Comedy

• Secrets And Lies (Wide Screen) | DVD | (16/08/2001) from £19.98   |  Saving you £-9.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £9.99

  If a film fan had never heard of director Mike Leigh, one might explain him as a British Woody Allen. Not that Leighs films are whimsical or neurotic; they are tough-love examinations of British life--funny, outlandish and biting. His films share a real immediacy with Allens work: they feel as if they are happening now. Leigh works with actors--real actors--on ideas and language. There is no script at the start (and sometimes not at the end). Secrets and Lies involves Hortense (Marianne Jean-Baptiste), an elegant black woman wanting to learn her birth mothers identity. She will find its Cynthia (Brenda Blethyn), who is one of the saddest creatures weve seen in film. Shes also one of the most real and, ultimately, one of the most loveable. Timothy Spall is Cynthias brother, a giant man full of love who is being slowly defeated by his fastidious wife (Phyllis Logan). There is a great exuberance of life in Secrets & Lies, winner of the Palme DOr and best actress (Blethyn) at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival--not Zorba-type life but the little battles fought and won every day. Leighs honest interpretation of daily life is usually found only on the stage. Secrets & Lies is more realistic than a stage production, however, especially when Leigh shows us uninterrupted scenes. Critic David Denby states that Leigh has "made an Ingmar Bergman film without an instant of heaviness or pretension." If that sounds like your cup of tea, see Secrets & Lies. --Doug Thomas

• Rock Star | DVD | (11/02/2002) from £15.89   |  Saving you £-1.90 (N/A%)   |  RRP £13.99

  Mark Wahlberg stars in the tale of the lead singer in a heavy metal tribute band who is recruited by his idols to replace their departed frontman!

• King Of Queens - Series 6 | DVD | (13/07/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £34.99

  Kevin James continues to deliver the laughs as parcel deliveryman Doug Heffernan in the sixth hysterical season of The King Of Queens.

• Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  As the private eye of private eyes Steve Martin is Rigby Reardon. He's tough rough and ready to take on anything when Juliet Forrest appears on the scene with a case: her father a noted scientist philanthropist and cheesemaker has died mysteriously. Reardon immediately smells a rat and follows a complex maze of clues that lead to the 'Carlotta Lists'. With a little help from his 'friends' Alan Ladd Barbara Stanwyck Ray Milland Burt Lancaster Humphrey Bogart Charles Laughton

• Dylan Moran Live - What It Is | DVD | (23/11/2009) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Droll Irish wordsmith Dylan Moran takes to the stage with his usual cavalcade of whimsy.

• The Bishop's Wife | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £14.10   |  Saving you £-1.11 (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Heavenly bells are ringing jubilant choirs are singing and Christmas joy is blanketing the world like freshly fallen snow. But the Yuletide spirit has yet to warm Bishop Henry Brougham's Victorian home. Struggling to raise funds for a new cathedral the preoccupied young clergyman has neglected his loving wife Julia and now only divine intervention can save their marriage! But the powerful and handsome angel sent from above has a mind of his own... and teaching mortal Henry an immor

• Mon Oncle | DVD | (29/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Monsieur Hulot continues his battle with the modern world. He also pours his affection on to his nephew of which fact his parents don't seem to appreciate.

• Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade Of Cartoon Comedy | DVD | (25/01/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  From the creator of Family Guy and the co-creator of American Dad! comes a brand-new animated series of pop culture parodies hilarious shorts and superb non-sequiters. Uncensored uninhibited and unbelievably funny Seth MacFarlane's Calvalcade of Cartoon Comedy is brimming with the kind of smart raunchy and twisted humour you can't see on television no matter how hard you try. So sit back relax and enjoy the show. The possibilities are endless... and so are the laughs!

• Dentist In The Chair | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Even your eyeteeth will pop when you see the girls! Who would think that a visit to the dentist could be such an injection of hilarity. But when you have Bob Monkhouse as a hopeful dental student it can't help being a gas. Bob stars as a student who just keeps getting into deeper and deeper trouble in both love and studies which culminates in a mishandling of stolen goods and falling for the grisly dean's daughter. With an all-star cast featuring a veritable who's who of

• Naked Gun | DVD | (09/04/2001) from £18.98   |  Saving you £-1.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker, the creative troika behind Airplane!, scored another hit with this big-screen adaptation of their short-lived television show Police Squad!. Deadpan as ever, Leslie Nielsen revives his TV role of Lt Frank Drebin, the idiot with a detective's badge. The jokes come thick and fast, gathering a momentum that lasts until the final act. Ricardo Montalban is a perfect foil as a villain whose aquarium is invaded by Drebin during routine questioning, and George Kennedy is delightful in a self-parodying part as an earnest but obtuse lawman. There's a hilarious bit when Drebin--wearing a live police wire while going to the bathroom--can be overheard over the loudspeakers at a speech given by a flustered mayor (Nancy Marchand). And yes, that's OJ Simpson as a detective who ends up on the wrong side of numerous Drebin blunders. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com

• Matchstick Men | DVD | (28/06/2013) from £5.02   |  Saving you £9.97 (198.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  A phobic con artist and his protege are about to pull one of the most lucrative swindles of their lives when the swindler's teenage daughter suddenly turns up unannounced.

• Santa Claus - The Movie | Blu Ray | (02/11/2009) from £17.98   |  Saving you £-8.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £7.00

  The Legend Comes To Life. From the writers of the Superman trilogy comes Santa Claus The Movie! This is the delightful story of a master toymaker who discovers a magical kingdom of elves at the North Pole where he is entrusted with special powers to become Santa Claus! There he meets Patch (Dudley Moore) an eager-to-please elf who becomes mixed up with a dastardly tycoon's plans to take over Christmas!

• Barefoot In The Park | DVD | (07/05/2001) from £7.81   |  Saving you £2.18 (27.91%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Based on Neil Simon's own play, 1967's Barefoot in the Park is a perennially joyous film starring carefree Jane Fonda and staid lawyer Robert Redford as young newlyweds setting up home in Greenwich Village. Although the opening credits are fragrantly idyllic (aided by Neal Hefti's soundtrack, you can almost smell the blossom in Central Park), the film doesn't idealise apartment living in New York, à la Friends, far from it: Fonda and Redford's apartment is up several flights of stairs; there's a hole in the skylight and the bedroom is the size of a cupboard. All of this puts some strain on the marriage. When Fonda introduces fellow free spirit and ageing, behind-on-the-rent Lothario (Charles Boyer) to her somewhat inhibited mother (Mildred Natwick), the hapless Redford in particular is forced to come to terms with his own inhibitions. Although the second half of the film moves at a less cracking pace than the first, Barefoot in the Park is as exhilarating as a romantic weekend city break. Directo r Gene Saks, scriptwriter Neil Simon and composer Hefti would regroup in 1968 to make the similarly wonderful The Odd Couple. On the DVD: With the aid of filtering, the DVD recaptures the almost unreal colour quality common to films of this period, while the sound is faithful to the nuances of Hefti's soundtrack. The special features are miserly--subtitles, a choice of languages and the original trailer, though this at least conveys the engaging naiveté of the period--("The rarest, unsquarest, happiest motion picture in many a year!"). --David Stubbs

• The Pale Face | DVD | (02/01/2006) from £6.47   |  Saving you £3.52 (54.40%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Like Merry Xmas and Happy New Year...They belong together! The Wild West has never been wilder - or funnier - than in this classic six-shootin' farce which introduced the Academy Award winning song ""Buttons and Bows."" In one of his most popular roles Bob Hope plays ""Painless"" Peter Potter a timid correspondence school dentist earninga shaky living in the lawless West. When ""Painless"" is seduced into agreeing to a quickie marriage by the voluptuous Jane Russell he thinks h

• Beginners | DVD | (14/11/2011) from £5.00   |  Saving you £14.99 (299.80%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A young man is rocked by two announcements from his elderly father: that he has terminal cancer, and that he has a young male lover.

• Dinner for Schmucks / I love You Man Double Pack | DVD | (15/10/2012) from £10.98   |  Saving you £4.00 (44.49%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Dinner For Schmucks: There's only one thing keeping aspiring executive Tim (Paul Rudd) from corporate success. He must find the perfect guest to bring to his boss' annual dinner party, where the winner of the evening is the one who arrives with the biggest buffoon. Luckily, Tim meets Barry (Steve Carell), a guy who recreates famous works of art with stuffed mice. When the duo show up to dine, the lunacy kicks into high gear. It's a hilarious feast about two unlikely friends and one out...

• Happy Days - Season 1 | DVD | (27/08/2007) from £29.99   |  Saving you £-5.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Happy Days a cult Emmy and Golden Globe winning American TV sitcom has followers of every age and is a firm family favourite. Set in Milwaukee Wisconsin in the 1950s and aired between 1974 and 1984 events focus on Richie Cunningham (played by now acclaimed Director - Ron Howard) and his family - parents Howard and Marion and brother and sister Chuck and Joanie. Get your collection started with Happy Days Season 1 featuring 16 episodes on a three-disc set and includes episodes suc

• Send Me No Flowers | DVD | (02/05/2005) from £4.90   |  Saving you £5.09 (103.88%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Rock is ready to make love yesterday tomorrow and especially to Day (Doris that is!) When he overhears a doctor discussing the imminent death of a patient hypochondriac George (Hudson) believes the doc is referring to him. Convinced he's living on borrowed time George enlists the aid of his best friend Arnold (Randall) to find a new husband for his soon-to-be-widowed wife Judy (Day). Already alarmed by her husband's increasingly strange behavior Judy is even more bewilde

• The American President | Blu Ray | (16/01/2017) from £7.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  What sounds like a high-concept romantic comedy pitch from hell--widower president falls for smart lobbyist while the world watches--is actually intelligent, charming, touching and quite funny. Granted, it's wish fulfilment all the way (when was the last time you saw a president who was truly presidential?) but in the capable hands of writer Aaron Sorkin (TV's Sports Night) and director Rob Reiner, TheAmerican President is incredibly enjoyable entertainment with quite a few ideas about both romance and the government. Michael Douglas stars as the president, who after three years in office starts thinking about the possibility of dating. When he auspiciously encounters cutthroat environmental lobbyist Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening), sparks begin to crackle and the two begin a tentative but heartfelt romance. Of course, his job gets in the way--their first kiss is interrupted by a Libyan bombing--but darn it if these two kids aren't going to try and make it work! However, they hadn't counted on the president's Republican antagonist (Richard Dreyfuss), who starts carping about family values. The predictable plot--Douglas finally goes to bat for his lady and his country--is leavened by Sorkin's wonderful, snappy dialogue and a light touch from the usually subtle-as-a-sledgehammer Reiner. Both manage to create a believable White House-office atmosphere (with a crack staff including Martin Sheen, Michael J. Fox, Anna Deavere Smith and Samantha Mathis) as well as a plausible and funny dating scenario. The true success of the movie, though, rides squarely on Douglas and Bening; this is unequivocally Douglas's best comedic performance (ergo his best performance, period) and Bening, usually such a good bad girl, takes a standard career-woman role and fleshes it out magnificently. You can see in an instant why Douglas would fall for her. One of the best unsung romantic comedies of the 90s. --Mark Englehart

• Letters to Juliet | Blu Ray | (04/10/2010) from £12.13   |  Saving you £10.86 (89.53%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Set in the beautiful surroundings of Verona, Italy, Letters to Juliet is a story of discovery and the search for that one true love.