"Actor: Linus Roache"

• Gathering Storm | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Gathering Storm is a fictionalised portrayal of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine during their wilderness years of the 1930s. It deservedly won numerous awards, including an Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe in recognition of Albert Finney's wonderful central performance. Equally deserving were those for all aspects of the production design: period wardrobe, set dressing and use of location are equally impressive, apparently ensuring that this production has everything going for it in its depiction of pre-War Britain. The snag is that its restriction to TV movie format, a mere 90 minutes, excludes a lot of historical context that ought not to have been left out. Seeing Churchill's adoration of his wife (Vanessa Redgrave) or the family woes troubling Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache) is all very emotionally dramatic, but it uses precious screen time that might have been better devoted to highlighting the political situation abroad, or indeed the monarchy's situation at home. The enterprise smacks a little too much of sentimental contrivance, lionising Churchill in rose-tinted retrospect. True, some attempt is made to acknowledge the personality traits that excluded him both from office and popularity prior to Germany's re-building, but like so much else pertinent to the machinations of anticipating the war, these are glossed over for familial feel-goodery and button-pushing poignancy. This is a film that's easy to admire, but ought not to be mistaken for well-rounded history. On the DVD: The Gathering Storm doesn't look or sound quite as crisp and clear as you'd hope for a recent TV-movie transfer. That's down to some obvious grain in the picture, and the 2.0 surround audio that tends to lose quieter dialogue moments. There are extensive cast and crew biographies that will no doubt help international viewers place the naggingly familiar British faces. There's also the accumulatively enthusiastic commentary from director Richard Loncraine and producer Frank Doelger, which happily points many of them out. --Paul Tonks

• Homeland S7 | DVD | (24/09/2018) from £11.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (66.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The seventh season of the Emmy® and Golden Globe® winning hit drama HOMELAND stars Emmy®, Screen Actors Guild® and Golden Globe® winner Claire Danes and Emmy® and Tony® winner Mandy Patinkin; the cast of series regulars also includes returning actors Elizabeth Marvel, Linus Roache, Maury Sterling and Jake Weber, and joining the cast this season is acclaimed actor Morgan Spector (Boardwalk Empire). The network's top-rated drama series, HOMELAND films in Richmond, Virginia. At the end of last season, following an assassination attempt on her life, President Keane (Marvel) broke her promise to Carrie (Danes) by arresting 200 members of the intelligence community without bringing charges against them, including Saul Berenson (Patinkin). As season seven begins, Carrie has left her job in the White House and moved back to D.C. and is living with her sister Maggie (Amy Hargreaves) to take on the Keane administration and secure the release of the 200.

• Mandy (DVD) | DVD | (29/10/2018) from £3.39   |  Saving you £6.61 (194.99%)   |  RRP £10.00

  An epic action/revenge thriller that follows RED (Nicolas Cage), a hardened logger living a peaceful life with his girlfriend, MANDY, in a small rural town. When Mandy is brutally attacked by a group of religious fanatics led by the delusional JEREMIAH SAND, RED will stop at nothing in order to exact his bloody revenge. Bonus Features: Deleted Scenes Behind the Scenes

• Before The Rains | DVD | (12/04/2010) from £5.38   |  Saving you £0.61 (11.34%)   |  RRP £5.99

  "Before the Rains" is a lush cinematic period piece set in the waning years of the Raj and produced in the Merchant Ivory tradition.

• The Chronicles of Riddick | DVD | (04/07/2011) from £7.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Vin Diesel returns in his breakthrough "Pitch Black" role as anti-hero Richard B. Riddick battling an evil conqueror on the outskirts of the galaxy.

• The Wings Of The Dove | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £13.39   |  Saving you £4.59 (44.13%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Queen of the costume drama Helena Bonham Carter finally got a chance to loosen her corset a bit with this exquisitely mounted (Sandy Powell's costumes were nominated for an Academy Award) romantic drama based on Henry James's classic novel. Set in turn-of-the-century London and Venice, Wings of the Dove is a stately departure--more PBS than MTV--for Iain Softley, director of Hackers and the birth-of-the-Beatles biopic Backbeat. But there's enough romantic intrigue to perhaps fuel a week's worth of daytime TV talk shows: My Lover Seduced a Dying Heiress for Her Money. Bonham Carter, who won several critics association honours for her performance (she was nominated for a Golden Globe and Oscar as well) stars as Kate, who is engaged in a secret affair with Merton (Linus Roache), a journalist whose poor financial standing makes marriage impossible. Kate's manipulative aunt (Charlotte Rampling) threatens to disown her unless she marries the more suitable Lord Mark (Alex Jennings). Opportunity--admittedly sordid--arrives in the form of Millie (Alison Elliott), an American heiress whom Kate befriends. When Kate learns that Millie is dying, she suggests to Merton that he seduce her to make her last days happy, and ensuring that Millie will leave Merton her money when she dies. Merton reluctantly agrees, just as Kate begins to have second thoughts that threaten to sabotage the scheme. One of the most rapturously reviewed films in recent years, Wings of the Dove is a must-own video for the Merchant-Ivory crowd. But guys: don't dismiss this as a "chick flick". Beneath its Masterpiece Theatre exterior beats the wild and untamed heart of Dawson's Creek. --Donald Liebenson

