"Actor: Michael "

• Maigret - Series 2 - Episodes 1 To 3 | DVD | (09/02/2004) from £16.58   |  Saving you £-6.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Michael Gambon plays the extraordinary French detective Inspector Maigret in this television adaptation of the novels by George Simenon. Intuitive intelligent and creative with a genius for human nature Maigret is like no other detective as he cunningly investigates crime and the human psyche. Episode titles: Maigret And The Nightclub Dancer Maigret And The Hotel Majestic Maigret On The Defensive.

• Friends - Series 10 - Vol. 2 - Episodes 5-8 | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £4.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (40.08%)   |  RRP £6.99

  The second volume of episodes from the tenth series of the smash hit sitcom. The One Where Rachel's Sister Babysits: Rachel convinces her spoiled sister Amy to baby-sit Emma over Ross' protests Phoebe unknowingly thwarts Mike's surprise for her and Joey scares Monica and Chandler with a recommendation letter on their behalf to a child adoption agency. The One With Ross' Grant: Ross is interviewed by a Nobel Prize-winning scientist for a paleontology grant - but the doctor is Charlie's ex-boyfriend who offers Ross the grant only if he breaks up with her. Joey is offended when Chandler lies about viewing his bizarre audition tape reel. The One With The Home Study: Monica and Chandler meet with an adoption worker who will decide if they are suitable parents - and who confesses she was once romanced by a cad named Joey in the same building. Meanwhile Phoebe and Mike opt for a small wedding and donate the extra money to children's charity - only to demand it all back. Ross uses Emma to confront Rachel's irrational fear of swing sets. The One With The Late Thanksgiving: Monica prepares a Thanksgiving feast for the gang and is furious when no one shows up! when Joey gets stuck in the door Monica and Chandler have the perfect remedy. Phoebe convinces Rachel to enroll Emma in a baby beauty contest while Ross and Joey squeeze in a hockey game. All four sheepishly arrive late for dinner - and face Monica's wrath.

• Great Authors - Charles Dickens | DVD | (18/09/2003) from £11.20   |  Saving you £20.05 (201.71%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Disc One: a documentary which looks at the life and times of author Charles Dickens with dramatic reconstructions. Disc Two: the David Copperfield television drama. Disc Three: A Christmas Carol; an Anton Lesser dramatisation. Also 'Songs From Grope Lane' and 'The Making Of Uncovering The Real Charles Dickens'.

• The Pallbearer | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £15.67   |  Saving you £-0.68 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  David Schwimmer plays a drifting twentysomething who receives a telephone call out of the blue to be a pallbearer at the funeral of someone he supposedly knew in school. Trouble is, the caller has mistaken Schwimmer's character for someone else, but our hapless hero--who still lives with his mother at home--doesn't know how to say no. An encounter with the dead man's mother (Barbara Hershey) leads to a sexual relationship, while an old flame (Gwyneth Paltrow) from high school is suddenly on the horizon if only Schwimmer's loser character can quickly get his act together. The Pallbearer is the umpteenth variation on the Oedipal conflicts made famous in Mike Nichols's The Graduate, but it doesn't have the imagination, vitality, or authority to take classic themes about growing up all the way to the finish line. But in its brooding, comic way, The Pallbearer is honest about the difficulties of crossing the line into adulthood when one doesn't know how. --Tom Keogh

• Bride Of Re-Animator | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Brian Yuzna's Bride of Re-Animator (1990) was one of the last hurrahs for special-effects-based horror films before CGI extended the ease with which the impossible could be put on screen. Like its predecessor, Re-Animator, Bride is very loosely based on HP Lovecraft's stories of Herbert West, a scientist with a taste for investigation that knows no boundaries, especially not those of good taste. He and his agonisingly liberal sidekick Cain have discovered an improvement on their original serum--now they can not only bring the dead back to life but also assemble them from parts first. Jeffrey Combs gives a wonderfully dour performance as West, not even cracking a smile when a creature he has concocted from fingers and an eye-ball is running around the room unseen by a pestering detective. This is the sort of film that constantly escalates its macabre elements--the surviving villain of the first film has been left as simply an animated head, but that does not stop him pursuing his revenge on West, nor finding ways of using West's new techniques along the way. It all makes for cheerfully gruesome fun. On the DVD: Bride of Re-Animator is presented in an anamorphic widescreen visual aspect ratio of 1.85:1, and its Dolby 2.0 does what little can be done with the muddy soundtrack, but is rather better with the jauntily creepy score. The only special features on this Tartan issue are the trailer, the director's production notes and a reel of trailers for other Tartan horror movies. --Roz Kaveney

• 21 Hours At Munich | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-7.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Based on the true story of terrorism striking at the 1972 Olympics in Germany this film does not spare viewers the violence and intensity of the real event. A Munich police chief learns that during the games a group of Palestinian extremists have kidnapped members of the Israeli team. With the help of a brave policewoman the cops negotiate with the terrorists in an attempt to buy time until the authorities can devise a rescue plan. As time ticks away the skirmishes escalate into gu

• Lexx - The Complete Season 3 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  It's been 4 000 since the crew of living spaceship the Lexx fled the destruction of a universe. Now undead asassin Kai cluster-lizard sex bomb Xev anti-hero Stanley Tweedle and robot head 790 are involved in a war - and their involvement has far reaching consequences. This complete four disc box set containd all 13 episodes of the strangest and most imaginative Sci-Fi show ever. A must have for ANY fan! Episode titles: Fire And Water May Gametown Boomtown Gondola K-Town Tunnels The Key Garden Battle Girltown The Beach Heaven And Hell.

• Triggermen | DVD | (26/04/2004) from £6.96   |  Saving you £9.02 (227.20%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A high-strung yet winning crime comedy, Triggermen features an appealing cast in the story of two British con artists mistaken for a pair of seasoned assassins. Adrian Dunbar and Neil Morrissey play displaced, small-time thieves rotting away in Chicago and desperate to get home to the U.K. Morrissey's character has a solution: He takes a briefcase full of cash left in a hotel lobby for a pair of laidback, Yankee killers (Donnie Wahlberg, Michael Rapaport) hired through a second party to murder a Windy City crime boss (Pete Postlethwaite). The client (Louis Di Bianco) pressures the Brits to get the job done, while the real hitmen figure out they've been supplanted. It all makes for an enjoyable (and violent) lark, but an interesting angle finds Wahlberg's soft-spoken criminal anxious to get out of his trade (he falls for Postlethwaite's gorgeous daughter, played by Claire Forlani) while Morrissey becomes increasingly convincing as a gangster. --Tom Keogh

• Todd McFarlane's Spawn - Series 2 - Vol. 2.2 | DVD | (15/03/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Avenging betrayal and murder fighting for good in a world steeped in evil. Award-winning llustrator of Spiderman Todd McFarlane brings a life's work to the screen in this dark stylish and brutal animated incarnation of his Spawn anti-hero. Double-crossed and murdered Al Simmon's is sent to the fires of Hell. He makes an ill-fated deal with the Devil to return to see his wife again. Disfigured and trapped in the body of a hell-spawn caught between life and death he roams New York looking for trouble. The cloak and chains of Spawn explode from the comic-book page onto the screen in a deadly tornado of untapped unwrapped merciless power! Episode titles: Send In The KKKlowns Death Blow Hellzapoppin.

• Tai Chi Combat | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Ancient art of Tai Chi is today associated with peace and relaxation. However in its original form it was as much a fighting art as Wing Chun or Shaolin Kung Fu the art of which is was devised. This DVD will take you though both the Yang and Chen styles of Tai Chi. You are given not only a step-by-step guide to the forms but are then shown how to apply the movements to the close quarter combat zone. Generating immense power and speed Combat Tai Chi is a destructive and potent w

• Tchaikovsky - Swan Lake | DVD | (02/01/2007) from £25.12   |  Saving you £1.13 (4.74%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Agnes Letestu, a feminine and warm Odette, Jose Martinez, a convincing, pale vulnerable Prince Siegfried, and Karl Paguette, doubling as a dutiful Wolfgang and an equally devious Rothbart, are the stars of this deeply passionate, 'dream' version of Swan Lake, Rudolf Nureyev's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's lyrical ballet, far from being a cliched stereotype of this celebrated masterpiece, is an expose of astonishingly powerful and recognisable human emotions. Under the inspired and clear-cut musical direction of Vello Pahn, this production of one of the jewels of the Paris Opera Ballet's repertoire brilliantly displays the meticulous precision, technical prowess and pure, unmanbnered style of the company's unrivalled female corps de ballet, eliciting an ethereal, intense beauty, captured for DVD in High Definition video and superb surround sound.

• With Or Without You | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  With or Without You works as an above-average television drama; but that's about the height of its ambition. It's strange that Michael Winterbottom, director of the hard-edged, bitter Welcome to Sarajevo (1997) and the grandiose snowy western The Claim (2000) should have bothered with anything as routine and undemanding. Perhaps its greatest distinction is that it's set in present-day Belfast without so much as a mention of the Troubles. The plot is a bog-standard romantic triangle. Rosie and Vincent, who have been married five years or so, want a baby, but nothing's happening. It doesn't help that Rosie's older sister has sprogs burgeoning like mushrooms wherever you look. Then up pops a figure from Rosie's past--Benoît, her pen-pal from before she met Vincent. And being French, he's naturally charming, witty, romantic and everything poor old Vincent isn't. Think you can guess what's coming? Well, most likely you can--right down to the all-too-pat happy ending. Still, the actors (Christopher Ecclestone, Dervla Kirwan and Yvan Attal are the leads) are accomplished and watchable, the dialogue stays the right side of banal and it's refreshing to see Belfast shown as a civilised, cultured place to live. With or Without You passes an hour and a half pleasantly enough and may even raise the odd chuckle, but it covers well-trodden territory without much new to say. On the DVD: aptly routine stuff--the theatrical trailer, a bland "making of" featurette and some interviews with the three principal players. Widescreen (16:9 anamorphic) and Dolby Surround Sound give the material the best possible showcase. --Philip Kemp

• Love For Lydia - Episodes 6 To 9 | DVD | (10/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Set in the late 1920's Lydia Aspen is a provincial heiress who develops from a bashful teenager to a wild flapper while toying with the affections of the men who are around her.

• Sharpe's Gold | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £9.87   |  Saving you £-1.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.99

  Once again action and adventure pursue maverick British rifleman Major Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean). In Sharpe's Gold the dashing and heroic major pits his wits against El Casco A Terrifying partisan leader who has a chilling way of dealing with his enemies.Sharpe's Mission to trade guns for deserters is imperilled by the beautiful and desirable Ellie who follows him into the hills where there is rumoured to be hidden Aztec gold.

• Relic Hunter - Vol. 4 | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £12.87   |  Saving you £-6.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Relic Hunter: Adventures

• Nesting | Blu Ray | (28/06/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Final Destination 1 And 2 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Final Destination: Death is coming and Alex Browning (Devon Sawa) is blessed with the curse of knowing when how and where the Grim Reaper will strike. Alex's bone-chilling gift reveals itself just as the teenager embarks on a trip to Paris with his high school French class. Sensing imminent doom Alex panics and insists that everyone get off the plane. In the melee that ensues seven people including Alex are forced to disembark. As sceptical FBI Agents question his every word Alex tries to reconcile his tragedy and return to a normal life but portents of doom surround him... Final Destination 2: It's a matter of life and death when eight strangers narrowly escape a catastrophic freeway accident. But now that they have put a rift in death's design there is a price to pay - and it's going to be painful...

• Wonder Boys | DVD | (26/01/2009) from £12.00   |  Saving you £-7.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.90

  Michael Douglas stars as a feckless middle aged literary professor struggling to live up to his own successful past and sort out his chaotic present in this ensemble comedy that also stars Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand and Robert Downey Jr.

• Hard Time | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £8.41   |  Saving you £8.58 (102.02%)   |  RRP £16.99

  Detectives Logan McQueen and Charles Duffy stumble onto a drugs deal and decide to intervene. Logan chases the thugs having just snatched a bag full of drug money that belongs to notorious drug baron Conrad Martin. After the mysterious shooting of one of the thugs and the disappearance of some of the recovered cash all eyes turn to Logan as his reputation for getting results have found him in trouble before. Thrown in jail and then abducted by Martin it's only when Logan makes

• Airwolf - Vol. 2 | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £5.84   |  Saving you £4.15 (71.06%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Airwolf appeared only two years after Knight Rider and, perplexingly, the same year as the short-lived Blue Thunder series. However, creator Donald P Bellisario had spent more than a little time in fully conceptualising this series. Although the format allowed for stories-of-the-week, a B-plot always ran as background motivation for the individual tales. This was a trick Bellisario would also use to good effect later in Magnum P.I. and Quantum Leap. The hook that sustains the audience here is an extremely bitter sub-plot: Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent) is a peculiar anti-hero to root for since he is effectively being held to ransom and doing the same in return. His brother St. John is held captive somewhere and until his release the Airwolf chopper is Hawke's to keep hidden and use under the covert instructions of "Archangel". His best friend Dominic Santini (the ever-appealing Ernest Borgnine) is a surrogate father figure caught up in the family history. All this pre-determined angst means this is never a show that plays itself for laughs. Very specific character flaws are upfront from the beginning. We are hammered over the head with the idea of Hawke being a tortured intellectual; hence the cello, log cabin retreat and inability to smile. Of course the real star is the spurious technology showcased in the Mach One helicopter armed to the teeth and able to defy the laws of physics on a regular basis. As the mid-80s looked increasingly to the lighter side in most television successes, Airwolf is a rare display of aggression. Justice is fought, but dig only a little way and the moral motivations are often in question. Toward the end of its third season things began to lose coherence and after a year's pause the show was magically resurrected with an all-new cast. It didn't last. --Paul Tonks