In his centenary year the genius of playwright Terence Rattigan is at last being recognised and The Terence Rattigan Collection is an invaluable compendium of his finest work performed by some outstanding casts. Rattigan had a profound understanding of the human heart in all its complexity. He is the master of an emotional restraint which gives his work its unforgettable power and attracts in this collection star actors of the calibre of Sean Connery and Colin Firth Penelope Wilton and Judi Dench Ian Holm and Michael Gambon Eric Porter and Geraldine McEwan. Among the plays included on this DVD are The Deep Blue Sea in which Hester Collyer sacrifices everything for a younger man who cannot return her love and The Browning Version in which a schoolmaster's emotional shell is cracked by an unexpected act of kindness. In The Terence Rattigan Collection great acting and great story-telling combine to make compulsive viewing.
Just Cause is a film that relies on phony plot twists and steals openly from any other thriller that it can remember. If there was a drinking game requiring players to drink during every cinematic "homage", you'd be tanked after its first 45 minutes. Take one case of racial injustice, place it in an exotic, exquisitely photographed location (the Florida Everglades), and bring in an outsider, played by a bankable star, to save the day. Make sure nothing appears as it seems. Add a couple of plot twists, some over-the-top character actors (Ed Harris, shamelessly riffing on Hannibal Lecter), stir, and serve. The big name in this case is Sean Connery, who plays a Harvard law professor summoned to the swamps by an apparently innocent death row inmate (Blair Underwood), who swears he didn't rape and kill that 11-year-old girl. He says he confessed because maverick psycho-cop Tanny Brown (Laurence Fishburne) made him play a solo game of Russian roulette. He says his Serial-killer neighbour on death row (Harris) committed the crime. Connery buys it, the audience buys it, and how could they not? Director Arne Glimcher (who made the lacklustre Mambo Kings) coerces everyone with simplistic plot manipulations. Characters are given no depth, and the actors are pawns moved about like pieces on a Cluedo gameboard. -- Dave McCoy, Amazon.com
Before Harrison Ford assumed the mantle of playing Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan hero in Patriot Games, Alec Baldwin took a swing at the character in this John McTiernan film and hit one to the fence. If less instantly sympathetic than Ford, Baldwin is in some respects more interesting and nuanced as Ryan, and drawing comparisons between both actors' performances can make for some interesting post-movie discussion. That aside, The Hunt for Red October stands alone as a uniquely exciting adventure with a fantastic co-star: Sean Connery as a Russian nuclear submarine captain attempting to defect to the West on his ship. Ryan must figure out his true motives for approaching the US. McTiernan (Predator, Die Hard) made an exceptionally handsome movie here with action sequences that really do take one's breath away. --Tom Keogh
A Bridge Too Far, Official UK region B release, includes trailers, 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio, widescreen 2:35:1
Author Michael Crichton and director Philip Kaufman had a falling-out over the script for Rising Sun, based on Crichton's best-selling novel (which was controversial for its take on the Japanese invasion of American business in the early 1990s). Kaufman ultimately won, doing an above-average job creating a murder-mystery based on the culture clash between Los Angeles cops and Japanese multinational business interests. When a prostitute is murdered at the opening of a new LA headquarters for a Japanese company, detective Wesley Snipes is forced to call upon retired cop (and Japanophile) Sean Connery to help solve the murder. But he runs into obstruction from the Japanese, as well as a high-tech cover-up, while having to deal with anti-Japanese sentiments from people on his own team. Rising Sun is intriguing, if overlong. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
You only live twiceOnce when you are bornand once When you look death in the face. The fifth film in the Bond series 'You Only Live Twice' unveils the sinister visage of Ernst Stavro Blofeld for the very first time! The film is also memorable for its incredible ''400 000 set of Blofeld's Volcano operational base complete with the rocket laucher helicopter landing pad monorail and massive shutter. Q's invention 'Little Nellie' - a one man miniature helicopter - also makes a big impact. An American space mission is interrupted when one of their capsules is literally swallowed up by what they suspect is a Russian spaceship. The Americans threaten to retaliate but the British think otherwise. Everything depends on Bond as he goes undercover in Japan and discovers that Blofeld is the creator of these interceptor rockets...
The evil organization SPECTRE has hatched a plan to steal a decoder that will access Russian state secrets and irrevocably unbalance the world order. It is up to James Bond to seize the device first but he must confront enemies that include Red Grant and the ruthless Rosa Klebb a former KGB agent with poison-tipped shoes. Even as Bond romances a stunning Soviet defector he realizes he is being lured into a deadly trap and he will need all of his courage abilities and cutting-edge technology to triumph over the forces that seek to destroy him.
From acclaimed Oscar & BAFTA-nominated director Martin Ritt 'The Molly MaGuires' is a gritty compelling drama about a group of Irish immigrant miners who use sabotage and murder to fight the corruption of the Pennsylvanian mining company they work for. Starring Sean Connery as the leader of the immigrant band known as The Molly Maguires and Richard Harris as the man paid to infiltrate and bring down the gang the film depicts an era of brutal repression and the struggle to maintai
The Avengers the hip secret-agent series from 60's TV is reinvented for the movies with a stylish blend of wit fabulous retro fashions and effects-packed action. Ralph Fiennes is the very dapper John Steed and Uma Thurman is the smartly catsuited Emma Peel two secret agents who fight crime with style. Sean Connery portrays Sir John De Wynter an evil genius out to control the world with his high-tech weather machine. The madman poses quite a threat to mankind with his raging ice
Intelligent casting, strong performances and the persuasive chemistry between Sean Connery and Michelle Pfeiffer prove the virtues in director Fred Schepisi's well-intended but problematic screen realization of this John Le Carré espionage thriller. At its best, The Russia House depicts the bittersweet nuances of the pivotal affair between a weary, alcoholic London publisher (Connery) and the mysterious Russian beauty (Pfeiffer) who sends him a fateful manuscript exposing the weaknesses beneath Soviet defence technology. Connery's Barley is a gritty, all-too-human figure who's palpably revived by his awakening feelings for Pfeiffer's wan, vulnerable Katya, whose own reciprocal emotions are equally convincing. Together, they weave a poignant romantic duet. The problems, meanwhile, emanate from the story line that brings these opposites together. Le Carré's novels are absorbing but typically internal odysseys that seldom offer the level of straightforward action or simple arcs of plot that the big screen thrives on. For The Russia House, written as glasnost eclipsed the cold war's overt rivalries, Le Carré means to measure how old adversaries must calibrate their battle to a more subtle, subdued match of wits. Barley himself becomes enmeshed in the mystery of the manuscript because British intelligence chooses to use him as cat's paw rather than become directly involved. Such subtlety may be a more realistic take on the spy games of the recent past but it makes for an often tedious, talky alternative to taut heroics that Connery codified in his most celebrated early espionage role. If the suspense thus suffers, we're still left with an affecting love story, as well as some convincing sniping between British and US intelligence operatives, beautifully cast with James Fox, Roy Scheider and John Mahoney. Veteran playwright Tom Stoppard brings considerable style to the dialogue, without solving the problem of giving us more than those verbal exchanges to sustain dramatic interest. --Sam Sutherland
Penance
Bond's mission takes him to the steamy island of Jamaica, where mysterious energy waves are interfering with U.S. missile launches. As he unravels the astonishing truth, Bond must fight deadly assassins, sexy femme's fatales and even a poisonous tarantula. With the help of crack CIA agents Felix Lieter (Jack Lord) and the beautiful Honey Ryder (Ursula Andress), he searches for the headquarters of Dr. No, who is implementing an evil plan of world domination. Only Bond, with his combination of wit, charm and skill, can confront the madman and save the human race from a horrible fate. With breathtaking chases, amazing stunts and a bold, nerve-shattering climax, this outrageously entertaining adventure pushes the envelope for non-stop thrills and magnificently sets the standard for the most popular movie series in film history.
Having lost his intelligence job at the end of the Cold War former British secret agent Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) now travels East to find new outlets for his skills. Harry sets up a Private Investigation company in Russia and soon finds himself charged with rescuing his young assistant Nikolai's girlfriend Tatiana who has been kidnapped. The trail leads to St. Petersburg which Harry finds to be a city held in the iron grip of the violent Russian Mafia. The mafia does its best to stop Harry in his tracks but it may be easier said than done!
The effortlessly suave and sophisticated Pierce Brosnan makes his acclaimed debut as Agent 007 in this rip-roaring espionage thriller featuring the most eye-popping opening sequence yet! When an MI6 agent (Sean Bean) turns rogue and plans world domination with a terrifying satellite-borne weapon, Bond must pursue his former ally to Cuba, Monte Carlo, Switzerland and even Russia, all whilst dodging a sexy, deadly femme fatale (Famke Janssen) who will stop at nothing to put the squeeze' on the intrepid spy!
Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery star in 1986 cult classic HIGHLANDER. He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York city in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal. After surviving a wound that should have killed him during a clan battle in the Scottish Highlands in 1536, Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) is banished from his village.Years later, he is met by Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez (Sean Connery), a swordsman who teaches MacLeod the truth about himself, he is immortal; one of a race of many who can only die when the head is cut from the body. He must fight his way through the centuries until the time of The Gathering, when the few immortals who have survived the ages will come together to fight until only one remains. In New York City the final fight is about to begin, and in the end, there can be only one.The first time on 4K UHD. The Immortal Attraction Of Highlander: Looking back at four decades of Highlander magicA Kind Of Magic: Music Of The Immortals: A featurette on the SoundtrackCapturing Immortality: Interview with photographer David JamesAudio Commentary with author Jon MelvilleAudio Commentary with Russell MulcahyAudio Commentary with William Panzer and Bill Davis
She's no ordinary star she's a megastar! Larger than life and brimming with wit and hilarity she's Dame Edna Everage! And she's inviting you to explore all her nooks and crannies in The Dame Edna Experience. Available for the first time ever this series of six variety/chat shows (or as Dame Edna calls them ""monologues interrupted by total strangers"") is guaranteed to keep you in stitches. Celebrity guests (foils for Dame Edna's rapier wit) include Sean Connery Charlton Heston Zsa Zsa Gabor Jane Seymour Larry Hagman Rudolf Nureyev and Joan Rivers!
As with George Lucas's other movie franchise, there's a vein of mysticism running through the Indiana Jones Trilogy. Watching all three back-to-back it's possible to unravel the chronology and chart the spiritual journey of our hero: the idealistic Young Indy ("It belongs in a museum", implores River Phoenix in the opening escapade of The Last Crusade) grows up to become a cynical fortune-hunter seen trading archaeological treasures with Chinese gangsters at club "Obi-Wan" in The Temple of Doom. From there we follow his path to redemption via three mystical religious objects: respectively Hindu (the Shankara stones in Temple of Doom), Jewish (the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders), and Christian (the Holy Grail itself in Last Crusade). But that's just the subtext. Along the way, this knight-errant archaeologist undertakes improbable adventures (featuring spiders, snakes, rats, insects and Nazis galore), rescues damsels in distress (even when they really don't want to be rescued, such as Kate Capshaw in Temple of Doom), and still finds time to bond with his dad (Sean Connery, in one of cinema's great cameo roles as Dr Jones Sr.) Steven Spielberg revels in Lucas's recreation of 1930s cliff-hanger serials, infusing every scene with kinetic energy and infectious enthusiasm and creating any number of iconic sequences that have become touchstones of cinematic history. Director and producer are more than ably assisted by regular composer John Williams, whose swashbuckling Korngold-inspired "Raiders" theme casts Harrison Ford as a modern-day Errol Flynn. Although a fourth movie is promised, this trilogy plays like a self-contained whole that leaves nothing wanting: from the witty dialogue and breathtaking action choreography to the near-perfect casting, this is popular movie-making at its very peak. On the DVD: The Indiana Jones Trilogy four-disc box set, as has been widely noted, contains the slightly edited version of The Temple of Doom--1 min 6 seconds of cuts according to the BBFC--though this is exactly the same version that was originally shown in UK cinemas and released on video (missing is a bit of extra blood and gore during the heart-ripping scene). By way of compensation, the digitally remastered anamorphic 2.35:1 picture and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for all three movies are joyfully impressive, the screen crammed full of colour and rich detail accompanied by one of Hollywood's most glorious soundtracks. The fourth bonus disc contains about three hours of additional material, most of which can be found in the new 127-minute documentary that takes the viewer chronologically through the making of the series and includes plenty of interviews and fascinating nuggets of background information. There are also independent featurettes "From the Lucasfilm Archives" on John Williams's music, the sound design, stuntwork and the special effects. There are subtitles in various European languages. --Mark Walker
The critics and public agree. Brian De Palma's The Untouchables is a must-see masterpiece – a glorious, fierce, larger-than-life depiction of the mob warlord who ruled Prohibition-era Chicago... and the law enforcer who vowed to bring him down. This classic confrontation between good and evil stars Kevin Costner as federal agent Eliot Ness, Robert De Niro as gangland kingpin Al Capone and Sean Connery as Malone, the cop who teaches Ness how to beat the mob: shoot fast and shoot first. Special Features: The Script, The Cast Production Stories Reinventing the Genre The Classic Original Featurette: The Men Theatrical Trailer
Connery Hoffman and Broderick star as three generations of a family formerly linked to organized crime. Grandfather Jesse has been in and out of jail and his son Vito has decided to leave a life of crime in order to become a respectable family man but when grandson Adam comes up with a can't-miss heist plan the intergenerational sparks begin to fly.
A disaster in space pushes humankind toward World War III, and only James Bond can prevent it in this magnificent, pull-out-all-the-stops movie spectacular. Sean Connery returns as Agent 007, who travels to Japan to stop the evil SPECTRE organisation and its diabolical leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasence), from instigating global warfare from his massive headquarters in an inactive volcano.
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