"Actor: Alan C"

• Prancer Returns | DVD | (05/10/2009) from £8.08   |  Saving you £1.91 (23.64%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The magical story of a boy who finds a reindeer and a family that finds itself... Eight-year old Charlie Holton's life is about to change; deep in the mountain woods he discovers a gangly baby reindeer all alone. Believing this must be Prancer Santa's reindeer Charlie takes the gentle creature home to care for him until Christmas. Charlie emails Santa hoping he'll pick up Prancer on Christmas Eve...

• The January Man | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £19.95   |  Saving you £-6.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The January Man is an odd comedy-thriller about the hunt for a serial killer that could just be a case of too many stars spoil the movie. The screenplay is by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for Moonstruck. The plot goes like this: a serial killer is terrorising Manhattan, targeting one woman a month, much to the horror of the mayor (a rabid Rod Steiger, more foam than substance) and the police commissioner Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel). There's only one man to save their bacon: enter Nick Starkey (Kevin Kline), brother of Frank, who had been a cop but was kicked out of the force for his unorthodox ways. Being a heroic kind of guy, his next career move was as a firefighter and we first see him leaping out of a burning building, carrying a child under his arm. Kline agrees to go back on one condition: that he cooks dinner for his brother's wife (the fantastically haughty Susan Sarandon), a former girlfriend for whom he still holds a candle. The pace hots up, Nick finds himself a new girlfriend, the mayor's daughter Bernadette (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), whose main claim to fame is that her best friend was murdered by the serial killer. Oh, and of course he gets the guy, in the nick of time (literally). Confused? You won't be. The plot is an improbable potion of coincidences and divine inspiration but it's not complicated. Kline overcomes the shortcomings of the script with a charmer of a performance, but the real star is the funny, sly Alan Rickman. The January Man is worth seeing for some very fine individual turns (Sarandon is terrific), but in all honesty, it doesn't add up to a great movie, mainly because it can't quite decide what it wants to be, genre-wise, settling on an uneasy compromise of comedy and thriller. On the DVD: The January Man disc has absolutely no-frills. Picture and sound are perfectly adequate without being anything to write home about. And if you're looking for extra goodies, you'll be disappointed: there's the original theatrical trailer and a wide array of subtitle languages, but that's it. --Harriet Smith

• Abbott And Costello In Buck Privates | Blu Ray | (26/02/2018) from £4.40   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Comedy legends Bud Abbott and Lou Costello cemented their place in film history with the hilarious wartime comedy classic Buck Privates. After spending years on stage in burlesque and on radio perfecting classic routines such as 'Who's on First?', the duo transitioned to motion pictures at Universal in 1940. In their first leading roles, Bud and Lou play con artists who accidentally enlist in the U.S. Army to avoid going to jail. Making matters worse, their no-nonsense drill sergeant turns out to be the cop who tried to arrest them! Featuring classic routines such as 'Drill', 'Dice Game' and 'You're Forty, She's Ten', the film also starred the popular singing group The Andrews Sisters performing the Academy Award nominated song 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy'. Following the success of Buck Privates, Bud and Lou made an astounding 26 more movies at Universal leaving a legacy of laughter that will be treasured forever.

• A Soldier's Story | DVD | (04/10/2010) from £5.77   |  Saving you £0.22 (3.81%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Charles Fuller adapted his Pulitzer Prize-winning A Soldier's Play for the big screen in 1984. The film version, A Soldier's Story is essentially a murder mystery, played out against a background of inter and intra-racial conflict at a Second World War training camp. To the consternation of his white opposite number at the camp, a black captain (Howard W Rollins) arrives to investigate the death of a black sergeant (Adolph Caesar). Suspicion immediately falls on a pair of bigoted white officers but as the tale unfolds in a series of flashbacks, it soon becomes clear that a different kind of prejudice is also at work. Assisted by some excellent performances, director Norman Jewison opens the story out from its stage roots. There's a wonderful baseball scene (filmed on location at Little Rock) in which the double standards of Dennis Lipscomb's fidgety white captain are exposed with neat irony; he'll cheer his successful black team all the way home in the name of sport. His gradual, forced liberalisation provides the film with an important comic element. A Soldier's Story wears its heart on its sleeve without being superficial in any way. It's a compelling tale, well told and often highly entertaining, in which nobody gets off lightly, least of all the good guy. On the DVD: The widescreen presentation helps give an epic feel to what could, in other hands, have been a claustrophobic production. The picture quality is fine. But the monaural sound track is often rather muffled, leaving you straining to catch some of the dialogue. This is also a shame because the blues music--an inspired job by Herbie Hancock, assisted by Patti Labelle singing her lungs out as bar owner Big Mary--is an important element of the film's underlying theme and deserves to be better heard. The extras are valuable. Norman Jewison's commentary is detailed and sensitive. As he says, the film deals with "ideas in racism never seen on screen before", and he acknowledges the strength of his actors in getting those ideas across. "March to Freedom" is an excellent short documentary which features the moving testimonies of black servicemen on the insufferable prejudices they encountered while attempting to defend their country during the Second World War; A Soldier's Story is thus put sharply into context. --Piers Ford

• Alan's Garden Secrets 4 DVD BOX SET | DVD | (26/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Alan Titchmarsh discovers the big moments and the master gardeners that shaped our landscape and shows us how to achieve a little piece of the spectacular in our own back garden. In each DVD of Alan s Garden Secrets we get the opportunity to visit one of Britain s most spectacular showpiece gardens that usually remain hidden from public view. These gardens will be routed in and influenced by a specific era in British gardening s evolution and as Alan meets the owners, custodians and curious characters that maintain and develop them, he will discover how the garden was inspired and influenced by the master gardeners of the era. As we move through the big moments in gardening history Alan will be able to contrast the work of contemporary master garden designers such as Piet Oudolf, Tom Stuart-Smith and Christopher Bradley-Hole with those famed for shaping vast areas of the British landscape such as Lancelot Capability Brown, Humphry Repton and William Kent, who planted up our landscape in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, giving us the outlook we enjoy today.

• Spy Kids 2 | Blu Ray | (15/08/2011) from £16.24   |  Saving you £10.01 (66.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In this sequel to the 2001 hit the Cortez family return, as brother & sister Carmen & Juni battle another pair of spy kids.

• Flame | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £99.99   |  Saving you £-84.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

• He-Man and the Masters of the Universe: The Complete Original Series | DVD | (01/10/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• In The Beginning | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £4.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The epic Old Testiment story of Hebrew patriarch Abraham and his descendants. A star-studded cast brings these compelling stories to life featuring: Abraham's call to find the promised land; the stories of Isaac Rebeccah Esau and Jacob; Joseph's remarkable rise to power despite being sold into slavery by his brothers; Moses receiving the ten commandments and the liberation of the jews from Egypt.

• Georgy Girl - Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (26/11/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  One of the defining films of the 1960s, Silvio Narizzano's adaptation of Margaret Foster's 1965 novel stars Lynn Redgrave in an Oscar-nominated role as the put-upon teenager Georgy Parkin. Awkward and full of self-doubt, Georgy finds herself forever just outside of the ˜Swinging Sixties' London life she craves. Marked by a wonderfully warm and appealing central performance from Redgrave, and with its superb supporting cast including Charlotte Rampling (Death in Venice, The Night Porter), Alan Bates (A Kind of Loving, Women in Love) and the great James Mason (The Reckless Moment, Age of Consent, The Deadly Affair), Georgy Girl captures the spirit of the era and boasts one of the all-time great film theme tunes. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio New and exclusive audio commentary with Diabolique magazine's editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger Interview with Charlotte Rampling One of the defining films of the 1960s, Silvio Narizzano's adaptation of Margaret Foster's 1965 novel stars Lynn Redgrave in an Oscar-nominated role as the put-upon teenager Georgy Parkin. Awkward and full of self-doubt, Georgy finds herself forever just outside of the ˜Swinging Sixties' London life she craves. Marked by a wonderfully warm and appealing central performance from Redgrave, and with its superb supporting cast including Charlotte Rampling (Death in Venice, The Night Porter), Alan Bates (A Kind of Loving, Women in Love) and the great James Mason (The Reckless Moment, Age of Consent, The Deadly Affair), Georgy Girl captures the spirit of the era and boasts one of the all-time great film theme tunes. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio New and exclusive audio commentary with Diabolique magazine's editor-in-chief Kat Ellinger Interview with Charlotte Rampling (2018) Jim Dale on ˜Georgy Girl' (2018): a new audio interview with the beloved actor and award-winning songwriter Interview with Peter Nichols (2018): new and exclusive interview with the author, playwright and co-screenwriter of the film Interview with editor John Bloom (2018) Interview with art director Tony Woollard (2018) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Leanne Weston, an overview of contemporary critical responses and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Edition of 3,000 copies (2018) Jim Dale on ˜Georgy Girl' (2018): a new audio interview with the beloved actor and award-winning songwriter Interview with Peter Nichols (2018): new and exclusive interview with the author, playwright and co-screenwriter of the film Interview with editor John Bloom (2018) Interview with art director Tony Woollard (2018) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional photography and publicity material New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Leanne Weston, an overview of contemporary critical responses and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Edition of 3,000 copies

• The Collection | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £8.98   |  Saving you £3.00 (42.92%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Collection takes as its departure point the moment when four elegant lives are suddenly shaken by the suggestion of infidelity. The sinister anonymous phone call that disturbs Harry Kane at four o''clock in the morning setting in motion the drama''s events also foreshadows the ominous deepening mystery in which the characters find themselves and in which 'the truth'' becomes increasingly hard to establish... Laurence Olivier stars in and co-produces The Collection a darkly comic play of suspense and sexual jealousy by Nobel Prize-winning playwright author and director Harold Pinter. Also featuring the talents of Helen Mirren Alan Bates and Malcolm McDowell with direction by the multi-award winning Michael Apted (7Up Enigma) this adaptation was originally screened in 1976 as part of the celebrated Granada series Laurence Olivier Presents and earned Apted a Director''s Guild of America nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement.

• The Rape Of Lucretia - Britten | DVD | (12/01/2005) from £23.95   |  Saving you £1.04 (4.34%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The English National Opera Orchestra provide sumptuous musical accompaniment to this moving interpretation of 'The Rape Of Lucretia'. The story evokes strong passionate themes as one would expect from a thrilling combination of opera and Greek tragedy. Anthony Rolfe Johnson Jean Rigby Russell Smythe and Kathryn Harries infuse the lead roles with just the right amount of tension and passion making this a fascinating spectacle for the enthralled audience present and now for viewers at home as well.

• Who Do You Think You Are? Series Eight | DVD | (20/08/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £25.99

  Who Do You Think You Are? follows the journeys of ten well known personalities as they explore their family trees, uncover their family history and discover fascinating and poignant facts about their ancestors that have been, until now, hidden in the annals of time.June Brown starts with a bare-knuckle boxer in London's East End and ends up in Algeria; J.K. Rowling finds herself on the French border with Germany in the disputed territory of Alsace Lorraine; Sebastian Coe is Jamaican bound to uncover a history of sugar and slaves; Larry Lamb discovers a fantastical fairground history and a lost relative; Emilia Fox explores a theatrical heritage and an engineering innovator; Alan Carr kicks off with stories of the soccer field before tracking down a missing soldier; Robin Gibb finds himself related to a poor boy turned military man and uses the Freedom of Information Act to get to the heart of a mid-wife's labour; Richard Madeley discovers what it is to be a Pilgrim; Len Goodman starts with a barrow boy before traveling to Poland and returning to the London of Karl Marx; and Tracey Emin explores workhouses, prisons and the craftwork of gypsies.

• The Gaelic King | DVD | (10/07/2017) from £6.29   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Set in the war-torn dark ages of 800AD Scotland, this is the story of a young Warrior-King named Alpin. When his family is murdered by a rival Pict King, Alpin and his infant brother Finn, are the sole escapees. Alpin swears to one day return, seeking vengeance and regain his rightful claim to the throne. Ten years later Alpin and Finn, return and come across a community whose children are being kidnapped by the mysterious dark ˜Shadow Warriors'. When Finn gets captured, Alpin sets out to rescue him, accompanied by a Druid-monk called Lachlan. What ensues is a gripping adventure, culminating in a final epic battle between Alpin and Nathara, the sorceress who awoke and controls the Shadow Warriors.

• Animal Farm | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £6.65   |  Saving you £-2.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  After the technical achievement of Babe, it was almost inevitable that "talking animal" effects would be applied to the serious themes of George Orwell's Animal Farm. A bitterly satirical indictment of Stalinist Russia and the failure of Communism, Orwell's 1945 novel is a time-honoured classic, so it's only fitting that this TNT production remains largely faithful to Orwell's potent narrative. A showcase for the impressive creations of Jim Henson's Creature Shop (where director John Stephenson was a veteran supervisor), the film employs animatronic creatures and computer animation to tell the story of uprising, unity, and tragic rebellion among the farm animals.The politics of "Animalism" are initially effective, ousting enemy humans according to rules ordained by Old Major, the barnyard pig whose death sets the stage for the corruptive influence of the pig Napoleon, who cites superior intelligence as his right to dominance. This tyrannical reign destroys the farm's stability, and the film--decidedly not for young children--preserves Orwell's dark, cynical view of absolute power corrupting absolutely. Particularly effective is a propaganda film shown to the barnyard collective, and certain scenes--while not as impressive as the Babe films--powerfully convey the force of Orwell's story through animal "performance". Animal Farm occasionally falters in its emotional impact (the fate of the horse Boxer should be heart-rending, and it isn't), but it's certainly blessed with an elite voice cast, including Peter Ustinov, Patrick Stewart, Pete Postlethwaite, Julia Ormond, Kelsey Grammer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Paul Scofield, and Ian Holm. Not the masterpiece it might've been, this is nevertheless a worthy representation of Orwell's novel. --Jeff Shannon

• Argo: Declassified Extended Edition | Blu Ray | (10/02/2014) from £9.95   |  Saving you £20.04 (201.41%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Set against the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 and 1980, Ben Affleck’s Argo is a nerve-jangling footnote to the birth of Ayatollah Khomeini’s Islamic Republic. The movie opens at the crest of the 1979 revolution--the storming of the US embassy in Tehran, and the escape of six diplomats to the precarious safety of the Canadian ambassador’s residence. To the rescue is Tony Mendez--a composed CIA agent whose heroism remained classified until 1997--and his state-approved plan to get the stranded embassy staff out of Iran under a brazen cover story: they’re an innocent film crew on a location hunt for the fake sci-fi blockbuster Argo. Hollywood is usually pressed into the service of the state in the name of comedy (either burying dictators in Team America: World Police or just bad news in Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog), but Argo is a true story, and the tone of Affleck's Oscar-winning script is carefully split, switching between mounting tension in consular Tehran and a satire of the Hollywood machine as fronted by Alan Arkin and John Goodman--two raffish producers hired by Mendez to reverse-engineer some convincing buzz for the Argo movie. Affleck himself takes the role of Mendez, the steady-eyed agent betting everything on Hollywood’s age-old efficiency at creating a media circus for a project long before it exists. ‘History starts out as farce and ends up a tragedy’, remarks Goodman, but Argo ends on a patriotic upbeat, and doesn’t reflect much on history. It politely nods at the context of Iran’s attitude to the West, and we’re told about but not shown--bar the blank rage of the revolutionary mob--Iran’s anger at the Westerly flow of resources under Shah Pahlavi. Instead, Argo concentrates on the eggshell complexities of deception in plain sight, including a climactic set-piece in which Mendez’ team must fend their way through layers of suspicious Iranian airport security--with imminent capture, execution and political calamity only on the other side of their paper-thin pretext. It may have the ring of historical escapism, but Argo holds its nerve as a great Hollywood escape. --Leo Batchelor /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}

• Bertie And Elizabeth | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £9.69   |  Saving you £3.30 (34.06%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A portrayal of the life of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother focusing on her courtship with the future King George VI the birth of their daughters Elizabeth and Margaret and the war years finally leading to Bertie's early death in 1952.

• Thief Of Hearts | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  If you met Ray and Mickey Davis you'd swear they had a perfect marriage. But if you read Mickey's diary you'd know that unrest is lurking just beneath the surface. Enter Scott Muller a small time burglar who robs the Davis home-making off with assorted valuables and Mickey's diary. Muller becomes obsessed with Mickey. He plots to seduce her and play out her most secret fantasies. Mickey is an easy target for Muller's advances and soon the Davis's perfect marriage and perfect wor

• Alfie Darling | Blu Ray | (09/03/2020) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Sixties icon Alfie Elkins makes a ribald return appearance in this sequel to the classic comedy-drama that shot Michael Caine to stardom. Alan Price stars as the Jack-the-Lad with an over-active libido alongside Jill Townsend, Hannah Gordon, Rula Lenska and Joan Collins. Alfie Darling is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Alfie makes a good living driving huge trucks across Europe, with a girl hidden away in every place he visits - as well as some along the way! Then he meets cool, aloof Abby, who resists his charms - but Alfie was never one to shy away from a challenge! Special Feature: Image gallery

• The Smurfs (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray + DVD | Blu Ray | (05/12/2011) from £4.61   |  Saving you £25.38 (550.54%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Once in a blue moon, one gets a glimpse of what's truly important in life--and it's not always what one might expect. In the hidden land of the Smurfs, the perpetually happy blue creatures are preparing for the Blue Moon festival. They have no clue that the evil wizard Gargamel (Hank Azaria) is about to follow one of them into their secret world in an attempt to capture their happy essence--a substance guaranteed to render his magic all-powerful. In a striking parallel to Enchanted, a vortex suddenly opens up and sucks Papa, Grouchy, Smurfette, Brainy, Gutsy, and Clumsy Smurf into the middle of New York City, with Gargamel following close behind. Shocked expectant parents Patrick and Grace Winslow (Neil Patrick Harris and Jayma Mays) end up with an apartment full of the little blue beings. They eventually befriend the Smurfs and agree to help them outsmart Gargamel and find their way back home. What ensues is a danger-filled, comical adventure that takes the Smurfs from Central Park to Patrick's place of employment and even FAO Schwarz. Just when it looks like their plan to return home will fail, and that they've destroyed Patrick's career in the process, things really heat up and everyone learns a lesson about what's really important in life and about believing in oneself. The film does a good job melding live action and animation, and there's plenty of humour involved for both kids and adults. Most kids will laugh their way through the film, but there are some situations of peril that the very youngest or easily frightened might find rather intense. Harris and Mays do a good job interacting with their new blue friends, but it's too bad these talented actors weren't given a bit more depth of character to work with. Azaria is quite an effective villain and Frank Welker's cat Azrael is hysterical. Other notable voice talent includes Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Alan Cumming as Gutsy, Katy Perry as Smurfette, Fred Armisen as Brainy, George Lopez as Grouchy and Anton Yelchin as Clumsy. The Smurfs is funny enough family entertainment, but given its star-studded cast, it had the potential to be even better. (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi