Sales Rank:235 List Price: $14.98 Lowest New Price: $8.28 Lowest Used Price: $8.28 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
Format:
Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Albert Finney
Alec Guinness
Edith Evans
Kenneth More
Laurence Naismith
A mixed bag as variations on A Christmas Carol go, this 1970 British musical tells the usual story of Scrooge (Albert Finney) and his spirits on Christmas Eve, although the whole thing is set to music by Leslie Bricusse. Except for Finney's feisty and involved performance, however, there isn't much to recommend this. The songs, which absorb so much of the evolving story line and emotions, are not all that good. Plenty of support, however, from the likes of Roy Kinnear (Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory) and Dame Edith Evans (Tom Jones), the handsome production is directed by veteran Ronald Neame (The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie). --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:286 List Price: $14.98 Lowest New Price: $5.83 Lowest Used Price: $5.21 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format:
Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Bill Murray
Karen Allen
John Forsythe
John Glover
Bob Goldthwait
Most critics couldn't get behind Bill Murray's modern retelling of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, finding it too unfocused at times and not nearly wicked enough. Still, if you're a Murray fan, you have to enjoy his deliciously nasty portrayal of the world's meanest TV executive, who has his cathartic moment one cold Christmas night in New York City. The various ghosts lead him on a ghost-town tour of Manhattan, with stops at holidays past, present, and future and a Kumbaya moment when Al Green and Annie Lennox sing "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." The effects are otherworldly, but one wishes the writing were as sharp as Murray's edgy portrayal. --Marshall Fine
Sales Rank:451 List Price: $29.98 Lowest New Price: $16.98 Lowest Used Price: $16.13 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Collector's Edition
Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Dolby
Miniseries
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Richard Chamberlain
Rachel Ward
Barbara Stanwyck
Christopher Plummer
Jean Simmons
The second most-watched miniseries (after Roots) of all time, The Thorn Birds was originally broadcast in 1983 and captivated viewers with its story of a lifelong conflict between the spirit and the flesh. Adapted from the bestselling novel by Colleen McCullough, the production stars Richard Chamberlain as a Catholic priest named Ralph de Bricassart, whose life in Australia between 1920 and 1962 is one long torment as he pines for his lover, Meggie Cleary (Rachel Ward), while seeking advancement in his clergyman career. The passion and the guilt make for compelling drama, but a stellar cast of supporting players adds muscle to the proceedings: Barbara Stanwyck (who won an Emmy for her work as Meggie's tough aunt), Jean Simmons, Richard Kiley, Christopher Plummer, Bryan Brown, and Mare Winningham. Chamberlain, who was something of the king of the miniseries form at the time, is very good in the lead, as is the often-underrated Ward. Their affair is indeed irresistible to watch, which proves to be true, too, of the story's thick weave of church politics, forbidden desire, social change over decades, and family secrets. --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:470 List Price: $64.98 Lowest New Price: $23.75 Lowest Used Price: $23.07 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Animated
Box set
Black & White
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
NTSC
Director(s):
Arthur Davis
Chuck Jones
Frank Tashlin
Friz Freleng
Gerry Woolery
Actor(s):
Mel Blanc
Arthur Q. Bryan
Julie Bennett
Ben Frommer
Tedd Pierce
The fifth collection of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies continues Warner Bros.' scattershot approach, mixing classics and obscurities. Among the best-known and funniest cartoons are "Ali Baba Bunny" (Daffy yelling, "I'm rich! I'm socially secure!"), "Bewitched Bunny" (Witch Hazel galloping off in a cloud of hair pins), and "Buccaneer Bunny" (a sterling example of one of director Friz Freleng's favorite gags: having the characters run up and down stairs and in and out of various doors). "Gold Diggers of '49" and "Little Red Walking Hood" show Tex Avery beginning to explore the self-reflexive gags that would be become one of the hallmarks of his mature style. In "Walking Hood," Grandma stops the action to answer the phone and place her order with the grocer--including a case of gin. "The Daffy Doc" is Bob Clampett at his most surreal, with Daffy and Porky getting sucked into an iron lung, bulging and shrinking like balloon animals. Some of the earliest cartoons predate the adoption of "The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down" as the theme song for the Warner Bros. cartoons. Many shorts from the early '30s were built around songs from Warner's musicals: "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" (written for Gold Diggers of 1933) features caricatures of Mae West, George Bernard Shaw, Benito Mussolini, and Bing Crosby frolicking to the title tune. Greta Garbo delivers the closing, "That's All, Folks!" Like the previous four sets, Golden Collection Volume 5 comes loaded with extras that range from three WWII films in which Mr. Hook urges sailors to buy war bonds to "Extremes and In-Betweens: A Life in Animation" (2000), a documentary about Oscar-winning director Chuck Jones. Many of these cartoons will have viewers of all ages in stitches. (Unrated, suitable for ages 6 and older: cartoon violence, ethnic stereotypes, mild risqué humor, alcohol and tobacco use) --Charles Solomon
Sales Rank:320 List Price: $26.98 Lowest New Price: $8.99 Lowest Used Price: $7.29 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Format:
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Omar Sharif
Julie Christie
Geraldine Chaplin
Rod Steiger
Alec Guinness
David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like Gone with the Wind before it and Titanic after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, Lawrence of Arabia, mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. --Robert Horton
Sales Rank:318 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $26.99 Lowest Used Price: $24.55 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Box set
Black & White
Digital Sound
NTSC
Director(s):
Basil Wrangell
Tex Avery
Jules Dassin
Actor(s):
William Powell
Myrna Loy
Clancy Cooper
Chick York
John Nesbitt
Almost as welcome as a shaker full of martinis, The Complete Thin Man Collection represents an eagerly awaited DVD milestone for fans of the fizzy MGM movie series. The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddyup of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together.
It is common wisdom that the Thin Man sequels adhere to the law of diminishing returns, and while none of the follow-ups reach the diamond level of the first film, all afford pleasures. There's the cocktail-swilling chemistry of Powell and Loy, for one thing, as well as the considerable satisfaction of average movies made during the studio system: the craftsmanship of studio hands, and a gallery of terrific character actors filling in supporting roles. First sequel After the Thin Man (1936) is very good, with the couple in San Francisco and a supporting part for rising player James Stewart. The scenery moves again, to Long Island, for the rather impudently-titled Another Thin Man (1939), which adds baby Nick, Jr., to the mix (a "bad idea," thought Pauline Kael, perhaps a sign of the domestication of the series).
Shadow of the Thin Man (1941) sets the action around a racetrack, and is the last of the series to be directed by the fast-working Van Dyke. The Thin Man Goes Home (1944) finds Nick escorting family to his parents' house for a visit. Song of the Thin Man (1947) engagingly adds a jazz milieu to the Charles's detective work; at this point, Nick, Jr. was played by child star Dean Stockwell. The series stuck with certain staples: the unveiling of the guilty party, a wirehaired terrier named Asta (who became a star in its own right), and booze. When Nick opines, in the first film, that a dry martini should always be shaken to "waltz time," you know why audiences fell in love with these guilt-free comedies. --Robert Horton
Sales Rank:1751 List Price: $28.99 Lowest New Price: $14.00 Lowest Used Price: $13.43 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Closed-captioned
Color
Dubbed
Subtitled
Widescreen
Director(s):
Actor(s):
John Wayne
Ward Bond
Jeffrey Hunter
Henry Brandon
Harry Carey Jr.
A favorite film of some of the world's greatest filmmakers, including Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, John Ford's The Searchers has earned its place in the legacy of great American films for a variety of reasons. Perhaps most notably, it's the definitive role for John Wayne as an icon of the classic Western--the hero (or antihero) who must stand alone according to the unwritten code of the West. The story takes place in Texas in 1868; Wayne plays Ethan Edwards, a Confederate veteran who visits his brother and sister-in-law at their ranch and is horrified when they are killed by marauding Comanches. Ethan's search for a surviving niece (played by young Natalie Wood) becomes an all-consuming obsession. With the help of a family friend (Jeffrey Hunter) who is himself part Cherokee, Ethan hits the trail on a five-year quest for revenge. At the peak of his masterful talent, director Ford crafts this classic tale as an embittered examination of racism and blind hatred, provoking Wayne to give one of the best performances of his career. As with many of Ford's classic Westerns, The Searchers must contend with revisionism in its stereotypical treatment of "savage" Native Americans, and the film's visual beauty (the final shot is one of the great images in all of Western culture) is compromised by some uneven performances and stilted dialogue. Still, this is undeniably one of the greatest Westerns ever made. --Jeff Shannon
Sales Rank:499 List Price: $39.95 Lowest New Price: $13.96 Lowest Used Price: $14.99 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Animated
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
NTSC
Director(s):
Jules Bass
Arthur Rankin Jr.
Actor(s):
Jimmy Durante
Billy De Wolfe
Jackie Vernon (II)
Paul Frees
June Foray
The Ultimate Holiday Entertainment Collection!
DVD 6 Pack: The Original Holiday Classics Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town Frosty the Snowman Frosty Returns The Little Drummer Boy Cricket on the Hearth Bonus! Holiday Music CD
1. Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town 2. The First Toymaker to the King 3. Put One Foot in Front of the Other 4. No More Toymakers to the King 5. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer 6. Jingle Jingle Jingle 7. We’re a Couple of Misfits 8. There’s Always Tomorrow 9. Silver and Gold 10. The Most Wonderful Day of the Year 11. A Holly Jolly Christmas 12. Fame and Fortune
Bonus! Music Video Collection Destiny’s Child "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" Mariah Carey "Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town"
Your Favorite Stars in Their Very Own Christmas Classics Music Videos!
Sales Rank:508 List Price: $19.98 Lowest New Price: $11.50 Lowest Used Price: $11.53 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Black & White
Closed-captioned
Collector's Edition
Dolby
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Gregory Peck
John Megna
Frank Overton
Rosemary Murphy
Ruth White
Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defense of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbor Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. --Jeff Shannon