When Bryan Singer brought Marvel's X-Men to the big screen, Magneto and Professor X were elder statesmen, but Matthew Vaughn (Kick-Ass) travels back in time to present an origin story--and an alternate version of history. While Charles Xavier (Laurence Belcher) grows up privileged in New York, Erik Lehnsherr (Bill Milner) grows up underprivileged in Poland. As children, the mind-reading Charles finds a friend in the shape-shifting Raven (Jennifer Lawrence) and Erik finds an enemy in Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), an energy-absorbing Nazi scientist who treats the metal-bending lad like a lab rat. By 1962, Charles (James McAvoy) has become a swaggering genetics professor and Erik (Michael Fassbender, McAvoy's Band of Brothers costar) has become a brooding agent of revenge. CIA agent Moira (Rose Byrne) brings the two together to work for Division X. With the help of MIB (Oliver Platt) and Hank (A Single Man's Nicholas Hoult), they seek out other mutants, while fending off Shaw and Emma Frost (Mad Men's January Jones), who try to recruit them for more nefarious ends, leading to a showdown in Cuba between the United States and the Soviet Union, the good and bad mutants, and Charles and Erik, whose goals have begun to diverge. Throughout, Vaughn crisscrosses the globe, piles on the visual effects, and juices the action with a rousing score, but it's the actors who make the biggest impression as McAvoy and Fassbender prove themselves worthy successors to Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen. The movie comes alive whenever they take centre stage, and dies a little when they don't. For the most part, though, Vaughn does right by playing up the James Bond parallels and acknowledging the debt to producer Bryan Singer through a couple of clever cameos. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Michael Crichton's bestselling novel was both a high-tech thriller and source of controversy with its hot-button plot about a man's charge of sexual harassment against a female colleague and former lover. The movie, directed by Barry Levinson, turned these issues into a prurient thriller dressed up in glossy production values, virtual reality computer graphics and steamy sex between Michael Douglas and Demi Moore. Having cornered the market on roles for men whose brains are located south of their waistline, Douglas is well cast as the computer-industry guy who loses a plush promotion to the opportunistic Moore, and he's perfected the expression of paranoid panic. If you don't think about it too much, this is one of those films that can draw you into its manipulative web and really grab your attention. Disclosure is more entertaining than thought provoking (because the filmmakers basically danced around the story's potential controversy), but there's enough star power and visual glitz to make this an enjoyable ride. --Jeff Shannon
Beth Cappadora (Michelle Pfeiffer) is at her high school reunion when her three-year-old son disappears from his brother's care. The little boy never turns up, and the family has to deal with the devastating guilt and grief that goes along with it. Nine years later, the family has relocated to Chicago. By a sheer fluke, the kid turns up, living no more than two blocks away. The authorities swoop down and return the kid to his biological parents, but things are far from being that simple. The boy grew up around what he has called his father, while his new family are strangers to him; the older son, now a teenager, has brushes with the law and behavioural problems. His adjustment to his lost brother is complicated by normal teenage churlishness, and the dad (Treat Williams) seems to expect everything to fall into place as though the family had been intact all along. It's a tightrope routine for actors in a story like this, being careful not to chew the scenery while at the same time not being too flaccid or understated. For the most part, the members of the cast deal well with the emotional complexity of their roles. Though the story stretches credulity, weirder things do happen in the real world. The family's pain for the first half of the film is certainly credible, though the second half almost seems like a different movie. Whoopi Goldberg plays the detective assigned to the case; casting her is a bit of a stretch, but she makes it work. All in all, a decent three-hanky movie in the vein of Ordinary People. --Jerry Renshaw, Amazon.com
From the vaults of British television comes a comedy gem starring two consummate actors who were also a couple in real life: Dame Judi Dench and her husband Michael Williams. They play a pair of middle-aged dating-game dropouts as wary of romance as they are perfect for each other. Laura a brainy translator and Mike a shy landscape gardener are introduced by Laura's glamorous younger sister who is intent on finding a mate for her spinsterish sibling. Awkward and rumpled Mike
Kaulder (Vin Diesel) is the only one of his kind remaining, and has spent centuries hunting down rogue witches, all the while yearning for his long-lost loved ones. However, unbeknownst to him, the Witch Queen has been resurrected and seeks revenge on Kaulder causing an epic battle that will determine the survival of the human race.
In a desert city by the sea, Ash, Pikachu, and their friends meet the Mythical Pokémon Hoopa, who can summon all sorts of things including people and Pokémonthrough its magic rings. The little Mischief Pokémon likes to use this talent to play harmless tricks on people but when its true power is released, it loses control and becomes the towering and terrifying Hoopa Unbound! Long ago, a brave hero stopped its rampage by confining its power in a special bottle. Now that the bottle has been rediscovered, Hoopa must confront its greatest fear! Can Ash help his new friend overcome the darkness withinor will this dangerous struggle erupt into a clash of legends?
Following the phenomenal success of Monty Python s Flying Circus Michael Palin and Terry Jones created this unforgettable BAFTA-winning series of comic plays for the BBC. Gleefully parodying the conventions of Boy s Own-style adventure Ripping Yarns sees Palin taking the protagonist s role in nine rip-roaring stories from stirring tales of sporting endeavour intrepid exploration and wartime heroism to skulduggery supernatural mystery and murder... and of course the notorious exploits of Eric Olthwaite - Yorkshire s most interesting outlaw. An illustrious supporting cast includes John Le Mesurier Iain Cuthbertson Denholm Elliott Joan Sanderson and Don Henderson with Terry Jones starring in one episode and fellow former Python John Cleese also making a cameo appearance; the series was produced and directed by the multi award-winning team of Terry Hughes (The Two Ronnies) Jim Franklin (The Goodies) and Alan J.W. Bell (The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy). Both series originally aired between 1976 and 1979 are released in this special-edition set with special features including deleted scenes a 1983 documentary Comic Roots in which Palin revisits his native Sheffield and Secrets the only surviving recording of Palin and Jones 1973 screenplay for the BBC s darkly comic (now sadly wiped) Black and Blue anthology series.
The complete fifth series of Smallville as a teenage Clark Kent must come to terms with his super powers.... Episodes Comprise: 1. Arrival 2. Mortal 3. Hidden 4. Aqua 5. Thirst 6. Exposed 7. Splinter 8. Solitude 9. Lexmas 10. Fanatic 11. Lockdown 12. Reckoning 13. Vengeance 14. Tomb 15. Cyborg 16. Hypnotic 17. Void 18. Fragile 19. Mercy 20. Fade 21. Oracle 22. Vessel
This box set features the following films: Colours Of Infinity: Arthur C. Clarke presents this unusual documentary on the mathematical discovery of the Mandelbrot Set (M-Set) in the visually spectacular world of fractal geometry. This show relates the science of the M-Set to nature in a way that seems to identify the hand of God in the design of the universe itself. Dr. Mandelbrot in 1980 discovered the infinitely complex geometrical shape called the Mandelbrot Set using a very simple equation with computers and graphics. Clouds Are Not Spheres: This film tells the story of the life and work of Beno''t Mandlebrot. A great innovator and discoverer of the Mandlebrot set and fractal geometry - a highly regarded maverick mathematician. Is God A Number?: A fascinating account of the science of mathematics and its connection to mind and consciousness. Presented by Michael Barnsley featuring Sir Roger Penrose the film looks at the mystery of consciousness whilst exploring the links between mathematics mind and the physical observable universe.
Charlize Theron stars as Sara Deever who, every month, takes a new lover. But her plans go awry in November after she meets Nelson Moss (Keanue Reeves) who hopes to win her heart for good.
