From the Director of Kids comes the story of Bobbie a teenage runaway and thief who is happy making money the hard way - by breaking into vending machines. Bobbie is approached by Mel the charismatic uncle of one of his drug buddys. Mel offers Bobbie the chance of a big score in another town. With the prospect of easy money limited risk plenty of drugs and excitement on offer Bobbie cannot refuse. Bobbie sets off with his girlfriend Rosie Mel and Sidney Mel's heroin addict girlfriend. Between the shopping and fixes the foursome begin to bond and an unlikely family emerges. However the heist becomes more dangerous than imagined and Bobbie is forced to make a decision about his new found family and his outlaw life.
John Nettles stars as Chief Inspector Barnaby in this feature-length episode of the acclaimed crime series. When a portrait of Jonathan Lowrie a wealthy royalist who was killed by a Roundhead musketeer is slashed at the Aspern Tallow museum Barnaby and Sergeant Troy are called in to investigate. A series of strange events follows and soon the detectives are investigating much more than an act of vandalism.
Blast off for this outrageously funny space travel in this comedy that spins wildly out of control all the way to Mars! Though he's a whiz with computers accident-prone astro-nut Fred Randall is the last guy on Earth you'd want on the first manned mission to Mars. But as bad luck and poor timing would have it that's exactly what happens and Fred undergoes rigorous if not hilarious training at NASA. After that Fred blasts off with the rest of the space shuttle crew a cocky no-
Written by Johnny Vaughan the raw stylised and streetwise story-telling provides a perfect format to explore the high times and comedowns of a group of young urbanites.... The world's first ever 'dope' opera!
He's a cop with the odds against him ... it's time to even the score James Woods stars as detective-sergeant Lloyd Hopkins an officer with the Los Angeles Police Department. A tough brash womaniser but also a dedicated cop Hopkins gets himself assigned to a murder case where he becomes totally obsessed with finding the killer even at the expense of his own family. Based on the novel ""Blood On The Moon"" by crime fiction write James Ellroy whose 'L.A. Noir' series fea
Marty is an up-and-coming mystery writer who writes bizarre and gruesome tales of murder. During a top-secret military experiment his genes are mixed up with those of a brilliant college athlete. As a result an identical clone is produced with a nasty combiantion of a clever but violent mind and nimble athleticism.
Gillies MacKinnon's highly praised adaptation of Pat Barker's novel is a moving and powerful study of war and its devastating effects. Set in a military hospital during World War I the film tells of a real life encounter between army psychologist Dr William Rivers and the poet Siegfried Sassoon who has been institutionalised in an attempt to undermine his public disapproval of the war. It also concerns young poet Wilfred Owen who whith support from Sassoon begins to write his great war poems. Rivers whose duty it is to return shell-shocked officers to the trenches is tormented by the morality of what is being done in the name of medicine especially the treatment of working-class officer Billy Prior who has been struck dumb by the carnage he has witnessed.
Destry Rides Again (Dir. George Marshall 1939): As Destry a mild-mannered deputy who doesn't like guns Stewart is called to restore order to the hopelessly corrupt frontier town of Bottleneck. Though reluctant to undertake such an enormous task he's soon roped into action after meeting the seductive Frenchy (Dietrich) an alluring saloon girl who belts out unforgettable show-stoppers like The Boys in the Back Room while winning the hero's heart. Shenandoah (Dir. Andrew V. McLaglen 1965): James Stewart stars as a Virginia farmer during the Civil War. He refuses to support the Confederacy because he is opposed to slavery yet he will not support the Union because he is deeply opposedito war. When his son is taken prisoner Stewart goes to search for the boy. Seeing first-hand the horrors of war he is at last forced to take his stand... The Man From Laramie (Dir. Anthony Mann 1955): Will Lockhart comes to a small town to find the man who sold rifles to the Apaches and caused the death of his brother a cavalry officer. Beaten and nearly killed by cohorts of the arms dealer he also becomes embroiled with a ranch baron and his overwrought son. Father and son are plotted against by their treacherous foreman who wants the ranch for himself. Two Rode Together (Dir. John Ford 1961): This is John Ford's criminally overlooked western and the first collaboration between Ford and James Stewart A group of children are held captive by the Indians. A Lieutenant enlists the help of a Texas Marshall in a rescue attempt. Based on the novel by Will Cook.
January 16th 1945. With the allies closing in on Berlin from the east and west and Allied bombers blasting Berlin by day and by night Adolf Hitler takes up permanent residence in his command bunker under the Chancellery Building. Refusing to believe the war is lost an increasingly irrational Hitler issues insane orders to a dwindling band of his most loyal followers even as his dreams die in flames all about him... A fine supporting cast includes Richard Jordan as Albert Speer Piper Laurie as Magda Goebbels Cliff Gorman as Josef Goebbels and Michael Lonsdale as Martin Bormann. Based upon the acclaimed best seller by James O'Donnell which in turn drew on numerous first hand accounts from those who actually lived through these events The Bunker is a milestone in television history.
Mark Fuhrman (Christopher Meloni) became obsessed with the unsolved murder of a young girl in Greenwich Connecticut. The case originally front-page news across the country when Kennedy nephews Tommy and Michael Skakel became prime suspects had been all but forgotten. But with the determination of a pitbull and the assistance of Detective Steve Carrol (Robert Forster) Mark Fuhrman helped bring a murderer to justice and lift the veil of secrecy that kept this brutal crime a mystery
Based on William Wharton's transcendent novel of the same name, this film is about many things: friendship, war, and, of course, birds. The framing device is an effort by a horribly scarred combat soldier (Nicolas Cage) to break through to his best friend, Birdy (Matthew Modine), hospitalised after seemingly being driven mad by fighting in the Vietnam War. Cage then flashes back to their boyhood, where Birdy, a canary aficionado, was considered the school weirdo but managed to be a solid companion none the less. Directed by Alan Parker, it works best as a coming-of-age story, but misses the bizarre psychological transferences of the book, in which Birdy imagines himself within the world of canaries he creates in his bedroom at his parents' house. Modine is fine as an out-of-it misfit enraptured by his own little universe. --Marshall Fine
Joseph and Brenda have done what many only dream of and retired to the South of France to live out the rest of their days as if they were permanently on holiday. But retirement is not what Joseph imagined and when a young attractive couple Suzanne and Mark choose their favourite bistro for dinner everything Joseph thought he knew about himself and his world is turned upside down.
