For 1992's Twin Dragons Jackie Chan resurrects the old Corsican Brothers chestnut of identical twin brothers separated at birth who meet up as adults and discover that they share more than blood ties. Poor boy Chan is a mechanic and race-car driver whose black-market activities have made him the target of some nasty mobsters, while jet-setting Chan is a world-famous conductor back in Hong Kong for a concert. In the same vicinity for the first time in years, they can suddenly feel each other's pain, and more. As one Chan jumps a jet boat for a wild escape, the other becomes a victim of the furious ride, thrown around a posh restaurant while drenching his date with drinking water. The whole thing is overloaded with silly slapstick, Chan's incessant mugging and cartoonish mistaken-identity gags as the boys swap girlfriends and dance. But wade through the crude comedy and you're rewarded with a gymnastic free-for-all climax in a car-testing workshop, where Chan leaps over, under and through cars while taking on an army of gangsters before split-screen brothers team up for a bit of marionette martial arts. Tsui Hark and Ringo Lam co-direct, Tsui taking the comedy and Lam handling the action, and John Woo makes a cameo as a priest in the wedding finale. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
For the first time ever on DVD from BFI Fellowship Awarded Terence Davies The Terence Davies Trilogy. The Terence Davies Trilogy acts as do his two later films Distant Voices Still Lives and The Long Day Closes as a reconstruction of his childhood and youth in working class post-war Liverpool. In his trilogy he uses alter ego Robert Tucker a shy and introverted child who is assumed to be not as able mentally as his peers and so bullied by those around him. His home life is darkly overshadowed by his violent abusive father and his guilt over homosexual feeling which is exacerbated by his strict Catholic upbringing. These dark and unhappy memories though are interspersed by his tender and warm feelings towards the entertainment culture springing up around Liverpool listening to the wireless and visiting the cinema being favourite pastimes of his. Davies sticks to his fragmented patchwork narrative to show the nature of his own personal memory interspersed with snatched songs and surreal daydreams and so the audience can emphasise with his every grin and grimace. With Liverpool's City Of Culture recognition The Terence Davies Trilogy becomes ever more important as its appreciation of the pop culture which came out of Liverpool is accredited with Robert's happiness and therefore Terence Davies' and his admission into cinema himself.
To some it's a game. To others it's a habit. But to Dan Mahowny beating the odds is everything! Based on a true Canadian story of the largest one-man bank fraud in Canadian history. Philip Seymour Hoffman gives a mesmerising portrayal of a compulsive gambler who embezzled ten million dollars to pay for his gambling debts.
A big-budget movie crew descends upon the sleepy town of Waterford Vermont. Soon money will change hands careers will be jeopardised and love will bloom. Pity the poor film director (William H. Macy) who's arrive only to discover that the local mill - a crucial location for his movie The Old Mill - burned down in 1960. On top of this he is faced with a problematic cast and crew. The idealistic screenwriter (Philip Seymour Hoffman) would rather pursue a pure-hearted local girl (Rebecca Pidgeon) than do a last-minute rewrite; the bimbo starlet (Sarah Jessica Parker) is now baulking at her contractual nude scene; and a local teenager (Julia Stiles) is only too willing to exploit the indiscretions of the film's skirt-chasing star (Alec Baldwin). And of course the power-wielding producer (David Paymer) is panicking about everything. David Mamet's State and Main is a hilarious screwball comedy and movie satire.
Opera-oratorio in two acts. Poem after Sophocles by Jean Cocteau.
In 2008, rookie journalist Jay Bahadur forms a half-baked plan to embed himself among the pirates of Somalia. He ultimately succeeds in providing the first close-up look into who these men are, how they live, and the forces that drive them.
As the successor to a martyred president Lyndon B. Johnson sought to transform America into a 'Great Society' of equal opportunity. Instead he became the symbol for the most unpopular war in U.S. history. Michael Gambon (as President Johnson) Donald Sutherland (as Clark Gifford) and Alec Baldwin (as Robert McNamara) star in a compelling drama of soaring ambition and shattered dreams set inside the LBJ White House in the volatile years leading up to and during Vietnam. This HBO production was decorated director John Frankenheimer's final film.
Five small-time crooks arrive in prison on the same day and sharing the same cell form a close-knit circle of friends. Upon their release (also all on the same day) the five buddies move in together and start the ""Five Stars Cleaning Service."" Of course the five of them as a group will get into more trouble combined than they ever could individually! It is an indomitable Hong Kong cop (Jackie) on the trail of a ruthless gang of counterfeiters who finds himself teamed with this od
Explosive high adventure! A mission more daring than silencing the ""Guns"". The survivors of The Guns Of Navarone (Dir. J. Lee Thompson 1961) are given an even more dangerous mission - they must destroy a huge bridge deep in the Balkans. During their journey they join up with 'Force 10' a group of tough American commandoes led by the daring Lt. Colonel Barnsby (Harrison Ford). But on their arrival in Yugoslavia they are captured by the Germans and failure of
Masterful Hong Kong action director John Woo (The Killer, Face/Off) turns in this exciting and pyrotechnic tale of warring gangsters and shifting loyalties. Chow Yun-Fat (The Replacement Killers) plays a take-no-prisoners cop on the trail of the Triad, the Hong Kong Mafia, when his partner is killed during a gun battle. His guilt propels him into an all-out war against the gang, including an up-and-coming soldier in the mob (Tony Leung) who turns out to be an undercover cop. The two men must come to terms with their allegiance to the force and their loyalty to each other as they try to take down the gangsters. A stunning feast of hyperbolic action sequences (including a climactic sequence in an entire hospital taken hostage), Hard Boiled is a rare treat for fans of the action genre, with sequences as thrilling and intense as any ever committed to film. --Robert Lane
A political thriller starring Joan Allen as a Senator chosen by the President (Jeff Bridges) to become Vice President. However her potentially scandalous past comes back to haunt her when it is exploited by her political enemies.
Directed by Mike Hodges (Get Carter, I'll Sleep When I'm Dead), written by Ace Of Wands creator Trevor Preston, and starring Philip Madoc, Murray Melvin and juvenile leads from the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts, The Tyrant King follows three teenagers as they traverse London searching for an answer to a hidden secret. A quest fraught with drama and danger takes them to some of the capital's most iconic landmarks and beyond (a reflection of the drama's origin as an adventure story published by London Transport), while the action is complemented by an atmospheric contemporary soundtrack featuring, among others, Pink Floyd, The Nice, Cream and The Moody Blues. Shown once in black and white in 1968, this is the first time it will be seen in colour, transferred from original film materials specifically for this release. This six-part mystery thriller was Thames Television's very first production. Shot on location on 16mm film, it was effectively an experiment to assess the feasibility of a small-scale production unit within the company - a subsidiary that would eventually become the legendary Euston Films, responsible for a string of phenomenally successful dramas including The Sweeney and Minder. Music from The Rolling Stones, The Nice, The Moody Blues, Cream and Pink Floyd.
Philip Glenister takes the role of Prison Officer David Murdoch whose life becomes complicated when on a routine visit to a Manchester hospital with female prisoner Jules Hope (MyAnna Buring) events spiral out of control. David takes a phone call, which will change his life forever, and he suddenly finds him on the wrong side of the law. With the life of his heavily pregnant daughter, Lucy (Sammy Winward), threatened, David has no alternative but to go on the run and inadvertently becomes the prey. Unaware of the danger to Emma, DS Susan Reinhardt, whose personal happiness seems forever blighted, tries to unravel why David is suddenly behaving totally out of character. With his reputation as a prison officer intact, Reinhardt attempts to unravel why he makes every effort to strenuously dodge the Police.
A tense, chilling drama following the emotional journeys of a ship's crew as they are hijacked by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean.
Alan Graham and Terry have been best mates since primary school. Now pushing forty the three friends are still inseparable. Naturally Alan and Graham are going to give Terry a stag night to remember. A big fry-up breakfast bubbly down the dogs for a flutter ten-pin bowling...fantastic. But when the boys pay a late night revenge visit to their despised former headmaster things begin to go disastrously wrong. A tragic accident sets off an unforeseen chain of events revealing te
Sean Bean returns as swashbuckling British officer Richard Sharpe in the visually stunning and action-packed film Sharpe's Justice.The Peninsular War is over and Sharpe returns to England with his reputation fully restored. He is soon ordered to the North of England to take command of a local militia force in his home town as it is troubled with unrest and machine-breakers.Sharpe finds that he is torn between two sides - that of the corrupt gentry and that of his own people the rough the tough and spirited masses who are kept down by their superiors. He finds himself faced with one of the hardest decisions of his life...
The sequel to Sidney Sheldon's best-seller Rage Of Angels which follows Jennifer who now heads her own law firm. Returning to America she meets up with an ex-lover and it seems their love may be re-kindled...
Transferred from Southampton Row to the Soho Vice Squad D.C.I. Tennison's first priority in the new job is 'Operation Contract' - a large-scale clean-up of prostitutes in the area. However the charred body of 17 year old rent boy Colin Jenkins is discovered in the burnt-out flat of transexual cabaret artiste Vera (Peter Capaldi) and once again Tennison finds herself embroiled in the politics of the latest homicide case as she tackles homophobia and perceptions of gender and sex both within and outside the police force.
A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. Bloodsport is a guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon) and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright
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