James Stewart gives one of his finest performances in this lighthearted film, based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Stewart stars as the good-natured Elwood P. Dowd, whose constant companion is Harvey, a six-foot tall rabbit that only he can see.To his sister, Veta Louise, Elwood's obsession with harvey has been a thorn in the side of her plans to marry off her daughter. But when Veta Louise decides to put Elwood in a mental hospital, a hilarious mix-up occurs and she finds herself committed instead. It's up to Elwood to straighten out the mess with his kindly philosophy, and his imaginary friend, in this popular classic that features a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award winning performance by Joesphine Hull
Thriller starring Andrew Simpson and Joséphine de La Baume as two hitchhikers who get into trouble on the roads of rural France. On a hot summer's day, drifters Jack (Simpson) and Véronique (de La Baume) hit the road in search of adventure. Things take a sinister turn however, when they accept a ride from a strange local road kill collector. After ending up at the house of a mysterious married couple, the duo get caught in a deadly game of lies where nothing is as it seems.
The lady of the house Hyacinth Bucket (Patricia Routledge) has turned being a snob into an art form. Her surname is pronounced ""Bouquet"" don't you know and her family don't help. Her long-suffering husband Richard (Clive Swift) keeps his head down and does his best to live with her domineering ways. But Hyacinth's a determined lady with one mission in life - to impress. First broadcast in 1990 this release features every episode from Series One and Two of 'Keeping Up Appearances'.
In mid-1800's England Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) is a young Anglican priest a misfit and an outcast but with the soul of an angel. As a boy even though from a strict Pentecostal family he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England. Lucinda (Cate Blanchett) is a teenaged Australian heiress who has an almost desperate desire to liberate her sex from the confines of the male-dominated culture of the Australia of that time. She buys a
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence.Every detail is perfect--Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry--and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release.) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger. Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. --Jeff Shannon
Martial arts matinee idol Jet Li portrays a real life turn-of-the-century Cantonese patriot, the dauntless Fong Sai-Yuk, in The Legend. This is a much more blunt and straightforward effort than Tsui Hark's flamboyant Once Upon a Time in China films, but codirectors Ann Hui (Song of the Exile) and Yuen Kwai (Yes, Madam) deliver many lively and funny sequences. The film's revelatory performance, however, comes from Josephine Siao, a Cantonese star of the 1960s in both comedies and high-flying swordplay films, who here plays Fong Sai-Yuk's martial mother. Siao disguises herself as a man to enter a martial arts competition and ends up winning both the prize and the heart of a high official's daughter--mostly because the girl has never met a hero with so much poetic sensitivity lurking just beneath the surface. Chu Kong (Sidney in John Woo's The Killer) plays Fong Sai-Yuk's father as an anti-Manchu patriot so unbendingly upright that he's a bit of a prig. As the action heats up, political stakes emerge more clearly. In the grand finale, Fong Sai-Yuk squares off against a Manchu killer played with great panache by newcomer Chiu Man-cheuk. --David Chute, Amazon.com
Hyacinth Bucket (don't dare pronounce it any way other than 'Bouquet'!) is a snob. She devotes most of her energies to maintaining ""standards"" and trying to impress ""influential"" people. In the process she frequently brings chaos into the lives of her friends relatives and neighbours.... Episodes Comprise: 1. The Senior Citizens' Outing 2. The Mayor's Fancy Dress Ball 3. Hyacinth is Alarmed 4. A Riverside Picnic 5. Skis 6. The Country House Sale 7. The Boy Friend 8. A Barbecue at Violet's 9. The Rolls Royce 10. The Hostess 11. The Pageant
The third and fourth series of the sitcom in which stuck-up socialite Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced 'Bouquet' mind you) puts her put-upon husband the ever-dependable Richard through further excruciatingly awkward but fantastically funny situations! Episode titles: Early Retirement Iron Age Remains Violet's Country Cottage How to Go on Holiday without Really Trying Richard's New Hobby The Art Exhibition What to Wear When Yachting A Job For Richard Country Retreat A Ce
This limited edition Jet Li double feature includes two breathtaking martial arts action films directed by Corey Yuen (The Transporter). In The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk Jet Li stars as a carefree young martial arts expert who gets involved with a government official's daughter just as he discovers his family is part of a rebel resistance movement. While his fighting ability and charm made him a local champion, his epic battle for freedom would make him a legendary hero. Acclaimed choreographer Corey Yuen directs Li at his jaw-dropping best, including an unbelievable sequence fought entirely atop the heads of stunned onlookers. In The Legend of Fong Sai Yuk 2 Martial arts sensation Jet Li kicks back into action as the heroic Fong Sai Yuk in this explosive follow-up to the powerfully entertaining original. Having fought to save his father from the wrath of the Chinese government, Fong Sai Yuk joins his father's underground revolutionary organization, the Red Flower Society! But in the camp of rebels, a traitor lurks! Now, at a time when few can be trusted, Fong Sai Yuk must utilise his every skill in the fight to overthrow his nation's brutally powerful empire!
Italian director Pier Paolo Pasolini's film of The Canterbury Tales was one of a trilogy from the early 1970s that, like its companions The Decameron and the Arabian Nights, was an international box-office hit playing for long runs in mainstream cinemas. All of them adapt a masterpiece of literature where man becomes the moral catalyst for his own destiny. Chaucer's ribald sense of humour was a natural outlet for Pasolini's own desire to throw caution to the wind on screen, causing controversy at the time by displaying all facets of the male and female body unadorned. (Although it all looks pretty tame now, the Italian authorities were a threatening presence to Pasolini at the time.) Produced by Alberto Grimaldi with a large budget, the location scenes were filmed in many historic sites in England, notably Wells Cathedral, its crypt, and the surrounding flatlands leading toward Glastonbury, captured in early spring by Tonino Delli Colli's cinematography. The cast with Italian and English actors dubbed into Italian with English subtitles is a mixed blessing. Hugh Griffith as Sir January is one Anglo-Saxon recognisable from his role as the lecherous squire in Tom Jones, and overacts like the rest of the cast. Pasolini himself appears briefly as Chaucer in a non-speaking role that one regrets he didn't enlarge for himself in this sprawling tableaux of pilgrim's tales (Ken Russell's excesses from the same period come to mind). The musical score, an adaptation by Ennio Morricone of some traditional indigenous melodies, prefigures the early music revival by a few years and provides a stimulating soundtrack. --Adrian Edwards
You've never seen anything like it. An utterly engrossing story of rampaging neo-Nazi skinheads that may well be one of the most disturbing films. It's intoxicating violence and willingness to suspend moral judgement on its hypnotic characters make the film complex. Emotionally powerful and never afraid to portray the ugly destructive face of ignorance and prejudice 'Romper Stomper' excites disturbs and boldly challenges the viewer. Winner of 3 Australian Institute Awa
Action super-star Jet Li dazzles with his legendary speed and power in this sweeping epic from the martial arts director of X-Men and Transporter 1 and 2.
In 1960 producer-director George Pal's The Time Machine reshaped HG Wells' thoughtful, ironic novel into a two-fisted action movie, but one that still appeals to children and adults immensely and deserves its classic status. Wells' themes of biological and social evolution are played down, but there is a surprisingly melancholy thread as Rod Taylor's Time Traveller keeps stopping off at future wars to find that human stupidity still persists. In the first week of 1900 a group of fussy Victorians gather in Taylor's chintzy, overstuffed parlour to hear him tell of his expedition to the future, where the world is divided between the surface-dwelling, childish, beautiful Eloi and the hideous, underground, cannibal Morlocks. Wells intended both factions to seem degenerate, the logical final evolution of the class system, but Pal has Taylor pull a Captain Kirk and side with the Eloi and teach them to fight against their oppressors. The time travel sequence remains a tour de force, with a shop window mannequin demonstrating a parade of fashions as the years fly by in seconds and charming but still-effective stop-motion effects. The future is a wonderfully coloured landscape with properly gruesome cave-dwelling monsters and a winning Eloi heroine in Yvette Mimieux. It may not be totally Wells, but it's a treat. On the DVD: The Time Machine arrives on disc in a lovely widescreen print which makes the film seem new all over again. The featurette "Time Machine: The Journey Back" combines some mild behind-the-scenes stuff about the film (and its star prop) with a moving mini-sequel reuniting stars Rod Taylor and Alan Young in a scene that actually addresses a plot point skipped over in the original. --Kim Newman
Hywel Bennett stars as James Shelley: an erudite, highly articulate graduate and bone-idle skiver who spends his days pondering life's philosophical implications whilst dodging the bureaucratic machinery that has the gall to insist that he actually work for a living. At the series' outset he shares a little North London bedsit with girlfriend Fran, but his life of reflective slothfulness comes increasingly under threat from the attentions of the labour exchange and the pressing realities of fatherhood, home-ownership, marriage and divorce A huge success for ITV, running for a total of ten series over thirteen years, Shelley features a masterful performance by Bennett with regular appearances by Warren Clarke and Garfield Morgan, and guest turns from Kenneth Cope, Alan Rickman, Leslie Ash, Fulton MacKay and James Grout, among many others. This set contains every episode of the initial run of six series, including the 1980 Christmas Special.
A biopic of the relationship between Peter Cook (Ifans) and Dudley Moore (MacArdle) who became one of the best loved British comedy double acts... Credited as the inventors of modern British satire 'Not Only But Always' charts the searing highs and lows of these two extraordinary and different comedians whose careers and private lives often swung in as uncontrolled and anarchic turns as their wit. From their first meeting as Cambridge undergraduates in 1960 through their begi
"Lawless Heart" takes a journey through the comedy of love, with three friends facing life, death, sex and misadventure when, shocked by the death of a friend, they decide to take their lives in hand.
One interesting thing about Cleopatra 2525 is that it works far better on video or DVD than as a weekly television show, because the action in the tightly packed half-hour episodes is so fast and furious that you can miss crucial developments in the admittedly simple plots just by nipping into the kitchen to put the kettle on. Furthermore, despite appearances, the scripts do allow for character development, but this has to be delivered in snippets rather than dollops. Far better, then, to settle down with a large pizza and watch the several episodes back to back like this. There's no shortage of humour in this camp post-apocalypse shoot-em-up-fest. Cleopatra is a dippy exotic dancer who suffers complications during surgery for a boob job! Placed in cryogenic suspension until such time as medical science can help her, she wakes up in the year 2525 to find a world seemingly dominated by plot ideas stolen from classic sci-fi movies such as The Terminator--humanity has been driven underground in a world ruled by machines, morphing androids are used as spies etc. etc. etc.--where she's "adopted" by a couple of firm-midriffed female resistance fighters who take their orders from a mysterious voice (called Voice). It's all great fun and the action and effects are excellent (especially the airborne robot thingies). --Roger Thomas
James Shelley is highly educated and has a PhD in geography. He is also unemployed and has no intention of working. He lives with his girlfriend Fran in a bedsit at the home of Mrs. Hawkins (known as Mrs. H) and the series follows his mis-adventures as he ducks dodges and tries as hard as possible not to be caught up in Thatcher's Britain! Episodes Comprise: 1. Moving In 2. The Nelson Touch 3. Gainfully Employed 4. The Distaff Side
The Ronnie Barker Collection (3 Discs)
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