Sabtu, 07 Januari 2012

Closing the Ring

  • From Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) comes this sweeping romance starring Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment), Christopher Plummer (A Beautiful Mind), Mischa Barton (TV's The O.C.), and Neve Campbell (The Company). Moving seemlessly through time, this lush epic follows a beautiful 1940's Michigan girl (Barton) secretly married to a WWII pilot who crashes in the hill
From Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Gandhi) comes this sweeping romance starring Shirley MacLaine (Terms of Endearment), Christopher Plummer (A Beautiful Mind), Mischa Barton (TV's The O.C.), and Neve Campbell (The Company). Moving seemlessly through time, this lush epic follows a beautiful 1940's Michigan girl (Barton) secretly married to a WWII pilot who crashes in the hills near Belfast, Ireland. 50 years later his wedding ring resurfaces -- along with the smoldering secrets! that have kept the widow (MacLaine), her estranged daughter (Campbell) and devoted friend (Plummer) each from finding true love.A love story spanning more than five decades, Closing the Ring may appeal to fans of The Notebook. Academy Award-winning director Richard Attenborough (Ghandi) utilizes shifting time frames to tell the story of Ethel Ann and WWII fighter pilot Teddy. The two fall madly in love and secretly marry in a sweet ceremony that is destined for tragedy. When Teddy's plane is shot down in Belfast, he is discovered by an Irish boy who makes a promise to the dying soldier--he will return the wedding band to Teddy's young widow in the United States. Flash forward to the 1990s: An elderly Ethel Ann (Shirley MacLaine) is at her husband Chuck's funeral. He was never the love of her life and Ethel Ann had always lived her life full of "what ifs." Her grieving daughter Marie (Neve Campbell) notices the void, but can't comprehend why her mother ! has never been happy. When Teddy's wedding band is finally ret! urned to Ethel Ann--50 years after his death--the memento opens up a floodgate of emotions, and Ethel Ann is able to get some closure on a part of her life that she has tried so hard to both forget and remember. As a family friend points out to Marie, "Everybody needs to cry, and your mother never did." At times slow and uneven, Closing the Ring rings true in the modern-day vignettes. MacLaine is exquisite in her role, as is Christopher Plummer as a longtime friend. But when the scenes flash back to the 1940s, the younger actors don't share the same on-screen chemistry or charisma. Mischa Barton is beautiful as the young Ethel Ann, but her moments with Stephen Amell (as Teddy) are a little forced. Campbell brings intelligence and gravity to her role, but is underused in the film. Viewers can't help wonder how different the tone of the movie may have been had she been cast as the younger Ethel Ann. --Jae-Ha Kim

Far From Heaven (Blu-ray)

  • Far From Heaven (Blu-ray)
  • Far From Heaven
  • James Rebhorn,Dennis Haysbert
  • Dennis Quaid,Julianne Moore
  • Drama, romance
Cathy and Frank Whitaker, a seemingly perfect fifties' couple face the breakdown of their marriage because of conflicting desires.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVDThis uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine)--takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures (particularly those of Douglas Sirk, director of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession) to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a housewife whose husband (Dennis Quai! d) has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have such an impeccable command of the look and feel of the genre that every moment is simultaneously artificial and deeply felt. Far from Heaven is ingenious and completely engrossing. --Bret FetzerJulianne Moore (Hannibal, Boogie Nights) and Dennis Quaid (The Rookie,Frequency) star in this seductive story of a seemingly perfect family, and the forbidden desires that threaten to tear them apart. Cathy Whitaker (Moore) has it allùa lovely home, two wonderful children and a handsome husband(Quaid), who is successfully climbing the corporate ladder. But Cathy's idyllic existence is just an illusion, and she is eventually forced to choose between living a lie or following her heart. Academy Award« nominee* Moore is a vision, declared Rex Reed, and he called Quaid's performance the best of his career, in this stunning drama hailed by the NewYork Post as one of the year's best.

Doomsday (Unrated Full Screen Edition)

  • UNRATED. Includes R-Rated Theatrical Version too.
  • Anatomy of Catastrophe: Civilization on the Brink - a "making of" featurette
  • The Visual Effects and Wizardry of Doomsday - meet the visual effects wizards
  • Devices of Death: Guns, Gadgets and Vehicles of Destruction
  • Feature commentary with director Neil Marshall and cast members Sean Pertwee, Darren Morfitt, Rick Warden and Les Simpson (offered on Unrated Feature only)
From the director of The Descent comes an action-packed thrill-ride through the beating heart of hell! To save humanity from an epidemic, an elite fighting unit must battle to find a cure in a post-apocalyptic zone controlled by a society of murderous renegades. Loaded with ferocious fights and high-octane chases, Doomsday grabs you right from the start, and doesn't let go till its explosive end! Loud, violent, and proudly derivative, the post-a! pocalyptic action-thriller Doomsday is the latest from UK cult director Neil Marshall, who impressed horror fans with his previous efforts, Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Both pictures established Marshall as a director with a knack for reinventing well-worn genre pictures, but here, he seems more interested in stitching together favorite scenes and elements from established horror and science-fiction films. Escape from New York is the main source for Doomsday, though there are plenty of nods to The Road Warrior and its multitude of Italian-made carbon copies, as well as the zombie/plague subgenre; the lovely but impassive Rhona Mitra is the Snake Plissken-esque loner sent by police (represented by Bob Hoskins) to infiltrate Scotland, which has descended into anarchy following a viral outbreak. The disease has surfaced in London (now a walled city), and Mitra is dispatched to find a scientist who may possess a cure. Marshall's vision! of Scotland in ruins brings together the punk/modern primitiv! e costum e design of George Miller's Mad Max trilogy with some eclectic homegrown elements (knights on horseback defending a gang leader's castle), and while these touches are novel, the picture as a whole should ring overly familiar to any viewer who's spent time in the exploitation trenches during the past 25 years. Younger and less discerning audience members will undoubtedly enjoy the plentiful violence and gore, as well as the unbridled performances of the supporting cast, especially stuntwoman/actress Lee-Ann Liebenberg as the heavily tattooed Viper. --Paul Gaita

Beyond Doomsday on DVD


More from Universal Studios

Doomsday on Blu-ray

More from Director Neil Marshall



Stills from Doomsday (Click for larger image)











From the director of The Descent comes an action-packed thrill-ride through the beating heart of hell! To save humanity from an epidemic, an elite fighting unit must battle to find a cure in a post-apocalyptic zone controlled by a society of murderous renegades. Loaded with ferocious fights and high-octane chases, Doomsday gra! bs you right from the start, and doesn't let go till its explosive end!Loud, violent, and proudly derivative, the post-apocalyptic action-thriller Doomsday is the latest from UK cult director Neil Marshall, who impressed horror fans with his previous efforts, Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Both pictures established Marshall as a director with a knack for reinventing well-worn genre pictures, but here, he seems more interested in stitching together favorite scenes and elements from established horror and science-fiction films. Escape from New York is the main source for Doomsday, though there are plenty of nods to The Road Warrior and its multitude of Italian-made carbon copies, as well as the zombie/plague subgenre; the lovely but impassive Rhona Mitra is the Snake Plissken-esque loner sent by police (represented by Bob Hoskins) to infiltrate Scotland, which has descended into anarchy following a viral outbreak. The disease has surfa! ced in London (now a walled city), and Mitra is dispatched to ! find a s cientist who may possess a cure. Marshall's vision of Scotland in ruins brings together the punk/modern primitive costume design of George Miller's Mad Max trilogy with some eclectic homegrown elements (knights on horseback defending a gang leader's castle), and while these touches are novel, the picture as a whole should ring overly familiar to any viewer who's spent time in the exploitation trenches during the past 25 years. Younger and less discerning audience members will undoubtedly enjoy the plentiful violence and gore, as well as the unbridled performances of the supporting cast, especially stuntwoman/actress Lee-Ann Liebenberg as the heavily tattooed Viper. --Paul Gaita

Beyond Doomsday on DVD


More from Universal Studios

Doomsday on Blu-ray

More from Director Neil Marshall



Stills from Doomsday (Click for larger image)











From the director of The Descent comes an action-packed thrill-ride through the beating heart of hell! To save humanity from an epidemic, an elite fighting unit must battle to find a cure in a post-apocalyptic! zone controlled by a society of murderous renegades. Loaded with ferocious fights and high-octane chases, Doomsday grabs you right from the start, and doesn't let go till its explosive end!Loud, violent, and proudly derivative, the post-apocalyptic action-thriller Doomsday is the latest from UK cult director Neil Marshall, who impressed horror fans with his previous efforts, Dog Soldiers and The Descent. Both pictures established Marshall as a director with a knack for reinventing well-worn genre pictures, but here, he seems more interested in stitching together favorite scenes and elements from established horror and science-fiction films. Escape from New York is the main source for Doomsday, though there are plenty of nods to The Road Warrior and its multitude of Italian-made carbon copies, as well as the zombie/plague subgenre; the lovely but impassive Rhona Mitra is the Snake Plissken-esque loner sent by police (represented by! Bob Hoskins) to infiltrate Scotland, which has descended into! anarchy following a viral outbreak. The disease has surfaced in London (now a walled city), and Mitra is dispatched to find a scientist who may possess a cure. Marshall's vision of Scotland in ruins brings together the punk/modern primitive costume design of George Miller's Mad Max trilogy with some eclectic homegrown elements (knights on horseback defending a gang leader's castle), and while these touches are novel, the picture as a whole should ring overly familiar to any viewer who's spent time in the exploitation trenches during the past 25 years. Younger and less discerning audience members will undoubtedly enjoy the plentiful violence and gore, as well as the unbridled performances of the supporting cast, especially stuntwoman/actress Lee-Ann Liebenberg as the heavily tattooed Viper. --Paul Gaita

Beyond Doomsday on DVD


More from Universal Studios

Doomsday on Blu-ray

More from Director Neil Marshall



Stills from Doomsday (Click for larger image)