You can choose your friends, but whether you live in a back-to-back, a suburban semi or a mansion, you can rarely choose your neighbours... Highly popular and more than a little controversial Love Thy Neighbour consistently appeared in the top three programmes of the week throughout the majority of its eight series run even its repeats reached the top of the charts! Its comic spin on racism, politics and general childish antagonism was loved by millions and remains a firm favourite to this day. This complete-series set comprises the unscreened pilot episode, all eight series in their intended running order for the first time, the Christmas 1972 short sketch for All Star Comedy Carnival, the 1973 New Year Special and a brand-new transfer of the 1973 feature film from its original film elements in its as-exhibited aspect ratio. All episodes are presented complete and uncut and have been remastered from the best available materials
A landmark movie in the film noir tradition Roman Polanski's Chinatown stands as a true screen classic. Jack Nicholson is private eye Jake Gittes living off the murky moral climate of sunbaked pre-war Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite (Faye Dunaway) to investigate her husbands extra-marital affair Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together for one unforgettable night in ... Chinatown. Co-starring film legend John Huston and featuring an Academy Award-winning script by Robert Towne Chinatown captures a lost era in a masterfully woven movie that remains a timeless gem.
The crew of the Helios are on a high-risk mission to investigate a massive solar flare that is threatening the very existence of the Earth in this super-charged sci-fi adventure that's packed with dazzling special effects and deep space suspense. The ship is carrying a probe loaded with an anti-matter bomb that has to be shot into the heart of the Sun and if successful will trigger the mega-flare in a direction safely away from the Earth. It's a high risk undertaking to disturb a galactic body as powerful as the Sun a risk increased by saboteurs who are determined to thwart the mission by planting a traitor on the spacecraft.
Starring Jack Dee as a stand up comic, Rick Spleen as he tries and usually fails, to get on with life. A collection of all the series of Lead Balloon for the first time. Features all 28 episodes.
When a body is found in the New Orleans docks, it's pretty obvious that he died from gun shot wounds. The police surgeon notices that the man is also displaying other symptoms and Lt. Commander Clint Reed, a doctor with the U.S. Public Health Service, diagnoses a highly contagious disease, pneumonic plague. He tries to convince local officials to find everyone who may have been in contact with the dead man. The Mayor supports his efforts but many, including the police, are doubtful. Reed wants to avoid publicity so as not to panic the public. They have little information to go on - they don't know the dead man's identity - and Reed estimates they have 48 hours before disease begins to spread. With police Capt. Tom Warren going through the motions, Reed sets out to find the killers. High Definition Transfer Commentary by Alain Silver and James Ursini More TBC
Chaplin plays two characters in his first full talkie. Adenoid Hynkel the dictator of Tomania and a Jewish Barber. The Barber recovers from amnesia to discover Hynkel is persecuting all the Jews in his country. The film ends with a message of hope for the world.
When Terms of Endearment was released in 1983, director and writer James L Brooks was lauded for his depiction of a complex mother/daughter relationship. For his leading ladies he chose actresses with two of the strongest personalities in Hollywood, but armed with an exceptionally witty script and endless patience he eventually drew magnificent performances from Shirley Maclaine as Aurora and Debra Winger as her daugher Emma, assisted considerably by Jack Nicholson's considerate professionalism. As the philandering retired astronaut who beds Maclaine and then provides her with surprising support in the film's dark later moments, Nicholson shines with comic brilliance which earned him an Oscar. It was no secret that Maclaine and Winger could barely contain a mutual antipathy on set. Yet they strike sparks off each other on screen. When comedy turns to tragedy with the development of Emma's cancer, the laughs continue even while the tear ducts are being given a good work out. In the glory days of Hollywood, this would have been acknowledged a great "women's picture" and its weepy credentials are impeccable. It stands out as a warm, accessible work that admirably rejects sugary sentiment in favour of the realistic rough edges that characterise most human relationships. On the DVD: Presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, this DVD is ideal for home cinema viewing. The picture and sound quality are fine, benefiting Michael Gore's gentle, memorable music and bringing the best out of Andrzej Bartkowiak's luminous photography. In addition to the original theatrical trailer, the major extra is the director's commentary in which James L Brooks reminisces with coproducer Penney Finkelman and production designer Polly Platt. They look back at their impressive work with a touching degree of wonder and apprentice directors should take note when Brooks recalls his steep learning curve in managing his leading ladies. --Piers Ford
Based on the game from Gearbox and 2K, one of the bestselling videogame franchises of all time, welcome to Borderlands.Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous outlaw with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home planet of Pandora to find the missing daughter of the universe's most powerful S.O.B., Atlas (Edgar Ramirez). Lilith forms an alliance with an unexpected team Roland (Kevin Hart), a former elite mercenary, now desperate for redemption; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral pre-teen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina's musclebound, rhetorically challenged protector; Tannis (Jamie-Lee Curtis), the scientist with a tenuous grip on sanity; and Claptrap (Jack Black), a persistently wiseass robot. These unlikely heroes must battle alien monsters and dangerous bandits to find and protect the missing girl, who may hold the key to unimaginable power. The fate of the universe could be in their hands but they'll be fighting for something more: each other.
Following JACK NICHOLSON's breakout supporting turn in Easy Rider, director BOB RAFELSON (The King of Marvin Gardens) devised a powerful leading role for the new star in the searing character study Five Easy Pieces. Nicholson plays the now iconic cad Bobby Dupea, a shiftless thirtysomething oil rigger and former piano prodigy immune to any sense of responsibility, who returns to his upper-middle-class childhood home, blue-collar girlfriend (Nashville's KAREN BLACK, in an Oscar-nominated role) in tow, to see his estranged ailing father. Moving in its simplicity and gritty in its textures, Five Easy Pieces is a lasting example of early 1970s American alienation. SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES Restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director of photography László Kovács, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary featuring director Bob Rafelson and interior designer Toby Rafelson Soul Searching in Five Easy Pieces, a 2009 video piece with Rafelson BBStory, a 2009 documentary about the legendary film company BBS Productions, with Rafelson; actors Jack Nicholson, Karen Black, and Ellen Burstyn; directors Peter Bogdanovich and Henry Jaglom; and others Documentary from 2009 about BBS featuring critic David Thomson and historian Douglas Brinkley Audio excerpts from a 1976 AFI interview with Rafelson Theatrical trailer and teasers PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones
He never fought a battle he couldn't win: except the conflict raging within his own soul. Academy Award winner Sylvester Stallone stars as war hero John Rambo. An ex-Green Beret haunted by memories of Vietnam he was once the perfect killing machine. Now he's searching for peace but finds instead an over-zealous small-town sheriff who's spoiling for a fight. All hell breaks loose when an unjustly imprisoned Rambo escapes and becomes the target of a massive manhunt. Now he must use his cunning combat skills and weapons training to stay alive and outwit his pursuers. Co-starring Brian Dennehy and Richard Crenna First Blood is an explosive action-thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the final powerful frame.
Fifty years on, it's hard to appreciate just how shocking one key scene in The Blue Lamp was considered by British audiences. Young delinquent Tom Riley (played with sensuous malevolence by Dirk Bogarde) guns down kindly, benevolent copper, PC Dixon (Jack Warner.) In early 1950s Britain, murdering a policeman was the ultimate taboo. Even the underworld's denizens help the police flush Riley out. Made by Ealing Studios, The Blue Lamp is not a comedy but shares many of the studio's characteristic comic hallmarks, as well as the same writer (TEB Clarke) for their classics Hue And Cry and The Lavender Hill Mob. Consensus and tolerance are the watchwords. Individualism is frowned upon. There are no extravagant displays of emotion, not even from Mrs Dixon (Gladys Henson) when she learns what happened to her husband. The understatement is very moving, although by today's standards the representation of the police seems absurdly idealised. Were they ever the doughty, patient sorts depicted here? It is no surprise to learn that Scotland Yard co-operated in the making of the film but this is much more than just police propaganda. Well-crafted, full of finely judged character performances, it ranks with Ealing's best work. It was made at an intriguing historical moment: before rock and roll and the era of teenage affluence, there was simply no place for young tearaways like Tom Riley. --Geoffrey Macnab
Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) expects a vast inheritance after his father dies. But the entire fortune is left to Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) his older brother, an 'autistic Savant' Charlie never even knew existed.
Following on from the hugely popular Out of Town, Old Country saw Jack Hargreaves continue his exploration of rural life in Thomas Hardy country reflecting on its character, traditions, history and folklore, and the skills that had passed from generation to generation. With his extensive experience, knowledge and love of the countryside, Hargreaves' easygoing presentation style enthralled both rural and urban viewers alike, making this - his final series for television hugely popular and fondly remembered to this day. An unsentimental record of a bygone time, his work set the bar high for all country matters series that were to follow in its footsteps. Unseen since its Channel 4 broadcast in the 1980s, Old Country contained all-new material and was the only time that Jack Hargreaves' work received a countrywide networked screening. This volume contains the 60 editions made for all three series. SPECIAL FEATURE: Archive Coast to Coast interview with Jack Hargreaves from 1987.
Sgt. Cannon and PC Ball 'run' the police station in the sleepy town of Little Botham. When the station is threatened with closure due to the lack of crime they decide to invent some crimes to justify their positions. In response they try to steal a painting from a local businessman (Kinnear) and accidentally stumble across a gang of real art thieves who have just stolen one million pounds worth of paintings. It is up to the two inept cops to stop them escaping with their haul!
This 4 disc box set features the complete series of Arthur Of The Britons. With the roman withdrawal from Britain the tribes have entered into a period of feudal warfare. Arthur is the war chieftain of a tribe of Celts who has his eye on the bigger picture - unification of the tribes in the face of the Saxon threat. Assisted by his adoptive father Llud and Saxon friend Kai he has his hands full keeping the peace with opposition from the various feuding factions as well as his duplicitous cousin Mark of Cornwall.
Set amid the windswept beauty of Cornwall this popular and acclaimed series follows Detective Superintendent Charles Wycliffe as he investigates the region s most serious and challenging cases. Whilst the storylines often highlight the social and economic difficulties faced by the local community the conscientious Wycliffe offers something of a contrast to the classic maverick detective; a family man with a fastidious tolerant approach he tackles each investigation with a calm determination and a resolutely open mind and his incisive style of questioning never fails to cut through to the heart of the mystery. Jack Shepherd is quietly charismatic in the title role alongside Jimmy Yuill and Helen Masters as Detective Inspectors Doug Kersey and Lucy Lane - his dependable but very human colleagues. Boasting award-winning theme music composed by Nigel Hess Wycliffe remained a top-rated drama throughout its five-year run. This release presents the complete fifth and final series alongside the feature-length 1997 Christmas Special.
Romance never dies. Sam (Andrew Lincoln) and Baggy (Andrew Rajan) share a house in London play cricket visit the pub and watch porn. It's not much of a life but it's better than coal mining. Sam secretly wants to be a singer and has a deeper interest in his friend Alison than he's willing to admit. Baggy? He's never been able to trust a girl since his fiance jilted him at the altar - besides married women seem safer. Of course commitment is a lot harder than smoking a
Sylvester Stallone never courted as much controversy as he did with the screen violence of the Rambo trilogy. From 1982 to 1988, they kept his name above Schwarzenegger's in the muscle hero league, with "Rambo" becoming a descriptive phrase in the language to describe gung-ho aggression (in Japanese, "rambo" means "violence"). The strangest part of the character's success is that originally he had none. Both David Morrell's novel and the original incarnation of First Blood had the Vietnam vet committing suicide after his rampage through small town America. The un-Hollywood ending was changed when Stallone and the producers recognised here was a character with possibilities. First Blood: Part II was co-written by James (Titanic) Cameron, a man who has always recognised box office possibilities. Stallone took a very relevant (to 1985) issue of surviving POWs and created an alternative end to the Vietnam War. This was achieved courtesy of the Cold War animosity that still existed towards the Russians, embodied in a suitably vile cameo from Steven Berkoff. A little love interest helped ground the movie and prevent it from completely turning into a video game, as did the best of Jerry Goldsmith's stirring scores for the trilogy. After saving himself and then his Country, Rambo III was simply about saving his friend Richard Crenna. The code of honour was by this point watered down into a song lyric, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". Nevertheless the final instalment continues to say something about the indomitable American spirit that will not accept defeat lightly. Patriotism may never have been portrayed quite so bloodily before Rambo's arrival, but at least a generation learned to question attitudes to war veterans, as well as the benefits of carrying a compass in your hunting knife. On the DVD: The Rambo trilogy on disc brings together all three movies in crisp 2.35:1 widescreen transfers. Sadly the extras are a little thin considering how much more was on the old Laser Discs. The first film has but a trailer; the third has a few minutes of behind the scenes material; the second has quite a few mini-documentaries that could really have done with being edited together, and having repeated interviews cut out. But there's still fun to be had hearing how deep and meaningful the movies were in conception.--Paul Tonks
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy