Drama

• Straw Dogs | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  According to critic Pauline Kael Straw Dogs was "the first American film that is a fascist work of art". Sam Peckinpah's only film shot in Britain is adapted from a novel by Gordon M Williams called The Siege of Trencher's Farm which Peckinpah described as a "lousy book with one good action-adventure sequence". The setting is Cornwall, where mild-mannered US academic David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) has bought a house with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) in the village where she grew up. David is mocked by the locals (one of whom is Amy's ex-boyfriend) and treated with growing contempt by his frustrated wife, but when his house comes under violent siege he finds unexpected reserves of resourcefulness and aggression. The movie, Peckinpah noted, was much influenced by Robert Ardrey's macho-anthropological tract, The Territorial Imperative. Its take on Cornish village life is fairly bizarre--this is a Western in all but name--and many critics balked at the transposition of Peckinpah's trademark blood-and-guts to the supposed peace of the British countryside. A scene where Amy is raped caused particular outrage, not least since it's hinted she consents to it. Not for the first time in Peckinpah's movies there are disquieting elements of misogyny, and it doesn't help that the chemistry between Hoffman and George is non-existent. (Impossible to believe these two would ever have clicked, let alone married.) But taken as a vision of irrational violence irrupting into a civilised way of life Straw Dogs is powerful and unsettling, and the action sequences are executed with all Peckinpah's unfailing flair and venom. Oh, and that title? A quote from Chinese sage Lao-Tze, it seems, "The wise man is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." The film was long withheld from home viewing in Britain by nervous censors, but this release presents it complete and uncut. --Philip KempOn the DVD: Straw Dogs is as jam-packed a disc as is possible for a film made before the days of obligatory "making of" features. Both the sound and visuals have transferred well, and, like the script, have aged well. There's a bumbling original interview in the style of Harry Enfield's Mr. Cholmondley-Warner, along with stills and original trailers. The new material includes a feature on the history of the film's censorship and commentaries by Peckinpah's biographers musing over interesting fan-facts (though none of the speakers have any first-hand experience of the making of the film). However, Katy Haber's commentary, and interviews with Susan George and Dan Melnick, offer a much more in-depth and intimate portrayal of the man and the making of the film. --Nikki Disney

• Sanditon: Season 2 | DVD | (19/09/2022) from £11.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All six episodes from the second series of the period drama based on Jane Austen's unfinished novel. In this series, Charlotte Heywood (Rose Williams) returns to Sanditon eight months after her original visit, this time accompanied by her sister Alison (Rosie Graham). A regiment of soldiers arrive in town which brings both romantic and business opportunities, and artist Charles Lockhart (Alexander Vlahos) tries to woo Georgiana (Crystal Clarke). Meanwhile Charlotte starts a new job as a governess for Alexander Colbourne (Ben Lloyd-Hughes) and struggles to gain the respect of his daughter and niece.

• The Holdovers | Blu Ray | (22/04/2024) from £13.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Golden Globe®-winner Paul Giamatti leads this powerful story of a rebellious student, a notoriously disliked professor, and the school's head chef forming an unlikely bond, as they are the only ones left on-campus for Christmas break, helping one another understand that they are not beholden to their past.Starring: Paul Giamatti, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Dustin Tucker, Bill MootosIncludes English Subtitles

• Stand By Me | Blu Ray | (08/08/2011) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A sleeper hit when released in 1986, Stand by Me is based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" (from the book Different Seasons); but it's more about the joys and pains of boyhood friendship than a morbid fascination with corpses. It's about four boys ages 12 and 13 (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell) who take an overnight hike through the woods near their Oregon town to find the body of a boy who's been missing for days. Their journey includes a variety of scary adventures (including a ferocious junkyard dog, a swamp full of leeches and a treacherous leap from a train trestle), but it's also a time for personal revelations, quiet interludes and the raucous comradeship of best friends. Set in the 1950s, the movie indulges an overabundance of anachronistic profanity and a kind of idealistic, golden-toned nostalgia (it's told in flashback as a story written by Wheaton's character as an adult, played by Richard Dreyfuss). But it's delightfully entertaining from start to finish, thanks to the rapport among its young cast members and the timeless, universal themes of friendship, family and the building of character and self-esteem. Kiefer Sutherland makes a memorable teenage villain and look closely for John Cusack in a flashback scene as Wheaton's now-deceased and dearly missed brother. A genuine crowd-pleaser, this heartfelt movie led director Rob Reiner to even greater success with his next film, The Princess Bride. --Jeff Shannon

• Gorky Park | DVD | (19/05/2003) from £11.91   |  Saving you £1.08 (9.07%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Martin Cruz Smith's bestselling mystery novel seemed ideal material for a movie version, but in Gorky Park director Michael Apted and the usually reliable writer Dennis Potter couldn't quite solve the problem of taking the story from page to screen. William Hurt plays Renko, a Cold War-era Moscow police detective who must cope with both crooks and Communist party protocol as he tries to solve a murder case in the middle of one of Moscow's public parks that leaves three faceless corpses. The strands of the mystery involve corruption, American money and the fur trade and, ultimately, take Renko to New York. But the tension is never all there, despite a deliciously menacing performance by Lee Marvin as the bad guy and Brian Dennehy as an American cop who becomes Renko's ally. --Marshall Fine

• The Cook, The Thief, His Wife and Her Lover | Blu Ray | (04/07/2016) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Peter Greenaway directs this culinary tale of passion and revenge. An arrogant gangster (Michael Gambon) invests in a popular French restaurant, which he begins to frequent with his wife (Helen Mirren) and a band of crooks. He delights in humiliating his spouse, and, when she begins an affair with another patron (Alan Howard), the restaurant's cook (Richard Bohringer) tries to protect them from her husband's wrath.

• The Great Gatsby | DVD | (11/11/2013) from £7.19   |  Saving you £12.80 (178.03%)   |  RRP £19.99

  From the uniquely imaginative mind of writer/producer/director Baz Luhrmann comes the new big screen adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. The filmmaker created his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before in a film starring Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role. The Great Gatsby follows would-be writer Nick Carraway as he leaves the Midwest and comes to New York City in the spring of 1922 an era of loosening morals glittering jazz bootleg kings and sky-rocketing stocks. Chasing his own American Dream Nick lands next door to a mysterious party-giving millionaire Jay Gatsby and across the bay from his cousin Daisy and her philandering blue-blooded husband Tom Buchanan. It is thus that Nick is drawn into the captivating world of the super rich their illusions loves and deceits. As Nick bears witness within and without of the world he inhabits he pens a tale of impossible love incorruptible dreams and high-octane tragedy and holds a mirror to our own modern times and struggles. Special Features: Deleted Scenes

• Harry's Game | DVD | (22/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Harry's Game is the story of two killers. One is Billy Downes (Derek Thompson) cold-blooded assassin of a British Cabinet Minister. The other is Harry Brown (Ray Lonnen) Captain by rank and with orders to eliminate the IRA hitman in his own backyard - the Falls Road Belfast. Both men believe their cause is just. But only one can win. Harry's game - to find the identity of the killer and destroy him before his cover is blown... With powerful performances from Ray Lon

• Pride and Prejudice | Unknown | (18/08/2025) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  FULLY RESTORED. INCLUDES A 30 MINUTE RESTROSPECTIVE DOCUMENTARYWith its outstanding performances and stunning visuals, Pride and Prejudice plunges the viewer into a 19th Century world of grand country estates, eligible bachelors and exquisite soirées. Elizabeth Bennett, a spirited and independent young woman is the subject of her mother's obsessive goal to marry off her five daughters to the wealthiest gentlemen available.But Mrs Bennett's plan is compromised with the arrival of the proud and enigmatic Mr Darcy, as he and Lizzie embark on one of the most famous and compelling romances in history.Bonus Features:Pride and Prejudice: A Turning Point for Period DramaRestoration Featurette

• The Lucky One | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.49   |  Saving you £11.50 (256.12%)   |  RRP £15.99

  U.S. Marine Sergeant Logan Thibault (Zac Efron) returns from his third tour of duty in Iraq, with the one thing he credits with keeping him alive - a photograph he found of a woman he doesn't even know.

• 84 Charing Cross Road | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins) are lifelong friends who never meet in 84 Charing Cross Road, a unique comedy-drama based on a true story. Hanff and Doel are separated by 3,000 miles of ocean and joined by a passion for old books. Their relationship begins when New- Yorker Hanff orders a copy of Pepys' diary. Doel, as polite and soft-spoken as Hanff is loud and overbearing, fields the request from the titular book shop in London. For the next two decades they correspond without ever actually sitting down for tea and crumpets. Director David Jones (Betrayal) does a reasonably good job of goosing a movie about something as un-cinematic as letter-writing, and the stars have fun chewing scenery on both sides of the Atlantic. The model for this kind of bittersweet relationship is David Lean's Brief Encounter, which, not coincidentally, is glimpsed here when Hanff steps out for a rainy-day matinee. --Glenn Lovell, Amazon.com

• Broadchurch | DVD | (20/05/2013) from £3.80   |  Saving you £22.19 (583.95%)   |  RRP £25.99

  A hot morning in July and the Dorset town of Broadchurch, is bracing itself for the tourist season, when Danny Latimer, an 11 year old schoolboy, goes missing. His mother, Beth, frantically starts to search for him while her best friend, Ellie Miller, a local police officer, arrives at work to discover that the promotion she thought was hers has gone to D.I Alec Hardy, an outsider with a reputation for failure. When Danny's body is found beneath the picturesque cliffs that dominate the town, opposites collide. Both Miller and Hardy are determined to solve the mystery of Danny's murder, Ellie perhaps too sensitive to the people in her community; Alec as efficient as he is blunt. When news of the crime spreads through the town, a chain reaction begins which will put Broadchurch under a national spotlight, pulling the town, its residents and its secrets, apart. Special Features: Broadchurch: Behind the Scenes Cast Filmographies Picture Gallery Subtitles

• Babette's Feast | DVD | (25/02/2013) from £8.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Released in 1987, Babette's Feast is a film which depicts so little, yet says so much. Set in a rural Danish community, it centres around the twin sisters of the village pastor and the French women who serves them after fleeing the 1871 revolution. On winning the lottery she plans a feast to mark the centenary of the sisters' father, bringing a dimension of fine living into the lives of the God-fearing Lutherans and healing festering personal animosities in the process. Director Gabriel Axel captures the rugged timelessness of the Jutland landscape, and draws inspired performances from Stéphane Audran as Babette, and Bodil Keyer and Birgitte Federspiel as the sisters Filippa and Martine. Per Norgard's sparse but affecting score captures the mood of the film perfectly. Altogether it's a heart-warming and affecting experience. On the DVD: Babette's Feast on disc reproduces the vivid colour photography well in widescreen. There’s dubbing and subtitles in English, French and Italian. Both the trailers for the English- and Danish-speaking markets are included, the latter an effective summary of the film.--Richard Whitehouse

• Starfish (Based on a True Story) | DVD | (24/04/2017) from £6.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The true and incredibly moving story of Tom and Nicola Ray (Tom Riley, Joanne Froggatt), whose love is tested to the limit when their perfect life falls apart. When Tom puts his small daughter to bed one chilly December evening, he has everything he could ever want - the house of his dreams, the life of a writer, a beautiful wife and a second baby on the way, By the next morning, all of this is in jeopardy as Tom succumbs to the devastating illness that is sepsis. As Tom and Nic battle to hold their family and their marriage together, the strength of their relationship is the only thing that can save them.

• The Ealing Rarities Collection - Volume 1 | DVD | (08/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A global byword for cinematic quality of a quintessentially British nature, Ealing Studios made more than 150 films over a three-decade period. A cherished and significant part of British film history, only selected films from both the Ealing and Associated Talking Pictures strands have previously been made available on home-video format - with some remaining unseen since their original theatrical release. The Ealing Studios Rarities Collection redresses this imbalance. Featuring new transfe...

• The Last Duel DVD | DVD | (06/12/2021) from £4.92   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jodie Comer makes her mark (Owen Gleiberman, Variety) in this thought-provoking drama set during the 14th century in France from visionary filmmaker Ridley Scott. Based on actual events, the film centres on one woman's (Comer) accusation that she was brutally assaulted by Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver), her husband Jean de Carrouges' (Matt Damon) friend. Now, in order to prove his wife's claim, de Carrouges must fight Le Gris to the death, the victor believed to be determined by God. All three lives hang in the balance in this gripping, cinematic film also starring Ben Affleck as Le Gris' scheming ally, Count d'Alençon.

• Charlie Wilson's War | DVD | (07/06/2010) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Drama based on Texas congressman Charlie Wilson's covert dealings in Afghanistan, where his efforts to assist rebels in their war with the Soviets have some unforeseen and long-reaching effects.

• NCIS: The Nineteenth Season | DVD | (31/10/2022) from £13.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The momentous season that changed NCIS forever. In Season 19, legendary Special Agent Leroy Jethro Gibbs (Mark Harmon) unexpectedly retires and former FBI agent Alden Parker (Gary Cole) joins the team. Parker is instantly put to the test as the team takes on a series of life-and-death cases. A bioterror attack exposes Jimmy (Brian Dietzen) and Kasie (Diona Reasonover) to a deadly toxin. McGee's (Sean Murray) mother-in-law is targeted by a killer. Vance's (Rocky Carroll) daughter is kidnapped by a cartel. Torres (Wilmer Valderrama) confronts danger and an old love from his undercover past. New agent Jessica Knight (Katrina Law) risks her life to investigate a true crime podcast. To top it off, fan favorite Dr. Ducky Mallard (David McCallum) makes a surprise return. This 5-disc DVD set includes every episode from Season 19 plus exclusive featurettes! Product Features NCIS on Location in Alaska Brian Dietzen and Scott Williams on The Helpers Torres and Tennant Gary Cole and Katrina Law Join NCIS Being Gibbs Cast of Characters T'N'T (NCIS: Hawai'i Episode) - Part 2 of Crossover

• Full Metal Jacket Steelbook | Blu Ray | (31/03/2025) from £26.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Director Stanley Kubrick rips the skin from the face of war to expose the dehumanizing effect of the military on the people fed to its emotional meat grinder in Full Metal Jacket. Through the eyes of an 18-year-old recruit--from his first days in the seeming hell of Marine Corps boot camp as his superiors try to strip of him his individuality and re-create him as a Marine, to the hell of the 1968 Tet offensive, Kubrick reveals the damage done to the collective human soul by the inhumanity of war.

• Das Boot: Season 1-3 | Blu Ray | (14/11/2022) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An inexperienced U-boat crew has to survive a secret mission and a young German woman is torn between loyalty for her home country and the French resistance in the WWII drama.