Film Archive 1987
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| ALIENS |
| LATENITE 012287 |
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| Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), the sole survivor from the original ALIEN, is awakened after 57 years of drifting through space, her stories disbelieved by Company executives who tell her that the alien�s planet is now inhabited and colonized. When contact is suddenly lost with the colonists, Ripley returns to the planet with a squad of marines, an android (Lance Henriksen), and a Company executive (Paul Reiser) with a mission of his own. Once on the planet, no survivors can be found except for Newt, a little girl who awakens motherly instincts in Ripley just in time for the acid-blooded aliens to attack in what quickly becomes a one-sided battle for sheer survival. Considered by many to be the best of the series, ALIENS is a fast-paced, high-intensity thrill ride that set a new standard for action films and cemented director James Cameron�s status as one of Hollywood�s leading directors following the success of THE TERMINATOR. Weaver received an Academy Award nomination and became a feminist hero for her strong, sensitive performance as the survivor Ripley, while costars Reiser, Henriksen, and Bill Paxton all give career-making performances in this landmark sci-fi extravaganza. |
| DOWN BY LAW |
| 012387 |
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| Jim Jarmusch's quirky follow-up to his groundbreaking STRANGER THAN PARADISE is a comic fable about finding the American dream in the most unlikely of places. After being thrown out of the house by his girlfriend, Zack (Tom Waits), an out-of-work DJ, takes a job driving a stolen car with a body in the trunk across the state line. He is arrested and put into a cell with Jack (John Lurie), a pimp who's been busted for recruiting a minor. The trio is completed when Roberto (the always hysterical Roberto Benigni), an Italian tourist who is arrested for killing a man while playing cards, joins them in their cell. Eventually, Roberto succeeds in convincing Zack and Jack to break out of jail with him. But when they do, the escapees find themselves lost in the bayou with no salvation in sight. It isn�t until they land at the small home of an Italian immigrant (Nicoletta Braschi) that Zack, Jack, and Roberto learn to appreciate the beauty the world has to offer. Robby Muller�s gorgeously contrasted black-and-white photography adds an artistic dimension to Jarmusch�s film, which only heightens the performances by the three leads. |
| RUTHLESS PEOPLE |
| LATENITE 020587 |
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| In this comedy from the directing team responsible for AIRPLANE!, two kidnappers discover, to their shock, that the husband (Danny DeVito) of the wealthy woman (Bette Midler) they've snatched won't pay the ransom and is, in fact, celebrating the possibility that she may be murdered. It isn't long before the abductors understand why: their captive, who harangues them with a never-ending stream of abuse, is more trouble than she's worth. But as they get to know her, and learn more about her husband, it dawns on the kidnappers that he's no treasure either--and that getting abducted may be the best thing that's happened to their victim in a long time. |
| SUMMER |
| 020687 |
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| In Eric Rohmer's SUMMER (LE RAYON VERT), a young woman in her mid-twenties finds herself utterly alone even though she is surrounded by dynamic friends who love her. She is a quiet, charming person who speaks her mind when asked, yet she is also depressed, solitary, and uncomfortable. Working as a secretary in a congenial Paris office, Delphine (Marie Rivi�re) schedules a vacation only to be ditched at the last moment by the friend with whom she'd planned to travel. Hesitant to leave Paris because she thinks it would be too sad to travel alone, Delphine is nonetheless determined to go somewhere for her vacation. The story progresses without any jarring surprises as the camera becomes another of Delphine's loyal friends who cannot succeed in bringing her happiness. With slow, studied pace, and gorgeous, personal touch to the settings (Paris, suburbs, Biarritz) and Delphine's interactions with her friends, Rohmer captures the langorous feeling of relaxation and anticipation that is part of the best summer vacations. The original title in French, LE RAYON VERT, refers to a novel by Jules Verne about a love affair that is compared to the last ray of light that appears on the horizon during a sunset: the green ray. This lovely and moving film is part of Rohmer's Comedies and Proverbs series. |
| TOP GUN |
| LATENITE 021987 |
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| Maverick is a hot pilot. When he encounters a pair of MiGs over the Persian Gulf, his wingman is clearly outflown and freaks. On almost no fuel, Maverick is able to talk him back down to the Carrier. When his wingman turns in his wings, Maverick is moved up in the standings and sent to the Top Gun Naval Flying School. There he fights the attitudes of the other pilots and an old story of his father's death in combat that killed others due to his father's error. Maverick struggles to be the best pilot, stepping on the toes of his other students and in a different way to Charlie, a civilian instructor to whom he is strongly attracted. |
| TRUE STORIES |
| 022787 |
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| Talking Heads' ringleader David Byrne makes his directorial debut in this charming low-key musical montage about the mythical town of Virgil, Texas, where the lives of many of its eccentric citizens are exposed. |
| SPALDING GRAY |
| 022787 |
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| This multi-talented comedian revives the lost art of humorous storytelling. He reflects on one man's obsession for a piece of land to call his own. This simple dream becomes a nightmare which only Gray can describe. |
| STAND BY ME |
| LATENITE 031187 |
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| Based on Stephen King’s novella THE BODY, director Rob Reiner's STAND BY ME is the disarmingly tender and subtly sublime story of four kids on the precipice of early adulthood who embark upon a quest. There’s Gordie (Wil Wheaton), the intelligent, creative one with the obviously bright future. His best buddy, Chris (River Phoenix), hardens his image in order to hide the pain from the physical abuse he endures at home, all the while harboring the hope of escaping that image. Rounding out the foursome are Vern (Jerry O'Connell), the pudgy tagalong, and Teddy (Corey Feldman), a loyal and funny but troubled kid with a death wish. |
| SID AND NANCY |
| 031287 |
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| Alex Cox's riveting biopic tells the bleak, heroin-drenched story of Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious and his disturbed American girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. Gary Oldman delivers a bravura performance as Sid, matched by Chloe Webb’s grating, clearly unhinged Nancy. The two lovers’ childlike tenderness with each other contrasts sharply with their bleak, violent nihilism, and while the script implies that Nancy's death was accidental, the line between intention and accident is deliberately blurred. By turns romantic and horrific, SID & NANCY is often grueling to watch, but always compelling. |
| THE FLY |
| LATENITE 031987 |
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| David Cronenberg's remake of the 1958 classic transcends its genre to become a moving portrait of a man and his lover attempting to come to terms with his physical disintegration. "The Fly" stars Jeff Goldblum as a spaced-out scientist who invents a genetic teleportation machine and accidentally transforms himself into a fly. In the horrifyingly graphic detail that is his trademark, Cronenberg depicts the scientist's painful mutation from human into insect. What gives the film its tragic dimension is the emotional depth of the relationship between the scientist and his journalist girlfriend (Geena Davis) as she witnesses his slow, painful metamorphosis. |
| BLUE VELVET |
| LATENITE 032787 |
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| A man returns to his home town after being away and discovers a severed human ear in a field. Not satisfied with the police's pace, he and the police detective's daughter carry out their own investigation. The object of his investigation turns out to be a beautiful and mysterious woman involved with a violent and perversely evil man. |
| ROUND MIDNIGHT |
| 040387 |
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| Paris, 1959. The tenor sax player who has just been booked at the Blue Note was once known as one of the greats. He is staying in a hotel with other black American musicians who will keep him away from alcohol so he will show up to perform every night. A young Parisian who heard the musician perform in his prime listens in the rain on the sidewalk, since he can't afford to come inside. The Parisian earns a living by creating movie posters and since his wife walked out on him he hasn't been very creative. The musician notices him one night, the artist sells a poster and can afford to come inside the Blue Note. He doesn't like the way this jazz great is treated in the place where he lives so he borrows money from his estranged wife for "key money" to move into a larger apartment so he can bring the musician into his own home. "You treat me like a king," the musician tells the French artist. The musician stops drinking and starts composing and recording again. But will it last -- when he is back in New York in his old environment -- without his French friend? |
| JUMPIN' JACK FLASH |
| LATENITE 040987 |
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| Terry works for a bank, and uses computers to communicate with clients all over the world. One day she gets a strange message from an unknown source. The message is coded. After decoding the message, Terry becomes embroiled in an espionage ring. People are killed, and Terry is chased. Throughout she remains in contact with this unknown person, who needs Terry to help save his life. |
| PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED |
| LATENITE 041687 |
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| Francis Ford Coppola's seriocomic drama is the charming tale of middle-aged Peggy Sue Bodell (Kathleen Turner). As an unhappy mother of two, considering divorce from her weasel of a husband, it doesn't seem like a great time to have to attend her 25-year high school reunion and contemplate all those youthful dreams that didn't come true. But at the party Peggy Sue faints...and wakes up to find herself 18 again and back in high school in 1960, where she gets the chance to "do it all over again." Peggy Sue reveals to her shocked brainy schoolmate Richard Norvik (Barry Miller) some of his future "high-tech" inventions and has a fling with a dreamy Beat poet (Michael Fitzsimmons). Now realizing she has the ability to rearrange her future, she must decide if her true happiness lies with future husband Charlie (Nicolas Cage), a Fabian wannabe. Helen Hunt is Peggy’s supportive daughter and Maureen O’Sullivan appears in a small role as the grandmother Peggy gets to revisit. Turner was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her funny, believable role as a woman sent back in time to high school. |
| THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE |
| 041787 |
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| Acclaimed Canadian director Denys Arcand's witty comedy focuses on the marriages and affairs of eight intellectual friends. The group has plans to gather at a secluded house for dinner. While the four men prepare the food and reflect on their promiscuity, the four women discuss their own affairs at a nearby gym. At the dinner table, conflicts soon arise when Dominique, who teaches history at the local university, reveals that she herself has had affairs with two of the men there -- one of whom is married to Louise, also present. The entire evening turns into a disaster, with everyone at each other's throats. This Oscar-nominated Canadian film explores the subjects of marriage, infidelity and sex when a group of friendly intellectuals get together for a weekend in the country. |
| THE COLOR OF MONEY |
| LATENITE 042387 |
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| Pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson finds the young, promising pool player Vincent in a local bar and he sees in him a younger version of himself. To try and make it as in the old days, Eddie offers to teach Vincent how to be a hustler. After some hesitations Vincent accepts and Eddie takes him and Vincent's girlfriend Carmen on a tour through the country to work the pool halls. However, Vincent's tendency to show off his talent and by doing so warning off the players and losing money, soon leads to a confrontation with Eddie. |
| ANGEL HEART |
| LATENITE 050787 |
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| In Alan Parker's ANGEL HEART, based on the novel FALLING ANGEL by William Hjortsberg, a New York City gumshoe is hired to find an aging blues singer. Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke) follows clues from the ominous ghettos of Harlem to the witchy backwoods of Louisiana, where he takes up with Epiphany Proudfoot (Lisa Bonet), the beautiful young daughter of a voodoo priestess, whom he believes will be able to shed light on the growing mystery surrounding the missing musician. As Angel closes in on the truth of the case, his contacts start turning up dead. He begins to suspect he might be next. |
| ALPINE FIRE |
| 050887 |
