Made in 1989 and set 15 years after the end of the Vietnam War, Jacknife tells the story of alcoholic trucker Dave (Ed Harris) who lives with his sister Martha (Kathy Baker). Robert De Niro is Megs, Dave's ex-'Nam sidekick who re-enters his life on the promise of a fishing trip. Megs and Martha embark on a tentative courtship to the seething fury of Dave, who considers Megs "bad news". However, through wartime flashbacks it soon becomes clear that his hitting the bottle is a means of bottling up his feelings about Vietnam, Megs and their mutual buddy Bobby, killed in action. Ruminative and romantic, Jacknife slow-burns its predictable though satisfying way to its resolution, the three main players carrying the burdens of their roles with admirable restraint, especially Ed Harris, whose rage is internalised at the expense of his liver. There are echoes of The Deerhunter but this is not a film of that order or scale, as its low-budget synthesiser soundtrack signifies, feeling at times like a superior made-for-TV affair. On the DVD: A full-screen version with a ratio of 4:3. Neither sound nor picture quality are exactly a showcase for DVD technology, both being a little fuzzy, while the dubbing goes noticeably awry on 42 minutes. Special features are decidedly un-special: the original, lugubrious trailer plus "talent profiles" which are merely lists of the main players' previous films. --David Stubbs
Viggo Mortensen stars in this stylized thriller from director David Cronenberg.
Mr Deeds (Dir. Steven Brill 2002): Small town guy Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) inherits a $40 billion fortune from his deceased uncle. He promptly moves to the big city where he meets Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) a tabloid reporter who poses as a small town girl to uncover an expos on Mr Deeds. Conniving opportunists attempt to get their hands on his money while Deeds' sincere naivet has Babe falling in love with him. Ultimately Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things but it doesn't necessarily need to change him... Big Daddy (Dir. Dennis Dugan 1999): Thirty-two-year old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an older man he's got to find a way to prove he's ready to grow up. In a desperate last-ditch effort Sonny adopts five-year-old Julian to impress her. She's not impressed...and he can't return the kid. Uh-oh for Sonny! Spanglish (Dir. James L. Brooks 2004): A comedy with a language all its own! A woman and her daughter emigrate from Mexico for a new life in America; they end up working for John Clasky (Sandler) who's trying to come to terms with sudden success as a celebrity chef an overly sensitive wife (Tea Leoni) emotional children and an increasing attraction to his new nanny...
Charles Bronson stars as a US Border Guard who is trying to protect the country from the millions of illegal Mexicans immigrants who attempt to cross the border annually. He becomes involved in a murder hunt when his partner and a poor youth are murdered.
Mr Deeds (Dir. Steven Brill 2002): Small town guy Longfellow Deeds (Adam Sandler) inherits a billion fortune from his deceased uncle. He promptly moves to the big city where he meets Babe Bennett (Winona Ryder) a tabloid reporter who poses as a small town girl to uncover an expos'' on Mr Deeds. Conniving opportunists attempt to get their hands on his money while Deeds' sincere naivet'' has Babe falling in love with him. Ultimately Deeds comes to find that money truly has the power to change things but it doesn't necessarily need to change him... Big Daddy (Dir. Dennis Dugan 1999): Thirty-two-year old Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) has spent his whole life avoiding responsibility. But when his girlfriend dumps him for an older man he's got to find a way to prove he's ready to grow up. In a desperate last-ditch effort Sonny adopts five-year-old Julian to impress her. She's not impressed...and he can't return the kid. Uh-oh for Sonny! Anger Management (Dir. Peter Segal 2003): Dave Buznik (Adam Sandler) is usually a mild-mannered non-confrontational guy. But after an altercation aboard an airplane he is remanded to the care of anger management therapist Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) who could probably use some anger management himself. Now Dave is really mad!
A special military unit ventures into the de-militarized zone (DMZ) of Korea to destroy a North Korean nuclear power plant slated to start producing nuclear weapons...
Glengarry Glen Ross: He's an animal of instinct. Ferocious. Hungry. Driven by the kill. He's an endangered species. A dying breed. And he's going down fighting. He is The Property Salesman. Cinema's star players chase leads scrape deals and sell their souls for a fast buck in Glengarry Glen Ross as box office big hitters Al Pacino Jack Lemmon Alec Baldwin Ed Harris Alan Arkin Kevin Spacey and Jonathan Pryce team up to tie down the one sale that could mean the difference between glory and the gutter. An insight into our materialistic era. A film for the decade Glengarry Glen Ross is a movie for everyone dying to make a living. City banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) arrived at Shawshank Prison in 1947. Convicted of two brutal murders he received a double life sentence and discovers that when they send you to Shawshank State Prison for life that is exactly what they take. Shawshank Redemption: Within the confines of Shawshank Andy forms an unlikely friendship with the prison fixer Red (Morgan Freeman). He also becomes popular with the Warden and the prison's guards as Andy is able to use his banking experience to help the corrupt officials amass personal fortunes. The Fabulous Baker Boys: With an extraordinary twist in the tale Andy finds that survival comes down to a simple choice: get busy living or get busy dying... Frank and Jack Baker are professional musicians who play small clubs. Jack is the cynical talented one with a liking for casual relationships while Frank is more ordinary and organised with a suburban home and family. After a series of boring gigs they decide to hire a singer. Into their lives walks Susie Diamond a hard nosed woman with a face as beautiful as her voice. Their status begins to pick up but tensions are beginning to mount between the two brothers especially as romance is blossoming between Susie and Jack.
Living In Hope is a coming of age comedy set in the University town of Bristol. It centres on five very different characters thrown together as freshers in Hope Hall. When Posh' invites everyone to his Aunt's house on the Moor events cause them all to re-evaluate life and love. And of course there's a very tall bridge to jump off....
SET IN 1965... That's What I Am is a coming-of-age story which follows 12-year-old Andy Nichol (Chase Ellison The Tooth Fairy) a well-liked student who is put to the test when his English teacher Mr. Simon (Academy Award Nominee Ed Harris Apollo 13) pairs him up on a project with the school's biggest outcast Stanley aka Big G. Now Andy must face the bullies and teasing head on and learn what might be Mr. Simon's final lesson: tolerance takes courage. Also starring randy Orton as Ed Freel.
Anzio: Robert Mitchum Peter Falk and Arthur Kennedy star in the rivetting war drama Anzio a vivid portrait of one of the bloodiest WWII battles ever fought. After landing with Allied troops at Anzio Italy in 1944 war correspondent Dick Ennis (Mitchum) and buddy Corporal Rabinoff (Falk) tell Anzio commander General Lesley (Kennedy) that the road to Rome is wide open. But instead of heading to Rome Lesley attempts to build a coastal stronghold only to discover that the Germans have outflanked them by enclosing the Anzio beachhead. Four months and over 30 000 casualties later the Allied forces smash through the German lines and victoriously march to Rome. Directed by Edward Dmytryk (The Caine Mutiny Back To Bataan) Anzio is a powerful film and a symbol of heroic tenacity. The Beast: War brings out the beast in every man. Afghanistan 1981 and the Soviet Union is locked in a futile and bloody battle with the Mujahedeen guerillas. Separated from their patrol the crew of a Russian T-62 tank engages in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the local insurgents led by Taj (Steven Bauer). The tyrannical tank commander Daskal (George Dzundza) wreaks havoc on a peaceful Afghani village pushing the moral boundaries of the tank driver Koverchenko (Jason Patric) to the limits. Sensing mutiny the psychotic Daskal abandons the disenchanted tanker to die in the desert at the hand of rebels only to find he's sealed his own fate. A Soldiers Story: Tensions flare in this gripping film about a murder on a black army base near the end of World War II. Captain Davenport (Howard E. Rollins Jr.) a proud black army attorney is sent to Fort Neal Louisiana to investigate the ruthless shooting death of Sergeant Waters (Adolph Caesar). Through interviews with Waters' men Davenport learns that he was a vicious man who served the white world and despised his own roots. Was the killer a bigoted white officer? Or could he have been a black soldier embittered by Waters' constant race baiting? Directed by Norman Jewison from Charles Fuller's Pulitzer Prize-winning play A Soldier's Story is both a spellbinding mystery and a superb drama that transcends race.
The Stepfather - This is the chilling tale of a congenial family man whose engaging smile and staid demeanor insidiously mask a deep-seated dementia. His obsessive desire to live the ideal family life ultimately leads to the family's very destruction. Glengarry Glen Ross - He's an animal of instinct. Ferocious. Hungry. Driven by the kill. He's an endangered species. A dying breed. And he's going down fighting. He is The Property Salesman. Cinema's star players chase le
Liam moves away from Ireland to USA where he settles in Bronx. There he works in a little bar owned by Italian Mario and lives with other illegal immigrants who are afraid that they'll get thrown out of the country and are not sure of their place in his new life including his cousin Des.
Houston we have a problem. Stranded 205 000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft astronauts Jim Lovell (Hanks) Fred Haise (Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Bacon) fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile at Mission Control astronaut Ken Mattingly (Sinise) flight director Gene Kranz (Harris) and a heroic ground crew race against time and the odds to bring them home. It's a breathtaking adventure that tells a story of courage faith and ingenuity that is all the more remarkable as it's based on true events!
Ed Harris (Appaloosa, Cleaner) stars in this emotionally charged true life story of love and redemption, from writer-directors Logan and Noah Miller. The Millers co-star as Lane and Clint Winston, twin brothers who struggle to support their homeless, alcoholic father (HARRIS) while pursuing professional sports careers as their only means of escaping their rough neighbourhood and finding a better life. A powerful coming-of-age story, Touching Home is about overcoming enormous odds, discovering family and the bonds that matter.
In an attempt to make some really quick money a group of friends visit tunnels beneath the Mexican border and carry out drug deals. An urban myth surrounds the tunnels telling of tortured ghosts who prey on human victims but the gang carry on unperturbed....
There's schlock-horror movie-making par excellence from producer Dick Randall in this Something Weird Collection 1 twofer. Meat Is Meat (1971) finds mad butcher Otto Lehman back in the Viennese community doing what he does best. With its Sweeney Todd overtones this is not for the faint of stomach, but those who enjoy seeing nagging wives and creepy sidekicks transformed into sausages will lap up accordingly. Victor Buono is perfect casting as Lehman, with Brad Harris stylish as the bored American journalist who rumbles his activities and Karen Field looking good as the housekeeper next door. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1973) is less OTT than the title suggests. Rossano Brazzi (earlier of South Pacific!) is a thoughtful Count Frankenstein, while Michael Dunn is seriously unlikable as necrophile dwarf Genz. As anthropologist-cum-sex kitten Krista, Christiane Royce brings a welcome sophistication to this gloss on the hoary Karloff classic, whose opening "location" sequence and standard of dubbing has to be seen to be believed. On the DVD: The Something Weird Collection 1 DVD presentation is of the no-frills variety usual with Siren releases. With decent remastering at 1.33:1 aspect ratio the lurid colour of both films comes through unadulterated. An added attraction is the poster gallery of low-budget shockers with mildly psychedelic soundtrack to boot. It's good, if not so clean fun for all the family. --Richard Whitehouse
A remarkable true story about a father who beat his two sons and committed incest with his four daughters. As adults they embark on a dramatic legal action against him.
Translating Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character from British television to the big screen takes a bit of a toll, but there are some hilarious sequences in this popular comedy. The eponymous Bean, a boy-man twit with a knack for getting into difficult binds (and then making them worse and worse and worse), is a London museum guard who is sent to Los Angeles in the company of the famous painting Whistler's Mother. He's mistaken as an art expert by the well-meaning curator (Peter MacNicol) of an LA museum, but Bean's famously eccentric behaviour soon causes the poor guy to almost lose his family and job. The insularity of Bean's TV world is sacrificed in this film, and that change diminishes some of the character's appeal. But Atkinson is a man naturally full of comedy, and he doesn't let his fans down. --Tom Keogh
Resident Evil: Something rotten is brewing beneath the industrial mecca known as Raccoon City. Unknown to its millions of residents a huge underground bioengineering facility known as The Hive has accidentally unleashed the deadly and mutating T-virus killing all of its employees. To contain the leak the governing supercomputer Red Queen has sealed all entrances and exits. Now a team of highly-trained super commandos including Rain Alice and Matt must race to penetrate The Hive in order to isolate the T-virus before it overwhelms humanity. To do so they must get past the Red Queen's deadly defenses face the flesh-eating undead employees fight killer mutant dogs and battle The Licker a genetically mutated savage beast whose strength increases with each of its slain victims. Resident Evil: Apocalypse: After the outbreak in the top-secret facility the sinister Umbrella organisation instigates a coverup by releasing the deadly Nemesis toxin to eliminate the surviving members of STARS in Raccoon City...
THE HOLLYWOOD COLLECTION GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS AL PACINO HEADS A STUNNING STAR-STUDDED CAST... Close the deal...or you re history. The stakes couldn t be higher for four desperate Chicago real-estate salesmen: close the deal or lose your job. David Mamet s famously profanity-laden screenplay based on his own Pulitzer Prize-winning play ferociously nails the dog-eat-dog world where lies, flattery, threats, theft and bribery rule supreme as the four salesman scrabble to thrash the opposition and keep their livelihoods. But who will survive? Will it be top closer Ricky Roma? Has-been Shelley The Machine Levene? Timid no-hoper George Aaronow? Big-mouth Dave Moss? Or does ruthless office manager Williamson hold all the trump cards? Al Pacino, who earned both Academy Award® and Golden Globe® nominations for his powerhouse performance, heads a fabulous cast of big-name stellar talent, including Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris, Alan Arkin, Jonathan Pryce and Jack Lemmon (who won the Volpi Cup - Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival). JULIA Fred Zinnemann's last great movie. Based on part of Lillian Hellman's memoir, the film stars Jane Fonda as Hellman as she recounts her friendship with the enigmatic JULIA, played by Vanessa Redgrave. Fonda gives a gutsy performance, playing well with Redgrave and, to a greater degree, Jason Robards, who plays Dashell Hammett. Alvin Sargent's screenplay cleverly bends time, jumping back and forth as the story of Hellman's friendship with Julia is told and Zinnemann creates a melancholy feel that's sustained throughout. The excellent music by Georges Delerue is haunting and the cinematography by Douglas Slocombe is beautiful. The supporting cast features Meryl Streep as Anne Marie, Maximillian Schell as Johann, Cathleen Nesbitt as Julia's grandmother, Rosemary Murphy as Dorothy Parker and Hal Holbrook as Parker's husband Alan Campbell. THE LONG HOT SUMMER Paul Newman plays Ben Quick, the mysterious drifter who stirs up a town and its women when he hitches up in Frenchman s Bend, Mississippi, where life is dominated by elderly patriarch Will Varner (Orson Welles). Will s daughter Clara (Joanne Woodward) and son Jody (Anthony Franciosa) are a disappointment to him. While Jody spends his time fooling around with his alluring wife, Eula (Lee Remick), the strong-willed Clara is courted by Alan Stewart (Richard Anderson), a milquetoast mama s boy. Will himself is resisting being pressured into marriage by his long-term mistress Minnie (Angela Lansbury), but he sees in Ben the passion and drive that Jody lacks. He invites Ben to live with the family, and Ben launches a relentless campaign to break Clara s will and win her heart. This proves the final straw for Jody, who is driven to desperate measures to prove his manhood a situation that sparks both deadly danger and shocking revelations over the course of one long, hot summer.
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