Picnic

Starring:William Holden, Kim Novak, Betty Field, Susan Strasberg, Cliff Robertson, Arthur O'Connell, Verna Felton, Reta Shaw, Nick Adams, Raymond Bailey, Elizabeth Wilson, Rosalind Russell, Don C. Harvey, Adlai Zeph Fisher, Floyd Steinbeck, Steve Benton, Henry P. Watson, Flomanita Jackson, Henry Pagueo, Shirley Knight
Director: Joshua Logan
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.

Amazon.com

William Holden is the hunky drifter who rides the rails into a small Midwest town with dreams of landing a "respectable" job with his rich college buddy (Cliff Robertson). Kim Novak is the small-town beauty queen engaged to Robertson who falls for the cocky dreamer, as do repressed schoolmarm spinster Rosalind Russell and Novak's tomboyish kid sister Susan Strasberg. Their unleashed passions reach a crescendo at the Labor Day picnic.

Customer Reviews:

Picnic 1955.......2007-07-05

It's labor day weekend , and fresh off a freight train is Hal Carter (William Holden 1918-1981) , a happy-go-luck drifter looking for a brand new star in life . A robust , handsome show-off , Hal is coming to Kansas to seek gainful employment in his old fratenity brother Alan's ( Cliff Robertson 1925 - ) Family granary but despite his high hopes and expectations , Hal's ambitous plans soon go awrt when his sexuall magnetism attracts every woman in town , including 19-year old Madge Owens (Kim Novak 1933 - ) - the alluring young beauty queen who also happends to be Alan's girlfriend . Also Starring Rosalind Russel (1907-1976) , Arthur O'Connel 1908-1981)Susan Strasberg
1938-1999) , Nick Adams (1931 - 1968) . Picnic was nominated for six Academy Awards . Best Director (Joshua Logan 1908-1988) . Best Supporting
Actor (O'Connel) . Best Music . Best Color Art director and Best Editing . High Quality Trasnfer .

Desire under the elms.......2007-05-17

Years after become famous for his role in the film version GOLDEN BOY, William Holden was still working against being typecast in "hunk" roles, none odder than the drifter Hal in this this beautifully photographed film version of William Inge's famous drama of loneliness in small-town Kansas.There were so many younger fine actors who could have played the part--Brando, Newman, Ralph Meeker (the latter two who played Hal on Broadway)--that it's a bit astonishing to wonder what the studio saw in Holden: he's certainly got the torso for the part, but he's fifteen years older than his love interest in the film (Kim Novak) and seven years older than Cliff Robertson, who plays his college classmate--and he looks it, too. And the role of the boisterous braggart Hal is almost exactly wrong for the ruminative Holden's talents. But he's still fine enough an actor to be moving, and he and Novak have an incredibly memorable slow erotic dance to the tune of "Moonglow" at the Labor Day festivities of the film's title for which alone it is worth seeing the entire movie.

Novak is herself ideally cast as the insecure passive beauty queen Madge Owens, and she has solid support from Verna Felton as the sensible Mrs. Potts and Arthur O'Connell as the bewildered Howard Bevans. As the loud and awesomely lonely schoolteacher Rosemary Sidney, Rosalind Russell is also very well cast, although she tends to overplay her hand too much (as she always did in her later years); Susan Strasberg tries hard as Madge's intellectual sister Millie but is far too beautiful to be taken seriously as a teenage "goon." The screenplay is a bit too worked out and stagey, but the gorgeous James Wong Howe cinematography beautifully displays that midwestern American Gothic territory so peculiar to the work of William Inge--that odd and fascinating combination of wide open landscapes and claustrophobically repressed emotional space.

OK but Overrated.......2007-05-13

Given that this film was nominated for numerous Academy Awards, I was expecting something a bit better. Were it not for William Holden's acting and an innovatively shot final scene, the film would be quite forgettable.

"Picnic" is a fairly simple tale of a young lady named Madge (played by Novak) having to choose between her good-looking, stable, wealthy fiance, named Alan (played by Cliff Robertson) and a ruggedly handsome but poor new-guy-in-town, named Hal (Holdan's character). You can predict right from the start who is going to get the girl in the end.

Hal can't seem to keep a job, and so he moves to a small Kansas town seeking employment from Alan, his old college roommate, whose father owns a large agribusiness. He gets the job but then falls for Alan's fiancee, Madge (Novak), and she falls for him too. His pursuit of Madge destroys his friendship with Alan and costs him his job, but you can be sure that the film's ending is ultimately a happy one: He gets the girl.

I say the film's ending is "ultimately a happy one," but I suspect that, in real life, most women would rather have the rich guy over the poor one. Holden's character is the kind of guy a "bad girl" might have an affair with, but Robertson's character is the type that most long to marry. Films like "Picnic" push the socially damaging "Lady and the Tramp" idea that unemployed, vagrant "bad boys" make desirable husbands. If they would have made a realistic sequel to "Picnic," it should have shown Holden's character sleeping around, laying around the house drunk, sponging off Madge, and beating her because she isn't quick enough with his dinner.

oh, the good old white america!.......2007-03-09

kim novak looked like a mixture of love goddess and plump bimbo, mysteriously beautiful and overweighted with a pencil thin waistline. william holden played a gather-no-moss rolling stone bum with empty ambition, cocky, exaggerated persona.
kansas, oh, the heartland of america in the good old days. still got no immigrants yet to churn and mix up the infrastructure of the pure white society. picnic or no picnic, it's just like jane austin's novels, mother's only daydream was wishing her daughter marry into rich family, endless buying power, parties...but some devil-like black sheep out-of-towner, a refreshing bum just showed up and messed up every stereotyped routine that supposed to be business as usual match in heaven romance.
holden's role looked a bit too old if seen by today's standard. but he's one of the natural talents (except ronald reagon, of course).
a wonderful movie if it could be less predictable and formulaic.
some of the scenes, based upon today's editing angles, should be deleted without hesitation. dialog? a bit of staged, don't you think? but these are not important at all in a picnic movie.
also, great and wonderful sound track in this movie. appropriate, subtle, not overly done like what all the walter disney's production teams did to their movies, the music scores (sound track?) mimicking every movement of all of the characters in those movies is nothing but inherited from their cartoons.

Still Pretty Tense.......2007-01-16

One of my all-time favorite movies, "Picnic" embodies what a 1950s director like Joshua Logan could do with the limitations put on him not only by the watchdogs of the film industry but also by the social contexts of the times. The setting of Midwestern Kansas smalltown is a perfect metaphor for the clash between the superficial, outwardly values of the times and the raw, below-the-surface desires and passions that must be kept in check. The clash between age and repression--beautifully depicted by Rosalind Russell--and youth and possibility--seen in the characters of Kim Novak and Susan Strasberg--is another refreshing insight subtly created by the script and the director.
The 1950s shown in the film may have been repressive, but were they not a far gentler,more humanly meaningful times when the tensions of life were the sources of creativity and larger possibilities.

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

Picnic at Hanging Rock
Mesmorizingly Strange and Mysterious..!
Not Perfect, But Haunting
Pale Herzog imitation.
Wow

Picnic at Hanging Rock - Criterion Collection
Starring: Rachel Roberts , Vivean Gray , Helen Morse , Kirsty Child , and Tony Llewellyn-Jones
Director: Peter Weir
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0780021134
Release Date: 1998-11-03

Amazon.com essential video

Situated somewhere between supernatural horror and lush Victorian melodrama, director Peter Weir's lyrical, enigmatic masterpiece is an imaginative tease. The setting is a proper turn-of-the century Australian boarding school for girls, a suffocating institution built on strict moral codes, repressed sexuality, and a subtle but enforced class structure. As the film opens, girls draped in immaculate white dress prepare for a picnic at the nearby volcanic formation, Hanging Rock, and Weir hangs an air of dark foreboding over the proceeding. "You'll have to love someone else, because I won't be here very long," says one virginal girl, Miranda, to her friend. Her words are prophetic: during the picnic, Miranda, along with two other girls and an uptight schoolmistress, vanish into the rocks. While a search party repeatedly returns to the rock to look for either the girls or the reasons for their disappearance, Weir leaves the mystery unsolved. Like Antonioni's L'Avventura, the vanishing is open to numerous interpretations--both rational and illusory--but Weir drops enough allegorical clues that it feels like a parable. He transforms the landscape and weather into menacing and eerie images; outlines of faces can be seen in the rocks, while the oppressive heat beating down on the picnic doubles as an atmospheric metaphor for the girls' unbearable social and sexual confinement. These images and other plot twists toward the end hint that this mysterious vanishing, on some level, was actually a form of spiritual escape--the only out, other than death, from the film's bleak, tightly structured community. Regardless of how you see it, though, this hypnotic puzzle remains the highlight of the '70s Australian New Wave. The DVD version presents the film in letterbox form. --Dave McCoy

Description

Twenty years after it swept Australia into the international film spotlight, Peter Weir's stunning 1975 masterpiece remains as ineffable as the unanswerable mystery at its core. A Valentine's Day picnic at an ancient volcanic outcropping turns to disaster for the residents of Mrs. Appleyard's school when a few young girls inexplicably vanish on Hanging Rock. A lyrical, meditative film charged with suppressed longings, Picnic at Hanging Rock is at long last available in a pristine widescreen director's cut with a newly-minted Dolby® digital 5.1 channel soundtrack.

Customer Reviews:

Picnic at Hanging Rock.......2007-07-04

Spooky, intriguing, and transfixing, "Picnic" is a blend of low-grade supernatural horror and mystical Victorian fable, wrapped around an ineffable puzzle that refuses to yield its secrets. Weir gets a lot of mileage out of the repressive turn-of-the-century milieu, especially when it comes to hushed suggestions of sexual transgression among the vanished--and almost mythically virginal--girls, while the film's eerie pan-flute score enhances the general atmosphere of foreboding. Beautifully photographed and stubbornly ambiguous, "Rock" is an alluring choice if you're in the mood for something eccentric and off the beaten path.

Mesmorizingly Strange and Mysterious..!.......2007-06-15

I still remember first viewing this one in an "Art" theatre about 27 years ago , and have watched it since then from time to time, always finding something new and slightly unhinging. The story is told elsewhere. Last night, I really noticed such odd things as the insects eating the Valentine's Day cake, cut by Miranda the "Botticelli Angel " (actually Venus), whose disappearance is really the most disturbing to most of the characters, while the other slim blonde with the glasses is practically ignored. Nothing indicates the movements of the teacher who also disappears. Also, the other nature scenes, including a fleeting koala bear and serpent, plus the constantly eerie cloud and rock formations, add due the very strange atmosphere, along with the flute music, and fine use of Beethoven's Adagio from the 5th Piano Concerto. And the final action of the Schoolmarm? Does she feel some guilt about her attitudes and her repressive air..(Check out that really odd hair style!). The scene where the brunette (very good looking, perhaps needless to say) returns to the gym class is right out of Lord of the Flies, as the straight and narrow teacher keeps playing her piano waltz. The photography here is really unique, even beautiful, and dreamlike, as is the entire movie. Perhaps the many dreams and mirages in the story, including a long lost kid-sister, are meant to wrap the whole movie in an even weirder dream, since it is definitely tricky deciding what is real and what is imagination. But this may be the final lesson of the whole, very finely done, and very "Artsy" movie!

Not Perfect, But Haunting.......2007-05-30

"Picnic at Hanging Rock" is the relatively obscure first film by Peter Weir, who has gone on to direct "The Truman Show" and "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World." I know him best for "The Last Wave" and "Gallipoli." This film is considered his masterpiece by many film circles, but is largely unknown to most of the world. Probably because it was unavailable for years on either video or DVD and just kind of spirited away. It might also be because of the plot, which is going to be a huge let down for many people. The film takes place on St. Valentine's Day in 1900 in Australia at an all girls' school. In the opening shots, Weir establishes the innocence of the girls...In fact; he hammers it into the ground, which only reveals the sexual hysteria that's occurring among them. On this day, they're going to have a picnic at Hanging Rock, a volcanic structure that provides one of the most haunting backdrops I've ever witnessed on film. The head of the school, Mrs. Appleyard (Rachel Roberts) is portrayed as a villainous woman who tells one student, Sara, early on in the film that she won't be attending the picnic. There's no reason given why. Anyway, the group of girls arrive at the rock and four of the girls decide to go explore it. One of them returns screaming...Later, a teacher goes to find the girls. She and two of the three girls are never found. If this weren't the most talked about part of the movie you would be furious at me for revealing this information. After all, how can a movie that's built on a disappearance end with no conclusion. How can the disappearance of three schoolgirls and their teacher never be explained? "Picnic at Hanging Rock" reminds me of "L'Avventura" by Michelangelo Antonioni. In that film, a man's wife disappears and is never seen again. In an interview, Peter Weir said that he tried to make the film hypnotic enough to keep viewers in a trance trying to figure out what happened to the girls. True, we're given a lot of options and ideas. Were they raped and murdered by two men that were there? If so, why would those men attempt to find them? Did they fall through a crevice? Did aliens abduct them? When one girl is found, she's found without shoes...How were her feet unscathed by the rock? It's all creepy stuff, but the film itself doesn't fly by. It seems to me that it's got a feature-length idea, but not enough actual story to keep us (the audience) entertained. It's a creepy film that could be a lot better if remade today. Hopefully if that happens they don't change the inconclusive aspect, but merely make the film a lot more hypnotic, provide more clues for the audience to come to their own conclusion, and make a film that's a lot more entertaining than this.

GRADE: B

Pale Herzog imitation........2007-05-22

In the first half hour of "Picnic At Hanging Rock," a bunch of young girls from a disciplinarian, Victorian-style boarding school in Australia go out on a picnic (closely watched and supervised, of course) to an ancient landform called the Hanging Rock. Four of the girls decide to go off and explore the rock. For no apparent reason, they vanish, as if into thin air. One is later found, and three are never seen again, but the disappearance is never explained in the film.

At least, it's not explained with logic. But the director means to make this seemingly irrational disappearance into a symbol of the conflict between the girls' repressed youthful urges and their strict environment. The event occurs on Valentine's Day, and the film opens with the girls giggling and demonstrating their affection for one another. It all looks quite innocent, but there's a dark angst-ridden girl who writes passionate love poetry dedicated to one of the girls who disappears, which clearly telegraphs the film's point. And later on, we find that one of the strictest teachers at the school (to highlight her outward lack of emotion, she's a science teacher) also disappears at the rock, and she is last seen running up the slope while wearing only her underwear.

This setup is contrived, but it could still have been made into a compelling film. This would have required a Werner Herzog, a man who knows how to evoke a sense of savage irrationality in depictions of nature. I even suspect that Herzog's "Aguirre, The Wrath Of God" provided the inspiration for this film. In the opening scene of "Aguirre," a party of Spanish explorers slowly moves through a path in the Andes Mountains, and there is a sense that they are pushing into something vast and ancient, beyond their understanding. Peter Weir wants to do something similar in this film, but unfortunately he can't. His Hanging Rock just has no mystery in it. Actually, it looks like a fine place for a picnic. There's no hint of unknown danger. The sun is shining, the birds are out singing. The rock looks perfectly friendly, there's nothing imposing or aloof about it. Weir films it in very conventional shots. Even when his camera is moving, the rock looks static.

So, when Weir wants to create suspense, he has to resort to cheap tricks. The girls walk forward with glazed eyes and intone such silly lines as, "A surprising number of people is without purpose." They also quote Poe -- we're all "a dream within a dream," you see. Then they take off their shoes and stockings -- take that, Victorian morality! -- and spin around for a long time on the rock. A shrill flute melody plays, indicating that something weird is afoot. But there's still no feeling of danger, so one of the girls has to have a sudden fit of hysteria and run back down the slope screaming. When all else fails, go for volume.

But in some sense, this part isn't even the point, which is why it's over in half an hour. The rest of the film shows how the disappearance affects others, like the headmistress of the school or the dark angst-ridden girl or various townspeople. This is where Weir's real interest is. The disappearance itself is just a token "strange event" that creates some chaos in the orderly Victorian world, so that we might see that world's reaction. And Weir wants to show that the orderly Victorian world is completely incapable of dealing with strange events. The second something comes up that appears to have no logical explanation (and the film painstakingly explains that nobody has any idea why the girls vanished), that's it, society is completely paralyzed and soon collapses.

Sometimes this part of the film becomes sort of interesting to watch. The best scenes in the film are the ones in which Michael, a pampered mama's boy type, suddenly becomes obsessed with finding the missing girls, and charges off to the rock by himself. He only finds a piece of an undergarment, which causes him to act moody and disturbed. Since he seemed so unsure of himself before, his transformation has a certain dramatic effect. His obsession is then transmitted to his pal, a lowly hired hand, who previously didn't care about the disappearance.

But Weir isn't content with these minor changes and accomplishments, he really earnestly believes that Victorian repression leads to irrational catastrophe, and this causes him to overdo it. In the subsequent scenes, it turns out that everybody, literally everybody at the boarding school is angst-ridden, fighting dark desires, and generally losing it. The timid music teacher has fits of hysteria and ties the dark angst-ridden girl to the wall, with blatant crucifixion symbolism. The steel-willed headmistress turns to drink, and commits murder for absolutely no reason. (It really makes no sense why she'd do it when she could just have expelled her victim, which is what she was going to do anyway.) When the one girl is found and returns to the school, her classmates shriek and claw at her while the camera spins around.

Eventually, the film ends, and there's really not that much to say about it. But it's not a mystery, since it isn't tense or suspenseful, and it's not particularly emotionally moving, because by the end the characters' reactions seem completely artificial. And it's hard to call it atmospheric, because deep down, it's driven not by Nature's savagery, but by the same kind of cheap and extremely conventional rebellion as the director's later and more famous "Dead Poets Society."

Wow.......2007-04-16

This is the kind of movie no one would have the guts to make today--maybe not even as an indie movie. It's a horror movie that pretends that it's not a horror movie. Just as the girls have to pretend they are not sexual beings but this repression only ignites their sexuality further, Weir pretends this is a straight Victorian drama but that only heightens the mystery and horror further. Modern filmakers seem to have abandoned the "less is more" approach to their own detriment. People may find it boring--but it's to serve the theme. Weir tells his story the way Victorians lived their lives--with everything swept under the rug.

And there is a point to the second half of the movie. It's a retelling of the first half. Miranda and her girls are done in by the hidden mystery and supernatural cruelty of nature. Sarah is done in by the hidden cruelty of human nature which lies behind that perfect Victorian etiquette. The rock and the headmistress are basically the same character.

Average customer rating:

Babies love it!
Kids love it, a little annoying for me
I really like it
The "Saving Private Ryan" of Wigglean Cinema
Best Wiggles Video

The Wiggles - Wiggle Bay
Starring: Nicholas Bufalo , Murray Cook (II) , Jeff Fatt , Anthony Field , and Andrew McCourt
Director: Nicholas Bufalo
Manufacturer: HIT Entertainment
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Binding: DVD

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Accessories:

Playhouse Disney The Wiggles, Wiggle Bay

ASIN: B00008ODSF
Release Date: 2003-05-06

Amazon.com

With Captain Feathersword at the helm, the 21st century's Fab Four rows into Wiggle Bay for a beach party--Australian style. That means "rosey tea," a good old-fashioned "barbie," rolling down sandhills, and--since they are the Wiggles, after all--a heck of a lot of singing and dancing. When the captain forgets to tie up the boat and it floats out to sea, the foursome resorts to their motto "When things go wrong, just sing a song." But it all works out when a friendly dancing (thrashing?) mermaid brings back their vessel. This 39-minute program features 11 songs, a seashell with a message, huge dancing stuffed animals (Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, and Henry the Octopus, of course...), and Murray, Jeff, Anthony, and Greg in berets making a brief attempt to serenade Wags in French. In short, it's more fun from Down Under for kids ages 2-8. --Kimberly Heinrichs

Description

There's an ocean of adventure as The Wiggles sail into Wiggle Bay for a picnic by the sea. The fun continues as they swim in the sea and dance in the sand with their friends, Dorothy the Dinosaur, Wags the Dog, Henry the Octopus and Captain Feathersword. But there's also a wiggly mystery to solve when they discover a magic shell, a curious note and beautiful mermaid! Will they solve the mystery? Will they return a golden key to its rightful owner? Find out when you join The Wiggles for lots of music, dancing and fun in the sun at Wiggle Bay!

Customer Reviews:

Babies love it!.......2007-03-25

My little baby, who is less that a year old, LOVES the Wiggles and especially this DVD. Her attention is totally focused on the TV when this movie comes on. Although The Wiggles lack educational value, the video is great fun. There are lots of fun songs that my wife and I sing to my little daughter and we dance and just have a great time watching this video together. Even my 9 year old son, who is defiately "too cool" and too old to watch The Wiggles, sings these songs to his little sister. It's great bonding time for the family with a fun DVD.

Kids love it, a little annoying for me.......2007-01-10

The tunes can stick in your head. Not neccessarily what I want. But they do like watching it.

I really like it.......2006-11-02

We borrowed this from the library and it will go on my daughter's Christmas list. I thought this was a fun show and loved the location. The songs are fun, the guys are funny, and I am looking forward to seeing it again. I can see myself watching this with my almost 2 year old, and not minding it a bit. I didn't miss that there were not kids, but we have other Wiggles DVDs that do have kids. My husband and I were looking for something that is different than what we already have, and we found it.

The "Saving Private Ryan" of Wigglean Cinema.......2006-07-27

The parallels are uncanny. From the action-packed onslaught on a beach that begins the film to the bittersweet return home at the finale, "Wiggle Bay" is a touching homage to Speilberg's masterpiece. From the presence of a tall, dark hero (Greg Wiggle = Tom Hanks) to his motley support crew (Anthony = Tom Sizemore, Murray = Vin Diesel, useless "Wake Up, Jeff!" = useless "I won't carry a gun" writer guy) to the storyline of a small, close-knit team stranded in a foreign land, searching for the elusive treasure (Matt Damon vs. a golden key) that will enable them to return home, through their unexpected encounters with other visitors (mermaids = German soldiers) and the ultimate knowledge of our heroes' helplessness in the face of unseen, distant powerbrokers (King Neptune = Eisenhower)... "Wiggle Bay" serves as a bold and touching reinterpretation of the Best Picture winner through the lens of Australian children's cinema.

(Spielberg didn't include quite as many songs about drinking rosy tea, rolling down the sandhills or swimming like a fish, but I can only presume that oversight will be rectified in a future director's cut of Private Ryan.)

Five stars hardly seems like enough praise. Buy it now, and be touched in a way you've never been touched by Wiggles before.

Best Wiggles Video.......2005-11-02

I think Wiggle Bay is the best Wiggles video thus far. My daughter loves it and it has been a constant in our home for well over a year. She's now almost 3.

It is set outdoors and the beach scenes are a refreshing change from studio work. The songs are also favorites and it's cool to hear different tunes like "Swim Like A Fish" and "Dance The Cachinka".

My daughter wanted to be Magdelana The Mermaid for Halloween this year because she likes this video so much. So, I was happy to make her a costume. This video has also given her a great interest in the ocean which spurs many talks on mermaids, whales, dolphins, other things that live in the ocean and boating.

I love The Wiggles and never tire of them. I am glad Wiggle Bay is a favorite of my daughters because it is my favorite too.

Nick Jr. Baby Curious Buddies - Look and Listen at the Park

Average customer rating:

My 20 month old loves it
My Triplets LOVE This!
Happy Time
The best DVD
Recommened!!

Nick Jr. Baby Curious Buddies - Look and Listen at the Park
Starring: Curious Buddies
Manufacturer: Nickelodeon
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ASIN: B0002ERWUK
Release Date: 2004-08-31

Amazon.com

Based on the premise that the natural world provides youngsters plenty of opportunities to learn through their senses, Nick Jr. Baby presents Curious Buddies, a 30-minute "play-along" program designed to stimulate babies' social, emotional, cognitive, and physical development. While kids care little about such benefits, they'll love the film's live-action footage of boys and girls with brightly smiling faces playing with familiar objects, while a menagerie of pastel colored puppets join the fun. All the action occurs at a neighborhood park where kids slide, climb, swing, jump, and run. In one scene, a bounty of rubber balls keeps toddlers engaged; in another, a peek-a-boo game provides plenty of laughs. Interspersed are loving interactions between mother and baby, and minimal narration reminding youngsters to look, listen, and touch the world around them. The gently paced format is an appropriate segue from playtime to naptime as a handful of soothing, original songs reinforce themes. (Ages 18 months to 3 years) --Lynn Gibson

Description

In CURIOUS BUDDIES: LOOK AND LISTEN AT THE PARK, babies ages 3-18 months will stimulate their senses with all the different things to see, hear and discover at the park. Joining the Curious Buddies, babies can play peek-a-boo, bounce a ball, and even smell the flowers in the park environment.

Customer Reviews:

My 20 month old loves it.......2007-02-19

My daughter LOVES Curious Buddies! She loves this one because of the really good songs on it...especially the one about "Balls." I definitely recommend buying this one...as well as the "Farm" video. Those are her 2 favorites.

My Triplets LOVE This!.......2006-12-28

Great fun and learning. Can't compare with anything else out there!

Happy Time.......2006-08-15

I took a long time reading through all the reviews of baby DVD's to find one that I felt suited my niece's personality. She is a happy baby, very interactive and responsive to music - happy music. So I didn't want to go the Baby Einstein route, which was fine for my nephew, who is much more cerebral in character. One day I received a call from my niece's mother, thanking me profusely for the Nick Jr. DVD because of the immediate affect it had on my niece. The latter was in one of those inconsolable moods, having just returned from the doctors. The minute the DVD came on, however, she returned to her happy self, swaying her head back and forth to the music. The puppets are likewise very baby-friendly, providing a sense of company so that Mom can go about her business.

The best DVD.......2006-06-15

My 5 month old twins love this video! They just lay there and smile and laugh at the curious buddies and babies. I recommend it highly and plan to buy more of the curious buddies DVD's.

Recommened!!.......2005-10-07

My daughter is 13 months now. I bought this for her when she was 8 months old. I highly recommend this for anyone with an infant. Whenever she gets upset and I can't get her calmed down, I put this movie on while rocking her. It calms her down as soon as it comes on. This is one thing that I know works and she loves it! She also loves the new Curious Buddies Let's Make Music. But of all of them...Look and Listen at the park is her favorite.

Average customer rating:

Good movie
Village of the Darned
the morals issues and questions are still there
9 Eerie children.
OK movie but why was it rated R?

Village of the Damned
Starring: Kirstie Alley , Thomas Dekker , Cody Dorkin , Constance Forslund , and Mark Hamill
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 0783230427
Release Date: 1998-12-15

Amazon.com

The original 1960 version of Village of the Damned is regarded as a classic of science-fiction and horror, and it remains one of the creepiest movies of its kind. Directed with occasional flair by John Carpenter, this 1995 remake trades subtlety for more explicit chills and violence, but the basic premise remains effectively eerie. In the tiny, idyllic town of Midwich, a strange mist causes the entire population to fall asleep, and when everyone awakes the town physician (Christopher Reeve) discovers that 10 women--including his wife and a local teenaged virgin--have mysteriously become pregnant. Their children are all born on the same day, with matching white hair and strange, glowing eyes, growing at an accelerated rate and raising Reeve's suspicion that they're not of Earthly origin. These demonic brats can control minds and wreak havoc with the power of their thoughts--so of course, they must be destroyed! Only Reeve knows how to get the job done, and his performance (the actor's last big-screen role before his paralyzing accident in 1995) grounds this otherwise superfluous remake with enough credibility to hold the viewer's attention. But for the real chills, definitely check out the original version--it's 20 minutes shorter but twice as spooky. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Good movie.......2007-04-25

For some reason this movie seems to always get bad reviews from critics and viewers. I'm not exactly sure why, but I think that people expect something different from John Carpenter and this wasn't it. They compare it to his other movies rather than looking at it on it's own.

I think that the movie was great, very well done in the way that it was shot and the way that the actors portrayed each character. It's interesting to see the different twist that John Carpenter put on the original novel by John Wyndam, "The Midwich Cuckoos." The tone of the movie is very eerie, with everything shot in a sort of gray, monotone atmosphere. The leader of the children is absolutely chilling and gives a great performance. I think that she really makes the movie with how she speaks and acts throughout the film. People just aren't used to seeing some seven year old look as if she could snap you in half with a blink of an eye.. literally.

The visual affects are awesome. Who doesn't like to see crazy glowing eyes? It's just cool looking. I highly recommend this movie to anyone not looking to rip it apart just because it's not 'gory' or 'violent' enough for them.

Village of the Darned.......2006-12-12

Although the most prolific of the 70s directors who worked their way up from superior exploitation to the mainstream, John Carpenter's flame may have burned the brightest but it also burned the most briefly before he descended into lifeless hackwork. Even the more promising projects floundered when confronted with his increasingly pedestrian handling. His 1995 remake of Village of the Damned is a classic example. Ill-advisedly relocated to a California coastal town inhabited by Superman, Luke Skywalker and Crocodile Dundee's girlfriend, the special effects are more prominent and the body count is multiplied more than ten times as villagers burn themselves to death, impale themselves, doctors blind or perform autopsies on themselves, all staged with remarkable flatness and a complete lack of atmosphere or foreboding. A few good ideas are thrown in, but aside from one schoolroom sequence and the foolproof "brick wall" ending, it's desperately dull and under characterised stuff that feels like it was made by a wage slave reluctantly punching a time clock every day. More like Village of the Darned, the most mysterious thing about it is just how Michael Pare managed to get such prominent billing when he doesn't even make it past the title sequence.

the morals issues and questions are still there.......2006-09-18

this remake of the 60's sci fi classic still poses the same questions of the movie viewer as the classic. issues like conformity of innocence, fascism,communism, and the like are still there but not as much. the creep factor comes from the stated elements above. thats why the two movies the original and the remake are good sc fi b-movies they ask you thoses hard questions and not a soap opera like new battlestar galactia. i use the title the village of the damned as a metaphor for chicago because it lose a certain something like new york and l.a. america becoming grey goo of mediocrity and conformity. enough of that but carpenter is underrated to me at least because he don't turned out tendy kiddyporn horror flicks. like scream or i know what you did last summer. its real horror like full moon movies.

9 Eerie children........2006-02-27

John Carpenter directed movie based on John Wyndham's novel `The Midwich Cuckoos'. After an entire small town blacks out 10 women give birth to gifted children. Only 9 live. As the children get older people seem to be very accident prone in their presence.
Lindsey Haun as the children's leader Mara is just creepy. The one scene to best sum up the movie has Dr. Alan Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) talking to Jill McGowan (Linda Kozlowski). She's trying to convince him to teach the children separately from the normal children. Dr. Chaffee; "What could I possibly teach them?" Jill answers, "Humanity." It should've been a great movie. Unfortunately Christopher Reeve's excellent acting was overpowered by Kirstie Alley's incredibly horrible acting. Why any director would use her to play a hard shell government doctor is beyond me. This movie had four things going for it; 1. It was based on Wyndham's classic novel. 2. John Carpenter directed it. 3. Christopher Reeve stars in it. And 4. The children were just plain creepy. So why didn't it work? Kirstie Alley is one of the worst actresses ever and just ruined the Dr. Susan Verner character. Carpenter never really pushed for any suspense. More of A Sci-Fi B-movie then a Horror. Worth catching on AMC or TCM but not worthy for my collection, which is unfortunate when you consider that Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978), The Fog (1980) and The Thing (1982) along with a few others have made the list. Watch for Mark Hamill as Reverend George.
Beware the Children.

OK movie but why was it rated R?.......2006-02-01

I thought the movie was OK really, not as good asthe 1960 classic. Not even on par with Carpenter's prior work. I do love the soundtrack though, Carpenter always seems to come up with good music for his movies even when they stink.

But I really don't know why this movie was rated R. There is absolutely nothing as far as violence to warrant the rating, and certainly nothing in the way of suspense or thrills to scare anyone. This really should have been PG, but I guess Carpenter thought nobody would go see his movie if it was PG so he pushed for a R rating. Turns out nobody saw the movie either way.

Average customer rating:

Surprisingly good film
A wonderful indie flick.
Awesome
Surprisingly Cool
4 stars for a courageous movie!

Confessions of an American Girl
Starring: Jena Malone , Harmony Blossom , Erik von Detten , Brad Renfro , and Alicia Witt
Director: Jordan Brady
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The United States of Leland

ASIN: B0006HBZSS
Release Date: 2005-01-11

Description

A pregnant, idealistic teen (Jena Malone, Saved!) finds that her chaotic trailer-park existence conflicts with her dreams of having the perfect family in this quirky dark comedy. After being rejected by her jerk boyfriend (Erik von Detten), Rena Grubb (Malone) looks for a way out of her turbulent teenage existence. Pinning all her hopes on her dad (Chris Mulkey) ? who was sent up the river for murder seven years ago ? Rena convinces her mom (Michelle Forbes) to drag the whole family to the annual prison picnic. Here, against a backdrop of sack races, barbed wire and conjugal trailers, Rena finally comes to terms with her inmate father and her dreams for the future.

Customer Reviews:

Surprisingly good film.......2007-06-12

I've been a fan of Jena Malone since she started acting. I wasn't expecting too much of this film, I didn't even see it make a theatrical release anywhere near hear but I bought it because she's in it and the majority of her movies are well worth watching. We were surprised. I and my 75 year old mom watched this together and completely enjoyed it. Well done, well acted, well written. It's dark. It's funny. It'll make you think. Highly recommended.

A wonderful indie flick........2005-12-08

Dysfunctional, Open-Minded, and down right humorous describes "Confessions of an American Girl". Jena Malone (Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys, Stepmom) shines in this film, just like she always does. Two things that will always go together are Jena Malone & an Indie/Black Comedy. But I'll have to admit some of the best acting in this film was that of Brad Renfro (The Client). He plays a 'closet' homosexual, and the obvious reason he hides it is because of his "tough as nails" prison father.

A lot of the characters in this film are like a lot of people you know & see in real life. And thought most label them as poor, white trash...You discover in "COAG" that they have passionate souls too.

Also, on another note..Clifton Collins, Jr. was one of the best things in this film, and one of the funniest too. So, buy it, rent it..do what you must. It's great!

