"Actor: Vic Cooper"

• Alias: Complete Season 2 | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £8.93   |  Saving you £36.06 (403.81%)   |  RRP £44.99

  It was a family affair in the second series of JJ Abrams' wonderfully inventive Alias, as super secret agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) came face-to-face with the mother of all super secret agents--her own mother, Irina Derevko (Lena Olin), a former KGB agent, presumed dead, and more dangerous than ever. After shooting poor Syd, Irina later shows up at the doorstep of the CIA, offering to turn herself in and work for the good guys. But can she be trusted? Alias set up so much duplicity in its second series that it might have been hard to keep track of who was doing what to whom, but thanks to a great ensemble cast, fast-paced writing and direction, and some cannily cast guest stars, the show rode a stunning emotional roller-coaster and never broke its momentum, even when halfway through the season, it reinvented itself. With episode 13, "Phase One" (which aired after the Super Bowl to the show's biggest audience), Syd's original nemesis (and employer) SD-6 changes forever, yet the kick-butt agent still finds herself going up against the malevolent leader Sloane (Ron Rifkin) and his ever-changing set of henchmen. Action fans got plenty of fighting, while romantic Alias watchers swooned as Syd and the dashing Vaughn (Michael Vartan) finally consummated their unrequited love. The critically acclaimed show owed a debt to Buffy the Vampire Slayer for its mix of action, romance, mystery, and moral quandaries, but in this series Alias truly came into its own--with a climax that came as a total shocker and prepped the show for an emotionally volatile third series. Guest stars included the phenomenal Amy Irving as Sloane's wife, Faye Dunaway as a nefarious bigwig, Christian Slater as a kidnapped scientist, and Ethan Hawke as a fellow CIA agent (or rather, two of them), but it was the dysfunctional nuclear family of Syd, Irina, and father Jack (Victor Garber) that gave Alias its heart and its strength, whether the three perfectly cast actors (all Emmy nominated) were just bickering or undertaking deadly hand-to-hand combat. --Mark Englehart

• 'allo 'allo: The Complete Series 1-9 | DVD | (02/11/2015) from £26.65   |  Saving you £-11.66 (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  The complete series of the BBC comedy.

• Alias: Complete Season 1 | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £17.94   |  Saving you £27.05 (150.78%)   |  RRP £44.99

  Created by JJ Abrams, Alias plays like a cross between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and James Bond. Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a super (and super-sexy) spy, fighting nefarious villains and working for the good guys--or so she thinks. Recruited as a college freshman for espionage work, Sydney found her true calling with SD-6, a secret division of the CIA. When her hunky doctor-boyfriend proposes to her, she decides to let him in on the truth she's not supposed to tell anyone: she's not a grad student with a demanding job for an international bank, but a secret agent who constantly puts her life on the line for the free world. But when SD-6 discovers her security breach, her fiancé is brutally assassinated, and Sydney suddenly finds herself face-to-face with the truth: she's been working for the bad guys. Deciding to become a double agent for the CIA and bring down the evildoers, Sydney gets one more surprise--her estranged father (Victor Garber) is also working for SD-6, and the CIA as well. Welcome to the family, Syd! Confused? This is all just the first episode. With its double-edged tension (how long can Syd play double agent?) and one heck of a MacGuffin (the dreaded Rambaldi device, the mythic creation of a Renaissance genius), the show leads its viewers from episode to episode with visceral, compelling action, not to mention the nascent romance between Syd and her CIA handler, Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her clashes with her heretofore distant father. Sharp, smart and always suspenseful, Alias' centre was held by the gorgeous Garner, a stellar action heroine and an even better actress who could pull off Sydney's exotic undercover missions and conflicted emotions with equal dexterity. By the end of this first series, which concludes with a breathtaking cliffhanger, you'll be seduced into Alias' world with, happily, no desire to escape. --Mark Englehart

• Family Business | DVD | (04/10/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Connery Hoffman and Broderick star as three generations of a family formerly linked to organized crime. Grandfather Jesse has been in and out of jail and his son Vito has decided to leave a life of crime in order to become a respectable family man but when grandson Adam comes up with a can't-miss heist plan the intergenerational sparks begin to fly.

• The Filth And The Fury | DVD | (16/06/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  The Filth and the Fury is an irreverent, shocking portrait of the most notorious rock group of all time.

• Toomorrow | DVD | (16/10/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Musical comedy starring Olivia Newton-John as the lead singer of a band which is abducted by aliens. Olivia (Newton-John) is the sole female member of a band called Toomorrow, who attempt to pay their way through college with their music. Unknowingly, the musicians stumble across a form of vocal harmonising that produces the precise vibrations an alien race needs to survive. Olivia and her fellow band members are consequently abducted by the aliens and find themselves playing to an even more intimidating crowd than their contemporaries at the student union...

• The Man From The Alamo | DVD | (06/10/2003) from £5.21   |  Saving you £4.78 (91.75%)   |  RRP £9.99

  During the war for Texas independence one man leaves the Alamo before the deadly climax (chosen by lot to help others' families) but is too late to accomplish his mission and is branded a coward. Since he cannot now expose a gang of turncoats he infiltrates them instead; can he now save a wagon train of refugees from Wade's guerillas?

• Toomorrow | DVD | (19/03/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £1.99

  A group of students form a pop group called Toomorrow in order to pay their way through school. Dying aliens kidnap the group, needing their vibrations to help their race survive.Written and directed by Val Guest, Toomorrow was an attempt by Don Kirshner to replicate the success he had had with The Monkees. This was also a first starring role for Olivia Newton-John, whose own singing career would take off the following year.

• Joan Of Arc: The Messenger / Glory / The Patriot | DVD | (17/05/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Joan Of Arc: The year is 1429. France is in polical and religious turmoil as members of the royal family battle for rule. But one peasant girl from a remote village gave her country the miracle it was looking for. Milla Jovovich is Joan of Arc a young woman who would inspire and lead her countrymen until her execution at the age of nineteen. Raised in a religious family Joan witnessed her sister's rape and death at the hands of an invading army. Years later as the same war raged on Joan stood before her king with a message she claimed came from God: give her an army and in God's name she would reclaim his diminished kingdom. But was the message real or the delusion of a girl whose life had been shattered? Glory: The heart-stopping story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War Glory stars Matthew Broderick Denzel Washington Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. Broderick and Elwes are the idealistic young Bostonians who lead the regiment; Freeman is the inspirational sergeant who unites the troops; and Denzel Washington in an Oscar winning performance is the runaway slave who embodies the indomitable spirit of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts. The Patriot: A hero of the fierce French and Indian conflict Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) had renounced fighting forever to raise his family in peace. But when the British arrive at his South Carolina home and endanger what he holds most dear Martin takes up arms alongside his idealistic patriot son Gabriel (Heath Ledger of 10 Things I Hate About You) and leads a brave rebel Militia into battle against a relentless and overwhelming English army. In the process he discovers the only way to protect his family is to fight for the young nation's freedom.