Monday, April 02, 2007

DVD Tuesday: Charlotte's Web, Good Shepherd & More! - Xoanon @ 14:35 PST
ABC Wide World of Sports: 40 Years of Glory: ABC Wide World of Sports: 40 Years of Glory - (Sports) Relive over 40 years of sports’ pinnacles and perils pulled from the classic ABC shows.


All That Jazz - Music Edition: Choreographer-turned-director Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Lenny) turns the camera on himself in this nervy, sometimes unnerving 1979 feature, a nakedly autobiographical piece that veers from gritty drama to razzle-dazzle musical, allegory to satire. It's an indication of his bravura, and possibly his self-absorption, that Fosse (who also cowrote the script) literally opens alter ego Joe Gideon's heart in a key scene--an unflinching glimpse of cardiac surgery, shot during an actual open-heart procedure. Roy Scheider makes a brave and largely successful leap out of his usual romantic lead roles to step into Gideon's dancing pumps, and supplies a plausible sketch of an extravagant, self-destructive, self-loathing creative dynamo, while Jessica Lange serves as a largely allegorical Muse, one of the various women that the philandering Gideon pursues (and usually abandons). Gideon's other romantic partners include Fosse's own protégé (and a major keeper of his choreographic style since his death), Ann Reinking, whose leggy grace is seductive both "onstage" and off. Fosse/Gideon's collision course with mortality, as well as his priapic obsession with the opposite sex, may offer clues into the libidinal core of the choreographer's dynamic, sexualized style of dance, but musical aficionados will be forgiven for fast-forwarding to cut out the self-analysis and focus on the music, period. At its best--as in the knockout opening, scored to George Benson's strutting version of "On Broadway," which fuses music, dance, and dazzling camera work into a paean to Fosse's hoofer nation--All That Jazz offers a sequence of classic Fosse numbers, hard-edged, caustic, and joyously physical.


Attack of the Gryphon: In a mystical land torn apart by civil war, a warrior princess must team up with a rival warrior prince to hunt down an evil sorcerer who has summoned a giant flying demon which is terrorizing their land.


BACKSTAGE: Adolescent Lucie worships the celebrated singer Lauren Waks, an enigmatic and inaccessible artist whose photos cover her bedroom walls. It's how she escapes from the reality of stifling small-town life with her mother and kid brother. Until the day when an unforeseen opportunity will allow the young fan to enter her idol's private world. Innocently, she dives into a passionate relationship with the star of her dreams. But, determined to ensure Lauren's happiness despite her, Lucie concocts a crazy and self-destructive plan.


Bedazzled: Stanley is a short order cook, infatuated with Margaret, the statuesque waitress who works at Whimpy Burger with him. Despondent, he prepares to end it all when he meets George Spiggott AKA the devil. Selling his soul for 7 wishes, Stanley tries to make Margaret his own first as an intellectual, then as a rock star, then as a wealthy industrialist. As each fails, he becomes more aware of how empty his life had been and how much more he has to live for. He also meets the seven deadly sins who try and advise him.


Betty Boop: DELUXE PACKAGING WITH FREE KEY CHAIN! With a figure modeled after Mae West and a voice like Helen Kane, it wasn't long before the 'toon beauty boop-oop-a-dooped her way into the hearts of millions. Today, Betty Boop the flapper with a heart of gold and barely-there wardrobe is a worldwide icon. See some of her first and most famous cartoons, including Musical Mountaineers, Poor Cinderella, and You're Not Built that Way 42 cartoons in all in this ultimate, 2-Disc Collector's Edition set! FEATURING 42 CLASSIC CARTOONS; Special Feature(s): Digitally Remastered; Digitally Enhanced Audio 5.1; FREE Betty Boop Key Chain


Black Emanuelle's Box 1: The breathtakingly beautiful Laura Gemser stars as the infamous sexual adventuress in these three erotic epics now on DVD for the first time ever in America: Emanuelle In Bangkok - Emanuelle prowls the steamy underbelly of the Thai city on an odyssey of opium orgies, depraved Republicans and flying ping-pong balls. Emanuelle Around The World - In director Joe D'Amato's notorious jaw-dropper, Emanuelle uncovers a global conspiracy of enslaved women, kinky Senators and inappropriate uses for exotic pets. Sister Emanuelle - Emanuelle renounces her wanton ways and joins a convent for wayward schoolgirls, only to face temptation from some very unholy sins of the flesh.


