"Actor: J"

• The Harder They Fall | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £7.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (62.58%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A movie that proved a fine swansong for Humphrey Bogart, The Harder They Fall is a gripping drama set against a background of fixed boxing matches. Not so much about the fights as the exploitation of the sport, the film is based on a novel by Budd Schulberg, whose Oscar-winning screenplay for On the Waterfront (1954) helped turn Rod Steiger into a star. Here Steiger delivers an equally bravura performance as the chillingly corrupt manager, Nick Benko, a man who will do anything to turn a buck. Bogart meanwhile is outstanding as unemployed sports writer Eddie Willis, hired against his better judgement to promote a no-hope Argentinean boxer, Toro Moreno (Mike Lane). Powerfully written, if built around the unlikely premise of building a 10th-rate fighter into a world-class contender, the drama is essentially a battle for Willis's soul as he is torn between money and conscience. Though the scenes with Bogart and Steiger facing off are the strongest and a veritable masterclass of hardboiled characterisation, Mark Robson, who also helmed the Kirk Douglas boxing classic Champion (1949), directs with a convincingly dirty realism, the final punishing and bloody match a clear influence on Scorsese's Raging Bull (1980). On the DVD: The Harder They Fall's anamorphic 1.77:1 transfer is excellent with only one brief scene showing any significant print damage. Burnett Guffey's noir-ish black-and-white cinematography looks sharp and fresh as the day it was shot, with only minimal grain. The mono sound is strong and clear, without a hint of distortion or compression. The only extra is a scored gallery of posters and lobby cards from other Bogart films available on Columbia. There are dubbed versions in French, German, Spanish and Italian, and a plethora of subtitle options. --Gary S Dalkin

• Coogan's Bluff | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £7.49   |  Saving you £2.50 (33.38%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Clint Eastwood plays Coogan an Arizona cop who is sent to New York to collect a prisoner. Things begin to go wrong when the prisoner escapes and Coogan is ordered home in disgrace. Too proud to return home empty handed Coogan sets out into the big city to recapture his prisoner.

• O.J.: Made in America | Blu Ray | (17/04/2017) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It is the defining cultural tale of modern America - a saga of race, celebrity, media, violence, and the criminal justice system. And two decades after its unforgettable climax, it continues to fascinate, polarize, and even, yes, develop new chapters. From Peabody and Emmy-award winning director Ezra Edelman, it's O.J.: Made in America. O.J. revisits - and redefines - it all. The domestic abuse. The police investigation. The white Bronco chase. The trial of the century. The motive, the blood, the glove. The verdict. The aftermath. Drawing upon more than seventy interviews- from longtime friends and colleagues of Simpson to the recognizable protagonists of the murder investigation to observers and commentators with distinct connections to the story - the docu-event is an engrossing, compelling, and unforgettable look at a tantalising saga. Because at the end of what seems like a search for the truth about O.J. Simpson, what's revealed just as powerfully is a collection of indelible, unshakeable, and haunting truths about America, and about ourselves.

• Criminal Minds Season 4 | DVD | (01/03/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.99

  Criminal Minds, the Complete Fourth Season, is the dramatic, psychological suspense thriller about an elite team of FBI profilers who analyse the country's most twisted criminal minds and anticipate their next moves.

• Out For A Kill | DVD | (18/08/2003) from £3.79   |  Saving you £16.20 (427.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Archaeologist Robert Burns discovers a collection of priceless artefacts in China. He plans to take them out of China for restoration but the Chinese Mafia has made other plans for the treasure. Burns is framed for a murder and thrown in a Chinese prison; now he must fight for justice and his life!

• Butterfly Effect Trilogy | Blu Ray | (14/09/2009) from £9.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (150.15%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Butterfly Effect: A young man struggling to access sublimated childhood memories finds a technique that allows him to travel back to the past. Occupying his childhood body he is able to change history. But every change he makes has unexpected consequences... The Butterfly Effect 2: After his girlfriend is killed in a car accident Nick struggles to cope with the grief. He is tempted to use his ability to go back to the past to save her but in messing with the past he causes dire consequences for the present. The Butterfly Effect 3: Revelation: Sam's ability has been both a blessing and curse he can help the police solve crimes but can make no move to intervene in what he sees. But when a woman from his childhood comes begging for help in solving her sister's murder he finds himself drawn to breaking his golden rule.

• Spider-Man 3 | Blu Ray | (27/08/2018) from £54.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) has finally managed to strike a balance between his devotion to M.J. (Kirsten Dunst) and his duties as a superhero. But when his suit suddenly changes, turning jetblack and enhancing his powers, it transforms Peter, bringing out a dark vengeful side that he struggles to control. He must now battle his inner demons as two of the mostfeared villains yet, Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace), gather unparalleled power and a thirst for revenge which threatens Peter and everyone he loves. Features: Cast and Filmmaker Commentaries with Sam Raimi, Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco and more Blooper Reels

• Written on the Wind (1956) (Criterion Collection) UK Only | Blu Ray | (21/02/2022) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Technicolor expressionism of Douglas Sirk (All That Heaven Allows) reached a fever pitch with this operatic tragedy, which finds the director pushing his florid visuals and his critiques of American culture to their subversive extremes. Alcoholism, nymphomania, impotence, and deadly jealousythese are just some of the toxins coursing through a massively wealthy, degenerate Texan oil family. When a sensible secretary (The Big Sleep's Lauren Bacall) has the misfortune of marrying the clan's neurotic scion (To Be or Not to Be's Robert Stack), it drives a wedge between him and his lifelong best friend (Magnificent Obsession's Rock Hudson) that unleashes a maelstrom of psychosexual angst and fury. Featuring an unforgettably debauched, Oscar-winning supporting performance by Dorothy Malone (Man of a Thousand Faces) and some of Sirk's most eye-popping mise-en-scène, Written on the Wind is as perverse a family portrait as has ever been splashed across the screen Special Edition Features New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Acting for Douglas Sirk, a 2008 documentary featuring archival interviews with Sirk; actors Rock Hudson, Robert Stack, and Dorothy Malone; and producer Albert Zugsmith New interview with film scholar Patricia White about the film and melodrama Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by filmmaker and critic Blair McClendon

• Assault On Precinct 13 | Blu Ray | (09/01/2017) from £18.13   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 is a riveting low-budget thriller from 1976, in which a nearly abandoned police station is held under siege by a heavily armed gang called Street Thunder. Inside the station, cut off from contact and isolated, convicts heading for death row and the cops must now join forces or die. That's the basic plot, but what Carpenter does with it is remarkable. Drawing specific inspiration from the classic Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo (which included a similar siege on disadvantaged heroes), Carpenter used his simple setting for a tense, tightly constructed series of action sequences, emphasising low-key character development and escalating tension. Few who've seen the film can forget the "ice cream cone" scene in which a young girl is caught up in the action by patronising a seemingly harmless ice cream van. It's here, and in other equally memorable scenes, that Carpenter demonstrates his knack for injecting terror into the mundane details of daily life, propelling this potent thriller to cult favourite status and long-standing critical acclaim. From this Carpenter went on to make the original Halloween, one of the most profitable independent films of all time. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Ready Player One | Blu Ray | (06/08/2018) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Stephen Spielberg directs the worldwide phenomenon Ready Player One. When an unlikely young hero, Wade Watts decides to join the ultimate contest to find the digital Easter eggs to win the Oasis, an expansive virtual reality universe where anything is possible, he is hurled into a breakneck, reality-bending treasure hunt through a fantastical universe of mystery, discovery, and danger.

• O.J.: Made in America | DVD | (17/04/2017) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  It is the defining cultural tale of modern America - a saga of race, celebrity, media, violence, and the criminal justice system. And two decades after its unforgettable climax, it continues to fascinate, polarize, and even, yes, develop new chapters. From Peabody and Emmy-award winning director Ezra Edelman, it's O.J.: Made in America. O.J. revisits - and redefines - it all. The domestic abuse. The police investigation. The white Bronco chase. The trial of the century. The motive, the blood, the glove. The verdict. The aftermath. Drawing upon more than seventy interviews- from longtime friends and colleagues of Simpson to the recognizable protagonists of the murder investigation to observers and commentators with distinct connections to the story - the docu-event is an engrossing, compelling, and unforgettable look at a tantalising saga. Because at the end of what seems like a search for the truth about O.J. Simpson, what's revealed just as powerfully is a collection of indelible, unshakeable, and haunting truths about America, and about ourselves.

• Criminal Minds - Series 2 | DVD | (05/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £35.99

  Criminal Minds revolves around an elite team of FBI profilers who analyze the country's most twisted criminal minds anticipating their next moves before they strike again. Special Agent Jason Gideon (Mandy Patinkin) is the FBI's top behavioral analyst and he joins the Behavioral Analysis Unit lead by Special Agent Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) a family man who is able to gain people's trust and unlock their secrets. Also on the team are Elle Greenaway (Lola Glaudini) an agent with a background in sexual offenses; Special Agent Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore) an expert on obsessional crimes; Special Agent Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler) a classically misunderstood genius whose social IQ is as low as his intellectual IQ is high; Jennifer ""JJ"" Jareau (AJ Cook) a confident young agent who acts as the unit liaison for the team and Penelope Garcia (Kirsten Vangsness) a computer wizard who helps research the cases. Each member brings his or her own area of expertise to the table as they pinpoint predators' motivations and identify their emotional triggers in the attempt to stop them.

• Dark Angel: Complete Season 1 | DVD | (24/02/2003) from £19.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (100.05%)   |  RRP £39.99

  One of TV's more interesting tough-girl action shows, Dark Angel is a distinctive blend of the personal, the adventurous and the politically aware. Cocreators James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) and Charles Eglee present a complex scenario of biological super-science and social collapse in which their gene-manipulated heroine and hacker/journalist hero can genuinely make a difference. In this first series they also provide an adversary who is a lot more than just a conventional villain. Jessica Alba is impressive as Max, bred and trained as a super-soldier but reclaiming her individual humanity; Michael Weatherly is scruffily attractive as Eyes Only, who sits semi-paralysed in his eyrie above Seattle uncovering crime, corruption and other skulduggeries and sending the woman whom he hopelessly loves out on deadly errands. Jon Savage has real authority as Lydeker, a man who has stretched his conscience to breaking point, but is not personally corrupt. Some of the best episodes here--"Prodigy" for example--are ones in which Lydeker and Max are forced into temporary alliance. Early on the relationship between Max and the other workers at Jam Pony--the courier firm that provides her with a cover identity--is a little forced, but later on the two parts of Max's life are more successfully integrated: "Shorties in Love", for example, is a genuinely touching tale about Diamond, the doomed criminal ex-lover of Max's lesbian roommate. Dark Angel was never a perfect show, but at its occasional best it manages to be simultaneously funny and dramatic. On the DVD: Dark Angel, Series 1's Region 2 DVD is ungenerous with special features, providing only short interviews with James Cameron and Charles Eglee and with the stars, and giving us a preview of the Dark Angel computer game. The episodes are presented in widescreen and have excellent Dolby Digital sound which gives vivid presence to both the dialogue and the hard-driving contemporary rock score that is part of the show's style. --Roz Kaveney

• The Rewrite | DVD | (09/02/2015) from £4.99   |  Saving you £15.00 (300.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Once upon a time screenwriter Keith Michaels (Hugh Grant) was on top of the world - a Golden Globe Award and a hit movie to his name a beautiful wife and son and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of sexy British wit and charm. But that was fifteen years ago: now he's divorced approaching fifty hasn't written a hit film in years and is going broke. Luckily his agent has a gig for him - albeit far away from Hollywood. A university in upstate New York is looking for a writer-in-residence to teach a course on screenwriting and with an empty wallet as his motivation Keith can't say no. In bucolic Binghamton he quickly discovers that his celebrity status hasn't faded and he finds himself in a compromising position with a star-struck pupil Karen (Bella Heathcote) who is enrolled in his class and his other students seem naïve and simple. Hoping to give minimal attention to his duties and focus on writing a new script Keith inadvertently gets off on the wrong foot with a ranking faculty member (Allison Janney) a humourless Jane Austen scholar; though he does quickly befriend two eccentric faculty colleagues who promise to show him the ropes (Chris Elliott J.K. Simmons). Keith's attitude begins to turn when he meets Holly (Marisa Tomei) a single mom working two jobs to earn her bachelor's degree. Though Holly has a new boyfriend - and Keith isn't very savvy about covering up his romance with Karen - the two find themselves connected by their mutual need for a second chance. When one of his pupils comes up with a screenplay that Keith knows will sell he sees an opportunity to get out of teaching and go back to living the good life. But he's also discovered that teaching has given him that second chance at becoming a better man - and finds himself equally tempted to stay and see where his new talents take him.

• Marvel's Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. - Season 2 | DVD | (19/10/2015) from £6.10   |  Saving you £8.89 (145.74%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The second season of the action drama spin-off from 'Marvel Avengers Assemble' (2012). Clark Gregg reprises his role from the film as Agent Phil Coulsen, who runs an elite team for the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. Together these agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. must investigate and hunt down strange occurences posed by new threats and a rising number of supervillains. The episodes are: 'Shadows', 'Heavy Is the Head', 'Making Friends and Influencing People', 'Face My Enemy', 'A Hen in the Wolf House', 'The Writing On the Wall', 'The Things We Bury', '...Ye Who Enter Here', 'What They Become', 'Aftershocks', 'Who You Really Are', 'One of Us', 'Love in the Time of Hydra', 'One Door Closes', 'Afterlife', 'Melinda', 'The Frenemy of My Enemy', 'The Dirty Half Dozen', 'Scars' and 'S.O.S.'.

• Man of the West (1958) | Blu Ray | (23/03/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The pinnacle in the brilliant career of director Anthony Mann Man of the West has earned a reputation as one of the finest westerns — and one of the finest films full stop — produced in the late studio era. Ex-outlaw Link Jones (Gary Cooper) boards a train to Fort Worth to hire a schoolteacher for his town when he’s knocked unconscious and robbed — by a gang of outlaws associated with his own uncle (Lee J. Cobb) whom he abandoned years earlier in his bid to go straight. Soon after and in order to protect the life of the woman he’d earmarked for schoolteacher saloon singer Billie Ellis (Julie London) Link rejoins the gang for one last hold-up… Jean-Luc Godard wrote of Man of the West: I have seen nothing so completely new since — why not? — Griffith… With Anthony Mann one rediscovers the western as one discovers arithmetic in an elementary maths class. Which is to say that Man of the West is the most intelligent of films and at the same time the most simple. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Man of the West in a special Dual Format edition that presents the film on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

• The Founder | DVD | (12/06/2017) from £7.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The incredible true story of how Ray Kroc (Academy Award nominee Michael Keaton, Spotlight, Birdman), a salesman from Illinois, met Mac (John Carroll Lynch, Jackie) and Dick McDonald (Nick Offerman, 22 Jump Street), who were running a burger operation in 1950s Southern California. So impressed by the brothers' 'speedy system' Kroc risked his marriage, bankruptcy and his reputation to create a billion-dollar empire that revolutionised the world. From director John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Banks, The Blind Side) and writer Robert D. Siegel (The Wrestler) comes a stunning and shocking portrayal of the man whose hunger for the American Dream ate away everything he knew.

• The Child | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Bruno and Sonia a young couple living off her benefit and the thefts committed by his gang have a new source of money: their newborn son... From the makers of Rosetta and The Son comes the winner of the 2005 Palme D'Or The Child!

• The Office - Season 8 | DVD | (07/04/2014) from £12.00   |  Saving you £-1.94 (-19.30%)   |  RRP £10.06

  Big changes are in store for Scranton in the hilarious eighth season of this Primetime Emmy Award-winning* series. Andy has taken over as manager of Dunder Mifflin and finds the job to be more than he bargained for. He wants to win the respect of his employees while going toe-to-toe with Robert California (James Spader Boston Legal) the enigmatic new CEO who wants to turn the office into his personal playground. Dwight makes his own grab for power when he leads a team to Florida to work under Nellie Bertram (Catherine Tate Dr. Who) who may be slightly out of her mind. Jim and Pam's relationship is put to the test when Pam goes on maternity leave and her replacement has eyes for Jim. Meanwhile Erin harbors lingering feelings for Andy; Angela's relationship deepens with her dashing (State) Senator; and Darryl looks for love in the warehouse.

• Halloween (25th Anniversary Edition) | DVD | (27/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  It was a cold Halloween night in 1963 when six year old Michael Myers brutally murdered his 17-year-old sister. Fifteen years later he escapes from prison and returns home...