
Babel
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
138 minutes

(#25)
Theatrical: 2006
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)
Genre: Drama
Writer: Guillermo Arriaga, Alejandro González Iñárritu
Date Added: 01 Sep 2007
Babel
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
138 minutes

(#25)

Sound: Dolby Digital
Comments: If You Want to be Understood...Listen
Summary: Brilliantly conceived, superbly directed, and beautifully acted, Babel is inarguably one of the best films of 2006. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and his co-writer, Guillermo Arriaga (the two also collaborated on Amores Perros and 21 Grams) weave together the disparate strands of their story into a finely hewn fabric by focusing on what appear to be several equally incongruent characters: an American (Brad Pitt) touring Morocco with his wife (Cate Blanchett) become the focus of an international incident also involving a hardscrabble Moroccan farmer (Mustapha Rachidi) struggling to keep his two young sons in line and his family together. A San Diego nanny (Adriana Barraza), her employers absent, makes the disastrous decision to take their kids with her to a wedding in Mexico. And a deaf-mute Japanese teen (the extraordinary Rinko Kikuchi) deals with a relationship with her father (Koji Yakusho) and the world in general that's been upended by the death of her mother. It is perhaps not surprising, or particularly original, that a gun is the device that ties these people together. Yet Babel isn't merely about violence and its tragic consequences. It's about communication, and especially the lack of it--both intercultural, raising issues like terrorism and immigration, and intracultural, as basic as husbands talking to their wives and parents understanding their children. Iñárritu's command of his medium, sound and visual alike, is extraordinary; the camera work is by turns kinetic and restrained, the music always well matched to the scenes, the editing deft but not confusing, and the film (which clocks in at a lengthy 143 minutes) is filled with indelible moments. Many of those moments are also pretty stark and grim, and no will claim that all of this leads to a "happy" ending, but there is a sense of reconciliation, perhaps even resolution. "If You Want to be Understood... Listen," goes the tagline. And if you want a movie that will leave you thinking, Babel is it. --Sam Graham


Bad Taste
Peter Jackson
91 minutes

(#26)
Theatrical: 1987
Studio: New Zealand Film Commission
Genre: Comedy
Writer: Ken Hammon, Tony Hiles, Peter Jackson
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Bad Taste
Peter Jackson
91 minutes

(#26)

Sound: Mono
Comments: One thing the aliens hadn't counted on was Derek, and Dereks don't run!
Summary: Derek and his friends must investigate the missing people in a small village. Then they find out its human formed aliens that are really big headed monsters that used all the people in the small village into there snack burgers. Now, Derek must save the day and the world with his chainsaw before the meat eaters strikes the whole planet. Will Derek kill all the aliens?


Bænken
Per Fly
93 minutes

(#27)
Theatrical: 2000
Studio: Zentropa Entertainments
Genre: Drama
Writer: Kim Leona, Per Fly
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Bænken
Per Fly
93 minutes

(#27)

Sound: Dolby Digital
Summary:


Baraka
Ron Fricke
92 minutes

(#28)
Theatrical: 1992
Studio: Second Sight Films Ltd.
Genre: Documentary
Writer: Constantine Nicholas, Genevieve Nicholas
Date Added: 26 Dec 2007
Baraka
Ron Fricke
92 minutes

(#28)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Summary: Baraka is a non-narrative visual poem addressing, according to director Ron Fricke, "humanity's relationship with the eternal." The title means "breath of life" or "a blessing" and the film unfolds into a tapestry of global images shot over 13 months in 24 countries, comparable to, but far more ambitious than Koyaanisqatsi (1983) which Fricke also wrote, edited and photographed. Like Bernardo Bertolucci's similarly meditative Little Buddha (1993), Baraka was designed as a powerful audio-visual experience, one of a handful of films made in the 1990s to revive the immensely cinematic 70mm process.
Filled with staggeringly beautiful vistas which are striking, rich in detail and immaculately composed, the screen is complemented by an immersive Dolby Digital soundtrack fusing natural sounds with a haunting world music score. (At one point composer Michael Stearns combines Japan's Kodo Drummers, a Scottish bagpipe ensemble and a Tibetan water music orchestra.) Baraka encourages the audience to think or be entranced, and depending on mood and circumstance it can enthral or bore. With its epic, trans-human scale, vast formal grandeur, depersonalised abstraction, startling juxtapositions and avowed ambition to be the ultimate non-verbal film, Fricke has created a visionary experience akin to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
On the DVD:Baraka is accurately transferred at the original 70mm theatrical ratio of 2.2:1, not as the packaging says as 2.35:1. The picture quality is superlative, with virtually no flaws and razor-sharp images. The Dolby Digital 5.1 sound is equally outstanding. The extras are presented at 4:3 with letterboxed clips, and being video based offer lower image quality. These special features play for approximately 25 minutes and, apart from the original theatrical trailer, are divided into three sections containing significant overlaps between the material. The "making of" documentary and the collection of to-camera comments from members of the production team are both interesting, but the behind the scenes location filming footage adds little substance. --Gary S Dalkin


Barbarella
Roger Vadim
97 minutes

(#29)
Theatrical: 1968
Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Writer: Jean-Claude Forest, Claude Brulé, Terry Southern, Roger Vadim, Vittorio Bonicelli, Clement Biddle Wood, Brian Degas, Tudor Gates
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
Barbarella
Roger Vadim
97 minutes

(#29)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Comments: Who seduces an angel? Who strips in space? Who conveys love by hand? Who gives up the pill? Who takes sex to outer space? Who's the girl of the 21st century? Who nearly dies of pleasure?
Summary: After an in-flight anti-gravity striptease (masked by the film's opening titles), Barbarella (Jane Fonda), a 41st century astronaut, lands on the planet Lythion and sets out to find the evil Durand Durand in the city of Sogo, where a new sin is invented every hour. There, she encounters such objects as the Exessive Machine, a genuine sex organ on which an accomplished artist of the keyboard, in this case, Durand Durand himself, can drive a victim to death by pleasure, a lesbian queen who, in her dream chamber, can make her fantasies take form, and a group of ladies smoking a giant hookah which, via a poor victim struggling in its glass globe, dispenses Essance of Man. You can't help but be impressed by the special effects crew and the various ways that were found to tear off what few clothes our heroine seemed to possess. Based on the popular French comic strip.


Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick
184 minutes

(#30)
Theatrical: 1975
Studio: Peregrine
Genre: Drama
Writer: William Makepeace Thackeray, Stanley Kubrick
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Barry Lyndon
Stanley Kubrick
184 minutes

(#30)

Sound: Mono
Summary: In the Eighteenth Century, in a small village in Ireland, Redmond Barry is a young farm boy in love of his cousin Nora Brady. When Nora engages to the British Captain John Quin, Barry challenges him for a duel of pistols. He wins and escapes to Dublin, but is robbed on the road. Without any other alternative, Barry joins the British Army to fight in the Seven Years War. He deserts and is forced to join the Prussian Army, saving the life of his captain and becoming his protégé and spy of the Irish gambler Chevalier de Balibari. He helps Chevalier and becomes his associate until he decides to marry the wealthy Lady Lyndon. They move to England and Barry, in his obsession of nobility, dilapidates her fortune and makes a dangerous and revengeful enemy.


Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan
134 minutes

(#31)
Theatrical: 2005
Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Fantasy
Writer: Bob Kane, David S. Goyer, Christopher Nolan
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
Batman Begins
Christopher Nolan
134 minutes

(#31)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: It's not who he is underneath but what he does that defines him
Summary: Just when you though that the Batman franchise was dead and buried--certainly after the abomination that was 1997's Batman & Robin--along comes director Christopher Nolan to brilliantly bring it all back to life with the astonishingly strong Batman Begins.
Nolan, whose curriculum vitae already features Memento and Insomnia, focuses his attention where films in the franchise haven't gone before--by examining that character of Batman himself. Thus, the story here is the genesis of the character, from the death of Bruce Wayne's parents, harrowing training with the mysterious League of Shadows, right through to the Dark Knight's first appearances on the street of a crime-ridden, moody Gotham City.
Nolan plays several trump cards in his take on the Batman legacy, and none pay off quite so handsomely as his casting. Christian Bale is an immense force in the dual role of Bruce Wayne and Batman, bringing a brooding anger and genuine unease to the Batsuit. He's backed with strong turns from Tom Wilkinson, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Gary Oldman, and Cillian Murphy as the unstable Scarecrow.
In spite of a last twenty minutes that can't quite sustain the tone of what's gone before, Batman Begins is a major achievement, and one of the finest superhero movies to date. Easily the best of the Dark Knight's big screen adventures, it manages to be a blockbuster film that's unpredictable, compulsive, superb to look at and well worth many repeated viewings. A staggering achievement, particularly considering the state the Batman franchise had got itself into.--Simon Brew


The Battle of the River Plate
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
119 minutes

(#32)
Theatrical: 1956
Studio: Archers, The
Genre: War
Writer: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Date Added: 03 Feb 2008
The Battle of the River Plate
Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
119 minutes

(#32)

Sound: Mono
Comments: The true and moving story of a mighty sea battle [Video Australia]
Summary: Set during the early years of World War II, the War in the Atlantic. The Royal Navy was fighting a desperate battle to keep the convoy routes open to keep the British Isles supplied. One great danger was the surface raiders, huge cruisers called "pocket battleships" that slipped out of German waters just before war was declared. The "Bismarck", The "Scharnhorst", The "Gneissau" and The "Graf Spee" were supplied by tanker & could strike anywhere. This is the story of how 3 lightly armed cruisers with only 6 and 8 inch guns boldly took on a powerful pocket battleship armed with 11 inch guns. They should have been blown out of the water before they could fire a single shot but ...


A Beautiful Mind
Ron Howard
135 minutes

(#33)
Theatrical: 2001
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre: Biography
Writer: Sylvia Nasar, Akiva Goldsman
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
A Beautiful Mind
Ron Howard
135 minutes

(#33)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French, Dolby Digital 5.1; Commentary by director Ron Howard; Commentary by screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, Unknown
Subtitles: Spanish, French
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: He Saw The World In A Way No One Could Have Imagined.
Summary: A biopic of the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash Jr., a math prodigy able to solve problems that baffled the greatest of minds. And how he overcame years of suffering through schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize.


Beetle Juice
Tim Burton
92 minutes

(#34)
Theatrical: 1988
Studio: Geffen Pictures
Genre: Comedy
Writer: Tim Burton, Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, Larry Wilson
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Beetle Juice
Tim Burton
92 minutes

(#34)

Languages: French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English, Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: Say it once... Say it twice... But we dare you to say it THREE TIMES
Summary: Adam (Baldwin) and Barbara (Davis) are a normal couple, who happen to be dead. They have given their precious time to decorate the house and make it their own, but unfortunately a family are moving in, and not quietly. Adam and Barbara try to scare them out, but ends up becoming the main attraction to the money making family. They call upon Beetlejuice (Keaton) to help, but Beetlejuice has more in more in mind than the just helping.


Beneath Loch Ness
Chuck Comisky
96 minutes

(#35)
Theatrical: 2001
Studio: Brimstone Entertainment LLC
Genre: Fantasy
Writer: Shane Bitterling, Chuck Comisky, Justin Stanley
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Beneath Loch Ness
Chuck Comisky
96 minutes

(#35)

Comments: Sixty Feet of Prehistoric Terror!
Summary: A scientific expedition to Loch Ness runs into trouble when the group leader is killed in a mysterious diving accident. Soon after, when the unorthodox Professor Howell shows up to take over as leader of the group, more strange incidents and attacks start to occur. While Howell and TV producer Elizabeth Borden (who has been financing the team's work in exchange for exclusive footage of their discoveries) are busy investigating the source of the attacks, the body of an enormous sea creature washes up on the lake's shore. Obviously, this is the famed Loch Ness Monster, right? Perhaps not...


Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Robert D. Webb
102 minutes

(#36)
Theatrical: 1953
Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Genre: Adventure
Writer: A.I. Bezzerides
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Beneath the 12-Mile Reef
Robert D. Webb
102 minutes

(#36)

Sound: 4-Track Stereo
Comments: You see it without special glasses !
Summary: Mike and Tony Petrakis are a Greek father and son team who dive for sponges off the coast of Florida. After they are robbed by crooks, Arnold and the Rhys brothers, Mike decides to take his men to the dangerous 12-mile reef to dive for more sponges. Mike suffers a fatal accident when he falls from the reef leaving Tony to carry on the business. But now he has a companion, Gwyneth Rhys.


The Big Lebowski
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
117 minutes

(#37)
Theatrical: 1998
Studio: Polygram Filmed Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Writer: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
The Big Lebowski
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
117 minutes

(#37)

Sound: DTS
Comments: They figured he was a lazy time wasting slacker. They were right.
Summary: When "The Dude" Lebowski is mistaken for a millionaire Lebowski, two thugs urinate on his rug to coerce him into paying a debt he knows nothing about. While attempting to gain recompense for the ruined rug from his wealthy counterpart, he accepts a one-time job with high pay-off. He enlists the help of his bowling buddy, Walter, a gun-toting Jewish-convert with anger issues. Deception leads to more trouble, and it soon seems that everyone from porn empire tycoons to nihilists want something from The Dude.


The Big Sleep
Howard Hawks
110 minutes

(#38)
Theatrical: 1946
Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Drama
Writer: Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, Jules Furthman
Date Added: 26 Dec 2007
The Big Sleep
Howard Hawks
110 minutes

(#38)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Italian, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Arabic, Romanian, Bulgarian
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Comments: The type of man she hated . . . was the type she wanted !
Summary: Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made screen history together more than once, but they were never more popular than in this 1946 adaptation of Raymond Chandler's novel, directed by Howard Hawks (To Have and Have Not). Bogart plays private eye Philip Marlowe, who is hired by a wealthy socialite (Bacall) to look into troubles stirred up by her wild, young sister (Martha Vickers). Legendarily complicated (so much so that even Chandler had trouble following the plot), the film is nonetheless hugely entertaining and atmospheric, an electrifying plunge into the exotica of detective fiction. William Faulkner wrote the screenplay. --Tom Keogh


The Birds
Alfred Hitchcock
119 minutes

(#39)
Theatrical: 1963
Studio: Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions
Genre: Drama
Writer: Daphne Du Maurier, Evan Hunter
Date Added: 03 Feb 2008
The Birds
Alfred Hitchcock
119 minutes

(#39)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Comments: Suspense and shock beyond anything you have seen or imagined!
Summary: Spoilt socialite and notorious practical joker Melanie Daniels is shopping in a San Francisco pet store when she meets Mitch Brenner. Mitch is looking to buy a pair of love birds for his young sister's birthday; he recognises Melanie but pretends to mistake her for an assistant. She decides to get her own back by buying the birds and driving up to the quiet coastal town of Bodega Bay, where Mitch spends his weekends with his sister and mother. Shortly after she arrives, Melanie is attacked by a gull, but this is just the start of a series of attacks by an increasing number of birds.


Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Ridley Scott
113 minutes

(#40)
Theatrical: 1982
Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Science Fiction
Writer: Philip K. Dick, Hampton Fancher, David Webb Peoples, Roland Kibbee
Date Added: 10 Dec 2007
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Ridley Scott
113 minutes

(#40)

Sound: 70 mm 6-Track
Comments: Man Has Made His Match... Now It's His Problem
Summary: To call this cut of Blade Runner `long awaited' would be a heavy, heavy understatement. It's taken 25 years since the first release of one of the science-fiction genre's flagship films to get this far, and understandably, Blade Runner: The Final Cut has proved to be one of the most eagerly awaited DVD releases of all time.
And it's been well worth the wait. Director Ridley Scott's decision to head back to the edit suite and cut together one last version of his flat-out classic film has been heavily rewarded, with a genuinely definitive version of an iconic, visually stunning and downright intelligent piece of cinema. Make no mistake: this is by distance the best version of Blade Runner. And it's never looked better, either.
The core of Blade Runner, of course, remains the same, with Harrison Ford's Deckard (the Blade Runner of the title) on the trail of four `replicants', cloned humans that are now illegal. And he does so across an amazing cityscape that's proven to be well ahead of its time, with astounding visuals that defied the supposed limits of special effects back in 1982.
Backed up with a staggering extra features package that varies depending on which version of this Blade Runner release you opt for (two-, four- and five-disc versions are available), the highlight nonetheless remains the stunning film itself. Remastered and restored, it remains a testament to a number of creative people whose thinking was simply a country mile in advance of that of their contemporaries. An unmissable purchase. --Jon Foster


Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks
89 minutes

(#41)
Theatrical: 1974
Studio: Warner Home Video
Genre: Comedy
Writer: Mel Brooks, Norman Steinberg, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Alan Uger
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
Blazing Saddles
Mel Brooks
89 minutes

(#41)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 1.0; French, Dolby Digital 1.0; Spanish, Dolby Digital 1.0
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Sound: Mono
Comments: Never give a saga an even break!
Summary: Mel Brooks scored his first commercial hit with this raucous Western spoof starring the late Cleavon Little as the newly hired (and conspicuously black) sheriff of Rock Ridge. Sheriff Bart teams up with deputy Jim (Gene Wilder) to foil the railroad-building scheme of the nefarious Hedley Lamarr (Harvey Korman). The simple plot is just an excuse for a steady stream of gags, many of them unabashedly tasteless, that Brooks and his wacky cast pull off with side-splitting success. The humour is so juvenile and crude that you just have to surrender to it; highlights abound, from Alex Karras as the ox-riding Mongo to Madeline Kahn's uproarious send-up of Marlene Dietrich as saloon songstress Lili Von Shtupp. Adding to the comedic excess is the infamous campfire scene involving a bunch of hungry cowboys, heaping servings of baked beans and, well, you get the idea. --Jeff Shannon


Blue Velvet
David Lynch
120 minutes

(#42)
Theatrical: 1986
Studio: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG)
Genre: Thriller
Writer: David Lynch
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
Blue Velvet
David Lynch
120 minutes

(#42)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: The Most Talked About Film of the Decade (US Laserdisc release)
Summary: A man returns to his home town after being away and discovers a severed human ear in a field. Not satisfied with the police's pace, he and the police detective's daughter carry out their own investigation. The object of his investigation turns out to be a beautiful and mysterious woman involved with a violent and perversely evil man.


Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [2006]
Larry Charles
83 minutes

(#43)
Theatrical: 2006
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Writer: Sacha Baron Cohen, Anthony Hines, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer, Todd Phillips
Date Added: 05 Jan 2008
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan [2006]
Larry Charles
83 minutes

(#43)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 5.1; French, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: High Five!
Summary: It takes a certain kind of comic genius to create a character who is, to quote the classic Sondheim lyric, appealing and appalling. But be forewarned: Borat is not "something for everyone." It arrives as advertised as one of the most outrageous, most offensive, and funniest films in years. Kazakhstan journalist Borat Sagdiyev (Sacha Baron Cohen reprising the popular character from his Da Ali G Show, leaves his humble village to come to "U.S. of A" to film a documentary. After catching an episode of Baywatch in his New York hotel room, he impulsively scuttles his plans and, accompanied by his fat, hirsute producer (Hardy to his Laurel), proceeds to California to pursue the object of his obsession, Pamela Anderson. Borat is not about how he finds America; it's about how America finds him in a series of increasingly cringe-worthy scenes. Borat, with his '70s mustache, well-worn grey suit, and outrageously backwards attitudes (especially where Jews are concerned) interacts with a cross-section of the populace, catching them, a la Alan Funt on Candid Camera, in the act of being themselves.
Early on, an unwitting humour coach advises Borat about various types of jokes. Borat asks if his brother's retardation is a ripe subject for comedy. The coach patiently replies, "That would not be funny in America." NOT! Borat is subversively, bracingly funny. When it comes to exploring uncharted territory of what is and is not appropriate or politically correct, Borat knows no boundaries, as when he brings a fancy dinner with the southern gentry to a halt after returning from the bathroom with a bag of his feces ("The cultural differences are vast," his hostess graciously/patronisingly offers), or turns cheers to boos at a rodeo when he calls for bloodlust against the Iraqis and mangles "The Star Spangled Banner."
Success, John F. Kennedy once said, has a thousand fathers. A paternity test on Borat might reveal traces of Bill Dana's Jose Jimenez, Andy Kaufman, Michael Moore, The Jamie Kennedy Xperiment, and Jackass. Some scenes seem to have been staged (a game Anderson, whom Borat confronts at a book signing, was reportedly in on the setup), but others, as the growing litany of lawsuits attests, were not. All too real is Borat's encounter with loutish Southern frat boys who reveal their sexism and racism, and the disturbing moment when he asks a gun store owner what gun he would recommend to "kill a Jew" (a Glock automatic is the matter-of-fact reply). Comedy is not pretty, and in Borat it can get downright ugly, as when Borat and his producer get jiggly with it during a nude fight that spills out from their hotel room into the hallway, elevator, lobby and finally, a mortgage brokers association banquet. High-five! --Donald Liebenson


The Bourne Identity
Doug Liman
119 minutes

(#44)
Theatrical: 2002
Studio: Universal Pictures
Genre: Thriller
Writer: Tony Gilroy, W. Blake Herron, Robert Ludlum
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
The Bourne Identity
Doug Liman
119 minutes

(#44)

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: He was the perfect weapon until he became the target.
Summary: Based very loosely on Robert Ludlum's novel, the Bourne Identity is the story of a man whose wounded body is discovered by fisherman who nurse him back to health. He can remember nothing and begins to try to rebuild his memory based on clues such as the Swiss bank account, the number of which, is implanted in his hip. He soon realizes that he is being hunted and takes off with Marie on a search to find out who he is and why he is being hunted.


The Boys from Brazil
Franklin J. Schaffner
123 minutes

(#45)
Theatrical: 1978
Studio: Incorporated Television Company (ITC)
Genre: Drama
Writer: Ira Levin, Heywood Gould
Date Added: 02 Feb 2008
The Boys from Brazil
Franklin J. Schaffner
123 minutes

(#45)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Comments: If they survive...will we?
Summary: Barry Kohler, a young Nazi hunter, tracks down a group of SS officers meeting in Paraguay in the late 1970s. The Nazis, led by Dr Mengele, are planning something. Old Nazi hunter, Ezra Lieberman, is at first uninterested in Kohler's findings. But when he is told something of their plan, he is eager to find out more. Lieberman visits several homes around Europe in order to uncover the Nazi plot. It is at one of these houses he notices something strange, which turns out to be a horrible discovery.


