"Actor: De Z"

• The Entertainer | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £20.97   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Entertainer of the title is Archie Rice, a mediocre music hall artist upholding a dying tradition in an English seaside against a background of the 1956 Suez Crisis. Laurence Olivier stars and is supported by a superb cast including a young Alan Bates as his son, Roger Livesey as his kindly, now retired, always more talented and popular father, and Joan Plowright as his daughter (who, ironically given the story, married Olivier the following year). Albert Finney makes his screen debut in a tiny role and the remarkable cast also features Daniel Massey, Shirley Anne Field, Thora Hird and Charles Gray. Archie himself is a hollow man who brings pain to all around him, and while Olivier's brilliant performance reveals the layers of cynicism which disguise the emptiness inside, the emotional resonance lies with those forced to endure Rice's manipulations, adulteries and deceits. On stage John Osborne's play proved to be a signature part for Olivier, and director Tony Richardson--who filmed Osborne's equally sour Look Back In Anger (1958)--handles the material with unvarnished realism. Unfolding like a dark variation on Chaplin's Limelight (1952), the film equally casts a shadow over the less stellar Tony Hancock vehicle The Punch and Judy Man (1963), ultimately working as both family tragedy and allegory for a declining post-war England. Surprisingly an American 1976 TV movie remake starring Jack Lemmon held its own against this minor British classic. On the DVD: The Entertainer is presented letterboxed at 1.66:1, and sourced from an excellent print preserves the look of the original black and white cinematography very well. Even so a little material is clipped from either side of the image, though this is most notable on the left of the picture. The mono sound is very good. There are no features other than optional subtitles, including English for those hard of hearing. --Gary S Dalkin

• Down To The Bone | DVD | (23/09/2007) from £10.78   |  Saving you £5.21 (48.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Old Habits Die Hard Irene (Vera Farmiga) is a working class mother living in upstate New York. She struggles to keep her marriage together and raise two sons while keeping her cocaine addiction a secret. After a series of nearly fatal mishaps she decides to check herself into a rehab centre. There she meets and falls in love with a fellow reformed addict (Hugh Dillon). When one of them falls into a relapse with addiction their commitment to staying clean - and each other - shatters. This beautifully wrought film accurately and authentically explores the wrenching road to recovery.

• Rameau - Les Indes galantes / Petibon · Agnew · Croft · Hartelius · Rivenq · de Niese · Panzarella · Le Roi · Les Arts Florissants · Christe - Serban (Opéra de Paris 2004) | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £26.44   |  Saving you £4.81 (19.10%)   |  RRP £29.99

  William Christie and Les Arts Florissants propel this exuberant production of Jean-Phillipe Rameau's second opera to great heights. Andrei Serban's extravagant highly baroque staging presents the four exotic love stories vibrantly. In Le Turc Genereux Osman sets free his captive Emilie whom he loves so that she may be reunited with her former lover Valere; Les Incas De Perou is all about the rivalry of the Inca Huascar and the Spaniard Don Carlos both in pursuit of Princess Phani; Les Fleurs offers a Persian love intrigue as the Sultana Fatime tries to detect whether her husband Tacmas has his eye on the lovely Atalide; and Les Sauvages takes us to North America where a Spaniard and a Frenchman compete for the love of Zima daughter of a native chief who prefers one of her own people.

• The Lady In The Van | Blu Ray | (08/07/2019) from £13.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the true story of Miss Shepherd (played by a magnificent Maggie Smith), a woman of uncertain origins temporarily parks her van in Alan Bennett's (Alex Jennings) London driveway and proceeds to live there for 15 years. What begins as a begrudged favor becomes a relationship that will change both their lives.Acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner reunites with iconic writer Alan Bennett to create this rare and touching portrait. Special Features The Making of The Lady In The Van The Visual Effects Playing the Lady: Maggie Smith on Miss Shepherd Commentary with Nicholas Hytner Deleted Scenes

• Frances | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The violent tragic but true story of a rebellious female star of the 1930s who fought the Hollywood system... and lost.

• The Sheltering Sky | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £18.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Master filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci applies his considerable talent to this haunting adaptation of the Paul Bowles novel. John Malkovich and Debra Winger play Port and Kit Moresby, characters loosely based on Bowles and his wife Jane, who flee New York for North Africa, where they hope to find mystical truths that will reignite the spark of their marriage. But instead they lose their moral bearings (with help from a friend, played by Campbell Scott, who has an affair with Kit) while travelling deeper and deeper into the Sahara. Before long, what started as a vacation at exotic lodgings has descended into a tour of hell, as they stumble farther and farther into an unknowable spiritual territory. Though long and at times slow-moving, The Sheltering Sky features marvellously nuanced acting by Malkovich and Winger and visionary filmmaking that makes the landscape at once picturesque and threatening. --Marshall Fine

• John Carpenter's Vampires: Los Muertos | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £5.78   |  Saving you £14.21 (245.85%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A vampire hunter (Jovi) teams up with a priest (de la Fuente) to fight a band of the walking dead in Mexico...

• Cannibal Ferox | DVD | (12/03/2001) from £11.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (66.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Watch this movie and you won't sleep for a week! Banned in 31 countries. Banned since 1982 in the UK as a ""nasty""! The Most Violent Film Ever Made! Gloria Davies is writing a thesis and she believes unlike most people that cannibalism is merely a myth which has been invented by whites. In order to test her theories she sets out for the jungle of the Amazon River with her brother Rudy and friend Pat. They go as far as Panaguaya in a Range Rover and then proceed on foot. What t

• The House By The Cemetery | Blu Ray | (25/08/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• City Of The Living Dead | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £20.83   |  Saving you £-14.84 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

• Gang Of Four | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £8.75   |  Saving you £6.24 (71.31%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Anna Joyce Claude and Lucia are all students under the tutelage of Constance Dumas a renowned film instructor. Lucia movies in with the other girls in a small house outside of Paris. Soon after Lucia is attacked on the street outside her home and saved by a mysterious stranger. Then she discovers that the stranger is involved with all the girls and is hiding a dark secret inside the house.

• The Raspberry Reich | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Gudrun the charismatic leader of a group of international terrorists engages a band of impressionable young men in the fight against war oppression capitalism and Corn Flakes. Believing that heterosexual monogamy is the 'opiate of the masses' Gudrun orders her straight male recruits to have sex with one another to prove themselves as authentic revolutionaries. The Reich kidnaps the son of Germany's wealthiest banker in an attempt to kick-start their cause but Gudrun's desire to embrace 'radical chic' and destroy the bourgeois construct of sexual identity sets everything spinning out of control!

• Righteous Kill | Blu Ray | (16/02/2009) from £9.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (150.15%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Two veteran New York City detectives work to put a serial killer behind bars using whatever means necessary.

• Memories of Underdevelopment | DVD | (20/10/2008) from £11.75   |  Saving you £6.24 (34.70%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Hailed as one of - if not the most - sophisticated film ever to come out of Cuba in the early days of Castro's revolution Memories Of Underdevelopment is visionary Cuban director Toms Gutirrez Alea's tour de force. Memories Of Underdevelopment follows Sergio (Sergio Corrieri - Soy Cuba) through his life following the departure of his wife parents and friends in the wake of the 'Bay of Pigs' incident. Alone in a brave new world Sergio observes the constant threat of foreign invasion whilst chasing young women around Havana - before finally meeting Elena (Daisy Granados) a young virgin he seeks to mould into the image of his ex-wife... but at what cost to himself? Even though director Toms Gutirrez Alea was a staunch and devoted supporter of the revolution 'Memories of Underdevelopment' makes a raw and uncompromising analysis of the newly formed system of government. Through a moving blend of narrative fiction still photography and rare documentary footage Alea catalogues the intricacies of the early days of the Castro regime; producing a stirring and enigmatic work that feeds from the culture of the very subject it is studying; Cuba.

