"Actor: Mary"

• Trumpet Of The Swan | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £3.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (33.40%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Jason Alexander's vocal performance as the hambone father of Louie, a mute trumpet swan, is quite simply the most entertaining element of Trumpet of the Swan, an animated version of EB White's children's novel. Given to long-winded speeches and flamboyant displays (Alexander's extended "death scene" after his character is nicked on the wing is a hoot), the former George Costanza's hot-air waterfowl partially salvages this oddly unmoving family feature. The story concerns the silent Louie (his thoughts are spoken by actor Jeffrey Schoeny), who suffers the ridicule of other swans but communicates a depth of feeling by playing a brass horn. The restless script has difficulty developing a coherent emotional rise; director Richard Rich (The Swan Princess) would have done well to cut back on the number of discrete episodes that rush by with dizzying, graceless speed. Joe Mantegna signs on as the voice of a big-city scoundrel who signs Louie to an exploitative music contract, while Mary Steenburgen plays Louie's mother, and Reese Witherspoon speaks for the hero's true love. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Judgement Day - The Ellie Nesler Story | DVD | (13/03/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Judgement Day presents all sides of this compelling and emotionally charged case and stars: Oscar-winner Christine Lahti (Chicago Hope) as Ellie Nesler; Mary Kay Place (The Big Chill) as her sister Jan; award-winning child actor Andrew Ducote (Thanks) as Brandon Nesler; and Barry Corbin (Northern Exposure) as Ellie Nesler's flamboyant defence attorney Tony Serra. The story of Ellie Nesler raises many complex questions and she provoked a national

• Affliction | DVD | (19/02/2001) from £14.98   |  Saving you £5.01 (33.44%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Wade Whitehouse (Nick Nolte) is at a turning point in his life. People order him around everywhere he turns from his demanding boss to his ex-wife who won't let him see his daughter to his ageing violent alcoholic father (Academy Award winner James Coburn). For Wade the future looks bleak until his quiet New Hampshire town is shattered by the death of a Boston union official in a deer hunt led by Wade's friend Jack. The incident is written off as an accident but Wade suspects that Jack is guilty of murder. Solving the crime becomes Wade's obsession and his last opportunity to redeem himself in the eyes of the town his ex-wife his father and - most of all - himself. Featuring an impressive star cast Affliction is a tense and compelling psycho-drama from Paul Schrader screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and director of American Gigolo.

• Dead Sexy | DVD | (09/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Dead Sexy is yet another entry in the spurious "erotic thriller" genre. Although it attempts to pass itself off as a crime drama, the credibility of the whole affair is stretched somewhat by casting ex-Playboy Playmate Shannon Tweed in the lead role of Detective Kate McBain, the police officer leading investigations into a suspected serial killer. This time, though, Tweed (who also produced the film) does a sterling job of both keeping her clothes on (most of the time) and acting her way through the movie. Every cliché in the book is utilised, but the movie might have stood up to repeated viewing if it took itself a little less seriously. As it is, the frequent sex scenes are crow-barred in to signal some sort of plot development as the whole thing moves towards its rather lame conclusion, unable to decide whether it wants to offer explicit adult entertainment or serious drama. Ultimately this is one for fans of Tweed, not those who relish a good whodunit. On the DVD: Dead Sexy is surprisingly high-budget and offers good picture and sound quality. Extras are limited to a filmography of Tweed and her wooden co-star John Enos, plus a theatrical trailer that does a fair job of summing up the movie's mix of sex and action. --Phil Udell

• The Thing (2011) (Blu-ray + Digital Copy | Blu Ray | (26/03/2012) from £14.88   |  Saving you £10.11 (40.50%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Antarctica: an extraordinary continent of awesome beauty. It is also home to an isolated outpost where a discovery full of scientific possibility becomes a mission of survival when an alien is unearthed by a crew of international scientists.

• Ghosthouse | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  'Ghosthouse' is a chilling haunted house tale with twists and turns that'll keep you guessing. Director Umberto Lenzi (here credited as Humphrey Humbert) throws every last horror genre trapping there is into the plot involving a haunted house a spooky clown and many gruesome deaths!

• The Enforcer | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £6.98   |  Saving you £9.01 (129.08%)   |  RRP £15.99

  The amazing Jet Li plays a cop whose job keeps him from attending his son's junior kung fu competitions in The Enforcer. When sent undercover to infiltrate the gang of a brutal mob boss, his arrest--part of his cover story--exposes his son to humiliation in school. Meanwhile, his wife falls deeper into illness. The Enforcer is a classic Hong Kong blend of dazzling kung fu action and outrageously sentimental subplots. Yet as silly as some situations may seem (and let's be honest, they aren't any more ridiculous than your average Sly Stallone or Arnold Schwarzenegger movie), they're never boring, and when the spectacular fights begin it doesn't matter--Jet Li's stunning skill and natural charisma make him magnetic. Anita Mui--co-starring as a police detective tracking Li down--gets to do her share of fighting as well. In the finale, father and son team up for a battle as funny as it is spectacular. The stunts are jaw-dropping and the special effects, while not always perfectly realistic, are bursts of pure imagination.--Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com

• Cousin Bette | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on Honore de Balzac's best selling novel this 1971 BBC adaptation of Cousin Bette stars Margaret Tyzack (Victoria & Albert) and Helen Mirren (Calendar Girls) alongside a stellar cast. Cousin Bette is set against a back drop of decadent Parisian society. The poor cousin of Baroness Adeline Hulot Lisbeth Fischer (Cousin Bette) nurses deep-seated jealousy and resentment against the Hulot family. She eventually takes her revenge on the ones that betrayed her and she will not re

• White Sands | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £18.99

  Red-hot stars ignite the white-hot thriller 'White Sands' a volatile mix of action and suspense directed by Roger Donaldson (Species) and filmed in an around New Mexico's glistening White Sands National Park. Willem Dafoe plays Sheriff Ray Dolezal a small-town lawman in big-time trouble. To untangle a mystery he assumes the identity of a murdered FBI agent and goes undercover inside a global crime ring. This precarious new life steers him toward a sinister weapons runner (Mickey R

• Cutthroat Island | DVD | (20/05/2002) from £11.12   |  Saving you £1.87 (16.82%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Although this mega-budget action epic flopped at the box office with a resounding thud, Cutthroat Island has had a healthy shelf life on home video, where the film can be savoured in private as a spectacular guilty pleasure. Geena Davis plays Morgan, the swashbuckling daughter of an aging buccaneer who inherits one-third of a map to a secret pirate treasure. However, the map is in Latin, and she needs a lowdown thief and scoundrel (and presumably Latin scholar), played by Matthew Modine, to translate the map when they obtain the other two pieces. That's when the mayhem begins and the dashing duo race for the treasure against Morgan's scheming uncle (Frank Langella) and a hoard of greedy pirates. With wall-to-wall action ably handled by Davis' then-husband Renny Harlin, Cutthroat Island is more fun than its box-office performance would indicate. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• South Park: Complete Series 2 | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £9.99   |  Saving you £30.00 (300.30%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Set in a Colorado mountain town that gets destroyed on a regular basis and is populated by the dumbest, most vulgar characters imaginable, South Park is an anarchic animated sitcom that owes more to the spirit of Monty Python than to its comparatively tame predecessor The Simpsons. The show's origins go back to a 1995 Christmas video "postcard" called The Spirit of Christmas that a Fox Studios executive had commissioned at the previous Sundance Film Festival for $2000 having seen the work of film-makers Trey Parker and Matt Stone (Cannibal: The Musical). The adventures of Stan, Kyle, Cartman and Kenny became an instant ratings and merchandising smash and the foul-mouthed eight-year-olds have expanded to the cinema screen (Bigger, Longer and Uncut), found their way to the MTV Movie Awards and allowed the show creators/(song) writers/voice-artists to pursue equally anarchic comedy at the box office with Baseketball and Orgazmo. Constantly pursued by a censorship outcry, the series has survived several copycat cartoon threats and even the death of its lead female vocal-artist during its third season. Perhaps the show's biggest controversy has always been that--despite a disclaimer before every episode--under-aged children still see it. But lured by a universe full of Cheesy Poofs and Cookie Dings, where no-one's afraid to badmouth school bus driver Miss Crabtree and where it's OK to vomit from being in love, it's no wonder that children of all ages can't help but love it. Seriously. --Paul Tonks Season Two: Parker and Stone intentionally annoyed audiences by holding back season one's cliff-hanger resolution ("Cartman's Mom is Still a Dirty Slut") where we learn the surprise truth of who Cartman's dad really is. Season two instead opens with a TV Movie-of-the-Week Special for cartoon-within-a-cartoon characters Terrance and Phillip in "Not Without My Anus". A clever sub-plot runs through the middle of the year with closet homosexual schoolteacher Mr Garrison losing his hand puppet Mr Hat and replacing him with Mr Twig. It comes to an end in the amazing "Chef Aid" with Mr Hat busting Garrison and Chef from jail to attend a concert where Elton John, Meat Loaf and Ozzy Osborne are playing (all voiced for real). We get to explore the dubious leisure activities of Jimbo and Ned on their cable access show "Huntin' and Killin'" during a ratings war with "Jesus and Pals" (Christ having chosen the town to live in--naturally) in the Jerry Springer spoof "The Mexican Staring Frog of southern Sri Lanka". The season is rounded off by visits from the Evil Eric Cartman (who's nice!) from a parallel universe in "Spooky Fish", the Booktastic Bus in "Chickenlover", the Underpants Gnomes and even Charles Manson. --Paul Tonks

• The Clairvoyant | DVD | (13/06/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Great Maximus (Claude Rains - Casablanca Lawrence of Arabia) has got a new act for the music halls where he makes his living. Working with his beautiful wife Rene (Fay Wray - King Kong) he poses as a mind reader. It's all a trick of course: he certainly doesn't have the gift for real. Or so he thinks... When he correctly predicts a terrible train crash Maximus becomes an instant celebrity. But his new-found fame and his friendship with sultry Christine Shawn (Jane Baxter) threatens his marriage. Worse is to come: he is accused not of foreseeing accidents but actually causing them...

• Victoria the Great | DVD | (25/03/2019) from £5.83   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The story of Queen Victoria from her coronation, focused on her meeting and marriage to Prince Albert and the way they established shared responsibilities until his death.

• The Endurance | DVD | (19/05/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In August 1914 seasoned British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton embarks on his third excursion into Antarctic territory planning to cross the Antarctic continent on foot--something no other explorer has attempted before. Only a day's journey from his final destination Shackleton's ship The Endurance is trapped in pack-ice where she will remain frozen for the next ten months all throughout the harsh Antarctic winter. With dwindling rations blizzards boredom and illness to contend with and only each other and their faithful sled dogs for company the crew grows restless and Shackleton has his hands full trying to keep the peace on board. A turning point occurs when ice floes finally threaten to crush the ship and the men are forced to take to the lifeboats. Now Shackleton abandoning any remaining notions of completing the mission decides instead to bring back his crew alive at any cost even though the nearest outpost of civilization is on an island 800 miles away. Historic film clips of The Endurance shot by expedition photographer Frank Hurley new colour footage of the eerily beautiful Antarctic landscape as well as commentary by surviving family members and narration by Liam Neeson all combine to make watching this documentary a gripping experience.

• iCarly - iGo To Japan | DVD | (24/05/2010) from £11.25   |  Saving you £3.00 (30.03%)   |  RRP £12.99

  iCarly: iGo To Japan

• Dances With Wolves | Blu Ray | (15/04/2013) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A assigned to a remote outpost in the 1860s West Lt. John Dunbar fears the nearby Sioux Indians and expects to fight them. Instead he befriends them and becomes the man in the middle of a brushfire of tension: the conflict between U.S. expansion and Native Americans. Kevin Costner plays Dunbar and makes one of Hollywood's most impressive directorial debuts with this winner of seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Battles rage fates collide bison thunder across the prairie - the adventure is epic heroic and stunning.

• The Birth Of A Nation | DVD | (02/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Based on a play called 'The Clansman' this film was billed as 'the first feature film' and caused riots on its release because of its racist overtones. The film follows a family through the American Civil war. Includes 'The Making Of...' Silent. Tinted Version.

• Chiller Theatre Features | DVD | (03/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It's difficult sometimes to fathom how compilers think. This Chiller Theatre threesome consists of two classic silent horror films, plus a low-budget B-movie from the early 1960s. The connection? You decide! Yet these are films that belong in any self-respecting collection, and this package is a good way of acquiring them. Of those featuring Lon Chaney, it's the original 1923 The Hunchback of Notre Dame that comes across best. Chaney's grotesquerie is shot-through with pathos, and Patsy Ruth Miller's Esmeralda has enduring freshness. Wallace Worsley handles crowd scenes and cathedral stunts with aplomb, and there's an atmospheric "posthumous" soundtrack, though anyone looking for accuracy in the depiction of medieval French society is in for a shock. 1925's The Phantom of the Opera is slow-moving and uneventful by comparison, with Rupert Julian's direction never escaping the narrow Gothic trappings of the novel. Chaney cranks (or is that camps?) up his range of gestures to the limit, and Mary Philbin is an eye-catching heroine, but the denouement in the Paris sewers seems endless--with looped extracts of Schubert and Brahms as a hardly appropriate soundtrack. Cut to 1962, and The Carnival of Souls--made in Kansas for under $100,000--is an undeniable cult classic. Herk Harvey sustains the increasingly surreal narrative with ease, Candace Hilligoss is striking (if a tad gauche) as the young organist caught on the cusp of this world and the next, and Gene Moore's organ soundtrack is a masterly backdrop for the motley assemblage of ghouls who pursue her around the seaside pier in a memorable closing sequence. On the DVD: Chiller Theatre is very acceptably remastered--with 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 12 chapter headings per film--and decently if minimally packaged. --Richard Whitehouse

• The Proposal | Blu Ray | (30/11/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £23.99

  Sandra Bullock's high-powered executive finds herself in one outrageous situation after another when involved with Ryan Reynolds' kowtowed secretary

• Century Falls | DVD | (24/07/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Following Dark Season Russell T. Davies scripted this darkly inventive thriller series for Aunty Beeb back in 1993. Century Falls is a backwater village where the locals are most unfriendly and seemingly childless. When Tess arrives with her pregnant mother the populace cast a suspicious eye on the new arrivals. However they aren't the only newcomers. Twins Ben and Carey Naismith have returned after their exile at the hands of the villagers. These two have much to show Tes