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Heart and Souls

Robert Downey Jr. has never been more charming than in this comedy about a yuppie who is revisited in adulthood by the spirits of four people who had been his friends as a child. The ghosts (Kyra Sedgwick, Charles Grodin, Alfre Woodard, Tom Sizemore) all have unfinished business in this world before they can move on to the next, and Downey's character agrees to let them inhabit his body while they sort it all out. The appealing cast alone strongly recommends this movie, but Downey's remarkable facility for physical comedy--manifesting the personalities of his supernatural pals as they possess him--is a riot. Elisabeth Shue makes the best of her part as the hero's girlfriend; Leaving Las Vegas was still ahead of her, but one can see her talent straining to get out here. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, theatrical trailer, biographies of the cast, closed captioning, an optional French soundtrack and Spanish subtitles, and Dolby sound. --Tom Keogh

The Gods Must Be Crazy Series (The Gods Must Be Crazy / The Gods Must Be Crazy II)

South African director Jamie Uys caught lightning in a bottle with The Gods Must Be Crazy--a Coke bottle, to be specific. This slaphappy collection of goofy pratfalls and culture-clash gags became an enormous international smash, and made a sort of star out of the Bushman selected to play the central role, the completely ingratiating N!Xau. He plays a man, unaware of white culture, who finds a Coca-Cola bottle in the Kalahari (dropped by a passing pilot) and promptly has his life turned around by this mystical object. The movie looks slipshod and even amateurish at times, yet its attitude is so bubbly it's hard to resist. Proving that physical comedy remains a true international language, millions of moviegoers around the world drank it up.

The Gods Must Be Crazy II (1989) returns N!Xau to the bizarre world of the white man, this time in a slicker plot (and a with a bigger budget) that, perhaps predictably, yields fewer real belly laughs than the first time around. Director Jamie Uys sticks to his cherished notions that tribesmen are wiser than civilized people, and that fast-motion comedy is inherently funny. The storyline begins with N!Xau's innocent Bushman searching for his lost children; he then gets sidetracked by subplots. The humor is basic, but in best silent-movie tradition Uys prepares his set-pieces with elaborate care, and he understands the value of the long-delayed pay-off. --Robert Horton

The Gods Must Be Crazy I:For five thousand years things have stayed pretty much the same for Xi and his fellow Bushmen. Then one day an empty Coke® bottle drops magically from the sky and life goes topsy-turvy in the face of this generous "gift of the Gods." An international sensation THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY is one of the most original and thought-provoking comedies ever. Starring a real-life Bushman N!xau it's a movie that looks at us from the other side - and shows us just how crazy we are!The Gods Must Be Crazy II:This delightful sequel to the hilarious hit comedy is a piece of divinely inspired lunacy! Xi again collides with the so-called civilized world when he embarks on a search for his children who are accidental stowaways on a poacher's truck. He soon crosses paths with two very odd couples lost in the desert. Xixo perplexed by their strange antics nevertheless finds himself drawn into a crazy adventure with people who know how to make magic machines...but constantly need to be saved from the wilderness and from each other.System Requirements:Running Time: 108 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 043396106499 Manufacturer No: 10649

City Slickers

Three middle-age buddies (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby) facing personal crises decide to sign up for a two-week cattle run for a change of pace. The trail proves a tougher place than anyone thought, and the boss (Jack Palance) is a grizzled taskmaster who doesn't cotton to tenderfoot urbanites. Popular in theaters, the film is both funny and moving, with Crystal giving one of his most complete performances and Palance (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) a lot of colorful fun. Director Ron Underwood (Heart and Souls) subtly shifts the tone of the film from broad comedy to poignancy over its running time, and he makes the story's end a bittersweet victory that feels like life as most people know it. --Tom Keogh

Comic genius Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally) stars in this hilarious film about cowboys, careers and mid-life crises. Co-starring Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance in an Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* role, City Slickers is "the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles" (Rolling Stone). It'll rope you in...and keep you laughing from first frameto last! New Yorker Mitch Robbins (Crystal) is 39 and miserable. He's tired of his job andbored with his life. And his two best friends Ed, (Kirby) and Phil (Stern), aren't doing much better. So when they all decide to chase their troubles away with a fantasy vacation, Mitch and his pals trade their briefcases for saddlebags and set out to find freedom and adventure herding cattle underthe wide New Mexico sky. But what they discover instead is scorching sun, sore backsides...and moreinsight into themselvesand each otherthan they ever thought possible! *1991: Supporting Actor

