Clerks (Collector's Edition)
by Miramax Home Entertainment
Average Customer Review:
DVD (26 February, 2002)
list price: $19.99 -- our price: $14.99
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Editorial Review

Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Chasing Amy, a film he wrote and directed, he made this $27,000 comedy about real-life experiences working for chump change at a New Jersey convenience store. A rude, foul-mouthed collection of anecdotes about the responsibilities that go with being on the wrong side of the till, the film is also a relationship story that takes some hilarious turns once the lovers start revealing their sexual histories to one another. In the best tradition of first-time, ultra-low budget independent films, Smith uses Clerks as an audition piece, demonstrating that he not only can handle two-character comedy but also has an eye for action--as proven in a smoothly handled rooftop hockey scene. Smith himself appears as a silent figure who hangs out on the fringes of the store's property. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Dolby
• Widescreen

Reviews (404)

Kevin Smith's first film, and is considered to be his best!
The movie is about these two guys, Dante and Randall, that work at these dead end retail stores, and the movie pretty much films what they do throughout the day. In addition to that, however, Dante is trying to get back with his old high school sweet heart, but Dante is dating someone else. Despite a few irrelevant scenes and excessive foul language for this film, the movie is actually hilarious. The film takes you on some epic questions we all go through during relationships and life while entertaining you with comedy. One moment, the film will have you laughing at some of Randall's antics throughout the film while saddened at Dante's huge catastrophic mistake. Overall, "Clerks" is definitely one of the most original and witty comedies to ever grace the big screen.

My life as a clerk to the "T"
As someone who spent most of his younger years working in a convenience store, I must say that Kevin Smith hits home with this one!Some of the situations that happen in this movie were true to life for me.Definitely a funny movie and one of my all time favorites!

Great antidote to overblown pretention
Basically Kevin Smith made two crappy films (Mallrats,Dogma),two good (Jay&Silent Bob,Chasing Amy),and one great film,Clerks.This film is my most seen of all time.It blends uniquely lowbrow and highbrow theories with a nuance of 5:00AM-3:00AM shift at a convenience store, easily the most anyone has done with a 27,000 budget,and creates the funniest film of the last twenty years.This 3-disc collection is great also,with a booklet of the hisory of Clerks and the original cut,along with the cut scene,hard to find Clerks short The Flying Car,Snowball Effect documentary of Clerks and Mae Day student film by Kevin Smith. ... Read more

Asin: B00000IQC8
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Requiem for a Dream (Director's Cut)
by Artisan Entertainment
Average Customer Review:
DVD (18 December, 2001)
list price: $14.98 -- our price: $11.24
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Editorial Review

Employing shock techniques and sound design in a relentless sensory assault, Requiem for a Dream is about nothing less than the systematic destruction of hope. Based on the novel by Hubert Selby Jr., and adapted by Selby and director Darren Aronofsky, this is undoubtedly one of the most effective films ever made about the experience of drug addiction (both euphoric and nightmarish), and few would deny that Aronofsky, in following his breakthrough film Pi, has pushed the medium to a disturbing extreme, thrusting conventional narrative into a panic zone of traumatized psyches and bodies pushed to the furthest boundaries of chemical tolerance. It's too easy to call this a cautionary tale; it's a guided tour through hell, with Aronofsky as our bold and ruthless host.

The film focuses on a quartet of doomed souls, but it's Ellen Burstyn--in a raw and bravely triumphant performance--who most desperately embodies the downward spiral of drug abuse. As lonely widow Sara Goldfarb, she invests all of her dreams in an absurd self-help TV game show, jolting her bloodstream with diet pills and coffee while her son Harry (Jared Leto) shoots heroin with his best friend Tyrone (Marlon Wayans) and slumming girlfriend Marion (Jennifer Connelly). They're careening toward madness at varying speeds, and Aronofsky tracks this gloomy process by endlessly repeating the imagery of their deadly routines. Tormented by her dietary regime, Sara even imagines a carnivorous refrigerator in one of the film's most memorable scenes. And yet... does any of this have a point? Is Aronofsky telling us anything that any sane person doesn't already know? Requiem for a Dream is a noteworthy film, but watching it twice would qualify as masochistic behavior. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned

Reviews (788)

Brilliant and Merciless
I haven't seen anything this disturbing since "A Clockwork Orange." Darren Aronofsky's film is an unflinching look at the ultimate degradation that drug abuse/addiction brings to the principal four characters.
The cast is phenomenal - especially Ellen Burstyn, who was robbed by the Academy voters, and who gives a heartfelt and courageous and hearbreaking performance. Marlon Wayans was an amazing surprise - I had never seen him in a dramatic role before and he was brilliant.
There are so many disturbing moments from this film that still stick with me four years later.(Hey, it's been four years and I still can't forget so many of the images).
This film doesn't have an explicit antidrug message - it simply shows what happens when nature takes its course as the characters become increasingly owned by drugs.
The edition of Hubert Selby's novel that I have has a dedication/forward that refers to divine love as the only
real "pound of pure" (see the movie).
See this movie. Have your older kids see it. It is hard to watch in spots but you won't be able to look away.

_________________. (speechless.)
To be able to review this film is almost as daunting a task as watching the film actually is. I honestly would love to hear a more elaborate argument for why this isn't one of the (if not, The) greatest movies ever made. The acting is incredible, the direction (by the amazingly talented Darren Aronofsky) is a brilliantly eccentric portrayal of an eccentric (and haunting) lifestyle. It's so hard to really find a flaw with this movie. It's a tragedy, pure and simple (and the best I've seen). It follows the book's fast paced, no holds barred style. It shows the nightmare of a drug filled life with such intense precision that I could barely move or speak after the end credits. Please, watch this movie, it's definitely not compatible with everyone, but it is a masterpiece in filmmaking.

The Horrror. The Horror.
Let's take a stroll down memory lane. No, correction: let's take a stroll down the big broad generous boardwalk of Coney Island, down past the Carousel of Dying Dreams, pausing a moment to stare at the Ferris Wheel of Decay and Death and Dissolution.

No. Don't stare. Darron Aronofsky's sophomore effort, "Requiem for a Dream", is a subversive instrument. It should be regulated by the secret police. It is a vicious sucker punch to the unprepared, unsuspecting kidney masquerading as an anti-drug flick. Be warned, this godawful thing has teeth. You will cry. You will blanch. Your face, virtuous, untainted by human sin (relatively, in our Relative World), will get all white and taut. You will get sick at your stomach. You might puke.

OK, there; disclaimers out of the way. Ma Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn, amazing, truly, descended from Heaven with a fiery sword of Truth, I sh*t thee not) is a pudgy, rugose widow who dreams of getting on the game show she watches with cultic fervor. She lives in Brooklyn. She's aging, bored, flabby, tired. She is Hungry.

Her son Harry Goldfarb (the incomparable Jared Leto): living on the fringe in Brooklyn, hooking up with his needle-romancing friends on the fringes of a decaying Coney Island. Harry wants to be rich. He wants to fly. He wants to do the funky chicken dance only unrestricted "H" can bring about. He dreams of the big score. He wants to buy Ma Goldfarb a huge-a**ed Tee-Vee, where she can watch Gameshows Valhalla-style. He is Hungry.

Oh, but there's more: Dreams are like that. Like wars, they have dictionaries of casualties. There is an infinite supply of fresh, warm-blooded young meat for the grinder. Shall we continue? We shall. There's Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans, redeeming himself), who imagines himself to be a better man---for his own life, for his progeny---than he is. He wants a quick, fast, fat, profitable score. Who can blame him? Who wants to eat catfood in retirement? Hungry.

But now, we can't forget Marion Silver (the astonishingly gorgeous Jennifer Connelly). Can we? We cannot.She is gorgeous. Her skin pulses with life. She is a rebel. She doesn't care. Ah, but she does. Youth cares, yes it does, for maybe it doesn't know of old age, but it can feel the thing's stinking corpse-breath. So yeah, Marion will deal---but she'd prefer not to. Which is why she goes along with Harry Goldfarb's "score". Hungry? Yup.

Half of the horror is watching a field of roses go up in a napalm strike: in that spirit, I won't spoil anything for you. Well, other than to say this: Love, as some sage once observed, is the most furiously dangerous trap of all. Darren Aronofsky has set horror to celluloid: the horror of a billion lives of quiet, and noisy, desperation. Be afraid: be very afraid.

JSG ... Read more

Asin: B00005Q4CS
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-drama   

Fight Club (Single Disc Edition)
by Fox Home Entertainme
Average Customer Review:
DVD (27 August, 2002)
list price: $19.98 -- our price: $14.99
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Editorial Review

All films take a certain suspension of disbelief. Fight Club takes perhaps more than others, but if you're willing to let yourself get caught up in the anarchy, this film, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk, isa modern-day morality play warning ofthe decay of society. Edward Norton is the unnamed protagonist, a man going through life on cruise control, feeling nothing. To fill his hours, he begins attending support groups and 12-step meetings. True, he isn't actually afflicted with the problems, but he finds solace in the groups. This is destroyed, however, when he meets Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), also faking her way through groups. Spiraling back into insomnia, Norton finds his life is changed once again, by a chance encounter with Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt), whose forthright style and no-nonsense way of taking what he wants appeal to our narrator. Tyler and the protagonist find a new way to feel release: they fight. They fight each other, and then as others are attracted to their ways, they fight the men who come to join their newly formed Fight Club. Marla begins a destructive affair with Tyler, and things fly out of control, as Fight Club grows into a nationwide fascist group that escapes the protagonist's control.

Fight Club, directed by David Fincher (Seven), is notfor the faint of heart; the violence is no holds barred. But the film is captivating and beautifully shot, with some thought-provoking ideas. Pitt and Norton are an unbeatable duo, and the film has some surprisingly humorous moments. The film leaves you with a sense of profound discomfort and a desire to see it again, if for no other reason than to just to take it all in. --Jenny Brown ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Widescreen

Reviews (1268)

I am Jack's feeling of awe...
I believe that movies are made to entertain. I basically enjoy all kinds of movies...action, comedy, romance, sci-fi, thrillers etc. and I rarely criticize a movie because I know the effort put in to make a movie. But every once in a while, a movie comes out that does more than entertain, it makes you think, it makes you question and it changes your perception about various things. Well, Fight Club is one of those movies. I have watched this movie many many many times and it never fails to astound me. This is in my opinion, one of the best movies to come out of Hollywood.

It is basically about this guy, only known as the Narrator who is a white collar employee, working a 9 to 5 job, has his own apartment and his own collection of branded items. Sounds familiar? It's not surprising many of us can relate to this guy. Anyhow, even with all these material items, he finds his life unsatisfying, he feels that something is lacking. Because of this problem, he suffers from insomnia. He finds solace in attending those self-help sessions but soon meets another faker, Marla. The presence of another faker makes him uncomfortable and the sessions don't work for him anymore. It is then that he meets Tyler Durden, this cool, smart talking dude in a plane. This guy intrigued him and when the Narrator returns to find his apartment burnt, he turns to Tyler for help. From there on, this movie spirals to dizzying heights, with the creation of Fight Club by the Narrator and Tyler, and later what seems to be a takeover of Fight Club by Tyler leaving the Narrator clueless about what's going on.

I really have to say this movie really fascinated me so much with it's intelligent ideas and dialogue, partly because deep in my heart, on some level...I can relate to the character, and although I don't agree with everything that is said, it does make me think and how many movies can do that? Fight Club to me, represents our lives in a twisted way. It challenges us to think about things in life, for example our view of success. Does working a boring job to pay for things we don't need a success? Do you experience fulfillment or do you think you're wasting your life away? "Self improvement is masturbation, now self destruction...is the answer," Tyler says.

Everybody involved in this movie did a fantastic job but extra credit has to go to the director, writer and the actors. David Fincher has come a long way from directing music videos for Madonna. I am a huge fan and I've seen all his work, Aliens 3, Se7en, The Game and more recently Panic Room. No one but him can create an environment of decay and desperation in this movie that just grabs you. Kudos to the actors involved too. Everyone was perfectly cast. The talented Edward Norton was excellent in his role as the Narrator. He so accurately resembled the average guy that it was scary. His voice has a perfect tone for narrating the story and he reminds me of a young Kevin Spacey. If only he gets better roles, he could be a very well respected actor in Hollywood. Brad Pitt has always acted in likeable hero roles as well as "feel good" movies and he has managed to pull it off but in many of those roles, there was nothing special or extraordinary. In this movie, he was fantastic. I consider this to be his finest work together with his role as Det. Mills in Se7en. No one but him could've pulled of Tyler Durden. When he spoke, it just doesn't sound written, it sounds authentic, the words come alive...like he really lives his life that way and it's what he truly believes. Any other person might have made it less exciting but I'm glad they got Pitt to take this role. And last but not least Helena Bonham Carter as Marla was also a really good choice. She did not have much screen time, but the times she does appear..she delivers with a fine performance.

There was a lot of bad publicity about this movie and although I admit this movie may not be for everyone, I loved it and so did most of my friends. I HIGHLY recommend this movie. This movie is not a renter, it's a keeper. It's movies like this that sets the bar higher for American cinema...seriously. And finally, as Tyler said "It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything".

oh man, i am so deep and such a nonconformist
i hate this movie.

yeah, there's nothing cooler than having someone like brad pitt tell me that major corporations are a bad thing.

and let's not forget that this movie was kind of, you know, distributed by a........UH OH, major corporation!

sure, Seven was awesome, and the Fight Club book was good, but this is just trash for whiney suburban kids to connect with, i loved when this movie came out back in 2000 and all the jocks were hyped up about "OH MAN, DID YOU SEE WHEN THEY BLEW STUFF UP AND HIT PEOPLE, THAT WAS AWESOME."

if anyone doubts that man evolved from apes, just talk to a devoted fight club fan.

A Multi-faceted Semi-precious Gem
This movie is anti-capitalist, fascist, Marxist, anarchist, libertarian, anti-State and anti-society. How can it be all those? Because what it's really about is alienation -- our protagonist is alienated from work, society, the government, and most of all, himself. It's about emotionally dead people who can't feel anything except through violence, and it's also about the desire for community, which can lead to fascism. It's not great, but it is very, very good. ... Read more

Asin: B000067J1H
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-action/Adventure   

CKY The Box Set (DVD)
by 10/90 Films
Average Customer Review:
DVD (20 August, 2002)
list price: $59.95
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Features

• Color
• Box set

Reviews (32)

CKY!!! Awesome.
This is the best collection of moives you can get. This box set includes cky landspeed, cky2k, cky3, and cky the documentary. These movies will keep you laughing for hours. I highly recomend this box set.

AWSOME
Bam Margera and Brandin Dicamillo are laughter if I have ever seen it. These videos are the guys from Viva La Bam doing funny stunts. Since this is an uncensored DVD, they don't have to bleep out anything which really is cool cause you don't have to hear BEEP evey other word.

Defined a new generation of pranksters and punks
I've seen the first three CKY movies so I chose to review under this product title even though I do not own the CKY documentary.

The CKY films are known for their sick skateboarding, hilarious skits, and jaw-dropping stunts. CKY: Landspeed defined some of the most infamous bits ever performed by the East Coast Crew. This includes Shopping Carts, which introduced the idea of sitting in shopping carts while your friend pushes you as fast as he can and rams you directly into a curb, thus propelling your body into the pavement at full speed. CKY videos are usually only found in select stores or skate shops so this idea didn't go mainstream until Jackass premiered in October of 2000, and impressionable kids really started to be affected by the impulse of doing dumb stunts. Unfortunately, this resulted in lawsuits and the inevitable fall of Jackass, but they truly showed that they weren't going to be censored when Jackass The Movie came out in 2002. I guess that gross-out humor and dangerous antics are meant to be left in their rawest form. And if you're sick of the Jackass reruns or just can't seem to find any good homegrowns on the internet to satisfy your need for hardcore stunts on camera that lack in bleeps, then check out the CKY series.

Landspeed is mostly known for introducing Shopping Carts, drive-thru pranks, and public spills. Videos like CKY2K are where people would probably recommend you for skating, when in fact CKY: Landspeed has pretty unbelievable shredding on rails and vert ramps. Unfortunately, all we see in the beginning is Kerry "Hockey Temper" Getz throwing his skateboard around and getting angry as hell. Thankfully, the 96 Quite Bitter Beings, Shippensburg, and Knee Deep skate videos seen throughout the duration of Landspeed start showing us some awesome skating. So I guess Landspeed has everything you need. CKY2K and CKY3 only perfect it.

CKY2K features some nasty toilet humor where Brandon wipes poo on Ryan's face, and Ryan urinates on Brandon's face as revenge. This also includes their strangely funny trip to Iceland, even more skateboarding that just keeps getting better, and the birth of Brandon's Chinese freestyle. DiCamillo is really beginning to define his reputation in CKY2K as a ruthless prankster.

