An elegant comedic story of a Polish acting troupe who help in their small way to resist the Nazi occupation. When it is discovered that a Polish hero residing in Britain is actually a German agent a Polish RAF officer is deployed to stop him. Upon arriving in Poland the RAF officer together with the already forewarned actors concoct a convoluted charade designed to collect the information from the spy kill him and pass on the false information to the Gestapo.
Something very strange is happening in the quiet coastal village of Potters Bluff where tourists and transients are warmly welcomed then brutally murdered! Even more shocking is when these slain strangers suddenly reappear as normal friendly citizens around town... Now the local sheriff and an eccentric mortician must uncover the horrific secret of a community where some terrifying traditions are alive and well: no one is ever truly dead and buried!
Only When I Laugh was written by Eric Chappell (Rising Damp Home to Roost) and directed by Vernon Lawrence (Duty Free The Bounder). The series starred James Bolam (Beiderbecke) Peter Bowles (To the Manor Born) and Christopher Strauli (Raffles) as three congenital hypochondriac layabouts forever haunting the ward patrolled by the droll Doctor Thorpe (Richard Wilson - One Foot in the Grave). Episodes Comprise: 1. Blood Brothers 2. Conduct Unbecoming 3. All in the Mind 4. In Sickness and in Health 5. Escape 6. When Did You Last See Your Father? 7. The Reunion
The struggle for Cybertron continues in Transformers: Beast Machines Season 2! Mysteriously transported back to their home planet of Cybertron with no memory of how or why they are there the Maximals find themselves pitched in a life-or-death battle with the evil Vehicons ruthless minions of the Decepticon Megatron. With a war now being waged the Maximals led by the awesome Optimus Primal must free Cybertron from Megatron and restore it to its former glory before all life is doomed. With animals replacing the vehicular forms of the Autobots Transformers: Beast Machines takes the age-old battle to a new level.
Cy Endfield cowrote the epic prequel Zulu Dawn 15 years after his enormously popular Zulu. Set in 1879, this film depicts the catastrophic Battle of Isandhlwana, which remains the worst defeat of the British army by natives--the British contingent was outnumbered 16-to-1 by the Zulu tribesmen. The film's opinion of events is made immediately clear in its title sequence: ebullient African village life presided over by King Cetshwayo is contrasted with aristocratic artifice under the arrogant eye of General Lord Chelmsford (Peter O'Toole). Chelmsford is at the heart of all that goes wrong, initiating the catastrophic battle with an ultimatum made seemingly for the sake of giving his troops something to do. His detached manner leads to one mistake after another and this is wryly illustrated in a moment when neither he nor his officers can be bothered to pronounce the name of the land they're in. That it's a beautiful land none the less is made clear by the superb cinematography, which drinks in the massive open spaces that shrink the British army to a line of red ants. Splendidly stiff-upper-lipped support comes from a heroic Burt Lancaster and a fluffy, yet gruff, Bob Hoskins. Although the story is less focused and inevitably more diffuse than the concentrated events of Rorke's Drift that followed soon after, Zulu Dawn is an unflinchingly honest depiction of British Imperial diplomacy. --Paul Tonks
A rash of daring bank robberies erupt in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys--former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a studly crime-busting fed instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual, very guru-type guy played by Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. If you can buy all that, this efficiently directed (by Kathryn Bigelow) action flick has some diverting moments (credit it, for example, for anticipating the extreme-sports fad). But Reeves' intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent and that plot makes him look positively brilliant. --David Kronke
Drive takes the standard American mismatched-buddies action comedy formula and turbo-charges it with furious Hong Kong wirework and martial arts. The result is a three-and-a-half million dollar "B" picture which looks like it cost 10 times more. The perfunctory story crosses Universal Solider (1992) with Rush Hour (1997) as a biologically enhanced Mark Dacascos flees a small army of Hong Kong assassins through California, teaming up with comedian Kadeem Hardison and delivering an almost unbelievable amount of bang per buck. Director Steve Wang stages the action with flair and clarity, the stunts, wirework and fights being exceptionally well-choreographed and shot. With Hardison's patter, two offbeat redneck assassins and a TV show about a frog with Einstein's brain there's abundant surprisingly genial humour, aided by Brittany Murphy's ditzy performance as a Twin Peaks-like teenager with hormones in overdrive. The cyborg aspect simply justifies the superhuman combat, but nevertheless a huge showdown in a retro-space age club is clearly styled after the "Tech Noir" bar sequence in The Terminator (1984), adding motorcycle killersstraight out of Rollerball (1975). Drive captures the rush of Hong Kong action movies yet almost has the feel of a musical, the mayhem replacing song and dance and offering more popcorn entertainment than many a bloated summer blockbuster.On the DVD: For such a low budget movie the 2.35:1 anamorphically enhanced image puts many far bigger features to shame, being pin-sharp throughout, with strong and accurate colours and minimal grain. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is equally strong, with sound-effects and music both having considerable impact, explosions ripping thorough the room like the latest Arnie shoot 'em up. There is a 47-minute retrospective documentary which is particularly interesting on the way the film was cut and restored for American release--this DVD presenting the director's cut which runs over 16 minutes longer than the US version. Six deleted/extended scenes are presented in a variety of formats, and it's easy to see why they were deleted. Also included are the original theatrical trailer, three photo galleries, cast and crew biographies and interview galleries with director Steve Wang and four of the main stars totalling about 20 minutes of material. The informative commentary track has Wang, Dacascos, Hardison and stunt co-ordinator Koichi Sakamoto revelling in their sheer enthusiasm for the movie and for Hong Kong action in general. --Gary S Dalkin
Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) finally has the girl of his dreams, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and New York City is in the throes of Spider-mania! But when a strange alien symbiote turns Spider-Man's suit black, his darkest demons come to light changing Spider-Man inside as well as out. Spider-Man is in for the fight of his life against a lethal mix of villains - the deadly Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), Venom (Topher Grace), and the New Goblin (James Franco) - as well as the enemy within himself.
Run aground during a fierce storm a group of passengers are forced to abandon ship. As the survivors (among them prisoners a prison guard and a criminal psychologist) struggle ashore they find themselves at an apparently deserted lighthouse. It's not long until they discover the headless corpses of the lighthouse keepers and they realise that the ship was also carrying a prisoner more dangerous than any of them - murderer Leo Rook (Christopher Adamson). Hunting them down one by
The story of Edinburgh's most famous four-legged friend comes to life.
Sophisticated to a point, this well-executed wolf-man tale works due to its clever setting and enormous star power. We all know Jack Nicholson can go nuts but the script makes his character aware of his changes, sometimes for the better, early on. The setting, a publishing house in the middle of a takeover, gives the characters dramatic life before the horror elements kicks in. A senior editor about to get the boot, Nicholson's character becomes a new man after being bitten by a wolf. He takes on challenges at work, lives a more robust life and attracts a new love. But will his new-found energy consume him? Director Mike Nicholson keeps the action alive in the first half but the film peters out at the end with cheap theatrics and the overuse of slow motion. Michelle Pfeiffer has little to do as simply the love interest with a grittier than average personality. Better is James Spader as a smarmy colleague. Nicholson is in fine form, relying on his keen gift to spark interest (a twitch of the head, a look in the eyes), instead of heavy doses of movie make-up. Giuseppe Rotunno's sweeping camerawork sets the mood quite well. Wolf is easy to recommend, with the added feature it's hardly gratuitous. --Doug Thomas
Shadow Run ought to be considerably more interesting than it is--Geoffrey Reeve is an efficient director and both Michael Caine and James Fox turn in icy performances as, respectively, an almost completely ruthless thief and the renegade intelligence man who hires him for that one last big job. Caine in particular is convincing in the half-hearted attacks of compunction that never stop him killing obstacles. Many of the bit-players--Lesley Grantham, for example--do a lot with almost nonexistent parts. The film counterpoints the planning of the heist with the social embarrassments of the fat schoolboy who becomes, by a series of coincidences, too informed about it and, ultimately, Caine's secret sharer. Reeve is rather too in love with the cathedral school background of the subplot and skimps too much on the complicated technical business of getting a computerised security van into a radio blackout zone. Still, the boy is excellent, and Caine's affair with the doomed hooker Rae Baker has some much-needed moments of wit. On the DVD: Disappointingly, the DVD, whose Dolby surround sound does miracles for the scenes of schoolboy choristers, is presented in pan and scan 1.33:1, and has no extra features except for chapter selection and trailers for other films.--Roz Kaveney
""Just the good ole' boysNever meanin' no harmBeats all you never saw been in trouble with the law since the day they was bornStraightenin' the curvesFlattenin' the hillsSomeday the mountain might get 'em but the law never willMakin' their way the only way they know howThat's just a little bit more than the law will allowJust the good ole' boysWouldn't change if they couldFightin' the system like a true-modern day Robin Hood."" - The Ball
Stevens is the perfect English butler. Now employed by Mr Lewis, the new American owner of Darlington Hall, Stevens has spent the best part of his working life serving Lord Darlington, the host of many prestigious international conferences in the 1930s. It was only when war broke out in 1939, that Lord Darlington's involvement with the Nazi party was uncovered. Now, twenty years later, Stevens realizes that his unquestioning faith and dedication to duty were misplaced, and cost him dearly in his own personal life. Over several years, he carried on an intense relationship with the Estate's attractive young housekeeper, Miss Kenton. But his unwavering sense of duty led Stevens to deny his emotions and eventually drive away the one woman he loved. Now he wants to make amends...An extraordinary story of blind emotion and repressed love, The Remains Of The Day achieved an astounding 8 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Actress. Anthony Hopkins received the BAFTA Award for the Best Performance by an actor in a leading role.
Director John Sayles's 'Eight Men Out' explores one of the darkest moments in the history of baseball: 1919's infamous Black Sox scandal when eight players on the heavily favored Chicago White Sox agreed to throw the World Series. Based on Eliot Asinof's 1963 book of the same name the film investigates why the players including the great 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson who many believe belongs in the Hall of Fame would purposely lose the most important game of their lives...
The second and last of Anthony Mann's historical epics is a smart, handsome spectacle of the decadence, corruption, and intrigue that tore apart the greatest empire the world has seen. The sprawling story spreads itself thin over a number of characters and stories. At the centre are handsome but stiff Stephen Boyd as Livius, the loyal soldier and symbolic son of the ageing emperor Marcus Aurelius(Alec Guinness), and Christopher Plummer as Commodus, the corrupt heir to the throne. They are boyhood friends turned enemies when the latter accedes to the throne and sells out the values of his father for greed and hedonistic pleasures. The three-hour running time is filled out with the tales of Sophia Loren (as the beautiful Lucilla in love with Livius but coveted by greedy Commodus) and a gallery of heroes and villains that includes James Mason, Mel Ferrer, Anthony Quayle, John Ireland, Omar Sharif, and Eric Porter. The film is highlighted with spectacular scenes--a grandiose funeral fit for an emperor, brutal battles in the provinces as the barbarians threaten the empire, and a climactic duel to decide the destiny of Rome--which Mann weaves into the shadowy intrigue of the halls of power. Like his previous epic El Cid, The Fall of the Roman Empire remains one of the best of the 1960s epics: well written (and historically accurate up to a point) with strong performances and a consistently elegant style, It lacks a central core and the magnetic hero of its superior predecessor. Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000) tackles the same story with an updated action-adventure slant. --Sean Axmaker
Taken from the first television series this finds a former Army sergeant returning home to an economically depressed Gallowshields in Tyneside at the end of World War One. But this sergeant always lands on his feet...
The story of Beary Barrinson a ten year old bear cub raised by a human family after he was found abandoned in the forest. Beary is desperate to find out where he really came from and travels to Tennessee to seek out his family...
The fate of millions rests on the fortitude of one... 'Ike: Countdown To D-Day' follows the 90 terrifying days leading up to the invasion of Europe as Commander In Chief of the Allied forces General Dwight D. Eisenhower decides the fates of thousands of soldiers while managing complex strategic relationships with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and French President Charles de Gaulle as well as the feuding American General George S. Patton and Britain's Field Marshall
Strictly Come Dancing: Live Box Set 2008 & 2009
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