"Actor: Billy Thornton"

• The Man Who Wasn't There (2001) | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With The Man Who Wasn't There the Coen brothers--those ironic geniuses of left-field bizarre--have pulled off another side-swerve into the unexpected. A movie "about a hairdresser who wants to become a dry-cleaner" as the brothers gleefully claim to have pitched it, it's set in 1949 in the small Northern California town of Santa Rosa (venue for Hitchcock's 1943 classic Shadow of a Doubt) and filmed in lustrous, deep-shadowy black-and-white--an affectionate, though never slavish, tribute to the great era of film noir. Not only in its austere monochrome but in its tone, it comes as a total contrast to the Coens' previous film, the cheerfully picaresque O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Though they toss in plenty of surreal gags, including a whole running thread about flying saucers (this is Roswell-era America, after all), the overall mood is quiet, reflective and even--something quite new for the Coens--compassionate. Their protagonist, barber Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton, proving himself one of the great chameleon actors of our time), is a man trapped by his own impassivity--inside him, a seething mass of emotion that he's utterly unable to express. In true Coen style, his frustration leads him into a fatal move that spirals disastrously out of control. Thornton is ably supported by a whole gallery of Coen regulars--Frances McDormand, Jon Polito, Tony Shalhoub--plus James Gandolfini (The Sopranos) and an amazingly assured turn from Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World). The dialogue, as you'd expect, is masterly, while the brothers' regular collaborators Director of Photography Roger Deakins and production designer Dennis Gassner work wonders of period evocation, and Carter Burwell contributes a haunting score. On the DVD: The Man Who Wasn't There comes to DVD in a sharp, clean 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer that captures all the depth and subtlety of Deakins' superb photography, impeccably matched by the crystal-clear Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound. A lavish helping of extras includes a trailer and two TV spots, stills photo gallery, filmographies, a 16-minute "making of" featurette, an overlong (47 minutes) interview with Deakins, a batch of deleted scenes, and best of all, the voice-over commentary. This gives us not just Joel and Ethan, but Billy Bob as well, chatting and chortling and clearly enjoying every second of the movie they've made. Their enthusiasm is irresistible. –-Philip Kemp

• Waking Up In Reno | DVD | (13/02/2012) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Not long after Roy (Swayze) and Candy (Theron) and Lonnie Earl (Thornton) and Darlene (Richardson) arrive in Reno for their dream vacation together at the Monster Truck Show, these Arkansas natives learn they're sharing more than a two-bedroom suite! With side-splitting laughs and a sizzling cast, let yourself go because you're sure to enjoy this fun-filled guilty pleasure!

• U-Turn | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £8.42   |  Saving you £-2.43 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Oliver Stone used such words as "liberating" and "fun" to talk about U-Turn's relatively quick production schedule of 42 days. Stone's ideas of film fun, however, are something older generations would call sick. This film is a Southwestern noir tale about Bobby Cooper (Sean Penn), a hotshot who is stuck in the tight confines of Superior, Arizona, when his car breaks down. His subsequent adventure is a meatball comedy--loud, obnoxious and violent, and stuffed with diffused light, a hot cast and a no-fat Ennio Morricone score. This film has plenty of odd characters but you never really find out much about them. Bobby's first encounters include a repulsive mechanic (Billy Bob Thornton under the grease) and a blind Indian (Jon Voight under the makeup). Then there's Grace McKenna (a sizzling Jennifer Lopez), who is as dangerous as the curves of her red sundress. Bobby's got time to kill and Grace seems more than willing. Unfortunately, it seems that Bobby has never seen a movie such as A Touch of Evil; if he had, he would know it can only get worse. About the time Grace's husband, Jake (Nick Nolte), shows up, Bobby is knee-deep in murder plots and double-crosses. The first 40 minutes or so are "fun" to a point. Penn is the perfect near-creep to root for and as he wanders back into town after meeting Grace, the eclectic characters pile up. But soon it gets monotonous, tiring and just plain ugly. And when incest and bloody fights begin, the fun is gone. If Penn wasn't so solid an actor and able to be empathetic in the most morose situations, the movie would be unwatchable in stretches. Lopez makes another good impression but this is not a performance that stands out. Nolte, raspy and ill-looking, is the Lee Marvin of the 90s. Before U-Turn is over, you are already wondering if Oliver Stone will do something else, something more important, soon. --Doug Thomas

• Fargo - Season 1 | Blu Ray | (22/09/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  An original adaptation of the Academy Award-winning feature film Fargo features an all-new story and follows a new case and new characters all entrenched in the trademark humour murder and Minnesota nice that made the film an enduring classic. Billy Bob Thornton stars as Lorne Malvo a rootless manipulative man who meets and forever changes the life of small town insurance salesman Lester Nygaard played by Martin Freeman.

• Intolerable Cruelty | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £3.67   |  Saving you £16.32 (444.69%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Fabulously successful LA divorce attorney Miles Massey is missing something from life when he meets much-divorced Marilyn Rexroth. Cue the mother of all battles of the sexes as the two square off, personally and professionally.

• Our Brand is Crisis | DVD | (30/05/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Bolivian presidential candidate failing badly in the polls enlists the firepower of an elite American management team, led by the deeply damaged but still brilliant strategist "Calamity" Jane Bodine (Bullock).

• The Informers | Blu Ray | (09/11/2009) from £10.86   |  Saving you £14.13 (130.11%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on the book of loosely connected stories by Brett Easton Ellis about a week in L.A. in 1983, featuring movie executives, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters in adventures laced with sex, drugs and violence.

• Bad Santa | Blu Ray | (01/12/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.24

  Billy Bob Thorton is a Father Christmas with a difference in this outrageous festive comedy.

• Pushing Tin | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £8.51   |  Saving you £-1.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Nick Falzone (John Cusack) is a control freak. An air traffic control freak.

• The Informers | DVD | (09/11/2009) from £8.75   |  Saving you £11.24 (128.46%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the book of loosely connected stories by Brett Easton Ellis about a week in L.A. in 1983, featuring movie executives, rock stars, a vampire and other morally challenged characters in adventures laced with sex, drugs and violence.

• A Simple Plan | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When Hank Jacob and Lou find $4.4 million inside a crashed plane in a nature preserve they quickly come up with the plan to keep the money safe until the plane has been found by others and the dust has settled. But Jacob Hank's brother and Lou a friend do not behave the way they decided to. Lou constantly in financial debt wants his share soon and Jacob wishes to renovate their parents' farm. The trusty atmosphere between the unequal partners dissolves slowly and intrigues are spun. Also accidents start happening and when an FBI agent comes into town looking for a crashed plane Hank and his partners get into very deep water...

• Sling Blade | DVD | (02/05/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A simple man. A difficult choice. 25 years after commiting an unthinkable crime quiet Karl is finally returning home. Once there the mentally disabled man is befriended by a fatherless boy and his mother. But when his newfound peace is shattered by the mother's abusive boyfriend Karl is suddenly placed on a collision course with his past... Winner of the 1997 Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Billy Bob Thornton who was also nominated for the Best Actor award.

• The Ice Harvest | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £10.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Cusack stars in this festive comedy set in an icebound Wichita, Kansas.

• One False Move | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  They did it for money. For power. For fun. Two ruthless drug dealers commit a brutal mass murder in Los Angeles and are forced to flee the state. And when Fantasia their beautiful accomplice begs to go home to Arkansas she unwittingly leads them into the eye of the hurricane. Waiting for them in Arkansas is an unlikely arsenal of law enforcers that includes two cynical L.A. cops and one eager small-town sheriff. Sheriff Dale ""Hurricane"" Dixon has waited all his life for a majo

• The Judge | Blu Ray | (02/03/2015) from £8.68   |  Saving you £17.57 (236.79%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Hank Palmer (Robert Downey Jr.) returns to his childhood home where his estranged father the town’s judge (Robert Duvall) is suspected of murder. He sets out to discover the truth and along the way reconnects with the family he walked away from years before.

• Bandits | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £5.97   |  Saving you £14.02 (234.84%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton are a pair of thieves on the run from prison. Their bank robbing exploits make them firm favourites with the public, particularly Cate Blamchett who sees in them an escape from her dull life.

• Gridiron Gang/ Faster/ Welcome to the Jungle Triple Pack | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Titles Comprise:Faster: After 10 years in prison, Driver (Dwayne Johnson) has focused on one thing - hunting down the people responsible for brutally murdering his brother. Now a free man with a terrifying purpose, he sets out to find and kill all those on his list. But on his heels are two men who will do anything to stop him - a veteran cop (Billy Bob Thornton) and a hitman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) who finds his match in this worthy opponent. Now, the hunter is also the hunted.Gridiron Gang: One goal. A second chance.Gridiron Gang tells the gritty and powerfully emotional story of juvenile detention camp probation officer Sean Porter (Dwayne The Rock Johnson), who, along with another officer, Malcolm Moore (Xzibit), turns a group of hard core teenage felons into a high school football team in four weeks. Confronted with gang rivalries and bitter hatred between his teammates, Porter teaches some hard lessons (and learns a few himself) as the kids gain a sense of self-respect and responsibility.Based on a true story, Gridiron Gang sends out a message that one man can make a difference and the most hopeless kids in our society can change the course of their lives through hard work, commitment and bold leadership.Welcome To The Jungle: A mob boss's 'retrieval expert' is sent to the Amazon on one final job to retrieve the boss's son, who is currently looking for a priceless treasure, only to lock horns with the local town's megalomaniacal boss with explosive results!

• Princess Mononoke | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Princess Mononoke has already made history as the top-grossing domestic feature ever released in Japan, where its combination of mythic themes, mystical forces, and ravishing visuals tapped deeply into cultural identity and contemporary, ecological anxieties. For international animation and anime fans, this epic, animated 1997 fantasy, represents an auspicious next step for its revered creator, Hayao Miyazaki (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), an acknowledged anime pioneer, whose painterly style, vivid character design, and stylised approach to storytelling take ambitious, evolutionary steps here. Set in medieval Japan, Miyazaki's original story envisions a struggle between nature and man. The march of technology, embodied in the dark iron forges of the ambitious Tatara clan, threatens the natural forces explicit in the benevolent Great God of the Forest and the wide-eyed, spectral spirits he protects. When Ashitaka, a young warrior from a remote, and endangered, village clan, kills a ravenous, boar-like monster, he discovers the beast is in fact an infectious "demon god", transformed by human anger. Ashitaka's quest to solve the beast's fatal curse brings him into the midst of human political intrigues as well as the more crucial battle between man and nature. Miyazaki's convoluted fable is clearly not the stuff of kiddie matinees, nor is the often graphic violence depicted during the battles that ensue. If some younger viewers (or less attentive older ones) will wish for a diagram to sort out the players, Miyazaki's atmospheric world and its lush visual design are reasons enough to watch. For the English-language version, Miramax assembled an impressive vocal cast including Gillian Anderson, Billy Crudup (as Ashitaka), Claire Danes (as San), Minnie Driver (as Lady Eboshi), Billy Bob Thornton, and Jada Pinkett Smith. They bring added nuance to a very different kind of magic kingdom. -- Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com On the DVD: with an impressive widescreen aspect of 2.35:1 and a pleasant 5.1 Dolby digital sound, you cannot fault the transfer of this animation in any way. However, the special features leave a lot to be desired on what is a classic piece of modern anime. The "Behind the Scenes" feature holds no information on the making of Princess Mononoke in its original form--with no input from animator Hayao Miyazaki--and the trailer is taken from the American release of the movie (even though it calls itself an "original" theatrical trailer), complete with the annoyingly hyped-up voiceover that comes with US film trailers. The redeeming feature of this DVD is the ability to watch the anime in its original language with subtitles, a much more passionate and beautiful form--so much of the feeling and lyricism of the movie is lost with the transfer to English language and misplaced casting. After watching the original Japanese version of Princess Mononoke and reading the book you begin to wonder why the West has become such a solitary child of Disney. --Nikki Disney

• Jerry Bruckheimer Action Collection | DVD | (08/07/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  Crimson Tide: Superstars Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman face off in the intense action-thriller Crimson Tide. Viggo Mortensen and James Gandolfi ni also star as the full-throttle tension builds relentlessly! Amidst a global crisis, the USS Alabama is ordered to launch its nuclear missiles - signaling the start of World War III! And when the sub's commander and his executive offi cer clash over the validity of their orders, an epic struggle for control erupts under the sea. The ...

• Sling Blade | DVD | (06/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in Sling Blade, a mesmerizing drama with haunting overtones of To Kill a Mockingbird. Thornton plays a mentally retarded man who has spent 20 years in a psychiatric hospital for killing his mother and her lover. Released into the community from which he came, he befriends and protects a lonely boy regularly harassed and abused by his mom's boyfriend (a terrific performance by Dwight Yoakam). The story is ultimately about sacrifice, but Thornton certainly doesn't get twinkly about it. Some of the best material concerns the hero's no-big-deal efforts to integrate into a "normal" life: working, eating fast food, earning admiration for his handyman skills, and attaining a semblance of community among other damaged souls. John Ritter has a great part as a gay shopkeeper who tries to assuage his own loneliness by spilling his guts out to Thornton's uncomprehending character. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com