"Actor: Julia Blake"

• Stepmom | DVD | (31/01/2011) from £9.98   |  Saving you £-3.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Although Stepmom was dismissed as a contender in the 1998 Oscar race, it's worth giving a second chance to this rather cogent, sharp-tongued look at second chances. Susan Sarandon's performance as a mum about to be replaced by her ex-husband's new girlfriend (played by Julia Roberts) has a lot of bite, and it's a shame the script opted to trivialise her plight in its final reel. Initially, the rancour that passes between divorced mum Jackie (Sarandon) and trendy fashion photographer Isabel (Roberts) rings true, aided by the sincerity of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) and the emotional plight of their children, who have the most to lose in their parents' divorce. As the drama makes clear, the children are the real victims in the agony that ensues between old and new love. Director Chris Columbus, who is adept at showing familial chaos (he directed Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) with a sanitised minimum of lingering emotional damage, actually manages to dig a trifle deeper than usual in exploring the jealousy and hurt that occur when the baton is passed between a birth mum and the younger wife who steps into her shoes. Stepmom fortunately manages to touch on that chord--showing how an ambitious woman might feel hampered by the responsibility of children just because she's fallen in love with their dad--as well as the haunting grief that it causes their birth mum. It's an issue that haunts millions of second wives everywhere, and while Roberts conveys the confusion of being taken for granted in the melee that follows, it's Sarandon who walks off with the film. She's relentless in her fury, and everyone else in the film--the generally excellent Harris included--is sideswiped. It's just a shame that Hollywood once again wimps out in the end, solving the problem by giving Sarandon a terminal illness. Instead of allowing Jackie and Isabel's relationship to unfold on something less than a high note, the movie has to quell its best thing with a false payoff because it doesn't know what to do with real life. --Paula Nechak, Amazon.com

• Erin Brockovich / Stepmom / Steel Magnolias | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Erin Brockovich (Dir. Steven Soderbergh 2000): Erin Brockovich was never trained or indeed meant to work in a lawyers office. Circumstances take this down-on-her-luck twice-divorced mother of three into a legal practice. Here she discovers some legal files that don't add up... On investigation she discovers an injustice and decides against the odds to take on the bad guys on behalf of a poor and very ill community. Stepmom (Dir. Chris Columbus 1998): Jackie (Susan Sarandon) is a divorced mother of two. Isabel (Julia Roberts) is the career minded girlfriend of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) forced into the role of unwelcome stepmother to their children. It is the universal dilemma of the 'non-traditional family' they all love the children but the complex interplay between parents step-parents step-children ex-spouses and significant others is decidedly tricky. But when Jackie discovers she is ill both women realise they must put aside their differences to find a common ground and celebrate life to the fullest while they have the chance. Steel Magnolias (Dir. Herbert Ross 1989): A beautiful bittersweet comedy set in deep south Louisiana Steel Magnolias unites talents of America's finest actresses as six very special friends bonded together by mutual triumphs and tragedies. Despite their differences beautiful Shelby (Julia Roberts) her strong-willed mother M'Lynn (Sally Field) beauty parlour owner Truvy (Dolly Parton) elegant wealthy widow Clairee (Olympia Dukakis) sharp tongued Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine) and mousey newcomer Anelle (Daryl Hannah) enjoy a friendship that spans the boundaries of age and status. Sharing each other's strength and loyalty they face their greatest fears and highest hopes with dry wit and a self-deprecating style...

• Marvel Studio's X-Men 1-10 Movie Collection | Blu Ray | (26/04/2021) from £29.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Follow the epic story of the X-MEN, a group of humans with genetic mutations that give them extraordinary abilities. Engaged in a constant battle for acceptance in society, the X-MEN must learn to use their powers to fight those intent on world domination. Join Professor X, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Wolverine as they try to save themselves and the world from Magneto, Sentinels, and Apocalypse, a powerful mutant whose vengeful wrath threatens the planet. Special Features Includes hours of special features

• Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark | DVD | (20/02/2012) from £3.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (350.88%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Producers Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Orphanage) and Mark Johnson (Chronicles of Narnia) join forces to deliver Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, a tale of hair-raising, spine-chilling horror.

