Movies

Sound: Dolby

Summary: A story of Greed, a lust for power, and ultimate revenge. The Great Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai) has decided to step aside to make room for the younger blood of his three sons, Taro (Akira Terao), Jiro (Jinpachi Nezu), and Saburo (Daisuke Ryu). The Lord's only wish now being to live out his years as an honored guest in the castle of each of his sons in turn. While the older two sons flatter their father, the youngest son attempts to warn him of the folly of expecting the three sons to remain united, enraged at the younger sons' attempt to point out the danger, the father banishes him. True to the younger sons' warning however, the Oldest Son soon conspires with the Second Son to strip The Great Lord of everything, even his title. The story follows the decent of the old man into madness, the machinations of treachery and deceit by the two older sons and their downfall, and the loyalty of the youngest who ultimately rescues his father. But in the end it is the past deeds of The Great Lord that bring on the final battle and end the era of the Lord Hidetora and his clan.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 5.1; Commentary by director Taylor Hackford, Unknown

Subtitles: Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: The extraordinary life story of Ray Charles. A man who fought harder and went farther than anyone thought possible.

Summary: Ray Charles has the distinction of being both a national treasure and an international phenomenon. By the early 1960's Ray Charles had accomplished his dream. He'd come of age musically. He'd made it to Carnegie Hall. The hit records "Georgia," "Born to Lose" successively kept climbing to the top of the charts. He'd made his first triumphant European concert tour in 1960 (a feat which, except for 1965, he's repeated at least once a year ever since). He had taken virtually every form of popular music and broken through its boundaries with such awe inspiring achievements as the LP's "Genius Plus Soul Equals Jazz" and "Modern Sounds in Country & Western." Rhythm & blues (or "race music" as it had been called) became universally respectable through his efforts. Jazz found a mainstream audience it had never previously enjoyed. And country & western music began to chart an unexpected course to general acceptance, then worldwide popularity. And along the way Ray Charles was instrumental in the invention of rock & roll. Jamie Foxx (Any Given Sunday, Ali) is Ray Charles in this high-energy portrait of an exceptional man who has become an American icon. Born in a poor African American town in central Florida, Ray Charles went blind at the age of 7. With the staunch support of his determined single mother, he developed the fierce resolve, wit and incredible talent that would eventually enable him to overcome not only Jim Crow Racism and the cruel prejudices against the blind, but also discover his own sound which revolutionized American popular music. Nonetheless, as Ray's unprecedented fame grew, so did his weakness for drugs and women, until they threatened to strip away the very things he held most dear. This little known story of Ray Charles' meteoric rise from humble beginnings, his successful struggle to excel in a sighted world and his eventual defeat of his own personal demons make for an inspiring and unforgettable true story of human triumph.

Languages: French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Comments: Through his rear window and the eye of his powerful camera he watched a great city tell on itself, expose its cheating ways...and Murder!

Summary: Photagrapher L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries is confined to his small apartment with a broken leg.To pass the time,he watches the goings-on of his motley assortment of neighbors--a frustrated yet fun-loving composer,a middle-aged couple with a small dog,a dancer who seems to enjoy practicing her routines while scantily clad,a pair of reclusive newlyweds,a lonely woman who seems to live in a fantasy world,and a salesman and his invalid wife.One day the wife inexplicably disappears,and the salesman starts doing things that lead Jeff to suspect that he may have murdered her.Unfortunately,he has no proof and no one seems to believe him.Eventually,however,things start falling together in a way that make it look like Jeff might just be right after all.Finally he,his girlfriend Lisa and his nurse Stella come up with a plan to catch the killer red-handed. But doing so could put all of their lives in danger.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Commentary by film scholar Leonard J. Leff, author of

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Comments: The shadow of this woman darkened their love.

Summary: A shy ladies' companion, staying in Monte Carlo with her stuffy employer, meets the wealthy Maxim de Winter. She and Max fall in love, marry and return to Manderlay, his large country estate in Cornwall. Max is still troubled by the death of his first wife, Rebecca, in a boating accident the year before. The second Mrs. de Winter clashes with the housekeeper, Mrs. Danvers, and discovers that Rebecca still has a strange hold on everyone at Manderlay.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Meet Hannibal Lecter For The First Time

Summary: FBI Agent Will Graham has been called out of early retirement to catch a serial killer, known by authorities as "The Tooth Fairy". He asks for the help of his arch-nemesis, Dr. Hannibal "The Cannibal" Lecter, so that he can be able to catch "The Tooth Fairy" and bring him to justice. The only problem is that "The Tooth Fairy" is getting inside information about Graham and his family from none other than Dr. Lecter.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Comments: Dance she did, and dance she must - between her two loves

Summary: Under the authoritarian rule of charismatic ballet impressario Boris Lermontov, his proteges realize the full promise of their talents, but at a price: utter devotion to their art and complete loyalty to Lermontov himself. Under his near-obsessive guidance, young ballerina Victoria Page is poised for superstardom, but earns Lermontov's scorn when she falls in love with Julian Craster, composer of "The Red Shoes," the ballet Lermontov is staging to showcase her talents. Vicky leaves the company and marries Craster, but still finds herself torn between Lermontov's demands and those of her heart.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, DTS

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Fight Fire With Fire

Summary: Not quite the large-scale epic it promised to be, Reign of Fire is still an enjoyable entry in the post-catastrophe genre. It opens in present-day London with a boy witnessing the rebirth of the race of dragons, who are supposed to have wiped out the dinosaurs and now devastate the world again. Skipping the collapse of society with a montage of magazine articles about the world in flames, we jump into the future where the remnants of humanity cower in enclaves and fire-breathing raggedy-winged bat-lizards prowl the land. Christian Bale commands a castle in Northumberland, trying to preserve humanity, while Matthew McConaughey is an iron man warrior intent on tracking down and destroying the dragon king, making for a hero-against-hero clash of values which, for a change, finds the British preserver of life, rather than the Yankee animal-killer, getting the girl and the glory.
The film consists mostly of scrabbling about in the ruins, and it rather skimps on the big dragon battles the script seems to demand. There's little here that hasn't been done before in The Day of the Triffids on television or that slew of Italian Mad Max imitations of the early 1980s. But director Rob Bowman (The X-Files) and a good cast handle themselves well, and the few times that the dragons do show up they deliver an acceptable burst of fiery horror. --Kim Newman
On the DVD:Reign of Fire has a fairly perfunctory set of additional features on disc. A brief (under 10 minutes) making-of documentary consists mainly of computer geek animators obsessing about CG effects; back in the real world, "If You Can't Stand the Heat" looks at the on-set pyrotechnics. Director Rob Bowman chats affably about the project in a separate interview. Trailers for the movie and video game form the balance. The subdued (ie. gloomy) colours come up well in the anamorphic widescreen print, and the evocative soundscape is suitably full of sub-woofer-friendly rumblings, thuddings and explosions. --Mark Walker

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 6.1 EX; English, Dolby Digital 5.1 EX

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Seven Total Strangers Team Up For The Perfect Crime. They Don't Know Each Other's Name. But They've Got Each Other's Color

Summary: Six criminals, who are strangers to each other, are hired by a crime boss Joe Cabot to carry out a diamond robbery. Right at the outset, they are given false names with an intention that they won't get too close and concentrate on the job instead. They are completely sure that the robbery is going to be a success. But when the police show up right at the time and the site of the robbery, panic spreads amongst the group members and one of them is killed in the subsequent shootout along with a few policemen and civilians. When the remaining people assemble at the premeditated rendezvous point (a warehouse), they begin to suspect that one of them is an undercover cop.

Sound: Dolby SR

Comments: "One curse, one cure, one week to find it"

Summary: Reiko Asakawa is researching into a 'Cursed Video' interviewing kids about it. When her niece Tomoko dies of 'sudden heart failure' with a face of terror on her, Reiko investigates. Shes finds out that some of Tomoko's friends who had been on a holiday with Tomoko the week before had died on exactly the same night at the exact same time in the exact same way. Reiko goes to the cabin where the teens had stayed and finds an 'unlabled' video tape. Reiko watched the tape to discover its the 'cursed videotape'. Ex Husband Ryuji helps Reiko solve the mystery, Reiko makes a copy for him. Things become more tense when her son Yoichi watches the tape saying Tomoko had told him too. They discovery takes them to a volcanic island where they discover that the video has a connection to a Pyscic who died 30 years ago, and her child Sadako...

Sound: 4-Track Stereo

Comments: 25 Years Of Absolute Pleasure! (2000 25th Anniversary Tagline)

Summary: What do a Transylvanian transvestite, a cryogenically-preserved motorbiker and a Frankenstein's monster wearing golden underpants all have in common? They're all crucial parts of Rocky Horror Picture Show, the comedy cult classic which is at once hysterical, indispensable and truly disturbing. Innocent young lovers Brad and Janet (Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon) are stranded when their car breaks down, so they are forced to seek refuge in the castle of the bizarre Dr. Frankenfurter (Tim Curry), who is having a gathering of some kind... What ensues is an unforgettable night of music and madness where, like a circus act, you never know what's going to come next. Adding to the madness is the narration of the soporific Professor, who, in omnipotence, recounts the whole story from the comfort of his genteel study. Of course, there are pre-designed spots for audience participation - from being doused with spray bottles to throwing popcorn at the screen to getting up from your seat and dancing along to the incomparable "Time Warp". By the end of the night, fantasies will be realities, men will be women and everything will be explained - or will it?!?!?

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Commentary by Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Don McAlpine, and Craig Pearce, Unknown

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Two households both alike in dignity, In fair Verona where we lay our scene. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes, A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life.

Summary: While perhaps not the defining moment in the making of Leonardo DiCaprio's career, his appearance in this dazzling take on William Shakepeare's Romeo & Juliet back in 1996 did the careers of both Clare Danes and himself no harm at all. Perhaps the real star of the show here though is director Baz Luhrmann, who employs a frenetic, at times downright-brilliant style to the age-old tale of tale of star-crossed lovers. Luhrmann would go on to make Moulin Rouge a few years' later.
From the off, his take on Romeo & Juliet explodes unpredictably onto the screen, bubbling with vision and originality, accompanied throughout by an excellent score and soundtrack that rightly spawned two spin-off CDs. There are sacrifices made along the way to support Luhrmann's vision though, with the text being stripped down to leave the core of the story in tact, and that's just one of a number of complaints that Shakespeare purists may have.
And yet, perhaps more than any other attempt to bring the work of the Bard to the screen of late, this is an extremely accessible entry-point to Shakepeare's work. That it's also by turns breathtaking, dazzling and a sheer joy to watch doesn't harm its cause either. The two leads are charming, the support cast backs them up superbly, and the end result is one of the most interesting visual treats that Hollywood mustered up throughout the 1990s.--Simon Brew

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: In A World Of Vicious Rivalries And Violent Betrayals Only One Thing Is Sure.

Summary: In this modern day Romeo and Juliet, kung fu action star Jet Li plays Romeo to hip-hop singer, Aaliyah Haughton's Juliet. Li is an ex-cop investigating the murder of his brother, who had ties with the Chinese mafia in America. Aaliyah plays the daughter of the American mob boss. Neither side approves of their romance, so, obviously, kung fu action ensues, with a soundtrack by Aaliyah.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono

Comments: The guest who's dead on time

Summary: Brandon and Philip are two young men who share a New York apartment. They consider themselves intellectually superior to their friend David Kentley and as a consequence decide to murder him. Together they strangle David with a rope and placing the body in an old chest, they proceed to hold a small party. The guests include David's father, his fiancée Janet and their old schoolteacher Rupert from whom they mistakenly took their ideas. As Brandon becomes increasingly more daring, Rupert begins to suspect.

Sound: Mono

Comments: Pray for Rosemary's Baby

Summary: Rosemary and Guy Woodhouse move into an apartment in a building with a bad reputation. They discover that their neighbours are a very friendly elderly couple named Roman and Minnie Castevet, and Guy begins to spend a lot of time with them. Strange things start to happen: a woman Rosemary meets in the washroom dies a mysterious death, Rosemary has strange dreams and hears strange noises and Guy becomes remote and distant. Then Rosemary falls pregnant and begins to suspect that her neighbours have special plans for her child.

Languages: English, DTS; English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; , Unknown

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Family Isn't A Word... It's A Sentence.

Summary: Wes Anderson's satirical yet tender tragicomedy The Royal Tenenbaums is a defiantly offbeat movie, but its sheer originality makes it a winner. As Philip Larkin famously said, "They fuck you up, your mum and dad". Well, it's Dad, the opulently named Royal Tenenbaum himself (Gene Hackman in twinkly mode), who gets all the blame here. The precocious achievements of the Tenenbaum offspring are amusingly documented: teen tycoon Chas (a perpetually snarly Ben Stiller), tennis star Richie (Luke Wilson, alienation personified in his Björn Borg get-up) and Margot--adopted and never allowed to forget it--a prize-winning playwright by ninth grade (Gwyneth Paltrow lurking under a ton of eyeliner and a sulky pout). Then there's Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), the kid from over the road who always wanted to be a Tenenbaum and nowadays makes his living writing trashy but successful Westerns.
After two decades of going their own way, to unfailingly disastrous effect, the Tenenbaums find themselves reunited in their old house, as idiosyncratic and illogical a place as the family itself, with Etheline Tenenbaum (touchingly played by Anjelica Huston) about to marry her accountant, Henry Sherman (Danny Glover). The action loops forward and backward, with the background detail on each character beautifully rounded out by narrator Alec Baldwin. This, and the device of dividing the film into chapters, gives it the feel of a fairy story, and like the best in the genre, it has a satisfying, if not entirely happy, resolution.
On the DVD:The Royal Tenenbaums comes with extra features that really do add to the enjoyment of the film. These range from the whimsical (a gallery of all the fictitious book and magazine covers that involve the Tenenbaum family and a slide show of behind-the-scenes photos by set-photographer James Hamilton) to the enlightening (a 26-minute film about writer/director Wes Anderson, his ideas behind the movie and an insight into his way of working, which is illuminating particularly for the sheer detail of his vision--if he's a control freak, he comes across as a nice control freak). There are also brief interviews with the main players, excerpts from Anderson's annotated script pages and background details on the artwork that appears in the film by Miguel Calderon and Eric Chase Anderson (brother of Wes). Less than two minutes of deleted scenes is hardly exciting, though the offbeat humour of the "Peter Bradley Show" is a distinct plus. --Harriet Smith

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; Commentary by Eric Idle, Unknown

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: The Rutles, a living legend that will live long after other living legends have died.

Summary: First screened on BBC2 in 1978, at a time when the standing of The Beatles was at its lowest, The Rutles--All You Need is Cash is the original and (pace This is Spinal Tap) best "rockumentary" spoof. Codirector Eric Idle was then enjoying success with Rutland Weekend Television, while his script displays the same feeling for the inane non-sequitur evident in his Monty Python work. The band's progress from "penniless, untalented nobodies" to "rich, untalented somebodies" is vividly brought to life--with dialogue adapted from actual Beatles interviews and newsreels, and a roster of songs sounding uncannily close to Beatles originals thanks to "Nasty" Neil Innes' genius for pastiche. Interviews with a suitably primed Mick Jagger and Paul Simon give added realism, as do cameos from George Harrison (one-time Beach Boy Rikki Fataar plays his Rutles double Stig) and Stones guitarist Ron Wood. Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi make characterful, pre-Blues Brothers appearances.
On the DVD:The Rutles--All You Need is Cash has come up well in this DVD transfer. The fullscreen 4:3 ratio picture and mono sound wear their age well, enhanced by the extra scenes included. There's further interview material with Jagger and Simon, and a specially recorded, though wholly unfunny, DVD introduction from Idle, who also contributes a running commentary. All in all, this is an ideal way to get to know, or renew acquaintance with, a film that brings the swinging 60s back down to earth. --Richard Whitehouse