"Actor: John Rand"

• Born Yesterday | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £22.00   |  Saving you £-9.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Born Yesterday was the box-office comedy hit of 1950 and won a Best Actress Oscar for the exceptional Judy Holliday, recreating her long-running Broadway triumph as Billie Dawn, the quintessential dumb blonde who finally gets herself some smarts. The film resonates with the sophisticated sparring in Garson Kanin's script and there are tightly controlled performances from William Holden as the cynical journalist hired to polish Billie up for Washington society and Broderick Crawford as Harry Brock, her rough, crooked and ambitious boyfriend. But Born Yesterday is Holliday's picture, as she runs the gamut from brassy insouciance to tentative, vulnerable enlightenment. She hasn't thought of her estranged father in five years: "It's nothing against him. I haven't thought of anything in five years." Her gradual awakening to the realisation that she is a stooge for Brock's corrupt business deals, and the way she sheds her chorus girl's intellect in the face of growing political awareness, are brilliantly traced. Holliday's dead-pan delivery makes the pathos of her self-discovery both hilarious and deeply touching; it's the hallmark of a comic genius, which makes the sparseness of her subsequent film appearances all the more regrettable. On the DVD: Born Yesterday is presented in full screen (1.33:1) ratio. Like the mono soundtrack, the black and white picture quality has triumphantly survived its more than half century. Extras include a gallery of vintage advertisements and an original theatrical trailer, plus filmographies and welcome, comprehensive booklet notes. --Piers Ford

• 12 Rounds/12 Rounds 2 | DVD | (24/06/2013) from £10.29   |  Saving you £10.96 (121.37%)   |  RRP £19.99

  12 RoundsFinnish director Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger Die Hard 2) brings first-time screenwriter Daniel Kunka's story to life in this fast-paced action film. When New Orleans police officer Danny Fisher apprehends Miles Jackson (Aidan Gillen The Wire) a villainous Irishman being pursued by the FBI Jackson’s girlfriend is accidentally killed. One year later Jackson is out of prison and seeking revenge kidnapping Fisher's girlfriend Molly (Ashley Scott) and setting up an elaborate game of cat and mouse that traverses the city. Now a detective Fisher with the help of the FBI and his fellow officers has to survive 12 rounds of Jackson's game--each more mentally and physically challenging than the last-if he wants to see Molly alive again. Meanwhile the roguish Jackson may be seeking more than just retribution. 12 Rounds 2WWE superstar Randy Orton slams action into overdrive in this pulse-pounding thrill ride filled with gripping suspense! Paramedic Nick Malloy (Orton) is plunged into a deadly game of cat and mouse when he receives a terrifying phone call from a vengeful psychopath (Brian Markinson) connected to his past. The maniac threatens to unleash a murder spree unless Nick can complete a series of 12 challenges without involving the cops or missing a single deadline. With no time to spare - and his own wife's life on the line - Nick must piece together cryptic clues and hunt down the killer before it's too late!

• The Russia House | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £6.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (85.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Intelligent casting, strong performances and the persuasive chemistry between Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer prove the virtues in director Fred Schepisi's well-intended but problematic screen realization of this John Le Carré espionage thriller. At its best, The Russia House depicts the bittersweet nuances of the pivotal affair between a weary, alcoholic London publisher (Connery) and the mysterious Russian beauty (Pfeiffer) who sends him a fateful manuscript exposing the weaknesses beneath Soviet defence technology. Connery's Barley is a gritty, all-too-human figure who's palpably revived by his awakening feelings for Pfeiffer's wan, vulnerable Katya, whose own reciprocal emotions are equally convincing. Together, they weave a poignant romantic duet. The problems, meanwhile, emanate from the story line that brings these opposites together. Le Carré's novels are absorbing but typically internal odysseys that seldom offer the level of straightforward action or simple arcs of plot that the big screen thrives on. For The Russia House, written as glasnost eclipsed the cold war's overt rivalries, Le Carré means to measure how old adversaries must calibrate their battle to a more subtle, subdued match of wits. Barley himself becomes enmeshed in the mystery of the manuscript because British intelligence chooses to use him as cat's paw rather than become directly involved. Such subtlety may be a more realistic take on the spy games of the recent past but it makes for an often tedious, talky alternative to taut heroics that Connery codified in his most celebrated early espionage role. If the suspense thus suffers, we're still left with an affecting love story, as well as some convincing sniping between British and US intelligence operatives, beautifully cast with James Fox, Roy Scheider and John Mahoney. Veteran playwright Tom Stoppard brings considerable style to the dialogue, without solving the problem of giving us more than those verbal exchanges to sustain dramatic interest. --Sam Sutherland