City Slickers (Collector's Edition)

Comic genius Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally) stars in this hilarious film about cowboys careers and mid-life crises. Co-starring Daniel Stern Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance in an Academy Award®-winning* role City Slickers is "the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles" (Rolling Stone). It'll rope you in... and keep you laughing from first frame to last! New Yorker Mitch Robbins (Crystal) is 39 and miserable. He's tired of his job and bored with his life. And his two best friends Ed (Kirby) and Phil (Stern) aren't doing much better. So when they all decide to chase their troubles away with a fantasy vacation Mitch and his pals trade their briefcases for saddle bags and set out to find freedom and adventure herding cattle under the wide New Mexico sky. But what they discover instead is scorching sun sore backsides... and more insight into themselves and each other than they ever thought possible!System Requirements:Running Time: 112 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/COMING OF AGE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 883904107828 Manufacturer No: M110782

Dawson's Creek - The Complete Fourth Season

The fourth season of Dawson's Creek is dominated by two themes. The first is senior year at Capeside High, as high achievers Joey (Katie Holmes) and Andie (Meredith Monroe) have as much pressure to deal with as low achiever Pacey (Joshua Jackson). The second is the constant love triangle following Joey and Pacey's return from their summer of bliss, threatening to destroy anyone's chance of having a healthy, functional relationship. Pacey's insecurity doesn't let him believe he's actually the lucky one, even as he proves with his actions that he deserves it. Fortunately for Dawson (James Van Der Beek), he finds a sympathetic ear in Pacey's older sister, Gretchen (Sasha Alexander), though he also has to enter an "indentured servitude" relationship with an old curmudgeon (Harve Presnell). Joey takes a job waiting tables at the yacht club, where she has to deal with the heir apparent to Abby Morgan's evil shoes, Drue Valentine (Mark Matkevitch), who also turns out to have a shadowy history with one of the friends. Meanwhile Andie and Jack (Kerr Smith) coach a youth soccer team, and Jen (Michelle Williams), having suddenly lost her boyfriend from season 3, cements her best-friendship with Jack and drags him to a gay coalition group where he spars with the activist leader (David Monahan). Look for cameos by Andy Griffith as a retired movie actor and by frequent soundtrack contributor Mary Beth Maziarz as a club singer.

Toward the end of the season, Dawson asks, "Is it just me, or did things get suddenly bigger in the last year?" It's true that as the characters have grown up--even Dawson, sort of--situations turn more serious, whether it's an afternoon sail on the cape or a rave that leads to the abrupt departure of one of the regular cast. After a prom from hell, the final phase is the graduation ceremony, and for Dawson's Creek it marked the end of an era, which the characters themselves felt deeply in the season-closing "Coda." The series would run for two more years, but it would never be the same again.

As with previous DVD sets, the background music has been changed significantly, including replacing the Paula Cole theme song. On the bright side, some of the linchpin songs--Shawn Colvin's "Blue Like That," Eva Cassidy's "Fields of Gold," Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You"--have been preserved. Executive producer Paul Stupin contributes his usual (and increasingly unnecessary) commentary on two episodes, joined on the second by a "mystery guest," consulting producer Alan Cross. --David Horiuchi

It's senior year for Dawson Joey Pacey Jen and Jack! After spending the summer together Joey and Pacey find it difficult to keep their romance going with the realities of school college applications and their strained relationship with Dawson. Dawson rediscovers his true life's dream Jen turns over a new leaf after getting a new boyfriend and Jack tries to rebuild relationships after revealing he's gay.System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Joshua Jackson Michelle Williams Kerr Smith Running Time: 998 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396054431 Manufacturer No: 05443

