"Actor: John Fraser"

• 101 Dalmatians - Live Action | DVD | (06/11/2001) from £8.29   |  Saving you £-3.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  It's hard to know who thought it would be a good idea to make a live-action version of Disney's animated classic. The one bright notion anyone had was casting Glenn Close as Disney Übervillainess Cruella de Vil; her flashing eyes and angular features are a perfect match and do credit to what is one of the most indelible animated characters Disney has ever created. The story remains essentially the same, focusing on Cruella's plot to kidnap the puppies of a young married couple (Jeff Daniels and Jolie Richardson) and make them into a coat. But the dreaded John Hughes, who wrote this script, fills it with sadistic slapstick and far too few genuine laughs. The human actors work hard, but to little avail; thankfully, there's a posse of puppies to regularly steal scenes when the going gets dreary--although there are only so many laughs to be had from inappropriate dog puddles. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Before You Go | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £5.72   |  Saving you £14.27 (249.48%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Julie Walters, Joanne Whalley and Victoria Hamilton star as three sisters coming to terms with their mother's death in this adaptation of the stageplay "The Memory of Water."

• The Lord of the Rings (Animated Version) | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the movie's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well-conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• The Dam Busters | DVD | (04/06/2018) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A BRAND NEW RESTORATION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGINAL WWII RAID A much-loved British classic, Michael Anderson's 1955 drama captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the center of Nazi Germany's industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination. Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave). The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill's book Enemy Coast Ahead and featuring superlative special effects photography by Gilbert Taylor (to say nothing of Eric Coates' stirring theme tune), The Dam Busters was Britain's biggest box office the success of 1955.

• Scrubs - Series 2 | DVD | (12/09/2005) from £8.25   |  Saving you £24.00 (343.35%)   |  RRP £30.99

  All 22 episodes of the groundbreaking show's second season! Episodes Comprise: 1. My Overkill 2. My Nightingale 3. My Case Study 4. My Big Mouth 5. My New Coat 6. My Big Brother 7. My First Step 8. My Fruit Cups 9. My Lucky Day 10. My Monster 11. My Sex Buddy 12. My New Old Friend 13. My Philosophy 14. My Brother My Keeper 15. His Story 16. My Karma 17. My Own Private Practice Guy 18. My T.C.W. 19. My Kingdom 20. My Interpretation 21. My Drama Queen 22. My Dream Job

• The Alan Clark Diaries | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £12.70   |  Saving you £0.29 (2.28%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Television drama based on the diaries of MP Alan Clark an outspoken and flamboyant character who made his impact in the political arena during the 1980's and 1990's. Various scandals affairs and career fluctuations are seen through his eyes painting a vivid and sometimes controversial picture of the workings of government and the Thatcher administration.

• El Cid | DVD | (16/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Sumptuous in every way, visually magnificent, with grandiose sets, panoramic Spanish vistas and intricately detailed costumes, possessor of one of cinema's greatest music scores, boasting vast and astonishingly kinetic battles, and breathing heroic virtue in every scene, El Cid is the very epitome of epic. For this reworking of the medieval legend of the Cid (Arabic for "Lord") who united warring factions and saved 11th-century Spain from invasion, producer Samuel Bronston and director Anthony Mann insisted every set had to be created from scratch, every costume specially made for this movie alone; they also shot entirely on location in La Mancha and along the Mediterranean coast of Spain to enhance the film's authenticity. The cinematography is saturated with the burnished hues of the Spanish landscape, as are the palatial sets and rich costumes; Miklos Rozsa's resplendent score is also the result of painstaking research into medieval Spanish sources. The screenplay is imbued with knightly gravitas and more than a little salvation imagery, from the opening scene of the young Rodrigo rescuing a cross from a burning church, to the movie's indelible finale as The Cid rides "out of the gates of history into legend". Charlton Heston is at his most indomitable as Rodrigo, "The Cid", a natural leader of men and the embodiment of every manly virtue (note that he fathers twins--a sure token of his virility); Sophie Loren is ravishing as Chimene, the woman whose love for Rodrigo conflicts with her filial instincts after he kills her father, the king's champion, over a point of honour. Their scenes together create a humane warmth at the heart of this vast movie: the moment when Chimene finally declares her love (beneath a shrine of three crosses--more symbolism) to the exiled Rodrigo forms a pivotal and very intimate centrepiece. Shortly thereafter he must rise from their rural marriage bed to lead his followers into battle, and the tension between his public and private lives adds a piquancy to the film's stunning battle sequences. The international supporting cast sometimes look like makeweights, especially when chewing on the occasionally stilted dialogue, but any such faults are easily forgiven as the scale and spectacle of El Cid carries the viewer away on a tide of chivalry. --Mark Walker

• Dad's Army: The Movie | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  In the 1970s the British film industry went through a craze for turning hit TV comedies into big screen features. From On the Buses (1971) to Porridge (1979), Dad's Army was one of the few which made the transition with style. Set in the small south coast town of Walmington-on-Sea in 1940, the film does have the structure of three TV episodes remade and sequenced together. Beginning with the formation of the local Home Guard, the company has a self-contained adventure on military manoeuvres, before a finale which allows for some heroism as three German officers take over the church hall. Dad's Army has all the gentle character comedy of the classic BBC TV series, benefiting enormously by retaining the entire television cast, headed by the incomparable Arthur Lowe as the blustering Captain Mainwaring and supported by the equally wonderful John Le Mesurier and Clive Dunn. The cinema budget allows far superior production values to the original series, with a loving re-creation of 1940's England and some surprisingly beautiful cinematography. Above all, the film is both funny and a nostalgic reminder of a time when ordinary middle-aged and old men could be both real and movie heroes. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Dad's Army | Blu Ray | (14/06/2021) from £9.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  First time on Blu-Ray in the UK. The film spin-off from the much-loved TV comedy series starring Arthur Lowe as the commander of an incompetent Home Guard platoon in wartime Britain. With the trusted comedy genius from the TV series shining through, Mainwaring and company save the day when a crew of a German aircraft take the vicar and villagers hostage in the church.

• Touch And Go | DVD | (10/08/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Edward (Bill Milner) isn't your average 12 year old. Obsessed with ghosts and the afterlife his parents (Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrisey) are concerned that life might be passing him by. But when Clarence (Academy Award-winner Michael Caine) a retired magician comes to stay with the family Edward's world is disrupted and he is forced to interact with the the grumpy old man who's taken over his bedroom. As the weeks progress their antagonism turns to friendship and Clarence convinces Edward to engage with the world of the living and the young boy helps Clarence confront the ghosts of his past. From the producer of Little Miss Sunshine and the Harry Potter movies and the director of Channel 4's acclaimed Boy A Is Anybody There? is the surprising and touching story about two unexpected friends who inspire each other to live life to the fullest.

• Scrubs - Series 3 | DVD | (13/02/2006) from £6.49   |  Saving you £24.50 (377.50%)   |  RRP £30.99

  All the episodes of the groundbreaking show's third season! Episodes Comprise: 1. My American Girl 2. My Journey 3. My White Whale 4. My Lucky Night 5. My Brother Where Art Thou 6. My Advice To You 7. My Fifteen Seconds 8. My Friend The Doctor 9. My Dirty Secret 10. My Rule Of Thumb 11. My Clean Break 12. My Catalyst 13. My Porcelain God 14. My Screw Up 15. My Tormented Mentor 16. My Butterfly 17. My Moment Of Un-truth 18. His Story 2 19. My Choosiest Choice Of All 20. My Fa

• Tunes Of Glory | DVD | (18/05/2009) from £9.01   |  Saving you £-3.02 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Major Jock Sinclair has been in this Highland regiment since he joined as a boy piper. During the Second World War as Second-in-Command he was made acting Commanding Officer. Now the regiment has returned to Scotland and a new commanding officer is to be appointed. Jock's own cleverness is pitted against his new CO his daughter his girlfriend and the other officers in the Mess.

• Repulsion | DVD | (26/04/2010) from £13.98   |  Saving you £6.00 (50.04%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Oscar winning and controversial director Roman Polanski's critically acclaimed masterpiece depicting a young girl's descent into madness. Starring Catherine Deneuve (Belle de Jour). Repulsion won best director at the 1965 Berlin Film Festival and was BAFTA nominated.

