Product Description

Yes, he's back, and he's still hungry. Ten years after The Silence of the Lambs, Dr. Hannibal "the Cannibal" Lecter (Anthony Hopkins, reprising his Oscar-winning role) is living the good life in Italy, studying art and sipping espresso. FBI agent Clarice Starling (Julianne Moore, replacing Jodie Foster), on the other hand, hasn't had it so good--an outsider from the start, she's now a quiet, moody loner who doesn't play bureaucratic games and suffers for it. A botched drug raid results in her demotion--and a request from Lecter's only living victim, Mason Verger (Gary Oldman, uncredited), for a little Q and A. Little does Clarice realize that the hideously deformed Verger--who, upon suggestion from Dr. Lecter, peeled off his own face--is using her as bait to lure Dr. Lecter out of hiding, quite certain he'll capture the good doctor.

Taking the basic plot contraptions from Thomas Harris's baroque novel, Hannibal is so stylistically different from its predecessor that it forces you to take it on its own terms. Director Ridley Scott gives the film a sleek, almost European look that lets you know that, unlike the first film (which was about the quintessentially American Clarice), this movie is all Hannibal. Does it work? Yes--but only up to a point. Scott adeptly sets up an atmosphere of foreboding, but it's all buildup for anticlimax, as Verger's plot for abducting Hannibal (and feeding him to man-eating wild boars) doesn't really deliver the requisite visceral thrills, and the much-ballyhooed climatic dinner sequence between Clarice, Dr. Lecter, and a third unlucky guest wobbles between parody and horror. Hopkins and Moore are both first-rate, but the film contrives to keep them as far apart as possible, when what made Silence so amazing was their interaction. When they do connect it's quite thrilling, but it's unfortunately too little too late. --Mark Englehart

Read more!

Product Description

With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc, Deep Blue Sea dares to up the ante on Jaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks? The aforementioned makos have been lab rats in an effort to harvest a miracle cure for Alzheimer's disease from the brains of sharks, but the research has an unfortunate side effect: the sharks get smarter, and they're determined to break out of Aquatica, the deep-sea complex where they've been penned.

Model-actress Saffron Burrows plays the researcher; Thomas Jane pulls double-duty as shark expert and action hunk; Samuel L. Jackson's the corporate sponsor who chooses the worst time for an Aquatica tour; and rapper LL Cool J is nicely cast as Aquatica's cook and comic relief. Michael Rapaport, Jacqueline McKenzie, and Stellan Skarsgård round out the cast, most of whom are turned into shark food as the makos turn Aquatica into a floating junkyard. Harlin takes devilish pleasure in providing sudden, unexpected shocks--no small feat in such a derivative thriller--and as a series of action set-pieces, Deep Blue Sea never disappoints. It's inevitable that Burrows should end up in her underwear like Sigourney Weaver in Alien, but even then the movie offers a credible reason for the strip-down; that Deep Blue Sea can be simultaneously ridiculous and sensible is just another one of its shlocky charms. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!

Product Description

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

Read more!

Product Description

Movie critic Roger Ebert made this amusing observation about Malice: "This is the only movie I can recall in which an entire subplot about a serial killer is thrown in simply for atmosphere." He's referring to the fact that this hokey but highly charged thriller is so packed with plot twists and red herrings that you'll soon find yourself so confused that you just have to sit back and hope that it will all make sense by the time the credits roll. It never does make much sense, but the movie at least has the look, feel, and twisted momentum of a really good thriller, and the talent on both sides of the camera is pretty impressive. Alec Baldwin plays a hot-shot surgeon who meets up with an old med-school buddy (Bill Pullman), whose wife (Nicole Kidman) has no objections when Baldwin moves into the upstairs room of their New England Victorian home. The situation's ripe for intrigue, suspicion, temptation, emergency surgery, legal proceedings, and just about anything else you'd find in a movie that desperately struggles to out-Hitchcock Hitchcock. Talk about McGuffins--this movie's chock full of 'em! When the plot thickens to the consistency and clarity of quicksand, you can still enjoy the darkly stylish work of master cinematographer Gordon Willis--or you can check out director Harold Becker's more coherent thriller Sea of Love. With Kidman and Baldwin working up a steamy lather, this one's just fun enough to be an agreeable waste of time. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!

Product Description

Nearly three years after it was filmed, The Great Raid finally appeared as a welcome reminder that good old-fashioned World War II movies never go out of style. While lacking the scale, prestige, and pulse-pounding momentum of Saving Private Ryan, this fact-based war drama benefits from a back-to-basics approach to realism and a rousing rescue climax that more than compensates for the slower passages that precede it. Adapted from the books The Great Raid on Cabanatuan and Ghost Soldiers, it chronicles the five-day mission (in late January 1945) to rescue 511 American prisoners of war held by the Japanese at Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines. Under the direction of neo-noir specialist John Dahl (The Last Seduction), the film's three-part structure follows the raid mission led by Lt. Col. Mucci (Benjamin Bratt); the plight of the POWs at Cabanatuan, including malaria-stricken Maj. Gibson (Joseph Fiennes); and civilian resistance in Manila as carried out by real-life hero and Gibson's (fictional) would-be lover Margaret Utinsky (Connie Nielsen), whose effort to aid the POWs is vigilantly monitored by the enemy Japanese. In keeping with war-movie traditions, Dahl handles character and action with no-nonsense intelligence, favoring a slow build over pumped-up adrenalin. By the time the miraculous rescue is executed with critical assistance by Filpino guerillas, The Great Raid has earned its stripes, honoring the brave men who carried out the most successful rescue mission in U.S. military history. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!



DVD Full-Screen Rip-Off of a Great Film

I think this film is excellent, worthy of five stars. I am rating the DVD. Miramax is forcing people to buy the extra edition with the book, for $40 in stores. That is the only way to get the widescreen version. If you just want the widescreen DVD, you cannot get it. The bare-bones DVD (not even a trailer) comes only in fullscreen! I went all over town checking it out. Typical Miramax, over-pricing its DVDs. Watch out if you buy one of the their older DVDs, as many of them came only as non-anamorphic- that way, they could release another issue in anamorphic format. I hate that company.

Great movie that was underated

This is an excellent movie about the (probably) the greatest rescue mission in World War II. After reading the book, Ghost Soldiers, by Hampton Sides several years ago. It was delightful to see this movie made.



Quality war treatment of one aspect of the Pacific theatre

The first half of this fine film set in the Philippines is rather morose and measured, and punctuated with more than several representations of Japanese brutality against cityfolk in Manila & American POWs in various camps. In an era when Amnesty International characterizes Guantanamo Bay's holding facility as akin to Soviet death camps it is, of course, politically incorrect to show anyone but Americans as brutal. That's why, no doubt, a number of reviewers of this film expressed various reservations about this competently told story of the most successful rescue mission in US military history. The latter half of the film shows how this was accomplished, and thus is replete with a lot more action than the first half; detailing 5 eventful days in January of 1945. The Cabanatuan POW camp is eventually stormed, freeing 611 American POWs with the loss of just 2 US Army Rangers & 21 Filipino guerilla fighters. The film is well shot; looks "right," regarding the era in which it is set, and conveys the gravity of that difficult time as well. It is, in short, a worthy war film, which ought be seen if you are at all interested is trying to visualize what you may perhaps have read concerning the war in the pacific. Unfortunately, most of the better-made films depicting events of World War Two concern European events and/or campaigns, but the Pacific War theatre has gotten a most useful addition in the name of "The Great Raid." Cheers!

Product Description

Combining peculiar whimsy with elements of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Barefoot in the Park, and Love Story, this enjoyably nonsensical romantic comedy has built a small but loyal following since its release in 1968. Like Somewhere in Time on a modest scale, Sweet November was a well-kept secret among hopeless romantics until a remake in 2001 (starring Keanu Reeves and Charlize Theron) made it ripe for rediscovery. Rarely have sweet schmaltz and tear-jerking melodrama been so delicately employed, and the whole thing would be utterly ridiculous if it weren't for the delightful casting of Sandy Dennis and Anthony Newley--both at the height of their popularity, and both irresistible in their fairy-tale roles. (The costars reportedly battled off camera, which might explain their oddly energetic chemistry.)

Sandy is Sara Deever, nearly 23 and hiding a secret that will eventually explain her strategy of inviting a new man to live with her--with platonic affection--for one month at a time. It's romance on an installment plan, and Charlie Blake (Newley) is Sara's catch for November--a British businessman and aspiring poet who takes up residence in Sara's quirky Brooklyn Heights apartment. He's quick to fall in love, and his devotion grows touchingly intense when Sara's secret is revealed. Some will reach for Kleenex, others will roll their eyes, but Sweet November--like Sara, in all her eccentric vulnerability--has the courage of its convictions. Just when you think it's going to end predictably, it throws a curve ball that's memorably poignant. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!



November is the Sweetest Month

How wonderful there are reviews by customers who so much like this movie. who have also longed to see it again and who have waited for it to be available. I too love it, have remembered it vividly ever since it was first released, and think it a great thing to have it finally here.

Anthony Newley and Sandy Dennis worked beautifully together. Theodore Bikel is so comforting, strong and protective. It is a tender, sad and beguiling story by Herman Raucher, every bit the equal of his "Summer of '42" and that is complimenting it indeed. A rare and heady blend of deepest emotion, of what love can do to persons, and what the terrible thrusting of the end of the world causes--the bittersweet romance, the gone away, but not in the heart ever leaving, the one special romance that aches the soul is always the finest, the most cherished.

Unabashedly bigger than life, very much an old fashioned "romantic film," filled with happiness and passion, and captivating. I've loved Anthony Newley for most of my life. Sandy Dennis is one of my favorite actresses. It needed no remake. Keneau Reeves in the Newley role? Oh, please, no. There is just this one and only classic November. It is impossible not to weep when Charlie so desperately wants Sweet November to stay, to capture the fleeting time, and to make a calander with only that month forever on it, caught in amber.

Which is what this film has done. How can anyone not fall in love with a story in which Charlie names the sweater Sarah makes for him, because he loves it, "Rex"? New York has never been more captivating. Michel LeGrand's music is sublime. Fall and Thanksgiving and Sarah and Charlie and a most creatively sided box, and snow falling on the skylight. What more could a person wish for? The final magnificent song by Newley and Leslie Bricusse, sung in that electrifying Newley voice that will never be equaled, as the snow comes falling down around him on a park bench, his final goodbye, encompassing all the knowledge Sarah has given to him, for all hellos are goodbyes in disguise, breaks my heart every time I hear it. There can be no better, wiser "sentimental education."

Even if Sandy Dennis did not look like my first love, I would have liked her immensely--tender, sad and trembly always it seemed, a delicate rose at the beginning of Fall, all the more lyrical for that. But November can't stay; it's why autumn is so magical. Now that both actors are so sadly gone, we have this gift of love and innocence to remember them by; a study of the kind of affection that counts, that gets into the bones, and joyous memories edged with the patina of sadness. New York in autumn has always seemed the best place in the world to me. This film has proven me right.

Forever bless Anthony Newley, a giant of the musical stage, a sad sweet wise clown whose heart always seemed to be breaking; nevermore so than here. And Sandy Dennis, "mostly woman, mostly child."

The heart remembers, for that way, November is never "wintry and gray". Thanks to grand films like this, we see firmly, just why.

Product Description

Maybe "nobody's perfect," as one character in this masterpiece suggests. But some movies are perfect, and Some Like It Hot is one of them. In Chicago, during the Prohibition era, two skirt-chasing musicians, Joe and Jerry (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon), inadvertently witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. In order to escape the wrath of gangland chief Spats Colombo (George Raft), the boys, in drag, join an all-woman band headed for Florida. They vie for the attention of the lead singer, Sugar Kane (Marilyn Monroe), a much-disappointed songbird who warbles "I'm Through with Love" but remains vulnerable to yet another unreliable saxophone player. (When Curtis courts her without his dress, he adopts the voice of Cary Grant--a spot-on impersonation.) The script by director Billy Wilder and I.A.L. Diamond is beautifully measured; everything works, like a flawless clock. Aspiring screenwriters would be well advised to throw away the how-to books and simply study this film. The bulk of the slapstick is handled by an unhinged Lemmon and the razor-sharp Joe E. Brown, who plays a horny retiree smitten by Jerry's feminine charms. For all the gags, the film is also wonderfully romantic, as Wilder indulges in just the right amounts of moonlight and the lilting melody of "Park Avenue Fantasy." Some Like It Hot is so delightfully fizzy, it's hard to believe the shooting of the film was a headache, with an unhappy Monroe on her worst behavior. The results, however, are sublime. --Robert Horton

Read more!

Product Description

There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action, but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!

Product Description

The Original Kings of Comedy achieves the seemingly impossible task of capturing the rollicking and sly comedy routines of stand-up and sitcom vets Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Cedric the Entertainer, and Bernie Mac and the magic of experiencing a live concert show. Director Spike Lee and his crew plant a multitude of cameras in a packed stadium and onstage (as well as backstage, as they follow the comedians) to catch the vivid immediacy of the show, which is as much about the audience as it is about the jokes. And the jokes are funny.

All four riff fast and furiously (and with much swearing) on the world in terms of race, family, sex, and in one routine, outer space. Hughley takes comedic aim at extreme sports and eating disorders, while Cedric harks back to the day when gang fights meant calling opponents out onto the dance floor. Bernie Mac, the self-confessed id comedian of the group, presents a routine that is simultaneously offensive and hilarious--an apt reminder that comedy can and should be vicious if we are ever to learn to laugh at ourselves and hopefully be the better for it. Harvey, who acts as the MC for the show, has some transcendent moments with the crowd (a '70s slow jam sing-along, anyone?) that have to be seen to be believed. There's no doubt as to why Kings was a hit with concert and movie audiences; the laughs keep coming, in the tradition of Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, with a sharp eye on the nuances of today's racially affected culture. --Shannon Gee

Read more!

Product Description

Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defense of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbor Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. Universal's Collector's Edition DVD gives this classic all the respect it deserves, offering the film in its original widescreen aspect ratio, a full-length commentary by director Robert Mulligan and producer Alan J. Pakula, informative production notes, and an exclusive documentary about the making of this all-time great American film. Consider this a must for any respectable DVD library. --Jeff Shannon

Read more!