Drama

• Hamlet (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (24/09/2007) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Kenneth Branagh's four-hour production of Shakespeare's full text for Hamlet is visually lush (shot in 70mm, which is rarely done) and full of fascinating story moments that normally get cut from shorter stage versions. (Your idea of what kind of fellow Polonius is may change quite a bit.) The unexpurgated approach is truly enlightening, and Branagh intermittently succeeds at giving familiar moments in the drama an original cinematic spin, including Hamlet's spooky confrontation with his father's ghost (Brian Blessed). (Branagh also imposes some Hollywood glitter on the proceedings by casting the likes of Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Charlton Heston and Jack Lemmon in the smaller parts.) The pre-Titanic Kate Winslet is very good as the doomed Ophelia, and Derek Jacobi delivers a wonderfully nuanced performance as Claudius, whose character is definitely filled out by the restored material. Branagh's own performance is a little revisionist--some viewers have quibbled with it while others seem fine. --Tom Keogh. Langages avialabel on the dvd are: English,Castillian Spanish,German,Polish & Portuguese,Subtitles: English,C/Spanish,German,Greek,Polish & Portuguese.Extra features including introductions/commentary by Kenneth Branagh & Russell Jackson,'Featurette,Film promo,Shakespeare movie trailor gallery.

• Melville Boxset | Blu Ray | (11/12/2017) from £49.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jean-Pierre Melville (1917 1974) is one of the most revered French film directors of all time. Born in Paris during WW1, he was to become a member of the French resistance in the Second World War, an experience which he drew on in his later career as a film director, routinely plunging his characters into an underworld of secrecy and deception. The reluctant godfather of the French New Wave, Melville's highly individual style was influenced by the ideas of existentialism and surrealism, but arguably his greatest debt was to classical American cinema, the traditions of which he wove with inimitable style into his quintessentially French films. Hailed by many as the father of the French gangster movie, he was inspired by the classic film noirs of 1930s and 40s Hollywood, imbuing many his films with a sense of menace and impending peril, creating a sinister underworld to be traversed by his ubiquitous gun-toting hoodlums. This set contains six of his finest films, from his early bittersweet masterpiece, Bob Le Flambeur, to his final film, Un flic, his wonderfully fatalistic study of loss and deception; a fitting epitaph to one of the finest careers in contemporary cinema. Included Extras: LE DOULOS - NEW Interview with first assistant director Volker Schlondorff - 20 mins BOB LE FLAMBEUR - NEW retrospective documentary by the film critic Dominique Maillet - 20 mins LEON MORIN PRETRE - NEW Master class with Philippe Labro (friend and apprentice of Melville) + Rémy Grumbach (Melville's nephew) - 59 mins LE CERCLE ROUGE Interview with Le Cercle Rouge's first assistant director Bernard Stora 30mins Code Name Melville - 76mins) Interview with first assistant director Bernard Stora - 30mins Interview with novelist José Giovanni - 15mins Présentation by Ginette Vincendeau 21'30

• Gandhi | DVD | (04/07/2011) from £5.25   |  Saving you £0.74 (14.10%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Gandhi is a great subject, but is Gandhi a great film? Undoubtedly it is, not least because it is one of the last old-school epics ever made, a glorious visual treat featuring tens of thousands of extras (real people, not digital effects) and sumptuous Panavision cinematography. But a true epic is about more than just widescreen photography, it concerns itself with noble subjects too, and the life story of Mahatma Gandhi is one of the noblest of all. Both the man and the film have profound things to say about the meaning of freedom and racial harmony, as well as how to achieve them. Ben Kingsley, in his first major screen role, bears the heavy responsibility of the central performance and carries it off magnificently; without his magnetic and utterly convincing portrayal the film would founder in the very first scene. Sir Richard Attenborough surrounds his main character with a cast of distinguished thespians (Trevor Howard, John Mills, John Gielgud and Martin Sheen, to name but four), none of whom do anything but provide the most sympathetic support. John Briley's literate screenplay achieves the almost impossible task of distilling the bewildering complexities of Anglo-Indian politics. Attenborough's treatment is openly reverential, but, given the saint-like character of his subject, it's hard to see how it could have been anything else. He doesn't flinch from the implication that the Mahatma was naïve to expect a unified India, for example, but instead lets Gandhi's actions speak for themselves. The outstanding achievement of this labour of love is that it tells the story of an avowed pacifist who never raised a hand in anger, of a man who never held high office, of a man who shied away from publicity, and turns it into three hours of utterly mesmerising cinema.On the DVD: The anamorphic (16:9) picture of the original 2.35:1 image has a certain softness to it that may reflect the age of the print, but somehow seems entirely in keeping with the subject . Sound is Dolby 5.1. The extras are fairly brief, but worthwhile: original newsreel footage of Gandhi includes an astonishingly patronising British news account of his visit to England; in a recent interview, Ben Kinglsey chats enthusiastically about the film and the difficulties he experienced bringing the character to life. The dull "making-of" feature is simply a montage of stills. --Mark Walker

• Hidden Figures | DVD | (03/07/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The incredible untold true story of Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) & Mary Jackson (Janelle Monae)brilliant African-American women working at NASA, who served as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit. This stunning achievement galvanized the world and inspired generations to dream big.

• Cardiac Arrest - Series 1 | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £15.21   |  Saving you £24.78 (162.92%)   |  RRP £39.99

  A black comedy set in and around a hospital where the newly qualified Dr. Andrew Collins is thrown into a world that is totally beyond him. Episodes Comprise: 1. Welcome to the House of Pain 2. Doctors and Nurses 3. The Killing Season 4. You Can't Make an Omelette Without Breaking Legs 5. Turning Out the Light 6. The Edge

• Beyond Paradise | DVD | (17/04/2023) from £8.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Goldfinch | DVD | (20/01/2020) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Theodore Theo Decker (Ansel Elgort) was 13 years old when his mother was killed in a bombing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The tragedy changes the course of his life, sending him on a stirring odyssey of grief and guilt, reinvention and redemption, and even love. Through it all, he holds on to one tangible piece of hope from that terrible day...a painting of a tiny bird chained to its perch. The Goldfinch.

• The Godfather Trilogy | Blu Ray | (21/03/2022) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This Blu-ray set includes The Godfather, The Godfather: Part II and Mario Puzo's The Godfather, Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Plus special features. Francis Ford Coppola's master adaptation of Mario Puzo's novel chronicles the dramatic, and often violent, rise and fall of the Corleone family. Collected here on Blu-ray for the first time is Coppola and Puzo's definitve, intended version of The Godfather saga in three distinct motion picture events: the Best Picture Oscar® winners The Godfather and The Godfather Part II and the acclaimed The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. It's not just essential cinema ... this is an offer you can't refuse. The Godfather Regarded as one of the best American films ever by the American Film Institute, Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar®-winning* role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. The Godfather™ is a violent and chilling portrait of the Sicilian family's struggle to stay in power in a post-war America of corruption, deceit and betrayal. Coppola begins his legendary trilogy, masterfully balancing the story of the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel and featuring career-making performances by Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall, this searing and brilliant film garnered ten Academy Award® nominations, and won three including Best Picture of 1972. The Godfather Part II In what is undeniably one of the best sequels ever made, Francis Ford Coppola continues his epic Godfather trilogy with this saga of two generations of power within the Corleone family. Coppola, working once again with the author Mario Puzo, crafts two interwoven stories that work as both prequel and sequel to the original. One shows the humble Sicilian beginnings and New York rise of a young Don Vito, now played in an Oscar®-winning* performance for Best Supporting Actor by Robert De Niro. The other shows the ascent of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the cast members who helped make The Godfather™, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision; the film received eleven Academy Awards® nominations, winning six including Best Picture of 1974. Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, director/screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his epic Godfather trilogy Mario Puzo's THE GODFATHER Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now in his 60s, seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. The film's meticulously restored picture and sound, under the supervision of American Zoetrope and Paramount Pictures, includes a new beginning and ending, as well as changes to scenes, shots, and music cues. The resulting project reflects author Mario Puzo and Coppola's original intentions of The Godfather: Part III, and delivers, in the words of Coppola, A more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.

