"Actor: Elizabeth"

• Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts | DVD | (05/12/2022) from £3.13   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts is a unique and inventive feature documentary about the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Directed by the late, great and much celebrated Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Duke) and produced by prolific British producer Kevin Loader (Nowhere Boy, The Lady in the Van), Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts is a nostalgic, uplifting and fresh modern chronicle of the extraordinary 70-year reign of Her Majesty the Queen, the longest-lived, longest-reigning British monarch and longest-serving female head of state in history.

• Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads - The Very Best Of Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £4.95   |  Saving you £8.04 (162.42%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads was actually a revival, in 1973, of the successful Dick Clements/Ian La Frenais 1960s comedy The Likely Lads, so notable for its fibrous but sympathetic treatment of life for two young men coming of age in North East England. This "Very Best of" collection brings together classic episodes from the 1973 series. Although tinged with nostalgia--the décor and styles of the early 1970s are almost pungently evocative--the quality of the writing defies the passage of time. Seven years on from their initial adventures, Rodney Bewes (upwardly mobile, self-improving Bob) and James Bolam (feckless, chippy Terry) meet by accident on the train. Bob is about to marry Thelma and move into modern semi-detached heaven, while Terry is just out of the army and drifting back home without a great deal of purpose. The relationship between the two men, basically sound but frequently compromised by their very different aspirations, is very cleverly drawn and played so that your sympathies never stay on one side for very long. Best of all, Brigit Forsyth's Thelma, a dragon in the making, adds an astringent dynamic. She is, says Terry, "so stuck up she thinks her backside's a perfume factory". The insecurity he generates in her is responsible for much of the comedy. On the DVD: The Very Best of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads comes to disc with no extras, simply standard 4:3 picture format video production and episode selection. But it's still fresh as a daisy all the same. --Piers Ford

• Swept Away | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £6.97   |  Saving you £2.01 (50.50%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Madonna gives her most believable performance in Swept Away as Amber, a rich woman on a sea cruise who expects the world to obey her every whim. When she and a high-spirited crew member (Adriano Giannini) are marooned on a small deserted island the feud that sprang up between them on the ship becomes an all-out war then changes into lustful desire as Amber finds that losing status opens up a new side of her personality. Some people will want to see Swept Away for the simple pleasure of seeing Madonna being slapped; more demanding filmgoers will, sadly, be left wanting. Though the movie purports to be a satirical examination of capitalism (as was the original 1974 version), its vague discussion of money and power adds up to very little. The love story is surprisingly sincere, making Swept Away a standard romantic potboiler with gorgeous tropical backdrops. --Bret Fetzer

• He Snoops to Conquer | DVD | (24/10/2011) from £3.29   |  Saving you £6.70 (203.65%)   |  RRP £9.99

  George Fomby is joined by Robertson Hare in this fabulous 194s British Musical comedy, available for the very first time on DVD. The war is over and it's time to build a better Britain - but not if the crooks on Tangleton Town Council have their way! Knocking down Tangleton's slums will ruin their business interests. When Council tea boy George Gribble (George Formby) is employed to go door-to-door filing in a council survey, he uncovers just how poor and unhappy the townspeople are - and the Council have to bury the results. He also gets to meet the eccentric and reclusive inventor Sir Timothy Stawbridge (Robertson Hare) - a meeting that results in wanton destruction with a mechanised road sweeper, a spot of house breaking and a furious police chase! When news gets out that the survey has been hushed up, the townspeople want George's blood - and the only way he can set things right is to team up with Sir Timothy's beautiful daughter and take on all the bigwigs from the council!

• BBC Ghost Stories Volume Four: The Signalman / Stigma / The Ice House (DVD) | DVD | (17/09/2012) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  As a Christmas treat in the late 1960s and 70s, the BBC produced adaptations of ghost stories based on the works of MR James, the Cambridge academic and author of some of the most spine-tingling tales in the English language, which were broadcast to terrified viewers in the dead of winter. This was a tradition that was briefly revived by the BBC between 2007 and 2010. These adaptations, which have a subtlety and style all of their own, have been a major influence on many contemporary British horror filmmakers and have come to be some of the most sought after British TV titles of all time by their legions of eager fans. Volume four includes 1976's The Signalman, 1977's Stigma and 1978's The Ice House. Although most films in the series were based on the works of MR James, The Signalman was scripted by Andrew Davies (Pride & Prejudice) from a Charles Dickens story, while the last two films on this volume were based on original scripts.

