A flawed but stylish adaptation of the Chester Gould comic strip by director Warren Beatty, who also stars in the title role. The minimalist plot involves a battalion of baddies who confront the intrepid detective in a series of strung-together vignettes. Al Pacino is a comedic if overblown standout as Big Boy Caprice and Madonna simply smoulders as aggressive blonde bombshell Breathless Mahoney. It matters not that the plot is Spartan, as this dazzling eye candy is much enhanced by Stephen Sondheim's songs, including the Academy Award-winning ditty, "Sooner or Later (I Always Get My Man)". Beatty took his cue from the source material and concentrated on the relationships between these people, whether strained, romantic or hateful. The performances are subtle and more amusing than you would expect from such a visually bold picture. Shot in bright, primary colours, this also won Oscars for Best Art/Set Direction and Makeup (for those inventively hideous criminals). Watch for well-known names, such as Dustin Hoffman and Dick Van Dyke, in cameo appearances and supporting roles. --Rochelle O'Gorman
Shia LaBeouf stars as a budding Wall Street broker taken under the wing of the financial district's prodigal son, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas).
City Lights: The Tramp struggles to help a blind flower girl with whom he has fallen in love. The Kid: The Tramp cares for an abandoned child but events put that relationship in jeopardy... The Circus: The Tramp finds work and the girl of his dreams at a circus... Monsieur Verdoux: A suave yet cynical man supports his family by marrying and murdering rich women for their money but the job has some unforseen occupational hazards... Also include
From Dominic Brunt, director of Before Dawn and Bait, a satirical and sexy shockerunlike anything you've ever seen before. A home invasion forces two teenagers to break into a remote country manor and steal Top Secret documents. Little do they know the stately pile is also the venue where a group of nappy-happy high-powered middle-aged men go to take refuge from the stresses of daily life by dressing as babies and indulging their every perverse nursery whim. Nor do they realise that this grotesque assembly intends to refuel the world's economy by very sinister, sick and monstrous means.
Like any good brand, the Rolling Stones know to preserve the formula even when updating the package, and this long-form concert video underscores that market strategy. As with each of their tours since the early 1980s, the quartet, augmented by a discreet auxiliary of backup musicians, gives the fans new eye-candy while dishing up a familiar set list spiked with Mick Jagger's lip-smacking vocals and Keith Richards' signature guitar riffs. The visual twists are at once spectacular and conservative: a cyclopean main stage design with massive pillars (presumably the Babylonian connection), a vast oval video screen (shades of Big Brother), and a hydraulic bridge enabling a mid-concert sortie into the audience, with the Stones playing a more stripped-down, intimate set on a small satellite stage. That huge physical setting doubtless made the live shows eye-filling rock spectacles, but the video crew necessarily accepts the limitations of the small screen, focusing more on close-ups of the band, rapid cuts, and racing, hand-held tracking shots to convey excitement while keeping the viewer close to the action. The evening's repertoire sticks to the band's most familiar hits, and if the Glimmer Twins occasionally slip their masks to let the routine show, the real wonder is how effectively they keep the playing focused. During the first half of the programme, the band's newest songs (especially "Saint of Me" and "Out of Control") elicit conspicuously higher energy from the band, if not the audience. But just as the show seems doomed to a certain anonymity, the escape onto the smaller, no-frills stage pumps up players and crowd alike, particularly when they launch into "Like a Rolling Stone", a cover that winds up sounding like a great idea too long deferred. --Sam Sutherland, Amazon.com
This Chaplin Collection DVD box set contains the following films, also available separately: The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), The Circus (1928), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), The Great Dictator (1940), Monsieur Verdoux (1947) and Limelight (1952). Full details can be found in our Chaplin Collection feature. There are also two films exclusive to this box set: A Woman of Paris (1923) and A King in New York (1957), plus the documentary Charlie: The Life and Art of Charles Chaplin--see DVD Description below.
From Dominic Brunt, director of Before Dawn and Bait, a satirical and sexy shocker unlike anything you've ever seen before. A home invasion forces two teenagers to break into a remote country manor and steal Top Secret documents. Little do they know the stately pile is also the venue where a group of nappy-happy high-powered middle-aged men go to take refuge from the stresses of daily life by dressing as babies and indulging their every perverse nursery whim. Nor do they realise that this grotesque assembly intends to refuel the world's economy by very sinister, sick and monstrous means.
From Dominic Brunt, director of BEFORE DAWN and BAIT, a satirical and sexy shocker unlike anything you've ever seen before. A home invasion forces two teenagers to break into a remote country manor and steal top secret documents. Little do they know the stately pile is also the venue where a group of nappy-happy high-powered middle-aged men go to take refuge from the stresses of daily life by dressing as babies and indulging their every perverse nursery whim. Nor do they realise that this grotesque assembly intends to refuel the world's economy by very sinister, sick and monstrous means.
This 1991 concert film was shot in the IMAX format and was originally presented on enormous IMAX screens, with outstanding visual and audio clarity. The dimensions may have been scaled down for this DVD release, but the show is still huge in energy and talent. Filmed during a European leg of the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour, this production boasts 15 songs and an extraordinary stage set with inflatable floozies (for "Honky Tonk Woman") and wild dogs (rather cleverly for "Street Fighting Man"). The Stones' set emphasises material from the late 1960s and early 70s ("Tumbling Dice", "Happy", "You Can't Always Get What You Want"), but the band's performance is so furious that the show is far from a pandering oldies act. Highlights include "Paint it Black", at once brutal and delicate, as well as a muscular "Rock and a Hard Place", a psychedelicised "2,000 Light Years from Home", and a cheeky "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll". Once kings of a gloriously sloppy sound, the Stones prove to be as effective in their artistic maturity with small, breathtaking touches as they are with chunky orchestration. Guitarists Keith Richards and Ron Wood play as if they are of one mind, Richards providing powerful leads while his partner captures some of the texture of the group's original recordings. Bassist Bill Wyman, still in the band at this phase, offers wit and an encyclopaedic grasp of rhythm & blues history, while drummer Charlie Watts adds control and swing. Mick Jagger prowls, climbs around the set, and delivers all the charismatic goods for adoring audiences, even touching the forbidden fruit again in a feverish performance of "Sympathy for the Devil". The DVD also includes a full Stones discography. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
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