"Actor: Malick Bowens"

• Out Of Africa | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £6.90   |  Saving you £9.09 (131.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Out of Africa seems to have slipped more readily from public memory than other comparably lauded films. Yet Sidney Pollack's panoramic treatment of Karen Blixen's novel has retained its atmosphere and slow-burning emotion, and deserves reassessment. Meryl Streep is in her possibly most involving starring role as Baroness Karen Blixen, Danish free spirit whose ill-fated venture at the beginning of World War One to run a coffee plantation in Kenya is overlaid by her intimate yet distant relationship with adventurer and idealist Denys Finch Hatton, unselfconsciously portrayed by Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandauer puts in a rare and convincing English-language appearance as the amoral but charming womaniser Baron Bror Blixen. The film is tellingly held together by Kurt Luedke's finely honed screenplay, and John Barry's sumptuously expressive score. On the DVD: The anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen format reproduces superbly, as does the 4.1 discrete audio. 18 access points are provided, with printed and aural subtitles in English only. Pollack's feature commentary is amusing enough on a single run-through, but an on-location documentary would have been preferable. Production notes and biographies are very adequate, though the theatrical trailer reproduction is notably inferior. No matter, this is a major film, well worth the transfer to DVD.--Richard Whitehouse

• When We Were Kings | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £9.43   |  Saving you £2.56 (27.15%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Muhammad Ali's 1974 knockout of George Foreman to regain the heavyweight championship of the world at the age of 32 was probably the greatest sporting moment of the 20th century. Leon Gast's documentary on the "Rumble In The Jungle", When We Were Kings, eventually released in 1996, is probably the finest ever boxing film. The background to the contest was almost as dramatic as the fight itself. It was the first major coup for promoter Don King, a character described in this film as "very clever but completely amoral"--yet this was his finest hour. President Mobutu, unsavoury dictator of Zaire and a more frightening figure than either boxer, had spent millions of his country's money to host the event. George Foreman, like Sonny Liston before him and Mike Tyson after him, was considered unbeatable, expected to slaughter Ali. Seeing him pounding a dent the size of a grapefruit into a heavy bag during training, you can understand why. Ringside American journalists George Plimpton and in particular Norman Mailer offer exceptionally shrewd insights. As we stare into Ali's face during the minute interval at the end of round one, Mailer talks us through his probable thought processes. "That was the only time I ever saw fear in his eyes." Ali, of course, is the star, besting the sullen Foreman in the build-up with his freewheeling, hilarious braggadocio then outfoxing him in the fight with his "rope-a-dope" technique. Like Ali, the "Rumble In The Jungle" transcended sports in its inspirational significance. --David Stubbs

• Outbreak | DVD | (11/05/1998) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  When Warner Brothers was unable to secure the rights to Richard Preston's terrifying non-fiction book The Hot Zone (purchased by a rival studio), they took the basic idea of a fatal virus on the loose in the US, added Dustin Hoffman and director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) and produced an unusual thriller--a surprise hit--called Outbreak. The other picture, slated to star Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, fell through. The premise of Outbreak, which owes something to Elia Kazan's 1950 plague-scare movie, Panic in the Streets, is as terrifying as it is timely. As developers slash their way deeper into the previously unexplored tropical rainforests, they are exposed to radically new forms of life, including diseases, that in these days of commonplace international travel could turn into deadly epidemics almost before we know it. Hoffman's character and his estranged wife (Rene Russo) are disease experts called in to identify the unknown killer, which was carried into the country by an illegally smuggled monkey. The best sequence shows the disease spreading--through recycled air on a passenger jet or a sneeze in a crowded cinema. The final chase is pretty conventional but the cast is terrific, including Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., J.T. Walsh and Zakes Mokae. --Jim Emerson

• Tears Of The Sun | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bruce Willis plays a Special-Ops commander who leads his team into the jungle of Nigeria to rescue a doctor (Monica Belluci) who will only go with them if they also agree to rescue 70 refugees.

• Out Of Africa | Blu Ray | (03/02/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice. One downside: while we may all love Redford, he is as convincingly British as Kevin Costner is in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. --Tom Keogh

• Out Of Africa (Special Edition) | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £7.94   |  Saving you £13.04 (263.43%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice. One downside: while we may all love Redford, he is as convincingly British as Kevin Costner is in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. --Tom Keogh

• When We Were Kings (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (22/10/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Out Of Africa/The Natural/The Sting | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Titles Comprise: Out Of Africa: Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-spirited British hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). While enduring her husband's infidelities and the eventual destruction of their beloved land she entertains Denys and befriends the workers. Hatton shares Karen's profound love for the African landscape but is unwilling to sacrifice his independence for their relationship... The Natural: Nothing would stop Roy Hobbs from fulfilling his boyhood dream of baseball superstardom. Robert Redford stars in this inspiring fable that begins when 14-year-old Hobbs (Redford) fashions a powerful bat from a fallen oak tree. He soon impresses major league scouts with his ability fixing his extraordinary talent in the mind of sportswriter Max Mercy (Robert Duvall) who eventually becomes instrumental in Hobbs' career. But a meeting with a mysterious woman shatters his dreams. Years pass and an older Hobbs reappears as a rookie from the New York Knights. Overcoming physical pain and defying those who have a stake in seeing the Knights lose Hobbs with his boyhood bat has his chance to lead the Knights to the penant and to finally fufill his dream. The Sting: is one of the most popular and critically acclaimed films of all time. Set in the 1930's this intricate comedy caper deals with an ambitious small time crook (Robert Redford) and a veteran con man (Paul Newman) who seeks revenge on the vicious crime lord (Robert Shaw) who murdered one of their gang. How this group of charlatans puts the sting on their enemy makes for the greatest double-crosses in movie history complete with an amazing surprise finish...

• Out Of Africa | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £27.99   |  Saving you £-12.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sydney Pollack directs this sweeping romantic drama based on the memoirs of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-sp

• Out Of Africa (Limited Collector's Edition) | DVD | (28/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Sydney Pollack directs this sweeping romantic drama based on the memoirs of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-spirited British hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). While enduring her husband's infidelities and the eventual destruction of their beloved land she entertains Denys and befriends the workers. Hatton shares Karen's profound love for the African landscape but is unwilling to sacrifice his independence for their relationship...

• Constant Gardener/Out Of Africa | DVD | (31/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Constant Gardener (Dir. Fernando Meirelles 2005): In a remote area of Northern Kenya activist Tessa Quayle (Rachel Weisz) is found brutally murdered. Tessa's companion a doctor appears to have fled the scene and the evidence points to a crime of passion. Members of the British High Commission in Nairobi assume that Tessa's widower their mild-mannered and unambitious colleague Justin Quayle (Ralph Fiennes) will leave the matter to them. They could not be more wrong.... Haunted by remorse and jarred by rumors of his late wife's infidelities Quayle surprises everyone by embarking on a personal odyssey that will take him across three continents. Using his privileged access to diplomatic secrets he will risk his own life stopping at nothing to uncover and expose the truth; a conspiracy more far-reaching and deadly than Quayle could ever have imagined. Based on the novel by John Le Carre The Constant Gardener was nominated for 3 Oscars and Rachel Weisz duly collected statuette hers for a superb supporting turn as Tessa Quayle. Out of Africa (Dir. Sydney Pollack 1985): Sydney Pollack directs this sweeping romantic drama based on the memoirs of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-spirited British hunter Denys Finch Hatton (Robert Redford). While enduring her husband's infidelities and the eventual destruction of their beloved land she entertains Denys and befriends the workers. Hatton shares Karen's profound love for the African landscape but is unwilling to sacrifice his independence for their relationship...

• Out Of Africa | DVD | (06/02/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Sydney Pollack directs this sweeping romantic drama based on the memoirs of Danish writer Isak Dinesen. Meryl Streep stars as Karen Blixen the restless wife of European aristocrat and plantation owner Baron Bror Blixen (Brandauer). When Bror departs to hunt big game and chase women the running of their East African coffee plantation falls to Karen. She throws herself into this task with the same determination and spirit she brings to her passionate but sporadic affair with free-s