"Actor: Ralph James"

• Trading Places | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £4.99   |  Saving you £8.00 (160.32%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In this crowd-pleasing 1983 comedy of high finance about a homeless con artist who becomes a Wall Street robber baron, Eddie Murphy consolidated the success of his startling debut in the previous year's 48 Hours and polished his slick-winner persona. The turnabout begins with an argument between super-rich siblings, played by Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche: are captains of industry, they wonder, born or made? To settle the issue, the meanies construct a cruel experiment in social Darwinism. Preppie commodities trader Dan Aykroyd (perfectly cast) is stripped of all his worldly goods and expelled from the firm, and Murphy's smelly derelict is appointed to take his place, graduating to tailored suits and a world-class harem in record time. Eventually the two men team up to teach the nasty old manipulators a lesson, cornering the market in frozen orange juice futures in the process. Director John Landis (The Blues Brothers) doesn't have the world's lightest touch, but he hits most of the jokes hard and quite a few of them pay off. Trading Places is also a landmark film for fans of Jamie Lee Curtis. --David Chute, Amazon.com

• My Cousin Vinny | DVD | (17/04/2019) from £3.34   |  Saving you £10.91 (524.52%)   |  RRP £12.99

  1992's My Cousin Vinny is a delightful comedy-cum-courtroom drama set in Alabama. Joe Pesci stars as Vinny, the garage mechanic recently turned lawyer, who finds himself straight in at the deep end when his young cousin is unjustly arrested, along with his buddy, for the murder of a store clerk. From the opening scenes in which the hapless arrestees labour under the impression they've been booked for stealing a can of tuna, My Cousin Vinny's comedic pace never slackens, even as the drama builds. Much of the fun derives from raw, Brooklyn native Vinny's coping with the cultural backwaters of the Deep South, from its lardy grits to the 5.30 am "alarm call" of the factory horn. There's a good running gag involving retrieving $200 from a recalcitrant local redneck, while his clashes with the court judge, played by the late Fred Gwynne are priceless. Pesci goads this stickler for procedures by mumbling expletives in court, turning up in a leather jacket, then a mauve frock coat and arousing the judge's suspicions as to his bona fides. However, it's Marisa Tomei who surprisingly, but justly, took an Academy Award for her performance as tomboyish Lisa, Vinny's girlfriend. Tart rather than tarty, she more than matches Pesci for Noo Yoik sass and mechanical knowledge, delivering a court lecture on limited slip differential and independent rear suspension that oozes improbable sexiness. On the DVD: a decent presentation in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, though it's only Tomei's bizarrely eye-catching costumes which especially merit DVD enhancement. There's also a commentary by director (and co-creator of Yes Minister) Jonathan Lynn, in which--though at times seeming to struggle for interesting things to say--he reminisces on the fear in shooting the film's prison scenes adjacent to Death Row in a maximum security prison. --David Stubbs

• LEGO DC Shazam: Magic and Monsters | DVD | (15/06/2020) from £4.82   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  There's a new hero in town and his name is Shazam! This earnest do-gooder wants to join the Justice League, but in order to do so, he has to reveal his identity as ten year old Billy Batson! Egads! Billy learns that joining a team is all about trust while fighting off the evil Mr. Mind and Black Adam in Lego Justice League Shazam! Monster Society of Evil!

• The End of the Affair | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £7.63   |  Saving you £-1.64 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  On a rainy night in 1946 novelist Maurice Bendrix (Ralph Fiennes) has a meeting with Henry Miles (Stephen Rea) husband of his ex-mistress Sarah (Julianne Moore) who abruptly ended their affair two years before. Bendrix's obsession with Sarah is rekindled as he succumbs to his own jealousy and arranges to have her followed. As the investigation progresses Bendrix relives his passionate memories of their affair during The Blitz in London. He discovers her diary and reads her account of the affair. It is as different from his as night is from day. He re-enters her life and confronts once more the consuming love they had for each other and the reason for its annihilation

• Fear In The Night (Doubleplay) | Blu Ray | (30/10/2017) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Peggy (Judy Geeson) is recovering from a nervous breakdown when she is attacked by an unseen assailant. As she struggles to break free, her attacker's artificial arm comes loose and Peggy blacks out in sheer terror. Peggy and her new husband Robert (Ralph Bates) spend their honeymoon at the country school where Robert is a teacher. The school is eerily deserted, except for the headmaster Michael (Peter Cushing) and his wife Molly (Joan Collins). Returningto her cottage, Peggy is once more attacked by a man with one arm. Robert goes to London on behalf of the headmaster, but leaves his shotgun behind to reassure Peggy. Michael visits Peggy at the cottage late at night, and she notices for the first time that he has only one arm. Terrified, she reaches for the gun Fear in the Night was the last, and one of the best, of the suspense thrillers that Hammer produced alongside the better-known Gothic horrors. The film was also the Hammer swansong of director and co-writer Jimmy Sangster, who had joined the company in 1949 and helped create its groundbreaking style. EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - End of Term: Inside Fear in the Night ORIGINAL TRAILER

• Ultimate Hammer Box Set | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £87.09   |  Saving you £62.90 (72.22%)   |  RRP £149.99

  20 of the greatest British films ever produced by the world renowned Hammer film studio! Includes: 1. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb (Dir. Seth Holt 1971) 2. Demons Of The Mind (Dir. Peter Sykes 1972) 3. The Devil Rides Out (Dir. Terence Fisher 1968) 4. Viking Queen (Dir. Don Chaffey 1967) 5. Dracula Prince Of Darkness (Dir. Terence Fisher 1966) 6. Fear In The Night (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1972) 7. Frankenstein Created Women (Dir. Terence Fisher 1967) 8. The Horror Of Frankenstein (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1970) 9. The Nanny (Dir. Seth Holt 1965) 10. One Million Years BC (Dir. Don Chaffey 1966) 11. Plague Of The Zombies (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 12. Quatermass And The Pit (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1967) 13. Rasputin The Mad Monk (Dir. Don Sharp 1966) 14. The Reptile (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 15. The Scars of Dracula (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1970) 16. SHE (Dir. Robert Day 1965) 17. Slave Girls (Dir. Michael Carreras 1967) 18. To The Devil A Daughter (Dir. Peter Sykes 1967) 19. The Vengeance Of SHE (Dir. Cliff Owen 1968) 20. The Witches (Dir. Cyril Frankel 1966)

• Kiss Me Deadly | DVD | (04/08/2003) from £17.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A terrific film noir full of skewed camera angles and mysterious whose-shoes-are-those shots, Kiss Me Deadly is about as dark and exciting as noir gets. A young woman (Cloris Leachman) in bare feet and a trench coat throws herself into the traffic to flag down help and the car she stops belongs to detective Mike Hammer. Not even 15 minutes into the film and there's already been a murder, a mysterious letter, an attempt to kill Hammer and, of course, a warning to stay out of it. Hammer, tired of lowlife divorce cases, smells something big and can't let it go. Mike Hammer is a detective so cool he can win a fight with nothing more than a box of popcorn as a weapon; he knows his opera singers as well as his amateur prize-fighters and he makes the ladies swoon--but he's far from a conventional hero. In fact, he's emphatically not a nice guy; Hammer happily whores out his secretary-girlfriend Velma to cinch up those divorce cases and has a penchant for slamming other people's fingers in drawers. Even the bad guys know he's a sleazebag ("What's it worth to you to turn your considerable talents back to the gutter you crawled out of?"). Ralph Meeker plays Hammer's ambivalence brilliantly, swinging easily between sexy and just plain mean. --Ali Davis

• Wayne's World 2 | DVD | (11/12/2001) from £3.75   |  Saving you £12.24 (326.40%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Wayne's World 2 was a successful follow-up for Wayne and Garth's Adventures, full of the same madcap humour from their TV characters and previous film. Somewhere in the world, there are probably people who don't understand why Mike Myers' eponymous Wayne's World character is funny--feel sorry for them. Granted, the laughs are often cheap and silly, but there's no one who can embody a comic character and riff within that character the way Myers does. Wayne and his pal Garth (Dana Carvey) were fixtures on Saturday Night Live before the unexpected success of Wayne' s World, a movie about what happened when they tried to take their local cable-access citywide. This time, they want to stage Waynestock, a mammoth rock festival in their little Chicago suburb, even as Wayne copes with girlfriend Tia Carrere's interest in record-company exec Christopher Walken. For extra fun, Garth gets involved with the babelicious Kim Basinger. Yes, the humour is scattershot and the plot is lame--but you'll find yourself laughing none the less. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com

• Horror Of Frankenstein (Doubleplay) | Blu Ray | (29/01/2018) from £15.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Teenage prodigy Victor Frankenstein tells his father of his ambition to go to university in Vienna. The Baron objects, so Victor coldly sabotages his shooting rifle. The gun explodes in the Baron's face, killing him. Victor uses his inheritance to decamp to Vienna. Six years pass, and Victor leaves after getting the Dean's daughter pregnant; returning home with fellow student Wilhelm, he rescues his friend Elizabeth and her father, an eminent professor, from two highwaymen. He kills one, and covertly beheads him. Hidden away from housekeeper and ˜bedwarmer' Alys, he and Wilhelm set about researches into the revival of dead tissue. The grisly career of the notorious Victor Frankenstein has begun This bold experiment in horror comedy was directed by Jimmy Sangster in 1970, and is one of the most unusual of all the Hammer horrors. Ralph Bates stars as the young Victor Frankenstein and Dave Prowse (later to embody Darth Vader in Star Wars) plays his monster. EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - Gallows Humour: Inside The Horror of Frankenstein ORIGINAL TRAILER

• Greystoke - The Legend Of Tarzan, Lord Of The Apes | DVD | (13/09/2004) from £8.23   |  Saving you £5.76 (69.99%)   |  RRP £13.99

  An infant child is raised by apes after being shipwrecked off the west coast of Africa. As he grows he learns the laws of the jungle and eventually claims the title Lord of the Apes. Yet years later when he is returned to civilization as the Earl of Greystoke Tarzan (Christopher Lambert in his first English speaking role) remains uncertain as to which laws he should obey; those of man or those of the jungle...

• The Looney, Looney, Looney Bugs Bunny Movie | DVD | (05/07/2021) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Things start out plenty looney as Yosemite Sam strikes a Devilish bargain to send Bugs straight to you-know-where! The looniness continues as Daffy and Tweety tangle with a pair of feather-brained bird-napping gangsters. And in the even loonier finale, Bugs turns Hollywood's glitziest awards ceremony into a cartoon-star-studded disast-hare zone! A fabulous, 24-carrot tour de farce from animation legend Friz Freleng!

• Dragonslayer | DVD | (20/07/2004) from £8.25   |  Saving you £6.74 (81.70%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the Dark Ages a young would be sorcerer sets out to slay Vermithrax the terrifying dragon that has reigned supreme throughout the land.... Abounding in fantasy and science fiction Dragonslayer is lit by magic and from it's medieval alchemy emerges an entertainment bursting with suspense - an awesome adventure that sends the imagination soaring to new heights!

• The Outer Limits - The Original Series - Vol. 1 | DVD | (12/07/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission... Surrender yourself to the mysterious world of 'The Outer Limits' as one of the creepiest and most provocative series in television history comes to DVD. This fantastic box set comprises every episode from the first season and a glut of eery extras. Featuring 32 original episodes on 8 discs! Episodes comprise: 1. Galaxy Being 2. Hundred Days of

• Sunshine | DVD | (10/04/2013) from £20.00   |  Saving you £-0.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This sprawling family saga follows a Hungarian-Jewish family across three generations, and stars Ralph Fiennes as the father, the son, and the grandson in three distinctly different roles. As a Europudding vehicle for Fiennes and a top-drawer cast (including Jennifer Ehle, Rachel Weisz, Deborah Unger, Miriam Margolyes and William Hurt), Sunshine delivers on all fronts: there's glossy melodrama, high-moral seriousness as history wears the family down like the wind, and leitmotifs--the family elixir called "Sunshine" that founds their fortune, semi-incestuous adulterous liaisons, photographs and faces--that thread the epic three-hour narrative together. Fiennes begins as a stiff Budapest lawyer-cum-officer and judge during the First World War, torn when anti-Semitism raises its head. His son is a champion fencer who denounces the family faith to attain advancement but ends up in the Nazi-run labour camps all the same. The last in the line, a policeman this time, must navigate the Stalinist forces of repression and endures through the 1956 uprising to take back the family name and faith. And yet as a film by director István Szabó (Colonel Redl, Mephisto), it's a bit of a soggy disappointment lacking the bile and spit and visual inventiveness that makes the best of his other works so outstanding. Perhaps the fact that Szabó is directing an all-English speaking cast is the problem, leaving the film feeling strangely old-fashioned and paradoxically lacking a sense of place (despite much of it being filmed in Hungary itself). Although there are some charged emotional beats throughout, pretty costumes, and lots of entertainingly tasteful bonking sequences, the fencing sequences in particular become tooth-pullingly tedious and the whole thing seems to drag, especially as it takes itself so seriously. --Leslie Felperin

• 100 Days to Victory | DVD | (26/11/2018) from £4.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Stunning new BBC series to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armistice 11th November 1918. Through cinematic recreations, interviews with top historians and state-of-the-art CGI, 100 Days To Victory is a gripping account of the last 100 Days of the First World War, telling the story of how the Allied generals worked together in new ways to win the war. Five of historys most visionary leaders Marshal Ferdinand Foch (France), Field Marshal Douglas Haig (Britain), General John J. Pershing (United States), General Arthur Currie (Canada) and General John Monash (Australia) came together to defeat the enemy with unprecedented teamwork and innovation. Exciting and dramatic, this docudrama brings the men and women behind WWIs finest multinational feat of arms vividly to life. Includes subtitles for the Hard Of Hearing

• Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts | Blu Ray | (09/08/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Dragonslayer | Blu Ray | (21/03/2023) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Eddie Murphy Box Set - Trading Places / Coming To America | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Eddie Murphy's 1988 vehicle Coming to America was probably the point at which his status as a mainstream big-screen comedian finally gelled, following the highly successful 48 Hours pairing with Nick Nolte. Never mind the hackneyed storyline: under John Landis's tight direction, he turns in a star performance (and several brilliant cameos) that is disciplined and extremely funny. Murphy plays an African prince who comes to New York officially to sow his wild oats. Privately, he is seeking a bride he can marry for love rather than one chosen by his parents. With his companion (Arsenio Hall, who pushes Murphy all the way in the comedy stakes), he settles in the borough of Queens and takes a job in a hamburger joint. A succession of hilarious satire-barbed adventures ensue, plus the required romantic conclusion. The script is crammed with ripe one-liners , but "Freeze, you diseased rhinoceros pizzle" has to be the most devastating hold-up line of all time. Film buffs will appreciate a brief appearance by Don Ameche as a down-and-out, but this is Murphy's film and he generates warmth enough to convert the most ambivalent viewer. On the DVD: The only--rather pointless--extra on offer is the original theatrical trailer which adds nothing apart from a rapid recap of the story. But the 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation (the picture quality is diamond sharp) and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack recreate the original authentic cinematic experience. The choreography of 1980s pop diva Paula Abdul in the lavish wedding scenes and Nile Rodgers' pounding musical score are the main beneficiaries. --Piers Ford

• The End Of The Affair | DVD | (21/08/2000) from £7.98   |  Saving you £-1.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  THE END OF THE AFFAIR is a brilliant and powerful story of love, betrayal and sexual jealousy.

• Miracle Maker | DVD | (30/10/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  This animated feature-length life of Jesus boasts a stellar pedigree. Originally a BBC Wales production, it showcases the voices of some of Britain's finest actors in any medium: Ralph Fiennes as a brooding and humble Jesus, Miranda Richardson as Mary Magdalene, Richard E. Grant as John the Baptist and David Thewlis as Judas. The lovely, flute-heavy score is by Oscar-winner Anne Dudley (The Full Monty). And clearly a lot of expense has gone into the Claymation-like animation. But while it's hard to find fault with the rendering of this familiar story--it is respectful and definitely done, you might say, by the Book--it would have been nice if there had been a tad more joy, if it walked a bit lighter in its sandals. As it is, all the characters seem consistently subdued, whether they are expressing angst, rage, terror or bliss--none of which is helped by the figures' blank-eyed stares (if animators are becoming ever more sophisticated, why can't they get rid of those creepy blank gazes once and for all?). Still, the weight of having such formidable actors play these familiar roles lends the production a certain credibility, and parents looking for good religious videos that won't insult their kids' intelligence will be thrilled. --Anne Hurley