The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption and intrigue that tore apart the Roman empire. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the centre are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the ageing emperor Marcus Aurelius (Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne. They are boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells out the values of his father for greed and hedonistic pleasures. The three-hour running time is filled out with the tales of Sophia Loren (as the beautiful Lucilla in love with Livius but coveted by greedy Commodus) and a gallery of heroes and villains that includes James Mason, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif and Eric Porter. The film is highlighted with spectacular scenes--a grandiose funeral fit for an emperor, brutal battles in the provinces as the barbarians threaten the empire, and a climactic duel to decide the destiny of Rome--which Mann weaves into the shadowy intrigue of the halls of power. Like his previous epic El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire remains one of the best of the 1960s epics: well written with strong performances and a consistently elegant style, but lacking the central core and magnetic hero of its superior predecessor. Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) tackles almost the same story with a more crowd-pleasing action-adventure slant. --Sean Axmaker
Rumour Has It: Sarah Huttinger (Jennifer Aniston) is in a fog. She's finally agreed to marry her boyfriend Jeff (Mark Ruffalo) but isn't at all sure that marriage is what she really wants. Now she's on her way home to attend her sister's wedding which means spending a lot of time with the tennis-obsessed Pasadena family that she's never felt quite a part of. It isn't until Sarah stumbles into a well-kept family secret that she starts to question her roots and sets off in search of the man who may have the answers she's looking for (Kevin Costner). What Women Want: Meet Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson). A successful advertising executive Nick has the world and its women at his fingertips. Or so he thinks. The world of advertising is fast becoming a woman's world and slick-talking chauvinistic womanising Nick is out of touch. Enter Darcy McGuire (Helen Hunt). Darcy is hired by the agency as Nick's superior to bring a woman's perspective to the agency in a bid to win new clients from the untapped female market. But Nick's problems are just beginning. To his dismay a freak accident allows him to hear the thoughts of all the women around him. After consulting a psychiatrist (Bette Midler) he decides to use his newfound ability to his advantage both professionally and personally. However Darcy McGuire is no pushover and romance inevitably gets in the way. Must Love Dogs: Sarah Nolan (Diane Lane) is a newly divorced woman cautiously rediscovering romance with the enthusiastic but often misguided help of her well-meaning family. As she braves a series of hilarious disastrous mis-matches and first dates Sarah begins to trust her own instincts again and learns that no matter what it's never a good idea to give up on love!
Peter Sellers's third go-around as the prideful but bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau in The Return of the Pink Panther is funny enough, but this 1975 Blake Edwards revival of the Sellers-Clouseau connection is a little weak in comparison to predecessors The Pink Panther and A Shot in the Dark (both made in 1964). Co-star Christopher Plummer actually gets some of the most interesting screen time as a retired cat burglar whom Clouseau accuses of getting back into the business. (If it sounds like there might be a To Catch a Thief vibe mixed in here, you're right.) Herbert Lom is hilarious as Clouseau's psychologically eroding boss, and Clouseau's ritualistic collisions with valet Cato (Burt Kwouk) are great examples of Edwards' delicious comic timing. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
A box-set containing these three classic British War Films! Angels One Five (1952): This low-key intelligent Second World War drama attempts to show the reality of service life during the Battle of Britain. Director George More O'Ferrall draws on his first-hand knowledge of the subject gained during wartime RAF service to probe the emotions behind the British stiff upper lip. It was a big hit in its day and is still worth the time now. The Dam Busters (1955): Based on the true story during World War Two in which low level Bombers from England attempt to destory a key German industrial target. With the invention of an ingenious weapon they drop bombs into reservoirs in the Ruhr water system causing destructive floods. Aces High (1976): Based around a young officer who has come straight from school to fight on the Western Front against the Germans. However the regiment he joins of Green Pilots does not have a good life expectancy.
A Hazard of Hearts, dramatised for television in 1987, could hardly be a better demonstration of Barbara Cartland's unique status as the most critically reviled, yet widely read, romantic novelist. The qualities which feed both points of view are present in abundance. There are the certainties of a wafer-thin plot: vulnerable but plucky young heiress falls on hard and tragic times, sails through mortal danger and escapes the clutches of lecherous older man, chastity intact, before claiming enigmatic and devastatingly handsome Lord for her own at the last minute. There are the pantomime characters, atrocious dialogue-by-numbers, set-piece scenes involving duels and smugglers, tight breeches and heaving bosoms. Produced by Lew Grade and the team behind The New Avengers and The Professionals, this is 90 minutes of camp hokum crammed to bursting point with stars clearly having the time of their lives. Helena Bonham Carter, her face like an earnest, worried raisin, is the heroine Serena, with Marcus Gilbert as her paramour. But Diana Rigg's evil Lady Harriet steals the show. To be watched without shame. On the DVD: A Hazard of Hearts is presented in 4:3 video format with a Dolby Digital stereo soundtrack which is splendid for Laurence Johnson's florid themes. The transfer has the appropriately soft-focus look and feel of a 1980s miniseries. The stately home settings certainly provide a sense of quality, but the disc has no extras. --Piers Ford
Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical based on the lives of the Von Trapp Family singers will inspire and entertain young and old alike. When postulate Maria (Julie Andrews) proves a bit too high-spirited for Mother Abbess and the other nuns Mother Abbess arranges for Maria to become governess to the seven unruly Von Trapp children before joining the order. Captain Von Trapp (Christopher Plummer) a widowed naval officer who educates his children with military discipline prescribes stern child-raising but Maria wins the children over with her natural warmth and kindness and teaches them to sing. Only one thing threatens the happiness and laughter that Maria has brought into the Von Trapp household: the threat of Nazi occupation in Austria.
Titles Comprise:An American Tail In Don Bluth's animated fable An American Tail, when a mouse family leaves Russia and emigrates to America, they believe the New World is a land without cats. The film, a heartfelt homage to the countless real stories of immigrants who came to the United States at the turn of the 20th century, follows the humorous and dramatic adventures of Fievel (Phillip Glasser), the family's innocent son who ends up arriving alone in New York only to have to stay clear of the cats he thought he'd never see again.An American Tail 2: Fieval Goes WestLook out pardners, there's a new mouse in town!Some time after the Mousekewitz's have settled in America, they find that they are still having problems with the threat of cats. That makes them eager to try another home out in the west, where they are promised that mice and cats live in peace. Unfortunately, the one making this claim is an oily con artist named Cat R. Waul who is intent on his own sinister plan. Unaware of this, the Mousekewitz's begin their journey west, while their true cat friend, Tiger, follows intent on following his girlfriend gone in the same direction.An American Tail 3: The Treasure Of Manhattan Island:Fievel the Mouse returns in the third installment in the An American Tail series. Fievel (voice of Thomas Dekker) and his friend Tony Toponi find a map that they believe points to a treasure buried somewhere beneath Old New York, and the plucky rodent is determined to find it. However, what he discovers under the city is a tribe of Native American mice who were driven underground by prejudiced European immigrants. Fievel makes new friends with the outcasts, and he comes to realize that they have the same right to live freely in America as anyone else.
At a hospice facility nestled in the mountains of Southern California three very different families face the one thing they have in common: One member of each family is in the last stages of a terminal illness.
Its two days before Christmas and the Toyland Toy factory has just recieved its biggest order ever but the evil Barnaby who doesn't believe in toys has plans to shut the factory down and spoil the holiday for everyone. Now its upto Toyland's most recent arrivals young Jack and his sister Jill to help their newfound friends Tom Tailor Mairy Lamb Humpty Dumpty and the rest of Toyland stop Barnaby's plot and save christmas.
