"Actor: Pat Hamilton"

• Whistle Down The Wind | DVD | (19/06/2007) from £5.69   |  Saving you £7.30 (128.30%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Three young children live on a remote farm in the North of England; their mother is dead and their father is too busy to look after them. Kathy (Hayley Mills) is the eldest Nan (Diane Holgate) is the quiet child of the family while six year old Charles (Alan Barnes) is the most outspoken. The children wage constant guerrilla warfare against farmhand Eddie and the traps he sets for wild animals. They rescue three kittens that Eddie believes he has drowned. Charles tries to give

• The Way We Were | DVD | (24/07/2000) from £7.55   |  Saving you £12.44 (164.77%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A classic early 1970s weepie, The Way We Were stars Barbra Streisand as a Communist activist in the late 30s and 40s and Robert Redford as the ambitious young writer who marries her, cheats on her and eventually leaves her in the early days of McCarthyism for the sake of his Hollywood screenwriting career. Arthur Laurent's intelligent screenplay, remarkable performances from the two stars and Marvin Hamlisch's Oscar-winning score and theme song combined to produce a film that even as hostile a critic as Pauline Kael had to admit worked. On the DVD: The DVD re-release includes the usual subtitling facilities, the theatre trailer and a documentary on the film's making, which includes one of the more political scenes deleted for commercial release; it is also possible to watch the film with a detailed commentary from Sydney Pollack about the problems of its making, problems which included writing new scenes so that Redford was not entirely upstaged by Streisand in the audience's sympathies. --Roz Kaveney

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Two Disc Ultimate Edition) | DVD | (29/10/2001) from £8.99   |  Saving you £16.00 (177.98%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Arguably the finest movie of its kind, Terminator 2: Judgment Day captured Arnold Schwarzenegger at the very apex of his Hollywood celebrity and James Cameron at the peak of his perfectionist directorial powers. Nothing the star did subsequently measured up to his iconic performance here, spouting legendary catchphrases and wielding weaponry with unparalleled cool; and while the director had an even bigger hit with the bloated and sentimental Titanic, few followers of his career would deny that Cameron's true forte has always been sci-fi action. With an incomparably bigger budget than its 1984 precursor, T2 essentially reworks the original scenario with envelope-stretching special effects and simply more, more, more of everything. Yet, for all its scale, T2 remains at heart a classic sci-fi tale: robots running amok, time travel paradoxes and dystopian future worlds are recurrent genre themes, which are here simply revitalised by Cameron's glorious celebration of the mechanistic. From the V-twin roar of a Harley Fat Boy to the metal-crunching Steel Mill finale, the director's fascination with machines is this movie's strongest motif: it's no coincidence that the character with whom the audience identifies most strongly is a robot. Now that impressive but unengaging CGI effects have come to over-dominate sci-fi movies (think of The Phantom Menace), T2's pivotal blending of extraordinary live-action stuntwork and FX looks more and more like it will never be equalled. On the DVD: Oh, if only every DVD could be like this. Here is a DVD package worthy of this monumental movie, with so many extra features the viewer will spend hours simply trying to find them all (the animated menus alone are worth watching over and over again.) On the second disc there are three extensive documentaries (all good, all relatively straightforward), but things get more complicated as you burrow down through the menu layers of Cyberdyne Systems into the "Data Hub": the entire screenplay, storyboards, text features, dozens and dozens of video clips, deleted scenes, and thousands of stills. The movie disc itself will cause even hardened surround-sound enthusiasts to gasp with joy as these explosive soundscapes come alive in Dolby 5.1 or DTS (hear that Harley roar!), while the anamorphic widescreen picture of the original theatrical 2.35:1 ratio is jaw-droppingly impressive. The exhaustive commentary is a patchwork of interviews with various key cast and crew members. The only disappointment here is that, unlike the almost identical Region 1 version, this Region 2 package does not include the DVD-ROM features nor the option to play the original theatrical release and the hidden "Ultimate Edition"--the only version here is the Director's Cut Special Edition, although the few extra scenes that make up the "Ultimate" edit can still be found in the "Data Core" section of the second disc. --Mark Walker

