David Lean's masterpiece based on Charles Dickins' timeless novel about Pip, a blacksmith's apprentice who suddenly comes into great fortunes.
A late career highlight from Ringo Lam, an action-packed tale of cops and robbers presented in the director's inimitable style. Perfectionist, workaholic Inspector Pao (Lau Ching-wan, Running Out of Time) finds himself up against Mak Kwan (Francis Ng, The Mission), a seasoned criminal intending to use his explosive skills to pull off a huge heist. Pao must use his own resources to stop Mak and prevent heavy civilian casualties. With heart-stopping car chases on the streets of Hong Kong and brilliant performances by the two leads, Full Alert is an intelligent, high velocity action movie considered to be one of director Ringo Lam's finest works. Special Features: Limited Edition O-Card Slipcase featuring new artwork by Grégory Sacré (Gokaiju) [First Print Run of 2000 copies only] 1080p presentation on Blu-ray from a High Definition transfer from the original film elements Original Cantonese audio Optional English Subtitles Brand new feature length audio commentary by Asian film expert Frank Djeng (NY Asian Film Festival) Audio commentary by director Ringo Lam Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A LIMITED EDITION Collector's Booklet featuring new writing by David West (NEO Magazine) [First Print Run of 2000 copies only] * All extras subject to change
1880's London. The popular comic operas of Gilbert (words) and Sullivan (music) have never failed, but their latest, 'Princess Ida' receives a lukewarm press.
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence.Every detail is perfect--Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry--and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release.) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger. Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. --Jeff Shannon
Humphrey Bogart is heartbreaking as the tragic Captain Queeg in this 1954 film, based on a novel by Herman Wouk, about a mutiny aboard a navy ship during World War II. Stripped of his authority by two officers under his command (played by Van Johnson and Robert Francis) during a devastating storm, Queeg becomes a crucial witness at a court martial that reveals as much about the invisible injuries of war as anything. Edward Dmytryk (Murder My Sweet, Raintree County) directs the action scenes with a sure hand and nudges his all-male cast toward some of the most well-defined characters of 1950s cinema. The courtroom scenes alone have become the basis for a stage play (and a television movie in 1988), but it is a more satisfying experience to see the entire story in context. --Tom Keogh
Your wish is his command... sort of. 'A Simple Wish' tells the sweet-natured story of Murray a bumbling fairy godfather who has good intentions but not much else. Technically Murray is a fairy godmother--the only male member of the North American Fairy Godmother Association. After barely passing his godmother's exam he is sent to New York City to watch after Anabel a young girl who wishes that her father Oliver will land a part in a Broadway musical so that the family w
Sandra Goldbacher's intense drama of friendship and betrayal Me Without You was not especially liked by UK reviewers, but opened in the US to rave reviews. Carrying the relationship between two teenagers through their student days and into adulthood, it shows the more obviously charismatic Marina (Anna Friel) as parasitic on her more intelligent friend Holly (Michelle Williams) and then utterly devastated when Holly tries to break away (a brief epilogue shows them still involved years later). Best known for her role in Dawson's Creek, Michelle Williams (whose English accent is impeccable) gives a finely nuanced performance; Anne Friel runs the gamut from drug-induced stupor to malice to hysteria with a staginess that is only partly the character's. There are solid performances from Trudy Stiler as the neurotic ex-croupier mother who is part of Marina's problem and Kyle McLachlan as the oddly passive lecturer whom both seduce. The film is good on the passage of time--it has a fine eye for the fashion disasters of 1970s to 90s Britain--yet it's somehow disingenuous in its avoidance of emotional subtext. It's overly partial, too: Holly is obviously a stand-in for the writer-director. On the DVD: Me Without Your is presented in a widescreen visual ratio of 2.35:1 with Dolby 5.1 digital sound that gives full weight and intensity to a soundtrack which revisits a well-chosen selection of obvious and obscure tracks from the period. It has no extra features. --Roz Kaveney
Filmed in an oppressively dark and jumpy style reminiscent of the blockbuster 'Seven' this chilling Hong Kong horror stars Chingamy Yau as a police complaints officer being stalked by a psychopath who belives she is the devil's daughter. Maverick cop Mo Ti Nam tries to protect her with his lethal kicks and flying fists as the madman 'Judas' convinces her that she may indeed have demonic powers. Only the bumbling assistance of Mo's partner Ka-Ming busty female cop 'Leon' and the unpr
Cat or woman or a thing too evil to mention? Roger Corman and Vincent Price hook up for yet more horror in Edgar Allan Poe's most terrifying tale of passion possession and PURR-fect evil! When a dead wife sinks her claws into immortality - and comes back as a ferocious feline - she leads her husband's (Price) new bride on a deadly game of cat and mouse. And when the fur starts flying she soon learns that even in death... she can land on her feet!
This playboy has killer instincts! Set in London during the swinging 60's this sly action thriller stars Roger Moore as a hip young professional who gets mixed up in some underworld affairs. Working with beautiful model Marla Kugash (Claudie Lange) on a big new campaign suave advertising executive Gary Fenn (Moore) is living theigood life. But the good life turns bad when someone tries to kill Marla and frame him for murder! Suddenly on the run with thugs and the police in
Blarney and bliss, mixed in equal proportions. John Wayne plays an American boxer who returns to the Emerald Isle, his native land. What he finds there is a fiery prospective spouse (Maureen O'Hara) and a country greener than any Ireland seen before or since--it's no surprise The Quiet Man won an Oscar for cinematography. It also won an Oscar for John Ford's direction, his fourth such award. The film was a deeply personal project for Ford (whose birth name was Sean Aloysius O'Fearna), and he lavished all of his affection for the Irish landscape and Irish people on this film. He also stages perhaps the greatest donnybrook in the history of movies, an epic fistfight between Wayne and the truculent Victor McLaglen--that's Ford's brother, Francis, as the elderly man on his deathbed who miraculously revives when he hears word of the dustup. Barry Fitzgerald, the original Irish elf, gets the movie's biggest laugh when he walks into the newlyweds' bedroom the morning after their wedding, and spots a broken bed. The look on his face says everything. The Quiet Man isn't the real Ireland, but as a delicious never-never land of Ford's imagination, it will do very nicely. --Robert Horton
They are trapped in a spaceship with no power. Outside there is no air and no heat. Earth spins 200 miles below. Three astronauts face a desperate situation in this spellbinding science fiction cliffhanger. After completing a daring mission in space the three-man spaceship Ironman One orbits Earth preparing for re-entry. But a retro-rocket misfires and the crew commander Jim Pruett (Richard Crenna) scientist/astronaut Clayton Stone (James Franciscus) and pilot Buzz Lloyd (Gene Hack
Director Ringo Lam helms this standout action psycho-thriller. Perfectionist workaholic Inspector Pao finds himself up against Mak a seasoned criminal intending to use his explosives skills to pull off a billion heist. Now Pao must use his own resources to stop Mak and prevent heavy civilian casualties. With heartstopping car chases on the streets of Hong Kong and brilliant performances by the two leads Full Alert is an intelligent high velocity action movie considered by many as Lam's finest work.
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence.Every detail is perfect--Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry--and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release.) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger. Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. --Jeff Shannon
Heaven and the Suicide King is a powerful and edgy thriller set against a backdrop of a sinister wife swapping syndicate amidst the glamour and glitz of Hollywood. Tommy and his actress wife 'Heaven' relocate to Los Angeles each with their own dreams of prosperity. While Tommy struggles with his new business venture Heaven's dream of becoming a successful actress is kick-started when she befriends a group of high powered film executives.
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