"Actor: Robert"

• The Birthday Party | DVD | (02/07/2001) from £19.15   |  Saving you £-6.16 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Harold Pinter's first full-length stage play, The Birthday Party, was 10 years old when William (The Exorcist) Friedkin directed it for the cinema in 1968. In some ways, it was already a period-piece by then, Pinter's use of a combination of silence and excruciatingly banal dialogue to generate precipitous dramatic tension having been absorbed by contemporary theatrical mythology long since. Are the sinister McCann and Goldberg real? Or do they exist only in Stan's head? At the end, we're none the wiser. But Friedkin's claustrophobic direction, with the tormented Stan as its focus, has taken us through a master study in understated horror. The handheld camera, so fashionable in modern television drama, has rarely been used to such hypnotic effect. As Stan, Robert Shaw is mesmerising in his descent to animal-like submission. Sydney Tafler's Goldberg and Patrick Magee 's McCann make a truly terrifying double act. Cult television fans will appreciate an early appearance by Helen Fraser (these days best known as a sadistic prison warder in Bad Girls) as the easily seduced neighbour. Now that Friedkin's film is itself over 30 years old, the scent of mothballs ought to be even more pronounced. Its decrepit seaside boarding house setting and the drabness of the peripheral players are redolent of the distinctly non-swinging side of the 1960s in which it was made. But more than anything, The Birthday Party is about unspecified terror and the sort of inner demons that lurk in all of us. On the DVD: Excellent sound quality helps to make this a compellingly theatrical experience: never has the noise of tearing newspaper been more menacing. And the picture quality retains the grainy authenticity of the original print. Special features include brief backgrounders on the history of the play and Friedkin's career, and a slide show of still s from key scenes. --Piers Ford

• The Century of Warfare | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £57.79   |  Saving you £12.20 (17.40%)   |  RRP £69.99

  A world history in 26 one-hour programmes this series is the most comprehensive visual record ever assembled of the conflicts and battles which shaped the 20th century. Includes new and exclusive material from the Gulf War. 1. The Violent Century 2. The World Goes To War 3. Blood And Mud 4. War Of The Eagles 5. Battle Fleets And U-Boats 6. Aces High 7. War To End All War? 8. Enter The Dictators 9. The War Clouds Gather 10. Blitzkrieg 11. Britain Stands Alone 12. Sand An

• River of No Return | DVD | (23/07/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Recently widowed Matt Calder (Robert Mitchum) and his young son begin a new life in the breathtaking rugged Northwest wilderness where Matt is robbed and beaten by ruthless gambler Harry Weston (Rory Calhoun). When Weston's beautiful fiance (Marilyn Monroe) then decides to nurse Calder back to health, the insanely jealous Weston risks all their lives by taking them on a ride down a treacherous river...

• Iron Man 1 & 2 | Blu Ray | (25/10/2010) from £52.63   |  Saving you £-14.64 (-38.50%)   |  RRP £37.99

  Iron Man: Iron Man tells the story of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) the enigmatic heir to the Stark Enterprises fortune. A driven inventor and executive who seems to have it all Tony is haunted by his dark side. Though he commands his empire by day by night he secretly becomes Iron Man the living embodiment of decades of defense spending and innovation. Strapping on billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art armor and weaponry each night to fight crime terrorism and corporate espionage Tony begins to crack under the strain of his fractured lifestyle and must ultimately confront the one enemy he can never beat - himself. Iron Man 2: In this sensational follow-up Stark must become Iron Man once more and do battle with Whiplash (Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler) and corporate rival Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell - Moon). Scarlett Johansson (Lost In Translation) stars as sexy Russian spy Black Widow and Don Cheadle (Boogie Nights) assumes the role of Colonel James Rhodes from Terrence Howard.

• Curtain Up (2017 Remaster) | DVD | (03/04/2017) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Curtain Up is a 1952 British film directed by Ralph Smart, written by Jack Davies and Philip King. In an English provincial town, a second-rate repertory company assemble at the theatre on Monday morning to rehearse the following week's play, a melodrama titled Tarnished Gold. Harry (Robert Morley), their irascible Director, is highly critical of the play, which has been foisted on him by the owners of the Company and is unenthusiastic about its prospects. The cast, a mixture of wanabee-film stars and has-beens, are equally unenthusiastic and little progress is made. Just as matters seemingly cannot get worse, the authoress of the play, Catherine Beckwith (Rutherford), appears and insists on 'sitting at the feet' of the Director.

• The Looking Glass War | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £18.40   |  Saving you £-5.41 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In exchange for political asylum Polish defector Leiser (Jones) agrees to return behind the Iron Curtain to confirm the suspicions of the British Security Chief that East Germany is building a rocket in violation of the disarmament pact. Once in East Berlin Leiser falls in love with a beautiful young girl and the couple decide to flee the espionage experts - both East and West - to start a new life together. But they soon find themselves pawns in the brutal game where the stakes are

• Shackleton | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (42.92%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Shackleton is not a biopic of the great Anglo-Irish explorer but a dramatisation of the failed trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-16. As written and directed by Charles (Longtitude) Sturridge the production, filmed on real ice floes in Greenland, stays remarkably close to the facts, capturing the look of the surviving expedition photos of Frank Hurley (collected in the book South With Endurance) with great fidelity. Kenneth Branagh makes no attempt at an authentic accent but otherwise gives a powerful impression of a most commanding personality. When the expedition ship Endurance became locked in the Antarctic ice Shackleton vowed to bring every man home alive, and against virtually impossible odds, including a 700-mile journey in an open boat through some of the worst seas in the world, he did just that. This superlative mini-series realises the story with production values and cinematography which would not disgrace a big-budget feature (Hurley's own 1919 documentary film can be seen on video in South). Intense physical drama, strong performances and Adrian Johnston's fine score combine here to deeply moving effect, marred only a little by a rushed conclusion. With Roland Huntford, author of the definitive Shackleton biography, as production advisor, this easily stands as the benchmark for all future comparable films. --Gary S Dalkin

• True Believer | DVD | (14/05/2001) from £6.92   |  Saving you £13.07 (188.87%)   |  RRP £19.99

  True Believer is an effective mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy), that allows star James Woods to do some real acting as he conveys his character's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Eddie Dodd (Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Chinese immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives him plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Sky Riders | Blu Ray | (20/03/2017) from £18.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Action adventure directed by Douglas Hickox and starring James Coburn and Robert Culp. When a rich industrialist by the name of Bracken (Culp) finds that his wife and children have been kidnapped by terrorists, he has the police try to capture them and rescue his family. But the police fail in every attempt and Bracken's last hope lies in his wife's former husband McCabe (Coburn) who has his own plan of action and recruits a team of professional hang gliders for a daring mountain top rescue.

• Masters Of The Universe | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £24.94   |  Saving you £-8.95 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  He-Man Eternia's most powerful warrior defends the honour of the future paradise from the hideous Skeletor and his wicked ally Evil-Lyn. Skeletor has imprisoned the Sorceress of Greyskull Castle in a power-absorbing energy field. The only way to free her and stop Skeletor ruling the Kingdom lies in using the Cosmic Key. However the key has been lost on Earth through a dimensional time-warp and discovered by two Californian teenagers. He-Man must find it before Skeletor's top inter-galactic mercenaries or else nothing will save Eternia from a dark millennium...

• Gung Ho | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Marine raiders in a new outfit train for invasion in this gripping World War II action film. The bloodthirsty misfits of the 'Gung Ho' squadron become fierce fighting machines....

• Gunpowder, Treason and Plot - BBC | DVD | (26/01/2015) from £7.90   |  Saving you £12.09 (153.04%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Robert Carlyle stars as James I, who battles with the Catholic conspiracy against him and eventually foils a plot to blow up the Houses of Parliament. The Gunpowder Plot was masterminded by the influential Catholic Robert Catesby (Richard Coyle) and planned by Guy Fawkes (Michael Fassbender), who wanted to rid the nation of an oppressive Protestant monarch. Clémence Poésy plays James I's mother, Mary Queen of Scots, who spends most of her short reign locked in a battle with both her Protestant subjects and the English Queen, Elizabeth I (Catherine McCormack), before conspiring with the Earl of Bothwell (Kevin McKidd) to assassinate her miscreant husband Lord Darnley (Paul Nicholls).

• Existenz | DVD | (25/03/2002) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Director David Cronenberg's eXistenZ is a stew of corporate espionage, virtual reality gaming, and thriller elements, marinated in Cronenberg's favourite Crock-Pot juices of technology, physiology and sexual metaphor. Jennifer Jason Leigh is game designer Allegra Geller, responsible for the new state-of-the-art eXistenZ game system; along with PR newbie Ted Pikul (Jude Law), they take the beta version of the game for a test drive and are immersed in a dangerous alternate reality. The game isn't quite like PlayStation, though; it's a latexy pod made from the guts of mutant amphibians and plugs via an umbilical cord directly into the user's spinal column (through a BioPort). It powers up through the player's own nervous system and taps into the subconscious; with several players it networks their brains together. Geller and Pikul's adventures in the game reality uncover more espionage and an antigaming, proreality insurrection. The game world makes it increasingly difficult to discern between reality and the game, either through the game's perspective or the human's. More accessible than Crash, eXistenZ is a complicated sci-fi opus, often confusing, and with an ending that leaves itself wide open for a sequel. Fans of Cronenberg's work will recognize his recurring themes and will eat this up. Others will find its shallow characterisations and near-incomprehensible plot twists a little tedious. --Jerry Renshaw, Amazon.com

• The Wild Bunch - 2 Disc Special Edition | DVD | (20/02/2006) from £19.90   |  Saving you £-3.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Nine men who came too late and stayed too long! The year is 1913 just one year short of World War 1. Disguised as U.S. soldiers a gang rides into a Texas border town. Silently they enter and rob the railroad company but an ambush lies in wait. When the gang emerges the company's hired gunmen open fire. Men women and children are caught in the crossfire. The gang escape to their hideout in the desert where they find that the loot for which they fought so hard is worthless. With the railroad company hard on their heels the gang lead by Pike head for the apparent safety of the Mexican revolutionaries and representatives of the ruling Government. As a result of these separate meetings Pike and his gang are forced to re-examine the principles that had until then ruled their lives.

• Men Of Honour (Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (09/04/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A military drama starring Robert De Niro and Cuba Gooding Jr that tells the true story of Carl Bashear who combated racism to become the US Navy's first African-American deep-sea diver.

• Showgirls | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £9.27   |  Saving you £-3.28 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When Goldie Hawn recommended Elizabeth Berkley for a small role in First Wives Club, she publicly stated that Berkley deserved the opportunity to redeem herself after starring in the ridiculous Showgirls. That says it all: this sleazy, stupid movie, which mixes soft pornography with the clichés of backstage dramas, is the kind of project an aspiring actress would have to put well behind her to keep a career going (though co-star Gina Gershon certainly benefited from her, uh, exposure in the film). Berkley plays a drifter who hitches a ride to Las Vegas, becomes a lap dancer and then a performer, and discovers--gasp!--there's a whole world of sex and violence involved with these things. Gershon is probably the best element in the film, playing Berkley's bisexual rival for the big spotlight on stage. Joe Eszterhas was well overpaid for writing this howler, and director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) should have known better than to take it seriously. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Carefree | DVD | (08/05/2006) from £6.23   |  Saving you £3.76 (60.35%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A lawyer sends his girlfriend who cannot decide whether to marry him to a psychiatrist to help her increase her confidence. However she falls hopelessly in love with the charming psychiatrist who is uncertain of his best course of action... This delightful film features a superb score from Irving Berlin including the songs 'I Used To Be Colour Blind' 'The Yam' and 'The Night Is Filled With Music'.

• Out Of Africa (Special Edition) | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £11.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (59.91%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice. One downside: while we may all love Redford, he is as convincingly British as Kevin Costner is in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. --Tom Keogh

• Villa Rides | Blu Ray | (16/01/2023) from £14.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Pulled into the Mexican Revolution by his own greed, Texas gunrunner & pilot Lee Arnold joins bandit-turned-patriot Pancho Villa & his band of dedicated men in a march across Mexico battling the Colorados & stealing women's hearts as they go. But each has a nemesis among his friends: Arnold is tormented by Fierro, Villa's right-hand-man; and Villa must face possible betrayal by his own president's naiveté. Extras: Trailer Subtitles

• Peckinpah Collection | DVD | (14/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The Wild Bunch: Nine men who came too late and stayed too long! The year is 1913 just one year short of World War 1. Disguised as U.S. soldiers a gang rides into a Texas border town. Silently they enter and rob the railroad company but an ambush lies in wait. When the gang emerges the company's hired gunmen open fire. Men women and children are caught in the crossfire. The gang escape to their hideout in the desert where they find that the loot they fought so hard is