Arthur Penn's haunting neonoir reimagines the hard-boiled detective film for the disillusioned, paranoid 1970s. In one of his greatest performances, Gene Hackman oozes world-weary cynicism as a private investigator whose search for an actress's missing daughter (Melanie Griffith) leads him from the Hollywood Hills to the Florida Keys, where he is pulled into a sordid family drama and a sinister conspiracy he can hardly grasp.
Arthur Penn's haunting neonoir reimagines the hard-boiled detective film for the disillusioned, paranoid 1970s. In one of his greatest performances, Gene Hackman oozes world-weary cynicism as a private investigator whose search for an actress's missing daughter (Melanie Griffith) leads him from the Hollywood Hills to the Florida Keys, where he is pulled into a sordid family drama and a sinister conspiracy he can hardly grasp.
Blu-ray Disc Special Features: Designing the World of Blade Runner (Exclusive to Blu-ray) Blade Runner 101 Prologues 2036: Nexus Dawn Blade Runner 101 Prologues 2048: Nowhere to Run Blade Runner 101 Prologues 2022: Blackout
Real-life couple Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn star in this enjoyable 1987 comedy by Garry Marshall (Pretty Woman) about an imperious heiress (Hawn) who loses her memory after a boating accident and is identified as the wife of a handyman (Russell). Russell's character brings her "home" to his messy house and unruly kids and the laughs follow as the aristocratic Hawn tries fitting in. Marshall delivers the comic goods, the leads are entertaining (Russell needs to do more comedy) and the supporting cast is made up of happily familiar faces, including Roddy McDowall, Edward Herrmann, and Marshall favourite Hector Elizondo in an unbilled bit part. --Tom Keogh
Iron Man: Suit up for action with Robert Downey Jr. in the ultimate movie adventure, Iron Man! When jet-setting genius-industrialist Tony Stark is captured in enemy territory, he builds a high-tech suit of armour to escape. Now he's on a mission to save the world as a hero who's built, not born, to be unlike any other. Co-starring Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges and Gwyneth Paltrow, it's a fantastic, high-flying journey that's massively entertaining. Incredible Hulk: This explosive, action-packed adventure, in one of the all-time msot popular super hero sagas, unfolds with a cure-in-reach for the world's most primal force of fury: The Incrediblr Hulk. Scientist Bruce Banner (Edward Norton) is living in the shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote. But the warmongers who dream of abusing his powers won't leave him alone - now will his need to be with the only woman he has ever loved, Betty Ross (Liv Tyler). Our brilliant doctor is ruthlessly pursued by the abomination, a nightmarish beast of pure adrenaline and aggression whos powers match The Hulk's own, and a fight of comic-book proportions ensues, threatening New York City with total destruction! Iron Man 2: Get the ultimate cinematic experience powered by action, humour and supercharged special effects as Robert Downey Jr. returns in Iron Man 2. Now that Tony Stark's Super Hero secret is revealed to the world, he must once again suit up in order to face his most dangerous enemy yet - but not without a few new allies of his own! Thor: The world has many heroes but only one is a god. When the arrogant warrior Thor (Chris Hemsworth, Star Trek) is banished to Earth from his homeworld of Asgard, he must fight to reclaim his lost powers. Pursued by an invasion force sent to destroy him, the fallen God of Thunder must rise to the battle and learn what it takes to become a true hero. Natalie Portman and Anthony Hopkins also star in this blockbuster adventure critics have called a rousing, entertaining thrill. Captain America: Captain America leads the fight for freedom in the action-packed blockbuster starring Chris Evans as the ultimate weapon against evil! When a terrifying force threatens everyone across the globe, the world's greatest soldier wages war on the evil HYDRA organisation, led by the villainous Red Skull (Hugo Weaving). Critics and audiences alike salute Captain America: The First Avenger as total suspense, action and fun! Avengers Assemble: Marvel Studios makes cinematic history as it unites the Super Hero team of a lifetime. Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) assemble together for the first time ever in this epic, action-packed blockbuster - alongside Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). Director Joss Whedon creates an unprecedented masterpiece that has become a global phenomenon. Included Extras: 6 Matt Ferguson artcards 6 original theatrical posters Iron Man: Deleted and Extended Scenes Incredible Hulk: Feature Commentary With Director Louis Leterrier & Tim Roth Iron Man 2: Includes Commentary By Director Jon Favreau Thor: 4 Deleted Scenes, Road To The Avengers Featurette, Commentary By Director Kenneth Branagh Captain America: Outfitting A Hero, The Assembly Begins, And More! Avengers Assemble: A Visual Journey Click Images to Enlarge
Gandhi is a great subject, but is Gandhi a great film? Undoubtedly it is, not least because it is one of the last old-school epics ever made, a glorious visual treat featuring tens of thousands of extras (real people, not digital effects) and sumptuous Panavision cinematography. But a true epic is about more than just widescreen photography, it concerns itself with noble subjects too, and the life story of Mahatma Gandhi is one of the noblest of all. Both the man and the film have profound things to say about the meaning of freedom and racial harmony, as well as how to achieve them. Ben Kingsley, in his first major screen role, bears the heavy responsibility of the central performance and carries it off magnificently; without his magnetic and utterly convincing portrayal the film would founder in the very first scene. Sir Richard Attenborough surrounds his main character with a cast of distinguished thespians (Trevor Howard, John Mills, John Gielgud and Martin Sheen, to name but four), none of whom do anything but provide the most sympathetic support. John Briley's literate screenplay achieves the almost impossible task of distilling the bewildering complexities of Anglo-Indian politics. Attenborough's treatment is openly reverential, but, given the saint-like character of his subject, it's hard to see how it could have been anything else. He doesn't flinch from the implication that the Mahatma was naïve to expect a unified India, for example, but instead lets Gandhi's actions speak for themselves. The outstanding achievement of this labour of love is that it tells the story of an avowed pacifist who never raised a hand in anger, of a man who never held high office, of a man who shied away from publicity, and turns it into three hours of utterly mesmerising cinema.On the DVD: The anamorphic (16:9) picture of the original 2.35:1 image has a certain softness to it that may reflect the age of the print, but somehow seems entirely in keeping with the subject . Sound is Dolby 5.1. The extras are fairly brief, but worthwhile: original newsreel footage of Gandhi includes an astonishingly patronising British news account of his visit to England; in a recent interview, Ben Kinglsey chats enthusiastically about the film and the difficulties he experienced bringing the character to life. The dull "making-of" feature is simply a montage of stills. --Mark Walker
A Disney "classic" that actually is a classic, Dumbo should be part of your movie collection whether or not you have children. The storytelling was never as lean as in Dumbo, the songs rarely as haunting (or just plain weird), the characters rarely so well defined. The film pits the "cold, cruel, heartless" world that can't accept abnormality against a plucky, and mute, hero. Jumbo Jr. (Dumbo is a mean-spirited nickname) is ostracised from the circus pack shortly after his delivery by the stork because of his big ears. His mother sticks up for him and is shackled. He's jeered by children (an insightful scene has one boy poking fun at Dumbo's ears, even though the youngster's ears are also ungainly), used by the circus folk, and demoted to appearing with the clowns. Only the decent Timothy Q. Mouse looks out for the little guy. Concerns about the un-PC "Jim Crow" crows, who mock Dumbo with the wonderful "When I See an Elephant Fly", should be moderated by remembering that the crows are the only social group in the film who act kindly to the little outcast. If you don't mist up during the "Baby Mine" scene, you may be legally pronounced dead. --Keith Simanton
When Ridley Scott's cut of Blade Runner was finally released in 1993, one had to wonder why the studio hadn't done it right the first time--11 years earlier. This version is so much better, mostly because of what's been eliminated (the ludicrous and redundant voice-over narration and the phoney happy ending) rather than what's been added (a bit more character development and a brief unicorn dream). Star Harrison Ford originally recorded the narration under duress at the insistence of Warner Bros. executives who thought the story needed further "explanation"; he later confessed that he thought if he did it badly they wouldn't use it. (Moral: Never overestimate the taste of movie executives.) The movie's spectacular futuristic vision of Los Angeles--a perpetually dark and rainy metropolis that's the nightmare antithesis of "Sunny Southern California"--is still its most seductive feature, another worldly atmosphere in which you can immerse yourself. The movie's shadowy visual style, along with its classic private-detective/murder-mystery plot line (with Ford on the trail of a murderous android, or "replicant"), makes Blade Runner one of the few science fiction pictures to legitimately claim a place in the film noir tradition. And, as in the best noir, the sleuth discovers a whole lot more (about himself and the people he encounters) than he anticipates. The cast also includes Sean Young, Edward James Olmos, Daryl Hannah Rutger Hauer and M. Emmet Walsh. --Jim Emerson
A Disney "classic" that actually is a classic, Dumbo should be part of your movie collection whether or not you have children. The storytelling was never as lean as in Dumbo, the songs rarely as haunting (or just plain weird), the characters rarely so well defined. The film pits the "cold, cruel, heartless" world that can't accept abnormality against a plucky, and mute, hero. Jumbo Jr. (Dumbo is a mean-spirited nickname) is ostracised from the circus pack shortly after his delivery by the stork because of his big ears. His mother sticks up for him and is shackled. He's jeered by children (an insightful scene has one boy poking fun at Dumbo's ears, even though the youngster's ears are also ungainly), used by the circus folk, and demoted to appearing with the clowns. Only the decent Timothy Q. Mouse looks out for the little guy. Concerns about the un-PC "Jim Crow" crows, who mock Dumbo with the wonderful "When I See an Elephant Fly", should be moderated by remembering that the crows are the only social group in the film who act kindly to the little outcast. If you don't mist up during the "Baby Mine" scene, you may be legally pronounced dead. --Keith Simanton
