Pete Postlethwaite

Roald Dahl's modern classic for children becomes a delightful combination of live action and stop-motion animation by the team that made The Nightmare Before Christmas: director Henry Selick and producers Tim Burton (Batman) and Denise Di No

Roald Dahl's modern classic for children becomes a delightful combination of live action and stop-motion animation by the team that made The Nightmare Before Christmas: director Henry Selick and producers Tim Burton (Batman) and Denise Di Novi. The story concerns young James (played for real and through voice-overs by Paul Terry), who is orphaned and left in the charge of two cruel aunts (Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley). Rescued by a mysterious fellow (Pete Postlethwaite), James ends up inside a giant peach, drifting over the Atlantic Ocean in the company of a gentleman grasshopper (voiced by Simon Callow), a fast-talking centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), an anxious earthworm (David Thewlis), a matronly ladybug (Jane Leeves), and a sexy spider (Susan Sarandon). The collection of actors and their creepy-crawly alter egos are a delight, especially when some of the song-and-dance numbers (tunes are written by Randy Newman) get everyone going. --Tom Keogh

Roald Dahl's modern classic for children becomes a delightful combination of live action and stop-motion animation by the team that made The Nightmare Before Christmas: director Henry Selick and producers Tim Burton (Batman) and Denise Di Novi. The story concerns young James (played for real and through voice-overs by Paul Terry), who is orphaned and left in the charge of two cruel aunts (Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley). Rescued by a mysterious fellow (Pete Postlethwaite), James ends up inside a giant peach, drifting over the Atlantic Ocean in the company of a gentleman grasshopper (voiced by Simon Callow), a fast-talking centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), an anxious earthworm (David Thewlis), a matronly ladybug (Jane Leeves), and a sexy spider (Susan Sarandon). The collection of actors and their creepy-crawly alter egos are a delight, especially when some of the song-and-dance numbers (tunes are written by Randy Newman) get everyone going. --Tom Keogh

Take a bite out of Disney's delicious Special Edition of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH and celebrate the 40th anniversary of the popular children's book by Roald Dahl that inspired this imaginative film. This amazing mix of live-action, stop-motion animation and computer-generated special effects includes bonus materials never before available. When young James spills some magic crocodile tongues, a giant peach grows as huge as a house. Climbing inside, he embarks on a thrilling and magical odyssey that only the creative team from TIM BURTON'S THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS could bring you. Along the way you'll discover the famous star voices of Richard Dreyfuss and Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves (FRASIER), and Simon Callow (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE), plus the inspired music of Randy Newman. Enjoy -- it's a peach of a journey!

In an all-new digitally restored special edition from Tim Burton, the acclaimed director of Alice In Wonderland, comes the astounding film that captured the hearts of fans and critics all across the world.  Inspired by Roald Dahl’s beloved children’s book, Burton, Denise Di Novi and director Henry Selick combine a fascinating mix of live-action, stop-motion animation and computer-generated special effects to create a world beyond your imagination in this new Special Edition DVD.After the daring rescue of a spider, a young boy named James finds gains possession of some magic crocodile tongues.  When James spills them in the garden, out sprouts an enormous peach!  Climbing inside, he meets an astonishing cast of characters and embarks on a magical odyssey full of thrills and adventure.  Voiced by an all-star cast, including legendary actors Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Simon Callow and  Jane Leeves, and featuring the celebrated music of Randy Newman, this classic story is delicious entertainment for the whole family!Features include: •MPAA Rating: PG•Format: Blu-Ray•Runtime: 80 minutes

Roald Dahl's modern classic for children becomes a delightful combination of live action and stop-motion animation by the team that made The Nightmare Before Christmas: director Henry Selick and producers Tim Burton (Batman) and Denise Di Novi. The story concerns young James (played for real and through voice-overs by Paul Terry), who is orphaned and left in the charge of two cruel aunts (Miriam Margolyes, Joanna Lumley). Rescued by a mysterious fellow (Pete Postlethwaite), James ends up inside a giant peach, drifting over the Atlantic Ocean in the company of a gentleman grasshopper (voiced by Simon Callow), a fast-talking centipede (Richard Dreyfuss), an anxious earthworm (David Thewlis), a matronly ladybug (Jane Leeves), and a sexy spider (Susan Sarandon). The collection of actors and their creepy-crawly alter egos are a delight, especially when some of the song-and-dance numbers (tunes are written by Randy Newman) get everyone going. --Tom Keogh

Guaranteed to work or your money back - PLEASE NOTE ALL MONIES FROM THIS SALE GO TO A 501 (C)3 NO KILL ANIMAL SHELTER

Fans of Lasse Hallström's truffle, Chocolat, may enjoy the director's subsequent novel adaptation, the emotionally charged Shipping News. The opening sequence introduces us to the bumbling Quoyle (Kevin Spacey), an ink setter at the Poughkeepsie News; his hedonistic wife Petal Bear (Cate Blanchett); and their daughter Bunny. But we hardly get to meet the characters, much less connect with them, in the fewer than eight minutes allotted for the scene. Before you know it, Petal is dead in a car wreck, Quoyle's parents have committed suicide, and Quoyle and Bunny are headed off with Quoyle's aunt Agnis (Judi Dench) to start over in a small Newfoundland port town. As the main story ensues--Quoyle's transformation from passive victim to sensitive lover and eloquent columnist--the subplot of his sordid family history and his aunt's search for healing seems contrived and lifeless. While Julianne Moore, as the widow Wavey, gives a solid performance as Quoyle's love interest, Spacey's performance is uneven, never convincingly at sea enough to reward Quoyle's ultimate self-discovery. As with so many films adapted from novels, The Shipping News fails to embark confidently enough upon its own course to keep off the rocks. --Fionn Meade

Academy Award(R)-winning stars Kevin Spacey (AMERICAN BEAUTY, Best Actor, 1998) and Judi Dench (SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, Best Supporting Actress, 1998) join talents with Julianne Moore (HANNIBAL) and Cate Blanchett (THE LORD OF THE RINGS) in this deeply moving motion picture from the director of CHOCOLAT and THE CIDER HOUSE RULES. After tragedy strikes, Quoyle (Spacey) moves with his daughter from upstate New York to his ancestral home in a small Newfoundland fishing village. With a job at the local newspaper and developing romance with a woman (Moore) who lives with her own demons, Quoyle is transformed by this place of magic, beauty, and hardship. In a compelling story based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Quoyle's past melds with his present in an inspirational journey of self-discovery and second chances.

Experience one of the biggest movie trilogies of all time like never before with the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy! "You won't believe your eyes" (Rolling Stone) when dinosaurs once again roam the Earth in an amazing theme park on a remote island. From Academy Award®-winning director Steven Spielberg (Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park) and Joe Johnston (Jurassic Park III), the action-packed adventures find man up against prehistoric predators in the ultimate battle for survival. Featuring visually stunning imagery and groundbreaking filmmaking that has been hailed as "a triumph of special effects artistry" (Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times), this epic trilogy is sheer movie-making magic that was 65 million years in the making. "Welcome to Jurassic Park."

Jurassic Park Steven Spielberg's 1993 mega-hit rivals Jaws as the most intense and frightening film he'd ever made prior to Schindler's List, but it was also among his weakest stories. Based on Michael Crichton's novel about an island amusement park populated by cloned dinosaurs, the film works best as a thrill ride with none of the interesting human dynamics of Spielberg's Jaws. That lapse proves unfortunate, but there's no shortage of raw terror as a rampaging T-rex and nasty raptors try to make fast food out of the cast. The effects are still astonishing (despite the fact that the computer-generated technology has since been improved upon) and at times primeval, such as the sight of a herd of whatever-they-are scampering through a valley. --Tom Keogh The Lost World - Jurassic Park In the low tradition of knockoff horror flicks best seen (or not seen) on a drive-in movie screen, Steven Spielberg's sequel to Jurassic Park is a poorly conceived, ill-organized film that lacks story and logic. Screenwriter David Koepp strings along a number of loose ideas while Jeff Goldblum returns as Ian Malcolm, the quirky chaos theoretician who now reluctantly agrees to go to another island where cloned dinosaurs are roaming freely. Along with his girlfriend (Julianne Moore) and daughter, Malcolm has to deal with hunters, environmentalists, and corporate swine who stupidly bring back a big dino to Southern California, where it runs amok, of course. Spielberg doesn't seem to care that the pieces of this project don't add up to a real movie, so he hams it up with big, scary moments (with none of the artfulness of those in Jurassic Park) and smart-aleck visual gags (a yapping dog in a suburb mysteriously disappears when a hungry T-rex stomps by). A complete bust.--Tom Keogh Jurassic Park III Surpassing expectations to qualify as an above-average sequel, Jurassic Park III is nothing more or less than a satisfying popcorn adventure. A little cheesier than the first two Jurassic blockbusters, it's a big B movie with big B-list stars (including Laura Dern, briefly reprising her Jurassic Park role), and eight years of advancing computer-generated-image technology give it a sharp edge over its predecessors. While adopting the jungle spirit of King Kong, the movie refines Michael Crichton's original premise, and its dinosaurs are even more realistic, their behavior more detailed, and their variety--including flying pteranodons and a new villain, the spinosaurus--more dazzling and threatening than ever. These advancements justify the sequel, and its contrived plot is just clever enough to span 90 minutes without wearing out its welcome. Posing as wealthy tourists, an adventurous couple (William H. Macy, Téa Leoni) convince paleontologist Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and his protégé (Allesandro Nivola) to act as tour guides on a flyover trip to Isla Sorna, the ill-fated "Site B" where all hell broke loose in The Lost World: Jurassic Park. In truth, they're on a search-and-rescue mission to find their missing son (Trevor Morgan), and their plane crash is just the first of several enjoyably suspenseful sequences. Director Joe Johnston (October Sky) embraces the formulaic plot as a series of atmospheric set pieces, placing new and familiar dinosaurs in misty rainforests, fiery lakes, and mysterious valleys, turning JP3 into a thrill ride with impressive highlights (including a T. rex versus spinosaurus smack-down), adequate doses of wry humor (from the cowriters of Election), and an upbeat ending that's corny but appropriate, proving that the symptoms of sequelitis needn't be fatal. --Jeff Shannon

Ben Affleck worked triple-time on The Town, in which he directs, stars, and co-adapts Chuck Hogan's Prince of Thieves. Affleck's Doug MacRay comes from a line of Boston bank robbers. With his father (Chris Cooper) behind bars, he spent most of his childhood in Charlestown with loyal hothead Jem (The Hurt Locker's Jeremy Renner). Doug had a chance to go legit as a pro hockey player, but he threw it away on drugs and bad behavior. After the armed robbery that opens the film, Jem becomes convinced that bank manager Claire (Vicki Cristina Barcelona's Rebecca Hall) saw something, so Doug, who wore a disguise at the time, sets out to make sure she doesn't tell FBI agent Frawley (Mad Men's Jon Hamm) anything incriminating (Titus Welliver plays Frawley's partner). Doug starts by asking Claire out, and finds she's more shaken than stirred--and that he likes her better than Jem's oxy-addicted sister, Krista (Gossip Girl's Blake Lively), his sometime girlfriend. Unfortunately, neither Jem nor vicious enforcer Fergie (Pete Postlethwaite) will cut him loose until he orchestrates two more scores--the last to take place at Fenway Park. If The Town offers fewer surprises than Affleck's directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, he raises the stakes with well-planned heists, nerve-jangling car chases, and deadly shootouts. Though Affleck looks too clean-cut to portray a thug, he gives a nicely understated performance, while Hall proves an inspired choice as a woman who could make a bad guy turn good--or die trying. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Ben Affleck co-wrote, directed, and stars in this crime thriller about a Boston bank robber who falls for a hostage (Rebecca Hall) he took while wearing a mask during a recent heist. As he tries to ensure Hall never finds out who he really is, Affleck reluctantly agrees to plan a dangerous caper, clashes with his reckless partner (Jeremy Renner), and attempts to stay one step ahead of an FBI agent (Jon Hamm) determined to take him down. With Blake Lively, Chris Cooper, Pete Postlethwaite. 125 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English (SDH), Spanish, French; featurettes.

When Annie Londgen suffers a stroke, her world and her son Deric’s, suffer a massive change and she finds herself, literally, lost for words. My mother’s eccentricity was something the family took for granted, it had always been there – her inventive way with words and her strange logic that was ever so slightly twisted. Deric Longden‘Do you want to buried Mum or do you want to be cremated?’‘Oh I don’t know love. Surprise me.’I can’t imagine how I would feel if it ever came to the point where it would be better for my Mum to be in a home. Deric is naturally one of life’s carers. He’s very sensitive to everybody and he always looks outside himself. It is amazing what he’s been through but he just copes and does what he has to do. That comes out very strongly in the story.’ Pete Postlethwaite (who plays Deric in the screen adaptation of Lost for Words).‘ Oh, Deric, I've left the key for you.’ ‘Thanks Luv, Where abouts?’ ‘ I've stuck it in the lock so you can find it.’‘I’ve grown enormously fond of her (Annie Longden). She’s a comical lady who has conversations with her cat and who sells her house by showing her buyers that it’s falling to pieces. It’s very funny. It appeals to me that there’s comedy in this tragedy.’ Dame Thora Hird (who plays Annie Longden in the screen adaptation of Lost for Words).The film ‘Lost for Words’ attracted a TV audience of more than 12 million viewers Won International EMMY for Drama 1999Nominated for three BAFTAS in 1999 : Won Best Actress - Dame Thora Hird, Nominated for Best Single Drama and for Best Actor - Pete Postlethwaite Royal Television Award for Best Actor – Dame Thora Hird National Television Award for Most Popular Actress - Dame Thora HirdGeorge Foster Peabody Award (Peabody Awards) for excellence in broadcasting.

When Annie Londgen suffers a stroke, her world and her son Deric's, suffer a massive change and she finds herself, literally, lost for words. My mother's eccentricity was something the family took for granted, it had always been there - her inventive way with words and her strange logic that was ever so slightly twisted. Deric Longden'Do you want to buried Mum or do you want to be cremated?''Oh I don't know love. Surprise me.'I can't imagine how I would feel if it ever came to the point where it would be better for my Mum to be in a home. Deric is naturally one of life's carers. He's very sensitive to everybody and he always looks outside himself. It is amazing what he's been through but he just copes and does what he has to do. That comes out very strongly in the story.' Pete Postlethwaite (who plays Deric in the screen adaptation of Lost for Words).' Oh, Deric, I've left the key for you.' 'Thanks Luv, Where abouts?' ' I've stuck it in the lock so you can find it.''I've grown enormously fond of her (Annie Longden). She's a comical lady who has conversations with her cat and who sells her house by showing her buyers that it's falling to pieces. It's very funny. It appeals to me that there's comedy in this tragedy.' Dame Thora Hird (who plays Annie Longden in the screen adaptation of Lost for Words).The film 'Lost for Words' attracted a TV audience of more than 12 million viewers Won International EMMY for Drama 1999Nominated for three BAFTAS in 1999 : Won Best Actress - Dame Thora Hird, Nominated for Best Single Drama and for Best Actor - Pete Postlethwaite Royal Television Award for Best Actor - Dame Thora Hird National Television Award for Most Popular Actress - Dame Thora HirdGeorge Foster Peabody Award (Peabody Awards) for excellence in broadcasting.

The candid memoirs of a great character actor Steven Spielberg called him "the best actor in the world," about which Postlethwaite said: "I'm sure what Spielberg actually said was, 'the thing about Pete is that he thinks he's the best actor in the world.'" This is the story of a diverse and multi-talented actor's eventful life, told in his own vibrant words as he was at the end of it.