Drama

• Best Pictures Box Set (No Country For Old Men/A Beautiful Mind/American Beauty) | DVD | (19/01/2009) from £9.50   |  Saving you £6.49 (68.32%)   |  RRP £15.99

  No Country For Old Men: Approaching retirement Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) is one of the last links to the history of Texas' Old West and the men who patrolled the frontiers of decency and lawlessness. These days though he feels less and less able to comprehend the new breed of violent criminals that have drifted into his jurisdiction. Violent men like Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem): an enigmatic psychopathic and obsessively compulsive killer who determines the fate of his victims with a quick flip of a coin. Chigurh an ex-special-forces operative turned hit man has been hired to track down two million dollars in cash taken from the scene of a drug-deal gone awry and whoever spirited it away. That man is Llewellyn Moss (Josh Brolin): a financially struggling hardened Vietnam veteran who stumbled upon the money and a substantial amount of heroin amongst a sea of bloody corpses and a bullet-strewn truck whilst hunting antelope in the desert near the Mexican border. A Beautiful Mind: A Beautiful Mind begins with Nash (Russell Crowe) at Princeton where he struggles to think of an original idea and the stroke of genius that will make him matter. Nash is eccentric socially awkward and extremely competitive. Eventually he finds the inspiration for his innovative and influential work on game theory. He's chosen for a post at MIT which includes crucial code-breaking work for the US government. There he meets a beautiful and brilliant student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). They marry but their happiness is threatened... American Beauty: Marking the feature film directorial debut of award-winning theatre director Sam Mendes this funny moving and shocking journey through life in suburban America follows the trials and tribulations of Lester (Kevin Spacey) and Carolyn (Annette Bening) an upper-middle-class couple whose marriage - and lives - are slowly unraveling. Lester's wife hates him his daughter Jane regards him with contempt and his boss is positioning him for the axe. So Lester decides to make a few changes in his life; the freer he gets the happier he gets which is even more maddening to his wife and daughter. But Lester is about to learn that the ultimate freedom comes at the ultimate price. Winner of five Academy Awards: Best Picture Director Actor Screenplay and Cinematography.

• River's Edge | DVD | (26/10/2015) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  On the bank of a river lies the naked body of a murdered girl. At the nearby high school, one of the students boasts to Matt (Reeves) and his friends that he killed her. Drunk and stoned, the doubting teens venture to the river only to discover that he is in fact telling the truth. They decide to form a wall of secrecy, but Matt (Reeves) is uncomfortable about their silence and has to decide between exposing the criminal and keeping quiet for the rest of his life. Based on the horrific real-life murder of a young Californian girl, this powerful portrait of disaffected youth stars Keanu Reeves (The Matrix trilogy), Crispin Glover (Charlie's Angels) and Dennis Hopper (Easy Rider) in a tale that is chilling to witness. Audio commentary with director Tim Hunter Across the Edge: The Making of River's Edge (2012): documentary featuring interviews with director Tim Hunter and star Crispin Glover Original theatrical trailer

• The Joy Luck Club | DVD | (04/05/2004) from £12.69   |  Saving you £2.30 (18.12%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Through a series of flashbacks four young Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship and understand how their futures are affected by their pasts. Based on the novel by Amy Tan this is a beautiful touching and complex film that should strike a cord with any first generation immigrant.

• Libel | DVD | (15/03/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Clint Eastwood Collection - Dirty Harry/Gran Torino/Unforgiven | DVD | (19/10/2009) from £9.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Titles Comprise: Dirty Harry: Harry Callahan is a tough streetwise San Francisco cop whom they call Dirty Harry. In this action classic you'll see why... A rooftop sniper (Andy Robinson) calling himself Scorpio has killed twice and holds the city ransom with the threat of killing again. Harry will nail him one way or the other no matter what the system prescribes. >Gran Torino:> Clint Eastwood returns to the big screen as Walt Kowalski a cantankerous veteran of the Korean War who catches his young Hmong neighbour attempting to steal his cherished 1972 Gran Torino urging him to try and reform the boy of his burgeoning criminal ways. >Unforgiven Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman play retired down-on-their-luck outlaws who pick up their guns one last time to collect a bounty offered by the vengeful prostitutes of the remote Wyoming town of Big Whiskey: Richard Harris is an ill-fated interloper a colourful killer-for-hire called English Bob. Gene Hackman is the sly and brutal local sheriff whose brand of Law enforcement ranges from unconventional to ruthless. Big trouble is coming to Big Whiskey...

• QB VII | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  QB VII was a five-hour mini-series, which was hailed as both a critical triumph and a milestone "television event" when it originally aired in 1974. Based on a Leon Uris novel, which itself was based on a libel trial that arose after Uris published Exodus, this fictionalised drama is essentially the story of two men, Dr. Adam Kelno, a Polish doctor who was imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp, and Abe Cady, a successful Hollywood writer who publishes a serious book on the Holocaust that exposes Kelno's past. Playing Dr Kelno, Anthony Hopkins steals the show, and the nuances he brings to the character keep the audience guessing whether he is in fact a dedicated healer or a diabolical villain intent on papering over a fiendish past. Ben Gazzara is credible as the tough-talking Cady, but when Hopkins leaves the action for a time the film sags and begins to resemble an ordinary TV film. Eventually the two men's lives come into conflict when Kelno sues for libel. The trial, in a London courtroom (the "Queen's Bench VII" of the title), seeks to sort out the truth about the past of Dr Kelno. His precise activities during the war, and how the world deals with his past, receives intelligent and dramatic treatment. A cracking Jerry Goldsmith score keeps the drama centre stage. --Robert J McNamara, Amazon.com

• Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye | DVD | (11/01/2010) from £11.79   |  Saving you £1.20 (10.18%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye

• Guilt is My Shadow | DVD | (16/03/2015) from £6.25   |  Saving you £3.74 (59.84%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Elizabeth Sellars gives a powerful performance as a woman tormented by her own conscience in this haunting atmospheric crime thriller filmed on location in Devon. Based on a novel by bestselling author Norah Lofts (as Peter Curtis) Guilt Is My Shadow is featured here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. On the outskirts of the little village of Welford in Devon lives a young farmer. He lives alone undisturbed by strangers and he prefers it that way. But when his nephew arrives – on the run from the police – a series of tragic events is set in motion. Bonus Features: Image Gallery Original Pressbook PDFs

• Ballad Of Jack And Rose | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.85   |  Saving you £14.14 (241.71%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An isolated father and daughter grapple with the limits of family and sexuality.

• Welcome To The Rileys | DVD | (27/02/2012) from £5.39   |  Saving you £10.60 (66.30%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Welcome to the Rileys is an emotional journey that takes us through grief, self-reinvention and healing. The Rileys have been struggling in their marriage since losing their teenage daughter eight years prior. Once a happily married and loving couple, Lois (Melissa Leo) and Doug (James Gandolfini) have grown distant. Lois has become agoraphobic and won't leave the house while Doug tries to stay away, finding their home depressing.Looking to get away, Doug goes on a business trip to New Orleans. He meets Mallory (Kristen Stewart), a teenage runaway. Despite her unsettling demeanor, Doug immediately recognizes an innocence in Mallory. He realizes she is in desperate need of paternal guidance, something he has been longing to provide. The opportunity to care and protect Mallory supplants the void Doug's marriage has left in his heart, and brings new meaning to his life. Doug decides to sell his business and stay in New Orleans to give Mallory the attention and help she can't bring herself to ask for.Lois overcomes her phobia and ventures to New Orleans to reclaim her marriage. What initially seems to be the final straw that will derail their marriage turns out to be the inspiration for Lois and Doug to renew their love for each other. From Scott Free and Argonaut Pictures comes an unusual story of love lost and found.

• Closely Observed Trains | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £16.90   |  Saving you £1.09 (6.45%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Milos Hrma a bumbling dispatcher's apprentice at a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him he embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery encountering a universe of frustration eroticism and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot. Milos becomes involved in a plot to blow up a German ammunition train but when the plan backfires he is forced to

• The Descendants (DVD + Digital Copy) | DVD | (21/05/2012) from £6.32   |  Saving you £13.67 (68.40%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Only Oscar-winning writer-director Alexander Payne (Sideways) would think to cast the famously handsome George Clooney as a dishevelled dad in his outstanding adaptation of Kaui Hart Hemmings's tragicomic novel. Clooney dials down the glamour to play Matt King, a Hawaii real-estate attorney with a propensity for unflattering shirts and ill-fitting trousers. When Matt's wife, Elizabeth, ends up in a coma after a water-skiing accident, Matt must learn to balance the parenting of his resentful daughters, Scottie (Amara Miller) and Alexandra (Shailene Woodley, The Secret Life of the American Teenager), with the sale of a pristine plot of Kauai land that stands to make the King cousins, including scruffy Hugh (Beau Bridges), a fortune. As Elizabeth's condition worsens, Matt contacts friends and relatives, like her fiercely protective father (Robert Forster), so that they'll have the chance to say goodbye. In the process, he finds out she was having an affair with realtor Brian Speer (Matthew Lillard, effectively cast against type), so he and the girls, including Alex's hilariously mellow friend, Sid (Nick Krause), go on an island-hopping trip, ostensibly to add Brian to the mix, but Matt really wants to find out what his wife saw in the guy. His journey from naiveté to knowledge brings out Clooney's soulful side, creating a believably flawed, deeply sympathetic figure. If Payne leans too heavily on the slack-key soundtrack, his love for his characters, including Judy Greer as Matt's female counterpart, results in his most emotionally satisfying movie to date. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Essex Boys: Law Of Survival | DVD | (21/09/2015) from £2.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (434.78%)   |  RRP £15.99

  20 years ago the most famous gangland murders in British history started a war amongst the criminal clans of Essex. With the reverberations of that infamous crime still being felt some two decades later, warring firms vie for control of the lucrative drug trade. When his best friend is murdered at the hands of a rival firm, Danny decides to turn his back on a life of crime rather than seek retribution. But when his world is once again turned upside down by a brutal attack, he decides he must take the fight to the international drug lords responsible.

