Nowicki, Tom

Wire in the Blood: Prayer of the Bone

After an accused rapist confesses to brutally slaughtering his family in a small town in Texas renowned clinical psychiatrist Dr. Tony Hill (Robson Green) is called in as an expert witness. But there are dark secrets in the town and someone is willing to kill to keep them buried.System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 741952654193 Manufacturer No: KOC-DV6541

Prayer of the Bone is the full-length feature following the fifth season of crime drama Wire In the Blood. Though it cinematically has that made-for-TV feel, Prayer of the Bone is a fast-paced mystery questioning the guilt or innocence of Darius Grady (Brad Hawkins), convicted of killing his wife, Loren (Nicole Lin Taylor), and two kids, Jake, and Lucy. Chalking Grady's insanity up to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder he acquired from wartime events in Iraq, Wire In the Blood's star, Dr. Tony Hill (Robson Green), is flown to the U.S. from England to examine Grady's mental status, finding discontinuities in the seemingly tied-up court case. Hill takes on Grady's attorney, Ray Decosio (Drew Waters), and Decosio's assistant, Anita Addison (Naima Imani Lett), to discover that Grady has endured some disturbing mistreatments. Based on a Val McDermid novel, Prayer of the Bone paints a heroic portrait of the criminal psychologist that has solved so many cases in previous television episodes. Though some of the drama's characters are specific to the film, Dr. Hill does daily retreat to his motel room to speak by phone to his confidant, detective inspector, Alex Fielding (Simone Lahbib), much in the way Agent Cooper dictated to Diane during episodes of the wonderful Twin Peaks. Though Wire In the Blood does offer a portion of the intrigue that Twin Peaks generated in its heyday, Dr. Hill is a much less mysterious character than Cooper, and as the criminal details are revealed plot simplifies quickly. Still, Prayer to the Bone is unique in its topical coverage of veteran syndrome, PTSD, which lends it merit for tackling an important subject matter. --Trinie Dalton

Never Back Down

If you get caught up in the sweaty fight scenes in Never Back Down--and, despite the formulaic plot, you very likely will--it will be due to the sheer kinetic pleasure of muscular bodies in motion. Jake (Tom Cruise look-alike Sean Faris, Yours, Mine, and Ours), full of anger after his father's death, starts to find a place for himself at his new Florida high school--until Ryan, the head of an underground mixed-martial arts (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), picks Jake out as a prime opponent. After being trounced by Ryan in front of everyone in school, Jake begins training under the firm, moral guidance of a martial arts master with a hidden past (Djimon Hounsou, a long way from Blood Diamond, but still bringing his essential gravitas to the screen). Basically, Never Back Down boils down to a cross between The Karate Kid and Fight Club, minus the sociopolitical commentary. The story and characters are a bundle of featherweight cliches, but that won't stop the aggressively edited fight sequences from stoking a viewer's adrenaline. Also starring Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as the very blonde love interest, who (along with an abundance of girls in bikinis--'cause, y'know, it's Florida) is there to assure everyone that these handsome, chiseled boys are strictly heterosexual. --Bret Fetzer

First Time Felon

Faced with five years in prison or four months in boot camp, a young gangster takes what he thinks will be the easy road. Brutal Marine-style discipline teaches him lessons that change his life - but can he resist temptation when he's back on the streets? ' 'An experience not to be missed. ' ' (Hollywood Reporter)

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Selma, Lord, Selma

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Boycott

One woman refuses to give up her seat in a "whites only" section of a public bus. The bus stops. The city stops. The world stops. December 1 1955 Montgomery Alabama. A time when resentment gives birth to rebellion; when a gesture has the power to bring about change. This single act by Rosa Parks inspires an uprising that will make history and make a leader of Martin Luther King Jr. BOYCOTT is the explosive telling of this story.Running Time: 113 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359177927 Manufacturer No: 91779

When Rosa Parks was arrested in 1955 for refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white man, the Reverend Martin Luther King was but a modest young Baptist minister suddenly thrust into the leadership of local bus boycott. What started as a one-day protest of unfair bus laws turned into the 381-day boycott that gave birth to the civil rights movement. This riveting, rousing made-for-cable drama meticulously recounts the challenges the protest faced. Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat) is excellent as King, capturing his charisma and rousing speeches while grounding his heroism in human vulnerability and fear, but Boycott reminds us that he was only one of the thousands of ordinary people roused into extraordinary action in the name of equality and social justice. That portrait of everyday heroes changing the course of history remains the film's most rousing message. --Sean Axmaker

The First of May

A "First of May" is someone in his first season with a circus. Eleven-year-old Cory (Dan Byrd) is a foster child nobody wants. Carlotta (Academy Award®-nominee Julie Harris) is an elderly woman the world has forgotten. Together, they find friendship and family when they join a traveling circus, and show "what an old has-been and a First of May can do." Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney costars as excitable circus owner, Boss Ed, with Charles Nelson Reilly as the clown who takes Cory under his wing, and Baseball Hall of Famer and 20th century icon Joe DiMaggio in his memorable last screen appearance as kindly stranger who offers Cory baseball tips and encouragement Winner of the Best of Fest award at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, The First of May is that rare family film that will touch viewers of all ages.

Frankenstein

From the director of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and producer Martin Scorsese comes this contemporary re-telling of Mary Shelley¹s gothic horror classic. Renowned scientist Victor Helios (Kretschmann) and his prototype creation, Deucalion (Perez) have managed to exist nearly 200 years through genetic manipulation. Now operating out of New Orleans, Helios has established a genome research institute that secretly produces a ³perfect² race of people designed to replace mankind. But tortured by their own existence, the mad doctor¹s creations are becoming increasingly unpredictable and dangerous. Learning of his inventor¹s plan, Deucalion seeks help from local detectives O¹Connor (Posey) and Sloan (Goldberg) to stop Helios from going through with his evil scheme.

Sudie & Simpson (Chk Sen)

Summer of Fear

Sudie and Simpson