"Actor: Melissa"

• The West Wing - Season 2 Part 1 | DVD | (07/04/2003) from £28.98   |  Saving you £9.00 (33.35%)   |  RRP £35.99

  The second series of The West Wing takes up literally where the first series left off and, after a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. The two-part opener covers the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Bartlet (Martin Sheen), switching between the anxious wait on the injured and flashbacks to Bartlet's campaign for the Presidency. Other peaks in a series exceedingly short on troughs include "Noel", the episode in which Alan Arkin's psychiatrist forces Josh Lynam to confront his post-traumatic stress disorder and the concluding episodes in which President Bartlet, having lost his secretary Mrs Landingham in a tragic car accident, rails angrily against God in Latin. Other new features of this series include the introduction of Ainsley Hayes, a young Republican counsel hired after she beats communications deputy Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in a TV debate ("Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl!" crow his colleagues), as well as the revelation (to us first, then later his staff) that the President has been suffering from multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile, the White House must move heaven and earth to make incremental political gains as well as deal with a host difficulties abroad, demonstrating, some might argue, more compassion, skill and restraint than that exercised by the real-life US administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs

• Nowhere | DVD | (22/02/2021) from £7.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Gay-themed drama co-written and co-directed by David and Francisco Salazar. The lives of gay Colombian immigrants Adrian and Sebastian (Miguel Gonzalez and Juan Pablo Castiblanco) are shattered when Sebastian is unable to renew his visa. Fearing persecution if they return to their home country, the couple face an agonising decision over whether to return home or risk staying in New York as they desperately search for a solution.

• Carmen | Blu Ray | (24/07/2023) from £13.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Melissa Barrera and Academy Award®-nominee Paul Mescal are dazzling in Benjamin Millepied's modern-day retelling of one of history's most famous love stories and operas, featuring a new music score by Nicholas Britell. Carmen, a captivating, sensual young gypsy, leaves her family and community behind to escape a Mexican cartel. She flees to the U.S., dreaming of safety and freedom. She is captured by a fierce border patrol agent who tries to kill her. Shocked by this violence, his patrol agent partner Aidan saves Carmen and helps her escape. He finds himself fascinated by Carmen's passion, free spirit and will to fight for freedom.

• Postman Pat - Postman Pat And The Ice Cream Machine | DVD | (20/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £8.49

  A quartet of great new adventures with Postman Pat! Episodes comprise: 1. Postman Pat And The Ice Cream Machine 2. Postman Pat And The Great Greendale Race 3. Postman Pat And The Hungry Goat 4. Postman Pat And The Jumble Sale

• Scream (1996) & Scream (2022) | Blu Ray | (11/04/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Scream (2022) Twenty-five years after the original series of murders in Woodsboro, a new killer emerges, and Sidney Prescott must return to uncover the truth. Scream (1996) A year after the murder of her mother, a teenage girl is terrorized by a new killer, who targets the girl and her friends by using horror films as part of a deadly game.

• Clockwork Mice | DVD | (10/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The special relationship between a boy with a troubled past and a young teacher. Based on a screenplay by Rod Woodruff.

• Love Don't Cost A Thing | DVD | (12/07/2004) from £5.00   |  Saving you £8.99 (179.80%)   |  RRP £13.99

  High-school senior Alvin Johnson (Nick Cannon) a brilliant but likable outcast has come to regret the years of intellectual endeavors that prevented him and his un-hip friends from socializing getting girlfriends and hanging out with the super-cool 'Elite' kids. When queen of the 'Elite' crew Paris Morgan (Christina Milian) wrecks her mother's car Alvin steps in and mortgages his future to help her out. The catch: in exchange for $1500 in car parts and Alvin's automotive expertise

• Kim Possible: The Secret Files | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £11.99

  A Disney animated series which follows the adventures of teenage heroine Kim Possible as she attempts to save the world while undergoing the trials of everyday teendom at high school! Episodes comprise: Attack Of The Killer Bebes Downhill Partners and Crush.

• The League Of Gentlemen | DVD | (15/01/2001) from £14.98   |  Saving you £0.01 (0.07%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The League of Gentlemen is a sardonic crime drama in which Jack Hawkins plays an embittered retired army officer who recruits seven fellow ex-soldiers to carry out a bank raid with military precision. The film presents an England between post-war austerity and the more liberated 1960s where traditional moral certainties were rapidly being discarded; a London where ex-officers left on the scrapheap at war's end could justify turning their military experience to armed robbery. Unfortunately the tale is neither particularly amusing or thrilling, with an overlong central detour via an army camp prefacing the exciting heist and a largely anti-climactic ending. Nevertheless Hawkins effectively subverts his heroic officer type from The Cruel Sea (1953) and The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), and there's excellent support from a great cast including Nigel Patrick, Richard Attenborough and Roger Livesey. Bryan Forbes not only wrote the cynical screenplay but costarred with wife Nanette Newman in her first significant screen role. More influential than truly classic, The League of Gentlemen has lent its name to a modern BBC comedy, an "Extraordinary" comic strip-turned-movie, and proved the template for heist films ever since, including both versions of The Italian Job (1969 and 2003). On the DVD:The League of Gentlemen is presented in an anamorphically enhanced 16:9 transfer from an excellent condition print and mostly looks and sounds fine. There's minimal print damage, though sadly Philip Green's ironically patriotic main title music suffers from significant distortion. The only extra is the original trailer, which is now something of a period piece itself. --Gary S Dalkin

• Clarissa Explains It All Box Set | DVD | (26/09/2016) from £26.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Clarissa Darling is a smart and witty teenager who lives with her father Marshall, her health-conscious mother Janet and her very annoying little brother Ferguson. Her best friend, Sam, lives next door. Clarissa has talent for explaining (in hilarious detail) many of the quirkier details about teen life. So tune in, and get ready to watch and learn, as Clarissa explains all you need to know! VOLUME 1: Clarissa's Revenge Ferguson brings Clarissa's training bra to school. Now Clarissa plots the ultimate revenge: get rid of him using a straitjacket, a bundle of helium balloons and Sam's help. School Picture Clarissa loathes picture day at school since her mother makes her wear something dweebie. This year she's determined to express her individuality. VOLUME 2: NO T.V. Janet makes a no TV for a week rule. So the rest of the family stoops to desperate measures to get a glimpse of their favourite shows. URGE TO DRIVE To earn enough money to buy a used car, Clarissa takes to selling Christmas cards... in July!

• Big Bang Theory - Seasons 1-10 | Blu Ray | (11/09/2017) from £69.99   |  Saving you £-10.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  All episodes from the first ten seasons of the US sitcom. The show revolves around two university physicists, Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Sheldon (Jim Parsons), their beautiful, free-spirited neighbour, Penny (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting), and their friends, Howard (Simon Helberg), Rajesh (Kunal Nayyar), Amy (Mayim Bialik) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch).

• Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Series 4 | DVD | (18/05/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  When Sabrina Spellman is informed by her aunts Hilda and Zelda that she is a witch on her 16th birthday she is hesitant to believe them. Having been sent to live with them in Massachusetts by her Warlock father and mortal mother Sabrina has to learn the tricks of magic in order to receive her witch's license. Along the way she gets into many scrapes while figuring out how certain spells work. She also has to keep the secret from her boyfriend Harvey friends Jenny and later Valerie stuck-up nemesis Libby and her ever-suspicious vice-principal Mr. Kraft.

• Vampires: Out For Blood | DVD | (18/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  It takes one to kill one. In the seedy world of underground raves people are vanishing without trace. Detective Hank Holten (Kevin Dillon) is the only one who knows the terrible truth: vampires are preying on the young party-goers! As Hank delves deeper and deeper into this bloody case the horrors he witnesses take a toll on his mind which causes his superiors to doubt his sanity. But when Hank is bitten by the leader of the vampires he must be become the hunter and destroy

• Love Goddess Of The Cannibals | DVD | (28/06/2010) from £8.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Love Goddess Of The Cannibals (aka Papaya Dei Caraibi)

• Lockdown | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Avery had it all: his beautiful girlfriend Krista a young son and a full scholarship ahead of him. But in the blink of an eye it was all taken away. What started as a night out with his buddies ended with the shooting of a cop and Avery behind bars. He's innocent but that doesn't matter in a place that has its own set of rules. As Krista works to prove his innocence Avery struggles to survive the day-to-day hardships of prison life.

• Conviction/ Never Let Me Go Double Pack | DVD | (04/06/2012) from £7.27   |  Saving you £5.72 (78.68%)   |  RRP £12.99

  ConvictionHilary Swank gives another tremendous performance--steely, determined, vulnerable--in the courtroom/family drama Conviction. The film is based on a real case, of Betty Anne Waters (Swank), who as a last resort puts herself through law school to take on the case of her brother, Kenny (Sam Rockwell, also outstanding). Kenny is convicted of murder, despite a weak prosecution case, but Betty Anne can't get any lawyer to explore a retrial or appeal. Director Tony Goldwyn (Dexter, Damages) keeps the action moving along crisply and believably, even during the almost interminable stretches of Kenny's imprisonment. The terrific script by Pamela Gray (Music of the Heart) weaves in occasional shadows of doubt about whether Kenny is actually innocent, so that a story that could be formulaic is anything but. The viewer isn't sure most of the way through Conviction if Kenny is guilty or not--but is completely swept up in Swank's incredible performance depicting Betty Anne's own conviction--that "you do anything for your family. Period." As she did in Boys Don't Cry, Swank puts her own gritty spin on a real-life character, whom she inhabits like a second skin. Her Betty Anne is a blue-collar pit bull, and her sheer determination is itself a force of nature. The supporting cast of Conviction also shines, including Minnie Driver as Betty Anne's law school pal, and an especially effective Juliette Lewis playing Kenny's broken-down ex-girlfriend, who's buried some secrets of her own. Also a standout is Melissa Leo as the policewoman whose initial arrest of Kenny might have been loaded with her own agenda. The chemistry, especially between Rockwell, a man very nearly defeated after years behind bars, and Swank, is palpable and will capture the viewer in intense dramatic territory that won't be soon forgotten. --A.T. Hurley Never Let Me GoIn adapting Kazuo Ishiguro's celebrated novel, director Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and screenwriter Alex Garland (Sunshine) transform dystopian fiction into period drama by presenting an alternate past in which people routinely live beyond 100--at a cost to those who make it possible. In the 1970s, Kathy (Isobel Meikle-Small) and Ruth (Ella Purnell) attend Hailsham, a British boarding school where Miss Emily (Charlotte Rampling) holds sway--and no one ever mentions their parents. When new teacher Miss Lucy (Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky) arrives, she reaches out to the awkward Tommy (Charlie Rowe), with whom Kathy becomes close--until jealous Ruth steals him away. Then Lucy reveals what will happen when they leave. By the 1980s, Kathy (a poignant Carey Mulligan), Ruth (Keira Knightley), and Tommy (Andrew Garfield) live in the country until they're ready to fulfill their purpose. With Ruth and Tommy an item, Kathy becomes a carer, a sort of social worker. Over the years, the three go their separate ways until the 1990s, by which point their time will run out unless they can arrange for a deferral. Throughout, Romanek never presents alternate points of view; the audience experiences this brave new world only through the eyes of its sheltered protagonists. If the story raises issues that recall Orwell, the unhurried pace echoes The Remains of the Day, Merchant Ivory's Ishiguro adaptation. Similarly, Never Let Me Go is a work of great skill and compassion, but make no mistake: it's also very, very depressing. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

• Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Series 3 | DVD | (15/09/2008) from £18.56   |  Saving you £6.43 (34.64%)   |  RRP £24.99

  When Sabrina Spellman is informed by her aunts Hilda and Zelda that she is a witch on her 16th birthday she is hesitant to believe them. Having been sent to live with them in Massachusetts by her Warlock father and mortal mother Sabrina has to learn the tricks of magic in order to receive her witch's license. Along the way she gets into many scrapes while figuring out how certain spells work. She also has to keep the secret from her boyfriend Harvey friends Jenny and later Valerie stuck-up nemesis Libby and her ever-suspicious vice-principal Mr. Kraft.

• Sabrina The Teenage Witch - Series 5 | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £17.96   |  Saving you £20.02 (133.73%)   |  RRP £34.99

  When Sabrina Spellman is informed by her aunts Hilda and Zelda that she is a witch on her 16th birthday she is hesitant to believe them. Having been sent to live with them in Massachusetts by her Warlock father and mortal mother Sabrina has to learn the tricks of magic in order to receive her witch's license. Along the way she gets into many scrapes while figuring out how certain spells work. She also has to keep the secret from her boyfriend Harvey friends Jenny and later Valerie stuck-up nemesis Libby and her ever-suspicious vice-principal Mr. Kraft.

• Lowriders (Includes Digital Download) | DVD | (28/08/2017) from £4.49   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  A young street artist in East Los Angeles is caught between his father's obsession with lowrider car culture, his ex-felon brother and his need for self-expression.

• Confidence | DVD | (01/03/2004) from £6.44   |  Saving you £11.55 (179.35%)   |  RRP £17.99

  A consumate con-man, Jake Vig (Edward Burns) has just pulled his biggest trick yet. But then he finds out he's conned an eccentric crime boss Winston King (Dustin Hoffman) and there'll be more than hell to pay.