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ON THIS PAGE: Women's Film, Coming Of Age Stories, Family Drama, Courtroom Drama, Sports Drama
Click here for Political drama, War films Click Here for True Life Stories Click here for crime/ gangster Click here for Human Drama
WOMEN'S FILM
BEING JULIA ***** Bening is absolutely brilliant in this utterly charming romantic drama. A must see film for anyone looking for first rate entertainment and food for thought. Based on W. Somerset Maugham's "Theatre" and adapted by Academy Award Winner Ronald Harwood ("The Pianist"), is an intoxicating combination of wicked comedy and smart drama, starring Annette Bening as the beautiful and beguiling actress Julia Lambert. Features: Deleted Scenes, the making of, audio commentary by director Istvan Szabo, Jeremy Irons and Annette Bening. Go behind the scenes
EAT PRAY LOVE ***** The DVD release of Eat Pray Love is fantastic! Besides an insightful feature on writer-director Ryan Murphy's journey from inspiration to making the film, you also have the choice to watch the theatrical release, or the director's cut (15 minutes longer than the theatrical release). This sumptuous romantic and spiritual awakening story sees the perfect marriage between director Ryan Murphy (Nip Tuck, Glee and Running With Scissors) and Julia Roberts. Don't be surpised if you are craving for a plate of pasta after the film, seek peace and harmony in life, or hug the first stranger you meet outside the cinema. Based on an inspiring true story, Eat Pray Love proves that there really is more than one way to let yourself go and see the world. Read more
HEAVEN ON EARTH ***** Chand (Preity Zinta) journeys from India to Canada to marry Rocky (Vansh Bhardwaj), a man she has never met and to live with her husband's extended family in Brampton. Soon trapped between tradition and the desire for happiness, she retreats into a parallel mythical world. But when myth and reality collide Chand must choose between duty and freedom. Says writer-director and producer Deepa Mehta: "The story is grounded in reality, with its daily chores of washing and cooking. But within that world the characters take flight, inhabiting a fluid and magical world, where anything can happen. A snake can manifest itself as a character, a snake can assume a human form, and a woman writes her own story by the power of her imagination. That combination and interplay between the fantastic and the ordinary was something I wanted to explore in the film." Read more
MONSTER **** The debut film from writer-director Patty Jenkin's, Monster is as troubling and complex as its notorious antihero. Invoking the spirit of such uncompromising films as In Cold Blood, Badlands, The Executioner's Song, and Dead Man Walking, Monster takes a dispassionate look at a killer--and the society she inhabits--and somehow manages to arrive at some strange measure of empathy. There is only a 'making of' feature on this release, with Charlize Theron delivering a stunning performance as serial killer Wuornos. Go behind the scenes
THE MISSING **** From Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, the Oscar®-winning director-producer team of A Beautiful Mind comes The Missing, an action-filled suspense thriller and a powerful drama of love, forgiveness and redemption. Set in the starkly beautiful but isolated and lawless wilderness of the American Southwest in 1885. An element that director Ron Howard found irresistible, says Grazer, was precisely its "feminine dimension." Go behind the scenes
NOTES ON A SCANDAL ***** Sensational food for thought for serious moviegoers. It brilliantly shows to what extent humans will go to love, be loved and suffer the consequences of indulging in fantasies far beyond the reality of their mundane existence. Dench is remarkable as the domineering 'dictator', with Blanchett delightful as the vulnerable seductress. Go behind the scenes
TRANSAMERICA ***** In this heart rendering human drama, Felicity Huffman (aka Lynette Scarvo in Desperate Housewives) is a pre-op transsexual who is on the brink of surgery when she finds out she has a hustler son (Kevin Zegers) she's never met. Features: There's a brilliant feature featuring interviews and talks with the director and cast. Go behind the scenes
COMING OF AGE
ATONEMENT ***** A masterful celebration of the art of filmmaking and storytelling. Joe Wright draws us into the introspective mindscape of a young woman's sexual awakening. It is haunting, mesmerizing and spectacular. A must for hopeless romantics or anyone seeking to challenge their intellect. Based on the award-winning best-selling 2002 novel, this classic British romance spans several decades and tells of a fledgling 13-year-old writer (Saoirse Ronan) who irrevocably changes the course of several lives when she accuses her older sister's (Keira Knightley) lover (James McAvoy) of a crime he did not commit…The bonus features include an insightful audio commentary by director Joe Wright, and great documentaries on adapting the novel and the making of the film. Read more
BANDSLAM ***** What a relief to find a film where teenagers sort out their problems through music and not through drugs or violence! Aly Michalka ("Phil of the Future," pop duo Aly and AJ) and Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical 1 & 2," "High School Musical 3") join Gaelan Connell ("Chocolat"), Scott Porter ("Speed Racer") and Lisa Kudrow ("Friends") star in this first-rate music-driven comedy.When gifted singer-songwriter Charlotte Banks (Michalka) asks new kid in town Will Burton (Connell) to manage her fledgling rock band, she appears to have just one goal in mind: go head-to-head against her egotistical musician ex-boyfriend, Ben (Porter), at the biggest event of the year, a battle of the bands. Read more
CHUMSCRUBBER **** Following his adventures in 'King Kong', Jamie Bell shrugs his way through high school wearing a psychic cloak of invisibility. His best friend - the school's leading drug dealer - throws the community's carefully maintained psychotherapeutic balance into disarray when he hangs himself during one of his mother's pool parties. A vastly ambitious story about American disconnection in the suburbs, from a first-time screenwriter and an émigré director who arrived at USC film school on a recommendation from Billy Wilder, it is a film of remarkable scope and thematic complexity Go behind the scenes
EMPIRE OF THE SUN (Two Disc Special Edition) ***** Steven Spielberg's inspiring epic adventure is based on J.G Ballard's memorable best seller, and the screenplay was written by Tom Stoppard. It tells the story of a young Briton who lived in Shanghai during World War II. Through his eyes we explore the horror of war, and life in a Japanese internment camp. Features: An absolutely brilliant behind the scenes documentary 'The China Odyssey', showing how the film was made and how Spielberg approaches his actors and crew.
GET REAL ***** A fantastic coming of age story about a teenage boy who comes to terms with being gay, and his romance with another boy who has to confront issues relating to their involvement. Adapted from his own stageplay 'What's Wrong With Angry?', the screenplay was written by Patrick Wilde, with Ananth Singh as one of the producers.
HOUSE OF D **** A touching coming-of-age story that tells of an American artist (David Duchovny) who lives a bohemian existence in Paris, and tries to make sense of his troubled adult life by reflecting upon his extraordinary childhood and friendship with a mentally retarded janitor (Robin Williams). Go behind the scenes
NAPOLEON DYNAMITE **** "The characters are inspired largely from people I grew up with in Idaho and especially from my five younger brothers and friends at school," explains Hess. "I basically set out to tell the story of the kind of young people who have never really had their stories told - people like that nerdy kid who sat next to you in math drawing mythical animals, the people who you never talked to or really got to know." "I love these characters," Hess continues, "and I hope others will love them as much as I do. They are optimistic and oblivious to the world's response to them, and to me, this film is about how these very unique and eccentric people pursue their dreams, no matter how simple and small." Go behind the scenes
OLIVER TWIST **** Roman Polanski's new version of Charles Dickens' OLIVER TWIST is more of a children's story. Polanski and scriptwriter Ronald Harwood have retained the larger-than-life characters and the humour from the original novel and it remains a thrilling tale of good fighting against evil, packed with suspense, vitality and drama with a young boy at its centre. In the end, good triumphs in the face of great adversity…With Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman . Read more
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE **** Set in Brooklyn in 1986, it captures with extraordinary immediacy the inner workings of the Berkman family. Bernard (Jeff Daniels), a once successful novelist, and his wife Joan (Laura Linney), an up-and-coming writer, have given up on their marriage. Their two sons Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), 16, and Frank (Owen Kline), 12, are left to grapple with their confusing and conflicted feelings. The bonus features include audio commentary by writer-director Noah Buambach, a behind the scenes featurette and a conversation with Buambach. Read more; Read an interview with writer-director Noah Buambach
TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON ***** Hopeless romantics will indulge in this fairytale romance. It is a visually arresting exploration of a girl coming of age and searching for true love; this is Romeo and Juliet for a new generation, a romance of star crossed lovers. If you enjoyed The Notebook and Titanic, this one's for you. Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) is devastated by the abrupt departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) but her spirit is rekindled by her growing friendship with the irresistible Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner). Suddenly she finds herself drawn into the world of the werewolves, ancestral enemies of the vampires, and finds her loyalties tested. The film adaptation of Twilight, the first film based on Stephenie Meyer's bestselling Twilight book series, featured the unlikely romance between a sensitive high school girl and a more than a century-old vampire and grossed more than $350 million worldwide. The success paved the way for the movie version of the next installment in the bestselling series, The Twilight Saga: New Moon.The bonus features include an entertaining audio commentary by director Christ Weitz, some interesting deleted scenes and a sneak peek at Twilight Eclipse. Go behind the scenes
THE WAR ZONE **** Directed by Tim Roth, this excellent drama produced by Film Four, is based on Alexander Stuart's novel of the same title (Stuart also wrote the screenplay). It tell the riveting story of a seemingly normal family hiding a terrible secret. It features Ray Winstone, Tidla Swinton, Lara Belmont and Freddie Cuncliffe. It is a coming of age story that explores teenage sexuality and also deals with issues if identity, infidelity and broken lives. Features: There's a great behind the scenes documentary featuring in depth interviews with director Tim Roth and the cast.
WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE ***** "I didn't set out to make a children's movie; I set out to make a movie about childhood," says innovative visionary Spike Jonze, whose big-screen adaptation of the captivating Maurice Sendak classic was truly a labor of love. This spectacular and imaginative adaptation of the most beloved books of all time tells a classic story about childhood and the places we go to figure out the world we live in. The film tells the story of Max, a rambunctious and sensitive boy who feels misunderstood at home and escapes to where the Wild Things are. Max lands on an island where he meets mysterious and strange creatures whose emotions are as wild and unpredictable as their actions. The Wild Things desperately long for a leader to guide them, just as Max longs for a kingdom to rule. When Max is crowned king, he promises to create a place where everyone will be happy. Max soon finds, though, that ruling his kingdom is not so easy and his relationships there prove to be more complicated than he originally thought. Read more The fantastic bonus features includes interviews that takes you behind the scenes and into Jonze land
COURTROOM DRAMA
RUNAWAY JURY **** Director Gary Fleder appreciated that Runaway Jury couldn't be pigeon-holed in a genre. "It's not simply a courtroom drama and it's not strictly a thriller," explains the director. It has some excellent features and is highly recommended. Click here to go behind the scenes
HUMAN DRAMA/ FAMILY DRAMA Read more
SPORTS DRAMA
CINDERELLA MAN ***** Ron Howard delivers a gentle film with a heart of gold. A story set against a familiar arena found in classics such as Raging Bull, Rocky and Million Dollar Baby could easily have disappeared, but Howard manages to shift the focus and give us a touching story about a man and his family surviving in tough conditions and finding happiness in the poorest of conditions. Russell Crowe delivers a powerful performance as Depression-era boxer and folk hero Jim Braddock, with terrific support from Paul Giamatti as his coach and friend. Go behind the scenes
THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED *** Bill Paxton's directorial debut is the inspirational story of triumph over adversity, base on the book by Mark Frost (who also wrote the screenplay). It tells of a young amateur golfer who has nothing but talent and a dream to challenge the world's greatest players at the highest level of his sport. A working-class kid caught between hardship and a beckoning life of privilege - his unlikely quest for victory would become a thrilling display of unrivaled heart, skill and determination. Bonus Features: Two Legends and the Greatest Game; on the set of the film.
INVINCIBLE **** Mark Wahlberg is fantastic as the real-life football legend Vince Papale in this rousing sports drama. This is ideal entertainment for those who enjoy films where the underdog takes on the world, and want the character to score despite all odds. Although it is the story of a football legend, the film also focuses on the drama and characters that form his decisions, allowing for some tender moments that never becomes sentimental. The bonus features include audio commentaries, and a documentary on 'The Story of Vince Papale'. Go behind the scenes
ROCKY ANTHOLOGY - Ultimate Edition ***** Over the course of 14 years, Sylvester Stallone weaved a remarkable tale about the underdog story of Rocky Balboa, the incredible lifelong journey of an unrelenting boxer who never throws in the towel - not in the ring and not in life. Since 1976, Rocky has been big business. The first film cost just over a million to produced and grossed over $162 million worldwide. Budgeted at $7.6 million, Rocky II grossed $124.2 million worldwide. Rocky III cost $16 million to make brought in $198 million worldwide. Rocky IV was $34 million to produce and has tailed worldwide revenues of over $278 million. Since Rocky IV, the estimated franchise success stands at over &1.5 billion before the release of Rocky Balboa. This edition includes Rocky I to V. The bonus features include a behind the scenes look, as well as a booklet. Go behind the scenes of the Rocky saga and read more about Rocky Balboa,
ROCKY BALBOA *** Sylvester Stallone's solid script moves away from the sports drama and returns back to the human drama of a man who needs to find redemption and come to terms with the only family he has left. This is not a story about winning and victory, but what it takes to be winner who can take the punches despite all odds. The bonus features include audio commentary by Sylvester Stallone, an alternate ending, deleted scenes, and the making of. Go behind the scenes
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