CKY3 is a step-up in video quality with better special effects that are comparable to Viva La Bam. This video is all mostly random acts of inexplainable idiocy with an all new Shopping Carts video that's the best yet and Chris Raab defecating while running at full speed. We also get to see Bam relieve himself on Phil's face while laughing with his pro skater buddies, Ville Valo from HIM, and the members of the band CKY. Amongst this, we get some more skating thrown in here and there with Bam in most of the clips. But what would a CKY movie be without skateboarding?

I'd say that my favorite out of the three would have to be CKY3 because of how well it was put together and the variety of crazy stuff in it. You make your decision for yourself. ... Read more

Asin: B0000638SV
Sales Rank: 6921
Subjects:  1. Sports Highlights    2. Special Interests    3. Sports    4. Comedy    5. Spoofs   

28 Days Later (Widescreen Edition)
by Twentieth Century Fox Home Video
Average Customer Review:
DVD (06 August, 2003)
list price: $27.98 -- our price: $25.18
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Editorial Review

The director/producer team that created Trainspotting turn their dynamic cinematic imaginations to the classic science fiction scenario of the last people on Earth. Jim (Cillian Murphy) wakes up from a coma to find London deserted--until he runs into a mob of crazed plague victims. He gradually finds other still-human survivors (including Naomie Harris), with whom he heads off across the abandoned countryside to find the source of a radio broadcast that promises salvation. 28 Days Later is basically an updated version of The Omega Man and other post-apocalyptic visions; but while the movie may lack originality, it makes up for it in vivid details and creepy paranoid atmosphere. 28 Days Later's portrait of how people behave in extreme circumstances--written by novelist Alex Garland (The Beach)--will haunt you afterward. Also featuring Brendan Gleeson (The General, Gangs of New York) and Christopher Eccleston (Shallow Grave, The Others). --Bret Fetzer ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

Reviews (632)

This movie had zombies?
There were zombies in this flick? All I remember is the sheer beauty of this film. Seriously, the one thing that was horribly overlooked was the beauty of it all. You don't need to analyze every frame to find this either.

There are many instances within the film where it is clearly evident. The Monet-like imagery of the flowers after the grocery store run, the camera angles and music while they are on the deserted highway, the plane viewed through the trees, a red dress that gained its own theme song only to swoosh across the screen for a few seconds, and the final scene where HELL is spelled upside-down out on a green hillside only be read as HELLO later.

All of these, and more, captivated my attention throughout the horror of the movie's entirety. These images were produces so well I bought the movie just to see them over, and over, and over again.

Good First Half
The zombies are fast.

It's true that in Danny Boyle's 2002 film 28 Day's Later the crazed, flesh eating villains aren't technically zombies.In fact, Boyle has gone to great lengths to qualify them as humans infected with a virus known as RAGE.Yet, to this reviewer at least, the differences seem moot.In traditional zombie pictures, and in this film the creatures are mindless, they carry a real zeal for human flesh, they have a predilection for turning everyone else into their like, and they are fairly easy to kill.Whether the creatures are the living dead so to speak, or infected by an incurable virus doesn't make much of a difference.Though the zombies here, seem updated from their filmatic ancestors.

These zombies are fast.

Traditional zombies are a slow moving lot.Having been rotting in their own graves for untold years, their reanimated flesh is a little atrophied, causing them to move at a slow, sluggish pace.This has always been a helpful plot point for the heroes in zombie films, for they are easy to run away from.In fact, the means by which zombies generally kill their victims is through sheer numbers.Boyle has circumvented this convenience by allowing his monsters to run at normal human speeds.It is an excellent update to the genre, giving the ability for more scares.

Man, I dug the first half of this movie.Well, except for the very, very beginning.The opening scene gives us the origin of RAGE, with a bunch of Clockwork Orange inspired monkeys.I've never really dug origin scenes in zombie flicks.I think it's much scarier to just have the zombies running around eating brains, without any reason for their existence.Origins, generally, just seem dumb.And here, with the infected monkeys being freed by some Green Peace types doesn't really inspire any other feelings.Though, I suspect it was another move to plant this film outside the zombie track.

But after the dumb origins scene things get really good.We've got a naked guy named Jim (Cillian Murphy) hooked up to various tubes in a hospital bed.I always like it when there is a bit of male nudity in a flick, since there is always so much of the female variety.Anyways, Jim gets out of bed and wanders the streets of London.There are plenty of shots of Jim (fully clothed now) walking by big famous London monuments without another soul around.It seems London has been vacated.It is creepy and effective.

In a bit, Jim clamors into a church figuring to find some sanctuary, or at least have a few questions answered.What he finds is a bunch of dead folks piled up.In a good holy crap moment, Jim says, "Hello" to find a couple of the dead guys not so dead and jumping up.From there until the second half of the film, it is a constant run from the zombies.

The zombies really work in this film.They are fast, furious, and vicious.Jim eventually teams up with some other survivors and they set about trying to figure out what to do.Boyle really does a great job of adding tension to the film and keeping the scares up.

Then the film changes.

The group is rescued by a gang of all male military types, living in a compound.Turns out the military types are a bunch of psychos and the film turns from being a zombie flick into being a stranded-in-a-compound-with-a-bunch-of-psycho-military-types kind of film.To make sure we know this is no longer a zombie flick, a big group of zombies launches an attack on the compound only to be massacred with machine guns and land mines.

This half of the film, I don't dig nearly as much.Zombie flicks always have trouble filling out their whole hour and a half time slot.Even with a good introduction of characters, and a slow build to zombie free-for-all there is still plenty of filler time.Here, the filmmakers seem to have decided that they might as well dump the zombies and give us some other tension filled concoction.But, there isn't really enough time to develop the military end of the story and it feels wrong.

