"Actor: Val Avery"

• Papillon | DVD | (04/12/2000) from £5.39   |  Saving you £7.60 (141.00%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Franklin J Schaffner's Papillon is quite possibly the definitive prison escape drama. Not as thrilling as The Great Escape, nor as emotionally cathartic as The Shawshank Redemption, its unflinching emphasis on the barbarism of "civilised" societies is nevertheless unparalleled. Significantly, the only characters to display any real kindness in this film are the social outcasts: the lepers and native Indians; everyone else has been corrupted and debased by the true villain, the penal system itself. Based on Henri Charrière' s heavily fictionalised "autobiography", the film's timeless themes of man's insatiable desire for freedom and the indomitability of the human spirit are thankfully not dependent for their impact on the source material's veracity. Dalton Trumbo's liberal-minded screenplay echoes the themes of his earlier script for Spartacus, and Schaffner's innate gift for epic cinema (this was made just two years after his great war biography Patton) is fully equal to the task of realising it on screen. The director's painterly eye for widescreen composition and his careful pacing impart a gravitas to proceedings even during the film's most squalid depictions of brutality, of which there are many emphasising the cheapness of human life among the convicts and their equally criminal prison guards in the penal colony of French Guiana. Steve McQueen and Dustin Hoffman form a remarkable screen pairing, with Hoffman outstanding as the pusillanimous Dega. McQueen magnificently overcomes his tough-guy persona in the extraordinary solitary confinement sequences as he is gradually reduced to a shambling, cockroach-eating wreck. Longtime collaborator Jerry Goldsmith, who had previously scored Schaffner's Planet of the Apes and Patton, attained yet another career high with his music. On the DVD: The anamorphic widescreen print of the original Panavision 2. 35:1 ratio looks fine without being as stunning as some more modern prints; the Dolby 5.1 audio does however do great service to Jerry Goldsmith's score, which can also be selected separately from the Audio Setup menu as an isolated track (note that there's no music at all in the first 20 minutes of the film). The 12-minute "Magnificent Rebel" featurette was made at the time of the film's release , and includes some fascinating footage of Henri Charrière touring the prison se t, reminiscing about his experiences and pontificating ("Society does not want free men, society wants conditioned men"). --Mark Walker

• The Magnificent Seven Collection | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Magnificent Seven effortlessly turn samurai into cowboys (the same trick worked more than once: Kurosawa'sYojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars) and Akira Kurosawa's rousing Seven Samuri was a natural for an American remake through this movie--after all, the codes and conventions of ancient Japan and the Wild West (at least the mythical movie West) are not so very far apart. The beleaguered denizens of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by banditos, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders once and for all. The gunmen are cool and capable, with most of the actors playing them just on the cusp of 60s stardom: Steve McQueen, JamesCoburn, Charles Bronson, Robert Vaughn. The man who brings these warriors together is Yul Brynner, the baddest bald man in the West. There's nothing especially stylish about the approach of veteran director John Sturges (The Great Escape), but the storytelling is clear and strong, and the charisma of the young guns fairly flies off the screen. If that isn't enough to awaken the 12-year-old kid inside anyone, the unforgettable Elmer Bernstein music will do it: bum-bum-ba-bum, bum-ba-bum-ba-bum... followed by three inferior sequels, Return of the Seven, Guns of the Magnificent Seven, and The Magnificent Seven Ride!--Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Hud | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £8.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (77.86%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Paul Newman is Hud a man at odds with his father tradition and himself. Hud's only interests are fighting drinking hot-rodding his Cadillac and womanising. Melvyn Douglas is the father an old-line cattle rancher and Patricia Neal is the understanding and appealing housekeeper. Academy Awards went to Patricia Neal Melvyn Douglas and James Wong Howe's brilliant cinematography.

• The Wanderers | DVD | (26/07/2004) from £66.24   |  Saving you £-56.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  New York 1963: f you're young you belong to a gang and if you're Italian you belong to 'The Wanderers'. A collection of kids caught up in love friendship and pubescent fumbles. Interspersed in their lives are bitter clashes with rival gangs - none more feared than the Baldies and their heavyweight leader Terror...

• Last Train From Gun Hill | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £12.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (23.09%)   |  RRP £15.99

  'Last Train From Gun Hill' is the ultimate revenge tale set in an unlawful Old West... The Marshal's trail to find his wife's murderer leads him to the town of Gun Hill where he discovers the son of an old ally is responsible for the crime. A dangerous game of cat-and-mouse unfolds as the Marshall is trapped in a race against time to avenge his wife's death before he can catch the last train out of town...

• The Anderson Tapes | DVD | (06/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An early example of the techno-thriller, The Anderson Tapes--sharply directed by Sidney Lumet from the novel by Lawrence Sanders--follows just-out-of-stir Duke Anderson (a balding Sean Connery) as he plots the heist of an entire New York apartment building, enlisting a crew that includes Martin Balsam as a vintage 1971 gay stereotype and a very young Christopher Walken in perhaps the first of his jittery crook roles. The gimmick is that Anderson has been out of circulation so long that he doesn't realise his mafia backers are only supporting him because they feel nostalgic for the days before they were boring businessmen and that the whole setup is monitored by a criss-crossing selection of government and private agencies who don't care enough to thwart the robbery, which instead becomes unglued thanks to a gutsy young radio ham. With a cool Quincy Jones score, very tight editing, a lot of spot-on cameo performances from the likes of Ralph Meeker as a patient cop, this hasn't dated a bit: it's wry without being jokey and suspenseful without undue contrivance. On the DVD The Anderson Tapes offers a nice anamorphic transfer, a few trailers and various foreign language options. --Kim Newman

