Blast From the Past

• BLAST FROM THE PAST (DVD MOVIE)

Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 11/09/2010Coasting on the successes of Gods and Monsters and George of the Jungle, Brendan Fraser turns in yet another winning performance in this fish-out-of-water comedy in which Pleasantville meets modern-day Los Angeles, with predictably funny results. Fraser stars as Adam, who was born in the bomb shelter of his paranoid inventor dad (a less-manic-than-usual Christopher Walken), who spirited his pregnant wife (Sissy Spacek, in fine comic form) underground when he thought the Communists dropped the bomb (actually, it was a plane crash). Armed with enough supplies to last 35 years, the parents bring up Adam in Leave It to Beaver style with nary any exposure to the outside world. When the supplies run out, and dad suffers a heart attack, Fraser goes up to modern-day L.A. for some shopping and lon! g-awaited culture shock. More of a cute premise with lots of clever ideas attached than a fully fleshed out story, Blast from the Past is also supposed to be part romantic comedy, as the hunky Adam hooks up with his jaded Eve (Alicia Silverstone) and tries to convince her to marry him and go underground. The sparks don't fly, though, because Silverstone is saddled with the triple whammy of being miscast, playing an underwritten character, and suffering a very bad hairdo. Fraser, however, carries the film lightly and easily on his broad, goofy shoulders, mixing Adam's gee-whiz innocence with genuine emotion and curiosity; only Fraser could pull off Adam's first glimpse of a sunrise or the ocean with both humor and pathos. Also winning is Dave Foley as Silverstone's gay best friend, who manages to make the most innocuous statements sound like comic gems. --Mark Englehart

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Big Apple Barn #1: Happy Go Lucky

• ISBN13: 9780439893718
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Academy Award nominee Mike Leigh (Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, Vera Drake, 2004), delivers the delightfully fresh and cheerful comedy Happy-Go-Lucky. Free-spirited and effervescent, Poppy is a schoolteacher whose unstoppable optimism guides her life. Bubbling forth with giggles, laughter and jokes, life's a bowl of cherries even when she comes across a few pits. Whether it's a cranky driving teacher or a fiery flamenco instructor, Poppy embraces life on the sunny side of the street. It's a joyous, feel-good film you'll find irresistible. Bonus features include: Behind the Wheel of Happy-Go-Lucky, Happy-In-Character, audio commentary by Director Mike LeighMike Leigh has made a career out ! of unusual films--who else would make a biopic about Gilbert & Sullivan?--but Happy-Go-Lucky may be his most unusual yet: A movie about a woman who is almost compulsively cheerful. Poppy (Sally Hawkins, star of the 2007 miniseries of Persuasion) may at first seem like the most annoying human being alive. She can't help but try to get a smile from someone who's ignoring her. When her bicycle gets stolen, she shrugs it off and decides to learn how to drive, which leads her to form a strange sparring relationship with her frustrated driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). Meanwhile, she takes flamenco lessons, visits with her squabbling family, tries to help a troubled boy at the school where she teaches, and encounters a homeless man--but this bland catalogue of events doesn't capture how Poppy's relentless optimism acts as a rorschach test to the people around her, reflecting back their worst or best feelings about themselves. Poppy, whose natural impulse! is to empathize, discovers she needs to draw boundaries betwe! en herse lf and a world that wants to interpret her cheerfulness in unintended ways. The result is a unique movie experience, one that defies conventional notions of what's dramatic yet grows more absorbing with every moment. Just as it's hard to imagine anyone liking Poppy at the start of Happy-Go-Lucky, it's hard to imagine that anyone doesn't care about her by the movie's end. --Bret FetzerStudio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 04/15/2011 Run time: 118 minutes Rating: RMike Leigh has made a career out of unusual films--who else would make a biopic about Gilbert & Sullivan?--but Happy-Go-Lucky may be his most unusual yet: A movie about a woman who is almost compulsively cheerful. Poppy (Sally Hawkins, star of the 2007 miniseries of Persuasion) may at first seem like the most annoying human being alive. She can't help but try to get a smile from someone who's ignoring her. When her bicycle gets stolen, she shrugs it off and decides! to learn how to drive, which leads her to form a strange sparring relationship with her frustrated driving instructor, Scott (Eddie Marsan). Meanwhile, she takes flamenco lessons, visits with her squabbling family, tries to help a troubled boy at the school where she teaches, and encounters a homeless man--but this bland catalogue of events doesn't capture how Poppy's relentless optimism acts as a rorschach test to the people around her, reflecting back their worst or best feelings about themselves. Poppy, whose natural impulse is to empathize, discovers she needs to draw boundaries between herself and a world that wants to interpret her cheerfulness in unintended ways. The result is a unique movie experience, one that defies conventional notions of what's dramatic yet grows more absorbing with every moment. Just as it's hard to imagine anyone liking Poppy at the start of Happy-Go-Lucky, it's hard to imagine that anyone doesn't care about her by the movie's end. --Bret FetzerA singer (Venable) believes her ! marine p ilot husband, accused of treason, has died in the Pacific. She decides to take a singing job in Shanghai, and finds a man who looks exactly like her husband dancing in a club act. Realizing it is her husband, and thinking he must have amnesia, she sets out to help him recover his memory and clear his name.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Behind the scenes, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: If you know the British filmmaker Mike Leigh's work - early and later titles like "Bleak Moments," "Naked" and "Vera Drake" - you may find yourself watching his most recent movie, "Happy-Go-Lucky," with mounting unease, a tinge of ! dread. Despite the extraordinary human parade that has passed in front of his lens, laughing and raging, yearning for love and asking for cuddles, Mr. Leigh has never been an artist for whom happy (word or idea) has been an easy fit. Life is sweet, as the title of another of his films puts it with a heart-swelling yes, but it's also an eternal fight against doom and gloom, the soul-crushing no. The push and pull between yes and no animates all of his work, investing it with narrative tension and a sense of artistic purpose that is, whether overtly articulated or not, also insistently, vigorously left-leaning. The hard-working and often besieged characters who populate his stories live in worlds partly defined, if not wholly circumscribed, by ideology and the state. Nobody mounts a soapbox or whistles "The Internationale" in "Happy-Go-Lucky," but the film is so closely tuned to the pulse of communal life, to the rhythms of how people work, play and struggle together, it capt! ures the larger picture along with the smaller. Like Poppy, th! e bright focus of this expansive, moving film, Mr. Leigh isn't one to go it alone. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, British Independent Film Awards, European Film Awards, ...Happy-Go-Lucky ( Happy Go Lucky )

When Happy Go Lucky, a young quarter pony, is moved from his home to the stables at Big Apple Barn, endless adventures await him!

Happy Go Lucky is a young pony. He loves living with his mom at Shoemaker Stables! But when he's sent to help at a riding school called Big Apple Barn, everything in Happy's life changes.

Big Apple Barn is full of new adventures! Happy has never met other horses and ponies before. He has a lot to learn, and he misses his home. Will Happy Go Lucky find his place at Big Apple Barn?

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Doubt (movie tie-in edition)

• ISBN13: 9781559363471
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

From Miramax Films comes one of the most honored and acclaimed motion pictures of the year, Doubt. Based on the Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning play, Doubt is a mesmerizing, suspense-filled drama with four riveting performances from Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis that will have you pinned to the edge of your seat. Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep), the rigid and fear-inspiring principal of the Saint Nicholas Church School, suffers an extreme dislike for the progressive and popular parish priest Father Flynn (Hoffman). Looking for wrongdoing in every corner, Sister Aloysius believes she's uncovered the ultimate sin when she hears Father Flynn has taken a special in! terest in a troubled boy. But without proof, the only thing certain is doubt.

"One of the best pictures of the year," (USA Today, Rolling Stone, New York Post, San Francisco Examiner, Roger Ebert).

Bonus Features include From Stage To Screen, Scoring Doubt, The Sisters Of CharityIt's always a risk when writers direct their own work, since some playwrights don't travel well from stage to screen. Aided by Roger Deakins, of No Country for Old Men fame, who vividly captures the look of a blustery Bronx winter, Moonstruck's John Patrick Shanley pulls it off. If Doubt makes for a dialogue-heavy experience, like The Crucible and 12 Angry Men, the words and ideas are never dull, and a consummate cast makes each one count. Set in 1964 and loosely inspired by actual events, Shanley focuses on St. Nicholas, a Catholic primary school that has accepted its first African-American student, Donald Miller (Joseph Foster), who serves! as altar boy to the warm-hearted Father Flynn (Phillip Seymou! r Hoffma n). Donald may not have any friends, but that doesn't worry his mother, Mrs. Miller (Viola Davis in a scene-stealing performance), since her sole concern is that her son gets a good education. When Sister James (Amy Adams) notices Flynn concentrating more of his attentions on Miller than the other boys, she mentions the matter to Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep), the school's hard-nosed principal. Looking for any excuse to push the progressive priest out of her tradition-minded institution, Sister Aloysius sets out to destroy him, and if that means ruining Donald's future in the process--so be it. Naturally, she's the least sympathetic combatant in this battle, but Streep invests her disciplinarian with wit and unexpected flashes of empathy. Of all the characters she's played, Sister Aloysius comes closest to caricature, but she never feels like a cartoon; just a sad woman willing to do anything to hold onto what little she has before the forces of change render her--! and everything she represents--redundant. --Kathleen C. Fennessy


Stills from Doubt (Click for larger image)

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Now a major motion picture! Starring Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams. Written and directed by John Patrick Shanley from his Pulitzer Prizeâ€"winning play.

“The best new play of the season. That rarity of rarities, an issue-driven play that is unpreachy, thought-provoking, and so full of high drama that the audience with which I saw it gasped out loud a half-dozen times at its startling twists and turns. Mr. Shanley deserves the highest possible praise: he doesn’t try to talk you into doing anything but thinking-hard-about the gnarly complexity of human behavior.”â€"Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal

“A breathtaking work of immense proportion. Positively brilliant.”â€"Melissa Rose Bernardo, ! Entertainment Weekly

“#1 show of the year. How splendid it feels to be trusted with such passionate, exquisite ambiguity unlike anything we have seen from this prolific playwright so far. In just ninety fast-moving minutes, Shanley creates four blazingly individual people. Doubt is a lean, potent drama . . . passionate, exquisite, important and engrossing.”â€"Linda Winer, Newsday

John Patrick Shanley is the author of numerous plays, including Danny in the Deep Blue Sea, Dirty Story, Four Dogs and a Bone, Psychopathia, Sexualis, Sailor’s Song, Savage in Limbo, and Where’s My Money? He has written extensively for TV and film, and his credits include the teleplay for Live from Baghdad and screenplays for Congo; Alive; Five Corners; Joe Versus the Volcano, which he also directed; and Moonstruck, for which he won an Academy Award for b! est original screenplay.

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Happily N'ever After (Widescreen Edition)

• Actors: George Carlin, John Di Maggio, Andy Dick, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Lisa Kaplan.
• Format: AC-3, Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC.
• Language: English. Subtitles: English, Spanish.
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
• Rated PG. Run Time: 87 minutes.

Once upon a time will n'ever be the same again. Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and Jack from the Beanstalk are all about to live happily ever after when the balance between good and evil gets thrown out of whack. It's up to Cinderella - aka Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar) - to save the day by taking on her power-hungry stepmother, Frieda (Sigourney Weaver). But this time, Ella will have to do it without her Prince Charming (Patrick Warburton) as she joins forces with an unlikely army of dwarves, faries, and the Wizard's bumbling assistants, Mambo (Andy Dick) and Munk (! Wallace Shawn). Your favorite fairy tales are turned upside down in this funny, fast-paced adventure that teaches the lesson that - no matter who you are - you have the power to affect how your story turns out!With the success of Shrek, more irreverent animated fairy tales (like Hoodwinked) were inevitable. Unfortunately, the original blockbuster set the bar so high--for characterization, humor, and heart--that other such 'toons are sure to seem redundant. Neither as clever nor as intricately rendered as the tale of the great green ogre, Happily N'Ever After is no exception. That said, small children may find it easier to follow, i.e. no Matrix references. As with the live-action Ella Enchanted, the CGI-animated story revolves around a downtrodden lass named Ella (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Her full name, naturally, is Cinderella. The man of her dreams is pea-brained Prince Humperdink (Patrick Warburton). Little does she know that royal dishwasher R! ick (Freddie Prinze Jr., Gellar's real-life husband) has his e! ye on he r. When the Wizard (George Carlin) goes off on a golfing vacation, he leaves bumbling assistants Munk (Wallace Shawn) and Mambo (Andy Dick) in charge. In no time at all, they get into a scuffle, and Ella's evil stepmother, Frieda (Sigourney Weaver), swoops in to take control of Fairy Tale Land. Her first order of business: Let the bad guys win. Consequently, Sleeping Beauty continues to doze, the Seven Dwarves wind up in jail, etc. Ella joins forces with Rick to set things right. Along the way, she realizes that the lowly lad has more princely qualities than the actual prince, and Frieda's reign turns out to be shorter than intended. It's not a bad idea, but the movie drags and the tunes are unmemorable. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
!

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The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters

• In this hilarious, critically acclaimed arcade showdown, a humble novice goes head-to-head against the reigning Donkey Kong champ in a confrontation that rocks the gaming world to its processors! For over 20 years, Billy Mitchell has owned the throne of the Donkey Kong world. No one could beat his top score until now. Newcomer Steve Wiebe claims to have beaten the unbeatable, but Mitchell isn't re

AMERICAN MOVIE - DVD MovieStruggling filmmaker Mark Borchardt is the subject of American Movie, and he may also be the most determined man you'll ever meet. The straggly haired, fast-talking, Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, native lists his greatest influences as Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. He began making horror movies as a gangly adolescent, and is now set on finishing Coven (which he pronounces like "woven"), the "35-! minute direct market thriller" he has worked on for two years. In the process, he steadfastly battles immense debt, the threat of losing his kids, and birds chirping gleefully through scenes set in the dead of winter. His mother would rather do her shopping than be an extra, his brother contends he's best suited for factory work, and his father just wants him to "watch the language."

Standing by him through it all is Mark's childhood buddy, Mike Schank, who is the strongest weapon against drug use a task force could ever hope for, and Uncle Bill, begrudging financier of Coven, who appears to be wasting away before our very eyes. In less perceptive hands these two could easily become caricatures--the burnt-out stoner and the crotchety old coot--but through director Chris Smith's lens we see why Mark loves them, why they love Mark, and why each of these stories is uniquely compelling.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, the film h! as been compared to Spinal Tap and Waiting for Guffm! an-- two unquestionably hilarious mock-documentaries--and, indeed, American Movie has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. But in the spoofs, we feel encouraged to point and giggle at the poor slobs trying to get a piece of the action. Smith, however, offers us a funny and overwhelmingly affectionate portrait; you may sit down expecting to laugh at Mark's pie-in-the-sky hopes, but you soon find yourself bursting with admiration. "The American dream stays with me each and every day," Mark says, and by the end, we want nothing more than for it to come true. (The DVD version includes the complete short film "Coven.") --Brangien Davis This limited edition, special collectors' DVD set celebrates 25 years of the Sundance Institute. It contains ten ground-breaking films that embody the sprit of independence, creative risk-taking, and diversity that define the Sundance Film Festival. Bonus materials include a booklet and an 11th disc with behind-the-scenes footage from the Sun! dance Institute Labs and never-before-seen interviews with filmmakers and founder Robert Redford.In this hilarious, critically acclaimed arcade showdown, a humble novice goes head-to-head against the reigning Donkey Kong champ in a confrontation that rocks the gaming world to its processors! For over 20 years, Billy Mitchell has owned the throne of the Donkey Kong world. No one could beat his top score until now. Newcomer Steve Wiebe claims to have beaten the unbeatable, but Mitchell isn't ready to renquish his crown without a fight. Go behind the barrels as the two battle it out in a vicious war to earn the title of the true King of Kong. The stuff of gladiatorial battle is here: good versus evil, right versus wrong, nerd versus... super-nerd? At any rate, it's a more entertaining showdown than most fictional movies can muster. The King of Kong is the saga of Steve Wiebe, a Redmond, Washington dweeb who sets a new record in the video game Donkey Kong, only t! o see his accomplishment challenged by the grand poobahs of th! e gaming establishment. And if you don't know how pernickety the grand poobahs of the gaming establishment can be, well, one of the pleasures of this movie is finding out about this collection of oddballs. It seems Wiebe has toppled a score that has stood since 1982, when eminent "Gamer of the Century" Billy Mitchell set it, and Mitchell isn't too happy about being overthrown. A black-mulleted showboat, Mitchell provides the perfect counterpoint to Wiebe's mild-mannered family man, and the smaller fish around him are no less colorful. This is one of those movies you watch in delighted disbelief, marveling that such people exist--and that they gladly allowed themselves to be filmed. Director Seth Gordon does an important thing in presenting this world of eccentrics: he doesn't mock them, or provide editorial nudging; he simply lets them be. The result is an ingratiating classic. --Robert Horton

