"Actor: James Owen"

• Thin Blue Line, The - The Complete Thin Blue Line | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £17.96   |  Saving you £-7.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Set in a fictitious suburb rather like, say, Pinner (only more so), The Thin Blue Line is the wickedly funny story of a rather down-at-heel police station headed by Inspector Raymond Fowler (Rowan Atkinson), a pompous, repressed but well-intentioned anachronism who wants to do the right thing but who is constantly hampered by his own shortcomings, not to mention his blundering CID colleagues. Atkinson expertly balances his character's inflated sense of self-importance with the insight born of old-school police values, for which his galumphing, shiny-suited CID counterpart, DI Grim (David Haig) has no time at all. Strongest among the supporting cast is Sgt Pauline Dawkins (Serena Evans), who also happens to be Fowler's live-in lover--a moral dilemma that his traditional values won't allow him to resolve. He salves his conscience by avoiding sex with her whenever possible, an amusing subplot enhanced by Evans's brilliant performance--she positively vibrates with contained, ladylike lust in a manner only equalled by Penelope Keith in the classic sitcom To the Manor Born. Scripted by Ben Elton, this series manages to satirise provincialism, institutionalised pig-headedness and dated moral values in one fell swoop, while also being chock-full of quick-fire, Blackadder-esque dialogue. --Roger Thomas

• Bottle Rocket - The Criterion Collection | Blu Ray | (04/12/2017) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Wes Anderson first illustrated his lovingly detailed, slightly surreal cinematic vision in this witty and warm portrait of three young middleclass misfits. Fresh out of a mental hospital, gentle Anthony (Luke Wilson) finds himself once again embroiled in the machinations of his best friend, elaborate schemer Dignan (Owen Wilson). With the aid of getaway driver Bob (Robert Musgrave), they develop a needlessly complex, mildly successful plan to rob a small bookstorethen go on the lam. Also featuring Lumi Cavazos as Inez, the South American housekeeper Anthony falls in love with, and James Caan as local thief extraordinaire Mr. Henry, Bottle Rocket is a charming, hilarious, affectionate look at the folly of dreamers. Shot against radiant southwestern backdrops, it's the film that put Anderson and the Wilson brothers on the map. Director-Approved Special Edition Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson and director of photography Robert Yeoman Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack (DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 on Blu-ray) Commentary by director/co-writer Anderson and co-writer/star Owen Wilson The Making of Bottle Rocket: an original documentary by filmmaker Barry Braverman featuring Anderson, James L. Brooks, James Caan, Temple Nash Jr., Kumar Pallana, Polly Platt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Robert Musgrave, Richard Sakai, David and Sandy Wasco, Andrew, Luke, and Owen Wilson, and Robert Yeoman The original thirteen-minute black-and-white Bottle Rocket short film from 1992 11 deleted scenes Anamorphic screen test, storyboards, location photos, and behind-the-scenes photographs by Laura Wilson The Shafrazi Lectures, no. 1: Bottle Rocket Murita Cycles, a 1978 short film by Braverman PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by executive producer James L. Brooks, an appreciation by Martin Scorsese, and original artwork by Ian Dingman

• Shakespeare: The Animated Tales | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Renowned author and Shakespeare scholar Leon Garfield adapts 12 plays, abridged and animated renditions of the classic texts that are fully faithful to the narrative and language of the Bard. The adaptations use a variety of animation techniques and features the vocal talents of Felicity Kendal, Alun Armstrong, Joss Ackland and Zoe Wanamaker, among others. The plays are: 'Macbeth'; 'Hamlet'; 'Romeo and Juliet'; 'Othello'; 'Twelfth Night'; 'As You Like It'; 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'; 'The Ta...

• Island At War | DVD | (04/04/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Philip Glenister, Saksia Reeves, James Wilby, Clare Holman and Downton Abbey's Joanne Froggatt feature among an outstanding cast in this exceptional six-part drama set in the Channel Islands during World War II. Written by Stephen Mallatratt best known for his iconic staging of Susan Hill's The Woman in Black Island at War is set on the fictional St. Gregory but based on real events from the 1940s, and explores the moral conflict and hardship that became part of everyday life for the Islanders under occupation. The German invasion begins brutally with a bombing raid that kills many islanders before troops move in to occupy the towns and villages. Determined to maintain control, Oberst Baron von Rheingarten makes it clear to the islanders that all freedoms are restricted; a curfew is imposed, transport is limited to cycling, homes are requisitioned and Jews are forced to attempt to escape or conceal their identity. The islanders struggle to decipher right and wrong in this strange situation where both friend and foe must live side by side at times, quite literally...

• When We Were Kings | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £9.43   |  Saving you £2.56 (27.15%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Muhammad Ali's 1974 knockout of George Foreman to regain the heavyweight championship of the world at the age of 32 was probably the greatest sporting moment of the 20th century. Leon Gast's documentary on the "Rumble In The Jungle", When We Were Kings, eventually released in 1996, is probably the finest ever boxing film. The background to the contest was almost as dramatic as the fight itself. It was the first major coup for promoter Don King, a character described in this film as "very clever but completely amoral"--yet this was his finest hour. President Mobutu, unsavoury dictator of Zaire and a more frightening figure than either boxer, had spent millions of his country's money to host the event. George Foreman, like Sonny Liston before him and Mike Tyson after him, was considered unbeatable, expected to slaughter Ali. Seeing him pounding a dent the size of a grapefruit into a heavy bag during training, you can understand why. Ringside American journalists George Plimpton and in particular Norman Mailer offer exceptionally shrewd insights. As we stare into Ali's face during the minute interval at the end of round one, Mailer talks us through his probable thought processes. "That was the only time I ever saw fear in his eyes." Ali, of course, is the star, besting the sullen Foreman in the build-up with his freewheeling, hilarious braggadocio then outfoxing him in the fight with his "rope-a-dope" technique. Like Ali, the "Rumble In The Jungle" transcended sports in its inspirational significance. --David Stubbs

• Kidnapped | DVD | (28/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Cheated out of his rightful inheritance after being kidnapped young David Balfour joins forces with daring adventurer Alan Breck Stewart and together they flee across the Highlands to evade the King's redcoat forces...

• Henry V | DVD | (17/06/2002) from £6.54   |  Saving you £3.45 (52.75%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Very few first-time film directors would have been capable of making such a triumphant adaptation of Henry V; but a still-youthful Kenneth Branagh's years of stage experience paid off handsomely and his 1989 version qualifies as a genuine masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules: Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the Bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an anti-war story in contrast to Olivier's patriotic spectacle. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and wilful eyes revealing much about the personal cost of war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments: his scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) trying to learn English quickly from her maid are delightful. What may be the crowning glory of Branagh's adaptation comes when the dazed leader wanders across the battlefield, not even sure who has won. As King Hal carries a dead boy (a young Christian Bale) over the hacked bodies of both the English and French, a panorama of blood and mud and death greet the viewer as Branagh opens up the scene and Patrick Doyle's rousing hymn "Non nobis, Domine" provides marvellous counterpoint (like the director, the composer was another filmic first-timer). A more potent expression of the price of victory could scarcely be imagined. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com

• Meet The Parents (Special Edition) | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This new comedy from the director of Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me follows Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) in his doomed attempts to impress his would-be father-in-law Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro)

• Game On: Complete Series 1 - 3 | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Join Matthew (the agoraphobic self-obsessed macho man); Martin (the wimpish sex-starved underdog) and Mandy (the gorgeous blonde who always seems to end up with the wrong men) in this outrageously funny flat-share comedy that is anything but politically correct. In the second series Mandy decides that being celibate could solve her problems with men but finds it extremely difficult to say no. A friend helps Matthew overcome his agoraphobia and he ventures outside the flat o

• Carry On Cabby | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.46   |  Saving you £10.53 (163.00%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A rare Carry On with more interest in having a proper plot than tossing off gags every line, Cabby is also one of the friendliest of the series, built around the relationship between a cackling but good-hearted Sid James and an unusually touching Hattie Jacques. Sid's so obsessed with his taxi business that he neglects his wife, spending their wedding anniversary driving expectant father Jim Dale to and from the maternity hospital on a false alarm that naturally pays off with a delivery in the back of the cab. This drives Hattie to set up her own rival firm ("Glam Cabs"), employing dolly birds in tailored uniforms to undercut the likes of Kenneth Connor and Charles Hawtrey. It ends happily, with a pair of hold-up men trapped in a ring of taxis and the marriage saved. Among the expected Carry On bits: Connor in drag, Amanda Barrie in a corset, Hawtrey in a leather jacket as a devout rambler ("We like to go as far as we can"), Liz Fraser as Connor's perky intended. Kenneth Williams is missed, but his role as the obnoxious shop steward (Carry On producer Peter Rogers never missed a chance to be nasty about the unions) is ably taken by Norman Chappell. Other familiar faces are Bill Owen, Peter Gilmore, Milo O'Shea, Renee Houston and Michael Ward as the tweedy businessman who has apparently left a pearl earring in the back of Connor's cab. On the DVD: No extras, but it's a smashing widescreen presentation of a pristine black and white print. --Kim Newman

• Muck And Brass - The Complete Series | DVD | (01/03/2010) from £11.47   |  Saving you £8.52 (74.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Muck And Brass: The Complete Series (2 Discs)

• Arsenic and Old Lace (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (11/10/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• 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

• Georgy Girl | DVD | (02/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Available for the first time on DVD! The wildest thing to hit the world since the mini-skirt! Lynn Redgrave stars as the homely girl who takes on the role of mother to her beautiful roommate's unwanted baby. With her father's employer trying to take her on as a mistress and her roommate's husband taking her on as an easy lover Redgrave's Georgy navigates the narrows between prostitution and purity as she tries to hang on to the baby she has grown to love...

• Bottle Rocket | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-7.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bottle Rocket is a quietly daffy comedy that should have been an indie hit, but ended up being ignored by audiences. Too bad; it's a wonderfully sustained caper movie about friends whose career choice is all wrong. Low-key Anthony (Luke Wilson) and high-strung Dignan (Owen C Wilson--the two actors are brothers) are brought into a life of crime by Dignan's ambition to be a small-time thief. After a few amusingly laid-back trial burglaries, they (and a third buddy) find themselves over their heads when they hook up with an experienced crime boss (James Caan). Because this movie is so relentlessly deadpan, you really have to be dialled in to its brand of humour--but you're once there, Bottle Rocket shoots off plenty of sparks. Above all, Owen Wilson's portrayal of Dignan is a terrifically original comic creation; Dignan is so sincerely focused on his goals that he can't see how completely absurd his ideas are. Owen Wilson, who has since made something of a trademark out of similarly knuckle-headed performances in everything from Armageddon to Starsky & Hutch, wrote the screenplay with director Wes Anderson. --Robert Horton

• I - Proud To Be An Indian | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  I a young Indian is forced to migrate to London with his father staying with his older brother and his family. Once in London he starts to discover that on account of the National Front the middle class Asian families are living a frightened existance...

• Less Than Zero | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Less Than Zero is adapted from the dreary, pointless late-80s novel by literary poseur Bret Easton Ellis, which focused on listless, shiftless, drug-sniffing, sex-swapping, dead-end California teens with too much money and time on their hands--though the movie is not nearly as interesting as that. This is mostly due to the ridiculously cleaned-up script and lifeless direction, which whitewashes the baser depravity and replaces it with perversion-lite and fashion shows. It doesn't help that director Marek Kanievska is saddled with Brat Pack lesser (make that least) lights Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz. The only things that lift this film above the muck are the performances by James Spader as a particularly heinous drug dealer and Robert Downey Jr as a rich-kid addict with no self-control. --Marshall Fine

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• Adam Sandler Box Set: Billy Madison/Bulletproof/Happy Gilmore | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A triple bill of Adam Sandler movies including Billy Madison Bulletproof and Happy Gilmore. Billy Madison: He's heir to the Madison Hotel millions but the only subjects Billy has studied lately are babes and booze. For him life has been a ten-year party since he left high school: drinking bottomless daiquiris catching rays by the pool pulling moronic pranks and chasing anything in (or out of!) a skirt. But when Brian Madison informs his goofball son that he plans to turn over his Fortune 500 company to vice president and corporate weasel Eric Gordon Billy makes the bet of his life. He's going back to school - grades 1 through 12 in 24 weeks! - with hilarious results. And this time Mr Madison's cheque book won't be the source of Billy's academic advancement. Can bona fide blockhead Billy clean up his act to win his father's respect the family fortune and the love of his beautiful teacher Veronica? Hey it's worth a shot! Bulletproof: Once inseparable pals Archie Moses (Sandler) and Rock Keats (Wayans) find themselves on opposite sides of the law each feeling betrayed by the other. In fact the only person who hates them more than they hate each other is ruthless drug kingpin Frank Colton (James Caan) who wants to put them both six feet under! Now through a strange twist of fate Moses and Keats are on the run - together. With a little luck the bungling boys just might get out of this one alive... if they don't kill each other first! Happy Gilmore: Happy a raucous hockey player turned golfer sends the sedate sport of golf into overdrive after he becomes a media sensation with his outlandish antics on the links!

• The Years Between | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £18.96   |  Saving you £-2.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Michael Redgrave Valerie Hobson Flora Robson and Felix Aylmer star in this moving and sophisticated story of love and loss set against the backdrop of the Second World War and based on the play by Daphne Du Maurier. After hearing news that her officer husband has been killed in battle Diana Wentworth forges a new life for herself becoming an MP and learning to love again. Then out of the blue comes the shattering news that her husband is not dead after all...