Much lighter in tone than creator, producer and writer David E Kelley's other forays into legal drama LA Law, and The Practice, the slick thirtysomething series Ally McBeal has never been out-and-out comedy but it spikes its exploration of emotional territory with sharp funny lines. Ally (Calista Flockhart) is a kookie cutie, a ditzy, skinny, single lawyer and we are privy to scenes from her overactive imagination (courtesy of CGI), surrounded by larger-than-life peripheral characters--almost grotesques--like outspoken boss Richard Fish (Greg Germann), nervy courtroom wizz John "The Biscuit" Cage (Peter MacNicol) and nosy secretary Elaine Vassal (Jane Krakowski). In later series these characters (including popular newcomers Lucy Lui and Portia de Rossi as frosty law babes Ling and Nelle) would edge towards one-dimensional caricatures as the same ground was retrodden relentlessly, but in this first series there is something compelling about the intrusive dynamics of this group of oddballs. The point is you don't have to like them to find them entertaining. Ally herself can be extremely irritating in a love-to-hate-her kind of a way. She is a curious dichotomy, a 1990s woman with a go-getting career and a penchant for her own way and yet with the romantic ideals of someone from another generation. Basically still hung up on ex-boyfriend Billy (Gil Bellows) who works for same Boston practice, alongside wife Georgia (Courtney Thorne-Smith), Ally is on the look out for her Prince Charming. The first series and its lead both garnered Golden Globes, a lot of gossip and a healthy audience for the Fox television network in America. Channel 4 snapped it up for British audiences who were intrigued, not least by the unisex toilets and sophisticated afterwork bar soirées where chanteuse Vonda Shepherd was always to be found crooning away in the corner. All in all, Ally McBeal leaves you with the conundrum of wanting more but not being able to say why. --Emma Perry
This Thames comedy series stars BAFTA-nominated Maureen Lipman as a recently widowed woman who must not only deal with her grief but also find a way to make ends meet and keep her bank manager at bay; her co-stars include Martin Clunes Gary Waldhorn and Carol Hawkins. Running for two series All at No. 20 is co-produced by sitcom veteran Peter Frazer-Jones with scripts by novelist Alex Shearer and former Sez Les contributor Richard Ommanney. This set comprises both series. Sheila Haddon's husband died eighteen months ago sans life insurance leaving her with nothing but cherished memories and a hefty mortgage on 'No. 20'. Now Sheila and daughter Monica are faced with the awful prospect of having to sell their beloved family home. The soft-hearted but independent Sheila doesn't relish the thought of calling on the help of old family friend Richard Beamish – perhaps lodgers will prove the solution to her predicament?
Set in a 1970s commune, the story blends the hypocrisy of the hippie movement with a sense of idealsism and solidarity.
Through a series of flashbacks four young Chinese women born in America and their respective mothers born in feudal China explore their past. This search will help them understand their difficult mother/daughter relationship and understand how their futures are affected by their pasts. Based on the novel by Amy Tan this is a beautiful touching and complex film that should strike a cord with any first generation immigrant.
Featuring all the episodes from the final season of Ally McBeal spread over 6 discs! Episodes comprise: 1. Friends and Lovers 2. Judge Ling 3. Neutral Corners 4. Fear of Flirting 5. I Want Love 6. Lost and Found 7. Playing With Matches 8. Blowin' in the Wind 9. One Hundred Tears 10. A Kick in the Head'. 11. The New Day 12. Woman 13. Home Coming 14. Heart and Soul 15. Love is all Around 16. Tom Dooley 17. Another One Bites the Dust 18. Reality Bites 19. All of Me 20. Bygones
Ally McBeal is back...and this time she has company in the shape of Robert Downey Jr. ! Heralded as the best season yet Ally McBeal Season 4 is packed with hilarious and touching antics and with the arrival of the gorgeous Larry Paul (Robert Downey Jr.) could Ally have FINALLY found her true love? Episodes Featured: 1. Sex Lies and Second Thoughts 2. Two's a Crowd 3. Girls Night Out 4. Without a Net 5. The Last Virgin 6. 'Tis the Season 7. Love on Holiday 8. The Man with the Bag 9. Reasons to Believe 10. The Ex-Files 11. Mr.Bo 12. Hats Off to Larry 13. Reach Out and Touch 14. Boys Town 15. Falling Up 16. The Getaway 17. The Pursuit Of Unhappiness 18. The Obstacle Course 19. In Search Of Barry White 20. Cloudy Skies 21. Queen Bee 22. Home Again 23. The Wedding 24. Chance Of Parade
Based on Kevin Kwan's best-selling novel, Crazy Rich Asiansfollows New Yorker Rachel Chu (Constance Wu) as she accompanies her longtime boyfriend Nick Young (Henry Golding), to his best friend's wedding in Singapore and meets Nick's family for the first time. It soon becomes clear that the only thing crazier than love is family. Blu-Ray Extras: Crazy Rich Fun: Join Director Jon M. Chu, novelist Kevin Kwan and the dream team cast of Crazy Rich Asians as they supercharge the book and have crazy rich fun in the exotic locations of Singapore and Malaysia, Commentary by Director Jon M. Chu and Novelist Kevin Kwan, Deleted Scenes and Gag Reel.
Centuries in the future in the year After Colony 195 orbiting space colonies surrounds Earth. The colonists are cruelly oppressed by the Earth Alliance which deploys huge humanoid fighting machines called Mobile Suits to control the populace. Behind the tyranny is the secret society called 'Oz' which has infiltrated the Alliance military and steered it towards its repressive course. Now the space colonies are ready to strike back. Five young pilots equipped with advanced mobile suits called Gundams are sent to Earth to wage guerrilla war against Oz and its Alliance puppets. The war to decide humanity's destiny begins! Episodes include: The Whereabouts Of Happiness Bewildered Soldiers Catherine's Tears The Order To Destroy 01 To The Battlground - Antartica
Los Angeles. The summer of 1981. John Holmes (Val Kilmer) is at the end of his extraordinarily prolific career as the world's biggest porn star. ln a state of financial and pharmaceutical ruin Holmes is now devoted to his teenage girlfriend Dawn (Kate Bosworth) while still married to his wife Sharon (Lisa Kudrow). Increasingly involved with a group of local drug dealers on Laurel Canyon's Wonderland Avenue Holmes finds himself unwittingly drawn into a dangerous world of gangland rivalry and violence. But after the home of a notorious crime boss becomes the target for their criminal activities members of the Wonderland gang are found brutally murdered and it is unclear who is implicated in the crime. Can a faded porn star turn into a calculating killer? Based on a true story Wonderland unflinchingly captures the shocking sights sounds and sensations of LA's sleazy underbelly in the 1980s.
The fifth season was the last series of Ally McBeal, and probably the least satisfying. While always at least slightly entertaining, it was troubled by two conflicting imperatives: first, to steer its neurotic characters and multiplicity of sub-plots towards a coherent and credible resolution; second, to sustain another series of a programme that had, by now, exhausted all the plot possibilities that were remotely believable. The result is a bemusing onslaught of new characters (Ally's Mini-Me Jenny and a barely distinguishable phalanx of lantern-jawed male leads), celebrity cameos (Edna Everage, Christina Ricci, Barry White, Matthew Perry, Jon Bon Jovi), several storylines that would test the credulity of any of the curiously indulgent judges before whom Ally's firm practises (notably the arrival of a 10-year-old daughter that Ally didn't know she had) and one misbegotten attempt to anchor the programme to the real world (the "Nine One One" episode, an unwatchably mawkish allegory about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States). Granted that Ally McBeal was never intended to be realistic drama, but when the programme spirals entirely off into the realms of the surreal, any possibility of the sort of identification with the characters on which the programme once relied is lost. Though not without its moments, the sudden redemption of Fish, always the best-written character, is deftly handled. Season Five will be of chief interest to adherents who stuck with it through the first four and so wanted to see how it all ends; in keeping with the central character's defining motifs of solipsism and self-pity, it does so with a whimper. On the DVD: Ally McBeal has episode selector on each disc, and a scene selector within each of those. The final disc contains two short and desultory documentaries on the series billed, somewhat hopefully, as "Special Features". A French audio soundtrack is available, as are subtitles in English, French and Dutch. -Andrew Mueller
Centuries in the future in the year After Colony 195 orbiting space colonies surrounds Earth. The colonists are cruelly oppressed by the Earth Alliance which deploys huge humanoid fighting machines called Mobile Suits to control the populace. Behind the tyranny is the secret society called 'Oz' which has infiltrated the Alliance military and steered it towards its repressive course. Now the space colonies are ready to strike back. Five young pilots equipped with advanced mobile suits called Gundams are sent to Earth to wage guerrilla war against Oz and its Alliance puppets. The war to decide humanity's destiny begins! Volume 7 of animated adventures.
The Magic School Bus is a four DVD box set of the complete series one of the animated version of the famous children’s stories. The Magic School Bus is one of the most successful series of books for children ever written. Intended to teach scientific concepts to children, the books were written between 1986 and 2006 by Joanna Cole and illustrated by Bruce Degen.The books were turned into this animated TV series which is has been shown on POP TV in the UK, starring the vocal talents of Lily Tomlin and Malcolm-Jamal Warner (The Cosby Show).They feature the antics of Ms. Valerie Frizzle, an elementary school teacher, and her class, who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips to impossible locations such as the solar system, clouds, the past, and the human body.This release includes all 16 episodes of the first series of Magic School Bus, each featuring fascinating scientific facts to entertain and educate young viewers.The DVD also features an interactive educational quiz with questions based on answers found in the episodes.
