"Actor: Moffat"

• Get Carter | DVD | (01/06/2006) from £6.97   |  Saving you £7.02 (100.72%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Released in 1971 (the same year Straw Dogs and A Clockwork Orange hit the screens, which must make 71 the annus mirabilis for violent films set in Britain), Get Carter opens with gangsters leering over pornographic slides and ends on a filthy, slag-stained beach in Newcastle. It's a low-down and dirty movie from beginning to end, and possibly the grittiest and best film of its kind to come out of Britain. The granddaddy of Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and all its ilk, director Mike Hodges' Get Carter offers revenge tragedy swinging-60s style, all nicotine-stained cinematography, shabby locations and the kind of killer catchphrases Vinnie Jones would die for ("You're a big man, but you're in bad shape. With me, it's a full-time job. Now behave yourself", says Michael Caine's deadpan anti-hero Carter before inflicting a few choice punches on Brian Mosley, aka Coronation Street's Alf Roberts, to name but one example from Hodges and Ted Lewis' exquisitely laconic script). Presenting the dark horse in his family of loveable Cockney geezer roles (Alfie, The Italian Job), Michael Caine plays the title role of Jack Carter, a man so hard he barely registers a flicker of regret watching a woman he's just had sex with plunge to her death. After taking the train up to Newcastle as the credits roll and Roy Budd's chunky bass-heavy theme tune plays, Carter returns to his hometown to attend his brother's funeral and investigate the circumstances of his death. Not that he's all that sentimental about family: he shaves nonchalantly over the open coffin, and shows affection to his niece Doreen (Petra Markham) by cramming a few notes in her hand and telling her to "be good and don't trust boys". Gradually, Carter unravels the skein of drugs, pornography and corruption tangled around his brother's death, which brings him up against supremely oleaginous kingpin Kinnear (played by the author of Look Back in Anger John Osborne) among others. A remake starring Sylvester Stallone is in the offing, but quite frankly it will be a 30-degree (Celsius) Christmas night in Newcastle before Hollywood could ever make something as assured, raw and immortal as this. --Leslie Felperin

• The Thing (Double Pack Including Original) | Blu Ray | (26/03/2012) from £9.99   |  Saving you £0.16 (2.00%)   |  RRP £8.15

  The Thing (1982)Horror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them.The Thing (2011)Paleontologist Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) joins a Norwegian scientific team in Antarctica that has discovered an extraterrestrial ship buried in the ice, and an organism that seems to have died in the crash. When an experiment frees the alien, a shape-shifting creature with the ability to turn itself into a perfect replica of any living being, Kate must join the crew's pilot, Carter (Joel Edgerton), to keep it from killing them off one at a time. Paranoia soon spreads like an epidemic as they're infected, one by one, and a thrilling race for survival begins...The Thing is a prelude to John Carpenter's classic 1982 film of the same name.

• Music Box | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Music Box provides celebrated director Costa-Gavras another opportunity to weave a story of nail-biting suspense with frightening political overtones. In this intense courtroom thriller Chicago attorney Ann Talbot (Jessica Lange) agrees to defend her Hungarian immigrant father Mike Laszlo (Armin Mueller-Stahl) against accusations of heinous war crimes committed 50 years earlier. As the trial unfolds Ann probes for evidence that will not only establish his innocence but also lay to rest her own agonizing doubts about his past. When a hospitalized witness is suddenly located in Budapest the trial moves to her father's homeland. Here crucial testimony plus Ann's personal investigation lead to astonishing results.

• Housesitter | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (5.94%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman

• The Unbearable Lightness Of Being | DVD | (28/06/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, the happily irresponsible Czech lover of Milan Kundera's novel, which is set in Prague just before and during the Soviet invasion in 1968. Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche are the two vastly different women who occupy his attention and to some extent represent different sides of his values and personality. In any case, the character's decision to flee Russian tanks with one of them--and then return--has profound consequences on his life. Directed by Philip Kaufman, this rich, erotic, fascinating character study with allegorical overtones is a touchstone for many filmgoers. Several key sequences--such as Olin wearing a bowler hat and writhing most attractively--linger in the memory, while Kaufman's assured sense of the story inspires superb performances all around. --Tom Keogh

• Popeye | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £8.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (81.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The sailor man with the spinach can! The legendary beloved anvil-armed sailor of the seven seas comes magically to life in this delightful musical starring Robin Williams as Popeye who meets all challenges with the unshakable philosophy 'i yam what I yam and that's all that I yam'. Shelley Duvall is Popeye's devoted long-limbed sweetie Olive Oil one of the familiar and loveable characters who joins Popeye in his adventures in the harbour town of Sweethaven. Meet Wimpy an

• Doctor Who - City Of Death | DVD | (07/11/2005) from £7.69   |  Saving you £12.30 (159.95%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A star-studded supporting cast enhances the enjoyment of the four-episode Doctor Who adventure City of Death. On holiday in modern-day Paris the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) experience what turns out to be a ""crack in time."" Before long they have joined forces with a private eye named Duggan (Tom Chadbon) in thwarting the villain of the piece: Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) who plans to steal the Mona Lisa - but for reasons that go far beyond financial

• Father Brown Boxed Set | DVD | (23/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £32.99

  Featuring all 13 episodes in the 1974 TV series starring Kenneth More Father Brown is the creation of the great British novelist G.K. Chesterton appearing in over fifty short stories. This Catholic Priest turned detective is both a rival and a partner in crime to such great sleuths as Hercule Poirot Sherlock Holmes and Miss Marple further enlivening the English appetite for a little murder and mystery with its afternoon tea.

• The Thing | DVD | (26/10/2004) from £15.23   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Class Action | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £7.27   |  Saving you £5.72 (78.68%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Lawyer Jebediah Ward devoted to defending victims of large corporations and the State is fighting for compensation for the victims of automobile accidents involving defective cars. However it turns out that the manufacturer in his latest case is being defended by none other than Ward's daughter...

• Clear And Present Danger | DVD | (06/11/2000) from £9.98   |  Saving you £6.01 (60.22%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The third instalment in the cinematic incarnation of Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan and the second starring Harrison Ford, this follow-up to Patriot Games is a more complex, rewarding and bolder film than its predecessor. Ford returns as Ryan, this time embroiled in a failed White House bid to wipe out a Colombian drug cartel and cover up the mess. The script, by Clancy and John Milius (Big Wednesday), has an air of true adventure about it as Ryan places himself in harm's way to extract covert soldiers abandoned in a Latin American jungle. There are a couple of remarkable set pieces expertly handled by Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce, especially a shocking scene involving an ambush on Ryan's car in an alley. The supporting cast is superb, including Willem Dafoe as the soldiers' leader, Henry Czerny as Ryan's enemy at the CIA, Joaquim de Almeida as a smooth-talking villain, Ann Magnuson as an unwitting confederate in international crime, and James Earl Jones as Ryan's dying boss. --Tom Keogh

• Unbearable Lightness Of Being - 2 Disc Special Edition | DVD | (27/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, the happily irresponsible Czech lover of Milan Kundera's novel, which is set in Prague just before and during the Soviet invasion in 1968. Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche are the two vastly different women who occupy his attention and to some extent represent different sides of his values and personality. In any case, the character's decision to flee Russian tanks with one of them--and then return--has profound consequences on his life. Directed by Philip Kaufman, this rich, erotic, fascinating character study with allegorical overtones is a touchstone for many filmgoers. Several key sequences--such as Olin wearing a bowler hat and writhing most attractively--linger in the memory, while Kaufman's assured sense of the story inspires superb performances all around. --Tom Keogh

• Tales of the City/More Tales of the City Box Set | DVD | (02/09/2013) from £6.20   |  Saving you £18.79 (303.06%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Double bill of drama miniseries based on the books by Armistead Maupin. In 'Tales of the City', naive country girl Mary Ann Singleton (Laura Linney) arrives in San Francisco in 1976 and receives a rude awakening to the rather more hectic pace of life in the big city when she moves into an apartment block owned by exotic, free-thinking landlady Anna Madrigal (Olympia Dukakis). 'More Tales of the City' follows the continuing adventures of Mary Ann in which she goes on a cruise with her gay frie...

• Tales Of The City | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £5.98   |  Saving you £14.01 (234.28%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Armistead Maupin's riveting bestseller comes to life in this brilliant adaptation of the hilarious and affectionate chronicle of colourful San Francisco life in the 1970s. The highly acclaimed and double Emmy nominated series based on the first volume in Maupin's six volume Tales Of The City series generated a large and devoted following.

• Clear And Present Danger | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £5.04   |  Saving you £10.95 (217.26%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The third instalment in the cinematic incarnation of Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan and the second starring Harrison Ford, this follow-up to Patriot Games is a more complex, rewarding and bolder film than its predecessor. Ford returns as Ryan, this time embroiled in a failed White House bid to wipe out a Colombian drug cartel and cover up the mess. The script, by Clancy and John Milius (Big Wednesday), has an air of true adventure about it as Ryan places himself in harm's way to extract covert soldiers abandoned in a Latin American jungle. There are a couple of remarkable set pieces expertly handled by Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce, especially a shocking scene involving an ambush on Ryan's car in an alley. The supporting cast is superb, including Willem Dafoe as the soldiers' leader, Henry Czerny as Ryan's enemy at the CIA, Joaquim de Almeida as a smooth-talking villain, Ann Magnuson as an unwitting confederate in international crime, and James Earl Jones as Ryan's dying boss. --Tom Keogh

• The Thing | Blu Ray | (20/09/2021) from £34.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Exclusive Art by Matt Ferguson Horror-meister John Carpenter (Halloween, Escape from New York) teams Kurt Russell's outstanding performance with incredible visuals to build this chilling version of the classic The Thing. In the winter of 1982, a twelve-man research team at a remote Antarctic research station discovers an alien buried in the snow for over 100,000 years. Once unfrozen, the form-changing alien wreaks havoc, creates terror and becomes one of them. Collectors Edition Includes 1 x 4K UHD Disc of The Thing (1982) 1 x Blu-Ray Disc of The Thing (2011); 1 x Official Motion Picture Soundtrack Disc by Ennio Morricone 1x Matt Ferguson's The Thing Poster 1x Art Booklet (includes production notes, excerpt of the script, behind the scenes photos, early concepts) Bonus Content Feature Commentary with Director John Carpenter and Kurt Russell John Carpenter's The Thing: Terror Takes Shape Outtakes Theatrical Trailer

• An Angel At My Table | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Originally produced as a three-part miniseries for New Zealand television, this extraordinary film is based on the life of Janet Frame, an introverted, sensitive girl who was later misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and spent eight years in a psychiatric hospital. She would later become one of New Zealand's most celebrated poets and novelists, publishing her first books while she was still confined to a mental ward. She had endured over 200 electroshock treatments and had almost been lobotomized by careless physicians who took no time to understand that she was merely awkward and shy and suffered from little more than routine depression. From a solid screenplayby Laura Jones, director Jane Campion (The Piano) tells this story without soapy melodrama but rather as anexploration of a challenged creative spirit--a journey into a writer's mind, exploring the power of imagination as a mechanism of survival and self-defense. Three talented actors play Janet Frame at different ages throughout the film, with Kerry Fox giving a powerful performance as the young-adult Janet, whose own skill and creative tenacity would prove to be her salvation. Frightening, harrowing and ultimately a source of humanistic enlightenment, An Angel at My Table (titled after Frame's autobiography) is a film you won't soon forget.--Jeff Shannon

• Danielle Steel's Kaleidoscope | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £5.87   |  Saving you £0.12 (2.04%)   |  RRP £5.99

  After the shocking death of her parents Hilary (Jaclyn Smith) and her two younger sisters are torn apart and separated for over 30 years. Loving families take in the youngest girls but Hilary is left behind to endure a terrible childhood of cruel abuse and desperate poverty. Yet with iron determination Hilary achieves her dream of success... but erases all trace of her traumatic past. Then approaching death an old friend of their parents hires private detective John Chapman to tr

• The Bourne Identity | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Not to be confused with the 2002 Matt Damon big-screen version, this adaptation of The Bourne Identity is a 1988 two-part TV miniseries based on the Robert Ludlum paperback bestseller. "How can I find out who I am if I've been turned into another person?", cries amnesiac Richard Chamberlain, fished out of the sea by drunken doc Denholm Elliott, who patches him up and discovers a Swiss bank account number sewn into his thigh. Coming to believe that he is Jason Bourne, international assassin, our hero is sought after by the CIA, several European police forces and the gang of an evil terrorist. He hooks up with unlikely economist Jaclyn Smith to get to the bottom of the mystery, stay alive and face the big baddie. Stretched over three hours, this has room for a lot of the complex plot dropped from the big-screen movie, but it also means that the thrills are often interrupted by soap opera scenes. Chamberlain is perhaps too aptly cast as a man without an identity, but Smith matches him for lack of expression without any excuse given in the script. Aside from Donald Moffatt and Shane Rimmer in the CIA, the supporting cast mostly consists of distinguished Brits delivering value-for-money ham, mostly with cod-French accents, especially Anthony Quayle as a DeGaulle-style General, Jacqueline Pearce as a dress-designing spy and Peter Vaughan as a heavy Swiss banker. On the DVD: The Bourne Identity, though made for TV, is presented in widescreen, which sometimes chops off the tops of actors' heads like breakfast eggs but mostly looks fine. There are optional English subtitles. --Kim Newman

• Tangled | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £15.27   |  Saving you £-1.28 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  When David is found bruised beaten and stumbling down a secluded road the Police try to piece together the puzzle of what happened. We learn of the relationship between Jenny the love of David's life and Alan David's best friend and the love triangle that instigated the confrontation. Was it love jealousy or the pre-meditated scheme of a deranged psychotic?