"Actor: Maria"

• Les Enfants Terribles | DVD | (30/08/2004) from £14.75   |  Saving you £5.24 (35.53%)   |  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

• Rush | DVD | (27/01/2014) from £5.13   |  Saving you £14.86 (289.67%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Academy Award winner Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind Apollo 13) teams once again with Academy Award-nominated writer Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon Last king of Scotland) on Rush a fast-paced and spectacular re-creation of the merciless and legendary 1970s Formula 1 rivalry between gifted English playboy James Hunt (Chris Hemsworth of The Avengers Thor) and his disciplined Austrian opponent Niki Lauda (Daniel Bruhl of Inglourious Basterds The Bourne Ultimatum). Set against the sexy and glamorous golden age of racing Rush portrays the exhilarating true story of the charismatic Hunt and the methodically brilliant Lauda two of the greatest rivals the world of sports has ever witnessed. Taking us into their personal lives and clashes on and off the Grand Prix racetrack Rush follows the two drivers as they push themselves to the breaking point of physical and psychological endurance where there is no shortcut to victory and no margin for error.

• Payback | Blu Ray | (21/09/2009) from £7.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (100.13%)   |  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.

• Slap the Monster on Page One | Blu Ray | (18/11/2024) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Days before a general election a young girl is raped and murdered. Bizanti (Gian Maria Volonté, The Working Class Goes to Heaven), the editor of a right-wing newspaper uses the story to help the conservative candidate his paper supports. The tumultuous time of Italy's ˜Years of Lead' are captured in Marco Bellocchio's powerful political drama which directly addressed topics of its day and even prefigured the creation of the right-wing paper Il giornale, which came into being two years after this film. In an age of media manipulation Slap the Monster on Page One has never been more relevant and stands proudly alongside such Italian activist classics as We Still Kill the Old Way and The Mattei Affair. LIMITED EDITION BLU-RAY SPECIAL FEATURES 4K restoration of the film from the original negative by Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with Surf Film and Kavac Film, under the supervision of director Marco Bellocchio Uncompressed mono PCM audio Archival interview with Marco Bellocchio (21 mins) Newly filmed interview with critic and author Mario Sesti (2024, 25 mins) Appreciation by filmmaker Alex Cox (2024, 10 mins) Newly improved English subtitle translation Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Wesley Sharer

• The Deep | DVD | (21/10/2013) from £13.39   |  Saving you £4.60 (34.35%)   |  RRP £17.99

• ER - The Complete Fourth Season | DVD | (16/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £45.99

  Set in a Chicago County General Hospital, the multi-Emmy winning ER is very much in the tradition established by the earlier Hill Street Blues. Like that series, ER also features a range of strong characters whose personal lives often reflect the turmoil of their working environment. It also similarly features a deft, fast-moving mix of comedy, intrigue and tragedy. It could also be seen as a precursor to The West Wing, in that we regard with some awe the ability of these characters to keep on top of the mounting chaos in their day-to-day lives and the myriad problems thrown at them. In ER, this chaos may mean crack addicts, violent patients tumbling through plate glass screens, vindictive colleagues or a chief of staff who insists that fellow surgeons operate on his sick dog. --David Stubbs

• Demonic | DVD | (07/09/2015) from £4.23   |  Saving you £10.02 (337.37%)   |  RRP £12.99

• Titanic (ITV) | DVD | (16/04/2012) from £11.97   |  Saving you £8.02 (67.00%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Titanic is a four part serial created by BAFTA-winning producer Nigel Stafford-Clark (Warriors; The Way We Live Now; Bleak House) and written by Oscar and Emmy winner Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park; Downton Abbey) to mark the hundredth anniversary of the world's most famous maritime disaster in April 1912. It sets out to tell the story not just of a single ship, but of an entire society - one that was heading towards its own nemesis in the shape of the First World War as carelessly as Titanic towards the iceberg.This world, soon to vanish forever, is brought alive by a cast of over 80, featuring the cream of acting talent from Britain and beyond, including Linus Roache (Law & Order; Batman Begins), Geraldine Somerville (Harry Potter; Cracker), Celia Imrie (Bridget Jones's Diary; Kingdom), Toby Jones (My Week with Marilyn; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Captain America), Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Tudors; The Commitments), Perdita Weeks (The Promise; The Tudors; Lost in Austen), Jenna-Louise Coleman (Waterloo Road; Emmerdale), Steven Waddington (Sleepy Hollow; Last of the Mohicans), Lyndsey Marshal (Hereafter; Being Human; Rome), Ruth Bradley (Primeval), Peter McDonald (The Damned United; City of Vice) and Timothy West (Bleak House; Ever After; The Day of the Jackal) amongst many others.All human life is on Titanic as she sets out on her maiden voyage. The upper-class family with their suffragette daughter and their warring servants; the wealthy elite of American society; the Irish lawyer in Second Class with his embittered wife; the young cabin steward and the impetuous Italian waiter who falls for her; the Catholic engineer fleeing Belfast with his wife and family to escape the sectarian conflict; the mysterious stranger in Steerage fleeing who knows what. And then there are the officers and crew. As their stories interweave and we find our first impressions are often undermined by what we learn, there is one thing that we know for certain and they do not - that not all of them will survive.

• 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 £7.57   |  Saving you £16.68 (264.34%)   |  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

• KONOSUBA - An Explosion on This Wonderful World! | Blu Ray | (10/06/2024) from £22.05   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  This feisty young wizard will stop at nothing to master the spell that saved her life: Explosion! Megumin, the Greatest Genius of the Crimson Magic Clan, has chosen to devote her studies to the powerful offensive magic used by her mysterious savior. Then one day, her little sister finds a black kitten in the woods. But this cat isn't just a new furry friend-she's the key to awakening a Dark God!

• An American Werewolf In Paris | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £14.49   |  Saving you £-1.50 (N/A%)   |  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 £12.94   |  Saving you £-6.95 (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 £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  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 £11.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (16.68%)   |  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

• One Fine Day | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £7.19   |  Saving you £5.80 (80.67%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This gentle comedy almost seems like something out of Hollywood's Golden Age, a movie that might have been made by a talented contract director, perhaps featuring Don Ameche and Claudette Colbert. But in fact One Fine Day stars George Clooney as an investigative columnist for a New York newspaper and Michelle Pfeiffer as an architect. Both single parents, the two meet and bicker and develop a relationship over the course of a day while their young children play together. Michael Hoffman (Restoration) directs with a good sense of what's funny about harried caretakers and kids who do whatever they want to do. The story stretches out of shape a bit when Clooney's character has to rally to prove some point of corruption at City Hall; nobody involved seems quite up to making that subplot believable, but all that really matters about this very nice movie is the winning love story. --Tom Keogh

• Night Watch/Day Watch | DVD | (28/01/2008) from £9.47   |  Saving you £15.52 (163.89%)   |  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 £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (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