"Actor: Jean Claude B"

• Legionnaire | DVD | (03/05/2010) from £5.68   |  Saving you £0.31 (5.46%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Exiled to a video-only release when its distributor balked after the flop of Jean-Claude Van Damme's previous film Knock Off, this lavish adventure deserved a chance at theatrical success. Action icon Van Damme recasts himself as a tragic romantic hero in this entertaining old-fashioned adventure with a modern sensibility. "The Muscles from Brussels" is no Brando, but he acquits himself nicely as a cocky boxer who double-crosses a Marseilles mobster and joins the French Foreign Legion when his half-baked plan backfires with tragic consequences. Surrounded by a better than usual cast (including Steven Berkoff as a Teutonic drill sergeant, Jim Carter as the ruthless ganglord, and Nicholas Farrell as a gentleman soldier with a taste for gambling and a dark past), Van Damme's dour performance sometimes gets lost in the colourful characters around him. But that's okay--there's adventure enough to go around and he's willing to share it. The Marseilles scenes evoke a quaint movie past with their smoky bars and shadowy streets, but the film is reborn as an ambitious, stoic platoon drama in the sands of French Morocco. Legionnaire alludes to classic films from Beau Geste to Casablanca to Lawrence of Arabia, but ultimately marches its own macho course, revelling in testosterone-driven heroics and bonding-under-fire while acknowledging the irony of its colonial mission ("We're the intruders", realises one soldier). It's a calculated risk for Van Damme (who also co-wrote and co-produced), but if Legionnaire never quite grasps the epic scope it's reaching for, it remains one of his best films, an handsome, exciting and surprisingly grim desert adventure. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

• Double Team | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £5.19   |  Saving you £0.80 (15.41%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Look ma, no script! As expected from a movie by Hong Kong action director Hark Tsui, there are many explosive, fast-paced sequences in this Jean-Claude Van Damme vehicle. Some are thrilling, others inconsequential. There is also another mumbling, overdone performance by Mickey Rourke, who looks as if he performed his own plastic surgery. Except for an unintentionally humorous ending, the only surprise is Dennis Rodman as Van Damme's partner in exploitation. Rodman has plenty of charisma, but needs someone to weed out those inferior scripts. He plays an eccentric arms dealer coerced by an avenging Van Damme into tracking down the evil and sadistically weird character played by a well-muscled Rourke. It says little for the production that the best sequence of the movie occurs a quarter of the way into the action. It concerns an escape by Van Damme from an island think tank for forcibly retired covert agents. After that, everyone should have gone home. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com

• Street Fighter | Blu Ray | (14/09/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Matt varnish with metal coming through on the title treatment, necklace, belt and watch on the front and the submarine and the sixpence hat on the back. Shadaloo, Southeast Asia, 1995. As civil war enters its seventh month, warlord General M Bison (Raul Julia, The Addams Family) brings the crisis to the brink of global conflict when he takes 63 Allied Nations relief workers hostage, threatening to execute them unless a ransom of $20 billion is forthcoming. Colonel William F. Guile (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Timecop, Universal Soldier) is given the mission to rescue the hostages but first he must locate them. The action reaches fever pitch as Guile, Cammy (Kylie Minogue) Bison and their collective forces clash in a highly-charged climactic battle, with the fate of the free world hanging in the balance. From the writer of Die Hard and Judge Dredd, STREET FIGHTER is an action-packed, fun-filled film. Steelbook Special Features: The Making of Street Fighter featurette Commentary with Writer/Director Steven de Souza Deleted Scenes Street Fighter IV Anime and Game Trailers Photo Gallery

• The Trial Of Joan Of Arc | DVD | (23/05/2005) from £7.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Characteristically breaking with tradition director Robert Bresson presents a realistic unique view of the life and death of Joan of Arc. Using a script based on the actual transcript notes taken during her trial Bresson focuses on the psychological and physical torture that Joan had to endure showing how these techniques were used to break her resolve and cause her to eventually recant her faith. With impeccable historical accuracy Bresson re-creates the story of the peasant gi

• Les Biches | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-4.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Frederique (Audran) a wealthy woman with lesbian leanings picks up pretty but impoverished young Parisian Why (Sassard) on a whim and takes her to her holiday home in St. Tropez. Complicating this fledgeling relationship is the arrival of handsome architect Paul (Trintingnant) whose interest in menage a trois results in jealousy madness and ultimately murder...

