Vacations

The Holiday

After particularly difficult breakups two women (Diaz Winslet) swap homes in each other's countries where they each meet a local guy and fall in love.System Requirements:Runtime: 138 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 043396173828 Manufacturer No: 17382

As a pleasant dose of holiday cheer, The Holiday is a lovable love story with all the Christmas trimmings. In the capable hands of writer-director Nancy Meyers (making her first romantic comedy since Something's Gotta Give), it all begins when two successful yet unhappy women connect through a home-swapping website, and decide to trade houses for the Christmas holiday in a mutual effort to forget their man troubles. Iris (Kate Winslet) is a London-based journalist who lives in a picture-postcard cottage in Surrey, and Amanda (Cameron Diaz) owns a movie-trailer production company (leading her to cutely imagine most of her life as a "coming attraction") and lives in a posh mansion in Beverly Hills. Iris is heartbroken from unrequited love with a cad of a colleague (Rufus Sewell), and Amanda has just broken up with her cheating boyfriend (Edward Burns), so their home-swapping offers mutual downtime to reassess their love lives. This being a Nancy Meyers movie (where everything is fabulously decorated and romantic wish-fulfillment is virtually guaranteed), Amanda hooks up with Iris's charming brother Graham (Jude Law), and Iris is unexpectedly smitten with Miles (Jack Black), a super-nice film composer on the downside of a failing relationship. --Jeff Shannon

Extras from The Holiday

First Look Featurette high bandwidth

Film Clip: "Sushi for Two" high bandwidth

Film Clip: "Oh Brother" high bandwidth

Stills from The Holiday (click for larger image)

Beyond The Holiday on Amazon.com

On Blu-ray

CD Soundtrack

The Films of Nancy Meyers

What About Bob?

Comic wizard Bill Murray (CRADLE WILL ROCK, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) teams up with Academy Award(R)-winner Richard Dreyfuss teams up with (Best Actor, 1978, THE GOODBYE GIRL) in an outrageously wild comedy that's sure to drive you off the deep end! Murray plays Bob Wiley, a troubled but lovable therapy patient who fears everything! After seeking help from noted psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Dreyfuss), Bob feels revived. But when the good doctor skips town to go on a quiet family vacation, Bob, afraid of being alone, follows -- showing up unexpectedly at the therapist's lakeside retreat. That's when the fun really begins! Bob innocently becomes the houseguest who just won't leave -- endearing himself to the other family members ... and, in the end, driving the stressed-out shrink absolutely crazy!

Shag

It's not too surprising that Shag flopped on its 1989 release but found a devoted cult following on cable TV and home video. This featherweight comedy looked like a waste of space on the big screen, but it plays very cozily on the tube, where it lends itself to popcorn breaks and pajama parties. (The lousy title must have had something to do with the movie's initial failure, a problem worsened by the film being marketed as Shag: The Movie, a truly dumb idea.) Shag is in the tradition of Spring Break pictures, a thoroughly formulaic stroll through the conventions of the minigenre: beachside romance, a wild party, one tender deflowering, and lots of rock & roll. The time is 1963, as three gal friends trick their soon-to-be-married pal (Phoebe Cates) into one final all-girl fling in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cates is engaged to a local well-bred stick (Tyrone Power Jr.), but soon she's tempted by a beach boy (Robert Rusler) bound for Yale (mm-hmm). The so-so material is buoyed by lovely Annabeth Gish, as the supposedly pudgy one in the group, and Bridget Fonda, as a prematurely sophisticated sexpot. After a while it's easy enough to relax and enjoy the girls' breezy adventures, which are served up without the soap opera melodrama of the similarly tooled Where the Boys Are. Oh, and Austin Powers notwithstanding, the title refers to the dance, not something else. --Robert Horton

What do you get when you mix T-Birds, Bermuda shorts, bubble-flip dos and incredible dancing? You get Shag, The Movie a comic free-for-all (The New York Times) that Variety calls fun and breezy and you'll call a blast! Carson (Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is all set to marry respectable but boring Harley (Tyrone Power, Jr., Cocoon) until her best friends Melaina (Bridget Fonda, Single White Female), Pudge (Annabeth Gish, MysticPizza), and Luanne (Page Hannah, TV's Fame ) whisk her off for a last-fling beach party where all the girls have the time of their lives! A charming bad boy throws Carson's marriage plans intothe spin cycle. His nerdy sidekick whirls Pudge through some dazzling dance steps. Sultry Melaina learns some sexy moves from an Elvis-like teen idol. And even straight-laced Luanne whips off her horn-rimmed glasses and tosses her innocence to the wind!

