"Actor: William Jones"

• The Towering Inferno | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Disaster movies used to work because there was little certainty as to who would survive. Not so in this film, really an amalgam of two original stories, about a group of well-to-do celebrants at the top floor of a skyscraper. Cheapo electrical wiring and bad construction management cause an enormous blaze at the lower floors, steadily rising to consume the revellers. Newman's an architect, McQueen a firefighter and Fred Astaire a kind old gentleman, for which he was Oscar-nominated. OJ Simpson plays a security guard who rescues a cat. Now that's a disaster. -- Keith Simanton, Amazon.com

• Edward Scissorhands | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £5.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (50.00%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavour of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-coloured suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighbourhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's child-like vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer On the DVD: Tim Burton is famed for his visual style not his ability as a raconteur, so it's no surprise to find that his directorial commentary is a little sparse. When he does open up it is to confirm that Edward Scissorhands remains his most personal and deeply felt project. The second audio commentary is by composer and regular Burton collaborator Danny Elfman, whose enchanting, balletic score gets an isolated music track all to itself with his remarks in-between cues. Again, for Elfman this movie remains one of his most cherished works, and it is a real musical treat to hear the entire score uninterrupted by dialogue and sound effects but illuminated by Elfman's lucid interstitial remarks. Also on the disc are some brief interview clips, a "making of" featurette and a gallery of conceptual artwork. The anamorphic widescreen print looks simply gorgeous. --Mark Walker

• Sanditon: Season 2 | DVD | (19/09/2022) from £11.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All six episodes from the second series of the period drama based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel. In this series, Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) returns to Sanditon eight months after her original visit, this time accompanied by her sister Alison (Rosie Graham). A regiment of soldiers arrive in town which brings both romantic and business opportunities, and artist Charles Lockhart (Alexander Vlahos) tries to woo Georgiana (Crystal Clarke). Meanwhile Charlotte starts a new job as a governess for Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) and struggles to gain the respect of his daughter and niece.

• SATANIC RITES of DRACULA, THE (BD/ S/ H) | Blu Ray | (14/10/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  1970s Hammer horror sequel starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing. Count Dracula (Lee)'s arch enemy Professor Van Helsing (Cushing) is investigating a Black Magic circle when he stumbles across the Count's plan to unleash a deadly viral plague on mankind.

• The Village | DVD | (31/01/2005) from £6.24   |  Saving you £11.75 (188.30%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The man behind "The Sixth Sense" and "Signs" returns with a tale about an isolated village whose inhabitants live with the frightening knowledge that evil and foreboding creatures live in the surrounding woods.

• Lassie | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £8.42   |  Saving you £1.57 (18.65%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Best Friends Are Forever... The dog everyone loves now leaps into the '90s in this all-new exciting updated version of Lassie! Determined to start a new life in the country the Turner family - Dad Step-mom little Jennifer and teenager Matt - leaves the city for the wilds of Virginia. The move creates problems for everyone especially Matt who feels lost and alone in his new surroundings. Fortunately the Turners are helped by a homeless collie who becomes part of their liv

• The Wild Bunch | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £11.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Here's how director Sam Peckinpah described his motivation behind The Wild Bunch at the time of the film's 1969 release: "I was trying to tell a simple story about bad men in changing times. The Wild Bunch is simply what happens when killers go to Mexico. The strange thing is you feel a great sense of loss when these killers reach the end of the line." All of these statements are true, but they don't begin to cover the impact that Peckinpah's film had on the evolution of American movies. Now the film is most widely recognized as a milestone event in the escalation of screen violence, but that's a label of limited perspective. Of course, Peckinpah's bloody climactic gunfight became a masterfully directed, photographed, and edited ballet of graphic violence that transcended the conventional Western and moved into a slow-motion realm of pure cinematic intensity. But the film--surely one of the greatest Westerns ever made--is also a richly thematic tale of, as Peckinpah said, "bad men in changing times." The year is 1913 and the fading band of thieves known as the Wild Bunch (led by William Holden as Pike) decide to pull one last job before retirement. But an ambush foils their plans, and Peckinpah's film becomes an epic yet intimate tale of betrayed loyalties, tenacious rivalry, and the bunch's dogged determination to maintain their fading code of honor among thieves. The 144-minute director's cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah's films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer's understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane. --Jeff Shannon

• The Phantom | Blu Ray | (20/02/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  BILLY ZANE stars as THE PHANTOM in this thrill-a minute actioner based on one of the most successful comic series of all time! The story begins as an expedition lands on the island of Bengalla, seeking the legendary skulls of Touganda. Believed to harness an energy force of immeasurable power, the skulls could spell disaster for mankind. And that's exactly what ruthless tycoon Xander Drax (TREAT WILLIAMS) has in mind unless one man can save it. Now evil has met its match and great movie adventure has a new name THE PHANTOM!

• Black Lightning - Season 1 | Blu Ray | (28/01/2019) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

• Black Lightning - Season 1 | DVD | (28/01/2019) from £11.93   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.

• Archive | Blu Ray | (12/07/2021) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  2038: George Almore is working on a true human-equivalent AI. His latest prototype is almost ready, an android version of his wife who died in a car crash. Is this romantic or something much more sinister? George is playing God, creating a woman not from a rib but from electrical components, This sensitive phase is also the riskiest. Especially as he has a goal that must be hidden at all costs. The plot certainly has elements of Bride of Frankenstein as Theo James's George seeks to bring his wife back from the dead. Transferring her consciousness from an Archive unit to a A.I. humanoid.

• Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £5.28   |  Saving you £14.71 (278.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" is the 2009 film of the Ian Dury story starring Andy Serkis in the role of the punk legend.

• The Perfect Storm | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.85   |  Saving you £8.14 (139.15%)   |  RRP £13.99

  George Clooney & Mark Wahlberg star in this spectacular tale of a fishing boat caught at sea during the worse storm ever recorded.

• Deadwood The Movie | DVD | (07/10/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  1876, the Black Hills of South Dakota. In an age of plunder and greed, the richest gold strike in American History draws a throng ofrestless misfits to an outlaw settlement where everything and everyone has a price. Welcome to Deadwood ... a hell of a place to make your fortune.Timothy Olyphant, Ian McShane, Molly Parker and Keith Carradine star in Deadwood.

• Black Lightning S2 | DVD | (30/12/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) is a man with many faces. A former Olympic athlete, respected educator and a father of two, he's also Black Lightning, superpowered protector of Freeland with the ability to sense and harness electricity. Jefferson is not the only one with powers and multiple faces. His oldest daughter, Anissa Pierce (Nafessa Williams) is a medical student, part-time teacher and dedicated social activist. She is also the super hero known as Thunder who possesses the ability to drastically increase her density, giving her invulnerability and super strength for as long as she can hold her breath. Finally, Jefferson's youngest daughter, Jennifer Pierce (McClain) is a fiery teen who inherited her father's athletic gifts but not his desire to be an athlete. Jennifer also inherited super powers. Her body generates pure electrical energy and she possesses the potential to be more powerful than Anissa or Jefferson. Lynn Stewart (Adams) is Jefferson's ex-wife but they are still very much in love in addition to sharing the load as co-parents. She's also an accomplished medical researcher who is fast becoming an expert in metahuman medicine. Together, the Pierce family faces the challenges of the declined urban community that is the fictional city of Freeland, including corrupt officials and a menacing gang that calls itself The 100. Worse, Tobias Whale (Jones) an infamous gangster plagues this city and increasingly, metahumans with superpowers will prey upon the city, too. Fortunately, the family has allies in their fight, Jefferson's surrogate father and a former covert superspy, Peter Gambi (Remar) as well as Jefferson's friend and neighbor, the committed and scrupulously honest Deputy Police Chief Henderson (Gupton).

• Later With Jools Holland - Later - Giants | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £20.23   |  Saving you £-0.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Later... with Jools Holland--Giants is a collection of classic live performances from a decade of the late-night BBC music show. Everyone will have their favourites and, no doubt, differing opinions on what constitutes a musical "giant". What is indisputable here is the sheer volume and variety of artists and styles on offer. The 32 performers range from Pete Towshend to Blondie; Paul Weller to Willie Nelson; Leonard Cohen to Jeff Beck; Page and Plant to Ronnie Spector and the Divine Comedy. The acts vary in quality--Brian Ferry's posturing, staccato rendition of "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?" and Georgie Fame's futile, asthmatic efforts to keep up with the beat on "Yeh! Yeh!" are notable low points--but thankfully the few weaker moments are more than compensated for by tour de force performances from the likes of Al Green, REM, Tony Bennett, Dusty Springfield and George Benson. Your enjoyment will obviously depend on a desire to see these greats play, but where else are you going to get both Robbie Williams belting out an impromptu performance of "Suspicious Minds" and Solomon Burke singing "Cry to Me" from an enormous golden throne? On the DVD: Later... with Jools Holland--Giants comes with a desirable selection of interviews with 10 of the featured performers. Sadly, they are tantalisingly short--never longer than three minutes, some little more than a minute--and never stretch beyond Holland's stock questions or brief, if entertaining, anecdotes. Also included are: a "playlist" feature, which allows you to select six of your favourite tracks and play them in an order of your choice, normal track selection, subtitles and a credit list. --Paul Philpott

