Based on the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr, October Sky emerged as one of the most delightful sleepers of 1999--a small miracle of good ole fashioned movie-making in the cynical, often numbingly trendy Hollywood of the late 20th century. Hickam's true story begins in 1957 with Russia's historic launch of the Sputnik satellite, and while Homer (played with smart idealism by Jake Gyllenhaal) sees Sputnik as his cue to pursue a fascination with rocketry, his father (Chris Cooper) epitomises the admirable yet sternly stubborn working-man's ethic of the West Virginia coal miner, casting fear and disdain on Homer's pursuit of science while urging his "errant" son to carry on the family business--a spirit-killing profession that Homer has no intention of joining.As directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this wonderful movie is occasionally guilty of overstating its case and sacrificing subtlety for predictable melodrama. But more often the film's tone is just right, and the spirit of adventure and invention is infectiously conveyed through Gyllenhaal and his well-cast fellow rocketeers, whose many failures gradually lead to triumph on their makeshift backwoods launching pad. Capturing time and place with impeccable detail and superbly developed characters (including Laura Dern as an inspiring schoolteacher), October Sky is a family film for the ages, encouraging the highest potential of the human spirit while giving viewers a clear view of a bygone era when "the final frontier" beckoned to the explorer in all of us. --Jeff Shannon
CONSIDER THE POSSIBILITIES... From the hugely talented actor, writer and director Paul Mazursky (The Tempest, Harry and Tonto) comes Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a classic comedy that hilariously probes the complicated relationship dynamics of the sexually liberated 1960s. Mazursky's sharp satire tells of Bob (Columbo regular Robert Culp) and Carol (Natalie Wood: West Side Story, Brainstorm), an affluent and hip Californian couple who return from a free-thinking, free-love retreat, intent on having an open relationship. The more conservative Ted (Elliot Gould: MASH, The Long Goodbye) and Alice (Dyan Cannon, Heaven Can Wait) enjoy hearing about their friends amorous adventures, but the cat is set amongst the pigeons when they are invited to join-in... in bed! A film that truly evokes the spirit of its age, Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice was a huge hit with audiences and critics alike upon its original theatrical release. Benefitting from superb ensemble acting from its main players and a sublime score courtesy of Quincy Jones, it is no wonder that Mazursky s film was nominated for four Academy Awards. Features: New restoration from original film elements by Sony Pictures High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio soundtrack Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Audio commentary by director/co-writer Paul Mazursky, actors Robert Culp, Elliott Gould, and Dyan Cannon New Audio commentary by the film scholar Adrian Martin Bob & Natalie & Elliot & Dyan... & Paul, a new video essay exploring the film s themes by filmmaker and critic David Cairns Tales of Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, an archival interview with Paul Mazursky revisiting the film s production and release Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Ignatius Fitzpatrick FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by author Michael Atkinson and original reviews
In this comedy, Emma (Natalie Portman) and Adam (Ashton Kutcher) are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly 'no strings attached.'
An Ingrid Bergman double-bill comes to DVD with the classy pairing of Anastasia (1956) and The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958). In Anastasia Bergman gives one of her memorable, haunting and haunted performances as an amnesiac chosen by a White Russian general (Yul Brynner) in 1928 to play the part of the long-rumoured but missing survivor of the Bolsheviks' murderous attack on the Czar's family. The twist is that Bergman's mystery woman seems to know more about the lost Anastasia than she is told. Based on the play by Marcelle Maurette and Guy Bolton, this film--directed by Anatole Litvak (Out of the Fog)--really does get under one's skin, not least of all because of its intriguing story but more so as a result of the strong chemistry between Bergman and Brynner. --Tom Keogh The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is an epic and extraordinary true story--or, at least, an extraordinary story based on a novel (Alan Burgess's The Small Woman) based on a true story. Gladys Aylward (an improbably mesmerising Ingrid Bergman) is a British would-be missionary with an obsession about China. As she has no experience, the Missionary Society won't let her go, but she goes anyway, alone, to a remote northern province. She is hated, then loved; finally she becomes both a significant political figure and the heroine of a miraculous escape in which she shepherds 100 children to safety across the mountains just ahead of a Japanese invasion. Curt Jurgens is suitably stony as Lin Nan, the half-Dutch, half-Chinese military officer who falls in love with her, and a visibly ailing Robert Donat (who died before this, his final film, was released) is the wily local mandarin who sees and makes use of her extraordinary abilities. Directed by Mark Robson, The Inn of the Sixth Happiness is a sweeping, stirring tear-jerker, a big tale told in a big landscape with acres of orchestrated strings by Malcolm Arnold. It's a beautiful and beautifully made film that's a classic of the "everyone said I couldn't but I did it anyway" genre.--Richard Farr
Limited Edition Steelbook with Emboss on front Title Treatment Stranded on the planet Tatooine after rescuing Queen Amidala (Natalie Portman) of Naboo, Jedi apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) discover nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker, a young slave. Gifted with the power of the Force, Anakin wins his freedom and leaves home to be trained as a Jedi. Back on Naboo, Anakin and the Queen face a massive invasion while the two Jedi confront a lethal foe named Darth Maul. They soon realize the invasion is part of a sinister scheme by forces of darkness known as the Sith. Click Images to Enlarge
In the 1980s Phil moved with his parents from an inner-city slum to start a new life in Stevenage. However on leaving school he finds himself in a world of violence unemployment alcoholism and drug abuse.
The fifth series of Jimmy McGovern's critically acclaimed series of standalone contemporary dramas exploring bold and moving topics, from selective mutism to family secrets. The all-star cast includes Natalie Gumede (Coronation Street), Anthony Flanagan (Shameless), Sharon Horgan (Catastrophe), Anita Dobson and Jo Joyner (EastEnders). In Fledgling, Gumede is a policeman's wife who decides to spice up her life with a bit of shoplifting. The House sees a postman's parents sign over their house to him and his young family only for it to lead to a surprise revelation from his resentful sister.Value sees an inexperienced teacher feign cancer after stress causes her hair to fall out. In Hush Little Baby, directed by Robert Glenister, a family is thrown into disarray when their daughter suddenly stops talking and find themselves filling the silence with their own fears and confessions. In Back By Six, Craig Kelly's recently divorced cab driver makes a desperate decision after struggling with being apart from his two young children.
Set in 1899, this musical drama from director Baz Luhrmann ("Romeo + Juliet") stars Ewan McGregor as a young poet who begins a passionate but doomed affair with the most famous courtesan in Paris (Nicole Kidman).
Disney does Dickens in this animated version of Oliver Twist, in which a homeless New York City cat falls in with a bunch of mischievous dogs under the leadership of the appealing scoundrel Fagin. The roots of Disney's success with animation in the 1990s begins with this clever, energetic, atmospheric movie, which succeeds in capturing the grim world Dickens conjured. Lyricist Howard Ashman (The Little Mermaid) worked on the songs, the best of which is sung by Billy Joel, who provides the voice of (the Artful) Dodger. --Tom Keogh
A tantalizing and seductive insight into the sexy world of the luxury five-star hotel industry a place where money not only talks but can buy you just about anything you desire. Inspired by Imogen Edwards-Jones' revelatory novel of life behind the scenes of London's top class hotels an impressive cast of young acting talent come together in this original eight-part drama series to reveal life beyond the glamour and facade of the smiling faces and glittering chandeliers. Instead delve deeper into the frenetic non-stop hidden culture of the hotel staff; from the discreet concierge to the flamboyant bar managers - everyone has a story. A fantastic expose of a world of hedonism and excess where for just one night you can be who you want to be.
Now a decade into the apocalypse, sisters Hope and Iris Bennett have grown up inside the walls of one of the few remaining first-world communities. The sisters' scientist father conducts research over one thousand miles away in a research facility run by the Civil Republic, an ally of Omaha, but one that does not reveal its location to outsiders.
Dirty Sexy Money: Season 1
There are over 13 000 taxi drivers in London. And in order to become taxi drivers every single one of them (like every one of their predecessors for over 140 years) has to pass an exam called 'The Knowledge Of London'. Writer Jack Rosenthal's The Knowledge is the story of four men and their attempts to become cab drivers. In the process they acquire a different kind of knowledge: knowledge of themselves and of those closest to them of their strengths and weaknesses of what they wa
In an America generations removed from the greatest civil rights struggles of the 1960s, the young mayor of a mid-sized American city is faced with a federal court order that says he must build a small number of low-income housing units in the white neighborhoods of his town. His attempt to do so tears the entire city apart, paralyzes the municipal government and, ultimately, destroys the mayor and his political future. From creator David Simon (HBO's Treme and The Wire) and director Paul Haggis (Crash), and based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Lisa Belkin, the six-part HBO Miniseries presentation Show Me a Hero explores notions of home, race and community through the lives of elected officials, bureaucrats, activists and ordinary citizens in Yonkers, NY.
JACKIE is a searing and intimate portrait of one of the most important and tragic moments in American history, seen through the eyes of the iconic First Lady, then Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy (Natalie Portman). JACKIE places us in her world during the days immediately following her husband's assassination. Known for her extraordinary dignity and poise, here we see a psychological portrait of the First Lady as she struggles to maintain her husband's legacy and the world of Camelot that they created and loved so well.
Blind pianist Sofia (Natalie Dormer, Game of Thrones) overhears a struggle in the apartment above hers that leads to the death of her neighbour, Veronique (Emily Ratajkowski, Gone Girl). It is the start of a journey that pushes Sofia out of her depth and into contact with Veronique's father, Zoran Radic (Jan Bijvoet, Peaky Blinders), a Serbian businessman and alleged war criminal accused of committing acts of genocide during the Bosnian war. Blind to the truth, Sofia risks her life in search of answers, and is plunged into a shady underworld of corruption, violence and blackmail. As secrets from her own past become intertwined with Radic's inner circle of deceit, Sofia's own agenda is revealed, as she hunts for revenge. Written and directed by Anthony Byrne (Peaky Blinders) and written by Natalie Dormer, In Darkness also features Ed Skrein (Deadpool) and Joely Richardson (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and makes for a suspenseful thriller that will leave audiences gripped from beginning to end. Bonus Features: Interviews with Director and Cast
There's no director like Jean Rollin, the French horror fantasist who mixes the poetry of Jean Cocteau with the emotionless performances of Robert Bresson in his erotic vampire films. Lips of Blood is one of his best, an Oedipal tale of a young man haunted by visions of a forgotten childhood when he spies a poster of a coastal castle at a party. Jean-Louis Philippe, a hopelessly bland and flat performer, wanders through the deserted piazzas and fountains of his suddenly odd and alien hometown, eerily lit up in the dead of night. He's a man lost in a world where a woman in white silently materialises like a supernatural muse, gunmen appear from the inky-black night, and four naked vampire girls prowl the streets for blood and watch over him like dark angels. It's a tale of blood, sex, and haunting desire full of nudity and death and told in an austere, surreal style born of forced budgetary austerity. Rollin is slipshod with his action scenes and stiff with performers, but once he leaves the confines of the "real" world (where he's oddly uncomfortable) his style creates a trancelike mood to complement the beauty of his poetically macabre vision. The film our hero watches early in the picture is Rollin's own Shiver of the Vampires. --Sean Axmaker
A favourite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of The West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part-Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Starring Colin Morgan (BBC’s Merlin); Natalie Press (My Summer of Love, 5 Women) and Academy Award nominee Janet McTeer (Tumbleweeds) in a psychological drama based on an acclaimed novel about a young woman abandoned at birth who is determined to track down her birth mother..and kill her.
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