Drama

• Marriage Story (2019) (Criterion Collection) UK Only | Blu Ray | (24/08/2020) from £26.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A love story about divorce. A marriage coming apart and a family coming together. Marriage Story is a hilarious and harrowing, sharply observed, and deeply compassionate film from the acclaimed writer-director NOAH BAUMBACH (The Squid and the Whale). ADAM DRIVER (BlacKkKlansman) and SCARLETT JOHANSSON (Under the Skin) deliver tour-de-force performances as Charlie, a charismatic New York theatre director wedded to his work, and Nicole, an actor who is ready to change her own life. Their hopes for an amicable divorce fade as they are drawn into a system that pits them against each other and forces them to redefine their relationship and their family. Featuring bravura, finely drawn supporting turns from ALAN ALDA (M*A*S*H), RAY LIOTTA (Goodfellas), and LAURA DERN (Certain Women)who won an Academy Award for her performance hereas the trio of lawyers who preside over the legal battle, Marriage Story (nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture) is a work of both intimacy and scope that ultimately invokes hope amid the ruins. Special Features: New 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Noah Baumbach, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray New interview with Baumbach The Players, a new programme featuring interviews with actors Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver, Laura Dern, Alan Alda, Julie Hagerty, and Ray Liotta The Filmmakers, a new programme about the production of the film, featuring interviews with Baumbach, editor Jennifer Lame, production designer Jade Healy, costume designer Mark Bridges, and producer David Heyman The Making of Marriage Story, a new programme featuring behind-the-scenes footage New interviews with composer Randy Newman and Baumbach about the film's score New programme featuring Baumbach walking the viewer through a key location from the film Trailers English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: Notes on the film by novelist Linn Ullmann

• The Kidnappers | DVD | (11/06/2012) from £13.05   |  Saving you £-0.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Directed by Philip Leacock (who was also nominated for The Jury's Grand Prize at Cannes in 1954 for this 1953 British film. Two Canadian orphans (Jon Whiteley & Vincent Winter) are starved for affection. Their cantankerous, self-absorbed grandfather (Duncan Macrae) pays very little attention to them. The boys borrow a baby so they can raise it as their very own, while the real parents--and the police--scour the countryside in search of the missing infant. Interesting to note that both Jon Whiteley & Vincent Winter won Honorary Juvenile Oscars for their perfomances.

• Can't Help Singing | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £5.98   |  Saving you £7.01 (117.22%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The only Deanna Durbin film made in colour Can't Help Singing was a spectacular musical triumph nominated for two Academy Awards and a real favourite with her fans. Featuring four great songs from Deanna Durbin - ""Can't Help Singing"" ""Any Moment Now"" ""More and More"" and ""Cal-i-for-ni-ay"" Can't Help Singing captures Deanna at her musical best.

• Red Corner | DVD | (01/02/2000) from £7.15   |  Saving you £8.84 (123.64%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Using a faulty thriller for his soapbox as an outspoken critic of China, a devout follower of the Dalai Lama, and an influential supporter of Tibetan freedom, Richard Gere resorts to the equivalent of propagandistic drama to deliver a heavy-handed message. In other words, Red Corner relies on a dubious strategy to promote political awareness, but director Jon Avnet appeals to the viewer's outrage with such effective urgency that you're likely to forget you're being shamelessly manipulated. Gere plays a downtrodden TV executive who sells syndicated shows on the global market, and during a business trip to China he finds himself framed for the murder of the sexy daughter of a high Chinese official. Once trapped in a legal system in which his innocence will be all but impossible to prove, Gere must rely on a Chinese-appointed lawyer (played by Bai Ling) who first advises him to plead guilty but gradually grows convinced of foul play. Barely attempting to hide its agenda, Red Corner effectively sets the stage for abundant anti-Chinese sentiment, and to be sure, the movie gains powerful momentum with its tale of justice gone awry. It's a serious-minded, high-intensity courtroom drama with noble intentions, but one wonder if it has to be so conspicuously lacking in subtlety. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• How to Have Sex | Blu Ray | (12/02/2024) from £14.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, How To have Sex is a vibrant and authentic depiction of the agonies, ecstasies and ride-or-die glory of young female friendship, from rising British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker. Three British teenage girls go on a rites-of-passage holiday, drinking, clubbing and hooking up in what should be the best summer of their lives. As they dance their way across the sun-drenched streets of Malia, they find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent and self-discovery. Captured with luminous visuals and a pitch-perfect soundtrack, Manning Walker's directorial debut paints a painfully familiar portrait of young adulthood, and how first sexual experiences should - or shouldn't - play out.

