Sales Rank:118 List Price: $19.98 Lowest New Price: $10.69 Lowest Used Price: $3.98 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
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Kathy Bates
Michael Countryman
Gina Gershon
Anne Kent
Lisa Kudrow
For those who believe true love lasts beyond this physical plane, P.S. I Love You is a jewel in the romantic-movie crown. With elements of Ghost, Heaven Can Wait, and My Life, the film is an unabashed valentine to the notion of lasting (everlasting?) love. Hilary Swank is Holly, a deeply happy lass married to the most impossibly adorable Irishman on the planet, Gerry (Gerard Butler). When an illness takes him from her, Holly spirals into depression. Then, as if from beyond the grave, communications, gifts, and remembrances from Gerry begin to appear--gestures he'd planned knowing his death was coming. The "communications" with her dead husband could threatened to keep Holly in past, yet they begin to pave a path into her future.
Swank, not a traditional romantic actress, is quite moving as Holly, whose grief and confusion is palpable. Butler will win new continents of fans, largely female, as the yummiest honey one could wish for. Special kudos to the supporting cast, including Lisa Kudrow as a Holly pal, and James Marsters and Kathy Bates, always breaths of fresh air onscreen. Under the sure hand of director-writer Richard LaGravenese, P.S. I Love You is touching, sad (have tissues on hand), and heartbreakingly lovely. --A.T. Hurley
Sales Rank:50 List Price: $79.98 Lowest New Price: $41.00 Lowest Used Price: $34.95 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
David Frankel
Tom Hanks
Actor(s):
Damien Lewis
Ron Livingston
Donnie Wahlberg
Frank John Hughes
Neal McDonough
An impressively rigorous, unsentimental, and harrowing look at combat during World War II, Band of Brothers follows a company of airborne infantry--Easy Company--from boot camp through the end of the war. The brutality of training takes the audience by increments to the even greater brutality of the war; Easy Company took part in some of the most difficult battles, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the failed invasion of Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the liberation of a concentration camp and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. But what makes these episodes work is not their historical sweep but their emphasis on riveting details (such as the rattle of a plane as the paratroopers wait to leap, or a flower in the buttonhole of a German soldier) and procedures (from military tactics to the workings of bureaucratic hierarchies). The scope of this miniseries (10 episodes, plus an actual documentary filled with interviews with surviving veterans) allows not only a thoroughness impossible in a two-hour movie, but also captures the wide range of responses to the stress and trauma of war--fear, cynicism, cruelty, compassion, and all-encompassing confusion. The result is a realism that makes both simplistic judgments and jingoistic enthusiasm impossible; the things these soldiers had to do are both terrible and understandable, and the psychological price they paid is made clear. The writing, directing, and acting are superb throughout. The cast is largely unknown, emphasizing the team of actors as a whole unit, much like the regiment; Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston play the central roles of two officers with grit and intelligence. Band of Brothers turns a vast historical event into a series of potent personal experiences; it's a deeply engrossing and affecting accomplishment. --Bret Fetzer
Sales Rank:241 List Price: $299.98 Lowest New Price: $128.95 Lowest Used Price: $128.99 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Martin Sheen
Allison Janney
John Spencer
The West Wing ventured where no other TV series had gone before: an extraordinarily intimate look at an American President and the inner workings of the White House. Experience all the crises, triumphs, lofty idealism and hard realities of the acclaimed series in this complete seven-season DVD set. Here, on 45 discs, are all 154 episodes of the series that won 26 Emmys, including 4 for Outstanding Drama Series. Hail to chief - and to the creators and stars of this ground-breaking series. Also Included: Pilot Script with Foreword from Series Creator Aaron Sorkin. Hours of Special Feature: Over 20 Commentaries Over 20 Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes Unaired Scenes, Gag Reels and More
Sales Rank:155 List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $16.40 Lowest Used Price: $17.16 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Craig Zisk
Ernest R. Dickerson
Julie Anne Robinson
Lev L. Spiro
Martha Coolidge
Actor(s):
Mary-Louise Parker
Elizabeth Perkins
Hunter Parrish
Kevin Nealon
Alexander Gould
Weeds: Season Three continues the dark line of comedy that emerged in the previous season for this Showtime series. The story picks up exactly where it left off, with Nancy Botwin (Mary-Louise Parker) faced with a half-dozen guns pointing at her in her own kitchen, while an Armenian gang and Nancy's buyer, U-Turn (Page Kennedy), both demand she turn over her entire stash of marijuana (worth several hundred thousand dollars). Problem is, the pot is in the trunk of on-again, off-again friend Celia (Elizabeth Perkins), whose car has been stolen by Nancy's oldest son, Silas (Hunter Parrish). Silas wants in on mom's business, but his timing couldn't be worse as Celia and a police officer show up to reclaim the car while Nancy is still at gunpoint. The fallout from all this is that Nancy ends up working for U-Turn to repay her debt to him, a dangerous relationship that sends Nancy down a rabbit hole of underworld threats and violence. Meanwhile, Celia gets booted out of her home by her husband and becomes estranged from her young daughter, Isabelle (Allie Grant), who insists she's a lesbian. Celia rebounds a bit when a corrupt developer (Matthew Modine) gives her a house in exchange for her support on city council for one of his schemes. That goes wrong, too, when Celia allows Nancy, Doug (Kevin Nealon), and Conrad (Romany Malco), all of whom go into business after U-Turn stops being a problem, to put their endangered trove of marijuana plants in her house. Nancy's other son, Shane (Alexander Gould), claims he can see and talk to the ghost of Nancy's late husband, and Nancy's brother-in-law Andy (Justin Kirk) goes AWOL from the U.S. Army after his comrade is deliberately killed in an experimental missile test. As always, it's one thing after another on Weeds, and the blend of humor and suspense is uniquely compelling. Parker and the rest of the cast pull off some pretty surreal situations with great credibility. The show's lead star, particularly, can carry moments of blended terror and comedy: one of the season's most memorable moments finds Nancy forced to put on a sexy dance for a group of drug dealers in order to pick up a package U-Turn requires. The scene is humiliating, frightening, sexy, and comical all at once. Few actresses could have pulled it off, but Parker does. --Tom Keogh
Sales Rank:56 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $29.69 Lowest Used Price: $29.99 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Hugh Laurie
Lisa Edelstein
Omar Epps
Robert Sean Leonard
Jennifer Morrison
For Dr. Gregory House (Hugh Laurie), there's nothing like a good, tension-filled competition to pick his new team of doctors when his old trio of Chase (Jesse Spencer), Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) and Foreman (Omar Epps) leave his fold. Among the 40 newbies vying to earn the coveted spots in the fourth season of House, M.D. are Dr. Lawrence Kutner (Kal Penn, the Harold & Kumar films), Dr. Chris Taub (Peter Jacobson, Transformers) and Dr., uh, Thirteen (Olivia Wilde, The O.C.). Taking a cue from Flavor Flav, House dubs the latter with that nickname simply because he can. Though frequently politically incorrect, House is almost always spot on when it comes to diagnosing rare diseases and ailments. His boss Cuddy (Lisa Edelstein) puts up with his unorthodox quirks, which include antagonizing patients, berating his colleagues, and being an overall pain in the butt, because he's brilliant. The addition of the new doctors adds a bit of chaos early on. But once the contingent is whittled away to the select few, the storylines grow stronger and the chemistry between the old and new cast members gels. Originally shown during the 2007-2008 television season, House aired only 16--rather than its usual 24--episodes, due to the Writers Guild strike. Though a bit of momentum is lost in the last third of the season, the writers do an admirable job of piecing together loose ends without sacrificing plot or structure. In a nice homage to the Prescription Passion, the General Hospital-esque soap opera he loves, House at one point is afflicted with amnesia. The humorous aspect of the story is offset by urgency as he tries to remember what needs to be done to save a patient. On a separate episode, House kidnaps the star of the daytime drama (played by Sex and the City hunk Jason Lewis) because he's convinced the actor is dying. The season finale is heartbreaking, as one of House's 40 candidates is in a life-and-death situation that even the good doctor may not be able to cure. --Jae-Ha Kim
Sales Rank:380 List Price: $59.95 Lowest New Price: $23.98 Lowest Used Price: $22.98 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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"Are you ready for this?" quintessential cop on the edge Vic Mackey (Michael Chiklis) asks his longtime nemesis, Councilman David Aceveda (Benito Martinez) in the season finale. With more than a year between seasons, we're always ready for The Shield, which rivals The Wire not only in quality (not everyone is ready to play at this level, as Mackey states at one point) but also in the lack of appreciation for one of television's very best shows. Again, another great season, and another Emmy snub. There ought to be a law. There is much more to The Shield than its shocking and brutal violence and language. This penultimate season, which turns the heat on Mackey, a one-man good cop/bad cop, to boil, is "all kinds of personal" for its intimately observed characters. Mackey is obsessed with finding out who killed Strike Force member Lem, while Kavanaugh (Forest Whitaker), just as obsessed with taking Mackey down, recklessly crosses the line to "frame a guilty man." Meanwhile, Mackey keeps moving the line as he relentlessly pursues the drug kingpin he has judged responsible for Lem's death, going so far as to stage a faux kidnapping of his suspect's girlfriend. In one of the season's most excruciating scenes, he turns chain-wielding executioner. What viewers know, but Mackey initially does not, is that the killer is a guilt-ridden Shane (Walton Goggins), Mackey's best friend. Shane, ultimately exiled from the Strike Force, becomes embroiled in an ill-fated association with the daughter of Armenian mob boss, putting Mackey's family in peril. Back at the Barn, newly promoted Claudette Wyms (CCH Pounder) is under intense pressure as the precinct's body count mounts. Her former partner, Dutch (Jay Karnes) develops a crush on Tina (Paula Garces), the pretty new cop he is mentoring. She has a one-night stand with hotshot Kevin Hiatt (Alex O'Loughlin), the new guy whom Wyms fears may learn too much from Mackey or not enough. The tension builds inexorably to a season finale that fulfills all expectations, in which the resourceful Mackey, facing a review board hearing, must scramble to save his badge, resulting in a surprising alliance that bodes well for the final season. "Trust me," he states at one point, "There's a way out. There always is." From first episode to last, The Shield's sixth season is gripping, gut-wrenching stuff. To quote Shane: "Put another one in the win column." --Donald Liebenson
Sales Rank:48 List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $18.75 Lowest Used Price: $19.52 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Dark and sinister is the new sexy, thanks to Dexter, which in its second season has proven to be the most successful series Showtime has offered up yet. Remember how much you squirmed in your seat during the season one finale? Believe it or not, the premiere of season two felt like it could have been a season finale--because jaws were on the floor when the credits rolled. For being a supposed sociopath, Dex is pretty broken up about the gruesome events that concluded last season. The one and only person who could possibly understand him is six feet under, and it seems our unlikely hero is losing his homicidal grip. He’s even having a little trouble slicing up a few of his latest victims (from a murderous gang member to a chainsaw-wielding fiend from his past). Enter Lila (Jaime Murray, Hustle), a lady with a sweet British accent and a few dark secrets of her own. She seems to accept Dex for who he really is, and he finds himself feeling relaxed for the first time in his life. In contrast, his relationship with his girlfriend Rita (Julie Benz) has been stretched almost to a breaking point. The problem is, he should be anything but relaxed. Someone picked a poor place to go scuba diving off the Florida coast, and came across an underwater graveyard: Dex’s primo spot for dropping dismembered bodies wrapped in heavy-duty trash bags. Word about the "Bay Harbor Butcher" gets out quick, and the F.B.I. sends the best of the best, Special Agent Frank Lundy (Keith Carradine, Deadwood) to work alongside the police to sniff out Miami’s latest serial killer. This guy is no schlub, and Dex may have met his match. And, yes, Dexter gets to work with Lundy on a daily basis, which provides some wonderfully awkward moments. It certainly doesn’t help that the intuitively paranoid Sergeant Doakes (Erik King, Oz) is hot on Dex’s trail.
Season two of Dexter is all about decisions. Lila or Rita? Old code or new code? Run or fight? Right or wrong? Well, one thing’s for sure: When it comes to writing, casting, acting, and production, the makers of this show made all the right decisions. Michael C. Hall is simply superb as the title character. You’ll never find yourself more willing to genuinely root for a serial killer. It’s bloody liberating. --Jordan Thompson
Sales Rank:143 List Price: $26.98 Lowest New Price: $16.97 Lowest Used Price: $15.21 MPAA Rating: Unrated
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Powers Boothe
Robert Carlyle
Colm Feore
Cherry Jones
Peter MacNicol
The pulse-pounding countdown gets a jumpstart as 24: Redemption, the unprecedented feature-length event from television’s most provocative and suspenseful series, arrives on DVD November 25th. After sacrificing everything for his country, Jack Bauer (Kiefer Sutherland) stands to lose the only thing he has left – his freedom. Wanted by the U.S. government and working as a missionary in Africa, Bauer is called upon to stop a ruthless warlord from drafting innocent children into his murderous militia. But first, Bauer must confront his own torturous past and face an impossible decision that will change his life forever.
Special features include: • Extended Edition "Creator’s Cut" featuring over ten minutes of never-before-seen footage (not shown in the television broadcast version) • Behind-the-scenes "Making Of" documentary • Children of War featurette • Cast / Crew Commentary • "24" Season 6 in Four Minutes featurette • Season 7 Sneak Peek – First 16 minutes of the premiere episode