It's too bad too, because that first half was really promising.
[...]

GREAT EOW (End of World) movie!
I loved this movie.I am a huge EOW movie and book fan and have seen or read most of them.This one ranks at the top.It's based in England and makes the dudes from the "night of the living dead" movies look like circus clowns.This movie is hauntingly scary, well written, are realistic in terms of EOW scenario.You'll be on the edge of your seat as survivors are chased from safety by victims of "the rage".The desolate human-less landscape and brooding soundtrack add to the great mood this EOW movie portrays!

Animal rights activists free a group of infected chimpanzees to horrifying results in this speculative sci-fi horror effort from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle. Waking from a coma in a deserted London hospital 28 days later, bicycle courier Jim (Cillian Murphy) takes to the deserted city streets in a state of mystified confusion. Joining forces with another group of survivors following a terrifying encounter in a seemingly abandoned church, Jim soon learns the truth behind the deserted streets and the menacing creatures that lurk in the shadows. It's soon revealed that the chimpanzees had been harboring a deadly virus that sends its victims into a furious, murderous rage, and in the days following the initial exposure, the entire population was nearly wiped out due to the resulting homicidal rampage. Is there still a glimmer of hope for humanity - or has the deadly "rage" virus found its way to foreign shores and infected the entire planet? ... Read more

Asin: B00005JMA8
Subjects:  1. Horror   

Mallrats (Collector's Edition)
by Universal Studios
Average Customer Review:
DVD (03 June, 2003)
list price: $19.98
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Editorial Review

Sophomore jinx hit hard in this second film by Kevin Smith, whose debut Clerks transcended the limits of its setting and budget to become something memorably funny. (Smith followed Mallrats with the wonderful Chasing Amy, so Mallrats definitely had the old curse.) A ramshackle comedy set in a mall, the film follows several story lines involving lovers, enemies, friends, goofballs, and Smith's own "silent" character, who also appeared in Clerks and Chasing Amy. A heavy self-consciousness weighs on everything, as if Smith forgot how to make obscenity funny instead of tedious. Still, it's nice to see some of the director's film family on screen, among them Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

Reviews (318)

Another Kevin Smith Classic!
Mallrats is simply a day in the life for two Jersey boys, T.S. (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee) as they putz around all day in a suburban mall while the girls who recently dumped them scamper about. The two guys encounter strange fellows like Jay (Jason Mewes), Silent Bob (director Kevin Smith), 15-year old sex author Trish the Dish (Renee Humphrey), 3-D visionally challenged Willam (Ethan Suplee) and many others. The point of the whole day of course is to win back the hearts of their ex-girlfriends (Claire Forlani & Shannon Doherty) before scumbags like Shannon Hamilton (Ben Affleck) get to have sex with them in very uncomfortable places.

don't listen to the critics
Suffering a nearly unanimous beating from critics, and grossing a meer 2 million, Mallrats will always be an underappreciated gem. The second in The New Jersey "Trilogy" Mallrats focuses on T.S. and Brodie, two hapless fellows who were recently dumped by their girlfriends, so they take solace at their local mall. There they run into some old friends, such as Willam, a guy who does nothing than stare at the magic eye, their old friend from High School Gwen, and of course Jay and Silent Bob. Brodie is trying to believe that he's over his old girlfriend Rene, while T.S. is still hung over about his old girlfriend Brandi. T.S. won't give up trying to win Brandi back, so he thinks that he should try and wreck her father's game show. Jay and Silent Bob decide to do that, while Brodie and T.S. wander around the mall. They discuss Superman's sex life, where the food court is exactly, and get kicked out of the mall. That event takes them to the dirt mall, where probably the funniest scene in the movies. Yes, I'm talking about the topless fortune teller scene, where T.S. makes a breakthrough about his past relationship, but where Brodie is just repulsed. Underrated, but wonderful. Yeah, Jeremy London [T.S.] isn't very good at acting but Jason Lee is hilarious as Brodie. How could the critics not like this movie? It's not nearly as crude as Clerks, but critics hated it. There are some thinks that I'll never understand. Since it went out of print, it's kinda hard to find a copy, but try and get a hold of it. Or you could wait to buy the X Anniverary edition later this year, but I don't when it's coming out.

Wait for the "Mallrats X" DVD coming later this year...
If you're an Askewniverse nut like me, you probably already know all the details, but for casual fans out there, this is just to let you know there's a 10th anniversary special edition DVD of "Mallrats" coming out later this year. Hold off on buying this out-of-print collector's edition if you don't already own it. However, if you do have this version, keep it on your shelf just in case they don't transfer all the features to the new disc. Truth be told, I don't see that being a problem, judging from the "Clerks X" DVD, which kept all the old features from the original release. Still, better safe than sorry though. ... Read more

Asin: B00000IQW4
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

South Park - Bigger, Longer & Uncut
by Paramount Studio
Average Customer Review:
DVD (24 June, 2003)
list price: $14.99 -- our price: $11.24
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

OK, let's get all the disclaimers out of the way first. Despite its colorful (if crude) animation, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is in no way meant for kids. It is chock full of profanity that might even make Quentin Tarantino blanch and has blasphemous references to God, Satan, Saddam Hussein (who's sleeping with Satan, literally), and Canada. It's rife with scatological humor, suggestive sexual situations, political incorrectness, and gleeful, rampant vulgarity. And it's probably one of the most brilliant satires ever made. The plot: flatulent Canadian gross meisters Terrance and Philip hit the big screen, and the South Park quartet of third graders--Stan, Kyle, Kenny, and Cartman--begin repeating their profane one-liners ad infinitum. The parents of South Park, led by Kyle's overbearing mom, form "Mothers Against Canada," blaming their neighbors to the north for their children's corruption and taking Terrance and Philip as war prisoners. It's up to the kids then to rescue their heroes from execution, not mention a brooding Satan, who's planning to take over the world.

To give away any more of the plot would destroy the fun, but this feature-length version of Trey Parker and Matt Stone's Comedy Central hit is a dead-on and hilarious send-up of pop culture. And did we mention it's a musical? From the opening production number "Mountain Town" to the cheerful antiprofanity sing-along "It's Easy, MMMKay" to Satan's faux-Disney ballad "Up There," Parker (who wrote or cowrote all the songs) brilliantly shoots down every earnest musical from Beauty and the Beast to Les Misérables. And in advocating free speech and satirizing well-meaning but misguided parental censorship groups (with a special nod to the MPAA), Bigger, Longer & Uncut hits home against adult paranoia and hypocrisy with a vengeance. And the jokes, while indeed vulgar and gross, are hysterical; we can't repeat them here, especially the lyrics to Terrance and Philip's hit song, but you'll be rolling on the floor. Don't worry, though--to paraphrase Cartman, this movie won't warp your fragile little mind. Unless you have something against the First Amendment. --Mark Englehart ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Animated
• Dolby

Reviews (539)

This movie made my little life complete!!!!!
First off I'm 13 but I dont have an acount on amazon. Second, This movie is F***ing sweet!!! ! I saw it a year ago this month and Ive seen it at least 20 times sence then.I have the cd and listen to that almost dialy. I can't get enough of this movie! Can't wait to see Team America and I realllly hope they make another South Park movie!!!!!

This Movie Has Warped My FragileLittle Mind!!!
I have heard ofthis movie as "Coming from the smoking pits of Hell!!!"Gee. I thought it was hilarious. Stan, Kenny, Kyle and Cartman have to pay a homeless alcoholic $10 to see the new Terrance and Phillip movie which sets the scene for what is to follow , namely the United States waging War on Canada!!! It is easy to see who the Canadians are in this movie -they are the ones with the flip top Pac Man heads!!! This movie is full of very funny gags and memorable songs such as "Kyle's Mother Is A Big Fat Bitch" and the unforgettable "Uncle F******" which I was singing on my way out of the movie theatre. Congratulations to Trey Parker and Matt Stone for this hilarious movie.

This movie made my little life complete! :-)
I am really 13 but I didnt want to make an acount on here, thats why it says reveiw from a kid. But anyway this movie if fu*king sweet! I first saw it around a year ago in May and have at leats seen it 20 times sence then. I have the cd and listen to that daily. I can't get enough of this movie!The songs are hilarious and the whole story is so funny! I can't wait to see "Team America" even though I'm sure its not as good as this. I can't wait for them to make another South Park movie!!! ... Read more

Asin: B000022TSW
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Snatch (Single Disc Edition)
by Columbia Tristar Hom
Average Customer Review:
DVD (03 June, 2003)
list price: $19.94 -- our price: $17.95
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

Usually it might seem a tad unfair to begin a review by referring to the director's missis. But then the missis in question wouldn't usually be Madonna--a woman whose ability to reinvent herself several times before breakfast seems in marked contrast to that of hubby Guy Ritchie. Certainly, this follow-up to the filmmaker's breakthrough film--the high-energy, expletive-strewn cockney-gangster movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels--hardly breaks new ground being, well, another high-energy, expletive-strewn cockney-gangster movie. OK, so there are some differences. This time around our low-rent hoodlums are battling over dodgy fights and stolen diamonds rather than dodgy card games and stolen drugs. There has been some minor reshuffling of the cast too, with Sting and Dexter Fletcher making way for the more bankable Benicio Del Toro and Brad Pitt, the latter pretty much stealing the whole shebang as an incomprehensible Irish gypsy. And, sure, people who really, really liked Lock, Stock--or have the memory of a goldfish--will really, really like this. The suspicion lingers, however, that if the director doesn't do something very different next time around then his career may prove to be considerably shorter than that of his missis. --Clark Collis ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

Reviews (292)

Snatch robs you of your money....
Just to see this joke of a movie that used two actors who can not act and an even worse ecrip that is full of so many cliches that you can spot then two seconds before they appear on screen.

"Feed him to the pigs Harold."
Turkish (Statham) and his sidekick Tommy (Graham) are boxing promoters.Unfortunately, they get pulled into the world of fixing matches, something they do not do, by the notorious Brick Top (Ford). Things get complicated when the boxer they scheduled to take the dive almost gets killed when he decides to fight a bare-knuckle boxing champion, Mickey (Pitt). Mickey is a'pike' as they call him, a traveling gypsy. Desperate to replace the fighter, Turkish tries to talk Mickey into fighting for them and throwing the fights. In a separate story that some how ties into this one, an eighty-six carat diamond is stolen and scheduled for delivery. As more and more people discover who has the diamond a melee ensues of ghastly characters including 'Cousin Avi', 'Boris The Blade', 'Franky Four Fingers' and 'Bullet Tooth Tony' and their attempts to retrieve the precious stone. Things go from bad to worse for everyone involved in the fights and diamond heist.

"I thought you said he was a getaway driver?"
"Tell me what the f__k he can get away from?"

Guy Ritchie (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels) directs Snatch, his best film in my opinion.Yes the cast is unbelievable, yes the story is magnificent, nevertheless, the key to the film is the intertwining of the stories and characters to all interact with one another.This aspect of the film must have been a very delicate and cumbersome task for Ritchie.The sequences did not have to be in a specific order, as the two stories did not correlate until the end.

"He's very effective Tony.Not to subtle, but effective."

Snatch is a film that individuals probably watch because it stars Brad Pitt.However, he is not a main character, does not have a lot of screen time, and his character is only major in the large scheme of things.Statham (Turkish) delivers a monster performance.I am a huge fan of his work in films (Transporter and Italian Job).The manner in which the characters are introduced, as well as there descriptions and backgrounds are presented very well.

"You can keep that silly, fat wanker."

Snatch is a must have film for your DVD collection.It is violent and contains strong language, so take that into consideration.However, the story is wonderful, the separate story lines blend well with each other, and the script is marvelous.Definitely a movie you can feel safe purchasing prior to viewing.

"Before the Germans get here."

Grade: A

Britian's Pulp Fiction
I have heard that "Snatch" is basiclly a copy of Guy Ritchie's first film "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels"; so I am at an advantage having not seen the earlier film.I really enjoyed "Snatch", it is sort of like a British "Pulp Fiction".There are almost a dozen different story lines going on here, but they are always clear, never getting confusing.One is about a mission to finds a huge stolen dimond, another about crooked bare fist boxing, and so forth and so on.All the characters are very interesting; from Brad Pitt's Irish Gypsy (who you can rarely understand), Dennis Ferina as a fense who has to make a trans-Atlantic call to London, to Jason Statham's shady boxing promoter.These three are the standouts, but there is not a bad performance in the film.The photography and editing are pretty fast paced and very cockeyes, I loved it, especially the use of the split screen.I have heard that "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels" is even better; in that case, I can not wait to see it. ... Read more

Asin: B000093FLA
Subjects:  1. Feature Film-comedy   

Memento
by Columbia Tri-Star
Average Customer Review:
DVD (04 September, 2001)
list price: $24.95 -- our price: $22.46
(price subject to change: see help)
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Editorial Review

Guy Pearce (L.A. Confidential) and Joe Pantoliano (The Matrix) shine in this absolute stunner of a movie. Memento combines a bold, mind-bending script with compelling action and virtuoso performances. Pearce plays Leonard Shelby, hunting down the man who raped and murdered his wife. The problem is that "the incident" that robbed Leonard of his wife also stole his ability to make new memories. Unable to retain a location, a face, or a new clue on his own, Leonard continues his search with the help of notes, Polaroids, and even homemade tattoos for vital information.

Because of his condition, Leonard essentially lives his life in short, present-tense segments, with no clear idea of what's just happened to him. That's where Memento gets really interesting; the story begins at the end, and the movie jumps backward in 10-minute segments. The suspense of the movie lies not in discovering what happens, but in finding out why it happened. Amazingly, the movie achieves edge-of-your-seat excitement even as it moves backward in time, and it keeps the mind hopping as cause and effect are pieced together.

Pearce captures Leonard perfectly, conveying both the tragic romance of his quest and his wry humor in dealing with his condition. He is bolstered by several excellent supporting players, and the movie is all but stolen from him by Pantoliano, who delivers an amazing performance as Teddy, the guy who may or may not be on his side. Memento has an intriguing structure and even meditations on the nature of perception and meaning of life if you go looking for them, but it also functions just as well as a completely absorbing thriller. It's rare to find a movie this exciting with so much intelligence behind it. --Ali Davis ... Read more

Features

• Color
• Closed-captioned
• Widescreen
• Dolby

Reviews (955)

Mind Bending
Memento takes three viewings.The 1st to figure out what's going on.The 2nd to figure out the characters.The 3rd to put the characters and events together in a coherent fashion and begin to truly understand the movie at a deeper level.This is not a cheerful movie by any stretch of the imagination. A very grim Groundhog's Day.A brain damaged man wanders around killing and beating people based on scant information maybe relating to an event that may have never happened.He has no new memories and he can't trust his old memories and his methods of keeping track of day to day exitence are faulty at best. Our hero isn't much of a hero though he seems to think he has the situation well in hand.Who is fooling whom?At issue is nothing less than the purpose of life.What do we live for? Why?Can we trust our memories, other people, even ourselves? If our motives are suspect, are'nt other people's motives to be taken with a grain of salt? If we repeated the same awful day over and over would it be any different from a lifetime of awful days?What gives us purpose? Why do we get out of bed in the morning?Work? Love? Family? Sex? Curiousity? Shame?Memento functions as a Philosophy 101 jump start for the digital age.

Style trumps substance, but it's a better film because of it
As most reviews mention, this film basically runs backwards - it's divided into 5-15 minute scenes, each scene ending where the previous scene started.We meet the hero of the film, Leonard (Guy Pearce, in another great acting job) just as he has murdered a man named Teddy.So we know what happened (Teddy is murdered), but we don't know why.It turns out Leonard has brain damage and cannot make new long-term memories.He can, however, condition himself (in a classical, Pavlovian sense), and so he writes notes to himself, takes pictures, and prints tatoos on his body to keep his life and quest straight.The quest? - finding and killing the man who murdered his wife.The first scene implies that Teddy must have been the murderer.But is he, or is Leonard being set up by someone and can't remember it?This is the crux of the question that is answered as we learn how Teddy came to be murdered.

The gimmick - playing scenes in reverse order (but the scenes themselves play forward) - is essential for the enjoyment of the film.First, it puts us squarely in the shoes of the protagonist, who always knows what he's doing, but doesn't really know why.There are many visual clues - scratches on his face (how did they get there?), a picture of a man he's beaten up, a cryptic message on the photo of Teddy - "Don't believe his lies."Second, the story is too straightforward to view in forward order - watching it in order would be no more interesting than a typical episode of Law and Order (much like viewing Pulp Fiction in chronological order).

At this point, I should mention that the film has an unfair reputation of being difficult to follow and of being violent.The most violent scene is, in fact, the opening credits, which are more violent by a long shot than the rest of the film.Similarly, the film is not difficult to follow.Sure, you may not be able to piece together every little detail (the same can be said for most good Film Noir) with just one viewing, but the answer to the question of the first scene - "why was Teddy killed and did he deserve to be" - is obviously resolved.

There are two main problems with this DVD edition.One is with the film: Leonard's memory problem seems to vary with the needs of the plot.At times he can hold things in his head for a long time, at other times he forgets in the middle of doing something (for example, at one point he is in the process of running and can't remember why, but at another point he manages to gather up a bunch of items, drive to a deserted lot, and burn them, which must have taken quite some time).This is something you only think about anfterwards, though, so it does not detract from the film.The second problem, for which I deducted a star (it's really a 4-star film) is the fact that this particular DVD edition is extremely bare-bones.There is a special edition of Memento, which would be the recommended format for repeated viewings.

All-in-all, though, this is a very enjoyable movie.It's the type of film that many people will want to own and watch repeatedly to understand all the little nuances of the plot.That's not to say that the film doesn't hold up to a single viewing - it's very interesting and intriguing, mostly because of the manner in which the film is constructed, but also due to the actors, who do a good job throughout.

Mind-blowing (spoiler review)
A wonderful film that I almost turned off halfway. I'm glad I didn't, because I really didn't see the "ending" of the film coming (it's absolutely not the "end" of the story by any means). It was satisfyingly surprising and made me re-think the entire film. If you start getting antsy, just hang tight, things will reveal themselves by the movie's end.
As you probably know by now, the film jumps backwards in 15 minute increments to something that happened before the scene we were just shown. Things you thought were "truth" now become questionable and I must add that things that were questionable sometimes are more so as a result of these "flashbacks".

(Spoiler below)
From the mix of untrustworthy characters (including a fabulous acting feat by both Carrie Ann-Moss as the woman we're not sure if we want to trust, and Joe Pantoliano as the man we don't know if we can trust) - I was left wondering if the main character really knew what he was doing and if really it was *he* who was the one manipulating people. There are no ready answers to this question, however.
Mind blowingly awesome. A must see. ... Read more

Asin: B00003CXZ4
Subjects:  1. Mystery / Suspense   

Panasonic DVD-LS5 Portable DVD Player
by Panasonic
Average Customer Review:
Electronics
list price: $399.99
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Editorial Review

Panasonic's DVD-LS5 offers the versatility of a portable DVD player alongside the performance of a sophisticated home-theater component--and you can use it as both. The player handles DVD-Video, high-resolution DVD-Audio, DVD-R, and DVD-RAM playback, as well as standard and recordable audio CDs, including MP3- and WMA-encoded discs. Its slender, 1-inch chassis holds a 5-inch widescreen (16:9) liquid-crystal display and a built-in rechargeable battery good for about 2.5 hours between charges.

Designed to take full advantage of both audio and traditional video DVD formats, the DVD-LS5 delivers the super high-fidelity (192 kHz/24-bit) sound of DVD-Audio. DVD-Audio software titles offer classic music titles in both multichannel and stereo, though be aware that this model plays discs in stereo only. Most DVD-A discs have compressed Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 surround tracks, however; these can be passed through the unit's digital-audio output to a compatible surround receiver and speaker system.

Audio features also include DTS and Dolby Digital passthrough, built-in stereo speakers, and Panasonic's Dialogue Enhancer for DVD movie viewing. Advanced Surround Sound (VSS) simulates surround effects from any two speakers or from headphones.

Cinema Mode reduces the detrimental effects of screen glare from ambient light, rendering cinematic colors in pictures that are gentle on the eyes. Further, Cinema Mode improves the visibility of details in dark scenes by automatically adjusting picture contrast.

This player is HighMAT compatible. High-Performance Media Access Technology is a standard co-developed by Panasonic and Microsoft to improve interoperability for digital media programming between PCs and electronics devices. HighMAT provides an efficient method for arranging digital photo, music, and video collections on recordable media.

What's in the Box
DVD player, remote control, AC adapter, audio/video cables, rechargeable battery pack, user's manual, and warranty information. ... Read more

Features

• Portable widescreen DVD-Video and DVD-Audio player with 5-inch LCD screen and built-in stereo speakers
• Plays DVD-R, DVD-RAM, CD, and recordable MP3/WMA CDs
• Multichannel optical digital-audio outputs with DVD-Audio, DTS, and Dolby Digital surround passthrough
• VSS virtual surround and headphone surround simulate surround sound from two channels
• Dialogue Enhancer, 2.5 hours battery life from included rechargeable battery; remote control included

Reviews (28)

Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful
I don't know how we would survive without this!Easy to use-easy to tote around-easy to charge.No skipping.Perfect size screen.Little hint: your Ipod headset fits into the headphone jack.

Amazing little device!
I can't rave enough about this player. It's amazingly small and light, with the best screen picture quality I have seen. Sure, you can get one of the cheap no-name brands for a little bit less, but do you really want to strain your eyes on a washed out picture? This is one you'll actually scoop up and carry with you when you travel. The quality also can't be beat. It's well worth the $399 retail price!

Excellent
Top quality picture, sounds is loud but not special cos of tiny speakers.Battery is long lasting, fits in a tiny space and screenmovement is great in confined spaces.With a carry case works well hanging in a car. ... Read more

Asin: B0000AINEH
Subjects:  1. dvdls, dvdls5, dvdls-5, ls5, dv-dls5    2. dvd-5, dv-ls5, dvdsl5, dvd-sl5    3. palm theater, movie, travel, personal    4. pana    5. Portable Digital Versatile Disc Player (Personal DVD)