Only one man can save them all The award-winning series Sharpe starring Sean Bean returns for another action-packed adventure. It's India 1818 and Lt Col Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper are travelling across India escorting the beautiful Marie-Angelique Bonnet to meet her fianc''e. While in bandit-plagued badlands they come across the very dregs of the Crown's troops; an ill disciplined rag-tag unit led by boy soldier Beauclare. As Sharpe and company sit down to have dinner with their hosts the camp comes under attack by the notorious bandit Chitu. As the dust settles it becomes apparent there have been many casualties and Sharpe realises that he is the only person now capable of getting this wagon train to the safety of the next army garrison. Little does Sharpe know that the adventure has only just begun and that he has inadvertently stumbled across a massive opium trafficking ring...
Originally airing 20 years ago in 1984 this season sees Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) face the break-up of their explosive relationship - a predicament that brings the new character of Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammar) into the show's comedic mix. Along with the usual laughs provided by the antics of Carla (Rhea Perlman) Cliff (John Ratzenberger) and Norm (George Wendt) this series also says farewell to actor Nicholas ""Coach"" Colosanto whose untimely death occurred shor
With the slash of a steel blade and the mark of a 'Z' he defends the weak and exploits and avenges the wrongs committed against them... It has been twenty years since Don Diego de la Vega (Anthony Hopkins) successfully fought Spanish oppression in Alta California as the legendary romantic hero Zorro. He transforms troubled bandit Alejandro (Antonio Banderas) into his successor in order to stop the tyrannical Don Rafael Montero (Stuart Wilson) who robbed him of his freedom his
For its fourth season, Cheers served up a new bartender. Following the death of Nicholas Colasanto, who had played Coach, the season premiere introduced Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson), the Indiana hick who certainly didn't raise the bar's collective IQ but had his own brand of endearing goofiness. That episode, "Birth, Death, Love and Rice", also explained what happened at the end of season 3 when Sam (Ted Danson) chased Diane (Shelley Long) and Frasier (Kesley Grammer) to Italy in hopes of preventing their marriage. The end result is that Diane returns to work at the bar and resumes her sexually charged flirtation with Sam, and Frasier becomes a brooding presence always looking for a way to win her back. Jennifer Tilly guest-stars as one of Sam's ex-girlfriends who actually hits it off with the petulant psychiatrist, but stealing the show in the same episode ("Second Time Around") was Dr. Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth), in what was supposed to be a five-minute one-shot role. The impossibly buttoned-up Sternin was such a perfect match for Frasier that she later became a regular cast member and won two Emmys. In other memorable episodes, Andy Andy (Derek McGrath) returns to terrorize Diane ("Diane's Nightmare"), the gang tries to turn the tables on Gary's Old Town Tavern in a bowling match ("From Beer to Eternity"), and Frasier sets up a night at the opera ("Diane Chambers Day"). In the three-part season finale ("Strange Bedfellows"), Sam begins dating a politician (Kate Mulgrew, later of Star Trek: Voyager) running for reelection. Diane decides to work for her opponent before taking a more drastic step, leading to Sam's memorable telephone call that served as a cliffhanger leading to season 5. Unlike previous seasons, the DVD set has no extras. --David Horiuchi
It looks great: season two of the situation comedy many consider the best ever produced on American television has a superb presentation on this DVD collection. The colours are rich, the images sharp--a vast improvement over those murky reruns in perpetual TV syndication. Then, of course, there are the consistently brilliant episodes from Cheers' sophomore year. Despite its low-rated debut in 1982, the ensemble farce set in a Boston bar confidently returned with several strong story arcs, including the turbulent, screwball romance between intellectual poseur Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and affable primitive Sam Malone (Ted Danson), romantic conflicts for the sexually voracious and deeply cynical barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman) and marital separation for beloved barfly Norm (George Wendt). With John Ratzenberger signing on as a full-time cast member (playing pompous jive-slinger and postman Cliff Claven), and those opaque one-liners by the clueless Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), Cheers was firing on all cylinders. Episode highlights include "They Call Me Mayday", in which talk-show personality Dick Cavett, playing himself, convinces Sam the public would be interested in the former major league pitcher's autobiography--a notion that throws the unpublished, would-be novelist Diane into disbelief. Also wonderful is "Where There's a Will," guest-starring George Gaynes as a rich, dying man who leaves the gang $100,000 on a paper napkin will. "No Help Wanted" finds Sam's friendship with down-on-his-luck accountant Norm strained when the latter has a go at the bar's books, while the great "Coach Buries a Grudge" features the addled, elder statesman of Cheers delivering a memorable eulogy for a friend after discovering the dead man had an affair with his wife. Opinions vary about the worthiness of Cheers' latter years (the show ended in 1993), but no one disputes the merit of its ground-breaking start. --Tom Keogh
Annabelle's Wish is a magical animated feature based on the legend that on Christmas Eve Santa Claus gives all animals a speaking voice just for one night. A loveable calf named Annabelle born on Christmas Eve has a very special wish: to fly like on of Santa's reindeers. A special friendship forms between Annabelle and Billy a young boy who cannot talk. Along with a friendly bunch of barnyard animals they contend with Billy's mean Aunt and the bullies in the neighbourhood. Annabelle shows the true meaning of Christmas by making one very special wish come true.
The definition of comfort television is this: you want to go where you know everybody's name. And you're always glad you came. Cheers is open for business once again in this set that contains all 22 episodes of the first, and best, season of the show that inherited Taxi's mantle as television's best ensemble-driven workplace comedy. It can be instructive to return to a long-running series' more humble beginnings. While Cheers got drunk on farce in its later years, it began life as a much more grounded human comedy. In these inaugural episodes, the action does not stray from the Boston bar owned by Sam Malone, a washed-up baseball player three years sober. The straws that stir the drink are the supporting players: Nick Colasanto as addled Coach; Rhea Perlman, the Thelma Ritter of her generation, as surly and fertile waitress Carla; George Wendt as quintessential barfly Norm; and John Ratzenberger as Cliff, the bar know-it-all ready with "little-known facts" (and blessedly far from the pathetic blowhard his character would evolve into). Spiking this concoction is the palpable chemistry between Ted Danson's Sam and Shelley Long's Diane Chambers, fledgling waitress and self-described "student of life". The battle lines are drawn in the episode "Sam's Women": He's the "dim ex-baseball player" and she, "the post graduate". But, as Carla so indelicately puts it, they can't "put their glands on hold". In the first blush of lust, they were primetime's most potent mismatched couple until Moonlighting's David and Maddie bantered double entendres. Here are little remembered facts: Sam was initially "an astute judge of human character"; guest stars Fred Dryer ("Sam at Eleven") and Julia Duffy ("Any Friend of Diane's") were among those considered for the roles of Sam and Diane; and a pre-"Night Court" Harry Anderson stole his scenes in his recurring role as flim-flam man Harry ("Pick a Con...Any Con"). --Donald Liebenson
Director Todd Solondz presents this characteristically bleak and darkly comic drama in two distinct parts. The first story ""Fiction"" stars Selma Blair as Vi a confused university student who engages in an impulsive tryst with her Pulitzer Prize-winning professor (Robert Wisdom) after arguing with her cerebral palsy-afflicted boyfriend (Leo Fitzpatrick). The second (and longer) tale ""Non-Fiction "" stars Paul Giamatti as Toby a down-on-his-luck documentary filmmaker who turns his ca
Jim Jarmusch's black and white indie hit starring John Lurie. Willie (Lurie) is a New York hipster of Hungarian origin. When his relatives ask him to look after his 16-year-old cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), he reluctantly agrees. Initially hostile to one another, it isn't long before the cousins develop an affectionate bond, but after ten days Eva leaves to stay with her Aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark). A year later Willie and his friend Eddie (Richard Edson) head off to Cleveland to visit the two women...
Jim Jarmusch's black and white indie hit starring John Lurie. Willie (Lurie) is a New York hipster of Hungarian origin. When his relatives ask him to look after his 16-year-old cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint), he reluctantly agrees. Initially hostile to one another, it isn't long before the cousins develop an affectionate bond, but after ten days Eva leaves to stay with her Aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark). A year later Willie and his friend Eddie (Richard Edson) head off to Cleveland to visit the two women...
Jet-black comedy surrounding a group of student liberals who invite controversial guests to weekly dinner parties succumbing to the temptation of murdering rightwing pundits with poisoned Merlot for their repulsive political beliefs in the belief that they're creating a better and safer world for everyone...
It s just another day in your typical Middle America town. The children diligently head off to school, fathers leave for the office and mothers spend their day working hard to make certain the family returns to a clean house and a warm dinner on the table. Today may begin like every other day in this town of good, solid values, but children become suspicious when their mothers begin developing some very peculiar appetites. FLESH EATING MOTHERS is a non-stop cult action/comedy that tells the story of a kid s worst nightmare: becoming dinner! Extras Interview with Director Interview with Producer Trailer
Documentary on the early cinematographer Edwin S. Porter and his influences upon cinema.
Stargate SG-1 is the TV spin-off from the 1994 big-screen movie. In the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the primary unit SG-1. With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Episodes on this DVD: "Summit", "Last Stand", "48 Hours" and "Proving Ground". In a daring Tok'ra mission, Daniel Jackson is sent to infiltrate and attend a Goa'uld "Summit" disguised as a manservant. With a lot of sneaking around and a little technobabble thrown in to explain how he isn't recognised, things come to a head with the unveiling of who the secret new baddies are and how they affect Daniel personally. In a direct continuation from "Summit", SG-1 make what they hope is a "Last Stand" against the System Lords. Similarly, the Tok'ra stand together on planet Revanna where O'Neill and Teal'c have a crash course in alien technology as they learn how to grow different types of tunnel from crystal. It's been a while since someone made the analogy of the Stargates operating like a telephone exchange. "48 Hours" traps Teal'c within the system, and the team have only two days to find a way to reconnect him. Unfortunately, this requires the aid of the Russians who are more than a little reluctant about giving up their private dialling device. This episode also features terrific cameos from the slithery Maybourne and Simmons (John de Lancie). Inevitably there needs to be a next generation of SG teams, so Jack and co take time out from their missions to train up some newbies. "Proving Ground" is all about who can make the grade, and in particular they have their eyes on the brilliant Jennifer and headstrong Elliot. The tension is really piled on in this show as layers of reality build to confuse the kids and the audience as to what's really happening to them. --Paul Tonks
Confirming the testosterone-laced promise he showed in the earlier Drive, the charismatically lithe Mark Decascos stars as buff man-of-the-cloth Father Luke, whose plans for a successful food drive are put on hold when a covert kill squad forces him to confront his shadowy past in this surprisingly effective bullet ballet. The needlessly complex high-tech storyline may be somewhat shaky, but this adrenalised conspiracy thriller earns its wings by virtue of a strong cast (including a villainous Jaimz Woolvett, miles away from his role as the greenhorn gunslinger in Unforgiven), an impressively stylised lighting palette and a jaw-droppingly gonzo epilogue that cries out for--nay, demands--a sequel. Director Tibor Takacs was previously responsible for two unfairly forgotten 1980s horror gems The Gate and I, Madman. --Andrew Wright
The BBC TV series Great Composers, broadcast in 1997, takes an introductory look at key figures of European classical music. Bach (1685-1750) is a difficult composer to survey historically, partly because his life as a professional musician was restricted to several provincial German towns. Yet the vast body of music he produced is well covered, with a representative sample performed mainly on instruments of Bach's day. There's also consideration of his cultural importance as the effective progenitor of modern European music and enough anecdotal evidence to suggest a lively, combative personality in his own right. The life of Mozart (1756-1791) is easier to document, with his years as a child prodigy travelling the European cultural circuit, the difficult adolescent years in Salzburg and Paris and the rise and fall of his freelance career in Vienna all amply illustrated here. Again, a well-chosen selection of music, accompanied by thought-provoking comments from a range of musicians and historians, gently exploding the myth of the Amadeus film in the process. This is informal, informing, and worth acquiring. On the DVD: The disc offers crisp Dolby 2.0 stereo and 4:3 ratio, with generous and well-chosen access points--13 for Bach, 16 for Mozart. Subtitles are offered in five languages, and you'll need to select the English option so that the German and Italian speaking contributors come with translation. Those with DVD-ROM can additionally access up-to-date articles on these composers. --Richard Whitehouse
It's the last day of school and the unthinkable is about to happen. Distraught by constant bullying and verbal abuse from their peers two senior high school students plan to take weapons to school to murder the bullies that torment them then end their own lives in a horrific suicide pact... Based on the tragic events at Columbine High School.
The second volume of the BBC's excellent Great Composers series consists of two hour-long episodes devoted to Beethoven and Wagner respectively. The format in both cases is that of a standard "life and works" biography, but what makes these episodes so attractive is the high quality of the visual material and the engrossing nature of the insights offered from the contributors. For example, it's fascinating to hear the lead violin of the Lindsay Quartet discuss the personal significance of a certain Beethoven phrase just after Charles Rosen has drawn a parallel with the composer's use of form and the speeches of Robespierre. If this makes the whole project sound as wholesome and dull as dry muesli, everyone also seems alive to the human idiosyncrasies of the subjects: we learn, among other things, that the utterly humourless Cosima Wagner used to keep her husband's eyelashes and carry them around with her in a bag. The musical excerpts are both performed--by the Berlin State Opera Orchestra and other groups--and filmed with panache. Kenneth Branagh narrates. All in all, a good introduction to both composers.--Warwick Thompson
A touching but funny drama following two college friends who are questioning their careers as well as their sexuality.
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