Online DVD Store. Mystery & Suspense

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The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Three-Disc Special Edition + Digital Copy)

Actors: David Duchovny, Gillian Anderson
ASIN : B001G7PSN0
Sales Rank : 259
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Format : AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543548911
UPC : 024543548911
Release Date : December 02, 2008
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Not yet released
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 104

Amazon.com

The feature film The X-Files: I Want to Believe is a satisfying if unspectacular installment in the X-Files series, taking place an unspecified time after the show's nine-year television run. Former agent Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is now a doctor, while Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) is being hunted by his former agency and living in seclusion. He and Scully are summoned back by a case involving a missing agent and a former priest (Billy Connolly) who claims to be able to see clues to the agent's whereabouts psychically, though his initial search turns up only a severed limb. Don't expect the usual cast of characters; the FBI has completely turned over (except for the George W. Bush portrait), and the only reason Scully and Mulder are back is because agent Dakota Whitney (Amanda Peet) remembers his success on similar cases involving the unexplainable. Don't expect the same rogues' gallery either; unlike the previous X-Files feature film, which was inextricably linked to the series' convoluted mythology arc (and served as a bridge between the fifth and sixth seasons), I Want to Believe is a stand-alone piece that makes use of the series' roots in horror/sci-fi and moody Vancouver, B.C., locales. Also unlike the previous film, which was almost self-consciously shot for the big screen, this film is on a smaller scale, like a double-length episode of the series. But it's still a good reminder of the creepy vibe that hooked fans for years. And the relationship between Mulder and Scully? It seems to have resumed pretty much where it left off, at least when you take into account the long period of separation. But stick around for the end-credit sequence to take in all the possibilities for the future. --David Horiuchi

Beyond The X-Files: I Want to Believe on DVD

Stargate SG-1 on DVD
Buffy the Vampire Slayer on DVD
Stargate Atlantis on DVD

Stills from The X-Files: I Want to Believe (Click for larger image)

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House: Seasons 1 - 4 Collection

Actors: Hugh Laurie, Lisa Edelstein, Omar Epps, Robert Sean Leonard, Jennifer Morrison
ASIN : B001AV3BY0
Sales Rank : 361
Director : Bryan Singer, Andrew Bernstein, Bill Johnson, Bryan Spicer, Daniel Attias
Studio : Universal Studios
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0025195044998
UPC : 025195044998
Release Date : December 19, 2008
Publisher : Universal Studios
Manufacturer : Universal Studios
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Universal Studios
Running Time : 3763

Description

Every compelling and provocative episode from the first four seasons of House is now available in the House Seasons 1-4 collection. Join two-time Golden Globe® winner and Primetime Emmy® Award nominee Hugh Laurie in his critically acclaimed role as Dr. Gregory House, a brilliant physician who can solve the most baffling medical questions but is always a puzzle to his staff and patients with his sarcastic bedside manner. Don’t miss a minute of the show that critics hail as “entertaining and interesting on every level” (Chicago Sun-Times).

Amazon.com

Season One
He pops pills, watches soaps, and always, always says what's on his mind. He's Dr. Gregory House (Emmy nominee Hugh Laurie, Blackadder). Producers David Shore, Bryan Singer, Katie Jacobs, and Paul Attanasio haven't rewritten the hospital drama--at heart, it's a cross between St. Elsewhere, ER, and C.S.I.--but they've infused a moribund genre with new life and created one of TV's most compelling characters. More than any previous medical procedural, it resembles Attanasio’s underrated Gideon's Crossing, but House is lighter on its feet. As fascinating as he is, the show wouldn't work as well if it were all House all the time (that would be like Sherlock Holmes without Watson or Moriarty). Fortunately, he's joined by an intriguing cast of characters, portrayed by a combination of experienced vets (Omar Epps, Lisa Edelstein, Tony winner Robert Sean Leonard) and new faces (Jennifer Morrison, Jesse Spencer). Aside from the complicated cases they tackle each week, the sparks really fly when House's brilliant, if naïve charges are put to the test--and as the head of a teaching hospital, it's his job to test them (although his tough love approach is constantly landing him in hot water with Edelstein's administrator). From the first episode, House attracted a talented array of guests, including Robin Tunney ("Pilot"), Joe Morton ("Role Model"), and Patrick Bauchau ("Cursed") as Spencer’s father. In addition, Chi McBride and Sela Ward appear frequently (with Ward returning for the second season). Viewers who first watched these 22 episodes on Fox will be gratified to note that the music has survived the transition to disc, such as the Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want," as featured in both the pilot and season finale ("Honeymoon"). The only apparent omission is the credit theme (Massive Attack's "Teardrop") from the pilot. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Season Two
The overall strength of the second season of House, M.D. proves that its first-year success wasn't a fluke. This season starts with Dr. House (Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie) pursuing his ex-wife Stacy (Sela Ward) and ending with a tragedy that could potentially be deadly for himself and two colleagues. The premise of each show follows a set routine--a patient is brought in with unusual symptoms; House challenges his trio of underlings to diagnose the problem; they treat the patient, usually incorrectly the first few tries; and then at the very last minute--through a revelation that often has little to do with the patient--House figures out what's wrong and saves the day. It would be easy for this set up to grow old fast. But because of the smart writing, nuanced acting, and believability of the characters (who're often dealing with unbelievable scenarios), the formula works on each of the 24 episodes that aired on Fox during the 2005-2006 season. Viewers have been conditioned by the Marcus Welbys of the TV world to think of doctors as saviors. Even on ER, the most narcissistic physician was selfless at heart. But House is a different breed. When he's at an off-track betting parlor and a woman collapses, he doesn't miss a beat. Still eying his race on television, he asks, "Is anybody here a doctor?" He'll mock a sick patient's complaints with a sarcastic, "Boo hoo!" And, if there happens to be a dead body around, he has no qualms about shooting it if he believes that could help diagnose another gun-shot victim.

Not that he's any more reasonable or compassionate to his boss Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein), his oncologist best friend Wilson (Tony winner Robert Sean Leonard), or his young charges Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer). He instructs his doctors to break into patients' homes as if they're cat burglars. He does not know the meaning of the phrase "politically correct." But because he spits out insults (as if he has a mild case of Tourette's) equally to both his patients and colleagues, the latter never flinch at his constant stream of inappropriateness. When his three young doctors storm into his office to report the declining condition of a patient by blurting out, "We have rectal bleeding," House says, "What? All three of you?" To sensitive Wilson, who is trying to get some work done without being interrupted, House says, "I know you're in there. I can hear you caring." And when Foreman's father says, "My son says you're a manipulative bastard," House replies, "It's a pet name. I call him Dr. Bling." Of course House actually does care about his patients, but he views a good bedside manner as the luxury of a doctor who has a healthy patient. But dying patients with seemingly incurable diseases need something more. They need House. --Jae-Ha Kim

Season Three
The cantankerous and brilliant Dr. House (Golden Globe winner Hugh Laurie) is back for a third season of the hit drama House, which picks up with his being shot at the end of season two and ends with his staff dramatically refusing to put up with his oddball (and borderline abusive) demands. Each of the 24 episodes, which aired on FOX from 2006 to 2007, is included in this 5-disc set. Fans of the drama will be happy to hear that the formula remains the same: Each show begins with a medical dilemma that's so severe and life-threatening that only Dr. House can diagnose and fix the problem, even if it goes against conventional medical rules. His put-upon boss Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) is back, as are his young charges Foreman (Omar Epps), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison), and Chase (Jesse Spencer). Oncologist Wilson (Tony winner Robert Sean Leonard), who is House's best friend by default, also returns to support (and infuriate) the cranky doctor. Speaking of cranky, House's difficult nature proves to bite him in the rear. In a six-episode arc, the Vicodin-popping House meets his match after he antagonizes the wrong patient, police officer Michael Twitter (David Morse, who played a compassionate physician on St. Elsewhere). Hell hath no fury like a patient poked and prodded like a guinea pig, and Twitter makes it his business to make House's life miserable. But since the show is called House, viewers are safe in assuming that House will not be rotting his life away in a jail cell. After all, the excitement of the show is driven by his unorthodox treatment of patients. As Cuddy succinctly points out, "You just keep on going until you come up with something so insane it's usually right." Look for a slew of excellent guest stars (rocker Dave Matthews, Charles S. Dutton, Piper Perabo, John Larroquette) to help stir things up. The episodes are as compelling as ever, focusing on a morbidly obese patient in denial, an autistic child, and a comatose man that House insists on "waking" up. The bonus materials include Morrison and Edelstein doing scenes in Valley Girl-speak and a featurette on Laurie's all-star charity group called Band from TV (Laurie plays piano). --Jae-Ha Kim

Season Four
Prepare for even more baffling, complex and shocking medical mysteries than ever before as every episode of House MD Season Four arrives on DVD! Reunite with the perplexing and prickly Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie in his two-time Golden Globe®-winning and Primetime Emmy®-nominated role) as he tackles impossible cases while putting a new staff of potential team candidates through the medical wringer with his trademark sarcasm and irreverent bedside manner. Also making house calls this season are such stellar guest stars as Mira Sorvino (Mighty Aphrodite), Frank Whaley (Swimming with Sharks), Michael Michele (ER) and more! It’s time to get another dose of one of TV’s most original medical dramas in the show that’s "…exceptionally well-written, well-shot and well-played" (Los Angeles Times).

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Supernatural - The Complete Second Season

Actors: Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles
ASIN : B000R7GKQE
Sales Rank : 833
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Warner Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0085391126232
UPC : 085391126232
Release Date : December 11, 2007
Publisher : Warner Home Video
Manufacturer : Warner Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Warner Home Video
Running Time : 903

Description

Twenty-two years ago, Sam (series star JARED PADALECKI) and Dean (series star JENSEN ACKLES) Winchester lost their mother to a mysterious and demonic supernatural force. As a result, their father, John (recurring guest star JEFFREY DEAN MORGAN - "Grey's Anatomy"), raised the brothers to be soldiers. He taught them about the paranormal evil that lives in the dark corners and on the back roads of America...and he taught them how to kill it. Sam, however, wanted nothing to do with this violent and dangerous life, and he left it behind, until the day Dean appeared on his doorstep with troubling news. Their father had gone missing on a "hunting trip." Sam and Dean have spent the last year cruising the highwaysof the United States in their 1967 Chevy Impala, searching for their lost father and encountering creatures that most people believe exist only in folklore, superstition and nightmares. Along the way, they have battled the various supernatural threats--and each other as well, for their sibling rivalries and conflicts were never far from the surface. Finally, they found their father, just as he was closing in on the Demon who claimed their mother.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Deleted Scenes
Featurette
Gag Reel
Other

Amazon.com

As programs ranging from Kolchak: The Night Stalker to, well, Night Stalker have proven, it's difficult to scare TV audiences on a weekly basis, but Supernatural seems to broken the trend. Not only has its blend of Route 66 and The X-Files provided some of the more chilling TV moments in recent history, but its core story--two brothers, Sam and Dean Winchester (Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki) battle the forces of evil to avenge their late mother--has been compelling enough to warrant a second season, which is compiled in its entirety on this six-disc set. Season Two maintains the show's "Monster of the Week" approach while adding compelling layers to the main characters and their history; in "What Is And What Should Never Be," a djinn offers the boys a glimpse of how their lives might've played out had their mother not succumbed to demonic forces, while the two-part "All Hell Breaks Loose" brings the season to a close with not only a rift between Sam and Dean, but the gates of Hell swinging open to unleash monstrous spirits. And if that's not enough of a creepshow for you, the boys also encounter a cannibal clown ("Everybody Loves a Clown"), seductive demons ("Crossroad Blues"), a town gripped by mass psychosis ("Croatoan"), as well as a barrage of ghosts, vampires and werewolves. If it's chills you want, the second season of Supernatural has them by the score. There's also a wealth of extras on the Complete Second Season set that should please longtime fans and help newcomers catch up with developments since the show's debut. Informative and entertaining commentaries are featured on three episodes: "In My Time of Dying" (by Ackles and Padalecki), "What Is And What Never Should Be" (by series creator Eric Kripke), and "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1" (by Kripke, writer Sera Gambles, and director Robert Singer). There's also a featurette on "All Hell Breaks Loose Part 2" that offers observations by the cast and crew on the season as a whole; viewers should note that the 11-minute short is difficult to find and is accessible only after accessing "The Devil's Road Map," a virtual tour of the places (and monsters) visited throughout the show's history. Padalecki's screen test for the role of Sam is also included, as well as three webisodes about the writers, visual effects and props for the show, and an amusing gag reel. -- Paul Gaita

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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

Actors: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones
ASIN : B000EXDS5M
Sales Rank : 655
Director : George Roy Hill
Brand : TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543244578
UPC : 024543244578
Release Date : December 06, 2006
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 110

Description

Paul Newman and Robert Redford set the standard for the "buddy film" with this box office smash set in the Old West. The Sundance Kid (Redford) is the frontier's fastest gun. His sidekick, Butch Cassidy (Newman), is always dreaming up new ways to get rich fast. If only they could blow open a baggage car without also blowing up the money-filled safe inside... Or remember that Sundance can't swim before they escape a posse by leaping off a cliff into rushing rapids... Times are changing in the west and life is getting tougher. So Butch and Sundance pack their guns, don new duds, and, with Sundance's girlfriend (Katharine Ross), head down to Bolivia. Never mind that they don't speak Spanish - they'll manage somehow. A winner of four Academy Awards (including best screenplay and best song), here is a thoroughly enjoyable blend of fact and fancy done with true affection for a bygone era and featuring the two flashiest, friendliest funniest outlaws who ever called out "hands up!"

Amazon.com essential video

This 1969 film has never lost its popularity or its unusual appeal as a star-driven Western that tinkers with the genre's conventions and comes up with something both terrifically entertaining and--typical of its period--a tad paranoid. Paul Newman plays the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy as an eternal optimist and self-styled visionary, conjuring dreams of banks just ripe for the picking all over the world. Robert Redford is his more levelheaded partner, the sharpshooting Sundance Kid. The film, written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride) and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting), basically begins as a freewheeling story about robbing trains but soon becomes a chase as a relentless posse--always seen at a great distance like some remote authority--forces Butch and Sundance into the hills and, finally, Bolivia. Weakened a little by feel-good inclinations (a scene involving bicycle tricks and the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is sort of Hollywood flower power), the movie maintains an interesting tautness, and the chemistry between Redford and Newman is rare. (A factoid: Newman first offered the Sundance part to Jack Lemmon.) --Tom Keogh

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Scooby Doo, Where Are You! - The Complete First and Second Seasons

Actors: Don Messick, Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe, Heather North, Jack Angel
ASIN : B0001CNQVM
Sales Rank : 209
Director : Howard Swift, Joseph Barbera, William Hanna
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Turner Home Ent
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781560398479
ISBN : 1560398477
UPC : 014764233321
Release Date : December 16, 2004
Publisher : Turner Home Ent
Manufacturer : Turner Home Ent
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Turner Home Ent
Running Time : 549

Description

The whodunit format was a daring new frontier for an animated series, but the members of the Mystery Inc. team have grown to become authentic popular-culture icons. To solve their newest mystery - finding the most awesome Scooby-Doo DVD ever, with 25 vintage episodes and snackin? good extras on 4 discs - you need only follow this simple clue: you?re holding it!

Amazon.com

Chuck Jones and other great studio animators sneered at the cheap look and lazy craftsmanship of Hanna Barbera's television cartoons in the 1960s, but there's no question HB's original, 35-year-old Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! is enduringly beloved. The Complete First and Second Seasons includes all 25 stories first broadcast from September '69 to October '71, a growth period in which canine hero Scooby's voice (by Don Messick, who also voiced The Jetsons's pup, Astro) was gradually refined from murky garble to Scoob's more familiar, "Rrroowwrr"-inflected, human-like speech. This set also represents the pre-frills Scooby-Doo: no guest appearances by Don Knotts or Batman, no Scrappy-Doo--just adventure and occasional bubblegum pop tunes by Danny Janssen and sundry co-writers (e.g., "Pretty Mary Sunlite" in the episode "Don't Fool with a Phantom").

Watching all the shows back-to-back reveals evolving complexity in the scripts. Over time, Scooby-Doo's creators added multiple bad guys in cahoots with major villains, and developed sub-plots, backstories, and even appealing allies and friends of Mystery, Inc., a traveling band of young debunkers of supernatural phenomena. Riding around in their psychedelic Mystery Van, preppie leader Fred and his friends--haughty Daphne, brainy Velma, quasi-hippie Shaggy, and Shaggy's best pal, Scooby, an excitable Great Dane--chase down and are chased by alleged ghouls who generally turn out to be venal humans running various scams.

Included here is Scooby-Doo's premiere, "What a Night for a Knight," in which the gang looks into the disappearance of a noted archaeologist and end up in a "haunted" museum. The fun "Go Away Ghost Ship" finds our heroes helping a shipping company daunted by the apparent ghost of pirate Red Beard, while the silly classic "A Tiki Scare Is No Fair" concerns a Hawaiian vacation for Mystery, Inc. disrupted by a witch doctor. --Tom Keogh

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Drive-In Cult Classics - 8 Movie Set

Actors: Anthony James PICK UP: Jill Senter, Gini Eastwood, Katherine Justice, Anne Saxon, Nancy Ison
ASIN : B0010T3ULQ
Sales Rank : 583
Director : Joseph Ruben
Studio : Navarre Corporation
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0787364771592
UPC : 787364771592
Release Date : December 05, 2008
Publisher : Navarre Corporation
Manufacturer : Navarre Corporation
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Navarre Corporation
Running Time : 692

Product Description

Pick-Up:
An off-beat story about two young women whose lives are forever changed when they hitchhike a ride in a mobile home.

The Sister-In-Law:
A punchy story about the sexual entanglements of four people and how their moral conflicts lead to heartache and destruction.

The Stepmother:
A high-living architect who - as a result of his violent temper - finds himself enmeshed in two accidental deaths. When he discovers his 2nd wife having an affair with his teenage son...there's almost a third murder!

The Teacher:
She corrupted the youthful morality of an entire school!
An explosively tense story about a beautiful, provocative 28-year-old high school teacher whose seduction of one particular student proves fatal.

Trip with the Teacher:
A chilling experience in terror as a group of female students and their pretty teacher are ambushed, while on a field trip, by two sadistic bikers, forcing the women to learn a lesson in survival.

Best Friends:
Two young couples taste the free and easy life on a cross country motor-home tour until love backfires and tragedy follows.

Cindy and Donna:
Two sisters, growing up in a middle-class home with parents too preoccupied with booze and sex, find that being grown up doesn't mean acting like their folks, as experiments with drugs and sex teach them.

Malibu High:
High school senior Kim is having her share of problems. Her grades are poor, her boyfriend dumped her for a rich girl and her financial situation is disastrous. So she makes an after hours deal with one of her teachers to improve her grade point average. Soon, she is working her way through the faculty room and taking on paying customers.

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Turistas (Unrated Edition)

Actors: Miguel Lunardi, Melissa George, Desmond Askew, Josh Duhamel, Olivia Wilde
ASIN : B000N3AW6G
Sales Rank : 1281
Director : John Stockwell
Brand : TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Studio : 20th Century Fox
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0024543428787
UPC : 024543428787
Release Date : December 27, 2007
Publisher : 20th Century Fox
Manufacturer : 20th Century Fox
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : 20th Century Fox
Running Time : 96

Description

Rising star Josh Duhamel (TV's Las Vegas) leads a group of young backpackers who find themselves stranded on a remote Brazilian beach; an exotic paradise, with warm sunshine, cool ocean breezes, and plenty of hot bodies. But, after a night of partying, the wayward turistas are drugged and robbed, and their dream vacation becomes a gruesome nightmare. Trapped and desperate, the vulnerable travelers are lured deep into the menacing jungle and beyond, where a dark and twisted fate too terrifying to imagine awaits.

Amazon.com

If not for Hostel, we'd never have been treated to the gory, horrific delights so lovingly captured with sadistic detail in Turistas. Together, these movies could be spawning a radical new Hollywood-pedigreed sub-genre of extreme horror. Like Hostel, Turistas concerns a group of American hardbodied kids on an exotic foreign vacation--this time in Brazil. After a suspense-filled opening sequence of a speeding bus careening off a dangerous mountain (it's also tinged with just the right kind of humor), the kids wander into the seeming paradise of a secluded beachfront resort where they think nothing of locals who lure them one by one to their gruesome and shocking deaths. Hey, they're here to party! These excruciatingly graphic scenes unfold in the lair of a madman doctor named Zamora, who harvests organs of the still-living as a way of exacting revenge on American turistas to "give back" to the locals they exploit with their capitalist dollars. One such scene has the donor undergoing surgery without the help of anesthesia wherein the lovely young "patient" has the chance to see her still thriving innards pulsing warmly on her well-formed chest to the tune of her own screams. This stuff is not for the faint of heart (or liver, or kidney, or lungs, for that matter). But there is a fair amount of nicely staged tension, especially a "foot" chase scene in a water-filled cave that will give claustrophobics a whole new way to experience nightmares. The two most familiar faces are Melissa George and Josh Duhamel, from TV's Alias and Vegas respectively. Fans of this new world of extreme gross-out horror should be thankful that TV has plenty of cute young bodies waiting for their big screen break, no matter how many organs they have to donate to get there. --Ted Fry

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Cranford

Actors: Paul Roberts, Ben Wood
ASIN : B00140PK6O
Sales Rank : 487
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : BBC Warner
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0883929012404
UPC : 883929012404
Release Date : December 20, 2008
Publisher : BBC Warner
Manufacturer : BBC Warner
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : BBC Warner
Running Time : 291

Description

The BBC drama series adapted from Elizabeth Gaskell's classic novels of small town gossip, secrets and romance. 1842. Cranford, a market town in the North West of England, is a place governed by etiquette, custom and above all, an intricate network of ladies. It seems that life has always been conducted according to their social rules, but Cranford is on the cusp of change… For spinsters Deborah Jenkyns, the arbiter of correctness in Cranford, and Matty, her demurring sister, the town is a hub of intrigue - a handsome new doctor Frank Harrison from London has arrived; a retired Captain and his daughters have moved in to a house opposite and the preparations for Lady Ludlows garden party are underway. Everyone - from charming rogue Dr Marshland to mean Mrs Jamieson and her lap dog talks, and is talked about, behind closed doors. The town also has its secrets which it slowly reveals: Mattys encounter with an old flame at the garden party; Lady Ludlows gardener, Mr Carter, teaching a gypsy lad to read and write; the wild expectations of the May Day celebrations and - news that shakes the town when it is revealed - a railway line from Manchester is coming to Cranford.

Amazon.com

Adapted from Elizabeth Gaskells' novels, the five-episode miniseries Cranford focuses on female characters in the 19th-century British town to thematically contemplate encroaching modernity in rural England. With the camera roving house to house, each drama within the grander story is constructed of scenes featuring dialogue between several gossipy ladies obsessed with moral code, romantic ideas about courtship, and social occasions. Three main characters, the ever-appropriate Deborah Jenkyns (Eileen Atkins), her sweet sister, Matilda (Judi Dench), and their younger, more savvy relative, Miss Smith, continuously weigh in on situations, providing a dependable view when other ladies, like the nosey Miss Pole (Imelda Staunton) are too judgmental. In fine period dress, the women of Cranford remind the viewer of how little action was needed in their small-town lives to provide unceasing entertainment. The series' most intriguing aspect lies not in the ample female conversation but rather in its display of earlier technologies and ways of life. Part One, for example, quickly launches a main narrative thread that runs throughout the series, namely the arrival and assimilation of London doctor, Frank Harrison (Simon Woods), into village society. Dr. Harrison's medical practices, such as his refusal to amputate a man's arm because it's broken, are all the more radical because they are so fundamental by today's standards. In subsequent episodes, he recommends Miss Smith get spectacles to cure her headaches, and saves his love's life by cooling her fever after conservative doctor, Dr. Morgan (John Bowe), recommends the old school practice of burying her in blankets in front of a raging fire. In Part Two, Lady Ludlow (Francesca Annis) throws a garden party at her estate, treating all the women in their fancy hats to a new novelty: ice cream. This scene foreshadows Ludlow's future concern at a railroad plan involving her land that would connect Cranford to Manchester, symbolizing the ruin of this idyllic setting.

In fact, fluffy and clever as some scenes are, death and rebirth assert themselves in each showing, both physically and idealistically. Part Four shows an auctioning off of a deceased man's antiques, and focuses on issues of class and women's education, as Mr. Carter teaches a peasant boy to read while his assistant fumes at her trappings as a seamstress. Part Five ushers in a new period of medical emergencies, securing Dr. Harrison's shaky position in town. In total, Cranford offers a powerful, if sentimental, look at how death begets life, love, and passion. ‹Trinie Dalton

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The Shield - The Complete Sixth Season

Actor: Michael Chiklis
ASIN : B0015TX2LO
Sales Rank : 456
Director : various
Brand : Sony
Studio : Columbia Tri/Star
Region Code : 99
Format : Anamorphic, Box set, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0043396250352
UPC : 043396250352
Release Date : December 26, 2008
Publisher : Columbia Tri/Star
Manufacturer : Columbia Tri/Star
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Columbia Tri/Star
Running Time : 498

Product Description

Continuing directly after season 5, Vic and the Strike Team are distraught over Lem's death. Shane has been overcome by guilt and becomes reckless and suicidal. Kavanaugh refuses to let the case die and resorts to planting evidence and coercing witnesses to lie about the Strike Team. Dutch and Claudette begin to suspect his integrity. Vic learns from Claudette that the Chief plans to force him into early retirement — and vows to wreak bloody vengeance on Lem's killer before losing his badge. Claudette learns that the Barn could be shut down if no improvements are made by the time quarterly crime statistics are released.

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"Are you ready for this?" quintessential cop on the edge Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) asks his longtime nemesis, Councilman David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) in the season finale. With more than a year between seasons, we're always ready for The Shield, which rivals The Wire not only in quality (not everyone is ready to play at this level, as Mackey states at one point) but also in the lack of appreciation for one of television's very best shows. Again, another great season, and another Emmy snub. There ought to be a law. There is much more to The Shield than its shocking and brutal violence and language. This penultimate season, which turns the heat on Mackey, a one-man good cop/bad cop, to boil, is "all kinds of personal" for its intimately observed characters. Mackey is obsessed with finding out who killed Strike Force member Lem, while Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker), just as obsessed with taking Mackey down, recklessly crosses the line to "frame a guilty man." Meanwhile, Mackey keeps moving the line as he relentlessly pursues the drug kingpin he has judged responsible for Lem's death, going so far as to stage a faux kidnapping of his suspect's girlfriend. In one of the season's most excruciating scenes, he turns chain-wielding executioner. What viewers know, but Mackey initially does not, is that the killer is a guilt-ridden Shane (Walton Goggins), Mackey's best friend. Shane, ultimately exiled from the Strike Force, becomes embroiled in an ill-fated association with the daughter of Armenian mob boss, putting Mackey's family in peril. Back at the Barn, newly promoted Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder) is under intense pressure as the precinct's body count mounts. Her former partner, Dutch (Jay Karnes) develops a crush on Tina (Paula Garces), the pretty new cop he is mentoring. She has a one-night stand with hotshot Kevin Hiatt (Alex O'Loughlin), the new guy whom Wyms fears may learn too much from Mackey or not enough. The tension builds inexorably to a season finale that fulfills all expectations, in which the resourceful Mackey, facing a review board hearing, must scramble to save his badge, resulting in a surprising alliance that bodes well for the final season. "Trust me," he states at one point, "There's a way out. There always is." From first episode to last, The Shield's sixth season is gripping, gut-wrenching stuff. To quote Shane: "Put another one in the win column." --Donald Liebenson

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