Sunday, November 27, 2011

Cocaine Cowboys

  • The cocaine trade of the 70s and 80s had an indelible impact on contemporary Miami. Smugglers and distributors forever changed a once sleepy retirement community into one of the world s most glamorous hot spots, the epicenter of a $20 billion annual business fed by Colombia s Medellin cartel. By the early 80s, Miami s tripled homicide rate had made it the murder capital of the country, for which a
COCAINE COWBOYS - DVD MovieMore of a real-life exploitation film than a bonafide documentary, Cocaine Cowboys is tailor-made for anyone who worships Brian De Palma's Scarface. It's no surprise that this slick, energetic film found a niche audience among crime-obsessed hip-hoppers; from a journalistic perspective it's an irresponsible mess, but director Billy Corben is obviously more interested in capturing the thrills and danger of the drug trade that transformed Miami, Florida during ! the Miami Vice era of the late 1970s and '80s. Corben has no particular interest in seriously examining the sociopolitical implications of Miami's drug-fueled rise and fall, so Cocaine Cowboys lives up to its title by focusing on some of the most colorful, daring, and outrageously successful survivors of that era, when tons of cocaine were distributed through Miami by the kingpins of Colombia's notorious Medellin cartel. Chief among the many interviewees are Jon Roberts and Mickey Munday (who personally transported over $2 billion worth of cocaine into Miami) and Jorge "Rivi" Ayala, a convicted drug-trade assassin now serving consecutive life terms in prison. They're lively storytellers who are egotistically eager to share their coke-tales, and Corben's only too happy to capture their exploits on film, up to and including the dubious use of violent reenactments that could easily serve as a recruitment film for Tony Montana wannabes.

It's simultaneously dis! gusting and compelling, especially since Corben has a knack fo! r matchi ng swift editing to the pulsing score by TV's original Miami Vice composer Jan Hammer. In the final analysis, it must be said that Cocaine Cowboys succeeds as a brash and breathtaking record of a bygone era, when murder rates were at an all-time high, coke was everywhere, and Miami was financially transformed into a nightlife mecca where criminals were kings. Or queens, as in the case of Griselda Blanco, the ruthless and self-appointed "Godmother" of the cocaine trade, who was responsible for countless murders and as of 2007 remained at large, her whereabouts unknown. All of this deadly life in the fast lane makes for a fascinating movie, but Corben and coproducer David Cypkin's breathless commentary makes it clear that they're young, immature thrill-seekers, and their film makes no apologies for glorifying the drug trade while exploring its bloody and frequently fatal consequences. Their commentary also accompanies an abundance of deleted scenes, and there's a! lso a bonus featurette, "Hustlin' with the Godmother," in which Griselda Blanco's former lover and big-time coke dealer Charles Cosby tells his story, which clearly has all the makings of a Hollywood movie along the lines of Blow. You can bet that film will eventually be made, and don't be surprised if it's Corben who makes it. --Jeff Shannon

Pullman Holt B200752 Gloss Boss Mini Floor Scrubber

The Dead Girls' Dance (Morganville Vampires, Book 2)

How to Lose Friends & Alienate People : Widescreen Edition

  • Widescreen
HOW TO LOSE FRIENDS AND ALIENATE PEOP - DVD MovieHow to Lose Friends and Alienate People may just be the first true British film--and a splendid one at that--to be set on American soil. The fearless actor Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a Fleet Street hatchet writer tapped to come to the States to join the literati, and glitterati, at a big, fat, glossy magazine--every resemblance of which to Vanity Fair is strictly intentional. Sidney is possibly the most annoying man in the Western world, tilting at nonexistent windmills. His character calls to mind many of the hapless charmers played by Hugh Grant--but Pegg, without Grant's raffish good looks, comes across as simply hapless. Which is perfect casting, since Sidney is supposed to be enormously aggravating, especially when he first lands in New York. In his first few days in the city, Sidney puts off the first magazine coll! eague he met (Kirsten Dunst, in a top-flight comic turn), wears a wildly inappropriate T-shirt on his first day of work, spritzes fast food onto the designer white suit of a relative of the publisher, and picks up a tranny hooker. And things go downhill from there. On his first magazine assignment, Sidney, checking captions for a photo page, calls a powerful publicist. "Is he the fat one?" Sidney asks the publicist about one of her clients. Silence. "Well, is he the one with the wonky eye, then?" Pegg is a scream as Sidney, playing quite a different role than his starring one in Shaun of the Dead. Dunst is delicate but steely, and her comedic timing, under the deft direction of Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm), is spot on. Great supporting work, too, by editor Jeff Bridges, whose enthrallment to the power elite, and silver mane, channel Graydon Carter; by Gillian Anderson, as a take-no-prisoners publicist; and by Megan Fox, a starlet cast as a bosom-heav! ing Mother Teresa. Sidney, and the film, will win you over, wi! th a lot of laughter along the way.--A.T. HurleyUK Import Blu-Ray/Region All pressing. Please note the special features are in the PAL format and not viewable on US PS3/standard Blu-Ray players. The main feature is viewable on all players however.How to Lose Friends and Alienate People may just be the first true British film--and a splendid one at that--to be set on American soil. The fearless actor Simon Pegg plays Sidney Young, a Fleet Street hatchet writer tapped to come to the States to join the literati, and glitterati, at a big, fat, glossy magazine--every resemblance of which to Vanity Fair is strictly intentional. Sidney is possibly the most annoying man in the Western world, tilting at nonexistent windmills. His character calls to mind many of the hapless charmers played by Hugh Grant--but Pegg, without Grant's raffish good looks, comes across as simply hapless. Which is perfect casting, since Sidney is supposed to be enormously aggravating, especially when he! first lands in New York. In his first few days in the city, Sidney puts off the first magazine colleague he met (Kirsten Dunst, in a top-flight comic turn), wears a wildly inappropriate T-shirt on his first day of work, spritzes fast food onto the designer white suit of a relative of the publisher, and picks up a tranny hooker. And things go downhill from there. On his first magazine assignment, Sidney, checking captions for a photo page, calls a powerful publicist. "Is he the fat one?" Sidney asks the publicist about one of her clients. Silence. "Well, is he the one with the wonky eye, then?" Pegg is a scream as Sidney, playing quite a different role than his starring one in Shaun of the Dead. Dunst is delicate but steely, and her comedic timing, under the deft direction of Robert B. Weide (Curb Your Enthusiasm), is spot on. Great supporting work, too, by editor Jeff Bridges, whose enthrallment to the power elite, and silver mane, channel Graydon Carter; by ! Gillian Anderson, as a take-no-prisoners publicist; and by Meg! an Fox, a starlet cast as a bosom-heaving Mother Teresa. Sidney, and the film, will win you over, with a lot of laughter along the way.--A.T. HurleyThe movie tie-in edition of Toby Young's bestselling memoir of self-sabotage at Vanity Fair.

With a major motion picture of How to Lose Friends and Alienate People about to be released (starring Simon Pegg, Kirsten Dunst, and Jeff Bridges), there has never been a better time to savor this laugh-out-loud memoir from everyone's favorite "professional failurist." In his dishy assault on New York's A-list, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, Toby Young lands a job at Vanity Fair--and proceeds to work his way down Manhattan's food chain.

In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan--Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour--so why couldn't he?But things didn't quite go acc! ording to plan. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity Fair, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him.How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is also a "nastily funny read." --USA Today
In 1995 high-flying British journalist Toby Young left London for New York to become a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Other Brits had taken Manhattan--Alistair Cooke, Tina Brown, Anna Wintour--so why couldn't he?But things didn't quite go according to pla! n. Within the space of two years he was fired from Vanity F! air, banned from the most fashionable bar in the city, and couldn't get a date for love or money. Even the local AA group wanted nothing to do with him.How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is Toby Young's hilarious and best-selling account of the five years he spent looking for love in all the wrong places and steadily working his way down the New York food chain, from glossy magazine editor to crash-test dummy for interactive sex toys. A seditious attack on the culture of celebrity from inside the belly of the beast, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People is also a "nastily funny read." --USA Today
dvd

The Marx Brothers Collection (A Night at The Opera/A Day at The Races/A Night in Casablanca/Room Service/At the Circus/Go West/The Big Store)

  • Condition: New
  • Format: DVD
  • Box set; Black & White; DVD; NTSC
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 01/12/2010 Run time: 110 minutes Rating: RThe remarkable documentary Brothers at War begins with a simple premise: Jake Rademacher wants to understand the experience of his younger brothers Isaac and Joe, both serving in the American military in Iraq. What unfolds proves amazingly complex, fusing a troubled family history (another Rademacher brother died at home), wrenching interviews with wives and girlfriends left behind, and a startlingly unfiltered portrait of on-the-ground soldiers in the middle of a combat zone. Because the filmmaker is already part of these people's lives, he's able to capture a kind of emotional nakedness you don't often see; when Joe's girlfriend talks about how Joe's military service has changed him, a window opens into her life that's! almost uncomfortably intimate. Because of his relationship to one of their comrades, the soldiers in Iraq accept Jake in a completely different way than they'd respond to a typical journalist. They don't present a manicured image; Jake films them talking about why they're there, how they treat girls, shooting people (one soldier describes nearly shooting a child who was carrying a toy gun), and watching The O.C. Driven by sibling rivalry, Jake even puts himself in harm's way by going out on combat missions. Brothers at War doesn't have an ideology. Soldiers in the field defend each other out of personal solidarity, not abstract ideas; the same impulse drives this movie forward. It's unlike any other war documentary and can't be recommended strongly enough. --Bret FetzerBROTHERS AT WAR is Jerold S. Auerbach's probing and poignant exploration of the tragedy of the Altalena, the doomed ship whose arrival in Israel ignited Jewish fratricidal conflict only ! weeks after its declaration of statehood in 1948. The destruct! ion of t he Altalena, with sixteen of its fighters killed by Israeli soldiers in a bitter two-day battle, threatened the new nation with civil war. This is the first history of the Altalena by a historian and the first to locate it within the context of ancient Jewish and contemporary Israeli history. The Altalena remains embedded in Israeli memory, Auerbach suggests, still framing unresolved issues of political legitimacy and will in the Jewish state. This new book tells the story, and the present profound implications, of a moment in the birth of modern Israel that has angles and repercussions relevant to many issues today, in Israel and beyond.This set includes seven of only thirteen Marx Brothers films ever made! Collection includes: "A Night at the Opera" (1935) - The Marx Brothers turn Mrs. Claypool's opera into chaos in their efforts to help two young hopefuls get a break. It contains the famous scene where Groucho, Chico and Harpo cram a ship's stateroom with wall-to-! wall people, gags, one-liners, musical riffs and two hard-boiled eggs. "A Day at the Races" (1937) - Groucho stars as Hugo Z. Hackenbush, a horse veterinarian dispensing horse pills and quips with equal glee. Chico selling racing tips, Harpo destroying a piano to turn it into a harp and favorite foil actress Margaret Dumont make this thoroughbred comedy wall-to-wall hilarity. "A Night in Casablanca" (1946) - This parody of the Bogart/Bergman 1943 classic features the Nazis vs. the "nutsies" as the Marx Brothers foil Axis criminals when they find stolen jewels and paintings Nazis have hidden in a hotel. "Room Service"/"At the Circus" - These two films are combined on one disc to provide double doses of laughter. In "Room Service" (1938), Lucille Ball and Ann Miller provide comic co-star support while the Marx Brothers play producers trying to keep their show above water and a hotel room over their head. In "At the Circus" (1939) Groucho stars as professional shyster lawyer J! . Cheever Loophole in the middle of big-top bedlam as the boys! try to save the circus and look to Margaret Dumont for the money to do so. Groucho sings one of his famous songs, "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." "Go West"/"The Big Store" - Another Marx Brothers twin bill makes this a hilarious comedy "two-fer." In the first, the Marxmen "Go West" (1940) to the land of outlaws and Indians where the fun never stops and where they outwit a land grabber. In "The Big Store" (1941), Groucho plays Attorney Wolf J. Flywheel who with sidekick Wacky (Harpo) and bodyguard Ravelli (Chico) are investigating the shady dealings of a crooked department store owner. Bonus extras include commentary by Leonard Maltin.When it comes to long-awaited treats like The Marx Brothers Collection, you can never get too much of a good thing. These seven comedies can't compare to the sheer lunacy of the five classics (The Cocoanuts, Animal Crackers, Monkey Business, Horse Feathers, and Duck Soup) that the Marx Bros. made for Paramount betwe! en 1929 and 1933 (available in The Marx Brothers Silver Screen Collection), but when uber-producer Irving Thalberg signed Groucho, Harpo, and Chico to an MGM contract in 1935 (by which time sibling costar Zeppo had become the team's off-screen manager), he knew just how to cure their box-office blues. As a result, A Night at the Opera and A Day at the Races were critical and commercial hits, lavishly produced according to the "Tiffany" studio's golden-age formula of glamorous set pieces and musical numbers combined with sensible plots that smoothly integrated snappy, well-written Marxian antics. Opera is the jewel of this set, with timeless scenes (the Stateroom, the Groucho-Chico contract negotiation, etc.) that rank among the greatest bits of silver-screen comedy... not to mention Groucho's flirtatious insults at Margaret Dumont's upper-crust expense.

A Day at the Races deserves near-equal acclaim ("Get-a your tootsie-fruitsie ice cre! am!"), but Thalberg's death in 1937 dealt a devastating blow, ! and the Marxes suffered from studio indifference, resulting in a succession of comedies that are timelessly enjoyable even as they fall prey to diminishing returns. By the time they made Go West and The Big Store, the Marxes were out of their element, and a few of the musical interludes indulge racial stereotypes that were common in the studio era. Despite this, these movies remain fresh and frantic, and Warner Bros. (holder of the RKO and MGM libraries) has done a marvelous job of packaging The Marx Brothers Collection to nostalgically approximate the filmgoing experience of the 1930s and '40s, with vintage shorts (Our Gang, Robert Benchley comedies, MGM cartoons, etc.) from the time of each feature's original release. Archival materials are slim but worthwhile (especially Groucho's 1961 interview with TV talk-show host Hy Gardner), and while Glenn Mitchell's commentary on Races is sparse and superficial, Leonard Maltin brings his usual superfan's enthus! iasm and encyclopedic knowledge to bear on a full-length Opera commentary track. The new documentaries are somewhat redundant, but essential viewing for Marx Bros. neophytes. With all seven films presented in pristine condition, this is definitely a Marx Brothers Collection worth having. --Jeff Shannon

Flipped [Blu-ray]

  • FLIPPED BLU-RAY/DVD/DIGI (BLU-RAY DISC)
When second-graders Bryce and Juli first meet, Juli knows it’s love. Bryce isn’t so sure. In the days and years ahead, Bryce (Callan McAuliffe) does all he can to keep his wannabe girlfriend at arm’s length â€" and the smart, independent-minded Juli (Madeline Carroll) continues to give him the benefit of the doubt. This tender coming-of-age romantic comedy from director Rob Reiner takes the pair from grade school to junior high, through triumph and disaster, family drama and first love, as they make discoveries that will define who they are â€" and who they are to each other.Even if you're not a child of the early '60s, Flipped's tale will resonate with your heart. Director Rob Reiner treats viewers to a sweet but honest glimpse into the lives of a young girl and boy during the early 1960s as they maneuver through first crushes and heartbre! ak. Reiner once again shows he understands how to put together a compelling, yet simple, human story. We meet Juli Baker (Madeline Carroll) and Bryce Loski (Callan McAuliffe) on the day Bryce's family moves across the street from Juli's. Told by "flipping" between Juli and Bryce's voices, a tale of early childhood love emerges. Juli loves Bryce's baby blues from the first moment she sees them and she just knows he's holding onto her first kiss. Bryce thinks Juli, who raises chickens and loves the neighborhood sycamore tree, is weird. The story doesn't merely flip between the two stories, though. In 1963, the year eighth grade comes around, Juli begins to wonder if there's any substance behind those baby blues… just as Bryce starts to see Juli's eccentricities as endearing instead of embarrassing. Sweetly reminiscent without a saccharine aftertaste, the overall story is perhaps a tad predictable but is skillfully directed and acted--the families are played by a supporting ! cast of recognizable names, including Aidan Quinn, Anthony Edw! ards, Re becca De Mornay, Penelope Ann Miller, and John Mahoney--so that you don't mind getting exactly what you expect. Based on the novel of the same name by Wendelin Van Draanen. --Jill CorddryStudio: Castle Rock Hm Video Release Date: 11/23/2010 Rating: PgEven if you're not a child of the early '60s, Flipped's tale will resonate with your heart. Director Rob Reiner treats viewers to a sweet but honest glimpse into the lives of a young girl and boy during the early 1960s as they maneuver through first crushes and heartbreak. Reiner once again shows he understands how to put together a compelling, yet simple, human story. We meet Juli Baker (Madeline Carroll) and Bryce Loski (Callan McAuliffe) on the day Bryce's family moves across the street from Juli's. Told by "flipping" between Juli and Bryce's voices, a tale of early childhood love emerges. Juli loves Bryce's baby blues from the first moment she sees them and she just knows he's holding onto her first kiss. Bry! ce thinks Juli, who raises chickens and loves the neighborhood sycamore tree, is weird. The story doesn't merely flip between the two stories, though. In 1963, the year eighth grade comes around, Juli begins to wonder if there's any substance behind those baby blues… just as Bryce starts to see Juli's eccentricities as endearing instead of embarrassing. Sweetly reminiscent without a saccharine aftertaste, the overall story is perhaps a tad predictable but is skillfully directed and acted--the families are played by a supporting cast of recognizable names, including Aidan Quinn, Anthony Edwards, Rebecca De Mornay, Penelope Ann Miller, and John Mahoney--so that you don't mind getting exactly what you expect. Based on the novel of the same name by Wendelin Van Draanen. --Jill Corddry