During the Second World War, Britain's women were asked to help out the farming industry by joining The Women's Land Army (The Land Girls). Three city gals make their way to the Lawrence farm in Dorset, and find themselves taking to the work easily enough. The only problem between them is each want young Joe (Steven Mackintosh) for their own reasons. Ag (Anna Friel) is the fiery sort who'll take pleasure where she finds it; Prue (Rachel Wiesz) just wants a lesson in the ways of the world; while Stella (Catherine McCormack) is looking for a way out of the private trap she's set in motion back home, but her feelings are the most sincere of the bunch. The film is Stella's story really (as adapted from the novel by Angela Huth), and has her affecting the on-off decision by Joe to join the RAF, the fight with the government to keep the East Meadow as it is and the paths the two other girls end up taking. Everything is very sweet-natured, especially when played out against a backdrop of rolling green hills, chuffing steam engines and knee-high socks tucked into Wellington boots. There's no comment on the effects of war as such, instead this film is more about the reasons why we make choices in life. --Paul Tonks
Originally airing 20 years ago in 1984 this season sees Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) face the break-up of their explosive relationship - a predicament that brings the new character of Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammar) into the show's comedic mix. Along with the usual laughs provided by the antics of Carla (Rhea Perlman) Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and Norm (George Wendt) this series also says farewell to actor Nicholas ""Coach"" Colosanto whose untimely death occurred shor
Based on Peter Carey s Booker Prize winning novel, Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang shatters the mythology surrounding Ned Kelly to reveal the essence behind the life of the notorious icon. Hero to some, outlaw to others, Kelly (played by George MacKay) throws a long shadow over a specific period of Australian history. Spanning his life from his younger years to the time leading up to his death, the film explores the story behind this legendary figure. Nurtured by the notorious bushranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe) and fuelled by the unfair arrest of his mother (Essie Davis), Kelly recruits a wild bunch of warriors to plot a campaign of anarchy and rebellion that will grip the entire country. Youth and tragedy collide in the Kelly Gang, and at the beating heart of this tale is the fractured and powerful love story between a mother and son.
Winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, Kramer vs. Kramer remains as powerfully moving today as it was when released in 1979, simply because its drama will remain relevant for couples of any generation. Adapted by director Robert Benton from the novel by Avery Corman, this is perhaps the finest, most evenly balanced film ever made about the failure of marriage and the tumultuous shift of parental roles. It begins when Joanna Kramer (Meryl Streep) bluntly informs her husband Ted (Dustin Hoffman) that she's leaving him, just as his advertising career is advancing and demanding most of his waking hours. Self-involvement is just one of the film's underlying themes, along with the search for identity that prompts Joanna to leave Ted with their first-grade son (Justin Henry), who now finds himself living with a workaholic parent he barely knows. Juggling his domestic challenge with professional deadlines, Ted is further pressured when his wife files for custody of their son. This legal battle forms the dramatic spine of the film, but its power is derived from Benton's flawlessly observant script and the superlative performances of his entire cast. Because Benton refuses to assign blame and deals fairly with both sides of a devastating dilemma, the film arrives at equal levels of pain, growth, and integrity under emotionally stressful circumstances. That gives virtually every scene the unmistakable ring of truth--a quality of dramatic honestly that makes Kramer vs. Kramer not merely a classic tearjerker, but one of the finest American dramas of its decade. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
It looks great: season two of the situation comedy many consider the best ever produced on American television has a superb presentation on this DVD collection. The colours are rich, the images sharp--a vast improvement over those murky reruns in perpetual TV syndication. Then, of course, there are the consistently brilliant episodes from Cheers' sophomore year. Despite its low-rated debut in 1982, the ensemble farce set in a Boston bar confidently returned with several strong story arcs, including the turbulent, screwball romance between intellectual poseur Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and affable primitive Sam Malone (Ted Danson), romantic conflicts for the sexually voracious and deeply cynical barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman) and marital separation for beloved barfly Norm (George Wendt). With John Ratzenberger signing on as a full-time cast member (playing pompous jive-slinger and postman Cliff Claven), and those opaque one-liners by the clueless Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), Cheers was firing on all cylinders. Episode highlights include "They Call Me Mayday", in which talk-show personality Dick Cavett, playing himself, convinces Sam the public would be interested in the former major league pitcher's autobiography--a notion that throws the unpublished, would-be novelist Diane into disbelief. Also wonderful is "Where There's a Will," guest-starring George Gaynes as a rich, dying man who leaves the gang $100,000 on a paper napkin will. "No Help Wanted" finds Sam's friendship with down-on-his-luck accountant Norm strained when the latter has a go at the bar's books, while the great "Coach Buries a Grudge" features the addled, elder statesman of Cheers delivering a memorable eulogy for a friend after discovering the dead man had an affair with his wife. Opinions vary about the worthiness of Cheers' latter years (the show ended in 1993), but no one disputes the merit of its ground-breaking start. --Tom Keogh
Based on Peter Carey s Booker Prize winning novel, Justin Kurzel's True History of the Kelly Gang shatters the mythology surrounding Ned Kelly to reveal the essence behind the life of the notorious icon. Hero to some, outlaw to others, Kelly (played by George MacKay) throws a long shadow over a specific period of Australian history. Spanning his life from his younger years to the time leading up to his death, the film explores the story behind this legendary figure. Nurtured by the notorious bushranger Harry Power (Russell Crowe) and fuelled by the unfair arrest of his mother (Essie Davis), Kelly recruits a wild bunch of warriors to plot a campaign of anarchy and rebellion that will grip the entire country. Youth and tragedy collide in the Kelly Gang, and at the beating heart of this tale is the fractured and powerful love story between a mother and son.
It might have started out as a small, rather arty divorce drama but Kramer vs Kramer was the biggest cinema hit of 1979. It confirmed Dustin Hoffman's status as a major star in a performance that combined his trademark twitchy intensity with deep sensitivity. And it provided Meryl Streep with a pivotal role in her rise to big-screen greatness. Both won Oscars, as did director Robert Benton and the film itself scooped the Best Picture award. Kramer vs Kramer has worn well into the 21st century. Although clearly of its time--by the late 1970s, microscopic relationship analysis had become the theme of commercial cinema--it stands on the strength of its central performances. Hoffman's Ted Kramer is a vision of the Graduate grown up: serious, focused and thrown by anything that threatens his upwardly mobile professional trajectory. The news that his wife, who he has failed to notice teetering on the edge of a breakdown, is leaving him and their son sends him into a tailspin. The film is as much about his resilience and fulfilment as it is the story of a divorce and custody battle. Justin Henry is extraordinary as Billy, the boy caught in the middle, and turns in a remarkably complex, thoughtful performance, which is light years from the archetypal all-American kid you might anticipate. And in just a handful of scenes, Streep is mesmerising as Joanna, the deserting wife and mother who you just can't bring yourself to hate. Yes, this is soap opera. But it belongs up there with all the finest cinematic human dramas. On the DVD: The widescreen presentation ensures a theatrically authentic experience, with some fantastic shots of New York city coming into their own. The mono sound is adequate for the relative intimacy of most of the dialogue. But the real bonus is the retrospective documentary in which director and writer Benton, producer Stanley Jaffe and the cast look back with touching satisfaction at a piece which clearly meant a great deal to them all. Hoffman's initial reluctance (he was going through a real-life divorce) to get involved, the process of working with a gifted child actor and Streep's desire to make Joanna understood are all recalled in fascinating detail. --Piers Ford
