The masters of the ice return for a second volume of celebrity skating.
The eighth series of The X-Files was a year of brave decisions. David Duchovny's increasing dissatisfaction with the role meant he only appeared in a few episodes. The solution: enter Agent John Doggett (Robert Patrick) who basically stole the show within his first two minutes of screen time (and watch out for several Terminator 2 in-jokes too). Scully switched roles to being the believer alongside Doggett's sceptic in a year that was more reliant on the background story arc than ever before. Her pregnancy remained at the foreground, while a more prominent Skinner joined in a hunt for the abducted Mulder that drew upon the black oil, cloning and bounty hunting aspects of the convoluted alien conspiracy story. A distinct lack of guest stars or writers indicated maturity beyond the need for ratings stunts: dedicated fans were pleased to see cameos from sinister Krycek, the reliable Lone Gunmen and the return of the show's very first abductee. The real strengths of the series came from new characters, including alternative female role model Special Agent Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), and some terrific standalone episodes. Investigations covered a man going backwards in time, deaths aboard an oil rig, a contagion in the Boston subway tunnels and creatures resembling bats and slugs. Agent Leyla Harrison (named after an X-Files fan who died of cancer) got to ask all the petty questions regular viewers want to know themselves. This year turned out to be a remarkable achievement so late in the show's life. On the DVD: The X-Files, Series 8 is a six-disc box set with all the episodes presented in anamorphic 16:9 format with Dolby 2.0 sound. The extras are mainly confined to the final disc, though there are selected deleted scenes and "international" clips from the dubbed German, Japanese and Italian versions of the show on the other discs. Two audio commentaries for the episodes "Alone" (from director Frank Spotnitz) and "Existence" (from director Kim Manners) are supplemented by a routine 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, more deleted scenes (with optional commentary), character profiles and special effects clips. --Paul Tonks
Focused lightning bolts, stigmata, possession, and ancient curses become secondary in Season 3 of The X-Files as more episodes are devoted to pursuing the increasingly complex story threads. "The Blessing Way" is an explosive start, introducing the Syndicate's well-manicured man (John Neville), while Scully's sister Melissa is shot and Mulder experiences Twin-Peaks-like prophetic visions. We learn of medical records of millions, including Scully, who have been experimented upon ("Paper Clip"): the fast-paced train-bound two-parter "Nisei" and "731" suggests the experiments are about alien hybridisation. Krycek turns out to be hosting an alien in the next double-act, "Piper Maru" and "Apocrypha", in which Skinner is shot by Melissa's killer. Two great one-offs outside the arc are "Clyde Bruckman's "Final Repose", a bittersweet tale of foreseeing death (featuring an Emmy-winning performance from Peter Boyle) and Jose Chung's " From Outer Space", a spoof of alien conspiracy theories through an author's investigations into abductees. --Paul Tonks
Kotch is a gentle comedy that reunites Walter Matthau with Jack Lemmon (this time behind the camera) in a wry look at the alienation of the elderly. Matthau's character of the title is a retired man who lives with his son and increasingly stressed daughter-in-law, as well as the grandson he dotes on. Finding himself pushed more and more into the sidelines, Kotch sets off on a journey that brings him into contact with pregnant teenager Erica (Deborah Winters), a relationship that re-introduces purpose into his life. Matthau is perfect as the eccentric Kotch, stealing every scene with his rambling monologues, although Winters brings out the caring, paternal side perfectly. It is a little schmaltzy in parts (the opening credits are particularly off putting), but Koch is ultimately an effective work that makes you wonder just why Lemmon never took the director's chair again. On the DVD: Given the wealth of potential material, the half-hearted effort at providing some extra insight is pretty woeful. There are no visual images, just a few production and biographical notes--a huge opportunity missed. --Phil Udell
A strange blob-like creature terrorises the inhabitants of a Scottish village.