• Nevada Smith | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This classic Western adapted from the novel by Harold Robbins and starring STEVE MCQUEEN in the title role is an edgy and gripping story of revenge that interweaves a number of different stories together in one mans quest to track down the killers of his parents. NEVADA SMITH sees a return to form for McQueen in a genre that he excelled in and with a supporting cast including Karl Malden Martin Landau and Arthur Kennedy the film sparkles with great performances and breathtaking s

• Black Caesar | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Fred Williamson is imposing tough and unflappable as a street kid who muscles his way into the big-time mob racket in this super-slick drama from writer/director Larry Cohen which became a smash hit of the Blaxploitaion genre and spawned a successful sequel (Hell Up In Harlem). Tommy Gibbs (Williamson) has always had it tough. Growing up on the streets without a father and trying to make his mother proud Tommy resorts to running errands for The Man. But when a crooked cop beats h

• The Pope Of Greenwich Village | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Set among the Italian-American community of Manhattan and adapted by Vincent Patrick from his own novel, 1984's The Pope of Greenwich Village just about gets by on its charm. It stars Mickey Rourke as Charlie, a small-time grafter who is on the point of making his big move and breakaway. Unfortunately, the pull of family ties means that he's hampered by his cousin Paulie (Eric Roberts), an ambitious and excitable idiot who manages to cock up absolutely everything he turns his hand to, bringing down Charlie with him every time. After he gets the pair of them sacked from a restaurant, Paulie helps set up a safecracking deal with older hand Kenneth MacMillan. Trouble is, they’re robbing the local mafia boss. Rourke and Roberts' relationship is modelled closely on that of Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro in Scorcese's Mean Streets, only without quite the same harrowing consequences. This being the 1980s there's much De Niro-esque methodology, which generally consists of repeating lines at least twice ("Fix your tie! Fix your tie!"). The element of improv sees the film veer off course occasionally, while Darryl Hannah is her usual oddly semi-detached self in the role of Rourke's girlfriend. However, it's Roberts' performance as the exasperating and energetic Paulie which carries the film, with solid support from numerous Goodfellas and Sopranos regulars. On the DVD: The Pope of Greenwich Village arrives on disc in a decent enough but hardly pristine print. The sole extra is the original trailer, which means the only real benefit of acquiring this on DVD is storage convenience. --David Stubbs

• Last Train From Gun Hill | Blu Ray | (07/01/2022) from £30.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Kirk Douglas and Anthony Quinn headline this suspenseful western which follows U.S. Marshal Matt Morgan (Douglas) on the trail of his wife's killer. Adding a dark twist to the tale-the suspect's father is Morgan's long-time friend, cattle baron Craig Beldon (Quinn). Morgan is determined to capture the killer and take him away by the 9:00 train, against all odds. Directed by John Sturges (Gunfight at the O.K. Corral), one of the greatest filmmakers of the Western genre.

• Continental Divide | DVD | (05/12/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When they met they heard bells. And that was just round one. Ernie Souchak (John Belushi) is a celebrated Chicago Sun-Times columnist famous for his blistering political exposes. While his controversial reporting has earned him the respect of his editor Howard McDermott (Allen Goorwitz) and the admiration of a legion of fans it also earns him a trip to the hospital following a run-in with some disgruntled thugs. Suggesting he leave the city for a while McDermott sends Ern

• Courage | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £2.58   |  Saving you £1.41 (54.65%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Marianna's son's life is being ravaged by his dependency on heroin and cocaine. Her husband is angry skeptical and confused. With her back to the wall Marianna vows to take desperate measures to save her crumbling home. Aided by a hotshot drug agent she fights her way through a life-threatening battle in the New York City underworld. Based on a true story.

• Choices | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• The Magnificent Seven | DVD | (20/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Yul Brynner stars as one of seven master gunmen who aid the helpless farmers of an isolated village pitted against an army of marauding bandits in this rousing action tale based on Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai. Released in 1960 John Sturges' masterpiece garnered an Oscar nomination for Elmer Bernstein (for Best Score) and launched the film careers of Steve McQueen Charles Bronson Robert Vaughn and James Coburn.

• Minnie & Moskowitz - (Mr Bongo Films) (1971) | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  'Minnie and Moskowitz' is a romantic comedy by pioneering Director, John Cassavetes, starring Gena Rowlands as Minnie and Seymour Cassel as Seymour Moskowitz. The story starts with Minnie, a divorced museum curator who goes on a blind date with Zelmo Swift, (Val Avery) who happens to be married. But later she rejects the date which results in a big argument between the two. Car park attendant, Seymour manages to defuse the situation but surprisingly falls in love with Minni upon first sight despite their differences.

• Requiem For Heavyweight | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £8.08   |  Saving you £-2.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  They beat him... they broke him... they betrayed him... but they could not crush the towering dignity of a real fighter! Knockout performances by Anthony Quinn Jackie Gleason Mickey Rooney and Julie Harris highlight this hard-hitting drama of corruption in the fight game. After 17 years in the ring it's the final bell for Mountain Rivera (Quinn). A fight doctor confirms one more punch for the washed-up heavyweight and he could become permanently disabled. Reluctantly but

• Heroes | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £4.03   |  Saving you £-1.04 (-34.80%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Henry Winkler plays Jack Dunne a troubled Vietnam veteran who has a history of mental problems. He fools his doctor and escapes from the hospital with the intention of starting a worm farm with his fellow veterans. When Jack hops aboard a bus he meets Carol Bell (Sally Field) who is running away from her impending wedding day. While he initially irritates her she soon finds it hard to refuse to invitation to help out on the farm when his plans start to go awry.

• Love And Bullets | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A tough American Detective is sent to the Swiss Alps to bring back the girlfriend of a powerful gangster so that she can testify against him. The Crooks will do anything they can to stop her..