Hamilton Mattress is a cheering half-hour of stop-frame animation featuring Sludger, an awkward aardvark with amazing rhythmical ability. As he searches the dusty land for ants with his down-at-heel aardvark companions, Sludger dreams of bettering himself and of wearing "important trousers". His big chance comes when his talent for drumming is spotted by Feldwick, caterpillar-cum-agent. Before he can say "anty"--aardvark for all things good--Sludger finds himself in Beak City where birds rule the roost and beaks are beautiful. Feldwick and Sludger--the latter now transformed into drummer extraordinaire, "Hamilton Mattress", a name he takes from a billboard advertisement--must overcome avian prejudice and discover the true meaning of friendship if they are to survive and get to wear the trousers of Sludger's dreams. Hamilton Mattress is the first in a trilogy of films produced by Christopher Moll whose other credits include the Wallace and Gromit adventure The Wrong Trousers and it will be interesting to see where the characters go next. This light modern fable may not have the mass appeal of Wallace and Gromit but with its infectious dance rhythms and unassuming aardvark hero, the tale is sure to be a hit with the whole family. As the advertisement says: "everyone loves a Hamilton Mattress". --Helen BakerDVD DescriptionDVD Special Features:An Interview With the WritersBehind the Scenes FeaturesDeleted ShotsTwo Audio CommentariesTrailersWeblink5:1 Track Option
An adaptation of Jane Austen's story of marriage and manners set in a picturesque 19th Century village which revolves around a spoilt young woman Emma Woodhouse who delights in influencing the love-lives of her friends with disastrous results.
The Fast Runner turns the frozen landscape of northern Canada into the stage for an adventure as sweeping as The Odyssey or Beowulf. Adapted from an Inuit legend, The Fast Runner centres on Atanarjuat, a charismatic young hunter struggling for the affections of Atuat, who has already been promised to Oki, the son of the camp's leader. When Atuat chooses Atanarjuat, Oki seems to accept it, but later events turn his anger and hatred into a murderous spite. This story, as passionate and primal as any film noir, is framed by the daily lives of the Inuit--a struggle for survival that is both simple and vivid, foreign yet immediately understandable. No one in the cast is a professional actor, but the performances are direct and compelling, telling a story that is epic and intimate. --Bret Fetzer
Two drifters are passing through a Western town when news comes in that a local farmer has been murdered and his cattle stolen. The townspeople joined by the drifters form a posse to catch the perpetrators. They find three men in possession of the cattle and are determined to see justice done on the spot.
The sunny streets of Brooklyn, just after World War II. A young would-be writer named Stingo (Peter MacNicol) shares a boarding house with beautiful Polish immigrant Sophie (Meryl Streep) and her tempestuous lover, Nathan (Kevin Kline); their friendship changes his life. This adaptation of the bestselling novel by William Styron is faithful to the point of being reverential, which is not always the right way to make a film come to life. But director Alan J. Pakula (All the President's Men) provides a steady, intelligent path into the harrowing story of Sophie, whose flashback memories of the horrors of a Nazi concentration camp form the backbone of the movie. Streep's exceptional performance--flawless Polish accent and all--won her an Oscar, and effectively raised the standard for American actresses of her generation. No less impressive is Kevin Kline, in his movie debut, capturing the mercurial moods of the dangerously attractive Nathan. The two worlds of Sophie's Choice, nostalgic Brooklyn and monstrous Europe, are beautifully captured by the gifted cinematographer Néstor Almendros, whose work was Oscar-nominated but didn't win. It should have. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
A young man is on trial for a wealthy widow's murder after he suspiciously profits from her will. His only hope for aquital is his wife's testimony but his airtight alibi shatters when she reveals some shocking secrets of her own...
Buster Keaton's career reached its creative apex with this rousing comic adventure. Not merely one of the finest silent films, this remains one of the great film comedies of all time. The Great Stone Face stars as Southern railroad engineer Johnny Gray, a man with only two loves: the sweet Annabelle Lee (Marion Mack) and his trustworthy engine, the eponymous General. When Fort Sumner is fired upon he is one of the first to enlist, but when the war office rejects him (he's too valuable as a trained engineer) his sweetie rejects him as a coward. Johnny has the opportunity to prove his bravery when Yankee spies steal his engine and inadvertently kidnap Annabelle, and Johnny pursues with all the resources at his disposal: handcar, bicycle and finally railroad engine. Keaton's love/hate relationship with technology and machinery shines as he becomes one with his beloved locomotive and wrestles with a finicky cannon that threatens to blow his engine off the tracks; with tremendous dexterity, he nails the humour with inimitably deadpan takes. Spunky Marion Mack makes a perfect partner for Keaton, not merely a foil but a gifted comedienne in her own right. Other Keaton films contain more laughs and inspired comic stunts, but none combines romance, adventure and comedy into a solid story as seamlessly as this silent masterpiece. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Johnny Mnemonic: The 21st Century. Information is the ultimate commodity. The most valuable of information is transported in Mnemonic implants in the heads of professional Mnemonic couriers like Johnny who offer both security and confidentiality for the right price. But Johnny has paid a heavy price of his own - he's dumped his own memories to make room for the programmes he smuggles. To buy them back he agrees to deliver priceless data the most important data of the 21st Century data that has already set an army of professional killers on his trail. But the massive upload is too much for his brain and Johnny must find the secret codes to download the information - or die! Chain Reaction: A student machinist (Keanu Reeves) finds himself caught in a maze of secret government cover-ups high tech espionage and murders after working on a groundbreaking scientific experiment. Eddie Kasalivich (Reeves) and Lily Sinclair (Rachel Weisz) are part of a team of scientists who have developed a revolutionary new source of energy. But no sooner have they finishes celebrating their triumph than their lab is destroyed and the head of their team killed. Named as the main suspects Eddie and Lily quickly realise their only hope lies with a powerful and mysterious bureaucrat (Morgan Freeman) who may or may not be on their side. Point Break: Keanu Reeves stars as Johnny Utah a clean-cut FBI rookie assigned to track down a gang of bank robbers operating in Southern California. Since his partner (Gary Busey) is convinced that the robbers are surfers Johnny decides to go undercover in the maverick world of surfing. He soon meets Bohdi (Patrick Swayze) a charismatic adrenaline junkie who'll do anything for a thrill..perhaps even rob banks. As the two become friends Johnny falls under the dangerous influence of Bohdi. He becomes addicted to the endless days of surfing and reckless nights of partying and even gets involved with Bohdi's ex-girlfriend (Lori Petty). As Johnny gets closer to cracking the case he learns the truth of Bohdi's most important lesson - if you want the ultimate thrill you have to pay the ultimate price.
You'd be hard-pressed to find a bigger family film than this chaotic comedy starring Lucille Ball and Academy Award-winner Henry Fonda as the parents of eighteen (Yes, eighteen!) children. Based on a true story and co-starring Van Johnson and Tom Bosley, Yours, Mine And Ours keeps the laughs coming thick and fast!This population explosion occurs when widowed Navy nurse Helen North (Ball) meets handsome Naval officer and widower Frank Beardsley (Fonda). They have much in common - too much in fact - she has eight kids and he has ten, and when they tie the knot, anarchy reigns in the Beardsley-North merger. The opposing camps of step-siblings do all they can to sabotage each other and their parents' union. But, through it all, mother lovingly cares for her troops, while father patiently coaches his coming-of-age kids in more delicate matters, and resentment soon gives way to respect and something bigger than anyone could have imagined!
A bumper box set of classic films featuring 'The Queen' Barbara Stanwyck! Double Indemnity (Dir. Billy Wilder 1944): Director Billy Wilder and writer Raymond Chandler ('The Big Sleep') adapted James M. Cain's hard-boiled novel into this wildly thrilling story of insurance man Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) who schemes the perfect murder with the beautiful dame Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck): kill Dietrichson's husband and make off with the insurance money. But of cou
1995 Bout Listing: Buck Quartermaine vs Brooklyn Brawler WWF I-C Title: Jeff Jarrett vs Razor Ramon WWF World Championship match: Diesel vs Bret Hart WWF Tag title match: The 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly vs Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka Royal Rumble: Shawn Michaels Bob Backlund The Blue Brothers Adam Bomb British Bulldog King Kong Bundy The Bushwhackers Crush Doink (Fall) Duke Droese Fatu Henry Godwinn Owen Hart The Heavenly Bodies (Pritchard & Del Rey) Kwang Lex Luger
Now perhaps the most beloved American film, It's a Wonderful Life was largely forgotten for years, due to a copyright quirk. Only in the late 1970s did it find its audience through repeated TV showings. Frank Capra's masterwork deserves its status as a feel-good communal event, but it is also one of the most fascinating films in the American cinema, a multilayered work of Dickensian density. George Bailey (played superbly by James Stewart) grows up in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming dreams of adventure and travel, but circumstances conspire to keep him enslaved to his home turf. Frustrated by his life, and haunted by an impending scandal, George prepares to commit suicide on Christmas Eve. A heavenly messenger (Henry Travers) arrives to show him a vision: what the world would have been like if George had never been born. The sequence is a vivid depiction of the American Dream gone bad, and probably the wildest thing Capra ever shot (the director's optimistic vision may have darkened during his experiences making military films in World War II). Capra's triumph is to acknowledge the difficulties and disappointments of life, while affirming--in the teary-eyed final reel--his cherished values of friendship and individual achievement. It's a Wonderful Life was not a big hit on its initial release, and it won no Oscars (Capra and Stewart were nominated); but it continues to weave a special magic. --Robert Horton
Chaos: Set in Seattle this star-studded bank heist thriller begins with the unfair suspension of Detective Quentin Conners (Jason Statham) following a shooting. Conners's next post has him assigned to rookie cop Shane Dekker (Ryan Phillippe) with whom he must investigate a tricky hostage situation led by Lorenz (Wesley Snipes). The Bank Job: In this heist film starring Jason Statham the mystery doesn't revolve around the robbery itself. Instead when the thieves steal the contents of safe deposit boxes at a London bank they uncover evidence of deceit and crime that reach all the way to the crown.
Hideously plausible when first broadcast in 1984, this BBC TV docu-drama now seems like a terrifying might-have-been, although a great deal of what it says about the probable aftermath of a nuclear attack remains horribly pertinent. Scripted by Barry Hines (author of the novel on which Ken Loach's Kes was based) and directed by Mick Jackson (who later went to Hollywood with The Bodyguard and Volcano), at the time Threads seemed like a response to the American TV movie The Day After although it stands nobly on its own. Showing the after-effects of World War III on the United Kingdom by concentrating on two Sheffield families linked by an unplanned pregnancy, it illustrates the scientific, political, medical and social consequences of the severing of the many vital connective "threads" that support a Western society. Grim in a particularly 1980s way, this is a compulsive if uncomfortable watch and accomplishes a great deal without the distraction of spectacle, picking through all the melted milk bottles and firing squad traffic wardens to find the human horror at the heart of it all. --Kim Newman
Bogus Bandits Ollie and Stan play Olio and Stanlio a pair of incompetent bandits who are hired as servants to Fra Diavolo (The Devil's Brother) a real bandit played by Dennis King who in his other guise is known as the Marquis de San Marco an aristocrat who uses his position to discover the whereabouts of the treasures worn by the ladies in high society... March Of The Wooden Soldiers Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) and Ollie Dee (Oliver hardy) are well-meaning but bra
The ebullient comedy films of the 1930s brought escape and laughter to millions of British cinemagoers, enabling veteran stars of the music-hall and theatre to reach out to a wider audience making household names of performers like Leslie Fuller, Hal Gordon, Bobby Howes, Ernest Lotinga and Gene Gerrard.Although comedy would prove to be the decade's most successful film genre, many of these classic early talkies have remained unseen since their original release. From boisterous knockabout humour to polished adaptations of popular stage farces, this ongoing collection showcases a wealth of rare features, each presented uncut, in a brand-new transfer from the best available elements in their as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.LETTING IN THE SUNSHINE (1933)A window cleaner bumps into an old flame, and the pair turn detective in an attempt to foil a gang of burglars.Black and White / 70 mins / 1.37:1 / Mono / EnglishLUCKY TO ME (1939)A solicitor's clerk secretly marries the office secretary, but a business matter threatens to cut their one-night honeymoon shorter still!Black and White / 66 mins / 1.37:1 / Mono / English
A box-office hit when released in 1994, this sprawling, frequently overwrought familial melodrama may get sillier as its plot progresses, but it's the kind of lusty, character-based epic that Hollywood should attempt more often. It's also an unabashedly flattering star vehicle for Brad Pitt as Tristan--the rebellious middle son of a fiercely independent Montana rancher and military veteran (Anthony Hopkins)--who is routinely at odds with his more responsible older brother, Alfred (Aidan Quinn), and younger brother, Samuel (Henry Thomas). From the battlefields of World War I to his adventures as an oceangoing sailor, Tristan's life is full of personal torment, especially when he returns to Montana and finds himself competing with Alfred over Samuel's beautiful widow (Julia Ormond), whose passion for Tristan disrupts the already turbulent Ludlow clan. Under the wide-open canopy of Big Sky country, this operatic tale unfolds with all the bloodlust, tragedy, and scenery-chewing performances you'd expect to find in a hokey bestselling novel (in fact, it's based on the acclaimed novella by Jim Harrison), but it's a potent mix that's highly entertaining. Not surprisingly, John Toll won an Academy Award for his breathtaking outdoor cinematography. --Jeff Shannon
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