George and Mildred are the ultimate odd couple the popular landlord and landlady from Man About The House who became a household name with Thames Television in the 1970's and 80's. Mildred is vain snobbish and domineering; George is shy timid frigid and henpecked. Together they make a great partnership! In this feature length movie Mildred is still trying to steer him towards romance; George still doesn't know what she's driving at...
Anyone doubting the layered, nuanced, and heartbreaking acting abilities of Michelle Williams will find My Week with Marilyn a tremendous revelation. And Williams fans will enjoy it even more. In My Week with Marilyn Williams takes on the formidable challenge of playing Marilyn Monroe, and does so with depth and assuredness, and without resorting to caricature. Williams's Marilyn commands the screen with pain and delicacy, and doesn't let go until the final credits. My Week with Marilyn focuses on a small time frame in Monroe's life, right after her marriage to Arthur Miller. Monroe, already "the world's most famous woman," still feels the need for validation as an actress. What better way to achieve that, she believes, than committing to co-starring with Laurence Olivier in The Prince and the Showgirl, a film she firmly believed would finally cement her reputation as a serious actress. My Week with Marilyn is based on the short memoir of Colin Clark, a crew member on The Prince and the Showgirl, who quickly became the confidant of the wildly insecure Monroe and watched a train wreck of egos--mostly Olivier's and Monroe's--collide in a fiery near-disaster. Kenneth Branagh gives an uncharacteristically restrained performance as the exasperated Olivier, resentful of the "new blood" in Hollywood that the young Monroe represents, and disdainful of her cult-like devotion to Method acting. (And of Monroe's chronic tardiness, which threatens to undermine the veddy, veddy strict British work schedule.) Eddie Redmayne plays Clark with a sweet, gentle veneer, someone who grows to care genuinely about the complex Monroe. Julia Ormond is clipped and proper as Olivier's then-wife, Vivien Leigh, and Emma Watson shows a lovely gravitas as Lucy, Monroe's acting coach. But it's Williams who gives the revelatory performance, capturing with painful intensity the insecurity that begins to seep out of Monroe like a fearful sweat. "Excuse my horrible face," she blurts out, while looking nothing less than her usual radiant self. Where does this tragic insecurity come from? My Week with Marilyn doesn't attempt to answer the unanswerable, but instead shines a light on the very real woman who became lost in the giant shadow of legend. --A.T. Hurley
Two years after 20th Century Fox released its melodramatic disaster film Titanic in 1953, Walter Lord's meticulously researched book A Night to Remember surprised its publishers by becoming a phenomenal bestseller. Lord had an intuition that readers craved the reality of the Titanic disaster and not the romantically mythologised translations (like Fox's film, starring Barbara Stanwyck), which relied on fictional characters to "enhance" the world's worst maritime disaster. Lord's book proved that the truth was far more compelling than fiction, outlining the many "if onlys" (if only the iceberg had been spotted a few minutes earlier, etc.) that lent sombre irony to the loss of 1,500 Titanic passengers. Three years after Lord's book appeared, it was brought to the screen with the kind of riveting authenticity that Lord had insisted upon in his own research. The 1958 British production of A Night to Remember remains a definitive dramatization of the disaster, adhering to the known facts of the time and achieving a documentary-like immediacy that matches (and in some ways surpasses) the James Cameron epic released 39 years later. The film erroneously perpetuates the once-common belief that the Titanic sunk in one piece (instead of breaking in half as its bow began to plunge), but many other misconceptions are accurately corrected, and the intelligent screenplay by thriller master Eric Ambler is a model of factual suspense. By making Titanic the star of the film, director Roy Baker emphasises the excessive confidence of the booming industrial age and creates an intense you-are-there realism that pays tribute to Walter Lord's tenacious quest for truth. --Jeff Shannon
Prepare for an onslaught of robust breezy humour when the Carry On team take to the great Outdoors.
Walking with DinosaursIn 1999 the BBC's Walking with Dinosaurs TV series changed the way we saw dinosaurs forever. This revolutionary show takes viewers right into the dinosaurs' world showing them as if they were alive and filmed in the wild. Since then the series has been seen by millions of people around the world and has won three Emmy awards. It brings to life the mystery and excitement of the age when these reptiles roamed our planet. The makers of Walking with Dinosaurs returned to make two specials The Ballad of Big Al and Land of Giants and The Giant Claw to continue to delight fans of the original series. Special Features: Enhanced Picture-in-Picture Sequences The Making of Walking with Dinosaurs The Ballad of Big AlYears ago an amazing fossil was unearthed in Wyoming USA. Not only were the bones they found those of a dinosaur 'Big Al' but the skeleton of this creature was very nearly complete. The first programme follows his life – a 15-year story of a lone battle against formidable prey and voracious predators whilst the second programme traces the scientific evidence of Big Al. Special Features: Photo Gallery Storyboard Comparison Land of Giants and The Giant ClawIn Land of Giants we join the adventuring zoologist Nigel Marven as he visits the Argentinean landscape of 100 million years ago to attempt to see the biggest land predator bring down the biggest land prey but will he succeed? In The Giant Claw Nigel travels back 75 million years to Mongolia to track down the owner of the largest claws ever discovered. Negotiating the hazards of the Cretaceous is no walk in the park - will he live to discover the true nature of his quarry? Special Features: Fact Files Interviews with Tim Haines Jasper James and Nigel Marven
Available for a limited time only! In the epic conclusion of the saga the Empire prepares to crush the rebellion with a more powerful Death Star while the rebel fleet mounts a massive attack on the space station...
The Balkans 1939. British professor Guy Pringle (Kenneth Branagh) arrives in Romania with his new bride Harriet (Emma Thompson) and becomes enmeshed in the politics of anti-fascism. Despite Harriet's serious misgivings Guy's social circle soon includes members of the British Secret Service who want to involve him in dangerous missions and a downtrodden prince who zeroes in on Guy's generous nature and winds up living with the Pringles. Thus the stage is set for this mesmerizing story of marriage tested by accidental betrayal callous insensitivity and a world in upheaval. Based upon the autobiographical novels of best-selling author Olivia Manning and set in places as far-flung as Bucharest Athens and Cairo Fortunes of War is majestic in both its scope and its vision.
A BRAND NEW RESTORATION Directed by Leslie Norman (The Long, The Short And The Tall), starring John Mills (Ice Cold In Alex, Goodbye Mr Chips, Great Expectations) Richard Attenborough (Brighton Rock, The Great Escape) and a cast featuring actual army officers, DUNKIRK is one of the most authentic representations of conflict during World War II. DUNKIRK follows the dramatic events leading up to Operation Dynamo, where upon the British Army attempted to rescue fellow soldiers and Allied troops from Nazi occupied France. Seen from the dual perspectives of a jaded journalist in search of propaganda and a weary soldier desperately trying to give his troop some hope, DUNKIRK never shies away from the brutality of war and the bravery of its soldiers.
Very few first-time film directors would have been capable of making such a triumphant adaptation of Henry V; but a still-youthful Kenneth Branagh's years of stage experience paid off handsomely and his 1989 version qualifies as a genuine masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence Olivier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules: Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the Bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an anti-war story in contrast to Olivier's patriotic spectacle. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and of himself as Henry, his hardened mouth and wilful eyes revealing much about the personal cost of war. Not that the director-star doesn't provide lighter moments: his scenes introducing the French Princess Katherine (Emma Thompson) trying to learn English quickly from her maid are delightful. What may be the crowning glory of Branagh's adaptation comes when the dazed leader wanders across the battlefield, not even sure who has won. As King Hal carries a dead boy (a young Christian Bale) over the hacked bodies of both the English and French, a panorama of blood and mud and death greet the viewer as Branagh opens up the scene and Patrick Doyle's rousing hymn "Non nobis, Domine" provides marvellous counterpoint (like the director, the composer was another filmic first-timer). A more potent expression of the price of victory could scarcely be imagined. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com
Reach for the Sky was a box-office hit in 1956 and rightly remains a fondly regarded classic of British cinema. Kenneth More is ideally cast as Douglas Bader, the gifted pilot who loses both legs in a pre-war air crash, only to play a major role in the Battle of Britain, rise to the rank of Group Captain and become a war hero. Based on Paul Brickhill's biography, this is an "official" history maybe, but Lewis Gilbert's screenplay and direction are historically accurate and informed by that very British humour, of which More was a natural. The film is graced by a decent supporting cast and a typically "widescreen" score from John Addison. On the DVD: Reach for the Sky is vividly reproduced in 16:9 anamorphic format and decent mono. There are subtitles for the hard of hearing and detailed biographies of More, Gilbert and Barder. The original theatrical trailer is included, but it would also have made sense to include an interview or documentary footage of Bader himself. --Richard Whitehouse
The Complete 8-Film Collection (16-discs): Year 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - The magical adventure begins when Harry Potter is to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Year 2: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Cars fly, trees attack and a mysterious house-elf warns Harry of great danger as he returns for his second year. Year 3: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Harry must confront soul-sucking Dementors, outsmart a werewolf and learn the truth about the escaped prisoner of Azkaban - Sirius Black. Year 4: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Harry must overcome a deadly dragon, fierce water demons and an enchanted maze only to find himself in the cruel grasp of He Who Must Not Be Named. Year 5: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - When few believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, Harry must secretly train his friends for the wizarding war ahead. Year 6: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - As Lord Voldemort tightens his grip on both Muggle and wizarding worlds, Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock Voldemort's defenses. Year 7 - Part 1: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1 - Harry, Ron and Hermione set out to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort's power - the Horcruxes. On their own and on the run, the three must rely on one another more than ever...but Dark Forces threaten to tear them apart. Year 7 - Part 2: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 - In the epic finale, the battle between the good and evil forces of the wizarding world escalates into all-out war. The stakes have never been higher and no one is safe. But it is Harry who may be called upon to make the ultimate sacrifice as he draws closer to the climactic showdown with Lord Voldemort. It all ends here.
The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognise and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruellest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern mid-level businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay and Best Picture. --Jim Emerson Note: this region two DVD is a "flipper" with a break between sides A and B.
Controversial, compelling and critically acclaimed, THE SHIELD reinvented the police genre and gave us one of the greatest antiheroes in television history. Vic Mackey, a corrupt cop, runs hie elite Strike Team under his own set of rules, bringing conflict to not only the streets of Los Angeles, but also within his precinct. THE SHIELD showcases acting, directing and writing of the highest caliber.
Fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real-time.
WE HAVE SUCH SIGHTS TO SHOW YOU! In 1987, master of horror Clive Barker unleashed Hellraiser upon unsuspecting audiences launching what has proven to be one of the genre s most enduring franchises and creating an instant horror icon in the figure of Pinhead in the process. In Barker s original Hellraiser, Kirsty Cotton (Ashley Laurence) comes head-to-head with the Cenobites demonic beings from another realm who are summoned by way of a mysterious puzzle box. Picking up immediately after the events of the original Hellraiser, Hellbound: Hellraiser II finds Kirsty detained at a psychiatric institute and under the care of Dr. Channard, a man with an unhealthy interest in the occult. Meanwhile, Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth sees Pinhead and his band of Cenobites let loose in our own world, with terrifying consequences.
A story of love freedom and choice based on Whitbread prize winning author Jeanette Winterson. Her adopted mother is a passionate Pentecostalist whose world view is so entirely governed by the Bible that she believes her daughter to be the Chosen One from God. But Jess's feelings for other girls and her mother's fury at her daughter's 'unnatural passions' leads to her abrupt expulsion from the church and the beginning of her search to be herself.
Captain Scott (More) is sent by the British Governor in India to rescue a five year old Hindu prince and his American governess (Bacall) when a rebellion breaks out among the tribesmen. Pursued by the abductors the trio commandeer a derelict steam train to take them 300 miles through the mountains to safety...
Ernie's Uncle Gabriel has just died but to claim his inheritance he must spend the night in the ancestral family home with the rest of his rather eccentric relatives. Ernie's imagination has been affected by his constant immersion in cheap horror novels but his wildest fears turn out to be justified when the guests begin to drop dead.
Amanda Burton plays Aunt Polly in the prestigious film adaptation of the heart-warming classic 'Pollyanna'. The timeless tale of a little girl who goes to live with her rich but bitter aunt after the tragic death of her beloved father her optimism good humour and determination have an astonishing effect on all around her yet tragedy is never far away... Based on the enduringly popular novel by Eleanor H. Porter and adapted by 'Men Behaving Badly' creator Simon Nye.
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