Dreamcatcher

• Four young friends perform a heroic act and are changed forever by the uncanny powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they are overtaken by a blizzard, a vicious storm in which something much more ominous moves. Challenged to stop a deadly alien force, they confront an unparalleled horror, with the fate of the world in the balance. Format: DVD MOVIE G

Four young friends perform a heroic act and are changed forever by the uncanny powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they are overtaken by a blizzard, a vicious storm in which something much more ominous moves. Challenged to stop a deadly alien force, they confront an unparalleled horror, with the fate of the world in the balance.Regardless of its critical roasting, Dreamcatcher is a must-see for Stephen King fans. In adapting King's epic novel (itself an ama! lgam of familiar King plotlines), director Lawrence Kasdan and cowriter William Goldman sacrificed much of the character depth that gave the story its crucial humanity, resulting in a tame frightfest about four longtime friends (Damian Lewis, Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant) whose past--and a shared gift of telepathy--connects them to a present-day alien invasion in the snowy forests of Maine. Like an ambitious episode of The X-Files, this slick production offers slimy "weasels" that gestate in human bowels; ominous aliens who seize control of bodies and minds; a secret military strike (led by Morgan Freeman) against the invaders; and enough gross-out humor to satisfy jaded horror buffs. Unfortunately, it just isn't scary. Despite its A-list advantages, Dreamcatcher works best as a glorified B-movie, likely to benefit from lowered expectations. --Jeff ShannonOnce upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brav! e thing. It was something that changed them in ways they could! never b egin to understand.

Dreamcatcher

Twenty-five years after saving a Down's-syndrome kid from bullies, Beav, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy -- now men with separate lives and separate problems -- reunite in the woods of Maine for their annual hunting trip. But when a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented and mumbling something about lights in the sky, chaos erupts. Soon, the four friends are plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world where their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past -- and in the Dreamcatcher.

Never before has Stephen King contended so frankly with the heart of darkness. Dreamcatcher, his first full-length novel since Bag of Bones, is a powerful story of astonishing range that will satisfy fans both new and old.Stephen King fans, rejoice! The bodysnatching-aliens tale Dreamcatcher is his first book in years that slakes our hunger for hor! ror the way he used to. A throwback to It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher is also an interesting new wrinkle in his fiction.

Four boyhood pals in Derry, Maine, get together for a pilgrimage to their favorite deep-woods cabin, Hole in the Wall. The four have been telepathically linked since childhood, thanks to a searing experience involving a Down syndrome neighbor--a human dreamcatcher. They've all got midlife crises: clownish Beav has love problems; the intellectual shrink, Henry, is slowly succumbing to the siren song of suicide; Pete is losing a war with beer; Jonesy has had weird premonitions ever since he got hit by a car.

Then comes worse trouble: an old man named McCarthy (a nod to the star of the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers) turns up at Hole in the Wall. His body is erupting with space aliens resembling furry moray eels: their mouths open to reveal nests of hatpin-like teeth. Poor Pete trie! s to remove one that just bit his ankle: "Blood flew in splatt! ery fans as Pete tried to shake it off, stippling the snow and the sawdusty tarp and the dead woman's parka. Droplets flew into the fire and hissed like fat in a hot skillet."

For all its nicely described mayhem, Dreamcatcher is mostly a psychological drama. Typically, body snatchers turn humans into zombies, but these aliens must share their host's mind, fighting for control. Jonesy is especially vulnerable to invasion, thanks to his hospital bed near-death transformation, but he's also great at messing with the alien's head. While his invading alien, Mr. Gray, is distracted by puppeteering Jonesy's body as he's driving an Arctic Cat through a Maine snowstorm, Jonesy constructs a mental warehouse along the lines of The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Jonesy physically feels as if he's inside a warehouse, locked behind a door with the alien rattling the doorknob and trying to trick him into letting him in. It's creepy from the alien's view, too. As he infiltrates ! Jonesy, experiencing sugar buzz, endorphins, and emotions for the first time, Jonesy's influence is seeping into the alien: "A terrible thought occurred to Mr. Gray: what if it was his concepts that had no meaning?"

