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Bowling for Columbine
Starring: Michael Caldwell , Dick Cheney , Dick Clark , Bill Clinton , and Byron Dorgan Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD) ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00008DDVV Release Date: 2003-08-19 |
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Michael Moore's superb documentary (following in the footsteps of Roger & Me and The Big One) tackles a meaty subject: gun control. Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation? Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan. By approaching the headquarters of K-Mart (where the Columbine shooters bought their ammo) and going to Charlton Heston's own home, Moore demands accountability from the forces that support unrestricted gun sales in the U.S. His arguments are conducted with the humor and empathy that have made Moore more than just a gadfly; he's become a genuine voice of reason in a world driven by fear and greed. --Bret FetzerDescription
Acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore (Roger & Me) takes aim at America's love affair with guns and violence in this Oscar(r)-winning* film that "demands attention" (People)! Mixing riveting footage, hilarious animation and candid interviews with everyone from the NRA's Charlton Heston to shock-rocker Marilyn Manson, Bowling for Columbine is a "brilliant" (The Hollywood Reporter) tour de force of filmmaking. *2002: Documentary Feature
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The Devil's Backbone (Special Edition)
Starring: Marisa Paredes , Eduardo Noriega (II) , Federico Luppi , Fernando Tielve , and Íñigo Garcés Director: Guillermo del Toro Manufacturer: Sony Pictures ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000274TLW Release Date: 2004-07-27 |
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Seething passions, wandering ghosts, and an unexploded bomb fill this beautifully filmed tale of war and suspense. Though The Devil's Backbone was advertised as a horror movie in the States, it's really more of a drama that happens to have ghosts in it. During the Spanish Civil War, young Carlos is abandoned at a completely isolated orphanage. The tensions therein have been building for years, exacerbated by the unexploded bomb resting menacingly in the courtyard. Bullies scheme, tempers flare, and a ghost that visits Carlos's bed seems to be the key to it all. The movie is full of excellent performances, especially by Marisa Paredes as the gruff-but-kind headmistress, Eduardo Noriega as the handyman with secrets to keep, and Federico Luppi as the benevolent professor who likes to keep deformed fetuses in jars. A rich, satisfying drama with some good, spooky fun thrown in. --Ali Davis
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Brick
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt , and Emilie De Ravin Manufacturer: Universal Studios ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000FVQM2Y Release Date: 2006-08-08 |
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High school collides with hard-boiled film noir in the twisty, cunning Brick. When he gets a mysterious message from his ex-girlfriend, a high school loner named Brendan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mysterious Skin) starts to dig into a crisscrossed web of drugs and duplicity, eventually getting entwined in the criminal doings of a teenage crime lord known as the Pin (Lukas Haas), his thuggish henchman Tugger (Noah Fleiss, Joe the King), and a mysterious girl named Laura (Nora Zehetner, Fifty Pills). Brick has not only the seductive, labyrinthine plot of a crime thriller by Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon) or Raymond Chandler (Farewell, My Lovely) but also a dense high-school version of hard-boiled lingo that's both comic and poetic. The movie unfolds with headlong momentum as Brendan manipulates, fights, and staggers his way through layers of high-school society. Gordon-Levitt is excellent; between this and the equally compelling Mysterious Skin, he's left his 3rd Rock from the Sun days behind. Also featuring Meagan Good (Waist Deep) and Richard Roundtree (Shaft). --Bret Fetzer
Description
Brendan Frye is a loner, someone who knows all the angles but has chosen to stay on the outside. When the girl he loves turns up dead, he is determined to find the "who" and "why" and plunges into the dark and dangerous social strata of rich girl Laura, intimidating Tug, drug-addled Dode, seductive Kara, and the ominous Pin. But who can he really trust? These are the ingredients of Brick, a gritty and provocative thriller that critics describe as "a clever, twist-filled whodunit!" (Claudia Puig, USA Today)
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Only the Strong
Starring: Mark Dacascos , Stacey Travis , Geoffrey Lewis , Paco Christian Prieto , and Todd Susman Director: Sheldon Lettich Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B0000DD76R Release Date: 2003-12-16 |
Description
Ex-Special Forces soldier Louis Stevens (Mark Dacascos) returns to Miami to find his former high school overrun by drugs and violence. A master of the Brazilian martial art, capoeira, Stevens pledges to straighten out a dozen of the school's worst students by teaching them this demanding and highly-disciplined fighting style. Slowly, his program begins to work, giving the students new hope and purpose. But the local drug lord, himself a martial arts expert, vows to stop Stevens' positive influence. Now Stevens must fight to save his own life, as well as the lives of his rebellious young students.
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Hackers
Starring: Jonny Lee Miller , Angelina Jolie , Jesse Bradford , Matthew Lillard , and Laurence Mason Director: Iain Softley Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD) ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: 6305047456 Release Date: 1998-08-25 |
Amazon.com
As a depiction of the computer-hacker underground, this movie is bogus to the bone. As a thriller, it's cartoonish and conventional. The premise (computer-happy kids hack into the wrong system, and the Forces of Repression come after them) is recycled from John Badham's 1983 WarGames. And the corporate-creep bad guy, played by Fisher Stevens, steeples his fingers and growls mossy villainous clichés. ("By the time they realize the truth, we'll be long gone with all the money.") For all its postmodern trappings the movie is working with sub-prehistoric storytelling tools. But it does succeed on one level, as a movie about adolescent bonding and alienation. The director, Iain Softley, helmed the Beatles-in-Hamburg biopic Backbeat, and he seems to have an instinct for the emotions that pull kids together around common interests and the insecurities that drive them apart. The familiar crises of loyalty and betrayal have an ache of real loneliness. It doesn't hurt that the two stars, Jonny Lee Miller (Sick Boy Williamson in Trainspotting) and Angelina Jolie (Gia), are just about equally gorgeous and charismatic; their longing glances steam up the screen. --David Chute
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A Holiday Romance
Starring: Naomi Judd , Andy Griffith , Gerald McRaney , Alison Pill , and Nah Joon Director: Bobby Roth Manufacturer: Direct Source Label ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000FGFBVM Release Date: 2006-06-06 |
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Over the Edge
Starring: Matt Dillon , Tom Fergus , Jeff Fleury , Ellen Geer , and Kristina Hanson (II) Manufacturer: Warner Home Video ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000A0GOEG Release Date: 2005-09-20 |
Amazon.com
Return to the pre-Internet days of 1979, when teens had KISS on their T-shirts and Led Zeppelin on their walls (wait, other than the high-waisted pants, that could be today). Richie (Matt Dillon in an electrifying debut) and Carl (Michael Kramer) are two such teens stuck in the planned community of New Granada (rural Colorado). Richie is a two-bit hood in Jackie Earle Haley (Bad News Bears) mode. Carl, his partner in mischief (breaking curfew, setting off firecrackers), comes from a more stable environment. Once a gun enters the picture, petty crime leads to tragedy and then apocalyptic revenge. Over the Edge gets the details right: the kids, the era, and their frustration with an uncomprehending adult world. At times, it almost feels like documentary, except for a few moments of high Kubrick-meets-Walter Hill drama, as when Carl gets jumped by a couple of hoods, including Vincent Spano (Baby It's You). Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused) and shot by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), Over the Edge was unavailable for too long and deserves to find the same audience as other teen rebellion classics like co-writer Tim Hunter's River's Edge. The period-perfect soundtrack ups the ante with potent tracks from Cheap Trick, the Ramones, and the Cars. --Kathleen C. FennessyDescription
"Tomorrow's city...today" is how the planned suburban paradise of New Granada promotes itself, but something has been left out of the plans. No one is paying attention to the town's teens. Jonathan Kaplan directs this hot-blooded cult classic (a 1979 London Film Festival Outstanding Film Award winner) about kids left to discover their own values and coming up with enough drugs, booze and discontent to push everyone Over the Edge. Fourteen-year-old Matt Dillon makes his screen debut as the kids' charismatic, doomed leader Richie. The anthemic soundtrack by Van Halen, The Ramones, Cheap Trick and others provide the film's rock-n-roll heart.
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Director Jonathan Kaplan, Screenwriters Charlie Haas and Tim Hunter and roducer George Litto
Theatrical Trailer
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Reefer Madness (Restored Edition)
Starring: Dorothy Short , Kenneth Craig , Lillian Miles , Dave O'Brien , and Thelma White Director: Louis J. Gasnier Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B00018D3XM Release Date: 2004-04-20 |
Amazon.com essential video
Although it was made in 1936, Reefer Madness didn't become a cult hit until 1972 when the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) rescued it from the Library of Congress film archive. Thereafter, it was a mainstay on the midnight movie circuit. And it's easy to see why. The ostensible story involves a group of upstanding young high school students who succumb to the allure of the "killer weed." What follows, as if by natural progression, is a catalog of crimes that includes hit-and-run driving, loose morals, rape, murder, suicide, and my personal favorite, permanent insanity! The action is at times so hysterical, in both senses, that you may forget to inhale. Honors go to the wild-eyed, cackling hophead David O'Brien; his performance reaches a raw intensity that is hard to imagine. One measure of this film's pervasive influence is the extent to which its title continues to be invoked in news stories about decriminalization and medical marijuana. Such posterity for unintentional humor must be rare. A great film to see stoned, man. --Jim GayAmazon.com
A propaganda film from 1936 that has become a cult hit because of its dated outlook on marijuana use, Reefer Madness is the height of camp entertainment. Framed as a "documentary," the film is narrated by a high school principal imparting his wisdom and experiences with the demon weed. The bulk of the film focuses on almost slapstick scenes of high school kids smoking pot and quickly going insane, playing "evil" jazz music, being committed, and going on a murder spree. Meant to be an important and affecting cautionary tale, this dated black-and-white film's true value is in its many entertaining moments of unintended hilarity. --Robert LaneDescription
Reefer Madness is a campy cult favorite first released in 1938 as a propaganda film meant to scare America's youth off of drug. In this quintessential classic, innocent teens partake of the "demon weed" only to find that one puff plunges them into a hilarious web of murder, sex, lunacy and jazz music.
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Millions
Starring: Alex Etel , Lewis McGibbon , James Nesbitt , Daisy Donovan , and Christopher Fulford Director: Danny Boyle Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000AP04GK Release Date: 2005-11-01 |
Amazon.com
Millions wears its heart on its sleeve, and it wears it well. Two boys, still grieving the death of their mother, find themselves the unwitting benefactors of a bag of bank robbery loot in the week before the United Kingdom switches its official currency to the Euro. What's a kid to do? Director Danny Boyle takes a simple premise and, with the help of Frank Cottrell Boyce's sweet, smart script, finds something special to say about the hopes everyone has for the future of a changing world. Brothers Anthony and Damian have vastly different agendas for the stash, and then have to deal not only with the money's original thief but with the disarming woman who seems to be stealing their widowed father. The film is full of quirks that work--seven-year-old Damian (an endearing Alex Etel) has private conversations with a collection of eclectic religious saints--and a technically spirited way of commingling both the scary realities and fanciful imaginings of young minds. --Steve WieckingDescription
From legendary director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later) comes ?a family film of limitless imagination and surprising joy!? (Chicago Sun-Times)It?s holiday season and seven-year-old Damian believes he?s received a divine gift from above when a suitcase filled with cash literally falls out of the sky. Damian is anxious to share the wealth with those less fortunate while his fun-loving brother Anthony would rather spend it like there?s no tomorrow! But when the loot turns out to be stolen, both the boys? plans are put to the test?with heartwarming and hilarious results.
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Fortress
Starring: Sean Garlick , Rachel Ward , Elaine Cusick , Laurie Moran , and Marc Aden Director: Arch Nicholson Manufacturer: Warner Home Video ProductGroup: DVD Binding: DVD Similar Items:
ASIN: B000GAKDP6 Release Date: 2006-07-25 |
Description
When a teacher and her class are kidnapped by gunmen in the Australian outback, they soon realize that the only way they will ever escape alive is if they save themselves.DVD:
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