"Actor: Robert Russell"

• Witchfinder General | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £7.94   |  Saving you £-1.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Witchfinder General is one of those cult British films that, like The Wicker Man, seemed to herald a renaissance in the fortunes of the British film industry in the late 1960s and early 70s. With only his third film, director Michael Reeves displayed an assured grasp of technique and a confident ability to mix and match genres that marked him out as a homegrown wunderkind to rival the Spielbergs and Coppolas who were just graduating from film school across the Atlantic. Sadly, this promise remained unfulfilled as Reeves died suddenly, soon after completing the film, from a lethal cocktail of prescription drugs; Witchfinder General remains his only significant work Veteran Vincent Price is wonderfully cast as the titular witchfinder, Matthew Hopkins, whose bloody and usually sexually motivated persecutions across civil war-torn East Anglia are carried out with much relish, graphic fake blood and lots of screaming. Ian Ogilvy, an old school pal of the director's, is the upright new model soldier who swears vengeance against Hopkins for the rape of his betrothed (Hilary Dwyer, who in true Hammer Horror fashion gets to take her top off and scream a lot). Lascivious depictions of burning witches and gratuitous sex aside, what draws the viewer into the film is the setting as Reeves' camera roams lovingly across the East Anglian countryside. The opening-hanging scene, for example, depends strongly on location for its effect, and Ogilvy's quest for revenge takes on a John Ford-style Western aura in the director's hands. Perhaps not quite the masterpiece some seem to think it is, Witchfinder General remains a sturdy piece of distinctively British filmmaking. On the DVD: This disc allows the viewer to select the slightly extended "Export cut" of the movie, which has a little more graphic blood than the censored UK release, although the restored sequences are of markedly inferior quality. The anamorphic picture and mono sound are decent, even if too many murky nighttime scenes and badly dubbed actors' voices betray the film's restrictively low budget. The major extra is a documentary about the life and short career of Michael Reeves, while other fill-ups include text notes from critic Kim Newman, a music video, trailer, filmographies and stills. All in all, it's a welcome restoration of a genre classic. --Mark Walker

• Diary Of A Wimpy Kid 1, 2, 3 & 4 | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £9.83   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Get ready for hours of wimpy mischief and nonstop laughs with 4 hilarious Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, based on Jeff Kinney's best-selling book series! Greg Heffley is just trying to survive his middle school years, but it won't be easy. He'll have to contend with wedgie-loving bullies, the torment of his older brother Rodrick, and his totally uncool best friend Rowley. This sidesplitting collection includes the newest adventure, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, in which the Heffley family road trip takes a wild detour thanks to Greg's latest and greatest scheme!

• Stepmom | DVD | (31/01/2011) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-3.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Although Stepmom was dismissed as a contender in the 1998 Oscar race, it's worth giving a second chance to this rather cogent, sharp-tongued look at second chances. Susan Sarandon's performance as a mum about to be replaced by her ex-husband's new girlfriend (played by Julia Roberts) has a lot of bite, and it's a shame the script opted to trivialise her plight in its final reel. Initially, the rancour that passes between divorced mum Jackie (Sarandon) and trendy fashion photographer Isabel (Roberts) rings true, aided by the sincerity of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) and the emotional plight of their children, who have the most to lose in their parents' divorce. As the drama makes clear, the children are the real victims in the agony that ensues between old and new love. Director Chris Columbus, who is adept at showing familial chaos (he directed Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) with a sanitised minimum of lingering emotional damage, actually manages to dig a trifle deeper than usual in exploring the jealousy and hurt that occur when the baton is passed between a birth mum and the younger wife who steps into her shoes. Stepmom fortunately manages to touch on that chord--showing how an ambitious woman might feel hampered by the responsibility of children just because she's fallen in love with their dad--as well as the haunting grief that it causes their birth mum. It's an issue that haunts millions of second wives everywhere, and while Roberts conveys the confusion of being taken for granted in the melee that follows, it's Sarandon who walks off with the film. She's relentless in her fury, and everyone else in the film--the generally excellent Harris included--is sideswiped. It's just a shame that Hollywood once again wimps out in the end, solving the problem by giving Sarandon a terminal illness. Instead of allowing Jackie and Isabel's relationship to unfold on something less than a high note, the movie has to quell its best thing with a false payoff because it doesn't know what to do with real life. --Paula Nechak, Amazon.com

• Blake's 7 - Series 1 | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £17.03   |  Saving you £32.96 (193.54%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Blake's 7 was the hit BBC space opera launched in the wake of Star Wars, though with a grittier sensibility and produced on a fraction of the budget. Over 13 episodes the first series introduced freedom-fighter Blake (Gareth Thomas) as he escaped from the Orwellian Federation, gathered a crew of low-life rebels, salvaged an alien starship called the Liberator, and began striking back against the forces of Supreme Commander Servalan (sultry Jacqueline Pearce). The effects were cheap, and alien planets were represented by a disused quarry or an industrial complex, but the strong characters and cynical storylines created by Doctor Who veteran Terry Nation remain involving. The perfect foil for Blake was Paul Darrow's Avon, a near psychopathic criminal mastermind who only fought to save his skin. The cowardly Vila (Michael Keating) was almost as memorable, while the female leads were Jenna (Sally Knyvette), a smuggler and pilot, and determined Auron telepath Cally (Jan Chappell). Also on board was Gan (David Jackson), inhibited from violence by a brain implant. With even the good guys being criminals, including murderers, this was a galaxy far, far away from previous screen space opera. Though undeniably dated, the show is still vintage TV SF, right from the opening three-parter "The Way Back / Spacefall / Cygnus Alpha" to the cliff-hanging shocker "Orac", which introduces the final member of the un-magnificent seven. On the DVD: Blake's 7, Series 1 presents the 13 episodes across five DVDs so as to maximise picture quality. Following the BBC's Doctor Who DVDs the 4:3 images are as strong as one could expect from a 1970s TV show shot partly on video (interiors) and 16 mm film (exteriors). Film shots have some grain and vary considerably in quality while the video material shows occasional minor tearing and flaws in the tape. Otherwise these are as good as Blake's 7 is ever going to look. The same is true of the mono sound, which is clear and undistorted. Each DVD is introduced with a CGI reincarnation of the series' famous logo and three episodes are offered with a commentary. These are "Spacefall" (Sally Knyvette, Michael Keating and producer David Maloney), "Seek-Locate-Destroy" (Keating, Jacqueline Pearce and Stephen Greif) and "Project Avalon" (Knyvette, Pearce and Greif). The chat ranges from high-school reunion playfulness, including singing the title music, to some more serious insights into making the show, to an amusing running debate as to whether Glynis Barber appears in "Project Avalon". Other extras are "2 out takes, a missing scene, 1 robot, 2 flat feet and a blooper". These are exactly what they say: an extract from Blue Peter in 1978 with Lesley Judd making a Blake's 7 bracelet; nine clip compilations introducing the main characters; a synopsis for each episode; and a trailer for the Series 2 DVDs. --Gary S Dalkin

• Erin Brockovich / Stepmom / Steel Magnolias | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Erin Brockovich (Dir. Steven Soderbergh 2000): Erin Brockovich was never trained or indeed meant to work in a lawyers office. Circumstances take this down-on-her-luck twice-divorced mother of three into a legal practice. Here she discovers some legal files that don't add up... On investigation she discovers an injustice and decides against the odds to take on the bad guys on behalf of a poor and very ill community. Stepmom (Dir. Chris Columbus 1998): Jackie (Susan Sarandon) is a divorced mother of two. Isabel (Julia Roberts) is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. It is the universal dilemma of the 'non-traditional family' they all love the children but the complex interplay between parents step-parents step-children ex-spouses and significant others is decidedly tricky. But when Jackie discovers she is ill both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest while they have the chance. Steel Magnolias (Dir. Herbert Ross 1989): A beautiful bittersweet comedy set in deep south Louisiana Steel Magnolias unites talents of America's finest actresses as six very special friends bonded together by mutual triumphs and tragedies. Despite their differences beautiful Shelby (Julia Roberts) her strong-willed mother M'Lynn (Sally Field) beauty parlour owner Truvy (Dolly Parton) elegant wealthy widow Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) sharp tongued Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine) and mousey newcomer Anelle (Daryl Hannah) enjoy a friendship that spans the boundaries of age and status. Sharing each other's strength and loyalty they face their greatest fears and highest hopes with dry wit and a self-deprecating style...

• Bedazzled | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  The original comedy classic available for the first time in over ten years. Dudley Moore is the amiable but timid Wimpy Bar cook Stanley who agrees to sell his soul if he can't 'make it' with the girl of his dreams waitress Eleanor Bron. Peter Cook (as Satan) provides him with seven wishes in exchange for his soul and luscious Raquel Welch (as Lust) is on hand to offer temptation... Moore is charming enough and some sly commentary on Christian morality is interesting however wh

• Sink the Bismarck / The Enemy Below (Double Pack) | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £14.35   |  Saving you £0.64 (4.46%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! form a double feature of semi-classic CinemaScope-era WWII naval dramas sailing from the Fox vault onto DVD for the first time. In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a US destroyer and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the Cold War of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of cooperation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story that builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale. Sink the Bismarck! is a British film dating from three years later and adopts a more documentary style in recounting the race against time to track and destroy what was in 1941 the most powerful battleship then built, the Bismarck. Shot in gleaming black and white so as to make use of genuine WWII archive footage, the film is held together by the introduction of a fictional naval officer in overall command of the operation, played excellently by Kenneth More. To add some human warmth he is given a tentative romantic subplot with a WREN played by the luminous Dana Wynter. Though initially slow to gather steam, Sink the Bismarck! finally delivers an epic, thoroughly horrifying conclusion. On the DVD: The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! come as a two-disc set with multiple language and subtitle options, including English for Hard of Hearing, but no extras other than the original trailers. These are presented at 16:9 and 2.35:1. Both are rather faded, but are fine examples of an era when watching the previews didn't guarantee a migraine. Both films are anamorphically enhanced in their original 2.35:1 CinemaScope, and, bar a little grain in some shots and the inevitably inferior archive footage, the picture quality is excellent. The Enemy Below boasts sturdy three-channel sound (left, front, right) while Sink the Bismarck! is in very well mixed stereo. --Gary S Dalkin

• Above Us The Waves | DVD | (19/06/2007) from £6.25   |  Saving you £0.74 (11.84%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Directed by Ralph Thomas, Above Us the Waves (1955) tells of a Royal Navy mission to sink the "invincible" German battleship Tirpitz, off the Norwegian coast. John Mills is calm and confident as the mission commander, with strong support from John Gregson and Donald Sinden--all treated by the German personnel as fellow gentlemen when captured. Despite stirring music from Arthur Benjamin, the action sequences are visually no more than adequate, and the film is only a partial success.--Richard Whitehouse

• Rough Air | DVD | (25/01/2010) from £6.73   |  Saving you £-1.74 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Starring Eric Roberts (The Runaway Train) and Alexandra Paul (Baywatch). A cargo door is torn open in mid-air during a routine transatlantic flight in rough weather sending the plane and its passengers plummeting to certain death. Hogan the plane's insecure co-pilot is forced to take control.

• Natural Born Killers | Blu Ray | (26/09/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dust Devil | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  He's not a serial killer. He's much worse. A shape-shifter comes from the desert in search of victims a spirit the locals call the Dust Devil. He prays on the lonely and the unloved those that have already lost everything but life itself... Wendy has broken up with her husband and wanders aimlessly in her car. She picks up a stranger and begins having misgivings about picking him up when strange things begin to occur. Meanwhile a local police officer tracks the killer. Aide

• Frank Herbert's Dune--TV series | DVD | (26/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Frank Herbert's Dune is a three-part, four-and-a-half-hour television adaptation of the author's bestselling science fiction novel, telling a more complete version of the Dune saga than David Lynch's 1984 cinema film. The novel is a massive political space-opera so filled with characters, cultures, intrigues and battles that even a production twice this length would have trouble fitting everything in. While television is good at setting a scene, it loses the novel's capacity to explain how the future works, and as with Lynch's film, Frank Herbert's Dune focuses on Paul Atreides, the young noble betrayed who becomes a rebel leader--an archetypal story reworked everywhere from Star Wars (1977) to Gladiator (2000). Top-billed William Hurt is only in the first of the three 90-minute episodes, and while he gives a commanding performance, carrying the show falls to the less charismatic Alec Newman. This version is at its strongest in the ravishing Renaissance-inspired production and costume design and gorgeous lighting of Vittorio Storaro (The Last Emperor). The TV budget special effects range from awful painted backdrops to excellent CGI spaceships and sandworms. The performances are variable, from the theatrical camp of Ian McNeice as Baron Harkonnen to the subtlety of Julie Cox's Princess Iruelan. John Harrison's direction is less visionary than Lynch's, but he tells the story more coherently and ultimately the tale's the thing. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Wagons East! | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  They came they saw they changed their minds! A group of disillusioned townsfolk living in the West renounce their settlemen and decide to return to their homes in the East. Hiring a grizzled and eccentric wagonmaster (Candy) they set off on the trail...

• BONANZA-KOMPLETTBOX - MOVIE | DVD | (24/11/2017) from £139.80   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Hitchhike To Hell | Blu Ray | (18/11/2019) from £13.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Be careful who you hitch a ride with! All roads lead to terror in Hitch Hike to Hell, the delightfully sleazy cautionary tale from cult director Irvin Berwick (Malibu High, The Monster of Piedras Blancas). Howard is a mild-mannered momma's boy whose job running deliveries for a cleaning agency affords him a lot of time out on the road. It's not until he picks up young women who've run away from home that he transforms into a twitching, homicidal maniac, hellbent on meting out punishment for their transgressions. Can the cops put a stop to Howard's demented spree before he claims yet another victim? Influenced by the depraved crimes of the likes of Co-ed Killer Edmond Kemper, Hitch Hike to Hell is a bona fide American nightmare from the vaults of legendary exploitation producer Harry Novak (The Child, Toys Are Not for Children). Special Edition Contents: Brand new 2K restoration from original film elements 1.33 and 1.78 versions of the feature High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Original uncompressed mono audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Newly-filmed appreciation by Nightmare USA author Stephen Thrower Road to Nowhere: Hitchhiking Culture Goes to Hell - brand new video essay by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas exploring the dark side of hitch-hiking in the real world and on the screen Original theatrical trailer Original press book (BD-ROM Content) Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by The Twins of Evil FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Heather Drain

• Diary of a Wimpy Kid 1-3 | DVD | (01/05/2017) from £8.99   |  Saving you £-1.00 (-12.50%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Diary of a Wimpy Kid - The adventures of a teenager who is fresh out and in elementary, where he has to learn the consequences and responsibility to survive the year. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules - Back in middle school after summer vacation, Greg Heffley and his older brother Rodrick must deal with their parents' misguided attempts to have them bond. Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days - School's out. Summer vacation is on. However, Greg may not have the best summer vacation ever. What could go wrong?

• Honey, I Blew Up The Kid | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £3.69   |  Saving you £11.30 (306.23%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When scientist Wayne Szalinski tries to perfect his new 'enlarger' ray gun he only succeeds in making his little boy a whole lot bigger!

• Rough Air | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  First officer Hogan (Roberts) is a last minute substitute in the cockpit of flight 534 where disaster strikes without warning. With the plane veering out of control and the captain unconscious Hogan must overcome his personal demons to regain control of the aircraft and save the terrified passengers as a violent storm loom ahead...

• The Enemy Below | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (27.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens star in this gripping World War II drama about an American destroyer and a German U-boat stalking each other at sea. As both men try to out-think and out-manouevre each other the chase becomes a deadly chess game in which any mistake can bring instant defeat and death. Winner of the 1957 Academy Award for Best Special Effects The Enemy Below marked the directorial debut of actor Dick Powell. In an interesting move Powell let the public deci

• Stephen King's Cat's Eye | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £14.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (6.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  What does a stray cat have in common with a radical technique to quit smoking the window ledge of a sky scraper and an evil goblin? Three of Stephen King's most imaginatively terrifying tales brought to life in this chilling trilogy of short stories...