This 1987 thriller was a predictable hit with the teen audience it worked overtime to attract. Like most of director Joel Schumacher's films, it's conspicuously designed to push the right marketing and demographic buttons and, granted, there's some pretty cool stuff going on here and there. Take Kiefer Sutherland, for instance. In Stand by Me he played a memorable bully, but here he goes one step further as a memorable bully vampire who leads a tribe of teenage vampires on their nocturnal spree of bloodsucking havoc. Jason Patric plays the new guy in town, who quickly attracts a lovely girlfriend (Jami Gertz), only to find that she might be recruiting him into the vampire fold. The movie gets sillier as it goes along, and resorts to a routine action-movie showdown, but it's a visual knockout (featuring great cinematography by Michael Chapman) and boasts a cast that's eminently able (pardon the pun) to sink their teeth into the best parts of an uneven screenplay. --Jeff Shannon
Thirty years after the events of the first film, a new blade runner, LAPD Officer K [Ryan Gosling], unearths a long-buried secret that has the potential to plunge what's left of society into chaos. K's discovery leads him on a quest to find Rick Deckard [Harrison Ford], a former LAPD blade runner who has been missing for 30 years.
THE GREATEST EPIC OF ALL TIME! Throughout film history, Hollywood has produced a number of sweeping epics and generation-defining movies. However, one film Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments has stood the test of time. Universally recognized among critics as a cinematic masterpiece, this unforgettable motion picture has also been recognized by The American Film Institute as one of the Top Ten epics of all time. From its Oscar®-winning director and revolutionary Oscar®-winning special effects to its memorable music score and all-star cast, The Ten Commandments presents the story of Moses in all of its stunning glory. Starring Charlton Heston,Yul Brynner, Anne Baxter and a who's who of legendary screen talent, the film was nominated for seven Oscars®, including Best Picture of 1956. Special Features Disc 1 4k Ultra Hd Feature Film + Special Feature 4x The Resolution Of Full Hd Hdr (High Dynamic Range) For More Detail,brightness, Vivid Color And Greater Contrast Commentary By Katherine Orrison, Author Of written In Stone: Making Cecil B.demille's Epic, The Ten Commandments Disc 2 Blu-ray⢠Feature Film (Part 1) + Special Feature Commentary By Katherine Orrison, Author Of written In Stone:making Cecil B.demille's Epic, The Ten Commandments Disc 3 Blu-ray⢠Feature Film (Part 2) + Special Features Commentary By Katherine Orrison, Author Of written In Stone:making Cecil B.demille's Epic, The Ten Commandments Newsreel: The Ten Commandments Premiere In New York Theatrical Trailers: 1956 making Of Trailer/1966 Trailer/1989 Trailer
Arguably the finest movie of its kind, Terminator 2: Judgment Day captured Arnold Schwarzenegger at the very apex of his Hollywood celebrity and James Cameron at the peak of his perfectionist directorial powers. Nothing the star did subsequently measured up to his iconic performance here, spouting legendary catchphrases and wielding weaponry with unparalleled cool; and while the director had an even bigger hit with the bloated and sentimental Titanic, few followers of his career would deny that Cameron's true forte has always been sci-fi action. With an incomparably bigger budget than its 1984 precursor, T2 essentially reworks the original scenario with envelope-stretching special effects and simply more, more, more of everything. Yet, for all its scale, T2 remains at heart a classic sci-fi tale: robots running amok, time travel paradoxes and dystopian future worlds are recurrent genre themes, which are here simply revitalised by Cameron's glorious celebration of the mechanistic. From the V-twin roar of a Harley Fat Boy to the metal-crunching Steel Mill finale, the director's fascination with machines is this movie's strongest motif: it's no coincidence that the character with whom the audience identifies most strongly is a robot. Now that impressive but unengaging CGI effects have come to over-dominate sci-fi movies (think of The Phantom Menace), T2's pivotal blending of extraordinary live-action stuntwork and FX looks more and more like it will never be equalled. --Mark Walker
First transmitted on Channel 4 in 1990 Nightingales focuses on three security guards who have the unenviable task of working the graveyard shift in a tower block a situation which regularly turns to the surreal. A werewolf that performs open-heart surgery bouts of Shakespearian verse and an undercover police operation are just some of the bizarre situations - and confrontations - the trio find themselves in. Starring the acclaimed Robert Lindsay as Carter David Threlfall
The surprise hit of 1995, this splendidly entertaining family film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, director, and screenplay, and deservedly won the Oscar for its subtly ingenious visual effects. Babe is all about the title character, a heroic little pig who's been taken in by the friendly farmer Hoggett (Oscar nominee James Cromwell), who senses that he and the pig share "a common destiny." Babe, a popular mischief-maker the Australian farm, is adopted by the resident border collie and raised as a puppy, befriended by Ferdinand the duck (who thinks he's a cockerel), and saves the day as a champion "sheep-pig." Filled with a supporting cast of talking barnyard animals and a chorus of singing mice (courtesy of computer enhancements and clever animatronics), this frequently hilarious, visually imaginative movie has already taken its place as a family classic with timeless appeal. --Jeff Shannon
Arguably the finest film of its kind, Terminator 2: Judgment Day captured Arnold Schwarzenegger at the very apex of his Hollywood celebrity and James Cameron at the peak of his perfectionist directorial powers. Nothing the star did subsequently measured up to his iconic performance here, spouting legendary catchphrases and wielding weaponry with unparalleled cool; and while the director had an even bigger hit with the bloated and sentimental Titanic, few followers of his career would deny that Cameron's true forte has always been sci-fi action. With an incomparably bigger budget than its 1984 precursor, T2 essentially reworks the original scenario with envelope-stretching special effects and simply more, more, more of everything. Yet, for all its scale, T2 remains at heart a classic sci-fi tale: robots running amok, time travel paradoxes and dystopian future worlds are recurrent genre themes, which are here simply revitalised by Cameron's glorious celebration of the mechanistic. From the V-twin roar of a Harley Fat Boy to the metal-crunching Steel Mill finale, the director's fascination with machines is this film's strongest motif: it's no coincidence that the character with whom the audience identifies most strongly is a robot. Now that impressive but unengaging CGI effects have come to over-dominate sci-fi films (think of The Phantom Menace), T2's pivotal blending of extraordinary live-action stuntwork and FX looks more and more like it will never be equalled. --Mark Walker Total Recall, director Paul Verhoeven's mega-budget sci-fi action blockbuster from 1990, began its production life as a very different film. An adaptation of the Philip K Dick short story "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale", it was originally conceived with Richard Dreyfuss starring as a Walter-Mitty-like character that experiences a variety of artificially induced fantasies. But with Arnold Schwarzenegger on board, the final version took a rather different direction. The Austrian Oak plays a normal working man who discovers his entire reality has been invented to conceal a scheme for planetary domination on Mars. Oscar-winning special effects and violent action propel the twisting plot, in which Arnold manipulates his manipulators in a world of dazzling high technology. Verhoeven (Robocop, Starship Troopers) indulges his usual penchant for gratuitous bloodshed, but the film has enough cleverness to rise above its excesses. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Every episode of the 1980s crime drama starring Edward Woodward as Robert McCall, a former government agent who offers his specialist services to those in need.
The Gathering Storm is a fictionalised portrayal of Winston Churchill and his wife Clementine during their wilderness years of the 1930s. It deservedly won numerous awards, including an Emmy, BAFTA and Golden Globe in recognition of Albert Finney's wonderful central performance. Equally deserving were those for all aspects of the production design: period wardrobe, set dressing and use of location are equally impressive, apparently ensuring that this production has everything going for it in its depiction of pre-War Britain. The snag is that its restriction to TV movie format, a mere 90 minutes, excludes a lot of historical context that ought not to have been left out. Seeing Churchill's adoration of his wife (Vanessa Redgrave) or the family woes troubling Ralph Wigram (Linus Roache) is all very emotionally dramatic, but it uses precious screen time that might have been better devoted to highlighting the political situation abroad, or indeed the monarchy's situation at home. The enterprise smacks a little too much of sentimental contrivance, lionising Churchill in rose-tinted retrospect. True, some attempt is made to acknowledge the personality traits that excluded him both from office and popularity prior to Germany's re-building, but like so much else pertinent to the machinations of anticipating the war, these are glossed over for familial feel-goodery and button-pushing poignancy. This is a film that's easy to admire, but ought not to be mistaken for well-rounded history. On the DVD: The Gathering Storm doesn't look or sound quite as crisp and clear as you'd hope for a recent TV-movie transfer. That's down to some obvious grain in the picture, and the 2.0 surround audio that tends to lose quieter dialogue moments. There are extensive cast and crew biographies that will no doubt help international viewers place the naggingly familiar British faces. There's also the accumulatively enthusiastic commentary from director Richard Loncraine and producer Frank Doelger, which happily points many of them out. --Paul Tonks
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