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Six Feet Under: The Complete First Season
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 186
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
The Fishers are your typical dysfunctional family. Ruth (Frances Conroy) is the stern matriarch who has trouble expressing emotion and snaps at the slightest problem. Daughter Claire (Lauren Ambrose) is an underachiever who cultivates a moody, mysterious loner image in high school (she's indulging in illegal substances too). Brother David (Michael C. Hall) works in the family business, and is uptight beyond belief (he's indulging in a secret homosexual relationship too). Elder brother Nate (Peter Krause) is the black sheep, who, eschewing responsibility, fled to Seattle but got lured back. And Dad (Richard Jenkins) watches it all bemusedly. Did we mention Dad's dead? Oh, and that the Fisher family business is a funeral home? It might sound off-putting, but coming from the mind of Alan Ball, the man who strip-mined suburban life to find the mordant wit underneath in American Beauty, Six Feet Under is a trenchant, stylish spin on standard family dysfunction.This HBO series initially aspired to fits of Twin Peaks-like whimsy, with each episode starting with a death more outlandish than the previous, but soon settled into a comfortable groove that harkened back to the most familiar of TV family dramas (in fact, it's almost a mirror image of '70s drama Family, down to the three sibling archetypes). Of course, its HBO roots allowed it ample leeway with sex, drug usage, profanity, and violence. While the writing strove to be a little too clever, the overall look and tone of the show remained solid and sometimes profound (sometimes absurd too, but usually with good reason). Krause and Hall, as initially warring brothers who come to a wary understanding, are solid anchors, but it's the women in the cast who do the most phenomenal work. Conroy infuses her almost stereotypical mom with an obstinate but ultimately accepting heart, and Ambrose's Claire is by far the show's most appealing character. And stealing scenes left and right is Rachel Griffith's Brenda, a mystery woman with an outlandish backstory who meets Nate on a plane, has sex with him at the airport, and infiltrates his life. Like Brenda herself, Six Feet Under is fascinating--and highly addictive. --Mark Englehart
Conspiracy
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 111
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
On January 20, 1942, with the tide of war turning in favor of the Allies, a small group of SS officers, government ministers, and Nazi officials met near Berlin to decide the fate of Europe's Jews. Based on the only surviving record of that meeting, Conspiracy is a powerful combination of historical reconstruction and speculation that attempts to offer new insights into a pivotal moment in history.The cast does a marvelous job of fleshing out the documentary evidence to create convincing characters. Kenneth Branagh is especially chilling as SS Chief of Security Reinhard Heydrich, who uses a combination of charm and ruthless power-mongering to gain support for his plans. Colin Firth is fascinating as Wilhelm Stuckart, a lawyer who sees the brutal tactics of the SS as a threat to his own intellectualized anti-Semitism, and Stanley Tucci gives a wonderfully understated performance as Adolf Eichmann.
Conspiracy is a carefully crafted, completely unsensational film that offers ample proof of the banality of evil. There are no histrionics and no comic-book Nazi villains, just a small group of politicians and war-weary soldiers arguing about the meaning of words and the logistics of extermination, calmly preparing to unleash an unimaginable horror on the world. --Simon Leake
61*
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 116
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
61* is an endearing ode to the baseball days of yore when the press was the enemy, salaries were in check, and breaking records with bat and glove took on Ruthian proportions. In 1961 baseball expanded its season from 154 games to 162, allowing weaker pitching into the major leagues and two New York Yankees teammates--the colorless Roger Maris and golden boy Mickey Mantle--to make an assault on the sport's ultimate record: Babe Ruth's 60 home runs. To add to the stew, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced any record set in the last eight games of the season wouldn't count toward the official record; records had to be achieved in 154 games.Director Billy Crystal guarantees success for his movie in the perfect casting of the leads. Barry Pepper (Saving Private Ryan's religious sniper) is deft as Maris, and Thomas Jane is a perfect Mantle, a superman in a Yankee uniform. Despite the differences between family man Maris and hard-living Mantle, they form a rewarding friendship amid the media and fan frenzy. The shy Maris took the brunt of the storm, even facing boo-birds in his home stadium. Crystal and first-time writer Hank Steinberg keep the pace moving quickly between the field, the locker room, the press box, and the home front. The film never tries to dazzle with more than the facts (and it softens Mantle up a bit), yet it belongs on the short list of grand baseball movies. --Doug Thomas
Barbarians at the Gate
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
An Entertaining Tool Applicable To Business. 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
This movie, based on a true story, chronicles the sale of RJR Nabisco during an era when Mergers and Acquisitions were at an all time high. James Garner, in a brilliant performance, plays F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco who wants to take Nabisco private and be its majority owner.
The movie does a nice job explaining the financial aspects of a LBO(Leveraged Buyout) on such a basic level that anyone can understand. Throughout the film the storyline flows quickly, although at times certain scenes were a little canned and the satire a bit corny.
The backdrop of the movie is loaded with back and forth backstabbing, blatant greed, under the table dealing, and Jonathan Pryce's depiction of Henry Kravis, a Wall Street mover and shaker and corporate raider is outstanding.
Of course by no means this work supersedes the book, but nevertheless you may find the effort quite entertaining.
Over all, I really enjoyed this movie.
Editorial Review:
When the ceo of nabisco decides to buy out the shareholders and take over the company no one is prepared for what hits the fan in this comedy about big business and big bucks. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 02/03/2004 Starring: James Garner Joanna Cassidy Run time: 107 minutes Rating: R Director: Glenn Jordan
And the Band Played On
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Review from a Teacher 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
I teach anatomy and physiology....show this during Microbiology....it's amazing how far we've come in 20 yrs, and kind of surprising how POLITICAL the world is!!!
fabulous 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
This was informative and entertaining...one of my favourite DVD's...well worth purchasing..a comprehensive look at the beginning of one of our world's greatest problems..
Heather Thompson
And the band played on 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
I had to review this movie for on of my graduate classes. I had seen it in the past, but did not remember all of the details. I really enjoyed seeing it for the second time.
And the Band Played On 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
This movie was used as an assignment in an epidemiology class in nursing school. It was an excellent representation of the epidemiologic investigation process. It would be an excellent resource for basing a paper on for school or for using as a teaching tool in lecture.
Editorial Review:
This is the story of the discovery of the disease we now know as aids. An unforgettable tale of scientific struggle corruption deceit tragedy & triumph. Dvd features not listed. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 06/01/2004 Starring: Matthew Modine Richard Gere Run time: 140 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Roger Spottiswoode
A Lesson Before Dying
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
On a bright sunny day in 1948, Jefferson (Mekhi Phifer) sets off down the road to go catch some fish; by the end of the movie's opening sequence, he is the one who's been caught, and wrongly accused of the murder of a white shopkeeper. Racial inequality, at the time, is so pervasive in Louisiana that the white defense lawyer's argument at Jefferson's trial is that his client is not worthy of conviction: "You might just as soon put a hog in the 'lectric chair as this," he declares. Outraged by this statement, Jefferson's godmother (Irma P. Hall) does not want her godson to die as a hog. To this end she enlists the reluctant aid of the black community's teacher, Grant Wiggins (Don Cheadle), to teach him to "be a man." As Grant and Jefferson get to know each other (and the viewer gets to know them both), it's not clear which of them needs the lesson more. As in Ernest J. Gaines's award-winning novel, the movie goes beyond the conflict between the races to explore divisions that splinter the black community: education versus religion, dark skin versus light. And, thanks to masterful performances from Cheadle and Phifer as well as a thoughtful screenplay by Amy Peacock, A Lesson Before Dying goes even further, examining what it means to be human and the responsibility a man has to himself and to his community. Originally made for HBO, this adaptation of Gaines's novel richly deserves to be seen by a wider audience. --Larisa Lomacky Moore
Always Outnumbered
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 30
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Socrates Was Me. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Just a small correction for you "Trivia Buffs." Lawrence Fishburne first starred in movies as Wilford Robinson the "Me" of a 1975 African American Classic (my opinion) Cornbread, Earl and Me.
Great flick! 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
Enjoyed this movie tremendously. It kinda stuck with the book's storyline. Walter Mosley is an excellent author.
For anyone who knows LA and at least feels condemed at times, you'll relate to this film. 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
You don't have to be a hardened convict to relate to Socrates Fortlow, and that's what makes author Walter Mosely and his fictional character of this name, perfectly captured in this film by actor Lawrence Fishburn and director Michael Apted, so intriguing. By midway through the film, you find yourself admiring Fortlow, despite him being unemployable and living in a horrible, seemingly abandoned home in a back alley, in South Central Los Angeles.
Take it from someone who once worked at a grocery store; The scenes where Fortlow harasses an upscale grocery store for employment are not only admirable and humorous, but also beyond realistic (the elevator muzak version of "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog").
I also think this film captures an aspect of LA which often goes overlooked, how lonely of a place it really is.
The score is brilliant. A perfect late '90s, saddened, "neo-soul" sound.
Oh, Bill Cobbs; This film is another exhibit that he is the most underrated American actor of our time. I don't know if this film would be the same without him.
Editorial Review:
From walter mosley author of devil in a blue dress comes socrates fortlow. Whether hes running a killer out of town falling in love with his best friends wife or trying to save the life of a murder witness the way hes fighting for his life is the way youd want him fighting for yours. Studio: Hbo Home Video Release Date: 01/16/2007 Starring: Laurence Fishburne Laurie Metcalf Run time: 110 minutes Rating: R Director: Michael Apted
Dinner with Friends
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
Editorial Review:
Directed by Norman Jewison and adapted by Donald Margulies from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, this acclaimed HBO production offers a welcome antidote to the superficiality of mainstream Hollywood. With the same attention to emotional detail that he brought to Moonstruck, Jewison establishes a delicate balance of anguish and bittersweet humor, reaching peak intensity as two couples confront the aftershocks of infidelity. Dennis Quaid and Andie MacDowell play the steady pair, committed to surviving every marital peak and valley. Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette are splitting up, divided by his infidelity and forced to reevaluate connections to their long-term friends. While Jewison and cinematographer Roger Deakins expertly translate the stagy material, the revealing, nonjudgmental quality of Margulies's dialogue inspires excellence from this quartet of underrated actors. Funny, painful, and full of truth, Dinner with Friends presents marriage as an organic work in progress, never to be taken for granted, and never guaranteed. --Jeff Shannon
Boycott
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 18
Average rating: 4.5 of 5
"We will not be free until we rest!" 381 days that shook the U.S 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.
In December 1955,Rosa Parks wilfully refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery,Alabama bus.Her refusal sparked what was to become an 381 day boycott of the Montgomery transit system that saw the rise of fledgling minister and newcomer Dr.Martin Luther King and what was to become what is now recognised as "The Birth of the Civil Rights Movement".HBO has turned in a tremendous,nearly moment-by-moment account of that period of time,the events that transpired and the main figures that were intimately involved in the boycott that found itself going all the way to The Supreme Court.This film is taut with tension from the very opening scene and keeps propelling forward with unrelenting mercy as one woman's brave act of defiance of segregation law spearheads an entire awakening of conscience and soul of not only the African-American population butultimately of the country at large.This film is the most excellent starting place for all students of AMERICAN history.We cannot all be free until all are free!
One interesting point that this film showed was that MLK Jr.(amazing as always Jeffrey Wright!) IMMEDIATELY left the pulpit in the middle of his message to go to his family when he is informed that his home had been bombed.He didn't just sit there looking puzzled and continued what he was doing as some other famous leader did!
4 1/2****'s for this totally compelling , gripping and well made docudrama.
Editorial Review:
When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, the Reverend Martin Luther King was but a modest young Baptist minister suddenly thrust into the leadership of local bus boycott. What started as a one-day protest of unfair bus laws turned into the 381-day boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. This riveting, rousing made-for-cable drama meticulously recounts the challenges the protest faced. Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) is excellent as King, capturing his charisma and rousing speeches while grounding his heroism in human vulnerability and fear, but Boycott reminds us that he was only one of the thousands of ordinary people roused into extraordinary action in the name of equality and social justice. That portrait of everyday heroes changing the course of history remains the film's most rousing message. --Sean Axmaker
Citizen Cohn
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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9
Average rating: 4.0 of 5
Imaginative look at Roy Cohn 4 out of 5 stars.
12 of 16 people found this review helpful.
When Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy muscled his way onto a committee investigating communist subversives in the government, he brought along with him Roy Cohn. The son of a New York state judge and a brilliant lawyer in his own right, young Cohn saw McCarthy's committee as a way to increase his own social and political position. After all, this hotshot lawyer helped send the Rosenbergs to the electric chair, so a stint busting Reds in the government seemed a logical progression for him. After the collapse of McCarthyism and the subsequent waning of the Red Scare, Roy moved into a private legal practice in New York. Many considered this lawyer one of the most brilliant legal minds in the country, and Cohn got plenty of work in high profile divorce cases and even worked with members of the Mafia on occasion. Roy Cohn died in 1986, a disbarred lawyer reduced to a shattered husk of the dealmaker he once was. HBO thought Roy Cohn an intriguing enough character to fund this shrill 1992 effort starring the venerable James Woods as "Citizen Cohn."The movie tells us that young Cohn quickly fell under the spell of his overbearing mother, an unnaturally close relationship that would last as long as she lived. Roy's father, a liberal judge with the firm idea that "what's right never changes," soon comes to despise his overly ambitious son and his morally suspect ways. After assisting in the conviction of the Rosenbergs, Cohn ingratiates himself with McCarthy in order to serve as the junior senator's chief counsel and personal attack dog. Moreover, Roy tells McCarthy that making Bobby Kennedy chief counsel for the committee (yes, RFK did a stint with McCarthy) could raise ugly charges of anti-Semitism because most of the men called in to testify are Jews. McCarthy soon regrets his decision as Cohn quickly takes over by grabbing the spotlight and developing most of the cases. The new chief counsel even insists on hiring G. David Shine, a hotel heir who doesn't know a thing about how to conduct a proper witch-hunt. It isn't any time at all before Cohn threatens people like Dashiell Hammett and the engineers working for the Voice of America in a shameful series of interrogations resulting in wrecked careers and ruined lives. When the United States Army drafts Shine, Cohn launches a personal vendetta against the Department of the Army. His goal is to procure an assignment for Shine on the committee, but the Army sees things differently. The military recorded dozens of threats Roy made against them and threaten to release them to the media if McCarthy and Cohn refuse to back off. The case does go to committee and the Army's attorney, Joseph Welch, publicly destroys the Wisconsin senator.
The rest of the film shows Roy in his post-McCarthy days: the endless deal making, the unethical behavior, and his closely guarded double life. We see Cohn attempting to work with J. Edgar Hoover to bring down the hated Bobby Kennedy, now the Attorney General of the United States and a man with a personal vendetta against the former McCarthy acolyte. There is a trial where the government brings a host of charges against Roy and cannot make them stick. We see how Cohn accepts money from people as "loans" and then promptly claims that these loans were "gifts." Through it all, no one can ever touch Roy Cohn; he is "the gingerbread boy," a blazing comet that threatens to destroy anyone who stands in his way. His amazement that no one stops him from lying, cheating, stealing, and intimidating people only serves to make him more obnoxious. No one tells Roy Cohn no, and he knows it.
The narrative technique used to tell his story is through flashback, as the ghosts of those Roy once terrorized visit him as he lies dying in a hospital room. These are not happy spirits: Ethel Rosenberg makes an appearance sneering and jeering at Cohn for convicting her of treason. She even charges that Roy did it because of her ethnicity, a claim Cohn rejects when he says he did it for the headlines. Some of these visits are slightly humorous, such as the revenant of Joseph Welch saying, "Have you no sense of mortality, sir, at long last? They need the room." Seeing Roy's mother show up and complain about her son dumping her ashes in the East River is worth a chuckle or two as well.
James Woods does his usual bang up job as the abrasive Roy Cohn and Joe Don Baker bumbles and harrumphs his way through the role of Joe McCarthy. These are the two stand out actors in the film, as the other characters necessarily come and go quickly in an effort to fit as much of Cohn's life into the picture as possible. Even then much of Roy's life is missing. The later sections of the film skip as many as ten years in order spend more time with the McCarthy hearings. While I recognize a screenwriter is going to focus on the Red Scare more than anything else because of the Hollywood Ten and all that stuff, that is no excuse to engage in the type of rampant rumor seen here. J. Edgar Hoover, Francis Cardinal Spellman, and G. David Shine are the targets of the wildest speculations. I guess it is easier to make these brazen charges against people when they are dead than it is when they are alive. Still, despite the historical tightrope "Citizen Cohn" teeters on, watching James Woods in yet another frothing at the mouth performance always pays off in the end.
Editorial Review:
James Woods seems to find his most adventurous roles in television movies, particularly this made-for-HBO biography of the late lawyer and powerbroker Roy Cohn. A hallucinatory, impressionistic look at his career and life, the film is comprised of flashbacks by Cohn, who is seen dying of AIDS in 1988 in his New York hospital bed. Woods sinks his teeth deeply into the role of the shark-like Cohn, capturing his arrogance and his insecurity, both at his own Jewishness and his deeply closeted homosexuality, even as he rides Sen. Joe McCarthy's anti-Communism campaign for all it's worth. Woods even manages to make the deeply detestable Cohn vulnerable, if not sympathetic. A strong supporting cast includes Joe Don Baker as an amused and calculating McCarthy, but the film lives and breathes in Woods's flamboyantly nuanced embodiment of the whiny, manipulative Cohn. --Marshall Fine
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