DVD

[Rasputin]

Seabiscuit - HD DVD

I did not want to see Seabiscuit. I thought it would be either: a.) an update of Old Yeller starring a horse; b.) the “inspirational” story of a jockey with a fatal disease; or, c.) a movie about a snack cracker. None of these options sounded particularly appealing. Luckily, I was wrong. Seabiscuit is none of those things, but the kind of Movie-movie they don't make anymore, an unabashedly old-fashioned, romantic, feel-good entertainment that lifts the spirits and inspires the soul to...

[Rasputin]

United 93

When it was announced that Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass was making a film about 9/11, many asked whether it was the right time to make a movie about such a fresh tragedy. But that was the wrong question. The more appropriate question was whether it was the right time to make a good movie about 9/11. And the answer is, it’s always the right time to make a good movie, it’s never the right time to make a bad movie. And, as it turns out, United 93 is an excellent movie about...

[Rasputin]

Our Brand is Crisis

It’s hardly a surprise to learn that American politics is not about the person; it’s about the framing of the person, the presentation of that person’s personae to a country with little interest in researching its candidates. But in Rachel Boynton’s documentary Our Brand Is Crisis, we learn that such a marketing driven approach to politics can successfully span international boundaries. In 2002, Bolivian presidential candidate Gonzalo Sánchez de Lozada (nicknamed...

[Rasputin]

Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World

This is a sly and droll dramedy has one foot in reality and another in comedic fantasy. Playing himself, Albert Brooks’ career isn’t going very well. He’s called in to a casting session by the casting director (Victoria Burrows) of Penny Marshall’s (also playing herself) remake of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But Marshall is looking for the next James Stewart and Brooks simply won’t do. In a scene of self-mocking, disingenuous two-faced...

[Rasputin]

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - HD DVD

Before he was the governor of California, he was just Arnold Schwarzenegger, one-time Mr. Olympia turned world-famous action superstar. His greatest role is arguably the Terminator, James Cameron’s tech-noir cyborg intent on preserving machines and obliterating mankind. It was the perfect fit for Schwarzenegger's decidedly unique persona: big, intimidating, limited to monosyllables, and as befitting a future governor, one who knew how to get the job done. But the...

[Rasputin]

Top Selling DVDs at Yahoo! Shopping

1. A Sexy Western
2. Ong-Bak: Muay Thai Warrior
3. Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera
4. Pride & Prejudice
5. The 40 Year-Old Virgin
6. Saving Private Ryan
7. Gojira
8. Aaron Star's Hot Nude Yoga - Strength
9. Venom
10. Scarface

[Rasputin]

Scarface (1983)

After years of diplomatic silence between the United States and Cuba, Castro opens the port of Mariel Harbor, Cuba, to thousands emmigrating to the United States in search of the American dream. Shrewdly, Castro also unlocks the overpacked prisons, allowing hordes of criminals to join the refugees. Tony Montana, a small time hood, is one of them. In Florida, Montana connects with gangster Frank Lopez,...

Genres: Action/Adventure, Drama and Crime/Gangster

Running Time: 2 hrs. 50 min.

Release Date: December 9, 1983 Nationwide

MPAA Rating: R

Distributors: Universal Pictures

Cast and Credits

Starring: Al Pacino, Steven Bauer, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Robert Loggia
Directed by: Brian De Palma, David Hans Dreyfuss
Produced by: Louis A. Stroller, Martin Bregman, Peter F. Saphier

[Rasputin]

Alf: Season Four

It’s now official. As cuddly, adorable and relatively sass-mouthed as Alf was, this fourth season of that crazy Melmacian goofball’s sitcom is simply too much. I loved Alf – my whole damned family seemed to – and I even had a few Alf lunch boxes (I think my brother had a beach towel with Alf’s mug on it). But where the first season of Alf on DVD provided a lovely trip down memory lane, this fourth box set of the series has done more than just make me wonder why I...

[Rasputin]

We Were Soldiers - HD DVD

Steven Spielberg raised the bar when he shot the Normandy Invasion for Saving Private Ryan and Ridley Scott didn’t shirk as he brought Black Hawk Down to the screen. These directors were struggling for authenticity, for audience immersion, for the ability to convey the terrible and visceral experience of combat. Producer, screenwriter, and director Randall Wallace also strives for truth and realism as he adapts an autobiographical book and tells the story of a harrowing battle...

[Rasputin]

The Manchurian Candidate - HD DVD

Jonathan Demme’s 2004 reworking of The Manchurian Candidate is a movie that has no business being as good as it is. The original John Frankenheimer film is a classic of Cold War paranoia that neither needed a remake nor opens itself to the possibilities of one. The 1962 production holds up extremely well as a suspense thriller, but is so rooted in the politics of its day that the idea of transplanting the story to modern times seems almost absurd. Add to this a director...

[Rasputin]

The Perfect Storm - HD DVD

One of the most difficult challenges a filmmaker can accept is to grab and hold an audience’s attention while portraying a story - particularly a story based on fact - with a known outcome. Titanic is a great example. No reviewer gives anything away by revealing that the ship sinks. The story of the Andrea Gail is another such film. Based on Sebastian Junger’s book, we’re painfully aware of the crew’s fate before the Warner Bros. opening logo is...

[Rasputin]

A Wake in Providence

When his grandfather unexpectedly dies, aspiring Hollywood actor Anthony (Vincent Pagano, Suddenly Susan) brings his African American girlfriend, Alissa (the radiant Victoria Rowell, The Young and the Restless) home to meet his traditional Italian-American family in Providence, Rhode Island and to attend his grandfather’s funeral. Chaotic and more than a little emotional, the impromptu family gathering triggers a number of confrontations and some surprising confessions.Alissa has a great...

[Rasputin]

Bad Santa (2003)

Willie T. Stokes is a washed-up, wise-cracking Department Store Santa who can't help but be more naughty than nice. Underneath his ill-fitting red suit, Willie is actually a safecracker who makes one big score every year--on Christmas Eve. As shoppers head home from the mall, this Santa and his ingenious Elf--Willie's midget partner-in-crime Marcus--crack the store safe and make off with their own...

Genres: Comedy, Crime/Gangster and Holiday

Running Time: 1 hr. 31 min.

Release Date: November 26th, 2003 (wide)

MPAA Rating: R for pervasive language, strong sexual content and some violence.

Distributors: Dimension Films

Cast and Credits

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Bernie Mac, John Ritter, Lauren Tom, Lauren Graham
Directed by: Terry Zwigoff
Produced by: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, Harvey Weinstein

[Rasputin]

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

A "cure" for mutancy threatens to alter the course of history. For the first time, mutants have a choice: retain their uniqueness, though it isolates and alienates them, or give up their powers and become human. The opposing viewpoints of mutant leaders Charles Xavier, who preaches tolerance, and Magneto, who believes in the survival of the fittest, are put to the ultimate test--triggering the war... See Full Description

Genres: Action/Adventure, Science Fiction/Fantasy and Sequel

Running Time: 1 hr. 43 min.

Release Date: May 26th, 2006 (wide)

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of action violence, some sexual content and language.

Distributors: 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox International
Cast and Credits

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen
Directed by: Brett Ratner
Produced by: Kevin Feige, John Palermo, Stan Lee

[azita2005]

October 10, 2006 - New Video and DVD Releases

The new DVD releases include Click, Garfield: A Tail of Two Kitties, A Prairie Home Companion, and Waist Deep.