LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE (2004)
Sony Pictures Classics, 109 mins., NR, $18.72 1 Disc
You would think in order to feel blues and experience the blues, you’d have to visit a Mississippi juke joint, certainly not New York City’s plush Radio City Music Hall You would think? Right? No so. Training Day director Antoine Fuqua brings the blues into Radio City Music Hall with performances by B.B. King, Keb’ Mo,’ Robert Cray, the Neville Brothers and other great R&B/blues legends. The film is an All-Star Salute to the Blues. A fund-raising concert to kick off the nationwide "Year celebration of the Blues." The concert film is punctuated by classic documentary footage of blues icons such Son House, John Lee Hooker and Muddy Waters with concert segments and backstage footage. Blues fans will find it a must for their DVD collection. The DVD features bonus tracks including performances by Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, plus and interview with director Antoine Fuqua.
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SOMETHING THE LORD MADE (2004)
Warner Home Video, NR, $20.24 1 Disc
Something the Lord Made recounts the relationship between Dr. Alfred Blalock (Alan Rickman) and Vivian Thomas (Mos Def). It begins in 1930s Nashville when imperious cardiac surgeon Blalock hires Thomas, an African-American carpenter, as his janitor. When the latter reveals a passion for medicine and facility with surgical instruments, Blalock promotes him to lab tech. Thomas isn’t given a raise, works side jobs to make ends meet, and is expected to be grateful. Along the way, he follows Blalock from Vanderbilt to Johns Hopkins, where they save thousands of lives through their pioneering work, but will Thomas ever get any credit? The film provides a satisfying answer to that question. Joseph Sargent (A Lesson Before Dying) directs with subtlety and intelligence, while Rickman and Mos Def are in top form, often underplaying where most actors would do otherwise. Something the Lord Made won the 2004 Emmy for outstanding made-for-TV movie. — Amazon.com.
The DVD features:
*Commentary by director Joseph Sargent, writer Peter Silverman, producers Robert W. Cort and Eric Hetzel
*Making of featurette
*Historical slide show
See more at the WB web site!
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NIGHT COURT: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (1984)
Warner Bros. Home Video PG 313 mins., $22.49
Fans of the long running court room comedy, about a wise-cracking judge who missed his calling as a magician, and a cast of legal and criminal misfits, will be glad to revisit the show which won numerous Emmys, and provided outrages laughs for nine seasons. The 2 disc DVD is loaded with extras including commentary and a retrospective documentary.
Release date: Feb. 8, 2005.
Grade: A
See more at the WB web site!
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THE WAYANS BROS: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (1995)
Warner Home Video, 292 mins., NR, $22.49 2 Discs
Shawn and Marlon Wayans star as two odd-couple brothers sharing a one-bedroom Harlem brownstone. The first season of the five season show contains seven of the more funnier episodes including, the brothers doing an infomercial for hair that blows up and catches fire, a taxi service called "Afro Pick You Up" that backfires, and a landlord who manipulates the brothers into becoming apartment managers resulting in chaos.
Release date: Feb. 8, 2005.
Grade: B+
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THE JAMIE FOXX SHOW: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (1995)
Warner Home Video, 496 mins., NR, $26.98 Four Disc.
Aspiring actor Jamie King (Foxx) moves to Hollywood to become a star in the motion picture industry, however, he finds himself working in his aunt’s hotel waiting for his big break.
Release date: Feb. 8, 2005.
Grade: B
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THE FRESH PRINCE OF BEL AIR: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON (1990)
Warner Home Video, 587 mins., NR, $26.98 Four Disc.
A wealthy Bel-Air Calif. family gets a permanent house guest when their wise-crackin’ cousin (Will Smith) arrives from Philadelphia to live with them, because his mother wants him to learn old-fashion values from his relatives. However, it’s often Will who teaches them that the simplest pleasures of family life are priceless.
Release date: Feb. 8, 2005.
Grade: B+
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OZ The Complete Fourth Season (2000)
HBO Video,16 hrs., NR, $48.74 Three Disc.
Hailed as "dynamic" by The Chicago Tribune and "one of the freshest, most solidly directed and performed and best produced series on the tube," according to the Hollywood Reporter, all 16 episodes of OZ The Complete Fourth Season are available on DVD. One of HBO first intense dramas, OZ’s fourth season picks up where the third season closed with racial tension in the Oswald State Correctional Facility: Level Four at an all-time high. With the inmates still on 24-hour lockdown, the authorities are now looking for ways to ease the hostilities and return Em City to normal. But in Oz, with its violent, amoral culture of prejudice and cruelty, and endless power struggles, what is "normal?" The 3-Disc DVD set features 16 hour-long episodes, 30 minutes of deleted scenes. The returning ensemble cast includes Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as inmate Simon Adebisi; Ernie Hudson as Leo Glynn, Oz’s warden; Terry Kinney as Tim McManus, who heads up Emerald City, the prison’s experimental unit; Rita Moreno as Sister Peter Marie Reimondo, the prison’s staff psychologist; Harold Perrineau as Augustus Hill, the wheelchair-bound narrator of the series; Law and Order’s JK Simmons as neo-Nazi Vern Schillinger; Lee Tergesen as inmate Tobias Beecher; Eamonn Walker as Kareem Said, a Muslim who considers himself a political prisoner. "In Oz, be careful what you wish for … you might just get it."
Release date: Feb. 1, 2005
Grade: A+
