"Actor: John M"

• The Corridor People - The Complete Series | DVD | (13/08/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A surreal crime/fantasy adventure series in the mould of the The Avengers, The Corridor People ran for only four episodes yet has garnered considerable cult devotion. A host of unlikely characters include Kronk, a paternal CID agent, his henchmen Inspector Blood and Sergeant Hound, and American, Bogart-worshipping private eye Phil Scrotty; each episode sees them pitched against the avaricious schemes of Syrie Van Epp, a beautiful, treacherous Persian millionairess. Written by Edward Boyd (The Odd Man), the series stars larger-than-life character actor John Sharp and Elizabeth Shepherd, the actress originally cast as Emma Peel; guest stars include Windsor Davies and Pauline Collins. With wildly inventive storylines, offbeat, often humorous dialogue in which characters frequently break the fourth wall, strikingly original photography and heavily stylised sets, it's no surprise to find it described as 'the Twin Peaks of its day', or akin to 'a lost Harold Pinter play with an added dash of Monty Python'..! This unique series, unscreened since its original transmission in 1966, is now available on DVD for the very first time.

• Live Aid | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The greatest show on earth and a gargantuan humanitarian effort to help those starving in Africa Live Aid took place on July 13th 1985 and brought together some of the biggest music stars of all time! ""Twenty years ago they not only played 'real good for free ' they took an issue that was nowhere on the agenda of the political world and placed it at the very top "" says concert organizer Bob Geldof. ""By buying the Live Aid DVD that day continues far off into some distant but hopeful

• Kidnapped | DVD | (28/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Cheated out of his rightful inheritance after being kidnapped young David Balfour joins forces with daring adventurer Alan Breck Stewart and together they flee across the Highlands to evade the King's redcoat forces...

• Elvis 5 Movies Collection | DVD | (18/05/2020) from £28.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Tune in with the ˜King of Rock and Roll' with a curated collection of his finest movies. Includes performances of hit songs Wooden Heart , Shoppin Around , Little Egypt , Can't Help Falling In Love', Rock-A-Hula Baby , Bossa Nova Baby and Return To Sender . Lightweight fun and soundtracks to get you on your feet, there is no better gift for Elvis superfans. Collection Includes: G.I Blues Tulsa, a soldier with dreams of running his own nightclub, places a bet with his friend Dynamite that he can win the heart of an untouchable dancer...but when Dynamite is transferred, Tulsa must replace him in the bet. Blue Hawaii After arriving back in Hawaii from the Army, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) defies his parents' wishes for him to work at the family business and instead goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency. Girls! Girls! Girls! When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel. Roustabout After a singer loses his job at a coffee shop, he finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father. Fun in Acapulco A yacht owner's spoiled daughter gets Mike fired, but a boy helps him get a job as singer at Acapulco Hilton etc. He upsets the lifeguard by taking his girl and 3 daily work hours.

• Full Metal Jacket | DVD | (01/06/2006) from £9.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (40.04%)   |  RRP £13.99

  One of a series of revisionist Vietnam cinema released in the late 1980s, Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is essentially split into two stories linked by a number of characters. The film follows new recruit Joker (Matthew Modine) and his fellow soldiers through their basic training and into combat in Vietnam. The first half is a chilling portrayal of military brutality and de-humanisation, mainly at the hands of Sgt Hartman (played at a level of staggering intensity by ex-Marine Lee Ermey), that centres around the tragic character of Private Pyle, a young man pushed to the edge of his endurance. The tone of the film is no less harsh when transported to the combat zone as we see the results of the training process in action: the young men turned into unquestioning killing machines. Joker is perhaps the one exception, a soldier with "Born to Kill" written on his helmet who also sports a peace sign on his lapel. But the film finds itself caught in the trap of many of the war movies of the time--how to create audience empathy with characters who are essentially in the wrong. It's a dilemma that Full Metal Jacket never really solves, although as a spectacle the film is a masterpiece. Made in the days before CGI became the norm, the battle sequences--filmed, rather bizarrely, in London's Docklands before its redevelopment--are hugely realistic and are perhaps the key moments of the movie, heightening the disorientation and fear felt by the soldiers. By offering no more than a snapshot of the Vietnam conflict (the action deals with one individual skirmish), Kubrick cleverly leaves any judgement on the war to the audience, although clearly attempting to influence them. The fate of the characters who survive is also left in the balance, but we can perhaps imagine what awaits them. On the DVD: Part of a series of Kubrick DVD reissues, Full Metal Jacket has been treated to the full remastering and restoration treatment. The battle sequences have benefited the most, gaining a new audio and visual crispness and clarity that adds to their already impressive sense of realism--you can almost feel the heat searing from the screen and the explosions detonating around you. Maybe not the best war film ever made, as some may claim, but certainly one to take you right to the heart of the action. --Phil Udell

• Hatari | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One man heads a highly skilled professional group of game hunters in Africa. Only they don't use bullets - they capture the ferocious big game with strong rope and cameras for zoos and circus attractions. It is an exciting business that pits man against beast. ""Hatari"" means danger in Swahili.

• The Jim Jarmusch Collection | Blu Ray | (06/10/2014) from £99.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A Blu-Ray Boxset of Jim Jarmusch’s first six films: Permanent Vacation Stranger Than Paradise Down By Law Mystery Train Night on Earth and Dead Man.

• Northern Exposure - Season 2 | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £14.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (66.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The second series of quirky comedy drama from Northern Exposure in which naive New York doctor Joel Fleishmann (Rob Morrow) finds himself posted to the tiny Alaskan logging town of Cicely! Episodes comprise: 1. Goodbye To All That 2. The Big Kiss 3. All Is Vanity 4. What I Did For Love 5. Spring Break 6. War And Peace 7. Slow Dance

• Gigantic | DVD | (28/09/2009) from £8.23   |  Saving you £6.76 (82.14%)   |  RRP £14.99

  "Gigantic" is a funny, surreal love story about the anxiety that comes along when two people with crazy families collide unexpectedly and fall for each other.

• Ice Cold In Alex | Blu Ray | (13/06/2011) from £59.99   |  Saving you £-40.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The title Ice Cold in Alex refers to the beer the heroes of this 1958 British World War Two classic plan to drink in Alexandria, once they have escaped from the Germans, negotiated minefields and survived both mechanical failure and the killing heat of the North African sands. The setting is Libya in 1942, at the height of the campaigns featured in The Desert Fox (1951) and The Desert Rats (1953), and a disparate group in a military ambulance--which include a Nazi agent to add tension of one kind and a beautiful nurse to add tension of another--must make an epic journey to safety. Staring John Mills, Sylvia Sims, Anthony Quayle and Harry Andrews the terror and poignancy comes from our certainty that not everyone will survive, such that the suspense sometimes reaches near unbearable levels. Director J Lee-Thomson was clearly inspired by the then recent French masterpiece, The Wages of Fear (1952) and handles both the character drama and set-pieces with great skill. He would go on to make another great war adventure, The Guns of Navarone (1961), also starring Anthony Quayle, who then returned to the desert for the ultimate British war classic, Lawrence of Arabia (1962). --Gary S. Dalkin

• TT : Closer to the Edge | DVD | (28/11/2011) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (70.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Isle of Man Tourist Trophy is the greatest motorcycle road race in the world, the ultimate challenge for rider and machine. It has always called for a commitment far beyond any other racing event, and many have made the ultimate sacrifice in their quest for victory. TT: Closer To The Edge is a story about freedom of choice, the strength of human spirit and the will to win. It's also an examination of what motivates those rare few, this elite band of brothers who risk everything to win. TT: Closer To The Edge is one of the most thrilling films of the year.

• Dial M for Murder | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Classic Hitchcock movie starring Grace Kelly & Ray Milland. Ex-tennis pro Tony Wendice decides to murder his wife for her money and because she had an affair the year before. He blackmails an old college associate to strangle her, but when things go wrong he sees a way to turn events to his advantage.

• Friday After Next | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  It is Christmas Eve for most of the Christian world but when Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) are rudely awaken by a burglar in a Santa suit it is definitely another FRIDAY in the ghetto. The phony Santa gets away with all the cousins' Christmas gifts and their overdue rent money after assaulting Craig with a paltry Christmas tree. Cops are called in and do little more than confiscate Craig and Day-Day's pot stash. Though the cousins may be used to such adversity in the 'hood they have never before had to think about getting real jobs in order to pay the bills. This third installment in the hip-hop stoner series follows L.A.'s lovable losers through their first day as rent-a-cops at a South Central strip mall.

• The Sentinel | Blu Ray | (22/03/2021) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A fashion model moves into a house inhabited (on the top floor) by a blind priest. She begins having strange physical problems, has trouble sleeping at night, and has some nasty flashbacks of her attempted suicide. She complains to the real estate agent of the noise caused by her strange neighbours, but finds out that the house is only occupied by the priest and herself, and ultimately discovers that she has been put in the house for a reason.

