Comedy

• The IT Crowd - Complete Series 1-4 Box Set | DVD | (27/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Written by Graham Linehan (Father Ted Black Books) and produced by Ash Atalla (The Office) The IT Crowd centres on the worlds of Roy Moss and Jen who make up the IT department of Reynholm Industries. While their social betters work upstairs in fantastic surroundings the IT dept. work in a horrible dark basement underneath it all...

• Miss Congeniality | DVD | (12/11/2001) from £4.49   |  Saving you £14.50 (322.94%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Sandra Bullock is an FBI agent who goes undercover as Miss New Jersey at a national beauty pageant after a terrorist group threatens to bomb the event.

• Thin Blue Line, The - The Complete Thin Blue Line | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £17.96   |  Saving you £-7.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Set in a fictitious suburb rather like, say, Pinner (only more so), The Thin Blue Line is the wickedly funny story of a rather down-at-heel police station headed by Inspector Raymond Fowler (Rowan Atkinson), a pompous, repressed but well-intentioned anachronism who wants to do the right thing but who is constantly hampered by his own shortcomings, not to mention his blundering CID colleagues. Atkinson expertly balances his character's inflated sense of self-importance with the insight born of old-school police values, for which his galumphing, shiny-suited CID counterpart, DI Grim (David Haig) has no time at all. Strongest among the supporting cast is Sgt Pauline Dawkins (Serena Evans), who also happens to be Fowler's live-in lover--a moral dilemma that his traditional values won't allow him to resolve. He salves his conscience by avoiding sex with her whenever possible, an amusing subplot enhanced by Evans's brilliant performance--she positively vibrates with contained, ladylike lust in a manner only equalled by Penelope Keith in the classic sitcom To the Manor Born. Scripted by Ben Elton, this series manages to satirise provincialism, institutionalised pig-headedness and dated moral values in one fell swoop, while also being chock-full of quick-fire, Blackadder-esque dialogue. --Roger Thomas

• The Money Pit | DVD | (06/09/2010) from £6.75   |  Saving you £3.24 (48.00%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Steven Spielberg produced this underwhelming 1986 effort at a slapstick spin on Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House. The pre-Oscar Tom Hanks stars with Shelley Long as a married couple whose efforts to finish construction on their home are sabotaged by costly and sporadically funny accidents. The unfinished domicile becomes a metaphor for their troubled relationship, as evidenced by the attraction of Long's character to a madman violinist (Alexander Godunov). Hanks is the only reason at this point to check this film out. Richard Benjamin (My Favorite Year) directs but with no flair or distinction. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Acorn Antiques | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £5.39   |  Saving you £10.60 (196.66%)   |  RRP £15.99

  All the sketches from the classic spoof soap! Thrill to the heartwarming exploits of these antique-loving scallywags as they ply their skilled (or perhaps not so skilled) trade in that tiny (and yet at times not so tiny) shop on the outskirts of Manchesterford. All your favourite episodes are here all the rascally yet therapeutic shenanigans that showered fame fortune and glittering prizes!

• Drop Dead Gorgeous | DVD | (16/07/2007) from £5.38   |  Saving you £0.61 (11.34%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Drop Dead Gorgeous probes the heart of a small Minnesota town where a teen beauty pageant has unleashed a fury of very unladylike behavior.

• 24 Hour Party People (Special Edition) | Blu Ray | (03/06/2019) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  New to Blu-Ray: the British cult pop history movie released for the first time on BD, complete with a massive 4.5 hours of bonus material! A witty and compelling portrait of the 80's music scene, 24HRPP is viewed through the eyes of Tony Wilson: founder of the now world-famous Factory Records & the Hacienda nightclub. Starring Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge, Philomena) and featuring Peter Kay, Rob Brydon, Simon Pegg, John Simm, John Thomson, Ralf Little & Shirley Henderson.

• Dave | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A heart-warming story of mistaken identity and idealism, director Ivan Reitman (Ghostbusters) takes on the political establishment in this fresh, funny comedy. Kevin Kline (Sophie's Choice, A Fish Called Wanda) plays Dave Kovic, a sweet man with a big heart running an employment agency. Dave happens to be a dead ringer for the current president of the United States and he hires himself out as an impersonator for parties and mall openings. When the real president has a stroke while in bed with an aide, his ambitious chief of staff (Frank Langella) decides to hold onto the White House by appealing to Dave's sense of patriotism and having him pose as the president. Soon, however, Dave is running the country in a way contrary to what the chief of staff would like, even as he finds himself falling in love with the unsuspecting first lady (Sigourney Weaver). The movie's unbridled optimism is its best asset and it makes this a pleasant comedy worth seeing. --Robert Lane

• Tootsie | Blu Ray | (18/04/2016) from £17.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (55.59%)   |  RRP £27.99

  Tootsie inevitably looks dated in some respects now, but it's still fabulous in others--the sexual politics look distinctly faded in their sniggering approach to sexual ambiguities, while the sardonic portrayal of a showbiz that loathes perfectionism is still both timely and hysterically funny. Dustin Hoffman's portrayal of Michael Dorsey is a memorable self-caricature--the man is so obsessed with the craft of acting that he refuses to sit down when playing a tomato in a commercial, and so producers run away rather than work with him. By playing Dorothy Michaels playing her soap character, Dorsey gives himself the freedom to be a bad and popular actor. He is so busy with the surface of being a woman--the voice, the hair, the frocks--and with all the bad faith of his and Dorothy's emotional lives, that he learns to relax into the pleasure of performance. This aspect of the film is far more interesting, ironic and funny than the corny New Man moralising about sexual roles that goes with it. Jessica Lange got, and earned, an Oscar for her sensitive straight woman performance as the colleague Michael falls for, and Bill Murray, Teri Garr, Geena Davis (momentarily) and Charles Durning all turn in reliable supporting roles. Sydney Pollack directs efficiently rather than inspiredly--oddly, he earns almost more credit for his well-observed performance as Michael's world-weary agent. On the DVD: The DVD is presented in crisp Dolby Digital sound and with the original theatrical visual ratio of 2.35:1; enhanced for 16:9 widescreen televisions. It is dubbed into French, German, Italian and Spanish and has subtitles in most European languages as well as Arabic, Hindi and Hebrew. The only special features are the theatrical trailer and filmographies for the leading performers and director. --Roz Kaveney

• Ghosts: Series 5 | DVD | (08/01/2024) from £11.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• 27 Dresses | DVD | (28/07/2008) from £3.31   |  Saving you £17.94 (875.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After serving as a bridesmaid 27 times, a young woman (Heigl) wrestles with the idea of standing by her sister's side as her sibling marries the man she's secretly in love with.

• Bridget Jones's Baby (Blu-ray + UV Copy) | Blu Ray | (30/01/2017) from £8.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Featuring a blousy, winningly inept size-12 heroine, Bridget Jones's Diary is a fetching adaptation of Helen Fielding's runaway bestseller, grittier than Ally McBeal but sweeter than Sex and the City. The normally sylphlike Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty, Me, Myself and Irene) wolfed pasta to gain poundage to play "singleton" Bridget, a London-based publicist who divides her free time between binge eating in front of the TV, downing Chardonnay with her friends and updating the diary in which she records her negligible weight fluctuations and romantic misadventures of the year. Things start off badly at Christmas when her mother tries to set her up with seemingly standoffish lawyer Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), whom Bridget accidentally overhears "dissing" her. Instead she embarks on a disastrous liaison with her raffish boss, Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant, infinitely more likable when he's playing a baddie instead of his patented tongue-tied fops). Eventually, Bridget comes to wonder if she's let her pride prejudice her against the surprisingly attractive Mr Darcy.If the plot sounds familiar, that's because Fielding's novel was itself a retelling of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, whose romantic male lead is Mr Darcy. An extra ironic poke in the ribs is added by the casting of Firth, who played Austen's haughty hero in the acclaimed BBC adaptation of Austen's novel. First-time director Sharon Maguire directs with confident comic zest, while Zellweger twinkles charmingly, fearlessly baring her cellulite and pulling off a spot-on English accent. Like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill (both of which were written by this film's co-screenwriter, Richard Curtis), Bridget Jones's stock-in-trade is a very English self-deprecating sense of humour, a mild suspicion of Americans (especially if they're thin and successful) and a subtly expressed analysis of thirtysomething fears about growing up and becoming a "smug married". The whole is, as Bridget would say, v. good. --Leslie Felperin

• Wayne's World | DVD | (11/12/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.94%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Thanks to Mike Myers' wonderfully rude, lowbrow humour and his full-bodied understanding of who his character is, Wayne's World proved to be that rare thing: a successful transition of a Saturday Night Live sketch to the big screen. Wayne Campbell (Myers) and his nerdy pal Garth (Dana Carvey) are teens who live at home and have their own low-rent cable-access show in Aurora, Illinios, in which they celebrate their favourite female film stars and heavy-metal bands. When a Chicago TV station smells a potential youth-audience ratings hit, the station's weasely executive (Rob Lowe) tries to co-opt the show--and steal Wayne's new rock 'n' roll girlfriend (Tia Carrere) at the same time. Like Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure before it (and the later Detroit Rock City), this is a film that affectionately parodies and celebrates slacker teenage culture. It's also filled with all kinds of knowing spoofs of film conventions, from Wayne talking to the camera (while forbidding other characters to do so) and hilariously self-conscious product placements, to labelling a moment a "Gratuitous Sex Scene". Dumb yet clever--and very funny. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Friends: Complete Series 9 - New Edition | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £7.48   |  Saving you £43.51 (581.68%)   |  RRP £50.99

  Nine years is a long time for any group of Friends to stick so closely together, but somehow the gang are still as daftly charming as ever. After the birth of Emma, Rachel comes to terms with being a mother surprisingly well. It's how everyone else deals with it that makes things interesting. Joey's accidental proposal creates weird friction between him and Ross, who breaks his finger throwing the show's first ever punch. Monica becomes desperately broody and attempts all manner of convoluted ways of persuading Chandler to father a child (unfortunately he inadvertently bankrupts them in a move to Tulsa!). Phoebe, on the other hand, occupies herself in the dating game, holding on to Mike (Paul Rudd) in the longest guest-star relationship anyone's ever had. Other surprise guests this year include Freddie Prinze Jr as an overly sensitive nanny (in the 200th episode), Christina Applegate as another of Rachel's sisters and Jeff Goldblum playing himself on the set of another movie on which Joey is trying to get a break. As always the sparks occasionally fly between Rachel and Ross, while the others manage to strain their own relationships to the max. The real reason for watching now is the one-off kooky scenarios in which they--or rather Joey--get into. His endless dating finally sees him stuck for remembering if he's already slept with a girl; he botches an attempt at eyebrow waxing; and he manages to make Chandler think Monica's after a breast enhancement. --Paul Tonks

• Dirty Grandpa | DVD | (23/05/2016) from £3.85   |  Saving you £16.14 (419.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his foul-mouthed grandfather, a former Army general, to Florida for spring break.

• Only Fools And Horses - The Complete Series 5 | DVD | (30/09/2002) from £8.59   |  Saving you £11.40 (132.71%)   |  RRP £19.99

  First broadcast in the autumn of 1986, the fifth series of Only Fools and Horses consists of half-a-dozen half-hour episodes that are absolutely vintage fare. Indeed, after this series, the BBC gave writer John Sullivan freedom to extend his writing to full feature-length episodes. This series, meanwhile, is a masterclass in characterisation, interplay and in delivering the comedic sucker punch that raises the belly laugh when you least expect it. Included here are "From Prussia With Love", in which Rodney (Nicholas Lyndhurst) and Del (David Jason) take in a heavily pregnant German au pair in distress for the night. Uncle Albert assures them he can talk German and addresses her thus: "Vot izz your name?". "The Miracle of Peckham" is especially well-worked, with a plotline involving missing lead from the church roof and a "weeping statue" which attracts the world’s media. "The Longest Night" sees Del and Rodney held hostage in a supermarket by a gun-toting robber. Never has Del delivered the words "You plonker!" with such feeling as when Rodney makes a grab for the sleeping robber’s cigarettes rather than his gun. "Tea for Three" sees Del sabotage Rodney’s chances with Trigger’s niece, Lisa; though it makes no sense here, prepare to guffaw when Trigger says, "My Gran had one with a squeaky wheel". "Video Nasty" sees Mickey Pierce use Rodney’s local council community film project as a means of making a cheap soft porn movie, while the concluding, characteristically poignant episode sees Del given the chance of a new life in Australia. With this series, a sitcom that once seemed like a poor Minder imitation came of age. On the DVD: Only Fools and Horses, Series 5 is presented in 4:3 picture ratio and Dolby Digital stereo. There are no extra features.--David Stubbs

• The Fall Guy | DVD | (05/08/2024) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Blackadder - Complete Blackadder | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £49.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (20.00%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Like a skidmark through history the Edmund Blackadders left an indelible dirty stain on every era they passed through. No one knows where the notorious Blackadder family originated from - some say the shallow end of the gene pool others just nod and point to the cess-pit behind the pig-sheds. Every new era produces a more contemptuous Edmund Blackadder each incarnation bearing a striking resemblance to the last carrying forward the family traditions of cowardice treachery and po

• Ricky Gervais: Animals - Live | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £4.93   |  Saving you £15.06 (305.48%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Remarkably for someone who doesn't claim to be either an actor or a professional stand-up comic, Ricky Gervais has now triumphed in both fields. Animals Live is his one-man show at London's Bloomsbury Theatre during which the star of The Office ("That's two BAFTA Awards") presents a "lecture" on the animal kingdom in a shameless bid to inherit David Attenborough's mantle, since the old boy is getting on a bit and can't last forever. The subject is loose and broad enough to allow for plenty of digressions and amiable ramblings about sex, childhood, war and, of course, more sex. There's something of Eddie Izzard's style in Gervais's approach, especially noticeable when he dissects the Biblical Genesis story for its absurdities; and he has also learned lessons from the father of his Office co-star Lucy Davis, Jasper Carrott. In the best segment, and one that's pure Carrott Confidential, Gervais reads out genuine animal "facts" from a website and comments gleefully upon them. Although his range is limited--he's neither an impressionist nor a mimic--Gervais gets by on a mixture of easygoing charm and bare-faced cheek, which in a short show of about an hour is all he needs to keep everyone laughing. --Mark Walker

• Tropic Thunder - Single Disc | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £4.49   |  Saving you £15.50 (345.21%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In the action-comedy "Tropic Thunder", Ben Stiller plays pampered action superstar Tugg Speedman, who is cast in the biggest, most expensive war movie ever produced.