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| A year on an Alpine farm: an older couple have two children, Belli, who wanted to be a teacher, and the younger Franzi, deaf, and although he works like a man, child-like. Belli teaches him. In his work, he can become frustrated, so when he throws an expensive mower over a cliff in a fit of pique, his father banishes him to the outskirts of the farm, where he uses pubescent energy to break rocks and build walls and cairns. (It's the tradition of the father's family, called "The Irascibles" by neighbors, to spend puberty doing this.) Belli visits him and they begin sleeping together. By winter, the boy is back in the house and Belli is pregnant. Soon her parents must know. |
| BELIZAIRE THE CAJUN |
| 051587 |
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| An adventurous tale set in the Louisiana bayou in the 1800's. Belizaire is a village healer who becomes involved in protecting his family and comrades from a group of vigilantes attempting to drive the cajuns off their land. Includes a haunting cameo by Robert Duvall who also served as creative consultant on the film. |
| WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE |
| LATENITE 051587 |
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| In this modern update of the classic Steve McQueen western television series, Hauer plays Nick Randall, a former CIA man turned bounty hunter who becomes the bait in an FBI-CIA conspiracy and finds himself pursued by an international terrorist who pushes him to the limit of survival. It seems that Nick and the terrorist, Malak Al Rahim, are linked by the past, and the two embark on a deadly cat-and-mouse game that only one man can win. Of note, Hauer's character is mentioned as being the great-grandson of McQueen's character in the original series. |
| CRIMES OF THE HEART |
| LATENITE 051887 |
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| Director Bruce Beresford's adaptation of Beth Henley's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about three eccentric southern sisters stars Diane Keaton as Lenny Magrath, Jessica Lange as Meg, and Sissy Spacek as Babe. Long separated, they convene for Lenny's birthday at the family mansion in the Deep South, where Lenny cares for her ailing grandfather. Lenny, the oldest sister, anxious about her shrunken ovary, has never married, nor has Meg, with her underwhelming singing career and her long string of boyfriends. As for Babe, she's fresh out of jail, having shot her husband, a senator, for objecting to her affair with a teenage boy. Given the family's long history of adultery, scandal, and tragedy, including their mother's well-publicized suicide, the reunited siblings have much to talk about. And since this is a family reunion, it's natural that nasty cousin Chick Boyle (Tess Harper) should appear to give the sisters a piece of her mind. Keaton, Lange, and Spacek share a wonderful chemistry in this dark comedy that's equal parts laughter and tears. |
| THE ASSAULT |
| 052287 |
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| In January 1945, during the 2nd world-war, the Dutch resistance kills a collaborator in the street where the 12 year old Anton Steenwijk lives. The man was shot in front of his neighbours house, but is moved by them to the house of the family Steenwijk. Because of this, his father, mother and brother are killed by the Germans, and there house is set to fire. During his life, Anton meets several people that tell him more about what really happened on the night of the assault. |
| TIN MEN |
| LATENITE 052587 |
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| Set in 1963 Baltimore, Barry Levinson’s TIN MEN is a comical vendetta with a twist. As aluminum siding salesman B.B. (Richard Dreyfuss) takes the wheel of his brand-new Cadillac, he’s involved in an accident with Tilley (Danny DeVito), who, coincidentally, also drives a Cadillac and sells siding. Soon after the accident, the nasty game of revenge and one-upmanship begins with each man vandalizing the other's Caddy. But ladies' man B.B. raises the stakes when he deliberately seduces Tilley’s lonely and unhappy wife, Nora (Barbara Hershey). The second installment of Levinson’s Baltimore Trilogy--which also includes DINER and AVALON--TIN MEN is brimming with nostalgia, recalling the days when salesmen went door-to-door and devised elaborate scams to win over customers. It also delves into the hearings related to the code of ethics instituted by the Maryland Home Improvement Commission in 1963 that stopped the more creative salesmen in their tracks. The first-rate supporting cast includes John Mahoney, Bruno Kirby, and Michael Tucker. Music from Fine Young Cannibals, who also appear in the film, gives the soundtrack a 1960s feel with a fresh edge. |
| WAITING FOR THE MOON |
| 052987 |
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| A few months in the life of Alice B. Toklas and Gertrude Stein. During this particular summer, they fear Gertrude is ill. As they await the results of medical tests, Alice attends to Gertrude in addition to giving assistance editing Gertrude's writing. They go driving (Gertrude drives, Alice navigates) and meet a young American on his way to fight in Spain. They visit Picasso, Fernande Olivier, and Apollinaire. Hemingway pays a call. A friend brings a fatherless baby whom Alice agrees to care for. Through it all, Gertrude takes Alice for granted, treating her abruptly and un-feelingly. Hemingway complains on Alice's behalf. Can Gertrude bring herself to tenderness? |
| LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS |
| LATENITE 060487 |
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| Based on the Roger Corman cult classic, LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS slams together twisted humor, a singing plant, a sadistic dentist, and sweet and oblivious love between two skid-row denizens into a rollicking musical well worth watching again and again. Rick Moranis and Ellen Greene portray perfectly clumsy Seymour and bubbly but easily dominated Audrey as they search for a way off skid row. A strange and unusual plant Seymour found after an eclipse might be their ticket out, but the plant Seymour calls Audrey II also desires a strange and unusual food: blood. Audrey’s abusive boyfriend, Orin, a dentist who enjoys inflicting pain (played to the hilt by Steve Martin), is the first to go, but who will be next? And will Audrey II's hunger ever end? |
| EL AMOR BRUJO |
| 060587 |
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| The third film in Carlos Saura's flamenco dance trilogy, LOVE, THE MAGICIAN (EL AMOR BRUIJO) opens with two drunken men arranging for the marriage of their children. Another boy stands off to the side watching. As the credits roll, his face slowly changes into that of an adult man, Carmelo (Antonio Gades) at the wedding of the now grown children. But in the meantime a love triangle has developed. Carmelo loves the bride, Candela (Christina Hoyos), but she loves Jose (Juan Antonio Jimenez), the boy it was arranged for her to marry. And, although unbeknownst to Candela, Jose loves Lucia (Laura del Sol). After the wedding dances, Jose goes to the campfire to dance with Lucia. Enraged that Jose would come to dance with Lucia on the night of the wedding to his beloved Candela, Carmelo kills him with a knife in a tensely choreographed dance of death. After four years in prison, Carmelo returns to find that Candela is being visited by the ghost of Jose. Carmelo's challenge is to break their bond and win Candela back for himself. |
| REFORM SCHOOL GIRLS |
| LATENITE 061887 |
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| Pridemore Juvenile Facility is the setting for this over-the-top women's prison flick, where sweet, young (and straight) Jenny must contend with the predatory and sadistic tactics of the lesbian prisoners, security guards, and wardens! |
| SCENE OF THE CRIME |
| 061987 |
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| A crumbling family in the rural countryside of France is catapulted into a world of crime and high drama in André Téchiné's (ALICE AND MARTIN, WILD REEDS) finely tuned melodrama SCENE OF THE CRIME. When teenage Thomas, in the midst of a his parents' divorce and the difficulty of puberty, is startled on a solitary walk by escaped convict Martin, his internal troubles are reflected and magnified by the drama that ensues. Martin demands that Thomas return with enough money for train fare, and when Thomas does so, he is nearly killed by Martin's accomplice, Luc. Lily, Thomas's mother, runs a disco in town and struggles to raise Thomas while balancing the newfound freedom she's gleaned from her divorce. Meanwhile, Martin emerges from his violent encounter with Thomas, bumps into Lily, and both fall passionately in love. As tangled impulses and promises grow more intense and the implications of each character's quest for freedom escalates, the film unfurls a devastating portrait of the constraints both of childhood and of bourgeois morality. |
| WORKING GIRLS |
| 062687 |
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| This unsparing docu-style feature depicts a typical day in a Manhattan brothel where six working girls rent their bodies to an assorted collection of men illustrating just how far some will go to buy the illusion of love, and how far others will go to sell it. Director Lizzie Bordan successfully dashes the Hollywood image of the prostitute by focusing on Molly (Louise Smith) a college girl who is trying to make some fast cash.The film contains a procession of preparations, clients, and rituals that are recorded as slickly and methodically as they are executed, to lasting effect.The brothel is staffed by ten whores in total, working two shifts, and charging fifty dollars when special services are not required. When their shifts are over the girls go home to their private lives with and without husbands and boyfriends.The acting is unsentimental and the camera work is smooth. Borden wisely passes no judgement on her subject. |
| SOMETHING WILD |
| LATENITE 070287 |
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| Melanie Griffith and Jeff Daniels star in this quirky road movie from director Jonathan Demme (MARRIED TO THE MOB, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS). Charlie Driggs (Daniels) is a timid New York investment broker who lets himself be abducted during his lunch hour by an attractive nut named Lulu (Griffith). While drunk, she drives him to a New Jersey hotel for some kinky sex and petty thievery, and later convinces him to accompany her to Pennsylvania and pose as her husband at her high school reunion. More misadventures ensue, and Charlie gradually finds himself loosening up and falling in love, but then the film makes a sudden left turn with the appearance of Ray (Ray Liotta), Lulu's real husband--a violent ex-convict. As the film's tone oscillates from lightheartedness to darkness, Demme's affection for his characters never wavers, and he keeps things moving with a jubilant soundtrack of global music and a roster of cameo appearances that include directors John Waters and John Sayles, and musicians the Feelies and Sister Carol. It's a comedy, it's a drama, it's a look at the pleasures and dangers of stepping outside the norm, in life and in film. |
| BLACK WIDOW |
| LATENITE 071787 |
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| The black widow spider mates to kill--and so does the femme fatale of this noir thriller. Catharine (Theresa Russell) makes quite a glamorous living by marrying well and then carefully murdering her devoted husbands after ensuring that her name's on the will. No one suspects that the beautiful and affluent widow is actually a killer, as she hides her tracks well, using undetectable poisons. But her luck turns when federal agent Alexandra Barnes (Debra Winger) takes a closer look into the case and suspects she's found a serial killer. Soon Barnes books a flight to Hawaii, where Catharine's doing her mourning in the sun, and discovers that the widow has already gotten her claws into a highly successful hotel tycoon. However, Barnes quickly becomes obsessed with both her alluring subject and with the sophisticated businessman--a situation Catharine is sure to exploit. Like THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE, director Bob Rafelson's BLACK WIDOW refers to an earlier noir film of the same name (directed by Nunnally Johnson in 1954), though similarities stop at the ruthless title character. |
| SWIMMING TO CAMBODIA |
| 072287 |
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| Spalding Gray sits behind a desk throughout the entire film and recounts his exploits and chance encounters while playing a minor role in the film 'The Killing Fields'. At the same time, he gives a background to the events occurring in Cambodia at the time the film was set. |
| FROM BEYOND |
| LATENITE 073187 |
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| Doctor Pretorius and his colleague work on a sensational experiment: by means of stimulation if the pineal gland they want to open mind for higher dimensions. When the experiment succeeds, they are immediately attacked by terrible life forms, who seem to be floating around us all the time. When Pretorius is killed by one of them, Dr. Tillinghast is under suspect and thrown into psychatry due to his stories. Only the ambitious psychologist Dr. McMichaels believes him and wants to continue the experiment. |
| BURKE AND WILLS |
| 080787 |
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| This docudrama is the true account of the first two white men to cross the vast prehistoric desert of central Australia. One is a scientist and the other is in it for the thrill of making history - and that they did. |
| OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE |
| LATENITE 080787 |
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| Two would-be actresses, one serious about her craft but unable to get a job, the other brash and perfectly willing to act in porno films to make the rent, join an acting class given by a world-renowned Russian. They discover, to their outrage, that they are sleeping with the same man and, because of his him, become embroiled in an international spy caper. |
