"Actor: Miriam"

• The Sitter | Blu Ray | (14/05/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Sitter may be the last movie featuring the "heavy" version of Jonah Hill. With the many pounds he's since lost, many movie-industry minds are wondering if the Jonah Hill-ness of his screen persona, flaunted so prodigiously in the likes of Knocked Up, Get Him to the Greek, and Superbad, has disappeared from the scales too. But until Jonah 2.0 gets his chance, The Sitter couldn't capture his trash-talking, man-child, king-of-comeback essence more boldly, more lovingly, or with such blatant vulgarity. Hill plays Noah, a jobless twentysomething layabout still living with his divorced mum along with the delusion that he has a hot girlfriend (she only keeps him around for oral talents that are unrelated to speech). As a favour that might help Mum with her own sad love life, he agrees to a one-night babysitting stand for the neighbours and their three wildly dissimilar but equally messed-up children. The night progresses through slapstick, farce, adventure, romance, danger, pathos, and eventual catharsis for everyone. (Unfortunately there's a touch of maudlin, sentimental corn in the mix too.) The children are as important to the escapades as Noah and are the primary source of his stupid/smooth shtick that mixes clever put-downs, terrified jabbering, and hilariously relentless patter of urban slang vernacular. Noah's spoiled charges are two boys--an anxiety-wracked 13-year-old and a 10-year-old Nicaraguan adoptee with severe anger and pyromania issues--and a precocious 8-year-old-girl who's heavily into make-up, hip-hop, and a score of other age-inappropriate behaviours. As the four of them hurtle deeper into the night, the situations become more antically treacherous with drug dealers, gangster thugs, police officers, and upper-crust snobs as part of the mix, along with their knives, cocaine, diamonds, alcohol, and guns. Director David Gordon Green, whose unusual career has gone from art house (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to raunchy bromance (Pineapple Express, Your Highness), supplants formal technique with the off-kilter and oft-unseemly style of Jonah Hill vs. the world. Green sometimes evokes the flow of surreality that Martin Scorsese took to unnatural ends in After Hours, only with more dirty bits and a lot more full-on crude laughs. Nearly everyone in the large supporting cast makes an excellent foil for the star's constant streetwise riffing, especially Sam Rockwell, who digs in to his role as a psychotic but emotionally conflicted drug dealer always on the lookout for new best friends. But it is Jonah Hill who sits firmly, even heavily in the driver's seat. It's a great place to flash his better-honed actorly chops along with his beloved version 1.0 comedic gift. --Ted Fry

• Silent Light | DVD | (19/07/2010) from £8.49   |  Saving you £8.50 (100.12%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Silent Light is the latest breathtaking work from Carlos Reygadas the controversial and prestigious director of the award-winning Battle in Heaven and Jap''n. Johan is the head of a family in a Mennonite community in northern Mexico. However he goes against the law of both God and men by falling in love with another woman and although he is honest with his wife about the affair his actions create conflict in their otherwise serine and tranquil existence. An enlightening and engaging exploration of moral and spiritual crises Silent Light's poetic tone at times invokes Dreyer Bergman and even Kubrick as it weaves its intricate and brilliant way to one of cinema's most exquisite finales. A modern classic from one of the greatest film-makers of our time.

• The Sitter | DVD | (14/05/2012) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (75.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Sitter may be the last movie featuring the "heavy" version of Jonah Hill. With the many pounds he's since lost, many movie-industry minds are wondering if the Jonah Hill-ness of his screen persona, flaunted so prodigiously in the likes of Knocked Up, Get Him to the Greek, and Superbad, has disappeared from the scales too. But until Jonah 2.0 gets his chance, The Sitter couldn't capture his trash-talking, man-child, king-of-comeback essence more boldly, more lovingly, or with such blatant vulgarity. Hill plays Noah, a jobless twentysomething layabout still living with his divorced mum along with the delusion that he has a hot girlfriend (she only keeps him around for oral talents that are unrelated to speech). As a favour that might help Mum with her own sad love life, he agrees to a one-night babysitting stand for the neighbours and their three wildly dissimilar but equally messed-up children. The night progresses through slapstick, farce, adventure, romance, danger, pathos, and eventual catharsis for everyone. (Unfortunately there's a touch of maudlin, sentimental corn in the mix too.) The children are as important to the escapades as Noah and are the primary source of his stupid/smooth shtick that mixes clever put-downs, terrified jabbering, and hilariously relentless patter of urban slang vernacular. Noah's spoiled charges are two boys--an anxiety-wracked 13-year-old and a 10-year-old Nicaraguan adoptee with severe anger and pyromania issues--and a precocious 8-year-old-girl who's heavily into make-up, hip-hop, and a score of other age-inappropriate behaviours. As the four of them hurtle deeper into the night, the situations become more antically treacherous with drug dealers, gangster thugs, police officers, and upper-crust snobs as part of the mix, along with their knives, cocaine, diamonds, alcohol, and guns. Director David Gordon Green, whose unusual career has gone from art house (George Washington, All the Real Girls) to raunchy bromance (Pineapple Express, Your Highness), supplants formal technique with the off-kilter and oft-unseemly style of Jonah Hill vs. the world. Green sometimes evokes the flow of surreality that Martin Scorsese took to unnatural ends in After Hours, only with more dirty bits and a lot more full-on crude laughs. Nearly everyone in the large supporting cast makes an excellent foil for the star's constant streetwise riffing, especially Sam Rockwell, who digs in to his role as a psychotic but emotionally conflicted drug dealer always on the lookout for new best friends. But it is Jonah Hill who sits firmly, even heavily in the driver's seat. It's a great place to flash his better-honed actorly chops along with his beloved version 1.0 comedic gift. --Ted Fry

• Silent Light | DVD | (14/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Silent Light is the latest breathtaking work from Carlos Reygadas the controversial and prestigious director of the award-winning Battle in Heaven and Japn. Johan is the head of a family in a Mennonite community in northern Mexico. However he goes against the law of both God and men by falling in love with another woman and although he is honest with his wife about the affair his actions create conflict in their otherwise serine and tranquil existence. An enlightening and engaging exploration of moral and spiritual crises Silent Light's poetic tone at times invokes Dreyer Bergman and even Kubrick as it weaves its intricate and brilliant way to one of cinema's most exquisite finales. A modern classic from one of the greatest film-makers of our time.

• Cats & Dogs | DVD | (04/10/2010) from £3.79   |  Saving you £9.20 (70.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Things Are Gonna Get Hairy! They're cunning. They're stealthy. They're waging a top-secret ultra-high-tech struggle for global domination right under our noses. They're Cats & Dogs! Witness this epic tail of what happens when an eccentric professor (Jeff Goldblum) makes a discovery that could tip the age-old balance of pet power. Now an inexperienced young beagle pup named Lou (voiced by Tobey Maguire) is about to begin the ultimate mission im-paws-ible: to save humanity from a total cat-tastrophe!

• Summer Storm | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tobi and Achim have been best friends for years. As cox and oarsman they have helped their rowing team win several trophies in the past and are now looking forward to the big regatta in the countryside. But this trip is no summer camp and the problems soon arise. As Achim's relationship with his girlfriend grows more serious Tobi starts to realize that his feelings for Achim run deeper than he's willing to admit. He feels confused unsure of himself and increasingly isolated. When

• The Butcher's Wife | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £8.08   |  Saving you £4.91 (37.80%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Marina (Demi Moore), a blonde Southern belle with a clairvoyant streak, sees signs--a shooting star with two tails, a snowglobe that washes up on the beach, a wedding band inside of a fish--telling her that her true love is about to come ashore. And soon enough, a boat lands on the beach in front of her home; only the guy inside is a stout butcher from New York City named Leo (George Dzundza). Still, portents are portents, and the next thing you know she's married and running barefoot around a butcher's shop in Greenwich Village, where she inspires various residents with her predictions. Leo, however, is frightened by his wife's abilities and encourages her to see Alex (Jeff Daniels), a psychiatrist who works across the street. To placate him, she does--and soon begins to suspect that she's misread her signs and married the wrong man. The Butcher's Wife could use a little more humour about Marina's powers (her pronouncements are dizzyingly earnest) but the movie is buoyed up by a fantastic supporting cast, particularly Margaret Colin as a soap opera actress, Frances McDormand as a lesbian dress shop owner and Mary Steenburgen as a dowdy church choir leader who just wants to sing the blues. Like Marina, you know what's going to happen but the cast manages to make getting there charming. --Bret Fetzer

• Chicken Run / James And The Giant Peach | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Chicken Run: Trouble is brewing down on Mrs Tweedy's poultry farm: the chickens are revolting (yes that old chestnut) and clucky hen Ginger (voiced by Julia Sawalha) is planning her latest coop um coup. Getting one or two birds out of the farm is no problem whatsoever. Unfortunately Ginger plans to get everyone out at the same time and when one of the would-be escapees happens to be kind-hearted but bird-brained Babs (Jane Horrocks) Ginger is fighting a losing battle. D

• Paul Simon - Graceland - The African Concert | DVD | (14/06/1999) from £28.96   |  Saving you £-13.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Recorded live on location in Harare Zimbabwe the show combines a mix of music from Simon's Graceland album with some of the best examples of African music. 1. Township Jive 2. The Boy in the Bubble 3. Gumboots 4. Whispering Bells 5. Bring him Back Home 6. Crazy Love Volume II 7. I know what I know 8. Jinkel E Maweni 9. Soweto Blues 10. Under African Skies 11. Unomathemba 12. Hello my Baby 13. Homeless 14. Graceland 15. You can call me Al 16. Stimela 17. Diamonds

• Left Luggage | DVD | (03/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in Belgium in the early '70s Left Luggage is the touching and emotional story of Chaja a rebellious philosophy student stuggling to come of age. Her relationship with her parents both concentration camp survivors is strained and she finds herself unable to accept her Jewish identity. A family friend finds her a job as a nanny for a Hassidic family with 5 children. Joining forces with Mrs. Kalman (Isabella Rossellini) and through her love for the youngest child who doesn

• Belle Epoque | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £25.63   |  Saving you £-5.64 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Winner of numerous awards including an Oscar for best foreign film Belle Epoque is a sensual uninhibited comedy starring Penelope Cruz. Set in a sun-drenched Spanish countryside of 1931 the film tells the story of Fernando a deserter from the war who is befriended and given shelter by an amiable artist. When his host's four beautiful daughters arrive a classic farce ensues as Fernando is seduced by one amorous sister after the other in this funny sexy and heart-warming celebra

• Scarface 1983 + Scarface 1932 Special Edition with Statue | Blu Ray | (21/10/2019) from £117.17   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  SCARFACE THE WORLD IS YOURS EDITION Say hello to the ultimate Tony Montana experience with the Scarface The World Is Yours Edition. This limited edition gift set includes: The World is Yours Collectible Statue Own a limited individually-numbered replica of one of the most iconic props from the film. Scarface (1983) 4K UHD Experience the unforgettable film like never before with HDR for brighter, deeper, more lifelike colour. Includes the brand new Scarface 35th Anniversary Reunion feature: an all-new conversation with Director Brian De Palma and actors Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer and Steven Bauer from the Tribeca Film Festival plus The Scarface Phenomenon. Scarface (1983) Blu-ray ™ Enjoy the film in HD with over 2 ½ hours of bonus features, including the new 35th Anniversary Reunion special feature. Scarface (1932) Blu-ray ™ See 2 versions of the original 1932 Scarface directed by Howard Hawks newly restored. BONUS FEATURES SCARFACE 35TH ANNIVERSARY REUNION: An all-new conversation with director Brian De Palma and actors Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer and Steven Bauer from the Tribeca Film Festival PLUS The Scarface Phenomenon The World of Tony Montana The Rebirth The Acting The Creating Deleted Scenes Scarface: The TV Version And More! In the spring of 1980, the port at Mariel Harbour was opened, and thousands set sail for the United States. They came in search of the American Dream. One of them found it on the sun-washed avenues of Miami wealth, power and passion beyond his wildest dreams. He was Tony Montana. The world will remember him by another name Scarface. The iconic film starring Al Pacino along with Michelle Pfeiffer, Steven Bauer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio and Robert Loggia has become a cultural phenomenon brilliantly directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone.

• Scarface | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £5.98   |  Saving you £17.00 (568.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This sprawling epic of bloodshed and excess, Brian De Palma's update of the classic 1932 crime drama by Howard Hawks, sparked controversy over its outrageous violence when released in 1983. Scarface is a wretched, fascinating car wreck of a movie, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee who rises to the top of Miami's cocaine-driven underworld, only to fall hard into his own deadly trap of addiction and inevitable assassination. Scripted by Oliver Stone and running nearly three hours, it's the kind of film that can simultaneously disgust and amaze you (critic Pauline Kael wrote "this may be the only action picture that turns into an allegory of impotence"), with vivid supporting roles for Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, and Robert Loggia. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• The Real Marigold Hotel Series 2 | DVD | (27/03/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (16.69%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Inspired by, but otherwise unrelated to the blockbuster film, the series documents the authentic experience of eight characters in their golden years as they head to India on an experimental adventure to see if they would consider retiring to the other side of the world. Series Two will see the group travel thousands of miles from home and this time land in Kochi, a city in the southwest Indian state Kerala, to test whether they can set up a more rewarding retirement than in the UK. A two-part Christmas special sees some familiar faces on tour; actress Miriam Margolyes, dancer Wayne Sleep, darts champion Bobby George and chef Rosemary Shrager test out different retirement communities around the world, travelling to Florida and Japan.

• The Chase | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £11.97   |  Saving you £1.02 (8.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A breathless explosive story! When a convict (Robert Redford) escapes from the state penitentiary heads for home and becomes involved in a murder the peace of a small Texas town is shattered. Most of the citizens led by a banker/oil tycoon (E.G. Marshall) see him as a criminal to be hounded and brought to justice. Only the town sheriff (Brando) believes him to be innocent and prepares to stand by him; but when the mob decide to take the law into their own hands even he is power

• Suzie Gold | DVD | (02/08/2004) from £2.53   |  Saving you £13.46 (532.02%)   |  RRP £15.99

  As Suzie Gold's sister prepares to get married it seems only natural that Suzie's thoughts should turn to the state of her own love life. While her doting but dysfunctional family desperately want her to be happy - preferably by finding a good Jewish boy to settle down with - Suzie meets Darren a boy from work and they start a heady romance. But the relationship sours when Suzie finds herself unable to bring him home worried that he won't match up to her family's exacting (double)

• Peter Kosminsky Collection | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Titles Comprise: The Government Inspector The Promise Britz

• The Stepfather 2 | DVD | (09/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The family-slaughtering serial killer known as Jerry Blake has survived the stabbing by his stepdaughter and has been committed to a psychiatric hospital in Puget Sound. By playing on the new psychiatrist's naive desire to help he makes an escape. He then sets up a new identity as Gene Clifford whose death he reads in the newspaper and moves into the new Palm Meadows suburb which is being touted as the perfect family environment. There he pursues divorced realtor Carol Grayland and

• Clockwork Orange | DVD | (13/11/2000) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The controversy that surrounded Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange while the film was out of circulation suggested that it was like Romper Stomper: a glamorisation of the violent, virile lifestyle of its teenage protagonist, with a hypocritical gloss of condemnation to mask delight in rape and ultra-violence. Actually, it is as fable-like and abstract as The Pilgrim's Progress, with characters deliberately played as goonish sitcom creations. The anarchic rampage of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted juvenile delinquent of the future, is all over at the end of the first act. Apprehended by equally brutal authorities, he changes from defiant thug to cringing bootlicker, volunteering for a behaviourist experiment that removes his capacity to do evil.It's all stylised: from Burgess' invented pidgin Russian (snarled unforgettably by McDowell) to 2001-style slow tracks through sculpturally perfect sets (as with many Kubrick movies, the story could be told through decor alone) and exaggerated, grotesque performances on a par with those of Dr Strangelove (especially from Patrick Magee and Aubrey Morris). Made in 1971, based on a novel from 1962, A Clockwork Orange resonates across the years. Its future is now quaint, with Magee pecking out "subversive literature" on a giant IBM typewriter and "lovely, lovely Ludwig Van" on mini-cassette tapes. However, the world of "Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North" is very much with us: a housing estate where classical murals are obscenely vandalised, passers-by are rare and yobs loll about with nothing better to do than hurt people. On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, with just an impressionist trailer in the style of the film used to brainwash Alex and a list of awards for which Clockwork Orange was nominated and awarded. The box promises soundtracks in English, French and Italian and subtitles in ten languages, but the disc just has two English soundtracks (mono and Dolby Surround 5.1) and two sets of English subtitles. The terrific-looking "digitally restored and remastered" print is letterboxed at 1.66:1 and on a widescreen TV plays best at 14:9. The film looks as good as it ever has, with rich stable colours (especially and appropriately the orangey-red of the credits and the blood) and a clarity that highlights previously unnoticed details such as Alex's gouged eyeball cufflinks and enables you to read the newspaper articles which flash by. The 5.1 soundtrack option is amazingly rich, benefiting the nuances of performance as much as the classical/electronic music score and the subtly unsettling sound effects. --Kim Newman

• The Entertainer | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £20.97   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Entertainer of the title is Archie Rice, a mediocre music hall artist upholding a dying tradition in an English seaside against a background of the 1956 Suez Crisis. Laurence Olivier stars and is supported by a superb cast including a young Alan Bates as his son, Roger Livesey as his kindly, now retired, always more talented and popular father, and Joan Plowright as his daughter (who, ironically given the story, married Olivier the following year). Albert Finney makes his screen debut in a tiny role and the remarkable cast also features Daniel Massey, Shirley Anne Field, Thora Hird and Charles Gray. Archie himself is a hollow man who brings pain to all around him, and while Olivier's brilliant performance reveals the layers of cynicism which disguise the emptiness inside, the emotional resonance lies with those forced to endure Rice's manipulations, adulteries and deceits. On stage John Osborne's play proved to be a signature part for Olivier, and director Tony Richardson--who filmed Osborne's equally sour Look Back In Anger (1958)--handles the material with unvarnished realism. Unfolding like a dark variation on Chaplin's Limelight (1952), the film equally casts a shadow over the less stellar Tony Hancock vehicle The Punch and Judy Man (1963), ultimately working as both family tragedy and allegory for a declining post-war England. Surprisingly an American 1976 TV movie remake starring Jack Lemmon held its own against this minor British classic. On the DVD: The Entertainer is presented letterboxed at 1.66:1, and sourced from an excellent print preserves the look of the original black and white cinematography very well. Even so a little material is clipped from either side of the image, though this is most notable on the left of the picture. The mono sound is very good. There are no features other than optional subtitles, including English for those hard of hearing. --Gary S Dalkin