James Cameron's 1989 aquatic epic The Abyss was, quite literally, a watershed in the annals of filmmaking: not only was it the first (and only) movie to be shot almost entirely underwater, in the largest tank ever used for a movie set, and to use live dialogue from specially designed headsets, it also pushed forward the boundaries of computer animation in one gigantic leap. The famous water tentacle sequence is now regarded as the defining moment when CGI came of age; ironically perhaps, its very success has ensured that the punishing realism of the setting, which is the best thing about the movie, is likely never to be attempted again. But the impressive technical aspects aside, is the movie any good? Granted it contains any number of striking moments, from forcing a rat to breathe liquid (it really works, apparently) to resurrecting a drowned Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio. But the story is a slim one for the running time, especially in the extended Special Edition version which plays almost half an hour longer than the theatrical cut and contains a completely excised subplot featuring much too much heavy-handed moralising: "How all the world can stop fighting and learn to get along with each other", by James Cameron esq. All you need is love, apparently. Here is one rare example of the theatrical cut being preferable to the director's. Now, if only he had cut the love story from Titanic too On the DVD: The Abyss Special Edition two-disc set has plenty of neat extra features, but is let down a little by the non-anamorphic 2.35:1 letterboxed picture. Sound, on the other hand, is vivid THX mastered Dolby 5.1. Happily, the first disc contains both the original theatrical cut and the extended special-edition version. There's a reasonably informative though inevitably rather dry text-only commentary. The principal extra on Disc 2 is a 60-minute documentary, "Under Pressure", with retrospective interviews in which cast and crew detail the extraordinary challenges involved in making the film, and more than one near-death experience. In addition there's the complete screenplay, various different pieces on the effects sequences, storyboards, artwork, DVD-ROM features--in short, plenty to keep even jaded DVD enthusiasts amused for hours. The menu interfaces for both discs are a treat and the set comes with a good 12-page booklet. --Mark Walker
""Houston we have a problem"". Stranded 205 000 miles from Earth in a crippled spacecraft astronauts Jim Lovell (Hanks) Fred Haise (Paxton) and Jack Swigert (Bacon) fight a desperate battle to survive. Meanwhile at Mission Control astronaut Ken Mattingly (Sinise) flight director Gene Kranz (Harris) and a heroic ground crew race against time and the odds to bring them home. It's a breathtaking adventure that tells a story of courage faith and ingenuity that is all the more re
Inspired by the 1973 motion picture of the same name, Westworld is a one-hour drama series about a futuristic theme park populated by artificial beings. Written and directed by Michael Crichton this dark odyssey about the dawn of artificial consciousness and the evolution of sin is set at the intersection of the near future and the reimagined past. It explores a world in which every human appetite, no matter how noble or depraved, can be indulged. 1. Pilot 2. Chestnut 3. The Stray 4. Six Impossible Things 5. Contrapasso 6. Trace Decay 7. Trompe L'Oeil 8. The Adversary 9. Job's Root 10. The Bicameral Mind.
A group of five mountaineers are climbing in the remote Scottish Highlands when they make a horrific discovery: a young girl buried in a small chamber, with only a small air pipe to the surface keeping her alive.
Translating Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character from British television to the big screen takes a bit of a toll, but there are some hilarious sequences in this popular comedy. The eponymous Bean, a boy-man twit with a knack for getting into difficult binds (and then making them worse and worse and worse), is a London museum guard who is sent to Los Angeles in the company of the famous painting Whistler's Mother. He's mistaken as an art expert by the well-meaning curator (Peter MacNicol) of an LA museum, but Bean's famously eccentric behaviour soon causes the poor guy to almost lose his family and job. The insularity of Bean's TV world is sacrificed in this film, and that change diminishes some of the character's appeal. But Atkinson is a man naturally full of comedy, and he doesn't let his fans down. --Tom Keogh
Sweet Vengeance is an epic story of revenge set against the backdrop of the American Old West. Newlyweds Miguel (Eduardo Noriega - The Last Stand) and Sarah (January Jones - Mad Men X-Men: First Class) settle on a patch of land and soon encounter community preacher Prophet Josiah (Jason Isaacs - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2). As Sheriff Jackson (Ed Harris - Man on a Ledge The Way Back) arrives in town Prophet Josiah launches a plot to take Sarah's land forcing her to defend her rights and launch an attack of vengeance that results in a jaw dropping showdown.
