Comedy

• Orrible | DVD | (20/01/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £17.99

  The idea behind 'Orrible is easy to appreciate, even if the programme itself often wasn't. Take Johnny Vaughan--a supremely talented and likable broadcaster, one of very few ubiquitous television presences whose appearance does not drive the intelligent viewer to grim fantasies of revenge involving a baseball bat and a dark ally--and cast him as the lead in a sitcom. It was, at best, a partial success. The problem with 'Orrible is that Vaughan's forte is improvisation and association, not adhering to a script, not even one he cowrote. His character, a dimwitted, shell-suited West London minicab driver with Walter Mitty-ish fantasies of being an underworld player, has possibilities. But the potential is never fully realised, partly due to surprisingly leaden lines, but mostly due to Vaughan's limitations as an actor: he never quite manages to project anything other than a less-funny version of the screen persona audiences know and like. On the DVD: 'Orrible on disc has an episode selector, and a scene selector for each episode. Subtitles are available in English. There is also the option of listening to a running commentary by writers Ed Allen and Johnny Vaughan which, as it is isn't scripted, occasionally offers glimpses of the unrestrained, free-flowing Johnny Vaughan familiar from his other television work--as such, it's far funnier than anything in the actual programme. --Andrew Mueller

• Things Change (Standard Edition) | Blu Ray | (26/06/2023) from £9.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Written and directed by David Mamet (Oleanna), the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright known for his intense dramas, Things Change is a charming, expertly crafted 'mistaken identity' comedy. The Mob force unassuming shoe-shine man Gino (Don Ameche, Trading Places) into taking the hit for a murder he didn't commit. The pay-off? A fishing boat in Sicily when he gets out. Small-time crook Jerry (Joe Mantegna, House of Games) takes Gino on one last jaunt to Lake Tahoe before his term begins, but, when Gino is mistaken for a major league gangster, the duo soon fall prey to local hoodlums... An unexpected change of pace for Mamet, Things Change benefits from an intelligent, witty script and superb central performances from Ameche and Mantegna, who received Best Actor awards at the Venice Film Festival for their efforts. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Engineering Things (2021, 21 mins): acclaimed writer-director David Mamet reminisces about his career and the making of Things Change Things Happen (2021, 30 mins): actor Joe Mantegna on working with Mamet and Don Ameche Melodies for Mamet (2021, 17 mins): composer Alaric Rokko Jans describes the process of scoring Things Change, and his other collaborations with Mamet Life As It Could Be (2021, 10 mins): appreciation by comedian, musician and writer Rob Deering Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: promotional and publicity materials New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Bird on a Wire | DVD | (10/04/2003) from £6.19   |  Saving you £-0.20 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn star in this action-packed comedy directed by John Badham about two old flames who meet by accident and are plunged into a cross-country run for their lives.

• Vintage Classics Ealing Comedy Collection | DVD | (23/10/2017) from £23.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Collection of five classic British comedies. In 'Kind Hearts and Coronets' (1949) an embittered aristocrat sets out to murder the eight heirs that stand between him and succession to the family title. Louis Mazzini (Dennis Price) holds no love for the family he counts as relations, the D'Ascoynes. The D'Ascoynes cast his mother out when she decided to marry a commoner, Louis's father, and on her death refused to allow her to be buried in the family vault. An outraged Louis vows revenge and begins working his way into the trust of the family to provide him with the opportunity to bump off the male heirs (all played by Alec Guinness) one by one. However, complications arise when he becomes romantically entangled with one of the widows of his victims, Edith D'Ascoyne (Valerie Hobson). Will Louis be able to stay the course and murder his way to a dukedom? In 'Passport to Pimlico' (1949) an unexploded bomb goes off in Pimlico, uncovering documents which reveal that this part of London in fact belongs to Burgundy in France. An autonomous state is set up in a spirit of optimism, but the petty squabbles of everyday life soon shatter the utopian vision of a non-restrictive nation. In 'Whisky Galore!' (1949), set during the Second World War, the inhabitants of a small Hebridean island are wilting under a chronic shortage of whisky. When a ship is wrecked on the shore, it is discovered to contain 50,000 cases of malt, which are promptly appropriated by the men of the island. All is well until an English Home Guard commander - determined to see the whisky restored to its rightful owners - calls in Her Majesty's Customs, and the islanders make frantic attempts to hide their treasured alcoholic booty! In 'The Man in the White Suite' (1951) Sidney Stratton (Guinness) is a laboratory cleaner in a textile factory who invents a material that will neither wear out nor become dirty. Initially hailed as a great discovery, Sidney's astonishing invention is suffocated by the management when they realise that if it never wears out, people will only ever have to purchase one suit of clothing. Finally, in 'The Ladykillers' (1955) a group of bank robbers struggle to silence the eccentric old lady who discovers their crime. Mrs Wilberforce (Katie Johnson) lives alone in King's Cross with her parrots. She has been led to believe that the group of men renting rooms from her, Professor Marcus (Guinness), the Major (Cecil Parker), Louis (Herbert Lom), Harry (Peter Sellers) and One-Round (Danny Green), are classical musicians. However, when one of the group's cases gets caught in the door and opens to reveal, not a musical instrument, but a plethora of banknotes, the virtuous Mrs Wilberforce vows to go to the police with the identities of the men. The criminals agree that the old lady has to be killed to silence her, but will this be as straightforward as it sounds?

• Fletch | DVD | (16/02/2004) from £5.03   |  Saving you £0.96 (19.09%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Fletch is a fairly sarcastic and occasionally very funny Chevy Chase vehicle scripted by Andrew Bergman (Blazing Saddles, The Freshman, Honeymoon in Vegas) from Gregory McDonald's lightweight mystery novel about an undercover newspaper reporter cracking a police drug ring. Enjoyment of the film pivots on whether you find Chase's flippant, smart-ass brand of verbal humour funny, or merely egocentric. If you don't like Chase, there's really no one else worth watching (Geena Davis is sadly underused). Chase seems born to play IM "Fletch" Fletcher, a disillusioned investigative reporter whose cynicism and detached view on life mirrors the actor's understated approach to comedy. Fletcher offers Chase the opportunity to adopt numerous personas, as his job requires numerous (bad) physical disguises, and much of film's humour centres on the ridiculous idea that any of these phoney accents or bad hairpieces could fool anyone. These not-so-clever disguises are put to use when Fletch becomes involved in the film's smart but continually self-mocking two-part mystery. As well as trying to gather drug-smuggling evidence against the LAPD for a long-overdue newspaper story, a rich and apparently terminally ill stranger also offers Fletch a large payoff to kill him. While the film does a fairly good job juggling both of these plots, not to mention tossing in a love interest as well, they're subservient, for better or worse, to Chase's memorable one-liners and disguises. Followed by two forgettable sequels that lack both the original's wit and Chase's attention span.--Dave McCoy, Amazon.com

• Delicatessen | Blu Ray | (13/01/2014) from £24.99   |  Saving you £-2.00 (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  Delicatessen presents a post-apocalyptic scenario set entirely in a dank and gloomy building where the landlord operates a delicatessen on the ground floor. But this is an altogether meatless world, so the butcher-landlord keeps his customers happy by chopping unsuspecting victims into cutlets, and he's sharpening his knife for the new tenant (French comic actor Dominque Pinon) who's got the hots for the butcher's near-sighted daughter. Delicatessen is a feast (if you will) of hilarious vignettes, slapstick gags, and sweetly eccentric characters, including a man in a swampy room full of frogs, a woman doggedly determined to commit suicide (she never gets it right) and a pair of brothers who make toy sound boxes that "moo" like cows. It doesn't amount to much as a story, but that hardly matters; this is the kind of comedy that leaps from a unique wellspring of imagination and inspiration, and it's handled with such visual virtuosity that you can't help but be mesmerised. French co-directors of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro have wildly inventive imaginations that gravitate to the darker absurdities of human behaviour, and their visual extravagance is matched by impressive technical skill. There's some priceless comedy here, some of which is so inventive that you may feel the urge to stand up and cheer. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com On the DVD: the special features are pretty standard, with a trailer, "making of" featurette and footage of the rehearsal process. The audio commentary is supplied by Jeunet, which, although interesting, is in French and thus necessitates the use of subtitles which then obliterate the movie's own subtitles. Once the commentary is on it is virtually impossible to turn this option off without reloading the disc. However, the Dolby stereo works wonders for this film, which is rich in sound, and surprisingly the 1.85:1 letterbox ratio is perfect for a film that is grainy by design. --Nikki Disney

• Bring It On: All or Nothing | DVD | (05/09/2011) from £5.51   |  Saving you £0.48 (8.71%)   |  RRP £5.99

