A young woman visits her gravely ill grandmother on her death bed who reveals the family curse: they're all vampires. Shot at the same time with much of the same cast as Dracula Prisoner of Frankenstein and Erotic Rites of Frankenstein here Franco creates one of his most legitimately erotic works with sapphic love scenes between stunning beauties and cult cinema stars Anne Libert and Britt Nichols. Franco himself has a key role as a Van Helsing style vampire hunter.
The Wachowski Brothers' The Matrix took the well-worn science fiction idea of virtual reality, added supercharged Hollywood gloss and a striking visual style and stole The Phantom Menace's thunder as the must-see movie of the summer of 1999. Laced with Star Wars-like Eastern mysticism, and featuring thrilling martial arts action choreographed by Hong Kong action director Yuen Woo Ping (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), The Matrix restored Keanu Reeves to genre stardom following virtual reality dud Johnny Mnemonic (1995), and made a star of Carrie-Anne Moss, who followed this with the challenging perception twister Memento (2000). Helping the film stand out from rivals Dark City (1998) and The Thirteenth Floor (1999) was the introduction of the celebrated "bullet time" visual effects, though otherwise the war-against-the-machines story, hard-hitting style and kinetic set-pieces such as the corporate lobby shoot-out lean heavily on Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). Elsewhere the influence of John Woo, from the ultra-cool near real-world SF of Face/Off (1997) to the raincoats and sunglasses look of bullet-ballet A Better Tomorrow, is clearly in evidence. The set-up isn't without its absurdities, though--quite why super-intelligent machines bother to use humans as batteries instead of something more docile like cows, for example, is never explained, nor is how they expect these living batteries to produce more energy than it takes to maintain them. The Matrix is nevertheless exhilarating high-octane entertainment, although as the first part of a trilogy it perhaps inevitably doesn't have a proper ending. On the DVD: the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 image is virtually flawless, exhibiting only the grain present in the theatrical print, while the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is demonstration quality, showing off the high-impact sound effects and Don Davis' fine score to great effect. Special features are "data files" on the main stars, producer and director and "Follow the White Rabbit", which if selected while viewing the movie offers behind the scenes footage. This is interesting, but gimmicky, requires switching back from widescreen to 4:3 each time, and would be better if it could be accessed directly from one menu. There is also a standard 25-minute TV promo film which is as superficial as these things usually are. --Gary S Dalkin
One DayEmma Morley (Academy Award nominee Anne Hathaway) and Dexter Mayhew (Jim Sturgess of The Way Back and 21) begin a relationship that will last a lifetime. July 15th, 1988, Emma and Dexter meet on the night of their graduation. Tomorrow they must go their separate ways. So where will they be on this One Day next year? And the year after that? And every year that follows? From the acclaimed British director of 'An Education' and written for the screen by David Nicholls, One Day is a modern love story, captivating and moving from beginning to end. AtonementKeira Knightley (Love Actually) and James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland) star in this extraordinary film from the Director of Pride and Prejudice. Through a series of catastrophic misunderstandings, Robbie Turner (James McAvoy) is accused of a crime he did not commit. This accusation destroys Robbie and Cecilia's (Keira Knightley) new found love and dramatically alters the course of their lives. A sweeping romance that is both captivating and deeply moving.
An aspiring artist uses her talents to help police as a sketch artist. While sketching one victim's description of an attacker Sarah realises the sketch resembles her husband Michael.
January 1977. Utah State Prison. Double-murderer Gary Gilmore is about to become the first convicted killer in a decade to be executed on U.S. soil. Awaiting his fate on death row Gilmore agrees to a one-time only visit from Mikal the younger he barely remembers. Piecing together fragments of their shared past- born of a brutal father raised in a family haunted by death religion and superstition- Mikal searches for a reason to appeal against the execution or to accept that the moment of blood atonement has arrived. Meanwhile the killer's twisted celebrity fuelled by a media frenzy has the eyes of the world looking on. Based on Mikal Gilmore's award winning book 'Shot In The Heart' is the harrowing expose of a cold-blooded killer: A journey to the darkside of a mind tortured by the sins and secrets of his past.
She's ruthless. He's witless. They're on the road together and falling apart at the seams! In this little-known gem of a touching drama a retarded man gets help from a sociopathic woman when tries to reunite with his dying father who years earlier disowned him...
John Ford's view of Americana with Will Rogers in his final screen performance. Fun and games on board as our hero's paddlewheeler is fed into it's own furnace in a steamboat race - until the fuel runs out....
Samantha Sherwood has worked with the well-known director Jonathan Stryker on all his major films. She naturally assumes she has been given the title role in his latest venture ""Audra"". He tells her to do some background research on the part so arranges to have her committed to an asylum (as Audra is a former psychiatric patient). She goes along with this not realising that he intends to leave her there indefinitely and audition six young women of various professions for the part instead. She finally manages to escape and returns to the spooky old mansion where the auditions are taking place. But who is causing the disappearances of the young hopefuls? Is it Samantha? Stryker? Or is one of the actresses willing to kill for the coveted part? Just who is the killer behind the old-hag mask?
Buster Keaton's 1926 masterpiece The General shows the great stone-faced comedian at the height of his powers. Buster is a train driver from the South who's caught up in the American Civil War. The film is basically an extended chase, with trains pursuing each other up the track. The level of stuntwork (including a huge train wreck) has to be seen to be believed, but it's the deftness and elegance of Keaton's comedy that is ultimately most memorable. For many, Buster Keaton is the greatest comedian of the silent era rated even above Chaplin, and College (1927) is one of his finest films. A poor student who has to work his way through college, Buster is desperate to win the attention of a pretty girl so takes up sports. Through every disaster, the great "stone face" as he was nicknamed betrays not a flicker of emotion, enduring all humiliations with aplomb. College shows Keaton at the top of his form. Steamboat Bill Jr dates from 1928 and is the last great film Buster Keaton made before he gave up his independence. Buster is the rather fey son of an elderly steamboat owner who is being driven out of business by a wealthy competitor. More by accident than intention Buster turns things around and gets the girl as well. The last 15 minutes are truly astonishing: a storm sequence in which a whole town is blown apart, with Buster experiencing a series of amazing escapes as buildings fall down around his ears. Tragically, the following year he lost his independence when he signed for MGM. His career collapsed, his marriage broke up and he became an alcoholic, never to regain former glories. On the DVD: The organ music accompanying this silent feature is pleasantly unobtrusive, and apart from a short section in the middle where it deteriorates, the print quality is a reasonable 4.3. In addition there are five excellent Keaton shorts, One Week (1920), The Boat (1921) Cops (1922), The Blacksmith (1922) and The Balloonatic (1923). --Ed Buscombe
Askey stars as a man trying to save his flagging escort agency. A new partner suggests getting some new girls in just in time for the soldiers' leave. The film also features the English singing favourite of the forties Anne Shelton.
Pliates Bootcamp WorkoutPilates Bootcamp combines the key principles of Pilates core stability with the traditional invigorating style of bootcamp training. Core stability is the very essence of the Pilates technique; it simply refers to making your centre - or your core - solid and strong. Pilates Bootcamp will give you a lean and more toned body whilst providing you with a stronger resistance to the everyday stresses of work and life. This is a full body conditioning program, which will lengthen and strengthen your muscles - with the added advantage of improving your muscle-to-fat ratio and correcting your posture. Get to grips with three essential areas: Breathing / Pelvic Floor Muscles / Deep Abdominal Muscles. Presented by Pilates fitness professional Ann Crowther this specially written split level workout is for beginners through to more advanced. These exercises will increase your energy levels, releasing both physical and mental tension, leaving you feeling refreshed and calm with a more positive self-image. Quick Results Pilates WorkoutsQuick Results Pilates contains 4 short and compact but very different Pilates routines that leave you with the satisfied feeling of a longer workout whilst giving you real results. Fat burning, toning and onditioning, posture and pure stretch... this DVD offers a workout to suit your mood, schedule and time restrictions. Designed for busy people, these Pilates based workouts can fit into your schedule at any time of the day. Pick one workout, combine sections or simply play straight through the DVD for a fuller workout, this versatile programme will satisfy all your needs. Those of you who struggle to find time for lengthy workouts but want fast results will find these are the workouts for you. Short workouts - Great results! Power of PilatesAlthough the Pilates method has been around since the early 1900's it is only recently that it has become popular with many celebrities, attributing their body looks to it. This DVD is made up of a progression of Pilates mat based exercises which will enable you to gain a clearer understanding of what your body is capable of whilst toning and stretching your muscles to give your body a leaner look.Based on the methods of Joseph Pilates, these exercises will help you improve your posture, body control and help develop flexibility and strength regardless of body type. In the long run, these routines can improve your general state of health and sense of wellbeing.
Huckleberry Finn's age has been scaled down in this 1993 Disney film in order to accommodate star Elijah Wood's young years at the time. But that is not the only concession Mark Twain's great American novel must make to Disney revisionism. Wood's Huck, as adapted for the screen by writer-director Stephen Sommers, is all rascal and only nominally a philosopher, which takes a lot of the soul out of Twain's extraordinary story about Huck's enlightenment while travelling with the slave Jim (Courtney B. Vance) along the Mississippi river. Big chunks of the journey are also minimised in significance, and not just for the sake of storytelling economy. Jason Robards Jr and Robbie Coltrane brighten things up, but overall this is an unnecessarily simplified version of a literary classic. --Tom Keogh
She must face the future, heal the past and find that place in her heart called home. A trio of great actresses - Oscar-winner Anne Bancroft (The Elephant Man, The Graduate), Emmy Award-winner Lynn Whitfield (Stepmom) and Gloria Reuben (who received multiple Emmy Award nominations for her performance as Jeanie Boulet in TV's ER) - unite their talents for this powerful true story of one woman's search, against all the odds, for her emotional roots. Deep In My Heart starts in Boston in 1961, an era of very different racial and social attitudes. A white woman, Gerry Cummins (Bancroft, who won an Emmy Award for her performance) is raped by a black man - an attack that leaves her pregnant. The resulting child of mixed race, Barbara Ann (Reuben), now faces a life of confusion, prejudice and isolation. Given up for adoption and initially raised by Corrine Burrell (Whitfield), a loving foster mother in a black neighbourhood, Barbara Ann is suddenly torn from this happy existence and placed with Annalise Jurgenson (Alice Krige, Chariots Of Fire) and her husband, a white middle-class couple. Although Annalise has acted from the best of motives, her stance is hopelessly idealistic and for Barbara Ann it means a world with no friends, no joy and no sense of family. But Barbara Ann survives and grows up to marry a man she loves deeply and to become the mother of five children. Only then does she find the courage to face up to the hidden traumas of her past, meet with the woman who gave birth to her all those years ago - and find that place in her heart called home. Deep In My Heart is written by the award-winning Ronni Kern (Homeless to Harvard, Guinevere) and directed by Anita W. Addison (Sirens).
Dracula Prisoner Of Frankenstein (1972): Yesterday they were cold and dead. Today they're hot and bothered! When Dracula despatches another innocent victim Dr. Seward decides it's time to eradicate the evil count once and for all. However when Dr Frankenstein reanimates the lifeless Count in an attempt to create the perfect master race it's a three way battle between the man the vampire and the monster. Plus a werewolf thrown in for good measure! Curse Of Frankenstein
Tumble down the rabbit hole with Alice for a fantastical new adventure from Walt Disney Pictures and Tim Burton. Inviting and magical, Alice In Wonderland is an imaginative new twist on one of the most beloved stories of all time. Alice (Mia Wasikowska), now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and embarks on a journey to discover her true destiny. This Wonderland is a world beyond your imagination and unlike anything you've seen before. The extraordinary characters you've loved come to life richer and more colorful than ever. There's the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp), the White Queen (Anne Hathaway), the Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), the White Rabbit (Michael Sheen) and more. A triumphant cinematic experience - Alice In Wonderland is an incredible feast for your eyes, ears and heart that will captivate audiences of all sizes.
In this collection of episodes from Series Four of 'Upstairs Downstairs' a series of dramatic events befall the residents of Eaton Place. The events of World War I are having some harrowing effects on British society as the country is struggling to get through the hardships that take place from 1914-1918...
The opening reels of Matrix Revolutions do nothing to dispel the feeling of exhausted disappointment that set in during the second half of The Matrix Reloaded. There's plenty more talky guff combined with the picking-up of hard-to-remember plot threads as Neo (Keanu Reeves) lies in a coma in the "real" world and is stranded on a tube station in a limbo "beyond the Matrix" while his allies do a reprise of the shooting-their-way-past-the-bodyguards bit from the last film (this time, the baddies can walk on the ceiling). A new Oracle (Mary Alice) makes some pronouncements about the end being near and more things happen--including the evil Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) manifesting in reality by possessing a minor character and perfidiously blinding our hero, who wears a becoming ribbon over his wounded eyes and perceives the world in an impressive "flaming truth vision". What about the action? The equivalent of the last film's freeway chase scene is a huge face-off as the Sentinels (robot squids) finally breach the caverns of Zion, "the last human city", and swarm against a battalion of pilot-manipulated giant robots: here, the effects are seamless and the images astonishing, though the fact that none of the major characters are involved and the whole thing goes on so long as if designed to top any previous robot-on-robot screen carnage means that it becomes monotonously amazing, like watching someone else play a great computer game. After a too-easily-managed major realignment of the enmities, the film--and the series--finally delivers a sign-off sequence that's everything you could want as Neo and Smith get into a kung fu one-on-one in a rain-drenched virtual city, flying as high as Superman and Brainiac in smart suits. It comes too late to save the day and the wrap-up is both banal and incoherent, but at least this single combat is a reward for hardy veterans who've sat through seven hours of build-up. --Kim NewmanOn the DVD: when the first Matrix DVD was released, with never-before-seen features such as the "Follow the White Rabbit" option, it set a benchmark against which subsequent discs were judged. But neither sequel has lived up to the original's high standards. The Matrix Revolutions two-disc set is an unexceptional package, with a routine "making of" featurette being the main bonus item. Amid all the usual backslapping guff about how great everyone is and what a great time they've all had, it's possible to glean some nuggets of useful information about the baffling plot--though cast and crew can't repress a note of weariness creeping in when discussing the horribly protracted shooting schedule. The feature on the CG Revolution is the most informative for people who like to know how everything was done, and, in the same vein, there's also a multi-angle breakdown of the Super Burly Brawl. A 3-D timeline gives a handy summary of the story so far, and there's a plug for The Matrix Online game. The anamorphic 2.40:1 picture is, of course, a real treat to look at, even if the movie is mostly shades of dark grey and dark green; soundwise the dynamic range of the Dolby Digital surround is extreme: all conversations are conducted in throaty whispers, while the action sequences will push your speakers to the limit. No DTS option, though. And as with Reloaded, there's no audio commentary either: the Wachowski's policy of not talking about their creation begins to seem like a ploy to avoid answering awkward questions. --Mark Walker
An amazing double-bill for lovers of all-things Depp! Finding Neverland (Dir. Marc Foster 2004): Unlock your imagination... Finding Neverland is a tale of magic and fantasy inspired by the life of Peter Pan author James Barrie. Set in London 1904 the film is a fictional account of Barrie's creative struggle to bring Peter Pan to life from his first inspiration up until the play's premiere - a night that will change not only Barrie's own life but the
Before he dies Ed Reece has got some unfinished business... Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas gives a terrific performance as an eccentric old man determined to revisit some milestones from his past and reconcile with his feuding family in this superb drama. With a brilliant witty script from Oscar winning Ernest Thompson (On Golden Pond). 'The Lies Boys Tell' also stars Craig T Nelson (Poltergiest) and the veteren character actress Eileen Brennan (Private Benjamin).
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