Drama

• Tommy and Tuppence - Partners in Crime | DVD | (20/07/2015) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

• The Canterbury Tales (I Racconti di Canterbury) | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £8.97   |  Saving you £11.02 (122.85%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's film of The Canterbury Tales was one of a trilogy from the early 1970s that, like its companions The Decameron and the Arabian Nights, was an international box-office hit playing for long runs in mainstream cinemas. All of them adapt a masterpiece of literature where man becomes the moral catalyst for his own destiny. Chaucer's ribald sense of humour was a natural outlet for Pasolini's own desire to throw caution to the wind on screen, causing controversy at the time by displaying all facets of the male and female body unadorned. (Although it all looks pretty tame now, the Italian authorities were a threatening presence to Pasolini at the time.) Produced by Alberto Grimaldi with a large budget, the location scenes were filmed in many historic sites in England, notably Wells Cathedral, its crypt, and the surrounding flatlands leading toward Glastonbury, captured in early spring by Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography. The cast with Italian and English actors dubbed into Italian with English subtitles is a mixed blessing. Hugh Griffith as Sir January is one Anglo-Saxon recognisable from his role as the lecherous squire in Tom Jones, and overacts like the rest of the cast. Pasolini himself appears briefly as Chaucer in a non-speaking role that one regrets he didn't enlarge for himself in this sprawling tableaux of pilgrim's tales (Ken Russell's excesses from the same period come to mind). The musical score, an adaptation by Ennio Morricone of some traditional indigenous melodies, prefigures the early music revival by a few years and provides a stimulating soundtrack. --Adrian Edwards

• Diana - Her True Story | DVD | (18/08/2008) from £7.24   |  Saving you £-1.25 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Based on Andrew Morton's bestselling book the film traces Diana's transformation from shy young girl to public icon and sophisticated princess whose fairy tale marriage to Prince Charles soon turned into a nightmare well hidden outside the walls of Buckingham Palace. Until the book and this film revealed Diana's side of the story: her marital troubles her loneliness inside the royal family her suicide attempts and her struggles with bulimia. With this critically acclaimed film the world reached a new understanding of this complex fascinating woman.

• Mulholland Drive | Blu Ray | (13/01/2014) from £20.25   |  Saving you £2.74 (13.53%)   |  RRP £22.99

  David Lynch's acclaimed tale of murder and amnesia in Los Angeles. Having narrowly survived a murder attempt and a car crash, a shocked and wounded woman (Laura Elena Harring) takes refuge in a nearby apartment. When she is discovered the next morning by the apartment's official resident, aspiring actress Betty Elms (Naomi Watts), she confesses that she neither knows who she is nor what happened to her. The two women then begin to investigate, and it gradually becomes clear that they have kno...

• Land Of Mine | DVD | (09/10/2017) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Danish historical drama written and directed by Martin Zandvliet. After Germany's surrender in May 1945 signals the end of World War II, a group of young German prisoners are handed over to Danish sergeant Carl Leopold Rasmussen (Roland Moller) to clear the Danish coastline of thousands of live landmines. Promising them that they will be free to return home once the job is done, Rasmussen quickly sends the boys out onto the beaches to begin their dangerous assignment. However, as the group's inexperience starts to show, Carl soon finds himself forming a strong bond with his young charges as they attempt to carry on with their daunting task.

• Vienna Blood Season 1 | Blu Ray | (15/11/2021) from £12.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  1900s Vienna, a hot bed of philosophy, science and art, where a clash of cultures and ideas collide in the city's grand cafes and opera houses. Max Liebermann is a brilliant young English student of famed psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. When Max comes into contact with Oskar Rheinhardt, a Detective Inspector struggling with a strange case, he agrees to help him investigate a series of unusual and disturbing murders. Max's extraordinary skills of perception and forensics, and his deep understanding of human behavior and deviance, lead them to solve some of Vienna's most mysterious and deadly cases.

• Iceman | DVD | (17/09/2018) from £6.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  The Ötztal Alps, more than 5,300 years ago. A Neolithic clan has settled nearby a creek. It is their leader Kelab s responsibility to be the keeper of the group's holy shrine Tineka. While Kelab is hunting, the settlement is attacked. The members of the tribe are brutally murdered, amongst them Kelab's wife and son, only one newborn survives... and Tineka is gone. Blinded by pain and fury, Kelab is out for one thing alone: vengeance. He sets out after the murderers on what turns into a grand odyssey where he must fight constantly for the infant s survival; against the immense forces of nature; against hunters he encounters; and, amongst the loneliness of the quest, against a growing sense of doubt over the morality of his mission. Inspired by the discovery of Ötzi The Iceman , the oldest known human mummy, found in 1991 approximately 5,300 years after his death, ICEMAN is an epic, riveting, visually stunning and immersive revenge thriller that investigates a five-thousand-year-old murder mystery. NB: the characters in ICEMAN speak an early version of the Rhaetic language. The film intentionally has no subtitles as translation is not required to comprehend the story.

• The Monuments Men | Blu Ray | (09/06/2014) from £7.03   |  Saving you £19.22 (333.10%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Starring a phenomenal ensemble cast led by Matt Damon and George Clooney and based on a true and untold story of World War II The Monuments Men is suspenseful ticking-clock adventure-thriller about a ragtag team of unlikely but charismatic heroes embarking on the greatest treasure hunt in history taking on the seemingly impossible high-stakes mission to rescue the world's greatest works of art which the Nazi's are hell-bent on destroying.

• How Do You Know | DVD | (20/06/2011) from £4.85   |  Saving you £13.14 (270.93%)   |  RRP £17.99

  From legendary director/writer James L. Brooks comes a humorous and romantic look at the How Do You Know question. When everything she's ever known is suddenly taken from her Lisa (Reese Witherspoon) begins a fling with Matty (Owen Wilson) a major league baseball player and self-centred ladies man. Before their relationship takes off Lisa meets up with George (Paul Rudd) a straight-arrow businessman facing his own serious issues both with his father (Jack Nicholson) and the law. Just when everything seems to be falling apart they discover what it means to have something wonderful happen.

• The Accused | DVD | (01/07/2002) from £6.46   |  Saving you £9.53 (147.52%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Jodie Foster won her first Oscar for her role in The Accused (1988), based on an actual incident. While out for a night of fun at a poolroom, before her character knows what's happening she finds that the men she's been flirting with have pinned her down for a gang rape. The story centres on the efforts of a district attorney (Kelly McGillis) to press her case, in spite of a wall of silence by the participants--and then to take the unusual step of going after the witnesses as accomplices. Foster is outstanding as a tough, blue-collar woman who persists in what seems like an unwinnable case, despite the prospect of character assassination for standing up for herself. --Marshall Fine

• Psycho | DVD | (01/01/1999) from £6.83   |  Saving you £3.16 (46.27%)   |  RRP £9.99

  Marion Crane is a Phoenix, Arizona working girl fed up with having to sneak away during lunch breaks to meet her lover, Sam Loomis, who cannot get married because most of his money goes towards alimony.

• Les Miserables | DVD | (20/09/2004) from £4.90   |  Saving you £13.09 (267.14%)   |  RRP £17.99

  Based on the classic novel from Victor Hugo this is an epic tale of love honour and obsession against the dramatic background of the French Revolution. Jean Valjean (Depardieu) lives a life on the run his punishment for stealing a loaf of bread when starving. Settling in a remote town he devotes himself to the care of the poor including the poverty stricken Fantine. When she dies her daughter Cosette (Ledoyen) is raised by Valjean but both are haunted by Javert (Malkovich) a

• Arrested Development - Complete Seasons 1-3 | DVD | (14/09/2009) from £24.93   |  Saving you £45.06 (180.75%)   |  RRP £69.99

  They say 'family' is an institution; this family belongs in one! After his father is imprisoned level-headed son Michael Bluth takes over family affairs in the Bluth empire. But the rest of his spoiled dysfunctional family are making the job unbearable! This three season box set includes every episode from the first three seasons of the Emmy Award-winning show.

• Buddha of Suburbia | DVD | (17/09/2007) from £9.99   |  Saving you £10.00 (100.10%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Karim's mother is English and his father is Indian. Therefore Karim has some problems with life in British society which is becoming more and more racist and intolerant; he experiences this especially when he wants to find himself a way of becoming an actor.

• Only The Brave BD | Blu Ray | (12/03/2018) from £7.55   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  All men are created equal then, a few become firefighters. Only the Brave, based on the True Story of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, is the heroic story of one unit of local firefighters that through hope, determination, sacrifice, and the drive to protect families, communities, and our country become one of the most elite firefighting teams in the country. As most of us run from danger, they run toward it they watch over our lives, our homes, everything we hold dear, as they forge a unique brotherhood that comes into focus with one fateful fire.

• The Magician | DVD | (24/09/2001) from £7.99   |  Saving you £14.00 (233.72%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A sort of existential horror movie set in what often feels like a darkly imaginary 1846, The Magician is Ingmar Bergman's meditation on the restrictive nature of modern rationalism. Max Von Sydow cuts a suitably melancholy and mystical figure as Dr Vogler, the mute hypnotist who travels with a group of players to Stockholm, only to be examined and humiliated by a team of sceptical inquisitors led by Gunnar Bjornstrand's Dr Vergerus and a hog-like police chief. Dr Vogler exacts his revenge on Vergerus, however, in an extraordinary feat of illusion.With its elaborate, occasionally expressionistic sets and its feel of a scrupulously re-enacted nightmare, The Magician is reminiscent at times of Poe or even The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. However, the "below stairs" characters--including Ake Fridell's ebullient Master of Ceremonies and a host of giggling wenches--add comic energy to what is otherwise a startling and sombre reflection of the nature of art and life. It would prove a turning point in Bergman's career as he moved away from his early, "romantic" period.On the DVD: Presented in the original academy ratio, the mix of soft light and harsh shade for which credit should go to photographer Gunnar Fischer, is well-restored here. In notes from his memoirs included here, Bergman relates how his adventures and privations as part of a theatre company in Malmo provided inspiration for The Magician, while critic Ronald Bergman's notes talk of "the ability of the artist to find truth in both fact and fantasy". --David Stubbs

• Heartbeat - The Complete Third Series | DVD | (28/02/2011) from £24.99   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Set during the 1960s in the fictional North Yorkshire village of Aidensfield and initially starring former EastEnder Nick Berry as PC Nick Rowan this enduringly popular series interweaves crime and medical storylines with a host of colourful characters that viewers took to their hearts and a wonderfully nostalgic soundtrack. Staple Sunday-night viewing for two decades Heartbeat won several prestigious TV awards - including Best Performing Peak-Time Drama in 1999 and a number of ITV Programme of the Year awards. Attracting a peak audience of 14 million and spawning a highly successful spin-off The Royal and a Top Ten hit single the series has garnered a devoted following and remains prime-time viewing world-wide. Available for the first time on DVD this complete third series was originally transmitted in October 1993 and features guest appearances by among others Daniel Craig Dora Bryan Clive Swift and Susan Jameson.

• A Private War | DVD | (10/06/2019) from £8.25   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Based on the extraordinary life of Marie Colvin, A Private War is brought to the screen by Academy Award® and BAFTA nominated filmmaker Matthew Heineman (Cartel Land, City of Ghosts), this is his pulse pounding narrative feature debut. In a world where journalism is under attack, Marie Colvin (Academy Award®and BAFTA nominee Rosamund Pike) is one of the most celebrated war correspondents of our time. Colvin is an utterly fearless and rebellious spirit, driven to the frontlines of conflicts across the globe to give voice to the voiceless, while constantly testing the limits between bravery and bravado. After being hit by a grenade in Sri Lanka, she wears a distinctive eye patch and is still as comfortable sipping martinis with London's elite as she is confronting dictators. Colvin sacrifices loving relationships, and over time, her personal life starts to unravel as the trauma she's witnessed takes its toll. Yet, her mission to show the true cost of war leads her --along with renowned war photographer Paul Conroy (Jamie Dornan) - to embark on the most dangerous assignment of their lives in the besieged Syrian city of Homs.

• Bugsy | DVD | (09/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Bugsy represents an almost miraculous combination of director, writer and star on a project that represents a career highlight for everyone involved. It's one of the best American gangster movies ever made--as good in its own way as any of the Godfather films--and it's impossible to imagine anyone better than Beatty in the movie's flashy title role. As notorious mobster and Las Vegas visionary "Bugsy" Siegel, Beatty is perfectly cast as a man whose dreams are greater than his ability to realise them--or at least, greater than his ability to stay alive while making those dreams come true. With a glamorous Hollywood mistress (Annette Bening) who shares Bugsy's dream while pursuing her own upwardly mobile agenda, Bugsy seems oblivious to threats when he begins to spend too much of the mob's money on the creation of the Flamingo casino. Meyer Lansky (Ben Kingsley) and Mickey Cohen (Harvey Keitel) will support Bugsy's wild ambition to a point, after which all bets are off, and Bugsy's life hangs in the balance. From the obvious chemistry of Beatty and Bening (who met and later married off-screen) to the sumptuous reproduction of 1940s Hollywood, every detail in this movie feels impeccably right. Beatty is simply mesmerising as the man who invented Las Vegas but never saw it thrive, moving from infectious idealism to brutal violence in the blink of an eye. Director Barry Levinson is also in peak form here, guiding the stylish story with a subtle balance of admiration and horror; we can catch Bugsy's Vegas fever and root for the gangster's success, but we know he'll get what he deserves. We might wish that Bugsy had lived to see his dream turn into a booming oasis, but the movie doesn't suggest that we should shed any tears. --Jeff Shannon

• Vera: Series 11 (Eps 5 & 6) | DVD | (27/02/2023) from £16.79   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £N/A

  Final two episodes from the eleventh series of the ITV crime thriller based on the novels by Ann Cleeves, starring Brenda Blethyn as Detective Chief Inspector Vera Stanhope. Along with trusted partner Detective Sergeant Aiden Healy (Kenny Doughty), Vera and her team carry out various murder investigations in Northumberland. In these episodes, Vera investigates the murder of a popular GP and a body found on the banks of the River Tyne. The episodes are: 'Vital Signs' and 'The Way the Wind Blows'.