David Sterne Movies

In mid- to late-'60s Britain, an unusual yet colorful subculture sprang up and thrived as a product of the upswing in British pop music, only to meet its doom within a few short years. Though the BBC functioned as the country's main source of news and music, its programmers offered very little airtime to rock & roll -- which left an overwhelming need unfulfilled. In response, small bands of "pirate" radio enthusiasts set up broadcasting towers on boats just outside of English boundary waters, and transmitted signals to an estimated 25 million listeners, 24 hours a day and seven days per week. Unsurprisingly, the DJs who took charge of these broadcasts could rival just about anyone in terms of flamboyance and outsized personalities. With Pirate Radio (released as The Boat That Rocked in the U.K.), writer-director Richard Curtis (Love Actually) travels back to the Swinging Sixties and takes a headfirst plunge into this colorful realm.

The story opens in 1966, aboard a rusty fishing trawler christened Radio Rock and equipped with pirate broadcasting equipment. Here, the slightly daft elitist Quentin (Bill Nighy) presides over a motley crew of joint-toking, sex-hungry disc jockeys including Dave (Nick Frost), a heavyset boob who nevertheless considers himself a hot property with women and loves to chase skirts; "The Count" (Philip Seymour Hoffman), an American DJ who aspires to be the first person to drop an F-bomb over the British airwaves; the gloom-laden Irishman Simon (Chris O'Dowd); bonked-out hipster Thick Kevin (Tom Brooke); womanizer Mark (Tom Wisdom); Angus (Rhys Darby), a New Zealander whom nobody likes; and the only female member of the group, lesbian cook Felicity (Katherine Parkinson). These misfits pull off quite a show -- enough of one that they attain the status of national idols for the youth culture -- but the super-conservative government minister Dormandy (Kenneth Branagh) detests the whole business and will do almost anything in his power to shut them down. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

Directed by Mike Newell, the fourth installment to the Harry Potter series finds Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) wondering why his legendary scar -- the famous result of a death curse gone wrong -- is aching in pain, and perhaps even causing mysterious visions. Before he can think too much about it, however, Harry boards the train to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where he will attend his fourth year of magical education. Shortly after his reunion with his best friends, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), Harry is introduced to yet another Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher: the grizzled Mad-Eye Moody (Brendan Gleeson), a former dark wizard catcher who agreed to take on the infamous "DADA" professorship as a personal favor to Headmaster Dumbledore (Michael Gambon). Of course, Harry's wishes for an uneventful school year are almost immediately shattered when he is unexpectedly chosen, along with fellow student Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson), as Hogwarts' representative in the Tri-Wizard Tournament, which awards whoever completes three magical tasks the most skillfully with a thousand-galleon purse and the admiration of the international wizard community. As difficult as it is to deal with his schoolwork, friendships, and the tournament at the same time (not to mention his feelings toward the ever unfathomable Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Harry doesn't realize that the most feared wizard in the world, Lord Voldemort, is anticipating the tournament, as well. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Noted for shooting such films as Exotica, Affliction and X-Men, cinematographer Paul Sarossy makes his directorial debut with this existential crime thriller about a killer struggling to reclaim his soul. Jon is a quiet, nice, and seemingly conventional character who no one would suspect is a hired killer. When he makes such a confession to his mates one drunken evening at the local pub, no one believes him. But a hired killed he is, working for a mysterious figured named The Tattooed Man, whose proclivity for philosophy is match only by his lust for cruelty. When Jon runs into his old high school chum Andy, who is happily married to Jon's first love Cathy, he begins to awaken from his emotional and spiritual torpor. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

This quirky British film is the self-portrait of director Lindsay Anderson. It is part of "The Director's Place" series that is sponsored by the BBC Scotland and represents several self-portraits of popular directors. The film, set within the director's north London apartment, begins with a quote from the Cinema Manifesto of 1956: "Perfection is not an aim." In his apartment, Anderson is visited by his peers and friends who come to talk about life, their work, and socio-political concerns. A typical day for Anderson is chronicled. He is seen getting up, taking a leisurely bath surrounded by ideas for his movies, seeing visitors, and using his pensioner's travel pass to utilize public transportation (Anderson is in his '70s). The film's climax is a boat ride on the Thames where the ashes of actresses Jill Bennet and Rachel Roberts are finally cast upon the waters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Another of writer/director Ken Russell's D.H. Lawrence adaptations, Lady Chatterley (an amalgam of three Lawrence novels) was first shown as a British TV miniseries on BBC1 from June 6 to 27, 1993. In recounting the familiar details of young, bored Lady Chatterley (Joely Richardson), her elderly, infirm husband (James Wilby), and her hot-blooded stable-groom lover, Manners (Sean Bean), Russell took the opportunity to both celebrate and savage the British upper classes of the 1920s. One brief sequence of full frontal nudity caused a minor scandal in Britain, though by Ken Russell standards the scene was a model of taste and decorum. After its initial TV run, Lady Chatterley was edited down from 220 to 110 minutes and released theatrically in the United States. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Famed stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen concocts a collection of fantastic creatures -- including a saber-tooth tiger, a chess-playing baboon, a giant walrus and three banshees -- for this follow-up to The Golden Voyage of Sinbad. Patrick Wayne stars as Sinbad, who seeks the hand of Princess Farah (Jane Seymour) in marriage but cannot get her brother, Prince Kassim (Damian Thomas), to agree to the match because he has been turned into a baboon by his evil stepmother. In order to receive the blessing of Farah's brother, Sinbad must travel to a far away realm and find a wizard named Melanthius (Patrick Troughton), the only one who can break the evil spell placed upon Kassim. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide