potatoes romance in the late 1960s, and the country embraced Erich Segal's slim, generic-sounding novel in a big way. It did so again for the film adaptation of Love Story in 1970, starring Ryan O'Neal as a law student who defies his rich and powerful father (Ray Milland) on every issue, including the former's love for a music student (Ali MacGraw). The two marry, start life together ... and then the Grim Reaper turns up at the door. Directed by Arthur Hiller (The In-Laws), the film ends up lacking the kind of stylistic boost that might have made it a must-see for the ages. But its faithfulness to the book's uncomplicated and, yes, moving intentions is pretty solid. O'Neal is convincing as a nice guy who's as bullheaded in his own way as his steely father (a nice job by Milland), and MacGraw has a way of getting under one's skin. A viewer just has to try not laughing at the refrain, "Love means never having to say you're sorry". --Tom Keogh

• Lincoln | Blu Ray | (02/09/2013) from £7.99   |  Saving you £17.00 (212.77%)   |  RRP £24.99

  As with the great John Ford (Young Mr. Lincoln) before him, it would be out of character for Steven Spielberg to construct a conventional, cradle-to-grave portrait of a historical figure. In drawing from Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals, the director instead depicts a career-defining moment in the career of Abraham Lincoln (an uncharacteristically restrained Daniel Day-Lewis). With the Civil War raging, and the death toll rising, the president focuses his energies on passage of the 13th Amendment. Even those sympathetic to the cause question his timing, but Lincoln doesn't see the two issues as separate, and the situation turns personal when his son, Robert (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), chooses to enlist rather than to study law. While still mourning the loss of one son, Mary (Sally Field) can't bear to lose another. Playwright Tony Kushner, who adapted the screenplay, takes a page from the procedural handbook in tracing Lincoln's steps to win over enough representatives to abolish slavery, while simultaneously bringing a larger-than-life leader down to a more manageable size. In his stooped-shoulder slouch and Columbo-like speech, Day-Lewis succeeds so admirably that the more outspoken characters, like congressman Thaddeus Stevens (Tommy Lee Jones) and lobbyist W.N. Bilbo (James Spader), threaten to steal the spotlight whenever they enter the scene, but the levity of their performances provides respite from the complicated strategising and carnage-strewn battlefields. If Lincoln doesn't thrill like the Kushner-penned Munich, there's never a dull moment--though it would take a second viewing to catch all the political nuances. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Mars Attacks | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.23   |  Saving you £7.76 (124.56%)   |  RRP £13.99

  It's enlightening to view Tim Burton's Mars Attacks! as his twisted satire of the blockbuster film Independence Day, which was released earlier the same year, although the movies were in production simultaneously. Burton's eye-popping, schlock tribute to 1950s UFO movies actually plays better on video than it did in cinemas. The idea of invading aliens ray-gunning the big-name movie stars in the cast is a cleverly subversive one, and the bulb-headed, funny-sounding animated Martians are pretty nifty, but it all seemed to be spread thin on the big screen. On video, however, the movie's kooky humour seems a bit more concentrated. The Earth actors (most of whom get zapped or kidnapped for alien science experiments) include Jack Nicholson, Glenn Close, Annette Bening, Pierce Brosnan, Danny DeVito, Martin Short, Sarah Jessica Parker, Rod Steiger, Michael J Fox, Lukas Haas, Jim Brown, Tom Jones and Pam Grier. --Jim Emerson

• 3:10 To Yuma - The Criterion Collection | Blu Ray | (08/01/2018) from £10.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  3:10 to Yuma is a tight, taut Western in the High Noon tradition. Struggling rancher and family man Van Heflin sneaks captured outlaw Glenn Ford out from under the eyes of his gang and nervously awaits the prison train. Adapted from an Elmore Leonard story, this tense thriller is boiled down to its essential elements: a charming and cunning criminal, an initially reluctant hero whose courage and resolution hardens along the way and a waiting game that pits them in a battle of wills and wits. Glenn Ford practically steals the film in one of his best performances ever: calm, cool and confident, he's a ruthless killer with polite manners and an honourable streak. Director Delmer Daves (Broken Arrow) sets it all in a harsh, parched frontier of empty landscapes, deserted towns and dust, creating a brittle quiet that threatens to snap into violence at any moment. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Single Disc Edition) | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £4.98   |  Saving you £6.01 (120.68%)   |  RRP £10.99

  The latest instalment in the Harry Potter series finds young wizard Harry and his friends Ron and Hermoine facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts as they try to uncover a dark force that is terrorising the school.

• Black Mirror Season 4 | DVD | (31/12/2018) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All six episodes from the fourth season of the sci-fi anthology drama created by Charlie Brooker which explores the role of technology in modern society. Includes: USS Callister A woman wakes up on a Star Trek-esque space ship where the crew praise their all-knowing and fearless captain, who has used DNA scans to simulate real people within his game. Arkangel After nearly losing her daughter, a mother invests in a new technology that allows her to keep track of her child. Crocodile A woman's past comes back to haunt her while an insurance adjuster questions people about an accident with a memory machine. Hang The DJ A new dating app allows the matched couples to be told how long their relationships will last. Metalhead A woman attempts to survive in a dangerous land full of robotic guard-dogs. Black Museum A woman enters a museum where the proprietor tells her stories relating to the artifacts. Includes subtitles for the Hard of Hearing

• Narcos Season 2 | DVD | (04/09/2017) from £6.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Narcos tells the true-life story of the growth and spread of cocaine drug cartels across the globe and attendant efforts of law enforcement to meet them head on in brutal, bloody conflict. It centers around the notorious Colombian cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar (Wagner Moura) and Steve Murphy (Holbrook), a DEA agent sent to Colombia on a U.S. mission to capture and ultimately kill him.

• Bad Girls - Series One | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £24.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (60.02%)   |  RRP £39.99

  If the concept of a TV drama set in a woman's prison was one potentially fraught with cliché, the critical and commercial success of Bad Girls is a testament to fine writing, performance and production. With no preamble or scene setting, Series 1 immediately plunges the viewer into the world of Larkhall Prison, its inmates and staff. This approach leaves the characters to reveal themselves at varying pace, with each episode bringing new details about their life on the outside. Given the nature of the setting, it is unsurprising that the show is an ensemble, female-dominated piece. Simone Lahbib, Mandana Jones and Debra Stephenson are all excellent in the three key roles, with impressive support throughout the cast. Male characters are generally relegated to the sidelines, with the exception of sleazy warden Jim Fenner (played with skin crawling accuracy by Jack Ellis). The sexual realities of the environment are handled realistically and sensitively, and not for nothing is the word "uncut" splashed across the cover: there are some quite disturbing scenes, especially in the earlier episodes. On the DVD: The DVD enhances the show's attempts to capture the atmosphere of prison, with sharp contrast between light and darkness and the constant barracking, cat-calling and snide asides sounding crisp, clear and suitably nasty. Of the impressive 70 minutes of extra features much will only be of real interest to absolute devotees. A documentary examining work on the forthcoming third series may go into admirable detail, but how much interest a costume truck can actually be is perhaps debatable. The footage itself is a little unpolished, but does provide the cast members with an opportunity to reveal themselves, as does the extensive interview section. Not only do the main actors give valuable insights into their characters, but it is also interesting to see how the process has influenced their opinions on the prison system. A feature on a book signing in London certainly puts the show into an audience context, but the collection of outtakes (presented in a, supposedly intentionally, amateurish and tacky manner by Lahbib) is at best superfluous. There is more than a hint of trying to find material to fill the space, but overall this is an impressive effort. --Phil Udell

• Nativity Rocks | DVD | (28/10/2019) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Nativity Rocks! returns to St Bernadette's Primary School as the staff and students work together to win the coveted prize of ˜Christmas Town of the Year' by performing a spectacular rock music-themed nativity. Celia Imrie reprises her role as headmistress Mrs Keen, starring alongside a host of British talent including Simon Lipkin, Daniel Boys, Helen George, Hugh Dennis, Anna Chancellor, Ruth Jones, Meera Syal, Bradley Walsh and Craig Revel Horwood.

• Sneakers | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £14.44   |  Saving you £-4.45 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  This enjoyable thriller, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson (the screenwriter of Field of Dreams), follows a raggedy group of corporate security experts who get in over their heads when they accept an assignment poaching some hot hardware for the National Security Agency. Robert Redford plays the group's guru, an ageing techno-anarchist who has been hiding from the feds since the early 1970s; his companionable gang of freaks includes Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Mary McDonnell, the late River Phoenix, and Sidney Poitier, as a veteran CIA operative turned "sneaker." The technological black box that everybody is after, an array of computer chips that can decode any encrypted message, isn't a very plausible invention, but it's a serviceable McGuffin, and the megalomania of the master plotter played by Ben Kingsley has more resonance than most. Modest inferences can be drawn about the very latest high-tech threats to civil liberties. --David Chute, Amazon.com

• Score: A Film Music Documentary | DVD | (02/04/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  What makes a film score unforgettable? Featuring Hans Zimmer, James Cameron, Danny Elfman, John Williams, Quincy Jones, Trent Reznor, Howard Shore, Rachel Portman, Thomas Newman, Randy Newman, Leonard Maltin, and the late James Horner and Garry Marshall, SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY brings Hollywood's elite composers together to give viewers a privileged look inside the musical challenges and creative secrecy of the world's most international music genre: the film score. A film composer is a musical scientist of sorts, and the influence they have to complement a film and garner powerful reactions from global audiences can be a daunting task to take on. The documentary contains interviews with dozens of film composers who discuss their craft and the magic of film music while exploring the making of the most iconic and beloved scores in history: James Bond , Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Titanic, The Social Network, Mad Max: Fury Road, and Psycho.

