A chronicle of England's Golden Age during the late 16th century recounting the life and times of the remarkable Elizabeth I in a cycle of six plays. Academy Award-winning actress Glenda Jackson stars in one of the most popular and acclaimed Masterpiece Theatre presentations ever created the story of England's Queen Elizabeth I. Filled with palace intrigue royal romance and stunning historical detail it traces her reign from a young Princess through almost 50 years of rule over
Sometimes a movie works despite all its faults. Outrageous Fortune has a flimsy, formulaic script, so-so production values and an odd combination of stars, but somehow it's engaging and fun. Shelley Long and Bette Midler play two struggling actresses--one a hoity-toity priss and the other a brassy slob--who learn they've been sleeping with the same guy (Peter Coyote) when he gets blown up in a terrorist assault and they confront each other in the morgue. When they discover that he's still alive, the bickering pair track him down, traipsing across the US in high heels, pursued all the way by government agents, using their dubious acting talents to get them out of tough situations. The absurd plot keeps things moving and director Arthur Hiller (Silver Streak, The Out of Towners) gets cheerful performances out of everyone, particularly the strong supporting cast--including Robert Prosky (Broadcast News, Mrs. Doubtfire) as a pompous acting teacher, comedian George Carlin as a burnt-out would-be Indian and the underused John Schuck (M*A*S*H, McCabe & Mrs. Miller) as a long-suffering agent. Although contrived and cliché-ridden, the film is just absurd enough to entertain. --Bret Fetzer
The 1958 classic from Hammer Film Productions, Dracula is the first in Hammer’s series of films inspired by Bram Stoker’s novel. This is the most complete version of Dracula ever released in the UK and contains the 2007 BFI restoration plus the 2012 Hammer restoration, which adds additional footage that has been unavailable for decades. The additional footage comprises two of the scenes originally censored by the BBFC that have now been restored to the film from the ‘Japanese reels’: Dracula’s seduction of Mina and the vampire count’s sunlight disintegration. Both versions are presented in the original aspect ratio of 1.66:1, which has never been available for home viewing.
ALL 37 PRODUCTIONS FROM THE BBC TELEVISION SHAKESPEARE SERIES William Shakespeare's repute spans the world the beauty of his language, his profound insight into human nature and the complexity and integrity of his characters, confirming him as the greatest ever playwright. These BBC adaptations, renowned for their loyalty to the text, utilise the best theatrical and television talent to bring the full glory of his plays to the small screen. In 1978, the BBC set itself the task of filming all of William Shakespeare's plays for television. The series beginning with Romeo and Juliet and concluding, nearly seven years later, with Titus Andronicus featured adaptations of all 36 First Folio plays, plus Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Ranging from traditional interpretations to adventurous, stylised approaches and featuring such great actors as John Gielgud, Jane Lapotaire, Claire Bloom, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Hopkins, Prunella Scales, Patrick Stewart, Helen Mirren and John Cleese the resulting productions form a magnificent and unique collection of the Shakespeare canon. THE SHAKESPEARE COLLECTION Titles arranged in alphabetical order ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA AS YOU LIKE IT THE COMEDY OF ERRORS CORIOLANUS CYMBELINE HAMLET HENRY IV PART I HENRY IV PART II HENRY V HENRY VI PART I HENRY VI PART II HENRY VI PART III HENRY VIII JULIUS CAESAR KING LEAR THE LIFE AND DEATH OF KING JOHN LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST MACBETH MEASURE FOR MEASURE THE MERCHANT OF VENICE THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING OTHELLO PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE RICHARD II RICHARD III ROMEO AND JULIET THE TAMING OF THE SHREW THE TEMPEST TIMON OF ATHENS TITUS ANDRONICUS TROILUS AND CRESSIDA TWELFTH NIGHT THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA THE WINTER'S TALE
The world's most hilariously disaster-prone detective is back on the case as Peter Sellers stars in this merry masterpiece of sheer slapstick sleuthing fun! When the priceless Pink Panther diamond is stolen yet again the inimitable Inspector Jacques Clouseau is saved from an unwilling early retirement and sent off to the country of Lugash to investigate. Certain that the heist is the work of a suave jewel thief known as The Phantom Clouseau unleashes his formidable array of outlan
Celebrate the festive season with Winnie The Pooh in this full-length adventure. Share the joy and magic of the holidays as Pooh and his lovable friends enjoy Christmas and New Year in a delightful tale about spending special moments with those you care about most. After fond recollections of a Christmas past... the countdown to New Year begins! Rabbit plans a party but when Pooh and friends bother Rabbit he starts to sulk - threatening to move away. To appease him everyone makes a
With a core audience of gameboys and hot-rodders aged 25 and under, xXx 2 is the kind of action movie that requires literally no thought to enjoy. With Vin Diesel's original character just killed in Bora Bora (for details, see the uncensored unrated director's cut of xXx), Ice Cube steps in to play bad-ass, and the whole franchise takes on a hip-hop edge that's almost admirably absurd. The asinine plot is anarchy in Washington, D.C., as an insanely hawkish Secretary of State (Willem Dafoe) plots a Capitol coup just as the President (Peter Strauss, playing it straight) is giving his state-of-the-union address. All of this is prefaced by Cube's recruitment as a former Navy SEAL turned new-xXx, escaping from jail (Dafoe's character put him there), hooking up with an old flame who runs a chop-shop full of the world's hottest wheels, and reuniting with his old commander (Samuel L. Jackson) for a bullet-train climax that feels like Mission Impossible Lite. You could argue that Diesel's the smartest guy in the franchise for cashing out early, but xXx 2 gets the job done in passable fashion, with action veteran Lee Tamahori delivering the goods while he waits for a grown-up script to come along. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
While the plot of this Australian film may seem a bit familiar (the Ugly Duckling meets Dirty Dancing), the humourous tone and superb dance sequences will make you forget the movie's predictability. Scott (Paul Mercurio) is a champion ballroom dancer who wants to dance "his own steps". Fran is the homely, beginning dancer who convinces Scott that he should dance his own steps...with her. Complicating matters are Scott's domineering mother (Pat Thompson), a former dancer herself, who wants her son to win the Australian Pan-Pacific Championship (the same contest she lost years ago), and a conniving dance committee that is determined that "there are no new steps!" The dancing is enjoyable, yet not overwhelming, and the movie strives hard not to take itself too seriously (the beginning of the film is even styled as a pseudo-documentary). Strictly Ballroom, while not so subtly imparting its moral ("A life lived in fear is a life half-lived"), is a funny romp that's sure to be a crowd pleaser. --Jenny Brown, Amazon.com
Simply Media are delighted to announce the release of BBC's Ivanhoe: The Complete Series. Originally shown on BBC One in 1970 as ten episodes, the complete series is now available on DVD for the first time 18th September 2017. Remembered fondly by those who used to watch the Sunday tea-time series, BBC's Ivanhoe is a faithful and captivating adaptation of the classic novel by Sir Walter Scott. Set in the romanticised world of Medieval Britain, filled with knights, chivalry, grand tournaments and sieges, where dispossessed Saxons are pitted against their Norman overlords. Scott's novel became a celebrated influence on modern-day popular perceptions of iconic British characters such as Richard the Lionheart, King John and Robin Hood. Adapted by acclaimed author and screenwriter Alexander Baron (City from the Plough) and directed by renowned BBC sci-fi director/producer David Maloney (Doctor Who / Blake's 7) the series proved to be a firm family favourite, and an easily accessible venture into Scott's intricate novel. Ivanhoe, a noble 12th century knight, returns home after being banished to the Holy Land by his Father for wanting to marry against his wishes. He comes back England after fighting alongside Richard the Lionheart in the crusades, only to find his country under the domination of corrupt King John, the true King's tyrannical brother. Ivanhoe must fight not only against King John, but also to keep his beloved Lady Rowena safe from the clutches of his arch nemesis, Brian de Bois Gilbert. The series stars actor and singer Eric Flynn (Empire of the Sun) in the title role as Ivanhoe. Flynn is also backed-up by a fantastic supporting cast, including his alluring and forbidden love interest Rowena played by Clare Jenkins (Doctor Who), the formidable Sir Brian de Bois Guilbert played by Anthony Bate (Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1979)), and an appearance from Peter Dyneley, the voice of Jeff Tracy in Thunderbirds.
It is the early years of World War II and the Royal Navy must fight a desperate battle to stop Germany's best battleship, the Admiral Graf Spee, from sailing to the South Atlantic.
Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here.As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines--the real stars of the show--while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company.) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood.In this box set: All 32 episodes on eight discs, plus a bonus DVD featuring "The Thunderbirds Companion", an exclusive documentary with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. --Mark Walker
In Victor Meldrew, One Foot in the Grave brought us one of the greatest characters in the history of British situation comedy. David Renwick's multi-award winning creation spawned a catch phrase--"I don't believe it"--that vocalised the sentiments of the perennially disgruntled, the irritated or the plain bewildered. Victor is a superannuated security guard struggling to fill his premature retirement usefully, but he is frustrated at every turn. Coincidences, external forces and events and other people conspire against him. Somehow or other, he always gets the blame, leaving a trail of walking wounded in his wake, usually led by his long-suffering wife Margaret. This first series, originally transmitted in 1990, contains countless comic moments, many of them truly surreal. But Victor is never a one-dimensional target for our laughter. Indeed, as with the best comedy, we mock him at our peril. None of us get through life without our share of Meldrew moments. Thanks to Richard Wilson's performance--which rightly made him a major television star--he is a rounded human being who genuinely can't understand why he is constantly at odds with the world around him, despite his best efforts. And in Annette Crosbie as the increasingly enraged Margaret, he has the perfect screen partner. --Piers Ford
Writer Harold Pinter (Betrayal) and director Karel Reisz (Isadora) take an experimental spin with John Fowles's magnificent novel set in Victorian England, and come up with something puzzling. Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep play the forbidden lovers in Fowles's story, but in a parallel story line they also play contemporary actors performing those characters in a movie production and having an affair of their own during off-hours. Got that? Considering that Fowles himself presents alternative endings in his novel, something equally eccentric is called for here. But little is accomplished by this intertwining of a fictional past and present, and the opportunity to do justice to a great story is lost. On the plus side, Irons and Streep are instantly striking as a natural couple on screen, and their presence makes watching The French Lieutenant's Woman easy enough despite the larger problems. --Tom Keogh
SEPTEMBER 5 unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today. Set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the film follows an American Sports broadcasting team that quickly adapted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage. Starring John Magaro, Peter Sarsgaard, Leonie Benesch, and Ben Chaplin.
Peggy (Judy Geeson) is recovering from a nervous breakdown when she is attacked by an unseen assailant. As she struggles to break free, her attacker's artificial arm comes loose and Peggy blacks out in sheer terror. Peggy and her new husband Robert (Ralph Bates) spend their honeymoon at the country school where Robert is a teacher. The school is eerily deserted, except for the headmaster Michael (Peter Cushing) and his wife Molly (Joan Collins). Returningto her cottage, Peggy is once more attacked by a man with one arm. Robert goes to London on behalf of the headmaster, but leaves his shotgun behind to reassure Peggy. Michael visits Peggy at the cottage late at night, and she notices for the first time that he has only one arm. Terrified, she reaches for the gun Fear in the Night was the last, and one of the best, of the suspense thrillers that Hammer produced alongside the better-known Gothic horrors. The film was also the Hammer swansong of director and co-writer Jimmy Sangster, who had joined the company in 1949 and helped create its groundbreaking style. EXTRAS: NEW FEATURETTE - End of Term: Inside Fear in the Night ORIGINAL TRAILER
The swashbuckler genre bumped into science fiction in 1954 for one of Hollywood's great entertainments, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The Jules Verne story of adventure under the sea was Walt Disney's magnificent debut into live-action films. A professor (Paul Lukas) seeks the truth about a legendary sea monster in the years just after the Civil War. When his ship is sunk, he, his aide (Peter Lorre), and a harpoon master (Kirk Douglas) survive to discover that the monster is actually a metal submarine run by Captain Nemo (James Mason). Along with the rollicking adventure, it's fun to see the future technology that Verne dreamed up in his novel, including diving equipment and sea farming. The film's physical prowess is anchored by the Nautilus, an impressive full-scale gothic submarine complete with red carpet and pipe organ. In the era of big sets, 20,000 Leagues set a precedent for films shot on the water and deservedly won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Lost in the inventiveness of the film and great set pieces including a giant squid attack are two great performances. Mason is the perfect Nemo, taut and private, clothed in dark fabric that counters the Technicolor dreamboat that is the beaming red-and-white-stripe-shirted Kirk Douglas as the heroic Ned Land. The film works as peerless family adventure nearly half a century later. --Doug Thomas
K-19 The Widowmaker (Dir. Kathryn Bigelow 2002): Harrison Ford and Liam Neeson star in a thrilling action-drama inspired by the true story of a Soviet submarine crew trying to save its vessel from a nuclear meltdown - and avert global war. Witness (Dir. Peter Weir 1985): When a young Amish woman (McGillis) and her son (Haas) are caught up in the murder of an undercover narcotics agent their unlikely savior proves to be the worldly and cynical Philadelphia detective J
War of the five Kings. Kings from across Westeros vie for the Iron Throne. As winter approaches, the cruel young Joffrey Baratheon sits upon the Throne in King's Landing, counselled by his conniving mother, Cersei Lannister, and his uncle Tyrion Lannister. But the Lannister hold on power is under assault on many fronts, with two Baratheons donning crowns and Robb Stark fighting as the King in the North. A new leader is rising among the wildlings north of the Wall, adding new perils for Jon Snow and the Night's Watch, while Daenerys Targaryen looks to shore up her depleted power in the East with her three newborn dragons. Special Features Includes over 2 hours of bonus features
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