Welcome to Death Row tells the unauthorised history of the most notorious rap label ever. And what a story it is, with enough blood and betrayal to satiate the Borgias and machinations that would make Machiavelli proud. The rise and fall of Death Row and its power-hungry CEO, Marion "Suge" Knight, makes The Godfather look like a bedtime story. The film centres on the testimony of Michael Harris--also known as "Harry O", as in octopus, because he had his business fingers in so many pies--who provided Suge Knight with the seed money to set up Death Row, and assigned his lawyer David Kenner to oversee the label's business affairs. The film traces the entire controversial history of the label, which at its height was turning over $500 million a year, and the impact it had on not only the music industry but American culture. "It was like working in a prison", says Doug Young, the label's record promoter, of Suge Knight's predilection for hiring gangsters and ex-felons. The film also details the relationship between Death Row and its biggest star, Tupac Shakur, and the effect that Shakur's sudden death in a Las Vegas drive-by shooting had on the label's fortunes (a story told in greater depth in Savidge's film Thug Immortal).Although none of the major players in this drama are represented on tape--Dr Dre and Interscope Records heads Jimmy Iovine and Ted Fields are as conspicuous by their absence as lawyer David Kenner and Suge Knight, the villains of the piece--the producers have unearthed an alarming number of believable behind-the-scenes sources including record promoters, managers, private investigators and former associates and employees of the label. Director Savidge wisely uses talking heads to tell his story, weaving into it a wealth of archive material and previously unseen home-video footage. The epic narrative is split into discrete chapters but, with so much information and opinion flying about, at times the chronology of events becomes confused. Yet this does little to spoil a documentary that goes a long way to revealing the intimate connection between the music industry and organised crime, and the desire for power and glory that drives them both.On the DVD: As if there wasn't enough information to digest in the documentary (which is presented in a clean 1:85.1 anamorphic format), the extra features on the DVD provide even more supplementary evidence. There are outtakes from the interviews used in the main feature, as well as additional interview footage of Snoop Dogg and Harry O. There is uncensored security camera footage of a fight in the lobby of the MGM Grand involving the Death Row entourage that preceded the death of Tupac Shakur by minutes, a music video for "Deep Cover" (the song that launched Snoop Dogg) and a fascinating audio commentary by director Savidge and producers Jeff Scheftel and Stephen A Housden, in which they relate the difficulties encountered in obtaining the trust of those they interviewed and the factors they took into consideration when constructing the film. Savidge recalls that the model they had in mind was the fractured, multi-perspective narrative of Kurosawa's Rashomon. --Chris Campion
Nighthawks: After the end of his workday staid schoolteacher Jim explores the disco's and secret meeting places of London's gay underground unable to reconcile his sexual identity with the rest of his life - until the strain of living a lie threatens to take its toll at last. Nighthawks 2: British director Ron Peck's look back at at the production of his groundbreaking Nighthawks which candidly explored a closeted gay schoolteacher's inner conflicts. The director tells very poignantly his own story of self-discovery and coming out. Most striking is the story of how much effort and determination it took to get Nighthawks made and why there are hundreds of names in the closing credits that the producers would like to give thanks to - they are people who sent in small amounts of money after reading in a London gay paper that the filmmakers needed funds to continue the project.
All the best episodes of the popular TV series featuring Michael Knight (Hasselhoff) and his computerised car KITT... Episode titles: Trust Doesn't Rust Knight of the Phoenix Parts One and Two Soul Survivor Knightmares A Good Knight's Work.
Johnny Smith's life is interrupted by a near fatal car crash that leaves him in a deep coma for six years. When he regains consciousness he discovers that he now possesses amazing psychic powers; powers that allow him to see into the life of anyone he touches... Based on the characters and story from the best-selling book by Stephen King The Dead Zone is a unique psychological thriller that combines a rich mix of action the paranormal and a continuing quest for justice. Featuring all the episodes from the third season. Episodes Comprise: 1. Finding Rachel: Part 1 2. Finding Rachel: Part 2 3. Collision 4. The Cold Hard Truth 5. Total Awareness 6. No Questions Asked 7. Looking Glass 8. Speak Now 9. Cycle Of Violence 10. Instinct 11. Shadows 12. Tripping Point
Supernatural horror co-written and directed by Ulli Lommel. Lacey (Suzanna Love) is unable to forget her mother's abusive lover, who was murdered before her eyes by her now mute brother Willy (Nicholas Love), when they were both children. Twenty years later, on the advice of her psychiatrist (John Carradine), Lacey returns to their childhood home in an attempt to come to terms with the horrific events of the past, but finds that the dead man's spirit still pervades the house.
After many years working in London ambitious solicitor David Main returns to his native Leeds to set up a new practice and to improve his station by working for the rich and powerful. Nevertheless he is frequently drawn to helping the underdog sometimes against his own best interests.
Verdi's opera based on Shakespeare's character Falstaff who attempts to woo two wealthy married women in an attempt to avoid bankruptcy....
Lord and Lady Braunceston are the impoverished landed gentry. 'Uncle Willy' is the eccentric Bishop whose church is threatened by greedy developers. Lady Anne is the daughter of the family and it's her impending marriage to the son of a wealthy neighbour which promises to be the salvation of the whole family... ... until the Bishop excels himself by managing to marry her to a penniless American at the wedding rehearsal. Things are looking black for everyone - then Ormiston the l
The Definitive Dance Collection! 4 Discs of pure dancing magic... Footloose: Teenager Ren MacCormack sends ripples through Bomont a small Midwestern town that could stand some shaking up when he arrives from Chicago with his mother Ethel to settle with her relatives. The adults tend to view him with suspicion as a possible contaminant from the outer world. Some of his male peers eye him as a threat and most of the girls just plain eye him. It's a tough time for Ren
Will Hay plays a Professor teaching at a correspondence school who discovers that a Nazi agent is trying to prevent a trade treaty being signed between England and South America. The agent is posing as an economics expert seconded to the trade delegation. The professor must find the real economist and expose the agent.
Contains the following early Hitch' classics: 1. Blackmail (1929) 2. Champagne (1928) 3. Murder! (1930) 4. The Ring (1927) 5. Farmer's Wife (1928) 6. Rich & Strange (1931) 7. Skin Game (1931) 8. Manxman (1929) 9. Number Seventeen (1932)
Some people called him Lawyer for the Damned... but Clarence Darrow was simply a man who in time of justice had the courage to stand alone. The name Clarence Darrow is permanently linked to the tremendous strides in the American legal system from the late 19th century through the early decades of the twentieth century. This complex and charismatic one-time farm boy's history-making legal defenses of the Pullman Railroad Strike the Leopold/Loeb Murder Trail and the Scopes Monkey Trail have earned him the status of an authentic American hero
Jim Bennett (Academy Award®-nominee Mark Wahlberg) is a risk taker. Both an English professor and a high-stakes gambler Bennett bets it all when he borrows from a gangster (Michael Kenneth Williams) and offers his own life as collateral. Always one step ahead Bennett pits his creditor against the operator of a gambling ring (Alvin Ing) and leaves his dysfunctional relationship with his wealthy mother (Academy Award®-winner Jessica Lange) in his wake. He plays both sides immersing himself in an illicit underground world while garnering the attention of Frank (John Goodman) a loan shark with a paternal interest in Bennett’s future. As his relationship with a student (Brie Larson) deepens Bennett must take the ultimate risk for a second chance…
You'd think a black comedy about murder, tackiness, and sexual perversion would quickly become dated, but Eating Raoul (1982) feels surprisingly fresh and delightful. When Mary Bland (Mary Woronov) gets assaulted by one of the repulsive swingers from the neighbouring apartment, her husband Paul (Paul Bartel) rescues her with a swift blow from a frying pan--only to discover a substantial wad of cash in the swinger's wallet. A lure-and-kill scheme follows, which nicely fills their nest egg until a slippery thief named Raoul (Robert Beltran of Star Trek: Voyager, making his film debut) stumbles onto the truth and insists on getting a share. When Raoul starts demanding a share of Mary as well, Paul has to take drastic steps. The key to Eating Raoul isn't the sensational content, but the blithe, matter-of-fact attitude Bartel and Woronov take to it; their sly underplaying makes the movie sparkle with wicked wit. --Bret Fetzer
Blood On The Sun: While much of the world watched the early success of 'Mein Kampf' and the bombing of Pearl Harbour was ten years in the future few were aware of the existence of an oriental 'Hitler' ... Baron Giichi Tanaka. But the war had already started in Japan for James Condon American journalist and editor of the Japanese Chronicle whose intuition has led him to believe that major trouble was brewing. The role of Condon man of hard words and harder fists is just t
A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures is an epic global adventure story an animated family feature made spectacularly real by eye-popping 3D. A young sea-turtle's romantic quest for his first lost love a fellow hatchling born on the same Californian beach takes him on a marathon voyage across the seven seas to the furthest corners of the earth. In a world under increasing threat from environmental pollution where the oceans are a battleground between the forces of nature and mankind can Sammy the sea-turtle complete his dangerous 50-year mission and find his soul mate Shelly and the happiness they deserve? The thrills and comical spills are brought to the screen by director Ben Stassen (Fly Me To The Moon) with the help of a top-class British voice cast starring Dominic Cooper (Mamma Mia) Gemma Arterton (St Trinian's Clash of The Titans) John Hurt (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) Kayvan Novak (Four Lions Fonejacker) and Robert Sheehan (Misfits).
The first of what would be a series, 1985's American Ninja is a martial-arts thriller. Michael Dudikoff plays Joe, a sullen young GI who turns up at American airbase Fort Sonora and immediately makes himself unpopular. Even when he single-handedly saves the Commanding Officer's daughter (Judie Aronson, whose function is to scream a lot and get her clothes very wet), from a ninja ambush, he's still ostracised. It turns out that Joe is actually a highly skilled ninja warrior, but he's an amnesiac with no idea how he acquired his abilities. Eventually, having bonded with fellow GI Steve James, he helps foil criminal arms-dealer Ortega, whose morals are as dubious as his accent, which veers from French to Hispanic. American Ninja is essentially an excuse for a series of martial arts set pieces, though these seem a little lumbering by the standards later set by Jackie Chan and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The soundtrack and overall feel is clearly influenced by the classic A-Team. The plot is well signposted at every turn and the dialogue makes you think of an American film that has been badly dubbed. However, the film will work as kitsch, for idle comfort-viewing or for small boys. On the DVD: The cheapness of the original has been immaculately preserved--however, the only extra is the original trailer.--David Stubbs
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