Alfred L. Werker
Comedy
Laurel and Hardy Feature Productions

The boys are recruited by a gang of thugs to get a coffin containing one of their far from dead colleagues to Dayton to try and get at an inheritance. After the coffin gets switched with the one Dante the Magician uses in his act, his stage show gets more than usually popular.

Steven Spielberg
Adventure
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
In the not-so-far future the polar ice caps have melted and the resulting raise of the ocean waters has drowned all the coastal cities of the world. Withdrawn to the interior of the continents, the human race keeps advancing, reaching to the point of creating realistic robots (called mechas) to serve him. One of the mecha-producing companies builds David, an artificial kid which is the first to have real feelings, especially a never-ending love for his "mother", Monica. Monica is the woman who adopted him as a substitute for her real son, who remains in cryo-stasis, stricken by an incurable disease. David is living happily with Monica and her husband, but when their real son returns home after a cure is discovered, his life changes dramatically. A futuristic adaptation of the tale of Pinocchio, with David being the "fake" boy who desperately wants to become "real".

Stephen Gaghan
Drama
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
A senior at an elite college, already under severe pressure to complete her thesis and land a prestigious job, must confront the sudden reappearance of her old boyfriend, after his two year, unexplained absence...

Various
Comedy
Legend
NR
Celebrate the season with one of the most popular comedy duos as they team up in this delightful Colgate Comedy Hour Christmas special. Splendidly restored and in color for the first time, Abbott and Costello sing and dance as well as perform their trademark comedy skits. Also featured are Margaret Whiting; The Nicholas Brothers; Buster Shaver & Olive; and Tom & Jerry.

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

The film follows the misadventures of Lester and Orville who accidentally find themselves on a rocketship bound for Mars, which accidentally lands at the New Orleans Mardi Gras. The pair are forced by bank robbers Mugsy and Harry to fly to Venus where they encounter a civilization comprised entirely of women. Despite the title, no one in this film actually goes to Mars.

S. Sylvan Simon
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

A barber, Buzz Curtis (Bud Abbott), and a porter, Abercrombie (Lou Costello), work for a Hollywood salon. It is from there that they are sent to an agent's, Norman Royce (Warner Anderson), office to administer a haircut and shine. On the way there they run into a former co-worker, Claire Warren (Frances Rafferty) who is about to star as the lead in a new musical. At the same time, her co-star Gregory LeMaise (Carlton Young), who fame is dwindling, arrives and invites her to join him at lunch. She declines, which angers him.
While at the agent's office, Buzz and Abercrombie witness LeMaise enter and declare to Royce that he cannot work with Claire. Royce, who has just seen a young singer, Jeff Parker (Robert Stanton), audition fires LeMaise and offers the job to Parker. This causes LeMaise to change his mind, and Royce does as well, giving LeMaise his job back. Buzz and Abercrombie quickly switch careers and become Parker's agents, and then head to the studio's chief, Mr. Kavanaugh (Donald MacBride), to find a role for Parker.

Charles Lamont
Adventure
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Bud Jones (Bud Abbott) and Lou Hotchkiss (Lou Costello) are wrestling promoters. Their star, Abdullah (Wee Willie Davis), no longer wishes to follow the script for their crooked matches, especially since he is supposed to lose his next match. Abdullah leaves America to return to his homeland, Algeria. The promoters' financiers, a syndicate that has lent them $5,000 to bring Abdullah to the States, are now requiring them to return the money or face the consequences. The two men follow Abdullah to Algeria in hopes of bringing him back.

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Slim (Bud Abbott) and Tubby (Lou Costello) are American cops in London studying police tactics. A newspaper reporter, Bruce Adams (Craig Stevens), gets into an altercation at Hyde Park that was instigated by Vicky Edwards (Helen Westcott), a suffragette. Bruce and Vicky wind up in jail, while Slim and Tubby are kicked off the police force. Dr. Henry Jekyll, Vicky's guardian, bails them out.

Charles Barton
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

The world of freight handlers Wilbur Grey and Chick Young is turned upside down when the remains of Frankenstein's monster and Dracula arrive from Europe to be used in a house of horrors. Dracula awakens and escapes with the weakened monster, who he plans to re-energize with a new brain. Larry Talbot (the Wolfman) arrives from London in an attempt to thwart Dracula. Dracula's reluctant aide is the beautiful Dr. Sandra Mornay. Her reluctance is dispatched by Dracula's bite. Dracula and Sandra abduct Wilbur for his brain and recharge the monster in preparation for the operation. Chick and Talbot attempt to find and free Wilbur, but when the full moon rises all hell breaks loose with the Wolfman, Dracula, and Frankenstein all running rampant.

Daniel Helfgott
Comedy
NBC Productions

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Lou Francis (Lou Costello) and Bud Alexander (Bud Abbott) have just graduated from a private detective school. Tommy Nelson (Arthur Franz), a middleweight boxer, comes to them with their first case. Tommy recently escaped from jail, after being accused of murdering his manager, and asks the duo to accompany him on a visit to his fiancée, Helen Gray (Nancy Guild). He wants her uncle, Dr. Philip Gray (Gavin Muir), to inject him with a special serum he has developed which will render Tommy invisible, and hopes to use the newfound invisibility to investigate his manager's murder and prove his innocence. Dr. Gray adamantly refuses, arguing that the serum is still unstable, but as the police arrive Tommy injects himself with it. Detective Roberts (William Frawley) questions Dr. Gray and Helen while Bud and Lou search for Tommy.

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Harry Pierce (Bud Abbott) and his friend, Willie Piper (Lou Costello), invest $5,000 in a motion picture studio. They are sold a deed to the Edison Studio by a con man, Joe Gorman (Fred Clark), who immediately leaves town with his girlfriend, Leota Van Cleef (Lynn Bari). The couple heads to Hollywood where he poses as a European director, Sergei Toumanoff, who plans to make a film starring Leota. Meanwhile, Harry and Willie pursue Gorman across the country in hopes of getting their money back after learning that the deed they purchased is worthless. They hop off a freight train near Los Angeles and stumble onto the set of the western film that Toumanoff happens to be directing. He is furious with the interruption, but the head of the movie studio, Mr. Snavely (Frank Wilcox), hires Harry and Willie because he is impressed with their "stunt work".

Charles Barton
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Prominent criminal attorney Amos Strickland (Nicholas Joy) checks into the Lost Caverns Resort Hotel, and is later discovered murdered by the bellboy, Freddie Phillips (Lou Costello), who is implicated in the crime. Casey Edwards (Bud Abbott), the house detective, tries to clear Freddie, but Inspector Wellman (James Flavin) and Sergeant Stone (Mikel Conrad) keep him in custody. Seven of Strickland's former clients happen to be at the resort, and they are all suspects. These former clients are Swami Talpur (Boris Karloff), Angela Gordon (Lénore Aubert), Mrs. Hargreave (Victoria Horne), T. Hanley Brooks (Roland Winters), Lawrence Crandall (Harry Hayden), Mrs. Grimsby (Claire DuBrey) and Mike Relia (Vincent Renno). They gather for a meeting, and decide that they must conceal their pasts and that Freddie must take the blame for Strickland's murder. They try unsuccessfully to get Freddie to sign a confession, e.g., Angela tries to seduce him, but the police stop her when they fear she's poisoned the champagne. Then the Swami attempts to hypnotize him into committing suicide, but his stupidity saves him.

David J. Skal
Comedy
Universal Studios Home Video

ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE MONSTERS, a new computer-animated reworking of ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN, a project that has entered the test stage at eColor Studio. Combining the zany humor of the 1940s Abbott and Costello classics with the "monster rallies" of the same period, the project attempts to bring humor and comedy together in refreshing ways. MEET THE MONSTERS is beginning life as a two-minute test film, utilizing a key scene in the middle of the story in which Chick and Wilbur riff on the names of the monster characters before encountering Frankenstein's Monster face-to-face.

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Freddie Franklin (Lou Costello) and Peter Patterson (Bud Abbott) are Americans who are stranded in Cairo, Egypt. They happen to overhear Dr. Gustav Zoomer (Kurt Katch) discussing the mummy Klaris, the guardian of the Tomb of Princess Ara. Apparently the mummy has a sacred medallion that shows where the treasure of Princess Ara can be found. The Followers of Klaris, led by Semu (Richard Deacon), overhear the conversation along with Madame Rontru (Marie Windsor), a business woman interested in stealing the treasure of Princess Ara.

Chris Weitz, Paul Weitz
Comedy
Kalima Productions GmbH & Co. KG
PG-13
Will Freeman is a hip Londoner who one day realizes that his friends are all involved with the responsibilities of married life and that leaves him alone in the cold. Passing himself off as a single father, he starts to meet a string of single mums, confident in his ability to leave them behind when they start to ask for a commitment. But Will's hope of a continued bachelorhood is interrupted when he meets 12-year old Marcus, in many ways his complete opposite.

Edward Zwick
Comedy
Delphi V Productions
R
Danny and Bernie are two single men living their lives on the wild side. But when Danny meets Debbie at a bar and the two start a relationship with a one night stand, Danny's life takes a different turn. How does this passionate night become a full affair and what effect will this relationship have on both people and their friendship with their best mates ?

Alexander Payne
Comedy
New Line Cinema
R
Warren Schmidt is forced to deal with an ambiguous future as he enters retirement. Soon after, his wife passes away and he must come to terms with his daughter's marriage to a man he does not care for and the failure that his life has become.

Sydney Pollack
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG
Michael Colin Gallagher is the son of a long dead Mafia boss who is a simple liquor warehouse owner. Frustrated in his attempt to solve a murder of a union head, a prosecutor leaks a false story that Gallagher is a target of the investigation, hoping that he will tell them something for protection. As his life begins to unravel, others are hurt by the story. Megan Carter, the reporter, is in the clear under the Absence of Malice rule in slander and libel cases. Knowing nothing to trade to the prosecutors, Gallagher must regain control of his life on different ground.

Clint Eastwood
Crime, Drama, Thriller
Castle Rock Entertainment
R
Based on the novel by David Baldacci, Absolute Power is about the ruthlessness of people in power. The President believes that everything he does is beyond reproach, including an affair or two. That leads to murder and everyone around him is involved. There is only one witness, a thief named Luther Whitney. They are sure he'll talk, but when? The Secret Service is determined to keep him quiet, but catching a thief isn't always easy.

Various
Comedy
Suicide Squeeze Records

James Cameron
Action
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG-13
An American nuclear submarine is attacked (during the cold war) and crashes underwater. The navy asks the workers of a nearby underwater oil rig who are joined by a number of navy SEALS to locate and investigate the cause of the crash. As the crew embark on their mission, they encounter a number of difficulties and discover that they may not be alone. There is something else down there.

Steve Pink
Comedy
Universal Pictures
PG-13
Bartleby (B.) Gaines is a fun loving slacker who, unfortunately, gets turned down for every college he applied for, much to the chagrin of his overly expectant parents. So, with a little cutting and pasting, he creates the South Harmon Institute of Technology, and lo and behold, he is accepted (along with his friends Rory, Hands, and Glen, whose college plans were also all but dashed). However, his parents want to see the website, the campus, and the dean. So now he has his other friend Sherman (who has been accepted to the prestigious Harmon College) build a web page, they lease out an abandoned psychiatric hospital, and they hire Sherman's uncle Ben to be the dean. Problem solved? Not quite. The web page was done so well, that hundreds of students show up at the front door, all of which were turned down by other colleges. Faced with no choice, Bartleby decides to proceed with turning South Harmon into a real college, and sets about figuring out what to teach and how to teach it. Meanwhile at Harmon, dean Van Horne meets with Hoyt Ambrose, a rich law student and head of the KBE fraternity (which Sherman is trying to become a member of), to discuss building a gateway for Harmon using land presently being used by South Harmon. He tries finding the leaseholder of the land, to no avail. Meanwhile, his girlfriend, Monica, catches him cheating on her, and a big party at South Harmon lures a chunk of Harmon's students away, including Monica into the arms of Bartleby. Now Hoyt uses Sherman, knowing he has been bouncing between the two schools, in an attempt to bring South Harmon down for good. However, Bartleby has an accreditation appointment with the state Board of Education to prove South Harmon's worthiness. Can he legally bring the South Harmon Institute of Technology to life and win the love of Monica?

Billy Wilder
Drama
Paramount Pictures

The cynical, unethical and unscrupulous journalist Charles 'Chuck' Tatum arrives in a small New Mexico newspaper asking for a chance. He was fired from famous newspapers because of drinking problem, lying and even for having an affair with the wife of one of his bosses. His real intention is to use the small newspaper as a platform to a bigger one. After one year without a bang news and totally bored, Chuck travels with a younger reporter to make the coverage of a matter about rattlesnakes. When they arrive in an isolated gas station, he is informed that a man called Leo Minosa is trapped alive in an old Indian mine in a nearby place called Mountain of the Seven Vultures. Chuck manipulates the local corrupt sheriff, the engineer responsible for the rescue operation and Leo's wife Lorraine Minosa, and a rescue that could be made using a simple and common process in twelve hours, lasts six days using a sophisticated drilling system and creating a circus in the previously desert place. Everybody profits with the accident except the victim.

Eddie Chung
Documentary
K-Man Productions
NR
One of the best documentaries I have ever seen....great story, great editing.....an all out riot and a MUST HAVE for any Lebowski fan!

Julie Taymor
Adventure
Revolution Studios
PG-13
A dock worker Jude travels to America in the 1960s to find his estranged father. There he falls in love with sheltered American teenager Lucy. When her brother Max is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, they become involved in peace activism. The film title and main characters are named after various songs by

Fred Zinnemann
Thriller
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

War veteran Frank Enley seems to be a happily married small-town citizen until he realises Joe Parkson is in town. It seems Parkson is out for revenge because of something that happened in a German POW camp, and when a frightened Enley suddenly leaves for a convention in L.A., Parkson is close behind.

George Cukor
Comedy
Loew's

When a woman attempts to kill her uncaring husband, prosecutor Adam Bonner gets the case. Unfortunately for him his wife Amanda (who happens to be a lawyer too) decides to defend the woman in court. Amanda uses everything she can to win the case and Adam gets mad about it. As a result, their perfect marriage is disturbed by everyday quarrels...

Spike Jonze
Comedy
Beverly Detroit
R
Frequently cynical screenwriter Charlie Kaufman has just taken on a new assignment. That is, to adapt writer Susan Orlean's "The Orchid Thief" into a screenplay, all of it based on the life of the eccentric John Laroche, an exotic plant collector based out of Florida. While his easygoing twin brother Donald, is writing scripts with ease, Charlie finds himself on a perpetual struggle that never seems to end.

Fred Williamson
Comedy
Atlas Productions

Atom Egoyan
Art House & International
Sony Pictures
R
What would you do if you found out your father may have been a terrorist? A high school boy writes a story for class that makes this claim. Is it true? Friends, family, teachers and internet chat-room partners start to wonder and worry. Now he must journey through a maze of family secrets to find the truth about his dead father. From Academy Award-nominated director Atom Egoyan (1997, Best Director, "The Sweet Hereafter") comes a story of a young man who must question everything he knows in order to learn who he is and who his father was. "Adoration" presents a world where there is no such thing as us versus them and the truth is never as simple as right and wrong.

Alfredo De Villa
Drama
Cineglobe Productions
R
A meditation on isolation and intersection in the big city - the layered story of three characters who find courage to move to the next stage of life through profound encounters with strangers they meet on their daily routes. Rose, an optometrist paralyzed by crushing grief after the death of her infant, has built a wall around herself, unable to relate to her estranged husband or anyone else. When an elderly patient, a painter losing his eyesight, begins to visit her office unannounced, Rose registers how alone he is, urging him to reach out and ask for help--something neither does easily. Meanwhile Simon, a late-blooming teenager with an overbearing mother, photographs people at a distance with a borrowed long lens. One day, Rose, beautiful and melancholy in a vibrant scarf, comes into focus in his camera sight. The pictures he shoots become a conduit for each of them to touch something deep within and expand their confining existence. - Caroline Libresco

Gene Wilder
Crime
Jouer Films
PG
Gene Wilder plays Sherlock Holmes' younger brother who is annoyed that he has had to live in Sherlock's shadow for so long. When Sherlock goes to the continent, he sends a case to his brother who constantly tries with varying success, to imitate Sherlock's deductive and observational tricks.

Greg Mottola
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
R
In 1987, James Brennan's dreams of a summer European tour before studying at an Ivy League school in New York City are ruined after his parents have a severe career setback. As a result, James must get a summer job to cover his upcoming expenses at the decrepit local amusement park, Adventureland, where he falls in love with a witty co-worker, Emily Lewin. In that bizarrely shady workplace, the young carnies have unforgettable and painful learning experiences about life, love and trust while James discovers what he truly values.

Chris Columbus
Adventure
Silver Screen Partners III
PG-13
Chris has a big night out planned when her boyfriend cancels on her. She agrees to babysit for a pre-teen girl and a pubescent boy. She's settled in for a dull night when a girlfriend calls her to say she's marooned at a downtown bus station with very seedy characters around. The three plus one of the boy's friends get into the parents station wagon for a trip to the inner city. All is well till the flat tire.

François Truffaut

Criterion

Terry Gilliam
Adventure
Allied Filmmakers

The fantastic tale of a 17th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures.

Terry Gilliam
Adventure
Allied Filmmakers

The fantastic tale of a 17th century aristocrat, his talented henchmen and a little girl in their efforts to save a town from defeat by the Turks. Being swallowed by a giant sea-monster, a trip to the moon, a dance with Venus and an escape from the Grim Reaper are only some of the improbable adventures.

Renny Harlin
Action
Silver Pictures

Ford "Mr. Rock n' Roll Detective" Fairlane is experiencing problems, and it's not with the opposite sex. One of them is that all the rock stars pay him with drum sticks, koala bears, food processors and bicycle shorts. Another one of them is that all his employers that want him to find a girl named Zuzu Petals get killed. Why didn't he become a fisherman's detective instead? A must-see for Andrew Dice Clay fans.

Stephan Elliott
Comedy
Australian Film Finance Corporation (AFFC)
R
Two drag-queens (Anthony/Mitzi and Adam/Felicia) and a transexual (Bernadette) contract to perform a drag show at a resort in Alice Springs, a resort town in the remote Australian desert. They head west from Sydney aboard their lavender bus, Priscilla. En route, it is discovered that the woman they've contracted with is Anthony's wife. Their bus breaks down, and is repaired by Bob, who travels on with them.

Des McAnuff
Animation
Capella International
PG
35 years after The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show's cancellation, the 2 have been living off the finances of their reruns on TV. To make matters worse, Rocky has lost his ability to fly, and the trees in Frostbite Falls have all been cut down. Meanwhile, over in Pottsylvania, home of Rocky and Bullwinkle's arch enemies Fearless Leader, Boris, and Natasha, the Iron Curtain has fallen, leading the villains to leave Pottsylvania, and dig through a tunnel all the way to the TV of a Hollywood Producer, Minnie Mogul. She signs a contract, giving her the rights to produce the Rocky and Bullwinkle Movie, and accidentally pulls the 3 villains out of the TV, turning them into humans! Now, they have an evil plan to hypnotize America, using RBTV (Really Bad TeleVision), making everyone's mind mush, so he can go on to the TV, and get everyone to vote him President of the USA! However, new FBI Agent Karen Sympathy has an assignment- get the only ones who could ever defeat the villains- Rocky and Bullwinkle. Using a green light lighthouse, Rocky and Bullwinkle (and their Narrator) are sucked out of the TV world, and to real life as 3D computer-generated characters! With all of America being hypnotized, and Fearless Leader's evil speech in 48 hours, and Boris and Natasha giving chase, planning to use a computer laser to send destroy moose and squirrel, it's Rocky, Bullwinkle, and Karen on a hilarious, pun-filled, and cameo-filled adventure to New York by plane, car, truck, hoof, flying squirrel, and yes, e-mail, to stop Fearless Leader and save America!

Karyn Kusama
Action
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
400 years in the future, set in the year 2415, Aeon Flux is a mysterious assassin. Four centuries after a virus nearly decimated the human race, leaving only five million survivors in a utopian city called Bregna. Aeon is struggling to destroy the Goodchild regime led by its namesake, Trevor Goodchild, the ruler of Bregna and a descendant of the man who found a cure for the deadly virus. As instructed by the Handler, Aeon is assigned to assassinate Goodchild, but there are deeper secrets to be discovered, and conspiracies to be foiled.

Paul Schrader
Drama
JVC Entertainment Inc.
R
Wade Whitehouse is a sheriff of a small New Hampshire town who achieved nothing in life in the opinion of his ex-wife Lillian and daughter Jill and is a heavy drinker. His girlfriend Margie accepts him the way he is. On the first day of the hunting season, Wade's friend Jack takes a wealthy businessman to hunt - and only Jack returns alive. Wade decides to play detective and starts investigating the case despite the fact Jack insists it was an accidental self-inflicted shot.

Gary Smith
Documentary
American Film Institute (AFI)

The American Film Institute commemorates the first century of American films with this awesome made-for-TV special highlighting the greatest 100 American movies as determined by leaders in the moviemaking business right here in the good old U.S.A.

Gary Smith
Documentary


Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years...100 Stars is a list of the top 50 stars of American cinema, 25 male and 25 female. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on a June 16, 1999 CBS special hosted by Shirley Temple, with 50 current actors making the presentations.

Charles Barton
Comedy
Huntington Hartford Productions

When bookseller Buzz cons Diana into thinking fellow bookseller Stanley knows a great deal about Africa they are abducted and ordered to lead Diana and her henchmen to an African tribe. After encounters with lion tamers, giant apes and a wild river, Buzz returns to America. Stanley finds diamonds and buys the store they once worked for, hiring Buzz as its elevator operator.

Jenni Olson

Other Cinema

Martin Scorsese
Comedy
Geffen Company, The
R
A meek word processor impulsively travels to Manhattan's Soho District to date an attractive but apparently disturbed young woman and finds himself trapped there in a nightmarishly surreal vortex of improbable coincidences and farcical circumstances.

Eric Amadio
Comedy
NALA Films

AFTER SEX is an edgy relationship comedy that uses sex as a background to examine intimacy and vulnerability. It's a humorous, yet honest look at the complexity of modern day relationships told through nine separate couples. Through witty dialogue and compromising situations, the film takes us from the beginning of a relationship to the aftermath of one, and examines every stage in between while somehow finding humor within the drama, heartache and confusion of it all. What is learned about human emotions and vulnerability is enlightening and entertainingly sexy and fun.

John Scagliotti
Documentary
FIRST RUN FEATURES
Unrated
The companion film to "Before Stonewall", "After Stonewall", narrated by Melissa Etheridge, explores gay history in the U.S. from the 1970s through the 1990s. Like its predecessor, "After Stonewall" attempts to cover much ground in a short amount of time; however, with only three decades to span, the assignment is more manageable.
The film covers the predictable highs and lows of the last 30 years of the 20th century. On the side of triumph, it explores the declassification of homosexuality as a disease; the growth of gay presses and writers; gay wins in political office (notably Harvey Milk and Elaine Noble); and the formation of a national gay lobbying presence in the Human Rights Fund. On the flip side, we witness the antigay hysteria evoked by Anita Bryant; the rise of AIDS, the blind eye of the federal government; and the growth of the Christian Coalition. Perhaps the most significant contribution of this film is its mapping of a gay presence within popular media. Through TV shows such as "South Park" and covers of "Newsweek" and "Time", as well as "out" popular performers like k.d. lang and Ellen DeGeneres, the case is made that gay culture has "arrived" in America--a huge leap from the days before Stonewall when the common idea of a gay person was someone to snicker at or otherwise dismiss as a lunatic. "--Katy Ankenman"

Jon Bokenkamp
Documentary
Highway Twenty Productions

A video documentary/road trip that celebrates the drive-in movie theater's impact on the United States, and pays homage to the people who keep the few remaining ones fully operational. Features interviews with horror movie maker John Carpenter, movie critic John I. Bloom (aka "Joe Bob Briggs"), Michael Wallis, author of "Route 66: The Mother Road," and others.

Brett Ratner
Action
New Line Cinema
PG-13
After a successful last score, a master thief retires to an island paradise. His lifelong nemesis, a crafty FBI agent, washes ashore to ensure he's making good on his promise. The pair soon enters into a new game of cat-and-mouse.

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

Now back in San Francisco after their holiday in New York, Nick and Nora find themselves trying to solve another mystery. It's New Year's Eve and they are summoned to dinner at Nora's elderly, and very aristocratic, family. There they find that cousin Thelma's husband Charles has been missing for three days. Nick reluctantly agrees to look for him but the case takes a twist when Charles is shot and Thelma is accused of murder. Several other murders occur but eventually Nick gathers everyone into the same room to reveal the identity of the killer.

Michael Apted
Drama
Casablanca Filmworks

Martin Scorsese
Drama
Cappa Production
PG
Society scion Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland, but his well-ordered life is upset when he meets May's unconventional cousin, the Countess Olenska. At first, Newland becomes a defender of the Countess, whose separation from her abusive husband makes her a social outcast in the restrictive high society of late-19th Century New York, but he finds in her a companion spirit and they fall in love.

Nick Broomfield
Documentary
Channel 4 Television Corporation
R

Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill
Documentary
Lafayette Films
R

Pierre Lamoureux
Music
Enliven Entertainment

Roger Spottiswoode
Action
Carolco Pictures
R
Air America was the CIA's private airline operating in Laos during the Vietnam War, running anything and everything from soldiers to foodstuffs for local villagers. After losing his pilot's license, Billy Covington is recruited into it, and ends up in the middle of a bunch of lunatic pilots, gun-running by his friend Gene Ryack, and opium smuggling by his own superiors.

Howard Hawks
Action
Warner Bros. Pictures

The Mary Ann, a B-17 Flying Fortress, takes off from California for Hawaii on a routine training flight on December 6, 1941. En route, they learn of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Subsequently the crew mans the Mary Ann through action at Wake Island, the Philippines, and the Battle of the Coral Sea.

Wolfgang Petersen
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
The President of the United States is on a journey home after making a speech in Moscow. But on the journey, Russian hi-jakers take over the plane, disguising themselves as newspaper reporters. They want the President to ring Moscow and release General Redek. But they think that the President has escaped in the pod. But the president is really still on board air force One attempting to regain control of the plane and to rescue his wife and daughter.

Alexandra Lipsitz
Documentary
Docurama
R
It's time to rock and roll - air guitar style. AIR GUITAR NATION is the feature documentary about the year that air guitar swept America - from New York to Los Angeles and then all the way to northern Finland. AIR GUITAR NATION chronicles the birth of the US Air Guitar Championships and the personal journeys of those talented contestants who are vying to become the first World Air Guitar Champion from the United States. Every August, the Air Guitar World Championships bring thousands of fans all the way to Oulu, Finland to see the world's best air guitarists battle it out for 60 seconds of mock stardom. For years, the USA was missing in action. Enter the first official US Air Guitar Championships. What starts as a friendly contest above a New York strip club becomes a battle of naked ambition played out on the national and, ultimately, the world stage. Full of triumph and disappointment, patriotic spirit and political tension - and of course invisible guitars - this tension filled competition quickly turns very real as the contest becomes even more fierce as the contestants work hard to win the title of World Air Guitar Champion. AIR GUITAR NATION captures the explosion of competitive air guitar through the eyes of former world champions, fans and media, and through the personal rivalries of those trying to attain the title of "The best Air Guitarist in the world."

Edward Sedgwick
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Set during World War II, Stan and Ollie try their hand at various business ventures. Their store opens and closes in various guises but without success.They finally open it as a bicycle store but some German spies trick them into partnering the business so that they can use it as a front for a base. Stan and Ollie volunteer as air raid wardens but keep messing up until they are fired. They soon discover that the spies are planning to blow up the local magnesium plant and in the end are heroes as they scupper the plan.

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
PG
This is a spoof of the airport disaster movies. When the crew of an airplane are struck by some form of virus, the fate of the passengers depends on an ex-war pilot who is the only one able to land the plane safely! The passengers represent a selection of interesting wacky characters who seem to take every word for its literal meaning.

Doug Atchison
Drama
Spelling Bee Productions Inc.
PG
Eleven year-old Akeelah Anderson's life is not easy: her father is dead, her mom ignores her, her brother runs with the local gangbangers. She's smart, but her environment threatens to strangle her aspirations. Responding to a threat by her school's principal, Akeelah participates in a spelling bee to avoid detention for her many absences. Much to her surprise and embarrassment, she wins. Her principal asks her to seek coaching from an English professor named Dr. Larabee for the more prestigious regional bee. As the possibility of making it all the way to the Scripps National Spelling Bee looms, Akeelah could provide her community with someone to rally around and be proud of -- but only if she can overcome her insecurities and her distracting home life. She also must get past Dr. Larabee's demons, and a field of more experienced and privileged fellow spellers.

Akira Kurosawa
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
This is essentially eight separate short films, though with some overlaps in terms of characters and thematic material - chiefly that of man's relationship with his environment. 'Sunshine Through The Rain': a young boy is told not to go out on the day when both weather conditions occur, because that's when the foxes hold their wedding procession, which could have fatal consequences for those who witness it. 'The Peach Orchard': the same young boy encounters the spirits of the peach trees that have been cut down by heartless humans. 'The Blizzard': a team of mountaineers are saved from a blizzard by spiritual intervention. 'The Tunnel': a man encounters the ghosts of an army platoon, whose deaths he was responsible for. 'Crows': an art student encounters 'Vincent Van Gogh' and enters the world of his paintings. 'Mount Fuji in Red': nuclear meltdown threatens the devastation of Japan. 'The Weeping Demon': a portrait of a post-nuclear world populated by human mutations. 'Village of the Watermills': a sunny portrait of a village whose population is entirely at one with nature.

Nick Doob, Chris Hegedus
Documentary
Pennebaker Hegedus Films

Ron Clements, John Musker
Animation
Walt Disney Feature Animation
G
Aladdin is a street-urchin who lives in a large and busy town long ago with his faithful monkey friend Abu. When Princess Jasmine gets tired of being forced to remain in the palace that overlooks the city, she sneaks out to the marketplace, where she accidentally meets Aladdin. Under the orders of the evil Jafar (the sultan's advisor), Aladdin is thrown in jail and becomes caught up in Jafar's plot to rule the land with the aid of a mysterious lamp. Legend has it that only a person who is a "diamond in the rough" can retrieve the lamp from the Cave of Wonders. Aladdin might fight that description, but that's not enough to marry the princess, who must (by law) marry a prince.

John Lee Hancock
Drama
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
Historical drama detailing the 1835-36 Texas revolution before, during, and after the famous siege of the Alamo (February 23-March 6, 1836) where 183 Texans (American-born Texans) and Tejanos (Mexican-born Texans) commanded by Colonel Travis, along with Davey Crockett and Jim Bowie, were besieged in an abandoned mission outside San Antonio by a Mexican army of nearly 2,000 men under the personal command of the dictator of Mexico, General Santa Anna, as well as detailing the Battle of San Jacinto (April 21, 1836) where General Sam Houston's rag-tag army of Texans took on and defeated Santa Anna's army which led to the indepedence of Texas.

Tom Werts
Talk-Show

Tom Werts
Talk-Show

Kevin Spacey
Crime
Albino Alligator Productions
R
Three petty thieves who the police believe to be major criminals are chased into a basement bar where they take five hostages including all the bar employees. The rest of the movie deals with the cops lurking outside the bar while the trio try to get hold of the situation inside.

Oliver Stone
Action
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
Alexander (Farrell), the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians he leads his Army across the then known world venturing further than any Westerner had ever gone all the way to India.

Sergei M. Eisenstein, Dmitri Vasilyev
Action
Mosfilm

It is the 13th century, and Russia is overrun by foreign invaders. A Russian knyaz', or prince, Alexander Nevsky, rallies the people to form a ragtag army to drive back an invasion by the Teutonic knights. This is a true story based on the actual battle at a lake near Novgorod.

Charles Shyer
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
R
In Manhattan, the British limousine driver Alfie (Jude Law) is surrounded by beautiful women, most of them clients, and he lives as a Don Juan, having one night stands with all of them and without any sort of commitment. His girl-friend and single-mother Julie (Marisa Tomei) is quite upset with the situation and his best friends are his colleague Marlon (Omar Epps) and his girl-friend Lonette (Nia Long). Alfie has a brief affair with Lonette, and the consequences of his act forces Alfie to reflect and wonder about his life style.

Various
Mystery & Suspense
Universal Studios
NR
When it premiered on CBS on October 2, 1955, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" was an instant hit destined for long-term popularity. The series' original half-hour anthology format provided a perfect showcase for stories of mystery, suspense, and the macabre that reflected Hitchcock's established persona. Every Sunday at 9:30 p.m., the series began with the familiar theme of Gounod's "Funeral March of a Marionette" (which would thereafter be inextricably linked with Hitchcock), and as Hitchcock's trademark profile sketch was overshadowed by the familiar silhouette of Hitchcock himself, the weekly "play" opened and closed with the series' most popular feature: As a good-natured host whose inimitable presence made him a global celebrity, Hitchcock delivered droll, dryly sardonic introductions and epilogues to each week's episode, flawlessly written by James Allardyce and frequently taking polite pot-shots at CBS sponsors, or skirting around broadcast standards (which demanded that no crime could go unpunished) by humorously explaining how the show's killers and criminals were always brought to justice... though always with a nod and a wink to the viewer.
This knowing complicity was Hitchcock's pact with his audience, and the secret to his (and the series') long-term success. It's also what attracted a stable of talented writers whose teleplays, both original and adapted, maintained a high standard of excellence. Hitchcock directed four of the first season's 39 episodes, including the premiere episode "Revenge" (a fan favorite, with future "Psycho" costar Vera Miles) and the season highlight "Breakdown," with Joseph Cotten as a car-accident victim, paralyzed and motionless, who's nearly left for dead; it's a perfect example of visual and narrative economy, executed with a master's touch. (The fourth episode, "Don't Come Back Alive," is also a popular favorite, with the kind of sinister twist that became a series trademark.) Robert Stevenson directed the majority of the remaining episodes with similar skill, serving tightly plotted tales (selected by associate producers Joan Harrison and Norman Lloyd) by such literary greats as Ray Bradbury, Robert Bloch, Cornell Woolrich, Dorothy L. Sayers, and John Collier. Adding to the series' prestige was a weekly roster of new and seasoned stars, with first-season appearances by Cloris Leachman, Darren McGavin, Everett Sloane, Peter Lawford, Charles Bronson, Barry Fitzgerald, John Cassavetes, Joanne Woodward, Thelma Ritter, and a host of Hollywood's best-known character players. With such stellar talent on weekly display, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" paved the way for "Thriller", "The Twilight Zone", and other series that maximized the anthology format's storytelling potential.
Packed onto three double-sided DVDs, these 39 episodes hold up remarkably well, and while some prints show the wear and tear of syndication, they look and sound surprisingly good (although audio compression will cause many viewers to turn up the volume). The 15-minute bonus featurette, "Alfred Hitchcock Presents: A Look Back" is perfunctory at best, but it's nice to see new anecdotal interviews with Norman Lloyd, assistant director Hilton Green, and Hitchcock's daughter Pat (a frequent performer on these episodes), who survived to see their popular series benefit from the archival convenience of DVD. "--Jeff Shannon"

Various
Drama
Universal Studios
NR
"If it ain't broke, don't fix it" appears to be the guiding philosophy behind season 2 of "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". Like season 1, these 39 episodes (totaling 16 hours, 52 minutes, and originally broadcast from September 30, 1956 to June 23, 1957) follow the established formula that made the series so popular, with self-contained tales of murder, suspense, and intrigue (mostly running about 26 minutes each) based on short stories from a variety of new and established writers in the mystery genre. (Many of these stories also found their way into "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine".) By latter-day standards of intensity, most of these episodes play like tame, parlor-trick mysteries or single-room chamber pieces that accommodated the show's emphasis on budget-friendly production values. Still, modern-day viewers can readily appreciate the consistently high quality of writing, direction, and performance, along with the droll, playful introductions by Hitchcock himself, now fully established as a TV celebrity in addition to his global acclaim as "the master of suspense." (Ironically, Hitchcock's first-season jokes at the expense of series sponsors are mostly missing here; apparently Hitchcock agreed to aim his humor elsewhere.) With the release of season 2, Universal has upgraded their disc format to appease fans who complained about double-sided discs in season 1; these five discs (eight episodes each, with seven on disc 5) are single-sided, double-layered, and neatly presented with no-frills menus and easy access to episodes. (Unfortunately, cast and credits are not listed on the packaging, which includes brief plot synopses on the inside slip-case.) Picture quality is uniformly crisp and clean, and sound quality is mostly excellent, allowing for somewhat lower volume on a few episodes (so turn 'em up). Another improvement on these DVDs is the inclusion of four chapter stops for each episode.
As with season 1, the season premiere ("Wet Saturday") was directed by Hitchcock, who also helmed "Mr. Blanchard's Secret," the season highlight thriller "One More Mile to Go," and "The Three Dreams of Mr. Findlater." It's no accident that these rank among the finest episodes (Hitchcock enjoyed the speed and economy of TV directing), but while there are a few misfires along the way, most of these episodes adhere to the smart, literate standard of the series. They're also an impressive showcase for new and established actors from the twilight of Hollywood's golden age: Seasoned veterans like Cedric Hardwicke, Mildred Dunnock, Henry Jones, Hume Cronyn, Jessica Tandy, Edmund Gwenn, and Albert Salmi do fine work here, and the relative newcomers include Rip Torn, William Shatner, Dick York, and Robert Culp, among others. Of course, no crime could go unpunished in '50 TV-land, so Hitchcock (in closing each episode) assures us that all criminals were eventually brought to justice. All in a day's work for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"! "--Jeff Shannon"

Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Altman, Arthur Hiller
Mystery & Suspense
Universal Studios
NR
Three of the episodes in the third season of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS were directed by Hitchcock himself: "The Perfect Crime," "Lamb to the Slaughter" and "Dip in the Pool." The rest were overseen by a number of fine directors, including Robert Altman, Arthur Hiller and Don Taylor. MCA/Universal's large talent pool supplied the many fine actors who appeared in this and all the other seasons the show was in production.

Michael Mann
Biography
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
In 1964, a brash new pro boxer, fresh from his olympic gold medal victory, explodes on to the scene, Cassius Clay. Bold and outspoken, he cuts an entirely new image for African American's in sport with his proud public self confidence with his unapologetic belief that he is the greatest boxer of all time. To his credit, he sets out to prove that with his highly agile and forceful style soon making him a formidable boxer who soon claims the heavyweight championship. His personal life is no less noteworthy with his allegiance to the Nation of Islam, his friendship with the controversial Malcolm X and his abandonment of his slave name in favour of Muhammad Ali stirring up controversy. Yet, at the top of his game, both Ali's personal and professional lives face the ultimate test with the military draft rules are changed, making him eligible for military induction during the Vietnam War. Despite the fact that he could easily agree to a sweetheart deal that would have meant an easy tour of duty for himself, Ali refuses to submit on principle to cooperate in an unjust war for a racist nation that treated his people so poorly. The cost of that stand is high as he finds himself unable to legally box in his own country while his case is contested in court. What follows is a battle for a man who would sacrifice so much for what he believes in and a comeback that would cement his legend as one of the great sports figures of all time.

Mark Mylod
Comedy
FilmFour
R
Ali G unwittingly becomes a pawn in the evil Chancellor's plot to overthrow the Prime Minister of Great Britain. However, instead of bringing the Prime Minister down, Ali is embraced by the nation as the voice of youth and 'realness', making the Prime Minister and his government more popular than ever.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Filmverlag der Autoren

Emmi, a woman truly in the second half of life, falls in love with Ali, a Berber guest worker more than ten years younger. When they both decide to marry, everybody seems to be against them. When the folks calm down a bit, Emmi and Ali get deeply unsure about their relationship.

Norman Z. McLeod
Comedy
Hope Enterprises

Inept insurance salesman Milford Farnsworth sells a man a $100,000 policy. When his boss learns the man was Jesse James he sends Milford after him with money to buy back the policy. After a masked Jesse robs Milford of the money, Milford's boss heads out with more money. Jesse learns about it and plans to rob him, have Milford dressed as him get killed in the robbery, and then collect the $100,000.

Various
Action & Adventure
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
NR
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is a super (and super sexy) spy, fighting nefarious villains and working for the good guys--or so she thinks. Recruited as a college freshman for espionage work, Sydney found her true calling with SD-6, a secret division of the CIA. When her hunky doctor-boyfriend proposes to her, she decides to let him in on the truth she's not supposed to tell anyone: she's not a grad student with a demanding job for an international bank, but a secret agent who constantly puts her life on the line for the free world. But when SD-6 discovers her security breach, her fiancé is brutally assassinated, and Sydney suddenly finds herself face-to-face with the truth: she's been working for the bad guys. Deciding to become a double agent for the CIA and bring down the evildoers, Sydney gets one more surprise--her estranged father (Victor Garber) is also working for SD-6, and the CIA as well. Welcome to the family, Syd!
Confusing? This is all just in the first episode of "Alias", the brainchild of "Felicity" creator J.J. Abrams that plays like a cross between "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and James Bond. With its double-edged tension (how long can Syd play double agent?) and one heck of a MacGuffin (the dreaded Rambaldi device, the mythic creation of a Renaissance genius), the show leads its viewers from episode to episode with visceral, compelling action, not to mention the nascent romance between Syd and her CIA handler, Vaughn (Michael Vartan), and her clashes with her heretofore distant father. Sharp, smart, and always suspenseful, "Alias"' center was held by the gorgeous Garner, a stellar action heroine and an even better actress who could pull off Sydney's exotic undercover missions and conflicted emotions with equal dexterity. By the end of this first season, which concludes with a breathtaking cliffhanger, you'll be seduced into "Alias"' world with, happily, no desire to escape. "--Mark Englehart"

Various
Action & Adventure
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
NR
It was a family affair in the second season of J.J. Abrams's wonderfully inventive "Alias", as super secret agent Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) came face-to-face with the mother of all super secret agents--her "own" mother, Irina Derevko (Lena Olin), a former KGB agent presumed dead but alive and more dangerous than ever. After shooting poor Syd, Irina later shows up at the doorstep of the CIA, offering to turn herself in and work for the good guys. But can she be trusted? "Alias" set up so much duplicity in its second season that it might have been hard to keep track of who was doing what to whom, but thanks to a great ensemble cast, fast-paced writing and direction, and some cannily cast guest stars, "Alias" rode a stunning emotional roller-coaster and never broke its momentum, even when halfway through the season, the show reinvented itself. With episode 13, "Phase One" (which aired after the Super Bowl to the show's biggest audience), Syd's original nemesis (and employer) SD-6 changes forever, yet the kick-butt agent still finds herself going up against the malevolent leader Sloane (Ron Rifkin) and his ever-changing set of henchmen. Action fans got plenty of fighting, while romantic "Alias" watchers swooned as Syd and the dashing Vaughn (Michael Vartan) finally consummated their unrequited love.
The critically acclaimed show owed a debt to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" for its mix of action, romance, mystery, and moral quandaries, but in this season "Alias" truly came into its own--with a climax that came as a total shocker and prepped the show for an emotionally volatile third season. Guest stars included the phenomenal Amy Irving as Sloane's wife, Faye Dunaway as a nefarious bigwig, Christian Slater as a kidnapped scientist, and Ethan Hawke as a fellow CIA agent (or rather, two of them), but it was the dysfunctional nuclear family of Syd, Irina, and father Jack (Victor Garber) that gave "Alias" its heart and its strength, whether the three perfectly cast actors (all Emmy nominated) were just bickering or undertaking deadly hand-to-hand combat. And you thought your family had problems! "--Mark Englehart"

Various
Action & Adventure
Buena Vista Home Entertainment
NR
The third season of "Alias" found super spy Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) waking up in Hong Kong with a monster hangover and two years in the future with nary a memory. What's worse, her world has been turned upside-down with the evil Sloane (Ron Rifkin) now a world-famous humanitarian and philanthropist, and, even worse, her true love Vaughn (Michael Vartan) married to a seemingly great gal. Nice way to go back to work, eh? After coming up with one heck of a cliffhanger in season 2, "Alias" proceeded a bit aimlessly through these 22 episodes, and as a result, the parts were truly greater than the whole. With Lena Olin no longer around as Syd's duplicitous mother, and the addition of admirable yet bland Melissa George as Vaughn's wife Lauren, Garner found herself for the first time without a compelling female foil to play off of. By dividing its focus equally between the quest for the enigmatic Rambaldi device, Syd and Vaughn's now-contentious relationship, and the uncovering of Syd's missing years, "Alias" lost a little of its power without a larger story arc. The loss of regular cast members Merrin Dungey (Francie/Alison) and Bradley Cooper (Will)--both of whom do make great guest appearances--also divest the show of the personal life that kept Sydney human and approachable. Still, Garner is stellar as always, the plot twists come fast and furious, and secret identities are revealed. This season does have a great panorama of guest actors including Ricky Gervais, Justin Theroux, Djimon Hounsou, David Cronenberg, Quentin Tarantino, Vivica A. Fox, and Isabella Rossellini as Syd's long-lost aunt. "--Mark Englehart"

Various
Television
Buena Vista
NR
True to form, at the beginning of its fourth season J.J. Abrams' "Alias" proceeded to reinvent itself yet again--and the results looked quite a bit like the first season, but with a decided twist. Super agent Sydney Bristow (Emmy nominee Jennifer Garner) found herself once more working for a covert secret-ops group that was "off the books" and headed up by Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) as she was partnered with... Hey, wait, wasn't Sloane a "bad" guy before? Well, yes, he was, but having been "rehabilitated" from his evil ways, he's now Sydney's new boss--nevermind the fact that he's trampled all over her life in more ways than one--and head of the CIA's new super-secret division, APO (for Authorized Personnel Only), which also includes all of Sydney's old friends, as well as her dad (Victor Garber) and love interest Vaughn (Michael Vartan). But as Sydney and Vaughn struggle with their budding relationship in the wake of his wife's death, and Syd also comes to realize her father may have had quite a bit to do with her mother's abrupt disappearance, a few monkey wrenches are thrown into the works. There's the emergence of South American agent Nadia (Mia Maestro), who's Syd's half sister--and the daughter of Sloane; the reappearance of Syd's nasty nemesis, Anna Espinosa (Gina Torres); a Sloane doppelganger (Joel Grey); and a mysterious cabal intent on harnessing the power of the legendary Rambaldi device.
"Alias" was definitely all over the map during its fourth season, and a few off-screen factors managed to take their toll onscreen as well. The end of a real-life relationship between Garner and Vartan gave Sydney and Vaughn's scenes a lack of romantic spark, but at the same time a decided tension, as the two warily circled each other and deepened their relationship; they clicked best in the episode "Welcome to Liberty Village," in which the duo infiltrates a Stepford-like suburb as a picture-perfect couple. And the absence of Lena Olin, as Syd's mother, was definitely felt, as her character became a looming presence despite little screen time. Where "Alias" succeeded this year was in the dramatic impact individual episodes had: "Nocturne" was a captivating tale of Sydney in the throes of deadly hallucinations; "The Orphan" affectingly fleshed out the enigmatic Nadia's background; "In Dreams" (directed by Garner) probed the subconscious of bad guy Sloane, who wasn't as evil as you might think; and "Mirage" forced Sydney to impersonate her mother in her father's fevered dreams. Don't worry, there was plenty of action--especially in the season's final episodes, which prominently featured a deadly Sonia Braga--and despite its ups and downs, "Alias" remained one of the most intelligent, compelling dramas on television. "--Mark Englehart"

Various
Television
Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
NR
"Alias" was a show that constantly reinvented itself. And its fifth and final season was no exception, as the creative team behind the espionage show worked to pull together the labyrinthine plot elements that had existed over the years, as well as tailor the show around the pregnancy of star Jennifer Garner. The results were somewhat tinged with melancholy as everything was wrapped up, but also had a maturity and respect for its characters--which is not to say that "Alias" lacked in action. In fact, the season started out with a literal bang, as a truck slammed into the car carrying Sydney Bristow (Garner) and her co-worker and lover Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan), right after Vaughn had made a mind-blowing revelation to Sydney. What followed was a mind-trippingly enticing blend of fake identities, false fronts, blind alleys, and new characters with dubious intentions, with the importance of the enigmatic Rambaldi device hanging over it all. Just another day at the office for "Alias", you say? Not this time--for long-time fans of the shows, the true natures of all characters would finally be revealed, and Sydney would at long last discover the powers of the dreaded Rambaldi device, as well as who was behind the machinations to obtain it for world domination.
What "Alias" did best was mix its outlandish plotlines with accessible characters who were more than just pieces on an espionage game board. The final season did have a few false starts, as it juggled the departure (and reappearance) of established characters and the introduction of new ones, but by the time it had reached its 100th episode, "There's Only One Sydney Bristow," battle lines were drawn as the core characters hurtled toward the show's conclusion. Not to be too cryptic, but the less you know the better, as part of the fun is puzzling out who's doing what to whom; suffice it to say that the ever-capable Garner, along with Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin as the dueling father figures in her life, laid a groundwork of personal drama that held the show together amidst all the shootouts, tech gadgets and costume changes. While (literally) everyone from Sydney's past made an appearance in the show's 100th episode (including an outstanding turn by Bradley Cooper as Syd's erstwhile friend Will), there were a couple great additions too: Rachel Nichols made a fetching Syd-in-training while Amy Acker, who played the daffy good-girl Fred on "Angel", was a menacing and captivating adversary. We will answer one question for die-hard "Alias" fans: Yes, Lena Olin does return as the lethal Irina Derevko. Sorry, we're sworn from saying anything more. "--Mark Englehart"

Woody Allen
Comedy
Orion Pictures Corporation
PG-13
Alice Tate, mother of two, with a marriage of 16 years, finds herself falling for the handsome sax player, Joe. Stricken with a backache, she consults Dr. Yang, an oriental herbalist who realizes that her problems are not related to her back, but in her mind and heart. Dr. Yang's magical herbs give Alice wondrous powers, taking her out of well-established rut.

Martin Scorsese
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
When Alice Hyatt is suddenly widowed after years of domesticity, she decides to travel to Monterey, California with her 11-year-old son Tommy to resume a singing career. In Phoenix, Arizona she gets a job singing at a piano bar and begins a relationship with Ben, who turns out to be married and a spouse abuser. In Tucson, she puts her dream of singing on hold and becomes a waitress. She meets a farmer, David and begins to think about a new life of domesticity.

Norman Z. McLeod
Family
Paramount Pictures

On a boring winter afternoon, Alice dreams, that she's visiting the land behind the mirror. This turns out to be a surrealistic nightmare, with all sorts of strange things happening to her, like changing her size or playing croquet with flamingos.

Arthur Penn
Comedy
Florin
R
Arlo Guthrie's song is converted into a motion picture. Arlo goes to see Alice for Thanksgivng and as a favor takes her trash to the dump. When the dump is closed, he drops it on top of another pile of garbage at the bottom of a ravine. When the local sheriff finds out a major manhunt begins. Arlo manages to survive the courtroom experience but it haunts him when he is to be inducted into the army via the draft. The movie follows the song with Arlo's voice over as both music and narration.

Ridley Scott
Horror
Brandywine Productions
R
When a mining ship lands on a planet to investigate upon a suspected SOS, the entire crew are unaware of the terror which they would unleash upon their ship. When a alien life-form attach's itself to the face of a crew member, the rest of the team act fast to try and separate the two organisms. Unbeknownst to everyone, this is the start of the terror which would affect every member of the seven person crew.

David Fincher
Action
Brandywine Productions
R
After escaping from the alien planet, the ship carrying Ellen Ripley crashes onto a remote and inhabited ore refinery. While living in the ore refinery until she is rescued by her employers, Ripley discovers the horrifying reason for her crash: An alien stowaway. As the alien matures and begins to kill off the inhabitants, Ripley is unaware that her true enemy is more than just the killer alien.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Action
Brandywine Productions
R
200 years after the conclusion of Alien 3, the company is able to resurrect Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) through the process of cloning and the scientists successfully take the Queen Alien out of her. But, Ripley's DNA gets mixed up with the Queen's and she begins to develop certain alien characteristics. The scientists begin breeding the aliens, but they later escape. Soon the Xeno-morphs are running amok on the ship, which is on course to earth. The Queen then gives birth to a deadly new breed of alien, which could spell disaster for the entire human race. It's up to Ripley and a band of space pirates to stop the ship before it reaches earth.

James Cameron
Action
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
R
After colonist, Ellen Ripley survived her disastrous ordeal. Nobody believed her story about the "Aliens" being on the planet LV-426. However, approximately 50 years later, the colony on LV-426 was completely destroyed. The government has decided to send Ripley out of cryostasis and to aid a team of tough, rugged space marines into the desolate planet to find out if there are aliens, or survivors. But, what Ripley will begin to realize that her worst nightmare is about to come true.

Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Drama
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Aspiring actress Eve Harrington maneuvers her way into the lives of Broadway star Margo Channing, playwright Lloyd Richards and director Bill Sampson. This classic story of ambition and betrayal has become part of American folklore. Bette Davis claims to have based her character on the persona of film actress Talullah Bankhead. Davis' line "Fasten your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy night" is legendary, but, in fact, all of the film's dialog sparkles with equal brilliance.

Pedro Almodóvar
Drama
El Deseo S.A.
R
A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance, becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, "All About Eve," and "Streetcar Named Desire," the mothers (and fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.

Kevin Bray
Action
Cube Vision
R
A bounty hunter is on the trail of a conman who skipped bail. The two wind up in a deserted warehouse where they witness a diamond scam in action, caught in the midst they put their differences aside to team up and detain the looters.

Norman Lear
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
Boy, the way the Beaver played. Ricky Nelson made the hit parade. Voices they were seldom raised. Those were the days. And then, on January 12, 1971, America met the Bunkers, and sitcoms would never be the same. The Bunkers were TV's first dysfunctional family: blue-collar bigot Archie (the late Carroll O'Connor in his iconic role), his long-suffering but loving wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), "little goil" Gloria (Sally Struthers), and her liberal husband "Meathead" Mike (Rob Reiner). Series creator Norman Lear broke near every rule and taboo in adapting the British series "Till Death Do Us Part" for American television. The series pilot, "Meet the Bunkers," was a bracing shocker that dared to find humor in prejudice. Archie dispenses racial epithets and ethnic slurs. Mike and Gloria clearly have an active sex life, while Edith, in the pilot at any rate, is more "pip" than "dingbat." In its first season, the series refused to, in Archie's words, "stifle" itself, tackling such hot-button topics as homophobia ("Judging Books by Covers"), racism ("Lionel Moves into the Neighborhood"), feminism ("Gloria Discovers Women's Lib"), and the generation gap (the touching "Success Story," with William Windom as Archie's former army buddy, a successful man who is revealed to be estranged from his son). "All in the Family" was a rich human comedy. Brought to life by a peerless ensemble, these characters would come to feel like family. Their foibles produced some of television's biggest laughs. They could also make us cry, as with the heartbreaking "Gloria's Pregnancy." Another series landmark is the season finale, "The First and Last Supper," in which we meet Isabel Sanford's Louise Jefferson (but, hilariously, not her husband, George). "All in the Family" was an instant lightning rod for controversy but went on to earn the comedy Emmy Award in its first year. This three-disc set has no extras (future sets will hopefully contain commentary by Lear or surviving cast members), but each episode is presented complete and uncut, restoring the funny, sometimes touching codas that were cut for syndication. "--Donald Liebenson"

Michael Kidd, Bud Yorkin, Norman Campbell, Walter C. Miller, Hal Cooper
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
With a new time slot (8:00 p.m. Saturdays) and three first-season Emmys®, "All in the Family" was primed for greatness, and these 24 episodes represent the series at its best. Carroll O'Connor leads the perfect cast as blue-collar bigot Archie Bunker, and the standout classic is "Sammy's Visit," in which black, Jewish rat-packer Sammy Davis Jr. visits the Bunker home, where he's hilariously horrified by Archie's prejudicial ignorance. The script was written by comedian Bill ("José Jiminez") Dana, and to borrow Archie's phrase, it's a pip, as Sammy turns Archie's racist remarks on their ear to the delight of young liberals Gloria (Sally Struthers) and husband Mike (Rob Reiner). Sammy's parting kiss on Archie's cheek is one of the series' all-time highlights. Then there's Burt Styler's Emmy-winning script for "Edith's Problem," in which Archie's "Dingbat" wife experiences the mood swings of menopause (another first, along with impotence in "Mike's Problem," in the series' taboo-busting candor). A showcase for Jean Stapleton (who deservedly won her second consecutive Emmy), it also demonstrates (as does "Archie and Edith Alone") the hurtful repercussions of Archie's unintentional cruelty. Edith's Archie-baiting cousin Maude (Bea Arthur) is introduced ("Maude" is a pilot for the character's spin-off sitcom, which premiered in '72), and credit "must" be given to John Rich, who directed all 24 episodes (winning an Emmy for "Sammy's Visit") with a flawless sense of ensemble chemistry, precision timing, and lasting political relevance. This season earned seven Emmys overall, including awards for O'Connor and Struthers. Given such a wealth of sitcom glory, it's a shame these DVDs are devoid of retrospective features. "--Jeff Shannon"

Michael Kidd, Bud Yorkin, Norman Campbell, Walter C. Miller, Hal Cooper
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
The enduring appeal of one of television's best and most controversial programs comes through loud (literally) and clear on "All in the Family: The Complete Third Season", some 10 hours of compelling, entertaining viewing that serve as a timely reminder that even as TV in the new millennium has seemingly become more diverse and inclusive, with its many gay-themed shows and, gasp, proliferation of all manner of minorities, it has lost the kind of bite that the beloved (well, by some folks, anyway) bigot Archie Bunker used to bring to the small screen.
All 24 episodes (there is no bonus material or extra features) from the '72-'73 season of executive producer Norman Lear's sitcom are contained here, and those unfamiliar with the show may well find them a bit startling. The language is part of it; Archie's frequent use of terms like "gook" and "fag" would never pass muster in these politically correct times. Yet even more striking is "All in the Family"'s subject matter. Again and again, serious themes like politics (the '72 presidential race, pitting Richard Nixon against George McGovern, is mentioned frequently), racism ("Archie in the Hospital" is just one episode dealing with that issue), the death penalty and violence in the name of religion ("Archie Is Branded"), sexual assault ("Gloria, the Victim"), and gun control ("Archie and the Editorial") are handled with remarkable frankness. At the center of it all, of course, is Carroll O'Connor's Archie, who remains belligerent, boorish, and downright mean to the bitter end. Whether he's bribing an IRS agent, cheating an insurance company, or just being pig-headed in general, Archie is utterly unrepentant; basically, he never does the right thing, a trait that's somehow both irritating and refreshing.
"All in the Family" is hardly perfect; the dysfunctional family's ceaseless squabbling and shouting--usually involving Archie and liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner), although wife Edith (the brilliant Jean Stapleton) and daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) aren't immune--eventually becomes tiresome and shrill. But for the most part, the show's acting, writing (which manages to be very funny as well as incisive), and point of view make this set a must-have. "--Sam Graham"

Michael Kidd, Bud Yorkin, Norman Campbell, Walter C. Miller, Hal Cooper
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
By the fourth season, Norman Lear's landmark series ALL IN THE FAMILY was on its way to becoming an American institution. It consistently ranked number one in the ratings while at the same time breaking all of prime time TV's taboos. Archie Bunker's (Carroll O'Conner) shocking politically incorrect diatribes, marriage problems for Mike (Rob Reiner) and Gloria (Sally Struthers), a breast cancer scare for Edith (Jean Stapleton) all broke with sitcom conventions. In the fourth season, Archie was hilariously faced with two worthy new opponents: neighbor Irene Lorenzo (betty Garrett), a staunch believer in women's rights, and loud-mouthed George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), soon to star in the spin-off hit series "The Jeffersons." Rob Reiner won an Emmy® Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and the show was nominated for four other Emmy® Awards for the fourth season.

Michael Kidd, Bud Yorkin, Norman Campbell, Walter C. Miller, Hal Cooper
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
Expecting anything resembling growth from Archie Bunker is like asking the sun to rise in the west: it ain't gonna happen. Accordingly, the most unrepentantly incorrigible character in TV sit-com history is his old self throughout this three-disc box set, which includes all 24 episodes from the fifth season of producer Norman Lear's "All in the Family". Which is to say that Archie (played brilliantly as always by Carroll O'Connor) is an irascible, intolerant, sexist, ignorant, cheap misanthrope. Funny, too.
Still, a few subtle changes are apparent. For one thing, this was the mid-'70s, the Gerald Ford era, and after the tumultuous Richard Nixon years, things were a little mellower… sometimes even Archie. Sure, he's still a guy with a blue collar and red state politics (on Nixon and Watergate: "He did not lie. He forgot to tell the truth"), a bigot ("the whole place is locked up tighter than a Jew's purse") and a master of malapropisms ("that's the crotch of the problem"). But Archie's political arguments with son-in-law Mike "Meathead" Stivic (Rob Reiner) are fewer and farther between; in fact, the overall tone of the show seems a bit lighter, with more outright slapstick humor, and the almost constant bickering is less shrill than before. That's a welcome development, as are the occasional moments when Archie reveals that he might even have a heart.
Season Five also finds George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford) and son Lionel (Mike Evans) moving out of the neighborhood (the pilot for "The Jeffersons" is one of the episodes here), while daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) and Meathead move into the Jeffersons' house next door at season's end. But perhaps the most notable change is Edith's gradual willingness to stand up to her husband. She's still a dingbat, but her assertiveness and confidence show through from time to time, especially in the hilarious episode 18 ("All's Fair"), in which Edith, coached by Mike and Gloria, learns how to engage Archie in a fair fight.
Although the box set contains no bonus material, it does include a "Best Of" episode with highlights from the first 100 shows, hosted by Henry Fonda, of all people. And look for future Oscar winner James Cromwell in the recurring role of Stretch Cunningham, one of Archie's co-workers. "--Sam Graham"

Michael Kidd, Bud Yorkin, Norman Campbell, Walter C. Miller, Hal Cooper
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
The more things change, the more they stay the same? When it comes to "All in the Family", the answer is an unqualified yes… and no. Considering the show's tremendous popularity (this sixth season, spanning 1975 and '76, was the fifth straight year it held down the top spot in the Nielsen ratings), creator-producer Norman Lear was unlikely to make any drastic adjustments to the basic formula. And sure enough, in these 24 episodes (on three discs, "sans" bonus features), the four main characters--Archie Bunker (Carroll O'Connor, brilliant as ever), ditzy wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers), and contentious son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner)--and their relationships remain the obvious focal point. What's more, while it's true that various new developments, including Mike and Gloria's move next door (to the house once occupied by the Jeffersons), her pregnancy, and the birth of little Joey, are more than cosmetic and account for the lion's share of the storylines, "All in the Family"'s basic dynamic remains one of the strongest and most instantly recognizable in TV sitcom history. Ditto the writers' penchant for the trenchant; social issues include tolerance and homophobia (Archie saves a woman's life with "mouth-to-mouth restitution," only to discover that "she" is a transvestite), women's rights (Gloria gets fired for being pregnant), vigilantism (Archie fends off a mugger with illegal tear gas), religion (Archie wants his grandson baptized and raised as a Christian, but Mike has other ideas), and so on. And now more than ever, some of the language will seem a little shocking, as Archie regularly uses a variant of the gay slur that got "Grey's Anatomy" cast member Isaiah Washington in very hot water more than three decades later.
Some changes, however, are a little more profound. The kinder, gentler Archie who began to appear a few seasons back is more in effect now; an extended and largely improvised scene in which he coddles his infant grandson is surprisingly tender, and when he hugs Mike after Joey is born, longtime viewers might wonder if what on earth has happened to TV's most unrepentant, close-minded bigot. But hey, even cavemen evolved, and the Archie Bunker we see in Season 6 bears an increasing resemblance to a character he most surely inspired, one who usually ends up removing his foot from his mouth long enough to do the right thing: Homer Simpson. "--Sam Graham"

Jean-Claude Tramont
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Universal Pictures

Executive George Dupler loses his temper and is demoted to the night manager at a 24 hour drugstore. After he suggests to his teenage son Freddie that he stop having an affair with suburban housewife Cheryl Gibbons, who is a distant cousin, Cheryl tries to seduce George. At home, in front of his mother, Freddie accuses his dad of stealing his girl, because he found Cheryl serving George a meal in the middle of the night, while her husband Bobby was on duty at the fire station. George then separates from his wife Helen, quits his job, moves into a warehouse, and asks Cheryl to move in with him.

Carl Reiner
Comedy
Kings Road Entertainment
PG
Roger is called in to change the will of an aging millionairess. She has made arrangements for her soul to be 'captured' and transferred into the body of a younger girl. After an argument about the will, the millionairess dies, but her spirit somehow lands in Rogers body...

Mike Leigh
Drama
Les Films Alain Sarde
R
Penny's love for her partner, taxi-driver Phil, has run dry. He is a gentle, philosophical guy, and she works on the checkout at a supermarket. Their daughter Rachel cleans in a home for elderly people, and their son Rory is unemployed and aggressive. The joy has gone out of Phil's and Penny's life, but when an unexpected tragedy occurs, they are brought together to rediscover their love. All or Nothing is set on a London working-class housing estate over a long weekend, and also tells the stories of a range of Phil and Penny's neighbors, some of whom become involved in the family's lives, and all of whom experience an emotional journey.

James W. Horne
Comedy
Republic Pictures (I)

Douglas Sirk
Drama
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a prosperous suburban New England widow with two college-aged children. Rock Hudson plays Ron Kirby, a nurseryman and gardener. Cary and Ron meet when he's pruning trees in her yard. She becomes intrigued by his free spirit and his romantic life. He falls for her as well and wants to be married. Cary is afraid of the social consequences of marriage to Ron, and she also fears her children's disapproval. Cary is not only older than Ron (at the time the movie was made Jane Wyman was 38 to Rock Hudson's 30) but is also wealthier. Cary's friends and children are snobbish and socially conscious. Ron's friends are eccentric and fun-loving. Cary must choose between love and convention.

Bob Fosse
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider), a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

Alan J. Pakula
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of Republican fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the Republican Party, and eventually into the White House itself.

Billy Bob Thornton
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
A young Texan drifter named John Grady Cole (Damon) who seeks a better life in Mexico, but when he crosses the border, all he finds is adventure and hardships.

Stefan Ruzowitzky
Comedy
Atlantic Streamline
PG-13
Late in World War II, the Brits still want their hands on a German Enigma, the typewriter-like machine that constructs and sends coded messages. Parachuting behind enemy lines - with two days to find the factory where Enigmas are made, grab one, and get out - are an unlikely quartet: a queen, a pencil pusher, a bookworm, and an almost secret agent. Plus they are all dressed as women, with only a crash course from the queen. They reach their destination, rendezvous with their German contact, a lovely librarian, and start their search. They seemed doomed to fail; is this a fool's errand?

David Gordon Green
Drama
Jasmine Productions Inc.
R
In a small Southern American town, Paul, who is known for having sexual relations with every girl in town, falls in love with his best friend's younger sister who is a virgin. Paul must try to prove to everyone that this time he is in love rather than in lust.

Herschell Gordon Lewis
Drama
United Pictures Organization

Sixteen year old Marie stumbles upon her parents making love, which awakens her latent sexuality. She begins a torrid affair with her third cousin Philip. Her parents cluelessly pursue their own illicit affairs while their daughter delves deeper into her own sexual experimentation. When the school principal makes the Barkers aware that their daughter is cutting classes, they purchase a partial clue and try to help their daughter.

Cameron Crowe
Drama
Columbia Pictures
R
William Miller is a 15 year old kid, hired by Rolling Stone magazine to tour with, and write about Stillwater, an up and coming rock band. This wonderfully witty coming of age film follows William as he falls face first to confront life, love, and lingo.

John Hamburg
Comedy
Jersey Films
PG-13
Reuben Feffer thinks he's found the love of his life but on his honeymoon he discovers her cheating on him with a scuba instructor. Reuben travels back home to get his life on track. On a night out with best pal, Sandy Lyle, Reuben discovers an old school friend, Polly Prince. Reuben feels a connection straight away, and tries constantly to get her to like her. But it's not going to be easy for Reuben, especially when he spends his days calculating risks, and when someone unexpected turns up.

Nick Cassavetes
Crime
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
R
1999, Claremont, California. Middle-class kids, in their 20s, talk trash, wave guns, hang out in a pack. Johnny Truelove, drug dealer and son of a underworld figure, threatens Jake Mazursky, an explosive head case who owes Johnny money; Jake responds by breaking into Johnny's house. On impulse, Johnny and a couple pals kidnap Jake's 15-year-old brother, Zach. Zach's okay with it, figuring his brother will pay the debt soon. Johnny assigns his buddy Frankie to be Zach's minder, and they develop a brotherly friendship. Zach parties with his captors as things begin to spin out of control. Group think, amorality, and fear of prison assert a hold on the pack. Is Zach in danger?

Jean-Luc Godard
Mystery
Athos Films

Lemmy Caution, an American private-eye, arrives in Alphaville, a futuristic city on another planet. His very American character is at odds with the city's ruler, an evil scientist named Von Braun, who has outlawed love and self-expression.

Milos Forman
Drama
The Saul Zaentz Company
R
Antonio Salieri believes that Mozart's music is divine. He wishes he was himself as good a musician as Mozart so that he can praise the Lord through composing. But he can't understand why God favored Mozart, such a vulgar creature, to be his instrument. Salieri's envy has made him an enemy of God whose greatness was evident in Mozart. He is set to take revenge.

Federico Fellini
Drama
F.C. Produzioni

A year in the life of a small Italian coastal town in the nineteen-thirties, as is recalled by a director with a superstar's access to the resources of the Italian film industry and a piper's command over our imaginations. Federico Fellini's film combines the free form and make-believe splendor with the comic, bittersweet feeling for character and narrative we remember from some of his best films of the 1950s. The town in the film is based on Rimini, where Mr. Fellini grew up. Yet there is now something magical, larger-than-life about the town, its citizens and many of the things that happen to them.

Anatole Litvak
Comedy
First National Pictures

Dr. Clitterhouse is fascinated with the working of the criminal mind. His interest is so deep that he finds the best way to observe criminals in action is to become one himself! Whilst robbing a safe at an exclusive party he stumbles across an organized gang trying to the same thing. He teams up with the gang to observe them in action but one of the members, Rocks Valentine would like nothing better than to see Clitterhouse out of the way.

Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb
Comedy
Universal Pictures

A series of short sketches, most of which parody late-night television and the low-budget movies one often finds there. Other skits include a man being attacked by his apartment, a funeral hosted by classic comedians, and a teen-age boy's big night turning into a nightmare.

Sam Taylor
Comedy
Fox Film Corporation

An American ambassador arrives in a small country that is being convulsed by political intrigue and civil unrest. He befriends the young boy who is to be the country's king, to ensure that the boy is prepared to take on the role and also to see that he lives long enough to assume the crown.

Henry Levin
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

A government space saucer is hijacked mid-flight by a powerful laser beam under the control of Jose Ortega, who then proceeds to rape the female pilot, Sheila Sommars. ICE sends agent Matt Helm to Acapulco with Sheila to recover the saucer, under the guise of Matt taking fashion photographs of beautiful models. Matt is temporarily side-tracked, falling prey to the seductive charms of enemy agent Franceca Madeiros.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Comedy
Claudie Ossard Productions
R
Amélie is a story about a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her Father's mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty. She later on becomes a young woman and moves to the central part of Paris as a waitress. After finding a lost treasure belonging to the former occupant of her apartment, she decides to return it to him. After seeing his reaction and his new found perspective - she decides to devote her life to the people around her. Such as, her father who is obsessed with his garden-gnome, a failed writer, a hypochondriac, a man who stalks his ex girlfriends, the "ghost", a suppressed young soul, the love of her life and a man whose bones are as brittle as glass. But after consuming herself with these escapades - she finds out that she is disregarding her own life and damaging her quest for love. Amélie then discovers she must become more aggressive and take a hold of her life and capture the beauty of love she has always dreamed of.

Leslie Carde
Documentary
FIRST RUN FEATURES
NR
One of America's proudest achievements, our national infrastructure, is now its most dangerous embarrassment. Our bridges, dams, levees and highways are crumbling, toppling, being washed away, and putting us all at risk. How could the most powerful nation on the planet let this happen?

Narrated by Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss and featuring interviews with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists, noted scientists, whistleblowers who risked their lives to speak out, and politicians from both sides of the aisle (including Barack Obama and John McCain), this searing documentary exposes the rampant collusion, corruption and cronyism within the government agencies whose very purpose is to protect us - a cautionary tale for those who trust their government, and a wake-up call to Americans everywhere.

Joe Roth
Comedy
Revolution Studios
PG-13
In the midst of a nasty public breakup of married movie stars, a studio publicist scrambles to put a cap on the escalating situation as the couple's latest film has found it's only print kidnapped by the director.

Sam Mendes
Drama
DreamWorks SKG
R
Lester and Carolyn Burnham are on the outside, a perfect husband and wife, in a perfect house, in a perfect neighborhood. But inside, Lester is slipping deeper and deeper into a hopeless depression. He finally snaps when he becomes infatuated with one of his daughter's friends. Meanwhile, his daughter Jane is developing a happy friendship with a shy boy-next-door named Ricky, who lives with a homophobic father.

Michael Corrente
Drama
Capitol Films
R
From the play by David Mamet, AMERICAN BUFFALO is another story of mens interminable struggle toward the top of the heap, a goal which ultimately and inevitably eludes most of us. Don Dubro, the proprietor of a dusty dark inner-city junk shop, holds court there with his friends and makes plans probably on a daily basis for his ascendancy to the top. He does this more out of habit than hope because he's long ago surrendered his future to the daily repetition of his life as guardian of the discarded remnants of others' possessions. Disheveled Teach, on the other hand, is either too dumb or too stubborn to accept the lot life has dealt him. Instead, he bucks like a wild horse under the saddle and refuses to be broken. Most pitiable of the trio which populates the movie is teenaged Bobby. Mistaking much of the palaver which passes between the older men as pearls of wisdom, Bobby is the only one of the trio who still has a chance to make a life for himself somewhere beyond this tired too-familiar neighborhood. Don seems to recognize, early in their heist scheme, that exposing Bobby to his desperation can only drag the kid down. Teach imposes himself into Bobby and Don's plan to swipe some pricey coins from one of Don's customers. Don's plan to send Bobby in after the coin is too risky, Teach says. The truth is simpler. Teach doesn't want his cut to be too small

Alain Klarer
Documentary
Image Entertainment

Tommy O'Haver
Crime
First Look International
R
Based on a true story that shocked the nation in 1965, the film recounts one of the most shocking crimes ever committed against a single victim. Sylvia and Jennie Fae Likens, the two daughters of traveling carnival workers are left for an extended stay at the Indianapolis (3850 E. New York St. is hardly suburban, nor was it in 1965, by any stretch of the imagination.) home of single mother Gertrude Baniszewski and her seven children. Times are tough, and Gertrude's financial needs cause her to make this arrangement before realizing how the burden will push her unstable nature to a breaking point. What transpires in the next three months is both riveting and horrific, leaving one child dead and the rest scarred for life.

Paul Weitz
Comedy
NBC Universal Television
PG-13
Martin Tweed is the host of a talent show called American Dreamz, and whilst he despises each new season, it's a hit with the ratings. Tweed decides it's time for a new and interesting batch of contestants, and sends out his team to find the weirdest bunch possible. Whilst all this is happening, the President of the United States is becoming more and more depressed, and relies on his Chief of Staff to talk him through everything, even into appearing as a judge on the TV show. Perfect news for the terrorists who use the talent contest as a way to reach the President.

Ridley Scott
Crime
Universal Pictures
R
Following the death of his employer and mentor, Bumpy Johnson, Frank Lucas establishes himself as the number one importer of heroin in the Harlem district of Manhattan. He does so by buying heroin directly from the source in South East Asia and he comes up with a unique way of importing the drugs into the United States. As a result, his product is superior to what is currently available on the street and his prices are lower. His alliance with the New York Mafia ensures his position. It is also the story of a dedicated and honest policeman, Richie Roberts, who heads up a joint narcotics task force with the Federal government. Based on a true story.

George Lucas
Comedy
Lucasfilm
PG
Two boys are scheduled to leave for college in the morning. Each has his own doubts. They spend a final evening cruising the strip and have every adventure possible before dawn when they will each have to decide what they will do.

Martin Bell
Crime
Asis Films

After leaving jail, Jack Kelson wants to live a normal life. He rents a small flat, moves in with his son Nick and tries to get a steady job. But then a former friend steps into his life again.

Tony Kaye
Crime
New Line Cinema
R
Derek Vinyard returns from prison to find his younger brother, Danny, caught in the same web of racism and hatred that landed him in prison. After Derek's father is killed in the line of duty by a minority, Derek's view of mankind is altered, but while in prison, he discovers that there is good and bad in every race. The task before him now is to convince Danny of his newfound enlightenment.

Frank Capra
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation

It's the 1930s, the Depression era, and the Board of Directors of Thomas Dickson's bank want Dickson to merge with New York Trust and resign. He refuses. One night, Dickson's bank is robbed of $100,000. The suspect is Matt Brown, an ex-convict whom Dickson hired and appointed Chief Teller. Brown, who's very loyal to Dickson, refuses to say where he was that night. He actually has two witnesses for his alibi, Mrs. Dickson and fellow worker Cyril Cluett, but Brown is protecting Dickson from finding out that Mrs. Dickson was with Cluett having a romantic evening. Cluett, who has a $50,000 gambling debt, is actually responsible for the robbery, but lets Brown take the rap. Will Brown's loyalty to Mr. Dickson pay off, or send him back to prison?

Unknown
Documentary
Eagle Rock Entertainment

Unknown
Documentary
Eagle Rock Entertainment

Sam Pollard
Documentary
Eagle Rock Entertainment

Edward James Olmos
Biography
Universal Pictures

This epic depiction of thirty years of Chicano gang life in Los Angeles focuses on a teen named Santana who, with his friends Mundo and the Caucasian-but-acting-Hispanic J.D., form their own gang and are soon arrested for a break-in. Santana gets into trouble again and goes straight from reform school to prison, spending eighteen year there, and becoming leader of a powerful gang, both inside and outside the prison, while there. When he is finally released, he tries to make sense of the violence in his life, in a world much changed from when last he was in it.

Chris Smith
Documentary
Bluemark Productions
R
On the northwest side of Milwaukee, Mark Borchardt dreams the American dream: for him, it's making movies. Using relatives, local theater talent, slacker friends, his Mastercard, and $3,000 from his Uncle Bill, Mark strives over three years to finish "Covan," a short horror film. His own personal demons (alcohol, gambling, a dysfunctional family) plague him, but he desperately wants to overcome self-doubt and avoid failure. In moments of reflection, Mark sees his story as quintessentially American, and its the nature and nuance of his dream that this film explores.

Adam Simon
Documentary
Minerva Pictures

Horror films have often been more than simple scares. At their best, they reflect society's anxiety's and concerns. In this film, major horror film makers such as George Romero and Tobe Hooper discuss the creation of their films in the 1960s and '70s and how they related to contemporary events while interviewed intellectuals give their own opinions.

Paul Weitz
Comedy
Universal Pictures
R
Jim, Oz, Finch and Kevin are four friends who make a pact that before they graduate they will all lose their virginity. The hard job now is how to reach that goal by prom night. Whilst Oz begins singing to grab attention and Kevin tries to persuade his girlfriend, Finch tries any easy route of spreading rumors and Jim fails miserably. Whether it is being caught on top of a pie or on the Internet, Jim always end up with his trusty sex advice from his father. Will they achieve their goal of getting laid by prom night? or will they learn something much different.

James B. Rogers
Comedy
Affinity Model & Talent Agency
R
The whole gang are back and as close as ever. They decide to get even closer by spending the summer together at a beach house. They decide to hold the biggest party ever to be seen, even if the preparation doesn't always go to plan. Especially when Stifler, Finch and Jim become more close to each other than they ever want to be and when Jim mistakes super glue for lubricant.

Steve Rash
Comedy
Capital Arts Entertainment
R
Matt Stifler, the younger brother of the legendary Steve Stifler, who made it big as Hollywood porn-producer and shamelessly ignores the idolizing kid brother, may claim the title of Stifmeister as his heritage, but even for his horniest mates he's little more then a bad joke. When Matt alone gets caught red-handed for a prank with the school band's instruments, present high school counselor Sherman 'Sherminator' finds great pleasure in taking revenge on him for the misbehavior Steve excelled even worse in, so instead of expelling the little prick, he condemns him to take part in band camp at Great Oaks, where Jim Levenstein's still understanding dad is filling in for the feared problem counselor. As there are plenty of girls in the competing bands, Matt hopes to turn his (mis)fortune around by smuggling in camera equipment including a robot to shoot saucy, clandestine material for his counterpart to Steve's hit video "Girls Gone Wild", an at least as 'revealing' Bandies Gone Wild. Matt's nerdy, yet also horny roomie Ernie was originally confined to the closet, but is promoted to assistant-producer when he proves himself an invaluable technician. Things get complicated as Matt becomes romantically involved with Elyse, his own school band's director, whose ambition is to beat haughty five-fold winner Brandon Vandecamp -son of a famous, rich father- as band music composer and thus win a good shot at a scholarship for an exclusive music school. For her sake Matt turns musician (on the trivial triangle by her decree, bagpipes in surprising scenes) and proves his leadership skills, but courting a 'decent' girl just doesn't square with voyeurism...

Rob Reiner
Comedy
Castle Rock Entertainment
PG-13
Andrew Shephard is approaching the end of his first term as President of the United States. He's a widower with a young daughter and has proved to be popular with the public. His election seems assured. That is until he meets Sydney Helen Wade a paid political activist working for an environmental lobby group. He's immediately smitten with her and after several amusing attempts, finally manage to go on a date (which happens to be a State dinner for the visiting President of France). His relationship with Wade opens the door for his prime political opponent, Senator Bob Rumson, to launch an attack on the President's character, something he could not do in the previous election as Shepard's wife had only recently died.

Mary Harron
Drama
Am Psycho Productions
R
Patrick Bateman, a young, well to do man working on wall street at his father's company kills for no reason at all. As his life progresses his hatred for the world becomes more and more intense. Based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis.

Mary Harron
Drama
Am Psycho Productions
R
Patrick Bateman, a young, well to do man working on wall street at his father's company kills for no reason at all. As his life progresses his hatred for the world becomes more and more intense. Based on the book by Bret Easton Ellis.

Documentary

Hal Roach, Alfred J. Goulding, William Watson
Comedy
Facets / All Day Entertainment
NR
They were the bad boy superstars of the Jazz Age. They told jokes without words, with punch-lines made from brickbats and cream pies. At a time when pop culture was in its infancy, they made movies that would last for ages. They dressed in drag, wore crazy moustaches, showed a complete disregard for private property, and drove way too fast. This 3-disc collection is their legacy, a deluxe sampler of silent comedy rarities, B-sides, and one-hit wonders. Brace yourself for: Comedians in skirts (some of 'em girls!), the nut who used too much glue, the Frenchman with a mouthful of marbles, Charlie Chaplin comedies that don't have Charlie Chaplin in them, the girl everyone thought was crazy, the incomparable Snub Pollard goes looking for trouble, famous brothers doing their thing, and a portrait of Harold Lloyd as young man.
These never-before-on-home-video comedy shorts have been mastered from archival elements and rare collections, some of them previously thought lost altogether, and are presented with new musical scores. Hold on to your porkpie hat here comes AMERICAN SLAPSTICK VOLUME TWO!

Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Biography
Good Machine
R
Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature.

Jon Hart, Matthew Kaufman
Documentary
HDNet Films

Lawrence Schiller
Crime
20th Century Fox Television
PG-13
Based on the book of the real-life O.J. Simpson criminal trial based on Simpson's lawyers point of view of the long trial. In June 1994, former pro football player-turned-entertainer O.J. Simpson is charged with the murder of his ex-wife Nicole and a friend, named Ron Goldman. When Simpson doubts his lawyer Robert Shapiro's ability to try the case because of Shapiro's doubts of Simpson's innocence, Simpson hires civil rights lawyer Johnny Cochran along with an assortment of lawyers including vetran criminal lawyer F. Lee Bailey, DNA lawyer Alan Dershowitz, and lawyer Gerry Uelman to defend him in which each lawyer argues with the court, and each other, over the case and their ability to try the high-profile case in and out of the courtroom.

Jesse Dylan
Comedy
Universal Pictures
R
Jim Levenstein has finally found the courage to ask his girlfriend, Michelle Flaherty to marry him. She agrees to get married, but the problems don't stop there for Jim. Now along with Paul Finch and Kevin Myers, Jim must plan the wedding. Unfortunately Steve Stifler is in town and won't let the wedding go past without having some fun himself, which includes setting up a secret bachelor party.

Steven Spielberg
Drama
DreamWorks SKG
R
AMISTAD is about a 1839 mutiny onboard a slave ship that is traveling towards the Northeast Coast of America. Much of the story involves a court-room drama about the slave who led the revolt.

Andrew Douglas
Drama
Dimension Films
R
George (Reynolds) and Kathy Lutz (George) and their three children move into a house that was the site of a horrific murder a year before. They decide to keep the house and try to keep the horror in the past. This is until, George starts to behave weirdly and their daughter, Chelsea (Moretz) starts to see people. What now follows is 28 days of sheer terror for the family.

Alejandro González Iñárritu
Crime
Altavista Films
R
Three interconnected stories about the different strata of life in Mexico City all resolve with a fatal car accident. Octavio is trying to raise enough money to run away with his sister-in-law, and decides to enter his dog Cofi into the world of dogfighting. After a dogfight goes bad, Octavio flees in his car, running a red light and causing the accident. Daniel and Valeria's new-found bliss is prematurely ended when she loses her leg in the accident. El Chivo is a homeless man who cares for stray dogs and is there to witness the collision.

Various
Comedy
Hal Roach Studios

Stories mostly centered on The Kingfish's schemes to get rich, often by duping his brothers in the Mystic Knights of the Sea Lodge. Andy was particularly dupable. Amos mostly narrated.

Stanley Sheff
Documentary
M.R. Avery Productions

This documentary examines the history of _"Amos 'n' Andy Show, The" (1951), the first all-black-cast show on American television. The show only lasted a few years before the network succumbed to pressure from civil-rights groups, which said that it portrayed blacks in a negative light. The show was also pulled from re-runs in the mid-'60s for the same reason. Clips--and one entire episode--from the series are shown, as are interviews with several members of the original cast and several current black actors and comedians.

Various
Music

Amy Winehouse
Music

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
The mafia's Paul Vitti (De Niro) is back in prison and will need some serious counseling when he gets out. Naturally, he returns to his analyst Dr. Ben Sobel (Crystal) for help and finds that Sobel needs some serious help himself as he has inherited the family practice, as well as an excess stock of stress.

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Village Roadshow Pictures
R
Ben Sobol, Psychiatrist, has a few problems: His son spies on his patients when they open up their heart, his parents don't want to attend his upcoming wedding and his patients' problems don't challenge him at all. Paul Vitti, Godfather, has a few problems as well: Sudden anxiety attacks in public, a certain disability to kill people and his best part ceasing service when needed. One day, Ben unfortunately crashes into one of Vitti's cars. The exchange of Ben's business card is followed by a business visit of Don Paul Vitti himself, who wants to be free of inner conflict within two weeks, before all the Mafia Dons meet. Now, Ben Sobol feels somewhat challenged, as his wedding is soon, his only patient keeps him busy by regarding Ben's duty as a 24 hour standby and the feds keep forcing him to spy on Paul Vitti. And how do you treat a patient who usually solves problems with a gun?

Otto Preminger
Drama
Carlyle Productions

Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara), a lieutenant in the army, is arrested for the murder of a bartender, Barney Quill. He claims, in his defense, that the victim had raped and beaten up his wife Laura (Lee Remick). Although Laura supports her husband's story, the police surgeon can find no evidence that she has been raped. Manion is defended by Paul Biegler (James Stewart), a rather humble small-town lawyer. During the course of interviews, Biegler discovers that Manion is violently possessive and jealous, and also that his wife has a reputation for giving her favors to other men. Biegler realizes that the prosecution will try to make the court believe that Laura was the lover of the bartender and than Manion killed him and beat her up when he discovered them together. Manion pleads "not guilty" and Biegler, who knows that his case is weak, sets his assistants to try to find a witness who will save Manion.

Adam McKay
Comedy
DreamWorks SKG
PG-13
Ron Burgundy (Ferrell) is the top-rated anchorman in San Diego in the '70s. When feminism marches into the newsroom in the form of ambitious newswoman Veronica Corningstone (Applegate), Ron is willing to play along at first-as long as Veronica stays in her place, covering cat fashion shows, cooking, and other "female" interests. But when Veronica refuses to settle for being eye candy and steps behind the news desk, it's more than a battle between two perfectly coiffed anchor-persons... it's war.

Roger Vadim
Classic Films
Arrow Films
Suitable for 18 years and over
Despite being directed by Roger Vadim, this "And God Created Woman" is not the 1956 classic but a loose remake from some 30 years later (1987) which attempts to update the original's themes. Rebecca De Mornay takes the central role, this time as Robin, a woman released from jail on parole due to her recent marriage to Billy (Vincent Spano). Once on the outside, she pursues her dreams of rock stardom and enters into a love triangle with state governor elect, James Tiernan (Frank Langella). Whereas Vadim's own original film may have exuded unspoken sexual tension (in no small part due to its star, Brigette Bardot), any pretence of subtlety here is lost as De Mornay sheds her clothes at every possible opportunity in the film's series of soft porn sex scenes, all accompanied--as indeed is virtually every moment of the film--by an appalling 80s rock soundtrack. The acting is uniformly awful, with De Mornay taking the prize for the worst performance of all, fighting a losing battle for the viewer's attention with her seemingly ever-growing hair. Indeed, "And God Created Woman" is best recommended to those who gleefully indulge in the worst that the cinematic arts have to offer and it would easily feature in a top ten of most awful films of recent years.
On the DVD: Alongside the chapter selection facility, the various filmographies point to what a waste of potential talent this film is. With the picture quality unable to improve on the TV-movie feel of the whole project, the audio presents the horrible American rock backing in all its glory--despite that fact the music sequences are amongst the most laughingly unconvincing ever committed to celluloid. --"Phil Udell"

Ian MacNaughton
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG
A collection of re-filmed sketches from the first and second series of the cult TV comedy show "Monty Python's Flying Circus". Includes such classics as "Nudge, Nudge", "Hell's Grannies", "Killer Cars", "Dead Parrot", "Lumberjack Song", "Blackmail" and "Upper Class Twit of the Year".

Louis Malle
Documentary
Pretty Mouse Films

After acknowledging his own immigrant background, Malle, tries to present the range of immigrant experiences in the US during the 1980's. In an attempt to be comprehensive, the film includes interviews with migrant workers and illegal entrants along the Mexican border, conversations with an enterprising Indian motel owner, coverage of industrious African and Asian families in the cities, an extensive interview with the first Costa Rican astronaut, visits with Cuban exiles in Miami, several conversations with West Indian poet Derek Walcott, an extended portrait of the deposed Nicaraguan General Samoza (the surviving brother of Anastasio Somoza Debayle) and his extended family. The film finishes with a brief visit to the Russian Jewish community in Brooklyn, NY to tie in with the centenary of the Statue of Liberty.

Federico Fellini
Comedy
Vides Cinematografica

In July 1914 a luxury liner leaves Italy with the ashes of the famous opera singer Tetua. The boat is filled with her friends, opera singers, actors and all kinds of exotic people. Life is sweet the first days, but on the third day the captain has to save a a large number of Serbian refugees from the sea, refugees who had escaped the first tremors of WWI.

Andrei Tarkovsky
Drama
Mosfilm

Andreiv Rublev charts the life of the great icon painter through a turbulent period of 15th Century Russian history, a period marked by endless fighting between rival Princes and by Tatar invasions.

Various
Comedy, Crime

Bob Sweeney, Don Weis, Gene Reynolds, Sheldon Leonard
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
Since its network debut in 1960, "The Andy Griffith Show" has been a viewer favorite thanks to its folksy, nostalgic charm and memorable cast, both of which shine in this set featuring the series' debut season. Originally spun off from an episode of "Make Room for Daddy" (both series shared producers Sheldon Leonard and Danny Thomas), "The Andy Griffith Show" centered around the lives of small-town sheriff Andy Taylor (the marvelously dry Griffith), his son Opie (Ron Howard), cousin and deputy Barney Fife (multiple Emmy winner Don Knotts), and the other gentle eccentrics of Mayberry (which was based on Griffith's real hometown). But while other "rural" programs poked fun at its characters ("The Real McCoys", "The Beverly Hillbillies"), "The Andy Griffith Show" never stooped to stereotypes, preferring instead to draw its humor from the fine writing and cast, which counted Frances Bavier as Aunt Bee, Howard McNear as Floyd the Barber, and Hal Campbell as Mayberry's benevolent drunk, Otis, among the first season ensemble. All 32 episodes (including the epilogues, which are rarely aired in syndication) are compiled on this four-disc set, which regrettably lacks any supplemental features. "--Paul Gaita"

Bob Sweeney
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
"The Andy Griffith Show" returns on DVD with its complete second season, a five-disc collector’s set of 31 episodes more memorable than one of Aunt Bee’s "kerosene cucumbers." Set in the small town of Mayberry, the television series (1960-1968) followed the hilarious antics of widower Sheriff Andy Taylor (Andy Griffith), his son Opie (Ron Howard), and Deputy Barney Fife (Don Knotts). It has achieved cult status as one of television’s most beloved sitcoms for its stellar cast, pristine comedy, and nostalgic charm. By season two, the series found its tone and tenor, proved by such classic episodes as "The Pickle Story," "The Manicurist," and "Barney and the Choir." After viewers endure (or skip) Paramount’s half dozen promotional trailers at the beginning of disc one, they can bask in 13 hours of restored, uninterrupted, black and white television magic. The season’s parade of guest stars includes Barbara Eden, Buddy Ebsen, Alan Hale Jr., Bill Bixby, and Sterling Holloway. Whereas the first season’s DVD set was without bonus material, this collection features sponsor spots, original commercial advertisements (linked to individual episodes) where the show’s cast members promote brands such as "Sanka" coffee and "Post" breakfast cereals--a guaranteed smile. (All ages) "--Lynn Gibson"

Bob Sweeney, Charles Irving
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
"The Andy Griffith Show" hit its stride during its third season (1962-63), admirably restored in this five-disc, 32-episode boxed set. Andy Griffith perfects his levelheaded Sheriff Andy Taylor; Don Knotts is unsurpassed as the comically neurotic Barney Fife; and Ron Howard continues his legendary run as earnest Opie. The season opens with the endearing episode "Mr. McBeevee," Opie's friend in the trees who Andy believes to be a figment of his son's imagination. From there, every disc contains renowned classics, such as "Floyd, the Gay Deceiver" starring the dashing Howard McNear; "Andy and Opie, Bachelors" offering some of the season's greatest quips; and "The Darlings Are Coming," that crazy clan of mountain musicians including the overtly flirtatious Charlene. The season is acclaimed for introducing several new, recurring characters into the cast including Gomer Pyle (Jim Nabors), "Miss Peggy" (Joanna Moore), and Helen Crump (Aneta Corsaut). Except for two episodes missing closing epilogue scenes (which Paramount discloses), the set contains 13 hours of full-length, uncut, black-and-white magic. Also included is the originally aired "Fishin' Hole" theme music throughout the collection, as well as more than two dozen "Sponsor Spots," vintage commercial advertisements featuring the show's cast. Don't miss the season highlight, "Man In A Hurry," a touching story where Malcolm Tucker delivers the now-famous summation of Mayberry, "Outrageous… a whole town is standing still because two old women's feet fall asleep," precisely the reason why this beloved sitcom remains a timeless treasure. (All ages) --"Lynn Gibson"

Aaron Ruben, Coby Ruskin, Earl Bellamy, Jeffrey Hayden, Richard Crenna
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
Goober fans, rejoice--the arrival of George Lindsay's popular character is just one of the homespun joys of "The Andy Griffith Show"'s fourth season, which has been compiled on this five-disc set. Lindsay as Goober Pyle, cousin to Jim Nabors's Gomer, makes his debut in one of the season's funniest episodes, "Fun Girls," which is also the only time Gomer and Goober appeared together on screen. By season's end, Gomer would depart for his own series (season 4's final episode, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," would serve as the pilot for that program), but before then, he enjoyed some fine episodes, including "Andy Saves Gomer" (from a fire at the filing station) and "Citizen's Arrest" (a knockout showcase for Nabors and Don Knotts, who is topnotch, as always, as Barney Fife). Other supporting characters get a spotlight or two in season 4, including Howard Morris's Ernest T. Bass ("Hot Rod Otis, "Otis T. Bass Joins the Army") and Denver Pyle and Maggie Peterson's Briscoe and Charlene Darling ("Briscoe Declares for Aunt Bee"), but of course, the crux of the show remains Andy and son Opie (Ron Howard), who do stand-out work in the well-loved "Opie the Birdman," which addresses serious topics--death and responsibility--in the series' typically warm and humane manner. No supplemental features accompany the 32 black-and-white episodes, but that won't detract one bit from spending some quality time with the good people of Mayberry. "--Paul Gaita"

Aaron Ruben, Alan Rafkin, Coby Ruskin, Gene Nelson, Howard Morris
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
When did Mayberry turn into Potterville? In "The Andy Griffith Show"'s fifth season, Opie (Ronny Howard) buys silk stockings for an older woman, and publishes all of Mayberry's gossip in a scandal sheet. Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith) is accused of gross malfeasance. A former beau of Aunt Bee's tries to shake Andy down for $400. Bee herself (Frances Bavier) is a victim of a carny purse-snatching ring. And recidivists Otis (Hal Smith) and Ernest T. (Howard Morris) continue their drinking and rock-throwing unabated. As Bee wails in "Banjo-Playing Deputy," "What's this world coming to?" Not to worry. This is, after all, Mayberry, and Andy still has the patience, understanding and country smarts to restore calm and order. In "TV or Not TV," he sees through bank robbers (led by Gavin MacLeod) posing as a Hollywood film crew. In "Opie and the Carnival," he takes aim at two crooked barkers who have rigged a sharpshooting game. As the sheriff of Mayberry, much of his time is spent bailing out his hapless deputy, Barney Fife (Don Knotts). In "Barney's Uniform," Andy recruits a judo instructor to stand in when Barney is threatened by a disgruntled citizen.
Season 5 marked two notable lasts for this beloved series, which never fell below the Top Seven in the ratings. This was the last season in black and white. More devastating, it was multi-Emmy-winner Knotts' last season as Barney Fife. By the penultimate episode, "Opie and the Carnival," he is just gone, an unceremonious departure for an iconic character so integral to the show's success. That "Banjo-Playing Deputy" in the season finale is Jerry Van Dyke, who might have been a worthy replacement for Knotts. Instead, he reportedly turned down the role to star in his own sitcom, "My Mother, the Car". The rest is TV infamy. By this time, though, "The Andy Griffith Show"'s best years were behind it. But this season contains at least two classics, "Goodbye Sheriff Taylor," in which Barney is sheriff for a day while Andy interviews for a job in Raleigh, and "The Case of the Punch in the Nose," in which Barney reopens an unresolved 1946 case involving Floyd the Barber and Charley Foley. And with episodes featuring the late Howard Morris' Ernest T. ("The Education of Ernest T."), the Darling family ("The Darling Baby"), Mt. Pilot "fun girls" Skippy and Daphne ("The Arrest of the Fun Girls"), and a guest star turn by Don Rickles ("The Luck of Newton Monroe"), "Andy Griffith Show" devotees are advised to take the "Fifth". "--Donald Liebenson"

Alan Rafkin, Gary Nelson, Lawrence Dobkin, Lee Philips, Peter Baldwin
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
Ask a certain portion of diehard "Andy Griffith Show " fans why the series' sixth season (1965-66) is less well-loved than others from its eight-year run, and the answer boils down to four words: "Warren Ferguson" and "color episodes." Played by veteran comedian and writer Jack Burns, Warren was the replacement for Don Knotts' Barney Fife as Andy's sheriff, and lasted for just eleven of the season's 30 episodes before vanishing without a trace. The brickbats heaved at Warren are undeserved, though; replacing the multi-Emmy-winning Knotts was a task that few performers would have relished facing (and indeed, Knotts earned another Emmy for his return to the series in two episodes, "The Return of Barney Fife" and "The Legend of Barney Fife"), and Burns certainly gives his all (including his signature, rapid-fire "huh-huh-huh" gag line) to the character. He's no Barney Fife, and who could be, aside from Knotts? As for the color issue, the debate seems to be centered entirely around preference, although it's true that in syndication, viewer response has been traditionally stronger to the black-and-white broadcasts of seasons 1-5.
Aside from the Barney/Warren and color controversies, the sixth season is notable for the final appearances of supporting characters Malcolm Merriweather (Bernard Fox) and Ernest T. Bass (the great Howard Morris) in "Malcolm at the Crossroads" (in which the pair tangle over a crosswalk), as well as such fun episodes as "The Taylors in Hollywood" (Andy, Opie, and Aunt Bee react to a movie being made about them, with "The Love Boat"'s Gavin McLeod as the movie Andy); "Andy's Rival" (Charles Aidman guest stars as a new teacher whose working relationship with Helen Crump makes Andy nervous); and "Otis the Artist" (an amusing Warren episode, in which he suggests painting to Otis as a substitute for drinking). "Andy Griffith" completists will also note the presence of Jack Dodson in the episode "Lost and Found"; Dodson would later join the series as Deputy Howard Sprague and transition with most of the supporting cast to "Mayberry R.F.D." As with previous Griffith boxed sets, this five-disc set features no extras. "--Paul Gaita"

Lee Philips
Television
Paramount
Unrated
"The Andy Griffith Show"'s seventh season (1966-67) was the beginning of the end for the venerable family comedy (Griffith brought it to a close with the next season), but the gentle humor and likable characters that helped make it one of the most popular series on television are still in fine form. Chief among the season's plusses is a two-episode return visit from Don Knotts as Barney Fife--in "A Visit to Barney Fife," Andy helps his former deputy find his footing at his new precinct in Raleigh, North Carolina, while in "Barney Comes to Mayberry," Barney reunites with his old flame, Irene Flogg, now a glamorous movie star. The latter episode, among the most popular of the series, won Knotts his fifth Emmy for portraying Barney. Otherwise, it's business as usual in Mayberry, with series regulars Frances Bavier (Aunt Bee), George Lindsey (Goober), Hal Smith (Otis), and a very grown-up Ron Howard (Opie) delivering their usual warm and funny performances. The show's new face, Jack Dodson (later Mickey Malph on "Happy Days") fares considerably better as a Barney substitute than the ill-fated Jack Burns; as mother-dominated town clerk Howard Sprague, Dodson gets some very funny moments, especially in "Howard the Comedian," where he embarrasses the citizens of Mayberry with his TV standup debut. Also on hand: Aneta Corsaut as Helen Crump, Denver Pyle and the Dillards as the hillbilly collective known as the Darling Family, and an ailing Howard McNear as Floyd the barber; McNear had suffered a stroke and lost much of his mobility, but Griffith made arrangements that allowed him to continue on the show in a more relaxed capacity. Though perhaps not up to par with its earlier, black-and-white episodes, the seventh season of "The Andy Griffith Show" still has plenty of what made the show an enduring classic: low-key charm and homespun humor. The five-disc set has no supplemental features. "--Paul Gaita"

Various
Television
Paramount
Unrated
All good things must come to an end--even a classic TV series like "The Andy Griffith Show"--but most would hope to close out their network run like the venerable rural comedy series did, with its popularity intact (Griffith brought the show to a close with its ratings at #1) and its episodes still featuring the gentle, observant humor that marked every visit to Mayberry since its debut in 1960. Few changes can be seen in the 30 episodes compiled here, save for the color broadcast (which came to pass during the '65-'66 season) and the arrival of Sam Jones (the likable Ken Berry), another amiable widower who became the focus of the spin-off series, "Mayberry R.F.D." Otherwise, it's business as usual in Mayberry, which includes a welcome return visit from Don Knotts' Barney Fife (in "Barney Hosts a Summit Meeting," where he convinces Andy to let the U.S. and Soviet governments host a summit in his home), a turn in the role of deputy for Goober (George Lindsay) in "Suppose Andy Gets Sick," a great deal of tomfoolery by newer characters Howard Sprague (Jack Dodson) and Emmett Clark (Paul Hartman), and guest appearances by Jack Nicholson ("Aunt Bee the Juror"), Allan ("The Brady Bunch") Melvin ("Howard's Main Event") and Morgan Brittany as "Opie's First Love." Fans may debate on the quality of the final season in comparison to those that preceded it (and to be fair, there are a handful of less-than-stellar episodes, most notably "Opie's Group," which finds Andy's son joining a rock band), but the comfortable performances by the cast help to smooth over any rough patches. As with all previous "Griffith" boxed sets, no extras are featured here. " -- Paul Gaita"

Unknown
Comedy

Dick Carter
Comedy
Public Broadcasting Service (PBS)

Lynne Margulies, Joe Orr
Documentary
Joe Lynne Productions Inc.

Wrestling documentry about comedian Andy Kauffman's break into professional wrestling. Mainly focuses on his feud with Memphis wrestling legend, Jerry "The King" Lawler, and features interviews from his "Taxi" co-stars, announcer Lance Russell, and Robin Williams.

Linda Lautrec, Johnny Legend
Comedy


Andy Kaufman's ridiculous parody of "My Dinner With Andre" sets Andy Kaufman, playing himself, at an early-morning breakfast with former wrestling champion Fred Blassie. Andy and Fred discuss wrestling (Andy's success with wrestling women is discussed at length), then change the topic to techniques for keeping your hands clean, why not to eat pancakes or waffles, giving autographs to fans, and other topics not nearly as intellectual as the ones discussed in My Dinner With Andre. As with much of Andy Kaufman's work, My Breakfast with Blassie is extremely self-deprecating, showing Kaufman as being timid yet egotistical, using his role as Latka on Taxi as a way of trying to impress people. The video explores the egotism that develops with stardom, as well as the desire to lead a private life: the double-edged sword of being a recognizable celebrity.

Unknown
Comedy
KSW Productions

Andy Ackerman, Bryan Gordon, Jay Chandrasekhar, John Fortenberry, Lee Shallat Chemel
Comedy
Garfield Grove Productions
NR
Andy is a short story writer, who makes his living by working at a huge faceless company in present day Chicago, writing Technical Manuals. In his active, fertile, writer's imagination, we see (and hear as he narrates) the stories of his daily life, as they should be, could be, might be, and even actually how they are. Andy shares his office with the company's newest employee, and Andy's newest friend, the frail, jumpy, odd, loveable Byron. Also inhabiting Andy's world is his best friend Keith, who is "so good looking" that Andy must fight his own "prejudice against the 'attractive,' who seem to get everything they want, unlike ordinary humans." Supervisor Jessica is also Andy's longtime friend and uses her lightening sharp tongue to keep the group out of, or at times, to get the group INTO trouble. The newer receptionist Wendy (Irene Molloy, "Grosse Pointe"), whom Andy first had a crush on, is dating Keith (somewhat proving Andy's "Attractive Theory").

Ric Burns
Documentary
High Line Productions

James Edward Grant
Romance
John Wayne Productions

Quirt Evens an all round bad guy is nursed back to health and sought after by Penelope Worth a quaker girl. He eventually finds himself having to choose from his world or the world from which Penelope lives by.

Jane Campion
Biography
Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC)

Janet Frame grows up in a poor family with lots of brothers and sisters. Already at an early age she is different than the other kids. She gets an education as a teacher but since she is considered abnormal she is locked up in a mental institution for eight years. Success comes when she starts to write books.

Alan Parker
Fantasy
Carolco International N.V.
R
Harry Angel has a new case, to find a man called Johnny Favourite. Except things aren't quite that simple, and Johnny doesn't want to be found. Let's just say that, amongst the period detail and beautiful scenery, it all gets really, really nasty.

Alan Parker
Drama
David Brown Productions
R
Based on the best selling autobiography by Irish expat Frank McCourt, Angela's Ashes follows the experiences of young Frankie and his family as they try against all odds to escape the poverty endemic in the slums of pre-war Limerick. The film opens with the family in Brooklyn, but following the death of one of Frankie's siblings, they return home, only to find the situation there even worse. Prejudice against Frankie's Northern Irish father makes his search for employment in the Republic difficult despite his having fought for the IRA, and when he does find money, he spends the money on drink.

Mike Nichols
Drama
Avenue Pictures Productions

God has abandoned Heaven. It's 1985: the Reagans are in the White House and Death swings the scythe of AIDS. In Manhattan, Prior Walter tells Lou, his lover of four years, he's ill; Lou bolts. As disease and loneliness ravage Prior, guilt invades Lou. Joe Pitt, an attorney who is Mormon and Republican, is pushed by right-wing fixer Roy Cohn toward a job at the Justice Department. Both Pitt and Cohn are in the closet: Pitt out of shame and religious turmoil, Cohn to preserve his power and access. Pitt's wife Harper is strung out on Valium, aching to escape a sexless marriage. An angel invites Prior to be a prophet in death. Pitt's mother and Belize, a close friend, help Prior choose.

Michael Curtiz
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures

Rocky Sullivan and Jerry Connolly were tough kids who grew up together in the toughest part of New York --- Hell's Kitchen. Early on, Rocky gets sent to reform school, where he learns how to be a first class criminal. Jerry, who had escaped from the law, goes straight and becomes a priest. As adults, they reunite in the old neighborhood: Jerry works with the kids who, like he and Rocky, could end up on either side of the law. Rocky has returned looking for a safe place to stay till he can get back into his old racketeering organization -- something that his old partner isn't anxious to have happen. Lots of rapid fire wisecracks, roughhousing and gunfire ensues.

Victor Heerman
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
G
Captain Spaulding, the noted explorer, returns from Africa and attends a gala party held by Mrs. Rittenhouse. A painting displayed at that party is stolen, and the Marxes help recover it. Well, maybe 'help' isn't quite the word I was looking for--this is the Marx Brothers, after all...

Steve Buscemi
Crime
Animal Productions LLC
R
Ron, who's young, slight, and privileged, is sentenced to prison on marijuana charges. For whatever reason, he brings out paternal feelings in an 18-year prison veteran, Earl Copan, who takes Ron under his wing. The film explores the nature of that relationship, Ron's part in Earl's gang, and the way Ron deals with aggressive cons intent on assault and rape. There's casual racism, too, in the prisoners and the guards, a strike called by Black prisoners, and the nearly omnipresence of hard drugs. Ron's lawyer is working on getting Ron out quickly, Earl has a shot at parole, and death seems to be waiting in the next cell. Will prison turn Ron into an animal?

Mahiro Maeda
Animation
Studio 4°C

With the robot city isolated and it's ambassadors ejected form the United Nations, a trade war begins to protect the human economy from superior products. When the trade war escalates into war the machines begin a seemingly unstoppable march across the globe. With solutions running out man darkens the sky to try and shut out the machine's main energy source, but the machines keep coming.

Woody Allen
Comedy
Rollins-Joffe Productions
PG
Romantic adventures of neurotic New York comedian Alvy Singer and his equally neurotic girlfriend Annie Hall. The film traces the course of their relationship from their first meeting, and serves as an interesting historical document about love in the 1970s.

Alan Cumming, Jennifer Jason Leigh
Drama
Fine Line Features
R
Celebrity couple Joe and Sally Therrian are going through yet another rough stage in their six-year marriage: while Joe's novels have been climbing higher and higher on the best-seller lists, Sally's film career has been steadily sinking into oblivion. Joe's been given the rights to cast and direct the screenplay of his latest book, but rather than resurrect Sally's career by casting her in the lead role, he's given it to Sally's rival, Skye Davidson. Even worse, he's invited Skye to their anniversary bash. Will the marriage, or anything else for that matter, survive the party?

Walter Hill
Action
Eddie Murphy Productions
R
For the past four years, San Francisco cop Jack Cates has been after an unidentified drug kingpin who calls himself the "Ice Man". At the Hunter's Point Raceway, Jack confronts Tyrone Burroughs and Arthur Brock. Jack kills Brock in self defense, but Burroughs escapes, and Jack is in danger of going to prison because Brock's gun can't be found. Jack finds a picture that proves that the Ice Man has put a price on the head of Reggie Hammond, who is scheduled to be released from prison on the next day. Jack tries to convince Reggie to help him clear his name and find the Ice Man, but Reggie says he won't help unless Jack gives Reggie the $500,000 that Jack has been holding on to for Reggie. Jack refuses to give Reggie the money unless Reggie helps him. After the bus that is transporting Reggie away from the prison is forced to crash by two bikers and Jack gets shot by the same two bikers, Jack forces Reggie to help him by having the hospital release Reggie into his custody. Reggie recognized one of the bikers as Richard "Cherry" Ganz, the brother of Albert Ganz, the escaped convict Jack killed years ago. Jack got shot because Cherry wants revenge for Albert's death, and Cherry and his partner Willie Hickok are the hitmen who have been hired to kill Reggie. Burroughs, who works for the Ice Man, was trying to hire Brock as insurance, just in case Cherry and Hickok fail. Blake Wilson, the head of the Internal Affairs division, obviously doesn't like Jack, because Wilson will stop at nothing to prosecute Jack for manslaughter in Brock's death, and it turns out that the Ice Man put a price on Reggie's head because Reggie knows who the Ice Man is someone Jack never expected it to be.

W.S. Van Dyke
Comedy
Loew's

In this adaptation of Dashiell Hammett's "The Farewell Murder", Nick and Nora (and their dog Asta) visit the estate of Col. MacFay, who is being threatened by a mysterious man wanting revenge for a past injustice. When MacFay is murdered, that man is the obvious suspect- maybe too obvious...

Woody Allen
Drama
Jack Rollins & Charles H. Joffe Productions
PG
Marion is a woman who has learned to shield herself from her emotions. She rents an apartment to work undisturbed on her new book, but by some acoustic anomaly she can hear all that is said in the next apartment in which a psychiatrist holds his office. When she hears a young woman tell that she finds it harder and harder to bear her life, Marion starts to reflect on her own life. After a series of events she comes to understand how her unemotional attitude towards the people around her affected them and herself.

Maurice Phillips
Comedy
TriStar Pictures
R
George has been in a mental hospital for 3 years and is finally ready to go out into the real world again. Eddie Dash, a dedicated con-man, is supposed to keep him out of trouble, but when people begin to recognize George as the missing millionaire Abe, Eddie wants to take advantage of the situation.

John Hindman
Action & Adventure
Magnolia Pictures
R
Everyone wants to meet Arlen Faber, the world famous author of the best-selling spiritual book "Me and God", but crotchety, disgruntled Arlen simply wants to be left alone - and so far he's been successful in keeping his identity a secret. But all that changes when troubled bookstore owner Kris Lucas discovers his home address and barters books for Arlen's words of wisdom, and a back injury leads the reclusive writer to begin dating chiropractor and overprotective single mother Elizabeth. As Arlen's relationships with his newfound friends begin to grow, he must come to terms with his past and the realization that he doesn't hold all the answers.

François Truffaut
Short
Les Films du Carrosse

Hiroshi Teshigahara
Documentary
Teshigahara Productions

Hiroshi Teshigahara's camera takes us over, under, around, and into buildings and a park designed by Antonio Gaudí (1852 - 1926), Catalan architect, ceramist, and sculptor. Teshigahara suggests the influence of Romanesque churches and monasteries on Gaudí and the influence of the caves and crags of Montserrat, close to Barcelona. Every line of Gaudí's seems curved, and no surface is without textures. With little narration, the film takes us through Casa Vicens, projects for the industrialist Güell (including the Crypt of the Colònia Güell and Park Güell), Casa Batlló, Casa Milà, and Barcelona's landmark, the unfinished Templo de La Sagrada Familia.

Denzel Washington
Biography
Fox Searchlight Pictures
PG-13
A sailor prone to violent outbursts is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew.

Eric Darnell, Tim Johnson
Animation
DreamWorks SKG
PG
In an anthill with millions of inhabitants, Z 4195 is a worker ant. Feeling insignificant in a conformity system, he accidentally meets beautiful Princess Bala, who has a similar problem on the other end of the social scale. In order to meet her again, Z switches sides with his soldier friend Weaver - only to become a hero in the course of events. By this he unwillingly crosses the sinister plans of ambitious General Mandible (Bala's fiancé, by the way), who wants to divide the ant society into a superior, strong race (soldiers) and an inferior, to-be-eliminated race (the workers). But Z and Bala, both unaware of the dangerous situation, try to leave the oppressive system by heading for Insectopia, a place where food paves the streets.

Oliver Stone
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
When a devastating hit knocks a professional football legend and quarterback Cap Rooney (Denis Quaid) out of the game, a young, unknown third-stringer is called in to replace him. Having ridden the bench for years because of a string of bad luck stories and perhaps insufficient character, Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) seizes what may be his last chance, and lights up the field with a raw display of athletic prowess. His stunning performance over several games is so outstanding and fresh it seems to augur a new era in the history of this Miami franchise, and forces aging coach Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino) to reevaluate his time-tested values and strategies and begin to confront the fact that the game, as well as post-modern life may be passing him by. Adding to the pressure on D'Amato to win at any cost is the aggressive young President/Co-owner of the team, Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), now coming into her own after her father's death. Christina's driving desire to prove herself in a male dominated world is intensified by her focus on the marketing and business of football, in which all coaches and players are merely properties.

Robert Berlinger
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
Welcome to Chemistry 101, class. "Anything but Love", a charming, quirky romantic-comedy series that debuted in 1989, stars Jamie-Lee Curtis, then at the height of her film career, and comedian Richard Lewis as journalistic colleagues with an undeniable romantic pull between them. The first volume of episodes showcases the crackling connection between Hannah (Curtis) and Marty (Lewis), which kept the show fizzy, and not fizzled--like "Cheers", "Moonlighting", and other sitcoms in which romantic tension died after "the deed." Curtis shows her best screwball chops as an ace reporter, struggling with her feelings, her friendship, and her work assignments with Marty, who’s a fumbling but well-meaning foil. Besides the two stars, the show features a great sidekick in Ann Magnuson, and cool cameos; look for memorable appearances by John Ritter and an elegant Wendie Malick. The set includes 28 episodes on three discs; it spans slightly more than a full season, from its debut in March of 1989 as a mid-season replacement through that fall and the spring of 1990. Extras include commentaries by Curtis (still the mistress of the dryly witty crack), Lewis, and director Robert Berlinger, and two featurettes on the creation of and tidbits from the show, "All About "Anything but Love" and "Stories from the Set." Let the sparking begin. "--A.T. Hurley"

Woody Allen
Comedy
Canal+
R
In medias res: narrator Jerry Falk, a fledgling comedy writer with an inept agent, is about to celebrate an anniversary with his girlfriend Amanda. There's trouble in paradise: she's late (and has already eaten), she's been uninterested in sex for months, and her quixotic mother is moving in with them. Jerry looks back to meeting Amanda and dumping Brooke. A constant is his friendship with another wannabe comedy writer, a 60 year old teacher named David, prone to long walks and advice filled talks. As Amanda and Jerry's relationship founders and her mom's noisy presence makes writing difficult for him, he and David plan something different. Wouldn't anything else be better?

Billy Wilder
Romance
Mirisch Corporation, The

Bud Baxter is a struggling clerk in a huge New York insurance company. He's discovered a quick way to climb the corporate ladder - by lending out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. He often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits and one night he's left with a major problem to solve.

William Nigh
Drama
Monogram Pictures Corporation

Dr. Bernard Adrian is a kindly mad scientist who seeks to cure a young woman's polio. He needs spinal fluid from a human to complete the formula for his experimental serum. Meanwhile, a vicious circus ape has broken out of its cage, and is terrorizing towns people.

William Beaudine
Horror
Banner Productions

Conducting weird scientific experiments, crazed Dr. James Brewster, aided by his colleague Dr. Randall, has managed to transform himself into a hairy, stooped-over ape-man. Desperately seeking a cure, Brewster believes only an injection of recently-drawn human spinal fluid will prove effective. With Randall refusing to help him, it falls to Brewster and his captive gorilla to find appropriate donors.

Francis Ford Coppola
Action
Zoetrope Studios
R
Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. Set in 1969 Vietnam, we follow U.S. Special Forces Captain Willard on his mission up a river into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

Francis Ford Coppola
Action
Zoetrope Studios
R
Based on Joseph Conrad's Heart Of Darkness, this is a controversial addition to the multitude of Vietnam war movies in existence. Set in 1969 Vietnam, we follow U.S. Special Forces Captain Willard on his mission up a river into Cambodia to assassinate a renegade Green Beret who has set himself up as a God among a local tribe.

Ron Howard
Adventure
Universal Pictures
PG
Based off of real events of one of the worst NASA tragedy's. In 1971, NASA plans to send out people to the Moon for a lunar mission. They have chosen astronauts Jim Lovell, Frad Haise, and Jack Swigert. They have launched into outer space successfully, however, a slight fault from inside the space module caused an explosion that turned the exploration into a test for survival for the crew of Apollo 13. While Loveel, Haise, and Swigert try to survive in space. The workers at NASA (including Ken Mattingly) try to figure out a way to get the astronauts home safely.

Robert Duvall
Drama
Butcher's Run Films
PG-13
Eulis 'Sonny' Dewey is a preacher from Texas living a happy life with his beautiful wife Jessie. Suddenly his stable world crumbles: Jessie is having an affair with young minister Horace. Sonny gets enraged and hits Horace with a softball bat, putting him into a coma. After that he leaves town, takes a new name, 'Apostle E.F.' and goes to Louisiana. There he starts to work as a mechanic for local radio station owner Elmo, and Elmo lets him preach on the radio. E.F. starts to preach everywhere: on the radio, on the streets, and with his new friend, Reverend Blackwell he starts a campaign to renovate an old church.

Sidney J. Furie
Western
Universal Pictures

Matt Fletcher, a Mexican-American buffalo hunter is constantly harassed and humiliated by bandit general Chuy Medina. When the bandit steals his horse - the appaloosa of the title - he sets out to even scores; at the climax, single-handedly, he takes on the whole gang.

Ed Harris
Western
New Line Home Video
R
Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 01/13/2009 Run time: 116 minutes Rating: R

Fred Walton
Horror
Hometown Films

A group of eight college friends gather together at an island mansion belonging to heiress Muffy St. John to celebrate their final year of school. They soon discover that each has a hidden secret from their past which is revealed, and soon after, they turn up dead. Yet, are they really dead? Or is it just part of some very real and cruel April Fool's jokes? The hostess, Muffy, is the only one who apparently knows what's going on. But then again, is it really her doing the killing?

Bryan Singer
Drama
Apt Pupil Productions
R
Neighborhood boy Todd Bowden (Renfro) discovers that an old man living on his block named Arthur Denker (Mackellan) is nazi war criminal. Bowden confronts Denker and offers him a deal: Bowden will not go to the authorities if Denker tells him stories of the concentration camps in WWII. Denker agrees and Bowden starts visiting him regularly. The more stories Bowden hears, the more it affects his personality.

Atom Egoyan
Drama
ARP Sélection
R
People tell stories. In Toronto, an art historian lectures on Arshile Gorky (1904?-1948), an Armenian painter who lived through the genocide in Turkey in 1915. A director invites the historian to help him include Gorky's story in a film about the genocide and Turkish assault on the town of Van. The historian's family is under stress: her son is in love with his step-sister, who blames the historian for the death of her father. The daughter wants to revisit her father's death and change that story. An aging customs agent tells his son about his long interview with the historian's son, who has returned from Turkey with canisters of film. Parents and children. All the stories connect.

Brian Levant
Adventure
Revolution Studios
PG
The fledgling romance between Nick, a playboy bachelor, and Suzanne, a divorced mother of two, is threatened by a particularly harrowing New Year's Eve. When Suzanne's work keeps her in Vancouver for the holiday, Nick offers to bring her kids to the city from Portland, Oregon. The kids, who have never liked any of the men their mom has dated, are determined to turn the trip into a nightmare for Nick.

Steve Carver
Action
New World Pictures

Two thousand years ago, the people of Rome are so blasée, so used to violence, that entertaining them becomes a political problem. Someone suggests, after a hectic girl fight in a kitchen between a Nubian and a Viking slave, as a joke, that they should fight in the arena, instead of male gladiators. The idea is approved, though - and a female "Spartacus" theme follows.

Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford
Comedy
R.V.P. Productions

Ten short pieces directed by ten different directors, including Ken Russell, Jean-Luc Godard, Robert Altman, Bruce Beresford, and Nicolas Roeg. Each short uses an aria as soundtrack/sound (Vivaldi, Bach, Wagner), and is an interpretation of the particular aria.

Paul Provenza
Documentary
Mighty Cheese Productions

Comedy veterans and co-creators Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza capitalize on their insider status and invite over 100 of their closest friends--who happen to be some of the biggest names in entertainment, from George Carlin, Whoopi Goldberg and Drew Carey to Gilbert Gottfried, Bob Saget, Paul Reiser and Sarah Silverman--to reminisce, analyze, deconstruct and deliver their own versions of the world's dirtiest joke, an old burlesque too extreme to be performed in public, called "The Aristocrats."

Emir Kusturica
Comedy
Canal+

An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer. He's happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle's wedding. It's a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord. He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles.

Emir Kusturica
Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Canal+
R
An Innuit hunter races his sled home with a fresh-caught halibut. This fish pervades the entire film, in real and imaginary form. Meanwhile, Axel tags fish in New York as a naturalist's gofer. He's happy there, but a messenger arrives to bring him to Arizona for his uncle's wedding. It's a ruse to get Axel into the family business. In Arizona, Axel meets two odd women: vivacious, needy, and plagued by neuroses and familial discord. He gets romantically involved with one, while the other, rich but depressed, plays accordion tunes to a gaggle of pet turtles.

Mark Pellington
Thriller
Arlington Road Productions Corporation
R
Widowed when his FBI agent wife is killed in an FBI anti-terrorist operation gone wrong, a college professor (Bridges) becomes increasingly obsessed with the culture and sub-society of these dangerous groups. The arrival of new neighbors (Robbins, Cusack), gives him new spirit, as they are gregarious and friendly, with two children (Gamble, Green) that his son (Clark) can be friends with. He is even beginning to see another woman (Davis). However, he begins to suspect something is odd about the neighbors, something about the way they don't want him to see certain parts of the house, or a set of blueprints they have there. Are his neighbors terrorists... or is the stress of losing his wife merely driving him past the point of paranoia?

Michael Bay
Action
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
It is just another day at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), a few astronauts were repairing a satellite until, out of nowhere, a series of asteroids came crashing into the shuttle, destroying it. These asteroids also decimated New York soon thereafter. Then, NASA discovered that there is an asteroid roughly the size of Texas heading towards the Earth, and when it does hit the Earth, the planet itself and all of its inhabitants will be obliterated, worse, the asteroid will hit the Earth in 18 days. Unfortunately, NASA's plans to destroy the asteroid are irrelevant. That is when the U.S. military decides to use a nuclear warhead to blow the asteroid to pieces. Then, scientists decide to blow the asteroid with the warhead inside the asteroid itself. The only man to do it, is an oil driller named Harry Stamper and his group of misfit drillers and geologists. As he and his drill team prepare for space excavation, the asteroid is still heading towards the Earth. When the crew are launched into outer space, they are determined to destroy this asteroid.

Sam Raimi
Action
Dino De Laurentiis Company
R
In this sequel to the Evil Dead films, a discount-store employee ("Name's Ash. Housewares.") is time-warped to a medieval castle beset by monstrous forces. Initially mistaken for an enemy, he is soon revealed as the prophecised savior who can quest for the Necronomicon, a book which can dispel the evil. Unfortunately, he screws up the magic words while collecting the tome, and releases an army of skeletons, led by his own Deadite counterpart. What follows is a thrilling, yet tongue-in-cheek battle between Ash's 20th Century tactics and the minions of darkness.

Jean-Pierre Melville
Drama
Les Films Corona

France, 1942, during the occupation. Philippe Gerbier, a civil engineer, is one of the French Resistance's chiefs. Given away by a traitor, he is interned in a camp. He manages to escape, and joins his network at Marseilles, where he makes the traitor be executed... This non-spectacular movie (do not expect any Rambo or Robin Hood) shows us rigorously and austerely the everyday of the French Resistants : their solitude, their fears, their relationships, the arrests, the forwarding of orders and their carrying out... Both writer Joseph Kessel and co-writer and director Jean-Pierre Melville belonged to this "Army in the Shadows".

Jordan Roberts
Drama
Warner Independent Pictures (WIP)
R
Four generations of men who haven't seen each other in years are suddenly brought together by the chance to uncover the truth about their family's past. It's a journey that takes them out on the road to a world full of surprises - some comic, some dramatic, and all of them personal.

Orson Welles
Documentary
Associated Rédiffusion

In 1955, Orson Welles directed and hosted a mini series for British television. He leads us through a few famous places of Europe with his inimitable touch. In Paris he introduces us to famous artists such as Juliette Gréco or Jean Cocteau who lived in the Saint Germain Des Pres quarter. In London we meet the Chelsea Pensioners, in Spain we attend a Madrid Bullfight and visit the Basque country (Basque Country 1&2). Somewhere between a home movie and a cinematic essay, these short films have been described by French critics as the missing link in Welles' work.

Various
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
Winner of the Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy its first year out, "Arrested Development" is the kind of sitcom that gives you hope for television. A mockumentary-style exploration of the beleaguered Bluth family, it's one of those idiosyncratic shows that doesn't rely on a laugh track or a studio audience; it's shot more like a TV drama, albeit with an omniscient narrator (executive producer Ron Howard) overseeing the proceedings. Holding the Bluths together just barely is son Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman), the only normal guy in a family that's chock full of nuts. Hardworking and sensible, Michael's certain he's going to be given control of his family's Enron-style corporation upon the retirement of his father (Jeffrey Tambor). The fact that he's passed over instead for his mother (Jessica Walter) is only a blip when compared to his father's immediate arrest for dubious accounting practices, and the resulting freeze on the family's previously limitless wealth.
Bereft of money, and even less family love, the Bluths have to band together in their moment of need--not easy when everyone's looking out for number 1. In addition to his scabrous parents, Michael has to contend with his lothario older brother (Will Arnett), his basically useless younger brother (Tony Hale), his greedy twin sister (Portia DeRossi), and her sexually ambiguous husband (David Cross). Michael's only comrade in sanity is his son George Michael (Michael Cera), but then again, the teenage boy harbors a secret crush on his cousin (Alia Shawkat). A peerless ensemble led by the brilliant Bateman (who ever knew he could be this good?), all the actors are pitch-perfect in their roles, delivering the dryly funny, sometimes absurdist dialogue with the speed and flair of classic farce. The unusual tone of "Arrested Development" takes a bit of getting used to--it's far different from anything you'll see on TV, even HBO--but once you buy in to the Bluths' innumerable dysfunctions, you'll be laughing your head off for hours."--Mark Englehart"

Various
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
The axe of cancellation dangled perilously over "Arrested Development" during its second season, but the award-winning comedy fought against fate to deliver a hilarious if scattershot 18 episodes (reduced from the original show order of 22), and stayed alive for the beginning of a third season. Most likely, the creators and actors knew the clock was ticking down, so they didn't hesitate to throw their all into these manic, hilarious episodes, which have only the thinnest of plot arcs but an electrifying energy that makes them hard to resist. Some of the story antics were more of the same: good son Michael (Jason Bateman) tries to keep his company afloat, but is often foiled by older brother Gob (Will Arnett); the precarious marriage of Lindsay (Portia de Rossi) and Tobias (David Cross) undergoes a trial separation; and young George-Michael (Michael Cera) fights his attraction to his cousin Maeby (Alia Shawkat). Other show developments, though, were new and stunningly, uproariously bizarre: Buster (Tony Hale) joins the army, but later finds his hand bitten off by a seal (yes, a real seal), and Oscar (Jeffrey Tambor), the hippie brother of jailed George Sr. (also Tambor), rekindles an affair with sister-in-law Lucille (Jessica Walter), which may have resulted in Buster's conception years ago.
Jokes flew fast and furious, as did guest stars--Ben Stiller, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Christine Taylor, Thomas Jane, Ed Begley Jr., Ione Skye, and Zach Braff among them--making it hard to keep straight who was doing what and why. No matter, as each of the episodes was in and of itself was a perfect gem of comedy, strung together by sharp writing and fantastic performances. In addition to the regular cast, both Liza Minnelli, reprising her role as "Lucille Two," and Martin Short, as an, um, eccentric family friend, deserve special mention, with the episode both appeared in, "Ready, Aim, Marry Me," a frenetic exercise in slapstick farce. Typical examples of the show's offbeat humor were found in "Afternoon Delight," in which various members of the Bluth family discover the true meaning of the '70s ballad, "Meet the Veals," wherein the Bluths encounter the conservative parents of George Michael's girlfriend, and "Motherboy XXX," surrounding an unsettling mother-son traditional dance. The entire cast cohered perfectly through this season, and their give and take provided a perfect balance among the actors, all of whom were even better than the previous year. However, it's Bateman who should be singled out as the show's anchor, mixing dry sarcasm with impeccable comic timing. Despite plummeting ratings, "Arrested Development" didn't just keep its head above water, it swam with grace and hilarity. "--Mark Englehart"

Various
Comedy
20th Century Fox
NR
"Arrested Development"--one of the greatest comedies in the history of television--went out in a blaze of glory. The truncated final season packed more biting humor per minute than ever before. In only 13 episodes, dozens of intertwining storylines spun in all directions: In addition to the overarching story about the fractious infighting of the Bluth family and the family's housing development company being investigated for treason in Iraq (a plot arc that comes to a dazzlingly surreal conclusion), the put-upon "good son" Michael Bluth (Jason Bateman, "Teen Wolf Too") pursues romance with a lovely British woman (Charlize Theron, "Monster") who turns out to be woefully inappropriate; swaggering magician Gob (Will Arnett, "Monster-In-Law") flees from his newly-discovered teenage son while still pandering for the affection of his self-absorbed father (Jeffrey Tambor, "The Larry Sanders Show"); flighty Lindsay (Portia de Rossi, "Ally McBeal") and her sexually blurry husband Tobias (David Cross, "Mr. Show") both get the hots for the family's new lawyer, Bob Loblaw (Scott Baio, "Charles in Charge"); and much, much more. It's difficult to describe what makes "Arrested Development" so brilliant. The ensemble is uniformly superb (Jessica Walter, as the family's boozing, scheming matriarch, is particularly devastating this season) and the surprising guest stars (including Andy Richter, James Lipton, Justine Bateman, and many others) are perfectly cast; the characters' abominable behavior defies conventional television notions of "likability", yet they only grow more endearing the more you watch; the humor embraces wild slapstick and sharp satire, often within a single scene; and the nimble documentary style allows for sly glancing references to jokes and scenes from long-past episodes, rewarding devoted fans. But the key is that, no matter how screwball "Arrested Development" becomes, the show offers a rich, textured, and wonderfully coherent world in which these characters feel genuine, a world completely unlike the flat, plastic simulacrum offered by the average sitcom. "Arrested Development" was true to itself to the end. Its followers will cherish it forever. "--Bret Fetzer"

Stills from The Third Season of "Arrested Development" (click for larger image)

Terry Zwigoff
Comedy
United Artists
R
Jerome, a kid from the suburbs who loves to draw, goes to New York City's Strathmore College for his freshman year as a drawing major. Competition and petty jealousy consume faculty and students, with an end-of-first-semester best-student award held out as a grand plum. Worse, a strangler is on the loose, killing people on or next to campus. The idealistic Jerome falls in love with Audrey, a student who models for life-drawing classes and who responds to his sweetness. But he has a rival: the clean-cut, manly Jonah, also a first-year drawing student, whose primitive work draws raves and Audrey's attention. As cynicism seems to corrode everything, Jerome is desperate to win.

Steve Gordon
Comedy
Orion Pictures Corporation
PG
Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions at any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune which he is told will only be his if he marries Susan. He does not love Susan, but she will make something of him the family expects. Arthur proposes but then meets a girl with no money who he could easily fall in love with.

Bud Yorkin
Comedy
Havlin-Robert Shapiro Production
PG
In this sequel to the 1981 hit movie, Arthur manages to lose his entire $750 million fortune. Will the former millionaire playboy be able to survive as a broke, unemployable alcoholic? To add to Arthur's problems, wife Linda's biological clock is ticking louder than ever, and she's pressuring him to start taking responsibility for himself.

Frank Tashlin
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Eugene and Rick are two struggling artists who share apartment. However, Rick has problems with that, because Eugene is obsessed with pulp fiction comic books and has nightmares because of that. However, Rick soon finds that those nightmares could be excellent material for his own comic books.

James L. Brooks
Comedy
TriStar Pictures
PG-13
New York City. Melvin Udall, a cranky, bigoted, obsessive-compulsive writer, finds his life turned upside down when neighboring gay artist Simon is hospitalized and his dog is entrusted to Melvin. In addition, Carol, the only waitress who will tolerate him, must leave work to care for her sick son, making it impossible for Melvin to eat breakfast.

Edward Burns
Drama
IFC Productions
R
Hell's Kitchen on Ash Wednesday, 1983. Rumors are flying that Francis Sullivan's younger brother Sean, dead for three years, has reappeared. If he wasn't killed by rivals, then old scores still need settling, putting Fran and Sean in danger. An upstart is pressuring the local mob boss, who's Fran's protector; Sean's wife, who thinks she's a widow, has gotten on with her life, but Sean has come back for her. The parish priest, part of the initial deception, is frightened. Bad guys with guns are closing in. Can Fran get Sean and his wife out of the city, avoid a war between rival factions, and hold onto new-found morality? Will the cross of ashes on his forehead protect him?

Robert Towne
Drama
Paramount Pictures
R
L.A. in the early 1930's: racism, poverty, and disease color the Bunker Hill neighborhood where Arturo Bandini, a lover of men and beasts alike, has arrived from Colorado to write the great Los Angeles novel. After six months and down to his last nickel, he orders a cup of coffee, served by Camilla Lopez, beautiful, self-possessed, and Mexican. Arturo gets advice, encouragement, and an occasional check from H.L. Mencken, so he keeps writing and he keeps seeing Camilla. But, he's mean to her for no apparent reason, so the relationship sputters. A housekeeper from back East suggests a way out of his jealously and fears. "Camilla Bandini": is it in the cards?

John Huston
Crime
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
G
'Doc' Riedenschneider, legendary crime 'brain' just out of prison, has a brilliant plan for a million-dollar burglary. To pull it off, he recruits safecracker Louis, driver Gus, financial backer Emmerich, and strong-arm man Dix Handley. At first the plan goes like clockwork, but little accidents accumulate and each partner proves to have his own fatal weakness. In the background is a pervasive, grimy urban malaise.

Andrew Dominik
Biography
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
The last months of Jesse James's life, from meeting Robert Ford, a 19-year-old who idolizes Jesse, to the day Ford shoots him. Jesse's a wanted man, living under a pseudonym, carrying out a train robbery, disappearing to Kentucky, and reappearing to plan a bank holdup with Robert and Robert's brother as his team. The rest of the gang is dead, arrested, or gone from Missouri. Whenever Jesse's around, there's tension: he's murderous, quixotic, depressed, and cautious. Ford wants to be somebody and wants the reward. On April 3, 1882, things come to a head: Jesse is 34, Robert 20. Ford becomes famous, reenacting the shooting on stage, facing down the label "coward," shot dead in 1892.

Niels Mueller
Crime
Anhelo Productions
R
In 1974 Samuel Joseph Byck attempted to hijack a plane he intended to fly into the White House to kill Richard Nixon - possibly the first time an airliner was to be used as a flying bomb in a terrorist attack. Sam Bicke is a lonely, ineffectual incompetent who feels wronged by his family, friends, employers and the world in general, though his problems are largely of his own making and his petulant refusal to compromise what he sees as his 'values'. Thus he loses his job rather than 'lie' to customers about prices, while at the same time he continuously deceives his friends, and steals from his friend and his brother. Elaborate plans for success founder on equally avoidable issues. As his world falls apart, he fantasizes Richard Nixon (then under the shadow of Watergate and soon to leave office) as his ultimate enemy, and Leonard Bernstein (to whom he dictates endless self-exculpatory audio letters) as his only friend and equal. As a bleak future closes in, Bicke mounts the assassination - with characteristic incompetence.

Robert Duvall
Drama
American Zoetrope
R
John J. is a seasoned hit man sent on a job to Argentina. When the General he's sent to kill delays his return to the country, John passes the time with Manuela, a beautiful dancer who becomes his teacher and guide into Argentina's sensual world of the tango. Spellbound by the rich and mysterious world Manuela has shown him, his idyll is shattered when the reality of why he's there comes crashing down around him.

John Carpenter
Action
CKK Corporation, The
R
Police ambush and kill several gang members in Los Angeles. Gang members make a pact of blood to strike back at police, and conduct a siege on the police station which is almost abandoned and due to be closed. Staff of the closing precinct and the criminals being held there while in transit must work together to fight off the attacking gang members.

Jean-François Richet
Action
Rogue Pictures
R
On New Year's Eve, inside a police station that's about to be closed for good, officer Jake Roenick must cobble together a force made up cops and criminals to save themselves from a mob looking to kill mobster Marion Bishop.

Robert Wuhl
Comedy
44 Blue Productions

Nick Doob, Chris Hegedus
Documentary
HBO Films

Michael Polish
Adventure
Polish Brothers Construction
PG
Texan Charles Farmer left the Air Force as a young man to save the family ranch when his dad died. Like most American ranchers, he owes his bank. Unlike most, he's an astrophysicist with a rocket in his barn - one he's built and wants to take into space. It's his dream. The FBI puts him under surveillance when he tries to buy rocket fuel; the FAA stalls him when he files a flight plan - it's post-9/11, after all. His wife is angry when she finds out their bank is initiating foreclosure. Charlie fears failure and decides, precipitously, to launch. Are twenty-first century American dreams just a sign of insanity? Are those who believe in dreamers only fools?

James Foley
Crime
Hemdale Film
R
A boy and his friends seek to join a mid-atlantic gang led by the boy's estranged father, unaware that his father's ruthlessness takes no account of family ties.

Various
Comedy
Tango Entertainment
NR
Just two series were made before it became no more and it became a revolution that was destined to change the face of TV comedy forever… 'At Last The 1948 Show' (actually broadcast in 1967). Bursting onto the nation's small screens in an explosion of unrelated and often surreal sketches, its main perpetrators were John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Marty Feldman and Tim Brooke-Taylor and what 'At Last The 1948 Show' began the inestimable Monty Python would one day finish in mind-blowing style.... This 2 DVD set features the recently rediscovered episodes of the classic 'At Last The 1948 Show' series.

Peter Bogdanovich
Musical
Copa del Oro

This film was Peter Bogdanovich's homage to musical comedies of the 1930s. A millionaire named Michael Oliver Pritchard III and a singer named Kitty O'Kelly meet and fall in love. Meanwhile, an indigent woman named Brooke Carter and an Italian gambler named Johnny Spanish meet and fall in love. All four people meet each other and become friends (actually, Kitty and Brooke had been friends since high-school), and soon, Brooke's crude, fun-loving maid Elizabeth falls in love with Michael's valet Rodney James. Later on, Michael and Brooke fall in love, and Kitty and Johnny decide to follow them around. In order to make Brooke and Michael jealous, they try to look like they are falling in love as well. Eventually, Michael and Johnny get into a fight but then immediately make up. Soon, Brooke and Kitty make up. The two couples pair off successfully and they live happily ever after.

Edward Buzzell
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Jeff Wilson, the owner of a small circus, owes his partner Carter $10000. Before Jeff can pay, Carter lets his accomplices steal the money, so he can take over the circus. Antonio Pirelli and Punchy, who work at the circus, together with lawyer Loophole try to find the thief and get the money back.

Hal Walker
Comedy, Musical, Romance, War
Fred F. Finklehoffe Productions

Louis Malle
Crime
International Cinema Corporation
R
Lou is a small time gangster, who thinks he used to be something big. He meets up with a younger girl, Sally, who is learning to be a croupier. Her husband turns up with drugs he has stolen from the Mafia. The husband gets Lou to sell the drugs, but is killed before Lou can give him the money. Later, the owners of the drugs turn up and threaten to kill Sally if she doesn't return them...

Ruggero Deodato
Action
Regal Films

A team of scientists working to raise a sunken Russian nuclear submarine on an ocean platform off the coast of Miami, Florida, unearth an ancient Atlantean relic from the sea floor and bring in an expert to make some sense of it. But while attempting to raise the sub, radioactive leakage from its missles triggers the re-emergence of Atlantis, and the resulting tidal wave destroys the platform and leaves only a small group of survivors. Rescued by two Vietnamvets-turned-heavies who are out relaxing after their latest job, their boat eventually runs aground on a Carribean island nearby where, upon going ashore, it is discovered that everything has been destroyed and everybody killed. The culprits, a vicious group of well-armed raiders, and their leader, Crystal Skull, are descendants of Atlantis' original race who set about reclaiming the world and adding the survivors to the list of victims as they struggle to stay alive and defeat the raiders and send Atlantis back to the ocean floor.

Anton Giulio Majano
Horror
Leone Film

A stripper is horribly disfigured in a car accident. A brilliant scientist develops a treatment that restores her beauty and falls in love with her. To preserve her appearance the doctor must give her additional treatments using glands taken from murdered women. His unexplained ability to turn into a hideous monster helps with this problem but does nothing to win her love. The doctor's woes multiply as the police and the girl's boyfriend begin to close in on him.

Joseph V. Mascelli
Horror
Cinema Venture

Somehow, atomic power is harnessed to transplant brains. An old woman uses this power to hire two sexy (and one homely) foreign housekeepers with the idea of transplanting her old brain into a sexy woman's.

Spencer Gordon Bennet
Sci-Fi
Gorham Productions

In the far and distant future of 1968, many ships and planes are crossing the North pole to transport passengers and cargo. However lately more than eight ships and seven submarines have vanished mysteriously. The Tigershark is sent out to investigate their whereabouts and - if possible - remove the cause of their disappearance. But the life form Commander Vandover and his crew encounter may be too powerful even for their weapons of newest technology...

George Edwards
Drama
Atlantic

Woman librarian devotes life to caring for wheelchair-bound tyrannical father after being stood up at altar. She fantasizes his death and finds joy only with her pet monkey. Monkey disappears and a shocking past is revealed.

Robert Bresson
Drama
Argos Films

The sad life and death of Balthazar, a donkey, from an idyllic childhood surrounded by loving children, through adulthood as a downtrodden beast of burden. His life is paralleled with that of the girl who named him, and as she is humiliated by her sadistic lover, so he is beaten by his owner. But he finds a kind of peace when he is employed by an old miller who thinks he is a reincarnated saint...

Louis Malle
Drama
MK2 Productions
PG
A French boarding school run by priests seems to be a haven from World War II until a new student arrives. He becomes the roommate of top student in his class. Rivals at first, the roommates form a bond and share a secret.

Takashi Miike
Drama
AFDF
R
Seven years after the death of his wife, company executive Aoyama is invited to sit in on auditions for an actress. Leafing through the resumés in advance, his eye is caught by Yamazaki Asami, a striking young woman with ballet training. On the day of the audition, she's the last person they see. Aoyama is hooked. He notes her number from her file, calls her and takes her to dinner. He hesitates to call again, worried that he'll seem too eager. When he does, Asami knowingly lets the phone ring for some time before answering. She's alone in her darkened room - alone, that is, apart from the writhing victim she has tied up in a sack on the floor...

Fabián Bielinsky
Crime
Aura Films

A quiet, cynic taxidermist, who suffers epilepsy attacks, is obsessed with committing the perfect crime. He claims that the cops are too stupid to find out about it when it's well executed, and that the robbers are too stupid to execute it the right way; and that he could do it himself relying on his photographic memory and his strategic planning skills. After he is invited on a hunting trip away from his home, an accident gives him the chance of his life: the possibility to commit the perfect crime he has been waiting for.

Jay Roach
Action
New Line Cinema
PG-13
He's found his mojo, baby, and now Austin Powers is back again in this shagadelic comedy-adventure! The "sshhh!" hits the fan when Dr. Evil and Mini-Me escape from prison. Joining forces with the superfreaky Goldmember, they kidnap Austin's father, master spy Nigel Powers, in a dastardly time-travel scheme to take over the world. Before you can say "Shake Your Booty," Austin cruises to 1975 and teams up with sexy Foxxy Cleopatra to stop Dr. Evil and Goldmember from their mischievous mayhem.

Jay Roach
Action
Capella International
PG-13
Austin Powers is a 60's spy who is cryonically frozen and released in the 1990's. The world is a very different place for Powers. Unfortunately for Austin, everyone is no longer sex-mad. Although he may be in a different decade, his mission is still the same. He has teamed up with Vanessa Kensington to stop the evil Dr. Evil, who was also frozen in the past. Dr. Evil stole a nuclear weapon and is demanding a payment of (when he realises its the 90's) 100 billion dollars. Can Austin Powers stop this madman? or will he caught up with Evil's henchman, with names like Alotta Fagina and Random Task? Only time will tell!

Jay Roach
Action
Eric's Boy
PG-13
Dr. Evil uses a device he calls a "Time Machine" to travel back to 1969 and remove Austin Powers' mojo. The sexually wounded swinger must travel back in time and, with the help of agent Felicity Shagwell, recover his vitality. Meanwhile, Dr. Evil's personal life runs amok as he discovers love, continues to shun his son and develops a close relationship with himself. Well, actually, a clone 1/8 his size whom he dubs "Mini-Me". The always time-baffled Dr. Evil begins his plan to put a gigantic cannon on the moon, thus turning it into a device called either "The Death Star" or "Alan Parson's Project," depending on which name is available.

Arthur Hiller
Comedy
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
PG
Playwright Travalian feels pulled limb from limb these days. He has a Broadway play in rehearsal and they want rewrites. His tramp wife is leaving him, leaving him as well with four children from her previous marriages plus his own son. And his lead actress wants to move in with him but isn't used to kids.

Paul Schrader
Biography
Focus Puller Inc.
R
Capitalizing on his fame as the star of "Hogan's Heroes," Bob Crane (Greg Kinnear) dove into the freewheeling spirit of the 60s and 70s with relish, having affairs with numerous women. Eventually, Crane teamed up with video technician John Carpenter to document his exploits, an association that may very well have led to his murder in a Scottsdale, Arizona motel room in 1978, which remains officially unsolved to this day.

Yasujiro Ozu
Art House & International
Criterion Collection
Unrated
Deceptively breezy, Yasujiro Ozu's final film, made in 1962, is the lovely culmination of the mysterious writer-director's fascination with family, and the social mechanisms by which different generations fulfill obligations to one another and to themselves. The central character, Shuhei Hirayama (Chishu Ryu, Ozu's longtime collaborator), is a 60-ish executive and widower who slowly grows concerned that his 24-year-old daughter, Michiko (Shima Iwashita), has not married because she feels responsible for taking care of him at home. Taciturn, low-key, but affable, Shuhei is a hard man to read. But through his friendships, habits, daily reminders of his past and fear that he might rob his daughter of her youth, Shuhei gradually comes to terms with his responsibility to see Michiko fulfilled and happy. There is also more to it than that: "An Autumn Afternoon" is also about Shuhei turning a page in his small part in history, the closing chapters of a life that involved military service during World War II and settling into post-war, largely Westernized Japan. These things are all understated, but Ozu gives every character a shape, a recognition that one must play the cards one is dealt without self-deception. With that comes a certain Zen serenity, humor and perhaps melancholy, but in "An Autumn Afternoon"'s spirit of acceptance, a bittersweet life is a good life. Special features on this Criterion release include trailers and excerpts from a French television special about Ozu. "--Tom Keogh"

Ingmar Bergman
Drama
Filmédis

After having neglected her children for many years, world famous pianist Charlotte visits her daughter Eva in her home. To her surprise she finds her other daughter, Helena, there as well. Helena is mentally impaired, and Eva has taken Helena out of the institution where their mother had placed her. The tension between Charlotte and Eva only builds up slowly, until a nightly conversation releases all the things they have wanted to tell each other.

Various
Art House & International
Kino Video
NR
This features a number of directors better known as painters (Fernand Leger, Marcel Duchamp) or photographers (Man Ray). For the curious, there is a short Orson Welles film from 1934, fully seven years before Citizen Kane. "The Life and Death of 9413, A Hollywood Extra" is on the Library of Congress's National Film Registry of significant American films, as is "H²O". Ménilmontant, at 37 minutes the longest film in this collection, is considered a masterpiece by some.



Worth exploring, if you like this sort of stuff. You know who you are.

Martin Scorsese
Biography
Forward Pass
PG-13
The script begins as a young Hughes directs one of Scorsese's favorite films, Hell's Angels. Hughes was so obsessed with perfection in the aerial sequences that he waits forever for perfect conditions, right down to cloud formations. The Aviator ends in 1946, when Hughes was still a dashing young man and romancing actresses like Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn.

Bill Crooks
Music
Nocturne

Joby Harold
Crime
GreeneStreet Films
R
While undergoing open heart surgery, a man's failed anesthetic leaves him completely alert, but paralyzed and unable to tell his doctors

Penny Marshall
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation

A new doctor finds himself with a ward full of comatose patients. He is disturbed by them and the fact that they have been comatose for decades with no hope of any cure. When he finds a possible chemical cure he gets permission to try it on one of them. When the first patient awakes, he is now an adult having gone into a coma in his early teens. The film then delights in the new awareness of the patients and then on the reactions of their relatives to the changes in the newly awakened.

Sarah Polley
Drama
Film Farm, The

Fiona and Grant are an Ontario couple who have been married for over 40 years. Now, in the oncoming twilight of their years, they are forced to face the fact that Fiona's "forgetfulness" actually is Alzheimer's Disease. After Fiona wanders away and is found after being lost, they agree she must go into a nursing home. For the first time in the five decades their relationship has spanned, they are forced to undergo a long-time separation since the nursing home has a "no-visitors" policy for the first 30 days of a patient's stay, so they can adjust to their new surroundings. When Grant visits Fiona after the orientation period, he is devastated to find out that not only has she seemingly forgotten him, Fiona has transferred her affections to another man. The other man is Aubrey, a wheelchair bound mute patient at the nursing home. As the distance between husband and wife grows, Grant must draw upon his love for Fiona to perform an act of self-sacrifice in order to ensure her happiness.

Sam Mendes
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Big Beach Films
R
"Away We Go" has an incredible mix of ingredients: A script co-written by Dave Eggers (author of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius"), directed by Sam Mendes ("American Beauty", "Revolutionary Road"), starring the not-hugely-famous-but-always-excellent Maya Rudolph ("Saturday Night Live") and John Krasinski ("The Office"), and featuring an astounding supporting cast that includes Catherine O’Hara, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jeff Daniels, Allison Janney, Jim Gaffigan, and more. What’s even more incredible is that all these ingredients blend together into a truly marvelous but very non-traditional romantic comedy. For one thing, Burt (Krasinski) and Verona (Rudolph) are already a couple and expecting their first child. What they don’t know is where they’re going to live--so they set off on a tour of disparate locations (Tucson, Montreal, Miami) where they have friends or relatives, sampling not only different cities and climates but also different families. The social and emotional collisions that follow are sometimes very funny and sometimes heartwrenching. "Away We Go" starts quietly and, through subtle yet consistently delightful scenes, builds to a surprisingly potent end. This is a gem of a movie, not to be missed. "--Bret Fetzer"

Adam Yauch
Documentary
Oscilloscope Laboratories
R

Leo McCarey
Comedy
Sony Pictures
Unrated
One of the top five screwball comedies of the '30s, this helped to cement a genre that waxed golden until the end of WWII. Director Leo McCarey won an Oscar for Best Director for this 1937 romantic comedy--one of the most successful films of his career. Irene Dunne and Cary Grant are a squabbling couple who separate because of supposed infidelities on both sides. They part but cannot really keep away from each other. Grant finds himself hooked up with a socialite, Dunne becomes engaged to a millionaire hick played by the hapless Ralph Bellamy (as if he ever stood a chance as the "other" man!). When not dating others or baiting one another in a verbal war, Grant and Dunne wage a custody battle over their pathetic pooch. Gags, double entendre, witty remarks, snide comments, and fast-paced dialogue helped this to garner six Academy Award nominations. "The Awful Truth" was awfully good to Dunne and Grant, as both were breaking out of much more serious molds and this secured their positions. "--Rochelle O'Gorman"

Michael Moore
Documentary
Docurama
NR
Can you handle the truth? If you're Mickey Mouse, George Will, a Philip Morris executive, or any one of the corporate no-good-doers who pollute the environment, abandon their customers, or cheat their workers, best be on your guard: Michael Moore has got your number, or at the very least, your home address! Moore, muckraking journalist, guerilla filmmaker ("Roger & Me"), and all-around nonpartisan offender, follows up his Emmy-winning, albeit short-lived, TV series "TV Nation" with this even more confrontational series that can be seen on Bravo ("Between the Playboy Channel and Cartoon Network"). This set contains all the episodes from the show's premiere season. It is perhaps the most outrageous television you have never seen. The series is much more than Moore "going in someplace to bug somebody." There is method to Moore's madness. His outrage is palpable as he shames an insurance company into paying for a customer's life-or-death pancreas transplant by staging the man's mock funeral outside corporate headquarters. At the height of Monica-gate, Moore shows Washington, D.C., what a real witch-hunt looks like, complete with shrieking costumed Pilgrims. Other season 1 highlights include the return of Crackers, the plucky Corporate Crime-Fighting Chicken, who visits Disneyland to advise Mickey Mouse about Disney's alleged unfair labor practices. Moore also spreads holiday jeer inside Philip Morris by leading a choir of cigarette-ravaged carolers, each of whom must use a voice box. "The Awful Truth" is not for the faint of heart (or conservatives, for that matter). As Moore remarks after a segment in which his "Gay Team" cruises America in a pink Sodommobile, "We'll never be back on NBC now." You go, Mike! "--Donald Liebenson"

Michael Moore
Comedy
Docurama
NR
Elvis Costello once sang, "I used to be disgusted, but now I try to be amused." One gets the feeling that it is the exact opposite with Michael Moore. In this sophomore season of his subversively funny, albeit short-lived, Bravo series "The Awful Truth", the working class hero operates under the basic-cable radar to rail against politics as usual and to expose what he calls your "basic, everyday, run of the mill evil corporations." "The Awful Truth" was anything but comfort television, as witness the episode "Compassionate Conservative Night," in which "Team Dow" and "Team Nasdaq" engage in such contests as "Dunk the Homeless" and "Pie the Poor." In another segment, Moore launches an orange day-glow wallet exchange program after a spate of shootings in which police mistook African American victims' wallets for firearms. Moore makes hay with the 2000 presidential election. In one audacious segment, he offers his support to any candidate who will jump into the "Awful Truth"'s portable mosh pit. George W. Bush's response, "Go find real work," made its way into "Fahrenheit 9/11". Only Alan Keyes is game, incurring attacks by the other candidates during a televised debate. In this series' version of a Very Special Episode, Moore presents a short film he directed, "The Choice," in which Moore runs a Ficus plant against an unopposed candidate for the New Jersey House of Representatives.
Throughout the season, Moore plants the seeds that will pollinate in his two controversial cross-over theatrical documentaries. Anticipating "Bowling for Columbine", one segment takes aim at the NRA with the introduction of a new gun mascot, Pistol Pete, a costumed weapon, who is summarily tossed out of a Las Vegas gun show, NRA headquarters, and our nation's capitol. Moore also turns up the temperature on then-Texas Governor George W. Bush in a segment that pits the man who would be president against his brother Jeb to see which of their respective states, Texas or Florida, will prevail in the number of executions. For a brief and shining moment, the revolution was televised. At 30 minutes an episode, "The Awful Truth" remains swift (or Swiftian) satire. For fans, this two-disc set will complete the Moore manifesto, and give more ammunition to his critics. "--Donald Liebenson"

Ed Pincus, Lucia Small
Documentary
Pincus & Small Films

Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, filmmakers Lucia Small and Ed Pincus embark upon a sixty-day road trip traveling from their native New England to Louisiana. On their journey they encounter those displaced by the disaster. The film elegantly tackles the difficult issues of race, class and civic responsibility in the United States today.

Jason Woliner
Comedy
Comedy Central
NR
Comedian Aziz Ansari presents his highly anticipated debut hour long standup special. The critically acclaimed standup and actor (Parks and Recreation, Funny People) discusses topics ranging from sheets with fraudulent thread counts to the chubbiness of his young cousin Harris. Also included is a special encore performance from Raaaaaaaandy. This set is uncut and uncensored. Also included is a special bonus set that contains an additional 30 minutes of material not included in the aired special.

"Aziz Ansari is hilarious. Buy this or everyone you know will think you're a real dick." - The Onion A.V. Club

“Nobody makes me laugh harder than Aziz Ansari. And I don’t even find him funny.” – Judd Apatow

“It’s like a DVD with jokes on it!” – Patton Oswalt