"Actor: Thayer David"

• Rocky | DVD | (01/02/2000) from £5.46   |  Saving you £12.53 (229.49%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The 1976 Oscar winner for Best Picture, John G Avildsen's Rocky is the story of a down-and-out club fighter who gets his million-to-one shot at a world championship title. In the title role, Sylvester Stallone (who also penned the screenplay) draws a carefully etched portrait of a loser who, in Brando-esque fashion, "coulda been a contender". Rocky then becomes one thanks to a publicity stunt engineered by current champ Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), while finding love courtesy of timid wallflower Adrienne (Talia Shire) along the way. Burgess Meredith revives the spirit of 1940's genre pictures through his scenery-chewing performance as Rocky's trainer. An enormous entertainment, Rocky is irresistible in its depiction of an underachiever who has the courage to start all over again--a description that could have been applied to Stallone's own life at the time. --Kevin Mulhall

• The Eiger Sanction | DVD | (04/06/2007) from £11.09   |  Saving you £-1.10 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this international intrigue action thriller that takes place on the Swiss Alps. Hemlock (Eastwood) a retired professional assassin who has turned toward the calmer pursuit of art collecting is suddenly forced out of retirement to hunt a deadly double agent that murdered a close friend. The hunt takes Eastwood on a breathtaking journey up the Swiss Alps with a team of mountain climbers: one of whom is the man he seeks through his identity is as yet unknown...

• Rocky Anthology | DVD | (14/11/2005) from £18.86   |  Saving you £31.13 (165.06%)   |  RRP £49.99

  This box set contains the Special Edition of all 5 Rocky films! Rocky (Dir. John G. Avildsen 1976): Nominated for 10 Academy Awards and winner for Best Picture audiences and critics alike cheered this American success story of an ""everyman"" triumphing over all odds. Featuring a dynamic musical score a thrilling fight scene and four Oscar-nominated performances this rousing crowd-pleaser will send spirits soaring. Fighting for love glory and self-respect

• Duchess And The Dirtwater Fox | DVD | (20/08/2007) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Wild West Has Never Been Funnier! Goldie Hawn and George Segal star in this rough and tumble comedy that bounces from San Francisco's Barbary Coast to the wilderness of Utah. The Dirtwater Fox (Segal) is a slick gambler who wants to hold on to the $40 000 he's stolen from a gang of outlaws. The Duchess (Hawn) is a scheming saloon singer who wants to become a ""real lady."" But once they team up they begin to realize that what they really want is each other. Mixing clever di

• Journey To The Centre Of The Earth | DVD | (01/08/2005) from £19.79   |  Saving you £-6.80 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Danger and wonder at the Earth's core! The accent is on fun and fantasy in this film version of Jules Verne's classic thriller stars James Mason Pat Boone and Arlene Dahl. With spectacular visuals as a backdrop the story centres on an expedition led by Professor Lindenbrook (Mason) down into the Earth's dark core. Members of the group include the professor's star student Alec (Boone) and the widow (Dahl) of a colleague. Along the way lurk dangers such as kidnapping death sabotag

• Journey to the Center of the Earth | DVD | (12/03/2012) from £88.23   |  Saving you £-78.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  James Mason plays Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, a scientist hoping to find the world's core in this 1959 adaptation of the Jules Verne novel, Journey to the Centre of the Earth. He leads his unusual party on an expedition to the centre of the earth, by way of a volcano in Iceland. On the way, they encounter enormous mushrooms and giant prehistoric monsters. Produced by Michael Todd with then-spectacular special effects, the story was modernised to 1950s sensibilities. Mason gives this class, while Arlene Dahl and Diane Baker are the romantic interests. And Pat Boone is more palatable than you might expect as a secondary lead. You can watch this with your children and not be bored, and they will surely love it. --Rochelle O'Gorman

• Rocky Anthology (Box Set) | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £39.99

  The story of Rocky Balboa, as presented in this five-movie Rocky anthology, looks suspiciously like a barely fictional parallel to Sylvester Stallone's own career. Such a strong vein of autobiography is hardly surprising, really, since Stallone wrote all five movies and directed II, III and IV. The original was a feel-good patriotic update on the American Dream, mirroring Stallone's own journey as a lucky break drags a man from the gutter into stardom; Rocky II was the story of a man who is subsequently plagued by the need to prove that his first success wasn't a fluke, and represented Stallone's attempt to keep his career afloat amidst a sudden explosion of blockbuster movies and superstar actors; the third featured a rival to his position echoing the friendly battle kept up with Schwarzenegger for box-office dominance; Rocky IV appeared at the same time as Rambo: First Blood Part II and was a veritable shower of self-glorification; and the fifth entered old age as gracefully as it could with younger blood ready to pounce from all directions. Balboa may have been "a little punchy", but Stallone was clearly the brains behind the Rockymovies' success.On the DVD: For picture and sound, it's to the first disc connoisseurs should turn. Transfer and 5.1 soundtrack are a notch above instalments III and IV. Inexplicably, II and V are only in three-channel surround. Disc 1 is also the place for the extras. Although the others feature their own trailer and a half-heartedly animated menu, the first has a montage menu that matches the excellent packaging and links rather easily to a hidden feature ("Rocky Meets Stallone"). There's a fascinating 12-minute "behind the scenes" short with director John Avildsen showing fight test footage and two short tributes to the late Burgess Meredith and cinematographer James Crabe. The commentary might seem a little crowded, featuring Avildsen, producers Irwin Winkler and Robert Chartoff, Talia Shire, Burt Young and Carl Weathers. The best feature is a 30-minute interview with Stallone, who remembers writing from an 8x9 room in Philadelphia and being inspired by an Ali fight. There are confessions about injuries, casting and his dog Butkus! As a 25th Anniversary special edition, the first disc alone is excellent value. --Paul Tonks

