"Actor: Wendell Pierce"

• Treme - Season 2 | DVD | (28/05/2012) from £12.32   |  Saving you £30.66 (328.62%)   |  RRP £39.99

  You won't find many television series whose defining event occurred before the first episode of the first season. Then again, there aren't many, if any, series like HBO's Treme. Created by writer-producers David Simon (of The Wire) and Eric Overmyer, this show has as its driving force, its raison d'être, Katrina, the hurricane that decimated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. The debut season began a couple of months after the storm passed through, leaving misery and chaos in its wake; the first of 11 episodes in this, the second season, starts about a year after that. Most of the action still centers around NOLA, where the locals are continuing to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives in a city now plagued with violence and disorder. Some of those who left are returning, but some may be gone for good (several scenes throughout the season take place in New York City). Some are trying to rebuild their homes (which means the endless wait for federal funds continues); others, hewing to a mantra that "no disaster should go to waste," include venal businessmen looking to capitalize on the city's pain by rebuilding New Orleans "properly." And as one character puts it, "Everybody is out of their minds." As before, there are numerous characters and story lines to keep track of. Trombonist Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce) takes a job teaching music to schoolkids while also putting together a hot new band, the Soul Apostles. His former wife, bar owner LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), spends much of the season suffering from the effects of a brutal assault. Chef Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens) now lives and plies her trade in Manhattan, while her former boyfriend, DJ and aspiring rapper-music exec Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn), has taken up with up-and-coming fiddler Annie Tee (Lucia Micarelli). Activist lawyer Toni Bernette (Oscar winner Melissa Leo) tries to get to the bottom of a killing that may have involved police misconduct, while daughter Sofia (India Ennenga) struggles to adapt to life without her dad, who died in the previous season. Part of the show's appeal is the fact that these folks and the others whose story lines we follow are not superheroes or world-beaters; they're just people dealing with life's daily, if not exactly ordinary, vicissitudes. But as before, it's the music that remains the show's soul and constant heartbeat, whether it's provided by regulars like Antoine, Annie, and trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux (Rob Brown), who's trying to simultaneously update and honor the traditional New Orleans sound, or guest artists including John Hiatt and Shawn Colvin. You might tune in for the writing and acting (both excellent), but in the end, it's the sounds of Treme that will keep you coming back. --Sam Graham

• Stay Alive | DVD | (26/11/2006) from £6.46   |  Saving you £-1.47 (-29.50%)   |  RRP £4.99

  A group of teens enter an online video game only to realize that once they die in the game - they die for real.

• Treme - Season 1 (HBO) | Blu Ray | (30/05/2011) from £12.59   |  Saving you £37.40 (297.06%)   |  RRP £49.99

  As Treme opens, a group of New Orleans residents are celebrating their first "second-line parade" since Hurricane Katrina blew through the city and across the Gulf Coast just three months earlier. Folks are strutting and dancing, a brass band is blowing a joyful noise--it's a celebration of "NOLA's" resilience and proud spirit ("Won't bow--don't know how," as they say). But there's darkness just below this shiny surface, and anyone familiar with The Wire, cocreator-writer David Simon's last show, won't be a bit surprised to find that he and fellow Treme writer-producer Eric Overmyer aren't shy about going there. The New Orleans we see is a city barely starting to recover from what one character calls "a man-made catastrophe… of epic proportions and decades in the making." Many people's homes are gone, and insurance payments are a rumor. Other locals haven't come back, and still others are simply missing. The people have been betrayed by their own government, and New Orleans's reputation for corruption is hardly helped by the fact that the police force is in such disarray that the line between cop and criminal is sometimes so fine as to be nonexistent. Bad, but not all bad. NOLA still has its cuisine, its communities, and best of all its music, which permeates every chapter, from the Rebirth Brass Band's "I Feel Like Funkin' It Up" in episode 1 to Allen Toussaint and "Cha Dooky-Doo" in episode 10. There's Dixieland and zydeco, natch, but also hip-hop and rock; there are NOLA stalwarts like Dr. John, Ernie K-Doe, Lee Dorsey, and the Meters (as well as appearances by Elvis Costello, Steve Earle, and others), but plenty of younger, lesser knowns, too. Whether we hear it in the street, in a club or a recording studio, at home, or anywhere, music is the lifeblood of the city and this series, and it's handled brilliantly. Treme has a lot of characters and their stories to keep up with. There's trombonist Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce), a wonderful player but kind of a dog, especially to his current baby mama and his ex-wife, LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), a bar owner who's desperately searching for her missing brother. There's Creighton Bernette (John Goodman), a writer preoccupied with telling the world what's really going on in the city, and his wife Toni (Melissa Leo), a lawyer and thorn in the side of the authorities. There's Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn), a well-meaning but annoyingly clueless radio DJ, his occasional girlfriend Janette (Kim Dickens), who's struggling to keep her restaurant open, and Albert Lambreaux (Clarke Peters), who returns from Houston, finds his house in ruins, and sets about rebuilding it. You might not like all of them. Not all get through the series unscathed, or even alive. But that's part of the deal. The show feels authentic: dialogue (natural, plain, and profane), story lines, locations, camera work, the utter lack of gloss and glamour--this is no Chamber of Commerce travelogue. It's not a documentary either, but there are moments when it's just down and dirty enough to pass for one. --Sam Graham

• The Odd Couple - Series 1 | DVD | (28/04/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Based on the broadway play by Neil Simon The Odd Couple tells the story of two mismatched friends: Felix Unger (Tony Randall) and Oscar Madison (Jack Klugman). Felix is a neat tidy and neurotic individual - after his wife throws him out of their apartment Felix moves in with his longtime childhood friend - Oscar. However Oscar's the exact opposite of felix - he's sloppy messy and casual! Felix's cleaning hygienic tips and healthiness annoys Oscar while Oscar's crazy world of living like a pig upsets Felix. But in the process they'll learn that love trust and friendship are more important than living in different worlds.

• Treme - Season 2 | Blu Ray | (30/04/2012) from £24.98   |  Saving you £27.00 (117.44%)   |  RRP £49.99

  You won't find many television series whose defining event occurred before the first episode of the first season. Then again, there aren't many, if any, series like HBO's Treme. Created by writer-producers David Simon (of The Wire) and Eric Overmyer, this show has as its driving force, its raison d'être, Katrina, the hurricane that decimated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005. The debut season began a couple of months after the storm passed through, leaving misery and chaos in its wake; the first of 11 episodes in this, the second season, starts about a year after that. Most of the action still centers around NOLA, where the locals are continuing to pick up the pieces and get on with their lives in a city now plagued with violence and disorder. Some of those who left are returning, but some may be gone for good (several scenes throughout the season take place in New York City). Some are trying to rebuild their homes (which means the endless wait for federal funds continues); others, hewing to a mantra that "no disaster should go to waste," include venal businessmen looking to capitalize on the city's pain by rebuilding New Orleans "properly." And as one character puts it, "Everybody is out of their minds." As before, there are numerous characters and story lines to keep track of. Trombonist Antoine Batiste (Wendell Pierce) takes a job teaching music to schoolkids while also putting together a hot new band, the Soul Apostles. His former wife, bar owner LaDonna (Khandi Alexander), spends much of the season suffering from the effects of a brutal assault. Chef Janette Desautel (Kim Dickens) now lives and plies her trade in Manhattan, while her former boyfriend, DJ and aspiring rapper-music exec Davis McAlary (Steve Zahn), has taken up with up-and-coming fiddler Annie Tee (Lucia Micarelli). Activist lawyer Toni Bernette (Oscar winner Melissa Leo) tries to get to the bottom of a killing that may have involved police misconduct, while daughter Sofia (India Ennenga) struggles to adapt to life without her dad, who died in the previous season. Part of the show's appeal is the fact that these folks and the others whose story lines we follow are not superheroes or world-beaters; they're just people dealing with life's daily, if not exactly ordinary, vicissitudes. But as before, it's the music that remains the show's soul and constant heartbeat, whether it's provided by regulars like Antoine, Annie, and trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux (Rob Brown), who's trying to simultaneously update and honor the traditional New Orleans sound, or guest artists including John Hiatt and Shawn Colvin. You might tune in for the writing and acting (both excellent), but in the end, it's the sounds of Treme that will keep you coming back. --Sam Graham

• THE GIFT BD | Blu Ray | (01/01/2019) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The UV copy is only available in the UK and Ireland. From the producer of Whiplash and The Purge, Jason Blum, comes a chilling, psychological thriller-horror that marks the feature directorial debut of acclaimed actor and writer Joel Edgerton (The Great Gatsby, Zero Dark Thirty, Warrior). Simon (Jason Bateman; Horrible Bosses, Arrested Development) and Robyn (Rebecca Hall; Transcendence, Iron Man 3) are a young married couple whose life is going just as planned until a chance encounter with an acquaintance from Simon's high school sends their world into a harrowing tailspin. Simon doesn't recognize Gordo (Joel Edgerton) at first, but after a series of uninvited encounters and mysterious gifts prove troubling, a horrifying secret from the past is uncovered after more than 20 years. As Robyn learns the unsettling truth about what happened between Simon and Gordo, she starts to question: how well do we really know the people closest to us, and are past bygones ever really bygones?‹

• Life Support (HBO) | DVD | (04/02/2008) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £10.99

  You can't live without it. HBO Films presents Academy Award nominee Queen Latifah (Chicago) in a heartbreaking story of one woman's journey to the brink of self-destruction and despair and her inspirational fight to regain her dignity and her family. Ana is an HIV-positive former drug addict from Brooklyn desperately struggling with her past and passionately trying to make things right with her involvement in an AIDS outreach group Life Support. Inspired by a true story it's a touching poignant tale of loving losing and letting go.

• Land Of Plenty | DVD | (22/09/2008) from £6.30   |  Saving you £13.69 (217.30%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A personal social commentary from internationally acclaimed director Wim Wenders investigating anxiety and disillusionment in post 9/11 America. After years of living abroad with her American missionary father Lana (Michelle Williams) returns to the United States to begin her studies. But instead of focusing on her education Lana sets out to find her only other living relative - her uncle Paul her deceased mother's brother. A Vietnam veteran Paul is a reclusive vagabond with deep emotional war wounds. A tragic event witnessed by the two unites them in a common goal to rectify a wrong and takes them on a journey of healing discovery and kinship. Official Selection Venice Film Festival 2004 WINNER of the UNESCO Award Venice Film Festival 2004

• Hackers | UMD | (31/10/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

• DVD PARKER | DVD | (20/11/2014) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A