|
|
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11
12
13
14
15
[...]
List Price: $39.98Price: $31.99You Save: $7.99 (20%)The Rockford Files - Season One
Actors: James Garner, Stuart Margolin
ASIN : B000BGR1B4
Sales Rank : 5108
Director : James Garner, Stuart Margolin, Lou Antonio, Stephen J. Cannell, Richard Crenna
Brand : Universal
Studio : Universal Studios
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781417070176
ISBN : 141707017X
UPC : 025192848223
Release Date : December 06, 2005
Publisher : Universal Studios
Manufacturer : Universal Studios
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Universal Studios
Running Time : 1156
DescriptionThe world's most unlikely detective comes to DVD for the first time ever in all 23 thrilling Season One episodes of The Rockford Files. Emmy(r) winner James Garner stars as the offbeat Jim Rockford, an ex-con-turned-private-investigator who would rather fish than fight, but whose instinct on closed cases is more golden than his classic Pontiac Firebird. From his mobile home in Malibu, this wisecracking private eye takes on the cases of the lost and the dispossessed, chasing down seemingly long-dead clues in the sun-baked streets and seamy alleys of Los Angeles. Including an interview with James Garner himself, this phenomenal DVD set contains 23 TV hours of classic Rockford action and includes such stellar guest stars as Lindsay Wagner, James Woods, Abe Vigoda, Suzanne Somers and Ned Beatty. The Rockford Files are now open and declassified for mystery fans everywhere! Amazon.comFrom the premiere of its first hour-long episode on September 13, 1974, The Rockford Files was a critical and commercial success that gained a large and loyal following. Like other private-eye shows of the 1970s (such as Columbo and David Janssen's Harry O), the series offered smart mystery plots in the hardboiled-sleuth traditions of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Rex Stout, given a sunlit spin in contemporary California. But ex-convict turned private investigator Jim Rockford (who served time for a crime he didn't commit) was anything but a conventional gumshoe; for one thing, he rarely carried a gun, and resorted to violence only when he'd exhausted his options. As played to perfection by James Garner (in what would become his signature role, surpassing his previous success as Maverick), Rockford preferred wisecracks over violence, and his going rate ("$200 a day, plus expenses") was typically applied to cold cases, missing persons, and family disputes, frequently leading to entanglements with organized crime and L.A.P.D. Sergeant Dennis Becker (Joe Santos), whose friendship with Rockford lent the series one of its pivotal character relationships. As Rockford pursued the truth from his rusty trailer-home on the Pacific Coast Highway, his inherent warmth and compassionate sleuthing were further enhanced by engaging interplay with his retired ex-trucker father "Rocky" (Noah Beery, Jr.), his lawyer and on-and-off girlfriend Beth Davenport (Gretchen Corbett), and his weasely former cell-mate "Angel" Martin (Stuart Margolin), a trio of supporting players as memorably appealing as any in '70s television. As a loose-knit ensemble, they followed Garner's capable lead with intelligent dialogue (the best of it written by series cocreator Stephen J. Cannell and frequent contributor Juanita Bartlett) and occasionally burst of stunt-laden action, typically involving Rockford's expert driving of a versatile Pontiac Firebird. (As Garner fondly recalls in the disc 1 bonus interview, "That car could do anything.") With a catchy Mike Post theme song, The Rockford Files began each week with a new message on Rockford's telephone answering machine, usually a humorous indication that Rockford's life was always in some kind of financial disarray. Garner played this angle to the hilt, portraying Rockford as a nice guy who knew all the scams and wasn't above using them if it aided his case. His portrayal, and the show's excellent writing, attracted a wide variety of new and established guest stars, and these 23 episodes (24 if you count the two-part "This Case Is Closed," originally broadcast as one 90-minute episode) feature appearances by Joseph Cotten, James Woods, Sharon Gless, Lindsay Wagner, James Cromwell, Suzanne Somers, Ned Beatty, and others, along with lesser-known but familiar TV regulars like Sian Barbara Allen and Mills Watson, all adding flavor to a series that was routinely hailed by mystery writers as one of the best private-eye shows in TV history. Speaking of mysteries, one can only wonder why Universal failed to include the series' 90-minute pilot (originally aired in March 1974), and while this reviewer experienced no playback problems with these three double-sided DVDs (four episodes per side), many consumers have reported DVD freeze-ups likely resulting from lower-quality players less capable of handling high-compression DVDs. These caveats aside, season 1 of The Rockford Files is a bona fide treat, setting the tone for even better episodes that followed in subsequent seasons. --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the The Rockford Files - Season One
List Price: $39.95Price: $27.99You Save: $11.96 (30%)Gidget - The Complete Series
Actors: Sally Field, Don Porter, Lynette Winter, Pete Duel, Betty Conner
ASIN : B000E3L7DM
Sales Rank : 2151
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396129252
UPC : 043396129252
Release Date : December 21, 2006
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Availability : Usually ships in 9 to 12 days
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 30
Description Catch a wave with America's favorite southern California beach teen in GIDGET: THE COMPLETE SERIES. Join two-time Academy Award® winner Sally Field (1984, Actress in a Leading Role, Places in the Heart) as perky 15-year-old Frances Elizabeth Lawrence (better known to her family and friends as Gidget), Don Porter as her ever-loving father, Russ, and a host of such soon-to-be-famous faces as Richard Dreyfuss, Barbara Hershey, Bonnie Franklin, Harvey Korman and Henry Jaglom, for 32 winning episodes of fun-in-the-sun comedy, romance and adventure. Amazon.comGidget launched the career of the ever-perky Sally Field (who decades later still looks like the sweetie-pie beach bunny she played in the mid-'60s series). The show is a valentine to Southern California, surfing, and plucky girl power--in fact, Gidget's self-aware musings and intrepid ways of getting out of trouble lay the groundwork for later TV heroines like Buffy and Veronica Mars. The show's aged surprisingly well, mostly because of the undeniable charms of Field, who seems to take her teenage "horror stories"--as when squeeze Jeff (a.k.a. Moon Doggie) is poised to return to Princeton and suggests they date other people--with a knowing grain of salt. The teen drama is all a bit tongue in cheek, since it's clear nothing will get our Gidget down for long. The dialogue is a real treat, a crazy mix of late film noir ("How old's the underripe tomato?") and pre-Summer of Love hipster California-speak ("Well, look at all the wiggy birds around here!"). The set includes all 32 episodes, with a short interview with Field, who has a lot of affection for her young persona--as do we all, Daddy-o. --A.T. Hurley
Reviews for the Gidget - The Complete Series
List Price: $12.98Price: $8.99You Save: $3.99 (31%)Troy (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
Actors: Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Adoni Maropis, Jacob Smith
ASIN : B0002Z0EYK
Sales Rank : 3285
Director : Wolfgang Petersen
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780790782997
ISBN : 0790782995
UPC : 085392841127
Release Date : December 04, 2005
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 163
DescriptionBrad Pitt picks up a sword and brings a muscular, brooding presence to the role of Greek warrior Achilles in this spectacular retelling of The Iliad. Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger play the legendary lovers who plunge the world into war, Eric Bana portrays the prince who dares to confront Achilles, and Peter O'Toole rules Troy as King Priam. Director Wolfgang Petersen recreates a long-ago world of bireme warships, clashing armies, the massive fortress city and the towering Trojan Horse. DVD Features:
Featurette
Photo gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Amazon.comNo doubt about it, the 196-minute unrated director's cut of Troy represents a significant improvement over the film's original 162-minute theatrical release--and not just because it has more sex and violence. As director Wolfgang Petersen notes in his new "Troy Revisited" video introduction to this 2-disc special edition, he didn't have the time or directorial discretion (prior to Troy's release in 2004) to present a cut that more closely matched his vision for the film. Three years later, Petersen approached the film with a more relaxed perspective, and the result is a well-crafted expansion on a film that was previously underrated, with 30 minutes of previously unseen material. Character dynamics have been improved and intensified; the epic-scale narrative is now easier to follow, with greater emphasis on the inner turmoil of Achilles (well played by Brad Pitt) and his rivalry with Hector (Eric Bana); and viewers will feel a more satisfying escalation of tension and suspense from battle to battle. The film's enormous battle scenes (impressively enhanced with CGI) are bloodier and gorier, but they're also more effectively integrated into the political story, which goes beyond Homer's The Iliad and the death of Hector to incorporate elements of Virgil and a more revealing study of the differences between Trojan king Priam (Peter O'Toole) and his megalomanical Greek rival, king Agamemnon (Brian Cox), whose lust for revenge is now one of the film's most powerful ingredients. Some of Troy's original weaknesses remain (such as Orlando Bloom's wimpy performance as Paris), but overall, this director's cut easily justifies its existence, regardless of the film's overblown and historically inaccurate depiction of Troy as a gigantic city of massive columns and statuary. The good parts are better, and the not-so-good parts are more easily forgiven. And no matter how you cut it, Troy is a lavish feast for the eyes. --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the Troy (Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)
List Price: $38.99Price: $28.99You Save: $10 (26%)Perry Mason - Season Two, Vol. 2
Actors: Raymond Burr, William Hopper, Barbara Hale, William Talman, Ray Collins
ASIN : B000UAE7VS
Sales Rank : 5228
Director : Andrew V. McLaglen, Arthur Marks, Buzz Kulik, Gerd Oswald, William D. Russell
Brand : Paramount
Studio : CBS Television
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Black & White, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0097368522947
UPC : 097368522947
Number Of Discs : 4
Release Date : December 13, 2007
Publisher : CBS Television
Manufacturer : CBS Television
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : CBS Television
Running Time : 774
DescriptionPerry Mason is an attorney who specializes in defending seemingly indefensible cases. With the aid of his secretary Della Street and investigator Paul Drake, he often finds that by digging deeply into the facts, startling facts can be revealed. Often relying on his outstanding courtroom skills, he often tricks or traps people into unwittingly admitting their guilt. Amazon.com We strenuously object! Raymond Burr was conspicuously and criminally missing on Entertainment Weekly's list of the top 100 TV icons. This is a TV Land injustice, but this four-disc set of episodes that complete season 2 lays the groundwork for an appeal. Burr was honored with an Emmy for his commendable work this season as Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason, as was Barbara Hale, who portrayed his faithful secretary Della Street. Who knows how many impressionable viewers Burr inspired to become lawyers with his masterful portrayal of the unflappable, incorruptible Mason? No matter how much evidence district attorney Hamilton Burger (William Talman) and Lt. Tragg (Ray Collins) collect, and no matter how damning it is, it will usually collapse once Perry gets the real guilty party to break down on the witness stand or, in one case, in a beatnik hangout. In "The Case of the Lame Canary," a woman is discovered over her dead husband's body, gun in hand, and burning a stack of letters. "If she has any sense, she's at the airport waiting for the first plane out of the country," someone cattily remarks. Nope, she has better sense than that; she's at Perry's office. Filmed in black and white, Perry Mason has a seductive noir sensibility. Here in sunny California are convoluted cases involving corruption, blackmail, scandal, revenge, and greed. Perry, with the help of private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper), sorts it all out, and in the episode codas, further parses the evidence ("I still don't see what put you on the right track" is a typical query) in inscrutable ways that invite replay. Beyond the pleasure of watching an actor thoroughly embody his character, it's also fun to spot familiar character actors. "The Case of the Petulant Partner" stars Will Wright, who played mean old Ben Weaver on the early seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, and that's a rather fetching Marion "Mrs C." Ross from Happy Days in "The Case of the Romantic Rogue." The episodes crackle with some old-school, hard-boiled dialogue. Almost worth the price of the set is hearing Lt. Tragg make with the beat talk in "The Case of the Jaded Joker." "I'm one of the cool ones," he jokes with Della and Perry. "I don't dig slick chicks trying to goof me up, daddy-o." Once again, this set is guilty of providing no extra features, but we'll let them off with a warning. This time. --Donald Liebenson
Reviews for the Perry Mason - Season Two, Vol. 2
List Price: $14.94Price: $9.49You Save: $5.45 (36%)Fun with Dick and Jane
Actors: Jim Carrey, Téa Leoni, Alec Baldwin, Richard Jenkins, Angie Harmon
ASIN : B000E8N8H0
Sales Rank : 3388
Director : Dean Parisot
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396102286
UPC : 043396102286
Release Date : December 11, 2006
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 90
Description Fun With Dick And Jane provides comic relief alongside a relevant look at today’s corporate scandals. In the film, Dick Harpers’ (Carrey) years of hard work finally pay off when he is promoted to vice president of Globodyne, a worldwide business leader. After exactly one day at his new job, Globodyne is destroyed, leaving him and his loving wife, Jane (Leoni) without financial security. This sudden reversal of fortune has left them both unprepared to give up their comfortable lifestyle and Dick comes up with the brilliant idea of turning to robbery to pay the bills. Utilizing newfound skills, Dick and Jane exact hilarious revenge while teaching big business a lesson. Amazon.comRemakes are always a gamble, so it's a pleasant surprise that Fun with Dick and Jane pays off with unexpected dividends. It's as entertaining as the 1977 original starring George Segal and Jane Fonda, and the teaming of Jim Carrey and Téa Leoni makes this a safe bet for comedy fans, in spite of a slapstick screenplay that fails to achieve its fullest potential. Rather than attempt a darkly comedic send-up of the Enron scandal that left thousands of stockholders in financial ruin, director Dean Parisot (Galaxy Quest) opts for a lighter, more accessible (read: commercial) satire of corporate greed and cynicism, beginning in the year 2000 when Dick (Carrey) gets a plum promotion as a mega-corporate communications director just as his boss (Alec Baldwin) is preparing to bail out before stock prices plummet. Dick's wife Jane (Leoni) has quit her job as a travel agent, so the corporate bombshell leaves them penniless and desperate, resorting to petty thievery and, eventually, plotting high-stakes revenge against the greedy executives who ruined their lives. As a send-up of financial distress in a ravaged post-Enron economy, Fun with Dick and Jane delivers laughs with just enough pointed humor to give it a strong satirical edge, and Carrey's reliable brand of zaniness is controlled enough to balance nicely with Leoni's more subtle (and woefully underrated) skills as a screen comedienne. And while the "special thanks" end-credits hint at the sharper, more biting satire this might have been, there’s enough fun with Dick and Jane to make this recycled comedy worth a look. --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the Fun with Dick and Jane
List Price: $59.98Price: $43.99You Save: $15.99 (27%)The Paul Newman Collection (Harper / The Drowning Pool / The Left-Handed Gun / The Mackintosh Man / Pocket Money / Somebody Up There Likes Me / The Young Philadelphians)
Actors: Paul Newman, Pier Angeli, Lauren Bacall, Joanne Woodward, Dominique Sanda
ASIN : B000HWZ4DE
Sales Rank : 5772
Director : Arthur Penn, Jack Smight, John Huston, Robert Wise, Stuart Rosenberg
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0012569816763
UPC : 012569816763
Release Date : December 14, 2006
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 779
Product descriptionIncludes: Harper (1966), Drowning Pool (1975), The Left Handed Gun (1958), Pocket Money (1972), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), and The Young Philadelphians (1959). Amazon.com Paul Newman's career slipped onto an unstoppable track with Somebody Up There Likes Me, his 1956 biopic about boxer Rocky Graziano. Of course that was his second picture, the first being the oft-joked-about bungle The Silver Chalice. Newman's Method-y intensity and dazzling good looks brought him stardom, and his intelligence and uncommon seriousness as an actor kept his movies interesting, especially as he tackled some of the best roles of the "antihero" era--an era he helped create. Somebody Up There Likes Me is included in The Paul Newman Collection, a bulging seven-DVD package that shakes out thusly: three late-1950s titles from the beginning of his career, one mid-sixties hit, and three lesser films of the early 1970s. It's by no means a "best of" compilation, being limited to Warners and MGM titles, but it gives a flavor of Newman in his prime time. He got the Graziano role after James Dean died, and his performance is a very busy, post-Brando jumble of tics and mumbles. The movie holds up nicely as a boxing picture, and the location NYC shooting won an Oscar for cinematographer Joseph Ruttenberg (you can see why director Robert Wise got hired to do West Side Story after this). Sal Mineo and Steve McQueen are in the cast as Newman's fellow j.d.s. The Left-Handed Gun (1958), based on a teleplay by Gore Vidal, is a truly weird, compulsively watchable artifact from the psychological-Western genre. Newman plays Billy the Kid, glowering and grimacing like a rebel without a cause. It's one of those films that has much more to do with the time it was made than the time it is set; also notable as the big-screen debut for stage and TV director Arthur Penn. The Young Philadelphians (1959) is more conventional, an entertaining soap opera about a young lawyer (Newman) with an old-money Philly name but no money, who gets burned by love and decides to connive his way to the top. Young Robert Vaughn snagged an Oscar nomination for a showy turn as an alcoholic society lad. Harper (1966) is chockfull of kooky mid-Sixties design and Rat Pack patter (courtesy screenwriter William Goldman). But it must be said that Newman is miscast as the melancholic private eye of Ross Macdonald's literary world, here re-imagined as a wisecracking hepcat who mugs his way through a missing-persons investigation. The supporting cast is a weird over-the-hill gang including Lauren Bacall, Janet Leigh, and Shelley Winters. That film's hero, Lew Harper (renamed from Macdonald's "Archer"), returned in 1976's The Drowning Pool, a more bearable if somewhat humdrum whodunit set in New Orleans. Newman's wife, Joanne Woodward, has a supporting part, but the picture is most notable for an early Melanie Griffith nymphet role. Pocket Money (1972) is one of those only-in-the-seventies movies that pairs Newman with Lee Marvin in a drowsy, nearly plotless comedy. Both actors give elaborate performances: Newman plays a numbskull two-bit cattle broker who takes absolutely everything literally, and Marvin is his buddy in Mexico who signs on for an ill-considered cattle-buying job. One of the credited screenwriters is Terrence Malick, and the movie has a highly eccentric feel for language. Finally, The Mackintosh Man (1973) is one of the periodic duds that director John Huston would crank out in his otherwise starry career, with Newman as a spy on an incomprehensible case in England. The first half is a red herring, and Dominique Sanda (more recently of The Conformist) is out of depth with the English language. It's a bleak film with a kind of grinding fascination, and the Maurice Jarre score is catchy but fatally overused. --Robert Horton
Reviews for the The Paul Newman Collection (Harper / The Drowning Pool / The Left-Handed Gun / The Mackintosh Man / Pocket Money / Somebody Up There Likes Me / The Young Philadelphians)
List Price: $40.95Price: $26.99You Save: $13.96 (34%)Creature Comforts - The Complete First and Second Seasons
Actor: The Great British Public
ASIN : B000HIVJ28
Sales Rank : 4251
Director : Nick Park, Richard Goleszowski
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : Animated, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396158917
UPC : 043396158917
Release Date : December 24, 2006
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 256
Sony Creature Comforts is a brilliant and hilarious clay animation series about the lives of animals as told by the animals themselves. Interviews with these lovable claymation creatures leave no stone unturned, no tree unclimbed, no sea uncrossed in the quest to discover what our fine-finned, furred and feathered friends really think about the issues that are closest to their hearts. It’s a "mockumentary" like none you’ve ever seen, and it could only come from Nick Park and the untamed minds at Aardman Animation.
Reviews for the Creature Comforts - The Complete First and Second Seasons
List Price: $14.94Price: $9.99You Save: $4.95 (33%)Air Force One
Actors: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews
ASIN : 0767803434
Sales Rank : 2292
Director : Wolfgang Petersen
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780767803434
ISBN : 0767803434
UPC : 043396718890
Release Date : December 10, 1998
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 124
Product DescriptionThe presidents plane gets hijacked and his beliefs are put to the ultimate test by the rebels who are using his wife and child as bargaining chips. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/21/2004 Starring: Harrison Ford Gary Oldman Run time: 125 minutes Rating: R Director: Wolfgang Petersen Amazon.com essential videoYou know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) keeps the action moving so fast you won't be sweating the details. Don't forget your parachute! --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the Air Force One
List Price: $9.99Price: $8.99You Save: $1 (10%)The Electric Horseman
Actors: Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Valerie Perrine, Willie Nelson, John Saxon
ASIN : B00008CMSX
Sales Rank : 6606
Director : Sydney Pollack
Brand : Universal
Studio : Universal Studios
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783278360
ISBN : 0783278365
UPC : 025192274824
Release Date : December 06, 2003
Publisher : Universal Studios
Manufacturer : Universal Studios
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Universal Studios
Running Time : 122
Product DescriptionA newswoman and a rodeo star flee to utah with a $12 million horse freed from a las vegas promotion. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 10/24/2006 Starring: Timothy Scott Willie Nelson Run time: 122 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Sydney Pollack Amazon.com essential videoWhen this picture came out in 1979, both Robert Redford and Jane Fonda were at the height of their stardom; in fact, this movie was so big, it took two studios (Columbia and Universal) to make it. Redford plays Sonny Steele, champion rodeo rider turned corporate spokesman (and perpetual drunk). When he discovers that another corporate asset, a racehorse, is just like him--dressed like a buffoon and doped up to the gills--he decides to liberate the animal. Redford's grumpy, wise, and funny performance demonstrates why he was (and is) such a big star (and why director Sydney Pollack made seven movies with him). Fonda is fine as the bright, ambitious, frightened TV reporter whose pursuit of a story pitches her headlong into love. The ending may seem anticlimatic (the big comedy chase comes in the middle of the film), but this is much more a romance story than a chase film. From the beginning, there's little doubt how the story will end (although even then, the movie throws us a little curve), but the movie compensates with sheer star power; Redford and Fonda are all that matter, and in this case they deliver, along with Willie Nelson's fine performance in a pivotal supporting role. --Geof Miller
Reviews for the The Electric Horseman
List Price: $24.98Price: $19.99You Save: $4.99 (20%)Sybil (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Actors: Joanne Woodward, Sally Field, Brad Davis, Martine Bartlett, Jane Hoffman
ASIN : B000EHQU0S
Sales Rank : 2646
Director : Daniel Petrie
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0012569701458
UPC : 012569701458
Release Date : December 18, 2006
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 187
Product DescriptionStudio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 07/18/2006 Rating: Nr Amazon.comThe word "landmark" is fairly used in the case of Sybil: this 1976 TV movie brought new frankness to television, it raised the quality bar for the made-for-television movie, and it utterly changed the career of a future Oscar-winning actress. The film was based on the bestselling nonfiction book about a multiple-personality patient and her exhaustive therapy. It opens with a brilliant series of scenes that suggest how a young woman named Sybil (Sally Field) experiences unexplained blackouts, which brings her to the attention of a psychiatrist, Dr. Wilbur (Joanne Woodward). The film unfolds around the searching therapy sessions, laced with flashbacks to Sybil's toxic childhood. There's also a tentative romance between the lonely Sybil and a manchild (Brad Davis) who lives across the alley. Most notably, of course, there are the appearances of Sybil's alternate personalities, who express her strangled emotional life. Stewart Stern's sensitive script seems to flow organically from one scene to the next, and director Daniel Petrie frequently allows the camera to observe the acting acrobatics in long, challenging takes. Woodward, who won an Oscar for playing a multiple-personality patient in The Three Faces of Eve, is all nurturing warmth as the steadfast doctor. But really this film was a sober coming-out party for Sally Field, who astonished viewers at the time by erasing all memories of Gidget and The Flying Nun, the bubblegum roles she'd mostly been known for. Field's work is anguished but non-actor-y, and despite the character's hidden personalities, she seems as clear as day in her performance. The production won four Emmys, not surprisingly including nods for Field, Stern, and Outstanding Special (Drama). The 187-minute movie takes up one disc; the second disc has informative featurettes about the making of the film. Examining Sybil is an absorbing hour-long documentary with comments from Field and Woodward, as well as executive producer Peter Dunne. It is dominated by the spellbinding storytelling of Stewart Stern, who developed the screenplay by spending time with the real Dr. Wilbur and listening to tapes of her sessions with Sybil. His tale of Sally Field's unlikely audition triumph is a small movie in itself. The Paintings of Sybil presents a generous selection of paintings by the real Sybil (who became a professor of art), along with recollections by one of her friends. Something listed on the DVD cover as "Sybil Therapy Session" is misleadingly titled, suggesting some kind of actual footage or transcript of the real Sybil and her treatment; in fact, it's Stewart Stern describing the harrowing process of listening to the doctor's tapes. The real Sybil (now deceased) remains protected, as she should. --Robert Horton
Reviews for the Sybil (Two-Disc Special Edition)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10 11
12
13
14
15
[...]
|