"Actor: D R I"

• Verdi - Falstaff / Graham Vick, Bernard Haitink, Royal Opera House | DVD | (10/10/2001) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Graham Vicks production of Falstaff opened the new Covent Garden Royal Opera House, and was not to everybody's taste; the garish primary colours of the costumes, especially Falstaff's unusually hideous get-ups, go several steps beyond the Breughelian effect Vicks intended. The staging is effective--the complicated counterpoint of the ensembles is reflected in unobtrusive blocking that keeps the vocal lines clear and separate, especially in the final fugue. Bryn Terfel's Falstaff is a memorable creation, self-mocking and self-aggrandising at the same time--so much so, in fact, that he almost does not need the vast prosthetic body he has to wear for the part. Desiree Rancatore is an admirably sweet-toned Nanetta; Bernadette Manca di Nissa an appropriately sardonic Mistress Quickly; Roberto Frontali as Ford, in his Act 2 scena, perfectly distils and parodies every jealousy aria ever written, including Verdi's own. Haitink's conducting is exemplary in the lyrical passages, gets almost everything out of the fast and furious comic sections. --Roz Kaveney On the DVD: The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is powerful and filled with detail, capturing the excitement of the performance and the atmosphere of the Royal Opera House superbly. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77:1 widesceen image is very clear, and while given the source inevitably not up to the highest feature film standards, is among the best live classical titles yet released on DVD. The bold colours are particularly well realised, though the red lighting of the Garter Inn scenes causes the image to falter a little. There are optional subtitles in English, French and German. These are presented directly over the picture and would be easier to read had they been a little larger, or outlined in some way. The special features consist of a brief synopsis by James Naughtie, taken directly from the original television broadcast, a minute-long "comment" by conductor Bernard Haitink and short but interesting interviews with Bryn Terfel and director Graham Vick. Finally there is a nine-minute episode from the series of short BBC films, Covent Garden Tales on the 1999 modernisation of the Royal Opera House. --Gary S Dalkin

• Two Evil Eyes | Blu Ray | (24/08/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Stephen King's Children Of The Corn | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £11.95   |  Saving you £3.04 (25.44%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Traveling through Nebraska Burt (Peter Horton) and Vicky (Linda Hamilton) stop in a small town to report the death of a child on the highway. There they discover something strange about the community: all the grownups are gone and the children seem to belong to a strange cult. What's worse it's a cult that sacrifices adults to the dreadful 'he who walks behind the rows'... Based on a Stephen King short story.

• In The Land of the Deaf | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £9.15   |  Saving you £3.84 (41.97%)   |  RRP £12.99

  I look so I can hear... Nicolas Philibert's documentary about deafness captures and celebrates the expressiveness of language without a voice. As the camera lingers on the graceful choreography of signing it seduces the hearing viewer into acknowledging the practical and emotional limitations of verbal language.

• Revelation | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A relic has been fought over by the forces of light and darkness for two thousand years. Missing for centuries, the sacred artefact turns up in the back of a camper van in 2001. A powerful secret society is slaughtering innocents to get hold of it. M

• Supernatural - Season 1 Part 1 | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £12.60   |  Saving you £17.39 (58.00%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Supernatural stars Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki as Dean and Sam Winchester two brothers who travel the country looking for their missing father and battling evil spirits along the way. Sam Winchester is a college student bound for law school determined to escape his family's past - unlike his older brother Dean. Ever since they were little their father has been consumed with an obsession to find the evil forces that murdered his beloved wife and recruited his two young sons

• Into The West - Where Myth And Magic Walk The Earth | DVD | (17/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

• Indigent 4 Film DVD Collection | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  From the independent studio behind the Sundance Film Festival smash 'Personal Velocity' come four of the hottest indie films in the 21st centuray digital revolution. Tape: After ten years apart three people come together at a motel to play out the unresolved drama of their final days in high school. The nature of memory and truth the bonds between old friends and lovers are examined with hagged intensity. Amy arrives at the motel expecting only to see Vince but is stunned to be also facing John and her past. Chelsea Walls: The Chelsea Hotel used to be the hippest place to live for New York artists. Painters writers and musicians from Mark Twain to Jimi Hendrix enlivened the hotel's halls. Now even though the iron fa''ade has become rusty a new generation of dreamers inhabit the hotel. Memories aspirations passion and scandal influence the creative visionaries to create their own masterpieces... Ten Tiny Love Stories: Love. Sex. Stories. And everything in between! Ten women talk about the men they remember most. The man who last loved them; the man who left them; the man who wasn't enough; the man who was too cruel; the man who passed away; the man they married and the man they sent away. The film presents an honest portrait of women where memories are the only connection to the men that touched their lives. Final: When Bill (Denis Leary) wakes up in the psychiatric wing at Sumner Hospital he has trouble distinguishing his dreams from reality. He is quite certain of his sanity but memories of being cryogenically frozen tissue regeneration experiments and talk of a final lethal injection race through his mind. With the help of Ann (Hope Davis) the psychiatrist assigned to his case he struggles to piece his memories together while newer more rational memories flood his mind. Struggling with his paranoia Bill begins to question Ann's motives. Can he trust the only person in the position to help him or will she be the one holding the needle that does him in?

• Stephen King Collection | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  His body held the secret of time. Now time...is running out! Reigning horror master Stephen King (Misery Pet Sematary The Shining) creates a chilling vision of scientific progress run amok in this electrifying original techno-thriller! Starring Keith Szarabajka (Missing The Equalizer) and Frances Sternagen (Misery Doc Hollywood) Golden Years features make-up and special effects supervised by legendary effects master Dick Smith (The Exorcist Amadeus) and a plot that builds to an astonishing ending! When aging janitor Harlan Williams is accidentally exposed to exotic chemicals in a lab explosion he undergoes an extraordinary change. It's a process the government will do anything to learn more about - no matter who has to die in the process. Soon Harlan his wife Gina and the lab's beautiful security chief are on a cross-country race to evade a murderously effective federal agent. But even as he stays one step ahead of his ruthless pursuers Harlan continues his transformation into something the world of science has never seen... or imagined!

• Bad Boy Street | DVD | (22/10/2012) from £8.48   |  Saving you £7.51 (47.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two men embark on an unconventional romance in Todd Verow's sexy Parisian-set drama. Claude finds a young man passed out in the street and, taking pity on him, decides to take him to his apartment to safely sleep. Awakening the next morning, the sexy stranger soon makes a play for his forty-something host, kick-starting a passionate romance. But will the chance meeting develop into more than just lust or will the pair's differences drive them apart? An accomplished, serious and very modern g...

• Handel - Agrippina (Malgoire, Grande Ecurie, Chambre Du Roy) | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £27.29   |  Saving you £-2.30 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Agrippina was staged for the first time in late December 1709 - or possibly at the beginning of 1710 - at Venice's Teatro San Grisostomo and met with enormous success as testified by twenty-seven following performances a record number even for 18th-century standards. Agrippina's triumph sanctioned Handel's definitive investiture as an operatic composer. After nearly 300 years this opera appears as a masterpiece of 18th-century music and an innovative work considering that when Handel composed it he was just twenty-four years old. The composer's melodic creativity and sense of theatre are quite remarkable. The cast conducted by Jean-Claude Malgoire includes Vronique Gens in the title role.

• The Dangerous Lives Of Altar Boys | DVD | (28/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After being caught drawing an obscene comic book a group of Catholic school friends plan a prank to make them local legends...

• Requiem for a Vampire | DVD | (27/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Two women on the run seek shelter in an ominous castle where they fall prey to a sadistic vampire... With its dark cemetery a gallery of hooded skeletons bizarre rooms and slithery vaults the picture comes close to Lovecraft - except that its sexual components are more graphically presented. With long periods devoid of dialogue this is one of Jean Rollin's most lyrical films.

• Crimewave | DVD | (15/08/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Extermination is not just a business. It's a way of life. Directed by Sam Raimi and written by the brothers Coen: Joel and Ethan. Ernest Tread called the exterminators. He had a rat in his place of business - his partner. Unfortunately the exterminators dispatched the wrong rat!

• Playing God | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £6.05   |  Saving you £-0.06 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  From the outset, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was about conflict. Producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller challenged the utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe to create something totally different from its predecessors. That meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy, or beige décor. Instead they wanted interpersonal friction, ruthless enemies (Gamma Quadrant Imperialists--The Dominion) and rebellion at every turn. The DS9 concept was originally facilitated by introducing the Cardassian/Bajoran war during The Next Generation's final days. After a muted first reception fans gradually came to accept the new look, but no one liked Star Trek without a starship and eventually the producers capitulated to viewers' wishes by introducing the USS Defiant (an apt name) in Season 3. Relying far less on technobabble than TNG, DS9 was unafraid to focus on matters of the spirit instead, demonstrating a ballsy independence from its parent shows. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Babylon 5, improved CGI space battles also became a fan favourite. Throughout the increasingly serialised story arc there were rebellious factions within the different establishments: Kira had belonged to the Shakaar resistance cell; the Maquis was Starfleet vs Cardassians; section 31 was a secret Starfleet group; the True Way was a Bajoran group opposed to peace; the Cardassians had their Obsidian Order and the Romulans their Gestapo-like Tal Shiar. Yet for all its constant bickering and espionage (even Bashir got to be James Bond), there was always some contemporary social commentary lurking: the Ferengi were used as a comedic foil to frown on materialistic greed; drugs were looked at via the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers' addiction to Ketracel White. Perhaps Sisko summed up the real heart of things: "Bajor doesn't need a man, it needs a legend". A future vision that retains a place for religion and spirituality turned out to be Deep Space Nine's first best destiny. --Paul Tonks

• Ace Lightning - Episodes 1 To 7 | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £9.70   |  Saving you £3.29 (33.92%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Ace Lightning follows the adventures of thirteen-year-old Mark Hollander and his superhero friend Ace Lightning! Newly arrived in North America from England Mark is playing his favourite 'Ace Lightning' video game when he discovers a level that shouldn't exist. While exploring the secret level lightning strikes Mark's house and electricity courses through the console bringing the game's characters to life. Believing the real world is another level of the video game the game's hero

• Che - Part 2 - Guerilla | Blu Ray | (29/06/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The second part of Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh's epic two part war movie charting the life of Che Guevara, "Che: Part Two" sees Benicio Del Toro once again taking up the role of the iconic revolutionary.

• Hitman's Run | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £8.95   |  Saving you £-5.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The mob's best hitman Tony Lazorka becomes the mob's most wanted when he decides to double-cross his bosses. Using the FBI and the witness protection programme his new identity is made known when a disc changes hands. Now his family is at the mercy of both the Mob and the CIA....

• Beautiful Creatures | DVD | (23/07/2001) from £4.90   |  Saving you £15.09 (307.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two women are thrown together in this black comedy when one accidentally kills the boyfriend of the other to protect her.

• Run on | DVD | (07/11/2011) from £4.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (120.24%)   |  RRP £10.99

  Run On is a theatrical comedy delivered by three of the top Christian performers as they hysterically share a stage and tell of their own prodigal journeys. Though each story is from a unique personal experience they weave seamlessly together to form the oldest human story of all, the futility of trying to “run” from God.David A.R. White, shares his story of how he left his Mennonite community in Kansas to come to Hollywood at the age of 19. Tommy Blaze, a comedy veteran shares his story of marriage difficulty and trying to get a divorce that God wouldn’t allow. Lastly Brad Stine, “Gods Comic”, one of the most well known Christian comics in the country shares his experience of being called to “ministry” and ending up in the belly of a whale.All in all, this is a perfect show to inspire seekers of Christ as well as mature Christians relating to the difficult and sometimes perilous journey known as our faith. You’ll laugh as you see yourself, you may shed a tear to cover the pain and you’ll find healing and inspiration from one of the freshest and most unique comedy projects the Christian world has ever created.