• V - Season 2 | Blu Ray | (24/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  In this compelling series about the world's first encounter with an alien race appearances can be deceiving. Simultaneously emerging and hovering over every major city in the world the Visitors (or V's) promoted a message of peace urging mankind to unite and claiming that Earth could learn much from the wonders of the V's technology. While the world quickly embraced the V's as saviors FBI Counter Terrorist Agent Erica Evans (series star Elizabeth Mitchell) - at the time investigating a terrorist cell - discovered that the Visitors were not who they said they were and that they and their leader Anna (series star Morena Baccarin) were after something far more devious and diabolical than anyone could imagine: the destruction of humanity. Erica is now part of a group of resistance fighters called the Fifth Column other dissidents who believe the Visitors have something to hide. Leading the group along with Erica are Father Jack (series star Joel Gretsch) a priest who was hesitant to believe in the righteousness of the V's from the start; Ryan Nichols (series star Morris Chestnut) who knows first-hand just what the V's are capable of; and Kyle Hobbes (series star Charles Mesure) a loose cannon and mercenary he is the most ruthless member of the team. Meanwhile for Erica's teenage son Tyler (series star Logan Huffman) the V's continue to fascinate. He sees them as his ticket to being a part of something big something meaningful - and upon meeting the alluring Visitor Lisa (series star Laura Vandervoort) the two had an instant connection and undeniable chemistry. Chad Decker (series star Scott Wolf) a career-hungry news anchor initially found that his exclusive interviews with Anna were crucial to his dominating the airwaves. However after being diagnosed with a serious illness Chad learns that Anna is manipulating him and turns to Father Jack for guidance ... and to join the resistance. But can Chad be trusted?

• Donovan's Reef | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £7.05   |  Saving you £12.94 (183.55%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Life on a South Pacific island for two ex-Navy buddies is just about perfect. That is until a beautiful straight-laced Bostonian arrives on the island in search of her father...

• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World | DVD | (27/12/2010) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Hot Fuzz' helmsman Edgar Wright takes the reins on this epic adaptation of the cult comic book about a loveable loser who must prove his love by battling his girlfriend's seven evil exes. Fast-paced and frenetic fun for the videogame generation, this pop-culture spectacular really is the Bob-omb! Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera). A bass guitarist for totally average garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams... literally. The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him. Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker's quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.

• About Last Night | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  For better or worse, David Mamet's hit play Sexual Perversity in Chicago is watered down into this romantic comedy about a couple (played by Rob Lowe and Demi Moore) who get together and then fall apart due to Lowe's character's inability to commit. Jim Belushi is on hand as the gratuitously swinish best friend who looks at women as meat, and Elizabeth Perkins is entertainingly arch as Moore's gal pal and Belushi's nemesis. There is nothing about this 1986 film by Edward Zwick (co-creator of TV's thirtysomething and director of Glory and Courage Under Fire) that is at all reminiscent of Mamet, but that doesn't make it bad or dull. While one can feel the script straining to fill in gaps where chunks of the original play have disappeared, Zwick often successfully tells the story without words at all, relying on the actors to convey pure emotion. Lowe is good, and the then-willowy Moore's understated performance reminds one of the actress she might have been before she became a spectacle. --Tom Keogh

• Get Him to the Greek - Extended Party Edition | DVD | (01/11/2010) from £4.90   |  Saving you £15.09 (307.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Get Him to the Greek reunites Jonah Hill and Russell Brand with Forgetting Sarah Marshall director Nicholas Stoller in a story of a record company executive with three days to drag an uncooperative rock legend to Hollywood for a comeback concert. The comedy is the latest film from producer Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin Knocked Up Funny People). Aaron Green (Hill) gets things done. The ambitious 24-year-old has been given a career-making assignment. His mission: Fly to London and escort a rock god to L.A.'s world famous Greek Theatre for the first-stop on a huge comeback tour. His record mogul boss Sergio Roma (Sean Combs) gives him one warning: The artist is the worst person on Earth. Turn your back on him at your own peril. British Rocker Aldous Snow (Brand) is a brilliant musician but due to a bad break up and nose-diving career has fallen off the wagon and is now a drunken disaster. Weary of yes men and scared he's entering the greatest hits moment in his career Snow's in the midst of a nihilistic downward spiral. When he learns his true love model/pop star Jackie Q (Rose Byrne) is in L.A. Aldous makes it his quest to win her back... right before kick-starting his world domination. As the countdown to the concert begins one innocent young man must navigate a minefield of London drug smuggles New York City brawls and Vegas lap dances to deliver his charge safe and sort of sound...all while trying to remain faithful to his med student girlfriend (Elizabeth Moss). He may have to coax lie to enable and party with Aldous but Aaron will get him to the Greek.

• Secrets And Lies (Wide Screen) | DVD | (16/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leighs films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allens work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mothers identity. She will find its Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures weve seen in film. Shes also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most loveable. Timothy Spall is Cynthias brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan). There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme DOr and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leighs honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

• Supernatural: Season 12 (BD/S) | Blu Ray | (04/09/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  When they were boys, Sam and Dean Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. Subsequently, their father raised them to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America and he taught them how to kill it. Now, the Winchester brothers crisscross the country in their 67 Chevy Impala, battling every kind of supernatural threat they encounter along the way.

• Kill Your Darlings | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.

• The Secret Of My Success | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Derivative fluff from 1987, The Secret of My Success is made tolerable by its bawdy exuberance and an appealing performance by Michael J Fox, who was still enjoying TV stardom and the career momentum he earned by travelling Back to the Future. Here he plays a Kansas farm boy who dreams of scoring big in New York City... but reality turns out to be brutal to his ambition. When his uncle (Richard Jordan) gives him a mail-room job in the high-rise headquarters of a major corporation, Fox occupies an empty office and poses as a young executive, winning the attention of a lovely young colleague (Helen Slater) and having an affair with his boss's wife (Margaret Whitton). Sporadically amusing as a yuppie comedy and rather off-putting as a wannabe sex farce, the film's still recommendable for its lively cast and a breezy style that almost succeeds in updating the conventions of vintage screwball comedy. Whitton is a standout performer here, so you may wonder why her comedic talent has been underrated, apart from a good role in the first two Major League movies. This may be little more than a big-screen sitcom, but it's not without its charms. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Tall in the Saddle (John Wayne) | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £6.93   |  Saving you £3.06 (44.16%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When a stranger arrives in a western town he finds that the rancher who sent for him has been murdered. Further most of the townsfolk seem to be at each other's throats and the newcomer has soon run contrariwise to most of them...

• Strauss - Elektra | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £15.54   |  Saving you £-1.55 (-11.10%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Strauss: Elektra (Levine Metropolitan Opera Orchestra)

• Catwoman: Hunted | DVD | (07/02/2022) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In the all-new original Catwoman: Hunted, Catwoman's attempt to steal a priceless jewel puts her squarely in the crosshairs of both a powerful consortium of villains and the ever-resourceful Interpol, not to mention Batwoman. It might just be enough to contain her. Or not.

• The Dark Half | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Although it lacks the creepy subtleties of Stephen King's celebrated novel, George Romero's underrated adaptation of The Dark Half is among the best films based on King's fiction, with Romero taking care to honour the central theme while serving up some gruesome gore in the film's much-criticised finale. Inspired by King's own admission that he wrote several novels under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Dark Half explores the duality of a writer's impulse, ranging from literary respectability to the viscerally cathartic thrills of exploitative pulp fiction. Author and teacher Thad Beaumont (Timothy Hutton) finds himself torn between those extremes when he "kills" his profitable alter ego, George Stark (the bestselling dark half to Thad's light), who then assumes evil, autonomous form (again played by Hutton) to defend lethally his role in Thad's creative endeavours. Forced to wrestle with this evil manifestation of his own unformed twin, Thad must fight to protect his wife (Amy Madigan), their twin babies and himself. While Romero skilfully develops the twin/duality theme to explore the writer's dilemma, Hutton is outstanding in his dual roles, playing Stark (in subtly fiendish makeup) as a redneck rebel with a knack for slashing throats. Julie Harris adds class in a supporting role, and horror fans will relish Romero's climactic showdown, in which swarms of sparrows seal Stark's fate. It favours a pulp sensibility with clunky exposition to explain Stark's existence, but The Dark Half is a laudable effort from everyone involved. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Next Three Days | Blu Ray | (16/05/2011) from £6.50   |  Saving you £18.49 (284.46%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Life seems perfect for John Brennan (Russell Crowe) until his wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks) is arrested for a murder she says she didn't commit. Three years into her sentence John is struggling to hold his family together raising their son and teaching at college while he pursues every means available to prove her innocence. With the rejection of their final appeal Lara becomes suicidal and John decides there is only one possible bearable solution: to break his wife out of prison. Refusing to be deterred by impossible odds or his own inexperience John devises an elaborate escape plot with the help of an ex con (Liam Neeson) and plunges into a dangerous and unfamiliar world ultimately risking everything for the woman he loves.

• The Funhouse Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (25/09/2023) from £12.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A