• Barry Lyndon | DVD | (10/09/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Perhaps Stanley Kubrick's most underrated film, Barry Lyndon--adapted from the picaresque novel by William Makepeace Thackeray--inhabits the 18th century in the way A Clockwork Orange and 2001: A Space Odyssey inhabit the future: perfect sets, costumes and cinematography capture characters whose rises and falls are at once deeply tragic and absurdly comical. Narrated in avuncular form by Michael Hordern, the film follows the fortunes of Redmond Barry (Ryan O'Neal), a handsome Irish youth forced to flee his hometown after a duel with a cowardly English officer (Leonard Rossiter). Stripped of his small fortune by a deferential highwayman, Barry joins the British army and fights in the Seven Years War, attempting a desertion that leads him into the Prussian army. A position as a spy on an exquisitely painted con man (Patrick Magee) leads to a life of gambling around the courts of Europe, and just before the intermission our hero achieves all he could want by marrying a wealthy, titled beautiful widow (Marisa Berenson). However, Part Two reveals that Barry can no more be a clockwork orange than the protagonist of Kubrick's previous film, and his spendthrift ways, foolhardy pursuit of social advancement and unwise treatment of his new family lead to several disasters, climaxing in another horrific, yet farcical duel. Shot almost entirely in the "magic hour", that point of the day when the light is mistily perfect, with innovative use of candlelight for interiors, Barry Lyndon looks ravishing, but the perfection of its images is matched by the inner turmoil of its seemingly frozen characters. Kubrick is often accused of being unemotional, but his restraint is all the more affecting when, for example, Barry is struck by the deaths of those close to him, his wife writhes into madness or his stepson (Leon Vitali) vomits before he can stand his ground in a duel.On the DVD: The extras are skimpy, a trailer and a list of awards, a French alternate soundtrack and subtitles in seven languages. However, the film--"digitally restored and remastered"--is served superbly by the medium. Letterboxed to 1.59:1 (which fits the 14:9 option of a widescreen TV), with a 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, the print looks and sounds wonderful, which not only allows a fresh appreciation of the wit and beauty of the film but shows just how good the apparent underplaying (unusual in Kubrick films) of the cast is. --Kim Newman

• On The Waterfront | DVD | (09/06/2014) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Anne Of Green Gables | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This gorgeous adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's classic children's story is well worth watching with the whole family. Produced for Canadian television, it's one of those rare productions that actually sticks to the book and even enhances it through first-rate performances and an excellent script. Set on bucolic Prince Edward Island in the late 19th century, Anne of Green Gables is the story of Anne Shirley, an imaginative and headstrong orphan. When brother and sister Marilla and Mathew Cuthbert decide to adopt an orphan boy to help Matthew work the farm, they are astonished when Anne arrives at the train station by mistake. "What use is she to us?" grumbles the gruff Marilla. "We might be of some use to her", answers Matthew, who has taken an instant liking to the talkative Anne. As Anne grows up, her adventures are both hilarious and moving. It's a delight to watch as she forms a friendship with the beautiful Diana and her admirer--the dashing Gilbert Blythe--then dyes her hair green, cracks a slate over Gilbert's head when he calls her "Carrots", and finds a sympathetic teacher who encourages her to attend college. Richard Farnsworth is perfect as the shy and gentle bachelor Matthew, who confides to Anne that he never went courting because "I would have had to say something". Colleen Dewhurst delivers a nuanced and powerful performance as Marilla, a seemingly cold-hearted spinster whose no-nonsense exterior conceals a warm heart. And as Anne, Megan Follows strikes the perfect note, maturing from freckle-faced orphan to elegant and poised young woman. --Elisabeth Keating

• The Nutty Professor (1996) | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £4.58   |  Saving you £5.41 (118.12%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Eddie Murphy stars as Dr Sherman Klump a kind ""calorically challenged"" genetics professor who longs to shed his 400-pound frame in order to win the heart of beautiful Jada Pinkett. So with one swig of his experimental fat-reducing serum Sherman becomes ""Buddy Love"" a fast-talking pumped-up plumped-down Don Juan. Can Sherman stop his buff alter ego before it's too late or will Buddy have the last laugh?

• The Last Detail | DVD | (05/08/2002) from £19.99   |  Saving you £-7.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The Last Detail nearly didn't get a release. Columbia, for whom it was made, was alarmed by the movie's barrage of profanity and resented the unorthodox working style of its director, Hal Ashby, who loathed producers and made no secret of it. Only when the film picked up a Best Actor Award for Jack Nicholson at Cannes did the studio reluctantly grant it a release--with minimal promotion--to widespread critical acclaim. Nicholson, in one of his best roles, plays "Bad-ass" Buddusky, a naval petty officer detailed, along with his black colleague "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young), to escort an offender from Virginia to the harsh naval prison at Portsmouth, NH. The miscreant is a naïve youngster, Meadows (Randy Quaid), who's been given eight years for stealing $40 from his CO's wife's favourite charity. The escorts, at first cynically detached, soon start feeling sorry for Meadows and decide to show him a good time in his last few days of freedom. Ashby, a true son of 60s counterculture, avidly abets the anti-authoritarian tone of Robert Towne's script. Meadows is a sad victim of the system--but so too are Buddusky and Mulhall, as they gradually come to realise. A lot of the film is very funny. Nicholson gets to do one of his classic psychotic outbursts--"I am the fucking shore patrol!"--and there are some pungent scenes of male bonding pushed to the verge of desperation. But the overall tone is melancholy, pointed up by the jaunty military marches on the soundtrack. Shot amid bleak, wintry landscapes, in buses and trains and grey urban streets, The Last Detail is a film of constant, compulsive movement going nowhere--a powerful, finely acted study of institutional claustrophobia. On the DVD: The Last Detail disc doesn't have much in the way of extras. There are abbreviated filmographies for Ashby, Nicholson and Quaid (though not for Young) and a trailer for A Few Good Men (1992). The mono sound comes up well in Dolby Digital, and the transfer preserves DoP Michael Chapman's subtle, subfusc palette and the 1.85:1 ratio of the original. --Philip Kemp

• Anne Of Green Gables - The Sequel | DVD | (28/10/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The enchanting sequel to the Emmy award-winning Anne of Green Gables tells the continuing story of Anne Shirley as she makes the transition from a romantic impetuous orphan to an outspoken adventurous and accomplished young teacher.

• Morvern Callar | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Eerie, morbid, yet somehow life-affirming, Morvern Callar stars the superb Samantha Morton (Sweet and Lowdown, Minority Report) as the title character, a young Scottish woman whose boyfriend has just killed himself, leaving behind a cassette of assorted songs and an unpublished novel. Instead of reporting his death, Morvern puts her name on his novel before sending it off to a publisher, then uses the dead man's bank card to pay for a trip to Spain with her friend Lana (Kathleen McDermott), where she tries to lose herself in sensation and chaos. The events of Morvern Callar suggest a story, but director Lynn Ramsay (Ratcatcher) focuses on moments of ambiguity and ambivalence between the sequences of dramatic action--and when Morvern does take decisive action, her choices are unnerving. The movie's striking images and rich use of colour vividly capture a dislocated state of mind, when life has come unmoored from meaning. --Bret Fetzer

• A Time For Dancing | DVD | (07/11/2005) from £21.58   |  Saving you £-5.59 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Two teenage dancers - easily distracted Sam (Shiri Appleby) and driven Jules (Larisa Oleynik) - must examine their lives and take a closer look at their futures when Jules is diagnosed with cancer. Based on the popular book by Davida Wills Hurwin and directed by Hoop Dreams producer Peter Gilbert.

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day | DVD | (28/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Almost ten years have passed since Sarah Connor's ordeal began, and her son John, the future leader of the resistance, is now a healthy young boy.

• On The Waterfront | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £4.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (100.20%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Marlon Brando's famous "I coulda been a contenda" speech in On the Water Front is such a war horse by now that a lot of people probably feel they've seen the film already, even if they haven't. And many of those who have seen it may have forgotten how flat-out thrilling it is. For all its great dramatic and cinematic qualities, and its fiery social criticism, Elia Kazan's has created one of the most gripping melodramas of political corruption and individual heroism ever made in the United States, a five-star gut-grabber. Shot on location around the docks of Hoboken, New Jersey, in the mid-1950s, it tells the fact-based story of a longshoreman (Brando's Terry Malloy) who is blackballed and savagely beaten for informing against the mobsters who have taken over his union and sold it out to the bosses. (Karl Malden has a more conventional stalwart-hero role, as an idealistic priest who nurtures Terry's pangs of conscience.) Lee J Cobb, who created the role of Willy Loman in Death of Salesman under Kazan's direction on Broadway, makes a formidable foe as a greedy union leader. --David Chute, Amazon.com

• Beethoven/Beethoven's 2nd | DVD | (05/06/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  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... (Dir. Brian Levant 1992) 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. Trouble ensues when Missy's evil owner Regina heartlessly severs Beethoven from his lady love and plots to steal the pups too. Will Beethoven and the puppies be reunited with Missy? Will Regina get her comeuppance? Will George Newton ever know peace and quiet again? (Dir. Rod Daniel 1993)

• On The Waterfront | DVD | (16/04/2007) from £7.08   |  Saving you £-1.09 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  ""You don't understand. I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody instead of a bum which is what I am let's face it."" - Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) Marlon Brando is the longshoreman who finds himself increasingly isolated when he challenges the might and power of the tough New York City dockers' Union. Rod Steiger is his elder brother torn between loyalty to union and love of family. Lee J. Cobb is the powerful union boss while Eva Marie Saint

• Holiday Affair | DVD | (22/09/2003) from £19.89   |  Saving you £-17.90 (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  A sales clerk wins the heart of a little boy and his widowed mother amidst the magic of Christmas in New York City. Jodie (Cynthia Gibb) is a widow with a six-year-old son. Her life is settled and comfortable until the day she goes shopping in the smart Manhattan store where Steve Mason (David James Elliott) works. A sales clerk working in the kids' toy department Steve instantly falls in love with Jodie. But she is only there to buy a train for her company to use in a commercial. She has no interest in the train or the magic of Christmas expecting to return the toy the next day. Her son Timmy changes everything. The train his mother brings home for Christmas is his dream come true. Like Steve young Timmy believes anything is possible and wishes with all his heart that the train is for him. And Steve is wishing for Jodie. But will their wishes come true? Will Jodie be won over by the power of Christmas magic?

• Cathy Come Home | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Cathy Come Home is probably the most famous British television play ever - watched by a quarter of the population both on its first broadcast in 1966 and on its repeat in 1967. Its impact was enormous provoking questions in the Houses of Parliament and helping launch the new housing charity 'Shelter'. Ken Loach and producer Tony Garnett also ushered in a new style of television drama taking the cameras onto the streets and fusing documentary and drama styles to give the story an extra sense of reality and a devastating emotional impact.

• Anne Of Green Gables | DVD | (01/09/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Anne Of Green Gables:Tony Award-winner Colleen Dewhurst and Academy Award-nominee Richard Farnsworth give unparalleled performances in this critically-acclaimed motion picture based on the international best-selling novel. Filmed amidst the spectacular scenery of Prince Edward Island Canada this Emmy Award-winning production follows the provocative life drama of orphan Anne Shirley (Follows) from her struggles as an adolescent to her triumphs as a young woman. Anne Of Green Gables - The Sequel:The enchanting sequel to the Emmy award-winning ""Anne of Green Gables"" tells the continuing story of Anne Shirley as she makes the transition from a romantic impetuous orphan to an outspoken adventurous and accomplished young teacher. Canadian actress Megan Follows returns to her role as Anne. Tony Award-winner Colleen Dewhurst stars opposite her as the aging Marilla Cuthbert and Oscar-winning British Actress Dame Wendy Hiller appears as the prickly dowager Mrs. Harris. An emotional conclusion full of wit and charm to the epic tale of the beguiling red-head. Anne Of Green Gables - The Continuing Story:Experience the enchanting conclusion to the Anne of Green Gables trilogy. Now in their twenties Anne and Gilbert move to New York to pursue Gilbert's medical career and Anne's writing career. After many unsuccessful months they move back to Avonlea and into the middle of wartime society. Gilbert feels pressure to join the army as a medical officer and is soon listed as missing in action. The indomitable Anne sets off to the battlefields of Europe in search of Gilbert and helps a young French woman and her son who are in the line of danger along the way.

• Sherlock Hound | DVD | (12/07/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away) during his time at Japan's largest animation studio TMS. Before he went on to create Totoro and Studio Ghibli Miyazaki captured a whole generation of childrens' imaginations with his retelling of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries using a loveable cast of canines. For the first time ever in the UK all 26 episodes of the cult toon classic are collected into one deluxe box set Sherlock Hound. released as either Famous Detective Holmes or Detective Holmes in Japan is an anime based on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series where all the characters are depicted as anthropomorphic animals the majority dogs though Holmes is a fox and his enemy Professor Moriarty is a wolf. The show featured regular appearances of Jules Verne-steampunk style technology adding a 19th-century science-fiction atmosphere to the series.

• The Nutty Professor | DVD | (01/10/1999) from £6.25   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Lucky for Eddie Murphy he got hold of the rights to this 1963 Jerry Lewis classic before Jim Carrey did. Murphy had a comeback of sorts with his Jeckyll-and-Hyde-derived fable of awkward chemistry professor Sherman Klump (Murphy), who discovers a potion that transforms him into the suave, cocky lady-killer Buddy Love (also Murphy). The big difference between the two versions is that Murphy's Sherman is not only a nerdy intellectual but is also grossly obese, which provides the opportunity for some hilarious digital transformation effects, as well as some gentle satire of our culture's attitudes toward fat people. As he did in the hit Coming to America, Murphy plays multiple roles, and the scenes at the Klump family dinner table, in which he plays everybody, are brilliantly funny. (Murphy won the National Society of Film Critics' award for best actor of 1996 for these performances.) Lewis based his Buddy Love on the 1960s ideal of cool exemplified by Sinatra and the Rat Pack; Murphy stumbles a bit by playing up the oily phoniness of his latter-day Love a little too soon, but for the most part The Nutty Professor represents a welcome return to form for Eddie Murphy. --Jim Emerson