|
Search Results:
|
Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Price: $29.99
|
|
Sale: $11.89
|
| |
|
Brand: Buena Vista Home Video
|
|
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
|
|
Number of Items: 2
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: Disney's 1959 animated effort was the studio's most ambitious to date, a widescreen spectacle boasting a gorgeous waltz-filled score adapting Tchaikovsky. In the 14th century, the malevolent Maleficent (not dissimilar to the wicked Queen in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs taunts a king that his infant Aurora will fatally prick her finger on a spinning wheel before sundown on her 16th birthday. This, of course, would deny her a happily-ever-after with her true love. Things almost but not quite turn out that way, thanks to the assistance of some bubbly, bumbling fairies named Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. It's not really all that much about the title character--how interesting can someone in the middle of a long nap be, anyway? Instead, those fairies carry the day, as well as, of course, good Prince Phillip, whose battle with the malevolent Maleficent in the guise of a dragon has been co-opted by any number of animated films since. See it in its original glory here. And Malificent's castle, filled with warthogs and demonic imps in a macabre dance celebrating their evil ways, manages a certain creepy grandeur. --David Kronke On the DVD
Sleeping Beauty was the last and most lavish of Walt Disney's animated fairy tales. He told the artists not to hurry and to give him "a moving illustration": The film required almost four and one-half years and one million finished drawings. Instead of the 19th century storybook illustrations that had influenced the look of Snow White and Pinocchio, the artists adapted the flattened perspective and jewel-like colors of 15th century French illuminated manuscripts. The results remain unmatched for sheer visual opulence. However, Sleeping Beauty suffers from a weak story: the vision of an ageless princess slumbering in a vine-shrouded tower was replaced with elements of Snow White and a boy-meets-girl musical. The evil Maleficent and the three Good Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) dominate the film, rather than Princess Aurora and Prince Philip. Sleeping Beauty was originally released in 70mm, and the Blu-ray edition restores the film to its original splendor. (Many earlier releases trimmed the wide-screen images and/or muted the glowing palatte.) The Bonus DVD looks good on a flat screen monitor, but it pales in comparison to the richness of the Blu-ray. In addition to the commentaries and a making-of documentary, the set includes myriad extras that vary widely in quality. Nostalgia buffs will enjoy the recreation of the old Sleeping Beauty's Castle attraction in Disneyland, and the TV program "Four Artists Paint One Tree" provides a welcome showcase for key talents from the film. But the CG animation of the dragon and the voice imitations of the Good Fairies fail to capture the magic of the originals in the "Dragon Encounter"; the "Maleficent's Challenge Game"--a hi-tech Twenty Questions--sounds only vaguely like the redoubtable sorceress. (Rated G: violence) --Charles Solomon
Stills from Sleeping Beauty (Click for larger image)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $19.98
|
|
Sale: $5.08
|
| |
|
Brand: Warner Brothers
|
|
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: When you consider that old-fashioned tearjerkers are an endangered species in Hollywood, a movie like The Notebook can be embraced without apology. Yes, it's syrupy sweet and clogged with clichés, and one can only marvel at the irony of Nick Cassavetes directing a weeper that his late father John--whose own films were devoid of saccharine sentiment--would have sneered at. Still, this touchingly impassioned and great-looking adaptation of the popular Nicholas Sparks novel has much to recommend, including appealing young costars (Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams) and appealing old costars (James Garner and Gena Rowlands, the director's mother) playing the same loving couple in (respectively) early 1940s and present-day North Carolina. He was poor, she was rich, and you can guess the rest; decades later, he's unabashedly devoted, and she's drifting into the memory-loss of senile dementia. How their love endured is the story preserved in the titular notebook that he reads to her in their twilight years. The movie's open to ridicule, but as a delicate tearjerker it works just fine. Message in a Bottle and A Walk to Remember were also based on Sparks novels, suggesting a triple-feature that hopeless romantics will cherish. --Jeff Shannon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $29.98
|
|
Sale: $9.98
|
| |
|
Brand: Universal
|
|
Manufacturer: National Broadcasting Company (NBC)