King renders the mental fight marvelously, and telepathy is a handy way to make cutting back and forth between the campers' various alien battlefronts crisp and cinematic. The physical naturalism of the Maine setting is matched by the psychological realism of the interior struggle. Deftly, King incorporates the real-life mental horrors of his own near-fatal accident and dramatizes the way drugs tug at your consciousness. Like the Tommyknockers, the aliens are partly symbols of King's (vanquished) cocaine and alcohol addiction. Mainly, though, they're just plain scary. Dreamcatcher is a comeback and an infusion of rich new blood into King's body of work. --Tim Appelo DREAMCATCHER - DVD MovieRegardless of its critical roasting, Dream! catcher is a must-see for Stephen King fans. In adapting K! ing's ep ic novel (itself an amalgam of familiar King plotlines), director Lawrence Kasdan and cowriter William Goldman sacrificed much of the character depth that gave the story its crucial humanity, resulting in a tame frightfest about four longtime friends (Damian Lewis, Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant) whose past--and a shared gift of telepathy--connects them to a present-day alien invasion in the snowy forests of Maine. Like an ambitious episode of The X-Files, this slick production offers slimy "weasels" that gestate in human bowels; ominous aliens who seize control of bodies and minds; a secret military strike (led by Morgan Freeman) against the invaders; and enough gross-out humor to satisfy jaded horror buffs. Unfortunately, it just isn't scary. Despite its A-list advantages, Dreamcatcher works best as a glorified B-movie, likely to benefit from lowered expectations. --Jeff Shannon

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Volver

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• AC-3; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

Writer/director Pedro Almod??var's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning "All About My Mother", and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic ?Ångel (Gael Garc??a Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, ?Ångel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memo! ries-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almod??var the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. "--Steve Wiecking"Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruell! y intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefu! lly unfu rls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve WieckingWriter/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love! he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve WieckingWriter/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice ac! tor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in whic! h he's d etermined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve WieckingWomen on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown Pedro Almodovar broke into the art-house mainstream with this wild, manic comedy about a gaggle of women and their various problems with men, be they married lovers, cheating husbands, fiancés, or terrorists. Almodovar's long-time leading lady, Carmen Maura, stars as an actress (famed for her laundry detergent commercial as the mother of a slo! ppy serial killer) who's just been dumped by her married lover. In the midst of trying to track him down for a face-to-face confrontation, she crosses paths with her lover's son (Antonio Banderas), his unbalanced wife (Julieta Serrano), and his new girlfriend (Kiti Manver). Adding more fuel to the fire is the hapless friend (Maria Barranco) who got involved with a Shiite terrorist and is now being hunted by the police. Almodovar, a master of farcical screwball comedy, manages to keep all these balls in the air in dizzy, hilarious style without once losing his momentum. Chock full of the director's over-the-top stylization, in terms of both story and sets, the film is a hilarious yet heartfelt marriage of kitsch and drama, verging on parody but never going entirely over the top. Maura is absolutely breathtaking as the unhinged lover, dispensing wise advice to others while trying to keep a semblance of sanity, and the supporting cast is quintessential Almodovar, including a b! rief but memorable turn by Banderas in what could have been a ! bland, g o-nowhere role. Nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1989. --Mark Englehart

All About My Mother After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About M! y Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces all human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. ----Bret Fetzer

!

Talk to Her
Writer-director Pedro Almodóvar makes another masterpiece with Talk to Her, his first film since the wonderful All About My Mother. Marco (Dario Grandinetti) is in love with Lydia (Rosario Flores), a female bullfighter who is gored by a bull and sent into a coma. In the hospital, Marco crosses paths with Benigno (Javier Camara), a male nurse who looks after another coma patient, a young dancer named Alicia (Leonor Watling). From Benigno's gentle attentiveness to Alicia, Marco learns to take care of Lydia... but from there, the story goes in directions that deftly manage to be sad, hopeful, funny, and creepy, sometimes at the same time. The rich human empathy! of Almodóvar's recent films is passionate, heartbreaking, intoxicating--there aren't enough adjectives to praise this remarkable filmmaker, who is at the height of his powers. Talk to Her is superb, with outstanding performances from all involved. --Bret Fetzer

The Flower of My Secret
Pedro Alomodóvar made this misfired, rambling comedy about a romance novelist (Marisa Paredes) whose crumbling marriage has left her depressed and unable to work. At a low point, she writes a scathing indictment of her own books (which are penned under another name), with no one realizing critic and auth! or are one and the same. Almodóvar ( Law of Desire) ha! s the st art of a great idea here, and for once, he's direct about his sympathy for a character. But nothing else about The Flower of My Secret is so clear. Despite its unusual allegiance to the straightforward "women's films" of the 1950s, this movie blows it by becoming needlessly complicated over extraneous junk, forcing one to grope in the dark for Almodóvar's point. -- Tom Keogh

Bad Education
Writer/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic ! Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice actor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in which he's determined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. -- Steve Wiecking

Mo! re Still s from Pedro Almodovar Classics Collection(click for larger image)

More Pedro Almodovar at Amazon.com

Songs of Almodóvar CD

Volver

The Films of Pedro Almodóvar

A single mother in Madrid sees her only son die on his 17th birthday as he runs to seek an actress's autograph. She goes to Barcelona to find the lad's father, a transvestite named Lola who does not know he has a child. First she finds her friend, Agrado, also a transvestite; through him she meets Rosa, a young nun bound for El Salvador, and by happenstance becomes the personal assistant of Huma Rojo, the actress her son admired. She helps Huma manage Nina, the co-star and Huma's lover, and she becomes Rosa's caretaker during a dicey pregnancy. With echoes of Lorca, All About ! Eve, and A Streetcar Named Desire, the mothers (and! fathers and actors) live out grief, love, and friendship.After her son is killed in an accident, Manuela (Cecilia Roth) leaves Madrid for her old haunts in Barcelona. She reconnects with an old friend, a pre-op transsexual prostitute named La Agrado (Antonia San Juan), who introduces her to Rosa (Penélope Cruz), a young nun who turns out to be pregnant. Meanwhile, Manuela becomes a personal assistant for Huma Rojo (Marisa Paredes), an actress currently playing Blanche DuBois in a production of A Streetcar Named Desire. All About My Mother traces the delicate web of friendship and loss that binds these women together. The movie is dedicated to the actresses of the world, so it's not surprising that all the performances are superb. Roth in particular anchors All About My Mother with compassion and generosity. But fans of writer-director Pedro Almodóvar needn't fret--as always, Almodóvar's work undermines conventional notions of sexual identity and embraces a! ll human possibilities with bright colors and melodramatic plotting. However, All About My Mother approaches its twists and turns with a broader emotional scope than most of Almodóvar's work; even the more extravagant aspects of the story are presented quietly, to allow the sadness of life to be as present as the irrepressible vitality of the characters. Almodóvar embraces pettiness, jealousy, and grief as much as kindness, courage, and outrageousness, and the movie is the richer for it. --Bret FetzerWriter/director Pedro Almodóvar's dark, sexy Hitchcock homage is his best work since his Oscar-winning All About My Mother, and deepened by a sun-dappled sadness. Handsome, enigmatic Ángel (Gael García Bernal) arrives at the Spanish movie offices of director Enrique Goded (Fele Martinez) and happily proclaims that he's actually Enrique's long-lost school chum Ignacio--an announcement that is both less than convincing and more than it seems. A novice ac! tor, Ángel pitches a semi-autobiographical screenplay in whic! h he's d etermined to star, a revenge-laden reflection of the doomed love he and Enrique shared as boys before a pedophile priest cruelly intervened. The script, and the lost days it recalls, carefully unfurls into a series of brooding movies-within-movies and memories-inside-memories, which allow the sensual, multiple-role-playing Bernal to give the performance of his young career--among other things, he makes a stunningly convincing drag queen--and Almodóvar the opportunity to movingly suggest that people will pay any price to ensure that their stories are told. --Steve WieckingVOLVER - DVD MovieSpanish for "Coming Back," Volver is a return to the all-female format of All About My Mother. Unlike Pedro Almodóvar's previous two pictures, the story revolves around a group of women in Madrid and his native La Mancha. (The cast received a collective best actress award at Cannes.) Raimunda (a zaftig Penélope Cruz) is the engine powering this heartfelt, yet humorou! s vehicle. When husband Paco (Antonio de la Torre) is murdered, Raimunda makes like Mildred Pierce to deflect attention away from daughter Paula (Yohana Cobo). After telling everyone the lout has left, she struggles to conceal his body. The other women in her life all have secrets of their own. Her sister, Sole (Lola Dueñas), for instance, has taken in their mother, Irene (a sprightly Carmen Maura). Since Irene perished in a fire, is this person a ghost or simply a woman who looks like her? Then there's their childhood friend, Agustina (Blanca Portillo), who is desperate to find out why her mother disappeared after the blaze. Was she responsible? Almodóvar deftly blends the ghost story with the murder mystery in his tribute to the Italian neo-realist films of the 1950s. The resilient Raimunda is a throwback to the earthy heroines of Sophia Loren and Anna Magnani. The latter appears in Luchino Visconti's Bellissima, which shows up on Sole's television one night (thu! s confirming the link). If Almodóvar’s 16th feature lacks t! he emoti onal punch of the more audacious Talk to Her, it's less heavy-handed than Bad Education and Cruz is a revelation. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

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Blair Witch Project - Logo - Knit Hat

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In the fall of 1994, three student filmmakers, Heather Donahue, Joshua Leonard, and Michael Williams, ventured into the Black Hills of Maryland to investigate the legend of the Blair Witch. They never returned and to this day are still considered missing. However, one year after their disappearance, their footage was discovered. Directors Eduardo Sanchez and Gregg Hale edited the footage and released it as the movie titled The Blair Witch Project. As a companion to the movie, occult journalist D.A. Stern compiled this dossier, unearthing deeper mysteries surrounding the students' disappearance. It includes a full account of the case from a private investigator, polic! e reports, newspaper articles, student profiles, interviews with the students' families and friends, and the most revealing artifact--37 pages from Heather Donahue's journal. We also get a comprehensive history of the Blair Witch legend, complete with a copy of an 1823 newspaper article.

The hype surrounding The Blair Witch Project is a rare phenomenon in which a purely fictitious film (sorry to burst the occult lover's bubble, but there is no Blair Witch myth; and those missing filmmakers are actors who are alive and well) creates a legend in and of itself. The collected data found in this dossier lends more eerie authenticity to the whole affair. This is an outstanding compilation for its acute attention to detail and ability to enhance the mystery, which in the end is the real charm of this portfolio. --Samantha Allen StoreyBLAIR WITCH PROJECT - DVD MovieThe Blair Witch Project
Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with! insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from The Bla ir Witch Project--this film will creep under your skin and stay there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard) with video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot outlines. They then let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise and shoot the entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked--to the wildly successful tune of $130 million at the box office upon its initial release (the budget was a mere $40,000).

For those of you who were under a rock when it first hit the theaters, The Blair Witch Project tracks the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the three, le! d by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the woods for some on-location shooting. They're never seen again. What we see is a reconstruction of their "found" footage, edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!") The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what's menacing them; everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing--and the shaky, motion-sickness-inducing camerawork--you'll be rewarded with an oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a g! enuine, effective original. --Mark Englehart

! Curse of the Blair Witch
Are you wondering just exactly who the Blair Witch was? What the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend was all about? Or what exactly fascinated student filmmaker Heather and what possibly took her, Mike, and Josh from this earth? Get all your background questions answered by Curse of the Blair Witch, a one-stop-shopping "documentary" originally produced for the Sci-Fi Channel as a tie-in marketing tool. Entirely fictionalized, Curse of the Blair Witch focuses both on the past and the present, with copious info on the Blair Witch myth as well as on the disappearance of Heather, Josh, and Mike. As it turns out, the original witch was one Elly Kedward, who was accused in 1785 of taking blood from several children; she was subsequently banished to the harsh winter woods and left for dead. Her grisly and bloody legacy involves missing children, polluted water, disemboweled men, and a serial killer of children who claims to have been haunted b! y "an old woman ghost." Aside from some ineffective "newsreel" footage of the serial killer, all this intriguing information is presented convincingly and chillingly. Curse may in fact freak you out more than the movie, and it evokes the great, pulpy In Search Of series of the '70s, one of the prime inspirations for filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. News clips of the search for Heather, Josh, and Mike lend a vérité atmosphere to the proceedings, but shed little light on their mysterious disappearance or their characters. Basically, it's a tease to go see the movie. Still, The Blair Witch Project provided only ever-so-slight information on the legend that haunted the forest, so you'll want this cleverly constructed mock documentary to supplement your knowledge of the film. --Mark EnglehartThe Blair Witch Project
Anyone who has even the slightest trouble with insomnia after seeing a horror movie should stay away from! The Blair Witch Project--this film will creep under yo! ur skin and stay there for days. Credit for the effectiveness of this mock documentary goes to filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez, who armed three actors (Heather Donahue, Michael Williams, and Josh Leonard) with video equipment, camping supplies, and rough plot outlines. They then let the trio loose into the Maryland woods to improvise and shoot the entire film themselves as the filmmakers attempted to scare the crap out of them. Gimmicky, yes, but it worked--to the wildly successful tune of $130 million at the box office upon its initial release (the budget was a mere $40,000).

For those of you who were under a rock when it first hit the theaters, The Blair Witch Project tracks the doomed quest of three film students shooting a documentary on the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend of the Blair Witch. After filming some local yokels (and providing only scant background on the witch herself), the three, led by Heather (something of a witch herself), head into the ! woods for some on-location shooting. They're never seen again. What we see is a reconstruction of their "found" footage, edited to make a barely coherent narrative. After losing their way in the forest, whining soon gives way to real terror as the three find themselves stalked by unknown forces that leave piles of rocks outside their campsite and stick-figure art projects in the woods. (As Michael succinctly puts it, "No redneck is this clever!") The masterstroke of the film is that you never actually see what's menacing them; everything is implied, and there's no terror worse than that of the unknown. If you can wade through the tedious arguing--and the shaky, motion-sickness-inducing camerawork--you'll be rewarded with an oppressively sinister atmosphere and one of the most frightening denouements in horror-film history. Even after you take away the monstrous hype, The Blair Witch Project remains a genuine, effective original. --Mark Englehart

