mel gibson-my favourite actor.

Amazon Price: $9.20 (as of 06/02/2012)

Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom, this highly acclaimed "crazy collide-o-scope"(Newsweek) of highway mayhem "cinematically defined the postapocalyptic landscape" (TV Guide). Featuring eye-popping stunts that are "electrifying and very convincing" (Variety) and "an authentically nihilistic spirit" (The Village Voice), Mad Max is "pure cinematic poetry" (Time). In the ravaged near future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face of a police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max's best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live for revenge!

Amazon Price: $1.49 (as of 06/02/2012)

Mel Gibson's film debut is a low-budget Australian beach movie with a heart of darkness (an alternate title is Coast of Terror). Set in the 1950s, the film follows the exploits of four youths on a holiday road trip that takes an ugly turn. The end product is a sort of Beach Blanket Bingo in hell. Panoramic Endless Summer-type shots of Mel and the boys hanging 10 and scenes of teens bopping at a rock & roll hop frame a plot involving statutory rape and murder. Gibson plays Scollop, the carefree, sweet one in the group. He's a genuine beach boy: blond and tan and obsessed with surfing. Sandy (John Jarratt), a dour fellow on a last fling before marriage, asks Scollop what he's going to be doing in 10 years' time. Scollop replies: "I'll be doing something in 10 years' time. So I guess in 10 years' time that's what I'll be doing." It's logic worthy of Jeff Spicoli from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Scollop's twin in spirit. Gibson's ease in front of the camera and natural acting talent shine through even here. He brings his trademark breezy charm and a surprising emotional range to this beach bum role. It's no wonder that he went on to become an international superstar. --Laura Mirsky

Amazon Price: $5.13 (as of 06/02/2012)

.Tim is a young man with below average intelligence. Mary asks Tim to work around her yard and the two soon become friends. Some people, however, are suspicious of their friendship which seems to be continually strengthening, accusing Mary of taking advantage of Tim s innocence. Will changing circumstances in Tim s life change his relationship with Mary?

Amazon Price: $16.94 (as of 06/02/2012)

A strong candidate for the designation of most thrilling action movie ever made (the turbo-charged exhilaration of its full-throttle highway chases has never been equaled), the second part of George Miller's post-apocalyptic trilogy is also a magnificently imagined movie myth. Like the Star Wars trilogy (by that other George) the Mad Max films draw their inspiration from the works of mythologist Joseph Campbell. In the 1979 original, Max (Mel Gibson) is a policeman, the last guardian of civilization and order in a devastated world reduced to chaos. But when a leather-clad gang of sadomasochistic speed demons mows down Max's family, his remaining connections to humanity are also permanently severed. After brutally exacting his revenge, Max wanders off into the wasteland alone, "a burned out shell of a man" who (to paraphrase The Searchers) is destined to wander forever between the winds. In The Road Warrior, Max rediscovers a sliver of his shattered humanity, and a spark of redemption, when he helps an embattled colony of pioneers fight off the savages who are after that most precious of all commodities: "guzzline." Max is transformed into a legendary hero, just as Mel Gibson was catapulted to international movie stardom. With its final stirring images, The Road Warrior transcends its genre (whatever that may be--science fiction? Western? action adventure?) and becomes something timeless. It's a great movie. --Jim Emerson
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World War III has just ended and the world's remaining inhabitants are on a desperate, devastating, struggle to survive. Gasoline is in short supply and those remaining, turn on one another for the crude oil.

Amazon Price: $4.75 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Although Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, the third part of George Miller's post-apocalyptic Mad Max trilogy, is certainly the least of the bunch (Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior is the undisputed masterpiece, and maybe the best action movie ever made), it has still got a good share of imaginative industrial-wasteland-pastiche imagery. And casting Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, the queen of Bartertown, was a masterstroke. Mel Gibson's character Max is pitted in a battle to the death against the bizarre Master Blaster in the Thunderdome, flying around on rubbery straps inside a sort of gigantic overturned colander with bloodthirsty spectators clinging to the outside. Miller's producing partner, Byron Kennedy, was killed in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for this film. Miller was devastated, only agreeing to direct the action sequences--and, somehow, you feel his heart wasn't entirely in it. --Jim Emerson
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Two men enter. One man leaves. That's the law in Bartertown's Thunderdome arena. But lawmaker Aunty Entity will soon add another: Don't get Max mad!
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome stars Mel Gibson (Lethal Weapon, Maverick) for his third go-round as the title hero who takes on the barbarians of the post-nuclear future - and this time becomes the savior of a tribe of lost children. Music superstar Tina Turner steals what's left of the screen as Aunty Entity, a power-mad dominatrix determined to use Max to tighten her stranglehold on Bartertown.

Directors George Miller and George Ogilvie deliver another rousing final apocalypse-on-wheels and one of the best movie fight scenes ever, as Max and the gladiatorial Blaster face off with maces, chainsaws and anything not nailed down inside Thunderdome. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: watch and you'll agree with the soundtrack song the "We Don't Need Another Hero."

Amazon Price: $2.79 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Volunteers from all branches of the Allied forces made up the Australian 2 Special Force Unit, which carried out a total of 284 missions during World War II. Tight, suspenseful Attack Force Z effectively dramatizes one such sortie. Five tough commandos attempt to rescue the survivors of a downed American plane on a Japanese-held island in the southwest Pacific. Their leader is Captain P.G. Kelly, played by a youthful Mel Gibson. It's Kelly's first time in charge, and his fellow commandos, especially renegade Lieutenant J.A. Veitch (John Phillip Law, the cute Soviet sailor in The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!), won't let him forget it. Kelly and Veitch's conflict raises both the mission's and the movie's tension quotient. Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) gives a thoughtful performance as Sergeant D.J. Costello, the oldest and wisest of the troop. But the film's most compelling characters are the inhabitants of the island, Chinese villagers forced to become resistance fighters to defend their way of life against the Japanese invaders. Without them, Attack Force Z wouldn't have a chance. Handsome, unflappable Lin Chan-Lang (Koo Chuan Hsiung), a martial-arts expert, is their natural leader. Even Lin's children get into the act, including his brave and beautiful eldest daughter, Chien Hua (Sylvia Chang), whose presence lends the film a welcome element of romance. --Laura Mirsky
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Mel Gibson commands an elite military team dispatched during W.W.II to locate and rescue the survivors of a shot-down plane, stranded on a South Pacific island occupied by Japanese. One of the castaways, a defecting Japanese official, holds the secret to ending the war, and must be saved at all costs! Boasting a top notch cast, Attack Force Z is a fast-moving, action-packed World War II adventure story in the tradition of The Guns of Navarone and The Dirty Dozen. All-star cast includes Mel Gibson (Braveheart, Lethal Weapon). John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik, Golden Voyage of Sinbad), Sam Neill (Jurassic Park, The Triangle), Chris Haywood (The Man from Snowy River, Muriel's Wedding) and John Waters (Breaker Morant, Summerfield) .

Amazon Price: $33.95 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Australian director Peter Weir had made several excellent films before The Year of Living Dangerously was released to critical acclaim in 1983, but it was this moody tale of romance and political upheaval that bought Weir and star Mel Gibson their tickets to Hollywood. (Weir's next film was the 1985 Harrison Ford hit Witness.) Set in Indonesia in 1965, the film focuses on a group of Caucasian journalists and photographers who are in Jakarta to cover the political upheavals that are threatening to collapse the unstable government of President Sukarno. Gibson plays an Australian correspondent named Guy Hamilton who's determined to get the best story, and he's given invaluable assistance from Billy Kwan (Linda Hunt), a half-Indonesian, half-Australian photojournalist who knows the culture inside and out. Billy introduces Guy to Jill (Sigourney Weaver) and their romance develops in an atmosphere of political unrest and constant personal danger. This journalistic adventure is compelling in itself (and Hunt's gender-switching performance won her a much-deserved Oscar), but it's Weir's creation of a rich, authentically exotic locale that gives the movie its alluring and subtly mysterious atmosphere. A tale of tragedy and survival, it's also a story about fascinating people at a turbulent juncture of history, and the empathy they feel for each other and the culture that surrounds them. --Jeff Shannon
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GUY HAMILTON IS A JOURNALIST ON HIS FIRST JOB AS A FOREIGNCORRESPONDENT. HIS APPARENTLY HUMDRUM ASSIGNMENT TO INDONESIA SOON TURNS HOT AS PRESIDENT SUKARNO ELECTRIFIES THE POPULACE ANDFRIGHTENS FOREIGN POWERS.

Amazon Price: $6.57 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Director Roger Donaldson (Thirteen Days) has breathed vibrant new life into the classic story of the mutiny on the Bounty. With a dream cast--Mel Gibson, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Sir Laurence Olivier, Liam Neeson, and Daniel Day-Lewis--and a script by Robert Bolt (Doctor Zhivago, Lawrence of Arabia), The Bounty takes a revisionist tack through the well-charted waters of an oft-told tale. Hopkins's Captain Bligh is no raving sadist in the Charles Laughton mode. (Laughton played Bligh in the first Mutiny on the Bounty, 1935.) Instead, Sir Anthony plays Bligh as a hard-nosed imperialist explorer simply trying to get the job done in the time-honored manner: on the backs of the poor gobs under his command. Still, when Bligh's suppressed powder keg of rage finally blows, Hopkins is formidable indeed. Mel Gibson gives one of the most soulful performances of his career as mutiny leader Fletcher Christian. He's also at the height of his blue-eyed, buff good looks, and his romance with Tahitian maiden Mauatua (lovely Tevaite Vernette) is decidedly erotic. Liam Neeson is a veritable force of nature as the scrappy seaman Charles Churchill, and Daniel Day-Lewis is sublimely hateful as Master John Fryer, a pompous toady. With special effects to rival those of The Perfect Storm, the alluring eye candy of a tall-masted schooner under full sail, lush tropical greenery, and bevies of bodacious South Sea Islands babes, plus a gripping story line, The Bounty deserves a rescue from undeserved obscurity. --Laura Mirsky
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Oscar%uFFFDr) winners* Anthony Hopkins and Mel Gibson lead a stellar cast that includes Sir Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis and Liam Neeson in this action-packed adventure bursting with sensational battles, raging storms, and an intensity as powerful as the mighty sea itself! Bristling with commanding performances, blazing dialogue and "superb action scenes" (Los Angeles Times), this "spectacular movie" (New York) is "everything a high-adventure fan could want" (Variety)! Hopkins delivers "a brilliant portrayal" (Boxoffice) as William Bligh, a real-life sea captain who, in 1787, steered The Bounty on a 27,000-mile voyage into danger, chaos and madness. After 31 days of battling severe sea squalls and Bligh's ever-increasing cruelty, the weary crew is relieved to finally land on a remote island. But soon their tyrannical captain wants tosail again, and the desperate men turn to first mate Fletcher Christian (Gibson) to help them take the ship by force or die trying. *Hopkins: Actor, The Silence of the Lambs (1991); Gibson: Director, Producer, Braveheart (1995)

The River (Widescreen Edition)

Amazon Price: $5.33 (as of 06/02/2012)

By A Customer

This review is from: River [VHS] (VHS Tape)
A heart-land tragedy relived annually by the rain and consequential flooding of the family farmland by the adjacent river. Mels' character is sullen and cold. He is the quintessential traditional hardworking farmer. He loves his family and works almost pointlessly to keep them on their doomed property. It's difficult to watch him sulk and suffer inwardly. His character is extremely introverted and stubbornly independent. Sissy Spacek is great as the wife who tries to keep her family's head above water literally. She portrays a strong, willful and faithful person. This is a good rainy night movie. The kids are great actors and contribute a lot to the traditional values and family bonding.
The onscreen chemistry between Spacek and Gibson underscores the uncomfortable aura of the marriage in the movie. There's something strange about the couple, something that just doesn't click; a feeling of looming doom regarding their relationship. Scott Glenn's character does not help the uneasy tension.

Lethal Weapon [Blu-ray]

Amazon Price: $4.95 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Mel Gibson set aside his art-house credentials to star as a crazy cop paired with a stable one (Danny Glover) in this full-blown 1987 Richard Donner action picture. The most violent film in the series (which includes three sequels), it is also the edgiest and most interesting. After Gibson's character jumps off a building handcuffed to a man, and Gary Busey (as a cold, efficient enforcer) lets his hand get burned without flinching, there is a sense that anything can happen, and it usually does. Donner's strangely messy visual and audio style doesn't make a lot of aesthetic sense, but it stuck with all four movies. The DVD release includes production notes, Dolby sound, theatrical trailer, optional full-screen and widescreen presentations, optional French soundtrack, and optional English, French, and Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh
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With over seven minutes of previously unavailable scenes, the director's cut of Lethal Weapon is a long-overdue present for fans. Riggs's solitary homelife and the tragic loss spurring him in a reckless disregard for his own safety now come into greater focus. We see that recklessness is new scenes underlining the differences between the two cops. Murtaugh, just 50, needs reassurance about his skills at a firing range. Riggs, not caring if he sees another birthday, coolly walks into a schoolyard sniper's field of fire. All the humor and adrenaline that made this original an entertainment milestone are here, too. No scenes have been removed. But new action and new insight are now included. Include yourself in the excitement.

Lethal Weapon 2 [Blu-ray]

Amazon Price: $7.94 (as of 06/02/2012)

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The series formula started to kick in with this immediate sequel to Lethal Weapon, but that doesn't necessarily make it a weak movie. Joe Pesci joins the fold, Richard Donner directs again, and Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as LAPD partners, their relationship smoother now that Gibson's character has recovered from his maddening grief over his wife's death. But the reckless Mel and cautious Danny equation, good for a million laughs, settles into place in this story involving a South African smuggler and a new girlfriend (Patsy Kensit) for Gibson. The movie is hardly comfy, though. The last act gets nasty, and a climactic fight between Gibson (who gets the worst of it) and some high-kicking villain is ugly. --Tom Keogh
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Riggs wows the pretties of a hotel spa before getting to Getz. Murtaugh receives bad bodywork news from an auto repairman after his beleaguered station wagon sees some Riggs-piloted street action. Plus, feisty Leo shares a newly included scene in which he recalls a suspect's address by complex spins of numbers that, well, no one can tell it like Leo. And no one would follow his lead but Riggs and Murtaugh. It's police procedure, Lethal style. And it's yours to enjoy as the duo draws a bead on criminals hiding behind diplomatic immunity.

Lethal Weapon 3 (Director's Cut)

Amazon Price: $2.10 (as of 06/02/2012)

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The lightest of the first three films, Lethal Weapon 3 finds everyone occupying comfortable positions like students who always choose to sit in the same classroom seats. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as LAPD partners whose working method consists of the former diving into danger and the latter holding back. (The sequence set in the parking garage of a building, in which Gibson inadvertently trips a switch that makes a timed explosive device speed up, is priceless.) Joe Pesci once again plays a motor-mouth pest, and while the story is pretty much forgettable, it does introduce the best new dynamic in the series, a romance between Gibson and Rene Russo's equally tough but attractive cop. --Tom Keogh
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Riggs meets someone he never expected to find: his female alter ego, Lorna Cole (Rene Russo).

Lethal Weapon 4

Amazon Price: $2.49 (as of 06/02/2012)

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In the fourth and reportedly final film of the Lethal Weapon series, director Richard Donner reunites with Mel Gibson and Danny Glover, who reprise their roles as Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh for one last hurrah in a film that is decidedly better than the third and first chapters. This time the pair are pitted against Jet Li, who plays the leader of a Chinese organized crime unit. Li, a veteran of hundreds of Hong Kong action films, more than holds his own against the more established team of Gibson, Glover, Renee Russo, and Joe Pesci with his subtle yet strong portrayal of the quietly irrepressible Wah Sing Ku. As always with the Lethal series, the plot is incredibly simple to follow: someone steals something, someone gets killed, and Murtaugh is reluctantly thrown into the mix while Riggs dives into the case with gleeful aplomb. As with the previous movies, we watch for the sheer action and chemistry alone. The action sequences throughout the fourth installment are exquisite, from the opening scene involving a flamethrower, a burning building, and a half-naked Murtaugh strutting like a chicken (don't ask, just watch), to the climactic showdown that pays genuine tribute to Jet Li's masterful martial art skills. As for chemistry, the bond between these characters is so strong by now that you sometimes feel like you're watching a TV series in its sixth season, such is the warm familiarity between the audience and the personalities on the screen. The humor is more fluid than ever, aided immeasurably by the casting of comedian Chris Rock, who like Li does a great job of making his presence known in some memorable verbal tirades that would bring a smile out of the Farrelly brothers. But it's the verbal and emotional jousting between Glover and Gibson that makes this fourth episode especially appealing; both are in peak form with great physical and verbal timing. One can only hope that if this is indeed the last of the Lethal films, that it won't be the last time we see Glover and Gibson together on screen. --Jeremy Storey
Product Description
This sequel involves an action packed battle with a Chinese ganglord.

Tequila Sunrise

Amazon Price: $5.87 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Robert Towne is one of Hollywood's most celebrated screenwriters, but because his directorial efforts have been few and far between, anticipation was high when this star-powered crime story was released in 1988. Critical reaction was decidedly mixed, but there's plenty to admire in this silky, visually seductive film about a drug dealer (Mel Gibson) whose best friend from high-school (Kurt Russell) is now working for the Los Angeles sheriff's drug detail. Their personal and professional conflicts are intensified by their love for the same woman, a waitress (Michelle Pfeiffer) at the Italian restaurant they both frequent. There's a big deal going down with a drug lord (the late Raul Julia), but as it twists and turns, Towne's story is really more about personal loyalties and individual honor. And even if it doesn't quite hold together, the movie's got a fantastic look to it (courtesy of the great cinematographer Conrad Hall), and the three stars bring depth and dimension to their well-written roles. --Jeff Shannon
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THE MIX IS DANGEROUS, THE ROMANCE IS SIZZLING, THE ACTION ISEXPLOSIVE WITH THREE OF THE MOST EXCITING PERFORMERS ON SCREENAT ANY ONE TIME.A COOL, CUNNING DRAMA OF FRIENDSHIP AND BETRAYAL, A SEDUCTIVE BLEND OF ACTION AND ROMANCE.

Bird on a Wire

Amazon Price: $3.31 (as of 06/02/2012)

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This action-comedy from 1990 makes the critical mistake of trying to mix a potentially suspenseful plot with the kind of humor that Mel Gibson can only get away with in his Lethal Weapon movies. It doesn't work here because the movie's supposed to be a Hitchcockian thriller and Mel's wisecracking--not to mention some implausible plot twists and ridiculous chase scenes--makes it impossible to take any of this movie seriously. It works best as a lightweight vehicle for Gibson and Goldie Hawn, who bring their own established appeal to their roles as old lovers who are reunited under unexpectedly dangerous circumstances. After testifying against some drug-running killers, Mel's been safe under the protection of the FBI's witness relocation program, and Goldie coincidentally enters his life again just as the bad guys are hot on Mel's trail. They join up and go on the run from the villains and ... well, let's just say director John Badham doesn't have any big surprises up his sleeve. Goldie and Mel are enjoyable, as always, but you'd have to be their biggest fan to watch this movie more than once. --Jeff Shannon
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BIRD ON A WIRE - DVD Movie

Air America [Blu-ray]

Amazon Price: $7.34 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Air America is one of those movies that could have been great, and now maintains its low-key reputation as a typical Mel Gibson film in the wake of his first two Lethal Weapon hits. Originally conceived as a biting black comedy about the CIA's top-secret smuggling operation in Laos during the Vietnam war, Air America lost most of its political sting when it was transformed into an action comedy for Gibson and costar Robert Downey Jr. The film is entertaining as far as it goes, with a few action sequences that explain where a lot of the budget went. If you're in the mood for some Mel, this one is a little off the beaten path, and still contains a percentage of its original potential. --Jeff Shannon
Product Description
When Billy Covington (Robert Downey, Jr.) accepts a job to fly planes in Laos, he expects to join a crew of civilian pilots flying in peaceful air zones. What he gets is Air America, a ragtag group of renegades dodging gunfire to run secret - and shady - missions for the CIA. As danger grows and the line between allies and enemies blurs, Billy turns to a wild and grizzled pilot named Gene Ryack (Mel Gibson). Together, Billy and Gene take a stand against the chaos and become something no one ever believed they could be: heroes.

Hamlet

by: William Shakespeare

Amazon Price: $3.95 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Franco Zeffirelli's stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare's play stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince. Gibson is much better in the part than many critics have admitted, his powers of clarity doing much to make this particular Hamlet more accessible than several other filmed versions. The supporting cast is outstanding, including Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, Ian Holm as Polonius, and Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia. Zeffirelli's vigorous direction employs a lively camera style that nicely alters the viewer's preconceptions about the way Hamlet should look. --Tom Keogh
Product Description
Treachery. Madness. Murder. The story of Hamlet has been told for 400 years...but it's never been told like this! Mel Gibson (the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon films) takes on his richest part to date, the title role in a dynamic new version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth), the location-shot production has a sumptuous look that won Academy Award nominations for Art Direction and Costume Design. Gibson plays the prince of medieval-era Denmark, who senses treachery behind his royal father's death. Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons) plays Hamlet's mother Gertrude, all too dangerously entangled in that treachery. A brilliant supporting cast, including Alan Bates as Claudius, Paul Scofield as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Ian Holm as Polonius and Helena Bonham-Carter as Ophelia, adds its powerful presence to this immortal tale of high adventure and evil deeds. Big, bold and heroic, this is a vivid and virile Hamlet for the modern age and all time.

Mel Gibson New Collection: Forever Young/Maverick/Conspiracy Theory

Amazon Price: $119.99 (as of 06/02/2012)

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Three very different roles from the Australian original. Conspiracy Theory; Forever Young; Maverick