Bob Barrett Movies

Five years after the events of Absolutely Fabulous: The Last Shout, Edina (Jennifer Saunders) has remodeled both her kitchen and her office, the former into a sleek modern room with a convenience-store freezer full of champagne, the latter into a paperless virtual meeting space. Partnering with manic TV presenter Katy Grin (Jane Horrocks), Eddy has also morphed her PR firm into a multimedia empire. Patsy (Joanna Lumley), meanwhile, has begun receiving injections of Parralox, a beauty treatment that paralyzes the facial muscles. Still living at home, but chasing a New Labour job so she can escape, Saffron (Julia Sawalha) dismisses Patsy's treatments as self-entombment, to which Eddy replies, "She still has emotions -- she just doesn't have to pay for them in wrinkles!" Later, at a hip club called Gate, Eddy and Patsy sneak in to hobnob with their new pal Lady Candida de Benison-Bender (Tilly Blackwood), but all three women are snubbed by the various celebrities on display. Eddy does chat a bit with Twiggy, who's now on her PR roster, about the pair's upcoming appearance on Richard and Judy (the British equivalent of Live With Regis & Kathie Lee). At home, Patsy convinces Eddy to prepare for her TV spot with just a few quick squirts of Parralox -- with disastrous results for both Eddy and Saffy. Originally broadcast on BBC 1 on August 31, 2001, Absolutely Fabulous: Parralox marked series four, episode one of this popular Britcom. Michael Greco of British TV soap Eastenders, Stephen Gately of teen group Boyzone, models Twiggy and Lady Victoria Hervey, and TV presenters Richard Madeley and Judy Finnigan all make cameo appearances as themselves. The character Katy Grin is revealed to be the cousin of Eddy's assistant, Bubble; both characters are played by Jane Horrocks. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Empty Beach brings Australian novelist Peter Corris' detective hero Cliff Hardy to the big screen. F/X star Bryan Brown plays Hardy, who this time around is hired to confirm or disprove the reported death of a millionaire. Hardy confers with journalist Brian Henneberry (Clifford Tate), who has some potentially explosive evidence -- and who, inevitably, is murdered before he can talk. The trail of evidence runs hot and cold, thanks to a gaggle of suspects and hangers-on who aren't revealing everything that they know. Co-starring in Empty Beach is Anna Maria Monticelli, aka Anna Jemison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in New South Wales, Australia, a local hairdresser falls in love with an enigmatic wanderer and leaves her tiny hometown behind to travel along with him. She is madly in love with him, but eventually comes to question her infatuation when she begins suspecting him of being a killer, a hunch fueled by the corpses that seem to follow them wherever they go. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Writer and director Sofia Coppola puts a new spin on the life and times of one of Europe's most infamous monarchs in this lavish historical drama which fuses a contemporary sensibility with painstaking recreations of the look of the 18th century. Born to Austrian nobility, Marie Antoinette (Kirsten Dunst) is only 14 years old when she's pledged to marry Louis XVI (Jason Schwartzman), the 15-year-old king of France, in an alliance that has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with love. Sent to France and literally stripped of her former life, Marie weds Louis, but to the consternation of the royal court, he seems either unwilling or unable to consummate the marriage while their advisors clamor for an heir to the throne. Young and more than a bit out of step with the new life that's been thrust upon her, Marie gives herself over to the pleasures of life in Versailles, knowing and caring little of the political intrigue that surrounds her. In time, Marie's trusted older brother, Joseph (Danny Huston), is brought in to coach Louis on the finer points of marital relations, and before long the couple is finally blessed with a child. However, as Marie tends to her children in the gilded cage of her palace and enjoys an affair with a Swedish nobleman, political power plays are throwing France into chaos, and the growing ranks of the poor rebel against the royals and their life of privilege. Also starring Rip Torn, Judy Davis, Steve Coogan, and Asia Argento, Marie Antoinette was given a controversial reception when it premiered at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Director Donald Crombie's fourth feature tackles the problem of out-of-control redevelopment by unscrupulous corporate developers. Angel Street is a row of charming and quaint homes on the shore of Australia's Sydney Harbor. A development company wants to buy the homes, raze the street, and build high-rise apartments in their wake. When B.C. Simmonds (Alexander Archdale), the leader of the residents' group, dies under mysterious circumstances, his daughter Jessica (Liz Alexander) takes up the residents' cause against the developers, assisted by Elliot (John Hargreaves), the Communist union official with whom Jessica had a brief affair. It turns out that the developers are not just businessmen, but have a malevolent connection with the government. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide