After a nine-year break from the genre that made him an international star (the Western just before this one was The Outlaw Josey Wales, from 1976), Clint Eastwood returned in this gritty Western, crafted in the tradition of Shane and High Noon. Eastwood directed and stars as the nameless stranger known only as "Preacher" because he rides into a beleaguered mining town wearing a clerical collar. He's either an agent of death or an angel of mercy, and the echoes of Shane ring loud and clear when he comes to the aid of independent miners who are being terrorized by a local tycoon (Richard Dysart) and his ruthless band of hired guns. Befriended by a miner (Michael Moriarty) and idolized by the miner's wife and daughter (played by Carrie Snodgress and Sydney Penny, respectively), the "Pale Rider" sparks the defiant spirit of the underdog miners and takes after the bad guys with single-minded purpose. --Jeff Shannon
EL CAMINO: A BREAKING BAD MOVIE reunites fans with Jesse Pinkman (Emmy® Award-winner[i] Aaron Paul). In the wake of his dramatic escape from captivity, Jesse must come to terms with his past in order to forge some kind of future. This riveting thriller was written and directed by Vince Gilligan, the creator of Breaking Bad.
The writer-producer-director team of Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers (Father of the Bride) can't lift this sugary ode to Howard Hawks's His Girl Friday to a believable--let alone enjoyable--plateau. Neither, unfortunately, can its two great and perfectly cast leads, Nick Nolte and Julia Roberts. As competing newspaper reporters after the same story, there should be enough sparks and brilliantly barbed dialogue flying between them to resurrect the screwball comedy genre of classic Hollywood. But the material isn't there, the charisma isn't there, and the direction (by Shyer) certainly isn't there. At more than two hours, I Love Trouble begins to dismantle itself, and the cute factor becomes a pain. --Tom Keogh
Features SHOOT THE PIANIST, JULES ET JIM, THE SOFT SKIN, ANNE & MURIEL, A GORGEOUS GIRL LIKE ME, THE LAST METRO, THE WOMAN NEXT DOOR, FINALLY SUNDAY Extras Audio commentaries Presentations by Serge Toubiana on all titles Deleted scenes Trailers
One of Alfred Hitchcock's finest pre-Hollywood films, the 1936 Secret Agent stars a young John Gielgud as a British spy whose death is faked by his intelligence superiors. Reinvented with a new identity and outfitted with a wife (Madeleine Carroll), Gielgud's character is sent on assignment with a cold-blooded accomplice (Peter Lorre) to assassinate a German agent. En route, the counterfeit couple keeps company with an affable American (Robert Young), who turns out to be more than he seems after the wrong man is murdered by Gielgud and Lorre. Dense with interwoven ideas about false names and real identities, about appearances as lies and the brutality of the hidden, and about the complicity of those who watch the anarchy that others do, Secret Agent declared that Alfred Hitchcock was well along the road to mastery as a filmmaker and, more importantly, knew what it was he wanted to say for the rest of his career. --Tom Keogh
Buddy Holly laid the foundations for a generation of popular music with his ground-breaking combination of country music and rhythm & blues. This film tells his story from its explosive beginning to its tragic end with Gary Busey giving an electrifying Oscar nominated performance (Best Actor - 1978) as the young genius from Lubbock Texas who changed the tune of rock 'n' roll history. Young Buddy's studious appearance gave no hint of the 'new music' which was about to take the world by storm. His unique brand of rock 'n' roll catapulted him and the Crickets to national stardom in just three short years with hits such as That'll Be The Day and Peggy Sue. Despite opposition from the mainly redneck Texas community his mother who nagged him to get a proper job and his girlfriend who wanted to tame him - by the age of 22 Holly had it all but the trials and tribulations of fame began to take it's toll and his brilliant career ended in tragedy all too quickly. The Buddy Holly Story is one of the best biopics ever produced for cinema and features 12 of his greatest hit songs as well as winning the 1978 Academy Award for Best Score Adaptation. It's a dynamic tribute to one of the most influential rock 'n' rollers of all time and his legacy.
A dark and compelling thriller exploring what happens when heinous crimes, long buried in the past, come back to haunt us. Created and written by Kate Brooke (Mr Selfridge, Ice Cream Girls, The Making of a Lady), leading actress Sarah Parish (Broadchurch, W1A, Cutting It) plays respected police officer Detective Superintendent Elizabeth Bancroft. Ruthless and courageous, Bancroft is a brilliant copper. She has given her life to the police force. But when ambitious fast-tracked recruit, Katherine Stevens joins the force, played by acclaimed actress Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones, Black Mirror, Love Nina), Katherine takes on a cold case and unwittingly disturbs the ghosts of Bancroft's devastating past. With strong female characters at its heart and a detective with an explosive secret, this original crime drama is packed full of twists.
Inspired by a true incident during World War II in 'The Train' Burt Lancaster plays a French Resistance fighter doggedly attempting to stop a train used by the Nazis (led by Paul Scofield as Colonel Von Waldheim) to steal precious French art treasures in the summer of 1944. Featuring spectacular action sequences expertly directed by John Frankenheimer 'The Train' is a truly thrilling war film. The Oscar-nominated screenplay by Franklin Coen and Frank Davis superbly recreates the te
To Catch a Thief is not one of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest, but it's arguably his most stylish thriller, loved as much for the elegantly erotic banter between Grace Kelly and Cary Grant as for the suspense that ensues when retired burglar Grant attempts to net the copycat diamond thief. The action, much of it shot on location, hugs the coast of the French Riviera; John Michael Hayes' screenplay crackles with doubles entendres; and Edith Head's dresses define the aloof poise of one of cinema's more enigmatic icons. If anything is missing, it's the undertow of black humour which snags the unsuspecting viewer in so many of Hitchcock's greater films. Here, the edge is supplied by the splendid Jessie Royce Landis as Kelly's vulgar, worldly mother; her special way with a fried egg is one of those cinematic moments which linger in the mind with almost pornographic disgust. History, of course, delivered its own ironic blow years later when the then Princess Grace of Monaco died in an accident on the very road where Kelly and Grant shot their exhilarating car chase. Portents aside, she remains Hitchcock's most alluring and sophisticated heroine. On the DVD: To Catch a Thief is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, which distils the distinctive qualities of the VistaVision cinematography, and with a mono Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. Interesting extras include several mini-documentaries in which Hitchcock's daughter and granddaughter, among others, reminisce about the great director, censor problems over the risqué dialogue, the talents of costume designer Edith Head, and the peculiar difficulties of shooting in VistaVision. An original theatrical trailer is another bonus. --Piers Ford
This bloody crime thriller unites again Death Wish regular collaborators Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner. Bronson stars as an ex-New York City cop who is banished to the L.A. Police Department where he begins investigating a mysterious chain of events involving ex-soldiers, the Mafia and a violent campaign of murder. Extras Indicator Standard Edition Special Features: High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary by journalist and critic Nick Pinkerton Mr. Blonde: Paul Koslo on The Stone Killer' (2017, 17 mins): the colourful character actor discusses his work on the film and relationship with star Charles Bronson The John Player Lecture with Michael Winner (1970, 64 mins): audio recording of an interview with the director conducted by Margaret Hinxman at the National Film Theatre, London Isolated score: experience Roy Budd's original soundtrack music Original theatrical trailer Image gallery: on-set and production photography, and material from the personal collection of Michael Winner New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Original release: 1973 Colour/ B&W: Colour
A musical remake of the classic 1937 film of the same name, A Star is Born was designed as Judy Garland's comeback vehicle after she had been cruelly axed by MGM studios for professional unreliability. Her erratic moods caused serious production delays this time around, too, but the behind-the-scenes turmoil was certainly worth it--Garland gives just about the greatest one-woman show in movie history. The story is the stuff of pure Hollywood legend. Aspiring actress-singer Esther Blodgett meets fading matinee idol Norman Maine (James Mason), who navigates her to stardom under the more melodious handle of Vickie Lester. As she rises meteorically, he declines into alcoholic self-pity--and the result, if you haven't guessed, is plenty of heartbreak. Mason lends subtle support in a role Cary Grant refused as too downbeat for his image, but Garland grabs centre stage with an all-out emotional performance that rivets the attention. Director George Cukor was famous for coaxing the very best out of screen divas, and A Star is Born must be counted as his crowning achievement. The lush visual style that he contributes provides a suitable setting for Garland's deep, rich voice--throbbing with melancholy in the Harold Arlen-Ira Gershwin ballad "The Man That Got Away", then capering joyfully in the gargantuan musical number "Born in a Trunk". Moss Hart's script takes many cynical swipes at the pretensions of Tinsel Town--perhaps too many for the taste of studio boss Jack Warner, who ordered drastic cuts in the film after its premiere. --Peter Matthews
Did Rebecca Carlson (MADONNA) use her body as a weapon for murder or instrument for love? Carlson, a striking and seductive young gallery owner, stands accused of using her sexual wiles to murder her much older and very wealthy lover in order to inherit his estate. Ambitious District Attorney, Robert Garrett (JOE MANTEGNA), presses for a conviction and his primary witness is Joanne Braslow (ANNE ARCHER), the victim's very devoted personal secretary who is armed with eyewitness accusations about Carlson's deviant ways. Carlson hires Portland, Oregon's finest attorney to defend her, the aggressive and cocky Frank Dulaney (WILLEM DAFOE). He is a seemingly straight-laced family man taking on a case of prurient proportions. With Dulaney's powers of persuasion, Carlson has the best possible defence as the dramatic trial unfolds. Will Dulaney be able to defend himself from the extraordinary allure of his new client? And how will his obsessive curiosity about Carlson allow him to objectively examine the body of evidence before him? Product Features Brand New Interviews Body Talk: Undressing Madonna's controversial cult classic (with Executive Producer Stephen (Deutsch) Simon). Evidence of Excellence: The scandal, sex and shocks of a provocative pot-boiler (With Lucy O'Brien author of Madonna: Like an Icon). Erotic Inclinations: Kim Newman on the early nineties skin-flick phenomenon.
George A. Romero's terrifying classic, the movie that invented the zombie genre, in a stunning new 4K restoration. Shot outside Pittsburgh on a shoestring budget by a band of filmmakers determined to make their mark, Night of the Living Dead, directed by horror master GEORGE A. ROMERO, is one of the great stories of independent cinema: a midnight hit turned boxoffice smash that became one of the most influential films of all time. A deceptively simple tale of a group of strangers trapped in a farmhouse who find themselves fending off a horde of recently dead, flesheating ghouls, Romero's claustrophobic vision of a late1960s America literally tearing itself apart rewrote the rules of the horror genre, combined gruesome gore with acute social commentary, and quietly broke ground by casting a black actor (DUANE JONES) in its lead role. Stark, haunting, and more relevant than ever, Night of the Living Dead is back, in a new 4K restoration.
Angela Lansbury stars as supersleuth Miss Marple who sets about solving a mysterious death in the archetypal English village of St. Mary Mead. It features an all star cast including Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor. EXTRAS: Interview with writer Barry Sandler Interview with Dame Angela Lansbury Interview with producer Richard Goodwin Behind the scenes stills gallery Storyboard gallery
A Star Is Born: This film marked Judy Garland's return to movies after a four year absence director George Cukor's first musical and first colour film and a showcase for the great Harold Arlen/Ira Gershwin songs in state-of-the-art stereo. One of the most beloved show business stories of all time A Star Is Born: represents a career peak for many involved. Garland is singer Esther Blodgett an undeniable talent on the rise. She catches the eye of Norman Maine (James M
Ninety Minutes. Six Bullets. No Choice. The clock is ticking for Johnny Depp in Nick Of Time a twist-filled race-against-time thriller directed by John Badham. And indeed it is a race filmed in ""real time"" so that onscreen events unfold minute by nail-biting minute as they would in real life. No sooner does accountant arrive at L.A.'s Union Station with his six-year-old daughter than he's plunged into a nightmare. Two shadowy strangers separate Watson from his little girl sl
Golden-age Hollywood's humanist master Leo Mccarey (Make Way for Tomorrow) brings his graceful touch and relaxed naturalism to this sublime romance, one of cinema's most intoxicating tear-wringers. Irene Dunne(The Awful Truth) and Charles Boyer (Gaslight) are chic strangers who meet and fall in love aboard an ocean liner bound for New York. Though they are both involved with other people, they make a pact to reconnect six months later at the top of the Empire State Buildinguntil the hand of fate throws their star-crossed affair tragically off course. Swooning passion and gentle comedy coexist in perfect harmony in the exquisitely tender Love Affair (nominated for six Oscars), a story so timeless that it has been remade by multiple filmmakers over the yearsincluding McCarey himself, who updated it as the equally beloved An Affair to Remember Special Features New 4K digital restoration by The Museum of Modern Art and Lobster Films, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray New interview with film critic Farran Smith Nehme about the movie's complicated production history New interview with Serge Bromberg, founder of Lobster Films, about the restoration Two radio adaptations, featuring Irene Dunne, William Powell, and Charles Boyer Two shorts directed by Leo McCarey, both starring silent comedian Charley Chase: Looking for Sally (1925) and Mighty Like a Moose (1926) English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by author Megan McGurk
Carry On Don't Lose Your Head parodies the adventures of the Scarlet Pimpernel, with crinkly cackling Sid James as master of disguise the Black Fingernail and Jim Dale as his assistant Lord Darcy. He must rescue preposterously effete aristocrat Charles Hawtrey from the clutches of Kenneth Williams' fiendish Citizen Camembert and his sidekick Citizen Bidet (Peter Butterworth). The Black Fingernail is assisted in his efforts to thwart the birth of the burgeoning republic by the almost supernatural stupidity of his opponents, who fail to recognise the frankly undisguisable Sid James even when dressed as a flirty young woman. What with an executioner who is tricked into beheading himself in order to prove the efficacy of his own guillotine, it's all a little too easy. As usual, no groan-worthy pun is left unturned, or unheralded by the soundtrack strains of a long whistle or wah-wah trumpet. This is pretty silly stuff even by Carry On standards, with most of the cast barely required to come out of first gear and an overlong climactic swordfight sequence hardly raising the dramatic stakes. Most of the humour here resides neither in the script nor the characterisation but in the endlessly watchable Williams' whooping, nasal delivery (occasionally lapsing into broad Cockney) and the jowl movements of the always-underrated Butterworth. --David Stubbs
It's not quite as clever as it tries to be, but The Game does a tremendous job of presenting the story of a rigid control freak trapped in circumstances that are increasingly beyond his control. Michael Douglas plays a rich, divorced, and dreadful investment banker whose 48th birthday reminds him of his father's suicide at the same age. He's locked in the cage of his own misery until his rebellious younger brother (Sean Penn) presents him with a birthday invitation to play "The Game" (described as "an experiential Book of the Month Club")--a mysterious offering from a company called Consumer Recreation Services. Before he knows the game has even begun, Douglas is caught up in a series of unexplained events designed to strip him of his tenuous security and cast him into a maelstrom of chaos. How do you play a game that hasn't any rules? That's what Douglas has to figure out, and he can't always rely on his intelligence to form logic out of what's happening to him. Seemingly cast as the fall guy in a conspiracy thriller, he encounters a waitress (Deborah Unger) who may or may not be trustworthy, and nothing can be taken at face value in a world turned upside down. Douglas is great at conveying the sheer panic of his character's dilemma, and despite some lapses in credibility and an anticlimactic ending, The Game remains a thinking person's thriller that grabs and holds your attention. Thematic resonance abounds between this and Seven and Fight Club, two of the other films by The Game 's director David Fincher. -- Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
At the heart of Henry VIII stands a towering performance by Ray Winstone, who literally grows into the role, impressively doubling in size and ageing 40 years over the course of two feature-length episodes. Focusing on Henry's relationships with his six wives, this lavish mini-series also makes a good job of explaining the complex court intrigues of the period, detailing Henry's split with Rome and the political crisis following the creation of the Church of England. Winstone initially seems to play the King as little more than a London gangster, but he gradually unfolds a complex, brutal, manipulative, romantic, dedicated and driven man with great skill. In a role which harks back to Lady Jane (1986), Helena Bonham Carter makes an intelligent and sardonic Anne Boleyn, her bold performance contrasting strongly with Geneviève Bujold in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). Emily Blunt impresses as the sexpot Katherine Howard, and Emilia Fox is compelling as Henry's greatest love, Jane Seymour. There's fine support from an all-star cast, including Sean Bean, Charles Dance and David Suchet. The production is unflinching, with burnings, torture, marital violence and executions graphically portrayed. If there's a weakness it lies in too-modern dialogue and an uncertain visual style, with noticeable borrowings from John Boorman's Excalibur and Ridley Scott's Gladiator, as well as setting Shakespeare in Love-style elegance against the ugly colours and graininess of reality TV. Ultimately Henry VIII plays most like a prequel to Elizabeth (1999)--right down to using the same piece of Elgar to underscore the finale--and has most of the same faults and virtues as that Oscar-winning film. --Gary S Dalkin
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