"Actor: Kenneth C"

• The January Man | DVD | (12/08/2002) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The January Man is an odd comedy-thriller about the hunt for a serial killer that could just be a case of too many stars spoil the movie. The screenplay is by John Patrick Shanley, who won an Oscar for Moonstruck. The plot goes like this: a serial killer is terrorising Manhattan, targeting one woman a month, much to the horror of the mayor (a rabid Rod Steiger, more foam than substance) and the police commissioner Frank Starkey (Harvey Keitel). There's only one man to save their bacon: enter Nick Starkey (Kevin Kline), brother of Frank, who had been a cop but was kicked out of the force for his unorthodox ways. Being a heroic kind of guy, his next career move was as a firefighter and we first see him leaping out of a burning building, carrying a child under his arm. Kline agrees to go back on one condition: that he cooks dinner for his brother's wife (the fantastically haughty Susan Sarandon), a former girlfriend for whom he still holds a candle. The pace hots up, Nick finds himself a new girlfriend, the mayor's daughter Bernadette (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), whose main claim to fame is that her best friend was murdered by the serial killer. Oh, and of course he gets the guy, in the nick of time (literally). Confused? You won't be. The plot is an improbable potion of coincidences and divine inspiration but it's not complicated. Kline overcomes the shortcomings of the script with a charmer of a performance, but the real star is the funny, sly Alan Rickman. The January Man is worth seeing for some very fine individual turns (Sarandon is terrific), but in all honesty, it doesn't add up to a great movie, mainly because it can't quite decide what it wants to be, genre-wise, settling on an uneasy compromise of comedy and thriller. On the DVD: The January Man disc has absolutely no-frills. Picture and sound are perfectly adequate without being anything to write home about. And if you're looking for extra goodies, you'll be disappointed: there's the original theatrical trailer and a wide array of subtitle languages, but that's it. --Harriet Smith

• It Came From Beneath The Sea | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £24.51   |  Saving you £-11.52 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It Came from Beneath the Sea appeared two years after Ray Harryhausen unleashed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms upon New York City. This time the master special-effects creator turned loose a giant (albeit six-armed) octopus on San Francisco, and the result is another enjoyable atom-age adventure that should please fans of vintage science fiction. Kenneth Tobey, who battled The Thing (From Another World) in 1951, stars as a Navy captain pursuing a monstrous octopoid (sextapoid?) after it attacks his atomic sub. After it wreaks havoc with shipping lanes, he tracks the creature to San Francisco for a final showdown. Scripting by George Worthing Yates (Them) and Hal Smith and direction by Robert Gordon are perfunctory at best, which gives the always-reliable Tobey and costar Faith Domergue little to do, but this is Harryhausen's show, and his monster, though the budget was restrained, is still impressive. Younger audiences weaned on digital FX may find this creaky, but nostalgic viewers will enjoy its simple thrills. --Paul Gaita

• Gonks Go Beat | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Pop music fantasy in which a representative from outer space is sent to earth to settle a dispute between the disciples of beat and ballad.

• Flame | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

• Watch Your Stern | DVD | (24/05/2004) from £14.86   |  Saving you £-0.87 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  All hands on deck for Titanic seaside laughs with the saucy Carry On crew! When an accident-prone sailor damages a secret blueprint his only hope is to get another from London. But then the Admiral arrives and he's forced to pose as a scientist - a female scientist!

• Carry On At Your Convenience | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In 1971 when Carry On at Your Convenience hit the screen, the series had long since become part of the fabric of British popular entertainment. Never mind the situation, the characters were essentially the same, film after film. The jokes were all as old as the hills, but nobody cared, they were still funny. But it's just too easy to treat them as a job lot of postcard humour and music hall innuendo. This tale of revolt at a sanitary ware factory--Boggs and Son, what else?--certainly chimed in with the state of the nation in the early 1970s when strikes were called at the drop of a hat. Here, tea urns, demarcation and the company's decision to branch out into bidets all wreak havoc. Kenneth Williams as the company's besieged managing director, Sidney James and Joan Sims give their all as usual, but it's the lesser roles that really add some lustre. Hattie Jacques as Sid's budgerigar-obsessed, sluggish put-upon wife and Renee Houston as a superbly domineering battleaxe with a penchant for strip poker remind us that in the hands of fine actors, even the laziest of caricatures becomes a real human being. On the DVD: Presented in 4:3 format with a good clean print and standard mono soundtrack, Carry On at Your Convenience feels as comfortable as an old pair of shoes. But where's the context? The lack of extras leaves the viewer wanting biographies and some documentary sense of the film's position in the series. The scene index is often arbitrary and the budget packaging means that we don't even get a full cast list. --Piers Ford

• Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit 4K UHD | Blu Ray | (20/02/2023) from £19.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An action hero is reborn! in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit, the origin story of Tom Clancy's most iconic character. The thrills are non-stop as CIA recruit Ryan(Chris Pine) is caught in a dangerous web of intrigue spun between his unsuspecting fiancée (Keira Knightley), a shadowy government agent (Academy Award® winner Kevin Costner*), and a ruthless Russian criminal (Academy Award® nominee Kenneth Branagh**). Ryan must quickly evolve from analyst to full-fledged operative to stop a devastating terrorist plot against the United States. The stakes have never been higher in this taut, tense and terrific thrill ride. Product Features DISC 1: 4K UHD 4K Feature Film UHD Commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo di Bonaventura DISC 2: Blu-ray Blu-ray Feature Film Commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo di Bonaventura Jack Ryan: The Smartest Guy in the Room Sir Kenneth Branagh: The Tsar of Shadow Recruit Jack Ryan: A Thinking Man of Action Old Enemies Return Deleted & Extended Scenes (with optional commentary by Kenneth Branagh and Lorenzo di Bonaventura)

• Carry On Regardless | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £6.66   |  Saving you £-0.67 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  It's non stop romps as the Carry On team deliver the goods in one of the rudest and funniest of the Carry On films. The cast are all on top form as a bunch of no-hoppers who join an agency in the search for a job. The anarchy mounts as they do a series of odd jobs including a chimps tea party trying to stay sober at a wine tasting and demolishing a house.

• The Shield - Season 5 | DVD | (01/10/2012) from £7.01   |  Saving you £12.98 (185.16%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The story of in inner-city Los Angeles police precinct where some of the cops aren't above breaking the rules or working against their associates to both keep the streets safe and their self-interests intact.

• The Day After Tomorrow | UMD | (07/11/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £21.99

  A big-budget, mega-event epic motion picture that revolves around an abrupt climate change that has cataclysmic consequences for the planet.

• Mansfield 66/67 | DVD | (25/06/2018) from £8.95   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Hollywood screen legend Jayne Mansfield's final two years and her untimely death are shrouded in mystery, rumours persist that she was cursed after an alleged affair with Anton LaVey, Head of the Satanic Church. Here documentary filmmakers P. David Ebersole and Todd Hughes (Hit So Hard) explore the myths, featuring interviews with Kenneth Anger, Tippi Hedren, Cheryl Dunne and more alongside archive footage of Anton la Vey and Jayne Mansfield herself. An audience favourite at FrightFest, this is a fitting celebration of a cinematic icon.

• That's Carry On | DVD | (07/07/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-7.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Celebrating twenty years of classic Carry On films two of the film's best loved stars Kenneth Williams and Barbara Windsor return to Pinewood Film Studios to unwrap some rib-tickling moments to the series. From the original military mayhem of 'Carry On Sergeant' through to the really ancient archaeological gags of 'Carry On Behind' our saucy hosts get their titters out for this laugh-a-second gallop through the most successful series of British comedy films ever made. With a cast

• Brother Sun, Sister Moon | DVD | (05/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It seemed like a good idea in 1973: a musical scored by Donovan about the life and times of St. Francis of Assisi, the passionate ascetic who expressed love for God by loving nature. But the finished product was something else. Filmmaker Franco Zeffirelli (Endless Love) makes a decorous effort at communicating the ideals of Francis and even tweaking the character toward flower-power relevance. But the result is feel-good fluff, a boring movie that doesn't penetrate its subject as much as reinvent him toward a modern bias. Graham Faulkner is entirely forgettable in the lead and Donovan's songs on this project aren't exactly first-rate, either. --Tom Keogh

• Carry On Cruising | DVD | (27/08/2001) from £10.42   |  Saving you £3.57 (34.26%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Well, the gang's all here, but Carry On Cruising isn't one of the classics of the series. This may be partly due to the film's well-intentioned stab at some sort of authenticity, being set as it is on a genuine cruise liner rather than in a studio full of cheap sets. It swiftly becomes apparent that the cramped environment isn't well suited to the kind of slapstick which is usually a key ingredient in any Carry On film. Veteran couch spuds will recall that the TV series Triangle was similarly disadvantaged, except that it wasn't supposed to be funny. As ever, though, the brilliant cast-in-residence manage to make the most of the situation. The plot, such as it is, deals with the tribulations which beset a world-weary captain (James) when he realises he's been saddled with a crew of misfits and incompetents (practically everybody else) on a cruise which is of course supposed to offer its passengers every comfort and convenience. If there's a single outstanding performance it has to be that of Lance Percival's chef, whose cheeriness as he presides over his various culinary experiments is extremely funny in a menacing sort of way. On the DVD: The DVD issue has no additional features. --Roger Thomas

• Celebrity | DVD | (07/07/2014) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Woody Allen's Celebrity--a portrait of the celebrity life as seen through the eyes of a newly divorced couple--is a black-and-white, New York-style La Dolce Vita that's a chillier flip side to Allen's earlier New York valentine, Manhattan. Despite a few missteps, though, it's an admirable (if dark) and worthy addition to the Allen pantheon. Kenneth Branagh and Judy Davis (both boasting American accents) star as the ex-couple, each struggling to build new, separate lives in a media-saturated, celebrity-driven world. Branagh tries his hand at celebrity profiles (while peddling a screenplay to any star that will listen) and falls into the lap of a bosomy starlet (Melanie Griffith), the first in a long line of briefly attainable women. Davis runs into a producer (Joe Mantegna) who offers her a job as a TV personality as well as a loving relationship. This seemingly simple double plot is punctuated with twists and turns in the form of flashbacks and innumerable side trips, all ravishingly photographed in black and white by the legendary Sven Nykvist, and populated by one of Allen's largest casts ever; if you blink you'll miss countless cameos by Isaac Mizrahi, Donald Trump, Hank Azaria, Leonardo DiCaprio and a host of others. While Davis is splendid as usual (aside from the requisite nervous breakdown scene she's done one too many times), somebody should have told Branagh to put a kibosh on his Woody Allen imitation. His failure in the role, however, isn't entirely his fault, as it's another in a long line of unlikable male protagonists which Allen has created, as if daring audiences to hate his main characters after loving them in such movies as Manhattan and Annie Hall. Far more enjoyable misadventures with Branagh include Charlise Theron in the film's best performance as a libidinous supermodel with a penchant for Echinacea; a stunning Famke Janssen as a successful book editor; and Winona Ryder, acting like an adult for the first time, as an aspiring actress. But they all manage to slip through Branagh's fingers by the end of the film. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com

• Carry On Jack | Blu Ray | (07/07/2014) from £8.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (187.38%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Carry On Jack was the 1963 offering from a team which had, by then, become a repertory company with special guests dropping in for a dose of innuendo. "What's all this jigging in the rigging?" demands Kenneth Williams, this time playing a ship's captain, and the scene is set for 90 minutes of ribaldry involving cross-dressing, press-ganging and plank walking. The plot scarcely matters. It's set after the Battle of Trafalgar and the sea is awash with Spanish galleons and pirates as the British navy sets about defending its shores with as much incompetence as possible. Sally, a barmaid at the Dirty Duck (Juliet Mills in feisty principal boy mode), knocks Bernard Cribbins on the head and steals his uniform so that she can go in search of her childhood sweetheart. He is promptly press-ganged and they end up on the same ship. Williams, on the brink of his ascendancy as a star turn, just about keeps the mannerisms under control enough to build the character of the naïve and neurotic captain. Familiar Carry On faces on top form include Charles Hawtrey and Jim Dale, while Peter Gilmore--in his pre-Onedin Line days--appears as a pirate. Peter Rodgers' script is not quite vintage Carry On but the jokes keep coming and it's all good, clean fun. On the DVD: This was one of the first Carry On films to be made in colour. The print is in reasonable condition. The picture quality, apart from a couple of scratchy scenes of sailing ships that were probably drafted in from stock footage, is fair, as is the sound. But apart from the scene index there are no extras on the disc. Given the cult status of the Carry On films, and the wealth of documentary material which has been made about them and their stars, you'd think something extra could have been offered with the DVD releases to make them a more worthwhile alternative to the video. --Piers Ford

