In Sister Act, Whoopi Goldberg plays a Reno lounge singer who hides out as a nun when her villainous boyfriend (Harvey Keitel) goes gunning for her. Maggie Smith is the mother superior who has to cope with Whoopi's unorthodox behaviour, but the cute script turns the tables and shows the latter energising the stodgy convent with song and attitude. A real crowd-pleaser and a perfect vehicle for Goldberg, this is a happy experience all around. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com Whoopi Goldberg returns in Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit, 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, Amazon.com
In Sister Act Whoopi Goldberg plays a Reno lounge singer who hides out as a nun when her villainous boyfriend (Harvey Keitel) goes gunning for her. Maggie Smith is the mother superior who has to cope with Whoopi's unorthodox behaviour, but the cute script turns the tables and shows the latter energising the stodgy convent with song and attitude. A real crowd-pleaser and a perfect vehicle for Goldberg, this is a happy experience all around. --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com
Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is a tough ex-cop turned bounty hunter. Jonathan ""The Duke"" Mardukas (Charles Grodin) is a sensitive accountant who embezzled $15 million from the Mob gave it to charity and then jumped bail. Jack's in for a cool $100 000 if he can deliver the Duke from New York to L.A. on time. And alive. Sounds like just another Midnight Run (a piece of cake in bounty hunter slang) but it turns into a cross-country chase. The FBI is after the Duke to testify - the Mob is after him for revenge - and Walsh is after him to just shut up. If someone else doesn't do the job the two unlikely partners may end up killing each other in this hilarious action-filled blockbuster from producer-director Martin Brest (Beverly Hills Cop).
In the tradition of Raiders Of The Lost Ark, ROCKETEER is a full-throttle blast of thrills, fun and dazzling special effects. Set in glamarous 1930s Hollywood, it tells the story of Cliff Secord, a down-on-his-luck pilot who stumbles upon an incredible invention - a top secret jetpack that allows him to soar through the skies like a human rocket. But before long, a sinister spy (Timothy Dalton) plots to steal the jetpack, thrusting Cliff into a dangerous mission that ultimately transforms him into an extraordinary hero.
Set in Nazi-occupied France at the height of World War Two the story centres on a young Scottish woman (Cate Blanchett) working with the French Resistance in the hope of rescuing her lover, a missing RAF pilot shot down behind enemy lines.
If Eddie Murphy's comic tone turns on a dime, Martin Lawrence can perhaps be described as sauntering around the dime, looking around to see if anyone else has seen it, then picking the dime up, pocketing it, and casually walking off. He lazily indicates his humour, as if it's too much trouble to actually make the joke--and that distance is what makes him funny. At his best, Lawrence describes a kind of comic space and wanders around in it, claiming it for himself the way a dog might mark his territory, suggesting that what you think is funny doesn't matter to him; he just happens to be where the jokes are, and if you aren't laughing, that's your problem. In Blue Streak, Lawrence plays a jewel thief who plants a stolen diamond in the ventilation duct of a building under construction. When he's released from prison a few years later, he discovers that the building is now a Los Angeles police station. His solution: he impersonates a detective. Of course, everyone believes his disguise. Not only that, using his inside knowledge, he solves several crimes and earns the general admiration of the force. It's a standard fish-out-of-water setup and the plot doesn't take any chances with the formula, but Lawrence wears his role like a loose suit and does a little low-key boogie whenever he can, drawing you into the absurdity with a cock of his head and a roll of his eyes. --Bret Fetzer, Amazon.com
Based on a retro-styled comic book hit of the 80s, this Disney film was meant to launch a whole line of Rocketeer films--but the series began and ended with this one. That's too bad because this underrated Joe Johnston film has a certain loopy charm. The story centres on a pre-World War II stunt pilot (Bill Campbell) who accidentally comes into possession of a rocket-propelled backpack much coveted by the Nazis. With the aid of his mechanic pal (Alan Arkin), he gets it up and running, then uses it to foil a plot by a gang of vicious Nazi spies (is there any other kind?) led by Timothy Dalton. Jennifer Connelly is on hand as the love interest but the real fun here is when the Rocketeer takes off. There's also a nifty battle atop an airborne blimp. --Marshall Fine
Director Martin Brest rocketed to the top of Hollywood's A list with the blockbuster success of Beverly Hills Cop, and this 1988 follow-up is even better. Midnight Run is a genuine rarity--an action comedy that's dramatically satisfying--thanks to a sharp script by George Gallo, the superb teaming of Robert De Niro and Charles Grodin, and Brest's consummate skill in combining suspense and humour with well-developed characters. De Niro plays a maverick bounty hunter whose latest assignment is Grodin, an accountant accused of embezzling from the Mob. De Niro thinks he's in for an easy job, transporting Grodin (who's afraid to fly) from New York to Los Angeles, but soon discovers that both the FBI and the Mafia are hot on Grodin's trail. Equal parts road trip, action thriller, and a quirky character study, Midnight Run moves at a breakneck pace but still gives De Niro and Grodin time to create rich, memorable performances as two men who seem to be opposites, but gradually develop mutual respect and admiration. Mainstream entertainment at its best. --Jeff Shannon
Monkey Trouble is a movie only a kid could love, which was the whole point. Harvey Keitel plays a small-time thief who performs as an organ grinder on the boardwalk at Venice Beach. His scam involves his monkey, which has been trained to pick pockets. Now a mob boss wants to borrow the monkey to pull off some big scores--but the monkey runs away and is adopted by a lonely little girl (Thora Birch). She finds herself in increasingly hot water when her new pet starts bringing her the valuables of everyone in the neighbourhood. Birch is a natural young actress, while Keitel hams it up shamelessly (he reportedly made the film to amuse his young daughter). --Marshall Fine
Coast: Series 4 (BBC)
Discover the curious relationship between the British and the seas in all the episodes of the first 4 series of the popular BBC show.
An irresistible melange of showbiz and politics, The Rat Pack is a sprawling HBO TV movie about the late-50s axis between Frank Sinatra's cool-talking cronies and the White House-bound Kennedy clan. Ray Liotta, William L Petersen and Joe Mantegna manage to give real performances as opposed to impersonations as Frankie, JFK and Dean Martin, and there's a stand-out turn from Don Cheadle as Sammy Davis Jr, who fantasises a blazing, gunslinging rendition of "I've Got You Under My Skin" as delivered to the cross-burning Nazi pickets outside his hotel campaigning against his marriage to a white Swedish starlet. Naturally the story goes over a lot of familiar ground (Marilyn Monroe, and so on,) but the Hollywood-Vegas angle, with the obvious criminal tie-ins, lends it a freshness. Angus McFadyen remains typecast as real-life actors, following up his Orson Welles (Cradle Will Rock) and Richard Burton (Liz, the Elizabeth Taylor biopic) by doing a squirming, but funny take on Peter Lawford, caught between the White House and Sinatra's vast, demanding ego. Its general style is somewhere between a Scorsese gangland epic and made-for-TV muckraking biopic and a lot of material from Shawn Levy's fine book Rat Pack Confidential is worked into the weave. On the DVD: The Rat Pack is a no-frills disc presented in a good-looking 16:9 anamorphic transfer, though as it's a TV movie this means trimming the top and the bottom of the image. --Kim Newman
Revealing the secrets of our coastline... and our neighbours' too! Coast and Beyond tells the exciting stories behind the familiar and lesser-known wonders of the British coastline and ventures for the first time beyond our shores to explore their many and fascinating relationships with the neighbouring coasts of northwest Europe and northern France.
The screenplay of 'Lost In Yonkers' is adapted by Neil Simon from his own stage-play. In the summer of 1942 two brothers are sent to live with their strict grandmother in New York when their mother dies. Everything starts to look up though when Uncle Louie (Richard Dreyfuss) arrives...
Godsend: Following the death of their eight-year-old son Adam devastated parents Jessie (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) and Paul (Greg Kinnear) are desperate to do anything to resurrect their beloved child. Befriended by a doctor at the forefront of genetic research (Robert De Niro) they are offered a chance to reverse the rules of nature and clone their son. The experiment appears successful under the doctor's watchful eye and Adam grows into a healthy happy young boy. Until his e
On April 12 1972 four young campers were found dead near Sweetwater Oregon in what appeared to be a horrific mass murder. The FBI investigation that followed concluded that it was a drug induced mass suicide. The residents of the local town never agreed. They knew of the dark forces that return to the area every few decades. On March 13 2002 the six campers who planned to spend a relaxing weekend in those mountains had no idea of the horrible fate that awaited them. This is their s
Blue Streak: Jewel thief Miles Logan (Martin Lawrence) finds the only way he can recover a diamond he stole two years prior is to impersonate a detective who along with his rookie partner ends up using his wits to solve crimes... I Spy: A super-powerful experimental spy plane is stolen by an evil arms dealer and is about to be handed over to an international terrorist. The U.S. Government drafts an egotistical boxing star (Murphy) to join a suave special agent (Wilson) on a dangerous top secret mission to get the plane back. Armed with the latest high-tech gadgets and a whole lot of attitude this ultimate odd couple might be able to save the world; if they can just get along! National Security: In this hilarious action-packed comedy Martin Lawrence stars as cocky L.A.P.D. cadet Earl Montgomery who would probably be a great cop if he weren't such a show-off. Earl's rebellious attitude gets him thrown out of the police academy and he has to settle for a job as a lowly security guard with 'National Security'. After a run-in with an uptight police officer Hank Rafferty (Steve Zahn) Earl accuses him of harassment. Hank loses his badge is thrown into jail and eventually winds up working for National Security as well. Earl's overzealous behavior leads to a sophisticated smuggling operation led by Nash (Eric Roberts) and a possible police cover-up. Now everyone wants Earl and Hank dead - though they just may kill each other first!
The hardest soul to save was his own. He was touched by the power and filled with the spirit. A man of faith. A man of the flesh. A man plagued by the darker side of human desire and rage. Robert Duvall stars (and directs) as Sonny a gifted Southern preacher loved by his community. When Sonny loses control and commits a crime of passion he is forced to run from the law. Hiding out in the small town of Bayou Boutte Sonny adopts a new identity and sets out on a new mission
On April 12 1972 four young campers were found dead near Sweetwater Oregon in what appeared to be a horrific mass-murder. The FBI investigation that followed concluded that it was a drug induced mass suicide. The residents of the local town never agreed. They knew of the dark forces that return to the area every few decades. On March 13 2002 the six campers who planned to send a relaxing weekend in those mountains had no idea of the horrible fate that awaited them. Based on a true story THE ATTENDANT is a terrifying experience that will creep up on you and not let you go even after the film is over!
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