Drama

• American History X | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £4.24   |  Saving you £15.75 (371.46%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Perhaps the highest compliment you can pay to Edward Norton is that his Oscar-nominated performance in American History X nearly convinces you that there is a shred of logic in the tenets of white supremacy. If that statement doesn't horrify you, it should; Norton is so fully immersed in his role as a neo-Nazi skinhead that his character's eloquent defense of racism is disturbingly persuasive--at least on the surface. Looking lean and mean with a swastika tattoo and a mind full of hate, Derek Vinyard (Norton) has inherited racism from his father, and that learning has been intensified through his service to Cameron (Stacy Keach), a grown-up thug playing tyrant and teacher to a growing band of disenfranchised teens from Venice Beach, California, all hungry for an ideology that fuels their brooding alienation. The film's basic message--that hate is learned and can be unlearned--is expressed through Derek's kid brother, Danny (Edward Furlong), whose sibling hero-worship increases after Derek is imprisoned (or, in Danny's mind, martyred) for the killing of two black men. Lacking Derek's gift of rebel rhetoric, Danny is easily swayed into the violent, hateful lifestyle that Derek disowns during his thoughtful time in prison. Once released, Derek struggles to save his brother from a violent fate, and American History X partially suffers from a mix of intense emotions, awkward sentiment and predictably inevitable plotting. And yet British director Tony Kaye (who would later protest against Norton's creative intervention during post-production) manages to juggle these qualities--and a compelling clash of visual styles--to considerable effect. No matter how strained their collaboration may have been, both Kaye and Norton can be proud to have created a film that addresses the issue of racism with dramatically forceful impact. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Withnail and I | Blu Ray | (09/02/2015) from £11.21   |  Saving you £6.78 (60.48%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in 1969, the year in which the hippy dreams of so many young Englishmen went sour, 1986's Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I is an enduring British cult. Fellow enthusiasts cry immortal phrases from the endlessly brilliant script to one another like mating calls; "Scrubbers!", "We want the finest wines known to humanity and we want them now!" Withnail is played by the emaciated but defiantly effete Richard E Grant, "I" (i.e., Marwood) by Paul McGann. Out-of-work actors living in desperate penury in a rancid London flat, their lives are a continual struggle to keep warm, alive and in Marwood's case sane, until the pubs open. A sojourn in the country cottage of Withnail's gay Uncle Monty only redoubles their privations--they have to kill a live chicken to eat. The arrival of Monty spells further misery for Marwood as he must fend off his attentions. This borderline homophobic interlude apart, Withnail and I is a delight, enhanced by an aimless but appallingly eventful plot. Popular among students, it strikes a chord with anyone who has undergone a period of debauchery and impoverished squalor prior to finding their way onto life's straight and narrow.--David Stubbs

• Without A Trace - Season 1 | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £11.99   |  Saving you £52.00 (520.52%)   |  RRP £61.99

  It has not taken long for Without a Trace to emerge from the shadows of CSI and become a ratings force in its own right. Jerry Bruckheimer produced both series, and both feature the-face-is-familiar character actors with extensive and diverse resumes who have been catapulted to primetime stardom. Jack Malone, head of a crack FBI missing persons unit, is the Australian-born Anthony LaPaglia's breakout role after years of portraying enough Italian mobsters and criminals to populate a season of The Sopranos. LaPaglia was a surprise Golden Globe Award-winner for this inaugural season. Without a Trace is instantly arresting. "The clock is ticking" in each episode, as Malone and company race against time to find a missing person. "After 48 hours," Malone explains to the rookie member of the team in the series pilot, "they're gone." To solve each baffling case, Malone and fellow agents Samantha Spade (Poppy Montgomery), Vivian Johnson (Marianne Jean-Baptiste of Secrets and Lies), Danny Taylor (Enrique Murciano), and new guy Martin Fitzgerald (Eric Close), must work from the inside out. "Once we find out who she is," Malone says of one victim, "odds are we'll find out where she is." Among the inaugural season's most wrenching episodes are "Between the Cracks" and "Hang On to Me," both featuring Charles Dutton in his Emmy Award-winning performance as a father whose son has been missing for five years. The powerful season finale, "Fallout," presented in this four-disc set in a "creator's cut," concerns a man who lost his wife in the 9/11 attacks. The riveting episodes mostly stand alone, but some cases do return to haunt Malone, as witness "In Extremis," a case that ends tragically and leads to an internal investigation that threatens to subvert the close-knit unit in the episode. "Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?" Sharp writing, authentic procedurals, taut direction, and effective use of music make Without a Tracea series worth finding on DVD. --Donald Liebenson

• Murder On The Orient Express | Blu Ray | (23/10/2017) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Just the name "Orient Express" conjures up images of a bygone era. Add an all-star cast (including Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset and Lauren Bacall, to name a few) and Agatha Christie's delicious plot and how can you go wrong? Particularly if you add in Albert Finney as Christie's delightfully pernickety sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Someone has knocked off nasty Richard Widmark on this train trip and, to Poirot's puzzlement, everyone seems to have a motive--just the set-up for a terrific whodunit. Though it seems like an ensemble film, director Sidney Lumet gives each of his stars their own solo and each makes the most of it. Bergman went so far as to win an Oscar for her role. But the real scene-stealer is the ever-reliable Finney as the eccentric detective who never misses a trick. --Marshall Fine

• Mademoiselle (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (21/09/2020) from £18.75   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Directed by Tony Richardson (Tom Jones) and featuring a powerful central performance from Moreau, Mademoiselle is a mesmerising psychological drama - an artistic and disturbing exploration of the darkest of carnal desires. A surpressed and sociopathic school teacher (Jeanne Moreau) unsuspectedly torments residents of a small French village with acts of violence and destruction. An erotic obsession with an ostracised outsider caused her behaviour to become yet more erratic but, as tensions in the community reach boiling point, will the villagers see beyond their prejudices? Special Features To Be Confirmed

• The Penguin | Blu Ray | (21/04/2025) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring Colin Farrell in the title role, the DC Studios drama THE PENGUIN continues The Batman epic crime saga that filmmaker Matt Reeves began with Warner Bros. Pictures' global blockbuster and centers on the character played by Farrell in the film.Inside Gotham, Welcome to Gotham, Who is the Hangman: Portrait of Sofia Falcone, Introducing the Penguin, Gotham Re-envisioned, The Origin of Oz, Becoming the Penguin, more

• Get Rich Or Die Tryin' | Blu Ray | (24/05/2021) from £8.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  In his film debut, hip-hop superstar Curtis 50 Cent Jackson explodes across the screen in this hard-hitting urban drama from acclaimed director Jim Sheridan (In America). Following a near-fatal gun battle, Marcus (50 Cent) recalls his journey from orphaned street kid from the Bronx to making his mark in the drug trade to teaming up with a fellow ex-con (Terrence Howard) for his shot at becoming a successful rap artist. This gripping tale, based on 50 Cent's real life story, is a film with a rich and convincing texture, a drama with power and anger. Roger Ebert.

• First Do No Harm | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When Laura and Dave Reimuller's son Robbie suffers an epileptic fit it's merely the start of the nightmare. As the fits worsen Robbie becomes little more than a 'laboratory rat' for testing highly dangerous drugs - and Dave and Laura stand by helpless as their delightful little boy turns into a disruptive mentally retarded monster. Driven by despair Laura starts her own research and comes across a possible 'miracle cure' which involves neither drugs nor radical surgery. It's a spe

• Julie Christie Collection | DVD | (12/03/2007) from £23.19   |  Saving you £11.80 (50.88%)   |  RRP £34.99

  The divine Julie Christie brings her glamorous presence to this superb box set containing 5 of her finest films. Featuring: 1. The Go-Between (1970) 2. Billy Liar (1963) 3. Far From The Madding Crowd (1967) 4. Don't Look Now (1973) 5. Darling (1965)

• The Fifth Estate | DVD | (17/02/2014) from £5.50   |  Saving you £14.49 (263.45%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Driven to expose corporate crimes and government secrets no matter what the cost, an activist (Benedict Cumberbatch) and computer hacker (Daniel Bruhl) team up to become the underground watchdogs of the privileged and powerful.

• The Little Stranger DVD | DVD | (14/01/2019) from £7.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  THE LITTLE STRANGER tells the story of Dr Faraday, the son of a housemaid, who has built a life of quiet respectability as a country doctor. During the long hot summer of 1947, he is called to a patient at Hundreds Hall, where his mother once worked. The Hall has been home to the Ayres family for more than two centuries. But it is now in decline and its inhabitants - mother, son and daughter - are haunted by something more ominous than a dying way of life. When he takes on his new patient, Faraday has no idea how closely, and how terrifyingly, the family's story is about to become entwined with his own.

• The Time of Their Lives (DVD) | DVD | (31/07/2017) from £3.23   |  Saving you £2.57 (79.57%)   |  RRP £5.80

  Determined to gatecrash her ex-lover's funeral on glamorous French hideaway Ile-de-Re, former Hollywood siren Helen escapes her London retirement home with the help of Priscilla, a repressed English housewife stuck in a bad marriage.

• Paris, Texas | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £25.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Something like a perfect artistic union is achieved in the major components of Paris, Texas: the twang of Ry Cooder's guitar, the lonely light of Robbie Muller's camera, the craggy landscape of Harry Dean Stanton's face. In his greatest role, longtime character actor Stanton plays a man brought back to his old life after wandering in the desert (or somewhere) for four years. He has a 7-year-old son to get to know, and his wife has gone missing. The material is much in the wanderlust spirit of director Wim Wenders, working from a script by Sam Shepard and L.M. Kit Carson. If the long climactic conversation between Stanton and Nastassja Kinski renders the movie uneven and slightly inscrutable, it's hard to think of a more fitting ending--and besides, the achingly empty American spaces stick longer in the memory than the dialogue. Winner of the top prize at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival. --Robert Horton

• The Dark Horse | DVD | (10/08/2015) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (220.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Starring an extraordinary NZ cast; Cliff Curtis (Whale Rider and Boy), James Rolleston (Boy) and Kirk Torrance (Outrageous Fortune) The Dark Horse is an inspiring true story based on the life of a charismatic, brilliant but little-known New Zealand Hero and Chess champion - Genesis Potini (Gen). The Dark Horse is a provocative, emotionally-charged and inspiring drama about a man who searches for the courage to lead, despite his own adversities - finding purpose and hope in passing on his gift to the children in his community.= It is a film about two lost souls finding the strength to carry on through each other's company - believing in themselves; even if no one else does.

• The Promise | DVD | (04/09/2017) from £3.50   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It is 1914. As the Great War looms, the mighty Ottoman Empire is crumbling. Constantinople, the once vibrant, multicultural capital on the shores of the Bosporus, is about to be consumed by chaos. Michael Boghosian (Oscar Isaac), arrives in the cosmopolitan hub as a medical student determined to bring modern medicine back to Siroun, his ancestral village in Southern Turkey where Turkish Muslims and Armenian Christians have lived side by side for centuries. Photo-journalist Chris Myers (Christian Bale), has come here only partly to cover geo-politics. He is mesmerized by his love for Ana (Charlotte le Bon), an Armenian artist he has accompanied from Paris after the sudden death of her father. When Michael meets Ana, their shared Armenian heritage sparks an attraction that explodes into a romantic rivalry between the two men. As the Turks form an alliance with Germany and the Empire turns violently against its own ethnic minorities, their conflicting passions must be deferred while they join forces to survive even as events threaten to overwhelm them. The one promise that must be kept is to live on and tell the story.

• Brubaker | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The most wanted man in Wakefield prison is the warden! Posing as a new prisoner Brubaker (Redford) discovers vast corruption in a state penitentiary before revealing himself to be theinew warden. His personal crusade to bring reform puts him in grave danger especially when he insists on exposing a series of secret murders that took place years earlier. Powerful and disturbing 'Brubaker' won acclaim for its gritty realism and Oscar-nominated screenplay based on the real life stor

• Leave No Trace | DVD | (12/11/2018) from £7.05   |  Saving you £2.94 (41.70%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on Peter Rock's novel My Abandonment, LEAVE NO TRACE revolves around a teenage girl (Thomasin McKenzie) and her father (Ben Foster) who have lived undetected for years in Forest Park, a vast wood on the edge of Portland, Oregon. A chance encounter leads to their discovery and removal from the park and into the charge of a social service agency. They try to adapt to their new surroundings until a sudden decision sets them on a perilous journey into the wilderness seeking complete independence and forcing them to confront their conflicting desire to be part of a community or a fierce need to live apart.

• My Left Foot | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £14.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (33.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Daniel Day-Lewis won a much-deserved Oscar for My Left Foot, with a wily and passionate performance as Irish artist and writer Christy Brown, whose cerebral palsy kept him confined to a wheelchair. Filmmaker Jim Sheridan (In the Name of the Father) adapts Brown's own autobiography for this spirited piece, focusing on the, sometimes difficult, fellow's formative years in his large family and in love with sundry women. Day-Lewis is inspired, and Brenda Fricker (also a recipient of an Oscar for her part in this movie) is almost luminous as Christy's dedicated mother. So, too, are Ray McAnally as the hero's stormy father, and Hugh O'Conor (The Young Poisoner's Handbook) as the child Christy. All in all, this is a complete pleasure for viewers. --Tom Keogh , Amazon.com

• Monsieur Lazhar | DVD | (01/10/2012) from £10.35   |  Saving you £2.64 (25.51%)   |  RRP £12.99

  After the tragic passing of their well-liked teacher a school class is left shaken and fragile. A new primary teacher is appointed, the mysterious and charming Bachir Lazhar who, as each day passes, earns the trust of the class and allows them to grieve.

• If Beale Street Could Talk | Blu Ray | (17/06/2019) from £8.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Academy Award-winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) brings us his highly anticipated next feature, an adaptation of James Baldwin's stunning novel, If Beale Street Could Talk. In early 1970's Harlem, Tish, a nineteen-year old girl, is in love with a young sculptor, Fonny, the father of her unborn child. When Fonny is falsely accused of rape and imprisoned, Tish and their families race to clear his name before the baby is born. A story about love persisting in the face of racial oppression and injustice, Jenkins brings together a talented young cast which includes Stephan James (Selma, Race) as Fonny and newcomer Kiki Layne as Tish.