When Robin of Loxley transformed into Robert of Huntingdon in the third series of Robin of Sherwood, many viewers were understandably confused. Michael Praed left the series for reasons that never really became apparent while Jason Connery clearly wasn't a replacement chosen for similar looks or performance. Across the 13 episodes of the third series, Connery's choice became slowly apparent. The magical stories frequently dipped into darker territory as much as they aimed for uplifting humour. The new Hood was at ease with both, while reuniting the merry band and ultimately wooing the fair Marion all over again. Connery turned in a very confident embodiment of the character, clearly bonding well with the established team of actors. Guest stars lined up to contribute alongside him. Memorable appearances include those of Richard O'Brien, David Rappaport, Matt Frewer, Patricia Hodge, Ian Ogilvy and Lewis Collins. (It's fascinating to speculate how different things could have been if the close-second casting choice of Neil Morrissey had been pursued.) The strangest aspect of the series, however, is knowing in retrospect that everyone's confidence and merriment was for nothing. Scripts were written in readiness for the fourth series, but then the studio went bankrupt. Cliffhangers therefore remain that will confuse viewers far more than the lead's replacement. --Paul Tonks
It wasn't until the beginning of Stargate SG-1's fourth season that fans knew to take the Replicator threat seriously. The spidery nasties had only seemed like one of many new enemies introduced in previous years. But when the one seemingly omnipotent backbone of the galaxy was asking Earth for help, clearly we were in real trouble! In fact, the team's list of enemies expanded and got far more complicated this year. Proving without a shadow of a doubt that this is science fiction, the Russians reveal they have their own Stargate program and ask the Americans for help. This twist allows for exploration of all the political machinations occurring behind the scenes of the SG-C, all of which appear to stem from the embittered Senator Kinsey (Ronny Cox). There were quite a few Earth-based stories in the year, but not all the new enemies were originally local. Willie Garson comically guest-starred as Martin, a geekily suspicious guy with too much knowledge of the Stargate. More sinister was an old flame of Daniel's turning into something far more painful than an old wound (thanks to an ancient Egyptian curse). Thankfully, the writers hadn't forgotten the importance of one-off storylines too. In "Upgrades" the team learns a lesson in abuse of power. In "The Other Side" (featuring DS9's Rene Auberjonois) they learn about blind trust. In "Scorched Earth" a dangerous claim for a planet's ownership means they learn to value Daniel's contribution to the group dynamic. If only this last lesson were learned better, season 5 might not have ended up as muddled as it did. --Paul Tonks
The most unvarnished uncompromising and realistic police drama ever returns for another hard hitting season. McNolty has been demoted to harbor patrol Daniels is in the police archive dungeon Prez is chafing in the suburbs and Gregs is stuck behind a desk. Meanwhile on the docks of the Baltimore harbor the rank and file scrounge for work and the union bosses take illegitimate measures to reinvigorate business but a horrific discovery is about to blow the whole port inside out. W
The Rebels scatter after the Empire attacks their base on the ice planet Hoth. Han Solo and Princess Leia are pursued by Imperials, while Luke trains with Jedi Master Yoda. Luke battles Darth Vader and learns the shocking truth of his past. Special Features: Audio Commentary By George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Carrie Fisher, Ben Burtt and Dennis Muren Archival Audio Commentary By The Cast And Crew Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back Bonus Disc Conversations: The Lost Interviews Discoveries From Inside: Matte Paintings Unveiled A Conversation With The Masters (2010) Dennis Muren: How Walkers Walk Hoth Overview George Lucas On Editing The Empire Strikes Back 1979 Irvin Kershner Interview Dagobah Overview Pursued by the Imperial Fleet Overview George Lucas On The Force: 2010 Cloud City Overview Han And Leia: Extended Echo Base Argument Luke's Recovery Luke And Leia: Medical Center Wampa Attacks The Fate of General Veers Yoda's Test Hiding In The Asteroid Alternate Han And Leia Kiss Lobot's Capture Leia Tends To Luke AT-AT Walker Fallen Model Snowspeeder Model Tauntaun Maquette Rebel Transport Model Hoth Landscape Matte Painting Leia Hoth Costume Han Solo Interior: Hoth Costume Yoda Model Luke's Severed Head Dagobah Bog Matte Painting Dagobah Matte Painting Luke's Tan Costume Star Destroyer Model Millennium Falcon Model Space Slug Darth Vader's Star Destroyer Model Star Destroyer Hull Model Executor Bridge Matte Painting Boba Fett Prototype Costume Imperial Officer Costume Rebel Cruiser Model Twin-Pod Cloud Car Model Cloud City Models Cloud City Matte Painting Cloud City Landing Platform Matte Painting Cloud City Core Vane Matte Painting Cloud City Core Vane Platform Matte Painting Lando Bespin Costume Cloud City Slave I Matte Painting
When Robin of Loxley transformed into Robert of Huntingdon in the third series of Robin of Sherwood, many viewers were understandably confused. Michael Praed left the series for reasons that never really became apparent while Jason Connery clearly wasn't a replacement chosen for similar looks or performance. Across the 13 episodes of the third series, Connery's choice became slowly apparent. The magical stories frequently dipped into darker territory as much as they aimed for uplifting humour. The new Hood was at ease with both, while reuniting the merry band and ultimately wooing the fair Marion all over again. Connery turned in a very confident embodiment of the character, clearly bonding well with the established team of actors. Guest stars lined up to contribute alongside him. Memorable appearances include those of Richard O'Brien, David Rappaport, Matt Frewer, Patricia Hodge, Ian Ogilvy and Lewis Collins. (It's fascinating to speculate how different things could have been if the close-second casting choice of Neil Morrissey had been pursued.) The strangest aspect of the series, however, is knowing in retrospect that everyone's confidence and merriment was for nothing. Scripts were written in readiness for the fourth series, but then the studio went bankrupt. Cliffhangers therefore remain that will confuse viewers far more than the lead's replacement. --Paul Tonks
The success of the first year meant that Stargate SG-1's second series could afford to spread its wings. In only the second episode, Carter is temporarily possessed by a good Goa'uld. This immediately allowed for both any amount of quick fix inside knowledge as well as story off-shoots, now that the show was bent on franchise longevity. There appeared to be information overload (splinter group Tok'ra, Earth's second Gate, Machello, endless Apophis encounters), as the finely interwoven threads of alien histories and inter-relationships were developed. But thankfully, SG-1 never lost sight of the need for great individual stories. There was a planet of Native American Indians; a planet on the edge of a Black Hole; a planet of aliens sensitive to sound. Even a planet run by Dwight Schultz! Better still, they found time to have fun with their universe, too. "1969" remains one of the best comic romps the series has enjoyed, and is a near-perfect self-contained time-travel story to boot. The team of actors had obviously bonded early on in the first year. It may be a bit of a military faux pas that there is only ever four of them leading every major explorative expedition, but the limited number of principals is actually something else the show has always had in its favour, allowing quality screen time to be spent on each of them from the outset (although Richard Dean Anderson would probably rather not have spent an entire episode impaled by a spike). --Paul Tonks
The Silkworm is the two-part drama adapted from the second novel in JK Rowling's critically acclaimed Cormoran Strike series, published under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith. The story follows on from the events in the first drama of the series which received rave reviews, Strike: The Cuckoo's Calling. They successfully solved the murder of model Lula Landry now Cormoran Tom Burke) and his partner Robin Ellacott (Holliday Grainger) are hired to solve their next case.
It's more of Leslie Nielsen's Lt Frank Drebin, the bumbling cop from the old Police Squad! television series. This time, Drebin uncovers a plot--led by supervillain Robert Goulet!--to sabotage America's energy policy. The jokes don't stick as well as those of the first film (Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!), but there are some very funny slapstick moments, including several involving former First Lady Barbara Bush (played by an actress, of course). --Tom Keogh
That wild and crazy guy Steve Martin makes his acting debut in this wild and crazy comedy hit The Jerk. Steve portrays Navin Johnson adopted son of a poor black sharecropper family whose crazy inventions lead him from rags to riches and right back to rags. Along the way he's smitten with a lady motorcycle racer survives a series of screwball attacks by a deranged killer becomes a millionaire by inventing the ""opti-grab"" handle for eyeglasses - and shows why he's the hottest comic performer in America today.
The L-Shaped Room, adapted by writer-director Bryan Forbes from Lynne Reid Banks' novel, unfolds in a dank, depressing London boarding house. Leslie Caron plays Jane Fosset, a 27-year-old French woman, down on her luck, who takes a room. There are bugs in her mattress. The taps drip. The landlady ("the lovely Doris") is a drunken, malicious busybody. Forbes doesn't paint the English in a flattering light. They're covetous, eccentric and xenophobic. "I never close my door to the nigs," Doris tells Fosset, as if to prove that she is no racist. When Fosset reveals that she's pregnant and unmarried, everybody turns against her. The one real friend Fosset makes is Toby (Tom Bell), an impoverished would-be writer who lives in the room downstairs. She starts an affair with him, but for all his protestations to the contrary, he too turns out to be moralistic and conservative--he can't accept the idea that she is having another man's baby.Forbes' dialogue sometimes grates, the film risks running into a dead end (Fosset is stuck with nowhere to go and no prospects), but this is compelling fare all the same. Cameraman Douglas Slocombe (who went on to shoot Raiders of the Lost Ark) makes the boarding house seem as gloomy and oppressive as a Gothic mansion. Forbes doesn't sentimentalise at all. The London he portrays is nothing like the swinging, hedonistic city shown in later British movies of the 60s. --Geoffrey Macnab
""If this be a natural thing where do it come from where do it go? "" Tommy Gander a concert comedian; Teddy Deakin his pal; Jackie Withorp and her cousin Richard Winthrop; Miss Bourne a spinster visiting evacuees Herbert and Edna an engaged couple and Dr. Sterling travelling on a train to Cornwall miss their connections owing to a delay and have to spend a night in the waiting room of the eerie Cornish railway junction for Fal Vale. The station master tells them the s
Wax up your boards and hang 10 (or whatever) where the big waves come crashing in: off the English coast at Cornwall. Huh? No endless summer? No two girls for every boy? No, but in Blue Juice one can see what most of us probably never even thought about: the British Isles are indeed islands and, not incongruously, there's a considerable surfing culture with a handful of home-grown legends. One of the latter is JC (Sean Pertwee), a skilled surfer so driven by the challenge and so dedicated to his mates that it threatens his meandering romance with the long-suffering Chloe (Catherine Zeta-Jones). The two have planned an extensive, around-the-world trip as a kind of prelude to discussing marriage, but the arrangement is threatened when three of JC's old childhood chums arrive from London. One of them (played by Steven Mackintosh) is a famous record producer who has sold his soul (in every sense) to reap profits from fashionable electronica. Another (Ewan McGregor) is a chronic screw-up resorting to hustling junk to unsuspecting customers. The last (Peter Gunn) is an anxious sort, terrified of marrying his long-time girlfriend. Together, these four guys look like a pack of nowhere men and they know it: while the story largely focuses on JC and Chloe, there's plenty of material for the supporting characters to indulge in mucho self-loathing. The film never quite jumps off the screen and the script may be hampered by too many layers of character eccentricity, but this is still an enjoyable piece with some fine comic performances. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
The acclaimed BBC adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, Barnaby Rudge (1960) is now available to own on DVD for the first time. Starring John Wood (War Games) , Barbara Hicks (Brazil), Timothy Bateson (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix) and BAFTA-nominee Joan Hickson. On a stormy night in 1775 a ragged stranger (Nigel Arkwright) wanders into the Maypole Inn. Edward Chester (Bernard Brown), whose horse is lame, leaves the inn on foot to meet his beloved Emma Haredale (Eira Heath) at a masked ball. Joe Willet (Alan Hayward), quarrels with his father, Maypole landlord John (Arthur Brough), and joins the army, only saying goodbye to Dolly (Jennifer Daniel), the pretty daughter of locksmith Gabriel Varden (Newton Blick). Varden s household includes his formidable wife (Joan Hickson) and dithering maid Miss Miggs (Barbara Hicks). Simple-minded Barnaby Rudge (John Wood) wanders in and out of the story, chattering with his pet raven Grip. Barnaby s mother Mary (Isabel Dean) is visited by the stranger, and feels compelled to protect him. As the stories interweave, Barnaby is caught up in the Gordon Riots, a violent demonstration against Catholics. Jailed with the ringleaders, will he hang for their actions? Michael Voyseys 1960 BBC adaptation remains the only TV portrayal of Dickens tantalizing gothic drama.
