A Day Of Violence
Jake Baxter takes a job as a repoman with hopes of living the quiet life. Plans go sour when he's whipped into supersonic action involving a vicious crime lord a mob of angry car owners a sadistic porno ring and lastly a brutal illegal and very lethal car race known throughout L.A.'s underworld as the 'Slam Track.'
It isn't difficult to imagine why this 1988 retelling of the Crucifixion story was picketed so vociferously on its release in the US--this Jesus bears little resemblance to the classical Christ, who was not, upon careful review of the Gospels, ever reported to have had sex with Barbara Hershey. Heavily informed by Gnostic reinterpretations of the Passion, The Last Temptation of Christ (based rather strictly on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name) is surely worth seeing for the controversy and blasphemous content alone. But the "last temptation" of the title is nothing overtly naughty--rather, it's the seduction of the commonplace; the desire to forgo following a "calling" in exchange for domestic security. Willem Dafoe interprets Jesus as spacey, indecisive and none too charismatic (though maybe that's just Dafoe himself), but his Sermon on the Mount is radiant with visionary fire; a bit less successful is method actor Harvey Keitel, who gives the internally conflicted Judas a noticeable Brooklyn accent, and doesn't bring much imagination to a role that demands a revisionist's approach. Despite director Martin Scorsese's penchant for stupid camera tricks, much of the desert footage is simply breathtaking, even on small screen. Ultimately, Last Temptation is not much more historically illuminating than Monty Python's Life of Brian, but hey, if it's authenticity you're after, try Gibbon's. --Miles Bethany
Before the night is out the star witness for an important trial lies dying and Detective Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen) won't rest until the shooters - and the kingpin behind them - are nailed. From the opening shot to the closing shootout Bullitt crackles with authenticity: San Francisco locations crisp dialogue and to-the-letter police hospital and morgue procedures. An Oscar winner for Best Film Editing (1969) this edgy thriller features one of cinema history's most memorable car chases. Buckle up for unbeatable action.
Parties are not always as fun as they look like they should be. Case in point: Groove. The distinction lies in the realm between watching people have fun and actually having fun. Set in San Francisco over the course of one night, this is the story of a rave, plain and simple. Preparation includes inhabiting an empty warehouse, finding the power supply and sending out coded invitations. The film kicks in as the party does, when people start arriving and the DJs start spinning. There's a nice moment early on when a cop shows up asking for the owner of the building, who is then taken on a tour of "a new Internet start-up". It becomes even funnier when the cop turns out to be smarter and more compassionate than anyone would expect. Writer-director Greg Harrison cleverly focuses the story on David, a novice who's never been to a rave before, which breaks the story out of what could have been the suffocating, insular world of rave culture. Unknowingly dosed by someone, David is adopted by Layla, an attractive but lonely East Coaster who has begun to regret her party lifestyle. Other characters include a guy who's just proposed to his girlfriend, a college teaching assistant selling his own manufactured drugs, a DJ who gets to meet his idol and a gay couple having trouble finding the party. If the characters turn out to be just character types, that's OK because the film itself floats by on its own high-octane enthusiasm. Groove is light and frothy entertainment with a beat you can dance to. --Andy Spletzer, Amazon.com
It may be stating the obvious, but if you are a fan or in any way interested in Manchester United the football team or global brand then you will love this video and any critical appraisal is largely an irrelevance. If, however, you share the antipathy of most other football fans and see them only through a red mist, it is unlikely to bring much joy. After an opening celebration of the last-minute treble-winning triumph in the Champions League and a brief tribute to the victims of the Munich air crash, the film settles into a fairly sedate account of the 1999/2000 championship season. Scenes from the United backroom are interspersed with various supporters providing a more passionate perspective on following the team for whom success has become almost a given in recent years. These include the bartenders who travel all the way from New York to attend the game in which Real Madrid ended United's hopes of successive European titles (which is not in the least bit hilarious).Among the more corporate elements of the club's set-up on display are a forum encouraging sponsors to develop traditional and new markets (China will be huge) and various meetings with Vodafone to explore their newly agreed partnership (look out for ringing tones based on your favourite terrace chants). Given the inherent excitement usually generated by what happens on the pitch, the overall tone of the film is surprisingly flat with what little action that remains being reduced to very brief goal highlights and largely divested of its significance. Such episodes as Beckham's supposed fracas with the manager, the mysterious disappearance of Mark Bosnich, and the press conference fiasco that marked the non-arrival of Ruud Van Nistelroy are touched upon, but potential controversy is subsumed into the general glorification of the club's march for glory. One memorable scene where successive players' teams fail to answer any questions correctly at a pub-style quiz and are trounced by the management, will not do anything to reverse the common perception of footballers' acumen off the pitch. Bitter and twisted? Not this reviewer: altogether now "1-0 to the Arsenal, 1-0 to the Arsenal". --Steve Napleton
The world's greatest villain (Steve Carell) has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo, Edith and Agnes.
You Can't Refuse Your Destiny... Dr Henry Jekyll (Adam Baldwin) a young surgeon and his new bride travel to Hong Kong for their honeymoon. Tragically the marriage ends in violence when his wife is killed in a massive explosion. They have been caught in the middle of a Hong Kong gang war. Desperately ill with serious burns Dr Jekyll is resurrected by a Chinese medicine doctor Dr Chau. Changed in appearance the grief-stricken Jekyll learns that he is sought by the police in connection with his wife's death. Forced to change his name he buries his former identity and his thoughts are only of vengeance against his wife's killers. Driven by rage he undergoes extensive martial arts training to fuel his crime fighting alter ego and avenge the brutal gangs that dominate Hong Kong's underworld. Ultimately he learns the truth that shocks him to the core. According to the ancient Chinese Book of Being his arrival in Hong Kong was predestined and he is fated to become the legendary White Tiger a mythical crime fighter.
Offenbach's operetta La Belle Hélene, which pokes fun at the Parisian upper class of a century and a half ago through tales of ancient Greece, requires a leap of imagination on behalf of today's audience that this production only partly succeeds in reconciling. On musical grounds we're on sure footing. Nikolaus Harnoncourt conducts the chorus and orchestra of the Zurich Opera House with his customary flair for precise and taut rhythms and an appreciation of the composer's wit and the good tunes that are a-plenty. His multi-national cast headed by Vesselina Kasarova as Helen of Troy and Deon van der Walt as her lover Paris are excellent and among the smaller parts there's a lively and stylish performance from Liliana Nichiteanus as Oreste. The video direction by Hartmut Schroder and the superb sound obtained from the relatively intimate Zurich Opera House, a delightful setting for this operetta, are further assets. The production alas is unenlightening and perpetrates an over-the-top style that seems to be synonymous with Offenbach. The backdrop, a pink concave awning is hideous. The costumes by designer Jean-Charles de Castelibajac are silly: Paris is dressed in lederhosen and looks a twerp, Calchac, the high priest wears a Ku Klux Klan hat and Helen at one point looks as though she'll take to absailing. Kasarova suggests the lure of Helen in her voice but a beauty she's not. So it's left to Harnoncourt who joins the company at the curtain call with a twinkle in his eye and a nifty side step and his superb orchestra to remind us what might have been. --Adrian Edwards
First ten episodes from the children's animated series based on the novel 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz' by L. Frank Baum. After defeating the Wicked Witches of the East and the West, Dorothy Gale (voice of Kari Wahlgren) from Kansas finds herself back in the magical land of Oz where she has been named Princess of Emerald City by Queen Ozma (also Wahlgren). With her friends the Tin Man (JP Karliak), Scarecrow (Bill Fagerbakke), Lion (Jess Harnell) and her dog Toto by her side, Dorothy sets off for a series of magical adventures but soon discovers that the Wicked Witch of the West's niece Wilhelmina (Jessica DiCicco) is trying to bring her aunt back to life. The episodes are: 'Beware the Woozy', 'Magical Mandolin', 'Toto Unleashed', 'Official Ozian Exam', 'Locket Locket in My Pocket', 'Mixed-Up Mixer', 'Ojo the Unlucky', 'The Lion's Share', 'Rules of Attraction' and 'Brain Power of Love'.
Skin Flick follows a gang of skinheads on their daily quest for adventure: Man Sex Gang Banging Granny Theft Petty Pilfering & General Mayhem. Low on cash they 'visit' two bourgeois gay men. Then it turns nasty...
Based on a contemporary interpretation of the classic Henry James novel and set in present day New York City the story centres on Maisie an unwitting six-year-old girl enmeshed in the bitter divorce of her mother a rock and roll icon and her father a charming but distracted art dealer. Darkly comic and emotionally compelling What Maisie Knew is an evocative portrayal of the chaos and complexity of a modern marriage.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days, the third instalment in the Wimpy Kid films, is sublimely funny for all ages. That's a tall order, but it's really true. The script, the jokes, the acting, the dialogue are all appropriate for pretty much all ages of children, but manage to be super-appealing to adults too. Zachary Gordon is back as Greg, the wimpy kid who just can't quite square his true desires--to play video games all summer, indoors--with his well-meaning dad's intention that he do something worthwhile, and preferably outside. When Greg starts hanging out at the swanky country club pool to be nearer his crush, Holly (Peyton List), he lets his dad (Steve Zahn) believe he's gotten a job there. The jokes and gags are not highbrow, and yet director David Bowers and the talented cast and well-written script keep things moving along, if you will, swimmingly. What's great about the Wimpy Kid films is that the kids are believable and on-trend, and yet wear age-appropriate clothes and don't drop swear words. It's endearing to see middle-schoolers treated as the almost-teens they are--emphasis on "almost." Diary of a Wimpy Kid 3: Dog Days is truly a comedy that the whole family can enjoy together. --A.T. Hurley
In the near future after an unspecified holocaust survivors are herded into prison camps. There they are hunted for sport by the leaders of the camp. Paul one of the newest prisoners is determined not to go down as quietly as the others.
Features the tracks: 1. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Freebird 2. Free - All Right Now 3. City Boy - 5705 4. Steelers Wheel - 'Stuck In The Middle 5. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen 6. Lloyd Cole And The Commotions - Perfect Skin 7. Status Quo - Whatever You Want 8. Steve Winwood - Valerie 9. The Christians - Harvest For The World 10. 10cc - The Things We Do For Love 11. John Miles - Music 12. Joe Jackson - It's Different For A Girl 13. Thin Lizzy - Sarah 14. Free - My Brohter Joke
Before HD there was Super 8; before Independent film there was Underground Cinema and in the late 1970's and 80's, downtown Manhattan was the epicentre of a new kind of explosive, raw and confrontational filmmaking that bore witness to the rising East Village art and No Wave music scenes and the birth of hip hop. Filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch, Beth B, Lizzie Borden and Amos Poe captured New York's gritty vibrance with dissonant tales and deadpan humour. Blank City tells their story and succeeds in capturing the glorious and grungy creative energy of another age, illustrated by extraordinary footage of their early work and the derelict landscapes of the Lower East Side. Interviews with Jim Jarmusch, John Waters, Steve Buscemi, Debbie Harry, Fab 5 Freddy, Thurston Moore and Lydia Lunch explore how a group of young visionaries pooled resources to create a DIY film movement that had a major influence on independent film today. Special Features: 50 minutes of bonus features - Director Interview Out-takes Deleted and Extended Scenes Trailer
The secret agent kids are back in another adventure that finds Carmen caught in a virtual reality game designed by the Toymaker (Sly Stallone), so it's up to Juni to save his sister and ultimately the world.
Three problem teens are headed for jail: (Claire Danes) for assault Pete (Giovanni Ribisi) for robbery and Linc (Omar Epps) for arson. They're set to do time with no hope for freedom until Captain Greer (Dennis Farina) offers them a deal to work for him - undercover. In a hip L.A. scene something is going down - but the cops aren't sure what. Captain Greer sends in his special undercover teen task force - The Mod Squad - to find out. But as this dynamic trio starts looking beyond
'Seriously Funny!' is the funniest DVD you will ever own! Introduced by Nick Hancock this is the best and most hilarious comic talent and their funniest sketches for Comic Relief. Whether it's Alan Partridge Kevin & Perry Ali G or Billy Connolly to name but a few who make you laugh out loud if it's hot comedic action you're after then you'll love this DVD! *Portion of sales going to Comic Relief.
One of the biggest hits of Sergio Leone's career 'My Name Is Nobody' brings together two Western icons: Henry Fonda and 70s Italian superstar Terence Hill. Fonda plays ageing gunslinger Jack Beauregard and nobody is faster than Beauregard - until he meets a man called Nobody (Hill) who has been hired to kill him. However Beauregard was Nobody's childhood hero and the wily young gun starts planning a way that Jack can go down in the history books. Directed by Leone's former assi
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