Sales Rank:962 List Price: $29.99 Lowest New Price: $7.50 Lowest Used Price: $6.72 MPAA Rating: G (General Audience)
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Joe Jonas
Demi Lovato
Nick Jonas
Kevin Jonas
Meaghan Jette Martin
Camp Rock is a Disney Channel original movie about a rockin' teen summer camp that's highly appealing to tweens and young teens despite the movie's failure to favorably compare with truly great Disney Channel movies like High School Musical. Joe Jonas (of the Jonas Brothers stars as Shane Gray, a member of the rock band Connect 3, who is compelled to serve as an instructor at Camp Rock in order to counteract his increasingly negative public image. Tess Tyler (Meaghan Jette Martin) is the camp diva whose self-absorption defies description, Caitlyn (Alyson Stoner) is a past Tess groupie who's now ostracized from the popular kids at camp, and Mitchie (Demi Lovato) is a camp newcomer whose mother is the camp cook. Caitlyn initially befriends Mitchie, but the friendship wanes when Mitchie makes up an elaborate story about her family to get accepted into Tess's exclusive clique. As Mitchie struggles to maintain her façade around camp, Shane begins to reform his bad-boy ways and find his own personal voice and he and Mitchie become friends--unfortunately, their new relationship is based partially on Mitchie's lies. In the end, Mitchie's deception is exposed as is Tess' true villainy and the perfect summer camp experience threatens to turn into the worst summer ever for everyone involved. Camp Rock is infused with lots of energy, fun choreography, and a ton of good, if not particularly memorable, music. Add in the cast of generally unlikable characters with extreme characteristics whose changes of heart at the end of the film are not particularly believable, and Disney's got an entertaining film for tweens and teens that adults might just as well skip. --Tami Horiuchi
Sales Rank:1832 List Price: $29.98 Lowest New Price: $13.50 Lowest Used Price: $11.00 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Actor(s):
Penny Marshall
Cindy Williams
David Lander
Michael McKean
Henry Winkler
As a spin-off from Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley was an instant hit and one of the most popular sitcoms of the '70s. It's a bit quaint by contemporary standards, and its light-hearted sentiment is strictly old-school, due to the crowd-pleasing influence of producer and cocreator Garry Marshall, a veteran of The Dick Van Dyke Show whose subsequent film career peaked early with Pretty Woman. As working-class roommates in mid-1950s Milwaukee, Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall, future director and Garry's sister) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) were a classic case of opposites: Laverne was relatively saucy and cynical, while Shirley was cheerfully naive and eternally optimistic. As bottle-cappers at the Shotz brewery, they regularly associated with colleagues (and eventual neighbors) Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander), and as an inaugural ratings-booster, Happy Days superstar Henry Winkler (as "Fonzie") appears in the first three episodes including "Bowling for Razzberries," later named by TV Guide as a classic episode. As Shirley's crooning would-be beau, Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Rugusa (Eddie Mekka) provided a touch of romance to Shirley's otherwise lackluster love life.
Despite personal rancor that later erupted between its energetic costars, Laverne & Shirley was always a showcase for polished, professional comedy and effortless chemistry between characters, giving it the same widespread appeal later enjoyed by Friends. A mid-season replacement with a prime time-slot (following Happy Days at 8:30 Tuesdays on ABC) the show placed its good-natured characters in a variety of standard sitcom predicaments, typically set in L&S's apartment, the "Pizza Bowl" diner run by Laverne's father Frank (Phil Foster), or the Shotz brewery, where some of the show's funniest slapstick humor emerged. These 15 episodes are guaranteed to please longtime fans on a stroll down memory lane, but bonus features are nonexistent, and newcomers may not relate to the clean-cut humor of a bygone era. Still, Laverne & Shirley started strong and continued to improve, at least for another season or two, with a variety of popular guest stars. This three-disc set represents the best of times for everyone involved. --Jeff Shannon
Sales Rank:947 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $34.99 Lowest Used Price: $34.96 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Actor(s):
John Cleese
Prunella Scales
Connie Booth
Andrew Sachs
Basil Fawlty, as created and performed by John Cleese, is the rudest, most boorish, most hilariously obnoxious man on the face of the planet. What a natural for a TV sitcom! His screen wife, Sybil (Prunella Scales), put it best in the episode "The Psychiatrist": "You're either crawling all over them, licking their boots, or spitting poison at them like some Benzedrine puff adder." He mockingly replies, "Just trying to enjoy myself, dear." With his gangly frame and contortionist abilities, Cleese brilliantly punctuates Basil's outrageous faux pas with absurd gymnastics and turns Three Stooges-style pokes and kicks into a slapstick ballet. Scales's Sybil is the genial but obliviously chatty voice of reason and Andrew Sachs mangles the English language as the Spanish bellhop Manuel, whose struggles with simple directions results in comic lunacy reminiscent of Robert Benigni. After a six-episode run in 1975, Cleese and cowriter and costar Connie Booth (who plays Polly, the maid all too often pulled into Basil's ridiculous plans) reunited the cast in 1979 for another six episodes without missing a punch line. The four-volume collection contains all 12 shows, interspersed with interview segments featuring Cleese discussing the genesis of the series and anecdotes about the individual episodes. Remember to watch the opening credits of each show to spot the creative misspellings on the hotel sign (my favorite: "Fatty Owls"). --Sean Axmaker
Sales Rank:418 List Price: $12.98 Lowest New Price: $7.15 Lowest Used Price: $5.50 MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
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Director(s):
Actor(s):
Paul Newman
Michael Ontkean
Strother Martin
Jennifer Warren
Lindsay Crouse
Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:474 List Price: $29.98 Lowest New Price: $12.99 Lowest Used Price: $11.70 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Actor(s):
Christopher McCulloch
James Urbaniak
Patrick Warburton
Michael Sinterniklaas
Doc Hammer
How do you launch a second season of a series when you concluded the previous one by murdering the title characters in cold blood? As is often the case on The Venture Bros., Adult Swim's hilariously funny poke at '60s adventure cartoons like Johnny Quest, the answer comes down to: weird science. It would be a crime to reveal how Hank and Dean Venture's beleaguered dad, Doc Venture (voiced by James Urbaniak) brings his hapless offspring back from the grave, but suffice it to say that the boys are back by the end of Episode One ("Powerless in the Face of Death") and making life miserable for their dad and bodyguard Brock Sampson (Patrick Warburton) shortly thereafter. But Team Venture's exploits share the spotlight this season with the misery of their main antagonist, the Monarch, who struggles to reclaim his lady love, Dr. Girlfriend (voiced by series co-creator Doc Hammer) from the suave Phantom Limb (also Urbaniak). Over the course of the sophomore season's thirteen episodes, the Monarch endures countless humiliations in the name of love (not the least of which is a disastrous double date with Dr. G and Limb in "Victor. Echo. November), while the Venture boys encounter countless historical figures (not the least of which is a thinly disguised Scooby-Doo and friends), screw up their own dates, and generally make a mess of things in their own cheerful but ridiculous ways. Meanwhile, the Ventures' neighbor, the overwrought Dr. Orpheus (Steven Ratazzi), also gets his own story arc, in which he re-assembles his "team" of vampire hunter Jackson Twilight and sexually ambiguous monk The Alchemist (voiced by Dana Snyder of Aqua Teen Hunger Force), with disastrous results. Exceptionally sharp writing that's rich with pop culture references and excellent voice performances make this series one of the smartest and funniest in Adult Swim's anarchic stable; here's hoping the network doesn't allow another two years to pass before they greenlight a third season.
