Movies

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Commentary by Terry Gilliam & Michael Palin, Unknown

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Jabberwocky: the monster so horrible that people caught the plague to avoid it

Summary: A medieval comedy-adventure starring Michael Palin and directed by Terry Gilliam, Jabberwocky is an episodic adaptation of Lewis Carroll's surreal poem. Having previously directed Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975) with Terry Jones, Jabberwocky marked Gilliam's solo directorial debut--is it coincidental that Jones is killed by the titular monster in the opening scene? Palin plays the naive Dennis Cooper, a man seeking his fortune just as the Jabberwocky is laying waste to the country. It's much the same world as Holy Grail, with all the trappings of the romantic Hollywood epic being liberally coated with literal and metaphorical muck.
Palin's character causes unwitting mayhem wherever he goes--one stand-out scene involves the destruction of a maintenance shop for damaged knights-in-armour--though as much humour comes from exposing the foibles of the people he meets. And those people constitute a roll call of contemporary British comedy: Harry H Corbett as a sex-mad squire, Warren Mitchell's Mr Fishfinger, plus Annette Badland, Max Wall, John Le Mesurier, Rodney Bewes, John Bird, Neil Innes and John Gorman. Jabberwocky lacks the hilarity of Holy Grail, but is a consistently amusing, exceptionally atmospheric, gleefully gory yarn which points the way to Gilliam's Time Bandits (1981) and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988).
On the DVDJabberwocky is distinguished by an engaging and enthusiastic commentary from Gilliam and Palin, in which they delight in the amazing cast and ponder how such a handsome film was made. Otherwise the extras are a short sketch-to-screen comparison, three posters and three trailers (only one for Jabberwocky). Transferred anamorphically enhanced at 1.77:1, the picture is variable, with many beautifully lit indoor scenes looking fine, while other exterior, daylight shots appear washed out. There is some minor print damage. The sound is a revelation for a low-budget 1970s film originally released in mono. Given a full Dolby Digital 5.1 remix the tremendously detailed, rich and involving soundscape really brings Gilliam's world alive and puts many much more recent and expensive titles to shame. --Gary S Dalkin

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, DTS; French, Unknown

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: This Christmas, Santa's Got A Brand New Bag

Summary: Jackie Brown is the name of a flight attendant who gets caught smuggling her boss' gun money on the airline she works for. Luckily for her, the Fed Ray Nicolet and the LA Cop Mark Dargus decide to team up in order to arrest the arms dealer she works for, whose name they don't even know. Here's when she has to choose one way: tell Nicolet and Dargus about Ordell Robbie (the arms dealer) and get her freedom -except that if Ordell suspects you're talking about him, you're dead- or keep her mouth shut and do some time. That's when she meets Max Cherry -her bail bondsman-, a late fifties, recently separated, burnt-out man, who falls in love with her. Then Jackie comes up with a plan to play the Feds off against Ordell and the guys he works with -Louis Gara and Melanie Ralston, among others- and walk off with their money. But she needs Max's help. No one is going to stand in the way of his million dollar payoff...

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Commentary by director Victor Salva, Unknown

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Fear takes a road trip.

Summary: Bickering siblings Darry and Trish are driving home for college break when they make a horrific and bizarre discovery in an old church basement. Break may have to wait as Darry and Trish are relentlessly pursued by The Creeper, a creature who who is hell-bent on eating them. Gore, tragedy, and an unexpected ending ensue.

Summary: The Passion of Jesus Christ as seen through the eyes of Judas. This popular rock musical is based on the 1996 London/2000 Broadway revivals of the show, directed by Gale Edwards. Re-orchestrated and set to modern times, it is not the Superstar of the 70's but rather one for the 21st Century.

Sound: Mono

Summary: Philip Kimberly, the former head of the British Secret Service who defected to Russia, is given plastic surgery and sent back to Britain by the KGB to retrieve some vital documents. With the documents in hand, he instead plays off MI6 and the KGB against each other.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Stor biograf-success! (Huge cinema-success!)

Summary: Rowan plays the eponymous lead character in a spoof spy thriller. During the course of the story we follow our hero as he attempts to single-handedly save the country from falling into the hands of a despot.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: The future's most wanted fugitive.

Summary: In 2021, the whole world is connected by the gigantic Internet, and almost a half of the population is suffering from the Nerve Attenuation Syndrome (NAS).Johnny with an inplanted memory chip in his brain was ordered to transport the over loaded information from Beijing to Newark. While Pharmakom Industries supported by yakuza tries to capture him to get the informaiton back, the Low-tech group led by J-Bone tries to break the missing code to download the cure of NAS which Johnny carries.

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Summary: Remake of Jules Verne's classic story finds adventurers (Treat Williams, Jeremy London, Hugh Keays-Byrne) seeking a mysterious hidden land. They are joined by the wife (Tushka Bergen) of another man (Bryan Brown), who had previously gone on a similar expedition and disappeared.

Sound: Dolby Digital

Summary: A woman (Carla Gugino) and her lover (Simon Baker-Denny), who has made a living by running sex scams at hotels, decide to enter the big time by kidnapping a computer company owner (Greg Wise) and demanding $4 million ransom. The two hire a tech wizard (Gil Bellows) and a muscle man (Til Scweiger), who amuses himself by playing Russian roulette. Things go awry during the kidnapping when a neighbor is killed, who turns out to be the wife of a powerful senator (Hal Holbrook). As things develop, it turns out that the murder may not have been as accidental as it originally appeared. Slowly things unveil to not to be everything that was originally thought.