Acclaimed writer Andrew Davies turns his talents to one of Charles Dickens' most brilliant novels - arguably the greatest ever depiction of Victorian London. Fresh and imaginative yet faithful to the original this thrilling fast-paced adaptation is shot with a contemporary edge. At its heart is the story of the icily beautiful Lady Dedlock who nurses a dark secret and the merciless lawyer Tulkinghorn who seeks to uncover it. The generous John Jarndyce struggling with his own past and his two young wards Richard and Ada are all caught up like Lady Dedlock in the infamous case of Jarndyce vs. Jarndyce which will make one of them rich beyond imagination if it can ever be brought to a conclusion. As Tulkinghorn digs deeper into Lady Dedlock's past he unearths a secret that will change their lives forever and which is almost as astounding as the final outcome of the Jarndyce case.
Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.Click Images to Enlarge
The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! form a double feature of semi-classic CinemaScope-era WWII naval dramas sailing from the Fox vault onto DVD for the first time. In The Enemy Below Robert Mitchum and Curt Jurgens are respectively captains of a US destroyer and a German U-boat whose vessels come into conflict in the South Atlantic. Both are good men with a job to do, the script noting Jurgens' distaste for Hitler and the Nazis and engaging our sympathy with the German sailors almost as much as the Americans. Made at the height of the Cold War of the 1950s, the film delivers a liberal message of cooperation wrapped inside some spectacular action scenes and a story that builds to a tense and exciting, moving finale. Sink the Bismarck! is a British film dating from three years later and adopts a more documentary style in recounting the race against time to track and destroy what was in 1941 the most powerful battleship then built, the Bismarck. Shot in gleaming black and white so as to make use of genuine WWII archive footage, the film is held together by the introduction of a fictional naval officer in overall command of the operation, played excellently by Kenneth More. To add some human warmth he is given a tentative romantic subplot with a WREN played by the luminous Dana Wynter. Though initially slow to gather steam, Sink the Bismarck! finally delivers an epic, thoroughly horrifying conclusion. On the DVD: The Enemy Below and Sink the Bismarck! come as a two-disc set with multiple language and subtitle options, including English for Hard of Hearing, but no extras other than the original trailers. These are presented at 16:9 and 2.35:1. Both are rather faded, but are fine examples of an era when watching the previews didn't guarantee a migraine. Both films are anamorphically enhanced in their original 2.35:1 CinemaScope, and, bar a little grain in some shots and the inevitably inferior archive footage, the picture quality is excellent. The Enemy Below boasts sturdy three-channel sound (left, front, right) while Sink the Bismarck! is in very well mixed stereo. --Gary S Dalkin
Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.Click Images to Enlarge
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a pregnant man? The Terminator with cramps and morning sickness? That was all the teasing audiences needed to flock to this 1994 farce, which reunited Arnold with his director and co-star from Twins, Ivan Reitman and Danny De Vito. Reitman had also directed the Austrian muscleman in Kindergarten Cop, and they brought the same breezy quality of those earlier films to this enjoyable fluff, in which Arnold plays a scientist who uses his own body to test a revolutionary new fertility drug. His colleague De Vito talks him into the experiment, which succeeds beyond their wildest expectations when Arnold begins a full-term pregnancy. Emma Thompson offers a wealth of comedic support as the biologist who moves into Schwarzenegger's lab while he's coping with his "maternal" condition, and Pamela Reed (who was also in Kindergarten Cop) adds to the fun as De Vito's pregnant ex-wife. What's surprising about this mainstream hit is not that it makes the most of its absurd premise, but that it's also sweetly heart-warming in its treatment of role reversal and the joys and pains of pregnancy. It's a good-natured vehicle for a different side of Schwarzenegger's star appeal, and the fact that it works at all is a tribute to Reitman and his cleverly talented cast. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Coincidence throws Mij the otter and Graham Merrill (Bill Travers) the computer worker together on a busy London street in Ring of Bright Water. What transpires from this chance meeting is an epiphany that leads to the complete upheaval of Graham's life. Evicted from his city flat thanks to the antics of his newly acquired, mischievous otter, Graham embarks on a train journey to the Scottish Highlands. Suffice it to say that trying to smuggle Mij onboard as a "diving terrier" is not successful. When the pair finally arrives in Scotland, they fall in love with the countryside and a dilapidated cottage by the sea. Fate introduces Graham to the town's animal-loving doctor (Virginia McKenna), and an enduring friendship and romance are forged. The photography of both the Scottish Highlands and the antics of Mij the otter in this 1969 movie are truly wonderful--it might just make you reconsider your current digs and friendships. The story (based on Gavin Maxwell's book of the same name) is somewhat formulaic and dated by its romanticism, but enjoyable nonetheless. Slip into an ideal world of simple happiness and celebrate the cyclical nature of life, if only for 106 minutes. --Tami Horiuchi, Amazon.com
