"Actor: James Ma"

• A Passage To India | Blu Ray | (26/09/2022) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Enter a world where cultures clash so violently that an entire country could split at any moment. Nominated for eleven Academy Awards® and winner of two, A Passage to India is a wonderfully provocative tale, full of vivid characters, all played to near perfection. With a fabulous cast that include Peggy Ashcroft, Judy Davis, James Fox, Sir Alec Guinness, and Nigel Havers, this hauntingly beautiful film is a daring triumph. When liberal-minded English ladies Mrs. Moore (Ashcroft) and Adela Quested (Davis) arrive in India, they're shocked by the extreme racial prejudice that exists here. Fortunately, kind Dr. Aziz (Victor Banerjee) rises above the intolerance and guides the women on a splendid tour of the mysterious Marabar caves. But the outing turns tragic when Adela suddenly comes running from one of the caves-scratched, bleeding and terribly frightened. News of the incident quickly spreads across the whole of India...igniting a powder keg of tension just waiting to explode. A rich tapestry woven of the clash between cultures, A Passage to India is supreme entertainment, and a visual wonder that is truly spellbinding!

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Once More, With Feeling | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Once More With Feeling", a much needed shaft of lightness in Buffy the Vampire Slayer's dark sixth series, demonstrates that a "special" episode can be genuinely special. It preserves the show's continuity for its regular watchers and also delights people who have never experienced it before. This is creator Joss Whedon's tribute to all the masters of the stage musical whom he admires--most obviously Stephen Sondheim--and a chance for his talented cast to display their usual tight ensemble and sing and dance while doing it. The premise is typical Buffy both in its whimsy and its emotional truth--a demon forces the inhabitants of Sunnydale to express their emotions truthfully and uncovers a variety of embarrassing secrets. The actual musical ability of the Buffy cast is variable--Amber Benson as Tara and Anthony Stewart Head as Giles are perhaps the only ones with enough musical talent to carry purely lyrical tunes, but Sarah Michelle Gellar as Buffy is a game little trooper who delivers her various patter songs with her usual efficiency and charm. Emma Caulfield as the ex-demon Anya is the big surprise, her short paranoid riff on the subject of that ultimate evil, bunny rabbits is quite extraordinary; Broadway hoofer Hinton Battle is fabulous as Sweet: "I can bring whole cities to ruin and find time to get some soft shoe in." --Roz Kaveney

• Las Vegas - Series 3 | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £7.99   |  Saving you £27.00 (337.92%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Las Vegas one of the sexiest show on TV is back and even hotter on DVD in Season 3! Episodes Comprise: 1. Viva Las Vegas 2. Fake the Money and Run 3. Double Down Triple Threat 4. Whatever Happened to Seymour Magoon? 5. The Big Ed De-cline 6. The Real McCoy 7. Everything Old Is You Again 8. Bold Beautiful & Blue 9. Mothwoman 10. For Sail by Owner 11. Down and Dirty 12. Bait and Switch 13. The Bitch Is Back 14. And Here's Mike with the Weather 15. Urban Legend 16. Coyote Ugly 17. Lyle & Substance 18. Like a Virgin 19. Cash Springs Eternal 20. All Quiet on the Montecito Front 21. Chaos Theory 22. Fidelity Security Delivery 23. Father of the Bride

• Sapphire And Steel - Assignments 1-3 | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £40.99

  One of the oddest shows ever mounted for mainstream UK television, Sapphire & Steel was one of ITV's many short-lived attempts at grabbing the sci-fi cult status of the BBC's Doctor Who. Ex-Man From U.N.C.L.E. David McCallum and ex-Avenger Joanna Lumley play human-looking incarnations of the eponymous substances, mysterious investigators working at the behest of an apparent God of Order and zipping about TARDIS-like to cope with anomalies in the time-stream that manifest as apparent supernatural forces in remote English locales like an isolated farmhouse (Adventure One), a deserted rural railway station (Adventure Two) and a high-rise block of flats (Adventure Three). McCallum and Lumley play their "medium atomic weights" with blank style and a few touches of baffled humour, not to mention visual flair in the case of Lumley's blue fashions and occasional glowing eyes. But the lengthy serial format, strictly limited guest casts and claustrophobic confinement to studio floor sets tend to mean individual serials straggle on with a great deal of repetition, providing longeurs as six or eight-part stories seem to take forever to get moving and then resolve. Shot on video, with a few strange 1970s effects (evil follow-spots, floating pillows), this remains prime cult material, though it's hard to sit still for more than one episode at a time. It will take an extremely devoted fan to get through all three adventures in under six months. On the DVD: Sapphire & Steel on disc has to be reckoned a disappointment when compared with the wealth of extra material included on the Gerry Anderson or Doctor Who DVDs. This set stretches only to a few press releases and a TV Times article from the launch of the series that tries hard to build up a mystique about the show which it would take some years to actually acquire. There are basic bios of the two stars, and some unresonant stills. Image quality-wise, this looks much the same as previous VHS releases: shot on video, with only a few tiny film inserts for Adventure Three (on the roof of a London building), the series' transfer to DVD is plagued by artefacting of various kinds (some of which can just about be passed off as visual effects), but then again so were the original transmissions. The pristine look is especially unfortunate in exposing the extremely ordinary trickery as far less terrifying than the onscreen characters make them out to be. --Kim Newman

• Babe | DVD | (08/09/2014) from £7.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The surprise hit of 1995, this splendidly entertaining family film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, director, and screenplay, and deservedly won the Oscar for its subtly ingenious visual effects. Babe is all about the title character, a heroic little pig who's been taken in by the friendly farmer Hoggett (Oscar nominee James Cromwell), who senses that he and the pig share "a common destiny." Babe, a popular mischief-maker the Australian farm, is adopted by the resident border collie and raised as a puppy, befriended by Ferdinand the duck (who thinks he's a cockerel), and saves the day as a champion "sheep-pig." Filled with a supporting cast of talking barnyard animals and a chorus of singing mice (courtesy of computer enhancements and clever animatronics), this frequently hilarious, visually imaginative movie has already taken its place as a family classic with timeless appeal. --Jeff Shannon

• Varsity Blues | DVD | (04/09/2000) from £5.95   |  Saving you £7.04 (118.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  James Van Der Beek (Dawson's Creek) leads the action in this exciting funny coming-of-age story about a small-town high schooler confronting the pressures and temptations of grid-iron glory. At first backup quarterback Jonathan 'Mox' Moxon (Van Der Beek) is nowhere close to being a football star. He's perfectly content to stay on the bench and out of the win-at-all-cost strategies of coach Bud Kilmer (Jon Voight in a powerful performance). But when the starting quarterback is inj

• King Kong - The Eighth Wonder Of The World | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £7.25   |  Saving you £2.74 (37.79%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Now you see it. You're amazed. You can't believe it. Your eyes open wider. It's horrible, but you can't look away. There's no chance for you. No escape. You're helpless, helpless. There's just one chance, if you can scream. Throw your arms across your eyes and scream, scream for your life!" And scream Fay Wray does most famously in this monster classic, one of the greatest adventure films of all time, which even in an era of computer-generated wizardry remains a marvel of stop-motion animation. Robert Armstrong stars as famed adventurer Carl Denham, who is leading a "crazy voyage" to a mysterious, uncharted island to photograph "something monstrous ... neither beast nor man". Also aboard is waif Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) and Bruce Cabot as big lug John Driscoll, the ship's first mate. King Kong's first half-hour is steady going, with engagingly corny dialogue ("Some big, hard-boiled egg gets a look at a pretty face and bang, he cracks up and goes sappy") and ominous portent that sets the stage for the horror to come. Once our heroes reach Skull Island, the movie comes to roaring, chest-thumping, T-rex-slamming, snake-throttling, pterodactyl-tearing, native-stomping life. King Kong was ranked by the American Film Institute as among the 50 best films of the century. Kong making his last stand atop the Empire State Building is one of the film's most indelible and iconic images. --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.comOn the DVD: Although a little light on extras, this is happily the Director's Cut, restoring scenes that were censored after the film's original 1933 run, including Kong peeling off Fay Wray's clothes like a banana, and our hirsute hero using unfortunate natives as dental floss. The ratio of 4:3 is correct for a film of this age; the picture and (mono) sound are perfectly acceptable without being revelatory. The 25-minute "making of" documentary from 1992 is a 60th anniversary tribute to the film, which details all of Kong's many ground-breaking contributions to cinema, from Willis O'Brien's use of stop-motion and rear projection effects to Max Steiner's music score. There are contributions from film historians, modern admirers of the film including composer Jerry Goldsmith--who admits that Steiner created a template that Hollywood composers are still following--and a few surviving participants such as sound effects man Murray Spivak. Apparently, director Merian C. Cooper's original idea was to capture live gorillas, transport them to the island of Komodo and film them fighting the giant lizards! Thanks to Willis O'Brien's pioneering effects work good sense prevailed and a cinema classic was born. --Mark Walker

• Stephen King's Cat's Eye | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (6.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  What does a stray cat have in common with a radical technique to quit smoking the window ledge of a sky scraper and an evil goblin? Three of Stephen King's most imaginatively terrifying tales brought to life in this chilling trilogy of short stories...

• Rollerball | DVD | (24/04/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the year 2018, violence and crime have been totally eliminated from society and given outlet in the brutal blood sport of rollerball, a high-velocity blend of football, hockey, and motor-cross racing sponsored by the multinational corporations that now control the world following the collapse of traditional politics. James Caan plays Jonathan ., the reigning superstar of rollerball, whose corporate controllers fear that Jonathan's popularity has endowed him with too much power. They begin to pressure him according to their own ruthless set of rules, but Jonathan has rules of his own--ones for a man determined to retain his soul in a world gone mad. As directed by Norman Jewison (who was enjoying a peak of success during the early and mid-1970s), Rollerball creates a believable society that's been rendered passive and compliant by the homogenisation of corporate dictatorships, where the control and flow of information is the only currency of any importance. It's a world in which natural human aggressions have been sublimated and vented through the religious fervour toward rollerball and its players. Rollerball now looks like one of those 1970s science fiction films (another example being Logan's Run) that seems a bit dated and quaint, but its ideas are still provocative and fascinating, and the production is visually impressive. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Howards End | Blu Ray | (27/11/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Howards End is E M Forster's beautifully subtle story of the criss-crossing paths of the privileged and those they disdain--and of a remarkable pair of women who can see beyond class distinctions. Dramatic and tragic but also surprisingly funny, this James Ivory film focuses on a pair of unmarried sisters (Emma Thompson, who won an Oscar, and Helena Bonham Carter) who befriend a poor young clerk (Sam West) and, without meaning to, ruin his life. Meanwhile, Thompson also makes the acquaintance of a dying neighbour (Vanessa Redgrave), who leaves her a family home in her will--which her husband (Anthony Hopkins) destroys. But, ironically, he meets and falls in love with Thompson, even as their paths once more intersect with the increasingly miserable young clerk. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's beautifully economical script also won an Oscar.--Marshall Fine

• Wild Bill | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £9.33   |  Saving you £3.66 (39.23%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Audiences overlooked Wild Bill at the cinema, but it's one of the better Westerns of the 1990s, featuring yet another terrific performance by Jeff Bridges, America's most underrated movie actor. As James Butler Hickock, he captures the sense of a man at the end of his career, one of the first media superstars who discovers that his legend is more burden than blessing. As he heads toward his final hand of poker in Deadwood, South Dakota, he flashes back to his younger days and the events that built his reputation, even as he copes with encroaching blindness caused by syphilis. Walter Hill blends action and elegy, utilising a screenplay based both on Pete Dexter's novel Deadwood and Thomas Babe's play Fathers and Sons. Wild Bill features strong supporting performances by John Hurt (as a Hickock sidekick) and Ellen Barkin (as the tough, lusty Calamity Jane)--but the centrepiece is the sad, manly performance by Bridges, who more than measures up to the part. --Marshall Fine

• The Girl Next Door | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £5.15   |  Saving you £12.84 (249.32%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A straight-arrow high-school student falls in love with the perfect 'girl-next-door', only to discover she's a former porn star.

• Christmas Classics Collection | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £13.78   |  Saving you £7.20 (66.73%)   |  RRP £17.99

  It's a Wonderful LifeVoted the # 1 Most Inspiring Film Of All Time by AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, It's A Wonderful Life has had just that. With the endearing message that no one is a failure who has friends, Frank Capra's heartwarming masterpiece continues to endure, and after 70 years this beloved classic still remains as powerful and moving as the day it was made. White ChristmasTwo talented song-and-dance men (Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye) team up after the war to become one of the hottest acts in show business. One winter, they join forces with a sister act (Rosemary Clooney and Vera-Ellen) and trek to Vermont for a white Christmas. Of course, there's the requisite fun with the ladies, but the real adventure starts when Crosby & Kaye discover that the inn is run by their old army general who's now in financial trouble. And the result is the stuff dreams are made of. Holiday InnWith music by Irving Berlin, songs by Bing Crosby and dancing by Fred Astaire, Holiday Inn is one of the most delightful and memorable musicals of all time, nominated* for 3 Academy Awards®. Crosby plays Jim Hardy, a song and dance man who leaves showbiz to open a Connecticut Inn. Astaire plays Ted Hanover, Hardy's former partner and rival in love. And, of course there are girls (Marjorie Reynolds and Virginia Dale), an agent (Walter Abel) and plenty of lavish song and dance routines with spectacular production numbers. Scrooge. The spirit of Christmas becomes a musical celebration of life in this rousing adaptation of Charles Dickens' beloved family classic, A Christmas Carol. Mean-spirited and stingy, Ebenezer Scrooge (Albert Finney) has a sour face and humbug for anyone who crosses his path. But on this Christmas Eve, he will learn the terrible fate that awaits him if he continues his miserly ways. One by one, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future take the startled Ebenezer on an incredible journey through time - showing him in one magical night what takes most people a lifetime to learn. Filled with joyous songs, this delightful tale is sure to enrich the lives of young and old alike for many more generations.

• Cruise of the Gods | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £7.12   |  Saving you £8.87 (124.58%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Both warmly funny and surprisingly touching, the one-off 90-minute BBC comedy Cruise of the Gods (2002) unites the twin comic talents of Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan for the first time. Brydon, whose Marion & Geoff brought him instant cult status and critical acclaim, plays Andy Van Allen, a washed-up actor who once enjoyed celebrity as the star of a TV science-fiction series but who is now down on his luck as a hotel porter. Desperate to rescue his self-esteem, but equally desperate to conceal his failure, he reluctantly embarks on a Mediterranean cruise for die-hard fans of the old show organised by uber-nerd Jeff Monks (David Walliams). To compound his humiliation, Van Allan's one-time costar, Nick Lee (Coogan), now a Hollywood big shot thanks to his starring role in Sherlock Holmes in Miami, gatecrashes the trip. Elements of both Marion & Geoff's agonising pathos and the squirm-inducing embarrassment of I'm Alan Partridge feature prominently here as the merciless portrayal of geeky fandom slowly gives way to a more gentle, affectionate portrait of people whose lives were inexplicably touched by the fantastically awful Children of Castor (imagine a camp cross between Blake's 7 and The Tomorrow People). Unlike the sympathetically pathetic ex-husband of Marion, here Brydon plays a cruelly cynical and embittered character, whose self-loathing contrasts painfully with the annoying ebullience of Coogan's superstar. The supporting cast are all a delight, too: witness lugubrious Philip Jackson, as alcoholic writer Hugh Bispham, clashing hilariously with Walliams' deadly earnest super-fan over the interpretation of names in the show, which turn out to be nothing more cryptic than anagrams of Bispham's favourite curries. James Corden and Helen Coker are emotionally fragile followers whose lives intertwine unexpectedly with their heroes, while Brian Conley and Jack Jones gamely provide cameos. --Mark Walker

• Enemy Mine | DVD | (03/06/2002) from £13.19   |  Saving you £9.79 (95.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Enemy Mine is, in essence, a sci-fi remake of John Boorman’s Hell in the Pacific (1969), only instead of a US pilot and a Japanese naval officer stranded on a Pacific island during WWII, here we have a lizard-like Draconian (Louis Gossett Jr.) and his mortal enemy, Earthling Dennis Quaid, both having crash-landed on a hostile planet during a brutal space battle. Forced to rely on one another for survival, they overcome their differences and become fast friends. (You can almost hear them break into an off-key version of "It's a Small World".) German director Wolfgang Petersen, so brutally honest with his film Das Boot, turns warm and cuddly on us with this intergalactic buddy movie. Although the script sets us up for an intriguing encounter, it ultimately settles for a simple and sentimental resolution. Noteworthy set design and strong performances, especially by Gossett, push this beyond mere mediocrity. His performance is fascinating, as he must speak in an alien tongue, which he maintains with artistry and consistency.--Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com On the DVD: Enemy Mine on disc is presented anamorphically in its original 2.35:1 theatrical ratio with a vivid Dolby 4.0 soundtrack. Thankfully picture and sound are excellent, since the extra features are lamentably poor, consisting merely of the theatrical trailer and three (yes, three) "behind the scenes" still pictures. The disc is also equipped with multiple language and subtitle options.--Mark Walker

