"Actor: Carl R"

• Rocky - The Complete Saga - Rocky/Rocky 2/Rocky 3/Rocky 4/Rocky 5/Rocky Balboa | DVD | (01/10/2007) from £17.46   |  Saving you £-2.50 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.96

  Rocky - The 1976 Oscar winner for Best Picture, John G Avildsen's Rocky is the story of a down-and-out club fighter who gets his million-to-one shot at a world championship title. In the title role, Sylvester Stallone (who also penned the screenplay) draws a carefully etched portrait of a loser who, in Brando-esque fashion, "coulda been a contender". Rocky then becomes one thanks to a publicity stunt engineered by current champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), while finding love courtesy of timid wallflower Adrian (Talia Shire) along the way. Burgess Meredith revives the spirit of 1940's genre pictures through his scenery-chewing performance as Rocky's trainer. An enormously entertaining film, Rocky is irresistible in its depiction of an underachiever who has the courage to start all over again--a description that could have been applied to Stallone's own life at the time. --Kevin Mulhall Rocky 2 - The Italian Stallion returns for a rematch with Apollo Creed, hoping, finally, to capture the heavyweight title. This time, even his girlfriend, Adrian, gives Rocky her blessing. Sylvester Stallone wrote and directed this exciting follow-up, with Burgess Meredith, Talia Shire, Carl Weathers, and Burt Young all reprising their roles from the first film. Rocky 3 - Rocky's lifestyle of wealth and idleness is suddenly shaken when a powerful fighter challenges him to a fight for the championship. After being beaten, the previously over-confident Rocky resumes his training in preparation for a re-match. Rocky 4 - A World Heavyweight Boxing contest is to be staged between the champ, Rocky Balboa and the Soviet amateur champion, Ivan Drago. Both men know that this is more than just a tough contest of strength and skill. Rocky 5 - Times are hard for Rocky Balboa. A lifetime of taking punches has terminated his boxing career and a crooked accountant has left him in financial difficulties. The Balboa family moves back to its roots in a downtown neighbourhood where an aspiring boxer turns to the champ for training... Rocky Balboa - The sixth installment of the Rocky series picks up the story of the Italian Stallion 16 years after the morose Rocky V. And sure, at his advanced age, Sylvester Stallone now looks like one of those sides of beef his character used to pound on. No matter. Somehow you buy the premise after all these years, even if it takes forever for Rocky Balboa to stop wallowing in self-pity (Adrian is dead, his old haunts are demolished) and get down to the business of drinking raw eggs and running up steps. The business at hand is an unlikely exhibition fight with champion Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), which the near-sexagenarian Mr. Balboa has no business accepting. Of course, just as sure as the horns of Bill Conti's theme music are even now trumpeting through your head, the ol' Rock might have a punch or two left in him. Stallone wrote and directed, and there isn't much to say except that the movie steps in its pre-determined paces with a canny sense of what has come before (it's practically an homage to all the previous Rocky pictures, complete with fleeting flashbacks). Burt Young is around again, and Geraldine Hughes makes an appealing, rather chaste female companion for Rocky. Stallone's Rocky has gotten suspiciously articulate over the years, but he still knows how to slouch. If Stallone never forgets that, he can probably keep the franchise rolling. --Robert Horton

• Honey, I Shrunk The Kids | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £5.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (150.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A deft balance between special effects, comedy and family dynamics made this 1989 film a hit for Disney and spawned both a string of video sequels and a subsequent TV series. Moranis is endearing as the bumbling inventor/father of the Szalinski family. He inadvertently shrinks his own children then throws them out with the trash. They, along with the neighbour kids, must journey back across their own backyard, now an enormous, dangerous distance, to get back to the right height. Much is done with the perils of the lawn, from a wild deluge from the sprinklers to a nasty encounter with the lawnmower and numerous encounters with gigantic insects. Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a generally kid-friendly, inventive (no pun intended) and entertaining outing. --Keith Simanton

• Action Jackson | Blu Ray | (15/07/2024) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Like a blast from a .44 magnum, Carl Weathers (Predator, Rocky) makes Action Jackson a hero who delivers the goods with charisma and excitement. He plays Detroit police Sergeant Jericho Jackson, pitted against the brutal thugs of ruthless auto tycoon Peter Dellaplane (Craig T. Nelson), who's out to murder his way to political power. Jackson's also involved with Dellaplane's beautiful wife, Patrice (Sharon Stone) - and his mistress, Sydney (singer Vanity). Framed and hunted by his fellow officers, Jackson sets up a desperate showdown that hurls Action Jackson toward a heart-stopping climax.

• Jesus Christ Superstar | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.97   |  Saving you £11.02 (221.73%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Jesus Christ Superstar is a phenomenon: a brilliant example of modern moviemaking that translates a legendary rock opera to the screen. Told entirely in song images and music the story focuses on the last week of Christ's life his betrayal and crucifixion seen from the point of view of Judas. Producer-director Norman Jewison shot his film entirely on location in Israel and fills the screen with a never-ending series of dazzling images.

• Jaws | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £7.85   |  Saving you £12.14 (154.65%)   |  RRP £19.99

  JAWS, the original, terrifying, summer blockbuster is digitally restored and back in cinemas for a limited time only from June 15

• A Woman of Paris Blu-Ray (Criterion Collection) | Blu Ray | (07/04/2025) from £22.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Remarkable for its psychological nuance and its boldly modern perspective on an independent woman's search for fulfillment, Charlie Chaplin's long-overlooked silent masterpiece A Woman of Paris is a revelation.

• Hitchcock - The Beginning | Blu Ray | (16/12/2024) from £115.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  WI T N E S S T H E B I R T H O F A C I N E M A T I C L E G E N D For the first time on Blu-ray, featuring new restorations and scores, experience 10 of Alfred Hitchcock's early works. From the silent film era to the first talkies, this 11-disc set also contains a newly commissioned, full-length documentary, Becoming Hitchcock, exploring the director's first sound picture, Blackmail. In 1929, Hitchcock directed Blackmail, the first British sound feature, hailed as a film which used sound and dialogue with more flair and imagination than any Hollywood or European film of the time. Hitchcock's inventive and expressionist use of sound demonstrated that the new technology opened a new realm of possibilities. The Ring (1927) The Farmer's Wife (1928)Champagne (1928) The Manxman (1929) (NEW SCORE) Blackmail (1929) - SILENT VERSION (new 4K restoration and NEW SCORE ) Blackmail (1929) - TALKIE VERSION (new 4K restoration) Juno and the Paycock (1930) Murder! (1930) The Skin Game 1931) - REMASTERED FOR 2024 Rich and Strange (1931) Number Seventeen (1932) (new 4K restoration) BRAND-NEW DOCUMENTARY - BECOMING HITCHCOCK THE LEGACY OF BLACKMAIL (2024) Directed by Laurent Bouzereau, Narrated by Elvis Mitchell, Produced by Studiocanal in association with Nedland Films, 72min.BECOMING HITCHCOCK THE LEGACY OF BLACKMAIL, a brand new 72-minute documentary from award-winning filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau (Faye, Music by John Williams, Five Came Back) and narrated by historian, critic and filmmaker Elvis Mitchell, reflects the development of Alfred Hitchcock's signature style, through the making of one of his benchmark films, Blackmail (1929). The documentary highlights the birth of the Hitchcock Touch at a period when talking pictures first emerged and explores his trademark themes, such as murder, suspense and cool blondes. While focusing on Blackmail, the documentary reveals how this film also foreshadows the director's later masterpieces, from Psycho to North by Northwest and from The Birds to Frenzy. / runtime: 70 mins

• Bullitt | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.35   |  Saving you £10.64 (167.56%)   |  RRP £16.99

  San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

• In A Lonely Place | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £79.99   |  Saving you £-67.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  One of the classics of the noir psychological thriller, In a Lonely Place is one of Humphrey Bogart's finest performances. He is almost unbearably intense as Dixon Steele, a screenwriter with high standards and a nasty temper who finds himself under suspicion when Mildred, a hat-check girl he knows, is found murdered. Immediately he gets an alibi from a neighbour, Laurel, and equally quickly, he recognises that this is a woman who meets his standards: the question is, as suspicion of his involvement in Mildred's death continues, can he make himself meet hers? This is a wonderful study in trust and suspicion and the limits of love; Bogart's performance is impressive simply because he is prepared to go well over the limits of our sympathy in the name of emotional truth. The scene where he explains imaginatively to a cop and his wife how the murder might have happened is a spine-chilling, creepy portrait of amoral artistic brilliance. Gloria Grahame is equally fine as the woman who lets herself love him, for a while. On the DVD: In a Lonely Place comes with an excellent documentary in which Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential) explains the importance of the film to him and discusses its place in the work of Bogart and the director Nicholas Ray; there is also a quick interesting documentary about the restoration and digitisation of classic films. The film is presented with a visual aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and with restored Dolby Surround sound that does full justice to the film's snappy dialogue and the moody George Antheil score. --Roz Kaveney

• DIE NIBELUNGEN (Masters of Cinema) (BLU-RAY) | Blu Ray | (29/10/2012) from £14.79   |  Saving you £3.20 (21.64%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Perhaps the most stately of Fritz Lang's two-part epics, the five-hour Die Nibelungen is a courageous and hallucinatory work. Its extraordinary set-pieces, archetypal themes, and unrestrained ambition have proved an inspiration for nearly every fantasy cycle that has emerged on-screen since - from Star Wars to The Lord of the Rings.In Part One, Siegfried, the film's eponymous hero acquires the power of invincibility after slaying a dragon and bathing in the creature's blood. Later, an alliance through marriage between the hero and the royal clan of the Nibelungen turns treacherous, with Siegfried's sole weakness exploited. In Part Two, Kriemhilds Rache [Kriemhild's Revenge], Siegfried's widow travels to the remote land of the Huns to wed the monstrous Attila, and thereby enlist his forces in an act of vengeance that culminates in massacre, conflagration, and, under the auspices of Lang, one of the most exhilarating and terrifying end-sequences in all of cinema.Adapted from the myth that was also the basis for Wagner's Ring cycle of operas, Lang's epic offers its own startling expressionistic power - a summit of the director's artistry. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Die Nibelungen in a spectacular new HD restoration.

• The Usual Suspects -- Two-Disc Special Edition | DVD | (29/04/2002) from £4.96   |  Saving you £18.03 (363.51%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Bryan Singer's film noir The Usual Suspects casts a mesmerising spell, with the plot luring the viewer into ever-deeper and darker places. According to director, Singer, the premise for the film evolved from a magazine article. What does the phrase "usual suspects" actually mean, who are they and what happens when you probe their identity? Here, they are five expert criminals and a crippled con man in a line-up. The story, told via flashbacks, interrogation scenes and explosive sequences of a heist gone wrong, is a labyrinth of sub-plots and red herrings. Kevin Spacey won a best supporting actor Oscar for his intriguing, blank-eyed turn as the crippled "Verbal" Kint. But Gabriel Byrne, Kevin Pollak, Stephen Baldwin and Benicio del Toro are equally fascinating as the mismatched misfits, creating hinterlands for their characters in a single gesture. Chazz Palminteri as the special agent is our main ally in solving the puzzle, but it's really a case of the blind leading the blind. Pete Postlethwaite's bizarre accent, as the sinister legal agent Kobayashi, adds its own layer of mystery to a film that earns cult status entirely on its own merits. On the DVD: this is a dazzling two-disc set which will both please Usual Suspects aficionados and entice the uninitiated. The film itself is presented in widescreen format. The Dolby Digital surround sound quality throbs with tension so that you sense the dialogue and John Ottman's excellent, suspenseful music with your nerve endings rather than just experiencing them aurally. The original cinematic experience comes forcefully into your living room. Numerous extras include a fascinating director/screenwriter commentary (if you haven't seen the film yet, make sure this is turned off or it will wreck the suspense) and endless featurettes, each adding a layer of understanding to the film through observations from the actors, director and writer. A package that sucks you in, blows you out in pieces and still has you coming back for more, this is what special edition DVDs are all about. --Piers Ford

• A Clockwork Orange | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.24   |  Saving you £9.75 (229.95%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The controversy that surrounded Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of Anthony Burgess's dystopian novel A Clockwork Orange while the film was out of circulation suggested that it was like Romper Stomper: a glamorisation of the violent, virile lifestyle of its teenage protagonist, with a hypocritical gloss of condemnation to mask delight in rape and ultra-violence. Actually, it is as fable-like and abstract as The Pilgrim's Progress, with characters deliberately played as goonish sitcom creations. The anarchic rampage of Alex (Malcolm McDowell), a bowler-hatted juvenile delinquent of the future, is all over at the end of the first act. Apprehended by equally brutal authorities, he changes from defiant thug to cringing bootlicker, volunteering for a behaviourist experiment that removes his capacity to do evil.It's all stylised: from Burgess' invented pidgin Russian (snarled unforgettably by McDowell) to 2001-style slow tracks through sculpturally perfect sets (as with many Kubrick movies, the story could be told through decor alone) and exaggerated, grotesque performances on a par with those of Dr Strangelove (especially from Patrick Magee and Aubrey Morris). Made in 1971, based on a novel from 1962, A Clockwork Orange resonates across the years. Its future is now quaint, with Magee pecking out "subversive literature" on a giant IBM typewriter and "lovely, lovely Ludwig Van" on mini-cassette tapes. However, the world of "Municipal Flat Block 18A, Linear North" is very much with us: a housing estate where classical murals are obscenely vandalised, passers-by are rare and yobs loll about with nothing better to do than hurt people. On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, with just an impressionist trailer in the style of the film used to brainwash Alex and a list of awards for which Clockwork Orange was nominated and awarded. The box promises soundtracks in English, French and Italian and subtitles in ten languages, but the disc just has two English soundtracks (mono and Dolby Surround 5.1) and two sets of English subtitles. The terrific-looking "digitally restored and remastered" print is letterboxed at 1.66:1 and on a widescreen TV plays best at 14:9. The film looks as good as it ever has, with rich stable colours (especially and appropriately the orangey-red of the credits and the blood) and a clarity that highlights previously unnoticed details such as Alex's gouged eyeball cufflinks and enables you to read the newspaper articles which flash by. The 5.1 soundtrack option is amazingly rich, benefiting the nuances of performance as much as the classical/electronic music score and the subtly unsettling sound effects. --Kim Newman

• Saint Maud | Blu Ray | (01/02/2021) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A bold and strikingly original psychological chiller, heralding the arrival of a bold new voice in British cinema - debut director Rose Glass - and a breakout lead performance from Morfydd Clark, SAINT MAUD is a deeply unnerving must-see for film-lovers and adventurous horror fans alike. Live-in nurse Maud (Morfydd Clark) arrives at the home of Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), a famous dancer now frail from illness and trapped in her grand, isolated house. At first Amanda is intrigued by this religious young woman, who provides distraction from her failing health. Maud, in turn, is bewitched by her new patient. But Maud is not all that she seems. She is tormented by a violent secret from her past and by ecstatic messages she believes are directly from God. She becomes convinced she has been sent to Amanda not simply as a nurse, but to serve a divine purpose. As her grip on reality slides out of control, Maud's care turns into a deadly mission to save Amanda's soul, by any means necessary.

• Sink the Bismarck! | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £9.15   |  Saving you £0.84 (9.18%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The story of one of World War II's most famous sea battles is brought to the screen in this exciting semi-documentary style movie.In the Spring of 1941, Nazi Germany's greatest battleship- the Bismarck, scourge of Atlantic shipping, is pinned down at her anchorage in Norway. Making a break for freedom and the safety of air cover from the Luftwaffe, the great ship is chased by the Royal Navy.Kenneth More stars as Captain Shepard- the Admiralty's Director of Naval Operations who, embittered by the death of his wife in an air raid, is assigned to this post just as the Bismarck makes its escape.Excellent special effects make this tense, exciting sea drama one of the finest British war films ever made.

• Dead Men Dont Wear Plaid | DVD | (27/03/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  As the private eye of private eyes, Steve Martin is Rigby Reardon. He s tough, rough and ready to take anything when Juliet Forrest (Rachel Ward) appears on the scene with a case: her father, a noted scientist, philanthropist and cheese-maker has died mysteriously. Reardon immediately smells a rat and follows a complex maze of clues that lead to the Carlotta Lists . With a little help from his friends , Alan Ladd, Barbara Stanwyck, Ray Milland, Burt Lancaster, Humphrey Bogart, Charles Laughton, etc, Reardon gets his man. An exciting, action-packed film the way 40s films used to be!

• The Official UEFA Women's Euro 2022 Winners – Lionesses Bring It Home! | DVD | (05/12/2022) from £6.93   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  England were crowned UEFA Women's EURO 2022 champions with a dramatic 2-1 extra-time victory against Germany to win their first major title in front of a record crowd of over 87,000 fans. It was then that football came home... Relive the glory of an incredible afternoon - the Lionesses historic victory over Germany at Wembley. This official UEFA release includes highlights of all England's group and knockout games in 'The Road To The Final' narrated by former Lioness, Alex Scott MBE, as well as all 120 minutes of the final with Ella Toone's first-half goal to put England ahead and Chloe Kelly's decisive goal sealing England's victory, both blowing the roof off Wembley.br/

• 24: Series 4 | DVD | (08/08/2005) from £4.95   |  Saving you £45.04 (909.90%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Season four opens with Jack Bower working for the Secretary of Defence James Heller. This particular morning Jack finds himself back at CTU (the Counter Terrorist Unit) meeting with Erin Driscoll, the new Director of Operations.

• Rififi | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £12.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (38.60%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Jules Dassin's 1954 film 'Rififi' was an instant success. Based on the novel of the same title 'Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes' by Auguste le Breton the film's use of hard-boiled slang and the gangster garb of trench coats top hats and a cigarette dangling from one corner of the mouth went on to become the emblems of Humphrey Bogart-style noir classics. Jean Servais is Tony le Stephanois a master thief with a battered face and a tubercular cough souvenirs of a recent stint in the pe

• Tipping the Velvet | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £6.30   |  Saving you £-0.31 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Screenwriter Andrew Davies describes Tipping the Velvet, his adaptation of Sarah Waters's acclaimed novel of lesbian love, betrayal and redemption in Victorian England, as "Pride and Prejudice with dirty bits". This three-part BBC production chronicles with relish the story of Nan Astley (Rachael Stirling, the ravishing image of her mother, Diana Rigg), barely 18, and certain that life holds more for her than her oyster girl's existence. "You'll meet someone who'll have your head spinning and your legs turning to jelly", her sister promises. That someone surprisingly turns out to be "gay and bold" Kitty Butler (Keeley Hawes), a music-hall entertainer with whom Nan falls instantly, and swooningly, in love. Nan follows her to London, where, as a double act, they become the toast of London, until Kitty's "marriage of convenience" breaks up the act and Nan's heart. The outcast Nan, decked out in Victor/Victoria duds, becomes a streetwalker, and then "tart" to the aptly named Diana Leatherby (Anna Chancellor). This affair, too, comes to "a bad end" as a destitute Nan is deposited back on the streets, where she insinuates herself into the lives of Florence (Jodhi May), a social worker, and her socialist brother. Is Nan "too spoiled and stained for love"? Will she risk her blossoming relationship with Florence when Kitty inevitably returns to rekindle their affair? Nan's couplings, while tastefully done, do carry what Waters calls "a queer erotic charge". They are graphic by BBC standards. But the sterling writing and performances will captivate even the most sensitive viewers, making this groundbreaking mini-series, to quote one character, "a delightful evening... a rare treat". --Donald Liebenson

• THE BLUE ANGEL | Blu Ray | (28/01/2013) from £13.35   |  Saving you £6.64 (49.74%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Blue Angel is one of the first German language sound films (filmed simultaneously in an English-language version), and the picture that represents the initial collaboration between Josef von Sternberg and his immortal muse, Marlene Dietrich. Following up his role in Sternberg's great silent The Last Command, Emil Jannings portrays a schoolteacher named Immanuel Rath, whose fateful expedition to catch his students frequenting the cabaret known as The Blue Angel leads to his own rapture with the establishment's main attraction Lola (Dietrich) - and, as a result, triggers the downward spiral of his life and fortune. Directed by Sternberg while on loan from America to the pioneering German producer Erich Pommer, The Blue Angel is at once captivating, devastating, and powerfully erotic, laced-through with Sternberg's masterful cinematography. From here, the director and Dietrich would go on to make six more films together in the span of five years, and leave a legacy of some of the most indelible iconography in the cinema of glamour and obsession. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present The Blue Angel in a new Dual Format presentation that incorporates both versions of the film in 1080p HD for the first time in the UK. Special Features: 1080p HD Presentation of both the German-language and English-language versions of the film, with progressive encodes on the DVD Newly translated optional subtitles on the German-language version, and SDH on the English-language version New and exclusive video essay on the films by critic and scholar Tag Gallagher New and exclusive feature-length audio commentary by critic and scholar Tony Rayns on the German-langauage version Original screen test with Marlene Dietrich Archival interview clips with Marlene Dietrich Substantial booklet containing writing on the film, vintage excerpts, and rare archival imagery