Andy Wilson Movies
- 2003
- Add The Forsyte Saga: Part 2 - To Let to QueueAdd The Forsyte Saga: Part 2 - To Let to top of Queue
John Galsworthy's epic tale of love, conflict, and dark secrets continues in this made-for-television adaptation of To Let, the final novel in Galsworthy's "Forsythe" trilogy. The Forsyte Saga: Series 2 focuses on Fleur (Emma Griffiths Malin), daughter of Soames Forsythe (Damian Lewis), and Jon (Lee Williams), son of Irene Heron (Gina McKee), who was once married to Soames. Fleur and Jon's friendship has blossomed into love, but while they're aware of the bad blood between their divorced parents, they have yet to uncover the secret that has led to the long-standing bitterness between the Forsythe and Heron families. A tremendous hit on British television, The Forsyte Saga: Series 2 was first aired in the United States as part of the award-winning anthology series Masterpiece Theatre. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 2002
Premiering May 13, 2002, on BBC1, the British espionage-adventure series Spooks pitted undercover agents of the country's MI-5 squad (the U.K. equivalent of the NSA) against international troublemakers and terrorists. Though extremely violent and almost unbearably tense, the series scored its biggest points by dramatizing the pressures brought to bear against "average" people engaged in a top-secret profession: For example, one of the many plot threads involved the love life of Senior Case Officer Tom Quinn (Matthew MacFadyen), whose girlfriend was convinced that Tom was merely a lower-level computer tech. Other members of the "Spooks" team included Quinn's second-in-command, Zoe Reynolds (Keeley Hawes), technical genius Danny Hunter (David Oyelowo), reckless Tessa Phillips (Jenny Agutter), and department head Harry Pierce (Peter Firth). During the series' first season on the air, Spooks made headlines throughout the British Isles by virtue of its explosive second episode, in which a popular soap opera actor, misleadingly advertised as one of the series' "stars," was abruptly and nastily killed off; thereafter, audiences could never take anything that happened on the series for granted -- and the viewership soared. Spooks debuted over the American A&E cable network under the title MI-5 on July 22, 2003. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew MacFadyen, Keeley Hawes, (more)
The Groan family has led the people for years from their castle, Gormenghast. Although a new heir, Titus Groan, has just come into the world, a scheming kitchen boy, Steerpike, begins an elaborate attempt to take control. Surprisingly Steerpike faces his stiffest competition from the usually mild-mannered Titus, the Earl of Goran. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Rhys-Meyers
After losing his license to work as a surgeon, synthetic-heroin addict Eugene Sands (David Duchovny) is on a downward spiral into the Los Angeles drug scene. One night, someone is shot in a bar, and Sands performs a life-saving medical maneuver on the spot. Word travels fast. A few days later, a limo drops him off at the Malibu den of counterfeiter-smuggler Raymond Blossom (Timothy Hutton) and his cupid-lipped moll Claire (Angelina Jolie). The bleach-haired Blossom needs someone to stitch up his hemorrhaging henchmen so they won't wind up answering questions at a hospital. He sees Sands as the ideal man to stop the flow of information and blood. It's a deal with the devil, but Sands accepts. Meanwhile, Claire has her eye on Sands, and FBI agent Gage (Michael Massee) has plans to bring down Blossom. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Duchovny, Timothy Hutton, (more)
- 1989
- NC17
This is probably Peter Greenaway's most famous (or infamous) film, which first shocked audiences at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival and then on both sides of the Atlantic. A gang leader (Michael Gambon), accompanied by his wife (Helen Mirren) and his associates, entertains himself every night in a fancy French restaurant that he has recently bought. Having tired of her sadistic, boorish husband, the wife finds herself a lover (Alan Howard) and makes love to him in the restaurant's coziest places with the silent permission of the cook (Richard Bohringer). Though less cerebral than Greenaway's other films, featuring deadly passions reminiscent of Jacobean revenge tragedies of the early 17th century, the picture still offers the director's usual ironic and paradoxical comments on the relations between eating and sex, love and death. The film is at once funny and horrific, and those who are not used to Greenaway's peculiar style might be even disgusted or shocked; however, one might mention Sacha Vierny's brilliant camerawork, Jean-Paul Gaultier's gaudily stylized costumes, and Michael Nyman's somber, pulsating music, which will haunt the viewer long after the film's end. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Bohringer, Michael Gambon, (more)
Drive-in gore king Herschell Gordon Lewis reached a creative peak with this darkly comic slaughterfest about six vacationing Yanks who fall victim to the cheerfully violent Southern hospitality of Pleasant Valley. Made the guests of honor in the town's centennial celebration, the hapless visitors soon discover that the obligations of their title include being used for the locals' bloody amusements -- which include being rolled downhill in a barrel full of sharp spikes and strapped down beneath a boulder for a hideous variation on the dunking booth -- and eventually ending up on the spit for the evening's barbecue. It turns out the bloodthirsty rednecks have come back from the dead after 100 years to exact symbolic revenge for the slaughter of the entire town by the Union Army. Filming on a shoestring in St. Cloud, FL, Lewis even contributed his talents to some of the songs (credited to the Pleasant Valley Boys), including "Rebel Yell" (not to be confused with the Billy Idol tune) and a rousing rendition of "Rollin' in My Sweet Baby's Arms," which accompanies a shot of a severed arm rotating on a barbecue spit. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
