Adapted from the classic novel by Charles Dickens, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD brings to life one of the author's most cherished characters. From birth to infancy, from adolescence to adulthood, the good-hearted David Copperfield (Dev Patel) is surrounded by kindness, wickedness, poverty and wealth, as he meets an array of remarkable characters in Victorian England. As David sets out to be a writer, in his quest for family, friendship, romance and status, the story of his life is the most seductive tale of all.
Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Trying to explain the cult appeal of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China to the uninitiated is no easy task. The plot in a nutshell follows lorry driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) into San Francisco's Chinatown, where he's embroiled in street gang warfare over the mythical/magical intentions of would-be god David Lo Pan. There are wire-fu fight scenes, a floating eyeball and monsters from other dimensions. Quite simply it belongs to a genre of its own. Carpenter was drawing on years of chop-socky Eastern cinema tradition, which, at the time of the film's first release in 1986, was regrettably lost on a general audience. Predictably, it bombed. But now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made it big in the West, and Hong Kong cinema has spread its influence across Hollywood, it's much, much easier to enjoy this film's happy-go-lucky cocktail of influences. Russell's cocky anti-hero is easy to cheer on as he "experiences some very unreasonable things" blundering from one fight to another, and lusts after the gorgeously green-eyed Kim Cattrall. The script is peppered with countless memorable lines, too ("It's all in the reflexes"). Originally outlined as a sequel to the equally obscure Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble is a bona fide cult cinema delight. Jack sums up the day's reactions perfectly, "China is here? I don't even know what the Hell that means!". On the DVD: Big Trouble in Little China is released as a special edition two-disc set in its full unedited form. Some real effort has been put into both discs' animated menus, and the film itself is terrific in 2.35:1 and 5.1 (or DTS). The commentary by Carpenter and Russell may not be as fresh as their chat on The Thing, but clearly they both retain an enormous affection for the film. There are eight deleted scenes (some of which are expansions of existing scenes), plus a separate extended ending which was edited out for the right reasons. You'll also find a seven-minute featurette from the time of release, a 13-minute interview with FX guru Richard Edlund, a gallery of 200 photos, 25 pages of production notes and magazine articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex. Best of all for real entertainment value is a music video with Carpenter and crew (the Coupe de Villes) coping with video FX and 80s hair-dos.--Paul Tonks
Bernardo Bertolucci's epic film tells the incredible story of Pu Yi who in 1908 at the age of three became ruler of nearly half of the world's population. He was the ""Son of heaven"" ""Lord of Ten Thousand Years"" and the last emperor of China. His reign was short and three years later a revolution ended three thousand years of imperial rule and a new republic was born. Allowed to remain in his palace and the enclosed walls of the Forbidden City he was unable to venture further than the city gates. Here he would stay for twelve years a prisoner protected from but also ignorant of the outside world. Eventually expelled by a republican warlord Pu Yi began an incredible journey of self discovery that would span a quarter of a century. Winner of nine Oscars The Last Emperor was one of the biggest and most ambitious productions ever undertaken. Director Bernardo Bertolucci and Producer Jeremy Thomas spent two years in negotiations before being granted the unprecedented permission to not only film in China but within the Forbidden City itself. The result was one of the most visually breathtaking and moving epics ever made.
Adapted from the classic novel by Charles Dickens, THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD brings to life one of the author's most cherished characters. From birth to infancy, from adolescence to adulthood, the good-hearted David Copperfield (Dev Patel) is surrounded by kindness, wickedness, poverty and wealth, as he meets an array of remarkable characters in Victorian England. As David sets out to be a writer, in his quest for family, friendship, romance and status, the story of his life is the most seductive tale of all.
In 1972 a crack commando unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped a maximum security stockade to the Los Angeles underground. Today still wanted by the government they survive as soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem if no one else can help and if you can find them maybe you can hire the A-Team. Enjoy all the very best episodes from the much-loved action TV series! Episodes include: Mexican Slayride Parts O
Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Trying to explain the cult appeal of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China to the uninitiated is no easy task. The plot in a nutshell follows lorry driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) into San Francisco's Chinatown, where he's embroiled in street gang warfare over the mythical/magical intentions of would-be god David Lo Pan. There are wire-fu fight scenes, a floating eyeball and monsters from other dimensions. Quite simply it belongs to a genre of its own. Carpenter was drawing on years of chop-socky Eastern cinema tradition, which, at the time of the film's first release in 1986, was regrettably lost on a general audience. Predictably, it bombed. But now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made it big in the West, and Hong Kong cinema has spread its influence across Hollywood, it's much, much easier to enjoy this film's happy-go-lucky cocktail of influences. Russell's cocky anti-hero is easy to cheer on as he "experiences some very unreasonable things" blundering from one fight to another, and lusts after the gorgeously green-eyed Kim Cattrall. The script is peppered with countless memorable lines, too ("It's all in the reflexes"). Originally outlined as a sequel to the equally obscure Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble is a bona fide cult cinema delight. Jack sums up the day's reactions perfectly, "China is here? I don't even know what the Hell that means!". On the DVD: Big Trouble in Little China is released as a special edition two-disc set in its full unedited form. Some real effort has been put into both discs' animated menus, and the film itself is terrific in 2.35:1 and 5.1 (or DTS). The commentary by Carpenter and Russell may not be as fresh as their chat on The Thing, but clearly they both retain an enormous affection for the film. There are eight deleted scenes (some of which are expansions of existing scenes), plus a separate extended ending which was edited out for the right reasons. You'll also find a seven-minute featurette from the time of release, a 13-minute interview with FX guru Richard Edlund, a gallery of 200 photos, 25 pages of production notes and magazine articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex. Best of all for real entertainment value is a music video with Carpenter and crew (the Coupe de Villes) coping with video FX and 80s hair-dos.--Paul Tonks
The largest lake in California becomes a symbol of a lost idyll in DJ Caruso's excellent noir-ish thriller The Salton Sea. Val Kilmer is superb as lowlife Danny Parker, or perhaps trumpeter Thomas Van Allen; a man so far over the edge in tragedy, duplicity and drugs he no longer knows or cares who he is. A warped revenge drama occupying similar territory to Memento, The Salton Sea is not as ingenious as that instant classic, but is more elegantly stylised, boasting superb production design, cinematography and music, the latter by Thomas Newman. Along for the ride is Deborah Kara Unger, and those who remember her from The Game will do well to take Kilmer's narration to heart when he says nothing is as it seems. Distinguishing what could have been simply a good thriller are elements not just of humour, but of laugh-out-loud hilarity funnier than most recent comedies; indeed, The Salton Sea is the most striking fusion of laughter and darkness since the admittedly very different An American Werewolf in London (1981). In this respect, Vincent D'Onofrio delivers a side-splitting and audacious performance as drug baron Pooh Bear. Watch out for the rabid badger. On the DVD: The Salton Sea is presented anamorphically enhanced at 1.77:1, with a flawless picture that captures the rich tones and extreme visual contrasts to perfection. The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack is crystal clear and deeply atmospheric. Extras are the theatrical trailer, plus features on the production design (eight minutes) and cast and crew (nine minutes). More intelligent than the expected Electronic Press Kit material, the running length means they are still fairly perfunctory. --Gary S Dalkin
Winner of nine Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor following Pu Yi the last of the Emperor's of China from his birth in 1908 through his childhood in the fortress-like Forbidden City and his later misguided collaboration with the Japanese in World War II THE LAST EMPEROR tells the history of modern China through the eyes of the man brought up to believe that he was the country's divine ruler. One of the biggest and most ambitious films of the era filmed almost entirely on location in China in 1986 Bertolucci and his producer Jeremy Thomas were the first Western film-makers to be allowed to make a film about modern China.
Tough action story in which a group of renegade mercenaries are called upon to enter Angolan territory to rescue a CIA agent who captured by some bad guys involved in the African Civil War.
Ninja speed of action meets Ninja speed of thought in Golden Ninja Warrior. The Golden Ninjas decide to return their valuable golden statue to China for an important ceremony. But longtime enemies the Red Ninjas intend to steal the statue and send their best Ninja heroine to draw out the Golden Ninjas leader Max. This is a breath-taking story of underworld revenge murder and Ninja challenges.
Anthony Quinn stars as Inuk an Eskimo whose daily routine is a constant struggle to survive in one of the most hostile and hauntingly beautiful of climates. As Inuk's family grows in number (and corresponding mouths to feed) new societies of white trappers with new weaponry begin to infringe Inuit land making it harder for Inuk to live. When the clash of cultures results in the accidental death of a missionary Inuk must use all his skills to keep one step ahead of the two Mounties (Peter O'Toole and Carlo Giustini) determined to bring the killer to justice...
Anthony Quinn stars as Inuk an Eskimo whose daily routine is a constant struggle to survive in one of the most hostile and hauntingly beautiful of climates. As Inuk's family grows in number (and corresponding mouths to feed) new societies of white trappers with new weaponry begin to infringe Inuit land making it harder for Inuk to live. When the clash of cultures results in the accidental death of a missionary Inuk must use all his skills to keep one step ahead of the two Mounties (Peter O'Toole and Carlo Giustini) determined to bring the killer to justice...
Like I told my last wife I said ""Honey I never drive faster than I can see and besides... it's all in the reflexes."" Directed by master film-maker John Carpenter this edge-of-your seat adventure stars Kurt Russell as Jack Burton a tough talking wisecracking truck driver whose hum-drum life on the road takes a sudden supernatural tailspin when his best friend's fiance is kidnapped. Speeding to the rescue Jack finds himself deep beneath San Francisco's Chinatown. It's a
Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman
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