Last Chance Harvey

Last Chance Harvey Review

Last Chance Harvey Feature

• When it comes to love, is it ever too late to take a chance? Academy Award winners Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are perfect together in a movie that reminds us that true love, can indeed, come to those who wait (Sandy Kenyon, WABC-TV). "Utterly charming, Hoffman and Thompson make a winning combo" (Lou Lumenick, New York Post) in Last Chance Harvey as two guarded strangers who find a growing c

Last Chance Harvey Overview

A struggling New York jingle writer (Dustin Hoffman) and a lonely British bureaucrat (Emma Thompson) meet by chane in London and transform one another's lives.

Last Chance Harvey Specifications

Anyone who’s seen the trailer for Last Chance Harvey can easily guess how it ends. In fact, the title alone is a clue. But the destination is hardly the point with movies like this; it’s the journey that counts, and this one is pretty entertaining. You could call director-writer Joel Hopkins’ film a romantic comedy, but it’s not especially robust in either of those departments. This is more of a character study, and veteran lead actors Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson are well up to the task of bringing theirs to life. Both are awkward, lonely, social misfits. Hoffman’s Harvey Shine is a bit of a schlub; his gig as a jingle composer in jeopardy, estranged from his ex-wife (Kathy Baker) and daughter (Liane Balaban), he flies to London for the latter’s wedding, only to have her tell him that she has chosen her step-father (James Brolin) rather than him to give her away. Meanwhile, Kate Walker (Thompson) spends her days trying to survey harried travelers at Heathrow Airport, answering her meddling mother’s constant stream of cell phone calls, and awaiting the all-to-inevitable onset of spinsterhood. Harvey has already brushed her off once when, having put in a humiliating appearance at the wedding and missed his return flight to America, he runs into her in an airport bar. What ensues--the initial repartee and sarcastic snarking, the gradual breaking of the ice, the burgeoning attraction, the complications and misunderstandings--is entirely predictable. But it’s also well done. These are people one might actually identify with; when Kate tells him, "I’m more comfortable with being disappointed. I’m angry with you for trying to take that away," one senses a real person in there, which helps raise Last Chance Harvey above its conventions. --Sam Graham Fennessy

Get to Know the Cast From Last Chance Harvey

Dustin Hoffman (Harvey)

Emma Thompson (Kate)

Kathy Baker (Jean)

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Private Practice: The Complete First Season

Private Practice: The Complete First Season Review

Private Practice: The Complete First Season Feature

• From the Golden Globe-winning creator of GREY'S ANATOMY comes ABC's new hit drama, PRIVATE PRACTICE: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON EXTENDED EDITION -- now on DVD. Seattle fades into grey as renowned surgeon Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) aims to reinvent herself. The promise of a simpler golden state of mind has her working alongside medical school friends at California's Oceanside We

Private Practice: The Complete First Season Overview

Private Practice is a spin-off of the highly popular ABC series Grey s Anatomy starring Kate Walsh as Dr. Addison Forbes Montgomery, a renowned neonatal surgeon. After realizing that her life isn t advancing at Seattle Grace, Addison packs her bags and heads off to Santa Monica to start a new life. She reunites with her newly divorced med school friends, Naomi (Audra McDonald) and Sam (Taye Diggs), and joins them in the chic private practice along with the other doctors on staff.

Private Practice: The Complete First Season Specifications

Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh, Grey's Anatomy) leaves behind McDreamy, McSteamy, and McSeattle to join California's Oceanside Wellness Center, a private practice that was founded by two best friends from med school. But if she's expecting a drama-free existence, she's in the wrong place. Naomi (Audra McDonald) and Sam (Taye Diggs) Bennett are the perfect couple who aren't together anymore. Pediatrician Cooper Freedman (Paul Adelstein) is a horny Peter Pan looking for love on the Internet. Violet Turner (Amy Brenneman) is a psychiatrist who can dish out the advice, but can't get over her own breakup to a man who has clearly moved on. And then there's Pete Wilder (Tim Daly), an alternative-medicine practitioner so good-looking and charming that Addison can't stop crushing on him, even though she dismisses his brand of practice as New Age-y. Created by Grey's Anatomy's Shonda Rhimes to capitalize on Walsh's popularity, Private Practice has some screwy moments that don't fall in line with Addison's cosmopolitan character. Are we really to believe that Addison is so messed up that she really believes the elevator is talking to her? That conceit would've worked on Ally McBeal's titular heroine, but on Addison Montgomery? We don't think so. The show, which was affected by the writer's strike of 2007, lacks cohesiveness in the truncated 10 episodes on this DVD box set. But still, the series shows promise. Though some of the plot devises are melodramatic at best (Sam has to deliver the baby of a woman who had been robbing the store just moments before), viewers end up rooting for the quirky characters to get their personal lives in order. Though we're supposed to be longing for Addison and Pete to couple up, and for the Bennetts to realize that their divorce was a mistake, it's really Cooper and Violet who have all the makings to be the show's most intriguing couple. The debut season showed some interesting plot devices: two couples whose babies were mistakenly exchanged at birth; a senior citizen with unexplainable bruising on his body; and one of the female characters dealing with her own infertility issues. But the thrust of the show is how the doctors work and play together. Talking to one of her patients, Addison says, "Everyone screws up once in awhile." That can also be the motto for the Oceanside Wellness Center. --Jae-Ha Kim

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Gunsmoke: Fourth Season, Volume One

Gunsmoke: Fourth Season, Volume One Review

Gunsmoke: Fourth Season, Volume One Overview

Matt Dillon (James Arness) is in charge of Dodge City, a town in the Wild West where people often have no respect for the law. He deals on a daily basis with the problems associated with frontier life: cattle rustling, gunfights, brawls, standover tactics, and land fraud. Such situations call for sound judgment and brave actions: of which Marshal Dillon has plenty.

Gunsmoke: Fourth Season, Volume One Specifications

"You're one of those hard-nosed lawmen," say two gamblers, sizing up Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon (James Arness) after he turns down their bribe to run a crooked game in the Season Four episode "How to Kill a Friend." Hard-nosed and then some. In "Stage Hold-Up," a bandit forces Dillon's hand and is shot by the Marshal. When Dillon informs him he didn't have the evidence for a conviction, the bandit groans, "You sure ain't one to let a man die happy." "A man makes his dying by the way he lives," the laconic Dillon responds. It's this hard-learned frontier wisdom that made the Marshal an iconic radio and TV character, and this season television's top-rated show. Season Four is a worthy follow-up to the series' Emmy® Award-winning Season Three. The season's first 19 black-and-white half-hour episodes on this three-disc set are taut character-driven stories, most of them written by series cocreator John Meston. Some subvert Western convention. In "Robber Bridegroom," audience sympathy is with a love-smitten kidnapper and not with the woman's wealthy, upstanding fiancé. Others explore the theme of violence, "the only kind of action that brings any respect," Dillon reflects in one episode, adding, "We're not civilized." But Dillon aims to change that, even when he's framed for murder in the season opener. No less than Wild Bill Hickok has been sent to bring him in. It's all Dillon can do not to tear his lying accuser apart, and when justice finally does prevail, Hickok asks him if he would have resisted arrest. Dillon replies, "I've been working for the law too long to break it just 'cause it's going against me." Dennis Weaver earned an Emmy this season as the simple-hearted deputy Chester, one of TV's great sidekicks. One of his best outings is a rare comic episode, "Marshal Proudfoot," in which Chester's uncle visits Dodge City believing that Chester is the Marshal. Dillon's relationship with Long Branch Saloon co-owner Miss Kitty (Amanda Blake) remains as cagey as ever. In one episode, when Kitty tells him he has much to learn about women, Dillon responds, "I'm learning." Kitty's comeback: "At the pace you've set, I'll be in my grave before you ever get out of the first grade." Milburn Stone, as crusty, irascible Doc, has another memorable episode in which he runs afoul of a man who hates and distrusts doctors, an attitude not helped when the man's wife dies under Doc's care. Gunsmoke completists will appreciate one of this set's bonus features, the Season Two episode "How to Cure a Friend," which was left off that boxed set. Sponsor spots in which the cast hawks Remington shavers and L&M cigarettes add nostalgic fun to this high-caliber collection. --Donald Liebenson

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Glory [Blu-ray]

Glory [Blu-ray] Review

Glory [Blu-ray] Overview

The heart-stopping story of the first black regiment to fight for the North in the Civil War, Glory stars Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes and Morgan Freeman. Broderick and Elwes are the idealistic young Bostonians who lead the regiment; Freeman is the inspirational sergeant who unites the troops; and Denzel Washington, in an Oscar® - winning performance (1989, Best Supporting Actor), is the runaway slave who embodies the indomitable spirit of the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts.

Glory [Blu-ray] Specifications

One of the very best films about the Civil War, this instant classic from 1989 is also one of the few films to depict the participation of African American soldiers in Civil War combat. Based in part on the books Lay This Laurel by Lincoln Kirstein and One Gallant Rush by Peter Burchard, the film also draws from the letters of Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick), the 25-year-old son of Boston abolitionists who volunteered to command the all-black 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry. Their training and battle experience leads them to their final assault on Fort Wagner in South Carolina, where their heroic bravery turned bitter defeat into a symbolic victory that brought recognition to black soldiers and turned the tide of the war. With painstaking attention to historical detail and richness of character, the film boasts superior performances by Denzel Washington (who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes, and Andre Braugher. Directed by Edward Zwick (cocreator of the TV series thirtysomething), this unforgettable drama is as important as Schindler's List in its treatment of a noble yet little-known episode of history. --Jeff Shannon

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The Kingdom (Widescreen Edition)

The Kingdom (Widescreen Edition) Review

The Kingdom (Widescreen Edition) Overview

"A High-Octane Action Movie." -A. O. Scott, The New York Times Oscar® winners Jamie Foxx (Collateral) and Chris Cooper (Breach) and Golden Globe® winners Jennifer Garner (Daredevil) and Jason Bateman (Smokin' Aces) ignite the screen in this high-intensity thriller about a team of elite FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to solve a brutal mass murder and find a killer before he strikes again. Out of their element and under heavy fire, the team must join forces with their Saudi counterparts. As these unlikely allies begin to unlock the secrets of the crime scene, the team is led into a heart-stopping, do-or-die confrontation.

The Kingdom (Widescreen Edition) Specifications

Set in Saudi Arabia, The Kingdom is a political action thriller with good acting and wonderful visuals. Its so-so script, though, at times meanders aimlessly until a good explosion jolts the viewer's attention back to the screen. Jamie Foxx stars as FBI special agent Ronald Fleury, who leads an elite team into Saudi Arabia to find the terrorists who attacked American employees working in the Middle East. He has been given the unlikely deadline of five days to infiltrate the compound, with just his wit and his crew, which includes forensics expert Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), explosives guru Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), and intelligence analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman). It's unclear how helpful smarmy U.S. diplomat Damon Schmidt (Jeremy Piven) will be, but Fleury knows enough to surmise that the media-hungry Schmidt might not be completely trustworthy. Foxx and Garner have wonderful screen presence, but it's Bateman and Piven who get the best lines. Director Peter Berg peppers The Kingdom with actors he has worked with in the past. Berg, who guest-starred on Alias opposite Garner, casts Tim McGraw in a small role here. (The country singer also had a co-starring role in Berg's 2004 film Friday Night Lights.) And Kyle Chandler and Minka Kelly--two of Berg's lead actors from the Friday Night Lights television series, , make appearances in The Kingdom. The action sequences he creates are impressive and generate a sense of panic that The Kingdom producer Michael Mann (Miami Vice) undoubtedly applauds. While a tauter script would've rounded out the action nicely, the action in many cases does speak for itself. --Jae-Ha Kim

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Doc Martin: Series 4

Doc Martin: Series 4 Review

Doc Martin: Series 4 Overview

He’s surly, tactless, self-centered, and uptight--but he’s the only doctor in town.

"A smart, gentle comedy with loads of wit and zest" --The Globe and Mail (Canada)

After his wedding day disaster, Dr. Martin Ellingham (Martin Clunes, Men Behaving Badly) is even grumpier and ruder than before. His former fiancée, Louisa (Caroline Catz, Murder in Suburbia), has left the village to avoid embarrassment. The doctor himself plans to return to London as a surgeon--if he can conquer his fear of blood. But it’s hard to leave a place as charming and full of eccentric characters as Portwenn.

Matters quickly become complicated when Louisa moves back with startling news. Meanwhile, Martin’s old flame, Edith Montgomery (Lia Williams), takes a job at the local hospital and sets her sights on the doc. Sparks and rumors fly as patients crowd his office: a shouting oil rigger, the inept local constable, a woman who sees her dead husband’s ghost, and a man who eats his own hair. Facing all this, will Doc Martin leave Portwenn after all?

Contains graphic medical scenes.

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Rudy (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray]

Rudy (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray] Review

Rudy (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray] Overview

All his life, people have told Rudy he's not good enough, not smart enough, not big enough. But nothing can stop his impossible dream of playing football for Notre Dame. From the time he's a young boy, Rudy (Sean Astin) is determined to join the Fighting Irish. But his blue collar family only laughs at his ambitions - they know Rudy will follow his father and brothers to the local steel mill. And, for four long years after high school, he does just that. But some dreams won't die, as Rudy proves when he goes to heroic, occasionally hilarious, lengths to win admission to Notre Dame. Once there, he becomes a walk-on player, serving as little more than a human tackling dummy against the starting players. Bloodied but unbeaten, Rudy wins the respect of legendary coach Ara Parseghian and the other Irish players, who give him one shot at gridiron glory. An incredible true story from the creators of Hoosiers, Rudy is an unforgettable testament to the power of dreams and the triumph of the common man.

Rudy (+ BD Live) [Blu-ray] Specifications

This 1993 film by David Anspaugh (Hoosiers) is slowly building a reputation as a minor highlight of '90s movies. Based on a true story, Rudy stars Sean Astin as Rudy Ruettiger, a blue-collar kid whose father (Ned Beatty) worships Notre Dame football but who would never dare to dream that any of his sons could be a part of the team. The film is entirely about Ruettiger's ceaseless if sometimes wavering commitment toward that goal, despite tremendous obstacles in physical stature, education requirements, the dismissiveness of coaches, poverty, his father's envy, and endless delays of one kind or another. This is the sort of film that looks back on a life and says the battle was its own reward, not the glory. Astin is very moving as a boy who becomes a man and watches his world change, often in unexpected ways, through painful determination. Great support from Beatty, Lili Taylor as a hometown girl, and Robert Prosky and Charles S. Dutton as two valuable mentors. --Tom Keogh

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