Christian Wolff (Affleck) is a math savant with more affinity for numbers than people. Behind the cover of a small-town CPA office, he works as a freelance accountant for some of the world's most dangerous criminal organizations. With the Treasury Department's Crime Enforcement Division, run by Ray King (J.K. Simmons), starting to close in, Christian takes on a legitimate client: a state-of-the-art robotics company where an accounting clerk (Anna Kendrick) has discovered a discrepancy involving millions of dollars. But as Christian uncooks the books and gets closer to the truth, it is the body count that starts to rise.Click Images to Enlarge
From the Queen of Crime Agatha Christie comes a tale of money manipulation and murder. Self-made multi-millionaire George Barton is a man of influence and power - but even he doesn't have the power to save his beautiful young wife when she collapses poisoned at a dinner party. Who amongst his friends and those who 'love' him most might have done such a deed? And what was the motive? The fact that one of the guests is a leading government minister who was having an affair with the victim leads to concern at the highest levels - and the highest levels call on Colonel Geoffrey Reece and Dr. Catherine Kendall to step in and sort it all out. But what they discover buried in the world of championship footballers fitness fanatics loose-living gamblers friends and family will lead to even more murderous acts before the killer is finally caught out. Special Features: Agatha Christie Biography and Bibliography Photo Gallery Cast Filmographies Subtitles
Il Trovatore, Verdi's 1853 maelstrom of passion, infanticide, double-crossing and revenge, would be a mightily gamy affair if it didn't contain some of his finest arias, a cracker of a tenor's role and one of opera's most powerfully-written characters in the old gypsy woman, Azucena. Although Joan Sutherland, who plays the self-sacrificing lady-in-waiting Leonora in this 1983 Australia Opera production at Sydney Opera House, is the headline star, in truth the supreme assets of this recording are mezzo-soprano Lauris Elms' Azucena, a beautifully sung performance of haunted, wild-eyed sadness; and Sydney Nolan's wonderfully infernal sets, all purple and burnt ochre with suggestions of distorted faces. Sutherland came late to a part which allowed her to sing up a storm without taxing her rather stolid acting style. Her husband and musical director Richard Bonynge gives her the space to unleash some of Verdi's most fluidly opulent melodies--"D'amor sull'ali rosee" is a case in point--whose beauty is often at odds with the underlying horrors of the tale, based on a rather dodgy Spanish melodrama by Gutierrez. Sutherland has strong support from tenor Kenneth Collins as the doomed Manrico and Jonathan Summers as the vengeful Count. On the DVD: Il Trovatore on disc offers the inevitable shortcomings of a filmed for television performance: to the detriment of Nolan's designs (and the hard-pressed make-up team), the lighting doesn't translate well to video. Presented in 4:3 picture format, the quality is frequently murky. The PCM Stereo soundtrack also has its flat and fuzzy moments, particularly during chorus scenes ("Vedi! Le fosche notturne spoglie") when the orchestra drowns out the singing. But on the whole Sutherland et al sound great.--Piers Ford
Based on the best selling novel by Dean R Koontz and directed by Brett Leonard Hideaway is a terrifying journey from the unconscious mind to the heart of evil. Following a miraculous escape from death after a near fatal car crash Hatch Harrison (Jeff Goldblum) has suffered terrifying visions of horrific murders murders which he inexplicably feels that that he himself has committed. Tortured by these images Hatch starts to suspect that he has not returned from death alone and that
Dana Brown takes us from the terrifying monstrous waves of Oahu's North Shore to the Texas waters of the Gulf of Maxico to the shores of Ireland and Rapa Nui. Told through the voices of legends pros and everyday surfers alike this is not just a film for surfers but anyone with an appreciation for sport and an inkling of what it means to be 'stoked'. 'Drop-dead dazzlingly knockout beautiful. This movie will grab you' - Peter Travers : Rolling Stone
Shirley Valentine: Shirley Bradshaw has always been able to see the funny side of any situation. She was a high-school rebel and now she's a housewife and mother who one day looks back at her life and realises that she has lost touch with her dreams. When her best friend wins a magazine contest and asks Shirley to accompany her on a fortnight's holiday in Greece Shirley begins a voyage of self-discovery. On the island of Mykonos as Shirley luxuriates among sun sand and taramasalata she encounters islander Costas Caldes and falls in love...with life! The First Wives Club: Marriage has turned into a crash dive for Brenda Cushman Elise Atchison and Annie Paradise. These three well-heeled Manhattan women chums during their college days all took different paths. Now they're reunited by catastrophe--each has just been callously dumped by her husband for a younger sexier trophy wife. Smarting from the pain Brenda Elise and Annie join forces and concoct a plan to exact the most exquisitely bitter vengeance upon their exes. War has been declared.
Director William Wyler's suspense classic marks the only time cinema giants Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March worked together. And the result is everything you'd expect: taut terrifying and terrific. Bogart plays an escaped con who has nothing to lose. March is a suburban Everyman who has everything to lose - his family is held hostage by Bogart. As The Desperate Hours tick by the two men square off in a battle of wills and cunning that tightens into an unforgettable fear-drench
Boxing drama following the lives of 5 different fighters and their reasons for becoming boxers.
Arnold Schwarzenegger as a pregnant man? The Terminator with cramps and morning sickness? That was all the teasing audiences needed to flock to this 1994 farce, which reunited Arnold with his director and co-star from Twins, Ivan Reitman and Danny De Vito. Reitman had also directed the Austrian muscleman in Kindergarten Cop, and they brought the same breezy quality of those earlier films to this enjoyable fluff, in which Arnold plays a scientist who uses his own body to test a revolutionary new fertility drug. His colleague De Vito talks him into the experiment, which succeeds beyond their wildest expectations when Arnold begins a full-term pregnancy. Emma Thompson offers a wealth of comedic support as the biologist who moves into Schwarzenegger's lab while he's coping with his "maternal" condition, and Pamela Reed (who was also in Kindergarten Cop) adds to the fun as De Vito's pregnant ex-wife. What's surprising about this mainstream hit is not that it makes the most of its absurd premise, but that it's also sweetly heart-warming in its treatment of role reversal and the joys and pains of pregnancy. It's a good-natured vehicle for a different side of Schwarzenegger's star appeal, and the fact that it works at all is a tribute to Reitman and his cleverly talented cast. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
This didn't turn out to be quite the deserving American vehicle for Hong Kong action superstar Chow Yun-fat that it should have been. But it is an entertaining potboiler about a hired gun (Chow) who fails to carry out an assignment to kill a cop (which would leave the fellow's son without a father), and becomes a target himself when the contract is handed over to other assassins. Mira Sorvino plays a document forger who is drawn into the fray, pairing up with the hero as they fight their way out of bad spots. The whole enterprise is a little too routine, but the action is sharp and the battles are imaginative and crisp. Director Antoine Fuqua has a by-the-numbers feeling for the influence of Hong Kong on contemporary thrillers (this film was also produced by John Woo), and that's enough to make The Replacement Killers purely enjoyable if not exactly a revelation. --Tom Keogh
Jungle Street: The voluptuous Jill Ireland stars as Sue a striptease artist in this tough British crime drama that sees her playing opposite to her real-life husband of the time David McCallum. Jungle Street has McCallum playing Terry Collins a small time thug constantly at war with his family employers and the world. Whilst his friend Johnny (Kenneth Cope) is in prison taking the rap for a robbery they both committed Terry tries to muscle in on his girlfriend Sue. But when Johnny is released and comes looking for Terry and the money from the robbery the two men are on a collision course that can only end in murder... A Matter of Choice: Five people are soon to find their lives inextricably entwined for the worse. Two youths (Malcolm Gerard and Michael Davis) have been searching for girls and end up in a fight with a policeman. The policeman falls and is hit by a car driven by Lisa (Jeanne Moody) and her secret lover John (Anthony Steel). When Lisa's husband Charles finds the police waiting to interview his wife the tangle of lies and deceit that the night started with begins to slowly unravel.
Do you know of a film on a band that features Bill Wyman Ron Wood and Charlie Watts (it's not the Rolling Stones) - also features Kenny Jones and John Entwistle (and it's not The Who) - also features Ringo Starr (no - it's not The Beatles) plus a few other 'less well known' artists such as Andy Fairweather-Low Chris Rea Gary Brooker and Raf Ravenscroft (remember the Saxaphone solo in Baker Street?)... don't know? Well it's just got to be... Willie And The Poor Boys! This band in concert was filmed at the Fulham Town Hall London UK in 1985 and was a concept based on an original idea by Bill Wyman. This film is a real gem - unearthed by Classic Pictures from Bill Wyman's personal vault and will be a 'must have' for any collector of classic rock. Tracklisting: Chicken Shack Boogie Baby Please Don't Go You Never Can Tell Let's Talk It Over Poor Boy Boogie Saturday NIght All Night Long These Arms Of Mine Can You Hear Me?
In the Imperial Palace of Peking the Emperor announces that any prince seeking to marry his daughter Turandot must first answer three riddles. Prince Calaf falls immediately in love with Turandot and successfully answers all three. However before the Prince marries Turandot he asks her a riddle of his own.
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy