The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 is the film all Harry Potter fans have waited 10 years to see, and the good news is that it's worth the hype--visually stunning, action packed, faithful to the book, and mature not just in its themes and emotion but in the acting by its cast, some of whom had spent half their lives making Harry Potter movies. Part 2 cuts right to the chase: Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has stolen the Elder Wand, one of the three objects required to give someone power over death (a.k.a. the Deathly Hallows), with the intent to hunt and kill Harry. Meanwhile, Harry's quest to destroy the rest of the Horcruxes (each containing a bit of Voldemort's soul) leads him first to a thrilling (and hilarious--love that Polyjuice Potion!) trip to Gringotts Bank, then back to Hogwarts, where a spectacular battle pitting the young students and professors (a showcase of the British thesps who have stolen every scene of the series: Maggie Smith's McGonagall, Jim Broadbent's Slughorn, David Thewlis's Lupin) against a dark army of Dementors, ogres, and Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter, with far less crazy eyes to make this round). As predicted all throughout the saga, Harry also has his final showdown with Voldemort--neither can live while the other survives--though the physics of that predicament might need a set of crib notes to explain. But while each installment has become progressively grimmer, this finale is the most balanced between light and dark (the dark is quite dark--several familiar characters die, with one significant death particularly grisly); the humor is sprinkled in at the most welcome times, thanks to the deft adaptation by Steve Kloves (who scribed all but one of the films from J.K. Rowling's books) and direction by four-time Potter director David Yates. The climactic kiss between Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), capping off a decade of romantic tension, is perfectly tuned to their idiosyncratic relationship, and Daniel Radcliffe has, over the last decade, certainly proven he was the right kid for the job all along. As Prof. Snape, the most perfect of casting choices in the best-cast franchise of all time, Alan Rickman breaks your heart. Only the epilogue (and the lack of chemistry between Harry and love Ginny Weasley, barely present here) stand a little shaky, but no matter: the most lucrative franchise in movie history to date has just reached its conclusion, and it's done so without losing its soul. --Ellen A. Kim
From yet another derivative science fiction novel by Michael Crichton comes Sphere, an equally derivative and flaccid movie, in which three top Hollywood stars struggle to squeeze tension and excitement out of material that doesn't match their talents. You're supposed to find awe and mystery in Crichton's story about a team of scientists and scholars who discover a 300-year-old alien spacecraft deep on the ocean floor, but mostly you feel that this is all much ado about nothing. The exploration team consists of a psychologist (Dustin Hoffman), mathematician (Samuel L Jackson), biochemist (Sharon Stone), and an astrophysicist (Live Schreiber), and when they enter the alien ship they discover a mysterious sphere inside. What they don't know is that the sphere has the power to manipulate their thoughts and perceptions, and before long the scientists' undersea habitat is a veritable haunted house of frightening visions and creeping paranoia. Who can be trusted? What is the sphere's purpose, and why is it on the ocean floor? Sphere makes some attempt to answer these questions, but the film is a mess, and it leads to one of the most anticlimactic endings of any science fiction film ever made. There are moments of high intensity and psychological suspense, and the stellar cast works hard to boost the talky screenplay. But it's clear that this was a hurried production (Hoffman and director Barry Levinson made Wag the Dog during an extended production delay), and as a result Sphere looks and feels like a film that wasn't quite ready for the cameras. Though it's by no means a waste of time, it's undeniably disappointing. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
An infant child is raised by apes after being shipwrecked off the west coast of Africa. As he grows he learns the laws of the jungle and eventually claims the title Lord of the Apes. Yet years later when he is returned to civilization as the Earl of Greystoke Tarzan (Christopher Lambert in his first English speaking role) remains uncertain as to which laws he should obey; those of man or those of the jungle...
In 1987, Buster was as much an experiment in film as its subject matter was in robbery. Could audiences ignore the rock singer status of Phil Collins in the lead role? Would audiences still be interested in a 25-year-old cash grab that had been considerably devalued by a currency gone metric? By and large the answer to both was "yes", helped considerably by a high budget (for a British film) it perfectly remade the 1960s experience. Collins as Buster Edwards is only one of a gang who all seem doomed to be captured after their £2.5 million train heist. The caper is over within 30 minutes. However, the film is really about the love story between Buster and his doting yet long-suffering wife June (an excellent Julie Walters). When the action switches to sun-drenched Mexico, you just know her loyalty is going to be tested to extremes because that's when Collins' award-winning songs kick in! "Two Hearts" and "Groovy Kind of Love" may not be 60s-styled, but the message is that love always conquers time and place.On the DVD: The transfer is rather average, as are the talent profiles of Collins, Walters, Ralph Brown (the legendary Ronnie Biggs), and director David Green. Making up for them is a 50-minute "Making of" featurette that interviews everyone involved, including the real-life Buster. There's lots of on-set tomfoolery, and some first attempts at the hit songs that hardly flatter Collins' live singing voice! --Paul Tonks
In 1951 Hollywood, a studio executive acts as fixer, shielding his company's stars from controversy, including the kidnapping of a male movie star by a group of disenchanted Communist writers. Click Images to Enlarge
In mid-1800's England Oscar (Ralph Fiennes) is a young Anglican priest a misfit and an outcast but with the soul of an angel. As a boy even though from a strict Pentecostal family he felt God told him through a sign to leave his father and his faith and join the Church of England. Lucinda (Cate Blanchett) is a teenaged Australian heiress who has an almost desperate desire to liberate her sex from the confines of the male-dominated culture of the Australia of that time. She buys a
Made in 1968 and broadcast to tremendous critical acclaim The Caesars was one of the last great drama productions made in black and white for ITV by Granada. The Caesars is an unrivalled period drama detailing the murder sex and madness that will forever have a place in the annals of ancient history. This six-part series is available for the first time anywhere on DVD. After a century of being wrecked by dissension and ruinous civil wars the Romans were willing to p
This release contains two suspenseful horror films from the 1960s: VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED and CHILDREN OF THE DAMNED.
Tony Rome: Tony Rome a tough Miami PI living on a houseboat is hired by a local millionaire to find jewelry stolen from his daughter and in the process has several encounters with local hoods as well as the Miami Beach PD. The Detective: A hard-boiled mystery starring Frank Sinatra as the tough-as-nails Detective Joe Leland 'The Detective' was based on a novel by Roderick Thorp. Called in to investigate the murder of Teddy Leikman the homosexual son of a well-conn
A martial arts master agrees to teach karate to a bullied teenager. Special Features: Includes a Hilarious Gag Reel and Behind-The-Scenes Vignettes!
Sir John Gielgud is joined by an outstanding repertory of actors - including Dame Peggy Ashcroft Sir Anthony Hopkins Lee Remick Ian Richardson and Julian Glover - in this pioneering imaginative series demonstrating the immense variety and emotional impact of English-language poetry from the fourteenth century to the contemporary era. Screened in 1984 and compiled by writer and poet Anthony Thwaite Six Centuries of Verse was the first television series to provide a systematic and chronological overview of the art taking in Chaucer the Medieval and Renaissance periods Shakespeare the Metaphysical poets Milton the Romantic period and modernism through to Philip Larkin and Ted Hughes; the chosen poems both classics and overlooked treasures are placed into context historically and geographically and read in richly evocative settings.
Marisa Tomei won an Awscah (OSCAR) for her hilarious turn as a car-savvy fish-outta-watah in this must-own comedy! When Bill and Stan (Ralph Macchio and Mitchell Whitfield) are mistakenly accused of murder on a trip through Alabama they recruit Bill's cousin Vinny (OSCAR Winner Joe Pesci) a New York lawyer who's never gone to trial to represent them before the formidable Judge Haller (Fred Gwynne). Will justice follow Vinny and his girlfriend (Tomei) south when they try to save the day? It's the most hilarious culture clash ever when they hit the road in this tried-and-true favourite.
Whoopi Goldberg returns in a gratuitous, poorly written sequel that contrives a reason to get her character back into Maggie Smith's convent. The "socially conscious" plot finds Goldberg being asked to relate to a bunch of street kids and pull them together into a choir. Since a bad guy is needed, the script grabs that old chestnut about a rich guy (James Coburn) preparing to close down the convent's school, and runs with it. The film is slow and unconvincing from start to finish, although co-stars Mary Wickes and Kathy Najimy get some good laughs, and the music is pretty spirited. --Tom Keogh
The fisherman from a Cornish village have a friendly rivalry with the fishermen (and one formidable woman) from a French port. Then war comes and they must all rethink their petty differences.
Scruffy, kindhearted Kubo ekes out a humble living while devotedly caring for his mother in their sleepy shoreside village. It is a quiet existence -- until a spirit from the past catches up with him to enforce an age-old vendetta.
A fatherless teenager faces his moment of truth in The Karate Kid. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in Los Angeles from the East Coast and faces the difficult task of making new friends. However he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobras a menacing gang of karate students when he strikes up a relationship with Ali (Elisabeth Shue) the Cobra leader's ex-girlfriend. Eager to fight back and impress his new girlfriend but afraid to confront the dangerous gang Daniel asks his
There have been many film and TV adaptations of Oliver Twist but this 1948 production from director David Lean remains the definitive screen interpretation of the Charles Dickens classic. From the ominous symbolism of its opening storm sequence (in which Oliver's pregnant, ill-fated mother struggles to reach shelter before childbirth) to the mob-scene climax that provokes Bill Sikes's dreadful comeuppance, this breathtaking black-and-white film remains loyal to Dickens while distilling the story into its purest cinematic essence.Every detail is perfect--Lean even includes a coffin-shaped snuffbox for the cruel Mr. Sowerberry--and as young Oliver, eight-year-old John Howard Davies (who would later produce Monty Python's Flying Circus for the BBC) perfectly expresses the orphan's boyish wonderment, stern determination and waifish vulnerability. Best of all is Alec Guinness as Fagin, so devious and yet so delightfully appealing under his beak-nosed (and, at the time, highly controversial) make-up. (Many complained that Fagin's huge nose and greedy demeanour presented an anti-Semitic stereotype, even though Lean never identifies Fagin as Jewish; for this reason, the film wasn't shown in the US until three years after its British release.) Likewise, young Anthony Newley is artfully dodgy as Fagin's loyal accomplice, the Artful Dodger. Guinness's performance would later provide strong inspiration for Ron Moody's equally splendid portrayal of Fagin in the Oscar-winning Oliver! and while that 1968 musical remains wonderfully entertaining, it is Lean's film that hews closest to Dickens' vision. The authentic recreation of 19th-century London is marvellous to behold; Guy Green's cinematography is so shadowy and stylised that it almost qualifies as Dickensian film noir. Lean is surprisingly blunt in conveying Dickens's theme of cruelty but his film never loses sight of the warmth and humanity that Oliver embodies. --Jeff Shannon
Fantasy adventure double bill loosely based on the Greek myth of Perseus, who is played here by Sam Worthington. In 'Clash of the Titans' (2010) Perseus is the son of the King of the Gods, Zeus (Liam Neeson), but is raised as a man. When Hades (Ralph Fiennes), the God of the underworld, threatens to seize power from Zeus, Perseus embarks on a life-threatening mission to defeat him. Joined by a group of brave warriors, Perseus is forced to battle beasts and demons in order to save his family a...
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