Nothing is as it seems behind the well-trimmed hedges and picturesque cottages in the idyllic English county of Midsomer. Beneath the surface of sleepy village life lies murder. A collection of ten separate stories, starring John Nettles as Detective Inspector Barnaby. Includes: Death Of A Hollow Man, Faithful Unto Death, Death In Disguise, Death's Shadow, Stranglers Wood, Blood Will Out, Killings At Badger's Drift, Written In Blood, Dead Man's Eleven and Death Of A Stranger.
New Spiderman 1995: Season 1 - Vol.1 & 2
It's easy to see why The Nutcracker, Tchaikovsky's perennially popular ballet first performed in 1892, has such enduring appeal. As Patrice Bart's 1999 production shows, it is always beautiful to look at, lending itself to the Christmas season where it has a permanent place in the schedules of the major dance companies. And Hoffmann's tale of the troubled child who must go on a wonderful (and occasionally terrifying) journey of discovery has a universal and timeless appeal. Bart's production for the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin builds on Petipa's original choreography and develops the context of the child Marie's (Nadja Saidakova) anxiety into a strong narrative. The godfather Drosselmayer (Oliver Matz) is initially a sinister figure, forcing her to confront past events before leading her into the glittering land of the Sugar Plum Fairy. Here, all expectations are exceeded. The familiarity of Tchaikovsky's intricately woven themes works in total harmony with sumptuous production values. The dancing is sublime. As the Prince, Vladimir Malakhov evokes the spirit of a young Nureyev. His pas de deux with the Sugar Plum Fairy should challenge even the most cynical tear ducts. Sit back, share the frisson of anticipation as Daniel Barenboim enters the conductor's box and let the whole experience engulf you. On the DVD: There are no extras. In addition to the 16:9 picture format, which enhances the authentic theatrical atmosphere, the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound helps make this Nutcracker an aural feast. Under Barenboim's masterful control, the orchestra draws you into the heart of the music. Booklet notes provide historical background as well as performer biographies, but a more complete cast list would have been useful. --Piers Ford
While working in a lab doing genetic research an ambitious research assistance deliberately carries out a forbidden experiment and accidentally creates a deadly bacteria which kills her and then spreads rapidly through the city inflicting an agonising death upon its victims. The authorities try to impose a curtain of secrecy around the mounting death toll. They quarantine all known contacts while a research team launches a 24-hour desperate search for the cure or vaccine. One of the people Margo escapes and not knowing that she is a carrier of the deadly disease becomes a fugitive on the run eluding police escaping through the subways and the streets spreading the plague wherever she goes. News of the epidemic breaks and the city is thrown into panic. The research team struggles feverishly to find something to stop the onslaught before all human life on Earth is destroyed...
A struggling French writer living alone in London joins a male escort agency and begins to push back the boundaries of his normal life, but with dangerous consequences.
New Spider-Man (1995): Season 4 - Vol. 1 & 2 (2 Discs)
From the moment that Prince Eric's ship emerged from the fog in the opening credits of The Little Mermaid in 1989 it was apparent that Disney had somehow, suddenly recaptured a "magic" that had been dormant for 30 years. In the tale of a headstrong young mermaid who yearns to "spend a day, warm on the sand", Ariel trades her voice to Ursula, the Sea Witch (classically voiced by Pat Carroll), for a pair of legs. Ariel can only succeed if she receives true love's kiss in a few day's time and she needs all the help she can from a singing crab named Sebastian, a loudmouth seagull and a flounder. The lyrics and music by song-writing team Howard Ashman and Alan Menken are top form: witty and relevant, and they advance the story (go on, hum a few bars of "Under the Sea"). Mermaid put animation back on the studio's "to do" list and was responsible for ushering 1991's Beauty and the Beast into cinemas. A modern Disney classic. --Keith Simanton
Casino Royale: Casino Royale introduces James Bond before he holds his licence to kill. No less dangerous, and with two professional assassinations in quick succession, Bond is elevated to '00' status. 'M' (Judi Dench), head of the British Secret Service, sends the newly promoted 007 on his first mission to Madagascar, the Bahamas and eventually to Montenegro to face Le Chiffre, a ruthless financier attempting to recapture funds in a high-stakes poker game at the Casino Roya...
Universal Soldier Luc Deveraux is back. Jean-Claude Van Damme gallantly attempts to resurrect interest in his tepid career with this action-riddled roller-coaster ride. Set in the not-too-distant future, Deveraux has been employed by the government to oversee the new UniSol project. What is UniSol? It's a military plan to turn dead soldiers into invincible fighting machines (see the first Univeral Soldier for more details). It's also the scheme that went horribly wrong when the soldiers turned psycho, killing the scientists who created them. Not deterred by this early setback, the government replicates the project. This time they work out that they can control the soldiers through a supercomputer called SETH (kind of like HAL in 2001, but smarter). But, as we all know, machines frequently break down. Pretty soon the computer comes to the conclusion that it's superior to humans and therefore it must destroy them. Uh oh.Van Damme to the rescue. The muscles from Brussels heroically leap into action confronting the dangerous soldiers led by Bill (WCW) Goldberg and Michael Jai White (last seen in Spawn). The action is impressive and the stunts are engrossing. Goldberg is charismatic as the cartoonish villain who sneers and snouts while muttering macho things like, "I'm gonna kill that guy." Van Damme looks more at home in a production that he is not directing, and for once he lets his fists do the talking. Ironically, the movie is missing the gloss and big-budget pathos of its predecessor (created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich), making the original decidedly better. -- Jeremy Storey, Amazon.com
The Final Sacrifice is one of the great untold accounts of World War II: its unique premise sees the combination of stories recounted in the undelivered letters of soldiers who died in the last days of the war. Featuring artful direction by a bright new cinematic talent this compelling film carefully balances perceptive storytelling with exciting wartime action. Set in Northern Italy during the last embers of the war the beleaguered vanguard of Axis forces suffer daily bombings and the constant threat of attack from local partisans. Tempers begin to flare between these 'allies' as they await their impending doom.
The action comes thick and fast in Spider-Man--The Ultimate Villain Showdown as the web-slinging hero faces a host of fearsome foes, not least of which is his own torturous self-doubt. Kingpin, Dr Octopus and the Green Goblin all put in spirited performances in these animated tales from the 1990s, while a flashback to Spider-Man's origins ties the action together neatly. The writing is somewhat heavy-handed in places and the animation cranky, but the four featured episodes are pacy, the villains suitably evil and a hint of darkness lends a pleasing frisson to the drama. On the DVD: there's limited bonus material on the DVD but what's there is generally worthwhile and entertaining. In addition to an extra episode, "Return of the Green Goblin", a "Rogues Dossier" gives an interactive guide to Spider-Man's foes with statistics, trivia and video interviews with our hero's creator Stan Lee. Lee crops up again in the highlight of the bonus material, "Stan Lee's Soapbox", an engaging 20-minute insight into all things Spidey from a man who obviously loves his job. --Helen Baker
NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk has English audio and subtitles.
An underrated little picture, Real Genius offers a rare college comedy that doesn't rely on gross-out humour as well as a look at Val Kilmer before he turned into a star. A high school whiz kid (Gabriel Jarret) arrives at a brainy college, where the crème de la crème of the science students are marshalled under an ambitious professor (expert villain William Atherton). Unbeknown to them, the kids are working on a weapons system that the prof. plans on selling to the government. The star student and chief rabble-rouser is played by Kilmer, in good early form as a cocky genius who hasn't lost touch with his goofy side. The director is Martha Coolidge, whose Valley Girl was one of the brightest (and most unexpected) of 1980s comedies; she keeps the movie perking along and never worries about dumbing down a film that just happens to be about smart people. --Robert Horton
This second ironic send-up of the old 70s American sitcom is even funnier than the first, The Brady Bunch Movie. Shelley Long and Gary Cole return as the married heads of the merged family known as the Bradys, while Christopher Daniel Barnes and Christine Taylor reprise their roles as eldest stepsiblings Greg and Marcia. As with the first film, the clever premise finds the Brady clan caught in a kind of 1970s time warp, while the rest of the world has moved well into the 90s. Greg is still looking for a "groovy girlfriend", Mr. Brady thinks the idea of a cable that sends 50 channels to one's TV set must be a joke, and Mrs. Brady spends hours at the beauty shop only to look exactly the same as she went in. There's a plot involving an imposter (Tim Matheson) who claims to be Carol's long-lost husband, but the real charge in this comedy comes from the way these pseudo-hip characters deal with sexual taboos (is there any real reason that Greg and Marcia shouldn't get it on?) and the incredulous reactions of other people. --Tom Keogh
Dr.Susan Chandler has a call-in radio show and uses it explore the issues of lonely women murdered by a seductive killer. One such investigation puts her life and those of her closest friends in danger. Based on the novel by Mary Higgins Clark.
NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.
John Nettles stars as Chief Inspector Barnaby in this feature-length episode of the acclaimed crime series. When a portrait of Jonathan Lowrie a wealthy royalist who was killed by a Roundhead musketeer is slashed at the Aspern Tallow museum Barnaby and Sergeant Troy are called in to investigate. A series of strange events follows and soon the detectives are investigating much more than an act of vandalism.
New Spiderman 1994: Season 2 - Vol.1 & 2 (2 Disc)
Grizzled ex-boxer Dan Barnes (Steve Austin) thinks his glory days are behind him. Working as a school janitor seems to offer little in the way of excitement. But when he begins coaching the bullied new kid Matthew in a bid to turn him into a boxing champion Barnes proves how tough his really is.
Nothing is as it seems behind the well-trimmed hedges of the picturesque cottages in the idyllic English county of Midsomer. Beneath the tranquil surface of sleepy village life exist dark secrets scandals and downright evil. John Nettles stars as the humorous thoughtful and methodical Detective Chief Inspector Barnaby.
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