When Cooper became unavailable, the studio assigned the male lead to their Golden Boy sensation, William Holden. Budgeted at $2.3 million, ARIZONA was produced on a grand scale, complete with a full-sized recreation of the 1860's Tucson settlement, majestic location scenery, hundreds of extras, boisterous Apache raids and a spectacular cattle stampede. Opening on Christmas Day 1940, ARIZONA was hailed as a rip-roaring Western from a director, Wesley Ruggles, who knew how to make them (Ruggles directed the 1931 Academy Award(r)-winning Best Picture, Cimarron).
Brand New NOT Sealed
Liev Schreiber co-writes and stars in this US biographical drama directed by Philippe Falardeau. The film follows New Jersey boxer Chuck Wepner (Schreiber) who shoots to fame when he takes on Muhammad Ali (Pooch Hall) for the world heavyweight title in 1975. After forging a solid career which eventually leads to becoming a world ranked contender, Wepner is suddenly thrust into the limelight when his manager Al Braverman (Ron Perlman) manages to land him a title shot against heavyweight champion Ali. Despite losing the fight in the last round, Wepner's brave performance earns him the respect of fans around the world and he quickly becomes a celebrity. However, with his everyday life now revolving around a routine of hard drinking and wild partying, it's not long before his new-found lavish lifestyle begins to catch up on him.
More wit than wisdom? More style than substance? Both these charges have been levelled at The Madness of King George, but neither are entirely fair. It could be that the notional subject matter--the psychological collapse of George III, later attributed to the neurological disease porphyria--implies a profound, analytical approach of the kind associated with Oliver Sachs. However, as the screenplay was written by Alan Bennett, based upon his stage play The Madness of George III, what we have here is a typically shrewd, elegant and poignant depiction of how the world seems when viewed by someone who sees things in their own unique way. And as it is by Bennett, who allows himself a brief, bumbling cameo appearance, the dialogue is of course scalpel-sharp throughout and often extremely moving.The historical accuracy is strong on detail, but there's an element of artistic license, such as the depiction of HRH's apparent partial recovery at the close of the film (although the scene itself, in which Hawthorne's befuddled monarch rallies himself to address his subjects, is a joy). In the end, though, we really don't mind.On the DVD: the widescreen DVD extras include the theatrical trailer, a featurette and a lucid commentary by director Nicholas Hytner. --Roger Thomas
TINA is the ultimate celebration of a global superstar and an intimate portrait of a woman who overcame extreme adversity to define her career, her identity and her legacy on her own terms. From her early career as the queen of R&B to her record-breaking sell-out arena tours of the '80s, Tina Turner draws back the curtain to invite us into her private world in a way she has never done before. Revealing her inner-most struggles, and sharing some of her most personal moments, TINA is the defining and inspirational record of one of the greatest survivors in modern music.
Having left the hollers of Kentucky 15 years ago, Raylan Givens now lives in Miami, a walking anachronism balancing his life as a U.S. Marshal and part-time father of a 15-year-old girl. A chance encounter on a desolate Florida highway sends him to Detroit. There he crosses paths with Clement Mansell, aka The Oklahoma Wildman, a violent, sociopathic desperado who's already slipped through the fingers of Detroit's finest once and aims to do so again. These three characters set out on a collision course in classic Elmore Leonard fashion, to see who makes it out of the City Primeval alive.
