Blood Simple made it clear that the cinematically precocious Coen brothers (writer-director Joel and writer-producer Ethan) were gifted filmmakers to watch out for. But it was the outrageously farcical Raising Arizona that announced the Coens' darkly comedic audacity to the world. It wasn't widely seen when released in 1987, but its modest audience was vocally supportive, and this hyperactive comedy has since developed a large and loyal following. It's the story of "Ed" (for Edwina, played by Holly Hunter), a policewoman who falls in love with "Hi" (for H.I. McDonnough, played by Nicolas Cage) while she's taking his mug shots. She's infertile and he's a habitual robber of convenience stores, and their folksy marital bliss depends on settling down with a rug rat. Unable to conceive, they kidnap one of the newsworthy quintuplets born to an unpainted-furniture huckster named Nathan Arizona (Trey Wilson), who quickly hires a Harley-riding mercenary (Randall "Tex" Cobb) to track the baby's whereabouts. What follows is a full-throttle comedy that defies description, fuelled by the Coens' lyrical, redneck dialogue, the manic camerawork of future director Barry Sonnenfeld and some of the most inventively comedic chase scenes ever filmed. Some will dismiss the comedy for being recklessly over-the-top; others will love it for its clever mix of slapstick action, surreal fantasy and homespun family values. One thing's for sure--this is a Coen movie from start to finish, and that makes it undeniably unique. --Jeff Shannon
Best Friends Are Forever... The dog everyone loves now leaps into the '90s in this all-new exciting updated version of Lassie! Determined to start a new life in the country the Turner family - Dad Step-mom little Jennifer and teenager Matt - leaves the city for the wilds of Virginia. The move creates problems for everyone especially Matt who feels lost and alone in his new surroundings. Fortunately the Turners are helped by a homeless collie who becomes part of their liv
Geena Davis and her former husband, director Renny Harlin, attempted to pick up the pieces after the debacle of their box-office disaster, Cutthroat Island. What they came up with was The Long Kiss Goodnight, a repulsive ode to American film noir, based on a script by Shane Black (Lethal Weapon) about an amnesiac schoolteacher (Davis) who searches for her true identity and finds she is actually a secret agent immersed in a deadly plot to topple the government. Mechanistic in its violence, obnoxious in its attitude, the film makes Davis, a once-promising actress, nothing more than a special effect. She tosses one to sadists in the audience by allowing her character to be beaten, punched unconscious and tortured. --Tom Keogh
1992's My Cousin Vinny is a delightful comedy-cum-courtroom drama set in Alabama. Joe Pesci stars as Vinny, the garage mechanic recently turned lawyer, who finds himself straight in at the deep end when his young cousin is unjustly arrested, along with his buddy, for the murder of a store clerk. From the opening scenes in which the hapless arrestees labour under the impression they've been booked for stealing a can of tuna, My Cousin Vinny's comedic pace never slackens, even as the drama builds. Much of the fun derives from raw, Brooklyn native Vinny's coping with the cultural backwaters of the Deep South, from its lardy grits to the 5.30 am "alarm call" of the factory horn. There's a good running gag involving retrieving $200 from a recalcitrant local redneck, while his clashes with the court judge, played by the late Fred Gwynne are priceless. Pesci goads this stickler for procedures by mumbling expletives in court, turning up in a leather jacket, then a mauve frock coat and arousing the judge's suspicions as to his bona fides. However, it's Marisa Tomei who surprisingly, but justly, took an Academy Award for her performance as tomboyish Lisa, Vinny's girlfriend. Tart rather than tarty, she more than matches Pesci for Noo Yoik sass and mechanical knowledge, delivering a court lecture on limited slip differential and independent rear suspension that oozes improbable sexiness. On the DVD: a decent presentation in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, though it's only Tomei's bizarrely eye-catching costumes which especially merit DVD enhancement. There's also a commentary by director (and co-creator of Yes Minister) Jonathan Lynn, in which--though at times seeming to struggle for interesting things to say--he reminisces on the fear in shooting the film's prison scenes adjacent to Death Row in a maximum security prison. --David Stubbs
When it comes to footballing wisdom Mike's in a league of his own! Following his moderate success as England boss Mike Bassett (Ricky Tomlinson) wants one last chance of the big time after an otherwise undistinguished managerial career. He's offered a job at Wirral County a team his dad once played for and believes he can resurrect the side currently languishing as the bottom of their league. Bassett has fallen on hard times since reaching the latter stages of the World Cup. H
In 1984 Romancing the Stone was a huge hit for director Robert Zemeckis (who later went on to make Forrest Gump, Contact and Castaway among others) thanks in no small part to the winning team of Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito. The chemistry between all three stars is infectious, but Turner steals the show from the guys, playing a pushy romance novelist who gets stuck among some dangerous figures in Colombia and has only a rumpled guide (Michael Douglas) as an ally. Zemeckis--whose specialty at the time was creating set pieces of raucous action (as in his Back to the Future trilogy)--keeps things hopping with lots of kinetic material. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com The Jewel of the Nile is a moderately entertaining sequel that pales by comparison to its predecessor. Romance novelist Kathleen Turner and retired soldier-of-fortune Michael Douglas return as a now-complacent couple. Bored with life on a yacht, they find excitement thrust upon them when she accepts a speaking engagement in the Middle East. Once there, she is abducted and finds herself involved with the "jewel" everyone is chasing. Douglas teams up once more with Danny DeVito to rescue his love. Less charming and more predictable than the original, this suffers for one simple reason: the characters have nowhere to go. In the original story we watched Turner blossom from timid storyteller to lusty adventuress. In this flick she is too much like all the other action adventure babes we've seen before. The same trio of stars reunited to better effect in DeVito's dark comedy The War of the Roses. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com
In Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig reveals herself to be a bold new cinematic voice with her directorial debut, excavating both the humor and pathos in the turbulent bond between a mother and her teenage daughter. Christine Lady Bird McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) fights against but is exactly like her wildly loving, deeply opinionated and strong-willed mom (Laurie Metcalf), a nurse working tirelessly to keep her family afloat after Lady Bird's father (Tracy Letts) loses his job. Set in Sacramento, California in 2002, amidst a rapidly shifting American economic landscape, Lady Bird is an affecting look at the relationships that shape us, the beliefs that define us, and the unmatched beauty of a place called home.
Those who survive the ghost ship are better off dead! A cruise ship heading for the Caribbean crashes by a mysterious vessel leaving seven plucky survivors to crawl onboard the unholy ghost ship. Soon they find they're on heading for an unknown destination with something hellbent on destroying them all!
Jedi Knights Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn rescue Queen Amidala, ruler of a peaceful planet invaded by dark forces. On their escape, they discover nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, a child prodigy who is unusually strong in The Force. Episode I: Phantom Menace Bonus Disc Conversations: Doug Chiang Looks Back Discoveries From Inside: Models & Miniatures George Lucas On The Digital Revolution The Beginning Feature-Length Documentary The Podrace: Theatrical Edit Archive Fly-Through Naboo Overview Liam Neeson Interview Tatooine Overview Rick McCallum Interview - Podracers Rick McCallum Interview - Filming in Tunisia Coruscant Overview George Lucas Preparing To Write Episode I - 1994 Trash-Talking Droids The Waterfall Sequence Extended Podrace Wager Complete Podrace Grid Sequence Extended Podrace Lap Two Anakin's Scuffle With Greedo Battle On The Boarding Ramp Bail Organa of Alderaan The Battle Is Over Anakin's Return Jar Jar Maquette Trade Federation Battleship Concept Model Republic Cruiser Concept Model Queen Amidala Throne Room Costume Full Sized Battle Droid Naboo Starfighter Concept Model Sando Aqua Monster Maquette Darth Maul Costume Palpatine's Shuttle Model Queen's Royal Starship Concept Model Eopie With Anakin Maquette Watto Maquette Sebulba Maquette Dud Bolt Puppet Anakin's Podracer Tabletop Model Sith Speeder Model Coruscant Air Taxi Model Queen Amidala Senate Costume Queen Amidala Pre-Senate Address Costume Senate Guard Costume
Fatal Attraction was the most controversial hit of 1987, a film nominated for six Oscars that launched a whole up-market psycho sub-genre. In an elaboration of Play Misty for Me (1971), Michael Douglas plays a married middle-class everyman who has an opportunistic weekend affair with New York publishing executive, Glenn Close. The twist is that Close's Alex is a borderline psychotic. She won't let go, and the film moves from a study of modern sexual mores to an increasingly tense thriller about neurotic obsession. The performances are exceptional and two set-pieces, one which gave us the term "Bunny Boiler" and another in a fairground, provide metaphorical and literal rollercoaster rides. Only a laughable sex scene--in a sink, anyone?--and a melodramatic finale shamelessly ripping-off the 1955 French classic Les Diaboliques and Psycho (1960) prevent a good thriller being a great one. Even so, Fatal Attraction is still a film worth seeing again, even if it's hard to wonder what all the fuss was about in 1987. On the DVD: Fatal Attraction on disc has a new 28-minute documentary featuring the principal players explaining how wonderful each other are. More substantial is a 19-minute feature on creating the visual look, with sections on cinematography, costume and make-up design. A worthwhile 10-minute piece examines the social impact of the movie and the controversy it generated. Seven minutes of the three stars in rehearsal is intriguing, but more interesting is the opportunity to see the original, low-key ending, rejected after test screenings. Much of the best documentary material focuses on how the finally released ending came about, while Lyne's commentary is thoughtful and illuminating. The original trailer is included and there are 16 sets of subtitles, including English for the hard of hearing, as well as an alternative German dub. The sound has been remixed from stereo into a subtly involving Dolby Digital 5.1, and the 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer looks fine, though there is some very minor print damage. --Gary S Dalkin
A visually sumptuous and quintessentially British production, Death on the Nile won an Oscar® for Anthony Powell's costume design and introduced Peter Ustinov in his first portrayal as the Belgian detective Poirot. Abroad a luxury Nile steamer a mystery assassin takes the life of an heiress. EXTRAS Making Of Interview with costume designer Anthony Powell Interview with Dame Angela Lansbury Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Costume designs stills gallery
What if baby Kal-El's rocket landed, not in Kansas, but in the Soviet Union? That is the premise of this Elseworld's tale from DC Comics.
Based on the best-selling anthologies of Victorian and Edwardian detective fi ction, The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes features the world-famous consulting detective's fictional rivals in the fog-shrouded crime capital of London. Set in the three decades before the Great War, each story dealt with an individual and perplexing case (and a different detective). This top-flight, BAFTA-winning series attracted an incredible array of talent, including John Neville, Robert Stephens, Peter Vaughan, Roy Dotrice, Donald Pleasence, Ronald Hines, Peter Barkworth and Donald Sinden. This set contains the 13 high quality episodes that made up the complete first series
The tragedy of World War I is redefined in bawdy music-hall terms presented as the ""new attraction"" at the Brighton Amusement Pier complete with syrupy cheer-up songs shooting galleries free prizes and a scoreboard toting up the dead The Story focuses mainly on the members of one family (last name Smith) whose five sons enlist and end up as cannon fodder Much of the action in the movie revolves around the words of the marching songs of the soldiers and many scenes portray some of the more famous (and infamous) incidents of the war including: the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand the Christmas meeting between British and German soldiers in no-mans-land the wiping out by their own side of a force of Irish soldiers The final image is a veddy proper British picnic on a graveyard. Of the many fleeting satiric images parading past the camera one of the most indelible is the sight of several generals playing leapfrog as the world all around them goes to hell in a handbasket.
Queen Victoria strikes up an an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. Click Images to Enlarge
Fargo: William H. Macy plays Jerry Lundegaard a Minneapolis car salesman who is by all accounts a loser. He is desperately in debt so decides to hires two thugs (who are bigger losers than he is) to kidnap his wife in the hope that his wealthy father-in-law (who bullies him regularly) will pay the ransom. When one of the kidnappers goes off the rails and events career out of control it falls to Marge Gunderson Chief of the Brainerd Police Department to set things right. The Usual Suspects: Held in an L.A. interrogation room Verbal Kint (Spacey) attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord not only exists but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor - leaving few survivors. But as Kint lures his interrogators into the incredible story of this crime lord's almost supernatural prowess so too will you be mesmerized by a lore that is completely captivating from beginning to end! Silence Of The Lambs: A psychopath known only as Buffalo Bill is kidnapping and murdering young women across the midwest. Believing it takes one to know one the FBI send in Agent Clarice Starling to interview an insane prisoner who may provide psychological Dr. Hannibal Lecter. Brilliant yet psychotic with a taste for cannibalism Lecter will only help Starling in exchange for details and secrets about her own complicated life. This twisted relationship forces Starling not only to face her own inner demons but leads her face-to-face with a demented killer an incarnation of evil so overwhelming she may not have the courage or strength to stop him. Horrific disturbing spellbinding. This thriller set the standard by which all others are measured.
From The Haunting of Hill House creator Mike Flanagan and producer Trevor Macy comes THE HAUNTING OF BLY MANOR, the next highly anticipated chapter of The Haunting anthology series, set in 1980s England. After an au pair's tragic death, Henry Wingrave (Henry Thomas) hires a young American nanny (Victoria Pedretti) to care for his orphaned niece and nephew (Amelie Bea Smith, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) who reside at Bly Manor with the estate's chef Owen (Rahul Kohli), groundskeeper Jamie (Amelia Eve) and housekeeper, Mrs. Grose (T'Nia Miller). But all is not as it seems at the manor, and centuries of dark secrets of love and loss are waiting to be unearthed in this chilling gothic romance. At Bly Manor, dead doesn't mean gone. Special Features Go behind the scenes with EXCLUSIVE special features including: Home for the Haunted: The Ghosts of Bly Manor Featurette Welcome to Bly Manor Featurette Audio Commentary by Director/Creator Mike Flanagan Audio Commentary by Director Liam Gavin Audio Commentary by Director Axelle Carolyn
In the delightful romantic comedy Green Card, Georges (Gérard Depardieu), a composer and one-time petty thief who grew up in poverty, attempts to escape his life in Paris and begin anew in America by illegally marrying Bronte (Andie MacDowell), a prim and repressed young lady from a privileged life in Connecticut. Bronte, who has agreed to the scheme for her own self-serving reasons, is exasperated when the Immigration & Naturalisation Service investigates their case, and she and Georges, whom she detests, must spend time together studying each other's lives to avoid disaster. The fallout is infinitely better handled than any run-of-the-mill Hollywood romantic comedy, and the very ending itself stops deliciously short of where Hollywood would feel compelled to drag the story. Fine performances are given by MacDowell, Depardieu--who is fiercely charming pounding the keyboard of a Steinway at an upper class Manhattan dinner party--and Bebe Neuwirth, who is perfect as an upper-class child turned artist who revels in her irresponsibility. --James McGrath, Amazon.com
The Naked Gun (Dir. David Zucker 1988): Those screw-loose Airplane! creators have done it again! Leslie Nielsen stars as Police Squad's own granite-jawed rock-brained cop Frank Drebin who bumbles across a mind-control scheme to assassinate Queen Elizabeth. Priscilla Presley O.J. Simpson a stuffed beaver two baseball teams and an odd assortment of others join the wacko goings-on and blow the laugh-o-meter to smithereens. The Naked Gun 2 1/2 - The Smell Of Fear (Dir. David Zucker 1991): Lt Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen) loves a mystery. Why are we here? Is there life after sex? Yes Drebin tackles the big issues - and the biggest of all is how to stop devious Quentin Hapsburg's (Robert Goulet) plan to destroy the environment! Returning with Nielsen in this hilarious Naked Gun sequel are Priscilla Presley as Jane the woman who can melt a cheese sandwich from 20 paces and George Kennedy as intrepid Captain Ed Hocken. The gang's all here. And so are the laughs. Like Drebin you're gonna love it. The Naked Gun 33 1/3 - The Final Insult (Dir. Peter Segal 1994): Oscar night. Who will win? Who will lose? And will someone please kick that numbskull offstage? Wait! That's no ordinary numbskull. That's Lt Frank Drebin crashing the ceremonies to stop a terrorist plot that could mean curtains for him - or will a simple window shade be enough? Yes back with a hilarious three-peat and a state-of-the art advance in sequel numbering are the filmmakers you love the returning stars you adore plus others getting Naked for the first time: Fred Ward Anna Nicole Smith and more folks you'd happily give your seat to on a crowded bus. The fun begins when...oops; we don't want to give away the gags. No. You'll have to pay for them. You'll be glad you did!
A visually sumptuous and quintessentially British production, Death on the Nile won an Oscar® for Anthony Powell's costume design and introduced Peter Ustinov in his first portrayal as the Belgian detective Poirot. Abroad a luxury Nile steamer a mystery assassin takes the life of an heiress. EXTRAS Making Of Interview with costume designer Anthony Powell Interview with Dame Angela Lansbury Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Costume designs stills gallery
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