Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Charlie's Angels [Blu-ray]

  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen
Adventure has never been more beautiful than Charlie's Angels! Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu star as the captivating crime-fighting trio who are masters of disguise, espionage and martial arts. When a devious mastermind embroils them in a plot to destroy individual privacy, the Angels are on the spot with their brains, brawn and high-tech toys. Aided by their loyal sidekick Bosley (Bill Murray), the girls are about to bring down the bad guys when a terrible secret is revealed that makes the Angels a target of assassination. Now, it's a matter of life or death as the stunningly smart detectives use their state-of-the-art skills to kick evil's butt in this sexy, high-octane comedy!For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The ! Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting coup) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laughs with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New! Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality whi! le being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug ThomasThis five-disc compilation features the entire First Season with the original Angels Farrah Fawcett, Kate Jackson and Jaclyn Smith and all their adventures from one of the most classic shows in television history.

Once upon a time, Jill, Sabrina and Kelly were police officers whose skills were being wasted in menial duties such as answering phones and filing. A mysterious millionaire named Charles Townsend took them away from all that by opening his own private investigation agency and hiring these gorgeous ladies as his operatives with John Bosley acting as their assistant and liaison. America's gui! ltiest pleasure of 1976--the inaugural season of Charlie's Angels--has returned in all its jiggly, jolly glory in this tidy boxed set. It's hard to describe just how captivated the nation's media and viewing public were with cheesemeister Aaron Spelling's ABC-TV hit, but for awhile Charlie's Angels was wildly popular appointment television at its most self-consciously banal. The first season's three (and best-remembered) belles--lioness Farrah Fawcett (then Farrah Fawcett-Majors), pin-up babe Jaclyn Smith, and Thinking Man's beauty Kate Jackson--were something like primetime Spice Girls, gracing countless magazine covers and bestselling posters. The idea (even if a fan of the show didn't happen to be a straight male) was that one was compelled to choose a favorite angel as a kind of ink-blot window onto one's subconscious life.

While the 2000 Angels feature film (starring Cameron Diaz, etc.) kept faith with the original show's self-mockingly sloppy! storytelling, there's nothing like seeing the old episodes fo! r a less on in narrative hubris. Basically, the three leading characters were bored policewomen wooed away to a private firm owned and operated by the unseen sybarite, Charlie (voiced--over speakerphone--by an uncredited John Forsythe). After a long set-up each week, the girls' investigations typically saw them going undercover: as fashion models--no great stretch--in "Night of the Strangler"; nurses in "Terror on Ward One"; roller-derby stars in "Angels on Wheels"; and vulnerable convicts (of course) in "Angels In Chains." The exploitation factor is not as bad as it might have been. The cast was so glamorous, their chemistry so perfect, Charlie's Angels never became a mere meat market. Despite such nods to modernity as Fawcett's no-bra look, the episodes were old-fashioned in their heroine-in-peril appeal, yet there was a difference: The Angels looked out for themselves and each other. --Tom KeoghAnother season of the hit classic series comes to DVD! This season, the A! ngels go on the Love Boat to investigate a major art theft, go back to college to stop a white slavery ring, and find more than just fingerprints when Charlie's yacht is stolen. Jill gets help from the Angels after her date with a crown prince is interrupted by sniper fire, and Kelly meets a man who may be her long-lost father.The Angels continue to fight the bad guys, with Jill’s little sister Kris taking her place and Charlie's voice guiding them all. Stars Jaclyn Smith, Kate Jackson and introducing Cheryl Lad. Includes all 26 episodes from the second season.Charlie's Angels: The Complete Second Season has no shortage of the good-natured cheese and eye candy that made the primetime television show's debut season wildly popular in 1976. The Angels had a new look in their second year: Farrah Fawcett, arguably the most popular of the show's three actresses, departed before the sophomore season and was replaced by another blonde dazzler, Cheryl Ladd. (Ladd's characte! r, Kris Munroe, was the younger sister of Fawcett's Jill Munro! e, whose exit is explained in the premiere episode as a liberated woman's career move: Jill has decided to race cars in Spain.)

No sooner does Kris settle in than a crisis sweeps through off-screen Charlie's private investigation agency. While cavorting on Oahu in the two-part "Angels in Paradise," Charlie is kidnapped by a smuggler (France Nuyen), who demands the Angels break her husband out of jail in exchange for their boss's life. Bubbly Kris, brainy Sabrina Duncan (Kate Jackson), beauteous Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith), and sidekick Bosley (David Doyle) are compelled to soak up rays and sip fruity mixed drinks in Waikiki while fighting crime in various guises, re-establishing, for another season, Charlie's Angels' dramatic and aesthetic game plan for every episode: start slow with lots of idle chatter, put the girls in a ridiculous undercover situation, and get them out of their clothes as much as possible.

The pattern continues in the silly "Angels on Ice," star! ring old hands Phil Silvers and Jim Backus, in which our heroines join an ice show to find out who kidnapped a pair of skaters. "Pretty Angels All in a Row" finds Kelly and Kris reluctant entrants in a "Miss Chrysanthemum Pageant" (no, you won't find Kate Jackson in a swimsuit this year, either) rigged by organized crime. "Circus of Terror," co-starring James Darren, enlists the Angels in the carney life. If there is anything to complain about regarding season 2, it is that the novelty of Charlie's Angels has worn a little thin, and every episode feels the same. Still, there are surprises: "The Sammy Davis Jr. Kidnap Caper" stars the late rat-packer in peril and much bemused by the presence of three comely bodyguards. --Tom KeoghThe Superbit titles utilize a special high bit rate digital encoding process which optimizes video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. These titles have been produced by a team of Sony Pictures Dig! ital Studios video, sound and mastering engineers and comes ho! used in a special package complete with a 4 page booklet that contains technical information on the Superbit process. By reallocating space on the disc normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD video format.For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting coup) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laugh! s with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug ThomasThree beautiful private detectives who work for a suave playboy boss are called in to rescue soon-to-be billionaire software mo! gul Eric Knox, when he is kidnapped from his office at Knox Te! chnologi es. While rough-and-tumble Alex, wild-child Dylan, and nerdy Natalie use an impressive array of high-tech gadgetry and martial arts moves to retrieve Knox from the clutches of rival Roger Corwin and his goons, they unwittingly become embroiled in a battle to protect the world from a wide-scale invasion of privacy that threatens to occur when good technology falls into the hands of bad people.For every TV-into-movie success like The Fugitive, there are dozens of uninspired films like The Mod Squad. Happily--and surprisingly--this breezy update of the seminal '70s jiggle show falls into the first category, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore (who also produced), and Lucy Liu starring as the hair-tossing, fashion-setting, kung fu-fighting trio employed by the mysterious Charlie (voiced by the original Charlie, John Forsythe). When a high-tech programmer (Sam Rockwell) is kidnapped, the angels seek out the suspects, with the daffy Bosley (Bill Murray in a casting co! up) in tow. A happy, cornball popcorn flick, Charlie's Angels is played for laughs with plenty of ribbing references to the old TV show as well as modern caper films like Mission: Impossible. McG, a music video director making his feature film debut (usually a death warrant for a movie's integrity), infuses the film with plenty of Matrix-style combat pyrotechnics, and the result is the first successful all-American Hong Kong-style action flick. Plenty of movies boast a New Age feminism that has their stars touting their sexuality while being their own women, but unlike something as obnoxious as Coyote Ugly, Angels succeeds with a positive spin on Girl Power for the new millennium (Diaz especially sizzles in her role of crack super agent/airhead blonde). From the send-up of the TV show's credit sequence to the outtakes over the end credits, Charlie's Angels is a delight. --Doug Thomas

Chef Works F8 Butcher Apron, 34-Inch Length by 24-Inch Width, Hunter Green

Freddy vs. Jason [Blu-ray]

  • The slicer versus the slasher? Two titans of terror going at it mano-a-machete? They re gonna kill each other a lot! The horror (and wicked fun) begins when Freddy realizes he can t haunt dreams because folks no longer fear him. So he enlists Jason to do a little killing on his behalf on Elm Street. Presto, the fear is back and so is Freddy. One problem: Jason isn t about to stop offing people. An
It's the battle everyone's been DYING to see! Teenagers find themselves caught in the middle of a battle between two legendary boogeymen: Jason Voorhees and Freddy Krueger. Who will win in the bloodiest and goriest showdown in history?

DVD Features:
3D Animated Menus
Alternate endings:Alternate opening and Ending
Audio Commentary:Commentary with Director Ronny Yu, Actors Robert Englund (FREDDY) & Ken Kirzinger (JASON)
Comparison Scenes
DVD ROM ! Features
Deleted Scenes:18 Deleted Scenes with optional commentary from Director Ronnie Yu and Executive Producer Douglas Curtis
Documentaries:--Behind the scenes coverage of the films development - including screenwriting, set design, make up, stunts and principle photography --Visual effects exploration
Featurette
Full Screen Version:Both fullscreen and Widescreen on one disc
Interviews
Music Video:Ill Nino "How Can I Live"
Storyboards
TV Spot:Lots of TV spots
Theatrical Trailer

After 11 years in development hell and screenplay drafts by 13 different writers, the long-awaited smackdown of Freddy vs. Jason finally arrives. After making their respective debuts in Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger, replacing long-time Jason performer Kane Hodder) and razor-gloved Freddy Kr! ueger (Robert Englund) square off in a slasher-franchise combo! -deal th at only their most devoted fans will appreciate; turns out this is a lightweight match in which nobody wins. It's an average entry in the histories of these horror icons, comparable to half of their previous sequels, and Bride of Chucky director Ronny Yu satisfies purists with plenty of gushing blood and mayhem when Freddy recruits Jason to slice 'n' dice the ill-fated teens who've forgotten Freddy's once-formidable reign of terror. While it logically connects the gruesome legacies of Nightmare's Elm Street and Friday's Camp Crystal Lake, this horror hybrid is shockingly uninspired. It briefly peaks when Freddy gives the unconscious Jason a dream-world pummeling, but their ultimate showdown's a draw. In the immortal words of Peggy Lee, is that all there is? --Jeff ShannonThe slicer versus the slasher? Two titans of terror going at it mano-a-machete? They’re gonna kill each other a lot! The horror (and wicked fun) begins when Freddy realizes he c! an’t haunt dreams because folks no longer fear him. So he enlists Jason to do a little killing on his behalf on Elm Street. Presto, the fear is back â€" and so is Freddy. One problem: Jason isn’t about to stop offing people. And another: Freddy isn’t about to let Jason rule Elm Street. This means war. Freddy Vs. Jason. Winner kills all.After 11 years in development hell and screenplay drafts by 13 different writers, the long-awaited smackdown of Freddy vs. Jason finally arrives. After making their respective debuts in Friday the 13th (1980) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), the hockey-masked killer Jason Voorhees (Ken Kirzinger, replacing long-time Jason performer Kane Hodder) and razor-gloved Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) square off in a slasher-franchise combo-deal that only their most devoted fans will appreciate; turns out this is a lightweight match in which nobody wins. It's an average entry in the histories of these horror icons, comp! arable to half of their previous sequels, and Bride of Chuc! ky d irector Ronny Yu satisfies purists with plenty of gushing blood and mayhem when Freddy recruits Jason to slice 'n' dice the ill-fated teens who've forgotten Freddy's once-formidable reign of terror. While it logically connects the gruesome legacies of Nightmare's Elm Street and Friday's Camp Crystal Lake, this horror hybrid is shockingly uninspired. It briefly peaks when Freddy gives the unconscious Jason a dream-world pummeling, but their ultimate showdown's a draw. In the immortal words of Peggy Lee, is that all there is? --Jeff Shannon

