Drama

• The Way We Were | DVD | (24/07/2000) from £7.55   |  Saving you £12.44 (164.77%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A classic early 1970s weepie, The Way We Were stars Barbra Streisand as a Communist activist in the late 30s and 40s and Robert Redford as the ambitious young writer who marries her, cheats on her and eventually leaves her in the early days of McCarthyism for the sake of his Hollywood screenwriting career. Arthur Laurent's intelligent screenplay, remarkable performances from the two stars and Marvin Hamlisch's Oscar-winning score and theme song combined to produce a film that even as hostile a critic as Pauline Kael had to admit worked. On the DVD: The DVD re-release includes the usual subtitling facilities, the theatre trailer and a documentary on the film's making, which includes one of the more political scenes deleted for commercial release; it is also possible to watch the film with a detailed commentary from Sydney Pollack about the problems of its making, problems which included writing new scenes so that Redford was not entirely upstaged by Streisand in the audience's sympathies. --Roz Kaveney

• Out Of Africa | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £6.90   |  Saving you £9.09 (131.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Winner of seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Out of Africa seems to have slipped more readily from public memory than other comparably lauded films. Yet Sidney Pollack's panoramic treatment of Karen Blixen's novel has retained its atmosphere and slow-burning emotion, and deserves reassessment. Meryl Streep is in her possibly most involving starring role as Baroness Karen Blixen, Danish free spirit whose ill-fated venture at the beginning of World War One to run a coffee plantation in Kenya is overlaid by her intimate yet distant relationship with adventurer and idealist Denys Finch Hatton, unselfconsciously portrayed by Robert Redford. Klaus Maria Brandauer puts in a rare and convincing English-language appearance as the amoral but charming womaniser Baron Bror Blixen. The film is tellingly held together by Kurt Luedke's finely honed screenplay, and John Barry's sumptuously expressive score. On the DVD: The anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen format reproduces superbly, as does the 4.1 discrete audio. 18 access points are provided, with printed and aural subtitles in English only. Pollack's feature commentary is amusing enough on a single run-through, but an on-location documentary would have been preferable. Production notes and biographies are very adequate, though the theatrical trailer reproduction is notably inferior. No matter, this is a major film, well worth the transfer to DVD.--Richard Whitehouse

• Dead Poets Society | DVD | (13/05/2002) from £6.95   |  Saving you £9.04 (130.07%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Robin Williams stars as an English teacher who doesn't fit into the conservative prep school where he teaches but his charisma and love of poetry inspires several boys to revive a secret society with a bohemian bent. The script is well-meaning but a little trite, though director Peter Weir (The Truman Show) adds layers of emotional depth in scenes of conflict between the kids and adults. (A subplot involving one father's terrible pressure on his son--played by Robert Sean Leonard--to drop his interest in the theatre reaches heartbreaking proportions). Williams is given plenty of latitude to work in his brand of improvisational humour, though it is all well-woven into his character's style of instruction. --Tom Keogh

• Vice | DVD | (03/06/2019) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From Adam McKay, the Oscar-winning co-writer and director of The Big Short and featuring transformative performances from Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Sam Rockwell and Steve Carell, Vice is the unmissable, hilarious and most relevant film of the year. The untold and epic true story of how Dick Cheney, a bureaucratic Washington insider, quietly became the most powerful man in the world as Vice-President to George W. Bush, reshaping the country and the globe in ways that we still feel today.

• The Chelsea Detective: Series 1-3 | Unknown | (09/06/2025) from £55.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Castaway | Blu Ray | (24/03/2025) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  HIGH-DEFINITION BLU-RAY PRESENTATION 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio Commentary by Film Historians Eugenio Ercolani, Troy Howarth and Nathaniel Thompson Audio Commentary by Film Journalist David Flint SDH Subtitles Trailer Stills Gallery ¢ Presented in a double-walled slipcase featuring new artwork by Sean Longmore

• Forrest Gump - Single Disc (*3 DVDs for £15) | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (107.84%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Forrest Gump is the movie triumph that became a phenomenon. Tom Hanks gives an astonishing performance as Forrest an everyman whose simple innocence comes to embody a generation. Winner of six Academy Awards including Best Picture Best Director (Robert Zemeckis) and Best Actor (Tom Hanks).

• Eat, Pray, Love | DVD | (07/02/2011) from £2.00   |  Saving you £17.99 (899.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) had everything a modern woman is supposed to dream of having - a husband, a house, a successful career - yet like so many others, she found herself lost, confused, and searching for what she really wanted in life.

• The Blind Side | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £2.46   |  Saving you £17.53 (712.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sandra Bullock ("The Proposal") and Tim McGraw ("Friday Night Lights") star in "The Blind Side," which depicts the remarkable true story of All-American football star Michael Oher.

• 9.1/2 Weeks | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £8.25   |  Saving you £4.74 (57.45%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Frequently given short shrift as soft porn (which it is) and as mindless (which it isn't), director Adrian Lyne's follow-up to Flashdance (insert own joke here) is a thoughtful, smutty film about a bad sexual relationship. It follows the two-month affair between Elizabeth, an art-gallery dealer, and John, a Wall Street executive. The relationship spirals downward into raunchier sex (filmed, by the way, quite nicely) but principally is about two adults doing adult things but not acting anything like real adults. Attempts at actual human connection, about the longing to be "good", are present here and make this an above-average erotic film. Rourke is just honing his scumbag, bad-boy persona; but it doesn't overwhelm. At least there's lots and lots of Kim Basinger. --Keith Simanton, Amazon.com

• The Lady in the Van | DVD | (07/03/2016) from £7.55   |  Saving you £12.44 (164.77%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two-time Oscar® winner and star of Downton Abbey, Dame Maggie Smith, recreates one of her most celebrated roles the singular Miss Shepherd in THE LADY IN THE VAN, Alan Bennett's big-screen comedic adaptation of his own iconic memoir and honoured stage play. Based on the true story of Miss Shepherd (played two time Academy Award-winner® Maggie Smith Best Actress, 1970, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie; Best Supporting Actress, California Suite, 1979), a woman of uncertain origins who temporarily parks her van in Alan Bennett's (Alex Jennings) London driveway and proceeds to live there for 15 years. What begins as a begrudged favour becomes a relationship that will change both their lives. Acclaimed director Nicholas Hytner reunites with iconic writer Alan Bennett to create this rare and touching portrait. Special Features: The Making of THE LADY IN THE VAN featurette The Visual Effects featurette Playing the Lady: Maggie Smith as Miss Shepherd featurette Commentary with Nicholas Hytner Deleted Scenes Click Images to Enlarge

• The Mummy Trilogy | Blu Ray | (24/03/2025) from £13.60   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | DVD | (21/05/2018) from £4.88   |  Saving you £1.55 (31.76%)   |  RRP £6.43

  Award-winning actress Frances McDormand (Fargo) delivers a stunningly powerful performance in this darkly comic drama that has been hailed as one of the year's best films. A murdered girl's defiant mother (McDormand) boldly paints three local signs with a controversial message, igniting a furious battle with a volatile cop (Sam Rockwell) and the town's revered chief of police (Woody Harrelson.)

• Line of Duty - Series 1-6 Complete Box Set | DVD | (31/05/2021) from £39.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the creator and producers of Bodyguard. This thrilling British police drama has earned universal praise for its nail-biting action, complex characters, and intricate plotting (TV Guide). At anti-corruption unit AC-12, Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar, Blood) leads his team of DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston, The Nest) and DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure, This Is England) in investigating suspected cases of police corruption•and in the process, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that reaches to the heights of the force. Includes: Five behind-the-scenes featurettes, Actor filmographies, picture galleries.

• Shakespeare ReTold | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £27.99   |  Saving you £-8.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Four of Shakespeare's best known plays are interpreted into modern settings by some of Britain's leading television writers. A Midsummer Night's Dream: Adapted by Peter Bowker (Blackpool) and stars Imelda Staunton Bill Patterson Rupert Evans and Johnny Vegas. This rewrite takes place during a weekend in a holiday park. Theo and Polly have come to Dream Park to celebrate their daughter Hermia's engagement. But the course of true love never did run smooth and t

• The Longest Ride | DVD | (02/11/2015) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From master storyteller Nicholas Spark (The Notebook, Message in a Bottle, Dear John) comes an unforgettable tale of two intertwining love stories.

• Smiley's People | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £5.90   |  Saving you £4.09 (69.32%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The second of the BBC's well-regarded serialisations of John Le Carré's espionage bestsellers, Smiley's People is slightly less compulsively watchable than Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy if only because Tinker, Tailor had a much stronger plot premise (who is the mole in British Intelligence?) than Smiley's People, which takes a very long time to come into focus. Retired spymaster George Smiley (Alec Guinness) wanders around Europe and visits a succession of desperate or eccentric characters as he plays a game which finally leads to another confrontation with and a possible victory over his Moriarty-like Soviet arch-nemesis Karla (an expressive but silent Patrick Stewart). Directed by Simon Langton and coscripted by John Hopkins and Le Carré this is a leisurely mystery. It offers a cannily generous central performance from Guinness, who never takes off his scarf and does his best to fade into the background while a succession of striking character players hold centre screen; but slowly and by sheer presence he begins to dominate the panoramic view of European treachery, deception, and disappointment. Among the terrific supporting cast are Michel Lonsdale, Mario Adorf, Vladek Sheybal, Michael Gough, Alan Rickman (a tiny, early role as a hotel clerk), Beryl Reid, Ingrid Pitt, Bernard Hepton, Michael Elphick, Rosalie Crutchley, Michael Byrne, Bill Paterson, and Maureen Lipman. Smiley's People is more interested in character than thrills, with each cameo contributing another view of the human cost of the cold war: most of the old friends Smiley seeks out react to his reappearance by saying they never wanted to see him again, and victory is only possible because Smiley discovers that his opposite number has a weakness that makes him almost sympathetic. It was originally broadcast in six hour-long episodes, and its intelligent approach works better if you watch episode-length chunks, letting one sink in before going on. --Kim Newman

• The Killing Fields | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £6.60   |  Saving you £9.39 (142.27%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When the Khmer Rouge captured the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh in 1975 many thought the killing would end. Instead it started a long nightmare in which three million Cambodians would lose their lives in the killing fields... The Killing Fields is an epic true story of friendship and survival produced by David Puttnam (Chariots of Fire) and directed by Roland Joffe (The Mission). Sam Waterston plays Sydney Schanberg whose war coverage entraps him and other journalists in Cambodia's turbulent politics. Dr. Haing S. Ngor is Dith Pran Schanberg's aide and friend who saves them from execution. But Pran is sentenced to work in the labour camps enduring starvation and torture before attempting an escape to neighbouring Thailand.... In real life Dr Ngor also endured Khmer Rouge atrocities and saw his moving Oscar-winning portrayal of Pran (one of the film's three Academy Awards) as a way of bringing his nation's tragic ordeal to light.

• Much Ado About Nothing | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £6.89   |  Saving you £9.10 (132.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)--adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other--the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh has rounded up a mixed cast of stage vets and Hollywood stars, among the latter Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton, the latter playing a rather seedy, Beetlejuice-like version of Dogberry, king of malapropisms.--Tom Keogh

• Grantchester: Series 8 | DVD | (19/02/2024) from £18.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Will's life has changed for the better. He is happily married to the brilliant Bonnie and due to become a father but his world is about to be rocked by a terrible accident. He's always preached the word of a compassionate God - but how can he now, when his despair leads him on a dangerous downward spiral? Geordie has found a new contentment in his relationship with Cathy but when they are both confronted with shock announcements at work their new-found happiness is threatened. As Mrs C, Leonard, Jack and Daniel rally around, both Will and Geordie find themselves in unfamiliar, emotional waters and murder is always around the corner. Series eight of Grantchester will range from speedway to spies, exploring the lives of invisible women and the very visible problems caused by Leonard's new vocation which may, once again, find him battling the law. Exploring faith, forgiveness, and redemption - this explosive series of Grantchester tests Will and Geordie to the limit.