Bernie Mac and Ashton Kutcher star in this modern reworking of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner"
Inspired by a true story, this provocative tale of crime and redemption earned Susan Sarandon a 1995 Oscar for Best Actress and Sean Penn an Oscar Nomination for Best Actor. Sister Helen Prejean (Sarandon) becomes the spiritual advisor to Matthew Poncelet (Penn), a vicious and complex killer awaiting execution. As she attempts to save Matthew's dark soul, she uncovers shocking truths that will rock the very foundation of her faith.
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
The film packed with stunning images jaw-dropping scenes and superb performances from Robert De Niro and Mickey Rourke is a fusion of two genres - the classic Chandleresque detective story and the supernatural. Harry Angel is hired for 5 a day to track down the big band swinger Johnny Favourite. What seems like a straight-forward missing person case dramatically becomes a murder hunt for this down-and-out private detective. His client Louis Cypher a mysterious stranger is forced to up his fee to keep Angel on the case. Each of Angel's leads ends up as a victim of a ritualistic act of murder as he begins to put together the pieces in the jigsaw of Johnny's strange story... the nightmare has just begun.
Halle Berry stars as a successful criminal psychologist who wakes up to find herself a patient in her own mental institution with no memory of the murder she's apparently committed.
For The First Time, In One Collection, The Complete Television Phenomenon Twin Peaks: All 29 episodes of the original groundbreaking seasons All 18 parts of the Limited Event Series - the return to Twin Peaks - that captivated audiences 25 years later, written by the series co-creators and entirely directed by David Lynch A wealth of intriguing, behind-the-scenes special features So grab a cup of coffee, a slice of cherry pie, and experience the legendary mystery...again and again!
Brace yourself for tests of faith, twists of fate and tantalising fantasy in ABC Studios' Once Upon a Time, Seasons 1-6. Welcome to Storybrooke: a mysterious town frozen in time and trapped in lost memories by an Evil Queen's terrible curse - until Saviour Emma Swan arrives to shatter the spell and vanquish the darkness. Prepare to meet the fairytale heroes and villains you thought you knew, only to discover flaws, fears, obsessions and passions that make them all too human. From Oz to Never Land, from Camelot to Agrabah; whether they thirst for absolute power or hunger for true love, their stories play out against a thrilling backdrop of action, suspense and powerful magic that's as real as life and death itself and always comes at a price. Immerse yourself in all six, riveting seasons - plus fascinating bonsu features - as you expereince the ultimate high-stakes saga of revenge and redemption that is Once Upon a Time. Features: Behind The Scenes Bloopers Audio Commentary Deleted Scenes
This film, which again pairs Richard Gere and Kim Basinger (who starred in 1986's No Mercy), offers up elements of classic noir: a hapless man becomes intimately involved with a beautiful blonde who may or may not be who or what she appears to be. Dedicated psychiatrist Isaac Barr (Gere) reluctantly, and then more obsessively, becomes involved with Heather Evans (Basinger), the sister of his patient, Diana Baylor (Uma Thurman). Evans is unhappily married to a gangster (appropriately played by a muscular and menacing Eric Roberts in a trademark role). Gere and Basinger make a credible, if dangerous couple, and Thurman delivers a subtle, understated performance and demonstrates her range and potential. The thriller is appropriately shot in gorgeous San Francisco, where the literal and figurative curving and hilly roads wind throughout. Credit legendary art director Dean Tavoularis for some amazing sets and scenes, notably the elegantly cavernous restaurant where Evans and her husband have a fateful dinner. This film is, in a way, glossy director Phil Joanou's Hitchcockian tribute--as a climactic lighthouse scene best demonstrates. Final Analysis doesn't offer an intimate look at its characters, but a beautifully stylized one, moody and gloomy. The intricate plot experiments with the device of "pathological intoxication," in which the subject completely loses control after drinking alcohol. And this doesn't mean a conventional ugly drunk; it means a frightening psychotic. Good and evil, hope and despair, beauty and repulsion are often juxtaposed in the film's complex world. --NF Mendoza
Oscar winner Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds star in the action-thriller Safe House. An American traitor (Washington) has been taken to a location off the grid in South Africa, where he is being held by an inexperienced CIA employee (Reynolds).
A BRAND NEW RESTORATION COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ORIGINAL WWII RAID A much-loved British classic, Michael Anderson's 1955 drama captures the tension and bravery of an audacious raid on the center of Nazi Germany's industrial complex and the quintessentially English combination of inventiveness and dogged determination. Split into two distinct sections, the film deals first with the fraught, but the ultimately successful development of a new bomb, by Dr. Barnes N. Wallis (Michael Redgrave). The second deals with the mission itself during the British raid on the Ruhr Dams, and its associated costs for the enemy and for the British airmen. Adapted by R.C. Sherriff from Paul Brickhill's book Enemy Coast Ahead and featuring superlative special effects photography by Gilbert Taylor (to say nothing of Eric Coates' stirring theme tune), The Dam Busters was Britain's biggest box office the success of 1955. Collector's Edition Includes a 64-page booklet with brand new essays, and photographs, plus a rare print of an ariel photograph of the Mohne dam post raid, signed by the original 617 squadron Features: RAF poster of the Chastise Lancaster's
Humphrey Bogart is heartbreaking as the tragic Captain Queeg in this 1954 film, based on a novel by Herman Wouk, about a mutiny aboard a navy ship during World War II. Stripped of his authority by two officers under his command (played by Van Johnson and Robert Francis) during a devastating storm, Queeg becomes a crucial witness at a court martial that reveals as much about the invisible injuries of war as anything. Edward Dmytryk (Murder My Sweet, Raintree County) directs the action scenes with a sure hand and nudges his all-male cast toward some of the most well-defined characters of 1950s cinema. The courtroom scenes alone have become the basis for a stage play (and a television movie in 1988), but it is a more satisfying experience to see the entire story in context. --Tom Keogh
During the 1940s the Rank Organisation was a phenomenal success in the film world boasting five studios two newsreels a great many production companies a staff of 31 000 650 cinemas and an incredible turnover of 45 million. To celebrate 70 years of Britain's most acclaimed film studio this fantastic collection encompasses some of Ranks most prestigious and successful films. The Red Shoes The tragic and romantic story of Vicky Page the brilliant young dancer who must giv
In this explosive story of revenge and urban violence Charles Bronson plays Paul Kersey a bleeding-heart liberal who has a change of opinion after his wife and daughter are violently attacked by a gang of thugs in their apartment. His daughter is raped and his wife is raped and murdered. Bronson then turns vigilante as he stalks the mean streets of New York on the prowl for muggers hoodlums and the like. Death Wish is a violent controversial film that is frank and original in its treatment of urban crime and the average citizen's helplessness in dealing with it. Herbie Hancock wrote the musical score and Jeff Goldblum makes his big screen debut as one of the thugs.
Director John Huston was a master of storytelling and Prizzi's Honor was his black comedy masterpiece. It was nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Picture and Anjelica Huston won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her caustic performance. Charley Partanna a do-it-yourself kind of guy has been loyal to 'The Family' since he can remember. If you need somebody rubbed out he's your eraser ready to kill at the drop of a dollar. Boss Don Corrado Prizzi's daughter Maerose has eyes for Charley but Charley has already fallen for a sultry hit-woman named Irene Walker. Their unlikely romance hits a snag however as Irene and Charley have each been hired to knock off the other.
The film that effectively launched the star careers of Robert Carlyle, Ewan McGregor and Jonny Lee Miller is a hard, barbed picaresque, culled from the bestseller by Irvine Welsh and thrown down against the heroin hinterlands of Edinburgh. Directed with abandon by Danny Boyle, Trainspotting conspires to be at once a hip youth flick and a grim cautionary fable. Released on an unsuspecting public in 1996, the picture struck a chord with audiences worldwide and became adopted as an instant symbol of a booming British rave culture (an irony, given the characters' main drug of choice is heroin not ecstasy).McGregor, Lee Miller and Ewen Bremner play a slouching trio of Scottish junkies; Carlyle their narcotic-eschewing but hard-drinking and generally psychotic mate Begbie. In Boyle's hands, their lives unfold in a rush of euphoric highs, blow-out overdoses and agonising withdrawals (all cued to a vogueish pop soundtrack). Throughout it all, John Hodge's screenplay strikes a delicate balance between acknowledging the inherent pleasures of drug use and spotlighting its eventual consequences. In Trainspotting's world view, it all comes down to a question of choices--between the dangerous Day-Glo highs of the addict and the grey, grinding consumerism of the everyday Joe. "Choose life", quips the film's narrator (McGregor) in a monologue that was to become a mantra. "Choose a job, choose a starter home... But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?" Ultimately, Trainspotting's wised-up, dead-beat inhabitants reject mainstream society in favour of a headlong rush to destruction. It makes for an exhilarating, energised and frequently terrifying trip that blazes with more energy and passion than a thousand more ostensibly life-embracing movies. --Xan Brooks
This eight disc Lonesome Dove Boxset relays the saga of Woodrow Call and Gus McCrae capturing the spirit and adventure of these wonderful westerns. Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novels by Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove stars Robert Duvall Tommy Lee Jones and Anjelica Huston in the tale of two former Texas Rangers who leave the South Texas town of Lonesome Dove on an epic 2500-mile cattle drive to the lush ranch country of Montana.
Robert Walker, Herbert Lom and Christopher Lee all feature in this spectacular adventure of lost treasure set deep in the Amazon jungle, but the undeniable star of The Face of Eve is screen goddess Celeste Yarnall later immortalised as the blood-thirsty temptress in cult horror classic The Velvet Vampire. Scripted by legendary British B-movie mogul Harry Alan Towers, The Face of Eve is presented here in a brand-new transfer from the original film elements in its as-exhibited theatrical aspect ratio.Mike Yates, a pilot and adventurer searching for lost Inca treasure, is saved from savages by a beautiful white jungle goddess who wields a strange power over her subjects. Soon both Yates and the mysterious Eve are involved in a dangerous race deep into the jungle to locate the hidden treasure...SPECIAL FEATURE: Image Gallery
Pierce Brosnan returns as sexy super-spy James Bond. The agent's assignment is as follows: he must protect Elektra King (Sophie Marceau) the sole heir of a British oil tycoon from the influence of terrorist Renard (Robert Carlyle). Unfortunately she double-crosses him and the world's oil supply is put in peril. Now he must take on Renard a villain who feels no physical pain with the help of do-gooder scientist Christmas Jones (Denise Richards)...
An obvious attempt to cash in on the success of Jaws, this 1977 thriller was also based on a best-seller by Peter Benchley, and it features a memorable performance by Robert Shaw (the doomed shark hunter in Jaws) in one of the last roles of his career. Looking very tanned and healthy, Nick Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset play a young couple enjoying a tropical vacation who discover a glass ampoule while scuba diving off the coast of Bermuda. It takes a seasoned treasure hunter (Shaw) to identify the ampoule as part of a valuable shipment of World War II morphine lost at sea, coincidentally, atop the even greater treasure of a sunken Spanish galleon. Thus begins a race for drugs and treasure pitting Nolte, Bisset and Shaw against a ruthless drug lord (Louis Gossett Jr) who will do anything--even resort to Haitian voodoo--to get what he wants. It's all rather contrived and exploitative (after all, the movie's best known for Bisset's wet T-shirt scuba-dive), but as escapist entertainment goes it's got some exciting highlights including a moray eel that attacks on cue and... well, uh, Jacqueline Bisset in a wet T-shirt. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
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