"Actor: Aaron"

• 2000 AD | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £9.93   |  Saving you £10.06 (101.31%)   |  RRP £19.99

  2000 AD reunites Aaron Kwok and Andrew Lin from the ferociously pyrotechnic Black Sheep Affair (1998) for a slick but muddled Hong Kong/Singapore co-production conspiracy thriller about computer espionage. Kwok and Lin make fine adversaries, and have one excellent martial arts battle on a vertigo-inducing rooftop. Otherwise the action involves powerfully staged Heat-style gun play rather than martial arts, one set-piece car chase/shoot-out being strongly influenced by the Riviera pursuit in Ronin (1997). Beginning as a serious thriller, Kwok's nerdish computer games designer transforms into an invulnerable action hero, and any sense of plausibility is sacrificed for regulation mayhem. Cluttered with more characters than it knows what to do with, 2000 AD combines aspects of The Net (1995) and Entrapment (1999) into a largely nonsensical plot. Lin's villain is given vital information which later he is completely ignorant of. We never find out exactly what he is planning, or who he is really working for, and in one mystifying sequence he crashes the Singapore stock exchange, yet the event has absolutely no effect on anything. Though the cast is engaging and the direction polished the finale is an anti-climax, symptomatic of a highly entertaining movie which promises more than it delivers. On the DVD: The 1.77:1 anamorphically enhanced transfer is clean and generally free from grain; the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is as powerful as any heard on a Hong Kong movie, although listen though headphones and a fair degree of background hiss is clearly audible in the quiet scenes. The film can be viewed with the original Cantonese dialogue and English subtitles, or dubbed into English. Either way, a surprisingly large amount of the original dialogue is in English. There is a 19-minute "making of" documentary, though this is bland made-for-television promotional fare. Much better is the 14-minute interview with director Gordon Chan and a 17-minute interview with Andrew Lin who reveals how once shooting had begun his originally heroic part was re-written to make him the villain, thus explaining why the plot makes so little sense. Best of all is the commentary by Chan and Hong Kong film expert Bey Logan, which is packed with information about the movie, Hong Kong cinema and filmmaking in general. By itself it makes the DVD a worthwhile purchase. --Gary S Dalkin

• Pop Idol - Living The Dream | DVD | (19/01/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Auditions - the best the worst and the hilarious! From 50 to 10 - 5 weeks of nervewracking auditions. The Wildcard Show - a twist in the show and a 2nd chance for 2 Pop Idol contestants. The Live Stageshows - each week sees one or two potential Pop Idols voted out. The Final - the crowning of the 2003 Pop Idol!

• Starting Over | DVD | (09/02/2015) from £3.79   |  Saving you £12.20 (321.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  On paper, Bill (Aaron Eckhart, The Dark Knight, Olympus Has Fallen) can t complain. With a secure job and long-term marriage to wife Jess (Elizabeth Banks, The Hunger Games, Pitch Perfect), life seems pretty steady. However, when Bill becomes suspicious of Jess s fidelity, things rapidly unravel. Realising his career is in a slump and his marriage is falling apart, Bill s fortunes change when he begins tutoring self-assured teenager (Logan Lerman, the Percy Jackson series) who, it turns out, has far more to teach him about life than appearances would suggest. And then, Bill meets Lucy (Jessica Alba, Fantastic Four, Valentine s Day) and his world is turned upside down all over again... With a star-studded cast including Kristen Wiig (Bridesmaids, Despicable Me 2) and Jason Sudekis (Horrible Bosses, We re The Millers), this rip-roaring rom-com will leave you laughing, crying and believing that just about anything is possible.

• Strange Planet | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £3.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (50.13%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An upbeat comedy following two groups of `twenty-somethings' in their search for love and fulfilment at the dawning of the new millennium.

• Meet Joe Black / Mona Lisa Smile / Erin Brockovich | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Meet Joe Black (Dir. Martin Brest 1998): Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) has it all success wealth and power. Days before his 65th birthday he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger Joe Black (Brad Pitt) who soon reveals himself as Death. In exchange for extra time Bill agrees to serve as Joe's earthly guide. But will he regret his choice when Joe unexpectedly falls in love with Bill's beautiful daughter Susan (Claire Forlani)? Mona Lisa Smile (Dir. Mike Newell 2003): Set in 1953 Katherine Watson (Roberts) is a free-spirited graduate of UC Berkeley who accepts a teaching post at Wellesley College a women-only school where the students are torn between the repressive mores of the time and their longing for intellectual freedom. Erin Brockovich (Dir. Steven Soderbergh 2003): She brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees. A research assistant (Roberts) helps an attorney (Finney) in a lawsuit against a large utility company blamed for causing an outbreak of cancer and other illnesses in a small community.

• X-Men 1/X-Men 2: 2 disc doublepack | DVD | (10/11/2003) from £4.98   |  Saving you £20.01 (401.81%)   |  RRP £24.99

  X-Men 2 picks up almost directly where X-Men left off: misguided super-villain Magneto (Ian McKellen) is still a prisoner of the US government, heroic bad-boy Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is up in Canada investigating his mysterious origin, and the events at Liberty Island (which occurred at the conclusion of X-Men) have prompted a rethink in official policy towards mutants--the proposed Mutant Registration Act has been shelved by US Congress. Into this scenario pops wealthy former army commander William Stryker, a man with the President's ear and a personal vendetta against all mutant-kind in general, and the X-Men's leader Professor X (Patrick Stewart) in particular. Once he sets his plans in motion, the X-Men must team-up with their former enemies Magneto and Mystique (Rebecca Romjin-Stamos), as well as some new allies (including Alan Cumming's gregarious, blue-skinned German mutant, Nightcrawler). The phenomenal global success of X-Men meant that director Bryan Singer had even more money to spend on its sequel, and it shows. Not only is the script better (there's significantly less cheesy dialogue than the original), but the action and effects are also even more stupendous--from Nightcrawler's teleportation sequence through the White House to a thrilling aerial dogfight featuring mutants-vs-missiles to a military assault on the X-Men's school/headquarters to the final showdown at Stryker's sub-Arctic headquarters. Yet at no point do the effects overtake the film or the characters. Moreso than the original, this is an ensemble piece, allowing each character in its even-bigger cast at least one moment in the spotlight (in fact, the cast credits don't even run until the end of the film). And that, perhaps, is part of its problem (though it's a slight one): with so much going on, and nary a recap of what's come before, it's a film that could prove baffling to anyone who missed the first instalment. But that's just a minor quibble--X-Men 2 is that rare thing, a sequel that's actually superior to its predecessor. --Robert Burrow

• Battle Los Angeles (Blu-ray + UV Copy) | Blu Ray | (02/09/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  For years, there have been documented cases of UFO sightings around the world. But in 2011, what were once just sightings will become a terrifying reality when Earth is attacked by unknown forces.

• Paycheck | Blu Ray | (20/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Ben Affleck teams up with John Woo for this explosive thriller about a top-notch engineer who wakes up from his latest top-secret job with no memory and the FBI on his tail.

• Kick-Ass Combi Pack (Blu-ray + DVD) Steelbook | Blu Ray | (06/09/2010) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The cinematic equivalent of a half case of Red Bull chased with donuts, Kick-Ass is a giddy, violent experience--and not your average superhero movie. Based on the comic book by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr., it offers a set of heroes who are decidedly without superpowers: Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) decides he'll be just like a comic-book character, and puts on a ridiculous green suit to fight crime as the mysterious Kick-Ass. Luckily, somebody else had the same idea and comes along to rescue the incompetent crusader: Big Daddy (Nicolas Cage) and his daughter Hit Girl (Chloe Moretz), who also happen to be running around town wearing masks and vanquishing evil. And here we have the movie's masterstroke: Hit Girl, a pint-sized preteen who slaughters bad guys and swears like a sailor on leave (and was the focus of a measure of controversy when the movie was released). The main target of our heroes is a gangster (Mark Strong, Sherlock Holmes), whose neglected son (Christopher Mintz-Plasse, McLovin from Superbad) figures he might just pull on a costume himself and become… Red Mist! (One of the many funny things about Kick-Ass is that the superhero names are hopelessly lame.) Director Matthew Vaughn is operating at the same glib level as his Layer Cake, with cutesy song cues galore and a freewheeling appetite for cartoon violence. This means the movie's high wears off quickly, but it does get high--a crazy, hilarious kick. All that, plus Nicolas Cage executes a deadly Adam West imitation when he pulls on his cape and cowl. That's entertainment. --Robert Horton

• Aida | DVD | (31/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Verdi: Aida (Stefanelli Aldrich Aaron Piper)

• Pop Star | DVD | (31/07/2006) from £7.88   |  Saving you £5.11 (64.85%)   |  RRP £12.99

  When pop star and teen heartthrob JD McQueen (Aaron Carter) lets fame go to his head his mother sends him back to school and gives him an ultimatum - pass math or no summer tour! But what he doesn't anticipate is falling for his biggest fan!

• Overkill | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £5.77   |  Saving you £4.22 (73.14%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Narcotics officer Jack Hazard takes a vacation to San Carlos where he saves a man from being beaten to death. Now he's become the target of a deadly organisation...

• The Conspiracy | Blu Ray | (14/10/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When two young filmmakers select a crazed conspiracy theorist as the subject of their new work the task seems simple enough: Befriend him gain his trust and let his theories speak for themselves. Despite his street preaching their subject proves to be an articulate and intelligent man. Listen long enough and his arguments even start to make a certain sort of sense. It s enough to make you wonder if maybe somewhere there's some basis to what he's saying. And then he simply disappears. While one of the filmmaking duo is prepared to walk away the other becomes obsessed. This should not be possible. People do not just disappear. Not unless someone wants them to. What if he was correct? What if he was on the verge of exposing some greater scheme? And what if he was taken? And so begins an obsessive effort to reconstruct his work an effort that points the duo to a high powered retreat and networking organization for the political and business elite.

• Mary Higgins Clark - Before I Say Goodbye | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The life of a successful magazine writer is torn apart when her husband is killed by a massive explosion aboard his boat - but little does she know the killer's agenda is only half complete...

• 2:22 | DVD | (24/05/2010) from £4.99   |  Saving you £11.00 (220.44%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The plan was simple......... the job was not. When a tight crew of four thieves decide to take down a boutique hotel in the dead of winter things go horribly wrong. Unsuspecting hotel guests unwittingly play a part in this tangled web. Unusual lives and hard choices intertwine twisting the scheme to the point of no return. Loyalty love friendship and honor are brought to a boil in this graphic crime thriller.

• Erin Brockovich / Stepmom / My Best Friend's Wedding | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A trio of Julia Roberts movies featuring her Oscar-winning turn in Erin Brockovich in addition to Stepmom and My Best Friend's Wedding. Erin Brockovich: Erin Brockovich was never trained or indeed meant to work in a lawyers office. Circumstances take this down-on-her-luck twice-divorced mother of three into a legal practice. Here she discovers some legal files that don't add up... On investigation she discovers an injustice and decides against the odds to take on the bad guys on behalf of a poor and very ill community. Stepmom: ; Jackie (Susan Sarandon) is a divorced mother of two. Isabel (Julia Roberts) is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. It is the universal dilemma of the 'non-traditional family' they all love the children but the complex interplay between parents step-parents step-children ex-spouses and significant others is decidedly tricky. But when Jackie discovers she is ill both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest while they have the chance. My Best Friend's Wedding: Roberts dazzles as the commitment-shy Julianne Potter who suddenly realises she is in love with her best friend Michael. There's one catch...he's about to marry someone else. Now she has to win him back. And with just four days the help of her resourceful boss and the benefits of an extremely devious mind Jules will do anything to get her man...except tell him the honest truth.

• Last Will And Testament | DVD | (05/08/2013) from £3.18   |  Saving you £9.81 (308.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  After inheriting his estranged mother s house, Leon is about to spend his first night there but is disturbed to discover that she had devoted her home as a shrine to a mysterious cult, which Leon believes was responsible for her death. When strange things start to happen, he begins to suspect that her oppressive spirit is reaching out to him with an urgent message...

• The Blind Side/The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Double Pack | DVD | (10/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences. The Blind Side The story of Michael Oher, a homeless and traumatized boy who became an All American football player and first round NFL draft pick with the help of a caring woman and her family.

• Dark Night | DVD | (13/11/2017) from £6.23   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  US drama written and directed by Tim Sutton. The film takes a look at the lives of six strangers in the hours leading up to a mass shooting at a suburban cinema complex. All dealing with their own personal issues, the group go about their daily business before heading to the theatre, where one of them will launch a sickening and deadly attack on their fellow cinemagoers. The cast includes Anna Rose Hopkins, Robert Jumper, Karina Macias and Conor A. Murphy.

• China Strike Force | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-6.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Brash egotistical cop Darren and his cool-headed partner Alex are the brightest stars of Team 808 an elite police unit set up to stop international drug smuggling. With their reputations on the line they must face their biggest mission - toppling drug czar Tony Lau and his streetwise South Central contact Coolio before they can open up the biggest untapped drug market in the world - mainland China.