Lake, Don

Super Mario Bros.

Buckle up and hang on tight -- the discovery of a parallel universe launches you into the adventure of a lifetime! Mario and Luigi, two wacky plumbers, undertake a daring quest to save a princess in "Dinohattan" -- a hidden world where the inhabitants evolved from dinosaurs! Mario (Bob Hoskins -- WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT) and Luigi (John Leguizamo -- REGARDING HENRY) face deadly challenges from a diaboloical lizard king (Dennis Hopper -- HOOSIERS) and must battle giant reptilian goombas, outwit misfit thugs, and undermine a sinister scheme to take over the world! Blast off for nonstop excitement with SUPER MARIO BROS., the live-action thrill ride that dazzled moviegoers everywhere!

Best in Show

Christopher Guest, the man behind Waiting for Guffman, turns his comic eye on another little world that takes itself a bit too seriously: the world of competitive dog shows. Best in Show follows a clutch of dog owners as they prepare and preen their dogs to win a national competition. They include the yuppie pair (Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock) who fear they've traumatized their Weimaraner by having sex in front of him; a suburban husband and wife (Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara) with a terrier and a long history of previous lovers on the wife's part; the Southern owner of a bloodhound (Guest himself) with aspirations as a ventriloquist; and many more. Following the same "mockumentary" format of Spinal Tap and Guffman, Best in Show takes in some of the dog show officials, the manager of a nearby hotel that allows dogs to stay there, and the commentators of the competition (a particularly knockout comic turn by Fred Willard as an oafish announcer). The movie manages to paint an affectionate portrait of its quirky characters without ever losing sight of the ridiculousness of their obsessive world. Almost all of the scenes were created through improvisation. While lacking the overall focus of a written script, Best in Show captures hilarious and absurd aspects of human behavior that could never be written down. The movie's success is a testament to both the talent of the actors and Guest's discerning eye. --Bret Fetzer

The tension is palpable the excitement is mounting and the heady scent of competition is in the air as hundreds of eager contestants from across America prepare to take part in what is undoubtedly one of the greatest events of their lives -- the Mayflower Dog Show.Running Time: 89 min.System Requirements:Starring: Jennifer Coolidge Christopher Guest John Michael Higgins Michael Hitchcock Eugene Levy Jane Lynch Michael McKean Catherine O'Hara Parker Posey and Fred Willard. Directed By: Christopher Guest. Running Time: 90 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085391895121

Short Circuit 2

Waiting for Guffman

One of the funniest films in many a moon was hiding at art house theaters in 1998. Former Saturday Night Live comedian and Spinal Tap member Christopher Guest creates the ultimate parody of small-town dramatics, Waiting for Guffman. Corky St. Claire (Guest), an overwhelming drama director hiding out in Blaine, Missouri, thinks he has found the vehicle to put him back on Broadway: the city's 150th anniversary play, Red, White, and Blaine. As rehearsals start, we learn of the town's history ("the stool capital of the world") including a brush with a UFO. The mockumentary follows the various townsfolk wishing for stardom: Parker Posey as a Dairy Queen clerk, Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard as stage-struck travel agents, Matthew Keeslar as the town's bad boy, and Eugene Levy (who cowrote the film with Guest) as a dentist who dreams of glory on the stage. The film is a hoot from beginning to end, and be sure to watch the closing credits. Fans of Guest's deft dry humor should not miss his other parody of the entertainment world, The Big Picture (Kevin Bacon as a student filmmaker who goes to Hollywood). --Doug Thomas

Almost Heroes

It was a time of heroes. Well almost. They were hearty men in those days. Men who like Bartholomew Hunt and Leslie Edwards made sure that when adventure called it got a wrong number. Chris Farley and Matthew Perry team with director Christopher Guest (Waiting for Guffman Best in Show) to venture into uncharted comedy territory. Where explorers Lewis and Clark go Hunt (Farley) and Edwards (Perry) follow hoping to overtake the famed expeditioners and be the more fiery trailblazers. In a land dotted with bears native tribes pioneer outposts and wandering conquistadors having a bad hair day is there not also room for two more adventurers eager to make a name for themselves? Westward ho-ho-ho!Running Time: 90 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 053939733525

For Your Consideration

Debut feature director Jay Berman (Christopher Guest) steers cast and crew through a typically tumultuous independent film Home for Purim an intimate period drama about a Jewish family's turbulent reunion on the occasion of the dying matriarch's favorite holiday. When Internet-generated rumors begin circulating that three of Purim's stars -- faded luminary Marilyn Hack (Catherine O'Hara) journeyman actor and former hot dog pitchman Victor Allan Miller (Harry Shearer) and ingenue Callie Webb (Parker Posey) -- may be perpetrating Award-worthy performances a rumble of excitement rattles the cast. Once "Hollywood Now" anchors Chuck Porter (Fred Willard) and Cindy Martin (Jane Lynch) pick up the buzz Award fever infects the entire production. Unit publicist Corey Taft (John Michael Higgins) talent agent Morley Orfkin (Eugene Levy) and producer Whitney Taylor Brown (Jennifer Coolidge) all smell the sudden potential for a sleeper hit. As does Sunfish Classics President Martin Gibb (Ricky Gervais) who suggests some last-minute changes to the film that he feels will broaden the film's appeal. Meanwhile Purim's screenwriters Lane Iverson (Michael McKean) and Philip Koontz (Bob Balaban) grow steadily more horrified as they watch the first film adaptation of their work diverge from their original story. As the hopeful Purim team careens toward the end of production and the upcoming Award season tenuous relationships and brittle dreams play out in unexpected ways...Running Time: 86 min.System Requirements:Run Time: 86 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 012569403024 Manufacturer No: 4030

Christopher Guest (director of A Mighty Wind, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman) and his sparkling troupe of improvisational satirists return with a sardonic look at C-list (or perhaps D- or E-list) actors driven to the brink of madness by the possibility of winning an Academy Award. Marilyn Hack (the ever-brilliant Catherine O'Hara, Beetlejuice), a modestly talented character actress, hears of an Internet rumor that she might be nominated for the dubious movie she's currently making, Home for Purim. Soon buzz is flying about all the rest of the cast (which includes Harry Shearer and Parker Posey) and everyone starts clawing for as much attention as they can get while appearing modest and unambitious. Despite the movie's target being so familiar to them, For Your Consideration is not Guest & Co.'s best work--in an effort to give everyone in the huge cast face time, few of the characters gain any comic traction or have a particularly engaging storyline; the mockery stays on a fairly surface level. Nonetheless, some of those surfaces are pretty funny: Fred Willard and Jane Lynch are devastating as a pair of predatory infotainment hosts, while Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde) turns in a daffy and surreal performance. Throughout, the movie's anchor is O'Hara; the way her character is virtually crushed by the hype has a surprising richness and depth. She remains a cinematic treasure. --Bret Fetzer

The Big Town

Matt Dillon stars as a small-time gambler in 1950's Chicago. He moves from rural Illinois to Chicago to pursure his incredible luck at dice. While working for professional gamblers, he falls in love with both a stripper (Diane Lane) and a pretty unwed mother (Suzy Amis). Starring: Diane Lane (2003 Academy Award® Nominee Unfaithful, Under the Tuscan Sun), Matt Dillon (Drugstore Cowboy), Tommy Lee Jones (Academy Award Winner, 1994 The Fugitive, The Missing), Bruce Dern (Academy Award Nominee 1978 Coming Home), Lee Grant (Academy Award Winner, 1976 Shampoo).

Hot Shots!

The gang that created Airplane and The Naked Gun sets its sights on Top Gun in this often hilarious spoof starring Charlie Sheen, who previously only inspired laughs with his personal life. He plays Topper Harley, a fighter pilot with an ax to grind: clearing the family name. He gets involved in a relationship with Valerie Golino, a woman with an unusually talented stomach. But his mission is to avenge his father. Lloyd Bridges, late in his career, revealed an aptitude for this kind of silliness, here as a commander who is both incredibly dim and delightfully accident prone. Directed by Jim Abrahams, the film makes fun of a variety of other films as well, from Dances with Wolves to The Fabulous Baker Boys. It was so successful that they all returned in the sequel, Hot Shots! Part Deux. --Marshall Fine

Recruited to join a top-secret mission for the Air Force, a renegade pilot (Sheen) finds himself coping with an incompetent admiral (Bridges) and a carefully-selected squadron of flyers who are either inept or half-blind. He also winds up in competition with the corps' model of military perfection (Elwes) for the heart of the base's sultry psychiatrist (Golino)

The Extreme Adventures of Super Dave

"Kids, don't try these stunts at home." Super Dave Osborne is Evel Knievel with a lobotomy, a klutzy stunt superstar powered by guts, courage, and pure moral integrity--which makes up for a single digit I.Q. Created as the daredevil alter ego of former Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour writer and sketch performer Bob Einstein, his entire schtick is based on ambitious stunts gone horribly, and comically, wrong. He's crushed by falling objects, sent flying by exploding vehicles, and flattened by one fall after another, all with the stoic (one might say stupid) calm of a Zen masochist. Such gags were funny in the short bursts of the cable series that spawned Super Dave, but wear thin in his first feature-length comedy, a spoof involving a sleazy promoter (Dan Hedaya), the accident-prone mother of a terminally ill boy, a ranch full of mimes (!), and a climactic half-mile leap over trucks packed with dynamite and toxic waste. The juvenile comedy is played like a Saturday morning cartoon with fart jokes, big and broad, and the stunts look as phony as they are. It might tickle the funny bone of adolescents, but will hold little interest for anyone over the age of 12. --Sean Axmaker

Break out the body-casts! The world's most painfully hilarious stuntman is back with a powder-keg of laughs! Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein) gives a crash course in comedy in this wacky adventure of daredevil antics, whip-lash humor and crash-test love that'll break every funny bone in your body! Things couldn't get much worse for Super Dave. After a near-fatal accident he discovers that he's been bankrupted by his swindling manager and foreclosed on by the bank. Devastated and ready to hang up his crash helmet, Super Dave finds strength in a klutzy-but-cute single mom (Gia Carides, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me!) and her ailing young son, Timmy. And when he learns that Timmy needs an expensive heart operation, Super Dave shuns retirement to raise the money. Even if it means facing off against his arch enemy, Gil, a slimy sports promoter (Dan Hedaya, Dick), to once again prove that he's not only the most outrageous dare-devil he's also the most accident-prone!

Don't Answer the Phone! - The Uncut Version

In DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE! a psychologist finds her practice dwindling after a demented killer begins murdering her patients.System Requirements:Run Time: 94 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R UPC: 787364709298