• Rocky - Special Edition | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £9.35   |  Saving you £13.63 (214.31%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The 1976 Best Picture Award-winner Rocky has the look of a contemporary on-the-streets movie like Taxi Driver, but the heart of a fairytale. For the Bicentennial Year, world heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers), a Muhammad Ali-like stars-and-stripes blowhard, cynically offers a title shot to an unknown over-the-hill Philadelphia club fighter, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone). Unlike the sequels, Rocky is a rare American sports movie to realise there's more drama and emotional resonance in losing than winning. The unique finale suggests that going the distance against the odds is more of a triumph than a conventional victory. Stallone, then an unknown as actor and writer, crafts the script to his own strengths--mumbling, Brando-like sincerity combined with explosive physicality expressed in his use of a side of beef as a punch-bag or wintery jogs around Philly. Surprisingly little of the film is taken up with ring action, as we follow Rocky's awkward courtship of pet-store minion Adrian (Talia Shire) and uneasy relationship with her slobbish brother (Burt Young), while Burgess Meredith provides the old pro licks as the curmudgeonly trainer. Though it led to a slick, steroid-fuelled franchise, it has a pleasing roughness, exemplified by the memorable funk/brass band score and the array of fidgety, credible method acting tics. On the DVD: 1.85:1 16x9 print, which represents the sometimes-slick, sometimes rough look of the cinematography; feature commentary with supporting cast and crew (Burt Young admits to rubbing vermouth into his neck to make himself repulsive), video interview with Stallone, a retrospective featurette (which includes news footage of the Ali fight that inspired the story), 8mm test fight footage with a flabbier Stallone, tributes to Burgess Meredith and cameraman James Crabe, trailers for Rocky and all the sequels (which makes a solid précis of the whole series). All this and a "special hidden feature" (a comic sketch with Sly meeting Rocky).--Kim Newman

• Merchant-Ivory Connoisseur Collection | DVD | (25/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £49.99

  Maurice Maurice Hall and Clive Durham find themselves falling in love at Cambridge. In a time when homosexuality was punishable by imprisonment, the two must keep their feelings for one another a complete secret. After a friend is arrested and disgraced for 'the unspeakable vice of the Greeks', Clive abandons his forbidden love and marries a young woman. Maurice however, struggles with questions of his identity and self-confidence, seeking the help of a hypnotist to rid himself of his ...

• The Eiger Sanction | DVD | (14/04/2003) from £5.48   |  Saving you £4.51 (82.30%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Clint Eastwood held the dual role of director and star of this 1975 spy thriller, which makes up for sluggish pacing with a breathtaking climax on a treacherous peak in the Swiss Alps. The plot kicks into gear when Eastwood, playing a retired assassin, is recruited back into a secret organisation to avenge the murder of an old friend. He's then blackmailed into making a second "hit"; this time his target is one of three men who will be attempting to conquer the Eiger, a dangerous peak in Switzerland. An accomplished climber, Eastwood's character joins the expedition with George Kennedy as leader of the ground crew. Shifting loyalties, apparent betrayals, and paranoid suspicion factor into the suspenseful climax on the sheer face of the mountain. This memorable sequence--for which Eastwood performed his own mountain-climbing stunts--is effectively intense, built on a standard plot of double-cross and intrigue that was intended to combine Eastwood's screen persona with the global adventure of the James Bond films. For the most part it works--it's not one of Eastwood's better films, but it's got some first-class thrills (and a sly performance by Jack Cassidy) to grab and hold your interest. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Save The Tiger | DVD | (27/02/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Director John G. Avildsen's Save The Tiger is a complex character study of businessman Harry Stoner (Jack Lemmon bagging his second Oscar) the CEO of a once-successful clothing company in 1970s Los Angeles. He and his business partner Phil Greene (the great Jack Gilford) have seen better days - their company is failing and on the eve of an important fashion show they must make a decision about its future. Harry believes that the only way out of their financial cri

• Action Collection - Triple - Rocky / Road House / Blown Away | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  This box set contains the following three action films: Rocky: Rocky Balboa is an aspiring boxer in downtown Philadelphia. His one chance to make a better life for himself is through his boxing and Adrian a girl who works in the local pet store. Through a publicity stunt Rocky is set up to fight Apollo Creed the current Heavyweight champion who is already set to win. But Rocky really needs to triumph even if it is against all the odds..... Road House: Dalton's the best bouncer in the business. His nights are filled with fast action hot music and beautiful women. It's a dirty job but somebody's got to do it. Blown Away: Jimmy Dove works for the bomb squad in Boston and he is always the one who is on the tough jobs. One day he decides to quit the force and to become a teacher for the rookies of the squad. A few days later his successor is killed by a bomb and Jimmy becomes suspicious that maybe this bomb could have been built by a former friend of himself. He begins to investigate and finds out that his worst nightmare has returned from his past.

• Journey To The Centre Of The Earth | DVD | (30/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In this 1959 adaptation of the Jules Verne novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth, James Mason plays Professor Oliver Lindenbrook, a scientist hoping to find the world's core. He leads his unusual party on an expedition to the centre of the earth, by way of a volcano in Iceland. On the way, they encounter enormous mushrooms and giant prehistoric monsters. Produced by Michael Todd with then-spectacular special effects, the story was modernised to suit 1950s sensibilities and graced by a suitably outlandish Bernard Herrmann score. Mason gives this class, while Arlene Dahl and Diane Baker are the romantic interests. And Pat Boone is more palatable than you might expect as a secondary lead. You can watch this with your children and not be bored, and they will surely love it. --Rochelle O'Gorman