This not-quite-black comedy was probably a laugh riot on paper. The translation almost works, but the execution is flawed. Phoebe Cates is a recently separated young woman who suddenly begins to see her supposedly imagined childhood friend (the titular Drop Dead Fred) after moving back into her mother's home. Is he a manifestation of her secret desires to ditch the boorish spouse? Or was he real all along? Rik Mayall is a limber, carrot-topped comic with the lamentable assignment of trying to make us laugh with vulgar, sophomoric trickery. He is supposedly the repository of Cates's fastidious repression but is more annoying than cathartic. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com
The come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Picture, Chariots of Fire either strikes you as either a cold exercise in mechanical manipulation or as a tale of true determination and inspiration. The heroes are an unlikely pair of young athletes who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: devout Protestant Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a divinity student whose running makes him feel closer to God, and Jewish Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a highly competitive Cambridge student who has to surmount the institutional hurdles of class prejudice and anti-Semitism. There's delicious support from Ian Holm (as Abrahams's coach) and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as a couple of Cambridge fogies. Vangelis's soaring synthesised score, which seemed to be everywhere in the early 1980s, also won an Oscar. Chariots of Fire was the debut film of British television commercial director Hugh Hudson (Greystoke) and was produced by David Puttnam. --Jim Emerson
Helene Hanff (Anne Bancroft) and Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins) are lifelong friends who never meet in 84 Charing Cross Road, a unique comedy-drama based on a true story. Hanff and Doel are separated by 3,000 miles of ocean and joined by a passion for old books. Their relationship begins when New- Yorker Hanff orders a copy of Pepys' diary. Doel, as polite and soft-spoken as Hanff is loud and overbearing, fields the request from the titular book shop in London. For the next two decades they correspond without ever actually sitting down for tea and crumpets. Director David Jones (Betrayal) does a reasonably good job of goosing a movie about something as un-cinematic as letter-writing, and the stars have fun chewing scenery on both sides of the Atlantic. The model for this kind of bittersweet relationship is David Lean's Brief Encounter, which, not coincidentally, is glimpsed here when Hanff steps out for a rainy-day matinee. --Glenn Lovell, Amazon.com
Two sets of female twins are mixed up at birth. One set becomes the chief executives of a Manhattan conglomerate while the other set succeeds at becoming poor country bumpkins. They all accidentally meet up at New York's Plaza Hotel and from then on it's chaos all the way...
The British Are Coming! Britain's finest athletes have begun their quest for glory in the 1924 Olympic Games. Success brings honour to their nation. For two runners the honour at stake is personal... and their challenge one from within. Winner of four 1981 Academy Awards including Best Picture 'Chariots Of Fire' is the inspiring true story of Harold Abrahams Eric Liddell and the team that brought Britain one of its greatest sports victories. Ben Cross Ian Charleson Nigel Havers Nicholas Farrell and Alice Krige enjoyed their first major movie roles in this debut theatrical feature for director Hugh Hudson. Producer David Puttnam blended those talents to shape a film of unique and lasting impact. From its awesome footage of competition to its Oscar-winning Vangelis score 'Chariots Of Fire' has blazed its way into the hearts of movie lovers everywhere.
The come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Picture, Chariots of Fire either strikes you as either a cold exercise in mechanical manipulation or as a tale of true determination and inspiration. The heroes are an unlikely pair of young athletes who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: devout Protestant Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a divinity student whose running makes him feel closer to God, and Jewish Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a highly competitive Cambridge student who has to surmount the institutional hurdles of class prejudice and anti-Semitism. There's delicious support from Ian Holm (as Abrahams's coach) and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as a couple of Cambridge fogies. Vangelis's soaring synthesised score, which seemed to be everywhere in the early 1980s, also won an Oscar. Chariots of Fire was the debut film of British television commercial director Hugh Hudson (Greystoke) and was produced by David Puttnam. --Jim Emerson
'The British Are Coming!' Britain's finest athletes have begun their quest for glory in the 1924 Olympic Games. Success brings honour to their nation. For two runners, the honour at stake is personal... and their challenge one from within. Winner of four 1981 Academy Awards including Best Picture, 'Chariots Of Fire' is the inspiring, true story of Harold Abrahams, Eric Liddell and the team that brought Britain one of its greatest sports victories. Ben Cross, Ian Charleson, Nigel...
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