"Actor: Michael W"

• X-Men: Beginnings Trilogy | Blu Ray | (10/07/2017) from £5.98   |  Saving you £7.36 (184.46%)   |  RRP £11.35

  Although the superhero comic book has been a duopoly since the early 1960s, only DC's flagship characters, Superman and Batman (who originated in the late 1930s) have established themselves as big-screen franchises. Until now--this is the first runaway hit film version of the alternative superhero X-Men universe created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others. It's a rare comic-book movie that doesn't fall over its cape introducing all the characters, and this is the exception. X-Men drops us into a world that is closer to our own than Batman's Gotham City, but it's still home to super-powered goodies and baddies. Opening in high seriousness with paranormal activity in a WW2 concentration camp and a senatorial inquiry into the growing "mutant problem", Bryan Singer's film sets up a complex background with economy and establishes vivid, strange characters well before we get to the fun. There's Halle Berry flying and summoning snowstorms, James Marsden zapping people with his "optic beams", Rebecca Romijn-Stamos shape-shifting her blue naked form, and Ray Park lashing out with his Toad-tongue. The big conflict is between Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, super-powerful mutants who disagree about their relationship with ordinary humans, but the characters we're meant to identify with are Hugh Jackman's Wolverine (who has retractable claws and amnesia), and Anna Paquin's Rogue (who sucks the life and superpowers out of anyone she touches). The plot has to do with a big gizmo that will wreak havoc at a gathering of world leaders, but the film is more interested in setting up a tangle of bizarre relationships between even more bizarre people, with solid pros such as Stewart and McKellen relishing their sly dialogue and the newcomers strutting their stuff in cool leather outfits. There are in-jokes enough to keep comics' fans engaged, but it feels more like a science fiction movie than a superhero picture. --Kim Newman

• One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (2 Disc Special Edition) | DVD | (07/08/2006) from £16.50   |  Saving you £-2.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  A nice rest in a state mental hospital beats a stretch in the pen right? Randle P. McMurphy (Nicholson) a free-spirited con with lightning in his veins and glib on his tongue fakes insanity and moves in with what he calls the ""nuts"". Immediately his contagious sense of disorder runs up against numbing routine. No way should guys pickled on sedatives shuffled around in bathrobes when the World Series is on. This means war! On one side is McMurphy. On the other is soft-spoken Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) among the most coldly monstrous villains in film history. At stake is the fate of every patient on the ward...

• Herostratus (DVD + Blu-ray) | Blu Ray | (24/10/2011) from £15.99   |  Saving you £4.00 (25.02%)   |  RRP £19.99

  When Max, a young poet (played by the iconic Michael Gothard) hires a marketing company to turn his suicide-by-jumping into a mass-media spectacle, he finds that his subversive intentions are quickly diluted into a reactionary gesture, and his motivations are revealed as a desperate attempt to seek attention through celebrity. Unseen since its limited release in 1967, this audacious and prescient - yet criminally overlooked - work by experimental filmmaker Don Levy left a profound mark on the landscape of late-1960s British cinema, with echoes of its visual style evident in the more celebrated work of such notable directors as Stanley Kubrick, Nicolas Roeg and Michael Winner.

• Simon Schama - A History of Britain : The Complete Series | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £59.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry. On the DVD: The Complete History of Britain extras are generously packaged on a separate disc and include the original score and a Simon Schama biography. There's an interesting "promotional message" to camera in which Schama explains the role of a cab driver, Wally, in inspiring the series, along with an interview with Mark Lawson in which Schama stresses the deliberate subjectivity of these programmes and an inaugural BBC History lecture in which he defends TV's ability to transpose history to camera. --David Stubbs

• A Private Function | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The story's setting is 1947 England where hard-hit Brits won't let mandatory food rationing keep them from celebrating the wedding of the future queen to Lt. Phillip Mountbatten. But there may be no public banquet for citizens in a Yorkshire town. The contraband guest of honour they've pampered and fattened has been pignapped!

• Butterflies - Series 3 - Complete | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Wendy Craig stars as Ria in the third series of this classic BBC comedy. A seemingly happily married mother of two teenage sons she is married to the lugubrious dentist Ben (Geoffrey Palmer). Ben's hobby is collecting butterflies although he seems to spend most of his time arguing with their sons; the thoughtful Russell and the ever cynical Adam.

• Miracle | DVD | (28/02/2005) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-5.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  If you believe in yourself anything can happen. In 1980 amidst the tense political climate of the Cold War Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) took over as coach of the U.S. Olympic hockey team. With the help of affable assistant coach Craig Patrick (Noah Emmerich) Brooks selected a group of twenty amateur hockey players who faced the daunting task of bringing respectability to their country's floundering program. While Brooks was well aware that his team lacked the talent and expe

• A Clockwork Orange Ultimate Collector's Edition | Blu Ray | (04/10/2021) from £34.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Stomping, whomping, stealing, singing, tap-dancing, violating. Derby-topped hooligan Alex (Malcolm McDowell) has a good time - at the tragic expense of others. His journey from amoral punk to brainwashed proper citizen and back again forms the dynamic arc of Stanley Kubrick's future-shock vision of Anthony Burgess' novel. Controversial when first released, A Clockwork Orange won New York Film Critics Best Picture and Director awards and earned four Oscarr* nominations, including Best Picture. Its power still entices, shocks and holds us in its grasp.This 50th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition includes:. •A Clockwork Orange on 4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray. •Blu-ray Bonus Disc featuring Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures and O Lucky Malcolm! documentaries. •32-page booklet. •Double-sided Poster. •Set of 3 Art Cards. •Behind the scenes stills. •Newspaper prop replica. Special Features:. • Commentary by Malcolm McDowell and Historian Nick Redman. • Channel Four Documentary Still Tickin’: The Return of Clockwork Orange. • New Featurette Great Bolshy Yarblockos!: Making A Clockwork Orange. • Career Profile O Lucky Malcolm! [in High Definition]. • Theatrical Trailer.  

• Out Of Africa (Special Edition) | DVD | (21/02/2005) from £11.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (59.91%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice. One downside: while we may all love Redford, he is as convincingly British as Kevin Costner is in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. --Tom Keogh

• The Prestige | Blu Ray | (18/12/2017) from £23.69   |  Saving you £-3.70 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Is there a secret you would kill to know? In this electrifying, suspense-packed thriller from director Christopher Nolan (Batman Begins, Memento), Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale play magicians whose cutthroat attempts to best each other plunge them into deadly deception. Scarlett Johansson also stars as the stage assistant who's both a pawn and player in their rivalry. A brilliant supporting cast (including Michael Caine and David Bowie). An ingenious story. An astonishing payoff. Once you see The Prestige, you'll want to see it again. Watch closely. Features: SPECIAL FEATURES Director's Notebook: The Prestige The Cinematic Sleight of Hand of Christopher Nolan 5 Making-of Featurettes F The Art of The Prestige Production Photos, Costumes/Sets, Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Poster Art Galleries F Theatrical Trailer

• Seinfeld: Seasons 1 and 2 | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £9.49   |  Saving you £25.50 (268.70%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Seinfeld is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of American sitcoms, and this long-delayed box set goes a long way in demonstrating why. From the first episode of the first season, it hit the ground running with its collection of oddball New Yorkers: There’s stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld, who plays himself; Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), his pushy ex-girlfriend; his neurotic loser of a best friend George (Jason Alexander); and Jerry’s wacky neighbour Kramer (Michael Richards). Co-written and co-created by Seinfeld and Larry David (who later went on to plumb greater depths of misanthropy with Curb Your Enthusiasm), it revolutionised American sitcoms with its cynical and mature comedy, and its ability to find comic gems in the most mundane situations (one classic episode is set entirely in a mall car-park). Seinfeld was, as all involved frequently admitted, a show about nothing. But this extras-laden collection--which features extensive cast and creator commentaries, deleted scenes, trivia tracks, outtakes, interviews and more--is most definitely something. --Ted Kord

• Friends: Complete Series 5 - New Edition | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £44.00 (734.56%)   |  RRP £49.99

  With Friends like these, you'll never need to go out again. Picking up from the momentous events of Series 4, this season starts out with Monica and Chandler in some awkward positions as they try to keep their blossoming romance a secret from the others. By the series' end they'll be planning to get married in Las Vegas, where Joey is working as a gladiator at Caesar's Palace casino, his big movie break having fallen through. The embers of Rachel and Ross's relationship continue to send up sparks, especially when Emily causes strife early on by insisting Ross never has contact with Rachel ever again. Phoebe finally meets her father and starts dating a cop named Gary. It all climaxes with everyone in Las Vegas, where Monica and Chandler's impromptu decision to wed is upstaged by a surprising event. --Leslie Felperin

• Nicholas And Alexandra | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Perhaps the quintessential example of the intimate epic, Nicholas and Alexandra is the compelling story of Nicholas II (Michael Jayston), the last Czar of Russia, and his wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman). Director Franklin J Schaffner frames the intimate lives of the Imperial Couple against the dramatic backdrop of the Russian Revolution, creating the filmic equivalent of a monumental frieze. Private and public lives intersect when Alexandra, who has clearly read Macbeth, influences Nicholas into several misguided actions while coping with her haemophilic newborn son. Schaffner builds suspense wonderfully as he illuminates the couple's mysterious bond to the mystical Rasputin (Tom Baker) and the events leading to their execution. Nominated for Best Picture, the splendidly lensed Nicholas and Alexandra earned two Oscars for its delicious eye candy (Art Direction, Costume Design). --Kevin Mulhall

• The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (29/06/2020) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The second in Hammer's lucrative Mummy franchise, Michael Carreras' The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb follows an ill-fated expedition to Egypt as archaeologists discover a cursed crypt, unleashing an unspeakable ancient evil upon themselves. Photographed by the great Otto Heller (The Ladykillers, Peeping Tom) and with an evocative score by Carlo Martelli, The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb was one of Hammer's most successful films of the sixties. Features: High Definition remaster Original mono audio Blood and Bandages: Inside ˜The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb' (2017, 13 mins): an analysis of the film by Hammer expert Jonathan Rigby and cultural historian John J Johnston Hammer's Women: Jeanne Roland (2017, 11 mins): film expert Kat Ellinger offers an appreciation of the Burmese-born actor's short career Interview with Actor Michael McStay (2017, 6 mins): the British film and television star looks back at his time working for Hammer Interview with Composer Carlo Martelli (2017, 4 mins): the great horror-film composer on his work with Hammer Super 8 version: original cut-down home cinema presentation Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: on-set and promotional photography New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing

• The Ice Storm | DVD | (12/02/2001) from £13.70   |  Saving you £1.29 (9.42%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Asian American director Ang Lee sums up America in the early 1970s by focusing on the arrival of the sexual revolution in the 'burbs. Isolationism within a family, consumerism, and selfishness are personified by a cast that captures the self-obsession within two New England families. As the children struggle awkwardly with adolescence, their parents stumble through sexual experimentation. In the days of Watergate and Vietnam, society is breaking boundaries and ignoring convention. Following suit, these families are eschewing polite barriers and social taboos, with disastrous results. The Ice Storm of the title refers not only to a natural phenomenon but is a (rather heavy-handed) metaphor for a pervasive emotional temperament. The entire cast delivers textured, finely nuanced performances. This movie lingers in the psyche not only for the scope of the tragedy at its conclusion, but for Lee's often humorous and stingingly accurate assessment of pop culture. Based on Rick Moody's novel, this won the best-screenplay award at Cannes in 1997. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• Children of Men | DVD | (15/01/2007) from £5.33   |  Saving you £4.66 (87.43%)   |  RRP £9.99

  In a world fallen into anarchy a disillusioned bureaucrat becomes the unlikely champion of Earth's survival.

• Everyone | DVD | (26/09/2005) from £4.98   |  Saving you £10.01 (201.00%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Ryan and Grant are the model of a perfect urban gay couple. And they're getting married. The ceremony is set to be a small affair with only immediate family on the invite list. What could possibly go wrong? The answer isn't everything it's Everyone as five couples - and all their baggage - show up ensuring this 'day to remember' will not soon be forgotten.

• Bloodsport 3 | DVD | (21/01/2008) from £12.13   |  Saving you £-6.14 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The battle for the coveted Kumite sword continues in this third instalment of the popular mano-a-mano combat series. This time the battle is both for honour and for vengeance as Alex Cardo seeks to make those who killed his mentor pay for their crime.

• I Bought A Vampire Motorcycle | DVD | (27/11/2017) from £6.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Birmingham biker Nick (Neil Morrissey) thinks he's got a bargain when he buys a second-hand motorcycle at a knock-down price. The only problem is that the machine won't start in the hours of daylight. Nick's suspicions begin to mount when his best friend is murdered. Could he be the owner of a monstrous vampire motorbike which stalks the streets at night, feasting upon Hell's Angels, streetwalkers and traffic wardens? Understandably alarmed, Nick decides to call in Inspector Cleaver (Michael Elphick) and a priest (Anthony Daniels) in order to exorcise the two-wheeled beast from hell...

• The Angel Doll | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  The Angel Doll' is a beautifully touching true story told through the eyes of ten-year-old boy Jerry. He tells of his carefree life in the 1950s with his friend Whitey. Whitey is devoted to his seriously ill four-year-old sister Sandy whose only comfort from her illness is her love for angels. Although Whitey has saved money from his paper round to buy her a special angel doll he cannot find one in the small town that they live in. Jerry and Whitey set out with single-minded determination to find a doll and along the way face fear prejudice and theft. They learn what is truly important as their lives and the lives of others are affected in a very unexpected way.