Tina Turner, that dynamic diva of pop/soul/R&B from the 1960s to the 90s, sings like a woman whose life story is every bit as rough and tough as her voice. And What's Love Got to Do With It, based on her autobiographical account (in I, Tina, written with Kurt Loder) of her years under the iron fist of her abusive husband and musical partner/Svengali Ike, is further proof of what we've always known about Tina: She's what you call a survivor. The movie is sort of the Disney version of Tina Turner's story--a glossy but thoroughly enjoyable, old-fashioned showbiz biopic with laughs, tears, great music, and outrageous (but faithful) period decor, costumes, makeup, and hairstyles. Our Heroine triumphs not only over the rigorous demands of her career in the music business, but finally manages to bust out of her troubled, violent marriage as well and become her own person. This is a movie that'll have you shouting at the top of your lungs: "You go, girl!" --Jim Emerson
Sci-fi drama starring Zosia Mamet and Olympia Dukakis. When Rhea Carver (Mamet) realises that she is different to the other children at school, she reaches out to her grandmother, Rosmarie (Dukakis). As Rhea's mother (Virginia Madsen) and grandmother tell her the truth about the women of the Carver family being descendents of ancient witches, Rhea fears that life as she knew it will never be the same.
Based on a true story. The Haunting in Connecticut charts one family’s real-life encounter with the dark forces of the supernatural. When the Campbell family moves to upstate Connecticut, they soon learn that their charming Victorian home has a disturbing history: not only was the house a transformed funeral parlour where inconceivable acts occurred, but the owner’s clairvoyant son Jonah served as a demonic messenger, providing a gateway for spiritual entities to crossover. Now unspeakable terror awaits when Jonah, the boy who communicated with the dead, returns to unleash horror on the innocent and unsuspecting family.
Bud Corliss a darkly handsome college boy is so obsessed with wealth that he'll do anything to get it. When his rich girlfriend Dorothy gets pregnant and is threatened with disinheritance Bud stages her suicide sending her plummeting from the roof of a high-rise. It's the perfect crime; until Dorothy's sister Ellen begins to unravel Bud's deadly scheme...
The suave sleuth Tony Rome makes a shocking discovery while diving for treasure: a beautiful blonde woman anchored in a block of cement. When a local hood hires him to find his missing girlfriend his investigation begins with the mysterious ""Lady in Cement."" But everyone he talks to either is killed or trying to kill him...
In this sequel to Tony Rome, Sinatra is back as the Miami private eye. This time around he's hired by a small time hood (Dan Blocker) to find his missing girlfriend. In finding out the fate of the girl, Rome runs across a variety of shady characters, including a Mafia chieftain and a beautiful alcoholic, Kit Forrest (Raquel Welch) who instantly becomes the first suspect. The film takes a sharp twist when Rome is accused of murder himself!
Firewall (Dir. Richard Loncraine 2006): Jack Stanfield (Harrison Ford) is an average family man in Seattle who heads up the hi-tech security team at his local bank. But following a seemingly trivial case of identity theft Jack's life is turned upside-down when he discovers that his wife (Virginia Madsen) and two kids have been kidnapped. The ransom? A mere $100 million which the kidnappers led by Bill Cox (Paul Bettany) want Jack to obtain for them via his expert computer skills. Initially compliant Jack is soon irked by Cox and his cronies to the point where he decides to risk everything to get his family back and bring the bad guys to justice... The Fugitive (Dir. Andrew Davis 1993): Catch him if you can. The Fugitive if on the run! Harrison Ford and Tommy Lee Jones race through the breathless manhunt movie based on the classic TV series. Ford is prison escapee Dr. Richard Kimble a Chicago surgeon falsely convicted of killing his wife and determined to prove his innocence by leading his pursuers to the one-armed man who actually committed the crime. Jones is Sam Gerard an unrelenting bloodhound of an U.S. Marshal. They are hunted and hunter. The non-stop chase has one exhilarating speed: all out.
Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script, which is peppered with post-modern pop culture references and movie in-jokes, never takes itself too seriously. It may be expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds--in Dolby Digital 5.1) like every penny made it to the screen. Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as a latter-day Buck Rogers but with an entirely believable sense of bewilderment, not to mention loss; the rest of the living ship Moya's crew also has plenty of difficult issues to deal with, allowing Farscape's writers licence to develop their characters in often unexpected ways. The result is episodic TV sci-fi that continually pushes at the accepted boundaries of the format. Box Set 6: after the nail-biting cliffhanger at the end of the first, the second series gets off to a shaky start in "Mind the Baby", as all the loose plot ends have to be gathered and resolved. Crais apparently has a change of heart, and Scorpius takes his place as Crichton's new nemesis. In "Vitas Mortis" D'Argo falls for a lonely Luxan, with catastrophic and barely plausible results for Moya. "Taking the Stone" showcases Chiana's grief in an episode that manages to be even more confusing. Fortunately by the fourth episode, "Crackers Don't Matter", the show has really hit its stride once again: the crew slowly succumbs to a state of paranoia-fuelled madness, fighting and trying to kill one another thanks to the presence of an odd light-seeking alien. Crichton has a string of great lines ("I hate it when villains quote Shakespeare") and much fun doing an impersonation of Jack Nicholson in The Shining. In "The Way We Weren't" there are shocking revelations about both Aeryn and Pilot's past lives and the show's gift for surprising as well as emotionally convincing character development is once more brought to the fore. Extra features on the DVD include a handful of deleted scenes, cast biographies, a picture gallery and TV trailer. --Mark Walker
Zane Grey (1872-1939) was one of the most popular authors of western fiction ever, and 60 years after his death many of his 78 books, such as Riders of the Purple Sage, are still in print. In the silent era Hollywood filmed many of his stories with stars such as Tom Mix and Jack Holt. Grey knew the west well, particularly the deserts of Arizona and Utah, and demanded accurate locations for the films. Later, however, many of these films were remade, sometimes two or three times, without Grey's involvement, and the relation between novels and films grew much looser. The films are quintessential B-moveis: black and white, just over an hour, featuring minor stars and formulaic plots with some music and comedy thrown in. Committed fans of the western genre will not be disappointed, and others will derive pleasure from the delightful Jane Greer in Sunset Pass and Tim Holt, son of Jack, in the other three films. The location shooting, mostly in the Lone Pine area of California, has an authentic feel. Titles are: Under the Tonto Rim (1947); Thunder Mountain (1947); Sunset Pass (1946); Wild Horse Mesa(1947). On the DVD: This box set contains two DVDs, each of which include two movies deriving from Zane Grey novels. Print quality and sound is generally acceptable, though Under the Tonto Rim has poor definition and is a bit scratchy. Aspect ratio is 14:9. The DVDs contain no extras of any kind. --Ed Buscombe
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