GoodFellas

GoodFellas Review

GoodFellas Feature

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Dolby; AC-3; Widescreen; Closed-captioned; DVD; Subtitled; Color; Dubbed; NTSC

GoodFellas Overview

When Martin Scorsese, one of the world's most skillful and respected directors, reunited with two-time Oscar-winner Robert De Niro in GoodFellas, the result was one of the most powerful films of the year. Based on the true-life best seller Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi and backed by a dynamic pop/rock oldies soundtrack, critics and filmgoers alike declared GoodFellas great. It was named 1990's best film by the New York, Los Angeles and National Society of Film Critics. And it earned six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director. Robert De Niro received wide recognition for his performance as veteran criminal Jimmy "The Gent" Conway. And as the volatile Tommy DeVito, Joe Pesci walked off with the Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Academy Award nominee Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino also turned in electrifying performances. You have to see it to believe it - then watch it again. GoodFellas explores the criminal life like no other movie.

GoodFellas Specifications

Martin Scorsese's 1990 masterpiece GoodFellas immortalizes the hilarious, horrifying life of actual gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), from his teen years on the streets of New York to his anonymous exile under the Witness Protection Program. The director's kinetic style is perfect for recounting Hill's ruthless rise to power in the 1950s as well as his drugged-out fall in the late 1970s; in fact, no one has ever rendered the mental dislocation of cocaine better than Scorsese. Scorsese uses period music perfectly, not just to summon a particular time but to set a precise mood. GoodFellas is at least as good as The Godfather without being in the least derivative of it. Joe Pesci's psycho improvisation of Mobster Tommy DeVito ignited Pesci as a star, Lorraine Bracco scores the performance of her life as the love of Hill's life, and every supporting role, from Paul Sorvino to Robert De Niro, is a miracle.

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Sharpe's Peril

Sharpe's Peril Review

Sharpe's Peril Feature

• Sean Bean returns to his iconic role as Sharpe for a new adventure in India. But this time, the bad guys are closer than he thinks. It's India, 1818 and Lt. Col Richard Sharpe and Sergeant Major Patrick Harper are traveling across India, escorting the beautiful Marie-Angelique Bonnet to meet her fianc e. While in bandit-plagued badlands, they come across the very dregs of the Crown's troops an ill

Sharpe's Peril Overview

SHARPE'S PERIL - DVD Movie

Sharpe's Peril Specifications

The rollicking Sharpe's adventures, based on the wildly popular British books by Bernard Cornwell, continue in fine form, with the splendid Sean Bean once again appearing as the buccaneering Richard Sharpe, in Sharpe's Peril. Fans of epic adventures, British history, and even the cheeky heroics of James Bond will enjoy the panoramic historical sweep of Sharpe's Peril, and the weary knowingness in the performance of Bean, a quick-witted leader of the King's Army under the most dire of circumstances, yet also a ladies' man who seems to have no problem finding romance in the roughest of war zones. Sharpe's Peril follows our good Colonel Sharpe as he has finished his tour of duty in 19th-century India, as the British Empire is on the rise. But just as he thinks he's en route back to England, circumstances draw him into one last, ferocious battle--against an Indian warlord, with might and terror on his side. As Sharpe fashions a makeshift army from unlikely, unprepared fellow travelers, the adventure unspools at a furious pace. Bean, whose ruggedly handsome face is now synonymous with the colonial titan Sharpe, manages to play nuance in his face, showing that Sharpe is growing battle-weary, yet is unable, or unwilling, to resist one last challenge. Though Sharpe's Peril, like all the Sharpe's series, was shot for BBC TV, the production has spared no expense, and the experience is like watching a splendid film--with vast vistas of rugged landscape showing the wilds of 19th-century India, grand costumes, elephants, and battle adventures galore. And Sharpe still has a way with the ladies--multiple subplots allow for Sharpe to have his head turned--and face slapped--by all manner of lovely English noblewomen (including Marie-Angelique Bonnet, played by the comely American-born actress Beatrice Rosen) in the farthest outposts of colonial India. With the sweep of American Westerns and David Lean epics, and the cheeky heroics of the Bond films, Sharpe's Peril is a rip-roaring adventure. --A.T. Hurley

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SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection

SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection Review

SciFi Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection Overview

Get an instant library of classic science fiction features on twelve double-sided DVDs. You'll be transported to a time where cosmic heroes battled and prevailed in the face of cheesy special effects, implausible plots and a lot of over acting. In other words, you have all the right ingredients for endless hours of fun, all for an amazingly low price!

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Dragnet 1967 - Season 1

Dragnet 1967 - Season 1 Review

Dragnet 1967 - Season 1 Feature

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Color; DVD; Full Screen; NTSC

Dragnet 1967 - Season 1 Overview

No Description Available.
Genre: Television
Rating: NR
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Dragnet 1967 - Season 1 Specifications

"This is the city--Los Angeles, California." "I carry a badge." "My name's Friday." And who could forget "Just the facts, ma'am"? These lines, delivered in classic deadpan style by actor-director Jack Webb's Sgt. Joe Friday, are among the hallmarks of Dragnet, one of television's earliest and most influential police dramas. And the appearance on DVD of all 17 episodes from the show's first season (1967), covering two discs (plus a third with a radio broadcast from 1954) and running more than seven hours, is a treat. Decades after the fact, when vivid, often graphically violent cop shows like the C.S.I. and Law & Order franchises (all of them clearly owing a debt to Webb's show) dominate the airwaves, Dragnet seems tame, even quaint. Violence and gunplay are kept to a minimum. Special effects are non-existent, and many scenes are talky and static; "The Big Interrogation" takes place almost entirely in a single room in the police station, and includes a four-minute speech by Friday about the plight of a police officer ("You're a cop, a flatfoot, a bull, a dick, John Law… they call you everything, but never a policeman"). The stories are uncomplicated, the criminals are usually dunderheads, and "square" barely begins to describe the overall tone (witness "The Big LSD," a risible depiction of a "hippie" on a psychedelic sojourn). Still, one gets the feeling that we're laughing not at but with Webb, the writers, and the rest of the cast (including Harry Morgan, later of M*A*S*H*, as sidekick Bill Gannon). By about halfway through the season, with episodes like "The Big Candy Story" and "The Big Fur Burglary" (an almost whimsical tale wherein Gannon pretends to be an expert furrier), it appears that Webb and company are enjoying themselves just as much as the viewers are; at the same time, the characters' personal lives are explored in a bit more detail, which adds some welcome texture.

Sure, it's dated--everybody smokes, everyone's white, and character descriptions like "strange-behaving juvenile" are more common than not. But in the end, the Dragnet approach, stilted though it may sometimes be, is a refreshing antidote to the oh-so-hip cop melodramas that have come along since. Best, and simplest, of all, Dragnet 1967 - Season 1 is downright entertaining. --Sam Graham

Dragnet Trivia

• When the original show ("Dragnet" (1951)) ended, Joe Friday had been promoted to Lieutenant. However, Jack Webb decided to make Friday a sergeant again for the new series because "few people remember that Friday was promoted toward the end of our run. We think it's better to have Joe a sergeant again. Few detective-lieutenants get out into the field."
• Jack Webb and Harry Morgan wore the same suits for the entire run of the television series.
• Through all 100 episodes of the series, Friday is only seen wearing something other than his regular suit four times: three times for undercover work and once for a scene in his apartment.
• Episodes from this series were used as training tools by the real-life LAPD.
• When Jack Webb revived the show in 1966, it was in response to the growing tide of teen-age drug use, especially LSD.
• Jack Webb would pay to any officer who submitted a story that was used for an episode plot.
• During the run of this version, the title would change to reflect the year that it was broadcast in (Dragnet 1967, Dragnet 1968 and so on).
• Friday's badge number (seen at the beginning and end of each episode) is 714. Badge 714 belonged to Sgt. 'Dan Cooke' , the technical advisor. The badge has been retired and displayed at the LAPD Academy's Museum.
• The pair of hands seen hammering the Mark VII logo at the end of every episode belong to Jack Webb.

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The Magician: The Criterion Collection

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Review

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Overview

THE MAGICIAN (Ansiktet), directed by Ingmar Bergman (The Seventh Seal, Fanny and Alexander), is an engaging, brilliantly conceived tale of deceit from one of cinema’s premier illusionists. Max von Sydow (The Virgin Spring, The Exorcist) stars as Dr. Vogler, a mid-nineteenth-century traveling mesmerist and peddler of potions whose magic is put to the test by a small town’s cruel, eminently rational minister of health, Dr. Vergerus (Wild Strawberries’ Gunnar Bjornstrand). The result is a diabolically clever battle of wits that’s both frightening and funny, shot in rich, gorgeously gothic black and white.

The Magician: The Criterion Collection Specifications

Ingmar Bergman spent a glorious film career exploring themes of death and redemption (The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries), and his lesser-known gem The Magician fits perfectly into this genre. The Magician, shot eerily in crisp black and white, is one of Bergman's most unsettling films, and one that stays with the viewer long afterward. Several of Bergman's regular actors are featured, and all, as usual, are splendid: Max von Sydow, Bibi Andersson, Gunnar Björnstrand, Bengt Ekerot (who would go on to play Death memorably in The Seventh Seal), and Ulla Sjöblom. The plot is involving and a bit creepy on its own. The Magician follows von Sydow as Dr. Vogler, who leads a traveling group called Vogler's Magnetic Health Theater, which goes from town to town selling magic potions and performing feats that defy logic. Yet the members of the troupe are as reviled and persecuted by local authorities as they are embraced and fixated upon by their audiences. Bergman's direction keeps the tension between belief and fantasy, death and eroticism, as taut as a murder mystery--and perhaps with good reason. The viewer is kept guessing about the reality of the feats of the troupe and the motives of Dr. Vogler; the actors speak in unsettling and oblique riddles. Ekerot's character, Johan, muses to no one in particular, "I've prayed one prayer in my life: 'Use me, O God!' But He never understood what a devoted slave I'd have been. So I was never used… But that too is a lie. Step by step you go into the dark. The movement itself is the only truth."

While The Magician is gripping on its own merits, the Criterion Collection includes several extras that shed additional light on the film. Peter Cowie, a Bergman expert, narrates an excellent mini-documentary about The Magician, saying he believes Bergman made the film in response to his many critics, especially from his days as a theater director in the '50s in Sweden. Cowie's feature is an essential accompaniment to viewing The Magician in its context. Other rich extras include a mini-biography of Bergman, an interview with Bergman from 1967, and a booklet with an essay by film scholar Geoff Andrew. The Magician is an absolutely essential film for any Bergman fan. --A.T. Hurley

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The Breakfast Club (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray]

The Breakfast Club (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] Review

The Breakfast Club (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] Overview

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/03/2010 Run time: 122 minutes Rating: R

The Breakfast Club (25th Anniversary Edition) [Blu-ray] Specifications

John Hughes's popular 1985 teen drama finds a diverse group of high school students--a jock (Emilio Estevez), a metalhead (Judd Nelson), a weirdo (Ally Sheedy), a princess (Molly Ringwald), and a nerd (Anthony Michael Hall)--sharing a Saturday in detention at their high school for one minor infraction or another. Over the course of a day, they talk through the social barriers that ordinarily keep them apart, and new alliances are born, though not without a lot of pain first. Hughes (Sixteen Candles), who wrote and directed, is heavy on dialogue but he also thoughtfully refreshes the look of the film every few minutes with different settings and original viewpoints on action. The movie deals with such fundamentals as the human tendency toward bias and hurting the weak, and because the characters are caught somewhere between childhood and adulthood, it's easy to get emotionally involved in hope for their redemption. Preteen and teenage kids love this film, incidentally. --Tom Keogh

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Sweet Bird Of Youth

Sweet Bird Of Youth Review

Sweet Bird Of Youth Overview

Once a beautiful screen idol, Alexandra Del Lago (Taylor) has fled Hollywood for fear that her beauty and fame has faded. Alexandra falls into the arms of Chance (Harmon), a shiftless would-be actor, who sees her wealth and position as his last shot at making it in Hollywood.

Incorporating intense drama and steamy lust, this powerful production of the Tennesse Williams play reveals the dark forces of human ambition and desire, as passion and desperation collide.

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