Set in the 1930's A Good Woman is an elegant, witty, romantic comedy based on Oscar Wilde's "Lady Windermere's Fan".
An extraordinarily racy movie for its time, The Wicked Lady was and still is as notable for its acres of heaving bosom as for its radical challenge to female stereotypes. This bodice-ripper about a bored aristocratic woman who turns highwayman just for kicks became a huge box-office success in post-war Britain, but Margaret Lockwood's eloquent bust proved a bit too expressive for Hollywood, so the film was expensively reshot for a sanitised US release. (From 1945 right up to Janet Jackson at the 2004 Superbowl, American audiences apparently have an enduring problem with those prominent parts of the female anatomy). This is the definitive Gainsborough picture, a period romp crammed with cads, in which the camera gazes lasciviously down (it's all shot from a male eyelevel) at the low-cut ladies' dresses. But this time the female anti-heroine gives as good as she gets... and then some. Lockwood's Lady Barbara Skelton is quite gleefully amoral--more so even than Thackeray's arch-manipulator Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair--failing even to pay lip service to the moral standards of the 1940s, let alone those of the 17th century. It is she who wears the trousers (quite literally, in her highwayman guise) while the weak-chinned and weak-willed men around her crumble under the weight of their conventionality. Only James Mason's handsome dandy highwayman can keep up with her, but even he has to draw the line somewhere. Ultimately, social mores reassert their grip and Lady Barbara gets her comeuppance, but not before she's overturned every contemporary movie convention about femininity. "She was the wickedest woman ever seen on the screen", trumpets the original theatrical trailer on this otherwise bare-bones DVD release: it's still probably true even today. --Mark Walker
The winner of the audience award at this year's Edinburgh Film Festival.
Mel Gibson is a chauvinistic advertising executive who suddenly develops the ability to understand what women are thinking.
The Naval Criminal Investigation Service's Office of Special Projects takes on the undercover work and the hard to crack cases in LA. Key agents are G. Callen and Sam Hanna streets kids risen through the ranks.
Jerry Maguire, the film that launched the careers of writer-director Cameron Crowe and actress Renée Zellwenger, is accurately regarded as one of the best romantic comedies of the 1990s. It's an unconventional tale about the paradoxical nature of success in which a top sports agent (Tom Cruise) is forced to reassess his life when he is unceremoniously dumped by his employer. After falling in love with single mother Dorothy Boyd (Zellwenger), and supported by loyal client and second-rate football star Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.), Maguire attempts to rebuild his fractured life. At times the film's lightweight, pop-sociology view of the hungry nature of the modern day workplace is clichéd to say the least. However, because Crowe is able to develop meaningful characters, his contradictory lunges against capitalism are submerged by the excellent performances of Cruise and company. There are also top notch supporting roles from Zellwenger's screen son Ray (child star Jonathan Lipnicki) and dictatorial older sister Laurel (Bonnie Hunt). On the DVD: Jerry Maguire's animated menus are created in the style of a messy desk with Post-It-Note selection icons but these don't function as anticipated. As well as the audio commentary over the main feature, the bonus disc unnecessarily includes live action visual footage of Cruise, Crowe, Gooding and Zellwenger providing the same remarks. Unfortunately, the visuals only add to irritability of the exclusive banter between the four. There's also a short "making-of" featurette along with Cameron Crow's documentary Drew Rosenhaus: Sports Agent, which highlights the inspiration behind the film's character Bob Sugar. The "Mission Statement", reproduced in its entirety, isn't a quick and easy read. The music video for Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden" adds a mellow, atmospheric twist to the bonus disc. There are also exclusive DVD-ROM extras tucked away, including the screenplay and photo gallery. --John Galilee
Episodes Comprise: 1. The Widower 2. Sunday Tea 3. The Permissive Society 4. The Football Match 5. Another Man 6. Spring
Kay Mellor's comedy drama series following a collection of characters whose personal life struggles are relayed to each other during their weekly slimming class... Series 1: 1. Love Me Slender 2. Fat Chance 3. Fat Free 4. Growing Pains 5. Face The Fat 6. When The Fat Lady Sings Series 2: 1. Full Belly 2. Peaches And Dreams 3. Forty And In-Fat-uated 4. Sweet And Sour 5. In Full Bloom 6. Hunger Pangs Series 3: 1. Eat Your Heart Out 2. Leggs Over Easy 3. Foo
Classic horror starring Peter Cushing. A young teacher on her way to a position in Transylvania helps a young man escape the shackles his mother has put on him. In doing so she innocently unleashes the horrors of the undead once again on the populace including those at her school for ladies. Luckily for some Dr Van Helsing (Cushing) is already on his way.
When Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) goes to pick up four year old Bunny at her new pre-school in London, she's told that no child by that name is enrolled there... Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) of Scotland Yard is assigned to the case. His suspects include Steven Lake (Keir Dullea) , the child's protective uncle; Horatio Wilson (Noel Coward), the Lake's decadent landlord; and Aida Ford (Martita Hunt), the school's eccentric ex-headmistress, but he soon learns that no one has actually seen the child and there is absolutely no proof that Bunny ever existed. Ann maintains the child's been kidnapped, but Newhouse begins to suspect that the hystarical young woman may just be insane. 'Bunny Lake Is Missing' is director Otto Preminger's controversial masterpiece of terror and suspense.
Tom Hanks is Chuck Noland, a man in a hurry. His job for Federal Express has him traveling the world on a moments notice, exhorting the company's employees to speed things up--never turn your back on the clock. When he's suddenly called away for business on Christmas night, his tolerant longtime girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) drives him to the airport. They have their Christmas in the car--and Chuck plunks an engagement ring into her lap right before he gets on the plane, telling her, I'll be right back. But an unexpected storm cuts the plane's crew off from radio contact and blows them off course. Chuck is the sole survivor of the resulting crash, and washes up on a completely deserted island. Stranded there, he must give up everything that he once took for granted and learn how to survive all alone in the wilderness. From director Robert Zemeckis, CAST AWAY is a story of adventure and discovery surrounding one man's will to stay alive.
Here's a film that only a Steven Seagal fan could love. Fire Down Below not nearly as good as Under Siege (the movie destined to remain Seagal's high-water mark), but not any worse than Above the Law. This time ol' Steve is an agent of the Environmental Protection Agency who's busting heads in Kentucky. He's on good terms with the local yokels (including Marg Helgenberger and Harry Dean Stanton), but locks horns with a slimy mogul (Kris Kristofferson) who's using abandoned mines to dump toxic waste. Along with an ecological message, Seagal serves up several broken limbs, cracked skulls, and bloody noses, and he even finds time to do some guitar picking with country boys such as Travis Tritt and Randy Travis. Once you've heard Seagal crooning a country tune, you'll be eager to see him go back to whuppin' the bad guys. --Jeff Shannon
Ten years ago, Slade Wilson aka the super-assassin called Deathstroke made a tragic mistake, and his wife and son paid a terrible price. Now, a decade later, Wilson's family is threatened once again by the murderous Jackal and the terrorists of H.IV.E. Can Deathstroke atone for the sins of the past or will his family pay the ultimate price?
Star racecar Lightning McQueen and the incomparable tow truck Mater take their friendship to exciting new places in Cars 2 when they head overseas to compete in the first-ever World Grand Prix to determine the world's fastest car.
A classic auto-racing movie starring Steve McQueen, Le Mans puts the audience in the driver's seat for what is often called the most gruelling race in the world. McQueen plays the American driver, locked in an intense grudge match with his German counterpart during the 24-hour race through the French countryside even as he wrestles with the guilt over causing an accident that cost the life of a close friend. McQueen is his usual stoic magnetic self, and the racing sequences are among the best ever committed to film. A solid character-driven story combines with raw visceral power to make Le Mans a rich tapestry of action and thrills. --Robert Lane
Watch out for the Man watching the Rollercoaster. In this high-speed suspense thriller a determined terrorist (Timothy Bottoms) begins to turn America's amusement parks into battlefields. The tension mounts as an affable safety inspector (George Segal) attempts to track down the saboteur who has targeted the country's most popular rollercoaster and its riders for senseless destruction. The edge-of-the-seat excitement mounts as the battle of wits between Segal and Bottoms build
An amoral French girl and her playboy father discover the dark side of passion in this sizzling 1958 adaptation of Francoise Sagan's notorious bestseller. Jean Seberg is Cecile the spoiled 17-year-old daughter of Raymond (David Nevin) a wealthy Parisian widower vacationing in a sumptuous villas on the French Rivera. Their shallow pleasure-seeking existence is threatened when Raymond decides to marry Cecil's straitlaced godmother Anne.(Deborah Kerr) who disapproves of the teen
The Relic is the story of a monster that runs amok in a Chicago museum on the very day the institution is holding a glitzy reception. Naturally, the museum bosses want to go ahead with their public relations even as the creature is decapitating victims. Penelope Ann Miller plays a scientist on the run from the critter (which is at times computer generated and reminiscent of the raptors in Jurassic Park), and Tom Sizemore is a cop looking for his cold-blooded (in every sense) killer. Peter Hyams (Timecop) directs, and as always he excels at managing the plastic action at the cost of real feeling and logic. (Much of the story is pretty laughable.) --Tom Keogh
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