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Robbie Coltrane Movies

Stocky Scottish comic actor Robbie Coltrane was trained as an artist in Glasgow. During the 1970s, he rose to prominence as an improvisational nightclub comedian, usually working in ensemble groups (one of his partners was actress Emma Thompson). During the '80s, he was in a number of British features and made-for-TV movies. A regular at London's Comic Strip comedy club, he had a habit of appearing as himself in comedy specials like Secret Policeman's Third Ball. He also showed up in small comedic cameos in National Lampoon's European Vacation and Kenneth Branagh's Henry V. Though he was popular in the U.K. on TV shows like Alfresco, Tutti Fruitti, Black Adder, and The Young Ones, he wasn't widely known in the U.S. until his antic performance in Nuns on the Run with Eric Idle. He then starred as the title character in the satiric comedy The Pope Must Die (released in the U.S. as The Pope Must Diet). In 1993, he starred in the British TV detective series Cracker as Fitz, a nervous forensic psychologist who helps crack cases. He won a BAFTA TV award for the role, and he won a Cable ACE award when it was rebroadcast in the U.S. on A&E. When the show ended, he briefly joined up with the James Bond film series as Valentin Dmitrovich Zukovsky in GoldenEye and The World Is Not Enough. In the late '90s, he starred in a few independent films (Montana, Frogs for Snakes) and played Sgt. Peter Goldy in the Hughes brothers' thriller From Hell. However, he's been most successful in the area of family entertainment. He was delightful as the con man in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Elijah Wood; he was Tweedledum to George Wendt's Tweedledee in Alice in Wonderland; and he found a fine place for himself as Hagrid the Giant in the Harry Potter film series. In 2002, he earned a Best Supporting Actor nomination from the British Academy for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. In 2003, he returned to British TV to play lawyer Jack Lennox in The Planman. Coltrane continued to work as Hagrid throughout the Harry Potter film series (2001-2011), and lent his voice to films including The Tales of Despereaux (2008) and Brave (2012). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
1983  
 
Two strangers with almost no common ground are stuck travelling across Europe together in this British comedy. Sally (Lindsay Duncan) is an ardent feminist from London who, with the help of two of her closest friends, builds her own car. Sally and her comrades are to attend a conference on women's rights in Germany, and they intend to drive the new vehicle there as a symbolic gesture. However, when the time for the symposium rolls around, her friends are unable to attend, and Sally doesn't care to drive that far on her own. Searching for a travelling companion, at the last minute she settles on Harry (Stephen Rea), whom she's told is a leftist gay man. However, Harry is not the person Sally thought he was; he turns out to be a bullheaded and thoroughly heterosexual football supporter who regards the women's movement as little more than a joke. Will these two make it all the way to Germany without killing each other? ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Starring:
Stephen ReaLindsay Duncan, (more)
 
1983  
 
This talky avant-garde film about a pair of women looking for answers to unformulated questions is a journey through dense, non-stop verbosity partially balanced by good photography and music, a leavening sense of humor, good characterizations by Robbie Coltrane and Dominique Pinon, and a cameo appearance by French philosopher Jacques Derrida (the deconstructionist). Leonie (Leonie Mellinger) and Pascale (Pascale Ogier) travel aimlessly between London and Paris, searching for the origins of ghosts that populate their psyches: from Karl Marx to Franz Kafka, from psychoanalysis to dream analysis, and even the cinema itself, no apparition is left unturned. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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Starring:
Pascale OgierRobbie Coltrane, (more)
 
1982  
R  
A grim British reform school for girls provides the backdrop for this gritty drama that focuses on two young inmates. One is hoping to find security in the prison while the other is desperate to be reunited with her baby. While in the prison, they must cope with many different women, but in the end learn to survive and how to fight the system. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Amanda YorkChrissie Cotterill, (more)
 
1981  
 
This detective drama was shot on location in New York City and chronicles the bloody wake of terror left by a murderous street saxophone player who hides out on the subway. The bizarre string of murders is investigated by a hard-bitten detective. Along the way he meets assorted New Wave scumbags. The mood of the film is heightened by an avant garde musical score. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

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Starring:
Robbie ColtraneJohn Lurie, (more)
 
1980  
PG  
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Heroic earthling Flash Gordon saves the world from the nefarious Ming the Merciless in this lavish, intentionally campy adaptation of the famous sci-fi comic strip. The story is as basic as space operas get: Ming (Max von Sydow) has developed a plan to destroy the Earth, and Flash (Sam J. Jones) and his attractive companion, Dale Arden (Melody Anderson), are called upon to stop him. Along the way, Flash must battle Ming's goons and the temptations of a luscious space princess. Previously the basis for a more straight-faced 1930s adventure serial, Flash's story is mined here for exaggerated, cartoon humor by screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., a central figure in the similarly campy '60s Batman television series. The simplistic plot mainly serves as an excuse for spectacular sets and cartoonish action sequences, all set to an appropriately over-the-top rock score by Queen. Certainly not a film to turn to for serious excitement, fine performances, or character development, Flash Gordon has nevertheless developed an appreciative cult of fans who admire the film's humorous approach and the detailed, colorful production design. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

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Starring:
Sam JonesMelody Anderson, (more)
 
1980  
R  
Director Bertrand Tavernier provides an unexpected feminist slant to the otherwise standard sci-fi trappings of Death Watch. Harvey Keitel plays a man of the future who has had a camera implanted in his brain. The mechanism, which is endowed with special X-ray properties, is activated by the user's eyes. Keitel is assigned by ruthless TV producer Harry Dean Stanton to secretly probe the subconscious of a dying woman, played by Romy Schneider. Stanton is only interested in the grim spectacle of what goes on inside the brain of someone who knows she's doomed. Keitel, on the other hand, becomes increasingly compassionate--and disgusted by the tawdriness of his assignment--as he stares into Schneider's tortured psyche. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Starring:
Romy SchneiderHarvey Keitel, (more)