| PRICK UP YOUR EARS |
| 081487 |
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| This witty and moving portrait of Britain's daring and rebellious playwright, Joe Orton, is based on the true story of the tragic murder-suicide of Orton, at the hands of his long-term lover, Ken Haliwell, in the 1960s and the subsequent biography of the same name by New York drama critic John Lahr. PRICK UP YOUR EARS, skillfully directed by Stephen Frears, traces the outrageous life of the famed playwright, portrayed by Gary Oldman. Told through a series of flashbacks, the John Lahr character (Wallace Shawn) interviews Orton's literary agent (Vanessa Redgrave) and others, while weaving the memories and flashbacks from Orton's diaries into a cohesive biography, beginning and ending with the grisly murder. Escaping his lower class upbringing, Orton teamed up with an older ambitious writer, Ken Halliwell (Alfred Molina) at England's Royal Academy of Drama. But after years of close collaboration Orton took a chance and broke out on his own--skyrocketing to fame and fortune with such theatrical hits as LOOT and WHAT THE BUTLER SAW. Orton gregariously charmed Britain's press and theatre-going public, while living an illegal and sexually daring lifestyle. However, the competition and emotional rivalry between Halliwell and Orton took a toll on the lonely unsuccessful confidant. Dejected, in the shadows, and seething with jealousy, Halliwell finally cracked. Abruptly, tragically, he hammered Joe Orton to death in 1967 and took his own life immediately following the murder. |
| LETHAL WEAPON |
| LATENITE 081487 |
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| Two tough Los Angeles cops, one who carries a lethal weapon (Glover) and the other who is one (Gibson), are teamed as partners in a highly unusual case involving a massive international ring which has its roots in Vietnam - a place they are both all too familiar with. This film, with its fresh, energetic combination of comedy, drama and action, has managed to spurn three highly successful sequels. |
| MY LIFE AS A DOG |
| 082187 |
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| Twelve-year-old Ingemar (Anton Glanzlius) has a life far too complex for a kid his age. His beloved mother (Anki Liden), once soft and loving, is now an angry invalid. His older brother (Manfred Serner) torments him daily. But there must be worse things in life, and Ingemar does not hesitate to obsess over them: people meeting freak accidents, for one, and Laika, the doomed Soviet space dog, for another. There is also his own pet dog, whose fate, it turns out, is as uncertain as Ingemar's. But when Ingemar is sent away for the summer to stay with his lighthearted Uncle Gunnar (Tomas von Bromssen) and Aunt Ulla (Kicki Rundgren), his world begins to open in a way he could never have imagined. In their little village, Ingemar meets a menage of eccentric, good-hearted people and their interactions with him give him the strength he'll need when things at home get even worse. |
| PERSONAL SERVICES |
| 082887 |
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| A seemingly conservative woman and her clientele of kinky connoiseurs become daily tabloid sensations when it's discovered that her suburban brothel caters to some of Great Britain's elite. Members of Parliament, diplomats, judges, bankers, and even men of the cloth are all caught with their pants down in England's scandal of the decade. |
| BLIND DATE |
| LATENITE 082887 |
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| When nerdy Walter Davis (Bruce Willis) is fixed up with sexy, soft-spoken Nadia (Kim Basinger) in order to impress his associates a high-powered corporate dinner, he thinks it'll get him ahead in the company. But Nadia has a drinking problem--it only takes one drink to make her go completely crazy, and she has that one drink. Over the course of the night, Nadia's behavior will cause Walter to lose his job and get beaten up, arrested, and chased across town boy Nadia's homicidally jealous former fiance (John Larroquette). But somewhere along the line, Walter and Nadia may even decide that they like each other! Blake Edwards skillfully conducts a talented cast through a maze of comedically complex set pieces in this over-the-top comedy. |
| PLATOON |
| LATENITE 090487 |
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| In PLATOON, Oliver Stone draws on his experience as an infantryman in Vietnam to convey the brutality of guerrilla warfare: the heat of the jungle, the brushes with such wildlife as snakes and leeches, and, most powerfully, the presence of the unseen enemy. Charlie Sheen stars as Chris, a raw recruit, or "new meat," who serves as the film's narrator. At first he wilts under the rigorous conditions of jungle life, freezes up in a fire fight, and wonders whether he'll be able to survive. But he gradually adapts and, as time goes by, begins to see that the platoon is divided into two groups. One consists of lifers, juicers, and subintelligent whites, the other of blacks and heads. Sgt. Barnes, a combat-loving burnout (Tom Berenger), is the informal leader of the lifers, and Sgt. Elias, a free spirit (Willem Dafoe), leads the latter group. When the platoon takes some gruesome losses, an enraged Barnes kills some Vietnamese and orders the burning of their village, outraging the temporarily absent Elias. As the conflict between these two reaches its tragic climax, Chris must decide what he really values. Widely regarded as one of the finest war films ever made, PLATOON reflects not only the United States' division over Vietnam but the timeless truths of battle: terror, disorientation, exhilaration, and horrible loss. |
| 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD |
| 091187 |
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| While searching for rare English books, New York writer Helene Hanff's (Anne Bancroft) letter to a London bookstore, run by Frank Doel (Anthony Hopkins), begins a relationship between the two that spans two decades and two continents. Although their personalities and cultures are miles apart, their friendship blossoms into a deeper affection. Bancroft's performance earned her the BAFTA award, the British equivalent of the Oscar. Based on James Roose-Evans's play, which was based on Helene Hanff's memoir. |
| RAISING ARIZONA |
| LATENITE 091187 |
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| A childless couple unable to adopt decide that a couple who just had quintuplets won't mind if they steal one of the babies. Thus begins the Coen brothers' madcap romp RAISING ARIZONA. Holly Hunter stars as Ed, a cop who is devastated when she learns that she cannot get pregnant. Nicolas Cage is her husband, H.I., an ex-con who wants nothing more than to make his wife the happiest woman in the world. So if she wants a baby, she's going to have a baby, one way or another. |
| SECRET OF MY SUCCESS |
| LATENITE 091887 |
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| Brantley Foster (Michael J. Fox) may come from a small Kansas farm, but he believes he's a New York success story waiting to happen. So certain is Brantley about his destiny that he's packed his bags and headed for the Big Apple, vowing not to return until he's realized the American dream of financial prosperity and romantic fulfillment. Once he's settled in the city, Brantley confronts the adversities of a small pest-ridden apartment, a thankless mailroom job, and pervasive street crime. Working in the mailroom of a powerful corporation, he develops a scheme to fulfill his dreams. All it takes is an abandoned corporate office and a change of clothes for Brantley Foster to become Carlton Whitfield, a new high-powered executive with radical ideas and a charming way with the ladies, including Christy Wills (Helen Slater), the boss's mistress. This delightful comedy keeps Brantley on his toes as as he struggles to keep his new girlfriend, his pals in the mailroom, his boss, and the boss's lustful wife from learning the truth as he fights to fulfill his dreams. |
| THE BELIEVERS |
| LATENITE 092587 |
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| While investigating a series of brutal murders, a psychiatrist for the NYPD uncovers and becomes interested in a dark religious cult, the members of which (the "Believers") use children as human sacrifices. But the psychiatrist soon realizes he must extricate himself from the grip of the Believers and its rituals -- before his own son becomes the next to be sacrificed. |
| JEAN DE FLORETTE |
| 100187 |
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| The first of two parts of the classic Marcel Pagnol story set in southeast France in the mid 1920s. In a small provencal village, where water is scarce and the earth dry, only one piece of property possesses an underground spring to irrigate the soil--and the wily, greedy César (Yves Montand) will do anything to get hold of it. His dreams seem on the verge of coming true when the owner (with a little help from César) dies unexpectedly. But then Jean Cadoret (Gerard Depardieu), an outsider who inherits the farm, arrives with the intention of settling down and cultivating the land with his good-hearted wife Aimee (played by Depardieu's real wife, Elisabeth Depardieu) and young daughter Manon (Ernestine Mazurowna). Jean, a hunchback and sensitive dreamer, glories in his new life while César and his nephew Ugolin (Daniel Auteuil) secretly decide to stop up the spring so his plans will fail. The good-hearted Jean, too naive to imagine that anyone would sabotage him, struggles fruitlessly to make his garden bloom. His continual failure erodes his spirit, setting the stage for a tragedy with consequences for all. Director Claude Berri focuses a well-trained eye on the heart-stopping scenery of the rural provencal landscape in this beautifully filmed tragedy, establishing a farmer's reverence for his land and native soil. Gerard Depardieu delivers an unforgettable performance as the failed dreamer. Followed by Berri's MANON DES SOURCES (MANON OF THE SPRING). |
| DEAD END DRIVE-IN |
| LATENITE 100287 |
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| A man whose car stalls at the Star Drive-In finds himself trapped in a bizarre and terrifying situation. The drive-in is really a scrapheap for society's castoffs, a government sponsored concentration camp, where the weak and unemployed are fed a steady diet of junk food, music and movies. |
| DEVIL IN THE FLESH |
| 100987 |
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| This film, loosely based on the infamous novel by Raymond Radiguet, follows the highly passionate love affair between a shy and studious young man and an explosively sexual woman. Andrea Raimondi lives a quiet, simple life... until he meets Giulia Dozza. The two could hardly be more different: he's from a stable middle-class family, while she comes from a politically rebellious clan that has suffered government persecution. But the two are determined to make their love work out in spite of everyone's disapproval. |
| PREDATOR |
| LATENITE 100987 |
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| Sent to eliminate a gun running camp in Central America, United States Major Dutch Schaeffer (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and his commandos get more than they bargained for when they cross paths with a mysterious assassin. As members of their unit begin to disappear, Dutch, Dillon (Carl Weathers), Blain (Jesse Ventura) conclude that whatever is hunting them is not of this earth. Every attempt at a tactical defense is a defeated for Dutch and company and it is only in the end stretch of their race to safety that their suspicions are confirmed and they encounter the alien nimrod face to face. |
| RIVER'S EDGE |
| LATENITE 101587 |
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| Based on a real life incident, this disturbing drama serves as a seminal study of disillusioned and alienated youth. Set in a small rural town, the local clique of slacker teens is pulled apart when Samson (Daniel Roebuck) kills his girlfriend on the banks of the river and then callously shows off the dead body to his friends. The teens are so numb and ambivalent to the reality of their situation that they remain relatively unphased by the murder of one of their own. Crispin Glover is brilliant as the drugged out paranoid, Layne, who sympathizes with the killer, and plots to hide him at the house of an eccentric recluse (Dennis Hopper), who is rumored to have comitted a similar crime in the 1960s. Keanu Reeves and Ione Skye co-star as Matt and Clarissa, two friends who are drawn together in their realization that something is horribly wrong. In this startling portrait of a morally void society, director Tim Hunter creates a remarkable world of dysfunction and dead-end lives that is haunting in its accuracy. |
| THE UNTOUCHABLES |
| 102387 |
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| Federal agent Elliot Ness assembles a personal team of mob fighters to bring Chicago crime boss Al Capone to justice using unconventional means during the mob wars of the 1920s. This fictionalized account of the arrest of Al Capone is heavy on style and gunfire. The end shootout combines a baby carriage and stairs with a nod to Eisenstein's _The Battleship Potemkin_. |
| WITHNAIL AND I |
| 102387 |
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| Bruce Robinson's semi-autobiographical account of his early years as an actor has become a cult hit of massive proportions, inspiring countless numbers of young men and women to quote stars Paul McGann and Richard E. Grant and their booze-soaked dialogue. The story follows these two unemployed actors in 1969 London, as they take a holiday in the country. Trapped inside a dank, empty cabin with each other, an endless downpour of heavy rain battering their roof, the two men form a complicated bond fueled by booze, disaster, and nihilism. Though not much happens in terms of plot, WITHNAIL AND I is one of the most subtly hilarious films to come out of 1980's Britain. |