Black X-Mas - Unrated: A remake of the 1974 horror movie Black Christmas. The movie tells the story about Billy, a young boy who was abused by his mother as a child. While his mother was cheating on Billy's father, she eventually killed his father and kept Billy in the attic - for good, while she was with her lover and starting a "new" family. As Billy's mother fell pregnant with a daughter and treated her with love, which Billy had never experienced with his mother, Billy came out of the attic after years and brutally murdered his mother and her lover. Cut to present day, a group of eight sorority sisters consisting of Kelli (Katie Cassidy), Dana (Lacey Chabert), Lauren (Crystal Lowe), Megan (Jessica Harmon), Claire (Leela Savasta), Heather (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Megan (Jessica Harmon) and Melissa (Michelle Trachtenberg) and their house mother (Andrea Martin),who now live in Billy's childhood home, find themselves being harassed by threatening and intimidating mystery phone-calls during Christmas Break and as one of the girls goes missing, the girls begin being murdered one by one by no other than Billy...


Bottom Feeder: Starring Tom Sizemore, this horror flick delves beneath the surface to find the monster lurking underneath.


The Brady Bunch - The Complete Series: Architect Mike Brady marries beautiful young Carol, who has three girls to care for. Likewise, Mike's previous wife's death has left him to raise his three boys all alone. In no time this amalgam becomes the ideal average American middle class family. Of course, raising such a large family isn't easy, so live-in housekeeper Alice Nelson is always there to lend a hand.


Charlotte's Web: E.B. White's classic tale gets a Babe-like makeover in Charlotte's Web, a delightful and well-made film that is sure to become a family classic. Directed by Gary Winick (13 Going on 30), the new version eschews the musical numbers of the 1973 cartoon and mixes CGI with live-action animals. Dakota Fanning brings the right amount of chutzpah to Fern, the young farm girl who rescues a runt, Wilbur, from death and visits him every day at her Uncle Homer's farm. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider (voiced by Julia Roberts) that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house" (a kid-friendly alternative term to the slaughterhouse), for Charlotte's talent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her web turns the Zuckerman farm into a tourist attraction. The more tragic elements of the book are handled sensitively by Winick, working from a script by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich), and Roberts' soothing, maternal voice (who knew it would work so well?) makes it all go down easy. It turns out to be just one of many perfect celebrity voice-casting choices, for the farm animals, voiced by an all-star cast including Oprah Winfrey (the goose), Robert Redford (the horse), Steve Buscemi (Templeton the rat), and John Cleese (the sheep), lend plenty of sharp humor. But it's two corn-hungry crows, voiced by Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and OutKast's Andre "3000" Benjamin who steal the show.


Copying Beethoven: A passionate, powerful drama based loosely on the final months of Ludwig van Beethoven's life, Copying Beethoven finds the maestro a haunted man, composing the most revolutionary yet unappreciated work of his lifetime; largely deaf; disappointed in his relationship with a wastrel nephew; and fascinated by a young, female composer, Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), who goes to work for him transcribing music. Staying as a guest at a convent and engaged to a stolid engineer, Anna is drawn to Beethoven’s tempestuous genius. Half the time he's enchanted by her and seems to see straight through to her soul. The other half, he's shouting at her for her timidity or flattery. Hardly a mouse, Anna fights back. The more she does, the more Beethoven recognizes in her a kindred survivor, someone with whom he can reveal his vulnerability and the burden of his artistry. Ed Harris' Beethoven is wracked by pain but not overwhelmed by it; he looks like a man who understands his responsibility to nature too well to merely disintegrate. ("God whispers in most men's ears," Beethoven says. "He shouts in mine.") Director Agnieszka Holland (Olivier, Olivier) oversees a handsome, alternately tender and brutal drama, with several thrilling moments, including the stunned look of audience members hearing the world premiere of the glorious 9th Symphony.


Death of a President: 'Death of a President' follows the investigation of the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush in October 2007. Combining real archival footage with a credible but fictional story, 'Death of a President' presents a fascinating and thought-provoking political thriller.


