"Actor: Mary Brian"

• Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves | DVD | (01/06/2006) from £10.73   |  Saving you £8.26 (76.98%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Kevin Costner's lousy English accent is a small obstacle in this often exciting version of the Robin Hood fable. That aside, it's refreshing to have a preface to the old story in which we meet the robber hero of Sherwood Forest as a soldier in King Richard's Crusades, coming home to find his people under siege from the cruelties of the Sheriff of Nottingham (Alan Rickman). After Robin and his community of outcasts and fighters take to the trees, director Kevin Reynolds (Fandango, 187) is on more familiar narrative ground, and he goes for the gusto with lots of original action (Robin shoots two arrows simultaneously from his bow in two directions). Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as Marion, makes a convincing damsel in distress and Morgan Freeman brings dignity to his role as Robin's Moor friend. Alan Rickman, however, gets the most attention for his scene-chewing role as the rotten sheriff, an almost campy performance that is highly entertaining but perhaps a little out of sorts with the rest of the film. --Tom Keogh

• The Challenge | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £5.38   |  Saving you £8.61 (160.04%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Estranged teen sisters who live on opposite sides of the country are brought together as teammates in the TV show ""The Challenge"" much to their surprise. In order to win the grand prize - college scholarships - they'll need to reconcile their differences work together and keep their romances a secret from the producers all at the same time!

• Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves - 2 disc Special Edition | DVD | (26/01/2004) from £13.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (35.74%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves reinvented the legend for contemporary cinema audiences, and in doing so far outstripped at the box office even Kevin Costner's own infinitely superior Dances with Wolves to become the biggest hit of 1991. It's an entertaining enough family adventure film, but plays like a big-budget TV movie with no distinctive flair for action or romance. (Director Kevin Reynolds would reunite with Costner four years later for the equally stodgy Waterworld). If the accents are all over the place, at least Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio makes a Maid Marion of ravishing Pre-Raphaelite beauty. Morgan Freeman is fine as Robin's Moorish sidekick, though, other than to expand the demographic, his character has no business being in the story. Realising that the whole enterprise has the credibility of a pantomime, Alan Rickman outrageously camps up his Sheriff of Nottingham, stealing the film in the process. Costner makes an acceptable hero, though he will never replace Errol Flynn in the definitive The Adventures of Robin Hood. If you can accept explosives in 13th-century England, that the approach to Sherwood Forest is a modern conifer plantation and that the 170 miles from Dover to Nottingham is a matter of a few hours ride via Northumberland, then you may find much to enjoy here. Otherwise an already overlong film has been extended to an excessive 148 minutes in this special edition, making far too much of a not very good thing. On the DVD: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is presented as a two-disc set, with a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that is generally good looking but with an occasionally soft picture and some evidence of dirt and minor print damage. The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the original stereo soundtrack is atmospheric and powerful and shows off Michael Kamen's score to its best. Though presented with 12 minutes of footage not seen in the cinema version, the film still suffers most of the cuts (amounting to 28 seconds) imposed by the BBFC over the years. The main extras are a pair of commentaries: Costner and Reynolds discuss the film in frank and enthusiastic detail, while on a second track Freeman, Slater, writer/producer Pen Densham and cowriter/producer John Watson offer a great deal of insight plus a fair bit of stating the obvious, backslapping and critic bashing. Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (31 mins) is a cut version of a 45-minute TV special originally broadcast in America the night before the premiere, and offers an interesting if brief look at the Robin Hood story plus some routine making-of material. Finally, there is a video of Bryan Adams performing "Everything I Do, I Do It for You" live at Slane Castle and 18 minutes worth of bland electronic presskit-style archive interviews with Costner, Freeman, Mastrantonio, Slater and Alan Rickman, plus the original American trailer, a stills gallery and cast and crew list. --Gary S Dalkin

• Jay Jay The Jet Plane | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Jay Jay and his pals have great fun and learn valuable life lessons in homely Tarrytown: kids will love the fun and excitement parents will love the gentle educational messages! Episodes include: The Counting Game Jay Jay Meets Captain Hightower A Trip To Skylandia Jay Jay's Butterfly Adventure Jay Jay And The Magic Books Tuffy's Trip To Pangabula Tuffy's Adventure In Pangabula.

