Monday, May 28, 2007

DVD Tuesday: F-Troop, Hannibal, Hepburn & More! - Xoanon @ 19:20 PST
10 MPH: Seattle to Boston: 10 MPH is a comical documentary that follows Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell as they quit soul-numbing jobs and turn a friend's ludicrous idea into a movie. The impulsive purchase of a two-wheeled Segway scooter sets this story in motion when the two friends decide to travel from Seattle to Boston at 10 MPH in an attempt to change their lives forever. What ensues is a road trip like none other with a haphazard cast of characters you could only find on an enlightening 100 day trek through America's back roads. When production began in 2004 on the "America at 10 mph" Segway trip across the country, Yahoo! featured our website as the site of the day. This began a watershed of press activities, including a 3-part series with Liane Hansen on NPR Weekend Edition. This press activity spread around the world culminating in 100's of feature profiles on America at 10 mph and continued into post production. Feature highlights include: New York Times, CNN, FOX News, Maxim, FHM, NPR, Boston Globe, CNET, Japan Times, Globe & Mail; Total impressions for this press coverage are in the 10's of millions.


Above the Law: (Martial Arts/Action) A tough-as-nails police inspector (Rothrock) tracks a vigilante killer and discovers a massive, deadly conspiracy.


Charlie & Lola 4: Absolutely Completely Not Messy: Siblings Lola and Charlie share a room, and their ideas of tidiness couldn't be more different. Try as he might, Charlie can't make Lola see that having a tidy room can be a good thing. When Charlie decides to move out, Lola must decide to clean up or live alone!


Circle of Iron: The Adventure Epic Written By Bruce Lee - His Dream Project He Never Lived To See! At the height of his international fame, the legendary Bruce Lee - along with his friend and student James Coburn and Oscar® -winning screenwriter Stirling Silliphant - began to write what he believed would be the greatest achievement of his film career. Five years after his mysterious death, Lee's vision would finally be realized. David Carradine (KILL BILL), Christopher Lee (THE LORD OF THE RINGS), Roddy McDowall (PLANET OF THE APES) and Eli Wallach (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY) star in this acclaimed cult hit that brings Lee's personal philosophy to the screen with a still-potent combination of mysticism, humor and martial arts mayhem. CIRCLE OF IRON - also know as THE SILENT FLUTE - has now been remastered in stunning High Definition and remixed in bone-crunching 6.1 DTS-ES and 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX. This new 2-Disc "Kick Ass" Edition also includes 1½ hours of newly produced Extras!


Closer-Complete 2nd Season: Deputy Police Chief Brenda Johnson (Sedgwick) runs the Priority Homicide Division of the LAPD with an unorthodox style. Her innate ability to read people and obtain confessions helps her and her team solve the city's toughest, most sensitive cases.


Dinosaur Jr: DINOSAUR JR.'S FIRST DVD RELEASE! THIS FULL-LENGTH CONCERT DVD FEATURES THE BAND IN ITS ORIGINAL LINE-UP, WAS FILMED AT NEW YORK'S LEGENDARY IRVING PLAZA IN DECEMBER 2005, AND AT OTHER SHOWS ALONG THE BAND'S DECEMBER TOUR. THE DVD IS DIRECTED BY GOLD IN BERLIN, WHICH IS RUN BY MASCIS' OWN BROTHER IN-LAW, GERMAN FILMMAKER PHILLIP VIRUS. WITH UNFETTERED ACCESS TO THIS FAMOUSLY ELUSIVE BAND, FANS CAN EXPECT COMPLETE BACKSTAGE ACCESS TO DINOSAUR JR.'S RECENT REUNION TOUR, ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEWS, BEHIND THE SCENES GOINGS-ON AND A FULL SET OF PERFORMANCES OF DINOSAUR JR. FAVORITES. THE DVD IS PACKED WITH BONUS MATERIALS THAT ANY FAN OF THE BAND - SEASONED OR BRAND NEW - WILL FIND THRILLING AND ENTERTAINING. SONGS: GARGOYLE - KRACKED - BULBS OF PASSION - LITTLE FURY THINGS - LOSE - FORGET THE SWAN - THE POST - BUDGE - THE LUNG - THE WAGON - RAISANS - SLUDGEFEAST - MOUNTAIN MAN - CHUNKS - FREAK SCENE - IN A JAR - REPULSION - JUST LIKE HEAVEN BONUS FEATURES: INTERVIEW FOOTAGE: KEVIN SHIELDS, KIM GORDON, THURSTON MOORE, MIKE WATT, MATT DILLON, STEVE ALBINI, SONIC BOOM FOOTAGE COURTESY OF GOLD IN BERLIN DINOSAUR JR. INTERVIEW AT WORLD CAFE


Drive Thru: High schooler Mackenzie Carpenter thinks her biggest problem is dying of boredom in the bucolic wasteland of Orange County... until her classmates start dying of massive blood loss, and Horny The Clown, the mascot for local burger favorite HELLA-BURGER, begins madly stalking her with cryptic messages hidden in 70's kitsch toys. It isn't until Mac discovers her unbelievable connection to Horny and his victims that she realizes, if she's going to live to see 18, she must come face-to-face with the killer clown in the bloodiest week Blanca Carne, California, has ever known.


F-Troop-Complete 2nd Season: Go west...and go loco. Yes, Captain Parmenter and his buffoons in blue are ready again to untame the wilderness in TV's wackiest Western spoof. Wrangler Jane still pines after Parmenter, the Hekawis still plot after profits and Sergeant O'Rourke and Corporal Agarn have more get-rich-quick schemes up their regimental sleeves. A plains-load of comic guest stars joins the fun, including Phil Harris as a 147-year-old Indian chief, Harvey Korman as a Prussian balloonist, Paul Lynde as a singing Mountie, Milton Berle as a flim-flam medicine man and Vincent Price as a spooky Transylvanian count. Enlist now for a second comedy tour: the out-of-its-mind and ahead-of-its-time 31-episode final season of F Troop!


Hannibal Rising: Unrated: (Horror/Suspense) The terrifying Silence of the Lambs prequel that reveals the history of the infamous Hannibal and how he came to be a cannibalistic murderer.


Heavy Petting: Special Edition: HEAVY PETTING is a hilarious and salacious exploration of the sexual mores of the 50s as seen through the eyes of a generation that lived through the Sexual Revolution. Creative baby boomers--including musician David Byrne, performance artist Spalding Gray, comedian Sandra Bernhard, radical activist Abbie Hoffman, and poet Allen Ginsberg--candidly and hilariously recall their sexual coming-of-age tales in intimate interviews. Joyously campy and refreshingly carefree, HEAVY PETTING blends humorous, unbelievable footage of unhelpful sex ed videos with classic snippets of The Wild One and Elvis’ hip gyrations, not to mention Bernhard talking about playing "doctor," a less-than-straight Ginsberg on a disastrous encounter with a girl, and Byrne on the childhood myths of masturbation. Eternal mysteries such as the female orgasm, the universal appeal of Marilyn Monroe, and the rituals of high school are laid bare by this lovable group of characters.


I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse: Organized religion and faith sets the background for this story about a man named Aden (George Shannon) who escapes from the society he was accustomed to after his mother's death. He discovers the wonder and beauty of nature out in the wilderness along with a recluse named Marvel, who possess the power to talk to animals. When Aden returns to society along with Marvel, he realizes just how much he despises the civilized world.


Katherine Hepburn Collection: Includes: Morning Glory (1933), Undercurrent (1946), Sylvia Scarlett (1935), Without Love (1945), Dragon Seed (1944), The Corn Is Green (1979).


The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, Volume 1: I thought that when I entered high school, my days of believing in aliens, time travelers and ESPers, Haruhi Suzumiya was the strangest girls I've met in a long time. Before I knew what's going on, I've been dragged into her weird club, and it looks like I'm not the only one who has been drafted into this 'SOS BRIGADE' of hers, because there are three other students who don't seem to be so ordinary themselves. Either way we've all found ourselves caught up in Haruhi's quest to search for all things extraordinary. And what's this I hear about us making a movie? Genre: Comedy/Action


Misaki Chronicles: Complete Collection: When a bevy of beauties is forced to put their lives on the line to answer the call of duty, they end up on a journey to the hear of evil. A dark tale enlivended by a shocking mystery that will have you guessing until the final fade out.


