Saturday, December 31, 2011

Earth 2 - The Complete Series

  • Actors: Debrah Farentino, Clancy Brown, Jessica Steen, Antonio Sabato.
  • Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC.
  • Language: English. Subtitles: English, Spanish.
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only).
  • Not Rated. Run Time: 1025 minutes.
Rhoda and john two people whose worlds collide after a tragic accident. Their intimate drama plays out against the astounding discovery of earth 2 a parallel world that poses provocative and fascinating possibilities. Does a new earth mean a chance at another life? another destiny? another self? Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 11/29/2011 Run time: 93 minutes Rating: Pg13Another Earth is an unusual hybrid of existential rumination on life choices, mind-bending sci-fi supposition, and challenging indie art film that moves at a pace that is often maddeningly oblique. Based on the marketing campaign,! which plays up the science-fiction angle and special effects (of which there are very few, consisting mainly of offhand composite shots), the movie seems to be trawling for an audience that may be sorely disappointed by all the roundabout and often repetitive philosophically conceptual ideas that are hard to follow. That's not to say that Another Earth isn't rich in ideas or absorbing in its own right as a meditation on how specific moments play out and affect the cascade of alternatives that follow in their wake. Using broadly impressionistic and experimental strokes, the story follows the disjointed meanderings of 17-year-old Rhoda, who causes a tragic accident while driving drunk after celebrating her acceptance into college. The collision happens when she becomes distracted by the mesmerizing planetary image glowing above her car's moon roof, which has just been identified as an exact duplicate of Earth. After four years of incarceration, she continues to suffer! terrible remorse and tries to find a way to make peace with h! erself a nd the older man whose life and family she all but destroyed, and who is now crippled by depression. Her initial self-imposed penance is to adopt the role of an anonymous maid who comes to clean his decrepit house every week. As precious few details are added to their individual and mutual evolution and motivation, the constant of the alternate Earth, which has been steadily moving closer (along with its mirror-image Moon), hovers in the day and night sky, gazed upon with wonder and a growing idea that maybe it represents the redemption Rhoda can't find on her own. A corporate contest that will allow an ordinary citizen to make a shuttle trip to Earth 2 (or is it Earth 1?) becomes the catalyst for her belief that she can fundamentally alter both their lives for the better, but the movie never shows its hand in how or if this might work. Another Earth is another of those high-minded indie dramas that relies a little too heavily on rambling structure, shaky handheld dig! ital camera, and arty shots of things like the play of light, clouds, and swirling dust motes to convey the corners of its characters' sometimes fascinating, sometimes inscrutable souls. Much has been made of the film's final shot, which is truly stunning in its unexpectedness and implications. But what those implications are will be cause for unending debate among viewers, many of who may never be able to come up with a satisfying answer. --Ted FryAnother Earth is an unusual hybrid of existential rumination on life choices, mind-bending sci-fi supposition, and challenging indie art film that moves at a pace that is often maddeningly oblique. Based on the marketing campaign, which plays up the science-fiction angle and special effects (of which there are very few, consisting mainly of offhand composite shots), the movie seems to be trawling for an audience that may be sorely disappointed by all the roundabout and often repetitive philosophically conceptual ide! as that are hard to follow. That's not to say that Another ! Earth isn't rich in ideas or absorbing in its own right as a meditation on how specific moments play out and affect the cascade of alternatives that follow in their wake. Using broadly impressionistic and experimental strokes, the story follows the disjointed meanderings of 17-year-old Rhoda, who causes a tragic accident while driving drunk after celebrating her acceptance into college. The collision happens when she becomes distracted by the mesmerizing planetary image glowing above her car's moon roof, which has just been identified as an exact duplicate of Earth. After four years of incarceration, she continues to suffer terrible remorse and tries to find a way to make peace with herself and the older man whose life and family she all but destroyed, and who is now crippled by depression. Her initial self-imposed penance is to adopt the role of an anonymous maid who comes to clean his decrepit house every week. As precious few details are added to their individual and mutual e! volution and motivation, the constant of the alternate Earth, which has been steadily moving closer (along with its mirror-image Moon), hovers in the day and night sky, gazed upon with wonder and a growing idea that maybe it represents the redemption Rhoda can't find on her own. A corporate contest that will allow an ordinary citizen to make a shuttle trip to Earth 2 (or is it Earth 1?) becomes the catalyst for her belief that she can fundamentally alter both their lives for the better, but the movie never shows its hand in how or if this might work. Another Earth is another of those high-minded indie dramas that relies a little too heavily on rambling structure, shaky handheld digital camera, and arty shots of things like the play of light, clouds, and swirling dust motes to convey the corners of its characters' sometimes fascinating, sometimes inscrutable souls. Much has been made of the film's final shot, which is truly stunning in its unexpectedness and implicati! ons. But what those implications are will be cause for unendin! g debate among viewers, many of who may never be able to come up with a satisfying answer. --Ted FryA science-fiction series with an ecological theme, EARTH 2 only ran for one season on NBC, and all 22 episodes of the program are collected here. In the distant future, the surface of the Earth has been largely destroyed, and mankind lives in space stations orbiting the planet. A group of space colonists, led by Devon Adair (Debrah Farentino) and John Danzinger (Clancy Brown), are sent to a far off planet to prepare it for colonization by the surviving population of Earth. But a mishap sends them careening off-course, crash landing thousands of miles from the proper camp site. EARTH 2 follows the band of colonists as they traverse the planet, encountering dangerous aliens and other humans who view them with distrust and suspicion. By tackling issues like ecology and colonization, EARTH 2 engages important ideas and themes in an entertaining fashion.

Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights

  • Actors: Jamie Alcroft, Blake Clark, Norm Crosby, Ellen Albertini Dow, Carmen Filpi
  • Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
  • Language: English. Subtitles: English, French.
  • Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  • Rated PG-13
Once a happy boy, but now the town delinquent, Davey (voiced by Sandler) is given one last chance to redeem himself with his community and discover the true meaning of the holiday season. Voices of Adam Sandler along with Kevin Nealon, Rob Schneider and Jon Lovitz. VHS and DVD features the short film with Adam Sandler’s Dog "A Day with Meatball" and many Adam Sandler songs!Adam Sandler fans will find the animated movie 8 Crazy Nights to be another flowering of Sandler's absurdist goofiness. People who find Sandler completely annoying will be triply annoyed by 8 Crazy Nights,! because Sandler does the voices for three different characters: Davey Stone, a boozing, belching, self-loathing loser who hates the holidays; Whitey, a tiny old man who tries to rehabilitate Davey; and Eleanor, Whitey's neurotic twin sister, who seems not to have left her house in years. Fans will find the slapdash musical numbers and scatological humor hilarious; foes will find them tiresome and banal. But even Sandler's advocates won't care about the by-the-numbers plot of holiday redemption; you see, Davey's parents died on the first night of Hanukkah, and he just needs to cry about it. Sandler's best when he's walking that line between stupid and smart-ass. When he gets sentimental, it's trouble. --Bret FetzerADAM SANDLER'S EIGHT CRAZY NIGHTS - DVD MovieAdam Sandler fans will find the animated movie 8 Crazy Nights to be another flowering of Sandler's absurdist goofiness. People who find Sandler completely annoying will be triply annoyed by ! 8 Crazy Nights, because Sandler does the voices for three! differe nt characters: Davey Stone, a boozing, belching, self-loathing loser who hates the holidays; Whitey, a tiny old man who tries to rehabilitate Davey; and Eleanor, Whitey's neurotic twin sister, who seems not to have left her house in years. Fans will find the slapdash musical numbers and scatological humor hilarious; foes will find them tiresome and banal. But even Sandler's advocates won't care about the by-the-numbers plot of holiday redemption; you see, Davey's parents died on the first night of Hanukkah, and he just needs to cry about it. Sandler's best when he's walking that line between stupid and smart-ass. When he gets sentimental, it's trouble. --Bret FetzerAdam Sandler fans will find the animated movie 8 Crazy Nights to be another flowering of Sandler's absurdist goofiness. People who find Sandler completely annoying will be triply annoyed by 8 Crazy Nights, because Sandler does the voices for three different characters: Davey Stone,! a boozing, belching, self-loathing loser who hates the holidays; Whitey, a tiny old man who tries to rehabilitate Davey; and Eleanor, Whitey's neurotic twin sister, who seems not to have left her house in years. Fans will find the slapdash musical numbers and scatological humor hilarious; foes will find them tiresome and banal. But even Sandler's advocates won't care about the by-the-numbers plot of holiday redemption; you see, Davey's parents died on the first night of Hanukkah, and he just needs to cry about it. Sandler's best when he's walking that line between stupid and smart-ass. When he gets sentimental, it's trouble. --Bret FetzerStudio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/20/2008 Run time: 76 minutes Rating: Pg13Adam Sandler fans will find the animated movie 8 Crazy Nights to be another flowering of Sandler's absurdist goofiness. People who find Sandler completely annoying will be triply annoyed by 8 Crazy Nights, because Sa! ndler does the voices for three different characters: Davey St! one, a boozing, belching, self-loathing loser who hates the holidays; Whitey, a tiny old man who tries to rehabilitate Davey; and Eleanor, Whitey's neurotic twin sister, who seems not to have left her house in years. Fans will find the slapdash musical numbers and scatological humor hilarious; foes will find them tiresome and banal. But even Sandler's advocates won't care about the by-the-numbers plot of holiday redemption; you see, Davey's parents died on the first night of Hanukkah, and he just needs to cry about it. Sandler's best when he's walking that line between stupid and smart-ass. When he gets sentimental, it's trouble. --Bret Fetzer

