In Depression-era London, a now-grown Jane and Michael Banks, along with Michael's three children, are visited by the enigmatic Mary Poppins following a personal loss. Through her unique magical skills, and with the aid of her friend Jack, she helps the family rediscover the joy and wonder missing in their lives.
Gangster No. 1 is without doubt the most stylish British violent crime thriller from the many produced at the end of the 20th century. For all the pop-video glamour of Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, neither have anywhere near as much a sense of danger as is shown here. Paul Bettany ignites the screen with a fury that explodes far more than it smoulders beneath his tautly kept temper. The tale concerns his ascent to the titular position of primacy in 1960s London, told in flashback by his present-day self (an equally riveting Malcolm McDowell). A lust for power won't allow anything to stand in either incarnation's way, especially the foppish posturing of established crime boss Freddie Mays (David Thewlis). What distinguishes this from many other tales of greed is that the never-named Gangster actually wants to be Freddie, not simply replace him. Saffron Burrows plays the suffering trophy moll in the middle of this personality clash and provides about the only level head and gentle tongue in what is otherwise a super-violent and super-profane script. This is what The Krays should have been, and therefore not for the squeamish. --Paul Tonks
With even more action, excitement and rescues, Fireman Sam is busier than ever!In these all-new episodes, Sam pulls off a daring rescue to stop a runaway train, Elvis and Mike have a cliff hanging accident involving a giant guitar and Sam and Penny race to the rescue when Norman accidentally drives Jupiter through Pontypandy!
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, Jonathan Demme's terrifying adaptation of Silence of the Lambs contains only a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr Hannibal Lecter; Jodie Foster is equally memorable as the vulnerable FBI agent-in-training Clarice Starling. --Tom Keogh Hannibal is set 10 years after Silence of the Lambs, as Dr Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, reprising his Oscar-winning role) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore replaces Jodie Foster), on the other hand, hasn't had it so good. The film is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott gives the film a sleek, almost European look that lets you know that, unlike the first film (which was about the quintessentially American Clarice), this movie is all Hannibal. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible. When they do connect it's quite thrilling but it's unfortunately too little too late. --Mark Englehart Anthony Hopkins returns as Hannibal Lecter in Red Dragon, a prequel to The Silence of the Lambs and a remake of 1986's Manhunter, Michael Mann's fine film of Thomas Harris's terrific book, in which Brian Cox carved the ham thinner as a more menacing, less hokey cannibal. This film beefs up Lecter's role, as FBI agent Will Graham (Edward Norton) consults Lecter on the Tooth Fairy case, which means some pointed and familiar conversations, and the film then shifts focus from the investigation to the life and troubles of the mad and murderous but also abused and sympathetic Francis Dolarhyde (Ralph Fiennes, with a major tattoo and a harelip). It's hard not to compare the current cast with Mann's excellent players. Still, Red Dragon is a solid film of great material, with all the sudden shocks and disturbing whispers in places. --Kim Newman
Linda Shirley and Bella are relaxing in the South African sunshine after fleeing to Rio De Janeiro using part of the proceeds from the robbery. Dolly their leader has already returned to London. The dark days of planning rehearsing and executing a dangerous raid seem far behind. Their criminal coup has made them rich beyond their wildest dreams. All the ties with the past have been severed. Life's a dream... until one man turns it into a nightmare!
British films about sex are fairly rare, and mostly embarrassing: from the painfully anxious (Brief Encounter) to the hopelessly naff (the Carry On films). What a treat then is Rita, Sue and Bob Too, Alan Clarke's filming of a stage play by young Andrea Dunbar. It's an unsentimental, gleefully lewd comedy about shagging. Tagged for its cinema release in 1987 as "Thatcher's Britain with its knickers down", it even provoked a minor moral hullabaloo in the newspapers. Rita (Siobhan Finneran) and Sue (Michelle Holmes) are two giggly Bradford lasses stuck on a ramshackle housing estate. They keep themselves in fags by occasional baby-sitting for nouveau riche couple Bob (George Costigan) and Michelle (Lesley Sharp). Bob fancies himself rotten, but Michelle has ruled that sex is off the menu. So one night, driving Rita and Sue home, Bob detours to the Yorkshire moors and offers the girls a little something extra in his front seat. Rita and Sue decide to grab it while they can. Alan Clarke's cult following is founded on his bleak, brilliant films about violent young men (Scum, The Firm, Made in Britain). But Rita, Sue is a tribute to Clarkey's ribald sense of humour. It even sports a cameo from novelty pop-act Black Lace, performing their non-hit "Gang-Bang". Teenage debutantes Holmes and Finneran are terrific--just watch them dancing lustily around Bob's red leather sofa to Bananarama. In support, Clarke wisely cast skilled northern comedians like Patti Nicholls and Willie Ross, as Sue's foul-mouthed mum and dad. Amid the laughs, Clarke as usual doesn't stint from showing us the harsh, unlovely side of life. He shot the film on location at Bradford's Buttershaw estate, where Andrea Dunbar grew up and where, tragically, she died of a brain haemorrhage only a few years after the film's release. --Richard Kelly
This ferocious movie tells the story of the Battle of Thermopylae in which 300 Spartans fought to the death against the massive Persian army.
A clash between King Solomon and his brother is further complicated when the Queen of Sheba seduces Solomon in an attempt to bring about Israel's downfall... In this glorious biblical epic director King Vidor cinematically explores the evils of the flesh and pagan worship.
All films require a certain suspension of disbelief, Fight Club perhaps more than others; but if you're willing to let yourself get caught up in the anarchy, this film, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, is a modern-day morality play warning of the decay of society. Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn't actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiralling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club is transformed into a nationwide fascist group. The depiction of violence in Fight Club is unflinching, but director David Fincher's film is captivating and beautifully shot, with camerawork and effects that are almost as startling as the script. The movie is packed with provocative ideas and images--from the satirical look at the emptiness of modern consumerism to quasi-Nietzschean concepts of "beyond good and evil"--that will leave the viewer with much food for thought to take away. Pitt and Norton are an unbeatable duo, and the film has a great sense of humour too. Even if it leaves you with a sense of profound discomfort this is a movie that you'll have to see again and again, if for no other reason than to just to take it all in. --Jenny Brown, Amazon.com
In this ferocious retelling of the Battle of Thermopylae based on the epic graphic novel by Sin City creator Frank Miller, King Xerxes of Persia (Rodrigo Santoro -- Lost) amasses an army of hundreds of thousands, drawn from Asia and Africa, to invade and conquer the tiny, divided nation of Greece in 481 B.C. But when the advancing Persian forces enter the treacherous mountain pass of Thermopylae, they encounter Spartan King Leonidas (Gerard Butler -- The Phantom of the Opera) and his royal guard of soldiers numbering just 300. According to legend, their valor and sacrifice inspired all of Greece to unite against the Persian foe, planting the seeds of democracy and ushering in the Golden Age of Greece.With nonstop action and awe-inspiring visual effects, director Zack Snyder creates a breathtaking vision of one of history's most legendary battles ... and an epic tale of sacrifice and heroism.
When Randy the video geek rattles off the rules of surviving a horror movie in Wes Craven's Scream, he speaks for a generation of filmgoers who are all too aware of slasher-movie clichés. Playfully scripted by Kevin Williamson with a self-aware wink and more than a few nods to its grandfathers (from Psycho to Halloween to the Friday the 13th dynasty), Scream skewers teen horror conventions with loving reverence while re-creating them in a modern, movie-savvy context. And so goes the series, which continues the satirical spoofing by tackling (what else?) sequels while sustaining its own self-contained mythology. Catty reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox) turns grisly murders into lurid best-sellers, a cult of killer wannabes continues to hunt spunky psycho-survivor Sydney Prescott (Neve Campbell) for their 15 minutes of fame, and a cheesy movie series (Stab) develops within the movie series.Scream remains the high point of the series--a fresh take on a genre long since collapsed into routine, but Scream 2 spoofs itself wittily ("Why would anyone want to do that? Sequels suck!" opines college film student Randy), and delights with more elaborate set-pieces and all-new rules for surviving a horror movie sequel. The endangered veterans of the original film reunite one last time for Scream 3, which plays out on the movie set of Stab 3 (it's a trilogy within a trilogy!). With Williamson gone, replacement screenwriter Ehran Kruger tries to mine the formula one more time. It's a little tired by now, and pale imitations (Urban Legend, I Know What You Did Last Summer) have further drained the zeitgeist, but the film bubbles with bright humour and director Craven is stylistically at the top of his game. As a trilogy, it remains both the most consistently entertaining and self-aware horror series ever made. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
From modern horror master Wes Craven comes a timeless shocker that remains the standard bearer for terror. Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is having grisly nightmares. Meanwhile her high-school friends who are having the very same dreams are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared nightmares. When the police ignore her explanation she herself must confront the killer in his shadowy realm. Featuring John Saxon with Johnny Depp in his first starring role and mind-bending special effects this horror classic gave birth to one of the most infamous undead villains in cinematic history: Freddy Krueger...
Dirty" Harry Callahan was one of the first screen characters to embody contemporary fears about crime--and the uncompromising response to it that much of the audience would liked to have seen. Clint Eastwood's laconic rogue cop became an instant screen icon; his catchphrases ("Do you feel lucky?", "Make my day") were and still are endlessly quoted, and he even inspired a futuristic comic-strip counterpart in the person of Judge Dredd. Made at the time when the real "Zodiac" serial killer was terrorising San Francisco, the original Dirty Harry struck a frighteningly realistic note in 1971: aside from Eastwood, director Don Siegel's taught, pacey direction, Lalo Schifrin's nervy jazz score and Andrew Robinson's cackling psycopath "Scorpio" all make a strong impact. Such was the film's success that it gave rise to no less than four sequels, none of which are its equal but all of which get by on the charisma of Eastwood's anti-hero, even when he's increasingly trapped by the character's one-dimensional persona. This five-disc box set contains all the "Harry" movies: Dirty Harry (1971); Magnum Force (1973, with David Soul as a vigilante bike cop); The Enforcer (1976, with Tyne "Lacey" Daly as Harry's new and reluctant partner); Sudden Impact (1983, the weakest of the lot costarring Eastwood's then-partner Sondra Locke) and The Dead Pool (1988, a surprisingly upbeat end to the series). --Mark Walker
Anthony Hopkins Oscar winning pyschopath Hannibal Lector comes back into the life of FBI Agent Clarice Starling in this long awaited sequel to The Silence Of The Lambs.
This stylish, unclassifiable film depicts a future world in which sex is no longer an act that occurs naturally between two consenting adults, but rather an emotionless, business-like arrangement in which the man chooses his ideal mate from a selection of perfectly formed replicants. When successful businessman Sam Treadwell (David Andrews, Fight Club) finds that his android wife, the Cherry model 2000 (Pamela Gidley, The Maze), malfunctions during a steamy clinch, he decides to leave the safety of his everyday life and brave the treacherous and lawless region of The Zone' to find an exact replacement model from a remote factory warehouse. His guide for this dangerous journey is the renegade tracker E' Johnson (Melanie Griffith, Mulholland Falls), a fearless and undeniably real woman. High Definition transfer New interview with actor Tim Thomerson Audio commentary with director Steve De Jarnatt Making Cherry 2000 (1987): vintage featurette Original theatrical trailer
Introduced and presented by David Attenborough, Great Wildlife Moments is a feature-length anthology that compiles some of the most memorable moments from the BBC Wildlife Unit. With a running time of 108 minutes it consists of 38 sequences drawn from the greatest archive of natural-history filmmaking in the world, breathtaking television spanning the entire biosphere from never-before-seen creatures in the ocean depths (Blue Planet, 2001) to Attenborough himself in zero gravity high above the Earth (The Living Planet, 1984). The anthology is divided into seven chapters covering different environments from "Snow and Ice" to "Jungles", an approach that both gives structure to the film and offers an effective vision of the sheer diversity of life on planet Earth. Most people's favourite sequences will be found here, from a killer whale taking a sea lion on the beach in The Trials of Life (1990) to Attenborough communing with mountain gorillas in Life on Earth (1979). Other segments come variously from BBC wildlife specials, Wildlife on One, The Natural World, The Kingdom of the Ice Bear (1985), Life in the Freezer (1993), The Private Life of Plants (1995), Attenborough in Paradise (1996), The Life of Birds (1998) and The Life of Mammals (2002), with additional narrators including John Hurt, Andrew Sachs and Simon King. This is a fine selection made all the more rewarding by Attenborough's endless enthusiasm and celebration of the world about us. On the DVD: Great Wildlife Moments is presented at 16:9, anamorphically enhanced for widescreen TVs. Unfortunately most of the material was originally shot for traditional 4:3 broadcast and so has been reformatted by carefully cropping shots at the top and/or bottom. For the most part this works acceptably with little of visual significance lost, though a sequence of emperor penguins from Life in the Freezer is ruined. Only one 4:3 segment--Attenborough high in the rainforest from Attenborough in Paradise--has been presented in its original ratio. Picture quality varies depending on the age of the clips, with material from Blue Planet and The Life of Mammals being flawless and older footage offering some grain, which is never too distracting. Sound is again variable, the Dolby Prologic soundtrack effectively smoothing the transitions between older mono soundtracks and more recent surround sound. The main extra is a fine commentary that is specific to each sequence and calls on the original producers, directors or cameramen (most but not every section has a commentary), while a 12-minute "making of" is actually more of an extended trailer for other BBC wildlife DVDs. The disc also includes a useful BBC Natural History Unit filmography. --Gary S Dalkin
Neve Campbell leads an all-star cast in this iconic slasher thriller that launched the Scream franchise and breathed new life into the horror genre. After a series of mysterious deaths befalls their small town, an offbeat group of friends led by Sidney Prescott (Campbell) becomes the target of a masked killer. As the body count rises, Sidney and her friends turn to the rules of horror films to help navigate the real-life terror they're living in. Also starring Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Skeet Ulrich, Matthew Lillard, Rose McGowan and Drew Barrymore. Buckle up for an irresistible killer ride! Extras A Bloody Legacy: Scream 25 Years Later Audio Commentary By Director Wes Craven And Writer Kevin Williamson Production Featurette Behind The Scenes Q&a With Cast And Crew Note: 4K Disc is Region Free, Blu-ray Disc is Region B
BRAND NEW RESTORATION TO CELEBRATE THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF PUNK, INLCUDES BRAND NEW BONUS FEATURES It's 1977 and The Sex Pistols have taken the music world by storm with lead singer Johnny Rotten (Andrew Schofield) and bass guitarist Sid Vicious (Gary Oldman) enjoying all the spoils that fame and money have to offer. Vicious embarks on a relationship with an American groupie Nancy (Chloe Webb) - who has come to London to pursue him but the couple's increasing drug use frays relationships with Johnny and the rest of the band. With Nancy in tow, The Sex Pistols embark on a chaotic tour US tour which ends in disaster with the band breaking up. Vicious attempts to start a solo career, with Nancy as his manager, but by now both are dangerously addicted to heroin. The two continue in a downward, destructive spiral until, in October 1978 at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, Nancy is found stabbed with Sid lying prostrate at her side. Arrested and accused of murder, he dies of an overdose before his trial.
From the mastermind producer of Paranormal Activity and Insidious comes the ghostly tale of Jessabelle. Returning to her childhood home in Louisiana to recuperate from a horrific car accident Jessabelle (Sarah Snook Sleeping Beauty) comes face–to–face with a long-tormented spirit that has been seeking her return — and has no intention of letting her escape…
Tina Spangler is just another happy kid at fourteen. At fifteen she's pregnant and faces the choices of abortion adoption or the lonely life of a single parent. Abandoned by her boyfriend she has only one person to turn to - her mother a single parent herself. What starts out as a hopeless tale could re-unite this shattered family. Based on a true story.
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