After the poor reception given to George Lazenby in Her Majesty's Secret Service, Sean Connery was no doubt lured back to the series with a gadget-stuffed briefcase full of cash (most of which he allegedly gave to charity) for this wry, snappily made seventh instalment in the series. Some of its secret weapons include a smart script, a Las Vegas setting providing plenty of neon reflections on windscreens for a memorable car chase through the Strip, and the comely Jill St. John as Tiffany Case, a diamond cut-above most of the preceding Bond girls. (Apart from Diana Rigg in Her Majesty's Secret Service, that is). Blofeld and his fluffy white cat are on hand to menace 007--it's the Nehru jackets and steely surface-look of this one in particular that the Austin Powers spoofs are sending up. Blofeld's initial cover as a reclusive Howard Hughes-like millionaire points to how the series was catching up with more contemporary figures and issues. Other highlights include two truly ferocious, karate-kicking female assassins and a sizzling moon-buggy chase across the dunes. --Leslie FelperinOn the DVD: The mind boggling possibility of casting Adam West (TV's Batman) as Bond was seriously mooted because the suits at United Artists wanted to Americanise the franchise, th e documentary reveals. Sean Connery was eventually persuaded to return but demanded a record fee to reprise his role, and then donated all the cash to his charitable foundation, the Scottish International Education Trust. The rags to riches story of larger-than-life producer Albert R Broccoli is told in the second documentary. The commentary is another in the series of edited selections from interviews with cast and crew, which are exhaustive in the wealth of detail offered but a little exhausting to sit through. Sundry trailers, radio and TV spots plus a few deleted scenes complete the comprehensive selection. --Mark Walker
A friendly troll with a magic green thumb grows one flower too many for the queen whose laws require all trolls to act meanly...
Sean Connery made his final - officially-speaking - appearance as 007 in this riveting adventure which would lay the groundwork for Mr Moore's incarnation as the suave super-spy. While investigating mysterious activities in the world diamond market 007 (Sean Connery) discovers that his evil nemesis Blofeld (Charles Gray) is stock-piling the gems to use in his deadly laser satellite. With the help of beautiful smuggler Tiffany Case (Jill St. John) Bond sets out to stop the madman - as the fate of the world hangs in the balance!
By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi with Alien that, despite the passage of years and countless inferior imitations, remains shockingly fresh even after repeated viewing. Scott's legendary obsession with detail ensures that the setting is thoroughly conceived, while the Gothic production design and Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully unsettling score produce a sense of disquiet from the outset: everything about the spaceship Nostromo--from Tupperware to toolboxes-seems oddly familiar yet disconcertingly ... well, alien.Nothing much to speak of happens for at least the first 30 minutes, and that in a way is the secret of the film's success: the audience has been nervously peering round every corner for so long that by the time the eponymous beast claims its first victim, the release of pent-up anxiety is all the more effective. Although Sigourney Weaver ultimately takes centre-stage, the ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. The remarkably low-tech effects still look good (better in many places than the CGI of the sequels), while the nightmarish quality of H.R. Giger's bio-mechanical creature and set design is enhanced by camerawork that tantalises by what it doesn't reveal.On the DVD: The director, audibly pausing to puff on his cigar at regular intervals, provides an insightful commentary which, in tandem with superior sound and picture, sheds light into some previously unexplored dark recesses of this much-analysed, much-discussed movie (why the crew eat muesli, for example, or where the "rain" in the engine room is coming from). Deleted scenes include the famous "cocoon" sequence, the completion of the creature's insect-like life-cycle for which cinema audiences had to wait until 1986 and James Cameron's Aliens. Isolated audio tracks, a picture gallery of production artwork and a "making of" documentary complete a highly attractive DVD package. --Mark Walker
Directed by stylemaster David Fincher, who went on to greater things with Seven and Fight Club, Alien 3 was the least successful of the Alien series at the box-office. Ripley, the only survivor of her past mission, awakens on a prison planet in the far corners of the solar system. As she tries to recover, she realises that not only has an alien got loose on the planet, the alien has implanted one of its own within her. As she battles the prison authorities (and is aided by the prisoners) in trying to kill the alien, she must also cope with a distinctly shortened life span that awaits her. But the striking imagery makes for muddled action and the script confuses it further. The ending looks startling but it takes a long time--and a not particularly satisfying journey--to get there. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com On the DVD: The clarity of the digital picture throws light into some of Fincher's darker recesses, but is unkind to the primitive computer animation (the CGI alien is never convincing). Compared to the Alien DVD there are few extras, although a "making of" featurette that covers all three movies is included.
Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the lone survivor when her crippled spaceship crash lands on Fiorina 161 a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Ripley's fears that an Alien was aboard her craft are confirmed when the mutilated bodies of ex-cons begin to mount. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind Ripley must lead the men into battle against the terrifying creature. And soon she discovers a horrifying fact about her link with the Alien a realisation that may compel Ripley to try destroying not only the horrific creature but herself as well.
Holland (Charles Bronson) a professional killer is persuaded to come out of retirement when his friend a Latin American journalist is tortured to death by his country's dictator - the sadistic Dr. Clement Moloch. The journalist's widow Rhiana (Theresa Saldana) and her daughter Sarah provide cover for Holland by posing as his family. As Holland gets closer to Moloch and his coterie he begins to fear more for 'his' family's safety and insists they leave so he can get on with his deadly mission but the idealistic Rhiana is determined to witness the death of her husband's killer.
The Son of Satan attempts to bring his father to Earth with the aid of some mystic stones.
Charles Bronson demonstrates exactly what tough is in this two-fisted action drama about a drifter suddenly caught up in the fight game during The Great Depression. Chaney (Bronson) a down-on-his-luck loner hops on a freight train to New Orleans where on the seedier side of town he tries to make some quick money the only way he knows how - with his fists. Chaney approaches a hustler named Speed (Coburn) and convinces him that he can win big money for them both. Chaney wins a f
Alien 3 Limited Edition Steelbook. In the third chapter of the most terrifying saga in sci-fi history Ripley's (Sigourney Weaver) crippled spaceship crash-lands on Fiorina 161 a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. But an Alien was aboard her craft...and soon the body count begins to mount!
The Grudge (Dir. Takashi Shimizu 2004): American nurse Karen Davis (Sarah Michelle Gellar) living and working in Tokyo is drawn to an odd house and exposed to a mysterious supernatural curse one that locks a person in a powerful rage before claiming their life and spreading to another victim... Produced by Sam Raimi The Grudge sees Sarah Michelle Gellar changing tack from her 'Buffy' guise in this superior chiller directed by Takashi Shimizu adapted from his
This 1997 thriller For Hire ponders the question of what terrible things a person might be persuaded to do, given the right circumstances and the right price. Rob Lowe plays Mitch, a Chicago cab driver trying to make it as an actor, married to the pregnant Faye. Among his clients are bestselling writer Lou Weber (Joe Mantegna), who befriends Mitch and confides in him that a drug dealer is trying to kill him. Over the next few days, Mitch begins to suffer severe stomach pains, collapsing in Weber's apartment after a fare and is diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer. With only a short time to live, he decides to take up Weber's offer to rub out his drug dealer stalker for $50,000, a nest egg for his family after he's gone. A not entirely unpredictable twist follows, hinted at by the Lucifer-like beard sported by Mantegna and the film alights only briefly to meditate on the potential for evil in all of us before resuming its journey along conventional, though certainly passable Hollywood thriller lines. An intriguing precept--it's just a slight shame that neither the players nor director's hearts seem really to be in this movie. On the DVD: Features a trailer. --David Stubbs
The bitch is back. Lt. Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is the lone survivor when her crippled spaceship crash lands on Fiorina 161 a bleak wasteland inhabited by former inmates of the planet's maximum security prison. Ripley's fears that an Alien was aboard her craft are confirmed when the mutilated bodies of ex-cons begin to mount. Without weapons or modern technology of any kind Ripley must lead the men into battle against the terrifying creature. And soon she discovers a horrifying fact about her link with the Alien a realisation that may compel Ripley to try destroying not only the horrific creature but herself as well.
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