In the original Predator, Rambo meets Alien in a terrific science fiction thriller directed by John McTiernan just a year before Die Hard made him Hollywood's most sought-after director of action-packed blockbusters. Arnold Schwarzenegger leads an elite squad of US Army commandos to a remote region of South American jungle, where they've been assigned to search for South American officials who've been kidnapped by terrorists. Instead they find a load of skinned corpses hanging from the trees and realise that they're now facing a mysterious and much deadlier threat. As the squad is picked off one by one, Arnold finds himself pitted against a hideous alien creature that's heavily armed and wearing a spacesuit enabling the creature to render itself invisible. The title says it all in describing the relentless, escalating action that follows, maintained by McTiernan with an abundance of visual flair. The film's special effects are still impressive, and stunning locations in the Mexican jungles create a combined atmosphere of verdant beauty and imminent danger. The sequel, Predator 2, suffers from the lack of both original star Schwarzenegger and director McTiernan. Danny Glover does serviceable work as the hard-bitten city cop tracking the near-invisible Predator, who this time has chosen to do a bit of hunting on the streets of LA instead of the jungle. Look out for an Alien skull in the creature's trophy room --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
One of the most frightening horror films of recent years Absentia is the critically-acclaimed multi-award winning breakthrough film from director of Oculus. Tricia's husband Daniel has been missing for seven years and with the support of her sister Callie she finally declares him legally dead 'in absentia'. As Tricia tries to move on with her life she becomes haunted by terrifying visions. Callie meanwhile is drawn to an ominous tunnel near the house with links to other unexplained disappearances. Does the key to Daniel's fate lie in the cold darkness of the tunnel and could the horrific truth be something far worse than death? Special Features: Audio Commentary: Director/ Producer Mike Flanagan and Producers Morgan Peter Brown Joe Wicker and Justin Gordon Director Mike Flanagan and Cast Members Katie Parker Courtney Bell Dave Levine and Doug Jones 'Absentia: A retrospective' documentary Camera test teaser Deleted Scenes
Over one hundred years ago a serial murderer stalked the streets of London. Innocent women were murdered by his knife. No suspects were convicted. Dozens of theories about the killings have evolved but none have been conclusive. To this day the identity of the killer has never been determined. In this event hosted by Peter Ustinov a team of world-renowned forensic scientists and criminologists from top agencies including the F.B.I. and Scotland Yard comes together to use state-of-the-art criminal investigation techniques to finally uncover The Secret Identity Of Jack The Ripper! With vivid re-enactments of the original witness testimonies the panel of experts revisit the evidence and profile the suspects. Who got away with the most infamous serial crime of the 19th Century?
Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.On this DVD: The four episodes are: "The Cham Cham", "Security Hazard", "Atlantic Inferno" and "Path of Destruction".
The second of 10 volumes following the tales of one of the 90s best loved cartoon characters. Sonic is one of three siblings who together are known as hit rock band 'Sonic Underground'. Follow their adventures as they do battle with the evil Dr Robotnik. Each DVD contains 4 episodes making a collection of 10 volumes. Once all 10 are collected the spines make a big image of Sonic. This DVD contains the following episodes: Underground Masquerade Tangled Web The Deeper Fear Who Do You Think You Are.
Irwin Allen's visually impressive but scientifically silly Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea updates 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as the world's most advanced experimental submarine manoeuvres under the North Pole while the Van Allen radiation belt catches fire, giving the concept "global warming" an entirely new dimension. As the Earth broils in temperatures approaching 170 degrees F, Walter Pidgeon's maniacally driven Admiral Nelson hijacks the Seaview sub and plays tag with the world's combined naval forces on a race to the South Pacific, where he plans to extinguish the interstellar fire with a well-placed nuclear missile. But first he has to fight a mutinous crew, an alarmingly effective saboteur, not one but two giant squid attacks and a host of design flaws that nearly cripple the mission (note to Nelson: think backup generators). Barbara Eden shimmies to Frankie Avalon's trumpet solos in the most form-fitting naval uniform you've ever seen; fish-loving Peter Lorre plays in the shark tank; gloomy religious fanatic Michael Ansara preaches Armageddon; and Joan Fontaine looks very uncomfortable playing an armchair psychoanalyst. It's all pretty absurd, but Allen pumps it up with larger-than-life spectacle and lovely miniature work. Fantastic Voyage is the original psychedelic inner-space adventure. When a brilliant scientist falls into a coma with an inoperable blood clot in the brain, a surgical team embarks on a top-secret journey to the centre of the mind in a high-tech military submarine shrunk to microbial dimensions. Stephen Boyd stars as a colourless commander sent to keep an eye on things (though his eyes stay mostly on shapely medical assistant Raquel Welch), while Donald Pleasence is suitably twitchy as the claustrophobic medical consultant. The science is shaky at best, but the imaginative spectacle is marvellous: scuba-diving surgeons battle white blood cells, tap the lungs to replenish the oxygen supply and shoot the aorta like daredevil surfers. The film took home a well-deserved Oscar for Best Visual Effects. Director Richard Fleischer, who had previously turned Disney's 1954 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea into one of the most riveting submarine adventures of all time, creates a picture so taut with cold-war tensions and cloak-and-dagger secrecy that niggling scientific contradictions (such as, how do miniaturised humans breathe full-sized air molecules?) seem moot. --Sean Axmaker
Earth. Post-Apocalypse. 1000 years after the Neutron Wars. Lord Zirpola the dictator of Helix City captures Range Guides Kaz Oshay (David Carradine) and Deneer. Range Guides are mystical nomads who have strange powers and who choose to fight for good in the bleak wastelands. Lord Zirpola forces them to take part in his favourite entertainment; the Death Sport - an arena where they must fight to the death on special motorcycles like Roman Gladiators. But Kaz Deneer and others break out and make their escape on the strange motorcycles trying to cross the lethal desert to freedom. Ankar Moor a former Range Guide who now serves the evil Zirpola hotly pursues the fleeing group and now wants their blood!
The Fast Runner turns the frozen landscape of northern Canada into the stage for an adventure as sweeping as The Odyssey or Beowulf. Adapted from an Inuit legend, The Fast Runner centres on Atanarjuat, a charismatic young hunter struggling for the affections of Atuat, who has already been promised to Oki, the son of the camp's leader. When Atuat chooses Atanarjuat, Oki seems to accept it, but later events turn his anger and hatred into a murderous spite. This story, as passionate and primal as any film noir, is framed by the daily lives of the Inuit--a struggle for survival that is both simple and vivid, foreign yet immediately understandable. No one in the cast is a professional actor, but the performances are direct and compelling, telling a story that is epic and intimate. --Bret Fetzer
Includes the classic Renoir films La Bete Humaine La Grande Illusion and The Crime Of M. Lange. La Bete Humaine A mad train driver falls in love with a married woman. They plot to kill the wife's husband... La Grande Illusion One of the very first prison escape movies Grand Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made Jean Renoir's antiwar masterpiece of French soldiers held in a World War I German prison camp and Erich von Stroheim as the unforgettable Captain von Rauffenstein. Le Crime De Monsieur Lange Told in flashback this dramatic story revolves around the author Lange who is exploited by his ruthless boss who eventually may cause the downfall of his publishing house but disaster is averted by Lange's talent and the political will of the workforce who form a cooperative...
Earth can be darker than space. The crew of the Odyssey a space shuttle orbiting above the Earth's surface looks on in horror as the Earth explodes before their eyes. Commander Chuck Taggart (Peter Weller) a geneticist (Sebastian Roche) Taggart's son (Christopher Gorham) a TV newswoman (Leslie Silva) and an astronaut (Tamara Craig Thomas) escape on a shuttle into space where they're met by a mysterious being who offers to transport them back five years in time to try to
The Pretenders Greatest Hits is a selection of 20 songs and their variously successful videos. Chrissie Hynde arrived in the UK in 1973, and after a period as the "Loud Yank" NME journalist, she realised her dream of putting a band together. "Stop Your Sobbing" was a terrific first single for The Pretenders, debuting a voice that defied comparison or description. Naturally it's included here. Chrissie hated the early videos for her songs, especially "Brass in Pocket", which was one of the very first shown on MTV. She relays this sort of information to camera in the terrific documentary, "No Turn Left Unstoned", featured on this DVD. Comments come in from Rosanna Arquette, ex-managers, Elvis Costello, Bono, and her oldest friend. The overall opinion of the singer-writer that comes across in these interviews is one of an irreverent genius, not afraid to speak her mind (as in her passionate standing for animal rights through the organisation PETA ("People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals"). The band's turbulent history is chronicled through drug-related deaths, firing and re-hiring, motherhood, and the controversial use of the F word on stage, back when such things were shocking. There have been Pretenders greatest hits collections before, but this is expanded with "Human" and "Popstar" from the 1999 Viva El Amor album. --Paul Tonks
An old, old story as told circa 1980, Breaking Glass, written and directed by Brian Gibson, follows the path of Stardust not to mention A Star is Born and most other films about showbusiness, by following the rise of a talented young hopeful who learns that success comes with strings. Kate Crowley (Hazel O'Connor) begins as a bleached New Wave ranter, fly-posting on the tube and yelling songs about dehumanisation over fascist chants in rowdy pubs, but ends up a stoned glam zombie dressed as a robot, packaging her anger for the benefit of corporate music biz baddies and retreating to a sanatorium. The plot may be familiar, but the film still works, thanks to persuasive central performances from O'Connor, who wrote her own songs and shows real acting muscle that sadly didn't lead to anything like a film career, and Phil Daniels as her hustling manager/boyfriend/conscience. The fine supporting cast includes Jon Finch and Jonathan Pryce as a Bond villain-style record producer and a deaf junkie sax player, with glimpses of later perennials such as Jim Broadbent and Richard Griffiths. Made and set at the start of the 1980s, it catches its times exactly: a "Rock Against 1984" outdoor gig that turns into a riot, a routine police harrassment of a band rehearsal, a power cut that transforms a concert into a before-its-time "unplugged" session. Credits trivia: the executive producer was Dodi al Fayed. On the DVD: A nice letterboxed transfer looks a bit soft and grainy--but that's the way it's supposed to be. The only extras are cribbed-from-the-IMDB filmographies, a trailer with a wonderfully unconvincing narration and an image gallery (posters, ads and stills). --Kim Newman
In Press for Time Norman Wisdom offered his version of the crusading reporter movie, though by 1966 time was running out for Norman's style of big-screen comedy. Wisdom had played duel roles in The Square Peg (1958) and On the Beat (1962), but perhaps a sign of his growing frustration with the formulaic nature of his pictures was that he stretched himself to play not just his usual underdog hero, but also his own mother and his grandfather, the Prime Minister. Wisdom also co-wrote the movie, and as a reporter in a small seaside town causes chaos for the council, organises a beauty parade and manages to reprise his drag act (he dressed as a female nurse in A Stitch in Time) as a suffragette. This was really the penultimate Norman Wisdom comedy, since apart from What's Good for the Goose (1969), he has only made two more features, William Friedkin's The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) and the belated thriller Double X (1992). Though now nearing the end of his years as a movie star, Wisdom shows himself to still be as polished as ever at his own brand of good-natured slapstick. Fans can be sure that with Norman around there's Trouble in Store (1953). --Gary S. Dalkin
Back in the day when childrens' programmes were, by turns, fun, challenging, dramatic, spooky, hilarious and fantastic, tea-time programming was a staple part of the lives of millions of kids. Diverse and highly popular, it fired imaginations and was invariably an integral part of any worthwhile playground antics the next day.
What oprea fan doesn't know the famous opera arias 'Our True Love' 'Make Up Your Mind Marenka' or 'I Know A Maiden Fair' ageless classics from that treasure of Czech opera Bedrich Smetana's The Bartered Bride? These outstanding singers Gabriela Benackova as Marenka Peter Dvorsky as Jenik and Richard Novak as Kecal as well as brilliant performances by the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonic Chorus conducted by Zdenek Kosler became the basis for this 1981 television programme directed by Frantisek Filip. Sets by Jan Zazvorka costumes by Lida Novotna cinematography by Ilja Bojanovsky directed by Frantisek Filip.
Widely regarded as one of the best of the Road To series Bing and Bob play two song and dance men who are forced to leave Melbourne in rather a hurry in order to avoid various marriage proposals which have come their way and so sign on as deep sea divers working for a Balinese prince. Whilst he hopes that they will manage to locate a chest of lost treasure that lies at the bottom of a bay he omits the fact that it is guarded by a sea monster. Or that if they do manage to locate it
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