A romantic comedy where a bored, overworked lawyer, upon first sight of a beautiful instructor, signs up for ballroom dancing lessons.
One of TV's more interesting tough-girl action shows, Dark Angel is a distinctive blend of the personal, the adventurous and the politically aware. Cocreators James Cameron (yes, that James Cameron) and Charles Eglee present a complex scenario of biological super-science and social collapse in which their gene-manipulated heroine and hacker/journalist hero can genuinely make a difference. In this first series they also provide an adversary who is a lot more than just a conventional villain. Jessica Alba is impressive as Max, bred and trained as a super-soldier but reclaiming her individual humanity; Michael Weatherly is scruffily attractive as Eyes Only, who sits semi-paralysed in his eyrie above Seattle uncovering crime, corruption and other skulduggeries and sending the woman whom he hopelessly loves out on deadly errands. Jon Savage has real authority as Lydeker, a man who has stretched his conscience to breaking point, but is not personally corrupt. Some of the best episodes here--"Prodigy" for example--are ones in which Lydeker and Max are forced into temporary alliance. Early on the relationship between Max and the other workers at Jam Pony--the courier firm that provides her with a cover identity--is a little forced, but later on the two parts of Max's life are more successfully integrated: "Shorties in Love", for example, is a genuinely touching tale about Diamond, the doomed criminal ex-lover of Max's lesbian roommate. Dark Angel was never a perfect show, but at its occasional best it manages to be simultaneously funny and dramatic. On the DVD: Dark Angel, Series 1's Region 2 DVD is ungenerous with special features, providing only short interviews with James Cameron and Charles Eglee and with the stars, and giving us a preview of the Dark Angel computer game. The episodes are presented in widescreen and have excellent Dolby Digital sound which gives vivid presence to both the dialogue and the hard-driving contemporary rock score that is part of the show's style. --Roz Kaveney
The second and last series of Dark Angel, the inventive James Cameron show about mutants during a future Depression, has some real strengths, as well as having one or two bad ideas that partly explain its much-regretted cancellation. Among the strengths are Alex, the thoroughly unreliable mutant charmer whose flirtations with heroine Max complicate her doomed love for Logan, the crippled newshound whom she cannot now even touch--she has been infected with a deadly virus tailored specifically to kill him. The distrust this sows between the doomed couple does not always avoid soap opera clichés, but often produces fine performances, especially from Jessica Alba as Max. On the down side, John Savage's memorably ambiguous villain Lydeker from Series 1 (who is alternately the mutants' nemesis and their protector), disappears to be replaced by the melodramatically sinister Agent White. White appears to be just a shoot-to-kill operative of the state but turns out to be another sort of superhuman, a product of an occultist breeding programme going back to the dawn of history. After White's first ruthless killing, Max's reluctance to use deadly force is tested to near implausible limits. The show ends with a rousing and moving finale, "Freak Nation", in which a theme often neglected in this final year--Max's relationship with her fellow couriers at Jam Pony--reaches a powerful climax. On the DVD: Dark Angel's Series 2 release is ungenerous with special features, giving us an interesting but short documentary in which James Cameron, producer Charles Eglee and various designers describe how they created this rundown future Seattle with a mixture of location shots, set dressing and CGI, as well as a preview of the Dark Angel game. --Roz Kaveney
Like the very best of SF TV, Stargate SG-1 began very simply. Of course it had the benefit of a movie preceding it--in which the alternate universe, its rules and its characters were largely established--so this premiere season was therefore able to concentrate on good storytelling. In 1997 not every new show was obsessed with securing a syndication-guaranteed franchise (same goes for Buffy debuting the same year), instead one-off episodes were the way of things, exploring interesting scenarios and conundrums. Naturally there were allusions to the feature film, but most were subtle and inspired. For example, a trip to retrieve the trapped professor who'd worked on the Gate decades ago was an unusual way of tying up loose ends. Some groundwork was laid for continuation should the show be renewed into an ongoing series. Knowing that these elements were pure wishful thinking at the time makes the tapestry of System Lords and the interlinks with our history and mythology all the more enjoyable in revisiting the show from its beginnings. With Richard Dean Anderson, leading the team in a far more charismatic and empathetic way than Kurt Russell in the movie, the series also benefited from some spot-on casting that instantly won audiences over. Special effects and use of studio sets may be less dazzling in these initial shows, but its solid grounding in old-fashioned SF won for the show a loyal audience. --Paul Tonks
Bonnie and Clyde they ain't. George Segal and Jane Fonda star in this hilarious send-up of upper middle-class mores and the price people are willing to pay to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. Just as they're putting in a new pool at the house that has sunk them deep into debt Dick is fired from his high-paying job as an executive. Housewife Jane isn't too worried at first figuring she'll go to work and they'll just tighten their belts for awhile but it quickly becomes appa
When veteran detective, Danny Frater (played by James Nesbitt), turns up at a hospital mortuary for what he thinks is a routine ID check on a young woman's body, he gets a devastating shock; the corpse turns out to be his estranged daughter, Christina (played by Imogen King). Danny is traumatized by the news that according to the post-mortem report, she's taken her own life. Danny and Christina had a complicated father-daughter relationship in recent years, but he refuses to accept that she would have ended her own life. He sets out on a mission for the truth, retracing her last days and hours, in an agonising crusade to discover what really happened to his only child.
Forbidden Planet is the granddaddy of tomorrow, a pioneering work whose ideas and style would be reverse-engineered into many cinematic space voyages to come. Leslie Nielsen plays the commander who brings his space-cruiser crew to Planet Altair-4, home to Dr Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), his daughter (Anne Francis), a dutiful robot named Robby and a mysterious terror. Featuring sets of extraordinary scale and the first all-electronic musical soundscape in film history, Forbidden Planet is in a movie orbit all its own. Special Features: Deleted Scenes and Lost Footage 2 Follow-Up Vehicles Starring Robby the Robot Feature Film The Invisible Boy The Thin Man TV Series Episode Robot Client TCM Original Documentary Watch the Skies!: Science Fiction, the 1950s and Us 2 Featurettes: Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet, Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon Excerpts from The MGM Parade TV Series Theatrical Trailers of Forbidden Planet and The Invisible Boy
Only One Man Ever Dared To Stand Alone. From Mario Puzo the best-selling author of The Godfather comes the riveting saga of the life loves and dreams of the infamous Sicilian bandit Salvatore Giuliano. Filmed entirely on location in Sicily The Sicilian stars Terence Stamp (Wall Street) and Christopher Lambert Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan) in a powerful portrayal of Salvatore Giuliano a man whose dream became a legend. World War II is finally over and a war-torn world i
Two struggling, rather eccentric actors Tom (Dylan Moran) and O'Malley (Michael Caine) prove the little known adage that bad actors make great crooks.
It's dangerous! This is the 25th Anniversary DVD edition of the classic reggae film Rockers. Rockers tells the beautiful story of Leroy 'Horsemouth' Wallace and his struggle to succeed in Jamaica. Horsey lives in a Kingston ghetto with his wife and three children. Although considered the best drummer in Jamaica Horsey remains in poverty because of the structure of the music business. When Horsey takes steps to improve his social standing the establishment s
It is 1492 and the Sultan of Turkey controls overland trade from the Far East to Europe. Christopher Columbus looking to make his fortune persuades the King and Queen of Spain to finance an expedition to find a new sea route to India.