• Fahrenheit 451 | DVD | (01/10/2018) from £9.57   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A dazzling, high-tech thriller that infuses Ray Bradbury's classic novel of the same name with a decidedly 21st Century sensibility, the HBO Films presentation of Fahrenheit 451 depicts an American future where the media is an opiate, internet bots control everyday routines, history is truncated or rewritten, and brigades of celebrity firemen engage in televised search-and-destroy missions to burn books and bring their shamed owners to justice. Within this paranoid world, a zealous fireman (Michael B. Jordan) who's being groomed to replace his longtime captain (Michael Shannon) begins to question long-held assumptions about the practice of torching books and other graffiti that leaders say caused widespread dissent and, as a result, a Second Civil War where millions perished. After meeting a young informant (Sofia Boutella) who's on probation for supporting those who value literature and history, the fireman makes a dangerous decision to assist a group of underground Eels who have a bold plan for preserving the contents of thousands of classic books, arts and culture if they can outwit the all-seeing forces intent on destroying them.

• Savage Garden - Superstars And Cannonballs: Live On Tour In Australia | DVD | (13/12/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Savage Garden, Australia's hottest export of recent years, are captured here in all their live glory as they hit their hometown of Brisbane in a triumphant sell-out homecoming gig. There is a fair amount of behind-the-scenes footage which serves to back up the roles that the two members of the band have adopted: singer Darren is the outgoing excitable one, attracted like a moth to a flame by the trappings of celebrity, whereas guitarist Daniel is the private and shy one, preferring to stay out of the limelight and just write songs. But with millions of records sold all around the world, sell-out tours, hysterical fans and a string of chart-topping singles, this unlikely pairing proves the old adage that opposites attract. All the hits are here--"To the Moon and Back", "Affirmation", "Truly, Madly Deeply", "The Animal Song" and others--but after a while the visuals do become very samey: with only two of them to look at, and one of them tending to stray away from the spotlight at every available opportunity, the poor cameramen don't have many options. The backdrop to the concert is a huge wall of multi-coloured blocks of lights, apparently based on memories of a trip to Blackpool (but without the rain, chip wrappers and drunken brawls, sadly). It's all very polished, and just a little bit sterile as it fails to recreate the atmosphere of the live experience. However, for those who were there it's a great lasting reminder. The DVD menu allows the viewer to choose multiple camera angles on a select number of tracks. --Helen Marquis

• The Hunt For Red October | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £7.87   |  Saving you £8.12 (103.18%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting post-movie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic co-star: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the US. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action sequences that really do take one's breath away. --Tom Keogh

• Arachnophobia | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £5.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (150.67%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Hollywood Pictures and Amblin Entertainment deliver an electrifying rollercoaster ride of a movie! Everyone is afraid of something..for Dr Ross Jennings (Jeff Daniels) his phobia is downright embarrassing. But when he moves his family to a small town the one thing that bugs him most is now threatening the townspeople at an alarming rate. For this unlikely hero overcoming a childhood fear of spiders might just save them all but it may already be too late! Directed by Frank Marshal

• Secrets of Great British Castles Series 1&2 | DVD | (29/05/2023) from £17.97   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Renaissance Man | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When advertising executive Bill Rago gets the chop he soon realises that he can't do anything else and is talked into teaching English grammar to a bunch of army recruits. The army wants him to be disciplined and do everything at the double; his pupils just want him to leave them alone...

• Ash vs Evil Dead - Season 1 | DVD | (19/09/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bruce Campbell will be reprising his role as Ash, the stock boy, aging lothario and chainsaw-handed monster hunter who has spent the last 30 years avoiding responsibility, maturity and the terrors of the Evil Dead. When a Deadite plague threatens to destroy all of mankind, Ash is finally forced to face his demons personal and literal. Destiny, it turns out, has no plans to release the unlikely hero from its Evil grip.

• Victoria Series 3 | Blu Ray | (13/05/2019) from £15.25   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starting in 1848, the third instalment of the lavish drama will depict a turbulent and uncertain time for both Europe and the monarchy. With revolutions on the continent and the Chartist movement reaching its peak in London, Victoria is under pressure from the government to leave London for her own safety.