The master filmmaker continues to reinvent the modern horror genre with a film that draws new battle lines between the living and the dead.
In 1990, Death Warrant was one of several back-to-back action movies that suddenly made Jean Claude Van Damme's name a rival to Stallone's and Schwarzenegger's. Its distinction from the likes of Cyborg or Double Impact is in its firm grounding in reality. In fact, Los Angeles County Jail couldn't seem more harshly real. That's where Detective Burke finds himself going undercover to investigate a string of mysterious (and politically embarrassing) deaths. Of course, the prison environment is ideally suited to Van Damme's strengths, where he elicits sympathy as the innocent abroad during one fight sequence after another. Lots of colourful secondary characters are along for the ride, such as the enigmatic Priest, tough-as-nails peanut-shucking Sergeant DeGraf and Burke's arch nemesis, the Candyman (Patrick Kilpatrick). There's an admirable attempt at portraying the action with some panache. Light and shadow is used to good effect and every kickbox move is punctuated by a double cut. Although the script dispenses with the essential Van Damme elements in the opening seconds (he lost a partner / he's from Canada / he can kickbox), this is definitely an above-average Van Damme flick. On the DVD: The bare-bones transfer offers an occasionally grainy picture in 1.85:1 ratio and a three-channel surround soundtrack. The only extra off the static menu is the original theatrical trailer. --Paul Tonks
Photographer Nick Evans is a womanizer and the world's greatest multi-tasker. So what happens when he meets poised gutsy Anne Kidwell a talented fashion designer? As the two begin to see more of each other Anne comes to the realisation that Nick is incapable of commitment.
A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.
Join Gregg Araki director of 'The Living End' and 'The Doom Generation' on a trip through a bizarre netherworld of lust longing and alien resurrection. Dark Smith (James Duval) is looking for love in all the wrong places. He's besotted by Mel (Rachel True) but she can't commit to any one person - or gender. And cruising the local L.A. hang-out The Hole he finds everyone else is having the same extreme relationship problems. Then he meets Montgomery (Nathan Bexton) and things sta
In October of 1994, three student filmmakers disappeared in the woods near Burkittsville, Maryland while shooting a documentary. A year later the footage was found.
Pete (Tom Stourton) is ready to leave his youthful indulgences behind and settle down with his girlfriend, Sonia (Charly Clive). When his university friends invite him for a country weekend away to celebrate his birthday he finds their immature ways haven't changed and he's baffled by their spontaneous invitation to a feral stranger from the local pub to join them. With the atmosphere turning from tense to terrifying to surreal, Pete reaches breaking point. Is he being punished? Is he being paranoid? Or is he just part of some sick joke? Directed by Andrew Gaynord from a razor sharp script by Tom Stourton and Tom Palmer, with a cast of rising British talent, All My Friends Hate Me is a deliciously dark comedy about social paranoia. Product Features Commentary with Andrew Gaynord, Tom Palmer & Tom Stourton Q&A with the filmmakers (2022) The Soho Diaries (2015, 4 mins): short film directed by Andrew Gaynord and written by Tom Palmer & Tom Stourton Stills gallery Storyboards Trailers **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet with writing from the writers and director of All My Friends Hate Me, an essay by Johnny Mains and original reviews Feature includes newly created subtitles for the Deaf and partial hearing and an Audio Description track All extras are TBC and subject to change
A lawyer takes on a negligent homicide case involving a priest who performed an exorcism on a young girl.
In this horror sequel a young film student makes a movie about urban legends, only to find her friends and crew start dying...
First shown by Channel 4 at the beginning of 2000, Trigger Happy TV is one of those hidden-camera shows that plays pranks on the unsuspecting public. The brainchild of writer-performer Dom Jolly and his co-director Sam Cadman, it's a beguiling selection of endearingly daft scenes triggered by the admirably straight-faced Jolly (an inappropriate name if ever there was one). His characters include, among many others, a traffic warden who ticks off street cleaners for parking their carts on double-yellow lines; a business man who produces a three-foot-long mobile phone and bellows loudly into the handset; and an incompetent secret-service agent who sidles up to people on park benches, slipping them cryptic messages. Unlike the elaborate ruses of other hidden-camera shows, the best gags here are decidedly low-tech and simple: Jolly's attempt to interact with a stuffed dog he's taken for a "walk" in the park, much to bemusement of passing joggers, is fairly typical of the programme's mix of deadpan humour and surreal visuals--less Beadle's About, more absurdist street theatre. And instead of relying on a laugh track to set the mood, the show has a surprisingly eclectic, even at times strangely mellow and introspective, soundtrack from such acts as The Happy Mondays, Elastica and the Stereophonics. While some of the recurring gags were beginning to flag by the end of the series, the beauty of this compilation is that it features only the strongest material. However, we won't get a chance to see the prank Jolly played on Bill Wyman, who objected when it was first screened on television. Wyman might not get Jolly's impish brand of humour. But this fresh and entertaining compilation gives the rest of us a chance to sample it for ourselves. --Edward Lawrenson
ERA 2564632035; ERATO - Francia; Classica Lirica
Molly (Miley Cyrus) is a private detective who chose busting cheating spouses and petty thieves over the drama of high school. Her life however, unexpectedly changes when she is approached by FBI agent (Jeremy Piven) to go undercover in the one place they're unable to infiltrate... A university Sorority. Her mission is to fit in as sorority girl and protect Alex Patrone (Lauren McKnight) while navigating through a minefield of double crosses and multiple suspects, including Nicholas (Josh Bowman). While undercover Molly soon realises not everyone is who he or she appears to be - including herself.
The Man From Mo'Wax (Limited Edition 3-Disc set) Directed by Matthew Jones Numbered and Limited Edition box set featuring 1 Blu-ray & 2 DVDs plus exclusive packaging and extensive extras The Man from Mo'Wax tells the exhilarating, no holds-barred story of James Lavelle, one of the most enigmatic yet influential figures in contemporary British culture. Lavelle played his first DJ set at 14, launched pioneering record label Mo'Wax at 18 and released the genre defining UNKLE album Psyence Fiction at 22. His phenomenally rapid rise seemed limitless, but it's only when you're going so fast that the wheels fall off. Put together from over 700 hours of archive materials and featuring the likes of DJ Shadow, Thom Yorke, Ian Brown, Joshua Homme as well as Lavelle himself, this is undoubtedly THE music doc of 2018. Special features: Extras TBC
Once in a while, studio heads actually make sensible decisions. Kudos to whoever at Trimark screened the embarrassing True Crime, an overwrought, under thought, "mystery" and decided, "You know, we really don't need to let the American public see this," and immediately sent it straight to video. Probably the one most pleased by the decision was Alicia Silverstone, who didn't need this type of thing getting a theatrical distribution and hurting her blossoming career. As for Kevin Dillon? Well, he was probably happy just to get paid. Silverstone plays the teen Nancy-Drew-meets-Encyclopedia-Brown protagonist who teams up with fresh-faced police cadet Dillon to try to bag a serial killer who's been butchering teenage girls at travelling carnivals in various cities. Writer-director Pat Verducci packs his thriller with implausible detective work and numerous plot twists, all visible 20 minutes away. The "shock" ending can pretty much be worked out within the first act, leaving viewers another hour to watch Verducci concoct several amateur dream sequences, and explore a disgusting sexual relationship between Silverstone and Dillon. By the end, the question isn't so much "Whodunit?" as "Who cares?" --Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
Prankster Dom Joly adds a marvellously surreal edge to the hidden camera show in this, his second collection of highlights from Trigger Happy TV, all of which are once again set to a great soundtrack of downbeat anthems. Joly not only waylays unsuspecting members of the public and minor celebrities, he subjects them to any number of odd or downright bizarre scenarios. Among many other gems here we have the millionth customer at the sex shop, the MI6 recruiting officer whose potential recruitee is frighteningly willing to become an assassin, the infuriating traffic warden ("You can't park here"), the workmen who eat and sleep in the middle of the street, the cultured punk, the obvious burglar, the park warden who eats all the birds, and the ice cream man who is incapable of serving anything. Best of all, perhaps, are the creature features: the snail literally crawling across the zebra crossing, the vain gorilla-gram, not to mention sundry sadistic squirrels, dangerous dogs and randy rabbits. Oh yes, and there's still that guy with the huge mobile phone, though it must be increasingly hard for Joly to find anyone who doesn't know this character by now. Trigger Happy TV gamely exploits the British public's unwillingness to confront strangers, but it also hearteningly demonstrates their innate politeness when placed in awkward situations. In how many other countries could he approach people in the street to insult and bemuse them without running a serious risk of assault? On the DVD: The disc has an excellent, irreverent commentary from Joly and producer Sam Cadman, who talk about the difficulties of filming, chat to people on their mobile phones and munch snacks from the Abbey Road studio canteen. There's also the excruciating stand-up routine Joly did pseudonymously at The Comedy Store, which if nothing else proves he's got no shame at all. --Mark Walker
It's goodbye to Capeside, hello to Boston in Dawson's Creek's fifth season (a.k.a.: Dawson's Creek: The College Years). While the end of the fourth season sent the five friends their separate ways--Dawson (James Van Der Beek) to USC Film School, Joey (Katie Holmes) to Wilmington College, Jen (Michelle Williams) and Jack (Kerr Smith) to Boston Bay College; and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) to the high seas--it doesn't take them long to find themselves together again. That's a good thing, especially when tragedy strikes a family member and threatens to tear the survivors apart. More than anything, the fifth season seems to be about falling into bad relationships. Jen dates a cute but sleazy musician (Chad Michael Murray), Pacey gets a job in a restaurant where he pursues a woman (Lourdes Benedicto) already having an affair with a married man, then fends off a vampish new boss (Sherilyn Fenn, Twin Peaks). Joey is drawn to her handsome English professor (Ken Marino). And Jack joins a frat, becomes a jerk, and starts a devoted relationship with his beer bottle. Dawson meets an eccentric young filmmaker (Jordan Bridges) which in turn leads to a meeting with his favorite Boston film critic (Meredith Salenger). And Joey's new roommate, the annoyance-with-a-heart-of-gold Audrey (Busy Phillipps), becomes the newest major addition to the cast. The irritation factor is high this season, a couple of "Joey is threatened" interludes don't have the punch that they could have, and in the season finale, the inevitable resolution of the show's central relationship doesn't really resolve anything at all. But viewers who have followed the Capeside crew for four seasons will still want to see what happens in the fifth. The fifth season is the first to have no DVD extras at all, and it continues the music-replacement strategy (which, since the second season has replaced much of the music, and since the third season has replaced Paula Cole's theme song, all due to licensing expenses). In addition to the usual background-music switches, some scenes have been edited (for example, the episode "Highway to Hell" has cut two of the performances on-stage at the Drunk & Dead). Also, the opening credits of "The Long Goodbye" and "Downtown Crossing" had originally used instrumental versions of "I Don't Want to Wait," which had underscored the emotion of those episodes. In the DVD set, those have been replaced by the standard version and an instrumental version, respectively, of "Run Like Mad." --David Horiuchi, Amazon.com
Jennifer Garner stars in romcom about a woman who discovers her late fiance may not have been as perfect as she thought.
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