"Actor: Chris Ellis"

• Pink Floyd - The Wall | DVD | (22/04/2005) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  By any rational measure, Alan Parker's cinematic interpretation of Pink Floyd's The Wall is a glorious failure. Glorious because its imagery is hypnotically striking, frequently resonant and superbly photographed by the gifted cinematographer Peter Biziou. And a failure because the entire exercise is hopelessly dour, loyal to the bleak themes and psychological torment of Roger Waters' great musical opus, and yet utterly devoid of the humour that Waters certainly found in his own material. Any attempt to visualise The Wall would be fraught with artistic danger, and Parker succumbs to his own self-importance, creating a film that's as fascinating as it is flawed. The film is, for better and worse, the fruit of three artists in conflict--Parker indulging himself, and Waters in league with designer Gerald Scarfe, whose brilliant animated sequences suggest that he should have directed and animated this film in its entirety. Fortunately, this clash of talent and ego does not prevent The Wall from being a mesmerising film. Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof (in his screen debut) is a fine choice to play Waters's alter ego--an alienated, "comfortably numb" rock star whose psychosis manifests itself as an emotional (and symbolically physical) wall between himself and the cold, cruel world. Weaving Waters's autobiographical details into his own jumbled vision, Parker ultimately fails to combine a narrative thread with experimental structure. It's a rich, bizarre, and often astonishing film that will continue to draw a following, but the real source of genius remains the music of Roger Waters. --Jeff Shannon

• That Thing You Do! | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £5.49   |  Saving you £0.50 (9.11%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Tom Hanks's debut as a writer and director is a lively, affectionate account of the shooting-star career of a forgotten (fictional) 1960s pop-rock band called The Wonders--as in "one-hit wonders". Hanks plays the manager of the group, which includes drummer Guy "Sticks" Patterson (Tom Everett Scott) who works the floor at his parents' appliance store in Erie, Pennsylvania; Jimmy (Johnathon Schaech), the talented and temperamental lead singer and songwriter; Lenny (Steve Zahn), the goofy guitarist; and Ethan Embry as a geeky little fellow identified in the cast list only as "The Bass Player". The movie traces their meteoric rise and fall, from cutting their first record, to going on tour with a Phil Spector/Motown-type revue, to the internal tensions that lead to the band's disintegration, which comes when they fail to follow up their smash hit single, "That Thing You Do!" And that song, by the way, is so catchy it would definitely have been a hit in 1964--and deserves to be one today. This delightful movie would make a great double-bill with Allison Anders's wonderful Grace of My Heart. --Jim Emerson

• We Still Kill The Old Way | DVD | (26/12/2014) from £3.97   |  Saving you £12.02 (302.77%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When retired East End villain CHARLIE ARCHER is murdered by a feral street gang his brother RITCHIE returns to London from Spain to investigate. With the police investigation drawing blank after blank Ritchie decides to take the law into his own hands and bring his old school justice back to the streets of East London. Rounding up his old firm he leads a vigilante crusade against the vicious young criminals using every grizzly method at his disposal to find and punish his brother’s killers. They’re outgunned and outnumbered but this firm has never been outclassed yet!

• The Resident | Blu Ray | (04/07/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Every year, several million single women in America move into an apartment. They don't know who lived in the apartment before them, they don't know their landlords, and they don't bother to change the locks. This is the story of one such woman...

• Cellular | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £6.54   |  Saving you £13.45 (205.66%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A young man picks up a random call on his mobile phone only to find a kidnapped woman on the other end begging for help.

• Pink Floyd - The Wall | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  By any rational measure, Alan Parker's cinematic interpretation of Pink Floyd's The Wall is a glorious failure. Glorious because its imagery is hypnotically striking, frequently resonant and superbly photographed by the gifted cinematographer Peter Biziou. And a failure because the entire exercise is hopelessly dour, loyal to the bleak themes and psychological torment of Roger Waters' great musical opus, and yet utterly devoid of the humour that Waters certainly found in his own material. Any attempt to visualise The Wall would be fraught with artistic danger, and Parker succumbs to his own self-importance, creating a film that's as fascinating as it is flawed. The film is, for better and worse, the fruit of three artists in conflict--Parker indulging himself, and Waters in league with designer Gerald Scarfe, whose brilliant animated sequences suggest that he should have directed and animated this film in its entirety. Fortunately, this clash of talent and ego does not prevent The Wall from being a mesmerising film. Boomtown Rats frontman Bob Geldof (in his screen debut) is a fine choice to play Waters's alter ego--an alienated, "comfortably numb" rock star whose psychosis manifests itself as an emotional (and symbolically physical) wall between himself and the cold, cruel world. Weaving Waters's autobiographical details into his own jumbled vision, Parker ultimately fails to combine a narrative thread with experimental structure. It's a rich, bizarre, and often astonishing film that will continue to draw a following, but the real source of genius remains the music of Roger Waters. --Jeff Shannon

• The Resident | DVD | (04/07/2011) from £4.56   |  Saving you £13.19 (471.07%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Every year, several million single women in America move into an apartment. They don't know who lived in the apartment before them, they don't know their landlords, and they don't bother to change the locks. This is the story of one such woman...

• Days of Thunder – 4K Ultra HD | Blu Ray | (08/06/2020) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Days of Thunder is newly remastered in 4K UHD with HDR, including new special features! From the engine roar and fever pitch of professional stock car racing, Days of Thunder explodes with some of the most spectacular racing action ever captured on film. Tom Cruise plays race car driver Cole Trickle, whose talent and ambition are surpassed only by his burning need to win. Discovered by businessman Tim Daland (Randy Quaid), Cole is teamed with legendary crew chief and car-builder Harry Hogge (Academy Award® winner Robert Duvall) to race for the Winston Cup at the Daytona 500. A fiery crash nearly ends Cole's career and he must turn to a beautiful doctor (Nicole Kidman) to regain his nerve and the true courage needed to race, to win and to live. Special Features: Filmmaker Focus: Days of Thunder Isolated Score

• Ring Of Bright Water | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £13.99   |  Saving you £-8.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Coincidence throws Mij the otter and Graham Merrill (Bill Travers) the computer worker together on a busy London street in Ring of Bright Water. What transpires from this chance meeting is an epiphany that leads to the complete upheaval of Graham's life. Evicted from his city flat thanks to the antics of his newly acquired, mischievous otter, Graham embarks on a train journey to the Scottish Highlands. Suffice it to say that trying to smuggle Mij onboard as a "diving terrier" is not successful. When the pair finally arrives in Scotland, they fall in love with the countryside and a dilapidated cottage by the sea. Fate introduces Graham to the town's animal-loving doctor (Virginia McKenna), and an enduring friendship and romance are forged. The photography of both the Scottish Highlands and the antics of Mij the otter in this 1969 movie are truly wonderful--it might just make you reconsider your current digs and friendships. The story (based on Gavin Maxwell's book of the same name) is somewhat formulaic and dated by its romanticism, but enjoyable nonetheless. Slip into an ideal world of simple happiness and celebrate the cyclical nature of life, if only for 106 minutes. --Tami Horiuchi, Amazon.com

• Bean - The Ultimate Disaster Movie | DVD | (24/12/2001) from £5.66   |  Saving you £10.33 (182.51%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Translating Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character from British television to the big screen takes a bit of a toll, but there are some hilarious sequences in this popular comedy. The eponymous Bean, a boy-man twit with a knack for getting into difficult binds (and then making them worse and worse and worse), is a London museum guard who is sent to Los Angeles in the company of the famous painting Whistler's Mother. He's mistaken as an art expert by the well-meaning curator (Peter MacNicol) of an LA museum, but Bean's famously eccentric behaviour soon causes the poor guy to almost lose his family and job. The insularity of Bean's TV world is sacrificed in this film, and that change diminishes some of the character's appeal. But Atkinson is a man naturally full of comedy, and he doesn't let his fans down. --Tom Keogh

