Wolk, Andy

The Sopranos - Season 6, Part 1

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

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 Christmas Shoes

The Christmas Shoes bounces between two families--the Layton household, where father Robert (Rob Lowe, The West Wing) is so consumed with his work that he misses his daughter's recital; and the Andrews home, where mother Maggie (Kimberly Williams, According to Jim) has been diagnosed with a fatal heart ailment. Desperate to make his mother's last moments happy, Maggie's son Nathan struggles to buy a pair of red dancing shoes that seem like a pair Maggie remembers from her childhood. Naturally, the lives of these families become intertwined, particularly when Robert's wife takes over Maggie's choral program--which topples the already troubled balance between Kate and Robert. Perhaps because Rob Lowe is usually stereotyped as glib and insincere, The Christmas Shoes feels surprisingly heartfelt. The earnestness of The Christmas Shoes surprises because the story originated in the famously sappy country song of the same name, and movies based on songs rarely feel anything but plastic and contrived. There are certainly moments when The Christmas Shoes lays on the sentiment woefully thick, but you'd have to be an ogre not to be touched when Maggie and her husband have one last dance. Also featuring Dorian Harewood (Roots: The Next Generations). --Bret Fetzer

In this Heartwarming holiday Drama a workaholic attorney (Rob Lowe) crosses paths with a young boy on Christmas Eve and rediscovers the true meaning of love life and the holiday season.Special Features:Featurette and extra footage of the The Christmas Shoes including cast interviewsExclusive interview and Newsong and Donna VanLiereThe Christmas Shoes discussion guideChristmas Shoes music video and excerpts from Donna VanLiere s Christmas collections and upcoming book The Angels of Morgan HillFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 018713518064 Manufacturer No: 05-51806

The Best of Arli$$, Vol. 1

These 13 episodes from the long-running HBO series have plenty of the bells and whistles that make Arli$$ so much fun to watch: celebrity cameos, topical satire, swatches of deep poignancy, and pure silliness. Comic actor Robert Wuhl, who created and stars, plays Arliss Michaels, a sports super-agent driven by twin motivations of profit and idealism. Arliss is in the race to realize his clients' dreams of stupendous wealth, but he's just as likely to put his reputation (and big bucks) on the line to help a fading player claim his niche in history. As with HBO's The Larry Sanders Show, Arli$$ gets a lot of mileage out of verisimilitude. In these Best of shows, we meet the likes of Dave Winfield, Ernie Banks, Frank Deford, Lloyd Jones, Tommy Lasorda, and even O.J. attorney Bob Shapiro, playing themselves in some very funny stories about the perennial hopes and startling realities that drive professional sports. --Tom Keogh

It's tough being a professional athlete. Sure there are big bucks. And big time glory. But there's also responsibility. Temptations. The media. Hangers on. More temptation. Diminishing skills. Lost endorsements. An uncertain future. Still more temptations. In the fast lane of pro sports an athlete needs someone he can trust. He needs a friend. An adviser. A big brother. Todays sports superstar needs more than just an agent he needs a super agent. He needs Arliss.Running Time: 300 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 026359210822 Manufacturer No: 92108

A Stranger's Heart

Just in time for Valentine s Day A Stranger s Heart is a truly unique unexpected and engaging love story. When a woman with a debilitating illness takes an unexpected journey of the heart her uncanny connection to a little girl enlightens both of them to the wonderful mysteries of life. Where their hearts lead them next is a miracle that changes the meaning of family of love and of faith. Now available for the first on DVD A Stranger s Heart is a perfect gift for your loved one this Valentine s Day to celebrate the human spirit the bonds of friendship and the remarkable power of love. System Requirements:Run Time: 85 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/LOVE & ROMANCE UPC: 796019809634 Manufacturer No: 80963

Traces of Red

Passion and murder make for a deadly cocktail in this taut suspenseful thriller. Someone is killing the women in Detective Jack Dobson's (James Belushi) life - and he has to find out who. The killer is leaving traces, notes written in red lipstick that may lead to a startling discovery. Jack Dobson is under pressure to find the killer and, maybe he's going crazy, but this detective has reached the point where he can't rule out any suspert ... including himself.

Deliberate Intent

The Sopranos - The Complete First and Second Seasons

The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home, chronicling a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognizable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get.

Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, James Gandolfini's Tony is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr. Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional," perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings.

In its second season, The Sopranos repeatedly defies formula to let the narrative turn as a direct consequence of the characters' behavior, letting everyone in this rogue's gallery of Mafiosi, friends, and family evolve and deepen. That gamble is most apparent in the rupture of the relationship that formed the spine of the first season, the tangled ties between Tony and Livia, whose betrayal makes Tony's estrangement a logical response. Filling that vacuum, however, is prodigal sister Janice (Aida Turturro), whose New Age flakiness never successfully conceals her underlying calculation and opportunism. Soprano's relationship with therapist Melfi also frays during early episodes, as she struggles with escalating doubts about her mobbed-up patient. At home, Tony contends with wife Carmela's ruthless ambitions on behalf of college-bound Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), as well as son Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) sullen adolescent flirtation with existentialism--the sort of touch that the show handles with a smart mix of sympathy and amusement. --Sam Sutherland