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: The British sitcom The Office has the most devoted following this side of Monty Python, so an American remake seemed doomed. Amazingly, the remake actually finds its own enjoyable version of the original's uncanny comedy of embarrassment. Office manager Michael Scott (Steve Carell, The Daily Show, The 40 Year-Old Virgin) believes he's the beloved leader of the Scranton, Pennsylvania, branch of a paper products company--but his relentless and painfully forced efforts at comedy creep out everyone around him, including paranoid Dwight (Rainn Wilson, who had a memorable recurring role on Six Feet Under), nervous receptionist Pam (Jenna Fischer, LolliLove), and aimless salesman Jim (John Krasinski, A New Wave), who's smitten with the already engaged Pam. The pilot episode suffers from closely replicating the British pilot, but after that The Office finds its own footing, turning diversity training, an office birthday party, and a basketball game into excruciating yet hypnotically funny rituals of humiliation. Carell, though clearly talented, can't match Ricky Gervais' unique performance as the aggressively needy British manager (it's hard to imagine that anyone could); as a result, the supporting roles become more prominent, and Wilson, Fischer, and Krasinski quickly create a rapport that matches and may even exceed that of their British counterparts. Be sure to watch the deleted scenes; remarkably, they're as good as the material that made it on the air in this six-episode season. --Bret Fetzer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $59.98
|
|
Sale: $21.99
|
| |
|
Brand: Warner Brothers
|
|
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
|
|
Number of Items: 5
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: One Tree Hill: The Complete Fifth Season takes an unorthodox approach to advancing the popular television series by skipping over four years in the lives of the show's characters. The Scott brothers and their sundry friends from the small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, were last seen in The Complete Fourth Season vowing to keep in touch after high-school graduation and remain the same people, even while some went off to college and others made different plans. The fifth season leaps over that transitional period, and we find everyone now in their early 20s, dealing with adult relationships, career moves, disasters, disappointments, and all the rest. For the first time in One Tree Hill, the actors actually look close to the age of their characters, and that makes for an even more sophisticated show. Lucas Scott (Chad Michael Murray), following a well-received first novel, is facing writer's block on his second effort. But he fills his days as the new head coach of his old high-school basketball team, the Ravens, aided by his old pal, Skills (Antwon Tanner). Meanwhile, Lucas' brother, Nathan (James Lafferty), is lost in a dark hole of despair after losing his dream of signing with an NBA team. Barely able to move his legs, Nathan is almost crippled in a bar fight and spends his days and nights boozing and raging around while wife Haley (Bethany Joy Galeotti) and young son Jamie (Jackson Brundage) try to survive his emotional torrents. Lucas is no longer with Peyton (Hilarie Burton), the latter having moved to Los Angeles to become a disgruntled assistant's assistant in a music recording company. Brooke (Sophia Bush), however, has hit the jackpot in New York as the celebrity founder of a designer clothes empire that has made her wealthy yet not quite free of her domineering mother (Daphne Zuniga). Everyone ends up back in Tree Hill, looking for roots and a future that involves support from one another. Friendship matters, but it doesn't inoculate this bunch from the pain of Peyton's ongoing love for Lucas (who is romantically involved with his pretty editor), or Brooke's emptiness after briefly fostering a child who then must leave her, or Nathan's slow crawl back from misery. In true One Tree Hill fashion, the characters' collective challenges come together in a critical mass during the season finale, ending with a very unusual cliffhanger involving four cell phones. --Tom Keogh
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $39.98
|
|
Sale: $24.95
|
| |
|
Brand: Warner Brothers
|
|
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
|
|
Number of Items: 2
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: Entourage is everything viewers have come to expect from an HBO series: smart, hilarious, and highly addictive, especially when taken in full-season, DVD form. As implied in the title, the show follows Vincent Chase (Adrian Grenier), a rising Hollywood star with bedroom eyes and an over-active libido, along with his three childhood companions-turned-hangers-on. Kevin Dillon plays Johnny Drama, Vincent's less-attractive, B-list actor of a brother (he is Matt Dillon's less-attractive, B-list actor of a brother in real life). Jerry Ferrara plays Turtle, the weasel, and Kevin Connolly appears as Eric, the Everyman hero who hopes to parlay his friendship with Vincent (plus two years of community college) into a career in talent management. Along the way Eric contends with the predictable self-doubt, romantic indecision, etc. The cast is rounded out by Jeremy Piven (Doug Hughley from Singles) as a foul-mouthed agent reminiscent of Jay Mohr's short-lived Peter Dragon character. Finally, it's produced by Marky Mark himself--and you've got to believe that guy knows something about the star-entourage relationship. If possible, watch with a friend so you'll have someone to quote lines back to later. --Leah Weathersby
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $14.94
|
|
Sale: $2.00
|
| |
|
Brand: Sony
|
|
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
|
|
Number of Items: 2
|
| |
|
|
|
|
Description: More than a few critics hailed Spider-Man 2 as "the best superhero movie ever," and there's no compelling reason to argue--thanks to a bigger budget, better special effects, and a dynamic, character-driven plot, it's a notch above Spider-Man in terms of emotional depth and rich comic-book sensibility. Ordinary People Oscar-winner Alvin Sargent received screenplay credit, and celebrated author and comic-book expert Michael Chabon worked on the story, but it's director Sam Raimi's affinity for the material that brings Spidey 2 to vivid life. When a fusion experiment goes terribly wrong, a brilliant physicist (Alfred Molina) is turned into Spidey's newest nemesis, the deranged, mechanically tentacled "Doctor Octopus," obsessed with completing his experiment and killing Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) in the process. Even more compelling is Peter Parker's urgent dilemma: continue his burdensome, lonely life of crime-fighting as Spider-Man, or pursue love and happiness with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst)? Molina's outstanding as a tragic villain controlled by his own invention, and the action sequences are nothing less than breathtaking, but the real success of Spider-Man 2 is its sense of priorities. With all of Hollywood's biggest and best toys at his disposal, Raimi and his writers stay true to the Marvel mythology, honoring Spider-Man creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and setting the bar impressively high for the challenge of Spider-Man 3. --Jeff Shannon
DVD Features: The first commentary track is by director Sam Raimi and a self-deprecating Tobey Maguire speaking in tandem, and producer (and Marvel CEO) Avi Arad and coproducer Grant Curtis speaking in tandem. They discuss a number of topics, including Raimi's memory of his excitement over Richard Donner's Superman and how the character of Black Cat had to be dropped from the film. The second commentary is by six members of the Oscar-nominated effects team, and one of their primary focuses is how Doc Ock's arms were achieved by a combination of puppetry and CGI. The centerpiece of the second disc is a massive two-hour documentary that can be viewed all at once or in 12 separate pieces. It covers the development of the story, the visual effects, costumes, stunts, and sound and music. Three shorter featurettes cover Peter Parker's struggle between his personal and hero lives, Doc Ock, and the women in Spider-Man's life, and what's interesting is how they discuss those topics not just in relation to the movies but to the comic books as well. (For example, Betty Brant and Gwen Stacy had a much greater impact in the comics.) There's a scene in which you can toggle among three different camera angles, and a gallery of 17 paintings Alex Ross created for the opening sequence. The sound and picture are spectacular, though only the Superbit edition has DTS. --David Horiuchi More Spiderman on DVD 
The Spiderman Toy Store | 
The First Film | 
Spider Man on the small screen | 
The Soundtrack | 
Game Boy Advance | 
The Book |
More Superheroes on DVD | - Jimmy Neutron
- Justice League
- Kim Possible
| - Robocop
- Spider-Man
- Superman
| - Wonder Woman
- X-Men
- Also see our Action & Adventure Store
| Stills from Spider-Man 2 (click for larger image)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $19.94
|
|
Sale: $8.49
|
| |
|
Brand: Sony
|
|
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
|
|
Number of Items: 2
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: Set in America during the Vietnam War, Across the Universe is a powerful love story set against a backdrop of political and social unrest: it's a story of soul-searching, self-doubt, and individual powerlessness cleverly conveyed through a multitude of Beatles songs. Like young adults all across America during the 1960's, Jude (Jim Sturgess), Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max (Joe Anderson), Sadie (Dana Fuchs), Prudence (T.V. Carpio), and JoJo (Martin Luther) are in turmoil over the war; questioning their individual roles in the war effort and struggling to find a way to hold true to their beliefs while making a difference in the world. While love proves a powerful uniting force, its limitations become clear as relationships are strained and broken over individual perceptions of responsibility to cause and country. A fairly bizarre juxtaposition of extremely stylized, almost hallucinogenic scenes of swirling colors and reflections, highly choreographed dance segments, seemingly commonplace character interaction, and emotionally packed close-up footage of characters lost in contemplative song, this film imparts a good sense of the confusion and passion of the time and is at once powerful, invigorating, and disturbing. The film runs a bit long at 2-hours 11-minutes and several segments drag noticeably thanks to some incredibly slow song tempos. Warning: this production may change how you think about a favorite Beatles song forever. --Tami Horiuchi Beyond Across the Universe 
On Blu-ray | 
The Deluxe Soundtrack | 
Beatles audio CD | Stills from Across the Universe (click for larger image)
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $14.94
|
|
Sale: $3.93
|
| |
|
Brand: Sony
|
|
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
|
|
Number of Items: 2
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: For devoted fans and nonfans alike, Spider-Man offers nothing less--and nothing more--than what you'd expect from a superhero blockbuster. Having proven his comic-book savvy with the original Darkman, director Sam Raimi brings ample energy and enthusiasm to Spidey's origin story, nicely establishing high-school nebbish Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as a brainy outcast who reacts with appropriate euphoria--and well-tempered maturity--when a "super-spider" bite transforms him into the amazingly agile, web-shooting Spider-Man. That's all well and good, and so is Kirsten Dunst as Parker's girl-next-door sweetheart. Where Spider-Man falls short is in its hyperactive CGI action sequences, which play like a video game instead of the gravity-defying exploits of a flesh-and-blood superhero. Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as Spidey's schizoid nemesis, the Green Goblin, and the movie's a lot of fun overall. It's no match for Superman and Batman in bringing a beloved character to the screen, but it places a respectable third. --Jeff Shannon
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $79.98
|
|
Sale: $41.00
|
| |
|
Brand: BAND OF BROTHERS
|
|
Manufacturer: HBO Home Video
|
|
Number of Items: 6
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: An impressively rigorous, unsentimental, and harrowing look at combat during World War II, Band of Brothers follows a company of airborne infantry--Easy Company--from boot camp through the end of the war. The brutality of training takes the audience by increments to the even greater brutality of the war; Easy Company took part in some of the most difficult battles, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the failed invasion of Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the liberation of a concentration camp and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. But what makes these episodes work is not their historical sweep but their emphasis on riveting details (such as the rattle of a plane as the paratroopers wait to leap, or a flower in the buttonhole of a German soldier) and procedures (from military tactics to the workings of bureaucratic hierarchies). The scope of this miniseries (10 episodes, plus an actual documentary filled with interviews with surviving veterans) allows not only a thoroughness impossible in a two-hour movie, but also captures the wide range of responses to the stress and trauma of war--fear, cynicism, cruelty, compassion, and all-encompassing confusion. The result is a realism that makes both simplistic judgments and jingoistic enthusiasm impossible; the things these soldiers had to do are both terrible and understandable, and the psychological price they paid is made clear. The writing, directing, and acting are superb throughout. The cast is largely unknown, emphasizing the team of actors as a whole unit, much like the regiment; Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston play the central roles of two officers with grit and intelligence. Band of Brothers turns a vast historical event into a series of potent personal experiences; it's a deeply engrossing and affecting accomplishment. --Bret Fetzer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Price: $28.98
|
|
Sale: $12.98
|
| |
|
Brand: Warner Brothers
|
|
Manufacturer: New Line Cinema
|
|
Number of Items: 1
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Description: A period piece set in the Great Depression and based on the extremely popular American Girl book series, Kit Kittredge is a moving and believable story about a smart 10-year-old girl whose family is profoundly affected by the Depression. May, 1934 finds Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) living a very comfortable life in a nice home with her mother (Julia Ormond) and father (Chris O'Donnell) despite the Depression that is affecting many of her neighbors. When her father's auto dealership is taken back by the bank, Kit's father is forced to head for Chicago to look for work, leaving his family struggling to make ends meet by taking in borders. Kindhearted and generous by nature, Kit's nose for news and her aspirations of becoming a great reporter lead her to write a portrait of the boardinghouse run by her mother, essentially a kid's view of the Depression as well as an article about hobos that challenges many commonly held prejudices. Kit determinedly submits her articles to the local Cincinnati Register paper, regardless of the chief editor's stern ways and obvious lack of interest. When her own family and boarders become the victims of a crime, Kit's must utilize her investigative skills to solve the crime and exonerate her friend Will (Max Thieriot). Breslin's performance in this film is stellar--viewers can't help but believe that she is Kit Kittredge. The filmmakers' attention to detail ensures that everything from scenery props to music and dialogue seem completely authentic, and performances by Joan Cusack as the mobile librarian, Stanley Tucci as the traveling magician, Jane Krakowski as the desperate-for-love dance instructor, and Zach Mills as Kit's young friend, are all impressive. Serious American Girl fans, period film lovers, and viewers just looking for a good story will love this film. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Displaying records 1 through 10 of 4000
|
|
|
|