The two-disc set offers raucous commentary by Hammer and co-creator Jackson Publick on all 13 episodes (Urbaniak and Michael Sinterniklaas, who voices Dean Venture, join them for several commentaries), as well as a barrage of deleted scenes from each story, and an amusing mock behind-the-scenes look at Astro-Base Go, the orbiting moon station where Hammer and Publick create the series with the help of SoulBot, a big-hearted robot which also lends its bloops and bleeps to the Ventures' mechanical assistant, H.E.L.P.E.R. Praise should also go to the exceptional packaging art and menu design (which feature Publick's character sketches), which evoke the series' retro feel with style. -- Paul Gaita
Sales Rank:635 List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $15.79 Lowest Used Price: $12.75 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Actor(s):
Jason Alexander
Linda Bates (II)
Mark Beltzman
Cynthia Caponera
Larry Charles
Like its fellow HBO series Sex and the City, this half-hour comedy broke some TV rules and went from critics' darling to an award-winning series in three years. Curb Your Enthusiasm is the brainchild of star-creator Larry David who co-created Seinfeld and was the basis for the easily rattled George Costanza (who was played by Jason Alexander). Like George, David has a tendency to speak too much, blow things out of proportion, and, most often, fail in the end (and often liking it that way). David's new show is also like its predecessor: it's about "nothing" except following the day-to-day ramblings of a sometime writer and comic (this time in L.A.). Eternal questions stemming from universal daily dilemmas are honed to perfect comedic absurdity. A notable exception is the show is only scripted by plot; much of the action is improvised. The first season starts with a one-hour mockumentary following David's return to stand-up for the first time in years; the other 10 episodes follow a more traditional sit-com setup.
David plays "himself" (as does his friend, Richard Lewis) although his manager and wife are played by comedians Jeff Garlin and Cheryl Hines. Although this first season is a comedic gem, one can't take more than an episode or two at a time--it's acidic, biting comedy. The episodes are often built like a house of cards, which the irritable David will surely collapse by the end. Like another caustic TV character, Dabney Colman's Buffalo Bill (1983-84), Larry David is not for everybody. --Doug Thomas
Sales Rank:406 List Price: $14.94 Lowest New Price: $6.23 Lowest Used Price: $5.50 MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
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Director(s):
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Emma Thompson
Kate Winslet
James Fleet
Tom Wilkinson
Harriet Walter
Emma Thompson scores a double bull's-eye with this marvelous adaptation of Jane Austen's novel. Not only does Thompson turn in a strong (and gently humorous) performance as one of the Dashwood sisters--the one with "sense"--she also wrote the witty, wise screenplay. Austen's tale of 19th-century manners and morals provides a large cast with a feast of possibilities, notably Kate Winslet, in her pre-Titanic flowering, as Thompson's deeply romantic sister. Winslet attracts the wooing of shy Alan Rickman (a nice change of pace from his bad-guy roles) and dashing Greg Wise, while Thompson must endure an incredibly roundabout courtship with Hugh Grant, here in fine and funny form. All of this is doled out with the usual eye-filling English countryside and handsome costumes, yet the film always seems to be about the careful interior lives of its characters. The director, an inspired choice, is Taiwan-born Ang Lee, who brings the same exquisite taste and discreet touch he displayed in his previous Asian films (such as Eat Drink Man Woman). Thompson's script won an Oscar, and 1995 was a fine year for Jane Austen all around: Persuasion was made into an excellent picture, and Emma became the spritzy high school comedy Clueless. --Robert Horton
Sales Rank:576 List Price: $35.99 Lowest New Price: $14.99 Lowest Used Price: $14.82 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
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Steve Carell
Anne Hathaway
Dwayne Johnson
Alan Arkin
Terence Stamp
The Cold War may be over, but that doesn't mean it can't still be milked for laughs. Get Smart, the sassy film version of the Mel Brooks/Buck Henry-created '60s TV satire, brings plenty of elements of the original series and spins it freshly into the new world of bad guys in the 21st century, pretty much without losing a beat. Steve Carell is perfectly cast as the bumbling Maxwell Smart--but in a slick improvement on the TV show, Smart isn't really hapless--though he has a bit of a self-esteem problem (all around his apartment are sticky notes with exhortations like "You can DO it!"). Carell's Maxwell Smart is a sharp techie researcher at the uber-secret crime-battling agency, CONTROL, who's just a little out of his element out in the field. As his data-crunching sidekick Bruce (Masi Oka of Heroes) says, "We're the ones guarding democracy!", aghast that Max would want to be an agent.
But Max longs for the action enjoyed by the likes of Agent 23 (a godlike Dwayne Johnson), with glamorous deployments around the world. When he finally gets his dream assignment--as the newly minted Agent 86--he's paired up with the slick and experienced Agent 99 (Anne Hathaway), who provides great lines, not to mention some interesting chemistry, while she continually saves Max from harm's way. The cast is terrific, with memorable appearances by Alan Arkin as the Chief, Terrence Stamp as the head of the uber-evil KAOS, and Bill Murray as a (literally) put-out-to-pasture agent whose spy post is inside a tree ("really great, old-school stuff" he calls his assignment). And there's plenty of action, explosions, and creative shootouts with the bad guys (highlight: a freefall from a plane, with two people and just two parachutes). But it's Carell and his combination of insecure yearning and deadpan delivery that make Get Smart as, well, smart as it is. When Max learns he's finally been promoted to agent, he slips into the Cone of Silence--which unfortunately is malfunctioning. "I'm so happy! I'm so happy!" he yells, as his colleagues sit nearby hearing the whole thing. Discovering that, he purses his lips and says, "Well, that's a sucker-punch to the gonads." Sorry about that. --A.T. Hurley
Sales Rank:488 List Price: $29.98 Lowest New Price: $12.00 Lowest Used Price: $13.23 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
Animated
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Director(s):
Actor(s):
Christopher McCulloch
James Urbaniak
Patrick Warburton
Michael Sinterniklaas
Doc Hammer
If Jonny, Haji, Race Bannon, and the rest of the Jonny Quest gang were idiots, their animated adventures might play out like The Venture Bros., a consistently funny spoof on '60s adventure cartoons from the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programming. The premise should be immediately familiar and nostalgic for any Saturday morning TV aficionado who grew up in the '60s and '70s: Dr. Venture (James Urbaniak from Henry Fool) is an inventor, while sons Hank and Dean's insatiably curiosity lands them in hot water with supervillains, robots, magicians, and the like. Brock Sampson (voiced by the very funny Patrick Warburton of The Tick) is the good doctor's right-hand man, who rescues the boys with good old-fashioned manpower. The twist in The Venture Bros. is that every single character, down to the supervillains' henchmen, are complete and utter dolts, and their adventures are inspired more by foolishness, personal obsessions (for Brock, it's sex and violence, and for Dr. V, it's diet pills and a daddy fixation), or just plain cosmic weirdness than any sense of post-Kennedy-era adventure and derring-do. The result is subversive and occasionally shocking insanity (Dr. V loses his kidneys in the series opener "Dia de Los Dangerous"; Dean suffers an unmentionable personal injury in "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean"; the boys believe that Dr. Venture's stomach tumor is actually a pregnancy in "Return to Spider Island"), but with enough flashes of surreal brilliance to make this a must-have for modern animation fans. The Season One two-disc set contains all 13 episodes, as well as two bonus episodes--the show's original pilot, "The Terrible Secret of Turtle Bay" (for Hank and Dean, the secret is something decidedly salacious), and "A Very Venture Christmas," as well as a handful of deleted scenes. Commentary by the show's creators and cast can be heard on five episodes, including "Turtle Bay," and the extras are rounded out by "Behind the Scenes of the Live-Action Movie," a 20-minute mockumentary that features much of the voice-over talent dressed in some ridiculous costumes. --Paul Gaita