"Actor: E"

• Interview With The Vampire -- Special Edition | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £6.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (100.14%)   |  RRP £13.99

  When it was announced that Tom Cruise would play the vampire Lestat in Interview with a Vampire, the film adaptation of Anne Rice's bestselling novel, even Rice chimed in with a highly publicised objection. The author wisely and justifiably recanted her negative opinion when she saw Cruise's excellent performance, which perceptively addresses the pain and chronic melancholy that plagues anyone cursed with immortal blood lust. Brad Pitt and Kirsten Dunst are equally good at maintaining the dark and brooding tone of Rice's novel. And in this rare mainstream project for a major studio, director Neil Jordan compensates for a lumbering plot by honouring the literate, Romantic qualities of Rice's screenplay. Considered a disappointment while being embraced by Rice's loyal followers, Interview is too slow to be a satisfying thriller, but it is definitely one of the most lavish, intelligent horror films ever made. --Jeff Shannon

• Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation | Blu Ray | (30/10/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  TBC

• 12 Angry Men | DVD | (13/01/2014) from £5.49   |  Saving you £4.50 (81.97%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Adapted from Reginald Rose's television play, this film marked the directing debut of Sidney Lumet. At the end of a murder trial in New York City, the twelve jurors retire to consider the verdict. The man in the dock is a young Puerto Rican accused of killing his father, and eleven of the twelve jurors do not hesitate in finding him guilty. However, one of the jurors (Henry Fonda), reluctant to send the youngster to his death without any debate, returns a vote of not guilty. From this single ...

• The Color Purple | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £4.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (180.36%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Steven Spielberg, proving he's one of the few modern filmmakers who has the visual fluency to be capable of making a great silent film, took a melodramatic, DW Griffith-inspired approach to filming Alice Walker's novel. His tactics made the film controversial, but also a popular hit. You can argue with the appropriateness of Spielberg's decision, but his astonishing facility with images is undeniable--from the exhilarating and eye-popping opening shots of children playing in paradisiacal purple fields to the way he conveys the brutality of a rape by showing hanging leather belts banging against the head of the shaking bed. In a way it's a shame that Whoopi Goldberg, a stage monologist who made her screen debut in this movie, went on to become so famous, because it was, in part, her unfamiliarity that made her understated performance as Celie so effective. (This may be the first and last time that the adjective understated can be applied to Goldberg.) Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including best picture and actress (supporting players Oprah Winfrey and Margaret Avery were also nominated), it was quite a scandal--and a crushing blow to Spielberg--when The Color Purple won none. --Jim Emerson

• The Mask | DVD | (18/07/2005) from £5.94   |  Saving you £14.05 (236.53%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Praised at the time for Jim Carrey's facial acrobatics as the titular hero, The Mask also had real charm in its use of period-ambiguous settings and intelligent use of its heroine, Cameron Diaz in her first screen role. Carrey is as interesting when he's the put-upon Stanley Ipkiss as he is when he transforms into an amoral cartoon character (thanks to chance discovery of an ancient mask). When a sweet woman reporter tells him that he is the nicest man in town, it does not strike us as odd. The plot is a pretty standard one--the hero comes to realise that he can do everything for himself and does not need magical assistance--but outstanding performances by Peter Green as the gangster heavy and Peter Riegret as the irascible cop who has to make sense of things offers the film a bit more dramatic oomph. Add to this a couple of splendid song-and-dance routines and one of the most charming dogs in modern movies, and you have something moderately special. On the DVD: The DVD comes with a very enthusiastic director's commentary, a moderately interesting making-of documentary and interviews with the cast as well as the theatrical trailer. --Roz Kaveney

• Ruthless People | DVD | (17/08/2004) from £8.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (81.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A comedy based on the rag trade where new designs are fair game for ruthless competitors. A fashion millionaire's wife is kidnapped but when the kidnappers try to extort money they find that he has gone out celebrating with his mistress.

• French Kiss | DVD | (29/01/2001) from £7.40   |  Saving you £8.59 (116.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline are a Paris match made in heaven in this hilarious adventure-filled romantic comedy. Straight-laced Kate (Ryan)has her future all planned out: marry her fiance Charlie (Timothy Hutton) and live happily ever after. What she didn't count on was Juliette the beautiful French woman Charlie falls for on a business trip to Paris! Determined to win him back Kate jumps on a plane where she meets Luc (Kline) a petty thief whom she immediately dislikes. But when

• WWE: Money in the Bank 2021 | DVD | (06/09/2021) from £2.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  WWE fans return to a live arena show for the first time in 16 months to witness WWE Superstars from RAW and SmackDown try to further their careers by competing in multiple Superstar Money in the Bank Ladder Matches. Who will claim their reward of a WWE Championship opportunity? And who will fall trying to climb the ladder of success?

• Gosford Park | DVD | (23/09/2002) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in an English stately home in 1932 Robert Altman's award winning film follows the goings on above and below stairs over one busy shooting weekend, culminating in a mysterious murder.

• Little Women (2019) | Blu Ray | (25/05/2020) from £8.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Jo March reflects back and forth on her life, telling the beloved story of the March sisters - four young women each determined to live life on their own terms.

• Genevieve -- Special Edition | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £4.47   |  Saving you £11.52 (257.72%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The 1953 fast paced comedy finally makes it to DVD in a Special Collectors' edition.

• Twelve Angry Men | DVD | (19/03/2001) from £5.82   |  Saving you £7.17 (123.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Sidney Lumet's directorial debut Twelve Angry Men remains a tense, atmospheric (though slightly manipulative and stagey) courtroom thriller, in which the viewer never sees a trial and the only action is verbal. As he does in his later corruption commentaries such as Serpico or Q & A, Lumet focuses on the lonely one-man battles of a protagonist whose ethics alienate him from the rest of jaded society. As the film opens, the seemingly open-and-shut trial of a young Puerto Rican accused of murdering his father with a knife has just concluded and the 12-man jury retires to their microscopic, sweltering quarters to decide the verdict. When the votes are counted, 11 men rule guilty, while one--played by Henry Fonda, again typecast as another liberal, truth-seeking hero--doubts the obvious. Stressing the idea of "reasonable doubt", Fonda slowly chips away at the jury, who represent a microcosm of white, male society--exposing the prejudices and preconceptions that directly influence the other jurors' snap judgments. The tight script by Reginald Rose (based on his own teleplay) presents each juror vividly using detailed soliloquies, all which are expertly performed by the film's flawless cast. Still, it's Lumet's claustrophobic direction--all sweaty close-ups and cramped compositions within a one-room setting--that really transforms this contrived story into an explosive and compelling nail-biter. --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com

• Guys And Dolls | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £9.97   |  Saving you £2.02 (20.26%)   |  RRP £11.99

  This CinemaScope treatment of Frank Loesser's hit Broadway musical Guys and Dolls is a deeply rewarding visual and musical experience. Frank Sinatra turns in one of his best screen performances running a close second to Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons, looking adorable and singing sweetly. In essence this is a piece of photographed theatre mounted on a handsome scale. The striking set designs and a brilliantly executed soundtrack are courtesy of two Broadway craftsmen Oliver Smith and conductor Jay Blackton. Photographer Harry Stradling brings a meticulous eye for detail when his camera stationed on the auditorium side of the frame, peers into Miss Adelaide's bathroom cupboard as she views the lines of medicine bottles in her celebrated "lament". Sinatra, in his vocal prime, sings a new number to Adelaide (Vivian Blaine)--arranged by Nelson Riddle--and Brando and Simmons strike chords in all their scenes from their opening duet "I'll Know" through to their evening out at a Havana bistro where she gets pie-eyed on a Bacardi milk-shake, tipsily wondering "If I were a Bell". Stubby Kaye also from the Broadway cast recreates the show-stopping "Sit Down You're Rockin' the Boat". Michael Kidd's choreography for "Luck Be a Lady" is razor-sharp and superbly captured in the CinemaScope format, though the formalised staging of the opening ought to have been rethought for this medium. The biggest pity is that Loesser amended some of his lyrics and replaced several tunes from his original score with inferior material. On the DVD: The DVD trailer hosted by Ed Sullivan makes much of the $1,000,000 cheque producer Samuel Goldwyn paid for the rights and the previews of the picture he obtained for his weekly television show. There's no denying that the remastered stereophonic soundtrack captures the Broadway sound to thrilling effect without it being overglamorised. The picture looks splendid too--never settle for the compromise version we've endured all these years on television! --Adrian Edwards

