The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
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
On a flight from Los Angeles to Paris a mad scientist on the run from the CIA is transporting a coffin containing the body of a colleague infected with a genetically modified virus. While the 747 crosses a violent thunderstorm the instability of the aircraft allows the corpse to get out of its container. The flesh-eating zombie quickly starts to spread the virus infecting many of the passengers which now will have to fight for their lives stranded in the air with no way out...
Paul a handsome and talented music student is employed as the page-turner at one of the world famous pianist Kennington's concerts in San Francisco only to find the best way to make it to the top is to sleep his way there with older gentlemen who can assist him...
Cutting straight to the heart of Tolstoy's classic novel this innovative Channel 4 adaptation draws on the realism and raw emotion that defines this unique masterpiece. Set in 19th century Russia from the decadent social surroundings of the St Petersburg palaces to the simplest of rural life Anna Karenina is the story of three contrasting couples whose dilemmas strike a contemporary chord in another century.
""Weird"" Al Yankovic the man responsible for ""Eat it"" the famous 80's parody of Michael Jackson's ""Beat it"" co-wrote and stars in MGM Home Entertainment's cult comedy U.H.F. Aside from Yankovic playing most of the characters in the film David Bowe Michael Richards Fran Drescher and Kevin McCarthy also appear in this inspired comedy which is packed full of gags film parodies music satire and tons of laughs. Opening with an hilarious parody of the starting sequence
Although the superhero comic book has been a duopoly since the early 1960s, only DC's flagship characters, Superman and Batman (who originated in the late 1930s), have established themselves as big-screen franchises. Until now--this is the first runaway hit film version of the alternative superhero X-Men universe created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and others. It's a rare comic-book movie that doesn't fall over its cape introducing all the characters, and this is the exception. X-Men drops us into a world that is closer to our own than Batman's Gotham City, but it's still home to super-powered goodies and baddies. Opening in high seriousness with paranormal activity in a WW2 concentration camp and a senatorial inquiry into the growing "mutant problem", Bryan Singer's film sets up a complex background with economy and establishes vivid, strange characters well before we get to the fun. There's Halle Berry flying and summoning snowstorms, James Marsden zapping people with his "optic beams", Rebecca Romijn-Stamos shape-shifting her blue naked form and Ray Park lashing out with his Toad-tongue. The big conflict is between Patrick Stewart's Professor X and Ian McKellen's Magneto, super-powerful mutants who disagree about their relationship with ordinary humans, but the characters we're meant to identify with are Hugh Jackman's Wolverine and Anna Paquin's Rogue. There are in-jokes enough to keep comics fans engaged, but it feels more like a science-fiction movie than a superhero picture. --Kim Newman On the DVD: X-Men 1.5's two-disc set offers little more than the original X-Men release. The six extended scenes which can be incorporated into the feature on Disc 1 were already available on the initial DVD version (though they're cleaned up a bit here), and when played within the film's original cut they seem disjointed and tacked on, adding very little to the overall story. Disc 2, meanwhile, will have little appeal to any but the most diehard of fans. The X-Men 2 Sneak Peak, the X-Men 2 trailer, the Daredevil trailer and the Activision Wolverine's Revenge trailer are little more than adverts. The four-part documentary, meanwhile, is impressively interactive (with multi-angle segments and two play modes), but unfortunately it's also a bit dull and self-congratulatory. --Robert Burrow
Easily the funniest, wildest, gay sex comedy since Another Gay Movie , David Lewis Longhorns is a the rauucous tale of a 'straight' Texas fratboy who realizes maybe he may not be all that straight after all. It's a Texas college circa 1982 - big hair, loud shirts and cowboy boots are considered high fashion- men are men, women are just future wives (or current sluts), and there is nothing gay about helping a guy out! Good ol fratboy Kevin is straight as an arrow (if you don't count his gay fantasies when f**king his girlfriend, or j**king off his fellow frat brothers) but he begins to see things a little queerly when he meets the sexy and together and openly gay Csar. Can a straight guy fall for another dude? And can Kevin continue going down on his old pal (Dylan Vox) under the belief that it is just fratboy hijinks? And will kissing Csar change him forever? Never has a film featured so many straight men doing so many gay things as beer is guzzled, pants are dropped and playful bed-hopping ensues. Fast, fun and sexy, Longhorns is already on its way to become a gay genre classic.
Def Con 4
A guy in love with an engaged woman tries to win her over after she asks him to be her maid of honor.
This is the story of the night Matt and Dave met Amy and Syd. All feeling a bit fed up with their jobs and Los Angeles, luck would have it that they decide to go to the same bar on the same night. Thankful to meet anyone who isn't painfully self absorbed, the drinks pile up as the four twenty-somethings find unexpected friendships, and maybe something more.
