Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Al Franken - God Spoke

  • Political satirist Al Franken follows up his best-selling book LIES AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM with this feature film. AL FRANKEN: GOD SPOKE follows the inimitable figure over a two-year period in which he campaigns against George W. Bush's reelection and takes well-aimed swipes at a number of big political targets. Runtime: 84 minutes Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES
An intimate & hilarious behind-the-scenes look at the life of the former saturday night live comedian turned author radio host & political satirist. Studio: New Video Group Release Date: 04/24/2007 Run time: 84 minutesIn God Spoke, Nick Doob and Chris Hegedus (The War Room) shine a light on political satirist Al Franken. The "flaming sword of justice" explains his left-leaning career like this, "They [right-wing pundits] say something ridiculous, and then I subject them to scorn and ridicule." The ! filmmakers, longtime associates of cinéma verité pioneer DA Pennebaker, take a fly-on-the-wall approach towards Franken's activities around the time of the 2004 presidential election and afterwards as he explores a run for the US Senate in 2008. They look at the (unsuccessful) lawsuit Fox News filed against him for swiping their tagline, his involvement in the upstart Air America network, and his dust-ups with Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved, and Bill O'Reilly, who describes him as "a vile human being." Along the way, they follow the Minnesota-born comedian on book tours and speaking engagements, occasionally flashing back to his two-decade long stint on Saturday Night Live. God Spoke is an expansion of the Sundance Channel short The First Amendment Project: Fox vs. Franken and covers some of the same ground as HBO's America Undercover: Left of the Dial. In other words, there isn't a ton of new material here, but this "fair and balanc! ed" profile represents an entertaining introduction to a multi! -talente d individual. Without Franken, it's hard to imagine a place in the world for The Daily Show and other media designed to expose "lies and the lying liars who tell them," as his 2003 bestseller would have it. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Small World Toys Flashlights (The Great Outdoors)

Chasing Liberty

  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • Closed-captioned; Color; DVD; Widescreen; NTSC
While on a diplomatic trip to Europe with her parents, first daughter Anna (Mandy Moore) escapes the secret service and meets mysterious stranger Ben Calder, who also happens to be an undercover agent.Even when she's playing a girl with a head full of air in a plot full of holes, Mandy Moore manages to make Chasing Liberty wholesomely appealing. It's too bad that "wholesome," in this case, means frolicking around Prague, Venice, and Berlin as the U.S. President's daughter, eluding Secret Service agents, defying her second-term President father (Mark Harmon, totally miscast), and trusting complete strangers in a world where potential terrorism seems like nothing more than a pesky distraction. In other words, first daughter Anna Foster (Moore) is a complete idiot, oblivious to danger in a fluffy rom! antic fantasy that's part Roman Holiday (the good part) and part bubble-gum star vehicle. Don't blame Mandy for daring to shed her good-girl image; even her innocent skinnydipping scene was handled by a "butt double," and she's irresistible as she falls for the mutually smitten Secret Service agent (promising newcomer Matthew Goode) assigned to keep her out of harm's way. Another budding romance involving two bickering agents (Annabella Sciorra, Jeremy Piven) is perfunctory at best, but if you're looking for a picturesque, sweet-natured tour of Europe with a pair of likeable lovebirds, Chasing Liberty makes for a pleasantly brief vacation. --Jeff Shannon

For Roseanna : Widescreen Edition

  • Widescreen
This film centers on Marcello, a trattoria proprietor in an Italian village who will stop at nothing to make sure his beloved but ailing wife, Roseanna, realizes her dream of being buried at the local cemetary.Congratulations to director Paul Weiland for taking a stupid premise and creating a truly romantic look at marriage. Mercedes Ruehl is dying of a weak heart, and her husband, Jean Reno, hopes to keep his promise to bury her in their tiny Italian village, despite a lack of room in the cemetery. While he is trying to keep his friends and neighbors out of the local bone yard, she is quietly seeking candidates for his next wife. Many movies treat marriage as a death sentence. For Roseanna looks past daily bickering to the enduring love and warm companionship of well-matched lovers. Clearly defined characters, a disarming dénouement, and passionate performances transform t! he silly plot into a playful valentine. --Rochelle O'GormanCongratulations to director Paul Weiland for taking a stupid premise and creating a truly romantic look at marriage. Mercedes Ruehl is dying of a weak heart, and her husband, Jean Reno, hopes to keep his promise to bury her in their tiny Italian village, despite a lack of room in the cemetery. While he is trying to keep his friends and neighbors out of the local bone yard, she is quietly seeking candidates for his next wife. Many movies treat marriage as a death sentence. For Roseanna looks past daily bickering to the enduring love and warm companionship of well-matched lovers. Clearly defined characters, a disarming dénouement, and passionate performances transform the silly plot into a playful valentine. --Rochelle O'GormanCongratulations to director Paul Weiland for taking a stupid premise and creating a truly romantic look at marriage. Mercedes Ruehl is dying of a weak heart, and her husban! d, Jean Reno, hopes to keep his promise to bury her in their t! iny Ital ian village, despite a lack of room in the cemetery. While he is trying to keep his friends and neighbors out of the local bone yard, she is quietly seeking candidates for his next wife. Many movies treat marriage as a death sentence. For Roseanna looks past daily bickering to the enduring love and warm companionship of well-matched lovers. Clearly defined characters, a disarming dénouement, and passionate performances transform the silly plot into a playful valentine.

The Bang-Bang Club, movie tie-in: Snapshots From a Hidden War

  • ISBN13: 9780465019786
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

A gripping story of four remarkable young menâ€"photographers, friends and rivalsâ€"who band together for protection in the final, violent days of white rule in South Africa.

Most people, upon hearing gunfire, would run away and hide. Conflict photojournalists have the opposite reaction: they actually look for trouble, and when they find it, get as close as possible and stand up to get the best shot. This thirst for the shot and the seeming nonchalance to the risks entailed earned Greg Marinovich, Joao Silva, Ken Oosterbroek, and Kevin Carter the moniker of the Bang-Bang Club. Oosterbroek was killed in township violence just days before South Africa's historic panracial elections. Cart! er, whose picture of a Sudanese child apparently being stalked by a vulture won him a Pulitzer Prize, killed himself shortly afterwards. Another of their posse, Gary Bernard, who had held Oosterbroek as he died, also committed suicide.

The Bang-Bang Club is a memoir of a time of rivalry, comradeship, machismo, and exhilaration experienced by a band of young South African photographers as they documented their country's transition to democracy. We forget too easily the political and ethnic violence that wracked South Africa as apartheid died a slow, spasmodic death. Supporters of the ANC and Inkatha fought bloody battles every day. The white security forces were complicit in fomenting and enabling some of the worst violence. All the while, the Bang-Bang Club took pictures. And while they did, they were faced with the moral dilemma of how far they should go in pursuit of an image, and whether there was a point at which they should stop their shooting and try to i! ntervene.

This is a riveting and appalling book. It is ! simply w ritten--these guys are photographers, not writers--but extremely engaging. They were adrenaline junkies who partied hard and prized the shot above all else. None of them was a hero; these men come across as overweeningly ambitious, egotistical, reckless, and selfish, though also brave and even principled. As South Africans, they were all invested in their country's future, even though, as whites, they were strangers in their own land as they covered the Hostel wars in the black townships. The mixture of the romantic appeal of the war correspondent with honest assessments of their personal failings is part of what makes this account so compelling and so singular among books of its ilk. --J. Riches

Fall Of Shane Mackade (The Mackade Brothers)

  • 1996 - Silhouette Special Edition - Paperback - 1st Edition
  • The Fall of Shane Mackade
  • By Beastselleing Author : Nora Roberts
  • VG Cond - The Mackade Brothers Series
  • Collectible
All their lives, brothers Stephen (Ruffalo) and Bloom (Brody) have perfected the fine art of the con. Now they’re ready for one last spectacular scoreâ€"luring Penelope (Weisz), an eccentric heiress, into an elaborate scheme that takes them around the world. Watch as writer/director Rian Johnson’s (Brick) caper unravels in this brilliant, comedic tale.Writer-director Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom has a lot going for it, like an excellent cast doing good work, fabulous locations, a sumptuous look, and some interesting ideas in a genre that’s rife with possibilities. Somehow, though, the film is a whole that’s less than ! the sum of its parts. We meet siblings Stephen and Bloom, the products of numerous foster homes, at ages 13 and 10, respectively, as they’re starting to develop the skills and savvy that will help them become the full-blown scam-meisters they are when we meet up with them in their thirties (with Mark Ruffalo taking over as Stephen and Adrien Brody as Bloom). It seems Bloom wants to pack it in and live "an unwritten life" free of his brother’s elaborate schemes. But Stephen, who is now accompanied by a sidekick named Bang Bang (Babel’s Rinko Kikuchi, in an amusing, mostly silent performance as what Stephen refers to as "our fifth Beatle"), convinces his younger brother to take part in one last swindle, this one targeting the filthy rich Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz), who lives alone in what’s described as the biggest house on the eastern seaboard. Penelope’s an oddball, to say the least, having overcome a sickly childhood and become a master hobbyist whose s! kills rage from origami and playing six or eight instruments t! o riding a unicycle while balancing two chainsaws. Posing as antiquities dealers, the brothers pull her into a scheme that takes the trio all over the world (Greece, Prague, Montenegro, St. Petersburg, Mexico). Needless to say, complications ensue. Penelope turns out to be pretty good at the con game herself; what’s more, we know from the moment Stephen warns Bloom not to fall in love with her that he’ll quickly do exactly that. For sure, The Brothers Bloom has its high points, with surreal touches and amusing moments that help counterbalance its fairly arch overall tone. But in the end, it feels as if Johnson is trying too hard, sacrificing character for cleverness, and it’s the audience--even those who enjoy and are adept at sorting through the various clues and red herrings to figure out what’s supposedly really happening--that feels conned, or at least finds it difficult to care. --Sam GrahamStudio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 09/29/2009 Rating:! Pg13Writer-director Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom has a lot going for it, like an excellent cast doing good work, fabulous locations, a sumptuous look, and some interesting ideas in a genre that’s rife with possibilities. Somehow, though, the film is a whole that’s less than the sum of its parts. We meet siblings Stephen and Bloom, the products of numerous foster homes, at ages 13 and 10, respectively, as they’re starting to develop the skills and savvy that will help them become the full-blown scam-meisters they are when we meet up with them in their thirties (with Mark Ruffalo taking over as Stephen and Adrien Brody as Bloom). It seems Bloom wants to pack it in and live "an unwritten life" free of his brother’s elaborate schemes. But Stephen, who is now accompanied by a sidekick named Bang Bang (Babel’s Rinko Kikuchi, in an amusing, mostly silent performance as what Stephen refers to as "our fifth Beatle"), convinces his younger brother to t! ake part in one last swindle, this one targeting the filthy ri! ch Penel ope Stamp (Rachel Weisz), who lives alone in what’s described as the biggest house on the eastern seaboard. Penelope’s an oddball, to say the least, having overcome a sickly childhood and become a master hobbyist whose skills rage from origami and playing six or eight instruments to riding a unicycle while balancing two chainsaws. Posing as antiquities dealers, the brothers pull her into a scheme that takes the trio all over the world (Greece, Prague, Montenegro, St. Petersburg, Mexico). Needless to say, complications ensue. Penelope turns out to be pretty good at the con game herself; what’s more, we know from the moment Stephen warns Bloom not to fall in love with her that he’ll quickly do exactly that. For sure, The Brothers Bloom has its high points, with surreal touches and amusing moments that help counterbalance its fairly arch overall tone. But in the end, it feels as if Johnson is trying too hard, sacrificing character for cleverness, and it’s the a! udience--even those who enjoy and are adept at sorting through the various clues and red herrings to figure out what’s supposedly really happening--that feels conned, or at least finds it difficult to care. --Sam GrahamA collection of critical essays on Shakespeare's problematical comedy "Measure for Measure" arranged in chronological order of publication.

Mary Call has promised her dying father to keep her brother and sisters together forever on the mountain, and never to take any help from strangers. She is determined to keep her word. No matter what. At first she is sure she can manage. Romey, Ima Dean, and Devola help gather herbs to sell in town; the riches of the mountains will surely keep the family clothed and fed. But then winter comes, fast and furious, and Mary Call has to learn that the land where the lilies bloom is also a cruel and unforgiving place, and it may take more than a promise to keep her family together.

A New York Times Bestselling ! Author

First published almost a decade ago, the MacKad! e Brothe rs books have long been out of print. Now loyal fans can revisit and new readers can be introduced to the MacKades - each one of them on a collision course with love. When shy professor Rebecca Knight captures the interest of the youngest MacKade brother, The Fall of Shane MacKade can't be far behind.