Naruto Uncut Boxed Set, Volume 3: The squad mates face their deadliest challenge yet as the Chunin Exam continues. Deep in the Forest of Death, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura must battle their rival Genin to collect the scrolls of Heaven and Earth. It's no easy task, but is there an even darker force at work? Something evil is afoot, and it's after Sasuke!


Off Screen: AN UNASSUMING BUS DRIVER GOES BERSERK AND TAKES AN ENTIRE OFFICE TOWER HOSTAGE AT GUNPOINT IN THIS SUSPENSEFUL PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER. UNFOLDING IN TANTALIZING PIECES IN THE VEIN OF MEMENTO AND FIGHT CLUB, OFF SCREEN MEMORABLY STARS JAN DECLEIR (ANTONIA'S LINE, CHARACTER) AS JOHN VOERMAN, WHO MAY OR MAY NOT BE IMAGINING THAT THE LATEST TELEVISION TECHNOLOGY IS SENDING HIM TERRIFYING SUBLIMINAL MESSAGES. AFTER MEETING TV EXECUTIVE GERARD WESSELINCK (JEROEN KRABBE, THE FUGITIVE, THE FOURTH MAN), VOERMAN IS LED ON A STRANGE ODYSSEY OF SINISTER REVELATIONS THAT PEEL AWAY THE CHILLING LAYERS OF THE TRUTH. INSPIRED BY A TRUE STORY, THIS AWARD-WINNING FILM KEEPS YOU GUESSING UNTIL THE SHOCKING END!


One Punk Under: Enter the riotous and righteous world of punk rock evangelist and preacher’s son Jay Bakker--where church is a smoke-filled bar, and tattoos and piercings an expression of faith. This original six-part series from Sundance Channel is the roller coaster story of the son of infamous televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, whose Christian empire collapsed amid scandal. ONE PUNK UNDER GOD plunges into Jay Bakker’s candid and unorthodox ministry, and his bittersweet relationships with his cancer-afflicted mother and estranged father. Jay honestly, and sometimes painfully, explores a more tolerant Christianity where malcontents and misfits can worship in their own way. With a wife who wants him out of the ministry, conservative backers who are uncomfortable with his evolving stance on homosexuality, and personal demons to battle, Jay’s journey is a modern day parable of forgiveness and virtue.


Peach Girl, vol. 2: A truly twisted tale of high school love that'll make you want to throw things at the TV, but'll keep you coming back for more --- Newtype USA On your mark, get set… Go! The school year is racing to an end, but Momo Adachi still finds herself coming in "last place." With her classmates against her, Kairi in constant pursuit and Toji clueless as ever, just about any other girl would give it all up as lost. But when the chips are down, Momo fights that much harder. And the school swim meet could prove the ticket to success. From bad to worse… When it looks like Sae might finally get what’s coming to her, a chance romance with a teen-idol sends the scheming schoolgirl back to the top of the food chain. With Momo’s birthday right around the corner, will it be a sweet sixteen or just another typhoon of tears?


Rawhide - The Second Season, Vol. 1: The tale of Gil Favor, the trail boss, as he drives cattle across the old west. Along the way they meet up with adventure and drama.


Resistance: After American fighter pilot Ted Brice (Bill Paxton) is shot down on a reconnaissance mission over occupied Belgium, local underground members hide him in a secret room belonging to a resistance leader and his wife (Julia Ormond). As she nurses the injured pilot back to health, the two slowly fall in love. But when the affair is uncovered, a shocking act of betrayal threatens them and the resistance movement, forcing the officer to make a choice that will change their lives - and the very course of the war - in this epic tale of courage, passion and sacrifice.


Shanghai Express: (Martial Arts/Action) A FUN train heist adventure, featuring a cast of martial arts all-stars, about multiple cutthroat gangs plotting to rob the ultimate luxury locomotive and its wealthy passengers.


Shootout: With stunning clarity, veterans of the world’s most memorable conflicts tell never-before-heard stories of rescues, sniper attacks, ambushes, and hand-to-hand combat. Through such state-of-the-art technology as aerial terrain mapping and 3-D animation sequences, legendary battles are recreated shot by shot in vivid, crisp detail. Coupled with eyewitness reports from military experts and soldiers from World War II to Iraq, these blow-by-blow re-creations of history’s bloodiest confrontations take viewers to the front lines of historic military operations from the perspectives of both sides of the fight, making SHOOTOUT! the most accurate gun battle series ever created.


Viva La Muerte: At the end of the Spanish civil war, Fando, a boy of about ten, tries to make sense of war and his father's arrest. His mother is religious, sympathetic to the Fascists; his father is accused of being a Red. Fando discovers that his mother may have aided in his father's arrest. Sometimes we witness Fando imagining explanations for what's going on; sometimes we see him at play, alone or with his friend Thérèse. Oedipal fantasies and a lad's natural curiosity about sex and death mix with his search for his mother's nature and his father's fate. Will Fando survive the search?


Wide Awake: WIDE AWAKE is filmmaker Alan Berliner's uniquely personal tour through a lifelong obsession with insomnia. In the spirit of his highly acclaimed personal documentary films, Berliner once again uses his own life as a laboratory, this time to illuminate how a restless mind that won't shut down at night leaves him feeling "jet lagged in my own time zone." A brilliantly edited blend of the hilarious and deeply personal, WIDE AWAKE weaves hundreds of archival film clips, consultations with sleep specialists, an overnight stay at a sleep lab, conversations with family members, home movies, dream visualizations, and behind the scenes footage of the film being made, into a brutally honest self-portrait of a sleep-deprived and sleep-obsessed night-owl filmmaker. Torn between the creative passion he derives from the night, and the emotional tugs of love and family life, only the birth of his first child can get Berliner to consider joining the day shift.


Winter Sonata: From Korea s revered director, Yoon Suk-Ho (Summer Scent, Autumn in My Heart and Spring Waltz) comes the greatest love story ever to be told Winter Sonata. Yoon s masterpiece, Winter Sonata, is the most highly acclaimed Korean TV drama of all time, captivating audiences across the globe. Catapulting its main actors to the world stage as international celebrities Bae Yoon Jun as the Asian heartthrob and Choi Ji Woo as the timeless beauty of Korea. From the moment they meet, Joon Sang (Bae Yoon Jun, First Love, Did We Really Love?) and Yoon Jin (Choi Ji Woo, Stairway to Heaven) share an instant connection. Their friendship soon blossoms into young love. Life, however, pulls the young lovers apart when Joon Sang is believed to be dead. Ten years later, just when Yoo-Jin is about to get married, a stranger walks into her life bearing an uncanny resemblance to her long lost love. When her world is turned upside down and lost loves are reunited, can she find the courage to love again?


Dragonheart (HD DVD): Set in the 10th Century, a man (Bowen) teams up with the last dragon to remind the people of a long lost code of honor, and inspire them to fight for their freedom from a tyrannical king.


Frighteners (HD DVD): Frank Bannister is a man who goes around town claiming that he can talk with and see ghosts, though while he can, some believe (though he is, in fact) a common con-man who gets ghosts to make it appear though there is a haunting in whichever house is chosen, wherein he sweeps into action and pretends to remove the ghosts. All this goes on until one day strange deaths start occurring all throughout town and Frank ponders this, while his love interest, Lucy Lynskey, whose husband had only just died of the same cause, goes to the house of a deranged old woman who keeps her grown-up daughter locked up, saying that it is for the good of everyone else. Soon, it is revealed that even the ghosts themselves can see the force that is killing everyone off; a deceased mass murderer come back from Hell itself to continue killing. It is therefore up to Frank, Lucy, as well as two ghosts, to find out how to end the fiendish ghost from killing any more, while all the while trying to shake off a deranged detective from arresting them both.


Lost in Translation (HD DVD): Bob Harris (Bill Murray) and Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson) are two Americans in Tokyo. Bob is a movie star in town to shoot a whiskey commercial, while Charlotte is a young woman tagging along with her workaholic photographer husband (Giovanni Ribisi). Unable to sleep, Bob and Charlotte cross paths one night in the luxury hotel bar. This chance meeting soon becomes a surprising friendship. Charlotte and Bob venture through Tokyo, having often hilarious encounters with its citizens, and ultimately discover a new belief in life's possibilities. Shot entirely on location in Japan, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation is a valentine to the nature of close friendships and to the city of Tokyo. Ms. Coppola's film, from her original screenplay, contemplates the unexpected connections we make that might not last - yet stay with us forever.


Midnight Run (HD DVD): Jack Walsh (Robert De Niro) is a tough ex-cop turned bounty hunter. Jonathan "The Duke" Mardukas (Charles Grodin) is a sensitive accountant who embezzled $15 million from the Mob, gave it to charity and then jumped bail. Jack's in for a cool $100,00 if he can deliver The Duke from New York to L.A. on time. And alive. Sounds like just another Midnight Run (a piece of cake in bounty hunter slang), but it turns into a cross-country chase. The FBI is after The Duke to testify - the Mob is after him for revenge - and Walsh is after him to just shut up. If someone else doesn't do the job, the two unlikely partners may end up killing each other in this hilarious, action-filled blockbuster from producer-director Martin Brest (Beverly Hills Cop).


River (HD DVD): This emotionally-charged film celebrates the triumph of a young rural couple as they face nature's greatest ravages, the threat of poverty and a wrenching separation. Sissy Spacek, Mel Gibson and Scott Glenn star in this moving tribute to love, faith, determination and the vanishing America of the independent farm family. Tom and Mae Garvey (Gibson and Spacek) are struggling to keep their homestead safe from the local power authority who wants to flood their land. When Mae's former beau, John Wade (Glenn), turns out to be in charge of the plan to acquire the property, tensions run high, climaxing in a devastating confrontation on the flooded river banks. Directed by On Golden Pond's Mark Rydell, The River features magnificent location photography by Vilmos Zsigmond and an outstanding score by John Williams.


Basic Instinct (Blu-ray): Former rock star and San Francisco nightclub owner Johnny Boz is found murdered in his bed. Detective Nick Curran is assigned to the case; he has a history of alcoholism and drug abuse although he is clean now. The prime suspect is Catherine Tramell, an attractive and manipulative novelist who had been seeing Boz for a while. Police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (who happens to be Nick's ex-girlfriend) is brought in on the case when it is discovered that Boz's murder was copied directly from one of Catherine's novels. Nick starts to get too involved and everyone seems to be a suspect.


Curse of the Golden Flower (Blu-ray): From the director of Hero and House of Flying Daggers comes the martial arts epic masterpiece whose savage beauty and exquisite elegance has mesmerized and captivated audiences around the world. Set in the lavish and breathtakingly colorful world hidden from the eyes of mere mortals behind the walls of the Forbidden City, a tale of a royal family divided against itself builds to a mythic climax as lines are crossed, trust is betrayed, and family blood is spilled in the quest for redemption and revenge. Starring Chow Yun Fat of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as the embattled Emperor and Gong Li of Memoirs of a Geisha as his poisoned Empress, Curse of the Golden Flower grants you entry into a dazzling and spectacular world of betrayal, vengeance and passion that will change the way you think of martial arts forever.


Chris Botti: Live With Orchestra and Special Guests (Blu-ray): December 2005. Los Angeles, California. Trumpeter Chris Botti, on the heels of his break-through gold certified album "When I Fall In Love", and the record-breaking follow up "To Love Again", plays two triumphant shows at the Wilshire Theatre backed by a full orchestra and his virtuosic band. Playing repertoire mostly culled from these two hit albums, Chris is joined onstage by some of the world's most accomplished singers and musicians (in order of appearance) Sting, Jill Scott, Paula Cole, Burt Bacharach, Renee Olstead, Paul Buchanan and Gladys Knight. Filmed for the PBS Special "Chris Botti Live With Orchestra and Special Guests"....and now available on Blu-ray Disc.


Weeds Season 1 (Blu-ray): Is the grass really greener on the other side? Yes, and it smells better, too! So when Nancy Botwin (Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker) faces both sudden widowhood and poverty, she's determined to do anything to keep her kids in suburbia, including taking a job as the neighborhood pot dealer. Subversive, satirical and hilarious, the first season of this groundbreaking Showtime hit is guaranteed to spark laughter!