"Actor: J"

• Dead Man Walking | DVD | (17/09/2001) from £6.59   |  Saving you £9.40 (142.64%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A serious film on a serious subject, Dead Man Walking (1995) is enriched by two excellent performances: Sean Penn as a murderer and rapist facing execution on Death Row, and Susan Sarandon as a nun who visits and befriends him. Tim Robbins, the writer and director of the film (and Sarandon's husband), based the film on a true story, and there's not much narrative tension since it's obvious Penn will not escape his fate. But the film is a clear-eyed look at the realities of capital punishment and its grisly rituals, which at the same time never sentimentalises the people or the issues. There is no shying away from the evil of the murderer's acts and their effects on the victims' families, but this is balanced against the heartlessness and cynicism of those in the prison system and their political masters. It's hard to say whether the film is ultimately against capital punishment; it certainly encourages you to think for yourself. On the DVD: The image and sound quality is excellent, in widescreen ratio 16:9. There's a theatrical trailer and a TV commercial for the film, which also has language tracks in English, French and Spanish and subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Dutch and Hungarian. There's also an audio commentary on the film by director Tim Robbins which gives valuable insights into the political background of the film and the shooting process. --Ed Buscombe

• Halloween H20: Twenty Years Later | DVD | (22/10/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Halloween is one of the great modern horror films, but as a franchise its track record has been spotty at best, painfully bad at worst. Halloween H2O: Twenty Years Later, directed by horror vet Steve Miner (Friday the 13th parts 2 and 3, House), won't displace John Carpenter's original but it might help you forget the films in between. Miner certainly has: the film begins as if sequels 3 through 6 never happened. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis, reprising her role for the first time in almost two decades) faked her death and is now a single mom and headmistress of an exclusive California private school. She's also a secret alcoholic who lives in fear of her homicidal brother-bogeyman Michael Myers. Guess who decides to show up for a family reunion? The film begins with classic horror-movie exposition (the deserted college campus, Michael's escape, Laurie's waking nightmares) accomplished with some humour and style, but it's all set up for the second half, a driving roller coaster of stalk-and-slash thrills. There's little of the self-conscious genre referencing of Scream and at times the film is a little far-fetched--it is a slasher movie about a knife-wielding homicidal maniac who won't stay dead, after all--but Curtis transforms Laurie from a shrieking victim into an empowered, determined horror-movie heroine who's learned a thing or two from the previous films. Adam Arkin, Josh Hartnett, and TV cutie Michelle Williams (Dawson's Creek) co-star, and the script received uncredited polish from Scream writer Kevin Williamson; Curtis's mom, Janet Leigh, pops up in a cameo. --Sean Axmaker

• Lego Star Wars: The Yoda Chronicles | DVD | (30/09/2013) from £3.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (75.19%)   |  RRP £6.99

  In Episode I - The Phantom Clone the action-packed adventure begins when Darth Sidious unveils his plan to create a new super-weapon - an enhanced Sith clone named Jek-14 - to help him defeat the Republic once and for all. It's up to Jedi Master Yoda and his young Padawan students to work together and save the galaxy! In Episode II - Menace of the Sith Count Dooku uses his new and improved Clone-a-Matic to create an army of Jek clones but the original Jek-14 wants no part of the sinister scheme. Now with the help of some old friends and two familiar Droids substitute teacher Anakin Skywalker must lead Yoda's Padawan class to victory!

• Stuart Little | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £3.74   |  Saving you £16.25 (434.49%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The smallest member of The Little family returns in this blockbusting sequel. Alongside fellow family pet Snowbell the cat he sets of on a journey through the streets of New York in search of a missing friend.

