Birthday Girl

Starring:Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, Vincent Cassel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Kate Lynn Evans, Stephen Mangan, Alexander Armstrong, Sally Phillips, Jo McInnes, Ben Miller (II), Jonathan Aris, Katya Barton-Chapple, Rebecca Clarke, Mark Gatiss, Raj Ghatak, David Mark, Steve Pemberton, Jack Pierce, Reece Shearsmith, Alan Stocks
Director: Jez Butterworth
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Customer Reviews:

A tender treatment of love.......2006-07-03

The touching feature of this film is the sense of bare truth making its way to the surface through the stereotypical muddled and superficial existence of modern teenagers (yes, I know, this does sound judgemental). Somehow even a cliche song by Robyn fits correctly into this scheme. For me the absolute gem of this film was Rebecka Liljeberg (Agnes). It is a shame though, that an actress of such immense talent chooses to work in cinema only sporadically.

5 stars as a movie with a lesbian theme; 4 stars as any movie.......2006-03-20

This is not a 5-star movie in terms of quality, but a 4-star one. But as a lesbian-theme movie, it is among the best. It deals with the topic of first love and first kiss and first relationship... It is about growing up, fitting in, finding yourself, standing up for yourself... It is sweet and angsty: you will fall in love with the characters and you will remember how it felt to have same or similar concerns that they have. Even though the two characters are totally different, their experiences are universal - I believe you will find similarities with your own young self in both of them. I was thoroughly charmed by this movie and even remembering it makes me feel warm and happy. It is a feel-good movie that I recommend!

Achingly real.......2006-01-29

'Show Me Love' is a truly beautiful and enchanting film. Despite it being based on the lives of teenagers in a small Swedish town, the subject matter is one that will strike an emotional chord with people from all age groups and all walks of life. Agnes' love for Elin is one that is bitterly familiar to everyone, however sadly, for most viewers, their tale will not end as happily as that of these two girls.

Of all the countless portrayals of teenage life that have been created by the world of cinema, none compare to 'Show Me Love' in terms of truth and realism. Within 'Show Me Love' Lucas Moodysson strikes a beautiful balance of emotion that will appeal to most viewers. He allows his characters to express passion and unrequited love, without ever slipping into overdone, Hollywood style shmaltz. Conversely he also allows his characters to undergo pain and suffering, without ever letting the tone become too bleak. It truly is a film that aches with realism.

Lucas Moodysson is an accomplished and intelligent director and one can only hope that he can reach as wide an audience as possible. He is capable of breathing fresh air into, not only the teenage movie genre, but cinema in general.

Amazing!!.......2006-01-14

I caught this show few years back and have no regrets purchasing the DVD few weeks back. The storyline is simple yet enticing. I know that I will definitely not be watching this show once, twice or thrice but many more times.

It's a show worth purchasing a new set!

A moving film about two Real girls in high skool.......2005-10-31

This film took me back in time to age 15 when the only thing that mattered was how many friends you had, how popular you were, & your status in the social pecking order. High school society is about the most meaningless, inane, irrational, and unproductive place in the world one can be. It is almost better to be dead than to go to school every day, a point that Agnes evidently concurred with (and uh, no, she doesn't die)...

This is the messed-up and decadent reality of the modern world, where youth are idle, and have nothing to do with their time except obsess over shallow, hurtful social war-games. Our society does not engage young people in helping to solve today's problems; and so, many problems (like the lost of our manufacturing in the U.S.A., or our export of jobs and careers, and the demise of the American middle class, and the environment) simply do not get fixed, and people grow up callous and uninterested in solving social problems. This film indicts the entire system of education, which needs to be overturned and revised...

I call the two main characters "Real" girls, in contrast to the other girls in this film, who are not real, but are phony, obsessed with playing the game and with getting into other people's business. I do not idealize lesbians in particular, but to the extent that they are Real and willing to buck the social system and be Themselves, they are highly Admirable.

These two girls have different personalities from each other, and it would have been really interesting to see how their relationship progressed over time. But this movie is about First Love (Lesbian), and only involves the initial stage, somewhere between Rejection and Acceptance.

I won't tell you how the movie ends, but it is very Moving and highly Recommended. I really feel for Agnes.

Average customer rating:

Why that doesn't surprise me
Enough for two good movies.
I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style
Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!
Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun

Birthday Girl
Starring: Nicole Kidman , Ben Chaplin , Vincent Cassel , Mathieu Kassovitz , and Kate Lynn Evans
Director: Jez Butterworth
Manufacturer: Miramax
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Birth

ASIN: B000067J3P
Release Date: 2002-08-13

Amazon.com

If Birthday Girl is a far-fetched thriller, it's also a slice of absurdist fun populated by some awfully interesting actors. Nicole Kidman plays Sophia, a chain-smoking, mascara-smudged, wildly sexual mail-order bride from Russia who answers an Internet plea for companionship from a lonely British bank employee, John (Ben Chaplin). For a while, the two make a startling and intriguing pair: she apparently speaks no English and he naively frets over the veracity of the Web business that brought them together. The gorgeous Kidman and sad-eyed Chaplin are briefly the engine of their own unique movie, but then the other shoe drops. Sophia, obviously up to something mysterious, is paid a visit on her birthday by two Russian "cousins" (French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz and one of his own frequent stars, Vincent Cassel, also seen in Brotherhood of the Wolf). Suddenly, John's quest for a lover becomes a web of deceit and corruption. Directed and cowritten (with his brother Tom) by Jez Butterworth, Birthday Girl is hampered a bit by sluggishness and insufficient character development. But it is also original and strikingly entertaining. Tom Keogh

Description

The irresistible Nicole Kidman (MOULIN ROUGE, THE OTHERS) powers a sexy thriller where appearances can be deceiving and nothing ends as expected! A lonely and repressed bank employee, John Buckingham (Ben Chaplin, THE THIN RED LINE) desperately wants to meet the right girl. Then, through a Russian mail-order bride service, he is introduced to Nadia (Kidman), a quiet and attractive woman who doesn't speak English. After several sensual encounters, John's fondness for Nadia grows ... until the sudden arrival of Nadia's two gregarious cousins makes John realize that he's in over his head. Acclaimed by critics everywhere, this unpredictably entertaining hit will keep you guessing as it keeps you on the edge of your seat!

Customer Reviews:

Why that doesn't surprise me.......2007-02-02

Ben Chaplin plays John, a lonely, socially inept bank teller who gets a mail-order bride, Nadia (Nicole Kidman), off the internet, even though one of his obviously compatible coworkers (Kate Evans) keeps flirting with him.

Nadia can't speak English. John is annoyed and calls the mail-order company wanting a refund, until Nadia communicates with him through the international language of heavy petting and bondage. They talk for quite a while. Still, this makes for difficult conversation at restaurants, so John purchases a Russian to English dictionary, hoping to surprise Nadia with a love letter written in Russian for her birthday.

Unfortunately, he's sidetracked by the arrival of Nadia's boisterous cousins Yuri (Mathieu Kassovitz) and Alexei (Vincent Cassel) who want to celebrate her birthday, too. There's an uneasy tension between John and the cousins that mounts with each scene until Alexei finally explodes at John after he suspects John has inferred something else about his job of smoking meats, when he literally just meant smoked meats.

Spoiler:

The next morning, the two cousins are holding Nadia hostage, with demands that John rob his bank. He's given two bulky guitar cases to fill up with cash. From this point, "The Birthday Girl" grows more and more implausible , starting as John waltzes through the bank, carrying the two cases while most of his supervisors are distracted in a stress-reducing "I'll break your fall" seminar (One person stands behind another coworker who falls backward, trusting to be caught).

Someone finally notices the empty safe, an alarm bell sounds and John's on the run, in his car with Alexei, Nadia, and Yuri. Alexei and Nadia start making out in the backseat and John realizes he's been duped. Turns out, Alexei is Nadia's boyfriend, and they've been running this scam with various desperate saps with big money connections all over Europe. Nadia isn't even her real name. They tie John up in a hotel, and John must figure out how to untie the knots, and get his life back on track. Will John and Nadia get back together? Does she really like him? Will the bad guys get caught? What do you think it takes to build a girl robot? How are your gardening skills?

Enough for two good movies........2006-08-16

Not a bad little movie but it could have been either very funny (as it starts out) or a really good suspense/drama (as it ends). But instead, its about 50% of each.

I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style.......2006-06-04

I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style over two decades ago. I suppose, though, that BIRTHDAY GIRL would feel more at home in 1981 than 2001. Perhaps it may have even felt fresh then and could have had Chevy Chase as the lead and Goldie Hawn as his comedic foil.

Instead, Ben Chaplin plays John, a banker with a house overrun by ants and an inability to find romance in his quaint English town. (I imagine that John's ant problem has some symbolic meaning but I never felt inclined to glean what it might be.) John selects a mail order Russian bride who arrives in the form of Nadia (Nicole Kidman), a dark-haired beauty who refuses to speak English. Of course, she can-we discover this at one of the many predictable turning points of the film that stick out like brightly-colored pushpins in a Romantic Comedy Road Map.

Nadia takes John on a walk on the SOMETHING WILD side, fulfilling his BDSM fantasies until the obligatory antagonists arrive. Two uninvited Russian houseguests goad the film to its inevitable turn with John stealing £90K to save his Cyrillic sweetheart. The movie continues on course with no surprises or items of interest that might separate it from any other films of its ilk.

BIRTHDAY GIRL is a lite snack of a film. It's custom made for an afternoon showing on cable when you have to do your laundry. You can toss your last load into the dryer, start up a new one, and fold your last one without fear of missing anything of great import in the time you're away.

Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!.......2006-05-03

First of all the lack of research by the film-maker is appalling! The fact that this simply could not have happened as shown detracts from any credibility the film could have had. You can NOT simply order a woman over the internet like you buy a book! Neither the USA or England will give a woman a [fiance'] visa unless the man first visits her in her country, establishes a real relationship with her & can doccument this to immigration authorities satisfaction.

As someone who did VISIT Russia and later marry a Russian, I know the facts! "Mail order brides" are just a figment of someone's imagination [maybe jealous feminists?] Yes there are agencies who will introduce you & forward your emails to a woman or women but the rest is up to you and her to decide. And NO it would not be possible to bring someone to your country unless they spoke some English! Even movies should be somewhat accurate--this is NOT!

I watched it again with my Russian wife and she was livid! She said it makes all Russians into criminals and all Brits as stupider than a box of rocks! She gave it a -5 stars! That's right negative rating. Kidman should have passed on this one & they should have hired a real Russian woman if they wanted to portray a Russian--even this badly!

Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun.......2005-08-13

For the most part the story turns unexpectedly except for the obvious part that John and the woman would end up in liking each other in the end. I was thrilled and entertained by this movie. I find the main characers not only beautiful but also act very well. I see good sense of humor, romance, and thrill in it and find it well blended to make a good entertainment movie.

Average customer rating:

i liked it..........
very good movie
Hyde makes a perfect Adam
The Real Chiaki
A slow, beautifully sentimental ghost story

Last Quarter
Starring: Chiaki Kuriyama , Hiroki Narimiya , Tomoka Kurokawa , Motoki Ochiai , and Ayumi Ito
Director: Ken Nikai
Manufacturer: Geneon [Pioneer]
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FC2EWU
Release Date: 2006-07-04

Amazon.com

Based on a manga cartoon, Ken Mikai's Last Quarter, is a live-action fantasy film with some advanced CG, making it stylistically similar to Harry Potter movies. The plot, too, is like Harry Potter's, in that teenagers navigate dream realms using magical detective work. On Mizuki Mochizuki's (Chiaki Kuriyama of Kill Bill fame) 18th birthday, she discovers that her boyfriend, Tomoki (Hiroki Narimiya) has cheated on her with her best friend. Also depressed about her mother's suicide, Mizuki runs away, and wanders into a house haunted by a spirit with whom she falls in love. Placed under a powerful spell, and consequently suffering an accident, she is hospitalized and physically near death, while her spirit remains active in the world where her ghost love lives. Multiple friends, including Tomoki and girlfriend, Hotari Shiraishi (Tomoka Kurokawa), search for ways to bring her back, which ultimately means reinvigorating her will to live. The Goth plot, not to mention the cute Goth Japanese clothes worn by the actors, makes Last Quarter the quintessential film for depressed teens. Last Quarter's positive message reminds the viewer that love conquers all hardship, and that true love is worth fighting for. --Trinie Dalton

Description

Do you believe in love after death? On the eve of her 19th birthday, Mizuki (Kuriyama) doesn't have a lot to celebrate about. Her mother recently committed suicide, her stepfamily bothers her, her boyfriend has been cheating on her and her best friend has betrayed her. Hurt and disillusioned, Mizuki runs from everything and is drawn by some unknown force to a dilapidated estate. Deep within the house Mizuki discovers the mysterious Adam (Hyde), playing a hauntingly familiar melody on the guitar. Melancholy and full of secrets, it seems that Adam, and the house, have a strange, irresistible link to Mizuki. Can Mizuki's boyfriend and a couple of well-meaning schoolchildren uncover the secret of what happened 19 years ago and free Mizuki before the last quarter of the moon falls?

Customer Reviews:

i liked it.................2007-06-24

mysterious and entertaining supernatural love story. mizuki's mother kills herself and her boyfriend is cheating on her with her best friend aya. to top it all off the reason her mother killed herself is because her father was cheating and had a child with the mistress then marries the mistress. mizuki is drawn to an old abandoned house where the meets adam who is playing a song she knows from her childhood but can't seem to remember the ending. adam lets her stay with him until one day he calls her on the cell phone explaining he has to leave. mizuki wants to go with him and he explains he will take her if she can get to the junction before the moon disappears. while at the junction mizuki ends up getting his by a car. i don't want to go into much detail but this is how it starts off and it is a great movie that i enjoy watching and would recommend.

very good movie.......2007-01-19

i bought this movie 5 days ago and watched it last night, now you have to be good at reading subtitles but i belive they should keep this stuff natural and not english dubb everything they produce so if you like live action japanese flix as well as anime, i suggest this movie.

Hyde makes a perfect Adam.......2006-12-29

Hideto Takarai, or more popularly known as HYDE, doesn't appear as much as his fans would like him to in this movie, but when he does, his acting is nearly perfect! The character of Adam suits him well. Although he's better known for his music, HYDE proves he can do acting well too.

I recommend the movie "Moon Child" if you like this one. Although, in my opinion, it's not as good as "Kagen no Tsuki ~Last Quarter~", it's a great movie for HYDE fans, as well as Gackt fans.

Whatever you do, buy this movie, and you won't be disappointed. HYDE fan or not, this is a must-see.

The Real Chiaki.......2006-09-22

I was attracted to Last Quarter for its resemblance, on the DVD cover, to quality J-Horror movies. It turned out, however, to be a tear-jerking, stunningly beautiful supernatural love story, with a haunting soundtrack. The visuals ranged from ordinary street scenes in metropolitan Japan to computer graphic altered state sequences in such a way that it became obvious that the film was making a comment on the emotional condition of contemporary Japanese youth. It is full of hope and light. The essence of this vision is unforgettably expressed in the smiles and tears of Chiaki Kuriyama. She plays a 19-year-old girl who, because of devastating emotional shocks in her own life, is vulnerable to exploitation by a couple of dead lovers attempting to reincarnate. Several highly emotional scenes in the film will, I believe, go down as classic scenes in cinema. Chiaki carries everything off with absolute sensitivity. I think she will soon establish a reputation as the most unique romantic lead since Ingrid Bergman. I suppose, however, that because her facial structure allows her to display a rather unprepossessing frown, as in Kill Bill and on the cover of i-D Magazine, she is also being thought of as a monstrously tough chick. This is not her. If you want to see the real Chiaki, watch Last Quarter.

A slow, beautifully sentimental ghost story .......2006-07-08

Last Quarter stars Hyde (japanese rock star) and Chiaki Kuriyama best known in the states for her role as Gogo in Kill Bill.

It is a beautifully filmed story. This is not an action movie. Everyone is cast very well. Also, Last Quarter is based of a manga of the same name.

The story is focused around a girl who is unsatisfied with her life. She is drawn to a mansion and finds a musician there called Adam. He is very otherworldly. Because of her discontent she doesn't want to leave and soon is unable to. After she is in an accident, her (frequently) ex-boyfriend and two other young people try to help her find her way home. Themes of rebirth and karma are expressed through her relationship with Adam.

This is a movie to watch if you are in the mood for some tears.

Average customer rating:

Why that doesn't surprise me
Enough for two good movies.
I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style
Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!
Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun

Birthday Girl
Starring: Nicole Kidman , Ben Chaplin , Vincent Cassel , Mathieu Kassovitz , and Kate Lynn Evans
Director: Jez Butterworth
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $7.49 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

To Die For
Dead Calm
Malice
Billy Bathgate
Birth

ASIN: B00006BS31

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Why that doesn't surprise me.......2007-02-02

Enough for two good movies........2006-08-16

Not a bad little movie but it could have been either very funny (as it starts out) or a really good suspense/drama (as it ends). But instead, its about 50% of each.

I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style.......2006-06-04

Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!.......2006-05-03

Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun.......2005-08-13

Average customer rating:

Her birthday, our present
A must have for Sonia fans!

Happy Birthday Sonia
Starring: Sonia
Manufacturer: Live Music DVD
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

Independently Distributed | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0007II13I
Release Date: 2005-02-18

Customer Reviews:

Her birthday, our present.......2005-11-15

Several years ago, I attended a Phil Ochs Tribute night in Greenwich Village, and was treated to an eclectic group of folk legends (including Dave Van Ronk and John Wesley Harding) and unknown (to me, anyway) acts performing some of my all-time favorite songs. One singer, however, stole the stage that night: a young woman named SONiA of disappear fear (that's how she capitalizes her name and group, and no I don't know why), who performed Phil's "Is There Anybody Here?" and had the audience actually holding our collective breath in awe of her rendition. It was one of the most electric live performances I'd ever seen, and when the concert ended I marched right down the street to Tower Records and bought every disappear fear CD I could find.

I'm a child of the '70s; growing up my musical idols were three stars who were certainly timeless, but whose stars had shone brightest in earlier decades: Phil, Buddy Holly, John Lennon. In SONiA, I found a contemporary artist with Lennon's way with a phrase, Phil's dedication to social justice, and Holly's sense of fun. From that night until this, she's been my favorite singer/songwriter, and I've enjoyed each new album from her the way a soldier enjoys a letter from home.

Subtitled "a film of a musical journey", the DVD HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SONiA includes several live performances, a few brief interviews, and early music videos from a rookie rocker, including the amazing "By Saying Nothing", a Ramones-type power number that shows SONiA in her poser days with a band called Exibit A (that's how they spelled it; you definitely have to turn off your grammar check when you write about her) in 1986. There are a couple of other vintage numbers, the rollickin' "Hey" (a stadium anthem, from our little SONiA!?) and "Unfinished Song", which places SONiA at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington in 1989.

The rest of the tracks were recorded in the past 2 or 3 years, including two versions of "Is There Anybody Here?", a song that is as heartbreakingly poignant today as it was during another wasted war 40 years ago.

Other numbers are just good ol' fashioned boogie tunes, including "Shake It" and "Dance All Night" ("I gotta go go go to the right / I gotta go go go to the left / I gotta go go go everywhere my baby tells me to"), and some romantic ballads that call for a bottle of wine and a box of chocolate-covered cherries ("You could tell me it's day / But I don't want the night to end / Watch the sun come up on our guilty-smellin' skin").

Interspersed between the songs are home-movie footage with baby SON and snippets of a recent interview, and let's just say that she's not kidding when she admits, "I'm a terrible talker." The highlight for me is when she describes the epiphany she had while watching a Spray `n' Wash commercial on TV. You don't hear stories like that every day. (To be fair, I had the opportunity to chat with her for a few minutes when she appeared in Winters, California, and she's quite glib when the cameras aren't rolling, folks.)

The DVD is probably aimed at her fans (who will enjoy it), but SONiA has a new live CD that's a gem; it's called DF05 LiVE, although to find it on amazon.com you'll have to type in DF 05 LiVE.

A must have for Sonia fans!.......2005-02-26

Having been a Dissappear Fear fan in the 1990's, I was thrilled to see Sonia back in action on this wonderful DVD. The DVD features live performances, interviews, and video footage from Sonia's childhood. Sonia's solo songs still resonate with the strong political messages that were the hallmark of her Dissappear Fear days. Her honesty is refeshing and the new songs are great! The DVD also includes old Dissappear Fear concert footage and videos which were great fun to watch. I highly recommend this DVD.

Average customer rating:

Why that doesn't surprise me
Enough for two good movies.
I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style
Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!
Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun

Birthday Girl [Region 2]
Starring: Nicole Kidman , Ben Chaplin , Vincent Cassel , Mathieu Kassovitz , and Kate Lynn Evans
Director: Jez Butterworth
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

To Die For
Dead Calm
Malice
Billy Bathgate
Birth

ASIN: B00005AFMR

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Why that doesn't surprise me.......2007-02-02

Enough for two good movies........2006-08-16

Not a bad little movie but it could have been either very funny (as it starts out) or a really good suspense/drama (as it ends). But instead, its about 50% of each.

I thought that the "gun as cigarette lighter" prop/cliché had gone out of style.......2006-06-04

Get real! There is NO such thing as a mail-order bride!.......2006-05-03

Thrilling, Humorous, and Fun.......2005-08-13

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