DVD Releases February 10 2009

Nights in Rodanthe

From Warner Home Video
Average customer review:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-10
• Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Color, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French, Spanish
• Subtitled in: English, French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 97 minutes

Customer Reviews

Ridiculous Sap!
Diane Lane and Richard Gere are a gem together. Beautiful to watch. Amazing scenery and locations. The plot is just syrup, sugary, unbelievable ridiculous and ludicrous drama, but you get over it because of the two stars and great back drop.

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The Inauguration of Barack Obama on CNN

From CNN

The Inauguration of Barack Obama

On January 20, 2009, the world watched as Barack Obama became the 44th president of the United States. History was made when the first African-American ever-elected president put his hand on Abraham Lincoln’s Bible and took the oath of office.

Watch how it all happened in real time. CNN and The Best Political Team on Television take you moment by moment as a new administration takes the seat of power. See the parade of former Presidents and dignitaries as they are seated on the Presidential Podium, witness the swearing-in of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. Watch the final departure of Former President George W. Bush and First Lady Laura Bush from the White House.

The ceremony features Aretha Franklin singing My Country ‘Tis of Thee and an original work by composer John Williams Air and Simple Gifts performed by Yo Yo Ma, Gabriela Montero, Anthony McGill and Itzhak Perlman. Opening with an invocation by Rev. Rick Warren and including a poetry reading by Elizabeth Alexander, the state ceremony concludes with a benediction by the Rev. Dr. Joseph E. Lowery.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-10
• Format: NTSC
• Dimensions: .58" h x 5.42" w x 7.10" l, .18 pounds
• Running time: 120 minutes

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W. (Widescreen)

Directed by Oliver Stone
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Oliver Stone’s W. is similar to his other movies about American presidents (JFK, Nixon), which is to say these films are much more about Stone’s imagined versions of reported events than they are alleged reenactments. As such, W. is Stone’s case for what he sees as the absurdity of George W. Bush’s ascendance to the White House and especially the arrogant blunder of the Iraq War. Josh Brolin is very good as the miscreant son of George H. W. Bush (James Cromwell), Vice President to Ronald Reagan and 41st president of the United States. Adrift in a sea of booze and squandered opportunities, the younger Bush is largely driven by a need for his disapproving father’s love and respect, which never truly arrives. Becoming a hatchet man for Bush Sr.’s administration, “W” (as his wife, Laura--played by Elizabeth Banks--call him) meets Karl Rove (Toby Jones) and heads toward the Texas governorship, despite his father’s preference that the more golden son, Jeb, get all the family’s support in his Florida gubernatorial bid. Told in broken chronology, W. focuses on Bush’s post-9/11 path to waging a “preventive war” in Iraq despite no hard evidence of weapons of mass destruction to justify it. The major players in W’s administration--Rove, Colin Powell (Jeffrey Wright), Condoleeza Rice (Thandie Newton), and especially Dick Cheney (Richard Dreyfuss)--all participate in closed meetings that look and sound like every investigative account by the New York Times or Bob Woodward about the administration’s inner workings leading up to the war. Much of this is quite fascinating if a little weird (Newton’s performance is indeed strange), but the drama is often powerful, particularly around Powell’s resistance to the rising tide for a supposedly slam-dunk war. A number of the film’s key performances, besides Brolin’s, are very strong, especially Cromwell, Jones, Wright, Dreyfuss and Bruce McGill as George Tenet. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Stone looks back...and to the Right
No one has ever accused Oliver Stone of being subtle. However, once more people see his film concerning the life and times of George W. Bush, I think the perception about the director, which is that he is a rabid conspiracy theorist who rewrites history via Grand Guignol-fueled cinematic polemics, could begin to diminish. I'm even going to go out on a limb here (gulp!) and call W a fairly straightforward biopic.

Stone intersperses highlights (is that the right word?) of Bush's White House years with episodic flashbacks and flash forwards, ostensibly beginning in the late 60s (when Junior was attending Yale) and taking us up to his second (interminable) term.

I'm not saying that Stone doesn't take a point of view; he wouldn't be Oliver Stone if he didn't. He's caught flak in some corners for the amount of screen time spent dwelling on Bush's battle with the bottle (I will say that the manufacturers of Jack Daniels must have laid out some serious bucks for the ubiquitous product placement throughout the film). Bush's history of boozing is a matter of record. It's part of his story (and could explain a lot of things). Some have taken umbrage at one of the underlying themes of Stanley Weisner's screenplay, which is that Bush's angst (and the drive to succeed at all costs) is propelled by an unrequited desire to please a perennially disapproving George Senior. I'm no psychologist, but that sounds reasonable to me.

As usual, Stone has assembled a massive cast with a bazillion speaking parts (I daresay he matches the late Robert Altman in this department). His choice of Josh Brolin for the lead initially struck many people as an odd selection (including yours truly), but now that I have seen the film, I have to say it was a smart move. Brolin is nothing short of brilliant. He doesn't go for a cartoon caricature, which would have been the easy route to take; I think he pulls off a Daniel Day Lewis-worthy "total immersion" quite successfully. It is interesting to note that Brolin (tangential to Junior) has been accused of riding into a Hollywood career on the coattails of his dad (James Brolin) and stepmother (Barbara Streisand); if Stone chose his leading man with this in mind, he is a very canny operator.

Some of the other standouts in the cast include Toby Jones ("Infamous") as Karl Rove, James Cromwell and the great Ellen Burstyn as President and Mrs. Bush Sr., Jeffrey Wright as Colin Powell and Richard Dreyfuss (perfect!) as Dick Cheney.Scott Glenn isn't given an awful lot to do as Donald Rumsfeld, but he has the evil squint down. The only misfire is an overly mannered Thandie Newton as Condoleezza Rice; it is like she dropped in unexpectedly from a Saturday Night Live sketch. Perhaps it is not entirely her fault, because they put so much prosthetic on her face, she can barely move her lips.

If the Bush administration had never really happened, and this was a completely fictional creation, I would be describing Stone's film by throwing out superlatives like "A wildly imaginative look at the dark side of the American Dream!" or "A vivid, savage satire for our times!" But you see, when it comes to the life and legacy of one George W. Bush and the Strangelovian nightmare that he and his cohorts have plunged this once great nation into for the last eight years, all you have to do is tell the truth...and pass the popcorn.

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Amadeus (Blu-ray Book) [Blu-ray]

From Warner Home Video
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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 insecurity 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 Emerson

Customer Reviews

This is the Original Theatrical Version
This BluRay release of of the original theatrical version of the film. If you notice the playing time and film rating you can see that this is the case. The Director's Cut version is 180 minutes and is rated R (due to some added nudity).

Personally I believe that they should have provided both versions. This is bluray after all and disc space is not a problem. I am pleased, however, that if they had to choose, they chose to go with the original. In my opinion, the added footage of the director's cut (although adding some context for understanding character motivations) detracted from the flow of the film. Moments of humor were lost because of where the extra scenes were added, and it made the pacing of the movie drag a bit at times.

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The Boondock Saints [Blu-ray]

Directed by Troy Duffy
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Charismatic young stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus play two Irish brothers, Connor and Murphy, who believe themselves ordained by God to rid the world of evil men. Their first killing is in self-defense; but after that, they start killing with devotion, gunning down a summit of the Russian mafia. Willem Dafoe plays a gay FBI agent (he listens to opera while examining crime scenes) who knows what the boys are doing but feels that their vigilante tactics are necessary. There's not much plot to The Boondock Saints--it's mostly a series of violent scenes in which the boys are partially ingenious and partially lucky. The movie seems to want to provoke debate about vigilantism, but the scenario is too implausible to stir any real controversy. The peculiar mix of earnestness and machismo will not appeal to everyone, but it's certainly unique and may acquire a cult following. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Entertaining, violence and comedy worth seeing more than once
I never get tired of seeing this movie. It makes a great double feature with Shoot 'Em Up, another stylized violent, yet at times funny, movie. Boondock Saints was set up for a sequel, which unfortunately never happened. Be sure to see all the deleted scenes. My favorite is their St. Patrick's day phone call from their Mom in Ireland.

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Frozen River

Directed by Courtney Hunt
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When her husband runs off with the payment for their new home, Ray (Melissa Leo, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) turns to crime to keep herself and her two sons afloat. A chance encounter with Lila (Misty Upham, Edge of America), an equally desperate young Mohawk woman, leads Ray to smuggling illegal immigrants by driving across the frozen Hudson River onto tribal land. But with every trip, things go wrong in small and not-so-small ways, until Ray finds herself pushed into a more desperate corner than ever before. Leo delivers a gritty, restrained, but richly compelling performance; her raw face, beautiful but worn down by life, radiates a weary defiance. Frozen River has scenes as tense as any Hollywood thriller, but so grounded in the fully developed characters of these two women that the taut suspense grips the full spectrum of your emotions. This is an impressive debut by writer/director Courtney Hunt, featuring excellent supporting performances by Charlie McDermott (The Ten) as Ray's unhappy oldest son and Michael O'Keefe (The Great Santini) as a suspicious state trooper. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Melissa Leo is Terrific!
FROZEN RIVER is a gripping drama that features one of 2008's finest performances.

Like Bette Davis before her, Melissa Leo is an actress who puts craft over glamor. She's not afraid to let herself appear totally unattractive on the screen if that is what the role requires. She more than deserves every award she's received thus far.

In this film, written and directed by Courtney Hunt, Melissa plays a middle-age woman whose husband has just left her and their two sons. She's broke, lives in a broken-down mobile home in frigid upstate New York and works part-time at a local variety store. Her dream is to buy a double-wide mobile home, but hubby has gambled away the money for that.

Melissa's life changes when she meets a widowed Mohawk woman (Misty Upham) who survives by smuggling illegal immigrants into the United States from Canada. Seeing this as an opportunity to get her new mobile home, Melissa partners with the woman, but soon finds herself running from the law.

The DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment includes audio commentary by Hunt and producer Heather Rae.

© Michael B. Druxman

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Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!: Season 2

From Warner Home Video
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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #280 in DVD
• Released on: 2009-02-10
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Animated, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 115 minutes

Customer Reviews

Winter in LeFrak
LeFrak City is a large housing development in the southern most region of Corona a neighborhood of the New York City borough of Queens, built in the mid-1960s for working and middle-class families and located on the north side of the Long Island Expressway. The complex of twenty eighteen-story (technically sixteen-story, since the lobbies are the 2nd floors and there are no 13th floors) apartment towers covers 40 acres (162,000 m²) and currently houses over 14,000 people. The development is part of Queens Community Board

The complex was once home to large Jewish as well as Japanese expatriate communities in the 1960s, while the 1970s saw increased numbers of South Asian, mainly Indian, residents. However, in the 1980s LeFrak City became largely African-American and was known for drugs and gang violence. In 1970, whites were 82% of the complex's population, declining to 25% in 1980 and 9% in 1990, while the black population rose from 8% in 1970 to 67% in 1980 and 79% in 1990. In the 1990s, an influx of Russian immigrants and immigrants from other former Soviet republics (especially Bukharian Jews) and Muslim immigrants from Africa moved in to the development.

The development is also served by playgrounds, tennis courts, a swimming pool, a branch of the Queens Borough Public Library, a post office, two large office buildings, retail space, and over 3,500 parking spaces. The complex is named for its developer, Samuel J. LeFrak.

The LeFrak Organization broke ground in 1960, finishing by 1969, and offered air-conditioned apartments at $40 a room. The LeFrak strategy of "Total Facilities for Total Living" meant bringing recreational, shopping, transportation, and other services to the residents.

LeFrak City is also the home of the New York City Police Department's Medical Services Division.

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Miracle at St Anna (Widescreen Edition)

Directed by .
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Every major American filmmaker has a war movie inside them. After the twin triumphs of When the Levees Broke and Inside Man, his biggest box office hit, Spike Lee puts his distinctive stamp on World War II. Though Miracle at St. Anna begins and ends in 1983, most of the action takes place in 1944. The segregation of the time leads to the Army's African-American 92nd Infantry Division. In Italy, four of these Buffalo Soldiers, Sergeants Stamps (Antwone Fisher's Derek Luke) and Bishop (Barbershop's Michael Ealy), Corporal Hector (Jarhead's Laz Alonso), and sweet, superstitious Private Train (The Express's Omar Benson Miller), get separated from their unit while fighting the Germans. On the way to higher ground, Train rescues a boy from the rubble. With nine-year-old Angelo (newcomer Matteo Sciabordi) in tow, the soldiers secure shelter in a Tuscan town, where they band together with the villagers, including lovely English speaker Renata (Artemisia's Valentina Cervi), nurse the delusional boy back to health (he has an imaginary playmate named Arturo), and prepare for the next attack. Like Inside Man, Miracle marks one of the few times Lee has drafted an outsider to write the script, in this case bestselling author James McBride, who adapts from his novel. The combination of sensibilities results in a film that alternates, sometimes awkwardly, between cynicism and sentimentality. Tonal irregularities aside, Miracle at St. Anna pays overdue tribute to the 15,000 men who fought for freedom in a country that showed them greater respect than their nation of origin. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Customer Reviews

Great Cinema
I love this movie. It's not the ordinary stuff we are used to. The movie consists of powerful acting and great directing. Its fight scenes and imaginative plot is comparable of other great war movies. Miracle at St. Anna is a tad bit too long but it does have an epic feel. I love it and any serious fan of film should love it too. If you don't, you need to stick to your National Lampoon and early Jack Black movies!!!

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