Drama

• Darling | Blu Ray | (30/03/2015) from £10.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (109.19%)   |  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

• Fat City (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (17/05/2021) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  John Huston's sombre but compassionate boxing drama is a criminally underseen late-career masterpiece from the great director. Peppered with outstanding performances this gritty yet affectionate look at the world of small-time boxing highlights a down-and-out fighter and a young up-and-comer, both moving through a world of seedy gyms and flop houses. Special Features 4K restoration from the original negative Original mono audio Alternative 5.1 surround sound track Audio commentary by film historians Lem Dobbs and Nick Redman (2015) Sucker Punch Blues: Looking Back on John Huston's 'Fat City' (2017, 55 mins): documentary featuring interviews with actors Stacy Keach and Candy Clark, casting director Fred Roos and assistant cameraman Gary Vidor An American Classic (2015, 22 mins): illustrated audio interview with Fat City author Leonard Gardner John Huston on 'Fat City' (1972, 6 mins): archival interview filmed for the French TV programme Pour le cinéma The John Player Lecture with John Huston (1972, 88 mins): audio recording of an interview conducted by Brian Baxter at the National Film Theatre, London Isolated score Original theatrical trailer Image gallery New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• Boyhood 4K UHD | Blu Ray | (20/01/2025) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From Richard Linklater, the director of Slacker, Dazed & Confused and Before Sunrise, Boyhood is a ground-breaking cinematic achievement; a fictional drama made with the same group of actors over a 12-year period. At once epic and intimate, it is a one-of-a-kind trip through the exhilaration of childhood, the seismic shifts of modern family life, and the passage of time itself. Dreamy-eyed grade-schooler Mason (Ellar Coltrane) is facing upheaval: his struggling single mom Olivia (Patricia Arquette) has decided to move him and older sister Samantha (Lorelei Linklater) to Houston just as their long-absent father Mason Sr. (Ethan Hawke) re-enters their world. Thus begins a decade of constantly unfolding heartbreak and wonder. Against the tide of family moves and controversies, faltering marriages and re-marriages, new schools, first loves, lost loves, good times and scary times that will shape him, Mason emerges to find his own road in life. A remarkable achievement that builds on Linklater's fascination with time, relationships and the ever-changing nature of our lives, Boyhood is a deeply moving experience that found praise from critics around the world and went on to win the award for Best Film at both the Golden Globes and British Academy Film Awards in 2015. 4K ULTRA HD SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS - 4K (2160p) UHD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) - Lossless DTS HD MA 5.1 audio - Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - Without Ambition, One Starts Nothing, a featurette featuring American poet and critic Dan Chiasson in conversation with his son Louis Chiasson about their shared love and connection to the film - In Search of Lost Time, a visual essay by critic and film-maker Scout Tafoya - Before and After Boyhood, an interview with Richard Linklater by film critic Rob Stone, author of Walk, Don't Run: The Cinema of Richard Linklater - Richard Linklater at the BFI, director Richard Linklater discusses Boyhood and his whole career in this on stage appearance at the British Film Institute - Theatrical trailer - Image gallery

• 28 Days | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £3.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (50.13%)   |  RRP £5.99

  28 DAYS, the story of Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock), a successful New York writer living in the fast lane and everyone's favorite party girl.

• Hellevator | DVD | (27/11/2006) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set almost entirely in the claustrophic transport elevator between towns stacked on top of one another where a hellish scenario unfolds. The postmodern masses that squeeze into this public transport system are Cell-phone addicted businessmen a child with a human brain as a pet leather clad law enforcers and a 17 year old schoolgirl with psychic abilities. They are joined by a pair of convicted homicidal rapists and soon the order of society is torn apart. Outbursts of excessive vi

• Choke | DVD | (23/03/2009) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (65.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the leftfield author that brought you "Fight Club" comes a surreal romantic antihero for our times, one Mr. Victor Mancini (Sam Rockwell).

• Baffled | DVD | (17/05/2010) from £12.45   |  Saving you £0.54 (4.34%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Who dares to walk the line between life and death? Star Trek icon Leonard Nimoy, Susan Hampshire and Vera Miles star in this eerie story of revenge and murder from beyond the grave. Baffl ed, an intriguing ITC pilot for a never-completed series, is directed by Phillip Leacock and also stars Rachel Roberts, Christopher Benjamin, Angharad Rees and Ray Brooks. Tom Kovak is a hard-nosed racing driver, until a sudden supernatural vision causes him to lose control of his car as he hurtles along at 140 miles per hour. Michele Brent is the woman who convinces Tom that his apparitions are signifi cant. When she leads him to the manor house of his vision, he meets glamorous fi lm star Andrea Glenn and her daughter, Jennifer, whose screaming image was the last thing he saw before his near-fatal crash. Despite Tom's initial doubts, he is inextricably drawn into their lives, as together they combat a force that they cannot see, but can feel only too well. An ominous, vengeful presence engulfs the manor house. Its only aim is death, and its intended victim is Andrea; little Jennifer is its weapon. Tom must now find the means to tap his powers. It is their only hope...

• Fools Rush In | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £7.07   |  Saving you £-1.08 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Opposites attract in Fools Rush In, a conventional but refreshingly unpredictable romantic comedy. New York nightclub designer (Matthew Perry, from television's Friends) is in Las Vegas to supervise the construction of a new project when he meets a fiery Mexican beauty (Salma Hayek). It's lust at first sight, and their one-night stand takes an unexpected turn when she shows up three months later to announce that she's pregnant. They're determined to do right for each other, so they get married in a Vegas chapel with an Elvis impersonator as their witness. Then comes the hard part--trying to figure out if they're actually compatible. The plot complications are mostly familiar, but Perry and Hayek throw some bright sparks as their initial bliss turns to more realistic concerns for family and future. Along the way there's some sharp dialogue and a few good laughs to give this all-too-human comedy an enjoyable spin. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Vera - Series 2 | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £12.89   |  Saving you £12.10 (93.87%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The first series of Vera may have left the show a little bit of work to do, but this follow-up run of stories improves things with considerable skill. The basic premise remains similar. Vera follows the work of Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope, a woman driven to solve crime, whilst battling a catalogue of problems of her own. So far, so conventional. Television is hardly short of detectives, after all. But Vera has a trump card, and her name is Brenda Blethyn. The Oscar-nominated actress gives a considered performance in the title role, and the lends the show the gravitas it needs to keep us hooked. Blethyn is front and centre for much of the four episodes collected together here, and it's a complex collection of cases she's presented with. For instance, she has to face the mysterious suicide of a former colleague, and the odd murder of a social worker, each of which comes with a labyrinthine backstory that Vera needs to get to grips with. There are still problems with Vera that this second series doesn't completely solve. Based once more on Ann Cleeves' novels, the wonderful Blethyn has proven to be a divisive choice amongst hardened fans of the books, and whilst her character is deepened here, more work on the writing and less reliance on the leading actress would serve the show well. That said, her adventures here are fleshed out, interesting, and intriguing to watch. And Vera continues, as it did in the second half of its maiden series, to improve. Well worth a look. --Jon Foster

• A.I. Artificial Intelligence | DVD | (18/03/2002) from £5.49   |  Saving you £8.50 (154.83%)   |  RRP £13.99

  History will place an asterisk next to A.I. as the film Stanley Kubrick might have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick--after developing this project for some 15 years--wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of Pinocchio, claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg's kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (based on the Brain Aldiss short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long") after Kubrick's death in 1999, and the result is an astounding directorial hybrid. A flawed masterpiece of sorts, in which Spielberg's gift for wondrous enchantment often clashes (and sometimes melds) with Kubrick's harsher vision of humanity, the film spans near and distant futures with the fairy-tale adventures of an artificial boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), a marvel of cybernetic progress who wants only to be a real boy, loved by his mother in that happy place called home. Echoes of Spielberg's Empire of the Sun are evident as young David, shunned by his trial parents and tossed into an unfriendly world, is joined by fellow "mecha" Gigolo Joe (played with a dancer's agility by Jude Law) in his quest for a mother-and-child reunion. Parallels to Pinocchio intensify as David reaches "the end of the world" (a Manhattan flooded by melted polar ice caps), and a far-future epilogue propels A.I. into even deeper realms of wonder, just as it pulls Spielberg back to his comfort zone of sweetness and soothing sentiment. Some may lament the diffusion of Kubrick's original vision, but this is Spielberg's A.I., a film of astonishing technical wizardry that spans the spectrum of human emotions and offers just enough Kubrick to suggest that humanity's future is anything but guaranteed. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: A perfect movie for the digital age, A.I. finds a natural home on DVD. The purity of the picture, its carefully composed colour schemes and the multifarious sound effects are accorded the pin-point sharpness they deserve with the anamorphic 1.85:1 picture and Dolby 5.1 sound, as is John Williams's thoughtful music score. On the first disc there's a short yet revealing documentary, "Creating A.I.", but the meat of the extras appears on disc two. Here there are good, well-made featurettes on acting, set design, costumes, lighting, sound design, music and various aspects of the special effects: Stan Winston's remarkable robots (including Teddy, of course) and ILM's flawless CGI work. In addition there are storyboards, photographs and trailers. Finally, Steven Spielberg provides some rather sententious closing remarks ("I think that we have to be very careful about how we as a species use our genius"), but no director's commentary. --Mark Walker

• Entourage: The Movie | DVD | (26/10/2015) from £8.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Movie star Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), together with his boys, Eric (Kevin Connoly), Turtle (Jerry Ferrara) and Johnny (Kevin Dillon), are back...and back in business with super agent-turned-studio head Ari Gold (Jeremy Piven). Some of their ambitions have changed, but the bond between them remains strong as they navigate the capricious and often cutthroat world of Hollywood. Click Images to Enlarge

• The Taming Of The Shrew | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £14.96   |  Saving you £5.03 (33.62%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1967 Franco Zeffirelli film of The Taming of the Shrew had all the ingredients to make it a high point in Shakespearian cinema. In Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor it starred the most bankable couple in Hollywood history as the sparring leads in the Bard's quick-firing comic battle of the sexes; and in Zeffirelli, it had a director with a Shakespearian pedigree second to none. But the reality is that this is Burton's picture all the way. His Petruchio is a weighty performance of such intelligence that the whole film is thrown off-kilter whenever he is on screen and the other performers just can't keep up. Apart from Michael Hordern's wonderfully distracted Baptista, Burton is the only actor in total, effortless command of the language. Taylor's bosomy glamour and fiery spirit are ample compensations for her occasionally murderous treatment of Katharina's verse. Whether or not she is really tamed by the end is another matter: those legendary violet eyes suggest otherwise. Ultimately it's a rich, bawdy and colourful romp, with Burton at the peak of his powers. The DVD includes the theatrical trailer, a "making-of" featurette and filmographies. --Piers Ford

• Beyond The Sea | DVD | (18/04/2005) from £6.20   |  Saving you £13.79 (222.42%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Double Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey directs and stars in this biopic of popular crooner Bobby Darin.

• Stronger | DVD | (09/04/2018) from £6.19   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Stronger is the inspiring true story of Jeff Bauman, an ordinary man who captured the hearts of his city and the world to become the symbol of hope following the infamous 2013 Boston Marathon bombing. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Jeff, a 27-year-old, working-class Boston man who was at the marathon to try and win back his ex-girlfriend Erin (Tatiana Maslany). Waiting for her at the finish line when the blast occurs, he loses both his legs in the attack. After regaining consciousness in the hospital, Jeff is able to help law enforcement identify one of the bombers, but his own battle has just begun. He tackles months of physical and emotional rehabilitation with the unwavering support of Erin and his family. It is Jeff's deeply personal account of the heroic journey that tests a family's bond, defines a community's pride and inspires his inner courage to overcome devastating adversity. Filled with raw emotion, humanity and humor, Stronger is the inspirational real-life story of the man who became the living embodiment of Boston Strong. The film also stars Academy Award® nominee Miranda Richardson and is directed by David Gordon Green.

• Shane Meadows Collections | DVD | (03/09/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Titles Comprise: Dead Man's Shoes: Two brothers return to the home town they left years previously. Richard the elder is strong and purposeful. Anthony is the younger more hesitant keen to mimic the actions of the sibling he reveres. As the brothers set up camp in the hills overlooking the town the local crew of small-time drug dealers begin to question their return. One by one they are tracked down by Richard as he embarks on a terrifying quest for revenge as a b

• An American Tragedy (Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (15/01/2024) from £19.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When jewel thief Madeleine (Dietrich) leaves Paris with a string of pearls, she conspires to smuggle them across the Spanish border with the unwitting assistance of American mechanic Tom (Cooper). But retrieving the jewels turns out to be harder than she thinks, and she finds herself falling for Tom. Product Features INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES 2019 restoration from a 4K scan Original mono audio Audio commentary with film historian Josh Nelson (2023) Tony Rayns on An American Tragedy (2023): extensive discussion of Josef von Sternbergs little-seen gem by the writer and film programmer Video essay by film historian Tag Gallagher Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Limited edition exclusive with a new essay by Imogen Sara Smith, archival interviews and articles, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and film credits World premiere on Blu-ray Limited edition of 3,000 copies for the UK All extras subject to change

• Wushu | DVD | (18/04/2011) from £12.39   |  Saving you £3.60 (29.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Ten years ago, five students joined a martial arts school and learned the disciplines of Wushu and the bonds of friendship. Today, both will be put to the test after they and a former student stumble into a child kidnapping ring.

• Mary, Queen of Scots | Blu Ray | (11/07/2022) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The historical rivalry between two of Britain's most fascinating monarchs is brought brilliantly to life in this thrilling period drama. When the Catholic Mary, Queen of Scots (Vanessa Redgrave) returns to her homeland to claim her throne, the court of her cousin, the Protestant Elizabeth I (Glenda Jackson) in neighbouring England, is thrown into turmoil, as the question of succession becomes an ever-pressing concern to the ˜Virgin Queen'. Political machinations and intrigue abound as the competing camps jostle for dominance, with the threat of the executioner's axe looming large. Stunning performances by Oscar-winners Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson are supported by a stellar ensemble cast including Trevor Howard, Ian Holm and Timothy Dalton, and an Oscar-nominated score by John Barry. Product Features Isolated John Barry score with commentary from film historians Nick Redman and Jon Burlingame Includes original overture and musical intermission Original promotional trailer Other extras TBC Newly commissioned reversible sleeve art by David Downton **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with new essays by Ellen Cheshire and John Oliver

• The Audrey Hepburn Story | DVD | (10/07/2000) from £8.95   |  Saving you £-2.97 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Jennifer Love Hewitt is a beautiful and talented actress with style and charm. She is not, however, Audrey Hepburn, and try as she might, she is unable to embody the gamine actress in the made-for-television biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story. Making the Hepburn bio was a gutsy move for Hewitt, and one has to admire her chutzpah. But the role, if it was to be dared, would have been better off in the hands of an unknown. As it is, it's difficult to shake the image of Hewitt in her television and teen roles, and while she mastered the wide-eyed look, her eyes are not doe-like enough and her accent borders on ludicrous. If you can move past this, though, the story of Hepburn's life--even given her do-gooder qualities--is interesting fodder for exploration, although at times the script feels as if it's trying to create tension where there is little. Desertion by her father, a brief stint in the resistance in wartime Netherlands, and affairs with fellow actors create drama, but not enough to enliven the film. Part of the problem is the entire film is told from flashback from the set of Breakfast at Tiffany's, so much of Hepburn's great work is left untouched. Yet, despite the flaws, fans will appreciate the paean to Hepburn, as we glimpse into the difficulties of her early career and her budding stardom. The two girls who play the childhood Hepburn excel in their roles, and the strong supporting cast--including Frances Fisher as her mother and Eric McCormack as Mel Ferrer--brighten the film, which ultimately brings a touch of Hepburn's elegance to our own humdrum lives. --Jenny Brown

• David Starkey's The Six Wives Of Henry VIII - The Complete Series | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £6.48   |  Saving you £13.51 (208.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Divorced beheaded died divorced beheaded survived. Six lives summed up in a school rhyme. The women who married Henry VIII have become defined not by the way they lived but by the way their lives ended. They are seen as victims of a bloated tyrant deserving pity but not respect. However have we under-estimated them and are historians right to have merely portrayed them as bit-part players in Henry's story? In this DVD Dr David Starkey reveals them to be vibrant powerful individuals who showed great dignity when faced with exile from the King's favour or even the executioner's axe in the Tower Of London. The series focuses on the stories of the women themselves revealing in intimate detail their experiences of sex childbirth and the glamorous dangerous life at court including the deadly intrigues that dethroned them.