Stars - The Small Faces. Kiki Dee & The Chantelles An all star cast of British actors all of whom will be familiar to British TV audiences - Conrad Phillips William Lucas George Mikell and Patsy Rowlands and a rare appearance form a young Kenny Everett. Kenneth Cope plays Lestor Benson the Small Faces manager who has a hitherto unknown criminal past. The threat of blackmail and it's likely destruction of the Small Faces' career leads him to agree to smuggle diamonds into Amsterdam via a Pirate radio station. The crime looked perfect until we discover that the daughter of the police chief investigating the diamond theft is a big Small faces fan... Very much of its time the film has wonderful nostalgia value both for its plot drama and some vintage music.
These days people are dangerously nostalgic about the sinister tackiness of the 1980s, but there's no stiffer antidote to such delusion than Alan Clarke's The Firm. This unforgettable film was made as a one-off drama for the BBC in 1988, but its cult following has grown steadily through video, thanks to a startling central performance from a young Gary Oldman, and the riveting manner in which Clarke captures the lethal, mindless energy of football hooliganism. Oldman plays Clive "Bexy" Bissell, working-class East London boy done good: a prosperous estate agent, proud homeowner, happy husband and doting father. But his chief pleasure is to be team leader ("top boy") of a bunch of overgrown yobs who attend football matches in order to cause violence. At weekends Bexy leads his "Inter City Crew" into rucks with rival warlords such as Yeti (Phil Davis) and Oboe (Andrew Wilde), in search of what he calls "the buzz", no matter the cost to his young family and his future prospects. The Firm was entirely shot on SteadiCam, enabling Clarke to drop the viewer right into the thick of the action and exploit some hair-raisingly authentic rowdiness from his talented cast. Among these thugs, soap fans will spot Eastenders' Steve McFadden and Charlie Lawson of Coronation Street. The Firm is a masterpiece of social-realist drama, and one of the most virulently anti-Thatcherite films of its time. An avid supporter of Everton FC, Clarke responded to Al Hunter's script because he felt that the vicious idiots spoiling football were a new breed of disgrace. The tabloids raised a stink about the film's violence, and the BBC delayed its broadcast until 1989. A year later, Alan Clarke died of cancer, But The Firm is a tremendous last testament from the finest English director of his generation. --Richard Kelly
George Romero's classic 1968 zombie-fest Night of the Living Dead (shot in black and white) offers some disturbing images, even decades later. In a Pittsburgh suburb people are being stalked by zombies ravenous for human flesh. In a house whose occupant has already been slain, two separate groups of people unite and board themselves in, hoping to fend off the advancing ghouls. Through radio and TV reports they learn that radiation from outer space is thought to be responsible for the wave of zombie attacks all over the eastern United States. Once the humans are trapped, Romero shifts the focus to the internal feuding between them as they decide how to handle their dreadful situation. What unfolds is an examination of human nature, and of the fear and selfishness that keep many citizens from getting involved in the world's problems. Appropriately, both the zombies, and the authorities who later hunt them, are equally soulless. This film could also be read as a criticism of white males--it is not merely a coincidence that the film's two most rational, constructive characters are a woman and a black man. It is also no coincidence that the sequel Dawn of the Dead (1978) takes place in a mall infested by the undead--a perfect analogy for consumer culture. --Bryan Reeseman, Amazon.com
Hey gang! Check out this comic book movie!!! The only movie with your favourite artists and writers. See Marvel Master Stan Lee brings Spiderman's money worries to life! Hear underground artist Robert Crumb confess why he killed Fritz the Cat! Wonder at congressional hearings from the 1950s ""proving"" the link between comic books and juvenile delinquency! Comic Book Confidential is a funny smart eye popping history that finally gives comic books the respect they deserve.
Buck Privates: Bud and Lou enlist in the army in order to escape being hauled off to jail and soon find themselves in boot camp. To their dismay the company's drill instructor is none other than the cop who was all set to run them off to the hoosegow in the first place! The boys end up having a whale of a time getting under the skin of their humourless nemesis. One Night In The Tropics: Bud and Lou get mixed up in a ""Love Insurance"" scheme.
When her son disappears and is believed dead, a single mother blames an African-American man from the projects for the kidnapping.
Available for the first time on DVD! Deliberate sacrifice for deliberate gain. In Kevin Spacey's directorial debut three desperadoes are trapped by the police in a hole-in-the-wall bar after a robbery gone wrong. The situation escalates to boiling point with unexpected twists and violent consequences.
Jack Deebs is a cartoonist who is due to be released from jail. His comic book ""Cool World"" describes a zany world populated by ""doodles"" (cartoon characters) and ""noids"" (humanoids). What Jack didn't realize is that Cool World really does exist and a ""doodle"" scientist has just perfected a machine which links Cool World with our World. Intrigued at seeing his creation come to life Jack is nonetheless wary as he knows that not everything in Cool World is exactly friendly...
The Key
Now firmly established as one of the top-rated television dramas, by its third year CSI: Crime Scene Investigation is a show positively glowing with confidence. Even when individual cases seem either too contrived or too easily resolved, the indefatigable night shift at the Las Vegas PD crime lab always look the part, solving conundrums and discovering microscopic damning evidence while, apparently, never shedding their own loose hair or skin cells all over the supposedly quarantined crime scenes. In reality, Catherine Willows' flowing blonde locks would contaminate any evidence she collected, but in the world of CSI only the bad guys leave body parts behind--the CSIs themselves are so good they're positively pristine. The 23 episodes of season 3 on this five-disc set present more deliciously bizarre situations for the problem-solving sleuths: cannibalism, snuff movies, dwarfs, death while drag racing, bodies falling from the sky, and various dismemberments all tax the team's acumen. These are all double or multiple-case episodes, though in a characteristic trick of the writing sometimes apparently unrelated murders turn out to be connected (or vice versa, as in "Blood Lust," in which a road-accident victim is not what he seems, and the death of the driver at the hands of an angry mob is made all the more tragic). The mix of genuine forensic science with the glossiest Jerry Bruckheimer production values, plus the virtues of a good ensemble cast headed by William Peterson's modern-day Sherlock Holmes, remains as compelling as ever. --Mark Walker
In 1974 heiress Patty hearst was kidnapped by terrorist group the Symbionese Revolutionary Army. She was brain-washed into embracing their philosophy and became a national cause celebre when she appeared on TV wielding a machine gun...
Shot in the UFA studios with a big movie star in the lead and all the special effects and production design resources any blockbuster of its time could wish for, FW Murnau's 1926 Faust represents a step up from his better-known Nosferatu. Oddly, Faust is a less familiar film than the vampire quickie and this release affords fans a chance to see what Murnau can do with an equally major fantasy story. Adapted neither from Marlowe's play Dr Faustus nor Goethe's verse drama, the script scrambles various elements of the legend and presents a Faust (Gosta Ekman) driven to summon the Devil by despair as a plague rages through the town, desperate to gain enough learning to help his neighbours. When this deal doesn't quite work out, because he is stoned by townsfolk who notice his sudden fear of the cross, Mephisto (Emil Jannings) offers Faust instead renewed youth and an opportunity to seduce a famously beautiful Italian noblewoman and then to return to his home village and get involved with the pure Gretchen (Camilla Horn). Like most versions of the story, it's episodic and some sections are stronger than others: the great stuff comes in the plague and initial deal sequences, though it picks up again for the tragic climax as Gretchen becomes the central figure and suffers horribly, freezing in the snows and burning at the stake. Jannings' devil, a gruesomely humorous slice of ham, is one of the great silent monster performances, reducing everyone else to a stick figure, and Murnau faces the challenge of topping his Nosferatu imagery by deploying a battalion of effects techniques to depict the many magical journeys, sudden appearances and transformations. On the DVD: Often seen in ragged, incomplete prints projected at the wrong speed, this is a decently restored version, running a full 115 minutes with a complete orchestral score. The original materials show some of the damage to be expected in a film of its vintage, but the transfer is excellent, displaying the imaginative art direction and camerawork to superb advantage. Aside from a nicely eerie menu, the sole extra is a full-length commentary originating in Australia: written by historian Peter Spooner but read by narrator Russell Cawthorne (who mispronounces the odd name). This provides an interesting wealth of background detail, such as Murnau's attempt to cast Hollywood's Lillian Gish as Gretchen, and delivers a balanced assessment of the film itself. --Kim Newman
Moral Orel (Adult Swim) (2 Discs)
Low budget sci-fi action comedy. In a post-apocalyptic future, Sam Hell (Roddy Piper), the last fertile man on Earth, is sent on a hazardous mission to rescue eight female captives from a notorious mutant community known as Frogtown.
Mr. Holland's Opus: In an Academy Award-nominated performance Richard Dreyfuss stars as Glenn Holland in this uplifting story about a musician/composer who reluctantly accepts a day job as a teacher. But soon the job becomes his true passion as he strives to inspire his students to love music as much as he does. Broadcast News: Tom (Hurt) is the station's golden boy. Handsome and irresistible he's got everything going for him. Aaron (Brooks) is a brilliant reporter desperate to be a star but destined to fail. Jane (Hunter) is the youngest and most talented producer around. Loved by both men she has to choose between them and her career... Pushing Tin: In the tradition of Grosse Point Blank comes an unconventional comedy about two air traffic controllers whose intense rivalry and penchant for one-upmanship causes hilarious havoc with their careers their marriages - and the planes in their airspace. Nick Falzone (John Cusack) is the busiest and the best air traffic controller on Long Island - until Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) roars into town like a motorcycle - riding cowboy. Fueled by caffeine and machismo the two men embark upon an uproarious contest of wit and wills that can ultimately only have one winner...
Eric Mason's only ambition is to become an astronaut. When he meets a young waitress he discovers to his delight that her father was the thirteenth man on the moon...
A collection of films from acclaimed director Ridley Scott. Gladiator (2000): The great Roman General Maximus (Russell Crowe) has once again led the legions to victory on the battlefield. The war won Maximus dreams of home wanting only to return to his wife and son; however the dying Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris) has one more duty for the general - to assume the mantle of his power. Jealous of Maximus' favor with the emperor the heir to the throne Commodus (J
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