Vacationing in northern California, Alfred Hitchcock was struck by a story in a Santa Cruz newspaper: "Seabird Invasion Hits Coastal Homes". From this peculiar incident, and his memory of a short story by Daphne du Maurier, the master of suspense created one of his strangest and most terrifying films. The Birds follows a chic blonde, Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren), as she travels to the coastal town of Bodega Bay to hook up with a rugged fellow (Rod Taylor) she's only just met. Before long the town is attacked by marauding birds, and Hitchcock's skill at staging action is brought to the fore. Beyond the superb effects, however, The Birds is also one of Hitchcock's most psychologically complicated scenarios, a tense study of violence, loneliness, and complacency. What really gets under your skin are not the bird skirmishes but the anxiety and the eerie quiet between attacks. The director elevated an unknown model, Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith), to being his latest cool, blond leading lady, an experience that was not always easy on the much-pecked Ms. Hedren. Still, she returned for the next Hitchcock picture, the underrated Marnie. Treated with scant attention by serious critics in 1963, The Birds has grown into a classic and--despite the sci-fi trappings--one of Hitchcock's most serious films. --Robert Horton
The towering new 4K restoration of the 1976 event movie reimagining of the classic monster story, King Kong. Primate palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) sneaks aboard an expedition to the uncharted Skull Island, warning the ruthless oil executive Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) against exploiting its resources with an ominous message about the roar of the greatest beast from previous doomed explorers. En route they rescue aspiring actress Dwan (Jessica Lange), the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Upon disembarking on the island they discover a strange primitive world of mystery and danger, where the natives live within the confines of a vast wall to protect them from the giant ape god, Kong. Dwan is abducted and offered as a sacrifice to the savage beast, before the crew rescue her and capture Kong to take him to New York. Wilson views him as a profitable Broadway attraction, but the ape has other ideas and escapes to rampage through the streets of the Big Apple. Available for the first time on 4K UHD featuring new artwork by Sophie Bland. Product Features Extended TV Cut (180mins approx) Deleted Scenes Interviews with: Barry Nolan, Bill Kronick, Scott Thaler and Jeffrey Chernov, David McGiffert and Brian E. Frankish, Jack O'Hallor, Steve Varner Original Trailer Audio Commentaries with Ray Morton, Rick Baker
Experience the dazzling story of cinematography as seen through the lenses of the world's greatest filmmakers and captured in classic scenes from over 125 immortal movies. Discover Gordon Willis's secrets of lighting Marlon Brando in The Godfather and Greg Toland's contributions to Citizen Kane. Hear William Fraker on filming Rosemary's Baby; Vittorio Storaro on his use of colour and light in Apocalypse Now; and much much more. From black and white to Te
The towering new 4K restoration of the 1976 event movie reimagining of the classic monster story, King Kong. Primate palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) sneaks aboard an expedition to the uncharted Skull Island, warning the ruthless oil executive Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) against exploiting its resources with an ominous message about the roar of the greatest beast from previous doomed explorers. En route they rescue aspiring actress Dwan (Jessica Lange), the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Upon disembarking on the island they discover a strange primitive world of mystery and danger, where the natives live within the confines of a vast wall to protect them from the giant ape god, Kong. Dwan is abducted and offered as a sacrifice to the savage beast, before the crew rescue her and capture Kong to take him to New York. Wilson views him as a profitable Broadway attraction, but the ape has other ideas and escapes to rampage through the streets of the Big Apple. Product Features Deleted Scenes Interviews with: Barry Nolan, Bill Kronick, Scott Thaler and Jeffrey Chernov, David McGiffert and Brian E. Frankish, Jack O'Hallor, Steve Varner Original Trailer Audio Commentaries with Ray Morton, Rick Baker
In this explosive story of revenge and urban violence Charles Bronson plays Paul Kersey a bleeding-heart liberal who has a change of opinion after his wife and daughter are violently attacked by a gang of thugs in their apartment. His daughter is raped and his wife is raped and murdered. Bronson then turns vigilante as he stalks the mean streets of New York on the prowl for muggers hoodlums and the like. Death Wish is a violent controversial film that is frank and original in its treatment of urban crime and the average citizen's helplessness in dealing with it. Herbie Hancock wrote the musical score and Jeff Goldblum makes his big screen debut as one of the thugs.
The towering new 4K restoration of the 1976 event movie reimagining of the classic monster story, King Kong. Primate palaeontologist Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) sneaks aboard an expedition to the uncharted Skull Island, warning the ruthless oil executive Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) against exploiting its resources with an ominous message about the roar of the greatest beast from previous doomed explorers. En route they rescue aspiring actress Dwan (Jessica Lange), the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Upon disembarking on the island they discover a strange primitive world of mystery and danger, where the natives live within the confines of a vast wall to protect them from the giant ape god, Kong. Dwan is abducted and offered as a sacrifice to the savage beast, before the crew rescue her and capture Kong to take him to New York. Wilson views him as a profitable Broadway attraction, but the ape has other ideas and escapes to rampage through the streets of the Big Apple. Product Features Deleted Scenes Interviews with: Barry Nolan, Bill Kronick, Scott Thaler and Jeffrey Chernov, David McGiffert and Brian E. Frankish, Jack O'Hallor, Steve Varner Original Trailer Audio Commentaries with Ray Morton, Rick Baker
Dino De Laurentiis' remake of the original hairy monster movie features remarkable special effects by Rick Baker. Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) head of an oil drilling expedition to the remote island of Micronesia discovers a stow-away on his ship Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) a zoologist in search of a prehistoric creature fabled to exist on the island. Off the coast of Micronesia they rescue Dwan (Jessica Lange) a beautiful woman shipwrecked in the treacherous seas. On the islan
Jack London's classic tale of the Klondike Gold Rush as we follow the lives of the dog Buck and his master John Thornton.
In this explosive story of revenge and urban violence, Charles Bronson plays Paul Kersey, a bleeding-heart liberal who has a change of opinion after his wife and daughter are violently attacked by a gang of thugs in their apartment. His daughter is sexually assaulted and his wife is murdered. Bronson then turns vigilante as he stalks the mean streets of New York on the prowl for muggers, hoodlums and the like. Death Wish is a violent, controversial film that is frank and original in its treatment of urban crime and the average citizen's helplessness in dealing with it. Herbie Hancock wrote the musical score. And watch for a young Jeff Goldblum in his film debut as one of the thugs. Features: Theatrical Trailer
Sylvester Stallone stars as an FBI agent who goes to a secluded D-Tox centre after a serial killer murders his girl friend, only to find the killer has followed him...
A group of eager young Navy pilots become frustrated when their superiors enact a non-combat strategy against the Japanese. To make matters worse the pilots must answer to a rigid unyielding commander (Ameche). Against all odds the men fly into action in the decisive Battle of Midway. Nominated for a 1944 Best Original Screenplay Oscar'' this stunning war drama uses actual combat footage to tell its engrossing story.
Keep 'Em Flying: When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello the air corps doesn't know what it's in for. Ride 'Em Cowboy: Two peanut vendors at a rodeo show get in trouble with their boss and hide out on a railroad train heading west. They get jobs as cowboys on a dude ranch despite the fact that neither of them knows anything about cowboys horses or anything else.
King Kong: The Legend Reborn (1976) Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) head of an oil drilling expedition to the remote island of Micronesia discovers a stow-away on his ship Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) a zoologist in search of a prehistoric creature fabled to exist on the island. Off the coast of Micronesia they rescue Dwan (Jessica Lange) a beautiful woman shipwrecked in the treacherous seas. On the island the expedition witness a mysterious ritual to a strange beast called Kong. They soon realise that Kong is the gigantic ape that Prescott is searching for... Producer Dino De Laurentiis' remake of the original hairy monster movie features remarkable special effects by Rick Baker. King Kong Lives! (1986) The mighty ape is resurrected through a miracle of modern medicine and brings him together with what will be the equally terrifying love of his life: Lady Kong... This version of the classic story picks up from where the 1976 version left off.
This 1997 thriller For Hire ponders the question of what terrible things a person might be persuaded to do, given the right circumstances and the right price. Rob Lowe plays Mitch, a Chicago cab driver trying to make it as an actor, married to the pregnant Faye. Among his clients are bestselling writer Lou Weber (Joe Mantegna), who befriends Mitch and confides in him that a drug dealer is trying to kill him. Over the next few days, Mitch begins to suffer severe stomach pains, collapsing in Weber's apartment after a fare and is diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer. With only a short time to live, he decides to take up Weber's offer to rub out his drug dealer stalker for $50,000, a nest egg for his family after he's gone. A not entirely unpredictable twist follows, hinted at by the Lucifer-like beard sported by Mantegna and the film alights only briefly to meditate on the potential for evil in all of us before resuming its journey along conventional, though certainly passable Hollywood thriller lines. An intriguing precept--it's just a slight shame that neither the players nor director's hearts seem really to be in this movie. On the DVD: Features a trailer. --David Stubbs
Jim Kelly, the star of Black Samurai, was a multi-talented martial artist perhaps best remembered for his role in Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. Black Samurai is essentially a vehicle for his fighting skills in which he plays a secret agent out to retrieve his Japanese sweetheart from the drug-dealing Satanist who has abducted her to blackmail her father. His investigative skills are almost non-existent--much of the plot consists of his arriving at the villains' houses and hitting people. At the same time, the character's utter ruthlessness and the extravagant evil of the villains, the chief of whom, Jannicot, is in the habit of sicking a vulture on his enemies, are entertaining enough and the 1970s styling unselfconsciously entertaining. The director, Al Adamson, was mostly famous for his horror films, and there is a Gothic extravagance to the sets and gimmicks here: Kelly's jet-pack sequence has to be seen to be believed. On the DVD: The DVD comes with a wonderful period trailer for The Green Hornet, the usual chapter selection, biographies of Kelly and Adamson (who was murdered in 1995) and a feature which enables you to look at the fight scenes in isolation. --Roz Kaveney
Death Of A Salesman is the outstanding adaptation of Arthur Miller's stage masterpiece about Willie Loman - the emotionally broken-down salesman coming to terms with his life and his family after being fired from his life-long job. This drama remains one of the most poignant and powerful stories in modern theatre...
I Am Soldier follows Mickey (Tom Hughes, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll) taking on the most dangerous military training known to man: SAS selection. The Special Air Service is the UK's most renowned Special Forces regiment, tasked with missions in some of the most dangerous and hostile locations on the planet. Mickey is smashed by the grueling selection process- physically, mentally and emotionally. But, when the Counter Terrorism Squadron take charge of a deadly situation, Mickey, Carter (Noel Clarke, Star Trek Into Darkness) and their fellow recruits advance into conflict to see if they really do have what it takes . Many try to get into the SAS. Only the elite prevail.
Dino De Laurentiis' remake of the original hairy monster movie features remarkable special effects by Rick Baker. Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) head of an oil drilling expedition to the remote island of Micronesia discovers a stow-away on his ship Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) a zoologist in search of a prehistoric creature fabled to exist on the island. Off the coast of Micronesia they rescue Dwan (Jessica Lange) a beautiful woman shipwrecked in the treacherous seas. On the island the expedition witness a mysterious ritual to a strange beast called Kong. They soon realise that Kong is the gigantic ape that Prescott is searching for.
The opening of Shoot the Piano Player, François Truffaut's second feature film, is one of the signal moments of the French New Wave--an inspired intersection of grim fatality and happy accident, location shooting and lurid melodrama, movie convention and frowzy, uncontainable life. A man runs through deserted night streets, stalked by the lights of a car. It's a definitive film noir situation, promptly sidetracked--yet curiously not undercut--by real-life slapstick: watching over his shoulder for pursuers, the running man charges smack into a lamppost. The figure that helps him to his feet is not one of the pursuers (they've oddly disappeared) but an anonymous passer-by, who proceeds to escort him for a block or two, genially schmoozing about the mundane, slow-blooming glories of marriage. The Good Samaritan departs at the next turning, never to be identified and never to be seen again. And the first man--who, despite this evocative introduction, is not even destined to be the main character of the movie--immediately resumes his helter-skelter flight from an as-yet-unspecified and unseen menace. At this point in his career--right after The 400 Blows, just before his great Jules and Jim--the world seemed wide for Truffaut, as wide as the Dyaliscope screen that he and cinematographer Raoul Coutard deployed with unprecedented spontaneity and lyricism. Anything might wander into frame and become part of the flow: an oddball digression, an unexpected change of mood, a small miracle of poetic insight. The official agenda of the movie is adapting a noir-ish story by American writer David Goodis, about a celebrated concert musician (Charles Aznavour) hiding out as a piano player in a saloon. He's on the run as much as the guy--his older brother--in the first scene. But whereas the brother is worried about a couple of buffoonish gangsters, Charlie Koller is ducking out on life, love and the possibility that he might be hurt, or cause hurt, again. Decades after its original release, Shoot the Piano Player remains as fresh, exhilarating, and heartbreaking--as open to the magic of movies and life--as ever. --Richard T Jameson
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