mjh's - Rented List

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Cars fly, trees fight back and a mysterious elf comes to warn Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) at the start of the second year of his amazing journey into the world of wizardry.

This year at Hogwarts, spiders talk, letters scold and Harry's own unsettling ability to speak to snakes turns his friends against him. From dueling clubs to rogue Bludgers, it's a year of adventure and danger when bloody writing on a wall announces: "The Chamber of Secrets has been opened". To save Hogwarts will require all of Harry, Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione's (Emma Watson) magical abilities and courage in this spellbinding adaptation of J.K. Rowling's second book. Get ready to be amused and petrified as Harry Potter shows he's more than a wizard, he's a hero!

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The poignant true story of two British sprinters vying for gold in the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.

Harold Abrahams (Ben Cross), a driven athlete of Jewish ancestry, runs to overcome prejudice and to achieve personal fame; his rival, Eric Liddell (Ian Charleson), a devout Scottish missionary, competes for the glory of God. An inspirational story of spirit and strength in the face of enormous odds, the film combines the finest elements of athletic competition and human drama to create a compelling and timeless cinematic classic.

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The world's most lethal odd couple - bodyguard Michael Bryce (Ryan Reynolds) and hitman Darius Kincaid (Samuel L. Jackson) - are back. Still unlicensed, Bryce is forced into action by Darius's wife, the infamous international con artist Sonia Kincaid (Salma Hayek).

As Bryce is driven over the edge by volatlile spouses, the trio get in over their heads in a global plot and soon find that they are all that stand between Europe and a vengeful and powerful madman (Antonio Banderas). Joining in the fun and deadly mayhem is Morgan Freeman as...well, you'll have to see.

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Based on J.K. Rowling's first novel, this film weaves a magical tale. Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) has lived under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house his whole life.

But on his 11th birthday, he learns he's a powerful wizard - with a place waiting for him at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. There, he uncovers the truth about his parents' deaths...and about the villain who's to blame.

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In the 1840's, acclaimed self-taught palaeontologist Mary Anning (Kate Winslet) works alone on the wild and brutal Southern English coastline of Lyme Regis.

The days of her famed discoveries behind her, she now hunts for common fossils to sell to rich tourists to support herself and her ailing widowed mother. When one such tourist, Roderick Murchison (James McArdle), arrives in Lyme on the first leg of a European tour, he entrusts Mary with the care of his young wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan), who is recuperating from a personal tragedy. Mary, whose life is a daily struggle on the poverty line, cannot afford to turn him down but, proud and relentlessly passionate about her work, she clashes with her unwanted guest. They are two women from utterly different worlds. Yet despite the chasm between their social spheres and personalities, Mary and Charlotte discover they can each offer what the other has been searching for: the realisation that they are not alone. It is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bounds and alter the course of both lives irrevocably.

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A virtuoso James Stewart plays a small-town Michigan lawyer who takes on a difficult case: the defense of a young army lieutenant (Ben Gazzara) accused of murdering a local tavern owner who he believes raped his wife (Lee Remick).

This gripping envelope-pusher, the most popular film by Hollywood provocateur Otto Preminger, was groundbreaking for the frankness of its discussion of sex - but more than anything else, it is a striking depiction of the power of words. Featuring an outstanding supporting cast - with a young George C. Scott as a fiery prosecutor and the legendary attorney Joseph N. Welch as the judge - and an influential score by Duke Ellington...

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Young Oliver Twist (Mark Lester) is an orphan who escapes the cheerless life of the workhouse and takes to the streets of 19th-Century London.

He's immediately taken in by a band of street urchins, headed by the lovable villain Fagin (Ron Moody), his fiendish henchman Bill Sikes (Oliver Reed) and his loyal apprentice The Artful Dodger (Jack Wild). Through his education in the fine points of pick-pocketing, Oliver makes away with an unexpected treasure...a home and a family of his own.

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Wrongly accused city banker Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) arrives at Shawshank Prison in 1947 after receiving a double life sentence for the brutal murders of his wife and her lover. He discovers that when they send you to Shawshank for life...that's exactly what they take.

His quiet strength slowly earns him the respect and friendship of the prison fixer Red (Morgan Freeman). He also becomes popular with the warden and prison guards, as he is able to use his banking experience to help the corrupt officials amass fortunes. But Andy's seemingly stoic acceptance of his unjust imprisonment hides a fierce determination for freedom and provides a unique chance to change his fate.

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Winter 1968, and showbiz legend Judy Garland arrives in swinging London to perform in a sell-out run at The Talk of the Town. It is 30 years since she shot to global stardom in The Wizard of Oz, but if her voice has weakened, its dramatic intensity has only grown.

As she prepares for the show, battles with management, charms musicians, and reminisces with friends and adoring fans, her wit and warmth shine through. Even her dreams of romance seem undimmed as she embarks on a courtship with Mickey Deans (Finn Wittrock), her soon-to-be fifth husband. And yet Judy (Renée Zellweger) is fragile. After working for 45 of her 47 years, she is exhausted: haunted by memories of a childhood lost to Hollywood, and gripped by a desire to be back home with her kids. Will she have the strength to go on? Featuring some of her best-known songs, the film celebrates the voice, the capacity for love and the sheer pizzazz of "the world's greatest entertainer".

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"Tina" is the ultimate celebration of a global superstar and an intimate portrait of a woman who overcame extreme adversity to define her career, her identity and her legacy on her own terms.

From her early career as the queen of R and B to her record-breaking sell-out arena tours of the 1980's, Tina Turner draws back the curtain to invite us into her private world in a way she has never done before. Revealing her inner-most struggles, and sharing some of her most personal moments, 'Tina' is the defining and inspirational record of one of the greatest survivors in modern music.

A little lost alien, three million light years away from home. A lonely ten-year old boy willing to take him home. Two lives changed by a timeless adventure and a friendship that knows no earthly bounds.

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'Sense and Sensibility' is the story of two sisters; pragmatic Elinor (Emma Thompson) and passionate, willful Mariann (Kate Winslet). When their father, Henry Dashwood, dies, by law his estate must pass to the eldest son from his first marriage.

Suddenly homeless and impoverished, his current wife and daughters find themselves living in a simple country cottage. The two sisters are soon accepted into their new society. Mariann becomes swept up in a passionate love affair with the dashing Willoughby (Greg Wise), while Elinor struggles to keep a tight reign on the family purse strings and to keep her feelings for Edward Ferrars (Hugh Grant), whom she left behind, hidden from her family. Despite their different personalities, they both experience great sorrow in their affairs, but they learn to mix sense with sensibility in a society that is obsessed with both financial and social status.

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Following the closure of a gypsum mine in the Nevada town she calls home, Fern (Frances McDormand) packs her van and sets off on the road in this "exquisite film" (Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal).

Exploring an unconventional life as a modern-day nomad, Fern discovers a resilience and resourcefulness unlike any she's known before long the way, she meets other nomads who become mentors in the vast landscape of the American West.

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Music is Mathieu's (Jules Benchetrit) secret. It's something he doesn't dare discuss with the gang he hangs out with in the projects, where he's from.

But when one of their petty burglaries almost lands him behind bars, the National Music Conservatory's director, Pierre Geithner (Lambert Wilson), gets him out in exchange for community service. But Pierre has something else in mind...Having detected in Mathieu the potential to become a great pianist, he signs him up to the national piano competition. As Mathieu enters a new world, whose codes and etiquette he doesn't know, he is taught by the uncompromising "Countess" (Kristin Scott Thomas) and meets Anna (Karidja Touré), with whom he falls in love. To succeed at this competition, which will determine all their destinies, Mathieu, Pierre and the Countess will have to learn how to transcend their prejudices...

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Set in a seaside town on the Italian Riviera, Disney and Pixar's 'Luca' is a coming-of-age story about a young boy experiencing an unforgettable summer.

Luca (voice of Jacob Tremblay) shares his amazing adventures with his friend Alberto (voice of Jack Dylan Grazer), but their fun is threatened by a deeply held secret: they're sea monsters from a world below the water's surface.