Absolom, Joe

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Rupert Graves Toby Stephens and Tara Fitzgerald star in this Peabody Award and BAFTA winning BBC Adaptation of the Anne Bront? novel. Powerful haunting and disturbing The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is as powerful a story as those of Bront??s more famous sisters. In a remote village on the Yorkshire moors a beautiful widow and her son move into the near-derelict Wildfell Hall. Befriended by a handsome young farmer she remains mysteriously silent about her past and why she is afraid ? until she becomes the focus of malicious village gossip.Running Time: 159 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/BBC UPC: 883929010646 Manufacturer No: 1000036990

The BBC adaptation of Anne Bronte's moral tale The Tenant of Wildfell Hall will be a delight to those who revel in classics brought to the screen. Tara Fitzgerald stars as Helen Graham, a secretive woman who seeks independence for herself and her son from her cruel husband, Arthur Huntingdon. Huntingdon, a rake taken with women and drink, is played to perfection by Rupert Graves, believable as both the young lover who seduces Helen and as the depraved and brutish man he becomes. Toby Stephens is Gilbert Markham, the suspicious yet adoring yeoman farmer smitten with the supposed widow. The scenery and costumes of this period piece are lush, although the use of flashback as a narrative device is at times jarring. This tale is darker than the Jane Austen adaptations that BBC audiences are used to, yet the two-part film has an ending satisfying enough for even the most cynical of romantics. --Jenny Brown

Extreme Ops

When an extreme-sports filmmaking team sets out to make a commercial featuring a gold-medal skier outrunning an avalanche, they run afoul of a Serbian war criminal hiding out in a mountain resort. So it's snowboards vs. bullets on steep slopes of snow--and if that's your thing, Extreme Ops is for you. There are also subplots about the high-class skier (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, House on Haunted Hill) trying to prove herself with the rough-and-tumble snowboard scamps, and various romantic sparks flying, but the only real point to this movie is lengthy shots of stuntpeople zipping down the mountainsides. Though it could stand to have less plot and more action, there's a good dose of spectacle nonetheless. Rufus Sewell (Dark City), Devon Sawa (Final Destination), and the cast do a serviceable job, but poor Brit Rupert Graves (excellent in Mrs. Dalloway) was forced to act through a terrible American accent. --Bret Fetzer

Long Time Dead

A group of college students at an all-night party dare each other to play a Ouija board. But what starts out as fun rapidly turns into a nightmare when the glass spells out the message "ALL DIE" and a demon is awakened with an appetite for vengeance against those who summoned him. One by one, the students fall prey to a succession of disturbing murders. With time running out and the body count growing, the remaining friends realize they can't trust anybody, not even each other.

The Long Firm [Region 2]

Extreme Ops [Region 2]

When an extreme-sports filmmaking team sets out to make a commercial featuring a gold-medal skier outrunning an avalanche, they run afoul of a Serbian war criminal hiding out in a mountain resort. So it's snowboards vs. bullets on steep slopes of snow--and if that's your thing, Extreme Ops is for you. There are also subplots about the high-class skier (Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, House on Haunted Hill) trying to prove herself with the rough-and-tumble snowboard scamps, and various romantic sparks flying, but the only real point to this movie is lengthy shots of stuntpeople zipping down the mountainsides. Though it could stand to have less plot and more action, there's a good dose of spectacle nonetheless. Rufus Sewell (Dark City), Devon Sawa (Final Destination), and the cast do a serviceable job, but poor Brit Rupert Graves (excellent in Mrs. Dalloway) was forced to act through a terrible American accent. --Bret Fetzer

Long Time Dead [Region 2]