Defenders of the Earth - The Complete Series, Vol. 2: When Ming the Merciless returns to wreak havoc, he immediately hunts down the man who caused him to lose his throne in the first place, Flash Gordon. In the process, Ming captures and kills Dale Arden Gordon, but not before she transfers her esscence into a special crystal. Flash then gathers together a force made up of The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician and his assistant Lothar. Also joining the heroes are Flash's son Rick, The Phantom's daughter Jedda, Lothar's son L.J. and Madrake's adopted son Kshin. Rick then invents a super computer using the crystal with his mother's esscence. Joining Ming is his son Crotan.


Emanuelle Around the World: In one of the most infamous sex & sleaze sensations of the `70s, crusading journalist Emanuelle (the stunning Laura Gemser) goes all the way - and beyond - on a taboo-busting investigation into violence against women. This XXX Continental Edition contains scenes considered too graphic for sensitive audiences, including the all-woman Kama Sutra academy, the gang rape of Emanuelle's wanton colleague (Euro-starlet-turned-porno-queen Karin Schubert of CHRISTINA and BLACK VENUS), torrid lesbian liaisons, inappropriate use of exotic pets, the climactic defilement of a beauty queen by depraved U.S. Senators, and much more!


Entourage - Season Three, Part 1: With Vince's star expected to rise even higher in the Hollywood firmament as a result of his starring role in a potential blockbuster titled Aquaman, the boys must find a way to keep stroking their golden goose while making sound decisions for a long-lasting career in a world of fleeting fame.


Gene Autry Collection: Home in Wyomin: Radio star Gene Autry must solve a murder mystery at the Frontier Days pageant that involves Chicago gangsters, a deserted mine, and a surprise ending. Musical highlights are "Any Bonds Today" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes."


Godzilla Raids Again: A death struggle between the indestructible monster and the Japanese people with both Godzilla and Gigantis destroying everything in the way.


Godzilla Raids Again: In this second entry of the Godzilla series, another monster is introduced to fight Godzilla. The new creature is called Anguirus and looks like a big spiked turtle. The two creatures wage their war in Japan and level cities along the way.


The Good Shepherd: A complicated movie about the Central Intelligence Agency and its agents, The Good Shepherd isn't your typical spy movie. Though it stars Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity films) and Angelina Jolie (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lara Croft franchise)--actors with considerable experience in the action-espionage genre--The Good Shepherd requires that they play more subdued and (much less interesting) characters here. The movie focuses on the career or Edward Wilson (Damon), a privileged Yale graduate who goes on to help found the CIA. He is a quiet, serious, and guarded man, even in the most intimate moments with his civilian wife (Jolie, in a role that wastes her talent). Set against a backdrop of real-life events such as the Bay of Pigs, The Good Shepherd is meticulous in creating a realistic timeframe. The film gets a jolt of excitement when Robert DeNiro (in his first directing role since 1993's A Bronx Tale) peppers the screen with appearances by Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin, and William Hurt. But those moments are too infrequent. At 157 minutes long, the film is crammed with many factual details, but the characters are shortchanged when it comes to development. Viewers have to wonder why anyone, much less someone like Wilson who has everything going for him, would devote his life to a thankless job that brings so little happiness to himself and his family. The Good Shepherd is an ambitious but flawed film. The actors do a formidable job with a well-intentioned but meandering script. However, we meet so many characters and learn so little about each that it's difficult to drum up much empathy for any of them.


Happy Tree Friends V02: They're cute, they're happy, they're cuddly, they love life, and they die in the most gruesome ways - every single episode. Meet Cuddles the rabbit, Flakey the dandruff-ridden porcupine, Sniffles the brainy anteater, Lumpy the moose, Toothy the beaver, Giggles the Chipmunk, Handy the handless carpenter beaver, Petunia the sweet-smelling skunk, Nutty the glass-eyed sweets-loving squirrel, Splendid the flying super-squirrel, Russell the pirate, the ever-dancing Disco Bear, Flippy the war veteran bear with constant flashbacks, Pop the pipe-smoking father bear and his cub Cub, Lifty the kleptomaic raccoon, Shifty, his partner in crime and of course the Mole - also blind as one. Together, they experience life at its worst in their cute little world. And they teach us all a lesson of what can go wrong, no matter how cute you are or how hard you try.


Jump In!: Jump roping that's worlds away from anything seen on the local playground bursts from the screen in this Disney Original Movie about the clash between two athletes and their respective sports. Boxer Izzy Daniels (Corbin Bleu) has a hard time taking neighbor Mary's (Keke Palmer) devotion to jump roping seriously, but as Izzy trains relentlessly to maintain his undefeated status and win the Golden Glove, Mary's team practices just as intensely for the city Double Dutch finals. Izzy gains a reluctant respect for Mary's sport when he accompanies his sister Karin (Kylee Russell) to a competition, but it takes some serious convincing to persuade him to fill in for a teammate who's abandon the team on the cusp of city finals. Izzy quickly discovers that Double Dutch is more demanding and rewarding than he'd ever imagined, but when the entire school finds out about his newest sporting exploit, he's taunted into quitting. As Izzy tries to regain his boxing focus, he suddenly realizes that winning the Golden Glove is more his father's (David Reivers) dream than his own. After some serious soul-searching, Izzy decides that he can't let what others think keep him from doing what makes him happy. This action-packed Disney Channel Original Movie takes a unique look at the varied world of sports and features some great catchy new music from Corbin Bleu and Jordan Pruitt, but the game-winner is its focus on the importance of following one's heart.


Karla: "That '70s Show star Laura Prepon is downright chilling in her portrayal of Karla Homolka. This movie is profound on many levels and its jarring look at anti-social behavior is right up there with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Kids and Ken Park."


King Maker: In 1547 Fernando De Gama, a young "Soldier of Fortune" from Portugal, set sail for the Orient in a bid to find the man that murdered his father and, with luck, like many of his fellow countrymen,to make his fortune. A vicious storm in the Indian ocean almost ended his plans when the ship he was on sank. The sole survivor, he was washed up on a tropical beach only to be captured by Arab slavers and taken to Ayutthaya in the kingdom of Siam where he was offered for sale as a slave. He is rescued from slavery when a beautiful young woman Maria, also from Portugal, living in Ayutthaya with her father, buys him from the Arabs and restores his freedom. Not suprisingly he falls for Maria and Maria him, much to the chagrin of Maria's Father. As an experienced soldier his services are soon in demand when the King of Siam declares war on a Northern renegade pretender and all of the Portuguese colony are press-ganged into the service of the King. Predictably, Fernando's experience and gallantry in the heat of battle, gain favour with the King who commands him to be one of his honoured personal Guard along with a new found Thai friend of tremendous gallantry, Tong. Unbeknownst to the king, his beautiful but devious wife, Queen Sudachan, plots to kill him and place her lover on the throne. The first attempt by the Queen to rid herself of the king fails and she enlists the services of Phillippe, who it transpires was the murderer of Fernando's father. He in turn organises another failed attempt on the Kings life. As trusted guardians of the king, Fernando and Tong discover that Phillippe is involved but is killed during an attempt to arrest him. They subsequently discover that the perpetrator is the Queen but are to late to save the king who has already succumbed to her poison. The blame for the kings death is fostered upon Fernando and Tong who are arrested and forced to fight each other to the death for the amusement of Queen Sudachan and her lover, the new king.


Law & Order: Fifth Year: The show follows a crime, ususally adapted from current headlines, from two separate vantage points. The first half of the show concentrates on the investigation of the crime by the police, the second half follows the prosecution of the crime in court.


The Lost Room: If you're a fan of NBC's 2006 hit show Heroes, chances are you'll get a similar kick out of The Lost Room, a three-part, 4.5-hour Sci-Fi Channel miniseries originally broadcast in December 2006. It's pure hokum (especially when compared to Heroes, which rises from the same creative zeitgeist), and not nearly as clever at it initially seems to be, but there's something undeniably compelling about its premise, which turns everyday objects from the Kennedy era into powerful talismans of supernatural force. The present-day story is rooted in a dark, terrible, and cosmically reverberant incident that occurred in a remote motel room in 1961. Now it's 45 years later, and Detective Joe Miller (Six Feet Under's Peter Krause) has acquired a motel-room key that turns any door into a portal to "the lost room," a kind of alternate-reality no-man's-land, where his young daughter Anna (Elle Fanning, a look-alike for her older sister Dakota) soon goes missing. In his quest to retrieve her, Miller attracts the dangerous attention of various secret factions (with names like The Order, The Legion, and The Collectors) in heated competition to locate the many objects that hold strange powers and could, when gathered together, yield amazing benefits or tear reality apart.


Maburaho - Complete Collection: Ikki may not be a Storm Rider yet, but his battle with Buccha already has the AT pros talking. Unfortunately, his sudden popularity is attracting some unwanted attention from the leader of the Skull Saders, who is still bitter over his crushing defeat at the hands of a rookie. Now, with the Sleeping Forest emblem hanging in the balance, Ikki faces his rival in a gravity-defying race. Meanwhile, Ringo is torn between pulling Ikki into the dangerous world of Sleeping Forest and losing him to the sultry Simca. Onigiri has decided that he's more interested in riding girls than AT?s. Ikki?s teachers are threatening to hold him back. With new opponents and challenges at every turn, Ikki will have to rely on the strength of his friends to help him forge his road to the top.


Mario Bava Collection: Volume 1: More than a quarter of a century after his death, director Mario Bava remains one of international cinema’s most controversial icons. Today his influence — marked by stunning visuals, daring sexuality and shocking violence — can still be seen in the works of Martin Scorsese, David Lynch, Tim Burton, Dario Argento and countless others in a legacy that extends far beyond the horror genre. This collection brings together 5 landmark movies from the first half of Bava’s career — encompassing the original giallo, a bold Viking epic, and his three gothic horror masterpieces — featuring new transfers, original European versions, and exclusive featurettes to create the definitive celebration of one of the most important filmmakers of all time.


Mind of Mencia - Uncensored Season 2: In Mind of Mencia, comedian host 'Carlos Mencia' takes on stereotypes associated with Hispanics and any other race known in the world. He doesn't care what anyone thinks of him and even mentions it on the show -- it's all in good humor to Carlos. While the show has many skits and sketches, Carlos also does stand up on his show and interacts with the audience on many occasions. The show was originally created to fill the void that "The Chappelle Show" left, but surpassed this aim and created a classical hit.


Mothra Vs Godzilla: After a fierce typhoon, a mysterious gigantic egg washes ashore. The twin fairies of Infant Island plea for the egg's return to Mothra, its rightful owner, but it's too late - greedy promoters have turned it into an amusement park attraction. Meanwhile Godzilla reawakens and tramples across Japan, heading straight for the big egg. Can Mothra save her offspring from Godzilla? Will Japan survive this epic monster battle? Directed by Ishiro Honda, MOTHRA VS. GODZILLA (1964) is widely considered the best of all Godzilla sequels, with an all-star Toho cast and exciting special effects. Classic Media presents the original Japanese-language version with English subtitles in glorious Toho Scope, plus the classic English-dubbed version originally released in the U.S. as GODZILLA VS. THE THING.


Mothra Vs Godzilla: A greedy developer has placed huge machines to suck dry a part of the ocean near Tokyo so he can put luxury condos there. After a storm, a giant egg washes up on the beach nearby and is immediately put on public display. The developer's plans go awry when he disrupts Godzilla's rest and the monster goes stomping through Tokyo again. It's up to the elderly Mothra, and then to its two offspring, to save Tokyo from destruction.


The Naked Brothers Band - The Movie: The Naked Brothers Band is a kid rock band that performs surprisingly catchy original songs written by 9-year-old Nat Wolff and performed by Nat, his 6-year-old brother Alex, and young friends Cole Hawkins, Allie DiMeco, Joshua Kaye, Thomas Batuello, and David Levi. Contrary to its name, the band performs fully clothed. The Naked Brothers Band--The Movie is a mockumentary comedy that blends the story of Nat and Alex's sudden and sometimes difficult road to stardom with a satirical take on the popular rockumentary genre with its requisite focus on the stormy, sordid details of the lives of famous musicians. Produced by Nat and Alex's mother Polly Draper (thirtysomething) and jazz musician father Michael Wolff (The Arsenio Hall Show"), the movie follows Nat, Alex, and the other band members through home footage of the band's early preschool days (when they did indeed perform mostly naked and simply banged away on whatever was handy to make "music") to more professional footage of current day concerts which highlight a remarkably poised group of young musicians performing increasingly popular songs like "Crazy Car" and "Got No Mojo." Interview footage makes up the bulk of the program and is immensely satirical, featuring exaggerated scenes that detail Nat's uneasy habit of speaking to Rosalina (Allie DiMeco) with a fake accent to cover his attraction to her, Alex's development of a lemon-lime soda addiction that lands him in a rehabilitation Soda-holics at Sea program, and Alex's tendency toward inappropriate "potty-mouth" remarks. Obviously, guest stars like Arsenio Hall, Cyndi Lauper, and Uma Thurman found the parallels to the extreme behavior of famous adult personalities humorous, but what speaks to some as a funny spoof on the Hollywood rockumentary genre is so over-done that other viewers will find it distasteful, offensive, and/or inappropriate for children.


National Geographic - Galapagos: The inspiration for Darwin's theory of evolution, the Galapagos Islands are a living laboratory, a geological conveyor belt that has given birth to and seen the death of many species of plants and animals. As the western islands rise up from the sea offering a chance of life, the eastern islands sink back beneath the waves guaranteeing only death. Between the two are the middle islands; fertile, lush land in its prime that contains an incredible diversity of life. Nowhere else on the Earth are the twin processes of creation and extinction of species so starkly apparent... see it all unfold before your eyes in this stunning series filmed entirely in high definition from the BBC and the National Geographic Channel.


Natural: An unknown middle-aged batter named Roy Hobbs with a mysterious past appears out of nowhere to take a losing 1930s baseball team to the top of the league in this magical sports fantasy. With the aid of a bat cut from a lightning struck tree, Hobbs lives the fame he should have had earlier when, as a rising pitcher, he is inexplicably shot by a young woman.


The Pink Panther Classic Cartoon Collection, Volume 5 - Ant Aardvark: The Pink Panther: The Ant & The Aardvark Classic Cartoon Collection features all 17 episodes of the original cartoon series. For the first time on DVD, parents can relive the hilarity as these two characters go head to head.


Roseanne - Season 7: 'Roseanne' is the story of middle class family struggling with life's essential problems: Marriage, Children, Money and Parent's in Law. A classic sitcom, the story circles around the Connor family - a family of five (DJ, Darlene, Becky, Roseanne and Dan). The household's mother, Roseanne, is being accompanied in her quest to keep the family together by her sister Jackie and various friends over the years.


She-Ra Season 1 V02 Box Set: Princess Adora raises her magic sword and becomes She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe, to aid her friends in defeating the Evil Horde so their planet Etheria can be free.


Spys: Just because the CIA accidentally killed two KGB spies, the Russians want to kill two American agents. Donald Sutherland and Elliott Gould are nominated.


Threat: Deluxe Edition: THREAT is an award-winning and controversial urban thriller that has earned its maverick filmmakers both accolades and condemnations for its heady brew of street philosophy and ultraviolence. White straightedge punk-rocker Jim and black hip-hop radical Fred become friends working dead-end jobs in NYC's Lower East Side, both of them with the hope that their newfound brotherhood will bring solidarity to their disparate communities. Instead, the alliance triggers a violent race riot that spills into the city streets with devastatingly tragic consequences.


Tom Goes to the Mayor:Complete Series: Tom Peters has just moved to the small town of Jefferton, best known for its strip malls, buffet restaurants and run-down parks. Seeking to make a name for himself, Tom begins setting up meetings with the eccentric mayor of the town. Together, they develop a number of pointless ideas that never seem to go anywhere. Sometimes they seem to make things worse.


Twin Peaks Second Season: The body of a young girl (Laura Palmer) is washed up on a beach near the small Washington state town of Twin Peaks. FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper is called in to investigate her strange demise only to uncover a web of mystery that ultimately leads him deep into the heart of the surrounding woodland and his very own soul.


Volver: From two-time Academy Award®-winner Pedro Almodovar (2003, Best Original Screenplay, Talk to Her; 2000, Best Foreign Language Film, All About My Mother) comes Volver, a comedic and compassionate tribute to women and their resilience in the face of life's most outrageous tribulations. A luminous Penelope Cruz leads an ensemble of gifted actresses, including Carmen Maura (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown). Raimunda (Cruz) and her sister Sole lost their parents in a tragic fire years ago, or did they? Superstitious villagers claim that the girls departed mother, Irene (Maura), has been seen wandering around their Aunt Paula's home. When Irene appears to Sole, she explains that she has returned to set right her daughters' troubled lives and reveal shocking secrets that will impact everyone! Raimunda has "female troubles" of her own, least of which is a corpse in the freezer! Winner of numerous film festival and critics' awards, Volver is a hilarious tale of love, loss and forgiveness.


Woman Is the Future of Man: Like Wong Kar-wai and Tsai Ming-liang, New Korean Cinema luminary Hong Sangsoo marries Asian and European sensibilities. Michael Atkinson in The Village Voice cannily dubbed him "the love child Antonioni and Hou Hsiao-hsien never had," while Woman Is the Future of Man could be described as a postmodern, post-romantic riff on Rashomon and Jules and Jim, refracting an unstable ménage à trois through two misaligned perspectives. The film's ruefully comic view of modern love centers on the Mutt-and-Jeff dynamic between two mismatched buddies - tall, placid art professor Munho and short, volatile filmmaker Hunjoon - who share an inconsistent passion for the same woman, artist turned-bar-girl Sunhwa. Shuttling between the summery past and the snowy present, the two recently reunited friends drunkenly recall their failed relationships with Sunhwa, littered with broken promises, fumbled opportunities, and sexual gaucheries (no one but Hong captures the indelicacies of the bedroom with such wincingly unsanitized candor). Employing a hyper-observant camera style acutely sensitive to quicksilver shifts in the emotional weather, Woman Is the Future of Man is a wry, wistful discourse on the immaturity of men, the fickleness of memory, and the elusiveness of love.


The Good Shepherd (HD DVD): A complicated movie about the Central Intelligence Agency and its agents, The Good Shepherd isn't your typical spy movie. Though it stars Matt Damon (The Bourne Identity films) and Angelina Jolie (Mr. & Mrs. Smith, Lara Croft franchise)--actors with considerable experience in the action-espionage genre--The Good Shepherd requires that they play more subdued and (much less interesting) characters here. The movie focuses on the career or Edward Wilson (Damon), a privileged Yale graduate who goes on to help found the CIA. He is a quiet, serious, and guarded man, even in the most intimate moments with his civilian wife (Jolie, in a role that wastes her talent). Set against a backdrop of real-life events such as the Bay of Pigs, The Good Shepherd is meticulous in creating a realistic timeframe. The film gets a jolt of excitement when Robert DeNiro (in his first directing role since 1993's A Bronx Tale) peppers the screen with appearances by Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin, and William Hurt. But those moments are too infrequent. At 157 minutes long, the film is crammed with many factual details, but the characters are shortchanged when it comes to development. Viewers have to wonder why anyone, much less someone like Wilson who has everything going for him, would devote his life to a thankless job that brings so little happiness to himself and his family. The Good Shepherd is an ambitious but flawed film. The actors do a formidable job with a well-intentioned but meandering script. However, we meet so many characters and learn so little about each that it's difficult to drum up much empathy for any of them.


Gi Jane (Blu-ray): When a crusading chairperson of the military budget committee pressures the would be Navy secretary to begin full gender integration of the service, he offers the chance for a test case for a female trainee in the elite Navy SEALS commando force. Lt. Jordan O'Niel is given the assignment, but no one expects her to succeed in an inhumanly punishing regime that has a standard 60% dropout rate for men. However, O'Niel is determined to prove everyone wrong.


Identity (Blu-ray): Strangers from all different walks of life: a limo driver escorting a movie star, parents with a young son, a cop transporting a convict, a prostitute, a young couple, and a motel manager are caught up in a nasty rainstorm, stuck at a motel in desolate Nevada. Soon they realize they may be at the motel for another reason when one by one, people start getting killed off. As tensions flare and fingers are pointed, they have to get to the bottom of why they're there. Meanwhile in an undisclosed location, a psychiatrist is trying to prove the innocence of a man accused of murder in an eleventh hour trial. How these two through-lines are related can only be found in Identity.


King Arthur (Blu-ray): From the producer of PEARL HARBOR and the director of TRAINING DAY, the Extended Director's Cut of KING ARTHUR explodes onto Blu-ray Disc® in a blaze of hard-hitting action and glory not seen in theaters. Prepare for unsurpassed thrills as history's greatest legend roars to life in this astonishing new format. Now the adventure is longer, grittier and more explicit in this valiant tale of Arthur (Clive Owen), Guinevere (Keira Knightley), Lancelot (Ioan Gruffudd), and the Knights Of The Roundtable. Behold the pageantry and power of every fierce battle in spectacular 1080p, while swords clash and fortresses are pounded in thunderous 5.1 48 kHz, 24-bit uncompressed audio. Catapult your entertainment experience into another realm with Blu-ray™ High Definition!