• 12 Angry Men | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £21.39   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  SIDNEY LUMET'S UNPARALLELED TRIAL DRAMA STARRING HENRY FONDA ONE OF THE TEN MOST POPULAR FILMS OF ALL TIME, ACCORDING TO IMDB.COM! 12 Angry Men, by SIDNEY LUMET (Network), may be the most radical big-screen courtroom drama in cinema history. A behind-closed-doors look at the American legal system as riveting as it is spare, the iconic adaptation of Reginald Rose's teleplay stars HENRY FONDA (Young Mr. Lincoln) as the initially dissenting foreman on a jury of white men ready to pass judgment on a Puerto Rican teenager charged with murdering his father. What results is a saga of epic proportions that plays out in real time over ninety minutes in one sweltering room. Lumet's electrifying snapshot of 1950s America on the verge of change is one of the great feature-film debuts. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: New high-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Frank Schaffner's 1955 television version, with an introduction by Ron Simon, director of the Paley Centre for Media Studies 12 Angry Men: From Television to the Big Screen, a video essay by film scholar Vance Kapley comparing the Sidney Lumet and Schaffner versions Archival interviews with Lumet New interview about the director with writer Walter Bernstein New interview with Simon about television writer Reginald Rose New interview with cinematographer John Bailey in which he discusses cinematographer Boris Kaufman Tragedy in a Temporary Town (1956), a teleplay directed by Lumet and written by Rose Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by writer and law professor Thane Rosenbaum Click Images to Enlarge

• The Age Of Innocence | DVD | (15/10/2001) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Martin Scorsese does not sound like the logical choice to direct The Age of Innocence, an adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel about the manners and morals in New York society in the 1870s. But these are mean streets, too, and the psychological violence inflicted between characters is at least as damaging as the physical violence perpetrated by Scorsese's usual gangsters. At the centre of the tale is Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis), a somewhat diffident young man engaged to marry the very respectable May Welland (Winona Ryder). But Archer is distracted by May's cousin, the Countess Olenska (a radiant Michelle Pfeiffer), who has recently returned from Europe. As a married woman seeking a divorce, the Countess is an embarrassment to all of New York society. But Archer is fascinated by her quick intelligence and worldly ways. Scorsese closely observes the tiny details of this world and this impossible situation; this is a film in which the shift of someone's eyes can be as significant as the firing of a gun. The director's sense of colour has never been keener, and his work with the actors is subtle. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com

• Can You Ever Forgive Me? | DVD | (03/06/2019) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Melissa McCarthy is masterful in the captivating account based on a true story of Lee Israel, a best-selling celebrity biographer in the 1970s and '80s. When Lee (McCarthy) comes to the realisation that she's no longer en vogue, she spins her art form into a perilous web of lies, deceit and outright crime to get back on top.

• Beautiful Boy | Blu Ray | (20/05/2019) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Starring Academy Award® nominees Steve Carell (Foxcatcher, The Big Short) and Timothée Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name), Beautiful Boy is a deeply moving portrait of a family's unwavering love and commitment to each other in the face of their son's addiction and his attempts at recovery. As Nic repeatedly relapses, the Sheff's are faced with the harsh reality that addiction is a disease that does not discriminate and can hit any family at any time. From the producers of Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave and adapted from David and Nic Sheff's best-selling memoirs by BAFTA Award winner Luke Davies (Lion), Beautiful Boy is a searingly honest account of the ways addiction can destroy lives and the power of love to rebuild them.

• True Detective Season 3 (2019) | Blu Ray | (02/09/2019) from £16.15   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Written and created by Nic Pizzolatto, the acclaimed HBO series True Detective returns after a three-and-a-half-year absence, this season focusing on a new case and featuring an impressive new cast. Mahershala Ali (Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for Moonlight) stars as Wayne Hays, a retired detective who has been tormented for 35 years by a case involving the 1980 disappearance of a 12-year-old boy and his 10-year-old sister in the town of West Finger, Arkansas. As the aging Hays, his memory failing, ruminates on details of his investigation with the producer of a truecrime documentary, we learn about the case, and Hays' past, tracking stories in 1980, when the crime took place, and 1990, when a shocking discovery reignited interest in the case. Through these flashbacks, we get to know key characters like Roland West (Stephen Dorff), Wayne's partner at the time of the murder; Amelia Reardon (Carmen Ejogo), a schoolteacher and writer; as well as county officials, FBI agents, family members and suspects. Each of the eight episodes adds a new piece to the puzzle of what happened on that fateful night in 1980 and how that one event shaped the lives of so many people for so many years.

• Jack And Sarah (1995) | DVD | (23/07/2001) from £5.85   |  Saving you £10.14 (173.33%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The story of a father and baby daughter, 1995's Jack and Sarah is the best cinematic depiction of what came to be known as "the 90s man". No matter how bad things get we know Richard E Grant will eventually learn to get in touch with his feelings and express his emotions. Grant plays Jack, whose reaction to the loss of his wife during childbirth is initially complete rejection followed by an alcoholic binge. Jack's family coax fatherhood from him easily enough however and this is where the film's heart lies. Brushing away the bitter beginning, Grant's comedic performance in juggling life around newborn baby Sarah is often hilarious: the image of the child in a sock hat being carried in a padded envelope is priceless. Bouncing off Grant's acting are some terrific cameos from Judi Dench as his stuffy mum and Sir Ian McKellen as a convincingly inebriated butler. Samantha Mathis plays an American waitress who provides a twist to the tale. There's genuine chemistry between her and Grant, specifically when they are both around the outrageously cute baby Sarah. Written and directed by Tim Sullivan, this is clearly a very personal expression of the meaning of family. Although backed by lots of Simply Red songs, it hopefully won't be one that's too quickly outdated. On the DVD: The ratio is confusingly stated as "Widescreen 4:3". Effectively it's an anamorphic 1:66:1 presentation giving a tad more edge than its video predecessor. Sound is in Dolby surround. The minimal extras are four repetitive TV spots and two theatrical trailers. --Paul Tonks

• Dante's Peak | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (62.78%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The first of 1997's volcano disaster movies (the second being Volcano) was arguably the better of the two but both of them made for passable entertainment with some spectacular special effects to serve as icing on the stale cake. After all, Dante's Peak doesn't pretend to be anything more than an updated variation on a whole catalogue of disaster movie clichés. Despite all that, it's reasonably enjoyable. It's an added bonus that the script is just smart enough to allow Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton to play their roles with straight faces, never condescending to the audience of the formulaic story. He's a volcano expert from the US Geological Survey, and she's the mayor of a cosy Washington State town perched beneath a volcano that's about to blow. Tell-tale signs are everywhere, so evacuation must be carried out immediately. Of course, not everybody's eager to leave and even some of Brosnan's colleagues think his alarm is premature. This sets the stage for massive ash clouds, rivers of raging mud and molten rock, flattened forests and death-defying escapes by Brosnan, Hamilton and some (but not all) of her family, friends and townsfolk. So what if it's all pretty flaky ... and can a four-wheel-drive vehicle travel over fire and molten lava without bursting its tires? Don't ask too many questions and you'll find Dante's Peak to be (if you'll pardon the pun) a total blast. --Jeff Shannon