"Actor: Burt"

• Rocky - Special Edition | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £9.35   |  Saving you £13.63 (214.31%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1976 Best Picture Award-winner Rocky has the look of a contemporary on-the-streets movie like Taxi Driver, but the heart of a fairytale. For the Bicentennial Year, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), a Muhammad Ali-like stars-and-stripes blowhard, cynically offers a title shot to an unknown over-the-hill Philadelphia club fighter, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Unlike the sequels, Rocky is a rare American sports movie to realise there's more drama and emotional resonance in losing than winning. The unique finale suggests that going the distance against the odds is more of a triumph than a conventional victory. Stallone, then an unknown as actor and writer, crafts the script to his own strengths--mumbling, Brando-like sincerity combined with explosive physicality expressed in his use of a side of beef as a punch-bag or wintery jogs around Philly. Surprisingly little of the film is taken up with ring action, as we follow Rocky's awkward courtship of pet-store minion Adrian (Talia Shire) and uneasy relationship with her slobbish brother (Burt Young), while Burgess Meredith provides the old pro licks as the curmudgeonly trainer. Though it led to a slick, steroid-fuelled franchise, it has a pleasing roughness, exemplified by the memorable funk/brass band score and the array of fidgety, credible method acting tics. On the DVD: 1.85:1 16x9 print, which represents the sometimes-slick, sometimes rough look of the cinematography; feature commentary with supporting cast and crew (Burt Young admits to rubbing vermouth into his neck to make himself repulsive), video interview with Stallone, a retrospective featurette (which includes news footage of the Ali fight that inspired the story), 8mm test fight footage with a flabbier Stallone, tributes to Burgess Meredith and cameraman James Crabe, trailers for Rocky and all the sequels (which makes a solid précis of the whole series). All this and a "special hidden feature" (a comic sketch with Sly meeting Rocky).--Kim Newman

• The Killer Elite | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Best friends Mike Locken and George Hansen are the 'Killer Elite' undertaking jobs that are too dangerous even for the CIA. But when one of the duo is betrayed by the other things get tricky...

• The Longest Yard | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £8.08   |  Saving you £7.91 (97.90%)   |  RRP £15.99

  First Down...And Ten Years To Go. In this rough-and-tumble yarn actually filmed on-location at the Georgia State Prison the cons are the heroes and the guards are the heavies. Eddie Albert is the sadistic warden who'll gladly make any sacrifice to push his guards' semi-pro football team to a national championship. Reynolds plays one time pro quarterback Paul Crewe now behind bars for leading State Police on a wild chase in a ""borrowed"" car. He agrees to organize a prisoners' team

• In The Name Of The King | DVD | (23/03/2009) from £5.79   |  Saving you £0.20 (3.45%)   |  RRP £5.99

  When the Krugs animal-warriors with an evil overlord kidnap the wife of Farmer he sets out seeking vengeance.

• Die Unendliche Geschichte (4K Ultra HD) (+ Blu-ray 2D) | Blu Ray | (01/07/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• The Mean Machine (aka The Longest Yard) | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £19.19   |  Saving you £3.79 (23.40%)   |  RRP £19.99

  First Down...And Ten Years To Go. In this rough-and-tumble yarn actually filmed on-location at the Georgia State Prison the cons are the heroes and the guards are the heavies. Eddie Albert is the sadistic warden who'll gladly make any sacrifice to push his guards' semi-pro football team to a national championship. Reynolds plays one time pro quarterback Paul Crewe now behind bars for leading State Police on a wild chase in a ""borrowed"" car. He agrees to organize a prisoners'

• Last Exit To Brooklyn | DVD | (25/10/1999) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The setting is a working-class neighbourhood of New York in the 1950s. Among the characters are prostitute Tralala her brutal pimp Vinnie an effiminate homosexual and a corrupt union official. Based on the book by Hubert Selby Jr. this is an extremely disturbing and effective adaption of his once-banned novel.

• Shark | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £12.99   |  Saving you £-10.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Caine (Burt Reynolds) gets a job to help crew a boat owned by the Professor a well-known marine biologist. Along with Anna the Professor's friend they embark not for scientific research but to find the wreck of The Victoria. The Professor is really looking for a horde of lost gold and when his rough crew discover the truth they are also out for all they can get - double-crossing each other to get their hands on the treasure. Caine and the Professor dive for the gold but there is a high risk they won't return - someone above them is throwing bait into the shark-infested water!

• Revenge Of The Pink Panther | DVD | (02/02/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Following Clouseau's supposed assassination Dreyfus is declared sane and released. But how will he cope with the truth when he finds out that the Inspector is actually alive and undercover working with Kato to discover who wanted him dead?

• Empire Of The Sun - Special Edition | DVD | (06/03/2006) from £7.49   |  Saving you £9.50 (55.90%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Roundly dismissed as one of Steven Spielberg's least successful efforts, this very underrated film poignantly follows the World War II adventures of young Jim (a brilliant Christian Bale), caught in the throes of the fall of China. What if you once had everything and lost it all in an afternoon? What if you were only 12 years old at the time? Bale's transformation, from pampered British ruling-class child to an imprisoned, desperate, nearly feral boy, is nothing short of stunning. Also stunning are exceptional sets, cinematography and music (the last courtesy of John Williams) that enhance author J.G. Ballard's and screenwriter Tom Stoppard's depiction of another, less familiar casualty of war. In a time when competitors were releasing "comedic", derivative coming-of-age films, Empire of the Sun stands out as an epic in the classic David Lean sense--despite confusion or perceived competition with the equally excellent The Last Emperor (also released in 1987, and also a coming-of-age in a similar setting). It is also a remarkable testament to, yes, the human spirit. And despite its disappointing box-office returns, Empire of the Sun helped to further establish Spielberg as more than a commercial director and set the standard, tone and look for future efforts Schindler's List and Saving Private Ryan. --N.F. Mendoza

• The Kentuckian | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £9.43   |  Saving you £3.56 (37.75%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Burt Lancaster's one and only feature as star and director, The Kentuckian, has a bedrock American folk tale at its core, but scarcely a clue how to tell it. For all his balletic control as an actor-athlete, Lancaster shows no sense of how a film should move and breathe over an hour and a half, or how to make the characters' growth or changes of mind credible. It's the early 18th century--Monroe is president--and buckskin-clad Lancaster and his son (Donald MacDonald) are lighting out for Texas. "It ain't we don't like people--we like room more." They plan briefly to visit Lancaster's tobacco-dealer brother (John McIntire) in the river town of Humility, and then move on. But there are complications from a long-running feud, and some nasty baiting from a whip-cracking storekeeper (Walter Matthau in his film debut); the need to replace their "Texas money" after buying freedom for a bondservant (Dianne Foster); also the matter of deciding who's prettier, her or the local schoolmarm (Diana Lynn). Lancaster aims for some quaint Americana--a sing-along to the tinkling of a pianoforte, a jaw-dropping riverside production number--and there's one nifty bit of action based on how long it took to reload a flintlock rifle. But mostly this film just lies there in overlit CinemaScope. --Richard T Jameson

• Dione Warwick: Don't Make Me Over | Blu Ray | (07/11/2022) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Follows the life and career of Dionne Warwick. Featuring: Quincy Jones Burt Bacharach Bill Clinton Clive Davis Gladys Knight Cissy Houston Elton John Damon Elliott Kenneth Cole Berry Gordy Jerry Blavat Snoop Dogg Smokey Robinson

• Harry Palmer Double Bill - Midnight In St.Petersburg/Bullet To Beijing | DVD | (20/04/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Bullet To Beijing: When the Cold War ends the British Secret Service decides it no longer has a use for top agent Harry Palmer. There are others however who still have a need for a man of Harry Palmer's skills. He is promptly approached by Alex a Russian businessman. In St. Petersburg Alex tells Harry of his plan for Russia's future which is threatened because a deadly bio-chemical weapon called the Red Death has been stolen from him. Alex is prepared to pay Harry handsomely to locate and recover the renegade weapon. An ex-spy friend tips Harry off that the weapon is being sent to Beijing by train aboard which we begin to learn just whose side everyone is really on... Midnight In St. Petersburg: Having lost his intelligence job at the end of the Cold War former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now travels East to find new outlets for his skills. Harry sets up a Private Investigation company in Russia and soon finds himself charged with rescuing his young assistant Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana who has been kidnapped. The trail leads to St. Petersburg which Harry finds to be a city held in the iron grip of the violent Russian Mafia. The mafia does its best to stop Harry in his tracks but it may be easier said than done!

• Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie/Mr Bean's Holiday/Mr Bean Vol. 1 | DVD | (19/11/2007) from £17.53   |  Saving you £7.46 (42.56%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie (Dir. Mel Smith) (1997): When the Royal National Gallery of London is asked to send their finest scholar to oversee the unveiling of Whistler's Mother in California they send their most inept and detested employee in a desperate attempt to get him out of their lives. That employee is Mr. Bean - the master of disaster! Mr. Bean's Holiday (Dir.Steve Bendelack) (2007): Disaster has a passport! Mr. Bean returns but not for long as he goes on his travels to the south of France where mishap and mayhem begin... By the end Bean even has his video diaries at the Cannes Film Festival.

• Back To School | DVD | (05/09/2005) from £34.99   |  Saving you £-22.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Rodney Dangerfield makes the grade with this laugh-riot comedy that's in a class of its own! Higher education will never be the same when co-stars Sally Kellerman Robert Downey Jr. Sam Kinison Ned Beatty and more join the maniac as he takes on the brainiacs! Thornton Melon's (Dangerfield) son is a college misfit so Thornton's lending some fatherly support...by enrolling as a fellow freshman! Who cares if the owner of the ""Tall and Fat"" clothing empire never finished high school

• Goddess | DVD | (25/08/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Full-time mum of twins, Elspeth Dickens (Laura Michelle Kelly), becomes a web sensation when she inadvertently broadcasts her sink songs across the internet. With Elspeth s husband, James (Ronan Keating), at sea saving whales, advertising mogul Cassandra (Magda Szubanski) relishes the opportunity to exploit Elspeth s new-found fame by offering Elspeth her dream career in showbusiness. With her dreams of stardom within reach, Elspeth finds the choice between fame and family may come at the co.

• White Lightning | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In one of his most memorable roles Burt Reynolds portrays Gator McKlusky a former moonshine runner and ex-con who turns state's witness in order to bring justice for the murder of a local boy in America's Deep South whom no one understood...

• Last Exit To Brooklyn | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £17.97   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The mean and desolate streets of Brooklyn are home to a host of unhappy hopeless characters stuck in dead-end lives. A young prostitute emotionally numb from having sold her body so many times regularly leads her prospective clients to a dark alley where a gang beats and robs them; an office worker cannot deal with his repressed homosexuality; and a young girl's father refuses to admit that she is eight months pregnant. All these stories take place in a world waiting to explode: local workers are engaged in an angry strike against a nearby factory while not too far away at the Brooklyn Navy Yard soldiers sail daily for Korea many never to return. The personal and the political intermingle in this bleak look at poverty drugs and violence in the inner-city in the early 1950s based on Hubert Selby Jr's controversial book. Jennifer Jason Leigh received the Best Supporting Actress Award from the New York Film Critics Circle in 1990 for her work in this film.

• Field Of Dreams | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Field of Dreams is, in the words of its makers, a baseball film that "isn't about baseball". Rather, it's a magical film that works its spell on all but the most hard-boiled of viewers, an altogether superior slice of apple-pie sentimentality. Kevin Costner plays a young Iowa farmer who finds himself pestered by a whispering voice urging him, "If you build it, he will come". With the consent of an uncharacteristically supportive Hollywood wife (Amy Madigan) he sets about building a baseball diamond in the middle of his land. This action invites the prospect of bankruptcy--however, it also invites the spirit of "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, a baseball superstar disgraced following his role in the 1919 World Series scandal. The supernatural voices continue to urge Costner to "go the distance"--and he seeks out reclusive writer Thomas Mann (James Earl Jones) and "Doc" Graham (Burt Lancaster), impelled by purposes he is as yet unable to divine. Field of Dreams works because it touches so endearingly on themes of redemption, inner peace and the possibility of second chances--the "dreams" which elude most of us. It also cites baseball as an idyllic metaphor for all that is decent and constant about America. Costner gives immense plausibility to an utterly, deliberately implausible scenario. On the DVD: Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the vivid, almost unnaturally natural Iowa colours are depicted to vivid effect (much of the diamond grass had to be painted green when it died). Generous extras include a making-of feature, an interview with WP Kinsella, author of the novel on which the book is based, and Costner. Director/writer Phil Alden Robinson also provides a director's commentary in which he describes the logistical difficulties of assembling 1500 automobiles for the memorable final scene. --David Stubbs

• Western Collection (Gunfight at the OK Corral, Once Upon A Time in the West, True Grit, The Sons of Katie Elder) | DVD | (24/11/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Gunfight At The OK Corral (1957): A gang of ruthless outlaws...a pair of larger-than-life heroes...a timeless tale of good versus evil. Acclaimed actors Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas team up to rid Tombstone Arizona of the murderous Clanton gang in this all-star action-packed classic. When lawman Wyatt Earp (Lancaster) and gunfighter Doc Holiday (Douglas) ride into town they find themselves pitted against one of the biggest foes ever encountered in the form of Ike Clanton (Lyle Bettger) and his ruthless gang. It isn't long before the confrontation explodes into a survival-at-all-costs battle with Rhonda Fleming Jo Van Fleet John Ireland Dennis Hopper Deforest Kelley Martin Milner and Lee Van Cleef among those swept into the drama and excitement of one of the Wild West's most legendary events! Once Upon A Time In The West (1969): Sergio Leone's monumental epic 'Once Upon A Time In The West' ranks among the five or six all-time Western masterpieces. The picture itself is as big as its Monument Valley locations as grand as its fine distinguished cast. Henry Fonda plays the blackest character of his long career. He's Frank the ruthless murderous psychopath who suffers conscience pangs after annihilating an entire family. Jason Robards is the half-breed falsely accused of the terrible slaughter. Charles Bronson plays the harmonica playing man who remembers how his brother was savagely tortured. Brilliantly directed by Leone and accompanied by one of Ennio Morriconne's greatest scores this glorious picture helped re-establish the Western's significance. Watch out for that lengthy opening titles sequence... True Grit (1969): In 1970 John Wayne earned an Academy Award for his larger-than-life performance as the drunken uncouth and totally fearless one-eyed U.S. Marshal Rooster Cogburn. The cantankerous Rooster is hired by a headstrong young girl (Kim Darby) to find the man who murdered her father and fled with the family savings. When Cogburn's employer insists on accompanying the old gunfighter sparks fly. And the situation goes from troubled to disastrous when the inexperienced but enthusiastic Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell) joins the party. Laughter and tears punctuate the wild action in this extraordinary Western which features performances by Robert Duvall and Strother Martin. The Sons Of Katie Elder (1965): Katie Elder bore four sons. The day she is buried they all return home to Clearwater Texas to pay their last respects. John Wayne is the eldest and toughest son the gunslinger. Tom (Dean Martin) is good with a deck of cards and good with a gun when he has to be. Matt (Earl Holliman) is the quiet one - nobody ever called him yellow... twice. Bud (Michael Anderson Jr.) is the youngest. Any hope for respectability lies with him. Directed by Henry Hathaway (True Grit) an acknowledged master of the western the story has a dual theme: not only is this a he-man's story but it is also a drama of the maternal influence of Katie Elder movingly portrayed from beginning to conclusion.