Tim Pigott-Smith Movies

Director Tim Burton and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King) team up to deliver this visually dazzling take on the classic Lewis Carroll tale. Nineteen-year-old Alice (Mia Wasikowska) is attending party at a lavish country estate when she sees a white rabbit with a pocket watch dart into the bushes. Curious, she follows the rabbit to an enormous tree, and tumbles down a hole that takes her to Underland, a strange world inhabited by anthropomorphic creatures in search of someone to save them from the dreaded Red Queen (Helena Bonham Carter), who has assumed control of the kingdom by decapitating anyone who dares disagree with her. According to a scroll detailing a historical timeline of Underland -- including events that have not yet taken place -- it is Alice who will set the kingdom free by defeating the Jabberwocky, a powerful dragon-like creature under the control of the Red Queen. But is this Alice the same Alice who appears in the scroll? While some of the creatures of Underland have their doubts, the Mad Hatter (Johnny Depp) and his friends are certain she's the same girl who previously visited them years ago. When the Red Queen kidnaps the Mad Hatter, Alice attempts to free her friend and locate the one weapon with the power to slay the Jabberwocky, thereby restoring the White Queen (Anne Hathaway) to the throne, and bringing peace back to Underland. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A devastating betrayal sends James Bond from Australia to Italy and South America on a mission of vengeance that pits the suave super-spy against a powerful businessman with diabolical intentions. Betrayed by Vesper, 007 (Daniel Craig) suppresses the urge to make his latest mission personal as he teams with M (Judi Dench) to interrogate Mr. White (Jesper Christensen). It soon becomes apparent that the organization behind the blackmailing of Vesper is more powerful than Bond and M had previously anticipated, and after discovering forensic evidence that links an MI6 traitor to a bank in Haiti, Bond immediately sets out to gather more intelligence.

Once in Haiti, a case of mistaken identity leads Bond into the company of the ravishing Camille (Olga Kurylenko), a dangerous beauty with her own vendetta. It's Camille who leads Bond to a ruthless businessman named Dominic Greene (Mathieu Amalric), who is soon revealed to be the mastermind of a powerful but clandestine organization. Greene is conspiring to corner the market on one of the world's most precious natural resources, and in order to make that happen he has forged a deal with an exiled general named Medrano (Joaquin Cosio). By enlisting the aid of his many associates and using his vast resources to force contacts within the CIA and the British government into bending to his will, Greene plans to overthrow the current regime of a Latin American country and hand control over to General Medrano in exchange for a parcel of land that appears barren on the surface, but actually houses a natural resource that will make Greene the most powerful man on the planet. But Bond's mission to uncover the culprit who blackmailed Vesper and prevent Dominic Greene from exerting his will on the entire world won't be easy, because now everyone from the CIA to the terrorists and even M are out to get him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore, V for Vendetta takes place in an alternate vision of Britain in which a corrupt and abusive totalitarian government has risen to complete power. During a threatening run in with the secret police, an unassuming young woman named Evey (Natalie Portman) is rescued by a vigilante named V (Hugo Weaving) -- a caped figure both articulate and skilled in combat. V embodies the principles of rebellion from an authoritarian state, donning a mask of vilified would-be terrorist of British history Guy Fawkes and leading a revolution sparked by assassination and destruction. Evey becomes his unlikely ally, newly aware of the cruelty of her own society and her role in it. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi

The fourth film to chronicle the life of fourth-century B.C. ruler Alexander the Great, Oliver Stone's Alexander stars Colin Farrell as the titular Macedonian conqueror. The film follows the young king as he leads his forces on a bloody empirical conquest across the known world, taking large parts of Asia and the Middle East to amass a giant empire, all by the time he turned 25. Anthony Hopkins co-stars as Ptolemy I along with Rosario Dawson as Roxane, Angelina Jolie as Olympias, Jared Leto as Hephaistion, Val Kilmer as King Philip II, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Cassander. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

British filmmaker Simon Cellan Jones directs the BBC drama Eroica, starring Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven. Shot on digital video, this TV movie concerns the first performance of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 3" on June 9, 1804, in Vienna. Prince Lobkowitz (Jack Davenport) has invited all his friends to his palace to watch Beethoven perform his new piece with a full orchestra. Among the aristocratic attendees are Count Dietrichstein (Tim Pigott-Smith), Countess Brunsvik (Claire Skinner), and composer Josef Haydn (Frank Finlay). The actual musical score is performed by the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

Paul Greengrass (The Theory of Flight) wrote and directed this powerful look at January 30, 1972 -- better known as "Bloody Sunday." Ivan Cooper (James Nesbitt) attempts to organize a peaceful protest after Protestant leaders imprison Catholics without a trial. His actions conflict with hard-line IRA members who have no interest in a "peaceful" response, as well as the military men responsible for keeping the peace who are led by Major General Robert Ford (Tim Pigott-Smith) and Brigadier Patrick Maclellan (Nicholas Farrell). By the end of the day, the military will fire on the protestors and kill 13 people. The events of this day still haunt the peace process in Ireland. Bloody Sunday was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

After the critical and commercial success of The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, the Walt Disney Pictures animation studio embarked on their most serious and ambitious animated feature to date with this adaptation of Victor Hugo's classic novel Notre Dame de Paris. Quasimodo (voice of Tom Hulce) is a grotesquely deformed but kind-hearted young man who was abandoned by his parents as an infant and thrown down a well; he was rescued by the priests of Notre Dame, the massive cathedral in the heart of Paris, and he lives there, earning his keep as a bell ringer. Quasimodo has become the ward of Judge Frollo (voice of Tony Jay), an outwardly pious but deeply hateful man who treats Quasimodio with indifference and violently loathes the Gypsies who spend their days in the cathedral's courtyard. Frollo hopes to clear the Gypsies out of Paris with the help of Phoebus (voice of Kevin Kline), leader of the troops under Frollo's command. However, Phoebus does not share Frollo's racist views and harbors no ill will against the Gypsies. When Quasimodo is crowned King of the Fools after leaving Notre Dame during the annual festival of Topsy Turvy Day, the hunchback is ordered beaten by the guards as punishment, but Esmerelda (voice of Demi Moore), a hot-blooded but compassionate gypsy beauty, shows pity on him and helps free him from his chains. The lovely Esmerelda is the first woman to show kindness to the unfortunate Quasimodo, and the hunchback soon falls in love with her. However, the dashing Phoebus is also infatuated with her, and Esmerelda is attracted to Phoebus as well, though she feels a motherly affection for the hunchback. Judge Frollo finds that he also desires Esmerelda, which only inflames his hatred for the Gypsies when she refuses his proposals. Darker and less outwardly comic than most of Disney's features, The Hunchback of Notre Dame does feature comic relief in the form of Victor (voice of Charles Kimbrough) and Hugo (voice of Jason Alexander), a pair of gargoyles who befriend Quasimodo, as well as several songs from Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This story is about a crusading scientist out to stop nuclear testing who is motivated by scientific fact, conscience and faith. Dr. Alex Carmody (Martin Sheen) is a physicist who becomes convinced that if the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. continue to test nuclear weapons, eventually one of these tests will set off an atomic chain reaction that will obliterate the world. Carmody travels to Portugal where he tries talks to one of the women who in 1911 saw a vision of the Virgin Mary that spoke to her and her two companions about the future. Carmody is certain that the Virgin Mary predicted the very chain reaction he and his co-worker Dr. Kenneth Parrish (Peter Firth) envision. Failing in his attempt to talk to the woman, Carmody then travels to Paris and elsewhere, warning Soviet and American officials that the tests they are planning should be cancelled before they become their last. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Two young geneticists join fellow scientists in their search for the secrets to the structure of DNA, knowing that the first scientist to actually crack the pattern will be the Nobel Prize winner. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

While most people are familiar only with the Lon Chaney Sr. and Charles Laughton versions of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this 1982 TV adaptation was the fourteenth filmization of the Hugo novel. Anthony Hopkins, barely recognizable under mounds of disfiguring body makeup, plays Quasimodo, the deformed 15th-century bellringer of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Leslie-Anne Down plays Esmerelda, the gypsy girl who wins Quasimodo's unswerving loyalty when she offers him water after he is publicly flogged. And Derek Jacobi plays Dom Claude Frollo, the hypocritically pious archdeacon of Notre Dame, who'll do anything to claim Esmerelda for himself. Produced by Norman Rosemont, The Hunchback of Notre Dame originally aired February 4, 1982, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Huston directed this exciting World War II action film, which culminates in a rousing soccer game. In a German prisoner of war camp, Major Karl von Steiner (Max Von Sydow), the camp commander, once a member of the German national soccer team, decides to put together a soccer match between a team of Allied prisoners, led by Captain John Colby (Michael Caine), a former English international soccer player. The game is to be played in Colombes Stadium in Paris and exploited for maximum propaganda effect by the Nazi publicity machine. Robert Hatch (Sylvester Stallone) is enlisted to assist the Allied prisoners to train for the event. But, in fact, the Allies are planning a risky escape during the soccer match. Famed Brazilian soccer great Pele makes an appearance in the film, along with Bobby Moore, the captain of Britain's 1966 World Cup champions, and Argentine soccer star Osvaldo Ardiles. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi