Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the ambitious story from one of the world's most-celebrated authors, makes its long-awaited launch to the big screen, starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black. Sharing an ancient vendetta, they must fight to the death in this epic battle over the fate of the All-World Universe. Click Images to Enlarge
NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.
From stalwart Ealing director Basil Dearden (The Blue Lamp, Pool of London) comes this enjoyable yet creepy wartime tale of a group of strangers driven to take shelter at a remote Welsh inn during a storm. What they don't know is that the inn was bombed by a German plane a year ago and their hosts were killed in the blast. Starring Mervyn Johns (A Christmas Carol) and real-life daughter Glynis Jones (Mary Poppins), The Halfway House was written by Anghus Mcphail (Whiskey Galore!, It Always Rains on Sunday), Diana Morgan (Went The Day Well?, Pink String and Sealing Wax) and T.E.B. Clarke (Passport to Pimlico, The Titfield Thunderbolt) from the stage play by Dennis Ogden. Extras: Interview with Matthew Sweet, Stills gallery
Released in 1977, Close Encounters of the Third Kind was that year's cerebral alternative to Star Wars. It's arguably the archetypal Spielberg film, featuring a fantasy-meets-reality storyline (to be developed further in E.T.), a misunderstood Everyman character (Richard Dreyfuss), apparently hostile government agents (long before The X-Files), a sense of childlike awe in the face of the otherworldly, and a sweeping feel for epic film-making learned from the classic school of David Lean. Contributing to the film's overall success are the Oscar-winning cinematography from Vilmos Zsigmond, Douglas Trumbull's lavish effects and an extraordinary score from John Williams that develops from eerie atonality à la Ligeti to the gorgeous sentiment of "When You Wish Upon a Star" over the end credits. Not content with the final result, Spielberg tinkered with the editing and inserted some new scenes to make a "Special Edition" in 1980 which ran three minutes shorter than the original, then made further revisions to create a slightly longer "Collector's Edition" in 1998. This later version deletes the mothership interior scenes that were inserted in the "Special Edition" and restores the original ending. On the DVD: CE3K is packaged here with confusing documentation that fails to make clear any differences between earlier versions of the film and this "Collector's Edition"--worse, the back cover blurb misleadingly implies that this disc is the 1980 "Special Edition" edit. It is not. A gorgeous anamorphic widescreen print of Spielberg's 1998 "Collector's Edition" edit occupies the first disc: this is the version with the original theatrical ending restored but new scenes from the "Special Edition" retained. The second disc rounds up sundry deleted scenes that were either dropped from the original version or never made it into the film at all--fans of the "Special Edition" can find the mothership interior sequence here. The excellent "making-of" documentary dates from 1997 and has interviews with almost everyone involved, including the director speaking from the set of Saving Private Ryan. Thankfully the superb picture and sound of the feature make this set entirely compelling and more than compensate for the inadequate packaging. --Mark Walker
Stephen King's The Dark Tower, the ambitious story from one of the world's most-celebrated authors, makes its long-awaited launch to the big screen, starring Idris Elba as Roland Deschain and Matthew McConaughey as the Man in Black. Sharing an ancient vendetta, they must fight to the death in this epic battle over the fate of the All-World Universe. Click Images to Enlarge
Rapid Fire was the penultimate film starring Brandon Lee before his untimely death on the set of The Crow. It's a standard martial arts thriller in which Lee plays Jake Lo, a young arts student who witnesses a gangland execution and is unwittingly drawn into a pitched standoff between the mafia, a Chinese drug syndicate and Ryan, a downbeat but resolute Chicago cop (Powers Boothe) determined to nail his prey. With a plot that careens through every genre cliché, Lee's smouldering looks and showy fighting skills carry the film. The martial arts sequences (which Lee co-choreographed) are nicely staged, but given the unusual settings--the penultimate fight takes place in a Chinese laundry--could have been even more inventive. The workmanlike direction by Dwight H Little (Marked for Death, Free Willy 2) fails to inject much into the material. In particular, traumatised by seeing his Special Agent father die in the Tiananmen Square massacre, Jake Lo's attraction to both a corrupt FBI agent and Ryan as surrogate father figures could have been given more resonance given the loss of Brandon Lee's own father at an early age. With hundreds of bloodless deaths, cringe-worthy dialogue and a dated power rock soundtrack, Rapid Fire looks and feels like a TV film. And on that level, at least, it's entertaining. On the DVD: The main feature is presented in letterboxed widescreen. Sound and picture quality are very good. Subtitles are provided for ten languages (Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norweigian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish) and in English for the hard of hearing. Extra features are limited to chapter selection and a theatrical trailer. --Chris Campion
A blistering portrait of the great Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh Robert Altman's 'Vincent and Theo' focuses on the deeply neurotic relationship between the unstable impoverished Vincent (Tim Roth) and his art dealer brother Theo (Paul Rhys). Specifically it investigates the role Theo played in providing the normality and connection to the outer world that Vincent lacked while Vincent in turn acted as the living embodiment of Theo's unfulfilled artistic aspirations...
Tom Hanks headlines this big screen adaptation of Dan Brown's global hit novel.
A genius he may have been, but Peter Sellers' film work often demonstrated appalling lapses of taste, as with the weak wartime farce Soft Beds, Hard Battles. Little more than a vehicle for a range of Sellers racial stereotypes and an excuse to feature a succession of scantily clad young women, the film centres on a Parisian brothel during the Second World War and its various clients from all the countries involved. Thus Sellers is given reign to trot out his comedy Frenchman, Englishman, German and Chinaman-none of which come across as anything other than hugely dated. The plot is weak and the hopelessly erotic air gives a feel of Confessions of a Window Cleaner in uniform or "'Allo 'Allo: The Movie". With so many better examples of Sellers' work available, this must surely be close to the bottom of anyone's list. On the DVD: Soft Beds, Hard Battles's picture and sound are bright and bawdy, with some degree of digital remastering obviously having taken place. There is a 10-minute selection of material deleted from the original cinematic print but these are merely odds and sods that cannot save Soft Beds, Hard Battles from being little more than a woefully outdated curio. --Phil Udell
Born in Spain, Luis Bunuel is widely credited as the founder of surrealist cinema. This essential collection includes some of his best known work: Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), Belle de Jour (1967), Tristana (1970), The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) and That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) - as well as equally brilliant but lesser-known films such as The Phantom of Liberty (1974) and The Milky Way (1969). Although he drew memorable performances from iconic actresses of the period such as Catherine Deneuve and Jeanne Moreau, Bunuel generally worked with a favourite group of actors including Michel Piccoli, Pierre Clémenti, Muni and his faithful alter ego Fernando Rey. Enter the surreal world of Bunuel, where an entire dinner party suddenly finds themselves inexplicably unable to leave the room and where the devil, if unable to tempt a saint with a pretty girl, will fly him to a disco. 7 Disc Set That Obscure Object of Desire New Jean-Claude Carriere interview New Aesthetics of the Irrational: ICA Q&A with Jean-Claude Carriere and Diego Bunuel hosted by Tim Robey Interview with Carlos Saura The arbitrariness of desire by Jean-Claude Carriere Lady Doubles - interview with Carole Bouquet and Angela Molina Portrait of an impatient filmmaker, Luis Bunuel - Interview with Pierre Lady and Edmond Richard Belle De Jour - New 50th Anniversary Restoration New Jean-Claude Carriere interview New Masterclass with Diego Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere (1 hour+) New Trailer Commentary by professor Peter W. Evans The Last Script (1:34:33) A Story of Perversion or Emancipation? - Interview with Dr Sylvain Mimoun (29:39 in PAL) Diary of a Chambermaid An Angel in the Marshes doc (26 minutes) Phantom of Liberty New Jean-Claude Carriere interview New Critical Analysis by professor Peter W. Evans New Bunuel, la transgression des reves -A new documentary by Pierre-Henri Gibert Photo Gallery The Milky Way New Jean-Claude Carriere interview New Critical Analysis by professor Peter W. Evans Bunuel, athiest thanks to God doc (32 minutes) Trailer Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie New Jean-Claude Carriere interview A Walk Amongst the Shadows doc (28 minutes) Critical analysis by professor Peter W.Evans Trailer Tristana New Interview with Franco Nero Rituals documentary doc (20 minutes) Trailer
It is one of humankind s greatest achievements. More than twelve billion miles away a tiny spaceship is leaving our Solar System and entering the void of deep space the first human-made object ever to do so. Slowly dying within its heart is a nuclear generator that will beat for perhaps another decade before the lights on Voyager finally go out. But this little craft will travel on for millions of years, carrying a Golden Record bearing recordings and images of life on Earth. In all likelihood Voyager will outlive humanity. From Crossing The Line Productions, The Farthest celebrates these magnificent machines, the men and women who built them and the vision that propelled them farther than anyone could ever have hoped.
A man's infidelity with his secretary causes an intriguing love triangle in this lauded French black comedy.