  A sassy and spirited sequel to Bring It On with new moves new music and eye-popping dance sequences... Britney Allen (Hayden Panettiere) is living the dream - the cheerleader's dream. At the elite seaside campus of Pacific Vista High School Britney is captain of the cheerleading squad and the envy of everyone at school - including one overly-ambitious teammate. When Britney hears about a forthcoming audition for a top cheer squad to appear in recording star Rihanna's upcoming television special she is determined that her Pirates cheer squad will capture the coveted spot. But Britney's life turns from cheer-topia to cheer-tastrophe when her father's job takes her family to Crenshaw Heights a multi-ethnic working-class neighbourhood east of Los Angeles! At her new school Britney is viewed with suspicion by most of the students especially by Camille (Solange Knowles) the overly confident and acerbic leader of the Crenshaw Heights Warriors cheerleading squad. No one is more surprised than Camille however when Britney proves herself and secures a spot on the Warriors' cheer squad. Britney and her new teammates work feverishly to prepare for the audition for Rihanna incorporating some edgy new moves into their performance. Now the pressure is on as the Warriors find themselves locked in a high-stakes cheer-off with Pacific Vista Britney's old school! During the climactic no-holds-barred fight to the finish friendships loyalties and talents are tested - but only one team can come out on top.

• Instant Swamp | DVD | (24/05/2010) from £9.99   |  Saving you £5.00 (50.05%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Haname is a lively young journalist blessed with an exceedingly vivid imaginative working for a woman's magazine on the brink of bankruptcy. Her daily diet of gloopy health drinks are't enough to shield her from what she perceives as a particularly severe run of bad luck which all began on her eighth birthday when her father stormed out of the house not only abandoning her but flinging all her toys into a nearby swamp including a cat talisman which she thinks must have been cursed. Haname sets out to retrieve her lost possessions a quest which reacquaints her with her father now a hippie working at a junk shop who goes under than name 'Light Bulb' and brings her into contact with a punk named Gus.

• As Time Goes By - Series 6 | DVD | (30/01/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Long ago Lionel a dashing young British Army officer met Jean a lovely student nurse and fell deeply in love. When Lionel was shipped off to fight in the Korean war the two lost touch. Now they meet again and slowly begin to rekindle their romance. Episodes comprise: 1. The Stalker 2. The Psychotherapist 3. The Dinner Party 4. What's Wrong With Mrs Bale? 5. Alistair's Engagement 6. The House Next Door 7. A Surprise For Jean

• Up The Chastity Belt | DVD | (14/02/2011) from £10.35   |  Saving you £5.64 (54.49%)   |  RRP £15.99

  A funny thing happened to Lurkalot serf to Sir Coward de Custard on the way to Custard Castle. Lurkalot sells lusty love potions and rusty chastity belts in the market place but on this day Sir Graggart de Bombast arrives to sack the castle and to get the lovely Lobelia Custard in the sack! Lurkalot must help Custard cream the knight in pining armour...

• Police Academy Complete | DVD | (07/06/2004) from £20.15   |  Saving you £49.84 (247.35%)   |  RRP £69.99

  Police Academy The call went out. The recruits came in. No longer would police cadets have to meet standards of height weight or other requirements. Brains were optional too. Can't spell IQ? Don't know the number 911? No matter. Police Academy grads are ready to uphold law and disorder! Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment When the newly graduated misfits in blue tangle with these pinheaded punks the result is an open-and-shut case of nonstop hilarity!. Steve Gu

• Freddie Starr - Live | DVD | (25/08/2003) from £34.98   |  Saving you £-29.99 (N/A%)   |  RRP £4.99

  Comic genius Freddie Starr recorded live and uncensored at the Beck Theatre in Hayes Middlesex.

• Nickelodeon | DVD | (13/10/2008) from £9.79   |  Saving you £3.20 (32.69%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Nickelodeon recalls the early days of the motion picture industry and is based in part on Peter Bogdanovich's interviews with pioneering directors Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Lawyer-turned-movie-director Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) and Buck Greenaway (Burt Reynolds) an actor are both sent to California to shut down a renegade group of silent movie makers. Joining forces with cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter) leading lady Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock) and precocious prop-girl Alice Forsythe (Tatum O'Neal) Harrigan and Greenaway somehow find themselves working with the movie crew instead of shutting them down. Greenaway becomes a star and Harrigan a respected director but both battle over the affections of Cooke...

• Razzle Dazzle / the Producers | DVD | (26/09/2011) from £3.31   |  Saving you £12.94 (631.22%)   |  RRP £14.99

  Titles Comprise: Razzle Dazzle: A journey into dance lifts the curtain on the eager members of Mr Jonathon's Dance Academy (The Jazzketeers) as they prepare for Australia's most prestigious dance competition. Amidst parental politics, dance school rivalry, creative controversy and the hysterics of pushy stage mothers Mr Jonathan stands true to his vision - not only does he want to entertain, he wants to educate. With his unique routines, like the Kyoto Protocol Shuffle, Mr Jonathan aspires to reflect the oppression and injustices in the world.The Producers: New York, 1959. Max Bialystock was once the king of Broadway, but now all his shows close on opening night. Things turn around when he's visited by the neurotic accountant Leo Bloom, who proposes a scheme tailor-made for producers who can only make flops: raise far more money than you need, then make sure the show is despised. No one will be interested in it, so you can pocket the surplus.To this end, they produce a musical called Springtime for Hitler written by escaped Nazi Franz Liebken. Then they get the insanely flamboyant Roger De Bris to direct. Finally, they hire as a lead actress the loopy Swedish bombshell Ulla (whose last name has over 15 syllables). As opening night draws near, what can go wrong? Well, there's no accounting for taste...Centre Stage: A group of 12 teenagers from various backgrounds enroll at the American Ballet Academy in New York to make it as ballet dancers and each one deals with the problems and stress of training and getting ahead in the world of dance.

• American Hot Babes | DVD | (22/02/2010) from £6.73   |  Saving you £6.26 (93.02%)   |  RRP £12.99

  In this outrageous comedy two buddies uptight Carl (Brendan Hines) and Lester (Chris Pratt) enter a video booth and find themselves transported to an alternate dimension where the entire world has taken on the traits of an adult film. As they struggle to get home and ironically struggle with the impossible task of getting laid Carl and Lester go on a journey meeting characters like gangster Busta Nut (Tracy Morgan) sorority house mother Autumn Bliss (Denise Richards and club bouncer Summa Eve (Kim Kardashian) to help them on their journey.

• Hanging Up | DVD | (27/11/2000) from £8.98   |  Saving you £7.00 (116.86%)   |  RRP £12.99

  A trio of sisters bond over their ambivalence toward the approaching death of their curmudgeonly father, to whom none of them was particularly close.

• Easy Money III - Life Deluxe | Blu Ray | (20/10/2014) from £1.99   |  Saving you £16.00 (804.02%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Jens Jonssonn directs the third instalment of this gritty Swedish crime thriller based on the novels by Jens Lapidus. Johan (Joel Kinnaman)'s exile does not last long as his determination to discover the fate of his missing sister takes him right to the heart of organised crime in Stockholm. Meanwhile, his friend Jorge (Matias Varela) is attempting the largest robbery in Swedish history which he says will also be his last. The third strand of the story follows Martin (Martin Wallström) as he goes undercover in the Serbian mafia to put its notorious boss behind bars. But with others after the crime boss and a recent failed assasination attempt will Martin be able to get to him first?

• John Bishop Live - Sunshine Tour | DVD | (14/11/2011) from £2.05   |  Saving you £17.94 (875.12%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This DVD contains the hilarious Liverpudlian stand up comedian John Bishops' brand new tour, entitled The Sunshine Tour.

• Marx Brothers Box Set | DVD | (23/08/2004) from £51.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (19.23%)   |  RRP £61.99

  Classic comedy films from the Marx brothers including 'A Night At The Opera' 'A Day At The Races' 'A Night In Casablanca' 'The Big Store' 'At The Circus' and 'Go West'. A Night At The Opera (1935) The Marx Brothers turn Mrs. Claypool's opera into chaos in their efforts to help two young hopefuls get a break. It contains the famous scene where Groucho Chico and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom with wall-to-wall people gags one-liners musical riffs and two hard-boiled egg

• The Angels' Share | Blu Ray | (24/09/2012) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £22.99

  From award-winning director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty comes a bitter sweet comedy caper which proves that sometimes all you need in life is a little spirit. Escaping a prison sentence by the skin of his teeth, the wayward and disillusioned Robbie is given one last chance to turn his life around. Together the four friends he embarks on an adventure and discovers that turning to drink might just change their lives - not cheap fortified wine, but the best malt whiskies in the world.