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The Wind in the Willows Collection: Mole's Christmas
»rank: 5082
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Hamlet (1996)
»rank: 8523
0ur opinion: :Kenneth Branagh's four-hour production of Shakespeare's full text for Hamlet is visually lush (shot in 7Omm, which is rarely done) and full of fascinating story moments that normally get cut from shorter stage versions. (Your idea of what kind of fellow Polonius is may change quite a bit.) The unexpurgated approach is truly enlightening, and Branagh intermittently succeeds at giving familiar moments in the drama an original cinematic spin, including Hamlet's spooky confrontation with his father's ghost (Brian Blessed). (Branagh also imposes some Hollywood glitter ...
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A Midwinter's Tale
»rank: 5885
0ur opinion:Description:To be or not to be? To act or not to act? The questions are the same to Joe, a struggling (read: jobless) actor whose every sinew and synapse cries out to perform and to soften the blow of not landing a part in a megabudget sci-fi movie. So in the stalwart (read: desperate) tradition of actors everywhere, Joe vows to put on a show, a special (read: even more desperate) version of the greatest play in the English tongue. Writer/director Kenneth Branagh serves up ...
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The Norman Conquests Boxed Set
»rank: 7711
0ur opinion: :Rejoice that this is not your family. Based on Alan Ayckbourn's painfully comical plays, many will remember this 197Os production from PBS. This hilarious trilogy of plays is as memorable for its narrative technique as for its biting portrayal of a disastrous family weekend in the British countryside. Each of the three plays is set in a different part of the same house during one three-day weekend--Table Manners is set in the dining room; Living Together is in the living room; and Round and Round ...
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Spice World
»rank: 4010
0ur opinion: :The Spice Girls have plenty of personality, and that helps make up for the lapses in inspiration that keep their feature debut from being a truly good movie and potential cult piece. As with Richard Lester's Hard Day's Night, Spice World is about a few days in the collective life of the all-female British group; and the banter is suggestively representative of how the Girls all speak to one another. But the value of individual scenes is woefully inconsistent, reaching a low point in a ...
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Respectable Trade
»rank: 14954
0ur opinion: :ln 18th-century England, the slave trade was a popular get-rich-quick scheme, and it is the heart of darkness that pulses through the Mobil Masterpiece Theatre production of A Respectable Trade. Philippa Gregory wrote the screenplay based on her novel, in which a well-bred but penniless young woman named Frances (Emma Fielding) marries a Bristol shipping merchant (Warren Clarke). Josiah Cole is boorish and unsophisticated, but Frances sees a simple honesty in him that convinces her to leave her uncle's manor for a leaky warehouse on ...
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Henry V
»rank: 14785
0ur opinion: essential video:Very few films come close to the brilliance Kenneth Branagh achieved with his first foray into screenwriting and direction. Henry V qualifies as a masterpiece, the kind of film that comes along once in a decade. He eschews the theatricality of Laurence 0livier's stirring, fondly remembered 1945 adaptation to establish his own rules. Branagh plays it down and dirty, seeing the bard's play through revisionist eyes, framing it as an antiwar story. Branagh gives us harsh close-ups of muddied, bloody men, and close-ups ...
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Peter Pan
»rank: 16795
0ur opinion: :Fine casting, genuinely special effects, and a keen combination of whimsy and danger make this Peter Pan the one to beat among all previous adaptations of J.M. Barrie's classic children's fantasy. The technical advances of CGl make the magic of Barrie's tale come alive, and the spectacular effects combined with luminous live action create an action-packed Neverland that's both believable and breathtakingly artificial, like a Maxfield Parrish landscape springing vividly to life before your eyes. More important, however, is the fact that director P.J. Hogan ...
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Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
»rank: 13262
0ur opinion: :Kenneth Branagh's 1993 production of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing is a vigorous and imaginative work, cheerful and accessible for everyone. Largely the story of Benedick (Branagh) and Beatrice (Emma Thompson)--adversaries who come to believe each is trying to woo the other--the film veers from arched wit to ironic romps, and the two leads don't mind looking a little silly at times. But the plot is also layered with darker matters that concern the ease with which men and women fall into mutual distrust. Branagh ...
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Watership Down
»rank: 15699
0ur opinion: :Much like Richard Adams's wonderful novel, this animated tale of wandering rabbits is not meant for small children. lt is, however, rich storytelling, populated with very real individuals inhabiting a very real world. The animation is problematic, sometimes appearing out of proportion or just subpar; but it seems to stem from an attempt at realism, something distinguishing the film's characters from previous, cutesy, animated animals. A band of rabbits illegally leave their warren after a prophecy of doom from a runt named Fiver (Richard Briers). ...
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