With 17 previous screen adaptations behind it, this 2002 BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles might have been inhibited by the sheer weight of expectation. But in this production--marking the centenary of Arthur Conan Doyle's novel--director David Attwood rings the changes subtly and strikingly, helped by Allan Cubitt's tautly argued script and Christopher Hall's vivid production: the viewer feels the "presence" of the moors as never before. Richard Roxburgh is a thoughtful, understated Sherlock Holmes--self-absorbed yet observant of life around him. There's nothing bumbling or ineffectual about Ian Hart's Dr Watson--a resourceful thinker who, often sceptical of Holmes, complements him in human awareness. Richard E Grant dons a plausibly sociopathic manner as Stapleton, and there's a touching portrayal of his put-upon sister from Neve McIntosh. John Nettles and Geraldine James contribute sterling character parts as Dr and Mrs Mortimer, and Matt Day is a suave, not too sophisticated Sir Henry Baskerville. It adds up to a convincing rethink of a hallowed tale. On the DVD: The Hound of the Baskervilles on disc comes with a 16:9 picture that reproduces the sombre atmosphere of Baskerville Hall--shot at a variety of English locations--with real immediacy, and the Dolby Digital sound has 5.1 surround enhancement. Subtitles are in 11 languages, with 10 scene selections--framed in a stylishly- presented main menu. Special Features include a 12-minute making of documentary and interviews with the cast members, as well as a running commentary from Attwood and Hall. --Richard Whitehouse
John Travolta stars as a divorced father who discovers that his 11-year-old son's new stepfather is not what he made himself out to be.
When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and storylines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep down, sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whately's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter said he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford
Season Three takes us back to the slightly bizarre yet charming little logging town in Alaska. Reunite with the endearing quirky citizens of Cicely Alaska. Nominated for an astonishing 16 Emmy Awards and winner of (including Outstanding Drama Series) this is the must-own season of television's most original series. Packed with 23 unforgettable episodes and digitally remastered for outstanding picture quality there's never been a better time to own Northern Exposure
The adventures of the fast-drivin' rubber-burnin' Duke boys of Hazzard County. Welcome to Hazzard County where cousins Bo and Luke Duke (John Schneider and Tom Wopat) spend their days eluding the crooked Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and his dimwit Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best). Living with their uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) and sexy cousin Daisy (Catherine Bach) Bo and Luke somehow find themselves entangled in mess after mess in this well-loved television series. Episodes
Merlin: Season 2 Vol.2
When Inspector Morse first appeared on television in 1987, nobody could have predicted that it would run into the next century, maintaining throughout a quality of scripts and story lines that raised the genre of the detective series to a new level. Much of its success can be attributed to John Thaw's total immersion in the role. Morse is a prickly character and not obviously easy to like. As a detective in Oxford with unfulfilled academic propensities, he is permanently excluded from a world of which he would dearly love to be a part. He is at odds with that world--and with his colleagues in the police force--most of the time. Passionate about opera and "proper beer", he is a cultural snob for whom vulgarity causes almost physical pain. As a result, he lives from one disillusionment to another. And he is scarred--more deeply than he would ever admit--by past relationships. But he also has a naïve streak and, deep-down sensitivity, which makes him a fascinating challenge for women. At the heart of Morse's professional life is his awkward partnership with Detective Sergeant Lewis, the resolutely ordinary, worldly sidekick who manages to keep his boss in an almost permanent state of exasperation while retaining his grudging respect. It's a testament to Kevin Whateley's consistently excellent performance that from such unpromising material, Lewis becomes as indispensable to the series as Barrington Pheloung's hypnotic, classic theme music. Morse's investigations do occasionally take him abroad to more exotic locations, but throughout 14 successful years of often gruesome murders, the city of Oxford itself became a central character in these brooding two-hour dramas: creator Colin Dexter stating he finally had to kill Morse off because he was giving Oxford a bad reputation as a dangerous place! --Piers Ford
Advertised in 1970 as "the first electric Western", Zachariah is an endearingly pretentious effort that prefigures such genre oddities as Jodorowsky's El Topo and Alex Cox's Straight to Hell. The story is the archetypal one about two friends who become gunslingers and must inevitably face off against each other in the finale, but it's treated here as if it Meant Something Deeper--which means that after enjoying 75 minutes of violence we can all agree that peace and love and harmony is on the whole better for children and other living things. Curly haired farmboy Zachariah (John Rubinstein) and eternally grinning apprentice blacksmith Matthew (Don Johnson) are the fast friends who run away from home to join up with a gang of outlaws known as the Crackers (played by hippie folk-rock collective Country Joe and the Fish). These apparent 19th-century Westerners tote electric guitars and are given to staging free festival freak-outs at one end of town to distract from the bank robbery at the other. The boys soon hook up with Job Cain (Elvin Jones), an all-in-black master gunfighter who is also an ace drummer (his solo is impressive), but then drift apart as Zachariah has a liaison with Old West madame Belle Starr (Pat Quinn) in a town that consists of fairground-style brightly painted wooden cut out buildings (a gag reused in Blazing Saddles), then gets rid of his outrageous all-white cowboy outfit to settle down on a homestead and grow his own dope and vegetables. Matthew, of course, goes for the black leather look after outdrawing Cain, and comes a gunning for the only man who might be faster than him, but the hippie-era message is once these kids have killed everyone else they can still make peace with each other and the desert or something, man. Aside from a Beatle-haired teenage Johnson making a fool of himself by over-emoting to contrast with Rubinstein's non-performance, the film offers a lot of beautiful "acid Western" scenery and excellent prog rock and bluegrass music from the James Gang, White Lightnin' and the New York Rock Ensemble. Comedy troupe the Firesign Theatre (huge on album in 1970) provided the script, which explains satirical touches like the horse-and-buggy salesman (Dick Van Patten) spieling like a used car dealer and the madame's claim to have had affairs with gunslingers from Billy the Kid to Marshal McLuhan. The DVD extras are skimpy, but the print quality is outstanding. --Kim Newman
Based on Allan Slutsky's award-winning book of the same name 'Standing In The Shadows Of Motown' tells the Funk Brothers' story for the first time by combining exclusive interviews archival footage and re-enactments. Completing this fantastic musical and social journey is a live concert which saw the Funk Brothers reunited on stage in Detroit with the help of contemporary vocalists Ben Harper Joan Osborne Meshell Ndegeocello and Montell Jordan and R&B greats Chaka Khan Gerald L
In The Presidio the titular piece of real estate is the San Francisco military base that starts at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge and sprawls back into the city itself, co-existing uneasily with Baghdad by the Bay. The two cultures clash when a murder at the Presidio is assigned to civilian police detective Mark Harmon. Harmon has an uncomfortable history with the base commander, Sean Connery--and this relationship doesn't get any less tense when he also becomes romantically entangled with Connery's daughter, Meg Ryan. Unfortunately, the script by Larry Ferguson is a stiff, which suits Harmon's acting style. Director Peter Hyams knows how to choreograph an action sequence, but he has to keep stopping so that Harmon can actually speak. Thankfully, Harmon has the always-interesting Connery and Ryan to interact with, but that's only a small saving grace. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
Oscar®-winner Charlize Theron stars as elite MI6's most lethal assassin and the crown jewel of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Lorraine Broughton. When she's sent on a covert mission into Cold War Berlin, she must use all of the spycraft, sensuality and savagery she has to stay alive in the ticking time bomb of a city simmering with revolution and double-crossing hives of traitors. Broughton must navigate her way through a deadly game of spies to recover a priceless dossier while fighting ferocious killers along the way in this breakneck action-thriller from director David Leitch (John Wick). Also includes a standard Blu-ray disc. Click Images to Enlarge
There's the right way, the wrong way and the Army way. But there's no way military investigator Paul Brenner (John Travolta) is going to participate in a cover-up when Fort MacCallum officials try to hide the motive behind the murder of a beautiful female officer. Travolta's magnetic performance sparks this riveting thriller featuring an all-star cast led by Madeleine Stowe as Brenner's co-investigator and former flame, with James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton, Clarence Williams III and James Woods among the suspects in this steamy game of cat and mouse that will keep you guessing until the surprising, explosive ending. Sandie Newton, CBS-TV Special Features: Commentary By Director Simon West The General's Daughter Behind the Secrets Theatrical Trailer Teaser Trailer 4 Deleted Scenes Including Alternative Ending
The Man The Woman The Mother. Middle aged all-round good guy Danny (John Candy) is in love for the first time - with Theresa (Ally Sheedy). But as their love blossoms his overbearing mother the fiery Rose Muldoon (Maureen O'Hara) plots to stop her ""baby"" flying the nest and uses every trick possible to keep Danny tied firmly to her apron strings with hilarious results!
Truman Capote's best seller, a breakthrough narrative account of real-life crime and punishment, became an equally chilling film in the hands of writer-director RICHARD BROOKS (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Cast for their unsettling resemblances to the killers they play, ROBERT BLAKE (Lost Highway) and SCOTT WILSON (The Great Gatsby) give authentic, unshowy performances as Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who in 1959 murdered a family of four in Kansas during a botched robbery. Brooks brings a detached, documentary-like starkness to this uncompromising view of an American tragedy and its aftermath; at the same time, stylistically In Cold Blood is a filmmaking master class, with clinically precise editing, chiaroscuro black-and-white cinematography by the great CONRAD L. HALL (American Beauty), and a menacing jazz score by Quincy Jones. Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack New interview with cinematographer John Bailey on the film's cinematography New interview with film historian Bobbie O'Steen on the film's editing New interview with film critic and jazz historian Gary Giddins on the film's music by Quincy Jones New interview with writer Douglass Daniel on director Richard Brooks Interview with Brooks from 1988 from the French television series Cinéma cinemas Interview with actor Robert Blake from 1968 from the British television series Good Evening with Jonathan King With Love from Truman, a short 1966 documentary featuring novelist Truman Capote, directed by Albert and David Maysles Two archival NBC interviews with Capote: one following the author on a 1966 visit to Holcomb, Kansas, and the other conducted by Barbara Walters in 1967 Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
20 000 Leagues Under The Sea (Dir. Richard Fleischer 1955): An adventure based on Jules Verne's prophetic novel.... Climb aboard the Nautilus and into a strange undersea world of spellbinding adventure! Kirk Douglas Paul Lukas and Peter Lorre star as shipwrecked survivors taken captive by the mysterious Captain Nemo brilliantly portrayed by James Mason. Wavering between genius and madness Nemo has launched a deadly crusade across the seven seas. But can the captive crew expose his evil plan before he destroys the world? Disney's brilliant Academy Award-winning (1955) adaptation of Jules Verne's gripping tale makes 20 000 Leagues Under The Sea a truly mesmerizing masterpiece! Swiss Family Robinson (Dir. Ken Annakin 1960): A family fleeing from the despotic regime of Napoleon is chased off course by a band of pirates. They are then shipwrecked on a tropical island where they begin a new and adventurous life. Based on the book by Johann Wyss. One Of Our Dinosaurs (Dir. Robert Stevenson 1975): It's Nanny Hettie to the rescue when British Intelligence Agent Lord Southmere is captured by Chinese agent Hnup Wan. Hettie is the only one who knows Southmere's secret: he has stolen a piece of top-secret microfilm from a Chinese warlord and hidden it in the skeleton of a dinosaur in a London museum. Aided by a small army of fellow nannies Hettie saves the day by foiling Wan and his gang.
Meet The Killer: Lost Caverns Hotel bellhop Freddie Phillips is suspected of murder. Swami Talpur tries to hypnotize Freddie into confessing but Freddie is too stupid for the plot to work. Inspector Wellman uses Freddie to get the killer (and it isn't the Swami). Jekyll And Hyde: Slim and Tubby are American cops in London to study police tactics. They wind up in jail and are bailed out by Dr. Jekyll. Jekyll has been murdering fellow doctors who laugh at his experiments. He has more murders in mind. At one point the serum that turns Jekyll into the murderous Hyde gets injected into Tubby.
Muck And Brass: The Complete Series (2 Discs)
When John Travolta first opens his mouth during the opening credits of The General's Daughter and speaks in a terrible Southern cracker drawl, one briefly hopes the movie will turn out to be just as hilariously bad. Unfortunately, the accent is soon revealed to be part of a disguise, and the movie is just as quickly unveiled as a clumsy, run-of-the-mill potboiler, too mediocre to be truly hysterical fun. A female officer is discovered strangled and tied to the ground; she's the title character, and because of the general's political ambitions, the mystery of who did it and why has to be wrapped up in 36 hours by Travolta and fellow CID officer Madeleine Stowe (Last of the Mohicans, 12 Monkeys). Sexual violence and lurid S&M have been thrown in to shore up the incomprehensible plot, but that only adds to the queasy atmosphere. The supporting actors--an impressive collection including James Woods (Salvador), Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People), and James Cromwell (Babe, L.A. Confidential)--don't embarrass themselves, but even they can't make sense of their blustering, macho dialogue. It's amazing that, screenwriter William Goldman (who wrote such great and genuinely thrilling films as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Marathon Man, All the President's Men and Misery) left his name attached to this script; there's no sign of his usual skill and intelligence. Madeleine Stowe, a graceful presence in any film, is equally wasted. It was directed with a lot of empty flash by Simon West (Con Air). --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
CHURCHILL follows Britain's iconic Prime Minister Winston Churchill in the days before the infamous D-Day landings in June 1944. As allied forces stand on the south coast of Britain, poised to invade Nazi-occupied Europe, they await Churchill's decision on whether the invasion will actually move ahead. Fearful of repeating his mistakes from World War I on the beaches of Gallipoli, exhausted by years of war, plagued by depression and obsessed with fulfilling historical greatness, Churchill is also faced with constant criticism from his political opponents; General Eisenhower and Field Marshal Montgomery. Only the unflinching support of Churchill's brilliant, unflappable wife Clementine can halt the Prime Minister's physical and mental collapse and help lead him to greatness. CHURCHILL is directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man, Marcella) from an original screenplay by British historian Alex von Tunzelmann (Medici: Masters of Florence) in her feature debut. Starring Brian Cox (War & Peace, Coriolanus) as the legendary Winston Churchill, Miranda Richardson (Harry Potter, The Crying Game) as the Prime Minister's wife and confident Clemmie, John Slattery (Spotlight, Mad Men) as General Eisenhower, Supreme Commander of the Allied D-Day operations, and Julian Wadham (The Iron Lady, War Horse) as British military commander Field Marshal Montgomery.
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