Friday, November 25, 2011

I Sell the Dead

  • I SELL THE DEAD (DVD MOVIE)
Ein! Zwei! Die!
Get ready for the film that shocked Sundance, rocked Europe and knocked American horror fans out of their seats: When a group of medical students take a sex-and-booze-fueled ski vacation to a remote cabin in the Norwegian Alps, they uncover a dark secret from WWII that resurrects a battalion of uncontrollable, unstoppable and extremely undead Nazis. What follows is a blitzkrieg of bloodshed, body parts and action-packed zombie carnage that The New York Observer hails as relentless thrills, unimaginable horrors and a shock ending guaranteed to make you scream out loud! Writer/director Tommy Wirkola spares no amount of flesh-chomping, intestine-ripping, and chainsaw-slicing to deliver perhaps the finest Nazi Zombie movie of our time and one of the most ferocious, outrageous and over-the-top horror hits of the year!Let us begin with two words: "Nazi! zombies." Let us add two more: "Hitler's gold." Yes, it's true. These are the elements of Dead Snow, a Norwegian horror picture that unleashes an undead blitzkrieg across an otherwise inviting winter landscape. The five vacationing med students who have blundered into this backcountry in search of fun have no idea that their actions will draw the attention of the aforesaid zombies of the Third Reich (what these reanimated corpses are doing in the mountains of Norway will be explained in good time). It would be nice to report that Dead Snow lives up to the outrageousness of its concept, but far too much of this thing is taken up with standard-issue slasher tropes: self-conscious dialogue about the plot's resemblance to an Evil Dead scenario, gross-out moments for their own sake (a sequence in an outhouse is especially regrettable), and decidedly uneven acting. The movie earns a few points for a grabby nighttime opening sequence and its unhealthy devotio! n to the art of entrails stretching (which, when it comes to p! eople ha nging off snowy cliffs, can have practical applications you probably never even thought about). The enthusiastic mayhem can't be denied, so if a sheer body count is your yardstick, Dead Snow comes across. But given the proximity of Nazi gold and the possibilities suggested by Hitler's minions returning from their snowy graves, this movie disappoints. --Robert HortonEin! Zwei! Die!
Get ready for the film that shocked Sundance, rocked Europe and knocked American horror fans out of their seats: When a group of medical students take a sex-and-booze-fueled ski vacation to a remote cabin in the Norwegian Alps, they uncover a dark secret from WWII that resurrects a battalion of uncontrollable, unstoppable and extremely undead Nazis. What follows is a blitzkrieg of bloodshed, body parts and action-packed zombie carnage that The New York Observer hails as relentless thrills, unimaginable horrors and a shock ending guaranteed to make you scream out loud! Writer/direct! or Tommy Wirkola spares no amount of flesh-chomping, intestine-ripping, and chainsaw-slicing to deliver perhaps the finest Nazi Zombie movie of our time and one of the most ferocious, outrageous and over-the-top horror hits of the year!Let us begin with two words: "Nazi zombies." Let us add two more: "Hitler's gold." Yes, it's true. These are the elements of Dead Snow, a Norwegian horror picture that unleashes an undead blitzkrieg across an otherwise inviting winter landscape. The five vacationing med students who have blundered into this backcountry in search of fun have no idea that their actions will draw the attention of the aforesaid zombies of the Third Reich (what these reanimated corpses are doing in the mountains of Norway will be explained in good time). It would be nice to report that Dead Snow lives up to the outrageousness of its concept, but far too much of this thing is taken up with standard-issue slasher tropes: self-conscious dialogue about t! he plot's resemblance to an Evil Dead scenario, gross-o! ut momen ts for their own sake (a sequence in an outhouse is especially regrettable), and decidedly uneven acting. The movie earns a few points for a grabby nighttime opening sequence and its unhealthy devotion to the art of entrails stretching (which, when it comes to people hanging off snowy cliffs, can have practical applications you probably never even thought about). The enthusiastic mayhem can't be denied, so if a sheer body count is your yardstick, Dead Snow comes across. But given the proximity of Nazi gold and the possibilities suggested by Hitler's minions returning from their snowy graves, this movie disappoints. --Robert HortonNever Trust A Corpse
It was a time of ghouls, ghosts and most ghastly of all, the fine art of grave robbing. Dominic Monaghan of LORD OF THE RINGS and LOST stars as 19th century corpse snatcher Arthur Blake, who pilfered the cemeteries and coffins of England until his capture by police. But just before Blake is to meet the hangman s! noose, he will confess to a peculiar priest (Ron Perlman of HELLBOY and SONS OF ANARCHY) his gruesome tale of vampires, zombies and cadaver dealing that takes him from the savagery of the criminal underworld to the terrors of the undead. Producer Larry Fessenden (WENDIGO, THE LAST WINTER) and Angus Scrimm (PHANTASM) co-star in this deliriously grisly and hilarious homage to foggy graveyards, bloody mayhem and the golden age gothic horror.

Hell Ride

  • The story deals with the characters Pistolero, the Gent and Comanche and the deadly, unfinished business among them. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 796019810876 UPC: 796019810876 Manufacturer No: 81087
Actor Larry Bishop, who made his name in the '60s as the star of biker pictures like The Savage Seven, revives the genre with Hell Ride, a rough and raunchy action-drama produced by indie director and cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino. Bishop, who wrote, produced and directed the film, is also top-billed as Pistolero, chief of the outlaw Victors, who cruise the sunbaked Southwest to avenge a fallen mama. Their target is Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones), head man for the Six-Six-Sixes, and Michael Madsen, David Carradine and Dennis Hopper (himself no stranger to biker flicks) are along to make sure that the job is completed. As pure exploitation,! Hell Ride delivers the goods: the cast overacts with relish, and the on-screen excitement is divided equally between chopper action, fistfights and shootouts and plentiful female nudity, all set to a soundtrack of new and vintage fuzztone rock. However, those expecting the complexity and sheer cheek of Tarantino's own features may find the picture a little too retro-minded for their own tastes, and Bishop's pulpy dialogue is more overcooked than Tarantino at his most self-indulgent. Still, those craving old-school cycle movie satisfaction are likely to find that action with Hell Ride. Bishop is front and center for the DVD commentary, in which he explains in the most passionate of terms how he conceived and executed the project with Tarantino's help; featurettes on the cast (split between male and female) are brief and flashy, with "The Guys of Hell Ride" providing the most juice by focusing on the veteran actors. There's also a look at the film! 's custom made bikes, but the most "special" of the Special Fe! atures i s Michael Madsen's video diary, which gives amusing insight into his distinctly offbeat perspective. -- Paul Gaita

Stills from Hell Ride (Click for larger image)

 

Actor Larry Bishop, who made his name in the '60s as the star of biker pictures like The Savage Seven, revives the genre with Hell Ride, a rough and raunchy action-drama produced by indie director and cult film aficionado Quentin Tarantino. Bishop, who wrote, produced and directed the film, is also top-billed as Pistolero, chief of the outlaw Victors, who cruise the sunbaked Southwest to avenge a fallen mama. Their target is Billy Wings (Vinnie Jones), head man for the Six-Six-Sixes, and Michael Madsen, David Carradine and Dennis Hopper (himself no stranger to biker flicks) are along to make sure that ! the job is completed. As pure exploitation, Hell Ride! deliver s the goods: the cast overacts with relish, and the on-screen excitement is divided equally between chopper action, fistfights and shootouts and plentiful female nudity, all set to a soundtrack of new and vintage fuzztone rock. However, those expecting the complexity and sheer cheek of Tarantino's own features may find the picture a little too retro-minded for their own tastes, and Bishop's pulpy dialogue is more overcooked than Tarantino at his most self-indulgent. Still, those craving old-school cycle movie satisfaction are likely to find that action with Hell Ride. Bishop is front and center for the DVD commentary, in which he explains in the most passionate of terms how he conceived and executed the project with Tarantino's help; featurettes on the cast (split between male and female) are brief and flashy, with "The Guys of Hell Ride" providing the most juice by focusing on the veteran actors. There's also a look at the film's custom made bikes, but the! most "special" of the Special Features is Michael Madsen's video diary, which gives amusing insight into his distinctly offbeat perspective. -- Paul Gaita

Stills from Hell Ride (Click for larger image)

 

!

Diamond Select Toys Marvel Select Incredible Hulk Action Figure

  • The Incredible Hulk is one of Marvel Comics' most recognized characters, thanks to appearances in comics, movies and animation
  • Stands 10" tall
  • Features 14 articulation points
  • Stands atop a rubble base showing effects of the Hulk's damage
  • Sculpted by Gabriel Marquez
Academy Award® nominee Edward Norton stars as scientist Bruce Banner, a man who has been living in shadows, scouring the planet for an antidote to the unbridled force of rage within him: the Hulk. But when the military masterminds who dream of exploiting his powers force him back to civilization, he finds himself coming face to face with his most formidable foe: the Abomination -â€" a nightmarish beast of pure aggression whose powers match the Hulk’s own!A more accessible and less heavy-handed movie than Ang Lee's 2003 HulkLouis Leterrier's The Incredible Hulk is a purely popcorn! love affair with Marvel's raging, green superhero, as well as the old television series starring Bill Bixby as Dr. David Banner and Lou Ferrigno as the beast within him. Edward Norton takes up where Eric Bana left off in Lee's version, playing Bruce (that's the character's original name) Banner, a haunted scientist always on the move. Trying to eliminate the effects of a military experiment that turns him into the Hulk whenever his emotions get the better of him, Banner is hiding out in Brazil at the film's beginning. Working in a bottling plant and communicating via email with an unidentified professor who thinks he can help, Banner goes postal when General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross and a small army turn up to grab him. Intent on developing whatever causes Banner's metamorphoses into a weapon, Ross brings along a quietly deranged soldier named Emil Blonsky (Tim Roth), who wants Ross to turn him into a supersoldier who can take on the Hulk. The adventure spreads to the U! .S., where Banner hooks up with his old lover (and Ross' daugh! ter), Be tty (Liv Tyler), and where the Hulk takes on several armed assaults, including one in a pretty unusual location: a college campus. The film's action is impressive, though the computer-generated creature is disappointingly cartoonish, and a second monster turning up late in the movie looks even cheesier. Norton is largely wasted in the film--he's essentially a bridge between sequences where he disappears and the Hulk rampages around. As good an actor as he is, Norton doesn't have the charisma here to carry those scenes in which one waits impatiently for the real show to begin. --Tom Keogh


Beyond The Incredible Hulk on DVD


More from Edward Norton
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More Superhero Movies

The Incredible Hulk on TV



Stills from The Incredible Hulk (Click for larger image)











Click to learn more about the BD-Live Experience


A Diamond Select Release! From the pages of The Incredible Hulk comes this Marvel Select action figure featuring the jade giant himself! This massive 8" behemoth includes fourteen points of articulation and a deluxe rubble base showcasing the aftereffects of a Hulk-attack! Sculpted by Gabriel Marquez, each rampaging Hulk figure brings a world-shaking mainstay of the Marvel Universe to stores just in time for the big screen sequel! Blister card packaging.
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Hallmark 2011 Christmas Vacation "The Griswold Family Christmas Tree" Ornament

  • This ornament features The Griswold Family Christmas Tree strapped to the roof of the station wagon complete with the roots after Clark forgot to bring a saw.
  • Plays opening song from Christmas Vacation.
  • Dimensions: 4.5" x 3.5" x 1.75"
This ornament features The Griswold Family Christmas Tree strapped to the roof of the station wagon complete with the roots after Clark forgot to bring a saw. Plays opening song from Christmas Vacation. Dimensions: 4.5" x 3.5" x 1.75"

Faber-Castell Getting Started Watercolor Pencil Art Set

  • 800094
  • 092633801215
  • Brand New Item / Unopened Product
  • Faber-Castell
The Art Of Getting By: Music From The Motion Picture

This product is manufactured on demand using CD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Discover the magic of watercolor pencils. The paint is in the pencils! This kit was designed for beginners and teaches the basic techniques of working with watercolor pencils. Create color drawings just as you would with regular colored pencils and then blend the colors with a wet brush to magically create a watercolor painting. This kit contains eight Faber-Castell watercolor pencils (red, yellow, blue, orange, violet, green, magenta and black), (1) 8" x 5-1/2" 15-page watercolor pencil art pad, one watercolor paintbrush, one pencil sharpener and a twenty-four page illustrated instruction booklet. All contents conform to AS! TM D4236.