• Marvel Studio's X-Men 1-10 Movie Collection | DVD | (26/04/2021) from £24.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Follow the epic story of the X-MEN, a group of humans with genetic mutations that give them extraordinary abilities. Engaged in a constant battle for acceptance in society, the X-MEN must learn to use their powers to fight those intent on world domination. Join Professor X, Storm, Jean Grey, Cyclops and Wolverine as they try to save themselves and the world from Magneto, Sentinels, and Apocalypse, a powerful mutant whose vengeful wrath threatens the planet. Special Features Includes hours of special features

• Outpost | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £5.38   |  Saving you £10.61 (197.21%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A team of mercenaries, sent in to war-torn Eastern Europe, encounter a horrible secret that has lain buried in a disused military bunker since the end of WWII.

• Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (SINGLE DISC) | Blu Ray | (30/04/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Producers Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Orphanage) and Mark Johnson (Chronicles of Narnia) join forces to deliver Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, a tale of hair-raising, spine-chilling horror.

• Patrick | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £12.21   |  Saving you £1.78 (14.58%)   |  RRP £13.99

  After the shocking death of his mother and her lover the sinister Patrick lays comatose in his hospital bed. When a pretty young nurse recently seperated from her husband starts at the hospital she senses that Patrick is communicating with her and seems to be using psychic abilities to manipulate objects and events in her life....

• My Brilliant Career | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  An award-winning film centering on the life of a teenage girl who is divided between stirrings of passion and her need for self-fulfilment... Sybylla is a girl living in the Australian outback early in the 20th Century Sybylla is a well of boundless energy wanting desperately to escape the backwardness of her young life. A chance meeting with a charming young man presents her with a tempting offer allowing her to escape the frontier life forever.

• Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark | Blu Ray | (20/02/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Producers Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, The Orphanage) and Mark Johnson (Chronicles of Narnia) join forces to deliver Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark, a tale of hair-raising, spine-chilling horror.

• Patrick | DVD | (03/03/2008) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A comatose hospital patient harasses and kills though his powers of telekinesis.

• Diary Of A Serial Killer | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A psychological thriller about an obsessed serial killer and a writer who wants the story....

• Passion | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £12.99   |  Saving you £-9.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

• Suspect Zero | DVD | (02/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £33.99

  This haunting psychological thriller finds FBI agent Thomas Mackelway (Aaron Eckhart) newly transferred to the Albuquerque office from Dallas after the botched arrest of his personal nemesis results in his demotion. Suffering from migraines and tormented by his memories and his dreams, Mackelway is immediately assigned to investigate the murder of a travelling salesman. Soon, he is investigating three similar murders and receiving mysterious faxes and notes from the killer, a former government agent named Benjamin O'Ryan (Ben Kingsley). O'Ryan was part of an elite squad that was trained in remote viewing. Able to tune into the sights, sounds, and feelings of victims and killers, O'Ryan enters a trancelike state and draws the gruesome scenes that lead him to the crime and the killer. Unfortunately, he is unable to turn this ability off, and has slowly been going mad and taking justice into his own hands. Thinking he's found a kindred spirit in Mackelway, O'Ryan pulls him deeper into the hunt for 'Suspect Zero', the ultimate killer. This feature from director E. Elias Merhige (SHADOW OF THE VAMPIRE) also stars Carrie-Ann Moss as Mackelway's partner, who tries to keep Mackelway from going over the edge.

• Patrick | DVD | (28/05/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Patrick has been in a coma for four years - ever since the 'accidental' death of his mother and her lover. Kept at a small rundown hospital he is experimented on by the insensitive Dr Roget who describes Patrick as '170lbs of limp meat hanging off a comatised brain'. However Patrick has been slowly developing powerful psycho-kinetic powers... When a new nurse is assigned to him he falls in love with her leaving notes on her typewriter using his telekinesis... But she soon realises that Patrick may be using his powers for far more sinister purposes as nurses and doctors at the hospital begin to die under mysterious circumstances...

• Suspect Zero | UMD | (05/12/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99