World War I seems far away from Ireland's Dingle peninsula when Rosy Ryan Shaughnessy goes horseback riding on the beach with the young English officer. There was a magnetic attraction between them the day he was the only customer in her father's pub and Rosy was tending bar for the first time since her marriage to the village schoolmaster. Then one stormy night some Irish revolutionaries expecting a shipment of guns arrive at Ryan's pub. Is it Rosy who betrays them to the British? Wi
The story of the most fabled political family in American history told in a manner similar to The Godfather: a manipulative egocentric father determined to live out his own ambitions through his sons who in turn spent their lives dancing to his tune while at the same time trying to stand on their own. This is history through personality - the tangled relationships through which paint a picture of one of the most turbulent periods of the modern age. Viewers will be upstairs at the White House not in the Cabinet Room. Through iconic events in history - the Bay of Pigs the Cuban Missile Crisis the civil rights struggle the mob connection - viewers will learn about the lesser known yet critical personal stories.
British ex-con Wilson (Terence Stamp) arrives in Los Angeles to investigate the mystery of his daughter's accidental death. His prime suspect, the wealthy, heavily guarded music promoter Terry Valentine (Peter Fonda), is no easy target. Propelled into an increasingly brutal search for truth, Wilson, with single-mindedness and terrifying precision, moves unstoppably toward revenge.
Originally shown in 1998, Big Train was the eagerly awaited follow-up to Father Ted from writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews. Resisting the pressure to make another sitcom, Big Train is, instead, a sketch show in the best Monty Python tradition, updated with influences from arch-surrealist Chris Morris as well as the contemporary The Fast Show. The sketches can be joyously odd--Pythonesque firefighting showjumpers, the evil hypnotist, and the outrageous onanistic office workers, for example--but the show never neglects to keep the punchlines coming thick and fast (though the animated staring contest does rather drag after a while). The cast comprises some of the best new names in comedy, including Kevin Eldon, Simon Pegg, Mark Heap, Julia Davis and Amelia Bullmore (who went on to become Alan Partridge's Ukrainian girlfriend). Series 2 didn't pull into the platform until 2002, by which time Graham Linehan was absent writing Black Books. But Arthur Matthews maintains the quality of the first series on the whole--the man with oversized hands, the creepy cult questionnaire, the zookeeper's recruitment agency--adding some spot-on French art house cinema spoofs and other movie-style take offs somewhat in the manner of Spaced, which Pegg and Heap had gone on to make. That duo return here for more silliness along with new cast members Rebecca Front (The Day Today, Knowing Me, Knowing You) and Tracey-Ann Oberman (better known now as Chrissie Watts in Eastenders). On the DVD: Big Train belatedly arrives on DVD in a two-disc set which includes a plethora of deleted scenes for both Series 1 and 2. There are cast biogs plus three of the sketches as performed on a German TV sketch show. Commentary on the first series is by both writers, though happily Pegg, Heap and Eldon gatecrash halfway through. Matthews and Eldon join director and producer for the somewhat more straight-faced commentary on the second disc. Menu options thankfully include the treasurable "Play all" facility. --Mark Walker
Leslie Nielsen takes espionage less than seriously in the outrageously funny parody of the spy world! Secret agent WD- 40 (Nielsen) is assigned to foil the evil plan of his arch enemy General Rancor - a tyrannical madman who lost two limbs in an explosion and is now unarmed and dangerous! WD-40's mission is to save the world from destruction rescue the daughter of his former partner and of course do some ""undercover"" work with a sexy fellow agent (Nicollette Sheridan). Guided by a
Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (2002): A deaf mute worker saves all his money for his sister who requires a kidney transplant. He has the wrong blood type to be able to donate one of his kidneys so he arranges a trade with a group of organ dealers: one of his kidneys and 10 million won in return for their finding a kidney for his sister. They renege but a legitimate kidney becomes available for transplant. Unfortunately he no longer has the 10 million won required for the hospital to perform the operation. He and his girlfriend a terrorist seeking to change how the poor are treated in Korea kidnap his former boss's daughter. But events spiral quickly out of control... Oldboy (2003): Taken without reason. Imprisoned for 15 years. Released without reason. 5 days to seek the truth... One day in 1988 ordinary white collar worker Oh Dae-soo (Choi Min-sik) is kidnapped and incarcerated in a private makeshift prison cell dressed up like a cheap hotel room. With only a TV for company Dae-soo makes numerous attempts to escape and to commit suicide but they all end up in failure. All the while Dae-soo asks himself what made a man hate him so much enough to imprison him in solitary confinement with no explanation. While suffering from his near-madness Dae-soo becomes shocked when he watches the news and hears that his beloved wife was brutally murdered. At this very moment Dae-soo swears to take revenge on the man who destroyed his happy life. 15 years on and without a word of warning Dae-soo is released. Given a new set of clothes a mobile phone and the attentions of curious sushi waitress Mido Dae-soo begins to track down his enemy only to find he may be the pawn in a much bigger game which is only just beginning. Taunting Dae-soo the culprit gives him just 5 days to catch and kill his captor or Mido will die... Based on Japanese manga of the same name by Minegishi Nobuaki and Tsuchiya Garon winner of the Jury Grand Prize at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and winner of 5 Grand Bell awards in Korea (including Best Film for Park Chan-wook and Best Actor for Choi Min-sik) Old Boy is a masterfully inventive revenge thriller complete with blackly comedic moments. Lady Vengeance (2005): The cinematic flair and narrative surprises that marked Park Chan-Wook's Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance and Oldboy continue in this third and concluding part of the director's thematically-linked trilogy of revenge. Intense and inventive the film follows the progress of beautiful impassive Lee Geum-ja (Lee Young-Ae) after she's released from prison having served 13 years for the kidnap and murder of a young boy. Once on the outside she hooks up with some former cellmates a preacher who thinks she's an angel the detective who originally arrested her and the daughter she gave up for adoption gathering around her all the people needed to carry out an elaborate plan of revenge. Her target is kindergarten teacher Mr. Baek (Oldboy star Choi Min-Sik) while her weapon(s)-of-choice are unexpected and highly personal. This is striking and ghoulishly entertaining stuff a highwire act poised between horror tragedy comedy and exploitation. With the aid of Oldboy Director of Photography Jeong Joeng-Hun who employs some neat tricks and brings a vibrant beauty to the dark proceedings Park ensures there's never a dull moment.
Based on the best-selling anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian detective fi ction, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes features the world-famous consulting detective's fictional rivals in the fog-shrouded crime capital of London. Set in the three decades before the Great War, each story dealt with an individual and perplexing case (and a different detective). This top-flight, BAFTA-winning series attracted an incredible array of talent, including John Neville, Robert Stephens, Peter Vaughan, Roy Dotrice, Donald Pleasence, Ronald Hines, Peter Barkworth and Donald Sinden. This set contains the 13 high quality episodes that made up the complete first series
Tom Cruise delivers a riveting and unforgettable portrayal of Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic in Oliver Stones Academy Award®- winning masterpiece. Based on a true story, the acclaimed film follows the young Kovic from a zealous teen who eagerly volunteered for the Vietnam War, to an embittered veteran paralysed from the mid-chest down. Deeply in love with his country, Kovic returned to an environment vastly different from the one he left, and struggled before emerging as a brave new voice for the disenchanted. BONUS FEATURES: Feature Commentary from Director Oliver Stone / From the NBC News Archives - Backstory: Born on the Fourth of July
Matthew Broderick (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ) and Ally Sheedy (The Breakfast Club) star in this compelling drama filled with action, suspense and high-tech adventures! Featuring superb performances by Dabney Coleman and Barry Corbin, WarGames is brilliant...funny...and provocative (New York) - a fast-paced cyber-thriller. Computer hacker David Lightman (Broderick) can bypass the most advanced security systems, break the most intricate secret codes and master even the most difficult computer games. But when he unwittingly taps into the Defence Department's war computer, he initiates a confrontation of global proportions - World War III! Together with his girlfriend (Sheedy) and a wizardly computer genius, David must race against time to outwit his opponent...and prevent a nuclear Armageddon.
Puppies, puppies and more puppies are packed into this entertaining and exciting sequel to Disney's classic, 101 Dalmatians. The adventure begins when Pongo and Perdita's pup Patch, who is not satisfied being just one out of 101, gets the chance to meet his TV hero, Thunderbolt, the One-Of-A-Kind Wonderdog. When Thunderbolt's trusty sidekick Lightning reveals that the show's producers are on the lookout for a new star, Thunderbolt - with Patch in tow - struts out into the real world to perform true acts of heroism. And when puppy-obsessed Cruella De Vil returns, it's Patch and Thunderbolt's teamwork and friendship that will save the day.
September 13th, 1999... a nuclear waste dump on the moon unexpectedly detonates, blasting the moon out of orbit and taking the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha on a fantastic voyage of discovery to the stars, fraught with danger at every turn! Gerry Anderson's cult sci-fi series is presented here as stunning restorations from original film elements, giving an exceptional level of picture quality Space: 1999 has never looked better. Special Features: Digitally restored from new High Definition transfers Newly remixed Dolby 5.1 tracks Music-only tracks on most episodes Original 'as broadcast' mono track Gerry Anderson commentary on Breakaway and Dragon's Domain Text episode commentaries on The Last Sunset and Space Brain Image galleries of rare and previously unseen stills
Judged entirely on its own merits, Jaws 2 isn't a bad film. It even has some passably scary moments (Brody discovering a charred body in the waves; the swimming boy racing the shark back to his dinghy). But it's absolutely impossible to judge this movie on its own merits. Despite being given a great big Panavision camera to play with director Jeannot Szwarc can't hide his TV-movie origins, nor can the script, both of which spend far too long landlocked with the bickering inhabitants of Amity Island. Where the original film boldly set out to sea with Robert Shaw's Ahab-like Quint, in a misplaced desire to attract a teenage audience this movie dwells at interminable length on the courting rituals of the local youth; where Spielberg's original is a masterpiece of pacing and carefully timed tension-building, Jaws 2 sags terribly whenever the plastic shark swims out of sight. Roy Scheider comes off best, reprising his role as Chief Brody, while Lorraine Gary's role as his wife is expanded (she must be a glutton for punishment: she also starred in Jaws 4: The Revenge). Taken as a sequel Jaws 2 is inferior in every way; taken as an unassuming TV movie it's a respectable, workmanlike effort; but looking forward at what was to follow, it begins to look like a minor masterpiece. --Mark Walker
Hannah Defoe is a brilliant divorce lawyer. With her formidable mother Ruth and headstrong sister Nina she takes on cases for London's wealthy and well-known. Following a bitter argument, Hannah leaves the family business to begin a new job at a rival firm, where she unexpectedly reconnects with the only other man she could have imagined her life with. And when Hannah's estranged father returns after 30 years, the toxic feud between her parents is re-ignited. As the Defoe family is forced to confront their fractured past, Hannah begins to question her own marriage. As a lawyer, Hannah always gets what she wants for her clients but can she get what she wants for herself? A powerful series that explores family, love, loyalty and the messy business of divorce.
A strange race of human-like marsupials appear suddenly in Australia, and a sociologist who studies these creatures falls in love with a female one. Is this a dangerous combination?
America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. In this masterful atmospheric adventure a courageous young girl (Meredith Salenger) confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her extraordinary odyssey she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent protective wolf and a hardened drifter (John Cusack). A brilliant moving tapestry woven of courage and pe
Joan Crawford (Berserk) and Barry Sullivan (Framed) lead the cast of the atmospheric melodrama Queen Bee. Domineering socialite Eva (Crawford) and her alcoholic husband Avery (Sullivan) are trapped in a hostile and loveless marriage. When Eva's cousin Jennifer (Lucy Marlow, A Star Is Born) comes to stay, she is sucked into a dangerous whirlwind of lies and vengeance... Reuniting Crawford with Mildred Pierce screenwriter Ranald MacDougall, and featuring cinematography by the great Charles Lang (The Shepherd of the Hills), Queen Bee is a riveting slice of Southern Gothic.
Darren McCord (Jean-Claude Van Damme) must rescue his little girl from terrorists who have interrupted the Stanley Cup ice hockey final. The bad guys threaten to blow everybody up unless they get a billion dollars from the treasury by the end of the game. McCord has his work cut out if he's going to stop the explosion and retrieve his child before that final buzzer.
Based on the planning and execution of criminal cause celebre the Great Train Robbery, this taut, meticulously researched drama stars Stanley Baker as a crime boss undertaking the heist of his career with Frank Finlay and Barry Foster among the gang he assembles, and James Booth as the dogged detective who's determined to catch them all.Co-produced by Baker and directed by multiple-Oscar-nominated Peter Yates, Robbery is a classic of British Film exceptionally scripted (winning a WGGB Award for Best British Screenplay), powerfully acted and sporting a legendary score by composer-arranger Johnny Keating. It is presented here as a brand-new restoration from original film elements in its original aspect ratio.Having successfully pulled off a daring jewel heist, Paul Clifton prepares to hit a mail train heading south from Glasgow. Several difficulties stand in his way, however, not the least of which is the police who are hot on his tail and already know he's planning something bigger...SPECIAL FEATURES:Brand-new interview with Michael Deeley recorded for this releaseCinema: Stanley Baker an archive interview from 1972German film The Great Train RobberyWaiting for the Signal: The Making of Robbery brand-new documentary featuring interviews with cast and crewBehind-the-scenes footage archive news footage of the filming at Market HarboroughImage gallery - posters, lobby cards, memorabilia and production stillsOriginal campaign guide, exhibitors' manual and flyers in PDF format32 page booklet by film historian Sheldon HallABOUT THE RESTORATION:Previously released on DVD from an old 1.33:1 (4:3 pan and scan) transfer, Robbery has now been scanned to 2K resolution from the 35mm original negative and restored in its correct theatrical aspect ratio (1.66:1).The restoration involved grain management, both automated and manual removal of film dirt and damage, and correction of major instability, warping and density fluctuations. The image has been fully colour corrected. While conforming, it was found that a ten second interior shot of the police car during the opening chase sequence had been cut from the DVD release. This has been re-instated for this restoration.The original 35mm magnetic audio elements were unfortunately in a very poor condition and unable to be used due to deterioration, so the existing mono soundtrack has been restored.
It isn't difficult to imagine why this 1988 retelling of the Crucifixion story was picketed so vociferously on its release in the US--this Jesus bears little resemblance to the classical Christ, who was not, upon careful review of the Gospels, ever reported to have had sex with Barbara Hershey. Heavily informed by Gnostic reinterpretations of the Passion, The Last Temptation of Christ (based rather strictly on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name) is surely worth seeing for the controversy and blasphemous content alone. But the "last temptation" of the title is nothing overtly naughty--rather, it's the seduction of the commonplace; the desire to forgo following a "calling" in exchange for domestic security. Willem Dafoe interprets Jesus as spacey, indecisive and none too charismatic (though maybe that's just Dafoe himself), but his Sermon on the Mount is radiant with visionary fire; a bit less successful is method actor Harvey Keitel, who gives the internally conflicted Judas a noticeable Brooklyn accent, and doesn't bring much imagination to a role that demands a revisionist's approach. Despite director Martin Scorsese's penchant for stupid camera tricks, much of the desert footage is simply breathtaking, even on small screen. Ultimately, Last Temptation is not much more historically illuminating than Monty Python's Life of Brian, but hey, if it's authenticity you're after, try Gibbon's. --Miles Bethany
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