YOU TUBE TREASURES FOR YOUR EARLY AUTUMN PLEASURE!

Imitation Game • Without A Clue • Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters • Earth From Space • Hotel • Riddick • The Mystery of Natalie Wood • Merlin • Roman Holiday

By Charles Canovas

Ed’s note: Sorry most of the videos are no longer available.

With the arrival of cooler temperatures and vacations a fading memory, I´ve gathered a diverse lot of very entertaining films some of which ABSOLUTELY WILL NOT LAST on YouTube .  So take note, especially Imitation Game and Hansel and Gretel will probably not live to see mid–October.  Take this opportunity to watch them – especially Imitation Game – great cast, story and great cinematography. The rest include a Sherlock spoof, a docu-biography by Bogdonovich, one of the most memorable Audrey Hepburn films, a dark sci-fi movie and an ensemble cast starring in the movie version of one of TV´s most popular series, Hotel and last but not least, Sam Neil in a TV miniseries movie, Merlin.

Imitation Game  – 1hr. 53min.

The Imitation Game is a 2014  historical drama thriller film loosely based on the biography of Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley. Turing  decrypted German intelligence codes for the British government during World War II. He  was ostrasized and persecuted  because he was gay, forced to submit to chemical castration which finally resulted in his death  at the age of 41. In 2009, the British government made an official apology “the appalling way he was treated”  and Queen Elizabeth II granted him a posthumous pardon in 2013.

The film was nominated in eight categories at the 87th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress.  It won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay.  It had 5 Golden Globe , 3 Screen Actors Guild and 9 nine BAFTA nomination. It was a commercial and critical success. Grossing over $233 million worldwide against a $14 million production budget, making it the highest-grossing independent film of 2014.

Without A Clue  –  1 hr. 46 min.

Without a Clue is a 1988 British comedy film directed by Thom Eberhardt and starring Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. The film is one of several spoofs that have been made of  Sherlock Holmes. The main characters have been reversed, with a bumbling Holmes and genius detective Watson replacing the usual bumbling Watson and genius detective Holmes.  This mirrors the real-life situation of the author Conan Doyle (also a physician), who tired of his fictional creation Holmes and tried unsuccessfully to kill him off.

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters  –  1 hr.3 7min. See Soon. WON´T LAST

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is a 2013 American-German comedy action  film which continues  the  German folklore fairy tale Hansel and Gretel with grown up brother and sister working as witch exterminators. Although  panned by mainstream critics, the film was a huge commercial success and in its worldwide theatrical run grossed over $226 million for the production cost of $50 million.

Hotel  –  2hrs. 7min.

Hotel is a 1967 Technicolor film adaptation of the novel of the same name written by Arthur Hailey. The film stars Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, Karl Malden, Kevin McCarthy, Michael Rennie, Merle Oberon, and Melvyn Douglas.

Riddick  – 1hr. 58min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOVCgfMw3LM

Riddick is a 2013 American science fiction thriller film, the third installment in the Riddick film series. Produced by and starring Vin Diesel as the title character, the film was released on September 4, 2013, in the UK and Ireland, and September 6, 2013, in the United States.

The Mystery of Natalie Wood  – 2.45 hrs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVhT1MpC8c

The Mystery of Natalie Wood is a two-part 2004 made-for-TV biographical film directed by Peter Bogdanovich.  To this day there are questions about Natalie´s mysterious drowning.  This film follows her life and career from early childhood in the 1940s until her untimely death in 1981.

Earth From Space  –  1 hr. 50 min.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU0GhTmZhrs&t=11s

In this day and age, you cannot afford to miss this spectacular vision of our planet.  NOVA produced this special in extensive consultation with NASA scientists, using data from earth-observing satellites and transforming it into dazzling visual sequences, each one exposing the intricate and surprising web of forces that sustains life on earth.

Merlin  –  3 hours

Merlin is a 1998 television miniseries starring Sam Neil as Merlin in a story that covers the rise and fall of Camelot and also the history that fostered the legend. The film deviates from more traditional versions of the legend, notably by including new characters such as Queen Mab and by keeping Merlin through the whole reign of King Arthur over Britain and viewing the story from Merlin´s point of view.

Roman Holiday   –  1 hr. 58min.

Roman Holiday is William Wyler´s famous 1953 American romantic comedy. It stars Gregory Peck as a reporter and Audrey Hepburn as a royal princess out to see Rome on her own. Hepburn won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance and the film won 2 more Oscar for best screenplay and costume design. It was shot at the Cinecittà studios and on location around Rome. In 1999, Roman Holiday was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.