We're The Sweeney, son, and we haven't had any dinner! For season 2 of the police drama that threw out the TV rulebook fifty years ago, the stakes for Detective Inspector Jack Regan (John Thaw) and Detective Sergeant George Carter (Dennis Waterman) have never been higher! Whether they're dealing with the death of a loved one in a hit or run; rescuing hostages at a bank-heist-gone-wrong seige or tracking down a couple of ruthless Australian criminals, the Flying Squad are going to do whatever it takes to keep the streets of London clean - even if it means playing nice with dodgy informants or being stitched up for corruption and being targteted by the men on their own force. In the second season of The Sweeney, newly restored and remastered for the first time in the original TV aspect ratio on Blu-ray, everything is bigger, badder and more action packed. This definitive collector's boxset will take you right to the heart of it, with a snout's worth of special features and bonus materials thrown in. Watch it or we come in shooting!Option to view episodes in original Mono, 5.1 Surround sound, or isolated music only tracksWild Boys FeaturetteInterview with stunt arranger Peter BrayhamInterview with writer Roger MarshallSweeney! Film trailer with introduction by Lynda BellinghamIntroduction to Supersnout by Bill MaynardIntroduction to Big Brother by Gwen TaylorIntroduction to Poppy by James BoothIntroduction to Stay Lucky, Eh? by Ken HutchisonIntroduction to The Trojan Bus by Lynda BellinghamAudio Commentary on Chalk and Cheese with Robert Fairclough & Mike KenwoodAudio Commentary on Hit & Run with Dennis Waterman and Garfield MorganBooklet
According to critic Pauline Kael Straw Dogs was "the first American film that is a fascist work of art". Sam Peckinpah's only film shot in Britain is adapted from a novel by Gordon M Williams called The Siege of Trencher's Farm which Peckinpah described as a "lousy book with one good action-adventure sequence". The setting is Cornwall, where mild-mannered US academic David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) has bought a house with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) in the village where she grew up. David is mocked by the locals (one of whom is Amy's ex-boyfriend) and treated with growing contempt by his frustrated wife, but when his house comes under violent siege he finds unexpected reserves of resourcefulness and aggression. The movie, Peckinpah noted, was much influenced by Robert Ardrey's macho-anthropological tract, The Territorial Imperative. Its take on Cornish village life is fairly bizarre--this is a Western in all but name--and many critics balked at the transposition of Peckinpah's trademark blood-and-guts to the supposed peace of the British countryside. A scene where Amy is raped caused particular outrage, not least since it's hinted she consents to it. Not for the first time in Peckinpah's movies there are disquieting elements of misogyny, and it doesn't help that the chemistry between Hoffman and George is non-existent. (Impossible to believe these two would ever have clicked, let alone married.) But taken as a vision of irrational violence irrupting into a civilised way of life Straw Dogs is powerful and unsettling, and the action sequences are executed with all Peckinpah's unfailing flair and venom. Oh, and that title? A quote from Chinese sage Lao-Tze, it seems, "The wise man is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." The film was long withheld from home viewing in Britain by nervous censors, but this release presents it complete and uncut. --Philip KempOn the DVD: Straw Dogs is as jam-packed a disc as is possible for a film made before the days of obligatory "making of" features. Both the sound and visuals have transferred well, and, like the script, have aged well. There's a bumbling original interview in the style of Harry Enfield's Mr. Cholmondley-Warner, along with stills and original trailers. The new material includes a feature on the history of the film's censorship and commentaries by Peckinpah's biographers musing over interesting fan-facts (though none of the speakers have any first-hand experience of the making of the film). However, Katy Haber's commentary, and interviews with Susan George and Dan Melnick, offer a much more in-depth and intimate portrayal of the man and the making of the film. --Nikki Disney
John Thaw and Dennis Waterman star once again as the Flying Squad's finest in this brutal and uncompromising feature-film spin-off from one of television's most memorable series! Co-starring Denholm Elliott and Ken Hutchison, Sweeney 2 has been newly transferred from original film elements. A callous gang of bank robbers is creating havoc on the London streets. Efficient and ruthless and with Regan and Carter in hot pursuit they leave a trail of dead bodies and smashed cars in their wake. SPECIAL FEATURES: Theatrical Trailer Image gallery PDF material
John Thaw and Dennis Waterman star once again as the Flying Squad's finest in this brutal and uncompromising feature-film spin-off from one of television's most memorable series! Co-starring Denholm Elliott and Ken Hutchison, Sweeney 2 has been newly transferred in High Definition from original film elements. A callous gang of bank robbers is creating havoc on the London streets. Efficient and ruthless and with Regan and Carter in hot pursuit they leave a trail of dead bodies and smashed cars in their wake. Features: Theatrical Trailer Image gallery PDF material
This lushly produced fantasy has gained a loyal following since its release in 1985, and it gave a welcome boost to the careers of Matthew Broderick, Michelle Pfeiffer and Rutger Hauer. You have to ignore the overly aggressive music score by Andrew Powell, music director of the Alan Parsons Project (critic Pauline Kael aptly dubbed it "disco-medieval") and director Richard Donner's reckless allowance of anachronistic dialogue and uninspired storytelling, but there's a certain charm to the movie's combination of romance and heroism. Broderick plays a young thief who comes to the aid of tragic lovers Isabeau (Pfeiffer), who is cursed to become a hawk every day at sunrise and Navarre (Hauer) who turns into a wolf at sunset. The curse was cast by an evil sorcerer-bishop (John Wood), and as Broderick eludes the bishop's henchmen, Navarre struggles to conquer the villain, lift the curse and be reunited with his love in human form. The tragedy of this lovers' dilemma keeps the movie going, and Broderick is well cast as a young, medieval variation of Woody Allen. --Jeff Shannon
Originally broadcast as part of the BBC's 'Play for Today' series in 1979 this gritty tale of life in depressed Greenock has since been hailed as a cult classic. Jake (Frankie Miller) lives in the shadow of his dying grandfather (Hector Nicol) who was once the town's toughest hard man. Despite their hatred of each other Jake's sole aim is to be as tough as the old man was. One day Jake's life o...f drifting drinking and fighting leads to a bleak realisation. The play also features appearances by Ken Hutchison and Gregor Fisher.
Originally produced as a three-part miniseries for New Zealand television, this extraordinary film is based on the life of Janet Frame, an introverted, sensitive girl who was later misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and spent eight years in a psychiatric hospital. She would later become one of New Zealand's most celebrated poets and novelists, publishing her first books while she was still confined to a mental ward. She had endured over 200 electroshock treatments and had almost been lobotomized by careless physicians who took no time to understand that she was merely awkward and shy and suffered from little more than routine depression. From a solid screenplayby Laura Jones, director Jane Campion (The Piano) tells this story without soapy melodrama but rather as anexploration of a challenged creative spirit--a journey into a writer's mind, exploring the power of imagination as a mechanism of survival and self-defense. Three talented actors play Janet Frame at different ages throughout the film, with Kerry Fox giving a powerful performance as the young-adult Janet, whose own skill and creative tenacity would prove to be her salvation. Frightening, harrowing and ultimately a source of humanistic enlightenment, An Angel at My Table (titled after Frame's autobiography) is a film you won't soon forget.--Jeff Shannon
Based on Gordon M. Williams's novel The Siege Of Trencher's Farm and starring Dustin Hoffman and Susan George Straw Dogs is an unflinching and uncompromising study of primal barbaric brutality that is generally regarded as one of the strongest statements about violence ever put on screen. Quiet American mathematician David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) and his British-born wife Amy (Susan George) relocate to Amy's rural English hometown in an attempt to flee the violent social unrest brewing in the US. When David hires some locals including a former boyfriend of Amy's to repair his barn the couple find themselves being subtly harassed and bullied by the workmen. The more the pacifist David ignores the problem the more the harassment intensifies leading to terrifying consequences as he ultimately finds himself forced to defend his home and his life discovering a frighteningly vicious side to himself as events escalate towards a bloody climax. Boasting outstanding performances from the two leads a brilliant support cast and Jerry Fielding's superb Oscar-nominated score Straw Dogs in the thirty-one years since its original release has lost none of its intense visceral power to thrill and shock in equal measure.
Drama starring Margi Clarke and Caroll Baker. Ronnie (Clarke), daughter of a bareknuckle fighter, is not averse to using her fists. When she is put in jail for assault, she escapes and goes to find her father, now an alcoholic dishwasher in New York. She resolves to bring him home to Liverpool and enters a female prizefight to raise the fare.
Originally broadcast as part of the BBC's 'Play for Today' series in 1975 this controversial tale is set in Glasgow during the Orange Walk parade and features appearances by Eileen McCallum Ken Hutchison and Billy Connolly. John Morrison stars as John McNeil a young man who is gradually coming to terms with the violent and unpleasant truth behind the marching and symbolic pageantry.
WillowTimid yet valiant dwarf and apprentice magician Willow Ufgood (Davis) is entrusted with delivering a tiny royal infant from evil queen Bavmorda to fulfil a prophecy that will restore peace and justice to the land... LegendIn Ridley Scott's 'Legend' young Jack (Cruise) lives in a magic forest populated with friendly and exotic creatures. But the delicate balance between good and evil is upset when the Lord of Darkness seizes Jack's beloved Lili (Sara) and a horn from one of the last unicorns thereby gaining control of the universe. LadyhawkeLadyhawke is an enchanting tale of a beauty a knight - and a pickpocket known as the Mouse. Once the knight and the lady were lovers. Now the curse of an evil Bishop keeps them always together eternally apart. By day she is a hawk by night he is a wolf. To end the evil spell the knight vows to break into the Bishop's stonghold with help from the Mouse...
Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's classic tale of all-consuming love. When Mr. Earnshaw encounters Heathcliff a ragamuffin orphan he kindly brings the boy into his home and makes him part of the family. And from the start Heathcliff falls hopelessly in love with the daughter of the house the beautiful headstrong Catherine. She adores him too but when a wealthy neighbour woos her Catherine's material instincts get the better of her and she agrees to marry the man. However C
Wuthering Heights is Emily Bronte's classic tale of all-consuming love. When Mr. Earnshaw encounters Heathcliff, a ragamuffin orphan, he kindly brings the boy into his home and makes him part of the family. And from the start, Heathcliff falls hopelessly in love with the daughter of the house, the beautiful, headstrong Catherine. She adores him, too, but when a wealthy neighbour woos her, Catherine's material instincts get the better of her, and she agrees to marry the man. However, Catherine discovers that she cannot forget Heathcliff so easily... and that not even death can make them part...
A man in his thirties who believes that his luck has finally changed when he gets a job as a chef in a sleazy cockroach infested rock 'n' roll club stumbles into trouble when he falls in love with the 19 year old who is betrothed to the clubs owner.
A woman attempts to escape her domestic problems by fleeing to New York in search of her father. She finds him and also new problems some friendship a romance and an unexpected career as pro-boxer to make ends meet.
Alex Granier falls victim to the underground operations of a black laboratory where he as one of their lab rats is injected with lethal chemicals known to induce murderous fits of rage that cause people to kill without conscience. When Alex escapes from the lab he is chased by a score of police officers who believe he is a dangerous madman.
David Summer (Dustin Hoffman) is a quiet American mathematician who has moved with his wife Amy (Susan George) back to a remote Cornish farmhouse near the village where she grew up. The couple have relocated to rural England in an attempt to flee the violence of America but their placid life is brutally interrupted when the savagery and violence they sought to escape engulfs them and threatens to destroy their lives.
According to critic Pauline Kael Straw Dogs was "the first American film that is a fascist work of art". Sam Peckinpah's only film shot in Britain is adapted from a novel by Gordon M Williams called The Siege of Trencher's Farm which Peckinpah described as a "lousy book with one good action-adventure sequence". The setting is Cornwall, where mild-mannered US academic David Sumner (Dustin Hoffman) has bought a house with his young English wife Amy (Susan George) in the village where she grew up. David is mocked by the locals (one of whom is Amy's ex-boyfriend) and treated with growing contempt by his frustrated wife, but when his house comes under violent siege he finds unexpected reserves of resourcefulness and aggression. The movie, Peckinpah noted, was much influenced by Robert Ardrey's macho-anthropological tract, The Territorial Imperative. Its take on Cornish village life is fairly bizarre--this is a Western in all but name--and many critics balked at the transposition of Peckinpah's trademark blood-and-guts to the supposed peace of the British countryside. A scene where Amy is raped caused particular outrage, not least since it's hinted she consents to it. Not for the first time in Peckinpah's movies there are disquieting elements of misogyny, and it doesn't help that the chemistry between Hoffman and George is non-existent. (Impossible to believe these two would ever have clicked, let alone married.) But taken as a vision of irrational violence irrupting into a civilised way of life Straw Dogs is powerful and unsettling, and the action sequences are executed with all Peckinpah's unfailing flair and venom. Oh, and that title? A quote from Chinese sage Lao-Tze, it seems, "The wise man is ruthless and treats the people as straw dogs." The film was long withheld from home viewing in Britain by nervous censors, but this release presents it complete and uncut. --Philip KempOn the DVD: Straw Dogs is as jam-packed a disc as is possible for a film made before the days of obligatory "making of" features. Both the sound and visuals have transferred well, and, like the script, have aged well. There's a bumbling original interview in the style of Harry Enfield's Mr. Cholmondley-Warner, along with stills and original trailers. The new material includes a feature on the history of the film's censorship and commentaries by Peckinpah's biographers musing over interesting fan-facts (though none of the speakers have any first-hand experience of the making of the film). However, Katy Haber's commentary, and interviews with Susan George and Dan Melnick, offer a much more in-depth and intimate portrayal of the man and the making of the film. --Nikki Disney
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