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21 Grams
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Starring: Penn, Sean Watts, Naomi Watts, Naomi Watts, Naomi Huston, Danny DuVall, Clea Leo, Melissa Delgado, Teresa Delgado, Teresa Musso, Marc
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Director: I–‡rritu, Alejandro Gonz‡lez	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and compelling. The movie overreaches for metaphors towards the end, but that doesn't erase the power of the deeply felt performances. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition. Description The emotionally and physically charged lives of three people, a college professor (Sean Penn), an ex-con (Benicio Del Toro) and a young mother with a reckless past (Naomi Watts), collide unexpectedly in this gripping suspense thriller. Fate brought them together. Now vengeance will take them to the heights of love, the depths of revenge and the promise of redemption. Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts give the finest performances of their careers in the film that is "tantalizingly alive!" - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

9 1/2 Weeks
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Starring: Rourke, Mickey Basinger, Kim Young, Karen Margulies, David Whitton, Margaret Rourke, Mickey Krupa, Olek Weist, Dwight Weist, Dwight Truro, Victor
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Director: Lyne, Adrian	Rating: Unrated	Running Time: 136 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Frequently given short shrift as a blue movie (which it is) and as mindless (which it isn't), director Adrian Lyne's follow-up to Flashdance (insert own joke here) is a thoughtful, smutty film about a bad sexual relationship. It follows the two-month affair between Elizabeth, an art-gallery dealer, and John, a Wall Street exec. The relationship spirals downward into raunchier sex (filmed, by the way, quite nicely) but principally is about two adults doing adult things but not acting anything like real adults. Attempts at actual human connection, about the longing to be "good," are present here and make this an above-average erotic film. Rourke is just honing his scumbag, bad-boy persona; but it doesn't overwhelm. Lots and lots of Kim Basinger. --Keith Simanton --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

9/11: The Filmmakers' Commemorative Edition
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Starring: Naudet, Gedeon Naudet, Jules Niro, Robert De Casaliggi, Joseph Niro, Robert De Hanlon, James Naudet, GŽdŽon Naudet, Jules Naudet, Jules Spinard, Tom
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Director: Hanlon, James	Rating: NR	Running Time: 2 Hours 9 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby Digital Stereo

Barnes & Noble Originally aired on CBS, 9/11: The Filmmakers Commemorative Edition vividly recounts the tragic events that occurred at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, French filmmakers who had been making a documentary on the firefighters of Engine 7, Ladder 1, ended up instead capturing on film one of the most horrific events in American history. After the first plane hit, Jules followed the firefighters as they raced toward ground zero, recording everything on camera as it occurred. Over the next several hours, Naudet continued rolling, even entering the North Tower as the scene became more and more chaotic. 9/11 contains an additional 20 minutes of never-before-seen footage as well as 50 minutes of exclusive interviews, and remains among the most emotionally visceral accounts of the terrorist attack on New York City. PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Features: Widescreen version; Dolby Digital; English Stereo; Bonus interviews Language: English Time: 2 Hours 9 Minutes

An Affair to Remember
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Starring: Grant, Cary Kerr, Deborah Denning, Richard Patterson, Neva Denning, Richard Bonanova, Fortunio Watts, Charles Bonanova, Fortunio Bonanova, Fortunio
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Director: McCarey, Leo	Rating: NR	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Get out your handkerchiefs for this four-star weepie, a 1957 remake of the 1939 Love Affair, directed by Leo McCarey, who also made the original. Grant and Kerr are strangers on an ocean liner, involved with other people, but who can't resist each other for a shipboard romance. They decide to test whether this is the real thing by agreeing to split up, then meet in six months atop the Empire State Building. Is there anyone who can resist that setup or the tragic romantic mishap that nearly splits them up? Can you keep dry eyes during the famous finale? Some prefer the original (with Charles Boyer); practically no one liked the underrated 1994 remake with Warren Beatty and Annette Bening. While occasionally a shade slow, this one soars on Grant's charm and Kerr's noble suffering. --Marshall Fine --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

American Beauty (The Awards Edition)
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Starring: Spacey, Kevin Bening, Annette Birch, Thora Anderson, Dennis Anderson, Nancy Gallagher, Peter Kimbrough, Matthew Bakula, Scott Bakula, Scott Robards, Sam
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Director: Mendes, Sam	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 2 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.5/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS Surround Sound

Amazon.com essential video From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, American Beauty moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism--like Sunset Boulevard's Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave. It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence. Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses--and of blood. --Sam Sutherland DVD features Given American Beauty's critical and box office reception, it's not surprising that cast and crew commentaries supplied in the DVD Awards Edition carry a self-congratulatory vigor, not just in the studio's featurette on the making of the film, but in the disc's special narrative content. On DVD American Beauty balances these supplemental components against the disc-space requirements for DTS digital audio as well as Dolby digital tracks. Even with that constraint, however, the disc inserts over... read more

An American Rhapsody
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Starring: Johansson, Scarlett Kinski, Nastassja Goldwyn, Tony Whitman, Mae Banfalvy, Agnes Banfalvy, Agi Kinski, Nastassja Zagoni, Zsolt Zagoni, Zsolt Pásztor, Erzsi
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Director: G‡rdos, ƒva	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

From Barnes & Noble Never less than fascinating and frequently quite poignant, American Rhapsody is a coming-of-age drama based on the real-life experiences of its director, Eva Gardos. Her cinematic doppelgŠnger, named Suzanne, is just a baby when she?s left with a loving foster family while her real parents, Margit (Nastassja Kinski) and Peter (Tony Goldwyn), flee their native Hungary to escape Stalin?s invading Red Army. At age six, she is reunited with them in Southern California and becomes a rebellious teen whose transgressions eventually force Margit to take drastic action. Scarlett Johansson plays the teenage Suzanne with extraordinary intensity, and she is ostensibly the plot?s focal point, but it?s Kinski who dominates the show with what is perhaps her most affecting performance. Margit has lived through the horrors of World War II and Communist aggression, though not without acquiring psychic scars. And in her determination to shelter Suzanne, she only manages to alienate the daughter who still has difficulty accepting her as a mother. Kinski, whose own upbringing was troubled, latches onto Margit with a quiet ferocity she?s never before exhibited on screen. Gardos, a veteran film editor making her directorial debut, tells her tale with novelistic flourishes and reveals a remarkable facility with cinematic storytelling techniques. She also joins with producer Colleen Camp to offer a feature-length commentary on the DVD. Ed Hulse From All Movie Guide A true story based on the life story of writer/director Eva Gardos, this film depicts the personal odyssey of a family's escape from Communist Hungary. One night, Margaret (Nastassja Kinski) and Peter (Tony Goldwyn) arrange to escape Hungary with their eldest daughter in tow, forcing them to leave behind their youngest, Suzanne, in the care of Margaret's mother. When the mother is separated from the young child, she goes to live in a peaceful Eastern European countryside with a loving man and woman who raise her until age six, where Suzanne is sent for by her birth parents, now living in America. She finds the adjustment difficult and does not fully comprehend that Margaret and Peter are her parents, but she is willing to stay, and if she feels the same way in several years, Peter has agreed to give her a ticket back to Hungary. Later, as a rebellious teenager (played by Scarlett Johansson), with Margaret becoming a highly overprotective mother, she takes her father up on his offer to go back and reconnect with those who raised her as a child. While in Hungary, she has a change of heart , however, and discovers her true identity. The feature also co-stars Mae Whitman, Emmy Rossum, and Larisa Oleynik. Jason Clark From Los Angeles Times Manages to skirt the edge of excessive sentiment without falling victim to it. Kenneth Turan From Hollywood Reporter An absorbing, heartfelt memoir of immigrant life. Kirk Honeycutt

Apollo 13
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Starring: Hanks, Tom Paxton, Bill Bacon, Kevin Paxton, Bill Sinise, Gary Harris, Ed Quinlan, Kathleen Quinlan, Kathy Quinlan, Kathy Ellis, Chris
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Director: Howard, Ron	Rating: PG	Running Time: 140 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the Apollo 13 crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The Apollo 13 crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the Apollo 13 mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995. --Jeff Shannon

At Close Range
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Starring: Penn, Sean Walken, Christopher Masterson, Mary Stuart Glover, Crispin Stuart Masterson, Mary Rooney, Mickey Walter, Tracey Call, R.D. Call, R.D. Quinn, J.C.
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Director: Foley, James	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 55 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com One of the overlooked films of the 1980s, perhaps because it is such a downbeat tale of an amoral family. Sean Penn plays a kid whose small-time criminal impulses are stoked to a new level when he falls in with his father (Christopher Walken), a vicious career criminal for whom no problem is so large that it can't be solved by a murder. At first exhilarated by the attention from his father (and the jobs he gives him to do), he gradually catches on to just what a bad guy Dad really is. But when he tries to extricate himself, he discovers that Dad now has him squarely in his sights. Penn is terrific in a role of emotional complexity, while Walken, king of the creeps, is positively frightening as this soft-spoken but highly lethal patriarch. --Marshall Fine --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

At First Sight
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Starring: Kilmer, Val Sorvino, Mira McGillis, Kelly Weber, Steven Davison, Bruce Lane, Nathan Howard, Ken Smith, Allison Smith, Allison Howard, Ken
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Director: Winkler, Irwin	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 9 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com The tagline states, "Only love can bring you to your senses." Well, your senses have to be pretty dulled to love At First Sight. On paper the story--based on the writings of medical writer extraordinaire Oliver Sacks (Awakenings)--is intriguing: a blind man regains sight after surgery yet can never connect with what he sees, including a lovely new girlfriend. Indeed, maybe blind was better. From such interesting stuff (and a talented cast) comes a tepid love story and an unconvincing drama. Val Kilmer plays Virgil, a serene resort worker who plays hockey in the dark and is the best masseur this side of the Catskills. Onto his table comes Amy, a bone-weary NYC architect (Mira Sorvino) who cries the first time Virgil does his magic. Instead of a voyage into the world of blindness, Amy's first instinct is to take Virgil to an eye doctor who can restore sight (Bruce Davison). Virgil receives sight, crumbling the trust between him and Amy. The clichŽs start building up and by the time Amy is wooed by her ex-husband (Steven Weber), her boss no less, one's patience wears thin. The medical curiosities of the story--Virgil can see an item but can't grasp what it is until he touches it--do not translate well on screen. The film's liveliest character is Nathan Lane as a teacher of the blind. A scene with Virgil that gets to the heart of his ailment is so filled with spontaneity, one wonders if it was scripted or simply Lane's own extemporaneous dialogue. After an admirable start as a director (Guilty by Suspicion), Oscar-winning producer Irwin Winkler has not been able to put cinematic highs or believable angst into his films (The Net, Night in the City). At First Sight may look good, but it is blind where it counts. --Doug Thomas --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition), A
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Starring: Crowe, Russell Harris, Ed Harris, Ed Connelly, Jennifer Goldberg, Adam Bettany, Paul Lucas, Joshua Hirsch, Judd Hirsch, Judd Hirsch, Judd
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Director: Howard, Ron	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 16 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video A Beautiful Mind manages to twist enough pathos out of John Nash's incredible life story to redeem an at-times goofy portrayal of schizophrenia. Russell Crowe tackles the role with characteristic fervor, playing the Nobel prize-winning mathematician from his days at Princeton, where he developed a groundbreaking economic theory, to his meteoric rise to the cover of Forbes magazine and an MIT professorship, and on through to his eventual dismissal due to schizophrenic delusions. Of course, it is the delusions that fascinate director Ron Howard and, predictably, go astray. Nash's other world, populated as it is by a maniacal Department of Defense agent (Ed Harris), an imagined college roommate who seems straight out of Dead Poets Society, and an orphaned girl, is so fluid and scriptlike as to make the viewer wonder if schizophrenia is really as slick as depicted. Crowe's physical intensity drags us along as he works admirably to carry the film on his considerable shoulders. No doubt the story of Nash's amazing will to recover his life without the aid of medication is a worthy one, his eventual triumph heartening. Unfortunately, Howard's flashy style is unable to convey much of it. --Fionn Meade --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Big Fish
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Starring: McGregor, Ewan Finney, Albert Crudup, Billy Guillaume, Robert Buscemi, Steve DeVito, Danny De Vito, Danny Cotillard, Marion Cotillard, Marion Denman, David
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Director: Burton, Tim	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com After a string of mediocre movies, director Tim Burton regains his footing as he shifts from macabre fairy tales to Southern tall tales. Big Fish twines in and out of the oversized stories of Edward Bloom, played as a young man by Ewan McGregor (Moulin Rouge, Down with Love) and as a dying father by Albert Finney (Tom Jones). Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup, Almost Famous) sits by his father's bedside but has little patience with the old man's fables, because he feels these stories have kept him from knowing who his father really is. Burton dives into Bloom's imagination with zest, sending the determined young man into haunted woods, an idealized Southern town, a traveling circus, and much more. The result is sweet but--thanks to the director's dark and clever sensibility--never saccharine. Also featuring Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, and Steve Buscemi. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Blow (Infinifilm Edition)
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Starring: Depp, Johnny Cruz, PenŽlope Mollˆ, Jordi Depp, Johnny Liotta, Ray Perlich, Max Reubens, Paul Demme, Ted Demme, Ted Curtis, Cliff
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Director: Demme, Ted	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.1/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com A briskly paced hybrid of Boogie Nights and Goodfellas, Blow chronicles the three-decade rise and fall of George Jung (Johnny Depp), a normal American kid who makes a personal vow against poverty, builds a marijuana empire in the '60s, multiplies his fortune with the Colombian Medell’n cocaine cartel, and blows it all with a series of police busts culminating in one final, long-term jail sentence. "Your dad's a loser," says this absentee father to his estranged but beloved daughter, and he's right: Blow is the story of a nice guy who made wrong choices all his life, almost single-handedly created the American cocaine trade, and got exactly what he deserved. As directed by Ted Demme, the film is vibrantly entertaining, painstakingly authentic... and utterly aimless in terms of overall purpose. We can't sympathize with Jung's meteoric rise to wealth and the wild life, and Demme isn't suggesting that we should idolize a drug dealer. So what, exactly, is the point of Blow? Simply, it seems, to present Jung's story as the epitome of the coke-driven glory days, and to suggest, ever so subtly, that Jung isn't such a bad guy, after all. Anyone curious about his lifestyle will find this film amazing, and there's plenty of humor mixed with the constant threat of violence and paranoid anxiety. Demme has also populated the film with a fantastic supporting cast (although PenŽlope Cruz grows tiresome as Jung's hedonistic wife), and this is certainly a compelling look at the other side of Traffic. Still, one wishes that Blow had a more viable reason for being; like a wild party, it leaves you with a hangover and a vague feeling of regret. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition. DVD features The third Infinifilm finds another rich topic to showcase the fully loaded DVD line. Foremost is director Ted Demme's captivating interview with the real George Jung (the director also shares his commentary track with his subject). In addition Demme gives us a flippant, behind-the-scenes "Production Diary" and more than a half-hour of better-than-average deleted scenes (a few of which reveal the fate of a major character). The extemporaneous "Character Outtakes" are so good, more filmmakers... read more

Boogie Nights - New Line Platinum Series
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Starring: Reynolds, Burt Moore, Julianne Moore, Julianne Hoffman, Philip Seymour Holloman, Laurel Quint, Jonathan Wallace, Jack Gleason, Joanna Gleason, Joanna Doe, John
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Director: Anderson, Paul Thomas	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 35 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Even if the notorious 1970s porn-filmmaking milieu doesn't exactly turn you on, don't let it turn you off to this movie's extraordinary virtues, either. Boogie Nights is one of the key movies of the 1990s, and among the most ambitious and exuberantly alive American movies in years. It's also the breakthrough for an amazing new director, whose dazzling kaleidoscopic style here recalls the Robert Altman of Nashville and the Martin Scorsese of GoodFellas. Although loosely based on the sleazy life and times of real-life porn legend John Holmes, at heart it's a classic Hollywood rise-and-fall fable: a naive, good-looking young busboy is discovered in a San Fernando Valley disco by a famous motion picture producer, becomes a hotshot movie star, lives the high life, and then loses everything when he gets too big for his britches, succumbs to insobriety, and is left behind by new times and new technology. Of course, it ain't exactly A Star Is Born or Singin' in the Rain. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (in only his second feature!) puts his own affectionately sardonic twist on the old showbiz biopic formula: the ambitious upstart changes his name and achieves stardom in porno films as "Dirk Diggler." Instead of drinking to excess, he snorts cocaine (the classic drug of '70s hedonism); and it's the coming of home video (rather than talkies) that helps to dash his big-screen dreams. As for the britches ... well, the controversial "money shot" explains everything. And the cast is one of the great ensembles of the '90s, including Oscar nominees Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg (who really can act--from the waist up, too!), Heather Graham (as Rollergirl), William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, and Ricky Jay. --Jim Emerson --This text refers to the DVD edition. Description From Hollywood's hottest new director comes the outrageous epic that throws the covers back on California's adult entertainment industry in the swinging seventies. It's a touching and often humorous portrait of a most unusual family of filmakers, brought

Bounce
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Starring: Affleck, Ben Paltrow, Gwyneth Morton, Joe Paymer, David Goldwyn, Tony Paltrow, Gwyneth Henstridge, Natasha Affleck, Ben Affleck, Ben Aaron, Caroline
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Director: Roos, Don	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Bounce has all the deft charm and breezy good looks you'd expect from a romance starring Ben Affleck and Gwyneth Paltrow, but under the surface beats the poisoned heart of an independent film just going through the motions. Affleck plays Buddy Amaral, a successful ad exec with an empty life. In a Chicago airport, he meets Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn), a failed playwright going home to his family and a corrupt job as a TV writer. Buddy, angling for a one-night stand with a fellow passenger, gives Greg his ticket, but feels bad when he discovers the plane crashed and the guy died. He feels so bad, in fact, that when he gets out of rehab a year or so later, he decides to give the guy's widow, real estate agent Abby (Paltrow), commission on the sale of a building for his business, a sale she's not qualified to make. They start dating. She quickly forgets her initial impression of him as a creepy stalker. Near the end of the movie, she finds out her first impression was correct and she dumps him. It's the right decision but one that the movie won't allow her to make. Instead her best friend and her kids convince her to stay with the guy. Eeeesh. Affleck is good at playing privileged and shallow, Paltrow does what she can with the prepackaged grief of a widow, Joe Morton has very little to do as Buddy's business partner (but he does it well), and Johnny Galecki shines in a very small part as Buddy's assistant. Good performances in a rather creepy film by the guy who made The Opposite of Sex. --Andy Spletzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition. Description Buddy Amaral (Ben Affleck), a cocky, self-absorbed ad executive who--in desiring a tryst with the gorgeous Mimi (Natasha Henstridge), a woman he meets at the airport--gives up his plane ticket back to Los Angeles to writer Greg Janello (Tony Goldwyn). The plane crashes, and Buddy begins a downward spiral of alcoholism and self-loathing until he undergoes rehab. Once out, he decides to pay a visit to the dead man's widow. Abby Janello (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a struggling real estate agent with two young sons. She slowly befriends Buddy and falls in love with him while Buddy struggles with the guilty secret of his connection to her husband's untimely death which could destroy their relationship.

Bowling for Columbine
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Starring: (II), Michael Moore Manson, Marilyn Bush, George W. Heston, Charlton Nichols, James Stone, Matt Manson, Marilyn Rossen, Jeff Rossen, Jeff
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Director: (II), Michael Moore	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Michael Moore's superb documentary (following in the footsteps of Roger & Me and The Big One) tackles a meaty subject: gun control. Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation? Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan. By approaching the headquarters of K-Mart (where the Columbine shooters bought their ammo) and going to Charlton Heston's own home, Moore demands accountability from the forces that support unrestricted gun sales in the U.S. His arguments are conducted with the humor and empathy that have made Moore more than just a gadfly; he's become a genuine voice of reason in a world driven by fear and greed. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition. DVD features The two-disc special edition of Bowling for Columbine contains an updated voice-over introduction from Michael Moore on the first disc, as well as a direct-to-camera talk on the second disc in which he discusses reactions to the film, and his reaction to winning an Oscar (he has to recite his celebrated acceptance speech because the Academy refused permission for him to show a clip, and he offers his take on who was booing whom). Other extras are good, thoughtful, funny, and provocative... read more

Boyz N the Hood (2-Disc Anniversary Edition)
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Starring: Fishburne, Laurence Jr., Cuba Gooding Cube, Ice M. Rogers, Alysia Bassett, Angela Jackson, Baha C. Sykes, Baldwin l, Cea l, Cea D. Gobert, Dedrick
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Director: Singleton, John	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 52 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video John Singleton, at the age of 23, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his debut film, Boyz N the Hood. The film stars Laurence Fishburne, Angela Basset, Ice Cube, and Academy Award-winning actor Cuba Gooding Jr. in his first starring role in a feature film. Gooding plays Tre Styles, a teenager growing up in South Central Los Angeles. His father, Furious (Fishburne), is divorced and living away from Tre and his mother (Basset), but he's still involved in Tre's upbringing, teaching him the values of right and wrong and responsibility. Meanwhile, Tre's childhood buddies Ricky (Morris Chestnut) and Doughboy (Ice Cube) are living their lives in terms of the epidemic of violence and poverty that has plagued their neighborhood. Ricky, a talented football player, strives to get a full athletic scholarship to college. If only his SAT scores were higher. Doughboy lives a life full of crime but still remains true to his friends. The obstacles that these three young men come across result in dire consequences, devastatingly avoidable and inevitable at the same time. Boyz N the Hood is a landmark film beyond its commercial success, presenting a portrait of South Central in the late '80s and early '90s as painted by Singleton (who grew up in that neighborhood), achieving accuracy and dramatic resonance in this story of at-risk youth. --Shannon Gee --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description John Singleton’s award-winning portrayal of social problems in inner-city Los Angeles takes the form of a tale of three friends growing up together in the ‘hood’. Facing tough lives, two succumb to the crime surrounding them in their environment, but one learns to have the strength of character to do what is right and to always take responsibility for his actions. Academy Award ® nominee for Best Director and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (1992). Stars Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix Reloaded), Cuba Gooding, Jr. (Boat Trip), Ice Cube (Barbershop), Morris Chestnut (The Break Up Handbook), Angela Bassett (How Stella Got Her Groove Back).

Bridges of Madison County, The
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Starring: Eastwood, Clint Streep, Meryl Corley, Annie Slezak, Victor Haynie, Jim Schmitt, Sarah Kathryn Kroon, Christopher Lyons, Phyllis Lyons, Phyllis Lage, Richard
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Director: Eastwood, Clint	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Some called it a snooze-fest, while others tearfully clutched their Kleenex. In any case, Clint Eastwood was an unusual and (as it turned out) perceptive choice to direct and costar in this lush adaptation of Robert James Waller's phenomenally bestselling novel. Meryl Streep costars as Francesca, the lonely Iowa farmer's wife who is instantly attracted to Robert (Eastwood), the photographer from National Geographic who is in the area to photograph the bridges along Iowa's rural roadways. The two fall in love while Francesca's husband and children are away at a county fair, but the story's passion and lasting appeal derive from their decision to part forever after just a few brief days of intimate connection. Superbly acted with an emphasis on quiet, graceful moments of tender revelation, the film builds to a crescendo of powerful and conflicting emotions. Like David Lean's Brief Encounter (to which it bears marked similarities), The Bridges of Madison County is destined to become one of the classic movie love stories. --Jeff Shannon

Bronx Tale, A
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Starring: Niro, Robert De Palminteri, Chazz Palminteri, Chazz Capra, Francis Brancato, Lillo Pesci, Joe Caserta, Clem Jr., Alfred Sauchelli Jr., Alfred Sauchelli Pesci, Joe
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Director: Niro, Robert De	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 2 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Chazz Palminteri wrote the script for this excellent story of an Italian American boy (Lillo Brancato) who grows up in the 1960s caught between the strong influences of his blue-collar, straight- arrow father (Robert De Niro) and a Mafia chieftain (Palminteri) who is his all-purpose mentor. De Niro makes his directorial debut with this production and, except for a little stiffness, does very well by the characters and their world. The story does not go precisely where one might expect it to go: Palminteri knows better than to force the central figure to choose between the two most important men in his life, and he doesn't fill time with stock drama about crime or family conflict. Joe Pesci makes an extremely effective and uncredited appearance at the end as a man who doesn't have to do more than speak softly to communicate how dangerous he is. The DVD release contains the theatrical trailer and optional French and Spanish soundtracks. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Cast Away
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Starring: Hanks, Tom Hunt, Helen Noth, Chris White, Lari Searcy, Nick Wildman, Valerie Davis, Viveka Berg, Peter von Berg, Peter von Duhamel, François
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Director: Zemeckis, Robert	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 143 min
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS Surround Sound

Amazon.com essential video Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act. It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend." Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave. It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene--which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise--offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Chasing Amy - Criterion Collection
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Starring: Affleck, Ben Adams, Joey Lauren Lee, Jason Lee, Carmen Adams, Joey Lauren Affleck, Ben Suplee, Ethan Mosier, Scott Mosier, Scott Turner, Guinevere
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Director: Smith, Kevin	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 53 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com 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 --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description Chasing Amy is the third installment in the "New Jersey Trilogy" from award-winning writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma). Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by her sexuality, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee), and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, Chasing Amy offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality.

Cider House Rules, The
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Starring: Maguire, Tobey Theron, Charlize Lindo, Delroy Alexander, Jane D, Heavy Baker, Kathy Nelligan, Kate Rudd, Paul Rudd, Paul Culkin, Kieran
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Director: Hallstršm, Lasse	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video In adapting his own novel The Cider House Rules for the screen, John Irving sacrificed at least some of the depth and detail that made his humanitarian themes resonate, while the film--directed with Scandinavian sobriety by Lasse Hallstršm--is often vague about the complex issues (abortion, incest, responsibility) that lie at its core. Allowing for this ambiguity (which is arguably intentional), the film retains much of what made Irving's novel so admired, and like Hallstršm's earlier feature What's Eating Gilbert Grape?, it's blessed with a generous, forgiving spirit toward the mistakes, foibles, and desires of its many engaging characters. Central to the story (set during World War II) is Homer (Tobey Maguire), a young man raised in a Maine orphanage, where the ether-sniffing Dr. Larch (Michael Caine) rules with benevolent grace while performing safe but illegal abortions. To expand his horizons, Homer follows a young couple (Charlize Theron, Paul Rudd) to do fieldwork on an apple farm, where his innocent eyes are opened to the good and evil of the world--and to the realization that not all rules are steadfast in all situations. By the time Homer returns to the orphanage, The Cider House Rules--which features one of Caine's finest performances--is memorable more for its many charming and insightful moments than for any lasting dramatic impact. Is Homer fated to come full circle in his kindhearted journey? It's left to the viewer to decide. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Citizen Kane (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Starring: Welles, Orson Cotten, Joseph Bennett, Charles Moorehead, Agnes Ladd, Alan O'Connell, Arthur Sloane, Everett Comingore, Dorothy Comingore, Dorothy Sanford, Erskine
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Director: Welles, Orson	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.7/10 (IMDB)	Black & White Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Arguably the greatest of American films, Orson Welles's 1941 masterpiece, made when he was only 26, still unfurls like a dream and carries the viewer along the mysterious currents of time and memory to reach a mature (if ambiguous) conclusion: people are the sum of their contradictions, and can't be known easily. Welles plays newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane, taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. The result is that every well-meaning or tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event. Written by Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz, and photographed by Gregg Toland, the film is the sum of Welles's awesome ambitions as an artist in Hollywood. He pushes the limits of then-available technology to create a true magic show, a visual and aural feast that almost seems to be rising up from a viewer's subconsciousness. As Kane, Welles even ushers in the influence of Bertolt Brecht on film acting. This is truly a one-of-a-kind work, and in many ways is still the most modern of modern films from the 20th century. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features No minuscule "featurette" for the greatest movie ever made. The backbone for this grand two-disc set is the 1995 Oscar®-nominated documentary The Battle over Citizen Kane, a very rich two-hour film on how this masterpiece was almost destroyed by Welles's adversary, William Randolph Hearst. A great remastered print is complemented by two running commentaries, the better one by critic Roger Ebert. Don't think you want a two-hour lecture by Mr. Ebert? Just listen to his 10-minute talk over the... read more

City of Angels
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Starring: Cage, Nicolas Ryan, Meg Braugher, Andre Ryan, Meg Franz, Dennis Braugher, Andre Feore, Colm Bartlett, Robin Bartlett, Robin Dotson, Rhonda
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Director: Silberling, Brad	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 54 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Some critics complained that City of Angels could never compare to Wim Wenders's exquisite German film Wings of Desire, which served as the later film's primary inspiration. The better argument to make is that any such comparisons are beside the point, because Wings of Desire was a much more deeply poetic, artfully contemplative film, whereas City of Angels is an enchanting product of mainstream Hollywood. Meg Ryan stars as Dr. Maggie Rice, a heart surgeon who is grieving over a lost patient when an angel named Seth (Nicolas Cage) appears to comfort her. She can see him despite the "rule" that angels are invisible, and Seth's love for Maggie forces him to choose between angelic immortality and a normal human existence on earth with her. Featuring heavenly roles for TV veterans Andre Braugher and Dennis Franz, the film liberally borrows imagery from Wings of Desire, but it also creates its own charming identity. Cage and Ryan give fine performances as lovers convinced they are soul mates, and although the plot relies on a last-minute twist that doesn't quite work, this earnest love story struck a chord with audiences and proved to be one of the surprise hits of 1998. The Special Edition widescreen DVD includes audio commentary by Nicolas Cage, producer Charles Roven, and director Brad Silberling in addition to deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes documentary, a featurette about the film's special effects, and the theatrical trailer. --Jeff Shannon

Clockwork Orange, A
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Starring: McDowell, Malcolm Magee, Patrick McDowell, Malcolm Duering, Carl Prowse, David Marcus, James Clive, John Bates, Michael Bates, Michael Clarke, Warren
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Director: Kubrick, Stanley	Rating: R	Running Time: 139 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Stanley Kubrick's striking visual interpretation of Anthony Burgess's famous novel is a masterpiece. Malcolm McDowell delivers a clever, tongue-in-cheek performance as Alex, the leader of a quartet of droogs, a vicious group of young hoodlums who spend their nights stealing cars, fighting rival gangs, breaking into people's homes, and raping women. While other directors would simply exploit the violent elements of such a film without subtext, Kubrick maintains Burgess's dark, satirical social commentary. We watch Alex transform from a free-roaming miscreant into a convict used in a government experiment that attempts to reform criminals through an unorthodox new medical treatment. The catch, of course, is that this therapy may be nothing better than a quick cure-all for a society plagued by rampant crime. A Clockwork Orange works on many levels--visual, social, political, and sexual--and is one of the few films that hold up under repeated viewings. Kubrick not only presents colorfully arresting images, he also stylizes the film by utilizing classical music (and Wendy Carlos's electronic classical work) to underscore the violent scenes, which even today are disturbing in their display of sheer nihilism. Ironically, many fans of the film have missed that point, sadly being entertained by its brutality rather than being repulsed by it. --Bryan Reesman --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Additional Features EDITOR'S NOTE: According to a Warner Home Video technician involved in the production of The Stanley Kubrick Collection, Kubrick authorized all aspects of the Collection, from the use of Digital Component Video (or "D-1") masters originally approved in 1989, to the use of minimalist screen menus, chapter stops, and (in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining on DVD) supplementary materials. Full-screen presentation of The Shining and Full Metal Jacket was also approved by Kubrick, who... read more

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
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Starring: Clooney, George Rockwell, Sam Barrymore, Drew Clooney, George Hauer, Rutger Roberts, Julia Rockwell, Sam Savage, Fred Savage, Fred Wilson, Kristen
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Director: Clooney, George	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 54 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com The memoirs of game-show creator-host Chuck Barris (the man responsible for The Newlywed Game and The Gong Show) are the inspiration for this sneaky biopic, which not only covers Barris's television career, but also his exploits--unsubstantiated, but also not disproved--as a government assassin. As Barris, Sam Rockwell gives a gutsy, manic-depressive, warts-and-all performance, depicting how Barris cheated repeatedly on his longtime girlfriend Penny (Drew Barrymore), was recruited into the CIA by a stone-faced agent (George Clooney, who also makes a stylish directorial debut), created some of the most popular yet reviled TV shows of the 1970s and '80s, and had a torrid affair with a mysterious, beautiful operative (Julia Roberts). For a screenplay by Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is pretty straightforward, letting Barris's fevered brain speak for itself. The result manages to be lurid, comic, and oddly philosophical. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Cruel Intentions
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Starring: Gellar, Sarah Michelle Phillippe, Ryan Witherspoon, Reese Mabius, Eric Reid, Tara Kurtz, Swoosie Baranski, Christine Phillippe, Ryan Phillippe, Ryan Gellar, Sarah Michelle
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Director: Kumble, Roger	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 37 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com This modern-day teen update of Les Liaisons Dangereuses suffered at the hands of both critics and moviegoers thanks to its sumptuous ad campaign, which hyped the film as an arch, highly sexual, faux-serious drama (not unlike the successful, Oscar-nominated Dangerous Liaisons). In fact, this intermittently successful sudser plays like high comedy for its first two-thirds, as its two evil heroes, rich stepsiblings Kathryn (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Sebastian (Ryan Phillippe), blithely ruin lives and reputations with hearts as black as coal. Kathryn wants revenge on a boyfriend who dumped her, so she befriends his new intended, the gawky Cecile (Selma Blair), and gets Sebastian to deflower the innocent virgin. The meat of the game, though, lies in Sebastian's seduction of good girl Annette (a down-to-earth Reese Witherspoon), who's written a nationally published essay entitled "Why I Choose to Wait." If he fails, Kathryn gets his precious vintage convertible; if he wins, he gets Kathryn--in the sack. When the movie sticks to the merry ruination of Kathryn and Sebastian's pawns, it's highly enjoyable: Gellar in particular is a two-faced manipulator extraordinaire, and Phillippe, usually a black hole, manages some fun as a hipster Eurotrash stud. Most pleasantly surprising of all is Witherspoon, who puts a remarkably self-assured spin on a character usually considered vulnerable and tortured (see Michelle Pfeiffer in Dangerous Liaisons). Unfortunately, writer-director Roger Kumble undermines everything he's built up with a false ending that's true to neither the reconceived characters nor the original story--revenge is a dish best served cold, not cooked up with unnecessary plot twists. --Mark Englehart

Da Vinci Code Decoded
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Starring: Brown, Dan
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Director: Metzger, Richard	Rating: NR	Running Time: 2 Hours 32 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color Mono

All Movie Guide Dan Brown's blockbuster best-seller The Da Vinci Code has intrigued millions of readers with its tale of classic paintings and their relation to biblical history. Da Vinci Code Decoded attempts to explain the factual basis for the elements in Brown's story. The film touches on such controversial topics as if Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene, what are the Gnostic Gospels, and what if any influence Roman leaders had on the writing of the New Testament. The film does include interviews with Brown as well as other experts on the topics discussed. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Presentation: Pan & Scan Features: [None specified] Language: English Time: 2 Hours 32 Minutes

Dirty Dancing (Collector's Edition)
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Starring: Grey, Jennifer Swayze, Patrick Orbach, Jerry Rhodes, Cynthia Weston, Jack Brucker, Jane Bishop, Kelly Price, Lonny Price, Lonny Coles, Charles 'Honi'
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Director: Ardolino, Emile	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 100 min
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com As with Grease (1978) and Footloose (1984) before it, Dirty Dancing was a cultural phenomenon that now plays more like camp. That very campiness, though, is part of its biggest charm. And if the dancing in the movie doesn't seem particularly "dirty" by today's standards--or 1987's--it does take place in an era (the early '60s) when it would have. Frances "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey, daughter of ageless hoofer Joel Grey) has been vacationing in the Catskills with her family for many years. Uneventfully. One summer, she falls under the sway (as it were) of dance instructor Johnny Castle (Patrick Swayze). Baby is a pampered pup, but Johnny is a man of the world. Baby's father, Jake (Law and Order's Jerry Orbach), can't see the basic decency in greaser Johnny that she can. It should come as no surprise to find that Baby, who can be as immature as her name, learns more about love and life--and dancing--from free-spirited Johnny than traditionalist Jake. Dirty Dancing spawned two successful soundtracks, a short-lived TV series, and a stage musical. It may be predictable, but Grey and Swayze have chemistry, charisma, and all the right moves. It's a sometimes silly movie with occasionally mind-boggling dialogue--"No one puts Baby in a corner!"--that nonetheless carries an underlying message about tolerance and is filled with the kind of exuberant spirit that's hard for even the most cynical to resist. Not that they'd ever admit it. --Kathy Fennessy --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Emperor's Club (Widescreen Edition), The
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Starring: Kline, Kevin Hirsch, Emile Dempsey, Patrick Kline, Kevin Herrmann, Edward Gretsch, Joel Hirsch, Emile Dempsey, Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Khanna, Rahul
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Director: Hoffman, Michael	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS Surround Sound

Amazon.com Comparisons to Dead Poets Society are inevitable, but The Emperor's Club achieves a rich identity all its own. In the honorable tradition of great teacher dramas like Goodbye, Mr. Chips, Kevin Kline is well cast as Mr. Hundert, longtime teacher of classics and assistant headmaster of St. Benedict's Academy for Boys. There he encounters a defiant student and senator's son (Emile Hirsch) who desperately needs--but ultimately rejects--Hundert's lessons on leadership, integrity, and the shaping of character. Adapted from Ethan Canin's short story "The Palace Thief," the film is conventional to a fault, its flashback structure unfolding in Hollywood shorthand. But its noble sentiments remain potently intact, allowing Kline a performance of great emotional nuance while imparting lessons of universal value. "This is a story with no surprises," as Hundert says, but The Emperor's Club may surprise you with its admirable portrait of a life well lived. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Erin Brockovich
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Starring: Roberts, Julia Finney, Albert Eckhart, Aaron Eckhart, Aaron Helgenberger, Marg Ferrell, Conchata Jones, Cherry Coyote, Peter Coyote, Peter Harrold, Jamie
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Director: Soderbergh, Steven	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 12 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Much will be made of Julia Roberts's wardrobe in Erin Brockovich--a brash parade of daring hemlines and Wonderbra confidence. Roberts is unabashedly sexy in the title role of this fact-based comedy-drama, but she and director Steven Soderbergh are far too intelligent to rely solely on high heels and cleavage. Susannah Grant's brassy screenplay fuels this winning combination of star, director, and material, firing on all pistons with maximum efficiency. With Ed Lachman, his noted cinematographer from The Limey, Soderbergh tackles this A-list project with the fervor of an independent, combining a no-frills look with kinetic panache and the same brisk editorial style he used in the justly celebrated Out of Sight. Broke and desperate, the twice-divorced single mom Erin bosses her way into a clerical job with attorney Ed Masry (Albert Finney), who's indebted to Erin after failing to win her traffic-injury case. Erin is soon focused on suspicious connections between a mighty power company, its abuse of toxic chromium, and the poisoned water supply of Hinkley, California, where locals have suffered a legacy of death and disease. Matching the dramatic potency of Norma Rae and Silkwood, Erin Brockovich filters cold facts through warm humanity, especially in Erin's rapport with dying victims and her relationship with George (superbly played by Aaron Eckhart), a Harley-riding neighbor who offers more devotion than Erin's ever known. Surely some of these details have been embellished for dramatic effect, but the factual basis of Erin Brockovich adds a boost of satisfaction, proving that greed, neglect, and corporate arrogance are no match against a passionate crusader. (Trivia note: The real Erin Brockovich appears briefly as a diner waitress.) --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. DVD features A perfect complement to the movie itself, "The Making of Erin Brockovich" introduces viewers to Erin Brockovich and Ed Masry, the real-life inspiration for characters played by Julia Roberts and Albert Finney. In addition to appearing in the documentary, director Steven Soderbergh provides intelligent reasoning (in a separate audio commentary) for the deletion of several interesting but ultimately unnecessary scenes. "Erin Brockovich: A Look at a Real-Life Experience" is equally rewarding,... read more

Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)
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Starring: Carrey, Jim Winslet, Kate Dunst, Kirsten Cross, David Ryan, Thomas Jay Carrey, Jim Winslet, Kate Jay Ryan, Thomas Jay Ryan, Thomas Wilkinson, Tom
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Director: Gondry, Michel	Rating: R	Running Time: 108 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Screenwriters rarely develop a distinctive voice that can be recognized from movie to movie, but the ornate imagination of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made him a unique and much-needed cinematic presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a guy decides to have the memories of his ex-girlfriend erased after she's had him erased from her own memory--but midway through the procedure, he changes his mind and struggles to hang on to their experiences together. In other hands, the premise of memory-erasing would become a trashy science-fiction thriller; Kaufman, along with director Michel Gondry, spins this idea into a funny, sad, structurally complex, and simply enthralling love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak with confident skill. The entire cast--Jim Carrey, Kate Winslet, Kirsten Dunst, Elijah Wood, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Wilkinson, and more--give superb performances, carefully pitched so that cleverness never trumps feeling. A great movie. --Bret Fetzer --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Eyes Wide Shut
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Starring: Cruise, Tom Kidman, Nicole Sobieski, Leelee Serbedzija, Rade Pollack, Sydney Field, Todd Shaw, Vinessa Field, Todd Field, Todd Dumont, Sky
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Director: Kubrick, Stanley	Rating: R	Running Time: 159 min
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video It was inevitable that Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut would be the most misunderstood film of 1999. Kubrick died four months prior to its release, and there was no end to speculation how much he would have tinkered with the picture, changed it, "fixed" it. We'll never know. But even without the haunting enigma of the director's death--and its eerie echo/anticipation in the scene when Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise) visits the deathbed of one of his patients--Eyes Wide Shut would have perplexed and polarized viewers and reviewers. After all, virtually every movie of Kubrick's post-U.S. career had; only 1964's Dr. Strangelove opened to something approaching consensus. Quite apart from the author's tinkering, Kubrick's movies themselves always seemed to change--partly because they changed us, changed the world and the ways we experienced and understood it. And we may expect Eyes Wide Shut to do the same. Unlike Kubrick himself, it has time. So consider, as we settle in to live with this long, advisedly slow, mesmerizing film, how challenging and ambiguous its narrative strategy is. The source is an Arthur Schnitzler novella titled Traumnovelle (or "Dream Story"), and it's a moot question how much of Eyes Wide Shut itself is dream, from the blue shadows frosting the Harfords' bedroom to the backstage replica of New York's Greenwich Village that Kubrick built in England. Its major movement is an imaginative night-journey (even the daylight parts of it) taken by a man reeling from his wife's teasing confession of fantasized infidelity, and toward the end there is a token gesture of the couple waking to reality and, perhaps, a new, chastened maturity. Yet on some level--visually, psychologically, logically--every scene shimmers with unreality. Is everything in the movie a dream? And if so, who is dreaming it at any given moment, and why? Don't settle for easy answers. Kubrick's ultimate odyssey beckons. And now the dream is yours. --Richard T. Jameson DVD features EDITOR'S NOTE: The U.S. (Region 1) DVD release of Eyes Wide Shut presents the film in its R-rated U.S. theatrical version--submitted and approved by Stanley Kubrick per contractual obligation--with digitally inserted figures added to obscure explicit sexual activity during the 65-second orgy scene. At present there are no plans to release the "unaltered" version on DVD in Region 1. Regarding the full-screen format of Eyes Wide Shut on DVD, the official wording on the DVD packaging is as... read more

Far and Away
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Starring: Cruise, Tom Kidman, Nicole Gibson, Thomas Meaney, Colm Babcock, Barbara Prosky, Robert Pollock, Eileen Meaney, Colm Meaney, Colm Johnson, Michelle
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Director: Howard, Ron	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 20 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Filmed in the widescreen splendor of "Panavision Super 70" and blessed with the finest production values that Hollywood clout can buy, this tale of spunky Irish immigrants forgot one crucial ingredient: a decent screenplay. The film is entertaining enough, and director Ron Howard brings his technical proficiency to the simple plot, culminating in a dynamic, breathtaking depiction of the Oklahoma land rush of 1893. But the movie is really just a vacuous vehicle for married stars Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman as (respectively) the poor tenant farmer and rich landlord's daughter who flee Ireland to be American pioneers. The scenery and the stars are never less than stunning, but Howard falls short of the mark in his attempt to match the epic sweep of films by David Lean. On the other hand, this movie is certainly never boring even if it rarely makes sense, and Lean's own Irish epic, Ryan's Daughter, is a snoozer by comparison. --Jeff Shannon

Footloose
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Starring: Bacon, Kevin Singer, Lori Lithgow, John Laughlin, John McCain, Frances Lee Bacon, Kevin Penn, Chris Parker, Sara Jessica Parker, Sara Jessica Youngs, Jim
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Director: Ross, Herbert	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 47 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby Digital

All Movie Guide Fundamentalist minister Shaw Moore (John Lithgow) has spearheaded a ban on dancing in his community. The local teenagers, including Moore's daughter Ariel (Lori Singer), chafe against the restriction, but there isn't much that they can do about it within city limits. Enter Chicago expatriate Ren (Kevin Bacon), who likes to dance and doesn't like to take orders. On its surface just another kids vs. adults opus, Footloose transcends its artistic limitations, and the result is one of the most exhilarating films of the early 1980s. The mid-film highlight involving two speeding cars and a daredevil Kevin Bacon is worth the admission price in itself. Best of all, the "stock" characters are wholly believable: even John Lithgow isn't a double-dyed villain, but a loving family man sincerely concerned about the moral well-being of his flock. Hal Erickson PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1) Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: Dolby Digital Features: Commentary by Kevin Bacon; Commentary by producer Craig Zadan and writer Dean Pitchford; "Footloose: A Modern Musical - Part 1"; "Footloose: A Modern Musical - Part 2"; "Footloose: Songs That Tell a Story"; Theatrical trailer; Widescreen version enhanced for 16 x 9 TVs; Dolby Digital: English 5.1 Surround EX, English Dolby Sound, French Stereo; English subtitles; Spanish subtitles Language: English, Franais SubTitles: English, Espa–ol Time: 1 Hour 47 Minutes

Forever Young
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Starring: Gibson, Mel Curtis, Jamie Lee Wood, Elijah Glasser, Isabel Wendt, George Morton, Joe Surovy, Nicolas Grant, David Grant, David Gorman, Robert Hy
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Director: Miner, Steve	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 42 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video A surprise sleeper hit when released in 1992, this romantic fantasy works as a comedic adventure and a gentle tearjerker thanks to Mel Gibson's appealing performance. He plays Daniel, a daring test pilot who is deeply distraught by the apparent death of his girlfriend, Helen, in 1939. Feeling little reason to live, he volunteers for a pioneering cryogenics experiment and is thawed out 50 years later by two young boys. They bring the confused pilot home to Nat's single mom, Claire (Jamie Lee Curtis). There's a hint of romance, but Daniel desperately needs to know if Helen really died in 1939, and he discovers that love has a way of surviving a half-century leap in time. The premise is hokey and certain plot details are conveniently ignored, but Gibson, Curtis, and Elijah Wood (as Nat) hold it together with irresistible charm and just the right balance of fantasy and drama. --Jeff Shannon

Godfather DVD Collection, The
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Starring: Brando, Marlon Pacino, Al
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Director: Coppola, Francis Ford	Rating: R	Running Time:
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Throughout his long, wandering, often distinguished career Francis Ford Coppola has made many films that are good and fine, many more that are flawed but undeniably interesting, and a handful of duds that are worth viewing if only because his personality is so flagrantly absent. Yet he is and always shall be known as the man who directed the Godfather films, a series that has dominated and defined their creator in a way perhaps no other director can understand. Coppola has never been able to leave them alone, whether returning after 15 years to make a trilogy of the diptych, or re-editing the first two films into chronological order for a separate video release as The Godfather Saga. The films are our very own Shakespearean cycle: they tell a tale of a vicious mobster and his extended personal and professional families (once the stuff of righteous moral comeuppance), and they dared to present themselves with an epic sweep and an unapologetically tragic tone. Murder, it turned out, was a serious business. The first film remains a towering achievement, brilliantly cast and conceived. The entry of Michael Corleone into the family business, the transition of power from his father, the ruthless dispatch of his enemies--all this is told with an assurance that is breathtaking to behold. And it turned out to be merely prologue; two years later The Godfather, Part II balanced Michael's ever-greater acquisition of power and influence during the fall of Cuba with the story of his father's own youthful rise from immigrant slums. The stakes were higher, the story's construction more elaborate, and the isolated despair at the end wholly earned. (Has there ever been a cinematic performance greater than Al Pacino's Michael, so smart and ambitious, marching through the years into what he knows is his own doom with eyes open and hungry?) The Godfather, Part III was mostly written off as an attempted cash-in, but it is a wholly worthy conclusion, less slow than autumnally patient and almost merciless in the way it brings Michael's past sins crashing down around him even as he tries to redeem himself. --Bruce Reid --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Good Will Hunting - Collector's Edition
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Starring: Williams, Robin Damon, Matt Fromage, Marty Damon, Matt Affleck, Ben Driver, Minnie Skarsgaard, Stellan Affleck, Casey Affleck, Casey Mighton, John
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Director: Sant, Gus Van	Rating: R	Running Time: 126 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Robin Williams won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, and actors Matt Damon and Ben Affleck nabbed one for Best Original Screenplay, but the feel-good hit Good Will Hunting triumphs because of its gifted director, Gus Van Sant. The unconventional director (My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy) saves a script marred by vanity and clunky character development by yanking soulful, touching performances out of his entire cast (amazingly, even one by Williams that's relatively schtick-free). Van Sant pulls off the equivalent of what George Cukor accomplished for women's melodrama in the '30s and '40s: He's crafted an intelligent, unabashedly emotional male weepie about men trying to find inner-wisdom. Matt Damon stars as Will Hunting, a closet math genius who ignores his gift in favor of nightly boozing and fighting with South Boston buddies (co-writer Ben Affleck among them). While working as a university janitor, he solves an impossible calculus problem scribbled on a hallway blackboard and reluctantly becomes the prodigy of an arrogant MIT professor (Stellan Skarsgård). Damon only avoids prison by agreeing to see psychiatrists, all of whom he mocks or psychologically destroys until he meets his match in the professor's former childhood friend, played by Williams. Both doctor and patient are haunted by the past, and as mutual respect develops, the healing process begins. The film's beauty lies not with grand climaxes, but with small, quiet moments. Scenes such as Affleck's clumsy pep talk to Damon while they drink beer after work, or any number of therapy session between Williams and Damon offer poignant looks at the awkward ways men show affection and feeling for one another. --Dave McCoy

Goodfellas (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Starring: Niro, Robert De Liotta, Ray Pesci, Joe Di Leo, Frank Sivero, Frank Vincent, Frank Youngman, Henny Vale, Jerry Vale, Jerry Corrigan, Kevin
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Director: Scorsese, Martin	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 25 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star, Lorraine Bracco scores the performance of her life as the love of Hill's life, and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle. --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description * Commentary by director Martin Scorsese with cast and crew * Commentary by ex-gangster Henry Hill and ex-FBI agent Edward McDonald * New digital sound and picture * "Getting Made" making-of featurette * "Made Men": other filmmakers on the influence of GoodFellas * "The Workaday Gangster": mod life featurette * "Paper Is Cheaper Than Film" storyboard comparison

Graduate, The
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Starring: Bancroft, Anne Hoffman, Dustin Ross, Katharine Hoffman, Dustin Ross, Katharine Hamilton, Murray Daniels, William Wilson, Elizabeth Wilson, Elizabeth Fell, Norman
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Director: Nichols, Mike	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 46 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.1/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Few films have defined a generation as The Graduate did. The alienation, the nonconformity, the intergenerational romance, the blissful Simon and Garfunkel soundtrack--they all served to lob a cultural grenade smack into the middle of 1967 America, ultimately making the film the third most profitable up to that time. Seen from a later perspective, its radical chicness has dimmed a bit, yet it's still a joy to see Dustin Hoffman's bemused Benjamin and Anne Bancroft's deliciously decadent, sardonic Mrs. Robinson. The script by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham is still offbeat and dryly funny, and Mike Nichols, who won an Oscar for his direction, has just the right, light touch. --Anne Hurley --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Horse Whisperer, The
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Starring: Redford, Robert Thomas, Kristin Scott Thomas, Kristin Scott Neill, Sam Johansson, Scarlett Wiest, Dianne Cooper, Chris Edwards, Don Edwards, Don Bosworth, Catherine
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Director: Redford, Robert	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 49 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Although it's best viewed on a big theatrical screen to take full advantage of Robert Richardson's breathtaking widescreen cinematography, it seems likely that most people will see this classy romance in the comfort of their own homes. Adapted from the bestseller by Nicholas Evans and directed by Robert Redford, the film did respectable business at the box-office, but it was too sprawling and too soapy to be a bona fide hit. Redford stars as the title character, a Montana rancher named Tom Booker, who possesses the specialized talent of healing traumatized horses through careful and affectionate rehabilitation. He gets his most challenging case when he's sought out by a fast-lane New York magazine editor (Kristin Scott Thomas, in a role modeled after former New Yorker editor Tina Brown) whose daughter (Scarlett Johansson) was injured and traumatized by an accident that nearly killed her favorite horse. When mother, daughter, and horse arrive at Booker's ranch, the big-city editor falls in love with the serene rancher and faces the painful decision of whether to stay in Montana or return to her husband (Sam Neill) in New York. Some may find this to be much ado about nothing, and comparisons to The Bridges of Madison County are inevitable, but Redford's directorial approach offers the kind of graceful stature, tenderness, and intelligence required to elevate the simple story. The film takes all the time it needs to let its characters heal and make their important decisions, and that alone makes it a refreshing alternative to the frantic pace of most big-studio productions. --Jeff Shannon

Indecent Proposal
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Starring: Redford, Robert Bob Thornton, Billy Moore, Demi Platt, Oliver Cassel, Seymour Harrelson, Woody
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Director: Lyne, Adrian	Rating: R	Running Time:
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color DigitalSound

Longtime sweethearts David (Woody Harrelson), an architect, and Diana (Demi Moore), a real estate agent, find themselves on hard times when financial troubles bring them to the verge of losing their house, which David designed. Taking their last $5,000, they go to Vegas in hopes of multiplying their money. Luck fails them, but they are faced with a major moral dilemma when billionaire John Gage (Robert Redford) spots Diana in the casino and offers her $1,000,000 to spend the night with him. What ensues causes them to question their relationship more than anything they've ever encountered. Based on the novel by Jack Engelhard.

Jane Austen in Manhattan
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Starring: Baxter, Anne Powell, Robert Young, Sean Wager, Michael Young, Sean Hodiak, Katrina Johnson, Kurt Lenkowsky, Philip Lenkowsky, Philip New, Nancy
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Director: Ivory, James	Rating: NR	Running Time: 1 Hour 51 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Mono

All Movie Guide The Ismail Merchant-James Ivory team generated this account of a pair of teachers battling for the rights to produce an unpublished Jane Austen play. Jason Ankeny PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Presentation: Pan & Scan Features: New high-defintion digital transfer; Venice: Theme and Variations, director James Ivory's first film, a short documentary about the history of Venice presented through works of art about the city ; English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing Language: English Editions: Subtitled Time: 1 Hour 51 Minutes

Last Temptation of Christ - Criterion Collection, The
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Starring: Dafoe, Willem Keitel, Harvey Hershey, Barbara Dafoe, Willem Keitel, Harvey Seagull, Barbara Herzstein, Barbara Miller, Barry Miller, Barry Kershner, Irvin
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Director: Scorsese, Martin	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 43 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video It isn't difficult to imagine why this 1988 retelling of the Crucifixion story was picketed vociferously upon release--this Jesus bears little resemblance to the classical Christ, who was not, upon careful review of the Gospels, ever reported to have had sex with Barbara Hershey. Heavily informed by Gnostic reinterpretations of the Passion, The Last Temptation of Christ (based rather strictly on Nikos Kazantzakis's novel of the same name) is surely worth seeing for the controversy and blasphemous content alone, but it's difficult to find in skittish chain video stores. But the "last temptation" of the title is nothing overtly naughty--rather, it's the seduction of the commonplace; the desire to forgo following a "calling" in exchange for domestic security. Willem Dafoe interprets Jesus as spacy, indecisive, and none too charismatic (though maybe that's just Dafoe himself), but his Sermon on the Mount is radiant with visionary fire; a bit less successful is method actor Harvey Keitel, who gives the internally conflicted Judas a noticeable Brooklyn accent, and doesn't bring much imagination to a role that demands a revisionist's approach. Despite director Martin Scorsese's penchant for stupid camera tricks, much of the desert footage is simply breathtaking, even on small screen. Ultimately, Last Temptation is not much more historically illuminating than Monty Python's Life of Brian, but hey, if it's authenticity you're after, try Gibbon's. --Miles Bethany --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Additional features Criterion’s release of Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ effectively presents both the film’s beauty and controversy. Produced on an extremely tight budget, The Last Temptation of Christ has a very epic feel that is wonderfully captured on this DVD. Though a few specks and scratches are apparent throughout the 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen presentation, the overall visual quality is quite sharp and vibrant. The newly mastered Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a phenomenal... read more Description At last, Martin Scorsese's most personal masterpiece can be seen outside of the controversy it engendered, and be seen for what it is: a l5-year labor of love. Nikos Kazantzakis' landmark novel comes to breathtaking life in this moving and spiritual film. The all-star cast includes Harvey Keitel, Barbara Hershey, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie, and Willem Dafoe as Jesus. Criterion is proud to present this cinematic treasure in an exclusive Director Approved special edition.

Lawrence of Arabia
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Starring: O'Toole, Peter Guinness, Alec Quinn, Anthony Shalhoub, Michael Ferrer, Jose Wolfit, Donald Quinn, Anthony Hawkins, Jack Hawkins, Jack Lean, David
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Director: Lean, David	Rating: PG	Running Time: 3 Hours 37 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video 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 --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of the second disc. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5.1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the... read more Description Director David Lean follows the heroic true-life odyssey of T.E. Lawrence (Peter O'Toole) in this dramatic portrait of the famed British officer's journey to the Middle East. Assigned to Arabia during World War I, Lawrence courageously unites the warring Arab factions into a strong guerrilla front and leads them to brilliant victories in treacherous desert battlefields where they eventually defeat the ruling Turkish Empire.

Legends of the Fall - Special Edition
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Starring: Pitt, Brad Hopkins, Anthony Quinn, Aidan Cardinal, Tantoo Hopkins, Anthony Pitt, Brad Thomas, Henry Lombard, Karina Lombard, Karina Cardinal, Tantoo
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Director: Zwick, Edward	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 15 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com A box-office hit when released in 1994, this sprawling, frequently overwrought familial melodrama may get sillier as its plot progresses, but it's the kind of lusty, character-based epic that Hollywood should attempt more often. It's also an unabashedly flattering star vehicle for Brad Pitt as Tristan--the rebellious middle son of a fiercely independent Montana rancher and military veteran (Anthony Hopkins)--who is routinely at odds with his more responsible older brother, Alfred (Aidan Quinn), and younger brother, Samuel (Henry Thomas). From the battlefields of World War I to his adventures as an oceangoing sailor, Tristan's life is full of personal torment, especially when he returns to Montana and finds himself competing with Alfred over Samuel's beautiful widow (Julia Ormond), whose passion for Tristan disrupts the already turbulent Ludlow clan. Under the wide-open canopy of Big Sky country, this operatic tale unfolds with all the bloodlust, tragedy, and scenery-chewing performances you'd expect to find in a hokey bestselling novel (in fact, it's based on the acclaimed novella by Jim Harrison), but it's a potent mix that's highly entertaining. Not surprisingly, John Toll won an Academy Award for his breathtaking outdoor cinematography. --Jeff Shannon Additional Features For anyone who loves this sweeping melodrama, the extras in this special edition make it a must-have--even if you bought the disc in its initial release. Director Ed Zwick and Brad Pitt (on one track) inject a lot of humor into their stories on dealing with the film's production. The other commentary track has cinematographer John Toll (who won an Oscar) and art director Lilly Kilvert illuminating how the two technicians worked together to create the film's luscious look. They don't talk about... read more

Life as a House - New Line Platinum Series
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Starring: Kline, Kevin Christensen, Hayden Christensen, Hayden Sheridan, Jamey Malone, Jena Christensen, Hayden Steenburgen, Mary Somerhalder, Ian Somerhalder, Ian Bakula, Scott
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Director: Winkler, Irwin	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you'll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline's underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline's project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing an architect with terminal cancer, he gives an Oscar^®-caliber performance, reaching out to his estranged, nihilistic son (future Star Wars star Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas) as he wrecks and rebuilds the Malibu cliff-top home that contained his most painful memories. Director Irwin Winkler's flair with actors helps to minimize lapses in a script (by As Good As It Gets scribe Mark Andrus) that occasionally borders on maudlin. Overall, this is a fine reminder that Hollywood hasn't lost its soul to action and special effects. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Lolita
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Starring: Mason, James Winters, Shelley Sellers, Peter Sellers, Peter Sellers, Richard Henry Lyon, Sue Stovin, Jerry Cockrell, Gary Cockrell, Gary Greene, William E.
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Director: Kubrick, Stanley	Rating: Unrated	Running Time: 2 Hours 32 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.6/10 (IMDB)	Black & White Dolby

Amazon.com essential video When director Stanley Kubrick released his film adaptation of Vladimir Nabokov's controversial novel about a hopelessly pathetic middle-aged professor's sexual obsession with his 12-year-old stepdaughter, the ads read, "How did they ever make a film of Lolita?" The answer is "they" didn't. As he did with his "adaptations" of Barry Lyndon, A Clockwork Orange, and, especially, The Shining, Kubrick used the source material and, simply put, made another Stanley Kubrick movie--even though Nabokov himself wrote the screenplay. The chilly director nullifies Humbert Humbert's (James Mason's) overwhelming passion and desire, and instead transforms the story, like many of his films, into that of a man trapped and ruined by social codes and by his own obsessions. Kubrick doesn't play this as tragedy, however, but rather as both a black-as-coffee screwball comedy and a meandering, episodic road movie. The early scenes between Humbert, Lolita (a too-old but suitably teasing Lyons) and her loud, garish mother (Shelley Winters in one of her funniest performances) play like a wonderful farce. When Humbert finally fulfills his desires and captures Lolita, the pair hit the road and Kubrick drags in Peter Sellers. As the pedophilic writer Clare Quilty--Humbert's playful doppelgŠnger and biggest threat--Sellers dons a series of disguises with plans of stealing Lolita away from her captor. It's here more than anywhere that Kubrick comes closest to the novel. He extends Nabokov's idea of the games and puzzles played between reader and writer, Quilty and Humbert, Lolita and Humbert, etc., to those between filmmaker and audience: the road eventually goes nowhere and Humbert's reality is exposed as mad delusion. Perhaps not a Kubrick masterpiece, or the provocative film many wanted, Lolita still remains playfully fascinating and one of Kubrick's strongest, funniest character studies. --Dave McCoy --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Additional Features EDITOR'S NOTE: According to a Warner Home Video technician involved in the production of The Stanley Kubrick Collection, Kubrick authorized all aspects of the Collection, from the use of Digital Component Video (or "D-1") masters originally approved in 1989, to the use of minimalist screen menus, chapter stops, and (in the case of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Shining on DVD) supplementary materials. Full-screen presentation of The Shining and Full Metal Jacket was also approved by Kubrick, who... read more

Lost In Translation (Widescreen Edition)
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Starring: Johansson, Scarlett Murray, Bill Ribisi, Giovanni Johansson, Scarlett Faris, Anna Hayashi, Fumihiro Baba, Ryuichiro Yamaguchi, Akira Yamaguchi, Akira Bois, François du
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Director: Coppola, Sofia	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 42 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Like a good dream, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation envelops you with an aura of fantastic light, moody sound, head-turning love, and a feeling of dŽjˆ vu, even though you've probably never been to this neon-fused version of Tokyo. Certainly Bob Harris has not. The 50-ish actor has signed on for big money shooting whiskey ads instead of doing something good for his career or his long-distance family. Jetlagged, helplessly lost with his Japanese-speaking director, and out of sync with the metropolis, Harris (Bill Murray, never better) befriends the married but lovelorn 25-year-old Charlotte (played with heaps of poise by 18-year-old Scarlett Johansson). Even before her photographer husband all but abandons her, she is adrift like Harris but in a total entrapment of youth. How Charlotte and Bill discover their soul mates will be cherished for years to come. Written and directed by Coppola (The Virgin Suicides), the film is far more atmospheric than plot-driven: we whiz through Tokyo parties, karaoke bars, and odd nightlife, always ending up in the impossibly posh hotel where the two are staying. The wisps of bittersweet loneliness of Bill and Charlotte are handled smartly and romantically, but unlike modern studio films, this isn't a May-November fling film. Surely and steadily, the film ends on a much-talked-about grace note, which may burn some, yet awards film lovers who "always had Paris" with another cinematic destination of the heart. --Doug Thomas

Love Affair
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Starring: Beatty, Warren Bening, Annette Hepburn, Katharine Brosnan, Pierce Capshaw, Kate Hepburn, Katharine Brosnan, Pierce Mazursky, Paul Mazursky, Paul Shadix, Glenn
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Director: Caron, Glenn Gordon	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com You can hear the big gears clank in this glossy, oh-so-watchable remake of the classic 1939 film (and the popular An Affair to Remember). Instead of updating the story with contemporary attitudes (as Warren Beatty did so successfully with Heaven Can Wait), this is a virtual carbon copy of the other films. The early scenes succeed as the two love birds (Beatty and real-life wife Annette Bening) banter with smart, fun talk. But the dramatics never really work in the modern era and romance doesn't blossom. Do we have to visit the Empire State Building again? Why couldn't the man be the victim? Everything looks wrapped for Christmas: a lovely score, nice use of old songs, rich designer clothes, familiar faces popping up everywhere, all surrounded by ace Conrad L. Hall's glowing, luscious light. It comes off like a big still-life, no zeal with two big exceptions: Garry Shandling's comic portrayal of lawyerhood as Beatty's agent and the reappearance of Katharine Hepburn. Seen for maybe 10 minutes, she packs more magic in her work than the entire rest of the movie. --Doug Thomas --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Love Letters
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Starring: Weber, Steven Linney, Laura Hampshire, Emily Lawther, Chas Galligan, Patrick Richardson, Jackie
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Director: Donen, Stanley	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Description: The death of a former lover (Laura Linney)--with whom he only kept in contact with through written correspondence--forces a U.S. Senator (Steven Weber) to look back on his relationship with her. They met as children, and he was forced to leave her behind for his strong political ambition while she chose to live the life of a struggling artist. This adaptation of A.R. Guerney's stage play was directed for television by Hollywood legend Stanley Donen (SINGIN' IN THE RAIN).

Love Story
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Starring: MacGraw, Ali O'Neal, Ryan Marley, John Milland, Ray Modica, Robert Nype, Russell Walker, Sydney Daniels, Walker Daniels, Walker Jones, Tommy Lee
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Director: Hiller, Arthur	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 40 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.1/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Strife-torn America wanted a meat-and-potatoes romance in the late '60s, and the country embraced Erich Segal's slim, generic-sounding novel in a big way. It did so again for the film adaptation in 1970, starring Ryan O'Neal as a law student who defies his rich and powerful father (Ray Milland) on every issue, including the former's love for a music student (Ali MacGraw). The two marry, start life together...and then the Grim Reaper turns up at the door. Directed by Arthur Hiller (The In-Laws), the film ends up lacking the kind of stylistic boost that might have made it a must-see for the ages. But its faithfulness to the book's uncomplicated and, yes, moving intentions is pretty solid. O'Neal is convincing as a nice guy who's as bullheaded in his own way as his steely father (a nice job by Milland), and MacGraw has a way of getting under one's skin. A viewer just has to try not laughing at the refrain, "Love means never having to say you're sorry." --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Magnolia - New Line Platinum Series
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Starring: Cruise, Tom Moore, Julianne Cruise, Tom Mapother IV, Thomas Cruise Robards, Jason Robards Jr., Jason Macy, William H. Macy, W. H. Macy, W. H. Bowen, Michael
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Director: Anderson, Paul Thomas	Rating: R	Running Time: 188 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com A handful of people in the San Fernando Valley are having one hell of a day. TV mogul Earl Partridge (Jason Robards) is on his deathbed; his trophy wife (Julianne Moore) is popping pills with alarming frequency. Earl's nurse (Philip Seymour Hoffman) is trying desperately to get in touch with Earl's only son, sex guru Frank T.J. Mackey (Tom Cruise), who's about to have his carefully constructed past blown by a TV reporter (April Grace). Whiz kid Stanley (Jeremy Blackman) is being goaded by his selfish dad into breaking the record for the game show What Do Kids Know? Meanwhile, Stanley's predecessor, the grown-up quiz kid Donnie Smith (William H. Macy) has lost his job and is nursing a severe case of unrequited love. And the host of What Do Kids Know?, the affable Jimmy Gator (Philip Baker Hall), like Earl, is dying of cancer, and his attempt to reconcile with his cokehead daughter (Melora Walters) fails miserably. She, meanwhile, is running hot and cold with a cop (John C. Reilly) who would love to date her, if she can sit still for long enough. And over it all, a foreboding sky threatens to pour something more than just rain. This third feature from Paul Thomas Anderson (Boogie Nights) is a maddening, magnificent piece of filmmaking, and it's an ensemble film to rank with the best of Robert Altman--every little piece of the film means something, and it's solidly there for a reason. Deftly juggling a breathtaking ensemble of actors, Anderson crafts a tale of neglectful parents, resentful children, and love-starved souls that's amazing in scope, both thematically and emotionally. Part of the charge of Magnolia is seeing exactly how may characters Anderson can juggle, and can he keep all those balls in air (indeed he can, even if it means throwing frogs into the mix). And it's been far too long since we've seen a filmmaker whose love of making movies is so purely joyful, and this electric energy is reflected in the actors, from Cruise's revelatory performance to Reilly's quietly powerful turn as the moral center of the story. While at three hours it's definitely not suited to everyone's taste, Magnolia is a compelling, heartbreaking, ultimately hopeful mediation on the accidents of chance that make up our lives. Featuring eight wonderful songs by Aimee Mann, including "Save Me." --Mark Englehart --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Description An intriguing and entertaining study in characters going through varying levels of crisis and introspection. This psychological drama leads you in several different directions, weaving and intersecting various subplots and characters, from a brilliant Tom Cruise, as a self-proclaimed pied-piper, to a child forced to go on a TV game show and the pressures he faces from a ruthless father.

Mean Streets
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Starring: Niro, Robert De Keitel, Harvey Proval, David Memmoli, George Proval, David Robinson, Amy Romanus, Richard Argo, Victor Argo, Victor Bell, Jeannie
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Director: Scorsese, Martin	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 52 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video After Martin Scorsese went to Hollywood in 1972 to direct the low-budget Boxcar Bertha for B-movie mogul Roger Corman, the young director showed the film to maverick director John Cassavetes and got an instant earful of urgent advice. "It's crap," said Cassavetes in no uncertain terms, "now go out and make something that comes from your heart." Scorsese took the advice and focused his energy on Mean Streets, a riveting contemporary film about low-life gangsters in New York's Little Italy that critic Pauline Kael would later call "a true original, and a triumph of personal filmmaking." Starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel in roles that announced their talent to the world, it set the stage for Scorsese's emergence as one of the greatest American filmmakers. Introducing themes and character types that Scorsese would return to in Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Casino, and other films, the loosely structured story is drawn directly from Scorsese's background in the Italian neighborhoods of New York, and it seethes with the raw vitality of a filmmaker who has found his creative groove. As the irresponsible and reckless Johnny Boy, De Niro offers striking contrast to Keitel's Charlie, who struggles to reconcile gang life with Catholic guilt. More of an episodic portrait than a plot-driven crime story, Mean Streets remains one of Scorsese's most direct and fascinating films--a masterful calling card for a director whose greatness was clearly apparent from that point forward. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Message in a Bottle
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Starring: Costner, Kevin Penn, Robin Wright Newman, Paul Newman, Paul Savage, John Douglas, Illeana Coltrane, Robbie James, Jesse James, Jesse Aldredge, Tom
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Director: Mandoki, Luis	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 11 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 5.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com If, as they say, you're in a certain mood, Message in a Bottle can be just the ticket. Based on Nicholas Sparks's bestselling novel, this handsome but overly calculated romance tale stars Robin Wright Penn as Theresa, a Chicago Tribune researcher who finds a note encased in a green bottle that has floated onto a Cape Cod shore. The message within is a heartfelt, yearning declaration of love to a woman named Catherine, but the author is unknown until Theresa (rather improbably) tracks him down in North Carolina. He's Garret Blake (Kevin Costner), a taciturn builder of sailboats and a grieving widower whose late wife, poetically speaking, was the intended recipient of the seafaring note Theresa found. Theresa, a divorcŽe with a son, decides to meet Garret, only to find him as bottled-up as his message. Nevertheless, a romance blooms on the strength of quality time in a sailboat and lots of cuddling, though the script tosses in bits of conflict to keep their relationship spicy. Directed by Luis Mandoki (When a Man Loves a Woman), this love story is entirely by the numbers, with Costner inhabiting (rather than performing) a stock fantasy of a man perfect in every way save his broken heart. Penn brings more vibrancy to her equally predictable part, but fortunately for all, Paul Newman, John Savage, Robbie Coltrane, and Illeana Douglas are on hand in nicely textured character parts. Sometimes predictability is exactly what one wants when settling in for an evening of home video, and this movie fits the bill nicely. The appealing cinematography is by ace cameraman Caleb Deschanel. --Tom Keogh

Mission (Two-Disc Special Edition), The
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Starring: Niro, Robert De Irons, Jeremy McAnally, Ray Neeson, Liam Lunghi, Cherie Pickup, Ronald Low, Chuck Neeson, Liam Neeson, Liam Ismare, Sigifredo
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Director: JoffŽ, Roland	Rating: PG	Running Time: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Roland JoffŽ (The Killing Fields) directs this fuzzy effort at a David Lean-like epic without David Lean's sense of emotional proportion. Lean's most important screenwriting collaborator, Robert Bolt, in fact wrote The Mission, which concerns a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) who establishes a church in the hostile jungles of Brazil and then finds his work threatened by greed and political forces among his superiors. Robert De Niro is briefly effective as a callous soldier who kills his own brother and then turns to Irons's character to oversee his penance and conversion to the clergy. The narrative and dramatic forces at work in this movie should be more stirring and powerful than they are--the problem being that JoffŽ is too removed from them to allow us in. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description Rodrigo Mendoza (ROBERT DE NIRO) was a violent soldier-for-hire in 1750s South America. Now he is a man of peace serving the Rain Forest Indians he once enslaved. But armies of Spain and Portugal threaten the lifestyle and safety of the native peoples. Now Rodrigo may have to pick up his sword and musket once again. From the producer of Chariots of Fire and the director of The Killing Fields comes a powerful epic co-starring JEREMY IRONS and graced with dazzling Academy Award-winning cinematography, set to a memorable music score and scripted by the Oscar-winning screenwriter of A Man for All Seasons and Doctor Zhivago.

Mona Lisa Smile
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Starring: Roberts, Julia Dunst, Kirsten Stiles, Julia Dunst, Kirsten Stiles, Julia Harden, Marcia Gay West, Dominic Goodwin, Ginnifer Goodwin, Ginnifer Stevenson, Juliet
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Director: Newell, Mike	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.1/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby Digital Surround

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Julia Roberts, whose career choices haven't always been smart, picked a winner in this neatly directed drama, which unfolds in the rarified setting of Wellesley College during the early years of the Cold War. Roberts plays a free-spirited art teacher who finds her new assignment stultifying: Her well-to-do students seem less interested in expanding their minds and pursuing fulfilling careers than in marrying promising young scions of comparably proper breeding. Kirsten Dunst, in her most complex role since The Virgin Suicides, plays the ringleader of one student clique; intellectually gifted but insufferably snobbish, she deliberately shuns the adventure of personal achievement in favor of a conventional union sanctioned by her parents. Julia Stiles gets the less demanding but equally important role of a similarly talented pupil who finds herself yearning for something more than marriage and motherhood but fears abandoning the role for which she has prepared all her life. Director Mike Newell opts for a light touch, letting Roberts and company keep it on track with their sharply observed characterizations and spirited interplay. The younger actresses -- including Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is delightfully tart as the clique's resident "bad girl" -- all get ample opportunities to shine, and for her part Roberts refrains from upstaging them. Ultimately, Mona Lisa Smile is not a star vehicle but a true ensemble piece, and that helps make it a highly enjoyable viewing experience. Ed Hulse All Movie Guide Set in 1953, Mona Lisa Smile tells the story of Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a new young art history professor at Wellesley College, an all-female campus with a prestigious reputation for academic excellence. Unfortunately for free-minded Berkeley grad Watson, her East Coast teaching stint comes during a less-progressive time that finds most of her students -- among them Betty Warren (Kirsten Dunst), Joan Brandwyn (Julia Stiles), and Giselle Levy (Maggie Gyllenhaal) -- more interested in nabbing a good husband than achieving scholastic and intellectual growth. Watson challenges her students and the Wellesley faculty to think outside of the current mores of the community and redefine what it means to be a success; meanwhile, she tries to come to terms with her own heart's desires. Mona Lisa Smile co-stars Marcia Gay Harden, Juliet Stevenson, and, as Watson's conflicting love interests, Dominic West and John Slattery. Matthew Tobey Washington Post The movie, with its panorama of emotional epiphanies and its belief in the talent and grace of young women, is nevertheless bracing. Stephen Hunter Chicago Sun-Times The characters involve us, we sympathize with their dreams and despair of their matrimonial tunnel vision, and at the end we are relieved that we listened to Miss Watson and became the wonderful people who we are today. Roger Ebert Boston Globe The reliable Mike Newell directs Mona Lisa Smile with such assurance that the important moments are never mawkish or dull, and he encourages the women to act with absolute conviction. Wesley Morris PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1) Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: Dolby Digital Surround Features: Multiple featurettes, including "Art Forum," "College Then and Now," and "What Women Wanted: 1953"; Elton John music video for "The Heart of Every Girl"; theatrical trailers. Language: English, Franais SubTitles: English, Franais Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes

Monster
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Starring: Theron, Charlize Ricci, Christina Dern, Bruce Wilson, Scott Vince, Pruitt Taylor Corley, Annie Tergesen, Lee Baker, Bubba Baker, Bubba Macaulay, Marc
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Director: Jenkins, Patty	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 49 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.5/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound

Barnes & Noble One of 2003's most remarkable movies, Monster is distinguished by Charlize Theron's Oscar-winning performance. The glamorous Theron underwent an astounding metamorphosis to play Aileen Wuornos, the infamous Florida prostitute executed for the murders of seven men. She gained weight, made her hair stringy, took the cap off a chipped tooth, and added freckles to her face. More than the physical transformation, though, Theron dipped deep into her own psyche to come up with a characterization that made Wuornos -- by most accounts a pretty despicable human being -- not only understandable but sympathetic. The film revolves around Wuornos's relationship with Selby Wall (played superbly by Christina Ricci), whom she meets one day in a seedy bar. The couple set up house, and Wuornos, forced by lack of money to keep working as a prostitute, releases her pent-up rage by robbing and killing her johns. It may be difficult to imagine such unsavory material making a fine movie, but first-time director Patty Jenkins pulled it off. She doesn't rely on flashy camera moves or narrative trickery; in fact, much of Monster is shot in a straightforward, unobtrusive style that suggests the work of a documentary filmmaker. Clearly, the thrust of her creative input was shaping the performances of Theron and Ricci, and the outstanding results suggest that Jenkins could be a filmmaker of rare talent. Some viewers might find the subject matter off-putting, and indeed, Monster is pretty tough going at times. But it's also incredibly compelling, and well worth seeing if only for Theron's appropriately praised star turn. Ed Hulse All Movie Guide Model-turned-actress Charlize Theron leaves her glamorous image behind for this gritty drama, in which she plays a disturbed prostitute who becomes a serial killer. Aileen Wuornos (Theron) was a woman who survived a brutal and abusive childhood in Michigan to become a thick-skinned but emotionally damaged adult. Homeless most of her life, Wuornos subsisted by working as a street prostitute; later, when she was in Florida, down to her last five dollars and pondering suicide, she stopped into a bar for a beer. There, Aileen met Selby Wall (Christina Ricci), a woman in her early twenties who had been sent to live with relatives after her Christian parents became aware of her lesbian lifestyle. Selby is immediately attracted to Aileen, and while Aileen tells Selby she's never been in a lesbian relationship, she soon finds herself equally infatuated with her. Selby runs away from her family and moves into a cheap hotel with Aileen, who initially pays the bills by hooking. However, as their money runs low and Aileen finds herself unable to land a regular job, tensions mount between the two. One night, after a john attacks her, Aileen pulls a gun and kills the man. Although her first murder can be categorized as self-defense, Aileen's loathing for the men who pay her for sex becomes so extreme that she begins killing her customers regardless of their behavior. Meanwhile, Selby slowly becomes aware of the full extent of her lover's instability and the bloody consequences of her actions. Monster was inspired by the true story of Aileen Wuornos, whose life and death was chronicled in two documentaries by filmmaker Nick Broomfield, Aileen Wuornos: The Selling of a Serial Killer, and Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer. Mark Deming PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound Features: Theatrical trailer; International trailer; Scene selections; Featurette; DTS film mixing demo featurette; Interview with Patty Jenkins and BT Language: English SubTitles: Espa–ol Time: 1 Hour 49 Minutes

October Sky
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Starring: Gyllenhaal, Jake Cooper, Chris Dern, Laura Owen, Chris Scott, William Lee Ellis, Chris Canerday, Natalie Miles, Scott Miles, Scott Ellis, Chris
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Director: Johnston, Joe	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Based on the memoir Rocket Boys by Homer H. Hickam Jr., October Sky emerged as one of the most delightful sleepers of 1999--a small miracle of good ol' fashioned movie-making in the cynical, often numbingly trendy Hollywood of the late 20th century. Hickam's true story begins in 1957 with Russia's historic launch of the Sputnik satellite, and while Homer (played with smart idealism by Jake Gyllenhaal) sees Sputnik as his cue to pursue a fascination with rocketry, his father (Chris Cooper) epitomizes the admirable yet sternly stubborn working-man's ethic of the West Virginia coal miner, casting fear and disdain on Homer's pursuit of science while urging his "errant" son to carry on the family business--a spirit-killing profession that Homer has no intention of joining. As directed by Joe Johnston (The Rocketeer), this wonderful movie is occasionally guilty of overstating its case and sacrificing subtlety for predictable melodrama. But more often the film's tone is just right, and the spirit of adventure and invention is infectiously conveyed through Gyllenhaal and his well-cast fellow rocketeers, whose many failures gradually lead to triumph on their makeshift backwoods launching pad. Capturing time and place with impeccable detail and superbly developed characters (including Laura Dern as an inspiring schoolteacher), October Sky is a family film for the ages, encouraging the highest potential of the human spirit while giving viewers a clear view of a bygone era when "the final frontier" beckoned to the explorer in all of us. --Jeff Shannon

An Officer and a Gentleman
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Starring: Gere, Richard Winger, Debra Jr., Louis Gossett Loggia, Robert Winger, Debra Gossett, Louis , Jr. Loggia, Robert Plana, Tony Plana, Tony Caruso, David
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Director: Hackford, Taylor	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 4 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Richard Gere plays an enrollee at a Naval officers candidate school, and Debra Winger is the woman who wants him. That's pretty much it, story-wise, in this romantic drama, which is more effective in a moment-to-moment, scene-by-scene way, where the two stars and Oscar-winner Louis Gossett Jr.--as Gere's tough-as-nails drill instructor--are fun to watch. Sexy, syrupy, with occasional pitches of high drama (Gere having a near-breakdown during training is pretty strong), An Officer and a Gentleman proves to be a no-brainer date movie. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

On Golden Pond
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Starring: Hepburn, Katharine Fonda, Henry Fonda, Jane Coleman, Dabney Lanteau, William Rydell, Christopher Rydell, Chris
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Director: Rydell, Mark	Rating: PG	Running Time: 105 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Writer Ernest Thompson, who came up with the original stage play of On Golden Pond and adapted it for film, is lucky to have two giants of the screen give dignity and breadth to his sometimes trite dialogue. Henry Fonda, in his last role, plays a prickly English professor at the disagreeable age of 80. Visiting his summer house by a Maine lake with his wife (Katharine Hepburn), the old man forges an unlikely bond with a lonely boy, comes to terms with his daughter (Jane Fonda), and suffers disorienting effects of mild dementia. Even playing a tired old man, Fonda is an absolute lion of a movie star, and Hepburn brings her special spirit to the part of his worried bride. The onscreen relationship between Henry and Jane Fonda naturally makes one think about their much-discussed difficulties offscreen, but that's a side benefit in a movie that is really just a celebration of simple human decency. Directed by Mark Rydell (Harry and Walter Go to New York). --Tom Keogh

Once Upon a Time in America (Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Starring: Niro, Robert De Woods, James Connelly, Jennifer McGovern, Elizabeth Pesci, Joe Pesci, Joe Young, Burt Aiello, Danny Aiello, Danny Hayden, James
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Director: Leone, Sergio	Rating: R	Running Time: 229 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video This movie has a checkered history, having been chopped from its original 227-minute director's cut to 139 minutes for its U.S. release. This longer edition benefits from having the complete story (the short version has huge gaps) about turn-of-the-century Jewish immigrants in America finding their way into lives of crime, as told in flashback by an aging Jewish gangster named Noodles (Robert De Niro). On the other hand, it's almost four hours long, and this sometimes-indulgent Sergio Leone film is no Godfather. Still, it is notable for the contrast between Leone's elegiac take on the gangster film and his occasional explosive action, as well as for the mix of the stoic, inexpressive De Niro and the hyperactive James Woods as his lifelong friend and rival. --Marshall Fine --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features At 229 minutes, this is the longest cut seen on video, and the version seen at Cannes and in the rest of Europe. It's only two minutes longer than the version available for a long time on VHS, adding (mostly) more gruesome shots of violence in four different scenes. The sound and image have been remastered, making for a pristine presentation. Time film critic Richard Schickel does a commendable job in his feature-length commentary. Although he doesn't know all the insider stuff, he has ample... read more Description Robert De Niro and James Woods star in Sergio Leone's award winning epic about a ruthless criminal empire. The original director's version of a timeless movie masterpiece.

Out of Africa
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Starring: Streep, Meryl Redford, Robert Brandauer, Klaus Maria Kitchen, Michael Bowens, Malick Thiaka, Joseph Kinyanjui, Stephen Gough, Michael Gough, Michael Kempson, Rachel
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Director: Pollack, Sydney	Rating: PG	Running Time: 2 Hours 41 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Sydney Pollack's 1985 multiple-Oscar winner is a sumptuous and emotionally satisfying film about the life of Danish writer Karen Blixen (Meryl Streep), better known as Isak Dinesen, who travels to Kenya to be with her German husband (Klaus Maria Brandauer) but falls for an English adventurer (Robert Redford). The film is slow in developing the relationship, but it is rich in beautiful images of Africa and in the romantic tone surrounding Blixen's gradual discovery of her life and voice. One downside: while we may all love Redford, he is as convincingly British as Kevin Costner is in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features Sydney Pollack's approach to audio commentary for DVD editions of his films is different from that of most other directors. Instead of detailing each scene of Out of Africa, for example, Pollack paints in broad strokes, talking about cinematic themes and in particular the translation of Karen Blixen's life in Africa from book to film. The fan of flubs and trivia won't find Pollack making any cute remarks, but he's certainly interesting for the run of the film, describing the location shooting... read more

Outsiders, The
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Starring: Howell, C. Thomas Dillon, Matt Macchio, Ralph Lowe, Rob Lane, Diane Estevez, Emilio Cruise, Tom Mapother IV, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV, Thomas Cruise Garrett, Leif
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Director: Coppola, Francis Ford	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 31 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Director Francis Coppola's adaptation of the popular S.E. Hinton novel about the price of rebellious youth is notable chiefly for the stunning cast of young actors who went on to rich and varied careers. In supporting roles, the film features the likes of Tom Cruise, Patrick Swayze, Diane Lane, Rob Lowe, Emilio Estevez, and Tom Waits, among others. The story centers on two rival gangs in the early 1960s Midwest, and the violent turf wars that escalate and tragically claim young lives. C. Thomas Howell plays the central character who yearns to prove himself and be accepted by his older brothers' gang, while at the same time finding his first love and dreaming of a life beyond his dead end existence. Geared toward the teenage crowd, the film nonetheless features some fine direction from Coppola in a story that evokes memories of the classic coming-of-age films of the 1950s. --Robert Lane --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

The Passion of the Christ
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Starring: Caviezel, James Bellucci, Monica Gerini, Claudia Marescotti, Ivano Gerini, Claudia Caviezel, James Bellucci, Monica Celentano, Rosalinda Celentano, Rosalinda Shopov, Hristo Naumov
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Director: Gibson, Mel	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 6 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.4/10 (IMDB)	Color DTS 5.1-Channel Surround Sound,

From Barnes & Noble Mel Gibson?s controversial but undeniably compelling account of the last hours of Jesus Christ is nothing if not correctly titled: The word ?passion? is derived from a Latin term for pain and suffering. And that?s exactly what director Gibson shows us in horrifying detail. From his apprehension by Roman soldiers to his subsequent scourging and crucifixion, the self-proclaimed Son of God suffers terribly, and we see, close up, the effects of every lash, every blow, every rock, and every nail. Adapted by Gibson and Benedict Fitzgerald from the Gospels (particularly the Gospel of John), Passion barely touches on Christ?s message of love; there are brief flashbacks to such New Testament landmarks as the Sermon on the Mount, but they merely lend context to things Jesus sees, hears, or remembers while en route to his destiny: the ultimate sacrifice for humanity. James Caviezel does a fine job as Christ, although his is not a role that calls for a great deal of emoting via dialogue. It?s left to him to convey the intense suffering that Christ underwent during those awful, final hours on Good Friday. Caviezel does this with remarkable skill, and his performance is matched only by those of Maia Morgenstern (playing the Blessed Mother with heart-tugging dignity) and Monica Bellucci (an Italian sexpot oddly cast but quite effective as the reformed prostitute Mary Magdalene). The Passion of the Christ, while produced and shot with great artistry, is not a film that will engage viewers aesthetically or intellectually; it is a uniquely visceral viewing experience, and one that is not recommended for children, no matter how devout. The violence depicted here will unnerve some people, and that?s just what Gibson intended. He wants his audience to realize just how much Christ endured on behalf of his followers, and in that respect the erstwhile actor has succeeded beyond his wildest expectations. The controversy over the director?s alleged anti-Semitism faded rapidly when the oft-predicted reprisals against Jews failed to materialize even as the film attracted tens of millions of moviegoers all over the world, and it shouldn?t be factored into any decision to buy the DVD. It?s unlikely that you?ll ever see a more gripping, visceral account of Christ?s last day, and we guarantee that you?ll never forget it. Ed Hulse From All Movie Guide Mel Gibson's well-publicized production The Passion of the Christ concerns the last 12 hours in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. The dialogue is spoken in the ancient Aramaic language, along with Latin and Hebrew. In the Garden of Gethsemane near the Mount of Olives, Jesus (James Caviezel) is betrayed by Judas Iscariot (Luca Lionello). Jesus is condemned to death for blasphemy and brought before Pontius Pilate (Hristo Naumov Shopov), the Roman governor of Judea, for sentencing. The roaring crowd demand his death, so Pilate orders his crucifixion. Jesus is severely beaten and made to carry his cross up to Golgotha, the hill outside Jerusalem, where he is nailed to the cross. Romanian theatrical actress Maia Morgenstern plays Mary, Mother of God, and Italian superstar Monica Bellucci plays Mary Magdalene. Despite much controversy involving Gibson and various religious organizations, The Passion of the Christ received an international theatrical release in February of 2004. Andrea LeVasseur

Penny Serenade
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Starring: Dunne, Irene Grant, Cary
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Director: Stevens, George	Rating: NR	Running Time:
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Black & White Stereo

Possession
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Starring: Paltrow, Gwyneth Eckhart, Aaron Ehle, Jennifer Northam, Jeremy Ehle, Jennifer Hollander, Tom Eckhart, Aaron Eve, Trevor Eve, Trevor Mackenzie, Georgia
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Director: LaBute, Neil	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 43 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.6/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Modern love and classic romantic passion meet in this lush adaptation of A.S. Byatt's brilliant novel. Academics Roland Michell (Aaron Eckhart) and Maud Bailey (Gwyneth Paltrow) are experts on the work of two different Victorian poets. As they pursue a possible connection between their subjects, the two sleuths begin to stumble toward a romance of their own. Though it necessarily loses some of the depth of Byatt's original, Possession is a worthy adaptation, faithful to the book in both story and spirit. Director Neil LaBute uses clever and visually elegant methods of switching back and forth between time periods, subtly contrasting the prickly moderns and the swoony Victorians without making either pair seem unappealing. The movie also does an excellent job of capturing the exhilaration (and the politics) of intellectual discovery, and feels truly romantic without ever getting icky. Though Paltrow and Eckhart both succeed as the modern leads, the real standouts are Jeremy Northam as Randolph Henry Ash and Jennifer Ehle as Christabel LaMotte. Their passion gives the movie its romantic core and makes the whole search worthwhile. --Ali Davis --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Right Stuff, The
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Starring: Shepard, Sam Glenn, Scott Harris, Ed Shepard, Sam Rogers, Samuel Shepard Ward, Fred Hershey, Barbara Seagull, Barbara Seagull, Barbara Goldblum, Jeff
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Director: Kaufman, Philip	Rating: PG	Running Time: 3 Hours 13 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Philip Kaufman's intimate epic about the Mercury astronauts (based on Tom Wolfe's book) was one of the most ambitious and spectacularly exciting movies of the 1980s. It surprised almost everybody by not becoming a smash hit. By all rights, the film should have been every bit the success that Apollo 13 would later become; The Right Stuff is not only just as thrilling, but it is also a bigger and better movie. Combining history (both established and revisionist), grand mythmaking (and myth puncturing), adventure, melodrama, behind-the-scenes dish, spectacular visuals, and a down-to-earth sense of humor, The Right Stuff chronicles NASA's efforts to put a man in orbit. Such an achievement would be the first step toward President Kennedy's goal of reaching the moon, and, perhaps most important of all, would win a crucial public relations/morale victory over the Soviets, who had delivered a stunning blow to American pride by launching Sputnik, the first satellite. The movie contrasts the daring feats of the unsung test pilots--one of whom, Chuck Yeager, embodied more than anyone else the skill and spirit of Wolfe's title--against the heavily publicized (and sanitized) accomplishments of the Mercury astronauts. Through no fault of their own, the spacemen became prisoners of the heroic images the government created for them in order to capture the public's imagination. The casting is inspired; the film features Sam Shepard as the legendary Yeager, Ed Harris as John Glenn, Dennis Quaid as "Gordo" Cooper, Scott Glenn as Alan Shepard, Fred Ward as Gus Grissom, Scott Wilson as Scott Crossfield, and Pamela Reed and Veronica Cartwright are superb in their thankless roles as astronauts' wives. --Jim Emerson

Seven Years in Tibet
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Starring: Pitt, Brad Thewlis, David Wong, B.D. Wong, B.D. Blythe, Benedick Denzogpa, Danny Fraser, Duncan Dapkunaite, Ingeborga Dapkunaite, Ingeborga Pema, Jetsun
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Director: Annaud, Jean-Jacques	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 16 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.5/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com If it hadn't been for Brad Pitt signing on to play the lead role of obsessive Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, there's a good chance this lavish $70 million film would not have been made. It was one of two films from 1997 (the other being Martin Scorsese's exquisite Kundun) to view the turmoil between China and Tibet through the eyes of the young Dalai Lama. But with Pitt onboard, this adaptation of Harrer's acclaimed book focuses more on Harrer, a Nazi party member whose life was changed by his experiences in Tibet with the Dalai Lama. Having survived a treacherous climb on the challenging peak of Nanga Parbat and a stint in a British POW camp, Harrer and climbing guide Peter Aufschnaiter (nicely played by David Thewlis) arrive at the Tibetan city of Lhasa, where the 14-year-old Dalai Lama lives as ruler of Tibet. Their stay is longer than either could have expected (the "seven years" of the title), and their lives are forever transformed by their proximity to the Tibetan leader and the peaceful ways of the Buddhist people. China looms over the land as a constant invasive threat, but Seven Years in Tibet is more concerned with viewing Tibetan history through the eyes of a visitor. The film is filled with stunning images and delightful moments of discovery and soothing, lighthearted spirituality, and although he is somewhat miscast, Pitt brings the requisite integrity to his central role. What's missing here is a greater understanding of the young Dalai Lama and the culture of Tibet. Whereas Kundun tells its story purely from the Dalai Lama's point of view, Seven Years in Tibet is essentially an outsider's tale. The result is the feeling that only part of the story's been told here--or maybe just the wrong story. But Harrer's memoir is moving and heartfelt, and director Jean-Jacques Annaud has effectively captured both sincerity and splendor in this flawed but worthwhile film. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Shackleton
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Starring: Branagh, Kenneth McNally, Kevin Rowe, Nicholas Nicholls, Phoebe Best, Eve Tandy, Mark Delaney, Cicely Young, Christian Young, Christian Melvazzi, Gino
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Director: Branagh, Kenneth	Rating: NR	Running Time: 3 Hours 20 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby Digital Stereo

Barnes & Noble "Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success." So read a sign posted by Sir Ernest Shackleton to recruit men for his expedition to the South Pole in 1914. His journey, deftly dramatized in A&E's Shackleton, is among the all-time great tales of human survival, a harrowing adventure that unfolds amid the harshest physical environment on earth. Academy Award nominee Kenneth Branagh shines as the doggedly determined Shackleton, evoking the charisma that led the explorer's 27-man crew to believe they could somehow overcome the elements. When Shackleton's ship, Endurance, became locked in ice just 85 miles from its destination, he led a crew of five on a 650-mile journey across a tempestuous sea, braving 100-foot waves and plummeting temperatures. Against all odds, he pledged not to lose a man -- a promise he ultimately kept, it would seem, miraculously. Filmed over five weeks in Greenland, Shackleton presents a vision of the bleak, uncharted Antarctic that is forbiddingly beautiful. In addition to VHS, the miniseries is available on a Collector's Edition DVD that features more than three hours' worth of extra programming, including a behind-the-scenes featurette, the A&E Biography of Ernest Shackleton, and the History Channel's Antarctica: A Frozen History. For the history buff or the armchair explorer, this is an essential addition to the Shackleton legacy. Jeffrey Iorio PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1) Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Features: Exclusive anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) presentation; 50-minute featurette: "The Making of Shackleton"; Ernest Shackleton episode of A&E's award-winning series "Biography"; 2-hour bonus program from the History Channel: "Antarctica: A Frozen History"; Biography/filmography of Kenneth Branagh; Interactive menus; Scene selection Language: English Time: 3 Hours 20 Minutes

Shadowlands
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Starring: Hopkins, Anthony Winger, Debra Hardwicke, Edward Winger, Debra Maude-Roxby, Roddy Hardwicke, Edward Hawkins, Andrew Howell, Peter Howell, Peter Hardwicke, Edward
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Director: Attenborough, Richard	Rating: PG	Running Time: 2 Hours 13 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video This emotionally moving romantic drama was adapted by William Nicholson from his own acclaimed play, based upon the real-life romance (during the 1950s) between the British writer C.S. Lewis and a divorced American poet named Joy Gresham. Best known for writing The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, Lewis (Anthony Hopkins) is living comfortably as a respected Oxford don, his academic lifestyle a kind of shell protecting him from the emotional risk of love. Joy Gresham (Debra Winger) arrives at Oxford as an avid admirer of Lewis's writing, and the safety of his collegiate routine is quickly disrupted when Lewis realizes that he's fallen deeply and unexpectedly in love. Their courtship is uniquely engaging; he's shy and uncertain, she's outspoken and bold. But when Joy is diagnosed with cancer, Lewis's Christian faith is put to the test--he cannot fathom why their happiness together would be so drastically challenged. Together, they find a way to accept and honor the time they have shared together, and under the sensitive direction of Richard Attenborough, Shadowlands arrives at a conclusion that is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. Hopkins and Winger are equally superb in this absorbing story of personal and spiritual transformation--a story previously filmed for British television in 1985, with Joss Ackland and Claire Bloom. --Jeff Shannon

Shawshank Redemption, The
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Starring: Robbins, Tim Freeman, Morgan Gunton, Bob Freeman, Morgan Gunton, Bob Rolston, Mark Bellows, Gil Whitmore, James Whitmore, James Brandenburg, Larry
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Director: Darabont, Frank	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 22 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 9.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video When this popular prison drama was released in 1994, some critics complained that the movie was too long (142 minutes) to sustain its story. Those complaints miss the point, because the passage of time is crucial to this story about patience, the squeaky wheels of justice, and the growth of a life-long friendship. Only when the film reaches its final, emotionally satisfying scene do you fully understand why writer-director Frank Darabont (adapting a novella by Stephen King) allows the story to unfold at its necessary pace, and the effect is dramatically rewarding. Tim Robbins plays a banker named Andy who's sent to Shawshank Prison on a murder charge, but as he gets to know a life-term prisoner named Red (Morgan Freeman), we realize there's reason to believe the banker's crime was justifiable. We also realize that Andy's calm, quiet exterior hides a great reserve of patience and fortitude, and Red comes to admire this mild-mannered man who first struck him as weak and unfit for prison life. So it is that The Shawshank Redemption builds considerable impact as a prison drama that defies the conventions of the genre (violence, brutality, riots) to illustrate its theme of faith, friendship, and survival. Nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture, Actor, and Screenplay, it's a remarkable film that signaled the arrival of a promising new filmmaker--a film that many movie lovers count among their all-time favorites. --Jeff Shannon Description A prominent banker unjustly convicted of murder spends many years in the Shawshank prison. He is befriended by a convict who knows the ropes and helps him to cope with the frightning realities of prison life.

Sopranos - The Complete First Season, The
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Starring: Gandolfini, James Gandolfini, James Falco, Edie Falco, Edie Imperioli, Michael Sirico, Tony Chianese, Dominic Pastore, Vinny Pastore, Vinny Sigler, Jamie Lynn
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Director: Patten, Timothy Van	Rating: NR	Running Time: 11 Hours 20 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color Dolby

Amazon.com The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home: Like 1999's other screen touchstone, American Beauty, the HBO series chronicles a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognizable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get. Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatization of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchmen and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed. The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr. Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional," perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. --Sam Sutherland From the Back Cover EPISODES 1 - 13 THE SOPRANOS - Written by David Chase, Directed by David Chase In the series opener, we meet Tony Soprano and his two families -- the genetic one and the one in the Mob -- and see how pressure from both causes him to see a therapist. 46 LONG - Written by David Chase, Directed by David Chase Can't anybody manage two minutes without Tony's supervision? Livia needs household help; Chris and Brendan are setting up their own jobs; and Anthony, Jr. needs someone to find his science... read more Description With The Sopranos, writer-producer David Chase broke boldly from serial television conventions to create a richly layered, genre-bending program focusing on a modern Mafioso and both his families--the embattled criminal organization he headed, and his own dysfunctional family. For TV veteran Chase, whose career included important associations with critically lauded series, among them The Rockford Files, I'll Fly Away, and Northern Exposure, the new show's placement on HBO allowed him broader creative license, and The Sopranos took advantage of that context to create one of the boldest, most adult programs ever seen on American television. In its acclaimed first season, The Sopranos garnered more nominations for the 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards than any other program cited during that 1998-1999 season. Creator Chase received an award for outstanding writing for

Sopranos - The Complete Second Season, The
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Starring: Sopranos Gandolfini, James Bracco, Lorraine Marchand, Nancy Chianese, Dominic Pastore, Vincent Van Zandt, Steven Van Zandt, Miami Steve Van Zandt, Miami Steve Bogdanovich, Peter
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Director: Coulter, Alan / Patterson, John	Rating: NR	Running Time: 11 Hours 36 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color Stereo

Amazon.com In its second season, The Sopranos sustains the edgy intelligence and unpredictable, genre-warping narrative momentum that made this modern mob saga the most critically acclaimed series of the late 1990s. Creator-producer David Chase repeatedly defies formula to let the narrative turn as a direct consequence of the characters' behavior, letting everyone in this rogue's gallery of Mafiosi, friends, and family evolve and deepen. That gamble is most apparent in the rupture of the relationship that formed the spine of the first season, the tangled ties between capo Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and monstrous matriarch Livia (Nancy Marchand), whose betrayal makes Tony's estrangement a logical response. Filling that vacuum, however, is prodigal sister Janice (Aida Turturro), whose New Age flakiness never successfully conceals her underlying calculation and opportunism. Soprano's relationship with therapist Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco) also frays during early episodes, as she struggles with escalating doubts about her mobbed-up patient. At home, Tony contends with wife Carmela's ruthless ambitions on behalf of college-bound Meadow, as well as son Anthony Jr.'s sullen adolescent flirtation with existentialism--the sort of touch that the show handles with a smart mix of sympathy and amusement. Without spoiling the surprise of the season's climactic last episode, it's worth noting that only on The Sopranos could we expect a scene that sets up a mob hit with a perversely funny touch of magic realism--a talking fish, lying on a fishmonger's iced display, speaking with the voice of the victim. It's a touch at once morbid and goofy, and consistent with the show's undimmed brilliance. --Sam Sutherland --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description Episode 14--"Guy Walks into a Psychiatrists Office": In the long-awaited season opener, the more things change, the more they stay the same--and create agita for Tony Soprano. Episode 15--"Do Not Resuscitate": When Pussy goes to the doctor for steroid injections in his back, the person leafing through old magazines in the waiting room is FBI Agent Skip Lipari. As they drive home afterwards it's revealed that Sal Bompensiero, AKA Big Pussy Bompensiero, made man and life-long friend of Tony Soprano, is facing a heroin possession charge and has become an informant for the Feds. Episode 16--"Toodle-F***ing-oo": Big brother of the late, great Jackie Aprile, Richie has just finished ten years in prison and is looking to pick up where he left off. He figures it should be pretty easy, too. After all, the jerky kid he used to look out for in the old neighborhood has grown up to be none other than the current Boss, Tony Soprano. Episode 17--"Commendatori": Tony goes to the old country to conduct business while Carmela stays home and contemplates the nature of marriage. Episode 18--"Big Girls Don't Cry": Watch out, New Jersey, Furio Giunta has arrived. The latest addition to the Soprano crew is safely in the States and now that his operation has some new talent, the Boss can make a few organizational changes. Episode 19--"The Happy Wanderer": Now that he's back with Dr. Melfi, Tony tells her that he's angry with all the "happy wanderers" in the world: the people who manage to get through life "with a clear head." At the moment, however, he doesn't have time to explore this anger. He's got to organize the "Executive Game." Episode 20--"D-Girl": On the eve of Anthony, Jr.'s confirmation, uncertainty abounds. A.J. has discovered Camus and Nietzsche and thinks life is meaningless. Christopher has a tryst with his cousin's filmmaker fiancee and thinks he would rather be a player in Hollywood than New Jersey. And Pussy must decide whether the threat of thirty years in prison can force him to wear a wire into Tony's house. Episode 21--"Full Leather Jacket": Worried about Meadow's college prospects, Carmela asks her next-door neighbor, Jean Cusamano, for help. Richie makes a peace offering to Tony. Christopher's friends, Sean and Matt, seek to improve their status by pledging all

Sopranos - The Complete Third Season, The
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Starring: Gandolfini, James Falco, Edie Bracco, Lorraine Imperioli, Michael Chianese, Dominic Adler, Jerry Van Zandt, Steven Van Zandt, Miami Steve Van Zandt, Miami Steve Sciorra, Annabella
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Director: Van Patten, Tim / Coulter, Alan / Coulter, Allen / Buscemi, Steve	Rating: NR	Running Time: 13 Hours
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Category: Drama	User Rating:	Color Stereo

Amazon.com "So," Tony Soprano asks analyst Dr. Melfi in the wake of not-so-dearly-departed Livia's death, "we're probably done here, right?" Sorry, Tone, not by a long shot. Unresolved mother issues are the least of the Family man's troubles in the brutal and controversial third season of The Sopranos. Ranked by TV Guide among the top five greatest series ever, The Sopranos justified its eleven-month hiatus with some of its best, and most hotly debated, episodes that continue the saga of the New Jersey mob boss juggling the pressures of his often intersecting personal and professional lives. The third season garnered 22 Emmy nominations, earning Lead Actor and Actress honors for James Gandolfini and Edie Falco for their now-signature roles as Tony and his increasingly conflicted wife, Carmela. The Sopranos continued to upend convention and defy audience expectations with a deliberately paced, calm-before-the-storm season opener that revolves around the FBI's attempts to bug the Soprano household, and a season finale that (for some) frustratingly leaves several plot lines unresolved. The second episode, "Proshai, Livushka," confronts the death of the venerable Nancy Marchand, who capped her career with perhaps her greatest role as malignant matriarch Livia. A jarring scene between Tony and Livia that uses pre-existing footage is a distraction, but Carmela's unsparing smackdown of Livia at the wake redeems the episode. "Employee of the Month," in which Dr. Melfi is raped and considers whether to exact revenge by telling Tony of her attack, earned Emmys for its writers, and is perhaps Emmy nominee Lorraine Bracco's finest hour. The darkly comic "Pine Barrens"--another memorable episode, directed by Steve Buscemi--strands Paulie (Tony Sirico) and Christopher (Michael Imperioli) in the forest with a runaway corpse. Other story arcs concern the rise of the seriously unstable Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) and Tony's affair with "full-blown loop-de-loo" Gloria (Emmy nominee Annabella Sciorra). Plus, there is Tony's estrangement from daughter Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), his wayward delinquent son Anthony, Jr. (Robert Iler), Carmela's crisis of conscience, bad seed Jackie Jr., and the FBI--which, as the season ends, assigns an undercover agent to befriend an unwitting figure in the Soprano family's orbit. Stay tuned for season four. --Donald Liebenson Description Some suburban households have two cars. Some have two houses. But Tony Soprano has two families. This could be why the FBI is going to such lengths to wiretap his home. Why the son of his dear late friend Jackie Aprile is causing him such agita. Why a Russian housekeeper is searching for her missing leg. Why his son is vandalizing school property and his daughter is getting her heart broken. Why his wife Carmela is both consulting a psychiatrist and confessing to a priest. And it's also why Tony Soprano is still seeing Dr. Melfi for his anxiety attacks. It isn't easy heading-up the mob in New Jersey. But that's what puts dinner on the table for the two families of Tony Soprano. (c) 2003 Home Box Office. All rights reserved. HBO(r) and The Sopranos(r) are service marks of Home Box Office, Inc.

Steel Magnolias - Special Edition
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Starring: Field, Sally MacLaine, Shirley MacLaine, Shirley Shepard, Sam Field, Sally Skerritt, Tom Dukakis, Olympia Hannah, Daryl Hannah, Daryl O'Connor, Kevin J.
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Director: Ross, Herbert	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 59 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com essential video Based on Robert Harling's play, this comedy-drama directed by Herbert Ross (The Turning Point) follows several years in the lives of women who regularly see one another at a beauty shop in their small Louisiana town. The story deepens as Julia Roberts, playing a serious diabetic and the daughter of Sally Field, goes downhill in her health. But as an ensemble piece, this is one of those enjoyably lumpy tearjerkers with many years' worth of stored truths suddenly being shared between the characters, lots of grievances aired, that sort of thing. Daryl Hannah and Shirley MacLaine assume the most eccentric roles, Dolly Parton the most fun, and Olympia Dukakis the most dignified, while Sally Field essentially provides the moral and emotional center of the movie. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features The exclusive documentary is essentially a tribute to the memory of Susan Harling--the diabetic sister of Steel Magnolias playwright-screenwriter Robert Harling--whose death inspired both play and film. Robert Harling's comments are warm and welcome, but several primary cast members are absent from the documentary. The "deleted scenes" are not scenes at all, but rather fragments of scenes removed for length and pacing. And while it's nice to hear Georges Delerue's isolated music score, director... read more

Stepmom
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Starring: Roberts, Julia Sarandon, Susan Harris, Ed Roberts, Julia Harris, Ed Malone, Jena Whitfield, Lynn Larson, Darrell Larson, Darrell Harper, Russel
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Director: Columbus, Chris	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 2 Hours 5 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.1/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Though Stepmom was dismissed as a contender in the 1998 Oscar race, it's worth giving a second chance to this rather cogent, sharp-tongued look at second chances. Susan Sarandon's performance as a mom about to be replaced by her ex-husband's new girlfriend (played by Julia Roberts) has a lot of bite, and it's a shame the script opted to marginalize and trivialize her plight in its final reel. Initially, the rancor that passes between divorced mom Jackie (Sarandon) and trendy fashion photographer Isabel (Roberts) rings true, aided by the sincerity of Jackie's ex-husband Luke (Ed Harris) and the emotional plight of their children, who have the most to lose in their parents' divorce. As the drama makes clear, the kids are the real victims in the agony that ensues between old and new love. Director Chris Columbus, who is adept at showing familial chaos (he directed Mrs. Doubtfire and Home Alone) with a sanitized minimum of lingering emotional damage, actually manages to dig a trifle deeper than usual in exploring the jealousy and hurt that occur when the baton is passed between a birth mom and the younger wife who steps into her shoes. Stepmom fortunately manages to touch on that chord--showing how an ambitious woman might feel hampered by the responsibility of children just because she's fallen in love with their dad--as well as the haunting grief that it causes their birth mom. It's an issue that haunts millions of second wives everywhere, and while Roberts conveys the confusion of being taken for granted in the melee that follows, it's Sarandon who walks off with the film. She's relentless in her fury, and everyone else in the film--the generally excellent Harris included--is sideswiped. It's just a shame that Hollywood once again wimps out in the end, solving the problem by giving Sarandon a terminal illness. Instead of allowing Jackie and Isabel's relationship to unfold on something less than a high note, the movie has to quell its best thing with a false payoff because it doesn't know what to do with real life. --Paula Nechak

THX 1138 (The George Lucas Director's Cut Two-Disc Special Edition)
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Starring: Duvall, Robert Pleasence, Donald Haig, Sid McOmie, Maggie Colley, Don Pedro Forrest, Irene Efron, Marshall Haig, Sid Haig, Sid Marsh, Gary Alan
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Director: Lucas, George	Rating: R	Running Time: 88 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com George Lucas's enigmatic feature film debut expands on a student film he made at USC. Created under the wing of producer Francis Ford Coppola, this movie is a bleak vision of a world in which technology, not man, is the ultimate dictator. Efficiency overrides every other aspect of human life, as people are reduced to code names and their lives are contained, monitored, and manipulated for the sake of the system. Featuring unsettling performances by Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasance, and Maggie McOmie, THX 1138 does not attempt to explain how things became this way; rather, it utilizes the alienation of its characters, the stifling white-on-white imagery of its sterilized society, and the claustrophobic, droning sound design to emphasize the dangers of a world reliant on soulless technology. Even though this is not a film one will want to take in repeatedly, THX 1138 merits attention because it is that rare film that uses images and sounds--rather than relying heavily on dialogue--to communicate its dark prophecy. --Bryan Reesman --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features George Lucas's fascinating, almost art-house, film just took a quantum leap into the digital future. Never has the world of THX 1138 looked as bright, clear, and antiseptic as it does on this remastered version. It is equally impressive how far Lucas and the camera crew push the widescreen 2.35 aspect ratio, particularly on a film that emphasizes minimalism. For those that fault the film as being "soundless," prepare yourself for a shock. The new "THX enhanced" THX 1138 sports a newly... read more Description Two-Disc Special Edition: * Digitally remastered with THX certified sound * Commentary by George Lucas and co-writer/sound effects editor Walter Murch * Theatre of Noise sound-effects track with branching segments to 13 master sessions with Walter Murch * 2 New documentaries: "A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope" and "Artifacts from the Future: The Making of THX 1138" * George Lucas's original student film "THX-11384EB" * "Bald": 1971 production featurette * Five new trailers from the 2004 theatrical release * Original theatrical trailer

Titanic
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Starring: DiCaprio, Leonardo Winslet, Kate Zane, Billy Owens, Alexandria Waddell, Alison Waddell, Amber Gaipa, Amy Falk, Anders Falk, Anders Fox, Bernard
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Director: Cameron, James	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 3 Hours 14 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Mono

From Barnes & Noble A near-disaster itself during its troubled production period, director James Cameron's hugely ambitious pet project ultimately broke box-office records around the world and earned a passel of awards -- Academy and otherwise -- by year's end. By inserting a love story between a society bride-to-be (Kate Winslet) and a working-class adventurer (Leonardo DiCaprio) into the most famous sea disaster in history -- and a modern story line about salvaging a lost diamond from the bottom of the sea -- Cameron gives viewers an unabashedly old-fashioned melodrama. But Cameron and his seasoned cast handle it with the utmost sincerity and commitment. While the film made Winslet a star and DiCaprio a superstar, both actors ultimately had to take a bit of a backseat to the superbly re-created title vessel and the harrowing reenactment of its final moments. Still, the heart of the film's drama is a timeless and unexpectedly resonant love story -- one so universal and moving that it crossed all cultural boundaries to woo audiences around the globe. Amy Robinson From All Movie Guide This spectacular epic re-creates the ill-fated maiden voyage of the White Star Line's $7.5 million R.M.S Titanic and the tragic sea disaster of April 15, 1912. Running over three hours and made with the combined contributions of two major studios (20th Century-Fox, Paramount) at a cost of more than $200 million, Titanic ranked as the most expensive film in Hollywood history at the time of its release, and became the most successful. Writer-director James Cameron employed state-of-the-art digital special effects for this production, realized on a monumental scale and spanning eight decades. Inspired by the 1985 discovery of the Titanic in the North Atlantic, the contemporary storyline involves American treasure-seeker Brock Lovett (Bill Paxton) retrieving artifacts from the submerged ship. Lovett looks for diamonds but finds a drawing of a young woman, nude except for a necklace. When 102-year-old Rose (Gloria Stuart) reveals she's the person in the portrait, she is summoned to the wreckage site to tell her story of the 56-carat diamond necklace and her experiences of 84 years earlier. The scene then shifts to 1912 Southampton where passengers boarding the Titanic include penniless Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and society girl Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet), returning to Philadelphia with her wealthy fiance Cal Hockley (Billy Zane). After the April 10th launch, Rose develops a passionate interest in Jack, and Cal's reaction is vengeful. At midpoint in the film, the Titanic slides against the iceberg and water rushes into the front compartments. Even engulfed, Cal continues to pursue Jack and Rose as the massive liner begins its descent. Cameron launched the project after seeing Robert Ballard's 1987 National Geographic documentary on the wreckage. Blueprints of the real Titanic were followed during construction at Fox's custom-built Rosarito, Mexico studio, where a hydraulics system moved an immense model in a 17-million-gallon water tank. During three weeks aboard the Russian ship Academik Keldysh, underwater sequences were filmed with a 35mm camera in a titanium case mounted on the Russian submersible Mir 1. When the submersible neared the wreck, a video camera inside a remote-operated vehicle was sent into the Titanic's 400-foot bow, bringing back footage of staterooms, furniture and chandeliers. On November 1, 1997, the film had its world premiere at the 10th Tokyo International Film Festival. Bhob Stewart

Traffic
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Starring: Douglas, Michael Cheadle, Don Toro, Benicio Del Quaid, Dennis Finney, Albert Irving, Amy Bratt, Benjamin Guzman, Luis Guzman, Luis Cheadle, Don
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Director: Soderbergh, Steven	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 27 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Mono

From Barnes & Noble Drug users, dealers, and smugglers mix it up with the law in Steven Soderbergh's highly acclaimed, multi-award-winning Traffic. Based on a British TV miniseries, the film features an ensemble cast that includes Michael Douglas as the newly appointed federal drug czar whose 16-year-old daughter (Erika Christensen) just happens to be snorting, smoking, and mainlining her way through a potpourri of illegal substances. Catherine Zeta-Jones portrays the wife of a drug lord (Steven Bauer) whose world crumbles around her when he's arrested. Oscar winner Benicio Del Toro is riveting in his supporting role as a Mexican policeman who is enlisted to help bring down a Tijuana drug cartel. Also outstanding are Don Cheadle, as a DEA agent, and Dennis Quaid, as Bauer's high-priced lawyer. Traffic moves briskly back and forth between its various stories and locales, both north and south of the Mexican border, with characters and situations that are not so much original as archetypal. There's just enough philosophizing to be provocative and just enough action to get your pulse racing. Even though the film struggles to achieve a comprehensive overview, the result is never less than entertaining and absorbing. Certainly, Traffic is an impressive feat for Soderbergh, who not only directed the film but did all the gritty, handheld cinematography as well, giving each story line a distinctive palette: icy blue for the sequences involving Douglas and his wayward daughter; a sun-blasted brownish hue for the Mexico scenes. He was amply rewarded for his efforts, winning the Best Director Oscar. Traffic is Hollywood filmmaking with a distinctively personal stamp, a film that flirts easily with a host of clichŽs without succumbing to them. Gregory Baird From All Movie Guide Described by director Steven Soderbergh as "Nashville meets The French Connection, this multi-character drama explores the effects of international drug trafficking on all fronts: from their source, to the U.S. border, to the federal government, to the private lives of users. Based upon a miniseries originally aired on Britain's Channel 4, Traffic divides its time among three main storylines and almost a dozen locales. The first and primary plot thread, set in Ohio and Washington, D.C., concerns freshly-appointed drug czar Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), whose enthusiasm for his new prestige position is quickly offset when he realizes his 16-year-old daughter Caroline (Erika Christensen) is graduating from recreational drug use to habitual abuse -- a secret that his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), has kept from him. South of the border, Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro) attempts to wage his own war on drugs, heading off a cocaine shipment in the middle of the desert with his less-than-virtuous partner Manolo Sanchez (Jacob Vargas). Surrounded by corruption, Javier approaches the drug war with an attitude of patience and compromise, which opens him up to investigation from General Arturo Salazar (Tomas Milian), the country's dubious drug-enforcement liaison to the U.S. Meanwhile, San Diego drug kingpin Carlos Alaya (Steven Bauer) is caught in a sting operation spearheaded by DEA agents Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), leaving behind his very pregnant and very oblivious wife, Helena (Catharine Zeta-Jones). At the behest of Carlos' lawyer and shady confidante, Arnie Metzger (Dennis Quaid), Helena decides to carry on the family business -- with tragic consequences. Adapted by Rules of Engagement scribe Stephen Gaghan, Traffic marked Soderbergh's second major release in 2000 after the critical and box-office success of Erin Brockovich, as well as his second feature as cinematographer (credited under the pseudonym Peter Andrews). A favorite with various guild and critics' awards, Traffic won four Academy Awards in 2001, including statues for Best Supporting Actor (Del Toro) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gaghan), and surprise wins for Stev

Training Day
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Starring: Washington, Denzel Hawke, Ethan Glenn, Scott Washington, Denzel Dr. Dre Berenger, Tom Snoop Dogg Mendes, Eva Mendes, Eva Berenger, Tom
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Director: Fuqua, Antoine	Rating: R	Running Time: 2 Hours 2 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video A powerhouse performance by Denzel Washington fuels this brutal urban police drama, in which a rookie narcotics cop learns the hard way that even good cops can go very, very bad. Washington plays veteran detective Alonzo Harris, a self-proclaimed "wolf among wolves," eager to teach his rookie partner Jake (Ethan Hawke) that normal rules don't apply on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Caught in a web of deception, Jake watches with escalating horror as Alonzo uses his badge (and the support of his superiors) to justify a self-righteous policy of corruption. In stark contrast to most of his previous work, Denzel unleashes his dark side with fearlessness and fury, and the result is excellence without compromise. Director Antoine Fuqua (The Replacement Killers) won't score any points for subtlety, but gritty details (including actual L.A. gang members as extras) and Hawke's finely tuned performance are perfectly matched to Washington's frightening volatility. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

Unbearable Lightness of Being - Criterion Collection, The
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Starring: Day-Lewis, Daniel Binoche, Juliette Day-Lewis, Daniel De Lint, Derek Skarsgaard, Stellan Skarsgaard, Stellan Moffat, Donald Bork, Tomek Bork, Tomek Skarsgård, Stellan
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Director: Kaufman, Philip	Rating: R	Running Time: 172 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.4/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, the happily irresponsible Czech lover of Milan Kundera's novel, which is set in Prague just before and during the Soviet invasion in 1968. Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche are the two vastly different women who occupy his attention and to some extent represent different sides of his values and personality. In any case, the character's decision to flee Russian tanks with one of them--and then return--has profound consequences on his life. Directed by Philip Kaufman, this rich, erotic, fascinating character study with allegorical overtones is a touchstone for many filmgoers. Several key sequences--such as Olin wearing a bowler hat and writhing most attractively--linger in the memory, while Kaufman's assured sense of the story inspires superb performances all around. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description Philip Kaufman achieves a delicate, erotic balance with his screen version of Milan Kundera's "unfilmable" novel. Adapted by Kaufman and Jean-Claude Carrière, the film follows a womanizing surgeon (Daniel Day-Lewis) as he struggles with his free-spirited mistress (Lena Olin) and his childlike wife (Juliette Binoche). An intimate epic, The Unbearable Lightness of Being charts the frontiers of relationships with wit, emotion, and devastating honesty.

Walk in the Clouds, A
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Starring: Reeves, Keanu S‡nchez-Gij—n, Aitana Quinn, Anthony Sanchez-Gijon, Aitana Messing, Debra Elizondo, Evangelina Rodríguez, Freddy Messing, Debra Messing, Debra Huerta, Roberto
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Director: Arau, Alfonso	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 42 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.2/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Keanu Reeves is completely wooden in this romantic misfire by Alfonso Arau (Like Water for Chocolate). Reeves plays a World War II vet who hits the road as a traveling salesman and agrees to help a desperate, pregnant woman (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon)--who is afraid to let her father (Giancarlo Giannini) see her condition--by pretending to be her husband. Most of the story takes place in the old man's vineyard, and Arau makes a life of swollen fruit, grape-stomping, sunlight, and tan flesh that looks amazingly erotic. But there are plenty of sillier distractions, such as the sight of farm hands chasing insects with flapping gossamer wings attached to their arms. Reeves is terribly self-conscious, while stalwart Anthony Quinn is memorable as the damsel's benevolent grandfather. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition.

Way We Were (Special Edition), The
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Starring: Streisand, Barbra Redford, Robert Dillman, Bradford Redford, Charles Robert Jr. Dillman, Bradford Hamilton, Murray Chiles, Lois O'Neal, Patrick O'Neal, Patrick Jenson, Roy
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Director: Pollack, Sydney	Rating: PG	Running Time: 1 Hour 58 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 6.7/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com essential video Robert Redford and Barbra Streisand star as sociopolitical opposites--he's a WASP novelist, she's an activist--who nevertheless strike up a romance in the 1930s, and have a rocky relationship through the next two decades that reflects much of America's history. An essential part of the movie--the Hollywood blacklist and the McCarthy witch- hunt years--comes across as a botch, due to some excessive cutting before the film was released. But except for that hole in the heart of the story, director Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa) has crafted a strong and moving drama about two interesting characters. Redford (always good with Pollack) is at the height of his powers, and Streisand is persuasive. --Tom Keogh --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. DVD features The Way We Were: A Look Back is a terrific retrospective documentary, running just over an hour. Although Robert Redford's absence (due to scheduling conflicts) is conspicuous, fans of The Way We Were will celebrate the rare appearance of Barbra Streisand in a lengthy interview. The notoriously reticent star appears relaxed, cordial, and eager to share stories about the film she considers "a highlight of my career," and her comments about the film are eloquent, heartfelt, and astute. Most... read more

Whale Rider
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Starring: Castle-Hughes, Keisha Paratene, Rawiri Haughton, Vicky Curtis, Cliff Roa, Grant Taumaunu, Mana Keisha Castle-Hughes Clarke, Rawinia Clarke, Rawinia Wharekawa, Mabel
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Director: Caro, Niki	Rating: PG-13	Running Time: 1 Hour 41 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 8.0/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby Digital Stereo

Barnes & Noble Add this uplifting triumph to the shortlist of films that arrive from overseas -- in this case, New Zealand -- take audiences by surprise, and upend conventional Hollywood wisdom in the process. The recipient of standing ovations and audience awards on the film festival circuit, Whale Rider met with rapturous critical acclaim, generated glowing word-of-mouth buzz, and became the serious filmgoer's alternative to the summer blockbusters of 2003. Based on the novel by Witi Ihimaera and inspired by an ancient Maori tribal legend, this empowering and unsentimental story stars Keisha Castle Hughes as Pai, a 12-year-old girl who will discover in the course of the story "who she is and who she is meant to be." Legend has it that her tribe's founder arrived in her fishing village on the back of a whale. Since then, the firstborn male of every generation has taken on the role of leader. Pai's twin brother would have been designated as the next chief, but he died shortly after his birth, as did the twins' mother. Pai's father, an artist, then abandoned her, after which she was raised by a distant, tradition-bound grandfather who refused to allow her to be "taught in the old ways." Suddenly, a school of beached whales offers Pai the opportunity to fulfill her destiny. Though the characters' accents and the wrenching opening scenes may be initially off-putting, this is a whale of a tale that refreshingly finds girl power in the qualities of courage, intelligence, leadership, and respect for one's culture. Donald Liebenson All Movie Guide Based on the novel of the same name by Maori writer Witi Ihimaera, Whale Rider is a unique family drama directed Niki Caro. On the eastern coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their ancestor Paikea was saved from drowning by riding home on the back of a whale. The tribal group has since granted leadership positions to the first-born males, believing them to be descendants of Paikea. This tradition is challenged when a young mother dies in childbirth along with her newborn male son. His twin sister manages to survive and the father (Cliff Curtis) runs off, overwhelmed with grief. The little girl, Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), is brought up by stubborn grandfather Koro (Rawiri Paratene) and gentle grandmother Nanny (Vicky Haughton). Koro, the chief of their tribe, is disappointed because Pai's twin brother was supposed to be the next leader. Trying to find the proper successor, he attempts to organize a leadership group amongst the local boys while Pai enlists the help of her has-been uncle Rawiri (Grant Roa) to teach herself the art of chiefdom. She appears to possess a natural leadership ability and adventurous spirit that draws her to the proliferation of her faltering tribe. Whale Rider premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival and won the World Cinema Audience Award. Andrea LeVasseur PRODUCTION AND TECHNICAL NOTES: Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1) Presentation: Wide Screen Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo Features: Director commentary; Theatrical trailer and TV spots; "Te Waka: Building the Canoe" featurette; Behind the scenes of Whale Rider; Deleted scenes with optional commentary; Whale Rider: The Soundtrack showcase; Art and photo gallery; Scene selection Language: English SubTitles: English, Espa–ol Time: 1 Hour 41 Minutes

The Whole Wide World
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Starring: D'Onofrio, Vincent Zellweger, RenŽe Wedgeworth, Ann Mouton, Benjamin Shearer, Chris Corbett, Michael Cates, Helen Eaton, Marion Eaton, Marion Berger, Leslie
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Director: Ireland, Dan	Rating: PG	Running Time: 106 minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.3/10 (IMDB)	Color Stereo

Amazon.com Director Dan Ireland shows a talent for authenticity with this heartbreaking love story based on Novalyne Price's 1988 account of her prickly romance with 1930s pulp-fiction writer Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan the Barbarian. She was a schoolteacher in a small Texas town; he was the odd-ball writer who lived at home and created comic-book characters that were sexier and more violent than was considered decent by the locals. RenŽe Zellweger's performance is a gem of sweet unconventionality matched by Vincent D'Onofrio's powerful show of eccentricity and increasing mental illness. Though smart and feisty, this leaves us wishing the filmmakers had dug deeper into Howard's unusual relationship with his manipulative mother. --Rochelle O'Gorman --This text refers to the VHS Tape edition. Description In Texas in the 1930s, young school teacher Novalyne Price meets a handsome, eccentric and interesting young man named Robert Howard. He's a successful writer of the pulp stories of 'Conan the Barbarian'; she's an aspiring author. A friendship develops into a sort of courtship. Based on a memoir by Novalyne Price. Stars Academy Award® nominee Vincent D'Onofrio and Renée Zellweger (Chicago).

Y Tu Mama Tambien (And Your Mother Too) - Unrated Edition
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Starring: Bernal, Gael Garc’a Verdœ, Maribel Luna, Diego Grinberg, Nathan Langer, Verónica Aura, María Audirac, Giselle Ríos, Arturo Ríos, Arturo Bracho, Diana
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Director: Cuar—n, Alfonso	Rating: Unrated	Running Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.8/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com Plenty of juicy "s" words apply to And Your Mother Too: sexy, sweet, subtle, sad, surprising, superb... and did we say sexy? With enough male and female nudity to qualify as softcore porn--but deserving none of the stigma attached to that label--this vibrant coming-of-age road movie is guaranteed to jumpstart any viewer's libido. Frank treatment of its characters' burgeoning sexuality makes this unrated film a real eye-opener, but it's never prurient or juvenile. Rather, the three-way odyssey of two 17-year-old Mexican boys (Gael García Bernal, Diego Luna) and a 28-year-old Spanish beauty (Maribel Verdú) is energetic and affirmative, while acknowledging that relationships--and sexual adventures--rarely develop without a hitch or two (or three). Filmed in sequence by Alfonso Cuarón (Great Expectations), and shot with invigorating natural style, this refreshing comedy-drama employs an omniscient narrator to reflect upon precious stolen moments, weaving three lives into a memorable tapestry of fun, friendship, and fate. --Jeff Shannon --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.

You Can Count On Me
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Starring: Linney, Laura Broderick, Matthew Culkin, Rory Ruffalo, Mark Culkin, Rory Smith-Cameron, J. Hoffmann, Gaby Ryan, Amy Ryan, Amy LeFevre, Adam
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Director: Lonergan, Kenneth	Rating: R	Running Time: 1 Hour 50 Minutes
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Category: Drama	User Rating: 7.9/10 (IMDB)	Color Dolby

Amazon.com You Can Count On Me starts with a terrible car crash that instantly orphans a little boy and his older sister. At film's end, that boy, now a grown-up nomad and ne'er-do-well, takes off by Greyhound after a brief reunion with his sister, who lives at permanent anchor in their unspoiled hometown. The sibling saga that unreels between wrenching collision and bittersweet separation celebrates the idiosyncratic ways wounded folk like Terry (Mark Ruffalo) and Sammy (Laura Linney) put one foot in front of the other, both energized and hamstrung by the knowledge that nothing is ever certain in the road-movie of life. During his visit, Terry roils Sammy's becalmed existence, mostly by "fathering"--for good and ill--her overprotected 8-year-old (Rory Culkin), sneaking him out to play empowering bar pool, later introducing him to the weaselly dad he's fantasized into a superhero. Sammy starts a torrid affair with her married boss at the bank (Matthew Broderick gives delicious bureaucratic smarm), and considers marrying her sometime suitor (Jon Tenney), sweetly dull yet dependable. The narrative peaks here are human-sized, elevated by gentle humor and clear-eyed faith in the existential importance of these intersecting small-town lives. Linney is simply superb as Sammy, wild girl gone good, involuntarily "mothering" every man in her life. An authentic original, newcomer Ruffalo gives his modern-day Huck Finn a drawling, James Dean delivery tuned somewhere between a screwup's whine and the twang of pothead wisdom. (Hard to think of another recent film that so deftly nails down the rich dynamics of everyday conversation--the starts and stops, circumlocutions, clichŽs, sudden veers into revelation and eloquence.) This is that rarity, an action movie of the heart: no explosions or epiphanies, yet everything evolves through the catalysts of character and experience. --Kathleen Murphy --This text refers to the Theatrical Release edition.