A DEA agent investigates the disappearance of a legendary Army ranger drill sergeant and several of his cadets during a training exercise gone severely awry.
An authoritarian rancher (Stanwyck) rules an Arizona county with a private posse of her hired guns. However when a new lawman arrives to settle the disturbances in the State the cattle queen finds her emotions interfering with her business for the first time...
Billy Bob Thornton wrote, directed, and starred in Sling Blade, a mesmerizing drama with haunting overtones of To Kill a Mockingbird. Thornton plays a mentally retarded man who has spent 20 years in a psychiatric hospital for killing his mother and her lover. Released into the community from which he came, he befriends and protects a lonely boy regularly harassed and abused by his mom's boyfriend (a terrific performance by Dwight Yoakam). The story is ultimately about sacrifice, but Thornton certainly doesn't get twinkly about it. Some of the best material concerns the hero's no-big-deal efforts to integrate into a "normal" life: working, eating fast food, earning admiration for his handyman skills, and attaining a semblance of community among other damaged souls. John Ritter has a great part as a gay shopkeeper who tries to assuage his own loneliness by spilling his guts out to Thornton's uncomprehending character. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
First broadcast in 1976 this release features the second half of series 2. It's 1918 the guns are finally silent and the Great War in Europe is over. But at the Bentinck Hotel in London's St James the devastating effects of four years conflict are still plain to see. Home from the front at last Charlie Haslemere is on his last legs and when the inevitable happens Louisa decides on drastic action much to the displeasure of the hotel's staff. Louisa's life must go on and there a
Kirstie Alley knocks 'em dead - literally - and then becomes hysterically hysterical in this comedy co-starring Bill Pullman Carrie Fisher Jami Gertz Scott Bakula Sam Elliott and Ed O'Neill. All Marjorie (Alley) ever wanted was to become a writer - ""like Slyvia Plath... only happy."" But she put her dream aside to marry a doctor (Bakula)... before discovering that he has no bedside manner. Unhappy unfulfilled and decidedly unsatisfied she attempts to find bliss in a hotel room wi
At the height of the stand-up comedy boom of the 1980s, Punchline offered the revelation that many comedians were, in fact, rather psychologically unstable individuals for whom performing was an outlet for hostility and aggression. Wow--who would have guessed? This film focuses on two who meet and forge an unlikely friendship: Tom Hanks plays a caustic, self-destructive comic looking for his big break and Sally Field plays a more Roseanne-like comedian who begins neglecting her husband (John Goodman) and children because she gets such a kick out of performing. The offstage stuff is strictly soap opera, but Hanks and Field both develop solid comedic rhythms once they get behind a microphone. --Marshall Fine, Amazon.com
The complete second season of Wonder Woman! Meet the United States' secret and most beautiful weapon in the fight against tyranny: Wonder Woman! Former Miss USA Lynda Carter stars as the heroine who hides her identity behind the oversized glasses of a War Department functionary. But when duty and danger call she transforms. And the wonders never cease! Episodes comprise: 1. The Return Of Wonder Woman 2. Anschluss '77 3. The Man Who Could Move The World 4. The Bermuda Tr
Four guy friends, all of them bored with their adult lives, travel back to their respective 80s heydays thanks to a time-bending hot tub.
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
The come-from-behind winner of the 1981 Oscar for Best Picture, Chariots of Fire either strikes you as either a cold exercise in mechanical manipulation or as a tale of true determination and inspiration. The heroes are an unlikely pair of young athletes who ran for Great Britain in the 1924 Paris Olympics: devout Protestant Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a divinity student whose running makes him feel closer to God, and Jewish Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a highly competitive Cambridge student who has to surmount the institutional hurdles of class prejudice and anti-Semitism. There's delicious support from Ian Holm (as Abrahams's coach) and John Gielgud and Lindsay Anderson as a couple of Cambridge fogies. Vangelis's soaring synthesised score, which seemed to be everywhere in the early 1980s, also won an Oscar. Chariots of Fire was the debut film of British television commercial director Hugh Hudson (Greystoke) and was produced by David Puttnam. --Jim Emerson
Based on the novels by Bernard Cornwell, Sharpe (1993-7) ran to 14 full-length television films that follow the adventures of the titular soldier through the later years of the Napoleonic Wars. The programmes are an outstanding achievement for the small screen, dominated by Sean Bean's central performance as the heroic, troubled outsider who turns out to be a resourceful and loyal leader. Bolstered by a strong supporting cast, particularly Daragh O'Malley as Harper and (in later episodes) Abigail Cruttenden as Jane, Sharpe is often visually striking, the action tense and gripping. Consistency is maintained by all 14 episodes being directed by Tom Clegg. On the DVD: Sharpe on DVD's sound is full-bodied stereo while the very "sharp" (pun intended) picture has been transferred slightly letterboxed at 14:9. Though looking much better than the original TV transmissions the occasionally cropped framing makes it apparent the films were shot in 16:9 widescreen, so it is regrettable they have not been transferred to DVD in that format. Otherwise these are first-rate releases. --Gary S Dalkin
This box set features the entire sixth series of the classic British Television drama Inspector Morse. Episodes comprise: 1. Dead On Time: Morse becomes deeply involved when a Don apparently commits suicide. The man's wife Susan was once engaged to Morse who makes no secret of the fact that he is still in love with her... 2. Happy Families: A wealthy industrialist is murdered yet his family seem uninterested until a second murder occurs... 3. The Death
John Cusack stars as Max Rothman, a German veteran of World War One who opens an art gallery in Munich and takes a lonely unknown artist under his wing: Adolf Hitler.
John Cusack (The Frozen Ground 2012) is Detective Mike Fletcher a cop who is on the trail of a serial killer prowling the streets of Buffalo N.Y. Working with his partner Kelsey Walker (Jennifer Carpenter - Dexter) Mike becomes increasingly obsessed with finding the savage killer. However with no leads the case is under threat of being shut down. Mike risks being left powerless struggling to accept the killer may escape justice free to slaughter again. But when his own teenage daughter disappears he drops any professional restraint in pursuit of the killer. Just like the others Mike knows only too well that if he doesn’t find her in 48 hours he probably never will.
Al Pacino plays a Maryland lawyer who takes on a judicial system rife with deal making in And Justice for All, an awkward blend of satire and sentimentality. Topical director Norman Jewison can't seem to help Pacino get comfortable with the mismatched material, which pushes the film into outrageousness at some turns and mawkishness at others. The script by Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin is more an accumulation of random ideas and moments than a congruent story. However, it's interesting to see the large cast of good actors, most of whom were unknowns at the time including Christine Lahti who made her film debut here. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Based on John Lahr's biography of the same name and co-written by Alan Bennett, Prick Up Your Ears charts the 16-year relationship between the monstrously talented but deeply selfish playwright Joe Orton (Gary Oldman), author of West End farces such as Loot and What the Butler Saw, and his neurotic but nevertheless wronged lover and collaborator Kenneth Halliwell (Alfred Molina). Halliwell introduced Orton to art, literature and gay sex only to see his protégeacute; outstrip his mentor with innate and rampant talent for sexual conquest. By turns hilarious and excoriatingly painful, it's as much a tribute to an anti-hero of our times-Orton's ruthless frankness and anarchic mindset helped form the basis of what's called the "queer" sensibility today--as it is a portrait of the Swinging 60s just after the reform of anti-homosexuality laws irrevocably changed society. The modern-day framing device has Lahr (Wallace Shawn) researching his book through interviews with Peggy Ramsay (Vanessa Redgrave), Orton's agent and the diary he wrote, a nimble device which ends up drawing a provocative parallel between Orton and Halliwell's relationship and that of Lahr and his wife (Lindsay Duncan). Director Stephen Frears, fresh off the back of the also-gay-themed My Beautiful Laundrette, nimbly balances our sympathies for both the protagonists while the leads give what may in retrospect look like the standout performances of their careers: Oldman was never more feral and charming, while Molina, foppishingly fretting over his wig and decrying that his lover "even sleeps better than I do" is simply heartbreaking. --Leslie Felperin
Train them! Excite them! Arm them!...Then turn them loose on the Nazis! Atten-hut! Twelve jailbirds will earn their freedom... if they survive a suicide mission against the Nazi brass. Tough-as-nails Lee Marvin leads a nothing-to-lose convict squad in this all-time action trendsetter. They don't make 'em like this anymore!
Created by horror legend George A. Romero, Tales from the Darkside was a syndicated television series adapted from his Creepshow feature franchise. Similar in style and themes to shows such as The Twilight Zone, Night Gallery and Tales from the Crypt, each episode told a dark tale that ventured into horror, fantasy, sci-fi and black comedy, and ended with an unexpected twist.
Every episode of this much loved classic crime TV show featuring that unforgettable theme tune! A brilliant fast-paced violent and hard-hitting action series The Professionals chronicles the lives and exploits of the men of covert British security unit CI5 (Criminal Intelligence 5) in particular the unit's top operative partnership of ex-cop Ray Doyle (Martin Shaw) and former mercenary and ex-SAS paratrooper William Bodie (Lewis Collins) and their superior officer the gruff but
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy