"Actor: Robert Pa"

• The People's Passion | DVD | (01/04/2000) from £17.33   |  Saving you £0.66 (3.81%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The People's Passion is a BBC/NVC Arts co-production, originally shown on BBC in short instalments, but presented here as a single 50-minute programme. This is a musical version of the story of Holy Week, the narrator sung by the leading American opera star Jessye Norman, commenting on the action played-out by a very familiar British television cast. The use of modern dress and readily identifiable faces such as Robert Hardy (Pilate), Patricia Hodge (Procula), Ron Moody (The Donkey Minder) and Kevin Whatley (Judas) is an excellent device to stress the contemporary relevance of the story. Though if this is the aim, it is a brave move to refuse to "dumb down" musically, Donald Fraser's score being more in the English classical tradition of Vaughan-Williams' Pilgrim's Progress, than a populist Jesus Christ, Superstar musical. Rather old-fashioned, too, is the portrayal of Jesus, who does not speak but is danced in Spirit by Jonathan Cope, and given voice by the boys of St Paul's Cathedral Choir. With Thomas Allen also appearing as The Centurion--in rather more dignified style than John Wayne in The Greatest Story Ever Told--this is a direct, uncluttered and highly effective version of The Passion.On the DVD: The picture is presented at approximately 1.7:1 ratio, but lacking anamorphic enhancement for widescreen televisions. The sound, disappointingly for a 1999 production, is PCM stereo. The booklet offers biographies of only Jessye Norman and Jonathan Cope, but does not include the libretto, which can be printed out via a DVD-ROM. The programme can be viewed with or without English subtitles. --Gary S. Dalkin

• The Twilight Zone - Vol. 2 | DVD | (29/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  It was in 1959 that ex-boxer and paratrooper turned screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This television series ran from 1959-1964 and it still looks fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underline the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras.There are four more selected episodes from the series on Volume 2. "Time Enough at Last" (episode 8) features Burgess Meredith in a heartbreaking role as the only survivor of nuclear holocaust whose dreams are (literally) shattered before his very eyes. "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street" (episode 22) is Serling at his humanitarian best, issuing a plea against prejudice and intolerance and dissecting the mechanics of mob hysteria all in the space of a half-hour television show. "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" (episode 123) is one of the Zone's most celebrated set pieces, featuring a pre-Star Trek William Shatner as the paranoid passenger who sees a gremlin on the plane's wing. Directed by Richard (Lethal Weapon) Donner from a script by Richard Matheson, this episode was one of those remade in the 1983 Twilight Zone film. There is more aircraft oddity in "The Odyssey of Flight 33" (episode 54), co-written by Serling with technical dialogue assistance from a TWA pilot, giving the crew's conversation the stamp of authenticity as they plunge back and then forward in time.On the DVD: A neat animated menu with a winking eye guides the viewer "Inside the Twilight Zone", which consists of digests of background information on the individual episodes, as well as a general history of the show, season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. --Mark Walker

• Men Of Honour / Tigerland / The Thin Red Line | DVD | (15/09/2003) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Men Of Honour: One of those rare films that grabs you by the gut and never lets go 'Men Of Honour' was inspired by the life of Carl Brashear (Cuba Gooding Jr.) an African American who dared to dream of becoming a U.S. Navy Master Diver. Despite a bigoted training officer (Robert De Niro) and a tragic shipboard accident Carl never gives up and achieves the impossible in an incredible finish that will leave you cheering. Tigerland: Roland Bozz after being conscripted into the US army joins a platoon of other young soldiers preparing to fight in Vietnam. He has no interest in fighting for his country and tries to get sent home as a trouble maker but his superiors mistake his defiance as intelligence and he soon gets a chance to try his hand at leadership... The Thin Red Line: A powerful front line cast including Sean Penn Nick Nolte Woody Harrelson and George Clooney explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director (Terrence Malick) The Thin Red Line is an unparalleled cinematic masterpiece.

• Identity / Gothika / House Of Nine | DVD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Identity (Dir. James Mangold 2003): A daring new thriller from director James Mangold and producer Cathy Konrad featuring an all-star ensemble cast including John Cusack Ray Liotta Amanda Peet Alfred Molina Jake Busey Clea DuVall and Rebecca De Mornay. Caught in a savage rainstorm ten travellers are forced to seek refuge at a strange desert motel. They soon realize they've found anything but shelter. There is a killer among them and one by one they are murdered. As the storm rages on and the dead begin to outnumber the living one thing becomes clear: each of them was drawn to the motel not by accident or circumstance but by forces beyond imagination forces that promise anyone who survives a mind-bending and terrifying destiny. Gothika (Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz 2003): Halle Berry stars as Dr. Miranda Grey a psychiatrist who becomes a patient in her own mental hospital after she is accused of murdering her husband (Charles S. Dutton). Grey's only initial memory of the incident involves a chilling encounter with a distraught girl (Kathleen Mackey) on a rain-soaked road. The incarcerated and medicated Grey is now haunted by the same apparition and she must convince her former colleague Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.) that she is not insane or guilty of murder. Meanwhile the seemingly mad ramblings of Chloe (Penelope Cruz) one of Grey's former patients now make more sense and Grey must throw aside clinical logic to solve the supernatural murder mystery. House Of Nine (Dir. Steven R. Munroe 2005): Nine strangers with no apparent connection between them are abducted: drugged kidnapped and sealed in a house together. Doors are bolted shut windows are plugged with brick. No way out. Disoriented and angry they are greeted by a voice on an intercom system: they are to be watched as they 'compete' for a prize of five million dollars. And the winner will be the only one who gets out alive!

