"Actor: James Ma"

• Inspector Morse - Disc 13 And 14 - The Sins Of The Fathers / Driven To Distraction | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £5.34   |  Saving you £9.65 (180.71%)   |  RRP £14.99

  When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and story lines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep-down sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whateley's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter stating he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford

• The Hitchcock Collection | DVD | (20/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  This seven-disc box set includes the following titles: The Trouble with Harry: the 1955 black comedy concerning a pesky corpse that becomes a problem for a quiet, Vermont neighbourhood. The Man Who Knew Too Much: the 1956 remake of Hitchcock's own 1934 spy thriller. James Stewart and Doris Day play American tourists who discover more than they wanted to know about an assassination plot. Rear Window: the 1954 film in which the story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's (Jimmy Stewart) imprisonment in his apartment. Stewart's convalescence in a wheelchair provides the revolutionary perspective from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbours. Rope: the 1948 experimental film masquerading as a Hollywood thriller, the plot is simple and based on a successful stage play: two young men commit murder as an intellectual exercise. Shadow of a Doubt: the 1943 thriller which sets a tone of menace and fear by introducing a psychotic killer into the quite suburban town of Santa Rosa, California. Hitchcock claimed it to be his personal favourite. Saboteur: the 1942 film, set during the initial stages of World War II, concerning a ring of Nazi fifth columnists who plot to weaken American military defences and cause a falsely accused man being forced on the run. Bonus disc: Psycho: the 1960 film which contains one of the most famous scenes in movie history. Anthony Perkins is unforgettable as Norman Bates (a role he could never seem to leave behind) the mama's-boy proprietor of the Bates Motel. On the DVD: with the wealth of writing and documentation surrounding the great master and his work, it would be a great loss to find this collection lacking in special features. Thankfully this box set does not disappoint. The special features are not only laid out clearly but they offer an outstanding range of information that will please any Hitchcock fan. Each disc varies in content but many include original storyboards and sketches from art directors and even, on one occasion, Hitchcock himself. They contain beautifully edited interviews or "Making Of" features, plus there's a trailer compilation with a voice-over from the great Jimmy Stewart. All discs come with a scene selection and choice of languages and subtitles. The DVD picture and sound is almost perfect, making each classic feel like new. The box set offers a small booklet with details of each film along with original poster. The Psycho bonus disc, includes cast biographies and a theatrical trailer and the lavish package design makes it a great coffee-table accessory --Nikki Disney

• Keys To Tulsa | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £5.93   |  Saving you £0.06 (1.01%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Keys To Tulsa is a murderously irreverent tale of sex intrigue and humour in the deep dark South. Eric Stoltz heads an all-star cast as Richter Boudreau the black sheep son of a black sheep manoeuvring through a wonderfully bizzare coterie of characters as he finds himself pushed back into the world of wealth and provilege that spawned him. As he becomes the inadvertent pawn in a dangerous scheme of blackmail Richter must at last face the hypocritical values and petty jealousies of smalltown America. What emerges is a dramatic and potentially deadly journey through his past present and future.

• Cabin Fever | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (57.20%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Off-beat horror about a group of college friends who go on holiday in the forest and catch a flesh-eating virus.

• Sons And Lovers | DVD | (14/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This television adaptation of D H Lawrence's 'Sons and Lovers' stars Sarah Lancashire as Gertrude Morel who is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Walter (Hugo Speer) a heavy-drinking brutish uneducated miner. As Gertrude becomes estranged from Walter she channels her love and life expectations into her sons- particularly Paul (Rupert Evans). As Paul matures tension develops in his relationship with Gertrude and his love for two other women causes a fatal battle of strangulating po

• Bloody Sunday | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £28.95   |  Saving you £-18.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  If it was a piece of fiction, they'd say that it could never happen. Bloody Sunday is a dramatisation of one of the most shameful episodes in recent British history. Released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Derry civil rights march and also the re-opening of enquiries into what really happened, the film is one of the most incisive, explosive works ever to emerge from British cinema. The premise is simple--to follow what took place in the city on 30th January 1972, when an anti-internment march descended into violence and left 13 unarmed civilians dead at the hands of the British army. Abandoning traditional filmmaking methods in favour of a more documentary style, Bloody Sunday is frighteningly realistic, especially when detailing the chaos into which the peaceful demonstration descended. Those who are only familiar with James Nesbitt through his lighter work (Cold Feet for example) may find this something of a shock, but he excels in the role of local politician Ivan Cooper. Admittedly there is a danger in presenting historical facts in a dramatic manner, no matter how painstaking the research, even though much of the dialogue here is taken straight from testimony and actual military transcripts. But if any question of bias arises, it’s worth remembering that this film was written and directed by an Englishman, stars a Derry protestant as well as a young man whose uncle was killed during the march, and was produced as an Anglo-Irish project. The result is an unforgettable and unflinching piece of cinema not to be missed. On the DVD: Bloody Sunday absolutely has to be seen on DVD. The slew of extra features not only complement the film, but place it in the overall context of the past, present and future of Northern Ireland. The various interviews with cast, director and producers paint a picture of a film that sets out to heal wounds and build bridges on all sides and to break the cinematic mould. Thus the majority of the cast were not actors but ordinary people from the Derry area, with the majority of the British soldiers played by ex-military personnel, some of whom had served in Northern Ireland themselves. As more and more of the story behind this remarkable film is revealed, so its impact becomes more intense and its aims and purpose more successful.--Phil Udell

• Everything Everywhere All At Once UHD Mediabook | Blu Ray | (12/08/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Roughnecks - Starship Troopers Chronicles - Vol. 2 - The Tesca Campaign | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £7.36   |  Saving you £12.63 (171.60%)   |  RRP £19.99

  In Volume 2 of Roughnecks--Starship Troopers Chronicles, Johnny Rico, Lieutenant Razak and their computer-animated squad embark on the Tesca campaign, once again fighting the bugs in all their myriad forms, shooting anything that moves and generally causing chaos and mayhem. Inspired by Robert Heinlein's sci-fi classic and executive-produced by Paul Verhoeven, who made the big-screen version, Roughnecks is cutting-edge TV animation that's more for grown-ups than kids. The neat equipment, combat suits and weapons are as deadly as they are cool, and even though the extreme gore and violence of the movie has been toned down the endless threat from all manner of nasty bugs is still pretty terrifying (the Giant Spider Bug, for example, really is the stuff of nightmares). As with Volume 1, the five 20-minute episodes are here spliced together into a movie-length feature, which makes for a satisfyingly lengthy story arc instead of the more usual self-contained individual episodes. The show's structure also allows for plenty of character development: this time the squad are joined by an alien "skinny" called T'Phai who, as might be expected, has to work hard to bond with the rest of the team and earn their respect. Like all good war stories, at its heart Roughnecks celebrates that "Band of Brothers"-style bonding in extreme circumstances which we viewers can only experience vicariously. On the DVD: The 4:3 picture is good, although it's better to watch with the lights off to see all the detail in the moody (i.e., "dark") CG animation. The 5.1 sound shows off explosions and gunfire, but also the almost incessant techno soundtrack. There's a good commentary from cast and crew members, who talk about their various movie inspirations (from the D-Day landing sequence of Saving Private Ryan to, of course, Aliens) and their desire to parallel real war situations. There's also a photo gallery of the human actors and a trailer. This is a stylish show, and a good DVD.--Mark Walker

• Top Gear Special 3 | Blu Ray | (19/11/2012) from £37.78   |  Saving you £-12.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Everyone has an opinion on bad cars... Now it's time to hear the ones that really count - ours... As it's the Worst Car in the World, we're on our travels... to the North of England...to name and shame the most rubbish car from a manufacturer which, frankly, should have known better. But, it's not all about hateful cars...Oh no. You have to revel in some good ones to appreciate the stinkers. There's the Ferrari 458 spider, Toyota's GT86 and the 340,000 Lexus LFA rubbing shoulders with a Mercedes SLS. Our guest driver, the Stig's Yorkshire cousin, puts his whippet to one side and throws an M5 round a gymkhana course before we have a go in a couple of Transatlantic challengers. Things don't go well. We spend treasured leisure time on the golf course continuing our debate. That doesn't go well either. We even put our own cars - past and present - into the reckoning. That ends badly too. We argue over the great and the awful from Peugeot, Ford, Mahindra, FSO, Alfa Romeo, Rolls Royce, Porsche, Citroen, Peugeot, Saab....and many more. And we have a special, surprise fate in store for the car we pick as our biggest loser... Enjoy... Jeremy Clarkson, James May

• The Loft | Blu Ray | (15/06/2015) from £13.79   |  Saving you £6.20 (44.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Taking its cues from director Erik Van Looy's own Belgian thriller of the same name, 'The Loft' sees five married friends embark on a decision to rent their very own loft apartment for exclusive use as a home for their extra-marital affairs.

