"Director: Mark Rydell"

• Intersection | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £11.31   |  Saving you £1.68 (14.85%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Make every move as if it were your last. Richard Gere portrays Vincent Eastman an award-winning architect whose personal life is on shaky ground. Separated from his beautiful but aloof wife (Sharon Stone) Vincent has an affair with a joyful and passionate writer (Lolita Davidovich) whose love promises a new beginning. But Vincent remains emotionally torn between the two women leaving his future happiness - and that of his thirteen year-old daughter - hanging in the balance. A

• On Golden Pond | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Norman (Henry Fonda) and Ethel Thayer (Katharine Hepburn) have had a summer cottage on Golden Pond since early in their marriage. This summer their daughter Chelsea (Academy Award nominee Jane Fonda) whom they haven't seen for years feels she must be there for her father's 80th birthday. She and her fianc leave for Europe leaving Billy with Ethel and Norman. What begins as a stubborn battle of will between Norman and Billy slowly turns into a relationship that Chelsea had always longed to share with her father.

• On Golden Pond | DVD | (03/03/2003) from £2.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (234.11%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Writer Ernest Thompson, who came up with the original stage play of On Golden Pond and adapted it for film, is lucky to have two giants of the screen give dignity and breadth to his sometimes trite dialogue. Henry Fonda, in his last role, plays a prickly English professor at the disagreeable age of 80. Visiting his summer house by a Maine lake with his wife (Katharine Hepburn), the old man forges an unlikely bond with a lonely boy, comes to terms with his daughter (Jane Fonda) and suffers disorienting effects of mild dementia. Even playing a tired old man, Fonda is an absolute lion of a movie star, and Hepburn brings her special spirit to the part of his worried bride. The onscreen relationship between Henry and Jane Fonda naturally makes one think about their much-discussed difficulties off screen, but that's a side benefit in a movie that is really just a celebration of simple human decency. Directed by Mark Rydell (Harry and Walter Go to New York). --Tom Keogh

• The Rose | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bette Midler plays a Janis Joplin-like singer overwhelmed by stardom and its excesses. Mark Rydell (On Golden Pond) directs what is a kind of hybrid showcase for Midler's concert talents and a standard pop biopic, with the usual rhythms of desire, success, betrayal, failure, and such. Alan Bates is the best thing about the movie as the Rose's ruthless manager, and Harry Dean Stanton and Frederic Forrest add some interesting seasoning. But as a whole, the film can't rise above its mixed purposes or clichés. --Tom Keogh

• For The Boys | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £13.14   |  Saving you £2.84 (27.98%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Bette Midler poured her heart and soul into For the Boys, the story of a pair of entertainers who repeatedly took time from their careers to entertain US troops at war, from World War II to Vietnam--and it sank like a stone at the box office. Granted, it's corny and emotionally over the top. It is the tale of an unlikely team of singer and comedian (played by Midler and James Caan), who are brought together for a reunion show in their dotage. As they nervously anticipate seeing each other for the first time in years, they are flooded with memories of their earlier days as a hot show-biz couple whose own troubles always took second place to their patriotic urge to buoy the boys in uniform. Some say this was a veiled film version of the Martha Raye story; Midler gives it her all and Caan isn't bad. But director Mark Rydell lays on the schmaltz so thickly at times that it overpowers the tougher material. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Classic Films Triple - On Golden Pond/Fried Green Tomatoes/Sophie's Choice | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe Evelyn Couch (Kathy Bates) an overweight middle aged woman is in a rut. Her husband Ed ignores her and even his bedridden aunt throws blunt objects at her! But a chance encounter with a spry octogenarian Ninny Threadgoode (Jessica Tandy) leads to an unexpected friendship. Ninny tells Evelyn an absorbing story of two very different women who lived half a century ago in the town of Whistle Stop Alabama: the irrepressibly dare devilish tomboy Idgie (Mary Stuart Masterson) and the demure and good-hearted Ruth (Mary-Louise Parker). Together they ran the Whistle Stop Caf'' a railside eatery serving good old southern food as well as a good helping of friendship and laughter and even an occasional murder. The events of the past inspire Evelyn to make changes in her own dowdy life - the results are often hilarious in this endearing tale of friendship and courage. Sophie's Choice Meryl Streep plays Sophie Zawistowska in this penetrating drama set in 1947 post-World War II Brooklyn. Kevin Kline plays her all consuming lover Nathan. The story revolves around Sophie's struggle as a Polish-Catholic immigrant in the United States who had survived a Nazi concentration camp. The lovers' drama unfolds through the observations of a friend and would-be writer Stingo (Peter MacNicol). As the trio grows closer Stingo discovers the hidden truths that they each harbour resulting in a narrative that is both captivating and moving... On Golden Pond Family tensions explode for a loving couple Ethel and Norman Thayer (Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda in Academy Award winning performance) at their New England summer cabin on Golden Pond. Their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) has come to visit with her new lover Bill (Dabney Coleman) and his tough young son Billy (Doug McKeon). The three generations collide. But what begins as a stubborn battle of wills between Norman and Billy slowly turns into a relationship that Chelsea always wanted with her father and Norman discovers how much he has missed by denying his daughter's love.

• John Wayne Collection | DVD | (05/10/2009) from £32.90   |  Saving you £-12.91 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Titles Comprise: The Searchers: Wayne plays Ethan Edwards an ex-Confederate who sets out to find his niece captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won't surrender to hunger thirst the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive quest Ethan finds something unexpected: his own humanity. One of the most influential movies ever made. Chisum: Cattle king John Chisum is determined to protect his empire against a land-grabbing developerin New Mexico's 1878 Lincoln County War... Rio Bravo: John Wayne is Chance in Rio Bravo a lean Western classic packing solid heroics around a strong emotional core. He's joined by Dean Martin as the deputy coming off a two-year drunk Walter Brennan as the old coot whose fiery spirit outmatches his hobbled stride Ricky Nelson as a youngster out to prove himself by joining the lawmen and Angie Dickinson as a woman with a past who hopes to rope Chance. The Cowboys: gives Wayne one of his juiciest roles as a leather-tough rancher who deserted by his regular help hires eleven greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles. Cahill: US Marshall: Lawman J.D. Cahill can stand alone against an army of bad guys. But as a widower father he's on insecure footing raising two sons; particularly when he suspects his boys have stepped outside the law...

• Female Drama Collection - For The Boys/Yanks/The Rose | DVD | (05/02/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  For The Boys (Dir. Mark Rydell 1991): Bette Midler gives the brassiest sassiest performance of her career as Dixie Leonard... a USO singer whose electrifying stage presence and flair for outrageous comedy captivates troops and civilians alike. Teamed up with America's beloved song and dance man Eddie Sparks (James Caan) the whole world becomes Dixie's stage through three very different wars and 50 years of music and memories laughter and tears. All of it ""For The Boys."" Yanks (Dir. John Schlesinger 1979): 'Yanks' is the moving story of American servicemen stationed in England during the Second World War and the impact that their presence had on the lives of people in a small Lancashire village. This beautifully filmed drama follows three American soldiers and the relationships that they form with three local women: Jean Helen and Mollie. The relationships that blossom would affect their lives forever. This romantic and memorable movie highlights the cultural differences that existed and also the effect that the American invasion had on the hearts and minds of communities. The Rose (Dir. Mark Rydell 1979): Bette Midler plays a Janis Joplin-like singer overwhelmed by stardom and its excesses. Mark Rydell directs this showcase of Midler's concert vocal and acting talents. Alan Bates plays Rose's ruthless manager.

• The Cowboys | Blu Ray | (25/02/2008) from £9.25   |  Saving you £16.74 (180.97%)   |  RRP £25.99

  The Cowboys gave John Wayne one of his juiciest late-career roles as a leather-tough rancher who deserted by his regular help hires 11 greenhorn schoolboys for a cattle drive across 400 treacherous miles.

• Katharine Hepburn Collection - On Golden Pond/African Queen/Iron Petticoat/Clive James Interview | DVD | (21/05/2007) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On Golden Pond Family tensions explode for a loving couple Ethel and Norman Thayer (Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda in Academy Award winning performance) at their New England summer cabin on Golden Pond. Their daughter Chelsea (Jane Fonda) has come to visit with her new lover Bill (Dabney Coleman) and his tough young son Billy (Doug McKeon). The three generations collide. But what begins as a stubborn battle of wills between Norman and Billy slowly turns into a relationship that Chelsea always wanted with her father and Norman discovers how much he has missed by denying his daughter's love. African Queen The boozing smoking cussing captain of a tramp steamer Charlie Allnut saves prim and proper Rose Sayer after her brother is killed by German soldiers at the beginning of World War I in Africa. Many quarrels later the two set sail on the Ulonga-Bora in order to sabotage a German ship. Based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester the wonderful combination of Hepburn and Bogart makes this a thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and adventure. The Iron Petticoat A US Air Force captain forces down a Russian MIG only to be confronted by a Russian fighter ace. The Captain is tasked with converting her to capitalism.

• The Cowboys | DVD | (28/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A veteran rancher risks everything when he recruits schoolboys to man a dangerous cattle drive. One of John Wayne's solid twilight hits co-starring Bruce Dern and Colleen Dewhurst.

• For The Boys | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £9.43   |  Saving you £0.56 (5.94%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Bette Midler poured her heart and soul into For the Boys, the story of a pair of entertainers who repeatedly took time from their careers to entertain US troops at war, from World War II to Vietnam--and it sank like a stone at the box office. Granted, it's corny and emotionally over the top. It is the tale of an unlikely team of singer and comedian (played by Midler and James Caan), who are brought together for a reunion show in their dotage. As they nervously anticipate seeing each other for the first time in years, they are flooded with memories of their earlier days as a hot show-biz couple whose own troubles always took second place to their patriotic urge to buoy the boys in uniform. Some say this was a veiled film version of the Martha Raye story; Midler gives it her all and Caan isn't bad. But director Mark Rydell lays on the schmaltz so thickly at times that it overpowers the tougher material. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• The River | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Starring Mel Gibson in his second Hollywood film, The River celebrates traditional American values through the Garvey family's determination to hold onto their farm against all odds. The drama opens with the threat of flooding from the river that adjoins the Garvey's land, then depicts their struggles through ailing livestock, accident and risk of crop failure. Add to these a local businessman, Scott Glenn, planning to turn the valley into a dam, a subplot echoing Deliverance (1972), also filmed in Eastern Tennessee, and all the elements are in place for an emotional triumph-over-adversity movie. Much of The River has a realistic tone, unflinchingly depicting numerous hardships, especially when Gibson has to earn extra money as a strike-breaking hired hand in a steel mill. Against this, and a surprisingly left-wing tone advocating cooperation over competition, the more upbeat moments resort to feel-good cliché with John Williams' lilting score seemingly wandered in from a Spielberg fantasy. Nevertheless the cast, including Sissy Spacek as Gibson's wife, deliver first-rate performances and cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond expertly captures the harshness and the beauty of the land. The River was one of a trio of major US farming movies in 1984, the others being Country and Places in the Heart. On the DVD: The 1.85:1 anamorphically enhanced image is virtually flawless, capturing the many subtle effects of light on water throughout the film. Released theatrically in stereo, the opening and closing sequences demonstrate the power of a Dolby Digital 5.1 remix in generating atmosphere through natural sound. Elsewhere the audio is less striking, but always clean and powerful. Extras are routine: the US trailer, four brief biographies, and interesting though short production notes. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Masters Of Science Fiction - Series 1 | DVD | (25/02/2008) from £7.55   |  Saving you £12.44 (164.77%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Masters Of Science Fiction unites some of the genre's most revered names including John Kessel Robert A. Heinlein Howard Fast Walter Mosley Robert Sheckley and Harlen Ellison.

• The River | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £11.72   |  Saving you £-5.73 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This emotionally-charged film celebrates the triumph of a young rural couple as they face nature's greatest ravages the threat of poverty and a wrenching separation. Sissy Spacek Mel Gibson and Scott Glenn star in this moving tribute to love faith determination and the vanishing America of the independent farm family. Tom and Mae Garvey (Gibson and Spacek) are struggling to keep their homestead safe from the local power authority who wants to flood their land. When Mae's former beau John Wade (Glenn) turns out to be in charge of the plan to acquire the property tensions run high climaxing in a devastating confrontation on the flooded river banks. Directed by On Golden Pond's Mark Rydell 'The River' features magnificent location photography by Vilmos Zsigmond and an outstanding score by John Williams.

• Richard Gere Collection | DVD | (09/03/2009) from £46.99   |  Saving you £-17.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Titles Comprise: An Officer And A Gentleman: Richard Gere stars as Navy recruit Zack Mayo while the stunning Debra Winger is his love interest. Lou Gossett Jnr. won an Academy Award for his brilliant portrayal of a tough drill instructor. David Keith plays Zack's struggling fellow candidate. Zack Mayo is a young loner with a bad attitude. Tempted by the glamour and admiration of the life of a Navy pilot he decides to sign up for Officer Candidate School. After thirteen tortuous weeks under Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley (Gossett Jnr.) he slowly begins to learn the importance of discipline love and friendship. Foley warns Zack about the local girls who will do anything to catch themselves a pilot for a husband but despite this Zack finds himself falling in love with Paula (Winger). Days Of Heaven: Terrence Malick's second film is a lyrical visual poem about life in America at the turn of the century. When a Chicago steel-mill worker is fired after a fight with his supervisor he hops aboard a train for the Great Plains with his girlfriend and his younger sister. The trio join itinerant workers following the farming season and find a place with a quiet lonely landowner. As the year passes and the harvest nears a fateful love triangle develops with fiery consequences. The performances match the moody compositions in this elegy for the pre-modern prairie which now stands firmly as one of the most beautiful motion pictures of all time. Internal Affairs: Trust Him... He's A Cop. Dennis Peck knows his way around the law. He can launder money run a scam fix a bad rap. He can even for the right price arrange a murder. Trust me he says I'm a cop. Richard Gere is Peck and Andy Garcia is Raymond Avila the investigator determined to bring Peck to justice in this supercharged police thriller. Peck isn't going down without a fight. The slick cold-blooded manipulator intends to take Avila's career his marriage and even his sanity with him in 'Internal Affairs'. A fine tight script says Gary Franklin (KABC-TV). Two thumbs up! say Siskel & Ebert - Trust them. Intersection: Make every move as if it were your last. Richard Gere portrays Vincent Eastman an award-winning architect whose personal life is on shaky ground. Separated from his beautiful but aloof wife (Sharon Stone) Vincent has an affair with a joyful and passionate writer (Lolita Davidovich) whose love promises a new beginning. But Vincent remains emotionally torn between the two women leaving his future happiness - and that of his thirteen year-old daughter - hanging in the balance. As his relationships start to crumble Vincent hurtles on a collision course toward the one fateful moment when he must confront his true feelings and cross the Intersection. Primal Fear: Arrogant brilliant and successful criminal defense attorney Martin Vail loves a good fight and the media spotlight both of which he knowingly invites when he volunteers to represent a penniless bewildered altar boy accused of murdering the local archbishop. The defendant's guilt seems as evident as the blood found splattered on his clothes. But Vail doesn't concern himself with questions of guilt or innocence. All he cares about is creating and selling his version of the truth. American Gigolo: Julian Kay is on the prowl and looking for someone to please. Boyish and sensual he speaks five or six languages and is equally comfortable as a chauffeur for a wealthy middle-aged matron and as a translator/companion for the lonely wife of an executive. He is the 'American Gigolo'. But Julian's love-for-sale lifestyle turns deadly when a client is murdered and Julian became the prime suspect.

• 3 Classic Award Winning Dramas - Fried Green Tomatoes At The Whistle Stop Cafe / Sophie's Choice / On Golden Pond | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Four Classic Westerns | DVD | (06/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Titles comprise: The Desperate Trail: Amiable con man Jack Cooper (Craig Sheffer) is on a westbound stagecoach headed for the next batch of suckers who will mistake them for an easy mark. Fiery Sarah O'Rourke (Linda Fiorentino) rides the same coach handcuffed to lawman Bill Speakes (Sam Elliott) and headed for the hangman. In a few hours all should reach their destinations. But the trail they travel takes an unexpected turn: Cooper and O'Rourke are soon off the stage and running for their lives. The law ends and the chase beings in a very alive tale of wanted-dead-or-alive fugitives pursued by a marshal who's a law unto himself. Jeremiah Johnson: Soured by civilisation Jeremiah Johnson (Robert Redford) sets out in the mid-1800's to be a mountain man seeking solitude in a wilderness whose purity he never questioned. His first Rocky Mountain winter almost kills him. Starving and nearly frozen he finds refuge with a wily old trapper (Will Geer) whose survival teaching includes going eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly. The Cowboys: After his cowhands desert him for a nearby gold rush ageing leather-tough rancher Will Anderson (John Wayne) resorts to hiring 11 schoolboys to help him on a 400-mile cattle run. Setting off with the boys and an eloquent but equally tough black cook (Roscoe Lee Browne) Anderson must get his cattle to their destination while contending with the wilderness and a psychotic vengeful ex-con (Bruce Dern) who is out to get him. With an amazingly natural performance by Wayne this stylized action-packed Western is exquisitely filmed emotionally sensitive and highly entertaining. Wild Wild West: If you think special government agent James West is fast with a six shooter wait until he lays a quip on you! Megahit star Will Smith plays West re-uniting with Men In Black director Barry Sonnenfield in an effects-loaded shoot-from-the-lip spectacular. Kevin Kline plays fellow agent and crackerjack inventor Artemus Gordon teamed with West on a daring assignment; stop legless Dr Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) and his diabolical plot for a Disunited states of America. Salma Hayek is mysterious adventuress Rita Escobar. And all manner of geared-up 1860's gadgets - from belt-buckle derringers to surprise-packed billiard balls to a walking eight-story steam-and-steal tarantula - help make Wild Wild West a Wow Wow West!

• The Reivers | DVD | (04/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Boon is a reiver (that's a cheat a liar a brawler and womaniser) and he has just four days to teach young Lucius the facts of life (like cheating lying brawling and womanizing)! Based on the novel by William Faulkner THE REIVERS tells the story of a young boy who leaves home and sets out on a journey with his best friend and Boon Hogganbeck (McQueen) his family's handyman. During the trip from Jefferson to Memphis the trio learns some valuable life lessons.

• James Dean | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Set against the backdrop of 1950's Hollywood 'James Dean' explores the tragedies and insecurities that fueled Dean's burning ambition to succeed as an actor and ultimately led to his downfall. From the devastating loss of his mother at an early age and his fractured relationship with his father; through his astonishingly rapid rise as one of the world's most celebrated icons 'James Dean' tells the story behind the legend.