"Actor: Dan"

• The Birdcage | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £9.25   |  Saving you £3.74 (40.43%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The great improvisational comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May reunited to (respectively) direct and write this update of the French comedy La Cage Aux Folles. Robin Williams stars as a gay Miami nightclub owner who is forced to play it straight and ask his drag-queen partner (Nathan Lane) to hide out when Williams's son invites his prospective--and highly conservative--in-laws and fiancée to a meet-and-greet dinner party. Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest play the straight-laced senator and his wife, and Calista Flockhart (from television's Ally McBeal) plays their daughter in a culture-clash with outrageous consequences. May's witty screenplay incorporates some pointed observations about the political landscape of the 1990s and takes a sensitive approach to the comedy's underlying drama. Topping off the action is Hank Azaria in a scene-stealing role as Williams's and Lane's flamboyant housekeeper, "Agador Spartacus." --Jeff Shannon

• 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

• Colossal | Blu Ray | (11/09/2017) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Gloria is an out-of-work party girl forced to leave her life in New York City, and move back home. When reports surface that a giant creature is destroying Seoul, she gradually comes to the realization that she is somehow connected to this phenomenon.

• The Code - Series 1 | DVD | (03/11/2014) from £11.56   |  Saving you £13.43 (116.18%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Stretching from the spectacular red desert of Australia’s outback to the cool corridors of power in Canberra THE CODE tells the story of two very different brothers who unearth information those at the highest levels of political power will kill to keep secret. In the middle of the outback a stolen 4WD collides with a transport truck. Two local kids in the car are hurt. Badly. Someone should have called for help. But they didn’t. They didn’t because that ‘someone’ works for a major stakeholder in an international research project no-one talks about. The kids’ accident would have remained a mystery if it weren’t for Ned (Dan Spielman) and Jesse Banks (Ashley Zukerman) – a young internet journalist desperate for a break and his troubled hacker brother on a strict good-behavior bond. Ned and Jesse Banks are gifted a poisoned chalice when a phone video of the outback accident arrives in their in-box. And posting it on-line will cost them more than they ever imagined. Together they suddenly become the unlikeliest crusaders for democracy. The decision to dig deeper drags the brothers into the darkest heart of politics and the web of black marketeers and the international agencies who monitor and manipulate them. The question is just how far those in authority will go to keep their explosive secret safe. And just how far the two brothers will go to reveal the truth.

• Darkest Day | Blu Ray | (25/05/2015) from £21.01   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Locomtion: Dan Snow's History of Railways | DVD | (14/04/2014) from £12.98   |  Saving you £9.00 (81.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dan Snow presents this three-part documentary series on the history of railways. Snow explores how Britain's railway has developed over the years from track-ways used for coal carts in the early 18th century to metal tracks, steam locomotives and the complex system of tunnels, bridges and cuttings.

• How Not To Live Your Life - Series 1 | DVD | (20/07/2009) from £7.98   |  Saving you £12.01 (150.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  How Not To Live Your Life is a brand new sitcom which centers around Don a twenty something man with bad luck and even worse instincts. Ever wanted to tell your boss what you really think of her/him? Or wished you could say what you really feel after a one night stand? Well in this exciting new comedy we get to see Don's overactive imagination in the form of quick fire fantasy sequences. Written by and Starring Dan Clark.

• The Scalphunters | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £8.37   |  Saving you £4.62 (55.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An old fur trader embarks on his own war to reclaim his 'trade' embezzled from him by bounty seeking scalphunters...

• True Confessions | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £6.46   |  Saving you £6.53 (101.08%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Oscar winners Robert De Niro Robert Duvall play brothers the Reverend Desmond Spellacy and Tommy Spellacy who are drawn together after many years apart in this tale of murder and sibling rivalry...

• Bright Young Things | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Stephen Fry's directorial debut about the young, wild, party-loving creatures of the 1930s. Sex, scandal, celebrity... Some things never change...

• The Hills Have Eyes (2006) | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £3.96   |  Saving you £16.03 (404.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A road trip goes terrifyingly awry when a family become stranded in a government atomic zone.

• Stargate SG-1: Season 6 | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £19.99   |  Saving you £40.00 (200.10%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The biggest change for Stargate's sixth season was its move to the Sci-Fi Channel. Financial rescue or genre haven from cancellation? Whatever the behind-the-scenes politics, the departure of Daniel Jackson (actor Michael Shanks) the previous year most certainly contributed to the need to run a tighter ship somewhere. With the addition of his replacement, Jonas Quinn, the new show dynamic (hinted at by the new title theme tune) meant far more convoluted arc-stories and less individual focus. One of very few solo spotlights came from Christopher Judge writing his own show, when "The Changeling" saw Teal'c act out a life as a fireman. One reason for being a fan favourite was its cameo from still-alive-after-all Daniel Jackson. There'd be several more through the year, culminating in a finale that tested how much attention you'd been paying to that all-important back-story. Other kooky cameos included Dean Stockwell in one of the many spotlights on the energy resource n'quadria, Ian Buchanan as one of the devilish Replicators (and hopefully the end of that plotline) and regular spots from John DeLancie, Ronny Cox and Tom McBeath as the Earth-bound series baddies. More pertinently, we also saw Byers from The X-Files (Bruce Harwood) as a scientist involved with the Antarctic Gate. Lest we forget, there are other portals on Earth. Is that an already planned spin-off on the horizon? --Paul Tonks

• The Purple Mask | DVD | (08/08/2016) from £5.75   |  Saving you £7.24 (55.70%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Only one swashbuckling man of mystery can deliver Royalist rebels from Napoleon's clutches! Paris, 1803: as Napoleon is set to declare himself as leader of the freshly instituted French Empire, an underground movement of Royalist rebels is fired up by the daring deeds of the mysterious Purple Mask. The unknown swordsman boldly rescues noblemen from the guillotine and kidnaps Napoleon's cronies to extort ransom money for the Royalist cause. Laurette de Latour (Colleen Miller), the niece of a jailed marquis, hatches a scheme in which the foppish Count Rene de Traviere (Tony Curtis) imitates the Purple Mask and allows himself to be captured to encourage the release of her uncle. Little does Laurette realise she has engaged the Purple Mask himself! Continuing the charade, and attracting amused ridicule, Rene is swiftly imprisoned alongside the marquis. But the intrepid one has a trick or two up his lacey sleeve, and as the two men are marched towards the guillotine, at an agreed signal rebels spring from the Paris sewers, swords at the ready.

• A Walk Among the Tombstones | Blu Ray | (19/01/2015) from £7.34   |  Saving you £15.65 (213.22%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Based on Lawrence Block's bestselling series of mystery novels, A WALK AMONG THE TOMBSTONES stars Liam Neeson as Matt Scudder, an ex-NYPD cop who now works as an unlicensed private investigator operating just outside the law.

• Night Passage | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £12.69   |  Saving you £-2.70 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When the local railroad becomes the constant target of a band of desperadoes led by the notorious Whitey Harbin (Dan Duryea) train officials recruit soft-spoken but life-hardened employee Grant McLaine (Stewart) to guard the payroll from any more robberies. Trouble is the gang's most skilled and lethal gun-slinger the Utica Kid (Audie Murphy) is Grant's kid brother. Torn between the bonds of blood and his allegiance to the railroad Grant finds himself hoping for the best but preparing for the worst as the train comes under attack from Harbin's bandits climaxing in an unforgettable gun battle as the brothers from opposite sides of the law meet again to settle an old score.

• Big Cook Little Cook - Fairytale Feast | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Big Cook Ben and Little Cook Small love their third DVD which features five fairytale episodes. Princess And The Pea:Ben's family are coming to stay but there aren't enough beds! Luckily a Princess visits and in return for making her a delicious Princess Pie she leaves some duvets and mattresses for Ben's guests. Little Bo PeepBen ruins his woolly jumper from Aunty Betty - oh dear! Little Bo Peep arrives and Ben and Small make her a Potato Sheep. In return she leaves

• Loser | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £8.66   |  Saving you £5.59 (75.54%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From the director of "Clueless", a comedy about a college student (Jason Biggs), branded a loser by his roommates, who falls for a fellow student (Mena Suvari), who has eyes for their professor (Greg Kinnear).

• The Country House Revealed | DVD | (20/06/2011) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the Tudor ebullience of South Wraxall Manor to the rigour of Kinross in Scotland; the beauty of Hawksmoor's Easton Neston to the palatial Georgian sweep of Wentworth Woodhouse; the Victorian exuberance of Clandeboye to the Edwardian ingenuity at Marsh Court, the properties exemplify the changing architecture and fortunes of the nation itself.All are still lived in as family homes. But their owners have agreed to go beyond a few carefully selected highlights, and open the entirety of their homes to Dan Cruickshank. Dan has the run of each estate, roaming the corridors, poking into attics and rummaging in cellars. No hat-box or trunk is unturned as Dan teases out each home's story - who built them, the generations who lived in them, and the families who lost them.Along the way he has uncovered tales of excess and profligacy, tragedy, comedy, power and ambition. And as these intriguing narratives take shape, Dan shows how the story of each house is indissoluble from the social and economic history of Britain. Each one is built as a wave of economic development crests, or crumbles. Each one's architecture and design is therefore expressive of the aims, strengths and frailties of those who built them, and together they plot the psychological, economic and social route map of our country's ruling class in this rich new telling of our island story.

• Donizetti: L'Elisir D'Amore (The Elixir of Love) | DVD | (11/03/2002) from £20.20   |  Saving you £-4.21 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It's hard to think of a couple better suited to play the romantic leads in Donizetti's comedy L'Elisir d'amore than husband-and-wife team Roberto Alagna and Angela Gheorghiu. Both are charming on stage, and both have voices to die for: Gheorghiu's dark liquid tones are particularly spine-tingling, and her coloratura abilities awe-inspiring, and though Alagna has mainly concentrated on the more spinto (powerful) roles of the tenor repertoire, in 1996 when this live production was recorded his voice was just a little fresher and lighter and thus perfect for the bel canto gracefulness of Donizetti's writing. His performance of "Una furtiva lagrima", for example, is meltingly sung and free from all temptation to overplay the high notes. Frank Dunlop's 1920s-set production doesn't quite produce the belly laughs some stagings manage (in Dulcamara's patter song, for example), but has a certain small-town wistful charm nonetheless. The orchestral accompaniment under Donizetti expert Evelino Pidò is spot on, and never falls into the banal "oom-pah" trap that such simple writing can often lead to. Overall, it's a production of great charm. On the DVD: L'Elisir d'amore comes to disc with a 52-minute film on the history of the opera and its recording, with contributions from Alagna and Gheorghiu, and subtitles in English, French, German, Spanish and Chinese. The Lyon opera house is particularly well set up for video recording, and Brian Large does a sophisticated job of capturing a live performance: it's hard to believe at some points that the cameras aren't actually on stage in the middle of the action. Just occasionally this leads to the singers not knowing where to look and seeming a trifle lost, but generally the performances work superbly well on the small screen. --Warwick Thomson

• How The Earth Made Us | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £14.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (66.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  How The Earth Made Us