"Actor: John M"

• Tenebrae | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £7.94   |  Saving you £9.05 (113.98%)   |  RRP £16.99

  After several excursions into supernatural horror, Dario Argento returned to the homicidal frenzy that made his reputation with this mystery that plays more like a grown-up slasher movie than a detective thriller. Anthony Franciosa stars as Peter Neal, a best-selling horror novelist whose promotional tour in Italy takes a terrible turn when a mysterious killer recreates the brutal murders from his book with real-life victims. The first to die are so-called "deviants", Neal's own friends and finally there comes a promise that the author himself is next on the list. Columbo it ain't, but Argento has always been more concerned with style than story and his execution of the crimes is pure cinematic bravura. From the simple beauty of a straight razor shattering a light bulb (the camera catches the red-hot filament slowly blacking out) to an ambitious crane shot that creeps up and over the sides of a house under siege in a voyeuristic survey that would make Hitchcock proud, Argento turns the art of murder into a stylish spectacle. He even lets his kinkier side show with flashbacks of an adolescent boy and a teasing dominatrix in red stiletto heels that become a key motif of the film. The objects of Argento's homicidal tendencies are traditionally lovely, scantily clad Italian beauties, and with self-deprecating humour he even inserts a scene in which Neal is taken to task for the misogynist violence of his stories--an accusation Argento himself has weathered for years. --Sean Axmaker

• Ice Age 4: Continental Drift - Triple Play (Blu-ray + DVD + Digital Copy) | Blu Ray | (10/12/2012) from £6.99   |  Saving you £18.00 (257.51%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The revisionist version of natural history offered up in the Ice Age movies gets yet another twist in the fourth instalment, 10 years after Manny the woolly mammoth, Diego the sabre-toothed tiger, Sid the sloth, and Scrat the squirrel made their chilly debut to hot box-office receipts. The lessons of family and loyalty in Continental Drift may seem a little warmed over, but the creatively constructed laughs, amusing voice characterisations, and inventive CGI animation are reason enough to keep the series viable for kids to giggle about and grown-ups to belly laugh over--sometimes for exactly the same reasons. Once again, acorn-addicted Scrat is the cause of some pretty important behind-the-scenes machinations. His dialogue-free antics also serve as a stand-alone subplot that could easily be a very clever short film of its own. This time the weasely rodent's addled obsession with the fruit of the oak is revealed as the cause of the formation of the world's continents as we now know them. He sets the story--and planet Earth--in motion while pursuing a little nut in a hyperactive prologue that causes underground rifts that in turn form the famous shapes of Australia, Africa, North America, and the outline of Italy (which it turns out is shaped like a boot for a very good reason). Above ground this means more global chaos for the herd of animals we've come to know so well. All the familiar voices reprise their wonderful roles as fissures in earth and ice separate Manny (Ray Romano) from his woolly wife Ellie (Queen Latifah) and boy-crazy teenager Peaches (Keke Palmer). With a killer continental shelf bearing down on them, mother and daughter lead the madcap pack of animal characters toward a safe meeting place while Manny, Diego (Denis Leary), Sid (John Leguizamo), and Sid's crazy granny (Wanda Sykes) drift away on an iceberg schooner into a newly vast open ocean. While floating into oblivion, the mismatched pack encounters a band of animal pirates piloting another slab of ship-shaped ice, captained by a crazed baboon named Gutt (Peter Dinklage), who's bent on resentment-based revenge. The motley crew provides a plethora of comic encounters and a new raft of excellent voice actors. Running a close second to Dinklage in ingenious casting is Jennifer Lopez as Shira, a sultry tiger who, don't cha know, ends up on the good ship and falling for Diego in the end. The adventures of both the land- and sea-based creatures are full of clever gags and densely constructed set pieces that may not be quite up to Pixar story standards, but are certainly always on the ball and executed with computer-animation acumen that is astonishingly lifelike for such an unreal-looking world. Scrat's misadventures act as interstitial connectors to the parallel heroes' journey stories until they ultimately intersect in a massively scaled finale. Even after all the melting and refreezing, the Ice Age world is still a hot commodity in the animated-franchise business and remains a good investment despite the constancy of global rifts in entertaining family fare. --Ted Fry

• The Who - Live At The Isle Of Wight Festival 1970 | DVD | (26/06/2000) from £10.00   |  Saving you £4.99 (49.90%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In 1970 600 000 people came to the Isle of Wight to attend a music festival. 2 A.M. August 30th The Who appeared and gave one of the most memorable performances of their career. Tracks Included are : Heaven & Hell I Can't Explain Young Man Blues I Don't Even Know Myself Water Shakin' All Over Spoonful/Twist & Shout Summertime Blues My Generation Magic Bus Overture It's a Boy Eyesight to the Blind Christmas The Acid Queen Pinball Wizard Do You Think It's Alright

• When The Boat Comes In - The Complete Boxed Set | DVD | (14/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £119.99

  Ex-Sergeant Jack Ford returns home to Gallowshields on Tyneside after the end of World War One. It is a time of economic depression and Jack finds his home town gripped by decline and unemployment. Jack soon falls in with the Seaton family and is determined to make his mark on the world. Contains every episode made from all four series.

• Christopher Guest | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  A triple bill from actor/writer/director Christopher Guest: Waiting For Guffman (1996): The sometimes dry sometimes bubbling satire of Middle America which chronicles Corky Corkoran's efforts to put on a spectacle commemorating the town of Blain's 150th anniversary. A mockumentary style film Corky drafts an odd assortment of local talent to bring his historical revue to life including the local dentist and a travel agent couple. The film spoofs the 'artistic' pretensions of

• Knock Around Guys | DVD | (26/05/2003) from £4.10   |  Saving you £15.89 (387.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  An all-star cast enlivens this mobster movie. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan, Battlefield Earth) plays the central role of Matty, the son of a mob boss (Dennis Hopper, Blue Velvet, Speed) who's reluctant to give his son a shot at crime. Alas, when Matty and his posse of friends--tough guy Vin Diesel (Boiler Room, XXX), lover boy Andrew Davoli (The Sopranos), and screw-up Seth Green (the Austin Powers movies)--finally get an opportunity, they fumble the job, and a very important satchel of money ends up in a Montana town where the wily sheriff (Tom Noonan, Manhunter) decides he deserves a bonus for his years of public service. The posse's problems get worse when Matty's ruthless uncle (John Malkovich) comes to town to clean up the mess. Mechanical and unimaginative, but the capable performances keep it moving.

• Waxwork | DVD | (10/09/2007) from £6.19   |  Saving you £9.80 (158.32%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Stop On By And Give Afterlife A Try. Zach Galligan (Gremlins) teams up with special effects wizard Bob Keen (Alien Highlander) to star in this spine-tingling horror. Mark and his college class decide to have a little fun and attend a 'private' midnight showing at the new waxwork museum. Admission is free... but getting out may cost them their lives! Join them in this roller-coaster ride into terror in Waxwork.

• The Frozen Ground | Blu Ray | (13/01/2014) from £14.49   |  Saving you £5.50 (37.96%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Serial killer thriller starring Nicolas Cage and John Cusack. A ruthless killer has been burying his victims near Anchorage, Alaska for over ten years but local police are clueless as to the murderer's identity. When local stripper Cindy Paulson (Vanessa Hudgens) escapes a brutal attack by hunter Robert Hansen (Cusack), Detective Jack Halcombe (Cage) begins his investigation into the case. With Cindy as his guide and tension high in the community he must act quickly before another victim fall...

• The Man From The Alamo | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £6.33   |  Saving you £3.66 (57.82%)   |  RRP £9.99

  During the war for Texas independence one man leaves the Alamo before the deadly climax (chosen by lot to help others' families) but is too late to accomplish his mission and is branded a coward. Since he cannot now expose a gang of turncoats he infiltrates them instead; can he now save a wagon train of refugees from Wade's guerillas?

• Rio Bravo Steelbook | Blu Ray | (04/12/2023) from £20.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  On one side is an army of gunmen dead set on springing a murderous cohort from jail. On the other is Sheriff John T. Chance (John Wayne) and two deputies: a recovering drunkard (Dean Martin) and an old codger (Walter Brennan). Also in their ragtag ranks are a trigger-happy youth (Ricky Nelson) and a woman with a shady past (Angie Dickinson) - and her eye on Chance. Director Howard Hawks lifted the Western to new heights with Red River and does it again here. Included on 4K disc - Commentary by Director John Carpenter and Historian/Critic Richard Schickel

• The Infiltrator | Blu Ray | (17/04/2019) from £8.86   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  U.S. Customs agent Robert 'Bob' Mazur (Bryan Cranston) goes deep undercover to infiltrate Pablo Escobar's blood-soaked drug trafficking scene plaguing the nation in 1985 by posing as slick, money-laundering businessman Bob Musella.

• The Lakes : Complete Series 1 & 2 | DVD | (16/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  John Simm gives an electrifying lead performance in one of the most controversial and gripping BBC series of the 90's. Leaving the dole queues of Liverpool behind him, Danny Kavanagh heads off to make a fresh start in The Lake District. Finding work in a Hotel he soon settles into the off-duty booze and sex culture. His new life is soon rocked however when a series of shocking events shatter the local community and he finds himself embrolied in the emotional turmoil that follows. Bonus features: 1st Episode Commentary by John Simm 1st Episode Commentary by Director David Blair

• La La Land Steelbook | Blu Ray | (15/05/2017) from £31.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  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.

• Doctor Who - Series 10 Part 2 BD | Blu Ray | (24/07/2017) from £14.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The second volume of the new 2017 series, as Peter Capaldi continues his adventures as the Time Lord, again accompanied by new companion Bill (Pearl Mackie). Contains the concluding 6 episodes, as well as 6 exclusive Series 10 art-cards.

• Miami Vice - Series 1 | DVD | (25/04/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  The cops. The cars. The clothes. The music. From executive producer Michael Mann (Heat Collateral) comes the first season of the explosive groundbreaking detective show that redefined the word cool. Set against the seamy and steamy Miami underworld ride shotgun with suave Vice cops Sonny Crockett (Golden Globe winner Don Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Phillip Michael Thomas) as they battle a never-ending gallery of criminals drug dealers and lowlifes. Episodes comprise: 1. Brother's Keeper (Parts 1 & 2) 2. Heart of Darkness 3. Cool Runnin' 4. The Hit List 5. Calderone's Demise 6. One-Eyed Jack 7. No Exit (a.k.a. Three-Eyed Turtle) 8. The Great McCarthy 9. Glades 10. Give a Little Take a Little 11. Little Prince 12. The Milk Run 13. Golden Triangle (Part 1) (a.k.a. Score) 14. Golden Triangle (Part 2) 15. Smuggler's Blues 16. Rites of Passage 17. The Maze 18. Made for Each Other 19. The Home Invaders 20. Nobody Lives Forever 21. Evan 22. Lombard

• The Gentleman Gunmen | DVD | (07/03/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set during the Second World War two Irish brothers arrive in London to launch an IRA bombing campaign but one of them begins to have doubts about their mission. John Mills and Dirk Bogarde play the brothers.

• Death Of A Salesman | DVD | (03/09/2001) from £13.00   |  Saving you £-3.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff's 1985 production of Arthur Miller's most famous play Death of a Salesman appeared squarely and quite hauntingly in the middle of the go-go economy of the Reagan-Bush years. Miller's story, set during the post-war boom period of the late 1940s, concerns an ageing travelling salesman named Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman), who despairs that his life his been lived in vain. Facing dispensability and insignificance in a heated, youthful economy, Willy is not ready to part with his cherished fantasies of an America that loves and admires him for personable triumphs in the marketplace. But the reality is far more pitiable than that, and the measure of Willy's self-delusion and contradictions is found in his two sons, one (Stephen Lang) a ne'er-do-well gliding on inherited hot air and repressed feelings, and the other (John Malkovich) a mousy, retiring sort unable to reconcile--or forgive--the difference between his father's desperate impersonation of success and the truth. Schlöndorff's remarkable cast explores Miller's rich subtext to great effect, though Hoffman--despite giving us a new model of Willy to contrast with Lee J Cobb's definitive portrayal a generation before--is a bit insect-like and shrill in his approach. Malkovich, Lang, and Kate Reid (as Willy's long-suffering wife) are perfect, however, and the production is atmospheric and strong. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• The Internship/ The Watch/ Dodgeball | DVD | (27/10/2014) from £7.90   |  Saving you £8.35 (125.75%)   |  RRP £14.99

