"Actor: Don Alexander"

• Waterloo | DVD | (13/10/2014) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sergei Bondarchuk directs this 1970s drama starring Rod Steiger and Christopher Plummer. After his abdication Napoleon Bonaparte (Steiger) is exiled to the island of Elba. However, he escapes to be reunited with his generals and troops and mounts a last desperate bid for power at the Battle of Waterloo. He has, however, reckoned without the British forces led by Arthur Welsley the Duke of Wellington (Plummer), who has just returned from a successful campaign in Spain.

• Reach For The Sky | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (150.38%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Reach for the Sky was a box-office hit in 1956 and rightly remains a fondly regarded classic of British cinema. Kenneth More is ideally cast as Douglas Bader, the gifted pilot who loses both legs in a pre-war air crash, only to play a major role in the Battle of Britain, rise to the rank of Group Captain and become a war hero. Based on Paul Brickhill's biography, this is an "official" history maybe, but Lewis Gilbert's screenplay and direction are historically accurate and informed by that very British humour, of which More was a natural. The film is graced by a decent supporting cast and a typically "widescreen" score from John Addison. On the DVD: Reach for the Sky is vividly reproduced in 16:9 anamorphic format and decent mono. There are subtitles for the hard of hearing and detailed biographies of More, Gilbert and Barder. The original theatrical trailer is included, but it would also have made sense to include an interview or documentary footage of Bader himself. --Richard Whitehouse

• Final Score | DVD | (26/12/2018) from £3.59   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It's Die Hard in a football stadium when an ex-soldier (Dave Bautista) has to use all his lethal fighting skills to save 35,000 fans and prevent mass destruction when deadly Russian terrorists take Upton Park under siege. Believing his traitorous brother Dimitri (Pierce Brosnan) is somewhere in the stadium, Arkady (Ray Stevenson), the former leader of a revolution in the Russian state of Sukovia, locks down the Boleyn Ground during the European semi-final between West Ham United and Dynamo FCC. In the crowd with his niece, Danni (Lara Peake), is US- veteran Mike Knox (Dave Bautista), who stumbles upon the plot and goes about taking out Arkady's heavily armed team. Can he get to Arkady before Arkady gets to Dimitri? The fate of 35,000 people inside the stadium and many more in Russia depends on it...

• The Vikings | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Kirk Douglas produced the trendsetting barbarian epic The Vikings and took the showiest, most aggressive role: lusty Viking Prince Einar, the "only son in wedlock" of King Ragnar (a cackling, wild-eyed Ernest Borgnine). With jagged scars down his face and a milky-white blind eye that almost glows in his skull, Douglas has a rowdy time battling defiant slave Tony Curtis (the long-lost heir to the British throne) for the hand of the beautiful princess Janet Leigh. It's pure Hollywood hokum, sure, but spectacular hokum: the great cinematographer Jack Cardiff turns his Norway locations into a lush Valhalla on earth. Faced with an absurd story, journeyman director Richard Fleischer goes for the gusto in brawling Viking parties, furious sieges, and clanging broadsword battles. An enormous hit, the film spawned a huge wave of Viking movies, some perhaps smarter but none as much fun. --Sean Axmaker

• Gotham: Season 4 | Blu Ray | (17/09/2018) from £9.81   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The good. The evil. The beginning. When rookie Gotham City detective James Gordon dedicated to restoring his crime-ridden metropolis to its decent and illustrious past catches the case of a murdered socialite couple, he promises their shattered surviving son, Bruce Wayne, he'll find their killer. It is an obligation and an obsession that will cost him dearly and set the stage for the gritty and exciting world of GOTHAM. Inspired by DC Comics characters beloved by generations, this gripping hit series reaches deep into Batman lore to uncover the sinister layers of corruption that secretly rule Gotham City, spawning ground of the world's most iconic villains. Delve into the circumstances that created the bizarre personas who would become Catwoman, the Penguin, the Riddler, Two-Face and the Joker in an entirely new chapter that's never been told.

• Pretty Woman | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Julia Roberts and Richard Gere get it on in one of Hollywood's biggest, and most beloved, blockbusters.

• Menace II Society | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Tyrin Turner may not have broken out into stardom as was initially expected, but his work in Menace II Society is one of the more powerful cinematic debuts. The film, from the brother writer-director team of Allen and Albert Hughes, chronicles life in the Los Angeles 'hood. Similar territory was covered in the equally commanding Boyz N the Hood, but what makes this cautionary tale stand out is not only the Hughes brothers' forceful story, (written with their friend, Tyger Williams) and direction, but the naturalness of then-newcomer leads Turner as Caine, Larenz Tate as O-Dog, and Jada Pinkett as Ronnie. They are so credible--occasionally frighteningly so--that the repressive universe of violent ghetto life is captured effectively. Life as portrayed here-and no doubt accurately so--is both figuratively and literally narrow. As a very young boy, Caine witnesses his dad murdered over something inconsequential, and his mom OD. His is a world where respect comes from intimidation, power from violence. Despite his understanding of right and wrong (values passed on by a good friend, his kind grandparents, a caring teacher), his life and its entrapments are too much to overcome. --N.F. Mendoza

• Final Score | Blu Ray | (26/12/2018) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It's Die Hard in a football stadium when an ex-soldier (Dave Bautista) has to use all his lethal fighting skills to save 35,000 fans and prevent mass destruction when deadly Russian terrorists take Upton Park under siege. Believing his traitorous brother Dimitri (Pierce Brosnan) is somewhere in the stadium, Arkady (Ray Stevenson), the former leader of a revolution in the Russian state of Sukovia, locks down the Boleyn Ground during the European semi-final between West Ham United and Dynamo FCC. In the crowd with his niece, Danni (Lara Peake), is US- veteran Mike Knox (Dave Bautista), who stumbles upon the plot and goes about taking out Arkady's heavily armed team. Can he get to Arkady before Arkady gets to Dimitri? The fate of 35,000 people inside the stadium and many more in Russia depends on it...

• Eye Of The Killer | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Seeing is believing. After ten years silence a notorious serial killer is back and it's up to detective Michael Hayden to catch him. Hayden realises all too soon that he has a psychic connection with the killer and if he is going to catch him before the next murder he's going to have to get inside the killer's mind.

• The Hustler | DVD | (19/08/2002) from £6.50   |  Saving you £13.49 (207.54%)   |  RRP £19.99

  ""Newman is outstanding."" -Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide Paul Newman is electrifying as Fast Eddie Felson an arrogant amoral hustler who haunts backstreet pool rooms fleecing anyone who'll pick up a cue. Determined to be acclaimed as the best Eddie seeks out the legendary Minnesota Fats who's backed by Bert Gordon a predatory gambler. Eddie can beat the champ but virtually defeats himself with his low self-image. The love of a lonely woman could turn Eddie's life around

• White Palace | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Glenn Savan's depressing and self-loathing novel about a 27-year-old upper-class Jewish widower mired in self-pity after his beloved wife dies, and who finds love and sexual rebirth with a trailer-trash older woman, was brought to the big screen by the competent director Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman, Message in a Bottle). But the savage irony in Savan's book has been face-lifted by screenwriters Ted Tally (The Silence of the Lambs) and Alvin Sargent (Ordinary People) into something else entirely: what passes for low-rent "slumming" in Hollywood means hiring sexy Susan Sarandon to play Nora Baker, the poor, uneducated 43-year-old waitress in a White Palace burger joint who strikes up an unlikely relationship with sad Max Baron (James Spader). Widower Max attends a bachelor party for best pal Neil (Jason Alexander) and discovers that the local White Palace has stiffed the boys a whopping six burgers. Max barges into the joint, bent on getting his money back, and meets a testy Nora, who is bemused at the young man's insolence. While driving home, Max stops abruptly at a bar for a drink. Inside, Nora is nursing a vodka and takes a shine to the tuxedo-clad, handsome, and morose younger man. He gives her a lift, she seduces him, and the rest of the movie examines how two such opposites in manners and morals can find happiness. The only common bond they have is great sex and a private tragedy. White Palace nudges at the dark journey and the smashing of illusion that was at the heart of the novel, but there is still a fairy-tale element to the film that negates the earthy essence that distinguished the book. In Mandoki's vision, White Palace is about overcoming class, family, and outside opinion to find true love. In Savan's book, Max wastes into decline while Nora ultimately thrives in the quest for truth, redemption, and self-forgiveness. She becomes his salvation only after he stops hating himself. But mainstream Hollywood shuns making "protagonists" so mad, bad, or sad, and as such, too much glitter is tossed on Spader, while Sarandon, as usual, is the only one who seems to embody and understand her character's angst. She deserved her Oscar for Nora, not the nun in Dead Man Walking. --Paula Nechak

• Menace II Society (1993) (Criterion Collection) UK Only | Blu Ray | (06/12/2021) from £32.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Directors Albert and Allen Hughes(The Book of Eli) and screenwriter Ttger Williams (The Perfect Guy) were barely into their twenties when they sent shock waves through American cinema and hip-hop culture with this fatalistic, unflinching vision of life and death on the streets of Watts, Los Angeles, in the 1990s. There, in the shadow of the riots of 1965 and 1992, young Caine (Panther's Tyrin Turner) is growing up under the influence of his ruthless, drugdealing father (Pulp Fiction's SAMUEL L. JACKSON, in a chilling cameo) and his loose-cannon best friend, O-Dog (Love Jones' Larenz Tate), leading him into a spiral of violent crime from which he is not sure he wants to escape, despite the best efforts of his grandparents and the steadfast Ronnie (The Matrix Revolutions' Jada Pinkett). Fusing grim realism with a propulsively stylish aesthetic honed through the Hughes brothers' work on rap videos, Menace II Society is a searing cautionary tale about the devastating human toll of hopelessness. Special Edition Features: Original 2.0 surround soundtrack, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio Two audio commentaries from 1993 featuring directors Albert and Allen Hughes Gangsta Vision, a 2009 featurette on the making of the film New conversation among Albert Hughes, screenwriter Tyger Williams, and film critic Elvis Mitchell New conversation among Allen Hughes, actor and filmmaker Bill Duke, and Mitchell Interview from 1993 with the directors Deleted scenes Film-to-storyboard comparison Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by film critic Craig D. Lindsey

• The Others | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £6.63   |  Saving you £13.36 (201.51%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nicole Kidman stars as the mother of two ailing children in this moody tale of the supernatural, set on the island of Jersey just after World War Two.

• Curb Your Enthusiasm - Series 1 To 5 | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  Larry David co-creator of Seinfeld stars in Curb Your Enthusiasm as himself! This hilarious award-winning HBO series follows Larry and his knack for getting himself into uncomfortable situations... Series 1: 1. The Pants Tent 2. Ted and Mary 3. Porno Gil 4. The Bracelet 5. Interior Decorator 6. The Wire 7. AAMCO 8. Beloved Aunt 9. Affirmative Action 10. The Group Series 2: 1. The Car Salesman 2. Thor 3. Trick Or Treat 4. The Shrimp Incident 5. The Thong 6. The Acupuncturist 7. The Doll 8. Shaq 9. The Baptism 10. The Massage Series 3: 1. Chet's Shirt 2. The Benadryl Brownie 3. Club Soda and Salt 4. The Nanny 5. The Terrorist Attack 6. The Special Section 7. The Corpse-Sniffing Dog 8. Crazy-Eyez Killah 9. Mary Joseph and Larry 10. The Grand Opening Series 4: 1. Mel's Offer 2. Ben's Birthday Party 3. The Blind Date 4. The Weatherman 5. The 5 Wood 6. The Car Pool Lane 7. The Surrogate 8. Wandering Bear 9. The Survivor 10. Opening Night Series 5: 1. The Larry David Sandwich 2. The Bowtie 3. The Christ Nail 4. Kamikaze Bingo 5. Lewis Needs A Kidney 6. The Smoking Jacket 7. The Seder 8. The Ski Lift 9. The Korean Bookie 10. The End

• Matewan | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A little-known chapter of American labour history is brought vividly to life in this period drama from writer-director John Sayles. It's a fictional story about labour wars among West Virginia coal miners during the 1920s, but every detail is so right that the film has the unmistakable ring of truth. The tension begins when the Stone Mountain Coal Company of Matewan, West Virginia, announces a lower pay rate for miners, who respond by calling a strike under the leadership of a United Mine Workers representative (Chris Cooper). Proving strength in numbers, the miners are joined by black and Italian miners who initially resist the strike, and a fateful battle ensues when detectives hired by the coal company attempt to evict miners from company housing. Violence erupts in a sequence of astonishing, cathartic intensity, and Matewan achieves a rare degree of moral complexity combined with gut-wrenching tragedy. The film salutes a pacifist ideal while recognising that personal and political convictions often must be defended with violence. To illustrate this point, Sayles enlisted master cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who creates the film's authentic visual texture--a triumph of artistry over limited resources. The result is a milestone of independent filmmaking, and Matewan remains one of Sayles's finest achievements. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• For The Love Of Mary | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £5.83   |  Saving you £7.16 (122.81%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A perkyt switchboard operator for the White House makes not one but three love connections and her attampts to keep each Romeo on the line leads to alot of crossed wires....