The L-Shaped Room, adapted by writer-director Bryan Forbes from Lynne Reid Banks' novel, unfolds in a dank, depressing London boarding house. Leslie Caron plays Jane Fosset, a 27-year-old French woman, down on her luck, who takes a room. There are bugs in her mattress. The taps drip. The landlady ("the lovely Doris") is a drunken, malicious busybody. Forbes doesn't paint the English in a flattering light. They're covetous, eccentric and xenophobic. "I never close my door to the nigs," Doris tells Fosset, as if to prove that she is no racist. When Fosset reveals that she's pregnant and unmarried, everybody turns against her. The one real friend Fosset makes is Toby (Tom Bell), an impoverished would-be writer who lives in the room downstairs. She starts an affair with him, but for all his protestations to the contrary, he too turns out to be moralistic and conservative--he can't accept the idea that she is having another man's baby.Forbes' dialogue sometimes grates, the film risks running into a dead end (Fosset is stuck with nowhere to go and no prospects), but this is compelling fare all the same. Cameraman Douglas Slocombe (who went on to shoot Raiders of the Lost Ark) makes the boarding house seem as gloomy and oppressive as a Gothic mansion. Forbes doesn't sentimentalise at all. The London he portrays is nothing like the swinging, hedonistic city shown in later British movies of the 60s. --Geoffrey Macnab
Peter Capaldi returns as the Doctor alongside Jenna Coleman as Clara in the final six thrilling episodes of Series Nine. THE ZYGON INVASION THE ZYGON INVERSION SLEEP NO MORE FACE THE RAVEN HEAVEN SENT HELL BENT BONUS FEATURES: 4 X DOCTOR WHO EXTRA
In the opening scene of Hamlet, Laurence Olivier describes the play in a voice-over as "the tragedy of a man who couldn't make up his mind". But Olivier's screen adaptation is considerably more thoughtful and complex than this thesis would suggest. The contradictions and ambiguities of the title character, who prowls cavernous sets filled with vast, ancient corridors and winding staircases, emerge as if from a dream. The plethora of tracking shots--precise enough to impress Stanley Kubrick--encircle Olivier and his tightly constructed geometry of demise. Drawing on his experience playing the Prince on stage at Elsinore in 1937, the legendary thesp provides the film with the patina of greatness and shows how the constitution of the formerly cheerful Prince weakens increasingly under the burden of his own thoughts and inability to accept his mother's o'er-hasty marriage to uncle Claudius (Basil Sydney). Indeed, if emotions could possess ghosts, Olivier's Hamlet shows how they would manifest themselves. There is even a dollop of Freud, suggesting that Queen Gertrude (Eileen Herlie) has perhaps loved her offspring too closely--thus providing the fuel for Hamlet's actions. As Ophelia, Jeans Simmons captures the character's early spirit better than her gradual disintegration (Helena Bonham Carter fares better in Franco Zeffirelli's fine 1990 remake). Purists may bemoan the loss of Fortinbras, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, but these choices allow Olivier to focus more squarely on Hamlet's plight. His monologues, many held in secret enclaves, glow with the dramatic markedness of a Dostoevski novel, with all of the master's irony, allusions and witticisms in place. The winner of four Oscars (Best Picture, Actor, Art Direction, and Costumes), this is a Hamlet for the ages. The rest is silence. --Kevin Mulhall
Set in the Second World War when Nazi Germany occupied Italy. This film deals with the Vatican's involvement in the entire movement during the occupation of Rome.
When a bus breaks down in the desert the passengers decide to stage a production of Shakespeare's 'King Lear' to pass the time until they are rescued. However jealousies and divisions between members of the group threaten the security of all... Intellectual and offbeat horror film from acclaimed Danish director Kristian Levring adhering to the 'Dogme95' principles of film making.
Another night falls over Gotham City and with the darkness out crawls the crime and villainy from the shadows. The days of The Batman and other noble super heroes are but faded memories; violence and despair are now the harbingers of our time. But one event will set a change into motion: when Harvey Two Face Dent shuns a former rehabilitated life for a descent into corruption, an aged and weathered Bruce Wayne dons the mask and cape once more. With a stellar voice cast headed by Peter Weller, Ariel Winter and David Selby, this gritty DC Comics legend comes to life with unforgettable battles, thrilling chases and the promise of a better tomorrow for humanity, because there is nowhere for criminals to hide when the Dark Knight returns. Special Features: More from DC Comics: DC Brand Trailer Imagination of DC Thundercats Trailer A Sneak Peek at Batman: The Dark Knight Returns - Part 2 (Coming Soon) Superman/Batman: Public Enemies Her Name is Carrie... Her Role is Robin Two-Face Part One from Batman The Animated Series Two-Face Part Two from Batman The Animated Series Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (Digital Comic) The Dark Knight Rises Trailer Before Watchmen Trailer Batman and Me: The Bob Kane Story
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