neil-down's - Rented List

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Even more compelling today than when it was first released, Sidney Lumet's 'Network' is a wickedly funny, spot - on indictment of the TV news media.

Winner of four Academy Awards including Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Screenplay (Paddy Chayefsky), this searing satire stars Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Robert Duvall. When longtime news anchor Howard Beale (Finch) is fired, he suffers a violent, on - air breakdown. Ironically, his angry rantings boost his sagging ratings - much to the surprise and delight of the UBS brass. Subsequently rehired and reinvented as the "mad prophet of the airwaves", he soon becomes a pawn of ruthless programming executives who milk his madness for every share point it's worth. Of course, when the "prophet" ceases to be profitable, something has to be done about Beale, preferably on camera, before a live studio audience...

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Following a plane crash a group of schoolboys find themselves on a deserted island. They appoint a leader and attempt to create an organised society for the sake of their survival.

Democracy and order soon begin to crumble when a breakaway faction forms and quickly regresses to brutal savagery with horrifying consequences. Peter Brook's classic adaptation of William Golding's novel has lost none of the impact it made when given an 'X' certificate on its 1963 release. Shot with a raw style the film has a chilling air of realism and still retains the power to shock.

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"Primer" is set in the industrial park/suburban tract-home fringes of an unnamed contemporary city where two young engineers, Abe (David Sullivan) and Aaron (Shane Carruth), are members of a small group of men who work by day for a large corporation while conducting extracurricular experiments on

their own time in a garage. While tweaking their current project, a device that reduces the apparent mass of any object placed inside it by blocking gravitational pull, they accidentally discover that it has some highly unexpected capabilities - ones that could enable them to do and to have seemingly anything they want. Taking advantage of this unique opportunity is the first challenge they face. Dealing with the consequences is the next.

James Stewart, Jean Arthur and Claude Rains star in this award-winning 1939 classic about an idealistic, small-town politician who heads to Washington and suddenly finds himself single-handedly battling ruthless politicians out to destroy him.

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Behind our world, there is another: a world of dangerous and powerful monsters that rule their domain with deadly ferocity.

When an unexpected sandstorm transports Captain Artemis (Milla Jovovich) and her unit (Tl Harris, Diego Boneta, Meagan Good) to a new world, the soldiers are shocked to discover that this hostile and unknown environment is home to enormous and terrifying monsters immune to their firepower. In their desperate battle for survival, the unit encounters the mysterious Hunter (Tony Jaa), whose unique skills allow him to stay one step ahead of the powerful creatures. As Artemis and Hunter slowly build trust, she discovers that he is part of a team led by the Admiral (Ron Perlman). Facing a danger so great it could threaten to destroy their world, the brave warriors combine their unique abilities to band together for the ultimate showdown.

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The lovable rogue is back. Bea, Thomas, and the rabbits have created a makeshift family, but despite his best efforts, Peter can't seem to shake his mischievous reputation. Adventuring out of the garden, Peter finds himself in a world where his mischief is appreciated.

But when his furry family is put in danger, Peter must figure out what kind of bunny he wants to be.

On the run from a lethal assassin, a wily con artist (Frank Grillo) devises a scheme to hide out inside a small-town police station - but when the hitman (Gerard Butler) turns up at the precinct, an unsuspecting rookie cop (Alexis Louder) finds herself caught in the crosshairs.

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A major accident in an asteroid-mining station far from Earth has left one man alive.

Trapped in a damaged escape pod, injured and experiencing memory loss, the lone survivor establishes contact with ground control, but he'll need to recall the events that took place back at the station if he's to have a chance of making it back to Earth.

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Anthony Hopkins plays the eponymous role of a mischievious and highly independent man who, as he ages, refuses all assistance from his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). Yet, such help has become essential following Anne's decision to move to Paris with her partner.

As Anne's father tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.

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In this true-life cold war spy thriller, unossuming British businessman Greville Wynne (Benedict Cumberbatch) becomes entangled in one of the greatest international conflicts in history.

Recruited by MI6 and a CIA operative (Rachel Brosnahan), Wynne forms a covert partnership with Soviet officer Oleg Penkovsky (Merab Ninidze), and both men risk everything in a danger-fraught race against time to provide the intelligence needed to prevent nuclear confrontation and end the Cuban Missile Crisis.

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In the smash hit 'Cocoon', a group of senior citizens proved that you're never to old for a little adventure. So they set out for the planet Antarea, an alien utopia where people live forever free from sickness and pain.

'Cocoon 2: The Return' welcomes back these homesick travellers as they find more adventure, this time waiting on their own doorstep...in a place called home. This magical sequel features all the original cast members including Don Ameche, the 1986 Academy Award winner for Best Supporting Actor in 'Cocoon', Wilford Brimley, Steve Guttenberg, Maureen Stapleton, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Gwen Verdon and Jack Gilford. The time is five years later and a special rescue mission brings the adventurous old timers back to earth where they are reunited with their family and friends. After living in peaceful, problem-free Antarea, the gang finds it hard to face such painful human realities as age, illness and personal loss. They use humour, wisdom and love to grapple with their relapse into mortality, and begin to realize that, even with all its frailties, life on Earth may not be so bad after all.

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Philadelphia, 1943: A top-secret experiment is underway to make U.S. Navy ships invisible to enemy radar, but something goes horribly wrong, and the Battleship Eldridge disappears. Two sailors jump overboard -- and are mysteriously transported 41 years into the future.

On the run and trapped by the past, can they stop the experiment that has torn a hole in time?

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"Come and See" is one of the greatest war films ever made and one of the finest achievements of Soviet cinema.

A devastating account of the Nazi occupation of Belarussia during World War II, it tells the story of a young boy's abrupt loss of innocence when he joins the Soviet resistance and is thrust headlong into the brutal horrors of combat. Featuring terrifyingly authentic battle scenes and poetic, almost surreal imagery, director Elem Klimov has fashioned a vivid and unforgettably powerful portrait of the terrible atrocities committed by men in the name of war.

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A group of delightful and very human people meet up with some very bizarre and not-so-human beings, who are visitors from a distant galaxy. They have come to Earth on a rescue mission to retrieve a secret which has laid hidden on the ocean floor for thousands of years.

They share a more wondrous adventure of love and friendship than they could ever have imagined.

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Stillwater follows an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit.

Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.