DVDpedia : Library : Title : B

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Summary: A disappointment after the superb two previous seasons, the final run of "Babylon 5" found Claudia Christian departed and Ivanova replaced by Captain Elizabeth Lochley (Tracy Scoggins), who in a soap-opera twist turned out to be Sheridan's first wife. Sheridan was promoted to President of the Interstellar Alliance and the action moved to a group of telepaths seeking sanctuary from the PSI-Corp on "B5". Giving a prominent role to Patricia Tallman's Lyta Alexander, a love story for her was woven with the leader of the telepaths, Byron (Robin Atkin Downs). Meanwhile the aftermath of the Shadow War was explored as the origin of human telepaths became clear in "Secrets of the Soul," and the appearance of PSI-Corp's Bester (Walter Koenig) brought the plight of the refugees to a powerful close in "A Tragedy of Telepaths" and "Phoenix Rising."
This was immediately followed by a rare episode not written by J. Michael Straczynski. Much was expected of "Day of the Dead," penned by Neil Gaiman, the British creator of DC's landmark "Sandman" comic and graphic novel series. Yet despite a change of tone including a guest appearance by Penn & Teller as 23rd-century comedy favorites Rebo & Zooty, the story proved an incongruous side trip into an unexplained twilight zone of fantasy. As usual the season picked up toward the end, with a string of fine political episodes leading to "The Fall of Centauri Prime" and the haunting "Objects at Rest," in which Sheridan and Delenn leave "Babylon 5" for new quarters on Minbar.
The final episode, "Sleeping in Light," was directed by J. Michael Straczynski and made an epilogue to the series. Set 20 years later, after all the sound and fury this quiet, elegiac tale is the apotheosis of the love story that proved the balance to the tragedy of the preceding darkness. A personal story resolved against a background of the epic, at once transcendent, deeply human, and profoundly optimistic, "Sleeping in Light" is as moving as any hour in the history of television drama and a thoroughly satisfying conclusion to one of the greatest series ever made. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Summary: The epic sci-fi series "Babylon 5" was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear beginning, middle, and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and familiarizes the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257.
The first episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line," plays at a breathless pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). Then follow several mediocre episodes that initially give the impression that "B5" is a "Star Trek" clone afflicted with "silly alien of the week" syndrome. With "And the Sky Full of Stars," "B5" really begins to hit its stride, Sinclair being forced to relive his mysterious experiences during the Earth-Minbari war. Filler shows such as "TKO" are notable only for being controversially violent, while the disappointing "Grail" points to writer-creator J. Michael Straczynski's fascination with Arthurian mythology. "Signs and Portents" introduces the sinister Mr. Morden (Ed Wasser) and offers the chilling first appearance of the Shadows, an ancient alien threat.
"B5" hits warp speed with a run of exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part "Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s sci-fi classic "Forbidden Planet", the story leads to the superb time-travel-based "Babylon Squared." Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the usual television cliffhanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a decision that laid the groundwork for "Babylon 5"'s eventually becoming a great love story. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Summary: Season 4 began on a high point with the Centauri Prime in the grip of the insane Emperor Cartagia (Wortham Krimmer) and a run of six shows leading to the climax of the war against the Shadows in "Into the Fire." If this colossal narrative was resolved a little too easily and the ultimate aim of the Shadows turned out to be a tad disappointing, it still proved to be the most powerful slice of space opera to ever grace the small screen. In the aftermath the sheer scale dropped back a little but the pace never slowed as the rest of the season played out in one relentless cycle of conspiracy, betrayal and conflict, "Babylon 5" siding with the rebel Mars colony against the totalitarian Earth.
Meanwhile Delenn came increasingly into conflict with her own people and, paralleling her relationship with Sheridan, Garibaldi became involved with his ex-fiancée Lise Hampton (Denise Gentile), while an intense platonic love grew between Ivanova and Marcus Cole. On an unstoppable wave fuelled by roller-coaster plot twists and spectacular action shows from "No Surrender, No Retreat"--when Sheridan avows to overthrow EarthGov--to "Rising Star"--when the aim is realized--"Babylon 5" achieved a consistent excellence rare in television. Yet within that run "Intersections in Real Time" stood out as a bold experiment; essentially a two-hand drama taking place entirely within one dimly lit room. Beyond this a major character died and Sheridan and Delenn married before the season finale again broke with expectation. In "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars," a future descendant of humanity one million years hence reviews excerpts from the history of "Babylon 5". In one sequence set in 2762, a Brother is devoted to the preserving of history some time after the "Big Burn." A homage to Walter M. Miller's classic "A Canticle for Leibowitz", Sheridan and Delenn have themselves become the stuff of legend. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Duration: 158

Summary: Delenn's future love interest, Captain John Sheridan (Bruce Boxleitner) arrived on "Babylon 5" in the first episode of season 2, "Points of Departure." The show marked the handing over of command of "B5" to Sheridan from Commander Jeffery Sinclair, actor Michael O'Hare becoming a victim of studio politicians who wanted a bigger star in the leading role. This excellent installment also revealed more about why the Minbari surrendered to Earth at the Battle of the Line when they were on the verge of victory. "Revelations" explains that Sheridan's wife, Anna, died during an archaeological survey of the world Z'ha'dum, the name being just one of many references to Tolkien's the Lord of the Rings (the bridge at Khazad-Dum). "The Geometry of Shadows" introduced the Technomages, characters who featured more significantly in the ill-fated spinoff series "Crusade" (1999), while "The Coming of Shadows" proved to be "Babylon 5"'s finest hour to date. The story of political intrigue foreshadowing the fate of two of the major characters beat "Apollo 13", "Toy Story", "12 Monkeys", and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "The Visitor" to win the Hugo award for Best Dramatic Presentation at the 1996 World Science Fiction Convention and proved so powerful that J. Michael Straczynski included it in his "Complete Book of Scriptwriting".
"And Now for a Word" took the unusual step of presenting a day-in-the-life of "B5" seen through the eyes of a TV news crew, just as the Narn declared war on the Centauri. The inclusion of a PSI-Corps commercial paid homage to Paul Verhoeven's satirical ads in "Robocop" (1987), while his later "Starship Troopers" (1997) seemed at times like a spoof of "B5"'s earnest space opera. In "In the Shadow of Z'ha'dum," Sheridan learns that Morden was on the ship on which Anna died; the episode sees the captain pushed to his limits by grief and determination to discover why Morden survived. Three exceptional shows conclude the season. The Narn-Centauri war escalates in "The Long, Twilight Struggle," Sheridan faces a most unusual ordeal in "Comes the Inquisitor," and in "The Fall of Night" all hope of peace is shattered as a nerve-racking assassination attempt reveals a startling secret about Ambassador Kosh. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Summary: "Matters of Honor" launched "Babylon 5"'s third season with the introduction of the "White Star", a spacecraft added to enable more of the action to take place away from the station. Also introduced was Marcus Cole (Jason Carter)--in another nod to "The Lord of the Rings", a Ranger not so far removed from Tolkien's Strider. In "Voices of Authority" the show finds an epic scale as Ivanova seeks the mysterious "First Ones" for allies against the Shadows, and evidence is discovered pointing to the truth behind President Santiago's assassination. A third of the way through the season "Messages from Earth," "Point of No Return," and "Severed Dreams" prove pivotal, changing the nature of the story in a way previously unimaginable on network TV. Earth slides into dictatorship, the fascistic Nightwatch takes control of off-world security, and Sheridan take decisive action by declaring Babylon 5 independent.
"Interludes and Examinations" presented the death of a major supporting character, while the two-part "War Without End" reached apocalyptic dimensions in a complex tale resolving the destiny of Sinclair and the fate of "Babylon 4" (dovetailing elegantly with the events of the first season's "Babylon Squared"), resolving a 1,000-year-old paradox and presenting a vision of a very dark future for Sheridan and Delenn. All this was trumped by the monumental "Z'ha'dum." In the preceding "Shadow Dancing" Anna Sheridan (Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner's real-life wife) returned from the dead, no longer entirely human. In the mythologically resonant climax Anna invited Sheridan back to the Shadow homeworld with no hope of survival. Just as in "The Lord of the Rings" Gandalf fell into the abyss at Khazad-Dum, so Sheridan took a comparable leap into the unknown on an alien world. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1993

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Television

Duration: 120

Summary: The "Babylon 5" pilot movie "The Gathering" was originally broadcast in 1993 a full year ahead of the regular show. A somewhat dull tale of an attempt to assassinate Koch, the Vorlon ambassador to "B5", the feature served to introduce Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle) as well as familiarize the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. Missing many of the main cast, and suffering from a leaden pace and mediocre music score, series creator J Michael Straczynski later improved "The Gathering" by tightening the cut for a special edition (the version released on DVD), adding some deleted character moments and commissioning a new score from series composer Christopher Franke.
Four new TV movies were part of the deal to syndicate "Babylon 5". "In the Beginning" is a prelude set 10 years before "Babylon 5", telling the story of the Earth-Minbari war. Told retrospectively, many of the mysteries revealed gradually in the main series are recounted, making the show a collection of spoilers for newcomers while adding little for established fans. It is effective to see events only previously talked about, and enjoyable to have most of the main cast playing younger versions of themselves. "River of Souls" is a self-contained adventure featuring a return of the Soul Hunters from Season One, while "Thirdspace" offers a spectacular Lovecraftian space opera which slots into the saga after the end of the Shadow War. "A Call to Arms" is the most important of the TV films, laying the ground for the future TV series "Crusade". Set five years after the Shadow War, it tells the story of a Drahk revenge attack on Earth. A final showcase for Bruce Boxleitner as Sheridan, the story fits between fifth-season episodes "Objects at Rest" and "Sleeping in Light." The cliffhanger ending sets the scene for new starship "Excalibur" to boldly go on a five-year mission to explore strange new worlds and find a cure for the Shadow virus infecting the Earth. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 104

Summary: Gross-out comedy reached its peak (or nadir, if you will) when this celebration of juvenile crudeness was released in the summer of 1998. "There's Something About Mary" was a surprise box-office smash at the same time, and it's a much funnier and (dare we say it?) more intelligently conceived comedy, but there's something to be said for a couple of dudes who blissfully embrace bad taste and improper decorum. As they proved with their popular cartoon series "South Park", Trey Parker and Matt Stone are shameless purveyors of scatological humor, and no bodily function escapes their baser instinct for gutter-level guffaws. Here they play a couple of guys who are fed up with the hyper-commercialism of professional sports, so they invent "baseketball"--a hybrid of baseball and basketball--and soon find themselves in the middle of a booming national craze. As baseketball leagues thrive, so does the movie's appetite for puerile shock-jokes and disgusting gags. There are some great throwaway lines and a lot of funny cameos by the likes of Bob Costas, Al Michaels, Jenny McCarthy, Robert Stack, Reggie Jackson, and others, but let's face it--a little of this stuff goes a long, long way. If you laugh a lot, you may be suffering (as Parker and Stone clearly do) from an acute case of arrested development. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1989

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 126

Summary: Thanks to the ambitious vision of director Tim Burton, the blockbuster hit of 1989 delivers the goods despite an occasionally spotty script, giving the caped crusader a thorough overhaul in keeping with the crime fighter's evolution in DC Comics. Michael Keaton strikes just the right mood as the brooding "Dark Knight" of Gotham City; Kim Basinger plays Gotham's intrepid reporter Vicki Vale; and Jack Nicholson goes wild as the maniacal and scene-stealing Joker, who plots a takeover of the city with his lethal Smilex gas. Triumphant Oscar-winning production design by the late Anton Furst turns "Batman" into a visual feast, and Burton brilliantly establishes a darkly mythic approach to Batman's legacy. Danny Elfman's now-classic score propels the action with bold, muscular verve. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2005

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 141

Summary: "Batman Begins" discards the previous four films in the series and recasts the Caped Crusader as a fearsome avenging angel. That's good news, because the series, which had gotten off to a rousing start under Tim Burton, had gradually dissolved into self-parody by 1997's "Batman & Robin". As the title implies, "Batman Begins" tells the story anew, when Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) flees Western civilization following the murder of his parents. He is taken in by a mysterious instructor named Ducard (Liam Neeson in another mentor role) and urged to become a ninja in the League of Shadows, but he instead returns to his native Gotham City resolved to end the mob rule that is strangling it. But are there forces even more sinister at hand?
Co-written by the team of David S. Goyer (a veteran comic book writer) and director Christopher Nolan ("Memento"), "Batman Begins" is a welcome return to the grim and gritty version of the Dark Knight, owing a great debt to the graphic novels that preceded it. It doesn't have the razzle dazzle, or the mass appeal, of "Spider-Man 2" (though the Batmobile is cool), and retelling the origin means it starts slowly, like most "first" superhero movies. But it's certainly the best Bat-film since Burton's original, and one of the best superhero movies of its time. Bale cuts a good figure as Batman, intense and dangerous but with some of the lightheartedness Michael Keaton brought to the character. Michael Caine provides much of the film's humor as the family butler, Alfred, and as the love interest, Katie Holmes ("Dawson's Creek") is surprisingly believable in her first adult role. Also featuring Gary Oldman as the young police officer Jim Gordon, Morgan Freeman as a Q-like gadgets expert, and Cillian Murphy as the vile Jonathan Crane. "--David Horiuchi"

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: Mca Home Video

Genre: Television

Duration: 180

Summary: Despite voluminous protest and nitpicking criticism from loyal fans of the original 1978-80 TV series, the 2003 version of "Battlestar Galactica" turned out surprisingly well for viewers with a tolerance for change. Originally broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel in December 2003 and conceived by "Star Trek: The Next Generation" alumnus Ronald D. Moore as the pilot episode for a "reimagined" TV series, this four-hour "miniseries" reprises the basic premise of the original show while giving a major overhaul (including some changes in gender) to several characters and plot elements. Gone are the flowing robes, disco-era hairstyles, and mock-Egyptian fighter helmets, and thankfully there's not a fluffy "daggit" in sight... at least, not yet. Also missing are the "chrome toaster" Cylons, replaced by new, more formidable varieties of the invading Cylon enemy, including "Number Six" in hot red skirts and ample cleavage, who tricks the human genius Baltar into a scenario that nearly annihilates the human inhabitants of 12 colonial worlds.
Thus begins the epic battle and eventual retreat of a "ragtag fleet" of humans, searching for the mythical planet Earth under the military command of Adama (Edward James Olmos) and the political leadership of Laura Roslin (Mary McDonnell), a former secretary of education, 43rd in line of succession and rising to the occasion of her unexpected Presidency. As directed by Michael Rymer ("Queen of the Damned"), Moore's ambitious teleplay also includes newfangled CGI space battles (featuring "handheld" camera moves and subdued sound effects for "enhanced realism"), a dysfunctional Col. Tigh (Michael Hogan) who's provoked into action by the insubordinate Starbuck (Katee Sackhoff), and a father-son reunion steeped in familial tragedy. To fans of the original "BG" series, many of these changes are blasphemous, but for the most part they work--including an ominous cliffhanger ending. The remade "Galactica" is brimming with smart, well-drawn characters ripe with dramatic potential, and it readily qualifies as serious-minded science fiction, even as it gives "BG" loyalists ample fuel for lively debate. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1982

Studio: Anchor Bay

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 118

Summary: Singer had the best male body, bar none, I have ever seen in films and *it* is really the star of this one, right behind the two ferrets, "Beastmaster's" friends. Most of the camera angles enhance Singer's musculature. He has learned how to stand and move to best advantage for the cameras. He's not handsome, though, which doesn't really matter in this film.
The film is fun, action-packed and pretty to watch. While Tanya Roberts in her rather small role is nice to look at, she cannot act her way out of a paper bag, but manages to lend another perfect body to the cast.
Rip Torn, the evil one, barely suppresses a guffaw at the lines he has to say, but pulls it off nonetheless. The plot is good - "Beastmaster" (Singer) is ripped from his mother's womb before birth, placed by occult means into the womb of an ox (cow?) and is then ripped out again at knifepoint. As a result, somehow he is able to communicate nonverbally with animals and they are his helpers - an eagle, a black leopard and two ferrets - on his way to avenge his mother's death.