• Menace II Society | DVD | (14/02/2000) from £14.18   |  Saving you £-1.19 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Tyrin Turner may not have broken out into stardom as was initially expected, but his work in Menace II Society is one of the more powerful cinematic debuts. The film, from the brother writer-director team of Allen and Albert Hughes, chronicles life in the Los Angeles 'hood. Similar territory was covered in the equally commanding Boyz N the Hood, but what makes this cautionary tale stand out is not only the Hughes brothers' forceful story, (written with their friend, Tyger Williams) and direction, but the naturalness of then-newcomer leads Turner as Caine, Larenz Tate as O-Dog, and Jada Pinkett as Ronnie. They are so credible--occasionally frighteningly so--that the repressive universe of violent ghetto life is captured effectively. Life as portrayed here-and no doubt accurately so--is both figuratively and literally narrow. As a very young boy, Caine witnesses his dad murdered over something inconsequential, and his mom OD. His is a world where respect comes from intimidation, power from violence. Despite his understanding of right and wrong (values passed on by a good friend, his kind grandparents, a caring teacher), his life and its entrapments are too much to overcome. --N.F. Mendoza

• The One That Got Away | Blu Ray | (02/03/2015) from £13.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (25.02%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The One That Got Away is the remarkable true story of the only German prisoner of war captured in Britain who managed to escape and successfully return to his homeland. Hardy Kruger – one of Germany's leading actors and himself a prisoner of war who escaped from the Americans on three occasions – stars as the charismatic Lieutenant Franz von Werra; a strong supporting cast includes Michael Goodliffe Colin Gordon and Terence Alexander. This classic feature directed by Golden Globe winner Roy Ward Baker is presented here in a High Definition transfer from the original film elements. With the Battle of Britain at its height a German fighter pilot is shot down over England and taken into custody. Though confined to a POW camp his captivity cannot deter him from the single aim of escaping back to his homeland. After several months he sees his chance and takes it... Special Features   Image Gallery Original Theatrical Trailer  

• An American Haunting | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (220.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A family is terrorized by a cruel and noisy spirit in this period chiller.

• Janacek: Jenufa -- Glyndebourne | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Janacek's masterpiece Jenufa, captured in this 1989 Glyndebourne Festival Opera production, is among the most revived modernist works. Compared with much grand opera, the story of one woman's struggle to rise free from social constraints at a terrible cost is remarkably poignant, credible and accessible. Scenes are short and intense. The music shimmers with Janacek's characteristic blend of sweetness and sharp dissonance. His men are damaged and angry; his women kick against the expectations of convention. Tragedy is inevitable, but here, unusually, hope triumphs. In the title role, Roberta Alexander is utterly convincing as the stepdaughter of the Kostelnicka Buryja, placing her love and trust in the wrong man with dire consequences. As the Kostelnicka, Anja Silja turns in an equally towering performance, unravelling with the awful consequences of her pragmatism. Alexander's fluid soprano reveals the extraordinary beauty of some of Janacek's finest arias: the moment when she becomes supernaturally aware of her baby's fate--it's "as if death was peering into the house!"--and is actually singing prayers for its soul is quite overwhelming. This Jenufa is sung splendidly; a revelation of the essential humanity which lurks at the heart of the greatest operas. On the DVD: This production was filmed for Channel 4 and has all the hallmarks of a 1980s television broadcast: standard 4:3 picture format which limits the impact of Tobias Hoheisel's magnificent expressionistic set; PCM stereo which somewhat dulls Andrew Davis' sterling, powerful work at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (although the principal singers shine through); poor subtitles; and static freeze-frame links between scenes. As a record of an important production, though, it suffices. --Piers Ford