Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Fanboys

  • A fanatical group of Star Wars devotees travel across the country on a mission to steal a print of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace from Skywalker Ranch and become the first fans to see the film in a rowdy, sci-fi-flavored road comedy starring Sam Huntington, Chris Marquette, Dan Fogler, Jay Baruchel, and Kristen Bell. Carrie Fisher, William Shatner, and Ray Park turn up for cameos in th
Get ready for the comedy adventure that’s “smart, funny, and tailor-made for the inner-Jedi in all of us” (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com). In 1998, four childhood buddies with a shared love of all things Star Wars reunite for one final, hilarious odyssey. Their insane plan: a cross-country road trip to storm George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of Episode I before it’s released. With the police, a crew of angry Trekkies, and a crazy pimp hot on their trail, what could possibly go w! rong? Featuring Dan Fogler (Balls of Fury), Jay Baruchel (Tropic Thunder), and Kristen Bell (Forgetting Sarah Marshall), plus a slew of hysterical surprise cameos, “the Force IS strong with this one!” (Brian Gallagher, MovieWeb)

Stills from Fanboys (Click for larger image)





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Low on inspiration and laughs, Fanboys is a movie that should have been made years ago. Christopher Marquette plays Eric, a would-be heir to a used-car dealership and former loser who rejects his high-school buddies' continuing preoccupation with childish things, including George Lucas' Star Wars saga. When his lifelong friend, Linus (Sam Huntington), is diagnosed in 1999 with a terminal illness, however, Eric joins geeky Windows (Jay Baruchel), wildman Hutch (Dan Fogler) and comely Zoe (Kirsten Bell) on a cross-country trip to steal a print of Star Wars: Phantom Menace from Lucas' Skywalker Ranch for Eric to have a look. Along the way, of course, sundry ! disasters and complications await, everything from getting caught in a gay biker bar to a confrontation with a Vegas pimp (Seth Rogen, genuinely funny). The misadventures at Skywalker include a few good moments, especially when the guards look like characters Lucas might have considered for either of the two trilogies. The best comic material concerns hostilities between Star Wars fanatics and Star Trek Trekkers, including a scene set in the Ohio hometown of James Tiberius Kirk. A few good cameos include William Shatner, Carrie Fisher, and Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes. --Tom Keogh

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Full Screen Edition)

  • The next installment in the Harry Potter series finds young wizard Harry Potter (DANIEL RADCLIFFE) and his friends Ron Weasley (RUPERT GRINT) and Hermione Granger (EMMA WATSON) facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they try to uncover a dark force that is terrorizing the school. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating:&nb
From Christopher Munch, the director of The Hours and Times, comes this unforgettable tale of intense brotherly love. Harry (Bryce Johnson) is a 23-year-old former boy-band idol who is watching his 16-year-old brother Max (Cole Williams of Boys Life 4) follow in his footsteps. Harry escorts Max on a long-promised camping trip to Los Angeles' San Gabriel Mountains. What starts out as fun quickly turns serious as they bond in ways that neither could have anticipated. Artful and provocative, sexy and controversia! l, Harry and Max proves that the road to adulthood is never a straight line.The next installment in the Harry Potter series finds young wizard Harry Potter (DANIEL RADCLIFFE) and his friends Ron Weasley (RUPERT GRINT) and Hermione Granger (EMMA WATSON) facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they try to uncover a dark force that is terrorizing the school.First sequels are the true test of an enduring movie franchise, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets passes with flying colors. Expanding upon the lavish sets, special effects, and grand adventure of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry involves a darker, more malevolent tale (parents with younger children beware), beginning with the petrified bodies of several Hogwarts students and magical clues leading Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) to a ! 50-year-old mystery in the monster-laden Chamber of Secrets. H! ouse elv es, squealing mandrakes, giant spiders, and venomous serpents populate this loyal adaptation (by Sorcerer's Stone director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves), and Kenneth Branagh delightfully tops the supreme supporting cast as the vainglorious charlatan Gilderoy Lockhart (be sure to view past the credits for a visual punchline at Lockhart's expense). At 161 minutes, the film suffers from lack of depth and uneven pacing, and John Williams' score mostly reprises established themes. The young, fast-growing cast offers ample compensation, however, as does the late Richard Harris in his final screen appearance as Professor Albus Dumbledore. Brimming with cleverness, wonderment, and big-budget splendor, Chamber honors the legacy of J.K. Rowling's novels. --Jeff Shannon

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle

  • ISBN13: 9780440400028
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Get ready for the wildest adventure of a lifetime in the most ambitious musical production ever brought to film. Earning a 1967 Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, this dazzling fantasy turns both ordinary and exotic animals into talking, dancing and singing sensations! Rex Harrison is unforgettable in this inspiring adaptation of Hugh Lofting's classic stories. Step into the English country home of the good doctor as he performs remarkable treatments on the wildest variety of patients you could imagine. Discover his secret cures and watch with wide-eyed excitement as he and his four-legged, fine-feathered friends charm their way into your heart!So, they let both Rex Harrison and Anthony ! Newley sing. This 1968 family musical is classier than the 1998 Eddie Murphy remake, with all of its scatological humor. This won a couple of Oscars (Best Song, Best Effects) and was nominated for seven more, including Best Picture. At the time of release, however, this was a box-office dud. Based (in part) on the magical Hugh Lofting book, it begins in Puddleby-by-the-Marsh, England, from which the world-renowned veterinarian Dolittle (Harrison) begins his quest for a giant pink sea snail. Children should find this enjoyable for its exotic creatures, such as the Pushme-Pullyou. Most adults may not agree as readily, although some of us consider this a guilty pleasure. --Rochelle O'Gorman This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community ! of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase o! f the Ki ndle edition includes wireless delivery.Two classic tales of Dr. Dolittle in one collection with an active table of contents.

Books include:
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
The Voyage of Doctor DolittleTwo classic tales of Dr. Dolittle in one collection with an active table of contents.

Books include:
The Story of Doctor Dolittle
The Voyage of Doctor DolittleA successful physician and devoted family man, John Dolittle (Murphy) seems to have the world by the tail, until a long-suppresses talent possessed as a child - the ability to communicate with animals- is suddenly reawakened with a vengeance! Now every creature within squawking distance wants the good doctor's advice, unleashing an outrageous chain of events that turn his world upside down!

Featuring an all-star menagerie of voice talent (including Chris Rock, John Leguizamo, Norm MacDonald, Albert Brooks, Gary Shandling and Ellen DeGeneres), this wild and woolly free-for-all is your p! rescription for hilarious hijinks and "mischievous fun!" (The New York Times)There's something intrinsically funny about tactlessly truth-telling talking animals. And there are plenty of those--and laughs to go with them--in this 1998 reimagining of Hugh Lofting's children's story. Murphy plays the doctor in question, a modern-day San Francisco physician who discovers that he can understand what animals have to say. Director Betty Thomas makes the most of an amazing voice cast for the animals, led by Norm McDonald and including everyone from Garry Shandling to Julie Kavner to Albert Brooks. The story itself is pretty slim--will the conscientious doctor sign his soul away to a greedy HMO?--but Murphy makes the most of it, often providing priceless reactions to animal voices only he can hear. --Marshall Fine Doctor Dolittle heads for the high seas in perhaps the most amazing adventure ever experienced by man or animal.

Holy Smokes (Aisling Grey, Guardian, Book 4)

  • ISBN13: 9780451222541
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
North Carolina is home to the longest continuous barbecue tradition on the North American mainland. Authoritative, spirited, and opinionated (in the best way), Holy Smoke is a passionate exploration of the lore, recipes, traditions, and people who have helped shape North Carolina's signature slow-food dish.

Three barbecue devotees, John Shelton Reed, Dale Volberg Reed, and William McKinney, trace the origins of North Carolina 'cue and the emergence of the heated rivalry between Eastern and Piedmont styles. They provide detailed instructions for cooking barbecue at home, along with recipes for the traditional array of side dishes that should accompany it. The final section of the book presents! some of the people who cook barbecue for a living, recording firsthand what experts say about the past and future of North Carolina barbecue.

Filled with historic and contemporary photographs showing centuries of North Carolina's "barbeculture," as the authors call it, Holy Smoke is one of a kind, offering a comprehensive exploration of the Tar Heel barbecue tradition.Kate Winslet (TITANIC, SENSE AND SENSIBILITY) and Harvey Keitel (U-571, PULP FICTION) add scintillating performances to a seductive, darkly hilarious motion picture that's met with overwhelming critical acclaim! While on a journey of discovery in exotic India, beautiful young Ruth Barroin (Winslet) falls under the influence of a charismatic religious guru. Her desperate parents then hire PJ Waters (Keitel), a macho cult deprogrammer, who confronts Ruth in a remote desert hideaway. But PJ quickly learns that he's met his match in the sexy, intelligent, and iron-willed Ruth! Another memorable motion pi! cture directed by Academy Award(R)-winner Jane Campion -- you'! ll feel an undeniable comic charge from the sparks that fly as PJ and Ruth face off in an electric battle of the sexes.Aussie director Jane Campion's one of a kind. Forget money and fame; she's inspired by the pleasure of sharing her cinematic dreams with friends and film audiences. Her globetrotting heroines (Angel at My Table, The Piano, Portrait of a Lady) may be willful, crazed, self-absorbed, wrong--but who can resist joining these passionate women on their voyages of self-discovery, whether they lead to safe harbor or dead end?

