"Actor: Alan M"

• The January Man | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (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

• Nothing But The Truth | Blu Ray | (20/05/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In Washington DC, a female reporter faces a possible jail sentence for outing a CIA agent and refusing to reveal her source.

• Abbott And Costello In Buck Privates | Blu Ray | (26/02/2018) from £5.99   |  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 £6.73   |  Saving you £-0.74 (N/A%)   |  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

• Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things | Blu Ray | (24/07/2023) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  101 Films presents Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things, Bob Clark's first step into Horror. With almost no budget and a cast and crew made up of friends, Clark triumphs with an eerie, funny and genuinely terrifying Zombie classic with an excellent turn by frequent collaborator Alan Ormsby as the dreaded director 'Alan'. Led by a mean-spirited director, a theatre troupe travels by boat to a small island for buried criminals. The group gets more than they bargained for when the dead rise from their graves. Can they stay put until daylight against the undead onslaught, or do they flee into the pitch-black night? Will anyone survive? Product Features Commentary with Alan Ormsby, Jane Daly and Anya Cronin Alan Ormsby Interview Memories of Bob Clark Confessions of a Grave Digger: Interview with Ken Goch Grindhouse Q&A Cemetery Mary - Music Video Dead Girls Don't Say No - Music Video Trailer Photo Gallery

• 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 £16.55   |  Saving you £8.44 (51.00%)   |  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.

• A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (Dual Format Limited Edition) | Blu Ray | (28/08/2017) from £19.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Playwright Peter Nichols adapted his own blackly comic 1967 Tony Award-winning play for this confrontational film version by director Peter Medak. Alan Bates and Janet Suzman play a married couple struggling to come to terms with their daughter's disability using comedy and cruelty to dispel the desperation of their situation. This uncomfortable, provocative film about marriage, children and life choices is startlingly funny as well as deeply moving. INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES: High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary by director Peter Medak New interview with actor Janet Suzman (2017, tbc mins) New interview with playwright and author Peter Nichols (2017, tbc mins) Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography New English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Limited edition exclusive booklet with a new essay by Marcus Hearn, an overview of contemporary critical responses, and historic articles on the film World premiere on Blu-ray Limited Dual Format Edition of 3,000 copies

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

• In The Beginning | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-6.99 (-233.80%)   |  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 £5.65   |  Saving you £4.34 (43.40%)   |  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.

• Shogun (New to Blu-Ray) | Blu Ray | (11/06/2018) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Remastered in amazing high definition, SHOGUN is one of the most famous and award-winning television events in history. From bestselling author James Clavell comes the sweeping story of love and war, set against the brutal background of feudal Japan at the beginning of the 17th century. Richard Chamberlain stars as John Blackthorne, a sailor shipwrecked off the coast of Japan. Rescued, he becomes an eyewitness to a deadly struggle involving Toranaga, a feuding warlord intent on becoming SHOGUN - the supreme military dictator. Blackthorne is irresistibly drawn to the magnificent Lady Mariko, the married confidant to Toranaga, while at the same time vying to become the first-ever foreigner to be made a samurai warrior. For the first time on Blu-ray, this landmark television event is packed with fascinating special features that take you inside the spectacular world of SHOGUN.

• Wagonmaster | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £13.82   |  Saving you £-3.83 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Wagonmaster

• Rasputin, The Mad Monk | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £8.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In early 20th century Tsarist Russia Rasputin (Christopher Lee) a wild-eyed peasant monk mysteriously demonstrates his healing powers by saving a woman's life and asking only for wine and Bacchanalian celebration in return. Soon Rasputin uses his evil charm to become increasingly manipulative and violent. Ferocious devious sensuous and other-worldly this uncouth peasant ingratiates himself into the lives of the sophisticated royal class...

• Profondo Rosso | DVD | (25/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  An English jazz pianist living in Rome witnesses the brutal hatchet murder of a renowned psychic and is quickly drawn into the savage crime. With the help of a tenacious female reporter the pair track a twisted trail of deranged clues and relentless violence towards a shocking climax that has ripped screams from the throats of audiences for more than 25 years! Widely considered by both fans and critics alike to be Dario Argento's true masterpiece.

• 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.

• 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

• Animal Farm | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (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 £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  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";}