• Bing Crosby Collection - Birth Of The Blues / Blue Skies | DVD | (08/05/2006) from £8.44   |  Saving you £7.55 (89.46%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A fantastic double bill from the legendary Bing Crosby. Birth Of The Blues (Dir. Victor Schertzinger 1941): Bing Crosby and Mary Martin star as two jazz artists in the swinging world of 1920's New Orleans. Crosby is Jeff Lambert a clarinet player who is out to start a band called the Basin Street Hot-Shots. When Betty Lou (Martin) joins as vocalist romance ensues between everyone involved stirring things up a bit. The film pays homage to Dixieland greats such as Duke Ellin

• All Creatures Great And Small - Series 3 | DVD | (23/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Episodes Comprise: 1. Plenty to Grouse About 2. Charity Begins at Home 3. Every Dog His Day... 4. Hair of the Dog 5. If Wishes Were Horses 6. Pig in the Middle 7. Be Prepared 8. A Dying Breed 9. Brink of Disaster 10. Home and Away 11. Alarms & Excursions 12. Matters of Life and Death 13. Will to Live 14. Big Steps and Little 'Uns

• The Gladiator | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  Los Angeles which lives by the automobile has begun to die by it. A homicidal maniac the Skull has been terrorizing the city killing motorists at random with his death car. But when Rick's little brother is killed Rick becomes part Guardian Angel part crusader and part warrior with one thing on his mind - revenge.

• Challenge, The / New York Minute | DVD | (24/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  The Challenge: Estranged teen sisters who live on opposite sides of the country are brought together as teammates in the TV show ""The Challenge"" much to their surprise. In order to win the grand prize - college scholarships - they'll need to reconcile their differences work together and keep their romances a secret from the producers all at the same time! (Dir. Craig Shapiro 2003 Cert. PG) New York Minute: This action comedy follows one monumental day in the lives

• Beauty & The Beast - Two Disc Collectors Edition | DVD | (02/11/2002) from £32.99   |  Saving you £-8.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Disney's classic animated retelling of the French fairy tale, with a new scene added for the forthcoming Imax exclusive re-release.

• Timeslip - Series 1 To 4 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  'Timeslip' has a special hold on the memories of those children who saw it when it was first broadcast in the 70s however it has been long gone...until now! When a young girl vanishes near a derelict naval station in St Oswald a fantastic series of events is set in motion which sends teenagers Simon Randall and Liz Skinner backwards and forwards time. The Wrong End Of Time Teenager Sarah enters a private but deserted Ministry of Defence field. Hearing a strange noise she

• Switching Goals | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £24.88   |  Saving you £-10.89 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Originally made for American TV, Switching Goals stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as super-identical twins who are actually total opposites. OK, it's not the freshest concept in the universe, but the teen divas (who also exec produce--as they did in their Passport to Paris) are an undeniable favourite with little girls. Here, they're Sam, the athletic one, and Emma, the fashion-conscious one. Their indulgent dad (Eric Lutes) coaches a soccer team and their workaholic mother (Kathryn Greenwood) is a psychologist. Look for a switch, the truth to be revealed, and all to end well. This TV movie should appeal to girls between 4 and 10, especially if any of them are handy on the soccer pitch.--N.F. Mendoza, Amazon.com

• Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves / Last Of The Mohicans / The Bodyguard | DVD | (17/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Last Of The Mohicans: 1757: the war raging between England and France in the American colonies enters its third year. Moving through the dangerous and untamed land is the frontiersman Hawkeye adopted son of the Mohican Chingachgook. En route to a camp in the West he breaks up an ambush and rescues a group of English people including Cora Munro. Hawkeye agrees to guide them to safety and in doing so all their fates become intertwined as they are forced to fight to survive both the war - and the wilderness... The Mission: Set in the quasi-mystical rain forests of South America 'The Mission' presents each man with his greatest challenge. The priest (Irons) has come to spread the word of God amongst the Guarani Indians; the mercenary (De Niro) has come to enslave them. With the passing of time their destinies become entwined... Robin Hood - Prince Of Thieves: It was a time of tyrants: the only way to uphold the truth was to break the law. He fought for the good of all men and for the love of just one woman. Kevin Costner brings the epic hero Robin Hood to life in a film filled with pageantry intrigue action and romance. With an outstanding cast record-breaking theme song and film production on a sweeping scale 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' has become a legend in its own right.

• 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

• Best Seller | DVD | (16/09/2002) from £4.15   |  Saving you £10.10 (349.48%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Flynn has directed some good, tough, pacy thrillers and Best Seller, along with the 1973 The Outfit, can claim to be the best of them. It kicks off with not one but two slam-bang action sequences and then, having grabbed our attention, pitches us straight into its twisty plot premise. Brian Dennehy, reliably watchable as ever, plays an ageing cop-turned-novelist who has hit a writer's block since his wife died. James Woods at his most suavely sinister is a hitman with dirt to dish on the head of a big corporation. Woods proposes a Faustian pact. He provides Dennehy with the full crooked story on the mobster-turned-corporate boss and the cop writes it up. Dennehy gets a best seller; Woods gets his revenge and comes out looking like a hero. The dialogue, courtesy of screenwriter and horror-movie director Larry Cohen (It's Alive; Q--The Winged Serpent), is satisfyingly hard-boiled and slips in plenty of subversive sideswipes at rampant capitalism. ("It's the American Way, Dennis," says Woods, detailing how he helped his boss rise via robbery and murder. "I'm a businessman, an executive.") This certainly isn't the only movie to get mileage out of the symbiotic relationship between cop and crook (see Michael Mann's Heat), but it works several neat variations on the theme, with Dennehy and Woods both at the top of their respective forms. If the film never quite lives up to its potential--the required final confrontation between the two principals doesn't materialise and Victoria Tennant is thrown away as Dennehy's love-interest--it remains a way better than average thriller with its roots deep in the best B-movie traditions. On the DVD: Best Seller on disc has no extras apart from the theatrical trailer. The transfer is good and clean, and preserves the original's full-width framing. --Philip Kemp

• Beauty And The Beast | DVD | (02/11/2002) from £13.38   |  Saving you £6.61 (49.40%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Disney's classic animated retelling of the French fairy tale, with a new scene added for the forthcoming Imax exclusive re-release.

• Go Toward The Light | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  The emotional true story of a family's powerful love as they unite to save their eight year-old boy's life from AIDS...

• Kate & Mim-Mim - Funny Bunny Friend | DVD | (23/03/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

• Beauty and the Beast (Blu-ray 3D + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (03/10/2011) from £18.38   |  Saving you £14.60 (94.87%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Acclaimed and treasured like no other, Disney's beloved modern classic, the first animated feature film in the history of the Oscars nominated for Best Picture (1991), is brilliantly transformed to a new level of entertainment through the magic of 3D Blu-ray High Definition. The music you'll never forget, the characters who will fill your heart and the magical adventure about finding beauty within all come to spectacular life in 3D Blu-ray. Plus, all-new, immersive bonus features will transport you even further into Belle's enchanted world. So be our guest and join the beloved, independent Belle and the Beast with the soul of a prince as they cast an enchanting spell like never before.

• The Price Of Vengeance - In The Line Of Duty | DVD | (22/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  Detective Tom Williams investigating the affairs of local gangster Johnnie Moore is gunned down. An L.A cop is called in to continue the case and see that Moore goes to the gas chamber... Based on a true story.

• Dolly Parton - Blue Valley Songbird | DVD | (25/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In a totally unexpected piece of casting, Blue Valley Songbird stars Dolly Parton as a country singer/songwriter with big hair, large breasts and lots of lippy. The comparison ends there, though, because here she plays Leana Taylor, a talented performer hampered by her provincial background (and unpleasant manager/boyfriend) who realises she must escape her small-town roots in order to achieve her true potential. This isn't the most taxing of narratives, but it's the music that counts here. This movie is of the "musical drama" genre--take a star musical performer, give them the lead role in a movie, then furnish them with every excuse to perform therein so long as it can be done as a realistic element within the overall story--and as such it's highly agreeable. Parton not only has buckets of musical talent but also has plausible acting skills, even if the viewer is bound to think that these are mainly to do with being Dolly Parton. In any event, the songs are excellent, so this is well worth watching even if you find yourself fast-forwarding until you see someone picking a guitar up.--Roger Thomas