Like Molière, which was released in cinemas soon after, Becoming Jane isn't a conventional biopic. Instead, Julian Jarrold (White Teeth) expands on events from Jane Austen's life that may have shaped her fiction. To his credit, he doesn't stray too far from the facts. In 1795, 20-year-old Jane (Anne Hathaway with believable British accent) is an aspiring author. Her ...
Manufacturer: 2 Entertain VideoStarring: Anne Hathaway, James McAvoy, Julie Walters, James Cromwell, Maggie Smith
The latest remake of Burt Reynold's 1974 flick, Adam Sandler's take on The Longest Yard, is unlikely to win him many new fans. But it has merits as a good, solid, enjoyable comedy, and it finds Sandler himself in very strong form. The plot sets him as an ex-American footballer, who is sent to prison following a car accident. There, he finds himself putting together a team of convicts to ...
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, James Cromwell, Nelly, William FichtnerDirected By: Peter Segal
"The book was better" has been the complaint of many a reader since the invention of films. The Green Mile is Frank Darabont's second adaptation of a Stephen King prison drama The Shawshank Redemption was the first) and is a very faithful adaptation of King's serial novel. In the middle of the Depression, Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) runs death row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary. Into ...
Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoStarring: Tom Hanks, Michael Clarke Duncan, David Morse, Bonnie Hunt, James CromwellDirected By: Frank Darabont
Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Alan Tudyk, James Cromwell, Bruce Greenwood
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentStarring: Will Smith, Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBrideDirected By: Alex Proyas
The surprise hit of 1995, this splendidly entertaining family film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, director, and screenplay, and deservedly won the Oscar for its subtly ingenious visual effects. Babe is all about the title character, a heroic little pig who's been taken in by the friendly farmer Hoggett (Oscar nominee James Cromwell), who senses that he and the ...
Manufacturer: 4 Front VideoStarring: James Cromwell, Magda Szubanski, Christine Cavanaugh, Miriam Margolyes, Danny MannDirected By: Chris Noonan
Helen Mirren reigns supreme in The Queen, a witty and ingenious look at a moment that rocked the house of Windsor: the week that followed the sudden death of Princess Diana in 1997. Diana's death came at just the same time that Prime Minister Tony Blair (played by the bright Michael Sheen) was settling into his new government--and trying to figure out the delicate relationship between 10 ...
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home EntertainmentStarring: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Alex Jennings, Roger AllamDirected By: Stephen Frears
How does Spider-Man 3 follow on the heels of its predecessor, which was widely considered the best superhero movie ever? For starters, you pick up the loose threads from that movie, then add some key elements of the Spidey comic-book mythos (including fan-favorite villain Venom), the black costume, and the characters of Gwen Stacy and her police-captain father. In the beginning, ...
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures Home EntertainmentStarring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Thomas Haden Church, Topher Grace, James FrancoDirected By: Sam Raimi
Horse lovers young and old will celebrate Spirit, an utterly enjoyable and marvellous-looking animated film. The titular stallion runs free in the Cimarron (New Mexico) wilderness until a series of men try to master the proud horse, leading to adventures through a US Cavalry fort, Native American settlements, and a railroad camp. Despite a heavy dose of political correctness and realism ...
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Home EntertainmentStarring: Matt Damon|James CromwellDirected By: Kelly Asbury
In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, LA Confidential is the real thing--a gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal and corruption of all sorts (police, political, press--and, of course, very personal) in 1940s Hollywood. The Oscar-winning screenplay is actually based on several titles in James Ellroy's series of chronological ...
Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoStarring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, James CromwellDirected By: Curtis Hanson
Tony Kushner's prize-winning play Angels in America became the defining US theatrical event of the 1990s, an astonishing mix of philosophy, politics, and vibrant gay soap opera that summed up the Reagan era for an entire generation of theatre-goers. Post-9/11 would seem to be too late for a film version--philosophy and politics don't always age well--but this 2003 HBO adaptation, ably ...
Manufacturer: Warner Home VideoStarring: Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary-Louise Parker, Jeffrey WrightDirected By: Mike Nichols
