Queen Victoria strikes up an an unlikely friendship with a young Indian clerk named Abdul Karim. Click Images to Enlarge
The King's Speech tells the story of the relationship between Britain's reluctant King George VI, plagued by a nervous stammer, and the unorthodox Australian speech therapist who helps him.
A box set of classic film gems from Ealing studios Includes: 1. The Ladykillers (Dir. Alexander Mackendrick 1955) 2. The Man in The White Suit (Dir. Alexander Mackendrick 1951) 3. The Magnet (Dir. Charles Frend 1950) 4. Scott of The Antarctic (Dir. Charles Frend 1948)
Just as he's about to get out of the game entirely, a drug dealer gets drawn back in to the doublecrossing world of the London mafia in this refreshing British thriller.
Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise) expects a vast inheritance after his father dies. But the entire fortune is left to Raymond (Dustin Hoffman) his older brother, an 'autistic Savant' Charlie never even knew existed.
Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining US theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theatre-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably directed by Mike Nichols, provides a time capsule of the '80s and reveals the deep emotional subcurrents that will give the play lasting power. The story centers around Prior Walter (Justin Kirk) and Louis Ironson (Ben Shenkman), a gay couple that falls apart when Prior grows ill as a result of AIDS. But cancer is not the only thing invading Prior's life: He begins to have religious visions of an angel (Emma Thompson) announcing that he is a prophet. Louis, who doesn't cope well with disease and suggestions of mortality, leaves and starts a relationship with Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson), a closeted Mormon who works for Roy Cohn (Al Pacino)--the real-life right-wing lawyer, notorious for his ruthless behind-the-scenes machinations. Add in Joe's depressed and hallucinating wife Harper (Mary Louise Parker), his determined but open-minded mother Hannah (Meryl Streep), a fierce drag queen/nurse named Belize (Jeffrey Wright, reprising his celebrated performance from the Broadway production), and you've still only begun to discover the wealth of characters and storylines in Kushner's ambitious work. The powerhouse cast (also featuring James Cromwell, Michael Gambon, and Simon Callow) is uniformly superb. The script has its weaknesses--some of the fantastic elements, including Prior's journey to Heaven towards the end, fall flat--but even what doesn't work is bristling with ideas and a ferocious desire to capture human existence in this time and place. --Bret Fetzer
Tim Burton's unique take on the tale of the headless horseman, with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
For Pete's Sake is a bright-eyed romantic comedy about a young couple, the eternally optimistic Henrietta (Barbra Streisand) and her husband Pete (Michael Sarrazin), who works by day as a cab driver while studying at night school. Money is tight, a fact constantly brought home to them by Pete's successful but tedious brother, Fred (William Redfield) and his bitchy wife Helen (Estelle Parsons, quite superb here). When Pete hears of an opportunity to make money on the stock market (on pork bellies, of all things) he's desperate to get his hands on $3,000, believing it will make everything come right. After conventional sources have turned them down, Henrietta secretly turns to a loan shark on the understanding that he'll be paid back in a week. The comedy arises when the shares in pork do a belly flop and her contract is sold on to increasingly dubious characters at increasingly exorbitant rates of interest. Thus, we have her taken on by a high-class madam and getting embroiled in bomb-planting and cattle-rustling. As a vehicle for Streisand-the-actress rather than Streisand-the-singer, it certainly works (though she does perform the vapid title-song), her manic comedic skill chiming well with the demands of her character in this amiable piece of froth. On the DVD: For Pete's Sake is pretty thin on the special features front: theatrical trailers; a director's commentary (reasonably worthwhile); and basic filmographies. The picture has come up surprisingly well given its age, and though it's in mono, there are no complaints about the sound either. --Harriet Smith
The cinema remake of the classic sitcom Dad's Army . The Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard platoon deal with a visiting female journalist and a German spy as World War II draws to its conclusion.
Horror icons Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing team up once again for an Amicus take on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic novella Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, with Lee occupying the role of thCalvin Lockhart (A Dandy in Aspic) and Marlene Clark (Ganja & Hess) have invited a disparate group of guests, including Peter Cushing (Corruption), Michael Gambon (The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover) and Charles Gray (The Legacy), to their mansion in the English countryside. He believes one of them is a werewolf and, before the weekend is out, he'll find out who it is! The last of Amicus' famed horror productions, The Beast Must Die combines the country-house whodunnit with the werewolf shocker and adds a dash of blaxploitation for good measure. Product Features High Definition remaster Original mono audio Audio commentary with director Paul Annett and author Jonathan Sothcott (2003) Interview with Max J Rosenberg (2000, 48 mins): archival audio recording of the famed producer in conversation with Sothcott The BEHP Interview with Jack Hildyard (1988, 92 mins): an archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the Oscar-winning cinematographer in conversation with Alan Lawson The BEHP Interview with Peter Tanner Part Two, 19391987 (1987, 81 mins): an archival audio recording, made as part of the British Entertainment History Project, featuring the celebrated editor in conversation with Roy Fowler and Taffy Haines Introduction by Stephen Laws (2020, 4 mins): appreciation by the acclaimed horror author Directing the Beast (2003, 13 mins): archival interview with Annett Super 8 version: cut-down home cinema presentation Image gallery: publicity and promotional material Original theatrical trailer Kim Newman and David Flint trailer commentary (2017, 2 mins): short critical appreciation by the genre-film experts New and improved English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Gosford Park: Robert Altman directs this elegant period drama and Agatha Christie-style murder mystery that features the cream of British acting talent. Gathered at aristocrat Michael Gambon's big house are fellow toffs Charles Dance, James Wilby and Jeremy Northam (as British matinee idol Ivor Novello) among others. Meanwhile, downstairs in the bustling servant's quarters we encounter Alan Bates and Helen Mirren as the head male and female members of staff. The various intrigues that play out between members of the different classes and sexes are all observed with Altman's customary withering eye and trademark roving camerawork. After a murder is committed, comical pipe-smoking detective Stephen Fry arrives, but the solution is arrived at in an unconventional way. With an impeccable ensemble cast that Merchant Ivory would die for, Gosford Park is a classy piece of cinema from a great director getting back to the top of his form. Ladies In Lavender: Award winning actresses Dame Judi Dench and Maggie Smith star in this evocative, heart-warming story of unfulfilled dreams, innocence and unrequited love. Cornwall in 1936 remains as ever a timeless place. Sisters, Janet and Ursula Widdington discover a castaway on the beach below their house. With the help of the local doctor they nurse him back to health. During his convalescence the sisters discover his talent as a musician and the unsettling effect he has on them both - especially Ursula, whose life will never be the same again. Before You Go: Directed by veteran British film-maker Lewis Gilbert (Shirley Valentine, Educating Rita), Before You Go is based on Shelagh Stephenson's play 'The Memory of Water'. Three sisters (Julie Walters, Joanne Whalley and Victoria Hamilton) return to their family home in Northumberland following the death of their mother (Patricia Hodge). Family memories are soon rekindled in this beautifully acted, touching comedy drama...
The late Dennis Potter was a master at mining the popular songs of the 1930s and '40s for dramatic effect, but he never did it better than in The Singing Detective. The inestimable Michael Gambon plays a mystery writer named Philip E Marlow, who is suffering a torturous bout of psoriatic arthritis in hospital, where he is a victim of both his disease and the National Health Service. Unable to move without pain, he escapes into his imagination, plotting out a murder tale in which he is both a big-band singer and a private eye. But Potter and director Jon Amiel also mix in flashbacks of Marlow's youth and his unhappy marriage to explain how the real Marlow reached this sorry pass. Flawlessly, intricately, kaleidoscopically assembled, the six one-hour episodes fly by like some fantastic fever dream. –Marshall Fine
Tim Burton's unique take on the tale of the headless horseman, with Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci.
Just as he's about to get out of the game entirely, a drug dealer gets drawn back in to the doublecrossing world of the London mafia in this refreshing British thriller.
K2 is a thrilling action adventure about two men Taylor Brooks (Michael Biehn) and Harold Jamieson (Matt Craven) attempting to conquer the most feared mountain in the world. Their quest takes them from America to the sheer peaks of Alaska where they encounter and join a group preparing for the mammoth expedition. Then on to the mighty Karakoram mountain range in Northern Pakistan where K2 ""The Savage Mountain"" awaits. One by one the mountaineers are faced with setbacks and disast
Set Comprises: Cranford: This BBC dramatisation of three of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels captures the small absurdities and tragedies in the lives of the people of Cranford a small rural Cheshire town inhabited largely by women. This is a community that runs on cooperation and gossip at the very heart of which are the daughters of the former rector: Miss Deborah Jenkyns and her sister Miss Matty. But domestic peace is constantly threatened in the form of financial disaster imagined burglaries tragic accidents and the reapparance of long-lost relatives. North And South: A powerful adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell's feisty and passionate love story set across the social divides in the changing world of Victorian industrial society. Margaret Hale is one of literature's most original heroines: a southerner from a country vicarage newly settled in the industrial northern town of Milton. In the shock of her move she misjudges charismatic cotton mill-owner John Thornton whose strength of purpose and passion are a match for her own pride and wilfulness. When the workers of Milton call a strike Margaret takes their side and the two are brought into deeper conflict. As events spiral out of control Margaret - to her surprise - begins to fall in love with Thornton... Wives And Daughters: After years spent as a widower village doctor Mr Gibson has decided to remarry; something for which his rather naive daughter Molly is wholly unprepared. Molly's world is soon overturned by the arrival of an unwanted stepmother and a bewitching beautiful stepsister Cynthia. In spite of the circumstances of their acquiantance and of being so entirely different from one another the two girls instantly form a close relationship. But it is a friendship that is put to the test when they look set to become rivals in love. Matters are further complicated when a dangerous secret emerges from Cynthia's past in which she entangles Molly with serious consequences for them both...
The exciting saga of ambitious men tempestuous women and stormy seas! Set in England in the 1860s when British naval strength was the envy of Europe this saga charts the fortunes of an ambitious clever and determined ship owner whose private life is more tempestuous than the seas he sails. James Onedin (Peter Gilmore) is the son of a waterside shopkeeper who has died and left him with no inheritance. All James has is a legacy of 25 franks and a shrewd business mind. Despite his scheming sister and her husband who run a rival shipping company he is resolute in his attempt to start a shipping line in a changing world. Onedin is ruthless but farsighted and with steam a possibility for the future he swiftly embarks on his rise from impoverished seaman to wealthy ship owner and founder of The Onedin Line. Episodes Comprise: 1. The Wind Blows Free 2. Plain Salling 3. Other Points of the Compass 4. High Price 5. Catch as Can 6. Salvage 7. Passage to Pernambuco 8. The Homecoming 9. When My Ship Comes In 10. A Very Important Passenger 11. Mutiny 12. Cry of the Blackbird 13. Shadow of Doubt 14. Blockade 15. Winner Take All
Bill Murray and Owen Wilson take to the high seas in this quirky comedy from director Wes Anderson.
Multi-award-winning writer Jimmy McGovern's brand new film based on the UK's controversial joint enterprise law. 17-year-old Johnjo (Nico Mirallegro) gives his cousin Tony and his mates Colin and Kieran a last minute lift in his brother Patrick's car. They tell him they're going for pizza; Johnjo doesn't know that they're going to 'have a word' with a local loudmouth who needs putting in his place. As Johnjo waits in the car Kieran takes offence with an innocent bystander Thomas Ward who is fatally stabbed. The murder victim is the eldest child of Margaret (Susan Lynch) and Tommy Ward (Daniel Mays) who has become estranged from his family after a bitter divorce. Struggling to make ends meet on her own Margaret is nevertheless determined to fight through bureaucracy and the cool indifference of the banks to give Thomas the send-off he deserves. Johnjo makes his own way to the police station and asks for DI Hastings (Robert Pugh). A career copper used to doing battle with 'no comment' Hastings can't believe his luck as Johnjo lays the blame squarely with Kieran. But Hastings wants everyone possible to be tried for murder and with the joint enterprise doctrine at his disposal that includes Johnjo. Also starring Jodhi May Michelle Fairley and Sir Michael Gambon.
There's really been only one rival to James Bond: Derek Flint in the swinging-60s action-comedies Our Man Flint (1966) and In Like Flint (1967). That's because of James Coburn's special brand of American cool. He's so cool, in fact, that he doesn't care to save the world. That is, until he's personally threatened. He's a true libertarian, with more gadgets and girls than Bond, but with none of his stress or responsibility. Our Man Flint finds our unflappable hero thwarting mad scientists who control the weather--and an island of pleasure drones. Lee J Cobb costars as Flint's flustered superior, and Edward Mulhare plays a British nemesis with snob appeal. For fans of Austin Powers, incidentally, the funny-sounding phone comes from the Flint films. However, Our Man Flint's best gadget remains the watch that enables Flint to feign death. There's a great Jerry Goldsmith score, too. There was bound to be a sequel, and In Like Flint delivers the same kind of zany fun as its predecessor. Flint is recruited once again by Lee J Cobb to be the government's top secret agent, this time to solve a mishap involving the President. It turns out, the Chief Executive has been replaced by an evil duplicate. The new plan for world domination involves feminine aggression, and Flint, with his overpowering charisma, is just the man to turn the hostile forces around. In Like Flint is still over the top, but some of the novelty has worn off, and it doesn't have quite the same edge as the original. Even Jerry Goldsmith's score is a bit more subdued. But the film still has James Coburn and that funny phone. --Bill Desowitz
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