"Actor: Jean Shepherd"

• Uncle Buck | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.95   |  Saving you £4.04 (67.90%)   |  RRP £9.99

  John Candy has one of his finest opportunities in this film by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) about a perpetual screw-up (Candy) who gets his act together enough to watch over his brother's kids effectively. The late actor scores big points resurrecting elements of his more decadent persona from SCTV days, but he also has some persuasively touching, sentimental moments. Hughes's direction is not as focused as it was only a few years before, but there's no mistaking his touch. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, biographies, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks. --Tom Keogh

• Uncle Buck | DVD | (22/01/2001) from £10.48   |  Saving you £2.51 (23.95%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Candy has one of his finest opportunities in this film by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) about a perpetual screw-up (Candy) who gets his act together enough to watch over his brother's kids effectively. The late actor scores big points resurrecting elements of his more decadent persona from SCTV days, but he also has some persuasively touching, sentimental moments. Hughes's direction is not as focused as it was only a few years before, but there's no mistaking his touch. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, biographies, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks. --Tom Keogh

• Requiem For A Dream | DVD | (06/08/2001) from £3.96   |  Saving you £16.03 (404.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A harrowing tale of drug addiction and lost dreams, set in 1978 New York.

• Requiem For A Dream Blu-Ray Steelbook | Blu Ray | (28/03/2016) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Fantasy mixes with the harsh reality of addiction and the desire for hope in Requiem for a Dream. Beginning at the dawn of a new summer in Coney Island, the film charts the relationship of Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn) and her son Harry (Jared Leto)--two characters who are lost with in a world of the self-absorbed desire to feed their addictions at the cost of hope and love. With a sublime score (performed by the Kronos Quartet) accompanying some intense visual imagery, the film sets up an almost fairy-tale wash over the characters' lives, with every hit of their chosen drug turning them into beautiful people surrounded by a haze which enhances all their features. However, unlike films such as Trainspotting which turn the dream into a nightmare then end with a huge dose of hope, Requiem for a Dream forces the viewer through all loss of hope and the descending madness of reality, as winter begins. Darren Aronofsky's follow-up to the critically acclaimed Pi is a movie which exposes not only the terror caused by addiction of any kind--be it TV or Heroin--but also offers a powerful insight into the destruction caused by the desire to achieve "the American Dream". Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr, the film sacrifices dialogue in favour of imagery and movement: the editing and cinematography are reminiscent of MTV, however the movie takes this very aggressive style and moulds it to its own needs, adding a beautifully haunting narrative and powerful performances by its four main characters (Burstyn just missing out on an Oscar for Best female lead to Julia Roberts). Ultimately the viewer is left with a sense of desperation and despair: Requiem for a Dream exposes drugs and addiction in the most powerful and truthful way a film has ever managed, leaving no stone unturned. On the DVD: This disc is bursting with excellent special features. The anamorphic widescreen picture makes the most of the film's stylish visuals, and the soundtrack offers choice of either Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0. As well as offering the obligatory theatrical trailer, scene selection and a fantastic director's commentary, there's also a "making-of" featurette, TV trailers charting the reviews and success of the film, an "Anatomy of a scene", and a wide range of deleted scenes. By far the best feature is Hubert Selby Jr's interview with Ellen Burstyn, which offers the writer a chance to put across not just his opinions on his work but also on life as a whole. All these features are placed within an impressively formatted menu. --Nikki Disney

• The Scarlet Tunic | DVD | (27/07/2009) from £6.75   |  Saving you £13.24 (196.15%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on Thomas Hardy's short story and set in fictional Wessex during the Napoleonic Wars. A German cavalry regiment is stationed on the land of a country doctor. His daughter Frances in a loveless engagement is wooed by a handsome young officer Matthaus. Deciding to join his friends in deserting Matthaus persuades Frances to come with him. But that same night her betrothed suddenly arrives at her home. Frances is torn between love and duty.

• The Scarlet Tunic | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £6.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (129.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stuart St. Paul's adaptation of the classic Thomas Hardy short story 'The Melancholy Hussar'. Deserting German Hussar Matthaus Singer (Barr) falls madly in love with solicitor's daughter Frances Groves (Fielding) whereby she is torn by her duty and her desire. Frances' father (Shepard) would prefer her to marry the weasly suitor Humphrey (Sessions). The passion flows but will the heart be stronger than the outside forces set on keeping the lovers apart?

• Christmas Story: 30th Anniversary | Blu Ray | (05/11/2013) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Set in a 1940s-era Midwestern town and told from the viewpoints of a seven-year-old boy, who only wants one thing for Christmas a Red Ryder BB gun the episodic tale chronicles not only his schemes to convince his mother and father to buy him one, but also offers a warmly nostalgic look into 1940s middle-class American life. From the stories of, and narrated by, Jean Shepherd.