Packed with more than 750 dazzling visual effects, this US$70 million adventure does more (and less) than give the 1965-68 TV series a state-of-the-art face-lift. Aimed at an audience that wasn't born when the series originally aired, the sci-fi extravaganza doesn't even require familiarity, despite cameo appearances by several of the TV show's original cast members. Instead it's a high-tech hybrid of the original premise with enough sensory overload to qualify as a spectacular big-screen video game, supported by a time-travel premise that's adequately clever but hardly original. Lost in Space is certainly never boring, and visually it's an occasionally awesome demonstration of special effects technology. But in its attempt to be all things to all demographics, the movie's more of a marketing ploy than a satisfying adventure, thankfully dispensing with the TV show's cheesy camp but otherwise squandering a promising cast in favour of eye-candy and ephemeral storytelling. --Jeff Shannon
Winner of Best Film at the London Film Festival and Best Supporting Actress / Breakthrough Artist for Lily Gladstone at the Boston Society of Film Critics' Awards, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards and the Indiewire Critics' Poll. From award-winning director, Kelly Reichardt (Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff) comes CERTAIN WOMEN, winner of Best Film at the London Film Festival. Laura Dern, Kristen Stewart, Michelle Williams and Lily Gladstone star as four women striving to forge their own paths amidst the wide-open plains of the American Northwest. Laura (Dern) is a lawyer who finds herself contending with both office sexism and a hostage situation. Gina (Williams) is a wife and mother whose determination to build her dream home puts her at odds with the men in her life. And Beth (Stewart) is a young law student who forms an ambiguous bond with a lonely ranch hand (radiant newcomer Lily Gladstone). As their stories intersect in subtle but powerful ways, a portrait emerges of flawed yet strong-willed individuals in the process of defining themselves. Click Images to Enlarge
There is no conspiracy. Just twelve people dead. Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View a superb conspiracy thriller about one man's paranoia that turns out to be total incredible fact ranks among the best movies of its kind. Warren Beatty is a news reporter who aong with seven others witnesses the assassination of a political candidate. When the other seven die in ""accidents"" the newsman begins to doubt the offiical position: that the lone madman was responsible for the crime. He imagines a sophisticated network of highly trained murderers. But his nightmares pale against the bizarre truth he uncovers.
Within These Walls remains a high point of British television drama. A huge success for LWT the series offered an authentic portrayal of day-to-day life for the inmates and staff of a women's prison reflecting the progress of penal system reform and the shift from a Victorian ethos of punishment to an emphasis upon rehabilitation. Within These Walls focussed particularly on the challenges facing the female governor - not least the conflict between adherence to rules and sensitivity to individual needs. Setting the template for later series such as Prisoner: Cell Block H and Bad Girls this outstanding drama is still fondly remembered more than 30 years after its original screening. In this fourth series originally aired in 1976 compassionate reformer Faye Boswell is replaced by Helen Forrester (Katharine Blake) an attractive widow who leads a solitary life in a fl at adjoining the prison. Helen's methods differ radically from Faye's; gone is the easy informality that characterised her predecessor's regime. But Helen has an inner warmth a sense of humour and an equal dedication to the women who find themselves within the closed world of Stone Park.
The third instalment in the cinematic incarnation of Tom Clancy's CIA analyst Jack Ryan and the second starring Harrison Ford, this follow-up to Patriot Games is a more complex, rewarding and bolder film than its predecessor. Ford returns as Ryan, this time embroiled in a failed White House bid to wipe out a Colombian drug cartel and cover up the mess. The script, by Clancy and John Milius (Big Wednesday), has an air of true adventure about it as Ryan places himself in harm's way to extract covert soldiers abandoned in a Latin American jungle. There are a couple of remarkable set pieces expertly handled by Patriot Games director Phillip Noyce, especially a shocking scene involving an ambush on Ryan's car in an alley. The supporting cast is superb, including Willem Dafoe as the soldiers' leader, Henry Czerny as Ryan's enemy at the CIA, Joaquim de Almeida as a smooth-talking villain, Ann Magnuson as an unwitting confederate in international crime, and James Earl Jones as Ryan's dying boss. --Tom Keogh
The second series of the camp TV sci-fi classic Lost In Space literally starts with a bang as the Jupiter 2 blasts off into space and into full colour for the very first time! The Robinson family Dr. Smith and The Robot visit a variety of alien planets and encounter a whole host of strange beings in the course of this action-packed adventure series from the imagination of legendary film producer Irwin Allen. The box set release includes the fans' favourite episode The Golden M
Arthurian mythology and modern-day decay seem perfect complements to each other in Terry Gilliam's drama/comedy/fantasy The Fisher King. Shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) makes an off-handed radio remark that causes a man to go on a killing spree, leaving Lucas unhinged with guilt. His later, chance meeting with Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless man suffering from dementia, gets him involved in the unlikely quest for the Holy Grail. The rickety and patently unrealistic stand that insanity is just a wonderful place to be and that the homeless are all errant knights wears awfully thin, but, there are numerous moments of sad grace and violent beauty in this film. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese launched his successful career and his smart wordplay helped garner Mercedes Ruehl an Oscar as Lucas' girlfriend. --Keith Simanton
"Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" is the 2009 film of the Ian Dury story starring Andy Serkis in the role of the punk legend.
In Roger Moore's first outing as 007 he investigates the murders of three fellow agents he soon finds himself a target evading vicious assassins as he closes in on the powerful Kananga (Yaphet Kotto). Known on the streets as Mr Big Kananga is co-ordinating a globally threatening scheme using tons of self-produced heroin. As Bond tries to unravel the mastermind's plan he meets Solitaire (Jane Seymour) the beautiful Tarot card reader whose magical gifts are crucial to the crime lord. Bond of course works his own magic on her and the stage is set for a series of pulse-pounding action sequences involving voodoo hungry crocodiles and turbo-charged speedboats.
Willem Dafoe stars as American writer T.S. Eliot in this biographical romantic drama. The story dramatises Eliot's passionate and tempestuous relationship with his first wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood (Miranda Richardson). After a brief courtship, the pair marry in 1915 but their initial happiness is short-lived and Viv eventually takes to harassing her husband. As a result of her various health issues and apparent mental instability, Tom commits Viv to a mental institution where she stays for ten years without ever seeing her famous husband again.
Bruce Willis's awful, 1991 vanity piece is an abuse of audience goodwill and a waste of a good cast and director (Michael Lehmann of Heathers). The story of Hudson Hawk, cowritten by Willis, concerns a cat burglar pressured into stealing precious art, including some from the Vatican. But the script is just a convenience upon which Willis piles his vaguely boorish brand of hip irony, assuming his audience will stay with him every step of the way. Certain, self-congratulatory scenes induce cringing--Willis and Danny Aiello, for instance, sing "Side by Side" (to brassy accompaniment on the soundtrack) every time they're working a job--but the overall effect is more irritating and baffling. Keep a good thought for Willis (an underrated actor better than the summer junk we usually see him in) by checking out his superior work in Pulp Fiction and his small but memorable role in Billy Bathgate. --Tom Keogh
Director Gina Prince-Bythewood, a former college athlete, puts a spin on this one-on-one tale of, as the title says, Love and Basketball. Sanaa Lathan (The Best Man) is the fiercely driven, hot-tempered Monica, a tomboy who gives her all for basketball. Omar Epps is Quincy, an NBA player's son who has pro dreams of his own. Next-door neighbours since first grade, they start as rivals (she flabbergasts the boy by outplaying him in a game of driveway pickup) and age into best friends and lovers. The romantic complications follow a familiar game plan, but the film throws a fascinating spotlight onto the contrast between men's and women's basketball. While Quincy plays college ball on huge courts to cheering, sold-out crowds, we see Monica's sweat, tears and sheer physical dedication in front of tiny audiences in small gyms and second-rate auditoriums. The story is pointedly set in the late 1980s, years before the establishment of the WNBA, so Monica's prospects for pro ball lie exclusively in Europe, while Quincy steps into the pros at home. It's a pleasure to see a character as passionate and fully developed as Monica, and Lathan gives a fiery portrayal (she had never played ball before the film, but you'd never tell from her performance). Prince-Bythewood favours her struggle over Quincy's and opens our eyes to her unique challenges with a sharp, savvy contrast. Alfre Woodard co-stars as Monica's harping mother (always trying to get her to be more ladylike) and Dennis Haysbert is Quincy's philandering father. Hoops fan Spike Lee produced. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
Father Michael McKinnon (Kenneth Branagh) arrives in 1930s Boston from the UK to join the priesthood at St. Jude's, and is oddly intent on avoiding contact with his most prominent parishioners, wealthy lawyer Arthur Barret (William Hurt) and wife Eleanor (Madeleine Stowe), a racy proto-feminist writer. Arthur adores Eleanor, and is devastated when their plans to raise a family are quashed by his infertility. Rejecting adoption because she's determined to experience pregnancy, free-thinking Eleanor suggests drastic action. They will pay law student Roger Martin (Neil Patrick Harris) $25,000 in hush money if he'll agree to impregnate her, then raise the child as their own. Trouble is, during his faux-conjugal visits, Roger falls in love with her for real. The priest also has a crisis of faith and conscience as he too starts to fall for Eleanor. Set against the stunning backdrop of a New England autumn, the colourful plot is grounded by Hurt's reliable dramatic conviction as a man of dignity, reserve and intelligence who is also consumed by great passion and fiery rage.
ATL tells the story of four teens coming of age in a working class Atlanta neighbourhood where hip-hop music and roller-skating rule. As the group prepares for life after high school challenges on and off the rink bring about turning points in each of their lives. The film is loosely based on Dallas Austin and Tionne Watkins' experiences growing up in Atlanta.
Arthurian mythology and modern-day decay seem perfect complements to each other in Terry Gilliam's drama/comedy/fantasy The Fisher King. Shock jock Jack Lucas (Jeff Bridges) makes an off-handed radio remark that causes a man to go on a killing spree, leaving Lucas unhinged with guilt. His later, chance meeting with Parry (Robin Williams), a homeless man suffering from dementia, gets him involved in the unlikely quest for the Holy Grail. The rickety and patently unrealistic stand that insanity is just a wonderful place to be and that the homeless are all errant knights wears awfully thin, but, there are numerous moments of sad grace and violent beauty in this film. The screenplay by Richard LaGravenese launched his successful career and his smart wordplay helped garner Mercedes Ruehl an Oscar as Lucas' girlfriend. --Keith Simanton
Robert De Niro stars as a no nonsense LAPD detective forced to appear on a reality based TV show alongside frustrated actor-turned-patrolman Eddie Murphy, with William Shatner as himself offering acting tips!
Billy Crystal plays the straight man to neurotic Robin Williams when these two very different individuals join forces to find a runaway teenager. Both, you see, have been told they are the boy's father by Nastassja Kinski, with whom each had once been involved. This Disney production is based on the more humorous French farce, Les Compères, by Francis Veber (who cowrote this adaptation). It has its moments as breezy entertainment, but the plot is sloppy enough to seem more like slapstick than sophisticated comedy. The gags are contrived, and it fails to unfold with believability, or grace. More interesting than the writing are the performances, as Crystal brings surprising depth to his cynical lawyer and Williams is exceptionally fine-tuned as a suicidal and dippy writer with a very kind heart. --Rochelle O'Gorman, Amazon.com --This text refers to the VHS edition of this video
Sparks fly both on and off the court in this groundbreaking feature debut by writer-director GINA PRINCE-BYTHEWOOD (The Old Guard), which elevated the coming-of-age romance by giving honest expression to the challenges female athletes face in a world that doesn't see them as equal. SANAA LATHAN (Alien vs. Predator) and OMAR EPPS (Higher Learning) make for one of the most iconic screen couples of the 2000s as the basketball-obsessed next-door neighbours who find love over flirtatious pickup games, fall apart under the strain of high-pressure college hoops and families, and drift in and out of each other's lives as they pursue their twin aspirations of playing professionally. Aided by stellar supporting performances and an eclectic R&B soundtrack, Love & Basketball captures the intoxicating passions, heartbreaking setbacks, and sky-high ambitions that mark a young woman's journey to the top of her game and to lasting love. Special Features: New 4K digital restoration, supervised by director Gina Prince-Bythewood, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack Audio commentary from 2000 featuring PrinceBythewood and actor Sanaa Lathan Playing for Your Heart, a new making-of documentary featuring Prince-Bythewood, Lathan, actors Omar Epps and Alfre Woodard, Reggie RockBythewood, and basketball adviser Colleen Matsuhara Editing Love & Basketball, a new program featuring Bythewood and editor Terilyn A. Shropshire New conversation on the film's impact among Prince-Bythewood, founding WNBA player Sheryl Swoopes, and writer-producer-actor Lena Waithe Audition tape excerpts and six deleted scenes Three short films by Prince-Bythewood: Stitches (1991), Progress (1997), and Bowl of Pork (1997), with a new introduction by Prince-Bythewood Trailer English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing PLUS: An essay by author Roxane Gay
It's that time of year again, and Michael Myers has returned home to sleepy Haddonfield, Illinois to take care of some unfinished family business.
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