Groundbreaking on several counts, not the least of which was an innovative use of animation and stereophonic sound, this ambitious Disney feature has lost nothing to time since its release in 1940. Classical music was interpreted by Disney animators, resulting in surreal fantasy and playful escapism. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra provided the music for eight segments by the composers Tchaikovsky, Moussorgsky, Stravinsky, Beethoven, Ponchielli, Bach, Dukas and Schubert. Not all the sequences were created equally, but a few are simply glorious, such as "Night on Bald Mountain", "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" and "The Nutcracker Suite". The animation ranges from subtly delicate to fiercely bold. The screen bursts with colour and action as creatures transmute and convention is thrust aside. The painstaking detail and saturated hues are unique to this film, unmatched even by more advanced technology. --Rochelle O'GormanFantasia and Fantasia 2000 are also available together in the 3-disc DVD Fantasia Collection.
This version of Cinderella is the original 1950 Walt Disney animated classic. Based upon Charles Perrault's 17th-century fable about a poor stepdaughter transformed into a vision of beauty sent to the royal ball by her Fairy Godmother to meet her Prince Charming and live happily ever after. The kind and beautiful Cinderella dreams of romance and a better life while serving the selfish needs of her wicked stepmother and two jealous stepsisters. With the help of her mischievous mice
In a small town evil spreads quickly. A journalist returns to his hometown to research the mysterious memories that have haunted him since childhood. But soon the closely held secrets of small-town life turn into unimaginable terror when a fearsome stranger arrives - looking to sink his teeth into a new home. This is the latest version of Stephen King's vampiric novel. The Previous version was directed by Tobe Hooper and featured performances from the likes of James Mason
A collection of classic films from famed British director David Lean. Bridge On The River Kwai (1957): When British P.O.W.s build a vital railway bridge in enemy occupied Burma Allied commandos are assigned to destroy it in David Lean's epic World War II adventure The Bridge on the River Kwai. Spectacularly produced The Bridge on the River Kwai captured the imagination of the public and won seven 1957 Academy Awards including Best Picture Be
Eureka Entertainment to release A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, Elia Kazan's heartfelt and sentimental first feature, presented on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration as a part of The Masters of Cinemas Series from 22 July 2019. Director Elia Kazan's first film, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn shows that the filmmaker's great empathy for his characters was already quite evident at this early juncture, and this endures as one of the most moving Hollywood dramas of the 1940s. Based on Betty Smith's novel a bestseller in the U.S. but also one of the most popular books among American soldiers overseas in WWII Kazan's debut is a sensitive, masterful adaptation. Set among Brooklyn tenements circa 1912, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a portrait of the Nolans, an Irish-American family living in financially challenging circumstances, often made worse by father Johnny's drinking and employment problems. But matriarch Katie keeps the family together during all of the obstacles, caring for son Neeley and daughter Francie, as well as Katie's outspoken, oft-married sister Sissy. But just as Francie's gift for writing opens up new avenues, more tragic developments test the family's resolve. Winning Academy Awards for actors James Dunn (as Johnny) and Peggy Ann Garner (as Francie), and featuring splendid work by Dorothy McGuire and Joan Blondell, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a heartfelt testament to the strength of family, and offers an early indication of Kazan's unrivalled proficiency with actors. Special Features: 1080p transfer of the film on Blu-ray from a 2K restoration completed from a 4K scan of the original film elements Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing Feature-length commentary by Richard Schickel with Elia Kazan, Ted Donaldson, and Normal Lloyd The Making of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn An Appreciation of Dorothy McGuire A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Hollywood Star Time: Original radio broadcast version of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn from 1946, starring Peggy Ann Garner, James Dunn and Joseph Kearns PLUS: a collector's booklet featuring new essays by Kat Ellinger, Phil Hoad, and Philip Kemp, alongside rare archival imagery
