"Actor: David Au"

• Black Narcissus | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £22.94   |  Saving you £-2.95 (-14.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Bernardo Bertolucci went to the Himalayas to film Little Buddha, so the anecdote runs, he was disappointed by the scenery. Somehow, the real thing didn't quite live up to what he'd been led to expect by Powell and Pressburger's Black Narcissus. It's not hard to see why he felt let down. Their film is almost ridiculously gorgeous--a procession of saturated Technicolor, Expressionist angles, theatrical lighting and overwrought design. It has a good claim to being the high watermark of lushness in the British cinema (and, incidentally, every original foot of it was actually shot in Britain). No wonder it took the Oscar for colour cinematography (shot by Jack Cardiff) as well as for art direction and set decoration (created by Alfred Junge).Audiences loved it on its first release, but the critics were cooler: hadn't the story been upstaged by the baroque images? Well, probably, but that's not altogether a bad thing, since the plot--quite faithful to Rumer Godden's popular novel --isn't wholly free of corn. A group of five Anglican nuns, led by Sister Clodagh (Deborah Kerr) establish a school and hospital in a former harem among the Himalayan peaks. The wind blows, the drums pound, the Old Gods stir, and one by one the celibate sisters succumb to unchaste thoughts, above all Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron, terrific in the role), so consumed by erotic yearning for the one Englishman in sight (David Farraar) she puts on crimson lipstick, wears her wimple-free tresses like an early Goth and takes a downward turn. (Black Narcissus features the greatest scene involving a nun and a high place this side of Hitchcock's Vertigo and Jacques Rivette's La Religieuse.) Silly, to be sure, but also sublime at times and as curiously entertaining as it is picturesque. --Kevin Jackson

• The Sherlock Holmes Catalogue - The Problem Of Thor Bridge / The Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Problem Of Thor Bridge: Holmes investigates the death of the wife of wealthy J. Neil Gibson. The Disappearance Of Lady Frances Carfax: Even Holmes is stretched to the very limits of his powers.

• Orphee Et Eurydice | DVD | (03/04/2006) from £16.18   |  Saving you £-1.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Gluck: Orphee Et Eurydice (Guidarini)

• Friends - Series 3 - Episodes 17-25 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Season 3: Having really hit its comedic stride, the third season did the smart thing and showed a more serious side to the Friends' frivolous nature. There was fun introducing the chick and the duck, poking ""Ugly Naked Guy" with a stick and "T.O.W. The Princess Leia Fantasy" (for which George Lucas sent a "thank you" note). Then after establishing a few cracks in their otherwise fairy-tale union, "T.O.W. Ross and Rachel Take a Break" offered admirable contrast. From here on in, the awkward catchphrase "we were on a break" became a hard-hitting reminder that love hurts. The other s' relationships were naturally no less complicated. "T.O.W. Monica and Richard are Just Friends" teased a now moustache-free Tom Selleck into thinking he might be "the one". Then Pete (Jon Favreau) tried his hand before insanely wanting to become "The Ultimate Fighting Champion". This episode pulled off an incredible double guest surprise from Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, proving just how popular the show had become. To that list were added cameos from Ben Stiller as "The Screamer", Sherilyn Fenn as one of Joey's exs and Isabella Rossellini, who taught Ross to never fantasise on laminated plastic. The cast were fitting in film roles where possible. Cox appeared in Scream, then brought David Arquette back with her for a cameo, which kept their off-screen chemistry alive. The final surprise was Teri Garr as Phoebe, Sr in "T.O. At the Beach", where it was hinted that something might be salvaged between Ross and Rachel after all. --Paul Tonks

• Tekken - The Motion Picture | DVD | (20/12/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Based on the NAMCO Fighting game 'Tekken' Series! Get ready for the ultimate animated adventure! Tekken the spectacular series that revolutionized how fighting games are played is now an incredible animated motion picture! The awesome rendering power of state of the art computers merges with the stunning graphic style and dynamics of anime in an adventure that will rip you right out of your living room and hurl you into the blood-drenched arena of the most incredible martial arts battle ever created!