A member of the British government is sent to Brussels to become British Commissioner to the European Community where he uncovers political and industrial corruption...
Officer Vince Faraday (David Lyons) was a good cop trying to clean up a corrupt city. Framed for murder and left for dead, he suddenly found himself separated from his family and forced into hiding. Now, inspired by his son's favourite comic book hero, he's taking the law into his own hands, and playing a deadly game of chess with the powerful kingpin who framed him. With the hope of one day reuniting with his family, The Cape is sending a loud message to all criminals... run.
When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and storylines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep down, sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whately's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter said he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford
Lives were upended--and some co-opted--in the fifth and final season of Angel, as the denizens of Angel Investigations found themselves taking on one of their scariest endeavors ever: corporate life. After making a literal deal with the devil (or something distinctly devil-like), Angel (David Boreanaz) moved his team from their crumbling hotel to the high-rise digs of law-firm-from-hell Wolfram & Hart, his reasoning being they could better fight the forces of evil from the inside, and with more resources to boot. Clever maneuvering or easy rationalization? A few members of Angel's team accused him of selling out (as did a number of viewers), but as with most of the show's previous four seasons, Angel somehow took a dubious premise and mined it for gold. And with one core cast member gone (Charisma Carpenter, whose Cordelia was immersed in a deep coma), it seemed as if the show, from within and without, would suddenly fall apart--that is, until Angel's longtime nemesis Spike (James Marsters) showed up, fresh from his sacrificial roasting at the series finale of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Let the vampire games begin! With Buffy off the air, fans flocked to Angel's last season to get their fix of Joss Whedon's "Buffyverse" in any form they could, and the addition of Spike was a shrewd one, albeit not enough to keep the show from getting canceled. And for the first half of the season, the creative forces behind the show seemed to be toying ruthlessly with the audience. Spike was around, but not entirely corporeal; Angel himself became sullen and withdrawn; and most horrifically, sweetheart scientist Fred (Amy Acker) and former watcher Wesley (Alexis Denisof) underwent traumas that would test even the most devoted viewer. However, just when you'd be about to throw in the towel, things started changing for the better--Spike became a permanent fixture (both in the flesh and on the show), Angel's secret motives were revealed, and the introduction of demon warrior Illyria, who proved to be the show's answer to Buffy's sardonic demon-made-human Anya, was a welcome breath of fresh air. Creatively, Angel also came up with some of its best episodes, including "Smile Time" (where Angel is turned into a puppet really!) and "You're Welcome" (the show's 100th episode, which marked the bittersweet return of Carpenter's Cordelia). The ending of the series was deliberately ambiguous, and not everyone made it through alive, but in going out kicking, it was a proper sendoff for a show that always fought the good fight. --Mark Englehart
A 2002 Mike Leigh drama, All or Nothing is at times almost unbearably bleak and poignant, yet funny, truthful and richly rewarding. The film's revolves around Timothy Spall's mini-cab driver, his family and the various characters and acquaintances on the South-east London estate where he lives. It's perhaps even better than Secrets and Lies, in which Spall also starred, which was marred a little by some of the tearful excesses of Brenda Blethyn's bravura performance. It's evidence that Leigh has matured and improved with age, rather than mellowed and softened. He's developed into a highly distinctive but rounded and humane filmmaker. Spall's cabbie is too gentle and thoughtful to be described as a slob, but his lack of even the most basic ambition and stoic non-resistance to life has created an unspoken rift between him and wife Penny (Lesley Manville). Working on a supermarket checkout, she must cook dinner and fend off insults from her fat, frustrated, obnoxious 18-year-old son Rory. She receives only passive sympathy from her older daughter Rachel. Only when Rory is taken ill is Phil snapped out of his torpor as the family pull together. A host of minor characters also feature; fatuous cabbie Ron (Paul Jesson) his alcoholic wife and sluttish daughter, as well as the wonderfully good-humoured and resilient Maureen, Penny's best friend, concerned at her daughter's relationship with a violent boyfriend. Once accused of caricaturing his "lower class" characters, here Leigh (with the collaborative assistance of his actors) exhibits them in all their authentic complexity, neither idealising nor sentimentalising them. On the DVD: All or Nothing's extras include the original trailer, as well as interviews with several members of the cast. Timothy Spall is interesting on the unnerving process of collaboration favoured by Leigh, whereby characters are "built from zero" by the actors. The smart and rather posh Lesley Manville strikes quite a contrast in real life with her mousey, put-upon character. There's also a meticulous and absorbing commentary from Mike Leigh, who talks about filming in Greenwich and how he has moved away from some of the more dogmatic ideas about filmmaking of his earlier, avant-garde days. --David Stubbs
Hard-hitting original and controversial 'Bad Girls' depicts the trials and triumphs of prison inmates and officers in a notorious women's prison. It's a tense and sexually charged atmosphere and it's a hidden world where anything can happen. With such a heady mix of characters will Di Barker (Tracey Wilkinson) be able to keep her grip on the wing and will this be at the expense of some happiness in her personal life? Struggling heroin addict Colin Hedges (Tristan Sturrock) finds
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