"Actor: Ian"

• Tales from the Crypt (1972) | DVD | (28/06/2010) from £10.35   |  Saving you £4.64 (44.83%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Back in the 60's and 70's a company called Amicus delivered a string of noteworthy anthology horror films. This five story collection is adapted from tales first told in the E.C. horror comics of the 1950's and it's a good and ghoulish cinematic adaptation. An excellent British cast brings this movie to life as well as sterling stylish photography by Norman Warwick and fun music by Douglas Gamley; film also makes good use of Bachs' Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Death Lives in the Vault of Horror! Five strangers go with a tourist group to view old caves. Separated from the main group they find themselves in a room with the mysterious Crypt Keeper who details how each of the strangers will die. ...And All Through the House: After Joanne Clayton (Joan Collins) kills her husband on Christmas Eve she prepares to hide his body but hears a radio announcement stating that a homicidal maniac (Oliver MacGreevy) is on the loose. Reflection of Death: Carl Maitland (Ian Hendry) abandons his family to be with Susan Blake (Angela Grant). After they drive off together they are involved in a car accident. He wakes up in the wrecked car and attempts to hitchhike home but no one will stop for him. Poetic Justice: Edward Elliott (David Markham) and his son James (Robin Phillips) are a snobbish pair who resent their neighbour retired garbage man Arthur Grymsdyke (Peter Cushing) who owns a number of animals and entertains children at his house. Wish You Were Here: Businessman Ralph Jason (Richard Greene) is close to financial ruin. His wife Enid (Barbara Murray) discovers a Chinese figurine and wishes for a fortune. Blind Alleys: Major William Rogers (Nigel Patrick) the new director of a home for the blind makes drastic financial cuts reducing heat and rationing food for the residents while he lives in luxury with Shane his Belgian Malinois.

• Sherlock Holmes - The Sign Of Four | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £14.23   |  Saving you £-5.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  This riveting mystery is a whodunit at its best. The legendary British sleuth Sherlock Holmes accompanied by his loyal sidekick Watson become wrapped up in yet another jewel-centered mystery when a beautiful young woman finds herself the surprised recipient of the world's second largest diamond. The master detective is summoned to figure out just who sent her the jewel and why.

• The Sorcerers | DVD | (03/11/2014) from £16.84   |  Saving you £-0.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The Sorcerers, the second film directed by the lost "wunderkind" of British cinema Michael Reeves, may not have the scope and visceral impact of his masterpiece, Witchfinder General (1968), but there's enough fierce originality here to show what a tragic loss it was when he died from a drugs overdose aged only 24. The film also shows the effective use he made of minimal resources, working here on a derisory budget of less than £50,000--of which £11,000 went to the film's sole "named" star, Boris Karloff. Karloff plays an elderly scientist living with his devoted wife in shabby poverty in London, dreaming of the brilliant breakthrough in hypnotic technique that will restore him to fame and fortune. Seeking a guinea-pig, he hits on Mike, a disaffected young man-about-town (Ian Ogilvy, who starred in all three of Reeves' films). But the technique has an unlooked-for side effect--not only can he and his wife make Mike do their bidding, they can vicariously experience everything that he feels. At which point, it turns out that the wife has urges and desires that her husband never suspected. Karloff, then almost at the end of his long career, brings a melancholy dignity to his role; but the revelation is the veteran actress Catherine Lacey as the seemingly sweet old lady, turning terrifyingly avid and venomous as she realises her power. The portrayal of Swinging London, with its mini-skirted dollybirds thronging nightclubs where the strongest stimulant seems to be Coke rather than coke, has an almost touching innocence, but Reeves invests it with a dream-like quality, extending it into scenes of violent death in labyrinthine dark alleys. By this stage, some ten years after it started, the British horror cycle was winding down in lazy self-parody. Reeves had the exceptional talent and vision to revive it, had he only lived. On the DVD: The Sorcerers DVD has original trailers for both this film and Witchfinder General (both woefully clumsy); filmographies for Reeves, Karloff and Ogilvy; an "image gallery" (a grab-bag of posters, stills and lobby cards); detailed written production notes by horror-movie expert Kim Newman; and an excellent 25-minute documentary on Reeves, "Blood Beast", dating from 1999. The transfer is letterboxed full-width, with acceptable sound. --Philip Kemp

• White Nights | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £31.48   |  Saving you £-18.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Nikolai 'Kolya' Rodchenko a ballet star (Mikhail Baryshnikov) who has defected from the Soviet Union to the West finds himself unexpectedly back in the Soviet Union as a result of his airplane crash-landing in Siberia. Meanwhile Raymond Greenwood (Gregory Hines) a Harlem-born and bred professional dancer disenchanted with America after his Vietnam experiences defects to the Soviet Union. The K.G.B. blackmails the American defector to spy on Baryshnikov and to persuade him to rec

• Sharknado - The Ultimate Collection | Blu Ray | (26/02/2024) from £33.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dad's Army - The Complete Series 3 | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £4.96   |  Saving you £11.03 (222.38%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The complete collection of the third series of episodes (in colour) featuring the inept Captain Mainwaring (Arthur Lowe) and his unruly Home Guard platoon... Episodes comprise: 1. The Armoured Might Of Lance Corporal Jones 2. Battle School 3. The Lion Has Phones 4. The Bullet Is Not For Firing 5. Something Nasty In The Vault 6. Room At The Bottom 7. Big Guns 8. The Day The Balloon Went Up 9. War Dance 10. Menace From The Deep 11. Branded 12. Man Hunt 13. No Spring

• Alien Quadrilogy | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £24.99   |  Saving you £35.00 (140.06%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The Alien Quadrilogy is a nine-disc box set devoted to the four Alien films. Although previously available on DVD as the Alien Legacy, here the films have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and vision. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "Special Edition" form. Alien (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 Director's Cut is fiddling for the sake of it. Watch once then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely the Special Edition of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice finally to have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative Alien3 (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered and finished-off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to the story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. Alien Resurrection (1997) was always a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the Special Edition just makes it eight minutes longer. On the DVD: Alien Quadrilogy offers all films except Alien3 with DTS soundtracks, the latter having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first Alien DVD release are missing here--and there are subtitles for hard of hearing both for the films and the commentaries. Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented at 4:3 with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the Lord of the Rings extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including a Channel 4 hour-long documentary and even all the extras from the old Alien laserdisc. Exhaustive hardly beings to describe the Alien Quadrilogy, a set which establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and which looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. --Gary S Dalkin

• Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde | DVD | (18/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  1980s Adaptation of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson's exploration into the good versus evil side of human nature. David Hemmings takes the lead as the virtuous Dr Jekyll who discovers a formula to unleash the dark side of man. The result is Mr Edward Hyde his depraved inner demon who is let loose to enjoy the more decadent side of Victorian society. As his experiments continue Mr Hyde grows stronger as his creator struggles to control him.

• Last Kingdom Season 1-3 (DVD) | DVD | (28/01/2019) from £34.85   |  Saving you £0.14 (0.40%)   |  RRP £34.99

  At the end of the 9th century, many of the separate kingdoms of what we now know as England have fallen in bloody conflict to invading Danes. Against this turbulent backdrop lives our hero, Uhtred (Alexander Dreymon, American Horror Story). Born the son of a Saxon nobleman, he is captured by the Danes and raised as one of their own. When fate binds him to Alfred (David Dawson, Peaky Blinders), Saxon King of Wessex, Uhtred must fight for Alfred's dream of uniting the kingdoms. Suffering great personal tragedy, Uhtred is torn between the country of his birth and the people of his upbringing and confronts a difficult choice if he deserts Alfred's cause, the future of the English people will be changed forever. Also starring Rutger Hauer (Blade Runner), Matthew Macfadyen (Anna Karenina), Jason Flemyng (X-Men: First Class), Tobias Santelmann (Point Break), Emily Cox (Futuro Beach) and Ian Hart (Boardwalk Empire). Enjoy seasons one, two and three of The Last Kingdom back to back and uninterrupted! Special Features: Creating the World of The Last Kingdom The Making of The Last Kingdom The Stunts of The Last Kingdom Return to The Last Kingdom: The Making of Season Two The Battles of The Last Kingdom Season Three

• Foreign Correspondent | DVD | (21/04/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The first of Alfred Hitchcock's World War II features, Foreign Correspondent was completed in 1940, as the European war was only beginning to erupt across national borders. Its titular hero, Johnny Jones (Joel McCrea), is an American crime reporter dispatched by his New York publisher to put a fresh spin on the drowsy dispatches emanating from overseas, his nose for a good story (and, of course, some fortuitous timing) promptly leading him to the "crime" of fascism and Nazi Germany's designs on European conquest. In attempting to learn more about a seemingly noble peace effort, Jones (who's been saddled with the dubious nom de plume Hadley Haverstock) walks into the middle of an assassination, uncovers a spy ring, and, not entirely coincidentally, falls in love--a pattern familiar to admirers of Hitchcock's espionage thrillers, of which this is a thoroughly entertaining example. McCrea's hardy Yankee charms are neatly contrasted with the droll English charm of colleague George Sanders; Herbert Marshall provides a plummy variation on the requisite, ambiguous "good-or-is-he-really-bad" guy; Laraine Day affords a lovely heroine; and Robert Benchley (who contributed to the script) pops up, albeit too briefly, for comic relief. As good as the cast is, however, it's Hitchcock's staging of key action sequences that makes Foreign Correspondent a textbook example of the director's visual energy: an assassin's escape through a rain-soaked crowd is registered by rippling umbrellas, a nest of spies is detected by the improbable direction of a windmill's spinning sails and Jones's nocturnal flight across a pitched city rooftop produces its own contextual comment when broken neon tubes convert the Hotel Europe into "Hot Europe". --Sam Sutherland

• American Gods | Blu Ray | (31/07/2017) from £7.17   |  Saving you £10.83 (151.05%)   |  RRP £18.00

  When Shadow Moon is released from prison, he meets the mysterious Mr. Wednesday and a storm begins to brew. Little does Shadow know, this storm will change the course of his entire life. Left adrift by the recent, tragic death of his wife, and suddenly hired as Mr. Wednesday's bodyguard, Shadow finds himself in the centre of a world that he struggles to understand. It's a hidden world where magic is real, where the Old Gods fear both irrelevance and the growing power of the New Gods, like Technology and Media. Mr. Wednesday seeks to build a coalition of Old Gods to defend their existence in this new America, and reclaim some of the influence that they've lost. As Shadow travels across the country with Mr. Wednesday, he struggles to accept this new reality, and his place in it.

• Mr Holmes | Blu Ray | (26/10/2015) from £6.58   |  Saving you £16.41 (249.39%)   |  RRP £22.99

  In 1947, the world famous sleuth has retired to a remote Sussex farmhouse, living in relative anonymity with only his housekeeper Mrs Munro and her young son Roger for company. Cantankerous, demanding and frustrated with the mis-representation of him in Watson’s best-selling novels, he diverts his attention to an unsolved case. As the mystery deepens, Sherlock tries desperately to recall the events of 30 years ago that ultimately led to his retirement.

• Brazil | Blu Ray | (05/12/2011) from £9.99   |  Saving you £6.00 (60.06%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Acclaimed story of an unambitious civil servant who escapes the harsh realities of a totalitarian future with frequent daydreams. Jonathan Pryce and Robert De Niro star with Michael Palin and Bob Hoskins in this chilling black comedy directed by former Monty Python member Terry Gilliam.

• A Touch of Love (Vintage Classics) | Blu Ray | (17/03/2025) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A TOUCH OF LOVE (1969) directed by Waris Hussein is adapted from the novel The Millstone by Margaret Drabble. Sandy Dennis (Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf) stars as Rosamund, a student and daughter of emotionally distant parents. After her first sexual encounter with handsome television announcer George played by Ian McKellen (The Good liar, The lord of the Rings) Rosamund discovers she's pregnant. After her failed attempt to terminate the pregnancy, she decides to keep the baby, despite pressure from friends and relatives. Preparing herself for the indignities and isolation that being a single mother will bring, she is adamant about not revealing the identity of the father, realising that however much she may need a husband, the only important thing in her life is her child. Also starring John Standing and Eleanor Bron.

• Marvel Heroes - X-Men/X-Men 2/X-Men - The Last Stand/Elektra/Daredevil/Fantastic Four | DVD | (04/12/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  This superb Marvel box features the following sci-fi adventures: 1. X-Men - 2000 2. X-Men 2 - 2003 3. X-Men 3 - 2006 4. Elektra - 2005 5. Daredevil - 2002 6. Fantastic Four - 2005

• Spanglish | DVD | (27/06/2005) from £5.88   |  Saving you £14.11 (239.97%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Paz Vega, Adam Sandler and Tea Leoni star in this comedy/drama from Oscar-winning director James L. Brooks.

• Too Late The Hero | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £6.70   |  Saving you £-0.71 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Set on a Pacific island in 1942, Too Late the Hero is a hard-as-nails "men on a mission" war movie: a group of British soldiers have to traverse the New Hebrides to destroy a Japanese radio transmitter, then get back to safety while being hunted all the way. Inevitably everything goes wrong, but director Robert (The Dirty Dozen) Aldrich turns the book of WWII movie clichés on its head and springs some unnerving surprises. Even the token American star, Cliff Robertson--echoing William Holden's grafted-on role in The Bridge on the River Kwai--proves less than obviously heroic, while an outstanding Michael Caine brings considerable depth to his usual cynical cockney. Henry Fonda gets heavily billed for a brief guest appearance, but there are star performances such fine British character actors as Denholm Elliot, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser and Lance Percival. This portrait of battle-worn men offers greater complexity than Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, while the jungle trek was more recently paralleled in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Only the attitudes--more 1970 than 1942--detract from Aldrich's tellingly realistic vision, which with a thoughtfully ironic script and a succession of tense set pieces and brutal firefights, builds to a harrowing climax. On the DVD: The picture is presented at approximately 1.7:1, reformatted from the original 2.2:1 70mm theatrical presentation. Despite approximately 25 per cent of the original image being missing, this loss is only really noticeable in a few scenes. Apart from the occasional fleck, the print is in superb condition, and despite the lack of anamorphic enhancement the picture is sharp, detailed and has excellent colour. The surround sound (not mono as listed on the packaging) is highly effective, with the tension being increased by a considerable amount of the music coming from the rear speakers. The special features are simply a few static pages of biographical and production notes. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts | Blu Ray | (09/08/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Sharknado 5: Global Swarming | DVD | (18/03/2019) from £6.59   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  With much of America lying in ruins, the rest of the world braces for a global sharknado; Fin and his family must travel around the world to stop them.

• Coast | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £4.94   |  Saving you £35.05 (709.51%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Discover the curious relationship between the British and the seas in this series first shown on the BBC. The nation's love affair with the coast will be reawakened for this entertaining and ambitious exploration of the entire UK coastline. Every part of the 9 000-mile coast is covered to explore how we've shaped it - and how it shapes us. Hosted by a team of history and geography experts who investigate everything from life on a nuclear submarine to rebuilding the Titanic using co