"Actor: Michael"

• Boardwalk Empire - Season 1 (HBO) | Blu Ray | (09/01/2012) from £9.83   |  Saving you £40.16 (408.55%)   |  RRP £49.99

  In fine (and bloody) style, HBO's Boardwalk Empire returns to 1920 when the ban on booze led to a syndicate of bootleggers and smugglers. Created by Sopranos scribe Terence Winter and coproduced by director Martin Scorsese, the story centers on Atlantic City treasurer Enoch "Nucky" Thompson (Steve Buscemi), who schemes in private while preaching temperance in public (Mark Wahlberg and Tim Van Patten also serve as producers). Jimmy (Michael Pitt, Buscemi's Delirious costar), a war veteran, acts as his right-hand man, while zealous Agent Van Alden (Michael Shannon) and refined mobster Arnold Rothstein (A Serious Man's Michael Stuhlbarg) represent significant threats to his enterprise. Nucky's other associates include his sheriff brother Eli (Shea Whigham), sexpot girlfriend Lucy (Paz de la Huerta), and distributor Chalky (The Wire's Michael K. Williams). If Nucky has little regard for law and order, his soft side emerges in his dealings with Irish immigrant Margaret (Kelly Macdonald, excellent), who segues from abused wife to kept woman. As Nucky puts it, "I try to be good. I really do." After he sends Jimmy away a spell, his sidekick joins forces with Al Capone (Stephen Graham, Public Enemies) and disfigured vet Richard Harrow (Jack Huston), abandoning his son, common-law wife Angela (Aleksa Palladino), and mother Gillian (Gretchen Mol), who has a fling with Lucky Luciano (Vincent Piazza). Inspired by Nelson Johnson's book, Boardwalk Empire takes a Deadwood-like approach to history by combining characters both factual and fictional with blue language and ladies without brassieres. Winter, who won an Emmy for The Sopranos episode Pine Barrens, takes liberties with the historical record, but the series never claims to represent the truth and nothing but--which is only fitting when everyone's hiding secrets. If the entire ensemble deserves praise, Buscemi rules the show as thoroughly as Nucky rules the city. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Hobson's Choice | DVD | (28/04/2013) from £15.86   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  June Barry, Patricia Routledge, John Barrie and Michael Caine (on the cusp of stardom with Zulu and Alfie) star in this acclaimed adaptation of Harold Brighouse s celebrated play, originally screened as part of the prestigious Play of the Week strand in 1962. Maggie Hobson decides to marry Willie Mossop, the gifted but underpaid boot-maker in her father s shop. Despite Willie s objections, they marry and set up for themselves and, within just one year, take almost all of Henry Hobson s trade. Hobson a heavy drinker is told by his doctor that one of his daughters must return home to look after him but they all refuse apart from Maggie who, seeing her chance, agrees to help but on one condition: Willie is to take over the business, with Hobson relegated to the position of a sleeping partner with no say in the running of the shop....

• Village Of The Damned | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £12.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (23.09%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The original 1960 version of Village of the Damned is regarded as a classic of science fiction and horror, and it remains one of the creepiest movies of its kind. Directed with occasional flair by John Carpenter, this 1995 remake trades subtlety for more explicit chills and violence, but the basic premise remains effectively eerie. In the tiny, idyllic town of Midwich, a strange mist causes the entire population to fall asleep, and when everyone awakes the town physician (Christopher Reeve) discovers that 10 women--including his wife and a local teenage virgin--have mysteriously become pregnant. Their children are all born on the same day, with matching white hair and strange, glowing eyes, grow at an accelerated rate and thus raise Reeve's suspicion that they are not of earthly origin. These demonic brats can control minds and wreak havoc with the power of their thoughts, so of course they must be destroyed. Only Reeve knows how to get the job done, and his performance (the actor's last big-screen role before his paralysing accident in 1995) grounds this otherwise superfluous remake with enough credibility to hold the viewer's attention. But for the real chills, definitely check out the original version--it's 20 minutes shorter but twice as spooky. --Jeff Shannon

• Babylon 5 : Season 1 | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £18.98   |  Saving you £26.01 (137.04%)   |  RRP £44.99

  The epic SF series Babylon 5 was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear beginning, middle and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and familiarises the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. The first episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line", plays at a breathless pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). Then follow several mediocre episodes which initially give the impression that B5 is a Star Trek clone afflicted with "silly alien of the week" syndrome. Episodes such as "Soul Hunter" and "Infection" are best watched in hindsight, with knowledge of how good the show later became. With "And the Sky Full of Stars" B5 really begins to hit its stride, Sinclair being forced to relive his mysterious experiences during the Earth-Minbari war. Filler shows such as "TKO" are notable only for being controversially violent, while the disappointing "Grail" points to writer-creator J. Michael Straczynski's fascination with Arthurian mythology. "Signs and Portents" introduces the sinister Mr Morden (Ed Wasser) and offers the chilling first appearance of ancient alien threat, the Shadows. B5 hits warp speed with a run of exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part "A Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s SF classic Forbidden Planet, the story leads to the superb time travel-based "Babylon Squared". Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the usual television cliff-hanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a decision which laid the groundwork for Babylon 5 eventually to become a great love story. --Gary S Dalkin

• Monty Python: The Movies (Box Set) | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £28.95   |  Saving you £11.04 (38.13%)   |  RRP £39.99

  This Monty Python Movie Box Set contains all four Python movies: And Now for Something Completely Different (1971), Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)--the two-disc set--Monty Python's Life of Brian--including a 50-minute documentary--and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life.

• Wind In The Willows | DVD | (08/05/2006) from £24.01   |  Saving you £-4.02 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Join the inimitable Mr Toad and his good friends Ratty Badger and Mole in their exciting and unpredictable adventures over a year at the Riverbank! Featuring 12 episodes from the award-winning 1980s ITV series previously unavailable on DVD this charming box set is a unique opportunity to re-discover the much-loved world of Toad and chums! Another fine animated show from those geniuses at Cosgrove Hall.

• For Those In Peril | DVD | (27/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Flt.Lt Murray (David Farrar) is a pilot who fails to join the RAF during WWII and decides to join the Air - Sea Rescue instead. His boat is out in all conditions picking up drowned pilots and taking them to safety. P/O Rawlings (Ralph Michael) is a new recruit who resents joining Farrar's boat and would rather be where the action is - in the air. During a mission they run into an enemy minefield and an armed trawler... For Those In Peril presents the work of the Air-Sea Rescue in documentary terms providing the public with a glimpse of an aspect of war that tends to be overlooked. It was also the closest Charles Crichton (The Lavender Hill Mob Dead of Night The Titfield Thunderbolt) got to documentary realism during his long Ealing career. The story was written by Richard Hillary a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain whose experiences inspired his book The Last Enemy.

• Halloween Kills Boxset | Blu Ray | (17/01/2022) from £10.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  HALLOWEEN Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago. Master of horror John Carpenter joins forces with director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Split) for this follow up to Carpenter's 1978 classic. HALLOWEEN KILLS The Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn't over yet. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie's basement but when Michael manages to free himself from the trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. Evil dies tonight.

• The Lady and the Highwayman | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Newly wed to the evil and lecherous Drysdale (Ian Bannen) the beautiful Lady Panthea (Lysette Anthony) is saved on her wedding day by the dashing young highwayman the Silver Blade (Hugh Grant). As he rides into the moonlight she vows never to forget this mysterious stranger who must at the final outcome save her from certain death. As this lavish tale of greed treachery and blackmail weaves its fast-moving course through the sumptuous surroundings of King Charles II's (Michale York) palace a host of stars gather in an extravaganza of spectacular proportions set amidst a heart-stopping stage of duels to the death... and love.

• The Rock | DVD | (01/02/2010) from £5.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (200.33%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Between his high-octane debut, Bad Boys, and 1998's wannabe blockbuster Armageddon, hotshot director Michael Bay forged his dubious reputation with this crowd-pleasing action extravaganza. In Rock, a psychotically disgruntled war hero (Ed Harris) seizes the island prison of Alcatraz and threatens to wage chemical warfare against nearby San Francisco unless the government publicly recognises the men who were killed under Harris's top-secret command. Nicolas Cage plays the biochemist who teams up with the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz (Sean Connery) in an attempt to foil Harris's terrorist scheme. As one might expect, what follows is an action-packed barrage of bullets, bodies, and climactic confrontations, replete with enough plot contrivances to give even the most jaded action fan cause for alarm. It's a load of hooey, but the cast is obviously having a grand old time, and there's enough wit to make the recycled action sequences tolerable. --Jeff Shannon

• Wyatt Earp | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £8.99   |  Saving you £16.00 (177.98%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Kevin Costner plays the lawman who became a myth in an epic action-filled saga directed and co-written by Lawrence Kasdan. Gene Hackman as Wyatt's iron-willed father and Dennis Quaid as Earp's deadly best friend Doc Holliday add power to this hard-hitting Western. From Wichita to Dodge City to the O.K. Corral take a thrilling journey of romance adventure and mythic courage.

• Smallville: Complete Season 1 | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £23.99   |  Saving you £33.00 (137.56%)   |  RRP £56.99

  The venerable Superman mythos gets a 21st-century updating in the imaginative and engaging TV series Smallville. The premise of the show--Superman as a teenager--takes up just a few pages in Superman's very first comic-book appearance (in Action Comics back in 1938), but producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar flesh out that period by portraying young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) not as the noble Superman-in-waiting, but as an average teen with some not-so-ordinary supernatural powers, including incredible strength and heat vision (Clark hasn't lifted up, up, and away as of yet). Clark's desire to fit in with his peers and make sense of his extraordinary abilities grounds him in very realistic and identifiable terms for the series' primarily under-25 audience, as does his appealing and tentative romance with Kristen Kreuk as Clark's dreamgirl Lana Lang. But Smallville also strikes gold when it takes a turn towards more comic-book territory, as evidenced by the parade of shape-shifting killers and other outlandish antagonists (many generated, in one of the series' most ingenious notions, by the same devastating meteor shower that brought the infant Clark to Earth) that Clark must harness his powers to face and defeat. Gough and Millar, along with their capable cast (which includes Michael Rosenbaum as a young and already bald-pated Lex Luthor, and Annette O'Toole and John Schneider as the Kents) manage to pull off the precarious high-wire act of combining science fiction with coming-of-age drama to create this highly watchable programme. --Paul Gaita

• Storks | Blu Ray | (06/02/2017) from £6.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A wild and revealing journey that could make more than one family whole and restore the storks' true mission in the world.

• The Best Of Tommy Cooper | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £6.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (48.00%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Born in 1923 Welsh comedian Tommy Cooper delighted audiences until 1984 when he collapsed on stage at the end of his act and later died (and millions of TV viewers thought it was part of the act!). He has received various accolades for his work including a caricature commemoration (along with four other comedians) on the 1998 special issue of postage stamps. This BBC release compiles highlights of Tommy's long and successful career.

• No Surrender | DVD | (25/07/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It’s New Year’s Eve at The Charelston, a run-down club in Liverpool owned by the local gangland boss. The new manager has arrives and soon discovers his out of favour predecessor has booked a band that can’t play, a magician with a dead rabbit and two parties of rowdy OAPs. On one coach arrives a devout catholic social club in fancy dress for a non-existent prize, among them a drunker blind ex-boxer, on the other an equally boisterous protestant revellers. When they get together mayhem ensues.

• On The Buses - Series 1 - Episodes 4 To 7 | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £6.59   |  Saving you £3.40 (51.59%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Set around a London bus depot, On the Buses starred Reg Varney as Stan, an ageing bachelor and driver of the No.11 bus who still lives with his Mum (Cicely Courtneidge), his plain sister Olive (Anna Karen) and disgruntled brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). At work, he fraternises with the laddish and lecherous Jack (Bob Grant), with whom he pursues innumerable (and improbable) giggly, mini-skirted "clippies" (conductors) and cheeks the beady-eyed and punctilious bus inspector, Blakey (Steven Lewis) This first series was broadcast in black and white in 1969. Much of the comedy derives from gender role reversal--Stan and Arthur forced to do the household chores when Olive and Mum fall ill ("Family Flu"); "The Canteen", in which the busmen decide to run the canteen themselves; or "The Darts Match", in which Stan and Jack are bested at darts by--imagine--a pair of dollybird clippies. Despite its immense popularity, On the Buses hasn't dated well. Like the buses themselves, the jokes don't arrive very often and when they do, they're visible a long way off. The studio audience whoops cathartically at anything remotely alluding to sex, making you wonder at the repressed nature of British society in 1969. In later decades it would come to be treasured as somewhat creaky kitsch by audiences nostalgic for an age of politically incorrect innocence. On the DVD: On the Buses has no extra features here. The original black and white versions have scrubbed up reasonably well, although defects such as fading sound and poor dubbing have proven beyond amendment.--David Stubbs

• On The Buses - Series 2 - Episodes 1 To 3 | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £12.95   |  Saving you £-6.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Set around a London bus depot, On the Buses starred Reg Varney as Stan, an ageing bachelor and driver of the No.11 bus who still lives with his Mum (Doris Hare), his plain sister Olive (Anna Karen) and disgruntled brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). At work, he fraternises with the laddish and lecherous Jack (Bob Grant), with whom he pursues innumerable (and improbable) giggly, mini-skirted "clippies" (conductors) and cheeks the beady-eyed and punctilious bus inspector, Blakey (Steven Lewis) Despite its immense popularity, On the Buses hasn't dated well. Like the buses themselves, the jokes don't arrive very often and when they do, they're visible a long way off. The studio audience whoops cathartically at anything remotely alluding to sex--even a bared male nipple--making you wonder at the repressed nature of British society in 1969. In later decades it would come to be treasured as somewhat creaky kitsch by audiences nostalgic for an age of politically incorrect innocence. On the DVD: On the Buses has no extra features here. The original black and white versions have scrubbed up reasonably well, although defects such as fading sound and poor dubbing have proven beyond amendment. --David Stubbs

• The Hills Have Eyes | Blu Ray | (31/07/2017) from £22.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  THE LUCKY ONES DIED FIRST... Horror master Wes Craven achieved critical and commercial success with the likes of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street but for many genre fans, the director s seminal 1977 effort The Hills Have Eyes remains his masterpiece. Taking a detour whilst on route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their campervan breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary. As gruelling a viewing experience today as it was upon initial release, The Hills Have Eyes stands alongside the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the defining moments in American horror cinema.

• Hedwig And The Angry Inch | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £24.98   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Adapted from the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock theatre hit, Hedwig and The Angry Inch tells the story of an "internationally ignored" rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and love.

• Little House on the Prairie: Season 9 | DVD | (09/01/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.49

  Best known for its life-affirming lessons and heartwarming adventures. Little House On The Prairie made its TV debut in 1974 and significantly altered the landscape of television. Loyal fans will relive these exciting and touching adventures while new viewers will discover the Ingalls' unconquerable courage to build a new way of life. The series nominated for 17 Emmy Awards and 3 Golden Globes has become a TV milestone