Soul Surfer

Soul Surfer
AnnaSophia Robb (Actor), Dennis Quaid (Actor), Sean McNamara (Director) | Format: DVD
(32)
Release Date: August 2, 2011

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Review & Description

The life of Bethany Hamilton, a promising amateur Hawaiian surfer who overcame a crippling shark attack at age 13 to succeed on the pro circuit, would likely make for a compelling, inspirational cinematic experience even if it consisted of a voice-over recounting her story on a blank screen. The actual film may stay firmly within the standard safe sports underdog movie guidelines (complete with a sneering nemesis clad in a black wetsuit), but Hamilton's incredible strength and spirit still manage to shine through, aided by a terrifically appealing lead performance by AnnaSophia Robb. Beginning with a montage establishing Hamilton's lifetime love of the water, the film quickly focuses on the strong ties with both her family (including her parents, here played by Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt) and community (personified in Carrie Underwood's youth minister) that aided in her recovery from tragedy. Director-cowriter Sean McNamara, a television veteran, gives the images an appealing, natural sheen, but unfortunately proves less successful at illustrating the depths of his main character. Throughout, Hamilton comes across as more of an idealized, selfless saint than a real person learning how to cope with such horrendous trauma, which is a particular shame, considering how good Robb is during the few moments when she's allowed to show frustration. She does her real-life inspiration proud, even if the film surrounding her sometimes feels overly scrubbed. --Andrew Wright Read more

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Swamp People: Season 1

Swamp People: Season 1
Albert " (Actor), Butch" (Actor), The History Channel (Director) | Format: DVD
(8)

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Review & Description

Season one of SWAMP PEOPLE takes you on a journey to the bayous and swamplands of America's southern heartland to witness a group of people that live on the fringes of society. They are the swamp people, and their distinct culture has its roots in the early days of America's expansion westward. The descendants of moonshiners, immigrant railroad workers and early settlers, the swamp people have inherited a legacy of self-reliance and anti-establishment values that make them true American originals, hidden from the view of the mainstream. HISTORY follows these swampers through a time of year that is crucial to their survival: alligator hunting season. At its core, this is a uniquely American story of a proud and skillful people fighting to maintain an ancient way of life in a rapidly modernizing world, despite the many perils and trials that stand in their way.

BONUS FEATURES: Additional Footage

DISC 1: Big Head Bites It / Houdini's Last Escape / Troy's Gamble / Cannibal Gator

DISC 2: Forces of Nature / Family Feuds / Swamp Wars / Gator Voodoo

DISC 3: Final Countdown / The Last Battle / Bonus Read more

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I Love Lucy: The Complete Series

I Love Lucy: The Complete Series
I Love Lucy (Actor), Lucille Ball (Actor) | Format: DVD
12 days in the top 100
(205)

Buy new: $235.98 $79.99
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Review & Description

The Whole McGillicuddy: All 9 Seasons! All 194 Episodes!
Fall in love again and again with the timeless comedy that entertains generation after generation. This special 34-disc DVD collection contains every hilarious episode of every classic season of I Love Lucy--from the Lost Pilot to the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour shows. Join Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel for non-stop laughter as you savor every magical moment of the greatest sitcom of all time.

Includes all new special features including I Love Lucy: The Movie, the first Fully-Colorized I Love Lucy episode, I Love Lucy at the 6th Annual Emmy® Awards, highlights of Lucy & Desi's First Joint TV Appearance, and hours of bonus features from the individual complete season releases! Read more

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Batman: Year One (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Batman: Year One (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
Eliza Dushku (Actor), Bryan Cranston (Actor) | Format: Blu-ray
Release Date: October 18, 2011

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Rio (Blu-ray/ DVD Combo + Digital Copy)

Rio (Blu-ray/ DVD Combo + Digital Copy)
Jesse Eisenberg (Actor), Anne Hathaway (Actor), Carlos Saldanha (Director) | Format: Blu-ray
(30)
Release Date: August 2, 2011

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Review & Description

This comedy-adventure centers on Blu, a flightless macaw who acts more human than bird. When Blu, the last of his kind, discovers there’s another – and that she’s a she – he embarks on an adventure to magical Rio. There, he meets Jewel and a menagerie of vivid characters who help Blu fulfill his dream and learn to fly. A classic tale of self-discovery, romance, and adventure, Rio is the story of Blu, a flightless macaw who was taken from the forests of Rio de Janeiro as a young bird and raised by a kind girl in a small Minnesota town. When an ornithologist comes to town and informs Blu's now-grown owner Linda that Blu is the last male of his species, Blu and Linda return to Rio so that Blu can mate with a feisty female named Jewel. Thus begins an adventure in which Blu encounters everything from the complexities of courtship and love, to thugs involved in an exotic animal theft ring, strange new friendships--including one with an overly friendly slobbering bulldog--and a crazy ride through a Carnaval parade. Blu and Linda both mature as a result of their journey in Rio, and love ensures that life will never be quite the same for either ever again. The animation in Rio is quite impressive, the characters are endearing, the Brazilian music is very appealing, and the star-studded voice cast includes Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Will i Am, Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, George Lopez, and Jamie Foxx. While the story doesn't really offer anything new--instead playing much like a rehashing of some of the major plot points from movies like Madagascar, Finding Nemo, and Babe--that doesn't mean the film isn't perfectly entertaining for both kids and adults. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi Read more

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The Office: Season Seven

The Office: Season Seven
Steve Carell (Actor), Rainn Wilson (Actor) | Format: DVD
(11)
Release Date: September 6, 2011

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Review & Description

Starring: Steve Carell John Krasinski Jenna Fischer Ed Helms Rainn Wilson Read more

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The Ultimate Matrix Collection [Blu-ray]

The Ultimate Matrix Collection [Blu-ray]
Keanu Reeves (Actor), Carrie-Anne Moss (Actor), Andy Wachowski (Director), Larry Wachowski (Director) | Format: Blu-ray
69 days in the top 100
(400)

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The definitive 7-disc Blu-ray set, The Ultimate Matrix Collection features all three films in the trilogy together for the first time ever with a newly remastered picture and sound for The Matrix. Also included is the companion piece The Matrix Revisited and the best-selling The Animatrix, plus five entirely new Blu-ray discs packed solid with brand-new supplemental materials that encompass every aspect of the Matrix universe, including two new audio commentaries on each film, Enter the Matrix video game footage, 106 deep-delving featurettes/ documentaries and much more! Read more

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Despicable Me (Single-Disc Edition)

Despicable Me (Single-Disc Edition)
Steve Carell (Actor), Jason Segel (Actor), Pierre Coffin (Director), Chris Renaud (Director) | Format: DVD
(443)

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“**** This Year’s COOLEST Animated Comedy!” – Jeff Craig, Sixty Second Preview

Get ready for a minion laughs in the funniest blockbuster hit of the year!

Vying for the title of “World’s Greatest Villain”, Gru (voiced by Steve Carell) – along with his hilarious crew of mischievous minions – plots to pull off the craziest crime of the century: steal the moon! But when Gru enlists the help of three little girls, they see something in him nobody else has ever seen: the perfect dad. From executive producer Chris Meledandri (Horton Hears a Who, Ice Age), and featuring the voices of an all-star comedic cast, including Jason Segel, Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove and Julie Andrews, Despicable Me is “rousingly funny, heartfelt and imaginative” (Pete Hammond, Boxoffice Magazine).Despicable Me is a compelling animated comedy about an aging supervillain's falling popularity at the hands of a younger supervillain and three young orphan girls. Gru is a true, bad-to-the-core evildoer who's earned the title of the world's No. 1 supervillain. But when young upstart Vector steals the Pyramid of Giza, Gru's status suddenly sinks to No. 2. Gru counters his fall by speeding up his plan to shrink and steal the moon, enlisting the help of his army of minions and the elderly Dr. Nefario, but a lack of funding and the difficulties involved in stealing the needed shrink-ray gun threaten to derail everything. Adopting three young orphan girls is an unlikely, but seemingly effective means to further Gru's evil mission, but Gru quickly discovers that caring for three young girls is more work, and distraction, than he could ever have anticipated. What unfolds is an unexpected shift in attitude that will forever change the lives of Gru, Vector, and all three young girls. A visually appealing film produced by Chris Meledandri (Ice Age, Ice Age 2: The Meltdown, and Horton Hears a Who), Despicable Me is full of weirdly shaped characters and settings that are somehow a perfect fit for Sergio Pablos's story. What's especially refreshing is that in this film, 3-D effects are used skillfully and effectively: even when the effects are exploited for comic reasons, they don't become a distraction, as is all too common in many recent movies. The film is full of corny banter and silly antics that inspire plenty of spontaneous laughter, and the minions, while not the best-developed characters, sure are comical. Ultimately, there's also a wholesome message about following one's heart. Steve Carell is the perfect villain-gone-soft in his role as Gru, Jason Segal is quite funny as Vector, and Julie Andrews makes a surprising appearance as Gru's very un-motherly mom. The story isn't new, the humor is relatively juvenile and somewhat forgettable, and it's no Toy Story 3, but Despicable Me celebrates silliness in a way that's satisfying and highly entertaining. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi Read more

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Harry Potter Years 1-7 Part 1 Gift Set

Harry Potter Years 1-7 Part 1 Gift Set
Daniel Radcliffe (Actor), Emma Watson (Actor), Alfonso Cuarón (Director), Chris Columbus (Director) | Format: DVD
(38)

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Prepare for the Final Battle!

Harry Potter Years 1 - 7: Part 1 Giftset includes:

Year 1 HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE The magical adventure begins when Harry Potter is invited to attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Languages & Subtitles: English & Español.

Year 2 HARRY POTTER AND THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS Cars fly, trees attack and a mysterious house-elf warns Harry of great danger as he returns for his second year. Languages: English & Español • Subtitles: English, Français & Español.

Year 3 HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN Harry must confront soul-sucking Dementors, outsmart a werewolf and learn the truth about the escaped prisoner of Azkaban – Sirius Black. Languages: English & Français (Dubbed in Quebec) • Subtitles: English, Français & Español.

Year 4 HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE Harry must overcome a deadly dragon, fierce water demons and an enchanted maze only to find himself in the cruel grasp of He Who Must Not Be Named. Languages: English & Español • Subtitles: English, Français & Español.

Year 5 HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX When few believe that Lord Voldemort has returned, Harry must secretly train his friends for the wizarding war ahead. Languages & Subtitles: English, Français (Dubbed in Quebec) & Español.

Year 6 HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE As Lord Voldemort tightens his grip on both Muggle and wizarding worlds, Harry and Dumbledore work to find the key to unlock Voldemort’s defenses. Languages & Subtitles: English, Français (Dubbed in Quebec) & Español.

Year 7 HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS - PART 1 Harry, Ron and Hermione set out to track down and destroy the secret to Voldemort’s power – the Horcruxes. On their own and on the run, the three must rely on one another more than ever…but Dark Forces threaten to tear them apart. Read more

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Source Code [Blu-ray]

Source Code [Blu-ray]
Jake Gyllenhaal (Actor), Michelle Monaghan (Actor), Duncan Jones (Director) | Format: Blu-ray
(67)
Release Date: July 26, 2011

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Review & Description

A helicopter pilot (Gyllenhaal) recruited for a top-secret military operation finds himself on a startlingly different kind of mission in Source Code, a smart, fast-paced action thriller that challenges our assumptions about time and space. Filled with mind-boggling twists and heart-pounding suspense, Source Code is directed by Duncan Jones (Moon).Director Duncan Jones made a stellar first impression with 2009's Moon, a stylish, gratifyingly deep science-fiction movie that favored heart and soul over flashy special effects. Source Code, Jones's much anticipated follow-up, proves that his debut was far from a fluke, blending techno-thriller and character study with deceptive ease. Shot in a clean, no-frills fashion, Ben Ripley's script follows an MIA soldier (Jake Gyllenhaal) who awakes in a mysterious capsule, with contact with the outside world limited to a video feed from a shadowy military officer (the fantastically poker-faced Vera Farmiga). As events unfold, he learns that he's the participant in an experiment that lets him relive a stranger's past life in 8-minute chunks, a process that will hopefully allow him to avert the terrorist bombing of a packed commuter train. Jones, aided by Chris Brown's wonderfully overt '80s homage of a score, wrings an impressive amount of tension out of the constantly rewinding story, with each time jump revealing another small piece of the overall puzzle, as well as deepening the relationship between Gyllenhaal and fellow passenger Michelle Monaghan. Clocking in at a just-right 93 minutes, this is a funny, tense, and surprisingly moving film that perhaps never quite reaches the ingenuity that its premise suggests. If this counts as a sophomore slump, it's of an extremely mild, very entertaining variety. --Andrew Wright Read more

