Saturday, November 19, 2011

Full Grown Men

Friday: Director's Cut [Blu-ray]

  • Just another day. But what a day. A day that shows a lighter side to life in the hood. That brought Ice Cube (Barbershop) and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) to a wider audience. And that s now even more uproarious in an Extended Director s Cut never before available. It s Friday, and Craig (Cube) and Smokey (Tucker) must come up with $200 they owe a local bully or there won t be a Saturday. Co-writer Cu
Sequel. Craig and Day-Day move back into the hood, where they find jobs as security guards at a strip mall. Hijinks ensue on their first day on the job, which happens to be Christmas Eve.

DVD Features:
3D Animated Menus
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features
Deleted Scenes
Documentaries
Full Screen Version
Gag Reel
Music Video
Other
Theatrical Trailer

Ice Cube (Barbershop) uses his r! elaxed, raffish charm to glide through the third movie in his Friday series. As Craig (Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) sleep in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, a burglar dressed like Santa Claus breaks in and steals their presents and rent. Thus begins a classically bad day full of unsympathetic family members, obnoxious neighbors, squealing pimps, pot smoking, and sexy babes. No one's going to win any awards for this sloppy installment, loaded with preening stereotypes and half-hearted low humor; Cube generally plays straight man and lets the rest of the cast screech, yowl, and contort their faces, their performances as ornate and ritualized as a Japanese Noh play. But if you're a fan, Friday After Next will give you a modest dose of Cube's goofy humor. John Witherspoon and Don "D.C." Curry return as Craig's eternally disgruntled father and uncle. --Bret FetzerIce Cube returns as Craig Jones, a streetwise man from South Central Los Angeles in! this smash hit sequel to the comedy, Friday. Trouble ensues t! his time out as Craig relocates to the suburbs in order to hide from the neighborhood bully, Debo.

DVD Features:
Alternate endings
DVD ROM Features
Gag Reel
Music Video
Theatrical Trailer

Ice Cube wrote and stars as Craig in this sequel to Friday, which he also wrote. His nemesis from that film, neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), has just escaped from county jail and is out to get revenge. To protect Craig, Craig's father (John Witherspoon) sends his son to stay with his Uncle Elroy (Don "DC" Curry), who won the lottery and bought a house in Rancho Cucamonga. Craig expects the suburbs to be dull, but no sooner has he arrived than conflicts arise: The neighbors are hostile hoods, his cousin's girlfriend is out for blood and child support, and the house is about to be seized because of unpaid taxes. It's up to Craig and his cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps) to solve these problems before the day is over.! It's a rambling, loose movie, but a genuinely entertaining one. Ice Cube doesn't write punch lines--though funny lines abound. He writes richly comic characters that speak in virtual arias of bragging, complaining, and scamming. Sure, some of the characters are stereotypes and many of the jokes are about drugs and scatology--but that's been the basis of humor since Plautus and Molière. The rhythmic energy of Ice Cube's dialogue and the easy charisma of his performance make Next Friday thoroughly enjoyable. --Bret FetzerThe complete 3-Pack of the "Friday" movies will have you in stiches. One of the funniest series of movies to ever hit the silver screen.Friday
Friday is that rarest specimen of African American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience. Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no! -frills tale of a day in the life of a pair of young blacks i! n South Central. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament. Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies--all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they are being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty call" environment of '90s African American comedy. --Ethan Brown

Next Friday
Ice Cube wrote and stars as Craig in this sequel to Friday, which he also wrote. His nemesis from that film, neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), has just escaped from county jail and is out for revenge. To protect Craig, Craig's father (John Witherspoon! ) sends his son to stay with his Uncle Elroy (Don "D.C." Curry), who won the lottery and bought a house in Rancho Cucamonga. Craig expects the suburbs to be dull, but no sooner has he arrived than conflicts arise: The neighbors are hostile hoods, his cousin's girlfriend is out for blood and child support, and the house is about to be seized because of unpaid taxes. It's up to Craig and his cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps) to solve these problems before the day is over. It's a rambling, loose movie, but a genuinely entertaining one. Ice Cube doesn't write punch lines, though funny lines abound; he writes richly comic characters that speak in virtual arias of bragging, complaining, and scamming. Sure, some of the characters are stereotypes and many of the jokes are about drugs and scatology--but that's been the basis of humor since Plautus and Molière. The rhythmic energy of Ice Cube's dialogue and the easy charisma of his performance make Next Friday thoroughl! y enjoyable. --Bret Fetzer

Friday After Ne! xt
Ice Cube (Barbershop) uses his relaxed, raffish charm to glide through the third movie in his Friday series. As Craig (Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) sleep in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, a burglar dressed like Santa Claus breaks in and steals their presents and rent. Thus begins a classically bad day full of unsympathetic family members, obnoxious neighbors, squealing pimps, pot smoking, and sexy babes. No one's going to win any awards for this sloppy installment, loaded with preening stereotypes and half-hearted low humor; Cube generally plays straight man and lets the rest of the cast screech, yowl, and contort their faces, their performances as ornate and ritualized as a Japanese Noh play. But if you're a fan, Friday After Next will give you a modest dose of Cube's goofy humor. John Witherspoon and Don "D.C." Curry return as Craig's eternally disgruntled father and uncle. --Bret FetzerTitles include: Friday, Next Friday, Fr! iday After Next, All About The Benjamins Friday
Friday
is the rarest specimen of African American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience. Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no-frills tale of a typical day in the life of a pair of African American youth in South Central. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament. Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies--all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they ar! e being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty ! call" e nvironment of '90s African American comedy. --Ethan Brown

Next Friday
Ice Cube wrote and stars as Craig in this sequel to Friday, which he also wrote. His nemesis from that film, neighborhood bully Debo (Tommy "Tiny" Lister Jr.), has just escaped from county jail and is out to get revenge. To protect Craig, Craig's father (John Witherspoon) sends his son to stay with his Uncle Elroy (Don "DC" Curry), who won the lottery and bought a house in Rancho Cucamonga. Craig expects the suburbs to be dull, but no sooner has he arrived than conflicts arise: The neighbors are hostile hoods, his cousin's girlfriend is out for blood and child support, and the house is about to be seized because of unpaid taxes. It's up to Craig and his cousin Day-Day (Mike Epps) to solve these problems before the day is over. It's a rambling, loose movie, but a genuinely entertaining one. Ice Cube doesn't write punch lines--though fun! ny lines abound. He writes richly comic characters that speak in virtual arias of bragging, complaining, and scamming. Sure, some of the characters are stereotypes and many of the jokes are about drugs and scatology--but that's been the basis of humor since Plautus and Molière. The rhythmic energy of Ice Cube's dialogue and the easy charisma of his performance make Next Friday thoroughly enjoyable. --Bret Fetzer

Friday After Next
Ice Cube (Barbershop) uses his relaxed, raffish charm to glide through the third movie in his Friday series. As Craig (Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) sleep in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, a burglar dressed like Santa Claus breaks in and steals their presents and rent. Thus begins a classically bad day full of unsympathetic family members, obnoxious neighbors, squealing pimps, pot smoking, and sexy babes. No one's going to win any awards for this sloppy installme! nt, loaded with preening stereotypes and half-hearted low hu! mor; Cub e generally plays straight man and lets the rest of the cast screech, yowl, and contort their faces, their performances as ornate and ritualized as a Japanese Noh play. But if you're a fan, Friday After Next will give you a modest dose of Cube's goofy humor. John Witherspoon and Don "D.C." Curry return as Craig's eternally disgruntled father and uncle. --Bret Fetzer

All About the Benjamins
Ice Cube cowrote, produced, and stars in this action caper. Bucum (Cube) is a bounty hunter (get it?) with dreams of big money. Reggie (Mike Epps) is a small-time grifter who also has dreams of big money and is at the top of Bucum's list to boot. Yep, you guessed it: tough guy/funny guy buddy flick. All About the Benjamins is pretty much a by-the-numbers piece of work. There's plenty of macho posturing, gunfire, big-ticket items exploding, and curse words inserted into the script in lieu of actual punch lines. The p! lot has holes big enough to drive a locomotive through, but then again the plot isn't really the point. Epps's attempts at wacky comedy wear thin early on, but Ice Cube does a fine job, and together they do make quite a few moments hit. Best recommended for when you want turn-your-brain-off excitement. --Ali DavisIce Cube (Barbershop) uses his relaxed, raffish charm to glide through the third movie in his Friday series. As Craig (Cube) and Day-Day (Mike Epps) sleep in the wee hours of Christmas Eve, a burglar dressed like Santa Claus breaks in and steals their presents and rent. Thus begins a classically bad day full of unsympathetic family members, obnoxious neighbors, squealing pimps, pot smoking, and sexy babes. No one's going to win any awards for this sloppy installment, loaded with preening stereotypes and half-hearted low humor; Cube generally plays straight man and lets the rest of the cast screech, yowl, and contort their faces, t! heir performances as ornate and ritualized as a Japanese Noh ! play. Bu t if you're a fan, Friday After Next will give you a modest dose of Cube's goofy humor. John Witherspoon and Don "D.C." Curry return as Craig's eternally disgruntled father and uncle. --Bret FetzerJust another day. But what a day. A day that shows a lighter side to life in the ’hood. That brought Ice Cube (Barbershop) and Chris Tucker (Rush Hour) to a wider audience. And that’s now even more uproarious in an Extended Director’s Cut never before available. It’s Friday, and Craig (Cube) and Smokey (Tucker) must come up with $200 they owe a local bully or there won’t be a Saturday. Co-writer Cube, director F. Gary Gray and other innovative movie talents lace the plot with shrewdly hilarious looks at family (including John Witherspoon), a preacher (Bernie Mac), a girl-next-door (Nia Long) and all manner of the good ’N’ bad of life in South Central. This is keepin’-it-real comedy for every day of the week.Friday is the rarest specimen of Af! rican American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience. Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no-frills tale of a typical day in the life of a pair of African American youth in South Central. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament. Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies--all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they are being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty call" environment of '90s African American comedy. --Ethan Brown!

Broken Bridges (Includes VIP Access Bonus Dvd) (Widescreen)

  • Exclusive includes VIP Access Bonus DVD
In this bittersweet story about family, love and redemption, the death of a loved one brings fading country music star Bo Price (Toby Keith) back to his hometown where he is reunited with his childhood sweetheart (Kelly Preston) and meets his 16-year-old daughter for the first time. Can Bo mend the bridges that were broken when he up and left his home and loved ones for fame and fortune? Broken Bridges, starring country superstar Toby Keith, is the Country Music Channel's debut entry into the world of feature films. Though it plays more like a televised movie of the week--complete with an opaque plot, much tears, and a happy ending--Broken Bridges is a guilty pleasure, thanks in large part to the surprising likeability (though not believability) of Keith. The tall singer plays Bo Price, a struggling musician who heads back to his small ho! metown for his younger brother's funeral. There, he runs into his high-school sweetheart Angela Dalton (Kelly Preston) and her teenage daughter Dixie (Lindsey Haun, daughter of Air Supply guitarist Jimmy Haun). It comes as no surprise to the viewer that Dixie is Bo's child--a daughter he never knew he had. Though she doesn't share her father's gruff personality, she did inherit his musical aptitude and stage presence. While Burt Reynolds chews up the scenery as Angela's father, Tess Harper--playing his wife--doesn't get much to do other than look worried. Look for BeBe Winans and Willie Nelson to make guest appearances as themselves. As for Bo and Angela? She makes a feeble attempt to resist her ex's charms by laying down the law. "I came out here to lay down the ground rules," she tells him. "Don't speak to my parents. Don't speak to Angela. And don't speak to me." Rules, of course, are meant to be broken, especially in feel-good movies such as this. --Jae-Ha KimExc! lusive includes "Broken Bridges" and VIP Access Bonus DVD. "Br! oken Bri dges" - In this bittersweet story about family, love and redemption, the death of a loved one brings fading country music star Bo Price (Toby Keith) back to his hometown where he is reunited with his childhood sweetheart (Kelly Preston) and meets his 16-year-old daughter for the first time. Can Bo mend the bridges that were broken when he up and left his home and loved ones for fame and fortune? Exclusive "Broken Bridges Red Carpet VIP Access" Bonus DVD.

The Disappearance of Alice Creed

  • DISAPPEARANCE OF ALICE CREED, THE (DVD MOVIE)
On a suburban street, two masked men seize a young woman. They bind and gag her and take her to an abandoned, soundproofed apartment. She is Alice Creed (Gemma Arterton), daughter of a millionaire. Her kidnappers, the coldly efficient Vic (Eddie Marsan) and his younger accomplice Danny (Martin Compston), have worked out a meticulous plan. But Alice is not going to play the perfect victim â€" she’s not giving in without a fight. In a tense power-play of greed, duplicity and survival we discover that sometimes disappearances can be deceptive…The British thriller The Disappearance of Alice Creed is a taut exercise in psychological manipulation, driven by three forceful performances, most notably actress Gemma Arteton (Clash of the Titans) as the titular abductee. On the surface, Disappearance seems to be cut from familiar ! cloth: ex-cons Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes) and Martin Compston plot out and then execute the kidnapping of Arteton, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, for a sizable ransom. But as the minutes tick by in their dreary holding cell of a flat, relationships develop in unexpected ways, as do shifts in allegiances and motivations. To reveal these seismic changes would be to unleash spoilers of epic proportions, but suffice it to say that few will have expected the film's frenzied conclusion. Directed by first-timer J Blakeson with an eye towards pacing and atmosphere, The Disappearance of Alice Creed should please fans of adult suspense pictures with its smart scripting (by Blakeson) and fearless turns by its cast, especially Arteton in a role that requires her to play, by turns, victim and perpetrator; the DVD includes commentary by Blakeson, who discusses his influences (among them, Alien, interestingly enough), as well as two extended scenes with co! mmentary and a collection of comic outtakes. A five-minute sto! ryboard comparison, which shows preproduction sketches of the opening alongside the finished product, and the stateside trailer round out the extras. --Paul Gaita

Cradle Will Rock

  • As labor strikes break out throughout the country during the 1930s, the art and theater world of New York City is a growing cultural revolution. Nelson Rockefeller (John Cusack) commissions Mexican artist Diego Rivera (Ruben Blades) to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center, while Italian propagandist Margherita Sarfatti (Susan Sarandon) gives Da Vincis to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini w
Powerful and sweeping, the critically acclaimed CRADLE WILL ROCK, starring Hank Azaria, Joan Cusack, John Cusack, Bill Murray, and Susan Sarandon, takes a kaleidoscopic look at the extraordinary events of 1930s America. From high society to life on the streets, director Tim Robbins (DEAD MAN WALKING) brings Depression-era New York City to vivid life. It's a time when DaVincis are given to millionaires who help fund the Mussolini war effort and Nelson Rockefeller commissions Mexican artist Diego Rive! ra to paint the lobby of Rockefeller Center. A time when a young Orson Welles and a troupe of passionate actors risk everything to perform the infamous musical "The Cradle Will Rock." As threats to their freedom and livelihood loom larger, they refuse to give into censorship. Based on actual events, CRADLE WILL ROCK will move you."Based on a (mostly) true story," according to the opening titles, Tim Robbins's dazzling dramatization of one of the great stories in American theater indeed takes a few liberties with history. Ostensibly the story of the mayhem surrounding Marc Blitzstein's worker's opera The Cradle Will Rock, directed by Orson Welles for the WPA at the height of the Depression, Robbins paints a veritable mural around this incident, a city alive with plotting industrialists (John Cusack as Nelson Rockefeller), radical artists (Ruben Blades's Diego Rivera), and struggling citizens (Bill Murray's frustrated vaudeville ventriloquist Tommy Crickshaw). Lightnin! g strikes when the government closes the show before it even o! pens and the cast marches 20 blocks to an empty theater and tosses the staging aside to perform in the aisles, the balconies, and the seats. It's a rare moment of cinema capturing the immediacy and charge of live theater on the screen and it's the heart of Robbins's often exhilarating film. His heroes are Blitzstein (a warm, gently impassioned Hank Azaria) and cheery WPA Theater director Hallie Flanagan (Broadway star Cherry Jones), but in the process he snidely turns Welles and producer John Houseman into sour, silly caricatures. The stew of artistic creation and political action gets murky and at times contradictory, but vivid performances and Robbins' driving pace and staccato crosscutting keep it humming through even the most didactic moments. The songs are by Blitzstein, and the character-rich cast also features Vanessa Redgrave, Susan Sarandon, John Turturro, Emily Watson, and Philip Baker Hall. --Sean Axmaker

Empire (Tor Science Fiction)

  • ISBN13: 9780765355225
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Imperialism as we knew it may be no more, but Empire is alive and well. It is, as Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri demonstrate in this bold work, the new political order of globalization. It is easy to recognize the contemporary economic, cultural, and legal transformations taking place across the globe but difficult to understand them. Hardt and Negri contend that they should be seen in line with our historical understanding of Empire as a universal order that accepts no boundaries or limits. Their book shows how this emerging Empire is fundamentally different from the imperialism of European dominance and capitalist expansion in previous eras. Rather, today's Empire draws on elements of U.S. cons! titutionalism, with its tradition of hybrid identities and expanding frontiers.

Empire identifies a radical shift in concepts that form the philosophical basis of modern politics, concepts such as sovereignty, nation, and people. Hardt and Negri link this philosophical transformation to cultural and economic changes in postmodern society--to new forms of racism, new conceptions of identity and difference, new networks of communication and control, and new paths of migration. They also show how the power of transnational corporations and the increasing predominance of postindustrial forms of labor and production help to define the new imperial global order.

More than analysis, Empire is also an unabashedly utopian work of political philosophy, a new Communist Manifesto. Looking beyond the regimes of exploitation and control that characterize today's world order, it seeks an alternative political paradigm--the basis for a truly democra! tic global society.

(20010723)Empire is a sweepin! g book w ith a big-picture vision. Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri argue that while classical imperialism has largely disappeared, a new empire is emerging in a diffuse blend of technology, economics, and globalization. The book brings together unlikely bedfellows: Hardt, associate professor in Duke University's literature program, and Negri, among other things a writer and inmate at Rebibbia Prison in Rome. Empire aspires to the same scale of grand political philosophy as Locke or Marx or Fukuyama, but whether Hardt and Negri accomplish this daunting task is debatable. It is, however, an exciting book that is especially timely following the emergence of terrorism as a geopolitical force.

Hardt and Negri maintain that empire--traditionally understood as military or capitalist might--has embarked upon a new stage of historical development and is now better understood as a complex web of sociopolitical forces. They argue, with a neo-Marxist bent, that "the multitude" will ! transcend and defeat the new empire on its own terms. The authors address everything from the works of Deleuze to Jefferson's constitutional democracy to the Chiapas revolution in a far-ranging analysis of our contemporary situation. Unfortunately, their penchant for references and academese sometimes renders the prose unwieldy. But if Hardt and Negri's vision of the world materializes, they will undoubtedly be remembered as prophetic. --Eric de Place In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most ! remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the ep! ic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon spec! ifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroadsâ€"a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is metic! ulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all! , thrill ingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.

The British Empire was the largest in all history: the nearest thing to world domination ever achieved. By the eve of World War II, around a quarter of the world's land surface was under some form of British rule. Yet for today's generation, the British Empire seems a Victorian irrelevance. The time is ripe for a reappraisal, and in Empire, Niall Ferguson boldly recasts the British Empire as one of the world's greatest modernizing forces.An important new work of synthesis and revision, Empire argues that the world we know today is in large measure the product of Britain's Age of Empire. The spread of capitalism, the communications revolution, the notion of humanitarianism, and the institutions of parliamentary democracy-all these can be traced back to the extraordinary expansion of Britain's economy, population, and culture from the seventeenth centur! y until the mid-twentieth. On a vast and vividly colored canvas, Empire shows how the British Empire acted as midwife to modernity.Displaying the originality and rigor that have made him the brightest light among British historians, Ferguson shows that the story of the Empire is pregnant with lessons for today-in particular for the United States as it stands on the brink of a new era of imperial power, based once again on economic and military supremacy. A dazzling tour de force, Empire is a remarkable reappraisal of the prizes and pitfalls of global empire.
At its peak in the nineteenth century, the British Empire was the largest empire ever known, governing roughly a quarter of the world's population. In Empire, Niall Ferguson explains how "an archipelago of rainy islands... came to rule the world," and examines the costs and consequences, both good and bad, of British imperialism. Though the book's breadth is impressive, it is not intended to be! a comprehensive history of the British Empire; rather, Fergus! on seeks to glean lessons from this history for future, or present, empires--namely America. Pointing out that the U.S. is both a product of the British Empire as well as an heir to it, he asks whether America--an "empire in denial"--should "seek to shed or to shoulder the imperial load it has inherited." As he points out in this fascinating book, there is compelling evidence for both.

Observing that "the difficulty with the achievements of empire is that they are much more likely to be taken for granted than the sins of empire," Ferguson stresses that the British did do much good for humanity in their quest for domination: promotion of the free movement of goods, capital, and labor and a common rule of law and governance chief among them. "The question is not whether British imperialism was without blemish. It was not. The question is whether there could have been a less bloody path to modernity," he writes. The challenge for the U.S., he argues, is for it to use its undisput! ed power as a force for positive change in the world and not to fall into some of the same traps as the British before them.

Covering a wide range of topics, including the rise of consumerism (initially fueled by a desire for coffee, tea, tobacco, and sugar), the biggest mass migration in history (20 million emigrants between the early 1600s and the 1950s), the impact of missionaries, the triumph of capitalism, the spread of the English language, and globalization, this is a brilliant synthesis of various topics and an extremely entertaining read. --Shawn Carkonen

The American Empire has grown too fast, and the fault lines at home are stressed to the breaking point. The war of words between Right and Left has collapsed into a shooting war, though most people just want to be left alone.

The battle rages between the high-technology weapons on one side, and militia foot-soldiers on the other, devastating the cities, and overrunning the countrysid! e. But the vast majority, who only want the killing to stop, a! nd the n ation to return to more peaceful days, have technology, weapons and strategic geniuses of their own.

When the American dream shatters into violence, who can hold the people and the government together? And which side will you be on?

Orson Scott Card is a master storyteller, who has earned millions of fans and reams of praise for his previous science fiction and fantasy novels. Now he steps a little closer to the present day with this chilling look at a near future scenario of a new American Civil War.

The Goonies

  • Following a mysterious treasure map into a spectacular underground realm of twisting passages, outrageous booby-traps and a long-lost pirate ship full of golden dubloons, the kids race to stay one step ahead of a family of bumbling bad guys. and a mild-mannered monster with a face only a mother could love. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG Age: 085391163
Following a mysterious treasure map into a spectacular underground realm of twisting passages, outrageous booby-traps and a long-lost pirate ship full of golden dubloons, the kids race to stay one step ahead of a family of bumbling bad guys... and a mild-mannered monster with a face only a mother could love.You may be surprised to discover that the director of the Lethal Weapon movies and scary horror flick The Omen, Richard Donner, also produced and directed this classic children's adventure (which, by the! way, was written by Donner's screen-wizard friend Steven Spielberg). Then again you may not. The Goonies, like Donner's other movies, is the same story of good versus evil. It has its share of bad guys (the Fratelli brothers and their villainous mother), reluctant-hero good guys (the Walsh bothers and their gang of friends), and lots of corny one-liners. Like in an old-fashioned Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew plot, the Goonies need to solve a problem: a corrupt corporate developer has bought out their neighborhood and plans to flatten all their homes. Luckily, the beloved gang stumbles on a treasure map. In the hopes of finding the treasure to buy back their houses, the Goonies embark on their quest through underground passages, aboard pirate ships, and behind waterfalls. This swashbuckling and rollicking ride was also a great breeding ground for a couple of child actors who went on to enjoy numerous successes in adulthood: Sean Astin (Rudy, Encino Man) and ! Martha Plimpton (Pecker, 200 Cigarettes). --S! amantha Allen Storey

Gangster No 1 [Blu-ray]

  • UK Import
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"Fascinating" (The Hollywood Reporter) and "sensational" (Los Angeles Times), this bold, innovative thriller chronicles the bloody, single-minded climb of a barbarous crime lord to power. Starring Malcolm McDowell (A Clockwork Orange), Paul Bettany (A Beautiful Mind), David Thewlis (Naked) and Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea), Gangster No. 1 enters the psyche of an unrepentant mobster and reveals the madman within. Bettany gives "a brilliantly eerie, star-making performance" (American Film Institute) as a ruthless mobster who slugs, claws and kills his way to the top. But when he learns that the former mentor (Thewlis) he put in prison is about to get out, this self-made monster must not only face a man whose life he ruined but the twisted remnants of his own demented conscience as well.This glinting, scalding gangland phantasmagoria offers a sort! of funhouse-mirror refraction of the life and career of a British hooligan so elemental in his right villainy that he's merely identified as "Gangster." The action begins in 1999, with Malcolm McDowell brutishly savoring his eminence as a crime lord; but more of the film is taken up with an extended flashback to 1968, when his youthful self--played by Paul Bettany (but voiced by McDowell during private reveries)--got his start. Bettany's patron is Freddie Mays, "the Butcher of Mayfair" (David Thewlis), a comparatively suave rotter whom "Young Gangster" more or less simultaneously worships, emulates, and craves to see destroyed. Director Paul McGuigan layers the eras and personalities in a kaleidoscope of jagged stylization (occasionally the image shatters like glass, then hellishly reconstitutes itself). The effect is less to tell a proper story than to suspend us in a state of mind--and a homage to McDowell's landmark role in A Clockwork Orange. But it does exert a! n unclean fascination. --Richard T. JamesonWhen a young! gangste r (Paul Bettany) starts working for gang leader Freddie Mays (David Thewlis), known as the Butcher of Mayfair, he dreams of being everything that Freddie is: smooth, sophisticated, impeccably dressed, always with the right women, and driving the fanciest cars. Freddie takes the young gangster (unnamed in the film but listed as Gangster 55 in the credits) under his wing as a potential war with a rival gang starts to heat up. After Freddie falls for Karen (Saffron Burrows), whom 55 had his eye on, the young gangster lies in wait for an opportunity to change things, and when that moment comes, he leaves a bloodbath of betrayal in his wake. Paul McGuigan's GANGSTER NO. 1 is framed by scenes set in the present, where the aging 55, played with delicious villainy by Malcolm McDowell, narrates the tale of his younger self's rise to power in Soho in the late 1960s. Bettany is a revelation as 55, who seems to enjoy a bit of the old ultraviolence now and again; when he tells a potential victim (or even a friend) to look into his eyes, it is hard for the audience as well not to be mesmerised--and scared out of their wits. McGuigan's fast-paced direction includes creative split screens, extreme close-ups, fireballs coming right at the viewer, and a sweeping handheld camera all set to a swinging 1960s score.This glinting, scalding gangland phantasmagoria offers a sort of funhouse-mirror refraction of the life and career of a British hooligan so elemental in his right villainy that he's merely identified as "Gangster." The action begins in 1999, with Malcolm McDowell brutishly savoring his eminence as a crime lord; but mo! re of the film is taken up with an extended flashback to 1968, when his youthful self--played by Paul Bettany (but voiced by McDowell during private reveries)--got his start. Bettany's patron is Freddie Mays, "the Butcher of Mayfair" (David Thewlis), a comparatively suave rotter whom "Young Gangster" more or less simultaneously worships, emulates, and craves to see destroyed. Director Paul McGuigan layers the eras and personalities in a kaleidoscope of jagged stylization (occasionally the image shatters like glass, then hellishly reconstitutes itself). The effect is less to tell a proper story than to suspend us in a state of mind--and a homage to McDowell's landmark role in A Clockwork Orange. But it does exert an unclean fascination. --Richard T. Jameson
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