Sales Rank:169 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $14.99 Lowest Used Price: $11.98 MPAA Rating:
Format:
AC-3
Box set
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Subtitled
NTSC
Director(s):
Amy Sherman
Daniel Palladino
Jackson Douglas
Jamie Babbit
Ken Whittingham
Actor(s):
Lauren Graham
Alexis Bledel
Keiko Agena
Scott Patterson
Yanic Truesdale
The rapid-paced banter between the mother-daughter team of Lorelai (Lauren Graham) and Rory Gilmore (Alexis Bledel) is the calling card for Gilmore Girls. The show's sixth year--which aired during the 2005-2006 TV season--remains witty, charming, and touching. The previous season left Yale undergrad Rory in trouble with the law after a night of very un-Gilmore-like behavior with her rich, handsome boyfriend Logan (Matt Czuchry). This season opens with Rory potentially facing jail time, undecided about returning to college, and--most disturbingly of all--fighting with her mother. This isn't a fight over who gets to eat the last egg roll, but rather a battle of wills. It will take a few episodes before the two are talking to each other again and the viewer can breathe a sigh of relief that all is well in Stars Hollow. In the meantime, Rory moves into her busybody grandparents' pool house. One evening, they invite their minister over to dinner. His job? To encourage Rory to remain chaste. Not one to be told how to live her life, Rory is nonplussed. After telling him he's a little too late to offer that advice, she asks, "Have you seen The 40 Year Old Virgin"?
After many years of playing verbal footsy, Lorelai and Luke (Scott Patterson) finally get serious and engaged. But just when things are going smoothly, Luke learns of a daughter he never knew he had. The introduction of the little girl doesn't do much for the plot--other than to slow it down and cause more fights between Luke and Lorelai. When Luke warns Lorelai, "I don't like ultimatums," she snaps back, "I don't like Mondays, but unfortunately they come around eventually." This 5-disc 22-episode set includes an eclectic and impressive range of guest stars (Skid Row's Sebastian Bach, Paul Anka, Sonic Youth, and Madeline Albright, who appears in a dream sequence as Rory's mom). But it's cast regular Kelly Bishop as Lorelai's mother Emily who is one of the show's true gems. Prim, proper, and judgmental, she's also fiercely protective of her brood. When she learns that Logan's mother said unfavorable things about Rory, Emily confronts the woman and puts her in her place. Politely, of course. By the end of the season, one of the main characters will get married, another will have an affair, and a third will have a dalliance with an ex-boyfriend. But the relationship between Lorelai and Rory remains strong. And that's what keeps viewers watching. --Jae-Ha Kim
Sales Rank:195 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $14.99 Lowest Used Price: $12.48 MPAA Rating:
Format:
Box set
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Subtitled
NTSC
Director(s):
Amy Sherman
Daniel Palladino
Eric Laneuville
Jackson Douglas
Jamie Babbit
Actor(s):
Lauren Graham
Alexis Bledel
Keiko Agena
Scott Patterson
Yanic Truesdale
Perennially one of the WB's highest-rated series, Gilmore Girls hit its creative high point to date with its stellar fifth season, which started out with young Rory (Alexis Bledel) feeling the fallout of doing something terribly non-Rory-like: sleeping with Dean (Jared Padalecki), her married ex-boyfriend. Rory's indulgence in adultery put, for the first time, a serious, sharp wedge in her relationship with her mother, Lorelai (Lauren Graham), who was both shocked by her daughter's behavior and worried Rory would repeat the mistakes Lorelai made at her age. But while Rory jetted off to Europe with her grandmother (Kelly Bishop) for the summer, Lorelai finally got her relationship with diner owner Luke (Scott Patterson) into a serious groove, starting with an official (and incredibly sweet) first date and others that involved, if you can believe it, a Swedish Pippi Longstocking movie. And as Lorelai navigated romantic terrain in Stars Hollow (terrain that of course did not run smooth), Rory found life more complex in her second year at Yale, as her relationship with Dean became increasingly strained. Not only that, she found her attention turned towards preppy Logan (Matt Czurchy), a spoiled rich kid who represented everything Rory couldn't stand--and was of course immediately attracted to. Little did Rory know that Logan's entrance into her life, and her interaction with his family, would be the catalyst for one of the most momentous decisions she would ever make.
With this season of Gilmore Girls, creative forces Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino finally found a way to make the Stars Hollow-Yale dichotomy work perfectly, as each location still stood alone but had decided repercussions on the other. Gone were freshman-year anxieties for Rory and in their place were more adult romantic concerns as well as a class consciousness that, for the first serious time, found Rory on the side of the haves and not the have-nots. While the Rory-Dean drama played itself out nicely and succinctly, it was the devilish Logan who lit a fire underneath this Gilmore girl; the episode "You Jump, I Jump, Jack" was a lovely twist on the '30s romantic comedies that found rich folk at play with words and deeds. Bledel started to fully blossom as Rory grew from ingénue to leading lady, and she was matched peerlessly by Graham, whose passion, anger, stubbornness, and ravishing beauty all came to a head in "Wedding Bell Blues," which featured her two greatest nemeses: her mother and Rory's dad, Christopher (David Sutcliffe). The show's trademark eccentricities were all in place--including a Pulp Fiction party and an elementary school production of Fiddler on the Roof, among other things--but it mined the best drama of its run with the season's last four episodes, which found Rory's confidence shaken to the core. To give any of the proceedings away would spoil the drama, but suffice it to say you will be glued to the TV for this season's final four hours; it's Gilmore Girls at its phenomenal best. --Mark Englehart
Sales Rank:456 List Price: $14.98 Lowest New Price: $4.24 Lowest Used Price: $1.81 MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Format:
AC-3
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DTS Surround Sound
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Ivana Baquero
Sergi López
Maribel Verdú
Doug Jones
Ariadna Gil
Inspired by the Brothers Grimm, Jorge Luis Borges, and Guillermo del Toro's own unlimited imagination, Pan's Labyrinth is a fairytale for adults. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) may only be 12, but the worlds she inhabits, both above and below ground, are dark as anything del Toro has conjured. Set in rural Spain, circa 1944, Ofelia and her widowed mother, Carmen (Ariadna Gil, Belle Epoque), have just moved into an abandoned mill with Carmen's new husband, Captain Vidal (Sergi López, With a Friend like Harry). Carmen is pregnant with his son. Other than her sickly mother and kindly housekeeper Mercedes (Maribel Verdú, Y Tu Mamá También), the dreamy Ofelia is on her own. Vidal, an exceedingly cruel man, couldn't be bothered. He has informers to torture. Ofelia soon finds that an entire universe exists below the mill. Her guide is the persuasive Faun (Doug Jones, Mimic). As her mother grows weaker, Ofelia spends more and more time in the satyr's labyrinth. He offers to help her out of her predicament if she'll complete three treacherous tasks. Ofelia is willing to try, but does this alternate reality really exist or is it all in her head? Del Toro leaves that up to the viewer to decide in a beautiful, yet brutal twin to The Devil's Backbone, which was also haunted by the ghost of Franco. Though it lacks the humor of Hellboy, Pan's Labyrinth represents Guillermo Del Toro at the top of his considerable game. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Sales Rank:188 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $14.89 Lowest Used Price: $13.81 MPAA Rating:
Format:
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Amy Sherman
Chris Long
Danny Leiner
Dennis Erdman
Gail Mancuso
Actor(s):
Lauren Graham
Alexis Bledel
Keiko Agena
Scott Patterson
Yanic Truesdale
Love was in the air at the beginning of the second season of Gilmore Girls, as both Gilmores found themselves in the midst of perfect, giddy relationships--or so they thought. Lorelai (Lauren Graham) had accepted the proposal of English teacher Max (Scott Cohen) and was excitedly planning her first wedding; Rory (Alexis Bledel) was back on happy footing with townie hunk Dean (Jared Padalecki) after a dust-up near the end of season one that prompted a mini-break for the teen twosome. However, series creator Amy Sherman-Palladino had anything but smooth sailing on the horizon for her heroines, giving Lorelai a severe case of cold feet and Rory a major distraction in the form of Jess (Milo Ventimiglia), the bad boy newly arrived in town. Soon, Rory found herself extremely attracted to Jess, while Lorelai rekindled the flame of passion that once burned long ago with Rory's father, Christopher (David Sutcliffe), who made his way back into her life despite a girlfriend in the wings.
After the minor romantic speed bumps of the first season, the introduction of actual conflict into the second season of Gilmore Girls helped give the happy-goofy atmosphere of Stars Hollow a decided tension, as Rory tangled with her emotions over Jess and began the first tiny steps away from her good-girl persona. The episode "A-Tisket, A-Tasket," centered around the annual town auction of picnic baskets, was a wonderful portrait of Rory's conflicting adolescent feelings for both Dean and Jess. However, it was Lorelai's simmering chemistry with former flame Christopher, only hinted at in the first season, that gave the show its energy as well as its heartbreak, culminating in the stellar season finale "I Can't Get Started." But lest you think Gilmore Girls was centered only on romance, the second season also gave the expansive ensemble cast many hilarious moments, ranging from the hallway politics of Rory's private school to the town antics that shaped the Gilmores' daily lives. Through it all, the appealing Bledel and the radiant Graham exuded wit, charm, and a way with snappy patter not seen since the golden days of '30s screwball comedy. --Mark Englehart
Sales Rank:81 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $36.50 Lowest Used Price: $34.00 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
AC-3
Box set
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Blake Lively
Leighton Meester
Chace Crawford
Taylor Momsen
Kristen Bell
Want to know a secret? A really juicy secret? Look no further than the latest message from Manhattan's notorious blogger Gossip Girl. She keeps tabs on the city's most elite teens as they make the rounds from the preppiest school events to the most lavish, decadent parties. And between Serena and Blair's explosive friendship, Dan and Serena's budding romance, Nate and Blair's fairytale relationship (or is it?), Chuck's escapades and Jenny's introduction to the glamorous life, there's a lot to track! In this 5-disc, 18-episode Season One, friends, lovers, rivals and enemies abound. Even the darkest secrets don't stay hidden for long. You know you love it. XOXO!
Sales Rank:460 List Price: $59.98 Lowest New Price: $20.73 Lowest Used Price: $12.88 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Format:
AC-3
Box set
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC
Director(s):
Actor(s):
Tom Welling
Kristin Kreuk
Michael Rosenbaum
Annette O'Toole
John Glover
Picking up where its fifth season left off, Smallville's sixth season begins with Metropolis in ruins, Clark (Tom Welling) trapped in the Phantom Zone, and General Zod inhabiting the body of Lex (Michael Rosenbaum). Even when that situation, dubbed "Black Thursday," is over, Clark still has to capture the criminals who escaped from the Phantom Zone. Meanwhile, having driven away Lana (Kristin Kreuk), she finds comfort in the home and arms of Lex, driving further anxiety into that romantic triangle that has expanded to include Chloe (Allison Mack, still with a smile that lights up the orb on top of the Daily Planet) and her new beau, photographer Jimmy Olsen (Aaron Ashmore). And Lois (Erica Durance)? We see hints of her inevitable future in her becoming a reporter for the tabloid rag The Inquisitor ("The thrill of discovery, the clack of the keys, the scent of fresh ink… I think I've finally found my calling!") and flashing some sparks with Clark especially in a Valentine's Day episode called "Crimson."
She also finds a new boyfriend in Oliver Queen (Justin Hartley), a tycoon who moves from Star City to Metropolis and revives a boarding-school rivalry with Lex. But Queen is also a superhero, the Green Arrow, and he's out to thwart Lex's project called 33.1, which runs tests on meteor-powered humans. And in an awesome episode called "Justice," the Green Arrow gathers his team--Bart Allen (Kyle Gallner), a.k.a. Impulse (a change after he was first called the Flash); Arthur "AC" Curry (Alan Ritchson), a.k.a. Aquaman; and Victor Stone (Lee Thompson Young), a.k.a. Cyborg (who had all appeared in the series before)--with Clark to shut down Lex. Yet another hero from the comic books--an interplanetary detective (Phil Morris)--helps Clark fight rogue Kryptonians. It all ends in a slam-bang finale with a number of surprises. Even though the Lana drama went on too long, Green Arrow and some choice episodes stuff made this one of Smallville's best seasons. Guest stars include Tori Spelling as a nosy gossip reporter and Lynda "Wonder Woman" Carter as Chloe's mom. --David Horiuchi