Dawson's Creek - The Complete Sixth Season

The final season of Dawson's Creek is when the series became Joey's Bar. With the titular character (James Van Der Beek) mostly on the opposite coast working for tyrannical director Todd (Hal Ozsan) and dating an actress (Biana Kajlich), the series' other central protagonists tended to gather only at Joey's (Katie Holmes) workplace, a Boston college bar called Hell's Kitchen. But those central characters usually went their separate ways, becoming the linchpins around which wound a dizzying array of new characters who were coincidentally interconnected. Working at the bar are Emma (Megan Gray)--a punk rocker who ends up rooming with Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and Jack (Kerr Smith) and whose band Audrey (Busy Phillipps) joins as lead vocalist--and Eddie (Oliver Hudson), who's Joey's main antagonist in a lit class taught by an antagonistic professor (Roger Howarth). While Joey is busy at Worthington, Jack and Jen (Michelle Williams) are at Boston Bay College, where both are attracted to a pop-culture professor (Sebastian Spence), but Jen ends up dating a help-line worker (Jensen Ackles). Pacey goes Gordon Gecko in a new job as a stock broker mentored by a cutthroat businessman (Dana Ashbrook). The lack of interaction among the main characters proved the biggest drawback to this era of Dawson's Creek, but when they were put together, sparks could still fly, such as when Pacey and Joey get locked in a Super K-Mart overnight, or when an old romance--and rivalry--is rekindled. Season 6 was also the end of Dawson's Creek, and the episodes improved as they drew to their inevitable conclusion, peaking in the devastating series finale. Creator Kevin Williamson returned to write a flash-forward in which the main characters are 25, and a reunion in Capeside leads to tragedy and some final decisions.

The version of the series finale is the same that was released on a standalone DVD, complete with the extended cut, commentary track by Williamson and executive producer Paul Stupin, and all the original music such as Paula Cole's theme song and Beth Nielsen Chapman's "Say Goodnight" (though not the additional scenes from the pilot presentation). The rest of the season replaces some songs as previous DVDs have done, including the theme song, but the No Doubt concert is complete. Season guest stars in addition to No Doubt include Loveline's Dr. Drew and Adam Carolla as themselves, and Mimi Rogers as Jen's mom (replacing season 3's Mel Harris). --David Horiuchi

It's a season of discontent for the Dawson's gang with broken hearts and interrupted dreams causing major friction for all. Joey and Dawson rekindle their romance but the flame quickly dies out when he reveals he had a romance with an actress in L.A. - the same actress who's coming to Boston to star in Todd's movie. Audrey's dad helps Pacey get a job and makes her singing debut with Emma's band but her inner demons threaten to destroy everything. And Jen faces the biggest challenge of her life - one that will have a lasting effect on them all.System Requirements:Run Time: 1104 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396129184 Manufacturer No: 12918

Dawson's Creek - The Series Finale (Extended Cut)

With its series-finale episode, Dawson's Creek summed up its six-year run on the WB Network with a sweet and sad tale of reunion and farewell for old friends, soul mates, and lovers. The friends are now 25 and living new lives: Dawson (James Van Der Beek) is in Hollywood executive-producing The Creek, obviously based on his own life and considered "the new hit teen soap at the WB"; Joey (Katie Holmes) is a book editor in New York with a serious beau; Jen (Michelle Williams) is a single mother; Pacey (Joshua Jackson) is the relatively respectable owner of the reborn Icehouse Restaurant; and Jack (Kerr Smith) is teaching at the high school and struggling with his relationship. A wedding brings everyone together in Capeside, but tragedy strikes, and the remaining friends are left to consider their lives and what they want to do with them. Whether or not you agree with the final choices, of course, probably depends on who you've been rooting for.

The extended cut of the finale runs 104 minutes, about 16 longer than when it was broadcast in May 2003. Unlike deleted scenes on movie DVDs, each addition seems like a useful part of the story, and the DVD borrows a helpful feature from the Lord of the Rings extended editions by designating on the chapter menu which scenes are new or extended. Some differences are minor, but there are significant new scenes with Joey at work, Joey and her boyfriend (Jeremy Sisto of Six Feet Under), Joey and Dawson's reunion in Capeside, and Pacey's conversation with old flame Andie (Meredith Monroe).

