| | W. DVD (1 Customer Review)
| Category | Dramas DVDs, George W. Bush Movies | | Starring | Josh Brolin, Stacy Keach, Richard Dreyfuss, Ellen Burstyn, James Cromwell, Scott Glenn, Bruce McGill, Jeffrey Wright, Ioan Gruffudd, Thandie Newton, Elizabeth Banks, Toby Jones | | Director | Oliver Stone | | Composer | Paul Cantelon | | Director of Photography | Phedon Papamichael | | Editor | Julie Monroe | | Executive Producer | Jon Kilik, Eric Kopeloff, Paul Hanson | | Producer | Moritz Borman, Bill Block | | Screenwriter | Stanley Weiser |
Closed Captioned; Additional Footage; Soundtrack English; English Subtitles; Director's Comments; Dolby Digital 5.1 Re One might expect sparks to fly when one of America's most controversial filmmakers decides to take on America's most controversial president. Oliver Stone's biopic of George W. Bush, however, is rather gentle on the president; and, while the film clearly paints Dubya as a fool and makes no excuses for the debacle that has been his presidency, it does offer a surprisingly sympathetic character study of the man behind the chaos.
Told in a series of flashbacks that play as his greatest hits, W. portrays Bush (Josh Brolin) as a privileged yet decidedly lost soul. Stone makes light humor of the president's frequent malapropisms and complete lack of intellectual curiosity, but he places the dramatic focus on Bush's desperate attempts to get respect and acceptance from his father. While Bush's backstory and psychology make for relatively interesting drama, his place in history has nonetheless been formed entirely by his eight years as president. In this area, Stone's film offers almost nothing new; however, what W. lacks in revelations and insight, it makes up for with some wonderful performances. The supporting cast--which includes Ellen Burstyn (as Barbara Bush), Richard Dreyfuss (as Dick Cheney), James Cromwell (George H. W. Bush), and Jeffery Wright (as Colin Powell)--all offer nuanced performances that perfectly balance impersonation with genuinely evocative acting. Elizabeth Banks is both sympathetic and understandable as Laura Bush, presenting a woman who stands by her man not simply out of loyalty but also out of love. Brolin must also be given credit for a performance that deftly avoids parody in favor of something born from a true actor. In the end W. is a somewhat unremarkable film, yet its very existence is shocking; in that respect, it almost perfectly mirrors George W. Bush and his rise to power. W. Reviews: 3 stars out of 5 -- "Josh Brolin excels, bristling with energy....Brolin does an excellent job inhabiting without impersonating..."-- Tony Horkins, Total Film "Brolin and Cromwell go at it with vigor, giving the film the psychological resonance it needs."-- Peter Travers, Rolling Stone "Brolin is clearly party leader -- nailing Bush's posture and gestures without stooping to easy mannerism, conveying the contradictions of a polarizing president with real generosity..."-- Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly "The performances are good (some scarily realistic), and the movie is enjoyable....W. is absorbing and amusing to ruminate over."-- Claudia Puig, USA Today "W. is not a dispassionate biography; it is an interpretation of personality intersecting with history, and as a piece of drama it is persuasive and perfectly creditable."-- Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times "[I]t does something most journalism and even documentaries can't or won't do: it reminds us what a long strange trip it's been to the Bush White House."-- Manohla Dargis, New York Times W. | List Price | $19.98 (You save $5.39) | | Studio | Lions Gate Home Entertainment | | Orig Year | 2008 | | All Time Sales Rank |  29434  | | CD Universe Part number | 7684761 | | Catalog number | 24859 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Feb 10, 2009 | | Rating | PG-13 (MPAA) | | Rating Reason | for language including sexual references, some alcohol abuse, smoking and brief disturbing war images | | Running Time | 129 Minutes | | Additional Info | Widescreen; Subtitled | | Movie Details | Color; Widescreen; Subtitled; Widescreen Version |
W. Video | W. (2008) Full Frame; Subtitled |  | $14.59 |
| W. (2008) Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled; DTS Sound |  | $30.39 |
W. DVD Keep Case
Full Frame -
1.33
Widescreen -
1.85
Audio:
Dolby Digital 2.0 - English
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Subtitles - English, Spanish
Additional Release Material:
Deleted Scenes
Audio Commentary: Oliver Stone - Director
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Featurette:
1. Dangerous Dynasty: The Bush Presidency
2. No Stranger to Controversy: Oliver Stone's George W. Bush
DVD-ROM Features:
W. Research and Annotations Guide
Purchase W. Movie To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Repo! The Genetic Opera DVD (2008) Widescreen; Subtitled
W. film
$14.65  
Begun in 2002 as a Los Angeles stage production by writers Darren Smith and Terrence Zdunich, REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA was designed as a gory, comedic Grand Guignol to appeal more to club goers than fans of musical theater. One fan, aspiring director Darren Lynn Bousman, who has since worked on the SAW franchise, vowed to one day direct a film version of the show. Six years (and five SAW films) later, he has made good on his promise with a bizarre, gory, and unique piece of work that is as sure to entertain as it is to polarize its audience. In the year 2056, following an epidemic of human organ failure, the GeneCo Corporation--owned by the mafia-like Largo family--grows and installs new organs on a massive scale. The business, though, necessitates the employment of repo men to reclaim the organs from clients who miss their payments. Repo man and single father Nathan Wallace (Anthony Head, BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) keeps his job a secret from his terminally ill daughter, Shilo (Alexa Vega), doing it only to pay for her costly medication. Nathan also has a secret history with GeneCo patriarch Rotti Largo (Paul Sorvino)---and their connection is about to become public knowledge on the night of a concert from popular singer--and GeneCo client--Blind Mag (Sarah Brightman).
