Babes in Toyland movie on DVD

Release Date: 1934
Genre: Western, Sport, Animation, Film-Noir,
Cast: Russ Leatherman, Nicole St. John, E. Gary Gygax, Mia Soteriou, Colin Davis, Nancy Baldwin, Catherine Johnson, JoJo Wright, Francia Raisa,
Storyline:
Ollie Dee and Stanley Dum try to borrow money from their employer, the toymaker, to pay off the mortgage on Mother Peep's shoe and keep it and Little Bo Peep from the clutches of the evil Barnaby. When that fails, they trick Barnaby into marrying Stanley Dum instead of Bo Peep. Enraged, Barnaby unleashes the bogeymen from their caverns to destroy Toyland.

INTERVIEWS: Walker Speeds Up for 2 Fast 2 Furious

Paul Walker is the only connection between 2 Fast 2 Furious and its predecessor. This time, his character must use his racing skills to stop a drug dealer in Miami. Having become a fan of tricked out cars in the first film, Walker took it upon himself to influence some of the rods used in the sequel.

"I'd like to think I was influential in the cars driven in the movie," Walker said. "I told them, 'Look, I want to drive an R34 Nissan Skyline.' It's the first car I drive in the movie. I told them, 'Hey, Mitsubishi, they're planning this huge campaign. They're gonna launch the release of the Mitsubishi's Evolution 8 sometime early next year. I think we should talk to Mitsubishi and get them involved in the movie.' Their cars are in the movie. I don't know if it's just a coincidence or what, but I think that's a pretty gnarly coincidence. I'm like these kids. I make this movie, and I get it, because I'm into cars, and my background, and my interest in racing, and I'm putting together a race team right now and the whole bit. It was important to me that we did it justice. The first time around, the kids, they loved the movie, but their whole thing was, 'Man, why didn't you have more ridiculous cars. Why didn't you have a Skyline. Why didn't you have this? Why didn't you have that?' So, I had a little more muscle to flex this time, so I did, and we got some better stuff in there."

Now that he's an experienced driver, Walker was able to do many of his own stunts. "Over 120 miles an hour was the top speed, weaving in and out of traffic. That chase sequence on the freeway where basically we're racing for the job, I'd worked with the stunt coordinator and the 2nd unit director before. Universal, they let me do a lot of the driving in the first one, so they let me do a lot of the high speed stuff. Not all of it, you know. Most of the really intense stuff was shot 2nd unit. But when they wanted to see me behind the wheel with the aerial shots, the helicopters and stuff, a lot of that was shot, most of that was shot over, well over 120 miles an hour. I probably shouldn't even be talking about it to be honest with you. But not to like toot my own horn too much, but it's like, these guys, they go out and they do stunts. You've got to remember, stunt men are well versed in everything. My focus has been in driving for a long time now, and with exception of my double and a couple of other guys, I was a better driver, and that's the bottom line. My double is arguably the best driver in Hollywood, and we race together all the time. Like I said, just a couple of the other guys, but they knew it John [Singleton] knew it, and a lot of the other people knew it. When certain people weren't around, they were throwing me in behind the wheel."

Comparing Singleton to the first film's director, Rob Cohen, Walker said, "They're just so different. Rob's like a director and John's more of a movie fan. He directs with a lot of analogies. The guy loves movies, there's no question. The thing I like working about John is he comes in the tent, everyday he's like, 'You should have seen the shit we did yesterday.' And it feels so good working with somebody like that. It feels so good. That guy's a kid too, especially when he's behind the camera cutting together a movie. It's something that he's feeling, and you don't find that all the time."

Walker recalled some of the analogies Singleton used when making 2 Fast 2 Furious. "A lot of references to 'The Road Warrior', but a lot of his, not influence, but I guess a lot of extreme shots, a lot of hard breaking shots as opposed to being just straight away and more traditional. I think that feels good."

2 Fast 2 Furious opens June 6.

Me, Myself & Irene movie on DVD

Release Date: 2000
Genre: Western,
Cast: Jesse De Luna, Bill Applebaum, Graeme Hawley, Brad Peterson, Emily Galash, Jonathan Stamp, Davy Kaye, Dieter Tarnowski, Susannah Grant, Wes Chatham, John Michael Burrowes, Hazelle Goodman, Waldemar Kobus, Julian Rivett, Mathis Landwehr,
Storyline:
Charlie is a Rhode Island state trooper with a split personality. He is otherwise mild-mannered and non confrontational until somebody or something pushes him a little too far. That's when his maniacal alter-ego, Hank, takes over. Charlie is assigned on a routine mission to return alleged fugitive Irene back to upstate New York, but they wind up on the run from corrupt police officers. And their escape would be a lot simpler on everybody involved if Hank didn't keep stepping in at the most inopportune times...

Wild Bunch, The movie on DVD

Release Date: 1969
Genre: Action, Drama, Western
Cast: Array, William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmond O'Brien, Warren Oates, Jaime S�nchez, Ben Johnson, Emilio Fern�ndez, Strother Martin, L. Q. Jones, Albert Dekker, Bo Hopkins, Dub Taylor, Paul Harper, Jorge Russek
Storyline:
A few months before World War I, an aging band of outlaws led by Pike Bishop rob a Texas bank intent on using the money to retire. When the robbery goes wrong, the gang is forced to flee to Mexico with Bishop's reformed ex-partner, Deke Thornton, in hot pursuit. With nothing to show for the failed robbery, Bishop's gang agrees to steal a shipment of guns for General "Mapache" Juerta, to restore their fortunes. With Thornton closing in, and their association with the evil Juerta trying their conscience, Bishop and co. prepare for their lawless past to catch up with them.

Evelyn movie on DVD

Release Date: 2002
Genre: History,
Cast: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, more, Kim Stanley, Barbara Hershey, Robert De Niro, David La Haye, Rossif Sutherland, Lambert Wilson, Lucy Gutteridge, Peter Cushing, Jeremy Kemp, Christopher Villiers, Lionel Jeffries, Jim Carter,
Storyline:
Desmond Doyle is devastated when his wife abandons their family on the day after Christmas. His unemployment and the fact that there is no woman in the house to care for the children, Evelyn, Dermot and Maurice, make it clear to the authorities that his is an untenable situation. The Catholic Church and the Irish courts decide to put the Doyle children into Church-run orphanages. Although a sympathetic judge assures Desmond that when his financial situation reverses, he will be able to get his children back; money is hard to come by. During that time, Evelyn and her brothers suffer the abuses of living in orphanages while Desmond struggles to secure finances. Now he must battle the courts to get his children back.

Paramount Pictures Adapting Hogan's The Town

Paramount Pictures has pre-emptively optioned an upcoming novel by Chuck Hogan called The Town for Law & Order creator Dick Wolf and his feature film partner Tony Ganz to produce through their Wolf Films.

The Town tells the story of a group of childhood friends in Boston who went from pulling off small-time heists as kids to full-blown bank robberies as adults. The main character is a recovering alcoholic who is unsatisfied with his life of crime. He ultimately seeks redemption in the love of a female bank manager whom he and his partners took hostage on a previous robbery. Unbeknownst to him, however, the FBI agent on the bank robbery case has fallen for the woman as well.

This is Hogan's third novel, following "The Standoff" and "The Blood Artists."

Wolf and Ganz are producing Paramount's 77, for which James Ellroy just turned in a draft.

The Deep End movie on DVD

Release Date: 2001
Genre: Horror, Documentary, History,
Cast: Marcus Aurelius, Stana Katic, Jimmie Ray Weeks, Fred Williamson, Vaughn Taylor, Paul Soileau, Hristo Shopov, Chuck Echert, Kelly Wilborn, Rusty Flood, John Barnsall, Chad Boyer, Matthew Coe, Matt Harris, Darius Kerns,
Storyline:
With her husband perpetually away at work, a mother raises her children virtually alone. Her teenage son is testing the waters of the adult world, and early one morning she wakes to find the dead body of his gay lover on the beach of their rural lakeside home. What would you do? What is rational and what do you do to protect your child? How far do you go and when do you stop?

Gate, The movie on DVD

Release Date: 1987
Genre: Horror
Cast: Array, Stephen Dorff, Stephen Dorff, Christa Denton, Christa Denton, Louis Tripp, Louis Tripp, Kelly Rowan, Kelly Rowan, Jennifer Irwin, Jennifer Irwin, Deborah Grover, Deborah Grover, Scot Denton, Scot Denton, Ingrid Veninger, Ingrid Veninger, Sean Fagan, Sean Fagan, Linda Goranson, Linda Goranson, Carl Kraines, Carl Kraines, Andrew Gunn, Andrew Gunn, Mic Nuggette, Mic Nuggette
Storyline:
The boy Glen (Stephen Dorff) and his best fried Terry (Louis Tripp) accidentally open a gate to hell when a rotten tree is removed from the backyard of Glen's house. When his dog die and a friend of Glen's sister, the teenager Alexandra (Christa Denton), buries the animal in the hole, demons from an ancient civilization are released, seeking for two human sacrifices to dominate the world. Glen, Al and Terry, who are spending the weekend alone in the house, fight to save their lives and close the hole.

Method movie on DVD

Release Date: 2004
Genre: Horror,
Cast: Sanjit De Silva, Zoe Lister Jones, Peter Scanavino, Wass Stevens, Lou Taylor Pucci, Sarah Uriarte Berry, Sarah Glendening, Mary Fogarty, Kathy Rose, Professor Sir Bernard Lovell, Doris Milmore, Patch Darragh, Sherri Saum, Raymond Coulthard, Jessie Lee Fulton,
Storyline:
Rebecca Fairbanks is a movie star, a method actress making her first film in three years following a breakup with Jake Fields, her co-star in the new film. They're on location in Romania, Jake's new wife is with him, and Rebecca's stage mother, Mona, is close by monitoring Beka's every move. The film they're making is about a mass murderer in Indiana in the early twentieth century, who lured men to her farmhouse with a promise of marriage. Jake plays the widow's farmhand, lover, and partner in crime. As Rebecca gets deeper into her part, people around the set start to die. Who's the murderer? Is there a madness to her method?

The Adventures of Indiana Jones

Buy this DVD at Amazon.Com

Rating: PG & PG-13

Starring:
Harrison Ford as Dr. Henry 'Indiana' Jones, Jr.
Karen Allen as Marion Ravenwood
Paul Freeman as Ren� Belloq
Ronald Lacey as Toht
John Rhys-Davies as Sallah
Denholm Elliott as Dr. Marcus Brody
Alfred Molina as Satipo
Kate Capshaw as Wilhelmina 'Willie' Scott
Amrish Puri as Mola Ram
Roshan Seth as Chattar Lal, Prime Minister to Maharaja
Philip Stone as Captain Blumburtt
Roy Chiao as Lao Che
Jonathan Ke Quan as Short Round
Sean Connery as Professor Henry Jones, Sr.
Alison Doody as Dr. Elsa Schneider
Julian Glover as Walter Donovan
River Phoenix as Young Indiana Jones
Michael Byrne as Colonel Vogel

Special Features:

A new, feature-length documentary of the making of the trilogy

The Stunts of Indiana Jones

The Sound of Indiana Jones

The Music of Indiana Jones

The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones

Original trailers

Weblink to exclusive content

Other Info:
Widescreen anamorphic format
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
THX Certified

Synopsis:
The long awaited Indiana Jones Trilogy finally arrives on DVD. This four disc set includes Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. The fourth disc contains all of the DVD extra features.

As if you didn�t know, Raiders of the Lost Ark features archeologist and adventurer Indiana Jones on a mission to prevent the Nazis from recovering the lost Ark of the Covenant. Along the way he must face enemy spies, an old flame from his past, and snakes. (Why did it have to be snakes?)

Temple of Doom features Indy lost in India with a whiny singer and a young boy. Along the way they discover a village being persecuted by the evil Thugge cult. Indy agrees to help the villagers recover their lost magic stones from the cult and save their kidnapped children. This is easily the darkest film in the series and probably the least loved.

The Last Crusade completes the trilogy with Indiana Jones trying to save his father from the Nazis. Henry Jones Sr. was well on the way to finding the Holy Grail, thus attracting the attention of the pesky Nazis. It�s up to Indy and Marcus Brody to save Henry and keep the Nazis from getting the grail first. But can father and son overcome their differences to save the day?

Raiders of the Lost Ark and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom are rated PG, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is rated PG-13.

The Movie:
The Indiana Jones movies are, arguably, the best action movies ever made. They have often been imitated, but never duplicated. Indiana Jones is one of those rare movie characters that have become a cultural icon. Needless to say, the DVDs for these films were at the top of everyone�s wish list.

All of the movies are presented in their original format and they have been restored and digitally remastered. It�s probably safe to say that they look and sound better than they did when the movies first came out.

Despite the packaging that says �Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark�, the movie itself still retains the original title. Purists need not worry. The picture is also cleaned up and one of the most noticeable bloopers from the film has been removed. When Indy falls into the Well Of Souls and the cobra opens its hood, you can no longer see the snake�s reflection in the glass. The scene looks better than ever and the removal of the reflection heightens the tension in the scene. Your eyes are no longer distracted. However, the scenes shot in front of blue screen still look like they were shot in front of blue screen. They didn�t tinker with it more than necessary, which is good. (The Cairo Swordsman doesn�t shoot first in other words.)

The sound is also stunning on the home theater system. For once you can appreciate Ben Burtt�s sound effects in all their remastered surround sound glory. I get a particular kick out of hearing the Wilhelm Scream in 5.1 Surround Sound!

Overall, this is a first rate presentation of the film and it�s a required addition to your collection.

The Extras:
While The Adventures of Indiana Jones is a fantastic DVD set, you�ll notice a few things missing. There�s no commentary (thanks to Steven Spielberg�s distaste for doing them), no gallery of stills (and believe me, there�s a lot to see in the LFL archives), discussion of the spinoffs (the comics, novels, TV series, rides, etc.). In short, so much material is missing that I think we can expect another special edition DVD set with more stuff in the future. Lucasfilm is obviously holding back. There�s also hardly any talk of Indiana Jones 4.

Despite all this, the extras are amazing. They traded glitz and quantity in for quality. What you lack in flashy menus and millions of little extras they make up for in content. I liked the fact that I didn�t have to go between a million 5-minute features on every topic under the sun. Instead, it�s all put into a series of long documentaries. I much prefer this format. Here�s a closer look at what they have to offer:

A new, feature-length documentary of the making of the trilogy � This is really three 45-minute documentaries on the making of each film. They are broken up into Raiders, Temple of Doom, and Last Crusade. These documentaries are some of the best I�ve ever seen on a DVD. They are entertaining, informative, and they have a ton of behind the scenes footage. I�m a big Indiana Jones fan, so I had already heard a lot of what they discussed in the documentaries. However, the massive amount of behind the scenes footage was filled with stuff I�d never seen before. You get to see Tom Selleck and Sean Young in a Raiders screen test. You get to see the making of the sets. You see Spielberg and Harrison Ford clowning around. (Ford does a TON of funny stuff behind the scenes in the Last Crusade documentary.) All of it is supplemented with interviews with the cast and crew. I was amazed to see Karen Allen, Allison Doody, and Kate Capshaw (aka Spielberg) on the DVD discussing their roles. It was quite a treat to see them after all these years. (There are even old interviews with River Phoenix and Denholm Elliot, both of whom have passed away.) From the stuntmen to the director of photography, every single person has an interesting story from the sets. These documentaries are absolutely required viewing for any Indy fan.

The Stunts of Indiana Jones � What the main documentaries lack in stunt coverage, this more than makes up for. The this video is about 10 minutes long and gives closer looks at some of the bigger stunts in the film like the truck chase, the bridge drop, and other scenes. Great stuff!

The Sound of Indiana Jones � This is another 10-minute video on the sound effects of the Indiana Jones films. Ben Burtt talks about all the strange places he found the trademark sounds from the movies. Did you know the sounds of the snakes crawling were from hands squishing cheese casserole? Or the boulder is Raiders from was from a tire rolling down a gravel road? From whip cracks to gunshots to rats, it�s all here. I just wished he had discussed the Wilhelm Scream!

The Music of Indiana Jones � This is yet another 10-minute or so video on the music of the film. Spielberg and John Williams discuss the origin of the Raiders March, how they scored the film, and more. It�s rare to see such genius at work and this documentary gives you the opportunity to do just that. As a big fan of John Williams, this was a highlight for me. This also happens to be the only documentary on the DVD where Indiana Jones 4 is discussed.

The Light and Magic of Indiana Jones � The last of the 10-minute features discusses the ILM special effects for the movies. Dennis Muren talks about the tricks they used to melt Nazis, the miniatures used for the mine car chase, and the invisible bridge in Last Crusade. It�s quite interesting to hear about how they pulled off all these classic effects before the days of computer animation. While I think there�s a lot more here to be discussed, they did a good job hitting the highlights.

Original trailers � I found it particularly fun to watch the old teasers for Raiders of The Lost Ark. I was amazed at just how bad they were and how they didn�t convey well what the movie was about. You�ll just have to see it to believe it. It�s amazing how different trailers are these days. (Though they all seem to give away key plot points that you probably wouldn�t want revealed in advance!)

The Bottom Line:
This is a required addition to your collection. Go buy it now. However, be aware it might be reissued in the distant future (after Indiana Jones 4?)

The Elephant Man movie on DVD

Release Date: 1980
Genre: War, History, Mystery,
Cast: Paul Stewart, Aida Turturro, Clement von Franckenstein, Benito Stefanelli, Powers Boothe, Matt O'Leary, Jeremy Sumpter, Luke Askew, Levi Kreis, George Fenneman, Jayne Brook, Steven Barr, Felix Salten, Perce Pearce, Hardie Albright,
Storyline:
Based on the true story of Joseph Merrick, a 19th-century Englishman afflicted with a disfiguring congenital disease. With the help of kindly Dr. Frederick Treves, Merrick attempts to regain the dignity he lost after years spent as a side-show freak.