Mike Figgis

The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1

Several crises threaten Tony and his crew; for starters rival boss Johnny Sack (Vince Curatola) is in prison and the always-tense relations between the New Jersey and New York families are strained through the unpredictable behavior of Sack?s surrogates. Then there are the inevitable power struggles that ensue when certain family members are eliminated by natural and other causes.Running Time: 720 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 026359330124 Manufacturer No: 93301

The Sopranos, Season 6, Part 1 is the most contentious release yet in the acclaimed series' history. While many fans think it jumped the shark at the exact moment Vito said "I love you, Johnny Cakes" , this season also contains some of the series finest moments and plumbs new depths of character, while continuing to add to the body count. Things get started with a bang, literally, that unexpectedly sends Tony (James Gandolfini) to the hospital and into a coma where he experiences an alternate reality while in limbo. At one point he awakes and asks "Who am I? Where am I going?" encapsulating this season's central theme in a moment of desperation wrapped in a fever dream. But it's not all existentialism. With Tony and Uncle Junior both of the picture, the capos in the Soprano crew try to take advantage of the situation and begin jockeying for position while a reluctant Silvio (Steve Van Zandt), acting in Tony's place, struggles to keep everyone in check. Things aren't going much better for Tony's family, as A.J. (Robert Iler) confesses to Carmela (Edie Falco) that he flunked out of school, and while at Tony's bedside, swears revenge for his injury. The stress of the situation finally gets to Carmela, who takes up Dr. Melfi's (Lorraine Bracco) offer to help and finds herself in the strange position of confiding in her husband's therapist, revealing for once that she feels some guilt over making the kids complicit in how Tony makes his living—plus there's the issue of whether she really loves him. Christopher (Michael Imperioli) continues to provide much of the comic relief for the series, culminating in one of this season's best episodes when he flies out to L.A. in a bumbling attempt to get Ben Kingsley to sign on for his fledgling movie (Saw meets The Godfather), and ends up mugging Lauren Bacall for her goodie basket at an awards ceremony. Sowing further discord in the ranks, Vito (Joseph Gannoscoli) finally gets outed as homosexual, and is forced to flee for his life up to New Hampshire where he meets "Johnny Cakes." Finally, even with New York boss Johnny "Sack" Sacramoni (Vince Curatola) in prison, Phil Leotardo (Frank Vincent) makes plays against Tony and eventually sets in motion a hit against someone on Tony's crew, and now a larger war with Johnny Sack's crew seems to be looming.

Series creator David Chase seems to be saying with this season that character is destiny. If so, then Season Six, Part 1 is taking the necessary time to flesh out who these people really are, and is leaving the destiny part up for Part 2. The fact that the series' writers have been able to maintain such a strong show with so many interweaving storylines for so long is a feat not to be taken lightly. That said, this season of The Sopranos does deserve some of the criticism it's received: the Vito storyline would have been better served by resolving it in fewer episodes, and the season ending is the most unsatisfying one yet, leaving many fans wanting more. But the bottom line is that this season deserves more praise than criticism, proving that even at its weakest, The Sopranos is still the strongest show on TV.--Daniel Vancini

Internal Affairs

A slick, manipulating criminal tries to destroy the career, marriage, and sanity of the investigator who is charged with bringing him to justice.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 9-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD

Mr. Jones

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 10-OCT-2006
Media Type: DVD

Richard Gere is pretty convincing as a severe manic-depressive whose episodes of euphoria sometimes find him dancing on a two-by-four far above the street or climbing onstage during a symphony performance to "conduct" the orchestra. When the pendulum swings the other way, he is practically catatonic. As a character study, this film by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) has its truly compelling moments, but Mr. Jones isn't just a character study. Inexplicably, Figgis ushers in a preposterous romance between this poor fellow and his psychiatrist (Lena Olin), a relationship that is supposed to raise interesting ethical and dramatic issues. All it does is make one wonder what the devil the doctor is thinking of, and why Figgis felt it necessary to go down this lose-lose path. With Delroy Lindo in a nice part as a sympathetic construction worker who tries to help Gere's character. --Tom Keogh

Stormy Monday

Melanie Griffith oozes sensuality ('the Today Show ), while Oscar® winner* Tommy Lee Jones and rock legend Sting face off in a deadly game of cat and mouse in this sexy, extremely stylish film noir (Leonard Maltin). Written and directed by Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas), Stormy Monday is a sizzling thriller that holds its audience rapt with the promise of imminent danger (The New York Times Corrupt businessman Frank Cosmo (Jones) arrives in Newcastle, England, determined to muscle his way into owning the entire town. On his payroll is Kate (Griffith)a tantalizing beauty Cosmo loans out when he wants a favor from the local officials. But when Kate's new lover ends up working for Cosmo's latest target (Sting), Kate must choose between the man who owns her and the man who has stolen her heart. *1993: Supporting Actor, The Fugitive

Cold Creek Manor

Turn off your brain and Cold Creek Manor just might turn into an entertaining thriller. Taking an uncharacteristic detour into nonsensical plot mechanics, director Mike Figgis expertly pushes buttons with this nerve-jangling but ultimately hackneyed story (by Richard Jeffries) about a documentary filmmaker (Dennis Quaid) who moves his wife (Sharon Stone) and two kids into a run-down rural mansion once owned by the family of a simmering ex-convict (Stephen Dorff), who's got secret reasons for wanting Quaid's family to leave. This rote potboiler wants to be as thrilling as Fatal Attraction, but it's more like Pacific Heights--fun to watch as the tension escalates with Dorff's violent behavior, but seriously flawed as plot holes proliferate. With a few good shocks and slinky support from Juliette Lewis, it's perfectly enjoyable as a popcorn distraction, but maybe they should've called it Cold Creaky Manor instead. --Jeff Shannon

A family moves into a new home and end up terrorized by its dark past.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-FEB-2006
Media Type: DVD

One Night Stand

Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) directs this erotically charged love story that explores the passion and betrayal of a one stand.

Time Code

Timecode divides the screen into four parts and follows, in four uninterrupted shots, a series of overlapping stories. There's the wife (Saffron Burrows) of a movie producer (Stellan Skarskård) who's considering leaving him; the producer is having an affair with an aspiring actress (Salma Hayek); and the actress is the lover of a wealthy woman (Jeanne Tripplehorn), who jealously plants a bug in the actress's purse when the actress pretends to go to an audition. Meanwhile, the producer's partners and employees (Holly Hunter, Xander Berkeley, Steven Weber, and others) are trying to cope with the producer's increasing instability. There's a drug-dealing security guard; a dim massage therapist; a temperamental director who can't find the right actress; and assorted other Hollywood types who float in and out of the action. Earthquakes and aftershocks shake things up, a lot of cocaine is snorted, and there's some sex and some violence, all improvised by the actors around a story set up by the director, Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas).

The emotional effect of any story is muted by the constant distraction of trying to take in four screens at once, though at times the stories resonate off each other nicely. It's an interesting experiment, made possible by the portability and longer takes of digital cameras; anyone interested in how digital technology has affected filmmaking will want to see this novel film. --Bret Fetzer

Hotel

Oscar® nominee* Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) delivers a deliciously disturbing erotically charged thriller fueled by standout performances from his all-star cast: Saffron Burrows Salma Hayek Rhys Ifans Lucy Liu Burt Reynolds and David Schwimmer!A slick Hollywood film crew has just descended upon a mysterious crumbling Venetian hotel to create a cinematic masterpiece. But unbeknownst to them there are malevolent forces at work in the hotel and soon the production is beset by a series of strange incidents dragging the guests on a terrifying journey into the dark catacombs of desire madness and death!*1995: Director and Adapted Screenplay Leaving Las VegasEpisodes-Bonus Features:Making-of DocumentaryWeb ShortsPhoto GalleryOriginal Theatrical TrailerWidescreen (1.85)English (5.1 Surround)Subtitles: English French SpanishFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616905253 Manufacturer No: M101738

Miss Julie

On Midsummer's Eve, in Northern Sweden, noblewoman Miss Julie stays home, perhaps due to the failure of her engagement to a callous man. Instead, she takes part in the servants' wild outdoor dances--but her eye is on her father's footman, John, who is engaged to the cook, Christine. As the exhausted Christine falls asleep in a chair, John and Miss Julie begin a struggle of power and sex in which their social roles are both a weapon and a weakness. Like most of Mike Figgis's films (Leaving Las Vegas, Internal Affairs), Miss Julie is very pretty to look at and the actors (Saffron Burrows and Peter Mullan) are excellent. The movie is adapted from the August Strindberg play of the same name; the theatrical dialogue and speeches don't play all that well in film, but are well-executed, and Figgis finds ways to keep the movie visually engaged: Burrows's height (or Mullan's lack of it) is a visual metaphor for their class standings; at one point Miss Julie cries, and her tears clean a streak in the dust on her face, making her look both clownish and pitiful; the screen splits in two, showing two perspectives of the same scene for a brief time. When the servants return from their drunken revels, John and Miss Julie are forced to hide lest they start rumors, and the servants stagger around the kitchen, singing, grabbing each other, searching thirstily for more wine--the effect is eerie. A strong adaptation of a theater classic. --Bret Fetzer

Saffron Burrows (Deep Blue Sea) and Peter Mullan (Trainspotting) deliver riveting performances (Newsday) in this tale of desire, passion and betrayal that pits upper class against lower class in a 'superbly staged battle between the sexes (Detour). With a script basedon August Strindberg's famous play and written for the screen by Helen Cooper, Miss Julie director Mike Figgis (Leaving Las Vegas) presents a taut and intimate story, holding you with the intensity of his vision and his mastery of nuance (Los Angeles Times) from beginning to end. On a late 19th-century estate, a celebration of wine and beer lets loose inhibitions and innerpassions. Jean (Mullan), the Count's footman, takes the advances of the Count's daughter (Burrows) too far with a scandalous encounter in the kitchen. And over one night, it becomes clear that these two lost souls desperately need each other in order to escape the confinesand trappingsof their lives. But can a servant support a noblewoman, who, without her father's money, is no more privileged than he?

The Browning Version