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 (who has retractable claws and amnesia), and Anna Paquin's Rogue (who sucks the life and superpowers out of anyone she touches). The plot has to do with a big gizmo that will wreak havoc at a gathering of world leaders, but the film is more interested in setting up a tangle of bizarre relationships between even more bizarre people, with solid pros such as Stewart and McKellen relishing their sly dialogue and the newcomers strutting their stuff in cool leather outfits. 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
John Gielgud (Gulliver's Travels) Annette Crosbie (Calendar Girls) and Susan Fleetwood (Persuasion) star in this intriguing drama series adapted by John Mortimer (Rumpole Of The Bailey) from his best selling novel. Molly Pargeter (Susan Fleetwood) has found the perfect Tuscan vvilla for her family's summer holiday. Molly had hoped to soak up the local colour and revel in the artistic masterpieces that surround her instead she ends up exploring the myster
Arnold Schwarzenegger stars in director Paul Verhoven's sci fi classic about a 2084 construction worker haunted by dreams of Mars.
Clark Kent will have plenty of reasons to remember his senior year! The thrilling reinterpretation of the Superman legend evolves in Season 4 whose 22 episodes include the quest for 3 Kryptonian crystals and Clark's bold attempt to keep those mysterious stones from destroying Earth. Clark also becomes a highly recruited football star. Lana gets a boyfriend. Lois Lane smart opinionated and entirely annoying to Clark comes to Smallville. Chloe learns the scoop of the century. Lione
Episodes Comprise: 1. Zod 2. Sneeze 3. Wither 4. Arrow 5. Reunion 6. Fallout 7. Rage 8. Static 9. Subterranean 10. Hydro 11. Justice 12. Labyrinth 13. Crimson 14. Trespass 15. Freak 16. Promise 17. Combat 18. Progeny 19. Nemesis 20. Noir 21. Prototype 22. Phantom
This box set features the entire third series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. The Ghost In The Machine: Valuable erotic paintings are stolen from the stately home of Lord Hanbury and his disappearance is soon investigated by Morse... 2. The Last Enemy: A body is found in the canal and the only clue to its identity points to a connection with one of the Oxford colleges. When Morse discovers that intense riva
The venerable Superman mythos gets a 21st-century updating in the imaginative and engaging TV series Smallville. The premise of the show--Superman as a teenager--takes up just a few pages in Superman's very first comic-book appearance (in Action Comics back in 1938), but producers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar flesh out that period by portraying young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) not as the noble Superman-in-waiting, but as an average teen with some not-so-ordinary supernatural powers, including incredible strength and heat vision (Clark hasn't lifted up, up, and away as of yet). Clark's desire to fit in with his peers and make sense of his extraordinary abilities grounds him in very realistic and identifiable terms for the series' primarily under-25 audience, as does his appealing and tentative romance with Kristen Kreuk as Clark's dreamgirl Lana Lang. But Smallville also strikes gold when it takes a turn towards more comic-book territory, as evidenced by the parade of shape-shifting killers and other outlandish antagonists (many generated, in one of the series' most ingenious notions, by the same devastating meteor shower that brought the infant Clark to Earth) that Clark must harness his powers to face and defeat. Gough and Millar, along with their capable cast (which includes Michael Rosenbaum as a young and already bald-pated Lex Luthor, and Annette O'Toole and John Schneider as the Kents) manage to pull off the precarious high-wire act of combining science fiction with coming-of-age drama to create this highly watchable programme. --Paul Gaita
Luther Series 4 (Blu-Ray)
A botched bust on a pair of arms dealers inadvertently leads to the raising of a sixty year old demon with the power to bring toys to life as his personal minions. The demon is looking for a body to inhabit so he can increase his powers, and it just happens that one of the police officers, Judith Gray (Tracy Scoggins) is pregnant with the ideal host. As the murderous toys close in on their victims, the officer must not only fight for her life, but for the soul of her unborn child.
The adventures continue as Clarke attempts to balance his life, his destiny and his super powers. Twenty-two episodes from Season 3 including: 'Exile', 'Resurrection' and 'Covenant'.
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