Niall Buggy Movies

John Schlesinger directed this razor-sharp retelling of the familiar Demon Barber legend, previously a Victorian penny-dreadful by Christopher Bond (The Story of Pearls), a stage play by George Dibdin-Pitt, a Tod Slaughter film (the 1936 Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street), and the 1979 Stephen Sondheim stage musical (Sweeney Todd). Sondheim's musical has been televised in a production with George Hearn and Angela Lansbury heading the cast. This John Schlesinger drama, scripted by executive producer Peter Shaw, is set in turn-of-the-century London where bald barber Sweeney Todd (Ben Kingsley) runs a cutting-edge business with an affluent clientele. He also has several sidelines, including the sale of his murder victims' jewelry, plus a profitable agreement with Mrs. Lovett (Joanna Lumley), who uses an industrial-size meat grinder to prepare her tasty "meat pies" for her unsuspecting customers. American insurance investigator Ben Carlyle (Campbell Scott), tracking $50,000 worth of missing diamonds, encounters corruption throughout the city as he attempts to solve the case. Victorian London locales seen here were actually filmed in Dublin. Shown April 19, 1998 on Showtime. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Crash landing on a barren penal-colony planet with an unwelcomed visitor in tow, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) contends with a group of hardened convicts while using nothing but her wits to battle a terrifying new breed of alien. The sole survivor of her crashed escape pod, Ripley is rescued from the craft by the remaining inhabitants of Fiorina 161, a group of rapists and murders who chose to repent for their sins in deep space after the penal colony was officially decommissioned. When remaining warden Andrews (Brian Glover) announces Ripley's presence to the inmates, their spiritual leader, Dillon (Charles S. Dutton), begins to fear that her presence will stir up trouble. As a result, Ripley is placed in the care of prison doctor Clemens (Charles Dance), and restricted to the infirmary until a rescue ship arrives. But Ripley isn't the only new visitor on Fiorina 161; an alien stowaway survived the crash as well, and it has planted its seed in a feral dog. Before long, a new breed of alien has burst from the dog's chest, a stealthy hunter that moves on all fours and can navigate the darkened prison corridors virtually undetected. When the inmates start to disappear, the remaining survivors must fight for their lives without weapons to defend themselves. The only person who knows the alien well enough to beat it is Ripley, and while her plan to corner and kill the creature just might work, a horrifying discovery reveals that her fight is far from over. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Set in Great Britain in the late 1980s -- in the midst of Margaret Thatcher's controversial tenure as Prime Minister -- this drama examines the strange relationship between two siblings. Richard (Clive Owen) has given up a well-paying job in the private sector to take a position with a government agency that oversees real estate development. While Richard has always been emotionally secure and well-adjusted, his sister Natalie (Saskia Reeves) is nervous and unsure of how to deal with her life, even after marrying Sinclair (Alan Rickman), a successful financial analyst who can afford a posh home on the River Thames. Natalie and Richard don't see each other often, and their relationship has long had an odd cast to it, as Natalie often seems to flirt with her brother. One day, Richard meets Natalie and Sinclair over lunch, and Richard finds himself strongly attracted to his sister. In time, a mutual interest evolves into a full-blown incestuous affair. Natalie realizes that this sort of relationship can't go on and tries to break it off with Richard, but he becomes irrational, attempting suicide and threatening violence. While dealing openly with the sexual nature of its story, Close My Eyes also uses incest as a metaphor for moral and political irresponsibility. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The feature-film debut of multi-talented filmmaker Clive Barker, this grim and surreal project is based on the writer/director's own novella The Hell-Bound Heart. The film opens with a chilling prologue in which globe-trotting pervert Frank (Sean Chapman) -- a connoisseur of sexual depravity seeking the ultimate sensual experience -- purchases a small, intricate puzzle box from an unseen dealer in an unspecified country. Upon solving the puzzle, Frank opens the door to a hellish alternate universe and is promptly torn to ribbons by a network of hooks and chains; his strewn body parts are subsequently collected by the Cenobites -- grotesque, S & M-clad denizens of hell.

The story continues several years later, when Frank's brother, Larry (Andrew Robinson), moves into Frank's abandoned house with his daughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), and his new wife, Julia (Clare Higgins). An accident causes some of Larry's blood to spill on the attic floor, which somehow triggers Frank's hideous resurrection. His body only half-composed, Frank seeks the tacit assistance of Julia -- with whom he had once had a torrid sexual liaison -- in restoring him to human form. Still secretly in love with Frank, Julia assists him by seducing men from the town and bringing them back to the house so her undead lover can drain their bodies of blood. Her increasingly furtive behavior arouses the suspicions of Kirsty, who had already moved to an apartment to get away from her despised stepmother. After following Julia and her next potential victim home, Kirsty comes face to face with the still-incomplete Frank, narrowly escaping with her life...and with the puzzle box.

After losing consciousness, Kirsty awakens in the hospital, where she manages to solve the box's intricate mechanism and summon a trio of Cenobites -- including their apparent leader (played by Doug Bradley and dubbed "Pinhead" on subsequent sequels) -- who are prepared to claim her. In desperation, Kirsty offers them a bargain in which they agree to spare her soul if she leads them to Frank. Kirsty soon returns home to find Julia with her father...whose behavior has become disturbingly unnatural. Realizing that her father has become Frank's latest victim -- and that her uncle is now walking around in his brother's skin -- Kirsty hands Frank over to the Cenobites, who have particularly evil plans for their old friend. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Director Bruce Beresford has safely stayed within the domain of the Bible and not strayed into patches of Hollywood fiction in this routine version of the story of David (Richard Gere). For that reason, anyone unfamiliar with Biblical history might be puzzled by the episodic presentation of David's life. In the opening scenes, Samuel condemns Saul and anoints the young David as his heir, and in fairly quick succession David slays Goliath, incurs Saul's jealous wrath, leaves, and, much later, comes back to rule after Saul has died. Once David is on the throne, Bathsheba and then Absalom enter into the picture. Interspersed are brutal scenes of fighting, but not much in the way of motivation for David's complex behavior. Gaps in the narration or unclear motivation may be the result of trying to cover too many events in a 114-minute running time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An ambitious musical adaptation of Michel Déon's best-selling novel, Un Taxi Mauve is set in Ireland during a time in which the nation announced it would no longer demand income taxes of artists, bringing a steady stream of creative bohemians to the Emerald Isle. Novelist Philippe (Philippe Noiret) is a French novelist recently relocated to Ireland, where makes friends with Jerry (Edward Albert), an American expatriate who left his home after the death of his girlfriend. Philippe and Jerry become chummy with Taubelman (Peter Ustinov), who is looking after Anne, a beautiful young woman who cannot speak. Jerry becomes infatuated with Anne, while Philippe tries to win the heart of Sharon (Charlotte Rampling), Jerry's sister. Fred Astaire also appears as Dr. Scully, an American physician who has come to Ireland to live out his final years.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Here Are Ladies could easily be amended to say "Here are some famous Irish women" -- made famous by Samuel Beckett, George Bernard Shaw, James Joyce, and other Irish writers who have brought the country and its culture to the heights of literary attainment. The one-woman show of stand-up actress Siobhan McKenna has been taken like a nomad to several appropriate settings as the talented McKenna brings the women to life. She interprets Shaw's "St. Joan" while in an Irish jail cell, Beckett's "Winnie" under a mound of sand at the beach, or women washing clothes in a river from "Finnegan's Wake." An excerpt from "Drama at Inish" by Lennox Robinson -- in which a broadly overacted version of Russian drama is put on for two nonplused Irish spectators -- is particularly funny. McKenna's interpretations will entertain most viewers quite adequately, even if they are not Irish. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide