"Actor: Jonathan"

• Far From The Madding Crowd | DVD | (25/04/2003) from £12.93   |  Saving you £-2.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  An adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel set in the 19th century of Bathsheba Everdene and the three very different men who come to love her...

• Children Of Dune | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Children of Dune is the sequel to the Sci-Fi Channel's Frank Herbert's Dune (2000), and surpasses that earlier mini-series in every way. The screenplay is again by John Harrison, who has combined Herbert's novels Dune Messiah and Children of Dune into three 84-minute TV movies, and continues the labyrinthine space opera with little concession to the uninitiated. Indeed, this a very rare attempt to put the complexity of printed SF on screen, and if the result is sometimes rather hermetic it is perhaps inevitable when realising Herbert's Byzantine, pseudo-Shakespearean tragedy. The same tableaux-like qualities infuse the new Star Wars films and the similarities between Herbert's and Lucas' worlds have never been more obvious than here. Performances range from excellent--Julie Cox, Alice Krige, Alex Newman (much better here than in the first series) and James McAvoy--to a surprisingly wooden Susan Sarandon. The set-pieces are exceptional, with many individual images sufficiently memorable to stand comparison with the work of Ridley Scott. Production-wise this is surely the most beautiful mini-series ever made, with gorgeous lighting by cinematographer Arthur Reinhart, breathtaking set design from Ondrej Nekvasil and a ravishing score from Brian Tyler. By TV standards the CGI is first-rate and, though rarely looking real, establishes a credible science fictional universe. Even when rather baffling, the production achieves moments of dramatic grandeur and a sense of wonder not experienced in TV SF since Babylon 5. On the DVD: Children of Dune on DVD has one feature-length episode on each disc. The picture is presented at 1.77:1 anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Shot in high definition, its clarity and detail is superb with virtually no blemishes to the image at all. Colour has a painterly beauty that is remarkable. However, some shots look inaccurately framed, with what was presumably a 4:3 image being a little too closely cropped for widescreen presentation. It's a minor flaw and really only noticeable in some close-ups. Sound is a richly luxuriant Dolby Digital 5.1, which gives no ground to any modern blockbuster movie. Perfunctory extras are confined to the first disc and consist of an interesting but short look at the special effects (13 minutes), a storyboard comparison for one key scene and a photo gallery. --Gary S Dalkin

• Stonewall | DVD | (01/08/2016) from £7.79   |  Saving you £7.20 (92.43%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Stonewall is a drama about a fictional young man caught up during the 1969 Stonewall riots. Danny Winters is kicked out of his parents home and flees to New York, where he befriends Ray and a group of street kids. As Danny and his friends experience discrimination, endure atrocities and are repeatedly harassed by the police, we see a rage begin to build. This emotion runs through the entire community of young gays, lesbians, drag queens and trans people who populate the Stonewall Inn and erupts in a storm of anger. With the toss of a single brick, a riot ensues and a crusade for equality is born.

• Cadfael - The Complete Series 1 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Brother Cadfael, the medieval mystery-solving monk, is a fascinating detective, at once a man of God, of science, and even of action. Derek Jacobi stars as the former "soldier, sailor, sinner, and Crusader" who has his faith tested by crimes of royal intrigue and baffling murders that seem to plague 12th-century Shrewsbury. You'll find few Benedictine monks so skilled at using a quarterstaff, but beware never to tell him your theory of how a crime "must" have been committed. "We must always be wary of 'must'," he states. "Nothing is certain." And so attest these divine mysteries based on the books by Ellis Peters. Each feature-length episode is self-contained but plays against the backdrop of England's civil war between forces loyal to King Stephen and those to Empress Maud. Eoin McCarthy costars as local Under-Sheriff Hugh Beringar, who relies on Cadfael when murder subverts his efforts to keep the peace. --Donald Liebenson

• The Other Half | DVD | (29/05/2006) from £4.57   |  Saving you £8.42 (184.25%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A woman who finds herself on her honeymoon in Lisbon during an international football competition, must decide whether her new husband manipulated her and the situation, just to be there for the England game... or not....

• Verdi: Il Trovatore -- Opera Australia | DVD | (05/06/2002) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford

• Mickey's House Of Villains | DVD | (06/10/2002) from £18.96   |  Saving you £-2.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mickey's House of Mouse Villains seeks to do for Halloween what Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse (2001) did for Yuletide. It's an anthology set on Halloween in the titular house, a nightclub where characters--including Donald Duck, Goofy, Jafar, Cruella de Vil, and Captain Hook--gather to watch Disney cartoons. There's a perfunctory framing plot with the villains taking over the House, but the 65 minutes is almost entirely filled by eight short cartoons. Five are very recent, with clinically clean computer animation, and three are vintage gems glowing with the warm detailed look of Golden Age Disney. These are Trick or Treat (1952), Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944), and Lonesome Ghosts (1937), in which Mickey, Donald and Goofy star in what was surely the inspiration for Ghostbusters. The best of the new adventures is Mickey's Mechanical House, in which the mouse moves into a futuristic house which goes disastrously wrong. It's made all the more entertaining by a poetic rhyming narration delivered by John Cleese. Young children will love it all, while older fans may prefer a compilation of vintage Disney shorts. On the DVD: Mickey's House of Mouse Villains DVD contains a well-designed animated quiz game, "Wheel of Misfortune", that should entertain young fans for a while. Otherwise, the extras consist of three trailers and a "Fright Reel": a three-minute compilation of Disney clips with two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. The choice amounts to the same sound effects with or without music. The sound is good, except for the three vintage animations, which are in mono. The picture is 4:3 and is generally very sharp, though varies a little with the source material. --Gary S Dalkin

• Glengarry Glen Ross | Blu Ray | (22/10/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Adapted from his Pulitzer Prize winning play, Glengarry Glen Ross shows David Mamet, at his searing, profane best. A group of Chicago real-estate salesmen-cum-con artists live on the edge... life is good for the one on a roll, for the rest, life hangs in the balance. There is no room for losers. A-B–C Always Be Closing, sell or go under, is the salesman's mantra. With the pressure on, so begins a rainy night of cut-throat business and shattered lives. Oscar nominated Al Pacino plays the fast talking Ricky Roma, alongside a phenomenal performance by Jack Lemmon as the veteran Shelly The Machine Levene, struggling to keep his neck above water. With a star studded ensemble cast featuring Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin. Special Features: Commentary by Director James Foley A.B.C. (Always Be Closing): An original documentary tracing the psychological intersection of fictional and real life salesman A Tribute to Jack Lemmon J. Roy: New and Used Furniture - Short Clip Archives from The Charlie Rose Show and Inside the Actor's Studio Scenes with Bonus Audio Commentary by Alec Balwin, Cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchia, Alan Arkin, and Production Designer Jane Musky Original Theatrical Trailer

• Molière | DVD | (14/07/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• True Blue | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £29.94   |  Saving you £-19.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  On one level, True Blue is a distillation of the brutal physicality and unique focus demanded of participants in the annual University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge. Based on legendary oarsman and Oxford coach Dan Topolksi's book about the 1987 race, it is also a tale of revenge; dominant Oxford had been defeated the year before and wanted the title back. More than that, though, it is a story of sporting obsession and the Machiavellian resources required to last the course in an event shrouded in ritual. When a clutch of lantern-jawed American international rowers muscle in on the Oxford team and threaten, quite literally, to rock the boat with their disregard for any of the tradition surrounding the race or Topolski's coaching methods, the fragile concept of team spirit is splintered. Ferdinand Fairfax's film, full of fine performances, builds the tension through a series of confrontations and a constantly shifting balance of power over the year leading up to the race. The intuitive relationship between the besieged Topolski (the excellent Johan Leysen) and the President of the College Captains, Donald McDonald (the quietly impassioned Dominic West) is particularly well drawn. With more than a hint of Chariots of Fire, not least in the Vangelis-like soundtrack, this is a moving and beautifully observed film about sporting passion.On the DVD: True Blue is presented in widescreen with a 16:9 anamorphic video aspect ratio that makes excellent use of the sweeping vistas of the Thames for the racing and training scenes which dominate the film. Stanislas Syrewicz's brooding score underpins the action at every stage and, thanks to the quality of the Dolby Surround soundtrack, helps to bring an appropriately epic, theatrical feel to your home viewing. --Piers Ford

• A Perfect Plan | DVD | (01/09/2014) from £10.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (18.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Pascal Chaumeil directs this French romantic comedy starring Diane Kruger and Dany Boon. Isabelle (Kruger) has found the man she wants to spend the rest of her life with, Pierre (Robert Plagnol), but is reluctant to tie the knot since her family has a history of failed first marriages. Instead she decides to find a gullible stranger to marry and then divorce before settling down with Pierre. With this in mind, she sets her sights on travel writer Jean-Yves (Boon) and attempts to seduce him. H.

• Renaissance | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £6.42   |  Saving you £11.57 (180.22%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Paris's most controversial cop must try and rescue a kidnap victim in this stylish futuristic thriller.

• Prancer Returns | DVD | (05/10/2009) from £8.08   |  Saving you £1.91 (23.64%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The magical story of a boy who finds a reindeer and a family that finds itself... Eight-year old Charlie Holton's life is about to change; deep in the mountain woods he discovers a gangly baby reindeer all alone. Believing this must be Prancer Santa's reindeer Charlie takes the gentle creature home to care for him until Christmas. Charlie emails Santa hoping he'll pick up Prancer on Christmas Eve...

• Soul Man | DVD | (26/12/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mark Watson (C. Thomas Howell) needs a scholarship to get into Harvard Law School. There's one available for a black student. The only problem is that Mark's not black...yet. But thanks to an overdose of tanning pills a new hair-do and a lowered voice he miraculously passes for African-American and receives full tuition. Now with the help of his excessive best friend (Arye Gross) a fierce professor (James Earl Jones) and the beautiful classmate (Rae Dawn Chong) he falls in love with Mark is about to learn some once-in-a-lifetime lessons about racism discrimination sex-crazed white girls and basketball. Leslie Nielsen and Julia Louis-Dreyfus co-star in this wild hit comedy filled with heart soul and the hilarious truths that colour us all.

• Kingdom: Season 2 B | DVD | (18/09/2017) from £5.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The last ten episodes from the second season of the American drama starring Frank Grillo. Retired MMA fighter and trainer Alvey Kulina (Grillo) runs the Navy St. Gym in Venice, California with his girlfriend Lisa (Kiele Sanchez). Struggling to keep their business afloat, it seems their only hopes of making money lie with Alvey's two fighting sons, promising youngster Nate (Nick Jonas) and troubled Jay (Jonathan Tucker), as well as the talented ex-convict, and Lisa's ex, Ryan (Matt Lauria). As Alvey schools his fighters in mixed martial arts, his life is further thrown into disarray by the arrival of his ex-wife Christina (Joanna Going). The episodes are: 'Lay and Pray', 'No Fault', 'Woke Up Lonely', 'Do Not Disturb', 'Take Pills', 'Halos', 'Help Wanted', 'Cut Man', 'Late to Leave' and 'No Sharp Objects'.

• Invisible Mom II | DVD | (30/05/2007) from £5.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Invisible Mom Ii

• When Zachary Beaver Came To Town | DVD | (11/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Drama for all the family as Zachary Beaver a sideshow attraction also known as the world's fattest boy arrives in the sleepy town of Granger Texas.

• Don Henley - Live Inside Job | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Don Henley helped define the 70's as a member of the enormously successful rock band the Eagles before launching an impressive solo career that includes such hits as 'Dirty Laundry' 'The Boys Of Summer' and 'All She Wants To Do Is Dance'. On May 25 2000 he returned to his Texas roots for a remarkable concert recorded before an enthusiastic audience at Fair Park Music Hall in Dallas. This rock legend's live performance captures all the passion satire and originality that fans around the world most treasure in his influential music. Tracklist: 'Dirty Laundry' 'Sunset Grill' 'Workin' It' 'Taking You Home' 'The Boys Of Summer' 'Lilah' 'Everything Is Different Now' 'The End Of Innocence' 'All She Wants To Do Is Dance' 'New York Minute' 'Talking To The Moon' 'They're Not Here They're Not Coming' 'The Heart Of The Matter' 'Desperado' 'The Long Run' 'My Thanksgiving' and 'Hotel California'.

• Peter Kosminsky Collection | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Titles Comprise: The Government Inspector The Promise Britz

• Creed III: Rocky's Legacy | Blu Ray | (25/05/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A