A strange and sinister man Mr Cato (Orson Welles) wields extraordinary power in the small town of Lilith. Almost supernatural power. The townsfolk indulge in weird ritual in their pursuit of necromancy... bringing the dead back to life. Against this disturbing background it is a young beautiful girl Lori (Pamela Franklin) who becomes the human catalyst between life and death...
The Earth is a peaceful place and the Gundam pilots find themselves looking to rebuild their lives. Suddenly a new faction aspiring to world dominance breaks loose from a colony and kidnaps a government official...
Marie: A True Story charts the rise of Marie Ragghianti (Sissy Spacek) from her violent marriage through her struggle as a single mother putting herself through school right up to her appointment as head of the state parole board. Uncovering widespread corruption in the parole system Marie makes the life changing decision to blow the whistle on the grafters and sentence the governor and his officials to the very prisons they sought to control...Through powerful oppostition and a barr
Too mainstream to be a cult, yet too odd to be totally conventional, Ally McBeal has become one of televisions curios. While its early days saw the show become something of a victim of its own self-conscious stylising, the episodes included on series 4 volume 2 are far stronger in terms of characterisation and plot and the storylines are easy to pick up. Not that the quirks have been exiled--the first programme features McBeal hallucinating about Barry Manilow--rather they have now become part of the overall feel of the show. Despite the attention lavished on both the lead character and the actress who plays her, the show is a real ensemble piece and works best when all the players are together. One of the collection's weakest moments is the episode that sends the usually excellent Richard and John off to LA on their own, an episode which lays threat to a dreaded spin off. While there are annoying moments--could they not have edited out the "previously on Ally McBeal" parts for retail release and why do they never go out with anyone other than work colleagues--with guest appearances from the likes of Sting this is a must for any fan of the series. On the DVD: Sadly, the DVD collection betrays very little thought or effort. The pace of the show is certainly brisk (especially when shorn of the adverts) and the picture quality is equally dynamic, instilling real depth to the many aerial shots of Boston itself. Given that music is such an integral part in the show, it is no surprise that the soundtrack has been given a boost by its recreation in Dolby digital stereo. The interactive menu, however, is clumsy to use and having to work back through the options at the end of each episode quickly becomes tiresome. The complete lack of any extras whatsoever is also a definite minus point.--Phil Udell
The first half of Ally McBeal's fourth season starts with that all important question, the one Ally has been waiting for from day one: "Ally will you... move in with me?". As always Ally's romantic dreams never quite become a reality and the series continues within the Grimm Fairy Tale world of Ally's love (and quirky work) life. The most important twist this season occurs in the first episode "Sex, Lies and Second Thoughts"--the departure of Tracy Ullman and Ally's current beau, Brian, to be replaced by the series' new heart-throb Larry (Robert Downey Jr). Initially dating both father and son ("Two's a Crowd") Ally cannot help but become besotted by Larry's charisma; he being a fellow lawyer further seals their bond, that is until Larry's past comes back to haunt him. Other highlights include a quirky romance for John ("Reason to Belive"), a charity auction leading to an all male fan-club for John ("Love on Holiday") and a romantic connection for Mark--though the recipient of his affection may have hidden more than he bargained for. Unfortunately the series was outshone by the real-life drama of Calista Flockhart's and Downey's rocky relationship along with Downey's drugs convictions. Even though he won a Golden Globe for his performance, he ultimately had to be dropped from the series. On the DVD: Not much on offer here for Ally's début into the DVD market. The individual episode menu does offer a language selection of French and English and the subtitles for the Netherlands and French. You also have the option to select chapters from the specific episodes, along with a "previously on Ally McBeal..." for that little reminder of whom Ally is dating now. Although standard for a TV DVD release, the 1.33:1 aspect ratio and 2.0 Dolby sound is disappointing for a television series which offers ground-breaking use of special effects. --Nikki Disney
An escaped convict plans to exact revenge on the person he believes is responsible for his parent's death but discovers more than he's bargained for.
Follow Ally's trials and tribulations in life through her eyes and caricaturises her personal thoughts and fantasies. Contains the second half of Season One's episodes. The episodes are: 'The Blame Game' 'Body Language' 'Once In A Lifetime' 'Forbidden Fruits' 'Theme Of Life' 'The Playing Field' 'Happy Birthday Baby' 'The Inmates' 'Being There' 'Alone Again' and 'These Are The Days'.
A photographer moves her family into a strange old house, where she discovers an alternate reality reflected in the glass... A dark reality that is closing in on her.
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