! Curse of the Blair Witch
Are you wondering just! exactly who the Blair Witch was? What the Burkittsville, Maryland, legend was all about? Or what exactly fascinated student filmmaker Heather and what possibly took her, Mike, and Josh from this earth? Get all your background questions answered by Curse of the Blair Witch, a one-stop-shopping "documentary" originally produced for the Sci-Fi Channel as a tie-in marketing tool. Entirely fictionalized, Curse of the Blair Witch focuses both on the past and the present, with copious info on the Blair Witch myth as well as on the disappearance of Heather, Josh, and Mike. As it turns out, the original witch was one Elly Kedward, who was accused in 1785 of taking blood from several children; she was subsequently banished to the harsh winter woods and left for dead. Her grisly and bloody legacy involves missing children, polluted water, disemboweled men, and a serial killer of children who claims to have been haunted by "an old woman ghost." Aside from some ineffective "newsre! el" footage of the serial killer, all this intriguing information is presented convincingly and chillingly. Curse may in fact freak you out more than the movie, and it evokes the great, pulpy In Search Of series of the '70s, one of the prime inspirations for filmmakers Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sanchez. News clips of the search for Heather, Josh, and Mike lend a vérité atmosphere to the proceedings, but shed little light on their mysterious disappearance or their characters. Basically, it's a tease to go see the movie. Still, The Blair Witch Project provided only ever-so-slight information on the legend that haunted the forest, so you'll want this cleverly constructed mock documentary to supplement your knowledge of the film. --Mark EnglehartThe soundtrack for a film with no music? Yes, it's true. Josh's Blair Witch Mix takes the high concept of "music inspired by the film" to new extremes: this is the mix tape found in Josh's car on t! he fateful night the "documentary" was filmed. Whatever the c! ase, Josh's is filled with the doom-and-gloom sounds of vintage goth and industrial tracks and the occasional "scared silly" movie sound bites. It's a strong compilation with classic tunes by Lydia Lunch, P.I.L., Bauhaus, the Creatures, Front Line Assembly, and others. The included enhanced CD video snippet contains footage not found in the actual film. Ironic: one thing that makes The Blair Witch Project so believable is the fact that it lacks the typical clichéd horror-movie sound effects. Luckily, this "soundtrack" is far from clichéd and every bit as creative as its movie counterpart. The only thing creepier would be if Josh had been listening to a tape of smooth jazz.... --Jason VerlindeThe Stickman logo from Blair Witch Project shows up yet again, only this time it's on the front of this almost "heathered" black knit cap! Guaranteed to keep you warm on those cool nights in the woods!

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Festival in Cannes - Anouk Aimee - Movie Poster 27" X 40" (379)

• Festival in Cannes
• Anouk Aimee
• Movie
• Poster
• Measures 27" X 40"

Filming on location in France during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Henry Jaglom goes behind the scenes to explore how movies get made (and unmade). He would know--he's been making them for decades now. In this one, he takes an Altman-meets-Cassavetes approach to his subject. While former actress Alice (Greta Scacchi), for instance, is trying to get her directorial debut off the ground, film icon Millie (Anouk Aimée) is trying to decide between the lead in Alice's indie and a (better-paying) cameo in the new Tom Hanks vehicle. As in The Player, Jaglom focuses on several characters and, as in many Cassavetes pictures, the dialogue feels improvised. If Festival in Cannes is less emotionally involving than 1997's Déjà Vu (arguably his best), it still provides a fine showcase f! or a talented cast, including Maximilian Schell as Millie's husband and Ron Silver as the producer behind the Hanks project. --Kathleen C. FennessyScreenplay and film stills plus the original movie treatment. Filmed against the backdrop of the world famous Cannes International Film Festival, Henry Jaglom's "Festival in Cannes" is a story that plunges the audience deep into the heart of the funny, touching, sometimes glamourous, often duplicitous world of the haves and have-notes of the International Movie Business. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT: TheRainbowStore.comEach year, thousands flock to the Cannes Film Festival, wildly chasing fame, fortune and each other against the picturesque background of the French Riviera. Director Jaglom captures all the magic and mayhem as he follows an intriguing cast of characters - a beautiful movie icon (Anouk Aimée), her ex-husband (Maximilian Schell), an actress (Greta Scacchi) trying her first script, a high-powered produc! er (Ron Silver), an up-and-coming ingenue (Jenny Gabrielle), a! nd a fas t-talking entrepreneur (Zack Norman). How their lives and loves entangle make for an unforgettable journey through the very heart of the entertainment world.Filming on location in France during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Henry Jaglom goes behind the scenes to explore how movies get made (and unmade). He would know--he's been making them for decades now. In this one, he takes an Altman-meets-Cassavetes approach to his subject. While former actress Alice (Greta Scacchi), for instance, is trying to get her directorial debut off the ground, film icon Millie (Anouk Aimée) is trying to decide between the lead in Alice's indie and a (better-paying) cameo in the new Tom Hanks vehicle. As in The Player, Jaglom focuses on several characters and, as in many Cassavetes pictures, the dialogue feels improvised. If Festival in Cannes is less emotionally involving than 1997's Déjà Vu (arguably his best), it still provides a fine showcase for a talented cast, incl! uding Maximilian Schell as Millie's husband and Ron Silver as the producer behind the Hanks project. --Kathleen C. FennessyFilming on location in France during the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, Henry Jaglom goes behind the scenes to explore how movies get made (and unmade). He would know--he's been making them for decades now. In this one, he takes an Altman-meets-Cassavetes approach to his subject. While former actress Alice (Greta Scacchi), for instance, is trying to get her directorial debut off the ground, film icon Millie (Anouk Aimée) is trying to decide between the lead in Alice's indie and a (better-paying) cameo in the new Tom Hanks vehicle. As in The Player, Jaglom focuses on several characters and, as in many Cassavetes pictures, the dialogue feels improvised. If Festival in Cannes is less emotionally involving than 1997's Déjà Vu (arguably his best), it still provides a fine showcase for a talented cast, including Maximilian Schell as! Millie's husband and Ron Silver as the producer behind the Ha! nks proj ect. --Kathleen C. FennessyFESTIVAL IN CANNES Movie Poster. Starring: Anouk Aimée & Greta Scacchi. Written and Directed by: Henry Jaglom. 2002 Paramount Pictures. Measures 27" X 40"

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Voyage of the Dawn Treader MTI CD (Chronicles of Narnia (HarperCollins Audio))

• ISBN13: 9780062011343
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The Dawn Treader will take you places you never dreamed existed.

The BBC Radio production of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a delightful two-hour sail on the most fabulous ship in Narnia. Lucy and Edmund, with their dreadful cousin Eustace, get magically pulled into a painting of a ship at sea. That ship is the Dawn Treader, and on board is Caspian, King of Narnia. He and his companions, including Reepicheep, the valiant warrior mouse, are searching for seven lost lords of Narnia, and their voyage will take them to the edge of the world. Their adventures include being captured by slave traders, a much-too-close encounter with a dragon, and visits to many enchanted island! s, including the place where dreams come true. The adaptation is faithful to its source, C.S. Lewis's series of Narnia books, which have provided exciting and uplifting tales for generations of children. BBC Radio does wonders with sound effects--the ship creaks in the wind, the sorrowful dragon roars lugubriously--and musical cues and interludes that keep the pacing dynamic. There's also a splendid cast of plummy British voices, making this far more than a book read onto cassette--it's an audio drama, as enjoyable as a trip to the theater. Grownups who buy this tape for their children will want to borrow it for themselves. (Running time: two hours, two cassettes) --Blaise Selby

The Dawn Treader will take you places you never dreamed existed.

The Dawn Treader will take you places you never dreamed existed.

The Dawn Treader is the first ship Narnia has seen in centuries. King Caspian has built it for his first voyage to find t! he seven lords, good men whom his evil uncle Miraz banished wh! en he us urped the throne. The journey takes Edmund, Lucy, their cousin Eustace, and Caspian to the Eastern Islands, beyond the Silver Sea, toward Aslan's country at the End of the World.

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Explicit Ills - Blu Ray [Blu-ray]

• EXPLICIT ILLS BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)

In the streets of North Philadelphia, the lives of strangers intersect in a bold and moving semi-autobiographical tale that crosscuts between the many people who struggle in the face of poverty, drugs and the human connection.In the streets of North Philadelphia, the lives of strangers intersect in a bold and moving semi-autobiographical tale that crosscuts between the many people who struggle in the face of poverty, drugs and the human connection.