Philip Kaufman's intimate epic about the Mercury astronauts (based on Tom Wolfe's book) was one of the most ambitious and spectacularly exciting movies of the 1980s. It surprised almost everybody by not becoming a smash hit. By all rights, the film should have been every bit the success that Apollo 13 would later become; The Right Stuff is not only just as thrilling, but it is also a bigger and better movie. Combining history (both established and revisionist), grand mythmaking (and myth puncturing), adventure, melodrama, behind-the-scenes dish, spectacular visuals, and a down-to-earth sense of humour, The Right Stuff chronicles NASA's efforts to put a man in orbit. Such an achievement would be the first step toward President Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon, and, perhaps most important of all, would win a crucial public relations/morale victory over the Soviets, who had delivered a stunning blow to American pride by launching Sputnik, the first satellite. The movie contrasts the daring feats of the unsung test pilots--one of whom, Chuck Yeager, embodied more than anyone else the skill and spirit of Wolfe's title--against the heavily publicised (and sanitised) accomplishments of the Mercury astronauts. Through no fault of their own, the spacemen became prisoners of the heroic images the government created for them in order to capture the public's imagination. The casting is inspired; the film features Sam Shepard as the legendary Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as "Gordo" Cooper, Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, Scott Wilson as Scott Crossfield, and Pamela Reed and Veronica Cartwright are superb in their thankless roles as astronauts' wives. --Jim Emerson
Director Clint Eastwood's 1997 box-office hit stars himself as Luther Whitney, a highly skilled thief who finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time, witnessing the murder of a woman involved in a secret tryst with the US president (played by Gene Hackman). Determined to clear his name, Whitney cleverly eludes a tenacious detective (Ed Harris) while investigating a corruption of power reaching to the highest level of government. Adapted by veteran screenwriter William Goldman from David Baldacci's novel, this thriller balances expert suspense with well-drawn characters and an intelligent plot that's just a pounding heartbeat away from real White House headlines. Absolute Power features the great Judy Davis in a memorable supporting role as the White House chief of staff who desperately attempts to cover up the crime. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Arthurian mythology and modern-day decay seem perfect complements to each other in Terry Gilliam's drama/comedy/fantasy The Fisher King. Shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) makes an off-handed radio remark that causes a man to go on a killing spree, leaving Lucas unhinged with guilt. His later, chance meeting with Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless man suffering from dementia, gets him involved in the unlikely quest for the Holy Grail. The rickety and patently unrealistic stand that insanity is just a wonderful place to be and that the homeless are all errant knights wears awfully thin, but, there are numerous moments of sad grace and violent beauty in this film. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese launched his successful career and his smart wordplay helped garner Mercedes Ruehl an Oscar as Lucas' girlfriend. --Keith Simanton
Ed Harris directs and takes the title role in this biopic of the infamous American artist, almost as famous for his destructive private life as his abstract paintings.
Series 1: Starring Jared Harris (Chernobyl), Ciarán Hinds (Game of Thrones) and Tobias Menzies (The Crown), The Terror is inspired by the British Royal Navy's real life expedition into uncharted territory as the crew attempts to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Faced with treacherous conditions, limited resources, dwindling hope and fear of the unknown, the crew is pushed to the brink of extinction. Frozen, isolated and stuck at the end of the earth, The Terror highlights all that can go wrong when a group of men, desperate to survive, struggle not only with the elements, but with each other. Series 2:In The Terror: Infamy the second instalment of producer (and Primetime Emmy® winner) Ridley Scott's horror-tinged anthology World War II-era Japanese-Americans on South California's Terminal Island are menaced by a bakemono or folkloric spectre. Suffering forced evictions and imprisonment after the attack on Pearl Harbour, the Terminal Islanders are hounded by prejudice and injustice, as well as bad omens and bizarre deaths. One of them, Chester Nakayama, decides to take on the malevolent entity, journeying to realms of evil in both the present and the distant past.
Two friends hired to police a small town that is suffering under the rule of a rancher find their job complicated by the arrival of a young widow in this gritty western.
Jared Harris (The Crown, Mad Men), Stellan Skarsgård (Breaking the Waves, Good Will Hunting) and Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves, Apple Tree Yard) star in Chernobyl, the critically acclaimed five-part mini-series. On April 26, 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukrainian SSR suffered a massive explosion that released radioactive material across Belarus, Russia and Ukraine and as far as Scandinavia and Western Europe. Dramatising the true story of the 1986 nuclear accident, one of the worst man-made catastrophes in history, Chernobyl shines a light on the brave men and women who fought an unprecedented war against an invisible enemy, and who suffered and sacrificed, saving millions of lives, often at the cost of their own.
A dark odyssey about the fate of sentient life on earth, the Emmy® winning series WESTWORLD returns for its eight-episode fourth season with new worlds, conflicts, and complex characters fans will love. Evan Rachel Wood, Emmy® winner Thandiwe Newton, Ed Harris, Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Luke Hemsworth, Aaron Paul, and Angela Sarafyan return to the cast.
From the creators of Coraline and ParaNorman comes a magical family adventure about heroes of all shapes and sizes: The Boxtrolls. Quirky, mischievous and goodhearted, these box-wearing creatures have lovingly raised a human boy named Eggs in a charming cavern below the bustling streets of Cheesebridge. But when evil Archibald Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) decides to capture the lovable misfits, it's up to Eggs (Isaac Hempstead Wright) and his feisty young friend, Winnie (Elle Fanning), to save the Boxtrolls. Also featuring the voice talents of Jared Harris, Nick Frost, Toni Collette and Tracy Morgan.BONUSInside LAIKA Discovering The Characters Of The Boxtrolls Inside LAIKA Revisiting The Puppets With LAIKA's Animation TeamFeature-Length Storyboards Character, Concept Art And Behind-The-Scenes Photo GalleriesAudio Commentary With Directors Graham Annable And Anthony StacchiDare To Be Square: The Making Of The Boxtrolls Original FeaturettesImage: 1080p | 16:9Audio: English, French, Spanish Subtitles: English SDH, French, SpanishRuntime: 96 minutesDiscs: 1 x 4K UHD, 1 x BD
In Roger Moore's first outing as 007 he investigates the murders of three fellow agents he soon finds himself a target evading vicious assassins as he closes in on the powerful Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Known on the streets as Mr Big Kananga is co-ordinating a globally threatening scheme using tons of self-produced heroin. As Bond tries to unravel the mastermind's plan he meets Solitaire (Jane Seymour) the beautiful Tarot card reader whose magical gifts are crucial to the crime lord. Bond of course works his own magic on her and the stage is set for a series of pulse-pounding action sequences involving voodoo hungry crocodiles and turbo-charged speedboats.
A con man with the same name as a long time congressman gets elected when the real congressman passes away...
Starring Jared Harris (Chernobyl), Ciaran Hinds (Game of Thrones) and Tobias Menzies (The Crown), The Terror is inspired by the British Royal Navy's real life expedition into uncharted territory as the crew attempts to discover the fabled Northwest Passage. Finding instead a monstrous, gothic horror that stalks the boats and the minds of the men in a desperate game of survival, the men are forced to face their worst fears. Frozen, isolated and stuck at the end of the earth, the crew must simultaneously battle the elements, the supernatural and eventually themselves to try to overcome the true Terror. This is the UK BBC listing with English language with English subtitles
In the California apple country, nine hundred migratory workers rise up in dubious battle against the landowners. The group takes on a life of its own-stronger than its individual members and more frightening. Led by the doomed Jim Nolan, the strike is founded on his tragic idealism-on the courage never to submit or yield. Published in 1936, In Dubious Battle is considered the first major work of Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Steinbeck.
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy