83% (3) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban 142 min, PG, [Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery] [Alfonso Cuarón] [04 Jun 2004]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 79%, Rotten Tomatoes: 90%, Metacritic: 82%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 45 nominations.
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Fiona Shaw, Pam Ferris, Richard Griffiths, Rupert Grint
Writer: J.K. Rowling (novel), Steve Kloves (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: UK, USA
Plot: Harry Potter is having a tough time with his relatives (yet again). He runs away after using magic to inflate Uncle Vernon's sister Marge who was being offensive towards Harry's parents. Initially scared for using magic outside the school, he is pleasantly surprised that he won't be penalized after all. However, he soon learns that a dangerous criminal and Voldemort's trusted aide Sirius Black has escaped from the Azkaban prison and wants to kill Harry to avenge the Dark Lord. To worsen the conditions for Harry, vile creatures called Dementors are appointed to guard the school gates and inexplicably happen to have the most horrible effect on him. Little does Harry know that by the end of this year, many holes in his past (whatever he knows of it) will be filled up and he will have a clearer vision of what the future has in store...
Rotten Tomatoes: After directing the first two movies in the Harry Potter franchise, Chris Columbus opted to serve as producer for Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and passed the baton to Y Tu Mamá También director Alfonso Cuarón. Though "immensely popular" is an understatement when it comes to Harry Potter, Azkaban is somewhat of a departure from its predecessors, and particularly beloved among fans for its surprise ending. Prisoner of Azkaban also marks the introduction of Sirius Black (Gary Oldman), who has escaped from the title prison after 12 years of incarceration. Believed to have been the right-hand-man of the dark wizard Voldemort, whom Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) mysteriously rendered powerless during his infancy, some of those closest to Harry suspect Black has returned to exact revenge on the boy who defeated his master. Upon his return to school, however, Harry is relatively unconcerned with Black. Run by Albus Dumbledore (Michael Gambon) -- who is widely regarded as the most powerful wizard of the age -- Hogwarts is renowned for its safety. Harry's nonchalance eventually turns to blind rage after accidentally learning the first of Black's many secrets during a field trip to a neighboring village. Of course, a loose serial killer is only one of the problems plaguing the bespectacled wizard's third year back at school -- the soul-sucking guards of Azkaban prison have been employed at Hogwarts to protect the students, but their mere presence sends Harry into crippling fainting spells. With the help of his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson), and Defense Against the Dark Arts professor Remus Lupin (David Thewlis), Harry struggles to thwart the Dementors, find Sirius Black, and uncover the mysteries of the night that left him orphaned. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
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73% (3) Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets 161 min, PG, [Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery] [Chris Columbus] [15 Nov 2002]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 74%, Rotten Tomatoes: 82%, Metacritic: 63%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 11 wins & 42 nominations.
Actors: Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Richard Griffiths, Rupert Grint
Writer: J.K. Rowling (novel), Steve Kloves (screenplay)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: UK, USA, Germany
Plot: Forced to spend his summer holidays with his muggle relations, Harry Potter gets a real shock when he gets a surprise visitor: Dobby the house-elf, who warns Harry Potter against returning to Hogwarts, for terrible things are going to happen. Harry decides to ignore Dobby's warning and continues with his pre-arranged schedule. But at Hogwarts, strange and terrible things are indeed happening: Harry is suddenly hearing mysterious voices from inside the walls, muggle-born students are being attacked, and a message scrawled on the wall in blood puts everyone on his/her guard - "The Chamber Of Secrets Has Been Opened. Enemies Of The Heir, Beware" .
Rotten Tomatoes: Youthful wizard Harry Potter returns to the screen in this, the second film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of novels for young people. Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) return for a second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris), Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and Hagrid the Giant (Robbie Coltrane) are joined by new faculty members Gilderoy Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a self-centered expert in Defense against the Dark Arts, and Sprout (Miriam Margolyes), who teaches Herbology. However, it isn't long before Harry and company discover something is amiss at Hogwarts: Students are petrified like statues, threats are written in blood on the walls, and a deadly monster is on the loose. It seems that someone has opened the mysterious Chamber of Secrets, letting loose the monster and all its calamitous powers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find the secret chamber and slay the beast, speculation is rife that one of the heirs of Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of the school, opened the chamber as a warning against the presence of "mudbloods" (magic-users of impure lineage) at the school -- and that the culprit may be fellow student Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured Richard Harris' second and final appearance as Headmaster Dumbledore; he died less than a month before the film was released in the United States. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
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73% (3) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 146 min, PG-13, [Adventure, Fantasy, Mystery] [David Yates] [19 Nov 2010]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 77%, Rotten Tomatoes: 78%, Metacritic: 65%, External Reviews
Awards: Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 53 nominations.
Actors: Bill Nighy, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Harry Melling, Richard Griffiths, Rupert Grint
Writer: Steve Kloves (screenplay), J.K. Rowling (novel)
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: UK, USA
Plot: Voldemort's power is growing stronger. He now has control over the Ministry of Magic and Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione decide to finish Dumbledore's work and find the rest of the Horcruxes to defeat the Dark Lord. But little hope remains for the Trio, and the rest of the Wizarding World, so everything they do must go as planned.
Rotten Tomatoes: The first installment of the two-film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows follows Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) as they search for the pieces of Voldemort's (Ralph Fiennes) soul that he extracted from his being and hid in obscure locations both far and wide. If the trio is unable to locate and destroy them all, Voldemort will remain immortal. Despite their long friendship, a combination of dark forces, romantic tensions, and long-held secrets threaten to sabotage the mission. David Yates directs. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi
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59% (3) Private Peaceful 102 min, Not Rated, [Drama, War] [Pat O'Connor] [12 Oct 2012]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 62%, Rotten Tomatoes: 65%, Metacritic: 51%, External Reviews
Actors: Eline Powell, George MacKay, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jack O'Connell, Richard Griffiths
Writer: Michael Morpurgo (novel), Simon Reade (screenplay)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Website Language: English Country: UK
Plot: Private Peaceful details the gritty rural lives and loves of Tommo and Charlie - two young brothers - and their poor Devonshire family from 1909 until 1916, when the outbreak of war destroys their country idyll. Both join up (one under age) leaving behind the beautiful Molly who is the love of both their lives. The young men survive gas attacks, shelling, German troops and the appalling deaths of their close friends. But one thing they cannot escape is summary military justice.
Rotten Tomatoes: Private Peaceful tells the story of two devoted brothers who struggle through a harsh childhood and adolescence in rural Devon, England, before enlisting in the military for the First World War. They experience the brutal realities of the trenches and the killing fields of Flanders, and are forced to make life-altering choices in order to remain loyal to each other through the dehumanizing reality of this unprecedented war. (C) BBC Worldwide
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86% (2) Withnail & I 107 min, R, [Comedy, Drama] [Bruce Robinson] [19 Jun 1987]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 78%, Rotten Tomatoes: 94%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 1 nomination.
Actors: Paul McGann, Ralph Brown, Richard E. Grant, Richard Griffiths
Writer: Bruce Robinson
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English, Latin Country: UK
Plot: London, 1969 - two 'resting' (unemployed and unemployable) actors, Withnail and Marwood, fed up with damp, cold, piles of washing-up, mad drug dealers and psychotic Irishmen, decide to leave their squalid Camden flat for an idyllic holiday in the countryside, courtesy of Withnail's uncle Monty's country cottage. But when they get there, it rains non-stop, there's no food, and their basic survival skills turn out to be somewhat limited. Matters are not helped by the arrival of Uncle Monty, who shows an uncomfortably keen interest in Marwood...
Rotten Tomatoes: Screenwriter Bruce Robinson made his directorial debut with this British comedy. Withnail (Richard E. Grant) is an unsuccessful, pill-popping actor; "I," or Marwood (Paul McGann), is Withnail's roommate and another equally underemployed actor. The time is 1969: Withnail is fast becoming a burned-out relic of the '60s, while Marwood is trying to reassimilate into society. The two take a trip to the country in hopes of rejuvenating themselves, but things go from worse to even worse. Given the intimacy and insight of the screenplay and dialogue, one shouldn't be surprised that Bruce Robinson (who adapted the film from his own novel) based Withnail & I on his own experiences. The film proves that certain "Age of Aquarius" types were just as bollixed-up in Britain as they were in America.
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76% (2) A Private Function 92 min, R, [Comedy] [Malcolm Mowbray] [01 Mar 1985]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 66%, Rotten Tomatoes: 88%, External Reviews
Awards: Won 3 BAFTA Film Awards. Another 3 wins & 3 nominations.
Actors: Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, Michael Palin, Richard Griffiths
Writer: Alan Bennett, Alan Bennett (story), Malcolm Mowbray (story)
External Links: Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK
Plot: 1947 in a small town in England. The war has been won two years ago, but there's still rationing of meat. When princess Elizabeth is going to marry, a group of businessmen wants to impress (or probably bribe) the local government by giving a big party. They want to slaughter an illegally raised pig for this event. Unfortunately someone steals the pig.
Rotten Tomatoes: A Private Function is set in a postwar England sagging under the weight of restrictive food rationing. Under the watchful eye of Food Ministry inspector Bill Paterson, no one in his Yorkshire district dares do business with the Black Market. But he can't completely stop the food hoarders, of which social-climbing Maggie Smith is the most brazen. When Smith wants to appropriate a pig that is being fattened for slaughter in direct defiance of local laws, she enlists the reluctant aid of her husband, Michael Palin. Fetching the porker is one matter; hiding it in Palin and Smith's house is another. This zany central situation serves as the hub of a film that takes scattered satirical shots at bureaucracy, hypocrisy and too-rigid class consciousness. Throw in a few cruel, gross-out jokes, and you have a crazy concoction in the fine old Monty Python tradition. It's clear throughout that screenwriter Alan Bennett fully intended for the title A Private Function to have a double meaning.
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36% (2) Blame It on the Bellboy 78 min, PG-13, [Comedy] [Mark Herman] [06 Mar 1992]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 54%, Rotten Tomatoes: 19%, External Reviews
Actors: Andreas Katsulas, Bronson Pinchot, Bryan Brown, Dudley Moore, Richard Griffiths
Writer: Mark Herman
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK, USA
Plot: Messrs Lawton (a hit-man), Horton (expecting some middle-aged dating agency nooky) and Orton (checking out properties for his boss) converge on the Hotel Gabriella in Venice. Linguistic mix-ups by the staff mean each of the trio get wrong instructions for the next day. So Horton meets up with puzzled estate agent Caroline to see what she's offering, Orton attempts to make a gang of hoods an offer they can't refuse on their villa, while Lawton sets off to rub out a lonely-hearts lady from Huddersfield.
Rotten Tomatoes: Brevity may be the soul of wit, but that doesn't make the 79-minute Blame It on the Bellboy any funnier. Orton (Dudley Moore) is an ambitious real estate agent. Horton (Richard Griffiths) is a middle-aged married man looking for extracurricular activity via a dating service. And Lawton (Bryan Brown) is a professional hit man. Orton, Horton and Lawton all check into adjoining rooms at a posh Venetian hotel. Bellboy Bronson Pinchot, whose grasp of the English language is virtually nonexistent, delivers the wrong messages to the three men. That's why Orton is trying to sell a valuable piece of property to a roomful of mafiosi, Horton is "paired up" with an unwitting female real estate broker, and Lawton is preparing to rub out a hapless dating-service subscriber......Written by director Mark Herman, this old-style doorslamming farce might have passed muster as a dinner-theater attraction, but on film it comes across as strained and tiresome.
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22% (2) Shanghai Surprise 97 min, PG-13, [Adventure, Crime, Drama] [Jim Goddard] [29 Aug 1986]Ratings & Reviews: IMDb Reviews: 31%, Rotten Tomatoes: 13%, External Reviews
Awards: 1 win & 6 nominations.
Actors: Madonna, Paul Freeman, Richard Griffiths, Sean Penn
Writer: John Kohn (screenplay), Robert Bentley (screenplay), Tony Kenrick (from the novel "Faraday's Flowers")
External Links: Wikipedia Rotten Tomatoes IMDb Language: English Country: UK
Plot: Glendon Wasey is a fortune hunter looking for a fast track out of China. Gloria Tatlock is a missionary nurse seeking the curing powers of opium for her patients. Fate sets them on a hectic, exotic, and even romantic quest for stolen drugs. But they are up against every thug and smuggler in Shangai.
Rotten Tomatoes: Madonna and Sean Penn, who were husband and wife at the time, starred in this notorious box-office bomb that one critic termed "Flop Suey." The film takes place in 1937, during the Japanese occupation of China. Drug runner Walter Faraday (Paul Freeman) is trying to leave the country with a large stash of opium but he is chased by armed guards and killed. A year passes and missionary Gloria Tatlock (Madonna) hires sleazy American con man Glendon Wasey (Sean Penn) to help her find the missing opium. She wants to use the drugs to relieve the suffering of wounded Chinese soldiers -- as she puts it, "Guns cause pain. Opium eases pain." Glendon reluctantly agrees. But unfortunately for the two do-gooders, there are other, more notorious seekers of the opium shipment as well. George Harrison, one of the film's producers, wrote the songs and appears in a cameo role as a nightclub singer.
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