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Cranford

• The BBC drama series adapted from Mary Gaskellsic novels of small town gossip, secrets and romance. 1842. Cranford, a market town in the North West of England, is a place governed by etiquette, custom and above all, an intricate network of ladies. It seems that life has always been conducted according to their social rules, but Cranford is on the cusp of change? For spinsters Deborah Jenkyns, the

Romantic Comedy. Alex (Luke Wilson) is an author whose writer's block and gambling debts have landed him in a jam. In order to get loan sharks off his back, he must finish his novel in 30 days or wind up dead. To help him complete his manuscript he hires stenographer Emma (Kate Hudson). As Alex begins to dictate his tale of a romantic love triangle to the charming yet somewhat opinionated stenographer, Emma challenges his ideas at every turn. Her unsolicited yet intriguing input begins to inadvertent! ly influence Alex and his story and soon real life begins to imitate art.For perhaps the first time in her career, Kate Hudson doesn't just imitate the twinkle of her mother, Goldie Hawn--and proves to be a winning romantic lead in her own right. Hudson plays Emma, a stenographer hired by a desperate writer named Alex (Luke Wilson, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde), who has to finish a book in 30 days. Of course, a tentative romance blooms between them; but as Alex begins to interweave elements of his life into the love triangle of his novel--including a suspiciously Emma-esque character named Anna--Emma wonders if the novel's sexy other woman has a real-life counterpart as well. Though Alex & Emma suffers from some bland, formulaic elements, it also features flashes of engaging wit. Hudson dampens her gleam, but because she's not working so hard to be adorable, a relaxed and more unique charm comes forth. --Bret FetzerRomantic Comedy. Alex (! Luke Wilson) is an author whose writer's block and gambling de! bts have landed him in a jam. In order to get loan sharks off his back, he must finish his novel in 30 days or wind up dead. To help him complete his manuscript he hires stenographer Emma (Kate Hudson). As Alex begins to dictate his tale of a romantic love triangle to the charming yet somewhat opinionated stenographer, Emma challenges his ideas at every turn. Her unsolicited yet intriguing input begins to inadvertently influence Alex and his story and soon real life begins to imitate art.For perhaps the first time in her career, Kate Hudson doesn't just imitate the twinkle of her mother, Goldie Hawn--and proves to be a winning romantic lead in her own right. Hudson plays Emma, a stenographer hired by a desperate writer named Alex (Luke Wilson, The Royal Tenenbaums, Legally Blonde), who has to finish a book in 30 days. Of course, a tentative romance blooms between them; but as Alex begins to interweave elements of his life into the love triangle of his novel--including ! a suspiciously Emma-esque character named Anna--Emma wonders if the novel's sexy other woman has a real-life counterpart as well. Though Alex & Emma suffers from some bland, formulaic elements, it also features flashes of engaging wit. Hudson dampens her gleam, but because she's not working so hard to be adorable, a relaxed and more unique charm comes forth. --Bret FetzerThe BBC drama series adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's classic novels of small town gossip, secrets and romance. 1842. Cranford, a market town in the North West of England, is a place governed by etiquette, custom and above all, an intricate network of ladies. It seems that life has always been conducted according to their social rules, but Cranford is on the cusp of change… For spinsters Deborah Jenkyns, the arbiter of correctness in Cranford, and Matty, her demurring sister, the town is a hub of intrigue - a handsome new doctor Frank Harrison from London has arrived; a retired Captain and h! is daughters have moved in to a house opposite and the prepara! tions fo r Lady Ludlows garden party are underway. Everyone - from charming rogue Dr Marshland to mean Mrs Jamieson and her lap dog talks, and is talked