Arroyave, Karina

Crash (Widescreen Edition)

This compelling urban thriller tracks the volatile intersection of a multiethnic cast of characters struggling to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another's lives. In the gray area between black and white victim and aggressor during the next 36 hours the will all collide.System Requirements: Running Time 122 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: R UPC: 031398179382 Manufacturer No: 17938

Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines. Writer/director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby) spins every character in unpredictable directions, refusing to let anyone sink into a stereotype. The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Crash (click for larger image)

Lean on Me

Rocky director John Avildsen championed the briefly famous New Jersey high school principal Joe Clark in this upbeat 1989 drama. Morgan Freeman plays the tough-love educator who wields a baseball bat and bullhorn to keep discipline in his hallways and to motivate underachieving students to keep their acts together. After establishing Clark's controversial methods and showing him giving some punks the boot, Avildsen relies on the usual school-drama clichés to fill out the rest of the movie, including a challenge to Clark's philosophy from timid authorities. Freeman makes a strong impact as Clark, his dignity and integrity a sometimes awesome thing. Avildsen, however, is going for a Rocky-esque emotional crescendo. --Tom Keogh

Based on the true story of new jersey high school principal Joe Clark,who wins the support and respect of his students for his controversial methods in ridding the school of violent students and drug dealers.

Stand and Deliver/Lean on Me

Look at the too-cool-to-cope kids in Jaime Escalante's class at East L.A.'s tough Garfield High and many will say they see a bunch of losers. Escalante sees scholars. How he cajoles instructs challenges and inspires his no-expectations barrio kids to pass the daunting Calculus Advanced Placement Test forms the amazing heart of Stand and Deliver [Side A] starring Edward James Olmos and Lou Diamond Phillips. Paterson New Jersey's Eastside High is the setting for Lean on Me [Side B] starring Morgan Freeman as bat-and-bullhorn-toting principal Joe Clark whose controversial methods turned the failing school around and made Clark a national symbol of tough-love education. His message: Don't lean on excuses drugs or anger. Lean on yourself and me...and learn. School's now in session with these two true-life tales!Running Time: 212 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569837706 Manufacturer No: 83770

Crash (Full Screen Edition)

Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines. Writer/director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby) spins every character in unpredictable directions, refusing to let anyone sink into a stereotype. The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Crash (click for larger image)

The lives of a group of Los Angeles residents interconnect as a result of often heated and racist encounters.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Flawless

Who could possibly be the target audience for Flawless? Walter (Robert De Niro) is a homophobic policeman who suffers a stroke while responding to gunshots in his own apartment building; for speech therapy, he starts taking singing lessons from his neighbor Rusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman of Magnolia, Boogie Nights, and Happiness), a gay drag queen who's saving up money for a sex-change operation. However, there's another story line that takes up at least as much time as that one, about a drug dealer and his goons trying to find money that was stolen from them, brutally beating up everyone in their path. Furthermore, the local gay community (in New York City) seems to consist entirely of drag queens and Log Cabin Republicans, and one of Walter's cop buddies goggles at drag queens as if he's just arrived from the middle of Iowa. All the characters--including various prostitutes, drug dealers, a hotel clerk who's a weaselly mama's boy, as well as the aforementioned drag queens and cops--are horrific stereotypes. De Niro and Hoffman, both extremely talented actors, do all they can to overcome their cliché-studded dialogue, but they never seem to be in the same movie. Written and directed by Joel Schumacher, whose eclectic career includes Batman & Robin, A Time to Kill, Flatliners, and St. Elmo's Fire. --Bret Fetzer

"One of the year's hottest surprises" (Rex Reed), this "feel-good drama" (San Francisco Chronicle) from writer-director Joel Schumacher (A Time to Kill) combines the acting talents of two-time Oscar(r) winner* Robert De Niro (Analyze This) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Talented Mr. Ripley)! Flawless lives up to its name with a story line that's full of compassion, tolerance and most of all "heart" (San Francisco Chronicle)! Walter Koontz (De Niro)once a hero cop, now a security guardlives in a rundown Hell's Kitchen tenement. One fateful night, after hearing the cries of a neighbor in trouble, his attempt to help turns into a nightmare when he suffers a stroke. Paralyzed on his right side and unable to speak clearly, Koontz, on the advice of his doctor, seeks voice lessons. But with winter holding him hostage to his apartment, he has no choice but to seek help from a musically inclined neighbor whom he vehemently dislikes an outspoken guy named Rusty (Hoffman)!

In Too Deep

Undercover cop Jeffrey Cole is doing "God's" work, and he is losing his religion. God is Dwayne Gittens, whose neighborhood benevolence masks his thriving Cincinnati (a refreshing change of scenery) drug trade. Cole, a rookie fresh out of the Academy is "ready for the big score" and is charged by his mentor to "bring God and his angels down for good." But the higher Cole rises in Gittens's organization, the deeper he gets. Omar Epps redeems himself after The Mod Squad with a gripping and empathetic performance as the increasingly conflicted Cole. After scoring as the comic relief in Deep Blue Sea, LL Cool J gets down to business as Gittens, the master of his domain who rules with an iron hand (and, in one particularly nasty sequence, a pool cue), but is also capable of compassion and charity. As Cole's concerned superior, Stanley Tucci avoids the bluster usually associated with this stock character. Pam Grier, whose career should have gotten a Viagralike pop from Jackie Brown, makes the most out of her thankless role as a fellow officer who finds herself in a climactic standoff with Cole. In Too Deep briefly loses its focus after Cole is pulled from the case. He takes photography classes and becomes involved with a model (Nia Long). But fans of TV's late, lamented Wiseguy, the unjustly neglected Deep Cover, and Donnie Brasco will find Cole'a anguished odyssey compelling. --Donald Liebenson

Hip-hop legend LL Cool J (DEEP BLUE SEA, HALLOWEEN: H2O) is teamed with hot stars Omar Epps (THE WOOD, SCREAM 2) and Nia Long (BOILER ROOM, BIG MOMMA's HOUSE) in a gritty crime drama about a dedicated young cop who goes deep undercover to take down a ruthless gangster! Officer Jeff Cole (Epps) is given a dangerous mission: infiltrate the syndicate of "God" (LL Cool J), the charismatic and deadly crime lord who rules the city's streets! But as Cole sinks deeper and deeper into God's crew, he begins to get in over his head ... until the line that separates his true identity from his street persona begins to disappear! Also featuring Stanley Tucci (SHALL WE DANCE? THE TERMINAL) and Pam Grier (JACKIE BROWN), this action-packed story unfolds with a power you'll find intensely entertaining!

187

A vicious high school student is dead. A gang hit? An act of sudden rage? Or did a once-idealistic teacher finally snap? The issues and the tension hit home when Samuel L. Jackson stars in a gritty urban-school thriller that's "gripping, high-octane entertainment" (Newhouse News Service).

Crash - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Movie studios, by and large, avoid controversial subjects like race the way you might avoid a hive of angry bees. So it's remarkable that Crash even got made; that it's a rich, intelligent, and moving exploration of the interlocking lives of a dozen Los Angeles residents--black, white, latino, Asian, and Persian--is downright amazing. A politically nervous district attorney (Brendan Fraser) and his high-strung wife (Sandra Bullock, biting into a welcome change of pace from Miss Congeniality) get car-jacked by an oddly sociological pair of young black men (Larenz Tate and Chris "Ludacris" Bridges); a rich black T.V. director (Terrence Howard) and his wife (Thandie Newton) get pulled over by a white racist cop (Matt Dillon) and his reluctant partner (Ryan Phillipe); a detective (Don Cheadle) and his Latina partner and lover (Jennifer Esposito) investigate a white cop who shot a black cop--these are only three of the interlocking stories that reach up and down class lines. Writer/director Paul Haggis (who wrote the screenplay for Million Dollar Baby) spins every character in unpredictable directions, refusing to let anyone sink into a stereotype. The cast--ranging from the famous names above to lesser-known but just as capable actors like Michael Pena (Buffalo Soldiers) and Loretta Devine (Woman Thou Art Loosed)--meets the strong script head-on, delivering galvanizing performances in short vignettes, brief glimpses that build with gut-wrenching force. This sort of multi-character mosaic is hard to pull off; Crash rivals such classics as Nashville and Short Cuts. A knockout. --Bret Fetzer

Stills from Crash (click for larger image)

This compelling urban thriller tracks the volatile intersection of a multiethnic cast of characters struggling to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another's lives. In the gray area between black and white, victim and aggressor, during the next 36 hours, they will all collide.

Adrift in Manhattan

From award-winning director Alfredo De Villa comes a moving and heart wrenching film centering on a beautiful and mysterious doctor (Heather Graham) a young photographer (Victor Rasuk) who becomes infatuated with her and her patient (Dominic Chianese) a painter going blind. A sexy and suspenseful ride through the city - Adrift in Manhattan is an intricately woven award-winning film that critics have been raving about!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 025195026987 Manufacturer No: 68103408

Adrift in Manhattan

From award-winning director Alfredo De Villa comes a moving and heart wrenching film centering on a beautiful and mysterious doctor (Heather Graham) a young photographer (Victor Rasuk) who becomes infatuated with her and her patient (Dominic Chianese) a painter going blind. A sexy and suspenseful ride through the city - Adrift in Manhattan is an intricately woven award-winning film that critics have been raving about!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 025195026130 Manufacturer No: 68103264