Future. Present. Past. Everything is connected. From the creators of the Matrix trilogy and the director of Run Lola Run. An exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past present and future as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero and an act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution. The story is a time-shifting weave of six interlinking narratives with diverse settings from the savagery of a Pacific Island in the 1850s to a dystopian Korea of the near future. Based on the best-selling novel Cloud Atlas written by David Mitchell.
World-class stars Michael Caine Brenda Blethyn and Ewan McGregor deliver acclaimed performances in an inspirational story about a painfully shy young woman 'Little Voice' (Jane Horrocks). A hopeless introvert who can only manage to express herself by singing in the timeless voices of Judy Garland Marilyn Monroe and others. But once her over-powering mother's (Blethyn) new boyfriend - a sleazy talent scout (Caine) - overhears LV's incredible voice he'll do anything to drag the recluse into the spotlight and make her a star! Cheered by critics everywhere Little Voice is an exceptional film - its gritty humour stylised set pieces and superb performances from all its stars can be enjoyed by all!
From a script cowritten with his fellow Monty Python veteran Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam pulled out all the stops on his prodigious imagination for this comedy-fantasy from 1981. Film critic Pauline Kael was right when she wrote, "This may be one of those rare pictures that suffers from a surfeit of good ideas," because there's not enough plot to keep pace with the sheer inventiveness of Gilliam's filmmaking. That hasn't stopped Time Bandits from becoming a classic, of sorts, attracting a cult following as a semi-reunion of the Python gang (with Palin and John Cleese making splendid appearances) and a rousing adventure of near-epic proportions. It's about a kid named Kevin (Craig Warnock) who joins a band of mischievous dwarves on a jaunt through various eras and epochs. They've stolen a map to holes in the space-time continuum that belongs to the Supreme Being (suitably played by Sir Ralph Richardson), and as Kevin survives a variety of heroic adventures, including an encounter with King Agamemnon (Sean Connery) and an Evil Genius (David Warner) who pursues the coveted map using his nefarious magical powers. As a warm-up for Gilliam's later, even more ambitious fantasies, Brazil and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this is a dazzling dose of cinematic whimsy, and Gilliam doesn't compromise the darkness of his tale with an artificially upbeat ending. There's as much menace in Time Bandits as there is an awesome sense of wonder, and that gives the movie an extra kick of timeless appeal. --Jeff Shannon
Phyllida Lloyd, who directed Meryl Streep in Mamma Mia!, takes a less exuberant tack in this unexpectedly poignant biopic. In the script, written by Shame's Abi Morgan, Lloyd depicts the elderly Dame Thatcher (Streep in a thoroughly convincing performance) as a frail figure replaying key moments in her life while her mind still continues to function. Her trajectory begins with grocer Alfred Roberts (Downton Abbey's Iain Glen), who became the mayor of Grantham, instilling in his daughter, Margaret (Alexandra Roach), a passion for politics. After graduating from Oxford, she felt ready to enter the fray, at which point she met Denis Thatcher (Harry Lloyd), who cheered her along on the road from Parliament to 10 Downing Street, where they lived during her time as Britain's first female prime minister (Jim Broadbent portrays the grey-haired and ghostly Denis). While closing mines, dodging IRA hits, and overseeing a war, the blue-clad titan built alliances with Airey Neave (Nicholas Farrell) and Geoffrey Howe (Anthony Head), but she would lose them both. If her will was strong, she had no time for feminine niceties like conciliation and forgiveness. The film goes on to suggest that she never cultivated the kinds of female friendships that might have sustained her in retirement, though her daughter (Tyrannosaur's Olivia Colman) did what she could. Instead, Denis remained her closest confidante until his departure, after which she had nothing but fading memories. The upshot is an uneasy combination of admiration for her leadership qualities and disappointment in her interpersonal skills. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
When Air Force One is shot down by terrorists leaving the President of the United States stranded in the wilderness, there is only one person around who can save him - a 13-year old boy called Oskari.
Based on real lion behaviour - and starring real lions - Pride is an emotional high-impact drama. The storyline is the work of Simon Nye the comic genius behind Men Behaving Badly and the extraordinary film is captured by the BBC's Natural History Unit. Mischievious young lion cub Suki enjoys life in the Serengeti and it seems nothing can disturb the harmony of her peaceful pride. Then tragedy strikes testing her courage and exposing the laws and forces of nature in her struggle
CS Lewis's timeless novel comes to life in this big budget adaptation.
Percy is a gentle kindly sort of chap who is happy with his life in the park totally unhindered by the stresses and strains of modern life. He is a father figure and friend to all the animals who live in the park. It is always Percy they turn to in times of need - or just to have some fun and games in the park. Join Percy and his friends in this special length extended video which will delight children with these enchanting tales... Episode titles: The Hedgehog's Balloon The Fox's
Based on the memoir of John Bayley this tells the story of his marriage to acclaimed writer Iris Murdoch, from when they met as teachers at Oxford to her struggle with Alzheimer's disease forty years later.
An all-singing, all-dancing version of Jules Verne's classic novel finds eccentric inventor Phileas Fogg set out on a frantic, heart-pounding round-the-world race.
It s 1847 and Ireland is in the grip of the Great Famine that has ravaged the country for two long years. Feeney, a hardened Irish Ranger who has been fighting for the British Army abroad, abandons his post to return home and reunite with his family. He s seen more than his share of horrors, but nothing prepares him for the famine s hopeless destruction of his homeland that has brutalised his people and there seems to be no law and order. He discovers his mother starved to death and his brother hanged by the brutal hand of the English. With little else to live for, he sets out on a destructive path to avenge his family.
If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--Brazil is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. In fact it was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek government clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. It's not a software bug but a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets squashed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic tangle, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson On the DVD: Brazil comes to DVD in a welcome anamorphic print of the full director's cut--here running some 136 minutes. Disappointingly the only extra feature is the 30-minute making-of documentary "What Is Brazil?", which consists of on-set and behind-the-scenes interviews. There's nothing about the film's controversial release history (covered so comprehensively on the North American Criterion Collection release), nor is Gilliam's illuminating, irreverent directorial commentary anywhere to be found. The only other extra here is the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. A welcome release of a real classic, then, but something of a missed opportunity. --Mark Walker
Starring Cillian Murphy (Inception), Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) and Jim Broadbent (Bridget Jones' Diary), Perrier's Bounty is an action-packed gangster thriller that is as blackly comic as it is violent.
London Spy is a gripping, contemporary, emotional thriller that tells the story of a chance romance between two people from very different worlds: one from the headquarters of the secret intelligence service, the other from a world of clubbing and youthful excess. Danny (Ben Whishaw) gregarious, hedonistic and adrift, falls for the enigmatic an...
Tony Webster (Academy Award® winner Jim Broadbent*, Paddington, Bridget Jones' Baby) divorced and retired, leads a reclusive and relatively quiet life. One day, he learns that the mother of his university girlfriend, Veronica (Freya Mavor, Sunshine on Leith), left in her will a diary kept by his best friend who dated Veronica after she and Tony parted ways. Tony's quest to recover the diary, now in the possession of an older but equally as mysterious Veronica (Academy Award® nominee Charlotte Rampling**, 45 Years), forces him to revisit his flawed recollections of his friends and of his younger self. As he digs deeper into his past, it all starts to come back; the first love, the broken heart, the deceit, the regrets, the guilt... Can Tony bear to face the truth and take responsibility for the devastating consequences of actions he took so long ago?
In 1961, Kempton Bunton, a 60 year old taxi driver, stole Goya's portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first (and remains the only) theft in the Gallery's history. Kempton sent ransom notes saying that he would return the painting on condition that the government invested more in care for the elderly - he had long campaigned for pensioners to receive free television. What happened next became the stuff of legend. Only 50 years later did the full story emerge - Kempton had spun a web of lies. The only truth was that he was a good man, determined to change the world and save his marriage - how and why he used the Duke to achieve that is a wonderfully uplifting tale.
All 3 critically acclaimed series from BAFTA award winning writer Jimmy McGovern (Cracker Hillsborough) looking at the trials and tribulations of the residents of a Manchester street. A star studded cast bring to life a series of compelling interconnected stories
Maggie Smith stars in this British comedy drama adapted from the play by Alan Bennett which is based on true events from his life. When suburban homeowner Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) discovers a dishevelled woman living in her van parked on his street, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with her and invites her to park in his driveway for a few weeks. As Bennett and the other residents of the Camden street shower Miss Shepherd (Smith) with food and gifts to make her feel welcome, the generosity, although seemingly unappreciated, does not go unnoticed and the previously lonely woman becomes intent on staying put. The all-star cast also includes Jim Broadbent, James Corden and Dominic Cooper.
The year is 50 BC. Gaul is entirely occupied by the Romans. Well, not entirely... One small village of indomitable Gauls still holds out against the invaders. Julius Caesar, exasperated by the situation, decides to change tactics. Since his armies are unable to prevail through force, Roman civilisation itself will charm the barbaric Gauls. And so he has a luxurious housing complex built near the village for Roman families, called The Mansions of the Gods . Will our Gaulish friends resist the lure of easy money and Roman comforts? Will their village become a simple tourist attraction? Asterix and Obelix are going to do all they can to thwart Caesar s plans.
Antonio Banderas delivers a powerful performance as the title character of this incredible true story of how Mexican Revolutionary Pancho Villa allowed a Hollywood crew to film him in battle altering the course of film and military history in the process...
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