"Actor: Max von Sydow"

• The Ultimate Warrior (1975) / Westworld (1973) / Escape from Zahrain (1962) / Taras Bulba (1962) (4 YUL Brynner Films) - Official WB Region 2 PAL 4-DVD Release, Plays in English Without subtitles | DVD | (01/06/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Minority Report | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In this kinetic futuristic thriller from Steven Spielberg Tom Cruise plays John Anderton the head of Washington's Pre-Crime bureau an experimental government agency that uses precognitive humans to predict murders. Finding himself accused of a future homicide Anderton goes on the run and tries to stay one step ahead of his jet pack-assisted colleagues and an ambitious Federal agent (Colin Farrell). Adapted from a short story by Philip K. Dick Minority Report is one of Spielberg's most sheerly entertaining and deliriously imaginative movies.

• Sleepless | DVD | (11/12/2006) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dario Argento's 2001 feature Sleepless didn't receive a cinematic release in the UK, and it's not hard to see why. The movie often feels like Argento on auto-pilot, rehashing images and ideas and camera angles from his more inspired films like Suspiria or Tenebrae. The dialogue is leaden, the plot is a plodding whodunnit (and most of the time it's hard to care who) and the acting, with the exception of the veteran Max von Sydow, is mostly atrocious and crudely dubbed. But then again, no one ever came to an Argento movie for the plot or the dialogue, and least of all for the acting. The key to his mastery has always been the atmosphere of a nightmare that he conjures up, with all its jagged imagery and complete absence of narrative logic. The less sense it makes, the scarier it gets. Sleepless never attains anywhere near a level of nightmarish intensity, but it has its moments--especially the least rational ones. Although the plot involves no elements of the supernatural, and everything is finally (if cumbersomely) explained, it's episodes like the first killing (where the murderer traps his victim on a speeding train he couldn't possibly have boarded) that strike most effectively home. The action involves a retired police inspector (von Sydow) lured back to investigate a series of killings in Turin that replicate murders he was assigned to 17 years earlier. As always with Argento, knives figure prominently, as do prowling steadicam tracking shots, old dark houses and females butchered in any number of gory and far-fetched ways. The film looks unfailingly good, courtesy of its rich dark palate of colours, Ronnie Taylor's sinuous camera, and Argento's favourite group Goblin contribute an edgy, insidious score. On the DVD: Sleepless on DVD comes with a clear, sharp transfer that's a pleasure to watch, with no loss of detail even in the many underlit scenes. Picture is matched for clarity by the terrific 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. This, unlike the truncated US and German DVD releases, is the full 117-minute original, shown in 1.85:1 widescreen. The two-disc set includes a generous helping of extras: stills gallery, the theatrical trailer (in Italian only, though), a 15-minute "making of" featurette, plus an informative one-hour documentary, Dario Argento--An Eye for Horror, narrated by Mark Kermode and previously shown on Channel Four at Christmas 2001.--Philip Kemp

• Flash Gordon (40th Anniversary Edition) | DVD | (10/08/2020) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Get ready to kick some Flash, with an out-of-this world 4K restoration of the much loved, gloriously sparkly cult classic, FLASH GORDON directed by Mike Hodges. In celebration of Flash Gordon's 40th anniversary, this collection is the ultimate Flash release. Featuring an all-star cast, including Sam J Jones (Flash Gordon) Brian Blessed (Prince Vultan) Timothy Dalton (Prince Barin) Max Von Sydow (Ming The Merciless) and Melody Anderson (Dale) and accompanied by a brilliant soundtrack by the inimitable Queen, this is the ultimate version of the '80s cult classic. ˜Flash!...he'll save everyone of us'! Features: New Lost in Space: Nic Roeg's Flash Gordon Audio commentary with Mike Hodges Audio commentary with Brian Blessed Behind the scenes of Flash Gordon Stills gallery Storyboards gallery Original theatrical trailer