Just the name "Orient Express" conjures up images of a bygone era. Add an all-star cast (including Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset and Lauren Bacall, to name a few) and Agatha Christie's delicious plot and how can you go wrong? Particularly if you add in Albert Finney as Christie's delightfully pernickety sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Someone has knocked off nasty Richard Widmark on this train trip and, to Poirot's puzzlement, everyone seems to have a motive--just the set-up for a terrific whodunit. Though it seems like an ensemble film, director Sidney Lumet gives each of his stars their own solo and each makes the most of it. Bergman went so far as to win an Oscar for her role. But the real scene-stealer is the ever-reliable Finney as the eccentric detective who never misses a trick. --Marshall Fine
Because Hamburger Hill was released less than a year after Oliver Stone's Platoon and within months of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, this exceptionally well-made film about one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War was largely overshadowed and overlooked. It's a pity, because in some respects this is the best of the Vietnam films of the late 1980s, at least in terms of the everyday authenticity it depicts. Stripped clean of dramatically extraneous narrative, the movie opts instead for a straightforward approach to its day-by-day account of one of the war's costliest victories--a deadly siege on Hill 937 in the Ashau Valley, where soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division engaged the enemy over the course of 11 brutal assaults between May 10 and May 20, 1969. The film specifically follows the 3rd Squad, 1st Platoon, a mixture of "new guys" and battle-weary "short-timers" who fought against terrifying odds and suffered a 70 per cent casualty rate. From first scene to last, Hamburger Hill traces the rise and fall of their battle experience, from the horror of fire-fights to the camaraderie of men who've faced death and survived. Racial tensions flare and subside, trusts are established and courage emerges from unexpected places. Through it all, writer Jim Carabatsos and director John Irvin maintain a purity of focus that pays tribute to the soldier's life without promoting false patriotism or gung-ho theatrics. In addition, the film features a cast full of talented and well-known actors in the early stages of their careers, including Dylan McDermott and Don Cheadle (Devil in a Blue Dress, Boogie Nights). Colour accuracy, image clarity and the explosive soundtrack have been remarkably preserved in a flawless DVD transfer, lending even greater immediacy to this underrated film. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
A New York hairstylist and a would-be musician, get caught up with the mob and are forced to deliver $50,000 to Australia, but things go haywire when the money is lost to a wild kangaroo!
Exit Wounds: Sometimes you have to go undercover to bring justice to the law: sometimes you have to walk in the darkness to bring the truth to light. From the acclaimed producer of 'The Matrix' Joel Silver brings you action hit 'Exit Wounds'. Fifty kilos of heroin disappear from the property vaults of the toughest precinct in Detroit and no one knows how. Itll make someone $5 million richer - maybe someone in uniform - as long as no one talks. Stolen drugs crooked cops. T
Yes, that is Bill Paxton as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's militaristic big brother. And that's Robert Downey Jr. as one of the in-crowd jerks who makes nerds Mitchell-Smith and Hall's lives miserable. Fortunately, this is a John Hughes comedy and our smart nerds create the perfect woman, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), using a computer and voodoo. Lisa is a willing sex toy, has magical powers, and just wants to help the boys get even and meet nice babes. She even cleans up. The fantasy ebullience of Hughes is given full rein here and that's good and bad (mostly good). It's all aimed at a certain kind of hormone-addled, 16-year-old sensibility; but who doesn't have a little bit of that in them? --Keith Simanton
The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all uphill... up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was the way it really was. It's a raw gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. Dodge the gunfire. Get caught behind enemy lines. Go into battle beside the brave young men who fought and died. Feel their desperation and futility. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst men at their best.
Against all odds John Smith (Antony Michael Hall) comes out of a six year coma to discover he has gained a psychic ability. Based on the Stephen King novel of the same title John Smith uses his newfound powers to solve crime and help others. Aided by Sarah Bracknell Bannerman (Nicole DeBoer) Sheriff Walt Bannerman (Chris Bruno) and physical therapist Bruce Lewis (John Adams) John's visions successfully aid them in the local police force in their investigations.
Christmas Vacation Special Features: Feature Commentary Theatrical Trailer Vegas Vacation Special Features: Vegas Vacation Trailer National Lampoon's 30th Anniversary Special Features: Introduction by Chevy Chase Randy Quaid and Matty Simmons Commentary by Harold Ramis Chevy Chase Randy Quaid Anthony Michael Hall Dana Barron and Matty Simmons Inside Story: National Lampoon's Vacation (A&E Special) Theatrical Trailer
Tom Green, who also wrote and directed this outrageous movie, plays a sad young man from Portland, Oregon, who dreams of becoming an animator. His parents (Rip Torn and Julie Hagerty) send him off to Los Angeles, but he comes back!
The Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn't over yet. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie's basement but when Michael manages to free himself from the trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. Evil dies tonight.
New York City, 1932: Small-time hustler Ray Gibson (Eddie Murphy) has just sweet-talked his way into Club Spanky's, a swank nightclub, when he spies his evening's first victim-the naïve Claude Banks (Martin Lawrence).
Samantha Baker (Molly Ringwald) is approaching her sixteenth birthday but sees little to celebrate about: her family have in any case forgotten her big day and she is suffering from a severe bout of unrequited love. Worse still the object of her affections is being courted by the school's most desirable student - can Samantha trust her quarry to value brains over beauty? John Hughes' teen comedy features a soundtrack including Spandau Ballet Thompson Twins and The Stray Cats.
Time Flight: The Doctor finally manages to deliver Tegan to Heathrow Airport where he gets drawn into investigating the in-flight disappearance of a Concorde. Following the same flight path in another Concorde with the TARDIS stowed in the hold he discovers that it has been transported back millions of years into the past through a time corridor. Arc of Infinity: An antimatter creature has crossed into normal space via a phenomenon known as the Arc of Infinity but needs to bond physically with a Time Lord in order to remain stable. A traitor on Gallifrey has chosen the Doctor as the victim.
Antonio Banderas delivers a powerful performance as the title character of this incredible true story of how Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle altering the course of film and military history in the process...
Having made his reputation as one of the most prolific and gifted horror writers of his generation (prompting Stephen King to call him "the future of horror"), Clive Barker made a natural transition to movies with this audacious directorial debut from 1987. Not only did Barker serve up a chilling tale of devilish originality, he also introduced new icons of horror that since have become as popular among genre connoisseurs as Frankenstein's monster and the Wolfman. Foremost among these frightful, Hellraiser visions is the sadomasochistic demon affectionately named Pinhead (so named because his pale, bald head is a geometric pincushion and a symbol of eternal pain). Pinhead is the leader of the Cenobites, agents of evil who appear only when someone successfully "solves" the exotic puzzle box called the Lamont Configuration--a mysterious device that opens the door to Hell. The puzzle's latest victim is Frank (Sean Chapman), who now lives in a gelatinous skeletal state in an upstairs room of the British home just purchased by his newlywed half-brother (Andrew Robinson, best known as the villain from Dirty Harry), who has married one of Frank's former lovers (Claire Higgins). The latter is recruited to supply the cannibalistic Frank with fresh victims, enabling him to reconstitute his own flesh--but will Frank succeed in restoring himself completely? Will Pinhead continue to demonstrate the flesh-ripping pleasures of absolute agony? Your reaction to this description should tell you if you've got the stomach for Barker's film, which has since spawned a number of interesting but inferior sequels. It's definitely not for everyone, but there's no denying that it's become a semiclassic of modern horror. --Jeff Shannon
Steven Seagal stars as a tough cop who sets out to expose the corruption in his inner-city police department, with the help of a local crime lord.
Platoon (Dir. Oliver Stone 1986): Writer/director Oliver Stone has created a personal and searing testament to the men who fought the war in Vietnam. Seen through the eyes of a college drop-out the war is a real nightmare a private hell of fears from outside and in with enemies on both sides of the line. His platoon's allegiance is split between leaders Sergeant Barnes and Sergeant Elias. Barnes is a scar-faced gung-ho fanatic bent on destroying the elusive Viet Cong and anyone who disagrees with him. Elias is a different type of soldier--he has lost faith in the war but not in man. Friction between the two sergeants leads to a second war as deadly as the one being waged against the enemy. Tigerland (Dir. Joel Schumacher 2000): Roland Bozz after being conscripted into the US army joins a platoon of other young soldiers preparing to fight in Vietnam. He has no interest in fighting for his country and tries to get sent home as a trouble maker but his superiors mistake his defiance as intelligence and he soon gets a chance to try his hand at leadership... Hamburger Hill (Dir. John Irvin 1987): The men of Bravo Company are facing a battle that's all up hill... up Hamburger Hill. Fourteen war-weary soldiers are battling for a mud-covered mound of earth so named because it chews up soldiers like chopped meat. They are fighting for their country their fellow soldiers and their lives. War is hell but this is worse. Hamburger Hill tells it the way it was the way it really was. It's a raw gritty and totally unrelenting dramatic depiction of one of the fiercest battles of America's bloodiest war. Dodge the gunfire. Get caught behind enemy lines. Go into battle beside the brave young men who fought and died. Feel their desperation and futility. This happened. Hamburger Hill - war at its worst men at their best.
Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavour of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-coloured suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighbourhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's child-like vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer
Russell Crowe stars as Terry Thorne, a K&R (kidnap and rescue) expert called in by the wife of an American engineer (played by Meg Ryan) when her husband is kidnapped in South America.
Andrew Davies' 1999 adaptation of Mrs Gaskell's Wives and Daughters was hailed as the rediscovery of a "forgotten" classic novel and found the BBC on the crest of a wave with costume dramas--led by Pride and Prejudice. Handsome and beautifully filmed, if anything, it surpassed the quality of even that highly praised landmark production. "We should all look pretty strange under a microscope," botanist Robert Hamley tells our heroine Molly Gibson and of course Mrs Gaskell places all her characters under intense scrutiny, with affection but without judgement. Davies' screenplay peals back the layers, giving full vent to the comedy, tragedy and satire that drive this tale of provincial life to its highly satisfactory conclusion. Justine Waddell imbues Molly with an increasingly exasperated but remarkably forbearing intelligence, while Francesca Annis, as the outrageously self-absorbed step-mother Hyacinth, paints a wonderful portrait of affectation without ever totally alienating our sympathy. Michael Gambon's immensely touching Squire Hamley won him a Best Actor BAFTA, but all the performances are uniformly excellent, contributing immeasurably to five hours of television drama of the highest calibre. On the DVD: Presented in 16:9 format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack, this two-disc presentation retains all the hallmarks of the original BBC viewing experience. The picture quality is lush--the production lighting is excellent--and the sound quality sharp. The only gripe is with the extras: the Omnibus documentary "Who the Dickens is Mrs Gaskell?" is brutally truncated, cutting off talking heads like novelists Fay Weldon and Margaret Drabble in their prime and giving limited insight into how the production was made. As an audio bonus, there is also 30 minutes of John Keane's music.--Piers Ford
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