Exceptionally well directed by John McTiernan, Die Hard made Bruce Willis a star back in 1988 and established a new template for action stories. Here the bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis' visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis' wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Director Renny Harlin took the reins for the 1990 sequel, Die Harder, which places Bruce Willis in harm's way again with a gaggle of terrorists. This time, Willis awaits his wife's arrival at Dulles Airport in Washington DC when he gets wind of a plot to blow up the facility. Noisy, overbearing and forgettable, the film has none of the purity of its predecessor's simple story; and it makes a huge miscalculation in allowing a terrible tragedy to occur rather than stretch out the tension. Where Die Hard sets new precedents in action movies, Die Hard 2 is just an anything-goes spectacle. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Bud and Lou take on a babysitting job and find themselves involved in the Jack And The Beanstalk fairy tale.
This seminal 1988 thriller made Bruce Willis a star and established a new template for action stories: "Terrorists take over a (blank) and a lone hero, unknown to the villains, is trapped with them." In Die Hard, those bad guys, led by the velvet-voiced Alan Rickman, assume control of a Los Angeles high-rise with Willis's visiting New York cop inside. The attraction of the film has as much to do with the sight of a barefoot mortal running around the guts of a modern office tower as it has to do with the plentiful fight sequences and the bond the hero establishes with an LA beat cop. Bonnie Bedelia plays Willis's wife, Hart Bochner is good as a brash hostage who tries negotiating his way to freedom, Alexander Godunov makes for a believable killer with lethal feet and William Atherton is slimy as a busybody reporter. Exceptionally well-directed by John McTiernan. --Tom Keogh
When two cops convince the kids of the street to settle their differences in teh ring the leader of the local crime syndicate begins to gun down police and civilians.
Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark. Now they learn why they fear the night. - Thulsa Doom Through the history of mankind the times that are most recorded in mythology and song are those of the great deeds and fantastic adventures. Such a time was the Hyborean Age. Such a tale is the story of Conan The Barbarian. Cimmeran Conan witnesses his parents' savage murder at the hands of the raiding Vanir and their master Thulsa Doom also leader of the snake-cult of Set. Fifteen years of agony first chained to the Wheel Of Pain grinding grain and then enslaved as a pit fighter forge a magnificent body and indominitable spirit. Freed miraculously one day by his owner Conan with his companions Subotai the Mongol and Valeria the Queen of Thieves sets forth upon his quest to learn the riddle of steel which his father has prophesied will confer ultimate power; and to kill the arch-villian Thulsa Doom.
A bomb expert (Peter Weller) is sent to the US embassy in Bucharest to defuse an old Cold War bomb that is stored in the basement. Unexpectedly a group of terrorists representing the ""Serbian Liberation Front"" raid the embassy killing a number of people and taking 37 hostage. The special mission operative must save his son and old flame Erica Long (Daryl Hannah)...
Avenging betrayal and murder fighting for good in a world steeped in evil. Award-winning llustrator of Spiderman Todd McFarlane brings a life's work to the screen in this dark stylish and brutal animated incarnation of his Spawn anti-hero. Double-crossed and murdered Al Simmon's is sent to the fires of Hell. He makes an ill-fated deal with the Devil to return to see his wife again. Disfigured and trapped in the body of a hell-spawn caught between life and death he roams New York looking for trouble. The cloak and chains of Spawn explode from the comic-book page onto the screen in a deadly tornado of untapped unwrapped merciless power! Episode titles: Hunter's Moon Chasing The Serpent Prophecy.
As soon as she meets William (Sam Waterston) Ann (Jenny Agutter) finds herself drawn to him. Their whirlwind romance is rapidly consummated and they decide to live together in Ann's flat. However Ann soon discovers that William is also in a relationship with her friend Pamela...and is also married...and then she finds herself pregnant.
Take a slash course in teen terror! To the staff and students the new kid in school Corey seems to be a regular teenager. But beneath the suface Corey hides a sinister and evil past. Strange events begin to occur at his new school not least some unexplained gruesome deaths and the mysterious disappearance of fellow students. The rest of the students and the school principal seem strangely unconcerned by the evil events going on around them. Only a small group of misfits are willing to confide in Corey and share the truth and his new school and they're being killed off one by one!
Huckleberry Finn's age has been scaled down in this 1993 Disney film in order to accommodate star Elijah Wood's young years at the time. But that is not the only concession Mark Twain's great American novel must make to Disney revisionism. Wood's Huck, as adapted for the screen by writer-director Stephen Sommers, is all rascal and only nominally a philosopher, which takes a lot of the soul out of Twain's extraordinary story about Huck's enlightenment while travelling with the slave Jim (Courtney B. Vance) along the Mississippi river. Big chunks of the journey are also minimised in significance, and not just for the sake of storytelling economy. Jason Robards Jr and Robbie Coltrane brighten things up, but overall this is an unnecessarily simplified version of a literary classic. --Tom Keogh
Marvel comics fans rejoice! X-Men (Dir. Bryan Singer 2000): Born into a world filled with prejudice are children who possess extraordinary and dangerous powers - the result of unique genetic mutations. Cyclops unleashes bolts of energy from his eyes. Storm can manipulate the weather at will. Rogue absorbs the life force of anyone she touches. But under the tutelage of Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) these and other outcasts learn to harness their powers for the good of mankind. Now they must protect those who fear them as the nefarious Magneto (Ian McKellen) who believes humans and mutants can never co-exist unveils his sinister plan for the future... X-Men 2 (Dir. Bryan Singer 2003): Mutants continue their struggle against a society that fears and distrusts them. Their cause becomes even more desperate following an incredible attack in The White House by an as yet undetermined assailant possessing extraordinary abilities. The shocking attack renews the political and public outcry for a Mutant Registration Act and an anti-mutant movement now led by William Stryker (Brian Cox) a wealthy former Army commander who is rumored to have experimented on mutants. Stryker's mutant work is somehow tied to Logan's mysterious and forgotten past. As Wolverine searches for clues to his origin Stryker puts into motion his anti-mutant program - launching an attack on Xavier's mansion. Magneto newly escaped from his plastic prison proposes a partnership with the X-Men to combat their common and formidable enemy: Stryker. With the fates of Xavier mankind - and mutantkind - in their hands the X-Men face their most dangerous mission ever! Daredevil: Director's Cut (Dir. Mark Steven Johnson 2003): When justice is blind it knows no fear. 30 minutes of never before seen footage seamlessly edited back into the film creating a whole new sub-plot featuring a brand new character! Ben Affleck is Matt Murdock a.k.a Daredevil. As a young boy he lost his sight in a chemical accident which left him with his other senses superhumanly enhanced (and some incredible acrobatic skills). Flash forward and Matt is working by day as a pro bono lawyer (with partner Jon Favreau) and by night as a righteous avenger. The plot sees New York supercriminal Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) calling on Irish assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell) to take care of some business involving the father of Jennifer Garner's Elektra (with whom Matt falls head over heels in love). Daredevil is a shadowy comic book fantasy that provides plenty of fast-paced high-kicking action. Elektra (Dir. Rob Bowman 2005): Looks can kill. From the pages of Marvel Comics creator of 'X-Men' and 'Spider-Man' comes 'Elektra'. In the ultimate battle between good and evil stands a warrior who makes the choice that tips the balance... Elektra (Garner) is a strong mysterious and sexy action heroine; a lethal synthesis of grace and power. Not long after recovering from seemingly mortal wounds Elektra has severed all ties with the world living only for her next assignment. But in an unexpected turn of events she is forced to make a decision that can take her life in a new direction or destroy her...
A couple's young daughter is kidnapped and they become chief suspects. Through the efforts of a journalist a professor a lawyer and a cop their innocence is finally proven.
On the pretence of a business trip Japanese multi-millionaire Yasujiro Endo journeys to the African nation of Imtazi. In reality Endo is on a personal mission - a quest to find the truth about a Samurai ancestor who disappeared in Africa two centuries ago and perhaps the true spirit of the Samurai he feels lies deep within himself. Endo's search takes him on Safari deep into the wilds of Africa led by the mercenary Johhny Congo and his girlfriend Caro. As the journey continues so it
Trauma was director Dario Argento's big crossover attempt at combining the Italian giallo genre with the American stalk 'n' slash. His fans may debate whether the result was a complete success, but the film certainly put his name in front of a wider international audience. Essentially the story is a psycho-murderer-mystery, with the audience made to piece together clues towards the identity-revealing denouement. The movie comes alive as a result of suitably intense performances, even while the characters die. Piper Laurie and Brad Dourif supply atypically explosive cameos. The leads are contrastingly subdued for the most part, no doubt because of their characters' involvement with drugs. Asia Argento (the director's daughter) is an anorexic who witnesses her parents' decapitations among a series of similar murders by the notorious "Headhunter". Christopher Rydell plays the ex-junkie who takes her in and helps track down the killer. Backing them up are some even greater performances from Tom Savini's eye-boggling special FX. With the aid of a motorised garrotte, the beheadings are gruesomely real, especially the one that leaves a head still able to talk. On the DVD: Trauma comes to disc in full 2.35:1 widescreen, though this isn't the clearest of transfers (plenty of artefacts present). The sound is in an unspecified Dolby mix. An interesting selection of extras almost makes up for the lack of a commentary. There are filmographies of Dario and Asia, a gallery of behind-the-scenes stills, and trailers for the movie Phantom of the Opera and several more in this series of releases. More interesting are the text features: interviews with Asia on her memories of the shoot and with renegade horror director Richard Stanley surreally recalling his long-term fandom of everything Argento. Most fascinating, there's a mini-essay on what was cut and why by the BBFC for the original UK video release. --Paul Tonks
Beverly Hills Chihuahua: Starring Drew Barrymore as the vopice of Chloe - a pampered Beverly Hills Chihuahua who gets lost in the streets of Mexico. Alone for the first time in her life Chloe must rely on some unexpected new friends including a street-hardened German shepherd named Delgado (Andy Garcia) and an amorous pup named Pai (George Lopez). Underdog: After an accident in the mysterious lab of maniacal scientist Dr. Simon Barsinister (Peter Dinklage) an ordinary beagle unexpectedly finds himself with unimaginable powers and the ability to speak. Armed with a fetching superhero costume Underdog (voiced by comedian Jason Lee) vows to protect the beleaguered citizens of Capitol City and in particular one beautiful spaniel named Polly Purebread (voiced by Amy Adams). When a sinister plot by Barsinister and his overgrown henchman Cad (Patrick Warburton) threatens to destroy Capitol City only Underdog can save the day.
Leonard Grey (Caan) is superintendent of Jericho Mansions. His world may be small but he cares for every inch of it. For the last thirty years the building has been his universe as beyond the front door of the apartment block lies a terrifying agoraphobic nightmare into which for as long as he can remember he has never dared to venture. Yet Leonard's sanctuary is beginning to crumble as forces conspire to kick him out including a murder in which all the clues point to him alone...
A man who accidentally kills a prostitute is sent to jail for seven years. On his release he looks to the future and a chance to put the past behind him.... But he reckons without an alcoholic cop who is looking for an opportunity to put him back inside.
James Bolam stars as the loveable rogue Jack Ford in this classic series set on Tyneside at the end of the first World War. This double DVD contains the first five stories from series two and sees Jack having to contend with trouble from within his union and family as well as with people in his past who are trying to catch up with him. Elected as District Secretary for the Fitter's union Jack makes his brother-in-law Matt his deputy...
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