DVDpedia : Library : Title : B

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Polygram USA Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 113

Summary: While too many movies suffer the fate of creative bankruptcy, "Being John Malkovich" is a refreshing study in contrast, so bracingly original that you'll want to send director Spike Jonze and screenwriter Charlie Kaufman a thank-you note for restoring your faith in the enchantment of film. Even if it ultimately serves little purpose beyond the thrill of comedic invention, this demented romance is gloriously entertaining, spilling over with ideas that tickle the brain and even touch the heart. That's to be expected in a movie that dares to ponder the existential dilemma of a forlorn puppeteer (John Cusack) who discovers a metaphysical portal into the brain of actor John Malkovich.
The puppeteer's working as a file clerk on the seventh-and-a-half floor of a Manhattan office building; this idea alone might serve as the comedic basis for an entire film, but Jonze and Kaufman are just getting started. Add a devious coworker (Catherine Keener), Cusack's dowdy wife (a barely recognizable Cameron Diaz), and a business scheme to capitalize on the thrill of being John Malkovich, and you've got a movie that just gets crazier as it plays by its own outrageous rules. Malkovich himself is the film's pièce de résistance, riffing on his own persona with obvious delight and--when he enters his own brain via the portal--appearing with multiple versions of himself in a tour-de-force use of digital trickery. Does it add up to much? Not really. But for 112 liberating minutes, "Being John Malkovich" is a wild place to visit. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: A & E Home Video

Genre: Television

Duration: 197

Summary:

Theatrical: 1971

Studio: Shout! Factory

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 630

Summary: 20 OF THE BEST EPISODES FEATURING BILL COSBY, MORGAN FREEMAN, RITA MORENO, SPIDER-MAN and More!
If you were between six and ten years old during the years 1971 through 1985, then there is a good chance you learned to read with help from The Electric Company. Comedy sketches, music, animation and special effects were the tools of this "video" classroom. Bill Cosby, Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, Spider-Man Road Runner and others were the teachers.
The Electric Company was a product of its time — perennially cool and hip, while never wavering from its educational goals; it was full of wit and energy and made learning to read fun. So, take a trip back in time with Spider-Man, Letterman, J. Arthur Crank, the Short Circus, Jennifer of the Jungle, DJ Mel Mounds, Easy Reader, Paul the Gorilla, Lorelei the Chicken and all the rest with THE BEST OF THE ELECTRIC COMPANY.
DISC 1: #1 (10/25/71); #10 (11/5/71); #14 (11/11/71); #21 (11/22/71); #26 (11/29/71) Special Features: Rita Moreno Remembers: The only female performer to have won an Oscar®, an Emmy, a Tony and a Grammy, Rita looks back on her experiences with The Electric Company.
DISC 2: #109 (3/23/72); #131 (10/23/72); #181 (1/1/73); #285 (11/23/73); #321 (1/14/74) Special Features: Joan Ganz Cooney Then And Now: From 1971 to the present, the founder of The Children’s Television Workshop has never wavered in her commitment to early education.
DISC 3: #379 (4/3/74); #386 (4/15/74); #391 (10/21/74); #437 (12/24/74); #453 (1/15/75) Special Features: "Silent E" Karaoke: Sing along with Tom Lehrer’s unforgettable and imaginative song. The Creative Team Remembers: Executive producer Sam Gibbon and head writer Tom Whedon reminisce.
DISC 4: #491 (3/10/75); #72A (1/27/76); #110A (3/19/76); #79B (2/3/77); #130B (4/15/77) Special Feature: June Angela Remembers: "Julie" in The Short Circus; June Angela was with the cast for the entire run of the show.

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life, Columbia Tristar

Genre: Comedy

Summary: The most sensational, inspirational, celebrational show on TV is back. Its the BEST OF THE MUPPET SHOW! These hilarious, uncut episodes are jam-packed with all the outrageous skits, music hits, great guest stars and MuppetTM moments you love... plus some extra laugh-out-loud tunes and sketches. So join KermitTM, Miss PiggyTM, FozzieTM, GonzoTM and the rest of your Muppet pals for the one, the original, "The Muppet Show!" This 25th Anniversary Edition contains (30) OR (45) of the best episodes in the series. The set contains either (10) DVDs with (3) episodes each OR (15) DVDs with (3) episodes each (check individual listing detail for No. of Volumes!). Family entertainment at its finest!

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life Video

Genre: Kids & Family

Duration: 85

Summary: ALICE COOPER: It's a devilishly good time when the rock star performs a haunting "Welcome to My Nightmare," goes recruiting for wayward souls, and declares "School's Out Forever."

VINCENT PRICE: The prince of horror meets up with Gonzo(TM) and Rowlf(TM) in a spooky old house, gives Kermit(TM) vampire lessons, and serenades some of his favorite monsters.

MARTY FELDMAN: The bug-eyed comedian plays the beautiful storyteller Scheherazade, a genie, and a flying carpet inventor in a spectacular Muppet(TM) version of the Arabian Nights.

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life Video

Genre:

Duration: 85

Summary:

Theatrical:

Studio:

Genre: Kids & Family

Summary: My husband is a muppets fan and he really enjoyed this DVD from begining to end.

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life, Him Henson Home Entertainment

Genre: Television

Duration: 85

Summary: 25th Anniversary Edition: George Burns sings Chattanooga Choo-Choo * Miss Piggy(TM) performs Cuanto Le Gusta * The world's most powerful explosive * Dom Deluise plays a geologist on Planet Koozbain * Bob Hope sings Don't Fence Me In * Swedish Chef(TM) makes pressed duck

Theatrical:

Studio:

Genre: Kids & Family

Summary: I love this particular video. I had been looking for this Muppet video for a very long time. It was great to watch Harry Belafonte sing and teach the Muppets how to sing the Banana Boat Song. It's hilarious. It was also nice to see Linda Ronstadt sing Blue Bayou, with some little creatures singing in the background. It was so cute and funny. I also enjoyed the songs from the late John Denver. He looked like he was having so much fun on the show, as the rest of them. Finally, it was a wonderful added touch, of the son of the late Jim Henson, sharing some background information about the producing of the shows. This is a wonderful video the for the whole entire family-if you like the Muppets.

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life Video

Genre:

Duration: 85

Summary:

Theatrical:

Studio:

Genre: Kids & Family

Summary: UNWRAPPED BUT NEVER WATCHED AT ALL!
BRAND NEW!!!!!

Theatrical: 1976

Studio: Time Life Video

Genre: Kids & Family

Duration: 85

Summary:

Theatrical:

Studio: Time Life Video

Genre:

Summary:

Theatrical: 1963

Studio: Acorn Media

Genre: Art House & International

Duration: 66

Summary: One of the legendary landmarks of modern comedy finally gets a DVD airing: "Beyond the Fringe" is the sole filmed performance of the satirical revue that hatched at the Edinburgh Festival in 1960 and subsequently conquered London's West End and Broadway. The four young cut-ups thrown together for the sketch revue all went on to illustrious solo careers: Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and Jonathan Miller. Their success inspired a generation of comedians and helped birth satire as we know it.
In general, the more topical humor contained in this performance has aged uncertainly, and doesn't seem especially remarkable in the wake of political satire of the 1960s and 70s. Still, the "Aftermyth of War" sketch, which traipses through World War II nostalgia in a way that ruffled feathers back then, remains a pre-Vietnam bit of jaundice. The show's absurdist humor comes through like gangbusters; the classic Peter Cook-Dudley Moore sketch, "One Leg Too Few," about a one-legged man auditioning for the role of Tarzan, remains sublimely silly ("I've got nothing against your right leg--the problem is, neither do you").
Moore provides song parodies, while Bennett's two soliloquies (a vicar's sermon and a man who slightly knew Lawrence of Arabia) perhaps prefigure his later monologues for theater and television. Cook has a pair of bona fide masterpieces. One casts him as a detective on the case of the Great Train Robbery (Bennett: "So you feel thieves are responsible?" Cook: "Good heavens, no. I feel that thieves are totally irresponsible."). The other is "Sitting on the Bench," the rambling musings of a miner disappointed at not have been a judge. As Cook stares frozen-faced at the audience for the duration of the piece, you may get the uncanny frisson of genius.
The performance was recorded in London in 1964, during a final revival of the show. The technical quality is quite poor, but it hardly matters--this is the record of a seismic shift in comedy, and thus an essential disc. "--Robert Horton"

Theatrical:

Studio: Columbia Tristar

Genre:

Duration: 125

Summary: Throughout his life Edward Bloom(Ewan McGregor) has always been a man of big appetites, enormous passions and tall tales. In his later years, portrayed by five-time Best Actor Oscar nominee Albert Finney (Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Erin Brockovich, 2000), he remains a huge mystery to his son, William (Billy Crudup). Now, to get to know the real man, Will begins piecing together a true picture of his father from flashbacks of his amazing adventures in this margel of a movie.

Theatrical:

Studio: Bci / Eclipse

Genre: Drama

Duration: 550

Summary: Studio: Bci Eclipse Comp Llc Release Date: 06/05/2007

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: maxxmedia+events

Genre:

Duration: 110

Summary: The Bobs are a "new wave" a cappella quartet founded in San Francisco, specializing in quirky, hilarious tunes on every subject imaginable, including psychic weather forecasters, spontaneous human combustion, shopping-mall security guards, laundry, spiritual gurus in red sports cars, feline world domination, and some of the oddest love songs around, as well as unique covers of many pop songs. This DVD presents a performance recorded at WCET-48 in Cincinnati on February 10, 2000, and also includes a collection of videos of other performances from 13 years of nimble vocalizing. The concert features the following songs:

1. Unchain My Heart;
2. Mess Me Up Again;
3. Searchin';
4. Fever;
5. You Really Got a Hold on Me;
6. My Husband Was a Weatherman;
7. Banana Love;
8. Bach to Bach;
9. Drive-By Love;
10. Johnny's Room;
11. A Cappella Choir in the Sky;

The special features include a behind-the-scenes featurette, plus videos of:

1. My, I'm Large;
2. Excerpt from Up'nswutch;
3. Excerpt from Multiple Choice, with the Klaus Koenig Jazz Orchestra;
4. Slow Down Krishna;
5. Excerpt from Chickens;
6. The Druid Song;
7. Spray;
8. Signs on the Line;
9. Share a Load.

Theatrical: 1995

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 177

Summary: Mel Gibson's Oscar-winning 1995 "Braveheart" is an impassioned epic about William Wallace, the 13th-century Scottish leader of a popular revolt against England's tyrannical Edward I (Patrick McGoohan). Gibson cannily plays Wallace as a man trying to stay out of history's way until events force his hand, an attribute that instantly resonates with several of the actor's best-known roles, especially "Mad Max". The subsequent camaraderie and courage Wallace shares in the field with fellow warriors is pure enough and inspiring enough to bring envy to a viewer, and even as things go wrong for Wallace in the second half, the film does not easily cave in to a somber tone. One of the most impressive elements is the originality with which Gibson films battle scenes, featuring hundreds of extras wielding medieval weapons. After Eisenstein's "Alexander Nevsky", Orson Welles's "Chimes at Midnight", and even Kenneth Branagh's "Henry V", you might think there is little new that could be done in creating scenes of ancient combat; yet Gibson does it. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 1992

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 86

Summary: Fran Rubel Kuzui's 1992 tongue-in-cheek vampire comedy is sugarcoated horror, an unusual mix of the cute and scary, with a splash of postmodern pop nonsense to give culture critics something to think about. Kristy Swanson plays a Valley Girl who learns she belongs to a line of ancient vampire killers. After training under the watchful eye of a mentor (Donald Sutherland), she becomes a spandex-wearing, kung-fu kicking, stake-stabbing babe and the mortal enemy of a narcissistic master vampire (Rutger Hauer). The accent is all on cheery attitude, though the action can be as authentically unnerving as any other halfway decent monster movie. Paul Reubens, formerly Pee-wee Herman, has a small role as Hauer's fanged familiar. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Summary: From its charming and angst-ridden first season to the darker, apocalyptic final one, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" succeeds on many levels, and in a fresher and more authentic way than the shows that came before or after it. How lucky, then, that with the release of its boxed set of seasons 1-7, you can have the estimable pleasure of watching a near-decade of "Buffy" in any order you choose. (And we have some ideas about how that should be done.)
First: rest assured that there's no shame in coming to "Buffy" late, even if you initially turned your nose up at the winsome Sarah Michelle Gellar kicking the hell out of vampires (in "Buffy"-lingo, vamps), demons, and other evil-doers. Perhaps you did so because, well, it looked sort of science-fiction-like with all that monster latex. Start with season 3 and see that Buffy offers something for everyone, and the sooner you succumb to it, the quicker you'll appreciate how textured and riveting a drama it is.
Why season 3? Because it offers you a winning cast of characters who have fallen from innocence: their hearts have been broken, their egos trampled in typically vicious high-school style, and as a result, they've begun to realize how fallible they are. As much as they try, there are always more monsters, or a bigger evil. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, the core crew remains something of a unit--there's the smart girl, Willow (Alyson Hannigan) who dreams of saving the day by downloading the plans to City Hall's sewer tunnels and mapping a route to safety. There are the ne'r do wells--the vampire Spike (James Marsters), who both clashes with and aspires to love Buffy; the tortured and torturing Angel (David Boreanz); the pretty, popular girl with an empty heart (Charisma Carpenter); and the teenage everyman, Xander (Nicholas Brendon).
Then there's Buffy herself, who in the course of seven seasons morphs from a sarcastic teenager in a minidress to a heroine whose tragic flaw is an abiding desire to be a "normal" girl. On a lesser note, with the boxed set you can watch the fashion transformation of Buffy from mall rat to Prada-wearing, kickboxing diva with enviable highlights. (There was the unfortunate bob of season 2, but it's a forgivable lapse.) At least the storyline merits the transformations: every time Buffy has to end a relationship she cuts her hair, shedding both the pain and her vulnerability.
In addition to the well-wrought teenage emotional landscape, "Buffy" deftly takes on more universal themes--power, politics, death, morality--as the series matures in seasons 4-6. And apart from a few missteps that haven't aged particularly well ("I Robot" in season 1 comes to mind), most episodes feel as harrowing and as richly drawn as they did at first viewing. That's about as much as you can ask for any form of entertainment: that it offer an escape from the viewer's workaday world and entry into one in which the heroine (ideally one with leather pants) overcomes demons far more troubling than one's own. "--Megan Halverson"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Disney/Pixar

Genre: Kids & Family

Duration: 95

Summary: There was such a magic on the screen in 1995 when the people at Pixar came up with the first fully computer-animated film, "Toy Story". Their second feature film, "A Bug's Life", may miss the bull's-eye but Pixar's target is so lofty, it's hard to find the film anything less than irresistible.
Brighter and more colorful 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 traveling 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 ladybug, Joe Ranft as the German-accented caterpillar, David Hyde Pierce as a stick bug, and Michael McShane as a pair of unintelligible pillbugs. The scene-stealer is Atta's squeaky-voiced sister, baby Dot (Hayden Panettiere), who has a big sweet spot for Flik.
More gentle and kid-friendly than "Antz", "A Bug Life's" still has some good suspense and a wonderful demise of the villain. However, the film--a giant 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".
The video also contains Pixar's delightful Oscar-winning short, "Geri's Game". Box art varies. "--Doug Thomas"