The Sean Connery Collection. The Untouchables: Brian De Palma's 'The Untouchables' is a must-see masterpiece: set to a classic Ennio Morricone score this is the glorious and fierce depiction of the larger than life mob warlord who ruled Prohibition-era Chicago - and the law enforcer who vowed to bring him down. This classic confrontation between good and evil stars Kevin Costner as federal agent Eliot Ness Robert De Niro as gangland kingpin Al Capone and Sean Connery
Marvel Studios (Marvel's Avengers Assemble) unleashes the best Iron Man adventure yet with this must own, unprecedented global phenomenon starring Robert Downey Jr. When Tony Stark/Iron Man finds his entire world reduced to rubble, he must use all his ingenuity to survive, destroy his enemy and somehow protect those he loves. But a soul-searching question haunts him: Does the man make the suit...or does the suit make the man? Featuring spectacular special effects, Marvel's Iron Man 3 is a wildly entertaining movie you'll watch again and again. Bonus: Marvel One-Shot: Agent Carter Iron Man 3 Unmasked Deconstructing The Scene: Attack on Air Force One Deleted & Extended Scenes Gag Reel Exclusive Behind The Scenes Look - Marvel's Thor: The Dark World Commentary by Shane Black and Drew Pearce
Clint Eastwood's stardom was supernova, thanks to Dirty Harry; John Sturges, the man behind The Magnificent Seven and a dozen other memorably leathery Westerns, was directing; and Elmore Leonard was the screenwriter. It just goes to show. Joe Kidd is a muddle and a drag, the shoddiest Eastwood vehicle since Rowdy Yates trod in his last cow flop. Kidd, first seen as a duded-up drunk sleeping one off in jail, is supposed to be a horse rancher and an expert tracker--just the fellow a rapacious land-grabber (Robert Duvall committing lazy villainy) needs to chase down the uppity Latino (John Saxon) who's trying to reclaim the grabbed land for its rightful owners. Neither the characters nor the overland pursuit makes any sense, thanks to chasms in the continuity and no direction to speak of. An absurdly arbitrary assault-by-locomotive provides the climax; as Eastwood observed, "Jesus, anything at this point--let's end it." --Richard T. Jameson
This gritty World War II action drama starring Gregory Peck Oscar winner Dean Jagger Hugh Marlowe Gary Merrill and Millard Mitchell is seen as one of the most realistic portrayals of the heroics and perils of war. Convinced an Air Force Commander is at breaking point Brigadier General Savage (Gregory Peck) takes over his struggling bomber group. At first resentful and rebellious the flyers gradually change as Savage guides them to amazing feats. But the stress of command soon
Thanks to its focus on more single-case episodes, the second half of CSI's second series is an even more highly concentrated dose of forensic puzzle-solving from the Vegas science sleuths. With the whole team working together on one puzzle crime (or series of crime puzzles), the group dynamic is elaborated and the audience drawn deeper into each investigation. The first three episodes are all single cases: "Identity Crisis" sees the return of Grissom's nemesis, serial killer Paul Millander; in "The Finger", Catherine is caught up in an elaborate kidnap plot; while in "Burden of Proof", a stray body in a "body farm" leads to a difficult case of child abuse. After a brief return to the two-investigation-per-episode format, the team unite once more for one of their most intriguing cases, "Chasing the Bus", in which they must unravel the mystery of a bus crash in the desert. "Stalker" is possibly the show's most terrifying episode to date, with a woman found murdered behind the safely locked doors of her apartment. The season concludes with "Cross Jurisdictions", a rather unsubtle way of introducing the spin-off show CSI: Miami and, finally, "The Hunger Artist", a somewhat strained attempt to comment on our society's obsession with glamour and self-image, which is most notable for Grissom's devastating discovery that his hearing problems are not only congenital, but irreversible. --Mark Walker
B-movie mavens turned A-list genre fiends Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino teamed up in 1996 to take vampire gothic south of the border into spaghetti Western territory for the gory cult film From Dusk Till Dawn. The high-concept mix of southwestern criminals versus supernatural nasties proved too irresistible for either of the video-hound creators to allow it to remain dead (or undead, as the case may be), so they plotted and produced a pair of direct-to-video sequels. Tarantino takes a story credit on the first, a heist film coscripted and directed by Scott Speigel. A Mexican bank robbery helmed by drawling criminal Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) turns into a literal bloodbath when his crew are turned into hungry bloodsuckers. Speigel, a buddy of Sam Raimi, tops both Tarantino and Rodriguez for sheer cinematic acrobatics, putting his camera in the most absurd places (even from inside the mouth of a vampire chomping down on a victim) and driving the film with adrenaline-charged overkill, but despite some clever scenes and a hilarious Psycho spoof, From Dusk Till Dawn 2--Texas Blood Money turns into another aggressively trashy latex-mask and rubber-bat gorefest as cops and robbers team up against the fanged gang. Bo Hopkins costars as the police detective dogging Patrick's trail. Bruce Campbell and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen make cameos in the jokey opening sequence and Speigel and fellow director Kevin Smith briefly appear as vampire bait. Bartender Danny Trejo is the only returning cast member. --Sean Axmaker
As noted critic Pauline Kael wrote, the 1987 box-office hit The Untouchables is "like an attempt to visualise the public's collective dream of Chicago gangsters". In other words, this lavish reworking of the vintage TV series is a rousing pot-boiler from a bygone era, so beautifully designed and photographed--and so craftily directed by Brian De Palma--that the historical reality of Prohibition-era Chicago could only pale in comparison. From a script by David Mamet, the film pits four underdog heroes (the maverick lawmen known as the Untouchables) against a singular villain in Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro as a dapper Caesar holding court (and a baseball bat) against any and all challengers. Kevin Costner is the naive federal agent Eliot Ness, whose lack of experience is tempered by the streetwise alliance of a seasoned Chicago cop (Sean Connery, in an Oscar-winning performance), a rookie marksman (Andy Garcia) and an accountant (Charles Martin Smith) who holds the key to Capone's potential downfall. The movie approaches greatness on the strength of its set pieces, such as the siege near the Canadian border, the venal ambush at Connery's apartment and the train-station shootout partially modelled after the "Odessa steps" sequences of the Russian classic Battleship Potemkin. It's thrilling stuff, fuelled by Ennio Morricone's dynamic score, but it's also manipulative and obvious. If you're inclined to be critical, the film gives you reason to complain. If you'd rather sit back and enjoy a first-rate production with an all-star cast, The Untouchables may very well strike you as a classic. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Featuring the 4 disc SE of Superman the 3 disc SE of Superman 2 and both double disc Deluxe Editions of 3 and 4 this beast of a box set is a must for any hardened fan of the franchise. Superman The Movie: The movie that makes a legend come to life. You know the story. The planet Krypton is doomed. Only one man Jor-El knows it and rockets his infant son to refuge on a distant world called Earth. As Jor-Els son grows to manhood he learns he possesses super-powers he must hide from ordinary mortals around him. It takes a big movie to contain the considerable talents of Marlon Brando Gene Hackman Jackie Cooper Glen Ford Margot Kidder Valerie Perrine and at its heart the most human portrayal of the Man of Steel Christopher Reeve. Superman an Academy Award winner (1978) for special achievement in visual effects is more than big enough. Directed by Richard Donner Superman: The Movie makes us believe this epic story all over again. Superman II: A nuclear explosion in outer space has freed rebel General Zod and his evil cohorts from their captivity in a fragment of Kryptonite. Having been banished from Krypton for their treachery against Jor-El they now plot revenge on his son - Superman. Arch villian Lex Luthor offers his services to Zod meanwhile Lois Lane has discovered Clark Kents identity. Will Superman surrender his superhuman powers to marry her or will he save the city of Metropolis? Original cast members from Superman create a blend of thrills humour and humanity that makes this sequel great fun for the whole family. Superman III: After Superman: The Movie's epic storytelling and Superman II's awesome battles how could the first two hits be topped? In Superman III meet Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) a half-witted computer programming natural. For him a keyboard is a weapon and Superman faces the microelectronic menace of his life. Christopher Reeve reprises his most beloved role deepening his character's human side as Clark Kent reunites with an old flame (Annette O'Toole) at a Smallville High class reunion. And when Superman becomes his own worst enemy after Kryptonite exposure Reeve pulls off both roles with dazzling conviction. Incredible visual effects abound - but above all it has heart heroism and high-flying humor. All in superabundance of course. Superman IV: Christopher Reeve not only dons the hero's cape for the fourth time in Superman IV: The Quest For Peace but also helped develop the film's provocative theme: nuclear disarmament. ""For me it's the most personal of the entire series "" Reeve says. ""It directly reflects what Superman should be and should be doing."" Superman does a lot this time around. To make the world safe for nuclear arms merchants archvillain Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) creates a new being to challenge the Man of Steel: the radiation-charged Nuclear Man (Mark Pillow). The two foes clash in an explosive extravaganza that sees Superman save the Statue of Liberty plug a volcanic eruption of Mount Etna and rebuild the demolished Great Wall of China. Your quest for superheroic excitement is over!
Every college in the country wants Johnny. 'Cause when he's good he's very very good. And when he's bad he's better. It's an avalanche of wine women and cash kickbacks when two of the biggest college football factories in the country scramble to get Johnny Walker on their rosters. They'd give anything for an arm like Johnny's. And they're willing to offer anybody to see that they get him. Moving from lusty limousine rides to all-night strip joints Johnny (Anthony Michael Hall The
Analyze This: De Niro deftly spoofing the wiseguy roles that have been a staple of his estimable career plays powerful New York crime family racketeer Paul Vitti. Crystal always one joke ahead of sleeping with the fishes is shrink Ben Sobel who has just days to resolve Vitti's emotional crisis and turn him into a happy well-adjusted gangster. Yes Sobel is a family psychiatrist. But surely this isn't the kind of family he had in mind! Analyze That: They locked up
Episodes Comprise: 1. Plenty to Grouse About 2. Charity Begins at Home 3. Every Dog His Day... 4. Hair of the Dog 5. If Wishes Were Horses 6. Pig in the Middle 7. Be Prepared 8. A Dying Breed 9. Brink of Disaster 10. Home and Away 11. Alarms & Excursions 12. Matters of Life and Death 13. Will to Live 14. Big Steps and Little 'Uns
The point of a good production of Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia is to have a Rosina and a Figaro who will knock your socks off in their respective arias, while holding back enough in all those crescendo ensembles in which the farce plot reaches its several culminations that the other stars get a chance to shine too. Cecilia Bartoli and Gino Quilico give full-blooded enough performances when on stage by themselves that self-effacement seems far from imminent, yet both are capable of less, and give it when it is needed. Of the others, David Kuebler is an attractively raffish Almaviva, while Robert Lloyd turns Basilio into a memorable cameo. Gabriele Ferro is one of the most intelligent of Rossini conductors--he understands the relationship between the pulse of the music and its dramatic function, and he is also outstanding in the delicacy of phrasing, even in climaxes, that ensures that every voice, every instrument, gets the moment of glory Rossini intended. Michael Hampe's solid reliable unfussy production keeps everything moving without drawing attention to itself. The DVD has subtitles in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish, as well as trailers for other Arthaus Musik discs. --Roz Kaveney
Season Two, the 1994-95 run, of The X Files was the one where creator Chris Carter, having had a surprise hit when he expected a one-season wonder, started trying to make sense of all the storylines he had thrown into the pile in the first year. Moreover, he had to cope with Gillian Anderson's maternity leave by having Scully get abducted by aliens (back then, a pretty fresh device) for a few episodes and come back strangely altered. The season also inaugurated the tradition of opening ("Little Green Men") and closing ("Anasazi") with the show's worst episodes, both pot-boiling attempts to keep the alien infiltration/government conspiracy balls up in the air while seeming to offer narrative forward-thrusts or revelations.But it's also a show noticeably surer of itself than Season One, with its stars reading from the same page in terms of their characters' relationship and attitudes to the wondrous. Scully's no-longer-workable scepticism finally starts to erode in the face of Mulder's increasingly cracked belief. There are fewer marking-time leftover-monster-of-the-week shows--although we do get a human fluke ("The Host"), vampires ("3"), an invisible rapist ("Excelsius Dei") voodoo ("Fresh Bones")--and the flying-saucer stories at last seem to be going somewhere. The powerful two-episode run ("Duane Barry", "Ascension") features Steve Railsback as Mulder's possible future, an FBI agent burned out after a UFO abduction who has become a hostage-taking terrorist, which climaxes with Scully's disappearance into the light. The standout episode is also a stand-alone--"Humbug"--the first and still most successful of the show's self-parodies (written by Darin Morgan, who had played the Flukeman in "The Host"), in which the agents investigate a murder in a circus freakshow, allowing the actors to make fun of the mannerisms they have earnestly built up in a run of solemn, even somnolent, explorations of the murk. Other worthy efforts: "Aubrey", about genetic memory; "Irresistible", a rare (and creepy) straight psycho-chiller with little paranormal content; and "The Calusari", a good ghost/mystery. Rising deputy characters include Nicholas Lea as the perfidious Krycek and Brian Thompson as the shapeshifting alien bounty hunters. Notable guest stars: Charles Martin Smith, C.C.H. Pounder, Leland Orser, Terry O'Quinn, Bruce Weitz, Daniel Benzali, John Savage, Vincent Schiavelli, Tony Shalhoub. --Kim NewmanOn the DVD: The individual episode discs have a small selection of deleted scenes, foreign language clips and behind-the-scenes footage, but the bulk of the extra material is on the final disc. There's not a lot to get to grips with, but what there is consists of a 14-minute documentary about the making of Season Two, with contributions from Chris Carter, various directors, writers and actors (but not the two principals); Carter talking briefly about each episode in turn; a series of short TV spots and pieces about the show's FX and secondary characters; and three very short behind-the-scenes glimpses, one of which has the self-explanatory title "Gillian eats a cricket". There's also a DVD-ROM utility with Web links and a game. --Mark Walker
Lovers Eddie and Michael witness a murder and go on the run with a professional hitman on their trail.
John Jaspers (Mark Frost) is just a regular guy whose life is changed forever by the sadistic murder of his girlfriend. Mad with grief and vowing revenge he meets the enigmatic cult leader M (Andrew Divoff) who offers him all the power he needs to get payback. The price? His immortal soul. Reborn as the demonic Faust Jaspers is soon on the vengeance trail. But his hellish alter ego is totally out of control. All it wants to do is kill and it's not satisfied by a few criminals. As t
A Nightmare On Elm Street Nancy (Heather Langenkamp) is having grisly nightmares. Meanwhile her high-school friends who are having the very same dreams are being slaughtered in their sleep by the hideous fiend of their shared nightmares. When the police ignore her explanation she herself must confront the killer in his shadowy realm. From modern horror master Wes Craven (Scream Scream 2) comes a timeless shocker that remains the standard bearer for terror. Featuring Jo
How far will you go to protect your family?
Charlie's Angels: Cameron Diaz Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu are Charlies Angels - a trio of elite private investigators who with the latest in high-tech gadgets martial arts techniques and a vast array of disguises unleash their state of the art skills on land sea and air. Their goal to track down a kidnapped billionaire-to-be and keep his top-secret voice identification software out of his lethal hands. Aided by their faithful lieutenant Bosley (Bill Murray) and u
Tremors didn't actually break any new ground (even though its tunnelling worm monsters certainly did), but it revved up the classic monster-movie formulas of the 1950s with such energetic enthusiasm and humour that it made everything old seem new again. It also has a cast full of enjoyable actors who clearly had a lot of fun making the film, and director Ron Underwood strikes just the right balance of comedy and terror as a band of small-town rednecks battle a lot of really nasty-looking giant worms. The special effects are great, the one-liners fly fast and furious between heroes Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward (and yes, that's country star Reba McEntire packin' awesome firepower), and it's all done with the kind of flair one rarely associates with goofy monster flicks like this. --Jeff Shannon
Geoff McQueen's classic BBC comedy drama set in the wheeler-dealing world of London's snooker halls starring two of Britain's most popular actors. Micky Noades (Robert Lindsay) describes himself as 'an overall concepts man'. He is an ace promoter, the only problem is he has nothing to promote. Enter his brother-in-law Mo (Paul McGann) with one redeeming feature: his outstanding talent at snooker. Created by Geoff McQueen this vintage British comedy drama gave Paul McGann his breakthrough ro...
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