Originally made for American TV, Switching Goals stars Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen as super-identical twins who are actually total opposites. OK, it's not the freshest concept in the universe, but the teen divas (who also exec produce--as they did in their Passport to Paris) are an undeniable favourite with little girls. Here, they're Sam, the athletic one, and Emma, the fashion-conscious one. Their indulgent dad (Eric Lutes) coaches a soccer team and their workaholic mother (Kathryn Greenwood) is a psychologist. Look for a switch, the truth to be revealed, and all to end well. This TV movie should appeal to girls between 4 and 10, especially if any of them are handy on the soccer pitch.--N.F. Mendoza, Amazon.com
Paramount released a first-rate Western, El Dorado, in 1967, and another, True Grit, in 1969. So why was the studio's 1968 oater such a hunk of buzzard bait? You know Five Card Stud's in trouble from the opening credits--they're too short to accommodate the Dean Martin title song, so that it spills awkwardly into the first scene. The timing never does come out right--not in the lethargic pacing, not in the lax editing (which often leaves cast members stranded onscreen at scene's end), and not in the herky-jerky screenplay, which either lurches over intervals of weeks (months?) or piles up enough calamities in one day to stock a sequel. Even the end comes five minutes and two anticlimactic scenes late. An after-hours poker game is underway as the film begins. A stranger is caught cheating and, over the objection of professional gambler Dean Martin, lynched. Soon there's another stranger in town, black-clad preacher Robert Mitchum, and participants in the fatal card game start dying grotesque, solitary deaths. Five Card Stud wants to be a psychological mystery, but there's scant psychology and no mystery at all beyond why the filmmakers thought any viewer could fail to figure it out. Martin and Mitchum sleepwalk through their roles (Martin's includes a glum, ludicrously written romance with brothel-keeper Inger Stevens), while Roddy McDowall camps up his turn as spoiled son of the local range baron. Somewhere in the middle, the young Yaphet Kotto plays it admirably cool as a philosophical bartender.
Homicide: The Complete Series (33 Discs)
Flintstone's Christmas Carol
A gentle, Oscar-nominated comedy featuring a memorably charming performance from Alec Guinness, The Card co-stars Valerie Hobson, Glynis Johns and Petula Clark in an early performance. Stylishly directed by Ronald Neame, it is featured here as a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio. A precocious child who has grown into a cheeky charmer, ambitious Denry Machin relishes the challenge of surmounting social and other barriers with his amiably affectionate personality. He soon becomes the youngest ever mayor of his home town, but he soon meets his match when it comes to women! Special Features: Theatrical Trailer Image Gallery
This sweeping Civil War-era romance won 10 Oscars (including Best Picture) and its immortal character Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) Rhett (Clark Gable) Ashley (Leslie Howard) Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) and Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) populate an epic story of enduring appeal across generations.
Elvis: Films That Rock contains three of the King's early screen efforts: Love Me Tender (1956), Flaming Star (1960) and Wild in the Country (1961). It's pointless to suggest that they aren't among Elvis's best movies (you'll have to look elsewhere for King Creole and Jailhouse Rock, which probably are), partly because any fan's going to want them all anyway, but also because all three are interesting in their different ways. Love Me Tender, made in black and white in 1956, was Presley's first stab at acting, and this story of a family split by the American Civil War--one brother goes off to fight, the other doesn't--sees him short on screentime and being upstaged by pretty much everyone else. That said, it was a reasonably brave move for Presley to begin his movie career by dealing with this kind of subject matter, however sentimentalised. Four years later, Flaming Star took the steer by the horns with Presley portraying a young man of mixed parentage caught up in the ethnic conflict between Native Americans and the white race. Again, a brave choice of subject; this was a landmark movie insofar as it showed Presley certainly had enough acting ability to create a credible parallel career along the lines of, say, Sinatra. It wasn't to be, though, as even then his talents were being manipulated by others, which is why all his later movies--even the best ones--were little more than advertisements for his records. Wild in the Country, from the following year, saw Presley as a young tearaway who finds redemption in his talent for writing. It's pure melodrama, but the moralising is kept under control. This is a nice little collection, all in all, and an essential for any fan. On the DVD: Elvis: Films That Rock presents the three pictures in positively radiant transfers, which are absolutely gunge-free and make the very best of the beautifully stylised lighting and cinematography of the period, while the classic Cinemascope presentations translate perfectly into widescreen. Special features include trailers for all three movies. --Roger Thomas
Mr Bultitude is returning his reluctant son Dick to boarding school when he announces he wishes he were a boy again. Being in the possession of the Garuda Stone a magical Indian treasure his wish is granted. Moments later his son takes the stone and wishes to be an adult. So the two swap roles and lives but as they both live out their desires they get slightly more than they bargained for. Based on the acknowledged masterpiece of Victorian comic literature by F. Anstey this i
In this war-era comedy, a ragtag band of journalists working for a military magazine have three days to put together an issue and, faced with too few stories and too little time, the gang turns to a shady character for help. At the end of the Second World War, the editor of the famed army weekly Yank magazine (Golden Globe-winner George Nader, Four Guns to the Border) flies across the Pacific with his staff to document life in post-war Japan. Handed an impossibly tight deadline, they head to Tokyo's black market to search for story ideas, where they stumble upon underworld con-artist Joe Butterfly (Oscar-nominee Burgess Meredith, Rocky). Butterfly offers the Yank staff an alternative to their run-down offices, setting them up in a plush, private mansion but the new headquarters, frequented by a few local ladies, are seriously against regulations. As the Yank staffers one played by war hero and Hollywood legend Audie Murphy (To Hell and Back), among others scramble to put together an issue, the sticky situation they find themselves in grows increasingly absurd, and laughs abound.
John Boorman makes his directorial debut with this cult 1960s story in which Dave Clark appears as a stuntman who gives up the rat-race to see the real world along with the Dave Clark Five Band and Dave's model girlfriend. On a sunny island they mix with beatniks and society people while singing Top Ten hits during a wild weekend as agents ad men and the press try to catch them if they can...
Werewolf Of London: The first Hollywood film to explore a werewolf on the silver screen a creature rooted in folklore worldwide. Directed by American Stuart Walker and starring Henry Hull Warner Oland and Valerie Hobson. Werewolf of London chronicles the life of botanist Dr Wilfred Glendon who sets off on an expedition to the Himalayas to find the marifisa lupina lumina a rare orchid that only blooms by moonlight. When he finds the unique plant he is attacked and injured b
Norman Wisdom reprises his famous Pitkin character for the third time in A Stitch in Time, and Edward Chapman is also back to provide Norman with the excuse to reprise his immortal catch-phrase "Mr Grimsdale!". Here he succeeds in causing chaos in a St John Ambulance unit, as well as donning drag to play a blonde nurse complete with suspender belt and silk stockings. Each Norman Wisdom movie usually sees him as the accidental Lord of Misrule in one institution or another, and this time it's the NHS: after being banned from his local hospital, Norman resorts to subterfuge to visit a little orphan girl. There's an autobiographical touch here, as Wisdom himself was raised in an orphanage and centred the plot of One Good Turn (1954) around such an establishment. --Gary S Dalkin An important step in the career of Norman Wisdom, Just My Luck is principally notable for the introduction of actor Edward Chapman, whom many would come to know as series regular Mr Grimsdale. Here he's the stuffy foil to Norman's romantic plans regarding his jewel-making job, where he'll do anything to possess some of the wealth about him. The chance comes in the form of an accumulator bet at Goodwood races thanks to a slimy Leslie Phillips. Another star cameo of note was a second appearance by Margaret Rutherford (after Trouble in Store) as an eccentric animal owner. But the real advance with the Wisdom formula was that--after a reasonably serious plot line--Norman finally gets the girl. --Paul Tonks
From the novel by John Irving comes this darkly comic tale of an eccentric New England family. As the father moves them from one place to the next setting up a new hotel each time the assortment of oddball characters seem to become involved in ever more bizarre situations. Frannie becomes obsessed with the boy who attacks her John becomes obsessed with Frannie his sister and both of them fall for a girl who is so insecure she hides in a bear outfit Frank is coming to terms with his homosexuality and the youngest Lilly is convinced she isn't growing. The family pet is a flatulent dog that ends up stuffed and causes more trouble than when it was alive...
Duncan gets his chance to become a laird for the day to play out the white lies that he has told his pen-pal and Hector's shady friend has to foil the police with strategic decoys to aid his escape. When Stella tries to sabotage the Midsummer Ball in an effort to delay her departure Lexie redeems the situation and Archie realises she is his true love. But will the path of this true love be a smooth one?
In the wake of the Columbine high school massacre acclaimed documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's latest film takes a critical look at America's obsessive gun culture.
Based on true events, The Realm is the story of five friends who fall prey to the evil entities of the Ouija board. As they set about filming their experimental session, what starts out as bit of fun, soon escalates into a terrifying series of events as paranoia and personal demons are revealed.... and recorded.
When four friends set out on a boating holiday to a private island, they are looking forward to sunshine, sea and relaxation. However, unknown to them, a nearby top secret mission has just gone very wrong and the disastrous results are about to be unleashed. A classified military lab has been developing weaponized sharks for use in warfare. A shark grown beyond normal proportions, genetically engineered with hate in its blood and programmed to hunt any human within range has escaped, and is on the rampage. As the killer shark heads towards the beach where the four friends are relaxing, joy very quickly turns to terror as they must battle or lose their limbs and lives to a vicious predator who will stop at nothing to dominate the food chain.
Titles Comprise: Ben Hur: Having swept the board at the Academy awards Ben Hur achieved an outstanding feat in film history winning eleven oscars in 1959 including Best Picture Best Actor and Best Director. After a ten month production schedule and a then massive million budget this 1950''s epic movie has always represented a cinematographic feat that has rarely been bettered. Doctor Zhivago: Omar Sharif stars in the title role of Doctor Zhivago portraying the surgeon-poet over a half-century period. Zhivago who is married to Tonya (Geraldine Chaplin) an aristocratic girl with whom he raises a family is also in love with Lara (Julie Christie) a nurse whose life has been destroyed by tragedy. Repeatedly brought together and separated from each woman by war and revolution Zhivago is torn apart by conflict. He loves Tonya deeply but his poetic soul belongs to Lara. Much like his beloved country Zhivago's spirit becomes battered by the devastation of war as he struggles to maintain his individualism in the face of overwhelming odds. Gone With The Wind: David O. Selznick's production of Margaret Mitchell's Pulitzer Prize winner Gone With The Wind is the pinnacle of Hollywood moviemaking ( Leonard Maltin of Entertainment Tonight) . And in Maltin's view it looks better than it has in years. This sweeping Civil War-era romance won an impressive 10 Academy Awards (including Best Picture) and its immortal characters Scarlett (Vivian Leigh) Rhett (Clark Gable) Ashley (Leslie Howard) Melanie (Olivia de Havilland) Mammy (Hattie McDaniel) and Prissy (Butterfly McQueen) populate as epic story of enduring appeal across generations.
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