A Victorian English entomologist whose daughter happens to be a giant moth moves with her to a quiet village where he can begin work on an insect mate for her. His family problems worsen when his winged daughter starts killing people and drinking their blood.
Its easy to forget that before fronting the British war effort through most of World War II, Winston Churchill had spent the previous decade isolated in Parliament and in internal opposition to the Conservative party. Winston Churchill: The Wilderness Years dramatises this period in which the growing menace of Nazism in Germany was met with indifference, even fear by governments of the day who were more concerned with their survival than in serving those who had elected them. Churchill is perceptively played by Robert Hardy, confirming the image without falling into caricature. Visionary and obstinate by turns, he galvanises his supporters and enrages his enemies with a passion borne of conviction. A seasoned British cast includes Peter Barkworth as the amiable but ineffectual Stanley Baldwin, Eric Porter as the truly "out of time" Neville Chamberlain, Edward Woodward as the scheming Samuel Hoare and Nigel Havers as the tragically flawed Randolph Churchill. Martin Gilbert has done a persuasive job transforming his novel into a TV script, the scenes in the House of Commons having a gritty reality that makes compulsive viewing. On the DVD: its a pity that the Southern Pictures production, first screened in 1981, has emerged so dimly in this incarnation. Has the master tape eroded so badly, or was it simply not available? However, its worth putting up with the technical defects to enjoy this historically informed and grippingly dramatic serial. --Richard Whitehouse
A semi-pretentious urban sleaze film, Shadow Hours offers Balthazar Getty--sporting a "BZAR" knuckle tattoo and a Charlie Sheen look as a recovering drug addict working nights in a Los Angeles filling station to support an angelic pregnant wife (Rebecca Gayheart). Getty is tempted to the wild side by sharp-suited mystery man Peter Weller, who takes him on a tour of nocturnal weirdsville: piercing clubs, bare-knuckle boxing arenas and big-money Russian roulette parlours. Getty comes to suspect that Weller is a perhaps-demonic serial killer who has been turning women's heads (literally) and calls in cop Peter Greene. But he also goes back to dealer Frederic Forrest to get back on drugs and is stuck with get-in-the-way boss Brad Dourif. The film has a good cast and the germ of an interesting idea, but ends up as just another drama about a backsliding rehab guy and nighttime folks. It works hard on being shocking without going all the way into Clive Barker territory, despite advice on extreme underground culture from shock-tactics queen Lydia Lunch and some nasty fishhook facial sculpture. The ending suggests Weller might be a semi-supernatural character, but cops out of dragging Getty all the way down to hell. Weller, who grabs most of the best lines ("I've seen things in this city make Dante's Inferno read like Winnie the Pooh"), is an interesting, ambiguous villain, but everyone else is very standardised. Writer-director Isaac H Eaton clearly has a large collection of David Lynch videos and watched Fight Club several times. On the DVD: Sound is presented in both 2.0 and 5.1, while the widescreen presentation looks a lot better than the full-frame video release. In addition, there's a trailer and a photo gallery montage of arty looking frame blow-ups scored with pounding weird-rock. --Kim Newman
Bumbling baby photographer Ronnie Jackson gets mistaken for a private detective and hired to find the missing Baron by Baroness Carlotta Montay. This is not a straight forward assignment however and Jackson soon finds himself involved in a murder and pursued by gangsters....
Volume1: A Chump At Oxford / Related Shorts Contains: A Chump At Oxford (b/w) A Chump At Oxford (colourised) From Soup to Nuts Another Fine Mess (b/w) Another Fine Mess (colourised) One of Laurel & Hardy's best-loved feature films 'A Chump At Oxford' sees them travelling to England to obtain an education only for Stan to be revealed as a long-lost British aristocrat! Also included is the classic silent comedy From 'Soup To Nuts' which the team remade as a section of 'A Chump At Oxford' - only with Stan switching his character to that of Agnes the maid! Also in this compilation is an earlier glimpse of Agnes in one of their greatest talkie shorts 'Another Fine Mess'. Volume 3: Way Out West / Shorts Contains: Way Out West (b/w) Way Out West (colourised) One Good Turn (b/w) One Good Turn (colourised) Thicker Than Water (b/w) Thicker Than Water (colourised) Regarded as the most popular of Laurel & Hardy's feature-length films not least for the Trail of the Lonesome Pine song 'Way Out West' sees Stan and Ollie visiting the town of Brushwood Gulch to deliver the deed of a gold mine only to be deceived by James Finlayson playing a villainous saloon-keeper. A great favourite among Laurel & Hardy admirers Finlayson is featured elsewhere in this compilation through the classic L&H shorts 'One Good Turn' and 'Thicker Than Water'. Volume 14: Classic Shorts / A Job To Do: Contains: Busy Bodies (b/w) Busy Bodies (colourised) Double Whoopee (b/w silent with musical score) Dirty Work (b/w) Dirty Work (colourised) The Finishing Touch The Music Box (b/w) The Music Box (colourised) Hog Wild (b/w) Hog Wild (colourised) Hats Off (stills gallery) A collection of classic shorts all of which present Stan and Ollie with a task to perform. 'Busy Bodies' is the famous film where Stan and Ollie work in a sawmill. In 'Double Whoopee' they start work at a plush Broadway hotel - and close a taxi door on Jean Harlow's dress! 'Hog Wild' concerns their efforts to fit a rooftop aerial. In 'Dirty Work' they are back on the roof this time as chimney sweeps at the home of an eccentric scientist. Stan and Ollie are in the building trade for 'The Finishing Touch' while in 'The Music Box' - perhaps their most famous film - they have to deliver a piano up a huge flight of steps. 'The Music Box' was inspired by one of their earliest comedies as a team 'Hats Off'. Sadly no copy of the film is known to survive but this DVD includes a selection of stills from this long-lost classic.