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Edge of Darkness

• The bullet that killed his daughter was meant for Boston cop Thomas Craven. That s what police brass and Craven himself think, but that s not what the investigation finds. Clue after clue and witness after witness, the search leads him into a shadowy realm where money and political intrigue intersect. If Craven wasn t a target before, he and anyone linked to his inquiry now is. Mel Gibson stars in

The bullet that killed his daughter was meant for Boston cop Thomas Craven. That’s what police brass and Craven himself think, but that’s not what the investigation finds. Clue after clue and witness after witness, the search leads him into a shadowy realm where money and political intrigue intersect. If Craven wasn’t a target before, he--and anyone linked to his inquiry--now is. Mel Gibson stars in his first screen lead in eight years, making Craven’s grief palpable and his quest for paybac! k stone-cold and relentless. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) directs from a screenplay co-written by The Departed’s William Monahan. Gibson is back, taking us to the edge…and into the sinister darkness.The good news is that Edge of Darkness (no relation to the fine 1943 war picture of that name) brings back Mel Gibson in front of the camera for the first time in nearly a decade. Although he's grown creased and leathery and his thatch has thinned, the movie star who was Mad Max still has the charisma and gravitas to center a dodgy suspense tale and propel it to the finish line. Gibson plays veteran Boston police detective Tom Craven, who welcomes home daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) for a rare visit, then sees her shot down at his front door. Because the gunman shouted "Craven!" and because a cop makes enemies, Tom assumes Emma took a bullet meant for him, which adds considerably to his grief and pain. But as he looks into the life of a daughter he loved y! et scarcely knew, he discovers she'd been preparing to turn wh! istleblo wer on her employer, a corporation doing unsavory clandestine things for the government. Craven starts having oblique chats with a philosophical Brit named Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), who keeps turning up unexpectedly--in Craven's backyard at night, say--always giving the distinct impression that he could just as well kill a fellow instead of schmoozing. Their strange rapport, like Craven's tendency to mutter ironical asides as if in ongoing conversation with the departed Emma, is more intriguing than the conspiracy involving corporate skullduggery and a rogue assassination bureau. The bar for that sort of thing was set in post-Watergate days by Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, and we're nowhere near its cinematic elegance or pervasive paranoia. Edge of Darkness, based on a British miniseries from 1985, was directed by Martin Campbell, who also handled the six-hour original (and more recently the successful James Bond reboot Casino Royale). Campbell does! decent-enough work--the occasional bursts of "shocking action" do shock even as we know they're coming--but rarely exceeds generic requirements. For killing comparison among contemporary suspense films, catch Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, in which every frame unsettlingly conveys a world where disquiet is the natural order of things. --Richard T. Jameson

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Guerrilla - The Taking of Patty Hearst

• The award-winning and internationally acclaimed film, GUERRILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST is a gripping, unparalleled account of the most sensational kidnapping in American history. On February 4, 1974, college student Patty Hearst (the granddaughter of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst) was boldly snatched from her apartment by a flamboyant terrorist group called the Symbionese Liber

The award-winning and internationally acclaimed film, GUERRILLA: THE TAKING OF PATTY HEARST is a gripping, unparalleled account of the most sensational kidnapping in American history."Death to the fascist insect that preys on the life of the people!" declared the Symbionese Liberation Army, the domestic terrorist group that kidnapped newspaper heiress Patty Hearst and demanded a massive food program for the poor in exchange for her release. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst examines this se! nsational case with a measured, sardonic view of every side; the SLA was born in the crucible of the Vietnam War and Kent State, but the documentary neither forgives nor condemns their actions (which include bank robbery, bombings, and murder). Instead, the SLA and the media bonanza that surrounded them become an astonishing petri dish of social and political trends that resonate with even more force today. Using interviews with reporters and surviving members of the SLA, footage from news reports and Hollywood movies, director Robert Stone (Radio Bikini) has crafted a smart, suspenseful thriller that mesmerizes even if you know the whole history. A superb documentary; the dvd is even better as it includes uncut footage from the security cameras of one of the bank robberies; the sentencing of the 2003 trial of four SLA members; complete audio recordings of Patty Hearst's media statements; and a balanced, thoughtful commentary from Stone. --Bret Fetzer

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