Franken, Al

Saturday Night Live - 25th Anniversary

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 02/06/2007

Like many of the clips that make up the bulk of its content, the Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary special suffers from that malady specific to almost every SNL sketch: it starts out brilliantly, loses steam about halfway through, then slowly but gamely limps to the finish line with occasional spurts of humor. This special (which actually marks the show's 24th anniversary, but never you mind about those small details!) gathered almost all of the Saturday Night Live alumni--well, the funny ones, anyway--for a celebration of the show's entrenchment in the cultural landscape. It's basically an occasion to show a lot of clips, ranging in time from the Coneheads to Mary Katherine Gallagher, put together in a sprightly, rapid-pace manner and interspersed with occasional live audience-interaction bits. An hysterically funny Bill Murray kicks things off as a lounge singer at an Indian reservation casino who hobnobs with the celebrity audience members; Tom Hanks, a fave guest host, offers up a lively Q&A session (with a dryly funny Christopher Walken, among others); and Billy Crystal revives his Fernando persona to great effect. Dan Aykroyd, Laraine Newman, and Steve Martin provide the best cast tribute, warmly remembering John Belushi while wryly offering up memorabilia for online auction, and Jan Hooks introduces a heartfelt short film featuring her and the late Phil Hartman. Other cast members, with the notable absence of Eddie Murphy and the surprise appearance of Norm MacDonald, pop up for various intros of clips--some are funny (Dennis Miller), some are not (Adam Sandler), some are obviously uncomfortable (David Spade), but at about the halfway mark it all starts to wear on you, like most tribute shows. Still, the stable of classic skits (including a surprisingly strong showing from the current cast) make this worth sticking around for. And at least this time, unlike during the live broadcasts, you can fast-forward through the unfunny parts. --Mark Englehart

The Manchurian Candidate (Widescreen Edition)

A gulf war veteran is suffering from crippling nightmares about the day his platoon was saved by a man who could be involved in a conspiracy that could lead all the way to the white house. An unthinkable conspiracy. An unbreakable hero. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/13/2007 Starring: Denzel Washington Meryl Streep Run time: 129 minutes Rating: R

The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, Training Day) has been haunted by nightmares ever since a firefight during the first Gulf War--a battle in which he believes he was saved by the heroism of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, Kate & Leopold). But Marco's nightmares suggest otherwise and drive him to investigate what happened, which may threaten Shaw's candidacy for vice-president. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, a senior senator who manipulates everyone around her with an iron will and a sharp tongue. The Manchurian Candidate loses steam towards the end, but up until then director Jonathan Demme keeps the movie rolling fluidly, crafting some creepy paranoia of his own while Streep tears into everything in her path. --Bret Fetzer

The Rutles - All You Need Is Cash

Originally hatched in 1978 as a short film parody for Saturday Night Live, this expanded, 70-minute mockumentary on a trend-setting quartet of British mop-tops bloomed into one of Eric Idle's better projects outside Monty Python. Taking the career (and hagiography) of the Beatles and inverting them quite nicely, Idle conjures up four doppelgangers who offer the familiar mannerisms but practically none of the intelligence of their models. If that sounds like the same gag that powered This Is Spinal Tap (which emerged six years later), it is, with the crucial difference that Idle's lampoon is precise where Tap was consciously generic.

In telling the saga of the Rutles, Idle (who doubles as earnest narrator and McCartney-esque Rutle Dirk McQuigley) works from a rich and immediately familiar trove of pop lore, and he has a ball revisiting and reinventing milestones from the Fab Four's fabled history. The attention to period detail helps elevate the gags further, but Idle's real secret weapon is Neil Innes, standing in as Ron Nasty, the Rutles' answer to John Lennon: it's Innes who serves as the musical architect for the wonderful Beatles parodies that give All You Need Is Cash a delicious kick, and Innes, a one-time principal in the legendary Bonzo Dog Band, is gifted enough to capture the band's lyricism and energy as well as their shifting sense of style.

With the blessing and on-camera participation of George Harrison, and wry cameos from Mick Jagger and Paul Simon, All You Need Is Cash is a perfect companion to the Beatles' own glorious screen comedies and a great antidote to sanctimonious pop documentaries. --Sam Sutherland

The Manchurian Candidate (Full Screen Edition)

A gulf war veteran is suffering from crippling nightmares about the day his platoon was saved by a man who could be involved in a conspiracy that could lead all the way to the white house. An unthinkable conspiracy. An unbreakable hero. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/13/2007 Starring: Denzel Washington Meryl Streep Run time: 129 minutes Rating: R

The Manchurian Candidate, a classic of paranoid cinema from the 1960s, gets a cunning update, rife with hot-topic references to corporate war profiteering and electronic voting machines. Major Ben Marco (Denzel Washington, Training Day) has been haunted by nightmares ever since a firefight during the first Gulf War--a battle in which he believes he was saved by the heroism of Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Liev Schreiber, Kate & Leopold). But Marco's nightmares suggest otherwise and drive him to investigate what happened, which may threaten Shaw's candidacy for vice-president. Meryl Streep plays Shaw's mother, a senior senator who manipulates everyone around her with an iron will and a sharp tongue. The Manchurian Candidate loses steam towards the end, but up until then director Jonathan Demme keeps the movie rolling fluidly, crafting some creepy paranoia of his own while Streep tears into everything in her path. --Bret Fetzer

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism - Fox Attacks Special Edition

The genre-busting documentary hit that started the flood of issue-oriented documentaries is back just in time for another crazed season of political news coverage in the build up to the 2008 presidential election. The original film is just as relevant and necessary today as it was in 2004 supplemented by over an hour of additional material including the infamous Fox Attacks a series of 16 short videos that continues the work started in Outfoxed highlighting examples of Fox's biased dishonest journalism. The videos were created to support campaigns petitions and legislation."Outfoxed" examines how media empires led by Rupert Murdoch's Fox News have been running a "race to the bottom" in television news. This film provides an in-depth look at Fox News and the dangers of ever-enlarging corporations taking control of the public's right to know. Now includes chapter markers (original DVD didn't).Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/POLITICS UPC: 826262004590 Manufacturer No: 45

Outfoxed - Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism

Studio: Wea-des Moines Video Release Date: 07/13/2004 Run time: 110 minutes Rating: Nr

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism uses the inflammatory tactics of the Fox News Channel to demonstrate the conservative bias that's handed down by Fox's owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The documentary gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees (including a former anchor, Jon Du Pre, who describes his flailing efforts to create a celebration for Reagan's birthday when the one he was sent to cover never materialized), but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox's skewed news practices isn't half as effective as footage taken directly from Fox itself--an appalling montage of pundit Bill O'Reilly telling guests to shut up; repeated efforts to paint Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as weak and waffling, while President Bush is captured in respectful, reverent images; and management memos dictating language, subject matter, and point of view. Outfoxed is unlikely to persuade Fox News fans to change their views, but it may spur outraged liberals to take action. --Bret Fetzer

Saturday Night Live: Lost and Found - SNL in the '80s

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/26/2008 Rating: Nr

Dead Ahead

Studio: Monterey Home Video Release Date: 11/01/2005

Mr. Conservative: Goldwater on Goldwater

The Robert Greenwald Documentary Collection (Uncovered/Outfoxed/Unconstitutional/Bonus Disc)

If 2004 was the year of the documentary, Robert Greenwald was its brightest and most prolific star. The three acclaimed documentary films featured in this collection were all commercially released in 2004, and all forged unprecedented new ground in how documentary films could be released. With the support of MoveOn.org, The Center for American Progress and other dedicated groups, the films were marketed initially via the Internet before they arrived in stores on DVD. Further turning established wisdom upside down, all three went on to play in theaters around the world. A new distribution mechanism was born.

In the Bonus Disc, available only with The Robert Greenwald Documentary Collection, Robert has a special message exclusively for its owners in which he explains the genesis of each of the films. Also included are former Assistant Secretary of Defense Philip Coyle discussing how the experts in Uncovered were right in an exclusive new interview; the notorious O'Sexxxy Factor montage; a previously unseen outtake from Outfoxed revealing more about Murdoch; Al Franken's hilarious outing of Bill O'Reilly; an all new interview with an ex-Fox News employee spilling the beans on his former employer; trailers, teasers, shorts and much more!