Monday, November 14, 2011

Feast of July

  • A compelling tale of passion's dark secrets -- critics applauded FEAST OF JULY as one of the best films of the year! A mysterious young beauty, Bella Ford, searches hopelessly for the lover who betrayed her. Weary and alone, she is offered shelter by the Wainwright family, who help her find new hope . and whose three handsome sons battle for her affections! But just when she is ready to begin
FEAST OF LOVE - DVD MovieThe warm, reassuring gravitas of Morgan Freeman anchors Feast of Love, a multi-character meditation on the mysteries of that oh-so-powerful emotion. Bradley (Greg Kinnear, Little Miss Sunshine), owner of a coffee shop in Oregon, thinks his marriage is idyllic--until his wife (Selma Blair, Hellboy) leaves him for another woman. One of Bradley's baristas (Toby Hemingway, The Covenant) falls head over heels for a girl who comes looking for a job (Alexa Da! valos, The Chronicles of Riddick), but his abusive father (Fred Ward, Miami Blues) spells trouble for the relationship. Finally, a professor (Freeman) and his wife (Jane Alexander, Kramer vs. Kramer) struggle to find purpose in life in the aftermath of a personal tragedy. Though some scenes are a bit precious and the dialogue leans too much on semi-philosophical pronouncements, viewers will find it hard not to identify with the universal trials of romance and the yearning for a family. Also starring Radha Mitchell (High Art, Pitch Black) as a real estate broker who can't stop seeing a married man. Warning: Feast of Love is predominantly about the ways of the heart, it features several fairly explicit sex scenes. Directed by Robert Benton (Places in the Heart, Nobody's Fool). --Bret Fetzer

Beyond Feast of Love

!

More from Greg Kinnear

More from Morgan Freeman

More from MGM



Stills from Feast of Love







From "one of our most gifted writers" (Chicago Tribune), here is a superb new novel that delicately unearths the myriad manifestations of extraordinary love between ordinary people.

The Feast of Love is just that -- a sumptuous work of fiction about the thing that most distracts and delights us. In a re-imagined Midsummer Night's Dream, men and women speak of and desire their ideal mates; parents seek out their lost children; adult children try to come to terms with their own parents and, in some cases, find new ones.

In vignettes both comic and sexy, the owner of a coffee shop recalls the day his first wife seemed to achieve a moment of simple perfection, while she remembers the women's softball game during which ! she was stricken by the beauty of the shortstop. A young coupl! e spends hours at the coffee shop fueling the idea of their fierce love. A professor of philosophy, stopping by for a cup of coffee, makes a valiant attempt to explain what he knows to be the inexplicable workings of the human heart Their voices resonate with each other -- disparate people joined by the meanderings of love -- and come together in a tapestry that depicts the most irresistible arena of life. Crafted with subtlety, grace, and power, The Feast of Love is a masterful novel.Among literary cognoscenti, Charles Baxter has a well-deserved reputation as one of America's finest writers. Best known for his short stories, Baxter has also produced three novels. His fourth, The Feast of Love, combines the best of both genres--with a light dusting of metafiction to sweeten the dish. The book begins with Baxter himself waking from a nightmare and going for a moonlit walk through his hometown of Ann Arbor, Michigan. While sitting on a park bench, he is joined b! y an acquaintance of 12 years--and, incidentally, one of the main characters in the novel. It is Bradley who gives Baxter the name for the novel he's currently struggling to write, and even offers himself as a character:
You should call it The Feast of Love. I'm the expert on that. I should write that book. Actually, I should be in that book. You should put me into your novel. I'm an expert on love. I've just broken up with my second wife, after all. I'm in an emotional tangle. Maybe I'd shoot myself before the final chapter. Your readers would wonder about the outcome.
But why stop there? Bradley goes on to suggest that he send people to Baxter, "actual people, for a change, like for instance human beings who genuinely exist, and you listen to them for a while. Everybody's got a story, and we'll just start telling you the stories we have"--a sly tip-off to the reader of this elegant, quirky, and wholly engross! ing novel that the writer may be no more reliable than his na! rrators.

What follows is a chronicle of love--the mad kind, the bad kind, and the kind that sustains us when everything else is gone. In addition to Smith, we meet Chloé, a young waitress at Bradley's espresso bar, and her ex-junkie boyfriend, Oscar; Bradley's next door neighbors, Harry Ginsburg, an elderly professor of philosophy, and his wife, Esther; and Kathryn and Diana, Bradley's two ex-wives. The characters take turns narrating, often commenting on and correcting versions of events mentioned by other characters in previous chapters, and occasionally advising Baxter on the progress of his novel: "Don't threaten people, especially lawyers" legal eagle Diana warns "Charlie" shortly before she launches into her own story. "Don't threaten your own characters. It's for your own good. You'll wind up in a mess of litigation and... subplots." But in The Feast of Love, God is in the subplots--Oscar and Chloé's involvement in the porn industry; Esthe! r and Harry's agonized relationship with their mentally ill son; Bradley's travails in love, art, and dog ownership. As the novel progresses, these separate strands gradually merge, and not even an unexpected tragedy can dim the luster of this moonstruck romance. For by the time Baxter brings his tale of love and loss and redemption to a close, his characters have all found their way to the feast--bittersweet though some of the dishes may be. --Alix WilberSTILETTO is a sexy, action-packed thriller about Raina - a sexy femme fatale on the hunt to avenge and uncover the truth about her sister's kidnapping. When she discovers that her former lover, mob boss Virgil Vadalos (Tom Berenger), and his associates are directly responsible, she decides to take the law into her own hands, stalking Vadalos and his ruthless enforcers who corrupt the streets. Also starring Michael Biehn, William Forsythe and Tom Sizemore.Widescreen DVDEd Wood himself stars in his final directo! rial effort, a lighthearted little nudie romp about a girl-cra! zy old m an who poses as a photographer to entice beautiful models to his home. It's such an effective ruse that he not only coaxes his subjects out of their clothes ("It's for invisible clothes," he insists) and into his bedroom, but the unending stream of babes (along with the odd delivery man) turn his private little romp into a giggly orgy. This being an Ed Wood film, he also dresses up in women's lingerie when the angry agency owners put him on a leash and make him grovel for his impertinence. Barely over an hour long, the production plays like a primitive, unpolished version of a Playboy video--it features full nudity but no hardcore pornography--and Wood makes a remarkably genial lead. It's sad to see the cult director bow out with such material, but it's to his credit that he lends an air of innocence and exuberance to such a flesh-filled trifle. The film was originally called The Love Feast, as the Laugh-In-inspired body-paint credits remind us. --Sean Axmak! er Yves Oudalle, one-time captain of a fishing trawler and still in love with the sea, and Nadege, his wife, no longer get on. At a dinner party to announce their separation, each of the guests tells a story which grows more powerful as the night draws on.A compelling tale of passion's dark secrets -- critics applauded FEAST OF JULY as one of the best films of the year! A mysterious young beauty, Bella Ford, searches hopelessly for the lover who betrayed her. Weary and alone, she is offered shelter by the Wainwright family, who help her find new hope ... and whose three handsome sons battle for her affections! But just when she is ready to begin her new life, Bella's former lover unexpectedly reappears to haunt her with the secrets of their past! From Merchant Ivory Productions -- award-winning creators of HOWARDS END and THE REMAINS OF THE DAY -- you'll find this motion picture passionate and powerfully entertaining!

Amadeus - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

  • Director's Cut
  • 2-Disc Special Edition
THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART, TOLD INFLASHBACK MODE BY ANTONIO SALIERI - NOW CONFINED TO AN INSANE ASYLUM.The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest) were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognize and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and i! nsecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruelest jokes, and it drives him insane. Amadeus creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern midlevel businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. --Jim EmersonGripping human drama. Sumptuous period epic. Glorious celebration of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This marvelous ! winner of eight Academy Awards(R) portrays the rivalry between! the gen ius Mozart (Tom Hulce) and the jealous court composer (Best Actor Oscar(R) Winner F.Murray Abraham) who may have ruined Mozart's career and shortened his life. A note-perfect cinematic event whose immortality was assured from its opening night, Amadeus is an unlikely candidate for the director's-cut treatment. Like one of Mozart's operas, the multiple Oscar-winning theatrical version seemed perfectly formed from the outset--ideal casting, costumes, sets, cinematography, lighting, screenplay, music, music, music--so the reinstatement of an extra 20 minutes simply risks adding "too many notes." Yet though this extended cut can hardly be said to improve a picture that needed no improvement, it does at least flesh out a couple of small subplots and shed new light on certain key scenes. Here we learn why Constanze Mozart bears such ill will towards Salieri when she discovers him at her husband's deathbed, and we see deeper into the reasons why Mozart has no students. The s! tructure of the picture is otherwise unaltered.

The director's cut of Amadeus finally accords this masterful work the DVD treatment it deserves. The handsome anamorphic widescreen picture is accompanied by a choice of Dolby 5.1 or Dolby stereo sound options, and it's all contained on one side of the disc. Director Milos Forman and writer Peter Shaffer provide a chatty though sporadic commentary, but they're obviously still too mesmerized by the movie to do much more than offer the odd anecdote. The second disc contains an excellent new hour-long "making of" documentary, with contributions from Forman, Shaffer, Sir Neville Marriner, and all the main actors, taking in the scriptwriting, choice of music, casting, and problems involved in filming in Communist Czechoslovakia with half the crew and extras working for the Secret Police. --Mark Walker

My Boy Jack

  • Its 1915 and World War I has been declared. Aged only 17, Kiplings son, like most of his generation, is swept up in the enthusiasm to fight the Germans, a mood stoked vigorously by his father. Jack is cripplingly short sighted and the army has rejected him twice, rendering him too myopic even for an army suffering thousands of casualties a week and desperate for recruits. Yet Rudyard is undeterred
They share the same birth month, so the orphanage calls them December Boys. But these teens â€" Maps, Spit, Spark and Misty â€" have much more in common. With no hopes of ever joining a family, they form their own familial bonds. Then the unexpected news comes that a young couple may adopt one of them, and the long-time pals suddenly share something else: a rivalry to be the chosen one.Oscar® nominee Laura Linney (Kinsey) stars as Laura Marshall, an overzealous, evangelical Christian do-goode! r who fills her home with down-and-out boarders, including a senile, cross-dressing murderous mute. Desperate to expand his horizons, Laura’s shy teenage son Ben (Rupert Grint, of Harry Potter fame) lands a job tending to self-proclaimed "Dame" Evie Walton (Oscar® nominee Julie Walters, Billy Elliot), an over-the-hill actress with the mouth of a drunken sailer and an insatiable lust for life. The battle for Ben’s soul begins as Evie shanghais Ben away from his repressive roots and takes him on an adventure that transforms him from boy to man. A winning entry at the 2006 Moscow International Film Festival, Driving Lessons is an experience Stephen Farber of Movieline calls "a delightful coming-of-age story."More down-to-earth than Auntie Mame, Driving Lessons imparts the same simple, but enduring messageâ€"be yourself. In the directorial debut from screenwriter Jeremy Brock (Mrs. Brown), 17-year-old Ben (Harry Potter's Rupert Gri! nt, sluggish yet sympathetic) lives with his vicar father, Rob! ert (Nic holas Farrell), and pious mother, Laura (Laura Linney doing a passable, but inconsistent British accent), in a tree-shaded London suburb. Soft-spoken Ben writes poems and looks forward to passing his driver's test. When his mother encourages him to get a job, he becomes an assistant to retired actress Evie Walton (Billy Elliot's Julie Walters, hunched up to look elderly). He finds her overbearing at first. Still, Evie is preferable to Laura, who may do volunteer work with her husband's parishioners, including bizarre boarder Mr. Fincham (Jim Norton), but also cheats on him with Reverend Peter (Oliver Milburn) and engages her resentful son in the subterfuge. Then Evie tricks Ben into driving her to Edinburgh for a poetry reading, where he learns to assert himself and she learns to put the dramatics on holdâ€"at least for a few minutes. Ben also loses his virginity to a woman he just met, sending a secondary message some parents might not appreciate (the film's sprinkli! ngs of profanity earned it a PG-13). Driving Lessons itself seems stranded between coming-of-age story and character study. Ironically, Farrell gives the most convincing performance as Ben's bird-loving father. Engaging if uneven, this parable about hypocrisy and self-expression might have been more interesting if presented from his perspective. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Driving Lessons (click for larger image)

Beyond Driving Lessons at Amazon.com




More Films about Coming of Age

The Films of Julie Walters

Learn to Drive

Its 1915 and World War I has been declared. Aged only 17, Kiplings son, like most of his generation, is swept up in the enthusiasm to fight the Germans, a mood stoked vigorously by his father. Jack is cripplingly short sighted and the ! army has rejected him twice, rendering him too myopic even for an army suffering thousands of casualties a week and desperate for recruits. Yet Rudyard is undeterred, determined that his son should go to the front, like countless other sons, and fight for the values that he, Kipling, espouses so publicly. Using his fame and influence, Kipling persuades Lord Roberts, on his death bed, to get Jack a commission in the Irish guards. This intervention is barely tolerated by Carrie and daughter Elise (Carey Mulligan), as they disagree that Jack is fit to fight and fear for his safety on the front line. Jack is instantly popular with his troop he is a great leader and trains tirelessly to overcome the disability that is his eyesight. Six months later Jack sails to France as a lieutenant. Jack went missing in action during the Battle of Loos and his mother and father carried out an increasingly desperate search for him, spanning many years and many miles.

DVD Features:
! Deleted Scenes
Interviews

As affecting! as it i s thought-provoking, ITV's My Boy Jack illustrates the dangers of unbridled patriotism. To grow up the child of a famous author is burden enough, but when the boy must embody the beliefs of the man, the consequences can be devastating. In the case of John "Jack" Kipling (Harry Potter's Daniel Radcliffe in his most mature role to date), 17-year-old son of Rudyard Kipling (Four Weddings and a Funeral's David Haig), his father's passion for King and Country leads to a preventable tragedy. Based on Haig's play, the proceedings begin in 1914, prior to the outbreak of World War II. Jack attempts to join the army and the navy, but both reject him due to severe shortsightedness, so Kipling Sr. pulls strings to place him with the Irish Guards. Jack's sister, Elsie (Bleak House's Carey Mulligan), and American-born mother, Caroline (a brunette Kim Cattrall), would rather he serve the war effort at home. Through hard work and determination, Jack scales the ra! nks from private to lieutenant, but goes missing in France, and many months pass before the family solves the mystery of his disappearance. In the end, My Boy Jack, which aired in England on Remembrance Day, concerns itself more with paying tribute than apportioning blame, and Haig skillfully portrays Kipling's guilt in putting his son in harm’s way and pride in a brave soldier who "played his part properly." Special features include interviews and deleted scenes. Parental advisory suggested due to situation-appropriate language and teen smoking. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Alone With Her

Cats Don't Dance

  • The rags-to-riches story of Danny, a talented cat whose lifelong goal of movie stardom is sidetracked when he discovers only humans get the good roles in Hollywood. On the big screen, animals can bark, meow or moo, but cats don't dance. Danny vows to break through the "species barrier" and prove that dreams really can come true.Running Time: 120 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN R
The rags-to-riches story of Danny, a talented cat whose lifelong goal of movie stardom is sidetracked when he discovers only humans get the good roles in Hollywood. On the big screen, animals can bark, meow or moo, but cats don't dance. Danny vows to break through the "species barrier" and prove that dreams really can come true. Actually, cats do dance, and there are a lot of little cat feet tapping all over this odd animated film. Complaints about originality can't be leveled here; the film works within the c! onfines of the musical genre, but there's never really been anything like this. Danny the cat is from Kokomo, and he's got a short list of things he has to do to become a big star in Hollywood. Unfortunately, he's unaware that animals, even talented ones, aren't even considered for showy parts in films. They're considered window dressing for humans, especially big stars such as Darla Dimple, the unlikely antagonist here. The music is by Randy Newman, and it's not really his best, but toe tapping may occur. The animation is reminiscent of an upgraded Animaniacs, and there's a frenetic, jittery sense to the scenes (mostly dealing with slapstick humor). Older fans of animation or bygone Hollywood will have much more to appreciate here than small children, but that's refreshing in itself. --Keith Simanton
web log free