  THE INTERNSHIP Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson team up to crash the digital world in this laugh-out-loud buddy comedy that clicks! Trying to reboot their obsolete careers old-school salesmen Billy (Vaughn) and Nick (Wilson) talk their way into an internship programme at the state-of-the-art Google campus vying for a handful of spots among tech-savvy college students who are half their age and twice as smart. The competition is fiercely funny as Billy and Nick break all the rules in a hilarious quest to land the dream jobs they’ve been searching for! THE WATCH Ben Stiller Vince Vaughn Jonah Hill and Richard Ayoade take male bonding to hilarious new heights in this outrageous no-holds-barred comedy that gets funnier every time you watch! There’s trouble brewing in peaceful Glenview Ohio. That’s why four civic-minded citizens armed with flashlights walkie-talkies and spiffy new jackets have teamed up to safeguard their community. But the guys find more than they bargained for when they uncover an alien plot to destroy Earth and now these bumbling heroes are Glenview’s only chance to save the neighbourhood — and the world — from annihilation! DODGEBALL You’ll dodge duck dip dive . . . and laugh out loud watching VINCE VAUGHN and BEN STILLER settle their differences in a winner-takes-all dodgeball competition. Under the painful tutelage of legendary ADAA champ Patches O’Houlihan (Rip Torn) Peter LaFleur (Vaughn) and his Average Joes take on the Purple Cobras led by egomaniacal fitness guru White Goodman (Stiller). It’s an over-the-top underdog tale filled with hilarious gags and BALLS-OUT FUN!

• The West Wing - Season 1 Part 1 | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £7.68   |  Saving you £28.31 (368.62%)   |  RRP £35.99

  Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing, set in the White House, has won innumerable awards--and rightly so. Its depiction of a well-meaning Democrat administration has warmed the hearts of countless Americans. However, The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military, Fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on Capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing.--David Stubbs

• The Wedding Date/My Big Fat Greek Wedding/The Wedding Singer | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £11.93   |  Saving you £8.06 (67.56%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The Wedding Date (Dir. Clare Kilner 2005): In this sparkling romantic comedy Debra Messing plays Kat a never-married New Yorker who is invited to her parents' London home for her younger sister's wedding. What should be a joyous occasion bodes disaster for Kat however when she discovers that the best man will be none other than her ex-fianc who two years before inexplicably dumped her. In a desperate attempt to face the ordeal with dignity Kat hires Nick (Dermot Mulroney) a charming and handsome professional male escort to pose as her new boyfriend and escort her to the wedding. Even more valuable to Kat than Nick's good looks and charisma is his keen insight into human behavior--a well-learned trick of his trade. Over the course of the weekend Nick takes on the role of the bride's therapist the father's ideal son-in-law the groom's new best friend and the object of every woman's affection. For Kat what starts out as a pretend relationship with Nick begins to turn into something entirely unexpected: a second chance at love. My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Dir. Joel Zwick 2002): In this hit ethnic comedy Toula (Nia Vardalos) is a thirty-year-old ugly duckling whose life is going nowhere while she works long hours in her family's Greek diner (called Dancing Zorba's). She then decides to give herself a radical makeover lands a new job in her aunt's travel agency and falls for a hunky sensitive vegetarian teacher (John Corbett). They soon decide to get married but her family have a history of getting hitched exclusively to other Greeks. My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a warm funny comedy adapted by writer/star Vardalos from her own one-woman show. The Wedding Singer (Dir. Frank Coraci 1998): It's 1985 and Robbie Hart (Adam Sandler) is the ultimate master of ceremonies until he is left at the altar at his own wedding. Devastated he becomes a newlywed's worst nightmare - an entertainer who can do nothing but destroy other people's weddings. It's not until he meets a warm-hearted waitress named Julia (Drew Barrymore) that he starts to pick up the pieces of his heart. The only problem is Julia's about to have a wedding of her own and unless Robbie can pull off the performance of a lifetime the girl of his dreams will be gone forever...