• Wild Orchid (1989) Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) | Blu Ray | (08/02/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Set in the sultry splendor of Rio de Janeiro, Wild Orchid stars Mickey Rourke (9 1/2 Weeks), Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt) and supermodel Carre Otis in a torrid (Variety) adventure of the senses. Filled with exotic settings (The Hollywood Reporter), it is a hypnotic odyssey that will leave you breathless and spellbound. Beautiful young attorney Emily Reed (Otis) travels to Rio to work with international negotiator Claudia Lirones (Bisset) on a multimillion-dollar deal. But once exposed to the raw sensuality of her surroundings, Emily is increasingly drawn into a world of erotic fantasy. Eager to guide Emily through this underworld is Claudia's old flame Wheeler (Rourke). Mysterious and seductive Wheeler unleashes Emily's most primitive desires... even as she threatens to unlock his world-weary heart. From director Zalman King (Red Shoe Diaries, Two Moon Junction) comes a tale of sex, passion and erotic taboos set against the backdrop of the rich and powerful. Wild Orchid will be released on Blu-ray in a Dual Format (Blu-ray & DVD) edition for the first time in the UK. Special Features Original theatrical trailerOptional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• Room | Blu Ray | (09/05/2016) from £8.95   |  Saving you £14.04 (156.87%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Ma has created a whole universe in 'Room' for five-year-old Jack, where they have both lived for Jack's whole life. But when Ma decides they have to escape, she risks everything to give Jack the chance to make a thrilling discovery: the world.

• Green Street | Blu Ray | (19/10/2020) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Rival football firms go head-to-head in this story of violence, adrenaline, loyalty, rivalry and back-street warfare. Matt Buckner (Elijah Wood) moves to London after being kicked out of Harvard University for alleged drug dealing. Before long he gets sucked into the hardcore world of booze, balls and violence with London's toughest football firm- the Green Street Elite. While Matt's busy proving himself in battle, a chain of events is set in motion that threatens to destroy everything he holds dear.

• Long Hot Summer, The | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Paul Newman plays Ben Quick, the mysterious drifter who stirs up a town and its women when he hitches up in Frenchman's Bend, Mississippi, where life is dominated by elderly patriarch Will Varner (Orson Welles). Will's daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) and son Jody (Anthony Franciosa) are a disappointment to him. While Jody spends his time fooling around with his alluring wife, Eula (Lee Remick), the strong-willed Clara is courted by Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson), a milquetoast mama's boy. Will himself is resisting being pressured into marriage by his long-term mistress Minnie (Angela Lansbury), but he sees in Ben the passion and drive that Jody lacks. He invites Ben to live with the family, and Ben launches a relentless campaign to break Clara's will and win her heart. This proves the final straw for Jody, who is driven to desperate measures to prove his manhood a situation that sparks both deadly danger and shocking revelations over the course of one long, hot summer.

• The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas | DVD | (09/03/2009) from £4.96   |  Saving you £13.03 (262.70%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Adapted from John Boyne's best-selling novel, "The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas" is a moving story told through the eyes of an eight year old boy largely shielded from the reality of World War II.

• Monarch Of The Glen - Series 5 - Part 2 | DVD | (27/12/2004) from £4.20   |  Saving you £17.05 (579.93%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Monarch Of The Glen is the story of an extraordinary family in an extraordinary place. Archie MacDonald is the young Laird of Glenbogle a 40 000 acre estate in the Scottish Highlands. He and Lexie return home after their round the world honeymoon however Archie is restless. After years of financial struggle Glenbogle is finally solvent and Archie needs a new challenge. He finds the prospect of a job in New York very tempting and Lexie is horrified that he would even consider such a

• Rams | DVD | (30/05/2016) from £6.89   |  Saving you £11.10 (161.10%)   |  RRP £17.99

  In a secluded valley in Iceland, brothers Gummi and Kiddi live side by side, tending to their prized ancestral sheep. But a long-term grudge means that they haven't spoken to each other for four decades, passing messages via the sheep dog. When a lethal ovine disease suddenly appears in the valley, the authorities move in to cull all of the livestock. But Gummi and Kiddi don't give up easily and each brother tries to stave off the disaster in his own fashion: Kiddi by using his rifle and Gummi by using his wits. As the authorities close in the brothers will need to come together to save the special breed of sheep passed down for generations - and themselves - from extinction.

• Breathless | DVD | (22/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Michel Poiccard (Jean-Paul Belmondo), an ex-airline steward turned hoodlum, steals a car and heads to Paris. Discovering a gun in the car's glove department, he uses it to shoot and kill a cop who tries to wave him down. He wants to escape to Italy with his American girlfriend Patricia (Jean Seberg), but the police are after him, and he is distracted by all the pleasures Paris has to offer.Story-wise, Jean-Luc Godard's A Bout De Souffle (1960) (aka Breathless) is pretty thin, but as its director always proclaimed, you don't need much in the way of narrative to make a movie. Sometimes a girl and a gun are quite enough. The effortlessly cool and laconic Belmondo mirrors the director's mischief and flamboyance. With his fat cigarette stub perched on his bottom lip, his shades, his felt hat and white socks, he looks like a cross between a left-bank intellectual and an American gumshoe (perhaps his beloved Bogart). With her close-cropped hair and New York Herald Tribune T-shirt, his girlfriend (Jean Seberg) is equally stylish. A Hollywood star (she had appeared in the lead in Otto Preminger's Saint Joan in 1957 when she was still a teenager), the Iowa-born Seberg is turned by Godard into the lithe embodiment of European radical chic.The film has a spontaneity that studio-bound offerings of the time missed by a mile. Cameraman Raoul Coutard uses natural light and real locations whenever possible. Lots of the pet tricks in the movie--jump cuts, whip pans and improvised tracking shots--have been copied relentlessly by imitators ever since. A Bout De Souffle, though, is unique: anarchic, liberating and hugely stylish, "the best film around now", as its trailer proclaimed. It made Godard, almost overnight, into "the world's most discussed, interviewed and quoted filmmaker". --Geoffrey MacnabOn the DVD: Godard's greatest movie has been lovingly transferred to disc by Optimum, and comes with several extras including trailers and production notes and an old Godard short, Charlotte Et Son Jules, also starring the swaggering, arrogant Belmondo. --Geoffrey Macnab

• Dear Frankie | DVD | (31/05/2005) from £15.41   |  Saving you £0.58 (3.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A single mum must either tell her son the ugly truth about his real Dad or find the perfect stranger to play his father in this moving Scottish drama.

• The International | DVD | (06/07/2009) from £4.50   |  Saving you £15.49 (344.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An Interpol agent teams up with a tenacious District Attorney in order to bring down one of the world's most powerful banks.

• U-Turn | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £8.42   |  Saving you £-2.43 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Oliver Stone used such words as "liberating" and "fun" to talk about U-Turn's relatively quick production schedule of 42 days. Stone's ideas of film fun, however, are something older generations would call sick. This film is a Southwestern noir tale about Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn), a hotshot who is stuck in the tight confines of Superior, Arizona, when his car breaks down. His subsequent adventure is a meatball comedy--loud, obnoxious and violent, and stuffed with diffused light, a hot cast and a no-fat Ennio Morricone score. This film has plenty of odd characters but you never really find out much about them. Bobby's first encounters include a repulsive mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton under the grease) and a blind Indian (Jon Voight under the makeup). Then there's Grace McKenna (a sizzling Jennifer Lopez), who is as dangerous as the curves of her red sundress. Bobby's got time to kill and Grace seems more than willing. Unfortunately, it seems that Bobby has never seen a movie such as A Touch of Evil; if he had, he would know it can only get worse. About the time Grace's husband, Jake (Nick Nolte), shows up, Bobby is knee-deep in murder plots and double-crosses. The first 40 minutes or so are "fun" to a point. Penn is the perfect near-creep to root for and as he wanders back into town after meeting Grace, the eclectic characters pile up. But soon it gets monotonous, tiring and just plain ugly. And when incest and bloody fights begin, the fun is gone. If Penn wasn't so solid an actor and able to be empathetic in the most morose situations, the movie would be unwatchable in stretches. Lopez makes another good impression but this is not a performance that stands out. Nolte, raspy and ill-looking, is the Lee Marvin of the 90s. Before U-Turn is over, you are already wondering if Oliver Stone will do something else, something more important, soon. --Doug Thomas

• The Old Curiosity Shop | DVD | (19/09/2005) from £6.39   |  Saving you £6.60 (103.29%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A costume drama at its very best this triumphant BBC adaptation of Charles Dickens' most moving novel stars Natalie Ogle as Little Nell.

• Shelter | DVD | (11/08/2008) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Charged with the electric crackle of first love this sweet and sexy California romance is about a confused young artist torn between his family and his future. Fresh out of high school Zach (Trevor Wright) gives up a full scholarship to spare his 5-year-old nephew from their dysfunctional family. Now restless and isolated the gifted youth toils at a local diner. But everything changes when he finds himself drawn to thirtysomething Shaun (Brad Rowe) a confident young writer. As the two hit the surf and Shaun's mattress with equal enthusiasm they fall into a secret relationship that may give Zach the courage he needs to follow his passions.

• Operation Christmas | DVD | (29/12/2020) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A Place For Annie | DVD | (05/11/2001) from £5.47   |  Saving you £-2.48 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A baby suffering with AIDS and abandoned in a hospital is given a home by a nurse who fights for custody... Based on a true story.