Based on the French film, The Return of Martin Guerre (which itself was based on a famous court case), this 1993 film by director Jon Amiel recasts the same essential story in post-Civil War Tennessee, in a dirt-poor town suffering the effects of the South's loss. Jodie Foster plays Laurel Sommersby, a widow whose husband died in the Civil War--or so everyone thinks. Then one day, Jack Sommersby (Richard Gere) strolls back into town and back into Laurel's bed--seemingly a very changed man. Gone is the selfish, nasty guy no one much liked. In his place is a friendly, sensitive and resourceful new Jack who not only rekindles the long-dead fire of his marriage, but revives the entire town. Except for one small catch: he may not actually be Jack Sommersby at all. Beautifully shot by Amiel (with a great assist from cameraman Philippe Rousselot) from a script by Nicholas Meyer and Sarah Kernochan, the film features a sturdy, even flinty performance by Foster and a beguiling one by Gere. Though the ending will squeeze the tear ducts, the film earns those tears. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
The Lion KingEmbark on an extraordinary coming-of-age adventure as Simba a lion cub who cannot wait to be king searches for his destiny in the great 'Circle of Life.' You will be thrilled by the breathtaking animation unforgettable music and timeless story. Special Features: Bloopers and Outtakes Audio Commentary By Co-Directors Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff And Producer Don Hahn Backstage Disney Including Deleted and Alternate Scenes Play Movie With Sing-A-Long Mode The Morning Report: Extended Scene Interactive Blu-rayTM Gallery The Lion King 2Experience the power of 'Upendi' - which means 'love' - as Kiara Simba's strong-willed daughter seeks adventure away from her father's watchful gaze. Along with Kovu a cub who is being groomed to lead Scar's pride Kiara searches for her proper place in the great 'Circle Of Life.' They discover that it may be their destiny to bring peace to the Pride Lands. Special Features: Timon and Pumbaa's Insectapedia Classic DVD Bonus Features: 'One By One' Timon and Pumbaa Find Out Why Proud of Simba's Pride 'Love Will Find A Way' - Music Video The Lion King 3Hilarity reigns in the motion picture comedy-adventure that takes you waaay back to the beginning before Simba's tale began... and beyond! From their uniquely hysterical perspective Timon and his windy pal Pumbaa - the greatest unsung heroes of the Savannah - reveal what really happened behind the scenes of The Lion King's biggest events. Special Features: Timon and Pumbas vaction safari classic DVD bonus features: Deleted scenes Timon: behind the legend Before the beginning - the making of Lion King 3 'Grazin' in the grass' music video
A massively underrated action thriller which kept Schwarzenegger occupied between blockbusters, Commando may be one of the last shoot-out films ever to have real characters in it. Not, of course, that they're anything other than stereotypes, but they're painted with such detailed, positive strokes that it's impossible not to relate to them. Arnie plays a retired military special-ops officer whose daughter (played with an expert balance of cute/feisty by Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the baddest of bad guys, who'll only hand her back as and when he's assassinated a tiresome banana-republic president on their behalf. Needless to say, Arnie is deeply annoyed by this, rescues the moppet single-handed amid more bullets and explosions than you can shake a stuntman's pay cheque at, and... well, why spoil the fun by revealing any more? Co-star Rae Dawn Chong gets some nice one-liners as the innocent bystander who gets caught up in the mayhem. The DVD comes with no additional features at all, but who needs 'em anyway? --Roger Thomas
From the creator and producers of Bodyguard. This thrilling British police drama has earned universal praise for its nail-biting action, complex characters, and intricate plotting (TV Guide). At anti-corruption unit AC-12, Superintendent Ted Hastings (Adrian Dunbar, Blood) leads his team of DS Steve Arnott (Martin Compston, The Nest) and DC Kate Fleming (Vicky McClure, This Is England) in investigating suspected cases of police corruptionand in the process, they begin to uncover a conspiracy that reaches to the heights of the force. Special Features: Five behind the scenes featurettes, Actor filmographies, picture galleries.
One Tree Hill: Season 1 marks the beginning of a genuinely engrossing series that maintains, for a long while, an unusual focus on a single, powerful conflict defining the destinies of two characters. Adolescent half-brothers Lucas (Chad Michael Murray) and Nathan (James Lafferty) Scott have lived parallel lives in One Tree, North Carolina. They share a common father, Dan Scott (Paul Johansson), who has disregarded the existence of Lucas, his son by a one-time flame, Karen (Moira Kelly), whom he dumped years before to accept a basketball scholarship to college. While neglecting Lucas, Dan--whose hoop dreams never materialized--has spent his time almost perversely micro-managing every one of Nathan's moves on and off the court at his old high school, where the lad is currently an arrogant superstar under gruff-but-wise coach Whitey Durham (Barry Corbin). Nathan (whose mother is separated from Dan) is a child of privilege and has been raised to disregard teamwork, compromise, or the feelings of others. He regards Lucas, a basketball sensation on neighborhood playgrounds, as trash, and his own girlfriend, Peyton (Hilarie Burton), as a pretty bauble he can abuse and dismiss at will. Still, he's sympathetic; one can see glimpses of the human being struggling to emerge from under Dan's control. Meanwhile, Lucas helps Karen run her café, hangs out with platonic best friend Haley (Bethany Joy Lenz), and pines for Peyton (herself a punky misfit at heart). He also turns to surrogate dad Keith Scott (Craig Sheffer)--actually his uncle and Dan's older brother--for support, and sees himself as a perpetual and doomed outsider in One Tree. All that changes when Whitey invites Lucas to join the b-ball team that Nathan dominates, a move that challenges the status quo of multiple relationships in a small community. For about a third of its episodes, this series from creator Mark Schwahn (who wrote the hit film Coach Carter) stays true to the suspense surrounding Lucas's and Nathan's changes in fortune. Then a bit of padding follows to the end of the season; there are 22 episodes to fill out, after all. But even as various distractions (a kidnapping subplot, a car accident and coma for a major character) and random events creep in (Dan, rather incredibly, takes over the team from Whitey at one point, thus coaching both his sons), One Tree Hill remains highly watchable. The writing is shaped well and organic, while performances are consistently excellent. (It's especially good to see Sheffer, perhaps best known for A River Runs Through It, again.) --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Sam and Lucy Bell (Hugh Laurie Joely Richardson) are bright thirtysomething media darlings - he's a TV Commissioning Editor for the BBC she works in a theatrical agency - who seem to have the perfect life. More than anything Sam and Lucy want a baby and so they embark on a rigorous schedule of lovemaking dictated by ovulation charts rather than passion. Nothing appears to work. In desperation they deliver themselves into the hands of Dr. James (Rowan Atkinson) who suggests the possibility of IVF as the way forward. The endless medical tests soon take their toll on the couple's relationship. Sam vents his frustration by penning a screenplay based on his current predicament: a comedy about a couple trying for a baby. Meanwhile Lucy's hormones are all over the shop and she finds herself increasingly attracted to the star client at her agency suave and debonair actor Carl Phipps (James Purefoy).
In 1960 producer-director George Pal's The Time Machine reshaped HG Wells' thoughtful, ironic novel into a two-fisted action movie, but one that still appeals to children and adults immensely and deserves its classic status. Wells' themes of biological and social evolution are played down, but there is a surprisingly melancholy thread as Rod Taylor's Time Traveller keeps stopping off at future wars to find that human stupidity still persists. In the first week of 1900 a group of fussy Victorians gather in Taylor's chintzy, overstuffed parlour to hear him tell of his expedition to the future, where the world is divided between the surface-dwelling, childish, beautiful Eloi and the hideous, underground, cannibal Morlocks. Wells intended both factions to seem degenerate, the logical final evolution of the class system, but Pal has Taylor pull a Captain Kirk and side with the Eloi and teach them to fight against their oppressors. The time travel sequence remains a tour de force, with a shop window mannequin demonstrating a parade of fashions as the years fly by in seconds and charming but still-effective stop-motion effects. The future is a wonderfully coloured landscape with properly gruesome cave-dwelling monsters and a winning Eloi heroine in Yvette Mimieux. It may not be totally Wells, but it's a treat. On the DVD: The Time Machine arrives on disc in a lovely widescreen print which makes the film seem new all over again. The featurette "Time Machine: The Journey Back" combines some mild behind-the-scenes stuff about the film (and its star prop) with a moving mini-sequel reuniting stars Rod Taylor and Alan Young in a scene that actually addresses a plot point skipped over in the original. --Kim Newman
It's Christmas Eve and five kids have just been snowed in at the airport - and there isn't a parent in sight.
Fathers and sons. Husbands and wives. Lovers and liars. What a difference a school year makes. At first half-brothers Nathan and Lucas Scott were bitter rivals on and off the basketball court. Now they bond as brothers. But there's drama trauma devotion betrayal twists and turns to come. To protect those he loves Lucas moves in with Dan. Brooke and Peyton mend their friendship - and beginia year of romantic turmoil for both. Nathan and Haley's marriage frays. Newcomers t
Directed with clinical precision by Academy Award winner Robert Wise this compelling account of the Earth's first biological crisis is perhaps the most chillingly realistic science fiction thriller ever made. After an errant satellite crashes to earth near a remote New Mexico village the recovery team discovers that almost everyone in the town are victims of a horrible death with the mysterious exception of an infant and an old homeless man. The survivors are brought to a state-of-the-art laboratory descending five stories beneath the ground where the puzzled scientists race against time to determine the nature of the deadly microbe before it wreaks worldwide havoc. A trailblazer in the areas of special effects and inventive sets The Andromeda Strain is based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel that created national paranoia for its topical relevance to the first moon landing.
Available for the first time on DVD! The wildest thing to hit the world since the mini-skirt! Lynn Redgrave stars as the homely girl who takes on the role of mother to her beautiful roommate's unwanted baby. With her father's employer trying to take her on as a mistress and her roommate's husband taking her on as an easy lover Redgrave's Georgy navigates the narrows between prostitution and purity as she tries to hang on to the baby she has grown to love...
Nick Nolte and Eddie Murphy make one of the most unusual and entertaining teams ever in Walter Hill's roller-coaster thriller 48 HRS. Nolte is a roughedged cop after two vicious cop-killers. He can't do it without the help of smooth and dapper Murphy who is serving time for a half-million dollar robbery. This unlikely partnership trades laughs as often as punches as both pursue their separate goals: Nolte wants the villains; Murphy wants his money and some much-needed female com
Ben Elton adapts his own novel for the big screen in this comedy about a couple (Hugh Laurie and Joely Richardson) who become more & more desperate as they try to conceive a child.
Someone to Watch Over Me is a stylish, smart film noir directed by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). The movie stars Tom Berenger as a New York cop and family man who falls for the rich and beautiful witness (Mimi Rogers) he's assigned to protect. Scott, who always displays a distinctive eye for extraordinary art direction, does something here he should be doing a lot more often: directing contemporary noir. Berenger and Rogers rise to the occasion, seemingly aware that they're making something special. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
The king of all animated films makes a triumphant return, now more majestic than ever! Experience the magnificence of all three essential chapters of The Lion King Trilogy in spectacular high definition and share the wonder as the Circle Of Life continues for a new generation.The Lion KingEmbark on an extraordinary coming-of-age adventure as Simba, a lion cub who cannot wait to be king, searches for his destiny in the great Circle of Life. You will be thrilled by the breathtaking animation, unforgettable music and timeless story. The Lion King 2: Simba's PrideExperience the power of Upendi-which means love-as Kiara, Simba's strong-willed daughter, seeks adventure away from her father's watchful gaze. Along with Kovu, a cub who is being groomed to lead Scar's pride, Kiara searches for her proper place in the great Circle Of Life. They discover that it may be their destiny to bring peace to the Pride Lands.The Lion King 3: Hakuna MatataHilarity reigns in the motion picture comedy-adventure that takes you waaay back to the beginning before Simba's tale began...and beyond! From their uniquely hysterical perspective, Timon and his windy pal Pumbaa-the greatest unsung heroes of the Savanna- reveal what really happened behind the scenes of The Lion King's biggest events.
The Sandlot (Dir. David Mickey Evans 1993): It's the early 1960's and 5th grader Scotty Smalls has just moved into town with his folks. Kids call him a dork because he can't even throw a baseball. But that changes when the leader of the neighborhood gang recruits him to play on the nearby sandlot field. It's the beginning of a magical summer of baseball wild adventures first kisses and fearsome confrontations with the dreaded beast and its owner who live behind the left fie
One of the oddest shows ever mounted for mainstream UK television, Sapphire & Steel was one of ITV's many short-lived attempts at grabbing the sci-fi cult status of the BBC's Doctor Who. Ex-Man From U.N.C.L.E. David McCallum and ex-Avenger Joanna Lumley play human-looking incarnations of the eponymous substances, mysterious investigators working at the behest of an apparent God of Order and zipping about TARDIS-like to cope with anomalies in the time-stream that manifest as apparent supernatural forces in remote English locales like an isolated farmhouse (Adventure One), a deserted rural railway station (Adventure Two) and a high-rise block of flats (Adventure Three). McCallum and Lumley play their "medium atomic weights" with blank style and a few touches of baffled humour, not to mention visual flair in the case of Lumley's blue fashions and occasional glowing eyes. But the lengthy serial format, strictly limited guest casts and claustrophobic confinement to studio floor sets tend to mean individual serials straggle on with a great deal of repetition, providing longeurs as six or eight-part stories seem to take forever to get moving and then resolve. Shot on video, with a few strange 1970s effects (evil follow-spots, floating pillows), this remains prime cult material, though it's hard to sit still for more than one episode at a time. It will take an extremely devoted fan to get through all three adventures in under six months. On the DVD: Sapphire & Steel on disc has to be reckoned a disappointment when compared with the wealth of extra material included on the Gerry Anderson or Doctor Who DVDs. This set stretches only to a few press releases and a TV Times article from the launch of the series that tries hard to build up a mystique about the show which it would take some years to actually acquire. There are basic bios of the two stars, and some unresonant stills. Image quality-wise, this looks much the same as previous VHS releases: shot on video, with only a few tiny film inserts for Adventure Three (on the roof of a London building), the series' transfer to DVD is plagued by artefacting of various kinds (some of which can just about be passed off as visual effects), but then again so were the original transmissions. The pristine look is especially unfortunate in exposing the extremely ordinary trickery as far less terrifying than the onscreen characters make them out to be. --Kim Newman
When virtually all of the residents of Piedmont, New Mexico, are found dead after the return to Earth of a space satellite, the head of the US Air Force's Project Scoop declares an emergency. Many years prior to this incident, a group of eminent scientists led by Dr. Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) advocated for the construction of a secure laboratory facility that would serve as a base in the event an alien biological life form was returned to Earth from a space mission. Stone and his team - Drs. Dutton, Leavitt and Hall (David Wayne, Kate Reid, and (James Olson, respectively)- go to the facility, known as Wildfire, and try to first isolate the life form while determining why two people from Piedmont (an old wino and a six-month-old baby) survived. The scientists methodically study the alien life form unaware that it has already mutated and presents a far greater danger in the lab, which is equipped with a nuclear self-destruct device should it manage to escape.
The second and final season of CSI Cyber follows the work of Avery Ryan (Patricia Arquette), as she and the team welcome D.B. Russell (Ted Danson), a Las Vegas veteran Crime Scene Investigator recruited by Ryan to direct the FBI's Next Generation Cyber Forensics Division. Still grieving the loss of his best friend, and following a recent divorce, Russell decides to take on new challenges by studying how crimes play out in the real world, combining old school forensics with new school tech.
For anyone who wants to catch a glimpse of the Los Angeles "lounge" scene that was in vogue during the early and mid-1990s, here's the movie that virtually defined that brief but colourful nightlife milieu. As an added bonus, it just happens to be a very funny, observant story about love, loss and male bonding among a group of friends who struggle to find decent jobs by day, and lurk through Hollywood's hottest nightclubs by night. A sort of latter-day Rat Pack, they include Mike (writer-actor Jon Favreau) and his closest buddy, Trent (Vince Vaughn), who are waiting for the big show-biz break that seems to be eluding them. Mike's twisted up about the girlfriend he left back East to pursue his going-nowhere standup comedy career, and Trent uses the word "money" as an adjective ("Man, we look totally money tonight") with such frequency that you may find yourself slipping into lounge-lizard mode after watching the movie. One of the most noteworthy indie-film success stories of the 90s, Swingers is a time-capsule comedy that seized its moment in the spotlight, launched several promising careers and continues to maintain its lasting appeal. --Jeff Shannon
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