Holy Smoke opens deliriously in a magical India, saturated with light, color, sensuality. Celebrated by Neil Diamond's anthem, "Holly Holy," Ruth Baron (Kate Winslet, delivering a breathtakingly luminous performance) explores a world that encourages spiritual epiphany--and falls hard for the cartoonish guru who opens her "third eye." Back home in Australia, her hilariously dysfunctional, distinctly down-to-earth family hir! es hotshot deprogrammer PJ Waters (Harvey Keitel, his dyed hair and cowboy boots telegraphing desperate machismo) to cure Ruth. In an isolated Outback shack, Campion's duo wrestle each other for control of their souls--and bodies, too. This duel's in deadly earnest: Ruth assaults Waters's petrified masculinity; PJ aims to strip this radiant girl of her unexamined faith.

Their wild ride--funny, brutal, erotic--toward brand-new selfhood is punctuated by indelible images: Ruth dancing in a white sari beside an emu corral; naked in the night, Ruth offering her lush body to her tormentor; lost in the desert, cross-dressed in red gown, PJ "saved" by a golden vision of Ruth as a magnificent Indian goddess. For those who love the way movies can sometimes project truth and beauty, Holy Smoke is a feast for the eyes--and for the mind. --Kathleen MurphyA new Aisling Grey, Guardian, novel from the author of The Last of the Red-Hot Vampires

Drake Vire! o, the green dragon of Aisling's dreams, is finally ready to m! ake an h onest woman of her-if she can ever get him to the altar. Being stood up cools Aisling's jets, but not her passion, which is a good thing when Drake disappears and it's up to Aisling to find him. At least her doggie demon Jim is always at her side. Just call him a Guardian's best friend.

The Fast and Furious 5 Step Organizing Solution: No-Fuss Clutter Control from a Top Professional Organizer

Blue Tooth Virgin

  • BLUE TOOTH VIRGIN, THE (DVD MOVIE)
When David, a magazine editor, gives his best friend’s latest screenplay a negative review, he hilariously learns that sometimes the truth isn’t always the best policy. Starring Bryce Johnson, Amber Benson, Karen Black and Roma MaffiaA writer asks a writer friend for his honest, truthful, no-holds-barred opinion on a newly-completely screenplay. This can only end badly. The Bluetooth Virgin is the concentrated tale of this dire situation, rolled out in a series of discrete scenes that (appropriately enough for a movie about writing) highlight the word above all else. Sam (Austin Peck) is the author looking for feedback, and David (Bryce Johnson) is his pal, a magazine editor; the script in question has the frankly terrible title of The Bluetooth Virgin. One high point comes early, on the golf course, as David's initial encouraging reactions to the piece ! gradually give way to admitting that, well, the script had a lot of problems. Primarily a batch of two-person dialogues, the movie also gets boosts from Lauren Stamile and a formidable Karen Black. Writer-director Russell Brown arranges the movie around the Mamet-esque exchanges of his characters, who are generally not really wanting the thing they say they're wanting. This sort of assertively "written" dialogue can be exciting to listen to, especially in an age that values a lax naturalism in movie dialogue, and Brown has a fine ear for self-delusion. The danger in such an approach, and Brown doesn't elude it, is that such a movie can feel like a self-contained system, without room for breath or uncertainty. But it's an undeniably clever system. --Robert Horton

House of Sand and Fog

  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • AC-3; Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widesc
Filmed entirely on the magnificent, sandy coast of northern Brazil, Áurea's saga begins in 1910, in Maranhão, where her fanatical husband has relocated his family to start a farm. Desperate and pregnant, Áurea (Fernanda Torres) longs to return to the city, but cannot traverse the dunes with her aging mother, Maria (Fernanda Montenegro) in tow. When calamity strikes, the two women find themselves stranded. Eventually, they settle among the shifting sands and Áurea finds peace. But her passionate daughter, Maria, longs to explore the world beyond the dunes. This profound portrait of passing generations has established Andrucha Waddington as one of the most exciting directors in Brazil today.The landscape looks like the surface of the moon. Set in Br! azil's Maranhão desert, House of Sand follows three generations of women, from 1910 to 1969, as they eke out a living from this hostile environment. Oafish Vasco (director Ruy Guerra) brings pregnant wife Áurea (Fernanda Torres) and her mother, Dona Maria (Fernanda Montenegro, Central Station), from the city to make a new start. Shortly after they arrive, fate takes him out of the picture. Mother and daughter muddle through with the help of slave descendents. Wary at first, Massu (Seu Jorge, City of God) takes a particular shine to the duo. The story then skips ahead to 1919, when an escape route materializes. There will be two more shifts in time. By 1942, Áurea's daughter, Maria (Torres), has grown into impetuous womanhood, while Áurea (Montenegro) and Massu (Luiz Melodia) have settled into middle age. In the final section, set during the year of the first lunar landing, Áurea (Montenegro) is around the same age as her mother at the start of the ! film. With the exception of Camilla Facundes as nine-year-old ! Maria, T orres and her real-life mother assume every female role. What does it all mean? Andrucha Waddington (Me You Them) doesn't burden his enigmatic epic with a singular message, but those who appreciate dust-swept dramas like Woman in the Dunes and Walkabout aren't likely to hold it against him. The point seems to be that the human--especially the female--capacity for survival knows no bounds. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from House of Sand (click for larger image)



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Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. What begins as a struggle over a rundown bungalow spirals into a clash that propels everyone involved toward a shocking resolution. "The surprise ending will leave you breathless!" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood! )Jennifer Connelly followed up her Academy Award for A Beau! tiful Mi nd with this dark but moving story of small mistakes that escalate, with tragic necessity, to disaster. In House of Sand and Fog, Kathy (Connelly) gets evicted from her house for failing to pay a tax she never should have been charged in the first place. The house is swiftly put up for auction and bought by a former military officer from Iran named Behrani (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast). When legal efforts fail her, Kathy turns to a sympathetic cop (Ron Eldard, Bastard Out of Carolina), who wants out of a loveless marriage and who's willing to step over legal boundaries if it might give him a fresh start. Topnotch performances by the entire cast make House of Sand and Fog a compelling psychological drama; your sympathies will be pulled in all directions. --Bret Fetzer

Girl, Interrupted

  • ISBN13: 9780679746041
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Two time Oscar(r)-nominee Winona Ryder stars in the fascinating true story of a young woman's life-altering stay at a famous psychiatric hospital in the turbulent late 1960's. Questionably diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Susanna (Winona Ryder) rebels against the head nurse (Whoopi Goldberg) and top psychiatrist (Vanessa Redgrave), choosing instead to befriend the resident "loonies",a group of troubled women including the seductively charismatic sociopath Lisa (Angelina Jolie). But Susanna quickly learns if she wants her freedom, she'll have to face the person who terrifies her the most of all: herself.Based on Susanna Kaysen's acclaimed journal-memoir, Girl, Interrupted bears ine! vitable resemblance to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and pale comparison to that earlier classic is impossible to avoid. The mental institution settings of both films guarantee a certain degree of déjà vu and at least one Oscar winner (in this case, Angelina Jolie), since playing a loony is any actor's dream gig. Unfortunately, director James Mangold seems to have misplaced the depth and delicacy of his underrated debut, Heavy, despite a great deal of earnest effort by everyone involved. It's easy to see why Winona Ryder chose to star in (and executive-produce) this nearly worthy adaptation of Kaysen's book, since it's a strong vehicle for female casting and potent drama. Mangold certainly got the former; whether he succeeded with the latter is not so clear.

To be sure, Ryder conveys the confusion and chaos that signified Kaysen's life during nearly 18 months of voluntary institutionalization beginning in 1967. But the film seems too eager to embrac! e the cliché that the "crazies" of the Claymoore women's war! d are sa ner than the war-torn world outside, and lack of narrative focus gives way to semipredictable character study. Susanna (Ryder) is labeled with "borderline personality disorder," a diagnosis as ambiguous as her own emotions, and while Jolie chews the scenery as the resident bad-girl sociopath, Ryder effectively conveys an odyssey from vulnerable fear to self-awareness and, finally, to healing. The ensemble cast is uniformly superb, making this drama well worthwhile, even as it treads familiar territory. If it ultimately lacks dramatic impact, Girl, Interrupted makes it painfully clear that the boundaries of dysfunction are hazy in a world where everyone's crazy once in a while. --Jeff ShannonIn 1967, after a session with a psychiatrist she'd never seen before, eighteen-year-old Susanna Kaysen was put in a taxi and sent to McLean Hospital.  She spent most of the next two years on the ward for teenage girls in a psychiatric hospital as renowned for its famous c! lientele--Sylvia Plath, Robert Lowell, James Taylor, and Ray Charles--as for its progressive methods of treating those who could afford its sanctuary.

Kaysen's memoir encompasses horror and razor-edged perception while providing vivid portraits of her fellow patients and their keepers. It is a brilliant evocation of a "parallel universe" set within the kaleidoscopically shifting landscape of the late sixties. Girl, Interrupted is a clear-sighted, unflinching documnet that gives lasting and specific dimension to our definitions of sane and insane, mental illness and recovery.When reality got "too dense" for 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen, she was hospitalized. It was 1967, and reality was too dense for many people. But few who are labeled mad and locked up for refusing to stick to an agreed-upon reality possess Kaysen's lucidity in sorting out a maelstrom of contrary perceptions. Her observations about hospital life are deftly rendered; often darkly funny. H! er clarity about the complex province of brain and mind, of n! euro-che mical activity and something more, make this book of brief essays an exquisite challenge to conventional thinking about what is normal and what is deviant.

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