Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. --Gary S Dalkin
This box set features a collection of Powell And Pressburger finest films. Includes: 1. The Tales of Hoffman (1951) 2. Black Narcisus (1946) 3. A Matter of Life & Death (1946) 4. The Life & Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 5. A Canterbury Tale (1944) 6. I Know Where I am Going (1945) 7. 49th Parallel (1941) 8. The Battle of the River Plate (1956) 9. Ill Met By Moonlight (1957) 10. They're A Weird Mob (1966) 11. The Red Shoes (1948)
The Adventures Of Huck Finn is an action-packed adaptation of Mark Twain's classic adventure. The unforgettable story of two unlikely friends a mischievous boy and a runaway slave on a wild trip down the mighty Mississippi River. On their treacherous journey to freedom they come across an entertaining assortment of diverse characters and face one incredible adventure after another. You won't want to miss this sensational telling of Twain's classic tale - a fun-filled mix of thrills and adventure!
127 Hours is the true story of mountain climber Aron Ralston's (James Franco) remarkable adventure to save himself after a fallen boulder crashes on his arm and traps him in an isolated canyon in Utah.
American Indians were "cool" in 1970, the year A Man Called Horse made its vigorous, feverishly real, and occasionally shocking debut alongside Little Big Man and Soldier Blue. Unlike the latter two films, however, Horse is less an allegory for Vietnam-era America and more of a vision quest for historical identity. In one of his defining roles, Richard Harris plays an English aristocrat captured by Dakota Sioux in 1825. Over time, he adopts their way of life and eventually becomes tribal leader--but not before undergoing savage initiation rituals, the most famous of which involves being suspended by blades inserted beneath Harris's pectoral muscles. Horse looks clunky, quaint, and inadvertently demeaning in some respects today, but the film's Native-American milieu is at least defined on its own terms, making no concessions to familiar Western conventions. The real draw is Harris, whose performance has a soulful integrity. --Tom Keogh
Titles Comprise:Wanted (2008): Based upon Mark Millar's explosive graphic novel series and helmed by stunning visualist director Timur Bekmambetov - creator of the most successful Russian film franchise in history, the Night Watch series - Wanted tells the tale of one apathetic nobody's transformation into an unparalleled enforcer of justice.25-year-old Wes (James McAvoy) was the most disaffected, cube-dwelling drone the planet had ever known. His boss chewed him out hourly, his girlfriend ignored him routinely and his life plodded on interminably. Everyone was certain this disengaged slacker would amount to nothing. There was little else for Wes to do but wile away the days and die in his slow, clock punching rut. Until he met a woman named Fox (Angelina Jolie).After his estranged father is murdered, the deadly sexy Fox recruits Wes into the Fraternity, a secret society that trains Wes to avenge his dad's death by unlocking his dormant powers. As she teaches him how to develop lightning-quick reflexes and phenomenal agility, Wes discovers this team lives by an ancient, unbreakable code: carry out the death orders given by fate itself.With wickedly brilliant tutors - including the Fraternity's enigmatic leader, Sloan (Morgan Freeman) - Wes grows to enjoy all the strength he ever wanted. But, slowly, he begins to realize there is more to his dangerous associates than meets the eye. And as he wavers between newfound heroism and vengeance, Wes will come to learn what no one could ever teach him: he alone controls his destiny.KickAss: When Dave Lizewski, an ordinary teenager, sets about trying to become the no-power vigilante Kick-Ass, he soon discovers he's not alone. But he's out of his depth - a fearless and highly trained father-daughter crime-fighting duo, Big Daddy and Hit Girl, have declared war on New-York mafioso, Frank D'Amico. As Kick-Ass and his new found friend, Red Mist, get drawn into their no-holds-barred world of bullets and blood, the stage is set for a final showdown - in which the DIY hero will have to live up to his name... or die trying.Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World: Hot Fuzz' helmsman Edgar Wright takes the reins on this epic adaptation of the cult comic book about a loveable loser who must prove his love by battling his girlfriend's seven evil exes. Fast-paced and frenetic fun for the videogame generation, this pop-culture spectacular really is the Bob-omb! Meet charming and jobless Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera). A bass guitarist for totally average garage band Sex Bob-omb, the 22-year-old has just met the girl of his dreams... literally. The only catch to winning Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) Her seven evil exes are coming to kill him. Genre-smashing filmmaker Edgar Wright (Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead) tells the amazing story of one romantic slacker's quest to power up with love in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.Hellboy 2: With a signature blend of action, humour and character-based spectacle, the saga of the world's toughest, kitten-loving hero from Hell continues to unfold in Hellboy 2: The Golden Army. Bigger muscle, badder weapons and more ungodly villains arrive in an epic vision of imagination from Oscar nominated director Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy).After an ancient truce existing between humankind and the invisible realm of the fantastic is broken, hell on Earth is ready to erupt. A ruthless leader who treads the world above and the one below defies his bloodline and awakens an unstoppable army of creatures. Now, it's up to the planet's toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator a
The mythical world starts a rebellion against the human realm in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the myriad creatures.
HellboyIn the ongoing deluge of comic-book adaptations, Hellboy ranks well above average. Having turned down an offer to helm Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban in favour of bringing Hellboy's origin story to the big screen, the gifted Mexican director Guillermo del Toro compensates for the excesses of Blade II with a moodily effective, consistently entertaining action-packed fantasy, beginning in 1944 when the mad monk Rasputin--in cahoots with occult-buff Hitler and his Nazi thugs--opens a transdimensional portal through which a baby demon emerges, capable of destroying the world with his powers. Instead, the aptly named Hellboy is raised by the benevolent Prof. Bloom, founder of the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense, whose allied forces enlist the adult Hellboy (Ron Perlman, perfectly cast) to battle evil at every turn. While nursing a melancholy love for the comely firestarter Liz (Selma Blair), Hellboy files his demonic horns ("to fit in," says Bloom) and wreaks havoc on the bad guys. The action is occasionally routine (the movie suffers when compared to the similar X-Men blockbusters), but del Toro and Perlman have honored Mike Mignola's original Dark Horse comics with a lavish and loyal interpretation, retaining the amusing and sympathetic quirks of character that made the comic-book Hellboy a pop-culture original. He's red as a lobster, puffs stogies like Groucho Marx, and fights the good fight with a kind but troubled heart. What's not to like? --Jeff ShannonHellboy 2: The Golden ArmyThe feverish Hellboy 2: The Golden Army is a very busy sequel that might have looked unhinged in the hands of a less visionary director than Guillermo del Toro. Ron Perlman returns as Hellboy, aka "Red," the Dark Horse Comics demon-hero with roots in the mythical world but personal ties in the human realm. Still working, as he was in Hellboy, for a secret department of the federal government that deals (as in "Men In Black") with forces of the fantastic, Red and his colleagues take on a royal elf (Luke Goss) determined to smash a longtime truce between mankind and the forces of magic. Meanwhile, Red's relationship with girlfriend Liz (Selma Blair), who can burst into flames at will, is going through a rocky stage observed by Red's fishy friend Abe (Doug Jones), himself struck by love in this film. Del Toro brilliantly integrates the ordinary and extraordinary, diving into an extended scene set in a troll market barely hidden behind the façade of typical city streets. He also unleashes a forest monster that devastates an urban neighborhood, but then--interestingly--brings a luminous beauty to the same area as the creature (an "elemental") succumbs to a terrible death. Del Toro's art direction proves masterful, too, in a climactic battle set in a clockworks-like stronghold tucked away in rugged Irish landscape. But it's really the juxtaposition of visual marvels with not-so-unusual relationship issues that gives Hellboy 2 a certain jaunty appeal hard to find in other superhero movies. --Tom Keogh
Loving father. Faithful husband. Professional contract killer. A professional contract killer, haunted by visions of his violent past, spirals out of control. His work compromised as he reaches breaking point, he is forced to defend his family from his ruthless employers.
Spinning off from the incredibly popular 1960s sitcom and its BAFTA-winning 1970s sequel, James Bolam and Rodney Bewes star as Terry Collier and Bob Ferris, two life-long friends with vastly different outlooks on life! Written by comedy legends Dick Clement and Ian la Frenais - who would go on to further success with series like Porridge and Auf Wiedersehen, Pet - The Likely Lads is presented here as a brand-new High Definition transfer from the original film elements in its original theatrical aspect ratio. Thelma's continued annoyance at her husband Bob's disruptive friend shows no sign of abating. But when Terry lands himself a new girlfriend Thelma sees her chance to finally get Terry married off and out of her and Bob's life forever! Her solution of touring the north of England in a caravan, however, leaves a lot to be desired...
Melvin, a British author living in America, returns home to London for the holidays to introduce his American fiancé (Lisa) to his eccentric British-Caribbean family. Their relationship is put to the test, as she discovers the world Melvin left behind revolves around his ex-girlfriend (Georgia), who is now an international pop star!
A British expedition team in Egypt discovers the ancient sealed tomb of the evil Queen Tera. But when one of the archaeologists steals a mysterious ring from the corpse's severed hand he unleashes a relentless curse upon his beautiful daughter. Is the voluptuous young woman now a reincarnation of the diabolical sorceress or has the curse of the mummy returned to reveal its horrific revenge? Andrew Keir and the luscious Valerie Leon star in this supernatural shocker based on Bram Stoker's classic novel 'Jewel Of The Seven Stars'.
Margaret (Valerie Leon) suffers a recurring nightmare in which she sees an ancient Egyptian queen, to whom she bears an uncanny resemblance, sealed up in a sarcophagus. The priests who entomb her first chop off her hand, before throwing it to jackals. They are then killed by a mysterious and powerful force that lacerates their throats. Margaret's father, Professor Fuchs (Andrew Keir), gives her a ring that he discovered in the tomb of Queen Tera 20 years before the ring was on the queen's disembodied hand. At the moment Fuchs discovered the Queen's perfectly preserved, still bleeding, body, Margaret's mother died giving birth to her. When a certain celestial conjunction is complete, and three key artefacts are assembled by Tera's corpse, the evil sorceress will be reborn EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - The Pharaoh's Curse: Inside Blood From the Mummy's Tomb ORIGINAL TRAILER
An extraordinarily racy movie for its time, The Wicked Lady was and still is as notable for its acres of heaving bosom as for its radical challenge to female stereotypes. This bodice-ripper about a bored aristocratic woman who turns highwayman just for kicks became a huge box-office success in post-war Britain, but Margaret Lockwood's eloquent bust proved a bit too expressive for Hollywood, so the film was expensively reshot for a sanitised US release. (From 1945 right up to Janet Jackson at the 2004 Superbowl, American audiences apparently have an enduring problem with those prominent parts of the female anatomy). This is the definitive Gainsborough picture, a period romp crammed with cads, in which the camera gazes lasciviously down (it's all shot from a male eyelevel) at the low-cut ladies' dresses. But this time the female anti-heroine gives as good as she gets... and then some. Lockwood's Lady Barbara Skelton is quite gleefully amoral--more so even than Thackeray's arch-manipulator Becky Sharp from Vanity Fair--failing even to pay lip service to the moral standards of the 1940s, let alone those of the 17th century. It is she who wears the trousers (quite literally, in her highwayman guise) while the weak-chinned and weak-willed men around her crumble under the weight of their conventionality. Only James Mason's handsome dandy highwayman can keep up with her, but even he has to draw the line somewhere. Ultimately, social mores reassert their grip and Lady Barbara gets her comeuppance, but not before she's overturned every contemporary movie convention about femininity. "She was the wickedest woman ever seen on the screen", trumpets the original theatrical trailer on this otherwise bare-bones DVD release: it's still probably true even today. --Mark Walker
Donna Deitch's tender, ground-breaking debut, a landmark in queer cinema and a triumph of independent filmmaking The swooning and sensual first narrative feature by DONNA DEITCH, Desert Hearts was ground breaking upon its 1985 release: a love story about two women, made entirely independently, on a self-financed shoestring budget, by a woman. In the 1959-set film, an adaptation of a beloved novel by Jane Rule, straitlaced East Coast professor Vivian Bell (The Colour of Money's HELEN SHAVER) arrives in Reno to file for divorce but winds up catching the eye of someone new, the younger free spirit Cay (Manhunter's PATRICIA CHARBONNEAU), touching off a slow seduction that unfolds against a breath-taking desert landscape. With undeniable chemistry between its two leads, an evocative jukebox soundtrack, and vivid cinematography by ROBERT ELSWIT (Punch-Drunk Love), Desert Hearts beautifully exudes a sense of tender yearning and emotional candour. BONUS FEATURES DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by cinematographer Robert Elswit, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack Audio commentary from 2007 featuring director Donna Deitch New conversation between Deitch and actor Jane Lynch New conversation between Deitch, Elswit, and production designer Jeannine Oppewall about the film's visual style New interviews with actors Helen Shaver and Patricia Charbonneau Excerpt from Fiction and Other Truths: A Film About Jane Rule, a 1995 documentary about the author of Desert of the Heart, the 1964 novel on which the film is based PLUS: An essay by critic B. Ruby Rich
After a nine year hiatus, iconic comedy series Still Game is back for a hilarious new six-part series revisiting life-long friends Jack Jarvis and Victor McDade as they embrace the spirit of growing old disgracefully. Created, written by and starring Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill, Still Game visits the fictional area of Craiglang as Jack, Victor and the rest of the residents cope with everything modern life throws at them.
Aron Ralston (played by James Franco) is traipsing alone through Utah's Canyonlands National Park, minding his own sweet-natured, loosey-goosey business, when an errant step drops him into a crevasse. That in itself wouldn't be so bad if he hadn't managed to get his right hand stuck between a heavy boulder and the side of the cavern--a cavern that will be his grave, if he doesn't figure out how to get himself out. Danny Boyle's film of this real-life 2003 incident builds up to what we all know is going to happen: Ralston must sever his arm between his elbow and wrist, after a few long, lonely days of avoiding the idea. (Superb casual line delivery by Franco: "So I found this great tourniquet .") Because this is a film by the director of Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting, we can expect a barrage of visual high jinks, despite the fact that this story would seem to be a simple tale of a man stuck in the desert. Boyle deploys flashbacks and fantasies to fill up the screen, plus he gets some mileage out of Ralston's video camera--and, of course, this director can't resist juicing the soundtrack with pop tunes, from Sigur Rós to Edith Piaf to Slumdog composer A.R. Rahman. Maybe Boyle is simply hyperactive, or maybe he's really onto something about what would happen inside the mind of a man left in extremis for an extended period (who wouldn't have a few Boyle-esque hallucinations, under the circumstances?). The cumulative effect is overbearing, but Franco's performance is spirited and endearing--he makes Ralston sufficiently "of life" that you definitely don't want to see this goofball soul be lost. --Robert Horton
The stunning BBC production of Charlotte Bronte's inspiring story is available for the first time on DVD. Jane Eyre (Zelah Clarke) is a mistreated orphan who learns to survive by relying on her independence and intelligence. Her first job in the outside world is governess to the ward of Mr. Rochester (Timothy Dalton) a man of many secrets and mercurial moods. The tentative trust between them slowly develops into romance but their hopes for happiness will soon be jeopardized by a te
Set in the 48 hours leading up to the catastrophic battle of the Somme this is the intense story of young men at war as seen through the eyes of 17-year old Billy Macfarlane (Nicholls). As the boys wait for the attack alternately excited and terrified this group of nave soldiers is forced to confront the reality of the enemy as the suspense reaches breaking point. When Billy's platoon is ordered to go with the first wave of attackers the awful truth of what they're about to un
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