The Outsider

Starring:Timothy Daly, Naomi Watts, Keith Carradine, David Carradine, Thomas Curtis, Brett Tucker, John Noble, Grant Piro, Peter McCauley, Jason Clarke, Todd Leigh, Aaron James Cash, Simon Watts (II), Eamon Farren, Kim Knuckey, Mick Roughan, Kathryn Smith, Barry Thurlow, David White (XXXVII), Geoff Lyall
Director: Randa Haines
Studio: Showtime Ent.
Product Type: DVD

Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition)

Average customer rating:

Disappointed in Disney
Keep Your Mind Wide Open
Remember when you could fly?
You have not stumbled into Narnia--don't believe the trailer
Watch this movie

Bridge to Terabithia (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Josh Hutcherson , AnnaSophia Robb , Zooey Deschanel , Robert Patrick , and Bailee Madison
Director: Gabor Csupo
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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Ghost Rider (Two-Disc Extended Cut)
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Happy Feet (Full Screen Edition)

ASIN: B00005JPL5
Release Date: 2007-06-19

Amazon.com

Based on Katherine Paterson's young-adult novel and filmed in picturesque New Zealand, Bridge to Terabithia has lessons to impart about empathy and self-expression, but the tone is never heavy-handed. Jesse (sleepy-eyed Josh Hutcherson, Zathura), a fifth-grade loner, lives in the country with his parents and four sisters, including pesky May Belle (Bailee Madison), who adores him. His strict father (Robert Patrick, The Terminator 2) works in a hardware store. Money is tight and classmates make fun of his hand-me-downs, so Jesse finds refuge in running and drawing. Everything changes when two writers and their daughter Leslie (wide-eyed AnnaSophia Robb, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) move in next door. Leslie is faster than all the boys, which initially puts Jesse off, but the two soon bond over their love of make-believe. In the forest, they find a creek that can only be crossed by rope. Leslie names the land on the other side Terabithia, where they imagine themselves rulers of the kingdom. Jesse and Leslie also connect with their unconventional music teacher, Ms. Edmonds (Zooey Deschanel, Elf), who encourages their creativity. Despite the tension at home, Jesse's personal life is finally coming together when the unthinkable happens. Will he revert to his anti-social ways or will he grow from the experience? Though aimed at all ages, pre-school students may find Terebithia's creatures frightening. For grade-school kids and up, however, there's much to savor in this smartly written, sensitively acted film. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed in Disney.......2007-07-06

I've never written a review, but feel compelled here. The fact that it was depressing set aside (if I want this type of tragedy, I'll watch the evening news), I was disappointed in some of the lessons taught.

Specifically, making revenge look good is not a good ethic to teach your children. I had hoped that Jess and Leslie were somehow different from the other kids and above doing that. Also, I felt the movie made light of the situation where a child confesses her father has beaten her. Children should learn that a situation like that should be reported to a trusted adult.

Keep Your Mind Wide Open.......2007-07-06

Jesse Aarons is looking forward to becoming the fastest runner in his school. But new girl and new next door neighbor Leslie Burke is even faster. A fast friendship develops between the two, and they create together a land of imagination, a land of trolls and ogres and creatures, a veritable kingdom.

Leslie Burke maintains a positive attitude even though she gets picked on at school.

The creatures in Terebithia resemble some of the kids at their school, not only in appearance, but in character.

The movie is all about keeping your mind wide open to a world of imagination and creativity. It's about learning to see things and appreciate them the way you never did before.

A nice film for kids and grownups alike!

Remember when you could fly?.......2007-07-06

As a young boy I often had dreams of flying. The dreams were so vivid that even today I'm not entirely certain that I didn't fly. Disney has created another masterpiece based on a wonderful book. When a young boy living on a farm has only his little sister rooting for him when he foot races, he resigns himself to fantasy in his drawings. Soon new neighbors move in and a girl his own age shows up at school. There is something quite different about her. She writes with the imaginative vision of a great author. As they become close friends and share their dreams of Terabithia, they also grow in their relationships with others. Understand that unfortunately life is not always kind. Disney like they did in "Eight Below" show us that when there is loss of life, we must continue on and remember those we've lost in what we do. I rented this, but I will no doubt buy the DVD now that I have seen it. I highly recommend this movie for the whole family.

You have not stumbled into Narnia--don't believe the trailer.......2007-07-06

This is a coming of age movie, and as that succeeds well. However it is NOT a fantasy movie as portrayed in the trailer: the fantasy elements only make up about 10 minutes of movie time.

Take your pre-teens, not your younger kids looking for a good fantasy.

Watch this movie.......2007-07-05

I am a teenager so I watched this movie with my little brothers and sister, but it turned out being one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. It drew me in really quickly and the young stars did an incredible job of acting. At first I didn't really like this movie (I couldn't stop crying for nearly half an hour) but in the end I thought it was really amazing.

Bridge To Terabithia (Full Screen Edition)

Average customer rating:

Disappointed in Disney
Keep Your Mind Wide Open
Remember when you could fly?
You have not stumbled into Narnia--don't believe the trailer
Watch this movie

Bridge To Terabithia (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Josh Hutcherson , AnnaSophia Robb , Zooey Deschanel , Robert Patrick , and Bailee Madison
Director: Gabor Csupo
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Night at the Museum (Widescreen Edition)
Ghost Rider (Two-Disc Extended Cut)
Eragon (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Charlotte's Web (Widescreen Edition)
Happy Feet (Full Screen Edition)

ASIN: B000OYCM5I
Release Date: 2007-06-19

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Disappointed in Disney.......2007-07-06

Keep Your Mind Wide Open.......2007-07-06

Remember when you could fly?.......2007-07-06

You have not stumbled into Narnia--don't believe the trailer.......2007-07-06

Watch this movie.......2007-07-05

Average customer rating:

great movie!!
lbuggie's review
Step Up
Fun and hip
Step Up

Step Up (Widescreen Edition)
Starring: Charles Hawkins , Heavy D , Sophie Jeanne , Steven Rodriguez , and Adam Shankman
Director: Anne Fletcher
Manufacturer: Touchstone / Disney
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Take the Lead
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Invincible

ASIN: B000J3OTSM
Release Date: 2006-12-19

Amazon.com

Step Up happily joins the long line of movies intoxicated by sexy bodies in motion. When an overachieving dancer (Jenna Dewan, Take the Lead) at an East Coast art school loses her partner just before a big showcase, her only possible replacement is a young tough (Channing Tatum, She's the Man) doing community service as a janitor. From there, Step Up slams together a folio of cliches, from prissy-rich-girl-gets-loosened-up-by-poor-boy to hoodlum-learns-the-error-of-his-ways-through-personal-tragedy to artist-discovers-his-voice. It's set in one of those performing arts schools where the students burst into spontaneous synchronized dance at parties. But Step Up, directed by choreographer Anne Fletcher, has a relaxed kinetic momentum and enough texture to give the nonsense just a hint of realistic grit. More than anything, Step Up shows off hunky Channing Tatum. With his sleepy eyes, broad jaw, and sloping neck, Tatum looks like an Easter Island statue come to life. His acting range may be limited, but Tatum has a definite lazy charisma; even when dancing full tilt, he looks like he just woke up and is still dreaming of the night before. Step Up also features Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) as the requisite tough-but-loving-authority-figure. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Incredible dancing and awesome music fuel STEP UP, the exhilarating and inspiring movie starring Channing Tatum (SHE'S THE MAN, COACH CARTER) who sizzles as Tyler Gage, a rough and streetwise hunk with raw talent. When Tyler finds himself doing community service at a school for the performing arts, he also finds Nora, a beautiful and privileged classically trained dancer who's searching for a temporary replacement for her injured dance partner. Spying Tyler's smooth moves, Nora decides to take a chance on him. But as they begin training, tension builds, tempers flare and the differences in their backgrounds explode — igniting this electrifying tale about not giving up on your dreams.

Customer Reviews:

great movie!!.......2007-06-11

my daughter and i love this movie. she has watched it over and over even with the commentary! she is 14 and i am almost 40 and we both agree that it was very good. we like music and dance. and channing tatum is a good actor and good looking too!

lbuggie's review.......2007-05-29

I saw this movie just this past week-end and I must say, I really liked it! My favorite part was when Tyler and Nora first danced together in the spot their friend Lucy sang at with her boyfriend, the jerk. Same ol' plot, but different in it's own unique way.

Step Up.......2007-05-28

I am an admitted dance-film addict. Moreover, I am fixated with Channing Tatum, mostly because he is exceedingly hot (that is a scientific term). Obviously I enjoyed the movie, although I prefer the preppy Channing of "She's the Man". Still, the film was fun and entertaining and while no one is going to win any academy awards it is an enjoyable feel-good movie all the same. If you like dancing movies, you will enjoy this one.

Fun and hip.......2007-04-14

Channing Tatum as Tyler Gage gives a great performance in this fun movie. The basic idea is a bit contrived, but it works: a no-gooder teenager with a knack for rap is reluctantly coopted by a beautiful dancer in need of a partner. He will of course help her jazz up her act, she will make him a better man, and they will fall in love. Aside from annoying zigzags in Tyler's commitment (one slip is OK, but three?!), the script pulls us in. It is helped by a lot of dancing, not always great but always energetic. Rachel Griffiths is excellent in the minor role of the principal of the art school.

Step Up.......2007-04-13

I enjoyed this movie. I finally got to see Channing Tatum show his true talent. Jenna is also awsome in this. Every film that I've seen her in she never fails to deliver a good performance. This movie touches on a group of kids from different sides of the track, but are brought together by common bonds, music and dance. I also enjoy the bonus features of this movie, videos and submission tapes.

Average customer rating:

Great show! Well worth five stars!
Ghost Dog with Forest Whitaker
Breathtakingly Poignant and Spiritually Enlightening
Become one with your inner self
Big yawn!

Ghost Dog - The Way of the Samurai
Starring: Forest Whitaker , John Tormey , Cliff Gorman , Dennis Liu , and Frank Minucci
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
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Dead Man
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ASIN: B00005QCVX
Release Date: 2001-08-14

Amazon.com

Forest Whitaker makes an unlikely modern samurai with his laser-sighted pistols, shabby street clothes, and oddly graceful gait--but then Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai is an unusual film. Quirky, contemplative, and at times absurd, it's just the kind offbeat vision we've come to expect from the fiercely independent Jim Jarmusch (Stranger than Paradise, Dead Man). Whitaker is Ghost Dog, a mysterious New York hit man who lives simply on a tenement rooftop and follows a code of behavior outlined in Hagakure: The Book of the Samurai (passages of this book are interspersed throughout the film). When the local mob marks him for death in a complicated code of Mafiosi-style honor, Ghost Dog sends a cryptic message to his foes. "That's poetry. The poetry of war," remarks mobster Henry Silva, with sudden respect upon reading the verse. He could be describing the ethereal beauty of Jarmusch's vision, full of wonderful imagery (a night drive across town seems to float in time) and off-center humor. Though it briefly stalls in a series of assassinations (Jarmusch is no action director), it settles back into character-driven drama in a quietly epic showdown, equal parts samurai adventure, spaghetti western, and existential crime movie. The film is likely too unconventional and offbeat for general audiences, but cult-movie buffs and Jarmusch fans will appreciate his idiosyncratic vision. He finds a strange sense of honor in the clash of Old World traditions, and salutes his heroes with a skewed but sincere respect. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews:

Great show! Well worth five stars!.......2007-06-18

There isn't anything I didn't like about this film. Good old Forrest comes through with another superb performance and makes his character very believable. He portrays Ghost Dog - a very intelligent and thoughtful fellow - in such a way that this individual could be a very likely manifestation within the environment the story takes place in.
Equally, there is no wild and absurd special effects to mar the flow or the potential realism; no fancy super-duper martial arts moves to turn what you're watching into a farce. Ghost Dog is careful. He's deliberate. He consciously regulates his behavior and tries to adhere to the code of the Samurai. He comes across as being quite human - a person who has developed a psychological mechanism to allow him to cope and survive within a depressing and dangerous environment.
There's some humor in this movie too, as well as some telling symbolism. The scenes generating the "feel" of the show are quiet, seedy, gritty, and earthy, and when all these elements are combined with the performance of the cast it makes for a very well-done production.
Too bad there isn't more of this type of show and less of the mindless, ultra-violent, formula-type [....] that is spewed out by the cocain-sniffing hacks in Hollywood year after year.

Ghost Dog with Forest Whitaker.......2007-05-22

This is a very good film. The uniqueness of Whitaker's real-life persona enhances the unique character he brings to the screen. Ghost Dog displays all the discipline of a martial arts master but with a gun in hand. From this perspective he is far removed from the on-screen likes of Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly and Jet Li but equally as deadly. The film does not hide the fact the methods of destruction used by Ghost Dog are not only outlandish but straight out of a cartoon fantasy. This adds to its entertainment value: we know we're being taken for a ride. It's a fun trip. Whitaker's supporting cast round out this excellent ensemble work.

Breathtakingly Poignant and Spiritually Enlightening.......2007-05-05

Yesterday I tried in vain to encourage some of my friends, who had never even heard of Ghost Dog, to plan on watching it someday, and I obviously failed to give them even a mere glimpse of the magnitude of the story and its central character, Ghost Dog!

One friend said, "I can't believe you would enjoy a movie about an assassin! It seems so unlike you."

Yes, this is a movie about an impoverished, urban Black man, who survives by doing hits for his local Mob, but it is so much more, that it ranks right up there at the top of my favorite movie list.

Raised by a movie loving father who early on introduced me to independent American films and international films, such as Rashomon, with Tashiro Mifune and the French film, The Red Balloon, the sweetness of this very spiritual movie lives on and is one I know I will never forget.

I was already a Forest Whitaker fan, when I saw Ghost Dog for the first time, but since then, he has been firmly established, in my opinion, as one of the most poetic actors of our age. In this movie, he communicates at the highest levels of consciousness...sometimes by staying silent.

Ghost Dog is a masterpiece. Don't deprive yourself...rent it. Or better yet, buy it!

Become one with your inner self.......2007-03-12

This movie is better than expected. Forrest Whittaker seems miscast for this role, but he really is tremendous as Ghost Dog. And don't worry, there's no scenes of him slicing down evil hordes with his blade. That might be silly.
The story fuses elements of the mafia, gangster, and the way of the samurai. Ghost Dog is a hired mercenary that studies the great ancient culture of the samurai. He's definitely more dangerous with a gun than with his sword, and his dedication to his craft is amazing.
The mafia clan in this movie are intentionally laughable, a far cry from the Sopranos.
Ghost Dog also features a superb soundtrack of classic hip-hop. The rhythm and the beats coincide perfectly with the flow of the plot.
This is a different type of movie, better than you might expect.

Big yawn!.......2007-03-12

I fell asleep during this movie and didn't bother to try to finish it. The story was incredibly slow and boring. Forest Whitaker's performance as a samurai is laughable. He just looks rediculous through the entire film. The mobsters in the movie are just corny Italian stereotypes. This movie was a waste of space on my Netflix queue. But on the bright side, RZA did the soundtrack and that may be worth checking that out.

Average customer rating:

great movie!!
lbuggie's review
Step Up
Fun and hip
Step Up

Step Up (Full Screen Edition)
Starring: Charles Hawkins , Heavy D , Sophie Jeanne , Steven Rodriguez , and Adam Shankman
Director: Anne Fletcher
Manufacturer: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Touchstone
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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John Tucker Must Die
Take the Lead
Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)
Invincible

ASIN: B000J3OTTQ
Release Date: 2006-12-19

Amazon.com

Description

Customer Reviews:

great movie!!.......2007-06-11

lbuggie's review.......2007-05-29

Step Up.......2007-05-28

Fun and hip.......2007-04-14

Step Up.......2007-04-13

Average customer rating:

What a western romance!
The outsider
Great Movie!!!
The Outsider
The Outsider DVD

The Outsider
Starring: Timothy Daly , Naomi Watts , Keith Carradine , David Carradine , and Thomas Curtis
Director: Randa Haines
Manufacturer: Showtime Ent.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Straight From the Heart
The Hired Heart
Thicker Than Water
The Trail to Hope Rose
Love Comes Softly

ASIN: B0000C2IR4
Release Date: 2003-11-18

Customer Reviews:

What a western romance!.......2007-04-29

This movie is so moving you feel everything the characters feel. I watched this movie three times when I first sawit.I taped it so I could skip past the commericals that are so distracting to the viewer. The story was so believeable and I loved the chemistry between Daily and Watts. They should team up again. I just really loved it so much I had to buy a new copy. If you like made for Hallmark movies you will love this movie.
Sallie Wilkins

The outsider.......2007-03-31

I loved this movie. I did not think I would even like it. I am glad to say I was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Great Movie!!!.......2007-02-15

I enjoy westerns and this one was really good. Plus, Timothy Daly was great in this role. Also, Naomi Watts was in this and this was before King Kong. This would be a great buy for any movie lover.

The Outsider.......2007-01-29

I was pleased with the quality of the DVD, and the timely manner that it arrived.

The Outsider DVD.......2007-01-12

In surfing through the channels one day, I came across this movie, and thoroughly enjoyed the portion I watched. I then decided to order the movie for my own personal collection so I could watch it from the beginning. I later discovered the book was on my own reading shelf, so I now have the book and movie. The moral of the movie: Don't judge others on outside appearances only.

Average customer rating:

im satisfyed but............
1950s paranoia just misses the mark
Dead Man, Haunting
A great movie to relax and watch
Tracy's one-armed lawman against one of Robert Ryan's inimitable villains...

