It takes a village to hide a secret.
Meet Marmalade Atkins: The Naughtiest Girl in the World! Her wild behaviour has seen her expelled from virtually every school she's attended, and this fondly remembered kid's sitcom sees her causing further mayhem at a range of educational and correctional establishments. From Eton to the Convent of the Blessed Limit to Dartmoor, Marmalade remains impervious to discipline - to the constant despair of her parents, hapless social worker Mrs Allgood, and child psychologist Dr Glenfiddick... Sta...
With Time Bandits, only his second movie as director, Terry Gilliam's barbed humour and hyperactive visual imagination got themselves gloriously into full gear. Sketched out in a matter of weeks over Michael Palin's kitchen table while Gilliam struggled to get his dream project Brazil off the ground, this is a children's film made by a director who "hates kid films" and all the "mawkish sentimental crap" that goes with them. The 11-year-old hero, Kevin, finds himself lugged out of his suburban bedroom and off through a series of wormholes in time and space by a gang of rapacious, bickering midgets in search of loot, en route encountering (and casually despoiling) a gallery of eminent historical figures that include Agamemnon, Napoleon and Robin Hood, along with assorted ogres, giants and monsters. As co-screenwriters, Gilliam and Palin cheerfully filch ideas from everyone from Homer and Jonathan Swift to Lewis Carroll and Walt Disney, while the sets--as always with Gilliam--ingeniously work towering miracles on puny budgets. "The whole point of fairy tales", according to Gilliam, "is to frighten the kids" and Time Bandits taps into some archetypal nightmare imagery. But the whole farrago is much too good-humoured to be seriously scary. Not least of the movie's pleasures are a series of ripe cameos from the likes of Ian Holm as an irascible Bonaparte, Sean Connery good-humouredly spoofing his own image as Agamemnon, John Cleese's version of Robin Hood as inanely condescending minor royalty ("So you're a robber too! Jolly good!"), David Warner hamming it up gleefully as the Evil Genius, and the great Ralph Richardson playing the Supreme Being as a tetchy public-school headmaster. On the DVD: Time Bandits on disc comes with a generous wealth of extras. Along with the expected trailer--sent up Python-style by a disaffected voice-over--we get excerpts from Gilliam's storyboard and notated script, filmographies for Gilliam, Palin, Connery and David Rappaport (the leader of the vertically challenged gang), stills, production shots, a scrapbook with cast photos and drawings, notes on the film and plenty more background data, plus a cheerfully relaxed 27-minute interview with Gilliam and Palin. There's also an informative and appealingly unpretentious full-length commentary shared between Gilliam, Palin, Cleese, Warner and Craig Warnock, who played Kevin. The transfer, clean and crisp, is in the original full-width ratio, and there's a choice of Dolby Stereo or Dolby 5.1 sound. --Philip Kemp
The face of WWE Randy Orton defends the newly unified WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena in what could be the biggest rematch in WWE history. Awaiting the Champion of Champions will be the WWE Superstar who can outlast 29 other men in the epic 30-man Royal Rumble Match. Will the last man standing be 'The Animal' Batista who just returned to WWE after almost 4 years to reclaim his place at the top of the food chain? Plus behemoths Brock Lesnar and Big Show collide. And after infiltrating the inner sanctum of The Wyatts Daniel Bryan tries to silence the family patriarch once and for all. The road to WrestleMania begins at one of WWE's proudest traditions Royal Rumble. Matches Include: Royal Rumble Kick-off WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Cody Rhodes and Goldust Vs. New Age Outlaws Daniel Bryan Vs. Bray Wyatt Big Show Vs. Brock Lesnar WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match Randy Orton Vs. John Cena 30-Man Royal Rumble Match
John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara are embroiled in an epic battle with the Apaches and each other in this John Ford classic. Lt Col. Yorke (Wayne) heads to the Rio Grande to fight a warring tribe. But Yorke faces his toughest battle when his unorthodox plan to outwit the elusive Apaches leads to possible court-martial. Locked in a bloody war he must fight to redeem his honour and save his family.
In the closing days of WWII German POWs plot to escape from their Scottish camp with a plan to rejoin the U-Boat fleet from where they were captured...
Nicole Kidman is Isabel Archer a young woman of daring independence and equally fierce desires. But her headstrong innocence is no match for the manipulations of her duplicitous friend Madame Merle (Barbara Hershey in an Oscar-nominated performance) and the devious Gilbert Osmond (John Malkovich). Adapted from the novel by Henry James.
Golden Globe winner John Travolta (Pulp Fiction) stars in this tense action thriller, where a team of Texas linemen race to install miles of cable before a deadly lightning storm destroys the power grid. These unsung heroes work hundreds of feet in the air, on wires carrying as much as 500,000 volts of electricity, with death often inches away. Beau Ginner (Travolta) is haunted by the electrocution death of his younger brother, which left Beau raising his niece, Bailey (Kate Bosworth, Heist) on his own. Beau is determined to see her go to college and away from the life of linemen, but Bailey has other plans, including staying in touch with her ex-boyfriend Duncan (Devon Sawa, Final Destination) whom Beau despises. As a major storm descends on the county, events come to a head, leaving both Bailey and Beau's lives on the line.
Orbiting a planet on the brink of war, scientists test a device to solve an energy crisis, and end up face-to-face with a dark alternate reality.
The Alien Quadrilogy is a nine-disc box set devoted to the four Alien films. Although previously available on DVD as the Alien Legacy, here the films have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and vision. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "Special Edition" form. Alien (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 Director's Cut is fiddling for the sake of it. Watch once then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely the Special Edition of James Cameron's Aliens (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice finally to have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative Alien3 (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered and finished-off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to the story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. Alien Resurrection (1997) was always a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the Special Edition just makes it eight minutes longer. On the DVD: Alien Quadrilogy offers all films except Alien3 with DTS soundtracks, the latter having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first Alien DVD release are missing here--and there are subtitles for hard of hearing both for the films and the commentaries. Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented at 4:3 with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the Lord of the Rings extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including a Channel 4 hour-long documentary and even all the extras from the old Alien laserdisc. Exhaustive hardly beings to describe the Alien Quadrilogy, a set which establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and which looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. --Gary S Dalkin
Cruise back to Baltimore 1963 to the time and turf of a rare American breed: The 'Tin Man' (aluminium siding salesman). Two less-than-honest rivals in the tin game (Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito) meet in a fender bender but their bruised egos and quick tempers turn the minor accident into a major vendetta against each other's symbols of success - their prized Cadillacs. In what would seem to be a coup de grace Dreyfuss decides to seduce DeVito's neglected wife (Barbara Hershe
Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem features the iconic monsters battling it out on the big screen! The warring alien and predator races descend on a small town where unsuspecting residents must band together for any chance of survival.
Val Kilmer stars in The Ghost and the Darkness as Lt Col John Patterson, a 19th-century Irish engineer drafted by Britain's railroad bosses to build a trestle bridge over an African river, thus expanding the empire a tiny bit more. In Tsavo, Patterson is instantly hailed for killing a man-eating lion that had been making life hell for native workers. But morale sinks when two more unstoppable big cats devour more men and destroy the project. Along comes an, expatriate American hunter (Michael Douglas) to help Patterson face the almost preternatural powers of the two killers. The script by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is based on fact, though the film owes more to Steven Spielberg (specifically to Jaws) than history. There are also suggestive echoes of Kipling and Conrad in the material and characters, and there are hints of emotional complexity and psychological nuance that make one wish this could have been a great film instead of a merely fun one.--Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
In his first effort at directing a feature-length film William (Ted) Kotcheff best-known for movies like The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz does an excellent job in making this drama effective. He is helped in no small part by James Mason as Brett Aimsley a sophisticated at-ease former junior partner in a brokerage firm and John Mills as Lt. Col. Clifford Southey a former clerk in that same company. During the war the lieutenant carries his sense of inferiority from his peacetime job as a clerk with him. So when he has a chance to nail Brett (a junior officer now) for trying to bring some censored goods back into London he takes the chance and Brett is drummed out of service. Brett heads for Tahiti and a pretty good life in the sun until Clifford shows up on the island with big plans to build a hotel -- bringing with him the same defensive attitude.
One of the most singular auteurs of the horror and science fiction genres, David Cronenberg has wowed audiences with his depictions of body transformations and explorations of society, this collection of his early short and feature films shows a master learning his craft and exploring many of the themes that would dominate his most celebrated work. Transfer (1966), Cronenberg's first short film, is a surreal sketch of a doctor and his patient. From the Drain (1967) finds two men in a bathtub, which may be part of a centre for veterans of a future war. Stereo (1969), Cronenberg's first official feature film, stunningly shot in monochrome, concerns telepaths at the Institute for Erotic Enquiry where patients undergo tests by Dr. Luther Stringfellow. In Crimes of the Future (1970) Cronenberg worked in colour and with a larger budget, where we find the House of Skin clinic director (Ronald Mlodzik, returning from Stereo) searching for his mentor, Antoine Rouge, who has disappeared following a catastrophic plague. Cronenberg's early amateur feature films, shot in and around his university campus, prefigure his later films' concerns with strange institutions, male/female separation and ESP, echoing the likes of Videodrome, Dead Ringers and Scanners.
The mighty warrior Kain (David Carradine) crosses the barren wastelands of the planet Ura where two arch enemies Zeg (Luke Askew) and the evil degenerate Balcaz (William Marin) fight incessantly for control of the village's only well. Kain sees his opportunity and announces that his sword is for hire... but his eyes stay clearly on the beautiful captive sorceress Naja (Maria Socas) and his newly awakened purpose.
Two of the most dominant WWE Superstars of the millennium battle in an historic showdown 11 years in the making. In a ring strewn with Tables Ladders And Chairs World Heavyweight Champion John Cena battles WWE Champion Randy Orton in a monumental match that will alter the course of WWE forever... both men will enter TLC as Champions but only one will be crowned the Champion Of Champions. Plus CM PUNK and Daniel Bryan each face a trio of tormentors in 3-on-1 Handicap Matches. Can The Beard and The Best divide and conquer seemingly insurmountable odds? And the Intercontinental and Divas Championships are defended in the final WWE pay-per-view of the year WWE TLC: Tables Ladders and Chairs!
A man runs for his life through the moors breathless and frightened. Behind him we hear the baying of a hound a sound so fearful it chills the soul. The man falls. From the desolate rocky nightscape another man peers: He is bearded and rough looking perhaps a convict from the nearby prison.... Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce star in their first outing as Holmes and Watson in this celebrated adaptation of The Hound Of The Baskervilles....
Audiences overlooked Wild Bill at the cinema, but it's one of the better Westerns of the 1990s, featuring yet another terrific performance by Jeff Bridges, America's most underrated movie actor. As James Butler Hickock, he captures the sense of a man at the end of his career, one of the first media superstars who discovers that his legend is more burden than blessing. As he heads toward his final hand of poker in Deadwood, South Dakota, he flashes back to his younger days and the events that built his reputation, even as he copes with encroaching blindness caused by syphilis. Walter Hill blends action and elegy, utilising a screenplay based both on Pete Dexter's novel Deadwood and Thomas Babe's play Fathers and Sons. Wild Bill features strong supporting performances by John Hurt (as a Hickock sidekick) and Ellen Barkin (as the tough, lusty Calamity Jane)--but the centrepiece is the sad, manly performance by Bridges, who more than measures up to the part. --Marshall Fine
Vanessa Redgrave plays Clarissa Dalloway an MP's wife whose life is thrown into crisis when a lover she rejected 30 years ago makes an unexpected appearance at a party she is hosting at her elegant London home prompting bittersweet memories of her youth. Marleen Gorris the Oscar winning director of Antonia's Line brings to life Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking 1925 novel which itself inspired Michael Cunningham's Pultizer Prize-winning novel 'The Hours'. Beautifully filmed in
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