This film springs from a long-neglected script by the late John Cassavetes. The script was directed by his son Nick and stars Sean Penn, who was set to star before the elder Cassavetes died. Penn plays Eddie, an alcoholic ne'er-do-well who loves his young wife Maureen (Robin Wright Penn) too much. When she is brutalised by a neighbour, Eddie goes nuts--and lands in a mental hospital for 10 years. When he is freed, he finds Maureen remarried to contractor Joey (John Travolta), with whom she has two children. But Eddie's love is too strong not to draw him back to her and make one final plea for her affection. A great showcase for all of the actors involved (the cast includes James Gandolfini, Harry Dean Stanton and Gena Rowlands), with a particularly fine performance by Sean Penn. The film has the make-it-up-as-you-go feeling of John Cassavetes's work, as well as the kind of naked emotions that were his hallmark.--Marshall Fine
Includes the following great Clint Eastwood movies: Where Eagles Dare: The mission: rescue an important US general from the hands of the German High Command. The obstacle: the most inaccessible fortress in the world. The stakes: the very outcome of World War II... City Heat: A tough cop and a wise-cracking private investigator are forced to work together on a case involving the mob. Heartbreak Ridge: Sergeant Tom Highway (Eastwood) a hardened veteran of Korea
Douglas 'Doogie' Howser (played by How I Met Your Mother's Neil Patrick Harris) may now be 17 years-old, but balancing the demands of being a doctor and trying to live like a normal kid is harder than ever.In the second season, Doogie is plagued by odd dreams about missing his youth, helps his best friend Vinnie (Max Casella) deliver his French teacher's baby, has doubts about his relationship with girlfriend Wanda (Lisa Dean Ryan) and learns a lot about himself as a person, a doctor and a teenager.James Sikking and Belinda Montgomery co-star in this Emmy Award-winning season of the acclaimed comedy-drama created by Steven Bochco (LA Law, NYPD Blue) and David E. Kelley (Chicago Hope, Ally McBeal).
Alicia a plain unpopular college student is paired with Hadley a beautiful privileged coed to work on a sociology project titled ""Lead Follow or Get Out of the Way."" At first rejected Alicia is finally accepted into Hadley's clique where she is introduced to a world of privilege recreational drugs and dangerous thrills. But Alicia's attempts to fit in ultimately land her in the hospital. As the local sheriff (Diggs) tries to determine the chain of events that led to Alicia's
Returning from military service in Flanders Dick Turpin discovers he has been cheated out of his inheritance by an unscrupulous landowner. Bitter and penniless Turpin takes to the open road as a highwayman in this first series of swashbuckling eighteenth century adventure...
The pretentiously titled Existence is another two-part X-Files yarn glued together to make a feature-length episode. Here the story concerns the birth of Scully's perhaps-alien-tinged child and proves the old maxim that you should stop watching any series when the characters start having babies. By now, newbie Robert Patrick is settled into the role of Agent Doggett, Scully's new partner on the X-Files, but David Duchovny's contract negotiations have enabled Fox Mulder, no longer in the FBI, to come back and hang about the delivery, clashing and then bonding with his replacement. The action content comes from a mild-mannered alien abductee transformed into an unstoppable killing machine, ripping through everything as he tries to prevent the upcoming nativity for reasons that (as ever) don't quite become clear. Also in the support cast are semi-regular Nicholas Lea as lurking plot-explaining conspirator Alex Krycek, and the more welcome Annabeth Gish, whose interestingly spiritual Agent Monica Reyes is being worked up as a replacement for Scully when Gillian Anderson gets out of her contract. Weirdly, The X-Files is in pretty good shape for a show that's been running this long--the performances and the direction are still strong, and outside the "continuing story" shows individual episodes hold up well. But this dreary muddle of running about (plus the odd decapitation) and agonised rumination (blathery philosophical musings about the miracle of life and childbirth) does not represent the series' strengths, suggesting that the best thing that could happen would be to get shot of the long-time stars and their played-out characters to make room for a revitalised show starring Patrick and Gish. On the DVD: The full-screen print, with the extra detail of the DVD image and Dolby Digital, allow you to pick up a lot more than from the murky telecasts. "Alex Krycek Revealed" Parts 1 and 2, a couple of character profiles, turn out to be very snippet-like Fox TV promo pieces, with some interview footage and behind-the-scenes stuff amid the usual teaser clips.--Kim Newman
The fifth season of The X-Files is the one in which the ongoing alien conspiracy arc really takes over, building towards box-office glory for the inevitable cinematic leap in The X-Files Movie (1998). The series opener "Redux" begins with Mulder having been framed for everything going. Scully finally sees a UFO ("The Red and the Black") before being presented with a potential daughter (the two-part "Christmas Carol" and "Emily"). By "The End", there's an enormous tangle of threads for the big-screen adaptation to unravel (or not, as it turned out). Cigarette Smoking Man is being hunted, playing every side against the middle, as well as chasing after information on Mulder's sister. Krycek is back, too, as is an old flame for Mulder in the shape of Agent Diana Fowley. If that wasn't enough to goad viewers into the cinema, there was the Lone Gunmen's 1989-set back story ("Unusual Suspects", with Richard Belzer playing his Homicide: Life on the Streets character), a musical number in the black and white Frankenstein homage "Post Modern Prometheus", and scripts co-written by Stephen King ("Chinga"), William Gibson ("Kill Switch"), and even Darren McGavin (who had inspired the show as Kolchak: The Night Stalker) in "Travellers". On the DVD: The X-Files, Season 5 extras include Chris Carter's commentary over "Post Modern Prometheus", which reveals the decision making behind shooting in black and white as well as the problems it caused. A second commentary is from writer/coproducer John Shiban on "Pine Bluff Variant", where he openly admits the influence of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold. Across the six discs (only 20 episodes because of the movie of course) you get credits for every episode, their TV promo spots, deleted and international versions of several scenes (some with commentary from Carter), and a couple of TV featurettes. The best of these is "The Truth About Season 5", talking to an excited Dean Haglund (Langly) amongst other crew members.--Paul Tonks
Frank Jones (Michael Caine) is an ordinary law abiding businessman. He served his country during the war and he is very proud of his son Bob (Nigel Havers) a Russian linguist and translator. Frank's world is shattered by the arrival of the police to tell him his son is dead. The plot thickens when the inquest verdict is 'Accidental Death'. Frank embarks on his own investigation into his son's death and discovers that there are no limits to what the government will do to protec
This release consists of two episodes--"This is Not Happening" and "Deadalive"--of the eighth series of The X-Files spliced together into a feature-length story. With David Duchovny contracted only to do a certain percentage of shows this year, Robert Patrick was brought in as Agent John Doggett, partnering Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully while Duchovny's Mulder is off being tortured by alien-abductors in what looks like an industrial dentist's chair. This story comes about two-thirds of the way through the arc and sets up Duchovny's return to the show--though he literally has to die and come back to get back on the case. It's an unfortunate paradox that most X-Files stand-alone releases concentrate on the dreary alien-abduction/conspiracy episodes which carry the greater storyline of the show, giving the misleading impression that the series is a drearily solemn, badly plotted, straight-faced but stupid sci-fi soap opera. Always skipped over are the far more interesting, entertaining and impressive stand-alone supernatural mysteries or strange comic exercises. Though Duchovny is mostly lying in a hospital bed with oatmeal all over his face, Anderson--whose character is pregnant this series, another dull sub-plot--still gives an amazingly committed performance and gets terrific support from Patrick, whose character has shaken up a lot of what was settled or stale about the show, and the always-underrated Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner. The story features several wild-eyed UFO guru types (including Roy Thinnes, once star of The Invaders) and returned abductees transformed into un-killable alien zombies. It's as well made as ever, with ominous shadows and the odd smart line, but you need to have been paying very close attention for seven years to understand what's going on. With Duchovny a potential escapee and Anderson perhaps in line to follow, this episode brings on the excellent Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes, a specialist in bizarre rituals, who is being effectively set up to partner Patrick in a post-Mulder-and-Scully X-Files that might well keep the franchise going on forever Star Trek-fashion. --Kim Newman
Make it your mission to seek out STARGATE SG-1 Season 7's feature-length finale - a stunning adventure which sees our intrepid space travellers including heart throbs Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks fighting to save Earth from destruction. Volume 37 is the very last release of the superb Season 7 and includes the feature length season climax Lost City which also sets up the story for the all-new Stargate spin-off series Atlantis which is currently being filmed. In Lost City the SG-1 team makes an amazing discovery- information which will lead them to learn the location of the Lost City of the Ancients and use that race's technology to save the galaxy from evil Goa'uld oppression. Just as they are about to remove the vital information however evil forces launch an attack...
Jackie revives his classic role after the huge success of his directorial debut in 'Fearless Hyena'. Excellent fight action with a pull-no-punches finale makes 'Fearless Hyena 2' a worthy sequel.
uk Exclusive Limited Edition Steelbook. Limited to 2000 Copies. Artwork By Renowned Artist Jock! Anyone Else Would Be Dead By Now. Sent on a search and destroy mission into the deep Bolivian Jungle, a team of soon to be ex-Special Forces are carrying out their mission. Little do they know but they've been sent on a mission of betrayal and are soon to be put on a hit list and wanted dead. The team; Jensen, Roque, Pooch and Cougar are led by Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and are highly skilled at what they do, escaping their trap they become 'The Losers' and go underground to evade the deadly man who tried to kill them, who is only known by one name; Max.Max continues to try and hunt them down, and all hell breaks loose. Helped along by Aisha (Zoe Saldana) the team take on a new mission; to find Max... and to kill him!
Dancing On Ice Live Tour Boxset
Sent to Transylvania on an errand for the U.S. administration Washington Press Secretary Jack Whittier who previously was engaged in an affair with the President's daughter is attacked by an unseen beast. Seemingly having recovered Whittier returns home. However upon his return to the Capitol Whittier transforms into a bloodthirsty werewolf and commits a series of grisly murders that terrorize the city. Police are convinced the killings are the work of a common criminal and Jack's spree of mayhem is blamed oniracial unrest. Yet when a full moon rises on the eve of a national address even the President may not be safe! Either a horror spoof or a political satire 'Werewolf Of Washington' draws on the paranoia of the Watergate scandal and the hipster humor of 'The Second City'.
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