Elephant: A Film By Gus Van Sant

• Winner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) Elephant takes us inside an American high school on one, single ordinary day that very rapidly turns tragic. Elephant demonstrates that high school life is a complex landscape where the vitality and beauty of young lives can shift from light to darkness with sur

From the groundbreaking director of GOOD WILL HUNTING and FINDING FORRESTER, GERRY stars Academy Award(R) winner Matt Damon (Best Original Screenplay, GOOD WILL HUNTING, 1997; THE BOURNE IDENTITY, OCEAN'S ELEVEN) and Casey Affleck (OCEAN'S ELEVEN, SOUL SURVIVORS) in a suspenseful and highly provocative story of two men pushed to the limit! A pair of best friends (Affleck and Damon), who've nicknamed each other "Gerry," set out on a desert hike. But what begins as a simple daytime adventure turns int! o an intense life-and-death journey that will test the strength of human endurance and ultimately, their friendship! Written by Damon, Affleck, and Director Gus Van Sant, this uncommonly compelling and starkly visualized film is a must-see motion picture that has earned the overwhelming praise of critics nationwide!In Gerry, two young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) wander beautiful, barren, and surreal landscapes, gradually growing more and more lost. This film from Gus Van Sant (director of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting) has no story, hardly any dialogue, and even less in the way of "action" or "events." Yet the movie is by turns maddening and hypnotic; although few people will agree on which are the maddening scenes and which are the hypnotic ones, you will leave Gerry with one or more stunning images in your head. In fact, Gerry is probably more pleasurable to remember than it is to sit throug! h. Committed performances, flashes of dark humor, and a smatte! ring of visual effects give the movie some shape, but the more you just surrender to the emptiness of the landscape, the more rewarding Gerry will be. --Bret FetzerFrom the groundbreaking director of Milk and Good Will Hunting, Gerry stars Matt Damon (The Adjustment Bureau) and Casey Affleck (Gone Baby Gone) in a suspenseful and highly provocative story of two men pushed to the limit.
A pair of best friends (Affleck and Damon), who've nicknamed each other "Gerry," set out on a desert hike. But what begins as a simple daytime adventure turns into an intense life-and-death journey that will test the strength of human endurance and ultimately their friendship. Written by Damon, Affleck and director Gus Van Sant, this uncommonly compelling and starkly visualized film has earned the overwhelming praise of critics nationwide.In Gerry, two young men (Matt Damon and Casey Affleck) wander beautiful, barren, and sur! real landscapes, gradually growing more and more lost. This film from Gus Van Sant (director of Drugstore Cowboy, My Own Private Idaho, and Good Will Hunting) has no story, hardly any dialogue, and even less in the way of "action" or "events." Yet the movie is by turns maddening and hypnotic; although few people will agree on which are the maddening scenes and which are the hypnotic ones, you will leave Gerry with one or more stunning images in your head. In fact, Gerry is probably more pleasurable to remember than it is to sit through. Committed performances, flashes of dark humor, and a smattering of visual effects give the movie some shape, but the more you just surrender to the emptiness of the landscape, the more rewarding Gerry will be. --Bret FetzerWinner of the Palme d'Or and Best Director prizes at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's (Good Will Hunting, Finding Forrester) Elephant takes us inside an Ameri! can high school on one, single ordinary day that very rapidly ! turns tr agic. Elephant demonstrates that high school life is a complex landscape where the vitality and beauty of young lives can shift from light to darkness with surreal speed. It's an ordinary high school day. Except that it's not.

DVD Features:
Featurette:On the Set of Elephant: "Rolling Through Time"
Full Screen Version
TV Spot:HBO Films Spot
Theatrical Trailer

Elephant, the elegant and unsettling movie from Gus Van Sant (My Own Private Idaho, Good Will Hunting), depicts students at a high school before and during a harrowing, Columbine-style shooting. The movie follows one young boy who takes over the wheel from his drunken dad while returning from lunch, then loops back in time and follows another student who crosses paths with the first, then loops back and follows another--all captured in long, unedited tracking shots that are serene and unhurried, even when two boys in camouflage gear, carrying h! eavy bags, arrive at the school and begin shooting. Elephant doesn't attempt to explain their behavior; it simply places the audience back in the brief yet interminable window of adolescence, when life is trivial and painfully important at the same time. Your reaction to Elephant will depend as much on your life experiences as anything in the movie itself. --Bret Fetzer

Read more »

Sissel in Concert - All Good Things

• SISSEL IN CONCERT - ALL GOOD THINGS (DVD MOVIE)

Inspired by the most notorious missing person’s case in New York history, All Good Things is a love story and murder mystery set against the backdrop of a New York real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Produced and directed by Andrew Jarecki (director of the Academy Award-nominated doc Capturing the Friedmans and producer of Catfish), the film was inspired by the story of Robert Durst, scion of the wealthy Durst family. Mr. Durst was suspected but never tried for killing his wife Kathie who disappeared in 1982 and was never found. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella as the powerful patriarch, and captures the emotion and complexion of this real-life unsolved mystery.Inspired by the most notorious missing person’s case in New York history, All Good Things is a love story and murder mystery set! against the backdrop of a New York real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Produced and directed by Andrew Jarecki (director of the Academy Award-nominated doc Capturing the Friedmans and producer of Catfish), the film was inspired by the story of Robert Durst, scion of the wealthy Durst family. Mr. Durst was suspected but never tried for killing his wife Kathie who disappeared in 1982 and was never found. The film stars Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst and Frank Langella as the powerful patriarch, and captures the emotion and complexion of this real-life unsolved mystery.SISSEL IN CONCERT:ALL GOOD THINGS - DVD Movie

Read more »

The Cat in the Hat

• Hardcover
• Juvenile beginning reading
• Stories with verses
• Rhymed verses.
• English

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 82 minutes
The Cat in the Hat is a marketing ploy disguised as a wildly designed movie for hyperactive kids, and it could use a dose of Ritalin. It hardly matters, though, because kids will surely enjoy the rampant romp that occurs when the top-hatted feline convinces young Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) to wreak havoc in the home their mother (Kelly Preston) has neatly prepared for an upcoming party. It's all in the name of fun, and while Seuss's classic rhymes are relegated to voice-over narration, director Bo Welch capitalizes on his background as one of Hollywood's most gifted production designers (with credits including Edward Scissorhands and! Men in Black), turning the Seussian town of "Anville" into a playful pastiche of pastels. As played by Mike Myers under layers of fur and latex, Dr. Seuss's mischievous Cat is mayhem personified, and the movie suffers from his anything-goes approach to getting a laugh. And though Myers delivers a few laughs while channeling voices from his own comedic repertoire (including "Coffee Talk" maven Linda Richman), a little of this Cat goes a long way, and he nearly wears out his welcome. --Jeff Shannon

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 82 minutes
The Cat in the Hat is a marketing ploy disguised as a wildly designed movie for hyperactive kids, and it could use a dose of Ritalin. It hardly matters, though, because kids will surely enjoy the rampant romp that occurs when the top-hatted feline convinces young Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) to wreak havoc in the ! home their mother (Kelly Preston) has neatly prepared for an u! pcoming party. It's all in the name of fun, and while Seuss's classic rhymes are relegated to voice-over narration, director Bo Welch capitalizes on his background as one of Hollywood's most gifted production designers (with credits including Edward Scissorhands and Men in Black), turning the Seussian town of "Anville" into a playful pastiche of pastels. As played by Mike Myers under layers of fur and latex, Dr. Seuss's mischievous Cat is mayhem personified, and the movie suffers from his anything-goes approach to getting a laugh. And though Myers delivers a few laughs while channeling voices from his own comedic repertoire (including "Coffee Talk" maven Linda Richman), a little of this Cat goes a long way, and he nearly wears out his welcome. --Jeff ShannonPoor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost w! recking the place in the process! Written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 in response to the concern that "pallid primers [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls' were leading to growing illiteracy among children, The Cat in the Hat (the first Random House Beginner Book) changed the way our children learn how to read.
He may be an old standby, but he never lets us down. When in doubt, turn to the story of the cat that transformed a dull, rainy afternoon into a magical and just-messy-enough adventure. There's another, hidden adventure, too: this book really will help children learn to read. With his simple and often single-vowel vocabulary, the good Doctor knew what he was doing: hear it, learn it, read it--laughing all the way. The Cat in the Hat is a must for any child's library.
!

Read more »

Fast & Furious (Two-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray]

• Condition: Average
• Format: Blu-ray
• AC-3; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; Special Edition; Subtitled; Widescreen

Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam with Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed! When fugitive Dominic Toretto (Diesel) returns to Los Angeles to avenge a loved one’s death, it reignites his feud with agent Brian O’Conner (Walker). But, as they race through crowded city streets and across international lines, they must test their loyalties by joining together to bring down a shared enemy. From big rig heists to precision tunnel crawls, Fast & Furious takes you back into the high-octane world, which lives for speed, drives for the rush and breaks all the rules!Fast & Furious is high octane torque-er porn that puts the franchise back on course after drifting in Tokyo. With the original cast ! once again in the driver's seat, we are good to go with a this-time-it's-personal plot and spectacular race and chase set-pieces that exceed the promise of the stripped-down title, beginning with an awesome highway hijacking of an oil truck led by former street racer Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, at his glowering and gravel-voiced best). Dom is a fugitive in the Dominican Republic, but after a devastating personal loss, he is driven by revenge to return to Los Angeles to bring down an elusive drug smuggler. He is reunited with Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), the undercover FBI agent who let him go eight years earlier. Brian, also on the case, must come to terms with Dom and make amends with Dom's sister (Jordana Brewster), whom he betrayed in his original pursuit of Dom. Fast & Furious is just the ticket for putting your mind on cruise control. From a see-what-you've-got racing challenge through the streets of L.A. to the illicit kicks of the street-racing subculture (this is extr! eme PG-13), there is nothing cheap about these thrills. A reco! rd-shatt ering opening weekend at the box office could mean faster and more furious action to come, but if this is the franchise's last time around the block, it goes out a winner. --Donald Liebenson

Stills from Fast & Furious (Click for larger image) Vin Diesel and Paul Walker reteam with Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster for the ultimate chapter of the franchise built on speed! From big rig heists to precision tunnel crawls, Fast & Furious takes! you back into the high-octane world to race through crowded city streets and across international lines!Fast & Furious is high octane torque-er porn that puts the franchise back on course after drifting in Tokyo. With the original cast once again in the driver's seat, we are good to go with a this-time-it's-personal plot and spectacular race and chase set-pieces that exceed the promise of the stripped-down title, beginning with an awesome highway hijacking of an oil truck led by former street racer Dom Toretto (Vin Diesel, at his glowering and gravel-voiced best). Dom is a fugitive in the Dominican Republic, but after a devastating personal loss, he is driven by revenge to return to Los Angeles to bring down an elusive drug smuggler. He is reunited with Brian O'Connor (Paul Walker), the undercover FBI agent who let him go eight years earlier. Brian, also on the case, must come to terms with Dom and make amends with Dom's sister (Jordana Brewster), whom he betrayed in his o! riginal pursuit of Dom. Fast & Furious is just the ticket for ! putting your mind on cruise control. From a see-what-you've-got racing challenge through the streets of L.A. to the illicit kicks of the street-racing subculture (this is extreme PG-13), there is nothing cheap about these thrills. A record-shattering opening weekend at the box office could mean faster and more furious action to come, but if this is the franchise's last time around the block, it goes out a winner. --Donald Liebenson
Stills from Fast & Furious (Click for larger image)

Click to learn more about the BD-Live Experience

Read more »

Easy

• Jamie Harris (Marguerite Moreau) is a 25-year-old self-proclaimed jerk magnet. After determining not to spend the rest of her life as the easy chick, she gets involved in a romantic triangle with 2 great guys (2004 Tony winner Brian F. O Byrne and Lost s Naveen Andrews), only to discover that love is anything but easy. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR Age: 025192

Jamie Harris (Marguerite Moreau) is a 25-year-old self-proclaimed "jerk magnet." After determining not to spend the rest of her life as "the easy chick," she gets involved in a romantic triangle with 2 great guys (2004 Tony winner Brian F. O'Byrne and "Lost's" Naveen Andrews), only to discover that love is anything but easy.

Read more »