• El Cid | DVD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  El Cid is an epic movie masterpiece a tribute to one of history's greatest legends. This dazzling spectacle with a cast of thousands fills the screen with action and romance - from knights in armour jousting on horseback to massive battles on sea and land where columns of warriors stretch across the horizon. At the centre of this powerful motion picture is Charlton Heston in the role he was born to play... the immortal El Cid. Heston is the Spanish warrior battling to drive the Moors from Spain with the vision to be just and the courage to be merciful whose love and devotion to the radiant Chimene (Sophia Loren) knows no bounds... Anthony Mann's epic was nominated for three Oscar's but surprisingly returned home empty-handed.

• The Dam Busters - Collectors Edition | Blu Ray | (04/06/2018) from £12.00   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A BRAND NEW RESTORATION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGINAL WWII RAID A much-loved British classic, Michael Anderson's 1955 drama captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the center of Nazi Germany's industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination. Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave). The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill's book Enemy Coast Ahead and featuring superlative special effects photography by Gilbert Taylor (to say nothing of Eric Coates' stirring theme tune), The Dam Busters was Britain's biggest box office the success of 1955. Collector's Edition Includes a 64-page booklet with brand new essays, and photographs, plus a rare print of an ariel photograph of the Mohne dam post raid, signed by the original 617 squadron Features: RAF poster of the Chastise Lancaster's

• Family At War: Complete Set | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Death Of The Incredible Hulk | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £5.00   |  Saving you £7.99 (159.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno, stars of the late-70s, live-action television series The Incredible Hulk, cap a run of sporadic TV movies based on the old show with Death of the Incredible Hulk. The gloomy title says it all. Bixby's Dr David Banner, spiritually exhausted after years of rage-induced transformations into a snarling green monster, takes a last stab at finding a cure by posing as a retarded janitor in a government-funded research laboratory. His secret collaboration with a scientist (Philip Sterling) on "killing" the Hulk's genetic viability goes awry when a gorgeous foreign spy (Barbara Tarbuck) disrupts a crucial procedure and invites the wrath of brutal terrorists, the federal government and, yes, the big man (Ferrigno) himself. With death chains rattling in the background, various ironies in the story become poignant: after years of isolation, Banner finds friendship and love just in time to risk it all for a lasting peace. --Tom Keogh

• Edge Of Darkness - Part 1: Into The Shadows / Part 2: Northmoor | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £15.98   |  Saving you £12.00 (92.38%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This is the twilight world of half-truths and half-lives where the obsessive apparatus of state security interlocks with sinister and furtive forces from big business. It is the hidden battleground where private grief and individual suffering and death are dwarfed by the struggle for absolute power and the nightmare of nuclear catastrophe. Part One - 'Into The Shadows': His investigation into his daughter's murder reveals to Ronald Craven her involvement in nuclear power politics terrorism and death. Despite the agonies of his grief Craven finds himself drawn into Emma's secret world. Part Two - 'Northmoor': Craven and renegade US agent Jedburgh pursue their mission to discover the deadly secret of an underworld nuclear facility and begin a desperate race to avert catastrophe with mysterious wisdom of GAIA.

• Priest of Love | Blu Ray | (11/11/2013) from £8.75   |  Saving you £13.24 (151.31%)   |  RRP £21.99

  In his first starring role, Sir Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings, Gods and Monsters) gives a sensational performance as D.H. Lawrence in the impressively mounted and acted biopic (Variety) Priest of Love. After the English government burns copies of The Rainbow, Lawrence continues through his exodus around the world, joined by his combative wife Frieda (Janet Suzman). From his destructive sojourn to the American Southwest, to an earth-shaking visit to Oaxaca, and finishing with his erotic adventures in Italy, Priest of Love provides a colorful and insightful portrait of Lawrence's life and art. Featuring an excellent supporting cast of Ava Gardner, Penelope Keith and John Gielgud. Special Features: An extensive feature on Christopher Miles' early career Christopher Miles: Priest of Love and D.H. Lawrence featurette The Way We Got it Together: A Documentary on the Making of the Film Interviews with Ian McKellen and Christopher Miles Deleted Scenes with Director's Commentary Trailers

• Roman Polanski Boxset | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Cul-De-Sac: A mismatched couple (he effeminate and petulant she sensual and enigmatic) share a bizarre sexual relationship living in a remote castle. Their very isolation from the world prevents their eccentric partnership from foundering. Only an outsider can disrupt their make-believe lifestyle. That disruption arrives in the belligerent form of Richard and Albert two oddball gangsters straight out of a 1940's film noir wounded desperate and on the run. They demand s