"Actor: Edie Martin"

• Cheech And Chong's Up In Smoke | DVD | (06/05/2002) from £21.98   |  Saving you £-5.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  There's nothing straight about this movie. But here's the dope anyway: Cheech and Chong make their film debut in this riotous rock 'n' roll comedy bringing with them the same madness lifestyles and sketches that sold over 10 million records in the early '70s. Cheech and Chong's marijuana-laced humor keeps their spirits high and leads them to an outrageous finale at L.A.'s Roxy Theater where Cheech performs in a pink tutu and Chong dresses as a large red quaalude. It will make you f

• The Lavender Hill Mob | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £7.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (112.64%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Directed by Charles Crichton, who would much later direct John Cleese in A Fish Called Wanda (1988), 1951's The Lavender Hill Mob is the most ruefully thrilling of the Ealing Comedies. Alec Guinness plays a bowler-hatted escort of bullion to the refineries. His seeming timidity, weak 'r's and punctiliousness mask a typically Guinness-like patient cunning. "I was aware I was widiculed but that was pwecisely the effect I was stwiving to achieve". He's actually plotting a heist. With more conventionally cockney villains Sid James and Alfie Bass in tow, as well as the respectable but ruined Stanley Holloway, Guinness' perfect criminal plan works in exquisite detail, then unravels just as exquisitely, culminating in a nail-biting police car chase in which you can't help rooting for the villains. The Lavender Hill Mob depicts a London still up to its knees in rubble from World War II, a world of new hope but continued austerity, a budding new order in which everything seems up for grabs; as such it could be regarded as a lighter hearted cinematic cousin to Carol Reed's 1949 masterpiece The Third Man. The Lavender Hill Mob also sees the first, fleeting on-screen appearance of Audrey Hepburn in the opening sequence. --David Stubbs

• Ealing Comedy DVD Collection - The Ladykillers/Kind Hearts and Coronets/The Lavender Hill Mob/The Man in the White Suit | DVD | (02/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Four of the British film industry's best-loved comedies in one box set makes The Ealing Comedy Collection absolutely essential for anyone who has any passion at all for movies. The set contains Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951), The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955). Ealing's greatest comedies captured the essence of post-war Britain, both in their evocation of a land once blighted by war but now rising doggedly and optimistically again from the ashes, and in their mordant yet graceful humour. They portray a country with an antiquated class system whose crumbling conventions are being undermined by a new spirit of individual opportunism. In the delightfully wicked Kind Hearts and Coronets, a serial killer politely murders his way into the peerage; in The Lavender Hill Mob a put-upon bank clerk schemes to rob his employers; The Man in the White Suit is a harshly satirical depiction of idealism crushed by the status quo; while The Ladykillers mocks both the criminals and the authorities with its unlikely octogenarian heroine Mrs "lop-sided" Wilberforce. Many factors contribute to the success of these films--including fine music scores from composers such as Benjamin Frankel (Man in the White Suit) and Tristram Cary (The Ladykillers); positively symphonic sound effects (White Suit); marvellously evocative locations (the environs of King's Cross in Ladykillers, for example); and writing that always displays Ealing's unique perspective on British social mores ("All the exuberance of Chaucer without, happily, any of the concomitant crudities of his period")--yet arguably their greatest asset is Alec Guinness, whose multifaceted performances are the keystone upon which Ealing built its biting, often macabre, yet always elegant comedy. On the DVD: The Ealing Comedy Collection presents the four discs in a fold-out package with postcards of the original poster artwork for each. Aside from theatrical trailers on each disc there are no extra features, which is a pity given the importance of these films. The Ladykillers is in muted Technicolor and presented in 1.66:1 ratio, the three earlier films are all black and white 1.33:1. Sound is perfectly adequate mono throughout. --Mark Walker

• The Quiet | DVD | (12/03/2007) from £5.38   |  Saving you £14.61 (271.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This erotic and suspenseful tale of sex lies and betrayal stars Elisha Cuthbert (24) as Nina Deer a pretty cheerleader whose life is turned upside-down by the arrival of her parents' godchild Dot (Camilla Belle When a Stranger Calls) a deaf and mute girl recently orphaned by her father's death. Although Nina looks upon Dot's deafness with disdain her family and friends develop a strange attraction to her and Dot soon becomes a sounding board for everyone's heaviest burdens. But when Nina becomes convinced that Dot is hiding a few secrets of her own she decides to confess a family secret so disturbing it cannot be ignored.

• Cheech And Chong's The Corsican Brothers | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £14.36   |  Saving you £-1.37 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Corsican Brothers were bound so closely together that when one was hurt the other felt the pain; however Cheech and Chong shed new light on Dumas' classic story of the Revolution! Follow our heroes in this anything-goes comic romp through 18th Century France - a France in which the word ""pervert"" is taken as a compliment by the aristocracy in a court where depravity rules ... and with them it's OK! Together the Brothers battle against misfortune - never wavering from their mott

• Cheech And Chong | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Up In Smoke: There's nothing straight about this movie. But here's the dope anyway: Cheech and Chong make their film debut in this riotous rock 'n' roll comedy bringing with them the same madness lifestyles and sketches that sold over 10 million records in the early '70s. Cheech and Chong's marijuana-laced humor keeps their spirits high and leads them to an outrageous finale at L.A.'s Roxy Theater where Cheech performs in a pink tutu and Chong dresses as a large red quaalude

• Kalifornia / Misery / Shallow Grave | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Kalifornia: When urban intellectuals Brian (Duchovny) and Carrie (Forbes) set out a cross-country trip to research a book about serial killers they share the ride with a couple they barely know - Early Grayce (Pitt) and his girlfriend Adele (Lewis). Locked in a car hurtling westword the four travelers struggle to find some common ground. But when they finally do connect Early's violent nature abruptly emerges and the petrified Brian and Carrie realise they don't need to go very far to learn about ruthless killers... because they're already face to face with one! Misery: When author Paul Sheldon suffers a car accident in a blizzard he thanks his lucky stars that nurse Annie Wilkes was on hand. That is until he discovers that she's his number one fan and has no intention of ever letting him go... Shallow Grave: Juliet David and Alex find that their new reclusive roommate has not left the bedroom for days. After kicking in the door they discover this drug overdosed corpse; and a suitcase full of cash! Fatefully choosing to keep the money they know they have to get rid of the body. But the remains won't stay buried and a careless trail from the shallow grave leads the police and two money-hungry thugs back to the trio. As the stakes get higher so does the body count not to mention their paranoia which is quickly putting their friendship in deadly jeopardy!

• The Titfield Thunderbolt | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  When an antiquated railway line is threatened with closure the villagers decide to run it themselves and enter into frenzied competition with the local bus route with hilarious consequences! Director Charles Crichton and writer Tibby Clarke team up again for the first Ealing comedy to be produced in Technicolor. The defiance of authority by local inhabitants was a favourite topic in the 40's and 50's and embellishes the characteristic Ealing theme - 'small is beautiful and big is bad'.