Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Christmas in Wonderland

  • Patrick Swayze Leads a Sweet Family Comedy for the Holidays!Fresh from a cross-country move and strapped for the holidays, it's turning out to be a pretty rotten holiday season for the Saunders family. Things start looking a bit more like Christmas when 12-year-old Brian and 6-year-old Mary find a hoard of cash at the local mall and launch a Yuletide shopping spree.that is, until the crooks who c
CHRISTMAS IN WONDERLAND - DVD Movie

Breaking and Entering

  • BREAKING AND ENTERING may lack the quality and scope of Anthony Minghella s previous work such as THE ENGLISH PATIENT and COLD MOUNTAIN, but it s an interesting, character-driven drama. Jude Law (CLOSER) plays Will, a landscape architect who succeeds in business but finds his personal life is tougher to navigate. He has been with Liv (Robin Wright Penn, FORREST GUMP) for years, but it s difficult
(Drama) A sexy and steamy story about a disparate group of Londoners connected by a string of burglaries and a passionate affair.The atmospheric and erotically charged Breaking and Entering reunites director Anthony Minghella with Jude Law (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Cold Mountain) and the haunting Juliette Binoche (The English Patient, for which she and Minghella won Academy Awards). Law fully invests himself as pre-occupied landscape architect Will Francis, who with his ! partner (Martin Freeman from the original British version of The Office), is heading a gentrification project in London's seedy, crime-plagued King's Cross neighborhood. At home, he and Liv (Robin Penn Wright), his morose Swedish-American girlfriend of 10 years, are increasingly estranged over the demands of his job and of caring for Liv's autistic daughter, a 13-year-old aspiring gymnast. Will, hiding his identity, begins an affair with Amira (Binoche), the mother of a youth who has twice ransacked Will's office. Amira is a Bosnian refugee with a fierce survival streak that is not above blackmail when she learns who Will is. This is Minghella's first original screenplay since his little-known romantic gem Truly Madly Deeply. The dialogue has Woody Allen pretensions: A cleaning woman who comes under suspicion for the break-ins invokes Kafka. A prostitute (Vera Farmiga giving the film's liveliest performance) has a philosophical bent. Will himself ham-handedly ! explains how he much prefers metaphors to straightforward comm! unicatio n (he'd love this film's title). An art-house film with an A-list cast and wrenching performances, Breaking and Entering couldn't get arrested in theatres, but it is a fine addition to Crash and other liberal-minded "them and us" dramas. --Donald Liebenson

Fracture (Widescreen Edition)

  • Academy Award? winner Anthony Hopkins and Academy Award? nominee Ryan Gosling are brilliant in this "exceptionally suspenseful nail-biter" (Rex Reed) that's so smart it "doesn't let go, even after the final twist" (Gene Shalit, "Today"). Ted Crawford (Hopkins) brutally murders his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy D.A., Will
Dan Dunne (Ryan Gosling) is a young inner-city junior high school teacher whose ideals wither and die in the face of reality. Day after day in his shabby Brooklyn classroom, he somehow finds the energy to inspire his 13 and 14-year-olds to examine everything from civil rights to the Civil War with a new enthusiasm. Rejecting the standard curriculum in favor of an edgier approach, Dan teaches his students how change works ' on both a historical and personal scale ' and how to think for themselves. Though Dan is brilliant, dynamic, and in control in the classroom, he spends his time outside school on the edge of consciousness. His disappointments and disillusionment have led to a serious drug habit. He juggles his hangovers and his homework, keeping his lives separated, until one of his troubled students, Drey (Shareeka Epps), catches him getting high after school.

From this awkward beginning, Dan and Drey stumble into an unexpected friendship. Despite the differences in their ages and situations, they are both at an important intersection. Depending on which way they turn ' and which choices they make ' their lives will change.

Sometimes people are att! racted t o each other because of their differences. When there's a nebulous attraction between a teacher and a young teenage child--as in the superb Half Nelson--the relationship has all the makings of confused disaster. Though there are a few uncomfortable moments when it's not obvious whether Dan (Ryan Gosling) and Drey (Shareeka Epps) might cross the line, the attraction between the pair is culled less from sexual tension than desperation. Dan is an idealistic history teacher in an inner-city school. Drey is one of his brightest students. For both, drugs represent something that may help them escape their worlds. He takes drugs to dull his dissatisfaction with himself. She views drugs as a possible way to better her life, even though she knows her brother's foray into that trade landed him in jail. Bleakly filmed and well told, Half Nelson soars because of the immaculate acting by Gosling and Epps. With his impish smile, Gosling provides a character that is at once d! isarming, alluring, and pitiful. As the young girl who's already seen too much hardship in her life, Epps plays her part with just the right amount of hardened raw emotion. While the ambiguous ending may not please fans weaned on happy Hollywood finales, it's a fitting and believable close to a thought-provoking film. --Jae-Ha Kim

Stills from Half Nelson (click for larger image)



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The Films of Ryan Gosling

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The Soundtrack

Sometimes you find love where you'd least expect it. Just ask Lars (Academy Award-Nominee* Ryan Gosling), a sweet but quirky guy who thinks he's found the girl of his dreams in a life-sized doll named Bianca. Lars is completely content with his artificial girlfriend, but when he develops feelings for Margo, an attractive co-worker, Lars finds himself lost in a hilariously unique love triangle, hoping to somehow discover the real meaning of true love. Offbeat and endearing, this romantic comedy takes a fresh look at dating and relationships and dares to a! sk the question: What's so wrong with being happy?To some, ! Lars and the Real Girl will play as comedy; to others, tragedy. Though Craig Gillespie (Mr. Woodcock) allows Lars Lindstrom (a mustachioed Ryan Gosling, miles away from Half Nelson) a happy ending, the road is far from smooth. This rumpled Midwesterner couldn't be more miserable. His brother, Gus (Paul Schneider, All the Real Girls), and sister-in-law, Karin (Emily Mortimer, Lovely and Amazing), fall over themselves to cheer him up, but Lars cannot be moved; he̢۪s been like that since childhood. Then a porn-addicted co-worker hips him to the lifelike Real Doll. The next thing everyone knows, Lars has a new girlfriend named Bianca. She's from Brazil, she's shy, and she uses a wheelchair. She's also made of silicon. (Because Lars is a devout Christian, hanky-panky is out of the question.) Since he's finally emerging from his shell, his doctor, Dagmar (Patricia Clarkson), advises Gus and Karin to play along with the "delusion." Soon the whole town, including M! argo (Kelli Garner), who harbors a not-so-secret crush on her officemate, gets in on the action, forcing Lars to rejoin the human race or crawl deeper into psychosis. Written by Six Feet Under's Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl is built around such a preposterous premise, it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Fortunately, the actors play it straight. Gosling does his best to make Lars sympathetic, but Schneider and Mortimer, fully convincing in their concern, are the true heart and soul of this odd little film. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Beyond Lars and the Real Girl

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Lars and the Real Girl Soundtrack!


Stills from Lars and the Real Girl

Blue Valentine is the story of love found and love lost told in past and present moments in time. Flooded with romantic memories of their courtship, Dean and Cindy use one night to try and save their failing marriage. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams star in this honest portrait of a relationship on the rocks.Love blooms and dies at the same time in the delicate dance between Oscar nominees Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson) and Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain). Gosling's Dean, a high-school dropout, works for a New York moving company. While relocating a frail widower into a retirement home, he spots Cindy, a nursing student who's visiting her grandmother, but the film actually begins six years later. Married with a daughter, they live in rural Pennsylvania. Heavy drinker Dean's looks are fading, while Cindy still turns heads. In his elegantly constructed second feature, writer-director Derek Cianfrance pirouettes between past and present, with ea! ch scene commenting on the next (set to the bittersweet tones ! of Brook lyn band Grizzly Bear). The Dean of the early years pursues Cindy, who resists at first, but a spontaneous date ends with her tap dancing (badly) and him singing (not so badly). She leaves her domineering boyfriend (Mike Vogel) for this attentive stranger, leading to scenes of intimacy that are far more suggestive than pornographic--even if the MPAA briefly rated the film NC-17. Later, when the family dog goes missing, the cracks in their marriage intensify, so Dean arranges for a night of romance, which plays out like a negative image of their first date. If the two actors, who are very good, are meant to carry equal weight, Gosling has the more difficult task. It's harder to like the clingy, insecure Dean, who loves more intensely and less wisely, but that makes Gosling's the braver performance. --Kathleen C. FennessyAcademy Award® winner Anthony Hopkins and Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling are brilliant in this "exceptionally suspenseful nail-biter" (Rex R! eed) that's so smart it "doesn't let go, even after the final twist" (Gene Shalit, "Today"). Ted Crawford (Hopkins) brutally murders his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy D.A., Willy Beachum (Gosling), believes a conviction is a slam dunk; that is until the case completely unravels. Now, with little evidence, Beachum goes head to head with the cunning Mr. Crawford in a desperate search for the truth and the answer to one burning question: How is this guy getting away with murder?Anthony Hopkins plays a brilliant, pathologically serene killer outwitting the good guys at every turn and taking a shine to a twentysomething law enforcer who can’t conceal a rural accent and rugged origins. Could it be...? No, not The Silence of the Lambs, but an original mystery, Fracture, which plays a little like Lambs as an episode of Columbo, minus Columbo. Which means the film tells us fro! m the get-go that Hopkins’ character, a wealthy engineer, sh! oots his philandering wife (Embeth Davidtz) and leaves her in a vegetative state. From there, it should be a simple matter for young, assistant District Attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) to nail Crawford, who provides a full confession and even eschews counsel. That’s good for Beachum, a slick winner with a vague background of deprivation, rapidly on his way out of public service after attracting the attention of a deep-pocket, private firm. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Crawford has masterminded more than vengeance against his wife, and that the state’s case against him is full of pre-arranged holes and a huge time-bomb that will send Beachum scrambling to keep the pieces together.

The story, conceived and co-scripted by Daniel Pyne (Doc Hollywood), goes down easily with a minimum of blood and violence, and should easily appeal to mystery buffs as well as old fans of Hopkins and new admirers of Oscar nominee Gosling (Half Nelson). The latter h! olds his own in multiple, two-character scenes with the masterful portrayer of Hannibal Lecter, pacing Beachum̢۪s reactions to Crawford̢۪s polite provocations so everything spills onto his youthful face: torn loyalties, confusion, gullibility. Director Gregory Hoblit (Hart̢۪s War), still best-known for decades of distinguished television work (NYPD Blue), brings the necessary intimacy to make the stars̢۪ chemistry work effectively. His noirish atmosphere is a little over the top, sometimes pushing the audience to a level of expectation that the film isn̢۪t really ready to deliver, but this, overall, is an enjoyable work. --Tom Keogh

Cemetery Junction Poster Movie UK (11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm)

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A 1970s-set comedy centered on three upstart professional men working at an insurance company. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/17/2010 Starring: Ricky Gervais Emily Watson Run time: 95 minutes Rating: RRicky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the BBC's Office, travel back to 1973 for this serio-comic coming-of-age story. Inspired by Gervais's Reading hometown, Cemetery Junction is the type of small-minded burg Freddie Taylor (Christian Cooke, likable and at! tractive) longs to escape. Fortunately, he receives a job offer from Mr. Kendrick (a smarmy Ralph Fiennes), leading to a gig selling life insurance. His best mates, the goofy Snork (Jack Doolan) and rebellious Bruce (Tom Hughes, the film's true star), can't imagine anything more dull, but Freddie, who wants to travel the world, sees it as his way out. Kendrick pairs Freddie with Mike (Matthew Goode, great value), who proves that the nice-guy approach loses sales (Emily Watson shines as Kendrick's browbeaten wife). While Freddie pines for the boss's daughter (and Mike's fiancée), Julie (Felicity Jones), Bruce works with Freddie's father, Len (Gervais), in a factory, and tangles with the law (refreshingly, the local sergeant has a sympathetic side). If things end as one might expect, that doesn't make Cemetery Junction any less enjoyable, but it does help to explain why it didn't receive a U.S. theatrical release. By focusing on a young Brit anxious to find his place ! in the world, the directors provide a companion piece to pictu! res like Starter for 10 and An Education. Familiar or not, it's still superior to most mainstream comedies… including a few with which Gervais has been involved. A soundtrack filled with energizing glam-rock classics further elevates their efforts. --Kathleen C. FennessyCEMETERY JUNCTION - Blu-Ray MovieRicky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, the duo behind the BBC's Office, travel back to 1973 for this serio-comic coming-of-age story. Inspired by Gervais's Reading hometown, Cemetery Junction is the type of small-minded burg Freddie Taylor (Christian Cooke, likable and attractive) longs to escape. Fortunately, he receives a job offer from Mr. Kendrick (a smarmy Ralph Fiennes), leading to a gig selling life insurance. His best mates, the goofy Snork (Jack Doolan) and rebellious Bruce (Tom Hughes, the film's true star), can't imagine anything more dull, but Freddie, who wants to travel the world, sees it as his way out. Kendrick pairs Freddie with Mike (Matthe! w Goode, great value), who proves that the nice-guy approach loses sales (Emily Watson shines as Kendrick's browbeaten wife). While Freddie pines for the boss's daughter (and Mike's fiancée), Julie (Felicity Jones), Bruce works with Freddie's father, Len (Gervais), in a factory, and tangles with the law (refreshingly, the local sergeant has a sympathetic side). If things end as one might expect, that doesn't make Cemetery Junction any less enjoyable, but it does help to explain why it didn't receive a U.S. theatrical release. By focusing on a young Brit anxious to find his place in the world, the directors provide a companion piece to pictures like Starter for 10 and An Education. Familiar or not, it's still superior to most mainstream comedies… including a few with which Gervais has been involved. A soundtrack filled with energizing glam-rock classics further elevates their efforts. --Kathleen C. FennessyThis is an EXACT reproduction of a boo! k published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strang! e charac ters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.Cemetery Junction Reproduction Poster Print UK Style A 11 x 17 Inches - 28cm x 44cm

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Transcend 8 GB SDHC Class 6 Flash Memory Card TS8GSDHC6E

  • Ships in Certified Frustration-Free Packaging
  • Storage Capacity - 8 GB
  • Technology - Secure Digital High-Capacity (SDHC)
  • Compatible with all SDHC-labeled host devices (not compatible with standard SD)
  • Manufacturer Warranty - 2 Years
Fully Compatible with SDA 2.0 specification. Suitable for SDHC compliant devices, MLC flash chip with High Speed transfer rate. Perfect for highend digital devices. Please make sure your device can support SDHC format before you purchase! SDHC host devices can use both SD and SDHC memory cards.Transcend and Amazon.com have teamed up to offer this item in Amazon Frustration-Free Packaging, a recyclable, easy-to-open alternative to traditional packaging. A Frustration-Free Package comes without excess packaging materials such as wire ties, hard plastic "clamshell" casings, and plastic b! indings. It̢۪s designed to be opened without the use of a box cutter or knife and will protect your product just as well as traditional packaging. This item ships in its own box, without the need for an additional shipping box, and Amazon.com is continuing to work with manufacturers to make the packaging even more streamlined.

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Down and Derby : Widescreen Edition

  • Widescreen
In this hysterical comedy that Movieguide calls, "fun, clean and exciting," a local Pinewood Derby competition transforms an average group of dads into overzealous rivals desperate to build the winning car. As egos swell, the kids are lucky if they get to pick the paint color. While the dads are busy with outlandish gimmicks and sabotage, the underestimated scouts pull together and discover the true meaning of sportsmanship!Ace Montana always wins first place in everything. Chaos reigns in this hilarious comedy when three obsessed dads take over builing their sons' pinewood derby cars with the sole purpose of beating Ace's clone-line son.
When most Americans hear the words Â"roller derby” today, they think of the kitschy sport once popular on weekend television during the seventies and eighties. Originally an endurance competition where skaters traveled the equivalent ! of a trip between Los Angeles and New York, derby gradually evolved into a violent contact sport often involving fake fighting. But after nearly dying out in the nineties, derby has been making a comeback. From a mere handful of leagues in the United States just a few years ago, there are now more than 17,000 skaters in more than 400 leagues around the world, with hundreds of thousands of die-hard fans. Down and Derby will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the sport. Written by veteran skaters as both a history and a how-to, Down and Derby is a brassy celebration of every aspect of the sport, from its origins in the late 1800s, to the rules of a modern bout, to the science of picking an alias, to the many ways you can get involved off skates.
Informative, entertaining, and executed with the same tough, sassy, DIY attitude — leavened with plenty of humor — that the sport is known for, Down and Derby is the first and last book on derb! y you’ll ever need.
DVD

DOGMA INCLUDES BONUS DIGITAL COPY

  • DVD
  • comedy
  • thrilling
  • fantasy
  • angels
When two banished angels find a loophole that will allow them back into heaven at the cost of humankind an unsuspecting mortal woman two prophets and the thirteenth apostle are the only ones who can stop them. Special features: subtitles in english spanish and french talent files and murch more. Studio: Ingram Entertainment Release Date: 07/26/2005 Starring: Ben Affleck Matt Damon Run time: 130 minutes Rating: R Director: Kevin SmithKevin Smith is a conundrum of a filmmaker: he's a writer with brilliant, clever ideas who can't set up a simple shot to save his life. It was fine back when Smith was making low-budget films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, both of which had an amiable, grungy feel to them, but now that he's a rising director who's attracting top talent and tackling bigger themes, it might behoove ! him to polish his filmmaking. That's the main problem with Dogma--it's an ambitious, funny, aggressively intelligent film about modern-day religion, but while Smith's writing has matured significantly (anyone who thinks he's not topnotch should take a look at Chasing Amy), his direction hasn't. It's too bad, because Dogma is ripe for near-classic status in its theological satire, which is hardly as blasphemous as the protests that greeted the movie would lead you to believe.

Two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) have discovered a loophole that would allow them back into heaven; problem is, they'd destroy civilization in the process by proving God fallible. It's up to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic, to save the day, with some help from two so-called prophets (Smith and Jason Mewes, as their perennial characters Jay and Silent Bob), the heretofore unknown 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and a sexy,! heavenly muse (the sublime Salma Hayek, who almost single-han! dedly st eals the film). In some ways Dogma is a shaggy dog of a road movie--which hits a comic peak when Affleck and Fiorentino banter drunkenly on a train to New Jersey, not realizing they're mortal enemies--and segues into a comedy-action flick as the vengeful angels (who have a taste for blood) try to make their way into heaven. Smith's cast is exceptional--with Fiorentino lending a sardonic gravity to the proceedings, and Jason Lee smirking evilly as the horned devil Azrael--and the film shuffles good-naturedly to its climax (featuring Alanis Morissette as a beatifically silent God), but it just looks so unrelentingly... subpar. Credit Smith with being a daring writer but a less-than-stellar director. --Mark EnglehartOne of the most talked-about movies of the year is also one of the funniest! In this hilarious comic fantasy from writer/director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) find a loophole t! hat would get them back into Heaven. The only snag? They'll be destroying existence in the process. In an effort to stop them, The overworked Voice of God (Alan Rickman)taps cynical mortal Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) to save the world by preventing the angels from reaching their unholy destination: New Jersey! Throw in two unlikely prophets named Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Kevin Smith), the quick-witted yet little-known thirteenth apostle (Chris Rock) and a sexy, former muse with a case of writer's block (Selma Hayek) and you've got an hysterical and thrilling race against time packed with an all-star cast.Kevin Smith is a conundrum of a filmmaker: he's a writer with brilliant, clever ideas who can't set up a simple shot to save his life. It was fine back when Smith was making low-budget films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, both of which had an amiable, grungy feel to them, but now that he's a rising director who's attracting top talent and tackling bigg! er themes, it might behoove him to polish his filmmaking. That! 's the m ain problem with Dogma--it's an ambitious, funny, aggressively intelligent film about modern-day religion, but while Smith's writing has matured significantly (anyone who thinks he's not topnotch should take a look at Chasing Amy), his direction hasn't. It's too bad, because Dogma is ripe for near-classic status in its theological satire, which is hardly as blasphemous as the protests that greeted the movie would lead you to believe.

Two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) have discovered a loophole that would allow them back into heaven; problem is, they'd destroy civilization in the process by proving God fallible. It's up to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic, to save the day, with some help from two so-called prophets (Smith and Jason Mewes, as their perennial characters Jay and Silent Bob), the heretofore unknown 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and a sexy, heavenly muse (the sublime Salma Hayek, wh! o almost single-handedly steals the film). In some ways Dogma is a shaggy dog of a road movie--which hits a comic peak when Affleck and Fiorentino banter drunkenly on a train to New Jersey, not realizing they're mortal enemies--and segues into a comedy-action flick as the vengeful angels (who have a taste for blood) try to make their way into heaven. Smith's cast is exceptional--with Fiorentino lending a sardonic gravity to the proceedings, and Jason Lee smirking evilly as the horned devil Azrael--and the film shuffles good-naturedly to its climax (featuring Alanis Morissette as a beatifically silent God), but it just looks so unrelentingly... subpar. Credit Smith with being a daring writer but a less-than-stellar director. --Mark EnglehartWHEN TWO BANISHED ANGELS FIND A LOOPHOLE THAT WILL ALLOW THEM BACK INTO HEAVEN AT THE COST OF HUMANKIND, AN UNSUSPECTINGMORTAL WOMAN, TWO PROPHETS AND THE THIRTEENTH APOSTLE ARE THE ONLY ONES WHO CAN STOP THEM. SPECI! AL FEATURES: SUBTITLES IN ENGLISH, SPANISH AND FRENCH, TALENT ! FILES AN D MURCH MORE.Kevin Smith is a conundrum of a filmmaker: he's a writer with brilliant, clever ideas who can't set up a simple shot to save his life. It was fine back when Smith was making low-budget films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, both of which had an amiable, grungy feel to them, but now that he's a rising director who's attracting top talent and tackling bigger themes, it might behoove him to polish his filmmaking. That's the main problem with Dogma--it's an ambitious, funny, aggressively intelligent film about modern-day religion, but while Smith's writing has matured significantly (anyone who thinks he's not topnotch should take a look at Chasing Amy), his direction hasn't. It's too bad, because Dogma is ripe for near-classic status in its theological satire, which is hardly as blasphemous as the protests that greeted the movie would lead you to believe.

Two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) have discovered a loophole ! that would allow them back into heaven; problem is, they'd destroy civilization in the process by proving God fallible. It's up to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic, to save the day, with some help from two so-called prophets (Smith and Jason Mewes, as their perennial characters Jay and Silent Bob), the heretofore unknown 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and a sexy, heavenly muse (the sublime Salma Hayek, who almost single-handedly steals the film). In some ways Dogma is a shaggy dog of a road movie--which hits a comic peak when Affleck and Fiorentino banter drunkenly on a train to New Jersey, not realizing they're mortal enemies--and segues into a comedy-action flick as the vengeful angels (who have a taste for blood) try to make their way into heaven. Smith's cast is exceptional--with Fiorentino lending a sardonic gravity to the proceedings, and Jason Lee smirking evilly as the horned devil Azrael--and the film shuffles good-na! turedly to its climax (featuring Alanis Morissette as a beatif! ically s ilent God), but it just looks so unrelentingly... subpar. Credit Smith with being a daring writer but a less-than-stellar director. --Mark EnglehartPacked with stars including Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING), Chris Rock (NURSE BETTY), Shannon Elizabeth (AMERICAN PIE), Jason Lee (ALMOST FAMOUS), and more, this wildly irreverent comedy is actor/director Kevin Smith's hilarious finale to the adventures of Jay and Silent Bob that began in CLERKS and ran through MALLRATS, CHASING AMY, and DOGMA! When best buddies Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) discover that a major motion picture is being based on their likenesses, they head for Hollywood to claim the big movie money they deserve. But when the dopey duo learn that they've been cut out of the cash, they set out to sabotage the flick at all costs! Featuring a host of celebrity cameos set to a hot hit soundtrack, Jay and Silent Bob's raucous cross country road trip is a crash course in the rules of the road ! with a nonstop assortment of outrageous characters that will have you laughing out loud!With sidesplitting dialogue and rampant profanity, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back reunites Kevin Smith's dynamic duo in supreme lowbrow style. It's the fifth comedy in Smith's celebrated New Jersey "trilogy." Here Quick-Stop potheads Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) wreak vengeance on Hollywood, where Miramax is making a "Bluntman & Chronic" feature inspired by J. and S.B., but without their permission. En route from Jersey to La La Land, Jay and his "hetero life mate" encounter sexy jewel thieves (including the delightful Shannon Elizabeth), a precocious orangutan, a dimwit wildlife marshal (Will Ferrell), and a nonstop parade of in-jokes, harmless (yet controversial) gay jokes, and splendid celebrity cameos. While gently biting the Miramax hand that feeds him, and paying affectionate homage to the Star Wars saga, Smith sheds all inhibitions to give Jay and Sile! nt Bob a stellar sendoff that's nasty, sassy, and undeniab! ly hilar ious. --Jeff ShannonKevin Smith is a conundrum of a filmmaker: he's a writer with brilliant, clever ideas who can't set up a simple shot to save his life. It was fine back when Smith was making low-budget films like Clerks and Chasing Amy, both of which had an amiable, grungy feel to them, but now that he's a rising director who's attracting top talent and tackling bigger themes, it might behoove him to polish his filmmaking. That's the main problem with Dogma--it's an ambitious, funny, aggressively intelligent film about modern-day religion, but while Smith's writing has matured significantly (anyone who thinks he's not topnotch should take a look at Chasing Amy), his direction hasn't. It's too bad, because Dogma is ripe for near-classic status in its theological satire, which is hardly as blasphemous as the protests that greeted the movie would lead you to believe.

Two banished angels (Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) have discover! ed a loophole that would allow them back into heaven; problem is, they'd destroy civilization in the process by proving God fallible. It's up to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), a lapsed Catholic who works in an abortion clinic, to save the day, with some help from two so-called prophets (Smith and Jason Mewes, as their perennial characters Jay and Silent Bob), the heretofore unknown 13th apostle (Chris Rock), and a sexy, heavenly muse (the sublime Salma Hayek, who almost single-handedly steals the film). In some ways Dogma is a shaggy dog of a road movie--which hits a comic peak when Affleck and Fiorentino banter drunkenly on a train to New Jersey, not realizing they're mortal enemies--and segues into a comedy-action flick as the vengeful angels (who have a taste for blood) try to make their way into heaven. Smith's cast is exceptional--with Fiorentino lending a sardonic gravity to the proceedings, and Jason Lee smirking evilly as the horned devil Azrael--and the film sh! uffles good-naturedly to its climax (featuring Alanis Morisset! te as a beatifically silent God), but it just looks so unrelentingly... subpar. Credit Smith with being a daring writer but a less-than-stellar director. --Mark EnglehartImaginative theology and a bigger-than-usual budget make Kevin Smith's (CHASING AMY, CLERKS) fourth film a kind of post-Catholic fantasy that only a comic-book enthusiast of his caliber could dream up. It concerns banished angels, Loki (Matt Damon) and Bartleby (Ben Affleck) who, after a few millennia in Wisconsin, discover a loophole in Catholic doctrine that would allow them back into heaven--but prove the fallibility of God and destroy the universe. As they make their way to New Jersey to receive a plenary indulgence, God dispatches a seraphim (Alan Rickman) to recruit lapsed-Catholic Bethany (Linda Fiorentino) to stop the angels. She finds help in muses, prophets (Jay and Silent Bob), and the forgotten 13th apostle, Rufus (Chris Rock). Before long, all hell breaks loose (literally), and God (Alani! s Morrisette) has to put in an appearance of her own. Smith's controversial (and very funny) film is powered by his trademark dialogue, ripe with observations on pop culture, religion, and bodily functions Included bonus digital copy for your PC & PSP must be redeemed by 06/17/09

The Dukes of Hazzard: The Complete First Season

  • Actors: Tom Wopat, John Schneider, Catherine Bach, Denver Pyle, James Best.
  • Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC.
  • Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono). Subtitles: English, Spanish, French.
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
  • Not Rated. Run Time: 637 minutes.
Join Luke and Bo Duke--a couple of good old boys--and their cousin Daisy Duke as they stay just ahead of the sheriff in their souped-up 1969 Dodge Charger, The General Lee, and have fun thwarting the plots of the corrupt county boss.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by John Schneider and Catherine Bach {episode: One Armed Bandits}
Documentary:The 20th Anniversary Hazzard County Barbeque {reunion documentary RT 30:00}
Featurette:Dukes Driving 101: A High Octane Salute {featurette including interviews w/ professional race car drive! rs RT 8:00}
Other:The Dukes of Hazzard : The Return of the General Lee video game trailer

The Dukes of Hazzard was part of America's redneck fetish in the mid-to-late 1970s, otherwise evident in popular songs, movies, and television shows highlighting fast cars, truckers, citizens' band radio, moonshine, irreverent hicks, and clueless lawmen. Created by writer-producer Gy Waldron and inspired by his own 1975 bootlegging comedy, Moonrunners, Dukes milked seven seasons of material from the tale of a Deep South family of reformed whiskey-makers and their running feud with a greedy impresario and his chief lackey, a buffoonish, venal sheriff.

This three-disc set includes all 13 initial episodes of Dukes from 1979, a period fans fondly recall because some of the programs were shot on location in Covington, Georgia, rather than a Burbank backlot. Also noteworthy is that a couple of key characters, particularly Hazzard County's co! rrupt lawman, Roscoe P. Coltrane (James Best), hadn't gelled y! et into permanent hayseed stereotypes and were arguably more interesting at the beginning. At the center of the action is Sheriff Coltrane's nemeses, cousins Bo Duke (John Schneider) and Luke Duke (Tom Wopat), a couple of wild boys buzzing through the backwoods in the "General Lee," a souped-up Dodge Charger. Bo and Luke are good at heart but have to behave themselves while on indefinite probation, complicating but not halting their efforts to vex Roscoe and his patron, diminutive bigwig Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). The enmity runs both ways: Roscoe and Boss Hogg, with the aid of witless Deputy Enos Strate (Sonny Shroyer), dream up ways of eliminating the Dukes--including their wise old Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle)--but their efforts always backfire.

While every episode is a variation on the previous one, predictability is a virtue in Dukes. The series pilot, "One Armed Bandits," finds Luke and Bo, with help from their sexy cousin, Daisy (Catherine Bach), diverting slot machi! nes (smuggled into Hazzard County by Roscoe and Boss Hogg) to sundry watering holes where they can raise money for Bo's girlfriend's charity. In "Money to Burn," Boss Hogg tries to frame Bo and Luke for robbing an armored truck, while in "Deputy Dukes," the unarmed guys are forced by Roscoe to escort a deadly prisoner from one town to another. The Dukes hit back in "Daisy's Song," investigating a scam that took Daisy for $50 and implicates, of course, Boss Hogg and Roscoe.

Yes, it's a show about rubes, car stunts, and a legacy of moonshine, but there's something comforting about it, in a tongue-in-cheek way. --Tom Keogh

Philosophy Amazing Grace Spray Fragrance, 4-Fluid Ounce

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From the makers of Ray, AMAZING GRACE tells the inspiring story of William Wilberforce and his passion and perseverance to pass a law ending the slave trade in the late 18th century. Several friends, including Wilberforce's minister, a reformed slave ship captain who penned the beloved hymn Amazing Grace, urge him to see the cause through.In this inspirational costume drama, Michael Apted (49 Up) recounts a period in British history sure to be unfamiliar to most Americans. In fact, his eye-opening biography of 18th century abolitionist William Wilberforce (Ioan Gruffudd) is likely to come as a revelation to many Britons, as well. After all, despite the presence of his wife, Barbara (Romola Garai), this isn't a particularl! y "sexy" story, but it is a powerful one. The title comes from John Newton's hymn "Amazing Grace" ("I once was lost but now am found"). Newton (Albert Finney) was a former slaveholder, who became a clergyman and spent his days repenting. While America had John Brown, England had Wilberforce, and Newton is one of many who helped the MP to abolish slavery in the UK. The story begins towards the end of Wilberforce's mission when he's sick with colitis and addicted to laudanum. Apted continues to alternate between 1797 and 1789, when Wilberforce was fitter and more idealistic, and ends in 1807 as his efforts come to fruition. Apted and writer Steven Knight (Dirty Pretty Things) do right by their hero. Unlike Amistad, however, slaves are largely off-screen, with the exception of author Equiano (Senegalese vocalist Youssou N'Dour). Amazing Grace reserves its focus for the politicians who risked their reps for the greater good, like Wilberforce and Prim! e Minister Pitt (an excellent Benedict Cumberbatch), and those! more co ncerned with the income slavery provided their constituents, like Lord Tarleton (Ciarán Hinds) and the Duke of Clarence (Toby Jones). --Kathleen C. FennessyGrace loves stories, whether they're from books, movies, or the kind her grandmother tells. So when she gets a chance to play a part in Peter Pan, she knows exactly who she wants to be. Remarkable watercolor illustrations give full expression to Grace's high-flying imagination.DVD Movie, Widescreen, Color, 118 minutes. Subtitles available on disc in English, Spanish, or FrenchEmbrace your beauty, and express your femininity with amazing grace spray fragrance. Our best-selling, amazingly clean, beautifully feminine scent.

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