The fifth season of Joss Whedon's hit series started out in excellent form as slayer extraordinaire Buffy Summers (Sarah Michelle Gellar) did battle with the most famous of vampires (that Dracula guy) and then went on to spar with another nemesis, little sister Dawn (Michelle Trachtenberg). Wait--Buffy has a teenage sister? Where has she been the past four years? And why is everyone acting like she's always been around? Turns out that young Dawn is actually "The Key," a form of pure energy that, true to its name, helps open the gates between different dimensions. To protect said key from falling into the wrong hands, a group of monks gave it human form and sent it to the fiercely protective Buffy for safekeeping, creating new memories of Dawn for everyone as if she'd existed... well, always. Why all the super secrecy? There's this very, very, very bad girl named Glory (Clare Kramer) who wants the key very badly, and will do anything to get it. Oh, and by the way, Glory isn't just a run-of-the-mill demon... she's way worse. Some fans will tell you that Buffy "jumped the shark" with the introduction of Dawn, when in actuality this season was the pinnacle of the show's achievement, as there was superb comedy to be had ("Buffy Vs. Dracula," the double-Xander episode "The Replacement," the introduction of the "Buffybot" in "Intervention") as well as some of television's best drama. The Whedon-scripted and -directed "The Body" remains one of Buffy's best episodes, when the young woman who faces down supernatural death on a daily basis finds herself powerless in the wake of her mother's sudden passing. The first third or so of the season was a bit choppy, but once the evil Glory came into her own, Buffy was a television force to be reckoned with. Kramer was the show's best villain (after the evil Angel, natch), and the supporting cast was never better. But as always, it was the superb Gellar who was the powerful centre of the show, sparking opposite lovelorn vampire Spike (James Marsters) and wrestling with moral dilemmas rarely seen on television. With this season, Buffy Summers became, like Tony Soprano, one of television's true greats. --Mark Englehart
Intelligent casting, strong performances and the persuasive chemistry between Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer prove the virtues in director Fred Schepisi's well-intended but problematic screen realization of this John Le Carré espionage thriller. At its best, The Russia House depicts the bittersweet nuances of the pivotal affair between a weary, alcoholic London publisher (Connery) and the mysterious Russian beauty (Pfeiffer) who sends him a fateful manuscript exposing the weaknesses beneath Soviet defence technology. Connery's Barley is a gritty, all-too-human figure who's palpably revived by his awakening feelings for Pfeiffer's wan, vulnerable Katya, whose own reciprocal emotions are equally convincing. Together, they weave a poignant romantic duet. The problems, meanwhile, emanate from the story line that brings these opposites together. Le Carré's novels are absorbing but typically internal odysseys that seldom offer the level of straightforward action or simple arcs of plot that the big screen thrives on. For The Russia House, written as glasnost eclipsed the cold war's overt rivalries, Le Carré means to measure how old adversaries must calibrate their battle to a more subtle, subdued match of wits. Barley himself becomes enmeshed in the mystery of the manuscript because British intelligence chooses to use him as cat's paw rather than become directly involved. Such subtlety may be a more realistic take on the spy games of the recent past but it makes for an often tedious, talky alternative to taut heroics that Connery codified in his most celebrated early espionage role. If the suspense thus suffers, we're still left with an affecting love story, as well as some convincing sniping between British and US intelligence operatives, beautifully cast with James Fox, Roy Scheider and John Mahoney. Veteran playwright Tom Stoppard brings considerable style to the dialogue, without solving the problem of giving us more than those verbal exchanges to sustain dramatic interest. --Sam Sutherland
From its charming and angst-ridden first season to the darker, apocalyptic final one, Buffy the Vampire Slayer succeeds on many levels, and in a fresher and more authentic way than the shows that came before or after it. How lucky, then, that with the release of its boxed set of seasons 1-7, you can have the estimable pleasure of watching a near-decade of Buffy in any order you choose. (And we have some ideas about how that should be done.) First: rest assured that there's no shame in coming to Buffy late, even if you initially turned your nose up at the winsome Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking the hell out of vampires (in Buffy-lingo, vamps), demons, and other evil-doers. Perhaps you did so because, well, it looked sort of science-fiction-like with all that monster latex. Start with season 3 and see that Buffy offers something for everyone, and the sooner you succumb to it, the quicker you'll appreciate how textured and riveting a drama it is. Why season 3? Because it offers you a winning cast of characters who have fallen from innocence: their hearts have been broken, their egos trampled in typically vicious high-school style, and as a result, they've begun to realise how fallible they are. As much as they try, there are always more monsters, or a bigger evil. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core crew remains something of a unit--there's the smart girl, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) who dreams of saving the day by downloading the plans to City Hall's sewer tunnels and mapping a route to safety. There are the ne'r do wells--the vampire Spike (James Marsters), who both clashes with and aspires to love Buffy; the tortured and torturing Angel (David Boreanz); the pretty, popular girl with an empty heart (Charisma Carpenter); and the teenage everyman, Xander (Nicholas Brendon). Then there's Buffy herself, who in the course of seven seasons morphs from a sarcastic teenager in a minidress to a heroine whose tragic flaw is an abiding desire to be a "normal" girl. On a lesser note, with the boxed set you can watch the fashion transformation of Buffy from mall rat to Prada-wearing, kickboxing diva with enviable highlights. (There was the unfortunate bob of season 2, but it's a forgivable lapse.) At least the storyline merits the transformations: every time Buffy has to end a relationship she cuts her hair, shedding both the pain and her vulnerability. In addition to the well-wrought teenage emotional landscape, Buffy deftly takes on more universal themes--power, politics, death, morality--as the series matures in seasons 4-6. And apart from a few missteps that haven't aged particularly well ("I Robot" in season 1 comes to mind), most episodes feel as harrowing and as richly drawn as they did at first viewing. That's about as much as you can ask for any form of entertainment: that it offer an escape from the viewer's workaday world and entry into one in which the heroine (ideally one with leather pants) overcomes demons far more troubling than one's own. --Megan Halverson
Season six of Buffy's exciting vampire vanquishing adventures. Episodes Comprise: 1. Bargaining - Part 1 2. Bargaining - Part 2 3. After Life 4. Flooded 5. Life Serial 6. All The Way 7. Once More With Feeling 8. Tabula Rasa 9. Smashed 10. Wrecked 11. Gone 12. Doublemeat Palace 13. Dead Things 14. Older And Far Away 15. As You Were 16. Hell's Bells 17. Normal Again 18. Entropy 19. Seeing Red 20. Villains 21. Two To Go 22. Grave
Available for the first time on DVD the BBC's massively successful primetime series: Goodnight Sweetheart. 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 co
Robert Downey Jr. and Val Kilmer star in this hilarious murder mystery comedy.
When aliens misinterpret video-feeds of classic arcade games as a declaration of war against them, they attack the Earth, using the games like PAC-MAN, Donkey Kong, Galaga, Centipede and Space Invaders as models for their various assaults. President Will Cooper (Kevin James) has to call on his childhood best friend, '80s video game champion Sam Brenner (Adam Sandler) to lead a team of old-school arcaders (Peter Dinklage and Josh Gad) to defeat the aliens and save the planet. Special Features: The Creator of the Machine The Space Invader PAC-MAN Donkey Kong Centipede Galaga Q*Bert Dojo Quest Game On Music Video by Waka Flocka Flame ft. Good Charlotte
It's summer and as part of Rose’s ‘coming out’ she is to be presented at Buckingham Palace. The family are in London preparing Grantham House for the busy social program. Not one to miss such a grand occasion Martha Levinson arrives from New York with Cora’s recently disgraced brother Harold. Both outspoken and larger-than-life they make quite an impression amongst certain members of London's high society. When the Crawleys are implicated in a scandal that threatens to engulf the monarchy Robert will go to great lengths to protect the royal family and his own.
Take the psychotic mother-daughter team from 'Carrie'. Add the 'fire girl' premise of 'Firestarter'. Mix in a generous helping of racy irreverent comedy and you get a towering inferno of fun called 'Nice Girls Don't Explode'. Barbara Harris plays Mom a domestic tyrant who makes Joan Crawford seem rather permissive. After seeing an ad for a movie called 'Fire Girl' Mom devises an elaborate scheme to shield daughter April from men and sex. She decides to fight fire with fire. Apri
We all have a superhero inside us, it just takes a bit of magic to bring it out. In Billy Batson's (Angel) case, by shouting out one wordSHAZAM!this streetwise 14-year-old foster kid can turn into the adult Super Hero Shazam (Levi), courtesy of an ancient wizard. Still a kid at heartinside a ripped, godlike bodyShazam revels in this adult version of himself by doing what any teen would do with superpowers: have fun with them! Can he fly? Does he have X-ray vision? Can he shoot lightning out of his hands? Can he skip his social studies test? Shazam sets out to test the limits of his abilities with the joyful recklessness of a child. But he'll need to master these powers quickly in order to fight the deadly forces of evil controlled by Dr. Thaddeus Sivana.
NOTICE: Polish Release, cover may contain Polish text/markings. The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles.
The on-screen infatuation with serial killers continues with Messiah, an absorbing, intelligent two-part BBC TV film that's a close cousin to David Fincher's Seven. Based on the novel by Boris Starling (who also co-wrote the screenplay), Messiah follows Detective Chief Inspector Red Metcalfe (Ken Stott) in tracking down someone with a Christ complex in a murder-case involving 12 "Apostles". A fine line is trod in presenting enough horror so as to intrigue, but not so much as to repel. Decapitations, cut out tongues and flayed skin are all masked in shadow or reflection. More attractive to the eye is a strong cast including Edward Woodward as the case's religious consultant and the keeper of Metcalfe's wayward brother and Michelle Forbes as his deaf wife (the actress learnt sign language in six days for the part). Other notables are Ron Berglas as the unemotional expositional pathologist and Gillian Taylforth as the beleaguered wife of corruptible copper Duncan (Neil Dudgeon). With fine supporting work from Frances Grey, Jamie Draven, Art Malik and 25,000 flies, you'll be racking your brains to spot the killer. Expect to jump several times along the way. On the DVD: a 30-minute behind-the-scenes documentary interviews all the key cast members on their thoughts of grisly imagery and working with one another. The producers have plenty to say on the original script and use of red herrings to distract us. Writer Boris Starling is comically talked to while in make-up as one of the victims. A few (wisely) deleted scenes, text biographies of cast and crew and a gallery of 12 photos round out the extras package. --Paul Tonks
The evolution story of Marvel's most enigmatic , complex and badass character Venom! Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) is a broken man after he loses everything including his job and fiancée. Just when his life is at its lowest, he becomes host to an alien symbiote which results in extraordinary superpowers transforming him into Venom. Will these powers be enough for this new lethal protector to defeat great evil forces, especially against the far stronger and more weaponised symbiote rival, Riot? Bonus Features: Extended Post Credit Scene and Deleted Scenes PLUS over an hour of extras including Venom Mode: Trivia Track The Lethal Protector in Action The Anti-Hero Venom Vision Designing Venom Symbiote Secrets Also includes: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Sneak Peek Eminem Music Video
Ghosts haunting spooky old factories? Hip kids being brainwashed? The Darkopalypse about to engulf the world? Scooby-Doo, where are you? But the gang have all fallen out and dissolved the Mystery Inc partnership for good. Jinkeys! Luckily a strange invitation to solve a mystery on Spooky Island has unwittingly reunited the now-flopped members of the team. Can ghoul-getting gang get along again? The latest in a long line of live-actioned-up retro cartoon faves, Scooby-Doo features superb action set-pieces and seamlessly blended live actor/CGI interaction--our eponymous hero is rendered with particular panache. What's more, the special effects are backed by a scarily well-written script and some frighteningly good performances. The Buffy-tastic Sarah Michelle Gellar was born to be Daphne, and Matthew Lillard is show-stealing as the dream-to-play Shaggy. The characters themselves are darkly developed--Fred is now a vain egotist, Velma a last-picked-at-sport geek and Daphne a Clueless-style airhead. Happily, Shaggy and Scooby are still a pair of snack-happy gormless goofs for whom friendship outweighs all else. Scooby-Doo manages to be great fun for the kids without neglecting the fans of the original (1969!) series. Alongside the fun, frights and frantic action are clever in-jokes and even a few hints at some rather adult goings on--Shaggy getting "toasted" in a smokey hippy-style camper van may explain why he's always so peckish. Throw in a surprise appearance from a love-to-hate familiar face, some Charlie's Angels-style wire work and a storming rap-rock soundtrack and this'll frighten the life out of the competition. If you're thinking of missing it--Scooby-Don't. On the DVD: Scooby-Doo is beautifully realised in this anamorphic widescreen transfer--the picture is crisp, the colour dazzling and the sound crystal-clear. The menu screen is entertainingly presented with plenty of extras to explore. Highlights include the "Daphne Fight Scene", the Outcast music video and the "making-of" short "Unmasking the Mystery", which features a rare appearance from an ancient Joseph Barbera and reveals the cast and crew to be a personable, fun-loving bunch. The real stand-out here, though, is the "Alternative Scenes" section. The dropped scenes--which include a superb cartoon intro sequence--really add an extra level of understanding to the film, and one suspects that it's only because of today's attention-span challenged audiences that some of the best bits ended up on the cutting-room floor. --Paul Eisinger
Jet Li teams up with Michelle Yeoh in Twin Warriors, a period martial-arts tale of revenge and retribution filmed in 1993. Directed by Yuen Woo Ping (who also directed Jackie Chan's popular Drunken Master and Yeoh's Wing Chun), it matches over-the-top melodrama with fantastical fight scenes. Li and Chin Sui Hou play Junbao and Tienbao, two misfit monks who have been getting into trouble at their Shaolin temple since childhood. Tienbao's volatile temper and ego get them banished from the monastery, and the pair try to make a new life for themselves in a nearby village. From here they take decidedly different paths. Tienbao joins the military regime of a ruthless eunuch ruler while Junbao joins a group of political rebels that includes Yeoh. Tienbao's violent quest for power erases his friendship with Junbao, his betrayal causing Junbao to go temporarily insane. During this period Junbao discovers tai chi, which prepares him for a final confrontation with Tienbao. The action scenes include a memorable match-up of Li and Chin against the entire monastery, where in the non-stop action Junbao escapes attack by riding one of his foes like a snowboard out of the fray. Yeoh's fight scenes include a complicated orchestration involving tables and chairs; her scenes are so impressive that it's a shame she wasn't given more screen time. --Shannon Gee, Amazon.com
Upon arriving in exotic Rio long-time friends Matthew (Michael Caine) and Victor (Joseph Bologna) and their teenage daughters (Demi Moore and Michelle Johnson) barely unpack before this infamous pleasure spot begins to cast its torrid spell. Matthew quickly succumbs to Cupid's arrow but when guilt gets the better of this married man he vows to end the affair and keep it a secret... even from Vicor. But as his white lies grow so does his libido and Matthew continues his indiscreti
The seventh and final season of Buffy's vampire vanquishing adventures. Episodes Comprise: 1. Lessons 2. Beneath You 3. Same Time Same Place 4. Help 5. Selfless 6. Him 7. Conversations With Dead People 8. Sleeper 9. Never Leave Me 10. Bring On The Night 11. Showtime 12. Potential 13. The Killer In Me 14. First Date 15. Get It Done 16. Storyteller 17. Lies My Parents Told Me 18. Dirty Girls 19. Empty Places 20. Touched 21. End Of Days 22. Chosen
Our Girl' follows two dedicated army medics who are passionate about their profession. Series One sees Molly Dawes (Lacey Turner) leaving the world of pubs and clubs behind her for a new life on an army base in Afghanistan. Series Two sees Georgie Lane (Michelle Keegan) embarking on a humanitarian tour of Kenya which will change both her professional and personal life forever.
Scream 2 the classic sequel directed by Wes Craven now available for the first time on Blu-ray. The hip darkly comical sequel to self-aware Scream sees Sidney Prescott now in college once again finds herself the target of a bloodthirsty cloak-clad mask-wearing knife-wielding psychotic killer whose penchant for pop movie trivia runs deep. This time however the body count is higher and the deaths more outrageous--traits of a true sequel as noted by one unfortunate victim. A definite true-to-form teen slasher. All in DTS HD Master Audio Surround 5.1
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