Julia Stiles stars as a medical student who falls for an incognito student prince in this modern take on a fairy tale love story.
This movie version of Bizet's popular opera Carmen was filmed on location, conveying a kind of atmosphere, a sense of space, movement, and presence that's hard to achieve in a staged performance. It takes the action out of doors for many scenes, with the opening titles superimposed on the bloody conclusion of a bullfight. Elsewhere the changing of the guard, the crowd scenes, the dance number that opens Act 2, and the panoramic scenery of the smugglers' mountain hideout all benefit from the freedom granted by movie cameras. It's an exciting Carmen, too, with a young-looking Placido Domingo in top form for a role he has sung hundreds of times. For Julia Migenes, though, it was her first performance in a role she would have trouble performing in an opera house. Her voice does not fit easily into Carmen's range, and she spent months training it, very successfully, before singing the role in a recording studio where the soundtrack was taped before the film was shot. Casting her in the role was a gamble, but it worked; she is a convincing actress. Unlike most opera-house performances this movie version uses the opera's original opera comique form with some spoken dialogue rather than recitatives.--Joe McLellan, Amazon.com
One of the BBC's flagship dramas Casualty depicts the lives of the patients doctors nurses and paramedics attending the frantically busy accident and emergency department of Holby General Hospital. Now approaching its twentieth year on television this is where it all started: the hard-hitting storylines; the accurate portrayal of life in the casualty department; and that theme tune. At a time when medical dramas produced in the UK were thin-on-the ground this was
Julia Stiles stars as a medical student who falls for an incognito student prince in this modern take on a fairy tale love story.
If Sylvester Stallone plays the world's number one assassin in this thriller, that must make Antonio Banderas, well, number two. The two are competing to hit the same target for a $20-million payoff and their challenge takes them from explosion to explosion on a cat-and-mouse chase from Seattle to Mexico. Julianne Moore plays the cagey cat fancier and computer hacker who possesses a stolen computer disc that makes her a prime target for bad guys, and Robert Rath (Stallone)is only too happy to come to her defense. Director Richard Donner handles action sequences with adequate flair and has a good time blowing things up. Banderas has fun with the nonsensical plot, and Moore is enjoyable in one of her big-budget mainstream roles. --Jeff Shannon
Something to Talk About is a well-intentioned but strangely cold tale that concerns an emotionally repressed Southern belle (Julia Roberts) who separates from her husband (Dennis Quaid) after discovering he is an unabashed philanderer. Pressed by her dominating father (Robert Duvall) into reconciling with her spouse, Roberts's character chafes against so much male control over her destiny. Defended by a fiercely independent sister (a catchy performance by Kyra Sedgwick), the heroine develops the nerve to plot her own course in life while her mother (Gena Rowlands) finds the gumption to throw her own mate out of the house. The script by Callie Khouri (Thelma & Louise) is intelligent but hardly clear, and direction by Lasse Hallström (Once Around) can't keep Khouri's unfocused scenes and uncertain purpose from dissolving like sand castles in the rain. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Holy reunion Batman! When the original Batmobile is stolen there's no time to call the police. This is a job for actors! Thirty-five years after 'Batman' went off the air a fiendish criminal mastermind is forcing Adam West and Burt Ward to relive their legendary pasts as The Caped Crusader and The Boy Wonder. What went on when the costumes came off? The Dynamic Duo reveal the entire bizarre-but-true story through classic clips surprise guest stars and THWAK! - filled
The Organization was the second and final sequel to 1967's In the Heat of the Night and sees Sidney Poitier's homicide detective Virgil Tibbs called in to investigate the murder of a factory manager. In a lengthy, dialogue-free opening (the film's best sequence), it appears that we are witnessing the culprits in action. However, this group turns out to be a gang of idealistic young vigilantes who knew that the factory was a front for an international drugs cartel--the Organization of the title--and have made off with a haul of heroin secreted there. Suspected of the manager's murder, they meet Tibbs and seek his cooperation. He agrees to help them, pitting himself not only against the Organization but his own police department. Set in San Franscisco, The Organization invites invidious comparisons with Bullitt: its somewhat cheesy contemporary soundtrack, derived from Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, certainly marks it as a piece of its period, as do the occasionally less-than-convincing action sequences, risible acting and far-fetched plot. Poitier, as ever, lends the film a certain dignity and poise, worthy of better material to work with than this. The film is also notable for providing early showcases for two of Cop TV's most famous Captains: Daniel J Travanti (Hill Street Blues) and Bernie Hamilton (later Captain Dobey in Starsky & Hutch) are both assigned minor roles here. On the DVD: The Organization comes to disc in an adequate transfer, though still a little grainy. The sole extra is the original trailer. --David Stubbs
The Specialist: Sharon Stone is May Munro a beauty with a fatal past: she's sworn death to the mobsters who murdered her parents. To do the job she recruits ex-CIA explosive experts Ray Quick (Stallone). Miami grows white-hot as May lures the killers and Ray detonates them into ashes. But a vicious mob boss (Roy Stieger) his brash son (Eric Roberts) and a psychotic hired gun (James Woods) with a lethal grudge against Quick won't go without a fight. The passion the two aven
The Prince And Me: This fairy tale is about to get real. Paige (Julia Stiles) has her future all mapped out. A fastidious pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin she's vowed nothing will deter her from becoming a doctor... Until she meets Edward (Luke Mably); the dashing playboy Crown Prince of Denmark who's trying to escape a life he never chose. He's enrolled incognito at Paige's school to ""find himself"" and to take a detour from his destiny as king. Paige and ""Eddie"" end up as lab partners and discover there's more chemistry between them than just the classroom variety. Will he step away from his place in the Danish monarchy to be with her? Will she lose sight of her dream to become a doctor? The Prince And Me 2 - The Royal Wedding: Love Reigns Supreme. With just weeks before their royal wedding Paige (Kam Heskin) and Edvard (Luke Mably) find their relationship-and the Danish monarchy-in jeopardy when an old law is brought to light stating that an unmarried heir to the throne can only marry a woman of noble blood or else he must relinquish his crown.
Remarkably, the Johnny Mortimer-scripted series Never the Twain ran to over 50 episodes between 1981 and 1984 on ITV. It starred Donald Sinden as Simon Peel, a stuffy, upper-middle class antiques dealer who lives next door to Oliver Smallbridge (Windsor Davies of It Aint Half Hot, Mum fame), a working-class lad made good, also in the antiques trade. As the first series establishes, theirs is a prickly relationship, not just because theyre rivals in trade but also rivals for the affections of the middle-aged, comely Veronica. They are aghast when they discover their respective son and daughter plan to marry, coming on like the Capulets and Montagues of Middle England. Never the Twain is a pleasantly predictable antique of the sitcom variety, redeemed by Sinden and Davies gruff, blustery and persistent antagonism. It depicts a cosy, never-never world of "dirty weekends", huge suburban houses, borderline homophobic mirth and reliable puns on "genes" and "jeans"--the sort of series in which characters greet surprising news by spraying a mouthful of tea halfway across the room. Some will find it barely endurable, others a welcome reminder of a bygone televisual era before alternative comedy became the ubiquitous norm. This DVD contains an episode guide and picture gallery. --David Stubbs
A Cinderella Story: Meet high school student Sam (Hilary Duff) who scrubs floors at a diner copes with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and all the while dreams of Princeton (the perfect spot for a would-be princess to find a prince). But maybe she has a Prince Charming already: her anonymous e-mail buddy (Chad Michael Murray) who arranges to meet her at the Halloween dance. Sam panics when Mr. Anonymous turns out to be the coolest guy on campus. Can he love a girl who
New York Minute (Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen): This action comedy follows one monumental day in the lives of sisters Roxanne and Jane Ryan. The academic and sophisticated Jane is due to deliver a speech to qualify for an Oxford scholarship. Meanwhile laid-back punk rocker Roxy is hoping to get a demo for her band. But their plans go astray and they end up in the middle of a shady black market deal. The girls must work together to get themselves out of trouble despite being pursued by their truant officer. (Dir. Dennie Gordon 2004) A Cinderella Story: Meet high school student Sam (Hilary Duff) who scrubs floors at a diner copes with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters and all the while dreams of Princeton (the perfect spot for a would-be princess to find a prince). But maybe she has a Prince Charming already: her anonymous e-mail buddy (Chad Michael Murray) who arranges to meet her at the Halloween dance. Sam panics when Mr. Anonymous turns out to be the coolest guy on campus. Can he love a girl who isn't part of the in crowd? Can fairy tales come true? Sure - but only if Sam stands up for herself and turns her dreams into reality. (Dir. Mark Rosman 2004 Cert. PG) The Prince And Me: This fairy tale is about to get real. Paige (Julia Stiles) has her future all mapped out. A fastidious pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin she's vowed nothing will deter her from becoming a doctor... Until she meets Edward (Luke Mably); the dashing playboy Crown Prince of Denmark who's trying to escape a life he never chose. He's enrolled incognito at Paige's school to ""find himself"" and to take a detour from his destiny as king. Paige and ""Eddie"" end up as lab partners and discover there's more chemistry between them than just the classroom variety. Will he step away from his place in the Danish monarchy to be with her? Will she lose sight of her dream to become a doctor? (Dir. Martha Coolidge 2004 Cert. PG)
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