One of the most critically acclaimed shows in TV history Homicide: Life On The Street re-invigorated a tired genre by focusing on the grueling work of solving murders instead of an endless succession of bloody crimes and car chases. Inspired by David Simon's Edgar Award-winning account of Baltimore homicide detectives and brought to television by director Barry Levinson (Rain Man Oz) and writer Paul Attanasio (Gideon's Crossing) Homicide boasted a powerhouse cast featuring Ned Beatty (Deliverance) Yaphet Kotto (Alien) Richard Belzer (Law & Order: SVU) and breakout star Andre Braugher (Frequency). The critical response was overwhelming: Homicide won multiple Emmy and Writer's Guild of America Awards and is one of just two shows in history to claim three Peabody Awards. Now Homicide debuts on DVD with this collector's set featuring all 13 episodes from the first two seasons. Episodes Comprise: 1. Gone For Goode 2. A Ghost Of a Chance 3. Son Of A Gun 4. A Shot In The Dark 5. Three Men And Adena 6. Dog And Pony Show 7. And The Rockets' Dead Glare 8. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes 9. The NIght Of The Living Dead
Arguably the best film by Joel and Ethan Coen, the 1990 Miller's Crossing stars Gabriel Byrne as Tom, a loyal lieutenant of a crime boss named Leo (Albert Finney) who is in a Prohibition-era turf war with his major rival, Johnny Caspar (Jon Polito). A man of principle, Tom nevertheless is romantically involved with Leo's lover (Marcia Gay Harden), whose screwy brother (John Turturro) escapes a hit ordered by Caspar only to become Tom's problem. Making matters worse, Tom has outstanding gambling debts he can't pay, which keeps him in regular touch with a punishing enforcer. With all the energy the Coens put into their films, and all their focused appreciation of genre conventions and rules, and all their efforts to turn their movies into ironic appreciations of archetypes in American fiction, they never got their formula so right as with Miller's Crossing. With its Hammett-like dialogue and Byzantine plot and moral chaos mitigated by one hero's personal code, the film so transcends its self-scrutiny as a retro-crime thriller that it is a deserved classic in its own right. --Tom Keogh
In the tradition of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, ROCKETEER is a full-throttle blast of thrills, fun and dazzling special effects. Set in glamarous 1930s Hollywood, it tells the story of Cliff Secord, a down-on-his-luck pilot who stumbles upon an incredible invention - a top secret jetpack that allows him to soar through the skies like a human rocket. But before long, a sinister spy (Timothy Dalton) plots to steal the jetpack, thrusting Cliff into a dangerous mission that ultimately transforms him into an extraordinary hero.
David Lynch's Lost Highway is one of the most puzzled over movies of the 1990s. After Twin Peaks and Wild at Heart audiences were prepared for more questions than answers. But this mystery is without doubt the most sinister and disturbing of all his work, which is to say it's arguably the most worthy of puzzling out. Bill Pullman goes to jail for murdering his wife Patricia Arquette the Brunette. He metamorphoses into Balthazar Getty who falls for Patricia Arquette the Blonde. They're involved in many bad things. Getty morphs back to Pullman who's left with neither girl, but a lot of explaining to do about how Robert Loggia was involved with both and who/what on earth Robert Blake is. There are no straight answers. It might just be possible to twist the film into a Moebius strip and work out half the chronology, but that would be missing the point. Lynch makes paintings that move and if they happen to tell a tale (thank you The Straight Story), that's just a happy by-product. This film is "about" a lot of things: obsession, the impossible notion of owning a partner, why tailgating is wrong. Beyond that, it's about nothing more than enjoying just how sensually delicious everything looks and sounds on Lynch's Highway. On the DVD: Lost Highway is presented on disc in Lynch's preferred 2.35:1 ratio (anamorphically enhanced), even if it isn't the cleanest of transfers. Sound however, is only two channel stereo, whereas 5.1 mixes do exist elsewhere. The teaser trailer is hardly worth the effort. --Paul Tonks
Following a case of mistaken identity dancer Jerry (Astaire) follows Dale (Rogers) the girl of his dreams to Europe and tries to win her heart through song and dance routines... This most lavish of musicals from Hollywood's golden era features lyrics and music by Irving Berlin.
Between Heaven and Hell There's Always Hollywood! John Turturro shines in the lead role in Barton Fink the Coen Brothers' (Miller's Crossing Fargo) hilarious satire set in the 1940s Hollywood. Fink is a New York playwright who reluctantly relocates to Hollywood to write screenplays. Ordered to write a low budget screenplay about wrestling Fink manages to type one sentence and then...nothing! Although his chatty insurance salesman neighbour Charlie (John Goodman) helps out by teaching Fink about wrestling the clock ticks the temperature rises and Fink's life spins more and more out of control. Barton Fink received three 1991 Oscar nominations-(Best Supporting Actor-Michael Lerner Best Art Direction/Set Direction and Best Costume Design) and also won Best Actor (Turturro) and Best Director (Joel Coen) as well as the coveted Palme d'Or at Cannes.
Based on a retro-styled comic book hit of the 80s, this Disney film was meant to launch a whole line of Rocketeer films--but the series began and ended with this one. That's too bad because this underrated Joe Johnston film has a certain loopy charm. The story centres on a pre-World War II stunt pilot (Bill Campbell) who accidentally comes into possession of a rocket-propelled backpack much coveted by the Nazis. With the aid of his mechanic pal (Alan Arkin), he gets it up and running, then uses it to foil a plot by a gang of vicious Nazi spies (is there any other kind?) led by Timothy Dalton. Jennifer Connelly is on hand as the love interest but the real fun here is when the Rocketeer takes off. There's also a nifty battle atop an airborne blimp. --Marshall Fine
German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff's 1985 production of Arthur Miller's most famous play Death of a Salesman appeared squarely and quite hauntingly in the middle of the go-go economy of the Reagan-Bush years. Miller's story, set during the post-war boom period of the late 1940s, concerns an ageing travelling salesman named Willy Loman (Dustin Hoffman), who despairs that his life his been lived in vain. Facing dispensability and insignificance in a heated, youthful economy, Willy is not ready to part with his cherished fantasies of an America that loves and admires him for personable triumphs in the marketplace. But the reality is far more pitiable than that, and the measure of Willy's self-delusion and contradictions is found in his two sons, one (Stephen Lang) a ne'er-do-well gliding on inherited hot air and repressed feelings, and the other (John Malkovich) a mousy, retiring sort unable to reconcile--or forgive--the difference between his father's desperate impersonation of success and the truth. Schlöndorff's remarkable cast explores Miller's rich subtext to great effect, though Hoffman--despite giving us a new model of Willy to contrast with Lee J Cobb's definitive portrayal a generation before--is a bit insect-like and shrill in his approach. Malkovich, Lang, and Kate Reid (as Willy's long-suffering wife) are perfect, however, and the production is atmospheric and strong. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (Raising Arizona Fargo) create a complex and graphic vision of gangsterism set during Prohibition and featuring a riveting rogue's gallery of killers and con men. Leo (Albert Finney) a likeable Irish gangster boss rules an Eastern city along with Tom (Gabriel Byrne) his trusted lieutenant and counsellor. But just as their authority is challenged by an Italian underboss and his ruthless henchman Leo and Tom also fall for the same woman (Marcia Gay Harden). Tom caught in the jaws of a gangland power struggle walks a deadly tightrope as he tries to control and manipulate its violent outcome.
Titles Comprise: Hudsucker Proxy: Hudsucker Industries is flourishing. Profits are stupendous and stock is at an all-time high. So when their founder Waring Hudsucker leaps to his death from the 44th floor his board of directors is thrown into panic. Hudsucker has not left a will and his majority shareholding in the company must therefore soon be offered for sale to the public. But scheming Vice President Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) has a plan. He'll install a complete imbecile as Chairman and devalue the stock to a level where the rest of the board can acquire controlling interests for themselves. The Big Lebowski: 'The Dude' Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) is unemployed and laid-back. That is until he becomes a victim of mistaken identity two thugs breaking into his apartment in the errant belief that they are accosting Jeff Lebowski the Pasadena millionaire. In hope of getting a replacement for his soiled carpet 'the Dude' visits his wealthy namesake and with buddy ex 'Nam' vet. Walter Sobchak (John Goodman) he is swept into a labyrinthine comedy/thriller of extortion embezzlement sex dope German Nihilists White Russians mysterious cowboys Shomer Shabbos bowling and severed toes... Barton Fink: John Turturro shines in the lead role in Barton Fink the Coen Brothers' (Miller's Crossing Fargo) hilarious satire set in the 1940s Hollywood. Fink is a New York playwright who reluctantly relocates to Hollywood to write screenplays. Ordered to write a low budget screenplay about wrestling Fink manages to type one sentence and then...nothing! Although his chatty insurance salesman neighbour Charlie (John Goodman) helps out by teaching Fink about wrestling the clock ticks the temperature rises and Fink's life spins more and more out of control. Intolerable Cruelty: Divorce attorney Miles Massey has got it all. Serial gold-digger Marilyn Rexroth wants it all. A hilarious battle of deceit and cunning ensues when Miles falls for Marilyn with each one trying to outsmart the other. Underhand tactics deceptions and an undeniable attraction escalate as Marilyn and Miles square off in this classic battle of the sexes... Blood Simple: Deep in the heart of Texas a jealous bar owner hires a private eye to kill his wife and her lover. The sleazy hitman double-crosses the husband killing him instead and pocketing the cash. The perfect crime or so it seems but disposing of the corpse is not so simple. Blood Simple uncoils its film noir plot with audacious style dense atmosphere and blood-curdling twists. Burn After Reading: When a disc filled with some of the CIA's most irrelevant secrets gets in the hands of two determined but dim-witted gym employees the duo are intent on exploiting their find. But since blackmail is a trade better left for the experts events soon spiral out of everyone's and anyone's control resulting in a non-stop series of hilarious encounters! From Joel and Ethan Coen the Academy Award winning directors of No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski comes this brilliantly clever and endlessly entertaining movie that critics are calling smart funny and original. A Serious Man: Larry Nidus is a good man. He is a loving husband a committed father and a dedicated professor who always does the fair and just thing in the face of daily temptations. But one day everything starts to go wrong. Academy Award winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen bring their famously wicked sense of humor to this every day tale about a moral man who sees the world inexplicably turn against him in this darkest of comedies.
Happily N'Ever After - Double Pack
Lost Highway has been described by its director as a 21st century film noir a graphic investigation into parallel identity crises a world where time is dangerously out of control and finally a terrifying ride down the lost highway. With typically Lynchian dreamlike quality Lost Highway expands the horizons of the medium taking its audience on a journey through the unknown and the unknowable. It is not only about the human psyche it seems to take place inside it. S
Following the phenomenal success of Miami Vice executive producer Michael Mann returned to the small screen with a new kind of gritty police drama one that talked tougher and hit harder than anything TV had ever seen before. 'Crime Story' is the hard boiled saga of hair-trigger cop Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) and his obsessive pursuit of ruthless gangster Ray Luca (Anthony Dennison) from the mean street of early 1960s Chicago to the neon nights of mob paradise Las Vegas. The
To silence their double-crossing accountant before he tells the cops everything the Lobruttos need a hitman... and fast. Tony Greco is up and coming in the family firm and ideal for the job - all he needs is a few lessons in the fine art of contract killing. And who better to teach him than Steve Rosellini (James Belushi) - Zen master of all hitmen. Under Rosellini's watchful eye Tony learns all about committing the perfect crime until at last it's time to prove he can kill in cold blood. His target? A name picked at random from the LA phone book - Angel Chaste - a young woman Tony soon discovers is ready willing and able to give as good as she gets.
Modern-day auteurs of the cinematic world the Coen Brothers have built a reputation as one of the most visionary and idiosyncratic filmmakers of the late 20th century. Combining thoughtful eccentricity wry humour arch irony and often brutal violence the films of the Coen brothers have become synonymous with a style of filmmaking that pays tribute to classic American movie genres -- especially film noir -- while sustaining a firmly post-modern feel. For the first time ever all eleven of the Coen Brothers titles available in one box set which cover the first 20 years of their output Blood Simple (1984): A rich but jealous man hires a private investigator to kill his cheating wife and her new man. But when blood is involved nothing is simple. Raising Arizona (1987): When a childless couple of ex-con and an ex-cop decide to help themselves to one of another familys quintuplets their lives get more complicated than they anticipated. Miller's Crossing (1990): Tom Reagan an advisor to a Prohibition-era crime boss tries to keep the peace between warring mobs but gets caught in divided loyalties. Barton Fink (1991): In 1941 New York intellectual playwright Barton Fink comes to Hollywood to write a Wallace Beery wrestling picture. Staying in the eerie Hotel Earle Barton develops severe writers block. The Hudsucker Proxy (1994): A nave business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam. Fargo (1996): Jerry Lundegaard's inept crime falls apart due to his and his henchmen's bungling and the persistent police work of pregnant Marge Gunderson. The Big Lebowski (1998): 'Dude' Lebowski mistaken for millionaire Lebowski seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to get help O Brother Where Art Thou? (2000): Set in 1930s Deep South three stumblebum convicts escape to go on a quest for treasure and meet various characters while learning where their real fortune lies. The Man Who Wasn't There: (2001) A laconic chain-smoking barber blackmails his wifes boss and lover for money to invest in dry cleaning but his plan goes terribly wrong. Intolerable Cruelty: (2003) A revenge-seeking gold digger marries a womanizing Beverley Hill lawyer with the intention of making a killing in the divorce. The Ladykillers: (2004) An eccentric if not charming Southern professor and his crew pose as a band in order to rob a casino all under the nose of his unsuspecting landlord: a sharp old woman.
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