"Actor: Jon Martin"

• Cider With Rosie | DVD | (03/03/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on a memoir of English writer Laurie Lee and featuring narration by Lee himself, this made-for-television adaptation begins in wartime 1918 with Lee's family moving to the Gloucestershire countryside. Juliet Stevenson (Truly, Madly, Deeply) shines as the matriarch of this large blended family, a compassionate and distracted woman who pines for the brood's missing father. The movie takes Lee from a young boy sleeping in his mother's bed through his girl-obsessed adolescence, fondly dealing with an assortment of relatives, schoolmates and villagers along the way. Lee doesn't actually have cider with girlfriend Rosie until a few minutes before the 82-minute movie ends, but in the meantime Charles Beeson, directing from an adaptation by John Mortimer, has offered up a gentle homage to long-passed era. --Kimberly Heinrichs, Amazon.com

• Monteverdi: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria -- Zurich/Harnoncourt | DVD | (10/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Klaus-Michael Gruber's austere staging of Monteverdi's Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria ("Ulysses' Return") gives the impression of a sun-drenched ancient Greek island by the simplest of means: a bleached white wall against a dazzling sky-blue backcloth. It is an ideal setting for conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt's pared-down reading of the score (fewer "authentic" rasps and rattles than 25 years ago) and Vesselina Kasarova's intense, restrained performance of Penelope, all the more powerful for being held back. For example, her repeated cry of "Torna!" ("Return to me!")--an excuse for much hand-wringing on the part of some mezzos--rarely rises above mezzo-forte here. Dietrich Henschel is equally impressive as Ulisse, and uses his rich, flexible voice with inventiveness: he handles the moment of recognition with his son Telemaco (the outrageously handsome Jonas Kaufmann) beautifully. There are some off-the-rail moments to the staging which might not appeal to English theatrical tastes: Penelope's suitors are presented in a rather silly puppet show and the comedy scenes with Iro (Rudolf Schasching) fall flat. But it doesn't prevent the final moments of reconciliation and recognition reaching powerful heights. On the DVD: Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria is presented in 16:9 ratio and has PCM Stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 sound options. There are subtitles in Italian, German, English, French and Spanish. A handsome, well-lit production is rendered on the small screen with as much subtle shading as possible by video director Felix Breisach, and falls very easily on the eye. --Warwick Thompson

• Bing Crosby - The Still Of The Night | DVD | (25/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.99

  The Still Of The Night: Documentary on the life and times of Bing Crosby. Road To Bali: Bob Hope Bing Crosby and Dorothy Lamour team up in their sixth ""Road"" picture Road To Bali which was the only film in the series to be shot in colour. Hope and Crosby star as two out-of-work vaudeville performers who are on the lam. The two are hired by a South Seas prince as deep-sea divers in order to recover a buried treasure. They meet beautiful Princess Lala (Lamour) and vie

• Midnight Express/The China Syndrome/The Odessa File | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Midnight Express: Brad Davis and John Hurt star in this riveting true story of a young American's nightmarish experiences in a Turkish prison and his unforgettable journey to freedom. Busted for attempting to smuggle hashish out of Istanbul, American College student Billy Hayes (Davis) is thrown into the city's most brutal jail. After suffering through four years of sadistic torture and inhuman conditions, Billy is about to be released when his parole is denied. Only his inner courage ...

• Joe 90 - Vol. 5 - Episodes 25-30 | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £13.05   |  Saving you £2.94 (22.53%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Joe McClaine is a seemingly ordinary 9 year old boy. However his father has developed a marvellous method of transferring special brain patterns into his son's mind that allows Joe to acquire incredible skills. Soon Joe becomes an agent for the World Intelligence Network and uses his extraordinary enhancements to serve justice around the world... Another stunning Supermarionation series from the Gerry Anderson team that brought you 'Thunderbirds' 'Captain Scarlet' and 'Stingray'.

• Laurel And Hardy - Classic Comedy Shorts - Vol. 2 | DVD | (15/11/1999) from £10.21   |  Saving you £16.77 (232.27%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Lucky Dog: In Stan and Ollie's first appearance together Ollie plays a bumbling robber who Stan literally backs into after being kicked out of his furnished apartment by his landlady. Oranges and Lemons: ""The packing house some lemons on trees others on the payroll"" Stan plays a picker and packer at a Lemon and Orange Orchard where he disrupts the workforce until the whistle blows for the end of the shift. Yes Yes Nanette: A daughter returns to the family home with her new

• Joe 90 - Vol. 2 | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £14.83   |  Saving you £1.16 (7.82%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Joe 90 was Gerry Anderson's penultimate puppet show of the 1960s, following Captain Scarlet (1968) and preceding the little-known The Secret Service (1969). In 2112 professor Ian McClaine has invented the BIG RAT (Brain Impulse Galvanoscope, Record and Transfer), a machine for copying knowledge and experiences from person to person. WIN (World Intelligence Organisation) uses this to prime their top undercover agent before sending him into the field on missions which range from foiling international terrorists to recovering a nuclear weapon from beneath the polar ice. So far so good, but in perhaps the most mind-boggling concept ever to reach children's TV, that agent is McClaine's nine-year-old adopted son, Joe. Somehow even as it stays true to the Gerry Anderson techno-fantasy formula of secret organisations, gadgetry, and action-packed adventure full of spectacular explosions and violent death, Joe 90 remains blithely unconscious of its own implications. The missions are as globe-trotting as anything in Anderson's classic Thunderbirds series, and sometimes Joe does save lives, performing a risky brain operation or rescuing trapped astronauts. Yet even then his criminally irresponsible father brainwashes the lad each episode before placing him in a highly dangerous adult situation. Though the production values remain way ahead of anything else being done on British TV at the time, the question remains how did this ever seem like a good idea? On the DVD: Joe 90, Volume 2 contains the second set of six 25-minute episodes presented, as usual with Gerry Anderson DVDs, behind a lovingly crafted menu. As expected the 4:3 picture quality is superb and the mono sound is full, detailed and without a trace of distortion. There are also several pages of character biography and background information on the show, a photo gallery and a variety of other extras. --Gary S Dalkin

• Tupac Shakur - Thug Angel - The Life Of An Outlaw | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

• Dard Divorce | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  What started with a routine divorce between Natalie Stein and her husband Tim will soon take a turn into the unexpected and evolve into scenes of torture bloodshed and slaughter.

• The Wild Bunch (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Nine men who came too late and stayed too long! The year is 1913 just one year short of World War 1. Disguised as U.S. soldiers a gang rides into a Texas border town. Silently they enter and rob the railroad company but an ambush lies in wait. When the gang emerges the company's hired gunmen open fire. Men women and children are caught in the crossfire. The gang escape to their hideout in the desert where they find that the loot for which they fought so hard is worthless. With the railroad company hard on their heels the gang lead by Pike head for the apparent safety of the Mexican revolutionaries and representatives of the ruling Government. As a result of these separate meetings Pike and his gang are forced to re-examine the principles that had until then ruled their lives.

• Academy Award Winning Shorts | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Experience an amazing collection of Academy Award winning and nominated features all in one box! The celebrated Cinema Collection includes 56 short movies starring some of Hollywood's finest acting talent! Films comprise: 1. Texan 2. The Investigator 3. Teach 109 4. Another Round 5. Hogg's Heaven 6. Museum Of Love 7. Once In A Blue Moon 8. Hearts Of Stone 9. Lieberman In Love 10. The Witness 11. Birch St. Gym 12. The Price Of Life 13. The Gift 14. Grandpa's Funeral 15. Two Ov

• The Scam (Carmans Kiss) | DVD | (25/07/2011) from £15.79   |  Saving you £4.20 (21.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The tragic story of Joe a Police Sergeant in the murky underworld of London's Clubland who falls for Carmen a feisty gypsy girl who is the victim of an eastern European gang of sex traffickers. Joe rescues her from her horrific entrapment and begins to love her like no man has before. A tale of love and revenge based on the Carmen opera story. Carmen has toughened up and now seeks revenge on her captors enticing Joe into her gang and her new life; he falls fatally in love with his seducer.

• Silas Marner | DVD | (09/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Silas Marner, a member of a strict religious community, is wrongly accused of theft and has no choice but to move to a faraway village. For 15 years he lives alone, hoarding the money he makes from his weaving and gaining a reputation as a recluse, a miser and perhaps even a witch. Marner's life changes dramatically one Christmas season, when his gold is stolen and a mysterious woman dies in the woods outside his cottage. She leaves behind a child that Marner, to the surprise of the other villagers, takes into his home to raise as his daughter. The arrival of the infant, who he names Eppie after his mother, transforms Marner. His bitterness evaporates, he no longer cares about his lost money, and he commits himself completely to his adopted child, who grows up into a loving and beautiful daughter. But Marner's happiness may be threatened when Eppie's real father wants to claim Eppie as his own. Ben Kingsley gives a subtle and moving performance as the simple weaver, and a strong cast gives him ample support in this 1985 BBC adaptation of George Eliot's novel. Silas Marner is not particularly complex--it's certainly a more modest undertaking than Eliot's most famous novel, Middlemarch--but this sentimental Victorian tale, filled with historical detail, potential tragedy, heartless villains and the redeeming power of childhood, makes for a very satisfying film. --Simon Leake, Amazon.com

• Verdi: La Traviata (Sydney Opera House 2013) (Emma Matthews/ Gianluca Terranova/ Opera Australia Opera and Ballet Orchestra/ Brian Castles-Onion/ Francesca Zambello) (Opera Australia: OPOZ56030BD) | DVD | (15/10/2012) from £32.38   |  Saving you £-2.39 (-8.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

• Messages | DVD | (06/08/2007) from £11.83   |  Saving you £7.15 (80.88%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Messages is a relentlessly suspenseful horror thriller in the vein of The Sixth Sense with a stunning and horrifying twist ending. Jeff Fahey (Grindhouse Lawnmower Man Psycho III Wyatt earp White Hunter Black Heart) leads a terrific cast with a mesmerising and touching performance as a man whose internal struggle with gult deepens as he becomes the primary suspect in a violent series of murders. Director David Fairman combines sheer horror with an emotional

• Joe 90 - Vol. 4 - Episodes 19 To 24 | DVD | (11/11/2002) from £14.83   |  Saving you £1.16 (7.82%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Joe McClaine is a seemingly ordinary 9 year old boy. However his father has developed a marvellous method of transferring special brain patterns into his son's mind that allows Joe to acquire incredible skills. Soon Joe becomes an agent for the World Intelligence Network and uses his extraordinary enhancements to serve justice around the world... Another stunning Supermarionation series from the Gerry Anderson team that brought you 'Thunderbirds' 'Captain Scarlet' and 'Stingray'

• Surf's Up/Open Season/Monster House | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Surf's Up: A stylistically daring CGI feature ""Surf's Up"" is based on the groundbreaking revelation that surfing was actually invented by penguins. In the film a documentary crew will take audiences behind the scenes and onto the waves during the most competitive heartbreaking and dangerous display of surfing known to man the Penguin World Surfing Championship. Open Season: Boyz 'n the Wood Boog a domesticated 900lb. Grizzly bear finds himself stranded in the woods 3 days before Open Season. Forced to rely on Elliot a fast-talking mule deer the two form an unlikely friendship and must quickly rally other forest animals if they are to create a rag-tag army against the hunters. Monster House: CGI animation from executive producers from Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future) and Steven Spielberg in which three teens discover that their neighbour's house is really a living breathing scary monster! Even for a 12-year old D.J. Walters has a particularly overactive imagination. He is convinced that his haggard and crabby neighbor Horace Nebbercracker who terrorizes all the neighborhood kids is responsible for Mrs. Nebbercracker's mysterious disappearance. Any toy that touches Nebbercracker's property promptly disappears swallowed up by the cavernous house in which Horace lives. D.J. has seen it with his own eyes! But no one believes him not even his best friend Chowder. What everyone does not know is D.J. is not imagining things. Everything he's seen is absolutely true and it's about to get much worse than anything D.J could have imagined....

• Marilyn Horne: A Portrait | DVD | (17/07/2001) from £31.70   |  Saving you £-11.71 (-58.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  As one of America's most treasured and delightful opera singers, mezzo soprano Marilyn Horne was justly lauded in this 1994 profile, originally made for the South Bank Show arts programme. At work as one of the finest bel canto singers of the 20th century or at rest looking poignantly back at her career--the making of the film coincided with her 60th birthday--Horne is splendid company. She was born with singing in her blood, trying her hand at everything from the church choir to jingles, pirate pop singles--she did a mean Kay Starr impersonation--and supplying a singing voice for Dorothy Dandridge in the 1954 film of Carmen Jones before embarking on a career as a classical artist. Horne effectively learned her trade during four years at Gelsenkirchen, going on to form a legendary singing partnership with Joan Sutherland and blazing a trail for the mezzo soprano roles--Arsace in Semiramide has been her signature--through the world's greatest opera houses. But for all her success, Horne has retained a down-to-earth openness which permeates this documentary and has rendered her equally at home on the recital stage or in grand opera costume. She speaks with simple brilliance about the singer's technique and about her desire to broaden the appeal of opera. A fascinating portrait of one hell of a dame. On the DVD: At just 52 minutes, the original programme is too short to do Horne full justice. Even so, the film is packed with enough archive footage to whet the appetite of the novice fan. The sound format is Dolby Digital 2.0--adequate enough to do justice to Horne's extraordinary range and genius for ornamentation, and the picture format can be adjusted from the standard 4:3 to 1.78:1 although both do little more than replicate the look and feel of the original television transmission. Detailed booklet notes compensate for the lack of extras on the DVD itself--a biography or career chronology would have been more than handy. --Piers Ford

• Swingers (Special Edition) | DVD | (08/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  You're money and you don't even know it! Spend a painfully funny night on the tiles with Mike Trent and the boys as the ""swingers"" hit the clubs and bars looking for love or even a little eye contact. When they're not trying to chat up women they're consoling each other about lost loves. The lovesick Mike (Jon Favreau) can't seem to shake a relationship rut. Mike's smooth fast-talking buddy Trent (Vince Vaughn) decides he'll do whatever it takes to show Mike a good time!

• The Producers | UMD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99