• Spawn | DVD | (04/06/2018) from £6.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A government assassin is brought back to life as a black superhero with supernatural How can you avenge betrayal and murder? How can you fight for right in a world so steeped in evil? How can you protect those you love most from all that can do them harm? No man living - or dead - can tell you. But one trapped between both is struggling for an answer that can save the lives of his most beloved, or plunge the world into eternal darkness. The cloak and chains of Spawn explode onto the screen in a deadly tornado of untapped, unwrapped, merciless power.

• The Osterman Weekend | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-14.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  What would you do if a complete stranger tried to convince you that three of your closest friends were really Soviet agents? That's the dilemma facing an investigative TV journalist who is looking forward to a weekend reunion party when he is approached by the CIA and told that his male guests are not what they seem...

• Serpico (50th Anniversary Edition) | Blu Ray | (18/04/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Prizzi's Honor | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £6.11   |  Saving you £-0.12 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Director John Huston was a master of storytelling and Prizzi's Honor was his black comedy masterpiece. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Anjelica Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her caustic performance. Charley Partanna a do-it-yourself kind of guy has been loyal to 'The Family' since he can remember. If you need somebody rubbed out he's your eraser ready to kill at the drop of a dollar. Boss Don Corrado Prizzi's daughter Maerose has eyes for Charley but Charley has already fallen for a sultry hit-woman named Irene Walker. Their unlikely romance hits a snag however as Irene and Charley have each been hired to knock off the other.

• Walking Tall | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £5.82   |  Saving you £10.17 (174.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When a former member of the U.S. Army Special Forces (The Rock) returns to his small hometown and finds it besieged by drugs and violence, he becomes the sheriff to put things right.

• Earth vs The Flying Saucers | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £13.94   |  Saving you £-0.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Earth vs the Flying Saucers has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. A Twilight Zone styled voiceover introduces Dr Marvin Russell and his wife of two hours as they're buzzed by an overhead flying saucer--the first of many. When a translation device reveals the saucer-occupants' fiendish plan to take over the world, it's time for a good old army-alien punch-up. Cue screenfuls of avuncular patriarchs, loads of techno-flannel space-speak and plenty of gratuitous American-monument destruction. A by-numbers B-movie, this is only really notable for Harryhausen's stop-motion FX work--and though this, his fifth feature, isn't a patch on his later Technicolor masterpieces, his trick of demolishing facsimiles of recognisable landmarks is cited by many premier filmmakers as being hugely influential on their work. This is very much of its time, the saucer-people arousing few of the thrills engendered by his later creations (Sinbad's Cyclops, for example). And with Cold War fears now just a memory, the Ruskies, or rather aliens, can no longer prevail upon a zeitgeist of xenophobic paranoia for their power. On the DVD: Earth vs the Flying Saucers's black-and-white picture is clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please fans of kitsch, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here though is the generously proportioned documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles": narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger

• The Lakes 2 | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The original series of the The Lakes brought writer Jimmy McGovern and actor John Simm a great deal of critical praise in 1997. Following a particularly dry period for British TV drama, the show's realistic characterisations and their painfully honest decisions hit audiences hard. Simm is a twentysomething trapped in a life of compulsive gambling, theft and being on the dole in Liverpool. On a whim he heads north to the Lake District. He expects to find the countryside quietude where his hidden poetical leanings might find a home, but instead gets caught up in a community like any other. Lies, temptation and tragedy beset every household just as much as the big city. In the second series, far longer than the first, an exploration of Danny's tortured soul might have been the obvious continuation to the story; instead an almost Hitchcockian murder scenario occupies far more screen time. But by stretching things out, this second series does not have the same self-contained impact of the original. Additional writers only served to drag out Danny's boy-to-man journey. Ultimately, lessons are learned, including the realistic conclusion that life is without a poetical status quo. Despite the tail-off in overall quality, you'd be hard pressed to identify a better British drama in the years since. --Paul Tonks

• Cold Blood - Complete Series | DVD | (14/01/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Wicklow was jailed after a killing spree so macabre that he has become one of Britain's most notorious murderers vilified by the popular press and despised by fellow inmates. His notoriety is compounded by the fact that detectives investigating his crimes have never found the body of his last victim. However no one is safe with Wicklow behind bars

• Christine | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-16.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  She can't (and won't) drive 55.... Stephen King's novel about the twisted love affair between a boy and his car gets transferred to the screen, courtesy of suspense master John Carpenter. Although lacking some of the more outré supernatural elements of the source material, this high-octane cinematic tune-up more than delivers the goods, horror-wise (Christine's midnight rampages will never be forgotten)--as well as being a sly exposé of the random cruelties within the high-school pecking order. Keith Gordon (who has gone on to become a stellar director in his own right, with films such as A Midnight Clear and Mother Night to his credit) gives a wonderfully controlled central performance. Carpenter's atmospheric original score is backed up by a well-chosen collection of rock classics, including George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" (the titular character's all-too-apt theme song). --Andrew Wright, Amazon.com

• National Lampoon's Vacations | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £30.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  National Lampoon's Vacation (1983): The inept but sincere Clark W. Griswold (Chevy Chase) takes misfortune in his stride. So what if they lose all their money when their new car gets wrecked? And it's not too bad when Cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) deposits sour Aunt Edna (Imogene Coca) in their back seat for a lift to Phoenix. But what really keeps Clark's eyes on the road is a flirtation with a mysterious blonde (Christie Brinkley) in a red Ferrari... National Lampoon's Europ

• Me, You And Everyone We Know | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-1.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  "Me And You And Everyone We Know" is a poetic and penetrating observation of how people struggle to connect with one another.

• Assault On Precinct 13 | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £15.86   |  Saving you £2.13 (13.43%)   |  RRP £17.99

  John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 is a riveting low-budget thriller from 1976, in which a nearly abandoned police station is held under siege by a heavily armed gang called Street Thunder. Inside the station, cut off from contact and isolated, convicts heading for death row and the cops must now join forces or die. That's the basic plot, but what Carpenter does with it is remarkable. Drawing specific inspiration from the classic Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo (which included a similar siege on disadvantaged heroes), Carpenter used his simple setting for a tense, tightly constructed series of action sequences, emphasising low-key character development and escalating tension. Few who've seen the film can forget the "ice cream cone" scene in which a young girl is caught up in the action by patronising a seemingly harmless ice cream van. It's here, and in other equally memorable scenes, that Carpenter demonstrates his knack for injecting terror into the mundane details of daily life, propelling this potent thriller to cult favourite status and long-standing critical acclaim. From this Carpenter went on to make the original Halloween, one of the most profitable independent films of all time. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Two Rode Together | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £8.04   |  Saving you £1.95 (24.25%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The West's most violent story... The West's most valiant hour! John Ford's criminally overlooked western (the first collaboration between Ford and James Stewart) finally makes its way to DVD for the first time! A group of children are held captive by the Indians. A Lieutenant enlists the help of a Texas Marshall in a rescue attempt. Based on the novel by Will Cook.

• The Black Cauldron | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £6.22   |  Saving you £13.77 (221.38%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Walt Disney's 25th full-length animated classic The Black Cauldron is a spectacular fantasy adventure to leave your whole family spellbound. In the mystical land of Prydrain a young boy named Taran undertakes a heroic task. With a magic sword at his side Taran must prevent the evil Horned King from unleashing the supernatural powers of a mysterious black cauldron! Helped by the beautiful Princess Eilonwy a funny and furry creature named Gurgi and an adorable clairvoyant pig Taran

• Fun With Dick And Jane | DVD | (09/01/2006) from £9.59   |  Saving you £3.40 (35.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bonnie and Clyde they ain't. George Segal and Jane Fonda star in this hilarious send-up of upper middle-class mores and the price people are willing to pay to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Just as they're putting in a new pool at the house that has sunk them deep into debt Dick is fired from his high-paying job as an executive. Housewife Jane isn't too worried at first figuring she'll go to work and they'll just tighten their belts for awhile but it quickly becomes appa

• Footballers' Wives - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £9.04   |  Saving you £15.95 (176.44%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Marriage, sex, drugs, fast cars and fights and loads and loads of affairs – these are all the ingredients that make this one of the DVD and TV highlights this April.

• Kansas City Confidential | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £7.76   |  Saving you £2.23 (28.74%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A tough action drama in the classic film noir vein. Released from jail for a crime he did not commit John Payne portrays a disgruntled ex-con who scours the underworld for the real theives behind a sophisticated armored car heist.