Hodges, Mike

Flash Gordon (Saviour Of The Universe Edition)

When the totalitarian planet of Mongo decides on a whim to obliterate Earth, it's up to the lunk-headed quarterback Flash Gordon and his oddball companions to make the universe safe for democracy. Based on the classic (and infinitely more reputable) comic strip and its '30s screen serialization, this cotton-candy-colored trash classic deserves immortality for Queen's unforgettably pulsating soundtrack alone. The legendary Max von Sydow appears to be having a blast as the evil Ming the Merciless, while Ornella Muti, as his daughter, is the living embodiment of what attracts adolescent boys to comics in the first place. (She makes Barbarella look mundane.) One of the most shamelessly entertaining movies ever made, this is a knowingly absurd sensory freak-out that'll have the viewer blissfully checking the sky afterward for signs of Hawkmen. --Andrew Wright

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 01/06/2009 Run time: 112 minutes Rating: Pg

Get Carter

For Get Carter, the able Michael Caine checked in his likable working-class-bloke persona to play a very unlikable working-class bloke, London gangster Jack Carter. Heading "up north" to get to the bottom of the recent death of his brother, he runs afoul of the local color, who don't appreciate his meddling. Not content to accept the police report of suicide, Carter begins investigating. He encounters the local mob boss, his sleazy chauffeur with eyes like "piss holes in the snow," and the lovely town porn star. The film moves along at a leisurely pace, until Carter finds out the grim truth. The final third of the film has Jack Carter on the vengeance path. No one in this film gets a happy ending. When it's over, you feel as though you need to wipe the soot off yourself and go stand under a sun lamp. The British board of tourism would prefer you didn't watch this film. --Kristian St. Clair

A vicious London gangster Jack Carter travels to Newcastle for his brother's funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother's death was not an accident and sets out to follow a complex trail of lies deceit cover-ups and backhanders through Newcastle's underworld leading he hopes to the man who ordered his brother killed. Because of his ruthlessness Carter exhibits all the unstopability of the android in Terminator or Walker in Point Blank and he and the other characters in the film are prone to sudden brutal acts of violence.Running Time: 113 min.System Requirements:Starring: Mike Hodges Ian Hendry Britt Ekland John Osborne and Tony Beckley. Directed By: Michael Caine. Running Time: 112 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 012569540026

Croupier

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 09/04/2007 Rating: Nr

Suffering from a bad case of writer's block, author Jack Manfred (Clive Owen) sits in his London flat, staring at an empty computer screen and trying to find the words to narrate his meandering life. Reluctantly Jack accepts a job from his absentee father (Nicholas Ball) at a second-rate casino as a dealer, or croupier, a job he once held in South Africa. His immersion back into this world is intoxicating, thanks primarily to the power he holds over his nightly clientele. Jack is a straight arrow on the floor (unlike his coworkers) but the whisper of an inside-job robbery makes his life suddenly more intriguing, as do the women who begin to drift into his life: a fellow croupier (Kate Hardie) and an alluring gambler (Alex Kingston). Suddenly, Jack finds his own life is his best book material. There's something visceral about watching the world of gambling, and director Mike Hodges (who directed the original Get Carter) taps into this allure; Jack's simple croupier tryout--handling cards and chips with skill and grace--is as captivating as most action scenes in big popcorn films. In the end, this little film, which went on to become an art-house hit, is as unpredictable as a roll of the dice. --Doug Thomas

Dandelion Dead

England 1921. The serenity of a small country town is about to be shattered by a shockiing revelation about one of its leading citizens. A family will be ruined. A private matter will become a case of great public interest. Life seems good for Major Herbert Armstrong. he is a respected solicitor with a country estate the love of his three children and a dvout pride in both his life and his garden. But every landscape has its challenges - and so does every life. In Herbert's otherwise pristine garden it's a bad case of dandelions. In his life the problems are twofold. Firstly thre's his wife. Katharine has become bad-termpered and domineering not in the least afraid to shame Herbert in public. Then there's the business. A series of unfortuante financial arrangements and the arrival in town of Oswald Martin a young ambitious rival has turned Henry's good fortune upside down. The solution to the dandelion problem is straightforward: small delicately placed servings of Arsenic will see an end to them. But what is Herbert to do about his nagging wife and the upstart Oswald.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359184420

A Prayer For The Dying

Mickey Rourke (9 1/2 Weeks) gives "his finest performance to date" (L.A. Weekly) in this hair-trigger action-thriller co-starring Bob Hoskins (Enemy at the Gates), Alan Bates (The Sum of All Fears) and Liam Neeson (Star Wars: Episode I). A gritty tale of retribution and redemption, A Prayer for the Dying has "a brisk style and an edgy rhythm" (The New York Times) that will keep your heart racing in suspense until the final frame! Tormented IRA revolutionary Martin Fallon (Rourke) wants out of the endless cycle of violence and bloodshed. Unfortunately, the price for his freedom is to perform one last murder for a ruthless mobster (Bates). As the vicious world he's trying to escape closes in on him, Fallon's only hope for salvation may be the man he's been ordered to kill.

The Hitchhiker, Volume 1 (HBO TV Series)

Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 09/21/2004 Run time: 300 minutes Rating: Nr

The Hitchhiker, Vol. 2

Page Fletcher is "The Hitchhiker" walking a lonely road where darkness is always by his side and terror lurks around every turn. Pick him up if you dare. He will guide you to your destination where the good are spared and the wicked are damned.Running Time: 300 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 026359258121 Manufacturer No: 92581

Damien: Omen 2

Several years after the mysterious events that claimed the life of the U.S. Ambassador and his wife, the now teenaged and militarily enrolled Damien Thorne is slowly being made aware of his unholy heritage and horrific destiny. Woe is he (including anyone in Damien's adoptive family and his classmates) who suspects the truth or gets in his way. While not as unrelentingly frightening as its blockbuster predecessor, this more-than-competent sequel to The Omen raises some interesting questions about the nature of free will (can the antichrist deny his birthright?) before falling into a gory series of increasingly outlandish deaths, the best of which is a terrifyingly protracted scene beneath the ice of a frozen lake. Jerry Goldsmith (who won an Oscar for his work on the first film in the series) contributes another marvelously foreboding score. --Andrew Wright

Since the sudden and highly-suspicious death of his parents, 12 year-old Damien has been in the charge of his billionaire uncle Richard Thorne (William Holden) Widely feared to be the Antichrist, Damien relentlessly plots to seize control of his uncle's multi-national food conglomerate- and the world. Meanwhile, anyone attempting to unravel the secrets of Damien's sinister past or fiendish future meets with a swift and cruel demise.

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead

Mike Hodges and Clive Owen, director and star of the stylish 1998 crime drama Croupier, team again in this moody, almost contemplative thriller about a former gangster, Will Graham (Owen), who returns to London after a lengthy self-exile. In a tragic coincidence, Will's brother, Davey (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers), has just committed suicide following a rape by a wealthy car dealer (Malcolm McDowell). Convinced there is more to Davey's death than meets the eye, Will--arguing he is nothing like his old, violent, urban self--slowly evolves again into a formidable criminal. Hodges and screenwriter Trevor Preston emphasize tone and spiritual inference over precise character motivation. Not everything that can be known about Will (especially his rocky psychological state and history with a former lover, played by Charlotte Rampling) is expressly stated. But one can feel his stifled nature rising, paradoxically, toward revenge, and his final actions have an existential power and mystery. --Tom Keogh

In I'LL SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD, Willie (Owen), a former mobster, comes back to town after he learns his younger brother Davey (Rhys Myers) has committed suicide. Upon learning that Davey was brutally raped by mobsters, Willie is determined to seek justice by finding the men who victimized him. While on the search for the mobsters, Willie comes face-to-face with Frank Scott, the local "bad boy" and conflict arises when Frank starts to believe that Willie is back in town to reclaim his status as the town's bad boy.

The Hitchhiker, Vol. 3

Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 10/31/2006 Rating: Nr