Minggu, 27 November 2011

Blow

  • There?s no money in a ?real job.? So George Jung deals pot. Lots of it. The blue-collar kid dubbed Boston George spirals up from there, into the riches and excesses of the huge cocaine cartels. And crashes hard. Johnny Depp portrays George, the ambitious outlaw who, perhaps more than any American, transformed powder cocaine from relative obscurity in the U.S. into a 1970s/80s feeding frenzy. Penel
Based on a true story, Blow gives us a fast-paced look at the quick rise and fall of George Jung (Johnny Depp) who became a premier importer of Colombian cocaine, in the turbulent 1970's, forever changing the face of drugs in America.A briskly paced hybrid of Boogie Nights and Goodfellas, Blow chronicles the three-decade rise and fall of George Jung (Johnny Depp), a normal American kid who makes a personal vow against poverty, builds a marijuana empire in the '60s, multiplies hi! s fortune with the Colombian Medellín cocaine cartel, and blows it all with a series of police busts culminating in one final, long-term jail sentence. "Your dad's a loser," says this absentee father to his estranged but beloved daughter, and he's right: Blow is the story of a nice guy who made wrong choices all his life, almost single-handedly created the American cocaine trade, and got exactly what he deserved. As directed by Ted Demme, the film is vibrantly entertaining, painstakingly authentic... and utterly aimless in terms of overall purpose.

We can't sympathize with Jung's meteoric rise to wealth and the wild life, and Demme isn't suggesting that we should idolize a drug dealer. So what, exactly, is the point of Blow? Simply, it seems, to present Jung's story as the epitome of the coke-driven glory days, and to suggest, ever so subtly, that Jung isn't such a bad guy, after all. Anyone curious about his lifestyle will find this film amazing, and th! ere's plenty of humor mixed with the constant threat of violen! ce and p aranoid anxiety. Demme has also populated the film with a fantastic supporting cast (although Penélope Cruz grows tiresome as Jung's hedonistic wife), and this is certainly a compelling look at the other side of Traffic. Still, one wishes that Blow had a more viable reason for being; like a wild party, it leaves you with a hangover and a vague feeling of regret. --Jeff Shannon

Crooks & Castles Men's Woven Coliseum Jacket, Black, Large

Close Your Eyes

  • ISBN13: 9780374313821
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
2011 album from the Texas-based melodic Hardcore band.In Close Your Eyes, the author of the bestselling How to Be Lost spins another mesmerizing tale of buried family secrets.

For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer.

Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life in a wealthy corner of America, in a town outside Manhattan on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes, manicured lawns, and seemingly perfect families. Here Lauren and her older brother, Alex, thought they were safe.

But one morning, six-year-old Lauren and eight-year-old Alex awoke after a ni! ght spent in their tree house to discover their mother’s body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.

Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Her one constant is Alex, always her protector, still trying to understand the unraveling of his idyllic childhood. But Lauren feels even more alone when Alex reveals that he’s been in contact over the years with their imprisoned fatherâ€"and that he believes he and his sister have yet to learn the full story of their mother’s death.

Then Alex disappears.

As Lauren is forced to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, she comes to question the version of her history that she has clung to so fiercely. Lauren’s search for the truth about what happened on that fateful night so many years ago is a riveting tale that will keep readers feverishly turning pages. A Letter from Author Amanda Eyre Ward
I grew up in Rye, New York, a small town outside of New York City. In 1988, I was sixteen years old. I smoked cigarettes in my room, thinking Trident gum would mask the scent. I made a fake ID and laminated it at the library, then used the ID to visit bars in nearby towns: Bumper’s, Streets, Tammany Hall.

On January 1, 1989, my friends and I woke up, heads pounding, in the living room of a stranger’s apartment in Manhattan. We walked to Grand Central and rode the Stamford local back to Rye. By mid-day, we heard that during the midnight hours of New Year’s Eve, there had been a murder in Larchmont, a neighboring town.

An Indian couple, both doctors, had been stabbed to death in their bedroom, throats slashed, their bodies mutilated. It seemed impossible that something like ! this could happen in the suburbs. Fear travelled silently along the Boston Post Road, past Baskin Robbins and the Smoke Shop, to Dogwood Lane, where I lived with my family in a stunningly beautiful home. To me, the message was clear: danger was everywhere.

The murder was not solved. Four-and-a-half years went by. My parents split up, and I went to college. I thought about the murder from time to time, trying to understand how a stranger had broken the spell of Rye, smashed through the safety we had all thought money could buy.

In 1993, we found out that the murderer was one of us, a teenage boy, a local. The son of a bank president. He had been blind drunk, he told a room full of people at an AA meeting. He was afraid he may have broken a door pane, entered his childhood home, where his family no longer lived, taken a knife from a kitchen drawer, and savagely attacked the strangers sleeping in his parents’ bedroom. He later said he didn’t remember anything! about it. He had been in an alcoholic blackout, but now he ha! d nightm ares.

At his trial, a psychiatrist said, "Probably the most typical behavior during a blackout is finding the way home....It's almost as if he were going back in time and eliminating the people that he sought to blame for all his problems back when he was seven years old."

He is now in jail.

The story of the New Year’s Eve murder has always stayed with me, and eventually evolved into Close Your Eyes. I think, in writing the book, I wanted not only to understand what happened to a boy who was one of us, what made him into a murderer, but also to create a world where this wrong was righted, and a broken town was sewn back together. I wanted to imagine a town that was loving and safe, a place that might never have existed in real life.

CD We Will Overcome

A little tiger takes an imaginative journey

The little tiger lay on his back in the tall grass.
"Close your eyes, little tiger," said his mother, "and go to ! sleep."

But the little tiger is worried about what sleep might bring.
His mother reassures him that once he closes his eyes, he will dream of magical places. And when he awakens, she will be right there, waiting for him.

Alternating between real-life scenes with the baby tiger and his mother and enchanted dream scenes of sleep's possibilities, Kate Banks's simple, comforting text and Georg Hallensleben's bright, colorful illustrations make this a charming bedtime story for small children.
 
Close Your Eyes is a 2002 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year and a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.
A mother tiger wants her baby to go to sleep, but the little tiger resists. "'If I close my eyes,' he said, 'I can't see the sky.'" She assures him that he will not only see the sky when he sleeps, but will float among clouds and be cradled by the moon. Not in t! he least assured, the little tiger complains that if he clos! es his e yes, he will miss seeing the tree and the bird with blue feathers. With each concern, his mother consoles him with a comforting thought. If this gentle give-and-take were not calming enough for a bedtime story, Hallensleben's lovely dreamscapes (And If the Moon Could Talk) will surely do the trick. Double-page paintings of cloud animal shapes (with the little tiger cozying up with the moon), the "big mountains where the rain lives," and of mother tiger licking her baby are utterly hypnotic. Young children who are afraid to go to sleep will learn that "Dark is just the other side of light. It's what comes before dreams" and that mom is never very far away. (Ages 3 to 6) --Karin Snelson

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition)

  • In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, Ron and Hermione, now teenagers, return for their third year at Hogwarts, where they are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black, who poses a great threat to Harry.Harry and his friends spend their third year learning how to handle a half-horse half-eagle Hippogriff, repel shape-shifting Boggarts and master the art of Divination. They also
In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry, Ron and Hermione, now teenagers, return for their third year at Hogwarts, where they are forced to face escaped prisoner, Sirius Black, who poses a great threat to Harry. Harry and his friends spend their third year learning how to handle a half-horse half-eagle Hippogriff, repel shape-shifting Boggarts and master the art of Divination. They also visit the wizarding village of Hogsmeade and the Shrieking Shack, which is considered the most haunted b! uilding in Britain. In addition to these new experiences, Harry must overcome the threats of the soul-sucking Dementors, outsmart a dangerous werewolf and finally deal with the truth about Sirius Black and his relationship to Harry and his parents. With his best friends, Harry masters advanced magic, crosses the barriers of time and changes the course of more than one life. Directed by Alfonso Cuaron and based on J.K. Rowling's third book, this wondrous spellbinder soars with laughs, and the kind of breathless surprise only found in a Harry Potter adventure.Some movie-loving wizards must have cast a magic spell on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, because it's another grand slam for the Harry Potter franchise. Demonstrating remarkable versatility after the arthouse success of Y Tu Mamá También, director Alfonso Cuarón proves a perfect choice to guide Harry, Hermione, and Ron into treacherous puberty as the now 13-year-old students at Hogwarts School! of Witchcraft and Wizardry face a new and daunting challenge:! Sirius Black (Gary Oldman) has escaped from Azkaban prison, and for reasons yet unknown (unless, of course, you've read J.K. Rowling's book, considered by many to be the best in the series), he's after Harry in a bid for revenge. This dark and dangerous mystery drives the action while Harry (the fast-growing Daniel Radcliffe) and his third-year Hogwarts classmates discover the flying hippogriff Buckbeak (a marvelous CGI creature), the benevolent but enigmatic Professor Lupin (David Thewlis), horrifying black-robed Dementors, sneaky Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall), and the wonderful advantage of having a Time-Turner just when you need one. The familiar Hogwarts staff returns in fine form (including the delightful Michael Gambon, replacing the late Richard Harris as Dumbledore, and Emma Thompson as the goggle-eyed Sybil Trelawney), and even Julie Christie joins this prestigious production for a brief but welcome cameo. Technically dazzling, fast-paced, and chock-full of Rowling's bou! ndless imagination (loyally adapted by ace screenwriter Steve Kloves), The Prisoner of Azkaban is a Potter-movie classic. --Jeff Shannon

Shorts

  • While grownups at Black Box Industries work to improve the handheld gizmo that s this year s high-tech must-have, neighborhood kid Toby Toe Thompson has something even better: he s found the Wishing Rock. Be careful what you wish for, Toe! Spy Kids filmmaker Robert Rodriguez hatches a fun-filled story of the chaos that erupts when folks young and old get their hands on the rainbow-striped stone. H
It’s summer vacation, but the Pearson family kids are stuck at a boring lake house with their nerdy parents. That is until feisty, little, green aliens crash-land on the roof, with plans to conquer the house AND Earth! Using only their wits, courage and video game-playing skills, the youngsters must band together to defeat the aliens and save the world -- but the toughest part might be keeping the whole thing a secret from their parents! Featuring an all-star cast including Ashley Tisdale, Andy Ri! chter, Kevin Nealon and Tim Meadows, Aliens In The Attic is the most fun you can have on this planet!


Specs: Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Digital / Spanish & French: Dolby Surround
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 1.85:1
Episodes-Bonus Features: **Forced Trailers: Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakquel, Percy Jackson Theatrical Trailer, Ice Age 3, Night At The Museum 2, Post Grad, Family Catalog Trailer
**Introduction to Film with Ashley Tisdale
**! The Ashl ey Encounters
**Deleted Scenes
**Gag Reel
**Behind the Zirkonians
**Meet The Zirkonians

**Trailer Farm: Delgo, Fame, Strawberry Shortcake: Sky's The Limit
Video game meets movie in this wacky science-fiction action film. When aliens from space invade the attic of a rented lake house, a boring summer vacation takes a turn for the unreal for six kids. Conflict abounds in the extended Pearson family, which includes Nana (Dora Roberts), two nerdy adult brothers (Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter), and their six children. Teenage cousins Tom (Carter Jenkins), an ex-math nerd, and Jake (Austin Robert Butler), a rebellious teen with lots of attitude, clash like oil and water, and Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) and her devious boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman), don't make the situation any easier. Add in three younger siblings and it looks like it's going to be a long vacation. When four aliens crash on the roof of the house in ! search of a secret weapon and world domination, things begin to get interesting. Armed with mind-control technology, the aliens are able to manipulate humans with a device that's remarkably similar to a video game controller. Unfortunately for the aliens, the technology works only on adults. Suddenly, the warring cousins and siblings realize they must join forces and rely on one another to save their parents, Nana, and the rest of the world. What ensues is an action-packed battle in which the kids try to outsmart the aliens with everything from fireworks to a remote-controlled Barbie car and a paintball gun. When the kids get ahold of the aliens' controllers, hilarity reins as they make Ricky and Nana do everything from slap themselves to fight as only an accomplished Kung-Fu Grandma can. The action is funny and the kids get fairly creative, but the movie is really just a farce that's full of silly humor, the occasional glimpse of heart, and a somewhat buried message that i! t's OK to be smart. Aliens in the Attic is kind of li! ke watch ing someone else play a good video game; the plot is fairly entertaining and the action is fun, but the experience just isn't as stimulating as when you're the one behind the controller. Bonus features include the animated short "Behind the Zirkonians," an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, a 5-minute gag reel, an interactive "Meet the Zirkonians" segment, and fun on the set with Ashley Tisdale in "The Ashley Encounters." (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from Aliens in the Attic (Click for larger image)


 

It’s summer vacation, but the Pearson family kids are stuck at a boring lake house with their nerdy parents. That is until feisty, little, green aliens crash-land on the roof, with plans to conquer the house AND Earth! Using only their wits, courage and video game-playing skills, the youngsters must band together to defeat the aliens and save the world -- but the toughest part might be keeping the whole thing a secret from t! heir parents! Featuring an all-star cast including Ashley Tisd! ale, And y Richter, Kevin Nealon and Tim Meadows, Aliens In The Attic is the most fun you can have on this planet!


Specs: Audio: English: 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio / Spanish & French: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 1.85:1
Episodes-Bonus Features: Disc 1: Widescreen Theatrical Feature Film

**Forced Trailers: Alvin and the Chipmunks The Squeakquel, Percy Jackson Theatrical Trailer, Ice! Age 3, Night At The Museum 2, Post Grad, Fame

**Introduction to Film with Ashley Tisdale
**The Ashley Encounters
**Alternate Ending
**Deleted Scenes
**Gag Reel
**Behind the Zirkonians
**Meet the Zirkonians
**Lights, Camera, Aliens!
**Kung Fu Grandma
**Brian Anthony "Electricity" Music Video
**Fox Movie Channel Presents Life After Film School with Barry Josephson

Disc 2: Digital Copy
Video game meets movie in this wacky science-fiction action film. When aliens from space invade the attic of a rented lake house, a boring summer vacation takes a turn for the unreal for six kids. Conflict abounds in the extended Pearson family, which includes Nana (Dora Roberts), two nerdy adult brothers (Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter), and their six children. Teenage cousins Tom (Carter Jenkins), an ex-math nerd, and Jake (Austin Robert Butler), a rebellious teen with lots of atti! tude, clash like oil and water, and Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) a! nd her d evious boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman), don't make the situation any easier. Add in three younger siblings and it looks like it's going to be a long vacation. When four aliens crash on the roof of the house in search of a secret weapon and world domination, things begin to get interesting. Armed with mind-control technology, the aliens are able to manipulate humans with a device that's remarkably similar to a video game controller. Unfortunately for the aliens, the technology works only on adults. Suddenly, the warring cousins and siblings realize they must join forces and rely on one another to save their parents, Nana, and the rest of the world. What ensues is an action-packed battle in which the kids try to outsmart the aliens with everything from fireworks to a remote-controlled Barbie car and a paintball gun. When the kids get ahold of the aliens' controllers, hilarity reins as they make Ricky and Nana do everything from slap themselves to fight as only an accomplishe! d Kung-Fu Grandma can. The action is funny and the kids get fairly creative, but the movie is really just a farce that's full of silly humor, the occasional glimpse of heart, and a somewhat buried message that it's OK to be smart. Aliens in the Attic is kind of like watching someone else play a good video game; the plot is fairly entertaining and the action is fun, but the experience just isn't as stimulating as when you're the one behind the controller. Bonus features include the animated short "Behind the Zirkonians," an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, a 5-minute gag reel, an interactive "Meet the Zirkonians" segment, and fun on the set with Ashley Tisdale in "The Ashley Encounters." (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from Aliens in the Attic (Click for larger image)


 

Video game meets movie in this wacky science-fiction action film. When aliens from space invade the attic of a rented lake house, a boring summer vacation takes a turn for the unreal for six kids. Conflict abounds in th! e extended Pearson family, which includes Nana (Dora Roberts), two nerdy adult brothers (Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter), and their six children. Teenage cousins Tom (Carter Jenkins), an ex-math nerd, and Jake (Austin Robert Butler), a rebellious teen with lots of attitude, clash like oil and water, and Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) and her devious boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman), don't make the situation any easier. Add in three younger siblings and it looks like it's going to be a long vacation. When four aliens crash on the roof of the house in search of a secret weapon and world domination, things begin to get interesting. Armed with mind-control technology, the aliens are able to manipulate humans with a device that's remarkably similar to a video game controller. Unfortunately for the aliens, the technology works only on adults. Suddenly, the warring cousins and siblings realize they must join forces and rely on one another to save their parents, Nana, and the rest of the! world. What ensues is an action-packed battle in which the ki! ds try t o outsmart the aliens with everything from fireworks to a remote-controlled Barbie car and a paintball gun. When the kids get ahold of the aliens' controllers, hilarity reins as they make Ricky and Nana do everything from slap themselves to fight as only an accomplished Kung-Fu Grandma can. The action is funny and the kids get fairly creative, but the movie is really just a farce that's full of silly humor, the occasional glimpse of heart, and a somewhat buried message that it's OK to be smart. Aliens in the Attic is kind of like watching someone else play a good video game; the plot is fairly entertaining and the action is fun, but the experience just isn't as stimulating as when you're the one behind the controller. Bonus features include the animated short "Behind the Zirkonians," an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, a 5-minute gag reel, an interactive "Meet the Zirkonians" segment, and fun on the set with Ashley Tisdale in "The Ashley Encounters." (Ages 7 ! and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from Aliens in the Attic (Click for larger image)


 

Video game meets movie in this wacky science-fiction action film. When aliens from space invade the attic of a rented lake house, a boring summer vacation takes a turn for the unreal for six kids. Conflict abounds in the extended Pearson family, which includes Nana (Dora Roberts), two nerdy adult brothers (Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter), and their six children. Teenage cousins Tom (Carter Jenkins), an ex-math nerd, and Jake (Austin Robert Butler), a rebellious teen with lots of attitude, clash like oil and water, and Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) and her devious boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman), don't make the situation any easier. Add in three younger siblings and it looks like it's going to be a long vacation. When four aliens crash on the roof of the house in search of a secret weapon and world domination, things begin to get interesting. Armed with mind-control technology, the aliens are able to manipulate humans with a devic! e that's remarkably similar to a video game controller. Unfortunately for the aliens, the technology works only on adults. Suddenly, the warring cousins and siblings realize they must join forces and rely on one another to save their parents, Nana, and the rest of the world. What ensues is an action-packed battle in which the kids try to outsmart the aliens with everything from fireworks to a remote-controlled Barbie car and a paintball gun. When the kids get ahold of the aliens' controllers, hilarity reins as they make Ricky and Nana do everything from slap themselves to fight as only an accomplished Kung-Fu Grandma can. The action is funny and the kids get fairly creative, but the movie is really just a farce that's full of silly humor, the occasional glimpse of heart, and a somewhat buried message that it's OK to be smart. Aliens in the Attic is kind of like watching someone else play a good video game; the plot is fairly entertaining and the action is fun, but ! the experience just isn't as stimulating as when you're the on! e behind the controller. Bonus features include the animated short "Behind the Zirkonians," an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, a 5-minute gag reel, an interactive "Meet the Zirkonians" segment, and fun on the set with Ashley Tisdale in "The Ashley Encounters." (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from Aliens in the Attic (Click for larger image)


 

Video game meets movie in this wacky science-fiction action film. When aliens from space invade the attic of a rented lake house, a boring summer vacation takes a turn for the unreal for six kids. Conflict abounds in the extended Pearson family, which includes Nana (Dora Roberts), two nerdy adult brothers (Kevin Nealon and Andy Richter), and their six children. Teenage cousins Tom (Carter Jenkins), an ex-math nerd, and Jake (Austin Robert Butler), a rebellious teen with lots of attitude, clash like oil and water, and Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) and her devious boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman), d! on't make the situation any easier. Add in three younger sibli! ngs and it looks like it's going to be a long vacation. When four aliens crash on the roof of the house in search of a secret weapon and world domination, things begin to get interesting. Armed with mind-control technology, the aliens are able to manipulate humans with a device that's remarkably similar to a video game controller. Unfortunately for the aliens, the technology works only on adults. Suddenly, the warring cousins and siblings realize they must join forces and rely on one another to save their parents, Nana, and the rest of the world. What ensues is an action-packed battle in which the kids try to outsmart the aliens with everything from fireworks to a remote-controlled Barbie car and a paintball gun. When the kids get ahold of the aliens' controllers, hilarity reins as they make Ricky and Nana do everything from slap themselves to fight as only an accomplished Kung-Fu Grandma can. The action is funny and the kids get fairly creative, but the movie is really just a farce! that's full of silly humor, the occasional glimpse of heart, and a somewhat buried message that it's OK to be smart. Aliens in the Attic is kind of like watching someone else play a good video game; the plot is fairly entertaining and the action is fun, but the experience just isn't as stimulating as when you're the one behind the controller. Bonus features include the animated short "Behind the Zirkonians," an alternate ending, three deleted scenes, a 5-minute gag reel, an interactive "Meet the Zirkonians" segment, and fun on the set with Ashley Tisdale in "The Ashley Encounters." (Ages 7 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Stills from Aliens in the Attic (Click for larger image)


 

SHORTS - DVD MovieA fantastical story, relayed in the form of short vignettes by director Robert Rodriguez, Shorts is the story of a magic wishing rock and kids' imaginations gone wild. The film plays a lot like the The Little Rascals (Our Gang) films from the 1920's-1940's: it's made up of short, comical epis! odes that focus on kids adventures and how imagination drives their play. When a magical rainbow rock falls from the sky and lands in the middle of tech-town Black Falls, a young boy Toe (Jimmy Bennett) discovers that the rock has the power to grant his every wish. The victim of constant bullying, Toe wishes for friends as unusual as himself and ends up with a posse of aliens who protect him while seriously complicating his life. As narrator, Toby quickly stops the film, explaining that his experience is really the middle of the story, and then rewinds repeatedly to relate various encounters between neighborhood kids and the magic rock. Each short is its own journey into a kid's imagination where wishes for everything from a treasure hunt, to a fortress guarded by crocodiles, a super smart baby with telepathic powers, and a booger monster grown from one boy's booger are immediately granted. These fantastical wishes wreak havoc on the entire Black Falls community: the child! ren, the technology obsessed, disconnected Black Box employees! , and th e tyrannical Black Box boss Mr. Black (James Spader). In the end, the magic rock is a catalyst for change, encouraging kids and adults to work together and inspiring serious reflection regarding one's wishes, dreams, and goals. Rodriguez does a great job of portraying the wildness of kids' imaginations and viewers that delight in over-the-top ridiculousness and the overtly gross will laugh hysterically throughout the film. Unfortunately, those who demand restraint may find it overdone. (Ages 10 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Color Me Kubrick

  • John Malkovich gives a hilarious tour-de-force as Alan Conway, a conman who successfully passed himself off as the famed and notoriously reclusive director, Stanley Kubrick, for the last decade of the filmmaker's life, despite knowing very little about Kubrick. It'd be a farce of the highest order if it weren't based on a true story. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR Age
John Malkovich gives a hilarious tour-de-force as Alan Conway, a conman who successfully passed himself off as the famed and notoriously reclusive director, Stanley Kubrick, for the last decade of the filmmaker's life, despite knowing very little about Kubrick. It'd be a farce of the highest order if it weren't based on a true story.Color Me Kubrick tells the slyly amusing and "true-ish" story about a brazen impostor who pretended to be one of the world's greatest filmmakers. As British comedies go it's ! a bit of a trifle, but constantly enjoyable for cinephiles devoted to Stanley Kubrick and his films. In a foppishly flamboyant performance, John Malkovich dons a fab-ulously colorful wardrobe and uses a comical variety of voices as Alan Conway, an eccentrically gay outcast who spent most of the 1990s convincing his gullible targets that he was Stanley Kubrick, despite bearing no resemblance to the real Kubrick and knowing next to nothing about the director's celebrated films. Preying (with startling success) upon their ignorance and their fawning desire to seek favors from this "legendary filmmaker," Conway conned his mostly gay victims into giving him money, sex, and other kinds of ill-earned appreciation, and Color Me Kubrick (completed two years before its simultaneous release to theaters and DVD) does a terrific job of showing how Conway managed to maintain this charade for nearly a decade before he was "outed" by New York Times columnist Frank Rich! , whose own encounter with Conway would eventually lead to the! faux-Ku brick's undoing.

It's pretty slight stuff, as comedies go, but it boasts plenty of authority behind the camera: Both director Brian Cook and screenwriter Anthony Frewin were close associates of Kubrick's for decades, and they have terrific fun by peppering their film with a variety of Kubrickian in-jokes, from the frequent use of music featured in Kubrick's own films to a variety of visual in-jokes that Kubrick worshippers will instantly recognize. Add to this Malkovich's crazily unhindered performance, and you've got a nice little cult comedy that will keep you laughing if you're in the right mood. Keep your eyes wide open for cameo appearances by Marisa Berenson (who appeared in Kubrick's Barry Lyndon), Peter Sallis (the voice of Wallace in the Wallace and Gromit films), and director Ken Russell, among others. --Jeff Shannon

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