• This Boy's Life | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Robert De Niro gets top billing, but young Leonardo DiCaprio is the revelation of This Boy's Life, an astute, often painful drama of growing up in the 1950s Pacific Northwest, based on the autobiographical novel by Tobias Wolff. DiCaprio plays Tobias, a good kid with a bad boy streak but an unwavering love for his divorced mother (Ellen Barkin). "I want to be a better boy", he promises from under a greasy pompadour, and tries to prove it when she marries single father Dwight (DeNiro), a bully who parents through intimidation and humiliation. A pre-Titanic DiCaprio is magnetic in his first starring role, full of anger, hope and confusion as he drifts back to juvenile delinquency and his intensity gives the true story of survival and triumph its charge. DeNiro is frightening and pathetic as Dwight, and Dwight's youngest daughter is played by future star and vampire slayer Eliza Dushku. --Sean Axmaker

• The Life And Adventures Of Nicholas Nickleby | DVD | (13/05/2002) from £39.99   |  Saving you £-20.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This 2000 television adaptation confirms Nicholas Nickleby's place among television dramatists' favourite Dickens novels. It has all the vital ingredients: a sensitive, intelligent young hero cast by circumstances in the role of everyman whose fortitude is tested at every turn; romance; danger; one of Dickens' richest braces of characters; and a sense of humanity that is, at times, overwhelming. Condensing all this into three hours is no mean achievement. Martyn Edward Hesford's screenplay maintains an impressive balance between dramatic tension and allowing the characters the space they need to reveal their essential qualities. Only in the last 30 minutes does it become something of a gallop to the finishing post. True, the horrors of the boarding school could be more horrific; the grime of Victorian London and its toothless inhabitants could be grimier and less cosmetic. But as always with a superior production of a Dickens novel, the richness and depth of the drama outweigh such minor quibbles. As for the cast, James D'Arcy's Nicholas is pitch-perfect: part cipher for the injustices and despair he encounters, part emblem for the triumph of goodness, an innocent whose eyes are quickly forced open to the darker realities of life. These darker realities are congealed in Charles Dance's relentlessly chilling, heartless Ralph Nickleby. This is a deceptively complex performance; even as we cheer the gathering forces which finally extinguish his increasingly desperate power, the awful tragedy of his end still elicits a discomforting ounce of sympathy. Gregor Fisher as the one-eyed Squeers and Pam Ferris as his fearsomely lascivious wife are outstanding in an ensemble of fine character actors. And Lee Ingleby's Smike gives our tear ducts a good workout while steering just the right side of sentimentality. On the DVD: Nicholas Nickleby is presented in widescreen format with Dolby Digital soundtrack, and has all the technical qualities you might expect from the DVD release of a modern television production. Extras include cast filmographies, a Dickens biography and a list of his work, all of which add to the disc's merits as a literary educational tool. --Piers Ford

• The Very Best Of Laurel & Hardy: 5-Film Collection (BD) | Blu Ray | (10/12/2018) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten me into! Enter Laurel & Hardy's unique world of emblematic bowler hats and highly visual slapstick with this special compilation boxset of the very best Laurel & Hardy feature-length films. With Laurel playing the clumsy and childlike friend of the pompous bully Hardy, the misadventures of the most recognizable comedy double act, whose charm and on screen chemistry set a new standard, are perfectly captured here in high definition for the first time. Includes Block-Heads, Our Relations, Pardon Us, Sons of the Desert and Way Out West. Includes bonus: Another Fine Mess, Busy Bodies & Towed In A Hole

• The Nightcomers | DVD | (21/10/2002) from £10.98   |  Saving you £8.00 (100.12%)   |  RRP £15.99

  When their parents die in an accident Flora and Miles are cared for by Miss Jessel (Beacham) the governess and Mrs Grose (Hird) the housekeeper. But it is really Quint (Brando) the Irish servant who really runs the house and particularly Miss Jessel who submits herself totally to him. The children see Quint as a fascinating source of knowledge and believe everything he says is true however skewed his vision on life may be. It is this influence on Flora and Miles that leads to Quin

• October Sky | DVD | (12/06/2000) from £10.42   |  Saving you £10.83 (118.23%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr, October Sky emerged as one of the most delightful sleepers of 1999--a small miracle of good ole fashioned movie-making in the cynical, often numbingly trendy Hollywood of the late 20th century. Hickam's true story begins in 1957 with Russia's historic launch of the Sputnik satellite, and while Homer (played with smart idealism by Jake Gyllenhaal) sees Sputnik as his cue to pursue a fascination with rocketry, his father (Chris Cooper) epitomises the admirable yet sternly stubborn working-man's ethic of the West Virginia coal miner, casting fear and disdain on Homer's pursuit of science while urging his "errant" son to carry on the family business--a spirit-killing profession that Homer has no intention of joining.As directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this wonderful movie is occasionally guilty of overstating its case and sacrificing subtlety for predictable melodrama. But more often the film's tone is just right, and the spirit of adventure and invention is infectiously conveyed through Gyllenhaal and his well-cast fellow rocketeers, whose many failures gradually lead to triumph on their makeshift backwoods launching pad. Capturing time and place with impeccable detail and superbly developed characters (including Laura Dern as an inspiring schoolteacher), October Sky is a family film for the ages, encouraging the highest potential of the human spirit while giving viewers a clear view of a bygone era when "the final frontier" beckoned to the explorer in all of us. --Jeff Shannon

• The Watcher | DVD | (18/02/2002) from £6.80   |  Saving you £3.19 (46.91%)   |  RRP £9.99

  James Spader is an FBI agent taunted by serial killer Keanu Reeves, a man who sends his adversary a photo of each victim before he kills them, daring his adversary to catch him.

• The Day The Earth Caught Fire | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £10.98   |  Saving you £11.00 (122.36%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When the Americans test a nuclear weapon at the South Pole at the exact moment that the Soviets are testing their own weapon at the North the earth's axis is jolted out of alignment causing catastrophic changes in global weather patterns. Additionally the earth has been dislodged from its orbit and is now hurtling towards the sun. It's a race against time as the world prepares for additional nuclear detonations which could restore life as we know it.

• The Krays: Dead Man Walking | DVD | (10/09/2018) from £4.83   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  From the makers of ˜We Still Kill The Old Way' and ˜Vendetta'. Inspired by true events, the shocking story of London's most feared and notorious brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray as they arrange for Frank ˜The Mad Axeman' Mitchell to escape from Dartmoor Prison in December 1966. Intent on displaying their power to Detective Nipper Read, their plan starts to unravel as the twin's henchmen Donoghue and Teddy struggle to control an increasingly unstable Mitchell, they reluctantly call in help in the form of corrupt politician, Lord Boothby, and nightclub hostess Lisa Prescott. As Christmas Day approaches, tensions reach boiling point and the Krays realise that The Mad Axeman has become a liability and are forced to take drastic action

• Monday Monday | DVD | (31/08/2009) from £16.26   |  Saving you £1.73 (10.64%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Monday Monday

• October Sky | DVD | (04/04/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Sometimes one dream is enough to light up the whole sky. In Coalwood West Virginia 1957 coal mining is king and no one can escape life underground. But when high schooler Homer Hickam Jr (Jake Gyllenhaal) sees the Soviet satellite Sputnik streak overhead he aims for the stars and a new destiny in this incredible true story of hope determination and triumph. With the help of his teacher (Laura Dern) and three buddies Homer sets out to build his own rocket. How Homer over