• Angel: Series 2 (Standard plastic case packaging) | DVD | (01/06/2004) from £28.92   |  Saving you £6.07 (20.99%)   |  RRP £34.99

  **** Product Details TBC ****

• Angel: Series 3 (Standard plastic case packaging) | DVD | (01/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  **** Product Details TBC ****

• D.W. Griffith - Monumental Epics | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  There’s little doubt that much of what we now take for granted about cinema owes much to the vision of director D W Griffith. Monumental Epics collects five of his most influential silent masterpieces. The Birth of a Nation (1915) is also the birth of the epic film. Made to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War this provocative film unflinchingly shows the humiliation of Southern culture, the "heroism" of the Ku Klux Klan, and links the Union and Confederacy by a common Aryan birthright. All of which has to be viewed in its period context if it is to be viewed at all. Intolerance (1916) is film-making of epic complexity. Human intolerance is related through a modern tale of wrongful conviction, intercut by three stories from Babylonian, Judean, and French history to point up the issue through the ages. The intricacy of the intercutting is breathtaking even now, but those as confused as the first audiences evidently were can opt to see each story separately. Sensitively tinted, this is Griffith's finest three hours. Broken Blossoms (1919) has Griffith venturing into domestic melodrama. Although there's a clear moral to be drawn from this tale of compassion in the face of ignorance and brutality, neither the over-acting of Lillian Gish and Donald Crisp, nor the vein of sentimentality that creeps into their characters' relationship allow the viewer to forget the period-piece nature of the film. Here an appropriately expressive musical score helps keep viewing at an attentive level. Way Down East (1920) shows Griffith moving from the epic to the personal, though still on a large scale. The combining of old-style melodrama with latter-day female emancipation is tellingly brought off, and Lillian Gish excels as the country girl used and abused by male society, until "rescued" by a farmer of true moral scruples. Unconvinced? Then go straight to the climactic snowstorm and ice floe sequences--Eisenstein et al are inconceivable without this as trailblazer. Abraham Lincoln (1930) marked Griffith's entry into the talkie era. Tautly directed, it offers a historically accurate account of the 16th US President's rise to power and his visionary outlook on American society. Civil War scenes are implied rather than enacted, and its Walter Huston's robust yet understated acting that carries the day, with sterling support from Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge and Hobart Bosworth as General Lee. On the DVD: Stylishly packaged, restoration and digital remastering has been carried out to Eureka's usual high standard, and the 4:3 aspect ratio has commendable clarity. Birth of a Nation has Joseph Carl Breil's original orchestral score and a pithy "making of" film by Russell Merritt. Intolerance contains a useful rolling commentary and a great wurlitzer soundtrack too. Way Down East includes a commentary. Abraham Lincoln also has a commentary, though Hugo Riesenfeld's score often verges on the mawkish. Overall this set is a must for anyone remotely interested in film as a living medium.--Richard Whitehouse

• Friends - Series 3 - Episodes 9-16 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £6.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (8.00%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Season 3: Having really hit its comedic stride, the third season did the smart thing and showed a more serious side to the Friends' frivolous nature. There was fun introducing the chick and the duck, poking ""Ugly Naked Guy" with a stick and "T.O.W. The Princess Leia Fantasy" (for which George Lucas sent a "thank you" note). Then after establishing a few cracks in their otherwise fairy-tale union, "T.O.W. Ross and Rachel Take a Break" offered admirable contrast. From here on in, the awkward catchphrase "we were on a break" became a hard-hitting reminder that love hurts. The other s' relationships were naturally no less complicated. "T.O.W. Monica and Richard are Just Friends" teased a now moustache-free Tom Selleck into thinking he might be "the one". Then Pete (Jon Favreau) tried his hand before insanely wanting to become "The Ultimate Fighting Champion". This episode pulled off an incredible double guest surprise from Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, proving just how popular the show had become. To that list were added cameos from Ben Stiller as "The Screamer", Sherilyn Fenn as one of Joey's exs and Isabella Rossellini, who taught Ross to never fantasise on laminated plastic. The cast were fitting in film roles where possible. Cox appeared in Scream, then brought David Arquette back with her for a cameo, which kept their off-screen chemistry alive. The final surprise was Teri Garr as Phoebe, Sr in "T.O. At the Beach", where it was hinted that something might be salvaged between Ross and Rachel after all. --Paul Tonks

• The Sleeping Beauty | DVD | (02/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Recorded live at The Victorian Arts Centre by the Australian Ballet Company this ballet tells the story of Princess Aurora who is put to sleep for one hundred years by the wicked Fairy Carabosse.

