The story of the SAS patrol; call sign Bravo Two Zero whose mission it was to take out the Scud missiles behind enemy lines during the Gulf War. With their position compromised they fight for survival.... Based on true events.
Hit American sitcom Will and Grace is as perky as Friends and as wittily urbane as Frasier. The premise concerns Will (Eric McCormack), a mildly uptight lawyer who agrees to have as a flatmate his best friend, interior designer Grace (Debra Messing). Their relationship has all the hallmarks of one between lovers--emotional dependency, little things that get on each other's nerves, strong mutual interests and volcanic arguments. The only snag is that while Grace is straight, Will is gay. Though not shy of poking sharp fun at that situation, Will and Grace is among sitcom's most potent and sophisticated antidotes to homophobia. Though initially a little too pleased with its own camp pertness, the show grows and grows on you with successive episodes, finally becoming indispensable. It also benefits from secondary characters Jack (Sean P Hayes) and Karen (Megan Mullally), also gay and straight respectively, both outrageously and hilariously irresponsible characters: he's a free spirit and freeloader, she's "working" as Grace's assistant even though she doesn't need the money, having married some. Despite its diamond and rapid-fire punch lines, Will and Grace conveys enough sense of the lovelorn predicament of the main characters to prevent it becoming too cute. --David Stubbs
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
A made-for-TV adaptation of Andy McNab's best-selling Bravo Two Zero--his account of a covert SAS mission in the Gulf War gone wrong. Sean Bean plays McNab, part of an eight-man team dropped behind enemy lines to sever communications lines. Things inevitably go wrong, however, and the team are captured and tortured, before making a variety of daring and amazing escapes. The story on which this film is based is certainly stirring, but it suffers from being generically at odds with the production values of a TV adaptation. The acting is wooden and the budget cannot provide the pyrotechnics or thrilling action sequences which action or war junkies may demand. At some points there are even unsuccessful attempts to blend parts of the staged drama with real documentary news footage. One might argue that the presentation of the SAS team as everyday, emotionally stunted lads, and their mission as gritty, downbeat and devoid of glamour is perhaps quite true to real-life events. It is also a huge novelty to see cinematic acknowledgement of British forces' participation in any conflict occurring in the last century. On the other hand, Bravo Two Zero undoubtedly appears quite dour when placed alongside a more flashy, Hollywood offering such as Three Kings. Nevertheless, SAS aficionados and fans of the novel will enjoy it immensely, if only to look at the way in which McNab's account presents Chris Ryan--author of a drastically different film and novel version of this incident, The One That Got Away--as a posturing, image-conscious coward. The video also includes an exclusive 22-minute interview with the author, Andy McNab. --Paul Philpott
Buried like a bone in a snowdrift, Balto never achieved the theatrical success it should have, but it's worth digging up. The film is structured on the true tale of a lead sled dog, Balto, that brought a diphtheria antitoxin to the small town of Nome, Alaska. The film balances comedy, villainy and drama very well and the voice work is above average. This is safe family viewing, as even the villain's comeuppance manages a civilised resolution. --Keith Simanton, Amazon.com
Originally produced as a three-part miniseries for New Zealand television, this extraordinary film is based on the life of Janet Frame, an introverted, sensitive girl who was later misdiagnosed as schizophrenic and spent eight years in a psychiatric hospital. She would later become one of New Zealand's most celebrated poets and novelists, publishing her first books while she was still confined to a mental ward. She had endured over 200 electroshock treatments and had almost been lobotomized by careless physicians who took no time to understand that she was merely awkward and shy and suffered from little more than routine depression. From a solid screenplayby Laura Jones, director Jane Campion (The Piano) tells this story without soapy melodrama but rather as anexploration of a challenged creative spirit--a journey into a writer's mind, exploring the power of imagination as a mechanism of survival and self-defense. Three talented actors play Janet Frame at different ages throughout the film, with Kerry Fox giving a powerful performance as the young-adult Janet, whose own skill and creative tenacity would prove to be her salvation. Frightening, harrowing and ultimately a source of humanistic enlightenment, An Angel at My Table (titled after Frame's autobiography) is a film you won't soon forget.--Jeff Shannon
As a producer, Roger Corman has always loved to make low-budget rip-offs of hit movies, and Piranha is his typically cheeky take on Jaws--and, as so often with Corman, in many ways it's funnier and more entertaining than the original. Directed with gusto by schlock-horror specialist Joe Dante and sharply scripted by John Sayles, it replaces one huge underwater toothy monster with dozens of little ones and ups the body count by a factor of 10 or so. Two hapless teenagers, hiking in a remote mountain region, stumble on a secret US military research lab. They don't last long, but their intrusion leads to the release into the local river system of a huge shoal of super-intelligent piranha, originally specially bred for use in Vietnam. Downstream from the virulent little munchers lie a kiddies' holiday camp and a tacky new waterfront theme park. Lunch time, fellas! Sayles, with his staunch left-wing credentials, slips in some mordant political satire at the expense of the military-industrial complex, and authority figures of any kind come off pretty badly, but the satire never gets in the way of the gleeful black humour. The two leads, Bradford Dillman and Heather Menzies, are fairly pallid, but there are ripe cameos from such cult horror-movie icons as Kevin McCarthy, Dick Miller and Barbara Steele. Pino Donaggio's score impudently borrows aspects of John Williams' famous Jaws theme while never quite infringing copyright. The movie was successful enough to spawn a much-inferior sequel, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), which marked the inauspicious directing debut of one James Cameron. On the DVD: Piranha on disc comes with just the theatrical trailer as an extra. The transfer is a respectable job, reproducing the original's full-screen ratio. --Philip Kemp
A nobody is about to become a somebody... and impress EVERYBODY. Ashley Tisdale (High School Musical The Suite Life of Zack and Cody) is picture-perfect and downright delightful in this hilarious comedy that gives cell phone a whole new meaning. Mandy has just been invited to the biggest party of the year by the most popular boy in school but there's one problem - she's grounded! When her father agrees to let her go study with friends he insists on checking in every half hour via video cell phone. Trapped by technology Mandy and her cell mates need a little ingenuity - and a lot of imagination - to make it to the party with exposing the plan to Dad's prying eyes!
Buried like a bone in a snowdrift, Balto never achieved the theatrical success it should have, but it's worth digging up. The film is structured on the true tale of a lead sled dog, Balto, that brought a diphtheria antitoxin to the small town of Nome, Alaska. The film balances comedy, villainy and drama very well and the voice work is above average. This is safe family viewing, as even the villain's comeuppance manages a civilised resolution. --Keith Simanton, Amazon.com
A funny, poignant exploration of monogamy in gay life. Told over 6 breezy episodes, 'Three' is the story of a relationship between two men where the thrill is gone but the love remains.
Balto: Based on a true story Balto will touch your heart. Part husky/part wolf Balto doesn't know where he belongs. He's an outcast in Alaska except to his true friends - Boris the Russian snow goose; polar bear cubs Muk and Luk; and the beautiful husky Jenna. Even though he's different all of Balto's friends recognise what he still can't see himself: his noble spirit. One day a serious diphtheria epidemic spreads fast among the children of Nome. When a fierce bizarre blizzard closes all routes of transport there's no way to obtain life-saving medicine... unless a team of sled dogs can race six-hundred miles through the blinding Arctic storm and bring back antitoxin. But the dogs are lost in the frozen wilderness. Now only Balto can rescue the team and save the children. Starring the voices of Kevin Bacon Bridget Fonda Bob Hoskins and Phil Collins Balto is the remarkable tale of a hero who inspired a nation - and became a legend! (Dir. Simon Wells 1995) Balto 2 - Wolf Quest: BALTO II picks up where the first ended. After settling down with Jenna and having 6 pups it soon becomes time for Balto to give his children up for adoption to human families. However no one wants Aleu his daughter because she looks so much like a wolf. When Aleu figures this out she runs away forcing Balto to go after her and sending her on a journey that reveals quite a bit about herself. (Dir. Phil Weinstein 2001)
Upon the death of his mother, a gay man in blue collar America returns to his childhood home. There he discovers a cardboard time machine that he made when he was a boy. As he uses it to get glimpses of his future, he ponders the weight of his life's choices, maybe falling a little love on the way. Determinedly independent, resolutely sexy and consistently challenging cinema,, How To Get From There to Here is queer cinema for a new generation.
American investigative journalist Arnold Silverman is tracking the financial network of Al-Qa'ida. He has a personal cause. His sister worked on the 99th floor of the World Trade Center and her body was never found. When Kamal a British Pakistani studying at London University is reunited with an old school friend who has become a Muslim fundamentalist he follows him to Bosnia to support the Muslim cause. In his attempt to infiltrate the terrorist network Arnold travels to Pakistan where he meets and forms a bond with Kamal who takes him to interview a spokesman for Al-Qa'ida. Will he survive when his true motives are discovered...?
An undercover FBI agent meets a druglord and his henchmen in a sting and as the smoke clears all the bad guys are dead. The FBI agent finds herself the sole survivor of a hitman...
Balto: Based on a true story Balto will touch your heart. Part husky/part wolf Balto doesn't know where he belongs. He's an outcast in Alaska except to his true friends - Boris the Russian snow goose; polar bear cubs Muk and Luk; and the beautiful husky Jenna. Even though he's different all of Balto's friends recognise what he still can't see himself: his noble spirit. One day a serious diphtheria epidemic spreads fast among the children of Nome. When a fierce bizarre blizzard closes all routes of transport there's no way to obtain life-saving medicine... unless a team of sled dogs can race six-hundred miles through the blinding Arctic storm and bring back antitoxin. But the dogs are lost in the frozen wilderness. Now only Balto can rescue the team and save the children. Starring the voices of Kevin Bacon Bridget Fonda Bob Hoskins and Phil Collins Balto is the remarkable tale of a hero who inspired a nation - and became a legend! (Dir. Simon Wells 1995) Balto 2 - Wolf Quest: BALTO II picks up where the first ended. After settling down with Jenna and having 6 pups it soon becomes time for Balto to give his children up for adoption to human families. However no one wants Aleu his daughter because she looks so much like a wolf. When Aleu figures this out she runs away forcing Balto to go after her and sending her on a journey that reveals quite a bit about herself. (Dir. Phil Weinstein 2001) Balto 3 - Wings Of Change: Your favourite is back in an all-new adventure! Balto and his son Kodi (voiced by Sean Astin) find that technology is threatening the sled dog team's future as the airplane becomes a faster choice for bringing mail and supplies to Nome. Amidst the controversy a race to deliver the mail is arranged between a sled team led by Balto and a bush pilot who flies a plane that truly fascinates Balto. When Duke the pilot never makes it to his destination some of the dogs are jubilant that they've proven their superiority but Balto knows something has gone amiss. Balto with help from Muc and Luc go on a search and rescue operation to rescue Duke and Boris in the downed plane. Join Balto and all his friends on an amazing journey that will make your spirit soar. (Dir. Phil Weinstein 2004)
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