• The Last of Sheila (blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (09/11/2021) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Fatal Instinct | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Fatal Instinct is a hilarious no-holds-barred send-up of such stylish thrillers as Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction. Ned Ravine (Armande Assante) is a cop and a lawyer. His wife wants to kill him his secretary wants to sleep with him and there's a mysterious client who wants to sleep with him and kill him. That's Monday. Who knows what Tuesday will bring?

• Sapphire And Steel - Assignments 4-6 | DVD | (07/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £40.99

  Starring Joanna Lumley and David McCallum Sapphire And Steel was one of the most enigmatic and acclaimed of all ITC-produced adventures. It continues to baffle and delight viewers twenty years later. Sapphire (Lumley) and Steel (McCallum) are the mysterious agents charged with protecting the Universe from the malevolent forces of Time with their uncanny powers. Assignment IV an evil amorphous entity uses photographs to move between time dimensions. It takes over a junkshop and entraps the inhabitants. A golden anniversary party where the guests are being killed off is the subject of Assignment V. Sapphire and Steel meet another element/detective Silver at an abandoned petrol station in Assignment VI and become embroiled in mystery.

• Angel: Complete Season 3 | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £14.99   |  Saving you £65.00 (433.62%)   |  RRP £79.99

  In the third series of Angel the titular vampire with a soul was forced to stand alone thanks to the (temporary) death of his beloved Buffy and her show's move to a new network, with no crossover between the two allowed. He returns from seeking peace in a demon-haunted monastery to find the LA Angel Investigations team fighting supernatural crime in his absence. Fred is still haunted by the nightmare dimension from which they rescued her; Cordelia's visions get ever more painful and debilitating. The schemes of the evil law firm Wolfram and Hart become every more imaginative and dragon lady Lilah Morgan becomes even more of an enemy when lusting after Angel. Unbelievably, Darla, Angel's vampire sire and lover, turns up, pregnant with his child and is tortured by inexplicable motherly feelings as well as a raging thirst for human blood. For a few episodes things go pretty well--but Angel's enemies, both those he has made in his quest for redemption and those he made when he was unadulterated evil, are still out there. Stephanie Romanov comes into her silky own in this series, making Lilah Morgan all the more seductively evil because she is clear about the choices she has made; the satanic law-firm of Wolfram and Hart are this show's most inspired creation. As the series moves to its close, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) has hard choices to make. The devastating climax is compulsive viewing and this series also contains one of the most impressive single episodes of the entire show: in "Waiting in the Wings" writer, director and creator Joss Whedon comes up with a classic ghost story as Angel and his crew go to the ballet and find a performance that is literally timeless. On the DVD: Angel, Series 3 DVD box set is generously stocked with extra features--a season overview, commentaries on three episodes, a documentary on the way scripts are transferred to screen, and an overview of the story of the doomed vampire Darla. Of especial interest to fans are two deleted scenes--one from the ballet episode "Waiting in the Wings", in which Amy Acker (Fred) and Alexis Denisof (Wesley) dance a pas de deux at once touching and hilarious, and the other a hilarious scene from "Cordy", the cute situation comedy in which Cordelia stars in an alternate universe. --Roz Kaveney

• Nowhere To Land | DVD | (06/12/2004) from £7.97   |  Saving you £-4.98 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A Boeing 747 full of passengers is on its scheduled route from Australia to California but soon events unfold to make this flight far from normal. A sadistic psychopath intent on dreadful revenge has hidden a time bomb armed with deadly nerve gas deep inside the aircraft's cargo hold. Time is running out. Pilot John Prescott (Jack Wagner) commands in the air - on the ground working out the logistics for survival are a crack team of FBI agents assisted by the Australian police force - the tense battle is on to prevent a horrific mid-air catastrophe!

• Where The Day Takes You | DVD | (17/01/2005) from £3.95   |  Saving you £9.04 (228.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  No parents. No rules! A group of teenage runaways - fleeing abusive parents prostitution drugs and educational isolation - try to survive together on the mean streets of Los Angeles... An all-star cast takes you on an unforgettable tour of Hollywood's notorious underground; from the after-hours dance clubs to the hidden drug dens it's a no holds barred look at life in the fast lane.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Season 5 (New Packaging) | DVD | (03/10/2011) from £26.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (3.60%)   |  RRP £27.99

  The fifth season of Joss Whedon's hit series started out in excellent form as slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) did battle with the most famous of vampires (that Dracula guy) and then went on to spar with another nemesis, little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Wait--Buffy has a teenage sister? Where has she been the past four years? And why is everyone acting like she's always been around? Turns out that young Dawn is actually "The Key," a form of pure energy that, true to its name, helps open the gates between different dimensions. To protect said key from falling into the wrong hands, a group of monks gave it human form and sent it to the fiercely protective Buffy for safekeeping, creating new memories of Dawn for everyone as if she'd existed... well, always. Why all the super secrecy? There's this very, very, very bad girl named Glory (Clare Kramer) who wants the key very badly, and will do anything to get it. Oh, and by the way, Glory isn't just a run-of-the-mill demon... she's way worse. Some fans will tell you that Buffy "jumped the shark" with the introduction of Dawn, when in actuality this season was the pinnacle of the show's achievement, as there was superb comedy to be had ("Buffy Vs. Dracula," the double-Xander episode "The Replacement," the introduction of the "Buffybot" in "Intervention") as well as some of television's best drama. The Whedon-scripted and -directed "The Body" remains one of Buffy's best episodes, when the young woman who faces down supernatural death on a daily basis finds herself powerless in the wake of her mother's sudden passing. The first third or so of the season was a bit choppy, but once the evil Glory came into her own, Buffy was a television force to be reckoned with. Kramer was the show's best villain (after the evil Angel, natch), and the supporting cast was never better. But as always, it was the superb Gellar who was the powerful centre of the show, sparking opposite lovelorn vampire Spike (James Marsters) and wrestling with moral dilemmas rarely seen on television. With this season, Buffy Summers became, like Tony Soprano, one of television's true greats. --Mark Englehart

• Buffy The Vampire Slayer - The Complete DVD Collection | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £179.99

  A specially created box set containing all 7 seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer: over 100 hours of vampire ass-kicking action!

• Paul Blart - Mall Cop | Blu Ray | (10/08/2009) from £5.03   |  Saving you £19.96 (396.82%)   |  RRP £24.99

  With a heart that won't quit a stomach that won't stop gurgling and a self-sworn oath to protect his turf he's Paul Blart: Mall Cop. Mild-mannered Paul Blart (Kevin James The King of Queens) has always had huge dreams of becoming a State Trooper. Until then he patrols the local mall as a security guard. With his closely cropped moustache personal transporter and gung-ho attitude only Blart seems to take his job seriously. All that changes when a team of thugs raids the mall and takes hostages. Untrained unarmed and a super-size target Blart has to become a real cop to save the day.

• The Founding of America (6 DVD Box Set) | DVD | (31/05/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Review for Founding Brothers:The political wrangles of a fledgling country may sound dull compared to the drama of a war, but the early history of the United States only gets more fascinating as the Revolutionary War is left behind. Founding Brothers, a documentary from the History Channel, examines the struggle to not only establish democracy, but to give it the economic strength and governmental structure that will allow it to survive and thrive. George Washington grappled not only with politics, but with questions of style and propriety--how should a president, as opposed to a king, behave? Understanding the conflicts between Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson will illuminate ideas that have shaped the government of the U.S. ever since. Founding Brothers provides a wealth of portraits and illustrations from the time, as well as discreet dramatizations, that bring the rise of party politics to life, humanizing these historical figures with tales of the scandals and squabbles they faced as well as their political achievements. An excellent introduction to the roots of the American experiment, and a bracing illustration of what Jefferson meant when he said of the presidency, "No man will bring out of that office the reputation which carried him into it." --Bret Fetzer