"Actor: John B"

• Thunderbirds: Volume 4 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £7.01   |  Saving you £8.98 (56.20%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR--[explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax]--and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a)the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audience's affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. On this DVD: The four episodes are: "Vault of Death", "The Mighty Atom", "City of Fire" and "The Imposters". Amazon.com

• Another Stakeout | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £7.97   |  Saving you £7.02 (88.08%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The sequel to the 1987 FBI action comedy, Another Stakeout sees the unlikely crime-fighting duo, again played by Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez, getting involved in, well, another stakeout. This time they are joined by Rosie O'Donnell (one of the comedienne's first film roles) as assistant DA and have to masquerade as the perfect nuclear family to flush out a star witness in their case against the mob. Pretty much the entire cast and crew from Stakeout are reunited by director John Badham for the sequel and, luckily, there is enough new material, slapstick comedy moments and solid performances from the trio of stars to ensure that this isn't just a rehash of the original. The film has a few laugh-out-loud moments, such as the dinner party the bogus family throw so that they can get the couple next door out of the house to enable Estevez to bug it, and there is a brilliant cameo performance from Dennis Farina (Get Shorty, Snatch) as the clueless next-door neighbour. This is not a classic by any means but is entertaining nonetheless. --Kristen Bowditch

• Baby Snatcher | DVD | (29/07/2003) from £6.77   |  Saving you £-0.78 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on a true story this is the chilling account of how one woman's torment led her to commit a despicable and selfish crime. The desperate need of a childless 38-year old Bianca Hudson to have a child arouses in her the darkest most primitive instincts. When she fears she may lose her husband Cal who longs for a family of his own Bianca's desperation reaches dramatic proportions as she hatches a sinister plan: she fakes a pregnancy abducts the baby of a complete stranger - Karen Williams - and passes it off as her own. Incredibly the plan works. But for Karen a young single mother struggling to raise two children and pregnant again by her married boyfriend the abduction marks merely the beginning of a nightmare train of events.

• The Tuskegee Airmen | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-0.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  The true story of how a group of African American pilots overcame racist opposition to become one of the finest US fighter groups in World War II.

• White Nights | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko a ballet star (Mikhail Baryshnikov) who has defected from the Soviet Union to the West finds himself unexpectedly back in the Soviet Union as a result of his airplane crash-landing in Siberia. Meanwhile Raymond Greenwood (Gregory Hines) a Harlem-born and bred professional dancer disenchanted with America after his Vietnam experiences defects to the Soviet Union. The K.G.B. blackmails the American defector to spy on Baryshnikov and to persuade him to rec

• All Creatures Great and Small - Series 1, Part 2 | DVD | (05/05/2003) from £8.25   |  Saving you £18.00 (257.51%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on James Herriot's autobiographical best sellers 'If Only They Could Talk' and 'It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet' the long running TV series 'All Creatures Great and Small' continued to satisfy the Herriot hysteria of the British public.

• Dad's Army - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £4.96   |  Saving you £11.03 (222.38%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The complete collection of the third series of episodes (in colour) featuring the inept Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his unruly Home Guard platoon... Episodes comprise: 1. The Armoured Might Of Lance Corporal Jones 2. Battle School 3. The Lion Has Phones 4. The Bullet Is Not For Firing 5. Something Nasty In The Vault 6. Room At The Bottom 7. Big Guns 8. The Day The Balloon Went Up 9. War Dance 10. Menace From The Deep 11. Branded 12. Man Hunt 13. No Spring

• Raising Cain | Blu Ray | (05/03/2018) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Having spent the latter half of the eighties trying out new styles of filmmaking; Wise Guys' knockabout comedy, The Untouchables' prestige gangster pic, Casualties of War's Vietnam movie and The Bonfire of the Vanities' satirical misfire Brian De Palma returned to what he knew best, the Hitchcockian psycho-thriller, for Raising Cain. John Lithgow plays three roles: child psychologist Carter, his evil twin brother Cain, and their Norwegian father, Dr Nix, who likes to experimental on the young. Carter's wife is concerned that her husband isn't quite paying their daughter the right kind of attention; she's also having an affair which, upon discovery, threatens to send him into a psychotic rage... A relentless blend of murder, multiple personalities, cross-dressing, crazed parents, bizarre dream sequences and stunning cinematic assurance, Raising Cain harks back to those twin masterpieces Psycho and Peeping Tom, but is pure unadulterated De Palma.

• National Lampoon's Animal House (1979) | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £9.93   |  Saving you £6.06 (37.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A groundbreaking screwball caper, 1978's National Lampoon's Animal House was in its own way a rite of passage for Hollywood. Set in 1962 at Faber College, it follows the riotous carryings-on of the Delta Fraternity, into which are initiated freshmen Tom Hulce and Stephen Furst. Among the established house members are Tim Matheson, Peter Riegert and the late John Belushi as Bluto, a belching, lecherous, Jack Daniels guzzling maniac. A debauched house of pranksters (culminating in the famous Deathmobile sequence), Delta stands as a fun alternative to the more strait-laced, crew-cut, unpleasantly repressive norm personified by Omega House. As cowriter the late Doug Kenney puts it, "better to be an animal than a vegetable". Animal House is deliberately set in the pre-JFK assassination, pre-Vietnam era, something not made much of here, but which would have been implicitly understood by its American audience. The film was an enormous success, a rude, liberating catharsis for the latter-day frathousers who watched it. However, decades on, a lot of the humour seems broad, predictable, boorish, oafishly sexist and less witty than Airplane!, made two years later in the same anarchic spirit. Indeed, although it launched the Hollywood careers of several of its players and makers, including Kevin Bacon, director John Landis, Harold Ramis and Tom Hulce, who went on to do fine things, it might well have been inadvertently responsible for the infantilisation of much subsequent Hollywood comedy. Still, there's an undeniable energy that gusts throughout the film and Belushi, whether eating garbage or trying to reinvoke the spirit of America "After the Germans bombed Pearl Harbour" is a joy. On the DVD: Animal House comes to disc in a good transfer, presented in 1.85:1. The main extra is a featurette in which director John Landis, writer Chris Miller and some of the actors talk about the making of the movie. Interestingly, 23 years on, most of those interviewed look better than they did back in 1978, especially Stephen "Flounder" Furst. --David Stubbs

• Alice In Wonderland | DVD | (28/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jonathan Miller's terrific adaptation of Lewis Carroll's novel originally aired on BBC1 in 1966 featuring an all star cast.

• Alien Quadrilogy | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £20.99   |  Saving you £39.00 (185.80%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The Alien Quadrilogy is a nine-disc box set devoted to the four Alien films. Although previously available on DVD as the Alien Legacy, here the films have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and vision. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "Special Edition" form. Alien (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 Director's Cut is fiddling for the sake of it. Watch once then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely the Special Edition of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice finally to have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative Alien3 (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered and finished-off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to the story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. Alien Resurrection (1997) was always a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the Special Edition just makes it eight minutes longer. On the DVD: Alien Quadrilogy offers all films except Alien3 with DTS soundtracks, the latter having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first Alien DVD release are missing here--and there are subtitles for hard of hearing both for the films and the commentaries. Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented at 4:3 with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the Lord of the Rings extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including a Channel 4 hour-long documentary and even all the extras from the old Alien laserdisc. Exhaustive hardly beings to describe the Alien Quadrilogy, a set which establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and which looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. --Gary S Dalkin

• Every Woman Has A Secret | DVD | (02/04/2007) from £5.38   |  Saving you £-1.39 (-34.80%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Heather is a young and very attractive attorney who is given the case of a lifetime when her firm's most prestigious client Harry Fletcher is charged with the murder of his wife Raquel. Harry is an extremely charming and handsome man but unfortunately all the evidence seems to point to him being the murderer. The only thing missing is the body. Heather cannot resist Harry's seductive charm and they engage in a torrid and passionate affair. Who says you shouldn't mix business and

• Sliding Doors | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There are two sides to every story. Helen is about to live both of them... at the same time. Romance was never this much fun. The split-second moments that can take a life down one path instead of another form the tantalising 'what if?' in this delightful romantic comedy starring Gwyneth Paltrow. Paltrow plays London publicist Helen effortlessly sliding between parallel storylines that show what happens if she does or does not catch a morning train back to her apartment. Lo

• Daddy's Home: 2-Movie Collection | Blu Ray | (19/03/2018) from £10.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  (Daddy's Home) A mild-mannered radio executive strives to become the best stepdad to his wife's two children, but complications ensue when their freewheeling and freeloading real father arrives, forcing him to compete for the affection of the kids. (Daddy's Home 2) Father Dusty (Mark Wahlberg) and stepfather Brad's (Will Ferrell) newfound partnership is put to the test when Dusty's old-school, macho Dad (Mel Gibson) and Brad's gentle Dad (John Lithgow) arrive just in time to turn the holidays upside down.

• Thunderbirds: Volume 5 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £9.17   |  Saving you £6.82 (74.37%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.On this DVD: The four episodes are: "The Man from MI5", "Cry Wolf", "Danger at Ocean Deep" and "Move and You're Dead".

• The Office: An American Workplace Seasons 1-3 | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £41.92   |  Saving you £3.07 (7.32%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Season OneThe British sitcom The Office has the most devoted American following since Monty Python, so an American remake seemed doomed. Amazingly, the remake actually finds its own enjoyable version of the original's uncanny comedy of embarrassment. Office manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The Daily Show, The 40 Year-Old Virgin) believes he's the beloved leader of the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of a paper products company--but his relentless and painfully forced efforts at comedy creep out everyone around him, including paranoid Dwight (Rainn Wilson, who had a memorable recurring role on Six Feet Under), nervous receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer, LolliLove), and aimless salesman Jim (John Krasinski, A New Wave), who's smitten with the already engaged Pam. The pilot episode suffers from closely replicating the British pilot, but after that The Office finds its own footing, turning diversity training, an office birthday party, and a basketball game into excruciating yet hypnotically funny rituals of humiliation. Carell, though clearly talented, can't match Ricky Gervais' unique performance as the aggressively needy British manager (it's hard to imagine that anyone could); as a result, the supporting roles become more prominent, and Wilson, Fischer, and Krasinski quickly create a rapport that matches and may even exceed that of their British counterparts.--Bret FetzerSeason TwoThank goodness for second seasons. While the first season of The Office started dubiously with a pilot that was just a poor copy of the original British version, it did manage to provide enough good material to stay on the air and hint that better was yet to come. And here it is. The second season of The Office finds its own footing and manages to do the near-impossible by not only breaking free of the gravity of that excellent BBC version to stand solidly on its own, but establishing it as one of the best comedies on TV. Season 2 starts out strong with "The Dundies," where Regional Manager, Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The 40 Year Old Virgin) hosts the company’s annual office-awards event with his signature less-than-perfect grace. Things seem to only get worse for him this season as he bumbles a potential affair with his boss, Jan (Melora Harding), angers his employees by reading their emails ("Email Surveillance"), cooks his foot ("The Injury"), and accidentally destroys the warehouse with a forklift in "Boys and Girls," one of the season’s highlight episodes. Always at his side is the clueless paranoid Dwight Schrute (Rainn Wilson), the Assistant Regional Manager ("Assistant to the Regional Manager," Michael always reminds him in one of the show’s running jokes). One of the reasons for the show’s improvement in the second season is increased focus on Dwight’s character, who’s becoming something of a pop-culture icon right down to having his own bobblehead. He in turn provides so much good material for Pam (Jenna Fischer) and Jim (John Krasinsky) to play off of, to their own amusement. But of course, Pam and Jim’s simmering relationship is the real meat of the show, as their compatibility becomes more obvious, Jim’s feelings for her continue to grow, and Pam struggles with the impending marriage to her less-than-caring boyfriend, Roy (David Denman). Things have to come to a head, and they do nicely in the final episode, "Casino Night." As strong as the leading characters are in The Office, it’s the excellent peripheral characters that really make the show hilarious, especially dimwitted office-slug Kevin (Brian Baumgartner), long-suffering intern Ryan (B.J. Novak), office-ditz Kelly (Mindy Kaling), and ultra-conservative Angela (Angela Kinsey). --Daniel VanciniSeason ThreeAfter a shaky first season of finding its footing, and a second season of establishing itself as one of the funniest shows on TV, the third season of The Office finds the show in its strongest form yet, thanks in large part to the addition of some new characters and stronger plotlines centered on office romances. A corporate merger brings the Stamford staff to the Scranton office of Dunder-Mifflin a quarter of the way through the season giving a nice boost to the season's arc of story lines, especially the addition of Andy (Ed Helms, another Daily Show alum in a role that seems custom made for him) who serves as yet another foil to Dwight (Rainn Wilson) in his unending fight for Michael's approval. As the season begins, the focus is more on Michael (Steve Carell) and his unique "leadership" style in the Scranton office. "A good boss gruntles the disgruntled," and despite his best intentions, he proceeds to somehow screw it up, as in the opening episode, "Gay Witch Hunt," in which he accidentally outs a gay employee. In the second episode, "The Convention," Michael tries to get the party started at the Mid-Market Office Supply Convention ("fun jeans"), and ends up revealing his insecurity about Jim's (John Krasinski) decision to move to Stamford. It leads up to "The Coup," where Dwight meets with Michael's Boss Jan (Melora Hardin) in a misguided attempt to take control of the office. The merger of the two offices into the Scranton location provides the fuel needed to continue the Jim and Pam (Jenna Fischer) subplot as Jim returns with his new girlfriend, Karen (Rashida Jones) who also transferred, and with Pam no longer engaged to Roy, the tension among them increases significantly. Other major plot points this season include: Dwight shows his true feelings for Angela in an excellent climax to one of the funniest subplots on the show; Michael negotiates a raise after learning he barely makes more than his subordinates; new office suck-up Andy is forced into anger management classes; and finally, in what may be the most bizarre company retreat in history, a day at the beach ends with Pam revealing her true feelings for Jim in front of the entire office. The season wraps up in unpredictable fashion when Karen, Michael, and Jim all travel to headquarters to interview for the same position. The strength of this season just continues to solidify The Office's place as the preeminent satire of today's cubicle culture. --Daniel Vancini

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes | 4K UHD | (03/07/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Big budget sci-fi action based on the original film series of the late 1960s and early 1970s. James Franco stars as Will Rodman, a genetic engineer working in present-day San Francisco who is performing scientific tests on apes in his attempt to find a cure for Alzheimer's. His first test subject is Caesar (Andy Serkis), the prototype of a new breed of apes with human-like intelligence. But when Caesar breaks free, a revolution is triggered and an epic war for supremacy breaks out between humankind and the primates of the world.

• McLintock | DVD | (02/07/2007) from £7.14   |  Saving you £-4.15 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  He Tamed The West But Could He Tame Her? Cattle baron banker and model citizen George McLintock has the world in his hands. The only thing missing is his wife Katherine who left him two years earlier suspecting him of adultery. In an effort to get on with his life McLintock saves a beautiful but impoverished widow from resettlement and hires her as his cook welcoming both her and her two children into his home. Sparks begin to fly and McLintock's simple and serene lifestyle comes to a crashing halt as an unexpected turn of events results in brawls gunfire an Indian attack the engagement of his only daughter and the return of Mrs. McLintock!

• The Field | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Irish director Jim Sheridan made The Field after scoring an art house hit and Oscar nominations for his previous film, My Left Foot. Set in Ireland during the 1930s, this ambitious and hard-hitting drama is about one man's obsession with a plot of land that his family has tended for generations. The results are decidedly mixed, and it's obvious that this kind of tragic allegory is better suited for the stage (where it originated as a play by John B Keane). What makes the film worthwhile is the Oscar-nominated performance by Richard Harris as "Bull" McCabe, the fiercely stubborn man who's nurtured a prime field of rented land for decades, only to lose it when the owner auctions the land to an unwelcome American (Tom Berenger). Rather than sacrifice his life's work to this brazen invader, McCabe wages a personal war with powerfully tragic results. It's unfortunate that this potent drama never really connects on an emotional level, but Harris is never less than fascinating in a role that virtually seems to consume him as an actor. His performance approaches greatness, even when the film falls somewhat short of its dramatic ambitions. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Swordfish | Blu Ray | (04/12/2006) from £12.39   |  Saving you £12.60 (101.69%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From the director of "Gone in 60 Seconds" comes an action/thriller with John Travolta as the world's most dangerous spy, Halle Berry as his voluptuous girlfriend, and Hugh Jackman as the hacker crucial to their plans to steal billions from the government.