• Purple Rain | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £11.80 (164.12%)   |  RRP £18.99

  While "rock musical" remains a phrase used by sadistic parents to give their offspring nightmares the genre does occasionally throw up the odd gem, Purple Rain being perhaps the shiniest example. Given the theatricality of Prince's stage shows, it was only a matter of time before the diminutive pop potentate found himself a big-screen vehicle but few could have predicted that Purple Rain would become nothing less than a cultural phenomenon. The story, co-written by one-time Starsky & Hutch scripter William Blinn, may be a somewhat hackneyed tale with His Purpleness overcoming a troubled background and musical rival Morris Day to achieve his dreams of rock stardom. However, the cast, which also includes Prince protegée Appollonia, rises above the clichés to hand in a set of performances which, while never likely to trouble the Oscars, prove that all concerned can at least play a rough approximation of themselves with minimal difficulty. What really helped push the film's box-office receipts through the roof, however, was its soundtrack featuring a clutch of hit singles--notably "When Doves Cry"--and which cemented our pint-sized hero's position as one of the globe's premiere performing artists. Sadly, subsequent attempts to re-bottle this particular brand of lightning with Under a Cherry Moon and Graffiti Moon would prove substantially less successful but Purple Rain still looks--and, more importantly sounds--rarely less than funktastic. --Clark Collis

• Love Me Tender | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £5.82   |  Saving you £7.17 (123.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In his film debut singing idol Elvis Presley stars in this action-filled romance set in the aftermath of the Civil War. After hearing his older brother (Richard Egan) has been killed in combat a young Texas farmer (Presley) marries the man's sweetheart (Debra Paget). But his brother returns sparking a bitter sibling rivalry and tragic confrontations with Union soldiers... Featuring four Presley hits on the film's soundtrack including the title track.

• Stargate SG-1: Season 4 | DVD | (31/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  It wasn't until the beginning of Stargate SG-1's fourth season that fans knew to take the Replicator threat seriously. The spidery nasties had only seemed like one of many new enemies introduced in previous years. But when the one seemingly omnipotent backbone of the galaxy was asking Earth for help, clearly we were in real trouble! In fact, the team's list of enemies expanded and got far more complicated this year. Proving without a shadow of a doubt that this is science fiction, the Russians reveal they have their own Stargate program and ask the Americans for help. This twist allows for exploration of all the political machinations occurring behind the scenes of the SG-C, all of which appear to stem from the embittered Senator Kinsey (Ronny Cox). There were quite a few Earth-based stories in the year, but not all the new enemies were originally local. Willie Garson comically guest-starred as Martin, a geekily suspicious guy with too much knowledge of the Stargate. More sinister was an old flame of Daniel's turning into something far more painful than an old wound (thanks to an ancient Egyptian curse). Thankfully, the writers hadn't forgotten the importance of one-off storylines too. In "Upgrades" the team learns a lesson in abuse of power. In "The Other Side" (featuring DS9's Rene Auberjonois) they learn about blind trust. In "Scorched Earth" a dangerous claim for a planet's ownership means they learn to value Daniel's contribution to the group dynamic. If only this last lesson were learned better, season 5 might not have ended up as muddled as it did. --Paul Tonks

• Rolling Thunder | Blu Ray | (23/05/2022) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When Major Charles Rane and his friend Johnny Vohden returns home to San Antonio after eight years of physical and mental torture in a Vietnam POW camp they are treated as a heroes. But Rane cannot know his experiences are nothing compared to the ordeal he must still face. A gang of thugs invade his home to steal the silver coins he received for his service and mangle his hand leaving him and his family for dead. Whilst recovering in hospital Rane becomes more distant and cold. Aided by his loyal friend and now wielding a hook for a hand he sets out on a mission of vengeance with the ice cold determination of a man who has suffered too much and has nothing else to live for but revenge.