In Unbreakable, writer-director M. Night Shyamalan reunites with Sixth Sense star Bruce Willis, comes up with another story of everyday folk baffled by the supernatural (or at least unknown-to-science) and returns to his home town, presenting Philadelphia as a wintry haunt of the bizarre yet transcendent. This time around, Willis (in earnest, agonised, frankly bald Twelve Monkeys mode) has the paranormal abilities, and a superbly un-typecast Samuel L. Jackson is the investigator who digs into someone else's strange life to prompt startling revelations about his own. David Dunn (Willis), an ex-jock security guard with a failing marriage (to Robin Wright Penn), is the stunned sole survivor of a train derailment. Approached by Elijah Price (Jackson), a dealer in comic book art who suffers from a rare brittle bone syndrome, Dunn comes to wonder whether Price's theory that he has superhuman abilities might not hold water. Dunn's young son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) encourages him to test his powers and the primal scene of Superman bouncing a bullet off his chest is rewritten as an amazing kitchen confrontation when Joseph pulls the family gun on Dad in a desperate attempt to convince him that he really is unbreakable (surely, "Invulnerable" would have been a more apt title). Half-convinced he is the real-world equivalent of a superhero, Dunn commences a never-ending battle against crime but learns a hard lesson about balancing forces in the universe. Throughout, the film refers to comic-book imagery--with Dunn's security guard slicker coming to look like a cape, and Price's gallery taking on elements of a Batcave-like lair--while the lectures on artwork and symbolism feed back into the plot. The last act offers a terrific suspense-thriller scene, which (like the similar family-saving at the end of The Sixth Sense) is a self-contained sub-plot that slingshots a twist ending that may have been obvious all along. Some viewers might find the stately solemnity with which Shyamalan approaches a subject usually treated with colourful silliness offputting, but Unbreakable wins points for not playing safe and proves that both Willis and Jackson, too often cast in lazy blockbusters, have the acting chops to enter the heart of darkness. --Kim Newman
Let's Get Into Trouble Baby! After being fired from their jobs as security guards lifelong friends Ivan (John Cusack) and Josh (Tim Robbins) form 'Video Aces' to break into the world of music videos. But when they try to resuscitate the career of legendary soul duo The Swanky Modes (Junior Walker and Sam Moore) they find themselves careening through an outrageous underworld of chicken and waffles Scandinavian synth bands Menudo concerts and a presidential candidate with a fairy princess fetish. Tapeheads features appearances by Don Cornelius Connie Stevens Martha Quinn Ted Nugent Bob Goldthwait Jello Biafra and Michael Nesmith plus a killer soundtrack of songs by Fishbone Devo Circle Jerks Dead Kennedys They Might Be Giants King Cotton Bob Roberts and more!
On the morning of his 30th birthday Josef K. (MacLachlan) wakes up to every person's worst nightmare when two strange men enter his home to place him under arrest. Bewildered by the reasoning of these two authorities he doesn't take the charges seriously and attempts to carry on his life as usual. When summoned to a hearing in an unfamiliar part of the city however K. refuses to accept the case being brought against him by the system. The more K. tries to fight the unnamed charge
The first BBC television adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic, Our Mutual Friend (1959) is now available for the first time to own on DVD. Starring Paul Danman and Zena Walker, and featuring Golden Globe nominee David McCallum and Oscar nominee Rachel Roberts. When waterman Gaffer Hexam (Julian Somers) and daughter Lizzie (Rachel Roberts) fish a battered corpse from the Thames, it is identified as that of John Harmon. Had Harmon lived, his father s will required him to marry pretty Bella Wilfer (Zena Walker). Instead, the substantial estate passes on to Mr and Mrs Boffin (Richard Pearson and Marda Vanne), a kindhearted couple who adopt Bella. The mysterious John Rokesmith (Paul Daneman) becomes their trusted secretary, and they engage one-legged schemer Silas Wegg (Esmond Knight) to entertain them with nightly readings. Lizzie is pursued by two suitors in the shape of work shy barrister Eugene Wrayburn (David McCallum) and wily Bradley Headstone (Alex Scott), and they become bitter rivals. But what of Rokesmith s true identity? And can the course of love and destiny run smooth?
The smash hit sequel to Deanna Durbin's debut film 'Three Smart Girls' THREE SMART GIRLS GROW UP saw Deanna once more taking on the role that made her name and singing her signature song 'Because'.Deanna stars as Penny Craig the youngest of three sisters. When the handsome and debonair Richard Watkins (William Lundigan) proposes to her sister Joan everyone in the Craig household is delighted except for Penny's other sister Kay. She was secretly in love with Richard too...Determined to help young Penny turns to the family butler for advice. He says that Kay will forget all about Richard when she meets another 'tall dark and handsome' man. Never one to duck a challenge Penny finds just such a man to court her sister Kay - Harry Loren. Only Harry then falls madly in love with Joan... and everyone thinks Penny secretly loves Harry! Will the course of true love ever run smoothly in the Craig Household?Apart from the captivating 'Because' THREE SMART GIRLS also sees Deanna Durbin performing three other charming musical numbers 'Invitation to the Dance' 'La Capinera' and 'The Last Rose of Summer'.
An unusual adult Western for its time Vengeance Valley (1951) gave Burt Lancaster his first Western role. His athletic prowess made him perfect for the genre and he'd go on to make Gunfight At O.K. Corral Apache and The Unforgiven among others. Vengeance Valley emphasises character development and the solid cast meets the challenge. Robert Walker plays Burt's foster brother. Joanne Dru John Ireland Ted de Corsia Hugh O'Brien and Glenn Strange lend support. One of the real stars of the picture is the gorgeous three-strip Technicolor photography by George J.Folsey. The West has rarely looked more colorful.
Paul Robeson, Leslie Banks and Nina Mae McKinney star in this classic adaptation of Edgar Wallace's celebrated adventure story set in British Colonial Nigeria. A box-office triumph that earned director Zoltan Korda the first of his four nominations for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, Sanders of the River is featured in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements, in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.Determined to maintain peace in the river district of West Africa, British Commissioner Sanders works closely with Bosambo a probationary chief who, under Sanders' orders, frees a slave convoy sent by another chief, King Mofolaba. Bosambo marries Lilongo, the most beautiful slave, but when Sanders goes on leave King Mofolaba attacks and captures Bosambo's wife. When his attempts to rescue her end in capture as well, all seems lost...SPECIAL FEATURES: Image Gallery Promotional Material PDF
Till the Clouds Roll By was the big MGM extravaganza of 1946, purporting to be a life of the first giant of the stage musical, Jerome Kern. Great chunks of Show Boat, Sweet Adeline and Sunny dominate while, in between excerpts, reliable Robert Walker does valiant work as Kern, lending a gentle credibility to even the most extravagant licenses taken by the writers. The liberties taken with Kern's story beggar belief, but what a fine excuse this is to sit back and enjoy a procession of gems from the great American songbook, performed by genuine legends. Judy Garland has two numbers as Marilyn Miller, both directed by husband Vincente Minnelli at the peak of their creative and personal relationships. Singing "Who?", she has to float down the proverbial staircase, obviously pregnant (Liza was born a short time later). Others to shine include Kathryn Grayson, June Allyson, Dinah Shore and, more bizarrely, a skinny young Sinatra drafted in at the last for a rousing "Old Man River". Most poignant of all is the presence of Lena Horne who, but for the racist values of Hollywood at the time, would have been a great film star. Ever confined to guest appearances, she here sings the songs of Show Boat's tragic half-caste Julie. When MGM filmed the musical in 1951, the same part went to Ava Gardner. On the DVD: Till the Clouds Roll By may boast digital remastering, but it could have done with a deal of restoration, too. Presented in 4:3 format, the picture quality is often pixellated and the soundtrack in "HiFi Stereo" is muffled and occasionally cracked. Considering its value as an archive of great performers, some rarely seen on film, this film deserves better DVD treatment. --Piers Ford
Cynthia McKay is Lawton Hobbs' personal bodyguard. Hobbs is being threatened by Nina Lindell a seductress who had earlier killed McKay's lover.
When the police force can't be trusted... CIB: the police for the police. Loathed by fellow officers and treated with suspicion by the public their's is a grey world of corruption and one that leaves rising star Superintendent Tony Clark cold. Reluctantly involved in the beginning he finds that now there is no going back. As the taste of his promotion turns sour he finds himself well and truly caught between the lines...
28 Days Later:In this film from director Danny Boyle and writer Alex Garland a powerful virus is unleashed on the British public following a raid on a primate research facility by animal rights activists. Transmitted in a drop of blood and devastating within seconds the virus locks those infected into a permanent state of murderous rage. Within 28 days the country is overwhelmed and a handful of survivors begin their attempts to salvage a future little realising that the dea
After the success of THE BOOGEYMAN (1980) - a slasher classic that carved its way to box office riches and video nasty notoriety - director Ulli Lommel was all too happy to reunite with starlet Suzanna Love for another bout of blood thirsty brutality... and the result is 1983 s PROZZIE, also know as OLIVIA and Double Jeopardy. Regardless of the moniker, this superb slice and dice sickie is one of the most underrated knife-play pot boilers ever imagined... with Love portraying a femme fatale that has a damaged background and a wonderfully skillful way with sharp utensils. Let s put it this way: you may well want her to undress... but the chances are that it is her who will be doing the penetrating! Whilst THE BOOGEYMAN might be Lommel s most famous freak-show, PROZZIE is his most outrageous orgy of sex and violence and only 88 Films, the label that seeks out forgotten splatter flicks and restores them in awesome HD, could have understood the need for a new generation to see this crimson-caked gem in all of its hi-def delirium!!! See PROZZIE and admire a timeless mix of curves and carnage!
A fascinating and colourful screen biography of Jerome Kern (Robert Walker). It starts with the opening night of his smash hit ""showboat"" and flashes back to his beginnings as an almost penniless songwriter. The film follows his friendship with James I Hessler and journeys to England where the best songwriters are reputed to be and where he finds his early successes - and the future Mrs Kern (Dorothy Patrick). After some difficult times in the USA he collaborates with Oscar Hammerstein II; the result being the classic adaptation of Edna Ferber's ""Showboat"". The picture's grand finale features Frank Sinatra singing ""Ol' Man River"" - This is one huge and lavish theatrical feast; great entertainment.
Ulli Lommel co-writes and directs this '80s horror starring Suzanna Love and Donald Pleasence. 300 years after three local women, who were accused of witchcraft and brutally murdered by the local townsfolk, cursed the New England town of Devonsville their modern-day counterparts arrive in the colonial town. The arrival of three socially liberated women causes panic in the town's male-dominated hierarchy, who fear the presence of the women heralds the fulfilment of the curse. One of the women, schoolteacher Jenny Scanlon (Love), seeks help from psychiatrist Dr. Warley (Pleasence) when she begins experiencing horrific dreams, the precursor of events about to unfold that are rooted in her past life.
Directed by Dennis Hopper, Colors is a superior 1988 action movie set among the street gangs of LA that teams up Robert Duvall as Hodges, the elder cop, with young hothead partner Danny McGavin (Sean Penn). Investigating a murderous feud between the Bloods and the Crips, Duvall attempts to impress upon the impetuous Penn the value of a more cautious, easy-going approach in dealing with gang members, rather than trying to charge in among them. The film as a whole was one of the first to take a serious, unromantic and unstereotypical look at gang culture, at how youngsters are sucked into it, how few options are actually open to these macho hoodlums and how little they have in the way of family, community and stability other than the gangs. The partnership between Penn and Duvall by contrast, though well played, is pretty much the standard old cop/young cop set-up, right down to Duvalls frequent, ominous remarks about how close he is to retirement. While the action is sometimes disjointed and the relationships between the gangs at times confused, it at least helps to dispel the usual Hollywood good vs. evil dynamic. Instead, theres a more ambient sense of violence, desperation, retribution and recrimination. Penns doomed relationship with a homegirl indicates that while the LAPD may capture a few felons, theyve little chance of capturing the hearts and minds of the criminalised poor. Later films such as John Singletons Boyz 'n the Hood (1991) would go further in exploring how life looks from the gangsta perspective.On the DVD: The films is presented in an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen version, with the usual chapter and language selections. The only other feature is the original, detailed but run-of-the-mill trailer. --David Stubbs
Rancher Taw Jackson (Wayne) is dead-set on capturing an ironclad stagecoach belonging to the cattle baron who stole his fortune and tarnished his good name years before. To pull off the heist Jackson puts together a crew that includes an old character a half-civilized Indian a young drunk and a cocky gunfighter...
The magical story of a boy who finds a reindeer and a family that finds itself... Eight-year old Charlie Holton's life is about to change; deep in the mountain woods he discovers a gangly baby reindeer all alone. Believing this must be Prancer Santa's reindeer Charlie takes the gentle creature home to care for him until Christmas. Charlie emails Santa hoping he'll pick up Prancer on Christmas Eve...
In 1958 Rob Walker became the first private entrant to win a world championship Grand Prix when his car took the chequered flag with Stirling Moss behind the wheel. In this fascinating film Rob Walker tells his own story - from a childhood passion for motorcars right through to his success as a team manager.
A mind for crime a taste for fame. Robert Lindsay stars in this four part series as 1950's renegade Detective Inspector Michael Jericho of Scotland Yard. A wonderfully distinctive series the CGI flourishes really help to create a sense of a sense of London in the '50s to which some have dubbed 'Glamour Noir'. Episode 1: A Pair of Ragged Claws This episode is set in 1958. Jericho is the most famous policeman in London. Two different crimes fall into his lap: the mur
Six months after the rage virus annihilated the British Isles, the US Army starts to repopulate the country. But it's not long before the virus resurfaces.
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