"Director: John R"

• Last Action Hero | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £7.10   |  Saving you £-1.11 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  John McTiernan (The Hunt for Red October) imaginatively directs this action comedy, which is an interesting failure with some fascinating ironies that make it well worth seeing. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays both a character named Jack Slater--a fictional cop hero who exists only in the movies (ie, the movies seen by the characters in this movie) and the actor who plays Jack Slater in the real world (ie, in the movie we're actually watching). McTiernan's hall-of-mirrors effect is fun, though Last Action Hero never quite identifies itself as a pure action movie, science fiction, a kid's movie, or anything else. (The expensive film suffered at the box office as a result and was roundly criticised for this ambivalence.) What lingers in the memory, however, is Schwarzenegger, playing himself, being confronted by Slater for having created an alter ego for film in the first place. It's a provocative moment: how often have we seen a major star blatantly wrestle with his actor's legacy in this way? --Tom Keogh

• Die Hard | DVD | (03/06/2013) from £5.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (66.78%)   |  RRP £9.99

  High above the city of LA a team of terrorists has seized a building, taken hostages, and declared war. But one man has managed to escape detection.. An off-duty cop. He's alone... tired... and the only chance anyone has. Bruce Willis stars as New York City Detective John McClane, newly arrived in Los Angeles to spend the Christmas holiday with his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia). But as McClane waits for his wife's office party to break-up, terrorists seize control of the building. While th...

• That's Your Funeral | DVD | (17/04/2017) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Bill Fraser and Raymond Huntley star in the raucous British farce That's Your Funeral based on the hugely successful 1970's TV series. Holroyd's are a long established firm of funeral directors run by Emmanuel Holroyd (Raymond Huntley) and Basil Bulstrode (Bill Fraser). Business is good for Holroyd's until a new firm of undertakers comes to town with new ideas and an attractive female employee (Sue Lloyd). Plenty of laughs follow as the two rival firms compete with each other for business. The competition between the two firms mounts when there is a mix up over two coffins delivered to the local railway station with hilarious consequences. But are the new firm all that they seem and what are they really transporting in their coffins?

• Chef! - Complete Box Sset | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £10.97   |  Saving you £19.02 (173.38%)   |  RRP £29.99

  ""I am Gareth Blackstock. I am seriously unpleasant. My bark is worse than my bite and my bark is atrocious!"" Introducing Gareth ""I don't do reasonable"" Blackstock (Lenny Henry) the 2 Michellin starred chef/slavedriver of 'Le Chateau Anglais'. Woe betide anyone who gets in the way of his pursuit of gastronomic perfection... This release contains all the deliciously funny episodes from all three series of the smash hit TV sitcom! Episode Listing - Series 1: 1. Personnel 2. Beyond The Pass 3. Subject To Contract 4. The Big Cheese 5. Fame Is The Spur 6. Rice And Peas Series 2: 1. A River Runs Thru It 2. Time Flies 3. Do the Right Thing 4. A Diploma Of Miseries 5. Masterchef 6. Private Lives 7. England Expects Series 3: 1. When Janice Left Gareth 2. The Owner's Daughter 3. Divorce? 4. Gareth's Father 5. Rochelle 6. Paris Or Jamaica?

• The Plane Maker Collection | DVD | (17/04/2017) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The prequel to ATV's famous boardroom drama The Power Game, The Plane Makers follows the fortunes of the Scott Furlong airplane development company and its managing director, the ruthless John Wilder (Patrick Wymark). This set contains all 42 surviving episodes. After months of work, a new passenger airliner, the Sovereign, is almost ready for its first flight. When John Wilder discovers that the Sovereign's French rival is due for its maiden flight he gives orders to get the plane off the ground in two days - a decision that he may come to regret... Special Features: The only surviving episode from series one (disc 1) Image galleries (discs 4, 5 and 9) PDF material (discs 4, 5)

• Animal Farm | Blu Ray | (27/10/2014) from £12.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (36.40%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The first feature-length British animated film to be given a theatrical release this landmark 1954 adaptation brilliantly conveys all the horror and humour of George Orwell’s scathing satire on the corruption of Communist ideals and the Soviet Union’s slide into totalitarianism. Animal Farm remains an outstanding achievement for award-winning animators John Halas and Joy Batchelor; actor and singer Gordon Heath narrates and the characters are voiced by Maurice Denham. To celebrate its 60th anniversary It is featured here in a new High Definition transfer made from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. Inspired by the dream of Old Major a prize boar the overworked animals of Manor Farm rise up against their negligent drunken human owner and drive him out. Led by two young pigs Snowball and Napoleon they establish their own self-sufficient farm but as the farm flourishes it begins to slide into dictatorship…

• The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin - The Complete First Series | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Boasting a virtuoso comic performance from Leonard Rossiter The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin (1976-79) remains one of the greatest of all television sitcoms. Writer David Nobbs combined the surrealist absurdity of Monty Python with an on-going story line that unfolded through each of the three seasons with a clear beginning, middle and end; a ground-breaking development in 70s TV comedy. The first and best season charts middle-aged, middle-management executive Reginald Perrin as he breaks-down under the stress of middle-class life until he informs the world that half the parking meters in London have Dutch Parking Meter Disease. He fakes suicide and returns to court his wife Elizabeth (Pauline Yates) in disguise, a plot development that formed the entire basis of Mrs Doubtfire (1993). Series Two is broader, the rapid-fire dialogue still razor sharp and loaded with caustic wit and ingenious silliness, as a now sane Reggie takes on the madness of the business world by opening a chain of shops selling rubbish. The third season, set in a health farm, is routine, the edge blunted by routine sitcom conventions. At its best The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin is hilarious and moving, its depiction of English middle-class life spot on, its satire prophetic. Reggie's visual fantasies hark back to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947) and Billy Liar (1963), and look forward to Ally McBeal (1997-2002) and are the icing on the cake of a fine, original and highly imaginative show. On the DVD: Reginald Perrin's discs contain one complete seven episode season. There are no extras. The sound is good mono and the 4:3 picture is generally fine, though some of the exterior shot-on-film scenes have deteriorated and there are occasional signs of minor damage to the original video masters. Even so, for a 1970s sitcom shot on video the picture is excellent and far superior to the original broadcasts. --Gary S Dalkin

• Prince of Darkness 4K Collector's Edition | 4K UHD | (19/09/2021) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This 4 disc limited Collector's Edition of John Carpenter's 1987 cult classic Prince of Darkness has been stunningly restored in 4K. Deep in the basement of an abandoned church, once run by a sinister religious sect, lies a strange bottle of green liquid being investigated by a group of local theoretic physics students. But as the night draws in the students soon realise that the relic holds a dark and powerful force beyond their control. A force that could well be the essence of pure evil: the remains of Satan himself. This release is beautifully packaged with a stylish, newly commissioned illustration by Matt Ferguson on the cover. It contains a UHD of the feature as well as a Blu-ray feature disc, bonus disc and the original soundtrack on CD. It also contains 5 art cards, a newly illustrated theatrical poster and booklet containing original articles, photography from the set, production notes and an essay from celebrated film journalist Kim Newman. The 2018 restoration of Prince of Darkness was made from the original camera negative. A full 4k 16bit Dolby Vision workflow was applied to create a 4K DCP, UHD version and a new HD version which were produced with the same high technological standards as today's biggest international film releases. The restoration and new UHD version was colour graded and approved in Los Angeles by the Cinematographer, Gary B. Kibbe (ASC). Bonus material includes: Malevolent: Unearthing John Carpenter's PRINCE OF DARKNESS: A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with Cinematographer Gary Kibbe, actor Peter Jason, actor Alice Cooper, composer Alan Howarth, script supervisor Sandy King, visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, Carpenter biographer John Muir, film historian C. Courtney Joyner, music historian Daniel Schweiger and Producer Larry Carpenters. Intro by John Carpenter an interview with director John Carpenter originally recorded for a French DVD release in 2003 Scene Analysis by John Carpenter - Director John Carpenter analyses key scenes from Prince of Darkness, in an interview from 2003 Audio commentary with John Carpenter and Peter Jason Sympathy for the Devil: Interview with John Carpenter - from 2013 Horror's Halloween Hallowed Grounds with Sean Clark - a fun tour of the film's locations hosted by Sean Clark Trailer Photo gallery incl. Behind the Scenes Includes: Disc 1: UHD Feature Disc 2: Blu-ray Feature Disc 3: Blu-ray Bonus disc Disc 4: Original soundtrack 5 x Art cards Theatrical poster Booklet

• Christine | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £22.98   |  Saving you £-16.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  She can't (and won't) drive 55.... Stephen King's novel about the twisted love affair between a boy and his car gets transferred to the screen, courtesy of suspense master John Carpenter. Although lacking some of the more outré supernatural elements of the source material, this high-octane cinematic tune-up more than delivers the goods, horror-wise (Christine's midnight rampages will never be forgotten)--as well as being a sly exposé of the random cruelties within the high-school pecking order. Keith Gordon (who has gone on to become a stellar director in his own right, with films such as A Midnight Clear and Mother Night to his credit) gives a wonderfully controlled central performance. Carpenter's atmospheric original score is backed up by a well-chosen collection of rock classics, including George Thorogood's "Bad to the Bone" (the titular character's all-too-apt theme song). --Andrew Wright, Amazon.com

• How Green Was My Valley | Blu Ray | (28/01/2013) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-17.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Winner of five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor (Donald Crisp), this Hollywood milestone (Halliwell's Film Guide) from producer Darryl F. Zanuck and director John Ford is one of the finest pictures ever made (Variety). Seen through the eyes of a boy (Roddy McDowall), How Green Was My Valley is the inspiring yet heart breaking story of young parents (Donald Crisp and Sara Allgood) struggling to keep their family together as they endure severe hardship in a small Welsh mining town. Co-starring Maureen O'Hara and Walter Pidgeon, this acclaimed classic captures the sentiments and issues of its time while reminding us of the dreams, struggles and triumphs that can touch every family.

• Hearts And Bones - Series 1-2 - Complete | DVD | (05/11/2007) from £26.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Hearts And Bones follows the lives and loves of a group of friends searching for happiness and fulfilment in London. Mark is a teacher Rich is a butcher and Michael works in the City. Their search for happiness and fulfilment is turned upside down by the reckless actions of Emma Mark's long-term girlfriend. Hearts And Bones tells gripping stories about the dilemmas of everyday life as lived by a close group of friends. It's about lying on your CV to get your dream job and paying the consequences; coping with the death of a parent; feeling jealous of your brother; feeling lonely and finding love in unexpected places. But above all it's about the power of friendship. The cast includes stars Hugo Speer (The Full Monty) Damien Lewis (Warriors) and Dervla Kirwan (Ballykissangel). Others include Amanda Holden (Kiss Me Kate Now You See Her) Andrew Scarborough (Touching Evil) Sarah Parish (Peak Practice) and Kieran O'Brien (Cracker).

• The Hallelujah Trail | DVD | (25/11/2002) from £9.70   |  Saving you £3.29 (33.92%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Director John Sturges turns the west upside down in this rip-roaring Western comedy about the year Denver was nearly devastated by a drought (of whiskey) and had to have forty wagonloads imported through very harsh (and very thirsty) territory!

• French Connection 2 | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £18.88   |  Saving you £1.11 (5.88%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gene Hackman reprises his Oscar-winning role as Popeye Doyle the hard-nosed New York detective determined to break a French narcotics ring. Kidnapped by heroin Kingpin Alain Charier (Fernando Rey) in Marseilles Doyle is mercilessly forced to become a junkie himself. Upon his release Doyle must kick his habit and join forces with his French police counterpart (Bernard Fresson) to hunt down Charnier. Gritty action riveting performances and a vividly realistic setting make French Con

• Darling | Blu Ray | (30/03/2015) from £14.98   |  Saving you £10.00 (76.98%)   |  RRP £22.99

  "It's far too pleased with itself. I wince when I see it now", director John Schlesinger observes of his 1965 film, Darling. You can tell why he's embarrassed. Looking back, his swinging 60s' satire about a model (Julie Christie) so keen to get ahead that she ditches her husband and betrays a succession of boyfriends looks hideously dated. With its self-consciously hip dialogue and unnecessary voice-over, the screenplay by Frederic Raphael (who also wrote Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut) doesn't help. Most of the men Christie encounters, whether Laurence Harvey's slick businessman (who can't pass a mirror without preening himself in it) or Dirk Bogarde's neurotic TV pundit (who has delusions of literary grandeur), are as narcissistic as she is. Although this seems to be a cautionary tale about slick, superficial London media and fashion folk, it's obvious that the filmmakers are half in love with the world they're pretending to lampoon. The visual gags--rich, society matrons at a charity event gorging themselves on food or Christie's poster being plastered over an image of a starving child--are heavy-handed in the extreme. Still, Christie is tremendous in the role which established her as an international star (she won an Oscar). However shallow and selfish her character seems, we can't help but warm to her. --Geoffrey Macnab

• 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

• Sex and The City: The Complete Series | Blu Ray | (29/11/2021) from £59.36   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Own the ground-breaking HBO series on Blu-ray for the very first time, and experience the friendships and fashion in gorgeous high-definition. Sex and the City stars Sarah Jessica Parker as Carrie Bradshaw, a New York-based writer who explores and experiences the unique world of Manhattan's dating scene, chronicling the mating habits of single New Yorkers. The series also stars cast regulars Kim Cattrall as PR executive Samantha Jones, who's seen -- and done -- it all; Kristin Davis as Charlotte York, still trying to hold on to the idea of happily ever after; and Cynthia Nixon as corporate lawyer and mother Miranda Hobbes, a pragmatist trying to balance the idea of love with the realities of life.

• Far From The Madding Crowd | DVD | (25/08/2008) from £13.47   |  Saving you £-0.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An adaptation of Thomas Hardy's classic novel set in the 19th century of Bathsheba Everdene and the three very different men who come to love her...

• The Fog | DVD | (04/08/2008) from £19.50   |  Saving you £-6.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A thick fog rolls into the sleepy town of Antonio Bay concealing the ghosts of murdered sailors desperate to seek revenge on the descendants of their killers. In one night the inhabitants of this town will pay the ultimate price for their forefathers' murderous greed...

• Exile | DVD | (13/06/2011) from £7.21   |  Saving you £5.78 (80.17%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Simm and Jim Broadbent give compelling performances in this Paul Abbott-created Danny Brocklehurst-written claustrophobic drama about father-son relationships and many other things. The marvellous Olivia Colman provides fine support proving she does drama as brilliantly as comedy.

• Clive Barker's Book Of Blood | Blu Ray | (26/10/2009) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  John Harrison directs this British horror based on two short stories by Clive Barker: 'The Book of Blood' and 'On Jerusalem Street'. Jonas Armstrong stars as Simon McNeal a college student known for his psychic powers who is employed by paranormal researcher Mary Florescu (Sophie Ward) to investigate a haunted house where a gruesome murder has taken place. As the pair uncover the house's dark and shocking secret the divide between the living and the dead becomes dangerously blurred - with brutal and bloody consequences.