• Fear and Desire (1953) | DVD | (28/01/2013) from £17.53   |  Saving you £0.46 (2.62%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Independently financed with contributions from Stanley Kubrick's family and friends in an era when an independent cinema was still far from the norm, Fear and Desire first saw release in 1953 at the Guild Theater in New York, thanks to the enterprising distributor Joseph Burstyn. Now, with this new restoration carried out in 2012 by The Library of Congress, a film that for decades has remained nearly impossible to see will at last appear in a proper release in the United Kingdom. Kubrick's debut feature tells the story of a war waged (in the present? in the future?) between two forces. In the midst of the conflict, a plane carrying four soldiers crashes behind enemy lines. From here out, it is kill or be killed: a female hostage is taken on account of being a potential informer; an enemy general and his aide are discovered during a scouting mission... What lies in store for this ragtag group of killers, between their perilous landing in the forest, and the final raft-float downstream... all this constitutes the tale of Kubrick's precocious entry into feature filmmaking. Bringing into focus for the first time the same thematic concerns that would obsess the director in such masterworks as Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, and Full Metal Jacket, Fear and Desire marks the outset of the dazzling career and near-complete artistic freedom which to this day remains unparalleled in the annals of Hollywood history. The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present Stanley Kubrick's Fear and Desire in its gorgeous new restoration on both Blu-ray and DVD. Special Features: Optional English SDH Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Stanley Kubrick's Early Short Film, The Seafarers in a New HD Restoration New and Exclusive Video Discussion of the Film by Critic and Stanley Kubrick Author Bill Krohn Substantial Booklet Containing Writing on the Film, Vintage Excerpts and Rare Archival Imagery

• Shine On Harvey Moon - Series 1 | DVD | (05/03/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Its 1945 and Corporal Harvey Moon is demobbed and returns home to London's East End. Everyone believed that the former Clapton Orient footballer had been killed in action so so plenty has been going on in his absence.

• Kenneth Williams - An Audience With Kenneth Williams | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £4.93   |  Saving you £5.06 (102.64%)   |  RRP £9.99

  By the time he recorded An Audience with Kenneth Williams in 1982, the comic actor had virtually given up the stage and screen and was well into his late career as a raconteur. As a potted hour of autobiography, it's a slick, polished affair. Fans will be familiar with the anecdotes about Noel Coward and piles, Edith Evans and the farting waiter and of course, the Carry On films. But perhaps the most notable thing is that while his posthumously published diaries revealed a dark and bitter melancholia, often aimed viciously at others, he was a very generous performer. These are mainly tales about other people; Williams rarely puts himself centre stage other than in his masterly telling. And there is real warmth in his reminiscences of people like Maggie Smith, Gordon Jackson and Hattie Jacques. He was also a highly intelligent commentator on his craft. "Revue produces an eccentric, very stylised performer," he explains, talking about Smith and Fenella Fielding but clearly including himself. Although many of the stars in the audience are long since gone it's somehow reassuring to note that still, more than 20 years later, no televised evening with a celebrity is complete without Judith Chalmers and Matthew Kelly.--Piers Ford

• Jericho - Series 2 | DVD | (29/09/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jericho returns for a second astounding season thanks to the unprecedented and impassioned support from its legion of loyal fans. In the aftermath of a devastating nuclear explosion and a battle with neighboring New Bern the once peaceful town of Jericho begins to rebuild itself as it attempts to communicate with the outside world. The newly formed Cheyenne government strives to establish its stronghold in the region but Jericho's citizens become suspicious of these new leaders as they question their true intentions.