Hal Ashby's much-praised Being There stars Peter Sellers in what was perhaps his finest comic performance. Chance the gardener has spent his entire life in an old man's house and has no idea of the world outside except for what television has given him. Sellers manages to make his innocence touching and oddly impressive rather than an offensive exploitation of disability. Jerzy Kozinski's screenplay neither entirely endorses nor discounts the twin possibilities that Chance's simplicity and closeness to the natural world give him access to real wisdom, or that he is simply a blank on whom people project what they want to see and hear. What is clear is that he gives his dying friend Ben (Jack Warden) peace of mind and consoles Ben's wife (Shirley Maclaine). Whether he's being groomed for the Presidency or appearing to walk on water, he always does something right, and the same is true for Sellers' minimalist performance. On the DVD: Being There is presented in a widescreen visual aspect of 1.85:1 and has 1.0 Dolby Digital mono sound; it comes with the original theatrical trailer, information about the stars and director and a list of the film's awards. --Roz Kaveny
Based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a member of the French Resistance held in Montluc prison by the occupying Germans during World War II.
An endearing and tragic love story that follows the life of a popular American novelist Daphne Fields struggling to come to terms with bringing up her deaf son alone after the heartbreak of losing her husband and daughter in a house-fire. As the only reminder of the family she once had she devotes her life to her son's upbringing with outstanding courage forever putting his happiness before her own. She finds strength in Dr. Matt Dane who is dedicated to the care and attention of deaf children. He offers support and comfort as her writing career takes off and she is forced to make many personal sacrifices. But Daphne is scared. Scared that she will never find the happiness she once had and scared that she will never be able to love again.
Chloé Muller, a federal police investigator, is sent to protect public enemy #1, Guy Beranger, the most dangerous child murderer in Belgium. His release on parole to the custody of Vielsart Abbey leads to public outcry throughout the country, particularly in this small village in the Ardennes. Lucas, a young idealistic monk, is entrusted with the task of evaluating the sincerity of the ex-convict's request to enter their order. When a young girl disappears in the outskirts of the abbey, the entire village is in an uproar. Confronted by a mob thirsty for their own renegade justice and a brotherhood prepared to preserve the reputation of their abbey at all costs, Lucas and Chloé will have to join forces in order to re-establish order and truth.
Herbie the VW with a heart adds some international flair to his lovable personality! Upon entering a Paris-to-Monte Carlo road race Herbie falls hood over wheels in love when he encounters a sleek sporty light-blue Lancia. Also vying for Herbie's attention is a gang of jewel thieves - who've ingeniously hidden a stolen gem in Herbie's gas tank! Thus begins a madcap chase across the French countryside that only The Love Bug could create!
Based on the novel by Frederick Forsyth, The Dogs of War is an uneasy mix of espionage and combat that never really succeeds in either role. Based around the character of Paul Shannon, the film follows events in the fictional African state of Zagaro. Hired on a reconnaissance mission by a nameless multi-national corporation, Shannon is captured and tortured before his release, only to return to the country to lead a small band of mercenaries (the dogs of the title) in a bloody coup. The first section of the movie works best, building a real sense of tension and unease, not least through a typically understated performance by Christopher Walken as the paranoid loner who keeps a pistol in his fridge (watch too for a brief appearance from a young Jim Broadbent). There are obvious references to the by-then obsolete school of Vietnam filmmaking in the second section, with the Asian enemy replaced by an African one. The gung-ho mentality of the soldiers is, however, so two-dimensional that the viewer develops little empathy for their plight. The action is slow and drawn out, with the seemingly endless pregnant pauses operating as a means for enabling the film to achieve a reasonable running time. On the DVD: little is on offer here aside from the usual scene selection, audio and subtitle options and original cinema trailer. --Phil Udell
You wouldn't think that a movie, which mostly consists of two old guys talking could be a thriller, but that's exactly what L'Homme du Train is. French singer Johnny Hallyday plays a professional criminal who comes to a small town to take part in a robbery. By chance, he meets talkative Jean Rochefort, who invites the laconic Hallyday to stay at his house because the hotel is closed. The two form an unlikely friendship, each curious about (and envious of) the other's life. But all the while plans for the robbery continue, while Rochefort is preparing for a dangerous event of his own. The pitch-perfect performances make L'Homme du Train completely involving. Rochefort and Hallyday play off of each other beautifully; it's impossible to put your finger on what makes these subtle, supple scenes so magnetic. The whole is directed with spare authority by Patrice Leconte (La Veuve de Saint-Pierre). --Bret Fetzer
When a woman's husband is murdered on a train, she's pursued by four mysterious men who believe she's hiding her husband's money from them and that they deserve a share of the loot.
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