Gray, F Gary

Friday (New Line Platinum Series)

Friday is the rarest specimen of African American cinema: a 'hood movie refreshingly free of the semiseriousness and moralism of shoot 'em up soaps such as Boyz N the Hood, yet still true to the inner-city experience.

Scripted by rapper Ice Cube, Friday is a no-frills tale of a typical day in the life of a pair of African American youth in South Central. Cube plays Craig, a frustrated teen who endures the ultimate humiliation: getting fired on his day off. Then unknown Chris Tucker plays Smokey, a marijuana-worshipping homeboy whose love for the green stuff lands him in predicament after predicament.

Sitting on the stoop of Craig's rundown home, the two hilariously confront a kaleidoscopic array of gangbangers, weed dealers, crack heads, prostitutes, scheming girlfriends, and neighborhood bullies--all of whom, it should be noted, come off as sympathetic even as they are being caricatured, a true achievement in the crass, "booty call" environment of '90s African American comedy. --Ethan Brown

A youth tries to survive life in L.A.'s hip-hoppin' South Central 'hood. Includes two music videos from the #1 hit soundtrack. Starring Chris Tucker and Ice Cube.Running Time: 91 min.System Requirements:Starring: Ice Cube Anna Marie Horsford Regina King Tiny "Zeus" Lister Jr. Nia Long Bernie Mac Chris Tucker and John Witherspoon. Directed By: F. Gary Gray. Running Time: 89 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Warner Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 794043468025

The Italian Job (Special Collector's Edition)

A group of thieves plan on pulling off a heist by creating a large traffic jam in Los Angeles.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that's well above average. The title's a misnomer--this time it's actually a Los Angeles job--but the action's just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine's role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker's ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once again, speedily versatile Mini Coopers play a pivotal role in director F. Gary Gray's exhilarating car-chase climax. It's perhaps the greatest product placement in movie history, and just as fun the second time around. --Jeff Shannon

Set It Off

Four women take the law into their own hands and try to get some pay-back by robbing the city's biggest banks in this riveting action drama starring Jada Pinkett Queen Latifah Vivica A. Fox Kimberly Elise and Blair Underwood. Directed by Gary Gray.Running Time: 123 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794043478727

Even when it misses a dramatic opportunity in favor of generic action, Set It Off benefits from a sharp understanding of its well-drawn central characters. They're a quartet of young African American women in Los Angeles (Jada Pinkett, Queen Latifah, Vivica A. Fox, Kimberly Elise), all struggling against a system that seems designed to prevent them from realizing their dreams. The movie establishes their plight with credible attention to emotional detail, making their decision to rob banks believable enough to give the ensuing plot its inevitably tragic momentum. Cowritten by the screenwriter of What's Love Got to Do With It?, the film conveys genuine compassion for its characters, and the ensemble cast is uniformly strong--especially Queen Latifah as a brash lesbian whose fate is as certain as her forceful attitude.

Set It Off expresses a real sense that these women have been close friends for years, and that gives the film additional impact, even when their transition to crime and violence feels somewhat forced and superficial. A romantic subplot involving Pinkett and a social-climbing banker (Blair Underwood) is too contrived to be convincing, and director F. Gary Gray (Friday) tries too hard to combine hard-hitting action with social relevance (a weakness shared by Gray's following film, The Negotiator). Still, Set It Off effectively avoids passing judgment; its emotional complexity transcends simple notions of right and wrong, injecting vitality--and a kind of renegade integrity--into the traditions of a familiar plot. --Jeff Shannon

Be Cool (Widescreen Edition)

Starring an unbelievably hip all-star cast including John Travolta Uma Thurman Andr 3000 Steven Tyler and The Rock and bursting with the hottest music in the biz Be Cool is the wildly hilarious tale about a gangster turned music mogul and what it takes to be number one with a bullet.When Chili Palmer (Travolta) decides to try his hand in the music industry he romances the sultry widow (Thurman) of a recently whacked music exec poaches a hot young singer (Christina Milian) from a rival label and discovers that the record industry is packin' a whole lot more than a tune!SPECIAL FEATURES: "Be Cool Very Cool" Making-of Documentary Deleted Scenes Gag Reel Music Video: The Rock as Elliot Wilhelm "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" Close-Up Featurette: Dance Partners Close-Up Featurette: The Rock Close-Up Featurette: Andr 3000 Close-Up Featurette: Cedric the Entertainer Close-Up Featurette: Christina Milian Original Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements: Running Time 120 Min Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616928412 Manufacturer No: 1008850

Be Cool takes its own advice: It's slick, Hollywood entertainment that kills two amusing hours with relative ease and comfort. Better than leftovers but not as tasty as a full-course meal, this sequel to 1995's hit comedy Get Shorty (and based on Elmore Leonard's 1999 sequel novel) finds former loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) itching to get out of the movie business, so he hooks up with a newly widowed music executive (Uma Thurman) to launch the career of an up-'n-coming Beyoncé-like singer (newcomer Christina Milian). A mock-black manager (Vince Vaughn), his sleazy boss (Harvey Keitel), and an upscale gangsta-rap executive (Cedric the Entertainer) all have a competing stake in the fast-rising pop diva's future, and this sets the plot rolling in a fun but rather hand-me-down fashion that lacks the savvy panache of Get Shorty but still provides plenty of lightweight humor. The Rock and Outkast's André Benjamin provide the best laughs in supporting roles that effortlessly relieve the movie from the symptoms of sequelitis. --Jeff Shannon

The Negotiator

This film centers on a former FBI hostage negotiator who after being framed for murder tries to clear his name by taking several people hostage in order to uncover the guilty party.Running Time: 143 min.System Requirements:Interactive Menus Production Notes Additional Footage Documentaries Video Format: Widescreen (no AR specified) Subtitles: French English Track Info: English: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround French: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 085391675020

Although it eventually runs out of smart ideas and resorts to a typically explosive finale, this above-average thriller rises above its formulaic limitations on the strength of powerful performances by Samuel L. Jackson and Kevin Spacey. Both play Chicago police negotiators with hotshot reputations, but when Jackson's character finds himself falsely accused of embezzling funds from a police pension fund, he's so thoroughly framed that he must take extreme measures to prove his innocence. He takes hostages in police headquarters to buy time and plan his strategy, demanding that Spacey be brought in to mediate with him as an army of cops threatens to attack, and a media circus ensues. Both negotiators know how to get into the other man's thoughts, and this intellectual showdown allows both Spacey and Jackson to ignite the screen with a burst of volatile intensity. Director F. Gary Gray is disadvantaged by an otherwise predictable screenplay, but he has a knack for building suspense and is generous to a fine supporting cast, including Paul Giamatti as one of Jackson's high-strung hostages, and the late J.T. Walsh in what would sadly be his final big-screen role. The movie should have trusted its compelling characters a little more, probing their psyches more intensely to give the suspense a deeper dramatic foundation, but it's good enough to give two great actors a chance to strut their stuff. --Jeff Shannon

A Man Apart

Vin Diesel stars as a DEA agent on a deadly vendetta to take down the powerful drug cartel that killed his wife.Running Time: 105 min.System Requirements:Running Time 109 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: R UPC: 794043652523 Manufacturer No: N6525

Buffed-up action star Vin Diesel plays a reckless DEA agent in A Man Apart, which aspires to merge big-budget action fare with a grittier, The French Connection-style procedural drama. When his wife is murdered by a mysterious drug lord called Diablo, Sean Vetter (Diesel) loses his moral bearings and risks the lives of his fellow agents in a quest for revenge. A Man Apart tries to give Diesel the opportunity to demonstrate a greater emotional range, but it's a mess; the supposedly tender scenes are generic and flat, while the action scenes are utterly incomprehensible. Much of the time it's unclear who's a cop and who's a thug, so when people get shot--and a lot of people get shot--it just becomes a bland wash of blood and bullets. --Bret Fetzer

The Italian Job (Full Screen Edition)

Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that's well above average. The title's a misnomer--this time it's actually a Los Angeles job--but the action's just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine's role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker's ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once again, speedily versatile Mini Coopers play a pivotal role in director F. Gary Gray's exhilarating car-chase climax. It's perhaps the greatest product placement in movie history, and just as fun the second time around. --Jeff Shannon

A group of thieves plan on pulling off a heist by creating a large traffic jam in Los Angeles.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

Be Cool (Full Screen Edition)

Be Cool takes its own advice: It's slick, Hollywood entertainment that kills two amusing hours with relative ease and comfort. Better than leftovers but not as tasty as a full-course meal, this sequel to 1995's hit comedy Get Shorty (and based on Elmore Leonard's 1999 sequel novel) finds former loan shark Chili Palmer (John Travolta) itching to get out of the movie business, so he hooks up with a newly widowed music executive (Uma Thurman) to launch the career of an up-'n-coming Beyoncé-like singer (newcomer Christina Milian). A mock-black manager (Vince Vaughn), his sleazy boss (Harvey Keitel), and an upscale gangsta-rap executive (Cedric the Entertainer) all have a competing stake in the fast-rising pop diva's future, and this sets the plot rolling in a fun but rather hand-me-down fashion that lacks the savvy panache of Get Shorty but still provides plenty of lightweight humor. The Rock and Outkast's André Benjamin provide the best laughs in supporting roles that effortlessly relieve the movie from the symptoms of sequelitis. --Jeff Shannon

Starring an unbelievably hip all-star cast including John Travolta Uma Thurman Andr 3000 Steven Tyler and The Rock and bursting with the hottest music in the biz Be Cool is the wildly hilarious tale about a gangster turned music mogul and what it takes to be number one with a bullet.When Chili Palmer (Travolta) decides to try his hand in the music industry he romances the sultry widow (Thurman) of a recently whacked music exec poaches a hot young singer (Christina Milian) from a rival label and discovers that the record industry is packin' a whole lot more than a tune!SPECIAL FEATURES: "Be Cool Very Cool" Making-of Documentary Deleted Scenes Gag Reel Music Video: The Rock as Elliot Wilhelm "You Ain't Woman Enough to Take My Man" Close-Up Featurette: Dance Partners Close-Up Featurette: The Rock Close-Up Featurette: Andr 3000 Close-Up Featurette: Cedric the Entertainer Close-Up Featurette: Christina Milian Original Theatrical TrailerSystem Requirements: Running Time 120 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616927200 Manufacturer No: 1008729

The Italian Job [UMD for PSP]

Though it bears little resemblance to the original 1969 thriller starring Michael Caine, the 2003 remake of The Italian Job stands on its own as a caper comedy that's well above average. The title's a misnomer--this time it's actually a Los Angeles job--but the action's just as exciting as it propels a breezy tale of honor and dishonor among competing thieves. Inheriting Caine's role as ace heist-planner Charlie Croker, Mark Wahlberg plays straight-man to a well-cast team of accomplices, including Mos Def, Jason Statham, and scene-stealer Seth Green in a variation of the role originally played by Noel Coward. As the daughter of Croker's ill-fated mentor (Donald Sutherland), Charlize Theron is recruited to double-cross a double-crosser (Edward Norton in oily villain mode), and once again, speedily versatile Mini Coopers play a pivotal role in director F. Gary Gray's exhilarating car-chase climax. It's perhaps the greatest product placement in movie history, and just as fun the second time around. --Jeff Shannon

The plan was flawless. The execution was perfect. Charlie Croker pulled off the crime of a lifetime. The one thing that he didn't plan on was being double-crossed. Now he wants more than the job's payoff...he wants payback. Mark Wahlberg is electrifying as Croker in this "fast and furious action-adventure."* Along with a drop-dead gorgeous safecracker (Charlize Theron), Croker and his team take off to re-steal the loot and end up in a pulse-pounding, pedal-to-the-metal chase that careens up, down, above and below the streets of Los Angeles. With an ensemble all-star cast that also includes Edward Norton, Seth Green, Jason Statham, Mos Def, Franky G and Donald Sutherland, The Italian Job is "Hot!"

SNOOP DOG - Murder Was the Case - The Movie

He may have been usurped in recent years, but during the period detailed in Murder Was the Case, Snoop Doggy Dogg was the last word in gangsta rap. As with Eminem, the power behind Snoop's throne was undoubtedly producer Dr. Dre, and he is included in nearly as much of the documentary footage as the rapper himself. While not exactly in-depth, a few of the interviews do scratch beneath the surface of the gangsta veneer (when asked if he is a violent man, Snoop's reply is a slightly chilling "When I have to be"). Along with clips from live television performances are a selection of music videos, the usual mix of edgy urban funk and street style coupled with the rather tired visual imagery. The short film from which the package derives its title takes these concepts to an uncensored conclusion, a tasteless and crass work indulging in explicit scenes of violence, drugs, and misogyny. --Phil Udell

He may have been usurped in recent years, but during the period detailed in Murder Was the Case, Snoop Doggy Dogg was the last word in gangsta rap. As with Eminem, the power behind Snoop's throne was undoubtedly producer Dr. Dre, and he is included in nearly as much of the documentary footage as the rapper himself. While not exactly in-depth, a few of the interviews do scratch beneath the surface of the gangsta veneer (when asked if he is a violent man, Snoop's reply is a slightly chilling "When I have to be"). Along with clips from live television performances are a selection of music videos, the usual mix of edgy urban funk and street style coupled with the rather tired visual imagery. The short film from which the package derives its title takes these concepts to an uncensored conclusion, a tasteless and crass work indulging in explicit scenes of violence, drugs, and misogyny