Compellingly strange, REPO! resembles a comic book-influenced goth dinner theater production set within a dystopian video game. Musically, the score concentrates more on libretto-like sung dialogue than memorable tunes (save Vega's pop-punk "Sixteen" and Brightman's chilling "Chromaggia"), ...
| | Saw V DVD (2008) Widescreen; Director's Cut; Subtitled; Unrated
W. review
$14.59 
Continuing on with its story despite the death of namesake killer Jigsaw in the third installment, SAW V concerns itself with detailing who will carry on with his bloody work. Director David Hackl, the production designer on the previous three films, retains their familiar charnel house look. Though there are fewer grisly death sequences, faithful viewers will enjoy the creative plot twists. The film opens with a man strapped to a table above a pendulum. As the sharp blade begins swinging over his stomach, he has only a minute to stop it by inserting his hands into a device that will crush them. When the machine malfunctions, it's clear that it wasn't the work of the meticulous Jigsaw. Meanwhile, FBI Agent Strahm (Scott Patterson) continues the investigation he began in the previous film, only to wake up to find himself wearing a glass helmet filled with water. With a minimum of self-mutilation, he escapes and continues his investigation with the hunch that Detective Hoffman (Costas Mandylor) is somehow involved in the new rash of killings. Before long, a new group of strangers wakes up in Jigsaw's lair to face a series of brutal tests, and Jigsaw's ex-wife, Jill, is given a mysterious box at the execution of his will.
An enormously popular and critic-proof series, SAW gives its fans what they want--creatively executed blood and guts. The fifth installment in as many years, SAW V is more subdued in that department, but the sequences it does contain deliver the goods. Several lengthy ...
| | Rodgers & Hammerstein Allegro: First Complete Recording CDs (2009)
W. DVD
 $16.05
Between 1943 and 1951, Rodgers & Hammerstein wrote five Broadway musicals, four of which -- Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, and The King and I -- became huge hits with long runs, million-selling cast albums, movie adaptations (with million-selling soundtrack albums), and frequent revivals. The fifth show, which curiously came right in the middle, was Allegro (1947), a flop that was nearly forgotten, preserved only on a 33-minute cast album. The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization, which administers the songwriters' properties, has an obvious interest in promoting their works, and it is behind this years-in-the-making all-star two-CD studio cast album of Allegro, billed as the "first complete recording." Ted Chapin, president and executive director of the organization, served as a co-producer and annotator on a project that had no deadline, but apparently did have certain budget constraints. The producers first went to Eastern Europe (where it's cheaper to hire musicians) to have the Istropolis Philharmonic Orchestra record the instrumental score, then, over a period of two years, waited out the schedules of a dream cast of Tony Award-winning actors and actresses to overdub their parts one by one. That's a far cry from the single day usually mandated by Actors Equity for the cast of Broadway musical to get together in a recording studio and make a cast album.
Allegro, remembered as Rodgers & Hammerstein's most experimental work, has a plot so simple and familiar as to be mundane. Running from 1905 to 1940, it follows the life of a country doctor, Joseph ...
| | Andrew Bird Noble Beast CDs (2009) Bonus CD; Deluxe Edition
W. movie DVD
$22.39 
A more organic and subdued outing than its predecessor, ARMCHAIR APOCRYPHA, 2009's NOBLE BEAST finds singer/violinist/guitarist Andrew Bird further refining his elegant, erudite brand of indie-pop. From the breezy, lilting opener "Oh No" to the wistful, strings-only "On Ho," the Chicagoan performer wanders purposefully through his own strange musical landscape, stopping off for fascinating moments such as the chiming "Fitz & Dizzyspells" and the percussive "Not a Robot, But a Ghost." Although Bird's lit-major lyrics and dynamic, classically-minded arrangements may scare off listeners looking for more immediate thrills, those who allow BEAST to work its magic will be happily entranced by its considerable charms.
Released in 2007, Armchair Apocrypha proved that hyper-literate singer/songwriter, genre-bending violin player, and peerless whistler Andrew Bird had found the perfect middle ground between his increasingly austere solo sets and the full-band grandeur of his days with the Bowl of Fire, a strategy he repeats with similar results on Noble Beast, his fifth full-length solo offering and second collection for the Mississippi-based Fat Possum label. Bird, a classically trained violinist since the age of four, has skillfully integrated nearly everything with strings on it into his repertoire since his conversion from the Weill and Brecht-heavy days of Music of Hair, Thrills, and Oh! The Grandeur to the semi-mainstream indie pop of The Swimming Hour, but it's his seemingly limitless capacity for manipulation ...
| | Changeling DVD (2008) Widescreen; Dubbed; Subtitled
W. video
$13.59
At first, Clint Eastwood's CHANGELING could appear to be following too closely in the footsteps of his earlier Oscar winner, MYSTIC RIVER, since both films center on a missing child. But while his previous film was based on a Dennis Lehane novel, CHANGELING carries a particular weight because it is based on a true story, and one that isn't largely known. Angelina Jolie stars as Christine Collins, a single mother working in 1928 Los Angeles when her son goes missing. A boy is returned to her months later by the police, but she is shocked and disheartened when she realizes that the boy isn't her son. Joined by a crusading pastor (John Malkovich), Christine battles for justice against the corrupt L.A.P.D. while she continues to search for her child. Eventually her fight against the cops lands her in a mental hospital, where she is surrounded by others with a similar plight.
At times, CHANGELING is incredibly difficult to watch. Jolie gives an authentic, anguished performance, and the on-screen tragedy is quite disturbing, largely because of its basis in reality. But Eastwood has crafted another Oscar-worthy film that is certainly worth sitting through, even if a tissue or two is required. Screenwriter J. Michael Straczynski had been best known for his work in science fiction (BABYLON FIVE) and graphic novels, but he makes an adept transition to feature drama with this film. Its unusual focus--on the victim and her struggle for justice, rather than on the ...
| | Van Morrison Astral Weeks: Live At The Hollywood Bowl CD (2009) Bonus Tracks
W. film
$14.89
In 2008, Van Morrison decided to revisit his classic ASTRAL WEEKS album on the occasion of its 40th birthday by performing it in its entirety at a couple of L.A. concerts. Fortunately, the event was documented for posterity. Accompanied by a band that includes a couple of the original musicians from the ASTRAL WEEKS sessions, Morrison digs as deep into the mystic as ever, stirring up a soulful, all-acoustic mix of folk, rock, and jazz that sounds as ground-breaking ...
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| | Ballast DVD (2008) Widescreen; Subtitled
W. movie DVD
$21.24 
Winner of numerous prizes at prestigious film festivals all around the world, including Sundance, San Francisco, and Buenos Aires, BALLAST is a stunning, emotionally powerful feature-film debut from Lance Hammer, who wrote, directed, and edited the film and served as one of the producers. After his brother commits suicide, Lawrence (Michael J. Smith Sr.) stops going to work at his convenience store, instead just sitting alone at home, staring straight ahead at the television, like a zombie. When his 12-year-old nephew, James (JimMyron Ross), pulls a gun on him and demands money, Lawrence barely reacts, not caring about anything. James needs the money to pay off the local drug dealers for the crack he has been smoking. Meanwhile, James's mother, Marlee (Tarra Riggs), is scrubbing toilets to earn whatever she can to afford food and clothing for her son. But when Marla finds out that her son's life is in danger, they run away to stay with Lawrence, triggering long-held memories and problems that slowly boil to the surface. BALLAST is set in the Mississippi Delta, shot on location with nonprofessional actors who live in the region. Although there was a script, the dialogue was mostly improvised, and Hammer uses only natural sound and light, heightening the reality of the hard lives ...
| | Ballou DVD (2008)
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$16.25
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| | France
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Sylvie Testud (LA VIE EN ROSE) stars in this French romantic drama set in World War I. When Camille (Testud) gets word from her husband that he is in danger, the young woman sets off in ...
| | Bunker Hill
W. movie DVD
Just as Massachusetts's Bunker Hill was a battleground for American independence in the Revolutionary War, the Kansas town of the same name in this film is the place of a fight for American and human rights. James McDaniel (NYPD BLUE) stars as Peter Salem, an ex-Wall Street power player who has just been released ...
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