For what it is (bad acting, beautiful people and an unusual plot), it deserves the cult following it's got. After all, cult movies don't always become so by being great works of art. Buy it just for fun, suspend your incredulity for an evening and just enjoy it.

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 112

Summary: While it didn't quite spark a trend in chug-a-lug brew comedies, "Beerfest" is the kind of zany time-killer that's a lot funnier if you're within reach of a six-pack and Doritos. In other words, this is yet another low-brow laff-a-thon from the Broken Lizard gang ("Super Troopers") that's likely to draw a bigger audience on DVD than it did in theaters, especially since there's a lot of duds (and flat suds) to sit through while waiting for the next big beer-belly-laugh. It's the kind of movie that thinks masturbating frogs are funny (OK, you decide), while serving up a gang of guzzling Americans (the aforementioned Broken Lizard troupe, who also write this stuff with director Jay Chandrasekhar) who compete in an epic beer-drinking contest against the nefarious German challenger Baron Wolfgang Von Wolfhausen (played by German actor Jurgen Prochnow, whose starring role in "Das Boot" inspires one of this movie's better jokes). When it's not trying to top itself in terms of sheer stupidity and juvenile humor, "Beerfest" satisfies its target audience (basically, frat-rats and party animals) with some gratuitously bare-breasted babes, rampant consumption of alcohol, and the welcomed appearance of Cloris Leachman, who sort-of reprises her "Frau Blucher" persona from "Young Frankenstein". So basically what you've got here is a dim-witted but energetic comedy called "Beerfest" that delivers exactly what you'd expect from a movie with that title. Who says truth in advertising is dead? "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1988

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 92

Summary: Before making "Batman", director Tim Burton and star Michael Keaton teamed up for this popular black comedy about a young couple (Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin) whose premature death leads them to a series of wildly bizarre afterlife exploits. As ghosts in their own New England home, they're faced with the challenge of scaring off the pretentious new owners (Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones), whose daughter (Winona Ryder) has an affinity for all things morbid. Keaton plays the mischievous Beetlejuice, a freelance "bio-exorcist" who's got an evil agenda behind his plot to help the young undead newlyweds. The film is a perfect vehicle for Burton's visual style and twisted imagination, with clever ideas and gags packed into every scene. "Beetlejuice" is also a showcase for Keaton, who tackles his title role with maniacal relish and a dark edge of menace. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1959

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Classics

Duration: 212

Summary: "Ben-Hur" scooped an unprecedented 11 Academy Awards® in 1959 and, unlike some later rivals, richly deserved every single one. This is epic filmmaking on a scale that had not been seen before and is unlikely ever to be seen again. But it's not just running time or a cast of thousands that makes an epic, it's the subject matter, and here the subject--Prince Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and his estrangement from old Roman pal Messala (Stephen Boyd)--is rich, detailed, and sensitively handled. Director William Wyler, who had been a junior assistant on MGM's original silent version back in 1925, never sacrifices the human focus of the story in favor of spectacle, and is aided immeasurably by Miklos Rozsa's majestic musical score, arguably the greatest ever written for a Hollywood picture. At four hours it's a long haul (especially given some of the portentous dialogue), but all in all, "Ben-Hur" is a great movie, best seen on the biggest screen possible. "--Mark Walker"

Theatrical: 1993

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 98

Summary: An oddball love story about a fey loner named Sam (Johnny Depp), who falls in love with the mentally unbalanced Joon (Mary Stuart Masterson), who lives in the care of her protective brother Benny (Aidan Quinn). This 1993 story is hard to swallow, with its message that love can conquer a brand of mental illness that manifests itself in pyromania: Joon has a bad habit of going a bit around the bend and setting fires, but Sam's tender care apparently has the cure for what ails her. Still, if you want proof that Depp has significant chops as a physical comedian, give this film a try: He does note-perfect renditions of slapstick routines made famous by Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. "--Marshall Fine"

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: Anime Works

Genre: Anime

Summary: In the castle town of Midland, a new king has come to power through treachery and violence. His demonic agents relentlessly victimize the townspeople, until the night a battle weary soldier enters the city. Covered in an array of weapons and countless battle scars, he calls himself the Black Swordsman. The sword he carries is as big as his grudge against the king. Blade in hand he hunts the servants of evil with unending vengeful fury.

Theatrical:

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 263

Summary:

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Walt Disney Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 132

Summary: "Bicentennial Man" was stung at the 1999 box office, due no doubt in part to poor timing during a backlash against Robin Williams and his treacly performances in two other, then-recent releases, "Jakob the Liar" and "Patch Adams". But this near-approximation of a science fiction epic, based on works by Isaac Asimov and directed, with uncharacteristic seriousness of purpose, by Chris Columbus ("Mrs. Doubtfire"), is much better than one would have known from the knee-jerk negativity and box-office indifference.
Williams plays Andrew, a robot programmed for domestic chores and sold to an upper-middle-class family, the Martins, in the year 2005. The family patriarch (Sam Neill) recognizes and encourages Andrew's uncommon characteristics, particularly his artistic streak, sensitivity to beauty, humor, and independence of spirit. In so doing, he sets Williams's tin man on a two-century journey to become more human than most human beings.
As adapted by screenwriter Nicholas Kazan, the movie's scale is novelistic, though Columbus isn't the man to embrace with Spielbergian confidence its sweeping possibilities. Instead, the "Home Alone" director shakes off his familiar tendencies to pander and matures, finally, as a captivating storyteller. But what really makes this film matter is its undercurrent of deep yearning, the passion of Andrew as a convert to the human race and his willingness to sacrifice all to give and take love. Williams rises to an atypical challenge here as a futuristic Everyman, relying, perhaps for the first time, on his considerable iconic value to make the point that becoming human means becoming more like Robin Williams. Nothing wrong with that. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 125

Summary: After a string of mediocre movies, director Tim Burton regains his footing as he shifts from macabre fairy tales to Southern tall tales. "Big Fish" twines in and out of the oversized stories of Edward Bloom, played as a young man by Ewan McGregor ("Moulin Rouge", "Down with Love") and as a dying father by Albert Finney ("Tom Jones"). Edward's son Will (Billy Crudup, "Almost Famous") sits by his father's bedside but has little patience with the old man's fables, because he feels these stories have kept him from knowing who his father really is. Burton dives into Bloom's imagination with zest, sending the determined young man into haunted woods, an idealized Southern town, a traveling circus, and much more. The result is sweet but--thanks to the director's dark and clever sensibility--never saccharine. Also featuring Jessica Lange, Alison Lohman, Helena Bonham Carter, Danny DeVito, and Steve Buscemi. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1996

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 117

Summary: The great improvisational comedy team of Mike Nichols and Elaine May reunited to (respectively) direct and write this update of the French comedy "La Cage Aux Folles". Robin Williams stars as a gay Miami nightclub owner who is forced to play it straight and ask his drag-queen partner (Nathan Lane) to hide out when Williams's son invites his prospective--and highly conservative--in-laws and fiancée to a meet-and-greet dinner party. Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest play the straight-laced senator and his wife, and Calista Flockhart (from television's "Ally McBeal") plays their daughter in a culture-clash with outrageous consequences. May's witty screenplay incorporates some pointed observations about the political landscape of the 1990s and takes a sensitive approach to the comedy's underlying drama. Topping off the action is Hank Azaria in a scene-stealing role as Williams's and Lane's flamboyant housekeeper, "Agador Spartacus." "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical:

Studio: BBC Warner

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 860

Summary: One of the best comedy series ever to emerge from England, Black Adder traces the deeply cynical and self-serving lineage of various Edmund Blackadders from the muck of the Middle Ages to the frontline of World War I. In his pre-Bean triumph, British comic actor Rowan Atkinson played all five versions of Edmund, beginning with the villainous and cowardly Duke of Edinburgh, whose scheming mind and awful haircut seem to stand him in good stead to become the next Archbishop of Canterbury--a deadly occupation if ever there was one. Among tales of royal dethronings, Black Death, witch smellers (who root out spell makers with their noses), and ghosts, Edmund is a perennial survivor who never quite gets ahead in multiple episodes.
DVD Features:
Featurette
Interactive Menus
Interviews
Music Video

Theatrical:

