After watching Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote to Walt Disney about adapting his novel of an ape-man into a feature animated cartoon. Some 60 years later, the tale is finally told with brilliant design work that looks unlike any previous animated film. The story is a natural for Disney since the themes of misunderstood central figures have been at the heart of its recent hits. Disney's Tarzan doesn't wander far from the familiar story of a shipwrecked baby who is brought up by apes in Africa. What gives the film its zing is its clever use of music (the songs are sung by Phil Collins himself rather than onscreen characters) and the remarkable animation. Deep Canvas, a 3-D technology, was developed for the film, creating a jungle that comes alive as Tarzan swings through the trees, often looking like a modern skateboarder racing down giant tree limbs. The usual foray of sidekicks, including a rambunctious ape voiced by Rosie O'Donnell, should keep the little ones aptly entertained. The two lead voices, Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan and Minnie Driver as Jane, are inspired choices. Their chemistry helps the story through the weakest points (the last third) and makes Tarzan's initial connection with all things human (including Jane) delicious entertainment. Disney still is not taking risks in its animated films, but as cookie-cutter entertainment, Tarzan makes a pretty good treat. --Doug Thomas
Two friends begin a simple uneventful drive to Florida to deliver a car. But the trip soon becomes a voyage to hell when they hit the backroads of a barren Texas county and meet up with a monstrous serial killer. Through all the gore it's really a comedy...
Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Mysterious Island has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. And though his input here is minimal compared with other movies, his stop-motion contributions add zest to a cracking good yarn. A gang of American Civil War soldiers hijack a hot-air balloon and escape from the frying-pan of a military prison to the fire of a deserted tropical island. When a couple of English girls are washed ashore and a legendary nautical figure resurfaces, the scene is set for a ripping survival adventure, taking in weighty theories of political democracy, equality and cowardice, and still managing to add a healthy dollop of stirring music, dodgy accents, old-fashioned sexism, pirates, giant bees, a giant crab and a fearsome, err, giant chicken. Harryhausen's eighth feature contains all the elements that make his movies great, and the pacey script, based on the Jules Verne novel, has you gripped from the off. One of his more modern-feeling early films, the colour film stock, the exotic settings and wider stable of stars (black and English actors feature alongside a pre-Clouseau Herbert Lom) move it forward an era from his dated black-and-white schlock-fests. Gripping, erudite and easily on a par with the more well-known Sinbad and Argonauts movies, this is one to be marooned with. On the DVD: Mysterious Island's colour picture is bright, clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1.85:1 widescreen transfer, and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please the kitsch fans, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. The real corker here though is the generously lengthy documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles". Narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. --Paul Eisinger
For the first time in stunning High Definition, experience the wild adventure and laugh-outloud characters of Disney's Tarzan, as the magnificent adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs' classic story of the ape man comes to Blu-ray.Deep within the African jungle, a mother gorilla names an orphaned baby boy Tarzan and adopts him as her own, even though the silverback leader Kerchak shuns the hairless wonder. Growing up alongside his wisecracking ape buddy Terk and neurotic elephant pal Tantor, Tarzan develops all the instincts and prowess of a jungle animal, surfing and swinging through the trees at lightning speed. But with the sudden appearance of Tarzan's own kind - humans - including the beautiful Jane, the only world Tarzan has ever known and the onein which he belongs collide with extraordinary force!Driven by five powerful songs written and performed by pop superstar Phil Collins, and starring the voice talents of Minnie Driver, Glenn Close and the hilarious Rosie O'Donnell, Disney's Tarzan delivers incredible adventure as well as important reminders about acceptance and family!
Within These Walls remains a high point of British television drama. A huge success for LWT the series offered an authentic portrayal of day-to-day life for the inmates and staff of a women's prison reflecting the progress of penal system reform and the shift from a Victorian ethos of punishment to an emphasis upon rehabilitation. Within These Walls focussed particularly on the challenges facing the female governor - not least the conflict between adherence to rules and sensitivity to individual needs. Setting the template for later series such as Prisoner: Cell Block H and Bad Girls this outstanding drama is still fondly remembered more than 30 years after its original screening. In this fourth series originally aired in 1976 compassionate reformer Faye Boswell is replaced by Helen Forrester (Katharine Blake) an attractive widow who leads a solitary life in a fl at adjoining the prison. Helen's methods differ radically from Faye's; gone is the easy informality that characterised her predecessor's regime. But Helen has an inner warmth a sense of humour and an equal dedication to the women who find themselves within the closed world of Stone Park.
United We Fall is the hilarious new comedy about the beautiful game and the overpaid, overbranded and oversexed men who play in it. On the brink of making history, Manchester United needed only to win the last three games of the season to claim the glory of the Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League titles. United We Fall charts the team's complete failure as the dubious antics of the 5 key players ensures their downfall. With contributions from the Prime Minister and a dodgy unofficial FIFA ambassador, the 5 mates reunite to look back on all that went wrong in the season that wasn't to be.
THE LINE HAS BEEN CROSSED! THE BLOODLINE implodes as former member SAMI ZAYN walks into his hometown and steps up to ROMAN REIGNS for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. AUSTIN THEORY defends the United States Championship inside the Elimination Chamber against SETH "FREAKIN" ROLLINS, MONTEZ FORD, JOHNNY GARGANO, BRONSON REED, and DAMIAN PRIEST. The opportunity to face RAW Women's Champion BIANCA BELAIR is up for grabs as ASUKA, CARMELLA, RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ, LIV MORGAN, NIKKI CROSS, and NATALYA battle in the second Elimination Chamber Match of the night. In the rubber match of their rivalry, BROCK LESNAR battles "THE ALL MIGHTY" BOBBY LASHLEY. Plus, more! IT'S THE FINAL STOP ON THE ROAD TO WRESTLEMANIA.br/
Season Three serves up sweet surprises for two of Brooklyn's hottest waitresses, Max (Kat Dennings) and Caroline (Beth Behrs), who continue to dish up sarcasm and smarts. They've got a new cupcake business at the diner's back walk-up window, and Caroline and Max negotiate a work-study program at the Manhattan School of Pastry: Caroline works in the office so Max can study professional baking. Plus, love and the aroma of freshly cooked tarts is in the air! Caroline has the hots for the school's hunky master chef and Max falls head over sticky buns for the outrageous class clown. The girls still worry about money but their friendship is worth a million bucks. Sit back and savor all 24 outrageous and witty episodes iced with scandal and laughs!
Filmed as a 'UK road movie' Catterick is the story of two brothers Carl and Chris who have not seen each other for 15 years but who reunite in a desperate mission to find Carl's estranged son. That mission soon becomes a journey into hell when encounters with dodgy villains a psychotic murderer the police and a hotel proprietor who is missing a vital piece of his anatomy mean that things do not go exactly to plan. What will the brothers find on their journey - love friendship r
Enjoy all the spellbinding episodes of pretty teen witch Sabrina Spellman (Melissa Joan Hart) and her talking black cat, Salem (voice of Nick Bakay), as they conjure up outrageous mischief. Sabrina The Teenage Witch brilliantly combines the supernatural world of magic with the normal life of a teenage girl. Enjoy all 162 spellbinding episodes in this 24 disc, 7 season collection, now on DVD!
From Nathan Barley co-creator and Guardian writer Charlie Brooker comes the outrageous new thriller Dead Set, E4's first-ever horror series
BBC interviewer Roy Mallard (Chris Langham The Thick Of It) travels the country to talk to ordinary folk. Mallard has little or no skill as an interviewer: he is over-earnest and after most of his voice-overs you realize there's something slightly odd about what he's said. He's apt to talk nonsense and is so obviously unattractive there's a running joke that nobody can believe he's married. But we never catch a glimpse of him: in a TV first the central character of this programme is always out of shot.
Speed: Hold on tight for a rush of pulse-pounding thrills breathtaking stunts and unexpected romance in a film you'll want to see again and again. Keanu Reeves stars as Jack Traven an LAPD Swat team specialist who is sent to defuse a bomb that a revenge-driven extortionist (Dennis Hopper) has planted on a bus. But until he does Jack and passenger Sandra Bullock must keep the bus speeding through the streets of Los Angeles at more than 50 miles an hour - or the bomb will expl
Dr. Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling) is back and embracing such life developments as motherhood, career advancement, and new romantic interests in Season Four of The Mindy Project. With her signature style of comedic chaos and heartwarming charm, she navigates the waters of her relationship with Dr. Danny Castellano (Chris Messina), and is faced with the challenge of balancing her new motherly responsibilities with the career she loves. Not only has her real family grown, her work family welcomes the addition of brother-sister duo Jody and Colette Kimball-Kinney (Garret Dillahunt and Fortune Feimster). With the return of cast members Ike Barinholtz, Ed Weeks, Xosha Roquemore, and Beth Grant, Season Four presents more laughs and surprises than ever in 26 episodes to binge-watch and own forever!
