"Actor: Richard Martin"

• Halls Of Montezuma | Blu Ray | (31/12/2019) from £14.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Although Lewis Milestone had been American cinema's premier maker of war films for three decades, 1951's The Halls of Montezuma is one of his more marginal pictures. Milestone had already won an Academy Award for the single most honoured film about WWI, All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), and made one of the most distinctive contemporaneous films of WWII, A Walk in the Sun (1945)--a notable influence on Saving Private Ryan, by the way--but by the time of Montezuma the hallmarks of his directorial style--such as his syncopated tracking shots--were becoming mannerisms, and the screenplay's rhythms of personal crises set against the bigger picture of the military campaign are pretty mechanical. That still leaves room to accord the picture a marginal recommendation: it's well-cast, competently made, and free of "Hollywood heroics". Richard Widmark stars as a Marine platoon leader who, having brought only seven of his men through Guadalcanal, is determined to see them safely through the next island conquest. The lieutenant was a schoolteacher in civilian life--as we see in flashbacks--and one member of his command is a former student (Richard Hylton) he helped overcome fear. Other platoon members include ex-boxer Jack Palance, trigger-happy bad boy Skip Homeier, hardcase veterans Neville Brand and Bert Freed, and Karl Malden as a philosophical corpsman. However, the most arresting performance is given by Milestone discovery Richard Boone, making his screen debut as a sympathetic colonel stuck with fighting the Japanese and fighting off a miserable cold at the same time. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com

• Catch 22 | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £19.75   |  Saving you £-3.76 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Mike Nichols' superbly directed cinematic adaptation of Joseph Heller's scathing black comedy. 'Catch 22' is the tale of a small group of flyers in the Mediterranean in 1944. There are winners and losers opportunists and survivors. Separately and together they are frightened nervous often profane and sometimes pathetic. Almost all are a little crazy. 'Catch 22' is an anti-war satire of epic proportions!

• Poirot - Agatha Christie's Poirot - The King Of Clubs / The Dream | DVD | (12/05/2003) from £5.98   |  Saving you £4.01 (67.06%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The King of Clubs: When cinema mogul Henry Reedburn is brutally murdered at his home Poirot is called in to help. Before his death Reedburn had some hold over the beautiful actress Valerie Saintclair. What was it and what relevance has the playing card found at the murder scene? The Dream Poirot: receives a typewritten note asking him to go and see wealthy tyrant Benedict Farley who is concerned about a recurring dream he is having concerning his own suicide. When he is found dead the next day it appears it is not a straightforward case of suicide.

• Cleopatra (Special Edition) | DVD | (08/02/2006) from £29.87   |  Saving you £-9.88 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Possibly the most alluring mysterious and powerful woman of all time Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) changed the course of history when two of the most powerful men in Rome fell in love with her. Rex Harrison is Julius Caesar who wins the Egyptian throne for Cleopatra marries her and provides her with a child Caesarean. Upon returning to his native country Caesar is crowned Dictator of Rome but his desperate desire for even greater power causes a worried Roman Senate to fatally conspire against him on the Ides of March.

• Belle And Sebastian - Fans Only | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Considering their reputation for hating interviews and photo sessions, Belle & Sebastian's Fans Only is a surprisingly intimate affair. Over 136 minutes, the main feature documentary follows Belle & Sebastian from their inception in 1996 through every step of their six-album career, tracking the band to America, Brazil, and Japan, and hanging out with them in their hometown of Glasgow. At times, Fans Only feels like a lovingly crafted home video, with private photos and previously unseen segments of super-8 footage merging with the commercial promos and television appearances. It's all here: childhood snaps, Stuart Murdoch behind the wheel of an orange city bus, a song from the legendary Session At West 54th (still the holy grail for some devotees), a self-made documentary of a band rehearsal from 1999, Richard and Mick's acceptance speech at the Brits (with Richard captioned as Nick Cooke), Stevie and Stuart serenading the queue at the Bowlie Weekender, the band appearing on a Brazilian chat show, it goes on and on. Belle & Sebastian have always been a fans' band, close to those that understand them and inaccessible to those that don't. Fans Only is that relationship caught brilliantly on video. On the DVD: Fans Only on disc also includes live versions of "Dog on Wheels", "Landslide" and "The Kids are Alright" from The Bowlie Weekender. There are questions from the band's press conference for Fold Your Hands, You Walk Like a Peasant, plus Stevie singing "Darlin'" at Coachella, a 60s' version of "Jonathan David" and a Discography. --Ian Watson

• Gettysburg | Blu Ray | (15/11/2011) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.57

  Thanks to generous funding from media mogul Ted Turner, first-time director Ronald F Maxwell was able to make an almost word-for-word adaptation of Michael Shaara's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Killer Angels. Running over four hours, Gettysburg (1993) splits into two convenient parts for TV viewing (although a 70mm print was given limited theatrical release). This story of three bloody days of conflict in July, 1863 (an unimaginable 50,000 casualties), is divided equally between Union and Confederate forces. On the Union side, Jeff Daniels is the quietly heroic Colonel Joshua Chamberlain; Sam Elliott is utterly convincing as General Buford, the Union cavalryman who holds the Confederate army at bay on the first day. Martin Sheen plays an oddly subdued and vacillating General Lee--a controversial portrait of the legendary Confederate chief--while Tom Berenger, despite being almost hidden underneath an enormous authentically period-style beard, is strong and authoritative as General Longstreet (whose opposition to Lee's plans gave many in the Confederacy a reason to blame him for the disaster at Gettysburg). Chamberlain's last-ditch defence of Little Round Top, which prevented the Union forces from being flanked on the second day of battle, forms the climax to the first half; the heartbreaking Pickett's Charge--the Confederates' disastrous frontal assault on the entrenched Union lines on the third day--is the movie's greatest set piece and one of the most compelling reasons to endure a little too much stodgy dialogue (lifted directly from the novel) and an apparently over-reverential attitude to the subject-matter. But much of this movie was made in and around the actual battle site, so it's only to be expected that the cast and crew tread carefully, as if literally under the watchful eyes of the men whose lives they are re-enacting. And re-enactment is the key: with a cast of thousands in splendidly detailed period costumes, cannonades galore and massed ranks of musketry, the sheer scale of the military spectacle is endlessly impressive. If as a piece of filmmaking it has many faults, as an historical re-enactment Gettysburg is unsurpassed--even by the epic Waterloo (1970), which drafted in a large chunk of the Russian army as Napoleonic extras. --Mark Walker

• The Halls Of Montezuma | DVD | (09/05/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Once again returning to the genre to which he was perhaps best-suited director Lewis Milestone traces the fate of a Marine platoon in the Pacific theater during WWII. The film stars Richard Widmark as the no-nonsense Lt. Carl Anderson an officer charged with the responibility of leading his unit on a scouting mission to capture prisoners from an experimental rocket-launching facility and bring them back for interrogation. Among his platoon are veterans Pidgeon Lane (Jack Palance) D

• The Bionic Woman - Vol. 1 | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  She could hear footsteps from a mile away run more than 60 mph bend steel with her bare hands jump to the roof of a 12 story building catch villians who are endangering National security and still have enough energy and motivation left over to use her talent and knowledge as a schoolteacher. She is the Bionic Woman. 1: Black Magic Jaime is sent to a remote Island to impersonate the niece of the feuding Carstairs family in order to locate the will of Cyrus Carstairs and the location of a top-secret alloy formula. 2: Motorcycle Boogie Jaime enlists the help of daredevil stunt rider Evel Knievel to retrieve a computer tape stolen by the KGB in East Germany. Together they risk their lives as they crash through the East German border in pursuit of the KGB. 3: The Jailing of Jaime Jaime is imprisoned for treason when a forty million dollar decoding machine she was delivering fails to arrive at its destination.