• Scarface | DVD | (09/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Scarface (Dir. Howard Hawks 1932): Generally regarded to be the best - and most brutal - of the classic gangster films the original Scarface tells the story of orginised crime's pinch on the city of Chicago during prohibition. Paul Muni plays Tony Carmonte an ambitious hood with a Napoleonic urge to fight his way to number one gang boss. When the last of the old-style crime bosses is brutally slain down the finger is pointed at Tony and Johnny Loro a rival gangster. However Tony's desire to move up the ladder is about to put him in the firing line of his peers and the police. Produced and directed by the mercurial Howard Hawks Scarface is the movie which established both Paul Muri and his coin flipping aide George Raft as major Hollywood stars. Scarface (Dir. Brian De Palma 1983): Al Pacino gives an unforgettable performance as Tony Montana one of the most ruthless gangsters ever depicted on film in this gripping cult crime epic inspired by the 1932 classic of the same title. Scarface follows the violent career of a small-time Cuban refugee hoodlum who guns his way to the top of Miami's cocaine empire and makes some ruthless friends and enemies on the way to oblivion...

• The Crossing | DVD | (25/06/2007) from £7.20   |  Saving you £-3.21 (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99

  Sam returns home after a lengthy absence to find his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend. The two friends then end up in a drunken race where the question of who gets the girl will be decided at a train crossing...

• High Wall | DVD | (24/11/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• A Simple Wish | DVD | (29/08/2016) from £5.97   |  Saving you £2.16 (36.18%)   |  RRP £8.13

  When Anabel (MARA WILSON) wished for a fairy-godmother, she never dreamed his name would be Murray (MARTIN SHORT)! Before you can say SHABOOM!, Anabel quickly learns that Murray is short on experience and long on excuses. As they are whisked into a hilarious whirlwind of magical mishaps, Anabel and the blundering Murray have until midnight to rescue her dad, battle a wicked witch (KATHLEEN TURNER) and recover stolen magic wands to restore the world to a place where wishes really can come true!

• Winston Churchill - The Wilderness Years | DVD | (03/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  It's easy to forget that, though fronting the British war effort through most of World War Two, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in an internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period, in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy who confirms the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare, and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: It's a pity that the Southern Pictures production first screened in 1981 has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, it's worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse

• Raiders Of The Living Dead | DVD | (14/07/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A newspaper reporter hears of strange goings-on on a remote island. He travels there and finds a mad scientist creating zombies...

• Hornblower Vol.1 | DVD | (15/07/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

• Folks! | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Jon Aldrich an all around nice guy inadvertently becomes the target of an FBI sting. But compared to everything else in his life that doesn't seem so bad.

• Crazy In Alabama | DVD | (17/08/2009) from £7.79   |  Saving you £5.20 (40.00%)   |  RRP £12.99

  It's clear why Melanie Griffith saw Mark Childress's bestselling book Crazy in Alabama, as the perfect vehicle for herself. The role of Lucille, a beautiful, battered wife in rural Alabama who dreams of glamorous movie stardom, is tailor-made for her. Griffith's husband, Antonio Banderas, has done quite a respectable job guiding her in this, his directorial debut; her performance--compelling, funny, and warm--is her best since Something Wild. (She also looks simply smashing.) Otherwise, the film is a curious amalgam of genres: an antic, surreal Southern Gothic comedy combined with a deadly serious civil-rights parable. As the movie opens, in the summer of 1965, Lucille (Griffith) has just murdered her abusive husband and is blowing town for Hollywood with his head in a Tupperware container. Scenes of her wacky cross-country road trip are interspersed with incidents back in Alabama involving clashes between protesting blacks and murderously intolerant whites. One can't imagine how these two seemingly disparate narrative lines will come together, but they do, in a surprisingly effective manner. The moral of both stories turns out to be: "You can bury freedom, but you can't kill it". Stand-out performances by Robert Wagner, as Lucille's Hollywood agent; Rod Steiger, as a quirky Southern judge; Lucas Black (Sling Blade) as Lucille's highly principled young nephew; and, believe it or not, Meat Loaf, as a brutal, bigoted Southern sheriff give the film an additional boost. --Laura Mirsky

• Me And Will | DVD | (24/03/2003) from £9.99   |  Saving you £-4.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Nobody Rides For Free. A classic journey of two L.A. women who break out of rehab and take to the American highway in search of the legendary chopper ridden by Peter Fonda in ""Easy Rider."" Their journey becomes a quest of self-discovery and rebirth and a test of their resolve and friendship.

