Fatal Attraction was the most controversial hit of 1987, a film nominated for six Oscars that launched a whole up-market psycho sub-genre. In an elaboration of Play Misty for Me (1971), Michael Douglas plays a married middle-class everyman who has an opportunistic weekend affair with New York publishing executive, Glenn Close. The twist is that Close's Alex is a borderline psychotic. She won't let go, and the film moves from a study of modern sexual mores to an increasingly tense thriller about neurotic obsession. The performances are exceptional and two set-pieces, one which gave us the term "Bunny Boiler" and another in a fairground, provide metaphorical and literal rollercoaster rides. Only a laughable sex scene--in a sink, anyone?--and a melodramatic finale shamelessly ripping-off the 1955 French classic Les Diaboliques and Psycho (1960) prevent a good thriller being a great one. Even so, Fatal Attraction is still a film worth seeing again, even if it's hard to wonder what all the fuss was about in 1987. On the DVD: Fatal Attraction on disc has a new 28-minute documentary featuring the principal players explaining how wonderful each other are. More substantial is a 19-minute feature on creating the visual look, with sections on cinematography, costume and make-up design. A worthwhile 10-minute piece examines the social impact of the movie and the controversy it generated. Seven minutes of the three stars in rehearsal is intriguing, but more interesting is the opportunity to see the original, low-key ending, rejected after test screenings. Much of the best documentary material focuses on how the finally released ending came about, while Lyne's commentary is thoughtful and illuminating. The original trailer is included and there are 16 sets of subtitles, including English for the hard of hearing, as well as an alternative German dub. The sound has been remixed from stereo into a subtly involving Dolby Digital 5.1, and the 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer looks fine, though there is some very minor print damage. --Gary S Dalkin
The bustling metropolis of Kansai, where cybernetic screens litter the neon landscape, may seem like a technological utopia at first glance. But in the dark alleys around the brightly-lit buildings, an unforgiving criminal underbelly still exists in the form of fugitives known as Akudama. No stranger to these individuals, Kansai police begin the countdown to the public execution of an infamous Akudama Cutthroat, guilty of killing 999 people. However, a mysterious message is sent to several elite Akudama, enlisting them to free Cutthroat for a substantial amount of money. An invisible hand seeks to gather these dangerous personas in one place, ensuring that the execution is well underway to becoming a full-blown bloodbath.
IN WHITEWOOD, TIME STANDS STILL Christopher Lee was already a horror icon when he started filming The City of the Dead in 1959. Having played Frankenstein's Monster, Count Dracula and The Mummy for Hammer, this new picture would allow him to extend his range to the American Gothic and witchcraft in a small New England village Lee plays Professor Driscoll, an authority on the occult who persuades one of his students (Venetia Stevenson) to research his hometown, Whitewood, once the site of witch burnings in the 17th century. Booking herself into the Raven's Inn, she soon learns that devil worship among the locals hasn't been consigned to the past. Produced by future Amicus founders Milton Subotsky and Max Rosenberg, and beautifully shot by Desmond Dickinson (whose credits ranged from Laurence Olivier's Hamlet to Horrors of the Black Museum), The City of the Dead is a wonderfully atmospheric and still shocking slice of horror that stands firmly alongside with its Hammer contemporaries. SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS: New 4K digital restoration by the Cohen Film Collection and the BFI High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition DVD presentations of two versions of the film: The City of the Dead and the alternative US cut, Horror Hotel Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM Audio Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary by film critic Jonathan Rigby, author of English Gothic: Classic Horror Cinema 1897-2015 and Christopher Lee: An Authorised Screen History, recorded exclusively for this release Trailer Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Graham Humphreys MORE TO BE ANNOUNCED! FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing by Vic Pratt
Tune in with the King of Rock and Roll' with a curated collection of his finest movies. Includes performances of hit songs Wooden Heart , Shoppin Around , Little Egypt , Can't Help Falling In Love', Rock-A-Hula Baby , Bossa Nova Baby and Return To Sender . Lightweight fun and soundtracks to get you on your feet, there is no better gift for Elvis superfans. Collection Includes: G.I Blues Tulsa, a soldier with dreams of running his own nightclub, places a bet with his friend Dynamite that he can win the heart of an untouchable dancer...but when Dynamite is transferred, Tulsa must replace him in the bet. Blue Hawaii After arriving back in Hawaii from the Army, Chad Gates (Elvis Presley) defies his parents' wishes for him to work at the family business and instead goes to work as a tour guide at his girlfriend's agency. Girls! Girls! Girls! When he finds out his boss is retiring to Arizona, a sailor has to find a way to buy the Westwind, a boat that he and his father built. He is also caught between two women: insensitive club singer Robin and sweet Laurel. Roustabout After a singer loses his job at a coffee shop, he finds employment at a struggling carnival, but his attempted romance with a teenager leads to friction with her father. Fun in Acapulco A yacht owner's spoiled daughter gets Mike fired, but a boy helps him get a job as singer at Acapulco Hilton etc. He upsets the lifeguard by taking his girl and 3 daily work hours.
A two-part US TV miniseries here edited into a 122-minute feature, Asteroid was originally rushed onto (television) screens in 1996, well before the one-two big screen punch of Deep Impact and Armageddon. Single mum-cum-astronomy boffin Dr Lily McKee (Annabella Sciorra) works out that a comet is about to divert a meteor shower towards Earth ("at its present rate, Helios would hit with the force of a thousand Hiroshimas and the heat of the Sun") and spends the first half of the film alerting the authorities to the danger, and the second half helping rugged rescue guy Jack Wallach (Michael Biehn) haul survivors out from under the rubble caused when a bunch of minor asteroids collide with the planet (well, America); all while as the usual shenanigans go on to cope with the big, preventable chunk. The script explains everything in children's science lecture terms ("Mom, are we going to die like the dinosaurs?" "I don't think so, honey, we're much smarter than the dinosaurs") and is written in pure comforting cliché-speak ("I'm sure she's serious, but is she for real?"). With its hymn to the quick-thinking authorities and intently cooperating heroes, this may be the most pro-Establishment disaster film ever made: only a few panicky civilians cause any trouble, and we need plot contrivances to get made-for-TV he-man Biehn into danger as he outruns a flood in Kansas City or searches for the heroine's missing kid (Zachary B Charles) in the burning wreckage of Dallas. A large supporting cast of no-name labcoats, uniforms and victims clutter up the screen between the effects. Of course, this can't compete with its big-screen counterparts, but it did get there first, coopting the CGI and modelwork techniques of Independence Day to the rock-from-space sub-genre (cf: Meteor) as cities are smashed, crowds submerged, the planet battered and multitudes saved to order. --Kim Newman
When a cadre of new students can't get onto their college cheerleading team they form their own squad and prepare for a cheer off...
Exploring the territory where art love and sex collide Love is the Devil charts the powerful and dangerous relationship between one of Britain's most controversial artists Francis Bacon (Derek Jacobi) and his lover and muse George Dyer (Daniel Craig).
Victoria Wood Live at the Albert Hall provides proof, if any were needed, that after two decades at the top of her profession, Wood is one of a small handful of British comedians of either sex capable of filling the country's largest venues. For the consistently high quality of her penetrating observations of the mundane she has no equal. Recorded in 2001, this performance has all the hallmarks of her microscopic examinations of life's perplexing minutiae and trivia. From her recent hysterectomy to Paul Daniels, from the NHS help line to wheelie bin covers, from Americans in Disneyworld to the ageism of catalogue mailing lists, nothing escapes Wood's attention. Not even in-vogue authors: she refuses to read "Captain Corelli's friggin' Mandolin" as it sits reproachfully at her bedside. Wood even provides her own interval act: a devastatingly accurate parody of a vulgar, second-rate cabaret singer shot to stardom on the wings of a cruise ship docu-soap. Jane McDonald's sense of humour will never face a harder test. More poignant are Wood's observations on parenthood and marriage, with all the physical ailments of middle age ("We've only got one fully operating leg between us"). She has since separated from her husband, the magician Geoffrey Durham. Fans will await the impact of that on her stand-up material with some interest. --Piers Ford
In the all-new action comedy "Get Smart" Maxwell Smart (Steve Carell) is on a mission to thwart the latest plot for world domination by the evil crime syndicate known as KAOS.
The story of a young man who is bent on becoming the best hoodlum in the underworld society where favours are repaid in kind... or repaid in blood.
Jackie Collins' sweeping story of passion power greed and betrayal spans over 40 years from the tough streets of depression bit New York to the glitz and glamour of Hollywood and Las Vegas.
This underrated comedy-drama by Andrew Fleming may one day be seen as a reflection of the muddled sexual politics of the 1990s. Three dissimilar college students played by Lara Flynn Boyle, Stephen Baldwin and Josh Charles become unlikely best friends, forging a relationship so exclusive it actually troubles onlookers. From the inside, however, the trio are enjoying the safety of their own bond and exploring varying needs of love and sexual adventurousness. Erotic, bawdy, sensuous, mysterious, and nostalgic, Threesome can make a viewer envy the state of grace these characters have found with each other. All three actors have never been better. --Tom Keogh
As Victoria Wood once said, "There's nothing you can't say if you say it in the right way". And she goes on to prove that triumphantly in An Audience with Victoria Wood, recorded in front of fellow celebs (whom she sends up effortlessly, describing her long-time collaborator Julie Walters as "the lady with the split ends"). Victoria Wood may be the queen of suburbia but her endless takes on the finer details of banality have an acuity of which Alan Bennett would be proud. Most people cannot do monologue without lapsing into self-consciousness. But she's just brilliant. Her depiction of a nervy woman attempting to conduct a survey in the street, for instance, is priceless: "Here's my ID. Yes, I do look rather startled. It was taken in a photo booth and someone had just poked an éclair through the curtain". She's like Joyce Grenfell on speed. And it's that surreal juxtaposition of the commonplace and the wacky that makes her routines anything but. Even when she takes up residence at the piano, belting out home-made ballads (and this video includes the famous "Let's Do It"), she's both touching and amusing. At one point, she suggests that the British are no good at having fun. Get this video and prove her wrong. --Harriet Smith
Two giant asteroids are on a collision course with earth hurtling towards us at 34 000mph and each could hit with 10 000 megatons of explosive power creating shock waves and a fireball that would obliterate the human race. From the producers of Courage Under Fire and Predator and the special effects team behind Star Trek. This epic disaster movie is guaranteed to make a big big impact.
Based on the novels ""Chances"" and ""Lucky"" by Jackie Collins this miniseries features the rise of Gino Santangelo in the Las Vegas casino industry... After the brutal murder of her mother the wild teenage Lucky Santangelo is packed off to an elite Swiss finishing school by her heavy-handed father Gino. Frustrated by her over-protective father the self-destructive Lucky soon skips school to go thrill-seeking in Europe's glittering hot spots. The exasperated Gino is not to be denied
A special adaptation of two of Jackie Collins' bestselling novels. A story of passion power and greed that spans forty years and follows the fortunes of Gino Santangelo a tough street kid who grows up to become one of America's wealthiest and most powerful men and his daughter Lucky.
Study for a portrait of Francis Bacon. John Maybury's searing portrait of the English painter Francis Bacon (Derek Jacobi) at the height of his fame in the 1960s is one of the nastiest and most truthful portraits of the artist-as-monster ever filmed. It tells the story of the colossally self-absorbed painter and his self-destructive younger lover George Dyer (Daniel Craig) and begins when Bacon awakens in his studio one night to discover a burglar on the premises. Sizing up
Hathaway and Hudson star as best friends who are pitted against each other when their wedding dates clash. They compete for venues, services and guests, once it's clear that neither will step aside.
Based on the novels ""Chances"" and ""Lucky"" by Jackie Collins this miniseries features the rise of Gino Santangelo in the Las Vegas casino industry... The story begins in 1933 with handsome young street punk Gino Santangelo bootlegging illicit booze while he desperately searches for a way to climb the ladder of success. Catching the eye of a man-hungry socialite he becomes her willing pupil in love-making and her sleazy Senator husband is soon guiding him into the lucrative world of b
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy