Bob Fosse
Drama
ABC Pictures
PG
Sally Bowles, an American singer in 1930s Berlin, fall in love with bi-sexual Brian. They are both then seduced by Max, a rich playboy. Sally becomes pregnant, and Brian offers to marry her... All the characters are linked by the Kit-Kat club, a nightspot where Sally sings.

Eli Roth
Horror
Black Sky Entertainment
R
Five friends:Marcy,Bert,Karen,Paul,and Jeff leave the city for a mountain get-way and a renting a cabin in the hills. But after Bert goes shooting for squirrels but instead shoots a hermit with a flesh eating disease,(He got from his dog) begging for Berts help. Bert promise him help but lies and runs back to the cabin. Later that night after getting doped and drunk, the hermit comes to the cabin. But the friends in panic, kill the man. But when the man dies in the reservoir and Karen drinks the water, her skin is oddly being ate away. The friends send her into a shed outside the cabin. But one by one - Not knowing about the dead man in the reservoir - become infected with the disease.

Michael Haneke
Drama
Les Films du Losange
R
In Paris, Georges Laurent is a famous host of a literary talk show on TV, who lives in a comfortable house with his wife Anne and their teenager son Pierrot. When Georges and Anne receives videotapes of surveillance of their private life and weird and gore childlike drawings, they go to the police, but they do not get any protection since there is not a clear menace to the Laurent family. When Georges follows a clue in one of the tapes that shows his childhood home, he meets his former adopted brother, the Algerian Majid and accuses him of sending the tapes. Meanwhile, through glimpses of Georges' nightmares, his lies due to his jealous relationship with his foster brother are disclosed.

Norman Taurog
Comedy
York Pictures Corporation

The origin of Anthony and Miller, a wildly successful comedy team, can be traced back several years to Harvey Miller's stage fright on the golf links. Although the son of a skilled golfer and an outstanding player in his one right, Miller is too nervous to golf in front of a gallery. He becomes coach and caddy for Joe Anthony, his girlfriend's brother, who must convince his fisherman father that hitting a little ball into a hole can be more lucrative than trawling the Pacific Ocean. While on the PGA tour, their natural comedic abilities are recognized by a shrewd agent who senses their talent and potential, and a new comedy team is born.

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Orion Pictures Corporation

Comical goings on at an exclusive golf club. All the members are wealthy and eccentric, and all the staff are poor and slightly less eccentric. The main character is 'Danny'; he's a caddy who will do almost anything to raise money to go to college. There are many subplots, including the assistant green keeper's pursuit of a cute (obviously stuffed) gopher.

Roger Donaldson
Comedy
Orion Pictures Corporation
R
Joe's a car salesman with a problem. He has two days to sell 12 cars or he loses his job. This would be a difficult task at the best of times but Joe has to contend with his girlfriends (he's two timing), a missing teenage daughter and an ex-wife. What more could go wrong ?.. a lot, enter a crazy jealous husband with a machine gun..

Darnell Martin
Drama
Sony Pictures
R
An energized and passionate, if selective, telling of the story of Chess Records, Cadillac Records is a worthy entry in the niche genre of movies about rock and roll roots. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, who started Chess Records in Chicago in 1947 and turned the label into an important force for blues, rhythm and blues, gospel and, in time, early rock and roll. Cadillac Records focuses on Chess' relationship with his first significant artist, Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), and the label's rise and expansion with the addition of such talents as Little Walter (Columbus Short), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Howlin' Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). Written and directed by Darnell Martin, Cadillac Records captures the scrappy beginnings of an enterprise, and a sound, inventing itself as it goes along. Particularly fun are scenes set in clubs or at Chess' recording facility, where electrified blues never stop pushing the envelope of creative possibility. All the while, danger lurks in shadows or in rivalries between artists; also in the self-destructive streaks of Walter and James, and the sexual fetishes of Berry. But the drama largely centers on the potent connections between all these people, who don't always know where their contribution to a cultural phenomenon is going. One of the film's delights is the way Chess and Waters don't really see rock coming until Berry steps through the door, fusing country music with blues. The film skips over a lot of facts: there's no sign of Leonard Chess' brother, Phil, who co-owned the company, nor is there much hint of Chess' expansion into a lot of other areas of music. None of that is any big deal. But what Cadillac Records is missing is more of a unifying point of view. The story is told as a recollection by Willie Dixon, but in a scattershot way that doesn't tell us who Leonard Chess or Waters really are. Aside from that, the film is well worth seeing. --Tom Keogh


Stills from Cadillac Records (click for larger image)

Jonathan Demme
Action
Artists Entertainment Complex

A girl is caught in a drug bust and sent to the hoosegow. The iron-handed superintendent takes exception to a skit performed by the girls and takes punitive steps, aided by the sadistic doctor who is doing illegal electroshock experiments and raping drugged prisoners. After a while the prisoners put away their petty differences and plan the Big Prison Escape.

Andrew V. McLaglen
Western
Batjac Productions
PG
J.D. Cahill is the toughest U.S. Marshal they've got, just the sound of his name makes bad guys stop in their tracks, so when his two young boy's want to get his attention they decide to rob a bank. They end up getting more than they bargained for.

Edward Dmytryk
Drama
Stanley Kramer Productions

During the Second World War, onboard a small insignificant ship in the U.S. Pacific Fleet, an event occurs unlike any that the United States Navy has ever experianced. A Ship's Captain is removed from his command by his Executive Officer in an apparent outright act of mutiny. As the trial of the mutineers unfold, it is then learned that the Captain of the ship was mentally unstable, perhaps even insane. The Navy must then decide: was the Caine Mutiny a criminal act? Or an act of courage to save a ship from destruction at the hands of her Captain.

Robert Altman
Drama
Columbia Pictures Television

Robert Altman
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

A down on his luck gambler (George Seagal) links up with free spirit Elliot Gould at first to have some fun on, but then gets into debt when Gould takes an unscheduled trip to Tijuana. As a final act of desperation, he pawns most of his possessions and goes to Reno for the poker game of a lifetime. A film set mainly in casinos and races, as the two win and lose (but mainly win), get robbed, and get blind drunk.

Herbert Ross
Comedy
Rastar Films

4 totally different and seperated stories of guests in a hotel. Maggie Smith and Michael Caine came from England to attend the Oscars; Jane Fonda came from New York, Alan Alda is her ex who lives in California; in the slapsticky part Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor and their wives come to the hotel to relax and play tennis and find there is only one room vacant; in the fourth segment Walter Matthau has come a day before his wife for his nephew's Bar Mitzvah, his brother: sends a prostitute to his room.

Various
Comedy
Paramount
NR
"You can’t always get what you want." The Rolling Stones may have said it best, and it seems to be writer Hank Moody’s theme song. David Duchovny ("X Files") was born to play this sly, sarcastic, self-loathing, and--despite all the meaningless sex, booze, and fist fights--kind character. Writer Moody hates the Los Angeles world he lives in; a world that turned his sharp best-seller into a cheesy date movie, where his young daughter and should-have-been wife (Natascha McElhone) are slipping away into the hands of a rich play-it-safe guy, and where everything he truly wants seems just out of his reach. But the man hasn’t lost all hope. "Happy endings may get a bad rap, but they do happen," he assures his daughter. "And when they do, they’re just as true as the unhappy ones." One can’t "help" but hope Hank finds his happy ending, because it's with his family that his soft side surfaces. Hank takes no shame in trying to woo back his "wife" Karen, even if it is in front of her new fiancé. He knows he’s meant to be with her--plain and simple--and there’s a glint in her eye that always makes you wonder if she’s really thinking the same thing. And his daughter Becca? Well, any guy would melt against this guitar-wielding cutie (played by the adorable Madeleine Martin), but Hank really captures the "I’ll kick a lot of ass for my daughter" mentality that so many dads harbor. He’s also fully prepared to drop a gorgeous woman at a moment’s notice to heed his daughter’s call.
The rest of the cast, including Evan Handler ("Sex and the City") and Pamela Adlon ("Lucky Louie"), provide some surprisingly interesting and hilarious side stories. Just when it seems situations in this show can’t get any more ludicrous or disgusting, they most certainly do. That’s the beauty of it. "Californication" is a dark, coarse, edgy adult comedy. It’s also very real, and quite intelligent. "--Jordan Thompson"

Charles McDougall
Drama
Nomadic Pictures

The story of Heidi Fleiss, known as "The Hollywood Madam", who was the daughter of a prominent Los Angeles doctor and eventually became a prostitute for a well-known Los Angeles madam. She took over her boss' operation and soon was raking in $300,000 a month by hiring only the most beautiful and highest-class hookers and catering to wealthy Hollywood types, European and American corporate executives and Arab sheiks. Her operation was broken up by Los Angeles police in 1993, and she eventually went to prison for income-tax evasion.

Henry Hathaway
Drama
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

In 1932, a cop is killed and Frank Wiecek sentenced to life. Eleven years later, a newspaper ad by Frank's mother leads Chicago reporter P.J. O'Neal to look into the case. For some time, O'Neal continues to believe Frank guilty. But when he starts to change his mind, he meets increased resistance from authorities unwilling to be proved wrong.

Edward Sedgwick
Comedy
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

After becoming infatuated with a pretty office worker for MGM Newsreels, Buster trades in his tintype operation for a movie camera and sets out to impress the girl (and MGM) with his work.

Todd Graff
Comedy
IFC Productions
PG-13
Misfits in their lives back home, a group of young people live it up at musical-theater camp. While the sports counselor is completely ignored, the kids' spend all their time in rehearsal for a grueling schedule that involves a new show every two weeks. Several personal stories come to the fore. Is talented golden-boy Vlad honest in his feelings about Ellen? Can cross-dressing Michael have a relationship with his parents? Will one-hit-wonder musical playwrite and now camp counselor Bert Hanley remain mired in drink and cynicism? Fireworks are in store when Fritzi, who slavishly serves glamour girl Jill, is finally told to get a life, and the parents of Jenna, whose jaw has been wired shut in a compromise to avoid being sent to "fat camp", learn a valuable lesson at the summer's big end-of-season benefit.

Michael Ritchie
Drama
Redford-Ritchie Productions
PG
Californian lawyer Bill McKay fights for the little man. His charisma and integrity get him noticed by the Democratic Party machine and he is persuaded to run for the Senate against an apparently unassailable incumbent. It's agreed he can handle it his own way, on his own terms. But once he's in the race and his prospects begin to improve, the deal starts to change.

Trey Parker
Biography
Avenging Conscience
R
Alfred Packer was a mountain guide and sole survivor of a party of pioneers that got lost in the mountains in winter. Accused and convicted of murdering and eating his travelling companions, he was to be executed by hanging.The movie begins at his trial, where he pleads his innocence to an unsympathetic audience. Only reporter Polly Pry will listen to his story, which is then related to the viewers in the form of flashbacks. As Packer and his gold-prospecting clients make their way through the forests and mountains, they encounter bemused Japanese Indians, an unimpressed group of mountain men and the brutal Rocky Mountain winter, all of which inspire the travellers to break out into song and dance.

Hal Needham
Action
Golden Harvest Company
PG
A wild, illegal, and popular cross-country car is organized, and the eccentric entrants will do anything to win, including low-down, dirty tricks.

Hal Needham
Action
Golden Harvest Company
PG
Our racers are back for a second cannonball run - the illegal race that takes place all over the country... Almost every star of the first film is here, along with new ones. Will J.J. McClure (Burt Reynolds) finally be the winner this time?

Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Drama
Archers, The

A 'Land Girl', an American GI, and a British soldier find themselves together in a small Kent town on the road to Canterbury. The town is being plagued by a mysterious "glue-man", who pours glue on the hair of girls dating soldiers after dark. The three attempt to track him down, and begin to have suspicions of the local magistrate, an eccentric figure with a strange, mystical vision of the history of England in general and Canterbury in particular.

J. Lee Thompson
Crime
Melville-Talbot Productions

Small-town lawyer Sam Bowden's life becomes torturous when Max Cady re-enters his life. Cady went to jail for 8 years after Bowden testified that Cady attacked a young woman. Now that Cady has been released, he begins to terrorize Bowden and his family, particularly targeting Bowden's daughter, Nancy. Initially, Cady uses his newfound knowledge of the law (learned in prison) to annoy the Bowdens, then poisons the family dog... Who's next ?

Martin Scorsese
Crime
Amblin Entertainment
R
Sam Bowden is a small-town corporate attorney/"Leave It to Beaver"-esque family-man. Max Cady is a tattooed, cigar-smoking, bible-quoting, psychotic rapist. What do they have in common? Fourteen years, ago Sam was a public defender assigned to Max Cady's rape trial, and he made a serious error: he hid a document from his illiterate client that could have gotten him acquitted. Now, the cagey, bibliophile Cady has been released, and he intends to teach Sam Bowden and his family a thing or two about loss.

Michael Moore
Documentary, Drama
Overture Films
R
Capitalism: A Love Story examines the impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and by default, the rest of the world). The film moves from Middle America, to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan. With both humor and outrage, the film explores the question: What is the price that America pays for its love of capitalism? Families pay the price with their jobs, their homes and their savings. Moore goes into the homes of ordinary people whose lives have been turned upside down; and he goes looking for explanations in Washington, DC and elsewhere. What he finds are the all-too-familiar symptoms of a love affair gone astray: lies, abuse, betrayal...and 14,000 jobs being lost every day. Capitalism: A Love Story also presents what a more hopeful future could look like. Who are we and why do we behave the way that we do?

Richard Brooks
Action & Adventure
Sony Pictures
Unrated
Capote Famed author Truman Capote befriends two murderers while researching his celebrated book "In Cold Blood" - and finds himself changed to the core. In Cold Blood The powerful true story of a callous murder from the minds of the criminals who performed it. Based on Truman Capote's best-selling novel.

Peter Hyams
Drama
Associated General Films
PG
Classic conspiracy tale about the first manned mission to Mars. All appears to be going well until the astronauts are pulled off the ship just before launch by shadowy government types and whisked off to a film studio in the desert. It transpires that the space vehicle has a major defect which NASA just daren't admit. At the studio, over a course of months, the astronauts are forced to act out the journey and the landing to trick the world into believing they have made the trip. Meanwhile, a Journalist (played by Gould) is getting suspicious and every clue he uncovers seems to result in an attempt on his life! The astronauts are just about to splashdown when a further twist to the tale occurs, leaving them with no choice but to try and escape...

Andrew Jarecki
Documentary
HBO Documentary

In the 80's, in the upper-middleclass district of Great Neck, the awarded Professor Arnold Friedman is arrested for possession of some magazines of child pornography. A further investigation of the police discloses that apparently Arnold and his eighteen years old son Jesse molested his young students during their private computer class. Their Jewish family tears apart with the situation and the sentences of Arnold and Jesse.

Michael Schultz
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Car Wash is about a close-knit group of black employees who one day have all manner of strange visitors coming onto their forecourt, including Richard Pryor as a preaching 'wonder-man' who is loved by most but loathed by one, and a man who looks like a thief by the way he is holding his bottle, but it is really his urine sample as he is off to the hospital. T.C's love life takes a turn for the better and the songs keep coming.

Torben Skjødt Jensen
Documentary
Criterion

Brian De Palma
Crime
Bregman/Baer Productions

A Puerto Rican ex-con pledges to stay away from his former drug dealing ways but finds himself being dragged back by his past connections and the naive machinations of his lawyer and best friend. Hoping to raise enough money to get away from New York, Carlito Brigante takes on the job of running a nightclub, renews an affair with a dancer but old associates and old instincts suck him back into a world of violence and mistrust.

Brian De Palma
Action & Adventure
Universal Studios
R
Al Pacino cuts a noble figure in this very enjoyable drama by director Brian De Palma ("Scarface"), based on a pair of books by Edwin Torres. Pacino plays a Puerto Rican ex-con trying hard to go straight, but his loyalty to his lowlife attorney (a virtually unrecognizable Sean Penn) and enemies on the street make that choice difficult. Penelope Ann Miller plays, somewhat unlikely, a stripper who has a romance with Pacino's character. The film finds De Palma tempering his more outlandish moves (think of "Body Double" or "Snake Eyes") just as he did with the popular "Untouchables" and "Mission: Impossible". But while "Carlito's Way" was not commercially successful and never rises to the level of greatness, it is a genuinely compelling movie graced with a fine performance by Pacino and a surprising one from Penn. "--Tom Keogh"

Carlos Saura
Music Video & Concerts
Eclipse from Criterion
PG
In the wake of Criterion's release of "Cría Cuervos", his haunting Franco-era allegory, comes Carlos Saura's famed trilogy, crafted in collaboration with producer Emiliano Piedra, cinematographer Teodoro Escamilla, and choreographer Antonio Gades. "Blood Wedding" (1981) starts out like one of Robert Altman's behind-the-scenes efforts. As the reed-thin Gades describes his initiation into dance, Saura captures every backstage detail, from the bickering of the musicians to the mementos the dancers scatter about their stations. The action culminates in a dress rehearsal of Alfredo Manas's "Bodas de Sangre", a flamenco-ballet version of Federico García Lorca's play. On the day of her betrothal, the Bride (Cristina Hoyos) runs off with Leonardo (Gades), a married man. To appease his Mother (Pilar Cárdenas), the Groom (Juan Antonio Jiménez) sets out to avenge the family name.
In "Carmen" (1983), Saura's biggest international hit, he takes on Georges Bizet's operatic adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's novella. Fiction bleeds into fact as the performers incarnate their parts. The narrative begins with Gades's search for a dancer to play the tragic heroine. He finds her in headstrong hoofer Carmen (Laura del Sol) with whom he embarks on an affair. As with Gades, Cristina Hoyos plays a character much like herself, a dancer relegated to a supporting role (composer/guitarist Paco de Lucía also appears under his own name). Instead of a full-length performance, "Carmen" proceeds through a series of rehearsals and offstage encounters. The more time he spends with his leading lady--described in the text as a "she-wolf"--the more possessive Gades becomes. He demands fidelity, Carmen longs for freedom. Finally, in a fit of rage, he solves their problem--permanently. Manuel de Falla's ballet "El Amor Brujo" (1986) opens on a stage set made up like a gypsy village. (As with the previous films, there is no audience, though the dancers never break character.) Two men agree that their children, José and Candela, will marry when they are grown. The years go by and a wedding comes to pass, though Carmelo (Gades) secretly desires Candela (Hoyos), and Lucía ("Carmen"'s Laura del Sol) feels the same about José (Jiménez). Then José is killed in a knife fight, but every evening Candela dances with his ghost, so she remains blind to Carmelo’s devotion. Of the trilogy, "El Amor Brujo" ("Love, the Magician") features the least dancing, making it less satisfying, but just as passionate--and more optimistic--than its tragic predecessors. For aficionados of dance on film, Carlos Saura's "Flamenco Trilogy" belongs on the shelf with "The Red Shoes" and "West Side Story" (his trio is also filled with finger-snaps and switchblades). For those who wish to dig deeper, Saura followed up with the related documentaries "Sevillanas" (1992) and "Flamenco" (1995), which would have rounded out this set nicely. As with the other entries in Criterion's Eclipse Series (focusing on international masters, like Ingmar Bergman and Louis Malle), this collection may be devoid of extras, but it still represents one of the best deals around. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Mike Nichols
Drama
AVCO Embassy Pictures
R
The film traces the sexual and emotional confusion of two men from their Amherst College days in the fifties through the Kennedy sixties, up to the Vietnam era. Jonathan (Jack Nicholson), a successful tax attorney and Sandy (Art Garfunkel), a physician, personify two extremes of self-delusion and self-aggrandizement: Jonathan makes the mistake of thinking sex is love, and embarks on a lifetime of sexual conquest; Sandy dedicates himself to the pursuit on an idealized woman and the dreamy spiritual completeness to be found therein. In Bobbie (Ann-Margret) Jonathan finds a partner whose masochism compliments his selfishness and emotional ambivalence. Jonathan does not want her to hold a job, but neither does he like the fact that she spends all day in bed sleeping, or watching TV. Sandy falls in love with his first collage romance, Susan (Candice Bergen); they marry and have children. But Sandy is haunted by the fear that he was too hasty, even though he and Susan lead a happy domestic life and strive to reinvigorate their sex life by making love "in all seven rooms" of their apartment. With Jonathan's help, he enters into an affair with Cindy (Cynthia O'Neal), a tough professional woman who turns Sandy off because she is too overbearing.

Herk Harvey
Fantasy
Harcourt Productions

Mary Henry is enjoying the day by riding around in a car with two friends. When challenged to a drag, the women accept, but are forced off of a bridge. It appears that all are drowned, until Mary, quite some time later, amazingly emerges from the river. After recovering, Mary accepts a job in a new town as a church organist, only to be dogged by a mysterious phantom figure that seems to reside in an old run-down pavilion. It is here that Mary must confront the personal demons of her spiritual insouciance.

Steve Purcell (IV)
Comedy
Paramount
NR
One of the most endearing features of "The Carol Burnett Show" was the Q&A session with the audience that opened every show; it provided a charming forum for Burnett’s warm rapport with her fans, as well as a showcase for her improvisational skills. This 2004 TV special (which, like Burnett’s "Showstoppers" retrospective from 2001, posted huge ratings) puts the comedienne and her series co-stars--Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence, and Lyle Waggoner--in front of an audience once again to reminisce and introduce some vintage Q&A clips. Burnett remains fast with a quip, and game enough to once again venture a stellar Tarzan yell, and she’s well-matched by her former castmates, who spin some terrific stories about smooching male and female audience members, wrangling with the legendary Mrs. Miller, and struggling to keep a straight face while one of them (usually Conway) stole the show. For fans of the series, this is an enjoyable highlight reel of its funniest unscripted moments. "--Paul Gaita"

Various
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
If you don't get at least a half-dozen belly laughs from this compilation of outtakes from "The Carol Burnett Show", you'd better check your pulse. Originally broadcast on CBS in 2001, this affectionate retrospective reunites the peerless cast of Burnett's variety show--Burnett, Vicki Lawrence, Tim Conway, and Harvey Korman--to answer audience questions and reminisce. The cast recalls the many times they lost composure on camera, halting sketches due to all varieties of faux pas, from faulty props (or urinating horses) to mutual crack-ups. Culled from the show's mid-1970s heyday, the clips are infectiously hilarious, and the cast never missed an opportunity to inject a little raunchiness (later deleted) into their otherwise wholesome entertainment. Conway's the real conspirator here, frequently turning Korman into a helpless heap of giggles, and costume designer Bob Mackie (pulled from the audience) is given fair tribute for his outlandish creativity. TV like this doesn't exist any more, and "Show Stoppers" will make you wonder why. "--Jeff Shannon"

Brian De Palma
Drama
Redbank Films
R
Carrie White is a shy young girl who doesn't make friends easily. After her class mates taunt her about her horrified reaction to her totally unexpected first period one of them takes pity on her and gets Tommy Ross, her boyfriend and class hunk to invite Carrie to the senior prom. Meanwhile another girl who has been banned from the prom for her continued aggressive behaviour is not as forgiving and plans a trick to embarrass Carrie in front of the whole school. What she doesn't realise is that Carrie is ... gifted, and you really don't want to get her angry.

Brian De Palma
Drama, Horror, Thriller
Redbank Films
R
Carrie White is a shy young girl who doesn't make friends easily. After her class mates taunt her about her horrified reaction to her totally unexpected first period one of them takes pity on her and gets Tommy Ross, her boyfriend and class hunk to invite Carrie to the senior prom. Meanwhile another girl who has been banned from the prom for her continued aggressive behaviour is not as forgiving and plans a trick to embarrass Carrie in front of the whole school. What she doesn't realise is that Carrie is ... gifted, and you really don't want to get her angry.

Gerald Thomas
Comedy
Cleves Investments

The beautiful and sex-starved Emmannuelle Prevert just cannot inflame her husband's ardour. In frustration she seduces a string of VIPs, including the Prime Minister and the American Ambassador. A jealous lover gives a list of all her conquests to the national press and a scandal ensues. But will she ever manage to get her own husband into bed?

John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
Animation
Walt Disney Pictures

While traveling to California for the dispute of the final race of the Piston Cup against The King and Chick Hicks, the famous Lightning McQueen accidentally damages the road of the small town Radiator Springs and is sentenced to repair it. Lightning McQueen has to work hard and finds friendship and love in the simple locals, changing its values during his stay in the small town and becoming a true winner.

John Lasseter, Joe Ranft
Animation
Walt Disney Pictures

While traveling to California for the dispute of the final race of the Piston Cup against The King and Chick Hicks, the famous Lightning McQueen accidentally damages the road of the small town Radiator Springs and is sentenced to repair it. Lightning McQueen has to work hard and finds friendship and love in the simple locals, changing its values during his stay in the small town and becoming a true winner.

Carmine Gallone
Drama
Compagnie Cinématographique de France

John Sayles
Drama
IFC Films
R
The film was made in Acapulco, Mexico. Six women -- dreamy Eileen, abrasive Nan, athletic Skipper, brusque Leslie, vivacious Jennifer and patient Gayle -- are staying at a hotel in Latin America, run by Señora Muñoz. Fed up with the long delays of the adoption system in the United States, they are passing the days waiting to adopt local children to bring back home with them.

Michael Curtiz
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures

In World War II Casablanca, Rick Blaine, exiled American and former freedom fighter, runs the most popular nightspot in town. The cynical lone wolf Blaine comes into the possession of two valuable letters of transit. When Nazi Major Strasser arrives in Casablanca, the sycophantic police Captain Renault does what he can to please him, including detaining Czech underground leader Victor Laszlo. Much to Rick's surprise, Lazslo arrives with Ilsa, Rick's one time love. Rick is very bitter towards Ilsa, who ran out on him in Paris, but when he learns she had good reason to, they plan to run off together again using the letters of transit. Well, that was their original plan....

Lasse Hallström
Adventure
Touchstone Pictures
R
Casanova is love with Francesca, who thinks he is a friend of himself even though he is engaged Victoria, who is the love of Giovanni, Francessca's brother. Francessca is betrothed to Paprizzio who thinks Casanova is the feminist writer Guardi, who is really Francessca's nomme de plume. Amidst all these secret identities and misunderstandings, the Catholic Church sends Pucci to bring Casanova and Guardi to trial for heresy.

Norman Z. McLeod
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Italy, 1757. Meek tailor Pippo Popolino disguises himself as the great Casanova in order to romance attractive widow Francesca. He little suspects what he's getting into: locked into the incongruous role by the greed of the real Casanova's creditors, Pippo must journey to Venice on a delicate mission far beyond his capabilities...

Sean Ellis
Comedy, Drama, Romance
Left Turn Films
R
When art student Ben Willis dumps his girlfriend Suzy, he develops insomnia after finding out how quickly she moved on. To pass the long hours of the night, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket. There he meets a colorful cast of characters, all of whom have their own 'art' in dealing with the boredom of an eight-hour-shift. Ben's art is that he imagines himself stopping time. This way, he can appreciate the artistic beauty of the frozen world and the people inside it - especially Sharon, the quiet checkout girl, who perhaps holds the answer to solving the problem of Ben's insomnia.

Martin Scorsese
Crime
Universal Pictures
R
This Martin Scorsese film depicts the Janus-like quality of Las Vegas--it has a glittering, glamorous face, as well as a brutal, cruel one. Ace Rothstein and Nicky Santoro, mobsters who move to Las Vegas to make their mark, live and work in this paradoxical world. Seen through their eyes, each as a foil to the other, the details of mob involvement in the casinos of the 1970's and '80's are revealed. Ace is the smooth operator of the Tangiers casino, while Nicky is his boyhood friend and tough strongman, robbing and shaking down the locals. However, they each have a tragic flaw--Ace falls in love with a hustler, Ginger, and Nicky falls into an ever-deepening spiral of drugs and violence.

Val Guest, Ken Hughes
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

After the death of M, Sir James Bond is called back out of retirement to stop SMERSH. In order to trick SMERSH and Le Chiffre, Bond thinks up the ultimate plan. That every agent will be named James Bond. One of the Bonds, whose real name is Evelyn Tremble is sent to take on Le Chiffre in a game of baccarat, but all the Bonds get more than they can handle, especially when the ultimate villain turns out to be Bonds nephew, Jimmy Bond.

Martin Campbell
Action
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
PG-13
After receiving license to kill from the MI-6, the secret agent James Bond follows his leads and avoids the destruction of the greatest airplane in the world in Miami plotted by the evil banker Le Chiffre to crash the bonds in the stock market and break the air flight company. The banker loses the funds of international terrorist organizations and organizes a poker game in Casino Royale, in Montenegro, to raise the money of the investors. James Bond travels with the British accountant Vesper Lynd to bet and defeat La Chiffre and force him to look for protection with the MI-6, disclosing the names of the terrorists. James wins, but is double-crossed, in a game of betrayals and murders.

Jacques Becker
Crime
Robert & Raymond Hakim Company

In an open-air dance hall, the members of Leca's gang are relaxing with their ladies. One of them, Marie, aka "Casque d'Or" (Golden Helmet) meets Manda, a carpenter. Her man Roland belongs to the jealous kind, and Leca himself has his eye on her. A story of love, death, friendship and jealousy during the Belle Epoque.

Woody Allen
Crime
Iberville Productions
PG-13
Two London brothers are hard-up for cash, and both have girls to look out for, too. When rich Uncle Howard comes to town and agrees to help them out, he admits his finances are under investigation, and he asks them to do him a favor and "take care of" an old business relation to keep his trouble under wraps - he says that they're family, and since he always takes care of them, the least they could do is help him out this once, as they're the only ones he can trust. The film follows their struggle with the immorality of this request and how each brother chooses to deal with it.

Michael Ventura
Documentary

Unknown
Documentary

Unknown
Documentary

Geneviève Robert
Comedy
Jascat

Two girls go away to a holiday resort looking for a change of pace, hoping to meet some nice men for a change. They discover that they can't find the perfect man, and this forces them to reconsider thei attitudes to men in general.

Brian De Palma
Adventure
Columbia Pictures Corporation

During the Vietnam war, a girl is taken from her village by five American soldiers. Four of the soldiers rape her, but the fifth refuses. The young girl is killed. The fifth soldier is determined that justice will be done. The film is more about the realities of war, rather than this single event.

Elliot Silverstein
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Cat(herine) Balou's family farm is being threatened by the Rail Road. She sends for Kid Shelleen, finding him to be the drunkest gunfighter in the west. When her father is killed by the rail road magnate's gunman, she vowes to fight on. Shelleen manages to ride sideways in several scenes, while minstrels sing the ballad of Cat Ballou in between scenes.

Richard Brooks
Drama
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

The fifth Tennessee Williams play to reach the screen, wealthy Mississippi plantation owner Big Daddy Pollitt, unaware that he's dying of cancer and disturbed by the strained and childless marriage of his favored alcoholic son Brick and his other son, Gooper, whose wife is about to bring forth another in the endless line of little "no-neck monsters," celebrates his sixty-fifth birthday with his family. Brick's wife, Maggie, beautiful and desirable, tries unsuccessfully to coax her husband away from the bottle, while alternately enticing him and taunting him about his obsession with his deceased best friend and the guilt about their relationship. The seamy tensions reach a climax when the truth of Big Daddy's health is revealed, and he and Brick manage to resolve their differences.

Lewis Teague
Comedy
Dino De Laurentiis Company

Three horror-thriller tales based on three Stephen King short stories all revolving around a mysterious stray cat which is attempting to find a little girl in trouble after having a vision. In "Quitters, Inc." the cat is picked up by a certain Dr. Donatti (Alan King) a shady New York "doctor" who uses experimental techniques to get people to quit smoking and his latest client is Morrison (James Woods) who learns some drastic consequences if he tries to cheat his step-by-step quit smoking policy. In "The Ledge" the cat is picked up by Cressner (Kienneth McMillan) a shady Atlantic City millionaire who forces tennis pro Norris (Robert Hays) his wife's adulterous lover, to walk a narrow ledge around his high-rise penthouse apartment. In final segment "The General", the cat arrives in Wilmington, North Carolina where it is found by the young girl Amanda (Drew Barrymore) it has been sent to protect... from a tiny, evil, troll who lives behind the skirting board in Amanda's bedroom.

Peter Bogdanovich
Drama
CP Medien AG
PG-13
In November of 1924, a mysterious Hollywood death occurred aboard media mogul William Randolph Hearst's yacht. Included among the famous guests that weekend were, Charlie Chaplin, Hearst's mistress, starlet Marion Davies, the studio system creator, producer Thomas Ince, and feared gossip columnist, Louella Parsons.

Sam Taylor
Comedy
The Harold Lloyd Corporation

Naive Ezekial Cobb, brought up by his missionary father in China returns to America to seek a wife. Corrupt politicians enlist him to run for mayor as a dummy candidate with no chance of winning. Their plan backfires as he wins and embarks upon a reform crusade.

Phillip Noyce
Drama
Mirage Enterprises
PG-13
A political thriller: the real-life story of a South African hero's journey to freedom. In the country's turbulent and divided times in the 1980s, Patrick Chamusso is an oil refinery foreman and soccer coach who is apolitical - until he and his wife Precious are jailed. Patrick is stunned into action against the country's oppressive reigning system, even as police Colonel Nic Vos further insinuates himself into the Chamussos' lives.

Susannah Grant
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
After the sudden death of her fiancé, Gray Wheeler finds comfort in the company of his friends: lighthearted and comic Sam, hyper-responsible Dennis, and, oddly enough, his old childhood buddy Fritz, an irresponsible playboy whom she'd previously pegged as one of the least reliable people in the world. As secrets about her supposedly perfect fiancé emerge, Gray comes to see new sides of the man she thought she knew, and at the same time, finds herself drawn to the last man she ever expected to fall for.

Steven Spielberg
Biography
DreamWorks SKG
PG-13
An FBI agent tracks down and catches a young con artist who successfully impersonated an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney general and history professor, cashing more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries.

Mike Nichols
Comedy
Filmways Productions
R
A bombardier in World War II tries desperately to escape the insanity of the war. However, sometimes insanity is the only sane way cope with a crazy situation. Catch-22 is a parody of a "military mentality" and of a bureaucratic society in general.

Pitof
Action
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG-13
Catwoman is the story of shy, sensitive artist Patience Philips (Halle Berry), a woman who can't seem to stop apologizing for her own existence. She works as a graphic designer for Hedare Beauty, a mammoth cosmetics company on the verge of releasing a revolutionary anti-aging product. When Patience inadvertently happens upon a dark secret her employer is hiding, she finds herself in the middle of a corporate conspiracy. What happens next changes Patience forever. In a mystical twist of fate, she is transformed into a woman with the strength, speed, agility and ultra-keen senses of a cat. With her newfound prowess and feline intuition, Patience becomes Catwoman, a sleek and stealthy creature balancing on the thin line between good and bad. Like any wildcat, she's dangerous, elusive and untamed. Her adventures are complicated by a burgeoning relationship with Tom Lone (Benjamin Bratt), a cop who has fallen for Patience but cannot shake his fascination with the mysterious Catwoman, who appears to be responsible for a string of crime sprees plaguing the city.

Various
Comedy
Kino Video
NR
To watch this more-than-three-hour collection of 16 Paramount short subjects is to be transported to vaudeville heaven. These priceless performances were produced between 1929 and 1933. Comedy was to Paramount what musicals were to MGM, and who better to usher in a new era of talking pictures than audience-tested stage entertainers? The studio recruited New York's finest. Among the headliners on this bill are George Burns and Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Jack Benny, George Jessel, Bing Crosby, and Milton Berle. The shorts themselves are mostly just filmed records of these established acts, much as if you watched them from your center aisle seat at the Palace Theatre. The jokes, unlike fine wine, have not aged well ("Prosperity is just around the crooner," Bing Crosby offers in "Sing, Bing, Sing"). But several of these shorts offer revelatory early glimpses at these future show-business legends. "A Broadway Romeo" (1931) presents a cockier Jack Benny than audiences would come to know and love. Burns & Allen reveal a surrealist streak in "100% Service" (1931), which climaxes with a parade of would-be takers (including a man with a horse!) for a woman's invitation to join her for honeymoon bridge. "Comedy Cavalcade" also rescues from obscurity such faded former stars as dialect comedians Smith & Dale ("What Price, Pants?"), who were the inspiration for Neil Simon's "The Sunshine Boys". The timeless slapstick of "The Plasterers" (1929) with Charles O'Donnell & Jack Blair, "Plastered" (1930) with Willie West & McGinty, and "A Put Up Job" (1931) with Karl Dane and George K. Arthur, fares better than the more dialogue-driven shorts. Taken together, this is a precious time capsule from a bygone era when comedy was just beginning to finds its voice in the movies. "—Donald Liebenson"

Lisa Cholodenko
Drama
Cavedweller Productions Ltd.
R

Kasi Lemmons
Crime
Franchise Pictures
R
Romulus is mentally ill, a troglodyte in a New York City park. He's also a gifted composer and the father of a city cop. On Valentine's Day, a young man freezes in a tree near his cave. The police determine it's the accidental death of someone behaving bizarrely, but Romulus believes a friend of the dead youth who says that noted avant-garde photographer, David Leppenraub, murdered him. Romulus, urged on by hallucinations of his wife as a young woman, resolves to catch the killer and manages to be invited to Leppenraub's farm to play a new composition. Can Romulus hold it together long enough to get to the bottom of the death and also to make a breakthrough with his daughter?

Tamra Davis
Comedy
Universal Pictures

A "rockumentary", covering the rise to fame of MC Gusto, Stab Master Arson, and Dead Mike: members of the rap group "CB4". We soon learn that these three are not what they seem and don't apear to know as much about rap music as they claim... but a lack of musical ability in an artist never hurts sales, does it? You've just got to play the part of a rap star...

Ken Whittingham
Comedy
ABC Studios

Joanie Wread, Brian Hecker, Jonathan Kahn (III)
Drama
Vanguard Cinema
NR
Vanguard is proud to announce the release of award-winning shorts collection celebrating the American Film Institute featuring all star casts in 6 incredible short films: Family Attraction (AFI Best Film Award) depicts the last "nuclear" family in America as an endangered species held in captivity. Chili Con Carne (Filmmaker of the year Award, starring Mel Gibson) depicts Pete Connelly, who after being dumped by his girlfriend is sentenced to a male bonding prison. Also includes Bar Time, The Car Kid (James Franco) and Fair Play (Ed Asner) about a young homeless boy.

Thomas Vinterberg
Drama
Danmarks Radio (DR)
R
The Father turns 60. His family, which is a big one of the kind, gathers to celebrate him on a castle. Everybody likes and respects the father deeply...or do they? The Youngest Son is trying to live up to The Father's expectations. He is running a grill-bar in a dirty part of Copenhagen. The oldest son runs a restaurant in France, while the sister is a lawyer. The older sister has recently committed suicide and the father asks the oldest son to say a few words about her, because he is afraid he will break into tears if he does it himself. The oldest son agrees without arguments. Actually he has already written two speeches. A yellow and a green one. By the table, he asks the father to pick a speech. The father chooses green. The oldest son announces that this is the Speech of Truth. Everybody laughs, except for the father who gets a nervous look on his face. For he knows that the oldest son is about to reveal the secret of why the oldest sister killed herself.

Woody Allen
Comedy
Sweetland Films
R
Lee Simon, unsuccessful journalist and wanna-be novelist, tries to get a foot into the door with celebrities. After divorcing his wife Robin, Lee gets to meet a lot folks of the rich and / or beautiful, partly through journalism, partly because he has a script to offer. But life among those from out-of-this-world is hard, and his putative success always results in defeat. Meanwhile Robin meets a very desirable TV-producer and takes the first steps in the world of celebrities herself.

Tarsem Singh
Crime
Avery Pix
R
Catharine Deane is a psychotherapist who is part of a revolutionary new treatment which allows her mind to literally enter the mind of her patients. Her experience in this method takes an unexpected turn when an FBI agent comes to ask for a desperate favour. They had just tracked down a notorious serial killer, Carl Stargher, whose MO is to abduct women one at a time and place them in a secret area where they are kept for about 40 hours until they are slowly drowned. Unfortunately, the killer has fallen into an irreversible coma which means he cannot confess where he has taken his latest victim before she dies. Now, Catherine Deane must race against time to explore the twisted mind of the killer to get the information she needs, but Stargher's damaged personality poses dangers that threaten to overwhelm her.

Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Documentary
Arte

A comprehensive documentary of the history of gays and lesbians in cinema, from negative to positive reflections of gay characters and the troubles of actors and actresses.

Michele Soavi
Comedy
Audiofilm
R
This movie is based on a novel of Tiziano Sclavi, and it always reflects the "sclavian philosophy" diffused by the most succesful comics in Italy: Dylan Dog, the detective of the nightmare. There is the duality between love and dead (in Italian "dellamore" means "of love" and "dellamorte" means "of death"), a duality that Dellamorte feels in a really hard way. He is the guardian of the cemetery of Buffalora, a little town in the north of Italy, in which, we don't know why, corpses rise from tombs and Dellamorte has to destroy them. Dellamorte seems not to ask to himself why this happen, he shoots and loves. But at the end he wants to leave Buffalora...

Nicholas Hytner
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
"Center Stage" is an intimate look into the education of three young students, Jodie, Eva and Maureen, as they study at the American Ballet Academy. Life isn't what they expected at the esteemed ABC, and all three face problems along the road. Jodie doesn't have the "ideal" body for dancing, Eva doesn't have the right attitude, and Maureen doesn't have the heart. Along the way, they learn that love can be found in unlikely places, and dancing should be a passion, not a duty.

Jean-Pierre Melville
Crime
Euro International Film (EIA)

Corey is a cool, aristocratic thief, released from prison on the same day that Vogel, a murderer, escapes from the custody of the patient Mattei, a cat-loving police superintendent. Corey robs Rico, his mob boss, then enlists Vogel and an ex-police sharpshooter, Jansen, in a jewel heist. While Corey is harried by the vengeful Rico, Mattei pressures Santi, a nightclub owner and pimp, to help him trap the thieves. Over all hangs the judgment of the police directeur, that every man is guilty.

Lee Frost
Action
Flamingo Productions Ltd.

Pontus Löwenhielm, Patrick von Krusenstjerna
Comedy
Bel Air Entertainment
R
"Shiny New Enemies" is a heist comedy-romance about a haples barber (Steve Zahn) whose life takes a turn for the worse when he ends up in possession of a stolen treasure of ancient coins (the "Shiny New Enemies") and simultaneously falls on the wrong side of the law and in love with the detective (Salma Hayek) investigating the crime.

Dimitri Logothetis
Sports
IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
NR
These are the lost interviews with: The Greatest of All Time! - Filmed at his home in Michigan and during the making of Champions Forever--the acclaimed documentary that brought together Ali, Joe Frazier, George Foreman, Larry Holmes, and Ken Norton for the first and only time--these 1990 interviews with Craig Glazer were placed in a vault and forgotten for nearly 20 years until rediscovered by Producers Craig Glazer and Ron Hamady. In these never before seen conversations, a playful, feisty, and inspiring Ali talks about his place in history, his love for his fellow heavyweight champs, and even throws punches like the young Ali.

This is the only time that all heavyweight champions were ever together and Muhammad fought them all!

Wayne Wang
Crime
New Yorker Films

Two cabbies search San Francisco's Chinatown for a mysterious character who has disappeared with their $4000. Their quest leads them on a humorous, if mundane, journey which illuminates the many problems experienced by Chinese-Americans trying to assimilate into contemporary American society.

Clint Eastwood
Drama, History, Mystery
Imagine Entertainment
R

Roger Michell
Drama
Paramount Pictures
R
An attorney (Ben Affleck) in a rush to make a court appointment to file legal papers involving a multi-million dollar trust accidentally collides with an alcoholic insurance salesman (Samuel Jackson), who also is a rush for a court appointment involving the custody of his children. The attorney leaves the scene of the accident and strands the salesman, causing him to miss his custody hearing. During the process of the post-crash discussion, the attorney accidentally drops the papers he needs to present in court. The judge gives him until the end of the day to present the papers and thus begins a cat and mouse game between the proponents. A few questionable actions later on both parties' part, they finally start questioning their actions and their lives. In the end, both come to new understanding of what is important and appear to be set in new ethical and moral directions. Contains mild violence and profanity.

Richard Attenborough
Biography
Carolco Pictures
PG-13
The biography of Charlie Chaplin, filmmaker extraordinaire. From his formitive years in England to his highest successes in America, Charlie's life, work, and loves are followed. While his screen characters were extremely hilarious, the man behind "The Little Tramp" was constantly haunted by a sense of loss.

Various
Classics
Delta
NR
A must-have for any fan or film buff’s library. This definitive collection of 12-DVDs contains 57 of Chaplin’s legendary early films in chronological order…a true historical legacy of the greatest comedian who ever lived. In addition to these film gems, also included is an exclusive 90 minute documentary on the life and times of this comedic master.
COVERS CHAPLIN’S WORK AT KEYSTONE, ESSANAY, MUTUAL AND FIRST NATIONAL FILM COMPANIES.

Charles Chaplin
Classics
Image Entertainment
NR
Twelve films directed and written by Charlie Chaplin with new orchestral scores composed and conducted by Carl Davis! Restored from premier quality original 35mm film! This edition of The Chaplin Mutual Comedies has been restored from the finest surviving 35mm film elements with additions and improvements from new film materials which have surfaced since Image's previous edition.FEATURED FILMS:THE FLOORWALKER - THE FIREMAN - THE VAGABOND - ONE A. M. - THE COUNT - THE PAWN SHOP - BEHIND THE SCREEN - THE RINK - EASY STREET - THE CURE - THE IMMIGRANT - THE ADVENTURERSystem Requirements:Running Time: 301 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 014381247725 Manufacturer No: ID2477DSDVD

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Charles Chaplin Productions

Three Chaplin silent comedies "A Dog's Life", "Shoulder Arms", and "The Pilgrim" are strung together to form a single feature length film. Chaplin provides new music, narration, and a small amount of new connecting material. "Shoulder Arms" is now described as taking place in a time before "the atom bomb".

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Essanay Film Manufacturing Company, The

Kevin Macdonald
Documentary
Figment Films

Andre Allen (II), Bill Berner, Todd Broder, Rusty Cundieff, Bob Goldthwait
Comedy
Comedy Central
NR
The 2003 debut of "Chappelle's Show" on Comedy Central marked a high point for the cable channel, and now the entire, wildly creative first season can be seen, with hundreds of bleeps removed. That's not to say "Chappelle's Show" is perfect entertainment: there are too many moments among the 12 episodes here that descend into pointless scatology and booty fever. But for the most part, Chappelle, a talented comic slowly growing into greatness, is trying to push the sketch-humor envelope and succeeds at surprising us with original concepts and merciless execution.
The merely clever material includes "National Geography's Third World Girls Gone Wild," basically an update on those topless-native-women gags of yore, and Chappelle's "Educated Guess Line," in which the sage comic eschews psychic powers to logically deduce racial insights from his callers' questions. Far more wicked is an in-your-face satire on such autobiographical film fare as "Antwone Fisher" and "8 Mile", in which Chappelle plays himself ascending from street hustler to rapper-comedian to bona fide savior of America. The best thing here, however, is a parallel-universe version of "The Real World", in which the usual racial proportions on MTV's workhorse series are reversed, thrusting a token white guy into a Hoboken houseful of crazy African Americans. There are also laughs in "Ask a Gay Guy with Mario Cantoned," as well as a sketch about an "inner-thoughts cam" and a nasty piece about Chappelle's Make-a-Wish visit to a dying child, which decays into a cruel video game competition. Overlooking the series' weaker material, this is outstanding television comedy. "--Tom Keogh"

Andre Allen (II), Bill Berner, Todd Broder, Rusty Cundieff, Bob Goldthwait
Comedy
Comedy Central
NR
Dave Chappelle's shrewd parodies, stinging satires, and boldly imaginative fantasias simply pour from the second season of his Comedy Central show, in every respect as funny as his well-received debut year. The structure is the same: a relaxed Chappelle introduces each sketch to an enthusiastic, studio audience (some of these introductions amount to stand-up routines), and then the madness begins. Among the many highlights from the 13 episodes on this boxed set's three discs is a mock ad for Samuel L. Jackson beer, featuring Chappelle's hilarious impression of Jackson's stern, overbearing persona from "Pulp Fiction", and a dozen other features. Chappelle, considering a career in politics, floats a couple of trial campaign commercials, including one that promises to solve America's health care crisis by giving every citizen a fake Canadian I.D. Chappelle also suggests an effective program for teaching sexual abstinence to high school students: Forcing them to watch their principals have sex with the oldest female teachers on staff.
There's a good bit, too, about black soothsayer Negrodamus, whose ability to foresee events is limited to the fortunes of celebrities. Coming under fire (amusingly) are those McDonald's commercials suggesting that burger-flipping employment for African Americans can overhaul inner city communities. But, as with season 1, there are several masterpieces in this collection as well, such as Chappelle's vision of what the Internet would look like if it was a place you could actually, physically visit (with the equivalents of pop-up ads, porn sites, etc.). Equally inspired is a sketch in which a freeloading Chappelle, having impregnated the ultra-rich Oprah Winfrey, indulges his every whim. Best of all is Chappelle's take on what President Bush's administration would look like if the Chief Executive were, in fact, a black man. "--Tom Keogh"

J.P. Schaefer
Crime
Peace Arch Entertainment Group
R

Mike van Diem
Drama
First Floor Features
R
J.W. Katadreuffe is the son of Joba Katadreuffe and A.B. Drevenhaven. Though fully neglected by Joba, Dreverhaven ensures the succesfull career of his son. Mostly unseen, though he sues his son a few times. The son Katadreuffe succeeds, but at great costs.

Stanley Donen
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Regina is about to divorce her husband when she finds that he has been murdered after converting every penny they owned to cash, which is also missing. She meets Cary Grant who changes his name every 15 min. or so and is interested in her husband's money, which seems to have come from a WWII payroll he stole. His partners in crime are also very interested in where the money is, as he stole it from them as well. Everyone assumes Regina MUST know where the money is. The situation becomes more tense when the searchers begin turning up dead.

Ross McElwee
Documentary

Unknown
Comedy

Various
Classics
Pathé Exchange

It's wonderful to see that Kino Video is providing us with more great comedy from the silent era, especially of stars most of us might not be too familiar with. I was pleasantly surprised by this DVD right from the start: each of the six comedy shorts (averaging around 20 minutes in length) has very high production and picture quality, and I especially enjoyed the clever gags and ideas. Although this Kino Video series is called "Slapstick Symposium", I would rate Charley Chase's comedy as somewhat more 'high brow' than the everyday slapstick most of us are familiar with such as Keystone, early Chaplin and Arbuckle, for instance. So if you are no great fan of these silent comedians, then perhaps Charley Chase would be more to your taste. Personally, I got a lot more genuine good chuckles and plenty of smiles out of all 6 Chase shorts on this DVD than most Chaplin or Arbuckle. Not only are the gags quite original and clever, the overall editing and acting by Chase also add quality to these comedies. Unlike Chaplin, Arbuckle and others who played a clown-like character, Charley Chase is just a normal guy - much like Harold Lloyd - who finds himself in hilarious situations. His acting style is not excessive in any way, nor does he stand out, but the end product is always a satisfying and entertaining little comedy. Chase was more than just a comedian, however; he was also involved in writing, directing and of course, thinking up his own funny gags, and this DVD has a nice selection of good quality ones. My favourites are "Dog Shy" and "His Wooden Wedding" (in the latter he is misled into thinking his fiancee has a wooden leg) but Chase's appearance as Romeo in "Bromo and Juliet" as he pads his tights because his legs appeared too thin is also worth a couple of laughs. All up, this is about 2 hours of really good entertainment - perhaps nothing extraordinarily hilarious or unusual, but overall enjoyable. I was just a bit disappointed that the special feature biography on Charley Chase is only 8 minutes long, as I'm sure he deserves a much longer and thorough bio. Good fun for silent comedy fans, especially those who prefer the likes of Harold Lloyd.

Don Siegel
Crime
Universal Pictures

Charley Varrick and his friends rob a small town bank. Expecting a small sum to divide amongst themselves, they are surprised to discover a very LARGE amount of money. Quickly figuring out that the money belongs to the MOB, they must now come up with a plan to throw the MOB off their trail.

Archie Mayo
Comedy
Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Charley Wyckham and Jack Chesney pressure fellow student Fancourt Babberly to pose as Charley's Brazilian Aunt Donna Lucia. Their purpose is to have a chaperone for their amorous visits with Amy and Kitty, niece and ward of crusty Stephen Spettigue. Complications begin when Fancourt, in drag, becomes the love object of old Spettigue and Sir Francis Chesney.

Jon Poll
Comedy
Sidney Kimmel Entertainment
R
Wealthy teenager Charlie Bartlett is failing miserably at fitting in at a new public high school run by the world-weary Principal Gardner. As he begins to better understand the social hierarchy, Charlie's honest charm and likability positions him as the resident "psychiatrist" dishing out advice, and the occasional prescription with his partner and fellow student, Murphy Bivens, to other students in need. Along the way, he decides to take some of his own advice, find romance, and learn to accept who he is, thus wielding a witty dark comedy about the angst-filled years before college.

Beat Hirt, Felice Zenoni
Documentary
Mesch & Ugge AG

This documentary about Charlie Chaplin focuses on his late years when he lived with his family in a village on Lake Geneva in Switzerland. His personal life and his love for the circus are depicted as well as the late works of his professional career, including his extensive work as a composer. In addition, the film reveals the Swiss intelligence agency's file on Chaplin. Features numerous archive clips and new interviews with family members and various entertainment stars, including Petula Clark, who sings her Chaplin-written hit "This Is My Song" in his villa.

Peter Altschuler
Documentary
Splice of Life

Mike Nichols
Biography
Good Time Charlie Productions
R
In the early 1980s, Charlie Wilson is a womanizing US congressional representative from Texas who seemed to be in the minor leagues, except for the fact that he is a member of two major foreign policy and covert-ops committees. However, prodded by his major conservative supporter, Joanne Herring, Wilson learns about the plight of the people are suffering in the brutal Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. With the help of the maverick CIA agent, Gust Avrakotos, Wilson dedicates his canny political efforts to supply the Afghan mujahideen with the weapons and support to defeat the Soviet Union. However, Charlie Wilson eventually learns that while military victory can had, there are other consequences and prices to that fight that are ignored to everyone's sorrow.

Richard Schickel
Documentary


Narrated by Sydney Pollack, film critic Richard Schickel's dazzling two-hour plus documentary to one of the towering figures in film: Charles Chaplin. Hardcore Chaplin fans may not find much new material here, but more unfamiliar admirers will gain some valuable information about one of the most famous personalities of the 20th century. Schickel has constructed the documentary as a chronological survey of Chaplin's work, starting with his most significant shorts and covering all of his features. Schickel supports his narration with testimony from artists familiar with Chaplin's work and family members who offer personal insights into the comedian's life. The documentary plays down but doesn't ignore the controversies that swirled around Chaplin's private life. But the main focus is on the films. They include some of the best-loved movies of all time. Clips from "Kid Auto Races at Venice," the 1914 Keystone short in which Chaplin first used his Tramp costume, reveal a startlingly modern technique and sensibility, as if the filmmakers were predicting and mocking reality TV. Subsequent shorts show Chaplin refining his 'Little Tramp' character while absorbing the essentials of filmmaking. By the time he made "Easy Street," in 1917, Chaplin had perfected a combination of knockabout farce and Victorian sentiment that still proves irresistible. Chaplin's early features, including "The Kid," "The Gold Rush" and "City Lights," were such blockbuster hits that he could essentially ignore the coming of sound for almost a decade. Those making appearances on the program include Woody Allen, Richard Attenborough, Jeanine Basinger, Claire Bloom, Geraldine Chaplin. Sydney Chaplin, Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr., Milos Forman, Bill Irwin, Norman Lloyd, Marcel Marceau, David Raksin, David Robinson, Andrew Sarris, Martin Scorsese and Jeffrey Vance.

McG
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
The captivating crime-fighting trio who are the masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy the Angels, aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley, set out to bring down the bad guys. But when a terrible secret is revealed it makes the Angels targets for assassination.

McG
Action
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
The Angels--Natalie, Dylan, and Alex are back again but this time they're preparing for a strike without even warning as they go undercover to retrieve two missing silver bands. These are no ordinary rings. They contain valuable encrypted information that reveal the new identities of every person in the Federal Witness Protection Program. When witnesses start turning up dead, only the Angels, using their expertise as masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts can stop the perpetrator, a mysterious "fallen" Angel. Aided by their trusty colleague, Jimmy Bosley, the Angels' adventure begins at a remote Mongolian outpost and ends only after Dylan is forced to face a dark secret from her past--a secret that puts the lives of her two best friends in danger.

Arthur Penn
Drama
Horizon Pictures

Most everyone in town thinks that Sheriff Calder is merely a puppet of rich oil-man Val Rogers. When it is learned that local baddie Bubba Reeves has escaped prison, Rogers' son is concerned because he is having an affair with Reeves' wife. It seems many others in town feel they may have reasons to fear Reeves. Calder's aim is to bring Reeves in alive, unharmed. Calder will have to oppose the powerful Rogers on one hand and mob violence on the other, in his quest for justice.

Kevin Smith
Comedy
Miramax Films
R
Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh

Kevin Smith
Comedy
Too Askew Prod. Inc.
R
Holden and Banky are comic book artists. Everything's going good for them until they meet Alyssa, also a comic book artist. Holden falls for her, but his hopes are crushed when he finds out she's a lesbian.

Tom DeSimone
Comedy
Lips Productions

Steven Soderbergh
Art House & International
IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
R
Far from a conventional biopic, Steven Soderberghs film about Che Guevara is a fascinating exploration of the revolutionary as icon. Daring in its refusal to make the socialist leader into an easy martyr or hero, Che paints a vivid, naturalistic portrait of the man himself (with a stunning, Cannes-award-winning performance by Benicio del Toro), from his overthrow of the Batista dictatorship, to his 1964 United Nations trip, to the end of his short life. Originally released in two parts, the first a kaleido-scopic view of the Cuban revolution and the second an all-action dramatization of Che's failed campaign in Bolivia, Che is presented here in its complete form.

Stills from Che (Click for larger image)

Melville W. Brown
Comedy
RKO Radio Pictures

Typical Amos 'n Andy storyline has the boys trying to make a go of their "open-air" taxi business while they get caught up in a society hassle, involving driving musicians to a fancy party. All the regular characters are here (or mentioned), including the famous Mystic Knights of the Sea. The only film appearance of radio's long-running characters.

Unknown
Short
ZM Productions

Various
Comedy
Paramount
NR
The definition of comfort television is this: You want to go where everybody knows your name. And you're always glad you came. Long one of DVD's most wanted, "Cheers" is at last open for business in this four-disc set that contains all 22 episodes of the first, and best, season of one of the defining series of the 1980s. "Cheers" inherited the mantle from "Taxi" as television's best ensemble-driven workplace comedy. It can be instructive to return to a long-running series' more humble beginnings. While "Cheers" got drunk on farce in its later seasons, it began life as a much more grounded human comedy. In these inaugural episodes, the action does not stray from the Boston bar owned by Sam Malone, a washed-up baseball player three years sober. The straws that stir the drink are the lineup of MVPs: Nick Colasanto as addled Coach; Rhea Perlman, the Thelma Ritter of her generation, as surly and fertile waitress Carla; George Wendt as quintessential barfly Norm; and John Ratzenberger as Cliff, the bar know-it-all ready with "little-known facts" (and blessedly far from the pathetic blowhard his character would evolve into).
Spiking this concoction is the palpable chemistry between Ted Danson's Sam and Shelley Long's Diane Chambers, fledgling waitress and self-described "student of life." The battle lines are drawn in the episode "Sam's Women": He's the "dim ex-baseball player" and she, "the post graduate." But, as Carla so indelicately puts it, they can't "put their glands on hold." In the first blush of lust, they were primetime's most potent mismatched couple until "Moonlighting"'s David and Maddie bantered entendres. Here are little remembered facts: Sam was initially "an astute judge of human character." Guest stars Fred Dryer ("Sam at Eleven") and Julia Duffy ("Any Friend of Diane's") were among those considered for the roles of Sam and Diane. A pre-"Night Court" Harry Anderson stole his scenes in his recurring role as flim-flam man Harry ("Pick a Con...Any Con"). The lack of a commentary track is a disappointment, as are the extras that wouldn't fill a shot glass. Still, "Cheers" patrons can expect plenty of happy hours with this set. "--Donald Liebenson"

Various
Comedy
Paramount
NR
It looks great: season two of the situation comedy many consider the best ever produced on American television has a superb presentation on this DVD collection. The colors are rich, the images sharp--a vast improvement over those murky reruns in perpetual TV syndication.
Then, of course, there are the consistently brilliant episodes from "Cheers"' sophomore year. Despite its low-rated debut in 1982, the ensemble farce set in a Boston bar confidently returned with several strong story arcs, including the turbulent, screwball romance between intellectual poseur Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) and affable primitive Sam Malone (Ted Danson), romantic conflicts for the sexually voracious and deeply cynical barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman), and marital separation for beloved barfly Norm (George Wendt). With John Ratzenberger signing on as a full-time cast member (playing pompous jive-slinger and postman Cliff Claven), and those opaque one-liners by the clueless Coach (Nicholas Colasanto), "Cheers" was firing on all cylinders.
Episode highlights include "They Call Me Mayday," in which talk-show personality Dick Cavett, playing himself, convinces Sam the public would be interested in the former major league pitcher's autobiography--a notion that throws the unpublished, would-be novelist Diane into disbelief. Also wonderful is "Where There's a Will," guest-starring George Gaynes as a rich, dying man who leaves the gang $100,000 on a paper napkin will. "No Help Wanted" finds Sam's friendship with down-on-his-luck accountant Norm strained when the latter has a go at the bar's books, while the great "Coach Buries a Grudge" features the addled, elder statesman of "Cheers" delivering a memorable eulogy for a friend after discovering the dead man had an affair with his wife. Opinions vary about the worthiness of "Cheers"' latter years (the show ended in 1993), but no one disputes the merit of its groundbreaking start. "--Tom Keogh"

James Burrows
Comedy
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)

Season 3 of "Cheers" enriched television history in a lot of ways, most notably by introducing Kelsey Grammer as psychiatrist Frasier Crane while also bidding an off-screen farewell to Nicholas Colasanto, the actor who played Coach. (Colasanto died near the end of the season, and while Coach's character was kept alive via outtakes for remaining episodes, he essentially disappeared from "Cheers" before the commencement of year 4.)
Grammer's beloved character, who remained on NBC for 20 unbroken years (including the long-running "Frasier"), is ushered into the "Cheers" family when he meets barmaid Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) in a very funny, Emmy-nominated episode suggesting the neurotic course of their future romance. Meanwhile, Sam (Ted Danson), having fallen off the wagon due to his own tempestuous love affair with Diane, has to endure Frasier's questions about how to be intimate with the brainy babe. Elsewhere in "Cheers"' sardonic community, Cliff (John Ratzenberger), in a sweet but barbed episode, meets a woman (Bernadette Birkett) at a costume party and is afraid of re-introducing himself later. Norm (George Wendt) becomes aware of his mortality and decides to move to Bora Bora, and Sam (in another Emmy-nominated show) has to explain how he got shot in his posterior. Other good things: "The Heart Is a Lonely Snipe Hunter," in which the men of "Cheers" cruelly initiate Frasier in the manly art of snipe-hunting, and "Bar Bet," starring Jacqueline Bisset as a woman Sam must marry before a certain date or lose the bar forever. "--Tom Keogh"

James Burrows, Thomas Lofaro
Comedy
Paramount
NR
For its fourth season, "Cheers" served up a new bartender. Following the death of Nicholas Colasanto, who had played Coach, the season premiere introduced Woody Boyd (Woody Harrelson), the Indiana hick who certainly didn't raise the bar's collective IQ but had his own brand of endearing goofiness. That episode, "Birth, Death, Love and Rice," also explained what happened at the end of season 3 when Sam (Ted Danson) chased Diane (Shelley Long) and Frasier (Kesley Grammer) to Italy in hopes of preventing their marriage. The end result is that Diane returns to work at the bar and resumes her sexually charged flirtation with Sam, and Frasier becomes a brooding presence always looking for a way to win her back. Jennifer Tilly guest-stars as one of Sam's ex-girlfriends who actually hits it off with the petulant psychiatrist, but stealing the show in the same episode ("Second Time Around") was Dr. Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth), in what was supposed to be a five-minute one-shot role. The impossibly buttoned-up Sternin was such a perfect match for Frasier that she later became a regular cast member and won two Emmys.
In other memorable episodes, Andy Andy (Derek McGrath) returns to terrorize Diane ("Diane's Nightmare"), the gang tries to turn the tables on Gary's Old Town Tavern in a bowling match ("From Beer to Eternity"), and Frasier sets up a night at the opera ("Diane Chambers Day"). In the three-part season finale ("Strange Bedfellows"), Sam begins dating a politician (Kate Mulgrew, later of "Star Trek: Voyager") running for reelection. Diane decides to work for her opponent before taking a more drastic step, leading to Sam's memorable telephone call that served as a cliffhanger leading to season 5. Unlike previous seasons, the DVD set has no extras. "--David Horiuchi"

James Burrows, Tim Berry
Comedy
Paramount
NR
Even as it bid goodbye to one of its core characters, "Cheers" enjoyed a fifth season of high hilarity that still holds up decades later. The cliffhanger at the end of the fourth season began a season-long courting dance between Sam (Ted Danson) and Diane (Shelley Long) in which both want to get married--but never at the same time. They argue, they see a pre-nuptial counselor (an Emmy-winning John Cleese), and then one has to make a final decision. But Sam and Diane weren't the only ones exploring relationships. Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) once again meets Dr. Lilith Sternin (Bebe Neuwirth) and, with the help of Diane, are soon cozily coinhabiting. Woody (Woody Harrelson) gets a visit from his ex-girlfriend (Amanda Wyss), and meets Coach's niece (Cady McClain). Carla (Rhea Perlman) seems finally rid of the sleazy Nick (Dan Hedaya, who was spun off into a thankfully short-lived series called "The Tortellis") only to meet a Bruins goalie named Eddie LeBec (Jay Thomas). Then again, there were some non-relationship events, such as Diane's trying out for the Boston Ballet and the gang's classic Thanksgiving dinner at Carla's house (in which we finally get to see Norm's wife, Vera, sort of). But more than anything, the fifth season belonged to Sam and Diane. Their relationship ends in touching flash-forward and a wish to "have a good life." If only the departing actor's subsequent career had been so good. Like the fourth season, the DVD set has no extras. "--David Horiuchi"

George Wendt, John Ratzenberger, Andy Ackerman, James Burrows, Michael Zinberg
Comedy
Paramount
NR
In its sixth season, "Cheers" introduced its second major--and most significant--cast change. Following the events of season 5, Sam (Ted Danson) returns from his aborted around-the-world boat trip to find the old gang gone, Carla (Rhea Perlman) and Woody (Woody Harrelson) wearing uniforms more fit for a barbershop quartet, and a tough new boss who reportedly "eats live sharks for breakfast." The new boss, Rebecca (Kirstie Alley, probably best known at the time for her appearance in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and later to anchor such series as "Veronica's Closet" and "Fat Actress"), grudgingly hires back Sam, but has him positively befuddled with her resistance to his masculine wiles. She's not as tough as she seems, however, getting weak in the knees at the thought or sight of her corporate boss, Evan Drake (Tom Skerritt).
After the Diane debacle, the irony of the sixth season is that wedding bells are in the air. Carla is on the verge of hitching up with her Boston Bruins boyfried, Eddie LeBec (Jay Thomas), until a string of bad luck threatens to tear apart the "two most superstitious people in the world." Then Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) is the victim of a prank that turns serious when he decides to dump live-in psychologist-lover Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) in order to "pursue the fair Rebecca." Other events of the season include Sam as a rapping sportscaster, Sam and Woody being sold in a charity auction, Woody entering a romance with an older woman while dressed up as Mark Twain, and another showdown with Gary's Old Town Tavern. "Cheers" missed Shelley Long, but it remained a high-quality show; her career missed "Cheers" infinitely more. "--David Horiuchi"

Andy Ackerman, James Burrows
Comedy
Paramount
NR
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/10/2007

Andy Ackerman, James Burrows
Television
Paramount
NR
All 26 top-rated episodes from the 8th season Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/10/2007 Starring: Ted Danson Rhea Perlman Run time: 619 minutes

Various
Comedy
Paramount
NR
"Cheers: The Complete Ninth Season", like every season of the great NBC sitcom, is graced by a number of very funny episodes involving the going-nowhere denizens of a Boston bar. The year begins with Cheers' multi-millionaire owner Robin (Roger Rees) heading to a probable term in jail, selling the bar back to Sam (Ted Danson) and putting its manager, Rebecca (Kirstie Alley), who also happens to be Robin's girlfriend, out of work. But what's really interesting is the onset of Sam and Rebecca's intimate relationship at the same time, which ceases soon after it begins but leaves such a residual level of caring that Sam invites Rebecca to come back and work at Cheers when her fortunes flag. In the wonderful "Rebecca Redux," Sam hires an assistant (Bryan Clark) with a mythic all-American grin and such a good, positive thought for everyone that a near-mutiny develops among Cheers' customers when Rebecca replaces him upon her return. While the Rebecca-Sam-Robin relationship dynamic works itself out over the season, other perennial storylines pick up their threads from previous years. "Cheers Fouls Out" is the latest in a long line of mind games between Sam and the (unfortunately superior) Gary, owner of a rival bar that annually kicks Cheers' behind in a basketball game. This time, Gary comes up with a couple of redwood-tall ringers to go up against the likes of Norm (George Wendt) and Woody (Woody Harrelson), but Sam has a secret weapon: Kevin McHale of the Celtics. Not that Sam's luck can be expected to improve even with the odds seemingly in his favor.
Sam's gullibility rears itself in another episode, "Pitch It Again, Sam," in which failed Red Sox pitcher "Mayday" Malone is goaded into taking the mound once again in a duel with a veteran hitter. Hoping for the redemption of his dim, major league reputation, Sam encounters an unexpected challenge to his decency at the last moment. The hilarious "Rat Girl" finds Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) concerned when his psychiatrist wife, Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth), grieves so deeply following the death of her favorite lab rat that she carries its little corpse around in her purse. "Uncle Sam Wants You" begins an understated story thread about Sam's desire to be a father, while "Carla Loves Clavin" puts cynical barmaid Carla (Rhea Perlman) in the horrifying position of having to be nice to one of her favorite targets, blowhard Cliff (John Ratzenberger). Cliff's mom (Frances Sternhagen), by the way, shows up unexpectedly in the painfully funny "Ma Always Liked You Best," prodding at Cliff's newfound independence and stoking her son's jealousy by lavishing Woody with attention. "Bad Neighbor Sam" initiates Sam's long-running feud (which never works in Sam's favor) with the owner of a restaurant above Cheers. "Woody Interruptus" sees poor Woody upset by girlfriend Kelly (Jackie Swanson) returning from Europe with a boyfriend, while Cliff babbles on about having his head cryogenically frozen. It's life as usual at Cheers, and as always the show's community of misfits is a joy to behold. "--Tom Keogh"

John Ratzenberger, James Burrows, Rick Beren, Tom Moore
Comedy
Paramount
NR
The tenth year of "Cheers" is anchored by the story of Sam (Ted Danson) and Rebecca (Kirstie Alley), whose once tempestuous relationship has so sweetened with time that the characters decide to make a baby together. Getting the job done, however, proves a somewhat daunting task as Sam becomes self-conscious about having sex with an actual purpose, and Rebecca can't help him relax. The pursuit of pregnancy has both hilarious and poignant sides, such as a hellish night spent by the would-be parents babysitting the monstrous children of Carla (Rhea Perlman), and later making tough decisions about whether having a child is even a good idea.
Meanwhile, the typically dysfunctional "Cheers" family carries on. "Get Your Kicks On Route 666" finds Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) steeped in Men's Movement talk about searching for his inner wild man, joining Sam, Norm (George Wendt), and Cliff (John Ratzenberger) on a male-bonding road trip that turns disastrous in a desert. "The Norm Who Came to Dinner" is a wonderful episode in which Norm gets a back injury while painting the apartment of Frasier and Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth). Unable to get off the Cranes' couch, Norm's absence from Sam's bar, Cheers, is so keenly felt that Cheers comes to him, much to Lilith's horror. "Bar Wars V: The Final Judgement" is yet another tale of Sam's rivalry with another bar owner whose talent for playing elaborate practical jokes reaches its apotheosis. "Where Have All the Floorboards Gone?" is a very funny show, this one featuring Boston Celtics star Kevin McHale as a player so obsessed (at Cliff's instigation) with counting the number of bolts in the Boston Garden's floorboards that he can't play the game. "Don't Shoot, I'm Only the Psychiatrist" finds Frasier's low-self-esteem group on a field trip to Cheers, where they seem to find their voice by… ridiculing Frasier. The season culminates in the hour-long "An Old-Fashion Wedding," a hysterical, slapstick farce about the long-awaited wedding of Woody (Woody Harrelson) and his girlfriend Kelly (Jackie Swanson), in which the sudden death of the preacher is the least of multiple disasters. "--Tom Keogh"

Various
Comedy
Paramount
Unrated
The 11th and last season of "Cheers" maintains the highest standards of the long-running, NBC comedy while adding poignancy by wrapping up the show's long-running storylines. "The Final Season" commences with a devastating fire that all but destroys the eponymous Boston bar owned by Sam Malone (Ted Danson). Shocking as it is to see Cheers nearly reduced to rubble, a lot of funny material comes out of it, not least the fact that manager Rebecca Howe (Kirstie Alley) is responsible for the blaze and can't quite bring herself to tell Sam. The episode's sophisticated ending sets the tone for the season, in which all the show's characters seem prepared to cut each other more slack than usual. Other tumultuous events include an extended separation between Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) and Lilith (Bebe Neuwirth) when the latter chooses to live in an underground "eco-pod" with her new boyfriend, a break-up leading to a night of near-bliss for Frasier and Rebecca. Newlyweds Woody (Woody Harrelson) and Kelly (Jackie Swanson) transcend their struggles with religious differences (they're each members of minutely different Lutheran denominations), and Woody becomes an unlikely candidate for the Boston City Council. Meanwhile, Cliff (John Ratzenberger) takes a step toward adulthood by putting his domineering mother in a retirement home, while Norm (George Wendt) takes his dream job as a taster in a brewery. Nothing much changes for acerbic waitress Carla (Rhea Perlman), but she is certainly on hand to comment on everything, including Sam's overdue self-awareness about his sexual addiction. The final half-dozen or so episodes find Rebecca, much to her dismay, attracted to a working man (Tom Berenger) instead of a millionaire, while Diane Chambers (Shelley Long) reappears in Sam's life at a particularly vulnerable moment for each. The series' finale is a corker, including a lovely last scene that ends with Sam uttering one of the best closing lines in television broadcast history. "--Tom Keogh"

Documentary

Ethan Hawke
Drama
Chelsea Walls Inc.
R
In New York's storied Chelsea Hotel, a novelist, a dancer, a painter, a poet, an aged jazz singer, and a young troubadour sort out their personal and artistic lives within walls haunted by the likes of Dylan Thomas, O. Henry, and Sarah Bernhardt. A boozy novelist balances wife, mistress, and stories. A dancer who's a waitress in the basement club chooses between a Hollywood jerk and a local painter. A youth from Minnesota who composes and sings may be the next Bob Dylan. A poet decides to give her feckless boyfriend another chance, even as her eyes tell us she knows what's ahead. An old jazz artist wants to place a bet and share his love for Lady Day. These walls do seem to talk.

Finn Taylor
Comedy
3 Ring Circus Films
R
Shy San Franciscan Zoe is a twenty-something love-starved animator who spends countless hours listening to KXCH Cherish radio, losing herself in a syrupy romantic fantasy of '70s and '80s pop songs. Her mushy world is shattered, however, when a policman is hit and killed in a mysterious car accident, the assailant flees the scene and Zoe is unfairly left facing a vehicular homicide charge. While awaiting trial, Zoe is confined to house arrest, where she alternates falling in love with her frequent visitor and parole officer, Daly, and trying to prove her innocence to regain her life and freedom.

Russ Meyer
Crime
Eve Productions

Harry (a corrupt sheriff) and his Chicano deputy hunt an Apache who is about to go to the authorities with the news Harry is smuggling marijuana. Harry makes love to Raquel (a prostitute) and Cherry (a nurse). The women also has an erotic encounter between themselves. Harry's boss gets it off with Raquel and Cherry, too. Uschi Digard romps around the desert naked.

Rob Marshall
Crime
The Producers Circle Co.
PG-13
Murderesses Velma Kelly (a chanteuse and tease who killed her husband and sister after finding them in bed together)and Roxie Hart (who killed her boyfriend when she discovered he wasn't going to make her a star) find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago.

Mark Dindal
Animation
Walt Disney Pictures
G
After Chicken Little causes widespread panic--when he mistakes a falling acorn for a piece of the sky--the young chicken is determined to restore his reputation. But just as things are starting to go his way, a real piece of the sky lands on his head. Chicken Little and his band of misfit friends, Abby Mallard (aka Ugly Duckling), Runt of the Litter and Fish Out of Water, attempt to save the world without sending the town into a whole new panic.

Nick Broomfield, Sandi Sissel
Documentary
Central Independent Television

Peter Lord, Nick Park
Animation
DreamWorks SKG
G
Having been hopelessly repressed and facing eventual certain death at the chicken farm where they are held, Rocky the rooster and Ginger the chicken decide to rebel against the evil Mr. and Mrs. Tweedy, the farm's owners. Rocky and Ginger lead their fellow chickens in a great escape from the murderous farmers and their farm of doom.

John Cassavetes
Drama
Stanley Kramer Productions

Jean Hansen comes to a school for disabled children to work there as a teacher. She becomes especially interested in young Reuben, an autistic boy whose parents have not visited him for several years. But the school principal, Dr. Clark does not appreciate her keen interest.

Marguerite Duras, Jean Mascolo
Comedy

Vittorio De Sica
Drama
Invicta Film

The film follows the anguish of the four-year-old, Prico, after his mother, Nina, leaves his father, Andrea, for her lover Roberto. Prico is sent to his aunt and then to his grandmother. Nina returns when Prico is sick and vows to give up Roberto, even though he persists in seeing her. The family situation gradually improves until they take a holiday on the Italian Riviera.

Randa Haines
Drama
Paramount Pictures

James is a new speech teacher at a school for the deaf. He falls for Sarah, a pupil who decided to stay on at the school rather than venture into the big bad world. She shuns him at first, refusing to read his lips and only using signs. Will her feelings change over time?

Alfonso Cuarón
Adventure
Universal Pictures
R
In 2027, as humankind faces the likelihood of its own extinction, a disillusioned government agent agrees to help transport and protect a miraculously pregnant woman to a sanctuary at sea where her child's birth may help scientists to save the future of mankind.

Marcel Carné
Drama
Pathé Cinéma

This tragic tale centers around the ill-fated love between Baptiste, a theater mime, and Claire Reine, an actress and otherwise woman-about-town who calls herself Garance. Garance, in turn, is loved by three other men: Frederick, a pretentious actor; Lacenaire, a conniving thief; and Count Eduard of Monteray. The story is further complicated by Nathalie, an actress who is in love with Baptiste. Garance and Baptiste meet when Garance is falsely accused of stealing a man's watch. Garance is forced to enter the protection of Count Eduard when she is innocently implicated in a crime committed by Lacenaire. In the intervening years of separation, both Garance and Baptiste become involved in loveless relationships with the Count and Nathalie, respectively. Baptiste is the father of a son. Returning to Paris, Garance finds that Baptiste has become a famous mime actor. Nathalie sends her child to foil their meeting, but Baptiste and Garance manage one night together. Lacenaire murders Edouard. In the last scenes, Garance is returning to Eduard's hotel and disaster as Baptiste struggles after her through crowds of merrymakers, many dressed as his famous character.

Orson Welles
Comedy
Alpine Films

Sir John Falstaff is the hero in this compilation of extracts from Shakespeare's 'Henry IV' and other plays, made into a connected story of Falstaff's career as young Prince Hal's drinking companion. The massive knight roisters with and without the prince, philosophizes comically, goes to war (in his own fashion), and meets his final disappointment, set in a real-looking late-medieval England.

James Bridges
Thriller
IPC Films
PG
While doing a series of reports on alternative energy sources, an opportunistic reporter Kimberly Wells witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant. Wells is determined to publicise the incident but soon finds herself entangled in a sinister conspiracy to keep the full impact of the incident a secret.

Roman Polanski
Crime
Long Road

JJ 'Jake' Gittes is a private detective who seems to specialize in matrimonial cases. He is hired by Evelyn Mulwray when she suspects her husband Hollis, builder of the city's water supply system, of having an affair. Gittes does what he does best and photographs him with a young girl but in the ensuing scandal, it seems he was hired by an impersonator and not the real Mrs. Mulwray. When Mr. Mulwray is found dead, Jake is plunged into a complex web of deceit involving murder, incest and municipal corruption all related to the city's water supply.

Wayne Wang
Drama
Canal+
R
John (Irons) is an English photojournalist who has spent over a decade in Hong Kong; his friend Jim (Blades) often crashes in his cramped apartment. John's unrequited love is Vivian (Gong Li) whom he aches for but has not the nerve to possess. Concurrent with England's transfer of Hong Kong back to the Chinese, John discovers that he has a rare form of leukemia and has only months to live. So John, Jim, and the disfigured proto-hippy Jean (Cheung) grab a digital video camera and prowl the streets, seeking to document the "real" Hong Kong one last time.

Al Pacino
Drama
Chal Productions
R
When Harry Levine, an aging, unsuccessful Greenwich Village writer is fired from his job as restaurant doorman, he calls on friend and mentor Jake, ostensibly to collect a long-standing debt. Harry solicits his opinion on his latest manuscript, a work of semi-fiction based on their longtime friendship. Although he initially denies having read it, Jake later attacks it on aesthetic grounds, and deep-seated feelings of betrayal and jealousy surface and lead to a traumatic confrontation.

Wei Lo
Action
Golden Harvest Company
R
Chen Chen returns to the international compound of China only to learn of his beloved teacher's death. This is compounded by the continual racist harassment by the Japanese population in the area. Unlike his friends, he confronts it head on with his mastery of martial arts while investigating his teacher's murder.

Shola Lynch
Documentary
Realside Productions

Andrew V. McLaglen
Western
Batjac Productions
G
As one of the founders of the town of Lincoln, John Chisum is increasingly worried as Lawrence Murphy moves in on the local stores, bank and land by questionable means. Chisum and fellow honest ranch owner Henry Tunstall try and use the law, but Murphy owns that too. Confrontation threatens and Tunstall's man Billy Bonney is not slow to get involved.

Eric Rohmer
Drama
Les Films du Losange

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

Clark Gregg
Comedy, Drama
ATO Pictures
R
Victor Mancini is a medical-school dropout who has devised an ingenious scam to pay elder care for his Alzheimer's-afflicted mother: he pretends to choke on pieces of food while dining in upscale restaurants. He then allows himself to be "saved" by fellow patrons who, feeling responsible for Victor's life, go on to send checks to support him. When he's not pulling this stunt, Victor cruises sexual addiction recovery workshops for action, visits his addled mom, and spends his days working at a colonial theme park.

Ian Taylor
Documentary
Bang Productions

Christophe Barratier
Comedy
Vega Film
PG-13
Set in 1948, a professor of music, Clement Mathieu, becomes the supervisor at a boarding school for the rehabilitation for minors. What he discovers disconcerts him -- the current situation is repressive. Through the power of song, Clement tries to transform the students.

Scott Preston, Linda Mendoza
Television
Hbo Home Video
NR
Chris Rock's ground-breaking Emmy Award-winning comedy series: The Chris Rock Show now has the first 2 seasons on DVD. It's an unrated uncensored uninhibited 17 episodes of one of America's finest comic minds Chris Rock a magnificent national sensation.Running Time: 510 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359836527 Manufacturer No: 98365

Scott Preston, Linda Mendoza
Television
Hbo Home Video
NR
Chris Rock's ground-breaking Emmy Award-winning comedy series: The Chris Rock Show now has the first 2 seasons on DVD. It's an unrated uncensored uninhibited 17 episodes of one of America's finest comic minds Chris Rock a magnificent national sensation.Running Time: 510 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359836527 Manufacturer No: 98365

Keith Truesdell
Comedy
3 Art Entertainment

Chris Rock brings his critically acclaimed brand of social commentary-themed humor to this 1999 standup comedy presentation from HBO. Also released as an album, Chris Rock: Bigger & Blacker features Rock on-stage extolling his razor-sharp wit and wisdom on such topics as gun control, President Clinton, homophobia, racism, black leaders, and relationships.

Keith Truesdell
Comedy
CR Enterprises Inc.

Marty Callner
Comedy
Hbo Home Video
Unrated
Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 01/20/2009 Run time: 270 minutes

Joel Gallen
Comedy
Home Box Office (HBO)

John Carpenter
Drama
Columbia Pictures Corporation
R
Highschool geek Arnie Cunningham falls in love with "Christine", a bright red 1958 Plymouth Fury which has seen much better days. Setting himself the task of restoring the car to its original condition, his friends notice that the car is not the only thing that is changing. Arnie seems to spend more and more time with his car. He's also developed a sort of cocky arrogance which does not seem like the real Arnie at all.

Preston Sturges
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

An office clerk loves entering contests in the hopes of someday winning a fortune and marrying the girl he loves. His latest attempt is the Maxford House Coffee Slogan Contest. As a joke, some of his co-workers put together a fake telegram which says that he won the $25,000 grand prize. As a result, he gets a promotion, buys presents for all of his family and friends, and proposes to his girl. When the truth comes out, he's not prepared for the consequences.

Bob Clark
Comedy
Christmas Tree Films
PG
Ralphie, a young boy growing up in the '40's, dreams of owning a Red Rider BB gun. He sets out to convince the world this is the perfect gift. But along the way, he runs into opposition from his parents, his teacher, and even good 'ol Santa Claus himself.

Various
Comedy
Shout! Factory

Andrew Adamson
Action
Walt Disney Pictures
PG
When the Pevensie family are evacuated out to the country, they are unaware of the adventure they will encounter. During a game of hide and seek, the youngest daughter, Lucy (Henley) discovers a wardrobe which transports her to the land of Narnia. Covered in snow, Narnia is full of weird and wonderful creatures, but is watched over by the evil White Witch, Jadis (Swinton). When all four Pevensie children end up through the wardrobe, they discover that it was meant to be, as two daughters of Eve and two sons of Adam must join with the mighty lion, Aslan (Neeson) to defeat the evil White Witch.

Miguel Arteta
Comedy
Artisan Entertainment
R
Buck is a man-child who has lived his existence in a life of Romper Room, kindergarten collages, and lollipops. When his mother dies suddenly, Buck remembers his old childhood friend Chuck, with whom he feels a need to reconnect after having invited him to his mother's funeral. Buck treks out to Los Angeles where Chuck, an up-and-coming music record executive, is living his life. Buck ends up developing an obsession with Chuck and begins stalking him.

Taylor Hackford
Documentary
Delilah Films
PG
This documentary covers the concert at the Fox Theatre in St. Louis, Missouri, to celebrate Chuck Berry's sixtieth birthday, and also discusses his life and career.

Various
Television
Warner Home Video
NR
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 11/11/2008 Rating: Nr

Alfred J. Goulding
Comedy
Hal Roach Studios Inc.

With Stan in drag, the boys get jobs as a butler and maid for a dinner party at the Vandevere's. After that ends in disaster, they're reduced to sweeping streets, and accidentally capture a bank robber. The grateful bank president sends them to Oxford for a proper education. There they become victims of student pranks, getting lost in the Maze and taking over the Dean's quarters as their own. But then a knock on the head gets Stan to believing he's the famed Lord Paddington, scholar and athlete extraordinaire. Suddenly erudite and supercilious, he retains Oliver as his valet, "Fatty."

Kar Wai Wong
Comedy
Jet Tone Production
PG-13
Wong Kar-Wai's movie about two love-struck cops is filmed in impressionistic splashes of motion and color. The first half deals with Cop 223, who has broken up with his girlfriend of five years. He purchases a tin of pineapples with an expiration date of May 1 each day for a month. By the end of that time, he feels that he will either be rejoined with his love or that it too will have expired forever. The second half shows Cop 663 dealing with his breakup with his flight attendant girlfriend. He talks to his apartment furnishings until he meets a new girl at a local lunch counter.

Wong Kar-Wai
Comedy
Criterion Collection
R
"Chungking Express" tells two stories loosely connected by a Hong Kong snack bar. In one story, a cop who's been recently dumped by his girlfriend becomes obsessed with the expiration dates on cans of pineapple; he's constantly distracted as he tries to track down a drug dealer in a blond wig (played by Brigitte Lin, best known from "Swordsman II" and "The Bride with White Hair"). Meanwhile, another cop who's recently been dumped by his girlfriend (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, from John Woo's "Hard-Boiled" and "A Bullet in the Head") mopes around his apartment, talking to his sponge and other domestic objects. He catches the eye of a shop girl (Hong Kong pop star Faye Wang) who secretly breaks in and cleans his apartment. If you're beginning to suspect that neither of these stories has a conventional plot, you're correct. What "Chungking Express" does have is loads of energy and a gorgeous visual style that never gets in the way of engaging with the charming characters. The movie was shot on the fly by hip director Wong Kar-Wai ("Happy Together", "Ashes of Time"), using only available lighting and found locations. The movie's loose, improvisational feel is closer to Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless" than any recent film--and that's high praise. Quirky, funny, and extremely engaging, "Chungking Express" manages to be experimental and completely accessible at the same time. "--Bret Fetzer"

Norman Jewison
Drama
Filmways-Solar

In 1930s New Orleans, the Cincinnati Kid, a young stud poker player who travels from one big game to the next, stopping along the way up with various girls, is pitted against the legendary champion card-sharp Lancey Howard in a high-stakes poker game.

Ron Howard
Biography
Universal Pictures
PG-13
During the Great Depression, a common-man hero, James J. Braddock--a.k.a. the Cinderella Man--was to become one of the most surprising sports legends in history. By the early 1930s, the impoverished ex-prizefighter was seemingly as broken-down, beaten-up and out-of-luck as much of the rest of the American populace who had hit rock bottom. His career appeared to be finished, he was unable to pay the bills, the only thing that mattered to him--his family--was in danger, and he was even forced to go on Public Relief. But deep inside, Jim Braddock never relinquished his determination. Driven by love, honor and an incredible dose of grit, he willed an impossible dream to come true. In a last-chance bid to help his family, Braddock returned to the ring. No one thought he had a shot. However Braddock, fueled by something beyond mere competition, kept winning. Suddenly, the ordinary working man became the mythic athlete. Carrying the hopes and dreams of the disenfranchised on his shoulders, Braddock rocketed through the ranks, until this underdog chose to do the unthinkable: take on the heavyweight champ of the world, the unstoppable Max Baer, renowned for having killed two men in the ring.

Frank Tashlin
Comedy
Jerry Lewis Productions

This was Jerry Lewis' answer to the classic Cinderella story. When his father dies, poor Fella (Lewis) is left at the mercy of his snobbish stepmother (Judith Anderson) and her two no-good sons, Maximilian (Henry Silva) and Rupert (Robert Hutton). As he slaves away for his nasty step-family, Maximilian and Rupert attempt to find a treasure Fella's father has supposedly hidden on the estate. Meanwhile, hoping to restore her dwindling fortunes, the stepmother plans a fancy ball in honor of the visiting Princess Charmein (Anna Maria Alberghetti) whom she hopes will marry Rupert. Eventually, Fella's Fairy Godfather (Ed Wynn) shows up to convince him that he has a shot at winning the Princess himself.

Robert Anderson
Drama
Tempo Enterprises

Cindy, a sweet-young-thing being raised in the suburbs with her half-sister Donna, is shyly undergoing a sexual awakening. Fifteen-year-old Cindy and 17-year-old Donna share the same mother, but have different fathers. After she espies Donna making the beast with two backs with her Dad, Cindy goes wild. She shucks off her inhibitions, smokes pot with her friend Karen, and the two gratify their Sapphic desires in each others arms. Meanwhile, Donna, more advanced along the path of sexual awakening, achieves congress with three young swains. Cindy is seduced by Donna's beau, but Donna discovers them as they are about to bump bellies. Her boyfriend throws Donna out of the house, and tragedy ensues when a crying Donna, distraught in the street, is run down by a passing motorist. Cindy must live the rest of her life with the knowledge that her pursuit of carnal knowledge led to the death of her sister.

Kevin Brownlow, Dan Carter
Documentary
Photoplay Productions

Chronicles the birth of European cinema, from the Lumiere brothers to World War I, and then the first golden age of Swedish cinema, from the formation of Svenska Bio to the departure for Hollywood of Stiller and Sjöström. The French build the first studio, invent the traveling shot, and experiment in sound. Max Linder becomes the first comedic star. The Italians do spectacle and early realism. Germans invent film propaganda and have Lubitsch. The Danish cinema is rich before the war. An affectionate portrait of Swedish cinema appreciates its cinematography, led by Jaenzon, its conversion of novels into film, and the emergence of a production company that owned its own theaters.

Giuseppe Tornatore
Drama
Cristaldifilm
R
A famous film director returns home to a Sicilian village for the first time after almost 30 years. He reminisces about his childhood at the Cinema Paradiso where Alfredo, the projectionist, first brought about his love of films. He is also reminded of his lost teenage love, Elena, who he had to leave before he left for Rome.

Angela Christlieb, Stephen Kijak
Documentary
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR)

This documentary about the culture of intense cinephilia in New York City reveals the impassioned world of five obsessed movie buffs. The filmmakers expose this delightfully deranged cult by capturing the daily lives of its members. Interviews in movie houses, on the street and in the homes of the subjects tell the story of each individual. Many cannot hold a job, or choose not to. All of them have demoted the importance of the real world, giving all of their attention to the fantasy world of the movies. These human encyclopedias of cinema see two to five films a day, and from 600 to 2,000 films per year. Many have no physical sex lives, living instead in a world of romance with stars like James Dean or Audrey Hepburn. In Cinemania, Hollywood's biggest fans become the true stars. This is the story of their lives, their memories, their unbending habits and the films they love.

Tim Ford, Stoney Sharp
Comedy

Sharp-Ford
Comedy
Visual Story Tools

Tim Ford
Comedy
Cinematic Titanic

Tim Ford, Stoney Sharp
Comedy

Sharp-Ford
Comedy

Tim Ford, Stoney Sharp
Comedy

Sharp-Ford
Comedy
Visual Story Tools

Sharp-Ford
Comedy
Visual Story Tools

Pat O'Connor
Drama
Lantana
PG-13
'Circle Of Friends' is set in 1950's Ireland. The movie focuses on Benny Hogan and her best friend, Eve Malone. The story centers around Benny and Eve as they enter student life at University College, Dublin. Here Benny and Eve meet and befriend the ice-cool Nan Mahon, the 'college belle'. They also encounter the handsome and charming Jack Foley, whom Benny quickly falls for.

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Charles Chaplin Productions

Charlie's Tramp character finds himself at a circus where he is promptly gets chased around by the police who think he is a pickpocket. Running into the bigtop, he is an accidental sensation with his hilarious efforts to elude the police. The ringmaster/owner immediately hires him, but discovers the Tramp cannot be funny on purpose, so he takes advantage of the situation by making the Tramp a janitor just happens to always in the Bigtop at showtime. Unaware of this exploitation, the Tramp falls for the owner's lovely acrobatic daughter, who is abused by her father. His chances seem good, until a dashing rival comes in and Charlies feels he has to compete with him.

Rob Walker
Crime
Circus Pictures
R
Bruno, a sadistic criminal, wants clever con man Leo out of the way. Leo and his equally clever wife, Lily, are up to something. So too is Julius: he hires Leo to kill Gloria, Julius's wife. Leo does it, but then Julius shows up with the murder on tape, saying Gloria isn't his wife - it's blackmail. Leo's bookie, Troy, is also closing in, wanting to be paid. Bruno and Lily as well as Bruno and Julius have their own scams running, and Leo is their target. Maybe Leo can get Troy off his back, avoid Moose (Bruno's huge enforcer), send Gloria's corpse out of England, turn the tables on Bruno's murderous brother Caspar, and outfox Lily. Or is Lily his fox? It's a three-ring circus.

Orson Welles
Drama
Mercury Productions

Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" is widely considered to be the greatest film to ever come out of Hollywood. The film is basically about a group of reporters who are trying to decipher the last word ever spoke by Charles Foster Kane, the millionaire newspaper tycoon: "Rosebud." The film begins with a news reel detailing Kane's life for the masses, and then from there, we are shown flashbacks from Kane's life. As the reporters investigate further, the viewers see a display of a fascinating man's rise to fame, and how he eventually fell off the "top of the world."

Noland Walker, Orlando Bagwell
African American Cinema
PBS Paramount
PG
CITIZEN KING, a two-hour documentary from acclaimed filmmakers Orlando Bagwell and Noland Walker, explores the last five years in the life of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. Personal recollections and eyewitness accounts of friends, movement associates, journalists, law enforcement officers, and historians illuminate this little-known chapter in the story of America's most influential moral leader in the 20th century.

Alexander Payne
Comedy
Independent Pictures (II)
R
Ruth Stoops is a poor indigent drug-user (a huffer - inhaling glue and paint for a high) whose down and out existence is complicated once more by becoming pregnant (she has had and lost four children already). When a judge orders that she gets an abortion or face a felony charge, she is befriended by Gail Stoney, a pro-lifer whose husband is president of the local "Babysavers" group. Suddenly Ruth is thrust into the middle of the pro-choice/pro-life struggle, with each side wanting her to take their side as a "message" to others - and the situation escalates...

Michael Caton-Jones
Crime
Franchise Pictures
R
New York City homicide detective Vincent LaMarca has forged a long and distinguished career in law enforcement, making a name for himself as a man intensely committed to his work. But on his latest case, the stakes are higher for Vincent--the suspect he's investigating is his own son. He and Joey have been painfully estranged ever since Vincent divorced his wife and left the decaying boardwalks of Long Beach, Long Island for the anonymity of Manhattan and a successful career with the NYPD. He lives his life in solitude, keeping his girlfriend at arm's length; the closest relationship he maintains is with his partner, Reg--and Vincent makes sure that stops at the precinct door. As long as Vincent lives in the protection of the present, he doesn't have to deal with the pain of his past--or his sorrow over his broken relationship with Joey. But this murder investigation is drawing Vincent home to Long Beach, the self-proclaimed City by the Sea, where the past has been waiting for him to return. The agonizing memory that has tortured him all his life--the death of his father, a convicted murderer who was executed when Vincent was just a boy--still plagues him. In the course of the investigation, he discovers that his own unresolved pain and failures as a father have deeply influenced Joey's life, and now his 18-month-old grandson may be fated to follow their self-destructive paths.

Anatole Litvak
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures

Cagney is Danny Kenny, a truck driver who enters "the fight game" and Sheridan plays his girlfriend, Peggy. Danny realizes success in the ring and uses his income to pay for his brother Eddie's music composition career, while Peggy goes on to become a professional dancer. When Peggy turns down Danny's marriage proposal for her dancing career, Danny, who wanted to quit the fight game, continues on & is blinded by rosin dust purposely placed on the boxing gloves of his opponent during a fight. His former manager finances a newsstand for the now semi-blind Danny. The movie ends with brother Eddie becoming a successful composer and dedicates a symphony at Carnegie Hall to his brother who listens to the concert on the radio from his newsstand. Peggy, now down on her luck, but in the audience at Carnegie, rushes to Danny at his newsstand where they reunite. The movie is based on a novel of the same name.

Harold Becker
Drama
Castle Rock Entertainment
R
A young boy dies from a stray bullet during a shootout between a cop and mob family member who had previously been supiciously given probabtion, only to break its terms. New York's Deputy Mayor, Kevin Calhoun starts digging for information.

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Charles Chaplin Productions

A tramp falls in love with a beautiful blind girl. Her family is in financial trouble. The tramp's on-and-off friendship with a wealthy man allows him to be the girl's benefactor and suitor.

Gil Kenan
Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Playtone
PG
When mankind is about to come to an end, a group of scientists decide to create and populate a city deep underground. The city of Ember is to last for 200 years after which its inhabitants are to retrieve from a strong box instructions to return to the surface. Over time however, the message is lost and life in Ember is rapidly deteriorating. Their power supply is failing and food is being rationed. It's left to two young adults to unearth the secret of Ember and to lead the way out.

Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
Crime
O2 Filmes
R
Cidade de Deus (City of God) is a housing project built in the 1960's that--in the early 80's--became one of the most dangerous places in Rio de Janeiro. The tale tells the stories of many characters whose lives sometimes intersect. However, all is seen through the eyes of a singular narrator: Buscapé, a poor black youth too frail and scared to become an outlaw but also too smart to be content with underpaid, menial jobs. He grows up in a very violent environment. The odds are all against him. But Buscapé soon discovers that he can see reality differently than others. His redemption is that he's been given an artist's point of view as a keen-eyed photographer. As Buscapé is not the real protagonist of the film--only the narrator--he is not the one who makes the decisions that will determine the sequence of events. Nevertheless, not only his life is attached to what happens in the story, but it is also through Buscapé's perspective of life that one can understand the complicated layers and humanity of a world, apparently condemned to endless violence.

Kátia Lund, Cao Hamburger, Philippe Barcinski, César Charlone, Paulo Lins
Art House & International
Palm Pictures / Umvd
Unrated
Brazilian TV series "City of Men" is a dazzling, propulsive, and fiery exploration of life in a chaotic Rio de Janeiro slum, seen through the eyes of Acerola (Douglas Silva) and Laranjinha (Darlan Cunha). These two boys prove to be amazingly charming tour guides to a world by turns terrifying and exhilarating. Using the jam-packed storytelling that made the movie "City of God" such a revelation, the first episode alone is a marvel, merging the history of Napoleon with a cutting analysis of drug lords and class structure in the poverty-ridden neighborhood. The other three episodes of the first series carry on this riveting approach, mingling social observation with rich, compelling characters. From the second series on, the show becomes less overtly political and more about Acerola and Laranjinha's passage from youth to adulthood (embracing, with humor and pathos, the adolescent boys' obsession with sex)--though every episode has some sly or startling observation about race, wealth, and gender. Each series is filmed a year after the previous one, so the boys literally grow before our eyes; it's impossible to watch and not feel deeply involved as Acerola woos a girl named Cristiane and ends up a way-too-young father, or as an innocent prank escalates into a life-and-death struggle. Some episodes teeter on the brink of silliness--one of the last ones has the boys engaging in absurd cross-dressing--but the briskness of the writing and the charisma of Silva and Cunha carry the show through. Add to this the dynamic musical score of Brazilian pop and samba, and you have essential viewing. World music has already found popularity in the U.S.; welcome to a masterpiece of world television. "--Bret Fetzer"

James Ivory
Drama
Hyde Park International
PG-13
28-year-old Kansas University doctoral student Omar Razaghi wins a grant to write a biography of Latin American writer Jules Gund. Omar must get through to three people who were close to Gund--his brother, widow, and younger mistress--so he can get authorization to write the biography.

Ringo Lam
Action
Cinema City Film Productions
R
An undercover cop, played by Chow Yun-Fat, infiltrates a gang of thieves who plan to rob a jewelry store. The film shows how he infiltrates the gang.

Steven Zaillian
Drama
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious lawyer, is addressed by a group of families. When investigating the seemingly non-profiting case, he finds it to be a major environmental issue that has a lot of impact potential. A leather production company could be responsible for several deadly cases of leukemia, but also is the main employer for the area. Schlichtmann and his three colleagues set out to have the company forced to decontaminate the affected areas, and of course to sue for a major sum of compensation. But the lawyers of the leather company's mother company are not easy to get to, and soon Schlichtmann and his friends find themselves in a battle of mere survival.

Ken Burns
Documentary
American Documentaries Inc.

This highly acclaimed mini series traces the course of the U.S. Civil War from the abolitionist movement through all the major battles to the death of President Lincoln and the beginnings of Reconstruction. The story is mostly told in the words of the participants themselves, through their diaries, letters, and Visuals are usually still photographs and illustrations of the time, and the soundtrack is likewise made up of war-era tunes played on period instruments. Several modern-day historians offer periodic comment and insight on the war's causes and events.

Eric Rohmer
Drama
Les Films du Losange
PG
Cultural attache Jerome spends his last holidays as a bachelor at Lake Annecy where he meets Aurora, an Italian writer and old friend. She talks him into a flirt with his landlady's teenage daughter, Laura, but he falls for Laura's half-sister Claire and develops a desire to caress her knee.

Fritz Lang
Drama
Wald/Krasna Productions

Mae Doyle comes back to her hometown a cynical woman. Her brother Joe fears that his love, fish cannery worker Peggy, may wind up like Mae. Mae marries Jerry and has a baby; she is happy but restless, drawn to Jerry's friend Earl.

Claude Sautet
Art House & International
Criterion
Unrated
Claude Sautet's neo-realist "Classe Tous Risques" (loosely translated as "all-risk insurance") deserves the kind of acclaim accorded classic American noirs, like "They Live by Night". As with Nicholas Ray before him, the Frenchman behind the exquisitely restrained chamber pieces "Un Coeur en Hiver" and "Nelly et Monsieur Arnaud" combines genre tropes with tenderness. It's a tricky balance, and far too many filmmakers succumb to pathos when making the attempt. Milan-based gangster Abel Davos (former wrestler Lino Ventura, Jean-Pierre Melville's "Army of Shadows") won't hesitate to plug a foe, but dotes on his two sons, wife Therese (Simone France), and partner Raymond (Stan Krol). When a robbery goes bad, however, several of those nearest and dearest to Davos lose their lives. In swoops ex-boxer Eric Stark (Jean-Paul Belmondo, just off "Breathless") who helps him escape to Paris--by ambulance. Damsel-in-distress Liliane ("8 1/2"'s Sandra Milo) joins the duo on their dangerous journey. "Round Midnight"'s Bertrand Tavernier describes the matter-of-fact ending as "abrupt, unsentimental, and poignant." Written by ex-con José Giovanni ("Le Trou") and shot by Ghislain Cloquet ("Mouchette"), Sautet's first feature, after assisting Georges Franju and Jacques Becker, got lost amidst the French New Wave. It may not surpass Melville for cool, but rivals him in the hood-with-heart department (and Melville greatly admired the film). Supplements include the French and US trailers, interviews with Giovanni and Tavernier from the 2000 documentary "Claude Sautet ou la Magie Invisible", and comments from Ventura, circa 1959-1987 about the movie and his career. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Mark Daniels
Documentary
Centre National de la Cinématographie (CNC)

David Dobkin
Comedy
IMF Internationale Medien und Film GmbH & Co. Produktions KG
R
Clay (as in the title) is a young man in a small town who witnesses his friend kill himself because of the ongoing affair that Clay was having with the man's wife. Feeling guilty, Clay now resists the widow when she presses him to continue with their sexual affairs. Into this comes a serial killer who befriends Clay, even to murdering the nagging widow for him... but certainly not at Clay's request. But that doesn't matter for the police, as well as for a savvy female FBI agent who sees Clay as their prime suspect. Yet Clay doesn't tell them of his 'friend' who admits to him of his serial killings, primarily because Clay sees himself as somewhat of an accomplice, in that he seems to have introduced to the killer each young woman that is killed... in fact, the sheriff comments that he wishes Clay would quit finding the murdered victims, which he always seems to do. But at last Clay is able to turn from being the pigeon... to giving the film its very unpredictable conclusion.

Olivier Assayas
Drama
Rectangle Productions
R
The former successful forty-two years old rock star Lee Hauser is decadent and his friends blame his girlfriend Emily Wang for the fall in his career due to excessive use of drugs. Their son Jay is raised by his grandparents Albrecht Hauser and Rosemary Hauser in Vancouver. When Lee dies of overdose in a motel room, Emily is sentenced to six months in jail. She moves to Paris where she unsuccessfully struggles to keep clean. When she decides to retrieve the guard of he son, she is supported by her father-in-law and finds the necessary strength to rebuild her life.

Glenn Gordon Caron
Drama
Imagine Entertainment
R
Michael Keaton plays Daryl Poynter, a hot shot real estate agent who just happens to have a cocaine and drinking problem. One morning, he wakes up to find a dead woman in his bed(someone he had been partying with the night before)from a cocaine overdose. He also just happenes to recieve a phone call from his employers telling him a huge sum of money is missing from one of his accounts. Panicing, Daryl decides to check into a drug rehab to hide from the law, where he meets tough cookie Morgan Freeman. A recovering addict himself, he now works as a drug counselor, and knows all the tricks Daryl tries to pull. Soon Daryl discovers he just might be in the right place, afterall.

Lodge Kerrigan
Crime
DSM III

Peter Winter is a young schizophrenic who is desperately trying to get his daughter back from her adoptive family. He attempts to function in a world that, for him, is filled with strange voices, electrical noise, disconcerting images, and jarringly sudden emotional shifts. He clings to his humanity like a raft, barely afloat in a sea of terror. In a brief moment of congruence, he shatters his image reflected in a window, perhaps to more properly align it with his fragmented psyche. During his quest, he runs afoul of the law and an ongoing murder investigation.

Renny Harlin
Crime
Anonymous Content
R

Agnès Varda
Drama
Ciné Tamaris

This movie shows us Cléo, a French singer, who is afraid of getting the result of of a test from her doctor. She believes that she has cancer and will die of the disease. We follow her for two hours while she cruises through the streets of Paris. At the end, she meets a soldier who is going to the war in Algeria the next day.

Kevin Smith
Comedy
View Askew Productions
R
Dante Hicks is a clerk at a local convenience store in New Jersey. On one particular Saturday morning, he gets called in on his day off. Once there, he must deal with multiple problems. The shutters outside won't open. His ex-girlfriend, whom he is still in love with, is getting married. His girlfriend, who bugs him about starting college, has revealed certain, uh...stuff about her past. His boss hasn't come in to take his place. He has a hockey game at 2 o'clock. Another ex has died, and today's the last day he can go to her wake. He must deal with customers that aren't so intelligent. His friend, Randal, a clerk at the video store next door, is even less dedicated to his job than Dante, and is always bothering Dante's customers. And the biggest problem of them all: HE'S NOT EVEN SUPPOSED TO BE THERE TODAY!! Can Dante manage it all?

Kevin Smith
Comedy
Miramax Films
R
Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Chasing Amy, a film he wrote and directed, he made this $27,000 comedy about real-life experiences working for chump change at a New Jersey convenience store. A rude, foul-mouthed collection of anecdotes about the responsibilities that go with being on the wrong side of the till, the film is also a relationship story that takes some hilarious turns once the lovers start revealing their sexual histories to one another. In the best tradition of first-time, ultra-low budget independent films, Smith uses Clerks as an audition piece, demonstrating that he not only can handle two-character comedy but also has an eye for action--as proven in a smoothly handled rooftop hockey scene. Smith himself appears as a silent figure who hangs out on the fringes of the store's property. --Tom Keogh

Kevin Smith
Comedy
Weinstein Company, The
R
The sequel picks up 10 years later. "It's about what happens when that lazy, 20-something malaise lasts into your 30s. Those dudes are kind of still mired, not in that same exact situation, but in a place where it's time to actually grow up and do something more than just sit around and dissect pop culture and talk about sex," Smith said during an interview at his Hollywood office. "It's: What happened to these dudes?"

Steve Loter, Nicholas Filippi
Comedy
Miramax
Unrated
Writer-director Kevin Smith revives the characters of his indie classic film "Clerks" for this animated series created for network television. Though it aired for just two episodes on TV, the two-disc set has all six episodes plus a bevy of special features.
The episodes feature store clerks Dante and Randal and their ongoing adventures among the shelves of your local corner store. Never far from the epicenter of these adventures are the irreverent Jay and Silent Bob. Whether it's getting trapped in the walk-in cooler, attending their high school reunion, or fighting rival Leonardo Leonardo (who wants to dominate the local Quick Mart market), "Clerks" spoofs TV and movies with mocking pop-culture jokes and cameos by a number of celebrities. Ultimately, though, "Clerks: The Animated Series" suffers at the hands of network censors, lacking the obnoxious punch that made "Clerks" the film so offbeat and amusing.
Smith doesn't disappoint, however, with the inclusion of a number of special features on the DVD set, most notably the ever-insightful director's commentary with guests Jason Mewes (Jay), Brian O'Halloran (Dante), and Jeff Anderson (Randal). So while the series itself may be ill-fated, featurette on the making of the animated series--including storyboards and information on character development and the comic book influence on the drawing style--make this a robust offering for Kevin Smith completists. "--Adam Medros"

Frank Coraci
Comedy
Columbia Pictures Corporation
PG-13
The architect Michael Newman has a typical middle-class family with his lovely and gorgeous wife Donna and their son Ben and daughter Samantha, and a constant visit of his parents. However, Michael is workaholic and under stress, trying to satisfy his boss with overwork and get a partnership in his company, giving priority to his work and neglecting the family issues. When the tired Michael goes to a department store to buy an universal remote control, he rests on a bed and he meets the weird salesman Morty that offers him a remote control capable of controlling his own universe. Michael uses too much and loses the control of the device, having his own life controlled by the remote control. Then Michael sees the worthwhile parts of his personal life he missed while working, and in the end of his life he lately concludes that the family comes first.

Spike Lee
Drama
40 Acres & A Mule Filmworks
R
Strike is a young city drug pusher under the tutelage of drug-lord Rodney Little, who, when not playing with model trains or drinking Moo for his ulcer, just likes to chill with his brothers near the benches outside the project houses. When a night man at a fast-food restaurant is found with four bullets in his body, Strike's older brother turns himself in as the killer. Det. Rocco Klein doesn't buy the story, however, and sets out to find the truth, and it seems that all the fingers point toward Strike & Rodney.

Stanley Kubrick
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures

Alex and his three droogs, live in a futuristic Britain void of proper law and civil protection. They do drugs, drink, skip school, and wreak havoc during the night. They beat up an old drunkard, steal cars, rape helpless women, and start gang fights in the streets. Alex, being a rather arrogant leader, is rude and disrespectful towards his other droogs, and because of this they plot behind his back against him. In their plan to rob a woman on the outskirts of town, Alex enters the house alone to unlock the door for the other. When confronted by the owner of the house he strikes her in the head in attempt to knock her out. Meeting his droogs outside he is met with a bottle being smashed over his own head, stunning him long enough for the cops to finally arrive and arrest him. It turns out the woman he struck inevitably ended up dieing from the blow and Alex now finds himself with a 14 year prison sentence. In hopes of severely shortening his sentence, Alex signs up for a new breakthrough treatment that "cures" criminals of their want to do evil. The Ludovico treatment, as it is called, consist of Alex living a very high lifestyle while twice daily being subjected to gory and hateful films full of all that is considered wrong and evil. Part of Alex's diet contains a special drug that causes him to slowly get sick as he is forced to watch these films. After a short period of time he is shown as being cured and when, in front of a small audience, he is subjected to another bullying man and a beautiful woman, he is unable to fight back or do what he would like to do, and instead is utterly paralyzed with sickness. The process stripped him not only of his evil, but more importantly and symbolically stripped him of his right to think and be free and live the life he wishes to. After being released from prison and kicked out of his home he is taken in by small group of people who want to get Alex's pitiful story out to the public to attempt to harm the current regime in time for the next election. During this process, Alex attempts suicide and fails, but because of this the doctors of the original Ludovico treatment set out to cure him. Alex awakes from his coma cured of the sickness and is finally able to think and do what he wishes again.

Steven Spielberg
Adventure
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Roy Neary sets out to investigate a power outage when his truck stalls and he is bathed in light from above. After this, strange visions and five musical notes keep running through his mind. Will he find the meaning of the visions, and who - or what - placed them in his mind ?

Steven Spielberg
Adventure
Columbia Pictures Corporation

Roy Neary sets out to investigate a power outage when his truck stalls and he is bathed in light from above. After this, strange visions and five musical notes keep running through his mind. Will he find the meaning of the visions, and who - or what - placed them in his mind ?

Jirí Menzel
Comedy
Filmové Studio Barrandov

A young man follows his father's footsteps and joins the railway company, where he learns the job and has his first affair. Set in the country, during the German occupation.

Mike Nichols
Drama
Icarus Productions
R
Smart-but-ineffectual journalist Dan "We use euphemisms!" cant decide between his girlfriend, loving-but-clingy waitress Alice, or his lover cold-but-intellectual photographer Anna. Anna herself cant decide between Dan and honest-but-thuggish "You're bloody gorgeous!" doctor Larry. The film, as Tarantino might put it, puts the four leading characters in a box and then takes them apart.

Richard Attenborough
Drama, Romance
CTR
R
In 1943, A dying gunner, who was in a crash involving a United States B-17, gives a ring to a local to return to his girlfriend in the USA. Fifty years later, a man finds the ring and tracks down the girlfriend and the history of this ring. Set in Belfast and Michigan.

Matt Reeves
Action
Bad Robot
PG-13
Cloverfield follows five New Yorkers from the perspective of a hand-held video camera. The movie is exactly the length of a DV Tape and a sub-plot is established by showing bits and pieces of video previously recorded on the tape that is being recorded over. The movie starts as a monster of unknown origin destroys a building. As they go to investigate, parts of the building and the head of the Statue of Liberty come raining down. The movie follows their adventure trying to escape and save a friend, a love interest of the main character.

Jay Chandrasekhar
Comedy
Broken Lizard Industries
R
Broken Lizard is surrounded by limber, wanton women on a booze-soaked island resort owned by Coconut Pete, a rock star has-been. But the non-stop party takes a turn for the weird when dead bodies start turning up. Everyone begins to look suspicious. Could it be Sam, of the Fun Police brigade, who is quick-on-the- trigger with his tequila loaded super-soaker; Jenny, the over-sexed, fitness instructor; Juan, the flamboyant diving instructor with a secret third-world past; Putman, the bratty-British tennis coach/fanatic; Dave, the ecstasy-crazed, adopted nephew of Coconut Pete; or the burly masseuse blessed with a creepy touch--that can render anyone into instant Jell-O? Can the inhabitants of Pleasure Island unite, solve the mystery and restore happy hour to this tropical bacchanal?

Harold Ramis
Comedy
Warner Bros. Pictures

Injured while risking his life to save an angry German shepard, Chicago Firefighter Jack Moniker retires and moves to a small carribean island named St. Nicholas. There, he is befriended by the owner of a run-down resort, Ernest Reed. Greedy developers are schemeing to wrest Reed's coveted beach front property from him for non-payment of taxes. Jack comes to Ernest's rescue, and together they renovate and reopen the resort catering to affluent Americans. The film follows the zany exploits of the proprietors, guests and various colorful island denizans, as they break in the new "Club Paradise".

Jonathan Lynn
Comedy
Debra Hill Productions
PG
This ain't no game! The popular game comes to life in this mystery-comedy movie with an all-star cast headed by Eileen Brennan. Six people are invited to Hill House for dinner and for a little something else. Once they arrive, they meet Wadsworth the butler, soon their host, Mr. Boddy, arrives and they all get to know one another. Professor Plum works for the UN, Mr. Green is a government agent, Mrs. Peacock is a senator's wife, Mrs. White had two husbands who disappeared under "mysterious" circumstances, Colonel Mustard is a colonel, etc., Mr. Boddy gives everyone weapons like candlestick, rope, lead pipe, wrench, revolver, and knife. Mr. Boddy switches off the lights and when they come back on, someone has killed Mr. Boddy! They then go search the house to see if it was a mysterious seventh person who done it. As they do so, other people show up at the house and soon end up dead. Wadsworth the butler has a good idea who did it, so he recreates all the events of the evening to find out who. The results in three different endings.

Amy Heckerling
Comedy
Paramount Pictures
PG-13
Cher, a high school student in Beverly Hills, must survive the ups and downs of adolescent life. Her external demeanor at first seems superficial, but rather it hides her wit, charm, and intelligence which help her to deal with relationships, friends, family, school, and the all-important teenage social life.

Bud Townsend
Comedy
Rhino Theatrical

An Olympic Gold medalist is hired to coach the boys basketball team. But when Coach Randy Rawlings arrives, the school's sexist principal discovers he hired a woman. Blocked from firing her due to discrimination laws, he tries to make sure the team loses, so he can fire her for poor performance.

Thomas Carter
Drama
Coach Carter
PG-13
In 1999, Ken Carter, a successful sporting goods store owner, accepts the job of basketball coach for his old high school in a poor area of Richmond, CA, where he was a champion athlete. As much dismayed by the poor attitudes of his players as well as their dismal play performance, Carter sets about to change both. He immediately imposes a strict regime typified in written contracts that include stipulations for respectful behavior, a dress code and good grades as requisites to being allowed to participate. The initial resistance from the boys is soon dispelled as the team under Carter's tutelage becomes a undefeated competitor in the games. However, when the overconfident team's behavior begins to stray and Carter learns that too many players are doing poorly in class, he takes immediate action. To the outrage of the team, the school and the community, Carter cancels all team activities and locks the court until the team shows acceptable academic improvement. In the ensuing debate, Carter fights to keep his methods, determined to show the boys that they need to rely on more than sports for their futures and eventually finds he has affected them more profoundly than he ever expected.

Billy Corben
Documentary
Rakontur
R
In the 1980s, ruthless Colombian cocaine barons invaded Miami with a brand of violence unseen in this country since Prohibition-era Chicago - and it put the city on the map. "Cocaine Cowboys" is the true story of how Miami became the drug, murder and cash capital of the United States, told by the people who made it all happen.

William A. O'Connor
Drama
Willis Kent Productions

Drug pusher Nick stops off at a small-town diner and convinces the girl who runs it, Jane Bradford, to hide him from the cops. Jane, a good girl, is smitten by the handsome and debonair Nick, who gives her a "headache powder" to snort to take her pounding headache away. Nick convinces her to go with him to the city, where they will be married. Jane leaves her mother and goes off to the city with Nick, where she discovers that he is really a drug dealer and that the "medicine" she has been taking is really cocaine. Jane becomes Nick's moll, but Nick becomes interested in a pretty blonde they see at a drive-in. The blonde has a crush on a guy who works at the drive-in, Eddie Bradford, Jane's brother, who has come to the city to look for her. Eddie's co-worker, Fanny, introduces him to cocaine; again under the pre-text that it is a "headache medicine." Eddie is hooked. The boss fires both of them, and they end up sharing a filthy skid-row apartment. Eddie can't get a job, he's too messed up on smack, so Fanny goes out and sells her virtues in order to get money for drugs. One night, she is passing a sleazy dive, the Dead Rat, when she is spotted by one of the customers, the blonde. She gives Fanny some money. Fanny returns to the apartment and gives him the money. He rushes off to an opium den, leaving her alone in the apartment. Meanwhile, Nick and his henchmen plot to kidnap the blond girl, who is the daughter of Mr. Farley, the district attorney. After an interminable floorshow, a ruckus is created and Nick's goons snatch the girl, taking her to Nick's apartment. Jane meets up with Eddie at the opium den, telling him that, while it's too late for her, he can still get rehabilitated, since he's only in the beginning stages of the addiction. Eddie goes back to the apartment he shares with Fanny, only to find that she has asphyxiated herself. He runs away. Jane goes to her apartment to find the girl prisoner there. The girl offers her a thousand dollars if she will help her escape. Jane calls the police. Nick returns home, and Jane shoots him. The police arrive and the girl's father is revealed to be the head of the narcotic racket.

Monte Hellman
Drama
Artists Entertainment Complex

Frank Mansfield has wanted to win the Cockfighter of the Year medal for ages. Frank never speaks. After shooting his mouth off one too many times then losing a champion rooster in a casual hotel room cockfight, he swore never to speak again until he's won that award... He makes a bet with old crony Jack to be settled at the upcoming meet. Frank puts his car and his trailer on the line; he loses. Jack gets the trailer, and Frank's part-time girlfriend who goes with it. Frank's long-time girlfriend Mary Elizabeth wants him to get serious and settle down. But Frank has to raise some money for a new cock - $500 - then he can form a partnership with fellow cocksman Omar Baradansky and make another try for that medal...

Robert Florey, Joseph Santley
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Mr. Hammer runs a bankrupt Florida hotel. He'll try anything to make money, even make love to rich Mrs. Potter. But his main scheme, selling real estate, is in danger of sabotage from zanies Chico and Harpo, who also reduce the schemes of a pair of jewel thieves to chaos. A subplot involves the star-crossed love of Polly Potter and architect Bob Adams.

Ron Howard
Adventure
Zanuck/Brown Productions
PG-13
A group of aliens return to earth to take back some cocoons of their people they left behind from an earlier trip. The cocoons are resting at the bottom of the ocean. They kept the recovered cocoons in the swimming pool of a house they rented in a small Florida town. Their mission is hampered by a number of old people from an elderly home nearby, who have been secretly using the pool and discovering the unusual power of these cocoons.

Michael Winterbottom
Drama
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)
R
Code 46 is a love story set in a Brave New World-type near-future where cities are heavily controlled and only accessible through checkpoints. People cannot travel unless they have "papelles," a special travel permit issued by the totalitarianistic government, the "Sphinx". Outside these cities, the desert has taken over and shanty towns are jammed with non-citizens - people without papelles forced to live primitive lives. William is a family man who works as a government investigator. When he is sent to Shanghai to solve a case of fake papelles, he meets a woman named Maria. Although he realizes she is behind the forgeries, he cannot help but fall completely in love with her. He hides her crime and they have a wild, passionate affair that can only last as long as his papelles: 24 hours. Back home, William is obessed with the memory of Maria. When the original investigation is inevitably re-opened a week later and William is sent back to finish the work he started, he tracks her down, only to discover she has been accused of a Code 46 violation and any further relationship is impossible.

Jim Jarmusch
Comedy
Asmik Ace Entertainment
R
A comic series of short vignettes built on one another to create a cumulative effect, as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the '20s, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide--all the while sitting around sipping coffee and smoking cigarettes. As director Jim Jarmusch delves into the normal pace of our world from an extraordinary angle, he shows just how absorbing the obsessions, joys and addictions of life can be, if truly observed.

Jack Hill
Action
American International Pictures (AIP)
R
Coffy is a nurse whose younger sister gets involved in drugs and is severely injured by contaminated heroin. Coffy sets out on a mission of vengeance and vigilante justice, killing drug dealers, pimps, and mobsters who cross her path.

Mike Figgis
Drama
Touchstone Pictures
R
Wanting to escape city life for the countryside, New Yorkers Cooper Tilson (Quaid), his wife Leah (Stone) and their two children move into a dilapidated old mansion still filled with the possessions of the previous family. Turning it into their dream house soon becomes a living nightmare when the previous owner (Dorff) shows up, and a series of terrifying incidents lead them on a spine-tingling search for clues to the estate's dark and lurid past...

Chris Smith
Documentary
Bluemark Productions

Michael Mann
Crime
Paramount Pictures
R
Max has lived a mundane life as a cab driver for twelve years. The faces have come and gone from his rear-view mirror: people and places he's long since forgotten--until tonight. Vincent is a contract killer. When an off-shore narco-trafficking cartel learns that they're about to be indicted by a federal grand jury, they mount an operation to identify and kill the key witness, and the last stage is tonight. It is on this very night that Vincent has arrived--and five bodies are supposed to fall. Circumstances cause Vincent to hijack Max' taxicab, and Max becomes collateral--an expendable person who's in the wrong place at the wrong time. Through the night, Vincent forces Max to drive him to each assigned destination. And as the L.A.P.D. and F.B.I. race to intercept them, Max and Vincent's survival become dependent on each other, in ways neither would have imagined.

James W. Horne
Comedy
Joseph M. Schenck Productions

Ronald's high school valedictory address praises books and condemns sports. His girlfriend Mary condemns his attitude. He fears losing her to rival Jeff, decides to go to college and pay more attention to sports.

Raoul Walsh
Comedy
Paramount Pictures

Martin Scorsese
Drama
Silver Screen Partners II
R
Pool hustler Fast Eddie Felson finds the young, promising pool player Vincent in a local bar and he sees in him a younger version of himself. To try and make it as in the old days, Eddie offers to teach Vincent how to be a hustler. After some hesitations Vincent accepts and Eddie takes him and Vincent's girlfriend Carmen on a tour through the country to work the pool halls. However, Vincent's tendency to show off his talent and by doing so warning off the players and losing money, soon leads to a confrontation with Eddie.

Richard Rush
Mystery
Cinergi Pictures Entertainment
R
Psychologist Bill Capa gives up his practise when he unintentially pushes a patient to committ suicide. In an effort to come to terms with this tragedy he visits an old colleague, Bob Moore, who is subsequently murdered. The quest to catch the killer centres around a group of Moores psychologically disturbed patients, however equally as important is an affair which develops between Capa and the mysterious Rose. This relationship, at first a diversion, becomes central to the plot as the film progresses.

Steven Spielberg
Drama
Amblin Entertainment
PG
This film follows the life of Celie, a young black girl growing up in the early 1900's. The first time we see Celie, she is 14 - and pregnant - by her father. We stay with her for the next 30 years of her tough life...

Brian W. Cook
Comedy
Colour Me K Productions Limited

Various
Drama
National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
PG
TV detective fans rejoice: Peter Falk's rumpled and infallible Lt. Columbo joins the DVD precinct with a five-disc set that features the detective's first nine appearances for NBC. Though Falk as Columbo (no first name) made his TV debut in 1967, the detective had actually first appeared on an episode of the 1960-61 "Chevy Mystery Show" (Bert Freed played the role) written by veteran TV scribes Richard Levinson and William Link ("The Fugitive", "Alfred Hitchcock Presents"). The pair turned the episode into a stage play titled "Prescription: Murder", which was adapted into a TV movie in 1967 with Falk in the lead. NBC greenlit a two-hour Columbo pilot ("Ransom for a Dead Man") in 1971, and the series was launched that fall as part of the "NBC Sunday Mystery Movie", a rotating 90-minute program that alternated "Columbo" with episodes of "MacMillan and Wife" and "McCloud" (another Levinson/Link creation). Viewers were quickly won over by Falk's shrewd performance as he matched wits with a host of exceptional guest stars (including Gene Barry, Patrick McGoohan, and others), all of whom assumed that the disheveled detective would never figure out their "perfect crimes"; the popularity and quality of the original series allows Falk to continue to don the trenchcoat some 30 years later for occasional "Columbo" TV movies.
All seven 90-minute episodes of the 1971-72 debut season are included here, along with "Prescription: Murder" and "Ransom for a Dead Man"; unfortunately, as the lieutenant himself would say, "Oh, just one more thing"--no extras are included in the set, but having these fine TV mysteries in one set should be reward enough for armchair sleuths. "--Paul Gaita"

Robert Altman
Comedy
Sandcastle 5 Productions

On September 30, 1975, an all-female fan club called the Disciples of James Dean meets inside a Woolworth's five-and-dime store in McCarthy, Texas, to honor the twentieth anniversary of the actor's death. The store is only a short distance from Marfa, where Dean filmed Giant in 1955. Over the course of the reunion, the six members—Joanne (or "Jo" for short), Stella Mae, Edna Louise, Mona, Sissy and store owner Juanita—experience a day full of revealed secrets and revelatory experiences, several of them through flashbacks. Among those secrets, Mona announces that she was an extra in Giant, and Joanne declares she had a sex change operation after living as a man. In Jimmy Dean, Altman frequently uses mirrors as a device for seamlessly connecting scenes between the present and the past. Reflections in mirrors are part of many of the film's frame compositions.As noted Daniel O'Brien in Robert Altman: Hollywood Survivor, they "[become] a window into 1955, enabling the characters to gaze into the past".

Joey Lauren Adams
Drama
Bold Films
R
The sins of the fathers. In a town near Little Rock, Lucy Fowler works hard for a construction firm; on weekends she drinks, goes home with someone, and come early morning, wakes and leaves as fast as she can. She cares a lot about her father, newly back in town, a painfully shy man who has nothing to say to her. She does go to a Holy Roller church with him about the same time that she starts, fitfully, a relationship with Cal Percell, new in town and a good guy. She kisses him sober, but still has demons to confront. What's the source of her careless ways; can she turn coal into a diamond?

Ron de Moraes
Documentary
Geneon [Pioneer]

Christian Charles
Documentary
Bridgnorth Films
R
Fresh from the success of his sitcom, comedian Jerry Seinfeld decided to do the unimaginable: he completely retired his stand-up act, electing to start over again by developing entirely new material. "Comedian" follows Seinfeld through this process, as he rehearses in front of small comedy club audiences, meets with fellow comics and finally appears before a national audience.

Michael Blieden
Comedy
Sixth Way Productions

Chad Callner
Comedy
Sixth Way Productions

Michael Blieden
Documentary
Central Productions

Michael Blieden
Comedy
NetFlix

Unknown
Comedy
Comedy Central

Joel Gallen
Comedy
Tenth Planet Productions

Unknown
Comedy

Andrew Solt
Documentary
Andrew Solt Productions

Various
Comedy
MPI HOME VIDEO
NR
4-DISC COLLECTION FEATURING FIVE LAUGH- FILLED FAVORITES

DICK VAN DYKE
Highlights include some of Dick's most hilarious and beloved routines: "Babysitting Father", "Mailing A Letter On A Windy Corner", "Daddy s Little Girls", "The Pet Cat", "Sneaking In" and "The Tennis Champ" as well as song performances with Pat Boone and Shirley Jones.


PHYLLIS DILLER
Phyllis Diller: Not Just Another Pretty Face highlights some of her best routines. Special guest stars such as Don Rickles and Dean Martin make this a fun trip back in time.


TIM CONWAY
Conway hams it up with stars of the day in rare, stand-up performances not seen in more than 40 years. Special guest appearances by Ernie Anderson, Bing Crosby, Phil Harris, David Janssen, Steve Lawrence and others.


Disc Four: REDD FOXX & GROUCHO MARX
Sporting his trademark cigar and deadpan delivery, GROUCHO MARX interviews members of the audience and answers questions about his long comic career as one-third of the manic Marx Brothers, stars of such classic films as Duck Soup and A Night At The Opera.

Walter C. Miller
Comedy
Farrington Productions

Charles Lamont
Comedy
Universal International Pictures (UI)

Theatrical agent Al Stewart (Bud Abbott) has successfully booked his client, Dorothy McCoy (Dorothy Shay), "The Manhattan Hillbilly", at a New York nightclub. Unfortunately, he has also booked an inept escape artist, The Great Wilbert (Lou Costello), at the same location. During his performance, Wilbert cannot escape from his shackles and screams for help. Dorothy recognizes Wilbert's shrill scream as the 'McCoy clan yell'. More evidence of Wilbert's heritage, namely a photograph and concertina, are found in his dressing room, and prove that he is the long-lost grandson of 'Squeeze Box' McCoy, leader of the McCoy clan. Granny McCoy (Ida Moore) has been looking for Wilbert, as she will reveal where Squeeze Box hid his gold to 'kin folk' only. Al, Dorothy and Wilbert head to Kentucky, and Granny recounts the story of the McCoy-Winfield feud that began over sixty years ago. The McCoys choose Wilbert to represent them against Devil Dan Winfield (Glenn Strange) in a turkey shoot. Wilbert has never even seen a gun before, and his carelessness leads to a revival of the feud.

Hal Ashby
Drama
Jerome Hellman Productions

Sally Bender is the wife of a Captain in the United States Army. He is sent over to Vietnam, and Sally is alone. With nothing else to do, she decides to volunteer at a local veteran's hospital, where she meets Luke, who went to high school with Sally. Luke was wounded and is paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair. When Sally begins to fall in love with Luke, she has to make a crucial decision about her life.

John Landis
Comedy
Eddie Murphy Productions

It is the 21st birthday of Prince Akeem of Zamunda and he is to marry a woman he never saw before. Now the prince breaks with tradition and travels to America to look for the love of his life.

Robert Altman
Drama
Sony Pictures Classics
PG-13
An inside look at the world of ballet. With the complete cooperation of the Joffrey Ballet of Chicago, Altman follows the stories of the dancers, whose professional and personal lives grow impossibly close, as they cope with the demands of a life in the ballet. Campbell plays a gifted but conflicted company member on the verge of becoming a principal dancer at a fictional Chicago troupe, with McDowell the company's co-founder and artistic director, considered one of America's most exciting choreographers. Franco plays Campbell's boyfriend and one of the few characters not involved in the world of dance.

Patrick Montgomery
Documentary
Deliah Films

A documented account of the life and career of the Fab Four, from their early years in Liverpool to their breakup, featuring rare interview and concert footage.

D.A. Pennebaker
Documentary, History, Music
The Foundation
Unrated
Legendary California music festival (pre-Woodstock) that launched the state-side careers of several performers, most notably Jimi Hendrix. Check out Mama Cass being absolutely blown away while watching Joplin sing. Here there be REAL acid rock.

Chris Hegedus, D.A. Pennebaker
Music Video & Concerts
Criterion
NR
The Monterey International Pop Festival, the three-day event staged in 1967 that has become one of rock music's most famous and in some ways greatest concerts, gets the royal treatment with this three-disc boxed set.
Material on two of the three discs has already been widely available. "Monterey Pop", D.A. Pennebaker's 79-minute, 1968 film, effectively sets the scene for the festival, which took place during the fabled "Summer of Love," when the hippie ethos was in its fullest flower, especially on the West Coast. And while not all the featured performances are thrilling, those that are--principally by the Who, Jimi Hendrix, and the amazing Ravi Shankar--are worth the price of admission, especially in the high-definition digital transfer and new 5.1 mix seen and heard here. The same can be said for "Jimi Plays Monterey" and "Shake! Otis at Monterey", which appear in the boxed set on a separate disc and provide a much fuller look at Hendrix's and Otis Redding's incendiary sets (literally, in the former case).
Those two discs are also loaded with bonus features, including audio commentary by Pennebaker, festival producer Lou Adler (on "Monterey Pop"), and author Peter Guralnick ("Shake!"); audio-only remarks by some of the performers; photos; trailers; and other material. There's also a substantial booklet, filled with essays and photos. But it's the third disc, "The Outtake Performances," comprising some two hours of music that didn't make the final film edit, that will be of most interest to many viewers. The disc supplies a taste of some of the artists who didn't appear in "Monterey Pop" at all (the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Quicksilver Messenger Service), and a more complete look at some who did (the Who, Simon and Garfunkel, the Mamas and the Papas). A nice addition to an already very impressive DVD collection. "--Sam Graham"

Terry Hughes, Jim Franklin (III), Alan J.W. Bell
Comedy
Network
Suitable for 15 years and over
Michael Palin stars in this wickedly funny collection of spoof adventures which hysterically portray gloriously English eccentricity.
These are the complete classics from the pens of Michael Palin and Terry Jones.
Episode titles: Tomkinson's Schooldays, The Testing of Eric Olthwaite, Escape From Stalag Luft 112 B, Murder at Moorstones Manor, Across the Andes by Frog, The Curse of the Claw, Whinfrey's Last Case, Golden Gordon, Roger of the Raj.

Saul Swimmer
Documentary
Apple Corps

Ex-Beatle George Harrison organized this spectacular concert on August 1, 1971 at New York's Madison Square Garden to help and aid the people from Bangladesh with all the money raised destined to that cause. Along with Harrison the concert features Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Leon Rusell, Klaus Voormann and an Indian music section by Ravi Shankar and a set by the legendary Bob Dylan.

David Leland
Documentary
ArenaPlex LLC
PG-13

Louis J. Horvitz, Woody Allen
Music
VH1 Television

George Clooney
Biography
Allied Filmmakers
R
Television made him famous, but his biggest hits happened off screen. "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind" is the story of a legendary showman's double life - television producer by day, CIA assassin by night. At the height of his TV career, Chuck Barris was recruited by the CIA and trained to become a covert operative. Or so Barris said.

Damiano Damiani
Crime
Euro International Film (EIA)

One of the first films about the mafia occurrence, in which the fight is hopeless, because "the polyp's feeler" reaches everything and everybody. A police inspector and a deputy public prosecutor try to prove that the architect in the city is in the mafia.