The very first film in the ever popular Doctor series. Here we are first introduced to Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) and follow his hilarious adventures as a student doctor in St. Swithins Hospital - from naive bumbling trainee to his first day as a fully qualified doctor. In these early formative years he learns how to cope with the occupational hazards of being a medical student such as fiery ward sisters frightening surgeons over-knowledgeable patients the eccentricities o
Series 9 bounced back onto prime time television in 1993 with moments of humour and sensitivity and a close family bond between Arthur Daley (George Cole) and his minder nephew Ray Daley (Gary Webster). The series closes with a three-part Australian story. Episodes Comprise: Episode 1 - I'll Never Forget Whats `Ername Episode 2 - No Way To Treat A Daley Episode 3 - Uneasy Rider Episode 4 - Looking For Mr. Goodtime Episode 5 - Opportunity Knocks And Bruises Episode 6 -
A decade-defining classic from the imagination of Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus, The Goonies follows a tight-knit group of young friends desperate to save their homes from a greedy real-estate developer. After discovering a mysterious treasure map, they find themselves being chased by a family of fugitives through an underground realm full of twisting passages and booby traps. Their quest: to find the hidden gold of legendary pirate One-Eyed Willy. When all seems lost, the Goonies never say die in the beloved, generation-crossing adventure. This Collector's Set Includes: The Goonies on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray Collectable SteelBook Case with new artwork Unique Enamel Pin Exclusive A3 Poster Extras: Director and cast commentary The Making of Goonies Featurette Cyndi Lauper The Goonies 'r' good enough Music Video Deleted scenes Theatrical trailer
Too Many Crooks (1958) boasts an intricate plot in which Terry Thomas is being blackmailed for the hoards he's stashed away as a renowned tax dodger. Driving around in a Jaguar XK 150, a desirable sports car of the period, his intricate private life unravels as his put-upon wife, Brenda de Banzie, draws on her expertise as a wartime PT instructress to turn the tables on him by marshalling the support of a band of crooks (George Cole, Sidney James, Bernard Bresslaw and Joe Melia). Look out for the very funny court scene, where TT makes three appearances on separate charges before a bemused magistrate, John Le Mesurier. On the DVD: Too Many Crooks is in 4:3 ratio and has a mono soundtrack. The only extra feature is a trailer. More TT tomfoolery can be found in the three-disc Terry Thomas Collection. --Adrian Edwards
The definition of comfort television is this: you want to go where you know everybody's name. And you're always glad you came. Cheers is open for business once again in this set that contains all 22 episodes of the first, and best, season of the show that inherited Taxi's mantle as television's best ensemble-driven workplace comedy. It can be instructive to return to a long-running series' more humble beginnings. While Cheers got drunk on farce in its later years, it began life as a much more grounded human comedy. In these inaugural episodes, the action does not stray from the Boston bar owned by Sam Malone, a washed-up baseball player three years sober. The straws that stir the drink are the supporting players: Nick Colasanto as addled Coach; Rhea Perlman, the Thelma Ritter of her generation, as surly and fertile waitress Carla; George Wendt as quintessential barfly Norm; and John Ratzenberger as Cliff, the bar know-it-all ready with "little-known facts" (and blessedly far from the pathetic blowhard his character would evolve into). Spiking this concoction is the palpable chemistry between Ted Danson's Sam and Shelley Long's Diane Chambers, fledgling waitress and self-described "student of life". The battle lines are drawn in the episode "Sam's Women": He's the "dim ex-baseball player" and she, "the post graduate". But, as Carla so indelicately puts it, they can't "put their glands on hold". In the first blush of lust, they were primetime's most potent mismatched couple until Moonlighting's David and Maddie bantered double entendres. Here are little remembered facts: Sam was initially "an astute judge of human character"; guest stars Fred Dryer ("Sam at Eleven") and Julia Duffy ("Any Friend of Diane's") were among those considered for the roles of Sam and Diane; and a pre-"Night Court" Harry Anderson stole his scenes in his recurring role as flim-flam man Harry ("Pick a Con...Any Con"). --Donald Liebenson
Inspired by a true story, "The Boys Are Back" is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood, that intimately evokes both the fragility and wonders of family life.
During the Second World War, Britain's women were asked to help out the farming industry by joining The Women's Land Army (The Land Girls). Three city gals make their way to the Lawrence farm in Dorset, and find themselves taking to the work easily enough. The only problem between them is each want young Joe (Steven Mackintosh) for their own reasons. Ag (Anna Friel) is the fiery sort who'll take pleasure where she finds it; Prue (Rachel Wiesz) just wants a lesson in the ways of the world; while Stella (Catherine McCormack) is looking for a way out of the private trap she's set in motion back home, but her feelings are the most sincere of the bunch. The film is Stella's story really (as adapted from the novel by Angela Huth), and has her affecting the on-off decision by Joe to join the RAF, the fight with the government to keep the East Meadow as it is and the paths the two other girls end up taking. Everything is very sweet-natured, especially when played out against a backdrop of rolling green hills, chuffing steam engines and knee-high socks tucked into Wellington boots. There's no comment on the effects of war as such, instead this film is more about the reasons why we make choices in life. --Paul Tonks
A man searches for the truth about his son's death in Northern Ireland.
Land Girls: It's 1941. World War II continues to rage across Europe. The young men of England have been called to the front to fight. So back at home a new regiment is formed an army of England's young women who are dispatched across the countryside to pick up the slack known as 'The Land Girls'. Three beautiful women answer the call. Stella Ag and Prue arrive from their very different backgrounds at a remote farm in Dorset where they meet handsome and volatile Joe. An extraordinary story of tragedy and passion unfolds as the three girls form close friendships with each other and with Joe. The Land Girls is one of the most exhilarating films of recent years which is both hilarious and deeply moving. Charlotte Gray: Set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War II Charlotte Gray tells the compelling story of a young Scottish woman working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover a missing RAF pilot. Emma's War: Australia 1942. The Japanese are bombing Sydney. Anne driven to the bottle by sheer terror of the war and the absence of her husband takes her two young children Emma and Laurel to begin a new and safe life in the mountains. The war that faces the family in the mountains is something else.....
Inspired by a true story, "The Boys Are Back" is a deeply moving, wryly confessional tale of fatherhood, that intimately evokes both the fragility and wonders of family life.
The Dead Zone: Christopher Walken stars as high school teacher Johnny Smith a car crash victim who emerges from a 5 year coma with the ability to see into people's future. Consequently this extra sensory perception enables Johnny to avert several potential disasters and earns him a degree of local celebrity. After his 5 missing years however Johnny has lost both his job and his fiance and he longs for his former existence minus his new 'gift'. That is until he meets with local politicians and would-be Presidential candidate Greg Still son (Martin Sheen) and sees future-events of genuinely cataclysmic proportions. It is only then that Johnny must come to terms with his powers his conscience and his destiny... Firestarter: Firestarter the best-seller by top writer Stephen King came blazing to the screen in a million saga produced by Dino De Laurentiis. Eight year-old Drew Barrymore who won America's heart in E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial stars as the child who has the amazing ability to start fires with just a glance. But can this power and the love of her father save her from the sinister government agency.. 'The Shop'? The top-notch story an all-star cast that includes George C. Scott Martin Sheen Louise Fletcher Art Carney David Keith and Heather Locklear plus amazing special effects and stunts from the masters who worked on Star Wars E.T.-The Extra-Terrestrial and Raiders Of The Lost Ark make Firestarter the classic 80s horror movie.
Collection of eight fan favourite episodes of the US sitcom set in a Boston bar. When Sam Malone (Ted Danson)'s baseball career came to an end because of his drinking he decided to open a bar. Join him and the rest of the Cheers regulars, including Diane (Shelley Long), Woody (Woody Harrelson), Frasier (Kelsey Grammar), Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), Carla (Rhea Perlman), Norm (George Wendt) and Cliff (John Ratzenberger) as they live, laugh and love in the bar where everybody knows your name. The episodes are: 'Give Me a Ring Sometime', 'Diane's Perfect Date', 'Pick a Con, Any Con', 'Abnormal Psychology', 'Thanksgiving Orphans', 'Dinner at Eight-ish', 'Simon Says' and 'An Old-Fashioned Wedding'.
When a ninja fighter working for the underworld kills the cop that once saved his life he decides to change his ways and leave the underworld. He knows however that nobody leaves this treacherous organisation alive death is the only way out. To protect himself against the hit men he knows are right behind him he enlists the help of the Ninja Master who taught him the art of Ninjitsu. Before long however the underworld catches up with the two and the battle for survival begins
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