Braindead
Peter Jackson
99 minutes

(#46)
Theatrical: 1993
Studio: 4 Front Video
Genre: Comedy
Writer:
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
Braindead
Peter Jackson
99 minutes

(#46)

Summary: If you're not a connoisseur of graphic horror and gruesome gore, you'd better steer clear of Braindead, a wicked 1992 horror-comedy from the demented mind and delirious camera of writer-director Peter Jackson, years before he went on to mainstream success with The Lord of the Rings. However, if non-stop mayhem and extreme violence are your idea of great entertainment, you're sure to appreciate Jackson's gleefully inventive approach to a story that can judiciously be described as sick, twisted and totally outrageous. The movie's central character is a poor schmuck named Lionel who's practically enslaved to his domineering mother. But when ol' Mum gets bitten by a rare and poisonous rat monkey from Skull Island and is turned into a flesh-eating zombie, Lionel has the unfortunate task of keeping Mama happy while fending off all the other zombies that result from her voracious feeding frenzies. If you've read this far, you'll either be crying out for censorship or eagerly awaiting your first viewing (or second, or third...) of this wildly clever and audaciously uninhibited movie. While director Jackson would later achieve far greater critical and box-office successes, his talent is readily evident in this earlier effort. If you find this kind of thing even remotely appealing, consider Braindead a must-see movie. --Jeff Shannon


Brazil
Terry Gilliam
137 minutes

(#47)
Theatrical: 1985
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Genre: Fantasy
Writer: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown
Date Added: 26 Dec 2007
Brazil
Terry Gilliam
137 minutes

(#47)

Languages: English, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Comments: It's only a state of mind.
Summary: If Franz Kafka had been an animator and film director--oh, and a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus--Brazil is the sort of outrageously dystopian satire one could easily imagine him making. In fact it was made by Terry Gilliam, who is all of the above except, of course, Franz Kafka. Be that as it may, Gilliam captures the paranoid-subversive spirit of Kafka's The Trial (along with his own Python animation) in this bureaucratic nightmare-comedy about a meek government clerk named Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) whose life is destroyed by a simple bug. It's not a software bug but a real bug (no doubt related to Kafka's famous Metamorphosis insect) that gets squashed in a printer and causes a typographical error unjustly identifying an innocent citizen, one Mr Buttle, as suspected terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro). When Sam becomes enmeshed in unravelling this bureaucratic tangle, he himself winds up labelled as a miscreant. The movie presents such an unrelentingly imaginative and savage vision of 20th-century bureaucracy that it almost became a victim of small-minded studio management itself--until Gilliam surreptitiously screened his cut for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, who named it the best movie of 1985 and virtually embarrassed Universal into releasing it. --Jim Emerson
On the DVD:Brazil comes to DVD in a welcome anamorphic print of the full director's cut--here running some 136 minutes. Disappointingly the only extra feature is the 30-minute making-of documentary "What Is Brazil?", which consists of on-set and behind-the-scenes interviews. There's nothing about the film's controversial release history (covered so comprehensively on the North American Criterion Collection release), nor is Gilliam's illuminating, irreverent directorial commentary anywhere to be found. The only other extra here is the ubiquitous theatrical trailer. A welcome release of a real classic, then, but something of a missed opportunity. --Mark Walker


Brødre
Susanne Bier
117 minutes

(#48)
Theatrical: 2004
Studio: Nordisk
Genre: Drama
Writer: Susanne Bier, Anders Thomas Jensen
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
Brødre
Susanne Bier
117 minutes

(#48)

Languages: Danish, Unknown
Sound: Dolby Digital
Summary: Michael has everything under control: a successful military career, a beautiful wife and two daughters. His younger brother Jannik is a drifter, living on the edge of the law. When Michael is sent to Afghanistan on a UN mission the balance between the two brothers changes forever. Michael is missing in action - presumed dead - and Sarah is comforted by Jannik, who against all odds shows himself capable of taking responsibility for both himself and the family. It soon becomes clear that their feelings have developed beyond mutual sympathy. When Michael comes home, traumatized by being held prisoner in the mountains of Afghanistan, nothing is the same...


Buena Vista Social Club
Wim Wenders
100 minutes

(#49)
Theatrical: 1999
Studio: Cinema Club
Genre: Documentary
Writer: Wim Wenders
Date Added: 27 Dec 2007
Buena Vista Social Club
Wim Wenders
100 minutes

(#49)

Languages: Spanish, Dolby Digital 5.1; Commentary by director Wim Wenders, Dolby Digital 2.0
Subtitles: English
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: Cubas Musik, Cubas Menschen, Cubas Poesie
Summary: In 1996, composer, producer, and guitar legend Ry Cooder entered Egrem Studios in Havana with the forgotten greats of Cuban music, many of them in their 60s and 70s, some of them long since retired. The resulting album, Buena Vista Social Club, became a Grammy-winning international bestseller. When Cooder returned to Havana in 1998 to record a solo album by 72-year-old vocalist Ibrahim Ferrer, filmmaker Wim Wenders was on hand to document the occasion. Wenders splits the film between portraits of the performers, who tell their stories directly to the camera as they wander the streets and neighbourhoods of Havana, and a celebration of the music heard in performance scenes in the studio, in their first concert in Amsterdam, and in their second and final concert at Carnegie Hall. The songs are too often cut short in this fashion, but Buena Vista Social Club is not a concert film. Wenders weaves the artist biographies with a glimpse of modern Cuba remembering its past, capturing a lost culture in music that is suddenly, unexpectedly revived for audiences in Havana and around the world. Wenders makes his presence practically invisible, as if his directorial flourishes or off-screen narration might deflect attention from the artists, who do a fine job of telling their own stories through interviews and music. It's a loving portrait of a master class in Cuban music, with a vital cast of ageing performers whose energy and passion belie their years. --Sean Axmaker


A Bug's Life
John Lasseter
96 minutes

(#50)
Theatrical: 1998
Studio: Walt Disney Home Video
Genre: Animation
Writer: John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Joe Ranft, Don McEnery, Bob Shaw, Geefwee Boedoe, Jason Katz, Jorgen Klubien, Robert Lence, David Reynolds
Date Added: 22 Dec 2007
A Bug's Life
John Lasseter
96 minutes

(#50)

Languages: French, Dolby Digital 5.1; English, Dolby Digital 5.1; Italian, Dolby Digital 5.1; Dutch, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Swedish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Finnish, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Subtitles: French, Italian, Dutch
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Comments: An epic of miniature proportions.
Summary: There was a rare magic on the big screen in 1995, when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, Toy Story, and their second feature film, A Bug's Life, may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty that it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible. Brighter and more colourful than the other animated insect movie of 1998 (Antz), A Bug's Life is the sweetly told story of Flik (voiced by David Foley), an ant searching for better ways to be a bug. His colony unfortunately revolves around feeding and fearing the local grasshoppers (lead by Hopper, voiced with gleeful menace by Kevin Spacey). When Flik accidentally destroys the seasonal food supply for the grasshoppers he decides to look for help ("We need bigger bugs!"). The ants, led by Princess Atta (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), are eager to dispose of the troublesome Flik. Yet he finds help--a hearty bunch of bug warriors--and brings them back to the colony. Unfortunately they are just travelling performers, afraid of conflict. As with Toy Story, the ensemble of creatures and voices is remarkable and often inspired. Highlights include wiseacre comedian Denis Leary as an un-ladylike ladybird, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick insect and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible woodlice. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big soft spot for Flik. More gentle and kid-friendly than Antz, A Bug Life's still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise in store for the villain. However, the film--a worldwide hit--will be remembered for its most creative touch: "outtakes" over the end credits à la many live-action comedy films. These dozen or so scenes (both "editions" of outtakes are contained here) are brilliant and deserve a special place in film history right along with 1998's other most talked-about sequence: the opening Normandy invasion in Saving Private Ryan. --Doug Thomas

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