El Cid (Dir. Anthony Mann 1961): El Cid is an epic movie masterpiece a tribute to one of history's greatest legends. This dazzling spectacle with a cast of thousands fills the screen with action and romance - from knights in armour jousting on horseback to massive battles on sea and land where columns of warriors stretch across the horizon. At the centre of this powerful motion picture is Charlton Heston in the role he was born to play... the immortal El Cid. Heston is the Spanish warrior battling to drive the Moors from Spain with the vision to be just and the courage to be merciful whose love and devotion to the radiant Chimene (Sophia Loren) knows no bounds... The Fall Of The Roman Empire (Dir. Anthony Mann 1964): This classic film re-enacts the spectacular collapse of perhaps the greatest dominion the world has ever known. Pestilence greed and corruption bring a once-proud empire to its knees. Now restored with stunning scenes and a cast of thousands - in battles gladiatorial and otherwise; martyrs burning at the stake; chariot races in the midst of which is the romance between two people....
An intelligent android (Michael) constructed by a research team is taken outdoors and successfully passed off as human in a trial run. When the government hears of this they order their own set of tests in Washington. When Dr. Carl Forrester realises the military want his android for a soldier he can't accept it and he and Michael go into hiding to avoid the government.
In 1987 moviegoers had yet to be crushed under the weight of the 1990s TV remake mania, and Dragnet comes off as fresh and funny. The line between parody and tribute can be hard to draw, but any marginally hip baby boomer who has ever watched Jack Webb's straight-laced Detective Joe Friday caught a glimmer of the comedic vein waiting to be mined beneath Dragnet's gritty Los Angeles streets. Dan Aykroyd plays Joe Friday, the straight-arrow nephew of Webb's iconic cop. This part was made for him (in fact, he's given top writing credit), and under his steely exterior you can tell he's having a ball delivering those rapid-fire recitations of regulations and deadpan expressions of moral outrage. Tom Hanks plays Pep Streebek, the laissez-faire narco agent who is Friday's new partner. Their assignment: bust the Pagans, a wild-and-woolly gang of dope fiends, deadbeats, and beatniks behind a bewildering array of bizarre robberies. Hilarity ensues. Friday and Streebek outfox a corrupt televangelist (Christopher Plummer), bicker over chili dogs and cigarettes, alternately revile and fawn over a porn millionaire (Dabney Coleman), wrestle a 30-foot-long anaconda, and rescue the virgin Connie Swail--the only girl capable of stealing Friday's heart. --Grant Balfour, Amazon.com
As Stated On the Sleeve:In the middle of a stakeout, Detective O'Reily (Michael Ironside) leaves his car to buy a pack of cigareetes. He netres a drugstore in the middle of a robbery. The robbers escape with a hostage, an accountant, whom they murder outside the store. O'Reily is assigned to the case ahd happy to take it because it will take his mind off his divorce and the troublesome nightmares and flashbacks he's been experiencing. As he and his partner investigate the trail of assassins, O'reily is convinced that there is something bigger and more dangerous at work: a sinister doctore (Christopher Plummer) is utilizing horrific psychiatric experiments for his own illict gain.
Clockers (Dir. Spike Lee 1995): When there's murder on the streets everyone is a suspect. A gritty realistic adaptation of Richard Price's best-selling novel director Spike Lee examines the violent world of urban drug dealing through the eyes of Strike (Mekhi Phifer) a 19-year-old ""clocker "" short for round-the-clock pusher. Strike agrees to kill a fellow employee of his boss Rodney Little (Delroy Lindo) an influential popular drug lord. But when the hit goes down it is Strike's moral law-abiding brother Victor (Isaiah Washington) who confesses shocking everyone. The detective assigned to the case Rocco Klein (Harvey Keitel) doesn't believe Victor - the more that Klein along with others in Strike's life start putting the heat on the more the clocker finds himself up against the wall. The question is: Who is the real killer? Shot on location in New York City and Mexico. 'Clockers' was originally supposed to be directed by Martin Scorsese with Robert DeNiro in the role of Rocco Klein. The pair decided to film 'Casino' instead and Lee stepped in - Scorsese remained a producer. Inside Man (Dir. Spike Lee 2006): It looked like the perfect bank robbery. But you can't judge a crime by its cover. Acclaimed actors Denzel Washington Clive Owen and Jodie Foster come together to explore the lure of power the ugliness of greed and the mystery of a perfect robbery in a combustible new crime drama from Spike Lee. The hardbitten but unorthodox Detective Fraiser (Washington) pits his wits against a high-class bank robber Dalton Russell (Owen) following the robbery of a Manhattan bank. As the chase unfolds political corruption and hidden agendas threaten to destabilise an already volatile situation.
Available on DVD for the very first time! From the creators of Dogtanian and Willy Fog comes the complete series of David The Gnome all 26 episodes voiced by Tom Bosley and narrated by Christopher Plummer! Episodes comprise: 1. Good Medicine 2. Witch Way Out 3. David To The Rescue 4. The Baby Troll 5. Little Houses for Little People 6. The Wedding That Almost Wasn't 7. To Grandfather's House We Go 8. Ghost of Black Lake 9. Kingdom of the Elves 10. The Magic Knife 11. Young Dr. Gnome 12. Happy Birthday to You 13. The Siberian Bear 14. Foxy Dilemma 15. Three Wishes 16. Ivan the Terrible 17. Rabbits Rabbits Everywhere 18. Any Milk Today 19. The Shadowless Stone 20. Friends in Trouble 21. Airlift 22. Big Bad Tom 23. Kangaroo Adventure 24. The Careless Cub 25. The Gift 26. The Mountains of Beyond
Based on a novel by Barbara Cartland, A Ghost in Monte Carlo is an undemanding period romp packed full of twists and turns. The perfect cinematic equivalent of Cartland's literary style, the film is a glossy, star-filled but ultimately shallow exercise. Lysette Anthony is the wide-eyed innocent Mistral, released from her convent upbringing into the care of her Aunt Emilie (Sarah Miles). On arriving in glamorous Monte Carlo, she immediately strikes up a relationship with a dashing young lord and sets out to experience her newfound freedom. Matters take an unexpected, darker turn as Mistral finds herself caught up in the plotting of her aunt and in increasing danger. The performances range from Anthony's passable purity to a ludicrously over-the-top turn from Miles. The much-vaunted all-star casting amounts to a series of brief cameos from the likes of Oliver Reed, Joanna Lumley, Lewis Collins and Gareth Hunt--presumably at the request of executive producer Lord Lew Grade. It's fun for what it is but only as long as you leave any critical sensibilities on hold. On the DVD:A Ghost in Monte Carlo is essentially a video release transferred directly to DVD. The sound is digitally remastered and there is a very poor interactive menu to guide you through the various chapters but no extras. --Phil Udell
An epic tale of the Spanish conquest of Peru. This film will keep you glued to the screen in anticipation of the fateful ending. The world will remember me ” promises Spanish General Francesco Pizarro to the King of Spain. He tells of a land of endless gold enough to make Spain the most powerful of nations. But Pizarro is a dreamer a man of failures. The King allows him to search but at his own expense. Thus armed with a band of ruthless gold-seeking soldiers of fortune Pizarro journeys over vast mountains and harsh desert to reach Monchepechu. When faced with the life or death of the Inca God-King Atahualpa Pizarro struggles with his duty as a soldier and his loyalties to God his men and himself all of which are called into question by his fascination with the devotion and worship of the mystical man-god. Pizarro must choose between life or death and his god or another. This true epic adventure of undying faith brave yet greedy men loyalty to god king and country and one's own sense of morality hurtles towards an ending that answers humankind's hardest question Whose God is the real God?
Dabney Coleman stars as demolition contractor Stewart McBain in director John Boorman's 'Where The Heart Is' a Capra-esque fable that harkens back to the populist comedies of the 1930s. When an architectural conservation group legally thwarts McBain's plans to vaporize the aging Dutch House apartments in Brooklyn he's ridiculed for defending his actions in the media by the twentysomething layabout children who live off the fruits of his labor. Consequently the affluent businessman d
Words were his weapon Biography of 1950s gossip columnist and radio show announcer Walter Winchell (Stanley Tucci) who wrote in a very unorthodox style but grabbed the public's attention with his dirt on public figures. However as shown he lived far from a clean life himself. He lived out of a hotel room away from his family where he fraternized with a known prostitute (Glenne Headly) who was of course seeking to make her break in show business. Paul Giamatti co-stars as
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