Apocalypse Now (Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now Redux / Hearts of Darkness) (Three-Disc Full Disclosure Edition) [Blu-ray]

  • Condition: New
  • Format: Blu-ray
  • AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Special Edition; Subtitled; Widescreen
Digitally remastered with 49 minutes of previously unseen footage, Apocalypse Now Redux is the reference standard of Francis Coppola's 1979 epic. A metaphorical hallucination of the Vietnam War, the film was reconstructed by Coppola and editor Walter Murch to enrich themes and clarify the ending. On that basis Redux is a qualified success, more coherent than the original while inviting the same accusations of directorial excess. The restored "French plantation" sequence adds ghostly resonance to the war's absurdity, and Willard's theft of Colonel Kurtz's beloved surfboard adds welcomed humor to the film's nightmarish upriver journey. An encounter with Playboy Playmates seems superfluous compared to the enhanced interplay between Willard ! and his ill-fated boat crew, but compensation arrives in the hellish Kurtz compound, where Willard's mission--and the performances of Martin Sheen and Marlon Brando--reach even greater heights of insanity, thus validating Redux as the rightful heir to Coppola's triumphantly rampant ambition. --Jeff Shannon APOCALYPSE NOW REDUX - DVD MovieApocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now: Redux
In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of Apocalypse Now as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the storm-ravaged Philippines, he quite literally went mad as the project threatened to devour him in a vortex of creative despair, but from this insanity came one of the greatest films ever made. It began as a John Milius screenplay, transposing Joseph Conrad's classic story "Heart of Darkness" into the horrors of the Vietnam Wa! r, following a battle-weary Captain Willard (Martin Sheen) on ! a secret upriver mission to find and execute the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reverted to a state of murderous and mystical insanity. The journey is fraught with danger involving wartime action on epic and intimate scales. One measure of the film's awesome visceral impact is the number of sequences, images, and lines of dialogue that have literally burned themselves into our cinematic consciousness, from the Wagnerian strike of helicopter gunships on a Vietnamese village to the brutal murder of stowaways on a peasant sampan and the unflinching fearlessness of the surfing warrior Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who speaks lovingly of "the smell of napalm in the morning." Like Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God, this film is the product of genius cast into a pit of hell and emerging, phoenix-like, in triumph. Coppola's obsession (effectively detailed in the riveting documentary Hearts of Darkness, directed by Coppola's wife, Eleanor) informs every! scene and every frame, and the result is a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon

Hearts of Darkness
Hearts of Darkness is an engrossing, unwavering look back at Francis Coppola's chaotic, catastrophe-plagued Vietnam production, Apocalypse Now. Filled with juicy gossip and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of moviemaking, the documentary mixes on-location home movies shot in the Philippines by Eleanor Coppola, the director's wife, with revealing interviews with the cast and crew, shot 10 years later. Similar to Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's absorbing portrait of Werner Herzog's struggle to make Fitzcarraldo, the film chronicles Coppola's eventual decent into obsessive psychosis as everything that could go wrong does go wrong. Storms destroy sets, money evaporates, the Philippine government continually harasses the director, Coppola has romantic affairs, and he can't write the story's ending. Everything is c! aptured on film. In the most disturbing scene, we watch Martin! Sheen h ave a drunken nervous breakdown while his director goads him on (he eventually suffered a heart attack, but finished the film).

Other incredible footage is not visual, but aural as the film includes tapes Eleanor Coppola recorded without Francis's knowledge. In them, he truly sounds like a madman as he confesses his fears about making a bomb of a movie. But while Hearts of Darkness is an amazing, voyeuristic experience, its importance lies in the personal reflections offered by those involved. Sheen, Coppola, and Dennis Hopper speak frankly without embarrassment, offering us an essential piece of film history. --Dave McCoyFrancis Ford Coppola's timeless classic comes to Blu-ray for the first time!

This 3-Disc Deluxe Edition includes Apocalypse Now and Apocalypse Now Redux in stunning new transfers supervised by Francis Ford Coppola - and presented for the first time in their original 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratios. Also included is the feature-length! making-of documentary Hearts of Darkness, presented in a new 1080p HD transfer.

Additional features include a 48-page collectible booklet with never-before-seen archives from the set, over 9 hours of bonus features, plus a storyboard gallery, image galleries, marketing archives and an original script excerpt from John Milius featuring hand-written notes from Coppola.Apocalypse Now / Apocalypse Now: Redux
In the tradition of such obsessively driven directors as Erich von Stroheim and Werner Herzog, Francis Ford Coppola approached the production of Apocalypse Now as if it were his own epic mission into the heart of darkness. On location in the storm-ravaged Philippines, he quite literally went mad as the project threatened to devour him in a vortex of creative despair, but from this insanity came one of the greatest films ever made. It began as a John Milius screenplay, transposing Joseph Conrad's classic story "Heart of Darkness" into the h! orrors of the Vietnam War, following a battle-weary Captain Wi! llard (M artin Sheen) on a secret upriver mission to find and execute the renegade Colonel Kurtz (Marlon Brando), who has reverted to a state of murderous and mystical insanity. The journey is fraught with danger involving wartime action on epic and intimate scales. One measure of the film's awesome visceral impact is the number of sequences, images, and lines of dialogue that have literally burned themselves into our cinematic consciousness, from the Wagnerian strike of helicopter gunships on a Vietnamese village to the brutal murder of stowaways on a peasant sampan and the unflinching fearlessness of the surfing warrior Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore (Robert Duvall), who speaks lovingly of "the smell of napalm in the morning." Like Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God, this film is the product of genius cast into a pit of hell and emerging, phoenix-like, in triumph. Coppola's obsession (effectively detailed in the riveting documentary Hearts of Darkness, directed by Coppola's wife! , Eleanor) informs every scene and every frame, and the result is a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon

Hearts of Darkness
Hearts of Darkness is an engrossing, unwavering look back at Francis Coppola's chaotic, catastrophe-plagued Vietnam production, Apocalypse Now. Filled with juicy gossip and a wonderful behind-the-scenes look at the stressful world of moviemaking, the documentary mixes on-location home movies shot in the Philippines by Eleanor Coppola, the director's wife, with revealing interviews with the cast and crew, shot 10 years later. Similar to Burden of Dreams, Les Blank's absorbing portrait of Werner Herzog's struggle to make Fitzcarraldo, the film chronicles Coppola's eventual decent into obsessive psychosis as everything that could go wrong does go wrong. Storms destroy sets, money evaporates, the Philippine government continually harasses the director, Coppola has romantic affairs, and he can't write the story's! ending. Everything is captured on film. In the most disturbin! g scene, we watch Martin Sheen have a drunken nervous breakdown while his director goads him on (he eventually suffered a heart attack, but finished the film).

Other incredible footage is not visual, but aural as the film includes tapes Eleanor Coppola recorded without Francis's knowledge. In them, he truly sounds like a madman as he confesses his fears about making a bomb of a movie. But while Hearts of Darkness is an amazing, voyeuristic experience, its importance lies in the personal reflections offered by those involved. Sheen, Coppola, and Dennis Hopper speak frankly without embarrassment, offering us an essential piece of film history. --Dave McCoy

Fascination

  • This is ROLLIN at his best; visual delights, sensual lesbian lovemaking, and the beautiful Brigitte Lahaie as a scythe-wielding avenger, and a group of castle dwelling bourgeois women blood-drinkers. Two women chosen by the group must slaughter and communally consume in a cannibalistic vampire way. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR MA Age: 844015000286 UPC: 
The masterpiece of renowned French filmmaker Jean Rollin, FASCINATION follows a swaggering thief who hides out in a lavish chateau, holding the occupants at gunpoint. When night falls, he realizes that these two maids are not only deadlier than he imagined, but are gatekeepers to a ring of women with a thirst for blood.

BONUS FEATURES: Original Theatrical French Trailer, Deleted Sex Scenes (16 min), Short Subject Documentary: ''Virgins & Vampires'' (24 min), Trailers for The Nude Vampire, Lips of Blood, Shiver of th! e Vampires & The Iron Rose.A pair of society women dressed in all their finery stand in the middle of an abattoir, animal carcasses hanging behind them and blood splashed across the floor. Giggling and fidgeting, they drink their prescribed glass of ox blood. The startling, unreal image of high-society manners in the midst of gore and death pitches Jean Rollin's 1979 feature Fascination into a turn-of-the-century culture come unhinged. When a well-dressed rogue, fleeing from angry partners he double-crossed, takes refuge in a lavish, moat-protected mansion, servant girls Franca Mai and Brigitte Lahaie cajole, tease, and seduce him into staying for their nighttime soiree. "You have stumbled into Elizabeth and Eva's life, the universe of madness and death," mutters one of them as they await the cabal where he is the guest of honor. Shot on a starvation budget and populated with stiff performers, Rollin's direction is arch and at times sloppy and his story never more th! an an outline. It's the mix of dreamy and nightmarish imagery ! that giv es Fascination its fascination: blonde Lahaie stalking victims with a scythe, the bourgeois blood cult swarming over a fresh victim like wild animals, alabaster faces streaked in blood. While it lacks the delirious spontaneity of his earlier vampire films Shiver of the Vampires and Requiem for a Vampire, the languid pace and austere beauty creates an often-mesmerizing fantasy. The DVD also features the original theatrical trailer, a gallery of production stills, and a Rollin filmography. --Sean AxmakerAgainst a deceptively tranquil background of tropical breezes and secluded beaches, a sultry tale of obsession and seduction unfolds in this riveting erotic thriller. Starring Jacqueline Bisset, Adam Garcia, Alice Evans, and James Naughton, Fascination throbs with danger, deceit, passion, and suspense. Scott Doherty (Garcia) is baffled and distraught after his father mysteriously drowns. His confusion turns to fury, however, when his mother, ! Maureen (Bisset), returns from a cruise just a few weeks later with her new lover, Oliver Vance (Stuart Wilson). Suspecting foul play, Scott confides in Oliver's beautiful daughter, Kelly (Evans); and as the two begin their own investigation, they succumb to unbridled passion. But Kelly has dark secrets of her own, and while she seems to be the love of Scott's life, she could also be the end of it.This is cult director Jean Rollin at his best; visual delights, sensual lesbian lovemaking, the beautiful Brigitte Lahaie as a scythe-wielding avenger and a group of castle-dwelling bourgeois blood-drinkers. Two woman chosen by the group must find a man that they must slaughter and communally consume in a cannibalistic vampire feast.A pair of society women dressed in all their finery stand in the middle of an abattoir, animal carcasses hanging behind them and blood splashed across the floor. Giggling and fidgeting, they drink their prescribed glass of ox blood. The startli! ng, unreal image of high-society manners in the midst of gore ! and deat h pitches Jean Rollin's 1979 feature Fascination into a turn-of-the-century culture come unhinged. When a well-dressed rogue, fleeing from angry partners he double-crossed, takes refuge in a lavish, moat-protected mansion, servant girls Franca Mai and Brigitte Lahaie cajole, tease, and seduce him into staying for their nighttime soiree. "You have stumbled into Elizabeth and Eva's life, the universe of madness and death," mutters one of them as they await the cabal where he is the guest of honor. Shot on a starvation budget and populated with stiff performers, Rollin's direction is arch and at times sloppy and his story never more than an outline. It's the mix of dreamy and nightmarish imagery that gives Fascination its fascination: blonde Lahaie stalking victims with a scythe, the bourgeois blood cult swarming over a fresh victim like wild animals, alabaster faces streaked in blood. While it lacks the delirious spontaneity of his earlier vampire films Shiver! of the Vampires and Requiem for a Vampire, the languid pace and austere beauty creates an often-mesmerizing fantasy. The DVD also features the original theatrical trailer, a gallery of production stills, and a Rollin filmography. --Sean Axmaker

Centurion

  • AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts. Quintus Dias (Fassbender), sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus (West) legendary Nin
AD 117. The Roman Empire stretches from Egypt to Spain, and East as far as the Black Sea. But in northern Britain, the relentless onslaught of conquest has ground to a halt in the face of the guerrilla tactics of an elusive enemy: the savage and terrifying Picts. Quintus Dias (Fassbinder), sole survivor of a Pictish raid on a Roman frontier fort, marches north with General Virilus' (West) legendary Ninth Legion, under orders to wipe the Picts from the face of the earth and destroy their leader Gorla! con. But when the legion is ambushed on unfamiliar ground, and Virilus taken captive, Quintus faces a desperate struggle to keep his small platoon alive behind enemy lines. Enduring the harsh terrain and evading their remorseless Pict pursuers led by the revenge hungry Pict Warrior Etain (Kurylenko), the band of soldiers race to rescue their General and to reach the safety of the Roman frontier.Centurion isn't just a rousing adventure, but a return to form for The Descent director Neil Marshall after the disappointing Doomsday. Irish actor Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds) plays Quintus Dias, a Roman soldier attempting to defend the Empire against Northern England's indigenous Pict population, when they take him captive. Once General Virilus (The Wire's Dominic West), who inspires fierce devotion in his men, gets wind of the skirmish, he sets out to vanquish opposition leader Gorlacon (Ulrich Thomsen) with the aid of Etain (Quan! tum of Solace's Olga Kurylenko), a mute tracker. Though hi! s Ninth Legion, which includes Bothos (David Morrissey) and Brick (Liam Cunningham, Fassbender's Hunger costar), tracks down Quintus, the Picts slaughter most other comrades and seize Virilus, shifting the battle for conquest into a struggle for survival, a Marshall specialty since Dog Soldiers. Only Arianne (Solitary Man's Imogen Poots), a medicine woman who treats Bothos's wounds, arrives as a light in the darkness, holding out the promise of romance should Quintus make it out of Pict territory alive. Though Centurion isn't a world away from historical epics like Braveheart and Gladiator--and succumbs to some of the same genre clichés--Marshall conjures up more of a Western feel with the Romans standing in for cowboys and the Picts for Indians. There's carnage aplenty, but also stunning Highland vistas in shades of emerald and teal. And though Fassbender is a fine actor, West and Kurylenko end up stealing the show by virtue of their more ! dynamic performances. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Election

  • Every two years the senior members of the Wo Shing Triad, the oldest gang in Hong Kong, elect an up-and-coming younger boss as their chairman. The two candidates they are voting on couldn t be farther apart in personality; Lok (Simon Yam) is a levelheaded businessman and Big D (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) is a loud, obnoxious, violent criminal. When the voting does not go how some people would have liked,
Tracy Flick, a straight-A go-getter, is determined to be president of Carver High's student body. Popular teacher Jim McAllister decides to derail Tracy's obsessive overachieving by recruiting an opposition candidate.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 2-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVDMatthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washing! ton Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily ! fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewar ds multiple viewing. --Bret FetzerReese Witherspoon (Legally Blonde) is Tracy Flick, a straight "A" go-getter who's determined to be president of Carver High's student body. But when popular teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick, The Producers) observes the zealous political locomotive that is Tracy, he decides to derail her obsessive overachieving by recruiting an opposition candidate (Chris Klein, American Pie) - with disastrous results! Here's a smart, witty and hilarious jab at high school politics helmed by award-winning director Alexander Payne (Sideways).Matthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing characterization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George Washington Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlet! e, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fluids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret FetzerMatthew Broderick makes up for years of wet-noodle performances with his low-key but unsparing charac! terization of Jim McAllister, a high school teacher at George ! Washingt on Carver High School in Omaha, Nebraska. Driven by a strange mixture of loathing and lust for pathologically overachieving student Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon), McAllister encourages a dim but popular athlete, Paul (Chris Klein from American Pie), to run against her in the election for student-council president. Director-cowriter Alexander Payne (Citizen Ruth) turns this deceptively simple premise into a complex and scathing comedy of ambition, corruption, and desire, all at its most naked and petty. Every scene contains some painfully funny nuance that will make you wince in a mixture of astonishment and empathy. Witherspoon flips effortlessly back and forth from adolescent vulnerability to steely-eyed strength; she's becoming a contemporary Carole Lombard. The movie itself feels like a magnificent throwback to the richly layered comedies of the '30s, which drew their humor from sharply drawn characters and twisting plots instead of explosions of bodily fl! uids. With a wealth of smart, cutting details, Election rewards multiple viewing. --Bret FetzerEvery two years the senior members of the Wo Shing Triad, the oldest gang in Hong Kong, elect an up-and-coming younger boss as their chairman. The two candidates they are voting on couldn’t be farther apart in personality; Lok (Simon Yam) is a levelheaded businessman and Big D (Tony Leung Ka-Fai) is a loud, obnoxious, violent criminal. When the voting does not go how some people would have liked, lines are divided and a gang war begins to form.

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