Browse Art House & International

Australia & New Zealand

British

Chinese

Directors

Top 10 Items

		Mamma Mia! [2008] £12.98
		Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2 Disc Edition) [2008] £10.40
		Kung Fu Panda [2008] £8.40
		The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2 Disc Special Edition) [2008] £10.99
		The Dark Knight (2 Discs) [2008] £11.98
		Tinker Bell [2008] £10.68
		Sex and the City: The Movie [2008] £9.98
		Family Guy - Series 7 - Complete £17.98
		Frankie Boyle Live [2008] £9.67
		Michael McIntyre Live & Laughing [2008] £12.98

Art House & International

War Requiem: 20th Anniversary Edition [1989]

Rated: Suitable for 12 years and over
Staring: Nathaniel Parker, Tilda Swinton, Sean Bean, Laurence Olivier, Owen Teale
Director: Derek Jarman

moving anti-war piece, 2008-09-20
The combination of Benjamin Britten's powerful War Requiem, the poetry of Wilfred Owen and the acting and cinematography in this piece make for an intense experience. Jarman was not allowed to add a single word to the text of the requiem, yet he managed to make this work both a personal and a universal statement. Don't distract yourself with popcorn: give it your total attention. The images will haunt you.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £11.98

Female Agents [2008]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Sophie Marceau, Deborah Francois, Julie Depardieu, Marie Gillian, Maya Sansa
Director: Jean-Paul Salome

Excellent wartime adventure, 2008-10-06
I first saw this film in the cinema, and am so glad it is now out on DVD. As a big fan of war films, Female Agents is easily the best of this year, with cracking performances from all the main leads, especially Sophie Marceau.

Set in 1944 during World War II, the film tells the story of four women resistance fighter given the mission to rescue a British geologist. Based on a true story, the action rarely lets up with a fantastic script complemented by gorgeous cinematography. Watch out for the subway scene - it's a classic!

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £6.97

The Science Of Sleep [2006]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Miou Miou, Gael Garcia Bernal, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alain Chabat
Director: Michel Gondry

The Science of Sleep concerns the flirtations and misunderstandings of Stéphane (played by Gael García Bernal), an aspiring visual artist, and Stéphanie (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg), his Parisian neighbour who creates whimsical sculptures from cotton balls and felt. As Stéphane toils in a caustic office for a company that makes calendars, he retreats into his dreams and finds them increasingly hard to distinguish from reality, and vice-versa.

The French magician and director Georges Méliès was arguably the first master of special effects, filling the silent movie houses of the early 20th century with camera trickery that stunned and delighted audiences. A century later, Michel Gondry works very much in the spirit of his artistic predecessor and countryman, creating films and music videos that feel just as hand-crafted and visually fantastical. The Science of Sleep is a trilingual film, with dialogue spoken in French, English, and Spanish by characters who are very much global citizens, crossing boundaries of consciousness as easily as they cross boundaries of culture. Gondry decorates his love story with deliberately low-tech special effects, including cellophane made to look like bath water and a subconscious television studio constructed largely of corrugated cardboard. This is filmmaking with all the seams and stitches exposed, an appreciation for the patent falseness of films that nonetheless transport and enchant us. It's dreamy. --Ryan Boudinot
Recommended, 2008-09-07
I really enjoyed this film. The whole film looks great. I love how they blend being awake with being asleep. Really good dialog, I thoroughly recommend seeing this film.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £2.79

The Kite Runner [2007]

Rated: Suitable for 12 years and over
Staring: Khalid Abdalla, Atossa Leoni, Shaun Toub
Director: Marc Forster

Like the bestselling book upon which it's based, The Kite Runner will haunt the viewer long after the film is over. A tale of childhood betrayal, innocence, harsh reality, and dreamy memory, The Kite Runner faces good and evil--and the path between them, though often blurry and sorrowfully relative. Director Marc Forster (Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland) presents a painterly vision of Afghanistan before the Soviet tanks, before the Taliban--lush, verdant, fertile--in its landscape and in its people and their history and hopes. The story follows two young boys' friendship, tested beyond endurance, and the haunting of their adult selves by what happened in their youth--and what horrors befall their country in the meantime. The performances of the two boys--Zekeria Ebrahimi (Amir) and Ahmad Khan Mahmidzada (Hassan)--are the film's strongest, unforced and gently evocative. The penance paid by their adult selves is foreshadowed, but never predictable--and the metaphor of innocence lost, a common theme in Forster's work, keeps the film, like the title kites, truly aloft. --A.T. Hurley

Emotional , 2008-10-23
This is not my normal sort of movie, but watched this with a friend. The film starts quite slowly, building up the background of our main characters and eventually moves to a very emotional climax. With an excellent script, story and acting, this movie has you getting frustrated with the characters and going through all that they are. With an interesting view of how Afghanistan and the Taliban are, this moving really opens your eyes and makes you think.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £5.86

The Orphanage [2007]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Belen Rueda, Geraldine Chaplin, Fernando Cayo
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona

Backed by Guillermo del Toro and yet made by a surprisingly inexperienced group of film makers (especially considering the end result), The Orphanage is a chilling, tense supernatural thriller that could certainly teach more established directors a thing or two about how to send shivers down the spine.

It tells the story of a woman, Laura, returning to the orphanage where she was raised as a child. Her plans are to look after sick children there, but it doesn't take long for things to go awry. Without giving too much away, visions from her past and a threat to her own family are the starting points for a complex and quite haunting thriller, that stays in the mind long after the credits have rolled.

A film that works on more than one level, The Orphanage really is some piece of work. Juan Antonia Bayona, behind the camera, generates an incredibly atmospheric mood that underpins the film, and wisely takes time to put pieces in place. He's aided by a terrific cast, and an unsettling screenplay that layers in an uneasy horror that's as anti-Hollywood as it comes.

The result of all of this is one of the scariest films of recent times, and yet something that still manages to be that little bit more, that sticks in your mind for some time afterwards. Make no mistake, The Orphanage really is something different, and all the better for it. --Jon Foster
Excellent Thriller from the Spanish Team, 2008-10-08
The Orphanage, does bring sophistication in ghost stories which is rarely heard of, but Guillermo Del Toro manages to pull it off time and time again, and somehow he even managed to inject his magic into this one, which he only produced - as this very much plays out like one of his own films. Not to discredit Mr. Bayona, though, for he has done a fine job. This is a dark, powerful, and moving masterpiece that both adheres to convention and brings some new, more artistic elements to the table in the direction and storytelling.

There was nothing about this film I didn't like. The acting, the thrills, the cinematography, the story, and the atmosphere. Everything was not short of sheer brilliance. The chilling moments freaked me out a couple of times, which I'm glad they did. That was what I wanted out of this film, but I was offered so much in return. Since I knew Guillermo Del Toro was involved with this project, I had a feeling it would be good. I just didn't think it would be THIS good. It was also very heart-warming, which was something I did not expect.

The acting is great, Belen Rueda as Laura is magnificent. Fernando Cayo as the husband Carlos is also good; he looks like a Spanish version of Josh Lucas. The kids do a decent job. And seeing Geraldine Chaplin (Charlie Chaplin's daughter) was a surprise, and she delivered an excellent performance as the 'seeing' medium. The bond that Laura, Simon, and Carlos shared is very sensitive and is carried out well throughout the movie.

This is definitely one of those horror films you should see more than once. The horror films you see nowadays are weak, not scary, and most of all; not worth your time. This one is WORTH the time. Believe me, his film has absolutely everything you need to know on how to make a well-executed ghost story and more.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £5.17

Jean De Florette/Manon Des Sources [1986]

Rated: Parental Guidance
Staring: Yves Montand, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Beart, Hippolyte Girardot, Gerard Depardieu
Director: Claude Berri

A masterpiece, 2008-03-17
My brother and his girlfriend bought this for us for Christmas, which we initially thought a surprising gift as we'd never seen (or expressed a wish in seeing) a foreign language film before. Having just watched it, I have to say it was an completely inspired choice. Initially, it's the quality of the cinematography that draws you in, as the landscape of Provence and its wild animals are portrayed at their most beautiful and detailed. Then it's the tale of an idealistic young man moving out of the town to try and make a living in the country with his family, and the way in which his neighbours conspire to thwart him. The story plays out like a Greek tragedy, but over such a generous period of time (watching both films back to back takes around four hours) that you can understand the conflicting feelings of the neighbours in a way that makes the ending both poignant and satisfying. All kinds of big themes are touched on before then: greed, love, kindness, betrayal, sacrifice, regret, dedication, mistrust and prejudice are just some of them, but they're essayed in such an understated way that you never feel that the film is heavyhanded in getting its point across. Since it's impossible to imagine seeing one film without the other, this double set is really the only way to experience this masterpiece.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £4.52

La Haine (Special Edition) [1995]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili, Solo
Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

La Haine is an angry, anti-authoritarian French film that concerns three young guys (a Jew, an Arab, a black) who decide to take on the police after a friend is brutally beaten. There isn't much going on in this black and white drama beyond its violence (which can be pretty hard to watch, such as an interrogation scene that incorporates torture) and gritty observations of wayward youths hanging out on the fringes of Paris. Certainly, there isn't much in the way of insight, and director Mathieu Kassovitz seems to have absorbed more of the excesses of America's independent film scene, especially Spike Lee at his most indulgent, than its blessings. But if it's edge and rawness you want, this has it--with subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Brilliantly acted, intelligent, a total delight, MUCH more than just "thuggish hoodies", 2006-10-10
Had to respond to another reviewer's assessment. Basically although the film may be gritty, hard-hitting, controversial, a shocking indictment of XYZ, yadayada, most reviews are not mentioning that it is also in parts just really breathtakingly funny. The constant back-and-forth and all-talking-at-once dialogue between the three main characters, which was mostly improvised between actors who knew each other well already from other projects, is razor-sharp, witty, nuanced, playful and just really cool, is full of FABULOUS convoluted ways to mortally insult people, which is always useful, and is often just cutting, skillful wordplay like good, fast narrative rap. This gets overlooked 'cos La Haine has been crippled by THE most hideously botched subtitling job EVER, where some bunch of clowns in an ad agency in Ohio with five words of French between them and a bunch of Cypress Hill records took ten minutes to throw together a cod South-Central "gangsta" script that is inarticulate, dull, clumsy and repetitive and completely misses the intelligence and wit of the dialogue by a mile. They also bodged every single reference to French culture and politics, whether 'cos they didn't get it or 'cos they thought the audience wouldn't I don't know, but this in particular was a real disservice to what the film was saying about the specific situation in France at the time. Just one example, where Said says to Vince at one point something like "what are you, a cross between Moses and Bernard Tapie", (Tapie being a minor corrupt politician and tabloid-fodder controversial wheeler-dealer manager of Marseille FC) this is shown as as "between Moses and Mickey Mouse" - who? Whats the excuse there then? Like there's no US/UK equivalent they could have used? Ross Perot? Neil Hamilton? Ron Atkinson? I have watched La Haine way too many times, as you can tell, and although I still find the written text a necessary basic prop to keep up with this way non-standard backslangy fast idiom, every time I watch it I understand a bit more of the nuances and realise just how much the subtitles have missed. Absolute bleeding traversty. Kassovitz should so get Mike Skinner and Mos Def together to redo the translation for the 20th anniversary edition (Matthieu! Get your people to phone my people! Later daaahling, MWAH!)- the reception of the film would be TOTALLY different, and much more what it deserves. On another point the really close interdependence and affection between the main characters is dead sweet, to use a technical term, makes a lovely positive counterpoint to the violence of the events of the film, and makes what happens even more powerful and moving. Also if you enjoyed the film do yourself a favour and watch Metisse too and also check out the first three Assassin albums. My two centimes.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £3.99

Death Note 2 - The Last Name (2 Disc Limited Edition) [2006]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Erika Toda, Takeshi Kaga, Shido Nakamura, Tatsuya Fujiwara
Director: Shusuke Kaneko

Even better than the original , 2008-09-13
The second Death Note movie picks up immediately where the original left off, but tweaks the death-by-scribbling-a-person's-name formula just enough to avoid it becoming repetitive.
This time a second death note is introduced, along with a new killer in the form of bouncy talk show host Misa Amane. She's given a potentially intriguing backstory - after her family were horribly murdered, a chubby little demon sacrificed himself to prolong her life. But as soon as she runs into Light, Amane becomes a pretty pathetic character who purely exists to do his bidding. It highlights the problem that both movies have with creating strong, complex female characters, perhaps hinting at a squarely male adolescent target audience.
The Last Name also features a new demon in the form of the floppy haired, earring-wearing Rem, who watches over Amane. The late scenes in which Rem mooches around the police station after the cops obtain the power to see him is entertaining, but he's far less morally ambiguous (and therefore less fun) than the apple-munching Ryuk. Thankfully Ryuk is also back, and though he doesn't get quite so much screen time, he still nabs the best scenes - the strange sequence in which Amane presents him with an apple and he goes wild to a sudden burst of rock music is hilarious.
At the heart of the film is the continuing battle of wits between Light and L, which follows in the tradition of the best detective fiction. Although the Death Note movies initially seem to involve a fairly simplistic battle between good and evil, the line is often blurred. After all, both Light and Amane initially start off with the aim to rid the world of criminals and murderers before power corrupts them, and in one sequence the police employ a form of torture to try and extract information
The movie manages to weave complex ideas about justice and power into its bright comic book plot, and cleverly makes both L and Light equally engaging so that your allegiances are constantly torn. At 141 minutes, it's quite long, and many of the intricate death note rules are rather difficult to follow, but this is another highly entertaining supernatural thriller.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £11.72

The Diving Bell And The Butterfly [2007]

Rated: Suitable for 12 years and over
Staring: Mathieu Amalric, Lopez Garmendia, Emma De Caunes, Jean-Philippe Watkins, Nicolas Le Riche
Director: Julian Schnabel

The seemingly claustrophobic story of a man imprisoned in his paralysed body becomes a dazzling and expansive movie about love, imagination, and the will to live. After a stroke, Jean-Dominique Bauby (Mathieu Amalric, Kings and Queen) can only move his left eye--and through that eye he learns to communicate, one letter at a time. With the help of his speech therapist (Marie-Josee Croze, Munich) and a stenographer (Anne Consigny, Anna M.), Bauby writes the stunning memoir The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. But such a plot summary makes the movie sound like lofty, self-important medicine--far from it. Director Julian Schnabel (Basquiat, Before Night Falls), working from an elegant screenplay by Ronald Harwood (The Pianist) and with an outstanding cast (which also includes Frantic's Emmanuelle Seigner as Bauby's neglected wife), has created a movie as engrossing and hypnotic as a thriller, a movie that wrestles with mortality yet has stubborn streaks of dark humour and eroticism, that portrays a man who overcomes unimaginable obstacles but refuses to paint him as a saint. Schnabel was once dismissed as a pompous and overblown painter, but he's crafted an intimate visual poem, a humble sonata about life at its most fragile. --Bret Fetzer

Funny, moving and beautifully shot - the best film of 2007!, 2008-07-04
The book is so beautiful a piece of personal philosophy that I went to see the film with some trepidation, but if anything the film adds to the book by Bauby. The film is beautifully shot, funny and moving (but not in a sentimental way).

The director (who does not speak fluent French) chose to retain the original language of the book and this, I believe speaks volumes in a world of cinema where the digestability of a film by a mass audience is often classed as more important than retaining the soul of a piece of artistic cinema. The film was originally meant to be made by Pathe and star Jonny Depp - I think a tragedy was averted!

This film can be enjoyed (yes enjoyed - despite its theme it really isnt at all depressing) on so many levels - as a compelling human story, as an uplifting philosophy and as a work of art. You should not miss this film.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £4.59

Curse of the Golden Flower [2007]

Rated: Suitable for 15 years and over
Staring: Yun-Fat Chow, Li Gong, Jay Chou, Ye Liu

Chinese director Zhang Yimou ends his bid to outfly Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon with Curse Of The Golden Flower, the third in his Wuxia (the Chinese style of flying and fighting) films. Much like Hero and House Of Flying Daggers, it is drenched in colours so dazzling, and boasts action scenes so exhilarating, that you can almost forgive any shortcomings in the story. Almost. Despite its grandeur, this film is in many ways the least rewarding of the three.

Set in China's tenth century Tang dynasty, the story sees Chow Yun Fat's emperor trying to poison his wife, a trussed-up and progressively unstable Gong Li, who is having an affair with her step-son Wan, and trying to manoeuvre her other son Jai against his tyrannical father. Let's just say that it gets more complicated from there on in, and involves lots of running through endless corridors, but really, it's best to just sit back and let that intense visual style work its magic.

Swapping action for dramatic intrigue might have been Yimou's mistake, but there's no mistaking his knack for breath-taking cinematography. Even if purely on a visual scale, Golden Flower still manages to captivate, and the final battle scene is at least worth the slightly overlong wait. Die hard fans of these films might feel a bit stiffed, but everyone else won't be short of eye candy. --Luke Mawson
Fantastic, 2008-04-15
Much better than "The Warlords" which I saw recently, and I would say considerably better than "The Banquet" which is along the same lines. Gong Li really gets into her role and the twists and turns continue to the exit curtain.

List Price: ~~£19.99~~
Our Price: £3.49

Page 1 of 102

Next