• Claude Chabrol | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A stunning TV weathergirl (played by Ludivine Sagnier) finds herself torn between two suitors whose intentions remain very unclear

• The Quest | DVD | (01/06/2009) from £12.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Jean-Claude Van Damme directs and stars in this exciting fast moving action packed film which centres around Chris Dubois (Van-Damme) and the Ghan-Gheng a legendary 'special invite only' tournament that brings together the greatest fighters of the world in a winner takes all test of skill and courage. When Debois learns of the prestiegous tournament and the prize of a solid gold statue of a dragon he calls on his ""old friend"" Dobbs (Roger Moore) to help him enter the covena

• Knock Off | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £10.89   |  Saving you £-1.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Having based so much of his career on the films from the region, Jean Claude Van Damme heads to Hong Kong itself for his film Knock Off. Set in the 72 hours running up to the British handover to China (and released a mere year after the actual event), the film's action centres around the colony's thriving bootleg business, tied in with a rather convoluted plot concerning the CIA, Russian Mafia and an attempt to hold the United States to ransom through covert attacks. The opening section unwisely tries Van Damme's hand at knockabout humour with partner Rob Schneider but merely proves that the star is severely lacking the sort of humorous touch that Arnold Schwarzenegger has so successfully utilised. Once Knock Off descends into more familiar Van Damme territory, the film--and its leading man--are on surer ground. There are a good deal of spectacular fight sequences, some amazing stunts and a feisty female sparring partner in the form of Lela Rochen. Even the always-reliable Paul Sorvino pops up. Director Tsui Hark hits upon some interesting and initially invigorating visual effects but soon overdoes them, actually highlighting the lack of decent story rather than enhancing it. There is an incredible film to be made about this period in history but this isn't it. Knock Off is merely another undemanding, high-kicking, high-octane vehicle for Van Damme. --Phil Udell

• Chocolat | DVD | (23/03/2009) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A young single mother (Juliette Binoche), with her 6-year-old daughter in tow, moves to a small French village and opens an unusual chocolate shop.

• Desert Heat | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £6.97   |  Saving you £-0.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Versatility, thy name is Van Damme! So Arnold cries in End of Days? Hah! In this relentless revenge actioner, Jean-Claude not only cries, but has a drunk scene, suffers suicidal despair, does a little slapstick, and still manages to flash his ubiquitous butt. Which, of course, is what his legion of fans want to see him kick plenty of (other people's butts, that is; not his own). Van Damme may no longer generate any box-office heat (like 1998's Legionnaire, this bypassed cinemas to go straight to video), but he at least gives his fans what they want. Originally titled Coyote Moon, Desert Heat recalls that guilty pleasure Road House, as Eddie Lomax (Van Damme) comes to the rescue of a gallery of colourful characters terrorised by slobbering, drug-dealing bikers and rednecks in a dilapidated desert town. And this time, it's personal. As one denizen ominously observes, "There's trouble on the hoof and it's coming this way" for the three ill-fated bullies who beat up and shot Eddie and left him for dead. Despite its desert setting, Heat is an oasis for great character actors who pick up Van Damme's considerable slack. They include Danny Trejo (Con Air) as Eddie's Native American friend Johnny Sixtoes, Pat Morita (The Karate Kid), Larry Drake (Darkman), Vincent Schiavelli (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Ghost), Bill Erwin (Candy Stripe Nurses), and luscious Jaime Preslly as Dottie the waitress. The director is credited as Danny Mulroon, a pseudonym for John Avildsen, the Academy Award-winning director of Rocky. His career, too, seems to be on the ropes, but he keeps punching with some welcome eccentric touches. At one point Johnny gives the recuperating Eddie a foot massage (didn't he see Pulp Fiction?). And the script offers such goodies as a lovelorn bus driver (Tom's brother, Jim Hanks) inviting Dottie to see Yojimbo, and one biker's plea for mercy from a local tough: "Jessie, we were in high school together. I signed your yearbook". --Donald Liebenson, Amazon.com

• Last Action Hero / Kindergarten Cop / Twins | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Last Action Hero (Dir. John McTiernan 1993): Danny Madigan (Austin O'Brien) a young cinema fan is crazy about his all-time great movie hero L.A. cop Jack Slater (Arnold Schwarzenneger). Having received a magic golden cinema ticket Danny is blasted through the big screen and into the action alongside his celluloid hero who is more than a little puzzled by his presence. Fasten your seatbelt as the dare-devil duo dodge bullets bombs and bad guys in a whirlwind world where anything is possible! But. ..disaster strikes when the baddies grab half the magic ticket and make their escape into the real world where they find life a doddle for two rogues intent on madness and mayhem.With Jack and Danny in hot pursuit hold your breath as the action addicts discover that real life can be even more exciting than the movies Twins (Dir. Ivan Reitman 1998): An ambitious genetic experiment takes the wrong turn when two twins (Danny De Vito and Arnold Schwarzenegger) - who look nothing alike - are born and then separated. Years later the unlikely siblings meet: Julius a highly educated but sheltered giant with a big heart and Vincent a pint-sized hustler with an insatiable lust for women and money. With girl friends in tow and a hitman on their tail the new-found brothers set off on a wild cross-country misadventure to find their mother but end up finding out more about themselves and each other... Kindergarten Cop (Dir. Ivan Reitman 1990): Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as an undercover cop posing as a kindergarten teacher in order to catch a dangerous criminal. Once he wrangles his young charges as well as the affections of a beautiful teacher (Penelope Ann Miller) he prepares for a final showdown with his intended prey in this 'Totally Enjoyable' (People Magazine) action-comedy from Director Ivan Reitman.

• Un Coeur En Hiver | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Stephane and Maxime run a renowned violin making and repair business. One day Maxime introduces his partner to Camille the beautiful violinist he has being seeing. Camille is attracted to the enigmatic introverted Stephane who it seems may share her feelings but is incapable of expressing emotion. Convinced that she can find love beyond his cold exterior her attraction turns to obsession...

• The Wild Child | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An ingenious and poignant experience, Francois Truffaut's fascinating The Wild Child is based on a real-life 18th-century behavioural scientist's efforts to turn a feral boy into a civilised specimen. In a piece of resonant casting that immediately turns this story into an echo of the creative process, Truffaut himself plays Dr Itard, a specialist in the teaching of the deaf. Itard takes in a young lad (Jean-Pierre Cargol) found to have been living like an animal in the woods all his life. In the spirit of social experiment, Itard uses rewards and punishments to retool the boy's very existence into something that will impress the world. Beautifully photographed in black and white and making evocative use of such charmingly antiquated filmmaking methods as the iris shot, The Wild Child has a semi-documentary form that barely veils Truffaut's confessional slant. What does it mean to turn the raw material of life into a monument to one's own experience and bias? The question has all sorts of intriguing reverberations when one considers that Truffaut's own wild childhood was rescued by love of the cinema and that a degree of verisimilitude factors into his films starring Jean-Pierre Leaud--the troubled lad who grew up in Truffaut's work from The 400 Blows onward. (The Wild Child is dedicated to Leaud.) --Tom Keogh

• Universal Soldier | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Universal Soldier offered director Roland Emmerich and screenwriter Dean Devlin their first venture before going on to make a mountain of money as the creators of Independence Day and Godzilla. Teaming up for this action flick disguised as a science fiction thriller, muscle hunks Jean-Claude Van Damme and Dolph Lundgren play embattled Vietnam soldiers who kill each other in combat. They are subsequently revived 25 years later as semi-android "UniSols" in a high-tech army of the near future. Their memories were supposedly wiped clean, but flashbacks occur to remind them of their bitter hatred (Lundgren committed wartime atrocities; Van Damme had tried to stop him) and the warriors resume their tenacious battle while a journalist (Ally Walker) uncovers the truth about the secret UniSol program. With energy to spare, the standard action sequences are adequate for anyone with a short attention span. And besides, with Van Damme and Lundgren in the lead roles, who needs dialogue? --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Replicant | DVD | (07/01/2002) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jean-Claude Van Damme plays two roles in Replicant, a surprisingly good action thriller that also stars Michael Rooker as Jake Riley, a cop who's been tracking a serial killer called "The Torch" (Van Damme). Frustrated, Riley decides to retire--and the National Security Department makes him an offer: they've cloned "The Torch" as part of a programme to track down terrorists; they'll turn this replicant (Van Damme again, of course) over to Riley as a sort of test run for the programme. The idea is that the replicant will slowly recall the original person's memories and lead the cops to the original. It's ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the setup for the highly successful Face/Off, and it works just as well as the engine for an effective action flick. What makes Replicant more unusual is that the writers actually put some thought into the relationship between Riley and the replicant, which starts to mirror parent-child relationships in emotionally complex ways. Furthermore, while it's no surprise that Rooker gives a solid performance, it is surprising that Van Damme does just as good a job in both of his roles--he's perfectly creepy as the serial killer and genuinely affecting as the quickly developing replicant, projecting a mixture of innocence and turmoil. Replicant was directed by Hong Kong director Ringo Lam, the man behind Full Contact and City on Fire. He was clearly working on a limited budget, but the movie looks good, moves with lean efficiency, and has some riveting action sequences and good quality effects--the scenes where Van Damme (inevitably!) fights himself are completely convincing. A satisfying movie.--Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Paris Nous Appartient | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Paris Nous Appartient was 'Cahier Du Cinema' critic Jacques Rivette's first film as is regarded as one of the foremost examples of the movement. A young literature student studying in Paris Anna Goupil (Betty Schneider) is drawn to the mysterious suicide of a young Spanish man Juan following a discussion with his friends at a party. Taking a role in an amateur performance of Shakespeare's Pericles Anna uses the rehearsals to try to uncover the reason why Juan took his own life.

• The Lady And The Duke | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £17.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Using ground-breaking digital technology director Eric Rohmer inserts his actors into painted backdrops to relay the story of the French Revolution as told by Grace Elliot a Scottish aristocrat and the Duc d'Orleans's former mistress...

• Five Children And It / Two Brothers / James And The Giant Peach | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  5 Chidren And It: Written by E.Nesbit author of 'The Railway Children' this is the movie of five childrens' chance encounter with 'The Psammead' - an ancient extremely irritable sand fairy who has the ability to make wishes come. The only problem is that the wishes only last till sunset and the children also find it hard to think of sensible wishes! Two Brothers: Two tigers separated as cubs and taken into captivity are reunited years later as enemies by an explor

• Death In A French Garden | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £8.43   |  Saving you £11.56 (137.13%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Michel Deville's sleek drama of eroticism and murder was released in 1985 in France to great acclaim. It has all the ingredients required for an intriguing thriller: sex dishonesty voyeurism murder and a stunning cast. A rich business man and his young wife Julia hire David to teach guitar to their teenage daughter Vivianne. Julia quickly seduces David and they begin a steamy affair which unbeknownst to them is being filmed by the next door neighbour whom David has befriended.

• LES COUSINS | Blu Ray | (08/04/2013) from £62.57   |  Saving you £-42.58 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Made barely a year after Claude Chabrol's debut Le Beau Serge, Les Cousins featured the earlier film's same starring pair of Jean-Claude Brialy and Grard Blain, here reversing the good-guy/bad-guy roles of the previous picture. The result is a simmering, venomous study in human temperament that not only won the Golden Bear at the 1959 Berlin Film Festival, but also drew audiences in droves, and effectively launched Chabrol's incredible fifty-year-long career. A gripping and urbane examination of city and country, ambition and ease, Les Cousins continues to captivate and shock audiences with its brilliant scenario, the performances of Brialy and Blain, and the assuredness of Chabrol's precocious directorial hand. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Claude Chabrol's breakthrough film in a beautiful new Gaumont restoration on Blu-ray and DVD for the first time in the UK. Special Features: Gorgeous new Gaumont restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio, presented in 1080p on the Blu-ray New and improved English subtitles Original theatrical trailer A 47-minute documentary about the making of the film L'Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel [The Man Who Sold the Eiffel Tower], Chabrol's 1964 short film A lengthy booklet with a new and exclusive essay by critic Emmanuel Burdeau; a new and exclusive translation of a rare text about actress Franoise Vatel provided for this release by its author, the filmmaker and critic Luc Moullet; excerpts of interviews and writing by Chabrol; and more