"Actor: Brian"

• Best Seller | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £4.15   |  Saving you £10.10 (349.48%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Flynn has directed some good, tough, pacy thrillers and Best Seller, along with the 1973 The Outfit, can claim to be the best of them. It kicks off with not one but two slam-bang action sequences and then, having grabbed our attention, pitches us straight into its twisty plot premise. Brian Dennehy, reliably watchable as ever, plays an ageing cop-turned-novelist who has hit a writer's block since his wife died. James Woods at his most suavely sinister is a hitman with dirt to dish on the head of a big corporation. Woods proposes a Faustian pact. He provides Dennehy with the full crooked story on the mobster-turned-corporate boss and the cop writes it up. Dennehy gets a best seller; Woods gets his revenge and comes out looking like a hero. The dialogue, courtesy of screenwriter and horror-movie director Larry Cohen (It's Alive; Q--The Winged Serpent), is satisfyingly hard-boiled and slips in plenty of subversive sideswipes at rampant capitalism. ("It's the American Way, Dennis," says Woods, detailing how he helped his boss rise via robbery and murder. "I'm a businessman, an executive.") This certainly isn't the only movie to get mileage out of the symbiotic relationship between cop and crook (see Michael Mann's Heat), but it works several neat variations on the theme, with Dennehy and Woods both at the top of their respective forms. If the film never quite lives up to its potential--the required final confrontation between the two principals doesn't materialise and Victoria Tennant is thrown away as Dennehy's love-interest--it remains a way better than average thriller with its roots deep in the best B-movie traditions. On the DVD: Best Seller on disc has no extras apart from the theatrical trailer. The transfer is good and clean, and preserves the original's full-width framing. --Philip Kemp

• Poodle Springs | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  It's the early 60's and hard-boiled private eye Philip Marlowe played by James Caan is as cynical as ever but also a newlywed. Moving to the small desert town of Poodle Springs after marrying the daughter (Dina Meyer) of a billionaire Marlowe becomes immersed in deadly intrigue surrounding the murder of another investigator. Uncovering a sinister scheme to relocate the state border of Nevada that might involve his wealthy father-in-law the world-weary Marlowe encounters a web of greed lust and murder as dark and as deadly as he has ever seen. With a talent for attracting trouble Marlowe finds it in Poodle Springs in the form of bigamy gambling pornography and double identity

• The Avengers : The Definitive Dossier 1967 (Box Set 1) | DVD | (04/06/2001) from £13.93   |  Saving you £11.06 (79.40%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Further adventures of the oh so dapper John Steed and his sidekick Emma Peel. Features six episodes from the 1967 season: 'From Venus With Love' 'The Fear Merchants' 'Escape In Time' 'The See-Through Man' 'The Bird Who Knew Too Much' and 'The Winged Avenger'.

• Dead Birds | DVD | (16/05/2005) from £12.30   |  Saving you £7.69 (38.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  There are worse things than dying... An abandoned house with a gruesome past starts out as a hiding place for a group of Civil War criminals stealing Confederate gold but quickly becomes a deadly trap where no one is safe from the walking dead. They must ultimately must decide if their fate inside its walls is worse than the one that awaits them on the outside...

• Sharpe's Rifles / Sharpe's Eagle | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £3.55   |  Saving you £11.44 (322.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. On the DVD: Sharpe on DVD contains a photo gallery and several screens of background text. The sound is full-bodied stereo while the very "sharp" picture has been transferred slightly letterboxed at 14:9. Though looking much better than the original TV transmissions the occasionally cropped framing makes it apparent the films were shot in 16:9 widescreen, so it is regrettable they have not been transferred to DVD in that format. Otherwise these are first-rate releases. --Gary S Dalkin

• An Inspector Calls | DVD | (04/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A young girl is murdered and an Inspector calls on a prosperous Yorkshire household investigating the sad circumstances behind her death. Each one of the family has a secret - and each one is partly responsible for the girl's fate. The determined Inspector must prove their collective guilt and the shattering denouncement reveals why. An adaptation of J.B. Priestley's classic play.

• Cortes - Heroes and Villains | DVD | (12/08/2019) from £4.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An epic film telling the incredible true story of the Spanish adventurer Hernan Cortes is supposed to have taken the Aztec empire with a small army and a few horses.

• Status Quo - Hello Quo: Access All Areas Edition Blu-ray | Blu Ray | (29/10/2012) from £14.97   |  Saving you £10.02 (66.93%)   |  RRP £24.99

  With 128 million worldwide album sales already under their collective belts, two OBE awards, a million neon lit 'Sold Out' signs, a record 108 appearances on Top of the Pops, this will never be beaten or even equalled! You'd think that HRH Prince Charles favourite band had nothing more to prove in the field of entertainment... But, they've never in all their long and glorious history been seen on a cinema screen...

• The Town | 4K UHD | (12/12/2016) from £21.85   |  Saving you £-1.87 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.98

  Ben Affleck worked triple-time on The Town, in which he directs, stars, and co-adapts Chuck Hogan's Prince of Thieves. Affleck's Doug MacRay comes from a line of Boston bank robbers. With his father (Chris Cooper) behind bars, he spent most of his childhood in Charlestown with loyal hothead Jem (The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner). Doug had a chance to go legit as a pro hockey player, but he threw it away on drugs and bad behavior. After the armed robbery that opens the film, Jem becomes convinced that bank manager Claire (Vicki Cristina Barcelona's Rebecca Hall) saw something, so Doug, who wore a disguise at the time, sets out to make sure she doesn't tell FBI agent Frawley (Mad Men's Jon Hamm) anything incriminating (Titus Welliver plays Frawley's partner). Doug starts by asking Claire out, and finds she's more shaken than stirred--and that he likes her better than Jem's oxy-addicted sister, Krista (Gossip Girl's Blake Lively), his sometime girlfriend. Unfortunately, neither Jem nor vicious enforcer Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) will cut him loose until he orchestrates two more scores--the last to take place at Fenway Park. If The Town offers fewer surprises than Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, he raises the stakes with well-planned heists, nerve-jangling car chases, and deadly shootouts. Though Affleck looks too clean-cut to portray a thug, he gives a nicely understated performance, while Hall proves an inspired choice as a woman who could make a bad guy turn good--or die trying. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Bear City | DVD | (01/11/2010) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Come join us in the witty sexy world of BearCity - all you need to do is take the girls from Sex and the City inject them with large amounts of testosterone tape fur coats to their bodies and perhaps add just an extra dollop of bitchiness! When twinkie newbie and closet bear-chaser Tyler (Joe Conti) finally infiltrates New York's exclusive bear scene it doesn't take long for him to become infatuated with commitment-phobic Roger the bonafide Casanova of muscle bears. As Tyler negotiates the trials and tribulations of his seemingly ellusive love he finds himself drawn closer to the quirky and endearing characters populating the fabulous big bear community. Oozing with sexual tension and comic prescience Bear City is a prime cut of movie-beef and a rare trip into the bigger and hairier side of gay life!

• Hellboy | UMD | (01/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• Flash Gordon | DVD | (25/03/2002) from £9.90   |  Saving you £6.09 (61.52%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When the totalitarian planet of Mongo decides on a whim to obliterate Earth, it's up to the quarterback Flash Gordon and his oddball companions to make the universe safe for democracy. Based on the classic (and infinitely more reputable) comic strip and its 1930s screen serialisation, this candy-coloured trash classic deserves immortality for Queen's unforgettably pulsating soundtrack alone. The legendary Max von Sydow appears to be having a blast as the evil Ming the Merciless, while Ornella Muti, as his daughter, is the living embodiment of what attracts adolescent boys to comics in the first place. (She makes Barbarella look mundane.) One of the most shamelessly entertaining movies ever made, this is a knowingly absurd sensory freak-out that'll have the viewer blissfully checking the sky afterward for signs of Hawkmen. --Andrew Wright

• The Hurt Locker | Blu Ray | (18/01/2016) from £8.95   |  Saving you £16.04 (179.22%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Jeremy Renner portrays the leader of a bomb-defusing squad in Iraq in this fierce tale of war.

• The Lost Legion | DVD | (20/10/2014) from £10.23   |  Saving you £4.76 (46.53%)   |  RRP £14.99

  After the fall of the Roman Empire, Rome has been stripped of its former glory and left desperate to recapture its past. Urbina Prima schemes with all her cunning and spite to see her son declared the new Emperor. In her way is her husband, Roman general Maximus, who has forged his own deadly path to fulfil his ambitions. The Lost Legion is a violent tale of manipulation and debauchery in the quest for ultimate power.

• The Sweeney Double Feature - The Sweeney 1 / The Sweeney 2 | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £24.97   |  Saving you £-8.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sweeney! Hard-bitten Flying Squad officer Jack Regan (Thaw) gets embroiled in a deadly political plot when an old friend asks him to investigate the death of his girlfriend. Framed on a drink-driving charge and suspended from the force with his partner and best mate George Carter (Waterman) unable to help Jack must rely on his wits to evade deadly government hitmen and expose the real villain... Sweeney 2 Regan and Carter head a n investigation into a series of British bank raids by a team of well-armed villains who are flying in from the continent.

• Nevada Smith | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £7.70   |  Saving you £8.29 (107.66%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This classic Western adapted from the novel by Harold Robbins and starring STEVE MCQUEEN in the title role is an edgy and gripping story of revenge that interweaves a number of different stories together in one mans quest to track down the killers of his parents. NEVADA SMITH sees a return to form for McQueen in a genre that he excelled in and with a supporting cast including Karl Malden Martin Landau and Arthur Kennedy the film sparkles with great performances and breathtaking s

• She Fought Alone | DVD | (25/09/2000) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Caitlin Rose wants to be part of the 'in' crowd at Lockhart High School and will do anything to achieve this. She is not prepared however for rape and when she accuses her attacker her friends turn against her. She is regarded as an outcast by the school and town but she begins a long fight to clear her name...

• Sleepaway Camp 2 - Unhappy Campers | Blu Ray | (25/04/2016) from £12.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (38.49%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Angela Baker (Pamela Springsteen) has become a counselor at Camp Rolling Hills - a summer camp for teenagers. Crazy Angela has plans to teach the badly-behaved campers a lesson or two in survival - by slicing, stabbing, drilling, barbecuing, chain-sawing and worse. This is the follow up to the original cult hit 'Sleepaway Camp'.

• Beauty And The Beast | DVD | (02/11/2002) from £13.38   |  Saving you £6.61 (49.40%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Disney's classic animated retelling of the French fairy tale, with a new scene added for the forthcoming Imax exclusive re-release.

• Basic | DVD | (11/08/2008) from £2.29   |  Saving you £10.70 (82.40%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.