Clark Johnson
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
Based off of a one time T.V. show, two Los Angeles S.W.A.T. officers Jim Street and Brian Gamble were sent in to foil an extremely violent bank robbery. Although they thwarted the robbery, they shot a hostage in the process. Street was suspended from S.W.A.T. while Gamble was fired altogether. After 6 months, a veteran s.W.A.T. officer, Daniel Harrelson or "Hondo", is told to assemble a S.W.A.T. team for his division. He chooses other S.W.A.T. officers as well as 3 rookies. However, after they pass the S.W.A.T. training, they receive a message that a French crime boss, known as Alex Montell is trying to escape from prison. This will not be easy to prevent, especially after Montell promises $100 Million to his rescuers.

Clark Johnson
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
Based off of a one time T.V. show, two Los Angeles S.W.A.T. officers Jim Street and Brian Gamble were sent in to foil an extremely violent bank robbery. Although they thwarted the robbery, they shot a hostage in the process. Street was suspended from S.W.A.T. while Gamble was fired altogether. After 6 months, a veteran s.W.A.T. officer, Daniel Harrelson or "Hondo", is told to assemble a S.W.A.T. team for his division. He chooses other S.W.A.T. officers as well as 3 rookies. However, after they pass the S.W.A.T. training, they receive a message that a French crime boss, known as Alex Montell is trying to escape from prison. This will not be easy to prevent, especially after Montell promises $100 Million to his rescuers.

Irvin Kershner
Action
American Film Properties
PG

Alfred Hitchcock
Drama
Gaumont British Picture Corporation

Mr. Verloc is part of a gang of foreign saboteurs operating out of London. He manages a small cinema with his wife and her teenage brother as a cover, but they know nothing of his secret. Scotland Yard assign an undercover detective to work at the shop next to the cinema in order to observe the gang.

Alfred Hitchcock
Adventure
Frank Lloyd Productions
PG
Los Angeles aircraft worker Barry Kane (Robert Cummings) evades arrest after he is unjustly accused of sabotage. Following leads, he travels across the country to New York trying to clear his name by exposing a gang of fascist-supporting saboteurs led by apparently respectable Charles Tobin (Otto Kruger). Along the way, he involves Pat Martin (Pricilla Lane), eventually preventing another major act of sabotage. They finally catch up with Frank Fry (Norman Lloyd), the man who actually committed the act of sabotage at the aircraft factory.

Guy Maddin
Drama
Rhombus Media
R
A sort-of musical set in Winnipeg during the Great Depression, where a beer baroness organizes a contest to find the saddest music in the world. Musicians from around the world descend on the city to try and win first place - a $25,000 prize.

Todd Haynes
Thriller
American Playhouse Theatrical Films
R
"Safe" has been described as a horror movie of the soul, a description that director Todd Haynes relishes. California housewife Carol White seems to have it all in life: a wealthy husband and a beautiful house. The only thing she lacks is a strong personality: Carol seems timid and empty during all of her interactions with the world around her. At the beginning of the film, one would consider her to be more safe in life than just about anyone. That doesn't turn out to be the case. Starting with headaches and leading to a grand-mal seizure, Carol becomes more and more sick, claiming that she's become sensitive to the common toxins in today's world: exhaust, fumes, aerosol spray, etc. She pulls back from the sexual advances of her husband and spends her nights alone by the TV or wandering around the outside of her well-protected home like an animal in a cage. Her physician examines her and can find nothing wrong. An allergist finds that she has an allergic reaction to milk but explains that there is no treatment for that sort of allergy. She sees a psychiatrist who does nothing but make her nervous. In the hospital, Carol sees an infomercial for Wrenwood, a new-age retreat for those who are "environmentally ill," and leaves her husband and stepson to try and find salvation at this retreat: headed by a phony, grandstanding, "sensitive" individual named Peter Dunning.

Fred C. Newmeyer, Sam Taylor
Action
Hal Roach Studios Inc.

Country boy (Lloyd) heads to the big city to seek success. While working as a clerk in a department store, he talks the manager into offering $1000 to anyone who can bring more customers to the store. He then arranges for a friend, a "human fly," (Strothers) to climb the face of the store building as a publicity stunt. Unfortunatly the "human fly" is a wanted man, and when "The Law" (Young) shows, our hero must make the climb, himself. At each ledge he encounters new difficulties, climaxing in the famous 'clock scene.'

Rose Troche
Drama
Better Safe Productions Inc.
R
A series of overlapping stories about four suburban families dealing with different maladies. Esther Gold's (Close) life is consumed by caring for her comatose son; Jim Train (Mulroney) is sent into a tailspin when he's passed over for a promotion; Annette Jenning's (Clarkson) family is struggling in the wake of her divorce; Helen Christianson (Place) is determined to shake up her mundane life.

Armand Schaefer
Western
Lone Star Productions (I)

Imprisoned for a murder he did not commit, John Brant escapes and ends up out west where, after giving the local lawmen the slip, he joins up with an outlaw gang. Brant finds out that 'Jones', one of the outlaws he has become friends with, committed the murder that Brant was sent up for, but has no knowledge that anyone was ever put in jail for his crime. Willing to forgive and forget, Brant doesn't realize that 'Jones' has not only fallen for the same pretty shopgirl Brant has, but begins to suspect that Brant is not truly an outlaw.

Hal Walker
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Chasing pretty girls, blowing up a liferaft inside a submarine, virtually every sailor gag ever thought of, and a bunch of songs fill out this Martin and Lewis outing as a pair of sailors.

Phillip Noyce
Action
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
Simon Templar has no real family, no real home and Simon Templar isn't even his real name. Yet Simon Templar , also known as the Saint for his use of creating false identities using the names of Catholic saints,is one of the world's most successful thieves. Slick, debonair and a master of disguise, Simon manages to outwit the police again and again. On his next job Simon is hired by the Russian Mafia to steal a cold fusion energy formula from scientist Emma Russel, however the mission backfires as he falls for the pretty, intelligent scientist. Simon and his new love must now manage to outwit the Russian Mafia and work out the energy formula before the worst happens and the US is affected forever.

Peter Bogdanovich
Drama
Copa del Oro

Compelling character study, revolving around Jack Flowers (Ben Gazzara), an American hustler trying to make his fortune in 1970s Singapore in small time pimping. He dreams of building a fortune by running a brothel himself and returning to the States to lead a life of luxury. Savvy but not unsavory he strikes up a friendship with William Leigh (Denholm Elliot), a genial and decent auditor who travels to Singapore every year. Ultimately, the background of the Vietnam War comes into the picture as Jack is offered the opportunity by the CIA to run a brothel for the R&R activities of U.S. soldiers on leave in Singapore.

Albert Maysles, David Maysles
Documentary
Maysles Films

Filmmakers (and brothers) Albert and David Maysles follow four employees of a company that makes expensive, ornate, illustrated bibles as they attempt to sell the items door-to-door to less-than-interested customers, who are mainly poor or lower-middle-class Catholics with little money to spend on pretty Bibles.

D.W. Griffith
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Judge Foster throws his daughter out because she married a circus man. She leaves her baby girl with Prof. McGargle before she dies. Years later Sally is a dancer with whom Peyton, a son of Judge Foster's friend, falls in love. When Sally is arrested McGargle proves her real parentage.

Pier Paolo Pasolini
Drama
Produzioni Europee Associati (PEA)

Set in the Nazi-controlled, northern Italian state of Salo in 1944, four dignitaries round up sixteen perfect specimens of youth and take them together with guards, servants and studs to a palace near Marzabotto. In addition, there are four middle-aged women: three of whom recount arousing stories whilst the fourth accompanies on the piano. The story is largely taken up with their recounting the stories of Dante and De Sade: the Circle of Manias, the Circle of Shit and the Circle of Blood. Following this, the youths are executed whilst each libertine takes his turn as voyeur.

D.J. Caruso
Crime
Castle Rock Entertainment
R
After the murder of his beloved wife, Danny Parker (Val Kilmer) is set adrift in a world where nothing is as it seems. On his journey he befriends slacker Jimmy the Fin (Peter Sarsgaard) and becomes involved in rescuing his neighbor Colette (Debra Kara Unger) from her own demons. Danny is antagonized by undercover narcotics agents (Anthony Lapaglia and Doug Hutchison) and sadistic dealer Pooh Bear (Vincent D'Onfronio).

Oliver Stone
Drama
Hemdale Film
R
A journalist, down on his luck in the US, drives to El Salvador to chronicle the events of the 1980 military dictatorship, including the assasination of Archbishop Oscar Romero. He forms an uneasy alliance with both guerillas in the countryside who want him to get pictures out to the US press, and the right-wing military, who want him to bring them photographs of the rebels. Meanwhile he has to find a way of protecting his Salvadorean girlfriend and getting her out of the country.

Francesco Rosi
Crime
Galatea Film

Robert Mulligan
Comedy
Mirisch Corporation, The

A man and woman meet by chance at a romantic inn over dinner. Although both are married to others, they find themselves in the same bed the next morning questioning how this could have happened. They agree to meet on the same weekend each year. Originally a stage play, the two are seen changing, years apart, always in the same room in different scenes. Each of them always appears on schedule, but as time goes on each has some personal crisis that the other helps them through, often without both of them understanding what is going on.

Hiroshi Inagaki
Action
Toho Company

With his closest friend, Matahachi, Takezo (the town's wild, orphan kid) leaves his village to join an army on its way to battle. After their side loses, they seek shelter in the isolated home of a widow, Oko, and her daughter, Akemi. Oko seduces Matahachi, who forgets his betrothal to the virtuous Otsu. Oko, Matahachi, and Akemi go to Kyoto, but Takezo returns to the village. Matahachi's family rejects Takezo's report and has him arrested for treason. A monk rescues him from death and sentences him to the study of the samurai code. Otsu and Takezo fall in love, and she promises to wait for him when he sets off on the road as a knight errant.

Hiroshi Inagaki
Action
Toho Company

After years on the road establishing his reputation as Japan's greatest fencer, Takezo returns to Kyoto. Otsu waits for him, yet he has come not for her but to challenge the leader of the region's finest school of fencing. To prove his valor and skill, he walks deliberately into ambushes set up by the school's followers. While Otsu waits, Akemi also seeks him, expressing her desires directly. Meanwhile, Takezo is observed by Sasaki Kojiro, a brilliant young fighter, confident he can dethrone Takezo. After leaving Kyoto in triumph, Takezo declares his love for Otsu, but in a way that dishonors her and shames him. Once again, he leaves alone.

Hiroshi Inagaki
Action
Toho Company

A humble and simple Takezo abandons his life as a knight errant. He's sought as a teacher and vassal by Shogun, Japan's most powerful clan leader. He's also challenged to fight by the supremely confident and skillful Sasaki Kojiro. Takezo agrees to fight Kojiro in a year's time but rejects Shogun's patronage, choosing instead to live on the edge of a village, raising vegetables. He's followed there by Otsu and later by Akemi, both in love with him. The year ends as Takezo assists the villagers against a band of brigands. He seeks Otsu's forgiveness and accepts her love, then sets off across the water to Ganryu Island for his final contest.

Masaki Kobayashi
Drama
Mifune Productions Co. Ltd.

During peace in 1725, aging swordsman Isaburo is living a henpecked life when his clan lord requests that Isaburo's son marry the lord's mistress, with whom he's displeased, even though she's born him a son. Isaburo wants to refuse, but his son Yogoro accepts the woman, Ichi, and they fall deeply in love. Their love renews Isaburo, so when the clan lord's elder son dies and the lord sends for Ichi to return to his side as mother of his heir, Isaburo opposes his lord. Yogoro and Ichi, who now have a baby daughter, stand with him. The clan orders their suicide, then sends soldiers to kill them. Isaburo's only hope is to take his case to Edo to expose the clan's cruelty. Can he?

Masahiro Shinoda
Action
Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo

The legendary samurai Sasuke Sarutobi tracks a the spy Nojiri, while a mysterious figure named Sakon leads a band of men on their own quest for the wily Nojiri. By tale's end, no one knows just who is who and what side anyone is on.

Lloyd Bacon
Drama
First National Pictures

Ex-Army officer Jameson takes a job a prison guard at San Quentin. Joe, the brother of his new girlfriend May, is sentenced to the prison for robbery. When Jameson tries to separate lawbreakers from hardened criminals, badguy Hansen tries to stir up trouble by telling Joe about Jameson's interest in his sister.

Zoltan Korda
Adventure
London Film Productions

British District Officer in Nigeria in the 1930's rules his area strictly but justly, and struggles with gun-runners and slavers with the aid of a loyal native chief.

Allan Dwan
Action, Drama, War, Romance
Republic Pictures
NR
Marine sergeant John Stryker seems a martinet and a bully as he trains young Marines for combat in the Pacific war. In the end, as survival in the bloody battle of Iwo Jima depends on the lessons Stryker has drilled into them, his troops discover why he was so hard on them.

Various
Comedy
Sony Pictures
NR
I'm comin', Elizabeth! It's the complete series on 17 discs. Join ne'er do well Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) as he runs his junkyard, and runs his son Lamont (Demond Wilson) ragged. Add Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) and Grady (Whitman Mayo) into the mix, and you've got six seasons of hilarious entertainment.

Akira Kurosawa
Action
Kurosawa Production Co.

A group of idealistic young men, determined to clean up the corruption in their town, are aided by a scruffy, cynical samurai who does not at all fit their concept of a noble warrior.

Kenji Mizoguchi
Drama
Daiei Studios

In mediaeval Japan a compassionate governor is sent into exile. His wife and children try to join him, but are separated, and the children grow up amid suffering and oppression.

Nicholas Webster
Family
Jalor Productions

Martians, upset that their children have become obsessed with TV shows from Earth which extoll the virtues of Santa Claus, start an expedition to Earth to kidnap the one and only Santa. While on Earth, they kidnap two lively children that lead the group of Martians to the North Pole and Santa. The Martians then take Santa and the two children back to Mars with them. Voldar, a particularly grumpy Martian, attempts to do away with the children and Santa before they get to Mars, but their leader Lomas stops him. When they arrive on Mars, Santa, with the help of the two Earth children and a rather simple-minded Martian lackey, overcomes the Martians by bringing fun, happiness and Christmas cheer to the children of Mars.

Alejandro Jodorowsky
Drama
Productora Fílmica Real
R
A young man is confined in a mental hospital. Through a flashback we see that he was traumatized as a child, when he and his family were circus performers: he saw his father cut off the arms of his mother, a religious fanatic and leader of the heretical church of Santa Sangre ("Holy Blood"), and then commit suicide. Back in the present, he escapes and rejoins his surviving and armless mother. Against his will, he "becomes her arms" and the two undertake a grisly campaign of murder and revenge.

Herbert Blaché, Winchell Smith
Comedy
Metro Pictures Corporation

Nick Van Alstyne owns the Henrietta silver mine and is very rich. His son Bertie is naive and spoiled. His daughter Rose is married to shady investor Mark. Mark wrecks Bertie's wedding plans by making him take the blame for Mark's illegitimate daughter. Mark also nearly ruins the family business by selling off Henrietta stock at too low a price. Bertie, of all people, must come to the rescue on the trading floor.

Gordon Douglas
Comedy
Hal Roach Studios Inc.

After working in the noisy horn factory, just the sound of one drives Oliver into a violent fit. Dr. Finlayson prescribes a long, restful sea voyage, so Stan and Oliver rent a boat and set sail, unaware that escaped killer Nick Grainger has stowed away onboard. To disable the crook, the boys prepare him a meal using string for spaghetti, sponges for meatballs and soap for cheese. But Grainger discovers their plan and decides to make them eat the stuff themselves.

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Danmarks Radio (DR)
R
Marianne and Johan meet again after thirty years without contact, when Marianne suddenly feels a need to see her ex-husband again. She decides to visit Johan at his old summer house in the western province of Dalarna. And so, one beautiful autumn day, there she is, beside his reclining chair, waking him with a light kiss. Staying at a cottage on the property are Johan's son Henrik and Henrik's daughter Karin. Henrik is giving his daughter cello lessons and already sees her future as staked out. Relations between father and son are very strained, but both are protective of Karin. They are all still mourning Anna, Henrik's much-loved wife, who died two years ago, yet who, in many ways, remains present among them. Marianne soon realizes that things are not all as they should be, and she finds herself unwillingly drawn into a complicated and upsetting power struggle.

Liam Lynch
Comedy
Black Gold Films

Sarah Silverman appears before an audience in Los Angeles with several sketches, taped outside the theater, intercut into the stand-up performance. Themes include race, sex, and religion. Her comic persona is a self-centered hipster, brash and clueless about her political incorrectness. A handful of musical numbers punctuate the performance. It begins and ends with her in conversation with two friends: at the start, she's the loser compared to their recent artistic successes; by the end, she's the star, in her dressing room, dismissive and cutting.

William Dieterle
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures

Sardonic detective Shane, thrown out of one town for bringing trouble, heads for home and his ex-partner's detective agency. The business is in a sad way, and Shane, who has had the forethought to provide himself with a 250-dollar commission from an old lady on the train, is welcomed with open arms. When pretty Valerie Purvis walks in the next day willing to pay over the odds to put a tail on the man who did her wrong, Shane's way with the ladies looks like paying off yet again. But things start to go wrong when his partner is murdered, and Shane himself comes home to find his apartment wrecked by a gentlemanly crook who comes back to apologise -- and to tell him a fascinating fairy-story about the fabled Horn of Roland that looks like not being so mythical after all. Miss Purvis wants protection. The police want answers. And all sorts of people want the 'French horn'... but Shane is one jump ahead of everyone all the way. Well, almost.

Crime
Prometheus Ventures Inc.

This brutal drug drama (actually two films edited together) features Yoko Ono as the fiancee of a drug pusher who wants to go straight. His supplier kidnaps Ono in order to keep him selling dope, while in an unrelated story three black-clad addicts terrorize women.

John Badham
Drama
Robert Stigwood Organization (RSO)
R
Tony is an uneducated Brooklyn teenager. The highlight of his week is going to the local disco, where he is the king of the dancefloor. Tony meets Stephanie at the disco and they agree to dance together in a competition. Stephanie resists Tony's attempts to romance her, as she aspires to greater things; she is moving across the river to Manhattan. Gradually, Tony also becomes disillusioned with the life he is leading and he and Stephanie decide to help one another to start afresh.

John Badham
Drama, Music, Romance
Robert Stigwood Organization (RSO)
R
Tony is an uneducated Brooklyn teenager. The highlight of his week is going to the local disco, where he is the king of the dancefloor. Tony meets Stephanie at the disco and they agree to dance together in a competition. Stephanie resists Tony's attempts to romance her, as she aspires to greater things; she is moving across the river to Manhattan. Gradually, Tony also becomes disillusioned with the life he is leading and he and Stephanie decide to help one another to start afresh.

Matthew Meshekoff, Tom Schiller, Walter Williams (IV), Mike Judge, Bill D'Elia
Music Video & Concerts
Lions Gate
NR
Contents:
Volume 1
Billy Joel Only The Good Die Young 1978, Ray Charles What'd I Say 1975, Carly Simon You're So Vain 1976, Grateful Dead Casey Jones 1978, Simon & Garfunkel The Boxer 1975, Joe Cocker Feelin Alright 1975, Elvis Costello Less Than Zero / Radio Radio 1977, Blues Brothers Soul Man 1978, Patti Smith Gloria 1976, Mick Jagger & Peter Tosh Don't Look Back 1978, The Band The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down 1976
Plus Sketches starring John Belushi, Steve Martin, Jane Curtin, Laine Newman, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Paul Simon, Bill Murray, Andy Kaufman, Lorne Michaels, Dan Aykroyd and Mick Jagger
Volume 2
Tina Turner Better Be Good to Me 1985, James Brown I Got You 1980, Queen Crazy Little Thing Called Love 1982, Randy Newman I Love L.A. 1983, The Go Go's We Got the Beat 1981, Rick James Super Freak 1981, Talking Heads Take Me To The River 1979, Spinal Tap Big Bottom 1984, John Mellencamp Pink Houses 1983, Duran Duran Hungry Like The Wolf 1983
Plus Sketches starring Martin Short, Eddie Murphy, Billy Crystal, Ringo Starr, Stevie Wonder, Joe Piscopo and Rich Hall
Volume 3
The Bangles Hazy Shade of Winter 1988, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Free Falin' 1989, Paul Simon Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes 1986, Neil Young Rockin' in the Free World 1989, Roy Orbison O Pretty Woman 1987, Pretenders Don't Get Me Wrong 1986, Fine Young Cannibals She Drives Me Crazy 1989, Sting We'll Be Together 1987, Elvis Costello Veronica 1989
Plus Sketches starring Mike Myers, Dana Carvey, Aerosmith, Chris Farley, Patrick Swayze, Jon Lovitz, Harry Hall, Mick Jagger, Phil Hartman, Michael Myers, Chris Rock, Sting, Valerie Bertinelli & Eddie Van Halen
Volume 4
R.E.M. Losing My Religion 1991, Sinead O'Connor War 1992, Madonna Fever 1993, Aretha Franklin Chain of Fools 1994, Eric Clapton Wonderful Tonight 1990, Nirvana Rape Me 1993, Paul McCartney Hey Jude 1993, En Vogue Free Your Mind 1992, Counting Crows Round Here 1994, Bruce Springsteen Living Proof 1992, Live I Alone 1995 Blind Melon No Rain 1994
Plus Sketches starring Mike Myers, Mick Jagger, Dana Carvey, Madonna, Phil Hartman, Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, James Taylor, Rosie O'Donnell, Kevin Knealon, David Spade, Paul McCartney, Michael Bolton
Volume 5
Mariah Carey Butterfly 1997, No Doubt Don't Speak 1996, Alanis Morissette Hand In My Pocket 1995, Spice Girls Wannabe 1997, Garbage Special 1999, Jewel Who Will Save Your Soul 1997, Hanson Mmm Bop 1997, Beck Where It's At 1997, Snoop Doggy Dog Snoop's Upside Upside Your Head 1997, Metallica Fuel 1997, Garth Brooks Two Piña Coladas 1998, Dave Matthews Band What Would You Say 1995, Backstreet Boys All I Have To Give 1999, Ricky Martin Livin' La Vida Loca 1999, Paula Cole I Don't Want To Wait 1998
Plus Sketches starring Matthew Broderick, Will Ferrell, Paula Abdul, Jon Lovitz, Kevin Spacey, Beck, Michael Palin, Garth Brooks, Joshua Jackson
there are a few great moments it would have been nice to see again that were not included, but it looks like a pretty nice set.

Beth McCarthy-Miller, James Signorelli
Comedy
Broadway Video

A TV special celebrating the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live. Before a celebrity audience, many of the former cast members and guest hosts return to perform their signature monologues and present a look back at some of the best comedy skits and musical numbers of the past two and a half decades.

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate/Trimark Home Ent.

Adam Sandler, David Spade, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and Chris Farley put together this hilarious Saturday Night Live sketch celebration! With each one of their memorable characters: Sandler's Opera Man, Spade's sarcastic news commenator, Rock's Nat X, Schneider's Richard the Copy Guy, and Farley's host of the Chris Farley Show.

Various
Comedy
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

Various
Comedy
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Various
Comedy
NBC Studios

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

Various
Comedy
NBC Studios

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

Various
Comedy
NBC Studios

A late-night comedy show featuring several short skits, parodies of television commercials, a live guest band, and a pop-cultural guest host each week. Many of the SNL players have spun off successful independent comedy and/or movie careers from here.

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate/Trimark Home Ent.

Before he was Happy Gilmore, Little Nicky, The Waterboy, or Billy Madison, Adam Sandler was doing Saturday Night Live playing hilarious characters and singing hilarious songs like the Hanukkah song and Christmas song. Watch Adam act in his own star studded way as Canteen Boy, Cajun Man, Opera Man, and much more!

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Television
Universal Home Video

Dave Wilson
Comedy
Broadway Video

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Comedy
Broadway Video

Everybody remembers Chris Farley, the big loveably guy from Saturday Night Live. Before he was the Beverly Hills Ninja, or Tommy Boy, or even before he was in Black Sheep or Almost Heroes, Chris was on Saturday Night Live and played characters like Matt Foley the energized motivational speaker, Bennet Brauer the gross-out news correspondent, Chippendales' dancer, and many more!

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Comedy
NBC Home Video

Before he was the HBO stand-up comedian we all know and love, Chris Rock was on Saturday Night Live doing stand up comedy, expressing his feelings on crime, taxes, prison, holidays, and other topics of society. He also portrayed hilarious characters as Luther Campbell, Onski, Old Man Ernie, and the hilarious talk-show host Nat X!

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

James Signorelli, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Various
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

This edition of Saturday Night Live represents the most versatile actor and stand-up comedian ever! Dana always played crazy characters from Church Lady, Ross Perot, George Bush, Garth Algar, Grumpy Old Man, the gross Massive Head-Wound Harry, John McLaughlin, to Johnny Carson and Charles Grodin.

Leon Ichaso, Matthew Meshekoff
Television
Universal Home Video

Andy Breckman, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate/Trimark Home Ent.

Before he was The Nutty Professor, before he was Dr. Dolittle, and even before he was the Beverly Hills Cop, Eddie Murphy was an SNL comic! From 1981-1984 he entertained us with sketches as Gumby, Mister Robinson, Buckwheat, Velvet Jones and many more! He was before Chris Rock, Tracey Morgan, and Tim Meadows! And after Garrett Morris!

Tom Schiller, James Signorelli
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Paul Miller
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Dave Wilson
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Leon Ichaso, Beth McCarthy-Miller
Short
Madacy Entertainment

Shannon's unmistakable comedy antics are in full effect in this collection of sketches from SNL's wild alumna. Laugh along with her fearlessly funny characters like brazen schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher and Joyologist Helen Madden. Plus, see sketches that were cut after dress rehearsal.

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Paul Miller
Comedy
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Paul Miller, Matthew Meshekoff
Comedy
NBC Universal Television

The well loved star of "Mrs Doubtfire", "Dead Pets Society", "The Fisher King" and "Good Morning Vietnam" is captured on video doing what he does best - live comedy. Supported by the Saturday Night Live cast, he stars in a series of cutting comic moments that are as diverse as the talents of this master of humour.

David H. Brooks, Brent Chambers
Comedy
Universal Home Video

Dave Wilson
Comedy
NBC Home Video

Various
Documentary
Broadway Video

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Paul Miller
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Stacey Foster
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Beth McCarthy-Miller
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Beth McCarthy-Miller, Paul Miller
Television
Lions Gate/Trimark Home Ent.

Dave Wilson
Comedy
NBC Home Video

Various
Comedy
Lions Gate/Trimark Home Ent.

Various
Comedy
Universal Studios

Dave Wilson
Comedy
Universal Studios
NR
Saturday Night Live: The Complete First Season boxed set is much more than the sum of its parts, in fact it's one of the most significant TV DVD releases yet. This isn't just an 8-disc set featuring 24 episodes of live sketch comedy, it's a big box of zeitgeist. This really is the complete first season, mostly uncut and complete with every musical act and short film intact (a few bumpers and transitions were removed to make it flow better on DVD). The first broadcast aired on October 11, 1975, hosted by George Carlin and featured musical guests Billy Preston and Janis Ian. At first, things seem a little raw: Carlin's opening monologue is painfully unfunny, Chase's first shot at the seminal "Weekend Update" is amusing but sloppy, and much of the cast seem to be holding back. But the groundwork is all there, and soon in subsequent episodes you can see it all start to come together (especially with John Belushi who lets his simmering intensity out to tremendous effect), proving that the first episode simply belies the historic impact the show would come to have on popular culture. Here you'll find the first airing of some of the many skits that stayed famous over the years: the Land Shark, Samurai Hotel, Chevy Chase's opening pratfalls and the impersonations of Gerald Ford which would spin off into the proud SNL tradition of presidential parodies.
The set is a very entertaining look at a significant point in TV and American cultural history. It is so 1975, but that's a major part of its appeal: did Chevy Chase really used to look that young? Did a young George Carlin really used to look so old? Check out Abba in those disco jumpsuits. And if you're a fan of The Muppets, seeing them here on late-night TV making jokes about getting drunk will blow your mind. Younger fans may not fully understand just how groundbreaking this show was at the time. For example, Richard Pryor hosting the seventh episode, which includes the famous "Word Association" sketch. Back then, to have a comedian of Pryor's reputation joking about drugs, sex, and race on live TV was a tremendous risk (it's also gratifying to see the obvious effect he had on the next generation of comics like Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock), and it helped established the show's cache as unpredictable and edgy. The DVD set is full of moments like this and, like the show itself, it has its ups and downs. Watching hosts like Rob Reiner (back when he was still in his "Meathead" days from All in the Family), Madeleine Kahn, and Desi Arnaz work their comedy chops with the cast are high points. Whereas the infamous Louise Lasser episode, which is known for being among the worst episodes in the show's history… not so much. Still, it's entirely to Executive Producer Lorne Michaels's credit that it's included here. It's a tremendous collection of everything that gave birth to Saturday Night Live, and the seed of what SNL would become, spawning many movies (not to mention a few catch-phrases), launching the careers of many great comedians, and providing TV viewers with some of the most famous, and infamous, moments in broadcast history. And it all started right here.
The set is packaged in a well-designed, sleek fold-out digi-pack with every episode listed on the sleeves, with hosts, musical guests, and the original air date. The special features include a rare look at the cast members' original screen tests, and a 1975 TV interview with the cast. --Daniel Vancini

Dave Wilson
Comedy
Universal Studios
NR

Beyond "Saturday Night Live – The Complete Second Season" on DVD
"SNL" Cast Member DVDs
More Comedy from Universal Studios
All "Saturday Night Live" DVDs


Stills from "Saturday Night Live – The Complete Second Season" (Click for larger image)

Dave Wilson
Comedy
Universal Studios
NR
Television history continued to be written in the third year of "Saturday Night Live". After a wobbly debut in "SNL"'s second season, Bill Murray got some traction as a performer and America began to see just how brilliant a comedian he truly could be. Dan Aykroyd owned Jimmy Carter with his extraordinary impression of the late-1970s president, and he partnered with Steve Martin three times in Festrunk Brothers sketches featuring the "wild and crazy" Czech siblings looking for a "swinging" time with American "foxes." John Belushi mined familiar territory with his image as a brash reprobate, Jane Curtin (with Aykroyd) made "Weekend Update" her own, and Garrett Morris remained a rock-steady second banana. Laraine Newman proved, as always, to be the cast's chameleon-like wild card, capable of anything. As for Gilda Radner, her luminous charm and gifts in the classic television comedienne tradition balanced the show's steep irony with pure mirth. There is so much to talk about when listing highlights of "Saturday Night Live: The Complete Third Season". The attention-grabbing "Anyone Can Host" contest was a cute stunt that resulted in "SNL"'s Christmas episode being officially hosted by 80-year-old Miskell Spillman, a non-celebrity. Spillman proved game enough to pull off an opening monologue (with Buck Henry) and participate in several sketches. But the truly notable event in that December 17, 1977 program was the first appearance of Elvis Costello (replacing the previously-announced Sex Pistols), who underscored the dangers of live television by interrupting his own performance of "Less Than Zero" and instructing his band, the Attractions, to play "Radio Radio" instead. (For a moment, no one watching could have predicted what was about to happen--whether benign or bizarre.) Also of significance to longtime viewers of "SNL" was the return of Chevy Chase (on 2/18/78), the show's first breakout star who left the series early in season two, as host. By now, the story of Chase's backstage brawl with Murray just before showtime that night is legend, and it's easy to see how flustered Chase looked in a clunky opening monologue. (He recovers sufficiently for some fine sketchwork and a cameo appearance harassing Curtin on "Update.") Andy Kaufman did one of his best bits portraying a non-English-speaking comic who plays drums and drags a woman out of the audience for a nonsensical sight gag. The Coneheads (Aykroyd, Curtin, Newman) return in a very funny "Family Feud" piece, while Al Franken and Tom Davis continue to have an impact with a sketch that finds Franken attacking his own parents. Belushi mixes pop culture influences in a big way in "Samurai Night Fever." Hosting three times, Steve Martin makes as huge an impression on season three as anyone, introducing his musical novelty number "King Tut" and playing a lonely lover in a wistful-slapstick sketch in which he dances with Radner.
The overall slate of musical guests is good though not great, and except for Costello, Randy Newman, Keith Jarrett, and Paul Simon, the artists tend toward middle-of-the-road. Besides Martin, there are a few other strong hosts, including Buck Henry and a magnificent Michael Palin, who opens his show by dumping a plate of seafood and two cats down his pants. Faring less well as hosts are O.J. Simpson, Hugh Hefner, and Michael Sarrazin. As always, there are hits and misses over the course of another sprawling season of "Saturday Night Live". "--Tom Keogh"




Beyond "Saturday Night Live – The Complete Third Season" on DVD
"SNL" Cast Member DVDs
More Comedy from Universal Studios
All "Saturday Night Live" DVDs

Stills from "Saturday Night Live – The Complete Third Season" (click for larger image)

Dave Wilson
Comedy
Universal Studios
NR
Returning for a fourth season (1978-1979), the cast and writers of SNL maintained their reputation for hilarious characters and innovative sketch-comedy creating hits such as The Blues Brothers (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd), Nick the Lounge Singer (Bill Murray), Candy Slice (Gilda Radner), The Loud Family (Jane Curtin), Fred Garvin: Male Prostitute (Dan Aykroyd), and The Nerds (Bill Murray and Gilda Radner). Other favorites include the return of iconic host Steve Martin (with Dan Aykroyd as the “wild and crazy” Festrunk Brothers) and Buck Henry’s inappropriate “Uncle Roy”. The complete fourth season of SNL features classic performances from hosts Fred Willard, Carrie Fisher, Kate Jackson, Milton Berle, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Elliott Gould, Frank Zappa, Gary Busey, and Walter Matthau. Unforgettable musical guests such as Peter Tosh, Mick Jagger, The Doobie Brothers, Bette Midler, Talking Heads, Devo, Van Morrison, Grateful Dead, Rickie Lee Jones, James Taylor, and the legendary Rolling Stones playing live from studio 8H.
Stills from Saturday Night Live – The Complete Fourth Season (click for larger image)

Aviva Slesin, Christopher Guest, Claude Kerven, Mike DeSeve, Robert Smigel
Comedy
Universal Studios
NR
Since the creation of Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, one of the signatures of the show has been its commercial parodies. From subtle to outrageous, silly to realistic, SNL has always been able to poke fun at the folks on Madison Avenue with a variety of products not actually for sale. Now you can enjoy your favorite commercial parodies that have aired over the past 30 years all on one DVD and hosted by funny man Will Ferrell. Watch classics like "Little Chocolate Donuts," "Happy Fun Ball," "Mom Jeans," "Colon Blow," "Taco Town," "Love Toilet," "Oops I Crapped My Pants" or "Bassomatic" again and again.

Kenneth Bowser
Television
Lions Gate Home Entertainment

Antonio Climati, Mario Morra
Documentary
Titanus

Here's a National Geographic style documentary that's alternately exploitive and informative. The film presents a wide variety of ways that humans interact with nature. It depicts the actual footage of a careless man (Pit Dernitz) leaving the safety of his car to film lions close up and ends up being their dinner. Other highlights include natives humping the ground in hopes of bringing life to the land, various big game hunting and last but not least naked hippies.

Tamara Jenkins
Comedy
Fox Searchlight Pictures
R
Jon and Wendy Savage are two siblings who have spent their adult years trying to recover from the abuse of their abusive father, Lenny Savage. Suddenly, a call comes in that his girlfriend has died, he cannot care for himself with his dementia and her family is dumping him on his children. Despite the fact Jon and Wendy have not spoken to Lenny for twenty years and he is even more loathsome than ever, the Savage siblings feel obliged to take care of him. Now together, brother and sister must come to terms with the new and painful responsibilities with their father now affecting their lives even as they struggle with their own personal demons Lenny helped create.

Brian Dannelly
Comedy
United Artists
PG-13
Mary (

Steven Spielberg
Action & Adventure
Paramount
R
When Steven Spielberg was an adolescent, his first home movie was a backyard war film. When he toured Europe with "Duel" in his 20s, he saw old men crumble in front of headstones at Omaha Beach. That image became the opening scene of "Saving Private Ryan", his film of a mission following the D-day invasion that many have called the most realistic--and maybe the best--war film ever. With 1998 production standards, Spielberg has been able to create a stunning, unparalleled view of war as hell. We are at Omaha Beach as troops are slaughtered by Germans yet overcome the almost insurmountable odds.
A stalwart Tom Hanks plays Captain Miller, a soldier's soldier, who takes a small band of troops behind enemy lines to retrieve a private whose three brothers have recently been killed in action. It's a public relations move for the Army, but it has historical precedent dating back to the Civil War. Some critics of the film have labeled the central characters stereotypes. If that is so, this movie gives stereotypes a good name: Tom Sizemore as the deft sergeant, Edward Burns as the hotheaded Private Reiben, Barry Pepper as the religious sniper, Adam Goldberg as the lone Jew, Vin Diesel as the oversize Private Caparzo, Giovanni Ribisi as the soulful medic, and Jeremy Davies, who as a meek corporal gives the film its most memorable performance.
The movie is as heavy and realistic as Spielberg's Oscar-winning "Schindler's List", but it's more kinetic. Spielberg and his ace technicians (the film won five Oscars: editing (Michael Kahn), cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), sound, sound effects, and directing) deliver battle sequences that wash over the eyes and hit the gut. The violence is extreme but never gratuitous. The final battle, a dizzying display of gusto, empathy, and chaos, leads to a profound repose. "Saving Private Ryan" touches us deeper than "Schindler" because it succinctly links the past with how we should feel today. It's the film Spielberg was destined to make. "--Doug Thomas"

Steven Spielberg
Action
Amblin Entertainment
R
Opening with the Allied invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, members of the 2nd Ranger Battalion under Cpt. Miller fight ashore to secure a beachhead. Amidst the fighting, two brothers are killed in action. Earlier in New Guinea, a third brother is KIA. Their mother, Mrs. Ryan, is to receive all three of the grave telegrams on the same day. The United States Army Chief of Staff, George C. Marshall, is given an opportunity to alleviate some of her grief when he learns of a fourth brother, Private James Ryan, and decides to send out 8 men (Cpt. Miller and select members from 2nd Rangers) to find him and bring him back home to his mother...

James Wan
Crime
Evolution Entertainment
NC-17
Two men wake up at opposite sides of a dirty, disused bathroom, chained by their ankles to pipes. Between them lies a dead man loosely clutching a hand-held tape player and a handgun. Each finds a tape the perfect fit for the player in their back pocket. They play the tapes. One is threatened, the other isn't. But they have a task: One must kill the other by 6:00, or his wife and daughter will die. They find hacksaws in a toilet, and try to cut the chains, but it doesn't work. They are the two newest victims of the Jigsaw Killer. In a flashback, we learn of Amanda, a girl who falls victim to the Jigsaw Killer. On her head is a mask, which is hooked into her lower jaw. There is a timer on it. Only one key will unlock it, and that key is in the digestive tract of her cell mate who lies paralyzed on the opposite side of the room. If she doesn't unlock the mask in time, her lower jaw will be ripped wide open. She survives, but her cell mate doesn't. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn of more victims, and of the nearly-successful capture of the Jigsaw Killer, who doesn't actually kill his victims. Instead, he finds ways to make them kill either themselves, or each other, and he thinks the entire 'game' out perfectly, with no other ways out. Or so it would seem.

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Sandrews

While traveling in caravan through the country of Sweden, one member of the decadent Alberti Circus tells the owner and ringmaster Albert Johansson a sad story about the clown Frost: seven years ago, his wife Alma was surprised by him bathing naked in a lake with a regiment. When the circus arrives in the town where Albert's wife Agda and sons live, he decides to pay a visit with his young mistress Anne to a famous local troupe to borrow some capes, hats and vests for their tonight show. They are humiliated by the director Mr. Sjuberg, but he lends the pieces, and the lead actor Frans gives an unsuccessful pass on Anne. When Albert decides to visit Agda, the jealous Anne meets Frans, who seduces her with an apparently valuable necklace, and they have a love affair. Anne finds that the necklace is actually worthless and returns to the circus. Meanwhile, Agda refuses to accept Albert back and he sees Anne leaving the theater and going to the jewelry. During the exhibition, Albert and Anne are submitted to humiliations by Frans.

Cameron Crowe
Drama
Gracie Films
PG-13
High school senior Lloyd Dobler wants nothing more than to go out with beautiful and intelligent Diane Court. Lloyd attempts to win her heart over the objections of her over-protective father before Diane leaves for a scholarship in England.

Patterson Denny, Austin Pendleton
Drama
Steppenwolf Theatre Company/WTTW-TV

A portrait of a generation at a turning point in 1976: With plans to attend their high school reunion, five members of the first Television Generation gather in an East Village, NYC, apartment where they discuss their dreams, insecurities, past events, and TV shows. They attempt to figure out what to do with their lives as they head toward age 30.

James B. Rogers
Comedy
Conundrum Entertainment
R
Young orphan Gilly (Klein) finds out his lover Jo (Graham) may actually be his biological sister. After they break up he discovers he's not related and travels across the country to stop her impending wedding. Unfortunately the entire nation has heard the same story and thinks he's just after incestuous thrills.

Richard Linklater
Animation
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
R
In a totalitarian society in a near future, the undercover detective Bob Arctor is working with a small time group of drug users trying to reach the big distributors of a brain-damaging drug called Substance D. His assignment is promoted by the recovery center New Path Corporation, and when Bob begins to lose his own identity and have schizophrenic behavior, he is submitted to tests to check his mental conditions.

David Cronenberg
Horror
Canadian Film Development Corporation (CFDC)
R
Darryl Revok is the most powerful of all the scanners, and is the head of the underground scanner movement for world domination. Scanners have great psychic power, strong enough to control minds; they can inflict enormous pain/damage on their victims. Doctor Paul Ruth finds a scanner that Revok hasn't, and converts him to their cause - to destroy the underground movement.

John Maddox
Comedy

Jerry Schatzberg
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures

Max is an ex-con who's been saving money to open a car wash in Pittsburgh. Lionel is a sailor who's returning home to the midwest to see the child born while he was at sea. They form an unlikely pair as the brawling Max learns a little how Lionel copes with the world: Lionel believes that the scarecrow doesn't scare birds, but instead amuses them - birds find scare-crows funny.

George Marshall
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Nightclub singer Larry Todd breaks off his romance with a beautiful showgirl when he realizes she's the girlfriend of a murderously jealous gangster. While on the run, Larry mistakenly believes he kills one of the mobsters and is helped to escape police by heiress Mary Carol, who smuggles Larry and partner Myron to Cuba. Mary has inherited a haunted castle on an isolated island and, ignoring ominous warnings and threats, decides to take possession. While there, the trio hunt for a hidden treasure and encounter a ghost, a zombie, and a mysterious killer.

Brian De Palma
Crime
Universal Pictures

Remake of the 1932 film, which follows the rise of Tony Montana, a Cuban emigre who, with his friend Manny Ray, builds a strong criminal empire in early 1980's Miami.

Howard Hawks, Richard Rosson
Crime
The Caddo Company

Big Louis Costillo, last of the old-style gang leaders is slain, and his former bodyguard Tony Camonte is taken into custody. Since Costillo's body has never been found, the police have to release him, though they strongly suspect Johnny Lovo paid Tony to remove Big Louis. Tony begins taking over the rackets in town with violent enforcement, and he becomes a threat to Johnny and the other bosses unless they work for Tony. Meanwhile, Tony's sister wants to be more independent, but finds it difficult to escape from her brother's overprotective grasp. The dissatisfaction of the other bosses and the relentless pursuit of the police push Tony towards a major confrontation.

Brian De Palma
Crime
Universal Pictures

Remake of the 1932 film, which follows the rise of Tony Montana, a Cuban emigre who, with his friend Manny Ray, builds a strong criminal empire in early 1980's Miami.

Josef von Sternberg
Drama
Paramount Pictures

Young Princess Sophia of Germany is taken to Russia to marry the half-wit Grand Duke Peter, son of the Empress. The domineering Empress hopes to improve the royal blood line. Sophia doesn't like her husband, but she likes Russia, and is very fond of Russian soldiers. She dutifully produces a son -- of questionable fatherhood, but no one seems to mind that. After the old empress dies, Sophia engineers a coup d'etat with the aid of the military, does away with Peter, and becomes Catherine the Great.

Fritz Lang
Drama
Fritz Lang Productions

Chris Cross, 25 years a cashier, has a gold watch and little else. That rainy night, he rescues delectable Kitty from her abusive boyfriend Johnny. Smitten, amateur painter Chris lets Kitty think he's a wealthy artist. At Johnny's urging, she lets Chris establish her in an apartment (with his shrewish wife's money). There, Chris paints masterpieces; but Johnny sells them under Kitty's name, with disastrous and ironic results.

Keenen Ivory Wayans
Comedy
Dimension Films
R
A group of teenagers including Cindy Campbell and Bobby Prinze, accidentally hit a man when driving, and dispose of the body, but now they are being stalked by a very recognisable masked killer. The victim count increases, whilst Cindy must survive the carnage that has she has seen in so many films before.

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Cinematograph AB

Follows the relationship of Marianne and Johan as they separate, engage in extramarital affairs, bond, re-bond and eventually divorce. Their relationship continues after the divorce, it seems this is a couple that can't stay away from each other, though they argue most of the time.

Martin Brest
Drama
City Light Films
R
Frank is a retired Lt Col in the US army. He's blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is at school and is looking forward to going to university; to help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over thanksgiving. Frank's niece says this will be easy money, but she didn't reckon on Frank spending his thanksgiving in New York.

Steven Spielberg
Biography
Universal Pictures
R
Oskar Schindler is a vain, glorious and greedy German businessman who becomes unlikely humanitarian amid the barbaric Nazi reign when he feels compelled to turn his factory into a refuge for Jews. Based on the true story of Oskar Schindler who managed to save about 1100 Jews from being gassed at the Auschwitz concentration camp. A testament for the good in all of us.

Steven Soderbergh
Comedy
.406 Production

Fletcher Munson is a lethargic, passive worker for a Scientology-like self-help corporation called Eventualism. After the death of a colleague, he is promoted to the job of writing speeches for T. Azimuth Schwitters, the founder and head of the group. He uses this as an excuse to be emotionally and romantically distant from his wife, who, he discovers, is having an affair with his doppelganger, a dentist named Dr. Jeffrey Korchek. As Munson fumbles with the speech and Korchek becomes obsessed with a new patient, a psychotic exterminator named Elmo Oxygen goes around the town seducing lonely wives and taking photographs of his genitals.

Ray Greene
Documentary
Pathfinder Home Ent.

You've heard of Hollywood, a town of tinsel and glamour, the town of Paramount, Columbia and MGM.  But there is another Hollywood, a place where maverick independent EXPLOITATION FILMMAKERS went toe to toe with the big guys and came out on top! "SCHLOCK! THE SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICAN MOVIES" takes you behind the scenes with the legendary EXPLOITATION and SEXPLOITATION filmmakers of those golden "DRIVE-IN" MOVIE days.  It's sexy!  It's strange!  And every word is true!

Spike Lee
Comedy
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

In the South of the United States are taking place confrontations between two groups of students who have different ideas and are not able to accept the one of the oponent.

Richard Linklater
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
Down and out rock star Dewey Finn (Black) gets fired from his band, and he faces a mountain of debts and depression. He takes a job as a 4th grade substitute teacher at an uptight private school where his attitude and hijinx have a powerful effect on his students. He also meets Zack, a 10-year-old guitar prodigy, who could help Dewey win a "battle of the bands" competition, which would solve his financial problems and put him back in the spotlight.

Jean Painleve
Action & Adventure
Criterion Collection
NR
Jean Painlevé was a film director, critic, theorist, and animator, yet his interests and studies also extended to mathematics, medicine, and zoology. Amazingly, all these disparate strands came together in a groundbreaking, decades-spanning artistic career. Operating under the credo: Science is fiction, Painlevé forged his own unique cinematic path, creating countless short films for both the viewing public and the scientific community. Moreover, he was also one of the first filmmakers to take his camera underwater. Surreal, otherworldly documents of marine life, these films transformed sea horses, octopi, and mollusks into delicate dancers in their own floating ballets. This anthology features twenty-three of Painlevé's shorts in their original form, as well as Yo La Tengo's ninety-minute original score The Sounds of Science, written in 2001 to accompany eight of the director's films.


THREE-DISC SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES:
New, restored digital transfers
The Sounds of Science, an original score by Yo La Tengo to Jean Painlevé's films, plus an interview with the band
More than two hours of interviews with the filmmaker, drawn from the eight-part television series Jean Painlevé au fils de ses films, directed by Denis Derrien and Hélène Hazera
New and improved English subtitle translations
PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by film scholar Scott MacDonald and notes on all the films by Painlevé

Woody Allen
Comedy
BBC Films
PG-13
In the funeral of the famous British journalist Joe Strombel, his colleagues and friends recall how obstinate he was while seeking for a scoop. Meanwhile the deceased Joe discloses the identity of the tarot card serial killer of London. He cheats the Reaper and appears to the American student of journalism Sondra Pransky, who is on the stage in the middle of a magic show of the magician Sidney Waterman in London, and tells her that the murderer is the aristocrat Peter Lyman. Sondra drags Sid in her investigation, seeking for evidences that Peter is the killer. However, she falls in love with him and questions if Joe Strombel is right in his scoop.

Frank Oz
Crime
Paramount Pictures
R
Nick Wells, a professional criminal, decides to leave the business for good, since he nearly got caught on his last job. His plan is to live in peace with his girl Diane, running his Montreal jazz club NYC. Soon Max, his good friend and financial partner in the illegal affairs, comes along with an offer Nick can't refuse: A historical and priceless French sceptre has been discovered while being smuggled into the country. It is now under massive surveillance in the Montreal Customs House, and soon to be returned to France. Nick has to team up with Max' man inside, the young, talented and aggressive thief Jackie Teller to get the precious item, and suffer no more financial problems ever. Only one question remains: Who will trick whom out of their share?

Martin Scorsese
Short

Daniel Anker, Barak Goodman
Documentary


A look at the infamous "Scottsboro Boys" case that occurred in Alabama in 1931, in which nine young black men were arrested, tried and quickly convicted in the rape of two white women, despite overwhelming evidence that showed their accusers had falsely accused them and the fact that one of the women later admitted that no rape had in fact occurred (although both had had sexual relations with their boyfriends on the day prior to the "rape"). The case was one of the first that shined a spotlight on what many called the "legal lynchings" that occurred in the South whenever blacks were accused of crimes, especially against whites and most especially against white women.

Wes Craven
Horror
Dimension Films
R
One year after the death of Sidney Prescott's (Campbell) mother, two students turn up gutted. When a serial killer appears, Sidney begins to suspect whether her mother's death and the two new deaths are related. No one is safe, as the killer begins to pick everyone off one by one. Everyone's a suspect in this case.

Wes Craven
Horror
Craven-Maddalena Films
R
It has been two years since the tragic events at Woodsboro. Sidney Prescott and Randy Meeks are trying to get on with their lives, and are currently both students at Windsor College. Cotton Weary is out of prison, and is trying to cash in on his unfortunate incarceration. Gale Weathers has written a bestseller, "The Woodsboro Murders," which has been turned into the film, "Stab," starring Tori Spelling as Sidney. As the film's play date approaches, the cycle of death begins anew. Dewey Riley immediately flies out of Woodsboro to try to protect Sidney, his "surrogate sister." But in this sequel to the 1996 horror film, the number of suspects only goes down as the body count slowly goes up!

Wes Craven
Action
Craven-Maddalena Films
R
STAB 3: RETURN TO WOODSBORO is currently in production, and a killer is on the loose cutting corners cast wise. The murders draw a reporter, ex-cop, and young woman to the set of the movie inspired by their life. They soon find out that they are dealing with a trilogy, and in a trilogy...anything can happen.

Bob Kelljan
Horror
American International Pictures (AIP)
PG
After a dying Voodoo queen chooses an adopted apprentice as her successor, her true heir is outraged. Seeking revenge, he buys the bones of Blacula the vampire off of a dealer, and uses voodoo to bring the vampire back to do his bidding. In turn, Blacula turns him into a vampire and makes him his slave. Meanwhile, a police officer with a large collection of African antiques and an interest in the occult investigates the murders caused by Blacula and his vampire horde.

Alex Nicol
Horror
American International Pictures (AIP)

Newlyweds Eric and Jenni Whitlock retire to his desolate mansion, where Eric's first wife Marianne died from a mysterious freak accident. Jenni, who has a history of mental illness, begins to see strange things including a mysterious skull, which may or may not be a product of her imagination. Suspicion falls on Mickey, the estate's mentally challenged gardener, who was seemingly was very attached to his former mistress.

Richard Donner
Comedy
Mirage Productions
PG-13
Frank Cross runs a US TV station which is planning a live adaptation of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Frank's childhood wasn't a particularly pleasant one, and so he doesn't really appreciate the Christmas spirit. With the help of the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, Frank realises he must change.

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The sitcom may be flatlining, but as long as there are fresh and original series like "Scrubs", the prognosis isn't entirely negative. Created by Bill Lawrence, "Scrubs" is an interns'-eye view of hospital life and the torturous, tragic, and triumphant route to becoming a doctor. The eminently likeable Zach Braff heads the cast as "newbie" J.D., whose years of medical school haven't quite prepared him for chaotic Sacred Heart Hospital. "Family Guy" has nothing on the live-action "Scrubs" when it comes to surreal asides and fantasy sequences (for example, J.D. literally becomes the proverbial deer in the headlights when he cannot answer a medical query), pop culture references, and TV Land casting (John Ritter guest stars as J.D.'s negligent father in "My Old Man," and "St. Elsewhere" veterans William Daniels, Ed Begley, Jr., Stephen Furst, and Eric Laneuville appear as Legionnaire's-stricken doctors in "My Sacrifical Clam"). With surgical precision, this inaugural season charts J.D.'s growth as a doctor and a human being, and the close-knit bonds he forms with his equally overwhelmed peers and colleagues, including best friend and surgeon Chris Turk (Donald Faison), beautiful, but raw-nerved and by-the-book Elliot Reid (Sarah Chalke), and supportive nurse Carla Espinoza (Judy Reyes'), who affectionately nicknames J.D. "Bambi." But at the heart of the series is J.D.'s relationship with his mentor, Dr. Cox (an Emmy-worthy John C. McGinley), a cross between Obi-Wan Kenobi and a pit bull. Giving "Scrubs" a further shot of adrenaline are recurring characters Jordan (Christa Miller Lawrence), Dr. Cox's satanic ex-wife, and Neil Flynn as the Janitor, who torments J.D. just as Larry Miller menaced Jerry in the "Seinfeld" episode "The Doorman."
"Scrubs"' animated sensibility allows for inexplicable cameos by Jimmie Walker or, at one point, an impromptu "West Side Story"-esque dance-off to convey the schism between the surgeons and other doctors. But while hilariously funny, "Scrubs", too, can break your heart, as in the two-parter "My Occurrence"/"My Hero," with guest star Brendan Fraser as Jordan's spontaneously spirited brother, who is diagnosed with leukemia, and "My Old Lady," in which J.D., Elliot, and Chris experience for the first time losing a patient. "Scrubs" is one of NBC's few remaining "Must-See" series, but it has not been well-served by the network. Whether you're a "newbie" or devoted viewer, this DVD release is just what the doctor ordered. "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

The interns of Sacred Heart hospital move up to residents in the second season of "Scrubs", the dorky little brother to "ER" with more than a passing resemblance to "Ally McBeal". But in this season the sitcom actually matures-- in a good way--in its ability to balance just the right amount of heart and humor. While JD (Zach Braff) wrestles with his feelings for Elliot (Sarah Chalke), Elliot bends over backwards to be included with her colleagues and friends alike (after a character rags on JD and Turk, she squeals, "Do me!"), Turk (Donald Faison) proposes to Carla (Judy Reyes), and Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) reunites with his ex-wife Jordan (Christa Miller), who's carrying his child. The cast melds together nicely, but it's Braff, executing most of the fantasy sequences, who's the real comic find, although he's nearly upstaged (in a welcome bit of stunt casting) by Tom Cavanaugh as JD's irresponsible older brother, a complete departure from his role on "Ed".
Season Two's bonus features include some very revealing episode commentary by creator Bill Lawrence and various cast members, who all describe guest star Rick Schroder as "an odd dude" and make fun of his imploring the cast not to call him Ricky. They also spend a curious part of time studying the female anatomy, from Chalke's bra colors to guest star Heather Locklear's derriere to Miller's bust (this observation comes from Lawrence, who is Miller's husband). Braff's fame after "Garden State" also comes as an easy target in the commentaries, as well as the network's inability to understand the show, such as asking to remove an episode's reference to the Wonder Twins because they didn't know who they were. Thank goodness the producers didn't listen. -- "Ellen A. Kim"

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Not content to rest on the solid pratfalls that made it famous, "Scrubs" stretched its legs in season three to give deeper insight into its characters. With Turk and Carla (Donald Faison and Judy Reyes) planning their season-finale wedding, J.D. (Zach Braff) once again wrestles with his feelings for fellow resident Elliot (Sarah Chalke), but her reciprocity leads to a startling revelation. "Scrubs" also lent numerous guest stars to its cause, including former "Spin City" castmates Richard Kind as a hypochondriac, Barry Bostwick as a cancer patient, and Michael J. Fox in a hilarious return to television as an obsessive-compulsive visiting surgeon. Scott Foley ("Felicity") plays Elliot's devoted suitor, and Tara Reid's turn as Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley)'s sister-in-law starts out daffy and decomposes into parody. (Producers admit in episode commentary that they tried to cast Reid against type, then gave up a few episodes later and told her to just be her wild, party-going self.) But it's two returning guest stars that pack the most emotional wallop: "Mad TV's" Nicole Sullivan as a chirpy patient whose barely masked troubles are ignored by her doctors; and Brendan Fraser as Dr. Cox's cancer-stricken brother-in-law, Ben. Fraser's episode, entitled "My Screw Up," does a masterful job turning from comedy to tearjerker on a dime in one half-hour. It's one of the best episodes of the show's entire run, and a crime that McGinley wasn't recognized for his brilliant work.
Two episode commentaries, featuring producers, writers, and Faison, aren't as fun as in past seasons (though referring to Braff as "Chicken Little," the character he voiced in Disney's much-maligned animated film, is a notable jab). But the DVD set stuffs in way too many featurettes, including one just devoted to the stars' dogs. One complaint: The animated navigation menu takes way too long getting to the special features, it's tempting to skip them altogether. Better to just hit "play" and re-watch the episodes again. "--Ellen A. Kim"

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment

More guest stars move through the revolving door of Sacred Heart Hospital in "Scrubs'" fourth season, with results as uneven as the show itself. With last season's climactic end to J.D. (Zach Braff) and Elliot (Sarah Chalke)'s relationship resolved within two episodes, Heather Graham ("Boogie Nights") comes on board as a cheerful psychiatrist/love interest, and Julianna Margulies ("ER") as a cutthroat malpractice attorney/love interest. But the real love story of "Scrubs" has always been between J.D. and Turk (Donald Faison), a point that is poked fun at in the season opener, as the two joyously reunite after Turk's honeymoon with nurse Carla (Judy Reyes). Turk and Carla struggle to navigate newlywed life, made all the more complicated by J.D.'s drunken kiss with Carla. Meanwhile, at the hospital, it's Elliot who proves the more proficient doctor when she shares co-chief resident with J.D., and a few (though not enough) patient stories, including "Saturday Night Live" alum Molly Shannon as a chatterbox ambulance driver with a secret, Matthew Perry ("Friends") as an air traffic controller estranged from his dad (played by John Perry, his real father), and in the most bizarre bit of stunt casting, Colin Farrell ("Miami Vice") as an unintelligible Irishman (so, basically himself) and "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken as a singing cafeteria worker(!).
Some of "Scrubs'" special features this time around are ho-hum, including short vignettes on "The Mysterious Janitor" and more on J.D. and Dr. Cox. The only pleasant surprise is an audio commentary from Braff (who was absent from season three's commentaries and was ribbed in season two's disc for being too important shooting films to contribute), speaking on "My Last Chance," which he directed. Season Four is a letdown compared to the previous seasons' smooth navigation between belly laughs and heartache; here's hoping "Scrubs'" trademark hysterics get resuscitated for season five. "--Ellen A. Kim"

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone

"I'm gonna have a good year, aren't I?" J.D. (Zach Braff), now an attending physician at Sacred Heart Hospital, asks in the fifth season's opening episode. All vital signs are good (the series did receive an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Comedy), but longtime "Scrubs" fans may be forgiven a sense of déjà vu, from J.D.'s whimsical reveries to Dr. Cox's (John C. McGinley) increasingly tiresome rants. The series itself acknowledges the palpable sense of been there, seen that with the clever episode "Déjà vu, Déjà vu." But don't pronounce "Scrubs" dead just yet. Directed by Braff, "My Way Home," the series' 100th episode, is a brilliantly conceived homage to "The Wizard of Oz" with J.D. and company finding their hearts, brains, and courage. Another powerful episode that shows a welcome maturity is "My Lunch," in which J.D. at last has lunch with his reluctant mentor, Dr. Cox, in the wake of a patient's death (happily, the music rights were secured for the DVD release so that the Fray's "How to Save a Life" is playing on the soundtrack when Dr. Cox has his own tragic setback), and the follow-up episode, "My Fallen Idol."
While "Scrubs" has a tendency this season to get "more ridiculous" (in one episode, Neil Flynn's Janitor defies Ken Jenkins' Dr. Kelso to secretly keep a crow in the hospital), the scalpel-sharp writing affords Braff moments that are, in his character's own words, "classic Dorian." In the episode "My Half Acre," he mixes his sports analogies to tell Elliot (Sarah Chalke), "What's waiting for me in my room is what's known, in football terms, as a slam dunk," as he mimes hitting a tennis ball. Mandy Moore, displaying a surprising knack for physical comedy, follows Tara Reid and Heather Graham as a fleeting love interest for J.D. Other character milestones include pregnancies for Carla (Judy Reyes) and two other characters best left a surprise. Good for whatever ails season 5 are this set's extras, including an entertaining series retrospective, featuring interviews with the cast and creators, as well as commentary by Braff for an extended cut of "My Way Home." "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Comedy
Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone

The preliminary diagnosis on "Scrubs"'s penultimate season was stable, but critical. On closer examination, however, a second opinion is warranted. Season 6 cuts deep with developments that are both "hilarious and life-changing" (not to mention, heartbreaking) for the Sacred Heart staff. J.D. (Zach Braff),\ has learned that his girlfriend, Kim (Elizabeth Banks), is pregnant, but there are dramatic setbacks and surprises in their budding relationship. Carla (Judy Reyes) experiences devastating post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter. Elliot (Sarah Chalke) becomes engaged to Keith (Travis Schuldt) but develops the kind of second thoughts that season cliffhangers are made of. And one of "Scrubs"'s beloved secondary characters meets a tragic end, putting nurse Laverne's (Aloma Wright) belief that "everything happens for a reason" to the supreme test.
This season produced one of "Scrubs"'s crowning achievements, the Emmy-nominated tour-de-force "My Musical," featuring such show-stopping numbers as "Everything Comes Down to Poo" and "Guy Love," sung by "Scrubs"'s closest couple, J.D. and best friend Turk (Donald Faison). Still, too often, one wishes "Scrubs" had the equivalent of Graham Chapman's military character on "Monty Python" who would stop the proceedings if he deemed them too silly. Before the opening credits of the season premiere have rolled, J.D. has been whisked to Las Vegas to be the unwitting bride to a gay senior, escaped, and wound up onstage with Blue Man Group. At the end of the episode, his tormentor, Janitor (Neil Flynn), transforms him into a human flag. In the next episode, Turk assembles a "big-time college drum line" to herald the impending birth of his daughter. At times like these, fans could be forgiven for wanting to ask the show, "Who are you, and what have you done with "Scrubs"?" But even in the most uneven episodes, there is always a redeeming bit of business (Turk bringing back 'N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye"), meta moment (Ken Jenkins' Dr. Kelso nipping one of John C. McGinley's signature "Coxian" rants in the bud with "Funny long list. We get it. You need a new thing, big guy."), or an always-welcome appearance by Christa Miller-Lawrence as Dr. Cox's not-to-be-trifled-with ex-wife Jordan, to make the medicine go down. The extras, too, including a featurette about the production of "My Musical" and another devoted to the show's "Simpson"-esque gallery of "third tier" characters, are deserving of a boxed-set high-five. "--Donald Liebenson"

Adam Bernstein, Bill Lawrence, Chris Koch, Gail Mancuso, John Putch
Comedy
Touchstone / Buena Vista Home Entertainment

With its deft combination of humor and heart, this single-camera sitcom is a both a critical and cult favorite. Scrubs stars Zach Braff as J.D., an eager doctor at Sacred Heart Hospital. With J.D. as its narrator, the show frequently dips into surrealism as it shows his strange thoughts and daydreams. The rest of the characters on Scrubs are equally eccentric: best friend Turk (Donald Faison), bossy nurse Carla (Judy Reyes), J.D.'s reluctant mentor Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley), the anxiety-ridden ex-girlfriend Elliot (Sarah Chalke), and J.D.'s arch nemesis, known simply as 'Janitor' (Neil Flynn). This set contains all episodes from season seven of this popular series.

Various
Comedy
ABC Video
PG
The first episode of "Scrubs"' final season ends with a sly kicker in which Zach Braff's J.D. rallies his colleagues as they enter their eighth year at Sacred Heart. "It's tempting to just mail it in," he states, "but there are still a lot of people who rely on us week to week. I think we owe it to them to be as inspired as we were in our first few years. I still think we're as good as anybody else out there." Indeed, "Scrubs" goes out at the top of its game. "People don't change, relationships don't change," the super-friendly but soulless new Chief of Medicine Taylor Maddox (a game Courteney Cox) proclaims at the end of her all-too-brief three-episode arc. How wrong she is. J.D. and Elliott (Sarah Chalke) become a couple again without too much drama. Dr. Cox (John C. McGinley) and his dread ex-wife (Christa Miller) likewise declare their love for each other. Cox even forms a grudging friendship with his former nemesis Dr Kelso (Ken Jenkins), who in retirement has become a fixture in the hospital cafeteria where he takes full advantage of free muffins for life. Sad sack lawyer Ted (Sam Lloyd) and J.D.'s enigmatic tormentor Janitor (Neil Flynn) find someone to love, and Turk (Donald Faison) and Carla (Judy Reyes) prepare for their second child.
Things are different on the job front as well. Dr. Cox assumes the mantle of Chief of Medicine and struggles not to be overwhelmed by the bureaucracy. Bringing the show full circle, there is the next generation of interns (spin-off, anyone?) who test their mentors' patience. Eliza Coupe is a standout as Denise, who has a problem with compassion ("It's ironic that cancer starts with 'can'," she tells one patient). J.D.'s signature reveries aside, the final season goes easy on the fantasy. This season's Very Special Episode is a two-parter that takes the cast to the Bahamas for Janitor's wedding. Will Janitor finally reveal his name? Will Dr. Cox express his true feelings for J.D.? "Endings are never easy," J.D. muses in the finale. "I always build them up so much in my head, they can't possibly live up to my expectations, and I just end up disappointed." That will not be the case for loyal viewers who have stuck with "Scrubs" through thick and thin, NBC and ABC. If you're not moved by J.D.'s final walk through the halls of Sacred Heart or his home-movie vision of the future, then get yourself a heart transplant stat! "--Donald Liebenson"

Jim Drake (II), John Bell (XI)
Comedy
Shout Factory
NR
At long last, "SCTV" is on the air... or at least on DVD! While it never reached the ratings heights or pop culture cachet of "Saturday Night Live", "SCTV" did garner critical buzz and a devoted cult following. As with the Python boys, the ensemble members, and the characters they created to populate the fictional Melonville TV network, are revered in hipper comedy circles. In this respect, "SCTV" is Letterman to "SNL"'s Leno. This essential five-disc set collects the first nine episodes of the series' "Network 90" incarnation, which brightened NBC's Friday late-night lineup in 1981. While original cast member Harold Ramis had since left the show, and Martin Short would join the following year, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, and Dave Thomas were "SCTV"'s definitive ensemble ("SNL"-bound Robin Duke and Tony Rosato, we hardly knew ye). These inaugural episodes are comprised mostly of "the golden classics" (so dubbed by Flahrety's wheelchair-bound station manager Guy Caballero) linked by some new material. Included are such series benchmarks as "The Great White North" segments, featuring Moranis and Thomas as the stereotypically Canadian, parka-wearing, beer-swilling McKenzie brothers; "Play It Again, Bob," starring Moranis as Woody Allen and Thomas as Bob Hope; the ill-fated made-for-SCTV "Polynesiantown" starring Candy's Johnny LaRue; "The Sammy Maudlin Show," starring Joe Flahrety as the most sincerely insincere talk show host, with O'Hara as Lola "I want to bear your children" Heatherton, and "Indira," with Andrea Martin in her signature "Evita" spoof.
And that's just on disc 1! "SCTV" could parody "Leave It to Beaver" and "Fantasy Island" with the best of them, but anticipating the future "Ben Stiller Show", its genius lay in its show business savvy to subvert television and movie convention. When Levy's comedian Bobby Bittman arrives on a talk show, he brings "bloopers" from his congressional testimony. And you don't need to have seen "The Oscar" to appreciate "The Nobel", but it certainly helps. The price is steep, but don't be a hoser. This is the comedy release of the year. And it blows up real good. "--Donald Liebenson"

Jim Drake (II), John Bell (XI)
Comedy
Shout! Factory
NR
For those who never missed a Friday, and especially for those who only know "SCTV" by reputation, these nine episodes, presented chronologically on this five disc-set, are as great as we remember, and perhaps even better than you've heard. With the first nine episodes of "SCTV"'s expanded Network 90 incarnation under their belt (available, naturally, on volume 1), the peerless ensemble (John Candy, Joe Flahrety, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, and Dave Thomas) really found its voice (or voices), and the show relied less on the so-called "golden classics" from the show's early days to boldly subvert sketch-comedy convention with brilliantly conceived and performed wraparounds that link the sketches. Looming large in "SCTV" legend are the program-length "Godfather" parody, in which Don Caballero launches an all-out network war; the devastatingly funny, "I'm Taking My Own Head, Screwing It On Right, and No Guy's Gonna Tell Me That It Ain't," arguably one of Martin and O'Hara's finest hours, and the sci-fi spoof "Zontar," in which glowing cabbages take control of the network.
Other moments for the pantheon: Meryl Streep blowing up real good on the "Farm Film Report"; Bob and Doug McKenzie demonstrating how to stuff a mouse inside a beer bottle; the cross-parody "Benny Hill Street Blues," and the late Wendy O Williams and the Plasmatics really cutting it up (with a chainsaw!) on Gil Fisher's "The Fishin' Musician. Some of the more topical bits are understandably dated, and that canned laughter reeks of network Zontars imposing their will, but this second, equally indispensable volume rescues "SCTV" from mere cult object of obsession. Original cast member Harold Ramis is right: In Thomas's encyclopedic history, "SCTV: Behind the Scenes", Ramis observes, "Everyone just got better and better. You would notice, if you had the time to sit and watch all the shows, the progression in excellence." "--Donald Liebenson"

Jim Drake (II), John Bell (XI)
Comedy
Shout Factory Theatre
NR
The third cycle of "SCTV"'s "Network 90" incarnation begs the question: Would success spoil "SCTV"? By this time, this Canadian cult favorite was flirting with mainstream success, with an Emmy Award for writing to its credit and nation-wide "Hoser-mania" triggered by the surprise breakout success of "The Great White North" segments featuring Bob and Doug McKenzie. But rather than sell out, "SCTV" stayed loyal to its smart muse. The first episode addresses the McKenzie phenomenon with "The Great White North Palace," the inevitable (and hilariously) ill-fated exploitation of the touque-wearing brothers. And, as Tony Bennett himself serenades the boys, "The Best Is Yet to Come." This batch of nine episodes includes brilliantly conceived sketches that deliriously push cross-parody boundaries. Taking its cue from Steven Spielberg's enhancement of "Close Encounters", "SCTV" offers its own "Special Edition" of "The Merv Griffin Show," an old school talk show which somehow ends up in outer space with George Plimpton taking on George Lucas in an Atari vs. Intellivision video game battle (how '80s can you get?).
"SCTV" was at its best when skewering show business and television convention, as witness the lavish "People's Global Golden Choice Awards" (the Five Neat Guys' medley of faux motion-picture theme songs anticipates Billy Crystal's Oscar-night showstopper), and "The Battle of the PBS Stars," which pits Julia Child against Mr. Rogers in the boxing ring. This cycle also introduced the pitch-perfect soap-opera parody, "The Days of the Week" (former Second City member and "Saturday Night Live" superstar Bill Murray brings his considerable cachet to one installment), as well as the polka meisters, the Schmenge brothers (a classic sketch marred somewhat by the absence of "Stairway to Heaven," apparently due to rights issues).
Martin Short, momentously joins the seamless ensemble, and makes an instant impression, with such masterful bits as his devastating "Jerry Lewis Live on the Champs Elysees." Throughout, even when a sketch falls flat ("The Pre-Teen World Telethon"), the cast's commitment to character is exhilarating to watch. "SCTV" fans who have long suffered the show's intrusive laugh track will want to check out the bonus feature on disc 5, a 1997 reunion of the surviving cast at the Museum of Television & Radio. Rick Moranis reveals that the technician responsible was--no joke--a moonlighting chicken farmer who didn't get the jokes and was simply looking for lulls in which to place the canned laughs. Not even "SCTV"'s brilliant writing staff could have made that up! "--Donald Liebenson"""

Jim Drake (II), John Bell (XI)
Comedy
Shout Factory Theatr
NR
SCTV’s incredible 5th season (yes, that’s Volume 4) finds the show renewed on NBC and still in the 90-minute format. Three cast members have departed, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis and Catherine O'Hara—although Catherine makes a memorable return in "The Christmas Show," but Martin Short's star rose in their absence. His inimitable character Ed Grimley finds his way into many of the sketches. The Shmenges are back and John Candy introduces Mr. Mambo.
The Volume 4 box set features four Emmy-nominated shows ("Towering Inferno," "Christmas Special," "Midnight Cowboy" and "Sweeps Week"), plus Robin Williams as a guest in the "Jane Eyrehead" episode; it also includes musical guests John Mellencamp, Joe Walsh, and Crystal Gayle.
Includes an extra DVD with 3 extra episodes—12 episodes total— 33% more content at the same price as the first 3 volumes! Also includes a collectible set of character trading cards.
Program Listing: DISC 1 EPISODE# 106 Sammy Maudlin 23rd Anniversary / CBC EPISODE# 107 Indecent Exposure with John Cougar, Harold Ramis and Fred Willard EXTRAS: Hinterland Who’s Who Goin’ Down The Road
DISC 2 EPISODE# 108 Melonvote with Linda Hopkins EPISODE# 109 Jane Eyrehead with Robin Williams and America EXTRA: SCTV At Play
DISC 3 EPISODE# 110 Towering Inferno with Banda Brava EPISODE# 111 Christmas with Catherine O’Hara and Andrae Crouch EXTRA: SCTV Remembers - Part 4
DISC 4 EPISODE# 112 A Star Is Born with Crystal Gayle EPISODE# 113 SCTV Classifieds / Vic Arpeggio EXTRA: Sammy Maudlin at Second City
DISC 5 EPISODE# 114 Bobby Bittman’s Retirement with Ben Vereen EPISODE# 115 Sweeps Week EXTRA: SCTV - The Producers Part 2
DISC 6 EPISODE# 116 South Sea Sinner with Betty Thomas EPISODE# 117 Midnight Cowboy II with Joe Walsh EXTRA: The Red Fisher Show

Herschell Gordon Lewis
Drama


Kim Sherwood is a young and naive teenager who is asked by a friend to model for a shady photographer, named Harmon, whom works for an unscrupulous businessman whom is in league with a local Miami teenage gang in illegally selling photos of young girls in the nude being used and abused. When Kim wants out, the gangster Mr. Lang, blackmails her into staying on by using his strong-armed thugs to enforce order.

David Fincher
Crime
New Line Cinema
R
A film about two homicide detectives' desperate hunt for a serial killer who justifies his crimes as absolution for the world's ignorance of the Seven Deadly Sins. The movie takes us from the tortured remains of one victim to the next as the sociopathic "John Doe" sermonizes to Detectives Sommerset and Mills -- one sin at a time. The sin of Gluttony comes first and the murderer's terrible capacity is graphically demonstrated in the dark and subdued tones characteristic of film noir. The seasoned and cultured Sommerset researches the Seven Deadly Sins in an effort to understand the killer's modus operandi while green Detective Mills scoffs at his efforts to get inside the mind of a killer...

Alejandro Amenábar
Biography
Sogepaq
PG-13
Life story of Spaniard Ramón Sampedro, who fought a 30-year campaign to win the right to end his life with dignity. Film explores Ramón's relationships with two women: Julia, a lawyer who supports his cause, and Rosa, a local woman who wants to convince him that life is worth living. Through the gift of his love, these two women are inspired to accomplish things they never previously thought possible. Despite his wish to die, Ramón taught everyone he encountered the meaning, value and preciousness of life. Though he could not move himself, he had an uncanny ability to move others.

Harold Becker
Crime
Universal Pictures
R
Frank Keller is a New York detective investigating a case of a serial killer who finds the victims through the lonely hearts column in newspapers. Keller falls in love with Helen, the main suspect in the case.

Gary Ross
Drama
Universal Pictures
PG-13
In an era when Americans were in great need of heroic figures to help them forget their troubles, SEABISCUIT comes to the rescue. The picture relates a moving story of friendship and devotion in rehabilitating the main characters'fractured lives, as it interweaves the interactions between horse, jockey, trainer and owner and their adoring fans. The film accurately portrays the real people and events of those troubled times and how Seabiscuit "fixed us, every one of us."

David Salle
Action
Autumn Pictures
R
A would-be movie producer (Griffin Dunne) strives to convince a self-help guru (Dennis Hopper) to let him film his book. As the guru is only interested in money, the producer solicits the help of a shady businessman (Christopher Walken) and the guru's own secretary (Ileana Douglas), who wants to write movie scripts (a horror story about brain-scraping monsters).

John Bailey
Comedy
Showtime Networks

John Ford
Adventure
C.V. Whitney Pictures

Ethan Edwards, returned from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hopes to find a home with his family and to be near the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his 1/8 Indian nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle's hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to rescue Debbie...or kill her.

John Ford
Adventure
C.V. Whitney Pictures

Ethan Edwards, returned from the Civil War to the Texas ranch of his brother, hopes to find a home with his family and to be near the woman he obviously but secretly loves. But a Comanche raid destroys these plans, and Ethan sets out, along with his 1/8 Indian nephew Martin, on a years-long journey to find the niece kidnapped by the Indians under Chief Scar. But as the quest goes on, Martin begins to realize that his uncle's hatred for the Indians is beginning to spill over onto his now-assimilated niece. Martin becomes uncertain whether Ethan plans to rescue Debbie...or kill her.

Steven Zaillian
Drama
Mirage Entertainment
PG
Josh Waitzkin is just a typical American boy interested in baseball when one day he challenges his father at chess and wins. Showing unusual precocity at the outdoor matches at Washington Square in New York City, he quickly makes friends with a hustler named Vinnie who teaches him speed chess. Josh's parents hire a renowned chess coach, Bruce, who teaches Josh the usefulness of measured planning. Along the way Josh becomes tired of Bruce's system and chess in general and purposely throws a match, leaving the prospects of winning a national championship in serious jeopardy.

Rosanna Arquette
Documentary
Immortal Entertainment
R
Rosanna Arquette informally interviews several contrasting actresses about how they cope with being a woman in the entertainment industry. The chauvenism of male crew is discussed, the pretentiousness / stereotyping of female characters in American film now. Interviews include those with Alley Sheedy, Martha Plimpton, Debra Winger, Emmanual Beart, and Rosanna's sister, Patricia Arquette -among others. Although a documentary this film seems affected, Arquette never has an argument, never says anything bad about another actress, in fact, complimenting just about everyone of them as being her favourite actress.

Sharon Bartlett
Documentary
Very Scary Productions

John Frankenheimer
Sci-Fi
Gibraltar Productions
R
There is a very secret organization that offers wealthy people a second chance at life; the customer picks out someone they want to be and the organization surgically alters the customer to look like the intended person, stages the customer's death, gets rid of the intended person and the customer has a new life. There's only one thing they didn't count on.....

Alfred Hitchcock
Mystery
Gaumont British Picture Corporation

During the first world war, novelist Edgar Brodie is sent to Switzerland by the Intelligence Service. He has to kill a German agent. During the mission he meets a fake general first and then Elsa Carrington who helps him in his duty.

Robert Altman
Drama
Sandcastle 5 Productions

In this speculative one-man drama, we see former President Richard Milhous Nixon alone in his study, dictating his thoughts into a tape recorder. His only company are a four-screen closed-circuit TV setup, the portraits on the walls, a bottle of Chivas Regal - and a loaded pistol. At times addressing an imaginary judge in a court of public opinion, at other times speaking to an aide named Roberto, and sometimes just talking to himself, the former chief executive reflects, in a series of meandering monologues, on his humble Quaker upbringing, his school days, his family and a political career that reached all the way to the White House. Nixon rails at his treatment by the likes of Dwight D. Eisenhower, the "goddam Kennedys," J. Edgar Hoover, Henry Kissinger, Jews, liberals, the media, "East Coast shits," among others, as he leads up to the "true" reasons for the Watergate scandal that resulted in his resignation - an act he regards as one of "secret honor."

Alan Rudolph
Drama
Holedigger Films
R
The movie is based on Jane Smiley's novella The Age of Grief, and centres on a dentist, played by Campbell Scott, who has a strange dream that blurs the boundaries between fantasy and reality. Leary plays one of the dentist's patients.

Roger Graef
Comedy


A series of benefit concerts to raise money for Amnesty International. Performances include comedy skits and musical numbers by a varied cast of mostly British performers. Featuring several Monty Python members, Rowan Atkinson, and Peter Cook.

Roger Graef
Comedy
Ilc Entertainment
Suitable for 15 years and over
Much to my regret, for some odd reason, I don't think I have ever seen a "truly complete" version of any one of these wonderful performances...
When these shows came out on VHS, I found several very annoying differences in regard to the length and 'completeness' of the shows. The PAL videos contained bits and sketches that did not appear on the NTSC videos, entitled under the same name, and vice versa. (This was the case with all of the shows).
Now, finally (!), these shows are available on DVD!!! - and still, I found some missing bits. For instance: Billy Connolly's 'Country & Western' sketch from "The Secret Policeman's Ball" does not appear here. (And the funny thing is, that you can even see his name on the credits...), another missing bit is Lenny Henry's wonderful monologue as Trever Netelford with his 'inquiring mind' (- missing from "The Secret Policeman's Biggest Ball") and there are a couple of others... - and these are things that you can get on the videos (and again, it depends on which ones you buy...).
Why can't we ever get a full and complete version of these shows??? Why??? Why??? Why???
Another thing - and this will end my short chain of complaints -If they're going to make a special "Best-of Music Edition" (- which I think is rather silly - because there's nothing "new". You've already got all those musical numbers on the other DVDs in the set - and all you need to do it to skip chapters), why not make a "Best-of Comedy Edition" as well? - for the people who are more interested in the comedy side of these shows?
But, all nitpicking aside, this a really fabulous collection! The transfer may seem not-very-good, but I think that concidering the horrific origional masters, the transfer is fantastic!!
So it's missing a couple of funny bits... big-deal... - It has plenty of other great sketches and comedy routines, as well as all the best British-music hits from the 70s and 80s.

This set contains the show, which I believe should be in the house of anyone who conciders himself to be a Monty Python fan, that has a version of the Parrot Sketch where you can see Michael Palin being very 'naughty', giggling and trying to keep a stight face... absolutely hilarious!!!.. It's as though Palin and Cleese are virtually trying to 'break' each other...
Another favorite of mine is the Peter Cook's fabulous "Memories of a Miner"... and there are plenty of other wonderful enjoyable materail from one of the best periods of British comedy...
All in all, this is a very highly recomended set and it's worth the money.

Roger Graef
Art House & International
Shout! Factory
NR
In June 1979, Pete Townshend gave a solo acoustic performance at Amnesty Internationals "Secret Policeman's Ball" benefit show in London, inspiring Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Sting, Bob Geldof, Phil Collins and many others to perform for Amnesty. It also helped inspire the unplugged of the 90s, and galvanized a generation of musicians to become involved in social and political causes: Sting, Peter Gabriel, Bob Geldof (who later founded Live Aid) and Bono all cite the show as the inspiration for their activism. In celebration of the 30th anniversary of that historic first show, Shout! Factory is proud to partner with Amnesty on this collection of the musical highlights from three decades of Secret Policemans Ball shows.

Program Listing:

Pinball Wizard - Pete Townshend

Farther Up The Road - Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck

Roxanne - Sting

In the Air Tonight - Phil Collins

Running Up That Hill - Kate Bush

Imagine - Mark Knopfler & Chet Atkins

On The Turning Away - David Gilmour

Amnesty - Dave Stewart

I Don't Like Mondays - Bob Geldof

Cause We've Ended As Lovers - Eric Clapton & Jeff Beck

Message In A Bottle - Sting

Won't Get Fooled Again - Pete Townshend & John Williams

Biko - Peter Gabriel

I Shall Be Released - The Secret Police

Mike Holgate
Comedy

Julien Temple
Comedy
Amnesty International

The film of an on-stage charity benefit for Amnesty International. The show includes comedy skits by the members of Monty Python, as well as noted comedians Peter Cook, Rowan Atkinson, and others. The show also includes musical numbers by Eric Clapton, Sting, Donovan and Bob Geldof.

Ken O'Neill
Comedy
Elephant House

David Koepp
Horror
Grand Slam Productions
PG-13
Famed mystery writer, Mort Rainey (Depp) is confronted by a mysterious stranger outside his house. This stranger calls himself John Shooter (Turturro) and claims that Mort has stolen an idea for a story from him. Mort says he can prove he wrote his first, but whilst Mort waits for the evidence to appear, Shooter starts to become more and more violent.

Steven Shainberg
Comedy
Slough Pond
R
Lee Holloway is a smart, quirky woman in her twenties who returns to her hometown in Florida after a brief stay in a mental hospital. In search of relief from herself and her oppressive childhood environment, she starts to date a nerdy friend from high school and takes a job as a secretary in a local law firm, soon developing an obsessive crush on her older boss, Mr. Grey. Through their increasingly bizarre relationship, Lee follows her deepest longings to the heights of masochism and finally to a place of self-affirmation.

Mike Leigh
Comedy
Channel Four Films
R
Cynthia lives in London with her sullen street-sweeper daughter. Her brother has been successful with his photographer's business and now lives nearby in a more upmarket house. But Cynthia hasn't even been invited round there after a year. So, all round, she feels rather lonely and isolated. Meanwhile, in another part of town, Hortense, adopted at birth but now grown up, starts to try and trace her mother.

Arthur Hiller
Action
TriStar Pictures

A man is murdered. Two men witness it. A blind man who hears the killer, and a deaf man who sees her. The police don't think they're credible witnesses, but the killers don't want to take any chances. The two men must now work together to save themselves and bring the killers to justice.

Wallace Wolodarsky
Comedy
Pariah Entertainment Group
R
Ed and Alice live together and will soon marry. She decides she'd like more sexual experiences before settling down with the man she loves, so she convinces Ed they should "see other people" (as in, sex with strangers), even as they continue to live together and plan the wedding. They discuss it. Each knows someone who thinks this idea is cool; each has a friend who thinks they're nuts. Things start reasonably well, but soon their relationship goes awry. Can the genie get back in the bottle and Ed and Alice return to companionship - or does seeing other people put an end to how Alice and Ed used to be?

Various
Comedy
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Suitable for 15 years and over
Seinfeld has got to be one of the best if not THE best sitcom to come out in the last 18 years.



The writing is second to none and the rewatchable factor is extremely high making it excellent value for money.



So why the 1 star you ask?



Well I have every season on DVD and currently awaiting the final season 9, and I'm sure that I'm not the only fan who has also invested in the 9 sets too. So why is it that this coffee table book, which sounds awesome only available if you buy this box set. Don't tell me that all loyal fans have refrained from buying any of the seasons so they can get their hands on this.



I actually wonder who would part with this amount of money if they are not fans. Only the fans would and by now they most likely like me have all the episodes already.



So why isn't the book available to us true fans without having to fork out all this dosh for something we already have.



It would have made more sense if the bonus disc and coffee table book came with Season 9 as well as the full box set. That way everyone would have been happy as there would have been three versions available, Season 9 as a stand alone, or with the bonus disc and book or the whole thing for the beginners and the rich completists.



UPDATED REVIEW:



I posted a review a few months ago when this set was initially released and I gave it one star as I was one of those who begrudged the fact that I had bought all the box sets as they came out and was miffed that to get the coffee table book and the bonus disc you had to double dip - there was no way I was going to do this.......



......until our friends at Amazon listed it as one of their Deals of the Week for £79.00. It was then I had a brainwave - if I can sell all my boxsets here on Amazon I can get this and at most it'll cost me a tenner. So that's what I did within days all but 2 of my boxsets were sold and then IT arrived.



Had I known what it was like initially I might have double dipped after all.



This set is gorgeous!!!!! The book is the best book I've ever laid my hands on and the discs are lovingly placed in a very user friendly manner unlike some boxsets I've come across.



To emphasise the point of the quality of the box set and its presentation - just think of the 'Lord of the Rings' extended editions.



In my opinion that is the ultimate box set cinema wise and I haven't yet come across another set that can touch it.



This 'Seinfeld' set is TV's 'Lord of the Rings'



The Deal of the Week offer has now finished but it's still going at a discounted price. Even if you have to do what I did and sell your individual box sets - and even if it means dishing out say another £30 take my word for it if you're a fan like me then YOU MUST GET THIS NOW!!!



Trust me it'll be worth it.



It's a pity I can't change the star rating as I would now give it a 5.

Tom Cherones
Television
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

For "Seinfeld", the third season's--for want of a better word--the charm. The show has found its misanthropic voice (by season's end, a fed-up Elaine tells herself, "I gotta get some new friends"), the ensemble has a firmer grasp of their characters, and the writers rise to the occasion with episodes that have entered the "Seinfeld" pantheon, including the "Seinfeld" equivalent of a Very Special Episode, "The Boyfriend," with Keith Hernandez and the "J.F.K." parody, "The Library," featuring Philip Baker Hall channeling Jack Webb as library bookhound Bookman, "The Pez Dispenser," and "The Keys," with an L.A.-bound Kramer winding up on "Murphy Brown". Michael Richards, especially, comes into his own this season as Kramer. The first two seasons built up the mystique of this "man-child"/"parasite." So while he was absent in season 2's "The Chinese Restaurant," he is now out and about with the close-knit, albeit dysfunctional, trio. Julia Louis-Dreyfus has some of her giddiest golden moments, zonked on painkillers in "The Pen," or, as a bored party guest in "The Stranded," telling an obnoxious bride-to-be that "Maybe the dingo ate your baby." And don't get us started on Jason Alexander as George, series co-creator Larry David's neurotic and angst-ridden alter-ego. To paraphrase what Julia Roberts said of Denzel Washington, we don't want to live in a world where Alexander doesn't have an Emmy.
But it's the extensive bonus features that give this four-disc set "hand" over other TV-on-DVD releases. The "Inside Look" episode intros, optional pop-up "Notes About Nothing," and candid, albeit a little too casual, commentaries offer a fount of information to even the most obsessive "Seinfeld" fans. We learn that even the most outrageous episodes, such as "The Pez Dispenser," were inspired by real-life events. Especially telling is Alexander's observation that Jerry never really socialized with the other ensemble members. This has extended to the commentaries: Seinfeld pairs with David on some episodes, while Alexander, Richards and Dreyfus team up on others. They are gracious to the guest stars and extras, and mostly mum on Jer. "--Donald Liebenson"

Tom Cherones
Television
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

It's hard to believe, but for the first three seasons nobody really knew that "Seinfeld" was about, well, you know. It wasn't until season 4--unleashed here in a four-disc set that's equal in scope, quality, and quantity of bonus material to its predecessors--that the show really became something. In a series which can claim every installment as classic, the two-parter on disc 1 titled "The Pitch/The Ticket" truly stands out as a defining episode and, in retrospect, marked "Seinfeld" 4 as the breakthrough season. It's the one where (fake) NBC executives express their interest in working with Jerry Seinfeld on a TV show, then moves to the who's-on-first shtick of George successfully pitching Jerry on creating "a show about nothing." Scattered throughout the discs in commentaries by cast and creators and in numerous "Inside Look" documentaries, nearly everyone expresses some anxiety about the season having a story "arc" depicting Jerry and his "real" life becoming a sitcom. The show had been only marginally successful up to that point anyway, and with the edict, "no hugging, no learning," still in place, maybe messing with nothing was a bad idea. What makes the arc so arch is the self-reflexive way it details the reality of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David coming up with the concept and pitching it to (real) NBC executives as a show that really was about, well, you know. In one of the many informally informative interview segments, Jerry remembers hitting a stride during this time when a lot of crazy ideas started to make sense. "Everything was just a wild guess," he says, "and it takes a while to get confident that you're guessing pretty good. I think sometime in season 4 we realized we were guessing pretty good." Oh, that we could all be so good at nothing.
Season 4 also gave us the episodes "The Bubble Boy" ("He lives in a bubble!"), "The Pick" ("There was no pick!"), and, perhaps most memorably, "The Contest." Recalling how nervous he thought NBC might be about a show based on how long a person can remain--ahem--master of his domain, Larry David says that he kept the idea hidden for a long time. He may have had NBC sweating, but the episode goes by without anyone uttering the word that it's really about. The curmudgeonly David also observes that another famous season 4 episode, "The Outing," only made it on the air due to a network "note" about making sure it wouldn't be offensive to homosexuals. Hence we have the addition of another standard to the "Seinfeld" lexicon of American pop culture: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Not only wasn't there anything wrong with it, the episode won a GLAAD Media Award. Season 4 also brought "Seinfeld"its first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Stay tuned for season 5 (and a move to the coveted Thursday-at-9 slot) when the volcano we now know was always brewing really blew its comedic top. "--Ted Fry"""""

Tom Cherones
Television
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

The fifth season of "Seinfeld" is without a doubt the series' best. By their fifth year, the "Seinfeld" gang had ironed out the bumps from the first two seasons, further developing characters. The loyal fan base that had been accumulating over the years was now more or less the entire nation’s viewing audience. The pressure was on to give this new, mega fan base a high dose of their unique, misanthropic comedy, and Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards) delivered in spades. Yes, other seasons may have funnier individual episodes, but as a whole season five consistently delivers the goods, including many of the show's all-time classic episodes. In the season opener, Jerry discovers the secret, sexual power of "The Mango." While vacationing in "The Hamptons" we not only learn that George’s date likes to sunbathe topless in front of his friends, but also that cold water has the power to shrink. In "The Stall’ Elaine is rejected while trying to share toilet paper only to learn that the selfish neighbor is Jerry’s girlfriend. In order to really make a life change, George decides to do "The Opposite" of all his instincts and surprisingly everything in his life falls perfectly into place. And of course, who can forget the ridiculous puffy shirt Kramer’s low-talking girlfriend talks Jerry into wearing on "The Today Show". This box set also includes the featurette "Jason+Larry=George" explaining how Jason Alexander embodied Larry David’s alter ego to create George Costanza, plus deleted and behind-the-scenes footage and exclusive stand up footage of Jerry Seinfeld. "--Rob Bracco"

Andy Ackerman
Television
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

By Season Six, the "Seinfeld" crew had their formula and character development down pat making it easy to churn out one classic episode after another. Not only do we learn a lot about Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards) in Season Six, but we also learn wealth of life lessons. For instance, just because you wear a toupee doesn’t mean you won't be rejected by bald women ("The Beard"). If you think everyone is giving you the finger, they probably are ("The Pledge Drive"). As ridicurous as is sounds, just because a woman has a Chinese name doesn't make her Chinese ("The Chinese Woman"). Eating out of trash is AOK, as long as your girlfriend's mother doesn't catch you ("The Gymnast"). If you try to make the "switch" and date your girlfriend's room mate, you just may get more than you bargained for ("The Switch"). If someone offers you an Armani suit in exchange for a meal, make sure you tell them that soup is indeed a meal ("The Soup"). Just because you are a "beard," doesn't mean you are dating ("The Beard"). Bringing crib notes in the bedroom may not be the best idea ("The Fusilli Jerry"). And just because Mel Torme sings to you, doesn't make you "special" ("The Jimmy"). We also learn phrases such as "re-gifting," and are introduced to new characters like Elaine's new boss J. Peterman (John O'Hurley) and boyfriend, and face painter, David Puddy (Patrick Warburton). In addition to being able to watch these original network versions (1-2 minutes longer then on syndication) and cast member commentaries, this set includes three of Eric Yahnker "Sein-Imation" - classic Seinfeld scenes reimagined in animation. "--Rob Bracco"

Andy Ackerman
Comedy
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

By the time "Seinfeld" reached season 7, it was already firmly established as one of the top shows on TV. But Jerry Seinfeld and series co-creator Larry David still had plenty of stops to pull out to keep the show at the top of its form. This is the season where George--yes, George (Jason Alexander)--gets engaged. Elaine (Julia Louis Dreyfuss) judges her dates to see who is "sponge-worthy." Jerry deals with low-flow showerheads, buys Chinese gum, and tries to date Debra Messing. And Kramer (Michael Richards) solidifies his own essential Kramer-ness by putting a hot tub in his living room, going around town in Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, buying jeans so tight he can’t take them off, and taking advice on court strategy from his caddy. If there is a unifying theme in this season, it would be growing up (or rather, futile attempts to grow up), as Jerry whines to George right off the bat, "What are we doing? What kinds of lives are these? We’re like children, we’re not men." As a result, marriage emerges as a theme, and George proposes to Susan (Heidi Swedburg) in episode 1. And because George is, well, George, things inevitably go downhill from there. But it’s not all navel-gazing. After all, this is the season that gave us "The Soup Nazi," and years later, "no soup for you" is a still a pop-culture touchstone.































Other classics include "The Calzone" where Jerry points out that Elaine’s boyfriend never asked her out; "The Bottle Deposit," featuring Kramer teaming with Jerry’s nemesis, Newman (Wayne Knight), to make millions out of a bottle deposit scheme; and "The Cadillac," where Jerry’s gift of a Cadillac to his parents inevitably leads to trouble, to name just a few. In due course through the season, all attempts to grow up inevitably, and hilariously, fail. That seems to be the world of Seinfeldian existentialism. Seven seasons in, who wants to see these characters actually change, anyway when it’s so much more fun to watch them flail in their own skins? Along with the episodes, commentary, and "Notes about Nothing," as on the other seasons, there’s a nice profile of Julia Louis Dreyfuss and her character Elaine, who was so key to the show’s success, and "Larry David’s Farewell," a special feature reviewing David’s contributions to the show. --"Daniel Vancini"
Stills from "Seinfeld " (click for larger image)











More "Seinfeld" at Amazon.com


























"Seinfeld " Seasons 1-6







"Seinfeld and Philosophy " the book









"Jerry Seinfeld Live on Broadway "





All Seasons of "Seinfeld"

Andy Ackerman
Comedy
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

After seven seasons of groundbreaking comedy, what could possibly be left to accomplish in season 8 for Seinfeld and company, especially in this, the first season without co-creator Larry David at the helm? Plenty, as it turns out. This is the season that gave us some of the most memorable episodes in the entire series, including "The Muffin Tops," "The Bizarro Jerry," and "The Yada Yada," the episode that proved you can "yada yada" anything in life. Fortunately by this point in the series, the comic formula that sustained the show throughout its run had not yet begun to get tired, and the writers proved that they could continue to pull a whole lot of something out of the show about nothing. Case in point: "The English Patient," where they created an entire story line out of Elaine's hatred for the award-winning film. In "The Chicken Roaster," one of "Seinfeld'"s most underappreciated episodes, Kramer switches apartments with Jerry and wages a one-man crusade against a Kenny Rogers' Roasters, only to becomes like Jerry and become undone by Newman. George continues to, well, be George. He habitually shoots himself in the foot as he continues life without Susan, only to find out marrying her would have made him rich ("The Foundation"). And Elaine gets her kicks, literally, horrifying her co-workers with her terrible dancing, spinning moves so bad they've actually become one of the show's most popular punch lines (go on any dance floor and you'll see someone doing "The Elaine" as a joke, it seems). Season 8 also continues the "Seinfeld" tradition of loading up the DVD sets with plenty of special features, including an illuminating documentary detailing how Jerry juggled his act as star and show-runner after Larry David's departure, and all new interviews with the cast. All in all, it's good stuff for fans, and there's plenty here for the casual viewer to enjoy as well. --"Daniel Vancini"














Extras from " Seinfeld"



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Stills from "Seinfeld " (click for larger image)











More "Seinfeld" at Amazon.com


























"Seinfeld " Seasons 1-6







"Seinfeld and Philosophy " the book









"Jerry Seinfeld Live on Broadway "





All Seasons of "Seinfeld"

Tom Cherones
Comedy
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
NR
"Seinfeld"'s final season seems to take its cue from a little piece of "showmanship" advice that Jerry offers to the hapless George (Jason Alexander) in the episode "The Burning": "When you hit that high note, say goodnight and walk off." In television, as in comedy, timing is everything, and that's what "Seinfeld", No. 1 in the ratings, did. The show that "TV Guide" would later rank the greatest of all time, left the stage, perhaps not at the top of its game, but at least on its own terms. To the end, Jerry, George, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) remain true to the show's misanthropic muse. In the episode "The Merv Griffin Show," Jerry induces sleep in his new girlfriend so he can have his way with her retro toy collection. In "The Apology," George relentlessly badgers an old acquaintance (James Spader) now in AA, for a Step Nine apology over a long-ago insult. At one point, Elaine resumes her on again-off again relationship with Puddy (Patrick Warburton) because she needs a bureau moved. In the end, it all comes crumbling down for the so-called "New York Four" when they are put on trial in a Massachusetts courtroom for violating a Good Samaritan Law after not coming to the aid of an obese carjack victim. A parade of lack-of-character witnesses spanning the series' near-decade-long run, from Mabel Choate, the Marble Rye Lady, to Babu and the Soup Nazi testify how they were "abused, wronged, deceived, and betrayed" by Jerry and company. Anyone expecting Seinfeld or Larry David to apologize for this bitter, and not at all sweet, finale, can just stuff those sorrys in a sack, mister. In "The Last Lap," a bonus featurette about Seinfeld's decision to end the series despite unprecedented offers from NBC brass to continue, they acknowledge the episode's "mixed reaction," but remain defiant. As Alexander notes, nothing could have lived up to the massive hype the episode received.
"Seinfeld"'s ninth does not quite leave audiences wanting more. While there are several great episodes, including "The Butter Shave," "The Betrayal," "The Cartoon," and "The Maid," the season is loaded with what George might call "gaffes," including a series nadir, "Puerto Rican Day," which in these PC times, drew enough protest to hinder its rebroadcast. The writing this season is more outrageous (see "The Merv Griffin Show," in which Kramer salvages a discarded talk-show set and installs it in his apartment), but there are enough inspired bits of silliness (fleeting season-opening mustaches in "The Butter Shave," a live-action re-creation of the classic arcade game in "The Frogger," and Jerry's silly voice in "The Voice") to keep "Seinfeld"'s legacy intact. As an added bit of showmanship, this set contains bountiful extras, perhaps the most interesting being a chronological re-edit of the backwards episode, "The Betrayal." "Season 9" may not win "Seinfeld" any new fans, but this DVD set is a Festivus for the rest of us. "--Donald Liebenson"

Fielder Cook
Drama
Learning in Focus

Tommy Wilhelm (Robin Williams) is a salesman. An honest, hard-working guy who has lost his job, his girlfriend, and left part of his sanity behind as he heads to New York to pick up the pieces of his life. He's always been able to sell, but caught in a downward spiral, he must, in addition, face the father who never really understood him, while trying to balance his newly precarious existence

Oliver Stone
Horror
Astral Bellevue Pathé

Jonathan Frid portrays a horror novelist who has a recurring nightmare about three figures out of his book who terrorize him and his family and friends during a weekend of fun. Then the dream becomes reality and it never ends...

Woody Allen
Drama


Everyone is gathering at Lane's place for the weekend, and everyone's in love. Unfortunately, each beloved loves somebody else, and no one seems to realize it.

Youssef Chahine, Amos Gitai
Drama
CIH Shorts

Eleven directors from 11 countries each contribute an 11-minute short reflecting on the events of 11 September 2001. A village teacher in Iran tries to explain to her young students what's happened. City kids in Burkina Faso think they've spotted Osama bin Laden. A deaf Frenchwoman in Manhattan writes a Dear John letter to a man who has left that morning for work at the World Trade Center. A Chilean remembers Allende. Events recall other deaths. A mother endures more than her son's death. And so on. The tone varies, as do the locales. Most stories are about others coming to terms with the events of the day, but at least one confronts the viewer with tragedy and death.

Joss Whedon
Action
Universal Pictures
PG-13
In the future, when a passenger with a deadly secret. Six rebels on the run. An assassin in pursuit. When the renegade crew of Serenity agrees to hide a fugitive on their ship, they find themselves in an awesome action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime who will destroy anything - or anyone - to get the girl back and the bloodthirsty creatures who roam the uncharted areas of space. But, the greatest danger of all may be on their ship. From the mind of Joss Whedon, comes a new edge-of-your-seat adventure loaded with explosive battles, gripping special effects and fantastic new worlds.

Joss Whedon
Action
Universal Pictures
PG-13
In the future, when a passenger with a deadly secret. Six rebels on the run. An assassin in pursuit. When the renegade crew of Serenity agrees to hide a fugitive on their ship, they find themselves in an awesome action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime who will destroy anything - or anyone - to get the girl back and the bloodthirsty creatures who roam the uncharted areas of space. But, the greatest danger of all may be on their ship. From the mind of Joss Whedon, comes a new edge-of-your-seat adventure loaded with explosive battles, gripping special effects and fantastic new worlds.

John Sturges
Comedy
Essex Productions

John Waters
Comedy
Polar Entertainment Corporation
R
A picture perfect middle class family is shocked when they find out that one of their neighbors is receiving obscene phone calls. The mom takes slights against her family very personally, and it turns out she is indeed the one harassing the neighbor. As other slights befall her beloved family, the body count begins to increase, and the police get closer to the truth, threatening the family's picture perfect world.

Sidney Lumet
Crime
Artists Entertainment Complex

Serpico is a cop in the early 1970s. Unlike all his colleagues, he refuses a share of the money that the cops routinely extort from local criminals. Nobody wants to work with Serpico, and he's in constant danger of being placed in life threatening positions by his "partners". Nothing seems to get done even when he goes to the highest of authorities. Despite the dangers he finds himself in, he still refuses to 'go with the flow', in the hope that one day, the truth will be known.

Reginald Hudlin
Comedy
FTM Productions
PG-13
When Sara (Elizabeth Hurley) is served divorce papers while she is in New York, she is stunned. Not about to lose the fortune she amassed with her self-serving Texas husband, she makes an offer to her process server, Joe (Matthew Perry) that sets them off on a wild trip across the country.

Brad Anderson
Horror
October Films
R
An asbestos abatement crew wins the bid for an abandoned insane asylum. What should be a straightforward, if rather rushed, job, is complicated by the personal histories of the crew. In particular, Hank is dating Phil's old girlfriend, and Gordon's new baby seems to be unnerving him more than should be expected. Things get more complicated as would-be lawyer Mike plays the tapes from a former patient with multiple personalities, including the mysterious Simon who does not appear until Session 9, and as Hank disappears after finding some old coins.

Robert Wise
Film-Noir
RKO Radio Pictures

Over-the-hill boxer Bill 'Stoker' Thompson insists he can still win, though his sexy wife Julie pleads with him to quit. But his manager Tiny is so confident he will lose, he takes money for a "dive" from tough gambler Little Boy...without bothering to tell Stoker. Tension builds as Stoker hopes to "take" Tiger Nelson, unaware of what will happen to him if he does.

Buster Keaton
Comedy
Buster Keaton Productions

Financial broker Jimmie Shannon is nearly bankrupt when an attorney presents grandfather's will leaving him seven million dollars. In order to inherit the money Jimmie must marry before 7 pm on his 27th birthday - today!

Melville Shavelson
Biography
Paramount Pictures

Vaudeville entertainer Eddie Foy, who has vowed to forever keep his act a solo, falls in love with and marries Italian ballerina Madeleine. While they continue to tour the circuit, they begin a family and before long have seven little Foys to clutter the wings. After tragedy threatens to stall Eddie's career, he comes to realize that his little terrors are worth their weight in gold.

Russ Meyer
Drama
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

The Seven Minutes is a steamy book written in 1969. To help with an upcoming election, a bookstore clerk is indicted for selling obscene material and most of the film centers about the trial. The defense attorneys need to find the mystery of the original publication of the book.

Gabriele Muccino
Action & Adventure
Sony Pictures
PG-13
The mysteriously titled Seven Pounds stars Will Smith as Ben Thomas, who flashes his badge as an IRS agent to gain entrance into the lives of seven strangers in need. To each, he offers something that will reverse their troubles, seeking to atone for a haunting past mistake. But when Ben starts falling in love with a young woman with heart trouble (Rosario Dawson), his carefully laid plans threaten to collapse. To reveal more of the story would diminish it. Smith is an engaging, charismatic presence, but the impact of Seven Pounds comes from Dawson--she has the kind of emotional transparency that shimmers off the screen. Which is crucial, because Seven Pounds requires considerable suspension of disbelief; some scenes push and pull at plausibility, and you may question a few plot turns after the movie is over. But as the story unfolds, the performances can carry you over these bumps. If you surrender to its gently circling rhythms and its luminous images (including the glowing undulations of a poisonous jellyfish), Seven Pounds will pack an emotional wallop, heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Also featuring Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan), Michael Ealy (Sleeper Cell), and Woody Harrelson. --Bret Fetzer


Stills from Seven Pounds (click for larger image)

Akira Kurosawa
Action
Toho Company

A veteran samurai, who has fallen on hard times, answers a village's request for protection from bandits. He gathers 6 other samurai to help him, and they teach the townspeople how to defend themselves, and they supply the samurai with three small meals a day. The film culminates in a giant battle when 40 bandits attack the village.

Tay Garnett
Adventure
Universal Pictures

Bijou, a saloon singer with a reputation for insighting brouhahas, is one of several deportees from a south Pacific island to arrive at another U.S. protectorate, Boni Komba. She becomes very popular with U.S. navymen by performing at the 'Seven Sinners'. A navy Lieutenant is attracted to Bijou despite the Governor's machinations to keep them apart, and the competing affections of local mobster, Antro. Will the Lieutenant give up the navy for Bijou, and will he survive Antro's forces?

Billy Wilder
Comedy
Charles K. Feldman Group

Like many other Manhattan husbands, Richard Sherman sends his wife and son to the country for the summer, while he stays behind to toil. Though reveling in temporary bachelor freedom of lifestyle, he's resolved not to carouse and philander like some others. But his overactive, over-vivid imagination goes into overdrive when a delightfully unconventional, voluptuous blonde moves in upstairs.

Philip D'Antoni
Action
Philip D'Antoni Productions Inc.
PG
New York City cops wage a war against assorted hoods and criminals after one of their own is brutally killed by a hoodlum. Seven-Ups refers to the minimum jail time each of the crooks will have to spend if they are caught.

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

A Knight and his squire are home from the crusades. Black Death is sweeping their country. As they approach home, Death appears to the knight and tells him it is his time. The knight challenges Death to a chess game for his life. The Knight and Death play as the cultural turmoil envelopes the people around them as they try, in different ways, to deal with the upheaval the plague has caused.

Christopher Smith
Comedy
Dan Films
R
A team-building weekend in the mountains of Eastern Europe goes horribly wrong for the sales division of the multi-national weapons company Palisade Defence when they become the victims of a group of crazed killers who will stop at nothing to see them dead.

Julio Medem
Drama
Alicia Produce
R
Lucía is a young waitress in a restaurant in the centre of Madrid. After the loss of her long-time boyfriend, a writer, she seeks refuge on a quiet, secluded Mediterranean island. There, bathed in an atmosphere of fresh air and dazzling sun, Lucía begins to discover the dark corners of her past relationship, as if they were forbidden passages of a novel which the author now, from afar, allows her to read.

Sean Anders
Adventure, Comedy, Romance
Summit Entertainment
R
Ian is a high school senior in suburban Chicago, plagued by being a virgin. Online he's inflated his resume, met Ms. Tasty, and agreed to drive to Knoxville where she promises sex. He steals his homophobic, macho brother's GTO, and, with his two best friends, Lance and Felicia, heads south. Every young woman who meets Lance, including Felicia, is attracted to him, even though he's an uncaring hound. Ian, on the other hand, is a decent guy who wouldn't mind if his friendship with Felicia became a romance. By the time they get to Knoxville, they have encountered a jealous boyfriend, a menacing hitchhiker, jail birds, carjackers, an Amish community, and Ian's better judgment.

Catherine Breillat
Comedy
CB (Catherine Breillat) Films
R
Jeanne is a director struggling with a difficult sex scene between two actors who can't stand each other. Aided by her loyal assistant Leo, Jeanne is hell-bent on getting the scene right without compromise. Inspired by Breillat's own experiences (particularly those in "Fat Girl"), "Sex is Comedy" explores the comedy of social manipulations, sex and power that takes place within the confines of a film set.

Barry Mahon
Horror

Dwain Esper
Drama
Cinema Service Corp.

This sex exploitation film includes wild parties, sex out of wedlock, lesbianism, etc. After going to a "casting couch", a chorus girl contracts syphilis. The film then focuses on the effects this lifestyle and disease have on her marriage.

John McNaughton
Drama

Steven Soderbergh
Drama
Sony Pictures
R
Winner of the Palm d'Or and Best Actor awards at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, "sex, lies, and videotape" transformed the independent film industry and turned writer-director Steven Soderbergh into the envy of aspiring filmmakers everywhere. Sly, seductive, and coolly intelligent, the movie explores the sexual shenanigans and personal preoccupations of its four central characters, revolving around a selfish lawyer (Peter Gallagher) who responds to his wife by having an affair with her free-spirited sister (Laura San Giacomo). But when the lawyer's college roommate (James Spader) arrives for an unexpectedly extended visit, the neglected wife (Andie MacDowell) is surprisingly responsive to his seductive hobby of videotaping women as they describe their sexual fantasies. It's his way of compensating for impotence, but the curious wife considers this a sexual challenge, and Soderbergh turns "sex, lies, and videotape" into a fascinating chamber piece that puts a decidedly different spin on the consequences of infidelity. Balanced on a risky and finely tuned performance by Spader, the film delivers frisky passion and emotional intrigue, and yet much of its allure is found in the exchange of secrets and the hidden mysteries of sexual desire. "--Jeff Shannon"

Gough Lewis
Documentary
Coffee House Films

Ken Hughes
Comedy
Briggs and Sullivan

Marlo Manners is enjoying her honeymoon with Sir Michael Barrington, husband number 6. As luck would have it, an international conference is taking place in the same hotel and the Russian delegate (one of Marlo's former husbands) is threatening to derail the negotiations unless he can have one more fling with his ex. Adding to the complications is a tape Marlo has made detailing all of her affairs and scandals, which her manager is desperately trying (and failing) to destroy.

Ken Kwapis
Comedy
Showtime Ent.
R

Jonathan Glazer
Crime
FilmFour
R
Gal, Deedee, Aitch and Jackie, having left behind respective lives of ill-repute, bask in the sun of Spain and in the most essential brand of leisure. A hazy yarn of barbecues, beer and botched hunting expeditions make up their retirements, until a sudden and unforeseen disruption emerges from their past. Enter the childishly violent and hilariously edgy Don Logan. Through a series of side-splitting negotiations and irrevocable acts, retired crook Gal is forced to shake off the rust and accept one last mission, put forth by the menacing Logan, his ex-mentor. A heist of legendary proportion and personal implications, this job should make for one hell of an encore.

Alfred Hitchcock
Crime
Skirball Productions

The Newton family lead a quiet life in the North California town of Santa Rosa. The Newton's eldest daughter, 'young Charlie', decides that things need brightening up and resolves to contact her Uncle Charlie (after whom she is named) and invite him to stay. On arrival at the telegraph office she discovers he is already on his way. However, Uncle Charlie is being pursued by a couple of detectives who suspect him of being "The Merry Widow Murderer", an evil strangler wanted in connection with the deaths of several rich East coast widows.

W.S. Van Dyke
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Nick and Nora's hopes for a pleasant afternoon at the local race track are dashed when a jockey is found shot dead in the locker room. Nick's friend Lt. Abrams wants him to help out but Nick is enjoying the good life too much to get involved. However, he is subsequently approached by Major Scully to look into corruption and the role of organized crime in gambling. Others are killed but in the end, Nick gathers all of the suspects into a room and identifies the killer.

John Cassavetes
Drama
Lion International
PG
Benny's a hipster, moving in and out of Manhattan's beat scene, aimless, maybe close to trouble. His sister Lelia, who looks less African-American than White, is vulnerable and about to fall in love. Hugh, their older brother, is a struggling singer whose agent, Rupert, may be the only person with faith in his talent. The story moves back and forth, like jazz, among the three of them and what seems at first to be separate lives. Lelia meets Tony, and lets herself hope this is true love. Then he meets Hugh and prejudice gives Tony an excuse to cut and run. Can family and friendship bring solace for her hurt, purpose for Benny, and belief in Hugh? Is life more than shadows?

Woody Allen
Comedy
Orion Pictures Corporation
PG-13
A small and insignificant bookkeeper, Kleinman, is awoken one night by his neighbours who wants him to help them track down a strangler who has been killing people all over town. The citizens form vigilance committees, but when Kleinman has dressed, his neighbours have disappeared. Meanwhile a circus has come to town. Irmy and Paul are two of the artists. After a fight, Irmy leaves the circus in the middle of the night. Eventually she meets Kleinman, scared and alone.

Gordon Parks
Action
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

John Shaft is the ultimate in suave black detectives. He first finds himself up against Bumpy, the leader of the Black crime mob, then against Black nationals, and finally working with both against the White Mafia who are trying to blackmail Bumpy by kidnapping his daughter.

John Singleton
Action
Munich Film Partners & Company (MFP) Shaft Productions
R
Cool and deadly NYPD detective John Shaft arrests Walter Wade, Jr. in a racially-motivated slaying. The eye witness disappears, Wade jumps bail for Switzerland, and Shaft is livid. Two years later, Wade returns to face trial, confident his father's money and influence (and racial politics) guarantee an innocent verdict. Shaft looks hard for the witness, so Wade wants someone to kill her. He turns to a ghetto drug king, Peoples Hernandez, who's willing to kill for money, use Wade as a route to rich drug customers, and shaft Shaft. Can Shaft find the witness, convince her to testify, and shepherd her through the hail of bullets that Peoples is sure to let fly?

Gordon Parks
Action
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

When Shaft finds out that a dead friend ran a numbers racket out of his legitimate business and left $200,000 unaccounted for, he knows why he has suddenly found himself in the middle of a war between rival thugs. These goons are all trying to take over the territory of the dead man as well as get their hands on the missing 200 grand. Shaft has all he can handle trying to track down the money and, at the same time, keep his friend's widow from the clutches of the hoods.

John Madden
Comedy
Universal Pictures
R
Romantic comedy set in London in the late 16th century: Young playwright William Shakespeare struggles with his latest work "Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter". A great fan of Shakespeare's plays is young, wealthy Viola who is about to be married to the cold-hearted Lord Wessex, but constantly dreams of becoming an actress. Women were not allowed to act on stage at that time (female roles were played by men, too), but dressed up as a boy, Viola successfully auditions for the part of Romeo. Soon she and William are caught in a forbidden romance that provides rich inspiration for his play.

Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville
Documentary
Tremolo Productions

Peter Chelsom
Drama
Miramax Films
PG-13
John Clark is a man with a wonderful job, a charming wife and a loving family, who nevertheless feels that something is missing as he makes his way every day through the city. Each evening on his commute home, John sees a beautiful woman, staring with a lost expression through the window of a dance studio. Haunted by her gaze, John impulsively jumps off the train one night, and signs up for dance lessons, hoping to meet her. At first, it seems like a mistake. His teacher turns out to be not Paulina, but the older Miss Mitzi, and John proves just as clumsy as his equally clueless classmates on the dance-floor. Even worse, when he does meet Paulina, she icily tells John she hopes he has come to the studio to seriously study dance and not to look for a date. But, as his lessons continue, John falls in love with dancing. Keeping his new obsession from his family and co-workers, John feverishly trains for Chicago's biggest dance competition. His friendship with Paulina blossoms, as his enthusiasm rekindles her own lost passion for dance. But the more time John spends away from home, the more his wife becomes suspicious. With his secret about to be revealed, John will have to do some fancy footwork to keep his dream going and realize what it is he really yearns for.

Danny Boyle
Comedy
Channel Four Films
R
To avoid spoiling the movie this plot summary is very brief. It starts when three people living together in a four bedroom flat are looking for a house mate. The interviews they conduct are very unorthodox and very funny. Eventually the three agree on one prospective tenant. He moves in, locks his door, and is not seen again. After a couple of days the three become curious and break in to his room. What follows is an amazing piece of cinema and to say more would ruin it.

Bobby Farrelly, Peter Farrelly
Comedy
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG-13
Following the advice of his dying father, Hal dates only women who are physically beautiful. One day, however, he runs into self-help guru Tony Robbins, who hypnotizes him into recognizing only the inner beauty of women. Hal thereafter meets Rosemary, a grossly obese woman whom only he can see as a vision of loveliness. But will their relationship survive when Hal's equally shallow friend undoes the hypnosis?

Hal Ashby
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
In this 'period piece' (Election Day 1968), Warren Beatty plays George Roundy, a Beverly Hills hairstylist who's uncontrolled libido stands between him and his ambitions. He wants the security of a relationship. He wants to be a hairdressing "star" and open his own salon. But the fact that he beds down with the wife (Lee Grant), daughter (Carrie Fisher), and mistress (Julie Christie) of a potential backer (Jack Warden) doesn't help. It also does little for his relationship with Goldie Hawn,who thinks she's his main squeeze. As this tongue-in-cheek look at the sexual revolution rolls on, the babe juggling, stress and lies all wear George down. He wants so much. But a hungry kid loose in a candy store easily gets sick.

Neil LaBute
Comedy
Mepris Films
R
While visiting an art museum, a nerdy college student named Adam meets an iconoclastic artist named Evelyn and is instantly smitten. As their relationship develops, she gradually encourages Adam to change in various ways that surprise his older friends, Jenny and Philip. However, as events progress, Evelyn's antics become darker and darker as her influence begins to twist Adam and his friends in hurtful ways.

Enzo G. Castellari
Adventure
Arca Films

Mike fa il cacciatore di squali, ma è un uomo misterioso del cui passato nessuno sa niente, nemmeno la sua donna, Juanita. Poi arriva Acapulco, esperto sub, che fa subito amicizia con lui. Ma la situazione precipita quando si presenta Donovan, accompagnato da Rosy, che in passato ha lavorato con il capitano Gomez per l'Organizzazione. Mike in realtà è l'unico a conoscere la posizione di un aereo inabissatosi con cento milioni di dollari e certo cento milioni di dollari fanno gola a molti, disposti a tutto pur di ottenerli. La caccia è aperta, ma questa volta non agli squali.

Burt Reynolds
Crime
Deliverance Productions
R
Tom Sharky is a narcotics cop in Atlanta who's demoted to vice after a botched bust. In the depths of this lowly division, while investigating a high-dollar prostitution ring, Sharky stumbles across a mob murder with government ties, and responds by assembling his downtrodden fellow investigators (Sharky's "machine") to find the leaders and bring them to justice before they kill off all his partners and witnesses, including Sharky himself.

Billy Ray
Drama
Lions Gate Films
PG-13
This film tells the true story of fraudulent Washington, D.C. journalist Stephen Glass (Christensen), who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in his 20s, becoming a staff writer at "The New Republic" for three years (1995-1998), where 27 of his 41 published stories were either partially or completely made up. Looking for a short cut to fame, Glass concocted sources, quotes and even entire stories, but his deception did not go unnoticed forever, and eventually, his world came crumbling down...

Edgar Wright
Comedy
Studio Canal
R
Shaun doesn't have a very good day, so he decides to turn his life around by getting his ex to take him back, but he times it for right in the middle of what may be a zombie apocalypse... But for him, it's an opportunity to show everyone he knows how useful he is by saving them all. All he has to do is survive... And get his ex back.

Frank Darabont
Drama
Castle Rock Entertainment
R
Andy Dufresne is a young and successful banker whose life changes drastically when he is convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940's, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison entrepreneur, turns out to be a most unconventional prisoner.

Lowell Sherman
Comedy, Romance
Paramount Pictures

New York singer and nightclub owner Lady Lou has more men friends than you can imagine. Unfortunately one of them is a vicious criminal who's escaped and is on the way to see "his" girl, not realising she hasn't exactly been faithful in his absence. Help is at hand in the form of young Captain Cummings a local temperance league leader though.

Spike Lee
Comedy
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
R
Harvard-educated biotech executive John Henry Jack Armstrong gets fired when he informs on his bosses, launching an investigation into their business dealings by the Securities & Exchange Commission. Branded a whistle-blower and therefore unemployable, Jack desperately needs to make a living. When his former girlfriend Fatima, a high powered businesswoman--and now a lesbian--offers him cash to impregnate her and her new girlfriend Alex, Jack is persuaded by the chance to make easy money. Word spreads and soon Jack is in the baby-making business at $10,000 a try. Lesbians with a desire for motherhood and the cash to spare are lining up to seek his services. But, between the attempts by his former employers to frame him for security fraud and his dubious fathering activities, Jack finds his life, all at once, becoming very complicated.

John Ford
Western
Argosy Pictures

Captain Nathan Brittles, on the eve of retirement, takes out a last patrol to stop an impending massive Indian attack. Encumbered by women who must be evacuated, Brittles finds his mission imperiled.

Jean Yarbrough
Horror
Universal Pictures

London is shaken by a series of grisly murders. Suspicion falls on an attractive young woman who is rumored to have werewolves in her family tree.

Spike Lee
Comedy
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks

The story of Nola Darling's simultaneous sexual relationships with three different men is told by her and by her partners and other friends. All three men wanted her to commit solely to them; Nola resists being "owned" by a single partner.

Stan Dragoti
Comedy
Weintraub Entertainment Group
PG
Doug Simpson lives alone with his two daughters Katie and Bonnie. Katie has just turned 15 and when Doug is out of town on a business trip she gets herself treatment at a beauty parlor. She removes her braces and her thick glasses. Without those, she is a beautiful young woman and the boys line up outside the front door to date her. But Doug won't accept that his *girl* is seeing *men*...

Edward Burns
Comedy
Good Machine
R
How do siblings deal with each other in their targets? This is the question tackled in this movie. Mickey (Edward Burns) drives a New York taxicab since the breakup with his promiscuous ex-fiancée Heather (Cameron Diaz) two years ago. His younger brother, Francis (Mike McGlone), cannot let Mickey forget the tragedy of the "hairy ass": (Mickey's image of his apartment floor after walking in on Heather). Finding relief in driving his cab, Mickey finds an art student named Hope (Maxine Bahns) whom he marries after knowing her for only 24 hours. Mickey also meets his old lover Heather, and learns more about life itself as taxi fares in the course of a summer. Francis, a young Wall Street corporate raider, unhappy in his marriage to Renee (Jennifer Anitson) and led by his infidelity, continues his shots at Mickey throughout the film, only to find himself a plot device that lends humor and lessons about marriage and brotherhood when he meets and starts an dangerous affair with Heather, despite Mickey's warnings that Heather is a gold-digging nymphomaniac who goes through sexual partners as ofter as a person changes clothes. Given Mickey's frame of reference on the past and his bride of 24 hours, it is no wonder that the two brothers, along with their father (John Maloney), a bigot and a chauvinist who does not allow women aboard his fishing boat, learn about the strength of women, and their own lives.

William Girdler
Action
American International Pictures (AIP)
R
Sheba Shayne (Pam Grier) returns to her hometown of Louisville, Kentucky to help her father. A proud businessman, he refuses to be intimidated by thugs attempting to run him out of business. While Sheba looks for the men (and the organization) supporting the thugs, she also finds a sinister motive behind their actions. Sheba's former flame Brick (Austin Stoker) adds some muscle to her mission.

Henry Hathaway
Drama
Paramount Pictures

Young Matt Masters, an Ozark Mountains moonshiner, hates the father he has never seen, who apparently deserted Matt's mother and left her to die. His obsession contributes to the hatred rampant in the mountains. However, the arrival of a stranger, Daniel Howitt, begins to positively affect the mountain people, who learn to shed their hatred under his gentle influence. Still, Matt does not quite trust Howitt.....

Guy Ritchie
Action & Adventure
Warner Home Video
PG-13
Guy Ritchie ("Snatch", "RocknRolla") attempts to reinvent one of the world's most iconic literary figures as an action hero in this brawny, visually arresting period adventure. Robert Downey Jr. is an intriguing choice for the Great Detective, and if he occasionally murmurs his lines a pitch or two out of hearing range, his trademark bristling energy and off-kilter humor do much to sell Ritchie's notion of Holmes. Jude Law is equally well-equipped as a more active Dr. Watson--he's closer to Robert Duvall's vigorous portrayal in "The Seven Per-Cent Solution" than to Nigel Bruce--and together, they make for an engaging team. Too bad the plot they're thrust into is such a mess--a bustling and disorganized flurry of martial arts, black magic, and overwhelming set pieces centered around Mark Strong's Crowley-esque cult leader (no Professor Moriarty, he), who returns from the grave to exact revenge. Downey and Law's amped-up Holmes and Watson are built for the challenge of riding this roller coaster with the audience; however, Rachel McAdams as Holmes's love interest, Irene Adler (here a markedly different character than the one in Arthur Conan Doyle's "A Scandal in Bohemia"), and Kelly Reilly as Mary Morstan, the future Mrs. Watson, are cast to the wind in the wake of Ritchie's hurricane pace. One can imagine this not sitting well with ardent Sherlockians; all others may find this "Sherlock Holmes" marvelous if calorie-free popcorn entertainment, with the CGI rendering of Victorian-era London particularly appealing eye candy. "--Paul Gaita"

Buster Keaton
Short
Buster Keaton Productions

A projectionist is studying to be a detective and is in love with a young lady. When he proposes her, his rival steals the chain watch of her father and incriminates him. The disappointed young projectionist returns to his job and while projecting the film, he dreams on being the detective of the story. Meanwhile, the girl finds the truth and acquits the guilty of the projectionist to her father.

Ross McElwee
Documentary
FIRST RUN FEATURES

Ross McElwee sets out to make a documentary about the lingering effects of General Sherman's march of destruction through the South during the Civil War, but is continually sidetracked by women who come and go in his life, his recurring dreams of nuclear holocaust, and Burt Reynolds.

Laurie Collyer
Drama
Big Beach Films
R
Sherry Swanson returns home to New Jersey after serving a three year prison sentence. Eager to reestablish a relationship with her young daughter, Sherry soon discovers that coming back to the world she left behind is far more difficult than she had planned.

Scott Hicks
Biography
Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)
PG-13
Based on the true story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, this delightful movie charts the early and traumatic early years. Telling the story in flashback we see David as he grows up and into a child prodigy while his father abuses him and his siblings with the memory of his childhood in Europe and the loss of his family in the concentration camps. David finally breaks away from his father and goes away to study overseas, he later suffers a breakdown and returns to Australia and a life in an institution. Many years later he is released and through several twists of fate (in reality even more unlikely than film portrays) he starts playing a piano in a bar before finally returning to the concert hall.

Martin Scorsese
Documentary
Concert Promotions International
PG-13
Martin Scorsese and the Rolling Stones unite in "Shine A Light," a look at The Rolling Stones." Scorcese filmed the Stones over a two-day period at the intimate Beacon Theater in New York City in fall 2006. Cinematographers capture the raw energy of the legendary band.

Stanley Kubrick
Horror
Hawk Films

A man, his son and wife become the winter caretakers of an isolated hotel where Danny, the son, sees disturbing visions of the hotel's past using a telepathic gift known as "The Shining". The father, Jack Torrance, is underway in a writing project when he slowly slips into insanity as a result of cabin fever and former guests of the hotels ghost's. After being convinced by a waiter's ghost to "correct" the family, Jack goes completely insane. The only thing that can save Danny and his mother is "The Shining".

Lasse Hallström
Drama
Miramax Films
R
An inksetter in New York, Quoyle returns to his family's longtime home, a small fishing town in Newfoundland, with his young daughter, after a traumatizing experience with her mother, Petal, who sold her to an illegal adoption agency. Though Quoyle has had little success thus far in life, his shipping news column in the newspaper "The Gammy Bird" finds an audience, and his experiences in the town change his life. Then he meets the widow Wavey...

Samuel Fuller
Drama
Leon Fromkess-Sam Firks Productions

Johnny Barrett, an ambitious journalist, is determined to win a Pulitzer Prize by solving a murder committed in a lunatic asylum and witnessed only by three inmates, from whom the police have been unable to extract the information. With the connivance of a psychiatrist, and the reluctant help of his girlfriend, he succeeds in having himself declared insane and sent to the asylum. There he slowly tracks down and interviews the witnesses - but things are stranger than they seem ...

Mat Whitecross, Michael Winterbottom
Documentary
Renegade Pictures

Jan Egleson
Comedy
Brigand Films

Graham Marshall already celebrates his anxiously awaited promotion in an advertising company, when he learns that Roger Benham, one of his subordinates, will be promoted instead of him. Frustrated that his hated life will never change, he starts a cunning ploy to take bloody revenge on everyone who humiliated him - starting with his unnerving wife.

Alan Parker
Drama
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

A fifteen year marraige dissolves, leaving both the husband and wife, and their four children, devastated. He's preoccupied with a career and a mistress, she with a career and caring for four young children. While they attempt to go their separate ways, jealousy and bitterness reconnect them.

François Truffaut
Drama
Les Films de la Pléiade

Charlie Kohler is a piano player in a bar. The waitress Lena is in love with him. One of Charlie's brother, Chico, a crook, takes refuge in the bar because he is chased by two gangsters, Momo and Ernest. We will discover that Charlie's real name is Edouard Saroyan, once a virtuose who gives up after his wife's suicide. Charlie now has to deal wih Chico, Ernest, Momo, Fido (his youngest brother who lives with him), and Lena...

Antoine Fuqua
Action
Paramount Pictures
R
Bob Lee Swagger, one of the world's great marksmen and the son of a Congressional Medal of Honoree, is a loner living in the Rockies. He's left the military, having been hung out to dry in a secret Ethiopian mission a few years before, when he's recruited by a lisping colonel to help find a way that the President of the US might be assassinated in one of three cities in the next two weeks. He does his work, but the shot is fired notwithstanding and Bob Lee is quickly the fall guy: wounded and hunted by thousands, he goes to ground and, aided by two unlikely allies, searches for the truth and for those who double-crossed him. All roads lead back to Ethiopia.

Monte Hellman
Western
Proteus Films

Ján Kadár, Elmar Klos
Drama
Filmové Studio Barrandov

Slovakia during WW2. Tono lives a poor life, but the authorities offer him a take over the Jewish widow Lautman's little shop for sewing material. She is old and confused and thinks that he is looking for employment and hires him. The odd couple begin to like each other. But some time later the authorities decide that the Jews must leave the city. What should he do with the old lady?

Anand Tucker
Drama
Touchstone Pictures
R
The story follows Mirabelle, a disenchanted salesgirl and aspiring artist who sells gloves and accessories at a department store. She has two men in her life: wealthy divorcee Ray Porter (Steve Martin) and struggling musician Jeremy. Mirabelle falls in love with the glamorous Ray, and her life takes a magical turn, but eventually she realizes that she must empower herself and make a choice between them.

Robert Altman
Drama
Avenue Pictures Productions

While helicopters overhead spray against a Medfly infestation a group of Los Angeles lives intersect, some casually, some to more lasting effect. Whilst they go out to concerts and jazz clubs and even have their pools cleaned, they also lie, drink, and cheat. Death itself seems never to be far away, even on a fishing trip. Starring

Robert M. Young
Drama
Fox Lorber
R
A young man who is charged with child molestation is placed in New York City's infamous "Tombs" jail system. When the other inmates in his cell block find out what he is charged with, life becomes extremely difficult for him.

David Lynch
Short

Blake Edwards
Comedy
Geoffrey Productions Inc.

When rich M. Ballon's spanish driver is found shot dead, Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the first official on the scene. All evidence suggests Maria Gambrelli, the maid, to be the murderer. But Clouseau, being attracted to the beautiful girl, is convinced that she is hiding something. So, he has her released from jail and tries to follow her secretly. Things do not work out the way the inspector wanted and people keep being murdered, and each time innocent Maria seems to be the killer. But with someone important wanting Clouseau and nobody else to cover this case, his tolerance-challenged boss Charles Dreyfuss is close to losing his mind when casualties keep turning up. And Clouseau keeps on causing trouble without knowing it...

Dori Berinstein
Documentary
Dramatic Forces
PG
"ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway" follows the four high-profile productions that would eventually become Tony nominees for Best Musical of 2004: "Wicked," (currently the highest grossing musical of all time), the Rosie O'Donnell/Boy George musical brought from London, "Taboo," Tony Kushner's "Caroline, or Change," and a grown-up puppet show called "Avenue Q." Digging behind the scenes, from casting and out-of-town previews to the suspense-filled Tony Awards, "ShowBusiness" provides an engrossing look at the inner workings of Broadway musicals. Listening in to critics around the dinner table, interviews with the creators, footage of rehearsals and openings all combine to make this one of the most entertaining documentaries (and dramas) about the world of musical theater.

Paul Verhoeven
Drama
Carolco Pictures
NC-17
Nomi Malone, a mysterious young girl with the ambition to dance embarks on a journey to Las Vegas to become a showgirl in a high-class hotel show. There she meets Molly, a seamstress at the Stardust Hotel and the two quickly become good friends. She gets a job as a lap dancer at the seedy Cheetah Club but after a chance meeting with Cristal Connors, the star of Goddess, the current show at the hotel where Molly works, Nomi manages to secure an audition for a spot on the chorus line.However she soon realises that fame comes with a price as her friendships, her morals and her soul are put to the test as she works her way up the ladder and eventually becomes the star of the show, stealing Cristal's part. She begins to wonder if all of her work was for nothing and if she can reclaim her life back before it is too late.

Andrew Adamson, Vicky Jenson
Animation
DreamWorks Animation
PG
When a green ogre called Shrek discovers his swamp has been 'swamped' with all sorts of fairytale creatures by the scheming Lord Farquaad, Shrek sets out, with a very loud donkey by his side, to 'persuade' Farquaad to give his swamp back. Instead, a deal is made. Farquaad, who wants to become the King, sends Shrek to rescue Princess Fiona, who is waiting for her one true love. But once they head back with Fiona, it starts to become apparent that not only does Shrek like Fiona, but Fiona is keeping something secret.

Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury
Animation
DreamWorks SKG
PG
Shrek (Myers) has rescued Princess Fiona (Diaz), got married, and now is time to meet the parents. Shrek, Fiona and Donkey (Murphy) set off to Far, Far Away to meet Fiona's mother (Andrews) and father (Cleese). But not everyone is happy. Shrek and the King find it hard to get along, and there's tension in the marriage. It's not just the family who are unhappy. Prince Charming (Everett) returns from a failed attempt at rescuing Fiona, and works alongside his mother, the Fairy Godmother (Saunders), to try and find a way to get Shrek away from Fiona.

Barbara Kopple, Cecilia Peck
Documentary
Cabin Creek Films

In 2003, the female country band, The Dixie Chicks, are at the top of their game being one of the most successful bands of all time. However with the US invasion of Iraq about to begin over frustrated worldwide objections about this needless war, one of the Chick vents off the cuff in concert about being ashamed of US President George W. Bush. This statement sparks a firestorm of organized and personal right wing attacks against the Chicks for daring to think they have the right to express a negative personal opinion about the President. This film covers the band's effort to ride out the turmoil that would leave their careers under a cloud, but would eventually give them a opportunity to grow as great artists who bow to no one.

Kirby Dick
Documentary


Documentary about writer and performance artist Bob Flanagan who died at 43 of cystic fibrosis. His life was indicated by pain from the beginning and he started to develop sadomasochistic practices, which he developed finally into performances.

Michael Moore
Documentary
Dog Eat Dog Films
PG-13
Documentary look at health care in the United States as provided by profit-oriented health maintenance organizations (HMOs) compared to free, universal care in Canada, the U.K., and France. Moore contrasts U.S. media reports on Canadian care with the experiences of Canadians in hospitals and clinics there. He interviews patients and doctors in the U.K. about cost, quality, and salaries. He examines why Nixon promoted HMOs in 1971, and why the Clintons' reform effort failed in the 1990s. He talks to U.S. ex-pats in Paris about French services, and he takes three 9/11 clean-up volunteers, who developed respiratory problems, to Cuba for care. He asks of Americans, "Who are we?"

Alex Cox
Biography
Initial Pictures
R
Morbid biographical story of Sid Vicious, bassist with British punk group the Sex Pistols, and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen. When the Sex Pistols break up after their fateful US tour, Vicious attempts a solo career while in the grip of heroin addiction. One morning, Nancy is found stabbed to death and Sid is arrested for her murder.

Clark Jones, Nat Hiken, Max Liebman
Comedy
New Video Group
NR
The DVD releases of "SCTV", "Kids in the Hall", and "In Living Color", made 2004 a banner year for sketch-comedy aficionados. But this three-disc collection of vintage sketches from "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour" is essential for those with an appreciation for the grand masters. We come to praise Caesar, not to bury him. This was the golden age of live television, and these were the shows to which comedy writers aspired. Caesar's dream team included (though not at the same time) Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Selma Diamond, Larry Gelbart, Carl Reiner, and Neil and Danny Simon. "The Sid Caesar Collection" is a treasure trove of sketches, representative of the "knowledge, technique, and taste" of the show's creators: domestic sketches ("Nan Hires a Maid," "The White Rug"), spoofs ("Bullet Over Broadway," "German U Boat 749"), and pantomime ("Grieg Piano Concerto," "Pantomime Cocktail Party").
One reason why these sketches, some more than 50 years old, hold up so well, is Caesar's credo that "People are more interesting than things." The best sketches are universal, human comedy. In "Nan Hires a Maid," the writers meticulously establish wife Nanette Fabray's frustration with husband Sid's sloppiness, so when Sid comes home from work, we anxiously await to see him carelessly discard his clothes around the room, and for dutiful Nanette to explode, which she does "just so." Anything could happen on live television. Check out the "Bus Station" sketch, in which commuter Sid can be glimpsed wearing sandals he did not have time to change from a previous gladiator sketch. Other memorable sketches include "Toy Band" (which echoes the intricate teamwork of the "Your Show of Shows" classic, "The Clock") and "Bullets Over Broadway," which may have inspired the Boss Hijack sketches in the Caesar homage, "My Favorite Year". In between the sketches, cast members and writers affectionately recall working with each other, and creating this classic comedy. Each DVD includes bonus sketches. Caesar also provides illuminating commentary on selected sketches. "--Donald Liebenson"

Clark Jones, Nat Hiken, Max Liebman
Comedy
New Video Group
NR
When we worked together," reminisces Sid Caesar, "it was magic, and you don't question magic." So just enjoy this essential three-disc collection of vintage sketches from "Your Show of Shows" and "Caesar's Hour". To work on these programs was to attend "the Harvard of Comedy," and this "great amalgamation of talents," which included Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, Howard Morris, Nanette Fabray, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Larry Gelbart, and Neil and Danny Simon, were at the head of their class. "We did everything," Caesar notes at one point, and the proof is on these discs: domestic sketches ("Life Begins at 7:45"), game show parodies ("Break Your Brains"), spoofs of foreign films ("U-Bet-U"), opera ("Gallipacci"), and classical music (and a pantomime of "the 1812 Overture"). It is a testament to the knowledge, technique, and taste of those who created the show that these 50-year-old sketches hold up as well as they do. This was the golden age of live television, when anything could happen, and the cast would have to go with it. In "Gallipacci," Caesar's make-up pencil breaks when his character, a heartbroken clown, is applying make-up to his face. Without missing a beat, Caesar rises to the potentially disastrous occasion with one of the most inspired ad-libs in television history.
In between the sketches, the cast members and writers, a virtual Who's Who of comedy, affectionately recall working with each other, and creating these classic sketches. Each DVD includes bonus sketches. Caesar also provides illuminating commentary on selected sketches. More than a television time capsule that vividly re-creates a bygone era, this priceless collection is also a master class for aspiring comedy writers and performers. It is not a coincidence that one of Caesar's signature characters was called "the Professor." "--Donald Liebenson"

Anthony Mann
Crime
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Joe Norson, a poor letter carrier with a sweet, pregnant wife, yields to momentary temptation and steals $30,000 belonging to a pair of ruthless blackmailers who won't stop at murder. After a few days of soul-searching, Joe offers to return the money, only to find that the "friend" he left it with has absconded. Now every move Joe makes plunges him deeper into trouble, as he's pursued and pursuing through the shadowy, sinister side of New York.

Zion Myers, Jules White
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Edward Burns
Comedy
Artists Production Group (APG)
R
Six New Yorkers have an interrelated series of relationships. TV producer Tommy, who's just broken up with his girlfriend, has a short relationship with commitment-phobe Maria, who he meets in a video store, and also hooks up with married real-estate agent Annie, who he meets while apartment hunting. Annie is open to a relationship because her husband, Griffin, is cheating on her, which she slowly comes to realize through talking to her friend/co-worker who's gone through the same thing. Griffin, a 39-year-old dentist, is cheating with 19-year-old waitress Ashley, who he picked up in a park; she realizes she can do better when Ben, a hotel doorman and aspiring musician, tries to pick her up, in a belated attempt to recover from his divorce a year ago from schoolteacher Maria (the same Maria from the video store). Most of these relationships seem driven more by a desperate need to be in a relationship than actual love.

Alexander Payne
Comedy
Fox Searchlight Pictures
R
Miles is a failed writer living a meager existence in San Diego as an English teacher. With his career seemingly fading and the fate of a book hinging on a publisher's decision, Miles is depressed with himself and what he hasn't achieved. Jack is a television actor whom some recognize but not many do, as if he were a minor actor who got a taste of success. With his best friend Miles, the two embark on a road trip through California's wine country. Miles wants to give his friend a nice sendoff before married life, while Jack simply wants to have a fling beforehand. As they're both nearing middle age with not much to show for it, the two will explore the vineyards while ultimately searching for their identities.

Edward Zwick
Action
Bedford Falls Productions
R
After the abduction by the US military of an Islamic religious leader, New York City becomes the target of escalating terrorist attacks. Anthony Hubbard, the head of the FBI's Counter-Intelligence Task Force in New York, teams up with CIA operative Elise Kraft to hunt down the terrorist cells responsible for the attacks. As the bombings continue, the US government responds by declaring martial law, sending US troops, led by Gen. Devereaux, into the streets of New York City.

Edward Zwick
Action & Adventure
20th Century Fox
R
Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 06/19/2009 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: R

David Bruckner, Dan Bush
Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller
POP Films
R

Michael Engler, George Huang
Drama
Columbia TriStar Television

M. Night Shyamalan
Drama
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
Mel Gibson plays a former priest who lost his faith after his wife was killed in a freak car accident. Six months later, he discovers a gigantic crop circle in his yard, similar events happen all over the world. Graham's children think it's aliens, his brother thinks it's pranksters, and Graham doesn't know what to think. The crop circles cause a media frenzy and test Hess's faith as he journeys to find out the truth behind the crop circles. However, as more and more strange events occur, he regains his faith and realizes something big is coming, and it's probably not going to be friendly.

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Svensk Filmindustri (SF)

"The Silence" is about the emotional distance between two sisters. The younger one is still attractive enough to pick up a lover in a strange city. The older one -- even though she is very ill -- would like to make a human connection also but cannot leave the hotel room. Traveling with the sisters is a small boy who escapes into the hotel, meets a troupe of dwarfs. Which sister is this little boy's mother?

Jonathan Demme
Crime
Orion Pictures Corporation

Young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer. Clarice must first try and gain Lecter's confidence before he is to give away any information.

Jonathan Demme
Crime
Orion Pictures Corporation

Young FBI agent Clarice Starling is assigned to help find a missing woman to save her from a psychopathic serial killer who skins his victims. Clarice attempts to gain a better insight into the twisted mind of the killer by talking to another psychopath Hannibal Lecter, who used to be a respected psychiatrist. FBI agent Jack Crawford believes that Lecter who is also a very powerful and clever mind manipulator have the answers to their questions to help locate the killer. Clarice must first try and gain Lecter's confidence before he is to give away any information.

Jonathan Demme
Crime, Thriller
MGM (Video & DVD)
R
Based on Thomas Harris's novel, this terrifying film by Jonathan Demme really only contains a couple of genuinely shocking moments (one involving an autopsy, the other a prison break). The rest of the film is a splatter-free visual and psychological descent into the hell of madness, redeemed astonishingly by an unlikely connection between a monster and a haunted young woman. Anthony Hopkins is extraordinary as the cannibalistic psychiatrist Dr. Hannibal Lecter, virtually entombed in a subterranean prison for the criminally insane. At the behest of the FBI, agent-in-training Clarice Starling (Jodie Foster) approaches Lecter, requesting his insights into the identity and methods of a serial killer named Buffalo Bill (Ted Levine). In exchange, Lecter demands the right to penetrate Starling's most painful memories, creating a bizarre but palpable intimacy that liberates them both under separate but equally horrific circumstances. Demme, a filmmaker with a uniquely populist vision ("Melvin and Howard", "Something Wild"), also spent his early years making pulp for Roger Corman ("Caged Heat"), and he hasn't forgotten the significance of tone, atmosphere, and the unsettling nature of a crudely effective close-up. Much of the film, in fact, consists of actors staring straight into the camera (usually from Clarice's point of view), making every bridge between one set of eyes to another seem terribly dangerous. "--Tom Keogh"

Mel Brooks
Comedy
Crossbow Productions

Aspiring filmmakers Mel Funn, Marty Eggs and Dom Bell go to a financially troubled studio with an idea for a silent movie. In an effort to make the movie more marketable, they attempt to recruit a number of big name stars to appear, while the studio's creditors attempt to thwart them. The film contains only one word of dialogue, spoken by an unlikely source.

Daryl Duke
Drama
Carolco Entertainment
R
This is an imaginative plot, yet one with which the viewer can readily identify. A bank teller (Elliot Gould) is held up at gun point in his bank. Luckily for him he receives a clue that this is going to occur and diverts most of the cash into his own safety deposit box, leaving only a nominal amount for the crook (Christopher Plummer). The ruse works well, but for the fact that the crook resents the fact that he has been outsmarted. There ensues a terrific battle of wits involving the clever but basically "moral" teller, and the cunning and totally uninhibited bank robber, which involves several other people in ways which cannot be revealed here.

Michael Gillis
Documentary
Shylock Trading Limited

John Sayles
Comedy
Anarchist's Convention Films
R
Set against the backdrop of a mythic "New West," a satire that follows grammatically-challenged, "user-friendly" candidate Dicky Pilager, scapegrace scion of Colorado's venerable Senator Jud Pilager, during his gubernatorial campaign. When Pilager finds that he's reeled in a corpse during the taping of an environmental political ad, his ferocious campaign manager, Chuck Raven, hires former idealistic journalist turned rumpled private detective Danny O'Brien to investigate potential links between the corpse and the Pilager family's enemies. Danny's investigation pulls him deeper and deeper into a complex web of influence and corruption, involving high stakes lobbyists, media conglomerates, environmental plunderers, and undocumented migrant workers.

Luis Buñuel
Short, Drama, History
Criterion Collection

Simon a deep religious man in the 4th century wants to be nearer to God, so he climbes a column. The devil wants him to get down on earth an is trying to seduce him. But Simon recognizes him everytime. So the devil takes him to a nightclub i n New York of the 1960s.

Andrew Niccol
Drama
New Line Cinema
PG-13
The career of a disillusioned producer, who is desperate for a hit, is endangered when his star walks off the film set. Forced to think fast, the producer decides to digitally create an actress "Simone" to sub for the star--the first totally believable synthetic actress. The "actress" becomes an overnight sensation, with a major singing career as well, and everyone thinks she's a real person. However, as Simone's fame skyrockets, he cannot bear to admit his fraud to himself or the world.

Sam Raimi
Crime
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
R
Three diverse characters, for the most part intellectually challenged, find a deserted plane with a bag full of millions of dollars inside. They devise a simple plan to keep the money if no-one claims it. Ofcourse, nothing turns out simple...

David Silverman
Animation
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG-13
Homer adopts a pig who's run away from Krusty Burger after Krusty tried to have him slaughtered, naming the pig "Spider Pig." At the same time, the lake is protected after the audience sink the barge Green Day are on with garbage after they mention the environment. Meanwhile, Spider Pig's waste has filled up a silo in just 2 days, apparently with Homer's help. Homer can't get to the dump quickly so dumps the silo in the lake, polluting it. Russ Cargill, the villainous boss of the EPA, gives Arnold Schwarzenegger 5 options, forcing him to choose 4 (which is, unfortunately, to destroy Springfield) and putting a dome over Springfield to prevent evacuation. Homer, however, has escaped, along with his family. Can he stop the evil Cargill from annihilating his home town, and his family, who have been forced to return to Springfield?

David Silverman
Animation
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG-13
Homer adopts a pig who's run away from Krusty Burger after Krusty tried to have him slaughtered, naming the pig "Spider Pig." At the same time, the lake is protected after the audience sink the barge Green Day are on with garbage after they mention the environment. Meanwhile, Spider Pig's waste has filled up a silo in just 2 days, apparently with Homer's help. Homer can't get to the dump quickly so dumps the silo in the lake, polluting it. Russ Cargill, the villainous boss of the EPA, gives Arnold Schwarzenegger 5 options, forcing him to choose 4 (which is, unfortunately, to destroy Springfield) and putting a dome over Springfield to prevent evacuation. Homer, however, has escaped, along with his family. Can he stop the evil Cargill from annihilating his home town, and his family, who have been forced to return to Springfield?

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
America's first family of dysfunction, the Simpsons, appear in all their depraved glory in this wonderful DVD compilation of their show's premiere season. Fans accustomed to the slick appearance of the later episodes will be delighted by the rougher nature of these earlier episodes, when the characters weren't as well defined (Homer isn't quite as dumb as he is in later seasons) and the animation was still evolving. This only adds to the charm of these 13 episodes, which begin with "Simpsons Roasting on an Open Fire," the December 1989 Christmas special in which a down-and-out Simpson family adopt Santa's Little Helper. Throughout the season, familiar faces are introduced, as we catch first glimpses of Smithers, Mr. Burns, the Flanderses, and Patty and Selma. Highlights of the season include "The Crepes of Wrath," in which Bart is sent to France as an exchange student ("Don't mess up France the way you messed up your room"); "Bart the Genius," in which Bart ends up in a school for the gifted; and "Krusty Gets Busted," in which Bart's lifelong animosity with Sideshow Bob begins. "--Jenny Brown"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
"A Simpson on a T-shirt. I never thought I'd see the day." So remarks Marge Simpson in "Dancin' Homer," just one of 22 mostly classic episodes that comprise this series' brilliant second season. "The Simpsons" by that time was already a pop culture phenomenon, but instead of suffering a sophomore slump, this iconoclastic animated series was just hitting its stride. Series milestones include: first Oscar®-winning guest voice (an unbilled Dustin Hoffman in "Lisa's Substitute"), first Beatle guest voice (Ringo in "Brush with Greatness"), first "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween episode, first flashback episode ("The Way We Was," in which Homer meets Marge), and the first episode to make me cry (Bart's last frolic with obedience school washout Santa's Little Helper in "Bart's Dog Gets an F"). It's in this season the "The Simpsons" really finds its voice. The writing is sharper, and the upending of sitcom convention more subversive. "Perhaps there is no moral to this story," observes Lisa at the end of "Blood Feud." "Exactly," agrees Homer. "Just a bunch of stuff that happens."
In the first season, Bart was the series' breakout star, but in the second, "The Simpsons" established itself as a true ensemble series. Each character came into their own with career-best episodes. Marge, the family's long-suffering voice of reason, crusades against cartoon violence in "Itchy & Scratchy & Marge." Lisa, the heart and tortured soul of the series, develops an ill-fated crush on her new teacher in "Lisa's Substitute." Bart desperately tries to raise the money to buy Radioactive Man No. 1 in "Three Men and a Comic Book." Homer's stock rises when he grows hair in "Simpson and Delilah." Joining the "Simpsons" roster of scene-stealing supporting characters are Dr. Hibbert ("Bart the Daredevil"), shyster lawyer Lionel Hutz (voiced by the late, great Phil Hartman in "Bart Gets Hit by a Car"), the Ahnold-esque action hero McBain ("The Way We Was"), slobbering aliens Kang and Kodos ("Treehouse of Horror"), and "nutty professor" Frink ("Old Money"). This essential, extras-laden DVD set is illustrative of why "The Simpsons" is, in the parlance of Comic Book Guy, funniest show ever. "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
Broadcast in 1991, the third season of "The Simpsons" contains a host of candidates for "Best "Simpsons" Episode Ever." Homer is in such good form throughout that a reasonable case can be made that he has superseded the importance of his Greek namesake in the annals of culture and civilization. The opener, "Stark Raving Dad," for instance, features a guest appearance by an uncredited Michael Jackson, who plays an obese white inmate whom Homer meets while confined to a mental institution. Other standout episodes include "Like Father, Like Clown," in which Krusty reveals he is estranged from his Rabbi father; this is "The Simpsons" at the height of its powers, mature, ironic, erudite, and touching while bristling with slapstick and Bart-inspired cheek. "Flaming Moe's" features Aerosmith and sees Homer invent a cocktail that desperate, sleazy bartender Moe steals from him. "Radio Bart" is another demonstration of the series' knack for cultural references, parodying the Billy Wilder movie "Ace in the Hole". Finally, there's "Brother Can You Spare Two Dimes," in which Danny DeVito reprises his role as Homer's brother, regaining the fortune Homer lost him by inventing a Baby Translator. Immensely enjoyable at any level, this third year demonstrates conclusively that "The Simpsons" is quite simply, and by a large margin, the greatest television show ever. "--David Stubbs"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
By its fourth season, "The Simpsons" had come far enough where Lisa could make a self-referential joke about Dustin Hoffman and Michael Jackson's pseudonymous guest voice appearances in seasons 2 and 3, respectively. In this season, no less than Elizabeth Taylor (in two episodes), Bette Midler, and even the reclusive Johnny Carson blessed "The Simpsons" with their iconic presences. Awhile back, "Entertainment Weekly" ranked "The Simpsons"' Top 25 best episodes ever. Five gems from season 4 cracked the top 12, including the (debatable) choice for No. 1, "Last Exit to Springfield." Other episodes that loom large in the "Simpsons" legend are "Mr. Plow" (you know the jingle: "Call Mr. Plow / That's my name / That name again is Mr. Plow"), "Marge vs. the Monorail," featuring a "Music Man"-style extravaganza, and "A Streetcar Named Marge," the episode that outraged New Orleans residents, who heard their fair metropolis referred to as "a city that the damned call home."
"The Simpsons" smartly subverts traditional family sitcom convention, but anyone who thinks the show doesn't have a heart is advised to watch "I Love Lisa" and "New Kid on the Block," two fourth-season gems that absolutely nail the agony and ecstasy of unrequited crushes ("You won't be needing this," a heartbroken Bart fantasizes his babysitter saying while dropkicking his heart into a wastebasket in "New Kid"). While the "Simpsons"' celebrated ensemble gets all the glory, we must pause now to praise the peerless writing staff, among them, George Meyer, Al Jean, Jon Vitti, John Swartzwelder, David Silverman, and Conan O'Brien. One can only marvel in astonishment at the alchemy that went into creating, week after week, such essential episodes as "Kamp Krusty," "Streetcar," the profane and profound "Homer the Heretic," and "Lisa the Beauty Queen" (And that's just disc 1!). The animators, too, rose to the occasion, particularly in "Itchy & Scratchy: The Movie," with its dead-on, ultra-violent sinking of the seminal Disney cartoon, "Steamboat Willie." And another benchmark in "The Simpsons"' rise to the TV pantheon: Its very first clip show. What Homer says about donuts in "Monorail" holds true as well for "The Simpsons" itself: Is there anything this show can't do? "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Television
Fox Home Entertainment
NR
Sixteen seasons (and counting) of pop culture-rocking brilliance, the first four of which have already been gloriously archived on DVD. But in the words of Krusty the Clown: What has "The Simpsons" done for me lately? Well, how about all 22 episodes of season 5, each accompanied by commentary, deleted scenes, and other encyclopedic extras that hopelessly devoted "Simpsons" fans crave, no, demand? Season 5 is perhaps not as classics-packed as the third and fourth seasons, but no self-respecting "Simpsons" fan should be without the episodes "Homer's Barbershop Quartet," featuring George Harrison, "Cape Feare," one of Sideshow Bob's (and guest voice Kelsey Grammer's) finest half-hours, "Rosebud," "Springfield (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Legalized Gambling)," and "Bart Gets Famous," with the Springfield-sweeping catchphrase "I didn't do it." Plus, the star power this season is impressive: Michelle Pfeiffer as Homer's comely, donut-loving co-worker in "The Last Temptation of Homer," Albert Brooks as a self-help guru who unleashes "Bart's Inner Child," Kathleen Turner as the creator of Malibu Stacy in "Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy," and, as themselves, the Ramones ("Rosebud"), James Woods ("Homer and Apu"), Buzz Aldrin ("Deep Space Homer"), and even Robert Goulet ("Springfield").
But it is the writers and the core ensemble cast who exhibit, to quote "Deep Space Homer," "the right... What's that stuff?" Series milestones include the first appearance of yokel Cletus in "Bart Gets an Elephant," and Maggie's infant nemesis, The Baby with One Eyebrow in "Sweet Seymour Skinner's Badasssss Song," which also happens to be "The Simpsons"' 100th episode. Add in a very good "Treehouse of Horror" episode, (which outs Ned Flanders as the Devil and Marge as the head vampire), and one Emmy-nominated musical extravaganza ("Who Needs the Quick-E-Mart" from "Homer and Apu"), and you have a "Simpsons" season that's not just great, it's DVD-box-set great. "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
The classic to clunker ratio is still extraordinarily high, though "The Simpsons"' sixth season could give some devoted viewers pause. The show that takes cheeky delight in mooning television convention gives us "Another Simpsons Clip Show" and its first season-ending cliffhanger, "Who Shot Mr. Burns?" And, as does Bart in "A Star Is Burns," we should all feel a little dirty at the "cheap cartoon crossover" appearance of Jay Sherman (Jon Lovitz), designed to give a boost to the ill-fated animated series "The Critic". But this is just beard-stroking tongue-clucking regarding a season that delivered episodes that rank in the hallowed "The Simpsons" pantheon, among them, "Homer Badman," in which lust for a gummy Venus de Milo, peeled from the behind of an unwitting babysitter, makes Homer the object of feminist protest and tabloid TV fodder, and "Homer the Great," in which Homer is discovered to be the Chosen One to lead the secret society, "The Stonecutters" ("Who holds back the electric car/Who made Steve Guttenberg a star?/We do!"). Several episodes take their inspiration from classic films and books: Hitchcock's "Rear Window" ("Bart of Darkness"); Michael Crichton's "Westworld" and "Jurassic Park" ("Itchy and Scratchy Land"); and Stephen King and Ray Bradbury ("Treehouse of Horror V").
This season's roster of guest voices is also especially impressive, including Winona Ryder as "Lisa's Rival," Meryl Streep as Rev. Lovejoy's bad-seed daughter ("She's like a Milk Dud," a smitten Bart laments. "Sweet on the outside, poison on the inside"), the late Anne Bancroft in "Fear of Flying"; Patrick Stewart in "Homer the Great"; Mel Brooks and Susan Sarandon in "Homer vs. Patty and Selma," and Mandy Patinkin as Lisa's future fiancée in the surprisingly moving "Lisa's Wedding." There has, of late, been a feud a-brewin' between fans of "The Simpsons" and "Family Guy". Which show is funnier? Has "The Simpsons" lost it? Is "Family Guy" a "Simpsons"-wannabe? Hey; Can't we all just laugh along? Best to just marvel at another exemplary "Simpsons" season that, to quote Homer in "Lisa's Rival," delivers it all: "The terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles." "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox
NR
One of the hallmark seasons of "The Simpsons", season 7 features some of the strongest episodes produced during the show’s run. Considering that this is "The Simpsons" we’re talking about here, that’s saying a lot, but this collection deserves the accolades.
Broadcast in 1995, season seven features several signature episodes, including Part II of "Who Shot Mr. Burns," "Bart Sells His Soul," and "Two Bad Neighbors" where former President George Herbert Walker Bush moves into the neighborhood (an episode gamely playing on the former President’s open dislike for the show). One of "The Simpsons"’s most definitive episodes, "Treehouse of Horror VI" famously broke the third wall by using the then-groundbreaking CGI technology to render Homer first in a 3-D world, then in real life, (despite the evolution in his form, he naturally ends up in an erotic cake shop). As the producers openly note on the commentary, it was a big deal at the time, and super expensive, which is why they could only do a few minutes of footage in CGI (some fans will particularly enjoy the revealing commentary on this one, as the producers explain the many visual puns and math jokes appearing in the background of the 3-D world). It’s a great example of how "The Simpsons" continued to play with its visual style and take creative risks years into its run. In fact, one of the best episodes on this collection, "The Simpsons 138th Episode Spectacular" proves just how far the look and style of the show really came during that time. Hosted by actor Troy McClure (voiced by the late comic great Phil Hartman), it presents never-before-seen outtakes and original footage from the show’s debut days on "The Tracey Ullman Show", while taking a few self-referential digs at show creators Matt Groening, James Brooks, and Sam Simon. Other gems include "Homerpalooza" where Homer thanks guests The Smashing Pumpkins for their gloomy music because it has made his kids "stop wishing for a future I can’t possibly provide," and "Bart the Fink" where Bart inadvertently gets Krusty the Klown busted for tax "avoision."
Along with the 25 episodes there are extensive commentaries, featurettes, and deleted scenes all of which add immense value to the set and will give die-hard fans another excuse to spend more hours in front of the TV. It’s another benchmark collection from a show that, up to this point, doesn’t seem to know its own limits. "--Dan Vancini"

Various
Television
20th Century Fox

The madcap antics of SpringfieldÂ's first family continue when the EmmyÂ(r) award-winning series created by Matt Groening returns to DVD. Arriving on August 15th from Fox Home Entertainment, Â"The SimpsonsÂ" The Complete Eighth Season showcases all 25 episodes from the critically-acclaimed eighth season, as well as a host of bonus materials including audio commentaries from Groening and Â"The SimpsonsÂ" Executive Producers, Writers and Directors, as well as animatics and storyboards with optional audio commentary, a special featurette, deleted scenes, a sketch gallery and much more. As a special bonus for fans and collectors, Fox Home Entertainment will release the Â"The SimpsonsÂ" The Complete Eighth Season in two unique packaging options - a special Limited Edition Maggie Simpson box, as well as a collectible, illustrated gatefold digipak.

Various
Television
20th Century Fox

Jim Reardon, Pete Michels
Comedy
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Suitable for 12 years and over
Even as we arrive at season ten, these "Simpsons" DVD boxsets remain irresistible. Put together comprehensively and with real care, this latest release upholds the standard for terrific (and many) DVD extras to back up and complement the episodes themselves.
Season ten of "The Simpsons" features 23 episodes, spread across four discs, and there are some belters contained within. "Lard Of The Dance", for instance, finds Homer and Bart trying to steal and sell grease, against the backdrop of Lisa's school dance. "Lisa Gets An `A'" meanwhile sees the Simpsons' eldest daughter getting addicted to videogames, while "Mayored To The Mob" throws in Mark Hamill and a science fiction convention. Quite brilliant stuff.
The lazy argument though is that by season ten, "The Simpsons" was on the slide, but there's plenty of compelling evidence in this boxset to counter that. Sure, not every episode's a classic, but there are a lot of laughs and much entertainment to be gleamed here.
Furthermore, when you factor in the commentaries, deleted scenes, sketch gallery and look at the upcoming film, once again the stops have been pulled off for a distinguishable TV collection. Again, "The Simpsons"--in more than one sense--sets the standard that the others look up to. --"Jon Foster"

Various
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
Simpsons Season 11 includes all 22 episodes from the 11th season and bonus material on all 4 discs.

David Silverman, Jim Reardon, Mark Kirkland, Rich Moore, Wesley Archer
Animation, Comedy
20th Century Fox Television
Unrated
The Simpsons is an animated sitcom about the antics of a dysfunctional family called the Simpsons (surprise surprise). Homer is the oafish unhealthy beer loving father, Marge is the hardworking homemaker wife, Bart is the ten year old underachiever (and proud of it), Lisa is the unappreciated eight year old genius, and Maggie is the cute, pacifier loving silent infant.

Various
Animation
20th Century Fox
NR
Audio: English: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish: 5.0 Dolby Digital / French: 5.1 Dolby Digital Language: Dubbed: English, French & Spanish / Subtitled: English & Spanish Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 1.78:1
Disc 1: 218 Minutes
Sex, Pies and Idiot Scrapes Lost Verizon Double, Double, Boy in Trouble Treehouse of Horror XIX Dangerous Curves Homer and Lisa Exchange Cross Words Mypods and Boomsticks The Burns and the Bees Lisa the Drama Queen Featurette - "The 20th Anniversary Special Sneak Peek by Morgan Spurlock"
Disc 2: 264 Minutes
Take my Life, Please How the Test Was Won No Loan Again, Naturally Gone Maggie Gone In the Name of the Grandfather Wedding for Disaster Eeny Teeny Maya Moe The Good, the Sad and the Drugly Father Knows Worst Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D'oh Four Great Women and a Manicure Coming to Homerica

Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Action
Dimension Films
R
"Sin City" is four stories inter-weaved telling tales of corruption in Basin City. The first story (The Customer is always right) is short, and is based on the depression of women that they need to pay a man to feel loved when they commit suicide. The next story is Part 1 of "That Yellow Bastard" about a cop who needs to save a young girl from being raped. The third story (The Hard Goodbye) features a man taking revenge on a heartless killer who murdered his one-night stand. The fourth story (The Big, Fat Kill) stars a man who must dispatch a cop's body, but it will be a tough ride to do it. Following that are two conclusions to Sin City, the ending of "That Yellow Bastard" which is set 8 years later, and a short story that ends Sin City.

Preston Sturges
Comedy
California Pictures

Twenty years after his triumphs as a freshman on the football field, Harold is a mild-mannered clerk who dreams about marrying the girl at the desk down the aisle. But losing his job destroys that dream, and when he finds a particularly potent drink at his local bar, he goes on a very strange and funny rampage (with a lion in tow).

Anthony Farrar
Drama
Farno Productions

Raphael Nussbaum
Drama
Aero Film

At the start of the 1967 Six-Day War (June 5-10) between Israel and the surrounding Arab nations, a team of eight Israeli commandos, with their female boat captain in tow, are sent on a suicide mission deep into the Sinai to destroy an important Arab radar station at Sharm El Sheikh to pave way for the main invading Israeli forces.

Stanley Donen, Gene Kelly
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
G
In 1927, Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont are a famous on-screen romantic pair. Lina, however, mistakes the on-screen romance for real love. Don has worked hard to get where he is today, with his former partner Cosmo. When Don and Lina's latest film is transformed into a musical, Don has the perfect voice for the songs. But Lina - well, even with the best efforts of a diction coach, they still decide to dub over her voice. Kathy Selden is brought in, an aspiring actress, and while she is working on the movie, Don falls in love with her. Will Kathy continue to "aspire", or will she get the break she deserves ?

Keith Gordon
Comedy
Icon Productions
R
"While hospitalized with an extreme case of psoriasis, novelist Dan Dark reworks his first book in his head. Feverish, paranoid and prone to musical outbreaks, he confuses himself with his protagonist, a detective investigating the murder of a prostitute in 1950s Los Angeles."

Matt Cimber
Drama
Empire Film Studios

Three stories in one: Johnie (Jayne Mansfield) is married, but her husband deserts her when she becomes pregnant. She changes her name to Mae and takes a job as a waitress. She falls in love, but her fiancé leaves her just as they're about to get married. So Mae changes her name to Eileen and becomes a prostitute.

Cameron Crowe
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
Romantic comedy about six of Seattle's young people, most of whom live in the same apartment building and whose lives revolve around the city's ever-expanding music scene. The inter-related stories about each character's progress through the singles scene are intriguing and often very funny, and the soundtrack is a grunge fanatic's dream, with the likes of Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Mudhoney.