• Stage Fright | DVD | (13/10/2003) from £12.25   |  Saving you £-6.26 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Director Michele Soavi does the impossible by squeezing a few more drops of blood out from the slasher genre. Not only that, Soavi lensed one of the most beautiful and suspenseful horror movies of the 1980s. A genuinely haunting horror where the killer dressed as an owl goes to bloody work with a chainsaw that slices through flesh and bone...

• The Hound Of The Baskervilles | DVD | (25/04/2016) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Of all the Sherlock Holmes tales written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (one of the four novels) remains the best-known. Adding a dash of the supernatural to the Great Detective's adventures, it is certainly one of the most dramatic and an obvious target for screen interpretation. Prior to Jeremy Brett indelibly making the role his own to modern TV audiences, Ian Richardson made for a suitably incisive and enthusiastic Holmes in this enjoyable 1983 adaptation. The much-filmed tale finds Holmes and Watson drawn in to the mysterious curse afflicting the well-heeled Baskerville dynasty. Is a monster stalking the heir to the Baskerville fortune, or is the culprit a far from demonic force? As Holmes, Ian Richardson is blessed with the avian features that, like Basil Rathbone or Peter Cushing, effectively capture Sidney Paget's original likeness. Though Holmes' more anti-social facets are dispensed with, Richardson is engaging in such a well-explored role, recalling the razor-sharp wit and intelligence of Rathbone. Attracting a distinguished British cast (Brian Blessed, Denholm Elliot, Martin Shaw) and decent production values (though with a few Hammer Horror moments), this will not disappoint fans of Victorian literature's finest detective, nor those in search of a classic, chilling thriller. --Danny Graydon

• D-Day, The Sixth Of June/Young Lions double pack | DVD | (02/06/2003) from £16.00   |  Saving you £-1.01 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A World War II double-bill comes to DVD with the pairing of The Young Lions (1958) and D-Day the Sixth of June (1956). Edward Dmytryk's The Young Lions is one of the most thoughtful films about the War. Based on a novel by Irwin Shaw, it tells parallel stories of two American soldiers (Montgomery Clift and Dean Martin) and one German officer (Marlon Brando), whose war experiences we follow until they intersect outside a concentration camp. Martin plays what he calls "a likable coward", Clift is intense as a Jewish GI, and Brando experiments with the limits of his part as a Nazi re-evaluating his beliefs. Legend has it that Clift accused Brando of bleeding-heart excessiveness. Interestingly, the two Method actors share no scenes together. --Tom Keogh D-Day the Sixth of June is a misleading title for a very tame wartime romance with barely 10 minutes of combat in the last reel. What we mostly get is a year's worth of flashbacks depicting the reluctant, London-based affair of a married US staff officer (Robert Taylor) and a British Red Cross worker (Dana Wynter) whose commando suitor (Richard Todd) is fighting in Africa. To be sure, the emotional desperation and embattled decency of good people in time of war is as worthy of film treatment as any military campaign, and the script works pre-invasion Anglo-American tensions into the story. But the CinemaScope production is utterly formulaic, with leaden direction by Henry Koster. Wynter's porcelain beauty apparently didn't permit changes of expression, and Taylor looks about 15 years past his prime. --Richard T Jameson

• West Of The Pecos / Nevada | DVD | (08/09/2008) from £6.50   |  Saving you £-0.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  West of the Pecos (1945): Robert Mitchum stars in this well plotted exciting Zane Grey Western. Thurston Hall and his daughter Barbara Hale are accosted by robbers en route to their Texas ranch from Chicago. This is only the start of their troubles as they encounter hold-ups horse stampedes and outlaws. Hiring Robert Mitchum and his sidekick to run their ranch leads to further problems because of Mitchum's checkered past. Plot twists and Suspense highlight this old west cla

• Jurassic Park - Trilogy Pack | DVD | (02/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Jurassic Park (Dir. Steven Spielberg 1993): Director Steven Spielberg presents a masterpiece of imagination suspense science and cinematic magic that quickly became one the most successful film in worldwide box-office history. On a remote island a wealthy entrepreneur (Richard Attenborough) secretly creates a theme park featuring live dinosaurs drawn from prehistoric D.N.A. Before opening it to the public he invites a top palaeontologist (Sam Neill) and his paleobotanist girl friend (Laura Dern) a renowned mathematician (Jeff Goldblum) and his two eager grandchildren to experience the park - and help calm anxious investors. But their visit is anything but tranquil as the prehistoric predators break out and begin stalking the island's human inhabitants. Based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel Jurassic Park is a breathtaking adventure you'll want to experience again and again... The Lost World (Dir. Steven Spielberg 1997): Director Steven Spielberg takes us back to the scene of Jurassic Park in The Lost World the blockbuster sequel with even more dinosaurs more action and more breathtaking visual effects than its record-breaking predecessor. This DVD edition contains exclusive interviews and rare behind-the-scenes footage. The Lost World remains among the most successful films of all time and features an all-star cast including Jeff Goldblum Julianne Moore and Pete Postlethwaite. It has been four years since the disaster at Jurassic Park and two groups are in a race against time that will determine the fate of the remote island's prehistoric inhabitants. Jurassic Park 3 (Dir. Joe Johnston 2001): Adventure runs wild when renowned palaeontologist Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) agrees to accompany a wealthy adventurer (William H. Macy) and his wife (Tea Leoni) on an aerial tour of Isla Sorna InGen's former breeding ground for prehistoric creatures. But when they're terrifyingly stranded Dr. Grant discovers that his hosts are not what they seem and the island's native inhabitants are smarter faster and fiercer than he ever imagined in this heart-stomping thriller.

• Samurai X - Trust | DVD | (27/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Nineteenth century Japan: a land torn by warfare and rebellion where small bands of soldiers seek to overthrow the tyrannical Tokugawa Shogunate. Kenshin is a young orphan whose fighting skills where honed by the great swordsman Hiko. But Kenshin's soul is embattled just like the battlefields of Japan his hopes for a new world peace at odds with his life of blood and killing. His world is thrown into further confusion by the arrival of a mysterious woman named Tomoe. Her kindness

• Samurai X - Betrayal | DVD | (17/03/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  After the great fire in Edo Kenshin and Tomoe are sent into exile on a small farm. They experience peace and quiet for the first time in their turbulent lives. The rebellion wounded after the events in Edo is slowly rebuilding far away from Kenshin and Tomoe. Their only link to the outside world is Lizuka who brings them dire news from the city.

• Bionic Woman - Complete | DVD | (10/12/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £99.99

  When tennis pro Jaime Sommers (Emmy Award winner Lindsay Wagner), is critically injured in a skydiving accident, she is 'rebuilt' using the government's top secret cybernetic replacement surgery known as 'bionics'. As the world's first bionic woman, Jaime is equipped with bionic legs capable of running over 60 miles-per-hour, a bionic arm that can lift an automobile, and a bionic ear that can detect the slightest of sounds. With her tennis career necessarily over, Jaime returns to her hometow...

• The Bionic Woman - Vol. 2 | DVD | (01/10/2001) from £7.91   |  Saving you £2.08 (26.30%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Features the episodes ""Welcome Home Jaime Part 1"" ""Welcome Home Jaime Part 2"" and ""Angel of Mercy"".

• Evil | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £21.59   |  Saving you £-1.60 (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Evil is a fifties era, coming-of-age tale that recounts the horror of life at a traditional boarding school.

• The Double | Blu Ray | (28/01/2013) from £5.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (166.95%)   |  RRP £15.99

  CIA operative Paul Shepherdson spent his career hunting legendary Soviet assassin Cassius. Now retired, he's sure that Cassius is dead, but when a US senator's murder bears the signature of the notorious killer, Shepherdson is forced back into service.

• Ninja Dragon | DVD | (04/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Set in Great Shanghai two rival gangs the Furious Fox and the Black Eagle are fighting to establish domination in the territory. Only one force can stop the never-ending killings: the Ninja Dragon!