Friday, December 30, 2011

Gulliver's Travels

  • ISBN13: 9780143119111
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
From the preeminent prose satirist in the English language, a great classic recounting the 4 remarkable journeys of ship's surgeon Lemuel Gulliver. For children it remains an enchanting fantasy; for adults, a witty parody of political life in Swift's time and a scathing send-up of manners and morals in 18th-century England.
This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes! wireless delivery.

Through the eyes of Lemuel Gulliver, Swift’s unforgettable satire takes readers into worlds formerly unimagined. Visit four strange and remarkable lands: Lilliput, where Gulliver seems a giant among a race of tiny people; Brobdingnag, the opposite, where the natives are giants and Gulliver puny; the ruined yet magical country of Laputa; and the home of the Houyhnhnms, gentle horses far superior to the ugly humanoid Yahoos who share their universe.

To say this is a classic of political and social satire is unfair, because Swift INVENTED the genre with this raucous novel. The wayward traveler - Lemuel Gulliver - ends up on a series of bizarrely populated islands. First he is a giant among little people, but then sees the situation reversed when he's surrounded by giants twelve times his size. Next he finds himself in the clouds, in a society of devoted but ultimately hapless mathematicians. Lastly, his journey ! brings him to an island where incredibly noble horses must dea! l with a race of uncouth, reviled ape-men: the Yahoos. The satire is thick and unrelenting, but certainly not specific to the time and situation when Swift wrote it, and thus it has been read and beloved for centuries.To say this is a classic of political and social satire is unfair, because Swift INVENTED the genre with this raucous novel. The wayward traveler - Lemuel Gulliver - ends up on a series of bizarrely populated islands. First he is a giant among little people, but then sees the situation reversed when he's surrounded by giants twelve times his size. Next he finds himself in the clouds, in a society of devoted but ultimately hapless mathematicians. Lastly, his journey brings him to an island where incredibly noble horses must deal with a race of uncouth, reviled ape-men: the Yahoos. The satire is thick and unrelenting, but certainly not specific to the time and situation when Swift wrote it, and thus it has been read and beloved for centuries.To say this is a classic of p! olitical and social satire is unfair, because Swift INVENTED the genre with this raucous novel.

The wayward traveler - Lemuel Gulliver - ends up on a series of bizarrely populated islands. First he is a giant among little people, but then sees the situation reversed when he's surrounded by giants twelve times his size. Next he finds himself in the clouds, in a society of devoted but ultimately hapless mathematicians. Lastly, his journey brings him to an island where incredibly noble horses must deal with a race of uncouth, reviled ape-men: the Yahoos. The satire is thick and unrelenting, but certainly not specific to the time and situation when Swift wrote it, and thus it has been read and beloved for centuries.

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Quiksilver Men's Happy Hour 2 Walkshort, Ash Grey, 33