As they did for two episodes of Dawson's Creek: The Complete First Season, creator Kevin Williamson (who co-wrote the finale) and executive producer Paul Stubin provide a commentary track in which they discuss the new scenes and which characters were originally intended to end up together. There are also four scenes that were filmed for the original pilot presentation (not the finished pilot shown in season one) then reshot. There's a small but important difference in the last scene, Pacey meets Tamara Jacobs in a different video store, and Dawson's dad is played by a different actor before the role was recast with John Wesley Shipp. --David Horiuchi

Part One It s five years later and Dawson Joey Pacey Jen and Jack are reunited in Capeside for Dawson s mom s wedding. But the celebratory mood comes to an end when they receive some heartbreaking news.Part Two As the gang faces a future more uncertain than ever before Joey struggles to come to terms with her true feelings for Dawson Pacey and her current boyfriend. When she finally does she surprises everyone with her decision.System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Michelle Williams Joshua Jacskson Oliver Hudson Running Time: 108 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396018563 Manufacturer No: 01856

Dawson's Creek - The Complete First Season

Kevin Williamson (the Scream movie series I Know What You Did Last Summer) created this engaging drama which chronicles a group of young friends' passage from adolescence to young adulthood in the small coastal town of Capeside Massachusetts. Based on Williamson's own experiences growing up "Dawson's Creek" focuses on fifteen-year-olds Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) who have been friends since they were five and are trying to cope with the way their friendship is changing now that their hormones are raging. Add to the mix their friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and the new girl in town Jen (Michelle Williams) and you can count on extra twists to the drama in their already turbulent lives.Filmed on location in Wilmington Durham and Raleigh North Carolina this first season marks the beginning of an unforgettable journey that explores the agony and the ecstasy of teenage life. Can the kids of "Dawson's Creek" really grow up without growing apart? Watch and find out!System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Michelle Williams Joshua Jackson and Oliver Hudson. Running Time: (total) 570 Min. Color. These episodes are presented in "Standard" format. Copyright 2003 VPD Inc.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating:  UPC: 043396102392 Manufacturer No: 10239

Even viewers who consider themselves beyond their teen-angst years might find Dawson's Creek compelling watching. For years Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) have watched movies and slept in the same bed, but they find that as they enter high school their relationship will inevitably change. That becomes especially clear when Dawson is immediately attracted to Capeside, Massachusetts's sexy new arrival, Jen (Michelle Williams). Meanwhile, their friend Pacey (Joshua Jackson) pursues an unachievable love object.

Creator Kevin Williamson based Dawson's Creek on his own youth, and sure, the characters may not really look or sound 15, but the Dawson-Joey-Jen interplay--especially embodied by the sad-eyed and cynical (but still adorable) Joey and the smart but emotionally inept Dawson--gives the show its heart. And just like Williamson's fresh take on the teen-horror genre, Scream, Dawson's Creek has a winking self-awareness, for example when Dawson says they're having a "90210 moment" or explains that they use big words because they watch too many movies. Highlights of the first season include Dawson's discovery that his perfect home life may not be so perfect, an unwelcome reminder of Jen's past, the Breakfast Club takeoff "Detention," the Scream takeoff "The Scare," a beauty contest in which two unlikely competitors square off, and the heart-rending finale.

On the DVDs, Williamson and producer Paul Stubin have a commentary track for both the pilot episode and the last episode, in which they offer parallels between the two "bookends," notes on the locations, vast praise for their cast and affection for the show, and a few spoilers regarding subsequent seasons. Williamson and Stubin also do all the talking in an 8-minute featurette "From Day One," while Van Der Beek, Holmes, Jackson, and (briefly) Williams discuss their characters in the 7-minute "Season One Time Capsule," recorded back when the series premiered. On the downside, picture quality is sometimes quite grainy, perhaps because all 13 episodes plus bonuses are squeezed onto three discs. --David Horiuchi

Dawson's Creek - The Complete Second Season

The saga continues in this thought-provoking second season. Set in Capeside a small coastal town near Boston "Dawson's Creek" tells the story of five teenagers struggling through adolesence. Dawson Leary (James Van Der Beek) an introspective dreamer and Joey Potter (Katie Holmes) a precocious tomboy unaware of her beauty have been best friends since childhood. Pals Jennifer (Michelle Williams) Pacey (Joshua Jackson) and Jack (Kerr Smith) join them as they live love and learn.System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Michelle Williams Joshua Jackson Directed By: Kevin Williamson Running Time: 976 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396013377 Manufacturer No: 01337

The second season of Dawson's Creek finds Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes) exploring the newest phase of their lifelong friendship, leaving Jen (Michelle Williams) and Pacey (Joshua Jackson) on the outside. The former enters a downward spiral assisted by bad girl Abby (Monica Keena), but Pacey happens into a "meet cute" with one of Capeside's new residents, the impossibly perky Andie (Meredith Monroe), who turns out to be his perfect foil. The Creek also struck gold with its second major addition, Andie's brother Jack (Kerr Smith), who shows Joey that he's more than just a clumsy waiter. With the siblings' help, Pacey and Joey show the most personal growth during the season's 22 episodes. The constant parent-child crises can be a bit much, but there were numerous other developments, including a two-part sexual whodunnit, Dawson embarking on his second movie (assisted by Rachael Leigh Cook in a sizzling guest appearance), Dawson's birthday party from hell, a vicious rumor that spreads through the high school, and the emotion-wringing finale.

The only bonus feature is a commentary track on the first and last episodes just as with the first season, though executive producer Paul Stupin is by himself rather than accompanied by creator Kevin Williamson. The interplay is missed, but Stupin enthusiastically offers a lot of information about how the cast had become celebrities by the second season and had to juggle other projects, and random details and trivia. Stupin mentions how carefully he selected different pieces of music, which "would become forever part of our show." That's ironic because for this DVD set Stupin himself picked a lot of new music to replace the selections that originally aired, presumably because of the cost involved in securing the rights (a problem for many television DVD releases). A couple of episodes are unaltered, but others have had almost every song replaced. Newcomers to the series probably won't notice, but serious fans may want not want to tape over their VHS cassettes just yet. --David Horiuchi

Dawson's Creek - The Complete Third Season

"Jen is a cheerleader and Jack's on the football team. I got sane and everyone else went crazy?" That's how Andie (Meredith Monroe) sums up the topsy-turvy beginning to the third season of Dawson's Creek, in which nothing seems to be as it should and the series takes a major turn. It's junior year at Capeside High, and Jack (Kerr Smith), the town's resident gay teen, is indeed on the football team, and Jen (Michelle Williams) finds herself the object of unexpected and unwelcome popularity among her fellow students, especially the freshman quarterback (Michael Pitt). Pacey (Joshua Jackson) finds that his relationship with Andie can't be restored, and Dawson (James Van Der Beek) and Joey (Katie Holmes), after the events of last year, both think it's for the best that they're no longer together--they just never think it at the same time. Significant events include the friends starting to date outside their circle, Dawson's giving up some of his aspirations, a crisis for the school's new principal, a college tour, and the openings of the Potter Bed & Breakfast and Leery's Fresh Fish. But the Dawson-Joey relationship is still the heart of the Creek, and it comes to a head in one of the series' most memorable episodes, "The Longest Day," and then the season finale. Even in its first season without series creator Kevin Williamson, Dawson's Creek still had plenty of punch.

On the DVDs, executive producer Paul Stupin does his usual commentary track for two episodes, and he's joined by Kerr Smith. They discuss the series itself, Smith's character, and Smith's subsequent career more than the events of the episodes. The second-season DVD set disappointed many fans by replacing a large portion of the music, and that trend continues in the third season, most surprisingly in the loss of Paula Cole's theme song. Instead, the opening credits feature Jann Arden's "Run Like Mad," which was used briefly in the international broadcast. Stupin explains the switch as an attempt to do something different and creative, but then admits there was also "a bit of an economic reality." Fortunately, the DVDs do have John Lennon's "Imagine" and Mary Beth Maziarz's "Daydream Believers"--songs that in dramatic context simply could not have been replaced--and it could be argued that a veteran viewer might skip the opening credits anyway. Still, for many fans, the music made Dawson's Creek what it was, and without all of it--especially the theme song--the DVDs seem like a compromise rather than a permanent keepsake. --David Horiuchi

It's a new season and a new semester for the Capeside friends! With the pressures of high school increasing and senior year just around the corner Dawson (James Van Der Beek) Joey (Katie Holmes) and the rest of the gang have a lot of planning to do. Along with pals Pacey (Joshua Jackson) Jennifer (Michelle Williams) and Jack (Kerr Smith) they deal with sex ethics jealousy and more.System Requirements:Starring: James Van Der Beek Katie Holmes Joshua Jackson Michelle Williams Running Time: 997 Min. Copyright Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2005Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396051294 Manufacturer No: 05129