"Actor: West"

• The Square | DVD | (14/05/2018) from £10.35   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Force Majeure director Ruben Östlund returns with a knife-sharp satire on art, culture and communication in the digital age. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, The Square stars Claes Bang (The Bridge), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale, Mad Men) and Dominic West (The Wire). Christian (Bang) is a divorced but devoted father of two, and the respected curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm. He's gearing up to launch their next show, ˜The Square', a daring installation examining altruism and our duty to help others. However, Christian's own views on social responsibility are put to the test when he becomes the victim of a scam, forcing him to question the world around him and his place in it. Meanwhile, a shocking viral stunt cooked up by the museum's PR agency is met with public outcry, sending Christian and the museum into an existential crisis. With pitch-perfect performances, inventive set pieces and a cutting deadpan wit, The Square is a hilarious, unique and often surreal look at idealism and cynicism in the modern world.

• One Summer | DVD | (23/01/2006) from £14.98   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Sharply observed and written with both sympathy and a sense of humour this critical and commercial success was created and written by the reknowned Liverpudlian playwright Willy Russell. This is the first time that this long-anticipated series has been release on DVD. This is the story of two Liverpool youths who go to the valleys of Wales to enjoy a peaceful life. They come from the Liverpool of 1983; a tough gritty uncompromising city a long way from the magical days of the Beatl

• Futurama: Season 1 | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £8.26   |  Saving you £31.73 (384.14%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Set in the year 3000, Futurama is the acme of sci-fi animated sitcom from Simpsons creator Matt Groening. While not as universally popular as The Simpsons, Futurama is equally hip and hilarious, thanks to its zippy lateral-thinking contemporary pop cultural references, celebrity appearances (Pamela Anderson and Leonard Nimoy are among a number of guest stars to appear as disembodied heads in jars) and Bender, a distinctly Homer Simpson-esque robot. Part of Futurama's charm is that with decades of sci-fi junk behind us we've effectively been living with the distant future for years and can now have fun with it. Hence, the series stylishly jumbles motifs ranging from Lost in Space-style kitsch to the grim dystopia of Blade Runner. It also bridges the gap between the impossible dreams of your average science fiction fan and the slobbish reality of their comic reading, TV-gawping existence. Groening himself distinguishes his two series thus: "The Simpsons is fictional. Futurama is real." The opening series (premiered in 1999) sees nerdy pizza delivery boy Fry transferred to the 31st century in a cryogenic mishap. There, he meets the beautiful, one-eyed Leela (voiced by Married with Children's Katey Sagal) and the incorrigible alcoholic robot Bender. The three of them join Fry's great (x30) nephew Professor Farmsworth and work in his intergalactic delivery service. Hyper-real yet strangely recognisable situations ensue--Fry discovers he is a billionaire thanks to 1,000 years accrued interest, Leela must fend off the attentions of Captain Kirk-like Lothario Zapp Brannigan, and Fry accidentally drinks the ruler of a strange planet of liquid beings. --David StubbsOn the DVD: As with the earlier Fox release of The Simpsons, Season 1 this otherwise excellent three-disc set is let down by clunky menu navigation. There are way too many copyright warnings, no "Play All" facility, and you have to click back and forth to begin each new episode or find the additional features. By way of compensation, the menus look great and there's a goodly selection of extras on each disc. The entertaining commentaries are by Matt Groening and various members of his creative team, including producer David X Cohen and John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) and Billy West (Fry). There are a handful of deleted scenes for certain episodes, plus the script and storyboard for the very first episode and an interactive stills gallery. The 4:3 picture is pin-sharp as is the Dolby 2.0Surround.--Mark Walker

• The Square | Blu Ray | (14/05/2018) from £10.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Force Majeure director Ruben Östlund returns with a knife-sharp satire on art, culture and communication in the digital age. Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival, The Square stars Claes Bang (The Bridge), Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid's Tale, Mad Men) and Dominic West (The Wire). Christian (Bang) is a divorced but devoted father of two, and the respected curator of a contemporary art museum in Stockholm. He's gearing up to launch their next show, ˜The Square', a daring installation examining altruism and our duty to help others. However, Christian's own views on social responsibility are put to the test when he becomes the victim of a scam, forcing him to question the world around him and his place in it. Meanwhile, a shocking viral stunt cooked up by the museum's PR agency is met with public outcry, sending Christian and the museum into an existential crisis. With pitch-perfect performances, inventive set pieces and a cutting deadpan wit, The Square is a hilarious, unique and often surreal look at idealism and cynicism in the modern world.

• Framed | DVD | (16/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Lynda La Plante's Framed makes its way to DVD for the first time. Featuring a superb turn from a Timothy Dalton clearly in his pomp this film also marks the first English language performance from a young Penelope Cruz. Meet Larry Jackson (David Morrissey) an ambitious young police officer burdened with family responsibilities. While on holiday in Spain he recognizes Eddie Myers an escaped master criminal and onetime informer who had been presumed dead. Living unde

• On Chesil Beach | Blu Ray | (17/09/2018) from £8.95   |  Saving you £6.04 (67.49%)   |  RRP £14.99

  It is summer 1962, and England is still a year away from huge social changes: Beatlemania, the sexual revolution and the Swinging Sixties. Florence (Ronan) and Edward (Howle) are just married and honeymooning on the dramatic coastline of Chesil Beach in Dorset. However, the hotel is old fashioned and stifling, and underlying tensions between the young couple surface and cast unexpected shadows over their long anticipated wedding night. From the precise depiction of two young lovers, to the touching story of how their unexpressed misunderstandings and fears shape the rest of their lives, ON CHESIL BEACH is a tender story which shows how the entire course of a life can be changed, by a gesture not made or a word not spoken.

• 28 Days | DVD | (12/04/2004) from £3.99   |  Saving you £2.00 (50.13%)   |  RRP £5.99

  28 DAYS, the story of Gwen Cummings (Sandra Bullock), a successful New York writer living in the fast lane and everyone's favorite party girl.

• Exile | DVD | (13/06/2011) from £13.48   |  Saving you £-0.49 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Simm and Jim Broadbent give compelling performances in this Paul Abbott-created Danny Brocklehurst-written claustrophobic drama about father-son relationships and many other things. The marvellous Olivia Colman provides fine support proving she does drama as brilliantly as comedy.

• Maison Close - Season 1 | Blu Ray | (03/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £26.99

  Taking an uncompromising look at the world of brothels and prostitution in late nineteenth century France, Maison Close is a sumptuously produced drama of sex and servitude. Paris, 1871. In Paradis, a luxury brothel, three women try to escape from their troublesome circumstances. Vera is 35 years old, the end of her career as a prostitute drawing nearer. She puts all her hopes on her main client, the only one rich enough to redeem her debt. Hortense is the Madame of Paradis. She must hold on to her girls whilst dealing with an extortionist from the Parisian suburbs. Rose, a much younger woman, arrives in search of her mother, a former prostitute. She is trapped with a pimp and forcibly conscripted into the Paradis.

• Assault On Precinct 13 | DVD | (28/05/2001) from £19.50   |  Saving you £-1.51 (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  John Carpenter's Assault On Precinct 13 is a riveting low-budget thriller from 1976, in which a nearly abandoned police station is held under siege by a heavily armed gang called Street Thunder. Inside the station, cut off from contact and isolated, convicts heading for death row and the cops must now join forces or die. That's the basic plot, but what Carpenter does with it is remarkable. Drawing specific inspiration from the classic Howard Hawks Western Rio Bravo (which included a similar siege on disadvantaged heroes), Carpenter used his simple setting for a tense, tightly constructed series of action sequences, emphasising low-key character development and escalating tension. Few who've seen the film can forget the "ice cream cone" scene in which a young girl is caught up in the action by patronising a seemingly harmless ice cream van. It's here, and in other equally memorable scenes, that Carpenter demonstrates his knack for injecting terror into the mundane details of daily life, propelling this potent thriller to cult favourite status and long-standing critical acclaim. From this Carpenter went on to make the original Halloween, one of the most profitable independent films of all time. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

• Danielle Steel's Zoya | DVD | (17/04/2006) from £4.96   |  Saving you £1.03 (20.77%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Zoya's journey begins in Russia at the turn of the 20th Century when her royal upbringing is brought to a tragic end as her parents are killed in the revolution. She escapes with her life and is forced to flee to Paris with her Grandmother. Penniless and alone Zoya finds life hard for many years until she meets a handsome American soldier. Against her grandmother's wishes she marries him and moves to New York...

• Stiff Upper Lips | DVD | (18/02/2019) from £12.98   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  An affectionately wicked parody of the British Costume Drama genre by writer/director Gary Sinyor, Stiff Upper Lips stars Peter Ustinov (in one of his final roles) alongside a stellar cast that includes Prunella Scales, Georgina Cates, Samuel West, Brian Glover, Frank Finlay and Sean Pertwee. No cliché is left unparodied in what Time Out calls frequently silly, consistently spot on, and beautifully acted - this may be obvious, but it's a delight ... Spiffing! Ivory Hall, England, 1908. Aunt Agnes is desperate to marry off her spoilt, virginal ward, Emily. But Emily's momentary dalliance with a rough villager frustrates Auntie's choice of effete suitors and a Grand Tour of Italy and India is undertaken in a last-ditch attempt to loosen Emily's scruples...

• The Devil's Whore | DVD | (16/03/2009) from £11.52   |  Saving you £13.47 (116.93%)   |  RRP £24.99

  The Devil's Whore (2 Discs)

• Simon Schama - A History of Britain : The Complete Series | DVD | (18/11/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £59.99

  Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's Complete History of Britain does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result. Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry. On the DVD: The Complete History of Britain extras are generously packaged on a separate disc and include the original score and a Simon Schama biography. There's an interesting "promotional message" to camera in which Schama explains the role of a cab driver, Wally, in inspiring the series, along with an interview with Mark Lawson in which Schama stresses the deliberate subjectivity of these programmes and an inaugural BBC History lecture in which he defends TV's ability to transpose history to camera. --David Stubbs

• Miracle | DVD | (28/02/2005) from £8.08   |  Saving you £6.91 (85.52%)   |  RRP £14.99

  If you believe in yourself anything can happen. In 1980 amidst the tense political climate of the Cold War Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) took over as coach of the U.S. Olympic hockey team. With the help of affable assistant coach Craig Patrick (Noah Emmerich) Brooks selected a group of twenty amateur hockey players who faced the daunting task of bringing respectability to their country's floundering program. While Brooks was well aware that his team lacked the talent and expe

• FA Cup Final 1975 - West Ham vs Fulham | DVD | (04/04/2004) from £10.78   |  Saving you £1.21 (11.22%)   |  RRP £11.99

  It had been eleven years since the hammers last tasted success in this prestigious competition and against Second Division Fulham the stage was set for the trophy to return to the East End of London in only the second ever all-London Cup final.The neutrals favoured Fulham who with Hammers' legend Bobby Moore marshalling their defence posed a serious threat to John Lyall's men.But the afternoon belonged to Alan Taylor who netted twice in four minutes to ensure an FA

• Nicholas And Alexandra | DVD | (02/12/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Perhaps the quintessential example of the intimate epic, Nicholas and Alexandra is the compelling story of Nicholas II (Michael Jayston), the last Czar of Russia, and his wife Alexandra (Janet Suzman). Director Franklin J Schaffner frames the intimate lives of the Imperial Couple against the dramatic backdrop of the Russian Revolution, creating the filmic equivalent of a monumental frieze. Private and public lives intersect when Alexandra, who has clearly read Macbeth, influences Nicholas into several misguided actions while coping with her haemophilic newborn son. Schaffner builds suspense wonderfully as he illuminates the couple's mysterious bond to the mystical Rasputin (Tom Baker) and the events leading to their execution. Nominated for Best Picture, the splendidly lensed Nicholas and Alexandra earned two Oscars for its delicious eye candy (Art Direction, Costume Design). --Kevin Mulhall

• The Forgotten | DVD | (21/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Julianne Moore stars a grieving mother struggling to cope with the loss of her eight-year old son, who is told by her psychiatrist she has created eight years of memories about a son she never had.

• Family Guy, Series 1 | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £4.99   |  Saving you £20.00 (400.80%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Family Guy shouldn't work at all. Even by the witless standards of modern television, it is breathtakingly derivative: does an animated series about the travails of a boorish, suburban yob with a saintly wife, a hopeless son, a clever daughter and a baby sound familiar at all? Even the house in Family Guy looks like it was built by the same architects who sketched the residence of The Simpsons. However, Family Guy does work, transcending its (occasionally annoyingly) obvious influences with reliably crisp writing and the glorious sight gags contained in the surreal flashbacks which punctuate the episodes. Most importantly, the show's brilliance comes from two absolutely superb characters: Stewie, the baby whose extravagant dreams of tyrannising the world are perpetually thwarted by the prosaic limitations of infanthood, and the urbane family dog Brian--Snoopy after attendance at an obedience class run by Frank Sinatra. Family Guy does not possess the cultural or satirical depth of The Simpsons--very little art in any field does. But it is a genuinely funny and clever programme. --Andrew Mueller

• Danielle Steel's Zoya | DVD | (29/09/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Zoya's journey begins in Russia at the turn of the 20th Century when her royal upbringing is brought to a tragic end as her parents are killed in the revolution. She escapes with her life and is forced to flee to Paris with her Grandmother. Penniless and alone Zoya finds life hard for many years until she meets a handsome American soldier. Against her grandmother's wishes she marries him and moves to New York...