His name was Kunta Kinte. Kidnapped from Africa enslaved in America in 1767 he refused to accept his slave name Toby. Heirs kept his heroic defiance alive passing on his tale across generations until it reached a young boy growing up in Tennessee. His name was Alex Haley. Through the lineage of one family Haley and his Pulitzer Prize - winning Roots told a story for all America and the world. Seen by 130 million viewers during its premiere telecast and the winner of dozens of awards the David L. Wolper production remains an engrossing entertainment 30 years later. Embark on an unforgettable DVD journey.
John Candy has one of his finest opportunities in this film by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) about a perpetual screw-up (Candy) who gets his act together enough to watch over his brother's kids effectively. The late actor scores big points resurrecting elements of his more decadent persona from SCTV days, but he also has some persuasively touching, sentimental moments. Hughes's direction is not as focused as it was only a few years before, but there's no mistaking his touch. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, biographies, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks. --Tom Keogh
One of the key movies of the 1970s, when exciting, groundbreaking, personal films were still being made in Hollywood, Milos Forman's One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest emphasised the humanistic story at the heart of Ken Kesey's more hallucinogenic novel. Jack Nicholson was born to play the part of Randle Patrick McMurphy, the rebellious inmate of a psychiatric hospital who fights back against the authorities' cold attitudes of institutional superiority, as personified by Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher). It's the classic antiestablishment tale of one man asserting his individuality in the face of a repressive, conformist system--and it works on every level. Forman populates his film with memorably eccentric faces, and gets such freshly detailed and spontaneous work from his ensemble that the picture sometimes feels like a documentary. Unlike a lot of films pitched at the "youth culture" of the 1970s, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest really hasn't dated a bit, because the qualities of human nature that Forman captures--playfulness, courage, inspiration, pride, stubbornness--are universal and timeless. The film swept the Academy Awards for 1976, winning in all the major categories (picture, director, actor, actress, screenplay) for the first time since Frank Capra's It Happened One Night in 1931. --Jim Emerson
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.
One of Alfred Hitchcock's classics, this romantic thriller features a cast to die for: Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant and Claude Rains. Bergman plays the daughter of a disgraced father who is recruited by American agents to infiltrate a post-World War II spy ring in Brazil. Her control agent is Grant, who treats her with disdain while developing a deep romantic bond with her. Her assignment: to marry the suspected head of the ring (Rains) and get the goods on everyone involved. Danger, deceit, betrayal--and, yes, romance--all come together in a nearly perfect blend as the film builds to a terrific (and surprising) climax. Grant and Bergman rarely have been better. --Marshall Fine
John Candy has one of his finest opportunities in this film by John Hughes (The Breakfast Club) about a perpetual screw-up (Candy) who gets his act together enough to watch over his brother's kids effectively. The late actor scores big points resurrecting elements of his more decadent persona from SCTV days, but he also has some persuasively touching, sentimental moments. Hughes's direction is not as focused as it was only a few years before, but there's no mistaking his touch. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, biographies, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks. --Tom Keogh
The King of Comedy, which flopped at the box office, is actually a gem waiting to be rediscovered. Like A Face in the Crowd (a not-so-distant cousin to this film), Network, and The Truman Show, its target is show business--specifically the burning desire to become famous or be near the famous, no matter what. Robert De Niro plays the emotionally unstable, horrendously untalented Rupert Pupkin, a wannabe Vegas-style comedian. His fantasies are egged-on by Marsha, a talk-show groupie (brilliantly played by Sandra Bernhard) who hatches a devious, sure-to-backfire plan. Jerry Lewis is terrific in the straight role as the Johnny Carson-like talk-show host Jerry Langford. De Niro's performance as the obsessive Pupkin is among his finest (which is saying a lot) and he never tries to make the character likable in any way. Because there's no hero and no-one to root for, and because at times the film insists we get a little too close and personal with Pupkin, some will be put off. Yet it's one of Scorsese's most original and fascinating films, giving viewers much to consider on the subject of celebrity. Its inevitable climax is clever and quietly horrific. --Christopher J Jarmick
James Bond (Roger Moore) may have met his match in Octopussy (Maud Adams) an entrancing beauty involved in a devastating military plot to destroy detente. From the palaces of India to a speeding circus train in Germany and a mid-air battle on the wing of a high-flying jet only Agent 007 can stop the nightmarish scheme!
In a prequel to legendary horror "The Exorcist," priest Lancaster Merrin encounters unspeakable evil in the deserts of East Africa.
Agent 007 (Roger Moore in his final outing as James Bond) races against time to stop a power-mad industrialist (Christopher Walken) who plots to kill millions in order to corner the world's microchip supply. From the Eiffel Tower to the top of the Golden Gate Bridge James Bond can't be stopped.
A nice rest in a state mental hospital beats a stretch in the pen right? Randle P. McMurphy (Nicholson) a free-spirited con with lightning in his veins and glib on his tongue fakes insanity and moves in with what he calls the ""nuts"". Immediately his contagious sense of disorder runs up against numbing routine. No way should guys pickled on sedatives shuffled around in bathrobes when the World Series is on. This means war! On one side is McMurphy. On the other is soft-spoken Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) among the most coldly monstrous villains in film history. At stake is the fate of every patient on the ward...
A big Oscar winner in 1975, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest still holds up remarkably well. Ken Kesey's novel, an allegory of repression and rebellion set in a mental hospital in the early 1960s, is cannily adapted by Czech director Milos Forman into a comedy drama with a cool, unassuming, near-documentary look. Jack Nicholson has his most jacknicholsonian role as Randle P McMurphy, a livewire troublemaker who unwisely cons his way out of prison and into a mental institution without realising he has switched from serving a sentence with a release date to being committed until adjudged sane by the same people he is winding up on a daily basis. Louise Fletcher, in a career-defining turn, is Nurse Ratched, the soft-spoken sadist who represents the worst type of matronly authoritarianism and clashes with Randle all down the line. Taking another look at the picture after all these years, it's a surprise that all the unknown actors who seemed like real mental patients have graduated to becoming prolific character actor stars: Danny DeVito, Christopher Lloyd, Vincent Schiavelli, Brad Dourif, the late Will Sampson, Sidney Lassick, Michael Berryman. Unlike many Best Picture Oscar winners, this deals with profound subject matter without seeming self-important: Forman's approach and all-round great acting make it play as a small character story as well as a Big Statement about the human condition. Full marks also for Jack Nitzsche's musical saw-based score. On the DVD: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest comes to DVD in a two-disc special edition with a great-looking anamorphic 1.85:1 print and 5.1 Dolby Digital soundtrack, plus tracks in French and Italian and optional subtitles in half a dozen languages. Disc 2 has the trailer, about 13 minutes of deleted scenes (mostly from the first third of the film, and all pretty good) and a making-of retrospective documentary with interesting material from producers Michael Douglas (who inherited the rights from Kirk) and Saul Zaentz, Forman, screenwriter Bo Goldman and many cast-members (though not Nicholson). There's also a commentary track by Forman, Douglas and others which repeats a few things from the documentary but also goes into more scene-specific detail about the development and shooting. --Kim Newman
Welcome to the schol of hard knocks. Ben a struggling teacher in his 30s is desperately trying to get his life back in order to win back his ex-wife. After abundant struggle and a haunting past an old friend gets him a teaching position at Riker's Island Prison. Meanwhile Gabriel a 17-year-old drug-dealer is arrested and sent to the same prison. Ben is having terrible luck with his teaching program and is given an ultimatum that he must have more students or the program w
Hip hop heroes Kid and Play are back in action with a plan to turn a college campus into the ultimate party zone - in this music-powered funk filled comedy free-for-all. Original stars Kid 'Play (Christopher Reid and Christopher Martin) Martin Lawrence and Tisha Campbell return to break it down rap it up.... and boldly party where no movie has partied before!
Fresh out of jail motor-mouth con man Gabriel Cane (Woods) sets up a bet with local gangster John Gillon (Dern) in which ageing prize fighter 'Honey' Roy Palmer must knock out 10 opponents within 24 hours. The con is on but exactly who is scamming who?
ACTION, ADVENTURE AND FANTASY AWAIT IN THIS EXCITING NEW CHAPTER OF THE DRAGONHEART SAGA. Patrick Stewart voices Drago the magnifi cent dragon who became bonded with King Gareth. When the king dies, his potential heirs, twin grandchildren who possess the dragon's unique strengths, use their inherited powers against each other to vie for the throne. When Drago's source of power - known as the Heartfire - is stolen, more than the throne is at stake; the siblings must end their rivalry with swords and sorcery or the kingdom may fall. BONUS FEATURES: The Making of Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfi re The Magic Behind Drago Inside the Castle
Keep 'Em Flying: When a barnstorming stunt pilot decides to join the air corps his two goofball assistants decide to go with him. Since the two are Abbott & Costello the air corps doesn't know what it's in for. Ride 'Em Cowboy: Two peanut vendors at a rodeo show get in trouble with their boss and hide out on a railroad train heading west. They get jobs as cowboys on a dude ranch despite the fact that neither of them knows anything about cowboys horses or anything else.
Buck Privates Come Home: Two ex-soldiers return from overseas--one of them having smuggled into the country a French orphan girl he has become attached to. They wind up running into their old sergeant--who hates them--and getting involved with a race-car builder who's trying to find backers for a new midget racer he's building. The World Of Abbott And Costello: A compilation of clips from 19 Abbott & Costello features: The Wistful Widow of Wagon Gap In the Navy Hit the Ice Who Done It? Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Mexican Hayride Hold That Ghost Abbott and Costello in the Foreign Legion Little Giant In Society Ride 'Em Cowboy The Naughty Nineties Buck Privates Come Home Buck Privates Abbott and Costello Meet the Keystone Kops Lost in Alaska Comin' Round the Mountain Abbott and Costello Go to Mars and Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy.
A demonic force lurking in Amityville for over 300 years once again comes to life and escapes to a remote California mansion where it craves the possession of an innocent young girl.
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