Alfonso Cuarón
Comedy
Alianza Films International
R
Abandoned by their girlfriends for the summer, teenagers Tenoch and Julio meet the older Luisa at a wedding. Trying to be impressive, the friends tell Luisa they are headed on a road trip to a beautiful, secret beach called Boca del Cielo. Intrigued with their story and desperate to escape, Luisa asks if she can join them on their trip. Soon the three are headed out of Mexico City, making their way toward the fictional destination. Along the way, seduction, argument and the contrast of the trio against the harsh realities of the surrounding poverty ensue.

Sydney Pollack
Crime
Toei Company
R
Harry Kilmer returns to Japan after several years in order to rescue his friend George's kidnapped daughter - and ends up on the wrong side of the Yakuza, the notorious Japanese mafia...

Michael Curtiz
Biography
Warner Bros. Pictures
G
A musical portrait of composer/singer/dancer George M. Cohan. From his early days as a child-star in his family's vaudeville show up to the time of his comeback at which he received a medal from the president for his special contributions to the US, this is the life- story of George M. Cohan, who produced, directed, wrote and starred in his own musical shows for which he composed his famous songs.

James Gray
Crime
Industry Entertainment
R
In the rail yards of Queens, contractors repair and rebuild the city's subway cars. These contracts are lucrative, so graft and corruption are rife. When Leo Handler gets out of prison, he finds his aunt married to Frank Olchin, one of the big contractors; he's battling with a minority-owned firm for contracts. Willie Gutierrez, Leo's best friend, is Frank's bag man and heads a crew of midnight saboteurs who ruin the work of the Puerto Rican-owned firm. Leo needs a job, so Willie pays him to be his back-up. Then things go badly wrong one night, a cop IDs Leo, and everyone now wants him out of the picture. Besides his ailing mom and his cousin Erica, to whom can Leo turn?

Herschell Gordon Lewis
Drama
International Arts

Hank Jackson is a clean-cut Country & Western singer whom is recruited to run for the post of Republican senator of Texas with the assistance of three Washington D.C. 'technical advisers'; cynical movie producer Sid Angelo, image consultant Chet Stoner, and political advisor Ed Varnett whom are under the employment of the shady Governor Baxter whom wants his latest political rival, Senator Birdwell, out of the way. During the cleverly scripted campaign of TV commercials and political speeches, Hank lets the thoughts of fame and popularity go to his head. But it puts a strain on his relationship with his liberal girlfriend Tammy Parker whom is currently leading a strike that Hank opposes. Seeing Tammy as a threat to Hank's campaign, the ruthless Sid Angelo plots to shut her up by unethical and illegal means.

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
Director Harold Ramis leans away from the "Groundhog Day" side of his personality and toward the "Caddyshack" side with "Year One", a broad comedy set in more-or-less ancient times. The film's cockeyed timeline puts two wandering cavemen (Jack Black and Michael Cera) through a rapid-fire series of biblical events: Cain (David Cross) slaying Abel (Paul Rudd), Abraham (Hank Azaria) preparing to smite his son Isaac (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), and everybody converging on Sodom, the Genesis equivalent of Las Vegas. The jokes range from droll religious references to Apatow-ready testicular gags, but almost all of the real humor comes from the efforts of the performers to put things across. Black and Cera couldn't be more different in their styles, but each manages to conjure up some laughs just by working in his particular vein: one can appreciate Black's exuberant extrovert pouncing all over the material like a needy Golden Retriever and also savor Cera's muttering wallflower as he flicks in his sidelong observations. Azaria and Oliver Platt are given very long leashes--they know what to do with that kind of room--and Ramis himself plays a mighty-bearded Adam, but it's all not quite enough to prevent "Year One" from falling into that hard-luck zone with "Caveman" and "Wholly Moses": one more comedy that suggests the ancient world wasn't really all that funny. "--Robert Horton"




Stills from "Year One" (Click for larger image)

George Dunning
Animation
Apple Corps
G
The singing group, The Beatles, at the height of their popularity, made this cartoon of a land that is taken over by the Blue Meanies. They are recruited by an escapee to come and bring joy (and music) back to the land. The techniques are quite psychedelic in the cartoons and much care was taken to have the walks and mannerisms of the individual Beatles cartoons match the originals.

Various
Documentary
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Peyton Reed
Comedy, Romance
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
Carl Allen is at a standstill. No future... Until the day he enrolls into a personal development program based on a very simple idea: say yes to everything! Carl discovers with amazement the magical power of "Yes", and sees his professional and romantic life turned upside down overnight: an unexpected promotion and a new girlfriend. But he'll soon discover that better can be good's enemy, and that all opportunities shouldn't be taken.

Edward Yang
Drama
AtomFilms

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank, his business partners make bad decisions against his advice, and he reconnects with his first love 30 years after he dumped her. His teenage daughter Ting-Ting watches emotions roil in their neighbors' flat and is experiencing the first stirrings of love. His 8-year-old son Yang-Yang is laconic like his dad and pursues truth with the help of a camera. "Why is the world so different from what we think it is?" asks Ting-Ting.

Akira Kurosawa
Action
Kurosawa Production Co.

Sanjuro, a wandering samurai enters a rural town in nineteenth century Japan. After learning from the innkeeper that the town is divided between two gangsters, he plays one side off against the other. His efforts are complicated by the arrival of the wily Unosuke, the son of one of the gangsters, who owns a revolver. Unosuke has Sanjuro beaten after he reunites an abducted woman with her husband and son, then massacres his father's opponents. During the slaughter, the samurai escapes with the help of the innkeeper; but while recuperating at a nearby temple, he learns of innkeeper's abduction by Unosuke, and returns to the town to confront him.

Robert Celestino
Drama
GO Productions
R

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Comedy
Alpha Video
NR
Word of warning; I recently bought this DVD and Volume 2 only to discover that all 4 episodes on Volume 1 and all 4 on Volume 2 are also available on the "Groucho Marx:You Bet Your Life" DVD from Platinum Disc Corp.(Which has 13 episodes).

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Comedy
Echo Bridge Home Entertainment
NR
Groucho Marx is one of many stars to make a radio broadcast their debut, only to move to TV once the radio show reached popularity. But Marx didn't go the usual route with a sitcom or talk show; rather, he made a name for himself hosting a game show called, You Bet Your Life. The show, broadcast on radio, originally aired in 1947, becoming a televised radio show in 1950.

Various
Comedy
Miracle Pictures
NR

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Television
Shout! Factory

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Television
Shout! Factory

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Comedy
Direct Source Label
NR

Robert Dwan, John Guedel
Television
RPH

Kenneth Lonergan
Drama
Hart-Sharp Entertainment
R
A lot happens at once to Sammy, a single mom living in the Catskill town of her birth, where her parents died in a car crash when she was small. Her son Rudy, who's 8, begins imagining his unseen father as a hero; she picks up, sort of, with last year's boyfriend; she gets a new boss who imposes foolish rules; and, her wayward brother Terry arrives for a visit after months of no communication. The boyfriend proposes, the relationship with her boss takes an unexpected turn, and her brother and son bond, not always with positive consequences. When Terry asks young Rudy if he wants to meet his father, a crisis of sorts ensues, and brother and sister must re-frame their relationship.

George Marshall
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Larson E. Whipsnade runs a seedy circus which is perpetually in debt. His performers give him nothing but trouble, especially Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy. Meanwhile, Whipsnade's son and daughter, Phineas and Vicky, attend a posh college. Vicky turns down her caddish but rich suitor Roger Bel-Goodie, but changes her mind when she learns of her father's financial troubles. Will Vicky marry for money or succumb to the ventriloqual charm of Edgar Bergen? Will Whipsnade's Circus Giganticus make it over the state line one jump ahead of the sheriff?

David Leaf
Documentary
Saltair Productions

Thirty years after A Hard Day's Night, its producer, director, writer and others describe its making. United Artists Records came to Walter Shenson, asking him to produce a movie so UA could issue a soundtrack album. Shenson signed Lester to direct, and they got the Beatles to agree to star. Shenson sent Owen to Dublin to spend time with the Fab Four; from this came a script built around their being prisoners of their own success. Phil Collins, himself an extra on A Hard Day's Night, hosts this examination of a seminal film: what was ad-libbed, why was it a hit, what was its influence on other movies, and how did it define the way the public viewed each Beatle for years to come?

Frank Capra
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

The stenographer Alice Sycamore is in love with her boss Tony Kirby, who is the vice-president of the powerful company owned by his greedy father Anthony P. Kirby. Kirby Sr. is dealing a monopoly in the trade of weapons, and needs to buy one last house in a twelve block area owned by Alice's grandparent Martin Vanderhof. However, Martin is the patriarch of an anarchic and eccentric family where the members do not care for money but for having fun and making friends. When Tony proposes Alice, she states that it would be mandatory to introduce her simple and lunatic family to the snobbish Kirbys, and Tone decides to visit Alice with his parents one day before the scheduled. There is an inevitable clash of classes and lifestyles, the Kirbys spurn the Sycamores and Alice breaks with Tony, changing the lives of the Kirby family.

John Dahl
Comedy
Bipolar Pictures
R
Frank Falenczyk loves his job. He just happens to be the hit-man for his Polish mob family in Buffalo, New York. But Frank's got a drinking problem and when he messes up a critical assignment that puts the family business in peril, his uncle sends him to San Francisco to clean up his act. Frank is not a touchy-feely kind of guy, but he starts going to AA meetings, gets a sponsor and a job at a mortuary where he falls for the tart-tongued Laurel, a woman who is dangerously devoid of boundaries. Meanwhile, things aren't going well in Buffalo where an upstart Irish gang is threatening the family business. When violence erupts, Frank is forced to return home and with an unlikely assist from Laurel, faces old rivals on new terms.

Norman Taurog
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Wilbur is a young man whose dream is to become a great barber, but for now, he's working just as an assistant, at a hotel's barber shop. When one day he gets involved (by mistake) in some big robbery, he is forced to disguise himself as a 12 year old boy, so that he can get away from his persecutor.

Erle C. Kenton
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Sam Bisbee is an inventor whose works (e.g., a keyhole finder for drunks) have brought him only poverty. His daughter is in love with the son of the town snob. Events conspire to ruin his bullet-proof tire just as success seems near. Another of his inventions prohibits him from committing suicide, so Sam decides to go on living..

Garry Marshall
Comedy
ABC Motion Pictures

An 'Airplane'-style spoof of hospital soap operas: a brilliant young trainee can't stand the sight of blood; a doctor romances the head nurse in order to get the key to the drugs cabinet; there's a mafioso on the loose disguised as a woman - in other words all the usual ingredients present and correct, though in this case the laughs are intentional.

Mel Brooks
Comedy
Gruskoff/Venture Films

A young neurosurgeon (Gene Wilder) inherits the castle of his grandfather, the famous Dr. Victor von Frankenstein. In the castle he finds a funny hunchback called Igor, a pretty lab assistant named Inga and the old housekeeper, frau Blucher -iiiiihhh!-. Young Frankenstein believes that the work of his grandfather is only crap, but when he discovers the book where the mad doctor described his reanimation experiment, he suddenly changes his mind...

John Ford
Drama
Cosmopolitan Productions

Ten years in the life of Abraham Lincoln, before he became known to his nation and the world. He moves from a Kentucky cabin to Springfield, Illinois, to begin his law practice. He defends two men accused of murder in a political brawl, suffers the death of his girlfriend Ann, courts his future wife Mary Todd, and agrees to go into politics.

Volker Schlöndorff
Drama
Franz Seitz Filmproduktion

At a boarding school in the pre-war Austro-Hungarian Empire, a pair of students torture one of their fellow classmates, Basini, who has been caught stealing money from one of the two. The two decide that rather than turn Basini in to the school authorities, they will punish him themselves and proceed to torture, degrade, and humiliate the boy, with ever-increasing sadistic delight. As each day passes, the two boys are able to justify harsher treatment than previously given. Torless is a passive member of the group but observes rather than participates and frustrates the tormentors by dryly analyzing their behavior.

Neil LaBute
Comedy
Polygram Filmed Entertainment
R
Theater instructor Jerry starts an affair with Mary, and that starts a chain of events that affect their respective partners Terri and Barry and other characters in the film, creating a web of relationships.

Seijun Suzuki
Action
Nikkatsu Film Company

Joe Shishido plays a tough guy with a secret agenda. His violent behavior comes to the attention of a yakuza boss who immediately recruits him. He soon tries to make a deal with a rival gang a starts a gang war. His real motivations are gradually revealed as we find out how this all ties in with the murder of a policeman shown at the beginning of the film.