Geoff McQueen's classic BBC comedy drama set in the wheeler-dealing world of London's snooker halls starring two of Britain's most popular actors. Micky Noades (Robert Lindsay) describes himself as 'an overall concepts man'. He is an ace promoter, the only problem is he has nothing to promote. Enter his brother-in-law Mo (Paul McGann) with one redeeming feature: his outstanding talent at snooker. Created by Geoff McQueen this vintage British comedy drama gave Paul McGann his breakthrough ro...
In 1996, a Doctor Who TV movie starring Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor, was envisioned to launch the franchise into an exciting new chapter. But whilst the film found success in the UK, attempts to freshen up established lore resulted in a decidedly frosty reception from transatlantic audiences. Now, a quarter of a century later, screenwriter Matthew Jacobs prepares to venture back into the legendary sci-fi universe, to reassess his relationship with the franchise and the American fandom who vilified him. Featuring original cast of the controversial movie, including Paul McGann (The Three Musketeers, Queen of the Damned), Eric Roberts (Inherent Vice, The Dark Knight, The Expendables), and Daphne Ashbrook (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), this funny and emotionally perilous documentary not only revisits a pivotal moment in Doctor Who history, but highlights the unity and creative freedom within the fandom, as Jacobs ultimately, and unexpectedly, finds himself a kindred part of this close-knit, yet vast, family of fans.
The generic title of Martha - Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence suggests a bland, by-the-numbers romantic comedy. Its dialogue certainly doesn't help--there's a lot of piffle about destiny and "having only one chance", etc.--but there are some surprising differences. The plot centres around Martha (Monica Potter), an American trying to start a new life in London. She meets three men (Tom Hollander, Rufus Sewell and Joseph Fiennes, who played the title role in Shakespeare in Love). These three are best friends and all three fall in love with her but the one she falls in love with feels like he's betraying the others to be with her. Despite the resulting confusion, she pursues him to the end--which makes it unlike most current romantic comedies where the woman is a hapless love object to be captured by the right guy. But more entertainingly, Martha - Meet Frank, Daniel and Laurence pays particular attention to the ways men delude themselves because the two friends Martha doesn't care for are both convinced she's hankering for them, which allows for some fairly subtle skewering of the male ego. It's a flimsy movie but no more so than Notting Hill and Joseph Fiennes, in particular, has a relaxed, winning charm that marks him as a rising star. --Bret Fetzer
The Fast Show, like Viz comic and Private Eye magazine, is one of those comedic institutions whose principal appeal is its utter predictability. The jokes in every episode are exactly the same, every sketch an only slightly different path to one of a few familiar punchlines ("I'll get me coat", "Where's me washboard?", "Scorchio!", "Suits you, Sir," and so on): once the viewer or reader is in with the jokes, they feel part of the club. This sort of reductive comedy is extremely easy to do badly: it is testament to the writing and acting of Paul Whitehouse and his team that not only are most of the set-pieces funny every time they reappear (the overly prurient tailors, the pub know-all, the Trevor Brooking-esque football pundit Ron Manager), but that each individual sketch is funny more than once. This first series of The Fast Show does not include a couple of characters who became well-loved mainstays; neither the licentious car salesman Swiss Tony, for whom everything was "like making love to a beautiful woman", or the incomprehensible raconteur Rowley Birkin QC, had been developed at this stage. However, aficionados will regard this collection as indispensable for the beginning of the saga of awkward young aristocrat Ralph and his unrequited passion for his gardener, Ted: a funny yet oddly affecting rendering of love thwarted by circumstance. On the DVD: The Fast Show--Series 1 on disc includes interviews with the cast, and English subtitles. There is an episode selector and an individual scene selector, though the latter is confusingly laid out. --Andrew Mueller
Originally produced as a three-part miniseries for New Zealand television, this extraordinary film is based on the life of Janet Frame, an introverted, sensitive girl who was later misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and spent eight years in a psychiatric hospital. She would later become one of New Zealand's most celebrated poets and novelists, publishing her first books while she was still confined to a mental ward. She had endured over 200 electroshock treatments and had almost been lobotomized by careless physicians who took no time to understand that she was merely awkward and shy and suffered from little more than routine depression. From a solid screenplayby Laura Jones, director Jane Campion (The Piano) tells this story without soapy melodrama but rather as anexploration of a challenged creative spirit--a journey into a writer's mind, exploring the power of imagination as a mechanism of survival and self-defense. Three talented actors play Janet Frame at different ages throughout the film, with Kerry Fox giving a powerful performance as the young-adult Janet, whose own skill and creative tenacity would prove to be her salvation. Frightening, harrowing and ultimately a source of humanistic enlightenment, An Angel at My Table (titled after Frame's autobiography) is a film you won't soon forget.--Jeff Shannon
Marion Cotillard takes the lead in this long awaited biopic of the legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf - La Vie en Rose.
The World War Two tale of a young genius's race against time to crack the Nazi 'enigma' code and solve the mystery of his missing girlfriend.
John Travolta gives a sensual and intelligent performance as the troubled Tony Manero - Brooklyn paint store clerk by day and undisputed king of the dance floor by night. Every Saturday Tony puts on his wide collared shirt flared trousers and platform shoes and heads out to the only place where he's seen as a god rather than some young punk. But in the darkness away from from the strobe lights and glitter ball is a tragic story of disillusionment violence and heartbreak. Without a doubt Travolta's performance made him a Hollywood legend but 'Saturday Night Fever' is more than just a movie that defined the music and fashion of a generation. It's a powerful and provocative urban tragedy that carries as much significance today as it did in 1977.
With the last of Earth s natural resources dwindling and the human race under threat, Dr. Eve Carter makes a huge breakthrough in her Promethean Kinetics research by creating Helios: a revolutionary energy source so powerful it rivals the sun. So strong that governments struggle to control it; the highly-explosive Helios product begins to seep deep into the Earth's core, inducing giant blasts of fire and violent earthquakes which send shudders around the globe. As cities shake and oceans boil, Dr. Carter rushes to investigate the subterranean phenomenon. With the realisation that she alone can save mankind from eternal destruction, the most deadly race against time begins...
Braveheart:Mel Gibson stars on both sides of the camera, playing the lead role plus directing and producing this brawling, richly detailed saga of fierce combat, tender love and the will to risk all that's precious: freedom. In an emotionally charged performance, Gibson is William Wallace, a bold Scotsman who used the steel of his blade and the fire of his intellect to rally his countrymen to liberation...Master And Commander:In Peter Weir's Master And Commander, Russell Crowe stars as Captain Lucky Jack Aubrey, renowned as a fighting captain in the British Navy. After a French ship almost sinks them in a battle, the ship's surgeon and Aubrey's closest friend Stephen Maturin (Paul Bettany) cautions him about letting revenge cloud his judgement. With the HMS Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey is torn between duty and friendship as he pursues a high-stakes chase across two oceans to intercept and capture his foe, refusing to accept defeat at the hands of the French at any cost.Kingdom Of Heaven:An epic film set in Europe and the Middle East, Kingdom Of Heaven follows one man's struggle to better himself and the world around him. Orlando Bloom stars as Balian, a French blacksmith who is mourning the deaths of his wife and baby when his estranged nobleman father (Liam Neeson) arrives and asks him to join the Crusades in Jerusalem. Mindful that conducting the Lord's work will help him atone for his sins, Balian agrees and embarks on the perilous journey. Along the way, he reveals his gifts of inherent goodness and fair treatment of all human beings.
Psychological thriller in which a man has a horrific nightmare in which he sees himself killing a complete stranger but when he wakes up he begins to suspect that his dream was real after all. Detective Vince Grayson agrees to investigate and the trail takes them to a sinister mansion where Cliff discovers a mirrored room exactly like the one in his dream. When they discover that the owner of the mansion is a hypnotist Grayson has to race against time to unravel the mystery before Cliff's fragile psyche breaks down completely.
Old Friends: Live On Stage captures the historic 2003-2004 Simon & Garfunkel 'Old Friends Tour'. Featuring a wealth of classic material from the legendary pair who recently toured together for the first time in over twenty years. Old Friends: Live On Stage spans the duo's unparalleled career and includes such enduring Simon & Garfunkel favorites as ""The Sound Of Silence "" ""I Am A Rock "" ""Scarborough Fair "" ""Bridge Over Troubled Water "" ""Mrs. Robinson "" ""A Hazy Shade Of Winter "" ""The
Paul Rudd ("Knocked Up") and Jason Segel ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") unite in the ultimate bromantic comedy from the guy that brought you "Meet The Parents" and "Zoolander".
The Gathering", the feature-length pilot episode for Babylon 5, still ranks amongst the best of introductions to any TV science fiction show. In 1993 there was just nothing else to compare with its wall-to-wall CGI effects backed up by eye-popping architectural and interior production design, costumes, alien make-up and hairstyles. A couple of flat performances let down an otherwise intriguingly cast ensemble, but these problems would vanish in the series. Here, character introduction and development was refreshingly left to fend for itself within an elaborate narrative structure that kicked-off several plot threads at once. Creator Michael Straczynski ambitiously starts proceedings with a multi-layered mystery concerned with the nature and destiny of the soul. Political shenanigans, trigger-happy action stereotypes and wavering physics linger in the viewer's memory, but the tantalising tale told by smooth Commander Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) about the "hole in his mind" makes the strongest impression. Considering how convoluted the show's mysteries would become, "The Gathering" remains an essential starting point. On the DVD: Babylon 5: The Gathering is presented here in its 1998 Special Edition version. However, nowhere on the packaging is this stated. In fact, the back-cover credits are incorrect: apart from anything else, this version features a new score by Christopher Franke and not Stewart Copeland's original. Special effects and sound quality are also superior to the original version, even if still only presented in 1.33:1 ratio and two-channel Dolby.--Paul Tonks
Annie Hall is one of the truest, most bittersweet romances on film. In it, Allen plays a thinly disguised version of himself: Alvy Singer, a successful--if neurotic--television comedian living in Manhattan. Annie (the wholesomely luminous Dianne Keaton) is a Midwestern transplant who dabbles in photography and sings in small clubs. When the two meet, the sparks are immediate--if repressed. Alone in her apartment for the first time, Alvy and Annie navigate a minefield of self-conscious "is-this-person-someone-I'd-want-to-get-involved-with?" conversation. As they speak, subtitles flash their unspoken thoughts: the likes of "I'm not smart enough for him" and "I sound like a jerk". Despite all their caution, they connect, and we're swept up in the flush of their new romance. Allen's antic sensibility shines here in a series of flashbacks to Alvy's childhood, growing up, quite literally, under a rumbling roller coaster. His boisterous Jewish family's dinner table shares a split screen with the WASP-y Hall's tight-lipped holiday table, one Alvy has joined for the first time. His position as outsider is incontestable when he looks down the table and sizes up Annie's "Grammy Hall" as "a classic Jew-hater".The relationship arcs, as does Annie's growing desire for independence. It quickly becomes clear that the two are on separate tracks, as what was once endearing becomes annoying. Annie Hall embraces Allen's central themes--his love affair with New York (and hatred of Los Angeles), how impossible relationships are, and his fear of death. But their balance is just right, the chemistry between Allen's worry-wart Alvy and Keaton's gangly, loopy Annie is one of the screen's best pairings. It couldn't be more engaging. --Susan Benson
The year is 1987 and NASA launches the last of America's deep space probes. In a freak mishap Ranger 3 and its pilot Captain William 'Buck' Rogers (Gil Gerard) are blown out of their trajectory into an orbit which freezes his life support systems and returns Buck Rogers to earth 500 years later... Episodes Comprise: 1. Time of the Hawk (Part 1) 2. Time of the Hawk (Part 2) 3. Journey to Oasis (Part 1) 4. Journey to Oasis (Part 2) 5. The Guardians 6. Mark of the Sauri
Titles Comprise: Air Buddies: Air Bud is now the proud father of five adorable puppies with an unbelievable secret: they can talk! And the hilarious hair-raising exploits of these barking talking ball-playing pups will have you cheering as they run off on a daring rescue mission to save their parents. With the tail-waggin' star power of Michael Clarke Duncan (The Green Mile) Richard Karn (TV's Home Improvement) and the legendary Don Knotts - get in the game and share the family fun of the Buddies' very first feature film. Snow Buddies: The Buddies venture to the frosty arctic and team up with new friends in a thrilling dogsled race across Alaska. The daring dogs have to band together with their new friends Talon and Shasta and muster up the courage to face the fur-raising challenges ahead. But will they have what it takes to win the race and find their way back home? Featuring the voice talent of Dylan Sprouse (The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody) it's a fun-filled movie about the power of teamwork and following your dreams. Space Buddies: Disney's adorable puppies are going where no Buddy has gone before - the moon! Moving at warp speed dodging asteroids and more the Buddies and their two new friends Spudnick and Gravity must summon their courage and ingenuity to launch plans for a moon landing and a rocketing trip back home. Will they have the right stuff? Overflowing with intergalactic action and heart Space Buddies is an amazing tale of teamwork and loyalty that celebrates the journey of life and the friendships made along the way. Santa Buddies: Join the Buddies and their new friends as they take you on a fun-filled and heart-warming Christmas adventure around the world and all the way up to the North Pole. When the magical Christmas Icicle starts to melt and the world begins to forget the true meaning of Christmas it's up to Puppy Paws (son of Santa Paws and all of our favourite Buddies to save Christmas. Santa Paws: Upon his 1600th birthday Santa Claus is given a very special gift: a white fluffy stuffed toy puppy which is brought to life by the Great Christmas Icicle (turning him into Santa Paws). When Santa loses his memory and becomes lost in New York Paws and his new friends must find him and his magic crystal in order to restore Christmas. Along the way they try to brighten the lives of Quinn and Will a couple orphans whose only wish is to have a family.
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