This remake of the popular heartwarming Christmas classic captures all the joy of the original version. A little girl who has been raised not to believe in fantasy fairy tales and Santa Claus meets a department-store Santa who claims he's the real Kris Kringle. Her mother insists that it can't be true--that Kris is only a nice old man who isn't all too sane. But soon things start happening that may make both of them change their minds... and have faith in magic once again.
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter explores the secret life of one of the greatest US presidents, and the untold story that shaped a nation.
In Winning London, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are tasked with straightening out stalled romances and stifling an overactive competitive streak. The scene is set in London, where Chloe and Riley (Mary-Kate and Ashley), along with other members of their high school's Model UN team, are strutting their strategic mock peace-bringing stuff at an international competition. While Chloe captures the heart of an upper-crust English boy, Riley sets her sights on teammate Brian, who's clueless enough to call her kiddo. After a breakdown in her budding romance, Chloe, who's accustomed to winning, learns to chill out and consider the more sporting side of competitions. This being a Mary-Kate and Ashley vehicle, shopping for schoolgirl-swanky ensembles is involved, as is boogying with the boys at hot nightspots. Sightseeing excursions to Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace among other places, feel thrown in as educational titbits for parents' sake; better to watch this purely for fun. --Tammy La Gorce, Amazon.com
Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining US theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theatre-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols, provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power. The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work. The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer
The writing-directing team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) made this sweet satire about a high-powered yuppie executive (Diane Keaton) who unexpectedly becomes a mom and finds she can't successfully integrate the role into her busy life. Typical of the Shyer-Meyers films prior to Myers taking the director's reins on the wonderful Parent Trap, Baby Boom is a little wooden and more sentimental than genuine. But there are entertaining moments, for sure, and Keaton is a delight. --Tom Keogh
Tom's a regular guy, a utilities lineman, married, with a young son, his wife is pregnant; he hangs out with long-time pals in a Chicago neighborhood.
Jodie Foster stars as a grieving woman determined to track down the men behind her fiance's murder, whatever the cost.
John Travolta (Face/Off Phenomenon) gives another brilliant performance in a suspenseful true story that's been praised as the greatest legal thriller of all time! Jan Schlichtmann (Travolta) is a cynical high-priced personal injury attorney who only takes big-money cases he can safely settle out of court. Though his latest case at first appears straightforward Schlichtmann soon becomes entangled in an epic legal battle...one where he's willing to put his career reputation and a
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves reinvented the legend for contemporary cinema audiences, and in doing so far outstripped at the box office even Kevin Costner's own infinitely superior Dances with Wolves to become the biggest hit of 1991. It's an entertaining enough family adventure film, but plays like a big-budget TV movie with no distinctive flair for action or romance. (Director Kevin Reynolds would reunite with Costner four years later for the equally stodgy Waterworld). If the accents are all over the place, at least Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio makes a Maid Marion of ravishing Pre-Raphaelite beauty. Morgan Freeman is fine as Robin's Moorish sidekick, though, other than to expand the demographic, his character has no business being in the story. Realising that the whole enterprise has the credibility of a pantomime, Alan Rickman outrageously camps up his Sheriff of Nottingham, stealing the film in the process. Costner makes an acceptable hero, though he will never replace Errol Flynn in the definitive The Adventures of Robin Hood. If you can accept explosives in 13th-century England, that the approach to Sherwood Forest is a modern conifer plantation and that the 170 miles from Dover to Nottingham is a matter of a few hours ride via Northumberland, then you may find much to enjoy here. Otherwise an already overlong film has been extended to an excessive 148 minutes in this special edition, making far too much of a not very good thing. On the DVD: Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is presented as a two-disc set, with a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer that is generally good looking but with an occasionally soft picture and some evidence of dirt and minor print damage. The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the original stereo soundtrack is atmospheric and powerful and shows off Michael Kamen's score to its best. Though presented with 12 minutes of footage not seen in the cinema version, the film still suffers most of the cuts (amounting to 28 seconds) imposed by the BBFC over the years. The main extras are a pair of commentaries: Costner and Reynolds discuss the film in frank and enthusiastic detail, while on a second track Freeman, Slater, writer/producer Pen Densham and cowriter/producer John Watson offer a great deal of insight plus a fair bit of stating the obvious, backslapping and critic bashing. Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie (31 mins) is a cut version of a 45-minute TV special originally broadcast in America the night before the premiere, and offers an interesting if brief look at the Robin Hood story plus some routine making-of material. Finally, there is a video of Bryan Adams performing "Everything I Do, I Do It for You" live at Slane Castle and 18 minutes worth of bland electronic presskit-style archive interviews with Costner, Freeman, Mastrantonio, Slater and Alan Rickman, plus the original American trailer, a stills gallery and cast and crew list. --Gary S Dalkin
Disney's 1959 Sleeping Beauty was the studio's most ambitious effort to date, a lavish spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapted from the music of Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her sixteenth birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Fortunately, some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna and Merryweather are on hand to assist. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here, alongside Malificent's castle, which, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke, Amazon.com
Titles Comprise:Alvin And The Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein: Alvin and the Chipmunks in a full-length feature! The Chipmunks are working at an amusement park but little do they know in the Frankentein's Castle is the real Frankenstein! One night they get trapped in the park after dark, with Frankenstein on the loose it's the start of a wild adventure! Alvin And The Chipmunks Meet The Wolfman: Alvin and the Chipmunks in another full-length feature! With the arrival of a creepy neighbour the Chipmunks must keep a look out so they don't get bitten in the night!
Sequel to the 1996 blockbuster 'Independence Day'. Enemy aliens return to earth.
In nineteenth century middle-Europe orphaned teenage twins Maria and Frieda go to live with their uncle Gustav Weil who heads the Brotherhood a vigilante group trying to stamp out vampirism. But their methods are random and misplaced and the only result is a terrorised populace. The real threat lies with Count Karnstein and although the twins seem outwardly to be identical Frieda finds herself much more drawn than her sister to the Count's castle dominating the skyline.
On the same day in 1989, forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by a billionaire who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his children to save the world. Now, the six surviving members reunite upon the news of their father's passing and must work together to solve a mystery surrounding his death. But the estranged family begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse. The Umbrella Academy is based on the comic book series created and written by Gerard Way, illustrated by Gabriel Bá, and published by Dark Horse Comics. Special Features: Includes Art Cards and Poster
Waking up from a car accident, a young woman finds herself in the basement of a man who says he's saved her life from a chemical attack that has turned all females over the age of 36 into a soft vaporous liquid, which can be utilized as a disinfectant. Click Images to Enlarge
Bursting with limitless creativity, SWISS ARMY MAN goes from the absurd to the emotional to the whimsical to the profound and back again. Hank (Paul Dano) is stranded on a deserted island, having given up all hope of ever making it home again. But one day everything changes when a corpse named Manny (Daniel Radcliffe) washes up on shore; the two become fast friends, and ultimately go on an epic adventure that will bring Hank back to the woman of his dreams. SWISS ARMY MAN creates a world like no othera place of pure fantastical imagination, brimming with magical realism yet featuring two characters whose dreams and fears are entirely relatable. Dano and Radcliffe both fully commit to their directors' audacious vision, and their work is exceptional, finding the perfect balance of humour and heart that drives the whole film. A celebration of all the wonders cinema has to offer, SWISS ARMY MAN is a cultural phenomenon in the making -- a surreal and wholly original examination of human vulnerability and connection that must be experienced. Outrageously fun and deeply affecting, SWISS ARMY MAN is a gonzo buddy comedy that is the feature film debut of acclaimed music video directors Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan (collectively known as DANIELS, and responsible for the visionary Turn Down For What video, among many others).
Desperate to find a deposit on a new flat, cash-strapped Samantha accepts a one off babysitting job for a rather sinister sounding employer in this cult horror.
Catholic priest Father Frank Dowling (Tom Bosley) continually stumbles over murders, abductions and all manner of crimes in his hometown of Chicago. Assisted by street-smart nun Sister Stephanie Steve Oskowski (Tracy Nelson), wherever the holy duo go, someone usually turns up dead. While the local police are quick to find a likely suspect, the snooping priest just as quickly finds a good reason to take a closer look. Now for the first time on DVD, this three disc collection includes all eight episodes of the first series, including the Original TV Pilot Movie. Special Features: Picture Gallery Subtitles
Donnie Darko is a thought-provoking, touching and distinctive offering from relative newcomer, Richard Kelly (II). It's 1988 in small-town America and Donnie, a disturbed teenager on medication and undergoing psychoanalysis for his blackouts and personality disorders, is being visited by a being in a rabbit suit whom he calls Frank. It's this anti-Harvey that saves Donnie from being crushed to death when an airplane engine falls from the sky onto his house. This is the beginning of their escalating relationship, which, as Donnie follows Frank's instructions, becomes increasingly violent and destructive. Added to this is Frank's warning of the impending apocalypse and Donnie's realisation that he can manipulate time, leading to a startling denouement where nearly everything becomes clear. "Nearly everything", because Donnie Darko is a darkly comic, surreal journey in which themes of space, time and morality are interwoven with a classic coming-of-age story of a teenage boy's struggle to understand the world around him. The film leaves the viewer with more questions than it answers, but then that's part of its charm. Performances are superb: Jake Gyllenhaal underplays the mixed-up kid role superbly and Donnie's episodes of angst positively erupt out of the screen. There are also some starry cameos from Mary McDonnell as Donnie's long-suffering mother, Patrick Swayze as Jim Cunningham, the personal-development guru with a terrible secret, and Noah Wyle and Drew Barrymore as Donnie's progressive teachers. Undoubtedly too abstruse for some tastes, Donnie Darko's balance of outstanding performances with intelligent dialogue and a highly inventive story will reward those looking for something more highbrow than the average teenage romp. --Kristen Bowditch
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