• Blind Flight | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the true-life best-selling memoirs of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy Blind Flight tells the harrowing but ultimately uplifting story of the Irish teacher and the English journalist who were kidnapped and held together as hostages in Beirut during the mid-1980s. Despite their different backgrounds and political perspectives the two men form an unlikely friendship one that gives them the strength to survive through four-and-a-half years of torture and soul-destroying adve

• Find Me Guilty | DVD | (23/12/2013) from £4.94   |  Saving you £11.05 (223.68%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Find Me Guilty tells the true story of mobster Jack DiNorscio and the longest mafia trial in U.S. history. After being arrested for dealing drugs, Jack makes the unusual decision to defend himself, despite having no legal experience.

• The Forgotten | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Julianne Moore stars a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her eight-year old son, who is told by her psychiatrist she has created eight years of memories about a son she never had.

• Wings Of A Dove | Blu Ray | (07/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  An impoverished woman who has been forced to choose between a privileged life with her wealthy aunt and her journalist lover, befriends an American heiress. When she discovers the heiress is attracted to her own lover and is dying, she sees a chance to have both the privileged life she cannot give up and the lover she cannot live without.

• ID2: Shadwell Army | DVD | (03/10/2016) from £5.48   |  Saving you £8.50 (341.36%)   |  RRP £10.99

  20 years on from the ferocious and deeply upsetting original fi lm a young British Asian police officer is going deep undercover into the heart of the Shadwell FC firm. The team's resurgent hooligan element are fired up by a takeover from a Russian billionaire and adventures into Europe, whilst plans to build a new mosque in the shadow of Shadwell's ground create an explosive environment for Mo to defuse. As football and political violence create a perfect storm of social unrest this undercover copper is faced with the question of who he really is and where he belongs. Bonus Features: Making Of Deleted Scenes

• Wings of The Dove | DVD | (02/05/2011) from £5.39   |  Saving you £14.60 (73.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Kate (Helena Bonham-Carter) falls in love with a penniless journalist named Merton (Linus Roache) she faces an impossible choice: marry him and live in poverty or give him up to receive her inheritance. Of course there is one unthinkable option. Kate could have Merton seduce the beautiful American heiress Millie Theale (Alison Elliott) who's dying and has no one to leave her fortune to! But in doing so Kate risks losing what she values most Merton's own heart. See for yourself how far these lovers will go to have it all - money love and passion and the ultimate price they must pay in the film that has everyone talking!

• The Chronicles Of Riddick / Pitch Black | DVD | (03/01/2005) from £10.25   |  Saving you £14.74 (143.80%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Pitch Black The daylight can burn you but the darkness will kill you! Experience the psychological terror when a group of marooned passengers must face a pack of terrifying creatures whose only weakness is the light. With little power and dwindling numbers the doomed passengers turn to a vicious convict (Vin Diesel) with an appetite for destruction and eerie eyes that can guide them through the darkness... The Chronicles Of Riddick The wanted criminal Riddick arrives

• Beyond Borders | DVD | (16/08/2004) from £4.35   |  Saving you £11.64 (267.59%)   |  RRP £15.99

  While attending a fundraising gala Sarah Jordan (Jolie) a naive married American socialite living in England witnesses a fiery plea delivered by an intruder renegade humanitarian Dr. Nick Callahan (Clive Owen). His plea made on behalf of impoverished African children under his care turns Sarah's life upside down. Attracted to Nick and his cause she impulsively abandons her sheltered life in England to work along side him in his effort to aid the helpless and anguished victims.

• Find Me Guilty | Blu Ray | (23/12/2013) from £11.99   |  Saving you £6.99 (77.67%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Find Me Guilty tells the true story of mobster Jack DiNorscio and the longest mafia trial in U.S. history. Jack is shot by his cousin and survives but is later arrested for dealing drugs and sentenced to thirty years in prison. The prosecutor offers Jack a deal; if he rats on his friends he will be immediately released. Jack turns down the deal and as the trial starts he makes the unusual decision to defend himself despite having no legal experience. Can this New York wise guy convince a jury he's not the monster he's portrayed as?

• Pandaemonium | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Acclaimed director Julien Temple's latest movie tells of the relationship between two of England's greatest poets - Coleridge and Wordsworth - and the drugs and jealousies that eventually destroyed it.

• 12 And Holding | DVD | (17/09/2007) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  "12 and Holding" explores the complexities of children losing their innocence and adults struggling to guide them.

• Pitch Black/Dark Fury/the Chronicles of Riddick | DVD | (03/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Pitch Black Owing a major debt to Alien and its cinematic spawn, Pitch Black is a guilty pleasure that surpasses expectations. As he did with The Arrival, director David Twohy revitalizes a derivative story, allowing you to forgive its flaws and submit to its visceral thrills. Under casual scrutiny, the plot's logic crumbles like a stale cookie, but it's definitely fun while it lasts. A spaceship crashes on a desert planet scorched under three suns. The mostly doomed survivors include a resourceful captain (Radha Mitchell), a drug-addled cop (Cole Hauser), and a deadly prisoner (Vin Diesel) who quickly escapes. These clashing personalities discover that the planet is plunging into the darkness of an extended eclipse, and it's populated by hordes of ravenous, razor-fanged beasties that only come out at night. The body count rises, and Pitch Black settles into familiar sci-fi territory. What sets the movie apart is Twohy's developing visual style, suggesting that this veteran of B-movie schlock may advance to the big leagues. Like the makers of The Blair Witch Project, Twohy understands the frightening power of suggestion; his hungry monsters are better heard than seen (although once seen, they're chillingly effective), and Pitch Black gets full value from moments of genuine panic. Best of all, Twohy's got a well-matched cast, with Mitchell (so memorable with Ally Sheedy in High Art) and Diesel (Pvt. Caparzo from Saving Private Ryan) being the standouts. The latter makes the most of his muscle-man role, and his character's development is one more reason this movie works better than it should. --Jeff Shannon Dark Fury Taking a page from The Animatrix, Dark Fury is part of a new trend of bridging theatrical sequels. As an official product of a franchise, the 35-minute anime benefits from having the original actors voice the characters, including Vin Diesel as Riddick. This story opens with the new action hero and the two other survivors of Pitch Black already caught by a giant spaceship filled with dread. The sinewy leader has a unique--and creepy--jail for master villains and she has her sights set on Riddick. The film--indeed the series--is indebted to animator Peter Chung, who brings his techno style from his Aeon Flux series. His smooth animation for Riddick doesn't reinvent the character as much as give him a new, appealing fluidity. As anime goes, there's nothing really new here--plenty of action, cool killers, and dramatic spurts of blood--but it's a building block for how this genre might enliven movie series and sequels in the future. --Doug Thomas The Chronicles of Riddick Bigger isn't always better, but for anyone who enjoyed Pitch Black, a nominal sequel like The Chronicles of Riddick should prove adequately entertaining. Writer-director David Twohy returns with expansive sets, detailed costumes, an army of CGI effects artists, and the star he helped launch--Vin Diesel--bearing his franchise burden quite nicely as he reprises his title role. The Furian renegade Riddick has another bounty on his head, but when he escapes from his mercenary captors, he's plunged into an epic-scale war waged by the Necromongers. A fascist master race led by Lord Marshal (Colm Feore), they're determined to conquer all enemies in their quest for the Underverse, the appeal of which is largely unexplained (since Twohy is presumably reserving details for subsequent "chronicles"). With tissue-thin plotting, scant character development, and skimpy roles that waste the talents of Thandie Newton (as a Necromonger conspirator) and Judi Dench (as a wispy "Elemental" priestess), Twohy's back in the B-movie territory he started in (with The Arrival), brought to vivid life on a vast digital landscape with the conceptual allure of a lavish graphic novel. But does Riddick have leadership skills on his resumé? To get an answer to that question, sci-fi fans will welcome another sequel. --Jeff Shannon

• ID2: Shadwell Army | Blu Ray | (03/10/2016) from £5.69   |  Saving you £10.30 (181.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  20 years on from the ferocious and deeply upsetting original fi lm a young British Asian police officer is going deep undercover into the heart of the Shadwell FC firm. The team's resurgent hooligan element are fired up by a takeover from a Russian billionaire and adventures into Europe, whilst plans to build a new mosque in the shadow of Shadwell's ground create an explosive environment for Mo to defuse. As football and political violence create a perfect storm of social unrest this undercover copper is faced with the question of who he really is and where he belongs. Bonus Features: Making Of Deleted Scenes

• Mandy Steelbook - DVD & Blu-Ray | Blu Ray | (19/05/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A