"Actor: Liam James"

• The Grey | Blu Ray | (21/05/2012) from £7.12   |  Saving you £17.87 (250.98%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The plane crashes (boy, does it crash) in the remote Alaskan nowhere, and the rough-and-tumble oil wildcatters who survive must fight their way to safety. That in itself might be enough from which The Grey could fashion a suspenseful thrill-ride, but the movie has one more ace up its sleeve. Wolves! A pack of them, starving and considerably irritated that these outsiders have blundered into their territory. And while it is true that most real-world wolves are hardly man-eaters, director Joe Carnahan and cowriter Ian Mackenzie Jeffers are really not all that interested in reality. Despite some hair-raising moments and a healthy spattering of gore, The Grey is an existential action picture, and the wolves function only as all-purpose predator (being computer-generated, they never really look real anyway). What's really at stake are the souls of these men--how they get along together, and how they face death. Yes, there is always something faintly absurd hanging around this movie; it's like a Jack London story adapted by Luc Besson. But out of its pulpy mash, Carnahan extracts something gutsy. It certainly helps that he's got the mighty Liam Neeson on board as the most capable of the survivors; Neeson exudes the kind of authority that the average action hero can only play-act. Dallas Roberts and Dermot Mulroney add colour, and Frank Grillo jumps off the screen as the most belligerent of the desperate crew. It's possible for a movie to have an absurd premise yet carve something unexpectedly philosophical out of that: The Incredible Shrinking Man and Rise of the Planet of the Apes come to mind. Add this one to that oddball list. --Robert Horton

• Star Trek: Original Motion Picture Collection 1-6 | DVD | (27/04/2009) from £21.99   |  Saving you £3.01 (13.69%)   |  RRP £25.00

  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...

• The Night They Saved Christmas | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £4.96   |  Saving you £1.03 (20.77%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Experience a magical journey of discovery as three children race against time to stop a group of greedy Artic oil prospectors from accidently blowing up Santa Claus! The children's father Michael - also the prospector's head geologist - is under pressure from his boss to strike it big before Christmas. In a desperate bid to save his job he begins blasting with dynamite but unknowingly also starts to cause serious damage to North Pole City - the fantastical home of Santa Claus an

• I Love You To Death | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  I Love You to Death is a spotty black comedy from Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill)--based on a true story--that stars Kevin Kline as a womanising pizzeria owner whose mousy wife (Tracey Ullman) tries multiple ways of murdering him with the aid of sundry friends and hired hands. The film never picks up the necessary momentum or develops the necessary tone to drive it and one is left picking and choosing which of the performers is at least adequately entertaining. Kline is good but perhaps a bit too theatrical and Joan Plowright is hilarious as his mother-in-law. The funniest joke in the whole thing belongs to William Hurt and Keanu Reeves as deeply stoned, would-be-killers who emerge from a taxi and look as if they can't remember what planet they're on. --Tom Keogh

• Blade Runner: The Final Cut | Blu Ray | (07/12/2020) from £54.99   |  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 brings 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. SPECIAL FEATURES Introduction by Director Ridley Scott Three Filmmaker Commentaries

• Fat Friends - Series 1, 2 And 3 | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £65.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Kay Mellor's comedy drama series following a collection of characters whose personal life struggles are relayed to each other during their weekly slimming class... Series 1: 1. Love Me Slender 2. Fat Chance 3. Fat Free 4. Growing Pains 5. Face The Fat 6. When The Fat Lady Sings Series 2: 1. Full Belly 2. Peaches And Dreams 3. Forty And In-Fat-uated 4. Sweet And Sour 5. In Full Bloom 6. Hunger Pangs Series 3: 1. Eat Your Heart Out 2. Leggs Over Easy 3. Foo

• The X Files: Season 3 | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Focused lightning bolts, stigmata, possession, and ancient curses become secondary in Season 3 of The X-Files as more episodes are devoted to pursuing the increasingly complex story threads. "The Blessing Way" is an explosive start, introducing the Syndicate's well-manicured man (John Neville), while Scully's sister Melissa is shot and Mulder experiences Twin Peaks-like prophetic visions. We learn of medical records of millions, including Scully, who have been experimented upon ("Paper Clip"): the fast-paced train-bound two-parter "Nisei" and "731" suggests the experiments are about alien hybridisation. Krycek turns out to be hosting an alien in the next double-act, "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha", in which Skinner is shot by Melissa's killer. Two great one-offs outside the arc are "Clyde Bruckman's "Final Repose", a bittersweet tale of foreseeing death (featuring an Emmy-winning performance from Peter Boyle) and Jose Chung's "From Outer Space", a spoof of alien conspiracy theories through an author's investigations into abductees. --Paul Tonks

• Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan - Directors Edition (Two Disc Set) | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Director Nicholas Meyer's concept for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was to make it "Captain Horatio Hornblower in space". Equipped with a budget a fraction the size of that accorded the first movie, and bolstered by James Horner's swashbuckling score, Meyer accordingly delivered the most exciting of all the Trek big-screen outings, referencing both CS Forester's Hornblower and classic submarine dramas, as well as adding some literary flourishes and ground-breaking CGI work for good measure (the Genesis device sequence is a computer-animation landmark). Resurrected from the "Space Seed" episode of the TV series, Ricardo Montalban's Khan is the hammiest, most passionately alive Trek villain, infused with Captain Ahab's self-destructive single-mindedness and quoting Moby Dick and Shakespeare in his furious pursuit of Kirk. Given permission to be melodramatic, William Shatner has never been stronger, or made Kirk seem more vulnerable. And even after seeing all the later movies, no self-respecting Trekker can sit through Spock's ultimate illogical sacrifice with a dry eye. Unlike the major revisions made to The Motion Picture, this new Director's Edition of Wrath of Khan is only a very slightly extended version of the original, with some fairly minor additions--most notably scenes that establish Midshipman Peter Preston as Scotty's nephew, thereby explaining Scotty's grief at the young man's death. Some other scenes--such as Kirk and Spock discussing the Genesis Device--have also been expanded. On the DVD: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is now presented in a lovely 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen print with Dolby 5.1 sound. The first disc has an audio commentary from Nicholas Meyer, plus another fascinating all-you-ever-needed-to-know text commentary from Trek expert Michael Okuda (he did the same for The Motion Picture's DVD release). The second disc has a series of informative documentaries, the most substantial being a lengthy retrospective "Captain's Log", featuring contributions from Producer Harve Bennett, Meyer, Shatner, Nimoy and Montalban. Other featurettes focus on the production design ("Designing Khan"), "Visual Effects", and the writers of Star Trek novel spin-offs about Khan and the Kobayashi Maru ("The Star Trek Universe"). It's a shame that James Horner's major contribution goes unnoticed though. To round things off there are some promotional interviews from 1982, storyboards and the original trailer. --Mark Walker

• David Lean Collection | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A collection of classic films from famed British director David Lean. Bridge On The River Kwai (1957): When British P.O.W.s build a vital railway bridge in enemy occupied Burma Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure The Bridge on the River Kwai. Spectacularly produced The Bridge on the River Kwai captured the imagination of the public and won seven 1957 Academy Awards including Best Picture Be

• Tupac - Resurrection | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £8.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (78.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The first authorised documentary about the life of rap artist Tupac Shakur.

• Frank Herbert's Dune--TV series | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Frank Herbert's Dune is a three-part, four-and-a-half-hour television adaptation of the author's bestselling science fiction novel, telling a more complete version of the Dune saga than David Lynch's 1984 cinema film. The novel is a massive political space-opera so filled with characters, cultures, intrigues and battles that even a production twice this length would have trouble fitting everything in. While television is good at setting a scene, it loses the novel's capacity to explain how the future works, and as with Lynch's film, Frank Herbert's Dune focuses on Paul Atreides, the young noble betrayed who becomes a rebel leader--an archetypal story reworked everywhere from Star Wars (1977) to Gladiator (2000). Top-billed William Hurt is only in the first of the three 90-minute episodes, and while he gives a commanding performance, carrying the show falls to the less charismatic Alec Newman. This version is at its strongest in the ravishing Renaissance-inspired production and costume design and gorgeous lighting of Vittorio Storaro (The Last Emperor). The TV budget special effects range from awful painted backdrops to excellent CGI spaceships and sandworms. The performances are variable, from the theatrical camp of Ian McNeice as Baron Harkonnen to the subtlety of Julie Cox's Princess Iruelan. John Harrison's direction is less visionary than Lynch's, but he tells the story more coherently and ultimately the tale's the thing. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Preacher's Wife | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £4.75   |  Saving you £10.24 (215.58%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This tedious remake of the classic Christmas movie The Bishop's Wife falls on its face by significantly altering the careful design of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Robert E Sherwood's story for the original film. In Sherwood's version, a rather wooden, inept bishop and his lonely wife unknowingly take into their lives a heaven-sent angel who aids the former and ends up falling in love with the latter. In this unnecessary update, an inner-city preacher (Courtney B. Vance) and his estranged spouse (Whitney Houston) are visited by a celestial goof (Denzel Washington), whose unsolicited offer of help is enough to galvanise Vance's character to fix his own problems. What that means is this: by the second act, there's no reason to have Washington's angel in the story. Even his infatuation with the missus isn't enough to warrant his hanging around this movie; the change is a colossal blunder by director Penny Marshall. Vance ends up stealing the film from Washington, but it's a Pyrrhic victory; for the most part this movie just seems like a series of random scenes between opportunities for Houston to belt out songs. --Tom Keogh

• Zachariah | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Advertised in 1970 as "the first electric Western", Zachariah is an endearingly pretentious effort that prefigures such genre oddities as Jodorowsky's El Topo and Alex Cox's Straight to Hell. The story is the archetypal one about two friends who become gunslingers and must inevitably face off against each other in the finale, but it's treated here as if it Meant Something Deeper--which means that after enjoying 75 minutes of violence we can all agree that peace and love and harmony is on the whole better for children and other living things. Curly haired farmboy Zachariah (John Rubinstein) and eternally grinning apprentice blacksmith Matthew (Don Johnson) are the fast friends who run away from home to join up with a gang of outlaws known as the Crackers (played by hippie folk-rock collective Country Joe and the Fish). These apparent 19th-century Westerners tote electric guitars and are given to staging free festival freak-outs at one end of town to distract from the bank robbery at the other. The boys soon hook up with Job Cain (Elvin Jones), an all-in-black master gunfighter who is also an ace drummer (his solo is impressive), but then drift apart as Zachariah has a liaison with Old West madame Belle Starr (Pat Quinn) in a town that consists of fairground-style brightly painted wooden cut out buildings (a gag reused in Blazing Saddles), then gets rid of his outrageous all-white cowboy outfit to settle down on a homestead and grow his own dope and vegetables. Matthew, of course, goes for the black leather look after outdrawing Cain, and comes a gunning for the only man who might be faster than him, but the hippie-era message is once these kids have killed everyone else they can still make peace with each other and the desert or something, man. Aside from a Beatle-haired teenage Johnson making a fool of himself by over-emoting to contrast with Rubinstein's non-performance, the film offers a lot of beautiful "acid Western" scenery and excellent prog rock and bluegrass music from the James Gang, White Lightnin' and the New York Rock Ensemble. Comedy troupe the Firesign Theatre (huge on album in 1970) provided the script, which explains satirical touches like the horse-and-buggy salesman (Dick Van Patten) spieling like a used car dealer and the madame's claim to have had affairs with gunslingers from Billy the Kid to Marshal McLuhan. The DVD extras are skimpy, but the print quality is outstanding. --Kim Newman

• Romeo Is Bleeding | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Romeo Is Bleeding is the flawed black comedy from director Peter Medak (The Krays) about a bad cop who slowly gets his due. Gary Oldman plays yet another quirky character, this time a New York detective on the take. His life goes haywire as he squares off with a Russian hit woman. Despite an intriguing cast and great dialogue, the movie becomes a bit too eccentric for its own good as several actors have nothing to do. The high point is Lena Olin, who finally has a role she can sink her teeth into: her zesty, monstrous assassin, Mona Demarkov, is one of the great movie villains. --Doug Thomas

• The Big Chill | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £17.49   |  Saving you £-4.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This seminal film about the reunion of thirtysomething friends works even better than when first released in 1983. The fine performances of the ensemble cast and a rockin' soundtrack always made this eminently enjoyable. However, the characters' often pompous blather occasionally stalled the action. Baby Boomer introspection has become so common that such navel gazing seems less problematic than it did in the early 1980s. Seven former classmates from the University of Michigan gather for the funeral of Alex, their idealistic and suicidal friend. They use their time together to become reacquainted, all the while discussing lost dreams and current hopes. (This should appeal to anyone who enjoyed that other famous reunion flick of the 1980s, John Sayles' Return of the Secaucus Seven.) Director-cowriter Lawrence Kasdan culled finely textured performances from his cast and filled the screen with memorable details. He may manipulate us with his writing but the actors do an impressive job of pulling at our heartstrings while Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye play in the background. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• The General's Daughter | Blu Ray | (28/06/2021) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  There's the right way, the wrong way and the Army way. But there's no way military investigator Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is going to participate in a cover-up when Fort MacCallum officials try to hide the motive behind the murder of a beautiful female officer. Travolta's magnetic performance sparks this riveting thriller featuring an all-star cast led by Madeleine Stowe as Brenner's co-investigator and former flame, with James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton, Clarence Williams III and James Woods among the suspects in this steamy game of cat and mouse that will keep you guessing until the surprising, explosive ending. Sandie Newton, CBS-TV Special Features: Commentary By Director Simon West The General's Daughter Behind the Secrets Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer 4 Deleted Scenes Including Alternative Ending

• Black Lightning: Season 3 | DVD | (29/03/2021) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams), respected educator and father of two, is also Black Lightning, superpowered protector of Freeland. And he doesn't fight alone. He is joined by his superpowered daughters, Anissa (Nafessa Williams), aka Thunder, and Jennifer (China Anne McClain), aka Lightning, as well as his ex-wife, metahuman expert Lynn (Christine Adams). Together, the Pierce family combats the ills eroding their city, including a menacing gang that calls itself The 100 and infamous gangster Tobias Whale (Marvin Jones III). Worse, Freeland has been plagued by government-sponsored experiments and drug trafficking, creating metahumans and addicts while making Freeland the target of a dangerous foreign power, Markovia. Fortunately, the family still has allies in their fight: former covert superspy Peter Gambi (James Remar) and Jefferson's neighbour, the scrupulously honest deputy police chief Bill Henderson (Damon Gupton).

• The General's Daughter | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £5.50   |  Saving you £10.49 (190.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker drawl, one briefly hopes the movie will turn out to be just as hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy, run-of-the-mill potboiler, too mediocre to be truly hysterical fun. A female officer is discovered strangled and tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that, screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and Misery) left his name attached to this script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. It was directed with a lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Hitchcock DVD Collection | DVD | (08/11/2004) from £29.95   |  Saving you £32.04 (106.98%)   |  RRP £61.99

  The incomparable Alfred Hitchcock presents a collection of his finest suspenseful thrillers! Includes: 1. Strangers On A Train (1951) 2. Stage Fright (1950) 3. I Confess (1953) 4. Dial M For Murder (1954) 5. The Wrong Man (1956) 6. North By Northwest (1959)

• Peckinpah Collection | DVD | (14/08/2006) from £69.99   |  Saving you £-40.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Wild Bunch: 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 they fought so hard is