Cliff Richard: The Countdown Concert (2003)

Everything but the Girl: Like the Deserts Miss the Rain

The title of Like the Deserts Miss the Rain comes from "Missing," the first of nine videos on this collection (and the band's biggest U.S. hit). While all could be described as "stylish"--much like Everything But the Girl--they're otherwise quite different. Sometimes Tracey Thorne and Ben Watt appear; other times actors take center stage. "Single," for instance, features a man tumbling across town: down the street, into a Laundromat, in and out of a dryer, etc. Then there's the "populist" video for Simon and Garfunkel’s "The Only Living Boy in New York," directed by art house favorite Hal Hartley (Henry Fool). (The duo appears to have added a few dozen members.) The DVD also includes three live performances, including a fine version of Massive Attack's "Protection" (featuring Thorne on vocals), and three demo tracks that play as photos of the duo pass by. A fine career overview of one of the U.K.'s most enduring acts. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Top Dog

Hooligan boss Billy Evans has it all - a successful business, a beautiful family and respect on the terraces. But when he clashes with gangster Mickey over a backstreet proetection racket, Billy soon finds himself out of his depth as they look to finally settle the question - who is Top Dog?

Rin

Kouta Noda is a 2nd grade high school student at a village. A transfer student, Tendo, from Tokyo becomes Kouta Noda’s classmate. Tendo has a mysterious mood. The two teens becomes friends and spend time having fun, but, one day, one of Kouta's friends disappears. There is a local village legend that one kid will disappear every 100 years.

Escuela de sirenas y tiburones

Mistakes, songs and intrigues in a mixed boarding school.

Arthur Hailey's Detective

Detective Sergeant Malcolm Ainslie, a Catholic priest turned distinguished investigator for the police, has agreed to hear the confession of a convicted serial killer sentenced to death in a just a matter of hours. What he promises to reveal to Ainslie is the truth behind the crimes and the reason he confessed to the one crime Ainslie doesn't even believe he committed. What unfolds between the two men is a serpentine trail into both men's pasts based on the bestseller from master storyteller Arthur Hailey.

Thermopylae

A distraught man in coat and tie grips the guardrail at a remote cliff overlooking the Pacific. At a boys' high school in toney Rancho Palos Verdes, Mr. Radford teaches classics. His best student is the earnest Andrew. Late one evening, Andrew stops by Mr. Radford's office; Andrew's been the only student to do well on a recent exam. They chat, and something happens that brings a sleepless night to Mr. Radford. The next day, Andrew misses Mr. Radford's class, and after, Mr. Radford is aghast to see Andrew and Andrew's father waiting outside the principal's office. What's the teacher's fear, and what will he do about it?

Good References

The plot revolves around a down-on-her-luck woman named Mary whose lack of references makes it impossible for her to gain employment. When a friend falls ill, Mary impersonates her in order to take a job as secretary to an elderly socialite. Things immediately start going downhill when she is tasked to introduce a ne'er-do-well nephew to high society—but ends up bailing him out of a string of scandals instead.

Caps

Radu, 45, rich and single, manages his business with a strong, unwavering hand and no scruples. His competition is now leading a charge against him on the stock market, which prompts Radu to remember a childhood game of beer bottle caps, a game that required risk-taking, effort and skill. A heart attack and the news that he might need a heart transplant determines him to head to a remote place, where the Danube river meets the sea, a place of simple people and age-old customs.

Love Behind the Barrier

A teenage girl faces her obstacle in her love for a talented boy.

Touch

A boy, abducted and abused for eight years returns home to find that the experience remains an indelible part of him.

Blood Pigs

Ninety nine percent of the worlds has been destroyed by a bio-chemical war. Technology is obsolete and the soil has been polluted leaving people with barely any food. The survivors try to continue on by hunting and consuming the living dead which has dire results as the dead flesh begins to mutate with the bio-chemical still in the atmosphere. People's digestive systems begin to evolve and force their way out of victims mouths to search for food on their own. Mutations spiral out of control into a grotesque finale.

Red

Red, a shy orphan who spent most of his childhood in a girly bar, grew up to be the town's best fixer. When a rich kid was gunned down in a drug bust that went wrong, Red was hired by Art, a spoiled socialite, to fix the mess.

Pluto at the Zoo

Pluto walks past the zoo and sees the huge bone the sleeping lion has but getting it out is easier said than done. He gets it out of the lion's cage, but then has to face the kangaroo and its playful joey. Next is the gorilla, then the crocodiles.

Reform School Girl

Donna is sent to a reform school to take the fall for bad boy Vince. Inside, she makes friends and learns about herself.

Scrooge

On Christmas Eve, an old miser named Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirit of his former partner, Jacob Marley. The deceased partner was in his lifetime as mean and miserly as Scrooge is now and he warns him to change his ways or face the consequences in the afterlife.

The Douche: The Beginning

Douche is the worlds best hit man but after a botched mission he ends up in hands of the infamous evil genius Dr. Bartholomew.

Tristan und Isolde

The Bayreuth Festival Opera House mounted this production of Richard Wagner's 1865 opera Tristan und Isolde as part of the Bayreuther Festspiele. Staged by Heiner Müller, it stars Siegfried Jerusalem, Waltraud Meier, Poul Elming and Uta Priew, and features musical accompaniment by The Orchestra and Chorus of the Bayreuther Festspiele.

Operation Dirty Dozen

A short film looking behind the scenes at the making of The Dirty Dozen. Showing many scenes being filmed just north of London, the short focuses mostly on star Lee Marvin enjoying his pursuits on his one day off a week.