"Actor: Peter Ho"

• Windtalkers | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nicolas Cage and Christian Slater star in the new film from action supremo John Woo as two U.S. Marines in WWII assigned to protect Navajo Marines who know a secret radio code.

• Thunderbirds: Volume 6 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £9.96   |  Saving you £9.02 (129.41%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR--[explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax]--and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a)the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audience's affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catchphrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. On this DVD: The four episodes are: "The Duchess Assignment", "Brink of Disaster", "Attack of the Alligators!" and "Martian Invasion". Amazon.com

• New Order - Live | DVD | (16/04/2001) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-15.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  After the demise of Joy Division the band's founding members - Bernard Sumner Peter Hook and Step Morris - continued under the name New Order. They were later joined by Gillian Gilbert. Their first single 'Ceremony' was a top 40 hit. 'Blue Monday' released in 1983 remains the biggest selling 12"" record of all time in the UK. In the summer of 1990 they reached the UK Number 1 spot with 'World in Motion'. New Order - 3 16 contains: New York 81 (Originally released as Taras Shevch

• Classic British Comedy Films | DVD | (23/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Triple bill of classic British comedies starring the likes of Peter Cook and Ronnie Barker. 'The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer' (1970) stars Cook as the eponymous social climber determined to reach the top by fair means or foul. Starting out at a small advertising agency, it's not long before Rimmer rises through the ranks to enter the sphere of politics as a spin-doctor, where his talent for manipulation continues to serve him well. 'Sir Henry at Rawlinson's End' (1980) stars Trevor Howard as an English Peer of the Realm who attempts to exorcise the ghost of his dead brother with the aid of his equally eccentric friends and household staff. Finally, 'Futtock's End' (1969), written by, and starring Ronnie Barker, follows a weekend gathering at the decaying country home of General Futtock (Barker), which produces a series of saucy mishaps between staff and guests.

• Thunderbirds: Volume 7 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £12.13   |  Saving you £3.86 (31.82%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.On this DVD: The four episodes are: "The Cham Cham", "Security Hazard", "Atlantic Inferno" and "Path of Destruction".

• Windom's Way | Blu Ray | (02/08/2021) from £11.70   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Peter Finch delivers a BAFTA-nominated performance as a compassionate doctor caught up in escalating tensions between the native population and local police in this dramatic adaptation of James Ramsay Ullman's best-selling novel. Co-starring Mary Ure and directed by Ronald Neame, the multiple-award-nominated Windom's Way is featured here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Dr Alec Windom cares for the local population in his remote practice in the Far East. When the exploited workers rebel against the colonial authorities the local police respond violently and Windom is caught in the middle.

• One Missed Call | DVD | (31/03/2008) from £9.46   |  Saving you £4.79 (58.41%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sequel to the original film by acclaimed director Takashi Miike (Ichi The Killer)! The One Missed Call curse has become an urban legend in Tokyo. Your cell phone rings with a chilling tone. Your violent demise is heard on the other end. Moments later you die a horrible death. However the curse has mutated to fool a wiser public and reach a broader audience. The curse indiscriminately infects anyone who answers and then works its way through every number in your phone book. To try to solve the mystery a couple of friends and a journalist trace the lineage of the curse to Taiwan. Once the origins are discovered it's a race against time to put an end to the horror.

• Fantastic Voyage/Voyage to Bottom of the Sea | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Irwin Allen's visually impressive but scientifically silly Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea updates 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as the world's most advanced experimental submarine manoeuvres under the North Pole while the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, giving the concept "global warming" an entirely new dimension. As the Earth broils in temperatures approaching 170 degrees F, Walter Pidgeon's maniacally driven Admiral Nelson hijacks the Seaview sub and plays tag with the world's combined naval forces on a race to the South Pacific, where he plans to extinguish the interstellar fire with a well-placed nuclear missile. But first he has to fight a mutinous crew, an alarmingly effective saboteur, not one but two giant squid attacks and a host of design flaws that nearly cripple the mission (note to Nelson: think backup generators). Barbara Eden shimmies to Frankie Avalon's trumpet solos in the most form-fitting naval uniform you've ever seen; fish-loving Peter Lorre plays in the shark tank; gloomy religious fanatic Michael Ansara preaches Armageddon; and Joan Fontaine looks very uncomfortable playing an armchair psychoanalyst. It's all pretty absurd, but Allen pumps it up with larger-than-life spectacle and lovely miniature work. Fantastic Voyage is the original psychedelic inner-space adventure. When a brilliant scientist falls into a coma with an inoperable blood clot in the brain, a surgical team embarks on a top-secret journey to the centre of the mind in a high-tech military submarine shrunk to microbial dimensions. Stephen Boyd stars as a colourless commander sent to keep an eye on things (though his eyes stay mostly on shapely medical assistant Raquel Welch), while Donald Pleasence is suitably twitchy as the claustrophobic medical consultant. The science is shaky at best, but the imaginative spectacle is marvellous: scuba-diving surgeons battle white blood cells, tap the lungs to replenish the oxygen supply and shoot the aorta like daredevil surfers. The film took home a well-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Director Richard Fleischer, who had previously turned Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into one of the most riveting submarine adventures of all time, creates a picture so taut with cold-war tensions and cloak-and-dagger secrecy that niggling scientific contradictions (such as, how do miniaturised humans breathe full-sized air molecules?) seem moot. --Sean Axmaker

• Deathsport | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £12.98   |  Saving you £-9.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Earth. Post-Apocalypse. 1000 years after the Neutron Wars. Lord Zirpola the dictator of Helix City captures Range Guides Kaz Oshay (David Carradine) and Deneer. Range Guides are mystical nomads who have strange powers and who choose to fight for good in the bleak wastelands. Lord Zirpola forces them to take part in his favourite entertainment; the Death Sport - an arena where they must fight to the death on special motorcycles like Roman Gladiators. But Kaz Deneer and others break out and make their escape on the strange motorcycles trying to cross the lethal desert to freedom. Ankar Moor a former Range Guide who now serves the evil Zirpola hotly pursues the fleeing group and now wants their blood!

• Simon, Simon | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £3.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (152.91%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Two handymen (Graham Stark and John Junkin) cause chaos on a new crane whilst haphazardly trying to accomplish jobs for their ever more frustrated boss. This 'silent' comedy features a host of cameos from the likes of Peter Sellers Michael Caine Bob Monkhouse Eric Morecambe and Ernie Wise...

• Odyssey 5 - The Complete Series | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Earth can be darker than space. The crew of the Odyssey a space shuttle orbiting above the Earth's surface looks on in horror as the Earth explodes before their eyes. Commander Chuck Taggart (Peter Weller) a geneticist (Sebastian Roche) Taggart's son (Christopher Gorham) a TV newswoman (Leslie Silva) and an astronaut (Tamara Craig Thomas) escape on a shuttle into space where they're met by a mysterious being who offers to transport them back five years in time to try to

• The Pretenders - Greatest Hits | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Pretenders Greatest Hits is a selection of 20 songs and their variously successful videos. Chrissie Hynde arrived in the UK in 1973, and after a period as the "Loud Yank" NME journalist, she realised her dream of putting a band together. "Stop Your Sobbing" was a terrific first single for The Pretenders, debuting a voice that defied comparison or description. Naturally it's included here. Chrissie hated the early videos for her songs, especially "Brass in Pocket", which was one of the very first shown on MTV. She relays this sort of information to camera in the terrific documentary, "No Turn Left Unstoned", featured on this DVD. Comments come in from Rosanna Arquette, ex-managers, Elvis Costello, Bono, and her oldest friend. The overall opinion of the singer-writer that comes across in these interviews is one of an irreverent genius, not afraid to speak her mind (as in her passionate standing for animal rights through the organisation PETA ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"). The band's turbulent history is chronicled through drug-related deaths, firing and re-hiring, motherhood, and the controversial use of the F word on stage, back when such things were shocking. There have been Pretenders greatest hits collections before, but this is expanded with "Human" and "Popstar" from the 1999 Viva El Amor album. --Paul Tonks

• Cilea - Adriana Lecouvreur | Blu Ray | (02/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Breaking Glass | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An old, old story as told circa 1980, Breaking Glass, written and directed by Brian Gibson, follows the path of Stardust not to mention A Star is Born and most other films about showbusiness, by following the rise of a talented young hopeful who learns that success comes with strings. Kate Crowley (Hazel O'Connor) begins as a bleached New Wave ranter, fly-posting on the tube and yelling songs about dehumanisation over fascist chants in rowdy pubs, but ends up a stoned glam zombie dressed as a robot, packaging her anger for the benefit of corporate music biz baddies and retreating to a sanatorium. The plot may be familiar, but the film still works, thanks to persuasive central performances from O'Connor, who wrote her own songs and shows real acting muscle that sadly didn't lead to anything like a film career, and Phil Daniels as her hustling manager/boyfriend/conscience. The fine supporting cast includes Jon Finch and Jonathan Pryce as a Bond villain-style record producer and a deaf junkie sax player, with glimpses of later perennials such as Jim Broadbent and Richard Griffiths. Made and set at the start of the 1980s, it catches its times exactly: a "Rock Against 1984" outdoor gig that turns into a riot, a routine police harrassment of a band rehearsal, a power cut that transforms a concert into a before-its-time "unplugged" session. Credits trivia: the executive producer was Dodi al Fayed. On the DVD: A nice letterboxed transfer looks a bit soft and grainy--but that's the way it's supposed to be. The only extras are cribbed-from-the-IMDB filmographies, a trailer with a wonderfully unconvincing narration and an image gallery (posters, ads and stills). --Kim Newman

• Power Rangers Ninja Storm - Lightning Strikers | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £6.90   |  Saving you £5.09 (73.77%)   |  RRP £11.99

  More all-action adventures with the Power Rangers.

• Will Hay - Convict 99 | DVD | (30/09/2010) from £6.21   |  Saving you £-1.22 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Will Hay - Convict 99

• Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell / Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  A double bill of horror from the latter years of the Hammer Studio: Terence Fisher's final movie Frankenstein And The Monster From Hell (1974) and Brian Clemen's spirited Captain Kronos - Vampire Hunter (1973).

• Pirates Of Penzance / Mikado / HMS Pinafore | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gilbert And Sullivan's Pirates Of Penzance: Having mistakenly been sent as an apprentice to pirates young Frederic is happy to leave his indentures on his 21st birthday. Falling in love with the beautiful Mabel one of the many daughters of Major-General Stanley he decides to marry. However the pirates are all to keen to marry the rest of Stanley's daughters! A spectacular interpretation of the Gilbert and Sullivan classic! Gilbert And Sullivan's Mikado: A lavish 1982 production of the Gilbert and Sullivan opera in which Nanki-Poo the son of the Mikado escaping a distasteful marriage arrives in the town of Titipu disguised as a musician... Gilbert And Sullivan's HMS Pinafore: A sailor falls for the captain's daughter. They become thwarted in their attempt to keep their love alive but a strange twist in the tale offers these lovers another chance... A thrilling adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's opera.

• Inspector Morse - Disc 1 And 2 - The Dead Of Jericho / The Silent World Of Nicholas Quinn | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Two episodes from the popular TV detective series. The Dead Of Jericho Morse who never quite finds romance thinks that at last things will turn out differently when he meets beautiful Anne Stavely. But it is a love destined not to be when Anne is found hanging from a beam in mysterious circumstances. Morse suspects murder and sets out to discover the truth. Joining him is Sergeant Lewis and their investigation into 'The Dead Of Jericho' is the beginning of a lasting partn

• Ally McBeal, Series 5 Box Set 2 | DVD | (10/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The fifth season was the last series of Ally McBeal, and probably the least satisfying. While always at least slightly entertaining, it was troubled by two conflicting imperatives: first, to steer its neurotic characters and multiplicity of sub-plots towards a coherent and credible resolution; second, to sustain another series of a programme that had, by now, exhausted all the plot possibilities that were remotely believable. The result is a bemusing onslaught of new characters (Ally's Mini-Me Jenny and a barely distinguishable phalanx of lantern-jawed male leads), celebrity cameos (Edna Everage, Christina Ricci, Barry White, Matthew Perry, Jon Bon Jovi), several storylines that would test the credulity of any of the curiously indulgent judges before whom Ally's firm practises (notably the arrival of a 10-year-old daughter that Ally didn't know she had) and one misbegotten attempt to anchor the programme to the real world (the "Nine One One" episode, an unwatchably mawkish allegory about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States). Granted that Ally McBeal was never intended to be realistic drama, but when the programme spirals entirely off into the realms of the surreal, any possibility of the sort of identification with the characters on which the programme once relied is lost. Though not without its moments, the sudden redemption of Fish, always the best-written character, is deftly handled. Season Five will be of chief interest to adherents who stuck with it through the first four and so wanted to see how it all ends; in keeping with the central character's defining motifs of solipsism and self-pity, it does so with a whimper. On the DVD: Ally McBeal has episode selector on each disc, and a scene selector within each of those. The final disc contains two short and desultory documentaries on the series billed, somewhat hopefully, as "Special Features". A French audio soundtrack is available, as are subtitles in English, French and Dutch. –-Andrew Mueller