"Actor: Michael"

• Monty Python's Flying Circus - Season 4 | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £3.49   |  Saving you £16.50 (472.78%)   |  RRP £19.99

  And now for something completely different... Episodes Comprise: 1. The Golden Age of Ballooning 2. Michael Ellis 3. The Light Entertainment War 4. Hamlet 5. Mr. Neutron 6. Party Political Broadcast

• Armageddon | DVD | (20/08/2001) from £4.99   |  Saving you £13.00 (260.52%)   |  RRP £17.99

  This 1998 testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continued Hollywood's millennium-fuelled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understand what mainstream audiences want in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but, of course, lovable) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishising of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also try to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable to populate the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humour and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable female characters--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'". Sadly, she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than all the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? --Dave McCoy

• The Day Of The Jackal | Blu Ray | (04/09/2017) from £16.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  With its high-intensity plot about an attempt to assassinate French President Charles de Gaulle, the bestselling novel by Frederick Forsyth was a prime candidate for screen adaptation. Director Fred Zinnemann brought his veteran skills to bear on what has become a timeless classic of screen suspense. Not to be confused with the later remake The Jackal starring Bruce Willis (which shamelessly embraced all the bombast that Zinnemann so wisely avoided), this 1973 thriller opts for lethal elegance and low-key tenacity in the form of the Jackal, the suave assassin played with consummate British coolness by Edward Fox. He's a killer of the highest order, a master of disguise and international elusiveness, and this riveting film follows his path to de Gaulle with an intense, straightforward documentary style. Perhaps one of the last great films from a bygone age of pure, down-to-basics suspense (and a kind of debonair European alternative to the American grittiness of The French Connection), The Day of the Jackal is a cat-and-mouse thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat until its brilliantly executed final scene (pardon the pun), by which time Fox has achieved cinematic immortality as one of the screen's most memorable killers. --Jeff Shannon

• Beetlejuice 2-Film Premium Collector's Edition | Blu Ray | (02/12/2024) from £49.50   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Mayans M.C. Season 1 DVD | DVD | (02/09/2019) from £14.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Mayans M.C. is the next chapter in Kurt Sutter's award-winning Sons of Anarchy saga. In a post-Jax Teller world, Ezekiel EZ Reyes (JD Pardo) is fresh out of prison and a prospect in the Mayans M.C. charter on the Californian/Mexican border. Now, EZ must carve out his new identity in a town where he was once the golden boy with the American dream in his grasp.

• Saw (Uncut, Theatrical Version) | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £5.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (299.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Two men wake up chained to the wall of a bathroom. There is a dead body between them. Neither man can remember how they got there and have no idea why a demented serial killer named 'Jigsaw' has given them eight hours to kill each other.

• Boardwalk Empire - The Complete Season 1-5 | Blu Ray | (01/06/2015) from £59.99   |  Saving you £50.00 (83.35%)   |  RRP £109.99

  Boardwalk Empire is an Emmy®-winning HBO drama series from Academy Award® nominee/Emmy® Award winner Terence Winter and Academy Award®-winning director Martin Scorsese. The series chronicles the life and times of Enoch Nucky Thompson, Atlantic City's czar at a time when Prohibition proved to be a major catalyst in the rise of organized crime in America.

• The Whistle Blower | DVD | (05/05/2001) from £5.56   |  Saving you £-2.57 (N/A%)   |  RRP £2.99

  A 1987 espionage thriller, The Whistle Blower stars Michael Caine as Frank Jones, a businessman and regular patriotic war veteran whose son Bob (Nigel Havers) is a Russian linguist who works at GCHQ. Bob begins to express doubts to his father about aspects of his work; days later, police report to Frank that his son has died in a fall. A verdict of accidental death is recorded. However, in the midst of his grief, Frank is puzzled by aspects of the death and decides to conduct his own investigation. In so doing he finds himself pitted against an utterly unscrupulous Secret Service prepared to stop at nothing, including murder, to cover up their operations. Set at the time when concerns about GCHQ were at their height and the Cold War had yet to thaw, many of the film's concerns seem, years subsequently, to be thankfully dated. Moreover, it's hard to believe that the bumbling British Secret Services would actually be capable of organising a convivial soiree in a brewery, let alone orchestrate the sort of skulduggery they perpetrate here. Still, with a cast that features all the usual British suspects (Sir John Gielgud, James Fox, Gordon Jackson) there's no doubting the pedigree of The Whistle Blower, which, despite its ostensibly uncomfortable message, actually makes for very agreeable comfort viewing. Michael Caine is especially fine as Michael Caine. --David Stubbs

• Sleepy Hollow | Blu Ray | (21/09/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Tim Burton's unique take on the tale of the headless horseman, with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.

• Kingdom Hospital - Complete | DVD | (09/08/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Kingdom Hospital is horror novelist Stephen King’s adaptation of Danish director Lars Von Trier’s cult mini-series The Kingdom, geared very much for an American audience. The story unfolds across 15 hours, telling the story of a hospital in Maine that’s been built on the site of a 19th Century mill fire that killed most of its young occupants--themes that King fans will be familiar with. In the present day, Kingdom Hospital is haunted by the ghost of ten-year-old child labourer Mary and, even more bizarrely, a fearsome giant anteater-like creature called Antubis. It falls to the ace doctor Hook (Andrew McCarthy), the paraplegic artist Jack Coleman (Peter Rickman) and the hypochondriac psychic Sally Druse (Diane Ladd) to enlist the help of a surreal assortment of hospital staff and patients to help Mary and save Kingdom Hospital itself from certain doom. Fans of Stephen King will probably enjoy the blend of black comedy, spectral horror and general weirdness, which owes a big debt to previous television series like Twin Peaks and even ER. But too often, Kingdom Hospital seems to be trying too hard to make itself into a cult series, something which King is just not a subtle enough writer to carry off. But Kingdom Hospital looks good, especially the CGI Antubis, who steals every scene in which he appears. Generally, though, the series is more of an entertaining experiment than a cult-in-the-making. --Ted Kord

• Barbra Streisand - One Voice | DVD | (30/09/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A collection of music from the highly successful Barbra Streisand.

• The Eagle Has Landed | DVD | (11/06/2007) from £6.25   |  Saving you £9.74 (155.84%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A Nazi strike force plots to assassinate Winston Churchill while he is resting in a desolate Norfolk village. Colonel Radl masterminds the plot which if successful would change the outcome of the war. He enlists the help of Colonel Steiner and Liam Devlin. Disguised as Polish airmen German paratroopers land in England. Radl's plan appear to be going smoothly until an unforeseeable incident exposed the Germans. But the kidnap continues and Steiner Luger in hand approaches the unmistakable figure of Churchill...

• Educating Rita | DVD | (21/05/2018) from £6.34   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A River Runs Through It | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £5.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A River Runs Through It is a lyrical and nostalgic film from director Robert Redford (Quiz Show, Ordinary People), based on the popular autobiographical novel by Norman MacLean. The film chronicles two brothers' coming of age in early 20th-century Missoula, Montana, under the stern tutelage of their minister father (Tom Skerritt). He instils in them a love of fly fishing, which for one brother (Brad Pitt) becomes a lifelong passion even as he sets out to become a newspaperman and struggles with his addiction to gambling. The other brother, Norman (Craig Sheffer), dreams of exploring the world outside Missoula as he falls in love with a local girl (Emily Lloyd) who also dreams of broader horizons. Soon one brother must discover the true meaning of family loyalty when the other finds himself in deeper trouble than ever before. Redford, who also narrates the film, does a masterful job in re-creating the period and in drawing out affecting performances from his young cast. An Oscar winner for Philippe Rousselot's luminescent cinematography, this is a poignant and special film. --Robert Lane, Amazon.com

• Return To Oz | DVD | (22/03/2004) from £5.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (150.25%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Return to Oz is a 1985 live-action sequel that split critics and audiences alike: you don't fool with Mother Nature, spit into the wind, remake Casablanca, or trash the land of Oz. The 1939 classic musical is so beloved that it's almost impossible to imagine seeing Dorothy in shock therapy, a crumbled yellow brick road, the ruins of Emerald City, and the Tin Man turned into stone. But L Frank Baum, the author of the original Oz books, portrayed just that with his continuing stories of Dorothy. When you get by these tough facts, the film version is solid entertainment for the over-seven set. Dorothy (a 10-year-old Fairuza Balk in her debut) is back in Kansas, where Aunt Em (Piper Laurie) is at the end of her rope: her niece is not sleeping and going on about a place called Oz. Therapy may be the answer, but luckily the scary clinic goes dark before Dorothy can be, er, cured (but the lead-up will scare the munchkins out of most kids). She wakes up in the land of Oz, now in tatters, and searches for its king, the Scarecrow. A new set of friends, including a tin soldier, a talking chicken, and a pumpkin man, help her against new villains, including Princess Mombi (Jean Marsh)--complete with a set of detachable heads--and the evil Nome King (Nicol Williamson with a great assist from Will Vinton's Claymation). The sole directorial effort of Oscar-winning editor Walter Murch is stuffed with marvellous effects that foreshadow later works by Tim Burton and the Henson non-Muppet films. --Doug Thomas

• Pet Sematary | DVD | (14/10/2002) from £6.99   |  Saving you £9.00 (128.76%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Sometimes dead is better... For most families moving is a new beginning. But for the Creeds it could be the beginning of the end. Because they've just moved in next door to a place that children built with broken dreams the Pet Sematary. It's a tiny patch of land that hides a mysterious Indian burial ground with the powers of resurrection. Master Of The Macabre Stephen King will take you and the Creeds to hell and back. (But the Creeds don't have return tickets.) Your tour gui

• Alexander The Great | DVD | (03/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Richard Burton stars in Alexander the Great, a middling entry in the 1950s CinemaScope epic cycle. The film boasts excellent production values and a fine cast--including Frederic March, Claire Bloom, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing and Michael Hordern--but it rarely comes to life other than as a big fat ancient Greek wedding of the talents of Burton and Bloom. They strike real dramatic sparks together, so much so they would be reunited in Look Back in Anger (1958) and The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965). The film's failures must be laid at the feet of writer, director and producer Robert Rossen, who never before or after helmed anything remotely on this scale; his best work would follow with the intimate The Hustler (1961). Rossen simply shows little sensibility for the epic, staging lavish but brief and rather pedestrian battles and somehow drawing from the usually mesmerising Burton a performance lacking the charisma essential to a great military commander. Burton fans can enjoy him at his epic best as Marc Anthony in Cleopatra (1963). On the DVD: Alexander the Great is presented anamorphically enhanced at 2.35:1, although the picture is still obviously cropped at either side of the screen throughout. The print is very variable, in places quite grainy and soft with some serious flickering blotchiness, but otherwise it has strong colours, detail and contrast. The sound is primitive stereo. The only extra is the theatrical trailer, effectively presented in anamorphic 2.35:1. --Gary S. Dalkin

• Playing with Fire (DVD) | DVD | (04/05/2020) from £5.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  When straight-laced fire superintendent Jake Carson (John Cena) and his elite team of expert firefighters (Keegan-Michael Key, John Leguizamo and Tyler Mane) come to the rescue of three siblings (Brianna Hildebrand, Christian Convery and Finley Rose Slater) in the path of an encroaching wildfire, they quickly realize that no amount of training could prepare them for their most challenging job yet babysitters. Unable to locate the children's parents, the firefighters have their lives, jobs and even their fire depot turned upside down and quickly learn that kids much like fires are wild and unpredictable. Bonus Features Storytime With John Cena What it Means to Be A Family The Real Smokejumpers: This Is Their Story

• Beethoven/Beethoven's 2nd/Beethoven's 3rd | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £8.23   |  Saving you £0.02 (0.29%)   |  RRP £6.99

  Beethoven: A St. Bernard puppy 'adopts' a new home after escaping from dog thieves. The Newton family just haven't realised the trouble that 185lbs of dog can get into... Beethoven's 2nd: Beethoven has fallen in love with the fetching Missy and is ready to settle down with a family of his own. Like it or not George Newton his hapless owner is about to discover the meaning of chaos - times four! Tchaikovsky Chubby Dolly and Mo a quartet of irresistible puppies that have definitely inherited their father's talent for getting into mischief. Beethoven's 3rd: The story begins as Richard Newton his wife Beth daughter Sara and son Brennan prepare for a cross-country drive to a family reunion. For Richard it's a dream vacation. For his family it's boredom on wheels - until the appearance of a surprise passenger: the huge rollicking slobbering lovable dog Beethoven. Richard has promised to take Beethoven to the reunion and deliver him to his owner Richard's brother. Beth and Brennan are less than thrilled with this news especially when the excitable Beethoven unleashes a string of canine calamities! But when two bumbling thieves threaten the safety of the Newtons it's Beethoven who sets out to put the bite on the bad guys and forever win a place in his new family's hearts.

• The Rum Diary | DVD | (05/03/2012) from £6.89   |  Saving you £13.10 (190.13%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Actor-producer Johnny Depp pays homage to his friend Hunter S. Thompson through this sprightly adaptation of the novelist's semi-autobiographical novel. Depp plays Paul Kemp, the booze-sozzled journalist who takes centre stage in Bruce Robinson's period comedy. Out of desperation, the New Yorker takes a job with a San Juan newspaper in 1960, where he reports to the cynical Lotterman (Richard Jenkins) and shares a squalid flat with laid-back photographer Sala (The Sopranos' Michael Rispoli) and the truly unhinged "crime and religion" reporter Moburg (a scene-stealing Giovanni Ribisi). The three Ugly Americans do their best to drain the island's rum supply until Kemp meets Aaron Eckhart's slick Sanderson, who recruits the writer to promote his real estate ventures, regardless as to the number of poverty-stricken Puerto Ricans his hotels will displace. Politically, Kemp leans left, but he needs the dough, so he accepts the offer, only to find the ultimate temptation in Sanderson's uninhibited fiancée, Chenault (the stunning Amber Heard). It's a tricky balancing act, but when the natives start getting restless, Kemp risks losing everything. If the conclusion feels anticlimactic, Robinson keeps the antic energy going through nerve-wracking car chases, balletic cock fights, and a hilarious acid excursion that recalls the hotel trip-out in Terry Gilliam's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, to which Robinson's film serves as a less surrealistic cousin. If it isn't as certain to become a cult classic, like the director's equally inebriated Withnail and I, Depp and company always remain true to Thompson's irascible spirit. --Kathleen C. Fennessy