A charity performance in aid of Amnesty international Filmed live over four nights at the Theatre Royal Drury lane London. The show includes sketeches from the Monty Python team and musical numbers from artists such as Sting and Eric Clapton.
Filmed at Hammersmith Apollo in March of this year, New Blood - Live In London captures Peter Gabriel performing live with the 46 piece New Blood Orchestra. The repertoire mixes cover versions from his Scratch My Back album with classic tracks from across his solo career in brand new orchestral arrangements. Gabriel is a renowned live performer and his onstage charisma and instantly recognisable voice combine brilliantly with the orchestral sound palette to breathe a new sense of wonder into familiar songs. As you would expect the concert is also a visual feast, with graphics, animation and imagery blending to enhance and illustrate the music. This is truly a live experience not to be missed.
Part love story, part comedy, part study of madness, Some Voices is above all a beautifully observed, elegantly written and brilliantly acted low-key British film. The story of Ray (Daniel Craig) and his relationships with his brother Pete (Dave Morrissey) and new girlfriend Laura (Kelly Macdonald) after his release from psychiatric hospital, it is the interaction between the three that forms the cornerstone of the movie. Craig dominates proceedings as his character finds himself needlessly torn between the two, capturing Ray's descent into madness far better than the rather unnecessary over use of visual effects. The interplay between all three is superb, particularly Craig and Macdonald who spend the first two-thirds of the story developing a dependence that is pure sweetness and light before darkness descends. Director Simon Cellan Jones (whose previous credits include Our Friends in the North) allows his first feature film to develop at it's own pace, letting the script and performances dictate the action. The West London setting fizzes with a life that Notting Hill barely hinted at, proving that a movie set in the capital (or indeed made in Britain) doesn't have to rely on mock cockney gangster stereotypes to reflect the city. This is a self-assured, engaging and ultimately moving piece of filmmaking. On the DVD: The accompanying documentary and interviews offer little insight into the process and are edited down to minute-long segments with little attempt to examine the bigger picture. Jones' commentary, however, does provide an interesting insight into the perils of making a film on a small budget. --Phil Udell
This is the splendid film adaptation of John Irving's bestseller. Robin Williams plays the role of T.S. Garp a complex and unpredictabale young man at odds with a violent and cruel world... The World According To Garp earned two Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actor: one for John Lithgow; and the other for Glenn Close as Best Supporting Actress.
FBI Special Agent Don Eppes (Rob Morrow) recruits his mathematical genius brother Charlie (David Krumholtz) to help the Bureau solve a wide range of challenging crimes in Los Angeles. The two brothers take on the most confounding criminal cases from a very distinctive perspective. Assisting Don at the FBI is his partner Terry Lake (Sabrina Lloyd) and new recruit David Sinclair (Alimi Ballard). Dr. Larry Fleinhardt (Peter MacNicol) is Charlie's friend and colleague who urges Charlie to focus more on his university studies than on FBI business. Don and Charlie's father Alan Eppes (Judd Hirsch) is pleased to see his two sons working together but fears their competitive nature will lead to trouble. Episodes Comprise: 1. Pilot 2. Uncertainty Principle 3. Vector 4. Structural Corruption 5. Prime Suspect 6. Sabotage 7. Counterfeit Reality 8. Identity Crisis 9. Sniper Zone 10. Dirty Bomb 11. Sacrifice 12. Noisy Edge 13. Manhunt
Jim Kelly, the star of Black Samurai, was a multi-talented martial artist perhaps best remembered for his role in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. Black Samurai is essentially a vehicle for his fighting skills in which he plays a secret agent out to retrieve his Japanese sweetheart from the drug-dealing Satanist who has abducted her to blackmail her father. His investigative skills are almost non-existent--much of the plot consists of his arriving at the villains' houses and hitting people. At the same time, the character's utter ruthlessness and the extravagant evil of the villains, the chief of whom, Jannicot, is in the habit of sicking a vulture on his enemies, are entertaining enough and the 1970s styling unselfconsciously entertaining. The director, Al Adamson, was mostly famous for his horror films, and there is a Gothic extravagance to the sets and gimmicks here: Kelly's jet-pack sequence has to be seen to be believed. On the DVD: The DVD comes with a wonderful period trailer for The Green Hornet, the usual chapter selection, biographies of Kelly and Adamson (who was murdered in 1995) and a feature which enables you to look at the fight scenes in isolation. --Roz Kaveney
Directed by Richard Lester (A Hard Day's Night Superman II & III The Four Musketeers Robin and Marian The Knack) The Bed Sitting Room is based on a play by Spike Milligan and John Antrobus. Set in a post-apocalyptic London nine months after World War III (the Nuclear Misunderstanding) which lasted two minutes and twenty eight seconds - including the signing of the peace treaty. Nucelar fallout is producing strange mutations in people; the title refers to the character Lord Fortnum who finds himself transforming into a bed sitting room. The plot concerns the fate of the first child to be born after the war. The film can be compared to Milligan's work with The Goons but with a savage cynical and more surreal edge. This was probably the first time that Milligan let his creative dark side out into the light. The bizarre set design has been an influence on filmmakers such as Terry Gilliam and Jeunet and Caro (Delicatessen). The cast list includes the cream of British comedic and acting talent from the late 1960's: Rita Tushingham Ralph Richardson Peter Cook Harry Secombe Dudley Moore Spike Milligan Michael Horden Roy Kinnear Arthur Lowe Dandy Nichols and Marty Feldman. Lots of people talk about 'lost classics' but The Bed Sitting Room is a film that truly deserves that description. It was not particularly well received at the box office but that may be due to the profound strangeness of the film. However it's reputation has grown over the years and VHS copies taped from a BBC broadcast 25 years ago have been selling for ridiculous prices online. It beggars belief that such a startling piece of British cinema has remained in the vaults for so long. Over an hour of extras will include interviews from 1967 with Richard Lester Spike Milligan and Peter Cook.
Love In Limbo' is a Technicolor tour around the teenage libido as it was in 1957 when sex was still a dirty word. Set to rhythm 'n' blues tunes of unrequited love and designed for maximum visual impact the film plays with the icons of the era and the social mores of the day. Russell Crowe co-stars in this Australian film as a virginal nerd by the name of Arthur Baskin!
Episode 7 - THE BENGAL TIGER: Terry is sent in to mind Arthur's local newsagent who is being threatened. Episode 8 - COME IN T-64 YOUR TIME IS TICKING AWAY: Arthur's interest in Candy Cabs is being threatened so he sends Terry to find out what is going on. Episode 9 - MONDAY NIGHT FEVER: Arthur falls for a would-be singer and promises to make her a star. Terry has his doubts.
Considered one of the greatest films in the history of cinema, David Lean's epic Lawrence of Arabia, celebrating its 50th Anniversary, is available fully-restored on Blu-ray and will also be released on a four-disc collector's gift set.
Set in the very near future The Knackery is the latest hard hitting feature film from Belfast's leading independent production house Yellow Fever Productions (makers of the award winning Battle Of The Bone). All is not as it seems on the country's most watched family game-show... Reality television has taken things to the extreme and given the public The Knackery a show where six contestants fight for the grand prize of 'one million pounds'. To liven things up the producers of the show release a horde of genetically modified zombies which puts a little bit more pressure on the fighters in this Big Brother style beat-em-up. As an undercover reporter tries to scoop the story he's been waiting for he soon comes across a kid who has entered the arena unaware of the consequences. Seeing this as another excuse for higher ratings the shows producers announce their new contestant as they witness the fighting skills of the youngster against others - but as the fighters get killed off things take a turn for the worse leaving the reporter and kid to team up against some very tough opponents... human and not-so-human. Six contestants... One million quid... And a sh*t load of zombies!
Last time it landed in the jungle. This time it's chosen Los Angeles. Ravaged by open warfare between rival drug gangs L.A. is the perfect killing ground for the Predator who is drawn by heat and conflict. When the police find mutilated bodies Lieutenant Mike Harrigan (Danny Glover) thinks it's the work of the feuding gangs. Then a mysterious government agent (Gary Busey) arrives and orders him to stay off the case. Instead Harrigan sets out to learn what is really going on and comes face to face with the savage alien in a climatic electrifying confrontation...
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