Vicente Ferraz
Documentary
Três Mundos Produções

Mikhail Kalatozov
Art House & International
New Yorker Video/Milestone Cinematheque
NR
DVD Details: USSR/Cuba, 1964, 141 minutes, Color, Region 0, NTSC, Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, Optional English subtitles, In Spanish and Russian; Special Features of this 3-disc deluxe box set: DISC 1: New high-definition transfer of the feature film from original Russian 35mm fine grain interpositive; video interview with Academy Award®-winning director Martin Scorsese; language tracks in both Spanish and Russian with new English subtitles; Cuban version of opening credits; original Milestone trailer; stills gallery; DISC 2: THE SIBERIAN MAMMOTH, Vicente Ferraz's award-winning documentary on the making of I AM CUBA (2005. 91 mins. Color/B&W. Portuguese, Spanish & Russian with English subtitles.); City Cinematheque's Jerry Carlson interviews screenwriter Yevgeny Yevtushenko (2004. 10 minutes. Color. English); DISC 3: A FILM ABOUT MIKHAIL KALATOZOV, a comprehensive documentary on this giant of Russian cinema (2006. 120 mins. Color/B&W. English & Russian with English subtitles); PLUS scene selections; I AM CUBA: THE TRUE STORY, a booklet on the making of the film and its history since then.

A fever dream, a plunging rollercoaster ride, a cinematographer's hallucination, a love song to the power of cinema. Welcome to I AM CUBA, the film rediscovery that has changed filmmaking forever in a new deluxe edition! Director Mikhail Kalatozov (THE CRANES ARE FLYING) and cinematographer Sergei Urusevsky's hybrid offspring of Soviet orthodoxy and Cuban tropicalismo is a film of dazzling contrasts. In four intertwining stories of the revolution, Urusevsky's acrobatic camera takes the viewer on a dizzying ride through smoky nightclubs and rooftop pool parties, rickety shantytowns and rustling sugarcane fields, student protest rallies and remote guerilla outposts. I AM CUBA culminates in the most gorgeously filmed funeral procession of all time, as the camera floats through a cigar factory and hovers high above the narrow streets of Havana. A whirling dance through the sensuous decadence of Batista's Cuba, I AM CUBA: THE ULTIMATE EDITION is a cinephile's dream come true.

Vilgot Sjöman
Drama
Sandrews

The same movie with the same characters, cast and crew as I am Curious (Yellow), but with some different scenes and a different political slant. The political focus in Blue is personal relationships, religion, prisons and sex. Blue omits much of the class consciousness and non-violence interviews of the first version. Yellow and Blue are the colors of the Swedish flag.

Vilgot Sjöman
Drama
Sandrews

Lena, aged twenty, wants to know all she can about life and reality. She collects information on everyone and everything, storing her findings in an enormous archive. She experiments with relationships, political activism, and meditation. Meanwhile, the actors, director and crew are shown in a humorous parallel plot about the making of the film and their reactions to the story and each other. Nudity, explicit sex, and controversial politics kept this film from being shown in the US while its seizure by Customs was appealed.

Francis Lawrence
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
Robert Neville is a scientist who was unable to stop the spread of the terrible virus that was incurable and man-made. Immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and perhaps the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague -- The Infected -- lurk in the shadows... watching Neville's every move... waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind's last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered... and quickly running out of time.

Jessie Nelson
Drama
New Line Cinema
PG-13
Sam Dawson has the mental capacity of a 7-year-old. He works at a Starbucks and is obsessed with the Beatles. He has a daughter with a homeless woman; she abandons them as soon as they leave the hospital. He names his daughter Lucy Diamond (after the Beatles song), and raises her. But as she reaches age 7 herself, Sam's limitations start to become a problem at school; she's intentionally holding back to avoid looking smarter than him. The authorities take her away, and Sam shames high-priced lawyer Rita Harrison into taking his case pro bono. In the process, he teaches her a great deal about love, and whether it's really all you need.

Sam Jones
Documentary
Bona Fide Productions

First time director Sam Jones documents the making of Wilco's fourth studio Album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Named after the Wilco song that is featured on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, an album that strays from the Alt-country that made them famous. Jones' desire was to document the creative work of YHF's production, he seems to have found a bit more, including band members departing and a conflict with Reprise record company. This is a true documentry of art versus money-driven media conglomerates.

Alfred Hitchcock
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures

Otto Kellar and his wife Alma work as caretaker and housekeeper at a Catholic church in Quebec. Whilst robbing a house where he sometimes works as a gardener, Otto is caught and kills the owner. Racked with guilt he heads back to the church where Father Michael Logan is working late. Otto confesses his crime, but when the police begin to suspect Father Logan he cannot reveal what he has been told in the confession.

Amy Heckerling
Comedy
I Could Never Ltd.
PG-13
I COULD NEVER BE YOUR WOMAN is a romantic comedy about Rosie, a mother who falls for Adam, a younger man, and her daughter Izzie who falls in love for the first time. An acerbic Mother Nature meddles in their fates.

Ermanno Olmi
Drama
Sicilia Cinematografica

Various
Music Video & Concerts
Shout Factory
NR
I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s is the definitive look at JB's on-stage prowess, including an acclaimed documentary, two previously unreleased concerts, and more. With full-length versions of many classics, including"I Feel Good," "Out Of Sight," "Cold Sweat," "Try Me," "I Got The Feelin'," "It's A Man's Man's Man's World," "Bewildered," and "Please, Please, Please," I Got the Feelin': James Brown in the '60s is an essential part of any music lover's collection.
DISC 1: THE NIGHT JAMES BROWN SAVED BOSTON
Features the director's cut of the acclaimed VH1 film The Night James Brown Saved Boston, which tells the story of a 1968 concert that not only averted riots in Boston in the aftermath of MLK's assassination, but also set James Brown on a revolutionary new path. Includes additional interviews with members of James Brown's band, friends and colleagues, plus a panel discussion from the film's premiere in Boston.
DISC 2: LIVE AT THE BOSTON GARDEN
Features the historic 1968 Boston Garden concert as originally broadcast by WGBH. Contains additional audio from the radio simulcast of the concert.
DISC 3: LIVE AT THE APOLLO '68
Features Man to Man: James Brown Live at The Apollo Theater 1968, a TV special taped the week before the Boston show and unseen for 40 years! Plus bonus performances from 1967 and 1968 shows at L'Olympia in Paris, AND the legendary version of "Out of Sight" from The T.A.M.I. Show (1964).

David O. Russell
Comedy
Fox Searchlight Pictures
R
Determined to solve the coincidence of seeing the same conspicuous stranger three times in a day, Albert hires a pair of existentialist detectives, who insist on spying on his everyday life while sharing their views on life and the nature of the universe.

Roland Suso Richter
Mystery
MDP Worldwide
R
A man (Phillipe) awakens in a hospital not recalling the last two years as he begins to find out things from his past he discovers his ability to move from the year 2002 to the year 2000. By doing this he meets a link between the two time periods (Lang).

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Drama
Archers, The

Joan Webster is an ambitious and stubborn middle-class English woman determined to move forward since her childhood. She meets her father in a fancy restaurant to tell him that she will marry the wealthy middle-aged industrial Robert Bellinger in Kiloran island, in Hebricles, Scotland. She travels from Manchester to the island of Mull, where she stays trapped due to the windy weather. While in the island, she meets Torquil McNeil and along the days they fall in love for each other.

Chris Sivertson
Crime
360 Pictures
R
Aubrey Fleming is a regular high school student with friends and family. One night, she unexpectedly disappears. Two weeks later she is found unconscious in the middle of the woods. When spoken to, her loved ones realize she has forgotten her identity and the personality living in her body is Dakota Moss, a character that Aubrey created in one of her stories for an English assignment. Dakota denies ever being Aubrey knowing that they look identical. Now, Dakota must try to unravel the mystery of how her and Aubrey co-exist and find out who abducted Aubrey that night.

William Asher
Comedy
CBS Television

Cuban Bandleader Ricky Ricardo would be happy if his wife Lucy would just be a housewife. Instead she tries constantly to perform at the Tropicana where he works, and make life comically frantic in the apartment building they share with landlords Fred and Ethel Mertz. The first major show to be put on film rather than kinescope.

Marc Daniels, Ralph Levy, William Asher
Comedy
Paramount
NR
Here's how it all began-the classic episodes that started America's long-running love affair with everyone's favorite madcap redhead Lucille Ball. Plus the rarely seen pilot episode that sold the I Love Lucy series. By the end of its initial season I Love Lucy was TV's first bona fide smash-hit-the very first program seen in more than 10 million homes. America just couldn't get enough of this stunning new comedy talent-Lucy as a less-than-poised would-be ballerina in "The Ballet" Lucy battling the world's longest loaf of bread in "Pioneer Women" and Lucy in her greatest performance as the health tonic-guzzling TV pitchwoman for "Vitameatavegamin" in "Lucy Does a TV Commercial." ("And it's so tasty too!") Fall in love all over again with the wild and wacky series that changed TV forever!DVD Special Features:Full Screen FormatDolby Digital: English Mono Spanish MonoSpanish Subtitles7-disc setIncludes 36 episodes from Season OneOriginal Series OpeningsLost ScenesProduction NotesDeleted FootageGuest Cast InformationBehind-The-Scenes Audio FeaturettePhoto GalleriesScript ExcerptsRestored MusicSystem Requirements:Starring: Desi Arnaz Lucille Ball William Frawley Vivian Vance Running Time: 907 Min. Copyright Paramount Pictures 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 097360274547 Manufacturer No: 027454

Marc Daniels, William Asher
Comedy
Paramount
NR
Season 2 of "I Love Lucy" includes two of the most famous half-hours in television history. "Job Switching," originally broadcast mid-September of 1952, is the crazy, battle-of-the-sexes episode in which husbands Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) and Fred Mertz (William Frawley) trade roles with wives Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), culminating in the men making a shambles of domestic chores while Lucy and Ethel take disastrous work at a chocolate factory. That's right: This is the show where the ladies have a Chaplinesque experience with a too-fast factory conveyor belt, forcing them to hide candies in their mouths, in their hats, and down their blouses lest a tough forewoman fire them for incompetence. A half-century later, the scene is still so fresh and funny it would grace any current sitcom. "Lucy Goes to the Hospital," which received an amazing 71.7 rating on January 19, 1953, is the historic episode featuring the birth of Little Ricky and a load of wonderful slapstick. Other television series ("The Dick Van Dyke Show") and movies ("Nine Months") have tried to top "Lucy"'s time-to-go-to-the-hospital shenanigans, but there's nothing like the sight of Ricky and Fred falling all over themselves or Ricky showing up at the maternity ward (direct from a voodoo-themed show at the Tropicana) in witch doctor makeup.
The other 31 episodes included in "I Love Lucy: The Compete Second Season" have choice moments, too. "Lucy Becomes a Sculptress" finds the ever-ambitious redhead falling for empty flattery at an art-supply store and commencing an ill-advised career working in clay. Ricky agrees to bless this new endeavor if an art critic says she has talent, but Lucy tries to increase her chances by posing as a bust of herself--resulting in mayhem, of course. The usual running themes in "I Love Lucy"--Lucy's misguided desire to be a part of Ricky's musical career, and her penchant for disguising herself to investigate something--are all over "The Complete Second Season". "Ricky Loses His Voice" is a delightful piece in which Ricky's laryngitis inspires Lucy, the Mertzes, and an aging chorus line to put on a Tropicana spectacle, and "Ricky Has Labor Pains" finds Lucy and Ethel going undercover as male reporters to find out what happens at a stag party. Lots to enjoy here, and the special features include bloopers, information about the guest cast, and snippets from Ball's radio show. "--Tom Keogh"

William Asher
Comedy
Paramount
NR
I LOVE LUCY: THE COMPLETE THIRD SEASON continues to follow the wild and wacky comical adventures of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo and their infamous neighbors Fred and Ethel as they embark on even more madness in season three. Episodes include such classics as: "Friendship," "Aunt Martha's Old-Fashioned Salad Dressing" and "Cousin Ernie."

William Asher
Comedy
Paramount
NR
I LOVE LUCY: THE COMPLETE FOURTH SEASON continues to follow the wild and wacky comical adventures of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo and their infamous neighbors Fred and Ethel as they embark on even more madness in season four. Episodes include such classics as: "Ricky's Movie Offer," "Mr. & Mrs. TV Show" and "Lucy Gets in Pictures."

James V. Kern
Comedy
Paramount
NR
"I Love Lucy: The Complete Fifth Season" finds Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) making an international mess out of husband Ricky's globe-trotting tour as an entertainer. Beginning with "Lucy Visits Grauman's" and "Lucy and John Wayne," the impulsive redhead risks Ricky's sanity in Hollywood by stealing a cement slab, from the famous entrance to Grauman's Chinese Theater, that contains the imprint of John Wayne's footprints and signature. In the tradition of superstars playing themselves on "I Love Lucy", an exasperated (and very funny) Wayne gets into the act over and over and over again, making new imprints on multiple slabs because Lucy keeps messing up the results. After more shenanigans in Los Angeles (Lucy attends a ritzy party with a dummy substituting for her unavailable husband) and a disastrous train ride home, it's time to jeopardize Ricky's success during an interview show that ends disastrously.
"Lucy"'s fifth season travel theme continues when Ricky and his band are booked on a European tour that does not include his wife or the Mertzes. Of course, that doesn't stop the determined Lucy (or Ethel), who schemes her way into Ricky's plans, only to have a number of snafus arise as she tries to leave the country. In the "I Love Lucy" tradition, entire episodes are written around such simple matters as trying to get a passport, or helping with Fred's fear of getting seasick while traveling. All this show's stars really need is a ridiculous, open-ended situation to exploit, and the comedy flows from there. "Bon Voyage" is a particularly funny episode in which Lucy gets left behind by the European-bound ship carrying Ricky and the others, and she has to find a way to get back aboard. The hilarious "Lucy and the Queen" finds her angling in London for a way to meet the Royal Family after Ricky is invited to say hello at the Palladium. From there, Lucy creates chaos in Scotland (this episode includes a memorable dream sequence in which Ricky appears as Scotty MacTavish MacDougal MacCardo), Paris (where she and Ethel plot to meet guest star and good sport Charles Boyer at an outdoor café), Rome (the outstanding "Lucy's Italian Movie" finds her dispatched to a vineyard, where she has to crush grapes--brilliantly--with her feet). Lots of special features, including a behind-the-scenes peek and bloopers. "--Tom Keogh"

James V. Kern, William Asher
Television
Paramount
NR
The sixth and final season of "I Love Lucy" finds new laughs in some old formulas while also expanding the hugely popular show’s horizons with a change of scene. Things get off to a familiar start when Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) gets in the middle of husband Ricky’s business--in this case, disguising herself as a hot dog salesman at Yankee Stadium in order to get near Bob Hope. Hope, she believes, has ignored Ricky’s offer to be the first act at his new nightclub. But, in fact, Hope had already agreed; Ricky was just sitting on the information to keep Lucy from getting typically ditzy in front of one of his celebrity pals. Not surprisingly, mayhem follows when poor Hope finds his hand slathered with condiments and his noggin bonked by a foul ball. Other celebrity sightings include Orson Welles, who copes with Lucy’s aspirations as a Shakespearean actress, and George Reeves, television’s Superman, who shows up unexpectedly, in costume, at Little Ricky’s birthday party. Meanwhile, Lucy--who didn’t want to disappoint the tyke--stands in a makeshift Man of Steel outfit on a window ledge, in the rain.
A number of episodes concern Little Ricky (Keith Thibodeaux) now that he’s old enough to be a functioning character on the show. In "Little Ricky Learns to Play the Drums," the lad takes after his musician father and starts playing percussion, leading to some frayed nerves. A couple of episodes later, young Ricardo gets a bad case of stage fright at school, and Lucy suggests Ricky let him play the drums at the nightclub. (But then, of course, she has to figure out how to talk her son into performing.) A big change comes to "I Love Lucy" in the season’s second half, when the Ricardos decide it’s time to become homeowners and pull up stakes at their old Manhattan apartment. Moving to a nice, new house in Connecticut, they’re soon joined by Fred (William Frawley) and Ethel (Vivian Vance), and the season’s storylines take on a distinctly suburban flavor, with country clubs, barbecues, and gardens figuring into the comedy. With those developments, "I Love Lucy" came to a close after making television history as a much-beloved sitcom. Lots of special features, including multiple audio commentaries, flubs, lost scenes, and five episodes of "My Favorite Husband", Ball’s radio show. "--Tom Keogh"

Various
Television
Paramount
NR
From Lucy-tormented Hollywood A-listers and bongo-propelled production numbers to archival goodies such as long-lost footage, there is much to love in this collection of all 13 episodes from "The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show" (also known as "The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour"). Following "I Love Lucy's" sixth and final season, these monthly (give or take) specials reunited America with Ricky and Lucy (and Keith Thibodeaux's adorable Little Ricky, still living the country life in Connecticut. The expanded, hour-long format allowed for celebrity guest stars and excursions to far-flung locales, such as Japan and Mexico. Not matter where they go, Lucy can always be counted on to act, in Desi's words, "a little crazy in the head," which is how she winds up masquerading as Ernie Kovacs' chauffeur in "Lucy Meets the Moustache" (an episode making its home-video debut), dangling Milton Berle from a construction crane in "Milton Berle Hides Out at the Ricardos," or sparking a uranium uproar in Las Vegas in "Lucy Hunts Uranium."
A highlight of this set is the first-ever home video release of the uncut version of "Lucy Takes a Cruise to Havana," a flashback episode in which Lucy meets Ricky on a "maiden voyage" to Cuba. She also meets future best friend Ethel (Vivian Vance) and her new husband Fred (a toupeed William Frawley), and goes overboard for her first celebrity sighting, Rudy Vallee. Because these episodes do not play as often in syndication, they seem fresher than their endlessly re-run counterparts. They are full of delights for movie, TV, and "Lucy" buffs, among them, Fred MacMurray getting "Uranium" fever, Maurice Chevalier singing "Yankee Doodle Boy" in the "Mexico" episode, prolific character actor Sid Melton as a bellboy in the "Alaska" episode, and a va-voom Vance decked out as maid and a dance hall girl, respectively, in the "The Celebrity Next Door" and "Milton Berle" episodes. Among this set's prodigious bonus features include 1951 color footage that an audience member surreptitiously filmed, rediscovered scenes that were cut from the original broadcasts, and a filmed presentation to Westinghouse, which sponsored the series. If you don't add this to your library, you have some 'splainin' to do. "--Donald Liebenson"

Charles Shyer
Action
Caravan Pictures
PG
She's green and eager. He's seasoned and jaded. They're reporters for rival Chicago newspapers assigned to cover the same story. He offers tips and advice; she scoops him. Then, their snappy patter, repartee, and ripostes get romantic even as their competitive juices overflow. Will corrupt scientists at a chemical company whose goats give cancer-causing milk kill the cub and the columnist, or will they escape with their lives and their by-lines to hear wedding bells?

Lawrence Kasdan
Comedy
Chestnut Hill Productions
R
Joey works with Rosalie in their pizza parlor. She is convinced that he works all of the time for them and her world dissolves when she finds that he has been fooling around for years. Being Catholic, divorce is out of the question, so she and her mother and her best friend decide to kill him. Hopelessly incompetent as killers, they hire incompetent professionals as they beat, poison, and shoot Joey who remains oblivious to their attempts.

John Hamburg
Comedy
DreamWorks
R
Stills from I Love You, Man (Click for larger image)

Samuel Fuller
Drama
Lippert Pictures

While the law hunts him, Jesse James lives quietly in a rented house on the corner of Lafayette and Twenty-first street in St. Joseph, Missouri, under the alias of Tom Howard. His wife Zee begs him to end his association with the Ford brothers. Before they can leave on a "last" bank holdup, Bob learns that his childhood sweetheart, Cynthy Waters, now an actress, is in St. Joe and he brushes aside all caution to see her. Cynthy is beginning to realize that she is a liability to her manager, Harry Kane, because she will not leave Missouri. Meanwhile, John Kelley has come into her life. She pleads with Bob to turn honest. Cynthy tries to get a pardon for Bob, but the best offer she can get is for a 20-year stretch in prison. Then, the Governor offers amnesty and a $10,000 reward to any member of the James gang betraying Jesse. When his chance comes (April 3, 1882)Bob shoots Jesse in the back. He gets the amnesty but the reward is cut to $500. He also loses the love and respect of Cynthy, but he blames John Kelley. Bob, needing money, joins Kane's show in an act showing how he killed Jesse James, but the act is a miserable flop. Bob goes to crowded Creede, Colorado, scene of a silver boom.There, he has to share a room with another prospector, who turns out to be Kelley. The next morning, Kelley and a diamond ring that Bob had bought for Cynthy are both gone. While hunting for Kelley, Bob meets an aged prospector, Soapy, who takes him in as a partner. They strike it rich and Bob sends for Cynthy, who arrives accompanied by her maid and Kane, and Bob meets the arriving party. Kelley also shows up, dragging a hotel clerk who admits to stealing the ring. Kelley is surprised to find Cynthy with Bob and thinks they are married. He is relieved to learn the truth and soon accepts the job of Creede's town Marshal. Cynthy admits to Kelley that she does not love Bob, but she feels responsible for his having killed Jesse. Frank James comes to her hotel suite demanding that Cynthy tell him where Bob is. Kelley disarms him and locks him in jail. Days later, Bob and Soapy and others are celebrating in the hotel bar, awaiting news of the verdict on Frank James. The news of his acquittal and Frank himself arrive simultaneously, and Frank, who holds the upper hand informs Bob of Kelley's and Cynthy's relationship, knowing its effect on Bob would be worse than death.

Betty Thomas
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
When the Switchblade, the most sophisticated prototype stealth fighter created yet, is stolen from the U.S. government, one of the United States' top spies, Alex Scott (Owen Wilson), is called to action. What he doesn't expect is to get teamed up with a cocky civilian, World Class Boxing Champion Kelly Robinson (Eddie Murphy), on a dangerous top secret espionage mission. Their assignment: using equal parts skill and humor, catch Arnold Gundars, one of the world's most successful illegal arms dealers, and foil his treacherous plans for the plane.

Jerry London
Action & Adventure
Prism Leisure
Parental Guidance

Various
Action & Adventure
IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
NR
Robert Culp and Bill Cosby star as international espionage agents Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott on highly dangerous missions in this ever-popular award-winning series. Culp poses as a world-class playboy/tennis player and Cosby goes undercover as his trainer. Together they travel the world trading quips and fighting high-level crime with cool bravado and extraordinary savoir-faire. Combining humor with action/intrigue "I Spy" was the first adventure TV series to be shot in exotic international locales establishing a new standard for television dramas.System Requirements:LENGTH: 1429 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 014381395228 Manufacturer No: ID3952PQDVD

John Rich, Robert Culp, Tom Gries, Ralph Senensky, Arthur Marks
Action & Adventure
Image Entertainment
NR
Robert Culp and Bill Cosby star as international espionage agents Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott on highly dangerous missions in this ever-popular award-winning series. Culp poses as a world-class playboy/tennis player and Cosby goes undercover as his trainer. Together they travel the world trading quips and fighting high-level crime with cool bravado and extraordinary savoir-faire. Combining humor with action/intrigue "I Spy" was the first adventure TV series to be shot in exotic international locales establishing a new standard for television dramas.System Requirements:LENGTH: 1428 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 014381395327 Manufacturer No: ID3953PQDVD

John Rich, Robert Culp, Tom Gries, Ralph Senensky, Arthur Marks
Action & Adventure
Image Entertainment
NR
Robert Culp and Bill Cosby star as international espionage agents Kelly Robinson and Alexander Scott on highly dangerous missions in this ever-popular award-winning series. Culp poses as a world-class playboy/tennis player and Cosby goes undercover as his trainer. Together they travel the world trading quips and fighting high-level crime with cool bravado and extraordinary savoir-faire. Combining humor with action/intrigue "I Spy" was the first adventure TV series to be shot in exotic international locales establishing a new standard for television dramas.System Requirements:LENGTH: 1332 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 014381395426 Manufacturer No: IS3954PQDVD

Various
Adventure
3F Productions

A pair of American agents face espionage adventures with skill, humor and some serious questions about their work. Robinson's cover is as a former Princeton law student and Davis Cup tennis player; Rhodes scholar Scott is his trainer as well as being a language expert.

Gaspar Noé
Drama
Canal+

The Butcher (known from Noe's short film Carne) has done some time in jail after beating up the guy who tried to seduce his teenage mentally-handicapped daughter. Now he wants to start a new life. He leaves his daughter in an institution and moves to Lille suburbs with his mistress. She promised him a new butcher shop. She lied. The butcher decides to go back to Paris and find his daughter.

Chris Rock
Comedy
Fox Searchlight Pictures
R
Brenda wears comfortable, cotton panties; Nikki wears shear, lacy thongs. Richard Cooper is in the middle, with a good job in Manhattan, a house in the suburbs, and two cute children with Brenda, his intelligent, good-looking wife, who's a teacher. But there's no sex in this seven-year marriage, so Richard's bored. Into the mix walks Nikki, a sexy, sassy, single friend he's not seen in years. Nikki has problems and finds a reason to stop at his office every day. He tries to help, they have some fun, and he doesn't mention Nikki to Brenda. His work and reputation suffer. Is he about to scratch the seven year itch? What choices does Richard have?

Robert Zemeckis
Comedy
Universal Pictures
PG
If they missed Beatles' first appearance in the U.S.A. they would hate themselves for the rest of their lives! So they (six young girls from New Jersey) set off even though they don't have tickets for the show! The journey is full of surprises and misfortunes but the young ladies are determined to reach to their idols...

Various
Animation
MTV Networks

A compilation of MTV's promos and station identifications including Denis Leary as the smoker, Toby Huss as the Frank Sinatra impersonator, Randee of the Redwoods' and Jimmy the Cab Driver. Also on the tape is the original MTV short film Joe's Apartment that lead to the feature length movie.

Jeff Garlin
Comedy
3 Art Entertainment

Life has its downs for James, living with his mom in Chicago at 39, an aging performer at Second City, eating and weighing too much. A woman he's been dating drops him, as does his agent, her brother. James turns down roles in local TV, roles that make him sad. Someone's remaking his favorite movie, "Marty," a role he'd love, but he doesn't even get an audition. He has a minor meltdown when talking at a grade school career day. Things look up when he meets the quirky Beth at an ice cream shop. Can James make a career for himself, move out from mom's, and find someone to eat cheese with? Or is he destined to watch Jackie Gleason and be Marty for the rest of his life?

Howard Hawks
Comedy
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Captain Henri Rochard is a French officer assigned to work with Lieut. Catherine Gates. Through a wacky series of misadventures, they fall in love and marry. When the war ends, Capt. Rochard tries to return to America with the other female war brides. Zany gender-confusing antics follow.

Norman Panama
Comedy
Brut Productions

Federico Fellini
Drama
Peg-Film, Roma

Fausto Moretti, having seduced Sandra Rubini, the sister of his friend and companion Moraldo Rubini, is forced to marry her. After their honeymoon, he takes a job as a salesman of religious objects in a small shot. He isn't changed by his marriage and still looks for women, with his friends, when and where they can find them. He even tries to seduce the wife of his boss and is fired. After each episode, Sandra forgives him. He and his friends of similar temperament are content to be idle, chase girls and leave the work and job-hunting to others. After spending the night away from home with a girl, Sandra cannot forgive anymore and runs off with their child. Fausto and his friends search all over fearing the worst, and he finally finds her at the home of his father, Francesco, who gives him a deserved thrashing. The couple reconciles and Fausto pledges to reform. Life goes on as usual for his other friends, always planning but never getting around to doing anything constructive, with the exception of Moraldo, who makes the break and leaves their town to seek a better life elsewhere.

Mike Hodges
Thriller
Mosaic Film Group
R
Will Graham is a gangster who has left the life of crime and is living in the countryside. He comes out of hiding to investigate the death of his brother when he learns that he committed suicide. Charlotte Rampling is his old girlfriend who owns a restaurant. Boad is the villain responsible for the bad things that happened to Will's brother.

Keenen Ivory Wayans
Action
Front Films
R
Jack Spade returns from the army in his old ghetto neighbourhood when his brother, June Bug, dies. Jack declares war on Mr. Big, powerful local crimelord. His army is led by John Slade, his childhood idol who used to fight bad guys in the 70s.

Wesley Ruggles
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

The bold Tira works as dancing beauty and lion tamer at a fair. Out of an urgent need of money, she agrees to a risky new number: she'll put her head into a lion's muzzle! With this attraction the circus makes it to New York and Tira can persue her dearest occupation: flirting with rich men and accepting expensive presents. Among the guys she searches the love of her life, from whom she only knows from a fortune-teller that he'll be rich and have black hair. When she finally meets him, she becomes a victim of intrigue.

Todd Haynes
Biography
Killer Films
R
Six incarnations of Bob Dylan: an actor, a folk singer, an electrified troubadour, Rimbaud, Billy the Kid, and Woody Guthrie. Put Dylan's music behind their adventures, soliloquies, interviews, marriage, and infidelity. Recreate 1960s documentaries in black and white. Put each at a crossroads, the artist becoming someone else. Jack, the son of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, finds Jesus; handsome Robbie falls in love then abandons Claire. Woody, a lad escaped from foster care, hobos the U.S. singing; Billy awakes in a valley threatened by a six-lane highway; Rimbaud talks. Jude, booed at Newport when he goes electric, fences with reporters, pundits, and fans. He won't be classified.

Chris Wedge, Carlos Saldanha
Adventure
Blue Sky Studios
PG
Back when the Earth was being overrun by glaciers, and animals were scurrying to save themselves from the upcoming Ice Age, a stupid sloth named Sid, a woolly mammoth named Manny, a saber-toothed tiger named Diego, and an acorn-loving saber-toothed squirrel named Scrat are forced to become unlikely heroes. The four reluctantly come together when they have to return a human child to its father while braving the deadly elements of the impending Ice Age.

Carlos Saldanha
Animation
Blue Sky Studios
PG
Manny the woolly mammoth, Sid the sloth, Diego the saber-toothed tiger, and the hapless prehistoric squirrel/rat known as Scrat are still together and enjoying the perks of their now melting world. Manny may be ready to start a family, but nobody has seen another mammoth for a long time; Manny thinks he may be the last one. That is, until he miraculously finds Ellie, the only female mammoth left in the world. Their only problems: They can't stand each other--and Ellie somehow thinks she's a possum! Ellie comes with some excess baggage in the form of her two possum "brothers"-- Crash and Eddie, a couple of daredevil pranksters and cocky, loud-mouthed troublemakers. Manny, Sid and Diego quickly learn that the warming climate has one major drawback: A huge glacial dam holding off oceans of water is about to break, threatening the entire valley. The only chance of survival lies at the other end of the valley. So our three heroes, along with Ellie, Crash and Eddie, form the most unlikely family--in any "Age"-- as they embark on a mission across an ever-changing, increasingly dangerous landscape towards their salvation.

Cameron Casey, F. Gary Gray
Music
Capitol Records

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Focus Features
R
Larceny, lust and lethal behavior. In icebound Wichita, Kansas, it's Christmas Eve, and this year Charlie Arglist just might have something to celebrate. Charlie, an attorney for the sleazy businesses of Wichita, and his unsavory associate, the steely Vic Cavanaugh have just successfully embezzled $2 million from Kansas City boss Bill Guerrard. But the real prize for Charlie is the stunning Renata, who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Charlie hopes to slip out of town with Renata. But as daylight fades and an ice storm whirls, everyone from Charlie's drinking buddy Pete Van Heuten to the local police begin to wonder just what exactly is in Charlie's Christmas stocking - and the 12 hours of Christmas Eve are filled with surprises.

Ang Lee
Drama
Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels
R
In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hoods are skidding out of control. Benjamin Hood reels from drink to drink, trying not to think about his trouble at the office. His wife, Elena, is reading self help books and losing patience with her husband's lies. Their son, Paul, home for the holidays, escapes to the city to pursue an alluring rich girl from his prep school. And young, budding nymphomaniac, Wendy Hood roams the neighborhood, innocently exploring liquor cabinets and lingerie drawers of her friends' parents, looking for something new. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century. Things get bad...

Ang Lee
Drama
Canal+ Droits Audiovisuels
R
In the weekend after thanksgiving 1973 the Hoods are skidding out of control. Benjamin Hood reels from drink to drink, trying not to think about his trouble at the office. His wife, Elena, is reading self help books and losing patience with her husband's lies. Their son, Paul, home for the holidays, escapes to the city to pursue an alluring rich girl from his prep school. And young, budding nymphomaniac, Wendy Hood roams the neighborhood, innocently exploring liquor cabinets and lingerie drawers of her friends' parents, looking for something new. Then an ice storm hits, the worst in a century. Things get bad...

Oliver Parker
Comedy
Arts Council of England
PG-13
Sir Robert Chiltern is a successful Government minister, well-off and with a loving wife. All this is threatened when Mrs Cheveley appears in London with damning evidence of a past misdeed. Sir Robert turns for help to his friend Lord Goring, an apparently idle philanderer and the despair of his father. Goring knows the lady of old, and, for him, takes the whole thing pretty seriously.

James Mangold
Crime
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
Strangers from all different walks of life: a limo driver escorting a movie star, parents with a young son, a cop transporting a convict, a prostitute, a young couple, and a motel manager are caught up in a nasty rainstorm, stuck at a motel in desolate Nevada. Soon they realize they may be at the motel for another reason when one by one, people start getting killed off. As tensions flare and fingers are pointed, they have to get to the bottom of why they're there. Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, a psychiatrist is trying to prove the innocence of a man accused of murder in an eleventh hour trial. How these two through-lines are related can only be found in Identity.

Mike Judge
Adventure
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
R
The purpose of the program set up by the Pentagon, called the "Human Hibernation Project," is designed so that the military can save their best men for when they're needed most. According to the officers heading the project, too many times the talents and expensive training of the best pilots and soldiers go to waste during times of peace. So they enlist Bauers (Wilson), the most under-achieving average guy they've got, to be the test subject for the initial hibernation experiment. Also participating in the top-secret program is Rita (Rudolph), a prostitute who agreed to take part in exchange for dropping some criminal charges against her, among other things. Of course, the experiment, which was to last only a year, goes under due to the arrest of Officer Collins, who is busted for heading a prostitution ring. Seeing as though he was in charge of the experiment, one of the only ones who knew of its existence, and "due to a lot of top-secret red tape... and the massive scandals and base closure that followed, Joe and Rita were forgotten about.

James Cruze, H. Bruce Humberstone
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Wealthy John Glidden wants to give his money away to strangers rather than have his relatives fight over it. We see the effect the gifts have on many different sorts of individuals.

Cher, Nancy Savoca
Drama
HBO NYC Productions
R
A trilogy of stories set in the same house, but with different occupants and spanning over 40 years, deals with various women and moral crisis over unexpected pregnancies and their choice of abortion. In 1952, when abortion was illegal, a nurse deals with her unexpected pregnancy and takes drastic measures to get one. In 1974 a family housewife with four children discovers that she's pregnant and decides she can't handle another child to raise. In 1996, a pregnant college student decides on an abortion, but doesn't realize the means to go through to get one.

Jane Anderson, Martha Coolidge
Drama
Home Box Office (HBO)
R
Semi-follow up of the first "If These Walls Could Talk" with three segments set in the same house, but with different occupants which spans nearly 40 years. While the first film delt with women and the topic of abortion, this deals with women and the topic of lesbianism.

Lindsay Anderson
Drama
Memorial Enterprises

In an indictment of the British Boys School, we follow Mick and his mostly younger friends through a series of indignities and occasionally abuse as any fond feelings toward these schools are destroyed. When Mick and his friends rebel, violently, the catch phrase, "which side would you be on" becomes quite stark.

Burr Steers
Comedy
Atlantic Streamline
R
Igby goes down is a personal tale about a 17 year old misfit boy who copes with his mother's cancer and his father's insanity by pursuing relationships with older women. Truly an intellectual, Igby is a modern day Holden Caulfield, and the world he lives in is far removed from the high standards of expectation he holds for it.

Akira Kurosawa
Drama
Toho Company

Kanji Watanabe is a longtime bureaucrat in a city office who, along with the rest of the office, spends his entire working life doing nothing. He learns he is dying of cancer and wants to find some meaning in his life. He finds himself unable to talk with his family, and spends a night on the town with a novelist, but that leaves him unfulfilled. He next spends time with a young woman from his office, but finally decides he can make a difference through his job... After Watanabe's death, co-workers at his funeral discuss his behavior over the last several months and debate why he suddenly became assertive in his job to promote a city park, and resolve to be more like Watanabe.

Roberto Rossellini
Drama
Société Nouvelle des Établissements Gaumont (SNEG)

Genoa, 1943. Grimaldi is a swindler, pretending to be a colonel in the Italian army to get money from the family of people put into jail by the Nazis. Once caught, the Gestapo makes a deal with him : he will stay alive if he impersonates the General Della Rovere, a leader of the Resistance who has just been shot by the Nazis, to be put into a political jail where he is supposed to identify another Resistance leader.

Lewis Allen
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures

D.A. Ambitious D.A. Victor Scott zealously prosecutes Ed Clary for a woman's murder. But as Clary walks "the last mile" to the electric chair, Scott receives evidence that exonerates the condemned man. Realizing that he's made a terrible mistake he tries to stop the execution but is too late. Humbled by his grievous misjudgement, Scott resigns as a prosecutor. Entering private practice, he employs the same cunning that made his reputation and draws the attention of mob kingpin, Frank Garland. The mobster succeeds in bribing Scott into representing one of his stooges on a murder rap and Scott, in a grand display of courtroom theatrics, wins the case. But soon Scott finds himself embroiled in dirty mob politics. The situation becomes intolerable when his former protege in the D.A.'s office is charged with a murder that seems to implicate her as an informant to the Garland mob. Can Victor defend the woman he secretly loves and also keep his life?

Jesus Franco
Horror
Elite Film

Ilsa, now a vicious warden, runs a mental-hospital for young women. A girl deliberately "checks" in to the hospital to find out what has happened to her sister who stayed there. Meanwhile Ilsa and one of the guards are forcing the inmates to have sex with male prisoners, filming them and selling it as pornoflicks.

Robert Altman
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Like Polanski's heroine in Repulsion, Susannah York's character is one that is seemingly haunted by memories of undisclosed magnitude. These memories are perhaps rooted in some sort of past sexual turmoil that causes York's character to see men as inherently the same.

Dan Harris
Comedy
Imaginary Heroes
R
The Travis family façade is destroyed by an event incomprehensible to them -- an event which will open locked doors and finally reveal the secrets that have haunted them for decades.

Andrew Solt
Documentary
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
This "biography" evolves around the nearly 240 hours of film and videotape fortuitously taken by Lennon of his life. The archive footage is transformed into a fascinating life story of one of the most complex and fascinating men of the modern music era. This effort includes a 36 song soundtrack. Includes some very personal and insightful footage, never before made available to the public.

Douglas Sirk
Drama
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Aspiring actress Lora Meredith meets Annie Johnson a homeless black woman at Coney Island and soon they share a tiny apartment. Each woman has an intolerable daughter, though Annie's little girl Sarah Jane, is by far the worse. Neurotic and obnoxious, Sarah Jane doesn't like being black; since she's light-skinned (her father was practically white), she spends the rest of the film passing as white, much to her mother's heartache and shame. Lora, meanwhile, virtually ignores her own daughter in a single-minded quest for stardom.

Bernard Rose
Biography
Icon Entertainment International
R
The life and death of the legendary Ludwig van Beethoven. Beside all the work he is known for, the composer once wrote a famous love letter to a nameless beloved and the movie tries to find out who this beloved was. Not easy as Beethoven has had many women in his life.

Orson Welles
Drama
Albina Productions S.a.r.l.

The Portuguese colony of Macao in the 19th century. Mr. Clay is a very rich merchant and the subject of town gossip. He has spent many years in China and is now quite old. He likes his clerk Levinsky to read the company's accounts to him at night for relaxation. Tonight Mr. Clay recounts a true story he heard years before about a rich man who paid a poor sailor 5 guineas to father a child with his beautiful young wife. Levinsky says that's a popular old sailor's legend and not true. Mr. Clay has no heir for his fortune and no wife either. He resolves to make the story true... Levinsky approaches Virginie, another clerk's mistress, and strikes a bargain for 300 guineas. Now to find the sailor...

Arthur Lubin
Crime
Cardinal Pictures (II)

In San Francisco, the successful self-made businessman Walter Williams has just bought three factories in Denver with the approval of the board of directors. His beloved wife Irene tells him that she is not feeling well to travel with him, and asks Walter to give a lift to her cousin Jim Torrance. On the highway, Jim, who is actually Irene's lover, tries to kill Walter hitting his head and throwing him in a cliff, and has a fatal accident while escaping driving Walters's car. Walter is considered dead and later his wife is sent to jail accused of plotting his murder. Meanwhile, the wounded Walter sleeps in a moving van and awakes in Larkspur, a small town in Idaho. He is hired as a mechanic in a gas station by the owner, Marsha Peters. For three months, Walter reads the news, expecting revenge with Irene sentenced to death, and he and Marsha fall in love for each other. When Walter discloses the truth to Marsha, she convinces him to return to San Francisco and save his unfaithful wife. The situation changes when Irene accuses him of plotting to kill her lover Jim, and Walter has to prove his innocence.

Anthony Asquith
Comedy
British Film-Makers

Jack Worthing lives in the country with his pretty ward Cecily Cardew. But in the city, he goes by the name of Earnest and is in love with Gwendolyn Fairfax. Miss Fairfax's cousin is Algernon Moncrieff, who, also using the name Earnest, goes to the country and falls in love with Jack's ward Cecily. When they all come together, we have two men who claim to be Earnest and aren't and two girls who are love with men named Earnest who aren't Earnest.

Oliver Parker
Comedy
Miramax Films
PG
Two young gentlemen (Rupert Everett & Colin Firth) living in 1890s England use the same pseudonym ("Ernest") on the sly, which is fine until they both fall in love with women using that name, which leads to a comedy of mistaken identities...

Andrzej Zulawski
Drama
Albina Productions S.a.r.l.
G
Servais Mont, a photographer, meets Nadine Chevalier who earns her money starring in cheap soft-core movies. Trying to help her, he borrows the money from the loan sharks to finance the theatrical production of 'Richard III' and gives Nadine a part. Nadine is torn apart between Servais, for whom she is falling in love, and her husband Jacques, to whom she has moral obligations.

Stanley Tucci
Comedy
First Cold Piece
R
In an attempt to resurrect the slapstick comedy of Laurel and Hardy or The Marx Brothers, Stanley Tucci and Oliver Platt team-up as two out-of-work actors who accidentally stowaway on a ship to hide from a drunken, belligerent lead actor who has sworn to kill them for belittling his talents. Of course, the lead actor end up on the ship as well. Also, a madman (Tony Shalhoub) plots the destruction of the ship and Steve Buscemi is a depressed, suicidal lounge singer named Happy Frank.

Jim Sheridan
Drama
Fox Searchlight Pictures
PG-13
An aspiring Irish actor and his family illegally immigrate in the United States with the dreams of the father breaking into the New York City theatrical scene. Once they arrive in the big city, they move into a flop house and try to make it truly their home. While they struggle to fit in their new country, the family finds new friends like the reclusive neighbor, Mateo, who provides help in the most unexpected ways in America.

Martin McDonagh
Comedy
Blueprint Pictures
R
Bruges, the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travellers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray and Ken, it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks. Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray's often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city. But the longer they stay waiting for Harry's call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë, who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray's vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences.

Richard Brooks
Crime
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
Two young men are ineffectual individually, but when together become violent criminals. They break into a wealthy farmer's home only to find that there is nearly no money at the home and murder the entire family to avoid identification. The first part of the film details the search for them, the second, their trial and execution. Taken from the actual events chronicled by Truman Capote in his book.

Norman Jewison
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
Samantha Hughes, a teenaged Kentucky girl, never knew her father, who died in Vietnam before her birth. Samantha lives with her uncle Emmett, who also served in Vietnam. Emmett hangs around with Tom, Earl, and Pete, three other Vietnam vets who, like Emmett, all have problems of one kind or another that relate to their war experiences. Sam, as Samantha is known, becomes obsessed with finding out about her father and his experiences, but Emmett and the other vets don't want to talk about the war. Sam pushes everyone to attend a dance honoring the town's veterans, but Pete and Earl get into a fight, Emmett disappears, and Tom takes Sam home for an unsuccessful tryst. When Sam reads her father's diary, she begins to understand what his life and death meant, and she and Emmett, with a trip to the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial, come at least temporarily to terms with the war in their lives.

Paul Weitz
Comedy
Universal Pictures
PG-13
Dan Foreman is headed for a shakeup. He is demoted from head of ad sales for a major magazine when the company he works for is acquired in a corporate takeover. His new boss, Carter Duryea, is half his age--a business school prodigy who preaches corporate synergy. While Dan develops clients through handshake deals and relationships, Carter cross-promotes the magazine with the cell phone division and Krispity Krunch, an indeterminate snack food under the same corporate umbrella. Both men are going through turmoil at home. Dan has two daughters, Alex, age 18, and Jana, age 16, and is shocked when his wife tells him she's pregnant with a new child. Carter, in the meanwhile, is dumped by his wife of seven months just as he gets his promotion. Dan and Carter's uneasy friendship is thrown into jeopardy when Carter falls for, and begins an affair with, Dan's daughter Alex.

Curtis Hanson
Comedy
Fox 2000 Pictures
PG-13
Two sisters, plus a dead mother, a remarried father, and a hostile step-mother. The sisters, each in her way, have perfected the art of losing. The elder, Rose, is an attorney, responsible, lonely, with a closet full of shoes. The younger is Maggie, beautiful, selfish, and irresponsible. Her drunken behavior gets her tossed by her step-mother from her dad's house; worse behavior gets her tossed from Rose's apartment. Then, while searching in her father's desk for money to filch, Maggie finds an address; the past and the future open up to her and, with any luck, may open to her sister as well.

Terri McCoy, Matt Wickline, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Comedy
20th Century Fox

The main reason I purchased this DVD was because I'm a really big Jim Carrey fan. But not only did I get Jim, I got the Wayans Brothers aswell. This DVD will make you die with laughter. It really is funny. Jim Carrey is in it in alot of scenes, but it is mostly the wayans bros. Still, if your a Jim fan, its well worth getting. The set contains 3 discs which included every episode from the 1st serious which was 13 episodes at approx 25 mins per show. The dvds are region 1 so UK viewers will need a multi-region dvd player. Hope I've helped.

Terri McCoy, Matt Wickline, Keenen Ivory Wayans
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
To label "In Living Color" "the black "SNL"" is to not give this groundbreaking sketch comedy its props. Like its late-night counterpart, "In Living Color" pushed the envelope with sketches that remain in questionable taste ("Fashion Tampons"). It also presented its share of TV show, movie, and commercial parodies. But its racially charged humor that tackled race relations and subverted cultural stereotypes was something 1990 TV viewers were not used to seeing, especially in prime time. Among the most potent sketches featured series creator Keenen Ivory Wayans and brother Damon as the Brothers Brothers, two oblivious Toms who, in one sketch, act as spokespersons for the Arizona Tourism Commission in the wake of that state's controversial decision not to recognize Martin Luther King's birthday. In another, they are allowed to join an exclusive, all-white country club after proclaiming themselves to be followers of "Jesse" (Helms, not Jackson, about whom they profess to have never heard). Flunking all standards of political correctness is Damon's Handi-Man, the world's first handicapped superhero. "James" Carrey's skeletal Fire Marshall Bill and Damon's the Head Detective join the show's stable of breakout characters (Homey D. Clown, Vera De Milo, the flamboyant Men on Film, and homeless man, Anton). Kim Wayans's Grace Jones and Kelly Coffield's Andrea Dice Clay also make welcome returns. Other memorable characters include David Alan Grier's tell-it-too-much-like-it-is blues singer Calhoun Tubbs, and Coffield's Velma Mulholland, a nifty bit of pre-"Pleasantville" special-effects wizardry in which Damon's blind date turns out to be a quintessential dame right out of a black-and-white 1940s movie.
Episode 26, a "best of" compilation, serves as a representative introduction to the series and season. A bonus "Appreciating "In Living Color"" segment on disc 4 puts the series in cultural context. Unlike another Fox network sketch-comedy series, "Mad TV", "In Living Color" has been lamentably missing in action on the syndication circuit, so for those who have never been "Colored," and especially for fans of current critics' darling "The Chappelle Show", these 26 bracing episodes will be a revelation. Plus, it's fun to watch force of nature Carrey come into his own, and even try out a few moves that would bring him fame and fortune in his own feature films (in episode 18, he mutters the immortal, "All righty then"). "--Donald Liebenson"

John Boorman
Drama
Chartoff Productions
R
Langston Whitfield is a Washington Post journalist. His editor provocatively sends him to South Africa to cover the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings, in which the perpetrators of murder and torture on both sides during Apartheid are invited to come forward and confront their victims. By telling the unvarnished truth and expressing contrition, they may be granted amnesty. Can the deep wounds of Apartheid be healed through reconciliation? Langston is deeply skeptical. He tracks down Col. De Jager, the most notorious torturer in the SA Police and tries to penetrate the mind of a monster, an experience that obliges him to confront his own demons. Anna Malan is an Afrikaans poet who is covering the hearings for radio. As a white South African she is shattered by the accounts of the cruelty and depravity committed by her fellow countrymen. Anna and Langston must both question their sense of identity. Where do they each belong? How responsible are they for what is done in the name of their respective countries? The moving testimony of the victims affects them deeply. In different ways they are both estranged from their families, and their shared experience draws them ever closer to each other. It is a story charting the unfathomable depths of human cruelty and the redeeming power of forgiveness and love.

George Marshall
Comedy
Fox Film Corporation

Horse trainer Steve Tapley is caught between the feuding Martingale and Shattuck families. He sides with young Nancy Martingale and her grandfather Ezra, and the feud is to be resolved by a horse race between the favorites of each family. Unfortunately, the Martingale's horse, Greyboy, only runs well in mud. And it hasn't rained in a long time.

Unknown
Music Video & Concerts
Universal Studios
NR
Filmed live at the Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton, Canada in 1981, backed by Sid Feller conducting the ITV Concert Orchestra and the five talented and attractive ladies known as The Raylettes, Ray Charles gives his all in this concert with a mix of musical genres, all performed with his unique, soulful style, making them his own.

Though it doesn't include all my favorites (you'd need a 3 hour concert for that), among the songs he performs are: "Busted", "Georgia on My Mind", "Hit the Road, Jack", "I Can't Stop Loving You", "Take These Chains From My Heart", "I Can See Clearly Now", and "America the Beautiful".



Looking fine in a light blue suit, Ray Charles was in his early 50's at the time, and with his professionalism and incredible musicality, shows that his was a life well sung.

Ray Charles left a legacy of soul music that is enduring, always enjoyable, and a one-of-a-kind experience. Total running time is 50 minutes.

Jean-Luc Godard
Drama
Avventura Films
PG
In part one there is talk of a project on the subject of love, with the example of three couples, one young, one mature and the other elderly. At this point the author comes into contact with a young woman he had already met three years earlier. Just as the project is about to become reality, all problems of an artistic or financial nature having been resolved, the author learns that the young woman has died. Part two concerns the events of three years earlier. While interviewing an historian, the future author meets for the first time the young woman, who is training as a lawyer. She has been asked by her own grandparents, formerly of the French resistance, to examine a contract offered to them by Americans who want to make a film about their activities during the Nazi occupation of France.

Jean Yarbrough
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Two bumbling plumbers are hired by a socialite to fix a leak. A case of mistaken identity gets the pair an invitation to a fancy party and an entree into high society. As expected, things don't go too smoothly.

Todd Field
Drama
Good Machine
R
The Fowlers are a normal family in Maine. Matt is the town doctor and loves to fish, his wife, Ruth, is the school's choir leader, and their son, Frank, is home from his first year of college. Frank is in love with Natalie, a young mother who isn't quite divorced yet from her ex-husband, Richard Strout, whose family runs the local cannery. It makes Richard's blood run cold to see his wife running around with another man. And soon, an unthinkable tragedy happens that will tear the Fowlers apart...

Neil LaBute
Comedy
Alliance Atlantis Communications
R
Two junior executives on a six week business trip, both of whom have been recently hurt by women, devise a horrible plan to get even with women for their past hurts: They intend to find, romance, and then dump a vulnerable woman. They choose Cristine, and for a while all goes according to plan. However, it soon becomes clear that things are not as simple as they think.

Jane Campion
Crime
Pathe Productions
R
Following the gruesome murder of a young woman in her neighborhood, a self-determined woman living in New York City--as if to test the limits of her own safety--propels herself into an impossibly risky sexual liaison. Soon she grows increasingly wary about the motives of every man with whom she has contact--and about her own.

Bertrand Tavernier
Drama, Mystery
Ithaca Pictures
R
New Iberia Lt. Dave Robicheaux is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie (Baby Feet) Balboni-back in his home parish as co- producer of Hollywood director Michael Goldman's Civil War film-when sizzled/psychic movie-star Elrod Sykes, pulled over for drunk driving, starts babbling about a corpse he found in the Atchafalaya Swamp-the corpse of a black man Dave had seen murdered 35 years before.

Wolfgang Petersen
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
Frank Horrigan is a secret service agent who keeps thinking back to November 22, 1963, when, as a hand-picked agent by President Kennedy, he became one of the few agents to have lost a President to an assassin when Kennedy died. Now, former CIA assassin Mitch Leary is stalking the current President, who is running for re-election. Mitch has spent long hours studying Horrigan, and he taunts Horrigan, telling him of his plans to kill the President. Leary plans to kill the president because Leary feels betrayed by the government -- Leary was removed from the CIA, and the CIA is now trying to have him killed. After talking to Leary, Horrigan makes sure he is assigned to presidential protection duty, working with fellow secret service agent Lilly Raines. Horrigan has no intention of failing his President this time around, and he's more than willing to take a bullet. White House Chief of Staff Harry Sargent refuses to alter the President's itinerary, while Horrigan's boss, Secret Service Director Sam Campagna, is supportive of Horrigan. As the election gets closer, Horrigan begins to doubt his own abilities, especially when Horrigan's colleague Al D'Andrea is killed by Leary. But Horrigan may be the only one who can stop Leary.

Ron Underwood
Comedy
J & C Entertainment
PG-13

Kar Wai Wong
Drama
Block 2 Pictures
PG
Set in Hong Kong, 1962, Chow Mo-Wan is a newspaper editor who moves into a new building with his wife. At approximately the same time, Su Li-zhen, a beautiful secretary and her executive husband also move in to the crowded building. With their spouses often away, Chow and Li-zhen spend most of their time together as friends. They have everything in common from noodle shops to martial arts. Soon, they are shocked to discover that their spouses are having an affair. Hurt and angry, they find comfort in their growing friendship even as they resolve not to be like their unfaithful mates.

Jim Sheridan
Biography
Hell's Kitchen Films
R
A small time thief from Belfast, Gerry Conlon, is falsely implicated in the IRA bombing of a pub that kills several people while he is in London. Bullied by the British police, he and four of his friends are coerced into confessing their guilt. Gerry's father and other relatives in London are also implicated in the crime. He spends 15 years in prison with his father trying to prove his innocence with the help of a British attorney, Gareth Peirce. Based on a true story.

Arthur Lubin
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Russ Raymond, America's number one crooner, disappears and joins the Navy under the name Tommy Halstead. Dorothy Roberts, a magazine journalist, is intent on finding out what happened to Russ and she tries everything she can to get a picture of him to prove he's Russ Raymond. Tommy's friends, Pomeroy Watson and Smokey Adams,help him while Pomeroy writes love letters to Patty Andrews. But because Smokey makes Pomeroy lie about himself in the letters, and when Patty comes to the Navy base, she's furious at Pomeroy. When Pomeroy, Smokey, Tommy and the Andrews sisters set sail for Hawaii, Pomeroy discovers there's a tomato in the potato locker, and she's been snapping shots of Tommy the whole trip. Whether Pomeroy's proving that 7 x 13 = 28 - three different ways, having Smokey help him play ship captain for Patty, or falling out of his hammock, it's an Abbott and Costello classic.

Nagisa Ôshima
Drama, Romance
Argos Films

Based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, a man and one of his servants begin a torrid affair. Their desire becomes a sexual obsession so strong that to intensify their ardor, they forsake all, even life itself.

Alexandre Rockwell
Comedy
Alliance Communications Corporation
R

Paul Haggis
Crime
Blackfriars Bridge Films
R
In Monroe, Tennessee, Hank Deerfield, an aging warrior, gets a call that his son, just back from 18 months' fighting in Iraq, is missing from his base. Hank drives to Fort Rudd, New Mexico, to search. Within a day, the charred and dismembered body of his son is found on the outskirts of town. Deerfield pushes himself into the investigation, marked by jurisdictional antagonism between the Army and local police. Working mostly with a new detective, Emily Sanders, Hank seems to close in on what happened. Major smuggling? A drug deal gone awry? Credit card slips, some photographs, and video clips from Iraq may hold the key. If Hank gets to the truth, what will it tell him?

Sharon Maguire
Drama, Romance, Thriller
Aramid Entertainment Fund
R
Grief, guilt, and betrayal. In London's East End, a young mother dotes on her four-year-old son and lives in a modest flat with her husband, a cop in the bomb squad. The Arsenal football team is their religion. On May Day, a major terrorist attack brings tragedy while she is in the arms of a rich reporter who lives over the road. She wishes she were dead. In grief and guilt, she pursues revenge, faces betrayal, experiences delusions, and may be suicidal. Two men seek her affection: the reporter and a colleague of her husband's who imagines caravan camping with her on a beach. In London, the city of the Great Fire and of Hitler's bombardment, is there any way back to life for her?

Zak Penn
Adventure
Eden Rock Media
PG-13
The German film director Werner Herzog sets out to the Scottish Highlands to make a documentary, "Enigma of Loch Ness", exploding the myth of the Loch Ness Monster. Meanwhile, another documentary film crew is making a film about Werner Herzog, and we see the production of "Enigma" from their point of view. Shooting on a rented boat, tensions begin to rise as director Herzog and his producer, Zak Penn, find themselves at cross-purposes on the black surface of Loch Ness. Things get very edgy when the film crew starts seeing shapes in the murky water.

Michael Apted
Documentary
Spanish Fork Motion Picture

On June 26, 1975, during a period of high tensions on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout with a group of Indians. Although several men were charged with killing the agents, only one, Leonard Peltier, was found guilty. This film describes the events surrounding the shootout and suggests that Peltier was unjustly convicted.

Davis Guggenheim
Documentary
Lawrence Bender Productions
PG
Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global warming with Mr. Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects of global climate change.  A longtime advocate for the environment, Gore presents a wide array of facts and information in a thoughtful and compelling way.  "Al Gore strips his presentations of politics, laying out the facts for the audience to draw their own conclusions in a charming, funny and engaging style, and by the end has everyone on the edge of their seats, gripped by his haunting message," said Guggenheim.  An Inconvenient Truth is not a story of despair but rather a rallying cry to protect the one earth we all share.  "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore.  

Brad Bird
Animation
Walt Disney Pictures
PG
Mr. Incredible (A.K.A. Bob Parr), and his wife Helen (A.K.A. Elastigirl), are the world's greatest famous crime-fighting superheroes in Metroville. Always saving lives and battling evil on a daily basis. But fifteen years later, they have been forced to adopt civilian identities and retreat to the suburbs where they have no choice but to retire of being a superhero and force to live a "normal life" with their three children Violet, Dash and Jack-Jack (who were secretly born with superpowers). Itching to get back into action, Bob gets his chance when a mysterious communication summons him to a remote island for a top secret assignment. He soon discovers that it will take a super family effort to rescue the world from total destruction.

Marina Zenovich
Documentary
Graceful Pictures

Jack Pollexfen
Crime
C.G.K. Productions

A violent criminal called The Butcher is brought back to life by a scientist using electricity. The Butcher becomes an invulnerable mute, and seeks vengeance upon those who caused his execution.

Steven Spielberg
Action & Adventure
Paramount
PG-13
Nearly 20 years after riding his last Crusade, Harrison Ford makes a welcome return as archaeologist/relic hunter Indiana Jones in "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skul"l, an action-packed fourth installment that's, in a nutshell, less memorable than the first three but great nostalgia for fans of the series. Producer George Lucas and screenwriter David Koepp ("War of the Worlds") set the film during the cold war, as the Soviets--replacing Nazis as Indy's villains of choice and led by a sword-wielding Cate Blanchett with black bob and sunglasses--are in pursuit of a crystal skull, which has mystical powers related to a city of gold. After escaping from them in a spectacular opening action sequence, Indy is coerced to head to Peru at the behest of a young greaser (Shia LaBeouf) whose friend--and Indy's colleague--Professor Oxley (John Hurt) has been captured for his knowledge of the skull's whereabouts. Whatever secrets the skull holds are tertiary; its reveal is the weakest part of the movie, as the CGI effects that inevitably accompany it feel jarring next to the boulder-rolling world of Indy audiences knew and loved. There's plenty of comedy, delightful stunts--ants play a deadly role here--and the return of "Raiders" love interest Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood, once shrill but now softened, giving her ex-love bemused glances and eye-rolls as he huffs his way to save the day. Which brings us to Ford: bullwhip still in hand, he's a little creakier, a lot grayer, but still twice the action hero of anyone in film today. With all the anticipation and hype leading up to the film's release, perhaps no reunion is sweeter than that of Ford with the role that fits him as snugly as that fedora hat. "--Ellen A. Kim"




Stills from "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" (Click for larger image)

Steven Spielberg
Action
Lucasfilm
PG-13
Three years after he recovered The Ark of the Covenant. Jones recovered an artifact that he found as a kid, the Cross of Francisco De Coronado from treasure hunters. Now, Jones discovers the history of another biblical artifact called "The Holy Grail". He was also informed that his father, Henry Jones is missing. Jones has to find his father who is looking for the Grail. However, Jones will become involved in the search of the Holy Grail along with his father, as well as fighting the Nazis to reach it.

Steven Spielberg
Action
Paramount Pictures

Set in 1935, a professor, archaeologist, and legendary hero by the name of Indiana Jones is back in action in his newest adventure. But this time he teams up with a night club singer named Wilhelmina "Willie" Scott and a twelve-year-old boy named Short Round. They end up in an Indian small distressed village, where the people believe that evil spirits have taken all their children away after a sacred precious stone was stolen! They also discovered the great mysterious terror surrounding a booby-trapped temple known as the Temple of Doom! Thuggee is beginning to attempt to rise once more, believing that with the power of all five Sankara stones they can rule the world! Now, it's all up to Indiana to put an end to the Thuggee campaign, rescue the lost children, win the girl and conquer the Temple of Doom.

Mick Jackson
Drama
Abby Mann Productions
R
The McMartin family's lives are turned upside down when they are accused of serious child molestation. The family run a school for infants. An unqualified child cruilty "expert" videotapes the children describing outrageous stories of abuse. One of the most expensive and long running trails in US legal history, exposes the lack of evidence and unprofessional attitudes of the finger pointers which kept one of the accused in jail for over 5 years without bail.

Lesli Klainberg
Documentary
Orchard Films

Vittorio De Sica
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation

A married American woman has gotten involved with another man while visiting relatives in Rome. She decides that the time has come to break off the relationship, and she makes plans to return home to her husband. But she soon realizes that she is not at all sure about what she wants to do, and she continues to agonize over her decision.

Wai-keung Lau, Siu Fai Mak
Crime
Media Asia Films
R
Shawn Yue plays a young police officer who has been sent undercover as a mole in the local mafia. Edison Chen plays a young mafia member who is infiltrating the police force. Years later, their older counterparts, Tony Leung and Andy Lau respectively, race against time to expose the mole within their midsts and destroy him.

Enzo G. Castellari
Action & Adventure
Severin Films
Unrated
INGLORIOUS BASTARDS is much more than just the inspiration for Quentin Tarantino's new movie. This 1978 international smash remains perhaps the biggest and most badass war movie in EuroCult history! Exploitation legends Bo (WALKING TALL, KILL BILL) Svenson and Fred 'The Hammer' Williamson star as the leaders of a gang of condemned criminals who escape from an Allied prison convoy with a plan to blast their way to the Swiss border, only to find themselves 'volunteering' for a suicide mission deep inside Nazi occupied France. Academy Award(r) nominee Ian Bannen (FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX, BRAVEHEART) co-stars in this explosive action epic from director Enzo Castellari (EAGLES OVER LONDON), now fully restored in High Definition Blu-Ray for the first time ever in America!
EXTRAS:
"A Conversation with Quentin Tarantino and Enzo G. Castellari"
"Train Kept A Rollin"
"Back To The War Zone"
"Inglorious Reunion at The New Beverly"
"Enzo's 70th Birthday in L.A."
Audio Commentary with Director Enzo Castellari
U.S., Italian, and German Theatrical Trailers

Vilgot Sjöman
Documentary
Sveriges Television (SVT)

Vilgot Sjöman (I Am Curious -- Yellow 1967) and a crew from Swedish Television followed Ingmar Bergman during the filming of Winter Light and came away with a five-part documentary, including set construction, rehearsals, editing, and behind-the-camera conversations with Bergman and the cast and crew, and audience reactions to the film.

Stanley Kramer
Drama
Stanley Kramer Productions

Teacher B.T. Cates is arrested for teaching Darwin's theories. Famous lawyer Henry Drummond defends him; fundamentalist politician Matthew Brady prosecutes. This is a very thinly disguised rendition of the 1925 "Scopes monkey trial" with debates between Clarence Darrow and William Jennings Bryan taken largely from the transcripts.

Daniel Petrie
Drama
MGM Television
PG
This is another re-enactment of the play about the trial in 1925 of a school teacher who dared to teach Darwinian theory in his classroom. He did this as a consequence of one of his student's request to know... The student was a lad named 'Stebbins', and the trial (dubbed the 'Monkey Trial') pitted the great attorney of the day, Clarence Darrow, against the often running presidential candidate, and famous orator, William Jennings Bryan.

David Lynch
Drama
Studio Canal
R
A blonde actress is preparing for her biggest role yet, but when she finds herself falling for her co-star, she realizes that her life is beginning to mimic the fictional film that they're shooting. Adding to her confusion is the revelation that the current film is a remake of a doomed Polish production, 47, which was never finished due to an unspeakable tragedy.

Joe Dante
Action
Amblin Entertainment
PG
Tuck Pendleton is a cocky pilot, who is taking part in a miniaturization experiment. When some bad guys break into the lab to steal the technology, one of the scientists takes a syringe which contains the miniaturized Tuck and vessel. Now in the vessel is part of the material needed to restore him. But the other part which is the lab is stolen. The scientist's shot but before dying he injects Tuck into Jack Putter, a hypochondriac, who feels that something is wrong with him all the time. When Tuck links himself to Jack's systems, he discovers that something happened. So they go back to the lab, and discover what happened. Now they are told that unless they retrieve the material that was stolen they won't be able to restore Tuck before his oxygen is depleted. Now the government rep decides that the only thing that matters that as long as they have the other half of the material, it is useless to the thieves. So Tuck eggs Jack to go out and find the thieves. They enlist the aid of Tuck's old girlfriend, Lydia, who is a reporter. And it's fortunate for them that she has a lead that pans out.

Shohei Imamura
Drama
Nikkatsu

Amorality in Japan. Tome is born into poverty in rural Japan, in the late 1910s. Chuji, her father, dotes on her; her mother is less faithful. Tome becomes a neighbor's mistress, works at his mill as World War II rages, and has a daughter. After an affair with a mill supervisor, Tome goes to Tokyo to seek her fortune. She leaves the child, Nobuko, in Chuji's care. Tome's a maid at a brothel, learns trade from the madam, enjoys the protection of a businessman whose mistress she becomes, and is soon herself the boss. As Chuji ages and Nobuko grows up with her own ideas, can Tome's self-preserving schemes provide continued comfort? Or will the mice scamper over her?

Joel Gilbert
Music Video & Concerts
Highway 61 Entertainment
NR
Once called "Dylan's God Awful Gospel" by his most loyal fans, Bob Dylan's "Jesus Years" are today regarded as among the best of his career. Finally, here is an insiders view into Bob Dylan's "Born Again" transformation, and its affect on his life and music. In late 1978, Bob Dylan fell into the Arms of the Lord through the Vineyard Christian Fellowship Church. In his first-ever interview, Dylan's Bible class teacher, Pastor Bill Dwyer, details Bob Dylan's embrace of Jesus Christ and Christianity. Dylan then made three Gospel albums, winning a Grammy for Gotta Serve Somebody. However, Dylan's radical new direction alienated fans and enraged critics as he preached evangelical messages from the Book of Revelation. Director/Producer Joel Gilbert weaves the story of Bob Dylan's Jesus Years through revealing insider interviews, including legendary Slow Train Coming producer Jerry Wexler, background singer Regina McCrary, keyboardist Spooner Oldham, iconic San Francisco Chronicle rock reporter Joel Selvin, award-winning songwriter Al Kasha, and Dylanologist AJ Weberman. Included are rare photos and exclusive live concert footage from 1978-1981, while Bob Dylan himself explains the impact of Jesus on his life and art in a recently unearthed interview from 1981. Visits to the Muscle Shoals Sound Studio, the Vineyard Church, and the Fox Warfield Theatre all help tell the intimate tale of Bob Dylan's Jesus Years.

Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato
Documentary
Imagine Entertainment
NC-17
In 1972, a seemingly typical shoestring budget pornographic film was made in a Florida hotel, "Deep Throat," starring Linda Lovelace. This film would surpass the wildest expectation of everyone involved to become one of the most successful independent films of all time. It caught the public imagination which met the spirit of the times, even as the self appointed guardians of public morality struggled to suppress it, and created, for a brief moment, a possible future where sexuality in film had a bold artistic potential. This film covers the story of the making of this controversial film, its stunning success, its hysterical opposition along with its dark side of mob influence and allegations of the on set mistreatment of the film's star. In short, the combined events would redefine the popular appeal of pornography, even as more cynical developments would lead it down other paths.

Spike Lee
Crime
Universal Pictures
R
"Inside Man" is the story of a tough cop, Detective Frazier, who matches wits with a clever bank robber. As the dangerous cat-and-mouse game unfolds, a wild card emerges: Madaline, a power broker with a hidden agenda, who injects even more instability into an already volatile situation.

Jeff Wurtz
Television
Shout Factory Theatr
PG
Since its debut in 1994, "Inside the Actors Studio" has become an institution of artistic inquiry as vitally important as the legendary subjects of its interviews. In presenting in-depth interviews with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Clint Eastwood, this three-disc set of "Icons" is not just the inaugural "ITAS" release on DVD, but a shining example of the show's consistent excellence as a cultural touchstone. As Dean Emeritus of the prestigious Actors Studio Drama School (where Lee Strasberg and others once taught such future stars as Newman, James Dean, and Marlon Brando), series host James Lipton brings his own passion for acting to a forum that is both reverently devoted to craft (with minimal discussion of politics and a refreshing avoidance of gossip) and remarkably candid in terms of personal revelation. Lipton's high-toned pomposity was certainly ripe for Will Ferrell's satirical spoofing on "Saturday Night Live", but it's satire borne of affection, and Lipton's tastefully distinguished lines of inquiry are precisely what makes "ITAS" an enduring attraction to some of the biggest names in the history of film, TV, theater, and music. In addition to his astute questioning (at turns probing, playful, and thoroughly researched), Lipton provides eloquent "flashback" introductions here that place these essential interviews into richly informative perspective.
The interviews themselves are truly unique, each qualifying as definitive explorations of the careers being discussed. Revealing details are too numerous to mention, but highlights include Newman's humble account (in the series' premiere episode) of his early struggles as an actor who lacked natural talent; Redford's lament over the loss of time-honored American traditions (not to mention his practical jokes played upon Newman); Streisand's life-shaping experience with parents she never really knew (which fed her unique precociousness as a gifted performer and perfectionist); and Eastwood's generously educational analysis of his own directorial approach. As always, the interviews end with Lipton's time-honored questionnaire (inspired by French talk show master Bernard Pivot), a kind of Rorschach test for his guests including questions like "what is your favorite curse word?" and "what sound or noise do you love?" (Streisand's response: "The sound of orgasms"), providing a perfect lead-in to Q&A sessions with the attending master-class students of the Actors Studio. The intimate setting, Lipton's searching but non-threatening inquiry, and a pervasive love of performance are what make these interviews special, worthy of multiple viewings as priceless glimpses into the minds and personalities of icons who've clearly earned that designation. Numerous outtakes are included from Newman, Redford, and Eastwood, but not, tellingly, for Streisand. One can only wonder, was that her decision, or Lipton's? "--Jeff Shannon"

Jeff Wurtz
Television
Shout! Factory

Jeff Wurtz
Television
Shout Factory Theatr
PG
Since its debut in 1994, "Inside the Actors Studio" has become an institution of artistic inquiry as vitally important as the legendary subjects of its interviews. In presenting in-depth interviews with Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, and Clint Eastwood, this three-disc set of "Icons" is not just the inaugural "ITAS" release on DVD, but a shining example of the show's consistent excellence as a cultural touchstone. As Dean Emeritus of the prestigious Actors Studio Drama School (where Lee Strasberg and others once taught such future stars as Newman, James Dean, and Marlon Brando), series host James Lipton brings his own passion for acting to a forum that is both reverently devoted to craft (with minimal discussion of politics and a refreshing avoidance of gossip) and remarkably candid in terms of personal revelation. Lipton's high-toned pomposity was certainly ripe for Will Ferrell's satirical spoofing on "Saturday Night Live", but it's satire borne of affection, and Lipton's tastefully distinguished lines of inquiry are precisely what makes "ITAS" an enduring attraction to some of the biggest names in the history of film, TV, theater, and music. In addition to his astute questioning (at turns probing, playful, and thoroughly researched), Lipton provides eloquent "flashback" introductions here that place these essential interviews into richly informative perspective.
The interviews themselves are truly unique, each qualifying as definitive explorations of the careers being discussed. Revealing details are too numerous to mention, but highlights include Newman's humble account (in the series' premiere episode) of his early struggles as an actor who lacked natural talent; Redford's lament over the loss of time-honored American traditions (not to mention his practical jokes played upon Newman); Streisand's life-shaping experience with parents she never really knew (which fed her unique precociousness as a gifted performer and perfectionist); and Eastwood's generously educational analysis of his own directorial approach. As always, the interviews end with Lipton's time-honored questionnaire (inspired by French talk show master Bernard Pivot), a kind of Rorschach test for his guests including questions like "what is your favorite curse word?" and "what sound or noise do you love?" (Streisand's response: "The sound of orgasms"), providing a perfect lead-in to Q&A sessions with the attending master-class students of the Actors Studio. The intimate setting, Lipton's searching but non-threatening inquiry, and a pervasive love of performance are what make these interviews special, worthy of multiple viewings as priceless glimpses into the minds and personalities of icons who've clearly earned that designation. Numerous outtakes are included from Newman, Redford, and Eastwood, but not, tellingly, for Streisand. One can only wonder, was that her decision, or Lipton's? "--Jeff Shannon"

Michael Mann
Biography
Blue Lion Entertainment
R
Balls-out "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman sniffs a story when a former research biologist for Brown & Williamson, Jeff Wigand, won't talk to him. When the company leans hard on Wigand to honor a confidentiality agreement, he gets his back up. Trusting Bergman and despite a crumbling marriage, he goes on camera for a Mike Wallace interview and risks arrest for contempt of court. Westinghouse is negotiating to buy CBS, so CBS attorneys advise CBS News to shelve the interview and avoid a lawsuit. "60 Minutes" and CBS News bosses cave, Wigand's hung out to dry, Bergman is compromised, and the CEOs of Big Tobacco may get away with perjury. Can the truth will out?

Erik Skjoldbjærg
Crime
Nordic Screen Production AS

Two criminal investigators arrive in a town in the north of Norway to help the local police solve the murder of a young girl. A second murder sets the investigators off on an intense race where the stakes are as high for them as for their quarry.

Christopher Nolan
Crime
Alcon Entertainment
R
Sent from the city to investigate the murder of a teenage girl in a small Alaska town, a police detective (Pacino) accidentally shoots his own partner while trying to apprehend a suspect. Instead of admitting his guilt, the detective is given an unexpected alibi, but this "solution" only multiplies the emotional complexity and guilt over his partner's death. He's also still got a murder to solve, in addition to the blackmail and framing of an innocent bystander being orchestrated by the man they were chasing. There's also a local detective (Swank) who is conducting her own personal investigation... of his partner's death. Will it all come crashing down on him?

Bud Yorkin
Comedy
Mirisch Corporation, The

Shohei Imamura
Drama
Nikkatsu

Woody Allen
Drama
Rollins-Joffe Productions

Homage to Ingmar Bergman in this family drama involving a fashionable Long Island interior designer who tries to impose her overbearing, critical standards on her husband and her three grown daughters. The film is a realistic look at the relationships among one artistically-oriented family; one daughter is a successful writer; the second is looking for an artistic outlet; and the third is an actress. The mother has been deserted by her husband, their father. She thinks and hopes they may reconcile, but she soon learns that he has other thoughts that circle about a new acquaintance, a woman who has had two husbands and is still lively.

Tom Tykwer
Action & Adventure
Sony Pictures
R
The International is actually two movies in one: A highbrow thriller about a sprawling bank that resorts to murder and arms sales to retain its power, and a sleek visual essay on how architecture and interior design shapes your perceptions. Interpol agent Louis Salinger (Clive Owen, still not quite a star despite Inside Man and Children of Men) has been on the brink of conclusive evidence against the villainous international bank, but his sources always end up dead. With the aid of a Manhattan district attorney (Naomi Watts in a woefully underwritten part), he stumbles on the trail of the bank's favorite hit man, who might provide the (literally) smoking gun Louis needs. The International starts out smooth and silky, with visual style to burn and Owen's intense fervor. The plot gradually bogs down in incoherent moralizing, but along the way there are some taut sequences, including a bloody shootout in the Guggenheim Museum where alliances shift unexpectedly. But what makes The International worth seeing is director Tom Tykwer's astute eye for public space: Chic postmodern buildings, broad Italian plazas, Turkish rooftops like mountain paths--Tykwer orchestrates actors through these architectural shapes, his hypnotic visual sense creating far more tension and excitement than the plot. Also featuring Armin Mueller-Stahl (Eastern Promises) and Ulrich Thomsen (The Celebration) as malevolent Europeans. --Bret Fetzer


Stills from The International (click for larger image)

A. Edward Sutherland
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Professor Wong has invented a television machine and invites everyone to see it at China's International House Hotel. Every time Tommy Nash attempts to wed his fiancée Carol Fortescue he comes down with an illness, and when he breaks out in a rash the hotel is quarantined. Into this hotel flies Professor Quail in his auto-gyro.

Sydney Pollack
Crime
Working Title Films
PG-13
Escalating events begin when U.N. interpreter Silvia Broome alleges that she has overheard a death threat against an African head of state, spoken in a rare dialect few people other than Silvia can understand. With the words "The Teacher will never leave this room alive," in an instant, Silvia's life is turned upside down as she becomes a hunted target of the killers. Placed under the protection of federal agent Tobin Keller, Silvia's world only grows more nightmarish. As Keller digs deeper into his eyewitnesses' past and her secretive world of global connections, the more suspicious he becomes that she herself might be involved in the conspiracy. With every step of the way, he finds more reasons to mistrust her. Is Sylvia a victim? A suspect? Or something else entirely? And can Tobin, coping with his own personal heartache, keep her safe? Though they must depend on one another, Silvia and Tobin couldn't be more different. Silvia's strengths are words, diplomacy and the subtleties of meaning, while Tobin is all about instinct, action and reading into the most primal human behaviors. Now, as the danger of a major assassination on U.S. soil grows and Silvia's life hangs in the balance, Silvia and Tobin play out a gripping dance of evasion and revelation that keeps them both guessing as they race to stop a terrifying international crisis before it's too late.

Steve Buscemi
Drama
Cinemavault Releasing
R
Everyone wants a piece of a celebrity. Pierre is a political reporter, assigned to write a fluff piece on Katya, a blond who acts in slasher movies and a Fox show about single girls in the city. The interview, at a restaurant, goes badly: she's late, he's unprepared and rude. After leaving, he bangs his head in a fender bender and she takes him to her loft to clean the wound. Lubricated by alcohol and competitive natures, the interview resumes. She takes phone calls from her fiancé, Pierre reads her diary on her computer. They discuss wounds, he expresses concern, father-daughter feelings arise. Out come camcorders to tape their darkest secrets. Is friendship or more in the offing?

John Stockwell
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
Sam (Jessica Alba) and Jared (Paul Walker) are a young couple in the Bahamas, divers and aspiring treasure hunters. While the arrogant salvager Bates (Josh Brolin) has loads of expensive equipment, Jared gets by with a small, battered boat. Jared and Sam find a historic wreck, but nearby is a wrecked airplane with a large quantity of cocaine. Jared and Sam want the treasure; their diving partners also want the drugs. Dangerous criminals realize the plane and cocaine are submerged somewhere in the area. When the bad guys learn that the couple has located the drugs, Jared and Sam find themselves in mortal peril.

Joel Coen
Comedy
Alphaville Films
PG-13
Miles Massey, a prominent Los Angeles divorce attorney has everything--and in some cases, two of everything. Despite his impressive client list, a formidable win record, the respect of his peers and an ironclad contract (the Massey pre-nup) named after him, he's reached a crossroads in his life. Sated on success, boredom has set in and he's looking for new challenges. All that changes when Miles meets his match in the devastating Marylin Rexroth. Marylin is the soon-to-be ex-wife of his client Rex Rexroth, a wealthy real estate developer and habitual philanderer. With the help of hard charging private investigator Gus Petch, she has Rex nailed and is looking forward to the financial independence a successful divorce will bring. But thanks to Miles' considerable skills, she ends up with nothing. Not to be outdone, Marylin schemes to get even and as part of her plan, quickly marries oil tycoon Howard Doyle. Miles and his unflappable associate, Wrigley, unwittingly dig themselves in deeper and deeper as they go head-to-head with Marylin. Underhanded tactics, deceptions and an undeniable attraction escalate as Marylin and Miles square off in this classic battle of the sexes.

Martha Coolidge
Biography
City Entertainment
R
This biography of Dorothy Dandridge (Halle Berry) follows her career through early days on the club circuit with her sister (Cynda Williams) to her turn in movies, including becoming the first black actress to win a Best Actress Nomination in 1954 for "Carmen Jones", to her final demise to prescription drugs, which was debated whether it was suicide or accidental. Brent Spiner plays her faithful manager who stood beside her through all of the roller coaster of her career. The film also examines her love affair with director Otto Preminger, which is shown to have probably initially helped her career, but later probably led her to some wrong decisions. The film also examines 50's racism as the black star is not permitted to use white bathrooms or the Vegas pool. In the first situation, she was given a bathroom cup to pee in. In the second situation, the hotel drained the pool and scrubbed it after she dared put her foot in the water. Obba Babtunde appears as her first husband, dancer Harold Nicholas, with whom she has her only child, Lynn - a mentally retarded girl.

Roger Corman
Drama
Roger Corman Productions
PG-13
A man in a gleaming white suit comes to a small Southern town on the eve of integration. His name is Adam Cramer. He calls himself a social reformer. But his aim is to incite the people against letting black children into the town's white school. Soon he has the white citizens of the town worked up. He thinks he's leading them; but a man he befriends and immediately betrays knows better. The people have become a mob. The black leader of a church and a white newspaper editor soon feel its wrath. But after a false accusation against a black student, Adam Cramer may find the people are totally and permanently out of his control.

Don Siegel
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Walter Wanger Productions

Dr Miles Bennell returns his small town practice to find several of his patients suffering the paranoid delusion that their friends or relatives are impostors. He is initially skeptical, especially when the alleged dopplegängers are able to answer detailed questions about their victim's lives, but he is eventually persuaded that something odd has happened and determines to find out what is causing this phenomenon. This film can be seen as a paranoid 1950s warning against those Damn Commies or, conversely, as a metaphor for the tyranny of McCarthyism (or the totalitarian system of Your Choice) and has a pro- and epilogue that was forced upon Siegel by the studio to lighten the tone.

Adam Brooks
Drama
Fine Line Features
R
In 1975, at age 18, Phoebe is unhappy. When she was about 10, her father died of leukemia; her older sister Faith became a political radical, left for Europe with her boyfriend Wolf, and commits suicide in Portugal a year later. Phoebe, who has romantic ideas about both her father and Faith, decides to trace Faith's steps, find Wolf, and learn what really happened. She finds Wolf in Paris, and he tells her stories of Faith's radical activities, including joining the Red Army in Berlin. Phoebe has visions of her sister, seems close to madness, and may be headed for suicide herself. It's the trip to the cliffs of Portugal that will make the difference: breakthrough or breakdown?

Lambert Hillyer
Horror
Universal Pictures

Visionary scientist Janos Rukh convinces a group of scientists and supporters to mount an expedition to the African continent to locate and study an ancient meteorite of great significance. He exposes himself to the highly toxic radiation of the meteorite, and while an antidote devised by Dr. Benet saves him from death by radiation poisoning, his naked touch causes instant death to others. Back in London, the benefits of the meteorite's controlled radiation offer Dr. Benet an opportunity to restore eyesight to the blind. The antidote's toxicity excites Prof. Rukh into paranoid rages as he seeks revenge against the members of his expedition, who he accuses of stealing his discovery for their own glory.

Lloyd Bacon
Crime
First National Pictures

Cliff and Chuck leave prison together. Cliff tries the straight life but falls back into crime with Chuck and his gang. When he makes enough to enable his brother Tim to buy a garage and marry his sweetheart, Cliff quits crime again. But when he tries to help Chuck later on, he's implicated again.

Robert Cary
Comedy
Breakout Pictures
R

Robert Greenwald
Documentary
Brave New Films

Documentary portraying the actions of U.S. corporate contractors in the U.S.-Iraq war. Interviews with employees and former employees of such companies as Halliburton, CACI, and KBR suggest that government cronyism is behind apparent "sweetheart" deals that give such contractors enormous freedom to profit from supplying support and material to American troops while providing little oversight. Survivors of employees who were killed discuss the claim that the companies cared more for profit than for the welfare of their own workers, and soldiers indicate that the quality of services provided is sub-standard and severely in contradiction to the comparatively huge profits being generated. Also depicted are the unsuccessful attempts by the filmmakers to get company spokesmen to respond to the charges made by the interviewees.

Richard Eyre
Biography
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Iris, based on the life of revered British writer and philosopher Iris Murdoch, is a story of unlikely yet enduring love. As a young academic, teaching philosophy at Oxford, Murdoch meets and eventually falls in love with fellow professor John Bayley, a man whose awkwardness seems in stark opposition to the spirited self-confidence of his future wife. The story unfolds as snippets of time, seen through Bayley's eyes. He recalls their first encounter over 40 years ago, activities they enjoyed doing together, and Iris' charismatic and individualistic personality. These images portray Murdoch as a vibrant young woman with great intellect and are contrasted with the novelist's later life, after the effects of Alzheimer's disease have ravaged her. Murdoch's great mind deteriorates until she is reduced to a mere vestige of her former self, unable to perform simple tasks and completely reliant on her at times frustrated yet devoted husband.

Billy Wilder
Comedy
Mirisch Corporation, The

Naive, by the book French police officer Nester Patou, is transferred to the Red Light district. Upon witnessing what must be a brothel, he calls the station and organizes a raid, transporting all the 'ladies' to the jail. This unfortunately disrupts the well organized system of the police and the Pimps union. Not to mention inadvertently netting his station superior at the brothel. Fired, he goes to a bar to drink, is befriended by Irma, beats up her pimp, and finds he is now Irma's new pimp. Nester's doesn't like the thought of his girl seeing other men, so comes up with a plan.

Olivier Assayas
Drama
Dacia Films

Rene Vidal, a director in decline, decides to remake Louis Feuillade's silent serial "Les Vampires." Believing no French actress can match Musidora as Irma Vep (an anagram for vampire), he casts Hong Kong action heroine Maggie Cheung, though she speaks no French. On the chaotic set, she's aided by Zoe, the wardrobe mistress with a crush on her; she defends Vidal to a Parisian journalist who trashes all French film and praises John Woo and Schwarzenegger; she befriends Vidal when he goes over the edge; and, in costume, she breaks into a hotel suite to steal jewels as her victim talks on the phone. We also watch the making, the rushes, and the remains of Vidal's unfinished film.

Brad Bird
Animation
Warner Bros. Animation
PG
This is the story a nine-year-old boy named Hogarth Hughes who makes friends with an innocent alien giant robot that came from outer space. Meanwhile, a paranoid U.S. Government agent named Kent Mansley arrives in town, determined to destroy the giant at all costs. It's up to Hogarth to protect him by keeping him at Dean McCoppin's place in the junkyard.

Jon Favreau
Action
Paramount
PG-13
Suit up for action with Robert Downey Jr. in the ultimate adventure movie you’ve been waiting for, "Iron Man"! When jet-setting genius-industrialist Tony Stark is captured in enemy territory, he builds a high-tech suit of armor to escape. Now, he’s on a mission to save the world as a hero who’s built, not born, to be unlike any other. Co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrence Howard and Jeff Bridges, it’s a fantastic, high-flying journey that is "hugely entertaining" (Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal).

Woo-ping Yuen
Action
Film Workshop
PG-13
A Hong Kong variation on Robin Hood. The corrupt officials of a Chinese village are continually robbed by a masked bandit know as "Iron Monkey" named after a benevolent deity. When all else fails, the Govenor forces a traveling physician (Donnie Yen) into finding the bandit. The arrival of an evil Shaolin monk, brings the Physician and Iron Monkey together to battle the corrupt government.

Charles Shyer
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Hemdale Film

Albert and Lucy fall in love, get married, and have a daughter Casey. Everything is wonderful, till success in business distract Albert and Lucy from each other and Casey. They soon divorce and start fighting so Casey beats sues to divorce her parents, to go live with the maid who has been taking care of her. Themedia has a field day, which is only making things worse.

Gaspar Noé
Crime
120 Films

Events over the course of one traumatic night in Paris unfold in reverse-chronological order as the beautiful Alex (Monica Bellucci) is brutally raped and beaten by a stranger in the underpass. Her boyfriend and ex-lover take matters into their own hands by hiring two criminals to help them find the rapist so that they can exact revenge. A simultaneously beautiful and terrible examination of the destructive nature of cause and effect, and how time destroys everything.

Michael Bay
Action
DreamWorks SKG
PG-13
The Island tells the story of a future world where wealthy citizens have the option to have themselves cloned in order to insure they have a guaranteed matching source for organs, blood, or any other replacement body parts that may be needed. While this sounds like a great medical advancement in theory, the reality is the "insurance policies" of these affluent people are actual living, breathing, and feeling human beings who have to be murdered in order for the original person to have their replacement body part. The clones are deceived into believing they are being held away due to a worldwide contamination. The only other uncontaminated place is known as the Island, and periodically one or several of the clones will "win" a lottery ticket to go to this island. In actuality, they are being killed for their organs. When two of the clones escape and learn the truth of their situation, they attempt to free the others and tell everyone they can about the conspiracy while being hunted down by those in charge at the Utopian facility from which they came.

Clarence G. Badger
Comedy
Famous Players-Lasky Corporation

Shopgirl Betty Lou has designs on Cyrus Waltham, the handsome owner of the department store where she works. Waltham, though, doesn't even know Betty Lou is around. In hopes of attracting Waltham's attention, she accepts a date with his best friend, Monty, under the condition that they dine at the Ritz, where Waltham also has a dinner date that evening. Her plan works and in no time at all she and Waltham are contemplating marriage. The romance cools when a newspaper reporter mistakenly writes a story depicting Betty Lou as an unwed mother.

Erle C. Kenton
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Malcolm Leo, Andrew Solt
Documentary
Paramount Pictures
PG
Dan Ackroyd, John Candy, Gilda Radner and Cheech and Chong present this compilation of classic bad films from the 50's, 60's and 70's. Special features on gorilla pictures, anti-marijuana films and a special tribute to the worst film maker of all-time, Ed Wood.

Frank Capra
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice: either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, Peter gets what (he thinks!) he wants .... a really juicy newspaper story.

Frank Capra
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Ellie Andrews has just tied the knot with society aviator King Westley when she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches. Ellie jumps ship and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband. Reluctantly she must accept the help of out-of- work reporter Peter Warne. Actually, Warne doesn't give her any choice: either she sticks with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father. Either way, Peter gets what (he thinks!) he wants .... a really juicy newspaper story.

René Clair
Comedy
Arnold Pressburger Films

An ambitious newspaper reporter (Dick Powell), eager to scoop the competition, wishes he could know the news before it happens. A mysterious old man (John Philliber) grants the reporter that power, even as he cautions against using it. Now able to predict the news 24 hours in advance, the reporter goes about scooping all the other papers, picking sure-fire winners at the race track, and enjoying life... until he learns -- in advance, of course -- of his own death. Our hero's problem: How can he keep the future from happening?

Mary Wharton
Music

Norman Z. McLeod
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

The owner of a general store (Harold Bisonette) is hounded by his status-anxious wife ("That's 'Bee-soh-nay'" and "I have no maid you know"). To get some sleep he goes out on the porch where he is tormented by a little boy from the floor above (Baby Dunk) and an insurance salesman down below ("LaFong. Capital L, small a..."). He uses an inheritance to buy an orange ranch through the mail, then drives off with his family for California. The orange grove consists of a withered tree, the ranch house is but a shack, and the car falls to pieces. But a racetrack operator wants the land, so all ends happily.

Stanley Kramer
Action
Casey Productions

After a long prison sentence Smiler Grogan is heading at high speed to a California park where he hid $350,000 from a job 15 years previously. He accidentally careers over a cliff in view of four cars whose occupants go down to help. The dying Grogan gives details of where the money is buried and when the witnesses fail to agree on sharing the cash, a crazy chase develops across the state.

Frank Capra
Drama
Liberty Films (II)

George Bailey has spent his entire life giving of himself to the people of Bedford Falls. He has always longed to travel but never had the opportunity in order to prevent rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town. All that prevents him from doing so is George's modest building and loan company, which was founded by his generous father. But on Christmas Eve, George's Uncle Billy loses the business's $8,000 while intending to deposit it in the bank. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse, finally allowing Potter to take over the town. Thinking of his wife, their young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide. But the prayers of his loved ones result in a gentle angel named Clarence coming to earth to help George, with the promise of earning his wings. He shows George what things would have been like if he had never been born. In a nightmarish vision in which the Potter-controlled town is sunk in sex and sin, those George loves are either dead, ruined, or miserable. He realizes that he has touched many people in a positive way and that his life has truly been a wonderful one.

Bill Krohn, Myron Meisel
Documentary
Canal+
G

Rob McElhenney, Daniel Attias, John Fortenberry
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
Take the best elements from "Seinfeld" and "Arrested Development" and you have "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". Combining the social-degenerate-buddy formula (three men, one woman) with the beyond-dysfunctional-family element, "Philadelphia" creates scenarios that are so hysterical, wrong, appalling, familiar, embarrassing, uncomfortable, and entertaining, the show is addictive like staring at a car wreck when you know you shouldn't, but you just can't look away; it's invigorating like a fresh, loud, wake-up slap on the face. The writing, the quick timing, and the performances are so natural, one wonders if anyone is even acting (but hopes to heaven they are). Danny DeVito joined the cast in the second season, in one of the best roles on TV. DeVito is "Frank," the buddy dad that just wants to be part of the gang, the dad that looks good on paper, but the experience for his kids is more like taking care of a vicious dog that isn't potty-trained. Three of his four talented cohorts (Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, and Rob McElhenney) not only star in the series, but write it as well. Thanks to their new take on old themes and a willingness to stretch the boundaries of appropriateness and exploit the audiences' inner insecurities, originality is back on TV.--"Rachel Moss"
Beyond "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia"
Groundbreaking TV: "Arrested Development"
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Stills from "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia": Seasons 1 & 2

Various
Comedy
Our Production Company
Unrated
Garry Shandlings Groundbreaking First Television Series

". . . audacious, satirical, hip, sophisticated and wonderfully silly, and often miraculously all of the above at the same time." TV Guide

Before the Internet, before reality TV, no one saw what television could be more humorously and with more vision than Garry Shandling. In 1986 Garry Shandling was poised to become a permanent guest host on Johnny Carsons The Tonight Show. Instead, he took a chance on an offer from fledgling cable network Showtime to create his own television series. No questions asked.

A surreal look at the daily life of a young single man who is a comedian, Its Garry Shandlings Show was not a typical sitcom: Shandling would break the fourth wall to include the studio audience and the viewers at home in on the actual making of the show. Experimenting with the sitcom form meant inviting the audience onto the set, playing with the passage of time and generally exploding the genre and making art of the debris.

Teaming up with "Saturday Night Live" writer Alan Zweibel, the two men put on a fourth-grade play every week for four seasons. With a crew of talented young writers (including Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Al Jean, Michael Reiss, David Mirkin, who would go on to write "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons", and Ed Solomon, who wrote "Men In Black"), television history was made. Over the years, guest stars (playing themselves) included Tom Petty, Rob Reiner, Vanna White, Red Buttons, Dan Aykroyd, Martin Mull, Gilda Radner (in her last TV performance), Carl Reiner, Chevy Chase, Red Buttons, Jeff Goldblum, Don Cornelius, The Turtles, Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and more.

From its unforgettable theme song to its closing credits, Its Garry Shandlings Show was award-winning, mind-bending television for four seasons, and its influence is clearly seen in the best TV comedies through the decades to follow.

Bonus Features:

* 6 Featurettes With Cast, Crew and Writers
* "It Only Looks Easy": Episode Outtakes
* Original Promos
* 18 Commentaries
* And More!

Richard Wallace
Comedy
Manhattan Productions Inc.

Wealthy Frederick Trumble makes an eccentric new will, secretes much of his wealth in a chair, then, within seconds, is murdered. The new heir, Fred Floogle, runs a flea circus. Of course, the reputed $12 million inheritance goes to his family's heads...then proves to consist of five chairs, which the disgusted Floogle sells just before discovering their secret. Packed with wisecracks, strange cameos, and nothing-sacred, anything-goes digressions.

James D. Stern
Drama
Mutual Films International
R
Handguns figure in the intertwining lives of nine people. Warren shoots his wife Helen's lover and his defense is that he thought he was shooting an intruder. She leaves him; the lawyer helps her get a job with a nutty, reclusive computer wizard who waves a pistol about, sometimes at Helen. Tennel, the computer geek's ex-assistant, lands a video-store job and is smitten by Annabel Lee, an aggressive street kid who likes complaining about men to her pistol-packing psychotic brother to set him off. In secret, Annabel starts an affair with the lawyer, who has both a pistol and a gay lover, who becomes jealous. He has a pistol too. A cool (and armed) cop stays on Warren's tail.

Peter Collinson
Action
Oakhurst Productions
G
Charlies' got a 'Job' to do. Having just left prison he finds one of friends has attempted a high risk job in Italy, right under the nose of the Mafia. Charlies friend doesn't get very far, so Charlie takes over the 'Job'. Using three Mini Coopers, a couple of jaguars and a bus, he hopes to bring Torino to a standstill, steal the Gold and escape.

F. Gary Gray
Action
De Line Pictures

Morton Lewis
Adult
Stallion Releasing Inc.

Jamie Babbit
Comedy
Power Up Films

Sergei M. Eisenstein
Biography
Alma Ata Studio

In 1547, Ivan IV (1530-1584), archduke of Moscow, crowns himself Tsar of Russia and sets about reclaiming lost Russian territory. In scenes of his coronation, his wedding to Anastasia, his campaign against the Tartars in Kazan, his illness when all think he will die, recovery, campaigns in the Baltic and Crimea, self-imposed exile in Alexandrov, and the petition of Muscovites that he return, his enemies among the boyars threaten his success. Chief among them are his aunt, who wants to advance the fortunes of her son, a simpleton, and Kurbsky, a warrior prince who wants both power and the hand of Anastasia. Ivan deftly plays to the people to consolidate his power.

Sergei M. Eisenstein, M. Filimonova
Biography
Alma Ata Studio

His wife dead from poisoning and his chief warrior, Kurbsky, defected to the Poles, Ivan is lonely as he pursues a unified Russia with no foreign occupiers. Needing friendship, he brings to court Kolychev, now Philip the monk, and makes him metropolitan bishop of Moscow. Philip, however, takes his cues from the boyars and tries to bend Ivan to the will of the church. Ivan faces down Philip and lets loose his private force, the Oprichniks, on the boyars. Led by the Tsar's aunt, Euphrosyne, the boyers plot to assassinate Ivan and enthrone her son, Vladimir. At a banquet, Ivan mockingly crowns Vladimir and sends him in royal robes into the cathedral where the assassin awaits.

Andrei Tarkovsky
Drama
Ministerstvo Kinematografii

12-year old Ivan works as a spy at the eastern front. The small Ivan can cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information. Three Soviet officers try to take care of this boy-child.

Takashi Miike
Action
KSS

We begin in 1865, when the Shogunate is on its last legs, but still capable of punishing its enemies. One is Izo (Kazuya Nakayama), an assassin in the service of Hanpeida (Ryosuke Miki), a Tosa lord and Imperial supporter. After killing dozens of the Shogun's men, Izo is captured and crucified. Instead of being extinguished, his rage propels him through the space-time continuum to present-day Tokyo, where he finds himself one with the city's homeless. Here Izo transforms himself into a new, improved killing machine, his entire soul still enraged by his treatment in his past life. His response to the powers-that-be, whose predecessors put him to death, is the sword.