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Chris Rock - Never Scared

Actors: Chris Rock, Doug E. Fresh, Tony Rock, Monteria Ivey
ASIN : B00026L9BQ
Sales Rank : 4037
Director : Joel Gallen, Keith Truesdell
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783129310
ISBN : 0783129300
UPC : 026359229329
Release Date : December 31, 2004
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 91

Description

Chris Rock, the three-time Emmy Award-winner, comedian, actor, and host of HBO's acclaimed The Chris Show, stars in his fourth solo stand up special for HBO, Chris Rock: Never Scared. Featuring his unique, insightful, and hilarious views on a host of social, political and, celebrity issues, Rock confirms his stature as the leading comic of our time. Filmed at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C., this is a must have for any fan of great comedy.

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Chris Rock: Never Scared is the hot comic's fourth HBO special and proves as disciplined and trenchant as his previous cable concerts. Announcing he's a recent father, Rock proclaims his biggest job is keeping his daughter "off the pole," i.e., steering her away from the life of a stripper. Warming to the theme, Rock asks why so many strippers earn money to pay for expensive tuitions yet he's never received "a smart lap dance." Things turn topical as Rock argues that his government won't solve the murders of rappers. ("More people saw Tupac get shot than watched the last episode of Seinfeld.") After taking broadsides at Michael Jackson ("Ed Bradley tried his best to make Michael look like a mammal!") and David Blaine ("Are we so desperate we fall for a trickless magician?"), Rock builds to a near-lecture (funny, though) on why white America won't let people of color acquire real wealth. --Tom Keogh

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Sex and the City - The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset)

Actors: Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon, Kim Cattrall
ASIN : B000ASDFJU
Sales Rank : 11041
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Home Box Office (HBO)
Region Code : 1
Format : Subtitled, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783133591
ISBN : 0783133596
UPC : 026359866128
Release Date : December 01, 2005
Publisher : Home Box Office (HBO)
Manufacturer : Home Box Office (HBO)
Label : Home Box Office (HBO)
Running Time : 2820

Description

For six seasons Carrie Bradshaw and friends Samantha, Miranda, and Charlotte offered us their hilarious, outspoken and outrageous look at dating, mating and relating in the big city. Celebrate the show that explores the day-to-day -- and night-to-night -- world of single women in this, the definitive collector's edition.

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Sex and the City is based on Candace Bushnell's provocative bestselling book. Sarah Jessica Parker stars as Carrie Bradshaw, a self-described "sexual anthropologist," who writes "Sex and the City," a newspaper column that chronicles the state of sexual affairs of Manhattanites in this "age of un-innocence." Her "posse," including nice girl Charlotte (Kristin Davis), hard-edged Miranda (Cynthia Nixon), and party girl Samantha (Kim Cattrall)--not to mention her own tumultuous love life--gives Carrie plenty of column fodder. Over the course of the first season's 12 episodes, the most prominent dramatic arc concerns Carrie, who goes from turning the tables on "toxic bachelors" by having "sex like a man" to wanting to join the ranks of "the monogamists" with the elusive Mr. Big (Chris Noth). Meanwhile, Miranda, Cynthia, and Samantha have their own dating woes.

The second season builds on the foundation of the first season with plot arcs that are both hilarious and heartfelt, taking the show from breakout hit to true pop-culture phenomenon. Relationship epiphanies coexist happily alongside farcical plots and zingy one-liners, resulting in emotionally satisfying episodes that feature the sharp kind of character-defining dialogue that seems to have disappeared from the rest of TV long ago. When last we left the NYC gals, Carrie had just broken up with a commitment-phobic Mr. Big (Chris Noth), but fans of Noth's seductive-yet-distant rake didn't have to wait long until he was back in the picture, as he and Carrie tried to make another go of it. Their relationship evolution, from reunion to second breakup, provides the core of the second season. Among other adventures, Charlotte puzzles over whether one of her beaus was "gay-straight" or "straight-gay"; Miranda tries to date a guy who insists on having sex only in places where they might get caught; and Samantha copes with dates who range from, um, not big enough to far too big--with numerous stops in between.

The third season was the charm, as the series earned its first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series to go along with its Golden Globes for Best Comedy Series and Best Actress (Parker). One of this season's two principal story arcs concerned hapless-in-love Charlotte and her pursuit of a husband; enter (if only...) Kyle McLachlan as the unfortunately impotent Trey. Meanwhile, Carrie has a brief but memorable fling with a politician who's golden, but not in the way she anticipated. She then sabotages her too-good-to-be-true relationship with furniture designer Aidan (John Corbett) by having an affair with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who himself has gotten married. Like I Love Lucy, the series benefited from a brief change of scenery with a three-episode jaunt to Los Angeles, where Carrie and company encountered, among others, Matthew McConaughey, Vince Vaughn, Hugh Hefner, and Sarah Michelle Gellar.

The fourth season is just as smart and sexy as ever, mixing caustic adult wit and sharply observed situation comedy on the mean streets of Manhattan, though this time the quartet of singleton city girls must endure even tougher combat in the unending war of love, sex, and shopping. Carrie finally seems to have found her ideal life partner when she is reunited with handsome craftsman Aidan. But can their relationship survive trial by cohabitation? Meanwhile Charlotte seems to have both her dream Park Avenue apartment and a solution to her marital problems with Trey. But when the subject of babies comes up, everything starts to unravel for her, too. It's not just Charlotte who has baby issues either: after what seems like an eternity of enforced sexual abstinence Miranda is horrified to discover she's pregnant. And as for the sultry Samantha, she's on a quest for monogamy, first with an exotic lesbian artist, then with a philandering businessman, with whom to her utter dismay she just might have fallen in love.

It was a short but sweet fifth season, as HBO's resident comediennes found themselves affected by forces beyond their control--the pregnancies of both Sarah Jessica Parker and Cynthia Nixon. A truncated shooting schedule to accommodate the actresses forced this season to be reduced to a mere eight episodes, but they and creators forged ahead, creating a handful of episodes that if short in content were long on emotion and laughs. Carrie and Miranda wrestled with their solitary lifestyles, albeit with new attachments--Miranda had new baby Brady and single motherhood, while Carrie found herself in the world of publishing as the author of a real-life book of her columns. Charlotte wondered if she'd ever find another man, while Samantha finally got rid of the one that had been vexing her far too much. If the season as a whole felt less than the sum of its parts, those parts were some of the best comedy in the show's history. The season's climactic episode, "I Love a Charade," was one of the series' best episodes ever, equally touching and funny, and grounded the show in an emotional maturity that announced that after all their wild travails, these women had truly grown up.

After a long wait--like the entire fifth season--Carrie is dating again. The sixth season starts with Carrie and her sparkly new potential, Berger (Ron Livingston), trying to leave past relationships and hit it off, with mixed results. Meanwhile Carrie's friends seem to be settling down, relatively speaking. Miranda decides that her affair with TiVo cannot compete when Mr. Perfect (Blair Underwood, at his most charming) moves into her building. Charlotte's feelings for her "opposites attract" boyfriend (Evan Handler) deepen, but they still have a few things to iron out. Most surprising is Samantha's hot relationship with waiter-actor-stud Smith Jerrod (Jason Lewis) taking on something resembling love, despite Samantha's best intentions. Before the sixth season started in the summer of 2003, a bombshell hit: it was announced that this would be the finale. But it would be a long season, and these 12 episodes plant the seeds for the final 8 airing the following winter. These dozen episodes illustrate the maturity of the show: there's not a bad one in the bunch, and the show is still flat-out funny. The comedy blends serious points of how we perceive singles, couples, and parents (and the gifts we lavish on the latter two). Carrie's method of celebrating her singlehood is just another gem in this treasure of a series.

With the last eight episodes of the sixth season, HBO's grand sitcom concluded, leaving untold numbers of women--and many men--feeling deprived. The six-year series certainly did not outlast its welcome; the final season is some of the best TV had to offer in 2004. In many ways, the eight episodes served as a single finale, with all four characters approaching a kind of destiny and happiness, the theme of this last half-season (which aired weeks after the first half). Carrie (Sarah Jessica Parker) continues her romance with Russian artist (Mikhail Baryshnikov), a flippantly arrogant man who's been around the block, but able to supply Carrie's needed desire for magic. Miranda (Cynthia Nixon) has settled down with Steve (David Eigenberg), but there is more that will change with her, including her address. Charlotte (Kristin Davis) continues to make baby plans now that the husband slot is filled quite nicely (Evan Handler). Going down the final stretch--and Samantha's (Kim Cattrall) cancer--gives the series a more serious tone, but there's always a jab to tickle the funny bone: Miranda's awkwardness with happiness, Charlotte's latest passion, Carrie typing someplace new, and Samantha getting into Paris Hilton territory. Like any series winding down, there is a wedding, a baby, old faces popping up, and some star-ladened new ones. In the final two-part episode, "An American in Paris," Carrie faces her romantic destiny, but also solidifies herself as a fashion icon, an Audrey Hepburn for 21st-century television. In the penultimate episode, she asks her friends an emotional question: "What if I never met you?" Certainly fans can ask of themselves the same question and reminisce how much better TV became since they first tuned in these four women of the City.

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Extras - The Extra Special Series Finale

Actor: Ricky Gervais
ASIN : B0012IYO38
Sales Rank : 7889
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : HBO Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0883929014385
UPC : 883929014385
Release Date : December 26, 2008
Publisher : HBO Home Video
Manufacturer : HBO Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : HBO Home Video
Running Time : 90

Description

HBO presents the finale of its Emmy® Award-winning comedy series written and directed by British phenomenon Ricky Gervais, founder of BBCs original The Office. Gervais reprises his Emmy®-winning role as Andy Millman, the one time extra and current sitcom star whose breakthrough show, When the Whistle Blows, remains a popular (if critically panned) part of British TV culture. Chafing from three seasons worth of recycled plotlines and catchphrases, Andy wants more than ever to break out of his TV stereotype, and is willing to do anything including maybe even pulling the plug on his hit show to do it. But does Andy have the talent and savvy it takes to get his wish: to be both respected and famous?

Amazon.com

Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown of celebrity. Andy Millman (Ricky Gervais) is back and more miserable than ever in this darker and devastatingly funny finale to the Emmy-winning series. Though his sitcom When the Whistle Blows rates six million viewers, he is, as ever, mindful of the critics' barbs and jealous of colleagues landing the prestige film roles he covets. "I'm not proud of having Britain's No. 1 catchphrase," he grouses (actually, he has sunk to No. 3, now trailing "You are the weakest link, goodbye"). Worse, he has become a right bastard, arrogantly treating crewmembers and his one true friend, Maggie (a heartbreaking Ashley Jensen), like dirt. Andy finally drops his clueless and incompetent agent (series co-creator Stephen Merchant) and quits the show. "Don't worry about me," he proclaims. "The phone won't stop ringing."

Unlike the finale of the original British incarnation of The Office, this super-duper-sized episode really has no loose ends to tie up. In Andy's humiliating comeuppance (he sinks to portraying an alien on Dr. Who and joins the desperate housemates on Celebrity Big Brother), Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winner Gervais has the perfect vessel with which to rail against soul-sucking celebrity, degrading tabloid culture, and "the gutter press." As for Andy and Maggie, those longing for some kind of Tim/Dawn or Jim/Pam hookup may not get exactly what they want, but they will get what they need in the lovely final scenes. A-listers having a laugh at their own images have always been one of Extras' special treats. The finale features jaw-dropping cameos by Clive Owen and George Michael, performing community service yet again. Kudos to HBO for making this available separately for those who have already purchased series one and two. For those unfamiliar with Extras, this feature-length finale can pretty much stand on its own. But, really, just go ahead and buy The Complete Series. You're going to want to see what you've missed. --Donald Liebenson

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As You Like It

Actors: Brian Blessed, Richard Briers, Richard Clifford, Gerard Horan, Kevin Kline
ASIN : B000SM6FKE
Sales Rank : 8763
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0026359401923
UPC : 026359401923
Release Date : December 25, 2007
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 127

Description

Emmy award winner Kenneth Branagh, the man who redefined Shakespeare for a whole new generation with Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, brings the Bard's most delightful comedy to sensational life! Rosalind is a young woman living in the court of her uncle when she falls in love with Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom. When Rosalind is banished, she flees into the forest of Arden disguised as a man...only to encounter Orlando who has also been exiled! But can she win his heart, disguised as she is? With a setting inspired by 19th century Japan and a star-studded cast including Kevin Kline (Dave, A Prairie Home Companion), Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3, The Lady In The Water) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), AS YOU LIKE IT once again proves that all the world's a stage. Come enjoy!

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If you think stuffy old Shakespeare could be livened up with some ninjas, Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) has heard your call. Adapter/director Branagh has set the pastoral comedy As You Like It in feudal Japan, where the characters are still British (they live in a community established by Western merchants) but now have reason to dress up in lush Japanese fabrics and engage in sumo wrestling. Due to a feud between two noble brothers, Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village) is banished and ends up disguised as a man in a nearby forest. There she tests the faith of her beloved (and also banished) Orlando (David Oyelowo, MI-5), who can't recognize her because she looks like a Dickensian ragamuffin. Meanwhile, a variety of other star-crossed lovers romp around the forest and zen gardens, sparring about love and melancholy. Branagh, never a subtle director, takes every opportunity to squeeze in slapstick and action (like the aforementioned ninjas), but he also keeps the language clear and the movie is beautiful to look at. The strong cast includes Kevin Kline (who previously frolicked in a movie adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, Frida), Romola Garai (I Capture the Castle, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights), and Adrian Lester (Hustle, Love's Labors Lost). --Bret Fetzer

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Extras - The Complete First Season

Actors: Ricky Gervais, Ashley Jensen, Stephen Merchant
ASIN : B000JJ4DDM
Sales Rank : 4140
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0026359306921
UPC : 026359306921
Release Date : December 09, 2007
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 180

Description

Meet Andy Millman, Actor. Never forgets his lines because he never gets any. Andy (Ricky Gervais) is a desperate man. He's been an actor for five years but thanks to his useless agent (Stephen Merchant), he?s never done any real acting. Instead, he?s a lowly film extra, making his mark in the background while the stars do their work. His partner in arms is the pitiable Maggie, a fellow extra and a hopeless romantic. Andy may be an extra, but he?s a star in his own right. Too bad nobody else agrees.

DVD Features:
Deleted Scenes:Never-before-seen deleted scenes featuring Kate Winslet, Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Stewart. Over 20 minutes of exclusive outtakes.
Other:"The Difficult Second Album" behind-the-scenes featurette. "Finding Leo" -- Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant?s desperate attempt to secure a guest appearance by one of Hollywood?s top celebrity?s.
Deleted Scenes
Featurette:The Difficult Second Album- Behind the scenes of EXTRAS Finding Leo- featurette
Outtakes

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After the British series of The Office came to an end, co-creators Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant were faced with an enviable problem: After making the most influential and acclaimed sitcom of the past decade, what do you do next? Amazingly, they've actually created an equally brilliant show: Extras, in which Gervais plays Andy Millman, an frustrated actor who can only get work as a "background artist"--i.e., an extra. Not only does the role continue to mine Gervais' gift for self-humiliation (which, staggeringly enough, may be even more excruciating than his David Brent's behavior in The Office, because Andy is more socially capable yet still can't avoid moments of jaw-dropping embarrassment), but Gervais has also persuaded a glorious variety of stars to tweak their own images. High points include Kate Winslet (Sense & Sensibility) teaching Andy's best friend Maggie (Ashley Jensen, Ugly Betty) how to talk dirty and Patrick Stewart (X-Men) describing his new screenplay about a man who uses psychic powers to remove women's clothing. But Ben Stiller, Samuel L. Jackson, Ross Kemp (sort of the British version of Michael Chiklis), and Les Dennis (sort of the British version of...well, there may not be an American version of Les Dennis) all also turn in deliciously ego-bursting turns. Merchant plays Andy's deliriously dense agent, but the core of the show is the relationship between Andy and Maggie. Over the course of six episodes, the interplay between this hapless, starry-eyed pair grows into a wonderfully tender portrait of friendship that perfectly balances the show's so-funny-it-hurts humor. The extras are few but worth watching: Along with a behind-the-scenes featurette, genuinely funny deleted scenes, and the usual clips of everyone forgetting their lines and swearing, there's a very funny sequence of Gervais and Merchant desperately trying to replace Jude Law (who had to drop out of an episode) with Leonardo DiCaprio. All in all, Extras: The Complete First Season is essential viewing. --Bret Fetzer

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The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1 [Blu-ray]

Actors: James Gandolfini, Lorraine Bracco, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Dominic Chianese
ASIN : B000L43AMU
Sales Rank : 13472
Director : Alan Taylor, Danny Leiner, David Chase, David Nutter, Jack Bender
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Widescreen
Binding : Blu-ray
EAN : 0026359397196
UPC : 026359397196
Release Date : December 19, 2006
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 720

Description

Several crises threaten Tony and his crew; for starters, rival boss Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) is in prison, and the always-tense relations between the New Jersey and New York families are strained through the unpredictable behavior of Sack?s surrogates. Then there are the inevitable power struggles that ensue when certain family members are eliminated, by natural and other causes.

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The Sopranos, Season 6, Part 1 is the most contentious release yet in the acclaimed series' history. While many fans think it jumped the shark at the exact moment Vito said "I love you, Johnny Cakes" , this season also contains some of the series finest moments and plumbs new depths of character, while continuing to add to the body count. Things get started with a bang, literally, that unexpectedly sends Tony (James Gandolfini) to the hospital and into a coma where he experiences an alternate reality while in limbo. At one point he awakes and asks "Who am I? Where am I going?" encapsulating this season's central theme in a moment of desperation wrapped in a fever dream. But it's not all existentialism. With Tony and Uncle Junior both of the picture, the capos in the Soprano crew try to take advantage of the situation and begin jockeying for position while a reluctant Silvio (Steve Van Zandt), acting in Tony’s place, struggles to keep everyone in check. Things aren’t going much better for Tony’s family, as A.J. (Robert Iler) confesses to Carmela (Edie Falco) that he flunked out of school, and while at Tony’s bedside, swears revenge for his injury. The stress of the situation finally gets to Carmela, who takes up Dr. Melfi’s (Lorraine Bracco) offer to help and finds herself in the strange position of confiding in her husband’s therapist, revealing for once that she feels some guilt over making the kids complicit in how Tony makes his living—plus there’s the issue of whether she really loves him. Christopher (Michael Imperioli) continues to provide much of the comic relief for the series, culminating in one of this season’s best episodes when he flies out to L.A. in a bumbling attempt to get Ben Kingsley to sign on for his fledgling movie (Saw meets The Godfather), and ends up mugging Lauren Bacall for her goodie basket at an awards ceremony. Sowing further discord in the ranks, Vito (Joseph Gannoscoli) finally gets outed as homosexual, and is forced to flee for his life up to New Hampshire where he meets "Johnny Cakes." Finally, even with New York boss Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni (Vince Curatola) in prison, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) makes plays against Tony and eventually sets in motion a hit against someone on Tony’s crew, and now a larger war with Johnny Sack's crew seems to be looming.

Series creator David Chase seems to be saying with this season that character is destiny. If so, then Season Six, Part 1 is taking the necessary time to flesh out who these people really are, and is leaving the destiny part up for Part 2. The fact that the series' writers have been able to maintain such a strong show with so many interweaving storylines for so long is a feat not to be taken lightly. That said, this season of The Sopranos does deserve some of the criticism it's received: the Vito storyline would have been better served by resolving it in fewer episodes, and the season ending is the most unsatisfying one yet, leaving many fans wanting more. But the bottom line is that this season deserves more praise than criticism, proving that even at its weakest, The Sopranos is still the strongest show on TV. --Daniel Vancini

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The Gathering Storm

Actors: Albert Finney, Vanessa Redgrave, Jim Broadbent, Linus Roache, Lena Headey
ASIN : B00007L4OF
Sales Rank : 9134
Director : Richard Loncraine
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783120577
ISBN : 0783120575
UPC : 026359189821
Release Date : December 04, 2003
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 96

Description

The mid-1930's find the great politician and orator Winston Churchill out of favor and struggling to make his robust voice heard by the English people. Wrestling with his personal demons - a dark depression, the loss of his family fortune, and the temporary absence of his devoted wife Clemmie - a lonely but defiant Churchill attempts to warn the nation of an impending threat from Hitler's Germany. But will the world listen?

Amazon.com

A remarkable cast lends emotional richness to The Gathering Storm, an HBO movie about the life of Winston Churchill just prior to the onset of World War II. Faced with bankruptcy, his career in decline, Churchill (Albert Finney) is beset with depression until the impending danger of German rearmament--along with the British government's reluctance to recognize the threat of Hitler--gives him a cause that brings him back to energetic life. The movie focuses as much on the enduring relationship between Churchill and his wife, Clementine (Vanessa Redgrave), as his political struggles. But though The Gathering Storm clearly admires Churchill, it also acknowledges his tyrannical personality and astonishing ego, turning what could be a puff piece into a well-rounded and moving portrait. The truly topnotch cast includes Derek Jacobi, Jim Broadbent, Tom Wilkinson, Linus Roache, and Lena Headey, all of whom turn in superb performances. --Bret Fetzer

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Lackawanna Blues

Actors: S. Epatha Merkerson, Marcus Carl Franklin, Mos Def, Carmen Ejogo, Louis Gossett Jr.
ASIN : B0009S4IGA
Sales Rank : 3782
Director : George C. Wolfe
Brand : Warner Brothers
Studio : Hbo Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780783134826
ISBN : 0783134827
UPC : 026359274923
Release Date : December 23, 2005
Publisher : Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer : Hbo Home Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Hbo Home Video
Running Time : 95

Description

Based on the award winning play by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, this poignant and colorful drama tells the inspirational story of a courageous woman, Nanny, whose spirit and strength served as the foundation for a struggling community trying to survive during the segregation era. Starring an exceptional ensemble cast led by Jimmy Smits, Rosie Perez, and Macy Gray, this inspiring drama from HBO Films is a celebration of the good things in life, no matter how tough times may be.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Audio Commentary with director George C. Wolfe and writer Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Deleted Scenes
Featurette

Amazon.com

Cool music, a wonderful atmospheric feel, and first-rate performances by a stellar cast distinguish Lackawanna Blues, a 2005, 90-minute film originally broadcast by HBO. Director George C. Wolfe's theater background (as a writer and/or director he's been responsible for The Colored Museum, Jelly's Last Jam, and Bring in Da Noise, Bring in Da Funk) is apparent; adapted by scriptwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson from his own autobiographical play, Lackawanna Blues is less a story than a reminiscence, told by a young man (an affecting performance by Marcus Carl Franklin) raised by the indefatigable Rachel "Nanny" Crosby (an equally fine turn by S. Epatha Merkerson, known to many from her role in TV's Law & Order) in that upstate New York town. The focus is on Nanny's rooming house, which is populated by all manner of colorful characters (played by the likes of Macy Gray, Jeffrey Wright, and many others, with Jimmy Smits and Carmen Ejogo as the boy's wayward parents). The roomers include drunks, hustlers, ex-cons, and other shady types, but while plenty of bad stuff goes on, it's all coated with a certain patina of sentiment that tends to minimize the hard realities of life for African Americans in the early 1960s. That's fine; Wolfe, with the help of some superb editing by Brian Kates, gives the film such a delightful period vibe that it's easy to overlook its few shortcomings. The music (available on a soundtrack CD), ranging from downhome country blues to uptown swing, jump blues, and more, also makes a major contribution to the delightful diversion that is Lackawanna Blues. --Sam Graham

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Chris Rock - Never Scared

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Sex and the City - The Complete Series (Collector's Giftset)

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Extras - The Extra Special Series Finale

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As You Like It

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Extras - The Complete First Season

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The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1 [Blu-ray]

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Prime Suspect 3

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Eleanor and Franklin Double Feature (The Early Years / The White House Years)

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The Gathering Storm

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Lackawanna Blues

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