Murder by Decree has the distinction of being not only one of the best Sherlock Holmes films, but one of the best pastiches (i.e., a Holmes fiction created by someone other than author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) featuring the late-Victorian detective. Christopher Plummer is very good as Holmes, and James Mason redeems the many mishandled screen portrayals of Dr John Watson with a rare, insightful performance. The story may not be unique in post-Doyle Holmes adventures--the private investigator pursues Jack the Ripper during the latter's murderous reign in foggy London--but the script by John Hopkins (Thunderball) is keenly intelligent, developing concentric circles of power and evil with great subtlety. Before losing himself in Porky's, director Bob Clark did a masterful job of surprising audiences with Murder by Decree, convincing viewers they were watching one kind of drama but then unleashing something very different, very unsettling. --Tom Keogh
ALL 8 FILMS ON 4K ULTRA HD, & BLU-RAY ⢠PLUS BONUS DISC Buckle up for nonstop action and mind-blowing speed in the high-octane Fast & Furious 8-Movie Collection. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Dwayne Johnson, Michelle Rodriguez and an all-star cast put pedal to the metal in pursuit of justice and survival as they race from L.A. to Tokyo, Rio to London, and Cuba to New York City. Packed with full-throttle action and jaw-dropping stunts, these eight turbo-charged thrill rides place you behind the wheel of the most explosive film franchise in history! HOURS OF BONUS FEATURES Deleted Scenes Outtakes Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes Feature Commentaries And Much More!
Titles Comprise: The Devil Rides Out: Revered as one of the best horror films produced by Hammer Studios The Devil Rides Out is a chilling battle between good and evil. Christopher Lee perhaps best known for his role as Dracula gets to show his good side as the heroic and cavalier Duc de Richleau who maintains the air of a gentleman throughout his tireless battle with a Satanic coven led by the wonderfully villainous Mocata (Charles Gray). Dracula: Prince Of Darkness:Ignoring a strange warning a young party travelling to the Carpathian Mountains are abandoned by their coachman. Their luck changes however when another mysterious coach appears and delivers them to the hospitality of Count Dracula... Quatermass And The Pit: A London subway excavation abruptly halts when construction workers unearth a cluster of prehistoric skulls and skeletons. Anthropologist Dr. Roney his assistant Barbara Judd and space expert Professor Quatermass are driven by curiosity and dig deeper to discover a strange 'missile' that is not of this earth... The Nanny: A nanny (Bette Davis) is hired to look after a ten-year-old who has just returned from a mental institution. The boy's mother has just been poisoned and he believes the nanny is to blame. When his aunt arrives and hears the boy's accusations she sides with the nanny claiming the boy is making it all up. Frankenstein Created Woman: In a 19th century Balkan village Baron Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and Dr. Hertz (Thorley Walters) are embarking upon an experiment to capture the souls of the dead and impose them into other bodies. When their assistant Hans (Robert Morris) is unjustly accused of murdering his girlfriend Christina's father and put to death the two men claim his body and trap his soul in their laboratory. Meanwhile Christina (Susan Denberg) is consumed with grief over the death of her beloved Hans and commits suicide. Frankenstein and Dr. Hertz are able to revive Christina and transfer Hans' soul into her body which results in a vision of beauty. Their experiment appears successful until Frankenstein discovers that Christina's actions are being driven by the spirit of Hans and his passion for revenge...
A portrait of America in the early part of the twentieth century based on a bestselling novel by E.L. Doctorow and directed by Oscar winning film maker Milos Forman.
Bruce Willis's awful, 1991 vanity piece is an abuse of audience goodwill and a waste of a good cast and director (Michael Lehmann of Heathers). The story of Hudson Hawk, cowritten by Willis, concerns a cat burglar pressured into stealing precious art, including some from the Vatican. But the script is just a convenience upon which Willis piles his vaguely boorish brand of hip irony, assuming his audience will stay with him every step of the way. Certain, self-congratulatory scenes induce cringing--Willis and Danny Aiello, for instance, sing "Side by Side" (to brassy accompaniment on the soundtrack) every time they're working a job--but the overall effect is more irritating and baffling. Keep a good thought for Willis (an underrated actor better than the summer junk we usually see him in) by checking out his superior work in Pulp Fiction and his small but memorable role in Billy Bathgate. --Tom Keogh
The first and only film shot entirely in subtitled Latin, Sebastiane is Derek Jarman's first work as a director (though he shared the job with the less well-known Paul Humfress) and is a strange combination of gay nudie movie, pocket-sized Ancient Roman epic and meditation upon the image of Saint Sebastian. It opens with the Lindsay Kemp dance troupe romping around with huge fake phalluses to represent the Ken Russell-style decadence of the court of the Emperor Diocletian in AD 303, then decamps to Tuscany as Diocletian's favourite guard Sebastian (Leonardo Treviglio) is demoted to ordinary soldier and dispatched to a backwater barracks because the Emperor (Robert Medley) suspects him of being a covert Christian. The bulk of the film consists of athletic youths in minimal thongs romping around the countryside, soaking themselves down between bouts of manly horseplay or sylvan frolic. It all comes to a bad end as the lecherous but guilt-ridden commanding officer Severus (Barney James) fails to cop off with Sebastian and instead visits floggings and tortures upon his naked torso, finally ordering his men to riddle the future saint with arrows, thus securing him a place in cultural history. The public schoolboy cleverness of scripting dialogue in Latin--a popular soldier's insult is represented by the Greek "Oedipus"--works surprisingly well, with the cast reeling off profane Roman dialogue as if it were passionate Italian declarations rather than marbled classical sentences. The film suffers from the not-uncommon failing that the best-looking actor is given the largest role but delivers the weakest performance: Treviglio's Sebastian is a handsome cipher, far less interesting than the rest of the troubled, bullying, awkward or horny soldiers in the platoon. Peter Hinwood, famous for the title role in The Rocky Horror Picture Show, can be glimpsed in the palace orgy. The countryside looks as good as the cast, and Brian Eno delivers an evocative, ambient-style score. --Kim Newman
The Man from Laramie is the last of five remarkable Westerns Anthony Mann made with James Stewart (starting with Winchester '73 and peaking with The Naked Spur). Only John Ford excelled Mann as a purveyor of eye-filling Western imagery, and Mann's best films are second to no one's when it comes to the fusion of dynamic action, rugged landscapes and fierce psychological intensity. This collaboration marked virtually a whole new career for Stewart, whose characters are all haunted by the past and driven by obsession--here, to find whoever set his cavalry-officer brother in the path of warlike Indians. The Man from Laramie aspires to an epic grandeur beyond its predecessors. It's the only one in CinemaScope, and Stewart's personal quest is subsumed in a larger drama--nothing less than a sagebrush version of King Lear, with a range baron on the verge of blindness (Donald Crisp), his weak and therefore vicious son (Alex Nicol) and another, apparently more solid "son", his Edmund-like foreman (Arthur Kennedy). There are a few too many subsidiary characters, and the reach for thematic complexity occasionally diminishes the impact. But no one will ever forget the scene on the salt flats between Nicol and Stewart--climaxing in the single most shocking act of violence in 50s cinema--or the final, mountain-top confrontation. For decades, the film has been seen only in washed-out, pan-and-scan videos, with the characters playing visual hopscotch from one panel of the original composition to another. It's great to have this glorious DVD--razor-sharp, fully saturated (or as saturated as 50s Eastmancolor could be) and breathtaking in its CinemaScope sweep. --Richard T Jameson, Amazon.com
A Bridge Too Far: In September 1944, flush with success after the Normandy Invasion, the Allies confidently launched Operation Market Garden, a wild scheme intended to put an early end to the fighting by invading Germany and smashing the Reich's war plants. But a combination of battlefield politics, faulty intelligence, bad luck and even worse weather led to the disaster beyond the Allies' darkest fear.The Great Escape: One of the most ingenious and suspenseful adventure films of all time, The Great Escape is a masterful collaboration between director John Sturges (The Magnificent Seven), screenwriters James Clavell ('Shogun') and W.R. Burnett and composer Elmer Bernstein. Based on a true story.The Battle Of Britain: This is a spectacular retelling of a true story that shows courage at its inspiring best. Few defining moments can change the outcome of war . But when the outnumbered Royal Air Force defied unsurmountable odds in engaging the German Luftwaffe, they may well have altered the course of history!
The very first film in the ever popular Doctor series. Here we are first introduced to Simon Sparrow (Dirk Bogarde) and follow his hilarious adventures as a student doctor in St. Swithins Hospital - from naive bumbling trainee to his first day as a fully qualified doctor. In these early formative years he learns how to cope with the occupational hazards of being a medical student such as fiery ward sisters frightening surgeons over-knowledgeable patients the eccentricities o
Workmen unearth prehistoric skulls while carrying out excavations on the London Underground. Very soon a strange and malevolent force is unleashed.
From before the nativity to the Crucifixion and Resurrection Jesus Of Nazareth brings to life all the majesty and sweeping drama of the Gospels. This extended version features an additional 2 hours of footage not seen before! Robert Powell plays Jesus and a star-studded international cast adds depth and humanity to the roles of the saints sinners and ordinary people who walked in the footsteps of the Lord. The film shows the setting and background for the birth childhood and many miracles of the Messiah culminating in the Divine Resurrection. Directed by Oscar nominee Franco Zeffirelli and acclaimed by critics and religious leaders worldwide Jesus Of Nazareth tells the greatest of all stories with tremendous emotion and splendour.
Director Joel Schumacher's acclaimed story of a group of young US infantry men in 1971, in training for Viet Nam, at a time when not even many of the soldiers themselves believed in what they were doing.
Two LAPD homicide detectives investigate the slaying of a rap group that might have been set up by the president of their record label.
When the usually ranting and raving Sir Lancelot Spratt becomes gentle and considerate the hospital inhabitants become positively alarmed until Dr Simon Sparrow diagnoses the trouble: love!
Trying to explain the cult appeal of John Carpenter's Big Trouble in Little China to the uninitiated is no easy task. The plot in a nutshell follows lorry driver Jack Burton (Kurt Russell) into San Francisco's Chinatown, where he's embroiled in street gang warfare over the mythical/magical intentions of would-be god David Lo Pan. There are wire-fu fight scenes, a floating eyeball and monsters from other dimensions. Quite simply it belongs to a genre of its own. Carpenter was drawing on years of chop-socky Eastern cinema tradition, which, at the time of the film's first release in 1986, was regrettably lost on a general audience. Predictably, it bombed. But now that Jackie Chan and Jet Li have made it big in the West, and Hong Kong cinema has spread its influence across Hollywood, it's much, much easier to enjoy this film's happy-go-lucky cocktail of influences. Russell's cocky anti-hero is easy to cheer on as he "experiences some very unreasonable things" blundering from one fight to another, and lusts after the gorgeously green-eyed Kim Cattrall. The script is peppered with countless memorable lines, too ("It's all in the reflexes"). Originally outlined as a sequel to the equally obscure Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble is a bona fide cult cinema delight. Jack sums up the day's reactions perfectly, "China is here? I don't even know what the Hell that means!". On the DVD: Big Trouble in Little China is released as a special edition two-disc set in its full unedited form. Some real effort has been put into both discs' animated menus, and the film itself is terrific in 2.35:1 and 5.1 (or DTS). The commentary by Carpenter and Russell may not be as fresh as their chat on The Thing, but clearly they both retain an enormous affection for the film. There are eight deleted scenes (some of which are expansions of existing scenes), plus a separate extended ending which was edited out for the right reasons. You'll also find a seven-minute featurette from the time of release, a 13-minute interview with FX guru Richard Edlund, a gallery of 200 photos, 25 pages of production notes and magazine articles from American Cinematographer and Cinefex. Best of all for real entertainment value is a music video with Carpenter and crew (the Coupe de Villes) coping with video FX and 80s hair-dos.--Paul Tonks
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