Sales Rank:372 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:49 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:140 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
Sales Rank: List Price: $39.98 Lowest New Price: $15.47 Lowest Used Price: $7.26 MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
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Director(s):
Craig Zisk
Daniel Attias
David Nutter
Julian Farino
Ken Whittingham
Actor(s):
Kevin Connolly
Adrian Grenier
Kevin Dillon
Jerry Ferrara
Jeremy Piven
The third season of HBO's inside-showbiz comedy kicks off with a familiar anxiety for Tinseltown's best: your film's opening-weekend box office. In the case of Vince (Adrian Grenier) and company, it's Aquaman, Vince's big break that took up most of last season and elevated the group to even bigger perks and tchotchkes. Luckily, the numbers are good (creator Doug Ellin reveals in the commentary that the episode was inspired by his friend who was with Tobey Maguire when he first heard Spider-Man's opening numbers) and Vince uses the leverage to chase his dream project, a biopic of Pablo Escobar called Medellin. But first he has to schmooze the film's eccentric producer who's strangely attached to his Shrek doll (Bruno Kirby, in his last role before his death in 2006) and juggle scheduling conflicts with the Aquaman sequel, which leads to an ego war with Warner studio chief Allen Grey (Paul Ben-Victor). Meanwhile, Turtle's (Jerry Ferrara) management of upstart rapper Saigon takes some sharp turns; Eric (Kevin Connolly) finds his relationship with Sloan (Emmanuelle Chiriqui) on shaky ground; and Johnny "Drama" Chase (Kevin Dillon) gets to audition for a television pilot directed by Ed Burns (playing himself). But the overarching storyline for season 3 involves Vince's agent Ari Gold (Emmy winner Jeremy Piven), who was canned last season by his agency. Taking his flamboyant, hilarious assistant Lloyd (Rex Lee) with him, Ari goes about setting up his own firm, but not before drawing fire from the mafia of other agents and threatening his relationship with star client Vince. The only weak storyline involves an old childhood pal (Domenick Lombardozzi), fresh out of prison, trying to nudge his way into Vince's gang. But otherwise the show's inside look at the baptism of the newly famous continues to tickle the funny bone.
As usual, Entourage sprinkles in cameos, including Crash director Paul Haggis hilariously playing himself as a wound-up neurotic ("If I let contracts run my life, I'd still be doing The Facts of Life rather than hanging with my boys," he says as he points to his Oscars). James Woods filches Aquaman premiere tickets for his friends, and Seth Green gets in a rumble with Eric in the episode "Vegas Baby Vegas." Extras are still scant: just three commentaries and a featurette on their Vegas-location episode. --Ellen A. Kim
Sales Rank:562 List Price: $29.98 Lowest New Price: $14.99 Lowest Used Price: $9.58 MPAA Rating:
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Director(s):
Allen Coulter
Allison Anders
Charles McDougall
Daniel Algrant
Dennis Erdman
Actor(s):
Sarah Jessica Parker
Kim Cattrall
Kristin Davis
Cynthia Nixon
Chris Noth
The third season was the charm for one of HBO's gold standard series, which earned its first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series to go along with its Golden Globes for Best Comedy Series and Best Actress (Sarah Jessica Parker). The writing is as sharp as ever, with more trendy product placement than a Bret Easton Ellis novel and ribald banter that's a cross between the Algonquin Round Table and the Friars Club. One of this season's two principal story arcs concerned hapless-in-love Charlotte (Kristin Davis) and her pursuit of a husband; enter (if only...) Kyle McLachlan as the unfortunately impotent Trey. Meanwhile, sex columnist Carrie has a brief but memorable fling with a politician who’s golden, but not in the way she anticipated. She then sabotages her too-good-to-be-true relationship with furniture designer Aidan (John Corbett) by having an affair with Mr. Big (Chris Noth), who himself has gotten married.
"Do we need drama to make a relationship work?" Carrie muses at one point. Sex and the City needs drama to make it work, and Parker and Cynthia Nixon (as career woman Miranda), this ensemble's better half, give the show its pulsating heart as they wrestle with commitment and, in the episode "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," sadder-but-wiser breakups. On the lighter side, the sexual dalliances of "rude and politically incorrect" Samantha (Kim Cattrall) provide great fodder for comedy. Like I Love Lucy, the series benefited from a brief change of scenery with a three-episode jaunt to Los Angeles, where Carrie and company encountered, among others, Matthew McConaughey, Vince Vaughn, Hugh Hefner, and Sarah Michelle Gellar. At its best, to quote one character, Sex and the City is "sharp, edgy, brutal at times, always a little juicy." It may be "very New York," but the sex and relationship issues it tackles are universal. For its devoted fans, the release of this 18-episode, three-disc set is, to quote Gellar's clueless Hollywood junior development exec, "chick flick big." --Donald Liebenson
Sales Rank:89 List Price: $19.98 Lowest New Price: $6.69 Lowest Used Price: $8.39 MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
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Chevy Chase
Beverly D'Angelo
Juliette Lewis
Johnny Galecki
John Randolph
You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time, there's no traveling involved: Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) prepare for a nice Christmas with the kids (played by none other than Juliette Lewis and Roseanne star Johnny Galecki), when their home is invaded by backwoods cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his brood, along with assorted other crazy and/or stuffy relatives. Complications, of course, are inevitable. The film is preceded by National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and followed by National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997). Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who went on to do Benny & Joon and the Sharon Stone remake of Diabolique. --Jim Emerson