Cast Away reunites star Tom Hanks and director Robert Zemeckis in their first collaboration since the heavy-handed sentimentality of Forrest Gump. Thankfully, this time their film's life-affirming message is delivered with more subtlety, attributable both to an extraordinarily committed, physically demanding central performance from Hanks and to Zemeckis' technically masterful but carefully understated direction. It's also a film with three distinct "acts" or, to be old-fashioned about it, a proper beginning, middle and end. The story follows schedule-obsessed but fulfilled FedEx supervisor Chuck Noland (Act 1) on a personal journey into the bleakest, most solitary despair (Act 2), before Helen Hunt, in the thankless role of ex-girlfriend, unwittingly allows him to glimpse an optimistic future full of untapped possibilities (Act 3). Hanks' sojourn on the island is the centrepiece, but this is no tropical island idyll: following a terrifying plane crash (the one sequence in the film where Zemeckis shows off his uncanny ability to choreograph action), life on the island is seen to be a depressing and bitter experience filled with disappointment, danger and suicidal despair. Having lost all hope of rescue, ultimately Noland's greatest test is not to survive, but to find a reason to survive. He has no Man Friday for company, just a volleyball named "Wilson" that is both a narrative device allowing Hanks to deliver dialogue and an intriguingly pagan personification of the island's spirit under whose protection Noland is finally able to summon fire (significantly, and heartbreakingly, Wilson leaves him as he regains contact with the world). In an era of MTV-style film editing, Zemeckis and Hanks fearlessly take their time establishing with total conviction the grim realities of Noland's situation, his devastating loss of hope and the means by which he achieves his escape. Like Contact before it, Cast Away is a refreshingly thoughtful piece of mainstream cinema that explores weighty existential issues but retains a warm human intimacy. On the DVD: The luminous anamorphic print with vivid Dolby 5.1 soundtrack is accompanied on the first disc by a technical commentary from Zemeckis and key crew personnel. It's plenty insightful for budding filmmakers, although for pure listening pleasure one might have preferred a more relaxed piece with just the director and Tom Hanks. The second disc includes a 30-minute making-of documentary in which the director sums up the moral of the movie--"Surviving is easy but living is difficult". This draws on material from the three other mini-documentaries about survival skills, Wilson the volleyball and the Fijian island location of Monu Riki respectively. There's also a section on the sometimes surprising use of CGI effects and a storyboard-to-film comparison sequence. Tom Hanks chats with American TV host Charlie Rose about this movie and his career in the extensive 50-minute interview. Trailers, artwork and stills round out a valuable two-disc set. --Mark Walker
The Bible - In The Beginning The greatest stories of the Old Testament are brought to the screen with astounding scope and power in this international film which depicts the first 22 chapters of Genesis. This is the spectacular story of man's creation his fall his survival and his indomitable faith in the future. Matching the epic scale of the production are performances by George C. Scott as Abraham Ava Gardner as Sarah and Peter O'Toole as the haunting presence of the Angel of God. The legendary John Huston directs and delivers a commanding performance as Noah. From the film's opening amidst cosmic chaos to its lingering message of hope and salvation The Bible stands as a monumental motion picture achievement. The Robe The first movie ever filmed in CinemaScope The Robe was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1953 including Best Picture for Richard Burton. Burton stars as Marcellus Gallio the Roman centurion charged with overseeing the crucifixion of Christ. But when he wins Christ's robe in a gambling game at the foot of the cross his life is forever changed. Its inspired story set to a spectacular score and featuring an all-star cast including Victor Mature and Jean Simmons The Robe remains one of the screen's greatest biblical epics. Demetrius And The Gladiators This enormously successful sequel to The Robe continues the story of Demetrius (Victor Mature) the Greek slave who after the death of his master is sentenced to train as a gladiator in the Roman arena. There his newfound Christian faith is put to the test when he has to contend not only with the swordsmen and wild beasts of the arena but also the evil and sensuous Messalina (Susan Hayward) and the mad emperor Caligula (Jay Robinson). Crammed with astonishing action and fight sequences this heroic epic is not to be missed!