• The People Under The Stairs | Blu Ray | (04/11/2013) from £20.21   |  Saving you £-0.22 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In every neighbourhood there is one house that adults whisper about and children cross the street to avoid...Wes Craven the master of terror who brought you the infamous The Last House on the Left invites you inside another house of horror! 'Fool' may be a streetwise kid but he makes a decidedly bad decision when he agrees to assist a family friend in the robbery of their landlord's imposing homestead. What begins as a routine break-in soon begins to take a sinister turn as the would-be robbers find themselves trapped inside and face-to-face with the terrible secrets which lurk within the building's walls - and under the stairs... The People Under The Stairs sees director Wes Craven return to one of his trademark themes: the savagery which lurks just underneath the skin of the outwardly conventional family unit. Often overlooked in favour of the director's more A-list hits such as Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street The People Under the Stairs is a superior slice of home-bound horror which can stand proudly alongside Craven's best works. Special Features: High Definition digital transfer of the film by Universal Pictures Original uncompressed Stereo 2.0 audio Optional English SDH subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary with star Brandon Quentin Adams moderated by Calum Waddell Fear Freud and Class Warfare: Director Wes Craven Discusses the Timely Terrors of The People Under the Stairs Behind Closed Doors: Leading Lady A.J. Langer Remembers The People Under the Stairs Silent But Deadly: Co-Star Sean Whalen on The People Under the Stairs Underneath the Floorboards: Jeffrey Reddick creator of The Final Destination series recalls the lasting impact of The People Under the Stairs. Original Trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Stephen R. Bissette Collectors booklet featuring new writing on the film illustrated with original archive stills

• Oz - Season 2 | DVD | (06/08/2007) from £11.98   |  Saving you £20.00 (200.20%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Oz chronicles life inside an experimental cell block in the Oswald Maximum Security Correctional Facility: Level Four called Emerald City. Under unit manager Tim McManus and Warden Leo Glynn the inmates in Em City all struggle to fulfill their own needs. Some fight for power; either power over the drug trade or power over the other inmate factions. Others want money others Corrections officers and inmates alike simply want to survive long enough to make parole or even to se

• Let Him Have It | DVD | (29/07/2002) from £8.14   |  Saving you £-2.15 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A policeman is shot dead and two South London boys stand accused of his murder. The verdict and the sentence passed the crime. Both the verdict and the sentence were subsequently quashed. This is the case that shocked the nation.

• Chocky | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  First transmitted in 1984, Chocky is a six-part TV adaptation of John Wyndham's clever novel. Matthew, an apparently normal 12-year-old boy, starts talking to an invisible presence called Chocky, who quizzes him on a wide variety of subjects as if unfamiliar with life on Earth. Over the course of the serial it is suggested that Chocky is an alternate personality or, after Matthew has been helped by Chocky to rescue his sister from drowning, a guardian angel. But we realise early on that this non-imaginary friend is in fact an alien who has made exploratory contact with the boy. Though Chocky manifests as a swirl of blue light, this is a rare piece of TV science fiction that sticks to the domestic arena, exploring ideas rather than playing with special effects. Wyndham's very 1950s-styled novel is updated by making the kids less well-spoken, and throwing in Rubik's cubes and space invaders video games, but adaptor Anthony Read's script preserves the virtues of the novel. Young Andrew Ellams is fine in a demanding role, and there's good-quality puzzled concern from dad James Hazeldine and 80s TV's resident sexy mum Carol Drinkwater. Apart from a few eye-abusing 1984 fashions--Jeremy Bulloch's huge glasses and blinding white jeans in a cameo as a psychiatrist--and the general leisurely pace, which is no bad thing in such a careful piece of drama, this has dated little. Those who remember its first broadcast will find it lives up to the memory, and those who weren't born then should still find it an entertaining watch. On the DVD: Chocky on disc can be accessed as a marathon two-and-a-half-hour watch or as six individual episodes (the latter is recommended). Print quality is fine given the techniques of its production. A nice extra is a 20-minute, in-depth chat with writer Anthony Read. --Kim Newman

• Stargate SG-1: Season 2 | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The success of the first year meant that Stargate SG-1's second series could afford to spread its wings. In only the second episode, Carter is temporarily possessed by a good Goa'uld. This immediately allowed for both any amount of quick fix inside knowledge as well as story off-shoots, now that the show was bent on franchise longevity. There appeared to be information overload (splinter group Tok'ra, Earth's second Gate, Machello, endless Apophis encounters), as the finely interwoven threads of alien histories and inter-relationships were developed. But thankfully, SG-1 never lost sight of the need for great individual stories. There was a planet of Native American Indians; a planet on the edge of a Black Hole; a planet of aliens sensitive to sound. Even a planet run by Dwight Schultz! Better still, they found time to have fun with their universe, too. "1969" remains one of the best comic romps the series has enjoyed, and is a near-perfect self-contained time-travel story to boot. The team of actors had obviously bonded early on in the first year. It may be a bit of a military faux pas that there is only ever four of them leading every major explorative expedition, but the limited number of principals is actually something else the show has always had in its favour, allowing quality screen time to be spent on each of them from the outset (although Richard Dean Anderson would probably rather not have spent an entire episode impaled by a spike). --Paul Tonks

• Red Heat (1988) | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £4.16   |  Saving you £15.09 (520.34%)   |  RRP £17.99

  After scoring a hit with the Eddie Murphy-Nick Nolte cop thriller 48 Hours, director Walter Hill returned to the buddy formula with this half-ridiculous, half-invigorating action flick about humourless Russian cop Ivan Danko (Arnold Schwarzenegger). He follows a drug dealer from Moscow to Chicago, where he's matched up with city cop Art Ridzik (James Belushi), whose work ethic is considerably more relaxed. Most of the humour revolves around Danko's grumpy reaction to good ol' American capitalism, while Ridzik urges him to chill out. Red Heat is not bad as action comedies go, but only if you get into the absurd spirit of this predictable fare, in which the unlikely buddies get to wisecrack and act casually while mayhem erupts everywhere they go. Incidentally, Red Heat was the first American film allowed to shoot in Moscow's Red Square. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Van Helsing (2004) Single Disc Edition | DVD | (11/10/2004) from £5.08   |  Saving you £14.91 (293.50%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Like a roller coaster ready to fly off its rails, Van Helsing rockets to maximum velocity and never slows down. Having earned blockbuster clout with The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, writer-director Stephen Sommers once again plunders Universal's monster vault and pulls out all the stops for this mammoth $148-million action-adventure-horror-comedy, which opens (sans credits) with a terrific black-and-white prologue that pays homage to the Universal horror classics that inspired it. The plot pits legendary vampire hunter Van Helsing (Hugh Jackman) against Dracula (the deliciously campy Richard Roxburgh), his deadly blood-sucking brides, and the Wolfman (Will Kemp) in a two-hour parade of outstanding special effects (980 in all) that turn Sommers' juvenile plot into a triple-overtime bonus for CGI animators. In alliance with a Transylvanian princess (Kate Beckinsale) and the Frankenstein monster (Shuler Hensley), Van Helsing must prevent Dracula from hatching his bat-winged progeny, and there's so much good-humored action that you're guaranteed to be thrilled and exhausted by the time the 10-minute end-credits roll. It's loud, obnoxious, filled with revisionist horror folklore, and aimed at addicted gamers and eight-year-olds, but this colossal monster mash (including Mr. Hyde, just for kicks) will never, ever bore you. A sequel is virtually guaranteed. --Jeff Shannon

• K2 | DVD | (05/01/2004) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  K2 is a thrilling action adventure about two men Taylor Brooks (Michael Biehn) and Harold Jamieson (Matt Craven) attempting to conquer the most feared mountain in the world. Their quest takes them from America to the sheer peaks of Alaska where they encounter and join a group preparing for the mammoth expedition. Then on to the mighty Karakoram mountain range in Northern Pakistan where K2 ""The Savage Mountain"" awaits. One by one the mountaineers are faced with setbacks and disast

• I Know What You Did Last Summer | Blu Ray | (27/09/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Stomp The Yard | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £5.97   |  Saving you £11.28 (239.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two campus fraternities battle to win the services of a troubled 19-year-old street dancer.

• Criminal Minds - Season 7 | DVD | (26/11/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £30.99

  Evil is a State of Mind. The FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit (BAU) is trained to blow your mind. Season 7 of Criminal Minds explodes on to DVD with 23 thrilling episodes. The season begins with the team reeling from the presumed death of Emily Prentiss (Paget Brewster), and answering to a Senate Committee about their subsequent actions. Profiling expert David Rossi (Joe Mantegna) is faced with a personal crisis involving his ex-wife, while team leader Aaron Hotchner (Thomas Gibson) oversees his crew on a series of increasingly twisted, complex cases. But with a powerhouse team that includes Dr. Spencer Reid (Matthew Gray Gubler), Special Agent Derek Morgan (Shemar Moore), Special Agent Jennifer JJ Jareau (A.J. Cook) and technical analyst Penelope Garcia (Krisen Vangsness), no killer ever makes a clean getaway. Special Features: From Childhood's Hour - Minds' Eye: The Fall There's No Place Like Home - Mind's Eye: Twisted The Bittersweet Science - Mind's Eye: Bloodlust Heathridge Manor - Mind's Eye: Devil Inside Hit Run - Mind's Eye: Too Big to Fail Gag Reel Deleted Scenes

• Millennium - Season 1 | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Millennium marked the second major television series created by Chris Carter, who'd already made his name as the brains behind The X-Files. And, like its predecessor, it shares a lot of the same themes--it's a crime thriller that gradually unfolds into a grand conspiracy involving the government and the fate of the entire world. Agent Frank Black (Lance Henriksen) is a former FBI agent who has transplanted his family from Washington DC to Seattle, after suffering something of a breakdown. He's an expert criminal profiler--arguably the best, thanks to his ability to "see" into the minds of killers--and he fears for the safety of his wife and young daughter. In Seattle, he joins the mysterious Millennium Group, an agency of freelance crime-busters who investigate particularly brutal crimes. As a result, Millennium is downright bleak viewing, as Black jumps from horrific slaying to horrific slaying. Moreover, there's a growing sense of unease about the workings of the Millennium Group, so that in typical Chris Carter fashion, you don't know who to trust. With its pre-Y2K angst and overwhelming darkness, as well as its general humourlessness, Millennium hasn't dated as well as The X-Files. Still, thanks to Carter's vision and Henriksen's compelling take on the tortured Black, it's difficult not to get hooked. --Ted Kord

• Rapid Fire | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-14.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Rapid Fire was the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings--the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry--could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Fire looks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. --Chris Campion

• Bones - Series 4 - Complete | DVD | (26/10/2009) from £8.65   |  Saving you £31.34 (362.31%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Everybody Has Secrets... From executive producers Hart Hanson Barry Josephson and Stephen Nathan comes the fourth exciting season of Bones a darkly amusing procedural with humor heart and character inspired by real-life forensic anthropologist and novelist Kathy Reichs.

• Paw Patrol Ready Race Rescue | DVD | (25/05/2020) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  IT'S THE ADVENTURE BAY 500 and legendary race car driver, The Whoosh, can't compete! The pups speed into action to help Marshall take the wheel against cheating rival, The Cheetah, for the championship trophy in this ALL-NEW PAW PATROL MOVIE!

• La La Land | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £7.58   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The UV copy is only available in the UK and Ireland. Written and directed by Academy Award® nominee Damien Chazelle, LA LA LAND tells the story of Mia [Emma Stone], an aspiring actress, and Sebastian [Ryan Gosling], a dedicated jazz musician, who are struggling to make ends meet in a city known for crushing hopes and breaking hearts. Set in modern day Los Angeles, this original musical about everyday life explores the joy and pain of pursuing your dreams.