"Actor: Peter Wood"

• The Lord of the Rings -- Limited Edition Box Set | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated adaptation of The Lord of the Rings is a bold, colourful, ambitious failure. Severely truncated, this two-hour version tackles only about half the story, climaxing with the battle of Helm's Deep and leaving poor Frodo and Sam still stuck on the borders of Mordor with Gollum. Allegedly, the director ran out of money and was unable to complete the project. As far as the film does go, however, it is a generally successful attempt at rendering Tolkien's landscapes of the imagination. Bakshi's animation uses a blend of conventional drawing and rotoscoped (traced) animated movements from live-action footage. The latter is at least in part a money-saving device, but it does succeed in lending some depth and a sense of otherworldly menace to the Black Riders and hordes of Orcs: Frodo's encounter at the ford of Rivendell, for example, is one of the film's best scenes thanks to this mixture of animation techniques. Backdrops are detailed and well conceived, and all the main characters are strongly drawn. Among a good cast, John Hurt (Aragorn) and C3PO himself, Anthony Daniels (Legolas), provide sterling voice characterisation, while Peter Woodthorpe gives what is surely the definitive Gollum (he revived his portrayal a couple of years later for BBC Radio's exhaustive 13-hour dramatisation). The film's other outstanding virtue is avant-garde composer Leonard Rosenman's magnificent score in which chaotic musical fragments gradually coalesce to produce the triumphant march theme that closes the picture. None of which makes up for the incompleteness of the movie, nor the severe abridging of the story actually filmed. Add to that some oddities--such as intermittently referring to Saruman as "Aruman"--and the final verdict must be that this is a brave yet ultimately unsatisfying work, noteworthy as the first attempt at transferring Tolkien to the big screen but one whose virtues are overshadowed by incompleteness. --Mark Walker

• The King's Beard | DVD | (13/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A man who has plans to become a wealthy barber travels to the Mirrored Kingdom to seek his fortune. But none of the men in the town want a haircut for the King sports the longest beard in the world...

• Million Dollar Hotel | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A gang of unique outcasts and misfits live in a downtown Los Angeles fleapit, known locally as the

• The Man Inside (Blu-Ray) | Blu Ray | (31/12/2012) from £6.73   |  Saving you £11.26 (167.31%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Clayton, who as a child was exposed by his brutal father to violence, gang culture and ultimately murder, channels his aggression into boxing. However, when the violence of the past threatens his family, Clayton's inner darkness is unleashed.

• 100 Years Of Comedy | DVD | (01/09/2000) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  With the centennial of the invention of Motion Pictures comes a program with all the laughs that can be crammed into 100 minutes of non-stop merriment. Journey on a rip-roaring trip through the world of cinema comedy with the funniest moments in the history of Hollywood from the slapstick of the silents through the screwball comedies of the 1930s and '40s to the hi-jinks of Hollywood's most recent comedies. All the great movie comics are here from the great comic actors of the past to the laughmakers of today. Here are profiles of favorite comedy stars plus revealing looks at some of the 'forgotton' comics of the silent and talkie era. From past greats such as Laurel & Hardy The Marx Brothers and Buster Keaton through to modern day stars as Eddie Murphy Leslie Nielsen and Jim Carrey. Enjoy rare early movie comedy behind the scenes footage foreign film fun mockumentaries musical comedies and the unintentional hilarity of movies like Reefer Madness. 100 stars provide hundreds of laughs for a century's worth of a fun-filled film feast. This is one comedy kaleidoscope you'll watch again and again!

• Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  It's easy to forget that, though fronting the British war effort through most of World War Two, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in an internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period, in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy who confirms the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare, and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: It's a pity that the Southern Pictures production first screened in 1981 has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, it's worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse

• The John Thaw Tribute Collection | DVD | (11/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A tribute to John Thaw which includes: 'Inspector Morse - The Dead Of Jericho' in which Morse investigates the mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Anne Stavely. Based on the novel by Colin Dexter. 'Kavanagh QC - Nothing But The Truth' which centres on James Kavanagh who has climbed to the top of his profession as one of the leading criminal advocates in London. He takes on the defence of a student accused of raping a middle-aged housewife. 'Goodnight Mister Tom' finds To

• Prime Suspect 3 | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £6.46   |  Saving you £6.52 (187.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Chief Inspector Jane Tennison investigates the discovery of a male prostitute's charred body in the burnt-out flat of a trans-sexual...

• Contagion | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  An expert in hazardous materials is called in to investigate an explosion in a chemical laboratory. What he discovers is his worst nightmare; a substance so deadly to humans that once exposed the future of mankind is threatened...

• Deep In My Heart | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £5.23   |  Saving you £3.75 (167.41%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Given up for adoption as a baby Barbara Ann (Gloria Reuben) a child of mixed race is facing a life of confusion prejudice and isolation. Raised by a loving foster mother in a black neighbourhood she is suddenly torn from this happy existence and placed in a world with no friends no joy and no sense of family. But she survives and grows up to become the mother of five children. And it is then that Barbara Ann finds the courage to face her past to meet with the woman who gave birth to her all those years ago and to find that place in her heart called home...

• Fingerstyle Guitar - New Dimensions And Explorations - Vol. 1 | DVD | (23/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  A showcase by the greats demonstrating new explorations and dimensions: 19 tracks featuring performances from Will Ackerman Jorma Kaukonen Bert Jansch Preston Reed Woody Mann and others.

• Tomorrow People, The - The Vanishing Earth | DVD | (01/08/2002) from £5.53   |  Saving you £0.46 (8.32%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's time once again to buckle your belts and jaunt back to the 1970s as the intergalactic teenage force for good The Tomorrow People return for a third thrilling story - The Vanishing Earth. In an adventure that takes in a fairground's haunted house an alien spaceship and a trip to the seaside the Tomorrow People find themselves pitted against the terrifying Spidron an evil villain with the ability to conjure up earthquakes and volcanoes at will. Seemingly hell bent on the destruction of all humanity only the Tomorrow People stand in the way of the full force of Spidron's fury. How can the Tomorrow People defeat a menace able to inflict such catastrophic damage? Is the end of the world finally at hand?

• Robocop | UMD | (09/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

• The Santa Clause | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £12.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (54.01%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tim Allen makes an impressive screen debut in Disney's well-written holiday film, The Santa Clause. Divorced toy company executive Scott Calvin is pleased to have his son Charlie for Christmas, though the boy himself isn't happy about it. But when Santa Claus accidentally topples off the roof of the house and falls with a thud in the snow, Scott finds himself taking the merry old elf's place and earning new respect in his son's eyes. When the night ends, the reindeer take them to the North Pole, and Scott discovers that by donning the fabled red suit, he's inadvertently agreed to become the next Santa Claus. The next morning he wakes up in his own bed and thinks it's all a dream--but Charlie remembers it with crystal clarity. Scott now has to deal with his suspicious ex-wife (Wendy Crewson) and her psychiatrist boyfriend (Judge Reinhold), who both think he's playing tricks with Charlie's mind, and also with his own out-of-control body, which is putting on weight and growing a prodigious beard. The Santa Clause probably won't supplant It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street as anyone's favourite Christmas film, but it's an enjoyable, straightforward family film, anchored by the affable charisma of Allen. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Mozart - Idomeneo - Britten | DVD | (09/06/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  This DVD is part of the Britten-Pears DVD Collection. This collection features four historically and musically significant films from the BBC archives of works and performances by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears one of the greatest English tenors and Britten's long-term partner and artistic inspiration. None of these films have been available before on any home video format. This colour film recording of Mozart's Idomeneo dates from a period when Mozart's first mature masterpiece was barely known. This may indeed be the first-ever film of the opera. Conducted by Benjamin Britten using his own performing edition the opera is sung in English with Peter Pears singing Idomeneo - the only film recording with Peter Pears in the title role. The cast also includes renowned British soprano Heather Harper and a young Robert Tear. Each act begins with a spoken introduction from John Warrack revered music historian and academic.

• Deep Blue Sea / Space Cowboys / Sphere | DVD | (08/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.99

  With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc, Deep Blue Sea dares to up the ante on Jaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks? It's inevitable that Saffron Burrows should end up in her underwear like Sigourney Weaver in Alien, but even then the movie offers a credible reason for the strip-down; that Deep Blue Sea can be simultaneously ridiculous and sensible is just another one of its shlocky charms. Space Cowboys is a slice of cornball Americana that's so much fun you'll be tempted to stand up and salute. Director and costar Clint Eastwood manages to turn what might have been ludicrous into a jubilant tribute to age and experience, and Space Cowboys succeeds as two movies in one--a comedy about retired pilots given one last shot at glory and an Apollo 13-like thriller with all the requisite heroics. Space Cowboys earns its wings, once again demonstrating Eastwood's comfort with any genre he chooses. From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton comes the equally derivative and flaccid movie Sphere, in which three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement out of material that doesn't match their talents. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense, and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production delay), and as a result Sphere's look and feel is like a film that wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of time, it's undeniably disappointing. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Hard Boiled Sweets - Screen Outlaws Edition | Blu Ray | (08/04/2013) from £9.98   |  Saving you £17.00 (212.77%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Ex-con Johnny (Scot Williams, 'The Crew') is forced into pulling a heist he wants nothing to do with. Mob Boss 'Shrewd' Eddie (Paul Freeman, 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', 'Hot Fuzz') has one million in dirty cash stashed at his home, just waiting to be stolen. But what Johnny doesn't know is that seven other dangerous criminals also have plans to steal the money... Filled with twists, double-crosses and murder, Hard Boiled Sweets is a crime thriller inspired by the International Best-Selling short film, 'A Girl and a Gun'. Special Features: Exclusive Artwork and Artcards

• Peter Cushing - Twin Pack | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  One of the finest British actors of his generation Peter Cushing is best known for his charismatic performances across three decades of classic Hammer Horror productions. This special box set collection remembers Cushing at the height of his powers through two of the finest Hammer's ever made. Bride Of Dracula (Dir. Terence Fisher) (1960): On the way to her new private school a beautiful young teacher stays at the ancestral home of Baroness Meinster. Here she discovers the Baroness' shamed son imprisoned and shackled to the wall in a distant wing. She frees him unwittingly releasing the combined evil of a hundred generations of vampires. Only Dr Van Helsing (Cushing) can stop the vampires and their torrent of evil. Co-star David Peel delivers one of the most frightening portrayals of Dracula ever committed to film. Evil Of Frankenstein (Dir. Freddie Francis) (1964): Hounded from his castle for creating a monstrous living being Baron Frankenstein (Cushing) returns to continue his unholy experiments into the creation of life. With the help of a mysterious hypnotist Zoltan the creature is brought back to life. However Zoltan controls the creature and plans to use him to rob and pillage the local villages. Can Frankenstein break Zoltan's hypnotic spell or will Zoltan induce the creature to destroy its creator?

• Ulee's Gold | DVD | (30/03/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Director Victor Nunez's richly photographed Ulee's Gold drew critical acclaim for Peter Fonda's and Patricia Richardson's subtle performances--and premiered as the Festival Centrepiece in 1997's Sundance Film Festival. Vividly photographed and set amid southern Florida's tupelo swamps, the film's narrative hinges on the evolution of a more-than-platonic connection between neighbours Ulysses, "Ulee" for short (Fonda), and Connie (Richardson). Best-known for her role on TV's Home Improvement, Richardson makes a satisfying foray into film with this appropriately smaller role where she manages to hatch out of potential typecasting. Fonda is independent, stubborn, and reserved Ulee anchors the narrative. He is a beekeeper whose struggling small business is all that keeps him focused in the wake of his wife Penelope's death, his daughter-in-law Helen's (Christine Dunford) drug addiction, and the de facto single-parent obligations he takes on to his adolescent granddaughters (notice the Homeric references). Soon the plot twists, however, in the sociopathy of Eddie and Ferris, friends of Ulee's jailed son--a sociopathy that is also the impetus for the family to confront its dysfunction and for Connie and Ulee to see more in each other than mere neighbourliness. Thankfully, Nunez foregoes the bathos of a Hollywood ending and leaves us satisfied on one hand with Helen's healing and Eddie's justice but uncertain, though hopeful, about Ulee's next step. --Erik Macki, Amazon.com

• That Kind of Girl | Blu Ray | (25/01/2010) from £20.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (14.51%)   |  RRP £23.99

  In 1960s London a beautiful continental au pair finds herself wrestling with the affections of an earnest peace-protestor a dashing young toff and a roguish older man. But fun and freedom turn to shame and despair when she finds that her naivety has put her lovers and their partners - including the well-meaning Janet (played by Big Zapper's Linda Marlowe in her first role) - at risk. Stylishly shot in crisp black and white and set against a backdrop of smoky jazz clubs 'Ban the Bomb' marches and evocative London locations this finely-tuned cautionary tale was the directorial debut of Gerry O'Hara (All the Right Noises The Brute) and is presented in a new high-definition transfer.