Although indisputably a film by Woody Allen, Interiors is about as far from "a Woody Allen film" as you can get--and maybe more people could have seen what a fine film it is if they hadn't been expecting what Allen himself called "one of his earlier, funnier movies." An entirely serious, rather too self-consciously Bergmanesque drama about a divorcing elderly couple and their grown daughters, it is slow, meditative and constructed with a brilliant, artistic eye. There is no music--a simple effect that Allen uses with extraordinary power. In fact, half the film is filled with silent faces staring out of windows, yet the mood is so engaging, hypnotic even, that you never feel the director is poking you in the ribs and saying, "sombre atmosphere". Diane Keaton, released for once from the ditzy stereotype, shines as the "successful" daughter. Some of the dialogue is stilted and it's hard to tell whether this is a deliberate effect or simply the way repressed upscale New Yorkers talk after too many years having their self-absorption sharpened on the therapist's couch. Fanatical, almost childish self-regard is the chief subject of Allen's comedy--it's remarkable that in this film he was able to remove the comedy but leave room for us to pity and care about these rather irritating people. --Richard Farr
From Emmy® Award winner Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City), one of TV's top comedies continues for a fifth outrageous season! In 2 Broke Girls, Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs star as Max Black and Caroline Channing, best friends and opposites who met waitressing at the same Brooklyn diner. In season five, the girls continue to wait tables at the diner while trying to build their business, Max's Homemade Cupcakes, operating out of an after-hours cupcake window at the diner. While trying to work their way out of broke, and realising they are more alike than they thought, they're surrounded by their offbeat, colourful work family at the diner: Oleg (series star Jonathan Kite), the overly flirtatious cook; Earl (series star Garrett Morris), the hip 75-year-old cashier; Han (series star Matthew Moy), the eager-to-please owner of the diner; and Sophie (series star Jennifer Coolidge), the girls' outrageous upstairs neighbour.
Nicolas Cage takes on a set of violent animatronic amusement park mascots in this action packed, nail-biting tale of terror that will take you on the ride of your life! Stranded in a remote town with a car that won't work and no way to pay the local repair shop, The Janitor (Nicolas Cage - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse) agrees to spend the night in an abandoned theme park full of animatronic characters that were once a joy to the kids of the town, but now hold a dark secret. As night falls, these once happy mascots come to life and they're out for blood. Survive at any cost, it's only one night!
Paul a streetwise young black man talks his way into the home of Ouisa and Flan Kettredge claiming to be a friend of their children and the illegitimate son of Sidney Poitier. They soon learn that this is not the case but find getting rid of him a little difficult...
Gimme, Gimme, Gimme took situation comedy to new peaks of vulgarity when it returned for a third and final series in 2001, thanks to the full-on performances of James Dreyfus (Tom) and Kathy Burke (Linda) who suck up Jonathan Harvey's innuendo-laden scripts and spit them out like a couple of thespian tornados. "I don't think anything could relax my lips, baby," leers Burke, milking the endless supply of double entendres. "Mind you, after a couple of vodkas they're usually flapping around like flip-flops." Tom's descent into self-parody--when he looks in the mirror, he sees the new Noel Coward--can have only one logical conclusion: the offer of a bit-part in Crossroads which eventually splits up this dysfunctional friendship. Sex-crazed Linda is deluded beyond all reason--when she looks in the mirror, she sees Catherine Zeta Jones--and here we finally get some insight into the reasons behind her grotesque traits: visits from her old Borstal wing governor (the excellent Ann Mitchell, sending up her Widows character), and the long-lost son she gave up for adoption. Like all successful comedy, Gimme, Gimme, Gimme has its dark side. It also becomes increasingly surreal as the episodes pass: Tom fails miserably in a walk-on role in a conceptual Japanese drama presented in a fire station; and Linda turns the back garden into a campsite. Sophisticated it isn't, but it's often wickedly hilarious and occasionally brilliant. On the DVD: Gimme, Gimme, Gimme is presented in standard 14:9 format with a stereo soundtrack, replicating the sitcom viewing experience. Apart from the episode index, there are no extras. At the very least biographies of Harvey, Burke and Dreyfus would have been useful. --Piers Ford
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy