Deadland

• DEADLAND (DVD MOVIE)

World War III's nuclear strikes on the U.S. have set the nation back 200 years; money holds no worth, food is impossible to find, and hope is all but lost when every survivor of the war is infected by a fatal nuclear plague. DEADLAND is a post-apocalyptic tale of an ordinary man, Sean Kalos, driven on only one purpose: to find his missing wife in the new United Provinces. What was designed to be the new rebirth has become martial-law, and the Officers of the Province wield their power with cruelty. When Sean crosses them, he finds himself in the middle of a personal war, and his search for his wife dominoes into what could be the revolution the survivors have been waiting for.

Gone, Baby, Gone: A Novel

• ISBN13: 9780061336218
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Gone Baby Gone is Ben Affleck s directorial debut, adapted by Affleck from the novel by Dennis Lehane "Mystic River".
It is an intense look inside an ongoing investigation about the mysterious disappearance of a little girl. As two young private detectives (Casey Affleck and Michelle Monaghan) hired to take the case get closer to finding her, they discover that nothing is as it seems and more dangerous than they ever thought possible. Also starring Academy Award® winners Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) and Ed Harris (Pollack).For his initial offering as director, Ben Affleck returns to the site of his first Oscar: South Boston. (He and Matt Damon shared the award for Good Will Hunting! .) Hot on the heels of his moving turn in Hollywoodland, Affleck's Dennis Lehane adaptation marks one of the more seamless actor-to-filmmaker transitions in recent years. Ostensibly, a procedural about the search for a missing child, class and corruption emerge as his primary concerns. First off, there's low-rent private eye Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck, equally adept in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford). Then there's the girl's drug mule mother, Helene (Amy Ryan, Before the Devil Knows You're Dead). She and Patrick grew up in Dorchester, but he took a different path, setting up an agency with his girlfriend, Angie (Michelle Monaghan). Helene's aunt, Bea (Amy Madigan), hires the duo to augment the investigation, and they team up with Captain Doyle (Morgan Freeman) and Detective Bressant (Madigan's husband, Ed Harris). The authorities don't appreciate the interference, but Patrick knows how to get the local populace talking, an! d he soon finds there's more to the story than anyone could po! ssibly i magine. Hard-hitting, but never soft-headed, the evocative end result proves Affleck has a flair for this directing thing and that his little brother can carry a major motion picture with aplomb. Gone Baby Gone belongs on the list of great Boston crime dramas, along with The Departed and Mystic River, Clint Eastwood’s take on Lehane. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The tough neighborhood of Dorchester is no place for the innocent or the weak. Its territory is defined by hard heads and even harder luck; its streets are littered with the detritus of broken families, hearts, dreams. Now, one of its youngest is missing. Private investigators Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro don’t want the case. But after pleas from the child’s aunt, they open an investigation that will ultimately risk everythingâ€"their relationship, their sanity, and even their livesâ€"to find a little girl lost.

Cheese Olamon, "a six-foot-two, four-hundred-and-thirty-pound ye! llow-haired Scandinavian who'd somehow arrived at the misconception he was black," is telling his old grammar school friends Patrick Kenzie and Angie Gennaro why they have to convince another mutual chum, the gun dealer Bubba Rugowski, that Cheese didn't try to have him killed. "You let Bubba know I'm clean when it comes to what happened to him. You want me alive. Okay? Without me, that girl will be gone. Gone-gone. You understand? Gone, baby, gone." Of all the chilling, completely credible scenes of sadness, destruction, and betrayal in Dennis Lehane's fourth and very possibly best book about Kenzie and Gennaro, this moment stands out because it captures in a few pages the essence of Lehane's success.

Private detectives Kenzie and Gennaro, who live in the same working-class Dorchester neighborhood of Boston where they grew up, have gone to visit drug dealer Cheese in prison because they think he's involved in the kidnapping of 4-year-old Amanda McCready! . Without sentimentalizing the grotesque figure of Cheese, Le! hane tel ls us enough about his past to make us understand why he and the two detectives might share enough trust to possibly save a child's life when all the best efforts of traditional law enforcement have failed. By putting Kenzie and Gennaro just to one side of the law (but not totally outside; they have several cop friends, a very important part of the story), Lehane adds depth and edge to traditional genre relationships. The lifelong love affair between Kenzie and Gennaro--interrupted by her marriage to his best friend--is another perfectly controlled element that grows and changes as we watch. Surrounded by dead, abused, and missing children, Kenzie mourns and rages while Gennaro longs for one of her own. So the choices made by both of them in the final pages of this absolutely gripping story have the inevitability of life and the dazzling beauty of art.

Other Kenzie/Gennaro books available in paperback: Darkness, Take My Hand, A Drink Before the! War, Sacred. --Dick Adler

Here on Earth

• ISBN13: 9780802119766
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The bestselling author of Turtle Moon and Practical Magic tells her most seductive and mesmerizing tale yet--the story of March Murray, who returns to her small Massachusetts hometown after nineteen years, encountering her childhood sweetheart...and discovering the heartbreaking and complex truth about their reckless and romantic love.

"A sound addition to an impressive body of work."--Boston Globe

"Sumptuous prose."--Denver Post

"Here on Earth is Hoffman's twelfth novel, and the spell she casts is stronger than ever."--Orlando Sentinel

* Includes a Reader's Guide

The New York Times bestseller and Oprah's Book Club selection...with a Reade! r's Guide included.Oprah Book Club® Selection, March 1998: Here on Earth is set in motion when March Murray and her teenage daughter travel from their California home to New England. Their stay is to be brief. Judith Dale, her childhood housekeeper-cum-foster mother, has died, and March must set things to right and get out of gloomy Jenkintown as quickly as possible. "Five days tops," she reassures her scientist husband. Instead, she is pulled back into the arms of Hollis, her first love--an avaricious, Heathcliff-like individual who radiates sulfur and cruelty. "She left and didn't come back, not even when he called her, and yet here she is, on this dark night; here and no place else." In this deep fable of loss and control, love and fear, Alice Hoffman allows us into her characters' cores and makes us wish their fortunes were happier. Here on Earth is filled with wisdom, what-ifs, and animals who seem, if not to know more than human bei! ngs, at least to know how to shy from danger.Chris Klein ("Ame! rican Pi e") and Leelee Sobieski ("Never Been Kissed") star in a "heartfelt story of romance, friendship and true love." (JUMP Magazine). Rich kid Kelley Morse (Klein) thought he had it all - money, good looks and a new Mercedes. But after a reckless car race destroys a roadside diner, Kelley finds himself sentenced to a summer of manual labor in a small town. That's where he meets and falls in love with Samantha, a girl from the other side of the tracks. But everything changes when Samantha's long-time boyfriend Jasper (Josh Hartnett, "The Faculty") uncovers their secret romance. This "sweet and romantic" (YM Magazine) tale of first love will capture your heart.Slumming among the locals of a small New York town, Kelley Morse (Chris Klein), graduating senior at a posh prep school and all-around insufferable rich kid, engages the testosterone of one of the hicks (Josh Hartnett) when he flirts with the guy's girlfriend, Samantha (LeeLee Sobieski). A car chase ensues, resulting in Sama! ntha's family's diner getting blown up, which in turn lands the boys in hot water with the law. The upshot is the snotty rich kid is sentenced to help the locals rebuild the diner. A romance develops between Kelley and Samantha, apparently because they like a particular Robert Frost poem. So now they're deep, see. But then their love is tested when Samantha contracts Ali MacGraw disease. You know, that's the sudden disease Ali McGraw gets in Love Story--really an excuse to emphasize the strength of the characters' love. You don't know what you got till it's gone, right? This film would be pretty bad if the performances weren't so engaging, especially LeeLee Sobieski's, who seems to be channeling Helen Hunt in this movie. Though Chris Klein never makes us believe for an instant that his arrogant character could make the changes he does, or that his and Sobieski's characters could ever really get together. The script is too thin to support any motivations, and the film! falls into formula weepy territory to appeal to teen tear duc! ts. Love rs of weepies might overlook the film's plot weaknesses in favor of the strong performances and the prospect of a good cry. --Jim Gay

