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• Johann Strauss: Simplicius -- Zurich Opera/Welser-Most | DVD | (21/02/2003) from £6.07   |  Saving you £18.92 (311.70%)   |  RRP £24.99

  This is a superb performance of excellent, long-forgotten music. Simplicius was lost for more than a century, but when it was recovered (including a few patches for missing parts), the Zurich Opera House welcomed it back with a production worthy of a historic event. Johann Strauss II, like most comic geniuses, had a lifelong wish to produce something deeply serious. Parts of Simplicius come close to that goal, but then a delectable tune in 3/4 time pops up and we are back in the realm of the waltz king, enjoying it all the more because of the contrast. In both styles, the music is wonderful and Franz Welser-Most conducts with exactly the right touch. The absurdist set designs of Johann Engels and the stage direction of David Pountney sometimes call Hieronymus Bosch to mind. This production puts detailed plot summaries on the screen during the overture and at other strategic point--a good idea because the plot is complicated and slightly absurd. It is set during the Thirty Years War and is full of hidden identities, unreasonable rules and sudden plot twists. Besides various tangled love pairings, and the idiocies of war, the plot centres on the figure of Simplicius, a holy simpleton like Candide or Parsifal, and his comic encounters with the realities of love and war. The story is full of colourful characters, all sung and acted with distinction. Michael Volle is a hermit who has raised his son Simplicius (Martin Zysset) in isolation from humanity until, at age 20, he is abducted by soldiers and comes into contact with reality. Other vivid performances are given by Rolf Haunstein as a rather absurd general, Elizabeth Magnuson as his silly daughter, Oliver Widmer as an astrologer, and Louise Martini as Schnappslotte, who sells liquor to the soldiers. Martina Jankova steals the show as her daughter Tilly, and Liliana Nikiteanu makes much of a small role as a Swedish spy. --Joe McLellan

• Ghoulies / Ghoulies 2 | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  They'll get you in the end! Ghoulies: When a student inherits an old mansion he finds he has also inherited its residents a bunch of slimy hairy fanged creatures who'll do anything for him....even kill. Ghoulies II: The Ghoulies are back in this sequel in which they take over a traveling carnival giving a park full of teenagers a night they'll never forget.

• 3 Ninjas Knuckle Up | DVD | (08/03/2004) from £14.95   |  Saving you £-8.96 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Rocky Colt and Tum Tum find themselves in action again as they get drawn into a struggle between an American Indian tribe and a ruthless businessman who is dumping toxic waste on their land.

• The Best Of The A Team | DVD | (24/11/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem if no one else can help and if you can find them maybe you can hire the A-Team. Enjoy all the very best episodes from the much-loved action TV series! Episodes include: Mexican Slayride Parts O

• Cabaret | DVD | (04/09/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Johnny Dangerously | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Set in the 1930's this gangster spoof tells the comic tale of Johnny Kelly (Michael Keaton) who is forced into a life of crime in order to pay for his ailing mother's medical treatment. Attempting to keep his straight life and his life of crime separate Johnny takes the name Dangerously and is soon a powerful mobster flush with women and riches. The Dangerously name is about to be slandered though by the Kelly family when Johnny's brother (Griffin Dunne) becomes the district attor

• Baby Snatcher | DVD | (29/07/2003) from £6.77   |  Saving you £-0.78 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on a true story this is the chilling account of how one woman's torment led her to commit a despicable and selfish crime. The desperate need of a childless 38-year old Bianca Hudson to have a child arouses in her the darkest most primitive instincts. When she fears she may lose her husband Cal who longs for a family of his own Bianca's desperation reaches dramatic proportions as she hatches a sinister plan: she fakes a pregnancy abducts the baby of a complete stranger - Karen Williams - and passes it off as her own. Incredibly the plan works. But for Karen a young single mother struggling to raise two children and pregnant again by her married boyfriend the abduction marks merely the beginning of a nightmare train of events.

• Alien Quadrilogy | DVD | (08/12/2003) from £20.99   |  Saving you £39.00 (185.80%)   |  RRP £59.99

  The Alien Quadrilogy is a nine-disc box set devoted to the four Alien films. Although previously available on DVD as the Alien Legacy, here the films have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and vision. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "Special Edition" form. Alien (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 Director's Cut is fiddling for the sake of it. Watch once then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely the Special Edition of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice finally to have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative Alien3 (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered and finished-off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to the story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. Alien Resurrection (1997) was always a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the Special Edition just makes it eight minutes longer. On the DVD: Alien Quadrilogy offers all films except Alien3 with DTS soundtracks, the latter having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first Alien DVD release are missing here--and there are subtitles for hard of hearing both for the films and the commentaries. Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented at 4:3 with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the Lord of the Rings extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including a Channel 4 hour-long documentary and even all the extras from the old Alien laserdisc. Exhaustive hardly beings to describe the Alien Quadrilogy, a set which establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and which looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. --Gary S Dalkin

• September Song: the Complete F | DVD | (13/09/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  September Song: Series 1

• Narcos: Mexico | DVD | (24/08/2020) from £17.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Narcos: Mexico takes us back to where it all started with the first shots fired in the modern War of Drugs and the rise of the most successful drug empire of all time the Guadalajara Cartel. In the immediate aftermath of Operation Condor, Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo (Diego Luna Rogue One) has lost everything his field, his home and his entire life savings. Amidst the ruins of the Mexican Army's invasion of Sinaloa, he forms a new plan to rebuild. To get it all back. Only this time in a place no one will ever touch Guadalajara. Meanwhile Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent Kiki Camarena (Michael Peña American Hustle) moves his wife and young son from California to Guadalajara to take on a new post quickly learning that this new assignment is going to be more challenging than he could ever have imagined

• Bright Young Things | DVD | (19/04/2004) from £9.03   |  Saving you £7.95 (131.62%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Stephen Fry's directorial debut about the young, wild, party-loving creatures of the 1930s. Sex, scandal, celebrity... Some things never change...

• The Last Drop | DVD | (10/07/2006) from £4.96   |  Saving you £15.03 (303.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  What better time for a heist than in the fog of war? In a daring attempt to end WWII by Christmas 35 000 U.S. troops are dropped behind enemy lines in German occupied Holland. In the midst of the largest airborne invasion in history one small unit of men codename ""Matchbox"" has its own agenda; to lay claim to a horde of Nazi gold in the vicinity. When Matchbox are shot down short of their landing zone the odds of success seem hopeless. Seven very different soldiers find t

• The Green Mile | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Set on Death Row in a Southern prison in 1935, The Green Mile is the remarkable story of the cell block's head guard, who develops a poignant, unusual relationship with one inmate who possesses a magical gift that is both mysterious and miraculous.

• Boys From the Blackstuff - Parts 1 And 2 | DVD | (03/04/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  1. Jobs For The BoysChrissie assembles an unofficial building gang but their moonlighting is being watched by the Department of Employment's investigators. A raid by the fraud squad leads to tragedy2. MoonlighterDixie father of four and once the proud foreman is working illicitly on the docks when he discovers happenings that he'd rather not see. Meanwhile after threats from the Department of Employment his wife Freda is too scared to open the door.3. Shop Thy NeighbourChrissie's dole money has been stopped pending the enquiry into the 'moonlighting' affair. With no food in the cupboard the scene is set for a showdown with his wife Angie - this after all was going to be her time4. Yosser's StoryOnce Yosser dreamt of making it big. Now his manic search for work alternates with fruitless efforts to avoid eviction and keep his three children from being taken into care.5. George's Last RideA lifetime of adversity has left George's beliefs unbroken. When the end comes Chrissie discovers a legacy and finds that something must be said.

• Too Late The Hero | DVD | (08/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Set on a Pacific island in 1942, Too Late the Hero is a hard-as-nails "men on a mission" war movie: a group of British soldiers have to traverse the New Hebrides to destroy a Japanese radio transmitter, then get back to safety while being hunted all the way. Inevitably everything goes wrong, but director Robert (The Dirty Dozen) Aldrich turns the book of WWII movie clichés on its head and springs some unnerving surprises. Even the token American star, Cliff Robertson--echoing William Holden's grafted-on role in The Bridge on the River Kwai--proves less than obviously heroic, while an outstanding Michael Caine brings considerable depth to his usual cynical cockney. Henry Fonda gets heavily billed for a brief guest appearance, but there are star performances such fine British character actors as Denholm Elliot, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser and Lance Percival. This portrait of battle-worn men offers greater complexity than Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, while the jungle trek was more recently paralleled in Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Only the attitudes--more 1970 than 1942--detract from Aldrich's tellingly realistic vision, which with a thoughtfully ironic script and a succession of tense set pieces and brutal firefights, builds to a harrowing climax. On the DVD: The picture is presented at approximately 1.7:1, reformatted from the original 2.2:1 70mm theatrical presentation. Despite approximately 25 per cent of the original image being missing, this loss is only really noticeable in a few scenes. Apart from the occasional fleck, the print is in superb condition, and despite the lack of anamorphic enhancement the picture is sharp, detailed and has excellent colour. The surround sound (not mono as listed on the packaging) is highly effective, with the tension being increased by a considerable amount of the music coming from the rear speakers. The special features are simply a few static pages of biographical and production notes. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Anastasia/Inn of the Sixth Happiness double pack | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £9.43   |  Saving you £5.56 (58.96%)   |  RRP £14.99

  An Ingrid Bergman double-bill comes to DVD with the classy pairing of Anastasia (1956) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). In Anastasia Bergman gives one of her memorable, haunting and haunted performances as an amnesiac chosen by a White Russian general (Yul Brynner) in 1928 to play the part of the long-rumoured but missing survivor of the Bolsheviks' murderous attack on the Czar's family. The twist is that Bergman's mystery woman seems to know more about the lost Anastasia than she is told. Based on the play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, this film--directed by Anatole Litvak (Out of the Fog)--really does get under one's skin, not least of all because of its intriguing story but more so as a result of the strong chemistry between Bergman and Brynner. --Tom Keogh The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is an epic and extraordinary true story--or, at least, an extraordinary story based on a novel (Alan Burgess's The Small Woman) based on a true story. Gladys Aylward (an improbably mesmerising Ingrid Bergman) is a British would-be missionary with an obsession about China. As she has no experience, the Missionary Society won't let her go, but she goes anyway, alone, to a remote northern province. She is hated, then loved; finally she becomes both a significant political figure and the heroine of a miraculous escape in which she shepherds 100 children to safety across the mountains just ahead of a Japanese invasion. Curt Jurgens is suitably stony as Lin Nan, the half-Dutch, half-Chinese military officer who falls in love with her, and a visibly ailing Robert Donat (who died before this, his final film, was released) is the wily local mandarin who sees and makes use of her extraordinary abilities. Directed by Mark Robson, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a sweeping, stirring tear-jerker, a big tale told in a big landscape with acres of orchestrated strings by Malcolm Arnold. It's a beautiful and beautifully made film that's a classic of the "everyone said I couldn't but I did it anyway" genre.--Richard Farr

• Mona Lisa | DVD | (28/08/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mona Lisa

• The Dalek Collection | DVD | (25/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Doctor Who And The Daleks: Eccentric scientific genius Dr. Who activates the T.A.R.D.I.S. a remarkable time machine disguised as an ordinary callbox. But when the Doctor his granddaughters and their friend Ian are transported to the mysterious planet Skaro they discover a race of innocent humanoids under siege by evil robot-like Daleks. Can the Doctor protect this peaceful society from destruction as well as save the entire universe from a diabolical invasion of the future? (Dir. Gordon Flemyng 1965) Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. The remarkable Doctor and his companions use their time machine the T.A.R.D.I.S. to travel to the Earth's future. But when they arrive they discover a battle-raveaged world where mankind has been conquered and enslaved by the diabolical Daleks. Can Doctor Who foil their fiendish plan to mine the Earth's nuclear core? (Dir. Gordon Flemyng 1966)

• Deadfall | DVD | (04/03/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  When Joe Dolan (Michael Biehn) accidentally kills his father in a scam gone bad his dying words lead Joe to his Uncle Lou (James Coburn). Lou is working on a con worth more than million in diamonds. Eddie (Nicholas Cage) Lou's right hand man sees Joe as a serious threat and a rival for his girlfriend - the sexy Diane (Sarah Trigger). Diane seduces Joe into a love triangle that leads him to murder and desire. With millions in the balance Joe gets deeper and deeper into the diamond sting. Double cons lead to triple cons as Deadfall hurtles toward the most twisted scam of all and it's surprising conclusion. Joining the first rate cast of characters are stunning cameo appearances by Charlie Sheen Peter Fonda and Talia Shire.

• The Count Yorga Collection | Blu Ray | (24/10/2022) from £38.59   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  RESTORED! REJUVENATED! REBORN! By the end of the 1960s the boom in Old World gothic horror had begun to wane in the face of present day terrors like the Vietnam war. In response, American filmmakers brought horror out of the past and into the present, and the classic movie monsters packed their bags and headed for the New World. Count Yorga, Vampire was among the first to successfully transpose the classic vampire, cloak and all, to a modern day setting as the Count played unforgettably by Robert Quarry arrives in the United States and settles in a Southern California mansion with his mysterious brides. A drive-in favourite from the moment it was released, a sequel soon followed. The Return of Count Yorga ups the ante and sees the sardonic Count on the streets of San Francisco, his sights set on an orphanage as a potential source of sustenance. Director Bob Kelljan (Scream Blacula Scream) delivers a one-two punch of classic cult cinema mixing chills, thrills, style, and suspense with a knowing wit that revels in the genre trappings. Presented in all new restorations by Arrow Films from new scans of the original camera negative, The Count Yorga Collection is a full blooded feast to die for! Product Features Brand new 2K restorations by Arrow Films of Count Yorga, Vampire and The Return of Count Yorga from new 4K scans of the original 35mm camera negatives High Definition Blu-Ray (1080p) presentations of both films Original lossless mono audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Illustrated perfect bound collector's book featuring new writing by film critic Kat Ellinger and horror author Stephen Laws, plus archive contributions by critic Frank Collins and filmmaker Tim Sullivan Limited edition packaging with reversible sleeves featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan Fold-out double-sided posters for both films featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Heather Vaughan Twelve double-sided, postcard-sized lobby card reproduction artcards Reproduction pressbook for Count Yorga, Vampire DISC ONE COUNT YORGA, VAMPIRE Brand new audio commentary by film critic Tim Lucas Archival audio commentary by film critics David Del Valle & C. Courtney Joyner The Count in California, a brand new appreciation by Heather Drain and Chris O'Neill I Remember Yorga, a brand new interview with Frank Darabont in which the award-winning filmmaker talks about his love for Count Yorga, Vampire A Vampire in L.A., a brand new interview with actor Michael Murphy Fangirl Radio Tribute to Robert Quarry, an archival episode featuring host Jessica Dwyer in conversation with Tim Sullivan filmmaker, Yorga fan and friend of Robert Quarry Theatrical trailer Radio spots Image galleries DISC TWO THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA Brand new audio commentary by film critic Stephen R. Bissette Archival audio commentary by David Del Valle & C. Courtney Joyner The Count and the Counterculture, a brand new interview with film critic Maitland McDonagh Chamber-music of Horrors, a brand new interview with David Huckvale about the scores for both films Archival interview with film critic Kim Newman Theatrical trailer Radio spots Image gallery