James Foley
Crime
Epsilon Motion Pictures
R
What Jake Vig doesn't know just might get him killed. A sharp and polished grifter, Jake has just swindled thousands of dollars from the unsuspecting Lionel Dolby with the help of his crew: Insideman Gordo, Shills Miles, and Big Al--and two corrupt LAPD officers, Lloyd Whitworth and Omar Manzano. But when both Lionel and Big Al turn up dead, it becomes clear that Lionel wasn't just any mark--as Jake soon learns, he was an accountant for eccentric crime boss Winston King. Never one to shy away from a challenge, Jake offers to repay The King by pulling off the biggest con of his career. The mark? Morgan Price, a banker with deep ties to organized crime. With so much riding on the outcome, Jake decides to bring in a brash, blonde pickpocket named Lily, who joins the crew in a complex scheme involving corporate loans, creative accounting, wire transfers and off-shore accounts. Jake and his crew will have to stay one step ahead of both the criminals and the cops to finally settle their debt.

François Truffaut
Comedy
Films A2
G
Claude Massoulier is murdered while hunting at the same place than Julien Vercel, an estate agent that knew him and whose fingerprints are found on Massoulier's car. As the police discovers that Marie-Christine Vercel, Julien's wife, was Massoulier's mistress, Julien is very suspected. But his secretary, Barbara Becker, while not quite convinced he is innocent, defends him and leads her private investigations...

Bernardo Bertolucci
Drama
Mars Film

This story opens in 1938 in Rome, where Marcello has just taken a job working for Mussollini and is courting a beautiful young woman who will make him even more of a conformist. Marcello is going to Paris on his honeymoon and his bosses have an assignment for him there. Look up an old professor who fled Italy when the fascists came into power. At the border of Italy and France, where Marcello and his bride have to change trains, his bosses give him a gun with a silencer. In a flashback to 1917, we learn why sex and violence are linked in Marcello's mind.

Dick Powell
Action
RKO Radio Pictures

In ancient times, the Mongolian warlord Temujin must do battle against the rival tribe that killed his father. The battles pale in comparison with Temujin's home life, as he attempts to woo the heart of the red-haired Tartar prisoner Bortai whom he has captured in a raid. He must also deal with various intrigues within his palace. Eventually, Bortai falls to his manly charms, Temujin defeats his enemies within and without, and is crowned Genghis Khan.

J. Lee Thompson
Action
APJAC Productions

Cornelius and Zira's son Caesar leads apes to revolution in this installment of the apes saga. Dogs and cats have been wiped out by a plague and now apes are household pets that are treated like slaves. Caesar has the intelligence to fight this oppression.

Richard Donner
Crime
Warner Bros. Pictures
R
Jerry Fletcher is a man in love with a woman he observes from afar. She works for the government. Fletcher is an outspoken critic of that government. He has conspiracy theories for everything, from aliens to political assassinations. But soon, one of his theories finds itself to be accurate. But which one? Some dangerous people want him dead and the only person he trusts is that woman he loves but does not know.

Jonathan Towers
Documentary
A&E Entertainment
Unrated
We all know things are often not what they seem. But how many times have shadowy schemes, twisted plots, and secret conspirators been behind some of history's most newsworthy events?

For example, was Princess Diana the victim of a tragic traffic accident, or a murder scheme? Was TWA Flight 800 brought down by a missile rather than a faulty fuel tank, as the official report says? Was that a flying saucer that crashed in the desert scrubland near Roswell, New Mexico? And what about strip club-owner Jack Ruby? Did his murder of Lee Harvey Oswald signal a far wider conspiracy in the death of John Kennedy?

This 13-episode series from HISTORY looks at all sides of these and other tantalizing questions. Using original documents and interviews with experts and eyewitnesses, it enables viewers to reach their own conclusions. CONSPIRACY? will have you thinking again and again about the history you thought you knew.

Charles Kiselyak
Documentary
Criterion

Fernando Meirelles
Drama
Potboiler Productions
R
Justin Quayle is an English gentle diplomat who is sent to the embassy of Kenya, he takes his wife Tessa who is an impulsive youth that he met in a conference. Tessa is a tenacious activist that fights for the rights of the poor people and she helps attending to Doctor Arnold Bluhm. Tessa finds out accidentally that a powerful pharmacist firm (3 Bees) tries to prove a medication among the Africans, that supposedly will carry colateral damages that will produce monetary big benefits for the company. Tessa is more involved in the matter and she decides to request help to Sandy, a Justin's friend, because she don't want to involve to her husband. Tessa is murdered in a trip to the north of Kenya and the authority try to accuse Arnold for a pasional crime. Justin that is a fan of the gardening, decides to clarify the crime until the last consequences, this take him to uncover dirty arrangements of the powerful, who threaten him and they drive him to make the decision of taking off his life in the same place where they killed his dear wife. (Justin Quayle es un apacible diplomatico ingles que es enviado a la embajada de Kenia, ahi lleva a su esposa Tessa, que es una joven impulsiva a la que conocio en una conferencia. Tessa es una tenaz activista que lucha por los derechos de los que menos tienen y trata de ayudar asistiendo al medico Arnold Bluhm. Tessa se entera accidentalmente, que una poderosa firma farmaceutica (3 Abejas) intenta probar un medicamento entre los africanos, lo cual supuestamente acarreará daños colaterales que produciran grandes beneficios monetarios para la empresa. Tessa se involucra mas y decide pedir ayuda a Sandy, amigo de Justin, para no involucrar a su esposo. Tessa es asesinada en una travesia al norte de Kenia e intentan culpar a Arnold por un crimen pasional. Justin, que es un aficionado a la jardineria, decide esclarecer el crimen de su esposa hasta las ultimas consecuencias, esto lo lleva a destapar sucios arreglos de los poderosos, que intentan amenazarlo y lo conducen a tomar la decisión de quitarse la vida en el mismo lugar donde mataron a su amada compañera).

Robert Zemeckis
Drama
Warner Bros. Pictures
PG
Contact, based on the novel of the same name by Carl Sagan, is the story of a free thinking radio astronomer (Jodie Foster) who discovers an intelligent signal broadcast from deep space. She and her fellow scientists are able to decipher the Message and discover detailed instructions for building a mysterious Machine. Will the Machine spell the end of our world, or the end of our superstitions? Will we take our place among the races of the Galaxy, or are we just an upstart species with a long way to go?

Jean-Luc Godard
Drama
Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Paul Javal is a writer who is hired to make a script for a new movie about Ulysses more commercial, which is to be directed by Fritz Lang and produced by Jeremy Prokosch. But because he let his wife Camille drive with Prokosch and he is late, she believes, he uses her as a sort of present for Prokosch to get get a better payment. So the relationship ends.

Rod Lurie
Drama
DreamWorks Pictures
R
A political thriller about Laine Hanson, a senator who is nominated to become Vice President following the death of the previous office holder. During the confirmation process, Laine is the victim of a vicious attack on her personal life in which stories of sexual deviancy are spread. She is torn as to whether she should fight back, or stick to her high principles and refuse to comment on the allegations. Although it isn't easy, she sticks to her guns, and in the end she is rewarded for it.

Michael Apted
Comedy
Universal Pictures

Ernie Souchak (

Jehane Noujaim
Documentary
Noujaim Films

A chronicle which provides a rare window into the international perception of the Iraq War, courtesy of Al Jazeera, the Arab world's most popular news outlet. Roundly criticized by Cabinet members and Pentagon officials for reporting with a pro-Iraqi bias, and strongly condemned for frequently airing civilian causalities as well as footage of American POWs, the station has revealed (and continues to show the world) everything about the Iraq War that the Bush administration did not want it to see.

Francis Ford Coppola
Crime
American Zoetrope
PG

Barbara Kopple
Documentary
Cabin Creek Films

In 1999, Gregory Peck (1916-2003) visits the Barter Theatre, Abingdon, VA, where he had acted in 1940 and where this evening he tells stories and answers questions about his career. Interspersed are clips from Peck's films and from interviews recorded over the years and vérité contemporary footage of visiting with his daughter Cecilia before and after the birth of her son, receiving the National Medal of Arts, chatting with Lauren Bacall and with Martin Scorsese, and dining with Jacques Chirac, always with his wife of forty-four years, Veronique Passani, beside him. Throughout, Peck is informal, candid, and wry.

Hans Canosa
Comedy
Gordonstreet Pictures
R
A man runs into a woman at a wedding. They start to flirt and talk and find that they get along. Throughout their discussion, the man talks about certain memories as if they were common to the two of them. We gradually learn that there may have been a previous connection between these two when they were younger. This just leaves more questions as their past is slowly revealed.

Don Siegel
Action
Malpaso Company, The
R
Coogan, an Arizona cop, is sent to New York to collect a prisoner. Everyone in New York assumes Coogan is from Texas, much to his annoyance. To add to Coogan's problems the prisoner isn't ready, so he decides to cut a few corners. In the process the prisoner escapes, and Coogan is ordered home. Too proud to return home empty handed, Coogan sets out into the big city to recapture his prisoner.

Robert Altman
Comedy
Elysian Dreams
PG-13
Cookie's Fortune unfolds over an eventful Easter weekend in the small town of Holly Springs, Mississippi. The town residents are peaceful, kind folk--with the exception of Camille Dixon (Glenn Close)--a pushy theatre director with an incredibly shy younger sister, Cora (Julianne Moore), whose estranged daughter Emma (Liv Tyler) has just returned to town. On the heels of her latest play, Camille is shocked to discover that her Aunt Jewel Mae "Cookie" Orcutt (Patricia Neal) has committed suicide. Terrified at the thought of how this will tarnish the family name, she eats the suicide note to make it look like a burglary. This set-up leads the police to one main suspect, Willis Richland (Charles S. Dutton), who also happens to be Cookie's best friend. Although the rest of the town is convinced Willis didn't commit the crime, an outside investigator (Courtney B. Vance) isn't so sure. As Easter Sunday and opening night of the play arrive, the truth comes out, revealing more secrets than anyone could have possibly imagined. Director Altman tells his story at a leisurely pace, beautifully recreating the eccentricities of small town life in this sweet-natured tale.

Stuart Rosenberg
Crime
Jalem Productions

Luke Jackson is a cool, gutsy prisoner in a Southern chain gang, who, while refusing to buckle under to authority, keeps escaping and being recaptured. The prisoners admire Luke because, as Dragline explains it, "You're an original, that's what you are!" Nevertheless, the camp staff actively works to crush Luke until he finally breaks.

Stuart Rosenberg
Crime
Warner Home Video
PG
Paul Newman gives one of the defining performances of his career, and cemented his place as a beautiful-rebel screen icon playing the stubbornly tough and independent title character in "Cool Hand Luke". And before he became familiar as a sidekick in 1970s disaster movies ("Earthquake" and the "Airport" movies), George Kennedy won an Oscar for playing Dragline, the brutal chain-gang boss who tries to beat loner Luke's cool out of him. It's a classic rebel-against-the-repressive-institution story in the line of "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest" or "The Shawshank Redemption". Certain moments have become classics--particularly the hardboiled egg-eating contest, and the immortal line (drooled by Strother Martin, as a sadistic redneck prison officer), "What we have here is a failure to communicate." And don't forget, Luke is also the source of the oft-quoted driving ditty, "I don't care if it rains or freezes, long as I have my plastic Jesus, right here on the dashboard of my car..." He is cool, all right. "--Jim Emerson"

Erik Anjou
Thriller
Allumination

A writer returns to Hollywood after finishing his novel in the wilderness. Still smarting from his girlfriend's suicide and his publisher's criticisms of his novel, he becomes intrigued by the neighbor couple's abusive relationship. Eventually he intervenes and becomes involved with the girl, basing a new book on their increasingly violent relationship sparked by his insane jealousy of her friends and her acting career.

John N. Smith
Drama
Fox 2000 Pictures
PG-13
A single father (Vince Vaughn) balances his work as an attorney with the care of his five year old son (Bobby Moat) and his work as a high school basketball coach in rural Kansas, where he moved after his wife abandoned him in Chicago. Just as he starts to develop a new relationship with a veterinarian's assistant (Joey Lauren Adams), his ex-wife (Monica Potter) suddenly reappears and wants to re-assert herself in her husband and son's life. On top of the romantic conflict, he is also suddenly presented with the opportunity of a lifetime to join a major firm in Dallas.

Wayne Kramer
Drama
ContentFilm
R
The unluckiest man in Vegas - a guy whose bad luck is contagious - is used by the last of the old time mob run casinos to kill high rollers' action. That is, until he falls in love with a cocktail waitress and gets "lady luck," which throws the situation into reverse. Things turn nasty when the casino director tries to break up the romance.

Alfred E. Green
Comedy
Beacon Productions

Talent agent Lionel Devereaux sells his girlfriend/client Carmen Novarro to New York City's famous Copacabana nightclub as a Latin-American singer/dancer and, pressed for another act, he sells her again, this time with a blonde wig and Moroccan veil, as a French singer...for the same presentation. The wear and tear on Carmen, changing back-and-forth between numbers, leaves to a heated exchange of words between the performer and her fiancée agent. This leads to the disappearance of one of Carmen's performers, and this arouses suspicions by the management...and the police.

Roberto Faenza
Thriller
Aura Film

James Mangold
Action
Miramax Films
R
Policemen have always been the idols of Freddy Heflin. Due to being slightly deaf, Heflin could never pass the physical to become a police officer himself. However, because of his friendly, amiable nature, he's managed to get himself elected Sheriff of a small New Jersey county outside of New York City, and he lives in a town where many NYPD cops also live. Mo Tilden is an Internal Affairs investigator for the NYPD, and his investigation of some crooked cops leads him to this small town, and to Sheriff Freddy Heflin. Heflin begins to help Tilden, and discovers that some of his heroes may have feet of clay...

Wilford Leach
Drama
New York Shakespeare Festival

Joseph Manduke
Drama
American International Pictures (AIP)
PG
Nathaniel "Cornbread" Hamilton was the black urban dream and a hero to youngsters Wilford Robinson and Earl Carter. Shortly before he would have become the first man from his community to go to college, he demonstrates his scholarship-winning running ability to his friends and admirers in the neighborhood. At the same time, the police are on a manhunt for an armed rapist. They mistake Cornbread for the rapist and shoot him dead in the street. In the aftermath of the community's shattered dream, and in the face of an intimidating police cover-up, Wilford is determined not to betray the memory of his hero.

Charles S. Dutton
Crime, Drama
Blown Deadline Productions
NR
The bleak reality of drug addiction is captured with unflinching authenticity in "The Corner", an excellent, reality-based HBO miniseries. Having lived on the streets of West Baltimore, Maryland, where this compelling drama takes place, actor-director Charles S. Dutton knows the territory, physically, socially, and emotionally, and his compassionate approach is vital to the series' success. Dutton cares for his characters deeply enough to give them a realistic shred of hope, even when hope is consistently dashed by the ravages of addiction. This is, at its root, a family tragedy, focusing on errant father Gary (T.K. Carter, in a heartbreaking performance) a once-successful investor trapped in a tailspin of heroin dependency. His estranged wife Fran (Khandi Alexander) was the first to get hooked, and she's struggling to get clean, while their 15-year-old son DeAndre (Sean Nelson, from the indie hit "Fresh") deals drugs, temporarily avoiding their deadly allure while facing the challenge of premature fatherhood.
Through revealing flashbacks and numerous local characters, we see the explicit fallout of addiction, and while violence occasionally erupts, its constant threat is secondary to Dutton's dramatic vision, which remains steadfastly alert to the humanity and neglected potential of these lost and searching souls. "The Corner" is, essentially, the civilian flipside of HBO's equally laudable series "The Wire", which approaches a similar neighborhood from a police-squad perspective. Performances are uniformly superb, details are uncannily perfect, and for all of its human horror, "The Corner" is riveting, not depressing. A closing interview with the characters' real-life counterparts bears witness to the fact that these lives--with inevitable exceptions--need not be lost forever. "--Jeff Shannon"

Mark Achbar, Jennifer Abbott
Documentary
Big Picture Media Corporation

Since the late 18th century American legal decision that the business corporation organizational model is legally a person, it has become a dominant economic, political and social force around the globe. This film takes an in-depth psychological examination of the organization model through various case studies. What the study illustrates is that in the its behaviour, this type of "person" typically acts like a dangerously destructive psychopath without conscience. Furthermore, we see the profound threat this psychopath has for our world and our future, but also how the people with courage, intelligence and determination can do to stop it.

Robert Day
Crime
Producers Associates

In an effort to relieve the suffering of surgery patients, Dr. Thomas Bolton painstakingly develops an opium-based anesthetic, to which he gradually becomes addicted. In order to provide a continual supply of chemicals to continue his experiments and support his addiction, he falls in with a den of murderers who use his signature to sell cadavers to the local hospital.

James Foley
Action
Illusion Entertainment Group
R
Nick Chen is one of New York City's most martial police officers and the first Chinese-born immigrant on the force. Chen's job is to keep the peace in Chinatown from a turf war that has broken out between the Triads and the ruthless, and dangerous Fukienese Dragons. Chen teams up with Danny Wallace, who is terribly unaware of this situation. When the Tongs boldly attempt to bribe Wallace, Chen is forced to keep his faithfulness.

Various
Comedy
First Look Home Entertain
NR
The Huxtables are back! One of the most popular shows in the history of television is now available in one amazing box set. Relive all your favorite moments from the show that TV Guide says, almost single-handedly revived the sitcom. The Cosby Show regularly appears in lists of the greatest shows of all time, yet it remains as vibrant today as one of Cliff Huxtable s sweaters! From their brownstone in Brooklyn, Cliff and Clair Huxtable watched over their family with style, wit and wisdom, not to mention a whole lot of laughs. The values they represented clearly struck a nerve with the public as the show was an instant success never out of the top 20 in ratings, and one of only two shows to hold TV s #1 spot for five years in a row. The new collection brings together every original network episode for its legendary eight-year run. Take a look back at the stellar cast along with the many all-star guest appearances Stevie wonder, Sammy Davis, Jr., Betty Carter, B.B. King, Adam Sandler and many more. Also, recorded just for this collection is an exclusive brand-new, never-aired Bill Cosby interview, covering everything from his favorite memories and the lasting legacy of The Cosby Show.

Ossie Davis
Action
Formosa Productions
R
Gravedigger Jones and Coffin Ed Johnson are two black cops with a reputation for breaking the odd head. Both are annoyed at the success of the Reverend Deke O'Mailey who is selling trips back to Africa to the poor on the installment plan. When his truck is hijacked and a bale of cotton stuffed with money is lost in the chase, Harlem is turned upside down by Gravedigger and Coffin Ed, the Reverend, and the hijackers. Much of the humor is urban black, which was unusual in 1970.

Kevin Reynolds
Action
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13
'The Count of Monte Cristo' is a remake of the Alexander Dumas tale by the same name. Dantes, a sailor who is falsely accused of treason by his best friend Fernand, who wants Dantes' girlfriend Mercedes for himself. Dantes is imprisoned on the island prison of Chateau d'If for 13 years, where he plots revenge against those who betrayed him. With the help of another prisoner, he escapes the island and proceeds to transform himself into the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo as part of his plan to exact revenge.

Robert Altman
Sci-Fi
Warner Brothers/Seven Arts

The Apollo 3 crew are training when it is discovered that the Russians plan a moon landing. The Americans enact a makeshift plan to land a man on the moon first, using an older style Gemini spacecraft. Lee is chosen as the astronaut instead of Chiz, who was trained for the mission, because Lee has no military connection. Lee has three weeks to train before take-off, and will have to stay on the moon in a shelter for about a year, until an Apollo is ready to pick him up. However the Russians take off two days earlier than expected.

Charles Chaplin
Comedy
Chaplin Film Productions Ltd.

Natascha, a White Russian countess, stows away on a luxury liner at Hong Kong, determined to seek a new life in America. Natascha hides in the cabin of Ogden Mears, a millionaire diplomat, thereby causing an endless stream of misunderstandings and complications; particularly when his wife, Martha, joins the trip at Honolulu, necessitating a 'marriage' to Ogden's valet, Hudson, a saronged-dive overboard and more subterfuge on the part of Ogdon and his associate, Harvey.

Volker Schlöndorff
Drama
Argos Films