• NCIS: The Twentieth Season | DVD | (20/11/2023) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  After the cliffhanger finale in Season 19, Special Agent Alden Parker is still on the run while the NCIS team investigates how to clear his name. Enlisting the help of NCIS: Hawaii special agents, the team tracks down their prime suspect: The Raven. Season 20 of NCIS gives a peek into the personal lives of the agents as well as following even more intriguing cases.

• The Taking of Pelham One Two Three Limited Edition Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (09/06/2025) from £19.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Strap yourself in for the edge-of-your-seat thrill ride that wrote the rulebook on high-stakes heist movies Joseph Sargent's 1974 masterclass in relentless suspense, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. Beneath the streets of Manhattan, on an afternoon like any other, four armed men hijack a subway carriage, demanding a $1 million ransom within an hour or they'll start executing their hostages. Upstairs, in the New York Transit Authority's control room, world-weary transit cop Lt Garber (Walter Matthau) is forced into a deadly game of cat and mouse with the cool, calculating Mr Blue (Robert Shaw), parrying the demands of both the hijackers and the city's authorities as the clock counts down to the fateful deadline. One of the seminal New York crime films of the seventies, shot on location and oozing period detail and authenticity, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three boasts pitch-perfect performances, pitch-black humour, an unrelenting pace and an unforgettable score by David Shire. Oft-imitated, never bettered, this rugged gem of Hollywood heist cinema remains a perennial classic of the genre and one hell of a ride. Gesundheit! LIMITED EDITION CONTENTS ¢ 4K restoration from the original camera negative ¢ High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation ¢ Original lossless mono audio ¢ Optional lossless 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio remix ¢ Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing ¢ Audio commentary by film historians Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson ¢ Audio commentary by actor/filmmaker Pat Healy and film programmer/historian Jim Healy ¢ The Mapping of Pelham One Two Three brand new then and now tour of the film's locations by critic Bryan Reesman, featuring Jodi Shapiro, curator of the New York Transit Museum ¢ Central to Pelham One Two Three brand new filmed appreciation by Barry Forshaw, author of American Noir ¢ 12 Minutes with Mr. Grey and Shades of Grey two interviews with actor Hector Elizondo ¢ Cutting on Action 2016 interview with editor Gerald B. Greenberg ¢ The Sound of the City 2016 interview with composer David Shire ¢ Above and Below 2018 interview with director of photography Owen Roizman ¢ Taking the Ride 2018 featurette exploring the film's New York City locations ¢ The Making of Pelham One Two Three vintage production featurette from the point of view of real-life New York City transit policeman Carmine Foresta ¢ Theatrical trailer ¢ TV spot ¢ Radio spots ¢ Image and poster gallery ¢ Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Sam Hadley ¢ Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Priscilla Page, Glenn Kenny, Mark Cunliffe and Guy Adams

• The Godfather Trilogy | DVD | (21/03/2022) from £21.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Francis Ford Coppola's master adaptation of Mario Puzo's novel chronicles the dramatic, and often violent, rise and fall of the Corleone family. Collected here on DVD for the first time is Coppola and Puzo's definitive, intended version of The Godfather saga in three distinct motion picture events: the Best Picture Oscar® winners The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, and the acclaimed The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. It's not just essential cinema ... this is an offer you can't refuse. The Godfather Regarded as one of the best American films ever by the American Film Institute, Francis Ford Coppola's epic masterpiece features Marlon Brando in his Oscar®-winning* role as the patriarch of the Corleone family. The Godfather™ is a violent and chilling portrait of the Sicilian family's struggle to stay in power in a post-war America of corruption, deceit and betrayal. Coppola begins his legendary trilogy, masterfully balancing the story of the Corleone's family life and the ugly crime business in which they are engaged. Based on Mario Puzo's best-selling novel and featuring career-making performances by Al Pacino, James Caan and Robert Duvall, this searing and brilliant film garnered ten Academy Award® nominations, and won three including Best Picture of 1972. The Godfather Part II In what is undeniably one of the best sequels ever made, Francis Ford Coppola continues his epic Godfather trilogy with this saga of two generations of power within the Corleone family. Coppola, working once again with the author Mario Puzo, crafts two interwoven stories that work as both prequel and sequel to the original. One shows the humble Sicilian beginnings and New York rise of a young Don Vito, now played in an Oscar®-winning* performance for Best Supporting Actor by Robert De Niro. The other shows the ascent of Michael (Al Pacino) as the new Don. Reassembling many of the cast members who helped make The Godfather™, Coppola has produced a movie of staggering magnitude and vision; the film received eleven Academy Awards® nominations, winning six including Best Picture of 1974. Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death Of Michael Corleone Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of The Godfather: Part III, director/screenwriter Francis Ford Coppola brings a definitive new edit and restoration of the final film in his epic Godfather trilogy Mario Puzo's THE GODFATHER Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone. Michael Corleone (Al Pacino), now in his 60s, seeks to free his family from crime and find a suitable successor to his empire. That successor could be fiery Vincent (Andy Garcia)... but he may also be the spark that turns Michael's hope of business legitimacy into an inferno of mob violence. The film's meticulously restored picture and sound, under the supervision of American Zoetrope and Paramount Pictures, includes a new beginning and ending, as well as changes to scenes, shots, and music cues. The resulting project reflects author Mario Puzo and Coppola's original intentions of The Godfather: Part III, and delivers, in the words of Coppola, A more appropriate conclusion to The Godfather and The Godfather: Part II.

• Karen Pirie Series 2 | Unknown | (31/12/2099) from £20.89   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Truly, Madly, Deeply | DVD | (05/03/2018) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Truly Madly Deeply is an intelligent, moving, and deeply funny story about love and death. Nina (Juliet Stevenson), a scatterbrained professional translator, has lost the love of her life, Jamie (Alan Rickman). As her life (and her flat) slowly falls to pieces, she is inundated with an endless stream of repairmen and eligible suitors. But rather than go on with life, Nina dwells on her dead love, slumped at her piano, endlessly playing half of a Bach duet. Then, in a truly magical sequence, his cello suddenly joins her melody... and Jamie's back from the dead. At first it's bliss--think of the superficially similar blockbuster Ghost, only with real people instead of pretty faces Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze. But Nina gradually realises it's a thoroughly real Jamie who's back; complete with every annoying, argumentative fault she'd conveniently forgotten. (He might be dead, he explains, but he still attends political meetings.) Moreover, he has to hide whenever any of the living are around. And he's constantly ice-cold. And he invites his dead pals to her place at all hours. What's a living woman to do? Director Anthony Minghella went on to create the melodramatic period piece The English Patient--but in this film, he shows a far more sensitive, subtle touch. The photography is brilliant, capturing the simple beauties of suburban London. And the wonderfully acted characters, quirky and all too real, will keep you laughing--and always guessing what will happen next.--Grant Balfour, Amazon.com

• Withnail And I | DVD | (09/02/2015) from £8.99   |  Saving you £1.00 (11.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  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

• Gone With The Wind (2020 update) | DVD | (15/09/2020) from £6.42   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This includes Commentary by Historian Rudy Behlmer. In 1939, David O. Selznick's epic Academy Award®-winning* masterpiece swept away audiences and defined what a Hollywood blockbuster should be: fearless filmmaking with a grand scope, intimate drama and enduring romance... all in stunning Technicolor®. Seventy-five years later, Gone with the Wind remains as breathtaking as ever. Come home to Scarlett O'Hara, Rhett Butler and more of the most beloved and iconic characters of all time. Come home to Tara.

• Beautiful Boy | DVD | (20/05/2019) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring Academy Award® nominees Steve Carell (Foxcatcher, The Big Short) and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Beautiful Boy is a deeply moving portrait of a family's unwavering love and commitment to each other in the face of their son's addiction and his attempts at recovery. As Nic repeatedly relapses, the Sheff's are faced with the harsh reality that addiction is a disease that does not discriminate and can hit any family at any time. From the producers of Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave and adapted from David and Nic Sheff's best-selling memoirs by BAFTA Award winner Luke Davies (Lion), Beautiful Boy is a searingly honest account of the ways addiction can destroy lives and the power of love to rebuild them.

• The Bridges Of Madison County | DVD | (25/09/1998) from £7.19   |  Saving you £6.80 (94.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Some called it a snooze-fest, while others tearfully clutched their Kleenex. In any case, Clint Eastwood was an unusual and (as it turned out) perceptive choice to direct and costar in this lush adaptation of Robert James Waller's phenomenally bestselling novel. Meryl Streep costars as Francesca, the lonely Iowa farmer's wife who is instantly attracted to Robert (Eastwood), the photographer from National Geographic who is in the area to photograph the bridges along Iowa's rural roadways. The two fall in love while Francesca's husband and children are away at a county fair, but the story's passion and lasting appeal derive from their decision to part forever after just a few brief days of intimate connection. Superbly acted with an emphasis on quiet, graceful moments of tender revelation, the film builds to a crescendo of powerful and conflicting emotions. Like David Lean's Brief Encounter (to which it bears marked similarities), The Bridges of Madison County is destined to become one of the classic film love stories. --Jeff Shannon

• In the Mood for Love (2000) Criterion Collection UK Only - Original title: Fa yeung nin wah | Blu Ray | (14/11/2022) from £22.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hong Kong, 1962: Chow Mo-Wan (Chungking Express's TONY LEUNG CHIU-WAI) and Su Li-Zhen (Irma Vep's MAGGIE CHEUNG MAN-YUK) move into neighbouring apartments on the same day. Their encounters are formal and polite-until a discovery about their spouses creates an intimate bond between them. At once delicately mannered and visually extravagant, WONG KAR WAI's In the Mood for Love is a masterful evocation of romantic longing and fleeting moments. With its aching soundtrack and exquisitely abstract cinematography by CHRISTOPHER DOYLE and MARK LEE PING-BING, this film has been a major stylistic influence on the past two decades of cinema, and is a milestone in Wong's redoubtable career. Product Features 4K Digital restoration with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack, both supervised and approved by director Wong Kar Wai Documentary from 2001 by Wong, chronicling the making of the film Hua yang de nian hua (2000), a short film by Wong Interview and cinema lesson from 2001 featuring Wong Press conference from the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival with actors Maggie Cheung Man-yuk and Tony Leung Chiu-wai Interview from 2012 with critic Tony Rayns about the soundtrack Deleted scenes with optional commentary by Wong Music video Trailer PLUS: A new essay by novelist Charles Yu

• Flashdance | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £5.23   |  Saving you £12.02 (302.77%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Flashdance was the aspirational feel-good movie of 1983, with its thudding Giorgio Moroder soundtrack, Fame-meets-An Officer and a Gentleman storyline and a doe-eyed but iron-willed heroine played by the promising Jennifer Beals. By day Alex (Beals) is a Pittsburgh welder. By night she dances self-choreographed pieces for beer swillers in a seedy nightclub. Then she goes home and dreams of entering the city's ballet school and a professional career. Adrian Lyne's film is full of compromises. It never really gets to grips with Alex's misfit status in a male-dominated world. And in the end, she is given the leg-up she needs by her boss (Michael Nouri) who won't take "no" for an answer. That's called stalking these days. But Flashdance also has some fascinating surreal moments. The infernal qualities of life on an industrial site are well described by good lighting and the dances take on a bizarre life of their own within the film. Beals is often in shadowy long shot for these scenes and, in fact, most of the actual dancing was done by a more qualified stand-in. On the DVD: Flashdance is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround soundtrack. On disc the film still pulsates with that 1980s anything-is-possible energy. Apart from standard subtitle options and scene selections, there are no extras. --Piers Ford

• Jersey Boys | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The film tells the story of four young men from the wrong side of the tracks in New Jersey who came together to form the iconic 1960s rock group The Four Seasons.