"Actor: Paul James"

• Coming to America 1 & 2 | DVD | (07/03/2022) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Coming to America: Join EDDIE MURPHY (Norbit, Dreamgirls) on an unforgettable comic quest to the New World. As an African prince, it's time for him to find a princess... and the mission leads him and his most loyal friend (ARSENIO HALL) to Queens, New York. In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince relishes the chance to test his mettle in the urban wilderness. Keep an eye out for both Murphy and Hall in some unforgettable cameo roles! Coming 2 America: Akeem and Semmi are back! Set in the lush and royal country of Zamunda, newly crowned King Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his trusted confidante Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embark on an all-new hilarious adventure that has them traversing the globe from their great African nation to the borough of Queens, New York where it all began. Returning to their original roles in this long-awaited sequel are James Earl Jones, John Amos, Louie Anderson, and Shari Headley, alongside new characters from Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan, and Leslie Jones.

• Salesman | DVD | (30/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the Maysles brothers (The Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter (1969) Grey Gardens (1975)) comes this landmark American documentary Salesman - a fascinating non-narrated account of four Boston bible hawkers as they struggle to stay afloat in the cutthroat world of door-to-door sales. Capturing the remarkable detail of a bygone era the film documents their carefully delivered spiel to bored housewives widows immigrants and distracted blue-collar workers. The salesmen wheedle connive and cajole their way toward the Holy Grail but as the pressure of the job bears down one of the salesmen begins to crack exposing the dark and lonely underside of the American Dream. The salesmen each nicknamed according to their different selling style follow up leads of family names from the church. Motivated by the head of the company (who argues that the more sales they generate the stronger the faith) the salesmen sell their gold-embossed expensive Bibles to low-wage families who cannot afford them applying pressure simply by pointing out that 'they come recommended by the church'. Focusing on Paul 'The Badger' Brennan traveling with his colleagues 'The Gipper' 'The Rabbit' and 'The Bull' from their home territory of wintry Boston to the sunshine of Opa-Locka district Florida together they exchange the days highs and (mostly) lows in lonely motel rooms in between calls home. In today's society saturated with reality TV and lame documentaries Salesman stands tall as one of the first non-fiction films to show the lives of ordinary people in-depth without judgement or narration. The Library of Congress honoured Salesman in 1992 as one of the 25 best American films ever made

• My Cousin Vinny | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.34   |  Saving you £10.91 (524.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1992's My Cousin Vinny is a delightful comedy-cum-courtroom drama set in Alabama. Joe Pesci stars as Vinny, the garage mechanic recently turned lawyer, who finds himself straight in at the deep end when his young cousin is unjustly arrested, along with his buddy, for the murder of a store clerk. From the opening scenes in which the hapless arrestees labour under the impression they've been booked for stealing a can of tuna, My Cousin Vinny's comedic pace never slackens, even as the drama builds. Much of the fun derives from raw, Brooklyn native Vinny's coping with the cultural backwaters of the Deep South, from its lardy grits to the 5.30 am "alarm call" of the factory horn. There's a good running gag involving retrieving $200 from a recalcitrant local redneck, while his clashes with the court judge, played by the late Fred Gwynne are priceless. Pesci goads this stickler for procedures by mumbling expletives in court, turning up in a leather jacket, then a mauve frock coat and arousing the judge's suspicions as to his bona fides. However, it's Marisa Tomei who surprisingly, but justly, took an Academy Award for her performance as tomboyish Lisa, Vinny's girlfriend. Tart rather than tarty, she more than matches Pesci for Noo Yoik sass and mechanical knowledge, delivering a court lecture on limited slip differential and independent rear suspension that oozes improbable sexiness. On the DVD: a decent presentation in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, though it's only Tomei's bizarrely eye-catching costumes which especially merit DVD enhancement. There's also a commentary by director (and co-creator of Yes Minister) Jonathan Lynn, in which--though at times seeming to struggle for interesting things to say--he reminisces on the fear in shooting the film's prison scenes adjacent to Death Row in a maximum security prison. --David Stubbs

• Coming to America 1 & 2 | Blu Ray | (07/03/2022) from £13.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Coming to America: Join EDDIE MURPHY (Norbit, Dreamgirls) on an unforgettable comic quest to the New World. As an African prince, it's time for him to find a princess... and the mission leads him and his most loyal friend (ARSENIO HALL) to Queens, New York. In disguise as an impoverished immigrant, the pampered prince relishes the chance to test his mettle in the urban wilderness. Keep an eye out for both Murphy and Hall in some unforgettable cameo roles! Coming 2 America: Akeem and Semmi are back! Set in the lush and royal country of Zamunda, newly crowned King Akeem (Eddie Murphy) and his trusted confidante Semmi (Arsenio Hall) embark on an all-new hilarious adventure that has them traversing the globe from their great African nation to the borough of Queens, New York where it all began. Returning to their original roles in this long-awaited sequel are James Earl Jones, John Amos, Louie Anderson, and Shari Headley, alongside new characters from Wesley Snipes, Tracy Morgan, and Leslie Jones. Product Features Commentary By Director Craig Brewer From Queens To Zamunda Trailer Gallery

• The Chase (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (25/05/2020) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Preceding Bonnie and Clyde by a year, Arthur Penn's (Mickey One) acclaimed film boasts enviable pedigree produced by the legendary Sam Spiegel, with a screenplay by Lillian Hellman from the novel by Horton Foote, a rousing score by John Barry, and a stellar cast of the hottest stars of the day (including Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Angie Dickinson and James Fox). The story of an escaped con making his way back to the corrupt Texas town and the people who sent him to prison, The Chase is a telling indictment of violence in American society. A seminal work which is ripe for rediscovery. Extras 4K restoration from the original negative Original mono audio Audio commentary with film historians Lem Dobbs, Julie Kirgo, and Nick Redman Step Back and Let Him Go: Arthur Penn on ˜The Chase' (1996, 26 mins): previously unseen interview footage from Paul Joyce's documentary Marlon Brando: The Wild One Cut to ˜The Chase' (2017, 24 mins): a new interview with renowned actor James Fox, conducted by Richard Ayoade Matthew Penn on ˜The Chase' (2017, 9 mins): a new interview with director Arthur Penn's son Super 8 version: original cut-down home cinema presentation Isolated Score: experience John Barry's original soundtrack music Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• War & Peace | Blu Ray | (08/02/2016) from £14.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (100.07%)   |  RRP £29.99

  BASED ON THE CLASSIC NOVEL BY LEO TOLSTOY In 1805 when we first meet Pierre (Paul Dano), Natasha (Lily James), and Andrei (James Norton), they are all part of St Petersburg's glittering elite, but are fired-up with youthful ambition to find meaning in their lives. Kind- hearted but awkward Pierre, the illegitimate son of Russia's richest man, wants to change the world for the better. Handsome and gallant Andrei, frustrated with the superficiality of his life, seeks a purpose, while the beautiful and spirited Natasha is searching for true love. At the same time Napoleon's army edges ever closer to Russia's borders. As everything they thought they knew is questioned, Pierre, Andrei and Natasha find themselves in a time when Russian society is about to change forever. EXTRAS - Cast and Crew Interviews and Featurettes

• 2 Guns | DVD | (09/12/2013) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Denzel Washington (Safe House) and Mark Wahlberg (Contraband) lead an all-star cast in 2 Guns, an explosive action film that tracks two operatives from competing bureaus who are forced on the run together.

• Message In A Bottle | DVD | (18/10/1999) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  If, as they say, you're in a certain mood, Message in a Bottle can be just the ticket. Based on Nicholas Sparks' bestselling novel, this handsome but overly calculated romantic tale stars Robin Wright Penn as Theresa, a Chicago Tribune researcher who finds a note encased in a green bottle that has floated onto a Cape Cod shore. The message within is a heartfelt, yearning declaration of love to a woman named Catherine but the author is unknown until Theresa (rather improbably) tracks him down in North Carolina. He's Garret Blake (Kevin Costner), a taciturn builder of sailboats and a grieving widower whose late wife, poetically speaking, was the intended recipient of the seafaring note Theresa found. Theresa, a divorcée with a son, decides to meet Garret, only to find him as bottled-up as his message. Nevertheless, a romance blooms on the strength of quality time in a sailboat and lots of cuddling, though the script tosses in bits of conflict to keep their relationship spicy. Directed by Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman), this love story is entirely by the numbers, with Costner inhabiting (rather than performing) a stock fantasy of a man perfect in every way save his broken heart. Penn brings more vibrancy to her equally predictable part but fortunately for all, Paul Newman, John Savage, Robbie Coltrane and Illeana Douglas are on hand in nicely textured character parts. Sometimes predictability is exactly what one wants when settling in for an evening of home video, and this movie fits the bill nicely. The appealing cinematography is by ace cameraman Caleb Deschanel. --Tom Keogh

• Special Branch - Complete Series | DVD | (04/08/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The complete box set of all four series! The series that finally broke the mould of the stereotypical British copper as seen through the eyes of television and laid the foundations for later police actioneers such as The Sweeney and The Professionals. The 'Special Branch' was a division of Scotland Yard that investigated government security leaks people-trafficking fanatics spies and other such anarchists.

• Ultimate Hammer Box Set | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £87.09   |  Saving you £62.90 (72.22%)   |  RRP £149.99

  20 of the greatest British films ever produced by the world renowned Hammer film studio! Includes: 1. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb (Dir. Seth Holt 1971) 2. Demons Of The Mind (Dir. Peter Sykes 1972) 3. The Devil Rides Out (Dir. Terence Fisher 1968) 4. Viking Queen (Dir. Don Chaffey 1967) 5. Dracula Prince Of Darkness (Dir. Terence Fisher 1966) 6. Fear In The Night (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1972) 7. Frankenstein Created Women (Dir. Terence Fisher 1967) 8. The Horror Of Frankenstein (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1970) 9. The Nanny (Dir. Seth Holt 1965) 10. One Million Years BC (Dir. Don Chaffey 1966) 11. Plague Of The Zombies (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 12. Quatermass And The Pit (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1967) 13. Rasputin The Mad Monk (Dir. Don Sharp 1966) 14. The Reptile (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 15. The Scars of Dracula (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1970) 16. SHE (Dir. Robert Day 1965) 17. Slave Girls (Dir. Michael Carreras 1967) 18. To The Devil A Daughter (Dir. Peter Sykes 1967) 19. The Vengeance Of SHE (Dir. Cliff Owen 1968) 20. The Witches (Dir. Cyril Frankel 1966)

• The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Series | DVD | (26/03/2018) from £32.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the best-selling anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian detective fi ction, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes features the world-famous consulting detective's fictional rivals in the fog-shrouded crime capital of London. Set in the three decades before the Great War, each story dealt with an individual and perplexing case (and a different detective). This top-flight, BAFTA-winning series attracted an incredible array of talent, including John Neville, Robert Stephens, Peter Vaughan, Roy Dotrice, Donald Pleasence, Ronald Hines, Peter Barkworth and Donald Sinden. This set contains the 13 high quality episodes that made up the complete first series

• Deja Vu | DVD | (14/05/2007) from £5.95   |  Saving you £12.04 (202.35%)   |  RRP £17.99

  An ATF agent uses deja vu to guide him through the investigation into a shattering crime.

• California Man | DVD | (05/02/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  California Man shows just how hilariously out of control things can get when the Stone Age meets the Rock Age head-on! The fun kicks off when two high school buddies dig up frozen cavemen in their backyard! Once the living fossil thaws out the friends figure he's their ticket to being cool. But the plan backfires when the newcomer turns everyday life upside down generating pre-hysterical craziness wherever he roams! If you liked Wayne's World you're going to love the totally awes

• Gary Tank Commander - Series 2 | DVD | (07/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Corporal Gary McLintoch (Greg McHugh) returns for a second series of his hit sitcom. This time Gary Jacko Adam and Charlie face fresh challenges as they miss their flight home from Afghanistan audition for an army advert protect Barack Obama from giant rabbits and try to find a tank they've lost. Complete with all new monologues from Gary flashier flashbacks from the boys in Afghanistan and the return of Sergeant Thomson Captain Fanshaw Gary's Dad & his best friend Julie Gary: Tank Commander and his troops are all present and correct for Series 2. Fall in and fall about laughing.

• Gypsy | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.95   |  Saving you £11.04 (223.03%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The girl who became the greatest show in show business. Ringing with the show-biz sass of its Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim score the film version of the Broadway hit Gypsy takes you on a grand vaudeville tour. It sweeps you up in the roller-coaster relationship of Louise (Natalie Wood) the wallflower later to blossom into sophisticated stripper Gypsy Rose Lee and her ambitious mother Rose (Rosalind Russell whose performance won her a fifth Best Actress Golden Globe

• The Alan Clark Diaries | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £12.70   |  Saving you £0.29 (2.28%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Television drama based on the diaries of MP Alan Clark an outspoken and flamboyant character who made his impact in the political arena during the 1980's and 1990's. Various scandals affairs and career fluctuations are seen through his eyes painting a vivid and sometimes controversial picture of the workings of government and the Thatcher administration.