Bad Day at Black Rock
Starring: Spencer Tracy , Robert Ryan , Anne Francis , Dean Jagger , and Walter Brennan
Director: John Sturges
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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Advise and Consent
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Judgment at Nuremberg

ASIN: B0007TKNH4
Release Date: 2005-05-10

Amazon.com essential video

One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, this drama directed by 1950s action maestro John Sturges (The Great Escape) stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. Seeking a hotel room and the whereabouts of an ethnic Japanese farmer named Komoko, MacReedy runs smack into a wall of hostility that escalates into serious threats. In time it becomes apparent that Komoko has been murdered by a local, racist chieftain, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who also plans on dispensing with MacReedy. Tracy's hero is forced to fight his way past Smith's goons (among them Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin) and sundry allies (Anne Francis) to keep alive, setting the stage for memorable suspense crisply orchestrated by Sturges. Casting is the film's principal strength, however: Tracy, the indispensable icon of integrity, and Ryan, the indispensable noir image of spiritual blight, are as creatively unlikely a pairing as Sturges's shotgun marriage of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews:

im satisfyed but...................2007-05-21

hi thanks for your best services i recived my dvd cd of BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK within time in mumbai india, but sir the money is didected from my 2 credit cards for 2 dvd cds. and i got only 1 dvd cd. so plz try to send another dvd cd of the same as soon as possible

im happy with your services and thinking to place some more orders
thanks SUBHASH JADHAV

1950s paranoia just misses the mark.......2007-04-19

an interesting take on small-town paranoia, as an entire community is subsumed by the attempt to cover up an old murder in the mistaken belief that they are about to be found out. spencer tracy plays the unwitting investigator, with robert ryan his principal antagonist and dean jagger, walter brennan, lee marvin, and ernest borgnine among a cast of familiar faces either proactively or tacitly hiding the truth. sad to say, director john sturges (whose work on films like "great escape" or "gunfight at the ok corral" i admire) was not up to the themes involved here, and what could have been a great political thriller instead is merely a good adventure pic -- but hey, thats not bad either ...

Dead Man, Haunting.......2007-03-02

I've tried to find a copy of Howard Breslin's short story to round out the sense of dissatisfaction I found with this film. Thus far, BAD DAY AT HONDO appears to out of print, but the next best thing is the shooting script which is available online. A side-by-side comparison of script and film reveals a great many omissions and revisions that make for a kind of open-source experience, and many of the peculiarities in the film are justified in the script. I believe the longer film would have been significantly better, but the one we have is Plenty-stimulating.
Dore Schary also produced GO FOR BROKE, a 1951 film that tells the very poignant tale of 442nd RCT Japanese-American volunteer GIs in Italy and France, and works as a fine prequel to BLACK ROCK by grounding Macreedy's rationale for coming to a hostile, flyspeck cowtown (where you'll never see a horse) and probing buried animosities until they gush with fresh blood.
The very literate script for BLACK ROCK also brings a satisfying roundness to the dimestore loafers (Marvin and Borgnine), while making Francis necessary and every other speaking role more plausible and real, most especially Macreedy.
It WAS explosively subversive, and it still is, despite the fact that this film that bristles with subtext was meant to contain much more than was shot (or much more that was left on the cutting room floor).
I also think the score is tremendously manipulative, instructing us when and what it insists that we feel. All in all, it's a truly fascinating Grade B Cinemascope launchpoint with a shower of rising and radiant stars
(how many oxymorons can I pack into this sentence?)
for thought about film, politics, culture and pretty much everything!

A great movie to relax and watch.......2007-01-10

I loved this movie and had waited for the dvd to finally come available. It is clear and a wonderful copy of the first reel that ran in the movie houses. The action is strong and never dull and ofcourse the actors are some of the greatest in Hollywood at that time. I don't believe the movie is based on a true life fact , however it could have happened and that is what I liked about it. It is easy to put yourself in Macreedy's {Spencer Tracy} position and then ask yourself "what would I do". It is a class A movie in every detail. I watch it offen . Hope you enjoy it as well. Wiley

Tracy's one-armed lawman against one of Robert Ryan's inimitable villains..........2006-12-18

John Sturges' "Bad Day at Black Rock" is a great contemporary Western nominated for three Academy Awards, and set on one sunny morning in 1945, when the Santa Fe train pulls in and John Macreedy (Tracy) gets off...

Macreedy is a challenging fellow with only one arm... He is looking for a Japanese farmer in order to give him his son's posthumous Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism... The miserable-looking town is under the thrall of an ungracious boss-man (Ryan) and his two rough henchmen (Borgnine and Marvin).

Brooding silences, with intimidations of an explosive climax at any moment, characterized Tracy's performance and the movie itself, keeping audiences in suspense and exhibitors out of the red... Sturges imposes cool, hard, detached style, emphasizing action, excitement and the rugged environment of the unequivocal title, endorses the point...

In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger

Average customer rating:

Darger Inspires, Film-Maker Not So Much
Henry da Man
Unreal world? Or was Henry Darger an Ultra-Realist?
Fascinating Study of Adult Sexual Ignorance or Immaturity
Very Bizarre...

In the Realms of the Unreal - The Mystery of Henry Darger
Starring: Larry Pine , Dakota Fanning , Frier McCollister , Wally Wingert , and Janice Hong (II)
Director: Jessica Yu
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Henry Darger: Art and Selected Writings
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ASIN: B00094ARX2
Release Date: 2005-06-21

Description

Henry Darger, an elderly recluse, spent his childhood in Illinois's asylum for feeble-minded children and his adulthood working as a janitor. He lived a quiet, nearly solitary existence, but his imaginary life was exciting, colorful and sexually provocative. When he died in Chicago in 1973, his landlady discovered in his room 300 paintings, some over 10 feet long, and a 15,000-page illustrated novel (The Realms of the Unreal), which told the epic story of the virtuous Vivian Girls leading a child slave revolt against the evil Glandelinians. Featuring Dakota Fanning (Hide and Seek) and Larry Pine (The Royal Tenenbaums) as narrators and imaginative animation of Darger's work, Oscar® winner Jessica Yu (Breathing Lessons) brings to life one of the twentieth century's greatest self-taught artists.

Customer Reviews:

Darger Inspires, Film-Maker Not So Much.......2007-06-26

Henry Darger is very inspirational. To characterize his art, as some have, as an offshoot of mental illness is insulting to Darger's legacy. Because he was different, solitary, does not make him mentally ill - he seemed to function as a person, hold a job, etc - why does this make him insane? Choosing solitude should not be considered an illness.

The director took too much liberty in the choice to animate his drawings, and did it badly, to add insult to injury. Underemphasis on the Catholicism is also a problem. I hate to bring it up, but perhaps being Asian might be a slight barrier to fully understanding the Catholic aspect.

The little girl voice is especially irritating, as it sounds like she needs to blow her nose really badly throughout all her narrations. I kept wanting to shout "Hey, somebody get the litte girl a kleenex!"

Henry da Man.......2007-05-14

I feel totally inspired by this documentary about Henry Darger, orphaned and victimized by child-slavery. That he could express his innermost needs thru his personal art and writings, never making art because he desired any sort of admiration from others. I find the story so touching, yet funny that he really didn't realize that little girls don't have penises~~or who knows, maybe he fantasized that they did! His art was his own and nobody else's. For those of us who have felt such intense isolation from others, here is a hero!

Unreal world? Or was Henry Darger an Ultra-Realist?.......2007-04-13

This is a fascinating film of one of the 20th Centuries most important artists: Henry Darger. Filmmaker Jessica Yu had some hard choices to make, but presents a Darger self portrait, an observers portrait, and partial exploration of Darger's interior world in the film's three narrative veins.

My own criticism, and this is frankly a minor quibble, is that too little is made of Darger's Catholicism. Henry Darger assisted (read: attended) at Mass sometimes five times a day, this in addition to his life's work, and his job, and his weather observations. Too little is made of this dimension of Darger's self-construct and in the way others saw him.

But this is a forgivable flaw. Jessica Yu's portrait is an excellent first approximation of a fascinating artist and man, and her film invokes the lesson amplified by Walker Percy and commanded by the Church: there is an infinity in any human soul. May we meet Henry Darger in paradise now that we have been given the grace to see his interior world this side of the veil.

Fascinating Study of Adult Sexual Ignorance or Immaturity.......2006-08-26

To me, the most fascinating aspect of this movie is that Henry seemed to be utterly ignorant of the differences between boys and girls. When I was growing up, nudity between the sexes was utterly taboo - we had to be very careful to explore each other without alerting out parents. Those little kids who did not have or take those opportunities invariably said the sexual differences were that boys had short hair and wore pants and girls had long hair and wore dresses. Henry either never was able to see the physical differences between the sexes, or he did so late he was psychologically unable to accept the differences. Thus, he drew his naked little girls as he would have imagined them as a little boy - like his body, but with long hair.

Unable to relate to the opposite sex, which also would have made him an oddity to his own sex, he withdrew more and more into his own imaginary world. In an effort to make sense of his life, and possibly to find some social acceptance, he grew into a faithful Catholic. He might have felt at home in the Church because he learned sexual mores through the Catholic orphanages he grew up in, and then those mores were reinforced through the Church in homilies and other teachings of the late 19th Century and early 20th Century.

This movie is a study of this interrelation between his utter lack of knowledge, yet fascination with little girls and his absorption of the catechism of the Catholic Church. To create his own reality since he couldn't comprehend the larger social actuality, he wrote and drew the world as he saw it within this context. The movie, especially to one who is interested in sexual paraphilias or sexual immaturity in an adult, is interesting in this respect.

Very Bizarre..........2006-08-17

Well many people have claimed Henry Darger was retarded which makes no sense considering his achievements. He wrote a 15,000 page plus book withs hundreds and hundreds of paintings for it. Do you know one mentally challenged person who can sit down and write 10 good pages or one good drawing? No but from what I've seen in this film Mr Darger was probably an autistic savant. Savants are very anti-social can't hold up common everyday tasks but are absolute geniuses at subjects like math or drawing. All these things fit Henry Darger's life. Many people claim that he was a genius writer which although he was a good one he obviously didn't set out to write a fantasy novel. Henry Darger was deeply religious but also had witnessed much child cruelty during his early years.
Mostly he set out to tell a tale of how children are abused constantly but sets it in a grand religious style story. As for why he gave girls male body parts. Many people once again make him try to seem like a genius that he was representing that women could be as strong as men by having their parts which is not only absurd but sexist too. Darger simply didnt know that girls had different parts than boys. That is my take on the life of Henry Darger.

PS Many people have different views on his life and many people will disagree on how I explain his story but there's no true answer to his story.

Average customer rating:

Straight up. Real,
"F" Stands For: FANTASTICALLY FAR-FETCHED FEMINIST FANTASY FLICK
Solid...
It Ain't Million Dollar Baby, but OK
Excellent Movie !!!

Girlfight
Starring: Thomas Barbour , Paul Calderon , Louis Guss , Anthony Ruiz , and Jaime Tirelli
Director: Karyn Kusama
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00003CXNY
Release Date: 2001-03-27

Amazon.com

First-time director Karyn Kusama tells a simple but compelling story of a young woman in Brooklyn whose violent impulses in school, and her tendency to physicalize her anger, lead her to train as a boxer. Her trainer at first puts her off, but the combination of her desire and her physical prowess changes his mind. As played by Michelle Rodriguez, Diane is a scowling lightning rod for sudden violence who discovers that she can find a sense of personal grace in boxing--in the training and in the honing of skills--that seems to spill over into her daily life, despite the disapproval of an abusive father. Kusama isn't telling a new story here, but she tells a familiar one with a sense of passion and pride in the uncharted territory this represents for women. Though a romantic subplot seems almost tacked on as an afterthought--Diane must box the boy she loves--Girlfight is engaging and even touching. -Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews:

Straight up. Real,.......2007-03-27

This is a brilliant piece of story telling, acting and film work. Rodriguez has the unique talent of speaking with her eyes. The beautiful thing about this film, is that it is real. It's motivational, it's intense, and it's beautiful with its description of the human dream. It is true to what is really happening in the world where people do all they can to rise above their circumstances, toward their dreams. I would recommend this to anyone who personally knows the human struggle, and it's success...that is...if you fight for it.

"F" Stands For: FANTASTICALLY FAR-FETCHED FEMINIST FANTASY FLICK.......2007-01-15

Karyn Kusama's GIRLFIGHT is nothing more than a strident misandrist pleasuring herself on film!

Ordinarily, I would never consider wasting my valuable time watching this type of movie, much less bothering to write anything about it, but because I recently wrote a series of reviews for some mostly older antifeminism books, it was suggested to me that I should also "weigh in" on GIRLFIGHT, which I had previously never even heard of.

Written and directed by then newcomer, Kusama, the title, GIRLFIGHT, is simply a rather pedestrian substitution for "Woman's Struggle", that is, "Feminism." Her title displays the same sort of "heavy-handed" touch that she exhibits throughout the movie. As a filmmaker, Kusama has all the subtlety of a Great White Shark in a feeding frenzy. The movie consists of one "ham-fisted" symbol after another, decrying all of the usual exaggerated and simplistic contentions regarding men that radical feminists have been screeching about for over forty years; illustrating the feminist anthems; and portraying resolutions dreamed up in their wishful fantasies.

It should come as no surprise to any educated person that GIRLFIGHT won a couple of awards at Robert "Red" Redford's Sundance Film Festival in 2000; the incestuous relationship between Marxism and Feminism has long been established, and GIRLFIGHT was bound to be enthusiastically embraced at Sundance, and promoted as another vehicle for further conditioning the masses (particularly young women) toward the socialistic goals of hard-core feminism. (If you can bring yourself to turn off the TV one day, and actually read a nonfiction book, THE GENDER AGENDA by Dale O'Leary, and THE PRIVILEGE OF BEING A WOMAN by Alice von Hildebrand, would be smashing places to begin.) It was, after all, no less a communist than Vladimir Lenin himself who stated in 1920, "We must create a powerful international women's movement." (Was keeping the spectators seated and talking during the singing of The Star-Spangled Banner before GIRLFIGHT's climactic bout, a Marxist "jab" at America?)

* Although I will not be discussing anything that the majority of the previous reviewers have not already revealed, be advised that this review will examine the major plot points and the ending of GIRLFIGHT. If you don't want to know how this movie ends, you should discontinue reading this review (and avoid most of the others posted on this product page as well).

Ostensibly, the story is about a high school girl, Diana Guzman (Michelle Rodriguez), prone to violent outbursts who supposedly redirects her aggression by taking up boxing, and ultimately confronts her emotionally abusive dad, and then later, her boyfriend in the ring. The entire movie is simply a kaleidoscope of embarrassingly overt visual metaphors meant to convey the concept of patriarchy getting pummeled to a pulp by Womanhood, and the castration of perceived masculine power. (Diana or Artemis, the goddess of the hunt, is portrayed in mythology as having killed various men and male gods.)

Early on, we get a barely veiled glimpse of Diana's (writer/director Kusama's mouthpiece) disdain for the traditional role of women in society when she stares out of her 11th story bedroom window at a mother pushing a baby carriage with a crying toddler in tow. That she's "looking down on Motherhood" couldn't have been more obvious.

There are three "types" of one-dimensional men (or malignancies) in this movie. (The "father", the "son", and the "emasculated ghost"?) .....

1) The domineering, emotionally and physically abusive male determined to "keep women in their place." This type of man is represented by Diana's drunken dad, and in a typical exhibition of Kusama's over-the-top symbolism, he is knocked around and nearly strangled to death by Diana in the family's kitchen (after she has received some boxing training). Get it? A woman's place is in the kitchen, but only if that's the location she chooses for bloodying the patriarchy! "You belong to me now! ... All these years you just looked right through me", Diana says to her beaten dad on behalf of women everywhere.

2) The unfaithful romancer who refuses to accept women on equal terms in every single facet of social endeavor. He is represented by Diana's love interest, Adrian, who dreams of "winning" his way out of the projects with a successful boxing career. Giving him the name of Rocky Balboa's wife, was an obvious slap at the character, and at men in general who express their manhood through a fascination with sports and sports movies. That slap becomes a punch, however, when 18-year-old Diana, with perhaps two months worth of training, defeats 19-year-old Adrian in the ring - despite the fact that he's been training for nearly a year, and supposedly has true professional boxing potential. (In a sorry display of how far Kusama was willing to go to get the most "punch for the buck", she wants us to believe that these two characters would be fighting in the same weight class. Never mind that Adrian is obviously 6" taller than Diana and appears to outweigh her by about 40 pounds. It simply wouldn't do to have the feminist hero defeat a man merely her own size!)

3) Diana's brother, Tiny, is the way men ought to be in Kusama's warped world. He is artistic, sensitive, effeminate, satisfactorily demasculinized already. He is tolerable because he is pathetic, as he can do nothing but stand back, wring his hands, and plead for his dad's life, while the "new" man (Diana GuzMAN - get it?) strangles the "old" man in the kitchen and usurps his authority (i.e., transforms the patriarchal family unit into a matriarchy). But in an ironic twist, Kusama also reveals her revulsion at the feminine man as well, by naming him TINY. Diana's brother is neither excessively large or small for his age, so we must assume that the name hints at something else: His unmanly "endowments" literally or figuratively; his diminished social status in the imagined new matriarchy; or simply Kusama's personal view of such effete men?

GIRLFIGHT begins with one of the silliest opening shots ever conceived. (Diana Guzman looks up and glares directly at the camera; i.e., "you." Why? Uh, well, because Kusama told her to.) And it ends with one of the most improbable scenes ever filmed. (After losing to her in the ring - bringing his dream of a boxing career to an end - Adrian practically begs Diana not to break up with him. This shows just how out-of-touch with reality and male psychology these extreme feminists really are. If such a scenario as presented in this movie was even truly possible, does Kusama, et al., actually believe that a "man" in this situation would REALLY want to retain his romantic relationship with his female conqueror? That he would be willing to "take a licking and keep on kissing"?) GIRLFIGHT is indeed a feminist fantasy from opening shot to final scene!

It does, however, contain a few positive ingredients: Technically, the screenplay is competently constructed and well-paced, and some of the cinematography is imaginative. The score nicely compliments the images and adds an exotic tone. Herb Lovelle as Cal is good in a very small part, and Jaime Tirelli in the role of Diana's trainer, Hector, delivers a fine, multilayered performance. However, having read the script, no self-respecting "man" would have consented to appear in this propaganda piece. (But divesting men of their self-respect has been a goal for feminists for over forty years now, and they've been largely successful.) Otherwise, the acting was uneven across-the-board. This was Rodriguez's first role, and it sometimes showed.

I could excoriate the artificial dialogue, the nonstop profanity, and the sloppy editing in GIRLFIGHT, but that would be like criticizing a dead dog for being lazy. Instead, let me give you one small dose of reality: Men generally possess nearly 50% more muscle mass than women, and testosterone (a steroid hormone which studies have linked to enhanced aggressiveness and increased muscle formation) is approximately thirty times more prevalent in the adult male body than it is in the adult female. (That's 30 times, not 30%!) In other words, there are genuine physiological reasons why women trained in boxing are never going to be serious competition for men trained in boxing - Karyn Kusama's fantasy notwithstanding. (Don't blame me; blame God. But your arms are too short to box with Him.) Lucia Rijker is universally regarded as the best fighter in the history of female boxing; she has had 54 fights with women and won them all - most by knockout. In earnest competition, she stepped into a ring only once with a man: In 1995, she fought Muay Thai boxer Somchai Jaidee, who was far from being a world elite fighter in the men's competition. Rijker managed to survive the first round, but in the second, she was laid out on the canvas, unconscious for several minutes. (If she didn't have a clue when she climbed into that ring, I'm sure she had one when she woke up in it!)

What disturbs me is not that a misandrist would put her neurosis on film (wrong, Cyndi, these days, "Girls Just Want To Be Boys"), but that anyone would tout this fiction as some kind of inspiring movie to be shown to youngsters ... that's what bothers me! As if Diana Guzman represents some viable means to conflict resolution in the real world. My heart goes out to any child of a rigor mortis-brained parent who believes that "fighting" - even in a square "ring" - is the best way to channel aggressive behavior. When my Brother (nicknamed "Napoleon") was only about 12 years old, a professional trainer recognized that he possessed a chip on his shoulder the size of Mount Rushmore, and an almost freakish, innate aptitude for fighting. This man offered to prepare my Brother for a professional boxing career. Being an Irish-American fighting in sub-Middleweight divisions, and being as proficient in physical destruction as he is, Napoleon would have made many millions of dollars as a successful boxer. But even at that young an age, he was intelligent enough to recognize the senselessness of making a living knocking other guys senseless, and so he turned down the trainer's offer. Instead, he was able to sublimate his anger without needing to unleash it on others in any harmful form. With his fiery energy redirected into more constructive activities, he eventually grew into a very good and caring man (who could still decapitate any one of us with either fist, though he would never do so).

That anyone would show GIRLFIGHT to a young person as motivation for anything, and would hold up this fictional character as a role model for young women to emulate in any way, is deplorable and irresponsible! GIRLFIGHT is not just a feminist cartoon masquerading as a gritty, urban tale - it's a bad cartoon with bad language and a bad agenda. And what its man-hating writer/director really needs is a psychiatrist, not an audience.

Solid..........2006-05-10

This is a solid and realistic film about a deviant female who finds a legitimate to deal with inner anger through boxing. I enjoyed this film for three reasons: 1) the acting was solid, 2) the story was realistic and did not go all Hollywood on me, and 3) I liked the ending and the gender struggles portrayed. A film worth watching!

It Ain't Million Dollar Baby, but OK.......2006-01-03

girl boxing... hummm..

If you liked "Million Dollar Baby," and you like seeing a girl box, you'll like this.

A lot of sweat, muscles, grunting, and boxing too! Michelle Rodriguez, of "Lost" fame, did this movie in 2000. She seem to be getting typecast as the tough girl, pretty, but don't mess with her! Which is a shame, I'd like to see her do something totally different.

But, here we are, a boxing movie about a girl. She is tough, has great muscles, good moves. But, I wasn't convinced that she really could win matches. She has a brother that has no business in boxing, he looks like he should be on a computer somewhere. A father that I wanted to say, "what the heck..?" The Boxing instructor was interesting. All of the cast was completely forgettable, but for Michelle. Her boyfriend included. Could have been anyone.

Michelle was nice to look at, but as far as acting - so so. overall, I wasn't convinced. The match with the black girl, should of been won by the black girl, and the match with her boyfriend, same thing. Her boxing skill didn't impress me.

My dear hubby, Norman, who used to train boxers in the Army, long ago, said he didn't buy much of it at all. So, for entertainment, go for it. For the real deal - rent "Million Dollar Baby." unless, of course, you are a Michelle Rodriguez fan, then certainly watch it.

And, kids, it's not good to lie to your father. SS

Excellent Movie !!!.......2005-09-10

No Wonder Michelle Rodriguez was recognized for this role, she was amazing. Because of the content of this moive, I'm glad the director chose a local girl to play Diana Gúzman. Michelle's acting, thought relatively new, was sincere in every aspect of the word. A girl who is trying to make something of her life at a young age is very rare now-a-days. This a great movie for the younger generation. It portrays hope, desire, ambition, drive, whatever you want to call it. The directing was great: the city scenes, the fighting scenes, and the family scenes sucked you into a world of struggle and survival. I recommend this movie with all sincerity.

Average customer rating:

home room
Everyone has a story . . .
great movie!!
Incredible chemistry between the two actresses!
Astonishingly Good

Home Room
Starring: Busy Philipps , Erika Christensen , Victor Garber , Raphael Sbarge , and Ken Jenkins
Director: Paul F. Ryan
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000BXMZ7
Release Date: 2003-10-14

Customer Reviews:

home room.......2007-01-06

like that it show the aftermath of the shooting and how the studtens deal with the shock and drama of the events that have unfoleded.

Everyone has a story . . ........2006-03-06

Of the 1200+ movies I've watched in the last two years dealing with children or teens, this one has to come somewhere in the top ten. We've had over 150 kids stay with us for varying lengths of time, and this movie reminded me of a discipline technique we used. If two kids were fighting, we'd put them on chairs with their knees a few inches apart. Then, they had to sit there and talk nicely to each other for a specified time. No matter how angry they were to start, in the end they'd be laughing and getting along.

Alica and Deanna were put in a similar situation. Both girls were hurting inside, one from the effects of the classroom shooting and the other from another psychologically tragic event. This movie is about how each girl had to first start to trust the other, then grow to understand each other. Of course, at first much is left hidden inside, but gradually they begin to talk and each begins to understand how the other is hurting. The more the viewer learns, the more he or she begins to care for even Alica, who escapes in a "Goth" world that alienates more typical teens.

As the two girls slowly reveal more and more of their stories, stories of hurting, they begin to heal. However, it is a very painful process, with many setbacks and misunderstandings along the way. But, that is the way emotional healing is. This is a very realistic cinematic depiction of psychological healing.

Finally, it is very refreshing to see a teen, Deanna, concerned with her character and values. For families concerned with traditional values, this is one of the best examples of that I've seen in a teen movie. Although curious about sex, Deanna still felt it was worthwhile to protect her virginity. The movie is rated R mostly for the language, but Deanna even called Alicia on that. She let Alicia know that she didn't not approve of the foul language or 'taking the Lord's name in vain." However, she was not perfect in this either - when she thought the detective had emotionally hurt Alicia she cussed a bit. Also, when Alicia, more because she was a rebel than a lesbian, kissed Deanna, Deanna recoiled in revulsion. Again, she showed concern for her reputation and traditional morality.

If you genuinely care about people as they are and not how you want them to be, what one would call empathy, then this is 131 minutes of very well-spent time.

great movie!!.......2006-02-26

I caught this movie on OnDemand thanks to my sis and I watched it and LOVED it!!! I am not a huge fan of erika christensen . . . but she does a decent job in this movie. It has some "unexpected" plot lines and I ended up crying in the end!
I bought it because i liked it so much!!

Incredible chemistry between the two actresses!.......2006-01-09

Alicia and Deanna have the same homeroom and it seems probably did nothing more than exchange glances every morning. Alicia(the goth girl) knew nothing about Deanna but she was one of these beautiful, rich, intelligent white girls that all of the teachers adored! Deanna knew nothing about Alicia but she was "in a world to herself" and she respected that. I will point out from a personal observation that Alicia has some of the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen!

Alicia goes to Deaana's hospital room to make their principal happy....they hardly do anything but exchange pleasantries.

Yet, Alicia keeps coming back day-after-day to this room. Alicia persuades Deanna to go outside for walks, talk about life and to quit feeling sorry for herself over the shootings.

To me, the most "moving" scene is when Alicia has spent the night with Alicia in her room. Deanna takes the remote from Alicia's hand and then opens her fingerless gloves to try one on after being told "no". The looks of both girls(without the other one knowing about the other) is incredible yet not a single word is ever said between them during this scene.

The "survivors" of the homeroom shooting come together several months later for "closure". Alicia's performance in here(which changes the lives of everyone in there forever) could have easily won her an Oscar!

To answer a previous post, I think Alicia cries at the end after receiving her diploma because nobody in the whole world(including herself) ever thought she could have done it!

Astonishingly Good.......2005-10-11

"Home Room" like "Zero Day" and "Elephant", was inspired by the recent wave of school shootings. But unlike the other two films, "Home Room" focuses on two survivors (not the shooters or those killed) in the aftermath of a shooting. Making it less exploitive and more useful because little effort is wasted in asking questions for which there are no answers.

Don't give up on this little film during the first 20 minutes, it is supposed to set up the real story but plays like a rejected "Hill Street Blues" episode. It is lame but bear with it, at least it pads the running length enough to get the film classified as a feature. I recommend skipping this entirely and just jumping ahead to the hospital scenes-there is nothing here that you can't pick up from the remainder of the film.

Like a lot of good little films this was creatively a one-man show as Paul F. Ryan was both the writer and the director. While this arrangement does not guarantee a good film, it is usually a good sign because it will mean a certain unity of construction and execution that is often lacking in big budget dramatic features. Because the script of "Home Room" is its real strength it is fortunate that the writer also executed the production and insured that his vision made it onto the screen.

Ryan takes a huge chance with an ending that tests the limits of the average viewer's sentimentality tolerance. He runs it right up to the edge but against all logic leaves you crying instead of cringing. Why the ending works is some combination of the audience need for a reward at the end of this kind of journey, the song (Sarah McLaughlin's "Sweet Surrender") he goes out on, and the amazing editing of the final few seconds.

The other strength of the film is the casting of Busy Phillips (Alicia) and Erika Christensen (Deanna) as the main protagonists. Although Phillips plays her standard alienated surly teen and Christensen her intelligent daughter of a good family, they both bring more intensity to their roles than ever before. The family life of both girls is more than satisfactory and of little interest to Ryan. What is happening here is all about the two of them despite a lame side story about a police detective wondering around town trying to tie Alicia to the lone shooter. If they ever re-cut and trim the film this side story should be condensed.

A story about two extremely disparate girls bonding and helping each other is hardly a novel idea and Ryan could have easily steered this film into cliché and predictability. But instead his script has them engaging in a fascinating and convincing sparring match, slowly chipping away at each other and sharing moments of vulnerability, only to retreat back inside themselves. Deanna's "I'm dying inside" line just tears you apart-I can't think of a moment in any other film that I felt as intensely as that one. She desperately needs a connection that Alicia just as desperately resists. Deanna only makes progress when she retreats. The viewer keeps expecting the group hug that never seems to happen.

Ultimately this not only generates a lot of suspense but leaves you admiring both characters and the two actresses who brought them to life.

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

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