Curtis Hanson
Crime
Monarchy Enterprises B.V.
R
1950's Los Angeles is the seedy backdrop for this intricate noir-ish tale of police corruption and Hollywood sleaze. Three very different cops are all after the truth, each in their own style: Ed Exley, the golden boy of the police force, willing to do almost anything to get ahead, except sell out; Bud White, ready to break the rules to seek justice, but barely able to keep his raging violence under control; and Jack Vincennes, always looking for celebrity and a quick buck until his conscience drives him to join Exley and White down the one-way path to find the truth behind the dark world of L.A. crime.

Curtis Hanson
Crime
Warner Home Video
R
In a time when it seems that every other movie makes some claim to being a film noir, "L.A. Confidential" is the real thing--a gritty, sordid tale of sex, scandal, betrayal, and corruption of all sorts (police, political, press--and, of course, very personal) in 1940s Hollywood. The Oscar-winning screenplay is actually based on several titles in James Ellroy's series of chronological thriller novels (including the title volume, "The Big Nowhere", and "White Jazz")--a compelling blend of L.A. history and pulp fiction that has earned it comparisons to the greatest of all Technicolor noir films, "Chinatown". Kim Basinger richly deserved her Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of a conflicted femme fatale; unfortunately, her male costars are so uniformly fine that they may have canceled each other out with the Academy voters: Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and James Cromwell play LAPD officers of varying stripes. Pearce's character is a particularly intriguing study in Hollywood amorality and ambition, a strait-laced "hero" (and son of a departmental legend) whose career goals outweigh all other moral, ethical, and legal considerations. If he's a good guy, it's only because he sees it as the quickest route to a promotion. "--Jim Emerson"

Mick Jackson
Comedy
Carolco Pictures
PG-13
Harris Telemacher is the "Wacky Weather" presenter for a Los Angeles television station. He finds himself battling the insane conditions and people caused by the manic chaos that is Los Angeles. Striving to achieve happiness (or at least a date), he finds a helping hand from the last person he expected: the city of Los Angeles itself.

Michael Cuesta
Drama
Alter Ego Entertainment
R
Fifteen-year-old Howie loses just about everything and everyone in the space of a single week, but ends up finding himself in the process. His mother has just died. His father, a building contractor, can barely keep tabs on his young girlfriend, let alone his own son. Thusly, the teen must navigate his adolescence virtually unsupervised. Floating towards an ill-behaved existence, Howie and his crowd begin robbing houses in the middle-class neighborhoods off the Long Island Expressway. Together, he and his best friend Gary break into a place belonging to an old guy named Big John, a local man who is a respected pillar of the community. When Big John fingers Gary for the crime, Howie learns that his pal has been leading a secret, dangerous but also alluring double life. Subsequently, we also discover that Big John has secrets of his own.

Michelangelo Antonioni
Art House & International
Criterion
Unrated
Genre: Drama / Mystery / Romance
Nominated for 2 BAFTA Film Awards. Jury Prize(1960), Silver Ribbon(1961)

Luis Buñuel
Drama
Vicomte de Noailles

Bunuel's first feature has more of a plot than Un Chien Andalou, but it's still a pure Surrealist film, so this is only a vague outline. A man and a woman are passionately in love with one another, but their attempts to consummate that passion are constantly thwarted, by their families, the Church and bourgeois society.

Jean Renoir
Drama
Paris Film

Edouard Molinaro
Comedy
Da Ma Produzione
R
Two gay men living in St. Tropez have their lives turned upside down when the son of one of the men announces he is getting married. They try conceal their lifestyle and their ownership of the transvestite club downstairs when the fiancée and her parents come for dinner.

Eric Rohmer
Drama
Les Films du Losange

Adrien goes to a villa on the Mediterranean. He is in vacation, and wants to do absolutely nothing. He has to share the villa with a friend, Daniel, and an unknown young girl, Haydee. Haydee has a lot of lovers, and at first, Adrien and Daniel despites her. But Adrien will be more and more attracted by her.

Bernardo Bertolucci
Drama
Cinematografica Cervi

Near the Tiber river, in a Roman park, a prostitute was killed. The police tracks down people that were inside the park during that night. They are questioned and have to explain why they were there. One of them is the killer.

Federico Fellini
Drama
Riama Film

Journalist and man-about-town Marcello struggles to find his place in the world, torn between the allure of Rome's elite social scene and the stifling domesticity offered by his girlfriend, all the while searching for a way to become a serious writer.

Luc Besson
Thriller
Gaumont
R
Nikita est très jeune, elle a vingt ans, mais elle a emprunté une mauvaise voie. Pendant un hold-up avec sa bande, elle tue un policier et est condamnée à la prison à vie. Les services secrets, par contre, lui offrent une voie de sortie : devenir un agent spécial, prêt à tout, à leur service. Nikita accepte et commence ainsi un apprentissage très dur qui concerne non seulement les différents modes de tuer, de prendre la fuite ou de faire face à des situations imprévues, mais aussi la manière de se comporter en femme qui a de la classe, capable de se conduire avec aisance dans tous les milieux. Sous la conduite de Bob, Nikita arrive à freiner son caractère rebelle et à surmonter la terrible épreuve finale. Elle semble être devenue une personne différente et tombe amoureuse. Mais faut-il faire confiance aux services secrets ?

Mathieu Kassovitz
Crime
Canal+

The film follows three young men and their time spent in the French suburban "ghetto," over a span of twenty-four hours. Vinz, a Jew, Saïd, an Arab, and Hubert, a black boxer, have grown up in these French suburbs where high levels of diversity coupled with the racist and oppressive police force have raised tensions to a critical breaking point. During the riots that took place a night before, a police officer lost his handgun in the ensuing madness, only to leave it for Vinz to find. Now, with a newfound means to gain the respect he deserves, Vinz vows to kill a cop if his friend Abdel dies in the hospital, due the beating he received while in police custody.

Chris Marker
Short
Argos Films

In a devastated Paris in the aftermath of WWIII, The few surviving humans begin researching time travel, hoping to send someone back to the pre-war world for food, supplies and maybe a solution to their dire position. One man is haunted by a vague childhood memory that will prove fateful.

Agnès Varda
Drama
Cini-Tamaris

There are two parts to this film: sequences of life in the fishing village of La Pointe Courte (a government inspector's visit, the death of a child) alternate with others following a couple - He is from La Pointe Courte, she is Parisian - coming to terms with their changing relationship.

Max Ophüls
Drama
Films Sacha Gordine

An all-knowing interlocutor guides us through a series of affairs in Vienna, 1900. A soldier meets an eager young lady of the evening. Later he has an affair with a young lady, who becomes a maid and does similarly with the young man of the house. The young man seduces a married woman. On and on, spinning on the gay carousel of life.

Federico Fellini
Drama
Ponti-De Laurentiis Cinematografica

Gelsomina is sold by her very poor mother to Zampano, an itinerant strongman. She follows him on the road ("la strada") and helps him during his shows. Zampano ill treats her. She meets "The Fool", a funambulist. She feels like going with him, but he puts confusion in her mind by pointing out that perhaps Zampano is in fact in love with her ...

Olivier Dahan
Biography
Légende
PG-13
An un-chronological look at the life of the Little Sparrow, Edith Piaf (1915-1963). Her mother is an alcoholic street singer, her father a circus performer, her paternal grandmother a madam. During childhood she lives with each of them. At 20, she's a street singer discovered by a club owner who's soon murdered, coached by a musician who brings her to concert halls, and then quickly famous. Constant companions are alcohol and heartache. The tragedies of her love affair with Marcel Cerdan and the death of her only child belie the words of one of her signature songs, "Non, je ne regrette rien." The back and forth nature of the narrative suggests the patterns of memory and association.

George C. Wolfe
Drama
HBO Films

Based on the true story of Ruben Santiago Jr. and his relationship with his guardian Rachel Crosby, set in 1950's and 1960's Lackawanna, New York. After the separation of his parents, young Ruben "Junior" Santiago, a part-black, part-Hispanic child, is sent to live in a small-scale boarding house run by the kind-hearted Rachel "Nanny" Crosby and her younger husband Bill. Ruben then grows up witnessing the world of soul and blues music and grows to know the various characters that Nanny takes into her household to help out, from disturbed Ol'lem Taylor; one-armed handyman Mr. Lucious; hairdresser Bertha; war veteran Lonnie; ex-convict Mr. Paul; butch cleaner Ricky and many others.

Louis Malle
Drama
Hallelujah Films

A small town in the south-west of France, summer of 1944. Having failed to join the resistance, the 18 year old Lucien Lacombe, whose father is a prisoner in Germany and whose mother dates her employer, works for the German police. He then meets France Horn, the daughter of a rich jewish tailor.

Jay Russell
Action
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
Under the watchful eye of his mentor Captain Mike Kennedy (Travolta), probationary firefighter Jack Morrison (Phoenix) matures into a seasoned veteran at a Baltimore fire station. Jack has reached a crossroads, however, as the sacrifices he's made have put him in harm's way innumerable times and significantly impacted his relationship with his wife and kids. Responding to the worst blaze in his career, he becomes trapped inside a 20-story building. And as he reflects on his life, now Assistant Chief Kennedy frantically coordinates the effort to save him.

Donald Brittain, Don Owen
Documentary
National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Lou Adler
Comedy
Barclays Mercantile Industrial Finance

Corrine Burns retreats far into plans for her band, The Fabulous Stains, after her mother's death. So far that she gets them (she and two cousins) on a tour with a washed-out glam-rock group and a rising British punk band, radically changes her appearance, attracts a cult following and national media attention. With luck like this, what could go wrong?

Jerry Lewis
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

After his girl leaves him for someone else, Herbert gets really depressed and starts searching for a job. He finally finds one in a big house which is inhabited by many, many women. Can he live in the same home with all these females?

Preston Sturges
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Returning from a year up the Amazon studying snakes, the rich but unsophisticated Charles Pike meets con-artist Jean Harrington on a ship. They fall in love, but a misunderstanding causes them to split on bad terms. To get back at him, Jean disguises herself as an English lady, and comes back to tease and torment him.

Crime
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Michael O'Hara, against his better judgement, hires on as a crew member of Arthur Bannister's yacht, sailing to San Francisco. They pick up Grisby, Bannister's law partner, en route. Bannister has a wife, Rosalie, who seems to like Michael much better than she likes her husband. After they dock in Sausalito, Michael goes along with Grisby's weird plan to fake his (Grisby's) murder so he can disappear untailed. He wants the $5000 Grisby has offered, so he can run off with Rosalie. But Grisby turns up actually murdered, and Michael gets blamed for it. Somebody set him up, but it is not clear who or how. Bannister (the actual murderer?) defends Michael in court.

Robert Montgomery
Crime
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

The camera shows Phillip Marlowe's view from the first-person in this adaptation of Raymond Chandler's book. The detective is hired to find a publisher's wife, who is supposed to have run off to Mexico. But the case soon becomes much more complicated as people are murdered.

Roy Del Ruth
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures

When a movie theater usher is fired, he takes up with criminals and finds himself quite adept at various illegal activities. Eventually though, the police catch up with him, and he runs to hide out in Los Angeles. There he stumbles into the movie business and soon rises to stardom. He has gone straight, but his newfound success arouses the interest of his old criminal associates, who are not above blackmail...

Sidney J. Furie
Biography
Jobete Productions
R
Chronicles the rise and fall of legendary blues singer Billie Holiday. Her late childhood, stint as a prostitute, early tours, marriages and drug addiction are featured.

William A. Seiter
Comedy, Romance, Western
RKO Radio Pictures
NR
A gambler is robbed by the same pair who are swindling farmers in North Dakota; a rifleman protects a beautiful French girl and other French settlers against killers who want their land; a sophisticated New Yorker falls in love with a rodeo cowboy; a Union officer is ordered to burn the plantation of his southern wife.n officer is ordered to burn the plantation of his southern wife.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 8-MAY-2007
Media Type: DVD

Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery
Gainsborough Pictures

Travellers on a trans-European train are delayed for a night due to bad weather in a small fictional country called Mandrika. The passengers cram into the small village hotel where socialite Iris Henderson meets an old governess called Miss Froy. Shortly after the journey restarts, Miss Froy disappears.

Chan-wook Park
Drama
CJ Capital Investment
R
After thirteen and half years in prison for kidnapping and murdering the boy Park Won-mo, Geum-ja Lee is released and tries to fix her life. She finds a job in a bakery; she orders the manufacturing of a special weapon; she reunites with her daughter, who was adopted by an Australian family; and she plots revenge against the real killer of Won-mo, the English teacher Mr. Baek. With the support of former inmates from prison, Geum-ja seeks an unattained redemption with her vengeance.

Alexander Mackendrick
Comedy
Ealing Studios

A gang planning a 'job' find themselves living with a little old lady, who thinks they are musicians. When the gang set out to kill Mrs Wilberforce, they run into one problem after another, and they get what they deserve.

Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Comedy
Touchstone Pictures
R
A remake of the 1955 comedy, the story revolves around a Southern professor who puts together a group of thieves to rob a casino. They rent a room in an old woman's house, but soon she discovers the plot and they must kill her, a task that is more difficult than it seems.

Tony Kaye
Documentary
Anonymous Content

Steve Miner
Action
Fox 2000 Pictures
R
What happens when a man-eating crocodile begins picking off tourists in beautiful Lake Placid? What if the crocodile wants to make it his home?

Joe Mantegna
Drama
One Vibe Entertainment
R
Coming-of-age tale set aboard a shipping freighter traveling America's Great Lakes. Creating a memoir of his own experiences, writer and Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross, American Buffalo) tells the story of Dale, an Ivy League college student who briefly joins a world-weary crew. Exposed to a seafaring lifestyle which falls short of his literary visions, Dale instead finds the experience rich in unexpected ways. The men's bravado and comical posturing gives way as their lively story-telling reveals more about their mythologized view of life than about what actually may have happened.

Neil LaBute
Drama, Thriller
Overbrook Entertainment
PG-13
In California, the Caucasian Chris Mattson and his Afro-American wife Lisa Mattson move to a house in a safe compound. The racist and dysfunctional next door neighbor is the abusive LAPD Officer Abel Turner that feels uncomfortable with the relationship of the newcomers and transforms their lives in Hell on Earth.

George A. Romero
Horror
Atmosphere Entertainment MM
R
The world is full of zombies and the survivors have barricaded themselves inside a walled city to keep out the living dead. As the wealthy hide out in skyscrapers and chaos rules the streets, the rest of the survivors must find a way to stop the evolving zombies from breaking into the city.

Kostas Karagiannis
Horror
Getty Pictures Corp.

John McNaughton
Drama
Frederick Zollo Productions
R
This is the telling of the life of organized crime boss, Meyer Lansky, as remembered by him as a very old man who is moving about the world looking for some country that will take him in since the US courts have put out an extradition order for him to stand trial. It tells of a young man growing up in the Jewish ghettos of America's big cities at the turn of the century and of his bright intelligence which he used for moving into crime. "I'm only a gambler," he claimed, "just like most all Americans." When asked by a reporter to comment on the killings that occurred under his leadership he declined, thereby making this film's thrust that of personalities and relationships rather than of acts of violence or the workings of corrupt deeds.

Ray Lawrence
Drama
Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)
R
Trust. A dead body in bracken. A cop cheats on his unhappy wife who, in secret, sees a psychiatrist whose own marriage is corroded by grief: she thinks her husband is having an affair with a gay patient of hers. The cop's lover, Jane, is recently separated, and her neighbors - a couple with children - include a muscular unemployed man. Late one night, the doctor skids off a back road, finds a call box, and tries in vain to reach her husband. She sees headlights and flags down the driver. Later that night, Jane sees her neighbor park his truck and throw something into the lantana in a vacant lot. It's a woman's shoe. Unraveling the mystery lays bare five couples.

Moisés Kaufman
Drama
Cane/Gabay Productions

Lloyd Bacon
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures

Three bumbling crooks buy a store so that they can rob the bank next door. When they soon discover the money they can make as legitimate businessmen, they abandon their plan. Trouble is, one of their cohorts, who's escaped from jail, won't let them.

Joan Brooker-Marks
Documentary
Midtown Films
NR
"Larry Flynt: The Right To Be Left Alone" is a sensational portrait of America's most famous smut peddler and his many First Amendment court battles over the past 30 years. An often polarizing figure, Larry Flynt has long struggled to expand the parameters of free speech and expose the hypocrisy of this country's elected leaders. He’s spent more time in court than many lawyers and even spent time in jail for his beliefs. When he talks about the meaning of democracy, he’s earned the right to be heard!

John Fortenberry
Comedy

Brent Carpenter, John Riggi
Comedy
Sony Pictures

A simple -- or even a detailed -- description of The Larry Sanders Show (front- and backstage goings on at a nightly US TV talk show, everyone involved demonstrating almost terminal insecurity of one kind or another) cannot possibly get even close to expressing how great this show was and is. The willingness of a succession of stars to play themselves often in the most unselfish and unflattering ways (with David Duchovny probably top of that list) is a good clue to some of what's going on. The characters, the acting, and the writing are all magnificent; the consistent inventiveness of the story-telling is unsurpassed.
I can watch these shows over and over again and still laugh out loud. Until all 90-odd episodes are made available, these 13 plus the ones on the best-of DVD will have to do, but this series is truly one of the greatest achievements of TV comedy -- or comedy in any medium -- and the whole thing should be made universally available as a public service. As it is, this set alone makes it worth getting hold of a multi-region DVD player.

Craig Gillespie
Comedy
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
PG-13
In this comedy, Lars Lindstrom is an awkwardly shy young man in a small northern town who finally brings home the girl of his dreams to his brother and sister-in-law's home. The only problem is that she's not real - she's a sex doll Lars ordered off the Internet. But sex is not what Lars has in mind, but rather a deep, meaningful relationship. His sister-in-law is worried for him, his brother thinks he's nuts, but eventually the entire town goes along with his delusion in support of this sweet natured boy that they've always loved.

Noel Nosseck
Crime
Crown International Pictures

Tony Scott
Action
Geffen Pictures
R
A down and out cynical detective teams up with a down and out ex-quarterback to try and solve a murder case involving a pro football team and a politician.

Joel Hopkins
Drama, Romance
Overture Films
PG-13

Gus Van Sant
Music
HBO Films
R
Introspective artist Blake is buckling under the weight of fame, professional obligations and a mounting feeling of isolation. Dwarfed by towering trees, Blake slowly makes his way through dense woods. He scrambles down an embankment to a fresh spring and undresses for a short swim. The next morning he returns to his house, an elegant, if neglected, stone mansion. Many people are looking for Blake--his friends, his managers and record label, even a private detective--but he does not want to be found. In the haze of his final hours, Blake will spend most his time by himself. He avoids the people who are living in his house, who approach him only when they want something, be it money or help with a song. He hides from one concerned friend and turns away another. He visits politely with a stranger from the Yellow Pages sales department, and he ducks into an underground rock club. He wanders through the woods and he plays a new song, one last rock and roll blowout. Finally, alone in the greenhouse, Blake will look and listen--and seek release.

Delbert Mann
Biography
Entertainment Partners

Following the close of World War II, General George S. Patton is seriously injured in a car accident and not expected to survive. "The Last Days of Patton" tells the story of these last few months of the General's life and the Army Medical Corps efforts to save him. Intermixed with flashbacks, the film also shows Patton's earlier career as a fledging tank commander during the First World War.

Hal Ashby
Comedy
Acrobat Productions
R
Two bawdy, tough looking navy lifers - "Bad-Ass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson), and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) - are commissioned to escort a young pilferer named Meadows (Randy Quaid) to the brig in Boston. Meadows is not much of a thief. Indeed, in his late teens, he is not much of a man at all. His great crime was to try to steal forty dollars from the general's wife's pet charity. For this, he's been sentenced to eight years behind bars. At first, Buddusky and Mulhall view the journey as a paid vacation, but their holiday spirits are quickly depressed by the prisoner, who looks prepared to break into tears at any moment. And he has the lowest self-image imaginable. Buddusky gets it into his head to give Meadows a good time and teach him a bit about getting on in the world. Lesson one: Don't take every card life deals you. Next, he teaches Meadows to drink, and, as a coup de grace, finds a nice young whore to instruct him in lovemaking. Mule, who worries aloud about his own position with military authority, seems pleased with Meadows's progress. However, when the trio reach Boston, the game comes abruptly to an end as reality sets in.

Bernardo Bertolucci
Biography
Yanco Films Limited

A dramatic history of Pu Yi, the last of the Emperors of China, from his lofty birth and brief reign in the Forbidden City, the object of worship by half a billion people; through his abdication, his decline and dissolute lifestyle; his exploitation by the invading Japanese, and finally to his obscure existence as just another peasant worker in the People's Republic.

Wes Craven
Horror
MGM (Video & DVD)
Unrated
Future "Nightmare" creator and "Scream" weaver Wes Craven's film debut is a primitive little production that rises above its cut-rate production values and hazy, grainy patina via its grimly affecting portrait of human evil infiltrating a middle-class household. The story is adapted from Ingmar Bergman's "The Virgin Spring", but the film has more in common with Sam Peckinpah's "Straw Dogs" as it charts the descent of a harmless married couple into methodical killers. A quartet of criminals--a distorted version of the nuclear family--kidnaps a pair of teenage girls and proceeds to ravage, rape, torture, and finally brutally murder them in the woods, unwittingly within walking distance of their rural home. The killers take refuge in the girls' own home, but when the parents discover just who they are and what they've done, they plot violent retribution.
Along with George Romero's "Night of the Living Dead" and Tobe Hooper's "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", Craven helped redefine American horror with this debut--all three movies portray modern society crumbling into madness and horror. But, unlike his fellow directors, Craven gives his film an uncomfortable verisimilitude, setting it squarely in the heartland of modern America. While at times it's awkward and inconsistent, with distracting comic interludes, his handling of the brutal horror scenes is unsettling, and the death of the daughter is an unexpectedly quiet and lyrical moment. "--Sean Axmaker"

Wes Craven
Crime
Lobster Enterprises

Mari and Phyllis go to the "big city" to see their favorite band BloodLust. Along the way they meet up with newly escaped convict Krug and his gang.

John Woo
Action
Golden Harvest Company

Kevin Macdonald
Drama
DNA Films
R
In 1970, the just-graduated doctor Nicholas Garrigan moves to Uganda to get rid of his conservative father. While working in a mission in the country, he meets the new President Idi Amin after the coup-d'é-tat that overthrow the former government. He is invited to become his personal physician in Kampala and along the years he sees how despotic his friend is.

F.W. Murnau
Drama
Universum Film (UFA)

The experienced doorman at the Atlantic Hotel is quite proud of his position, his responsibilities, and his uniform. One busy, rainy night, he has to take a short rest after lugging a heavy suitcase in from the rain. Unfortunately, his manager comes by during the short time when he is not performing his duties. The next day, when the doorman arrives for work, he learns that he has been replaced as doorman, and has been re-assigned to the less strenuous but purely menial position of washroom attendant. Stunned and humiliated, the old man struggles to carry on with his life.

Walter Hill
Action
Lone Wolf
R
John Smith is an amoral gunslinger in the days of Prohibition. On the lam from his latest (unspecified) exploits, he happens upon the town of Jericho, Texas. Actually, calling Jericho a town would be too generous--it has become more like a ghost town, since two warring gangs have 'driven off all the decent folk.' Smith sees this as an opportunity to play both sides off against each other, earning himself a nice piece of change as a hired gun. Despite his strictly avowed mercenary intentions, he finds himself risking his life for his, albeit skewed, sense of honor....

François Truffaut
Art House & International
The Criterion Collection
Unrated
François Truffaut again tackles the elusive nature of creativity and the elusive creation in this thoughtful, sumptuous, 1980 film. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar, and a winner of various Césars, "The Last Metro" is a tale of the theater in occupied France during World War II. Marion Steiner (Catherine Deneuve) manages the Theatre Montmarte in the stead of her Jewish husband, director Lucas Steiner (Heinz Bennent). He has purportedly fled France but is really hiding out in the basement of the theater. The one hope to save the Montmarte is a new play starring the dashing Bernard Granger (Gérard Depardieu). The attraction between Marion and Bernard is palpable, and as usual Truffaut creates tension and drama from even the most casual of occurrences. The theme of the director locked away while his lover and his creation are appropriated by others makes for interesting Truffaut study, but first and foremost this is a well-spun romance. "--Keith Simanton"

François Truffaut
Drama
Les Films du Carrosse

Paris, 1942. Lucas Steiner is a Jew and was compelled to leave the country. His wife Marion, an actress, directs the theater for him. She tries to keep the theater alive with a new play, and hires Bernard Granger for the leading role. But Lucas is actually hiding in the basement... A film about art and life.

François Truffaut
Drama, Romance
Les Films du Carrosse

Paris, 1942. Lucas Steiner is a Jew and was compelled to leave the country. His wife Marion, an actress, directs the theater for him. She tries to keep the theater alive with a new play, and hires Bernard Granger for the leading role. But Lucas is actually hiding in the basement... A film about art and life.

Barry Avrich
Documentary
Melbar Entertainment Group
PG-13

Don McKellar
Drama
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)
R
At the turn of the century, the end of the world is known to be coming to an end. This modest comedy-drama examines how the impending doom affects its cast. McKellar plays an architect who plans to meet the end alone at dinner. Others (Sandra Oh, David Cronenberg) make a suicide pact, but are caught apart and struggle to get together before the end. Another man (Callum Keith Rennie) pursues final sexual conquests and a milquetoast woman (Tracy Wright) strives to gain courage. Of course, the group ends up interacting.

Mark Benjamin, Marc Levin
Documentary
Campaign Films

Peter Bogdanovich
Drama
BBS Productions
R
In tiny Anarene, Texas, in the lull between World War Two and the Korean Conflict, Sonny and Duane are best friends. Enduring that awkward period of life between boyhood and manhood, the two pass their time the best way they know how -- with the movie house, basketball, and girls. Jacey is Duane's steady, wanted by every boy in school, and she knows it. Her daddy is rich and her mom is good looking and loose. It's the general consensus that whoever wins Jacey's heart will be set for life. But Anarene is dying a quiet death as folks head for the big cities to make their livings and raise their kids. The boys are torn between a future somewhere out there beyond the borders of town or making do with their inheritance of a run-down pool hall and a decrepit movie house -- the legacy of their friend and mentor, Sam the Lion. As high school graduation approaches, they learn some difficult lessons about love, loneliness, and jealousy. Then folks stop attending the second-run features at the movie house and the time comes for the last picture show. With the closure of the movie house, the boys feel that a stage of their lives is closing. They stand uneasily on the threshold of the rest of their lives. (The movie was adapted from the novel by Larry McMurtry).

Marty Feldman
Comedy
Universal Pictures

The priceless Blue Water sapphire is coveted by the heirs of Sir Hector Geste - his new wife, Flavia; his daughter, Isabel; and his adopted twin sons, heroic Beau and pathetic Digby. When Sir Hector takes to his deathbed (where he remains for the duration of the film), Beau absconds with the stone, to keep it from his stepmother. Flavia pursues him to North Africa, dispensing sexual favors to promote her schemes.

Edward Zwick
Action
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
In the 1870s, Captain Nathan Algren, a cynical veteran of the American Civil war who will work for anyone, is hired by Americans who want lucrative contracts with the Emperor of Japan to train the peasant conscripts for the first standing imperial army in modern warfare using firearms. The imperial Omura cabinet's first priority is to repress a rebellion of traditionalist Samurai -hereditary warriors- who remain devoted to the sacred dynasty but reject the Westernizing policy and even refuse firearms. Yet when his ill-prepared superior force sets out too soon, their panic allows the sword-wielding samurai to crush them. Badly wounded Algren's courageous stand makes the samurai leader Katsumoto spare his life; once nursed to health he learns to know and respect the old Japanese way, and participates as advisor in Katsumoto's failed attempt to save the Bushido tradition, but Omura gets repressive laws enacted- he must now choose to honor his loyalty to one of the embittered sides when the conflict returns to the battlefield...

John Dahl
Crime
Incorporated Television Company (ITC)

Bridget Gregory has a lot going for her: she's beautiful, she's intelligent, she's married to a doctor. But all of this isn't enough, as her husband Clay finds out. After she persuaded him to sell medicinal cocaine to some drugdealers, she takes off with the money, almost a million dollars, and goes undercover in a mid-American smalltown. Because Clay has to pay off a loan shark who'll otherwise damage him severely, he keeps sending detectives after her, trying to retrieve the money. When Bridget meets Mike Swale, a naive local who is blinded by her beauty and directness, she devises an elaborate, almost diabolical scheme to get rid of Clay once and for all.

Jeff Nathanson
Comedy
Touchstone Pictures
R
Straight shooter agent Joe Devine has been assigned to cook up an elaborate scheme to take down infamous mob boss John Gotti. He assumes the role of a Hollywood producer and tells all the right lies to enlist a stooge to help execute his sting. He finds unsuspecting wannabe director Steven Schatz, who'd do just about everything to get the chance to direct a feature. Schatz falls hook, line, and sinker for the pitch, but what Devine doesn't tell Schatz is that the movie will never be made. Everything goes according to plan--until Devine and the suits at the Bureau start enjoying their new lives as Hollywood players a bit too much.

Stacy Title
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
When Pete (Eldard), one of five friends who share an Iowa house, invites Zack (Paxton), a man who gave him a lift home in for supper, the night turns suddenly sour when Zack irrationally attacks Pete, but is killed by the other friends. After this episode, the friends suggest that, having ridden the world of one bad person, they should continue to do the same thing every Sunday night at supper.

Bernardo Bertolucci
Drama
Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)
NC-17
While looking for an apartment, Jeanne, a beautiful young Parisienne, encounters Paul, a mysterious American expatriate mourning his wife's recent suicide. Instantly drawn to each other, they have a stormy, passionate affair, in which they do not reveal their names to each other. Their relationship deeply affects their lives, as Paul struggles with his wife's death and Jeanne prepares to marry her fiance, Tom, a film director making a cinema-verite documentary about her.

Martin Scorsese
Drama
Cineplex-Odeon Films
R
The carpenter Jesus of Nazareth, tormented by the temptations of demons, the guilt of making crosses for the Romans, pity for men and the world, and the constant call of God, sets out to find what God wills for him. But as his mission nears fulfillment, he must face the greatest temptation: the normal life of a good man. Based, not on the Gospels, but on Nikos Kazantzakis' novel of the same name.

Stephen T. Kay
Drama
Bates Entertainment
R
Neal Cassady is living the beat life during the 1940s, working at The Tire Yard and and philandering around town. However, he has visions of a happy life with kids and a white picket fence. When his girlfried, Joan, tries to kill herself he gets scared and runs away. But when Joan reappears will he take the chance at that happiness, or will he turn his back on it?

Elia Kazan
Drama
Academy Pictures Corporation
PG

Martin Scorsese
Documentary
FM Productions
PG
Thanksgiving, 1976, San Francisco's Winterland: the Band performs its last concert after 16 years on the road. Some numbers they do alone, some songs include guest artists from Ronnie Hawkins (their first boss, when they were the Hawks) to Bob Dylan (their last, when as his backup and as a solo group, they came into their own). Scorsese's camera explores the interactions onstage in the making of music. Offstage, he interviews the Band's five members, focusing on the nature of life on the road. The friendships, the harmonies, the hijinks, and the wear and tear add up to a last waltz.

Martin Scorsese
Documentary
FM Productions
PG
Thanksgiving, 1976, San Francisco's Winterland: the Band performs its last concert after 16 years on the road. Some numbers they do alone, some songs include guest artists from Ronnie Hawkins (their first boss, when they were the Hawks) to Bob Dylan (their last, when as his backup and as a solo group, they came into their own). Scorsese's camera explores the interactions onstage in the making of music. Offstage, he interviews the Band's five members, focusing on the nature of life on the road. The friendships, the harmonies, the hijinks, and the wear and tear add up to a last waltz.

Peter Weir
Mystery
Australian Film Commission, The

A Sydney lawyer has more to worry about than higher-than-average rainfall when he is called upon to defend five Aboriginals in court. Determined to break their silence and discover the truth behind the hidden society he suspects lives in his city, the Lawyer is drawn further, and more intimately, into a prophesy that threatens a new Armageddon, wherein all the continent shall drown.

Roger Corman
Horror
Alpha Video

Ev; her husband, Harold; and their lawyer friend, Martin, are skindiving while on vacation in Puerto Rico. When they resurface, they gradually conclude that an unexplained, temporary interruption of oxygen has killed everyone on the island - maybe in the world!

Geoffrey Haley
Drama, Romance
Deviant Films
R

Betty Thomas
Comedy
Home Box Office (HBO)
R
HBO movie about the behind-the-scenes network politics responsible for the changes in late-night talk-show hosts, after the retirement of Johnny Carson from the Tonight Show on NBC. Jay Leno and David Letterman were both vying for the position, but Leno's tough manager Helen Kushnick got him the spot. In the wake of her 'stepping on the toes' of powerful network executives and 'playing hardball' tactics with guest bookings, she found herself being pushed out of her job as Tonight Show Executive Producer and Jay's manager. Letterman, devastated by his being passed over, brought in superagent Mike Ovitz to negotiate on his behalf, resulting in his move to CBS.

Robert Benton
Crime
Lions Gate Films
PG

Yasujiro Ozu
Drama
Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

Somiya was an old widower with a daughter, named Noriko, mature for marriage but would rather live with her father. In order to make her marry with an easy mind, Somiya pretends to take a young wife.

Stuart Rosenberg
Crime
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

A policeman is among the victims when the passengers of a late-night bus are machine-gunned. With only one semi- conscious survivor and no other witnesses, the detectives try to learn from the identities of the dead why this happened and who the killer could be. Climax includes excellent chase.

Richard Benjamin
Comedy
Paramount Television
R

Otto Preminger
Crime
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case.

A. Edward Sutherland
Comedy
Boris Morros Productions

Oliver is heartbroken when he finds that Georgette, the inkeeper's daughter he's fallen in love with, is already married to dashing Foreign Legion officer Francois. To forget her, he joins the Legion, taking Stanley with him. Their bumbling eventually gets them charged with desertion and sentenced to a firing squad. They manage to escape in a stolen airplane, but crash after a wild ride.

Various
Comedy

NR
Five classic shorts:
"Blotto"
"The Chimp"
"Them Thar Hills"
"Tit For Tat"
"The Live Ghost"

Lisa Cholodenko
Drama
Antidote Films (I)
R
Newly graduated psychiatrist Sam and his fiancee Alex move to Los Angeles for Sam's residency, into Sam's mother's house in upscale Laurel Canyon. Only problem is, Sam's mother is still there, supposedly finishing up a record that she's producing for the band of her new boy toy, Ian. She seems more interested in smoking pot and drinking than actually working, though. Alex doesn't mind, but Sam is quite upset. Alex starts off focused on her work (finishing a dissertation on genomics), but is soon distracted by the rock-'n-roll lifestyle going on around her. Meanwhile, Sam is equally distracted by beautiful Israeli intern Sara.

Charles Crichton
Comedy
Ealing Studios

Holland, a shy retiring man, dreams of being rich and living the good life. Faithfully, for 20 years, he has worked as a bank transfer agent for the delivery of gold bullion. One day he befriends Pendlebury, a maker of souvenirs. Holland remarks that, with Pendlebury's smelting equipment, one could forge the gold into harmless-looking toy Eiffel Towers and smuggle the gold from England into France. Soon after, the two plant a story to gain the services of professional criminals Lackery and Shorty. Together, the four plot their crime, leading to unexpected twists and turns.

Robert N. Bradbury
Romance
Lone Star Productions (I)

Tobin is after the bandit Zanti who killed his parents. He finds him just as Zanti is about to kill Dusty and kidnap Ruby. Saving the two, he goes after Zanti. He catches him but Zanti escapes the Sheriff's handcuff's and this time Tobin has to chase him into the desert.

David Lean
Adventure
Horizon Pictures (II)
PG
An inordinately complex man who has been labeled everything from hero, to charlatan, to sadist, Thomas Edward Lawrence blazed his way to glory in the Arabian desert, then sought anonymity as a common soldier under an assumed name. The story opens with the death of Lawrence in a motorcycle accident in London at the age of 47, then flashbacks to recount his adventures: as a young intelligence officer in Cairo in 1916, he is given leave to investigate the progress of the Arab revolt against the Turks in World War I. In the desert, he organizes a guerrilla army and--for two years--leads the Arabs in harassing the Turks with desert raids, train-wrecking and camel attacks. Eventually, he leads his army northward and helps a British General destroy the power of the Ottoman Empire.

Peter Howitt
Comedy
Deep River Productions
PG-13
This is the story of two New York divorce attorneys (Moore, Brosnan) who are often competing against each other, but end up in a relationship nonetheless. When they get married, can they avoid the same issues at home that lead people to provide them business at work? One of the central cases in the story is the heavily-publicized divorce of a rock star (Sheen) from his wife (Posey)...

Nick Gomez
Drama
Island World

Jimmy and Jon are a couple of Brooklyn guys who somehow never found their way into workaday society; they never found their way into big-time crime, either. But that all changes when their old friend Frankie returns from Florida with some guns to sell. In the course of a few very short urban summer days, their lives spin permanently out of control.

Matthew Vaughn
Crime
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
The successful drug dealer Mr. X plans his criminal career intermediating business with drugs without calling the attention, working with a small gang and honoring his payments with the suppliers. On the day planned for his early retirement, the powerful mobster Jimmy Price gives two assignments to him: find Charlie, the addicted daughter of his associate Eddie Temple and negotiate um million pills of high-quality ecstasy with the stupid smalltime gangster Duke. Mr. X hires two acquaintances crooks in a night-club to find Charlie, and he unexpectedly meets Duke's cousin Sidney with his sexy girlfriend Tammy and flirts with her. But Mr. X discovers that the ecstasy was stolen from the dangerous and wild Serbian drug lord Dragan that wants the head of Duke and the drugs back. Further, Eddie shows a tape proving that he has been double-crossed by Jimmy, and also wants the ecstasy. The smart Mr. X plots a scheme to resolve the situation and meet Tammy.

Henri-Georges Clouzot
Drama
Continental Films
G
A vicious series of poison-pen letters spreads rumours, suspicion and fear among the inhabitants of a small French town, and one after another, they turn on each other as their hidden secrets are unveiled - but the one secret that no-one can uncover is the identity of the letters' author...

James Ivory
Drama
Merchant Ivory Productions
PG-13

Jean-Pierre Melville
Crime, Thriller
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion
PG
Burglar Maurice Faugel has just finished his sentence. He murders Gilbert Vanovre, a receiver, and steals the loot of a break-in. He is also preparing a house-breaking, and his friend Silien brings him the needed equipment. But Silien is a police informer ... A movie whose "all characters are two-faced, all characters are false", according to director Jean-Pierre Melville.

René Clair
Musical
Films Sonores Tobis

Michel, a Parisian artist, is being hounded by numerous impatient creditors. To make things worse, when he is embracing the woman whose portrait he is painting, he is surprised by his indignant fiancée Béatrice. Suddenly, Michel learns that he holds the winning ticket in the Dutch Lottery. But when he goes to retrieve the ticket from the pocket of his jacket, he finds that Béatrice has given the jacket to a stranger who was in need. Now everyone has a keen interest in finding that jacket.

Luchino Visconti
Drama
Cinematografica Associati (CI.AS.)

A love triangle, the past invades the present. Mario, a shy man new in Venice, chats up a crying woman on a bridge. She's Natalia, waiting for a lover gone for a year who promised to return. For three nights, Mario accompanies Natalia, assists her, distracts her, dances with her, and falls in love. He's the present, real; can he pull Natalia into his arms, away from the past and from love for a man who will probably never return? On the third night, just before dawn, it snows.

Jean-Luc Godard
War
Les Productions Georges de Beauregard

During the Algerian war for independence from France, a young Frenchman living in Geneva who belongs to a right-wing terrorist group and a young woman who belongs to a left-wing terrorist group meet and fall in love. Complications ensue when the man is suspected by the members of his terrorist group of being a double agent.

Max Ophüls
Comedy, Drama
Compagnie Commerciale Française Cinématographique (CCFC)
Unrated
Three stories about the pleasure. The first one is about a man hiding his age behind a mask to keep going to balls and fancying women - pleasure and youth. Then comes the long tale of Mme Tellier taking her girls (whores) to the country for attending her niece's communion - pleasure and purity. And lastly, Jean the painter falling in love with his model - pleasure and death.

Max Nosseck
Comedy
Nero Films

Buster Garnier is having a very bad day, even by his standards. First of all he manages to lose his job distributing flyers for a car company when he accidentally hands out packets of real notes instead of the false money-off vouchers; then he blunders into a stage performance at the theatre where his mother is prompt, and gets thrown out there too. Methodically, he drapes a black band across his own portrait, writes a last note to his mother, bids farewell to his pets one by one, switches on the gas tap, and composes himself calmly on the floor to await oblivion. But Life hasn't had its last laugh at his expense just yet... Meanwhile, across town, a scarred and ruthless gangster is preparing to break out of gaol. Unknown to either man, the two of them are almost exactly alike; and when Buster finds himself on stage in the role of a gaol-bird, fact and fiction are about to get extremely confused!

Jean-Pierre Melville
Thriller
Compagnie Industrielle et Commerciale Cinématographique (CICC)

Hitman Jef Costello is a perfectionist who always carefully plans his murders and who never gets caught. One night however, after killing a night-club owner, he's seen by witnesses. His efforts to provide himself with an alibi fail and more and more he gets driven into a corner.

Jacques Becker
Crime
Filmsonor

Nick Broomfield
Documentary
Lafayette Films

Christopher Browne
Documentary
Magnolia
R
Tracing the historical arc of the professional bowling tour, the film includes archival footage from the sport's glory days in the 1950s and '60s, through its near extinction in 1997. The story takes a twist when newly installed CEO Steve Miller sets about modernizing the PBA. In addition to Miller, the chronicle focuses on four pro bowlers: Pete Weber, bowling bad-boy and son of legendary bowler Dick Weber whose conservative style doesn't jibe with the direction Miller is taking the new PBA. Pete's nemesis is Walter Ray Williams Jr., a straight-laced six-time world horseshoe-pitching champion and, with 36 PBA titles to his name, the dominant player on the tour. Also, there's Chris Barnes, a young father of newborn twins, who must leave his wife and sons at home and hit the road to compete for the winnings that his young family is depending upon. Finally there's Wayne Webb, a 20-time PBA champion who has fallen on hard times and hopes to squeeze one more good season out of his career to stave off bankruptcy.

Penny Marshall
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG
In the farm of Oregon Dottie Henson and Kit Keller are working on the farm. Sisters that do love each other, except when it comes to baseball. Kit wants to play in the league but is upset to hear that it is Dottie who is chosen to play for the AAPGL. (All American Pro Girls League) Dottie refuses to play unless Kit can come along. AAPGL was only made because of the World War II and all of the man were in the war. Along the way to the stadium they meet Marla Hooch who is a great hitter, but to most people not the prettiest girl. When they are going to try out they meet Doris and Mae because Doris threw a baseball at Dottie who caught it impressing Doris. They girls find out their new manager is Jimmy Dugan. Jimmy Dugan drinks a lot and is the worst manager until Dottie get through to him and he becomes a better person. Miss Cuthbert makes sure the rules are followed, no boys, no drinking or smoking until Mae poisons her meal. The girls go to party and Marla who had been overlooked a lot is noticed by a guy named Nelson. Dottie's husband Bob is in the army and when news comes that a man in the army has been killed it turns out to be Betty Spaghetti. After awhile, Kit feels that once again like at home she is behind Dottie's shadow. Dottie notices it to and asks to be transferred to another team. Of course Mr. Lovitz doesn't want the best player to be transferred so he has Kit transferred to Racine. Kit feels that Dottie did this on purpose. Kit plays for the Racine while Dottie plays for Rockford. In the final scene Dottie is crashed into by Kit and she drops the ball, letting Racine win, making Kit have her own stardom instead of being in Dottie's shadow. The girls have a reunion and they remember the fun they had together.

Richard Pearce
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
Jonas is a fraudulent faith healer, who uses all the tricks in the book to con the people attending his shows. Jonas and his team of helpers, including Jane who is in need of some romance, travel the country stopping at big towns and cities to put on their show. When one of the trucks breaks down in a small town, Jonas is quick to accept the challenge of making money in this town. His other goal is to seduce Marva, a waitress in the town, but she's a hard nut to crack, as is Will, the local sheriff who's determined to expose Jonas as a fraud.

George Clooney
Comedy
Universal Studios
PG-13
Academy Award® winners George Clooney and Renée Zellweger team up in this fun-filled comedy set against the beginnings of pro football. Dodge Connelly (Clooney), captain of a struggling squad of barroom brawlers, has only one hope to save his team: recruit college superstar Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski, The Office). But when a feisty reporter (Zellweger) starts snooping around, she turns the two teammates into instant rivals and kicks off a wild competition filled with hilarious screwball antics! Critics are cheering Leatherheads as “a real winner” (Claudia Puig, USA Today).

Mike Figgis
Drama
Initial Productions
R
Because his wife left him and took his son with her, screenwriter Ben Anderson has started drinking, a lot. He's getting more and more isolated and he troubles women in bars because he wants to have sex with them. When he gets fired, he decides to leave everything behind and move to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. In Las Vegas he meets Sera, a prostitute with some problems as well who he moves in with.

Dick Carruthers
Music Video & Concerts
M:Productions
G

Kate O'Callaghan, Patrick Farrelly
Documentary
Hbo Home Video
NR
Produced for HBO, "Left of the Dial" tracks the growing pains behind the nation's first liberal radio network. Longtime Michael Moore associates Patrick Farrelly and Kate O'Callaghan ("The Awful Truth") take a "fair and balanced" fly-on-the-wall look at the major players behind and in front of the mic at Air America, established to "challenge the right wing dominance of talk radio." (Moore, surprisingly, turns out to be one of the venture’s harshest critics.) The filmmakers began shooting 12 days prior to the March 2004 launch and kept going for the next few months. They start by aiming their cameras at Evan Cohen, the chairman, and David Goodfriend, the general counsel. Like the duo depicted in "Startup.com", theirs isn’t a partnership built to last. Other subjects include hosts Randi Rhodes, Marc Maron, Chuck D, Janeane Garofalo, and Al Franken. Most hadn't worked in radio before and things quickly begin to unravel: Rhodes feels left out of the press coverage, while Maron feels the staff is incompetent. Then Ralph Nader hangs up on Rhodes and there's a scandal regarding airtime payments. What do their competitors think? Sean Hannity (FOX News) opines, "These people are not bright...they really are dull." Fortunately, enough listeners felt otherwise that Air America eventually found their footing and grew out of that awkward stage. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Ivan Reitman
Comedy
Universal Pictures
PG
District Attorney Tom Logan is set for higher office, at least until he becomes involved with defence lawyer Laura Kelly and her unpredictable client Chelsea Deardon. It seems the least of Chelsea's crimes is the theft of a very valuable painting, but as the women persuade Logan to investigate further and to cut some official corners, a much more sinister scenario starts to emerge.

Charles Herman-Wurmfeld
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
PG-13
Sassy postgrad Elle Woods is all about animal rights. In fact, she puts her nuptial plans on hold to head to Washington D.C. to get an anti-animal testing bill passed. Her building's doorman quickly shows her the ways and workings of our nation's capital.

Robert Redford
Drama
Allied Filmmakers
PG-13
A disillusioned war veteran, Capt. Rannulph Junah (Matt Damon), reluctantly agrees to play a game of golf. He finds the game futile until his caddy, Bagger Vance (Will Smith), teaches him the secret of the authentic golf stroke which turns out also to be the secret to mastering any challenge and finding meaning in life.

Martin Campbell
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG
The Legendary Zorro goes off on another adventure to protect the future of California and its citizens. This time, he fights against evil-doers with the help of his beautiful wife, Elena, and their precocious young son, Joaquin. Alejandro De LaVega is torn between two worlds: his life as Zorro and his life as a family man. After Alejandro once again breaks his promise to stop wearing the mask, Elena leaves him, and soon begins seeing Armand, a haughty French Count. But a mysterious explosion in the desert leads Zorro to believe that there's more to Armand than meets the eye, and our hero is intent on finding out what that is. Little does he know, there are others working to uncover certain truths as well.

Edward Zwick
Drama
Bedford Falls Productions
R
Set in the Rocky Mountains of Montana in the early 1900s, this is a tale of love, betrayal, and brotherhood. After being discharged, Colonel Ludlow decides to raise his three sons in the wilds of Montana, where they can grow up away from the government and society he has learned to dispise. The three brothers mature and seem to have an unbreakable bond, until Susanna enters their lives. When Samuel, the youngest of the three, returns from college he brings with him his beautiful fiance, Susanna. The eldest son, Alfred, soon finds himself in love with his brother's fiance, and things get worse when he discovers a growing passion between Susanna and Tristan. Colonel Ludlow's favorite son, Tristan is willful and as wild as the mountains. As the brothers set out to fight a war in Europe, suspicion and jelousy threatens to tear apart their once indestructable bond.

Sidney Lanfield
Comedy
Hope Enterprises

When the Lemon Drop Kid accidentally steers Moose Moran's girl away from a winning bet, he is forced to come up with $10,000 to repay the angry gangster. Fortunately it's Christmas, a time when people can be persuaded to part with money for the right cause.

Brad Silberling
Adventure
Paramount Pictures
PG
Lemony Snicket narrates the incidents of small children Baudelaire that newly have been orphan after being burnt its elegant mansion, heirs of a great fortune, suddenly its lives are wrapped in serious danger due to the Count's greed who attempts by all possible means, to keep the great inheritance. The children pass this way to fall under the custody of kindred eccentrics relatives who are being eliminated by the evil Count Olaf.

Bob Fosse
Biography
Marvin Worth Productions
R
Interview-style biography of controversial and pioneering stand-up comedian Lenny Bruce. The film traces Bruce from his beginnings as a Catskills comic to his later underground popularity based on his anti-establishment politics and his scatological humor.

John Magnuson
Comedy
John Magnuson Associates

Iconoclast Lenny Bruce appears at San Francisco's Basin Street West in what was his next-to-last live appearance. His act that night consisted of reading allegations and transcripts from one of his several obscenity trials and then commenting on what he'd actually done or said. While there are some "bits" in the performance (including the prison riot with Dutch, the Warden, Father Flotski, and Sabu, the prison doctor), this is much more a social commentary on government intrusion and censorship than it is a comedy routine.

Robert B. Weide
Documentary
HBO Documentary

Fred Baker
Documentary


This documentary tells the story of the rise and fall of Lenny Bruce (1925-1966), hip comedian and bête noire to the establishment. The film makes the case that Bruce was impoverished and broken by a series of unjust arrests and prosecutions in the 1960s. Clips of Bruce performances, "bits" as he calls them, dominate the film, from Steve Allen's TV show to night-club appearances late in life when he would mine his arrests for material. Malcolm Muggeridge calls Bruce a moralist. A former assistant district attorney from New York in effect apologizes for his part in persecuting Bruce. The bounce and snap of Bruce in the 50s transform into ironic social commentary.

Luc Besson
Action
Gaumont

Mathilda, a twelve-year old New York girl, is living an undesirable life among her half-family. Her father stores drugs for two-faced cop Norman Stansfield. Only her little brother keeps Mathilda from breaking apart. One day, Stansfield and his team take cruel revenge on her father for stretching the drugs a little, thus killing the whole family. Only Mathilda, who was out shopping, survives by finding shelter in Léon's apartment in the moment of highest need. Soon, she finds out about the strange neighbour's unusual profession - killing - and desperately seeks his help in taking revenge for her little brother. Léon, who is completely unexperienced in fatherly tasks, and in friendships, does his best to keep Mathilda out of trouble - unsuccessfully. Now, the conflict between a killer, who slowly discovers his abilities to live, to feel, to love and a corrupt police officer, who does anything in his might to get rid of an eye witness, arises to unmeasurable proportions - all for the sake of a little twelve-year old girl, who has nearly nothing to lose.

Paul Weiland
Comedy
SAH Productions

The CIA asks for ex-spy Leonard's help in stopping an evil force that is brainwashing small animals into killing people. Leonard, however, has his own problems to deal with: winning back his ex-wife.

Luchino Visconti
Drama
Titanus

In the 1860s, a dying aristocracy struggles to maintain itself against a harsh Sicilian landscape. The film traces with a slow and deliberate rhythm the waning of the noble home of Fabrizio Corbero, Prince of Salina (the Leopard) and the corresponding rise to eminence of the enormously wealthy ex-peasant Don Calogero Sedara. The prince himself refuses to take active steps to halt the decline of his personal fortunes or to help build a new Sicily but his nephew Tancredi, Prince of Falconeri swims with the tide and assures his own position by marrying Don Calogero's beautiful daughter Angelica. The climatic scene is the sumptuous forty-minute ball, where Tancredi introduces Angelica to society.

Robert Bresson
Drama
Les Films Raoul Ploquin

Realizing that her lover (Jean) is losing interest in her, a society lady (Helene) gets revenge by tricking him into marrying a former prostitute (Agnes). After the wedding Helene tells a stunned Jean about his wife's secret past, but the ending has more than one surprise twist. This is a modernized but fairly faithful adaptation of the story of Madame de La Pommeraye from Denis Diderot's novel Jacques le Fataliste.

Jean-Pierre Melville
Drama
Melville Productions

Elisabeth is very protective of her teenage brother Paul, who is injured in a snowball fight at school and has to rest in bed most of the time. The siblings are inseparable, living in the same room, fighting, playing secret games, and rarely leaving the house; though Paul's friend Gerard often stays with them. One day Elisabeth brings home Agathe to live with them also. She bears a strong resemblance to Dargelos, a schoolboy whom Paul had a crush on, and who injured him. Paul and Agathe become attracted to each other, causing Elizabeth to be very jealous.

Marek Kanievska
Crime
Amercent Films

Clay, an eighteen-year-old freshman, comes back from his first term at a college in New Hampshire to spend his Christmas vacation with his broken-up wealthy family in Los Angeles. His former girlfriend, Blair, is now involved with his ex-best-friend, Julian. She warns Clay that Julian needs help: he is using a lot of cocaine and has huge debts. What follows is a look at the youth culture of wealthy post adolescents in Beverly Hills with a strong anti-drug message. Apart from the setting and the names, the film has very little to do with Bret Easton Ellis's book by the same title on which it was based.

Joseph Sargent
Drama
Ellen M. Krass Productions
PG-13
In the 1940's South, an African-American (Phifer) is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his mother (Hall) and aunt (Tyson) asks that the local school teacher (Cheadle) go to his cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he's not a dumb animal but a man with dignity.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg
Documentary
Apple Corps

A documentary showing both how

Sidney Poitier
Comedy
First Artists
PG
Clyde Williams and Billy Foster are a couple of blue-collar workers in Atlanta who have promised to raise funds for their fraternal order, the Brothers and Sisters of Shaka. However, their method for raising the money involves travelling to New Orleans and rigging a boxing match. Using hypnotism, they turn the scrawny underdog into a super-confident fighting machine. They bet heavily on him, he wins easily, and they return to Atlanta with their money. All is fine until the gangsters conned by these two figure out what happened show up in Atlanta with a grudge. Now Williams and Foster have to rig the fight again so the gangsters can get their money back or they'll be killed. Can they do it again...?

Richard Donner
Action
Silver Pictures

Martin Riggs is an L.A. cop with suicidal tendencies and Roger Murtaugh is the unlucky police officer with whom Riggs is assigned. Together they uncover a huge drug-smuggling operation, and as their success rate grows so does their friendship.

Richard Donner
Action
Silver Pictures

Riggs and Murtaugh are at it again in this sequel to the original Lethal Weapon in 1987. When a red BMW crashes while they are chasing it, they discover the trunk is full of South African Krugerands. Their boss assigns them to protect a federal witness named Leo Getz to try and keep them out of trouble. When the witness reveals he has been doing business with South Africans, the story evolves into a fast moving chase.

Richard Donner
Action
Silver Pictures
R
Martin Riggs finally meets his match in the form of Lorna Cole, a beautiful but tough policewoman. Together with Roger Murtaugh, his partner, the three attempt to expose a crooked former policeman and his huge arms racket. The crooked cop (Jack Travis) thwarts them at every turn, mainly by killing anyone who is about to talk, but Murtaugh has personal problems of his own as his family are brought into the equation.

Richard Donner
Action
Donner/Shuler-Donner Productions
R
Martin Riggs and Roger Murtaugh, after escaping death from the previous movies are put on a hit list by The Triads. When blood thirsty mercenaries are on their tail they team up again with Leo Getz and Lorna Cole, a newcomer (Chris Rock) to finally put an end to the Triads for good.

William Wyler
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures

The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense. Her poise, graciousness and stoicism impress nearly everyone who meets her. Her husband is certainly without doubt; so is the district officer; while her lawyer's doubts may be a natural skepticism. But this is Singapore and the resentful natives will have no compunction about undermining this accused murderess. A letter in her hand turns up and may prove her undoing.

Clint Eastwood
Drama
Amblin Entertainment
R
The island of Iwo Jima stands between the American military force and the home islands of Japan. Therefore the Imperial Japanese Army is desperate to prevent it from falling into American hands and providing a launching point for an invasion of Japan. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi is given command of the forces on the island and sets out to prepare for the imminent attack. General Kuribayashi, however, does not favor the rigid traditional approach recommended by his subordinates, and resentment and resistance fester among his staff. In the lower echelons, a young soldier, Saigo, a poor baker in civilian life, strives with his friends to survive the harsh regime of the Japanese army itself, all the while knowing that a fierce battle looms. When the American invasion begins, both Kuribayashi and Saigo find strength, honor, courage, and horrors beyond imagination.

Ed Solomon
Crime
Studio Canal
R
The film philosophical approach at redemption. The protagonist Manual Jordan (Billy Bob Thorton) has gotten parole from a life sentence for the murder of Abner Easley, and returns to the city he lived in to try to seek redemption. He ends up living and working at a community house run by a preacher, Miles Evans (Morgan Freeman.) The film is equipped with beautiful voice-overs about the meaning of life and different philosophies for getting redemed. Manual also becomes friends with Idel Easley (Holly Hunter), his victims sister, in an attempt to make up for what he did. While working at the home he has interactions with Sophia Mellinger (Kirsten Dunst), the druggie daughter of a famous singer, struggling with the lack of adult guidance in her life. This quirky film, is asthetically beautiful. Stellar performaces by Thorton, Holly hunter, Morgan Freeman, and Kirsten Dunst.

Paul Miller
Comedy
Rickmill Productions

Paul Miller
Comedy
HBO Home Video

Various
Comedy
Comedy Central
NR
Comedy Central's jittery, apoplectic commentator on all things absurd in politics and culture is superb on this disc's collection of four half-hour cable specials and bonus features. Fans and newcomers get a chance to see how much the comic has grown since his delightful 1998 show, in which Black characteristically sputtered this bit of social-scientific criticism: "It's absolutely stupid that we've lost the ozone layer. We've got men, rockets, Saran Wrap--fix it!" Black attacks Bill Clinton for obscuring the meaning of infidelity ("If curling is an Olympic sport, oral sex is adultery!"), Y2K hype, flu shots, America's power elite, Ross Perot ("He's the kid in "Deliverance" all growed-up!"), and even delivers a "Taxes 101" college lecture ("What would help IRS forms? Verbs!"). Bonus features include Black's "Indecision 2000" inserts--caustic commentary about the last Republican and Democrat conventions--for Jon Stewart's show. Highly entertaining stuff. "--Tom Keogh"

Various
Comedy
Comedy Central
NR
Las Vegas. YouTube. Paris Hilton. What do they have in common? They all make Lewis Black want to strangle himself with a television cord. Join the abrasive comedian as he and his brethren take on pop culture, politics and all the things that most stupefy and pervert our society. With the help of comics like Patton Oswalt, Greg Giraldo and Andrew Daly, Lewis Black will help you find the Root of All Evil.

Albert S. Rogell
Comedy
Vogue Productions

Set in the mythical town of Dogpatch. Dogpatch has a serious unemployment problem. Men spend their days idling away fishing, and the single women spend time scheming about how to catch their preferred single men come the next Sadie Hawkins Day. Daisy Mae has her sights set on Li'l Abner (Keaton), but rival, Appasianata, has other plans.

Tom Shadyac
Comedy
Imagine Entertainment
PG-13
Fletcher Reed a fast talking attorney, habitual liar, and divorced father is an incredibly successful lawyer who has built his career by lying. He has a habit of giving precedence to his job and always breaking promises to be with his favorite young son Max, but Fletcher lets Max down once too often, for missing his own son's birthday party. But until then at 8:15 Max has decided to make an honest man out of him as he wishes for one whole day his dad couldn't tell a lie. When the wish comes true all Fletcher can do is tell the truth and cannot tell one lie. Uh-oh for Fletcher!

Laurence Dunmore
Drama
Mr. Mudd
R
In 1660, with the return of Charles II to the English throne, theater, the visual arts, science and sexual intercourse flourish. Thirteen years later, in the middle of political and economical problems, Charles II asks the return of his friend John Wilmot, aka the second Earl of Rochester, from the exile to London. John is a morally corrupt, drunkard and sexually active cynical poet, and the King asks him to prepare a play for the French ambassador to make him pleased. John meets the aspirant actress Elizabeth Barry in the playhouse and decides to make her a great star. He falls in love for her, and she becomes his mistress; during the presentation to the Frenchman, he falls in disgrace in the court. When he was thirty-three years old, he was dying of syphilis associated to alcoholism and he converted to a religious man.

Ted Demme
Comedy
Imagine Entertainment
R
In the mid-1990s, two inmates bury the burned bodies of two lifers at Mississippi's infamous Parchman Farm; a third old-timer relates their story. They'd served 65 years for a murder they didn't commit, framed by a local sheriff while buying moonshine whiskey for a Manhattan club owner to whom they owed money. In flashbacks we see this odd couple thrown together (Ray is a fast-talking con man, and Claude is a serious man about to start work as a bank teller), the loss of Ray's watch (sterling silver, from his daddy), the murder and trial, the hardships of Parchman, and the love-hate relationship of Claude and Ray as they spend 65 years bickering and looking for a way to escape.

Steve Dildarian
Animation, Comedy
Good Humor Television
NR
Creator Steve Dildarian animates HBO's "The Life & Times of Tim" in the flat, simplistic style of "Beavis & Butthead", but that's where the comparison ends. Tim (Dildarian) may act like a child, but he's still an adult. The deadpan New Yorker lives with his exasperated girlfriend, Amy (M.J. Otto), and works at Omnicorp with the manly Rodney (Matt Johnson), the droll Stu (Nick Kroll), and the unnamed Boss (Peter Giles). In the pilot, Amy and her parents catch Tim with a hooker--having a conversation. When he refuses to pay for services non-rendered, Debbie (Bob Morrow) gives her pimp a call, but Tim outsmarts the guy by playing dumb. That unique combination of idiocy and quick wits distinguishes the rest of the 10 episodes, which walk the line between clever and crude (and they're definitely not for kids). During the first season, Tim lies to protect Rodney's rowdy rep, calls a baby a name, gropes a grandmother, insults an old codger, and sneaks into a deaf coworker's birthday party for the free cake.
Much like "Curb Your Enthusiasm", Dildarian takes aim at political correctness run amok, except Tim's every problem begins with his inability to decline the most inane requests, whereas Larry David is more like a bull in a china shop. The good news: "The Life & Times of Tim" is just as funny. The bad news: the humor might make you feel queasy. (There's a reason Dildarian chose "I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive" as the show's theme song.) Guest voices include Cheri Oteri as the super's daughter, Jeff Garlin as Stu's dad, and Phylicia Rashad as the Boss's wife, while the bonus feature adds 10 promotional shorts. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Drama
Archers, The

Portrays in warm-hearted detail the life and loves of one extraordinary man. We meet the imposingly rotund General Clive Wynne-Candy, a blustering old duffer who seems the epitome of stuffy, outmoded values. Traveling backwards 40 years we see a different man altogether: the young and dashing officer "Sugar" Candy. Through a series of relationships with three women and his lifelong friendship with a German officer, we see Candy's life unfold and come to understand how difficult it is for him to adapt his sense of military honor to modern notions of "total war."

Stephen Hopkins
Biography
HD Vision Studios

Based on the biography of the same name. The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is the story of the comic actor, who would later immortalize bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther series. From his beginnings in show business as a variety performer to his ultimate success as a movie star, Peter Sellers was a man of many faces. But it was also that moniker that caught up with his personal life, when Sellers was a man without an identity and only a library of oddball characters to make up for his personality. Focusing on his rising success and his family life, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers is the story of a man whose personal life clashed with stardom, while he was an individual completely immersed in the characters he portrayed.

John Huston
Comedy
First Artists

A no account outlaw establishes his own particular brand of law and order and builds a town on the edges of civilization in this farcical western. With the aid of an old law text and unpredictable notions Roy Bean distinguishes between lawbreakers and lawgivers by way of his pistols.

Wes Anderson
Adventure
Touchstone Pictures
R
When his partner is killed by the mysterious and possibly nonexistent Jaguar Shark, Steve Zissou (Murray) and his Team Zissou crew set off for an expedition to hunt down the creature. Along with his estranged wife (Huston), a beautiful journalist (Blanchett) and a co-pilot who could possibly be Zissou's son (Wilson), the crew set off for one wild expedition.

Irwin Winkler
Drama
Winkler Films
R

George Marshall
Comedy
Fox Film Corporation

In small-town America the easy-going publisher of the local paper finds himself in opposition to the local banker on the return to town of a lad jailed possibly wrongly for a theft from the bank.

Danny Boyle
Drama
Channel Four Films
R
Ewan McGregor stars as a cleaning man in L.A. who takes his boss's daughter hostage after being fired and replaced by a robot. Two "angels" who are in charge of human relationships on earth, offer some unsolicited help to bring this unlikely couple together. The "angels" are so successful that the daughter soon turns on her father in order to save her captor.

Alan Parker
Drama
Universal Pictures
R
Dr. David Gale, an advocate of eliminating the death penalty, is falsely accused of rape and murder. Once convicted, he ends up on death row in Texas himself, telling his story to a reporter through a series of flashbacks.

Alfred Hitchcock
Thriller
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

In the Atlantic during WWII, a ship and a German U-boat are involved in a battle and both are sunk. The survivors from the ship gather in one of the boats. They are from a variety of backgrounds: an international journalist, a rich businessman, the radio operator, a nurse, a steward, a sailor and an engineer with communist tendencies. Trouble starts when they pull a man out of the water who turns out to be from the U-boat.

Antoine Fuqua
Documentary
Vulcan Productions
PG-13
Beginning with a stirring African folk song (Zélié performed by Angélique Kidjo) the roots are established and rapidly swell into a trunk thickened by the hardships of the Great Depression (Gamblin' Man performed by David 'Honeyboy' Edwards) and the oppression of segregation (Jim Crow Blues performed by Odetta). Finally, this Blues family tree shows off vibrant new growth as it reveals the Blues' influence on our modern wealth of talented musicians (Midnight Special performed by John Fogerty and Hound Dog done by Macy Gray). Ruth Brown gives Blll Cosby a full-throttle serenade (and a playful smoldering gaze), along with Mavis Staples and Natalie Cole. Angélique Kidjo persuades Buddy Guy to an unforgettable rendition of 'Voodoo Child,' shortly before Bonnie Raitt and Robert Cray accompany B.B. King and Lucille for the final number, 'Paying the Cost to be the Boss.' This documentary presents to the audience, with authority and candor, an authentic history of this musical form. The highly esteemed elders of this musical family are exemplary in their humbleness toward one another, rich with decades of shared memories; and their performances are of a quality rarely seen in modern times. These men and women are true artisans, yet they continue to generously pass their legacy down to select members of each musical generation. Those who grew up on this music find themselves performing on the stage with the very heroes who served as their earliest inspiration. Legends, such as Ruth Brown, Honeyboy Edwards, Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, B.B. King, Howling Wolf, and Buddy Guy, gave the world a double helping of their genius-first with song and secondly as the spirit which supplies the continuation of their art: in such artists as Natalie Cole, Jimmie Vaughan, John Fogerty, Macy Gray, Alison Krause, and Bonnie Raitt.

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Celebrated Productions
G
Chaplin's final American film tells the story of a fading music hall comedian's effort to help a despondent ballet dancer learn both to walk and feel confident about life again. The highlight of the film is the classic duet with Chaplin's only real artistic film comedy rival, Buster Keaton.

Steven Soderbergh
Crime
Artisan Entertainment
R
An ex-con (Terence Stamp), fresh out of prison, goes to L.A. to try to learn who murdered his daughter. However, he quickly finds that he is completely out of place with no understanding of the culture he finds. His investigations are helped by another ex-con (Luis Guzman). Together they learn that his daughter had been having an affair with a record producer (Peter Fonda), who is presently having an affair with another young woman (Amelia Heinle). An aging actress (Lesley Ann Warren), who also knew his daughter, forces him to look at his own failures as a father. The movie does focus on the drama of the situation and the inter-relationships of the characters and seldom slips into an action piece.

Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Animation
Walt Disney Feature Animation
G
A young lion prince is born in Africa, thus making his uncle Scar the second in line to the throne. Scar plots with the hyenas to kill King Mufasa and Prince Simba, thus making himself King. The King is killed and Simba is led to believe by Scar that it was his fault, and so flees the kingdom in shame. After years of exile he is persuaded to return home to overthrow the usurper and claim the kingdom as his own thus completing the "Circle of Life".

Bradley Raymond
Animation
DisneyToon Studios

Timon and Pumbaa start to watch the original Lion King movie, but Timon keeps insisting to fast forward to when they come in, because they weren't seen in the beginning of the story or anywhere until halfway through. Pumbaa suggests telling the audience their story, which begins before Simba's journey begins. Through this, we meet Timon's mother and Uncle Max, discover why he left his meerkat colony, where he learned Hakuna Matata, how he meets Pumbaa, and the perils they encountered while searching for their dream home.

Robert Redford
Drama
Andell Entertainment
R
Three stories told simultaneous in ninety minutes of real time: a Republican Senator who's a presidential hopeful gives an hour-long interview to a skeptical television reporter, detailing a strategy for victory in Afghanistan; two special forces ambushed on an Afghani ridge await rescue as Taliban forces close in; a poli-sci professor at a California college invites a promising student to re-engage. Decisions press upon the reporter, the student, and the soldiers.

Ellen Weissbrod
Documentary, Music
Curt Productions

Arthur Penn
Adventure
Cinema Center Films
PG-13
Jack Crabb is about 100 years old as the film begins. A collector of oral histories asks him about his past. He recounts being captured and raised by indians, becoming a gunslinger, marrying an indian, watching her killed by General George Armstrong Custer, and becoming a scout for him at Little Big Horn.

Mervyn LeRoy
Crime
First National Pictures

The ambitious criminal Rico (Edward G. Robinson) moves from the country to the big city in the east and joins Sam Vettori's (Stanley Fields) gang with his friend Joe Massara (Douglas Fainbanks Jr.). Sooner he becomes the leader of the gangsters and known as Little Caesar, and gets closer to the great mobster Pete Montana (Ralph Ince). In a robbery of a night-club, he kills the Crime Commissioner Alvin McClure (Landers Stevens) and his pal Joe witnesses the murder. When Rico orders Joe to leave his mistress Olga Strassoff (Glenda Farrell), she takes a serious decision.

Todd Field
Drama
New Line Cinema
R
Echoes of "Madame Bovary" in the American suburbs. Sarah's in a loveless marriage, long days with her young daughter at the park and the pool, wanting more. Brad is a househusband, married to a flinty documentary filmmaker. Ronnie is just out of prison - two years for indecent exposure - living with his mother; Larry is a retired cop, fixated on driving Ronnie away. Sarah and Brad connect, a respite of adult companionship at the pool. Ronnie and Larry have their demons. Brad should be studying for the bar; Larry misses his job; Ronnie's mom thinks he needs a girlfriend. Sarah longs to refuse to be trapped in an unhappy life. Where can these tangled paths lead?

Werner Herzog
Documentary
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion

In 1966, Dieter Dengler was shot down over Laos, captured, and, down to 85 pounds, escaped. Barefoot, surviving monsoons, leeches, and machete-wielding villagers, he was rescued. Now, near 60, living on Mt. Tamalpais, Dengler tells his story: a German lad surviving Allied bombings in World War II, postwar poverty, apprenticed to a smith, beaten regularly. At 18, he emigrates and peels potatoes in the U.S. Air Force. He leaves for California and college, then enlistment in the Navy to learn to fly. A quiet man of sorrows tells his story: war, capture, harrowing conditions, escape, and miraculous rescue. Where did he find the strength; how does he now live with his memories?

Roy Del Ruth
Comedy
First National Pictures

Prohibition is ending so bootlegger Bugs Ahearn decides to crack California society. He leases a house from down-on-her-luck Ruth and hires her as social secretary. He rescues Polly Cass from a horsefall and goes home to meet her dad who sells him some phony stock certificates. When he learns about this he sends to Chicago for mob help.

William A. Seiter
Comedy
C.S. Productions

Lou Costello plays a country bumpkin vacuum-cleaner salesman, working for the company run by the crooked Bud Abbott. To try to keep him under his thumb, Abbott convinces Costello that he's a crackerjack salesman. This comedy is somewhat like "The Time of Their Lives," in that Abbott and Costello don't have much screen time together and there are very few vaudeville bits woven into the plot.

Nicolas Gessner
Drama
Braun Entertainment Group

Rynn Jacobs is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives in a secluded house that she and her father have rented in a quiet seaside community. But whenever anybody from the town tries to satisfy their curiosity, Rynn's father is never around, and it seems as if the girl is all alone. Rynn's resourcefulness is put to the test as several people try to find out what she might be hiding, including the snobby landlady and her sleazy son.

Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Comedy
Big Beach Films
R
In Albuquerque, the housewife Sheryl Hoover brings her suicidal brother Frank to the breast of her dysfunctional and bankrupted family. Frank is homosexual and expert in Proust, and tried to commit suicide when he was rejected by his boyfriend and his great competitor became renowned and recognized as number one in the field of Proust. Sheryl's husband Richard is unsuccessfully trying to sell his self-help and self-improvement technique using nine steps to reach success, but he is actually a complete loser. Her son Dwayne has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and aims to be a jet pilot. Dwayne's grandfather Edwin was sent away from the institution for elders Sunset Manor and is addicted in heroin. When her seven years old daughter Olive has a chance to dispute the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the whole family travels together in their old Volkswagen Type 2 (Kombi), in a funny journey of hope of winning the talent contest and make a dream come true.

Various
Comedy
Genius Products (TVN)
NR
The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection spans the years of 1929-1938. This collections contains all 80 of the original Little Rascals theatrical talkies in their entirety; fully Remastered, Restored and Uncut. This amazing 8-disc set contains a collectible booklet, loads of nostalgic bonus footage, photos and much more! This preeminent collection is a must-have for fans, both old and new.

Stills from The Little Rascals: The Complete Collection (Click for larger image)

George Roy Hill
Comedy
Pan Arts
PG
A French boy (Daniel) and an American girl (Lauren), who goes to school in Paris, meet and begin a little romance. They befriend Julius who enchants them with his story telling. In an attempt to solidify the teens' love forever, the three journey to Venice.

Roger Corman
Comedy
Santa Clara Productions

Seymour is a young man who works in a flower store. He manages to create a carnivorous plant that feeds on human flesh. Nobody knows about it, so Seymour and the plant become good "friends". The plant needs food to grow up, so it convinces him to start killing people.

Frank Oz
Comedy
Geffen Company, The
PG-13
Seymour Krelborn (Rick Moranis) is a nerdy orphan working at Mushnik's, a flower shop in urban Skid Row. He harbors a crush on fellow co-worker Audrey Fulquard (Ellen Greene), and is berated by Mr. Mushnik (Vincent Gardenia) daily. One day as Seymour is seeking a new mysterious plant, he finds a very mysterious unidentified plant which he calls Audrey II. The plant seems to have a craving for blood and soon begins to sing for his supper (the voice of Levi Stubbs). Soon enough, Seymour feeds Audrey's sadistic dentist boyfriend (Steve Martin) to the plant and later, Mushnik for witnessing the death of Audrey's ex. Will Audrey II take over the world or will Seymour and Audrey defeat it?

Mark Herman
Comedy
Miramax Films
R
The pathetically shy LV lives the life of a recluse listening to her late fathers old records in her room and in the process driving her abusive, loud-mouthed mother, Mari Hoff, to distraction. At night, however, when her father's ghost visits, LV sings the songs of the great divas such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Bassey. One evening LV is overheard by one of her mother's loathsome boyfriends, the disastrous dead-end talent scout Ray Say, who recognizes her innate talent and realizes this is his last big chance for the glittering prizes. Gambling everything Ray Say forces LV to appear at a local run-down, seedy night club run by Mr. Boo. As preparations for the big event proceed apace LV meets the equally shy Billy, a pigeon-racing telephone engineer and they form a tentative, gentle friendship. The big night finally arrives and everything is in readiness the band, the club and even a big agent from London, but what about LV?

Richard Valentine (II), Bruce Gowers, Claire Popplewell
Music Video & Concerts
Capitol
NR
Two decades years after Live Aid addressed the issue, lethally oppressive poverty in Africa remains a blight on the planet. Thus, in the Summer of 2005 activist Bob Geldof staged an even more ambitious series of continent-spanning concerts dedicated to raising funds and public consciousness about international debt relief. This expansive four-disc chronicles those shows in one of the most ambitious concert documents ever attempted, capturing all of the highlights (and a few complete artist sets) of concerts in London, Philadelphia, Toronto, Paris, Berlin and Moscow. Underscoring the events' sense of unity, the performances here span both generations and genres, offering veteran rock fans often muscular sets by Elton John (including a woozy take on T. Rex's "Children of the Revolution" with Baby Shambles' Pete Doherty), The Who, Sting (who sharply reprises a trio of Police favorites) and the ubiquitous Paul McCartney. But the highlight of the Jurassic set's contributions are a reunion of Roger Waters and his long-estranged Pink Floyd bandmates on a sonically flawless five-song whirl through highlights of "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish You Were Here" and "The Wall"; footage of their rehearsal for the show is contained on the set's equally eclectic fourth disc of bonus materials. But there are highlights here for nearly every taste, be they a fine sampling of contemporary UK and Australian rockers ( Coldplay, Jet, Razorlight and especially blistering performances by Stereophonics and Kaiser Chiefs), a little hip-hop nostalgia (a joyous Will Smith and Jazzy Jeff leading what seems half of his Philly hometown in a goofy singalong of the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air" theme); showy turns by pop-meister Robbie Williams and chateuses Mariah Carey, a rousing set by Black Eyed Peas (featuring Rita and Stephen Marley on a cover of "Get Up Stand Up"). Other one-off duets include Coldplay and Richard Ashcroft doing a fine version of the latter's "Bittersweet Symphony," Stevie Wonder with Rob Thomas ("Higher Ground") and Adam Levine ("Signed Sealed Delivered"), a tender take on "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan and Josh Groban and McCartney and George Michael taking an upbeat turn via "Drive My Car," before Macca closes out the London show by leading its various participants in an obligatory singalong of "Hey Jude." Royalties from sales of the set will go to the Band Aid Trust for the relief of hunger and poverty in Africa. --"Jerry McCulley"

Vincent Scarza
Musicals & Performing Arts
Rhino / Wea
NR
Billed as "the day music changed history," the Live Aid concerts of July 13, 1985, were held to raise money to fight the horrifying famines sweeping Africa. The brainchild of Bob Geldof and representing the efforts of countless musicians and technicians, Live Aid was a genuine and inspiring effort to help the victims of an overwhelming calamity. Twenty years after the twin concerts (one in London, one in Philadelphia) were broadcast worldwide, the 4-DVD treatment furthers the cause, with proceeds going toward the Band Aid Trust.
The DVD set opens with a heartbreaking documentary on the crisis, followed by videos of the two hit songs that represented the collaborative nature of Geldof's efforts—Band Aid' s "Do They Know It's Christmas?" and USA for Africa's "We Are the World." Since Live Aid was never intended to be released in a recorded format, preservation of TV footage has been unreliable, resulting in some glaring omissions. Led Zeppelin's semi-reunion doesn't appear, and neither does a legendary session with Bob Dylan, Ron Wood, and Keith Richards. Some sets by performers who were popular at the time may inspire either nostalgic glee or head-scratching (Kiki Dee fans, you know who you are). Sprinkled amid these performances are a couple real gems, including a performance by Run DMC, the event's sole representative of the ascendant rap movement. Much of the music here was a passing fad, but the sentiment that brought it all together is timeless. "-- Ryan Boudinot"

Guy Hamilton
Action & Adventure
Fox/MGM
PG
Roger Moore was introduced as James Bond in this 1973 action movie featuring secret agent 007. More self-consciously suave and formal than predecessor Sean Connery, he immediately reestablished Bond as an uncomplicated and wooden fellow for the feel-good '70s. This film also marks a deviation from the more character-driven stories of the Connery years, a deliberate shift to plastic action (multiple chases, bravura stunts) that made the franchise more of a comic book or machine. If that's not depressing enough, there's even a good British director on board, Guy Hamilton ("Force 10 from Navarone"). The story finds Bond taking on an international drug dealer (Yaphet Kotto), and while that may be superficially relevant, it isn't exactly the same as fighting supervillains on the order of "Goldfinger". "--Tom Keogh"

Pedro Almodóvar
Drama
CiBy 2000
R
Pizza delivery man Victor is having an argument with Elena, whom he met a few days ago, but she was high then and doesn't want to hear about him. Reacting to the noise, two cops, young David and older Sancho, arrive at the scene, the gun accidentally goes off.. Four years later David is a wheelchair basketball star, he's married to Elena, Victor is released out of prison and their destinies begin to cross again.

Len Wiseman
Action
Cheyenne Enterprises
PG-13
When someone hacks into the computers at the FBI's Cyber Crime Division; the Director decides to round up all the hackers who could have done this. When he's told that because it's the 4th of July most of their agents are not around so they might have trouble getting people to get the hackers. So he instructs them to get local PD'S to take care of it. And one of the cops they ask is John McClane who is tasked with bringing a hacker named Farrell to the FBI. But as soon as he gets there someone starts shooting at them. McClane manages to get them out but they're still being pursued. And it's just when McClane arrives in Washington that the whole system breaks down and chaos ensues.

Various
Music Video & Concerts
Navarre Corporation
NR
Features highlights from the first season of the Channel 4 show LIVE FROM ABBEY ROAD, which saw various musical artists perform live at the legendary Abbey Road Studios.

The show took the artists into the hallowed studios, and with the only audience being the TV cameras and technicians, they recorded a selection of songs later broadcast in the twelve hour-long episodes. Augmented with interviews, the shows cut through the normal visual effects and studio trickery to showcase the music itself.

The 2-disc DVD brings together some of the best performances from the whole series, along with some additional goodies.

Disc One features: John Mayer; Corinne Bailey Rae; Dr John; Craig David; Damien Rice; LeAnn Rimes; Josh Groban; Natasha Bedingfield ; Wynton Marsalis; Nerina Pallot; Jamiroquai; Ray LaMontagne; Gipsy Kings; and Norah Jones.

Disc Two features: David Gilmour; The Good, The Bad And The Queen; The Kooks; Gnarls Barkley; The Goo-Goo Dolls; Iron Maiden; Kasabian; Primal Scream; The Zutons; Dave Mathews; and Amos Lee.

Mick Jackson
Drama
HBO Films

Dramatized version of the story of CNN's Gulf War coverage featuring "The Boys from Baghdad": the battle over access, the fight to keep the technology up and running.. and the decision whether to risk their lives behind enemy lines once the bombing starts, in order to get the story of a lifetime.

Danny Clinch
Music Video & Concerts
Eagle Rock Ent
NR
When two musical icons like Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis join forces for a concert, you know you're in for something special and this DVD delivers exactly that. Filmed over two nights in January 2007 at New York's Lincoln Center, this magical show sees Willie and Wynton combine their unique talents in a blend of jazz, blues and country music which takes in Willie Nelson originals, traditional songs and standards by the likes of Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Reed and Duke Ellington. The tracks are intercut with interview segments in which Willie Nelson and Wynton Marsalis give fascinating insights into the choice of songs they performed and the intoxicating mix of musical styles that resulted.
TRACK LISTING 1) Rainy Day Blues 2) Georgia On My Mind 3) Bright Lights, Big City 4) Basin Street Blues 5) Caldonia 6) Night Life 7) Stardust 8) My Bucket's Got A Hole In It 9) Ain't Nobody's Business 10) Don't Get Around Much Anymore 11) Sweet Georgia Brown 12) That's All 13) Down By The Riverside

Henry Hathaway
Adventure
Paramount Pictures

The 41st Bengal Lancers are stationed on the Northwest Frontier of British India, guarding against Afridi invaders led by wily Mohammed Khan. Experienced (though insubordinate) Lieut. McGregor is joined by two new arrivals, haughty Forsythe and callow Donald Stone...son of the commanding colonel. We follow the three through varied adventures and hardships. Will they uphold the honor of the regiment? Will Stone and the Colonel come to terms with their difficult relationship?

Tom DiCillo
Comedy
JDI Productions
R

Norman Taurog
Comedy
York Pictures Corporation

Pretty Wally Cooper, a reporter for the New York Chronicle convinces her editor to let her do a series of articles on Homer Flagg, a young man from New Mexico who is believed to be dying as a result of radioactive poisoning. Before she arrives out west, Homer learns from his doctor that the diagnosis was a mistake and he's perfectly healthy. That doesn't stop them from accepting Wally's offer of an all- expenses paid trip to New York. Everyone in New York takes pity on Homer, while Homer and his doctor try to keep up their pretense.

Richard LaGravenese
Comedy
Jersey Films
R
Judith Nelson quit her medical studies to marry. Years later, her husband, a physician, divorces her to be with another doctor. Deeply frustrated, she now lives alone in her luxury apartment in New York, looking for a new meaning for her life. Pat Francato, the janitor and lift-boy, has a troubled life himself: Gambling debts and the tragic death of his daughter took away all his spirit. One day, he and Judith meet in the right mood and a fragile friendship starts to grow. They can help each other to get on their feet again. But one false move could destroy everything they built so carefully.

Bill Forsyth
Comedy
Celandine Films
PG
Oil billionaire Happer sends Mac to a remote Scotish villiage to secure the property rights for an oil refinery they want to build. Mac teams up with Danny and starts the negotiations, the locals are keen to get their hands on the 'Silver Dollar' and can't believe their luck. However a local hermit and beach scavenger, Ben Knox, lives in a shack on the crucial beach which he also owns. Happer is more interested in the Northern Lights and Danny in a surreal girl with webbed feet, Marina. Mac is used to a Houston office with fax machines but is forced to negotiate on Bens terms.

David F. Wheeler
Drama


Two working-class Englishmen spend their free time arguing about greyhound-racing and Winston Churchill. They also read the papers, especially the gossip columns and Society pages. In a bar one day, they meet a film star who they've read about, and subject him to a savage, and apparently motiveless, beating.

Otto Lang
Crime
ZIV Television Programs

Guy Ritchie
Comedy
HandMade Films
R
Four Jack-the-lads find themselves heavily - seriously heavily - in debt to an East End hard man and his enforcers after a crooked card game. Overhearing their neighbours in the next flat plotting to hold up a group of out-of-their-depth drug growers, our heros decide to stitch up the robbers in turn. In a way the confusion really starts when a pair of antique double-barrelled shotguns go missing in a completely different scam.

Alfred Hitchcock
Crime
Carlyle Blackwell Productions

A serial killer known as "The Avenger" is on the loose in London, murdering blonde women. A mysterious man arrives at the house of Mr. and Mrs. Bunting looking for a room to rent. The Bunting's daughter is a blonde model and is seeing one of the detectives assigned to the case. The detective becomes jealous of the lodger and begins to suspect he may be the avenger.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Drama
Rialto Film

Ten years after the war, West Germany's market economy is booming. Into an unnamed city that's rife with corruption comes a new building commissioner, Herr von Bohm, committed to progress but also upright. He's smitten by Marie-Louise, a single mother who's his landlady's daughter. Von Bohm does not realize she is also Lola, a singer at a bordello and the mistress of Schuckert, a local builder whose profits depend on von Bohm's projects. When von Bohm discovers Marie-Louise's real vocation and looks closely at Schuckert's work, will this social satire play out as a remake of "Blue Angel," a visit of Chekhov to West Germany, or an update of Jean Renoir's "Rules of the Game"?

Stanley Kubrick
Drama
A.A. Productions Ltd.

Humbert Humbert, a divorced British professor of French literature, travels to small-town America for a teaching position. He allows himself to be swept into a relationship with Charlotte Haze, his widowed and sexually famished landlady, whom he marries in order that he might pursue the woman's 14-year-old flirtatious daughter, Lolita, with whom he has fallen hopelessly in love, but whose affections shall be thwarted by a devious trickster named Clare Quilty.

Adrian Lyne
Drama
Guild
R
Humbert Humbert, a British professor coming to the US to teach, rents a room in Charlotte Haze's house, but only after he sees her 14-year-old daughter, Dolores (Lolita), to whom he is immediately attracted. Though he hates the mother, he marries her as this is the only way to be close to the girl, who will prove to be too mature for her age. They start a journey together, trying to hide they're not just (step)father and daughter, throughout the country, being followed by someone whom Humbert first suspects to be from the police. The profound jealousy, and maybe some guilt from the forbidden love, seem slowly to drive the man emotionally labile.

Jenna Fischer
Comedy
LolliLove Productions

Hunter Richards
Drama
Destination Films
R

Peter Clifton
Documentary
Notting Hill

John Sayles
Crime
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
John Sayles' murder-mystery explores interpersonal and interracial tensions in Rio County, Texas. Sam Deeds is the local sheriff who is called to investigate a 40-year-old skeleton found in the desert....As Sam delves deeper into the town's dark secrets, he begins to learn more about his father, the legendary former sheriff Buddy Deeds, who replaced the corrupt Charlie Wade. While Sam puzzles out the long-past events surrounding the mystery corpse, he also longs to rekindle a romance with his old high-school flame. Sayles' complex characters are brought together as the tightly woven plot finally draws to its dramatic close.

Arthur Hiller
Comedy
Aspen Film Society
R
When shy Larry Hubbard finds his girlfriend in bed with another man he is forced to begin a new life as single. But since he can't bear being on his own he tries to court Iris who is not however interested in him. Larry begins writing a book on his experience as a single which unexpectedly becomes a best seller. He becomes rich and famous and even his relationship with Iris can begin on a new basis.

Todd Robinson
Crime
Millennium Films
R
In the late 1940's, Martha Beck and Raymond Fernandez were America's notorious "Lonely Hearts Killers". Their lethal scam was simple; they would swindle and then viciously murder lovelorn war widows who would answer their personal ads in which Ray would describe himself as a sexy Latin Lover. Ironically, Ray's initial introduction to Martha was as a prospective mark. But when they met, it was love at first sight, perhaps as a result of their penchant for kinky sex and their mutual love for duplicity and easy money. With Martha posing as Ray's sister, they bilked elderly spinsters and widows of their savings and then viciously murdered them in a bloodbath of sexual frenzy. When they were arrested, Martha and Ray confessed to 12 killings, although it is believed the actual number is closer to 20. At their sensational trial, Martha and Ray cooed, held hands and seemed as though they could not get enough of each other. Their plea of not guilty by reason of insanity was rejected, and on August 22, 1949, the homicidal lovers were sentenced to death. After numerous appeals, they were electrocuted on March 8, 1951, side-by-side in Sing Sing prison.

Simon Wincer
Westerns
Genius Products (TVN)
NR
Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones star as Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, aging cowboys and former Texas rangers and who organize a 2,500 mile cattle drive for one last great adventure in this excellent 1989 miniseries adaptation of Larry McMurtry's novel. The best friends, who steal the herd from a gang of Mexican cattle rustlers, drive their herd from Texas to Montana, battling horse thieves, angry Indian tribes, and a renegade half-breed killer named Blue Duck (Frederic Forrest) on a mission of revenge. The excellent cast also includes Robert Urich as cardsharp and former Ranger Jake Spoon, Anjelica Huston as McCrae's old flame Clara Allen, Danny Glover, Ricky Schroder, Diane Lane, Chris Cooper, D.B. Sweeney, Steve Buscemi, and even a small role for author Larry McMurtry. Australian director Simon Wincer shows a tremendous capacity for balancing sweeping drama and intimacy against the gorgeous landscape of the American Southwest, giving a grandly epic feel to the film despite its small-screen target and limited budget, and for forging memorable characters of even the smallest supporting parts. The heart of the drama belongs to McCrae and Call, memorably etched by Duvall and Jones as the last of the range romantics. In the age of revisionist Westerns, this excellent cattle-drive drama nicely maintains an old-fashioned feeling while still showing the dark side of the American West. Winner of seven Emmy Awards and responsible for two miniseries sequels ("Return to Lonesome Dove" and "Dead Man's Walk") and a TV series. "--Sean Axmaker"

Steve Buscemi
Comedy
InDigEnt (Independent Digital Entertainment)
R
Jim is a young man who, after deciding he can't make it on his own, moves back to his hometown in Indiana -- under his parents' roof. He's saved from his family's dysfunction by a local woman and her son, who sees him as a father figure.

John Mackenzie
Crime
British Lion Film Corporation

Harold, a prosperous English gangster, is about to close a lucrative new deal when bombs start showing up in very inconvenient places. A mysterious syndicate is trying to muscle in on his action, and Harold wants to know who they are. He finds out soon enough, and bloody mayhem ensues.

Robert Altman
Crime
E-K-Corporation

Chain-smoking, wisecracking private eye Philip Marlowe drives a buddy from LA to the Tijuana border and returns home to an apartment full of cops who arrest him for abetting the murder of his friend's wife. After Marlowe's release, following the reported suicide in Mexico of his friend, a beautiful woman hires him to locate her alcoholic and mercurial husband. Then, a hoodlum and his muscle visit to tell Marlowe that he owes $350,000, mob money the dead friend took to Mexico. Marlowe tails the hood, who goes to the house of the woman with the temperamental husband. As Marlowe pulls these threads together, his values emerge from beneath the cavalier wisecracking.

John Ford
Drama, War
Argosy Pictures

Aboard the freighter Glencairn, the lives of the crew are lived out in fear, loneliness, suspicion and cameraderie. The men smuggle drink and women aboard, fight with each other, spy on each other, comfort each other as death approaches, and rescue each other from danger.

Richard Pearce
Drama
New Visions Pictures

Dramatizes the events in 1955-1956 in Montgomery, Alabama, when blacks boycotted public transport becuase they were forced to sit at the back. Odessa works as a maid for the Thompsons, and as well as she is treated, she feels it is her duty to walk to work, even if it means she is exhaused, and gets to work late.

Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton
Action
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
G
Tells the story of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in WWII. There are dozens of characters, some seen only briefly, who together weave the story of five separate invasion points that made up the operation.

Robert Aldrich
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
R
A football player-turned-convict organizes a team of inmates to play against a team of prison guards. His dilemma is that the warden asks him to throw the game in return for an early release, but he is also concerned about the inmates' lack of self-esteem.

Peter Segal
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
Paul "Wrecking" Crewe was a revered football superstar back in his day, but that time has since faded. But when a messy drunk driving incident lands him in jail, Paul finds he was specifically requested by Warden Hazen (James Cromwell), a duplicitous prison official well aware of Paul's athletic skills. Paul has been assigned the task of assembling a team of convicts, to square off in a big football game against the sadistic guards. With the help of fellow convict Caretaker, and an old legend named Nate Scarborough to coach, Crewe is ready for what promises to be a very interesting game. It's only the warden and the guards who have no idea who or what they're up against, with Paul the driving force behind the new team.

Fred Durst
Comedy
Cube Vision
PG

Kevin Burns
Documentary
Bad Hat Harry Productions

In 1938, two aspiring comic strip talents, Jerry Siegal and Joe Shuster, published a character that would create a new genre of fantasy, Superman, the first superhero. This film explores the creation of the character and his subsequent evolution over the decades through various media. With various interviews of noted creative luminaries, the film shows how the character has adapted to the times and bounced back from times when he felt irrelevant to always regain his prominence as one of the great heroes of popular culture.

Amy Heckerling
Romance
M.C.E.G. Virgin Home Entertainment
G
Mollie is a single mum who's on the lookout for a reliable and normal boyfriend. Her son Mikey, (unbeknownst to her) seems to have a better idea of which of the men she dates would make a good father figure! If only she could understand him...

Hal Ashby
Comedy
Lorimar Productions
R
Two gamblers must leave New York City after one loses a lot of money. Doing what all gamblers in trouble would do, they hurry to the gambling capital Las Vegas to turn their luck around.

Albert Brooks
Comedy
Seventh Picture Productions LLC
PG-13
The American senate, in order to improve it's fast declining global image, asks comedian Albert Brooks to write a 500 page document about what makes Muslims laugh in India and Pakistan. Bidding adieu to his wife and young daughter,and accompanied by two government bureaucrats, Albert opens up an office in New Delhi, hires a pretty Secretary, Maya, and goes around asking people at random as to what makes them laugh. He finds that people generally look at him suspiciously and refuse to answer any questions. He then decides to go public and stage a comedy show, the suggested place for the publicity is old Delhi. Accordingly the four re-locate, book a school auditorium to seat about 400 people, go around the city distributing leaflets, inviting the general public to attend the show. They get a houseful response, however, Albert's comedy act fails to impress. He then decides to try his hand in Pakistan, only to be told that he cannot get a visa for another 14 days. He decides to enter Pakistan illegally and meets some wannabe comedians, guarded by armed men, in a secret location near the border. Although he does get to their funny bones, Albert does not get any answers, and returns back to Delhi crestfallen. To make matters worse, Maya informs him that she has enough material to write about 4 pages. Quite unknown to Albert, his presence in India, and his underground trip to Pakistan, have not gone unnoticed by both the Indian and Pakistani governments, both of who plan to increase their troop presence near the volatile border area; and to create more complications for Albert, Maya tells him that she wants to break up with his boyfriend. She wants to him to leave, and thinks that he may do so if told that she is fallen for Albert. Then things start looking up for Albert when he is invited by the Al-Jazeera television for an interview. Watch as events unfold and a hopeful Albert attends this meeting with many hopes of entering the Muslim world through this popular TV network.

Oliver Stone
Documentary
Warner Home Video
NR
Oliver Stone's second documentary on/interview with Fidel Castro specifically addresses his country's recent crackdown on Cuban dissidents; namely, the execution of three men who hijacked a ferry to the United States.

Edward Burns
Comedy
Marlboro Road Gang Productions
R
A high school baseball coach (Krumholtz) and a down-on-his-luck private investigator (Burns) form a bond as they scour New York City for the coach's wife, who's run away with a second-rate rock star. As in Burns' previous films, the city itself becomes a character as the two men confront their fear of change and the familiar habit of loneliness.

Al Pacino
Documentary
Chal Productions

Director Al Pacino juxtaposes scene's from Richard III, scenes of rehearsals for Richard III, and sessions where parties involved discuss the play, the times that shaped the play and the events that happened at the time the play is set. Interviews with mostly British actors are also included, attempting to explain why American actors have more problems performing Shakespearean plays than they do.

Scott Frank
Crime
Laurence Mark Productions
R
An admired high school hockey player (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) with a bright future foolishly takes a drive in the night with his girl friend and two other friends with his headlights off with devastating results. The former athlete is left with a brain injury that prevents him from remembering many things for extended periods of time. To compensate, he keeps notes in a small notebook to aid him in remembering what he is to do. He also lives with a blind friend (Jeff Daniels) who aids him. Obviously, with the mental incapacitation, he is unable to have meaningful work. Thus he works as a night cleaning man in a bank. It is there he comes under the scrutiny of a gang planning to rob the bank. The leader (Matthew Goode) befriends him and gets him involved with a young woman (Isla Fisher) who further reels him in. After they get close and after reeling him in with his own failures, the bank plan unfolds. Confused but wanting to escape his current existence, he initially goes along with the scheme. After realizing he is being used, he attempts to stop the robbery, which of course immediately goes awry. Bruce McGill and Alberta Watson also co-star as the young man's parents, who still search for the person that was there before the tragic crash.

Friz Freleng
Family
DePatie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE)

This is the second feature-length film containing classic Warner Brothers cartoons linked together by newly animated footage. It is divided into three parts, all of which are being shown in a theater as part of a film ceremony honoring the classic Looney Tunes characters. Part 1 involves Yosemite Sam's pact with the Devil to exchange his place in Hell with Bugs Bunny, provided that Sam can lure Bugs into sin and then kill him. Part 2 is a parody of TV crime-fighting dramas as Bugs is selected by law-enforcement to find and apprehend gangster Rocky, who has kidnaped Tweety Bird for a ransom. Part 3 is an Academy Awards-like contest in which various classic cartoon shorts are showcased.

Joe Dante
Animation
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck are up to their feuding ways again. Tired of playing second fiddle to Bugs, Daffy has decided to leave the Studio for good. He is aided by Warner Bros.' humor impaired Vice President of Comedy, Kate Houghton, who releases him from his contract and instructs WB security guard/aspiring stunt man DJ Drake to capture and "escort" Daffy off the studio lot. Suddenly a sidekick without a hero, the duck decides to ally himself with DJ, whether he likes it or not. Consequently, Daffy is on the scene when DJ discovers that his famous movie star father was Damian Drake, known for playing suave international spies onscreen, is actually a suave international spy in real life--and has been kidnapped by the evil insane nerdy, prancing villain known as Mr. Chairman of the equally nefarious Acme Corporation. It seems that Damian knows the whereabouts of the mysterious magical and powerful Blue Monkey Diamond, and the Chairman will do anything to get his hands on it! With Daffy in tow, DJ hits the road in a desperate attempt to outrace the evil Acme stooges to the diamond and save the world from their evil clutches. Unbeknownst to the two neo-spies, they are also being followed by VP Kate and Bugs--the studio brass has decided that the rabbit needs a comic foil after all, and Kate's job is on the line if she can't get Daffy back to work ASAP.

Robert McKimson, Friz Freleng, Robert Clampett
Kids & Family
Warner Home Video
NR
For years, animation buffs have waited impatiently for the Warner Bros. cartoons to appear on DVD. The Warner shorts never commanded the budgets and prestige of the Disney and MGM films, and won fewer Oscars than they deserved. But decades after the best ones were created, they remain the quintessential Hollywood cartoons: brash, fast-paced, aggressively funny and uniquely American. Virtually everyone in the U.S. under the age of 60 grew up on these films, in theaters and on TV. The 56 cartoons in the set (out of a studio output of over 1,000) were transferred from good prints--which means the viewer can see dust, scratches, and occasional mistakes by the cel painters. The films are all presented uncut, in defiance of the killjoys who have insisted on censoring alleged "violence" in the versions shown on television. Warner Bros. is obviously testing consumer response with this set. Although the erratic selection includes many classics, purists will argue (correctly) that it offers neither a fair representation of the directors' "oeuvres", nor anything approaching a coherent history of the characters or studio style. (Nearly half the films were directed by Chuck Jones; only three are by Bob Clampett, and there's nothing by Tex Avery or Frank Tashlin.) But it seems petty to carp about omissions and biases when the discs offer excellent, uncensored prints of some of the funniest films ever made in the U.S.--or anywhere else. (Rated G, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) "--Charles Solomon"

Various
Kids & Family
Warner Home Entertainment
NR
Brash, fast-paced, and hysterically funny, the Warner Brothers cartoons rank among the undisputed treasures of American animation and American comedy. This second collection, a follow-up to "Looney Tunes: Golden Collection", includes such gems as "Porky in Wackyland," "A Bear for Punishment," "Gee Whiz-z-z," The Great Piggy Bank Robbery," and "I Love to Singa." A short documentary about director Bob Clampett features several cartoon historians, animator Eric Goldberg, "Shawshank Redemption" director Frank Darabont, and "Ren and Stimpy" creator John Kricfalusi (enthusiastic but over the top). But Warners continues its scattergun approach to selecting films. There are only eight cartoons by Clampett in the set, plus three by Tex Avery and one by Frank Tashlin. "Rabbit Fire" and "Rabbit Seasoning" appear on the first set, but the third cartoon in Jones's trilogy, "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!" isn't on either. More than two-thirds of the films are by Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones. That's not necessarily a bad thing. "Show Biz Bugs," "Bugs Bunny Rides Again," and the Oscar-winning "Tweety Pie" showcase Freleng's razor-sharp timing. "What's Opera, Doc," "The Dover Boys," and the justly celebrated "One Froggy Evening" rank among Jones's boldest experiments and most brilliant successes.
"Volume Two" includes some genuine rarities, among them, "Sinkin' in the Bathtub" (1930), the first Looney Tune, and the Oscar-winning documentary "So Much for So Little." With 60-plus cartoons, transferred from good prints "Looney Tunes: Golden Collection, Volume 2" is a collection to treasure. (Rated G, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) "--Charles Solomon"

Rudolf Ising, Robert McKimson, Chuck Jones
Kids & Family
Warner Home Video
Unrated
Like the previous entries in the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" series, volume 3 confirms how brilliant the Warner Bros. artists were and how durable their creations have proven. The set includes classics that every cartoon buff will recognize: "Duck! Rabbit! Duck!," "Robin Hood Daffy," "Birds Anonymous." Other selections are less familiar but significant in the development of the studio: "Sinkin' in the Bathtub," the first Looney Tune; "I Haven't Got a Hat," the earliest Warners cartoon viewers can watch for fun, rather than as an historic curiosity; "Porky's Romance," in which director Frank Tashlin introduced rapid cutting to cartoons. Some of the caricature films have aged less gracefully. Younger audiences will recognize the drawn versions of W.C. Fields, the Marx Brothers, Katharine Hepburn, and Charlie Chaplin. But will anyone under the age of 60 remember Edna Mae Oliver, George Arliss, or Ned Sparks?
The producers have once again loaded the discs with supplemental material, including "Point Food Rationing," a unseen short explaining wartime ration books; a BBC documentary on Chuck Jones; and interstitial animated sequences for "The Bugs Bunny Show". "Philbert" ranks as the oddest of the extras: an unsold (and leaden) pilot from 1963, featuring live actors and an animated title character. Whoopi Goldberg introduces the set, explaining that some of the ethnic gags would no longer be considered appropriate. But she correctly adds that to remove them would falsify both the history of animation and American popular culture. It all adds up to a set every cartoon fan will want. (Unrated, suitable for all ages: cartoon violence) "--Charles Solomon"

Chuck Jones, Frank Tashlin
Kids & Family
Warner Home Video
Unrated
Like previous installments, the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Volume 4" mixes favorites from the Warner Bros. archives with relatively obscure older works. Chuck Jones' "Mississippi Hare" and Friz Freleng's "Sahara Hare" and "Knighty-Knight Bugs" (which won an Oscar) offer hilarious performances by Bugs. Two of Jones' earliest films, "The Night Watchman" and "Conrad the Sailor" prefigure his use of subtle expressions in his later cartoons. The disc of shorts by Frank Tashlin includes "Plane Daffy": pigeon see-duck-tress Hatta Mari anticipates Jayne Mansfield in such later Tashlin live-action comedies as "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"
Not all of these films have aged as gracefully. Younger viewers will probably not catch the references to Charlie McCarthy, Bill Robinson, and other old film and radio stars. The Speedy Gonzalez cartoons feature ethnic humor that seems embarrassing today; it's also crashingly unfunny. Each disc offers a disclaimer about stereotypes, noting, "they were wrong then and are wrong today."
The discs are loaded with extras that range from a partial set of storyboards for "Sahara Hare" to three of the "Private Snafu" shorts, which were made for the "Army-Navy Screen Magazine" during WW II. The oddest extra is the documentary "Bugs Bunny Superstar", which infuriated many of the Warner Bros. artists when it was released in 1977. Much of its information should be taken with a grain of salt. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, some ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol & tobacco use) "--Charles Solomon"

Various
Kids & Family
Warner Home Video
NR
The fifth collection of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies continues Warner Bros.' scattershot approach, mixing classics and obscurities. Among the best-known and funniest cartoons are "Ali Baba Bunny" (Daffy yelling, "I'm rich! I'm socially secure!"), "Bewitched Bunny" (Witch Hazel galloping off in a cloud of hair pins), and "Buccaneer Bunny" (a sterling example of one of director Friz Freleng's favorite gags: having the characters run up and down stairs and in and out of various doors). "Gold Diggers of '49" and "Little Red Walking Hood" show Tex Avery beginning to explore the self-reflexive gags that would be become one of the hallmarks of his mature style. In "Walking Hood," Grandma stops the action to answer the phone and place her order with the grocer--including a case of gin. "The Daffy Doc" is Bob Clampett at his most surreal, with Daffy and Porky getting sucked into an iron lung, bulging and shrinking like balloon animals. Some of the earliest cartoons predate the adoption of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" as the theme song for the Warner Bros. cartoons. Many shorts from the early '30s were built around songs from Warner's musicals: "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" (written for "Gold Diggers of 1933") features caricatures of Mae West, George Bernard Shaw, Benito Mussolini, and Bing Crosby frolicking to the title tune. Greta Garbo delivers the closing, "That's All, Folks!" Like the previous four sets, "Golden Collection Volume 5" comes loaded with extras that range from three WWII films in which Mr. Hook urges sailors to buy war bonds to "Extremes and In-Betweens: A Life in Animation" (2000), a documentary about Oscar-winning director Chuck Jones. Many of these cartoons will have viewers of all ages in stitches. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco use) "--Charles Solomon"

Various
Kids & Family
Warner Home Video
NR
Fifteen cartoons dating from World War II give "Volume 6" of the "Looney Tunes Golden Collection" more focus than previous sets. Many of the 1940's cartoons remain very funny. Bugs Bunny dresses up as Brunnhilda and rides in to the strains of "Tannhauser" in "Herr Meets Hare" (1945), a gag Chuck Jones re-used to greater effect in "What's Opera, Doc" a dozen years later. In "Russian Rhapsody" (1940) some of the gremlins who sabotage Hitler's bomber are caricatures of the Warner Bros. artists. Chuck Jones appears as a chunky, pinkish-tan homunculus swinging a mallet; Friz Freleng is a little green man with a saw-like nose. Younger viewers may find the references to wartime shortages puzzling--or fail to recognize the caricatures of Hermann Goering, Hideki Tojo and Joseph Stalin. Some of the other cartoons can still bring down the house, including "Satan's Waitin'" (1954), in which Sylvester manages to lose all nine of his lives in pursuit of Tweety, and "Bear Feat" (1949), another exercise in futility for Jones' Three Bears. The early musicals featuring Bosko, Foxy (or Freddy Fox) and Buddy have not aged well. Created by Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising, these characters were modeled on Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse, but lack charm and personality. Some more recent films reveal how social attitudes have changed. "Wild Wife," a spoof of a suburban housewife's tribulations, may have seemed hilarious in 1954; today, it's just a laundry list of sexist gags. Like the previous installments, "Volume 6" comes loaded with extras. The rarest are five shorts Friz Freleng directed at MGM in 1938. Producer Fred Quimby lured Freleng away from Warner Bros.--only to insist he adapt the comic strip "The Captain and the Kids," Rudolph Dirks' version of "The Katzenjammer Kids." Freleng correctly predicted the films would flop as the characters were "the meanest little bastards in the world," and soon returned to Warners. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol & tobacco use) "--Charles Solomon"
(1. Hare Trigger, 2. To Duck or Not to Duck, 3. Birth of a Notion, 4. My Little Duckaroo, 5. Crowing Pains, 6. Raw! Raw! Rooster! 7. Heaven Scent, 8. My Favorite Duck, 9. Jumpin' Jupiter, 10. Satan's Waitin', 11. Hook Line and Stinker, 12. Bear Feat, 13. Dog Gone South, 14. A Ham in a Role, 15. Often an Orphan, 16. Herr Meets Hare, 17. Russian Rhapsody, 18. Daffy the Commando, 19. Bosko the Doughboy, 20. Rookie Revue, 21. The Draft Horse, 22. Wacky Blackout, 23. The Ducktators, 24. The Weakly Reporter, 25. Fifth Column Mouse, 26. Meet John Doughboy, 27. Hollywood Canine Canteen, 28. By Word of Mouse, 29. Heir Conditioned, 30. Yankee Dood It, 31. Congo Jazz, 32. Smile Dam Ya, Smile! 33. The Booze Hangs High, 34. One More Time, 35. Bosko's Picture Show, 36. You Don't Know What You're Doin'! 37. We're in the Money! 38. Ride 'em Bosko, 39. Shuffle Off to Buffalo, 40. Bosko in Person, 41. The Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, 42. Buddie's Day Out, 43. Buddie's Beer Garden. 44. Buddie's Circus, 45. A Cartoonist's Nightmare, 46. Horton Hatches the Egg, 47. Lights Fantastic, 48. Fresh Airedale, 49. Chow Hound, 50. The Oily American, 51. It's Hummer Time, 52. Rocket Bye Baby, 53. Goo Goo Goliath, 54. Wild Wife, 55. Much Ado About Nutting, 56. The Hole idea, 57. Now Hear This, 58. Martian Through Georgia, 59. Page Miss Glory. 60. Norman Normal)

Ira Miller
Comedy
Brooksfilms

Broad satire and buffoonery presented as a series of movie trailers. Among the titles and subjects are: "The Howard Huge Story", "Skate-boarders from Hell", "The Invasion of the Penis Snatchers", Woody Allen (pre-Mia), movie trailer come-ons, Charlie Chaplin, war movies, Billy Jack. The source of the title is presented about an hour into the film.

Peter Brook
Adventure
Two Arts Ltd.

A group of young boys are stranded alone on an island. Left to fend for themselves, they must take on the responsibilities of adults, even if they are not ready to do so. Inevitably, two factions form: one group (lead by Ralph) want to build shelters and collect food, whereas Jack's group would rather have fun and HUNT; illustrating the difference between civilization and savagery.

Andrew Niccol
Crime
Entertainment Manufacturing Company
R
This film charts the rise and fall of Yuri Orlov, from his early days in the early 1980s in Little Odessa, selling guns to mobsters in his local neighbourhood, through to his ascension through the decade of excess and indulgence into the early 90s, where he forms a business partnership with an African warlord and his psychotic son. The film also charts his relationship through the years with his younger brother, his marriage to a famous model, his relentless pursuit by a determined federal agent and his inner demons that sway between his drive for success and the immorality of what he does.

Russ Meyer
Drama
Eve Productions

Lorna has been married to Jim for a year, but still hasn't been satisfied sexually. While Jim is working at the salt mine, she is raped by an escaped convict, but falls in lust with him. Meanwhile Jim's buddies are giving him a hard time about Lorna's supposed infidelity, not realizing how close to the mark they really are. Trouble starts when Jim gets home early from work because it's their anniversary.

Amy Heckerling
Comedy
Branti Film Productions
PG-13
There is a remarkable similarity to 1960's "The Apartment". Where the leading man falls in love with a woman who is in love with a more powerful character, but that character does not love the woman. The leading man rescues the woman and helps her recover, while helping her to believe that her love cares for her.

Harry Edwards, Arvid E. Gilstrom, Roy Del Ruth
Classics
FACETS
Unrated
Discovered in 1923 by slapstick pioneer Mack Sennett, Harry Langdon quickly rose to the ranks of the other silent comedians, rivaling Chaplin, Lloyd, and Keaton in popularity. Langdon s comic persona of the wide-eyed innocent bewildered by the world around him was developed in such classic shorts as Picking Peaches and His New Mamma, which have been restored and included in this four-disc set.
LOST AND FOUND contains most of Langdon s seminal work for Sennett s studio, including Smile Please, The First 100 Years, and The Hansom Cabman. Digitally re-mastered from original negatives and archival preservation material, this essential collection also features restorations of several lost films. Each film is accompanied by an original musical score. The set includes audio commentaries by silent-film historians, rare clips, and Lost and Found, a documentary covering Langdon's career. Sennett considered Harry Langdon the best comedian he'd ever seen, and this remarkable four-disc set shows us why.
Disc One: Picking Peaches, Smile Please, His New Mamma, The First 100 Years, The Luck o' the Foolish, The Hansom Cabman, and All Night Long
Disc Two: Feet of Mud, The Sea Squawk, Boobs in the Wood, His Marriage Wow, Plain Clothes, Remember When, Lucky Stars, and There He Goes surviving extract.
Disc Three: Saturday Afternoon, Fiddlesticks, Soldier Man, and His First Flame. Plus Bonus extra: Catalina Here I Come, a sample of faux-Langdon starring Eddie Quillan and Madeline Hurlock.

Disc Four: Knight Duty, Hooks and Jabs, and Love, Honor and Obey (the Law). Plus bonus extra: Lost and Found, an original feature-length documentary on the life and films of Harry Langdon.
Special Features: Lost and Found, a feature-length documentary, Audio Commentaries by Film Historians, Home Movies, and Facets Cine-Notes collectible booklet, Home Movies, Beautiful Clothes Make Beautiful Girls talkie from 1942, HEART TROUBLE press book

Andy Garcia
Drama
Lions Gate Films
R
In Havana, Cuba in the late 1950's, a wealthy family, one of whose sons is a prominent nightclub owner, is caught in the violent transition from the oppressive regime of Batista to the Marxist government of Fidel Castro. Castro's regime ultimately leads the nightclub owner to flee to New York.

n/a
Music Video & Concerts
Well Go USA Inc
NR
Dean Martin is presented here performing a fabulous collection of his all time favorites. To his devoted fans his style is unmistakable and voice memorable.
Track Listing:
1. That's Amore
2. Caroline In The Morning
3. I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now
4. Oh Marie, Oh Marie
5. Memories Are Made Of This
6. Almost Like Bing In Love
7. Too Young
8. One For My Baby And One More
9. There Goes My Heart
10. Louise
11. Love Me With All Of Your Heart
12. It's Easy To Remember
13. I DOn't Care If The Sun Don't Shine
14. When You're Smiling
15. The Isle Of Capri
16. I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter
17. If You Were The Only Girl In The World
18. You Made Me Love You
19. Would I Love You

Ronald Borge
Comedy
Gmg Records
NR
Lost Episodes of Victor Borge: Vol. 1



The original TV special was produced in a studio before a live audience. The orchestra was visibly live too.



Nobody has had more fun making fun of classical music and opera more than Victor Borge. Audiences of all ages have been surprised and pleased to follow the exploits of this gifted concert pianist gone hysterically bad.



To start the ball rolling, though, Borge takes a well deserved poke at the already popular Lawrence Welk. Borge's orchestra plays some nice champagne music. Then a stagehand with wild hair on the sides, and bald on top, with an unruly mustache appears and begins blowing bubbles. The atmosphere of bubbles and music establishes itself. During a long orchestral interlude, Borge conducts, half-heartedly with one hand, drumming the fingers of his other hand on the piano's music stand in a show of boredom. Then he begins eating a snack, still conducting with one hand. Suddenly, all business, Borge rises to his full height, turns his back on the orchestra and begins feverishly conducting the bubble blower!



No one had done anything as funny with an orchestra in the entire decade since the Marx Bothers tried to have multiple, simultaneous conductors in Night at the Opera.



This Collector's Edition includes rare footage, recovered from aging kinescopes and many skits not seen for 40 years. However, the clown prince of the piano is still irrepressibly funny, and arch, and didactic, as ever. He trails off onto amusing tangents, and when necessary, tries to sit on the piano bench and misses it, landing, to his amazement, on the floor! You'll be on the floor with him, laughing.



No one has yet, or probably ever will, combine slapstick with virtuoso piano styling, as Borge did.



Even the Pontiac commercials are funny.



Spurred, no doubt, by the nervous energy of live television, and a cast of hundreds, Borge is on his best/worst behavior here, he mugs, he does pratfalls, and he plays magnificently, for a moment or two. Then he reduces the entire style of a Great Russian composer to a single, loud, dissonant chord.



He introduces a child prodigy who plays, at age 13, better than most pianists can ever play. However, before the kid performs, he endures some hectic, and hilarious, ribbing from Borge.



The writing, the adlibs, the performances throughout entertain so well, fill one with so much life, that one feels empty when the program ends.



This is a collector's item for the serious collector of the not-so-serious.

Ronald Borge
Comedy
Gmg Records
NR
This episode was shot at Carnegie Hall, live, possibly as early as 1959. It was created by recording the surviving black-and-white kinescope film onto VHS.



It begins with glorious shots of the full house, audience standing, as a chorus sings an awe-inspiring hymn of praise -- to Borge. And of course, at its height, the hymn collapses into a dissonant musical joke.



Strangely enough, during the entire episode, we never see the orchestra or the chorus. My guess is they would have required more pay, residuals, or that the paperwork would have been too much for a TV Special.



What we do see is GRAND!



A young Mike Wallace interviews Borge, who is performing as Franz Liszt, in a format like the one used by Murrow on Person to Person. That is, Wallace is seated before a TV monitor on which is shown the home of the guest. Wallace talks to Liszt respectfully and proves an able straight-man for Borge, who is barely recognizable in his period wig.



Liszt (Borge) accepts Wallace's offer to play, and performs with his usual virtuosity, with the fluent addition of children's favorites such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star."



Then Borge brings out one of his "students" to play a duet. They sit side by side at the piano and each plays the other's half of the keyboard. And they keep playing, even when one or the other ends up on the floor!



The camera work for the time is breathtaking. There are views of Borge and a colleague on the Carnegie Hall stage sitting at two opposing GRAND pianos, taken from the CEILING of the hall.



The humor shines through the medium. If you buy a VHS, though, try to be sure it was recorded at regular, not extended speed. The regular speed shows up a bit crisper.

Robin Williamson, Hal Roach, Fred Guiol
Classics
Image Entertainment
NR
Mastered from the original 35mm material, this eighth volume of lost films from the great comedy team of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy includes all silent shorts: "Two Tars" (1928, 21 min.), "The Second Hundred Years" (1927, 22 min.), "Slipping Wives" (1926, 23 min.), "From Soup to Nuts" (1928, 22 min.), plus the Stan Laurel solo shorts "Scorching Sands" (1923, 15 min.) and "Should Tall Men Marry?" (1927, 19 min., color tinted).

David Lynch
Crime
October Films
R
Fred Madison, a saxophonist, is accused under mysterious circumstances of murdering his wife Renee. On death row, he inexplicably morphs into a young man named Pete Dayton, leading a completely different life. When Pete is released, his and Fred's paths begin to cross in a surreal, suspenseful web of intrigue, orchestrated by a shady gangster boss named Dick Laurent.

Volker Schlöndorff, Margarethe von Trotta
Drama
Bioskop Film

Katharina Blum is a young handsome German maid. She meets Ludwig, and they fall in love at once. They spend the night together. In the morning, the police bursts in her flat, looking for Ludwig : he is a terrorist. But he was no longer here. Katharina is arrested, humiliated, suspected to be a terrorist herself, dragged in the mud by the newspapers... A plea for democracy and individual rights.

Charles Reisner
Comedy
Loew's

Pete Johnson and Harvey D. Garvey, two inept magicians on tour in the Middle Eastern kingdom of Barabeeha, help disenfranchised young Prince Ramo regain his throne from his devious Uncle Nimativ, who uses two magical hypnotic rings and ruthless methods to maintain his power. By posing as Hollywood talent scouts the boys break out of a dank dungeon with a deranged derelict, evade palace guards, elude the palace executioner, and avoid detection in the forbidden royal harem.

Jean Yarbrough
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Albert Brooks
Comedy
Geffen Company, The
R
David and Linda Howard are successful yuppies from LA. When he gets a job disappointment, David convinces Linda that they should quit their jobs, liquidate their assets, and emulate the movie Easy Rider, spending the rest of their lives travelling around America...in a Winnebago! (This is a kind of large, luxurious mobile home which suits a 1980's yuppie more than the counterculture dropout approach of Easy Rider.) His idealized, unrealistic plans soon begin to go spectacularly wrong.

Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe
Documentary
Quixote Films
R
In August 2000, master filmmaker Terry Gilliam finally got his oppurtunity to create his dream film he laboured for a decade, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. Assembling his film crew, he prepares his production in what promises to be the biggest budgeted feature film using only European financing, although it is meagre compared to Hollywood standards. However for all his creativity and enthusiasm, the film is immediately plagued with an improbable series of disasters ranging from scheduling conflicts, budget cuts, studio and location problems and worse that threaten to doom the film.

Sofia Coppola
Comedy
Focus Features
R
Bob Harris is an American film actor, far past his prime. He visits Tokyo to appear in commercials, and he meets Charlotte, the young wife of a visiting photographer. Bored and weary, Bob and Charlotte make ideal if improbable traveling companions. Charlotte is looking for "her place in life," and Bob is tolerating a mediocre stateside marriage. Both separately and together, they live the experience of the American in Tokyo. Bob and Charlotte suffer both confusion and hilarity due to the cultural and language differences between themselves and the Japanese. As the relationship between Bob and Charlotte deepens, they come to the realization that their visits to Japan, and one another, must soon end. Or must they?

Larry Blamire
Comedy
Fragmighty
PG
A dedicated scientist, aided by his clueless wife, rolls up his shirt sleeves and tries to save the world from a radioactive monster, curious space aliens, an evil scientist and a crabby skeleton in this send-up of the best of the B movies of the 1950's.

Nigel Cole
Comedy
Mile High Productions LLC
PG-13
On a flight from Los Angeles to New York, Oliver and Emily make a connection, only to decide that they are poorly suited to be together. Over the next seven years, however, they are reunited time and time again, they go from being acquaintances to close friends to ... lovers?

Jeffrey Weihe
Comedy

Unknown
Comedy


This creative, short-lived sitcom focused on a psychotherapist in Duluth, Minnesota.

Shannon Hartman
Comedy
Image Entertainment
NR
Writer-director-performer Louis C.K. brings his no-holds-barred standup comedy style to this cable special, proffering uncomfortable observations about his life as a guy, a husband, and a father. Things start very well with a treatise on the proper use of the word "faggot," which should never, according to C.K., be used as a derogatory term for gay men, but serves as a catch-all insult for everyone and everything else. Also covered is the myth that drinking milk will replenish a man's vital bodily fluids during marathon sex, a subject that somehow segues into C.K.'s ambiguous admission about the fate of any housecat foolish enough to watch him being intimate. Less interesting is a diatribe about the comedian's collision with a deer on the road, and an overlong bit about the frustrations of fatherhood, including fantasies of extreme tough love with small children. The best material arrives at the end, when wisdom seeps into C.K.'s epiphany about arriving at an age when a man stops yearning for sex with girls and pines instead for women a little roughed-up by motherhood, disappointments, and other factors of adulthood. Of course, being C.K., he backpeddles a little about not wanting sex with hot young things, but his heart is in the right place. --Tom Keogh

Stills from Louis C.K.: Chewed Up (Click for larger image)

Steven J. Santos
Comedy
3 Arts Entertainment

Richard Curtis
Comedy
Universal Pictures
R
The characters are falling in love, falling out of love, some are with right people, some are with the wrong people, some are looking to have an affair, some are in the period of mourning; a capsule summary of reality. Love begins and love ends. They flirt a lot. They are all flirting with love. At all ages and social levels, love is the theme. Romantic love and brotherly love is the hotchpotch through out the movie. Most of the movie is filmed in London, during Christmas and the characters all ended up at Heathrow airport a very uplifting note.

C.M. Talkington
Thriller
Trimark Pictures
R
Watty has made a living out of robbing convenience stores, but after one of these job turned into murder by his partner, the psychopath Billy Mack, he is on the run with his fiancé Starlene and with both Billy Mack, the police and some loansharks on his trail. Their plan is to go to Mexico but before they do that they want to get married and visit Starlenes parents.

Woody Allen
Adventure
Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions
PG
A Russian is caught up in the Napoleonic invasion of his country. Much of the humor comes from the philosophic conversations that people break into in the midst of crisis situations.

Valerie Breiman
Comedy
Behaviour Worldwide

When her rather explicit copy is rejected, magazine journalist Kate is asked by her editor to come up with an article on loving relationships instead, and to do so by the end of the day. This gets Kate thinking back over her own various experiences, and to wondering if she is in much of a position to write on the subject.

Walter Lang
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Troy Beyer
Comedy
Alcon Entertainment
PG-13

David Miller
Comedy
Artists Alliance

Young hopefuls trying to stage a Broadway show on a shoestring are sustained with food by expert shoplifter Harpo. They little suspect that his donations include the special sardine can hiding the Romanoff diamonds! Slinky Madame Egelichi and her henchmen will do anything to get them back, but the Marx Brothers lead them a merry chase.

Elliott Nugent
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

A young girl runs away from her carnival family to make it in New York and becomes involved with a handsome young songwriter. George Burns and Gracie Allen play her brother and sister-in-law.

Eric Rohmer
Drama
Les Films du Losange

The last of Rohmer's Six Moral Tales. Frederic leads a bourgeois life; he is a partner in a small Paris office and is happily married to Helene, a teacher expecting her second child. In the afternoons, Frederic daydreams about other women, but has no intention of taking any action. One day, Chloe, who had been a mistress of an old friend, begins dropping by his office. They meet as friends, irregularly in the afternoons, till eventually Chloe decides to seduce Frederic, causing him a moral dilemma.

Theodore Witcher
Drama
Addis Wechsler Pictures
R
Darius Lovehall is a young black poet in Chicago who starts dating Nina Moseley, a beautiful and talented photographer. While trying to figure out if they've got a "love thing" or are just "kicking it," they hang out with their friend, talking about love and sex. Then Nina tests the strength of Darius' feelings and sets a chain of romantic complications into motion.

Todd Louiso
Comedy
Kinowelt Filmproduktion
R
Wilson Joel is a man in trouble. There's a searing pain in his gut that he can't tolerate and a dazed quietness to his struggle as he tries to maintain his equilibrium. Wilson is attempting to move on from the sudden and inexplicable suicide of his wife. His mother-in-law is there for him, but her sympathies turn quickly. He has an employer that seems to want to help him, and a workmate who wants him for herself. But nothing and no one can give Wilson solace; so, he seeks oblivion. It is not the usual alcohol or drugs. Wilson inhales fumes from gasoline cans and model airplane fuel and finds temporary salvation in the company of remote-control model enthusiasts. However, nothing that provides him relief really lasts.

François Truffaut
Drama
Les Films du Carrosse
PG
Antoine Doinel is now more than thirty. He divorces from Christine. He is a proofreader, and is in love with Sabine, a record seller. Colette, his teenager love, is now a lawyer. She buys Antoine's first published autobiographical novel. They meet again in a station...

Shainee Gabel
Drama
Destination Films
R
Upon hearing of her mother's death, jaded teenage loner Purslane Hominy Will returns to New Orleans for the first time in years, ready to reclaim her childhood home. Expecting to find her late mother's house abandoned, Pursy is shocked to discover that it is inhabited by two of her mother's friends: Bobby Long, a former literature professor, and his young protégé, Lawson Pines. These broken men, whose lives took a wrong turn years before, have been firmly rooted in the dilapidated house for years, encouraged only by Lawson's faltering ambitions to write a novel about Bobby Long's life. Having no intention of leaving, Pursy, Bobby Long and Lawson are all forced to live together. Yet as time passes, their tenuous, makeshift arrangement unearths a series of buried personal secrets that challenges their bonds, and reveals just how inextricably their lives are intertwined.

John Cassavetes
Drama
Cannon Films

The film describes a few days in the life of the writer Robert Harmon (John Cassavetes) and his sister Sarah (Gena Rowlands). The decadent life of Robert is made of alcohol, cigarettes, and short-time relationships with women; women he interviews for a book, he spends a weekend with at a casino or fall in love with for the fun of an evening (Diahnne Abbott and her mother). Having no constraints, he his unable to be responsible for anything including the care of his son, leaving him alone in an hotel room and teaching the 12-years old boy how to drink. His life is made of his own phantasms as an artist. His sister is divorcing from her husband because of her exuberant and insane behavior. She scares her daughter Debbie who prefers to stay with her father (Seymour Cassel), a decision that hurts Sarah very deeply and reinforces her nervous breakdown. Most of the movie takes place in the house of Robert (in reality, it was the house of John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands in Los Angeles). We watch Robert and Sarah struggling with their own lives. As the movie progresses, they end up with each other. The house gets empty little by little until Robert remains alone, after Sarah left him for another man. At the end of the movie, John Cassavetes waves goodbye to the viewers with his hat, addressing a farewell to movies and to life.

Kenneth Branagh
Romance
Arts Council of England
PG
The King of Navarre and his three companions swear a very public oath to study together and to renounce women for three years. Their honour is immediately put to the test by the arrival of the Princess of France and her three lovely companions. It's love at first sight for all concerned followed by the men's highly entertaining but hopeless efforts to disguise their feelings.

Nicole Holofcener
Comedy
Blow Up Pictures
R
The Marks family is a tightly-knit quartet of women. Jane is the affluent matriarch whose 3 daughters seem to have nothing in common except for a peculiar sort of idealism. Setting the tone of vanity and insecurity, Jane is undergoing cosmetic surgery to alter her figure, but serious complications put her health in real danger. Former homecoming queen Michelle, the eldest daughter, has one daughter of her own and an alienated, unsupportive husband. Elizabeth, the middle sister, has an acting career that is beginning to take off, but is timid and insecure, and habitually relieves her trepidation by taking in stray dogs. Only the youngest sister, Annie, an adopted African American 8-year-old, stands a chance of avoiding the family legacy of anxious self-absorption. If only her intelligence and curiosity will see her through what promises to be a confusing adolescence. Each of the women seeks redemption in her own haphazard way.

Jean-Jacques Annaud
Drama
Burrill Productions
R
It is French Colonial Vietnam in 1929. A young French girl from a family that is having some monetary difficulties is returning to boarding school. She is alone on public transportation when she catches the eye of a wealthy Chinese businessman. He offers her a ride into town in the back of his chauffeured sedan, and sparks fly. Can the torrid affair that ensues between them overcome the class restrictions and social mores of that time? Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Maugerite Duras.

Louis Malle
Drama
Nouvelles Éditions de Films (NEF)

Bored with her husband, bored with her polo-playing lover, will the middle-aged heroine go away with the young man who gave her a lift that day when her car broke down on the way back to her country estate from a weekend with her lover in Paris?

Milos Forman
Comedy
CBK

A working-class young woman (Andula) in a hick Czech town sleeps with one of the band members of a group from Prague. "You are a Mondrian, not a Picasso," he tells her. When she doesn't hear from him again, she packs up and arrives on his doorstep in the big city, throwing his household (he lives with his parents) into chaos.

Akira Kurosawa
Drama
Toho Company

Una coppia di gretti usurai gestisce uno squallido dormitorio, nei pressi di una discarica. Una folla di larve e relitti umani affolla il locale: un ex attore alcolizzato; una prostituta; un fabbro che sragiona; disoccupati ed altri ancora. In tutti c'è la ricerca della fuga dalla loro miseranda esistenza, attraverso alcool, gioco, sogni. Arriva un giorno al dormitorio un vecchio e saggio pellegrino, che porta in tutti una nota di speranza con la sua filosofia e la sua umanità. Ma il sogno dura poco : lo sconforto torna ad impadronirsi di tutti, al punto da portare l'ex attore al suicidio e gli altri a ribellarsi ai due gestori. Ispirato ad un dramma di Gorkij, il film parla della parte sconfitta dell'umanità, dei vinti, dei falliti, dei rifiutati dalla società "civile".

Akira Kurosawa
Drama
Toho Company

Una coppia di gretti usurai gestisce uno squallido dormitorio, nei pressi di una discarica. Una folla di larve e relitti umani affolla il locale: un ex attore alcolizzato; una prostituta; un fabbro che sragiona; disoccupati ed altri ancora. In tutti c'è la ricerca della fuga dalla loro miseranda esistenza, attraverso alcool, gioco, sogni. Arriva un giorno al dormitorio un vecchio e saggio pellegrino, che porta in tutti una nota di speranza con la sua filosofia e la sua umanità. Ma il sogno dura poco : lo sconforto torna ad impadronirsi di tutti, al punto da portare l'ex attore al suicidio e gli altri a ribellarsi ai due gestori. Ispirato ad un dramma di Gorkij, il film parla della parte sconfitta dell'umanità, dei vinti, dei falliti, dei rifiutati dalla società "civile".

David Seltzer
Comedy
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG-13
A socially inept fourteen year old experiences heartbreak for the first time when his two best friends--one an older-brother figure, the other a girl with whom he is in love-- fall for each other.

Chris Hall
Comedy
MGM (Video & DVD)
R

Various
Comedy
HBO Home Video

Funny, rude and outrageous.

This is not typical HBO but do not be put off. What I mean is that there is nothing glamorous about this show (unlike Entourage or Sopranos); it's about a lazy low income guy and his family, and uses cheap sets for filming.

Yet the dialogue is very sharp, the episodes have a clear storyline, and it is extremely rude.

If you like "Curb Your Enthusiasm" you will like this too.

Paul McGuigan
Crime
Capitol Films
R
After landing in the wrong place at the wrong time, Slevin must kill The Rabbi's to scratch a $96,000 debt to The Boss and pay off $33,000 to The Rabbi. He can't go to the police and he can't leave the city. On top of all this, behind the scene's Mr. Smith aka Mr. Goodkat is secretly plotting to kill Slevin.

Nora Ephron
Comedy
DreamWorks SKG
R
Winter, 1988: Harrisburg PA's celebrity weatherman, Russ Richards, is broke: he's borrowed heavily to open a snowmobile dealership, and it's still unseasonably warm. Gig, his seedy pal, advises him to run an insurance scam; when it goes awry, Russ is out another $10,000 and in trouble with Dale, a bat-wielding thug. Gig convinces Russ to rig the state lottery with the help of Crystal, a gold-digging ditz with a heart of tin. They have to find a beard to buy the ticket, and then they have to cash it. Soon, murder and various double-crosses add to Russ's nightmare. A lazy cop zeroes in. Jail is closer than riches. Will Russ have to choose between his money and his life?

Neil Burger
Comedy
Overnight
R
The story revolves around three soldiers -- Colee, TK and Cheever -- who return from the Iraq War after suffering injuries and learn that life has moved on without them. They end up on an unexpected road trip across the U.S., with Colee on a mission to bring her boyfriend's guitar back to his family because he saved her life, TK seeking confidence to face his wife after a shrapnel injury that threatens his sexual function and middle-aged Cheever planning to hit the casinos in a desperate effort to pay for his son's college tuition.

Robert N. Bradbury
Romance
Lone Star Productions (I)

Jerry Mason (Wayne), a young Texan, and Jake Benson (Hayes), an old rancher, become partners and strike it rich with a gold mine. They then find their lives complicated by bad guys and a woman.

Curtis Hanson
Comedy
Lucky You Pictures Inc.
PG-13
In Las Vegas, Huck Cheever is a poker player, brilliant but also prone to let emotion take over. It's the week of the poker world series, and Huck must come up with the $10,000 entry fee, which he wins, loses, borrows, and loses - and even steals part of from Billie Offer, an earnest young woman who's new in town and who catches Huck's eye. By the time the tournament starts, Huck owes everyone. Complicating things is the arrival of Huck's father, whom Huck detests for having left his mother, a champion player in town to win. Can Huck learn to play poker the way he lives and to live the way he plays poker? Or is his only flush the sound of his life going down the toilet?

Lucie Arnaz
Comedy, Documentary, Music
MPI HOME VIDEO
NR
Emmy Award-Winning Special

Desi and Lucy's daughter, Lucie Arnaz, hosts this emotional and honest glimpse at the extraordinary lives of her world-famous parents, highlighted by never-before-seen color family movies along with insightful interviews from family members, business associates and celebrity friends such as Bob Hope. Winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Informational Special, LUCY & DESI: A HOME MOVIE is a sensitive and absorbing documentary that details the circumstances which brought the immortal twosome together and ultimately drove them apart.

Bonus features include:
Interview with Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz, Jr.,
Lost Lucy & Desi television appearances
Outtakes and bloopers,
Trivia,
Still gallery,

Various
Documentary
Cinétévé

40 international directors were asked to make a short film using the original Cinematographe invented by the Lumière Brothers, working under conditions similar to those of 1895. There were three rules: (1) The film could be no longer than 52 seconds, (2) no synchronized sound was permitted, and (3) no more than three takes. The results run the gamut from Zhang Yimou's convention-thwarting joke to David Lynch's bizarre miniature epic.

Various
Documentary
Association Frères Lumière

Ang Lee
Drama
Hai Sheng Film Production Company
NC-17
Frustrated in his attempts to assassinate Yee, who is an important official in Japanese-ruled Shanghai, Old Wu, who has lost his wife and two sons as well as two women who had attempted to seduce Yee, now recruits Kuang, Mai Tai Tai, and their troupe of drama students from Hong Kong University in yet another attempt to do away with Yee. Mai Tai Tai is chosen to befriend Yee, which she does by posing as the wife of Mak, befriending Yee's wife and her female friends, and then eventually befriending Yee himself. Even though both get together, they do end up going separate ways, only to meet again four years later. This time Mai is all set to entrap Yee at Chandni Chowk Jewellers which is owned by an East Indian man named Khalid Saiduddin. The question does remain: Will she and her troupe succeed?

Nick Millard
Drama
Secret Key
Unrated
The Grindhouse Trash 2-DVD Collection presents the ultimate "storefront theater" viewing experience with three rare gritty soft-core gems from the late 1960s including UTA LUSTFUL NEIGHBORS and THE PIMP PRIMER. Features adult screen icons John Holmes and Uschi Digard in early screen roles.System Requirements:Running Time: 240 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 878746001694 Manufacturer No: SKE-DV-16

Derick Martini
Comedy, Drama
A Martini Bros. Production
R
Set in the late 70's, seen through the innocent eyes of a fifteen year old boy, SCOTT, "Lymelife" is a unique take on the dangers of the American Dream. This funny, sad, violent and sometimes tragic look at first love, family dynamics and divorce weaves an intricate tapestry of American life during a time of drastic economic and emotional change.