| ROXANNE |
| LATENITE 102387 |
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| A modernisation of Edmond Rostands "Cyrano De Bergerac". C.D. Bales is a fire chief, who just happens to have an enormous nose. He hires a new fire-fighter, Chris, who is handsome, and knows his hoses, but is useless when it comes to women. Roxanne is an astronomer who has just arrived in town. She catches the eye of Chris, and he asks C.D. to help him woo her. Little does Chris know that C.D. is mad about Roxanne, but hasn't found the right way to tell her - yet. |
| THE BIG EASY |
| LATENITE 102387 |
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| A hood's murder triggers a bloody gangland drug war, and a smooth-talking New Orleans detective is assigned to find out who's behind it. A tangled web of evidence, half-truths, and family secrets begins to point to higher-ups in his own department, but he refuses to believe it -- that is, until he meets his match in an assistant district attorney from the north. She's in town to investigate allegations of police misconduct and quickly senses what's going on. Repeatedly clashing with the detective, she urges him to face the truth and stand up to his responsibilities as an officer of the law. Sparks fly almost immediately between the two, and a romance follows soon thereafter. Once he has come around to her way of thinking, they join forces and solve the crime together. |
| ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW |
| LATENITE 102987 |
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| THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW is a magical phenomenon unlike anything ever before seen onscreen. Borrowing largely from cinema's horror conventions, the film begins as an innocent young couple is stranded at the home of a mad scientist who is building the perfect man. The castle is filled with a most bizarre group of characters who worship their master, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, played magnificently by the fabulously sexy Tim Curry, in leather jacket, pearls, fishnet stockings, and heavy makeup. Brad (Barry Bostwick) and Janet (Susan Sarandon) are forced to examine their own sexuality as the voluptuous doctor releases the hidden desires in each of them. |
| THE WHISTLE BLOWER |
| 103087 |
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| A young Brit named Robert Jones translates wiretapped Russian Communist phone conversations for the government. But when he dies under mysterious circumstances, officials tell Robert's father Frank that his son's death was an accident. However, Frank suspects otherwise, and begins to investigate Rob's death. In his search for the truth, Frank becomes enmeshed in an intricate web of intrigue, as he uncovers a conspiracy at the highest levels of the British government. |
| A PRAYER FOR THE DYING |
| 103087 |
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| Martin Fallon is an IRA bomber who tries to blow up a troop truck but instead kills a bus load of school children. He loses heart and quits the movement and goes to London trying to leave the U.K. and start a new life. The IRA wants him back (he knows too much) and the local crime boss, Meehan, will only help him if he performs one last hit, on a rival crime boss. When Fallon does perform the hit, he is seen by a catholic priest. He refuses to kill an innocent again and must find a way to escape the police without killing the priest who can identify him. |
| THE LOST BOYS |
| LATENITE 103087 |
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| When newly-divorced Lucy moves her sons to her father's house in Santa Clara, California -- "the murder capital of the world" -- her teenage son, Michael, quickly falls in with the town's bad kids: a bike-riding, Jim Morrison-worshipping gang of blood-sucking vampires. Her younger son Sam and his buddies, the Frog brothers, are the only ones who recognize the signs of vampirism in Michael, and they plot to battle the legions of the night before they take over the entire town. |
| THE UNTOUCHABLES |
| 110187 |
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| Federal agent Elliot Ness assembles a personal team of mob fighters to bring Chicago crime boss Al Capone to justice using unconventional means during the mob wars of the 1920s. This fictionalized account of the arrest of Al Capone is heavy on style and gunfire. The end shootout combines a baby carriage and stairs with a nod to Eisenstein's _The Battleship Potemkin_. |
| TAMPOPO |
| 110687 |
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| Billed as the "first Japanese noodle western," this comedy offers a satirical view of the relationship between food and sex, one of the director's favorite topics. Watch as a widow running a Tokyo restaurant and a cowboy hat-wearing truck driver try to make the perfect bowl of ramen. Highly acclaimed film from director Itami. |
| VIGIL |
| 110687 |
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| Suffused with the misty gray light and ghostly blue-green grass which have become a signature of many New Zealand films, VIGIL is the quietly powerful coming-of-age story of a young girl isolated by loss and environment. Out gathering stranded sheep, Toss's (Fiona Kay) father falls to his death; at the same moment, she hears the gunshots of an approaching poacher. In his muddy gum boots, the poacher, Ethan (Frank Whitten), carries her father's battered body back to the house. Tuba-playing, pajama-clad grandfather Birdie (Bill Kerr) encourages the stranger to stick around and "warm up" Toss' grieving mother, Elizabeth (Penelope Stewart), much to the initial disdain of both mother and daughter. Fleeing the sexual tension, Toss retreats to her playhouse in her hooded, wooly, hawk-like hat. It is only in the mirrors of her playhouse, and at last in the ghostly lights which Ethan shows her in his own hiding place, that the boyish Toss is able to explore her grief and accept the confusing first stirrings of womanhood. |
| ROBOCOP |
| LATENITE 110687 |
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| Detroit - in the future - is crime ridden, and run by a massive company. The company have developed a huge crime fighting robot, which unfortunately develops a rather dangerous glitch. The company sees a way to get back in favour with the public when a cop called Alex Murphy is killed by a street gang. Murphys body is reconstructed within a steel shell and named Robocop. The Robocop is very successful against criminals, and becomes a target of supervillian Boddicker. |
| CAN'T BUY ME LOVE |
| LATENITE 110687 |
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| To try and get out of his nerdy set, Ronald offers Cindy, cheerleader and school's most popular girl, a deal. She urgently needs $1,000 which he will let her have if she dates him for a month. Being desperate she grudgingly accepts, and soon starts to actually like him. But she finds his plan of becoming number one guy has worked and he has other fish to fry. |
| WISH YOU WERE HERE |
| 112087 |
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| In a staid English seaside town after the Second World War, young Lynda grows up with her widowed father and younger sister. Rebellious Lynda has been swearing constantly from an early age. At sixteen, she becomes more exhibitionist and seeks out sexual encounters challenging the prevailing lower-middle class attitudes to sex. She eventually becomes pregnant by an acquaintance of her father. |
| THE WITCHES OF EASTWICK |
| LATENITE 112087 |
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| Alex, Jane, and Suki are three bored New England woman left to live without their husbands. They innocently conjure up a mystery man, who could satisfy all their desires. A new man moves into town - and he fits the bill perfectly. Daryl Van Horne is filthy rich and wild eyed, and within days the three women have all discovered almighty power within themselves. Will good triumph over evil, or will Daryl continue to have his evil way with his witches? |
| STAKEOUT |
| 112787 |
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| While on an FBI stakeout, detective Chris Lecce (Richard Dreyfuss) falls hard for Maria (Madeleine Stowe), the woman he's supposed to be watching. Soon he's inside her home enjoying a torrid love affair, while his young partner Bill Reimers (Emilio Estevez), waits across the street, looking through his binoculars and fuming. But the woman's ex-boyfriend (Aidan Quinn), a crazed, escaped convict who is the real object of the stakeout, is on his way back to see her and poses a very dangerous threat to the new couple. Director John Badham's entertaining blend of action and humor highlights the comic timing and chemistry between Dreyfuss and Estevez, who deliver first-rate performances. |
| NADINE |
| LATENITE 112787 |
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| Working in an Austin, Texas, beauty parlour in 1954, Nadine Hightower endeavours to retrieve some 'art studies' she injudiciously had taken. Her visit to the photographer leaves him dead and her in possession of highly valuable plans of a proposed new road. With both the police and the murderous villains after her she enlists the help of her (almost) ex-husband Vernon, the none too successful owner of the Bluebonnet Bar. Fortunately the thugs are as much no-hopers as the Hightowers. |
| THE WOLF AT THE DOOR |
| 120487 |
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| Donald Sutherland plays Paul Gauguin in "The Wolf at the Door," a character study of the impressionist painter. The famed man typified the stereotype of the "struggling artist." He deserted his family in Denmark, traveled to work in Tahiti, then wandered to Paris -- where hostile reviewers decried his "lack of perspective" -- and journeyed back to the South Seas to find models for his works. All the while, in light of family difficulties, money troubles and poor critical reception, Gauguin strived to maintain his artistic integrity. |
| THE FOURTH PROTOCOL |
| LATENITE 120487 |
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| KGB agent, Major Valeri Petrofsky has been reassigned at the request of the KGB Chairman for a secret mission, wherein he is sent to England to establish a residence near an American Military base and receive various items for couriers from the USSR. John Preston is the top British spy catcher, currently he is at adds with his superior cause, he doesn't lick his boots. After a recent operation caused his superior some embarrassment, he is reassigned to the menial task of overseeing airports and ports. One day one the couriers Petrofsky was expecting had an encounter with customs which left him dead. Preston then went through his things and found that he was carrying a thing that is part of an atomic bomb. Preston then suspects that someone is bringing in parts for an atomic bomb, and after being shut down by his superior, he is given a reprieve by a higher official, and begins trying to find this person. And back in the USSR, Petrofsky's boss is so disgruntled that Petrofsky has been taken from him that he calls his old friend, the Vice-Chairman of the KGB to find out what's going on, cause he believed that the Chairman couldn't be able to do any of these things without his friend's input. But his friend is just as incredulous as he is. So he tries to find out what the Chairman is up to. |
| THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS |
| LATENITE 121087 |
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| James Bond finds himself helping a Soviet general escape from the Iron Curtain only to see a cellist holding a rifle on his subject. When the general is recaptured, Bond decides to track him by finding out why a concert cello player would try and kill her benefactor. He escapes with her first to Vienna, then to Morocco, finally ending up in a prison in Soviet occupied Afghanistan as he tracks down the elements in this mystery. |
| SWEET LORRAINE |
| 121887 |
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| Lillian Garber runs the Lorraine Hotel situated in the Catskill hills of New York state which is faced with closing down for good. Lillian's teenage granddaughter, Molly, arrives to work at the hotel for the summer leading her to meeting new friends and try to help her grandmother face the possibility of losing the hotel which is well past it's prime. |
| NO WAY OUT |
| LATENITE 121887 |
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| Thriller in which a naval commander begins dating an alluring woman who happens to be the girlfriend of his boss (the Secretary of Defense). When the woman is murdered, the Secretary assigns the task of tracking down the killer to the military officer -- who promptly becomes the main suspect. |
| I'VE HEARD THE MERMAIDS SINGING |
| 122587 |
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| Polly (Sheila McCarthy), a klutzy kook, gets a job in a trendy art gallery and masters the fine art of getting into trouble. In a major gaffe,she hangs a piece of art she credits to her boss Gabrielle (Paule Baillargeon), but which really was created by Gabrielle's lover Mary (Ann-Marie MacDonald). The crush she develops on Gabrielle only adds to her fantasies and riotous realities. |
| THE LOST BOYS |
| LATENITE 122587 |
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| A mother and her two sons move to a small coast town in California. The town is plagued by bikers and some mysterious deaths. The younger boy makes friends with two other boys who claim to be vampire hunters while the older boy is drawn into the gang of bikers by a beautiful girl. The older boy starts sleeping days and staying out all night while the younger boy starts getting into trouble because of his friends' obsession. |