Jet Li and Jason Statham go head to head in this all action spectacular as an FBI Agent seeks revenge on a mysterious assassin.
The man who made the Twenties roar! The story of the rise and fall of the infamous Chicago gangster Al Capone (Ben Gazzara) and the control he exhibited over the city during the prohibition years as well as with his subsequent fall...
Another masked avenger is reincarnated as a big budget movie. Idle playboy Lamont Cranston (Alec Baldwin), schooled in Tibetan mysticism, fights crime in late '30s New York while wearing a natty hat and false beak. He finds time to romance telepathic sweetie Margo Lane (Penelope Miller), whose crusty old scientist Dad (Ian McKellen) has just invented an atom bomb which is in danger of falling into the hands of Shiwan Khan (John Lone), conquest-happy last descendent of Genghis Khan.Director Russell Mulcahy turns out the regulation death traps (a locked chamber filling with water, a bomb timer which ticks away during the climax) and the Shadow breezes through via nifty "invisible" effects. It evokes the conventions and charms of 1930s' pulp fiction in rather more nostalgic mode than Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, and adds little of its own attitude, although a sly camp sensibility (notably in the extremely chi-chi Tim Curry and John Lone as the villains) goes for snickering at the expense of tension. A pleasant, eye-pleasing movie but, after the super-heroic likes of Batman, The Crow and The Mask, the merely mysterious Shadow seems somewhat grandfatherly and remote. --Kim Newman
Dino De Laurentiis' remake of the original hairy monster movie features remarkable special effects by Rick Baker. Fred Wilson (Charles Grodin) head of an oil drilling expedition to the remote island of Micronesia discovers a stow-away on his ship Jack Prescott (Jeff Bridges) a zoologist in search of a prehistoric creature fabled to exist on the island. Off the coast of Micronesia they rescue Dwan (Jessica Lange) a beautiful woman shipwrecked in the treacherous seas. On the islan
A 4 disc box set featuring a quartet of the finest films starring motormouth funnyman Richard Pryor! R.I.P Ritchie... Car Wash ((Dir. Michael Schultz 1976): An earthy irreverent but affectionate look at a typical day in Los Angeles car wash! An ensemble piece which interweaves the lives of employees customers and passers-by Car Wash stars a galaxy of gifted actors most of whom are relatively unknown to movie goers and spotlights an array of guest stars in vivid cameo rol
Bernardo Bertolucci does the nearly impossible with this sweeping, grand epic that tells a very personal tale. The story is a dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the emperors of China. It follows his life from its elite beginnings in the Forbidden City, where he was crowned at age three and worshipped by half a billion people. He was later forced to abdicate and, unable to fend for himself in the outside world, became a dissolute and exploited shell of a man. He died in obscurity, living as a peasant in the People's Republic. We never really warm up to John Lone in the title role, but The Last Emperor focuses more on visuals than characterisation anyway. Filmed in the Forbidden City, it is spectacularly beautiful, filling the screen with saturated colours and exquisite detail. It won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. --Rochelle O'Gorman
With a new, brutal boss heading up the Chinese mafia, New York cop Stanley White is put in charge of Chinatown, a man left racist by his treatment in Vietnam. As both are fully willing to break their own codes of honour, a bloody clash awaits them.
She's the One is actor-writer-director Edward Burns' second film, following the widely acclaimed The Brothers McMullen. Given a slightly larger budget to play with ($3m as against his debut project's $25,000), Burns revisits much the same territory--love and sibling rivalry within a New York Irish-American family--but rather more expansively. This time, too, he can run to a few stars-in-the-making (Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Aniston, and John Mahoney from Frasier) to jazz up his cast of relative unknowns. Burns himself plays Mickey, a cab-driver in the Big Apple, with Mike McGlone as his yuppie stockbroker brother, and Maxine Bahns as Hope, the girl Mickey falls for and impulsively marries, much to the romantic delight of Francis' neglected wife Renee (Aniston). Francis, meanwhile, is having a clandestine affair with Heather (Diaz), Mike's former girlfriend--something Mike has yet to learn. Dispensing flawed wisdom and generally muddying the waters yet further is the lads' blunt-spoken father (Mahoney). Plotwise that's about it. Burns relies on his appealing cast and some amiably barbed repartee to hold our interest in what's essentially a dialogue-driven movie. He makes shrewd and sometimes unexpected use of his New York locations, too--it's a fair bet most people's mental image of Brooklyn wouldn't include a waterfront fishing community. This is a good-natured, slightly old-fashioned movie whose benevolent view of the battle of the sexes (where the women are invariably smarter than the men) never digs too deep or hits too hard. On the DVD: She's the One is presented on disc in its original widescreen ratio (1.85:1) and Dolby 4.0 sound that does the movie fair justice. Along with the original trailer, we get a seven-minute "making-of" featurette and a music video of the title song "Walls" from Tom Petty, who composed the film's score. Burns provides an unpretentious voice-over commentary, dealing mainly with matters of casting and the problems of shooting on location. --Philip Kemp
Rush Hour: Two cops from very different worlds must learn to trust each other before they can win a high-stakes battle against a ruthless enemy who threatens to demolish the fragile peace between their countries. The fastest hands in the east meets the loudest mouth in the west! Rush Hour 2: Chopsocky action star Jackie Chan reteams with motormouth Chris Tucker in this 'Rush Hour' sequel as the mismatched cop duo investigate several bombings in Hong Kong attributed
Jeff Bridges, Jessica Lange and Charles Grodin star in this remake of the adventure classic from director John Guillermin. Oil executive Fred Wilson (Grodin) sees the chance to make his fortune when he stumbles upon a remote island whose inhabitants worship a giant ape-god named Kong. Capturing the mighty beast, Wilson brings Kong back to New York, earmarking him as the greatest attraction to come to Broadway. The ape has other ideas, however, as he looks to escape and goes on the rampage through the streets of the Big Apple.
Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing, set in the White House, has won innumerable awards--and rightly so. Its depiction of a well-meaning Democrat administration has warmed the hearts of countless Americans. However, The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman make up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The issues broached in the first series have striking, often prescient contemporary relevance. We see the President having to be talked down from a "disproportionate response" when terrorists shoot down a plane carrying his personal doctor, or acting as broker in a dangerous stand-off between India and Pakistan. Gun control laws, gays in the military, Fundamentalist pressure groups are all addressed--the latter in a most satisfying manner ("Get your fat asses out of the White House!")--while the episode "Take This Sabbath Day" is a superb dramatic meditation on Capital punishment. Handled incorrectly, The West Wing could have been turgid, didactic propaganda for The American Way. However, the writers are careful to show that, decent as this administration is, its achievements, though hard-won, are minimal. Moreover, the brisk, staccato-like, almost musical exchanges of dialogue, between Josh and his PA Donna, for instance, as they pace purposefully up and down the corridors are the show's abiding joy. This is wonderful and addictive viewing.--David Stubbs
Aaron Sorkin's American political drama The West Wing is more than mere feel-good viewing for sentimental US patriots. It is among the best-written, sharpest, funny and moving American TV series of all time. In its first series, The West Wing established the cast of characters who comprise the White House staff. There's Chief of Staff Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a recovering alcoholic whose efforts to be the cornerstone of the administration contribute to the break-up of his marriage. CJ (Alison Janney) is the formidable Press Spokeswoman embroiled in a tentative on-off relationship with Timothy (Thirtysomething) Busfield's reporter. Brilliant but grumpy communications deputy Toby Ziegler, Rob Lowe's brilliant but faintly nerdy Sam Seaborn and brilliant but smart-alecky Josh Lyman makes up the rest of the inner circle. Initially, the series' creators had intended to keep the President off-screen. Wisely, however, they went with Martin Sheen's Jed Bartlet, whose eccentric volatility, caution, humour and strength in a crisis make for such an impressively plausible fictional President that polls once expressed a preference for Bartlet over the genuine incumbent. The second series of The West Wing takes up where the first one left off and, a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism apart, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs
Brewster's Millions (Dir. Walter Hill) (1985): Richard Pryor is Montgomery Brewster, a minor league baseball pitcher who discovers he has to blow $30 million in 30 days as a condition to inherit a much greater fortune.Here's The Catch: He will forfeit everything if he reveals to a soul the real reason he seems to be throwing away all that cash.With the help of his pal Spike (John Candy), they set off on a frantic spending spree the likes of which would bring any self-respecting accountant to his knees.Uncle Buck (Dir. John Hughes) (1989): An idle, good natured bachelor is left in charge of his nephew and nieces during a family crisis. Unaccustomed to family life, Buck soon charms his younger relatives, but his style doesn't impress everyone, including his girlfriend. The film charts his progress from slob to a reasonable human being by having to manage with girlfriend troubles, unemployment, a sex mad neighbour, cooking breakfast and a beautiful but rebellious niece.
An American businessman in Japan meets a beautiful young woman and goes to bed with her; his life turns upside down when a Ninja suddenly enters and kills her. The powerful Ninja and his Ninja cohorts set out to silence the businessman the only witness to the murder but he finds support from a samurai who protects him as an excuse to settle a centuries-old score.
It took them 20 years to fall in love at first sight: two strangers whose paths are always crossing finally meet when fate steps in.
Of all the Philip Marlowes, Robert Mitchum's in Farewell, My Lovely resonates most deeply. That's because this is Marlowe past his prime, and Mitchum imbues Raymond Chandler's legendary private detective with a sense of maturity as well as a melancholy spirit. And yet there is plenty of Mitchum's renowned self-deprecating humour and charismatic charm to remind us of his own iconic presence. As in the previous 1944 film version, Murder, My Sweet, Marlowe searches all over L.A. for the elusive girlfriend of ex-con Moose Malloy, a loveable giant who might as well be King Kong. In typical Chandler fashion, the weary Marlowe uncovers a hotbed of lust, corruption and betrayal. Like Malloy, he's disillusioned by it all, despite his tough exterior, and possesses a tinge of sentimentality for the good old days. About the only current dream he can hold onto is Joe DiMaggio and his fabulous hitting streak. Made in 1975, a year after Chinatown (shot by the same cinematographer, John Alonzo), Farewell, My Lovely is more straightforward and nostalgic, but still possesses a requisite hard-boiled edge, and the best kind of angst the 1970s had to offer. (By the way, you will notice Sylvester Stallone in a rather violent cameo, a year before his Rocky breakthrough.) --Bill Desowitz, Amazon.com
Treachery. Madness. Murder. Mel Gibson plays the leading role in Franco Zeffirelli's version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Gibson plays the prince of medieval Denmark sensing a dark conspiracy behind his royal father's death. Ensnared in this unraveling treachery is one of the most powerful casts ever in a Bard-based film: Glenn Close as Hamlet's mother Gertrude Alan Bates as the usurper Claudius Paul Scofield as the ghost of Hamlet's father Ian Holm as meddling advisor Poloni
The Bone Collector: He takes his victims' lives and leaves behind mysterious pieces of a bizarre puzzle. And the only person who may be able to make sense of the serial killer's deranged plan is Lincoln Rhyme (Denzel Washington) a one-time top homicide investigator. After a tragic accident changes his life forever Rhyme can only watch as other cops bungle the case...until he teams up with a young rookie Amelia Donaghy (Angelina Jolie) who bravely becomes his eyes and ears and searches out the clues that help them solve the case. But as the killer senses the cops closing in Rhyme realizes that he and his partner are on the trail of a vicious sadistic murderer who will stop at nothing on his deadly mission. At any moment Rhyme and Amelia could become his next targets - and their first case could become their last. (Dir. Phillip Noyce 1999) The Skeleton Key: It can open any door. From the writer of The Ring (Ehren Kruger) and the director of K-PAX (Iain Softley) comes the supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key. Set largely in the dark atmospheric backwoods just outside of New Orleans The Skeleton Key stars Kate Hudson as Caroline a live-in nurse hired to care for an elderly woman's (Rowlands) ailing husband (Hurt) in their home... a foreboding and decrepit mansion in the Louisiana delta. Intrigued by the enigmatic couple their mysterious secretive ways and their rambling old house Caroline begins to explore the mansion. Armed with a skeleton key that unlocks every door in the house she discovers a hidden attic room that holds a deadly and terrifying secret. (Dir. Iain Softley 2005) Panic Room: It was supposed to be the safest room in the house. Meg Altman is at a crossroads. Suffering through a painful divorce from her husband pharmaceuticals millionaire Stephen Altman Meg moves from their suburban home in Greenwich New York and buys an Upper West Side Manhattan townhouse for herself and her eleven-year-old daughter Sarah. She intends to go back to school raise her child and start a new life. But the panic she feels at starting over pales in comparison to her fear and desperation when intruders break into her new home. (Dir. David Fincher 2002)
The second series of The West Wing takes up literally where the first series left off and, after a few moments of slightly toe-curling patriotic sentimentalism, maintains the series' astonishingly high standards in depicting the everyday life of the White House staff of a Democratic administration. The two-part opener covers the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt on President Bartlet (Martin Sheen), switching between the anxious wait on the injured and flashbacks to Bartlet's campaign for the Presidency. Other peaks in a series exceedingly short on troughs include "Noel", the episode in which Alan Arkin's psychiatrist forces Josh Lynam to confront his post-traumatic stress disorder and the concluding episodes in which President Bartlet, having lost his secretary Mrs Landingham in a tragic car accident, rails angrily against God in Latin. Other new features of this series include the introduction of Ainsley Hayes, a young Republican counsel hired after she beats communications deputy Sam Seaborn (Rob Lowe) in a TV debate ("Sam's getting his ass kicked by a girl!" crow his colleagues), as well as the revelation (to us first, then later his staff) that the President has been suffering from multiple sclerosis. Meanwhile, the White House must move heaven and earth to make incremental political gains as well as deal with a host difficulties abroad, demonstrating, some might argue, more compassion, skill and restraint than that exercised by the real-life US administration. With Aaron Sorkin's dialogue ranging as ever from dry, staccato mirth to almost biblical gravitas, an ensemble of overworked (and curiously undersexed) characters and an overall depiction of the workings of government that's both gratifyingly idealised yet chasteningly realistic, The West Wing is one of the all-time great American TV dramas. --David Stubbs
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