- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Animated; Closed-captioned; Color; DVD; Full Screen; NTSC
DVD Features:
Introduction
Theatrical Trailer
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a singular delight, crammed with mad fantasy, childhood justice and revenge, and as much candy ! as you can eat. The book is also available in Spanish (Char! lie y la Fabrica de Chocolate). (The suggested age range for this book is 9-12, but nobody this reviewer has met can resist it, including New York City bellhops, flight attendants, and grumpy teenagers.) A poor little boy wins a ticket to visit the inside of a mysterious and magical chocolate factory. When he experiences the wonders inside the factory, the boy discovers that the entire visit is a test of his character.Having proven itself as a favorite film of children around the world, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is every bit as entertaining now as it was when originally released in 1971. There's a timeless appeal to Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, which was playfully preserved in this charming musical, from the colorful carnival-like splendor of its production design to the infectious melody of the "Oompah-Loompah" songs that punctuate the story. Who can forget those diminutive Oompah-Loompah workers who recite rhyming parental warnings ("Oompah-Loom! pah, doopity do...") whenever some mischievous child has disobeyed Willy Wonka's orders to remain orderly? Oh, but we're getting ahead of ourselves ... it's really the story of the impoverished Charlie Bucket, who, along with four other kids and their parental guests, wins a coveted golden ticket to enter the fantastic realm of Wonka's mysterious confectionery. After the other kids have proven themselves to be irresponsible brats, it's Charlie who impresses Wonka and wins a reward beyond his wildest dreams. But before that, the tour of Wonka's factory provides a dazzling parade of delights, and with Gene Wilder giving a brilliant performance as the eccentric candyman, Wonka gains an edge of menace and madness that nicely counterbalances the movie's sentimental sweetness. It's that willingness to risk a darker tone--to show that even a wonderland like Wonka's can be a weird and dangerous place if you're a bad kid--that makes this an enduring family classic. --Jeff ! ShannonSummary:
0
About the Author:
⢠0
Author: Roald Dahl
Illustrator:0
Publisher:Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published Date:09/11/2001
Format:Hardcover
ISBN:0375815597
#of pages:#N/A
Deliciously madcap mayhem and out-of-this-world fantasy--this is what you'll find within the casing of this boxed set of two of Roald Dahl's most brilliant creations: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.
For decades, delighted readers of all ages have explored Willy Wonka's fabulous chocolate factory, met the Oompa Loompas, and sampled the chocolate river along with Augustus Gloop. And later, they have zoomed off into the stratosphere in the most remarkable elevator ever created. Now, a new generation of readers barely needs to pause between the first and the second of Roald Dahl's masterful volumes. Hardcover editions of each title, illustrated of course by the incomparable Quentin Blake, are tucked in a hand! y cardboard sleeve, ready for the next set of hungry eyes. Sadly, the convenience of the set is counterbalanced by the poor quality of the paper used for the books. Classics like these deserve thick, creamy, opaque pages; not the flimsy, rough, semitransparent sheets used here. (Ages 7 and older) --Emilie Coulter
Features include:
â¢MPAA Rating: PG
â¢Format: Blu-Ray
â¢Runtime: 115 minutes
Mixed reviews and creepy comparisons to Michael Jackson notwithstanding, Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hence the change in title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own ! unique brand of imaginative oddity. Depp's pale, androgynous W! onka led some to suspect a partial riff on that most controversial of eternal children, Michael Jackson, but Burton's film is too expansively magnificent to be so narrowly defined. While preserving Dahl's morality tale on the hazards of indulgent excess, Burton's riotous explosion of color provides a wondrous setting for the lessons learned by Charlie Bucket (played by Freddie Highmore, Depp's delightful costar in Finding Neverland), as he and other, less admirable children enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Wonka's confectionary wonderland. Elaborate visual effects make this an eye-candy overdose (including digitally multiplied Oompa-Loompas, all played by diminutive actor Deep Roy), and the film's underlying weirdness is exaggerated by Depp's admirably risky but ultimately off-putting performance. Of course, none of this stops Burton's Charlie from being the must-own family DVD of 2005's holiday season, perhaps even for those who staunchly defend Gene Wilder's portrayal of ! Wonka from 34 years earlier. --Jeff Shannon
DVD features
The second disc is filled with a number of distinctive featurettes. The likely crowd-pleaser in most households is "Attack of the Squirrels," which recounts how those fuzzy little creatures (a combination of hard-to-train live animals, animatronics, and computer graphics) can be ornery in their own right. "The Fantastic Mr. Dahl" is a 17-minute look at author Roald Dahl through vintage footage and new interviews with family, friends, and colleagues. "Becoming Oompa-Loompa" follows Deep Roy as he is filmed over and over again through his dance steps and music performances.
Roy is a constant throughout the kids' activities as well. You can follow him to learn two different dance steps "Augustus Gloop" and "Violet Beauregarde," and make him taste weird candy inventions in a simple game. "Search for the Golden Ticket" is a five-part challenge that tests your remote-control fingers, your deducti! ve abilities, or your luck. Finally, if you just want basic be! hind-the -scenes information, "Making the Mix" is a collection of featurettes (around 40 minutes total) covering the film's casting, music, production design, and special effects. --David HoriuchiWe recommend you read this unit on your kindle machine with a 1 font for best viewing
This unit study offers many wonderful activities to use while having students read the book. There are between 6 and 10 lessons. Activities in this lesson include Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True and False, Comprehension, Encyclopedia Skills Activity, Journal Activity, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Handwriting, Main Idea, Prediction, Comparison
Literature Skills Activities including: Main Character, Main Setting, Main Problem, Possible Solutions, Character Traits, Character Interaction, Cause and Effect, Description, Pyramid of Importance, Villain vs. Hero.
Creative Writing Activities including: Letter, Fairy Tale, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fable, Dream or Nightmare, Tall! Tale, Memoir, Newberry Award, A Different Ending.
Writing Skills Activities including: Description, Expository, Dialogue, Process, Point of View, Persuasion, Compare and Contrast, Sequel, Climax and Plot Analysis.
Poetry Skills Activities including: Couplet, Triplet, Quinzain, Haiku, Cinquain, Tanka, Diamanté, Lantern and Shape Poem.
Create a Newspaper Layout Activities including: Editorial, Travel, Advice Column, Comics, Society News, Sports, Obituary, Weddings, Book Review, Want Ads, Word Search.
Poster Board Activities including: Collage, Theater Poster, Wanted Poster, Coat of Arms, Story Quilt, Chalk Art, Silhouette, Board Game Construction, Door Sign, Jeopardy.
We also offer more activities including instructions for a lapbook at our home site. If you purchase this unit study and let us know by sending us proof of purchase, we will download this unit in PDF version to you which has more activities and the lapb! ook instructions.
We recommend you read this unit o! n your k indle machine with a 1 font for best viewing
This unit study offers many wonderful activities to use while having students read the book. There are between 6 and 10 lessons. Activities in this lesson include Fill in the Blank, Multiple Choice, True and False, Comprehension, Encyclopedia Skills Activity, Journal Activity, Vocabulary, Sequencing, Handwriting, Main Idea, Prediction, Comparison
Literature Skills Activities including: Main Character, Main Setting, Main Problem, Possible Solutions, Character Traits, Character Interaction, Cause and Effect, Description, Pyramid of Importance, Villain vs. Hero.
Creative Writing Activities including: Letter, Fairy Tale, Mystery, Science Fiction, Fable, Dream or Nightmare, Tall Tale, Memoir, Newberry Award, A Different Ending.
Writing Skills Activities including: Description, Expository, Dialogue, Process, Point of View, Persuasion, Compare and Contrast, Sequel, Climax and Plot Analysis.
Poetry ! Skills Activities including: Couplet, Triplet, Quinzain, Haiku, Cinquain, Tanka, Diamanté, Lantern and Shape Poem.
Create a Newspaper Layout Activities including: Editorial, Travel, Advice Column, Comics, Society News, Sports, Obituary, Weddings, Book Review, Want Ads, Word Search.
Poster Board Activities including: Collage, Theater Poster, Wanted Poster, Coat of Arms, Story Quilt, Chalk Art, Silhouette, Board Game Construction, Door Sign, Jeopardy.
We also offer more activities including instructions for a lapbook at our home site. If you purchase this unit study and let us know by sending us proof of purchase, we will download this unit in PDF version to you which has more activities and the lapbook instructions.
Charlie and Willy Wonka are back, this time in a fantastic journey to outer space in their glass elevator.Picking right up where Charlie and the Chocolate Factory left off, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator! continues the adventures of Charlie Bucket, his family, and ! Willy W onka, the eccentric candy maker. As the book begins, our heroes are shooting into the sky in a glass elevator, headed for destinations unknown. What follows is exactly the kind of high-spirited magical madness and mayhem we've all come to expect from Willy Wonka and his creator Roald Dahl. The American space race gets a send-up, as does the President, and Charlie's family gets a second chance at childhood. Throw in the Vermicious Knids, Gnoolies, and Minusland and we once again witness pure genius. (Ages 9 to 12)Fantasy Adventure. Acclaimed director Tim Burton brings his vividly imaginative style to the beloved Roald Dahl classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, about eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka (Depp) and Charlie, a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka's extraordinary factory. Long isolated from his own family, Wonka launches a worldwide contest to select an heir to his candy empire. Five lucky children, including Charli! e, draw golden tickets from Wonka chocolate bars and win a guided tour of the legendary candy-making facility that no outsider has seen in 15 years. Dazzled by one amazing sight after another, Charlie is drawn into Wonka's fantastic world in this astonishing andenduring story.Mixed reviews and creepy comparisons to Michael Jackson notwithstanding, Tim Burton's splendidly imaginative adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory would almost surely meet with Roald Dahl's approval. The celebrated author of darkly offbeat children's books vehemently disapproved of 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (hence the change in title), so it's only fitting that Burton and his frequent star/collaborator, Johnny Depp, should have another go, infusing the enigmatic candyman's tale with their own unique brand of imaginative oddity. Depp's pale, androgynous Wonka led some to suspect a partial riff on that most controversial of eternal children, Michael Jackson, but! Burton's film is too expansively magnificent to be so narrowl! y define d. While preserving Dahl's morality tale on the hazards of indulgent excess, Burton's riotous explosion of color provides a wondrous setting for the lessons learned by Charlie Bucket (played by Freddie Highmore, Depp's delightful costar in Finding Neverland), as he and other, less admirable children enjoy a once-in-a-lifetime tour of Wonka's confectionary wonderland. Elaborate visual effects make this an eye-candy overdose (including digitally multiplied Oompa-Loompas, all played by diminutive actor Deep Roy), and the film's underlying weirdness is exaggerated by Depp's admirably risky but ultimately off-putting performance. Of course, none of this stops Burton's Charlie from being the must-own family DVD of 2005's holiday season, perhaps even for those who staunchly defend Gene Wilder's portrayal of Wonka from 34 years earlier. --Jeff Shannon
DVD features
The second disc is filled with a number of distinctive featurettes. The likely crowd-please! r in most households is "Attack of the Squirrels," which recounts how those fuzzy little creatures (a combination of hard-to-train live animals, animatronics, and computer graphics) can be ornery in their own right. "The Fantastic Mr. Dahl" is a 17-minute look at author Roald Dahl through vintage footage and new interviews with family, friends, and colleagues. "Becoming Oompa-Loompa" follows Deep Roy as he is filmed over and over again through his dance steps and music performances.
Roy is a constant throughout the kids' activities as well. You can follow him to learn two different dance steps "Augustus Gloop" and "Violet Beauregarde," and make him taste weird candy inventions in a simple game. "Search for the Golden Ticket" is a five-part challenge that tests your remote-control fingers, your deductive abilities, or your luck. Finally, if you just want basic behind-the-scenes information, "Making the Mix" is a collection of featurettes (around 40 minutes total) cover! ing the film's casting, music, production design, and special ! effects. --David HoriuchiA poor little boy wins a ticket to visit the inside of a mysterious and magical chocolate factory. When he experiences the wonders inside the factory, the boy discovers that the entire visit is a test of his character.Having proven itself as a favorite film of children around the world, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory is every bit as entertaining now as it was when originally released in 1971. There's a timeless appeal to Roald Dahl's classic children's novel, which was playfully preserved in this charming musical, from the colorful carnival-like splendor of its production design to the infectious melody of the "Oompah-Loompah" songs that punctuate the story. Who can forget those diminutive Oompah-Loompah workers who recite rhyming parental warnings ("Oompah-Loompah, doopity do...") whenever some mischievous child has disobeyed Willy Wonka's orders to remain orderly? Oh, but we're getting ahead of ourselves ... it's really the story of the! impoverished Charlie Bucket, who, along with four other kids and their parental guests, wins a coveted golden ticket to enter the fantastic realm of Wonka's mysterious confectionery. After the other kids have proven themselves to be irresponsible brats, it's Charlie who impresses Wonka and wins a reward beyond his wildest dreams. But before that, the tour of Wonka's factory provides a dazzling parade of delights, and with Gene Wilder giving a brilliant performance as the eccentric candyman, Wonka gains an edge of menace and madness that nicely counterbalances the movie's sentimental sweetness. It's that willingness to risk a darker tone--to show that even a wonderland like Wonka's can be a weird and dangerous place if you're a bad kid--that makes this an enduring family classic. --Jeff Shannon
When Siddalee Walker, oldest daughter of Vivi Abbott Walker, Ya-Ya extraordinaire, is interviewed in the New York Times about a hit play she's directed, her mother gets described as a "tap-dancing child abuser." Enraged, Vivi disowns Sidda. Devastated, Sidda begs forgiveness, and postpones her upcoming wedding. All looks bleak until the Ya-Yas step in and convince Vivi to send Sidda a scrapbook of their girlhood mementos, called "Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood." As Sidda struggles to anal! yze her mother, she comes face to face with the tangled beauty! of impe rfect love, and the fact that forgiveness, more than understanding, is often what the heart longs for.
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood may call to mind Prince of Tides in its unearthing of family darkness; in its unforgettable heroines and irrepressible humor and female loyalty, it echoes Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.Wells is a Louisiana-born Seattle actress and playwright; her loopy saga of a 40-year-old player in Seattle's hot theater scene who must come to terms with her mama's past in steamy Thornton City, Louisiana, reads like a lengthy episode of Designing Women written under the influence of mint juleps and Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!. The Ya-Yas are the wild circle of girls who swirl around the narrator Siddalee's mama, Vivi, whose vivid voice is "part Scarlett, part Katharine Hepburn, part Tallulah." The Ya-Yas broke the no-booze rule at the cotillion, skinny-dipped their way to j! ail in the town water tower, disrupted the Shirley Temple look-alike contest, and bonded for life because, as one says, "It's so much fun being a bad girl!"
Siddalee must repair her busted relationship with Vivi by reading a half-century's worth of letters and clippings contained in the Ya-Ya Sisterhood's packet of "Divine Secrets." It's a contrived premise, but the secrets are really fun to learn.
Attractive, functional backseat organizer with multiple pockets, mesh pouches, and drink holders. Helps protect seat backs. High quality, durable materials. Easy to clean. Universal system fits most vehicle seat backs.
* Godzilla (1954 Japanese Edition-english subtitles)
* King of the Monsters (1956 U.S. Release Edtion-english v/o dub)
Featuring:
* Audio commentaries
* Original trailers
*"Making of the Suite" Featurette
*"Godzilla: Story Development" featurette
The first of the Godzilla movies, and the most somber and serious in tone, Gojiro was originally a 98-minute Japanese horror film, until a U.S. company bought the rights and reissued the film at 79 minutes, replacing sequences involving a Japanese reporter with new inserts of a dour, pipe-smoking Raymond Burr. Both versions appear together for the first time in this release from Sony Wonder.
Stills from Gojiro (click for larger image)
| |
While the ! film's p lot, marked by chapters named after stages of grief, like "Pain" and "Despair," is rooted in absolute realism, the film's glorious moments are in its fantasy. There is a talking fox, subtle hints at ghostly occurrences, and many scenes that express the uncanny. Moreover, Gainsbourg's character, obsessed with witchcraft as it relates to historical gynocide and misogyny, adds much to the film's depressing sensibility that wallows unapologetically in decrepitude and faulty, negative reasoning. Dafoe, who plays the psychologist treating his hallucination-plagued wife, does a remarkable job depicting a person struggling through loss with logic. Antichrist works because Dafoe and Gainsbourg create archetypal characters, functioning symbolically as Logic and Psychosis in a Freudian maze with no exit. That said, the violent conclusions in the film's third chapter, "Despair (Gynocide)," are grim, graphic, and very difficult to watch. Antichrist, like its sister film in ! violence portrayed artfully, Irreversible, has all the more shock value because of the archetypal symbolism it successfully establishes. --Trinie DaltonLars von Trier (Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) shook up the film world when he premiered Antichrist at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and womanâ"a searing Willem Dafoe (Platoon, The Last Temptation of Christ) and Cannes best actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Jane Eyre, 21 Grams)â"retreat to a cabin deep in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son, only to find terror and violence at the hands of nature and, ultimately, each other. But this most confrontational work yet from one of contemporary cinemaâs most controversial artists is no mere provocation. It is a visually sublime, emotionally ravaging journey to the darkest corners of the possessed human mind; a disturbing battle of the sexes that pits rational psychology against ag! e-old superstition; and a profoundly effective horror film.Lar! s von Tr ier's notorious Antichrist is a fascinating and extremely gruesome experiment that combines B-horror tropes with art film concepts and cinematography to question differences between high horror and low horror, if there are such categories. Like the best of Argento, namely Suspiria, Antichrist follows a strictly formulaic, minimalist, almost operatic script structure in which the story of a couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, grieve their dead son. The highly organized story, like a poem, has ample space for metaphors to form, dwell, and transform into overgrown mysteries, such as the decadent forest, Eden, where the couple retreat to their cabin to face demons. When the camera zooms in on a flower vase's murky water on the nightstand beside a bereft Gainsbourg, one senses the ensuing downward spiral.
While the film's plot, marked by chapters named after stages of grief, like "Pain" and "Despair," is rooted in absolute realism, t! he film's glorious moments are in its fantasy. There is a talking fox, subtle hints at ghostly occurrences, and many scenes that express the uncanny. Moreover, Gainsbourg's character, obsessed with witchcraft as it relates to historical gynocide and misogyny, adds much to the film's depressing sensibility that wallows unapologetically in decrepitude and faulty, negative reasoning. Dafoe, who plays the psychologist treating his hallucination-plagued wife, does a remarkable job depicting a person struggling through loss with logic. Antichrist works because Dafoe and Gainsbourg create archetypal characters, functioning symbolically as Logic and Psychosis in a Freudian maze with no exit. That said, the violent conclusions in the film's third chapter, "Despair (Gynocide)," are grim, graphic, and very difficult to watch. Antichrist, like its sister film in violence portrayed artfully, Irreversible, has all the more shock value because of the archetypal symbol! ism it successfully establishes. --Trinie DaltonHere is! Friedri ch Nietzsche's great masterpiece The Anti-Christ, wherein Nietzsche attacks Christianity as a blight on humanity. This classic is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Nietzsche and his place within the history of philosophy. "We should not deck out and embellish Christianity: it has waged a war to the death against this higher type of man, it has put all the deepest instincts of this type under its ban, it has developed its concept of evil, of the Evil One himself, out of these instincts-the strong man as the typical reprobate, the 'outcast among men.' Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched; it has made an ideal out of antagonism to all the self-preservative instincts of sound life; it has corrupted even the faculties of those natures that are intellectually most vigorous, by representing the highest intellectual values as sinful, as misleading, as full of temptation. The most lamentable example: the corruption of Pascal, who beli! eved that his intellect had been destroyed by original sin, whereas it was actually destroyed by Christianity!" -Friedrich Nietzsche
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Music Video:Fred D! urst music video - "Behind Blue Eyes"
Theatrical Trailer:Fred Durst music video - "Behind Blue Eyes"
DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Music Video:Fred Durst music video - "Behind Blue Eyes"
Theatrical Trailer:! Fred Durst music video - "Behind Blue Eyes"
Jungle Fever
Spike Lee's 1991 story about an interracial relationship and its consequences on the lives and communities of the lovers (Wesley Snipes, Annabella Sciorra) is one of his most captivating and focused films. Snipes and Sciorra are very good as individuals trying to reach beyond the limits imposed upon them for reasons of race, tradition, sexism, and such. Lee makes an interesting and subtle case that they are driven to one another out of frustration with social obstacles as well as pure attraction--but is that enough for love to survive? John Turturro is featured in a subplot as an Italian American who grows attracted to a black woman and takes heat from his numbskull buddies. --Tom Keogh
Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee's incendiary look at race relations in America, circa 1989, is so colorful and exuberant for its first three-quarters that you can almost forge! t the terrible confrontation that the movie inexorably builds ! toward. Do the Right Thing is a joyful, tumultuous masterpiece--maybe the best film ever made about race in America, revealing racial prejudices and stereotypes in all their guises and demonstrating how a deadly riot can erupt out of a series of small misunderstandings. Set on one block in Bedford-Stuyvesant on the hottest day of the summer, the movie shows the whole spectrum of life in this neighborhood and then leaves it up to us to decide if, in the end, anybody actually does the "right thing." Featuring Danny Aiello as Sal, the pizza parlor owner; Lee himself as Mookie, the lazy pizza-delivery guy; John Turturro and Richard Edson as Sal's sons; Lee's sister Joie as Mookie's sister Jade; Rosie Perez as Mookie's girlfriend Tina; Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee as the block elders, Da Mayor and Mother Sister; Giancarlo Esposito as Mookie's hot-headed friend Buggin' Out; Bill Nunn as the boom-box toting Radio Raheem; and Samuel L. Jackson as deejay Mister Señor Love Daddy. A rich a! nd nuanced film to watch, treasure, and learn from--over and over again. --Jim Emerson
Mo' Better Blues
With Mo' Better Blues, the story of a young trumpeter's rise to jazz-world stardom, Spike Lee set out to counter Clint Eastwood's cliché-ridden biopic of Charlie Parker in Bird. But the final product, a slick, glossy drama (with hip-hop jazz provided by Gangstarr no less), is just as superficial as the numerous Alger-esque stories of music stardom to which movie audiences are accustomed.
Denzel Washington gives a typically charismatic performance as the trumpeter in question, as does Wesley Snipes as his sax-playing rival. And as with most Spike Lee films, there are numerous solid performers in small roles such as Bill Nunn, Latin-music star Rubén Blades, and comedian Robin Harris. One character, however, attracted unwanted attention: John Turturro's role as an unscrupulous music-industry exec. Critics called the Turturro character, who! is at once money hungry, swarthy, and perpetually shrouded in! darknes s, a classic anti-Semitic caricature. But the charge seems almost irrelevant in Spike Lee's cartoonish, overstylized world of impossibly hunky jazzmen, curvaceous hangers-on, and incessant bebop. --Ethan Brown
Crooklyn
Spike Lee's semiautobiographical, 1994 film about the good and bad times for a Brooklyn family in the '70s has passion and nostalgic good feeling, but it is also a mess of random reflections and arbitrary storytelling. The centerpiece of the movie is a little girl (Zelda Harris) who views the ups and downs of her parents' experiences (mom and dad are played by Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard), and who navigates the life of her neighborhood. Lee tosses in a lot of '70s detail (watching The Partridge Family) and other diversions (Harris's journey through suburbia), but he has no master sensibility controlling the flow of it all. The film is more wearying than anything, although bright spots include Lindo's fine performance as a tale! nted man suffering from irrelevance. --Tom KeoghWriter-director Spike Lee's latest is a dark satire on the television Industry, in which a frustrated Ivy League-educated black writer revives the racially insensitive minstrel show (now performed by blacks in even blacker face, as opposed to whites) and achieves a ratings success and industry fallout. The music has been carefully chosen and presents a wide swath of styles, clocking in at a generous 75 minutes. Prince, the artist formerly known as ?, is back with "2045 Radical Man," which features his trademark mix of old-school soul and updated funk. Stevie Wonder's "Misrepresented People" (featuring a spoken-word passage by the Rev. Jesse Jackson) and "Some Years Ago" are infused with social consciousness, recalling the message music of early 1970s soul. Chuck D. teams up with the Roots and Rage Against the Machine's Zack De La Rocha for an update of Public Enemy's "Burn Hollywood Burn." --Rob O'Connor Story of! Malcolm X, as he rises up from poverty, encounters the law, a! chieves spiritual enlightenment, and reaches out to others in the fight for human and civil rights.
Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: PG13
Street Date: 02/08/05
Wide Screen: yes
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: yes
Language: ENGLISH
Foreign Film: noSubtitles: no
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: SleeveJust as Do the Right Thing was the capstone of Spike Lee's earlier career, Malcolm X marked the next milestone in the filmmaker's artistic maturity. It seemed everything Lee had done up to that point was to prepare him for this epic biography of America's fiery civil-rights leader, who is superbly played by Oscar-nominated Denzel Washington, from his early days as a zoot-suited hustler known as "Detroit Red" to his spiritual maturity after his pilgrimage to Mecca, as a Black Muslim by the name of El Hajj Malik El Shabazz. Do th! e Right Thing climaxed with the photographic images of Malcolm X and Dr. Martin Luther King engulfed by flames of rage; Malcolm X explores the genesis and evolution of that rage over Malcolm's lifetime, and how these two great figures--held up to the public as polar-opposites within the African American human rights movement (King for nonviolent civil disobedience, Malcolm for achieving equality "by any means necessary")--were each essential to the agenda of the other. Lee careens from the hedonistic ebullience of Malcolm's early days to the stark despair of prison, from his life-changing conversion to Islam to his emergence as a dynamic political leader--all with an epic sweep and vitality that illuminates personal details as well as political ideology. Angela Bassett is also terrific as Malcolm's wife, Betty Shabazz. --Jim Emerson
This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.
French for "Orchestra Seats," Avenue Montaigne offers an outsider's perspective on an insular world (the original title is Fauteuils d'Orchestre). After bidding adieu to her grandmother (Suzanne Flon in her final performance), sunny Jessica (Cécile De France, L'Auberge Espagnole) moves from Mâcon to Paris. Upon securing a job as a waitress in a popular café, she meets high-strung soap star Catherine (Valérie Lemercier), burnt-out pianist Jean-François (Albert Dupontel), and secretive art collector Jacques (Claude Brasseur), who comes equipped with a pretty girlfriend and a handsome son (Christopher Thompson). Though the tousled Jessica has little in common with these posh Parisians, she affects each of their lives in ways both big and small. Dir! ected by Danièle Thompson (La Bûche) and co-written w! ith her son, Christopher, Avenue Montaigne serves as the flipside to French phenomenon When the Cat's Away, in which a young woman meets the people in her neighborhood while searching for an errant feline. In this case, the surroundings are more upscale, but the residents are just as susceptible to fear and insecurity. Though the idea of a sympathetic look at the upper class will surely strike some as off-putting, Thompson makes it work. The genuine affection she feels for her characters--privileged and underprivileged alike--and the grace with which she keeps several plot strands going at once proves that the spirit of Robert Altman lives on in the most unlikely of places. --Kathleen C. FennessyFrance released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), French ( Subtitles ), WIDESCRE! EN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Deleted Scenes, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Scene Access, SYNOPSIS: A film about love and art, about passing time and time passing, "Avenue Montaigne" is a humble pleasure. The modesty feels intentional and misleading: the story is a nominally light affair abuzz with minor incidents, comic faces, choreographed nonsense, melodramatic blips and swells. But there are serious complications too, including a handful of characters facing life-altering decisions. On the face of it the film recalls the light comedies of what the French call boulevard theater, which were meant to entertain well-heeled patrons but at times, as with "Avenue Montaigne," also offered more. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Ceasar Awards, ...Avenue Montaigne ( Fauteuils D'orchestre ) ( Orchestra Seats )
There's love in war as Vassily connects with a wo! man soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov ! (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal interest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this a classic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L. Robbins's novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a manmade hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon
There's love in war as Vassily connects with a woman soldier (Rachel Weisz), but she is also loved by Danilov (Joseph Fiennes), the Soviet officer who promotes his friend Vassily as Russia's much-needed hero. This romantic rivalry lends marginal i! nterest to the central plot, but it's not enough to make this! a class ic war film. Instead it's a taut, well-made suspense thriller isolated within an epic battle, and although Annaud and cowriter Alain Godard (drawing from William Craig's book and David L. Robbins's novel The War of the Rats) fail to connect the parallel plots with any lasting impact, the production is never less than impressive. Highly conventional but handled with intelligence and superior craftsmanship, this is warfare as strategic entertainment, without compromising warfare as a manmade hell on Earth. --Jeff Shannon
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/02/2011 Rating: RDVD