While Soylent Green may be one of the many dystopian visions of the future, the film stands out because it's one of the few titles that addresses current environmental issues head on. Adapted from Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room, it gives us a nightmarish vision of an over-populated, polluted future on the brink of collapse--a vision that gets uncomfortably closer every year. Charlton Heston as police officer Thorn investigates a murder in between suppressing food riots and uncovers the nightmarish truth about Soylent Green, the new foodstuff being sold to the poor. The film neatly combines police procedural with conspiracy thriller. Heston's scenes are counterpointed by more elegiac ones in which the centenarian Edward G Robinson as his friend Sol broods on the world he has outlived--his death in a euthanasia chamber is a gloriously lachrymose moment, which he plays to the hilt. Heston, too, is good as Thorn, a morally equivocal cop who loots the apartments of the victims whose deaths he investigates--he's a man just getting by in an impossible world. On the DVD: Soylent Green on disc comes with a commentary from director Richard Fleischer, the highpoint of which is a memorable description of what it was like to work with the brilliant ailing, entirely deaf Robinson. He is joined by Leigh Taylor-Young whose work on the film as heroine led to years of serious environmentalist commitment. It has a useful contemporary making-of documentary and touching shots of Robinson's 100th birthday party with telegrams from Sinatra and others. The feature itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen with its original mono sound. --Roz Kaveney
Grease Is The Word! The classic tale of good girl Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) and bad boy Danny (John Travolta) gets tuned up with new special features in this Grease: Exclusive 40th Anniversary Edition. Your favourite movie musical just gets better with time! Features: Commentary by Director Randal Kleiser and Choreographer Patricia Birch Introduction by Randal Kleiser Rydell Sing-Along The Time, The Place, The Motion: Remembering Grease Grease: A Chicago Story Deleted/Extended/Alternate Scenes with Introduction by Randal Kleiser Grease Reunion 2002 - DVD Launch Party Grease Memories from John and Olivia The Moves Behind the Music Thunder Roadsters John Travolta and Allan Carr Grease Day Interview Olivia Newton-John and Robert Stigwood Grease Day Interview Photo Galleries
Available for the first time on DVD! Two long separated twin sisters (both played by Hayley Mills) meet unexpectedly at a summer camp where their divorced parents sent them. Together they hatch an ingenious plot to reunite their families.
Meet ove (rolf lassgård), an isolated retiree with strict principles and a short fuse - the quintessential angry old man next door. having entirely given up on life, his days are spent in a constant monotony of enforcing housing association rules and visiting his beloved wife sonja's grave. ove's somewhat contend existence is disrupted, however, with the arrival of a boisterous young family who move in next door. heavily pregnant parvaneh (bahar pars) and her lively children are the complete antithesis of what ill-tempered ove thinks he needs. yet, from this unhappy beginning an unlikely friendship blooms and ove's past happiness and heartbreaks come to light. based on the international bestselling novel by fredrik backman, the award-winning a man called ove is a wistful, heartwarming tale of unreliable first impressions and a wonderful reminder that life is sweeter when it's shared.
Director Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night) took over the franchise with this first sequel in the series, though the film doesn't look much like his usual stylish work. (Superman III is far more Lesteresque.) Still, there is a lot to like about this film, which finds Superman grappling with the conflict between his responsibilities as Earth's saviour and his own needs of the heart. Choosing the latter, he gives up his powers to be with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), but the timing is awful: three renegades from his home planet, Krypton, are smashing up the White House, aided by the mocking Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman). The film isn't nearly as ambitious as its predecessor, but the accent on relationships over special effects (not that there aren't plenty of them) is very satisfying. --Tom Keogh
Has dialogue ever been more perfectly hard-boiled? Has a femme fatale ever been as deliciously wicked as Barbara Stanwyck? And has 1940s Los Angeles ever looked so seductively sordid? Working with cowriter Raymond Chandler, director Billy Wilder launched himself onto the Hollywood A-list with this epitome of film-noir fatalism from James M. Cain's pulp novel. When slick salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) walks into the swank home of dissatisfied housewife Phyllis Dietrichson (Stanwyck), he intends to sell insurance, but he winds up becoming entangled with her in a far more sinister way. Featuring scene-stealing supporting work from Edward G. Robinson and the chiaroscuro of cinematographer John F. Seitz, Double Indemnity is one of the most entertainingly perverse stories ever told and the standard by which all noir must be measured. FILM INFO - United States - 1944 - 108 minutes - Black & White - 1.37:1 - English 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES - New 4K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack - One 4K UHD disc of the film presented in Dolby Vision HDR and two Blu-rays with the film and special features - Audio commentary featuring film critic Richard Schickel - New interview with film scholar Noah Isenberg, editor of Billy Wilder on Assignment - New conversation between film historians Eddie Muller and Imogen Sara Smith - Billy, How Did You Do It?, a 1992 film by Volker Schlöndorff and Gisela Grischow featuring interviews with director Billy Wilder - Shadows of Suspense, a 2006 documentary on the making of Double Indemnity - Radio adaptations from 1945 and 1950 - Trailer - English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing - PLUS: An essay by critic Angelica Jade Bastién - New cover by Greg Ruth
Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito are reunited for a third time to fabulous effect in The War of the Roses. This is a dark, disturbing comedy of marital trauma and revenge, which couldn't be more different from their sunnier outings in Romancing the Stone and The Jewel of the Nile. Douglas and Turner, in career-best performances, are the materialistic, consumer-driven Roses of the title (Oliver and Barbara) whose seemingly perfect marriage has soured beyond repair; their only point of contact is their meticulously maintained dream house, which Douglas bought and Turner decorated to perfection. When Turner gets a taste of financial independence, she asks Douglas for a divorce--all she wants is the house and everything in it (aside from his clothes and shaving kit). He laughs at her and she punches him in the face. Things only get worse from there, as nasty divorce proceedings (with DeVito as Douglas's lawyer) give way to insults, threats, ruined dinner parties and pet abuse. And through it all, the Roses begin destroying their beloved home and its contents, just to spite each other. DeVito, who also directed, takes Michael Leeson's blacker-than-black screenplay and gives it a hyper-stylised spin, complete with skewed camera angles and wonderfully expressionistic cinematography (by Stephen Burum) as Douglas and Turner barricade themselves in their house, both refusing to give an inch. Shocking for a mainstream studio picture, with its unsympathetic protagonists, escalating bitterness and disturbing finale, Roses is a poisonously funny valentine to both marriage and 1980s materialism, tempered only by its framing device as a cautionary tale. --Mark Englehart, Amazon.com
Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 classic tale of the Viet Nam war, re-released with almost an hour of additional footage. Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) is given the task of sailing upriver to find and execute renegade military officer Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Br
Of the 80,000 native Irish speakers, 6,000 live in the North of Ireland and three of them became a rap group called Kneecap. This is the real-life story of how this anarchic Belfast trio became the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save and reinvigorate their mother tongue. INCLUDES:- Interview with Kneecap and director Rich Peppiatt- Claymation Promo- Claymation Cinema Intro- Trailers Read our interview with the director (click) > here
In a bid to save their farm, three cows kidnap a cattle rustler with a yodel that can't be beaten...or ignored.
A music teacher inspires his unruly young charges in this runaway French hit.
Predators: Sneak Peek Predator: Evolution Of A Species: Hunters Of Extreme Perfection Commentary By Director John Mctiernan Text Commentary By Film Historian Eric Lichtenfeld If It Bleeds, We Can Kill It: The Making Of Predator Inside The Predator Special Effects Camouflage Tests Short Takes Deleted Scenes And Outtakes Theatrical Trailers Photo Gallery Predator Profiles Predator UHD: Commentary By Director John Mctiernan Text Commentary By Film Historian Eric Lichtenfeld
Steve Martin stars as the father of a family of fourteen forced to choose between his new dream job and the 12 kids he so loves.
Black comedies don't come much blacker than cult favourite, Harold and Maude (1972), and they don't come much funnier either. It seems that director Hal Ashby was the perfect choice to mine a load of eccentricity from the original Colin Higgins script, about the unlikely romance between a death-obsessed 19-year-old named Harold (Bud Cort) and a life-loving 79-year-old widow named Maude (Ruth Gordon). They meet at a funeral, and Maude finds something oddly appealing about Harold, urging him to "reach out" and grab life by the lapels as opposed to dwelling morbidly on mortality. Harold grows fond of the old gal--she's a lot more fun than the girls his mother desperately tries to match him up with- -and together they make Harold and Maude one of the sweetest and most unconventional love stories ever made. Much of the early humour arises from Harold' s outrageous suicide fantasies, played out as a kind of twisted parlour game to mortify his mother, who has grown immune to her strange son's antics. Gradually, however, the film's clever humour shifts to a brighter outlook and finally arrives at a point where Harold is truly happy to be alive. Featuring soundtrack songs by Cat Stevens, this comedy certainly won't appeal to all tastes (it was a box-office flop when first released), but if you're on its quirky wavelength, it might just strike you as one of the funniest films you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
A film about society's attitude to sexuality, with a lighthearted dig at political correctness gone mad, The Closet is French farce in the tradition of Moliere: a man pretends to be something he's not, people begin treating him differently, his lie escalates out of all proportion, and comedy ensues. Francois Pignon (Daniel Auteuil) is a dull, divorced accountant in a French rubber-processing factory whose primary product is condoms. The morning of the company photograph he overhears he is going to be fired. After half-heartedly trying to kill himself, he meets his new next-door neighbour who suggests a plot that will keep him from losing his job: he should pretend he's gay, and the neighbour will doctor the photographs and send them to his boss to prove it. The comedy springs from people's reactions to Pignon's alleged homosexuality. The managing director puts him on a Gay Pride parade float with a condom on his head, his estranged son suddenly thinks he's cool, his female boss catches on to the scam and begins to think that Pignon is not as banal as she first thought, and the homophobic, macho personnel director--a great performance from Gerard Depardieu--discovers his sensitive side. It's well directed by Francis Veber (writer of the original Three Fugitives), who moves the gentle action along masterfully, providing some laugh-out-loud moments and getting some great performances from his ensemble cast. Overall, it's an uplifting comedy about prejudice and how a Mr Nobody becomes a somebody. --Kristen Bowditch
Footnotes in film books are likely to reduce this swashbuckling adventure down to a simple description: it was the first movie to star Leonardo DiCaprio after the phenomenal success of Titanic. As such, The Man in the Iron Mask automatically attracted a box-office stampede of Leo's young female fans, but critical reaction was deservedly mixed. Having earned his directorial debut after writing the Oscar-winning script for Mel Gibson's Braveheart, Randall Wallace wrote and directed this ambitious version of the often-filmed classic novel by Alexandre Dumas. DiCaprio plays dual roles as the despotic King Louis XIV, who rules France with an iron fist, and the king's twin brother, Philippe, who languishes in prison under an iron mask, his identity concealed to prevent an overthrow of Louis' throne. But Louis' abuse of power ultimately enrages Athos (John Malkovich), one of the original Four Musketeers, who recruits his former partners (Gabriel Byrne, Gérard Depardieu, and Jeremy Irons) in a plot to liberate Philippe and install him as the king's identical replacement. Once this plot is set in motion and the Musketeers are each given moments in the spotlight, the film kicks into gear and offers plenty of entertainment in the grand style of vintage swashbucklers. But it's also sidetracked by excessive length and disposable subplots, and for all his post-Titanic star power, the boyish DiCaprio just isn't yet "man" enough to be fully convincing in his title role. Still, this is an entertaining film, no less enjoyable for falling short of the greatness to which it aspired. --Jeff Shannon
Adapted from Graham Greene's novel Trevor Howard stars as Harry Scobie an assistant police commisioner working in Sierra Leone during WWII. Harry finds himself drawn to Helen a survivor of a U-boat attack and whilst the cat is away he decides that he can no longer stay married. However as his Catholic union threatens the outcome of both relationships Harry soon convinces himself that desperate measures need to be taken....
Eureka Entertainment to release THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW; Fritz Lang's mysterious, melodramatic film-noir starring Edward G. Robinson and Joan Bennett, as part of The Masters of Cinema Series for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK on 20 May 2019. One of legendary director Fritz Lang's first noir films, The Woman in the Window is also rightfully considered one of the most important examples of the genre, a landmark movie that became one of the initial representations of noir first singled out by French critics after WWII. A triumph for Lang, legendary writer/producer Nunnally Johnson (The Grapes of Wrath), and leading man Edward G. Robinson (shedding his earlier gangster roles to portray a love-struck obsessive), the film remains a classic American nail-biter. Robinson is Richard Wanley, a successful psychiatrist biding his time while his wife and children are on vacation when he encounters beautiful Alice (a radiant Joan Bennett), who bears an uncanny resemblance to the subject of a portrait he had just admired. When Richard and Alice retire to her home, her wealthy, jealous boyfriend intrudes, and is killed after a struggle. Alice convinces Richard to cover up the crime, but as Richard's district attorney friend (Raymond Massey) investigates and the boyfriend's bodyguard (Dan Duryea) begins to apply pressure to Richard, the walls begin to close in... With a surprising climax years ahead of its time, The Woman in the Window is suspenseful film noir at its most seductive, while also serving as an excellent companion piece to the following year's Scarlet Street, which reunited Lang with Robinson, Bennett, and Duryea in strikingly similar roles. For anyone even remotely interested in film noir, The Woman in the Window is mandatory viewing, and The Masters of Cinema Series is proud to present it in its UK debut on Blu-ray. Blu-ray Features: 1080p presentation on Blu-ray LPCM audio (original mono presentation) Optional English subtitles Brand new and exclusive video essay by critic David Cairns Feature Length Audio Commentary by Film Historian Imogen Sara Smith, author of In Lonely Places: Film Noir Beyond the City Original theatrical trailer PLUS: A Collector's booklet featuring new essays by film journalist and writer Amy Simmons; and film writer Samm Deighan; alongside rare archival imagery
Having been away for several years Terry Noonan (Sean Penn) is reunited with his gangland friends the ruthless Jackie Flannery (Gary Oldman) and his brother Frankie (Ed Harris) the Kitchen's most powerful racketeer. Terry grew up in Hell's Kitchen he's streetwise and knows the rules. But returning as an undercover cop to the squalor of his childhood haunts leads him deep into a dark underworld of deceit corruption betrayal and murder. He's been assigned to put Frankie Flannery
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