The Planet Express crew fights to save the world from nudist alien internet scammers who send Bender back into the past to steal the world's greatest treasures. The secret to time travel is tattooed on Fry's buttocks Leela finds true love and Fry learns a terrible secret about his destiny and his buttocks!
Victoria Wood Live at the Albert Hall provides proof, if any were needed, that after two decades at the top of her profession, Wood is one of a small handful of British comedians of either sex capable of filling the country's largest venues. For the consistently high quality of her penetrating observations of the mundane she has no equal. Recorded in 2001, this performance has all the hallmarks of her microscopic examinations of life's perplexing minutiae and trivia. From her recent hysterectomy to Paul Daniels, from the NHS help line to wheelie bin covers, from Americans in Disneyworld to the ageism of catalogue mailing lists, nothing escapes Wood's attention. Not even in-vogue authors: she refuses to read "Captain Corelli's friggin' Mandolin" as it sits reproachfully at her bedside. Wood even provides her own interval act: a devastatingly accurate parody of a vulgar, second-rate cabaret singer shot to stardom on the wings of a cruise ship docu-soap. Jane McDonald's sense of humour will never face a harder test. More poignant are Wood's observations on parenthood and marriage, with all the physical ailments of middle age ("We've only got one fully operating leg between us"). She has since separated from her husband, the magician Geoffrey Durham. Fans will await the impact of that on her stand-up material with some interest. --Piers Ford
Set in the year 3000, Futurama is the acme of sci-fi animated sitcom from Simpsons creator Matt Groening. While not as universally popular as The Simpsons, Futurama is equally hip and hilarious, thanks to its zippy lateral-thinking contemporary pop cultural references, celebrity appearances (Pamela Anderson and Leonard Nimoy are among a number of guest stars to appear as disembodied heads in jars) and Bender, a distinctly Homer Simpson-esque robot. Part of Futurama's charm is that with decades of sci-fi junk behind us we've effectively been living with the distant future for years and can now have fun with it. Hence, the series stylishly jumbles motifs ranging from Lost in Space-style kitsch to the grim dystopia of Blade Runner. It also bridges the gap between the impossible dreams of your average science fiction fan and the slobbish reality of their comic reading, TV-gawping existence. Groening himself distinguishes his two series thus: "The Simpsons is fictional. Futurama is real." The opening series (premiered in 1999) sees nerdy pizza delivery boy Fry transferred to the 31st century in a cryogenic mishap. There, he meets the beautiful, one-eyed Leela (voiced by Married with Children's Katey Sagal) and the incorrigible alcoholic robot Bender. The three of them join Fry's great (x30) nephew Professor Farmsworth and work in his intergalactic delivery service. Hyper-real yet strangely recognisable situations ensue--Fry discovers he is a billionaire thanks to 1,000 years accrued interest, Leela must fend off the attentions of Captain Kirk-like Lothario Zapp Brannigan, and Fry accidentally drinks the ruler of a strange planet of liquid beings. --David StubbsOn the DVD: As with the earlier Fox release of The Simpsons, Season 1 this otherwise excellent three-disc set is let down by clunky menu navigation. There are way too many copyright warnings, no "Play All" facility, and you have to click back and forth to begin each new episode or find the additional features. By way of compensation, the menus look great and there's a goodly selection of extras on each disc. The entertaining commentaries are by Matt Groening and various members of his creative team, including producer David X Cohen and John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) and Billy West (Fry). There are a handful of deleted scenes for certain episodes, plus the script and storyboard for the very first episode and an interactive stills gallery. The 4:3 picture is pin-sharp as is the Dolby 2.0Surround.--Mark Walker
True Believer is an effective mystery by thrillmeister director Joseph Ruben (Sleeping with the Enemy), that allows star James Woods to do some real acting as he conveys his character's denial and sense of disappointment in himself. Eddie Dodd (Woods) is a former '60s radical lawyer who now spends his time cynically defending drug dealers for the big bucks. But an idealistic young protégé (Robert Downey Jr.) convinces him to take one case from the heart: a young Chinese immigrant unjustly accused in a gang slaying. Woods (complete with add-on ponytail) fairly hums with energy once he gets cooking here. Playing the been-there-done-that mentor--not to mention legal gadfly--gives him plenty of opportunity to run off at the mouth with spicy one-liners and zingers. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
No more good news everybody--this fourth series of Futurama is the show's last. By turns frenetic and far-sighted, Matt Groening's futuristic comedy provided belly-laughs for self-confessed SF nerds, but somehow failed to connect with a broader audience, even though it was often funnier and sharper than stablemate The Simpsons. So now bid farewell to the Planet Express team--Fry, Leela, Zoidberg, Bender, Amy, Hermes, Prof Farnsworth--as well as to kindly Kif, cloned Cubert, megalomaniac Mom, mutants in the sewer, the cast of robo-sitcom All My Circuits, swashbuckling space lothario and William Shatner wannabe Zapp Brannigan, Elzar the four-armed chef, and all the other characters that made Futurama such a unique experience. This fourth and final year has all the elements that fans enjoyed so much--but also those elements that partially explain its cancellation. Recurring characters are great if you've watched the show before, as are the in-jokes; and the many parodies of classic science fiction are fine for the initiated, but risk leaving other viewers out in the cold. The show's strengths and perceived weaknesses are exemplified in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", in which the original cast of Star Trek play themselves: hilarious for Trekkers, but not really for anyone else. Elsewhere we find Leela discovering her real parents aren't aliens at all but in fact live in the sewers; Kif getting pregnant; Fry discovering the fossilised remains of his faithful pet dog; and Bender being converted to steam power. Despite some ups and downs, it's still the funniest animated show on TV. Those responsible for cancelling it can bite my shiny metal On the DVD: Futurama, Series 4 DVD box set includes a "Play All" function on each disc. Multifarious extras include cast and crew commentaries, deleted scenes, animatics, galleries and Easter eggs. --Mark Walker
Starring Nicholas Lyndhurst Goodnight Sweetheart became an instant hit with TV viewers of all ages as it charts the life of Gary Sparrow a dealer in memorabilia and antiques of WW2 who has miraculously discovered a portal in time which allows him to travel between the present and wartime Britain. This handy little trick obviously adds to the success of his business but the complications that it adds to Gary's love life are a different matter! Includes all ten episodes from the sitc
Flintstone's Christmas Carol
Matt Groening's second series of the 31st century sci-fi sitcom Futurama maintained the high scripting standards of the first as well bringing improved digital animation. Couch potato Fry now seems thoroughly reconciled to his new existence, transported 10 centuries hence to "New New York" and working for Professor Farnsworth's delivery service. He's surrounded by a cast of freaks, including the bitchily cute Amy (with whom he has a romantic brush) and Hermes, the West Indian bureaucrat. Most sympathetic is the one-eyed Leela (voiced by Katey Sagal). Like Lisa Simpson, she is brilliant but unappreciated; she finds solace in her pet Nibbler, a tiny creature with a voracious, carnivorous appetite. By contrast, Bender, the robot, is programmed with every human vice, a sort of metal Homer Simpson with a malevolent streak. In one of the best episodes, Bender is given a "feelings" chip in order to empathise with Leela after he flushes Nibbler down the toilet. Elsewhere, Fry falls in love with a Mermaid when the team discover the lost city of Atlanta, Fry and Bender end up going to war after they join the army to get a discount on gum, and John Goodman guest stars as Santa Claus, an eight-foot gun-toting robot. Brimful with blink-and-you'll-miss-them hip jokes (such as the sign for the Taco Bellevue hospital) and political and pop satire, Futurama isn't a stern warning of things to come but rather, as the programme-makers put it, "a brilliant, hilarious reflection of our own materially (ridiculously) over-developed but morally under-developed society." On the DVD: Futurama's four-disc package presents the show in 4:3 with a Dolby Digital soundtrack. Among the many extras here are audio commentaries, storyboards, trailers, mock ads for "Soylent Chow" and "Human Rinds" and deleted scenes, including one from "Bender Gets Made" in which he seeks to evade the Robot Mafia by changing his identity. --David Stubbs
As Victoria Wood once said, "There's nothing you can't say if you say it in the right way". And she goes on to prove that triumphantly in An Audience with Victoria Wood, recorded in front of fellow celebs (whom she sends up effortlessly, describing her long-time collaborator Julie Walters as "the lady with the split ends"). Victoria Wood may be the queen of suburbia but her endless takes on the finer details of banality have an acuity of which Alan Bennett would be proud. Most people cannot do monologue without lapsing into self-consciousness. But she's just brilliant. Her depiction of a nervy woman attempting to conduct a survey in the street, for instance, is priceless: "Here's my ID. Yes, I do look rather startled. It was taken in a photo booth and someone had just poked an éclair through the curtain". She's like Joyce Grenfell on speed. And it's that surreal juxtaposition of the commonplace and the wacky that makes her routines anything but. Even when she takes up residence at the piano, belting out home-made ballads (and this video includes the famous "Let's Do It"), she's both touching and amusing. At one point, she suggests that the British are no good at having fun. Get this video and prove her wrong. --Harriet Smith
Every episode from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's hit animated comedy! Season 1: 1. Space Pilot 3000 2. The Series Has Landed 3. I Roomate 4. Love's Labour's Lost In Space 5. Fear Of A Bot Planet 6. A Fishful Of Dollars 7. My Three Suns 8. A Big Piece Of Garbage 9. Hell Is Other Robots 10. A Flight To Remember 11. Mars University 12. When Aliens Attack 13. Fry And The Slurm Factory Season 2: 1. I Second That Emotion 2. Brannigan Begin Again 3. A Hea
Anna Christie (1930): Garbo made her landmark transition to ""Talkies"" with this film playing a former prostitute whose past threatens her chance for happiness. A different director and cast join Garbo in a German-language version (Side B with English subtitles) filmed on the same sound stages immediately after the English version. Later Garbo called it the better film and this new DVD release gives fans the rare opportunity to compare the two versions. Mata Hari (1931): Garbo is mesmerizing as a dancer turned German secret agent in wartime Paris seething with secrets and betrayal. The notable supporting cast includes Lionel Barrymore as a Russian general in love with her Lewis Stone as an icy master spy and Ramon Novarro as a handsome aviator who wins the heart Mata Hari did not know she possessed. Queen Christina (1933): To escape the burdens of the monarchy Sweden's Queen Christina (Garbo) rides into the countryside disguised as a boy. She meets and secretly falls for a dashing Spanish envoy on his way to the royal court. When her lover's true identity is revealed Christina knows her people will not accept her marriage to a foreigner. Torn between her duty and her heart she must make a fateful decision. Garbo is luminous in this lavish costume drama starring with her one-time off-screen fianc John Gilbert under the direction of Rouben Mamoulian. Anna Karenina (1935): Leo Tolstoy's novel of a dutiful wife and doting mother who gives up her life of contentment to experience real passion receives sumptuous treatment in a David O. Selznick production. Clarence Brown directs a stellar cast - including Fredric March Basil Rathbone Maureen O'Sullivan and Freddie Bartholomew. Greta Garbo is the soul of the film in a nuanced performance that won the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award. At the height of her art Garbo is unforgettable as a woman helpless in love's grasp and heartbroken at the loss of her son. Camille (1936): Life in 1847 Paris is as spirited as champagne and as unforgiving as the gray morning after. In gambling dens and lavish soirees men of means exert their wills and women turned courtesans exult in pleasure. One such woman is Marguerite Gautier (Garbo) the Camille of this sumptuous romantic tale based on the enduring Alexandre Dumas story. Garbo earned an Academy Award nomination and the New York Film Critics Best Actress Award for her memorable work in this George Cukor-directed film. Ninotchka (1939): Garbo shines in her first comedy a frothy tale of a dour Russian envoy sublimating her womanhood for Soviet brotherhood until she falls for a suave Parisian man-about-town (Melvyn Douglas). Working from a clever script written in part by Billy Wilder director Ernst Lubitsch knew better than anyone how to marry refinement with sublime wit. That's how we see Garbo's love struck Ninotchka: serenely dignified yet endearingly ridiculous.
Eminem - the most controversial artist around today. But where did he come from what did it take to make him famous and what is the real story behind his turbulent private life? Come with us on a journey 'Behind The Mask' to uncover the truth behind the Real Slim Shady. Featuring: The complete unauthorised story of Eminem from childhood to present day ; Masses of previously unseen film footage ; more than twenty-minutes of interviews with Eminem and his family; exclusive access to th
The year is 2038. Giant intergalactic corporations have taken control of the universe locked in a ruthless battle for planets where men and robots mine the priceless chemicals that are now Earth's only source of fuel. Space pirates are systematically hijacking the vital space shuttle from the moon 44 mining base which is also the location of an experimental defence programme using highly advanced helicopter gunships. It is undercover investigator Felix Stone's task to hunt down the hijackers. But if Moon 44 base is attacked the orders are to sacrifice the men and save the robots.
A wiser and sober Danny Quinn returns home after three years to attend the wedding of a good friend Martin Powers heir to the Irish Mafia throne. Facing a vengeful rival a bitter ex-girlfriend and a family caught in the self destructive pattern of gambling excessive behaviour and despair he battles the insidious influence of Southie's white ghetto mob culture that threatens to see him revert back to his brutal ways.
The complete saga of the superhero formerly known as Birdman is now making a mockery of the legal system representing Hannah-Barbera toons gone bad including Shaggy Scooby Fred Flinstone and Yogi Bear.
The superhero formerly known as Birdman continues making a mockery of the legal system representing Hannah-Barbera toons gone bad including Shaggy Scooby Fred Flinstone and Yogi Bear.
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