Nativity Rocks! returns to St Bernadette's Primary School as the staff and students work together to win the coveted prize of Christmas Town of the Year' by performing a spectacular rock music-themed nativity. Celia Imrie reprises her role as headmistress Mrs Keen, starring alongside a host of British talent including Simon Lipkin, Daniel Boys, Helen George, Hugh Dennis, Anna Chancellor, Ruth Jones, Meera Syal, Bradley Walsh and Craig Revel Horwood.
A critically acclaimed film that won a total of eight 1970 Academy Awards (including Best Picture) Patton is a riveting portrait of one of the 20th century's greatest military geniuses. One of its Oscars went to George C. Scott for this triumphant portrayal of George Patton the only Allied general truly feared by the Nazis. Charismatic and flamboyant Patton designed his own uniforms sported ivory-handled six-shooters and believed he was a warrior in past lives. He outmaneuv
Comedy icon Penelope Keith stars as Jean Price a newly elected Labour MP who finds her cherished principles severely tested in the unforgiving often murky world of Westminster. Also starring George Baker (Ruth Rendell Mysteries) as Tory adversary Sir Godfrey Eagan and Garfield Morgan (The Sweeney) as Labour whip Norman this cleverly scripted Thames comedy was directed by the BAFTA Award-winning John Howard Davies whose high-profile credits include The Good Life Fawlty Towers and Mr Bean. No Job for a Lady first aired between 1990 and 1992 and this first series is now made available on DVD for the first time.
James Mason plays Field Marshal Erwin Rommel in both The Desert Fox (1951) and The Desert Rats (1953), a WWII double-bill on DVD. The Desert Fox, released six years after the end of the War, is a solemnly respectful tribute to Erwin Rommel, Germany's most celebrated military genius. James Mason's portrayal of this gallant warrior became a highlight of his career iconography. The film itself is oddly disjointed, though: a pre-credit commando raid to liquidate Rommel is followed by a flashback to the field-marshal's lightning successes commanding the Afrika Korps--a compressed account via documentary footage and copious narration (spoken by Michael Rennie, who also dubs Desmond Young, the Rommel biographer and one-time British POW appearing briefly as himself). The dramatic core is Rommel's growing disenchantment with Hitler (Luther Adler), his involvement in the plot to assassinate the Fuhrer, and his subsequent martyrdom. The Desert Rats stars Richard Burton in only his second Hollywood role (between Oscar-nominated turns in My Cousin Rachel and The Robe), as a Scottish commando put in charge of a battalion of the 9th Australian Division defending Tobruk. The Aussies don't like him, and with a year of grim North African duty already under his belt, he's not too crazy about his new responsibilities either. The outfit is charged with staving off the battering assaults of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel for two months, to give the British Army time to regroup in Cairo and prepare for a counterattack. In the end, the "desert rats" play hell with the Desert Fox for 242 days, during which time they and their commander develop some mutual respect. This is a solid, workmanlike World War II picture that, having been made in 1953 rather than 1943, can acknowledge a degree of eccentric humanity and soldierly professionalism in the enemy. Featured guest star James Mason reprises his Rommel from The Desert Fox, playing all his scenes in German except for a scene of ironical repartee with Burton. Another distinguished Brit, Robert Newton, gets costar billing as a boozy, self-confessed coward who used to be Burton's schoolmaster. However, a goodly number of Australians--including Chips Rafferty and Charles "Bud" Tingwell rate at least as much screen time. Robert Wise directed, with a trimness that reminds us he started out as an editor, and the pungent black-and-white cinematography is by Lucien Ballard. --Richard T. Jameson
Comedy icon Penelope Keith stars as Jean Price a newly elected Labour MP who finds her cherished principles severely tested in the unforgiving often murky world of Westminster. Jean s ambition withstands the dreadful facilities and uncivilised hours that might drive a lesser woman out of the job with the wife and mother managing to hold her own amid the swollen egos rampant chauvinism and Machiavellian scheming of the political elite; husband Geoff provides much-needed moral support. Also featuring Ruth Rendell Mysteries star George Baker as Tory adversary Sir Godfrey Eagan and Garfield Morgan as Labour whip Norman this cleverly scripted Thames comedy was directed by BAFTA Award winner John Howard Davies whose high-profile credits include The Good Life Fawlty Towers and Mr Bean.
Malignant marks director James Wan's return to his roots with this new original horror thriller.
Malignant marks director James Wan's return to his roots with this new original horror thriller. In the film, a woman is paralyzed by shocking visions of grisly murders, and her torment worsens as she discovers that these waking dreams are in fact terrifying realities.
Malignant marks director James Wan's return to his roots with this new original horror thriller.
Sugar & Spice is a broad satire of American high-school hierarchy set to a sparkling pop soundtrack and featuring many, many shots of cute cheerleaders in tight sweaters and short skirts. "Their cheer blew like a bulimic after Christmas dinner", sneers Lisa (Marla Sokoloff from Dude, Where's My Car?), a bitter B-squad cheerleader who has it in for the A-squad. She's come to the police to solve the mystery of a local bank robbery--a story that begins when head cheerleader Diane (Marley Shelton) and star quarterback Jack (James Marsden) fell in love. Before you know it, Diane's knocked up--but she and Jack are delighted and decide to get married. Their parents disown them immediately, so the young couple ends up in a crappy apartment, working low-wage jobs. They're both so unrelentingly earnest and cheerful that they won't lose heart, but Diane soon realises that their incomes won't support their impending twins. Then, one night as she and her squad (including Mena Suvari of American Beauty) are watching Point Break, they get the idea to rob a bank. The cast is enthusiastic: Sokoloff in particular savouring her atypically nasty role, and there are cameos by Jerry Springer, Kurt Loder, and an almost unrecognisable Sean Young. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
A British expedition team in Egypt discovers the ancient sealed tomb of the evil Queen Tera. But when one of the archaeologists steals a mysterious ring from the corpse's severed hand he unleashes a relentless curse upon his beautiful daughter. Is the voluptuous young woman now a reincarnation of the diabolical sorceress or has the curse of the mummy returned to reveal its horrific revenge? Andrew Keir and the luscious Valerie Leon star in this supernatural shocker based on Bram Stoker's classic novel 'Jewel Of The Seven Stars'.
Margaret (Valerie Leon) suffers a recurring nightmare in which she sees an ancient Egyptian queen, to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance, sealed up in a sarcophagus. The priests who entomb her first chop off her hand, before throwing it to jackals. They are then killed by a mysterious and powerful force that lacerates their throats. Margaret's father, Professor Fuchs (Andrew Keir), gives her a ring that he discovered in the tomb of Queen Tera 20 years before the ring was on the queen's disembodied hand. At the moment Fuchs discovered the Queen's perfectly preserved, still bleeding, body, Margaret's mother died giving birth to her. When a certain celestial conjunction is complete, and three key artefacts are assembled by Tera's corpse, the evil sorceress will be reborn EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - The Pharaoh's Curse: Inside Blood From the Mummy's Tomb ORIGINAL TRAILER
God Save The Queen ; Big Country - In The Big Country ; Suzanne Vega - Marlene On The Wall ; Level 42 - Hot Water ; Elton John - Your Song ; Phil Collins - In The Air Tonight ; Tina Turner - Better Be Good To Me ; Eric Clapton And Tina Turner - Tearing Us Apart ; Midge Ure - Call Of The Wild ; Mark Knopfler and Sting - Money For Nothing ; Paul Young - Every Time You Go Away ; Joan Armatrading - Reach Out ; Howard Jones - No One Is To Blame ; Rod Stewart - Sailing ; Elton John - I'm Still Standing ; Paul Young And George Michael - Every Time You Go Away ; Paul McCartney And Ensemble - Long Tall Sally ; Paul McCartney And Ensemble - Get Back.
Basic Instinct: A brutal murder. A brilliant killer. A cop who can't resist the danger. Michael Douglas stars as Nick Curran a tough but vulnerable detective. Sharon Stone costars as Catherine Tramell a cold calculating and beautiful novelist with an insatiable sexual appetite. Catherine becomes a prime suspect when her boyfriend is brutally murdered - a crime she had described in her latest novel. Has she been set up by a jealous rival or is she guilty? Obsessed with cracking the case Nick descends into San Francisco's forbidden underground where suspicions mount bodies fall and he finds within himself an instinct more basic than survival. (Dir. Paul Verhoeven 1992) Basic Instinct 2: Everything interesting begins in the mind. Dr. Michael Glass (Morrissey) a respected London criminal psychiatrist is brought in by Scotland Yard detective Roy Washburn (Thewlis) to perform a psychiatric profile and evaluation of novelist Catherine Tramell (Stone) following the mysterious death of a top sports star. Physically drawn to Tramell and mentally intrigued by her Glass is quickly sucked into her web of lies and seduction. The professional boundaries between Glass and Tramell are obliterated when she uncovers his basic instincts... (Dir. Michael Caton-Jones 2006)
Invisible Ghost: Actor Bela Lugosi born in Lugas Hungary on October 20 1882 was the screens most notorious personification of evil - at the peak of his career in the early 30's he helped usher in an era of new popularity for the horror genre. In this film a man carries out a series of grisly stranglings whilst under hypnosis by his insane and domineering wife... Scared To Death: The pieces of a puzzling murder are revealed to us one by one in this frightening story
With more than a decade of cinema in Basic Instinct's wake it's fascinating to look back at just how influential Paul Verhoeven's "erotic thriller" has been. The director's endless fight with censorship and unwillingness to kowtow to social mores meant his movies became notorious for graphically depicting sex and violence while pushing contemporary boundaries of taste. This whodunit about a bisexual femme fatale (Sharon Stone in a career-best performance) caused an enormous furore on its release; but after years of generally inferior imitations there's not much in it that seems quite so shocking now. It's perhaps best appreciated in retrospect more for its Hitchcockian style than the steamy sex. On the DVD: one of the most welcome elements of the disc is an acknowledgement of the film's own influences--from Hitchcock's Vertigo to Verhoeven's own The Fourth Man. The print is far superior to the previous release, looking magnificent in 1:78.1. Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score sounds terrific in either 5.1 or DTS, as does Verhoeven's thick accent on the first commentary track alongside then Director of Photography Jan De Bont (Speed), who together reminisce on locations and manipulating their actors' performances. A second commentary from feminist critic Camille Paglia is a brave way of putting paid to the gay/feminist community uproar. There are some standard inclusions (trailer, production notes, photo gallery etc) but far more interesting are two mini-documentaries; "Cleaning Up Basic Instinct" shows how and why the TV version was so dull, while "Blonde Poison" focuses on the film's making and marketing. Finally, there are three storyboard comparisons and nine minutes of screen tests for Stone and Tripplehorn. This is the definitive release of an oft-cited modern classic. --Paul Tonks
One of the greatest screen biographies ever produced, Patton is a monumental film that won seven Academy Awards and gave George C Scott the greatest role of his career. It was released in 1970 when protest against the Vietnam War still raged in the States and abroad. Inevitably, many critics and filmgoers struggled to reconcile the events of the day with the film's glorification of US General George S Patton as a crazy-brave genius of World War II; how could a film so huge in scope and so fascinated by its subject be considered an anti-war film? The simple truth is that it's not--Patton is less about World War II than about the rise and fall of a man whose life was literally defined by war and who felt lost and lonely without the grand-scale pursuit of an enemy. George C Scott embodies his role so fully, so convincingly, that we can't help but be drawn to and fascinated by Patton as a man who is simultaneously bound for hell and glory. The film's opening monologue alone is a masterful display of acting and character analysis and everything that follows is sheer brilliance on the part of Scott and director Franklin J Schaffner, aided in no small part by composer Jerry Goldsmith's masterfully understated score. Filmed on an epic scale at literally dozens of European locations, Patton does not embrace war as a noble pursuit, nor does it deny the reality of war as a breeding ground for heroes. Through the awesome achievement of Scott's performance and the film's grand ambition, General Patton shows all the complexities of a man who accepted his role in life and (like Scott) played it to the hilt. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.comOn the DVD: The widescreen print of the movie (which was originally filmed using a super-wide 70mm process called "Dimension 150") is handsomely presented on the first disc, with a remastered Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. It is accompanied by a rather dry "Audio essay on the historical Patton" read by the president and founder of the General George S. Patton Jr. historical society. The second, supplementary disc carries a new and impressive 50-minute "making-of" documentary, with significant contributions from Fox president Richard Zanuck, as well as composer Jerry Goldsmith and Oliver Stone. Director Franklin J. Schaffner (who died in 1989) and star George C. Scott are heard in interviews from 1970. In the documentary, Stone provocatively complains that Patton glorified war and that President Nixon's enthusiasm for the movie was directly responsible for his decision to invade Cambodia. Also on this disc, in a separate audio-only track, is Jerry Goldsmith's magnificent music score--one of his greatest achievements--heard complete with studio session takes for the famous "Echoplex" trumpet figures. --Mark Walker
The Wait family decide to holiday in the small town of Nilbog. Young Joshua Wait is the first to notice that the place is not safe. A band of Trolls inhabit the woods and appear to the townspeople as simple peasants offering food which when consumed turns man into a vegetable that the Trolls being vegetarians can eat......
This unique DVD includes George Formbys first two films. Packed with songs in the inimitable Formby fashion (including the controversial Little Ukulele) and guest appearances by his wife Beryl this collection is essential viewing for all fans of Formby and British musicals!
Whatever became of the American dream? In Blue Collar Paul Schrader's strong directorial debut three assembly-line auto workers (Richard Pryor in one of his only serious dramatic roles Harvey Keitel and Yaphet Kotto) are equally angry and disenchanted at factory management and their own union. They are also as the film reveals in long detailed vignettes struggling just to make ends meet. As they ruminate together on their dead-end jobs and the fears of a de
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