"Actor: Liam James"

• Star Trek 1: The Motion Picture - The Director's Edition | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £5.97   |  Saving you £10.02 (167.84%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It was an event that every fan had waited a decade for: the first Star Trek movie. But after its cinema release in 1979 Star Trek: The Motion Picture was quickly dubbed "The Slow-Motion Picture". In the opinion of general audiences, fans and critics alike, the snail-like pace of the film was a crippling flaw. It bothered one person even more, though: but Robert Wise finally got to scratch that itch when preparing this Director's Edition. In an unprecedented display of confidence from a movie studio, Wise has been allowed to re-edit the film and commission new visual effects sequences that were planned but unrealised for the original release. The result is frankly mind-boggling. Finally we are now able to see how Vulcan was supposed to amaze and alienate us, how integral the B-crew's role was to the mission, and just how spectacular the V'ger ship was imagined to be. Is the pace problem addressed? Undoubtedly it is. Scenes are trimmed and a new "busier" effects soundtrack helps considerably. Does it look better? Definitely. The shades of beige and puce have never seemed more crisply defined. Does it sound better? Jerry Goldsmith's music score (arguably one of the best ever written) is as majestically represented as the Enterprise herself. On the DVD: Star Trek: The Motion Picture two-disc set has oodles of extra features, including a complete library of all scenes deleted from both the original and new versions. The picture quality varies throughout, but it's worth putting up with for the (Wise-ly) excised material such as the unfinished effects work. An audio commentary from Wise, special effects director John Dykstra, composer Jerry Goldsmith and Commander Decker himself (Stephen Collins) provides an appraisal for movie aficionados more than Trek fans: the latter will be far more interested in a text commentary from Trek author and scholar Mike Okuda, who points out endless amounts of in-trivia. Better even than all these are three new documentaries that chronicle the film's history from then to now. Each is brightly put together (they don't drag), informative without being overly technical, and exude a pride without bragging. --Paul Tonks

• Carry On Don't Lose Your Head | DVD | (17/02/2003) from £6.64   |  Saving you £6.35 (95.63%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Carry On Don't Lose Your Head parodies the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, with crinkly cackling Sid James as master of disguise the Black Fingernail and Jim Dale as his assistant Lord Darcy. He must rescue preposterously effete aristocrat Charles Hawtrey from the clutches of Kenneth Williams' fiendish Citizen Camembert and his sidekick Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth). The Black Fingernail is assisted in his efforts to thwart the birth of the burgeoning republic by the almost supernatural stupidity of his opponents, who fail to recognise the frankly undisguisable Sid James even when dressed as a flirty young woman. What with an executioner who is tricked into beheading himself in order to prove the efficacy of his own guillotine, it's all a little too easy. As usual, no groan-worthy pun is left unturned, or unheralded by the soundtrack strains of a long whistle or wah-wah trumpet. This is pretty silly stuff even by Carry On standards, with most of the cast barely required to come out of first gear and an overlong climactic swordfight sequence hardly raising the dramatic stakes. Most of the humour here resides neither in the script nor the characterisation but in the endlessly watchable Williams' whooping, nasal delivery (occasionally lapsing into broad Cockney) and the jowl movements of the always-underrated Butterworth. --David Stubbs

• The X Files: Season 1 | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  In the first season of The X Files, creator Chris Carter was uncertain of the series' future, so each of the episodes is a self-contained suspense story; they do not delve deep into the ongoing X Files mythology or turn to self-parody and humour as do episodes in later seasons. Yet, these episodes display the elements for which the show would become famous: the cinematic production values and top-notch special effects, the stark lighting of the Vancouver sets, the atmospheric halo of Mark Snow's score, and the clever plots dealing with subjects ranging from the occult, religion, and monsters to urban legends, conspiracy theories and science fiction. Most importantly, Season 1 introduces FBI agents Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) and Fox "Spooky" Mulder (David Duchovny), two of the most attractive government officials around. Scully is the serious-minded medical scientist assigned to join Mulder on the X Files, a division of the FBI dealing with the paranormal. Mulder is the intuitive thinker with a dry wit, a passionate believer in the existence of paranormal phenomena and one of the few characters on television smart enough to figure out who the bad guy is before the audience does. Their muddled relationship, a deep friendship laced with sexual tension, provides the human heart in a world where the bizarre and horrible lurk in everyday society. The materials on the bonus disc provide some interesting trivia and background, but it is the 24 episodes themselves that make this seven-disc boxed set a true find. Those unfamiliar with The X Files often view all the fuss with the same scepticism with which Scully first regards her new partner's ideas. But just as she comes to realise the uncanny accuracy of Mulder's outlandish theories, newcomers to The X Files who sample a few episodes in this boxed set will likely find themselves riveted to their television late into the night. And undoubtedly, the shadows and creaking noises in the house that evening will seem more menacing than usual. --Eugene Wei

• Young Guns 2 - Blaze of Glory (Blu-ray) (Steelbook) | Blu Ray | (04/02/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Oasis - Familiar To Millions | DVD | (01/10/2003) from £9.98   |  Saving you £3.01 (30.16%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Recorded at their 2000 Wembley dates, Familiar To Millions celebrates not just nearly a decade of dominance by the Oasis lads but also the fact that it is still actually possible to get them on the same stage at the same time. Moreover, while the band certainly had their troubles prior to arriving at the Twin Towers (not least Noel Gallagher's decision to stay at home for many European dates), this finds all concerned on blistering form with even the newer band members sounding like they were born to play with the monobrowed ones. The chosen set list also wisely skimps on selections from their recent work preferring instead to concentrate on the likes of "Cigarettes And Alcohol", "Wonderwall", "Supersonic", "Shakermaker", "Don't Look Back In Anger", "Champagne Supernova" and a superb Noel-sung version of Neil Young's "Hey Hey My My". The actual concert footage itself, though, is the only the tip of the iceberg, with special features including a discography, graphics that were specially filmed for the dates, multicamera angles on Cigarettes & Alcohol and a documentary by Grant Gee, previously responsible for Radiohead's Meeting People Is Easy documentary. The most entertaining aspect of this DVD by far, however, is a Gary Crowley-conducted pre-gig interview with the siblings in which ex-cokehead Noel gleefully admits that he can remember absolutely nothing whatsoever about recording (What's The Story) Morning Glory?. --Warren Wayans

• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country 4K UHD | Blu Ray | (05/09/2022) from £19.93   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  ! The sixth STAR TREK movie, and the last to feature a group appearance of the original television series cast, comes to 4K UHD with HDR-10 and Dolby Vision, boldly remastered from the original film elements After years of war, the Federation and the Klingon empire find themselves on the brink of a peace summit. Before negotiations even begin, a Klingon ship is nearly destroyed, and the apparent attack may be from the Enterprise. Now, the crew must brace for what may be their deadliest encounter. Both the original theatrical cut and the Director's cut are included, alongside an array of special features. Blu-ray Disc may not be viewable outside Region 2 Zones.

• Fear X | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £9.30   |  Saving you £9.68 (153.41%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Security guard Harry Caine (Turturro) is desperately searching for a reason behind the murder of his wife. He spends his nights watching CCTV footage to find a face that might give him a clue. His walls are plastered with 'suspects' but when he closes in on one who might be the killer his world is turned upside down once again...

• Lost In Space | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £5.58   |  Saving you £14.41 (258.24%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Packed with more than 750 dazzling visual effects, this US$70 million adventure does more (and less) than give the 1965-68 TV series a state-of-the-art face-lift. Aimed at an audience that wasn't born when the series originally aired, the sci-fi extravaganza doesn't even require familiarity, despite cameo appearances by several of the TV show's original cast members. Instead it's a high-tech hybrid of the original premise with enough sensory overload to qualify as a spectacular big-screen video game, supported by a time-travel premise that's adequately clever but hardly original. Lost in Space is certainly never boring, and visually it's an occasionally awesome demonstration of special effects technology. But in its attempt to be all things to all demographics, the movie's more of a marketing ploy than a satisfying adventure, thankfully dispensing with the TV show's cheesy camp but otherwise squandering a promising cast in favour of eye-candy and ephemeral storytelling. --Jeff Shannon

• Blade Runner: The Final Cut - Titans of Cult Limited Edition Steelbook | Blu Ray | (20/06/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Visually spectacular, intensely action-packed and powerfully prophetic since its debut, Blade Runner dazzles in Ridley Scott's definitive Final Cut, including extended scenes and special effects. In a signature role as 21st-century detective Rick Deckard, Harrison Ford bring his masculine-yet-vulnerable presence to this stylish noir thriller. In a future of high-tech possibility soured by urban and social decay, Deckard hunts for fugitive, murderous replicants and is drawn to a mystery woman whose secrets may undermine his soul. Extras: Introduction by Ridley Scott Three Filmaker Commentaries, Including One by Ridley Scott

• Certain Women | DVD | (10/07/2017) from £9.02   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Winner of Best Film at the London Film Festival and Best Supporting Actress / Breakthrough Artist for Lily Gladstone at the Boston Society of Film Critics' Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the Indiewire Critics' Poll. From award-winning director, Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff) comes CERTAIN WOMEN, winner of Best Film at the London Film Festival. Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams and Lily Gladstone star as four women striving to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest. Laura (Dern) is a lawyer who finds herself contending with both office sexism and a hostage situation. Gina (Williams) is a wife and mother whose determination to build her dream home puts her at odds with the men in her life. And Beth (Stewart) is a young law student who forms an ambiguous bond with a lonely ranch hand (radiant newcomer Lily Gladstone). As their stories intersect in subtle but powerful ways, a portrait emerges of flawed yet strong-willed individuals in the process of defining themselves. Click Images to Enlarge

• Eraser | DVD | (29/03/1999) from £6.35   |  Saving you £7.64 (120.31%)   |  RRP £13.99

  If you're going to submit yourself to a dazzling example of mainstream action, this thriller is as good a choice as any. Eraser is a live-action cartoon, the kind of movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger can survive nail bombs, hails of bullets, an attack by voracious alligators ("You're luggage," he says, after killing one of the beasts), and still emerge from the mayhem relatively intact. Arnold plays an "eraser" from the Federal Witness Protection Program, so named because he can virtually erase the existence of anyone he's been assigned to protect. His latest beneficiary is an FBI employee (Vanessa Williams) who stumbled across a secret government group involved in the sale and export of an advanced weapon capable of shooting rounds at nearly the speed of light. Fantastic action sequences are handled with flair by director Charles Russell (The Mask), so it's easy to forgive the fact that this movie is almost completely ridiculous. --Jeff Shannon

• One True Thing | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £8.07   |  Saving you £-2.08 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on Anna Quindlen's bestselling novel, this is a mother-daughter and father-daughter story, two for the price of one. But director Carl Franklin also tries to inject a police-mystery angle that it neither needs nor will support. Renee Zellweger plays a young writer on the rise, who has finally got her break for a New York magazine. While home for a birthday party for her nearly famous writer father (William Hurt), she learns that her mother (Meryl Streep) has been diagnosed with cancer. Then her father does the unthinkable: he all but commands her to put her career on hold to take care of her mother and nurse her through her illness. Dad, a popular college professor who has never received the literary acclaim he always believed he deserved, essentially checks out--and daughter must play parent to her mother. Strong performances by Streep and Zellweger give this parent-child relationship the heart--and the anger--of the real thing, while Hurt seems slightly disembodied as the self-involved father whose needs have dominated both women. Still, the detective-story aspect (the film is told in flashback, as the cops try to discover whether someone slipped Mom a fatal dose of morphine) is a construct that could have been done without. --Marshall Fine

• Breathless | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Breathless, Jim McBride's 1983 remake of Au Bout de Souffle rewrites Godard's existential hipster as a vain, style-obsessed hood and in the process loses some of the point. Godard's hero was a translation and productive misunderstanding of a quintessentially American sort of delinquent; because it is a retranslation, Gere's intelligent, nervy performance as Jesse Lujack suffers by comparison, however admirable it is taken in itself. McBride's direction strokes Gere's face and body lovingly--his every foxy smile, or glance at himself in a mirror, is played for passionate significance. This is also a good-looking film: the back alleys of LA and sunset over the Mojave desert have rarely looked as good. Valerie Kaprisky's Monica is inevitably given secondary importance; the decision to make the woman who goes along with Jesse's wild final ride on a whim an exchange student makes her at once more and less like her equivalent in the Godard--she has a touching exoticism that is at the same time somehow beside the point. The DVD includes the original theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

• Star Trek III: The Search For Spock 4K UHD Steelbook | Blu Ray | (27/05/2024) from £26.78   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Admiral Kirk and his bridge crew risk their careers stealing the decommissioned U.S.S. Enterprise to return to the restricted Genesis Planet to recover Spock's body. Blu-ray Special Features: ¢ Library Computer ¢ Production ¢ The Star Trek Universe ¢ Photo Gallery ¢ Storyboards ¢ Theatrical Trailer ¢ Easter Egg

• Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection 1-6 | Blu Ray | (27/04/2009) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-3.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £26.48

  Titles Comprise: Star Trek - The Motion Picture: Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner)is called upon to collect his old crewmates in order to save humanity from a giant hostile alien vessel steadily approaching Earth and destroying everything in its path. The Wrath Of Khan: It is the 23rd century. The Federation Starship U.S.S. Enterprise is on routine training manoeuvres and Admiral James T. Kirk seems resigned to the fact that this inspection may well be the last space mission of his career. But Khan is back... The Search For Spock: Spock is dead and McCoy is inexplicably being driven insane: McCoy is harbouring Spock's living essence. With one friend alive and one not but both in pain Kirk attempts to help his friends by stealing the USS Enterprise and defying Starfleet's Genesis planet quarantine. The Voyage Home: It's the 23rd century and a mysterious alien power is threatening Earth by evaporating the oceans and destroying the atmosphere. In a frantic attempt to save mankind Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco... The Final Frontier: It's Stardate 8454.130 and a vacationing Captain Kirk faces two challenges: Climbing Yosemite's El Capitan and teaching campfire songs to Spock. But vacations are cut short when a renegade Vulcan hijacks the Enterprise and pilots it on a journey to uncover the universe's innermost secrets. The Undiscovered Country: After years at war the Federation and the Klingon empire prepare for a peace summit. When a Klingon ship is attacked and the Enterprise is held accountable the dogs of war are unleashed again as both worlds brace for what may be their final deadly encounter...

• Die Hard / Die Hard 2 / Die Hard With A Vengeance | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Exceptionally well-directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard made Bruce Willis a star back in 1988 and established a new template for action stories. Here the bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Director Renny Harlin took the reins for the 1990 sequel, Die Harder, which places Willis's New York City cop in harm's way again with a gaggle of terrorists. This time, Willis awaits his wife's arrival at Dulles Airport in Washington, DC when he gets wind of a plot to blow up the facility. Noisy, overbearing and forgettable, the film has none of the purity of its predecessor's simple story; and it makes a huge miscalculation in allowing a terrible tragedy to occur rather than stretch out the tension. Where Die Hard set new precedents in action movies, Die Hard 2 is just an anything-goes spectacle --Tom Keogh The second sequel, Die Hard with a Vengeance brings Detective John McClane to New York City to face a better villain than in Die Hard 2. Jeremy Irons is the brother of Alan Rickman's Germanic terrorist-thief from the original film. But this bad guy has his sights set higher: on the Federal Reserve's cache of gold. As a distraction, he sets McClane running fool's errands all over New York--and eventually, McClane attracts an unintentional partner, a Harlem dry cleaner (Samuel L Jackson) with a chip on his shoulder. Some great action sequences can't obscure the rather large plot holes in the film's final 45 minutes. --Marshall Fine

• Rolling Thunder | DVD | (25/09/2023) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When Major Charles Rane and his friend Johnny Vohden returns home to San Antonio after eight years of physical and mental torture in a Vietnam POW camp they are treated as heroes. But Rane cannot know his experiences are nothing compared to the ordeal he must still face. A gang of thugs invade his home to steal the silver coins he received for his service and mangle his hand leaving him and his family for dead. Whilst recovering in hospital Rane becomes more distant and cold. Aided by his loyal friend and now wielding a hook for a hand he sets out on a mission of vengeance with the ice cold determination of a man who has suffered too much and has nothing else to live for but revenge.

• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home 4K UHD | Blu Ray | (05/09/2022) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  ! The fourth movie of the original motion picture saga comes to 4K UHD with HDR-10 and Dolby Vision, boldly remastered from the original film elements. When a mysterious alien power threatens the atmosphere of Earth in the 23rd Century, Kirk and his crew must time travel back to 1986 San Francisco to save mankind. Exploring this strange new world, they encounter punk rock, pizza and exact-change buses that are as alien as anything in the far reaches of the galaxy. STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME is a thrilling, action-packed, and often hysterical fan favourite. Special Features Commentary By: Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman Commentary By: William Shatner And Leonard Nimoy Blu-ray Exclusives: Starfleet Academy: The Whale Probe HD Pavel Chekov's Screen Moments HD Star Trek: Three-picture Saga HD Library Computer HD Plus Over 2 More Hours Of Additional Special Features

• Star Trek 3 - The Search For Spock | DVD | (11/05/2009) from £7.05   |  Saving you £0.94 (13.33%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Admiral Kirk's defeat of Khan and the creation of the Genesis planet are empty victories. Spock is dead and McCoy is inexplicably being driven insane. Then a surprise visit from Sarek Spock's father provides a startling revelation: McCoy is harbouring Spock's living essence. With one friend alive and one not but both in pain Kirk attempts to help his friends by stealing the USS Enterprise and defying Starfleet's Genesis planet quarantine. But the Klingons led by fearsome Battle Commander Kruge have also learned of Genesis and race to meet Kirk in a deadly rendezvous...

• Carry On Constable | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £7.20   |  Saving you £9.79 (135.97%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Made in 1960, Carry On Constable is one of the earliest Carry On comic romps, arriving before they'd carved out their bawdy niche in British cinema. In fact, this Gerald-Thomas-directed effort isn't dissimilar to most of the mainstream Brit-com of its era. A flu epidemic has forced a police station to take on a brace of callow recruits: Kenneth Connor, a superstitious bag of nerves; Leslie Phillips, playing his usual rapscallion self; the ludicrously effete Charles Hawtrey and Kenneth Williams. The "plot" is a sequence of thoroughly creaky gags at the expense of this bumbling quartet. The staple characters hadn't settled into their "classic" personae yet. Here, Sid James is an exasperated sergeant, not the sort of crinkly rogue he played in later years, Kenneth Williams is dry, detached and supercilious, while Hattie Jacques is no matron but a sympathetic sergeant, whose every walk-on is not yet accompanied by the portly strains of tubas and bassoons. The comedy here is, frankly, dismal--banana skins are slipped upon and officers' legs urinated upon bydogs, all to a rueful soundtrack of wah-wah trumpets. The main appeal of this movie is as a period slice of damp, pre-Beatles London in glorious black and white.On the DVD: Although picture and sound are adequate (though poorly dubbed in places), there are no extras at all, a shame for the hardcore Carry On aficionados to whom this release would surely, perhaps exclusively, appeal. --David Stubbs