• The Twilight Zone - Vol. 1 | DVD | (26/05/2000) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  In 1959 screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This original and daring television series ran for a magnificent five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underlined the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras.What's immediately apparent on watching Volume 1 is the quality of the scripts, proving that great writing is timeless. Of the three episodes on this first disc, the screenplays are by Serling himself (episode 47, "Night of the Meek"), Richard Matheson (episode 51, "The Invaders") and Zone regular George Clayton Johnson (episode 81, "Nothing in the Dark"). The acting does full justice to the writers' high standards. Art Carney as the alcoholic department store Santa Claus in "Night of the Meek" provides a theatre-sized one-man masterclass, his close-up performance conveying all the character's desperation then new-found joy. Veteran Agnes Moorehead (who made her screen debut as Charles Foster Kane's mother in Citizen Kane) faces an unusual challenge in Matheson's almost entirely wordless "The Invaders", in which she plays a frightened old woman who is attacked by tiny aliens (when the mystified Moorehead first read the script, which had no dialogue for her at all, she asked "Where's my part?"). In the claustrophobic two-hander "Nothing in the Dark", a fresh-faced Robert Redford is more than usually charming as Gladys Cooper's unwanted visitor who might or might not be Death himself.On the DVD: A neat animated menu with a winking eye guides the viewer "Inside the Twilight Zone", which consists of digests of background information on the individual episodes, as well as a general history of the show, season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. --Mark Walker

• Eaten Alive | DVD | (18/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  If you are a fan of Tobe Hooper's classic film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre then you are in for a treat. This was Hooper's follow-up film to Chainsaw. In fact it features the same damsel-in-distress Marilyn Burns and was co-written by Chainsaw collaborator Kim Henkel. An Academy of Science Fiction and Horror nominee Eaten Alive is a very disturbing movie and features some of the most truly horrific scenes ever filmed. Judd (Neville Brand) is the owner of a dilapidated motel buried deep in the bayou that caters to strangers passing through. Unfortunately for the guests he also caters to his pet alligator's veracious appetite. Eaten Alive also features a very early performance by Robert Englund (Elm Street's Freddy Krueger)

• Gone in 60 Seconds | UMD | (03/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

• It's The Rage | DVD | (07/02/2005) from £3.29   |  Saving you £2.70 (82.07%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mixing a superb cast with a serious salting of dark humour "gun culture" comedy It's The Rage is that rare thing, a genuinely outstanding film which went straight-to-video. Like Magnolia (1999) it makes coincidence a virtue in telling the stories of a group of disparate characters, and how their lives are entwined and sometimes ended because of America's obsession with firearms. When Jeff Daniels shoots his business partner, his wife, Joan Allen, leaves for a job with a software billionaire, Gary Sinise, and the film expands to encompass brother and sister punks (Giovanni Ribisi and Anna Paquin), a video store assistant, a pair of detectives and a gay couple. Adapted from his own play, Keith Reddin ensures the script remains pointed, while Sinise delivers a wonderful performance of supreme eccentricity recalling Peter Seller's Dr Strangelove. Indeed, there is much akin to Kubrick's tense, pitch-black humour in this anti-gun parable, while in various ways, from the central Daniels/Allen couple to the sardonic detachment of the music to Paquin's "almost-relationship" with an older man It's the Rage parallels the contemporaneous American Beauty (1999). It's actually the more powerful film, and though made for cable deserved all the praise it received on its festival screenings. On the DVD: The trailer doesn't capture the spirit of the film at all, while the 13-minute making-of documentary is routine promotional material. The commentary by first time film director (but veteran stage director) James D. Stern is exceptionally good, both enthusiastic and packed with information; the fact that It's The Rage really bites can almost certainly be attributed to Stern's college roommate being shot dead. The sound is Dolby Digital 5.1 and while this isn't the sort of film to show-off a sound system,it's atmospheric and the diverse music score becomes almost a character in itself. The anamorphically enhanced 1.77-1 image is good but a little grainy and shows occasional compression artifacting. --Gary S Dalkin

• Arizona Colt - Mediabook - Cover A (+ DVD) | Blu Ray | (10/11/2022) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

• Rehearsal For Murder | DVD | (01/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £3.99