Directed by Christopher Menaul and starring Dan Stevens, Dominic Cooper and Emily Browning, SUMMER IN FEBRUARY is a deeply moving and tragic love story played out against the timeless beauty of the Cornish coast, in the approaching shadow of The Great War.
A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman
For better and for worse, The Old Grey Whistle Test was probably the most resolutely serious music programme ever broadcast on television. During its 16-year run it showcased only the most earnest exponents of whichever musical style was currently popular, and given that the programme's heyday coincided with the early 70s, some of the footage included here will provide mirth as exquisite as only unintentional comedy can. The absurd prog noodlings of The Edgar Winter Group and the belief-beggaringly awful Focus now seem as unfathomable in retrospect as trench warfare or child labour. However, the good stuff collected here is very good, both in terms of performance (Tom Petty snarling "American Girl", a pre-irony U2 whooping up "I Will Follow") and historical interest, notably a shockingly youthful Elton John crooning "Tiny Dancer" and reminding us, in the process, of a time when he was regarded as a cool and hip singer-songwriter, rather than understudy to the Queen Mother. --Andrew Mueller On the DVD: Wonderful performances all captured in remarkably pristine picture and extraordinarily vivid sound, regardless of vintage (it doesn't even crackle during "Hocus Pocus"!). However, the menu is pretty clunky and won't allow direct access to the individual songs (other than selecting the "Random play" option). Instead, you can only jump into the programme year by year, not song by song. The track listing itself is unhelpfully hidden behind the discs in the gatefold packaging. --Mark Walker
In the Flesh is set in a small village in the North of England post-zombie uprising as rehabilitated zombies are reintroduced back into society. Now known as PDS Sufferers (Partially Deceased Syndrome) they have been caught treated and armed with their flesh cover-up and special contact lenses are returning to their friends and families who previously thought them dead. The series follows our hero Kieren Walker a 17 year old who committed suicide four years' ago when his best mate Rick died serving in Afghanistan. He's now returning to a village where he always felt like an outsider and a family who never got to say goodbye. We follow Kieren as he struggles to cope with fitting back in with the guilt of what he did in his untreated state and the sudden reappearance of Rick a fellow PDS Sufferer. The boy that Kieren thought was dead is alive and the boy Rick thought was alive is dead.
Eric Clapton-Unplugged was recorded at Bray Studios in London and features Clapton on acoustic guitar performing songs that include: 1. Intro 2. Signe 3. Before you Accuse me 4. Hey Hey 5. Tears in Heaven 6. Lonely Stranger 7. Nobody knows you when you're down and out 8. Layla 9. Running on Faith 10. Walkin' Blues 11. Alberta 12. San Francisco Bay Blues 13. Malted Milk 14. Old Love 15. Rollin & Tumblin
Rachel is eight and for the first time is allowed to join her brothers and sister to visit their grandfather - Amos, as he carries out his annual ritual of a night in the hills, where he worked as a young shepherd boy. Grandfather is delighted to see the children and a special bond is established between him and Rachel. He tells the how she reminds him of a magical night; he then proceeds to recount it. He explains how, ahead of the other shepherds protecting their flock with him, he is flown away by the Angel Gabriel, to be the first visitor to the newly-born Christ child. This magical re-working of the nativity by the leading writer Michael Morpurgo is rich with human poignancy as we share this very special experience.
The Filth and the Fury is an irreverent, shocking portrait of the most notorious rock group of all time.
In The Flesh is set in a small village in the North of England post-zombie uprising as rehabilitated zombies are reintroduced back into society. Now known as PDS Sufferers (Partially Deceased Syndrome) they have been caught treated and armed with their flesh cover-up and special contact lenses are returning to their friends and families who previously thought them dead. The series follows our hero Kieren Walker a 17 year old who committed suicide four years ago when his best mate Rick died serving in Afghanistan. He's now returning to a village where he always felt like an outsider and a family who never got to say goodbye. We follow Kieren as he struggles to cope with fitting back in with the guilt of what he did in his untreated state and the sudden reappearance of Rick a fellow PDS Sufferer. The boy that Kieren thought was dead is alive and the boy Rick thought was alive is dead.
Steven Seagal stars in this action thriller set in the Phillippines. After a plane crash in the jungle only two men escape alive; one a soulless killer who has come to the island in search of a fortune in diamonds the other is an international adventurer. Now these two men must set aside their own personal differences and work together if they are to stand any chance of surviving the jungle and all its hidden dangers...
It will scare you to death! In the winter of 1972 a young filmmaker named Roger Watkins began work on what is commonly referred to as the most vile and disgusting film ever made. Under the pseudonym of Victor Janos Watkins wrote directed produced and starred in The Last House on Dead End Street. Roger Watkins stars as Terry Hawkins a down and out pornographer fresh out of prison. Disgusted by the world around him he begins work on a series of snuff films-target
Both a kind of home movie and a salute to the hip, pop-up sketch comedy of 1960s/early 1970s television--Laugh-In, Monty Python's Flying Circus, that sort of thing--Schizopolis is a hit-and-miss series of gags with vaguely connecting threads of Kafkaesque paranoia. Soderbergh himself stars as two people--one an ineffective dentist and the other a speechwriter for a cult movement called Eventualism, which has set out to "question all answers"--connected by their romances with the same woman, played by Soderbergh's real-life ex, Betsy Bramley. There isn't so much a story as a series of bits in which these characters often (though not necessarily) turn up, from press conferences on the subject of horse urination to old footage of nudists to a scene of an Eventualist exchange between husband and wife: "Generic greeting!" "Generic greeting returned!" None of this leads to a literal point but after a while an undercurrent of disease about making sense of the modern world becomes apparent beneath the jokes. Soderbergh (sex, lies, and videotape, Out of Sight) is certainly a filmmaker who goes his own way in life, always hitting his target in one spot or another and occasionally getting a bull's-eye for his trouble. Schizopolis is no bull's-eye and it has just as many detractors as admirers but it's impossible not to appreciate Soderbergh's conviction that making a film out on the fringes is a worthy endeavour. --Tom Keogh
In some ways The Old Grey Whistle Test Volume 2 is more interesting than its predecessor, as it covers the show's enjoyably uncomfortable period of transition from beard-rock to punk/new wave. Hence, the music ranges across the likes of Loggins and Messina (the frightful "The House at Pooh Corner"), the Who, Judee Sill, Argent (doing "God Gave Rock 'n' Roll to You", which all Bill and Ted fans probably think is a Kiss original), Roy Harper, the Adverts, the Undertones (not playing "Teenage Kicks", sadly), Patti Smith and Siouxie and the Banshees. There's also some arty stuff that doesn't really fit into either camp, including Kevin Ayers and Roxy Music at their uncommercially weirdest. There are a few nicely revelatory moments, too, such as the realisation that Thomas Dolby's "Hyperactive" was in fact a nu-jazz masterpiece born 20 years too soon and that Robbie Williams should cover Aztec Camera's wonderful "Walk Out to Winter" immediately. This is an enjoyable and diverse collection of music from a fairly fraught period in the history of more-or-less popular music, so it's good to be reminded just how much good stuff was actually happening amidst the melée. On the DVD: The Old Grey Whistle Test 2 comes on only one disc (the first was a two-disc set), but you still get 30 or so excellent tracks plus all the trimmings, so that's hardly a fault. The layout features the same kind of horribly overdesigned menus as its predecessor: there's no obvious chapter sub-menu, believe it or not; instead, you have to access individual tracks through the artists' gallery in the extras section! Aargh! Other extras include contributor profiles, additional linking material and the wonderful Old Grey Squirrel Test animation, which mere words would only spoil for those who have yet to see it. --Roger Thomas
Everyone has nightmares. But only Alice Cooper would defy rock 'n' roll convention and present these images in his legendary show ""Welcome To My Nightmare."" The first full-blown rock theatre extravaganza ever this is the concert that amazed audiences and critics everywhere. Alice stars in this visual feast which was to set the standard for all other rock tours to follow with its elaborate and innovative staging. Featuring hits and classic songs (including ""I'm Eighteen "" ""School'
A slick, smart vehicle for Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn, Housesitter offers an acceptably daffy premise and enough inventive business to sustain it through to the, not unexpected, happy ending. Architect Martin builds a dream home for his childhood sweetheart (Dana Delaney) only to be rejected when he proposes marriage. After a one-night stand, Hawn--a daffy waitress with a gift for making up improbable but convincing lies--moves into Martin's house and tells his parents (Donald Moffatt, Julie Harris) and the whole community that she is his surprise new wife. When he sees how this impresses Delaney, Martin goes along with the charade, encouraging wilder and wilder fictions and doing his best to join in so that he can rush through to a divorce and move on to the woman he has always wanted. Hawn has to recruit a couple of winos to pose as her parents and impress Martin's boss into giving him a promotion, but we glimpse her real misery at his eventual intention to toss her out of the make-believe world she has created because her own real background is so grim. Its sit-com hi-jinx are manic enough not to be strangled by an inevitable dip in to sentiment towards the end, and Hawn, who always has to work hard, is better matched against the apparently effortless Martin than in their subsequent pairing in Out-of-Towners. Martin, often wasted in comparatively straight roles, has a few wild and crazy scenes as Hawn prompts him into joining her improvised fantasies. Director Frank Oz, a frequent Martin collaborator (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Little Shop of Horrors, Bowfinger), is the model of a proper, competent, professional craftsman when he sets out to put a comedy together--but the film misses streaks of lunacy or cruelty that might have made it funnier and more affecting. On the DVD: The disc offers a pristine widescreen non-anamorphic transfer, letterboxed to 1.85:1. There are no extra features to speak of, just text-based production notes, cast and director bios, plus a trailer and an assortment of language and subtitle options. --Kim Newman
Nickelodeon recalls the early days of the motion picture industry and is based in part on Peter Bogdanovich's interviews with pioneering directors Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Lawyer-turned-movie-director Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) and Buck Greenaway (Burt Reynolds) an actor are both sent to California to shut down a renegade group of silent movie makers. Joining forces with cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter) leading lady Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock) and precocious prop-girl
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy