"Actor: Maria C"

• Le Cercle Rouge | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Melville's masterful take on the American crime thriller perfectly combines the Hollywood gangster film with his uniquely French style. Starring Alain Delon as a master theif Yves Montand as an alcoholic ex-cop and Italian star Gian-Maria Volonte as an escaped criminal the trio plot a daring heist of an upmarket Parisian jewellery store against impossible odds.

• All About My Mother | DVD | (28/02/2000) from £3.25   |  Saving you £16.74 (515.08%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A Greek saying states that only women who have washed their eyes with tears can see clearly.

• The King's Man | DVD | (21/02/2022) from £8.25   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Set during WWI, The King's Man tells the exhilarating origin story of Kingsman, the world's very first independent intelligence agency. As a collection of history's worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gathers to plot a war to wipe out millions across the globe, one man must race against time to stop them.

• Mid-August Lunch | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £8.95   |  Saving you £7.04 (78.66%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mid-August Lunch

• Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! | DVD | (27/12/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A love story with strings attached! Recently released from a mental institution Ricky (Banderas) sets in motion his grand plan. Hunting down the porn star with whom he once had sex Ricky tries to convince her to be his wife. However when she's somewhat reluctant to say the least to take up his offer of marriage he vows to tie her down to endear himself to her...

• Les Enfants Terribles | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £14.31   |  Saving you £5.68 (39.69%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jean-Pierre Melville's second film, made in 1950, became a significant influence among French film-makers and earned Melville renown as a maverick who could do wonderful things outside his country's studio system. (Melville's independence was a forerunner of that enjoyed later in the decade by New Wave figures such as François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.) Les Enfants Terribles is based on a 1929 novel by poet and film-maker Jean Cocteau, who also wrote the script with Melville and according to some people interfered in everything from the casting (the rather stiff male lead was a Cocteau protégé) to the photography. Nevertheless, the story of a sister (an outstanding performance by Nicole Stephane) and brother (Edouard Dhermite) who withdraw into their own, insulated world to play out suggestively erotic dramas, has a fluid, lyrical movement that is part of a visionary whole. In some ways a harbinger of the coming pop narcissism of youth culture, Les Enfants Terribles is also a timeless tale of mythic exploration of existence and purpose. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Payback | Blu Ray | (21/09/2009) from £8.75   |  Saving you £7.24 (82.74%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mel Gibson portrays hard-boiled Porter in Payback a fast frequently funny and ecstatically twisted blend of action and noir atmosphere co-written and directed by Brian Helgeland Academy Award winner for L.A. Confidential based on the 'Point Blank' novel by Richard Stark. Porter makes his living outside the law. So when his partners in a heist rip off his 000 share and leave him for dead there's only one way for Porter to settle things: his way. And that sends him on a vendetta that will have a lot of lowlifes gaping at the talking end of Porters fat revolver. Crooked cops street gangs spineless flyspecks crime bosses anyone and everyone standing between Porter and his 70 grand are going to know he's back with a vengeance.

• Demonic | DVD | (07/09/2015) from £4.78   |  Saving you £9.97 (330.13%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Eurotrash - Unzipped | DVD | (19/11/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  For people who like to snigger knowingly about sex and bodily functions, Eurotrash Unzipped is essential. It contains selections from all the seasons of Eurotrash, and a lot of material that was never shown because it was too gross, sexual or simply embarrassing--moments where the remorseless sexy teasing of host Antoine de Caunes just went a little too far. There is an entertaining featurette in which we are taken behind the scenes to the editing suite in which the voice-over staff decide precisely which irritating English accent to dub over the unfortunate French and German interviewees; this is a show that has always combined the view that foreigners are funny with the view that most British accents are funny as well. There is a memorial segment about the massive-breasted Lolo Ferrari, an odd exchange with Eddie Izzard about the danger of British breakfasts, trampolines and helicopters and the usual mixture of the grosser bits of the artistic avant-garde and the more pretentiously up-front sort of sex worker. It is business as usual--De Caunes, and occasionally Jean-Paul Gaultier, laughing at everyone, including themselves and the audience, for even bothering to talk about sex. On the DVD: The DVD, which is presented in Dolby Sound and a standard TV 4:3 ratio, also contains a photo gallery, some special-effects outtakes in which Antoine de Caunes performs more outrageous stunts than usual, Victoria Silvstedt saying sexy things in several languages, and (for computer DVD users) a feature which enables you to design your own garish Eurotrash set.--Roz Kaveney

• A Fish Called Wanda | DVD | (10/02/2003) from £8.78   |  Saving you £14.21 (161.85%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Barrister Archie (John Cleese) falls in love and tosses off more than his wig for sexy thief Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) - who can charm the pants off anyone! To make things worse Wanda is already using her charms on fellow partner-in-crime Otto (Kevin Kline in an Oscar-winning performance) a dim-witted intellectual psychopath who thinks the London Underground is a political movement! Meanwhile Otto is making eyes at henchman Ken (Michael Palin) an animal loving multiple dog-kille

• An American Werewolf In Paris | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £12.79   |  Saving you £0.20 (1.56%)   |  RRP £12.99

  On the strength of his Hitchcockian-thriller debut, Mute Witness, writer-director Anthony Waller was hired to direct this belated sequel to the 1981 horror comedyAn American Werewolf in London but lycanthropy in the City of Light just ain't what it used to be. The movie offers plenty of gruesome make-up and special wolf-transformation effects and there are some effectively spooky moments in the plot involving an underground population of hungry Parisian werewolves. One of them is seductively played by Julie Delpy, who is rescued from attempted suicide by an American tourist (Tom Everett Scott, from That Thing You Do!) but ultimately can't hide her dual identity when darkness falls and the full moon shines. The movie begins well but gradually succumbs to nonsense and mayhem, prompting critic Roger Ebert to observe that "here are people we don't care about,doing things they don't understand, in a movie without anyrules". In other words, you'd have to be a die-hard horror buff to give this one the benefit of the doubt.--Jeff Shannon

• Godzilla | DVD | (29/03/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As "gigantic monster reptile attacks New York" movies go, you've got to admit that Godzilla delivers the goods, although its critical drubbing and box-office disappointment were arguably deserved. It's a shameless, uninspired crowd-pleaser that's content to serve up familiar action with the advantage of really fantastic special effects, and if you expect nothing more you'll be one among millions of satisfied customers. There's really no other way to approach it--you just have to accept the fact that Independence Day creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin are unapologetic plagiarists, incapable of anything more than mindless spectacle that can play in any cinema in the world without dubbing or subtitles. The whole movie plays out like a series of highlights stolen from previous blockbusters of the 1990s; it's little more than a rehash of the Jurassic Park movies. The derivative script is so trivial that it's unworthy of comment, apart from a few choice laughs and the casting of Michael Lerner as New York's mayor, whose name is Ebert and who closely resembles a certain well-known movie critic. Perhaps that's a clever hint that this movie's essentially critic-proof. It's stupid but it's fun, and for most audiences that's a fitting definition of mainstream Hollywood entertainment. --Jeff Shannon

• The Sea Purple | DVD | (20/06/2011) from £9.98   |  Saving you £8.01 (80.26%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Based on a true story Sea Purple is a scintilating period drama that tells the smouldering love story of two young women - Angela and Sara - and the infamous 19th Century Sicillian scandal that they caused. Angela is tough and fearless but struggles to hide her feelings for Sara in public. In order to stop their sinful relationship from being discovered she decides to disguise herself as a man. While still holding onto her identity as a woman being a man lets Angela throw off the shackles of Sicillian male dominated oppression making her feel more powerful than she ever had before. Uplifting and enthralling we are shown two women who are willing to defy the rules of society to do anything to ensure that they remain together.

• The Nutty Professor 2 - The Klumps | DVD | (03/11/2008) from £5.33   |  Saving you £10.66 (200.00%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Eddie Murphy takes on a plethora of roles in this hit comedy, as Professor Sherman Klump finds his life once again being taken over by his suave alter ego Buddy Love.

• Payback | DVD | (20/09/1999) from £5.91   |  Saving you £8.08 (136.72%)   |  RRP £13.99

  If it weren't for the fact that John Boorman's Point Blank was already a definitive take on Richard Stark's novel The Hunter (reissued under the title Payback), Payback would be a well-above-average 90s action movie. The original toughness is diluted: Mel Gibson's Porter, replacing Lee Marvin's Walker and Stark's Parker, comes on like a hardnut but turns into a softie when he hooks up with call-girl Maria Bello (and he even likes dogs). Double-crossed and wounded after shifty Gregg Henry dupes Porter's wife (Deborah Kara Unger) into betraying him, Porter sets out to get back the $70,000 share of a heist that he feels he is owed. Because Henry has used the money to buy his way into "the Outfit", he has to deal not only with the squirming scumbag but a hierarchy of corporate mobsters (William Devane, James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson) for whom it would be bad business practice to hand over even the trivial sum. Director-writer Brian Helgeland gives it a steely-blue look and gets good performances all round (with room for Lucy Liu as an amusing dominatrix) while constructing a story in which everything fits. But it's just a good thriller, since the masterpiece potential has already been staked out. --Kim Newman

• Night Watch/Day Watch | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £5.98   |  Saving you £19.01 (317.89%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Nightwatch: Embrace the day. Fear the night. With a centuries old truce beginning to break down the forces of light and darkness come to do battle in modern day Moscow... Based on the first of Sergei Lukyanenko's trilogy of sci-fi horror novels Night Watch is a groundbreaking new phenomenon the highest-grossing Russian film of all time! Daywatch: Like The Matrix Day Watch combines cutting-edge digital effects and mind-blowing action to create a stunningly original world. Only one thing stands between peace and Armageddon: the supernatural agents of Day Watch who fight to control the armies of light and darkness. When the son of a senior Day Watch officer turns to the darkness forces beyond the imagination are unleashed and the fate of the world hangs in the balance!

• Behind Convent Walls | DVD | (19/11/2012) from £24.98   |  Saving you £-4.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The cloistered atmosphere of a 19th century convent becomes a hotbed of repressed desire in this film by Walerian Borowczyk, director of 'The Beast' and 'The Streetwalker'.

• The Odessa File | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Originally released in 1974, The Odessa File is set in Hamburg a decade earlier. Its starting-point is the Nazi support network Odessa, and its involvement with Egyptian plans to destroy Israel. Peter Miller is a freelance journalist whose interest appears initially to be a professional one, before a personal dimension finally becomes apparent in his confrontation with SS Captain Roschmann. Kenneth Ross adapts a well-honed screenplay from Frederick Forsyth's bestseller, and director Ronald Neame captures a typically Cold War sense of individuals and organisations playing out a scenario of political right and wrong. John Voight, long before he became a cameo star, makes a sympathetic lead, able to judge between the moral and material aspects of his profession. Mary Tamm is photogenic, if uninvolving, as his girlfriend, while Maximillian Schell is a convincing Nazi stereotype. Andrew Lloyd-Weber contributes a serviceable score, centred on the catchy "Christmas Dream" sung by Perry Como. Not a classic suspense thriller, but an enjoyable and thoughtful one. On the DVD: the letterbox widescreen format preserves the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of the cinema release with decent if not exceptional clarity, with optional 16:9 TV enhancement. There are French, German, Italian and Spanish overdubs, and subtitles in 21 languages. Detailed filmographies for Neame, Voight and Schell are included and the theatrical trailer is to the point in a way they so rarely are these days. --Richard Whitehouse

• Orphee | DVD | (27/10/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Cocteau's fantastical updating of the Orpheus legend is cinematic poetry. Unforgettable and profoundly influential.

• Never Say Never Again | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £16.58   |  Saving you £-0.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  After years of enduring Roger Moore in the role of James Bond, it was good to have Sean Connery back in 1983 for Never Say Never Again, a one-time-only trip down 007's memory lane. Connery's Bond, a bit of a dinosaur in the British secret service at (then) 52, is still in demand during times of crisis. Sadly, the film is not very good. In this rehash of Thunderball, Bond is pitted against a worthy underwater villain (Klaus Maria Brandauer); and while the requisite Bond Girls include beauties Kim Basinger and Barbara Carrera, they can't save the movie. The script has several truly dumb passages, among them a (gasp) video-game duel between 007 and his nemesis that now looks utterly anachronistic. For Connery fans, however, this widescreen print of the Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back) film is a chance to say a final goodbye to a perfect marriage of actor and character. --Tom Keogh