Cliffhanger [Blu-ray]

  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen
A mountain climber who has lost his nerve finds himself on a rescue mission involving millions of stolen Treasury dollars and ruthless criminals.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVDCliffhanger was a 1994 comeback of sorts for action hero Sylvester Stallone, this time thanks to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) and some spectacularly rugged and vertigo-inducing high-mountain terrain. The opening sequence alone delivers what the title promises, and there's a doozy of an airplane stunt that was later reprised, with modifications, in Air Force One. Stallone, looking as tough and craggy as the mountains themselves, is a rescue climbe! r who finds himself going after a gang of crooks (headed by John Lithgow in his bad-guy mode) who've hijacked a U.S. Treasury plane and crash landed in the Rockies (played by the Italian Dolomites) with millions of bucks. --Jim Emerson Sarah was an inexperienced climber. She trusted Gabe to rescue her. But something went wrong high above the valley floor...Sylvester Stallone, John Lithgow, Michael Rooker, Janine Turner and Ralph Waite star in this high-altitude avalanche of action: a non-stop adventure peak with suspense and capped with heart-quaking terror. For Rocky Mountain Rescue, the mission is almost routine: locate five climbers. With the woman he loves (Turner) and his best friend (Rooker), Gabe Walker (Stallone) braves the icy peaks only to discover that the distress call is really a trap set by merciless international terrorist Eric Qualen (Lithgo! w). Now millions of dollars and their own lives hang in the ba! lance. A gainst explosive firepower, bitter cold, and dizzying heights, Walker must outwit Qualen in a deadly game of hide-and-seek.
Cliffhanger was a 1994 comeback of sorts for action hero Sylvester Stallone, this time thanks to director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2 and Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master) and some spectacularly rugged and vertigo-inducing high- mountain terrain. The opening sequence alone delivers what the title promises, and there's a doozy of an airplane stunt that was later reprised, with modifications, in Air Force One. Stallone, looking as tough and craggy as the mountains themselves, is a rescue climber who finds himself going after a gang of crooks (headed by John Lithgow in his bad-guy mode) who've hijacked a U.S. Treasury plane and crash landed in the Rockies (played by the Italian Dolomites) with millions of bucks. Outrageous action-packed, snow-packed, and scenery-packed! chase sequences (featuring whirring helicopters, whooshing skis, popping gunfire, and clanging pitons that earned the movie Oscar nominations for sound and sound editing) take full advantage of the digital video disc's Dolby Digital 5.1 sound. --Jim Emerson

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