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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Meet the Fockers Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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Meet the Fockers Reviewed By Scott Weinberg Posted 12/23/04 18:04:50

"Worthless sequels are nothing new, but these fockers should know better…" (Total Crap)

This is where the state of American Comedy Cinema currently resides? A trio of actors who represent 18 Oscar nominations and 6 wins are now playing fourth, fifth and sixth bananas to dogs that hump cats, old people who hump each other, poopy jokes galore, and a CG baby who coos the word "asshole" every twelve minutes. One can only assume that thespians De Niro, Hoffman and Streisand were paid handsomely for their participation here - cuz it sure as hell couldn’t have been the wretched screenplay.Despite being fairly flimsy and consistently one-note, Meet the Parents succeeded because it had one workable thru-line: we just had to see how much punishment and humiliation Ben Stiller would have to withstand in the name of love. Meet the Parents was a virtual crescendo of well-timed comedic set pieces, plus there was just a little bit of sincere heart hidden beneath all the chaotic rubble.Meet the Fockers is get-rich-quick, no-thought-required sequel-mongering at its most mercenary. Sure, there are a handful of stray chuckles to be found (delivered almost exclusively by Dustin Hoffman), but it won’t take long before you find yourself pondering the fact that you just dropped ten bucks for a ticket to Dharma and Greg: The Movie. But even that would be a more promising prospect. A "Dharma" movie (undoubtedly due for release some time in 2022) would know better than the humiliate a group of talented actors like director Jay Roach does here. Fockers, indeed.Plot synopsis in 5 easy words: Obnoxious Jews Meet Constipated Wasps. Imagine the hilarity when De Niro’s taciturn blowhard comes face to face with a man who kisses people. Ponder the uproar as Ms. Streisand, making a movie comeback after nearly a decade, in full-on Coffee Talk Voice, thrusts her hips around while a dozen wheezing old geezers mutter a series of dick jokes. Contemplate a movie in which the word "Focker" is mined for skimpy larfs at least fifteen times, in which someone falling down signifies the end of practically every other scene, in which the "little dog humps something" gag is revisited at least four times, and in which a creepy CG-assisted toddler spends all his screen-time staring and making suck-suck noises at every breast he sees.This is a movie that offers a Mission: Impossible-type lair within the bowels of a massive RV, a stunningly insensitive (and unfunny) subplot about the loose morals and stupidity of Mexicans, and more sniggering sex jokes than the entire Porky’s trilogy. This is more American Pie than it is Meet the Parents - but c’mon, who really wants to see American Pie with Barbra Streisand as the sexy one?One would be correct to assume that a movie starring Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, Barbra Streisand and (the totally underused) Blythe Danner would, at the very least, be worth watching for the performances alone. Sorry, nope. Director Roach and screenwriters John Herzfeld & John Hamburg are content to let their expensive cast wander around aimlessly. De Niro gets to scowl and lecture; Hoffman gets to hug and hoot; Streisand takes the easy way out by channeling the hoary old yenta persona, and star Ben Stiller just kind of fades right into the scenery.This movie has no drive, no grace, no story worth focusing on. It’s a barely-connected series of skits in which four great actors deliver scant variations on their one-note personae. It’s shrill and obvious and desperate. And the thing has the balls to run an interminable 115 minutes. Whatever happened to brevity being the soul of wit and all that jazz? Snip this thing down to 80 minutes and you might be able to find a pulse.I digress. This movie’s bound to be a big box-office smash, and no amount of disdain on my part can prevent that. Indeed, even the packed screening house was pretty much awash in laughter for much of the Focker’s running time. So either I’m wrong and those folks are right. Or maybe it’s just depressingly easy to make an American audience laugh…especially when you trot out a cadre of stooges this well-known and (previously) admired.
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Donnie Darko Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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First-time writer-director Richard Kelly’s breathtakingly ambitious “Donnie Darko” was one of the best pictures released in 2001. Now that it has returned in a 20-minute longer — and richer — director’s cut, it seems sure to be ranked as one of the key American films of the decade. Opening a month after Sept. 11, “Donnie Darko,” if anything, was a little too timely for its own good at the box office yet proved a cult sleeper and a top-selling DVD. That “Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut” is now complete does not mean it is all that clearer, for it is nothing if not confounding — but that seems to be the idea. In the title role, Jake Gyllenhaal is a disaffected teenager in a classic upscale suburbia, the kind in which leafy streets are lined with large, traditional-style homes. Donnie, who is given to sleepwalking, hallucinations and communicating with an imaginary friend, a giant monstrous-looking rabbit named Frank (James Duval), is first seen asleep in the middle of a rural road. By the time he awakens — the date is Oct. 2, 1988 — a voice tells him that in 28 days the world will come to an end. And when he returns home he learns that an engine from a jet plane has crashed into his bedroom. Talk about portents. ADVERTISEMENT These surreal introductory notes serve to point up the less dramatic absurdities of everyday life that confront a youth of soaring intelligence like Donnie while they pass unnoticed by the more mundane minds of those who live largely on life’s surface. Donnie’s parents (Holmes Osborne, Mary McDonnell) are in an attractive early middle age, are loving, reasonably laid-back — and conventional. Their eldest daughter, Beth (Maggie Gyllenhaal, real-life sister to Jake), awaits college while their youngest, Samantha (Daveigh Chase), looks to be about 8 or 9. Donnie perceives that he’s living in an insular, privileged world in which it is all too easy for people to be susceptible to simplistic thinking. Haunted by real-life bullies as well as his own fervid imagination, Donnie fearlessly challenges teachers and almost everyone else even though he seems by nature diffident. The most onerous presence in school is a hysterical gym teacher (Beth Grant) who has fallen under the spell of a local bestselling self-help guru (a deliciously oily Patrick Swayze) who preaches that in order to escape the clutches of fear we must “go toward love.” Donnie is all for conquering fear but realizes that the task is lots more complex than the simplistic approach of Swayze’s relentlessly upbeat guru. He finds respite in an English literature class, whose teacher (Drew Barrymore) is stimulating and open-minded, and in cosmic discussions with his science teacher (Noah Wyle). In the meantime, Donnie has frequent sessions with his psychiatrist (Katharine Ross). She suspects he might be a paranoid schizophrenic, but Kelly moves beyond this to suggest that, though this diagnosis may or may not be accurate, Donnie has the kind of brilliance that allows him to make connections beyond the grasp of others. The film is propelled by Donnie’s fear (which he himself thinks may be irrational) that time really is running out for the world, and he becomes consumed with the desire to save it. Coming across a book written by a former nun and teacher at his school — and now an aged recluse (Patience Cleveland) — called “The Philosophy of Time Travel,” he begins to think he may have found the answer. (The film’s additional footage consists mainly of tantalizing quotes from this text plus an illuminating scene between Donnie and his father.) It remains true that “Donnie Darko” poses more questions than it answers. Indeed, Kelly demands that the viewer think for him- or herself. Droll, subversively hilarious, “Donnie Darko” is as amusing as it is provocative. At heart its message is clear enough — an exhortation to keep an open mind, to embrace each other and the universe with its seemingly infinite possibilities, come what may. The great thing is that “Donnie Darko,” with its cosmically comic perspective, makes these endeavors so exhilarating. ‘Donnie Darko: The Director’s Cut’ MPAA rating: R for language, some drug use and violence Times guidelines: Suitable for early teens and mature older children Jake Gyllenhaal…Donnie Darko Jena Malone…Gretchen Ross Drew Barrymore…Karen Pomeroy Mary McDonnell…Rose Darko Holmes Osborne…Eddie Darko A Newmarket Films presentation in association with Pandora of a Flower Films production. Writer-director Richard Kelly. Producers Sean McKittrick, Nancy Juvonen. Executive producer Drew Barrymore. Executive producers Hunt Lowry, Casey La Scala, William Tyrer, Chris J. Ball, Aaron Ryder. Cinematographer Steven Poster. Editors Sam Bauer, Eric Strand. Music Michael Andrews. Costumes April Ferry. Production designer Alexander Hammond. Set designer Julia Levine. Set decorator Jennie Harris. Running time: 2 hours, 13 minutes. Exclusively at ArcLight Cinemas, 6360 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, (323) 464-4226; Laemmle’s One Colorado Cinemas, 42 Miller Alley, Pasadena, (626) 744-1224; and the Pacific Galleria Stadium 16, 15301 Ventura Blvd. (at Sepulveda), Sherman Oaks, (818) 501-5121.
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Loose Cannons Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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Movie: A lot of movie fans will go see any movie a particular star is in. This is an undisputable fact and is sometimes referred to as a star’s draw: how much money can a movie make based solely on an actor being in the movie? Even stars that often make great movies will sometimes take on a project for financial reasons, never having read the script. Such is the case with a little known movie from 1990, Loose Cannons.

The movie shows a veteran cop, Mac (Gene Hackman), who is saddled with a brilliant partner, Ellis (Dan Aykroyd), that has a personality disorder-whenever he gets stressed, he starts acting like various television characters. Other than that, he’s sharp as a tack but it obviously puts the team in great danger when they begin investigating a case with a lot of hostile bad guys. The team stumbles across a case involving a porn tape made by Hitler (yeah, that Hitler) and it’s political ramifications. The bad guys don’t want the tape released and will stop at nothing to prevent it from being distributed. If that sounds like a clich?, it’s because the movie is full of them.

Had the movie stuck with a more down to earth premise, and let Hackman be the center of the movie, it could’ve been much, much better. On the other hand, had it let Aykroyd have a more fleshed out character, or at least kept him focused on the few imitations he could pull off without looking like a drunk at a party, it “might” have been better. As it was, the movie seemed to suffer from the same multiple personality disorder that Aykroyd’s character did and the results were less than satisfying. Let’s face it, Hackman’s portrayal of Popeye Doyle in The French Connection movies were near definitive examples of a “tough cop” in movies. While he has the range to be something else, his character was obviously plucked out of that role to be put here in a fish out of water setting against Aykroyd’s zany misfit. Maybe if Jim Carrey or Robin Williams were in this role, it might’ve been better but that’s a stretch of the imagination too. Poor writing can be compensated for by great acting but that’s not usually the case.

The story being so bizarre certainly didn’t help matters much. Rather than look at the subject seriously, this being a comedy after all, it took the low road and fumbled there too. Hackman as a straight man didn’t work and it looked like the director figured this out ten minutes into the movie but wasn’t able to adjust accordingly. If he truly felt trapped by the suits pushing this movie to be completed, I could almost feel sorry for him. It wasn’t the worst movie I’ve seen in the last 13 years (it was originally released in 1990) but it sure didn’t make good use of the cast. As such, I can only fairly rate this one as a Skip It.

Picture: The picture was presented in 2.35:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color. The fleshtones were generally accurate, as were the other colors, although there were plenty of moments where the focus was a bit off. I did notice a few compression artifacts but not many.

Sound: The sound was presented in Dolby Digital stereo and sounded pretty good, though not excellent. The channel separation was decent but not anything I’d push as a selling point for this flawed movie. There were lots of choices in subtitles and it was closed captioned as well.

Extras: trailers, paper insert with chapter listing

Final Thoughts: Well, the movie was a stinker and I think Tri-Star knows it too. On the dvd cover, it mentioned that the movie is “…loaded with personality.” Okay, is real life, when someone is setting you up with a blind date and they tell you that the person has a “nice personality”, what’s the first thing you think: “Wow, what a great opportunity to meet someone.” or “Oh great, another loser.”? Your answer will depend on how much you should see this movie. Even a fan of the leads will want to avoid this one.

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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Step Up Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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I do concede that Step Up has a clever title because it is about dancers who are working on their steps, and both have to "step up" their professional and personal lives to succeed.  However, given the wooden performances, manipulative plotting, and lack of original thought, I think if you said the title backwards, it would actually be more appropriate.

Step Up is set in Baltimore, Maryland, where a young hoodlum named Tyler Gage (Tatum, Supercross) spends his time in the inner city streets doing what many do there: party, cause trouble, and pull off illegal jobs for some spending money in his pocket.  After Tyler is caught for breaking into and vandalizing a prestigious school for the arts, he is subjected to 200 hours of community service, having to spend his days working as a janitor in the same school he trashed. 

Jenna Dewan (Tamara, Take the Lead) plays Nora, one of the burgeoning star dancers in the school, just weeks before her big senior showcase.  When her boyfriend/rehearsal partner is injured, she has trouble finding a suitable replacement — that is, until Tyler volunteers to step in.  However, Tyler’s moves are all street, while Nora’s are all ballet, so when the two forms collide, one has to budge — or perhaps they can co-exist, if the dancers can merge classical with downtown.

Step Up is a strictly formula dance film, akin to other populist entries like Breakin’, Save the Last Dance, Dance with Me, and Dirty Dancing.  There’s nothing really new that it brings to the table in terms of fresh ideas, mostly existing as a means to sell soundtracks.  Given the good selection of new music by popular artists, I suspect the soundtrack will be a hit, even if the movie they are in is predictable to the point of being quite boring to anyone that has ever seen a dance movie before.

The only other aspect of the film that merits any interest is, of course, the hot dancing, and perhaps to a lesser extent, the hotness of the dancers themselves.  Tatum and Dewan don’t exactly light up the screen, and also don’t display irresistible chemistry, but they do perform their own dance moves with flair, and given what little they had to work with in terms of quality screenwriting, they do the best they can in the acting department.  Duane Adler, who wrote the aforementioned Save the Last Dance, does little but regurgitate the main themes and of that film (sans interracial romance), and given that its predecessor wasn’t that great of a movie, it’s not much of a surprise that Step Up fails as well.

Step Up is full of so many clich?s, it’s the kind of movie that seasoned moviegoers will have to play "Guess the Rip-off" to keep themselves entertained.  Sure, the music and dancing are what get people in the seats, but it’s just not worth having to sit through all of the by-the-numbers plotting and cookie-cutter characterizations for the final five minutes of hot performance.  Like a choreographed dance piece, this one goes through all of the steps, but every move it has, we’ve seen before performed by other, better dancers.  My recommendation, if you absolutely must see it, is to wait for video, where your thumb can bust a move of its own pressing the fast-forward button whenever the characters’ lips start moving.

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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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The Movie:
Roald Dahl’s 1964 children’s book had already been adapted into a feature film once before in 1971 (retitled Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory), to results that delighted both children and adults. When Tim Burton announced his 2005 remake/re-adaptation, many fans were upset at his audacity. How dare he defile such a beloved classic? The plan, the director claimed, was not to remake the previous film (one that he never cared for) at all, but rather to return to the original text and adapt it from scratch. Burton has made a career out of “reimagining” famous literary and cinematic properties by putting his own unique spin on them, sometimes to good effect (Sleepy Hollow) and sometimes decidedly not (Planet of the Apes), so some trepidation was only natural. Fortunately, in this case the pairing of Dahl’s subversive wit with Burton’s warped visual sensibilities turned out to be a nearly ideal match.

In this new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, frequent Burton collaborator Johnny Depp takes over the role of Willy Wonka, the eccentric chocolatier who hosts a most remarkable contest. Hidden in the latest batch of his famous Wonka Bars will be five Golden Tickets granting access to an exclusive tour of his fabulous candy factory. As before, the winning children include gluttonous Augustus Gloop, spoiled Veruca Salt, rude Violet Beauregarde, and obnoxious Mike Teavee (here slightly updated to a video game rather than just television addict). It seems the only of the winners not a miserable brat is our hero Charlie Bucket (played with intelligence by Depp’s Finding Neverland costar Freddie Highmore), an underprivileged boy whose only luxury in life is the one Wonka Bar his family can afford to buy him each year. Inside the factory, the children will be overwhelmed with many fantastic sights and sensations. One of them, Wonka announces, will also win a grand prize to be revealed later. Can you guess which one?

A significantly larger budgeted production than the 1971 film, Burton turns this Chocolate Factory into a digital playground filled with all manner of whiz bang visual effects in the service of his signature surreal style. Although the screenplay is in some ways a more faithful adaptation of Dahl’s text (and some ways not), the director adds plenty of his own unique touches. The result is both true to the writer’s intent and distinctly a Tim Burton film. Among the notable changes since the last movie are the addition of new backstories for Charlie’s father, Grandpa Joe, and Wonka himself which help to flesh out their characters. The new film is also more effectively structured to layer in fantasy elements from the very beginning (Charlie’s house is practically lifted out of a German Expressionist silent) rather than an abrupt transition halfway through as happened previously.

Most dramatically, the character of Willy Wonka has been significantly changed. As portrayed by Gene Wilder, the candy maker was odd but also rather conniving and sometimes mean-spirited. He was always cognizant of his surroundings and had manipulated events to his intended purpose. Depp’s version of Wonka, on the other hand, is almost completely daft, a hilarious mess of neurotic tics and childish pettiness. The actor claims he based on performance on a mixture of children’s television hosts, Howard Hughes, and ’70s glam rockers. All of that may be true, but I expect most viewers will see the resemblance to Michael Jackson. To be fair, it’s my theory that Jackson designed his life on Willy Wonka first.

Practically stealing the movie from right under Depp are the Oompa Loompas, now all played by Deep Roy, one actor digitally replicated several hundred times over. In the prior film the Oompa Loompas were essentially faceless slave labor, but here they’re very distinct, quirky characters who underline each scene with a lot of humor and personality. Their songs, written and performed by Danny Elfman at his Oingo Boingo best, play with a variety of catchy beats in parody of several musical genres.

Did Willy Wonka really need to be remade? Perhaps not, but then again it had been 30 years and what’s the harm in taking a fresh perspective? For some reason, no one seems to have much of a problem when a theatrical play is revived with a new cast and direction, but heaven forbid you should remake a movie that someone once liked. Tim Burton’s new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may not necessarily replace the Gene Wilder version in the minds of all fans, but it makes a surprisingly worthy addendum to it.

The HD DVD:
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory debuts on the HD DVD format courtesy of Warner Home Video.

HD DVD discs are only playable in a compatible HD DVD player. They will not function in a standard DVD player or in a Blu-Ray player. Please note that the star rating scales for video and audio are relative to other High Definition disc content, not to traditional DVD.

Video:
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory HD DVD is encoded on disc in High Definition 1080p format using VC-1 compression. The movie’s theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio has been slightly opened up to fill a 16:9 frame with negligible impact to the composition.

I expected a lot from this movie’s High Definition transfer but found it rather disappointing. The picture is soft upon soft upon soft, distractingly so. Detail and texture are only fair even in the best scenes. I will concede that this is at least partly, if not mainly, inherent to the movie’s style. I remember it looking similar when I saw the film theatrically, but at the time assumed that the theater was projecting it out of focus. It’s also obvious in a number of scenes that certain characters’ faces have been digitally smoothened to give them a waxy sheen. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that. I find it harder to believe, however, that even the opening credits and all on-screen text are meant to look so soft and dull. It appears that the entire image was digitally filtered after-the-fact. Artistic intent is one thing, but the picture here is just so processed and flat that I can’t understand any reasonable sense for it.

It’s a shame, because the phantasmagoric colors on this disc are really wonderful. Rich, vibrant, and deep, they leap off the screen in ways that I wish the rest of the picture did. Contrasts and black level are a little light; if not necessarily objectionable, this does contribute to the overall sense of flatness. Film grain is visible in many scenes, which is frankly surprising considering how filtered, processed, and digitally tweaked everything is.

The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory HD DVD is not flagged with an Image Constraint Token and will play in full High Definition quality over an HD DVD player’s analog Component Video outputs.

Audio:
The movie’s soundtrack is provided in Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 format. For some reason, the disc producers chose to also include a music-only track in lossless Dolby TrueHD format, but not one for the main soundtrack itself.

On the DD+ mix, Danny Elfman’s score and songs fill the soundstage with expansive presence and dynamic range. Intelligibility of his song lyrics comes across better than the theater where I first saw the film, but are still a little obscure. The sound design incorporates many wacky sound effects and an immersive surround presence, which are all very satisfying. There’s a bit of room for improvement in fidelity, however, and I wish a lossless TrueHD track could have been provided for the entire soundtrack rather than just the music-only feature.

Subs & Dubs:
Optional subtitles ? English, English captions for the hearing impaired, French, or Spanish.
Alternate language tracks - N/A

Extras:
The disc automatically opens with a lengthy HD DVD promo that can fortunately be skipped but is a nuisance. The interactive menus are accompanied by annoying clicking sound effects for every selection that can be turned off if you desire (and I recommend it). Most of the bonus features on this HD DVD title are recycled from the DVD edition and are presented in Standard Definition video with MPEG2 compression.

All of the important supplements from the 2-disc Deluxe Edition DVD have carried over. Although most of the featurettes are short, they’re surprisingly informative and worthwhile.

• Chocolate Dreams (7 min.) ? An overview of Burton’s vision for the film. Interesting to learn is that the project was in development long before the director was brought on. Roald Dahl’s widow is an executive producer and claims to be quite happy with the finished product (Dahl himself disliked the older movie).
• Different Faces, Different Flavors (11 min.) ? Discussion of the casting for the picture. This is primarily a big love fest for Johnny Depp, but also emphasizes the importance of finding the right children.
• Designer Chocolate (10 min.) ? A look at the movie’s elaborate production design and costumes.
• Under the Wrapper (7 min.) ? Analysis of the visual effects, both practical (quite a few miniatures were used) and CG.
• Sweet Sounds (7 min.) ? Danny Elfman describes in entertaining fashion the development of his songs.
• Becoming Oompa Loompa (7 min.) ? A peek at how Deep Roy was multiplied into hundreds of characters. The amount of work required to achieve a convincing effect is a testament to the actor’s dedication. Surprisingly, we learn that in addition to the digital replication a number of animatronic Loompas were also used on set.
• Attack of the Squirrels (10 min.) ? The production’s animal trainers discuss the extraordinary lengths they went to in preparing the film’s weirdest set-piece. A squirrel requires approximately two thousand repetitions of an action to learn it. Animatronic and digital squirrels were also incorporated into the sequence.
• The Fantastic Mr. Dahl (18 min.) ? A biography of the author originally produced for the BBC.
• Pre-vis Augustus Gloop Dance (2 min.) ? Footage from the rough CG animated staging of the first musical number.
• Pre-vis Mike Teevee Dance (2 min.) ? Similar to the above, but with some actor rehearsal footage mixed in.
• Club Reel (3 min.) ? A pointless dance remix video that was distributed to clubs in Europe.
• Theatrical Trailer (2 min.)

Missing from the DVD are some interactive games and DVD-Rom content. None are significant losses. New to the HD DVD are:

• Audio Commentary - For some reason this track didn’t make the cut for the DVD, so we’re hearing it for the first time here. Unfortunately, to say that this is one of Tim Burton’s better commentaries isn’t much of a compliment. He seems to be a little more collected and prepared than usual, but the track still has too many lengthy gaps of silence.
• In-Movie Experience - Subtitled “Television Chocolate”, this implementation of the IME feature consists of pop-up trivia, interviews, and behind-the-scenes footage overlayed onto the screen while the movie plays. Like most of Warner’s other IME tracks, content here is sometimes frustratingly spotty. Unfortunately, this disc has not been mastered with the ability to skip around to each new piece using the Left and Right arrow buttons on the remote, as was available on the Terminator 3 HD DVD for example.
• Music-only Track - Danny Elfman’s music and songs have been isolated in lossless Dolby TrueHD quality. Personally, I’d have preferred the movie’s main soundtrack to get this treatment instead.

Final Thoughts:
Call it a remake, a re-adaptation, or whatever you choose, Tim Burton’s re-envisioning of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is great fun and stands up very well along side its predecessor. I found the High Definition picture quality disappointing, and the choice of providing a music-only track in Dolby TrueHD quality but not the main soundtrack perplexing, but this HD DVD has a good selection of bonus features and rates a worthy recommendation.

Related Articles:
Finding Neverland (HD DVD)
Sleepy Hollow (HD DVD)
Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride (Blu-ray)
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (HD DVD)
HD Review Index
High-Def Revolution ? DVDTalk’s HD Column
Toshiba HD-A1 HD DVD Player

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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Modigliani Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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A great Modernist gets conventionally romanticized in Mick Davis’ ‘Modigliani.’ In “Modigliani,” Andy Garcia plays the Italian painter Amedeo Modigliani, major figure in European Modernism, tubercular party animal and fixture of the Montparnasse cafe circuit in the early part of the 20th century. Scottish director Mick Davis has likened 1919 Paris to “the rock and roll of that time.” And if a portrait of the artist as a proto-David Lee Roth appeals, then “Modigliani” is for you. Davis isn’t the first to be seduced by the connection between artistic genius and hedonistic excess. (Modigliani, “Modi” to friends, enjoyed smoking hash, drinking naked and brawling.) Nor is he the first to be attracted to the notion of a community of 24-hour bohemian party people. But I’m pretty sure he’s the first to depict Pablo Picasso as a precursor to Jon Lovitz, and Utrillo, Soutine and Rivera as the Three Stooges. ADVERTISEMENT Modigliani may have been noted for his drunken volatility and arrogance, but once you get a dozen years or so of “Behind the Musics” and “E! True Hollywood Stories” behind you, it’s hard to get worked up about that sort of thing anymore. As Garcia plays him, Modi is the kind of monster-of-rock who swaggers into a cafe and immediately elicits sighs, murmurs and spontaneous applause. He doesn’t trash hotel rooms, but close. In an early scene, he’s introduced to a wealthy New York art dealer described by a lover as having “a lot of money, but no taste.” When the dealer expresses an interest in his work, the artist flings the money in his face and stalks out of the room. (The gesture is especially baffling, not only because it would suggest a degree of low self-esteem not otherwise evident in Garcia’s portrayal, but because the chronically ill, not-yet-famous Modigliani was as hard up as they came.) The story loosely spans the last three years of the artist’s life, from his first meeting with the young art student Jeanne Hebuterne (played by Elsa Zylberstein, a swan-necked French actress who bears a striking resemblance to a Modigliani portrait) in 1917 to their deaths in 1920. It was a hectic period, which Davis loosely scrambles and compresses for the sake of expediency. The couple produced a daughter, Modi’s health steadily declined, his first solo show was shut down by the police, he expired and Jeanne, eight months pregnant with their second, flung herself from a window the following day. Apparently surmising this was not quite drama enough for a movie, Davis has devoted a large portion of the film to a mostly invented rivalry between Modi and Picasso, who go mano a mano for the top cash prize in the “Salon des Artistes.” (This may be a reference to Modigliani’s inclusion in the Salon d’Automne in the final months of his life, one of several important group exhibitions throughout Europe that included Modigliani’s work in his lifetime.) In between bouts of drinking and getting up in the grill of Jeanne’s father — here a symbol for all the anti-Semitism in Paris — Modi prepares for his big face-off with the famous Spaniard, played by Omid Djalili as a petulant buffoon in a bad rug. (For her portrayal of Picasso’s Russian wife, Olga, supermodel Eva Herzigova borrows heavily from Natasha of “Rocky & Bullwinkle,” and Romania stands in for Paris, unconvincingly.) Davis takes pains to infuse the solitary and introspective act of painting with as much testosterone as possible, a move that culminates in an unfortunate painting-as-sex montage set to a techno-chorale in which Rivera, Utrillo, Soutine and Modigliani climax simultaneously. Deeply silly and tendentious, “Modigliani” is a sincere attempt to construct a myth from shopworn notions about artistic genius that isn’t made any fresher by lines like the one the unwed teen mother Jeanne lays on a priest. “Forgive me father, I fell in love, is that a sin?” To which the priest, who must have just wandered in from the church of Hallmark down the street, replies, “No, my dear, the sin would be not to have loved at all.” Scenes like these are a disservice to the memory of a painter as talented and interesting as Modigliani, who unlike Picasso doesn’t have dozens of alternate portrayals to counter the image of himself suddenly channeling De Niro and leaning into his father-in-law’s ear to snarl, “Grandpapa, I’ll be watching you.” But what’s done is done. As Jeanne’s mother says, “You can’t change destiny.” I’m not sure what that means, but it sure sounds like art. ‘Modigliani’ MPAA rating: R for some language and drug use Times guidelines: The usual famous-artist debauchery, conventionally romanticized Distributed by Bauer Martinez Studios. Director Mick Davis. Producer Philippe Martinez, Stephanie Martinez, Andre Djaoui, Alan Latham. Screenplay by Mick Davis. Running time: 2 hours, 8 minutes.
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Big Fish Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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Big Fish Reviewed By Erik Childress Posted 12/25/03 16:58:44

"When The Legend Becomes Fact…Eh, You Should Know The Rest" (Worth A Look)

At some point during Big Fish you?ll likely find yourself in the shoes of William Bloom, the son who has heard his father?s tall tales one too many times. You?ll think you?ve seen this story before too, a reminiscence of a man who fancifully recalls a past that not only seems to influence history, but is just too good to be true. Subtract a few years, a few more IQ points, give the guy a bench and you get the familiar picture. It?s the connection though with William in the film?s closing scenes that we want to have in our own lives that ultimately makes Tim Burton?s new tall tale such a truly special experience.The time-tested bond between a father and his son is never without its share of rocky moments. William Bloom (Billy Crudup) just once would like to hear something out of his father?s mouth that isn?t splashed with a dose of surrealistic fantasy. As a journalist always on the lookout for facts, his father?s ramblings rank somewhere along the lines of Stephen Glass. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney, worthy of another Oscar nomination) has never apologized for his fanciful storytelling. His tall tales are a way of simply entertaining and metaphoring the eccentricities of life with the events of his youth. Or maybe he truly believes what he?s shoveling. It?s towards the end of his life now and William, estranged from his father since a blow-up on his wedding night, is coming home to finally put some pieces together. Through Edward?s words we are taken back into his past where a young Edward (Ewan McGregor, quickly becoming a cinematic treasure) was once a ?big fish in a small pond?; a well-known jock and all-around successful young man. Soon, he will be thrust into the real world (as real as Edward?s mind would allow anyway) as he guides a gentle giant (Matthew McGrory) out of town and into his own adventures.Earning his keep at a traveling circus under the watchguard and tutelage of the ringmaster (Danny DeVito), Edward fancifully recalls meeting Sandra, the love of his life (played by Alison Lohman and then Jessica Lange, who shines in just a few brief scenes). The efforts Edward goes through to woo the young beauty makes us romantic and hopeful for both our own future and that of our parents? original courtship.Episodic in its technique to weave this yarn, it would be unfair to unveil every journey that the elder Bloom steps into. Somewhere just south of the midway point of this path though, we begin longing for where fiction ends and reality begins. Perhaps its instinctual to place us into William?s way of thinking instead of just making him another ?daddy didn?t love me? victim, but we?re just as eager to connect-the-dots.John August?s screenplay (reportedly a very tough adaptation from Daniel Wallace?s original novel) slyly forces us to pay attention since the subtleties of Edward?s tales aren?t entirely spelled out for our consumption. Most (but not all) of the strands come together in William?s late visit to one of the characters left behind in his father?s world. It doesn?t account for everything but it slowly brings William and ourselves to understanding his father. By the time Robert Guillame?s family doctor comes around to wisely explain the reality of actual reality, we?re set-up for one of the grand emotional climaxes in this or any year. The double-duty of the finale is enough to bring any disbeliever around. The idea that Big Fish is some kind of turning point towards maturity for Tim Burton (a mid-life crisis like backhanded observation that also befell Steven Spielberg with Hook) is for thumbnosed critics unable to grasp that Burton has been making adult fairy-tales all the way back to Pee-Wee?s Big Adventure. Go look at the other titles in what could now be called ?the trilogy of Ed? (Edward Scissorhands & Ed Wood) and try to sell me that those weren?t films for more mature imaginations. Like Edward says, ?Most men tell you stories straight through. It won?t be complicated. It won?t be interesting, either.?I am incredibly grateful that I had the opportunity to see Big Fish a second time before sitting down to write this review. My first impression was that of a ?Forrest Gump-lite? that both fascinated and frustrated (just like William) before clobbering me with its finale. The subsequent go-around I found myself more like Edward, grasping a surehanded delight of the stories he already knew and wanted to share with others. Then getting clobbered with its finale. Most everyone?s dad has told them anecdotes in their day. Whether we believe them or not, there?s an undeniable instinct that we want to. And he probably hopes that his legacy will live on in some way, either in the tall-tales or the son he leaves behind. In the end, Big Fish gets this bond. And don?t we all want to know how every story ends or, better yet, be able to have a little control of it ourselves? (4.5 out of 5)
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Braveheart Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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Braveheart Reviewed By John Linton Roberson Posted 09/24/99 15:32:03

"The Most Loathsome Historical Epic Ever, or Beating Dead Horses" (Total Crap)

Before I begin: A bias. I hate Mel Gibson. The one time I ever liked his work was his surprisingly good(because it was visceral) portrayal of Hamlet(in an otherwise badly truncated & maimed version). Beyond that, I think he’s a self-obsessed, sexist, homophobic mindless macho goon who so OBVIOUSLY wants to be the next John Wayne. This makes me like him even less: y’see, I hated the FIRST John Wayne. This brainless ego trip deserved to sink like a stone, out of sight forever. Now it’s Best Picture. Which only goes to show the Oscars are shameless horseshit. But we knew that, didn’t we?I was amazed to look at other comments on this film at this site and find them all to be positive. I’d have thought this would have been a PRIME subject of attack. Filling in the gap, here’s the NEGATIVE review of BRAVEHEART. I presume you’ve seen it by now, if you’re reading this, so I’ll only go into plot details as necessary.I’ll get this out of the way: This is an entertaining film if you don’t care at all about the subject whose story it claims to tell. Yes–the cinematography, acting, editing, fight scenes, decor, and other surface items people were well-paid to keep looking good so Gibson would appear he could actually direct–these are all excellent. The scripting, in a very shallow way, is witty–the dialogue, not the hackneyed plot grafted onto history. But I really don’t give a damn. These are the last nice things about the movie you’ll hear in this review. So what’s so wrong with this picture?First, and foremost: Being of descent from Scotland’s Dunndeigh clan, I am heartily offended by the multiple historical inaccuracies shot throughout this piece of shit(these people are paid enough to do research on more than costumes; there is no excuse for this all-too-common insulting carelessness in Hollywood films), and find it surprising that this thing is so popular as it is in Scotland. Merely a few(of many potential) examples:a) It portrayed Robert Bruce, their national hero and liberator of Scotland(and, indirectly, destroyer of Edward II) as a coward, traitor, liar and quisling, which hasn’t any basis in historical fact. (It’s like claiming Lincoln intended to, well, enslave the slaves.) I know a time when Scots would kill you for suggestions like that.b) The then-future queen of England(well, the secondary one), the wife of Edward II, Isabel, could not have had a child by William Wallace. In the film her last stab at Edward I is the knowledge that the king who will succeed his son is in fact Wallace’s child. How cutting! How vicious! How fitting! Too bad Isabel was in fact six years old at the time; if she had an affair with Wallace he was one sick bastard. If it made her pregnant, well, that IS miraculous. Certainly a tribute to Scottish virility!Perhaps the age of consent was lower then. In fact, Wallace did have a taste for young girls, but this was of a very different character than portrayed by Gibson. Perhaps it would’ve made him seem too real.c) Wallace is portrayed as a commoner, to make him all the more noble and heroic. A commoner who was educated in the greatest centers of learning in Europe? Interesting. Touching.But no, commoners in Scotland were like commoners everywhere then; no future, no hope, nothing. Wallace, in fact, was not a commoner. He was Sir William Wallace of Elerslie, the ancient Cragies line; isn’t THAT obscure? Actually evidence is split but most date his family from at least the time of the Norman Conquest, He was a noble. Which was partly why he inspired confidence(vascillating, sure; but what nobles aren’t?) in the nobles of Scotland. No matter how effective he was as a fighter the nobles would not have listened to a man of no rank, because a man of no rank had no land and therefore, in their view, no stake in the fight, and therefore nothing to say that could interest them. Which is sort of how it’s portrayed in the movie, but he was already noble in reality. His family was of low rank within that sphere, true, but they had rank and land. This is a cheap way for Gibson to get the audience’s sympathy; as he walks around with that thick neck, tanned skin(and you don’t see that often in Scotland), he’s got to have something to make him look like the little guy, I suppose.((To me Gibson always had the exact demeanor of every schoolyard bully, and the more heroic he tries to make himself look the worse this effect gets)d) William Wallace died nearly a full decade before Edward I did. It gives Gibson’s character a chance to exact at least an ironic revenge on Longshanks(and provides him a particularly annoying chance to make himself a Christ figure, a directorial act so cheap I’m really shocked nobody has mentioned it), but Longshanks lived to enjoy Wallace’s death. e) His father and brother, and mother, were still alive when he was an adult. As their horrible deaths are portrayed as giving him a cheesily Bruce Wayne-like lifelong obsession with killing the English(which lies dormant but is reignited with the murder of his wife). His brother was in fact head of the family at the time of the events portrayed in the film. The horrible massacre no doubt occurred but Wallace’s father died much later–though under similar circumstances. f) The murder of his beloved. Lovely. Sad. Tragic. Pure fiction. She was killed, true, but this was not the start of his guerilla career. Wallace became a wanted man for murdering two fairly important Englishmen in situations wholly unrelated to romance, when he was about 20. One of them with a fishing pole! I could go on and on…the portrayal of a primitive existence for the Scots in the film, even by the standards of the day, which was hardly the case–the Scottish had a standard of living comparable with anyplace else in Europe, more or less, at the time–and a king, John Balliol, of its own on the throne at the time as well. This has been called by some another attempt by the English to lie about a country it considers lower than itself. I don’t know enough about Australia to know whether it is in fact particularly British in character; I suspect not. But it is full of lies. Some might say this doesn’t matter, it’s just entertainment. Oh, yeah…every fucking second there’s another film about medieval Scotland. I’m so sick of that shit…Gibson: If you bother to make a historical film, you must have found something about the story, as it was, interesting. Why do you feel the need to deny the audience that? Why do you lie to them and give them just one more fucking Robin Hood story? Lazy. Stupid. Unnecessary. I want those 3+ hours of my life back.The truth is very interesting, more interesting than what comes out of screenwriters’ hacked little minds. Just fingers typing and clicking with no mind or heart at all. What a sad, though lucrative, writer’s purgatory that profession must be.And when it is not lying, it is often just hateful. Take Edward II, who was a weak king, unsuited for the post, this is true. He was also homosexual, as portrayed in the film. But Gibson obsesses upon this aspect of Edward II and draws a connection, a necessary, sad, and if you buy it, nauseating connection, between Edward’s homosexuality and his weakness. It’s nothing new to say Mel Gibson is a raving homophobe. But his almost homicidal hatred of them here–the funniest, or at least it appears to have been meant that way, scene in the film is when Edward I throws his son’s lover out of a window. Look at the little queer scream and drop, Gibson seems to be chuckling at us. Oh, very funny. Sure. Personally, in all the instances he’s shown himself to be fiercely threatened by homosexuality(and he seems to at least slip a reference to that in each film he’s in), Gibson seems like the most obvious closet leatherboy on the planet, despite the profusion of offspring he has grown in his wife.Ugly; hateful; but such good cinematography. And if you liked RIVERDANCE and just can’t get enough of pseudo-Celtic kitsch music, this is the soundtrack for you. Avoid this: Watch THE LION IN WINTER or HENRY V instead. Please, for your own good.
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Scary Movie 4 Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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Isn’t it amazing to see just how low some people will stoop if you pay them enough? This is no big revelation to those who watch Jerry Springer on a regular basis. If you don’t, you may be surprised to spot Bill Pullman, Dr. Phil and Shaquille O’Neal among the many formerly respectable celebrities making like orangutans in service of the almighty paycheck. ADVERTISEMENT The occasion is “Scary Movie 4,” the latest in the low-flying movie parody franchise spawned by the Wayans brothers, who wisely bailed out after the second sequel. Shaq and Dr. Phil show up for the pre-opening-titles blackout sketch, a spoof of “Saw” in which the hoops star can’t make a basket and the king of self-help TV disses his whining fan base. This turns out to be one of the sophisticated notions of this fourth installment, which has romantic leads Anna Faris and Craig Bierko lost in some Twilight Zone-ish crossroads of Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds,” Shyamalan’s “The Village” and the Japanese horror flick “Ju-on,” remade Hollywood-style as “The Grudge.” You needn’t have seen any of these movies to get the jokes, which depend on your funny bone’s sensitivity to blind women relieving themselves in public, men kissing and old people displaying their naked bodies. That last sight gag comes courtesy of Leslie Nielsen, who has gone above and beyond the call of duty for director David Zucker. In addition to the 487th unfunny send-up of “Brokeback Mountain,” screenwriter Craig Mazin saves potshots for other targets that may have otherwise gone unnoticed, such as Tom Cruise, Michael Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and President Bush. The wellspring of movies and celebrity is such that the writer of any subsequent “Scary Movie” should not have trouble finding material. The only problem, it would seem, is how to market your product when pitching to an audience not accustomed to counting past three. ‘Scary Movie 4‘ MPAA rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual humor throughout, some comic violence and language A Miramax/Dimension Films release. Director David Zucker. Screenplay Zucker, Craig Mazin, Jim Abrahams, based on characters created by Shawn Wayans & Marlon Wayans & Buddy Johnson & Phil Beauman and Jason Friedberg & Aaron Seltzer. Director of photography Thomas Ackerman. Editors Craig Herring, Tom Louis Lewis. Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes. In general release.
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DOWNLOAD MOVIE Secondhand Lions Just $2.99 for a complete movie! No additional software or browser plug-ins required! You can play them for unlimited number of times whenever you want. Downloaded movies will work perfectly on any PC, DVD player, PDA etc.
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The Movie:





A quirky (good quirky) family drama, “Secondhand Lions” is a charming little film with three excellent lead performances. Most of the story, shown within flashback, takes place in the 1950’s. Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is being taken by his mother (Kyra Sedgwick) to stay a while with uncles Garth (Michael Caine) and Hub (Robert Duvall), who - as legend has it - have a couple million dollars stashed away somewhere in their house. She’s trying to find a rich man to marry, but will certainly settle for trying to stick Walter in the house to try and convince the uncles to include her and him in their will.



Of course, there’s tension almost immediately, as Walter finds himself in a house without a phone or television. The two uncles only have one form of entertainment - using the salesmen who drive up to their house to try and get some of the pair’s cash for target practice. Relatives show up, eager to part the uncles from their money, but Walter seems different to them, simply looking for a family that isn’t provided by his missing mother.



The uncles and Walter eventually do bond, although thankfully, there’s no Big Emotional Speeches. Interestingly enough, “Secondhand Lions” starts to turn in a few unexpected directions. Hub and Garth try to get a lion on their giant property to try and hunt (when I’d guess that the Lion would be the one hunting the two old men), but the beast just sits there. Walter, who has never had a pet before, wants to keep it. The uncles say “yes”, while the lion seems to be thinking, “this little actor might make a good snack later.”



All kidding aside, one of the film’s main subplots has Garth telling the tales of the uncle’s adventures in Africa, where the two engaged in plenty of sword battles and Hub wooed one Princess Jasmine. Yet, others believe that the two were actually bank robers - even taking from Al Capone at one point - and have since settled down to retirement. Maybe there isn’t any fortune. Yet, as Hub says, “Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things that a man needs to believe in most.” The film isn’t entirely interested in telling a flowing story - like one of Garth’s tales, “Secondhand Lions” rambles and seems pieced together with different episodes. However, while the story seems just held together, it certainly has great storytellers behind it.



In his second superb performance of the year (alongside “Open Range”), Duvall does a terrific job bringing strength and convinction to the character of Hub, as he shows a strong outside, but manages to suggest other layers underneath. Caine, who puts on a convincing accent, is the more soft-spoken of the two uncles, yet his intelligent, warm performance is quite compelling. Haley Joel Osment, famed for his role in “Sixth Sense” and last seen in “A.I.” doesn’t quite match up to his two co-stars, but he does a fine job, nevertheless. Also, look for beautiful cinematography from frequent Clint Eastwood collaborator Jack N. Green (”Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil”).



Overall, I liked the film. The film rambles at times, but it rambles like a good, old-fashioned story and proceeds without trying to manipulate. It’s not the sappy, sentimental film that the trailers sold it as (although it hits a few briefly sappy notes), but instead a fine family drama whose highlight is two stellar performances from two of the best actors around. I’m not sure if the movie quite needed all of the elements of the ending, but I really didn’t feel it hurt an otherwise memorable little film.



Note: There is a little bit of violence/scariness that may upset very young viewers, but I think most older children will enjoy this film.




The DVD



VIDEO: “Secondhand Lions” is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen and 1.33:1 pan & scan on the dual-layered side of the disc, with the two options available from the main menu. The presentation is pretty enjoyable, although a few minor issues take this down from the usual New Line standards. Sharpness and detail are certainly not a problem, as the sun-drenched picture offered excellent definition and clarity.



Colors look rich and strongly reproduced, with vivid tones and excellent saturation. Flesh tones are accurate, while black level was quite solid. However, there’s some fairly noticable edge enhancement, which was surprising. The print appeared to be in very fine condition, aside from a bit of soft grain in a few scenes. A few minor compression artifacts showed up, as well. Overall, this is very good, but not great.



SOUND: New Line Home Video presents “Secondhand Lions” in Dolby Digital 5.1-EX. While not exactly “Armageddon”, “Secondhand Lions” does have excellent sound design, for what is largely a dialogue-driven drama. Surrounds kick in occasionally, providing some well-recorded, discrete sound effects and pleasing ambience. Dialogue, music and effects are clearly recorded, and there’s a decent bass punch now and then, as well.



EXTRAS: Writer/director Tim McCanlies provides a fast-talking (but excellent) commentary. Rarely ever stopping to take a breath, McCanlies goes over a great deal of ground, chatting about developing characters, the excitement of working with the three leads, talking about scenes that were deleted (available elsewhere on the DVD) and chatting about problems that arose during shooting. This is a very enthusiastic, enjoyable commentary that has barely a moment of silence.



Flip the DVD over, and you’ll find the remainder of the DVD’s supplements. First off is “Secondhand Lions: One Screenplay’s Wild Ride in Hollywood”. In this 26-minute documentary, writer/director Tim McCanlies takes us on a tour of the development of the screenplay, talking about his inspiration for the characters and then discussing how the script started to get the usual “notes” once a studio started to get interested in it, which dismayed the writer/director to the point where he started sending rather heated messages to the studio executives in charge of the picture. There’s also some very interesting stories about ideas for the film and casting (Redford/Newman, for example) and where the project went after the first studio option expired. Overall, this is an insightful and enjoyable tale of how one film climbed the mountain of the studio system.



Next is a 26-minute “making of” documentary. While this documentary was informative about shooting (talking about shooting the film in-sequence, for example), characters and story, the piece does get a little weighed down at times with all the talk of how wonderful everyone was to work with. Rounding out the documentaries is a short piece on star Haley Joel Osment. A couple of visual effects comparisons are also included.



Finally, we get the film’s trailer and TV spots, as well as trailers for “Elf” and the upcoming Pierce Brosnan/Julianne Moore comedy “Laws of Attraction”. DVD-ROM features, including a script-to-screen viewer, weblinks and more, are also included.



Final Thoughts: A modest hit in theaters, this good-natured and very well-acted family drama gets stellar treatment on DVD from New Line, with excellent supplements and presentation. Highly recommended.



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