"Actor: John Spencer"

• The West Wing - Complete Season 1 | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £12.85   |  Saving you £49.14 (382.41%)   |  RRP £61.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funniest and most moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters comprising the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military and fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing. --David Stubbs

• The Rock -- Two-Disc Special Edition | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £22.35   |  Saving you £-4.36 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Bodybuilders Daniel Lugo (Mark Wahlberg) and Adrian Doorbal (Anthony Mackie) concoct a plan to kidnap rich spoiled business man Victor Kershaw (Tony Shalhoub), a regular at the gym where they work, and extort him by means of torture.

• Gladiator (2000) - Two Disc Set | DVD | (20/11/2000) from £5.44   |  Saving you £19.55 (359.38%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Upon the sudden death of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, his trusted and successful general Narcissus Meridas is unlawfully imprisoned and condemned to the gladiator games by Marcus's twisted son Commodus.

• Being John Malkovich | DVD | (18/09/2000) from £5.43   |  Saving you £4.56 (83.98%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A puppeteer (John Cusack) discovers a door in his office that allows him to enter the mind and life of John Horatio Malkovich (John Malkovich) for 15 minutes.

• Never Been Kissed | DVD | (19/06/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Josie Geller (Drew Barrymore) wants more out of life. As a bright twenty-five-year-old copy editor at Chicago's revered newspaper, the Chicago Sun-Times, she yearns to be a reporter.

• Bong Joon Ho Collection | Blu Ray | (19/04/2021) from £29.97   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Contains Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), Memories of Murder (2003), The Host (2006), Mother (2009), Snowpiercer (2013), Parasite (2020) and Parasite B&W (2020). Special Features: PARASITE - Extra 1 Making of - Extra 2 Deleted Scenes - Extra 3 Director Q&A - Extra 4 HOH & Audio description

• The West Wing - Complete Season 4 | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £9.25   |  Saving you £54.00 (675.84%)   |  RRP £61.99

  The fourth season of intrigue within the Bartlet administration. 1. 20 Hours In America: Part I 2. 20 Hours In America: Part II 3. College Kids 4. The Red Mass 5. Debate Camp 6. Game On 7. Election Night 8. Process Stories 9. Swiss Diplomacy 10. Arctic Radar 11. Holy Night 12. Guns Not Butter 13. The Long Goodbye 14. Inauguration: Part I 15. Inauguration: Over There 16. The California 47th 17. Red Haven's On Fire 18. Privateers 19. Angel Maintenance 20. Evidence Of

• Black Rain | DVD | (04/09/2000) from £6.91   |  Saving you £6.08 (87.99%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who--along with his partner (Andy Garcia)--goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. When the latter escapes, Douglas's brand of gonzo crime fighting rubs his Japanese hosts the wrong way. Slick, mechanistic, and absurd, the film is all surface action and attitude (not to mention Scott's incredibly busy, trademark art direction); and one can get lost in the sheer indulgence of it. However, if you can buy Douglas as an iconoclastic lawman, you can buy anything else here, including the notion of Kate Capshaw as a blonde escort highly desired by Japanese businessmen. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Presumed Innocent | DVD | (26/07/1999) from £13.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.07%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Rich with ambiguity, this smooth adaptation of Scott Turow's bestselling mystery novel stars Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich, the prosecuting attorney assigned to a case involving the murder of a beautiful, seductive lawyer (Greta Scacchi) with whom he'd been having a secret affair. After the investigation gets off to a slow start, damning evidence points to Rusty as the prime suspect. His career is destroyed when his superior and secondary suspect Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) sets him up for the fall. Bonnie Bedelia plays Rusty's wife Barbara, who is not above suspicion herself. While Ford's performance rides a fine line between presumed innocence and possible guilt, director Alan J Pakula (All the President's Men) maintains a consistent tone of uncertainty that keeps the viewer guessing. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Raising Helen | DVD | (27/12/2004) from £5.32   |  Saving you £10.67 (200.56%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When her sister and brother-in-law die in a car accident, Kate Hudson's young modeling agency assistant takes on the role as guardian of their three children.

