The second series of The Fast Show races on from where the first series left off, taking the now-familiar characters and projecting them into new and unusual situations. The "Suits You" men are let loose as waiters in a restaurant, Indecisive Dave finally makes his mind up, Unlucky Alf tries his hand at courting, Bob Fleming splutters his way through a midnight Badger Watch and Channel 9 branches out into light-entertainment with predictably incomprehensible results. The seven episodes also add further depth to many of the catchphrase-reliant characters. Rowley Birkin QC finds a touching reason to wish he hadn't been "very, very drunk", Ted and Ralph's romance stutters on, Brilliant! gets depressed and things turn sour for Which Was Nice. All our favourites are present and correct, but the freshest laughs come from the new characters and less-established sketches, such as an inept croupier blundering through his first day on the job, Brilliant!'s dad ("Rubbish!"), haughty, mistake-prone history presenter Gideon Soames, and the world-weary Carl Hooper's unspectacular show "That's Amazing!". On the DVD: The Fast Show, Series 2 comes to DVD with no extras, aside from some nicely animated menus, episode and scene selection. --Paul Philpott
The BAFTA nominated director Coky Giedroyc and the Tony award winning Martin Koch bring to life the ITV dramatisation of the world's most popular musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, The Sound of Music. The ambitious two and a half hour drama, filmed and transmitted live, stars the spectacular Kara Tointon (Mr Selfridge, EastEnders) as former nun Maria who becomes the governess for a large family who live in the shadow of their domineering and repressed widower father Captain Georg von Trapp (Julian Ovenden, Downton Abbey). Along with the required discipline Maria brings love, music and excitement into the children's lives and also eventually begins to have an effect on their father. But just when things are looking up, the rise of Nazism and the looming threat of war darkens all of their futures. Supported by Katherine Kelly (Mr Selfridge, Coronation Street) as Baroness Elsa Schraeder and Alexander Armstrong (Armstrong and Miller, Danger Mouse) as Max Detweiler the production became the must see event on the year.
This magical re-telling of the Orpheus myth turns the lyre-playing singer of Greek legend into a famous left-bank poet in post-war Paris. Fallen out of favour and lost for poetic inspiration, Orphée becomes obsessed with a mysterious black-clad princess who first claims the life of a rival poet, and then Eurydice, his wife. With its unforgettable imagery - the dissolving mirror through which characters pass into the next world, the leather-clad, death-dealing motorcyclists, and Cocteau's magical special effects, Orphée is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of a dream . This new photochemical and 2K restoration of the film from the original nitrate negative was carried out by SNC (Groupe M6) with the support of the Archives françaises du film. Special Features: Audio commentary by Roland-François Lack Souvenirs de tournage de Jean Pierre Mocky (16 mins): actor Jean Mocky looks back on Orphée Jean Cocteau raconté par Pierre Bergé et Dominique Marny (36 mins) Jean Cocteau and His Tricks (2008, 14 mins): assistant director Claude Pinoteau discusses the special effects Jean Cocteau used in his films La villa Santo-Sospir (1951, 38 mins): a short film directed by Jean Cocteau about the villa Santo-Sospir, on Côte d'Azur, which he decorated, and his home in Villefranche-sur-mer The Queer Family Tree - Reflections on Jean Cocteau (2018, 15 mins): A newly recorded interview with director John Maybury (Love is the Devil, The Edge of Love) Theatrical trailer 2018 re-release trailer Reversible sleeve with new artwork by Edward Kinsella Fully illustrated booklet with an essay by Ginette Vincendeau, an interview with Jean Cocteau from 1950, and full film credits
It is Christmas Eve for most of the Christian world but when Craig (Ice Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) are rudely awaken by a burglar in a Santa suit it is definitely another FRIDAY in the ghetto. The phony Santa gets away with all the cousins' Christmas gifts and their overdue rent money after assaulting Craig with a paltry Christmas tree. Cops are called in and do little more than confiscate Craig and Day-Day's pot stash. Though the cousins may be used to such adversity in the 'hood they have never before had to think about getting real jobs in order to pay the bills. This third installment in the hip-hop stoner series follows L.A.'s lovable losers through their first day as rent-a-cops at a South Central strip mall.
Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst Goodnight Sweetheart became an instant hit with TV viewers of all ages as it charts the life of Gary Sparrow a dealer in memorabilia and antiques of WW2 who has miraculously discovered a portal in time which allows him to travel between the present and wartime Britain. This handy little trick obviously adds to the success of his business but the complications that it adds to Gary's love life are a different matter! Episodes comprise: 1. Don't Get
'Gregory's 2 Girls' is part thriller, part romantic comedy and finds Gregory still dreaming his way through life and still looking for romance.
A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov.
Beginning with an explosive, six-minute montage of sex, drugs and violence, and ending with a phallus-headed battle robot taking flight, Takashi Miike's unforgettable Dead or Alive Trilogy features many of the director's most outrageous moments set alongside some of his most dramatically moving scenes. Made between 1999 and 2002, the Dead or Alive films cemented Miike's reputation overseas as one of the most provocative enfants terrible of Japanese cinema, yet also one of its most talented and innovative filmmakers. In Dead or Alive, tough gangster Ryuichi (Riki Takeuchi) and his ethnically Chinese gang make a play to take over the drug trade in Tokyo's Shinjuku district by massacring the competition. But he meets his match in detective Jojima (Show Aikawa), who will do everything to stop them. Dead or Alive 2: Birds casts Aikawa and Takeuchi together again, but as new characters, a pair of rival yakuza assassins who turn out to be childhood friends; after a botched hit, they flee together to the island where they grew up, and decide to devote their deadly skills to a more humanitarian cause. And in Dead or Alive: Final, Takeuchi and Aikawa are catapulted into a future Yokohama ruled by multilingual gangs and cyborg soldiers, where they once again butt heads in the action-packed and cyberpunk-tinged finale to the trilogy. Each of them unique in theme and tone, the Dead or Alive films showcase Miike at the peak of his strengths, creating three very distinct movies connected only by their two popular main actors, each film a separate yet superb example of crime drama, character study, and action filmmaking. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: High Definition digital transfers of all three films Original uncompressed stereo audio Optional English subtitles for all three films New interview with actor Riki Takeuchi New interview with actor Sho Aikawa New interview with producer and screenwriter Toshiki Kimura New audio commentary for Dead or Alive by Miike biographer Tom Mes Archive interviews with cast and crew Archive making-of featurettes for DOA2: Birds and DOA: Final Original theatrical trailers for all three films Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Orlando Arocena
Flay Me Baby One More Time! Witness the most notoriously graphic and nasty descent into the nunsploitation genre with Gianfranco Mingozzi's unforgettable masterpiece of shock cinema that is Flavia The Heretic. Set during 15th Century Italy when brutality was wielded mercilessly in the name of God young Flavia (Florinda Bolkan) is imprisoned in a monastery by her tyrannical father. Rather than the years of quiet contemplation she might expect the sexually frustrated Flavia instead gets a crash course in hell on earth as rape torture castration bondage and worse becomes her world but that is nothing compared to what will become of her! Beautifully filmed by Alfio Contini (The Night Porter) and boasting a score by Oscar-winning composer Nicola Piovani this disturbingly cruel exploration of religiously condoned sexual violence is as well made as it is sadistic on the senses.
Rich with ambiguity, this smooth adaptation of Scott Turow's bestselling mystery novel stars Harrison Ford as Rusty Sabich, the prosecuting attorney assigned to a case involving the murder of a beautiful, seductive lawyer (Greta Scacchi) with whom he'd been having a secret affair. After the investigation gets off to a slow start, damning evidence points to Rusty as the prime suspect. His career is destroyed when his superior and secondary suspect Raymond Horgan (Brian Dennehy) sets him up for the fall. Bonnie Bedelia plays Rusty's wife Barbara, who is not above suspicion herself. While Ford's performance rides a fine line between presumed innocence and possible guilt, director Alan J Pakula (All the President's Men) maintains a consistent tone of uncertainty that keeps the viewer guessing. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
This incredible true story takes place in Berlin 1961. Germany is a country divided. Harry Melchior has narrowly escaped the communist regime of East Berlin and now in the West is determined to free his sister who was not so lucky. Joined by others also desperate to free their loved ones they have an audacious plan; to tunnel beneath the wall ant the 'death strip' patrolled by border guards. But not everyone can be trusted and they are soon digging for their lives in a nerve-racking race against time.
In an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle, John Cleese wrote Fierce Creatures with the purpose of reuniting the comedic cast of A Fish Called Wanda. Media mogul (Kevin Kline) owns a London zoo. He demands that the park raise more profit, so the new zoo director (Cleese) orders that only dangerous animals be displayed in order to maximize ticket sales. In a dual role, Kline also plays the mogul's son, who plans to run the zoo with the help of displaced employees (including Michael Palin) and zoo programmer Willa Weston (Jamie Lee Curtis). The situation lends itself to comedic confusion and split-second timing, and for a few good laughs the film is a pretty safe bet. It's not as hilarious as A Fish Called Wanda (that's a pretty tall order), but Cleese knows comedy, and his efforts are worth a look. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
When the family of the king are found murdered, the Kingdom of Dunark descends into anarchy. Whispers point to the sole heir to the throne as the killer, who quickly proves his innocence, leaving the truth behind the murders unsolved. Dina, the young daughter of a Shamer, is summoned to the castle from the outskirts of her village. Having inherited the supernatural ability to look into the soul of others, she is tasked with finding the killer's true identity. But as Dina struggles to source the truth and put the rightful heir to the Kingdom on the throne, the castle is taken over by dragons, witchcraft and magic and she quickly finds her own life in peril.
As the hit Irish legal drama returns, solicitor Tara Rafferty (Amy Huberman, The Clinic) is embattled but not beaten. She has built a new life for herself after leaving her cheating fiancé, Eric (Rory Keenan, War & Peace), and the high-powered law firm where they both worked. But with one of her employees betraying her and another in jail, she struggles to keep her fledgling practice afloat. Convinced that her former boss Eric s scheming father is behind it all, Tara decides to strike back. To pay the bills, Tara takes on clients whose legal problems range from deportation, to divorce from a bigamist, to a lawsuit against a convent. As she frequently faces off against Eric and her former colleagues in court, Tara s mentor Vincent (Neil Morrissey, Line of Duty) leads a high-level corruption inquiry that could endanger them both. The stellar cast also features Emmet Byrne (Burning Wishes), Fiona O'Shaughnessy (Utopia), and Maria Doyle Kennedy (The Commitments) as a formidable solicitor.
The double-disc set Dekalog, Parts 6-10, contains the last five of Kieslowski's 10 one-hour modern morality tales, each one loosely linked to one of the 10 Commandments. All set in and around the same drab, high-rise Warsaw housing estate, they intriguingly explore moral dilemmas without ever coming to any glib conclusions. As always, Kieslowski is far more interested in posing questions than in supplying answers. The series was originally made for Polish television, and has since been shown on TV stations all round the world, though never in the cinema. While they can easily be watched separately, being individual stories, there's no question that they gain in impact from being taken in conjunction with each other. Kieslowski used a different cinematographer for each film (except Nos. 3 and 9, both photographed by Piotr Sobocinski) to give a distinct feel to each story. While none of them--as you might expect from this director--offer a barrel of laughs, some are decidedly lighter in tone. Indeed the series ends on an almost farcical note: Dekalog 10 tells the tale of two brothers seized with paranoia when their late father leaves them a valuable stamp collection. By contrast, Dekalog 6 is one of the most moving and compassionate in the collection: a woman who finds a young lad is obsessively spying on her inflicts an intolerable humiliation on him. This, like No. 5 in the series, was expanded by 25 minutes or so into a feature film, A Short Film about Love. Here too, it seems a pity that the longer version couldn't have been included in the set. On the DVDs: Dekalog, Parts 1-6 is slightly better served for extras than the first set; this includes a 50-minute interview with Kieslowski, one of the last he gave before his early death. As usual, he stonewalls all the questions with barely concealed impatience. The transfer captures the muted colours of the original, and the Dolby 1.0 sound is crisp and clear. --Philip Kemp
Leslie Phillips and Michael Maloney star in this BBC adaptation of John Hadfield's 1959 comic novel Love On A Branch Line. The series concerns a civil servant Jasper Pye (Maloney) who is sent by the government to dismantle a forgotten research unit housed in an old country mansion Arcady Hall. The owner Lord Flamborough (Phillips) an eccentric double amputee lives in an old train on his own otherwise closed 'branch line' while the government pay for the upkeep of his ancestral home. Flamborough's equally eccentric family his wife and three daughters all live in Arcady Hall. When Pye arrives he is intent on producing an efficient report regarding the unit however within days he falls under the spell of the stately home and its inhabitants...
It sees the heat of their bodies. It smells the heat of their fear. It hunts for sport. It kills for pleasure. In a place without rules - the hunter has become the hunted. Predator: Deep inside the jungles of Latin America a team of elite commandos are being slaughtered by a mysterious predator. No longer are they the hunters they are the prey: of an alien whose only instinct is to kill. One by one it strikes with inhuman ferocity. Now to survive with the jungle as their
The era of the Savastano clan, who once undisputedly reigned over north Naples, seems to be coming to an end. What lies ahead now is the largest ever power vacuum in the history of the Camorra a coalition of crime families in and around the urban backstreets of Naples. The king, Don Pietro Savastano (Fortunato Cerlino), has abdicated, only to be replaced by his son Genny Savastano (Salvatore Esposito) at least momentarily. Although still having loyal soldiers, the Savastano s see themselves opposed by their once loyal right-hand man Ciro the Immortal Di Marzio (Marco D Amore), who is not the only one working on ending their bloody reign. The sinister drug baron, Conte, is back in town building alliances and there are two new contenders for the throne of north Naples. The only certainty about the future nothing is certain. Gomorrah is based on the international bestselling book by Roberto Saviano who exposed the Camorra mafia syndicate based in and around Naples, and has been living under police protection for eight years.
This exquisite, intelligent romantic drama based on the life Karen Blixen, was the most highly acclaimed film of its time. Directed by Academy Awards® winner Sydney Pollack, the film brilliantly captures time and place, with superb performances by Streep, Redford and Brandauer, sumptuous photography and a rich musical score. Out of Africa follows the true life story of Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), an amazingly strong willed woman who moves from Denmark to run a coffee plantation with her philandering husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) in Kenya around 1914. To her astonishment she soon discovers herself falling in love with the land, its people and a mysterious adventurer and idealist (Robert Redford). Winner of 7 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, the film is masterfully crafted and breathtakingly produced to deliver one of the screen s greatest ever epic stories of hardship and love. BONUS FEATURES Song Of Africa- An Original Documentary Original Theatrical Trailer Commentary with Sydney Pollack Deleted Scenes
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