This boxset contains the following films: Flatliners (Dir. Joel Schumacher) (1990): At University Hospital School of Medicine a group of ambitious medical students are about to die and live to describe the experience. Embarking on a daring and arrogant experiment the five aim to push through the confines of life and touch the face of death. In their search for knowledge however the five discover the chilling consequences of daring to tamper with immortality. Flatliners (Dir. Twelve Monkeys) (1990):A lone time traveller from the year 2035 must solve a riddle that may save his people... but it may also take him to the brink of madness. Bruce Willis Madeline Stowe and Brad Pitt star in this brilliant sci-fi masterpiece from Terry Gilliam. After the world's population is devastated by a killer virus survivors must live in dark underground communities. Cole (Willis) ""volunteers"" to travel into the past to obtain a pure virus sample thereby helping scientists develop a cure. Along the way he crosses paths with a beautiful psychiatrist (Stowe) and a one-card-short-of-a-full-deck mental patient (Pitt). But the race is on as Cole searches for The Army of the 12 Monkeys a radical group linked to the deadly disease. With unforgettable performances and imaginative special effects 12 Monkeys is a modern-day classic laced with Gilliam's trademark wit and dazzling visual style.
Sarah is a streetwise outsider currently on the run from a bad relationship and painfully separated from her own daughter. When an eerily lookalike stranger commits a shocking suicide right in front of her Sarah sees a potential solution to all her problems by assuming the dead woman’s identity boyfriend and bank account. But instead she stumbles headlong into a kaleidoscopic thriller mystery and soon uncovers an earth-shattering secret: she is a clone. As Sarah searches for answers she soon learns there are more like her out there genetically identical individuals nurtured in wildly different circumstances. And someone is trying to kill them off one by one…
Ken Stott Lesley Manville Kevin Whately and Adrian Scarborough are among the stars of this powerful highly original drama of love and redemption originally screened at Christmas in 2003. Mike is an ordinary man who finding life and failure too difficult to handle has slipped into alcoholism and finally homelessness. Then one day amongst Christmas shoppers and revellers he sees Salvation Army Captain Annie Walsh. He lurches across the street towards her and into the path of a bus... Annie runs to his side and comforts him; a crowd assembles and an ambulance is called. Miraculously Mike recovers from the injuries sustained in the accident but has no memory of who he is. One day he turns up on the doorstep of the detox centre that Annie runs and she takes him in despite the reservations of her superior and fiancé Major Hurst. Seeing in Annie his last chance to live and love Mike decides he must go through the agony of detoxification to make himself worthy of her.
The second series of Spaced finds the gang at 23 Meteor Street a little older, but definitely none the wiser. Tim's career is hampered by severe hang-ups over The Phantom Menace. Daisy's career is just plain non-existent. There is still a spark of sexual tension between them, but it's overshadowed by Brian and Twist getting it on. Propelling the seven-episode series arc is the threat of Marsha discovering that none of the relationships are what they seem, Mike's increasing jealousy and a new love interest for Tim. That's the basis for a never-ending stream of in-jokes and references that easily match the quality of the first series. Tim has a Return of the Jedi flashback, then déjà vu in reliving the end of The Empire Strikes Back. There are spoofs of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Robocop, The Sixth Sense and comedy rival The Royle Family. There are guest spots from Bill Bailey, Peter (voice of Darth Maul) Serafinowicz and The League of Gentlemen's Mark Gatiss and Reece Shearsmith. Every episode is packed with highlights, but this series' guaranteed geek pant-wetting moments have to be the mock gun battles, slagging off Babylon 5 and learning that "The second rule of Robot Club is: no smoking." Jessica Stevenson won a British Comedy Award for this year. It deserved a whole lot more.--Paul Tonks On the DVD: There's a chaotic but highly enthusiastic commentary from the director and cast, including of course Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, who also talk about some deleted scenes and why they were removed. There's an outtakes blooper reel, as well as a selection of raw location footage and a self-explanatory clip, "Daisy Does Elvis". The most useful feature, though, is the subtitle "Homage-o-Meter" facility, which displays all the movie references throughout the series. --Mark Walker
An astronaut and his robot companion inadvertantly enter a time-space warp and are hurled into the past where they find themselves in the court of King Arthur!
Here's the pitch for Small Soldiers: "It's like Toy Story but these toys that come to life really kick butt!" That's essentially it for this breezy popcorn flick. In a very smart first 10 minutes, new toy-company owner Denis Leary tells his crew he wants toys "that play back". Hence the small soldiers land in Anytown, USA and the loner kid Alan (Gregory Smith) opens them up before they are supposed to be on the shelves. Those military-grade chips sure make them smart and give the toys plenty of pithy retorts to boot. There's plenty of violence and action, most of it fun enough. The vocal talents, including Tommy Lee Jones, Frank Langella and cast members of The Dirty Dozen are inspired characters, the humans less so. With Gremlins director Joe Dante at the helm, it plays like a sequel to that 80s fantasy. Amazing visual effects, of course. --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
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