• An Audience with Ken Dodd | DVD | (10/05/2010) from £5.02   |  Saving you £7.97 (158.76%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An Audience With Ken Dodd

• Kiss Me Deadly | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A terrific film noir full of skewed camera angles and mysterious whose-shoes-are-those shots, Kiss Me Deadly is about as dark and exciting as noir gets. A young woman (Cloris Leachman) in bare feet and a trench coat throws herself into the traffic to flag down help and the car she stops belongs to detective Mike Hammer. Not even 15 minutes into the film and there's already been a murder, a mysterious letter, an attempt to kill Hammer and, of course, a warning to stay out of it. Hammer, tired of lowlife divorce cases, smells something big and can't let it go. Mike Hammer is a detective so cool he can win a fight with nothing more than a box of popcorn as a weapon; he knows his opera singers as well as his amateur prize-fighters and he makes the ladies swoon--but he's far from a conventional hero. In fact, he's emphatically not a nice guy; Hammer happily whores out his secretary-girlfriend Velma to cinch up those divorce cases and has a penchant for slamming other people's fingers in drawers. Even the bad guys know he's a sleazebag ("What's it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?"). Ralph Meeker plays Hammer's ambivalence brilliantly, swinging easily between sexy and just plain mean. --Ali Davis

• The Jazz Singer | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Back in 1927, The Jazz Singer entered the history books as the first true, sound-on-film talking picture, with Al Jolson uttering the immortal words, "You ain't heard nothing yet!" But even then it was a creakingly sentimental old yarn. By the time this second remake showed up in 1980 (there was a previous one in 1953) it looked as ludicrously dated as a chaperone in a strip club. Our young hero, played by pop singer Neil Diamond in a doomed bid for movie stardom, is the latest in a long line of Jewish cantors, but secretly moonlights with a Harlem soul group. When his strictly Orthodox father (Laurence Olivier, complete with painfully hammy "oya-veh" accent) finds out, the expected ructions follow. Though the lad makes it big in showbiz, it all means nothing while he's cut off from family and roots. But in the end--well, you can guess, can't you? Diamond comes across as likeable enough in a bland way, but unencumbered by acting talent, and the music business has never looked so squeaky clean--nary a trace of drugs, and precious little sex or rock 'n' roll. As for anything sounding remotely like jazz, forget it. This is one story that should have been left to slumber in the archives. --Philip Kemp

• The Barbra Streisand Collection -- What's Up Doc / Up The Sandbox / Nuts / The Main Event | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £15.69   |  Saving you £20.30 (129.38%)   |  RRP £35.99

  The Barbra Streisand Collection consists of four movies: What's Up, Doc? (1972), Up the Sandbox (1972), The Main Event (1979) and Nuts (1987) In What's Up, Doc?, director Peter Bogdanovich tipped his hat to the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s, and especially the most glorious of them all, Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby. Barbra Streisand plays a charming flake who distracts a self-absorbed musicologist (Ryan O'Neal). He's engaged to be married, but soon Streisand's character has him chasing after stolen jewellery and getting into one madcap fix after another. --Tom Keogh Up the Sandbox springs from the early 1970s, when Streisand's career was in full stride. She stars as Margaret, a stay-at-home mum in the middle of New York who's feeling the strain of her narrow life. Frustrated by her self-involved husband and the mentally unstimulating tasks of motherhood, she escapes into fantasies--such as being chatted up by a cross-gendered Fidel Castro, bombing the Statue of Liberty with black militants and having a furious catfight with her overbearing mother. The movie's strength lies in these fantasies' slippery nature; some are over the top, but others are so subtle you're not always sure where they start and stop, making the portrait of Margaret's psyche intriguingly complex. --Bret Fetzer The Main Event is a comedic misfire from the mid-1970s, a futile attempt to bottle the same lightning that struck when Streisand teamed with Ryan O'Neal in What's Up, Doc? Here, Streisand plays a spoiled rich girl, the head of a bankrupt cosmetics company, who discovers she's lost everything--except her ownership of the contract of a washed-up boxer (O'Neal). So she tries to rally this dispirited pug into a comeback that will earn the kinds of purses that will put her back on her feet. Naturally, in the process, romantic sparks are kindled. But despite a loud and energetic performance by Streisand, the comedy doesn't add up to much. --Marshall Fine In Nuts Streisand is a mad high-priced "escort" accused of murder, but whether she's mad as hell or mad as a hatter is the question in this courtroom drama, adapted from the play by Tom Topor. While her doting, wilfully uncomprehending mother (Maureen Stapleton) and stepdad with a secret (Karl Malden) try to have her judged incompetent and sent to an asylum, she fights for her day in court with the help of a hapless legal aid attorney (a refreshingly understated Richard Dreyfuss). James Whitmore presides over the hearing with a compassion and sense of justice that gives one faith in the system, and la Streisand (who developed and produced the project) sinks her teeth into the tempestuous role like a starving actress. The plot holds few surprises, but the drama lies in the characters; veteran director Martin Ritt brings out the best in a top-flight cast. --Sean Axmaker