It’s New Year’s Eve at The Charelston, a run-down club in Liverpool owned by the local gangland boss. The new manager has arrives and soon discovers his out of favour predecessor has booked a band that can’t play, a magician with a dead rabbit and two parties of rowdy OAPs. On one coach arrives a devout catholic social club in fancy dress for a non-existent prize, among them a drunker blind ex-boxer, on the other an equally boisterous protestant revellers. When they get together mayhem ensues.
Set around a London bus depot, On the Buses starred Reg Varney as Stan, an ageing bachelor and driver of the No.11 bus who still lives with his Mum (Cicely Courtneidge), his plain sister Olive (Anna Karen) and disgruntled brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). At work, he fraternises with the laddish and lecherous Jack (Bob Grant), with whom he pursues innumerable (and improbable) giggly, mini-skirted "clippies" (conductors) and cheeks the beady-eyed and punctilious bus inspector, Blakey (Steven Lewis) This first series was broadcast in black and white in 1969. Much of the comedy derives from gender role reversal--Stan and Arthur forced to do the household chores when Olive and Mum fall ill ("Family Flu"); "The Canteen", in which the busmen decide to run the canteen themselves; or "The Darts Match", in which Stan and Jack are bested at darts by--imagine--a pair of dollybird clippies. Despite its immense popularity, On the Buses hasn't dated well. Like the buses themselves, the jokes don't arrive very often and when they do, they're visible a long way off. The studio audience whoops cathartically at anything remotely alluding to sex, making you wonder at the repressed nature of British society in 1969. In later decades it would come to be treasured as somewhat creaky kitsch by audiences nostalgic for an age of politically incorrect innocence. On the DVD: On the Buses has no extra features here. The original black and white versions have scrubbed up reasonably well, although defects such as fading sound and poor dubbing have proven beyond amendment.--David Stubbs
Set around a London bus depot, On the Buses starred Reg Varney as Stan, an ageing bachelor and driver of the No.11 bus who still lives with his Mum (Doris Hare), his plain sister Olive (Anna Karen) and disgruntled brother-in-law Arthur (Michael Robbins). At work, he fraternises with the laddish and lecherous Jack (Bob Grant), with whom he pursues innumerable (and improbable) giggly, mini-skirted "clippies" (conductors) and cheeks the beady-eyed and punctilious bus inspector, Blakey (Steven Lewis) Despite its immense popularity, On the Buses hasn't dated well. Like the buses themselves, the jokes don't arrive very often and when they do, they're visible a long way off. The studio audience whoops cathartically at anything remotely alluding to sex--even a bared male nipple--making you wonder at the repressed nature of British society in 1969. In later decades it would come to be treasured as somewhat creaky kitsch by audiences nostalgic for an age of politically incorrect innocence. On the DVD: On the Buses has no extra features here. The original black and white versions have scrubbed up reasonably well, although defects such as fading sound and poor dubbing have proven beyond amendment. --David Stubbs
THE LUCKY ONES DIED FIRST... Horror master Wes Craven achieved critical and commercial success with the likes of Scream and A Nightmare on Elm Street but for many genre fans, the director s seminal 1977 effort The Hills Have Eyes remains his masterpiece. Taking a detour whilst on route to Los Angeles, the Carter family run into trouble when their campervan breaks down in the middle of the desert. Stranded, the family find themselves at the mercy of a group of monstrous cannibals lurking in the surrounding hills. With their lives under threat, the Carters are forced to fight back by any means necessary. As gruelling a viewing experience today as it was upon initial release, The Hills Have Eyes stands alongside the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead as one of the defining moments in American horror cinema.
Adapted from the critically acclaimed off-Broadway rock theatre hit, Hedwig and The Angry Inch tells the story of an "internationally ignored" rock singer, Hedwig, and her search for stardom and love.
Best known for its life-affirming lessons and heartwarming adventures. Little House On The Prairie made its TV debut in 1974 and significantly altered the landscape of television. Loyal fans will relive these exciting and touching adventures while new viewers will discover the Ingalls' unconquerable courage to build a new way of life. The series nominated for 17 Emmy Awards and 3 Golden Globes has become a TV milestone
MASH's Loretta Swit stars alongside comedy icon Peter Cook, Seinfeld's Michael Richards and the immortal Rik Mayall in the riotous feature film version of one of television's most outrageously controversial satires! Co-starring Ian Richardson, Alexie Sayle and Herbert Lom, Whoops Apocalypse is featured here as a brand-new High Definition remaster from original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio.Chaos ensues when a US-backed Central American regime invades a nearby British dependency. When subsequent peace talks are sabotaged by a corporately-funded world-class assassin, events begin to run away with themselves - in the direction of nuclear armageddon!Product FeaturesTheatrical trailerImage gallery
The international acclaimed master of dance Michael Flatley returns to the stage to spearhead his powerful new 90 minute dance spectacular Celtic Tiger. With his unrivalled skill and artistry Flatley ignites the world of dance once again with a bold dramatic and daring production which fuses the spirit of Ireland with its history with dance and music. The result is an epic masterpiece in which Irish dance is delivered as a dynamic and powerful art form. Perfromance list: Act I: 1.The Heartbeat of the Tiger 2.Dancing in the Dark 3.St Patrick 4.The Sleeping Tiger 5.The Vikings 6.Celtic Fire 7.The Garden of Eden 8.The Red Coats 9.The Famine 10.Four Green Fields 11.Bloody Sunday 12.A Call to Arms 13.The 1916 Rising 14.The Banshee 15.A Nation Once Again Act Two: 1.Freedom 2.A New World 3.The Lost Rose 5.Celtic Kittens 6.Capone 7.Forever Free 8.Cowboy Cheerleaders 9.These Colours Don't Run 10.Yankee Doodle Dandy 11.Celtic Fire II 12.The Celtic Tiger
A big Oscar winner in 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still holds up remarkably well. Ken Kesey's novel, an allegory of repression and rebellion set in a mental hospital in the early 1960s, is cannily adapted by Czech director Milos Forman into a comedy drama with a cool, unassuming, near-documentary look. Jack Nicholson has his most jacknicholsonian role as Randle P McMurphy, a livewire troublemaker who unwisely cons his way out of prison and into a mental institution without realising he has switched from serving a sentence with a release date to being committed until adjudged sane by the same people he is winding up on a daily basis. Louise Fletcher, in a career-defining turn, is Nurse Ratched, the soft-spoken sadist who represents the worst type of matronly authoritarianism and clashes with Randle all down the line. Taking another look at the picture after all these years, it's a surprise that all the unknown actors who seemed like real mental patients have graduated to becoming prolific character actor stars: Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Brad Dourif, the late Will Sampson, Sidney Lassick, Michael Berryman. Unlike many Best Picture Oscar winners, this deals with profound subject matter without seeming self-important: Forman's approach and all-round great acting make it play as a small character story as well as a Big Statement about the human condition. Full marks also for Jack Nitzsche's musical saw-based score. On the DVD: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes to DVD in a two-disc special edition with a great-looking anamorphic 1.85:1 print and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, plus tracks in French and Italian and optional subtitles in half a dozen languages. Disc 2 has the trailer, about 13 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly from the first third of the film, and all pretty good) and a making-of retrospective documentary with interesting material from producers Michael Douglas (who inherited the rights from Kirk) and Saul Zaentz, Forman, screenwriter Bo Goldman and many cast-members (though not Nicholson). There's also a commentary track by Forman, Douglas and others which repeats a few things from the documentary but also goes into more scene-specific detail about the development and shooting. --Kim Newman
The TerminatorThe Terminator was the film that cemented Arnold Schwarzenegger's place in the action-brawn firmament, and both his and the movie's subsequent iconic status are well deserved. He's chilling as the futuristic cyborg that kills without fear, without love, without mercy. James Cameron's story and direction are pared to the bone and are all the more chillingly effective for it. But don't overlook the contribution of Linda Hamilton, who more than holds her own as the Terminator's would-be victim, Sarah Connor, thus creating--along with Sigourney Weaver in Alien--a new generation of rugged, clear-thinking female action stars. The film's minimalist, malevolent violence is actually scarier than that of its far more expensive, more effects-laden sequel. --Anne Hurley, Amazon.comTerminator 2: Judgment DayArguably the finest movie of its kind, Terminator 2: Judgment Day captured Arnold Schwarzenegger at the very apex of his Hollywood celebrity and James Cameron at the peak of his perfectionist directorial powers. Nothing the star did subsequently measured up to his iconic performance here, spouting legendary catchphrases and wielding weaponry with unparalleled cool; and while the director had an even bigger hit with the bloated and sentimental Titanic, few followers of his career would deny that Cameron's true forte has always been sci-fi action. With an incomparably bigger budget than its 1984 precursor, T2 essentially reworks the original scenario with envelope-stretching special effects and simply more, more, more of everything. Yet, for all its scale, T2 remains at heart a classic sci-fi tale: robots running amok, time travel paradoxes and dystopian future worlds are recurrent genre themes, which are here simply revitalised by Cameron's glorious celebration of the mechanistic. From the V-twin roar of a Harley Fat Boy to the metal-crunching Steel Mill finale, the director's fascination with machines is this movie's strongest motif: it's no coincidence that the character with whom the audience identifies most strongly is a robot. Now that impressive but unengaging CGI effects have come to over-dominate sci-fi movies (think of The Phantom Menace), T2's pivotal blending of extraordinary live-action stuntwork and FX looks more and more like it will never be equalled. --Mark WalkerTerminator 3: Rise of the MachinesTerminator 3: Rise of the Machines starts in high gear and never slows down. The apocalyptic "Judgment Day" of Terminator 2 was never prevented, only postponed: John Connor (Nick Stahl, replacing T2's Edward Furlong), now 22 and disconnected from society, is being pursued yet again, this time by the advanced T-X, a sleek "Terminatrix" (coldly expressionless Kristanna Loken) programmed to stop Connor from becoming the saviour of humankind. Originally programmed as an assassin, a disadvantaged T-101 cyborg (Arnold Schwarzenegger, bidding fond farewell to his signature role) arrives from the future to join Connor and future wife Kate (Claire Danes) in thwarting the T-X's relentless pursuit. The plot presents a logical fulfilment of T2's prophecy, disposing of Connor's mother (Linda Hamilton is sorely missed) while computer-driven machines assume control, launching a nuclear nightmare that Connor must survive. With Breakdown and U-571 serving as rehearsals for this cautionary epic of mass destruction, director Jonathan Mostow wisely avoids any stylistic connection to James Cameron's classics; instead he's crafted a fun, exciting popcorn thriller, humorous and yet still effectively nihilistic, and comparable to Jurassic Park III in returning the Terminator franchise to its potent B-movie roots. --Jeff Shannon Terminator Salvation SynopsisSet in the post-apocalyptic 2018, with Christian Bale starring as John Connor, the man fated to lead the human resistance against Skynet and its army of Terminators. But the future Connor was raised to believe in is altered in part by the appearance of Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), a stranger whose last memory is of being on death row. Connor must decide whether Marcus has been sent from the future, or rescued from the past. As Skynet prepares its final onslaught, Connor and Marcus both embark on an odyssey that takes them into the heart of Skynets operations, where they uncover the terrible secret behind the possible annihilation of mankind.
With D'Artagnan now officially enrolled in the king's service, his army besieges the rebels at La Rochelle and Richelieu is determined to prevent any meddling by the English before the city falls. He dispatches Milady de Winter to London with orders to assassinate Buckingham if necessary. But she has a price — carte blanche to dispose of D'Artagnan and the slut Bonacieux as she sees fit. Our heroes, in between dodging musket balls at La Rochelle, must once again outwit the Cardinal's henchmen to save the day. But this time the stakes are higher. And tragedy is in the offing.
MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS FULLY RESTORED IN HIGH DEFINITION FOR THE FIRST TIME! To celebrate the 50th anniversary of a genuinely iconic series, we present Monty Python s Flying Circus, starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, in all its HD glory! This pre-eminent restoration has been produced from the best available materials, painstakingly restored, and terror and destruction are sure to follow. Previously edited sketches have been returned to their original length, while filmed sequences and Terry Gilliam s animations have been newly scanned in High Definition, adding unimaginable depth and clarity to classic moments. From the archive come genuine rarities including previously unseen studio outtakes and extended versions of filmed sketch material, making this the ultimate in television restoration and a must-have for every generation of Python fan! SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES: Limited edition digipak packaging Book by Andrew Pixley featuring an exhaustive episode-by-episode production history of series four The Golden Age of Ballooning: Extended Barry Zeppelin filmed material Michael Ellis: Deleted Icelandic Honey Week filmed material, extended Toupee Department and Football Pundits filmed material LE War: Repeats extended voiceover & unused M2 filmed material, When Does a Dream Begin (clean closing titles) Hamlet: Extended Queen Victoria Handicap filmed material Mr Neutron: Reinstated content, extended Mr Neutron Takes Tea filmed material Party Political Broadcast: Extended Fanshawe-Chumleigh Dinner Party filmed material, deleted Ursula Hitler filmed material Restoring Flying Circus with Terry Gilliam In Vision archive interview from December 1974 Birds Eye Peas, Harmony Hairspray and Close-Up Toothpaste product relaunches
You could say this is one of the greatest comedies ever but the Monty Python team said it first! 'Life Of Brian' is all about (and here's the big surprise) the life of Brian who was born in a Bethlehem manger next door to Jesus. Three wise men believe he is the messiah but it becomes apparent that he is only Brian. It's written and performed by the Monty Python lads so you know what you're in for; if you don't put this disc down and go out while it's safe!
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Set against the backdrop of 1950s New York, Motherless Brooklyn follows Lionel Essrog (Edward Norton), a lonely private detective afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome, as he ventures to solve the murder of his mentor and only friend, Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Armed only with a few clues and the powerful engine of his obsessive mind, Lionel unravels closely-guarded secrets that hold the fate of the whole city in the balance. In a mystery that carries him from gin-soaked jazz clubs in Harlem to the hard-edged slums of Brooklyn and, finally, into the gilded halls of New York's power brokers, Lionel contends with thugs, corruption and the most dangerous man in the city to honour his friend and save the woman who might be his own salvation.
Nominated for 16 Primetime Emmys® and 6 Golden Globes®, Orange is the New Black is a fierce and funny series that follows Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) when a crime she committed in her past sends her to an all-women's prison with an unforgettable and irreverent group of fellow inmates. Shocking revelations and new arrivals shake up the lives and relationships of Litchfield's prisoners in the series critics are calling heartbreaking and hilarious (IGN).
Follow the adventures along the river bank and enjoy the thrill of the chase as a manic Mr Toad escapes from the police in a stolen car. Cheer on Badger and Rat as they lead the battle to reclaim Toad Hall from a band of evil weasels. Packed with comedy fun and high drama 'The Wind in the Willows' is a true classic. Featuring an all-star cast of top British comedians.
7 years after Raccoon City Claire Redfield returns to investigate reports of an infected man attacking several other people. Meanwhile Leon S. Kennedy is sent to the city after a passenger plane crashes into the lobby of a hotel. Together they are ordered to track down an unknown terrorist who is threatening to spread the T-Virus unless the government release details of what really went on in Raccoon City all those years ago. Reunited the duo along with an ex-SWAT police officer Angela Miller are forced to repel a new legion of zombies find survivors in the airport and to nullify the terrorist threat before the virus is spread through every major city on the planet. Unfortunately they only have 4 hours...
An adaptation of one of the most successful and unusual musicals of all time. A group of Broadway hopefuls auditioning for a place in the chorus line of a new show relate the stories of their lives -- their disappointments their dreams and the professional rejections and successes. Among the dancers trying to make the grade is the director's former lover a woman who once made it big and now would be grateful just to dance in the chorus.
24 hours in L.A.; it's raining cats and dogs. Two parallel and intercut stories dramatize a man about to die: both men are estranged from a grown child, both want to make contact, and neither child wants anything to do with dad.
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