The Hustle In this hilarious new comedy, Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson star as female scam artists, one low rent and the other high class, who team up to take down the dirty rotten men who have wronged them.
The pity of war has been a much-favoured film topic; the treachery of war much less so, though never more persuasively than in Paths of Glory, Stanley Kubrick's breakthrough feature from 1957. Kirk Douglas gives one of his finest screen performances as Colonel Dax, the idealistic First World War soldier appalled by the arbitrary court-marshal meted out to three of his men after an impossible attempt to storm German lines goes disastrously wrong. George Macready is an utterly believable Gerneral Mireau, obsessed with his own honour and standing, whom Adolphe Majou complements tellingly as the urbane and cynical General Bruler. Those who know Kubrick from his later sprawling epics will be surprised at the tautness and concision shown here, even though the screenplay--which he co-wrote--has a certain theatrical stiffness. On the DVD: Paths of Glory on disc reproduces well in full-screen format, and Gerald Fried's bitingly ironic score comes through powerfully. There are five dubbed and six subtitled languages. The original trailer is a masterpiece of gritty reportage, well worth reviving. Along with Dr Strangelove and 2001, this is Kubrick's most focussed and durable film. --Richard Whitehouse
Director William Wellman (The Big Heat) offered up this 1949 treatment of the Battle of the Bulge, which won Oscars for best screenplay and best cinematography. The film concentrates on the camaraderie and the divisions between the troops as they prepare for the big offensive. Told in a taut narrative, the men of the 101st, led by Van Johnson, wait out the winter in the Ardennes forest to confront the German army in what would be the last major offensive of World War II. The men are demoralised and trapped, with no hope of support from the Allies as they are forced to band together and defend their position. A classically assembled war drama that nevertheless manages to be both engrossing and entertaining, Battleground is a mainstay of the genre. --Robert Lane
The success of the first year meant that Stargate SG-1's second series could afford to spread its wings. In only the second episode, Carter is temporarily possessed by a good Goa'uld. This immediately allowed for both any amount of quick fix inside knowledge as well as story off-shoots, now that the show was bent on franchise longevity. There appeared to be information overload (splinter group Tok'ra, Earth's second Gate, Machello, endless Apophis encounters), as the finely interwoven threads of alien histories and inter-relationships were developed. But thankfully, SG-1 never lost sight of the need for great individual stories. There was a planet of Native American Indians; a planet on the edge of a Black Hole; a planet of aliens sensitive to sound. Even a planet run by Dwight Schultz! Better still, they found time to have fun with their universe, too. "1969" remains one of the best comic romps the series has enjoyed, and is a near-perfect self-contained time-travel story to boot. The team of actors had obviously bonded early on in the first year. It may be a bit of a military faux pas that there is only ever four of them leading every major explorative expedition, but the limited number of principals is actually something else the show has always had in its favour, allowing quality screen time to be spent on each of them from the outset (although Richard Dean Anderson would probably rather not have spent an entire episode impaled by a spike). --Paul Tonks
'Gregory's 2 Girls' is part thriller, part romantic comedy and finds Gregory still dreaming his way through life and still looking for romance.
This dark melodrama based on the John Patrick story 'Love Lies Bleeding' stars Barbara Stanwyck as the wonderfully wicked Martha Ivers a wealthy and domineering woman who controls a small town after inheriting a large family fortune. She lives with her weakling husband a district attorney running for mayor played by Kirk Douglas in his feature film debut - a role that's an unusual departure from his later work. What no one in the town knows however is that Stanwyck and Douglas are bound by a dark secret involving murder. Gripping and suspenseful this film noir classic also stars Van Heflin as Martha's old love who returns to town after an 18-year absence whom Douglas thinks is there for one reason: blackmail.
'Last Train From Gun Hill' is the ultimate revenge tale set in an unlawful Old West... The Marshal's trail to find his wife's murderer leads him to the town of Gun Hill where he discovers the son of an old ally is responsible for the crime. A dangerous game of cat-and-mouse unfolds as the Marshall is trapped in a race against time to avenge his wife's death before he can catch the last train out of town...
American fighters Jimmy Smith and Doug Anderson travel the world in search of a good fight. Follow them as they tackle 13 different forms of hand-to-hand combat from stick-fighting in the Philippines to full-contact Karate in Japan. In each country they visit Jimmy and Doug have just five days of intense training before having to face off against a local master in a no-holds-barred test of skill. The fighting is real and so are the results. Join the boys in their culturally immersive quest to experience the world's toughest fighting forms. As made by and shown on the Discovery Channel this 4 DVD set covers the following martial arts and fighting disciplines: - Kali Kung Fu Kyokushin Karate Hapkido Savate Poncak Silak Boxing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Krav Maga Kajukenbo Muay Thai Kalarippayattu Wing Chun.
'Gregory's 2 Girls' is part thriller, part romantic comedy and finds Gregory still dreaming his way through life and still looking for romance.
Set a few years after the original film "Warriors of Virtue," the sequel finds Ryan and his best friend Chucky arrive at a martial arts competition in Beijing and thrust into the parallel land of Tao to do battle as the next Warriors of Virtue!
A Family At War is the classic ITV series chronicling the fortunes of the Ashton family living in Liverpool during the Second World War.
In this hilarious programme we revisit some of Kenneth Williams' funniest moments from an illustrious career that has made him one of Britain's best loved comedy heroes. Laugh again at some of the best sketches ever written for film and television and a few that may have escaped you from his earlier career. In addition to archive interviews with Mr Williams himself we also hear the first hand reflections of his long term partner's Barbara Windsor and Jack Douglas and others he starred with such as Patsy Rowlands Michael Anderson and Barry Took who all pay tribute to the comic genius that was Kenneth Williams. Although sadly missed Kenneth Williams will continue to entertain us on TV screens for years to come via the comic legacy that is the classic series of Carry On films as well as his unforgettable TV appearances such as 'A Celebrity Audience With...' and much more.
A man with a screenplay to sell sets out to find a backer. Unfortunately all those he approaches with money and influence insist that the screenplay be 'sexed up' and made more violent...
This dark melodrama based on the John Patrick story 'Love Lies Bleeding' stars Barbara Stanwyck as the wonderfully wicked Martha Ivers a wealthy and domineering woman who controls a small town after inheriting a large family fortune. She lives with her weakling husband a district attorney running for mayor played by Kirk Douglas in his feature film debut - a role that's an unusual departure from his later work. What no one in the town knows however is that Stanwyck and Dougl
Set a few years after the original film "Warriors of Virtue," the sequel finds Ryan and his best friend Chucky arrive at a martial arts competition in Beijing and thrust into the parallel land of Tao to do battle as the next Warriors of Virtue!
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