griggs's - Rented List

"The Alto Knights" follows two of New York's most notorious organised crime bosses, Frank Costello (Robert De Niro / Luke Stanton Eddy) and Vito Genovese (also Robert De Niro / Antonio Cipriano), and how their separate paths to power place them on a deadly collision course.

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Nervous spinster Charlotte Vale (Bette Davis) is stunted from growing up under the heel of her puritanical Boston Brahmin mother (Gladys Cooper), and remains convinced of her own unworthiness until a kindly psychiatrist (Claude Rains) gives her the confidence to venture out into the world on a

South American cruise. On board, she finds her footing with the help of an unhappily married man (Paul Henreid). Their thwarted love affair may help Charlotte break free of her mother's grip - but will she find fulfillment as well as independence?

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Nastassia Kinski stars as Irena, a beautiful young woman on the bridge of sexuality; she discovers love for the first time only to find that the explosive experience brings with it tragic consequences.

The tremendous passion of this girl's first romantic love is so strong, however, it by-passes the chaos around her-including her brother's (Malcom McDowell) extraordinary demands - as it pushes her on to her own bizarre destiny. With a style as timeless as myth, Cat People is an erotic fantasy of the passion and terror that surround this girl's first love. Desire... passion... blood, her lust transforms her into one of the Cat People.

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When small-time cheat Roy Dillon (John Cusack) winds up in hospital following an unsuccessful scam, it sets up a confrontation between his estranged mother Lilly (Angelica Huston) and sexy girlfriend Myra (Annette Bening). Both are ruthless con-artists playing the game in a league far above Roy....

and always looking for their next victim! This question soon becomes who's coming who as Roy finds himself caught in a complicated web of passion and mistrust.

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Following Peru's war on terrorism, Fausta's relatives believe she suffers from 'The Milk of Sorrow', a condition transmitted by her Mother, who was violated and mistreated during the country's upheaval.

The war has ended but Fausta (Magaly Solier) lives to be constantly reminded of her condition of fear. The sudden death of her mother forces Fausta to confront these fears and question the peculiar measures her mother took to protect her daughter from a similar fate. 'The Milk of Sorrow' is the story of a search for re-awakening and a journey from fear to freedom.

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Two men enter. One man leaves. That's the law in Bartertown's Thunderdome arena. But lawmaker Aunty Entity will soon add another.

Don't get Max mad! 'Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome' stars Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon, Maverick) for his third go-round as the title hero who takes on the barbarians of the post-nuclear future - and this time becomes the saviour of a tribe of lost children. Music superstar Tina Turner steals what's left of the screen as Aunty Entity, a power-mad dominatrix determined to use Max to tighten her stranglehold on Bartertown. Directors George Miller and George Ogilvie deliver another rousing final apocalypse-on-wheels and one of the best movie fight scenes ever, as Max and the gladiatorial Blaster face off with maces, chainsaws and anything not nailed down inside Thunderdome. 'Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome': watch and you'll agree with the soundtrack song that "We Don't Need Another Hero".

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The Marx Brothers - Chico, Groucho, Harpo and Zeppo - are one of the cornerstones of American comedy. Starting out in vaudeville, they conquered Broadway and the big screen in their own inimitable style, at once innovative, irreverent, anarchic, physical, musical, ludicrous and hilarious.

With the advent of the 'talkies', the Brothers signed to Paramount Pictures and brought their stage act to cinema audiences. They made five films in five years, all of which are collected here: 'The Cocoanats' (1929), 'Animal Crackers' (1930), 'Monkey Business' (1931), 'Horse Feathers' (1932) and one of the greatest comedies of all time, 'Duck Soup' (1933). The Paramount era represents the Marx Brothers at their absolute finest, retaining all of the energy and controlled chaos of their stage shows. Plots are unimportant - it's the gags, set-pieces and one-liners that matter: "Why a duck?", "Hello, I Must Be Going", "Hooray for Captain Spaulding", "That's the bunk!", 'Horse Feathers', "Swordfish" scene and classic mirror sequence in 'Duck Soup'.

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It happens with a startling swiftness and violence. An armed cadre seizes state control. Fortunately, a coup d' etat can't happen here. Or can it? A classic of suspense directed by John Frankenheimer and written for the screen by Rod Sterling , 'Seven Days in May' tautly explores that possibility.

At odds are a popular general and joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman (Burt Lancaster) and an unpopular President (Fredric March) with a pacifist agenda. At stake is the survival of the Republic. A vigilant colonel (Kirk Douglas) uncovers the scheme. But are the seven fateful days ahead enough time to derail a takeover? The clock is ticking.

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"The Crimson Kimono" stars Glenn Corbett and James Shigeta as Korean War army buddies, working side by side with the LA homicide squad. When stripper Gloria Pall is murdered, Corbett and Shigeta are sent to investigate. Both are smitten by the lovely Victoria Shaw, who is implicated in the crime.

Corbett becomes jealous of Shigeta, who is deeply hurt, feeling that Corbett's animosity is borne of racism. Their friendship, and the central romance, is resolved after the detectives bring the murderer to heel in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo. Samuel Fuller's love of oriental exotica is never more pronounced than in the climactic sequences, staged before the backdrop of the Japanese New Year celebration.

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For two decades, Carlos was the most wanted terrorist on earth. In various disguises and under numerous pseudonyms he headed a worldwide organisation responsible for ruthless killings, hijackings and bombings.

Professional revolutionary, playboy, dandy and assassin, he left a trail of destruction and broken hearts in his wake as he went about his lethal travels across the world. This is the story of Carlos the Jackal.

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Regarded as the finest work from the first great era of Chinese filmmaking, Fei Mu's quiet, piercingly poignant study of adulterous desire and guilt-ridden despair is a remarkable rediscovery, often compared to David Lean's 'Brief Encounter'.

After eight years of marriage to Liyan (Yu Shi) - once rich but now a shadow of his former self following a long, ruinous war - Yuwen (Wei Wei) does little except deliver his daily medication. A surprise visit from Liyan's friend Zhang (Wei Li) re-energises the household, but also stirs up dangerously suppressed longings and resentments. Director Fei Mu's deft use of locations, dissolves and camera movements makes for a fraught, febrile mood of hesitant passion, entrapment and ennui.

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The ailing Count Dracula (Udo Kier) and his conniving aide, Anton (Arno Juerging), journey to Italy in pursuit of virgin blood. Their path leads them to the decaying mansion of the indebted Marchese Di Fiore (Vittorio De Sica), who's keen to wed his daughters to wealthy suitors.

Yet, what awaits are not chaste maidens, but rather incestuous lesbians tainted by impure blood.

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From the mind of the legendary cult filmmaker, Alejandro Jodorowsky, comes an epic imaginary autobiography depicting both the wonders and the hardships of existing in the substance we all call reality.

True to form, Jodorowsky takes us on a strange, mystic, fantastic and deeply surreal journey that no one else could, except this time the subject is his own early life, being raised by his strict, Stalin-adoring father who has plans to assassinate the right-wing Chilean president.

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An incedendiary array of stars - including Ben Affleck, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Jeremy Piven, Ryan Reynolds, Alicia Keys and Common - make Smokin' Aces the most explosive action DVD of the year, from Joe Carnahan, the acclaimed director of Narc.

When a Mob boss takes out a million dollar hit on Buddy 'Aces' Israel - a sleazy Vegas showman turned FBI snitch - the Feds place Buddy in protective custody at a penthouse hide-out. While Buddy kills time with hookers, booze and drugs, an outrageous rogue's gallery of ultra-violent mobsters, smoking hot assassins and ruthless hit men are bring chainsaws, grenades, shotguns, knives and more to the hunt to rub out Aces and collect that cool million bucks.

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Sinan (Dogu Demirkol) returns from his studies in the city of Canakkale to his parents' home in the small rural town of Can. He hopes to publish a book of essays and short stories (or what he describes as a "quirky auto-fiction meta-novel").

But his teacher father Idris (Murat Cemcir) is an addictive gambler, so much so that his mother and sister have become reluctantly accustomed to making do without food or electricity. And so Sinan, with his writing dreams, worrying that we will be reduced after army service to teaching in the remote East, wanders around town, visiting his grandparents, encountering old friends, all the while looking for funding for his book.