Beginning at the moment of creation with the Big Bang, Here on Earth explores the evolution of Earth from a galactic cloud of dust and gas to a planet with a metallic core and early signs of life within a billion years of being created. In a compelling narrative, Flannery describes the formation of the Earth’s crust and atmosphere, as well as the transformation of the planet’s oceans from toxic brews of metals (such as iron, copper, and lead) to life-sustaining bodies covering 70 percent of the planet’s surface. Life, Flannery shows, first appeared in these oceans in the form of microscopic plants and bacteria, and these metals served as catalysts for the earliest biological processes known to exist. From this starting point, Flannery tells the fascinating story of the evolution of our own species, exploring several ear! ly human species—from the diminutive creatures (the famed hobbits) who lived in Africa around two million years ago to Homo erectus—before turning his attention to Homo sapiens. Drawing on Charles Darwin’s and Alfred Russell Wallace’s theories of evolution and Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, Here on Earth is a dazzling account of life on our planet.

Chris Klein ("American Pie") and Leelee Sobieski ("Never Been Kissed") star in a "heartfelt story of romance, friendship and true love." (JUMP Magazine). Rich kid Kelley Morse (Klein) thought he had it all - money, good looks and a new Mercedes. But afterSlumming among the locals of a small New York town, Kelley Morse (Chris Klein), graduating senior at a posh prep school and all-around insufferable rich kid, engages the testosterone of one of the hicks (Josh Hartnett) when he flirts with the guy's girlfriend, Samantha (LeeLee Sobieski). A car chase ensues, resulting in Samantha's family's di! ner getting blown up, which in turn lands the boys in hot wate! r with t he law. The upshot is the snotty rich kid is sentenced to help the locals rebuild the diner. A romance develops between Kelley and Samantha, apparently because they like a particular Robert Frost poem. So now they're deep, see. But then their love is tested when Samantha contracts Ali MacGraw disease. You know, that's the sudden disease Ali McGraw gets in Love Story--really an excuse to emphasize the strength of the characters' love. You don't know what you got till it's gone, right? This film would be pretty bad if the performances weren't so engaging, especially LeeLee Sobieski's, who seems to be channeling Helen Hunt in this movie. Though Chris Klein never makes us believe for an instant that his arrogant character could make the changes he does, or that his and Sobieski's characters could ever really get together. The script is too thin to support any motivations, and the film falls into formula weepy territory to appeal to teen tear ducts. Lovers of weepies might! overlook the film's plot weaknesses in favor of the strong performances and the prospect of a good cry. --Jim Gay

Far From Heaven (Blu-ray)

• Far From Heaven (Blu-ray)
• Far From Heaven
• James Rebhorn,Dennis Haysbert
• Dennis Quaid,Julianne Moore
• Drama, romance

Cathy and Frank Whitaker, a seemingly perfect fifties' couple face the breakdown of their marriage because of conflicting desires.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVDThis uniquely beautiful film--from one of the smartest and most idiosyncratic of contemporary directors, Todd Haynes (Safe, Velvet Goldmine)--takes the lush 1950s visual style of so-called women's pictures (particularly those of Douglas Sirk, director of Imitation of Life and Magnificent Obsession) to tell a story that mixes both sexual and racial prejudice. Julianne Moore, an amazing fusion of vulnerability and will power, plays a housewife whose husband (Dennis Quai! d) has a secret gay life. When she finds solace in the company of a black gardener (Dennis Haysbert), rumors and peer pressure destroy any chance she has at happiness. It's astonishing how a movie with such a stylized veneer can be so emotionally compelling; the cast and filmmakers have such an impeccable command of the look and feel of the genre that every moment is simultaneously artificial and deeply felt. Far from Heaven is ingenious and completely engrossing. --Bret FetzerJulianne Moore (Hannibal, Boogie Nights) and Dennis Quaid (The Rookie,Frequency) star in this seductive story of a seemingly perfect family, and the forbidden desires that threaten to tear them apart. Cathy Whitaker (Moore) has it allùa lovely home, two wonderful children and a handsome husband(Quaid), who is successfully climbing the corporate ladder. But Cathy's idyllic existence is just an illusion, and she is eventually forced to choose between living a lie or following her heart. Academy Award« nominee* Moore is a vision, declared Rex Reed, and he called Quaid's performance the best of his career, in this stunning drama hailed by the NewYork Post as one of the year's best.

Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake

• ISBN13: 9780767905381
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

An FBI agent (Hanks) tracks down and catches a young con artist (DiCaprio) who successfully impersonated an airline pilot, doctor, assistant attorney general and history professor, cashing more than $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in 26 countries.An enormously entertaining (if somewhat shallow) affair from blockbuster director Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a dazzling young con man who spent four years impersonating an airline pilot, a doctor, and a lawyer--all before he turned 21. All the while he's pursued by a dedicated FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whose dogged determination stays one step behind Abagnale's spontaneous wits. Both DiCaprio! and Hanks turn in enjoyable performances and the movie has a bouncy rhythm that keeps it zipping along. However, it never gets under the surface of Frank's drive to lose himself in other identities, other than a simplistic desire to please his father (Christopher Walken, excellent as always), nor does it explore the complex mechanics of fraud with any depth. By the movie's end, it feels like one of Frank's pilot uniforms--appearance without substance. --Bret FetzerBased on the true story of frank abagnale jr. a successful con artist who managed to pass himself off as several identities and the fbi agent hot on his trail. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/01/2007 Starring: Leonardo Dicaprio Christopher Walken Run time: 141 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Steven SpielbergAn enormously entertaining (if somewhat shallow) affair from blockbuster director Steven Spielberg. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Frank Abagnale, Jr., a dazzling young! con man who spent four years impersonating an airline pilot,! a doct or, and a lawyer--all before he turned 21. All the while he's pursued by a dedicated FBI agent named Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), whose dogged determination stays one step behind Abagnale's spontaneous wits. Both DiCaprio and Hanks turn in enjoyable performances and the movie has a bouncy rhythm that keeps it zipping along. However, it never gets under the surface of Frank's drive to lose himself in other identities, other than a simplistic desire to please his father (Christopher Walken, excellent as always), nor does it explore the complex mechanics of fraud with any depth. By the movie's end, it feels like one of Frank's pilot uniforms--appearance without substance. --Bret FetzerFrank W. Abagnale, alias Frank Williams, Robert Conrad, Frank Adams, and Robert Monjo, was one of the most daring con men, forgers, imposters, and escape artists in history.  In his brief but notorious criminal career, Abagnale donned a pilot's uniform and copiloted a Pa! n Am jet, masqueraded as the supervising resident of a hospital, practiced law without a license, passed himself off as a college sociology professor, and cashed over $2.5 million in forged checks, all before he was twenty-one. Known by the police of twenty-six foreign countries and all fifty states as "The Skywayman," Abagnale lived a sumptuous life on the lam-until the law caught up with him.  Now recognized as the nation's leading authority on financial foul play, Abagnale is a charming rogue whose hilarious, stranger-than-fiction international escapades, and ingenious escapes-including one from an airplane-make Catch Me If You Can an irresistible tale of deceit.

The uproarious, bestselling true story of the world's most sought-after con man currently in development as a DreamWorks feature film.

"I stole every nickel and blew it on fine threads, luxurious lodgings, fantastic foxes, and other sensual goodies.  I partied in every capital in ! Europe and basked on all the world's most famous beaches."When! this tr ue-crime story first appeared in 1980, it made the New York Times bestseller list within weeks. Two decades later, it's being rereleased in conjunction with a film version produced by DreamWorks. In the space of five years, Frank Abagnale passed $2.5 million in fraudulent checks in every state and 26 foreign countries. He did it by pioneering implausible and brazen scams, such as impersonating a Pan Am pilot (puddle jumping around the world in the cockpit, even taking over the controls). He also played the role of a pediatrician and faked his way into the position of temporary resident supervisor at a hospital in Georgia. Posing as a lawyer, he conned his way into a position in a state attorney general's office, and he taught a semester of college-level sociology with a purloined degree from Columbia University.

The kicker is, he was actually a teenage high school dropout. Now an authority on counterfeiting and secure documents, Abagnale tells of his years of i! mpersonations, swindles, and felonies with humor and the kind of confidence that enabled him to pull off his poseur performances. "Modesty is not one of my virtues. At the time, virtue was not one of my virtues," he writes. In fact, he did it all for his overactive libido--he needed money and status to woo the girls. He also loved a challenge and the ego boost that came with playing important men. What's not disclosed in this highly engaging tale is that Abagnale was released from prison after five years on the condition that he help the government write fraud-prevention programs. So, if you're planning to pick up some tips from this highly detailed manifesto on paperhanging, be warned: this master has already foiled you. --Lesley Reed

How To Be A Serial Killer

• HOW TO BE A SERIAL KILLER is the story of Mike Wilson (Dameon Clarke), a charismatic, educated, and articulate young man who has found his life s purpose in exterminating people. Determined to spread his message about the joy of serial killing, Mike recruits a lost soul named Bart (Matthew Gray Gubler) to be his pupil and leads him through his 10-step program which includes such quintessential les

HOW TO BE A SERIAL KILLER pokes fun at the self-help literature industry and motivational speakers in general. There are so many ways to get off track while pursuing the perfect life, and an even greater number of pop-psychologists and gurus out there to lead the masses astray. Mike Wilson has found the perfect method of
getting your life back on track and achieving a meaningful existence. Mike teaches his method in an exciting seminar series: How To Be A Serial Killer. Mike tells all of his stud! ents: You have what it takes, you just have to pull the trigger on the life you deserve. Students rave about Mike's depth of knowledge on the subject of serial killing and his endless enthusiasm and zest for life. One student described Mike as a tasty smoothie made from a little bit of Charles Manson, some Tony Robbins, and a sprinkle of the messianic charisma of Jesus. Mike administers his first one-on-one tutorial when he recruits a lost soul named Bart to be his pupil in the art of serial killing. Mike's 10-lesson program includes weaponry, corpse disposal, keeping things from loved ones, and many other pearls. As Mike begins to teach Bart more and more about the ways of successful serial killing, it becomes more and more difficult to hide the truth from his girlfriend Abigail (Laura Regan. And when she does inevitably find out, Mike's life as serial killer gets thrown for a serious loop. Now, devastated by the loss of the love of his life, and with the cops on his tail ! for the first time in his life, Mike and Bart retreat to Mike'! s desert hideout to make preparations for their escape to Mexico. But when a local sheriff's department interrupts their
preparations, all hell breaks loose, and Mike must learn a lesson of his own: how to deal with police standoffs and full-scale gunfights.

The Dark Crystal [Blu-ray]

• Condition: New
• Format: Blu-ray
• AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen

Director Jan Sverák's Dark Blue World embraces sentimentality with such brio it is hard to resist. The film relays the little-known WWII story of Czech fighter pilots who escaped the Nazi occupation of their country to fight in Britain's Royal Air Force. Those who survived the battles were placed in work camps upon their return home by a then-entrenched, paranoid Communist regime. Sverák (Kolya) tacks back and forth between Franta (Ondrej Vetchy), a worldly captain in the defunct Czech Air Force, and Karel (Krystof Hádek), his earnest young recruit, as they leave home to fight the enemy on foreign soil. Only one returns to tell his story, from a prison hospital bed. While enduring life in the RAF with fellow Czech pilots, Franta and Karel manage to fall in love with the same woman! , learn English, swing dance, recite poems, sing rousing Czech songs, and perform heroic feats. Dogfights in the air and inevitable losses ensue, but it is the genuine camaraderie evoked by a gifted cast of Czech actors that saves the film from effusive excess. Like a charismatic captain steeling his company before battle, Sverák can't resist indulging romantic clichés, but his actors, in their fresh intensity, are more than up to the task set before them. --Fionn MeadeUnited Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Czech ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), German ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (2.35:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Commentary, Documentary, Featurette, Interactive Menu, Making Of, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: ***ATTENTION***Audio is a mix of Cze! ch, English & German languages***Subtitles - English language*! ** The m ost durable war films tend to have a personal dimension, and Dark Blue World is no exception. This simple but affecting story of Czech air pilots serving in the RAF during the Second World War is sensitively directed by Jan Sverak from a script by his father Zdenek, whose Kolya was an unexpected but deserved hit with UK audiences. Dark Blue World focuses on the relationship between Frantisek Slama (played with quiet authority by Ondrej Vetchy) and his protégé Karel Vojtisek (a fresh-faced Krystof Hadek). Escaping Czechoslovakia during the Nazi invasion of 1939, they enlist in the RAF, where the father/son relationship is threatened by their mutual attraction to the apparently widowed Susan (Tara Fitzgerald, thoughtfully understated). The film's culmination sees them reconciled in moving circumstances, and the perspective is widened by scenes set in 1950: Slama, as with most Czech soldiers who fought with the Allies, having been sentenced to hard labour by the Communist aut! horities as a potential security threat. His decent treatment by a German doctor, as opposed to the brutality of the Czech guards, points up the tragic irony of those who fought for freedom, only to finish up on the "wrong" side of the Iron Curtain. Sverak maintains a persuasive balance between action sequ...Dark Blue World ( Tmavomodrý svet ) ( Leidenschaft in dunklen Tagen )Director Jan Sverák's Dark Blue World embraces sentimentality with such brio it is hard to resist. The film relays the little-known WWII story of Czech fighter pilots who escaped the Nazi occupation of their country to fight in Britain's Royal Air Force. Those who survived the battles were placed in work camps upon their return home by a then-entrenched, paranoid Communist regime. Sverák (Kolya) tacks back and forth between Franta (Ondrej Vetchy), a worldly captain in the defunct Czech Air Force, and Karel (Krystof Hádek), his earnest young recruit, as they leave home to fight the ene! my on foreign soil. Only one returns to tell his story, from a! prison hospital bed. While enduring life in the RAF with fellow Czech pilots, Franta and Karel manage to fall in love with the same woman, learn English, swing dance, recite poems, sing rousing Czech songs, and perform heroic feats. Dogfights in the air and inevitable losses ensue, but it is the genuine camaraderie evoked by a gifted cast of Czech actors that saves the film from effusive excess. Like a charismatic captain steeling his company before battle, Sverák can't resist indulging romantic clichés, but his actors, in their fresh intensity, are more than up to the task set before them. --Fionn MeadeDirector Jan Sverák's Dark Blue World embraces sentimentality with such brio it is hard to resist. The film relays the little-known WWII story of Czech fighter pilots who escaped the Nazi occupation of their country to fight in Britain's Royal Air Force. Those who survived the battles were placed in work camps upon their return home by a then-entrenched, paranoid Co! mmunist regime. Sverák (Kolya) tacks back and forth between Franta (Ondrej Vetchy), a worldly captain in the defunct Czech Air Force, and Karel (Krystof Hádek), his earnest young recruit, as they leave home to fight the enemy on foreign soil. Only one returns to tell his story, from a prison hospital bed. While enduring life in the RAF with fellow Czech pilots, Franta and Karel manage to fall in love with the same woman, learn English, swing dance, recite poems, sing rousing Czech songs, and perform heroic feats. Dogfights in the air and inevitable losses ensue, but it is the genuine camaraderie evoked by a gifted cast of Czech actors that saves the film from effusive excess. Like a charismatic captain steeling his company before battle, Sverák can't resist indulging romantic clichés, but his actors, in their fresh intensity, are more than up to the task set before them. --Fionn MeadeMarch 15, 1939: Germany invades Czechoslovakia. Czech pilots flee to Engl! and, joining the RAF. After the war, back home, they are put i! n labor camps, suspected of anti-Communist ideas. This film cuts between a post-war camp where Franta is a prisoner and England during the war, where Franta is like a big brother to Karel, a very young pilot. On maneuvers, Karel crash lands by the rural home of Susan, an English woman whose husband is MIA. She spends one night with Karel, and he thinks he's found the love of his life. It's complicated by Susan's attraction to Franta. How will the three handle innocence, Eros, friendship, and the heat of battle? When war ends, what then?Enjoy incredible footage from the Henson archives in The Dark Crystal. Travel back in time to the faraway planet of Thra. Cheer on the Mystics as they fight to overthrow the evil Skeksis and take back control of their planet! When Jen, a member of the Gelfling tribe, sets out to find the crystal's missing shard, his dangerous journey brings him face to face with monsters at every turn. Determined to restore peace to their planet, Jen will not b! ack down! From the brilliant imagination of Jim Henson, this masterpiece of animation recounts the timeless tale of good vs. evil and has become a cult favorite of children and grown-ups alike!Jim Henson's fantasy epic The Dark Crystal doesn't take place a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, but like Star Wars it takes the audience to a place that exists only in the imagination and, for an hour and a half, on the screen. Recalling the worlds of J.R.R. Tolkien, Henson tells the story of a race of grotesque birdlike lizards called the Skeksis, gnomish dragons who rule their fantastic planet with an iron claw. A prophecy tells of a Gelfling (a small elfin being) who will topple their empire, so in their reign of terror they have exterminated the race, or so they think. The orphan Jen, raised in solitude by a race of peace-loving wizards called the Mystics, embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of the Dark Crystal (which gives the Skeksis their pow! er) and restore the balance of the universe. Henson and codire! ctor Fra nk Oz have pushed puppetry into a new direction: traditional puppets, marionettes, giant bodysuits, and mechanical constructions are mixed seamlessly in a fantasy world of towering castles, simple huts, dank caves, a giant clockwork observatory, and a magnificent landscape that seem to have leaped off the pages of a storybook. Muppet fans will recognize many of the voice actors--a few characters sound awfully close to familiar comic creations--but otherwise it's a completely alien world made familiar by a mythic quest that resonates through stories over the ages.--Sean Axmaker

Flawless

• From director Michael Radford (THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, IL POSTINO) comes FLAWLESS, a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn, a bright, driven and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment, as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater expe

From director Michael Radford (THE MERCHANT OF VENICE IL POSTINO) comes FLAWLESS a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn a bright driven and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater experience. Michael Caine is Hobbs the nighttime janitor at London Diamond who is virtually invisible to the exec! utives that work there but over the years has amassed a startling amount of knowledge about how the company runs. Hobbs has his own bone to pick with London Diamond. Observing Laura s frustration he convinces her to help him execute an ingenious plan to steal a hefty sum in diamonds. But unbeknownst to Laura Hobbs plans go even farther than he s let on and together they set in motion a thrilling heist of dizzying proportions the likes of which London has never seen.System Requirements:Running Time: 109 mintuesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 876964001038 Manufacturer No: 10103It would be overpraise to propose that Flawless reviews itself with its title, but... how about "supremely decorous"? It is, at any rate, a film that merits a grateful salute from audiences weary of being beaten about the head and shoulders in pursuit of an engrossing caper movie. A plot to make off with a fortune in gems from England's premier diamond co! mpany unfolds without explosions, vrooming vehicles, or rapid-! fire sho otouts. It's like a feature-length variation on those sly, soft-spoken Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes of the '50s, with the patient accumulation of mood, detail and character leading to wry twists and satisfying revelations. We are in 1960 and a London not yet disposed to swing. Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), the lone female officer of London Diamond Corporation, is smarter and more capable than her male colleagues, but that doesn't deter the company from promoting them over her while profiting from her talents. This has long since gotten old, so when Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine), the mild-mannered night janitor, enlists her in a scheme to fill his thermos with two million pounds' worth of diamonds from the vault, she listens. Suffice it to say that the vault is penetrated according to plan--and then the real tension sets in. Things are not what they seem, even to those supposedly in the know (us, for instance), and distrust springs up between the conspirators as they fin! d themselves under close scrutiny by a steely investigator (Lambert Wilson).

All this is intelligently scripted by Edward A. Anderson (a maiden effort) and directed by Michael Radford with a crisp, unostentatious eye; the cold interiors of the Lon Di headquarters, generically oppressive on first sight, take on a nuanced familiarity as the place where, for the most part, Laura Quinn spends her life. Demi Moore--scarlet lips in a black-and-grey world--admirably catches Laura's not-quite-smothered ambition and frustration without breaking her cover, as it were. Michael Caine couldn't be better as Hobbs, an invisible man in plain sight (how many viewers fail to notice his first appearance in the film?); he's the master of his trade, but you knew that. There's a framing story, set more or less in the present, which seems to be an obligatory bow to feminism but sets up a tease or two of its own, then adds yet another twist to the proceedings. --Richard T. Jameson