Based freely on the classic novels by C.S. Forester, Hornblower is a series of TV films following the progress of a young officer through the ranks of the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars. The series greatest asset is the handsome and charismatic Ioan Gruffudd in the lead role, surely a major star in the making. For television films the production values are very good, though as Titanic, Waterworld and The Perfect Storm demonstrated, filming an aquatic adventure is a very expensive business, and it is clear that the Hornblower dramas simply make the best of comparatively small budgets. No more faithful to Forester's books than the 1951 Gregory Peck classic Captain Horatio Hornblower, the real inspiration seems to have come from the success of Sharpe, starring Sean Bean, which likewise featured a British hero in the Napoleonic Wars. Nevertheless, while rather more easy going than the real British navy of the time, the Hornblower saga delivers an entertaining adventure, greatly enhanced by the presence of such guest stars as Denis Lawson, Cheri Lunghi, Ronald Pickup and Anthony Sher. "The Frogs and the Lobsters" provides a tough, complex and surprisingly violent drama concerning an attempt to mount a royalist counter-offensive against Revolutionary France.--Gary S Dalkin
The nearly-final divorce of the Halsworths suddenly gets complicated when Miriam's old flame comes to town.
Tannhauser
At a time when the US is seized by the worst oil shortage in history Wall Street big shot Tom Hansen (Christian Slater) is asked to oversee a big oil merger. Tom jumps at the chance to kickstart his faltering career while at the same time embarking on a sexually-charged love affair with idealistic business school graduate Abbey Gallagher (Selma Blair). Steadily Tom begins to uncover a global conspiracy of illegal oil trafficking governmental cover-ups and murder. Tom and Abbey's lives are in danger when they become embroiled in the web of conspiracy with the Russian Mafia. With the clock ticking Tom has to put his career his reputation and his life in jeopardy to protect Abbey and expose the truth about the deal.
The Four Feathers - A British army officer who resigns his commission on the eve of his unit's embarkation to a mission against Egyptian rebels seeks to redeem his cowardice by secretly aiding his former comrades disguised as an Arab... The Africa Queen - The boozing smoking cussing captain of a tramp steamer Charlie Allnut saves prim and proper Rose Sayer after her brother is killed by German soldiers at the beginning of World War I in Africa. Many quarrels later the two set sail on the Ulonga-Bora in order to sabotage a German ship. Based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester the wonderful combination of Hepburn and Bogie (who won an Oscar) makes this a thoroughly enjoyable blend of comedy and adventure. Later came the book (and Clint Eastwood film) White Hunter Black Heart which chronicled screenwriter Peter Viertel's experiences observing Huston throughout the making of the picture. The 39 Steps (1978) - It is 1914. Europe is on the brink of war. London seems peaceful enough but a dangerous conspiracy is underway... Colonel Scudder of the British Intelligence has unearthed a plot to assassinate the Greek Prime Minister on a visit to London and thus precipitate World War 1. Richard Hannay an engineer on leave in London becomes implicated and there follows an exciting series of hair's breadth escapes of plot and coounterplot as Hannay attempts to solve the riddle of the Thirty Nine Steps...
The Great Gatsby: Robert Redford is Jay Gatsby the dashing enigmatic millionaire obsessed with the elusive and spoilt Daisy Buchanan (Mia Farrow) in an era in which recklessness with money liquor women and fast cars pervaded the American consciousness... Indecent Proposal: In Las Vegas and desperate for cash a young married couple are faced with a difficult proposition - should the wife have sex with a wealthy man for million... Barefoot in the Park: Robert Redford is Mister Straight. Jane Fonda is his new wife who dedicates her life to the pursuit of fun. As the ecstasy of the honeymoon gives way to the reality of setting up housekeeping in a five-flight walk-up the harmony of marriage turns to comical discord.
Taxi Driver: 'Taxi Driver' provoked fierce controversy when it was released running into censorship problems in America as some of the scenes of violence were described to be 'as gory as Clockwork Orange and Straw Dogs' (Evening News '76). In addition there was outcry at a 13-year-old schoolgirl actress (Jodie Foster) co-starring as a prostitute. It won Best Picture at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival and received Academy Award nominations for Best Film Best Actor (Robert De Niro) and Best Supporting Actress (Jodie Foster). Considered to be one of the most powerful films in motion picture history 'Taxi Driver' is a film which is '...a savage piece of work - and hellishly brilliant' (Evening News '76). Casino: Robert De Niro Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci star in Director Martin Scorsese's riveting look at how blind ambition white-hot passion and 24-carat greed toppled an empire. Las Vegas in 1973 is the setting for this fact-based story about the Mob's multi-million dollar casino operation - where fortunes and lives were made and lost with a roll of the dice... Mean Streets: 'Mean Streets' heralded Martin Scorsese's arrival as a new filmmaking force - and marked his first historic teaming with Robert De Niro. It's a story Scorsese lived a semi-autobiographical tale of first-generation sons and daughters in New York's Little Italy. Harvey Keitel plays Charlie working his way up the ranks of a local mob. Amy Robinson is Teresa the girlfriend his family deems unsuitable because of her epilepsy. And in the starmaking role that won Best Supporting Actor Awards from the New York and National Society of Film Critics De Niro is Johnny Boy a small-time gambler in big-time debt to the loan sharks...
A brazen mixture of stand-up comedy, political commentary, CEO confrontations, and shenanigans with Random House tour escorts, Michael Moore's The Big One follows his Midwest book tour to promote Downsize This. One of his Milwaukee tour escorts explains that medium-sized cities in the Midwest tend not to attract tours by the self-important celebrities of the coasts; instead, they attract "more thoughtful authors like Michael". His kind of thoughtfulness evokes both laughter at, and disgust with, corporate America. To be sure, there is a certain naiveté in Moore's pro-worker take on corporate and political America--his half-serious plan for a Nike shoe factory in Flint, Michigan, makes as much business sense as coal mining on Maui--but he gives voice to well-reasoned arguments that would otherwise have been lost amid Clinton-era corporate downsizing and reliance on "temporary" employees. In cities such as Des Moines, Minneapolis, St Louis and Portland, The Big One juxtaposes both Moore's lighthearted-sounding but deeply biting humour when speaking before bookstore patrons, and painful-to-watch confrontations with security personnel at companies such as Procter & Gamble and PayDay. (Future targets of Moore's style of journalism could take note of Nike CEO Phil Knight's fairly effective approach as Moore calls him to task on Nike's Indonesian labour.) Moore speaks clandestinely with Borders employees organising a union; a woman laid off from Ford attends Moore's Rockford, Illinois bookstore visit the same day. Though slow in spots and frustrating, if not depressing, in others, this follow up to Roger and Me is intensely funny most of the time. --Erik Macki
In almost every school photograph there looms a face in the pack that no-one seems to remember. Detective Inspector Tom Monroe is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of Pat Fisher and discovers that he was obsessed with the murder of school friend Amy unsolved since 1976. Compelled to take up where the dead man left off he soon finds himself open to attack from the same faces that have preyed on the class of '76 for almost 3 decades.
Inspiration for 'The Blair Witch Project' this infamous mock-documentary banned in the UK since 1983 replays the recovered footage of a trio of film makers who disappear in the South American jungle while searching for a lost tribe of cannibals...
One of Latin America's most powerful drug-dealers Franz Sanchez (Robert Davi) aims to extend his dealings into the Orient while strengthening his holdings in the Americas. His only problem: a bitterly vengeful James Bond who has lost his position with Her Majesty's Secret Service. Look for a cameo by Wayne Newton and excellent performances by two glorious Bond beauties: Carey Lowell and Talisa Soto. Licence to Kill is a gritty story filled with spectacular action and suspense that has made the James Bond film series the best-loved and most successful in cinema history.
The first would-be moon colonists discover a horrifying mysterious and deadly secret hidden on their new lunar home... Beneath the quiet Moonbase Waste Disposal Plant are hiding some of the most dangerous criminals in the universe. Beneath the lunar surface is an arsenal of nuclear warheads - the stowaways ticket home to Earth...
Available for the very first time for home viewing, Prudence and the Pill serves up a comic slice of sixties permissiveness from the days when the oral contraceptive was an exotic and legendary devise that few people had any experience of using. Made in Britain by Twentieth Century-Fox, and starring the debonair David Niven and the luminous Deborah Kerr, with vivacious support from 'It' girl Judy Geeson, this film takes us back to 1967's 'Summer of Love', when established morality and codes of sexual behaviour were being turned upside down by new ideas and technology. So grab a gonk, straighten your mini-skirt and prepare yourself for a bumpy ride courtesy of the imprudent Prudence. Special Features: Digitally Remastered Picture and Sound In Coversation with David Niven - Documentary Stills Gallery
A Powerful Western Tale of Revenge and Redemption. When a farmer's wife is raped and murdered the farmer (Gregory Peck) teams up with his old flame (Joan Collins) to trail and kill the four outlaws he believes to be responsible. Arriving in a town he discovers that the men are in jail and will be hanged the following day. When they escape driven by a blinding need for revenge the farmer gives chase kills one and has another two cornered. But then they protest their innoc
In order to graduate two laid-back high school students must put together a science project. On an old USAF dump they find a device from an old UFO. During experiments with it they unleash a phenomenal power which brings them face to face with sights beyond their wildest dreams...
What A Cast! What A Past! What A Show! This black comedy opens with Louisa Foster donating a multimillion dollar check to the IRS. The tax department thinks she's crazy and sends her to a psychiatrist. She then discusses her four marriages in which all of her husbands became incredibly rich and died prematurely because of their drive to be wealthy...
Dr Jeff Cameron (Robert Mitchum) breaks the golden rule when he falls in love with his patient, the beautiful heiress Margot Lannington (Faith Domergue). After a whirlwind romance, he goes to confront her father who seems determined to separate them. Five minutes later he receives the biggest shock of his life - and Edward Lannington (Claude Rains) lies dead... Now Jeff and Margot are on the run for murder, with 500 miles of bad road between them and the Mexican border. It's a road with many sudden twists and chilling revelations - as Jeff begins to realise that Margot has more secrets she's keeping from him...
Winner of the 2001 Oscar for Best Documentary, Into The Arms Of Strangers attempts to expose and understand one of the forgotten travesties of WWII. While the evacuation of British children during the Second World War has become the stuff of legend, the rescue of 10,000 Jewish children from Germany is less well known. This programme of "kindertransport" was to provide a vital escape route to England for many children, but would also leave many heartbroken families behind to face an uncertain future at the hands of the Nazis. Told mainly in the first person by those who made the journey, this American produced documentary is a moving testament to the most innocent victims--one and a half million children perished in the Holocaust. We may have become used to tales of Nazi's brutality in the 21st century, but it is always shocking to see the emotions that still run deep for those who experienced and survived these events first hand. As the story--narrated by Dame Judi Dench--unfolds it becomes clear that although the kindertransport was one of the great humanitarian efforts of the 20th century it was not without its flaws, none more so than the internment and repatriation of many of the evacuees that followed once war with Germany was declared. A very real historical document, Into The Arms Of Strangers is highly recommended for those looking to delve a little deeper into the travesties of War. --Phil Udell
The name says it all--Star Trek III: The Search for Spock--so you didn't think Mr. Spock was really dead, did you? When Spock's casket landed on the surface of the Genesis planet at the end of Star Trek II, we had already been told that Genesis had the power to bring "life from lifelessness". So it's no surprise that this energetic but somewhat hokey sequel gives Spock a new lease of life, beginning with his rebirth and rapid growth as the Genesis planet literally shakes itself apart in a series of tumultuous geological spasms. As Kirk is getting to know his estranged son (Merritt Butrick), he must also do battle with the fiendish Klingon Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who is determined to seize the power of Genesis from the Federation. Meanwhile, the regenerated Spock returns to his home planet, and Star Trek III gains considerable interest by exploring the ceremonial (and, of course, highly logical) traditions of Vulcan society. The movie's a minor disappointment compared to Star Trek II, but it's a--well, logical--sequel that successfully restores Spock (and first-time film director Leonard Nimoy) to the phenomenal Trek franchise ... as if he were ever really gone. With Kirk's wilful destruction of the USS Enterprise and Robin Curtis replacing the departing Kirstie Alley as Vulcan Lt Saavik, this was clearly a transitional film in the series, clearing the way for the highly popular Star Trek IV. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy