"Actor: James Mar"

• Seance On A Wet Afternoon | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £18.99   |  Saving you £-6.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  An intensely claustrophobic nail-biter to rival prime Hitchcock, 1964's Séance on a Wet Afternoon is a classic British thriller written and directed by Bryan Forbes. Set largely in an imposing Gothic house in north London, the film stars Richard Attenborough as Bill Savage, a man struggling to maintain his marriage to his increasingly unbalanced wife, Myra, played in an Oscar-nominated performance by the little-known but brilliant Broadway actress Kim Stanley. Myra, who believes she is a medium, plans a scheme that will make her famous, involving kidnapping then "psychically" locating a little girl. Attenborough (who won a BAFTA) and Stanley are both superb in what is part riveting battle of wills, part nerve-wracking kidnap thriller with, just possibly, a touch of the supernatural. Gerry Turpin's precise b/w cinematography and John Barry's chilling score add significantly to the atmosphere of dread, and if the plot has one or two gaping holes, Forbes's direction covers them deftly. Forbes explored female delusion again in The Whispers (1967) and The Mad Woman of Chaillot (1969); the film also marked a major entry in his long-term collaboration with John Barry and with his wife, the actress Nanette Newman. Séance clearly had an influence on Attenborough's own directorial contribution to the genre, the highly unsettling Anthony Hopkins vehicle, Magic (1978). On the DVD: Séance on a Wet Afternoon is presented in an excellent 16:9 transfer, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen televisions, that effectively captures the brooding look of Gerry Tupin's BAFTA-nominated cinematography. Unfortunately the print used, though generally very good, does show some damage, including some instances that appear to run through the best part of a reel. Though noticeable and sometimes distracting, they barely mar this gripping film. The mono soundtrack is fine, though there is the very occasional touch of distortion. The disc comes with optional English subtitles, the excellent original trailer and a new and first-rate 33-minute interview with Bryan Forbes in which he engagingly explains every aspect of the making of the film. --Gary S Dalkin

• The Warriors - Paramount Originals (includes Limited Edition reproduction film poster) | DVD | (23/07/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  A battle of gigantic proportions is looming in the neon underground of New York City. The armies of the night number 100 000; they outnumber the police 5 to 1; and tonight they're after the Warriors - a street gang unfairly blamed for a rival gang leader's death. This contemporary action-adventure story takes place at night underground in the sub-culture of gang warfare that rages from Coney Island to Manhattan to the Bronx. Members of the Warriors fight for their lives seek to su

• The Sopranos: Series 1 (Vol. 2) | DVD | (16/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: This ambitious TV series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there is the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood.The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his mid-level capo's machismo, yet instantly recognisable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatisation of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchman and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed.The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional", perceptive and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what is not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com

• The Iron Horse | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Iron Horse was John Ford's 50th film and remains his most celebrated of the silent era. Its theme of enterprise and achievement its open-air locations and setting in a vigorous and pioneering past proved just the subject to stimulate the young director's talent. The sheer scale of the film surpassed all other Westerns of the silent era and established Ford as one of the leading directors in the industry. The film combines a conventional tale of double-dealing vengeance and romance with a poetic sense of history and an epic theme - uniting a nation by building a transcontinental railroad and a great man's dream realised by the courage skill and labour of ordinary folk. This restored version features a new score composed and conducted by John Lanchbery performed by the City of Prague Philharmonic.

• Laurel And Hardy - Classic Comedy Shorts - Vol. 2 | DVD | (15/11/1999) from £3.49   |  Saving you £20.50 (587.39%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Lucky Dog: In Stan and Ollie's first appearance together Ollie plays a bumbling robber who Stan literally backs into after being kicked out of his furnished apartment by his landlady. Oranges and Lemons: ""The packing house some lemons on trees others on the payroll"" Stan plays a picker and packer at a Lemon and Orange Orchard where he disrupts the workforce until the whistle blows for the end of the shift. Yes Yes Nanette: A daughter returns to the family home with her new

• Riches | DVD | (11/01/2010) from £18.91   |  Saving you £11.08 (58.59%)   |  RRP £29.99

  RICHES explores the issues of wealth; whether earnt, inherited, or the result of luck, it continues to make the world go round. Self-made, multi-millionaire Gill Fielding examines the work and commitment that goes into becoming rich. Using his own story as an example, Gil offers advice to those seeking their fortune.

• Blood On The Sun | DVD | (01/12/2003) from £12.09   |  Saving you £4.90 (40.53%)   |  RRP £16.99

  While much of the world watched the early success of 'Mein Kampf' and the bombing of Pearl Harbour was ten years in the future few were aware of the existence of an oriental 'Hitler' ... Baron Giichi Tankara. But the war had already started in Japan for James Condon American journalist and editor of the Japanese Chronicle whose intuition has led him to believe that major trouble was brewing. The role of Condon man of hard words and harder fists is just the kind of tough guy t

• Reeseville | DVD | (14/02/2005) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-6.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A character driven murder mystery set in the rural mid-west. David Meyers returns to the small town in an attempt to silence the demons of his past. Shortly after his arrival David's father is found dead of an apparent suicide. Or is it? Buried secrets of the town begin to unfold as the corner begins to suspect the suicide was staged. The Sheriff must work quickly to solve the crime and stem the tide of a rapidly growing obsession between David and Jason's sister. The outwardly peac

• The Trail Beyond | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £3.98   |  Saving you £13.01 (326.88%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Two rough adventurers journey to the Northwest in search of gold. Their plans are temporarily sidetracked when they happen to stumble upon a kidnapped girl.

• Cats And Dogs / Scooby Doo / Iron Giant | DVD | (08/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Cats & DogsThey're cunning. They're stealthy. They're waging a top-secret ultra-high-tech struggle for global domination right under our noses. they're .... Cats & Dogs! Witness this epic 'tail' of what happens when an eccentric professor (Jeff Goldblum) makes a discovery that could tip the age-old balance of pet power. Now an inexperienced young beagle pup named Lou is about to begin the ultimate mission im-paws-ible: to save humanity from a total cat-tastrophe!The Iron GiantSomething huge is on the horizon. Hogarth Hughes just rescued an enormous robot that fell from the stars to Earth. Now young Hogarth has one very big friend and an even bigger problem: How do you keep a 50 -foot-tall steel -eating (junkyard cars are especially tasty) giant a secret? It's even harder when a nosy government agent arrives in town to hunt down the alien invader and the combined land sea and air might of the U.S military is sent to demolish the giant. The result: an incredible adventure that's part metal part magic all heart.Scooby DooZoinks! Two years after a clash of egos forced Mystery Inc. to close its doors Scooby Doo and his clever crime solving cohorts Fred Daphne Shaggy and Velma are individually summoned to Spooky island to investigate a series of paranormal incidents at the ultra-hip Spring Break hot spot. Concerned that his way cool theme park might truly be haunted Spooky Island owner Emile Mondavarious tries to reunite these notorious meddling detectives to solve the mystery before his supernatural secret scares away the college crowds. Scooby and the gang will have to overcome their personal differences and forget everything they think they know about fake ghouls and phoney creatures to crack the case save themselves and possibly ... the world. Ruh-Roh!

• Wedlock | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Frank Warren an electronics expert is imprisoned in an experimental 'high-tech' prison for being convicted of a diamond robbery. Here inmates are secretly connected by collars which explode if separated by more than 100 yards.

• The Most Fertile Man In Ireland | DVD | (21/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Whilst the rest of the male population of Belfast are firing nothing but blanks Eamonn is blessed with 'tadpoles on speed that could impregnate a stone'. Realising that there is cash to be made out of his fellow man's infertility this 24 year old virgin transforms himself overnight into Belfast's very own one man sperm bank. Business is booming until Eamonn is sucked into the 'troubles' and finds his crown jewels dangling in the fires of political distrust and religious intolerance!

• Space Precinct - Vol. 3 And 4 | DVD | (05/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Snake: An alien extortionist and explosives expert known only as The Snake threatens the executives of Brett Interplanetary. Precinct 88 becomes a task force to track him down and Jane reunites with her old ECPF colleague Bill Gray. The Snake reveals his next target - The Princess an Omega Class tanker en route to Altor with two hundred million gallons of liquefied hydrogen! Body and Soul: Caught in the radiation field of Merlin's Asteroid a prototype spaceship created by recluse industrialist Alden Holmes returns to Altor after being lost in space for twenty years. Brogan finds a body on board opening an investigation into a homicide that took place two decades ago. As he tracks down the killer Brogan is haunted by the ghost in the machine..... Time To Kill: A routine sweep on a counterfeiting operation goes horribly wrong for the officers of Precinct 88 when they are suddenly attacked by a violent Cyborg and Took is caught in the crossfire. The Cyborg has Brogan marked for death and one by one Brogan's colleagues fall victim to the creature... Deadline: Brogan and Haldane discover a capsule containing the body of a Tarn male. The autopsy reveals that the Tarn is missing vital organs removed with surgical precision... and Brogan and Haldane find themselves on the trail of organ leggers from Danae - vicious killers who murder for profit and target Brogan as their next donor.

• Kevin And Perry Go Large / South Park The Movie / Ace Ventura - Pet Detective | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Kevin & Perry Go Large: Kevin and Perry the two gormless teenagers from the Harry Enfield Show go feature-length. This film tells the complete story of Kevin and Perry's adventure in Ibiza. It's the summer holidays and Kevin and Perry know that there is only one place where the DJ reigns supreme and girls will shag anyone - Ibiza. The boys are ready to set out armed with top gear and a suitcase full of condoms. The only problem is Mr. and Mrs. Patterson are coming too. On arrival the boys spy the girls of their dreams - Candice and Gemma - superstar DJ Eye Ball Paul. It looks like Kevin and Perry may have the best summer ever. South Park - Bigger Longer Uncut: If you're male or female or of any particular ethnic sexual religious or national persuasion you may be offended by this movie. Or perhaps this movie may make you laugh more than any other recent comedy. Fame. Authority. Show tunes. The military. Race. Sex. Religion. The way to a woman's heart. The creators of TV's South Park skewer all in a feature-length story that plunges an outraged U.S. into war with Canada after South Park schoolkids sneak into a restricted Canadian-made film and emerge their fragile little minds warped spouting expletives that would make a sex-shop proprietor blush. What? Your mind is already warped? Well friend looks like this movie is perfect for you. Stan Kyle Kenny and Cartman sneak into an R-Rated movie and it warps their fragile little minds. Soon their indignant parents declare war on Canada and our young heroes are America's last hope to stop armageddon. Ace Ventura Pet Detective: He's the best there is. In fact he's the only one there is! He's Ace Ventura Pet Detective. Jim Carrey is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark stakes out the Miami Dolphins and woos and wows the ladies. Whether he's undercover under fire or underwater he's always gets his man..or beast!