The fifth season was the last series of Ally McBeal, and probably the least satisfying. While always at least slightly entertaining, it was troubled by two conflicting imperatives: first, to steer its neurotic characters and multiplicity of sub-plots towards a coherent and credible resolution; second, to sustain another series of a programme which had, by now, exhausted all the plot possibilities that were remotely believable. The result is a bemusing onslaught of new characters (Ally's Mini-Me Jenny and a barely distinguishable phalanx of lantern-jawed male leads), celebrity cameos (Edna Everage, Christina Ricci, Barry White, Matthew Perry, Jon Bon Jovi), several storylines that would test the credulity of any of the curiously indulgent judges before whom Ally's firm practises (notably the arrival of a 10-year-old daughter that Ally didn't know she had) and one misbegotten attempt to anchor the programme to the real world (the "Nine One One" episode, an unwatchably mawkish allegory about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States). Granted that Ally McBeal was never intended to be realistic drama, but when the programme spirals entirely off into the realms of the surreal, any possibility of the sort of identification with the characters on which the programme once relied is lost. Though not without its moments, the sudden redemption of Fish, always the best-written character, is deftly handled. Series Five will be of chief interest to adherents who stuck with it through the first four and so wanted to see how it all ends; in keeping with the central character's defining motifs of solipsism and self-pity, it does so with a whimper. On the DVD: Ally McBeal has episode selector on each disc, and a scene selector within each of those. The final disc contains two short and desultory documentaries on the series billed, somewhat hopefully, as "Special Features". A French audio soundtrack is available, as are subtitles in English, French and Dutch. -Andrew Mueller
Frank and Jack Baker are professional musicians who play small clubs. Jack is the cynical talented one with a liking for casual relationships while Frank is more ordinary and organised with a suburban home and family. After a series of boring gigs they decide to hire a singer. Into their lives walks Susie Diamond a hard nosed woman with a face as beautiful as her voice. Their status begins to pick up but tensions are beginning to mount between the two brothers especially as romance is blossoming between Susie and Jack.
A murder in 1944 draws together the great poets of the beat generation: Allen Ginsberg Jack Kerouac and William Burroughs.
The Wrecker
Make Way for Tomorrow, by LEO McCAREY (An Affair to Remember), is one of the great unsung Hollywood masterpieces, an enormously moving Depression-era depiction of the frustrations of family, aging, and the generation gap. BEULAH BONDI (It's a Wonderful Life) and VICTOR MOORE (Swing Time) headline a cast of incomparable character actors, starring as an elderly couple who must move in with their grown children after the bank takes their home, yet end up separated and subject to their offspring's selfish whims. An inspiration for Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, this is among American cinema's purest tearjerkers, all the way to its unflinching ending, which McCarey refused to change despite studio pressure. Special Features High-definition digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Tomorrow, Yesterday, and Today, an interview from 2009 featuring filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich discussing the career of director Leo McCarey and Make Way for Tomorrow Video interview from 2009 with critic Gary Giddins, in which he talks about McCarey's artistry and the political and social context of the film PLUS: A booklet featuring essays by critic Tag Gallagher and filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, and an excerpt from film scholar Robin Wood's 1998 piece Leo McCarey and Family Values
They're all here! Spanky Alfalfa Buckwheat Darla Stymie Porky Petey the dog as all rascals stars in this hilarious double movie pack! Through mischief and mayhem tricks and ingenuity the rascals will learn the value of true friendship... and even an appreciation of girls.
Edward Scissorhands achieves the nearly impossible feat of capturing the delicate flavour of a fable or fairy tale in a live-action movie. The story follows a young man named Edward (Johnny Depp), who was created by an inventor (Vincent Price, in one of his last roles) who died before he could give the poor creature a pair of human hands. Edward lives alone in a ruined Gothic castle that just happens to be perched above a pastel-coloured suburb inhabited by breadwinning husbands and frustrated housewives straight out of the 1950s. One day, Peg (Dianne Wiest), the local Avon lady, comes calling. Finding Edward alone, she kindly invites him to come home with her, where she hopes to help him with his pasty complexion and those nasty nicks he's given himself with his razor-sharp fingers. Soon Edward's skill with topiary sculpture and hair design make him popular in the neighbourhood--but the mood turns just as swiftly against the outsider when he starts to feel his own desires, particularly for Peg's daughter Kim (Winona Ryder). Most of director Tim Burton's movies (such as Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice and Batman) are visual spectacles with elements of fantasy but Edward Scissorhands is more tender and personal than the others. Edward's wild black hair is much like Burton's, suggesting that the character represents the director's own feelings of estrangement and co-option. Johnny Depp, making his first successful leap from TV to film, captures Edward's child-like vulnerability even while his physical posture evokes horror icons like the vampire in Nosferatu and the sleepwalker in The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. Classic horror films, at their heart, feel a deep sympathy for the monsters they portray; simply and affectingly, Edward Scissorhands lays that heart bare. --Bret Fetzer
The original 1947 version of this Valentine Davies story follows the misadventures of Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) as he gets a job playing Santa Claus at Macy's department store in New York City. Natalie Wood is the little girl who tells him she doesn't believe in Santa, and Maureen O'Hara and John Payne are the couple who help Kris through a trial in which he must prove he's the jolly fellow from the North Pole. A sweet movie and perennial Christmas favourite, Miracle on 34th Street is one of those films that gets under your skin and must be revisited every so often. --Tom Keogh
HALLOWEEN Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago. Master of horror John Carpenter joins forces with director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Split) for this follow up to Carpenter's 1978 classic. HALLOWEEN KILLS The Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn't over yet. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie's basement but when Michael manages to free himself from the trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. Evil dies tonight.
Set in rural Australia in the 1950s, A Place to Call Home is a sweeping and romantic drama of one woman's journey to heal her soul and of a privileged family's confrontation with a changing era. Marta Dusseldorp (Jack Irish) leads the cast as Sarah Adams, a woman with a mysterious past who returns to Australia after 20 years abroad. Tragic news is about to cause her to make the long delayed journey back home. Working her passage home aboard an ocean liner, Sarah becomes involved in the lives of the Blighs, a wealthy Australian family, which will change her life forever. It is time for Sarah to begin her journey towards healing and find A Place To Call Home.
From the director of "Airplane" comes the third instalment in the scary spoof franchise.
"Lawless Heart" takes a journey through the comedy of love, with three friends facing life, death, sex and misadventure when, shocked by the death of a friend, they decide to take their lives in hand.
HALLOWEEN Jamie Lee Curtis returns to her iconic role as Laurie Strode, who comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago. Master of horror John Carpenter joins forces with director David Gordon Green and producer Jason Blum (Get Out, Split) for this follow up to Carpenter's 1978 classic. HALLOWEEN KILLS The Halloween night when Michael Myers returned isn't over yet. Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) left masked monster Michael Myers caged and burning in Laurie's basement but when Michael manages to free himself from the trap, his ritual bloodbath resumes. As Laurie fights her pain and prepares to defend herself against him, she inspires all of Haddonfield to rise up against their unstoppable monster. Evil dies tonight.
Thanks to its focus on more single-case episodes, the second half of CSI's second series is an even more highly concentrated dose of forensic puzzle-solving from the Vegas science sleuths. With the whole team working together on one puzzle crime (or series of crime puzzles), the group dynamic is elaborated and the audience drawn deeper into each investigation. The first three episodes are all single cases: "Identity Crisis" sees the return of Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander; in "The Finger", Catherine is caught up in an elaborate kidnap plot; while in "Burden of Proof", a stray body in a "body farm" leads to a difficult case of child abuse. After a brief return to the two-investigation-per-episode format, the team unite once more for one of their most intriguing cases, "Chasing the Bus", in which they must unravel the mystery of a bus crash in the desert. "Stalker" is possibly the show's most terrifying episode to date, with a woman found murdered behind the safely locked doors of her apartment. The season concludes with "Cross Jurisdictions", a rather unsubtle way of introducing the spin-off show CSI: Miami and, finally, "The Hunger Artist", a somewhat strained attempt to comment on our society's obsession with glamour and self-image, which is most notable for Grissom's devastating discovery that his hearing problems are not only congenital, but irreversible. --Mark Walker
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy