John Frankenheimer's Award-winning 1962 classic THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE has been fully restored and will be back in cinemas this spring.
When author Paul Sheldon suffers a car accident in a blizzard he thanks his lucky stars that nurse Annie Wilkes was on hand. That is until he discovers that she's his number one fan and has no intention of ever letting him go...
Anthony Hopkins stars as the Roman General in this adaptation of the classic Shakespeare play. Co-stars Jessica Lange and Alan Cummings.
John Wayne recovered from his first bout of cancer to appear in 1965's The Sons of Katie Elder as the brother of Dean Martin, Earl Holliman and Michael Anderson Jr. All four characters are wandering souls prone to trouble, but after the funeral of their frontier mother, they set out to avenge her death. Directed by Henry Hathaway (Wayne's director on True Grit), the film moves like a conventional, latter-day Western, with good performances from Wayne and Martin, who'd already costarred with the Duke in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo. There's also nice support from Dennis Hopper (who had a legendary conflict with Hathaway on this film), Strother Martin and George Kennedy. --Tom Keogh
The Barbra Streisand Collection consists of four movies: What's Up, Doc? (1972), Up the Sandbox (1972), The Main Event (1979) and Nuts (1987) In What's Up, Doc?, director Peter Bogdanovich tipped his hat to the classic screwball comedies of the 1930s, and especially the most glorious of them all, Howard Hawks' Bringing Up Baby. Barbra Streisand plays a charming flake who distracts a self-absorbed musicologist (Ryan O'Neal). He's engaged to be married, but soon Streisand's character has him chasing after stolen jewellery and getting into one madcap fix after another. --Tom Keogh Up the Sandbox springs from the early 1970s, when Streisand's career was in full stride. She stars as Margaret, a stay-at-home mum in the middle of New York who's feeling the strain of her narrow life. Frustrated by her self-involved husband and the mentally unstimulating tasks of motherhood, she escapes into fantasies--such as being chatted up by a cross-gendered Fidel Castro, bombing the Statue of Liberty with black militants and having a furious catfight with her overbearing mother. The movie's strength lies in these fantasies' slippery nature; some are over the top, but others are so subtle you're not always sure where they start and stop, making the portrait of Margaret's psyche intriguingly complex. --Bret Fetzer The Main Event is a comedic misfire from the mid-1970s, a futile attempt to bottle the same lightning that struck when Streisand teamed with Ryan O'Neal in What's Up, Doc? Here, Streisand plays a spoiled rich girl, the head of a bankrupt cosmetics company, who discovers she's lost everything--except her ownership of the contract of a washed-up boxer (O'Neal). So she tries to rally this dispirited pug into a comeback that will earn the kinds of purses that will put her back on her feet. Naturally, in the process, romantic sparks are kindled. But despite a loud and energetic performance by Streisand, the comedy doesn't add up to much. --Marshall Fine In Nuts Streisand is a mad high-priced "escort" accused of murder, but whether she's mad as hell or mad as a hatter is the question in this courtroom drama, adapted from the play by Tom Topor. While her doting, wilfully uncomprehending mother (Maureen Stapleton) and stepdad with a secret (Karl Malden) try to have her judged incompetent and sent to an asylum, she fights for her day in court with the help of a hapless legal aid attorney (a refreshingly understated Richard Dreyfuss). James Whitmore presides over the hearing with a compassion and sense of justice that gives one faith in the system, and la Streisand (who developed and produced the project) sinks her teeth into the tempestuous role like a starving actress. The plot holds few surprises, but the drama lies in the characters; veteran director Martin Ritt brings out the best in a top-flight cast. --Sean Axmaker
Joe Kidd which concerns a land war in New Mexico at the turn of the century marks Clint Eastwood at the top of his form as a western hero. Filmed in 1971 Kidd brings together a veteran western Director John Sturges the classic backdrop of the High Sierras the top notch acting skills of Robert Duvall and the rugged Eastwood as a ""hired gun"" who takes action based on his own particular sense of justice. And like a very classic western it has gunfights conflicts and a slam-bang f
They can hear a cloud pass overhead the rhythm of your blood. They can track you by yesterday's shadow. They can tear the scream from your throat. A real estate tycoon his coke-binging wife and a slum wino have something grisly in common: they're the latest victims in a series of random murders. A veteran NYPD detective soon suspects the killings may be supernatural and deliberate: ages-old beings of cunning intelligence and incredible power defending their turf from the encroac
When advertising executive Bill Rago gets the chop he soon realises that he can't do anything else and is talked into teaching English grammar to a bunch of army recruits. The army wants him to be disciplined and do everything at the double; his pupils just want him to leave them alone...
Very few first-time film directors would have been capable of making such a triumphant adaptation of Henry V; but a still-youthful Kenneth Branagh's years of stage experience paid off handsomely and his 1989 version qualifies as a genuine masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules: Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the Bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an anti-war story in contrast to Olivier's patriotic spectacle. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and wilful eyes revealing much about the personal cost of war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments: his scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) trying to learn English quickly from her maid are delightful. What may be the crowning glory of Branagh's adaptation comes when the dazed leader wanders across the battlefield, not even sure who has won. As King Hal carries a dead boy (a young Christian Bale) over the hacked bodies of both the English and French, a panorama of blood and mud and death greet the viewer as Branagh opens up the scene and Patrick Doyle's rousing hymn "Non nobis, Domine" provides marvellous counterpoint (like the director, the composer was another filmic first-timer). A more potent expression of the price of victory could scarcely be imagined. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com
Broadway-bound the Muppets Take Manhattan by storm in this magical musical about breaking into show business! Fresh out drama school Kermit Fozzie Bear and the entire cast of Kermit's musical - Manhattan Melodies - head for the Big Apple with plans to turn their small play into a big hit! All they need now is someone to produce their show! But when no one in town will even meet with them it's up to Kermit to believe hard enough for all of his friends that the show WILL go on!
Elvis Presley sizzles as a lovelorn million-heir in this riveting and romantic rock 'n' roll romp. Vying for the attentions of the lovely Shelley Fabares Elvis finds himself caught up in a rivalry with playboy Bill Bixby against a tuneful background of comedy romance and speedboat racing! Clambake is pleasing escape entertainment and the wildest party to hit the beach since they invented the beach ball! It's a hip version of The Prince and the Pauper as Elvis relinquishes his oil
By night, vampires rise from loamy graves in search of human prey. By day, vampire slayer Jack Crow (Woods) leads a contingent of Vatican mercenaries in a long-waged war against these enemies.
So many women... Not enough man. Abner Peacock's (Knotts) beloved bird-watcher's magazine 'The Peacock' is in a financial crisis. Desperate to stay afloat Abner takes on new partners who have an agenda of their own: ito publish a sexy gentlemen's magazine. Before he can stop them the first issue sells over 40 million copies and Abner becomes the unwilling spokesperson for First Amendment rights. Swept up in the adulation the unwitting playboy quickly begins settling int
Michael Caine was robbed of an Oscar. He gives his finest performance in a decade as big-talking small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy, pale life of the party hiding his desperation under gold chains and cool bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrocks's meek little LV (short for Little Voice) fill her bedroom with the rich voice of Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time. Little Voice is ostensibly LV's story, and in fact the original play was written for Horrocks, whose amazing vocal impressions of Garland, Shirley Bassey and Marilyn Monroe (among others) form the centrepiece performance of the film. But as directed by Mark Herman (Brassed Off), the story of this mousy girl who shuts herself in from a bellowing world is just as overwhelmed by the bombastic characters as LV herself. Brenda Blethyn babbles a blue streak as LV's overbearing mother, Mari, an ageing widow who escapes her unhappiness in carousing and becomes almost pathologically jealous when Ray's attentions turn from her to LV. As Ray puts his dreams on the line for LV's showcase, he reveals his true self: a venal man who spits and barks out his bottled-up anger in an astoundingly bile-filled delivery of Roy Orbison's "It's Over." The showstopping moment once again overwhelms LV's tale, but Caine's performance is so astounding it seems a fair trade. --Sean Axmaker
Honour is the greatest sacrifice of all.... After the fall of Rome the warlords of England are brutally kept in line by the forces of Irish King Donnchadh. One of these leaders Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell) seeks to unite the English tribes to form one strong nation to rule itself. His greatest knight is Tristan (James Franco) whom Marke raised since he was orphaned in an Irish attack that also took Marke's family. With Tristan by his side Marke believes he can unify his people and rid England of Irish rule. But Tristan harbors a terrible secret. Wounded and left for dead after battle he is nursed back to health by Isolde (Sophia Myles) a mysterious Irish beauty who hides him from her father King Donnchadh's forces and brings him back to life. But their passionate affair is cut short when Tristan must return to England not knowing if he will see Isolde again. Still seeking to throw the English tribes back into chaos King Donnchadh gives away his daughter as the prize in a tournament between all the champions of England. Tristan wins the princess' hand for Lord Marke whose vision of a united England may finally be realized. Tristan is horrified to see that the woman he has won for his Lord the woman whom Marke will marry is his Irish savior Isolde. Worse Marke is a good and worthy future king whose belief in Tristan has made the young knight who he is. First separated by countries at war and now by loyalty to King and country Tristan and Isolde must suppress their emotions for the sake of peace and the future of England. But the more they deny their passion the more fiercely it burns. Despite their efforts to stay apart Tristan and Isolde are driven inexorably together risking everything for one last moment in each other's arms....
Clint Eastwood's stardom was supernova, thanks to Dirty Harry; John Sturges, the man behind The Magnificent Seven and a dozen other memorably leathery Westerns, was directing; and Elmore Leonard was the screenwriter. It just goes to show. Joe Kidd is a muddle and a drag, the shoddiest Eastwood vehicle since Rowdy Yates trod in his last cow flop. Kidd, first seen as a duded-up drunk sleeping one off in jail, is supposed to be a horse rancher and an expert tracker--just the fellow a rapacious land-grabber (Robert Duvall committing lazy villainy) needs to chase down the uppity Latino (John Saxon) who's trying to reclaim the grabbed land for its rightful owners. Neither the characters nor the overland pursuit makes any sense, thanks to chasms in the continuity and no direction to speak of. An absurdly arbitrary assault-by-locomotive provides the climax; as Eastwood observed, "Jesus, anything at this point--let's end it." --Richard T. Jameson
H.G. Wells' classic story of a brilliant but eccentric scientist whose quest for the secret of invisibility leads him to commit theft and murder finally unleashing a reign of terror on anyone who dares to thwart him.
Michael Caine was robbed of an Oscar. He gives his finest performance in a decade as big-talking small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy, pale life-of-the-party hiding his desperation under gold chains and cool bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrocks's meek little LV (short for Little Voice) fill her bedroom with the rich voice of Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time.
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