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Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek

Star Trek The Animated Series - The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek
William Shatner (Actor), Majel Barrett (Actor), Bill Reed (Director) | Format: DVD
21 days in the top 100
(146)

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Review & Description

Boldly continuing where Star Trek: The Original Series left off, these animated adventures chart the progress of Captain Kirk and his crew in a universe unconstrained by "real-life" cinematography! With all characters voiced by their original actors, join Kirk, Spock, Bones and the crew for 22 new adventures: to boldly go where no animation has gone before!Star Trek: The Animated Series is often referred to as Star Trek's "fourth season" because it was created in 1973, four years after the third and final season of the original series, and because most of the original cast provided the voices. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Majel Barrett reprised their characters, and some contributed other voices as well. The only major omission was Walter Koenig's Chekov, who was replaced at the navigation console by Lieutenant Arex, the three-armed alien who most prominently represented the series' freedom to create non-humanoid characters. (Koenig did write an episode.) And while the animation is crude at best, the stories are solid sci-fi (penned by some of Star Trek's veteran writers including DC Fontana and David Gerrold, all of whom received prominent opening credits), explored the Star Trek mythos, and elevated the series above typical Saturday-morning fare. For example, "Yesteryear" goes back to Spock's early years on Vulcan, continuing some explorations from the original series' "Journey to Babel," and offers the familiar voice of Mark Lenard as Sarek. "One of Our Planets Is Missing" raises some interesting philosophical questions about the value of life, and "More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "Mudd's Passion" revisit favorite characters. Star Trek: The Animated Series lasted just barely over one season, but it won the franchise's only Emmy (for Outstanding Entertainment Children's Series in 1975) and some of its ideas were embraced by future series. Trekkers who know it only by reputation will find it a valuable part of the Star Trek canon. In addition to the series' 22 half-hour episodes, the DVD set includes "Drawn to the Final Frontier: The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series," a 24-minute featurette including interviews with the producers and writers (but not actors) on how the series was created and why it still holds up; "What's the Star Trek Connection?", a glossary of characters and themes common to the animated series and other series; a storyboard gallery; and a brief text history. Writer David Gerrold and producer David Wise contribute audio commentaries on three and one episode, respectively, and the ever-reliable Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda provide text commentary on three other episodes. --David Horiuchi Read more

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Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos

Jeff Dunham: Controlled Chaos
Format: DVD
2 days in the top 100
(5)
Release Date: September 27, 2011

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Rio

Rio
Jesse Eisenberg (Actor), Anne Hathaway (Actor) | Format: DVD
(27)
Release Date: August 2, 2011

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Review & Description

A classic tale of self-discovery, romance, and adventure, Rio is the story of Blu, a flightless macaw who was taken from the forests of Rio de Janeiro as a young bird and raised by a kind girl in a small Minnesota town. When an ornithologist comes to town and informs Blu's now-grown owner Linda that Blu is the last male of his species, Blu and Linda return to Rio so that Blu can mate with a feisty female named Jewel. Thus begins an adventure in which Blu encounters everything from the complexities of courtship and love, to thugs involved in an exotic animal theft ring, strange new friendships--including one with an overly friendly slobbering bulldog--and a crazy ride through a Carnaval parade. Blu and Linda both mature as a result of their journey in Rio, and love ensures that life will never be quite the same for either ever again. The animation in Rio is quite impressive, the characters are endearing, the Brazilian music is very appealing, and the star-studded voice cast includes Anne Hathaway, Jesse Eisenberg, Will i Am, Wanda Sykes, Jane Lynch, George Lopez, and Jamie Foxx. While the story doesn't really offer anything new--instead playing much like a rehashing of some of the major plot points from movies like Madagascar, Finding Nemo, and Babe--that doesn't mean the film isn't perfectly entertaining for both kids and adults. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi Read more

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Dexter: The Fifth Season

Dexter: The Fifth Season
Michael C. Hall (Actor) | Format: DVD
(47)
Release Date: August 16, 2011

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The World at War [Blu-ray]

The World at War [Blu-ray]
Various (Actor), History (Director) | Format: Blu-ray
7 days in the top 100
(381)

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Review & Description

More than 35 years after its initial broadcast, THE WORLD AT WAR remains the definitive visual history of World War II. Unsurpassed in depth and scope, its 26 hour-long programs feature an extraordinary collection of newsreel, propaganda, and home-movie footage drawn from the archives of 18 nations, including color close-ups of Adolf Hitler taken by his mistress, that present an unvarnished perspective of the war s pivotal events. Penetrating interviews with eyewitness participants from Hitler s secretary to Alger Hiss to ordinary citizens who stood outside the battle lines add spine-tingling, first-hand accounts to an already unforgettable viewing experience.

Informative and unbiased, THE WORLD AT WAR is the recipient of numerous accolades, including an International Emmy Award, The National Television Critics' Award for Best Documentary, and knighthood for its creator, Sir Jeremy Isaacs. Narrated by Academy Award winner Sir Laurence Olivier and painstakingly restored in 1080p high-definition (with newly-created 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks), this is epic history at its absolute best.Sir Jeremy Isaacs highly deserves the numerous awards for documentaries he has earned: the Royal Television Society's Desmond Davis Award, l'Ordre National du Mérit, an Emmy, and a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II. His epic The World at War remains unsurpassed as the definitive visual history of World War II.

The Second World War was different from other wars in thousands of ways, one of which was the unparalleled scope of visual documents kept by the Axis and Allies of all their activities. As a result, this war is understood as much through written histories as it is through its powerful images. The Nazis were particularly thorough in documenting even the most abhorrent of the atrocities they were committing--in a surprising amount of color footage. The World at War was one of the first television documentaries that exploited these resources so completely, giving viewers an unbelievable visual guide to the greatest event in the 20th century. This is to say nothing of the excellent, comprehensible narrative. Some highlights:

• A New Germany 1933-39: early German and Nazi documentation of Hitler's rise to power through the impending attack on Poland
• Whirlwind: the early British losses in the blitz in the skies over Britain and in North Africa
• Stalingrad: the turning point of the war and Germany's first defeat
• Inside the Reich--Germany 1940-44: one of the most fascinating documentaries that exists on life inside Nazi Germany, from Lebensborn to the Hitler Youth
• Morning: prior to Saving Private Ryan, one of the only unromanticized views of the Normandy invasion
• Genocide: this film is one of the most widely shown introductions to the Holocaust
• Japan 1941-45: although The World at War is decidedly focused more on the European theater, this is an important look into wartime Japan and its expansion--early 20th-century history that lead to Japan's role in World War II is superficial
• The bomb: another widely shown documentary of the Manhattan Project, the Enola Gay, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki

The World at War will remain the definitive visual history of World War II, analogous to Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. No serious historian should be missing The World at War in a collection, and no student should leave school without having seen at least some of its salient episodes. Rarely is film so essential. --Erik J. Macki Read more

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Limitless (Unrated Extended Cut) [Blu-ray + Digital Copy]

Limitless (Unrated Extended Cut) [Blu-ray + Digital Copy]
Bradley Cooper (Actor), Anna Friel (Actor), Neil Burger (Director) | Format: Blu-ray
(42)
Release Date: July 19, 2011

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Review & Description

Bradley Cooper (The A-Team) and two-time Academy-Award® winner Robert De Niro, star in this provocative and action-packed thriller with unlimited surprising twists. Eddie Morra (Cooper), a burnt-out writer, discovers a top-secret pill that unlocks 100% of his brain’s capacity. He instantly acquires mind-bending talents and mesmerizing visions that bring him big money, beautiful women and limitless success. But his dream life soon becomes a waking nightmare, as the drug’s brutal side effects take their toll and Eddie finds himself entangled with a cunning Wall Street power broker (DeNiro) who wants everything Eddie has… and more. Depending on your take-away of the visual inventiveness and jam-packed plot that drives Limitless to peaks and valleys of preposterous fun, drugs are either a terrible scourge or the fundamental solution to all of life's problems. Limitless isn't exactly a morality tale, but the made-up drug that turns Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) from a scuzzy loser into a master of the universe does become a metaphor for ambition, menace, devastation, and ultimate success. Eddie is a writer who can't write, his girlfriend (Abbie Cornish) just dumped him, and his squalid lifestyle has driven him to the breaking point. After a chance meeting with his mysterious ex-brother-in-law, he's offered change in the form of a little transparent button, a pill code-named NZT that allows the user to access 100 percent of their brain. After he pops it, Eddie is transformed. Everything he's ever heard, seen, glanced at, or passed by becomes neatly ordered in his mind. He has total recall, total access to knowledge both known and unknown, and he understands exactly what to do. Without the ingenious visual effects that frequently push the bounds of innovation, our view of the alteration of Eddie's drug-induced reality would fail utterly. When his synapses snap from every new hit, the sparkling blue of Bradley Cooper's eyes pops off of the screen, the colors and textures of his reality ripple and zoom with his every move. Of course he needs more of the drug to maintain his progression, not to mention his very life--remember, kids, drugs are addictive!

The movie throws tangled clumps of plot threads against each other in a whizzing mass that incorporates Russian gangsters, shadowy surveillance figures, cops, lawyers, and a couple of murder mysteries. It's a hurtling progression of narrative tangents that often echo the physical and mental extremes Eddie experiences when he's either on or off the drug. Sex, society, and money are big parts of Eddie's newfound brainpower, and he exploits them all. The money element leads Eddie to a big-shot investor, played with twinkling irony by Robert De Niro. The sparring matches between Cooper and De Niro are some of the best parts of the convoluted and manic pace that drives Limitless inexorably onward. Abbie Cornish is relegated to the sidelines far too much, and the suspension of disbelief required to simply maintain stride with the movie's frenzied velocity is often exhausting. But there are some bigger themes that director Neil Burger and writer Leslie Dixon try to sustain in spite of repeated absurdities meant to be accepted at face value. Eddie's actions are both vile and redemptive, and Cooper gives a rousing performance as he bounces from being contemptible to irresistible, sometimes all at once. Fortunately, Limitless is itself redeemed by the nifty visuals that often do evoke the effects of a drug that promises perfect clarity. It's best to just forget the ludicrous lack of coherence and enjoy it as a wildly entertaining trip on a perfect drug that offers the potential for payback and infinite salvation. --Ted Fry Read more

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Modern Family: The Complete First Season

Modern Family: The Complete First Season
Ed O'Neill (Actor), Julie Bowen (Actor) | Format: DVD
(168)

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Review & Description

Come join the family for the hilarious and critically acclaimed breakout hit of the year! Featuring an all-star cast led by Ed O’Neill, Sofia Vargara, Julie Bowen, and Ty Burrell, Modern Family takes a refreshing and funny view of what it means to raise a family in this hectic day and age.  Multi-cultural relationships, adoption, and same-sex marriage are just a few of the timely issues faced by the show’s three wildly-diverse broods.  No matter the size or shape, family always comes first in this hilariously “modern” look at life, love, and laughter.The handheld, observational, fake documentary format complete with character interview segments has become a sitcom device so familiar and accessible, thanks to the success of The Office and Parks and Recreation, that it doesn't feel at all like a rip-off in Modern Family. In fact, the technique seems to be entirely its own in this fresh, smart, and very funny show that premiered to immediate acclaim in 2009. Three affluent Southern California households--the Delgado-Pritchetts, the Dunphys, and the Pritchett-Tuckers--thrum with uproarious life and bustling activities showcased in pithy episode arcs that are neat, if not always tidy. The homes and lifestyles are glossy and well ordered, yet simultaneously full of the chaos and commonplace confusion that make up real life for real modern families everywhere. Each of the 10 personalities in the ensemble is expertly nuanced, a feat that should be credited not only to the show's creators Steven Levitan and Christopher Lloyd, but also to actors who have without exception been impeccably cast. Each one takes care to bring the tiniest detail of comic shading to their abundant interaction and to the equally important element of their own personal and wildly idiosyncratic character business.

Ed O'Neill plays patriarch Jay Pritchett, a man who's made his bundle, divorced his first wife, and finally found true happiness with Gloria, a much younger Colombian woman who seems to have bounced off the set of a risqué Univision quiz show. Her 10-year-old son Manny, who exhibits many of the traits of a 30-year-old Lothario, completes the first of the unusual family units. The Dunphy household comprises Jay's daughter Claire, her dorky husband Phil, and their three kids, Haley, Alex, and Luke. Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) fancies himself a cool dad who's his kids' best friend. But despite his zealous best intentions he's really just an embarrassment, sometimes most of all to Claire (Julie Bowen), who often treats him like her fourth child. Household three is occupied by Jay's gay son Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and his partner Cameron (Eric Stonestreet), who bring home an adopted Vietnamese baby in the pilot episode for them and everyone else to fawn over. The comic combinations of controlled nuclear family explosions precipitated by this episodic mix are consistently filled with an unending string of gags that burn the full range of comic fuel from gentle smiles to full-on guffaws. There are nominal story threads (we're not in the land of Seinfeld's "no hugging, no learning" edict), but most of the entertainment comes from throwaway lines and the kind of interaction that feels more like expert improv tossed off by seasoned pros than it does scripted TV farce. There's also a fair amount of precisely executed physical comedy, especially around the Dunphy household (Ty Burrell is highly skilled in the practice of bodily buffoonery), and the show never shies away from either playing up or laying to rest the stereotypes and clichés it brings up with good-natured abandon. Gay people act gay! Latin people are hot-blooded! Kids are stupid! Parents are clueless!

It's also fun to see some famous faces appear as guests or in cameo roles--Edward Norton, Minnie Driver, Elizabeth Banks, Benjamin Bratt, Shelley Long--all of whom clearly get the joke and are having a great time joining in (especially good is Fred Willard, who was born to play Phil's dad). The four-disc set has a limited number of special features that include some back story bits about the actors and how some of the show's themes developed from the real lives of the writers' real modern families. Best of all are extended scenes and outtakes from the family interview segments that only enhance the casual hilarity that rolls so effortlessly from character to character throughout each episode. It's easy to look forward to time spent in the company of the Pritchett-Dunphy-Tucker clan. --Ted Fry Read more

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The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series
Robert Vaughn (Actor), David McCallum (Actor), Eddie Saeta (Director), James Goldstone (Director) | Format: DVD
18 days in the top 100
(160)

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It was the height of the Cold War, a time when most Americans had only the vaguest understanding of international espionage. Then, in 1964, the televised spy genre exploded on the screen in the U.S. and around the world when the groundbreaking series The Man From U.N.C.L.E. pulled the covers off of the spy game in what became must-watch television for the next four years on NBC. Here is The Man From U.N.C.L.E.: The Complete Series, beautifully packaged in a 60's style high tech attach‚ case, complete with all episodes along with hours of viewing extras.For Baby Boomers, owning a season or two of a fondly remembered TV series on DVD is enough to satisfy any nostalgic yearnings. The Man From U.N.C.L.E., though, warrants the full-series treatment. It's a wild '60s flashback to the Espionage era that was ushered in by Ian Fleming's James Bond adventures. According to a series retrospective that's just one of this cleverly packaged set's prodigious extras, Fleming himself was recruited to create a spy series for American television. His contribution was the name "Napoleon Solo," the moniker of a crime boss in Goldfinger. That movie, which would kick Bond and spy mania into overdrive, had not yet opened when viewers were introduced to Robert Vaughn's Solo and David McCallum's Illya Kuryakin, agents of the United Network Command for Law and Enforcement. This covert agency operated out of Del Floria's Tailor Shop in New York under the command of true Brit Alexander Waverly (Leo J. Carroll, playing much the same character he portrayed in North by Northwest). The Man from U.N.C.L.E. offered a bit of hope in Cold War America that an American and Russian could work together to stop a common enemy, THRUSH, a ruthless organization bent on world domination. The intriguing conceit of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was to give audiences an empathetic surrogate who would be plucked from their humdrum lives for whirlwind adventures with Solo and Kuryakin. In the pilot episode, Patricia Crowley guest-stars as a housewife who acts as bait to foil the plans of her former college boyfriend, who is plotting the assassination of a world leader. In a series benchmark, "The Never-Never Affair," a pre-Get Smart Barbara Feldon stars as an U.N.C.L.E. translator who unwittingly becomes involved in actual espionage. Seasons one and two are the series' best, with a stellar roster of guest stars ("The Project Strigas Affair" features the first onscreen pairing of William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy), stylish direction by directors who would go on to some renown (Michael Ritchie, Richard Donner), smart scripts, and great action (a movie theatre shoot-out in "The Never-Never Affair"). In its third season, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. adopted Batman's campy and absurdist tone with shark-jumping results While this season has its share of groaners (in one episode, Sollo watusis with a gorilla), several "Affairs" stand out. Jack Palance and Janet Leigh as a long cool woman in a white dress are great villains in "The Concrete Overcoat Affair." Harlan Ellison wrote the witty "The Pieces of Fate Affair," in which he takes some sly digs at television and literary critics (a THRUSH operative is a book reviewer). Joan Collins makes like Eliza Doolittle in a dual role as a Bronx stripper and a countess in "The Galatea Affair." The series went back to basics in Season Four, but by then, The Avengers was a bigger hit and the writing was on the wall for this once trendsetting series. This lavish box set affair contains upward of ten hours of bonus features, including the unaired series pilot, a series retrospective, an interview with a reunited Vaughn and McCallum, dossiers on each season's guest stars, one of the U.N.C.L.E. feature films edited and expanded from a two-part episode, segments about the great gadgets and cool music, U.N.C.L.E. designs and blueprints, and season-specific booklets.This definitive box set does full justice to a series that had such an impact on popular culture (as witness the bonus Tom & Jerry cartoon, "The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R."). More than a blast from the past, The Man From U.N.C.L.E. is still a potent blend of "cloak and swagger." --Donald Liebenson Read more

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Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season

Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season
Bryan Cranston (Actor), Aaron Paul (Actor) | Format: DVD
(76)
Release Date: June 7, 2011

Buy new: $39.95 $19.99
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Winner of two 2010 Emmy Awards, including Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Bryan Cranston and Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for Aaron Paul, Breaking Bad: The Complete Third Season returns, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as "the best show on television." Even though his cancer's in remission, chemistry teacher-turned-meth maker Walter White (Cranston) still can't catch a break. his wife (Anna Gunn) has filed for divorce, his DEA agent brother-in-law (Dean Norris) is out to bust him and a Mexican cartel just wants him dead. But with his family's future still at stake Walt cooks up a deal that will make him a fortune, a scheme with a terrible price. Executive produced by Vince Gilligan and Mark Johnson.Here's how things are going for Walter White, the central character in Breaking Bad, as this outstanding cable series reaches its third season. By the end of the fourth episode, less than a third of the way through the year, Walt (played by Bryan Cranston, who won three straight Emmys for this role) has been arrested and put in jail twice; has been served with divorce papers by his wife, to whom he has finally confessed that he's a crystal methamphetamine manufacturer; has had a serious falling out with his young partner in crime; and is the subject of a manhunt by two silent but very deadly members of a Mexican drug cartel. And it gets a lot worse. Of course, Walt is hardly the only character who's afflicted, conflicted, and "breaking bad." Wife Skyler (Anna Gunn) is in the excruciating position of knowing that she could blow the whistle on Walt and get him out of her and their children's lives once and for all, while also realizing what that would do to her family. Hank (Dean Norris), the DEA agent who's married to Skyler's sister, becomes obsessed with figuring out who's putting "blue meth" on the streets of Albuquerque, little knowing that it's his own brother-in-law and leading to near-tragic consequences. And partner Jesse (Aaron Paul, another Emmy winner) is haunted by the fact that it was his drugs that killed his girlfriend, whose distraught father may have caused a hideously destructive plane collision over the city when he returned to his air traffic controller job too soon.

All of this is presented in an artful brew of black humor and frequently violent drama, with excellent acting, dialogue, and storytelling (the 10th episode, "The Fly," takes place entirely in Walt and Jesse's fancy new meth lab), and innovative film techniques (the opening scenes in episode one, and several thereafter, are shot with a beautiful, almost sepia-toned look). But it's Walt, portrayed so memorably by Cranston, who remains the main draw, as this brilliant but self-destructive, angry man, prone to making calamitous decisions, gradually realizes that he is truly becoming Heisenberg, his criminal alter ego, and is in way over his head--and may very well be losing his mind in the process. One can only wonder how much lower creator Vince Gilligan and his team will take him in season four.

The bonus features are many and varied, with numerous offerings on all four discs. They include audio commentary (by Gilligan, the actors, and others) on most episodes; a variety of short featurettes detailing individual scenes or shots, props, character backgrounds, etc.; pod casts; and a series of promotional pieces produced for AMC (which airs the show) under the banner of "Inside Breaking Bad," in which members of the cast and crew discuss specific aspects of each episode (viewer beware, as these bits contain some spoilers). --Sam Graham Read more

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