• The Librarians - The Complete First Season 1 | DVD | (08/02/2016) from £22.19   |  Saving you £2.80 (12.62%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Librarians Season One Flynn Carsen (Noah Wyle) may appear to be an ordinary librarian working at the world-famous Metropolitan Library, but beneath the public library lies the centuries-old headquarters of scholars and adventurers who investigate the bizarre, collect dangerous artifacts and save the world from supernatural threats. This is THE LIBRARY, and Flynn is THE LIBRARIAN. When an ancient conspiracy threatens to destroy technology and bring back the age of magic, Flynn and his new Guardian, Eve Baird, must recruit three extraordinary people --a secretive scholar/cowboy who works on an oil pipeline, a hospital attendant who has the extraordinary gift of synesthesia the ability to link all five senses to her memory, and a world-class thief to join in the quest. If these new recruits fail, the world will be plunged into a new Dark Age. But if they succeed (and survive), they will become the new LIBRARIANS. Episodes And the Crown of King Arthur And the Sword in the Stone And the Horns of a Dilemma And Santa's Midnight Run And the Apple of Discord And the Fables of Doom And the Rule of Three And the Heart of Darkness And the City of Light And the Loom of Fate

• King Solomon's Mines | DVD | (02/02/2004) from £19.93   |  Saving you £-3.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  King Solomon's Mines had been filmed several times before, but this 1985 adaptation of H Rider Haggard's novel is far and away the most absurdly tongue-in-cheek. Making no disguise of riding Indiana Jones's coattails, the adventure starts fast and grows ever wilder. Richard Chamberlain wears Allan Quatermain's fedora and expression of grim determination. Supposedly concerned with the novel's quest for lost gold, the movie is really an excuse to string together numerous sight gags and low-budget attempts to upstage Raiders of the Lost Ark (hardly surprisingly, it fails). Pursued by a wax-moustachioed and Wagner-obsessed Herbert Lom, Quatermain and a dizzily blonde Sharon Stone escape an avalanche and crocodiles before being boiled in a cauldron with plastic vegetables at the Village of the Upside Down People. Nothing lingers in the memory, though, than the sight of Chamberlain skiing behind a locomotive. Cheap and rudely plagiaristic it may be, but Indy never got to be as (un)intentionally hilarious. On the DVD: King Solomon's Mines has come up exceptionally well on disc in this widescreen print. Sound is in Dolby 2.0 and is a faithful representation of the effort put into the film's sound design. The only extra is the original trailer. --Paul Tonks

• National Lampoon's Animal House | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £4.94   |  Saving you £11.05 (223.68%)   |  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

• Perry Mason: Season 1 | Blu Ray | (07/12/2020) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The world's most renowned fictional lawyer is back on the case in this exciting HBO series that tells the origin story of master criminal defence attorney Perry Mason. Set in 1932 Los Angeles, this edgy, noirish update puts a new spin on the iconic character created by Erle Stanley Gardner and made famous by the classic TV show that ran from 1957 to 1966. The series begins with Mason (Matthew Rhys) living paycheck to paycheck as a low-rent private investigator who's haunted by his wartime experiences and managing the fallout of a broken marriage. During eight twisty, cliff-hanger episodes, Mason is determined to do what's righteven when it's not necessarily legalas he digs into a controversial and politically loaded case, exposing a fractured city and a possible police coverup. The stellar cast includes John Lithgow, Tatiana Maslany, Juliet Rylance, Chris Chalk and Shea Whigham.

• Lock Up | Blu Ray | (23/08/2010) from £12.50   |  Saving you £7.49 (59.92%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1980s was the make-and-break decade for Sylvester Stallone's career, and Lock Up typifies the direction he took in his post-Rocky and Rambo days. It's a concept movie in the same mould as Rambo III just before it, and Tango & Cash just after. The hero (Frank Leone) is put in jeopardy (Gateway Prison), establishes a nemesis to defeat (in the shape of Donald Sutherland as Warden Drumgoole), makes a few friendships that can be sacrificed along the way (Tom Sizemore as Dallas) and does what he does in the name of love (Darlanne Flugel as Melissa). The revenge-twisted warden puts him through hell over a shared back-story. The torture ranges from being made to hold his breath in a delousing chamber to sanity-stretching periods in "The Hole". It's all about how far a man can be pushed. But being a Stallone vehicle, it's not all depressing. Composer Bill Conti reunites with the star to put the same sort of heroic fuel behind a prison-yard football game as he did for Rocky. A couple of feel-good songs pep up the love story and a montage of camaraderie in rebuilding a broken-down car. There's a healthy sense of realism achieved by having Sly doing all his own stunts and the use of a real-life prison. If the elements lead to a by-the-numbers conclusion (it's no Shawshank Redemption), remember this was some years before the actor wanted to get serious. On the DVD: A surprising amount of footage has been assembled in the two behind-the-scenes featurettes: we see Stallone directing his own fight scenes, and how use of New Jersey's Rahway Prison came with 2,500 real inmates to keep under control. Sound bite interviews reveal Stallone's worldly philosophies, then a trailer and gallery of 17 photos round out a decent overall package. --Paul Tonks

• The Plague Dogs | Blu Ray | (10/08/2020) from £12.15   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Animated adaptation of Richard Adams' novel about two dogs that are hunted down after they escape from an animal-research centre.