"Actor: Joan"

• Toy Story & Toy Story 2 - Three Disc Collector's Set | DVD | (11/12/2000) from £7.92   |  Saving you £32.07 (404.92%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Toy Story 1 John Lasseter's Toy Story poses the universal and magical question of what do toys do when they are not being played with? Cowboy Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks), Andy's favourite bedroom toy, tries to calm the other toys during a wrenching time of year--the birthday party, when newer toys may replace them. Sure enough, Space Ranger Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) is the new toy that takes over the throne. Buzz has a crucial flaw, though--he believes he is the real Buzz Lightyear, not a toy. Bright and cheerful, Toy Story is much more than a 90-minute commercial for the inevitable bonanza of Woody and Buzz toys. Lasseter further scores with perfect voice casting, including Don Rickles as Mr Potato Head and Wallace Shawn as a meek dinosaur. The director-animator won a special Oscar "For the development and inspired application of techniques that have made possible the first feature-length computer-animated film". In other words, the movie is great. Toy Story 2 Like the handful of other great movie sequels, Toy Story 2 comments on why the first one was so wonderful while finding a fresh angle worthy of a new film. The craze of toy collecting becomes the focus here, as we find out that Woody (voiced by Tom Hanks) is not only a beloved toy to Andy but also a rare doll from a popular 1960s children's show. When a greedy collector takes Woody, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen) launches a rescue mission with Andy's other toys. To say more would be a crime because this is one of the most creative and smile-inducing films since, well, the first Toy Story.Although the toys look the same as in the 1994 feature, Pixar shows how much technology has advanced: the human characters look more human, backgrounds are superior, and two action sequences that book-end the film are dazzling. And it's a hoot for kids and adults. The film is packed with spoofs, easily accessible in-jokes and inspired voice casting (with newcomer Joan Cusack especially a delight as Cowgirl Jessie). But as the Pixar canon of films illustrates, the filmmakers are storytellers first. Woody's heart-tugging predicament can easily be translated into the eternal debate of living a good life versus living for forever. Toy Story 2 was deservedly a huge box-office success. --Doug Thomas

• Dagon | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  With Dagon, director Stuart (Re-Animator) Gordon returns once more to author HP Lovecraft, this time for an adaptation of the novella The Shadow Over Innsmouth, with the setting switched from the coast of New England to the creepy Spanish fishing village of Inboca. After a sudden storm and a yacht-wreck, a bespectacled and bewildered Paul Marsh (Ezra Gooden) finds himself stranded in the literally fishy town, which has thrown over Catholicism to devote itself to the worship of the Philistine sea-god Dagon. His influence means that the inhabitants are transforming into pop-eyed, tentacled and gilled creatures. Though Gooden perhaps strikes too strident a note to convince as an everyday guy, director Gordon orchestrates the rising terrors well. These range from a supremely damp and uncomfortable hotel room through an impressive flashback about the rise of the Esoteric Order of Dagon to some sinister business with a mad-eyed mermaid (Macarena Gomez), human sacrifice and nasty surprises all round. Unfortunately, Gordon still can't quite distinguish between acceptably gruesome and downright nasty, especially when it comes to disposing of secondary female characters. On the plus side, Dagon boasts an excellent score, which even tries to set to music some of Lovecraft's invented language ("Ia Ia Cthulhu fh'tagn"). --Kim Newman

• Arlington Road | DVD | (27/03/2017) from £8.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It's easy to understand why Arlington Road sat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut, Going All the Way, suffered the same fate, essentially because the film-maker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward and things usually end badly. Arlington Road begins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalised reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbour's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behaviour. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for a while, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. But Arlington Road possesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. --Dave McCoy

• It Happened at the World's Fair | Blu Ray | (22/06/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Group | DVD | (06/04/2015) from £7.34   |  Saving you £5.65 (43.50%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett and Elizabeth Hartman star in this 1960s drama directed by Sidney Lumet. As a group of girls prepare to graduate from private school and start their lives in the outside world, they embark upon romances and marriages, new paths and careers and battle sexual prejudices, family crises and financial difficulties. The cast also includes Shirley Knight, Joanna Pettet, Mary-Robin Redd, Jessica Walter and Kathleen Widdoes.

• Wild Side | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Alex Lee (Heche) is a loan officer at an international bank who is forced into moonlighting as a hooker when her own debts begin to mount. One night Alex encounters a new client financial racketeer Bruno (Walken) who becomes obsessed with Alex's dominating sexual performance. Fearing she may be working for the FBI Bruno sends his bodygaurd Tony (Bauer) to check her out. Meanwhile Bruno's estranged wife Virginia (Chen) meets Alex at her bank and the two women become instant

• Sea Wife | DVD | (03/09/2012) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A British cargo ship carrying hundreds of refugees fleeing from Singapore is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine and sunk. Four survivors find themselves adrift on the high seas sharing a flimsy dinghy - a colonial businessman (Basil Sydney), an officer (Richard Burton), the ship's purser (Cy Grant) and a beautiful but mysterious young woman (Joan Collins).As the survivors fight to stay alive, the tensions - and attractions - between them grow stronger until they can't be contained any longer. Two of them share a fateful secret, which can never be revealed. The result is murder - and the start of a long, desperate search for true love...

• Bellini: Norma | DVD | (02/04/2001) from £26.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Bellini's Norma, first performed in 1831, is one of the most glittering jewels in the bel canto repertoire, placing huge vocal demands on the soprano in the title role. The druid priestess who falls prey to human frail ties before redeeming her grace in the flames of the sacrificial fire must also be played with a high degree of dramatic truth. In the 20th century, two singers scaled new heights in combining these requirements: Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland. Sutherland's great achievement, preserved in this 1978 recording of Opera Australia's production at Sidney Opera House, was to render Norma a very human being, unravelling her complex reactions to the events which bring her personal world tumbling down around her. Using Bellini's deceptively simple melodies to tender effect, she reveals the essential purity of many of his greatest arias, not least "Casta diva": an equally valid alternative to Callas' pyrotechnics. Ronald Stevens as Norma's errant Roman lover Pollione and Margreta Elkins as Adalgisa, the unwitting agent of the priestess's ultimate downfall, strike vocal sparks in their duets with Sutherland. But this is essentially a treasurable record of one of the all-time great divas in a role that brought her some of her finest notices, with her husband and long-time collaborator Richard Bonynge in the conductor's box. On the DVD: In all respects, this is a solid offering with few frills. The only extra is an Arthaus trailer. The 4:3 picture format and PCM stereo-sound quality are adequate media for a theatrical performance which is very much of its time: crudely-edited plot explanations separate the acts and there is the imposition of some rather naff stills of the ill-fated lovers on flickering flames to suggest the pyre. But Sutherland's performance triumphs over all. --Piers Ford

• Mad Love | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £19.44   |  Saving you £-4.45 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Soon after their first meeting Matt and Casey's relationship turns into a love affair. Under pressure from their parents to break up they decide to hit the road in a desperate attempt to stay together....

• Girl Stroke Boy (UK Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (17/01/2022) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on David Percival's acclaimed play Girlfriend, Girl Stroke Boy is a one-of-a-kind comedy which tells of two everyday, middle-class parents who are confounded when their son brings home his new partner: an elegant, confusingly androgynous West Indian (actor and pop star Peter Straker in a pioneering performance). Directed with an affectionate, light touch by Bob Kellet (Up Pompeii, Space: 1999) and featuring a superb cast, including Joan Greenwood (Mysterious Island, Kind Hearts and Coronets), Michael Hordern (The Missionary, Barry Lyndon), Patricia Routledge (To Sir, with Love), and Clive Francis (A Clockwork Orange), Girl Stroke Boy still packs a punch today thanks to Straker's flamboyant performance (British cinema's first gay leading role to be played by a black actor) and the prescient subject matter. Long out of circulation, this new, restored edition marks the film's worldwide Blu-ray premiere.

• Worzel Gummidge - The Crowman / A Little Learning / Worzel Pays A Visit | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £4.90   |  Saving you £1.09 (22.24%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Worzel has misplaced one of his turnip heads; this time it's his 'learning' head which makes him very clever. Meanwhile Mr Peters working on the school roof makes a welcome discovery...

• Alexei Sayle's Stuff - Series 2 | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This DVD features complete second series of the popular Liverpudlian comedian in his pomp; a winning combination of Pythonesque surrealism and 'alternative' comedy philosophy honed with a satirical edge.

• Born to Be Bad | DVD | (09/05/2011) from £15.96   |  Saving you £-2.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Christabel (Joan Fontaine) comes to live with her cousin Donna Foster (Joan Leslie) she fools everyone with her sugary exterior. But soon the calculating, rapacious Christabel begins to sow seeds of discontent between Donna and her wealthy fianc Curtis (Zachary Scott) by convincing Curtis that his fianc is a gold-digger. When their engagement is broken and Donna leaves for London, Christabel tricks Curtis into marrying her. But it is only his money that Christabel is passionate about because she is in love with Nick (Robert Ryan), a rugged writer who loves her in return, but hates her for what she had done and who she is.

• Man on the Run | Blu Ray | (06/04/2020) from £11.13   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A key post-war British Noir unseen since the late 1940s, Man on the Run stars Derek Farr as an army deserter unjustly accused of murdering a policeman during an armed robbery. Co-starring Edward Chapman, Laurence Harvey and Kenneth More, it is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. A prison escapee, army deserter Peter Burdon makes a new life for himself in London. Short of cash, he tries to pawn his old service revolver and is caught up in an armed robbery, during which a constable is shot and killed. Suspected of being part of the gang, Burdon must go on the run to prove his innocence. SPECIAL FEATURE: Image gallery

• Carry On Girls | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Carry On Girls was the last really successful instalment of the epic series of British film comedies. It's studded with gems of cameo performances and a tremendously innuendo-laden Talbot Rothwell script that is easily the equal of any of its predecessors. The setting, a beauty contest to raise the profile of the dismal resort Fircombe-on-Sea, is ripe for politically incorrect activity of the sort that could only be conducted by Sid James at the height of his lecherous powers. Enter Bernard Bresslaw in a corset, Wendy Richard as Ida Downs, Barbara Windsor as Miss Easy Rider and a host of other semi-clad lovelies and watch as the whole thing rises to a slapstick climax of frisky old colonels, bikinis, bosoms and itching powder. In the smaller roles, Joan Hickson (BBC television's Miss Marple) is hilarious as an elderly woman who believes she is a man-magnet and the always under-used Patsy Rowlands excels as the downtrodden mayor's wife, a worm who finally turns. But in many ways this is June Whitfield's film. As the terrifying reactionary councillor Mrs Prodworthy, with a butch lesbian sidekick, she plots the downfall of her male colleagues with classic lines. "Rosemary, get the candle", she orders as Patsy Rowlands requests initiation into the cause. Margaret Thatcher never sounded so ominous. On the DVD: Like most of the other DVD Carry On releases, this one is presented in 4:3 format with a mono soundtrack. All right, you don't really need anything more sophisticated to recreate the cosy ritual of Carry On watching in your living room. And the print is good and sharp. But apart from the usual scene index, the lack of extras reflects a disappointingly unimaginative approach to celebrating a genre of film comedy that, for all its low budget reputation, provided a showcase for the cream of a whole generation of British comic actors. They deserve better.--Piers Ford

• The Lady Says No | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £4.98   |  Saving you £-0.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• Luciano Pavarotti: A Life in Seven Arias | DVD | (09/02/2009) from £14.80   |  Saving you £2.45 (18.09%)   |  RRP £15.99

• The Last Emperor | Blu Ray | (19/04/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Winner of nine Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor following Pu Yi the last of the Emperor's of China from his birth in 1908 through his childhood in the fortress-like Forbidden City and his later misguided collaboration with the Japanese in World War II THE LAST EMPEROR tells the history of modern China through the eyes of the man brought up to believe that he was the country's divine ruler. One of the biggest and most ambitious films of the era filmed almost entirely on location in China in 1986 Bertolucci and his producer Jeremy Thomas were the first Western film-makers to be allowed to make a film about modern China.

• WE'RE NO ANGELS | Blu Ray | (24/11/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Deadly Nightshade | DVD | (04/03/2013) from £6.49   |  Saving you £6.50 (100.15%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Robert Matthews (Emrys Jones) is arrested in Cornwall when he is mistaken for convict John Barlow, to whom he bears a striking resemblance. When Barlow hears of this, he makes his way to Matthews' cottage and takes his place. When there is a local shipwreck, one of the survivors is Anne Farrington, Matthews' fiancée. Barlow takes her in, maintaining his imposture, but soon discovers that Matthews is not all he seems.