The twist of private-eye show Randall & Hopkirk Deceased is that in the first episode, gumshoe Marty Hopkirk (Kenneth Cope) is killed off by the villains, only to pop up in an immaculate white suit as a ghost visible only to his hardboiled partner Jeff Randall (Mike Pratt). In theory, the supernatural streak--which meant a complex set of rules about Marty's appearances and effects on the physical world--should lead the show into wilder territory, but most episodes squander the team's unique abilities on ordinary cases about blackmail and murder-for-profit. A persistent subplot has the living Jeff getting cosy with the dead Marty's widow Jean (Annette Andre) to the discomfort of her late husband. The elementary effects and the nice underplaying of the leads have a certain period charm, and the show could afford a high calibre of special guest villains and dolly birds. A 1990s remake with Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer hasn't obliterated memories of the original. --Kim Newman
Always there for you, the hit sitcom Friends has matured and blossomed over the years. The beginning of the sixth series finds the sextet back from Las Vegas where Ross and Rachel managed to get married in a state of pronounced intoxication, thus upstaging the intended nuptials of Chandler and Monica. The first half of the season follows Ross' failure to arrange the annulment, while Monica and Chandler move in together and Rachel sets up house with Phoebe. Joey gets a shapely new roommate in the shape of Elle Macpherson. Halfway through the series, we are given a wonderful fantasy peak at a parallel universe where Rachel married Barry after all, Ross' wife Carol never realised she was gay, Monica is still fat, Chandler is a writer, Joey is starring as Dr Drake Remoray on Days of Our Lives and Phoebe is a stockbroker. The closing arc of the series features a guest appearance from Bruce Willis in two episodes as the father of Ross' new girlfriend Elizabeth--who ends up romancing Rachel. --Leslie Felperin
Since it's first publication in 1908 Kenneth Grahame's THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS has become a best-seller throughout the world. In this unique film the award-winning animators of Cosgrove Hall have brought Grahame's characters Badger Mole Ratty and the flamboyant Toad of Toad Hall magically to life in a beautiful Edwardian country scene. Join these four lively characters in a wonderful production that captures all the fun and enchantment of a fairy tale adventure.
Russell Crowe stars as Terry Thorne, a K&R (kidnap and rescue) expert called in by the wife of an American engineer (played by Meg Ryan) when her husband is kidnapped in South America.
Disney sets a record for bringing out a direct-to-video sequel after the initial film. Stitch: The Movie arrives only a year after the enjoyable Lilo & Stitch and reunites the title character (otherwise known as Experiment 626) with his earth-bound family in the warm Hawaiian sun. The story has a nice set-up: since Stitch is Experiment 626, where are the first 625 invented by Dr Jumba Jookiba? Odds are the island paradise will soon be spaceport central for many more aliens. As with other made-for-video Disney titles, the animation is not as complex or rich. This hurts this sequel even more since the original film had such a unique, pastel beauty. Unfortunately, the other elements of the film are just as flat. Even though most of the original voice cast returns, the entire production lacks the same spirit and charm, and the story's theme is recycled (get ready for more "Ohana means family"). On the plus side, the film starts with an Elvis Presley song ("Slicin' Sand") and is only 64 minutes long. The movie sets up the Disney TV series The Adventures of Lilo & Stitch. --Doug Thomas
A 1991 comedy, Delirious stars John Candy as the head writer on a soap opera set in the fictional small town of Ashford Falls, whose naff power dressing and power wrangling is distinctly reminiscent of Dynasty. Candy has a crush on the somewhat imperious and Joan Collins-esque star of the show, played by Emma Samms, although waiting in the wings to be written into the show is the more wholesome and unaffected actress Mariel Hemingway. Delirious takes a turn when Candy is felled in an accident and awakes, supernaturally, to find himself in the very world of his own soap, with Ashford Falls a real town and its fictional characters, including Samms, now real people. Candy discovers, however, that in this world he has the power to "write" situations as they suit him--in this case, by casting himself as a dashing, wealthy and mysterious Wall Street hero, able to sweep Samms off her feet. The film is in some ways a precursor of Pleasantville (in which two teens are sucked into the world of a "Honey, I'm home" black and white 1950s sitcom). However, between them the star, writers and director (Tom Mankiewicz) make a ham fist of Delirious. The parody of soap mores is quite well done but quickly palls in its obviousness; Candy's performance is misjudged, as if trying too hard to make the best of a bad job; while overall, the film feels cheap, tacky and broad, once again raising the question why in the 1980s and 90s America produced such great sitcoms but such poor film comedies. On the DVD: Delirious is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. It's a decent enough edition but looks its age in places, in terms of colour definition in particular. The only extra is the original trailer. --David Stubbs
November 1902. Fog and shadows engulf the city. The murky world of the menacing London docks collide with the glamour and glitter of Edwardian high society as sleuth Sherlock Holmes and Dr John H Watson are reunited to solve a case which threatens to overwhelm the privilege and tranquillity of aristocratic society. When the murder of a penniless shop-girl is linked to the body of debutante Lady Alice Burnham Holmes immediately begins to piece together the clues: a pair of dancing sho
The hit children's TV show about a fantasy world of digital monsters comes to the big screen.
To Unravel A Murder You Have To Strip It To The Bone. Forensic anthropologist Dr. Temperence Brennan who works at the Jeffersonian Institution and writes novels as a sideline has an uncanny ability to read clues left behind in a victim's bones. Consequently law enforcement calls her in to assist with murder investigations when the remains are so badly decomposed burned or destroyed that the standard identification methods are useless. Brennan often finds herself teamed w
Just when you think you've seen every twist and turn, the NCIS team is back with another adrenaline-packed season. Special Agent Gibbs (Mark Harmon) and company are tested like never before with a flurry of high-stakes cases involving international espionage, al Qaeda plots, brutal serial killings and double agents. Along with co-stars Michael Weatherly, Cote de Pablo, Sean Murray, Pauley Perrette, Rocky Carroll, Brian Dietzen, and David McCallum, this 6-disc set contains every heart-pounding minute of all 24 episodes - including behind-the-scenes DVD-exclusive special features. As the NCIS team races to hunt down the truth, they discover the hardest part of the job isn't always solving the crime. It's knowing who to trust. Special Features: I Have A Question For... Questions From The Fans Technically Speaking: A Conversation with Technical Advisor Leon Carroll, Jr. Episode 168: Cracked: Audio Commentary with Pauley Perrette and Tony Wharmby (Director) Practical Magic: Turning Back Time on Director Vance Episode 171: Enemies Domestic - Audio Commentary with Rocky Carroll, Jesse Stern (Writer), Mark Horowitz (Director) Episode 176: A Man Walks Into a Bar... - Audio Commentary with Mark Harmon, Gary Glasberg (EP/Writer) and James Whitmore, Jr. Lights! Camera! Weatherly! Michael Weatherly Directs an Episode Episode 179: One Last Score - Audio Commentary with Michael Weatherly and Mark Horowitz Grab Your Gear: A Look At Season 8 Very Special Effects Murder, They Wrote: The Writers Talk About NCIS
A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and... well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem. The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? --Roger Thomas
Bicentennial Man was stung at the 1999 box office, due no doubt in part to poor timing during a backlash against Robin Williams and his treacly performances in two other, then-recent, releases, Jakob the Liar and Patch Adams. But this near-approximation of a science-fiction epic, based on works by Isaac Asimov and directed, with uncharacteristic seriousness of purpose, by Chris Columbus (Mrs Doubtfire), is much better than one would have known from the knee-jerk negativity and box-office indifference. Williams plays Andrew, a robot programmed for domestic chores and sold to an upper-middle-class family, the Martins, in the year 2005. The family patriarch (Sam Neill) recognizes and encourages Andrew's uncommon characteristics, particularly his artistic streak, sensitivity to beauty, humour and independence of spirit. In so doing, he sets Williams's tin man on a two-century journey to become more human than most human beings. As adapted by screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, the movie's scale is novelistic, though Columbus isn't the man to embrace with Spielbergian confidence its sweeping possibilities. Instead, the Home Alone director shakes off his familiar tendencies to pander and matures, finally, as a captivating storyteller. But what really makes this film matter is its undercurrent of deep yearning, the passion of Andrew as a convert to the human race and his willingness to sacrifice all to give and take love. Williams rises to an atypical challenge here as a futuristic Everyman, relying, perhaps for the first time, on his considerable iconic value to make the point that becoming human means becoming more like Robin Williams. Nothing wrong with that. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Meet Clark Kent. Sent to Earth as an infant from the dying planet Krypton, he arrived with as many questions as the number of light-years he traveled. Now a young man, he makes his living in Metropolis as an intern at the Daily Planet alongside reporter Lois Lane while secretly wielding his alien powers of flight, super-strength and x-ray vision in the battle for good. Follow the fledgling hero as he engages in bloody battles with intergalactic bounty hunter Lobo and before fighting for his life with the alien Parasite. The world will learn about Superman but first, Superman must save the world!
A quarter century after revolutionizing television, Twin Peaks returns. Expanding the world you thought you knew, this limited event series takes you places wonderful, strange and farther out. This Blu-ray collection includes all 18 parts of the Showtime series, plus a wealth of exclusive, behind-the-scenes special features that will show you what's behind the red curtainĀ and the making of this extraordinary television event. Features: Series Promos Twin Peaks: Phenomenon (Featurettes) Comic-Con 2017: Twin Peaks Panel A Very Lovely Dream: One Week in Twin Peaks Richard Beymer Films Rancho Rosa Logos Behind-the-Scenes Photo Gallery The Man with the Gray Elevated Hair Tell It Martin Two Blue Balls The Number of Completion Bad Binoculars See You On The Other Side Dear Friend Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers A Bloody Finger In Your Mouth The Polish Accountant A Pot of Boiling Oil
Sherlock Holmes gets the Gothic treatment in Hammer's Hound of the Baskervilles, a typical mix of mystery and supernatural horror from the famous studio. Peter Cushing is perfectly cast as the great detective, the very embodiment of science and reason (which also made him a great Van Helsing in the Dracula series) in a case wound around a legacy of aristocratic cruelty and a devilish dog wandering the swampy moors. Christopher Lee is a less satisfying fit as the last of the Baskervilles, as he waffles between fear and apathetic disregard, but Andre Morell is a fine Dr Watson and a far cry from Nigel Bruce's sweet bumbler from the Hollywood incarnation of the 1940s. Director Terence Fisher was Hammer's top stylist and the film drips with the mood of the moors, mist hanging in the air, the dying vegetation itself threatening to come to life and trap the next unwary traveller. --Sean Axmaker
The Wes Craven Collection brings together for the first time in one boxed set four terrifying movies Scream The Last House On The Left The Hills Have Eyes and New Nightmare. What better way to own to own four definitive Wes Craven movies than this special edition set. Disc five is a bonus disc featuring the 'American Nightmare' documentary and a special Wes Craven interview. Scream: The residents of a picturesque small town are being victimised by a sly psycho with a twi
Directed by Brenda Chapman, the Oscar(tm)-winning director and co-writer of Pixar's Brave, COME AWAY is a whimsical and inspiring British made live-action fairy-tale and an ingeniously conceived prequel to two of the world's most beloved and enduring pieces of children's literature Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Starring Angelina Jolie, David Oyelowo, Anna Chancellor, Michael Caine, Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Reece Yates, the film follows the adventures of siblings Alice and Peter who transform into Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland in a bid to help their parents overcome the tragedy of losing their eldest son. Peter and Alice find strength in the power of their imaginations and set off on a real adventure to try and rescue the family - escaping to a destiny of eternal boyhood in the distant isle of Neverland - whilst Alice delves into a world of Wonderland.
World War II aviation buffs may quibble with the details of Mosquito Squadron, but they'll love it just the same. It's an average war movie, capably directed by Boris Sagal, who thrived in television before he was tragically killed by a helicopter rotor in 1981. At the peak of his post-Man from UNCLE success, David McCallum plays a melancholy RAF ace, leading his squadron of De Havilland "Mosquito" bombers on low-altitude strikes over Nazi strongholds in Germany and France. His ground-based dilemma involves the grieving wife of his best friend, a fellow pilot presumed dead but later discovered alive with other POWs held at a French chalet where the Nazis are developing advanced V-class bombers. The RAF employs bouncing "highballs" capable of penetrating difficult targets, and the rousing climax doubles as a rescue mission and treacherous bombing run. Explosive action compensates for predictable melodrama, and Rocky Horror fans will enjoy seeing Charles ("the Criminologist") Gray as a stuffy RAF Commodore. --Jeff Shannon
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