Studio: ANIME WORKS

Genre: Animation

Duration: 180

Summary: Imagine a world where the secret to immortality has been discovered, causing women to stop aging by the time they turn twelve. Sounds like it might be a perfect playground for a discoverer with less-than-wholesome interests, doesn't it? That's exactly why the Big Man Upstairs sends Dokuro-chan, one of his angelic assassins, into the past to "deal" with the sicko who messed with nature. But Dokuro-chan decides instead to move in with her target, Sakura Kusakabe, and keep him too occupied to find eternal life. Funnily enough, the path of nonviolence leads to a fountain of blood, as Dokuro-chan accidentally kills Sakura on an almost daily basis, only to resurrect him with a magical chant moments later.

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 110

Summary: Charismatic young stars Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus play two Irish brothers, Connor and Murphy, who believe themselves ordained by God to rid the world of evil men. Their first killing is in self-defense; but after that, they start killing with devotion, gunning down a summit of the Russian mafia. Willem Dafoe plays a gay FBI agent (he listens to opera while examining crime scenes) who knows what the boys are doing but feels that their vigilante tactics are necessary. There's not much plot to "The Boondock Saints"--it's mostly a series of violent scenes in which the boys are partially ingenious and partially lucky. The movie seems to want to provoke debate about vigilantism, but the scenario is too implausible to stir any real controversy. The peculiar mix of earnestness and machismo will not appeal to everyone, but it's certainly unique and may acquire a cult following. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1995

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 177

Summary: Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning 1995 "Braveheart" is an impassioned epic about William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish leader of a popular revolt against England's tyrannical Edward I (Patrick McGoohan). Gibson cannily plays Wallace as a man trying to stay out of history's way until events force his hand, an attribute that instantly resonates with several of the actor's best-known roles, especially "Mad Max". The subsequent camaraderie and courage Wallace shares in the field with fellow warriors is pure enough and inspiring enough to bring envy to a viewer, and even as things go wrong for Wallace in the second half, the film does not easily cave in to a somber tone. One of the most impressive elements is the originality with which Gibson films battle scenes, featuring hundreds of extras wielding medieval weapons. After Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky", Orson Welles's "Chimes at Midnight", and even Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V", you might think there is little new that could be done in creating scenes of ancient combat; yet Gibson does it. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 1985

Studio: Criterion

Genre: Comedy

Summary: If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--this is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. However, "Brazil" was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam sure captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's "The Trial" (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek governmental clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. Not a software bug, a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous "Metamorphosis" insect) that gets smooshed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr. Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unraveling this bureaucratic glitch, he himself winds up labeled as a miscreant.
The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. This DVD version of Brazil is the special director's cut that first appeared in Criterion's comprehensive (and expensive) six-disc laser package in 1996. "--Jim Emerson"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Mca Home Video

Genre: Foreign

Duration: 142

Summary: If you crave an over-the-top historical kung fu-fantasy epic with a good dose of voluptuous nudity, bravura machismo, and passions so intense they verge on ridiculous, then "Brotherhood of the Wolf" is your movie. Based (loosely) on an 18th-century legend, this French film follows a hunky scientist (Samuel Le Bihan, who's sort of a second-string Christopher Lambert) and his Iroquois sidekick/spiritual partner (Mark Dacascos) as they pursue a monstrous wolf ravaging the French countryside. Along the way Le Bihan gets entwined with a beautiful noblewoman (émilie Dequenne) and a gorgeous prostitute (Monica Belluci) with secrets. The plot grows more and more incomprehensible, but the mix of torrid emotions, outrageous action sequences, and lurid titillation is really what the movie is about. Ignore the highbrow philosophizing and confused political intrigue; just enjoy the sensual images. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 92

Summary: Don Coscarelli directs and Bruce Campbell stars as the King of Camp in this intentionally over-the-top schlockfest. "Bubba Ho-Tep" is partially about Elvis Presley and partially about the title character, an Egyptian cowboy zombie, but mostly it is about camp. The movie is equal parts story and back story. We learn through narration and flashback how Elvis didn't really die, ending up instead in a rest home in East Texas with JFK (played by Ossie Davis), who was dyed black and had his brain removed, presumably for reasons of national security. Campbell and Davis realize that something strange is going on when their rest-home compatriots start dropping off suspiciously. The whole movie leads up to a final showdown to the death with the Egyptian cowboy zombie who has been sucking the souls of their fellow residents because he thought no one would notice. The movie unfolds a bit slowly; it is, after all, a geriatrics-fight-Egyptian-cowboy-zombie movie. However, one wishes this self-conscious movie's pacing took its cue from the atypically fast-moving zombie instead of from the senior-citizen Elvis and JFK. In the end, though, Campbell is flawless as the aged King; his accent, intonations, glasses, and trademark karate are at the same time sincere and over the top. "--Brian Saltzman"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Horror

Summary: From its charming and angst-ridden first season to the darker, apocalyptic final one, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" succeeds on many levels, and in a fresher and more authentic way than the shows that came before or after it. How lucky, then, that with the release of its boxed set of seasons 1-7, you can have the estimable pleasure of watching a near-decade of "Buffy" in any order you choose. (And we have some ideas about how that should be done.)
First: rest assured that there's no shame in coming to "Buffy" late, even if you initially turned your nose up at the winsome Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking the hell out of vampires (in "Buffy"-lingo, vamps), demons, and other evil-doers. Perhaps you did so because, well, it looked sort of science-fiction-like with all that monster latex. Start with season 3 and see that Buffy offers something for everyone, and the sooner you succumb to it, the quicker you'll appreciate how textured and riveting a drama it is.
Why season 3? Because it offers you a winning cast of characters who have fallen from innocence: their hearts have been broken, their egos trampled in typically vicious high-school style, and as a result, they've begun to realize how fallible they are. As much as they try, there are always more monsters, or a bigger evil. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core crew remains something of a unit--there's the smart girl, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) who dreams of saving the day by downloading the plans to City Hall's sewer tunnels and mapping a route to safety. There are the ne'r do wells--the vampire Spike (James Marsters), who both clashes with and aspires to love Buffy; the tortured and torturing Angel (David Boreanz); the pretty, popular girl with an empty heart (Charisma Carpenter); and the teenage everyman, Xander (Nicholas Brendon).
Then there's Buffy herself, who in the course of seven seasons morphs from a sarcastic teenager in a minidress to a heroine whose tragic flaw is an abiding desire to be a "normal" girl. On a lesser note, with the boxed set you can watch the fashion transformation of Buffy from mall rat to Prada-wearing, kickboxing diva with enviable highlights. (There was the unfortunate bob of season 2, but it's a forgivable lapse.) At least the storyline merits the transformations: every time Buffy has to end a relationship she cuts her hair, shedding both the pain and her vulnerability.
In addition to the well-wrought teenage emotional landscape, "Buffy" deftly takes on more universal themes--power, politics, death, morality--as the series matures in seasons 4-6. And apart from a few missteps that haven't aged particularly well ("I Robot" in season 1 comes to mind), most episodes feel as harrowing and as richly drawn as they did at first viewing. That's about as much as you can ask for any form of entertainment: that it offer an escape from the viewer's workaday world and entry into one in which the heroine (ideally one with leather pants) overcomes demons far more troubling than one's own. "--Megan Halverson"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Fox Lorber

Genre: Comedy

Summary: In the charming independent movie "Bug", a small boy squashing an insect sets in motion a series of events, large and small, that include a lost restaurant reservation, a drunken fender-bender, disruption of basic cable television service, and more than one relationship falling apart. One person's disaster becomes another's boon, and vice versa--because a man loses his job, a young girl becomes the lead ballerina in the school play, which in turn causes the death of a pet pig. Featuring Brian Cox ("Manhunter", "L.I.E."), Jamie Kennedy ("Scream", "Malibu's Most Wanted"), Sarah Poulson ("Down with Love"), and John Carroll Lynch ("Fargo", "Bubble Boy"), "Bug" takes a comic look at the interconnectedness of life. The movie occasionally tries too hard for emotional resonance, but its best comic touches--like some vengeful fortune cookie messages written by a jilted boyfriend--give "Bug" a wry wit worth checking out. "--Bret Fetzer"