• The Negotiator | DVD | (14/06/1999) from £8.78   |  Saving you £5.21 (59.34%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Although it eventually runs out of smart ideas and resorts to a typically explosive finale, this above-average thriller rises above its formulaic limitations on the strength of powerful performances by Samuel L Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Both play Chicago police negotiators with hotshot reputations, but when Jackson's character finds himself falsely accused of embezzling funds from a police pension fund, he's so thoroughly framed that he must take extreme measures to prove his innocence. He takes hostages in police headquarters to buy time and plan his strategy, demanding that Spacey be brought in to mediate with him as an army of cops threatens to attack, and a media circus ensues. Both negotiators know how to get into the other man's thoughts, and this intellectual showdown allows both Spacey and Jackson to ignite the screen with a burst of volatile intensity. Director F Gary Gray is disadvantaged by an otherwise predictable screenplay, but he has a knack for building suspense and is generous to a fine supporting cast, including Paul Giamatti as one of Jackson's high-strung hostages, and the late JT Walsh in what would sadly be his final big-screen role. The Negotiator should have trusted its compelling characters a little more, probing their psyches more intensely to give the suspense a deeper dramatic foundation, but it's good enough to give two great actors a chance to strut their stuff. --Jeff Shannon

• Sea Of Love | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £6.09   |  Saving you £13.90 (228.24%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two detectives one from New York the other from Long Island join forces to track down a bizarre serial killer. Convinced of a beautiful suspect's innocence the New York detective starts an affair with her despite hard evidence linking her to the murders.

• The Forger | DVD | (07/09/2015) from £7.69   |  Saving you £11.29 (240.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The world's best art forger (John Travolta Pulp Fiction, Face/Off) makes a deal with a crime syndicate to get an early release from prison, but in return he must pull of an impossible heist - he must forge a painting by Claude Monet, steal the original from a museum and replace it with a replica so perfect that no one will notice. He enlists the help of his father (Christopher Plummer A Beautiful Mind, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo) and son (Tye Sheridan MUD, The Tree of Life) and together they plan the heist of their lives!

• The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin - The Complete First Series | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Boasting a virtuoso comic performance from Leonard Rossiter The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-79) remains one of the greatest of all television sitcoms. Writer David Nobbs combined the surrealist absurdity of Monty Python with an on-going story line that unfolded through each of the three seasons with a clear beginning, middle and end; a ground-breaking development in 70s TV comedy. The first and best season charts middle-aged, middle-management executive Reginald Perrin as he breaks-down under the stress of middle-class life until he informs the world that half the parking meters in London have Dutch Parking Meter Disease. He fakes suicide and returns to court his wife Elizabeth (Pauline Yates) in disguise, a plot development that formed the entire basis of Mrs Doubtfire (1993). Series Two is broader, the rapid-fire dialogue still razor sharp and loaded with caustic wit and ingenious silliness, as a now sane Reggie takes on the madness of the business world by opening a chain of shops selling rubbish. The third season, set in a health farm, is routine, the edge blunted by routine sitcom conventions. At its best The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is hilarious and moving, its depiction of English middle-class life spot on, its satire prophetic. Reggie's visual fantasies hark back to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Billy Liar (1963), and look forward to Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and are the icing on the cake of a fine, original and highly imaginative show. On the DVD: Reginald Perrin's discs contain one complete seven episode season. There are no extras. The sound is good mono and the 4:3 picture is generally fine, though some of the exterior shot-on-film scenes have deteriorated and there are occasional signs of minor damage to the original video masters. Even so, for a 1970s sitcom shot on video the picture is excellent and far superior to the original broadcasts. --Gary S Dalkin

• Shane | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £6.30   |  Saving you £9.69 (153.81%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Consciously crafted by director George Stevens as a piece of American myth making, Shane is on nearly everyone's shortlist of great movie Westerns. A buckskin knight, Shane (Alan Ladd) rides into the middle of a range war between farmers and cattlemen, quickly siding with the "sod-busters". While helping a kindly farmer (Van Heflin), Shane falls platonically in love with the man's wife (Jean Arthur, in the last screen performance of a marvellous career). Though the showdowns are exciting, and the story simple but involving, what most people will remember about this movie is the friendship between the stoical Shane and the young son of the farmers. The kid is played by Brandon De Wilde, an amazing child performer; his parting scene with Shane is guaranteed to draw tears from even the most stony-hearted moviegoer. And speaking of stony hearts, Jack Palance made a sensational impression as the evil gunslinger sent to clean house--he has fewer lines of dialogue than he has lines in his magnificently craggy face, but he makes them count. The photography, highlighting the landscape near Jackson Hole, Wyoming, won an Oscar. --Robert Horton

• Cop Land | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £6.92   |  Saving you £11.07 (159.97%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Freddy Heflin (Stallone in a critically acclaimed performance) is a simple small-town Sheriff who had big dreams of becoming a New York City cop before a heroic deed left him deaf in one ear. Though he saved the life of the woman he loves (Annabella Sciorra - The Hand That Rocks The Cradle) she went on to marry someone else. But everything in Freddy's life is about to change! After he uncovers evidence of a murder fakes suicide and police tampering Freddy must choose between the men he idolises the woman he adores and the law he's sworn to defend.

• Bomber Harris | DVD | (04/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Thaw stars in this critically acclaimed BBC drama based on the wartime career of Sir Arthur 'Bomber' Harris the Commander in chief of Bomber Command from 1942-1945.

• Ravenous | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £10.29   |  Saving you £2.70 (26.24%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In 1847, the United States was a land of pioneers, of gold-starved Americans making their way west.

• Gladiator -- Superbit | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A big-budget summer epic with money to burn and a scale worthy of its golden Hollywood predecessors, Ridley Scott's Gladiator is a rousing, grisly, action-packed epic that takes movie-making back to the Roman Empire via computer-generated visual effects. While not as fluid as the computer work done for, say, Titanic, it's an impressive achievement that will leave you marvelling at the glory that was Rome, when you're not marvelling at the glory that is Russell Crowe. Starring as the heroic general Maximus, Crowe firmly cements his star status both in terms of screen presence and acting chops, carrying the film on his decidedly non-computer-generated shoulders as he goes from brave general to wounded fugitive to stoic slave to gladiator hero. Gladiator's plot is a whirlwind of faux-Shakespearean machinations of death, betrayal, power plays, and secret identities (with lots of faux-Shakespearean dialogue ladled on to keep the proceedings appropriately "classical"), but it's all briskly shot, edited, and paced with a contemporary sensibility. Even the action scenes, somewhat muted but graphic in terms of implied violence and liberal bloodletting, are shot with a veracity that brings to mind--believe it or not--Saving Private Ryan. As Crowe's nemesis, the evil emperor Commodus, Joaquin Phoenix chews scenery with authority, whether he's damning Maximus's popularity with the Roman mobs or lusting after his sister Lucilla (beautiful but distant Connie Nielsen); Oliver Reed, in his last role, hits the perfect notes of camp and gravitas as the slave owner who rescues Maximus from death and turns him into a Colosseum star. Director Scott's visual flair is abundantly in evidence, with breathtaking shots and beautiful (albeit digital) landscapes, but it's Crowe's star power that will keep you in thrall--he's a true gladiator, worthy of his legendary status. Hail the conquering hero! --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

• Son (SHUDDER) | DVD | (11/10/2021) from £13.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After a mysterious group of individuals breaks into Laura's home and attempts to steal her eight-year-old son David, the two of them flee town in search of safety. But soon after the failed kidnapping, David becomes extremely ill, suffering from increasingly sporadic psychosis and convulsions. Following her maternal instincts to save him, Laura commits unspeakable acts to keep him alive but soon, she must decide how far she is willing to go to save her son. Special Features Interviews with Cast and Crew Deleted Scenes