A sharp-looking computer-animated feature, Rudolph and the Island of the Misfit Toys, sees the return of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 37 years after his television debut. Using excellent voice casting with actors that sound like the originals, this new Rudolph looks and sounds grand. There's a mysterious Toy Taker gobbling up toys around the world. Rudolph and his team (including deer-friend Clarice, elf-turned-dentist Hermey and the abominable snowman) try to track the toys down and save Christmas again. While the setup and songs hold no candle to the original and the lessons learned are borrowed from Toy Story 2, the final third succeeds--it's always good to have a flying reindeer when you are chasing a blimp. Children aged three to nine who have seen the original will certainly want to see the sequel--however, their parents might be less enthusiastic. --Doug Thomas, Amazon.com
Meet Joe Black: Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins) has it all success wealth and power. Days before his 65th birthday he receives a visit from a mysterious stranger Joe Black (Brad Pitt) who soon reveals himself as Death. In exchange for extra time Bill agrees to serve as Joe's earthly guide. But will he regret his choice when Joe unexpectedly falls in love with Bill's beautiful daughter Susan (Claire Forlani)? The Mexican: Brad Pitt stars as Jerry Welbach a small-time loser who is given no choice but to run an errand for a powerful boss (Bob Balaban) who will have him killed if he fails. But if he accepts the job to go to San Miguel to pick up the beautiful handcrafted gun known as the Mexican his loud demanding girlfriend Samantha (Roberts) will leave him and move to Vegas. But through a course of bizarre events his contact is shot in the top of his head the gun is stolen and Sam is kidnapped and held hostage by a hired killer (James Gandolfini) who is not all that he seems...
Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer: (WS Anamorphic / English Subtitles / English Stereo) The exciting adventures of Rudolph the most famous reindeer of all come magically to life in this feature-length animated musical full of loveable characters and voiced by an all-star cast. Ridiculed because of his nose Rudolph runs away to the North Pole where he befriends Slyly the fox (Eric Idle) and Leonard the polar bear (Bob Newhart). When his friend Zoey a young doe is captured b
Writer-director Theodoros Bafaloukos responded to Jamaica's siren call all the way over in Greece and came to the island to make this 1977 movie about a band of Rasta men/Robin Hoods getting their own back at the expense of those perennial bloodsuckers, the "uptown top rankings", as men of money and position are called in Jamaica. The reggae star-studded cast is undoubtedly the movie's most rewarding feature, though some fans have objected to the demeaning sight of the incomparable late singer Jacob Miller threatening a friend with a knife over a purloined chicken leg or the equally great singer Gregory Isaacs exacting chump change for unlocking a tourist's rental car. However, these and other great reggae figures are also seen here in full and glorious performance at their peak. In fact, this film provides our only extended visual record of Miller's kinetic performance style and one of the best pieces of footage on Isaacs. Although Rockers doesn't approach the multi-layered complexity of The Harder They Come and it does betray a little superiority now and then to its characters, there are plenty of laughs as well as insights into life at the time for Jamaica's growing Rastafarian movement. Drummer Leroy "Horsemouth" Wallace makes an unlikely though quintessentially Jamaican leading man as he moves between wooing the rich man's virginal daughter and making pit stops at the shack he shares with his wife and children. His band of accomplices is priceless, and the scene in which each struts in his own "stylee" to Peter Tosh's "Stepping Razor" is alone worth the price. --Elena Oumano
Jim Carrey and Tea Leoni star in this remake of the 1977 comedy.
Kerry Ellison becomes the object of desire for Sterling Gray who deals with his attraction by stalking and terrorising Kerry's life. When her official complaint of sexual harassment is dismissed by the courts she realises she is the only one with the power to get her life back.
Susan Cabot stars as Sabra Tanner a poor little rich girl in this dark tale of teenage rebellions and bribery. Sabra feels alienated and misunderstood by her mother and when she is turned down for membership of her college's most prestigious sorority she takes out her frustration on her peers. Muttering dark imprecations she vows revenge on the girls that rejected her.
A Film About The Man For fans of comedy Sam Kinison needs no introduction. His scathing comedy tackled tough topics like no other comedian dared. Fed up with his career as a preacher Sam left the ministry to try his hand at comedy. Almost immediately his peircing scream and extreme humour attracted attention. Containing rare early footage of Sam preaching and performing stand-up at the world famous Comedy Store Why Did We Laugh? tells the story of a comedic genius who touched a deeper chord.
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