about, behind closed doors. The town also has its secrets which it slowly reveals: Mattys encounter with an old flame at the garden party; Lady Ludlows gardener, Mr Carter, teaching a gypsy lad to read and write; the wild expectations of the May Day celebrations and - news that shakes the town when it is revealed - a railway line from Manchester is coming to Cranford.Adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's novels, the five-episode miniseries Cranford focuses on female characters in the 19th-century British town to thematically contemplate encroaching modernity in rural England. With the camera roving house to house, each drama within the grander story is constructed of scenes featuring dialogue between several gossipy ladies obsessed with moral code, romantic ideas about courtship, and social occasions. Three main characters, the eve! r-appropriate Deborah Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), her sweet sister, Matilda (Judi Dench), and their younger, more savvy relative, Miss Smith (Lisa Dillon), continuously weigh in on situations, providing a dependable view when other ladies, like the nosey Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) are too judgmental. In fine period dress, the women of Cranford remind the viewer of how little action was needed in their small-town lives to provide unceasing entertainment. The series'most intriguing aspect lies not in the ample female conversation but rather in its display of earlier technologies and ways of life. Part One, for example, quickly launches a main narrative thread that runs throughout the series, namely the arrival and assimilation of London doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon Woods), into village society. Dr. Harrison's medical practices, such as his refusal to amputate a man's arm because it's broken, are all the more radical because they are so fundamental by today's standards. ! In subsequent episodes, he recommends Miss Smith get spectacle! s to cur e her headaches, and saves his love's life by cooling her fever after conservative doctor, Dr. Morgan (John Bowe), recommends the old school practice of burying her in blankets in front of a raging fire. In Part Two, Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) throws a garden party at her estate, treating all the women in their fancy hats to a new novelty: ice cream. This scene foreshadows Ludlow's future concern at a railroad plan involving her land that would connect Cranford to Manchester, symbolizing the ruin of this idyllic setting.

In fact, fluffy and clever as some scenes are, death and rebirth assert themselves in each showing, both physically and idealistically. Part Four shows an auctioning off of a deceased man's antiques, and focuses on issues of class and women's education, as Mr. Carter teaches a peasant boy to read while his assistant fumes at her trappings as a seamstress. Part Five ushers in a new period of medical emergencies, securing Dr. Harrison's shaky position in! town. In total, Cranford offers a powerful, if sentimental, look at how death begets life, love, and passion. --Trinie Dalton

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The Great Debaters

• Denzel Washington directs and stars in this uplifting drama based on a true story about a small East Texas all-black college in 1935 that rises to the top of the nation's debate teams in a duel against Harvard. A poet and debating coach at Wiley College, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) sees debating as "a blood sport" and recruits the meanest and brightest, including troubled Henr

Two-time Academy Award® winner Denzel Washington (American Gangster) directs and stars with Academy Award® winner Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland) in this important and deeply inspiring page from the not-so-distant past (Richard Roeper, At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper). Inspired by a true story, Washington shines as a brilliant but politically radical debate team coach who uses the power of words to transform a group of underdog African American college students into an historical powerhouse that! took on the Harvard elite. DVD Special Features:

Deleted Scenes
The Great Debaters: An Historical Perspective. That's What My Baby Likes; Music Video.
My Soul Is A Witness; Music Video
Theatrical Trailer
Sneak Peeks: Grace is Gone, Cassandra's Dream, I'm Not There, Hunting PartyInspired by real events, the fascinating The Great Debaters reveals one of the seeds of the Civil Rights Movement in its story of Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington in a captivating performance) and his champion 1935 debate club from the all-African-American Wiley College in Texas. Tolson, a Wiley professor, labor organizer, modernist poet, and much else, runs a rigorous debate program at the school, selecting four students as his team in ’35, among them the future founder of the Congress of Racial Equality, James Farmer Jr. (Denzel Whitaker). Washington, who directed The Great Debaters from a script by Robert Eisele (The Dale Earnhardt Story), anchors! the story with the team’s measurable progress, but the film! is also about the state of race relations in America at the height of the Great Depression. With lynchings of black men and women a common form of entertainment and black subjugation for many rural whites, the idea of talented and highly intelligent African-American young people learning to think on their feet during debates would seem almost a hopeless endeavor. But that’s not the way Tolson sees it, as his students serve themselves and the cause of racial equality in America with energetic arguments in favor of progressive government and non-violence as a viable social movement. There are some startling moments in this movie, particularly the sight of a man found lynched and burned to death, and an extraordinary moment in which we see black sharecroppers and white farmers engaged with Tolson in arguments about unionizing together. Forest Whitaker is outstanding as Farmer’s emotionally-reserved father, also a Wiley professor. This is the kind of film where one hopes two great ! actors such as the elder Whitaker and Washington will have a scene together, and when it comes it’s as powerful as one might hope. --Tom Keogh

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Edmond

• A man (Macy) becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women (Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Julia Stiles). It s a first rate thriller from the legendary David Mamet. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 855280001700 UPC: 855280001700 Manufacturer No: FI0169DVD

A man (Macy) becomes involved in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder with 3 young women (Denise Richards, Mena Suvari, Julia Stiles). It’s a first rate thriller from the legendary David Mamet.William H. Macy, a longtime collaborator of David Mamet, takes on one of Mamet's biggest, ugliest creations in the title role of Edmond. Edmond drops out of his ordinary life after a chance encounter with a fortune-teller, and cruises through a New York inferno that leads to murder. It also leads to a great deal of the clipped, counter-punching dialogue that Mamet is famous for, al! though at times the film plays like a monologue interrupted by peripheral blips on Edmond's skewed radar. Mamet's subject is the frenzied reaction of the modern male to the narrowing of his domain, a crisis that drives Edmond to the familiar touchstones of bar, peep show, and whorehouse, none of which provide the solace he thinks they should. The 2005 film is based on Mamet's 1982 play, and somehow the picture might have had more pop if it had been filmed closer to that time, when panicked masculinity was a fresher subject. And the text is a kind of dark, horrific fable that probably worked better in the stylized realm of the stage than on film. Stuart Gordon directs with a blunt forward motion that foregrounds the most unsavory aspects of the material (fans of his Re-Animator should note the presence of Jeffrey Combs as a snotty hotel clerk). Except for Macy, cast members come and go in the episodic flow, some of them (Joe Mantegna and Rebecca Pidgeon) identified wi! th Mamet's work. Julia Stiles plays the unfortunate waitress w! ho falls into Edmond's path, and Bai Ling, Denise Richards, and Mena Suvari are women of the night who want to charge Edmond too much money. But it's Macy's show, and he mercilessly gets inside Edmond's bad self: a monster of entitlement and self-delusion, given to epiphanies that lead nowhere except his own ego. --Robert Horton

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Boogie Nights (New Line Platinum Series)

• 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, broughtRunning Time: 155 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R Age: 794043503320 UPC: 794043503320 Manufacturer

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, broughtEven if the notorious 1970s porn-filmmaking milieu doesn'texactly 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 drink! ing to excess, he snorts cocaine (the classic drug of '70s hed! onism); 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

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