No One Is Above The Law. Freddy Heflin (Stallone in a critically acclaimed performance) is a simple small-town Sheriff who had big dreams of becoming a New York City cop before a heroic deed left him deaf in one ear. Though he saved the life of the woman he loves (Annabella Sciorra) she went on to marry someone else. But everything in Freddy's life is about to change! After he uncovers evidence of a murder fakes suicide and police tampering Freddy must choose between the men he idolises the woman he adores and the law he's sworn to defend...
From the director of "Forrest Gump" comes a contemporary drama about a man in isolation who is forced to transform himself both physically and emotionally in order to survive.
When a hotelier attempts to fill the chronic vacancies at his castle by launching an advertising campaign that falsely portrays the property as haunted, two actual ghosts show up and end up falling for two guests.
Tom Cruise uncovers his dark side to play a contract killer who hijacks a taxi - and its driver - to take him from job to job.
20 of the greatest British films ever produced by the world renowned Hammer film studio! Includes: 1. Blood From The Mummy's Tomb (Dir. Seth Holt 1971) 2. Demons Of The Mind (Dir. Peter Sykes 1972) 3. The Devil Rides Out (Dir. Terence Fisher 1968) 4. Viking Queen (Dir. Don Chaffey 1967) 5. Dracula Prince Of Darkness (Dir. Terence Fisher 1966) 6. Fear In The Night (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1972) 7. Frankenstein Created Women (Dir. Terence Fisher 1967) 8. The Horror Of Frankenstein (Dir. Jimmy Sangster 1970) 9. The Nanny (Dir. Seth Holt 1965) 10. One Million Years BC (Dir. Don Chaffey 1966) 11. Plague Of The Zombies (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 12. Quatermass And The Pit (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1967) 13. Rasputin The Mad Monk (Dir. Don Sharp 1966) 14. The Reptile (Dir. John Gilling 1966) 15. The Scars of Dracula (Dir. Roy Ward Baker 1970) 16. SHE (Dir. Robert Day 1965) 17. Slave Girls (Dir. Michael Carreras 1967) 18. To The Devil A Daughter (Dir. Peter Sykes 1967) 19. The Vengeance Of SHE (Dir. Cliff Owen 1968) 20. The Witches (Dir. Cyril Frankel 1966)
Lola Montès is a visually ravishing, narratively daring dramatization of the life of the notorious courtesan and showgirl, played by Martine Carol. With his customary cinematographic flourish and, for the first time, vibrant colour, Max Ophuls charts Montès's scandalous past through the bombastic ringmaster (Peter Ustinov) of the American circus where she ends up performing. Ophuls's final film, Lola Montès is at once a magnificent romantic melodrama, a meditation on the lurid fascination with celebrity, and a meticulous, one-of-a-kind movie spectacle. Special Features: New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition Audio commentary featuring Max Ophuls scholar Susan White Max Ophuls ou le plaisir de tourner, a 1965 episode of the French television program Cinéastes de notre temps, featuring interviews with many of Ophuls's collaborators Max by Marcel, a new documentary by Marcel Ophuls about his father and the making of Lola Montès Silent footage of actress Martine Carol demonstrating the various glamorous hairstyles in Lola Montès Theatrical rerelease trailer from Rialto Pictures New and improved English subtitle translation PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic Gary Giddins
Linda Fiorentino is like a home-grown apocalyptic nightmare in The Last Seduction as the sizzling, sexy dame who thinks "sharing" is a dirty word. Fiorentino, a master of the double-cross, hooks up with naive Peter Berg, a nice guy desperate for a little adventure. There are endless twists to this cleverly vicious story, but the real draw is Fiorentino, whose performance is brilliant. She is the everywoman you never want to meet: cool as ice, passionate, tough, self-satisfied, smart, and amoral. Bill Pullman is a surprise as a Machiavellian doctor who is almost her match. Definitely not a date flick, as this represents one vicious battle in the sex wars. --Rochelle O'Gorman
The unforgettable adventure of Man from the Creation! The greatest stories of the Old Testament are brought to the screen with astounding scope and power in this international film which depicts the first 22 chapters of Genesis. This is the spectacular story of man's creation his fall his survival and his indomitable faith in the future. Matching the epic scale of the production are performances by George C. Scott as Abraham Ava Gardner as Sarah and Peter O'Toole as the ha
Shocker allows Wes Craven to hang onto his title as the master of the horror genre--but only just. Centring once more on a charismatic lead character (Horace Pinker) Shocker continues Craven's penchant for combining fantasy and horror. Pinker (played with zeal by Mitch Pileggi of X-Files fame) is a serial killer--the "family slasher"--terrorising the inhabitants of the city of. Having murdered the foster family and girlfriend of all-American boy Jonathon Parker (Peter Berg), the latter finds he can foresee Pinker's actions in his dreams. The resulting supernatural developments (including ghosts, magic charms and possessed bodies) are more than a little muddled but underpinned by the continuous gruesome hack and slash action. A film with its brain most definitely disengaged, Shocker is still undemanding, wince-inducing fun. On the DVD: Not much to offer from this format. The splendidly dated 1980's American heavy metal soundtrack (including Kiss and Megadeth) comes through loud and clear and the sound effects are certainly horribly audible. Picture quality is fine but not spectacular. Extras are limited to scene selection, the trailer and a selection of storyboards and their cinematic equivalents. --Phil Udell
This tense action-thriller explodes with nonstop excitement and riveting star performances! Sylvester Stallone stars as Freddy Heflin, the sheriff of a place everyone calls Cop Land a small and seemingly peaceful town populated by the big-city police officers he's long admired. Yet something ugly is taking place behind the town's peaceful facade. And when Freddy uncovers a massive, deadly conspiracy among these local residents, he is forced to take action and make a dangerous choice between protecting his idols...and upholding the law! Robert DeNiro (Heat ), Harvey Keitel (Pulp Fiction) and Ray Liotta (GoodFellas) head an incredible cast in this critically acclaimed and unforgettable motion picture! Feature Commentary with Writer/Director James Mangold, Producer Cathy Konrad, Sylvester Stallone and Robert Patrick Cop Land: The Making of an Urban Western Deleted Scenes Storyboard Comparison
Peter O'Toole is dazzling as Jeffrey Bernard: Spectator columnist raconteur hopeful lover hopeless husband heroic drinker and funniest man you are ever likely to meet. Recorded live at the Old Vic Theatre in London this video of Keith Waterhouse's brilliant play immortalises a host of insanely hilarious characters from the bitingly critical stagehand at the Royal Opera House to the mad genius who invented cat racing.
Presented in a brand-new digital transfer Allan Moyle's cult feature of 1980 is a paean to teenage rebellion telling the story of two girls who meet in a New York psychiatric unit and bonding through a shared sense of alienation go on the run together in spectacular fashion! Volatile streetwise Nicky (Robin Johnson) is an aspiring rocker while Pamela (Trini Alvarado) is a timid isolated girl whose wealthy father is currently campaigning to clean up the city's famous square; Johnny DeGuardia (Tim Curry) is the sympathetic late-night DJ who promotes their newly formed punk outfit 'The Sleez Sisters'. Times Square explores themes revisited in Moyles' Pump Up the Volume a decade later and allusions to lesbian love have ensured repeat screenings at LGBT film festivals worldwide. In addition to gloriously gritty scenes of early-'80s New York and pre-cleanup Times Square the film also boasts a now-legendary rock 'n' roll soundtrack featuring songs by The Ramones Lou Reed Roxy Music The Cure Talking Heads and others alongside specially composed numbers including XTC rarity Take This Town and Flowers of the City co-written by ex-New York Doll David Johansen. SPECIAL FEATURES [] Original Theatrical Trailer [] Image Gallery
Relive the adventures of The Transformers on this triple DVD set containing the first half of Season 2. Episode comprise: 1. Autobot Spike 2. Changing Gears 3. City of Steel 4. Attack of the Autobots 5. Traitor The Immobilizer 6. The Autobot Run 7. Atlantis Arise 8. Day of the Machines 9. Enter the Nightbird 10. A Prime Problem 11. The Core 12. The Insecticon Syndrome 13. Dinobot Island (Part 1) 14. Dinobot Island (Part 2) 15. The Master Builders 16. Auto Berserk 17. Microb
The Mouse That Roared, originally released in 1959, is mostly remembered as a tour-de-force from peerless comic actor Peter Sellers, playing all three of the principal roles. It's worth seeing for that alone, but the film is also one of the most memorable satires of nuclear geopolitics produced during the Cold War and, along with another Sellers vehicle, Dr Strangelove, provides an unbeatable illustration of the paranoia and helplessness engendered by that period. The Mouse That Roared tells the story of the fictional European principality of Grand Fenwick. Finding itself on the wrong end of a trade dispute with the United States, and noting America's generosity in rebuilding the countries it had fought in World War II, Grand Fenwick's rulers hit upon the idea of declaring war on the US, losing, and then reaping a Marshall Plan-style hand-out. The plan, proposed by Grand Fenwick's prime minister (played by Peter Sellers), is approved by the monarch (also played by Peter Sellers), who dispatches an invasion force of chain mail-clad archers under the command of Grand Fenwick's hapless Field Marshal (also played by Peter Sellers). Due to a series of happenstances and misunderstandings, Grand Fenwick's plan goes terribly wrong, and they inflict a surprising defeat on America, with curious consequences. On the DVD: The Mouse That Roared is presented in 1.85:1 widescreen; sound is mono. Soundtracks are available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, and subtitles in all those as well as most other major European languages, Hebrew and Arabic. Special features include a scene selector, and three theatrical trailers: one for this film (English audiences will get a kick out of the 1950s American announcer raving about "an hilarious new personality, Peter Sellers"), one for Sellers' much bleaker (and much funnier) Cold War satire Dr Strangelove, and one for his slight horror spoof Murder By Death. --Andrew Mueller
Smart and brooding, Swedish detective thriller, Modus, follows psychologist and ex- FBI profiler Inger Johanne Vik as she finds herself and her autistic daughter drawn into an investigation surrounding a series of disturbing and brutal deaths in Stockholm. The case leads her to team up with local detective Ingvar Nymann and together they set about uncovering the clues to these shocking crimes. As the number of mysterious murders starts to increase, Inger Johanne is driven by her need to protect her daughter and starts noticing a pattern. But her discovery of the killer s weakness and the connection to a ruthless international network unintentionally turns the entire threat towards herself and her family. Based on the best-selling novels of Anne Holt, Modus is a thrilling, atmospheric crime series that raises questions about faith, intolerance, and the very nature of love itself.
Bridget Gregory (Linda Fiorentino) is a woman who knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it: including murder. After a drug deal goes wrong she cons her ineffectual husband Harlan (Bill Pullman) out of seven hundred thousand dollars. She hides in a small town where she takes up with young dumb lover Swale (Peter Berg) but soon Harlan is on her trail and he means business. John Dahl's modern take on the classic film noir is packed full of double-crosses sexual tensi
When advertising executive Bill Rago gets the chop he soon realises that he can't do anything else and is talked into teaching English grammar to a bunch of army recruits. The army wants him to be disciplined and do everything at the double; his pupils just want him to leave them alone...
Paul (Peter Fonda, Easy Rider) is a TV commercial director whose wife, Sally (Susan Strasberg, Psych-Out), has left him. Plunged into a personality crisis, he asks his friend John (Bruce Dern, Silent Running), a self-styled guru and advocate of LSD, to guide him on his first trip'. They go to a party at their friend Max's (Dennis Hopper, Easy Rider), score some acid and return to John's to let the drug take its course. There, Paul is plunged into a mind-altering realm of extreme beauty and sheer terror, the like of which he has never known before. Written by acclaimed actor Jack Nicholson (The Shining) and directed by legendary producer Roger Corman (Masque of the Red Death), this seminal slice of cinematic psychedelia was banned for an astonishing 36 years, but is now available on Blu-ray for the very first time. High Definition transfer The Guardian Interview with Roger Corman (1981, audio only): on-stage interview with the great director/producer The Guardian Interview with Roger Corman (1991, audio only): Corman returns to the NFT to discuss his career in film-making Original theatrical trailer Other extras TBC
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