Awesome.......2005-12-02

The story is interesting and the characterare querky. Malone is great. I really enjoyed this different movie. Something that Hollywood couldnt and wouldnt put out.

Surprisingly Cool.......2005-07-29

Highly Recommended as an Example of How to Stage and Sequence a Complex Scene.

If you like black comedy, you should enjoy "Confessions of an American Girl". Rena (Jena Malone) is the embodiment of that old cartoon where the guy is sitting on the ground with a noose around his neck and a broken rope in his hand; captioned "some people can't do anything right". Rena lives in a mobile home with her somewhat "strange" family, is suicide challenged, is pregnant by a guy who doesn't want to be seen in public with her, and blames it all on the unfair eight year absence of her loving father, who is in prison for murder. Her dim idealic memories of her father are somewhat biased.

The highway and its exit ramps are metaphors for her life and her desire to end her life. The film is not quite as good as "Ghost World" but has much the same tone and feel.

Alicia Witt plays Rena's half-sister. Because Malone and Witt are arguably the most intelligent actresses in Hollywood, you immediately wonder about the wisdom of casting them as moronic trailer trash. But Malone has a special talent for playing this kind of "slack-jawed" character and Witt's standard sarcastic teen character works fine even in this environment. Their scenes together are the best ones in the film; with their reconciliation scene toward the end especially good.

Brad Renfro does a good job as Rena brother, O-Lon Jones (remember the waitress in Seinfeld's "Bubble Boy" episode) is excellent in a small role and Clifton Collins Jr. is great as Buddy, the prison trustee, who quickly sizes up the situation and sets the forces of change in motion.

While "American Girl" is an above average film, its main scene (the picnic at the prison which actually takes up the majority of the film) pushes it into cinema classic territory. This scene is an example of the way storytelling should be done, and the pacing is absolutely inspired. It is staged perfectly as Buddy orchestrates a sequence of revelations that changes all four visiting family members. Even if you hate the subject of this film it is worth watching just to see how wonderfully they manage this climatic scene. The disasterous visit over, the family leaves the prison with the statement "it went better than it could have".

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

4 stars for a courageous movie!.......2005-03-17

At first this movie seemed trite, but less than halfway into it, it became something much more. An honest look at a dysfunctional and insecure girl, her older and just downright mean half sister, her brother John, who is the calmest and simplest character ( with a dark secret ) in the movie. Her hardworking single mother ( played superbly by Michelle Forbes ) and her over the top father sent away to prison for two consecutive life terms for murder.
Jena Malone's character dreams of seeing her father, knowing him and making him proud right at the time that she realizes she is pregnant.
In one day at the annual prison picnic ( do these things actually exist? How scary!! ) the family reunites reluctantly except Rena ( Malone ). What follows therafter are numerous amounts of surprises and several laugh out loud moments. While some of this movie may be funny, this is certainly a more serious film that deals with coming of age, the longing that comes with having an absent father in a young persons life, suicide, depression, and coming to terms with one's reality and not just the dream they want.
I was amazed at how good this movie actually was. The acting by all cast members is really great and the story is not boring, however shocking or disturbing it may be, it is simply real. Possibly someone else's reality which makes it all the more interesting.

Max And Ruby - Max's Chocolate Chicken/Max's Picnic/Max's Dragon Shirt/Max's Prize/Grandma's Attic/Bunny Cakes

Average customer rating:

Max And Ruby - Max's Chocolate Chicken/Max's Picnic/Max's Dragon Shirt/Max's Prize/Grandma's Attic/Bunny Cakes

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Max and Ruby - Max's Halloween/The Blue Tarantula/Ruby's Beauty Shop/Ruby's Clubhouse/Max's Cuckoo Clock/Bunny Money
Max and Ruby - Ruby's Pajama Party
Max and Ruby - Ruby's Snow Queen
Max & Ruby - Afternoons With Max & Ruby
Max & Ruby - Max & Ruby's Christmas

ASIN: B000FKKIZM

Product Description

When Max and Ruby go on a chocolate egg hunt in the backyard they both find more than they bargained for. Includes 6 episodes: -Max's Chocolate Chicken -Max's Picnic -Max's Dragon Shirt -Max's Prize -Grandma's Attic -Bunny Cakes

Average customer rating:

actually not a cannibal movie
Fine Cannibal Film
Hmmm?.

Amazonia: The Catherine Miles Story
Starring: Elvire Audray , Will Gonzales , Dick Campbell , Andrea Coppola , and Dick Marshall
Director: Mario Gariazzo
Manufacturer: Shriek Show
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Gwendoline - Unrated Director's Cut (aka - The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik Yak)

ASIN: B0009S2KJW
Release Date: 2005-08-30

Description

en years after her ordeal in the jungles of the Amazon, Catherine narrates her grueling experience to a news reporter: At age 18, Catherine leaves her London prep school to be with her parents at their factory stationed in the Amazon Jungle. As the family enjoys a boat trip into the jungle, a tribe of headhunters ambushes them and her parents are killed. Catherine is then taken hostage by the tribe. Over the next few years, Catherine is forced to live by the tribe's barbaric rituals and savagery while always remembering who she is, where she comes from, and remaining "civilized". Until, that is, she finds out the truth concerning the murder of her parents.

Customer Reviews:

actually not a cannibal movie.......2003-05-14

i've seen many of those cannibal movies, and this movie hasn't got any cannibalism in it. tribes and gory scenes though.

i think the artwork shown here is terrible, my release is from Italian Shock and it has the original retro artwork. go for that release instead.

the movie is beautiful, with a wonderful soundtrack, and though it contains a lot of violence it is a very touching flake. if we shall call this a cannibal-movie, this is maybe the most serious movie of them all - next to cannibal holocaust.

this movie does not contain the awful mass of authentic animal killing scenes, that for example that scum Umberto Lenzi used to use in his films (cannibal ferox, eaten alive, man from the deep river). this is a low bugdet, high quality motion picture.

if you ask me, a like this movie most among those "cannibal"-movies. second comes "emanuelle and the last cannibals" and third comes "cannibal holocaust".

Fine Cannibal Film.......2003-01-03

I have almost all of the cannibal movies ever made and this is one of the most original. A girl takes a boat voyage with her parents, aunt and uncle. Her parents are killed with blowguns. A tribe of natives takes the girl captive and a warrior takes a particular liking to her, but it is said he killed her parents. There's a twist ending that wraps it up, and shouldn't be too surprising unless you forgot some big continiuity at the beginning. The girl is modestly hot and topless through most of it. This is a must-see for fans of cannibals. I guess this version by Shock-O-Rama is an official release, as it's listed here on Amazon.com.

Hmmm?........2002-01-13

This movie is basicly too lousy too be watched at all. The plot is boring and the gore and sex that might make one forget about that is badly made and occurs too rarely.
Yawn.

Average customer rating:

Another Harry Shearer Satire
Excellent writing and acting make this worth watching
Quite possibly the worst movie ever made. Really.
With this much comic talent, it should be better than it is
YOU HAD TO BE THERE!

Teddy Bears' Picnic
Starring: Gilbert J. Anderson , Bob Einstein , Morgan Fairchild , Henry Gibson , and John Michael Higgins
Manufacturer: Velocity / Thinkfilm
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0001A7UY8
Release Date: 2004-02-24

Customer Reviews:

Another Harry Shearer Satire.......2007-01-03

Hey! Let's make fun of the idle rich and politicians than run this country! Great fun and great satire from harry Shearer and his warped mind! This film did so-so in the theaters, but has a chieved a cult following thanks to harry Shearer. Get it and be prepared to laugh at all the stereotypes of the idle rich.

Excellent writing and acting make this worth watching.......2006-02-08

"Teddy Bear's Picnic" is an acquired taste. Of that, there can be no doubt. Harry Shearer injects a subtle sense of mayhem in this clever comedy that pokes fun of people who we have entrusted to run the world around us. From politicians to corporate power brokers, we either tolerate or trust them to "do the right thing." When they get together, we suspect the sort of collusion that conspiracy theorists thrive on. Instead, what we get are a bunch of spoiled power-mongers, taking too much advantage of their status in society, and the results are hilarious.

Yes, this is Harry Shearer doing what he does best - a biting satire of a small portion of our society. He has put together an eclectic cast of characters that you won't see assembled in any other movie - worth it for that alone!

If you don't appreciate subtle, borderline intellectual humor - you won't like this. The best jokes will be lost on you. But if you are the type of person who laughed at Dennis Miller's references on Monday Night Football, you should love this.

Quite possibly the worst movie ever made. Really........2005-09-28

Words can not do this travesty justice, but here's one small indicator. On the Rotten Tomatoes web site, "Teddy Bear's Picnic" scores a "0" (out of a possible 100). That means not a single movie critic gave it a positive review. Watching this car-wreck-of-a-movie, you understand why. What a waste of talent. What were they thinking? More to the point, what the heck were they smoking????? This is a true piece of dog poop! Isn't it interesting that Christopher Guest wanted nothing to do with this. Good move, Chris!!!!!!!!

With this much comic talent, it should be better than it is.......2004-07-02

I went into this film with very high hopes seeing as how it is a who's who of today's best comedic talent: Michael McKean ("Best In Show"), Kenneth Mars ("Young Frankenstein"), Howard Hesseman ("WKRP in Cincinnati"), David Rasche ("Sledge Hammer"), John Michael Higgins ("A Mighty WInd"), Henry Gibson ("Laugh In"), Robert Mandan ("Soap"), George Wendt ("Cheers"), Bob Einstein ("Curb Your Enthusiasm"), Fred Willard ("Anchorman"), John O'Hurley ("Seinfeld"), & Larry Miller ("Waiting for Guffman"). In a movie about corporate fatcats and politicians escaping to a top secret getaway where they act like frat boys! All written and directed by Harry Shearer, one of the men behind "This Is Spinal Tap" and the voice of numerous "Simpsons" characters! How can you go wrong?

See this fillm and find out. With this much pedigree, it should've been wet-your-pants funny. It turned out mildly amusing. Unfortunately, all the blame rests on the usually reliable Shearer's shoulders - his humor is often very clever if not laugh out loud funny, but here it even fails to be especially clever. It's not even especially funny in a dry way. And his directions does nothing to elevate the material. The cast of pros elevates the material as much as they can, which isn't much. A disappointment. Catch it on cable, perhaps, or rent it for $1.00.

YOU HAD TO BE THERE!.......2004-04-29

When I was at the Bohemian Grove. Neil Armstrong was there, just a year after he stepped on the moon. He speech by the lake was called "The Food of The Future: Oil". Honestly! Even the fat cats around me were moaning on their way back to peeing on the redwoods.

Henry Kissinger was there, too. He began his speech talking PEACE, but morphed into a comparison between our bomber fleet versus Russia's, and ours was smaller. "Vee need more bombah's".....

I was more disappointed that Armstrong never mentioned the moon once. Kissinger was predictable - he'd already bombed Cambodia.... Kissinger can't go to several countries, now, or he will be arrested.

Years and years later, Harry Shearer attended the Grove as a guest.

Perhaps if you are not into the dry humor of the Best In Show/Waiting For Guffman/Spinal Tap/Mighty Wind genre, you would never be able to "get" this movie as well.

If Mr. Barret only shares his name with the Pink Floyd founder, his perceptions (and spelling/grammar) are equally as.....psychadelic! Well, everyone to their own....perception.

Anything that pokes ANYTHING at the Bohemian Club is alright with me.

Picnic at Hanging Rock [Region 2]
Average customer rating:

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Mesmorizingly Strange and Mysterious..!

Not Perfect, But Haun