• Friends - Series 5 - Episodes 17-23 | DVD | (15/11/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Season 5: Divorce number two is immediately on the cards as the year opens with "T.O. After Ross Says Rachel". As of this point, Ross' character undergoes some extreme personality changes (which apparently lost Schwimmer many female fans). His incessant whining drives all the Friends to distraction, especially in "T.O.W. Ross Moves In" with Chandler and Joey. Later things get uncomfortable both at work and at home when he goes through a period of rage ("T.O.W. Ross' Sandwich"). While all this downplays his failed relationship with Rachel, the real idea is to allow focus on the secret pairing of Chandler and Monica after a night of passion in London. This made for a return to the show's appealingly silly atmosphere as poor Joey is made piggy-in-the-middle of everyone's secrets. Building to "T.O.W. Everybody Finds Out", the silliness pauses for some genuinely touching interplay between Perry and Cox. The previous year's semi-serious thread about Phoebe's birth gets forgotten fast: to distract the viewer she's introduced to Gary (Michael Rapaport) in "T.O.W. The Cop". This leads to some hilarious parodying with Phoebe interrogated about apartment hunting, and the guys excited and then scared in "T.O. W. The Ride Along". She's more than over him by the time of the two-part finale "T.O.W. In Vegas" though, especially since she missed out on London. Just in case fans thought Chandler and Monica had permanently stolen the spotlight, a cliffhanger shocks expectation again with Ross and Rachel bursting out of a chapel... --Paul Tonks

• To Heal A Nation | DVD | (02/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  When Jan Scruggs returns from the Vietnam War he feels alienated from the world he left only two short years ago. Jan only feels comfortable when he is in the company of someone with whom he shares a common bond - another Vietnam veteran. Jan forms an idea to heal the wounds of a nation split apart by war and at a veterans' meeting he suggests a memorial to those who fought in vietnam. Jan's idea is met with angry disapproval and so he takes on the memorial as his personal goal determined to honour those who served.

• The Real Cancun | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (197.03%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Each year over 40 000 college students travel to Cancun Mexico for Spring Break. But this year for the first time sixteen people will come together for eight days in a beachfront Cancun villa for the ultimate Spring Break vacation. In this documentary feature bonds will be forged romances sparked friendships tested and hearts broken all amidst a backdrop of non-stop partying.

• Hornblower - Retribution | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £7.98   |  Saving you £2.01 (20.10%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based freely on the classic novels by C. Forester, Hornblower is a series of TV films following the progress of a young officer through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The series greatest asset is the handsome and charismatic Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role, surely a major star in the making. For television films the production values are very good, though as Titanic, Waterworld and The Perfect Storm demonstrated, filming an aquatic adventure is a very expensive business, and it is clear that the Hornblower dramas simply make the best of comparatively small budgets. No more faithful to Forester's books than the 1951 Gregory Peck classic Captain Horatio Hornblower, the real inspiration seems to have come from the success of Sharpe, starring Sean Bean, which likewise featured a British hero in the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, while rather more easy going than the real British navy of the time, the Hornblower saga delivers an entertaining adventure, greatly enhanced by the presence of such guest stars as Denis Lawson, Cheri Lunghi, Ronald Pickup and Anthony Sher.--Gary S Dalkin

• CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - Complete Seasons 1-3 (Amazon.co.uk Exclusive) | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £159.99

  Murder, and its tale-telling aftermath, is the compelling subject of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Since its inauguration in late 2000 CSI has been a ratings triumph, spawned two spinoffs (CSI: Miami and CSI: New York and positioning itself for long-term success. Creator Anthony Zuiker's foolproof formula was established early on, bolstered by a fine ensemble cast and requiring minimal tweaking as the seasons progressed; its Las Vegas-based "criminalists" eventually became "CSIs" steeped in the scientific minutiae of forensic investigation, but the series arrived essentially intact, with an irresistible (and seemingly inexhaustible) supply of corpses and the mysteries that surround them. Influenced by the graphic precedent of movies like Seven and Kiss the Girls, CSI matches morbidity with dispassionate methodology; viewers are so fascinated by the investigative process that they're unfazed by intimate autopsies and internal (i.e., digitally animated) views of traumatized flesh, bone, and sinew. While keeping abreast of cutting-edge technologies, CSI combines the ingenuity (and fallibility) of villains with the appealing humanity of its heroes. CSI director and entomologist Gil Grissom (played by series co-producer William Petersen) is introverted but ethically intense; he's both mentor and moral compass for his night-shift team, including a former stripper-turned-CSI (Marg Helgenberger); a recovering gambler (Gary Dourdan); an eager ace (George Eads) with room for improvement; a workaholic (Jorja Fox) who can't always remain emotionally detached from her cases; and a chief detective (Paul Guilfoyle) who's a necessary link to police procedure. Like The X-Files, CSI supports its characters with feature-film production values, employing a Rashomon structure that turns murder into a progressively accurate study of cause and effect. Script quality is consistently high ("Blood Drops" and "Unfriendly Skies" are exceptional), direction is slick and sophisticated, and the mysteries are complex enough to invite multiple viewings. Despite a regrettable shortage of DVD features, CSI remains addictively worthy of its lofty reputation. --Jeff Shannon

• The Larkins - Series 2 - Complete | DVD | (12/04/2010) from £11.98   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Meet the Larkins - the put-upon but crafty Alf his domineering wife Ada son Eddie daughter Joyce and her American ex-GI husband Jeff a barely employable writer of stories for cowboy comic 'The Bullet'. They all live in a state that falls somewhat short of domestic bliss at 66 Sycamore Street in a suburb of London next to inquisitive neighbour Hetty and her family. This classic early ATV sitcom was created by Clapham-born Fred Robinson and based upon his youthful scripts for plays about a fictional Cockney family. With skilful comic playing from a renowned cast and a script that ATV production controller Bill Ward described as the funniest he had ever read The Larkins inspired great affection throughout its run between 1958 and 1964. This second series was first screened in 1959 and has been transferred from the original film telerecordings specifically for this release.

• Friends - Series 9 - Vol. 2 - Eps 5-8 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £5.59   |  Saving you £1.40 (20.00%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Nine years is a long time for any group of Friends to stick so closely together, but somehow the gang are still as daftly charming as ever. After the birth of Emma, Rachel comes to terms with being a mother surprisingly well. It's how everyone else deals with it that makes things interesting. Joey's accidental proposal creates weird friction between him and Ross, who breaks his finger throwing the show's first ever punch. Monica becomes desperately broody and attempts all manner of convoluted ways of persuading Chandler (unfortunately he inadvertently bankrupts them in a move to Tulsa). Phoebe, on the other hand, occupies herself in the dating game, holding on to Mike (Paul Rudd) in the longest guest star relationship anyone's ever had. Other surprise guests this year include Freddie Prinze Jr as an overly sensitive nanny (in the 200th episode), Christina Applegate as another of Rachel's sisters and Jeff Goldblum playing himself on the set of another movie on which Joey is trying to get a break. As always the sparks occasionally fly between Rachel and Ross, while the others manage to strain their own relationships to the max. The real reason for watching now is the one-off kooky scenarios in which they--or rather Joey--get into. His endless dating finally sees him stuck for remembering if he's already slept with a girl; he botches an attempt at eyebrow waxing; and he manages to make Chandler think that Monica wants a breast enhancement. A 10th series and potential movie spin-off were announced well before the year was over, meaning six very rich actors will be supplying the fun for some time yet to come. --Paul Tonks

• Friends - Series 9 - Vol. 4 - Eps 13-16 | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £5.25   |  Saving you £1.74 (33.14%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The One Where Monica Sings: While Rachel sorts out her conflicted feelings for her handsome co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney) Ross recruits Chandler to help him meet attractive women in order to make Rachel jealous. Meanwhile Phoebe regrets bringing Monica to karaoke night when Monica takes the microphone and delights in the applause - unaware that the guys in the audience are cheering because they can see through her dress.... The One With The Blind Dates: Joey and

• Tim | DVD | (26/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  All actors have to try a mental-impairment role at some point in their careers (don't they?), and Mel Gibson took his best shot with this sweet film about a young retarded man and his gentle relationship with an older woman (Piper Laurie) who teaches him to read and to adjust to the real world. Tim's parents come to trust the woman's honourable intentions, but the movie still gives Mel's female fans a lot to swoon over; it's a platonic romance with plenty of temptation that is never acted upon. Add to that the fact that Gibson is really quite good in the title role--after Mad Max, this was Mel's first widely seen opportunity to prove himself in a dramatic role before his higher-profile roles in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Gallipoli. Tim is a bit too schmaltzy and sentimental, but this 1979 release has gained a loyal audience over the years, and the film has a lot more than just a young Mel Gibson to recommend it. --Jeff Shannon

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - 5 Little Pigs / Sad Cypress | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Five Little Pigs: Poirot is called in to investigate a fourteen year old murder... A woman was hanged for poisoning her husband to death. Her only daughter has come of age and is back from living overseas. She must find out if there was a mis-carriage of justice all those years ago if she is to have any future. Her late father was an artist reknowned for having affairs with his models. The family home was full of visitors. Who else had a motive? The Sad Cypress: Another intriguing investigation for the brilliant Belgian detective as the beautiful Elinor Carlisle stands accused of a double murder; that of her wealthy aunt Laura Wellman and also of her rival in love Mary Gerrard. Elinor had the motive and the opportunity to administer the fatal poison to both women. Poirot believes the evidence to be irrefutable but once his little grey cells get to work he begins to piece together another version of events as Elinor finds time running out...