"Actor: Janet Shaw"

• The Harder They Come | DVD | (24/08/2015) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Cult Jamaican classic starring reggae star Jimmy Cliff as Ivanhoe Martin a country boy who comes to Kingston to make it big in the music industry. Hampered by payola and music industry corruption Ivanhoe turns to ganjadealing to try and make ends meet. Events spiral out of his control and he soon fi nds himself on the run from the police. The celebrated soundtrack is peppered with reggae classics by the likes of Toots and the Maytals Desmond Dekker The Melodians and Cliff himself who performs among others the title track and the timeless ‘Many Rivers to Cross’.

• The Harder They Come | Blu Ray | (24/08/2015) from £9.45   |  Saving you £30.54 (323.17%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Cult Jamaican classic starring reggae star Jimmy Cliff as Ivanhoe Martin a country boy who comes to Kingston to make it big in the music industry. Hampered by payola and music industry corruption Ivanhoe turns to ganjadealing to try and make ends meet. Events spiral out of his control and he soon fi nds himself on the run from the police. The celebrated soundtrack is peppered with reggae classics by the likes of Toots and the Maytals Desmond Dekker The Melodians and Cliff himself who performs among others the title track and the timeless ‘Many Rivers to Cross’.

• Shadow Of A Doubt | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £5.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (49.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Alfred Hitchcock considered this 1943 thriller to be his personal favourite among his own films, and although it's not as popular as some of Hitchcock's later work, it's certainly worthy of the master's admiration. Scripted by playwright Thornton Wilder and inspired by the actual case of a 1920s serial killer known as "The Merry Widow Murderer," Shadow of a Doubt sets a tone of menace and fear by introducing a psychotic killer into the small-town comforts of Santa Rosa, California. That's where young Charlie (Teresa Wright) lives with her parents and two younger siblings, and where murder is little more than a topic of morbid conversation for their mystery-buff neighbour (Hume Cronyn). Charlie was named after her favourite uncle, who has just arrived for an extended visit, and at first Uncle Charlie (Joseph Cotten) gets along famously with his admiring niece. But the film's chilling prologue has already revealed Uncle Charlie's true identity as the notorious Merry Widow Murderer, and the suspense grows almost unbearable when young Charlie's trust gives way to gradual dread and suspicion. Through narrow escapes and a climactic scene aboard a speeding train, this witty thriller strips away the fa ade of small-town tranquillity to reveal evil where it's least expected. And, of course, it's all done in pure Hitchcockian style. --Jeff Shannon

• Janet Jackson - The Velvet Rope | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This lavish two-hour concert special, originally produced for HBO, offers ample proof of Janet Jackson's fierce ambitions. Whitney, Celine and Mariah can run circles around her small, sweet voice, but Janet brings a tough, muscular power to her live performances that none of those peers can approach, storming through myriad set and costume changes, and sustaining an aerobic pace through elaborate dance routines. As captured during this Madison Square Garden presentation of her Velvet Rope tour, Janet Jackson is, ahem, very buff indeed, not just in her well-toned physical health, but in her vocal attack.The Velvet Rope tosses up rappers, hard-rock heroism, melting romantic pop and Jackson's own brand of soft-core erotica, but the show transcends those components in its broad sense of spectacle. The star fronts a formidable battalion of dancers, singers and musicians to make her points, and while it's obvious that the musical performances have been nipped, tucked and polished to an acceptable sheen, Janet earns her props through sheer willpower.Ranging across Jackson's best-known songs from the last decade, the production is noteworthy for its intricate choreography and massive settings, in which the star seeks to match the big-budget sweep of her music videos. The live troupe is formidable, composed of a crack band and a large cast of nimble dancers, and Janet keeps pace with her aerobic presence. We'll leave it to social scientists to ponder the significance of the "Rope Burn" sequence, in which an ecstatic male fan is lashed to a chair and gets to watch his favourite sex object pole-dance. If this stalwart is any indication, Janet has already won the hearts (and more) of her faithful. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• Prick Up Your Ears | DVD | (10/10/2005) from £7.97   |  Saving you £0.02 (0.25%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Based on John Lahr's biography of the same name and co-written by Alan Bennett, Prick Up Your Ears charts the 16-year relationship between the monstrously talented but deeply selfish playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman), author of West End farces such as Loot and What the Butler Saw, and his neurotic but nevertheless wronged lover and collaborator Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina). Halliwell introduced Orton to art, literature and gay sex only to see his protégeacute; outstrip his mentor with innate and rampant talent for sexual conquest. By turns hilarious and excoriatingly painful, it's as much a tribute to an anti-hero of our times-Orton's ruthless frankness and anarchic mindset helped form the basis of what's called the "queer" sensibility today--as it is a portrait of the Swinging 60s just after the reform of anti-homosexuality laws irrevocably changed society. The modern-day framing device has Lahr (Wallace Shawn) researching his book through interviews with Peggy Ramsay (Vanessa Redgrave), Orton's agent and the diary he wrote, a nimble device which ends up drawing a provocative parallel between Orton and Halliwell's relationship and that of Lahr and his wife (Lindsay Duncan). Director Stephen Frears, fresh off the back of the also-gay-themed My Beautiful Laundrette, nimbly balances our sympathies for both the protagonists while the leads give what may in retrospect look like the standout performances of their careers: Oldman was never more feral and charming, while Molina, foppishingly fretting over his wig and decrying that his lover "even sleeps better than I do" is simply heartbreaking. --Leslie Felperin

• Harder They Come | DVD | (12/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A poor Jamaican tries to make it big in the music industry. Featuring an outstanding reggae soundtrack, it caused unprecedented scenes on its first night in Kingston, when 40,000 people turned out for the premiere. It is now an acknowledged cult classic and Yardie movie.

• The Harder They Come | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £26.38   |  Saving you £-10.13 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Director-producer Perry Henzel's all-Jamaican 1973 classic The Harder They Come--one of the most beloved of all international cult favourites--fiercely expresses the live-wire Jamaican spirit when an impoverished Africa tuned to American radio. Ivan, a country boy who dreams of fame as a singer, rides into Kingston on a rickety country bus in the opening scenes, only to meet with disaster heaped on disaster at the hands of those masked as friends. In a breathless defining climax, Ivan finally breaks from his passivity and begins to wreak his revenge. Soon Kingston's music Mafia and the equally corrupt authorities are after him, but like the real-life people's hero (a man named Rhygin) on whom this character is partially based, Ivan leads them on a maddening chase eluding capture until the movie's shocking final moments. ,p. The film incorporates an archetypal passion for "outlaw" justice common to American Westerns, which were a staple of the Caribbean theatre circuit at the time. Released just 12 years after Jamaica achieved independence, The Harder They Come also reflects the disenchantment that soon followed a massive post-independence exodus from the island's country hamlets to the tropical ghettos of Kingston, where a more grinding urban poverty awaited. Brilliantly shot, directed, written, and acted; singer Jimmy Cliff excels in the leading role and Carl Bradshaw shines as his arch-enemy, the film tells an anthemic Jamaican story to seductive rhythms of a soundtrack that became a reggae bestseller.--Elena Oumano

• The Harder They Come | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ivanhoe Martin comes to the city to make it big singing Reggae. However he finds life in the city to be harder than he though and is taken advantage of by both the record producer and the marijuana boss he later starts dealing for. When he kills a police officer events start escalating that make him the Jamaica's most wanted man and a momentary hero to all the oppressed Jamaicans. This is based on a true story.