• Waterloo Road Series 4 - Autumn Term (series 4 part 1) | DVD | (21/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Waterloo Road: Series 4 - Autumn (3 Discs)

• Mesmer | DVD | (29/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Who knows what secrets lurk in the souls of man? In 18th century Vienna one man discovers the truth-and pays the price. His patients call him a miracle worker; his colleagues dismiss him as a quack. Meet Franz Anton Mesmer (Alan Rickman Galaxy Quest Dogma Sense and Sensibility): physician hypnotist self-promoter hopeless romantic and man ahead of his time. Employing revolutionary ideas about ""animal magnetism"" and the power of suggestion Mesmer gains local acclaim by curing his disturbed young cousin. Shortly thereafter beautiful blind pianist Maria Theresa Paradies (Amanda Ooms) seeks Mesmer's aid setting in motion a dizzying doomed love affair as her cure becomes both his greatest triumph and his downfall. In this thought-provoking film from acclaimed screenwriter Dennis Potter (The Singing Detective) and director Roger Spottiswoode (Tomorrow Never Dies) everything we know-or think we know-about the nature of consciousness is called into question. As the man who scandalized Vienna and Paris and threw the medical establishment into an uproar Alan Rickman delivers a tour de force performance that won the Best Actor Award at the Montreal Film Festival. Music composed by three-time Golden Globe Nominee Michael Nyman

• Mahabharat | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Probably the greatest epic ever produced and definitely the most successful Indian serial ever Mahabharat is a vast epic of glorious heights and tremendous depths. This release contains 5 discs featuring the condensed 15 hour version of this religious tale. It is loved and respected amongst the Asian commmunity. When it was shown on BBC2 10 years ago it achieved viewing figures in excess of 5 million. It recounts the true story of five heroic brothers the Pandavas who were dest

• Pleasure Girls | DVD | (22/03/2010) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The first horror film to be released under the legendary Amicus Productions banner Dr. Terror's House Of Horrors has long been a firm favourite of horror fans. Directed by double Oscar winning cinematographer Freddie Francis (Glory - 1989 Sons And Lovers - 1960). Five passengers (Christoper Lee Roy Castle Kenny Lynch Donald Sutherland and Alan Freeman) sharing a compartment on a train are joined by the mysterious Dr. Schreck (Peter Cushing) who offers to tell their fortunes by reading a deck of Tarot cards which he refers to as his house of horrors. As each of the five stories unfolds the passengers become progressively horrified by Schreck's revelations...

• Down By Law | DVD | (23/03/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Jim Jarmusch's Down by Law is in the same minimalist, oddball, black-and-white groove as his classic of American independent cinema, Stranger than Paradise (1984). The setting is Louisiana, where two losers (musicians Tom Waits and John Lurie) find themselves stuck in a jail cell together. One day they are joined by a boisterous Italian (Roberto Benigni), and the chemistry changes--suddenly an escape attempt is on the horizon. Conventional drama is not Jarmusch's intention; one of the emotional high points of this film is the three guys marching around their prison cell shouting, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!" Yet the deadpan style creates its own humorous mood, underscored by melancholy (also underscored by the music of Lurie and the gravel-voiced songs of Waits). This was the first American film for Italian comedian Benigni, (Life is Beautiful), and he lights it up with his effervescent clowning. Jarmusch has said that Down by Law forms a loose trilogy with Stranger than Paradise and the subsequent Mystery Train (1989)--a triptych of disaffected, drifting life in the United States. Few filmmakers have ever surveyed ennui so entertainingly. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• The Bletchley Circle San Francisco - Part Two | DVD | (20/05/2019) from £21.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Two female British code breakers team with American cryptographers to solve a series of murders in San Francisco.

• The House Of Mirth | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £5.98   |  Saving you £4.01 (67.06%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The crushing pressures of social conformity have always been a central concern of Terence Davies' movies, so Edith Wharton's astringent novel of innocence destroyed makes an ideal choice for him. Set in the edgy, nouveau riche ambience of 1900s New York, the story traces the downfall of the lovely but imprudent Lily Bart (Gillian Anderson) in a world where hypocrisy and predatory vice lurk behind genteel facades. Wharton (whose later novel The Age of Innocence was brilliantly filmed by Martin Scorsese) has an acute feel for the subtleties of social nuance, the way insiders and outsiders are defined, and Davies skilfully renders these hints and insidious judgments in cinematic terms. Working to a tighter budget than most period dramas, he turns his limitations to advantage. The film's never in danger of being swamped by the gorgeousness of its sets and costumes, or turned into an exercise in easy nostalgia. The northern austerity of Glasgow effectively stands in for New York. Throwing off the mantle of Scully (from The X-Files), Gillian Anderson gives a powerful and wholly convincing performance as Lily, movingly despairing as her options are closed off one by one; and there's a fine portrayal of self-satisfied brutality from Dan Aykroyd as the chief agent of her downfall. --Philip Kemp