Val Guest's 1959 London-shot Brit Beat classic charts the fortunes of aspiring musician Bert Rudge (Cliff Richard). Rudge stands little chance in the music business but is propelled to major stardom after being discovered in an espresso coffee shop by sleazy Soho agent Johnny (Laurence Harvey). In quick succession Rudge changes his name to Bongo Herbert, gets a record deal and strikes up a relationship with an ageing American singing sensation. As Johnny starts Herbert' on the road to stardom, an unfair deal is cut which exploits the young singer and leads their relationship to turn sour. This sharp satire on the music industry was originally a successful 1958 West End musical, adapted for the big screen the following year, and designed as a star vehicle for the young Cliff Richard and The Shadows.
In Martin Scorsese's classic 1970s drama insomniac Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) works the nightshift driving his cab throughout decaying mid-'70s New York City wishing for a ""real rain"" to wash the ""scum"" off the neon-lit streets. Chronically alone Travis cannot connect with anyone not even with such other cabbies as blowhard Wizard (Peter Boyle). He becomes infatuated with vapid blonde presidential campaign worker Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) who agrees to a date and then spurns T
""Oh just one more thing..."" Peter Falk returns as Lt. Columbo for the complete second season which includes guest stars Robert Culp Valerie Harper Dean Stockwell Leonard Nimoy Martin Landau and Marc Singer and two episodes written by Stephen Boccho (Murder One). Expect plenty of cigar-chewing slouching and suspects being questioned about their shoes! Episodes comprise: 1. tude in Black 2. The Greenhouse Jungle 3. The Most Crucial Game 4. Dagger of the
From a match made in heaven comes a movie spawned in hell! Young hotshot director Robert Rodriquez (El Mariachi, Desperado) teamed up with Pulp Fiction auteur Quentin Tarantino (offering his services as writer and co-star) to make this outrageous, no-holds-barred hybrid of high-octane crime and gruesome horror, From Dusk Till Dawn. QT plays Richard Gecko, a borderline psychopath who breaks his career-criminal brother, Seth (George Clooney), out of prison, after which they rob a bank and leave a trail of dead and wounded in their bloody wake. Then they hijack a mobile home driven by a former Baptist minister (Harvey Keitel) who quit the church after his wife's death and hit the road with his two children (played by Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu). Heading to Mexico with their hostages, the infamous Gecko brothers arrive at the Titty Twister bar to rendezvous for a money drop, but they don't realise that they've just entered the nocturnal lair of a bloodthirsty gang of vampires! With not-so-subtle aplomb, Rodriguez and Tarantino shift into high gear with a non-stop parade of gore, gunfire and pointy-fanged mayhem featuring Salma Hayek as a snake-charming dancer whose bite is much worse than her bark. If you're a fan of Tarantino's lyrical dialogue and pop-cultural wit, you'll have fun with the road-movie half of this supernatural horror-comedy, but if your taste runs more to exploding heads and eyeballs, sloppy entrails and morphing monsters, the second half provides a connoisseur's feast of gross-out excess. Bon appétit! --Jeff Shannon
Abel Ferrara's taste for the sensational is on display in the flawed but interesting Dangerous Games, even though its subject matter is a long way from the genre material in which he has mostly specialised. The film is a psychological drama in which the Method manipulations of director Eddie (Harvey Keitel) prey on the weaknesses of coke-head actor Burns (James Russo) and insecure soap star Sarah (Madonna) to a point where reality breaks down for all three of them--and, in the film's last moments, the audience too; we are left traumatically hanging by a profound ambiguity in what we have just seen. Ferrara moves backwards and forwards between naturalistic and staged shots: we see scenes in hand-held verité and as rushes on a video. The over-wrought drama of consumerism, decadence and possible redemption that is being shot in the film is clearly intended to be directly relevant to their lives and is only marginally more melodramatic; at one point, Eddie's wife arrives unexpectedly at his hotel room moments after Sarah has left his bed. Keitel gives his usual authoritative performance as a weak man breaking under the weight of his pretensions; as Sarah, Madonna gives one of her less bad performances, attractively underplaying amid a storm of hamminess. On the DVD: the DVD only gives us subtitles and the trailer as extras. --Roz Kaveney
One of the great directorial debuts, Ridley Scott's The Duellists is an extraordinary achievement which weaves an epic-in-miniature set around the edges of the Napoleonic Wars. Based on a story by Joseph Conrad, in turn inspired by real events and filmed in part where those events took place, this is the tale of a 15-year conflict between two French army officers: the level-headed Armand D'Hubert (Keith Carradine) and the obsessive Gabriel Feraud (Harvey Keitel). Each time they meet they duel, until the original purpose of the conflict is all but lost. Beyond the two American stars, who fill their roles with rare commitment--accents not withstanding--Scott assembled a stellar cast: Albert Finney, Edward Fox, Pete Postlethwaite, Diana Quick, Cristina Raines, Robert Stephens, Tom Conti, John McEnery, Maurice Colbourne and Jenny Runacre. The production values are astonishing and the film revels in the exquisite painterly visuals which have become a Scott trademark. Howard Blake's elegiac theme adds immeasurably to the impact of a film influenced by Stanley Kubrick's Barry Lyndon (1974), and anticipating Scott's own Best Picture Oscar-winning Gladiator (2000). A haunting work of spectral beauty, it is also a worthy companion to Scott's shamefully neglected 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992). On the DVD: The Duellists is transferred at 1.77:1 with full sound atmospherically remixed in Dolby Digital 5.1. A new 29-minute documentary finds Scott discussing The Duellists with Kevin (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves) Reynolds, which is particularly enlightening given the relative merits of the two swashbucklers. Scott's absorbing commentary track provides an in-depth look into the film-making process. Equally, film music aficionados will be delighted to find not just an isolated music track, but an informative commentary by composer Howard Blake, though he does sometimes talk over the beginning or end of cues. Most unusual but very welcome is the inclusion of Scott's first short film, Boy and Bicycle (1965), a 25-minute b/w mood piece starring Tony Scott, with music by John Barry. Other extras are a storyboard-to-screen comparison, the American trailer and four galleries of posters, stills and production photos. --Gary S Dalkin
Gifted young organist Mary Henry is riding in a car with friends when the car is forced off the road plunging from a bridge into the river below. Mary's friends die instantly; miraculously she emerges from the water. But Mary is changed. She becomes increasingly detached from everyday life displaying an emotional coldness which those she encounters readily attribute to grief and shock. But the nightmare world that Mary now inhabits is one of transition: she is helplessly caught between the living and the dead. Mary moves to Salt Lake City but is haunted by the spectral presence that lurks in the shadows of its derelict pleasure pavilion. She finds herself drawn inexorably towards the pavilion and its demonic Carnival of Souls' Every inch a cult classic from its iconic opening titles (reminiscent of Hitchcock's Psycho) to its terrifying final sequences Carnival of Souls is cited as an inspiration by among others David Lynch Wes Craven and George A. Romero. The complexity of its themes and eerily atmospheric direction and cinematography with minimal reliance on special effects are widely acknowledged; Carnival of Souls directed by Herk Harvey and first released in 1962 transcends the horror genre to become a unique work of unsettling and enduring power.
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
Embraced for her loveable spirited nature Mulan is a young girl who doesn't quite fit into her tradition bound society. When the invading Hun army comes charging over China's Great Wall Mulan's ageing father is ordered into battle! To spare him from harm Mulan disguises herself as a soldier and secretly takes his place in the Imperial army training with a comical ragtag troop led by the courageous Captain Shang. Never far away are Mulan's hilarious guardian dragon Mushu an
Jack Nicholson returns as private eye Jake Gittes in this atmospheric Chinatown follow-up that's hit upon the elusive sequel formula for somehow enhancing a great original (Mike Clark, USA Today ). Much has changed since we last saw Jake. The war has come and gone; 1948 Los Angeles teems with optimism and fast bucks. But there's one thing Jake knows hasn't changed:Nine times out of ten, if you follow the money you will get to the truth. And that's the trail he follows when a routine case of marital hanky panky explodes into a murder that's tied to a grab for oil and to Jake's own past.
Carnival of Souls has gained a strong cult reputation over recent years. Directed and produced by Harold ""Herk"" Harvey it has an intriguing power mixing ordinary people and everyday situations with the extraordinary and the supernatural. Made in Lawrence Kansas in 1962 the film centres on Mary Henry (Candace Hilligoss) who apparently survives a serious car accident. Shortly after she heads for Utah and a new job as a church organist but is pursued by a cadaverous phantom figure
Vivien Leigh is the young Cleopatra and Claude Rains is Julius Caesar in the spectacular 1945 version of George Bernard Shaw's Caesar and Cleopatra. As Rome invades Egypt Julius Caesar (Rains) stumbles across the young and unrefined princess Cleopatra (Leigh) sheltering in the Sphinx. Impressed by her spirit and intelligence seduced by her charm he determines to make her Queen. Cleopatra learns about power and politics at the feet of a master but her downfall begins when she is se
Tycoon J.L. Higgins controls his whole family but one of his sons- in-law Dan Brooks and his daughter Alice are fed up with that. Brooks quits his job as manager of J.L.'s paper box factory and devotes his life to his racing horse Broadway Bill but his bank- roll is thin and the luck is against him he is arrested because of $150 he owes somebody for horse food but suddenly a planned fraud by somebody else seems to offer him a chance... The film was later remade by Capra as Ri
"It's far too pleased with itself. I wince when I see it now", director John Schlesinger observes of his 1965 film, Darling. You can tell why he's embarrassed. Looking back, his swinging 60s' satire about a model (Julie Christie) so keen to get ahead that she ditches her husband and betrays a succession of boyfriends looks hideously dated. With its self-consciously hip dialogue and unnecessary voice-over, the screenplay by Frederic Raphael (who also wrote Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut) doesn't help. Most of the men Christie encounters, whether Laurence Harvey's slick businessman (who can't pass a mirror without preening himself in it) or Dirk Bogarde's neurotic TV pundit (who has delusions of literary grandeur), are as narcissistic as she is. Although this seems to be a cautionary tale about slick, superficial London media and fashion folk, it's obvious that the filmmakers are half in love with the world they're pretending to lampoon. The visual gags--rich, society matrons at a charity event gorging themselves on food or Christie's poster being plastered over an image of a starving child--are heavy-handed in the extreme. Still, Christie is tremendous in the role which established her as an international star (she won an Oscar). However shallow and selfish her character seems, we can't help but warm to her. --Geoffrey Macnab
It isn't difficult to imagine why this 1988 retelling of the Crucifixion story was picketed so vociferously on its release in the US--this Jesus bears little resemblance to the classical Christ, who was not, upon careful review of the Gospels, ever reported to have had sex with Barbara Hershey. Heavily informed by Gnostic reinterpretations of the Passion, The Last Temptation of Christ (based rather strictly on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name) is surely worth seeing for the controversy and blasphemous content alone. But the "last temptation" of the title is nothing overtly naughty--rather, it's the seduction of the commonplace; the desire to forgo following a "calling" in exchange for domestic security. Willem Dafoe interprets Jesus as spacey, indecisive and none too charismatic (though maybe that's just Dafoe himself), but his Sermon on the Mount is radiant with visionary fire; a bit less successful is method actor Harvey Keitel, who gives the internally conflicted Judas a noticeable Brooklyn accent, and doesn't bring much imagination to a role that demands a revisionist's approach. Despite director Martin Scorsese's penchant for stupid camera tricks, much of the desert footage is simply breathtaking, even on small screen. Ultimately, Last Temptation is not much more historically illuminating than Monty Python's Life of Brian, but hey, if it's authenticity you're after, try Gibbon's. --Miles Bethany
It was originally called 'You'll Never Get Rich' but later had it's title changed to 'The Phil Silvers Show' but to it's fans' across the globe it's known simply as 'Bilko', the memorable name of one of the greatest comedy characters ever to grace the small screen. Woefully under-appreciated in it's home country, the series has always been feted in the UK and has regularly made the top tens of 'Best Sitcom' lists and is even recognised as the greatest ever sitcom from either side of the Atla.
They were perfect strangers, assembled to pull off the perfect crime. Then their simple robbery explodes into a bloody ambush, and the ruthless killers realise one of them is a police informer. But which one? Critically acclaimed for its raw power and br
Claude Rains delivers a remarkable performance in his screen debut as a mysterious doctor who discovers a serum that makes him invisible. Based on H.G. Wells classic novel it not only fuelled a host of sequels but features some special effects that are still imitated today.
That'll Be The Day: Abandoned by his father at an early age Jim MacLaine seems to have inherited the old man's restlessness. Despite his apparent intelligence Jim decides not to take the exams that would pave his way to university; he begins to think that the life of a pop musician might be the thing for him... Stardust: Jim is now enjoying the nomadic gigs and groupies' life of The Stray Cats. When he achieves all his wildest dreams of international stardom the sweet taste of success begins to turn sour...
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