"Actor: John Sa"

• The Deer Hunter 40th Anniversary Edition | Blu Ray | (20/08/2018) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An in-depth examination of the ways in which the U.S. Vietnam War impacts and disrupts the lives of people in a small industrial town in Pennsylvania.

• Black Christmas | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-11.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  The few remaining residents of a Canadian sorority house are celebrating the onset of Christmas vacation when a thirteen year-old girl is found dead in the park. Soon it is discovered that one of the sorority sisters is missing which triggers a terrifying chain of murders within the house... Director Bob Clark's tense effective film is a precursor to the 'slasher' films Friday 13th and Halloween that would come a half decade later.

• The Deer Hunter: Special Edition (2 discs) | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £5.79   |  Saving you £11.20 (193.44%)   |  RRP £16.99

  The Deer Hunter is an expansive portrait of friendship in a Pennsylvania steel town, and of the effects of the Vietnam War. Led by the trio of Robert De Niro, John Savage and Christopher Walken (who won a supporting actor Oscar), the first hour is dominated by an engrossing Russian Orthodox wedding and reception. When the drama moves overseas it switches from anthropologically realistic documentation of a community's rituals to highly controversial and still shocking Russian Roulette scenes, symbolising the random horror of war. Unforgettable as they are, the Vietnam sequences occupy less than a third of the three-hour running time; defying movie convention The Deer Hunter is fundamentally a before-and-after ensemble character study anchored by De Niro's great performance. Although it was the first serious Hollywood feature to address the Vietnam War, the plausibility of some of the later plot developments raises awkward questions. But the film remains powerfully effective, its deliberate pace, naturalistic overlapping dialogue and unflinching seriousness marking it very much a product of the 1970s. With nine Oscar nominations and five wins, including Best Picture and Director, it's a cinematic landmark that stands the test time, almost incidentally setting Meryl Streep on the road to superstardom in her first leading role. On the DVD: The Deer Hunter: Special Edition has the film on the first disc with a serious yet amiable Region 2 exclusive discussion track between director Michael Cimino and critic SX Finnie. The picture is anamorphically enhanced at 2.35:1, and perfectly reproduces Vilmos Zsigmond's deliberately desaturated, necessarily grainy cinematography. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack clearly reveals the mono original, being largely focused on the centre speaker and while it does a good job, some of the choral music does sound harsh. Dialogue is sometimes indecipherable, but that's due to the naturalistic nature of the original sound recording and mixing. Disc 2 offers excellent new interviews with Jon Savage (15 mins), Vilmos Zsigmond (15 mins) and Michael Cimino (23 mins). Also included is the original trailer (anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1), a routine photo gallery and a DVD version of the original press brochure. There's no trace of the 40 minutes of deleted material referred to by Cimino, but this presentation is still an object lesson in how quality of extras triumphs over quantity. --Gary S Dalkin

• Lenny | DVD | (23/06/2003) from £8.98   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From his first gig as a nervous Catskills comedian it's obvious that Lenny Bruce (Dustin Hoffman) is a force to be reckoned with. Armed with a shocking routine and a stripper as his muse (Valerie Perrine) Lenny turns comedy and America on its ear with his abrasive and often offensive humour. But life in the smoke-filled bars of the comedy curcuit begins to take its toll. The drugs and arrests for his subject matter wear heavily on this maverick crusader but don't stop him from goi

• Terms Of Endearment | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £6.41   |  Saving you £6.58 (102.65%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When Terms of Endearment was released in 1983, director and writer James L Brooks was lauded for his depiction of a complex mother/daughter relationship. For his leading ladies he chose actresses with two of the strongest personalities in Hollywood, but armed with an exceptionally witty script and endless patience he eventually drew magnificent performances from Shirley Maclaine as Aurora and Debra Winger as her daugher Emma, assisted considerably by Jack Nicholson's considerate professionalism. As the philandering retired astronaut who beds Maclaine and then provides her with surprising support in the film's dark later moments, Nicholson shines with comic brilliance which earned him an Oscar. It was no secret that Maclaine and Winger could barely contain a mutual antipathy on set. Yet they strike sparks off each other on screen. When comedy turns to tragedy with the development of Emma's cancer, the laughs continue even while the tear ducts are being given a good work out. In the glory days of Hollywood, this would have been acknowledged a great "women's picture" and its weepy credentials are impeccable. It stands out as a warm, accessible work that admirably rejects sugary sentiment in favour of the realistic rough edges that characterise most human relationships. On the DVD: Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, this DVD is ideal for home cinema viewing. The picture and sound quality are fine, benefiting Michael Gore's gentle, memorable music and bringing the best out of Andrzej Bartkowiak's luminous photography. In addition to the original theatrical trailer, the major extra is the director's commentary in which James L Brooks reminisces with coproducer Penney Finkelman and production designer Polly Platt. They look back at their impressive work with a touching degree of wonder and apprentice directors should take note when Brooks recalls his steep learning curve in managing his leading ladies. --Piers Ford

• Marry Me | DVD | (16/05/2022) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Packed with original songs by Jennifer Lopez and global Latin music star Maluma, Marry Me features Lopez starring as musical superstar Kat Valdez and Owen Wilson as Charlie Gilbert, a maths teacher - total strangers who agree to marry and then get to know each other. An unlikely romance about two different people searching for something real in a world where value is based on likes and followers, Marry Me is a modern love story about celebrity, marriage and social media.

• Ready Player One | DVD | (06/08/2018) from £6.76   |  Saving you £3.23 (47.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Stephen Spielberg directs the worldwide phenomenon Ready Player One. When an unlikely young hero, Wade Watts decides to join the ultimate contest to find the digital Easter eggs to win the Oasis, an expansive virtual reality universe where anything is possible, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery, and danger.

• The Adventures of Mark Twain (1986) | Blu Ray | (31/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The Adventures of Mark Twain is an amazing journey of imagination humour and heart and a must for fans of Aardman Studios. The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain's works built around a plot that features Twain's attempts to keep his appointment with Halley's Comet. Tom Sawyer Becky Thatcher and Huck Finn stow away with Mark Twain on an incredible journey in Twain's airship. The journey introduces the three friends to a variety of the author's characters from; The Diary of Adam and Eve Huckleberry Finn The Mysterious Stranger The Famous Jumping Frog of Caliverous County and Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven. The sequence based on The Mysterious Stranger reportedly received over ten million views upon being posted on YouTube. The sequence was allegedly banned from TV due to its disturbing content

• Murder On The Orient Express (Re-sleeve) | DVD | (14/08/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Elegant, all-star production, introducing Albert Finney as the first screen Hercule Poirot. A no-good American tycoon lies dead with twelve dagger wounds, but which of the passengers is the guilty party? Includes an Oscar® winning performance from Ingrid Bergman

• Runaway Jury | DVD | (14/06/2004) from £5.50   |  Saving you £10.49 (190.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A member of the jury for an explosive trial against a gun manufacturer joins forces with a beautiful woman to manipulate the panel.

• Beautiful Thing | DVD | (17/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A long hot summer on a housing estate in South London. Jamie is bunking off school whilst his mother Sandra juggles job promotion and her relationship with hippy-dippy boyfriend Tony. Next door lives sassy Leah who spends her day listing to Mama Cass records. In the same block Jamie's class mate Ste although sporty and popular at school is bullied by his drunken father. One-day Steve seeks refuge in Sandra's flat and ends up sleeping head to toe with Jamie....

• Jumpin' Jack Flash | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £8.25   |  Saving you £4.74 (57.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Computer operator Terry Dolittle (Goldberg) becomes involved in international espionage when a desperate message from a British Intelligence officer appears on her computer terminal...

• Dark Angel - Season 2 | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The second and last series of Dark Angel, the inventive James Cameron show about mutants during a future Depression, has some real strengths, as well as having one or two bad ideas that partly explain its much-regretted cancellation. Among the strengths are Alex, the thoroughly unreliable mutant charmer whose flirtations with heroine Max complicate her doomed love for Logan, the crippled newshound whom she cannot now even touch--she has been infected with a deadly virus tailored specifically to kill him. The distrust this sows between the doomed couple does not always avoid soap opera clichés, but often produces fine performances, especially from Jessica Alba as Max. On the down side, John Savage's memorably ambiguous villain Lydeker from Series 1 (who is alternately the mutants' nemesis and their protector), disappears to be replaced by the melodramatically sinister Agent White. White appears to be just a shoot-to-kill operative of the state but turns out to be another sort of superhuman, a product of an occultist breeding programme going back to the dawn of history. After White's first ruthless killing, Max's reluctance to use deadly force is tested to near implausible limits. The show ends with a rousing and moving finale, "Freak Nation", in which a theme often neglected in this final year--Max's relationship with her fellow couriers at Jam Pony--reaches a powerful climax. On the DVD: Dark Angel's Series 2 release is ungenerous with special features, giving us an interesting but short documentary in which James Cameron, producer Charles Eglee and various designers describe how they created this rundown future Seattle with a mixture of location shots, set dressing and CGI, as well as a preview of the Dark Angel game. --Roz Kaveney

• Blake's 7 - Series 4 | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Intergalactic adventure with an interplanetary resistance group battling for survival against a totalitarian super-power. Roaming a universe of boundless space and restrictive discipline freedom-fighter Blake with the crew of spaceship Liberator is locked in combat with the all-powerful forces of the Federation. This DVD release features all 13 episodes from the final series of Blake's 7. Episodes Comprise: 1. Rescue 2. Power 3. Traitor 4. Stardrive 5. Anima

• Toy Story (Disney Pixar) | DVD | (28/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The toys celebrate their 10th birthday with this amazing double pack set.

• White Squall | DVD | (01/03/2003) from £50.15   |  Saving you £-42.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Thirteen young men begin an adventure of a lifetime on a sailing trip captained by Christopher Chaldean. When disaster hits in the form of a huge storm the crew must fight to survive...

• Bruce Lee - The Master Collection | DVD | (27/11/2017) from £66.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Collection of action films starring martial artist and actor Bruce Lee. In 'The Big Boss' (1971) Lee stars as immigrant worker Cheng Chao-an who takes a job with his cousins in an ice factory and discovers all manner of suspicious activities. When he begins to investigate a series of disappearances - the latest of which has seen his own cousin go missing - he can't help but display his formidable martial arts skills. Taking on one opponent after another, Cheng will not stop until he has fought his way to the truth and the inevitable confrontation with the man known only as The Big Boss (Han Ying Chieh). In 'Fist of Fury' (1972) Lee stars as martial arts student Chen Zhen whose mentor dies in suspicious circumstances. Whilst he is mourning his old friend, members of a rival school arrive and taunt Chen and his friends, who do not react at first. Chen later humiliates his adversaries by beating every single one of them, but this causes bloody repercussions and begins to uncover the real reasons behind his master's death. In 'The Way of the Dragon' (1973) Lee stars as martial arts expert Tang Lung who travels to Rome to protect a family friend's restaurant from a powerful Mafia man. A violent altercation between Tang and the mobster's heavies persuades the gang boss to call for reinforcements, an American martial arts assassin (Chuck Norris), who challenges Tang to a fight to the death within the walls of the Colosseum. In 'Enter the Dragon' (1973) Lee plays the role of a secret agent who is sent to infiltrate a martial arts tournament presided over by a one-handed supervillain. His mission: to destroy the villain's opium-smuggling racket. Finally, in 'Game of Death' (1978) a successful martial artist who refuses to join a crime syndicate has a contract to kill put out with his name on it. The assassination attempt fails but his death is broadcast to the world to throw the criminals off his trail. Unfortunately, the hoods do not believe the stories and make him face a series of adversaries in one-to-one fights to save the life of his girlfriend (Colleen Camp).

• Stuart Little 2 | DVD | (24/11/2002) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The smallest member of The Little family returns in this blockbusting sequel. Alongside fellow family pet Snowbell the cat he sets of on a journey through the streets of New York in search of a missing friend.

• The Sopranos: Complete Series 1 (Six Disc Set) | DVD | (29/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £61.99

  The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: This ambitious TV series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognisable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get. Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatisation of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchman and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed. The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional", perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• Grange Hill : BBC TV Series 7 & 8 Boxed Set | DVD | (11/11/2019) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Trouble is brewing as a merger between Grange Hill, Brookdale & Rodney Bennet looms large on the horizon. New pupils Luke 'Gonch' Gardner & Paul ˜Hollo' Holloway cause havoc & the burning question this term . does Mr Bronson wear a wig? This boxed set features all 36 episodes from series 7 & 8, originally broadcast in 1984 and 1985. ALSO INCLUDED for the very first time The 1981 Christmas Special Episode (First broadcast 28th December 1981 pre series 5) Grange Hill Series 7 - First broadcast on 3rd January 1984 It's a new term & Zammo has a girlfriend (Jackie Wright) who goes to rival school Brookdale. Well-meaning pupil Janet makes it her mission to help Roland, but he finds her constant nagging irritating. A poolside prank during a swimming lesson has fatal consequences. N3's countryside orienteering course descends into panic as Roland & Mr Baxter get hopelessly lost. Miss Gordon's Art club experiences a flurry of new recruits (including Pogo Patterson) as news spreads about a nude model. The term ends with a School Disco where Mrs McClusky slow dances with Mr McGuffy. Grange Hill Series 8 - First broadcast on 18th February 1985 Grange Hill has now merged with Rodney Bennett & Brookdale causing tensions to rise; can Mrs McClusky & new Deputy Head Teacher Mr Bronson keep order? A love triangle develops as Stewpot two-times Claire with Annette; Zammo & Jackie hit a rough patch as Banksie arrives on the scene. French exchange students visit & Roland finds a friend in Fabienne. Entrepreneurial pupil pairing ˜Gonch' & ˜Hollo' devise a number of ill-fated money-making schemes during the term & Mr Bronson's wig goes missing DVD Extra Feature: 1981 Christmas Special Episode It's the end of term School Disco & Tucker sees the event as an opportunity to make some money. All seems well until some pupils from Brookdale crash the party & attempt to steal both the takings & the Disco itself! Fortunately, Tucker, Benny, Alan & Tommy see what's going on & step in to save the day. As the punches fly even arch-enemy Michael Doyle steps in to help the lads; flippin ˜eck it must be Christmas!! Special Features: The 1981 Christmas Special Episode (24 mins)