"Actor: Laurence"

• The World At War - Vol. 1 | DVD | (28/08/2000) from £5.52   |  Saving you £4.47 (80.98%)   |  RRP £9.99

  When this epic series was first broadcast in 1973 it redefined the gold standard for television documentary; it remains the benchmark by which all factual programming must judge itself. Originally shown as 26 one-hour programmes, The World at War set out to tell the story of the Second World War through the testimony of key participants. The result is a unique and unrepeatable event, since many of the eyewitnesses captured on film did not have long left to live. Each hour-long programme is carefully structured to focus on a key theme or campaign, from the rise of Nazi Germany to Hitler's downfall and the onset of the Cold War. There are no academic "talking heads" here to spell out an official version of history; the narration, delivered with wonderful gravitas by Sir Laurence Olivier, is kept to a minimum. The show's great coup was to allow the participants to speak for themselves. Painstaking research in the archives of the Imperial War Museum also unearthed a vast quantity of newsreel footage, including on occasion the cameraman's original raw rushes which present an unvarnished and never-before-seen picture of important events. Carl Davis' portentous main title theme and score underlines the grand scale of the enterprise. The original 26 episodes were supplemented three years later by six special programmes (narrated by Eric Porter), bringing the total running-time to a truly epic 32 hours. Now digitally remastered The World at War looks even more of an impressive achievement on DVD. Available in five volumes, each handsomely packaged double-disc set comes with a detailed menu that places the individual programmes along a chronological timeline. Better yet, chapter access is laid out to allow you to select key speeches or maps or newsreel footage. The World at War was a landmark television event; its DVD incarnation underlines its importance as an historical document. --Mark Walker

• The Bounty | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £11.98   |  Saving you £-3.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The Bounty is the third screen version of one of the best-known stories in naval history, here with Anthony Hopkins as Lieutenant William Bligh and Mel Gibson as Fletcher Christian heading an extraordinary cast including Laurence Olivier, Edward Fox, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Bernard Hill and Dexter Fletcher. HMS Bounty's voyage to Tahiti of 1787-9 and its infamous consequences are recounted with far greater historical accuracy than in the 1935 or 1962 Mutiny on the Bounty. The movie is gorgeously shot on location in Tahiti, England and New Zealand as well as on a full-size recreation of the original Bounty. Roger Donaldson's film benefits from a literate screenplay by Robert Bolt, who here as in Lawrence of Arabia (1962), brings real insight into the English institutional mind in conflict. Hopkins is at his complex best and Gibson offers more depth than his usual two-dimensional hero persona; here Bligh and Christian emerge as complex men gripped by circumstances beyond their control. The haunting score by Vangelis contributes immensely to a very underrated film which deserves to be considered a modern classic. On the DVD: There is an excellent 52-minute "making of" documentary that mixes historical information with on-location interviews. A 12-minute overview of previous screen versions of the story is narrated by the film's historical consultant, Stephen Walters, who also provides a somewhat stilted but nevertheless informative audio commentary. The second audio commentary is from director Roger Donaldson, Producer Bernie Williams and Production Designer John Graysmark, who genuinely appear to enjoy reminiscing and have real enthusiasm for the movie. Also included is a fascinating 28-page booklet. This is the stuff Special Editions should always be made of, and this would be one of the finest DVDs on the market were it not for the transfer of the film itself, which appears to be a reprocessed version of the same NTSC anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer found on the bare-bones Region 1 DVD, with no sign of PAL speed-up. The picture not only shows considerable grain in some scenes, but also demonstrates marked compression artefacting and enhancement shimmer on all horizontal lines, making some scenes extremely ugly. For such a beautiful film it is a most disappointing transition to the digital format. Most unusually for a UK release, the disc is region free.--Gary S Dalkin

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £10.09   |  Saving you £-0.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Murder of Roger Ackroyd opens with a retired Poirot (David Suchet) cursing vegetable marrows in his country garden. When his old friend is found stabbed in the neck, Poirot begins an investigation that reunites him with Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) and uncovers a chain of furtive phone calls and secret romances. Unfortunately, the restructuring necessary to adapt the story from text to film takes away some of the shock value of Christie's original ending, which caused quite a controversy when the book was first published in 1926. --Larisa Lomacky Moore

• Ma Vie En Rose | DVD | (17/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Ludo lives with his loving family in a candy coloured Paris suburb. Life is sweet. But there's a problem. Ludo knows what he wants. He has a dream. Ludo wants to be a girl... Hilarious and heart-rending a beautiful bittersweet story of magic desire and difference the award-winning 'Ma Vie En Rose' features a truly stunning performance from the extraordinary Georges Du Fresne.

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - Dumb Witness | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £24.93   |  Saving you £-14.94 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Poirot and Hastings are in Windermere watching Charles Arundel's attempt to break the world water speed record. They return to the Arundel's family members. The situation is exasperated when Aunt Emily falls down the stairs. Poirot suspects foul play and his suspicions are confirmed when she is found dead the following day. It becomes clear to Poirot that the only one who knows who murdered Emily is Bob the resident fox terrier. Poirot understands that this dumb witness must find its own way of telling him what he has seen...

• The Magic Christian | DVD | (22/05/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In this adaptation of Terry Southern's offbeat novel an eccentric millionaire adopts a down-and-out vagrant he stumbles upon in the park as his son. The pair embark on a series of practical jokes and elaborate stunts designed to expose the wanton greed that exists in everybody - and prove that everyone has his price.

• Predators | DVD | (04/06/2012) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A group of elite warriors are hunted by members of a merciless alien race known as Predators.

• Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier - Special Edition (2 discs) | DVD | (22/12/2003) from £10.79   |  Saving you £17.19 (220.38%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Almost universally derided on its first release as the worst of the Star Trek movies to date, The Final Frontier might just have been the victim of bad press. Following in the wake of the massively successful fourth instalment The Voyage Home didn't help matters (notoriously, even-numbered entries are better), nor did having novice director and shameless egomaniac William Shatner at the helm. But if the story, conceived and cowritten by Shatner, teeters dangerously on the verge of being corny, it redeems itself with enough thought-provoking scenes in the best tradition of the series, and a surprisingly original finale. Granted there are a few too many yawning plot holes along the way, and the general tone is over-earnest (despite some painfully slapstick comedy moments), but the interaction of the central trio (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) is often funny and genuinely insightful; while Laurence Luckinbill is a charismatic adversary as the renegade Vulcan Sybok. The rest of the cast scarcely get a look in, and the special effects betray serious budgetary restrictions, but with a standout score from Jerry Goldsmith and a meaty philosophical premise to play around with, Star Trek V looks a lot more substantial in retrospect. Certainly it's no worse than either Generations or Insurrection, the next "odd-numbered" entries in the series. --Mark Walker

• Errance | DVD | (24/10/2005) from £5.11   |  Saving you £16.14 (419.22%)   |  RRP £19.99

  With this unsparing depiction of a couple in turmoil Odoul proves himself once more to be one of the leading French filmmakers of his generation. Set in three different places and times from 1968 to 1973 and casting model-turned-actress Laetitia Casta as the embatted wife of an alcoholic philanderer this chamber-piece has all the intensity the unsettling power of his previous films. Indeed this is at times a discomfitingly truthful study of two people whose love cannot stop them

• Hellraiser | Blu Ray | (20/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Frank Cotton solves the mystery of a Chinese puzzle box he enters the world of the Cenobites. A world where these cruel sadists thrive on pain. Later restored to life by the blood of his brother Larry Frank rises to feed on the life force of others. When Larry's wife agrees to provide the sacrifices he needs the spills chills and thrills are just beginning. Written and directed by the brilliant Clive Barker Hellraiser is a film that cannot be ignored.

• I Am A Camera | DVD | (08/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In the early thirties Christopher Isherwood is a young aspiring writer living in pre World War II Berlin. Christopher meets the vivacious peniless singer Sally Bowles a young English woman who is performing in a cabaret and they soon develop a platonic relationship. Then Sally meets wealthy American Clive at a party who helps Sally and Christopher finacially and socially for a while and they have the time of their lives. Things begin to change as the increasing Nazism in the country affects their lives and threatens Christopher's Jewish friend Fritz.

• C.S.I. - Crime Scene Investigation - Vegas - Season 9 - Complete | Blu Ray | (01/03/2010) from £4.95   |  Saving you £50.30 (1,363.14%)   |  RRP £53.99

  Television's number-one drama continues to deliver as LVPD's brilliant forensics team encounters their greatest challenges yet in the stunning ninth season of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. Watch and learn as the team wrestles with death destiny and inner demons. This must-own collection includes the historic departure of Gil Grissom (William Petersen) and the much-anticipated arrival of Dr. Raymond Langston (Laurence Fishburne).

• Wired | DVD | (10/11/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In a brand new three-part drama Jodie Whittaker stars as single mum Louise Evans who's given a promotion at her bank only to be coerced into facilitating a ''250 million internet bank theft. It's a thriller about bank fraud what happens to our money behind the scenes in the world of electronic banking and the shadowy bank robbers who no longer operate with masks and sawn-off shotguns. Corruption in the city has never looked so good.

• The King of New York (Arrow Video) Limited Edition | Blu Ray | (25/06/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  King of New York is a low-budget crime thriller has the feel of a major blockbuster and owes its roots to the hard-edged crime movies of the 1930s. Christopher Walken stars as a drug kingpin who is released from prison and vows to use his position and influence--and criminal enterprise--for charitable means. But a core group of New York cops are all over him and his gang, determined to go to war, whatever the cost, to bring him down. Eventually his empire--headquartered at, of all places, Donald Trump's Plaza Hotel--crumbles under the weight of double-crossing and a body count of open warfare with the cops. This is one of the most stylish films of the last decade, with a strong supporting cast (including Lawrence Fishburne, Wesley Snipes, and David Caruso) and some truly enthralling set pieces, including a stunning car chase and gunfight across a rain-soaked Queensboro Bridge. The film's tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top style offsets its nihilism; and its riveting visuals will have audiences hooked from beginning to end. --Robert Lane

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - Sad Cypress | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £14.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Another intriguing investigation for the brilliant Belgian detective as the beautiful Elinor Carlisle stands accused of a double murder; that of her wealthy aunt Laura Wellman and also of her rival in love Mary Gerrard. Elinor had the motive and the opportunity to administer the fatal poison to both women. Poirot believes the evidence to be irrefutable but once his little grey cells get to work he begins to piece together another version of events as Elinor finds time running out...

• Fall Of Eagles - Complete Series | DVD | (18/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Fall Of The Eagles is a stunning BBC dramatisation of the declining years and final collapse of three of the most powerful European dynasties - the Hapsburgs Romanovs and Hohanzollerns - between the mid 19th century and the end of the First World War. The series focuses on the tempestuous reigns of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany....

• Wall of Death. aka There is Another Sun | DVD | (27/02/2012) from £17.53   |  Saving you £-4.54 (-34.90%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A most entertaining film showing Britain in the fifties.This 1951 Nettlefold production was directed by Lewis Gilbert, who went on to direct a whole string of hit films, Reach for the Sky, three James Bond films, Alfie, Shirley Valentine and many more.In this early work with the help of an excellent cast, the director shows his skills in aking a fairly simple plot most entertaining.Laurence Harvey is 'Mag Maguire' a likeable fairground boxer and Maxwell Reed, 'Eddie Racer' a motorbike daredevil rider. The mutual love interest is the lovely Susan Shaw. Good roles from Leslie Dwyer and Meredith Edwards.

• Court Martial Of Major Keller - Classic British Cinema | DVD | (15/02/2010) from £11.92   |  Saving you £-1.93 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Laurence Payne stars as Major Keller a well respected and decorated officer who is being court-martialled for the murder of his commanding officer Colonel Winch. The facts of the case are shrouded by the mayhem of war and the effects that fear pressure and duty have upon a soldier. Did the Major covet the Colonel's wife? Was the Major ambitious and kill Winch to secure a promotion? Or had the Colonel cracked under the pressure of an illustrious battle career? To prove his innocence Major Keller must rely on the evidence and testimonies given in court however when he himself is the only witness his word may not be good enough to win his freedom.

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - Tragedy At Marsden Manor / The Double Clue | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Tragedy At Marsden Manor: Poirot is called in to investigate a murder at the local hotel. The Double Clue: Four unsolved robberies are creating work for Inspector Japp who has to call in Poirot for some assistance.

• Hellraiser / Hellraiser 2 | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £19.78   |  Saving you £-1.79 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Having made his reputation as one of the most prolific and gifted horror writers of his generation (prompting Stephen King to call him "the future of horror"), Clive Barker made a natural transition to movies with this audacious directorial debut from 1987. Not only did Barker serve up a chilling tale of devilish originality, he also introduced new icons of horror that since have become as popular among genre connoisseurs as Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman. Foremost among these frightful, Hellraiser visions is the sadomasochistic demon affectionately named Pinhead (so named because his pale, bald head is a geometric pincushion and a symbol of eternal pain). Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites, agents of evil who appear only when someone successfully "solves" the exotic puzzle box called the Lamont Configuration--a mysterious device that opens the door to Hell. The puzzle's latest victim is Frank (Sean Chapman), who now lives in a gelatinous skeletal state in an upstairs room of the British home just purchased by his newlywed half-brother (Andrew Robinson, best known as the villain from Dirty Harry), who has married one of Frank's former lovers (Claire Higgins). The latter is recruited to supply the cannibalistic Frank with fresh victims, enabling him to reconstitute his own flesh--but will Frank succeed in restoring himself completely? Will Pinhead continue to demonstrate the flesh-ripping pleasures of absolute agony? Your reaction to this description should tell you if you've got the stomach for Barker's film, which has since spawned a number of interesting but inferior sequels. It's definitely not for everyone, but there's no denying that it's become a semiclassic of modern horror. --Jeff Shannon