"Actor: Leon"

• South West 9 | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £8.66   |  Saving you £5.33 (61.55%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Set in Brixton, SW9, land of yuppies, clubbers, anarchists, guns and riots, this new Britsh drama follows five very different characters through a single extraordinary day.

• Fallen Angels | Blu Ray | (06/08/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Fallen Angels was originally planned as one section of director Wong Kar-Wai's best-known film, Chungking Express, but eventually it grew into its own distinct and delirious shape. In many ways, it may be the better film, a dark, frantic fun-house ride through Hong Kong's night-time world. Part of the film is a love story between two people who have barely met: a young, ultra-hip hit man (Leon Lai) and the dreamy operative (Michele Reis) who plans his jobs. Much of the movie is given over to a very strange subplot about a manic mute (Takeshi Kaneshiro) who goes on bizarre nocturnal prowls through a closed food market--like almost everything else in Wong's films, this is antic, stylish and oddly touching, all at the same time. It must be said that, also like Wong's other work, Fallen Angels is fragmented and oblique to the point of occasional incomprehensibility, but then suddenly something wild or wonderful happens, such as the moment when the killer leaves the scene of a spectacular shooting and is promptly waylaid by a cheerful old school chum on a public bus. These coups--whether lyrical, violent or simply "how on earth did they get that shot?"--are tossed off by Wong and cinematographer Christopher Doyle with all the cool of the hired killer, as though the movie were a cigarette dangling from a pair of oh-so-casual lips. This is exactly why so many otherwise calm critics fell all over themselves in hailing Wong Kar-Wai as one of the most exciting filmmakers of his generation. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• White Vengeance | DVD | (20/08/2012) from £4.70   |  Saving you £11.29 (240.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two brothers contend for supremacy during the fall of the Qin Dynasty in Imperial China. Liu Bang (Leon Lai) and Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng), became leaders of a rebellious army, and also became sworn brothers in battle. King Huai states that whoever can subvert the Qin kingdom in will be the Lord Qin, in order to benefit from the competition between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. But who will emerge as the winner from this epic battle and survive to claim their path to the crown?

• Night Train (Pociag) | DVD | (27/05/2013) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Kawalerowicz's celebrated film is considered one of the finest achievements of Polish cinema. Employing a classic Hitchcockian premise - two people, one possibly a killer on the run, sharing a compartment on a crowded overnight train - Kawalerowicz turns a thriller into an intriguing character study of ordinary people in unusual circumstances. Featuring impressive performances from Lucyna Winnicka (Mother Joan of the Angels), Zbigniew Cybulski (the 'Polish James Dean') and Leon Niemczyk (Knife in the Water), Night Train is more than simply a thriller... taut and gripping but also suffused with humour and warmth and boasting a wonderful jazz score by renowned composer Andrzej Trzaskowski.

• Knife In The Water | Blu Ray | (24/03/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An early thriller from director Roman Polanski. When a successful sportswriter and his wife invite a strange young boy to join them on their sailboat, the husband, jealous of the boy's youth, continually provokes him, chiding him for his lack of prowess in swimming and sailing. However, the tense atmosphere on board comes to a head when during a quarrel the husband flings the boy's pocket knife into the water. The boy jumps in to retrieve it, but does not re-surface.

• I Could Go on Singing | Blu Ray | (09/05/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Silver Bullet | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Silver Bullet is a generic, by-the-numbers Stephen King film with a Stephen King screenplay adapted from an earlier novella. Back in the innocent days of 1976--the age of innocence gets later every year--the town of Tarker's Fall finds itself in the grip of mass hysteria when something starts tearing people apart. Only a crippled child Martie (Corey Haim) works out the truth, which is that the new pastor is a werewolf. Eventually he manages to convince his supercilious sister Janey and his unreliable drunk Uncle Red (Gary Busey) and there is the usual confrontation involving a silver bullet melted down from the children's religious jewellery; the title also refers to the boy's motorised wheelchair. The film neglects interesting possibilities--the lynch-mob mentality that takes over the town fizzles after the major vigilantes are killed, the pastor tries to justify the killings to himself--in favour of stock ultra-violent confrontations and extended metamorphoses; its major strength is a familiar King theme, the helplessness of being a child in a world full of people who will not listen to you. On the DVD: The DVD comes with a director's commentary by Daniel Attias and dubbed versions in German, French and Italian. The soundtrack has Dolby sound which brings out the stylised fairy-tale elements in the score and the widescreen picture is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic ratio. The sometimes muddy-looking night-scenes are balanced by brisk pastoral daylight scenes that have their own innocence. --Roz Kaveney

• Sophie's Choice | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £6.50   |  Saving you £0.49 (7.54%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• The Empress And The Warrior | Blu Ray | (23/03/2009) from £18.75   |  Saving you £1.24 (6.61%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When the ancient King of a proud Chinese Kingdom is killed, the throne passes to his only daughter, Yan Feier. Will the Kingdom be lost forever, or can Feier fight her enemies and assume her rightful place at the head of the nation?

• The War | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Kevin Costner is the big name in The War, but the film belongs squarely to Elijah Wood, who plays his son. The film deals with the children of a Vietnam veteran in 1970 Mississippi; as their dad (Costner) tries to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder after serving in the war, the kids build a mammoth tree house in the woods--then must defend it against the local white-trash bullies. The film includes a particularly harrowing contest involving a swim across the reservoir of a decrepit water tower; still, director Jon Avnet can't avoid a certain "can't we all just get along" didactic message. That doesn't put a damper on the youthfully natural quality of the child actors, and Costner is actually quite winning as a sensitive, troubled soul. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• The Arrival | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Radio astronomer Zane Ziminski becomes intrigued by some strange wavelengths and noises he picks up over his transmitter. But when Zane alerts his boss to his findings he's fired. So Zane conducts an investigation on his own tracing the sound waves to a Mexican village. After more sleuthing (and some odd occurrences) Zane discovers a power plant -- that turns out to be the headquarters of some very deadly extraterrestrials.

• Charly | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Released in 1968, Charly is a period-piece from the summer of love when "natural" was nirvana, the air hummed with the mantra "Everybody's beautiful", and all ills stemmed from institutional monoliths such as Science, Government, Education, and Religion. It is adapted from Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon and its hero, Charly (Cliff Robertson), is 30 years old and mentally handicapped. His innocent sweetness makes him superior to most able-minded folk, whether they're the bigoted dolts he sweeps floors for or the ambitious scientists who see him as the human equivalent of Algernon, a mouse they've surgically (but impermanently) smartened up. Naturally, post-op Charly, sporting a genius IQ, "sees things as they are". Trotted out as the neurosurgeons' poster boy, he stands up to the "learned" audience--shot as faceless, inhuman interrogators. He's every 60s flower child, berating his "elders" for blighting their brave new world. The one reward Charly derives from his higher IQ is sex. In a lengthy montage resembling a retro TV commercial, he and his teacher (Claire Bloom, a madonna with an eternal Mona Lisa smile) romp through Edenic gardens, their embraces hallowed by sunlight glinting through leaves, moonlight glinting on water, and sappy Ravi Shankar music (stylistic clichés also include embarrassing outbreaks of split screens and multiple small screens within the frame, notably when rebellious Charly turns biker). Robertson's performance is well-meaning but mawkishly sentimental. Still, in the penultimate moments when Charly begins to slide back into mental illness, the actor achieves a genuine tragic gravity, and he became a surprise Oscar winner for his pains. --Kathleen Murphy, Amazon.com

• Victorious: Season 1,Volume 1 | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £46.05   |  Saving you £-36.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Hit the stage with Tori Vega and all the amazing students at Hollywood Arts, the most prestigious performing arts high school in the country! From wowing the crowd at the big showcase to movie roles, stage fights, monster makeup and more, these talented students are ready to shine!

• The Temptations | DVD | (06/11/2006) from £44.99   |  Saving you £-41.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  The true story of The Temptations the Soul vocal group of the 1960s as seen from the viewpoint of the last surviving member Otis Williams. Beginning from their humble origins in the late 50s and continuing through the 90s and the deaths of the other 4 members.

• Empire | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £6.73   |  Saving you £3.26 (32.60%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Victor is trying to escape his life as a drug dealer in the South Bronx. Enter Jack a Wall Street investment banker with a business proposal that has Victor's name written all over it.

• Lady in the Lake | DVD | (03/03/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• White Vengeance | Blu Ray | (20/08/2012) from £6.73   |  Saving you £13.26 (66.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two brothers contend for supremacy during the fall of the Qin Dynasty in Imperial China. Liu Bang (Leon Lai) and Xiang Yu (Feng Shaofeng), became leaders of a rebellious army, and also became sworn brothers in battle. King Huai states that whoever can subvert the Qin kingdom in will be the Lord Qin, in order to benefit from the competition between Xiang Yu and Liu Bang. But who will emerge as the winner from this epic battle and survive to claim their path to the crown?

• The X Files: Nothing Important Happened Today | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £3.80   |  Saving you £12.19 (320.79%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It has become traditional for The X-Files to kick off each new season with a humourless conspiracy two-parter, and Season 9 is no exception: in The X Files: Nothing Important Happened Today David Duchovny’s Mulder is gone, along with everything in his apartment, and Gillian Anderson’s Scully is mostly at home with her perhaps-telekinetic baby, which leaves the bulk of the investigation to promising new characters Doggett (Robert Patrick) and Reyes (Annabeth Gish).The A-plot features Lucy Lawless as a water-breathing terminatrix who could be an alien, a government experiment or a mermaid without it making any difference, but too much time is spent on impossible-to-follow subplots about internal FBI politics and everyone’s intricate backstory (if ever a release needed a "previously..." prologue, this is it). Usually, the series gets over these heart-sinking openers and livens up a bit, but this time there’s a feeling that this is the end of the line for a thoroughly battered premise.Chris Carter joins Gene Roddenberry in the exclusive category of producer-creators who turn in the worst scripts for their own shows, and all the strengths of The X-Files (shivers, wit, provocative ideas) are missing in action here as the engine grinds on empty.On the DVD: The X-Files: Nothing Important Happened Today on disc arrives with two three-minute filler featurettes, focusing on Gish’s character and the making of this show. The good news is that this anamorphic widescreen release is the best The X-Files has ever looked in a television format, showing that however dramatically exhausted it might be, the show remains technically impressive. --Kim Newman

• The Fenn Street Gang - Series 2 - Complete | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £12.98   |  Saving you £14.00 (127.39%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Contains the complete second series of the classic television show The Fenn Street Gang

• Behind Enemy Lines | UMD | (27/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99