• L.A. Confidential | Blu Ray | (02/10/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, LA Confidential is the real thing--a gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal and corruption of all sorts (police, political, press--and, of course, very personal) in 1940s Hollywood. The Oscar-winning screenplay is actually based on several titles in James Ellroy's series of chronological thriller novels (including the title volume, The Big Nowhere and White Jazz)--a compelling blend of LA history and pulp fiction that has earned it comparisons to the greatest of all Technicolour noir films, Chinatown. Kim Basinger richly deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a conflicted femme fatale; unfortunately, her male costars are so uniformly fine that they may have canceled each other out with the Academy voters: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey and James Cromwell play LAPD officers of varying stripes. Pearce's character is a particularly intriguing study in Hollywood amorality and ambition, a strait-laced "hero" (and son of a departmental legend) whose career goals outweigh all other moral, ethical and legal considerations. If he's a good guy, it's only because he sees it as the quickest route to a promotion. --Jim Emerson

• Top Gear - The Great Adventures 5 | Blu Ray | (26/03/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  India Special:In their most politically perilous overseas adventure to date, the boys defy the Prime Minister by embarking on a trade mission to India armed only with three old British cars, a trouser press and a badly behaved lawnmower. Along the way they attempt a disastrous train-based advertising campaign, host a rather unusual garden party and invent a brand new sport called straight six cricket. Plus, Jeremy has a small accident, Richard gets an unfortunate insect bite and James makes coronation chicken in the most colourful and comical special Top Gear has ever made.Supercars Across Italy:Closer to home, the presenters set off on a glorious road trip across Italy in three incredible supercars - the Lamborghini Aventador, the Noble M600 and the McLaren MP4-12C. Their adventure starts with an eye widening max speed run at the vast Nard proving ground which tests not only performance but also sheer bravery. After that the boys head towards Rome, encountering relaxed policemen and work-shy mechanics along the way, before continuing north for a date with one of the toughest and most dangerous challenges they've ever faced - hot laps of the uncompromising Imola Grand Prix track. Great cars, wonderful scenery, hilarious banter and the Stig's Italian cousin - this is Top Gear at its very best.

• In Darkness (DVD) | DVD | (09/07/2018) from £3.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Blind pianist Sofia (Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones) overhears a struggle in the apartment above hers that leads to the death of her neighbour, Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski, Gone Girl). It is the start of a journey that pushes Sofia out of her depth and into contact with Veronique's father, Zoran Radic (Jan Bijvoet, Peaky Blinders), a Serbian businessman and alleged war criminal accused of committing acts of genocide during the Bosnian war. Blind to the truth, Sofia risks her life in search of answers, and is plunged into a shady underworld of corruption, violence and blackmail. As secrets from her own past become intertwined with Radic's inner circle of deceit, Sofia's own agenda is revealed, as she hunts for revenge. Written and directed by Anthony Byrne (Peaky Blinders) and written by Natalie Dormer, In Darkness also features Ed Skrein (Deadpool) and Joely Richardson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and makes for a suspenseful thriller that will leave audiences gripped from beginning to end. Bonus Features: Interviews with Director and Cast

• Bret Maverick: The Complete Series | DVD | (09/05/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Psych - Season 4 | DVD | (18/07/2011) from £17.53   |  Saving you £12.46 (71.08%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Smart. Scientific. Psychic? The decidedly distinctive team of Shawn Spencer (James Roday) and Burton Guster (Dul Hill) from Psych P.I. are back for more laughs more mystery and more highly unusual cases in every wildly entertaining episode of Season Four. They might disagree but they can always depend on each other. In this captivating season of whimsical and wonderful whodunits their friendship and their business will be put to the test by a slew of potential culprits that include werewolves ghosts a shark and those they trust the most. Guest-starring Sendhil Ramamurthy (Heroes) James Brolin (Catch Me If You Can) Rachael Leigh Cook (She's All That) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) Psych continues to captivate viewers with the quirkiest detective duo to ever take on a case.