• Scorsese - Raging Bull/New York, New York/Boxcar Bertha/The Last Waltz/The King Of Comedy | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  A collection of films from acclaimed director Martin Scorsese. New York New York (1977): Martin Scorsese's classic musical available for the first time on DVD in this special 2 disc presentation. The day WWII ends Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) an aspiring saxophonist meets and is at first rejected by singer Francine Evans (Liza Minelli). When they continue to bump into each other a friendship blossoms followed by romance and then marriage. All the while both musicians struggle to succeed at their craft which begins to put an unbearable strain on their relationship. Eventually this weight becomes too heavy to handle leading the couple into a traumatic separation. Scorsese's love of the MGM musical is clear in this sparkling hommage to a golden era of the studio's output; featuring a sensational performance from Judy Garland's daughter Liza Minnelli. The Last Waltz (1978): Director Martin Scorsese's visual and aural masterpiece captures the heart soul and spirit of an entire generation. Arguably the best concert documentary ever this is the 1976 film account of the celebratory final concert of legendary group The Band at San Francisco's Winterland Ballroom. Boxcar Bertha (1972): When Bertha is orphaned she links up with a controversial leader of a union Big Bill Shelley. On the run from McCarthy type witch hunters who think Shelley is a 'red' they unwillingly become involved in underground crime escape from jail and ride boxcars on freight trains until the all powerful railroad bosses catch up with Shelley and take their revenge... The King of Comedy (1983): A joke writer who has never performed anywhere except his mother's basement Rupert Pupkin (Robert De Niro) dreams of appearing on the `The Jerry Langford Show' hosted by the king of late night talk shows Jerry Langford (Jerry Lewis). After relentlessly hounding both Jerry and the show's talent bookers to no avail he kidnaps the talk show host with the help of his accomplice Masha (Sandra Bernhard) who herself is infatuated with Jerry. Together they hold him hostage in exchange for Pupkin being given a guest spot on the show... Raging Bull (1980): Raging Bull is arguably the finest work from the Scorsese and De Niro partnership. De Niro gives an amazing portrayal of a man whose animal side lurks just beneath the surface ever ready to erupt. Vivid and unremitting in its uncompromising brutality and honesty the fight sequences are famed for their realism. Violent throughout this film is a testament to Scorsese's and De Niro skills creating a thoroughly absorbing film about such an unlikable character. Renowned for throwing himself into the roles of the character De Niro went on a diet to gain fifty pounds during the production for the role of the faded star.

• Doctor At Sea | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The second of the popular Doctor series sees doctor Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) keen to escape the boredom of medical practice ashore and the threat of matrimony. Sparrow signs up as a medical officer onboard the cargo ship SS Lotus pleased to be free of any female distractions. However Sparrow soon falls foul of the ship's skipper fearsome captain Hogg (James Robertson Justice) and worse still lands in jail after a drunken celebration on arrival in South America. Two new passeng

• Brotherhood Of Justice | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Derek had it made: He was good looking rich envied and respected by everyone. Then dealers and vandals smashed his priviliged circle. He and his friends responded to the need of help by forming a secret brotherhood of vigilantes to rid their community of lowlife.

• Roswell: Complete Season 1 | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Opening with a Dido theme tune and featuring character-driven, sweet-natured melodrama, Roswell was a show with a surprisingly dedicated fan base, who twice won it reprieve from cancellation. One of its main strengths was, of course, the extent to which its premise--alien teenagers trying to sort out their identities while involved emotionally with their human contemporaries--was a free-floating metaphor for race and sexuality issues. Another was the strong ensemble that its cast developed; you believed in the strangeness of the alien trio and the well-intentioned normality of their three human friends. Jason Behr gave the alien Max a quiet authority and Majendra Delfino took the sidekick role of Maria and gave it both intensity and fine comic timing. It was also a show in which you were never sure what adults you could trust--William Sadleir trod a fine line of ambiguity as the local sheriff and Julie Benz was silkily sinister as an FBI agent. Anyone who ever loved this show will want these DVDs--and many others may want to find out what the fuss was about. On the DVD: Roswell is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The special features include commentaries on six episodes by writer Jason Kanims, the directors and various of the cast as well as a featurette on the making of the show and another on its adaptation from the original Roswell High series of young adult novels. The commentaries are unusually insightful on the casting process and the discs also include the auditions for the part of Tess as well as a deleted scene and a music video. --Roz Kaveney

• Stanley And Iris | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £17.76   |  Saving you £-4.77 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Some people need love spelled out for them. An illiterate cook (Robert De Niro) at a company cafeteria tries for the attention of a newly widowed woman (Jane Fonda). As they get to know one another she discovers his inability to read. When he is fired she takes on trying to teach him to read in her kitchen each night....

• Kids In Love | DVD | (29/08/2016) from £4.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (260.52%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A British coming-of-age story about a group of friends who live their lives in London, imitating art and enjoying a fast-paced lifestyle.