• Entertaining The Troops | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £16.99

  A wonderful insight into the activities of American Entertainers during World War II

• Wagner: Die Walkure -- Metropolitan/Levine | DVD | (12/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  The 1990 Metropolitan Opera performance of Die Walkure ("The Valkyrie") with James Levine conducting is a solid, four-square performance with few frills and no gimmicks, just extraordinarily fine singing and orchestral playing. There is no point in this where you find yourself asking why the director did something: this is the sort of production which could be criticised as unimaginative but defended as serving Wagner's intentions for this instalment of his Ring cycle. Levine and his orchestra give the music an emotional intensity that never overwhelms its grandeur, though perhaps in Wotan's farewell to Brunnhilde, we feel him more as father than as god. James Morris as Wotan has real stature, making us feel that he has finally created the free agents he needs to avoid the curse he has unleashed on the world, but he has broken his heart in the process. Jessye Norman is surprisingly good and erotically self-assured as Sieglinde; the Act 1 love duet with Gary Lake as Siegmund has an ardour that makes the incestuous aspect less a matter of perversity than of the conduct of heroes. Kurt Moll makes Sieglinde's rapist and husband Hunding, a three-dimensional sinister villain; and Christa Ludwig almost manages to sell us Fricka's interminable paean to family values. The most impressive performance here, though, is Hildegard Behrens as Brunnhilde, the steely godling who sacrifices everything because she learns to feel and to know what is right. On the DVD Die Walkure on disc comes with menus and subtitles in German, French, English, Spanish and Chinese and with a picture gallery of the production. Awkwardly it is presented in (American) NTSC format not PAL, with a visual aspect of standard TV 4:3. More impressive is the choice of PCM stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS 6.1; the sound is admirably clear and well-balanced. --Roz Kaveney

• Master Of Disguise | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Dana Carvey stars as Pistachio Disguisey, a sweet natured Italian waiter who discovers he has inherited the ability to be a Master of Disguise from his family when his parents are kidnapped.

• Gasaraki (Vol.5): Revelations | DVD | (11/02/2003) from £6.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (185.98%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The tangled web of secrets finally begins to unravel as Yushiro and Miharu follow the path of the Kai to an uncertain destiny. Pursued by the Gowas they seek a key to the mystery in their shattered pasts but will they find it in time to stop the fires of war? Kugutsu faces Kugutsu in deadly combat as monstrous Kugai crush their enemies underfoot and armed rebellion sweeps the nation!

• The Sopranos: Series 2 (Vols. 4-6) | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £33.99

  The second series of The Sopranos, David Chase's ultra-cool and ultra-modern take on New Jersey gangster life, matches the brilliance of the first, although it's marginally less violent, with more emphasis given to the stories and obsessions of supporting characters. Sadly, the programme makers were forced to throttle back on the appalling struggle between gang boss Tony Soprano and his Gorgon-like Mother Livia, the very stuff of Greek theatre, following actress Nancy Marchand's unsuccessful battle against cancer. Taking up her slack, however, is Tony's big sister Janice, a New Age victim and arrant schemer and sponger, who takes up with the twitchy, Scarface-wannabe Richie Aprile, brother of former boss Jackie, out of prison and a minor pain in Tony's ass. Other running sub-plots include soldier Chris (Michael Imperioli) hapless efforts to sell his real-life Mafia story to Hollywood, the return and treachery of Big Pussy and Tony's wife Carmela's ruthlessness in placing daughter Meadow in the right college. Even with the action so dispersed, however, James Gandofini is still toweringly dominant as Tony. The genius of his performance, and of the programme makers, is that, despite Tony being a whoring, unscrupulous, sexist boor, a crime boss and a murderer, we somehow end up feeling and rooting for him, because he's also a family man with a bratty brood to feed, who's getting his balls busted on all sides, to say nothing of keeping the Government off his back. He's the kind of crime boss we'd like to feel we would be. Tony's decent Italian-American therapist Dr Melfi's (Loraine Bracco) perverse attraction with her gangster-patient reflects our own and, in her case, causes her to lose her first series cool and turn to drink this time around. Effortlessly multi-dimensional, funny and frightening, devoid of the sentimentality that afflicts even great American TV like The West Wing, The Sopranos is boss of bosses in its televisual era. --David Stubbs

• Lorenzo's Oil | DVD | (24/12/2001) from £27.86   |  Saving you £-14.87 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99