Furry Vengeance

  • dvd
  • movie
  • dog
Sometimes, four legs are better than two. Dan (Brendan Fraser, The Mummy franchise) just moved his wife and son to the woods to take a new job with a supposedly eco-friendly housing development. But the fur and Dan's temper is sure to fly when the local critters learn of the bleak plans for their forest home and stop at nothing to halt construction. Brooke Shields (TV's Lipstick Jungle ), Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3: Senior Year), Ken Jeong (Knocked Up) and Angela Kinsey (TV's The Office ) co-star in this comedy for the whole family.Humans are out to destroy the forest in the name of progress, but the animals that live there won't go out without a fight. We've seen it before in films like Over the Hedge, but this time it's a green, eco-friendly company versus a very organized group of animals under the leadership of a clever raccoon. Dan (Brendan Fr! aser) is the project manager who has moved his family from Chicago to the middle of an Oregon forest to live on-site in the community's model home. His wife Tammy (Brooke Shields) and son Tyler (Matt Prokop) aren't particularly happy about the move, but how bad can it be for one year? When unforeseen obstacles like an inconveniently located beaver dam threaten to slow progress and put the project over budget, Dan's commitment to eco-friendly methods is tested and his son dubs him a hypocrite. The animals start fighting back in a very organized, conniving way, but all Tammy sees is that Dan is beginning to go a little bit crazy. When phase 2 of the development is unveiled and the opportunity to head up the project, along with a considerable raise, is presented to Dan, he accepts without regard for the forest animals or his family. After suffering everything from a wet crotch resulting from a chewed sprinkler line to repeated skunk sprayings, a run-in with a swarm of bees, an! d an encounter with an insistently pecking crow that almost ge! ts him k illed, Dan begins to reconsider what's really important in life. This basic plot has been the basis of many similar movies, some good, some bad, but Furry Vengeance is such a predictable, superficial gag-fest that it quickly becomes more tiresome than funny--trite doesn't really even begin to describe it. (Ages 7 and older with parental guidance due to some mildly rude humor.) --Tami HoriuchiSometimes, four legs are better than two. Dan (Brendan Fraser, The Mummy franchise) just moved his wife and son to the woods to take a new job with a supposedly eco-friendly housing development. But the fur and Dan's temper is sure to fly when the local critters learn of the bleak plans for their forest home and stop at nothing to halt construction. Brooke Shields (TV's Lipstick Jungle ), Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3: Senior Year), Ken Jeong (Knocked Up) and Angela Kinsey (TV's The Office ) co-star in this comedy for the whole family.Humans are out to destroy the fore! st in the name of progress, but the animals that live there won't go out without a fight. We've seen it before in films like Over the Hedge, but this time it's a green, eco-friendly company versus a very organized group of animals under the leadership of a clever raccoon. Dan (Brendan Fraser) is the project manager who has moved his family from Chicago to the middle of an Oregon forest to live on-site in the community's model home. His wife Tammy (Brooke Shields) and son Tyler (Matt Prokop) aren't particularly happy about the move, but how bad can it be for one year? When unforeseen obstacles like an inconveniently located beaver dam threaten to slow progress and put the project over budget, Dan's commitment to eco-friendly methods is tested and his son dubs him a hypocrite. The animals start fighting back in a very organized, conniving way, but all Tammy sees is that Dan is beginning to go a little bit crazy. When phase 2 of the development is unveiled and the oppor! tunity to head up the project, along with a considerable raise! , is pre sented to Dan, he accepts without regard for the forest animals or his family. After suffering everything from a wet crotch resulting from a chewed sprinkler line to repeated skunk sprayings, a run-in with a swarm of bees, and an encounter with an insistently pecking crow that almost gets him killed, Dan begins to reconsider what's really important in life. This basic plot has been the basis of many similar movies, some good, some bad, but Furry Vengeance is such a predictable, superficial gag-fest that it quickly becomes more tiresome than funny--trite doesn't really even begin to describe it. (Ages 7 and older with parental guidance due to some mildly rude humor.) --Tami HoriuchiSometimes, four legs are better than two. Dan (Brendan Fraser, The Mummy franchise) just moved his wife and son to the woods to take a new job with a supposedly eco-friendly housing development. But the fur and Dan's temper is sure to fly when the local critters learn of the bleak pla! ns for their forest home and stop at nothing to halt construction. Brooke Shields (TV's Lipstick Jungle ), Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3: Senior Year), Ken Jeong (Knocked Up) and Angela Kinsey (TV's The Office ) co-star in this comedy for the whole family.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

The Mistress of Spices

  • Tilo runs a spice store in San Francisco and has a magical gift of seeing into her customers' lives and desires. But, when a handsome, enigmatic American with a secret past enters her store, Tilo s own desires are stirred for the first time. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN Rating: PG-13 Age: 796019802741 UPC: 796019802741 Manufacturer No: 80274
A clash of cultures in the spirit of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING, this modern musical retelling of Jane Austen's classic PRIDE AND PREJUDICE is a hilariously entertaining tale of one girl's unlikely search for love! Sparks immediately fly as a love/hate relationship ignites between a small-town beauty (international star Aishwarya Rai) and a wealthy American (Martin Henderson -- THE RING, TORQUE) who's visiting her modest Indian village. In a swirl of music, dance, and comic misunderstandings, these opposites continue to attract and repel each other! in a riotous romance that spans three continents! Featuring Naveen Andrews (TV's LOST, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) and a memorable performance from top recording artist Ashanti -- love will eventually conquer all in this acclaimed treat from the director of BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM!The exotic sounds, vibrant colors, and ecstatic dancing of Bollywood collide with the cunning storytelling of Jane Austen in Bride & Prejudice (from the writer/director of previous East/West hybrid Bend It Like Beckham). When smart, outspoken Lalita Bakshi (Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai) meets Will Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring), she finds this American businessman arrogant and conceited--but because his best friend is falling in love with her sister, Lalita agrees to travel around India with Darcy. On the trip, a childhood friend of Darcy's named Johnny (Daniel Gillies, Spider-Man 2) both tickles Lalita's fancy and confirms her worst suspicions about Darcy. But as events unfo! ld, Lalita wonders if she hasn't misjudged Darcy--and Johnny. ! Austen f ans will be find much to criticize; Bride & Prejudice transplants the basic plot of Pride & Prejudice to modern India, but not much of Austen's sly wit or her insights about character and society have survived the translation. Henderson, though handsome, lacks the intimidating charisma of previous Mr. Darcys (including Laurence Olivier and Colin Firth). Thank goodness for the delightful Rai, here making her first all-English-language movie. She commands the screen like a true star (unsurprisingly, she's hugely popular in India, and previously starred in a more homegrown Austen adaptation: I Have Found It, based on Sense & Sensibility). For Western audiences unfamiliar with the freewheeling exuberance of Indian movies--wild musical numbers can break out at almost any moment--Bride & Prejudice offers an engaging taste of this fantastic cinematic style. --Bret FetzerThe exotic sounds, vibrant colors, and ecstatic dancing of Bollywood co! llide with the cunning storytelling of Jane Austen in Bride & Prejudice (from the writer/director of previous East/West hybrid Bend It Like Beckham). When smart, outspoken Lalita Bakshi (Indian beauty Aishwarya Rai) meets Will Darcy (Martin Henderson, The Ring), she finds this American businessman arrogant and conceited--but because his best friend is falling in love with her sister, Lalita agrees to travel around India with Darcy. On the trip, a childhood friend of Darcy's named Johnny (Daniel Gillies, Spider-Man 2) both tickles Lalita's fancy and confirms her worst suspicions about Darcy. But as events unfold, Lalita wonders if she hasn't misjudged Darcy--and Johnny. Austen fans will be find much to criticize; Bride & Prejudice transplants the basic plot of Pride & Prejudice to modern India, but not much of Austen's sly wit or her insights about character and society have survived the translation. Henderson, though handsome, lacks! the intimidating charisma of previous Mr. Darcys (including L! aurence Olivier and Colin Firth). Thank goodness for the delightful Rai, here making her first all-English-language movie. She commands the screen like a true star (unsurprisingly, she's hugely popular in India, and previously starred in a more homegrown Austen adaptation: I Have Found It, based on Sense & Sensibility). For Western audiences unfamiliar with the freewheeling exuberance of Indian movies--wild musical numbers can break out at almost any moment--Bride & Prejudice offers an engaging taste of this fantastic cinematic style. --Bret Fetzer(Romance) Tilo runs a spice store in San Francisco and has a magical gift of seeing into her customers' lives and desires. But, when a handsome, enigmatic American with a secret past enters her store, Tilo’s own desires are stirred for the first time.

Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Miracle Match

  • In the spirit of REMEMBER THE TITANS, MIRACLE, and THE ROOKIE, THE MIRACLE MATCH is the incredible story about the men behind one of the all-time greatest upsets in sports history. Two weeks before the 1950 World Cup, a ragtag group of recreational soccer players from St. Louis and New York were chosen to represent the USA in Brazil. Consumed with conflicts personal, cultural, and playing styles t

In the summer of 1950, a most unlikely group was assembled to represent its country in the first soccer World Cup since World War II. The Americans were outsiders to the sport, the underdogs of the event, a 500-to-1 long shot. But they were also proud and loyal men -- to one another, to their communities, and certainly to their country. Facing almost no time to prepare, opponents with superior training, and skepticism from the rest of the world, this ragtag group of unknowns was inspired to a stu! nning victory over England and one of the most thrilling upsets in the history of sports.

Written by critically acclaimed author Geoffrey Douglas, and now a film directed by David Anspaugh (Hoosiers), The Game of Their Lives takes us back to a time before million-dollar contracts and commercial endorsements, and introduces us to the athletes -- the Americans -- who showed the world just how far a long shot could really go.

Jack O’Brien is a high school basketball coach extreme in both his demands and his devotion. With monastic discipline, he has built a powerhouse program that wins state championships year after year while helping propel players to college. He does this as a white suburban guy working exclusively with black city boys who make the daily trek across Boston to attend Charlestown High School, where the last battles of the city’s school desegregation wars were fought a generation ago.

The Assist is a gripping, ! surprising story about fathers, sons, and surrogates, all conf! ronting the narrow margins of urban life. The book follows the players on their hunt for a state title. But it also stays with them, to see how young men who seldom get second chances survive without their coach hovering over them—and how he survives without them.

Wherever you are on earth, it's only a matter of time before you come across children playing soccer. Another five minutes and you will probably find yourself having a ball rolled to your feet as an invitation to join in the game. Soccer is a common language and a culture shared: a joy, a passion, an escape, and an affirmation of identity understood and celebrated by childrenâ€"and their parentsâ€"in every country around the globe.

For this unique collaborative project, soccer writer Tom Watt talked to the world's top players about growing up and falling in love with the game: Argentina's Lionel Messi and Brazil's Gilberto Silva; England's David James and Scotland's Craig Gordon; Italy's Fabio Cannavaro,! Spain's Iker Casillas, and France's Franck RibÉry; South Africa's Benni McCarthy and Nigeria's Nwankwo Kanu; USA's Landon Donovan and Japan's Shunsuke Nakamura; and the world's most famous player, David Beckham.

A Beautiful Game tells their stories, in the players' own wordsâ€"stories of boys who would grow up to be heroes for a new generation of young players and fans. They look back to their childhoods: to their family homes, to their schoolrooms, to the friends they grew up with, and to the places where they first played the game that has made them stars. The players' words are brought to life with over 160 full-color images that offer rare, emotive, and striking insights into childhood all over the world, and celebrate soccer's ability to touch the lives of childrenâ€"and adultsâ€"wherever the beautiful game is played.

Five percent of the originating publisher's revenue from sales of the book worldwide will benefit selected UNICEF sports-relat! ed projects.

In the spirit of REMEMBER THE TITANS, MIRACLE! , and TH E ROOKIE, THE MIRACLE MATCH is the incredible story about the men behind one of the all-time greatest upsets in sports history. Two weeks before the 1950 World Cup, a ragtag group of recreational soccer players from St. Louis and New York were chosen to represent the USA in Brazil. Consumed with conflicts â€" personal, cultural, and playing styles â€" they had mere days to become a team. And then they had to play the British, the best team in the world. Inspired by a newfound belief in the team, their passion and talent turned into pure magic on the field â€" and the unthinkable happened. Filled with heart-stopping action, and featuring Patrick Stewart, this triumphant story is a rousing celebration of the human spirit, love of the sport, and pride of country.The writing-directing team of Angelo Pizzo and David Anspaugh tries to do for soccer what their films Hoosiers and Rudy did for, respectively, basketball and football. Here's another true story, a legenda! ry upset in the early days of the World Cup. In 1950, America hastily forms a team to play against the world. We center on a tight Italian community in St. Louis providing the bulk of the national team. We meet GQ-ready stars led by goalie Frank Borgi (The Phantom of the Opera's Gerald Butler, deftly handling the duties). This brotherhood of players is unfortunately strapped to play off clichés and the movie never really engages us beyond the autumn-tinged scenery. A big part of the blame goes to the narrator telling us what we should be feeling (perhaps because we dumb Americans don't know soccer, er, football, like the rest of the world). No fault in the performance of the narrator/journalist (played by Patrick Stewart as the elder, Terry Kinney as the younger) or the rest of the cast. Perhaps the game is elusive to cinematic grandeur, (how many memorable soccer movies can you name?), but the movie is also tired and slow, something those earlier sports film! s were not. There's only a brief stirring when the earnest Gin! o (Louis Mandylor) has a wedding-date conflict and as the most famous English player of the day, Stanley Mortenson (Gavin Rossdale), patronizes the Americans in a public speech. Perhaps the studio knew they had a cellar dweller; the film was barely released and retitled for home video echoing the moniker of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team. Soccer kids will enjoy the film, but others better stick to Geoffrey Douglas's book, The Game of Their Lives, the film's original title (and mistakenly left on the end credits). --Doug Thomas

Friday, December 16, 2011

Blood Work

  • BLOOD WORK (DVD MOVIE)
"A fast-paced and fascinating ride through a dark and devious period in science, Blood Work is a witty, insightful, and skillfully written book that sheds light on the mysterious story of blood transfusion." --Wendy Moore, author of The Knife Man

On a cold day in 1667, a renegade physician named Jean Denis transfused calf's blood into one of Paris's most notorious madmen. In doing so, Denis angered not only the elite scientists who had hoped to perform the first animal-to-human transfusions themselves, but also a host of powerful conservatives who believed that the doctor was toying with forces of nature that he did not understand. Just days after the experiment, the madman was dead, and Denis was framed for murder.

A riveting account of the first blood transfusion experiments in 17th-century Paris and London, Blood Work gives us a vivid glimpse of! a particularly fraught period in history--a time of fire and plague, empire building and international distrust, when monsters were believed to inhabit the seas and the boundary between science and superstition was still in flux. Amid this atmosphere of uncertainty, transfusionists like Denis became embroiled in the hottest cultural debates and fiercest political rivalries of their day. As historian Holly Tucker reveals, transfusion's detractors would stop at nothing--not even murdering Denis's patient--to outlaw a practice that might jeopardize human souls, pave the way for monstrous hybrid creatures, or even provoke divine retribution.

Taking us from the highest ranks of society to the lowest, from dissection rooms in palaces to the filth-clogged streets of Paris, Blood Work sheds light on an era that wrestled with the same questions about morality and experimentation that haunt medical science to this day.When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI a! gent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of ret! irement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her sister Gloria was murdered it leaves Terry no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a soul. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever learned in his years with the Bureau--as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life... and just one shot at the truth. Blood Work is now a major motion picture from Warner Bros. directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. The movie also stars Anjelica Huston and Jeff Daniels. Blood Work hit bestseller lists nationwide, including those of the New York Times, USA Today, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and Dallas Morning News. It has over 900,000 paperback copies in print.Michael Connelly has been attracting fans by the droves with his hard-boiled, edgy thrillers. A former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Connelly combines a poet's ear fo! r language with a deep understanding of the criminal mind to create dark, dramatic stories that raise the thriller genre to a new level.

In Blood Work, Connelly introduces a new character, Terry McCaleb, who was a top man at the FBI until a heart ailment forced his early retirement. Now he lives a quiet life, nursing his new heart and restoring the boat on which he lives in Los Angeles Harbor. Although he isn't looking for any excitement, when Graciela Rivers asks him to investigate her sister Gloria's death, her story hooks him immediately: the new heart beating in McCaleb's chest is Gloria's.

As McCaleb investigates the evidence in the case, the suspected randomness of the crime gives way to an unsettling suspicion of a twisted intelligence behind the murder. Soon McCaleb finds himself on the trail of a killer more horrifying than anything he ever encountered before. When Ivy met Rachel, the result wasn’t exactly love at first sight. Sparks fl! ew as the living vampire and the stubborn witch learned what i! t meant to be partners. Now Kim Harrison, the acclaimed author of Pale Demon and Black Magic Sanction, turns back the clock to tell the taleâ€"in an original full-color graphic novel.

Hot-as-hell, tough-as-nails detective Ivy Tamwood has been demoted from homicide down to lowly street-crime detail. As if rousting trolls and policing pixies instead of catching killers wasn’t bad enough, she’s also been saddled with a newbie partner who’s an earth witch. It’s enough to make any living vampire bare her fangs. But when a coven of murderous witches begins preying on werewolves, Rachel Morgan quickly proves she’s a good witch who knows how to be a badass.

Together, Ivy and Rachel hit the mean streets to deal swift justice to the evil element among Cincinnati’s supernatural set. But there’s more to their partnership than they realizeâ€"and more blood and black magic in their future than they bargained for.

New York Times bestselling author! Kim Harrison returns to the Hollows with the electrifying follow-up to her acclaimed Pale Demon!

Ritually murdered corpses are appearing across Cincinnati, terrifying amalgams of human and other. Pulled in to help investigate by the I.S. and the FIB, former witch turned day-walking demon Rachel Morgan soon realizes a horrifying truth: a human hate group is trying to create its own demons to destroy all Inderlanders, and to do so, it needs her blood.

She’s faced vampires, witches, werewolves, demons, and more, but humanity itself might be her toughest challenge yet.

New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go.
When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding! anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her ! sister G loria was murdered, it leaves Terry no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a soul. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever learned in his years with the Bureau--as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life...and just one shot at the truth.
Michael Connelly has been attracting fans by the droves with his hard-boiled, edgy thrillers. A former crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, Connelly combines a poet's ear for language with a deep understanding of the criminal mind to create dark, dramatic stories that raise the thriller genre to a new level.

In Blood Work, Connelly introduces a new character, Terry McCaleb, who was a top man at the FBI until a heart ailment forced his early retirement. Now he lives a quiet life, nursing his new heart and restoring the boat on which he lives in Los Angeles Harbor. Although he isn't looking for any excitement, when Graciela Rivers asks him to ! investigate her sister Gloria's death, her story hooks him immediately: the new heart beating in McCaleb's chest is Gloria's.

As McCaleb investigates the evidence in the case, the suspected randomness of the crime gives way to an unsettling suspicion of a twisted intelligence behind the murder. Soon McCaleb finds himself on the trail of a killer more horrifying than anything he ever encountered before. New York Times bestselling author Michael Connelly presents his most ambitious, most gripping achievement to date--a novel of masterly suspense and righteous obsession that will never let you go.
When Graciella Rivers steps onto his boat, ex-FBI agent Terrell McCaleb has no idea he's about to come out of retirement. He's recuperating from a heart transplant and avoiding anything stressful. But when Graciella tells him the way her sister Gloria was murdered, it leaves Terry no choice. Now the man with the new heart vows to take down a predator without a sou! l. For Gloria's killer shatters every rule that McCaleb ever l! earned i n his years with the Bureau--as McCaleb gets no more second chances at life...and just one shot at the truth.
Flannery O'Connor, a unique and important figure in the Southern literary tradition, was one of the finest writers of the twentieth century. This volume, containing her two novels, short stories, essays and letters, is the only complete collection of her works.FBI profiler Terry McCaleb almost always gets to the heart of a case. This time, that heart beats inside him. He’s a cardiac patient who received a murder victim’s heart. And the donor’s sister asks him to make good on his second chance by finding the killer. That’s just the first of many twists in a smart, gritty suspense thriller that’s “vintage Eastwood: swift, surprising and very, very exciting” (Jim Svejda, KNX/CBS Radio). Clint Eastwood produces, directs and stars in this edgy, acclaimed mystery based on Michael Connelly’s novel and scripted by Brian Helgeland (L.A. Confidential). ! With a superb cast brought to a hard boil playing characters to quicken your pulse and hold you spellbound, Blood Work works exceptionally well.Clint Eastwood's Blood Work is a refreshing reminder that Hollywood's young Turks can still learn a lesson from good old-fashioned craftsmanship. Settling into an easygoing groove that recalls his early work in Play Misty for Me, the 72-year-old producer-director-star acknowledges his age by playing a retired FBI profiler and recent heart-transplant recipient. He's recruited by his heart donor's grieving sister (Wanda De Jesus) to find her dead sibling's killer, and personal obligation compels his dutiful but health-risking investigation. From a sharp, sensible script by L.A. Confidential Oscar® winner Brian Helgeland (from Michael Connelly's novel), Blood Work consistently plays to Eastwood's no-nonsense approach, elevating the mystery while giving Jeff Daniels (as Eastwood's neighbor and amateur sidek! ick) a substantial role in the suspenseful proceedings. Some m! ay chuck le at a brief Eastwood-De Jesus love scene, but there's ample proof here that Clint's still got all the right moves. --Jeff Shannon

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Road to Bonneville

  • Feature Run Time: 61 Minutes
  • + Over 45 minutes of Bonus Footage
Faced with the decision of a lifetime, Arvilla Holden (Jessica Lange) hijacks her two best friends (Kathy Bates, Joan Allen) and sets off in a vintage '66 Bonneville convertible across the great American West to deliver her husband’s ashes to her step-daughter. What begins as a simple trip, will end up becoming a chance to rediscover themselves, their friendship, the importance of promises - and of living life to the fullest.Sentimental, but not too sugary, Bonneville proves there's a road movie for every taste and demographic. While the testosterone-fueled Easy Rider took aim at the young and the disaffected, this female-centric offering targets a more mature, less cynical audience. After her husband, Joe, passes away, Arvilla (two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange) faces the prospect of homelessness as he ! neglected to update his will. Her single-minded stepdaughter, Francine (Christine Baranski), now in possession of the property, intends to sell their Pocatello home if she doesn't hand over her father's ashes, so Arvilla and Mormon best friends Margene (Kathy Bates) and Carol (Joan Allen) pile into Joe's refurbished 1966 Bonneville Pontiac convertible with the urn and head to Santa Barbara. On their trip through Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell, the Vegas Strip, and other Western wonders, they meet helpful skateboarder Bo (Victor Rasuk, Raising Victor Vargas) and chivalrous trucker Emmett (Tom Skerritt), who takes a shine to the widowed Margene. Though nothing goes quite as planned, friendship helps smooth the bumpy ride from Idaho to California--and beyond. The characters in Bonneville may be older and wiser than the women of Thelma and Louise or Fried Green Tomatoes, in which Bates appeared, but this smaller-scale effort shares the same sisterly value! s and the central trio establishes a touching rapport. Supplem! ents inc lude a making-of featurette, deleted and alternate scenes, and a short gag reel. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Beyond Bonneville on DVD


Watch Little Miss Sunshine on DVD

Check out Imagine Me & You on DVD



Stills from Bonneville (Click for larger image)



!




Join hot rod builder and filmmaker Brian Darwas as he rides shot gun with two of the most significantly influential hot rod builders of this generation for an epic cross country adventure that you will want to experience again and again. You've heard the stories and you've seen the photographs, but now for the first time you can ride along side of Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell of The Rolling Bones as they travel over 2,300 miles, through ten states from New York to Nevada in their famous 1932 Ford Coupes, "The Wicked Sisters." Pit next to The Hop Up Race Team and The Bean Bandits at what most people consider to be the birth place of hot rodding, The Bonneville Salt Flats. Watch Dan Parker and the other members of The Rolling Bones Race Team hit the salt for Speed Week. Get on the ground with Keith Cornell while he swaps the gears out of a vintage Halibrand rear and stand next to Ken Schmidt as he gets under the hood to re-jet carbs between runs! Peer over the shoulder of renown hot rod photographer Peter Vincent while he shoots two of the world's most beautiful hot rods in one of the world's most beautiful settings, and witness The Rolling Bones hop in George Poteet's '32 roadster and hit speeds of up to 175 miles per hour! Get an in depth look inside the shop at Greenfield Center in New York. Go down to the Maxton Monster Mile in North Carolina for a test run, and travel all the way across the country to Bonneville for the time trails at Speed Week. This film is a true lesson in hot rodding that is not to be missed! - Feature run time approx. 61 minutes + over 45 minutes of bonus features! -

Fat Albert's Greatest Hits The Ultimate Collection

  • The ultimate Fat Albert 4 disc set.
  • Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC.
  • Language: English.
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only.)
  • Run Time: 720 minutes
Hey, Hey, Hey?you?re ?gonna have a good time? watching Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson) and his pals in their first feature-length movie! The beloved animated characters from the ?70s make the leap to live action to help a troubled teenager (Kyla Pratt) as they experience the heartfelt emotions and hilarious absurdities of the real world. Comedy genius Bill Cosby (creator of the original ?Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids? TV show) co-stars in this crowd-pleasing family favorite that?s bursting with fresh hip-hop music and tons of laughs!The bright cartoon colors of the Saturday morning classic Fat Albert get brought into the real world--or a Hollywood facsimile of reality, at any rate. When a t! eenage girl named Doris (Kyla Pratt) sheds a tear onto her TV's remote control, her unhappiness summons Fat Albert (Kenan Thompson, Barbershop 2), Mushmouth, Dumb Donald, Old Weird Harold, and the rest of the gang from Bill Cosby's popular cartoon (inspired by his childhood memories of growing up in Philadelphia). Doris is, to say the least, a little freaked out and doesn't really want Fat Albert to help solve her problems--but with the blithe confidence that only cartoon characters can have, Fat Albert and the gang follow her to school to root out the source of her misery. One of the movie's problems (which are legion) is that Doris's world isn't much more real than the cartoon one; it's a sterile, clean-cut caricature of a city neighborhood. In fact, the whole movie feels suspiciously like a commercial for a DVD of Fat Albert cartoons, an advertisement for which actually appears in the movie, making for a bizarrely self-referential product placement. Thompso! n, surprisingly, hangs on to his dignity in the face of the in! ane proc eedings and even gives Fat Albert a hint of gravitas. --Bret FetzerFat Albert and the Cosby kids aired from 1972 to 1984 and enjoyed one of the longest and most successful runs in Saturday morning cartoon history. Live action bumpers featuring Bill Cosby were set around animated episodes of Fat Albert and the Cosby kids, a series about a group of urban adolescents growing up in a Philadelphia neighborhood. The show was based on Cosby's 60's stand up comedy monologues about his childhood. The episodes revolved around the daily life lessons learned by Fat Albert and his friends. Topics ranged from social issues to personal introspection and were blended with humor and music. Among the many great characters that inhabited Fat Albert's world were Rudy, Mushmouth, Donald, Bill, Weird Harold and Russell. A special collection of these historic episodes were compiled into one box set...The Ultimate Fat Albert 4 Disc Set. This unique piece of memorabilia i! s a collector's item in which many generations will enjoy.
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