Six Days, Seven Nights

The African Queen meets Swept Away in this sometimes labored romantic comedy by director Ivan Reitman. Fortunately, he cast an old pro in Harrison Ford, as Quinn Harris, a South Seas charter pilot who must ferry New York fashion editor Robin Monroe (Anne Heche) from one island to another--a hop that falls flat when they fly into a mammoth storm that causes them to crash on a deserted island. The pair resent and resist each other, until they are forced to team up to escape from the island--and some modern pirates who want their heads. If that part of the story is unconvincing, you can always focus on the smoldering comic chemistry between Heche, who displays strong comic instincts, and the ever-reliable Ford. The script is just an excuse for these two flinty characters to strike increasingly romantic sparks off each other, which is always enjoyable to watch. --Marshall Fine

Big-screen favorite Harrison Ford stars in this nonstop adventure hit about a dream vacation that turns into a hilarious tropical nightmare! A gruff, rough-hewn cargo pilot living in the islands, Quinn Harris (Ford) hates tourists ... though he's not above making a fast buck from a sharp-tongued New Yorker, Robin Monroe (sexy Anne Heche -- VOLCANO, WAG THE DOG), when she's desperate for a quick flight to Tahiti! But this already uneasy relationship suddenly takes a nosedive when his weather-beaten old plane is forced down in a storm! Now, stranded together on a deserted isle, Quinn and Robin quickly discover all the perils of paradise. As this mismatched pair find themselves facing danger at every turn, you're sure to find their misfortunes fueling one of Hollywood's most entertaining action-comedy hits in years!

The Great Outdoors

This hit-and-miss 1988 comedy pairs John Candy and Dan Aykroyd in a story of one family's summer vacation all but ruined by the uninvited appearance of another, more loutish family. Howard Deutch (Some Kind of Wonderful) directs from a half-hearted John Hughes script, which reduces Hughes's jokes-and-epiphanies formula (The Breakfast Club, Home Alone) to true gaudiness. On the other hand, Annette Bening makes her screen debut here. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, trailer, optional French soundtrack, and optional Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

My Father the Hero

Gerard Depardieu (GREEN CARD) stars as an overprotective father who lands in hot water when his overactive teenage daughter gets in over her head at a tropical vacation resort! Soon, the mischievous teen is getting dad in big, big trouble -- hurling him into one madcap misadventure after another. Combining uproarious comedy and a beautiful island setting, MY FATHER,THE HERO, simply overflows with nonstop fun in the sun. Discover for yourself the comedy hit that left critics and audiences alike drowning with laughter.

Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation

James Stewart reunites with his Harvey director, Henry Koster, in this 1962 comedy, which is charming enough even though it doesn't seem quite up to the level of talent involved. (The screenwriter is the legendary Nunnally Johnson--writer and director of The Three Faces of Eve, among many other titles--and the music is by Henry Mancini.) But it is pleasant, summery entertainment with Stewart and his screen wife, Maureen O'Hara, taking their urban family to a crumbling, seaside house for a vacation. The film was calculated to pull in older fans with Stewart as well as draw in a younger crowd that would enjoy the fairly extensive beach scenes with pop-star Fabian. Stewart is deft with the easy jokes about bad plumbing and such, and golden in several nice moments where he gets to play an attentive dad to his kids. --Tom Keogh

When James Stewart decides to take his family on vacation in California, he needs another vacation to recover. Co-stars Fabian.

Summer Rental

John Candy's first leading role was in this 1985 film by Carl Reiner, in which the comic actor played a stressed-out air traffic controller who takes his family on a Florida vacation and has to deal with arrogant, rich jerks. Candy is good in what is almost a straight part (albeit with some jokes), and Reiner keeps the tone in check so his star has an opportunity to show more than one dimension. --Tom Keogh

One Crazy Summer

Savage Steve Holland follows up his cult teen hit Better Off Dead with more madcap absurdity. Forget the plot, which takes frustrated cartoon prodigy John Cusack to Nantucket to woo aspiring singer-songwriter Demi Moore and take on the town's weasely real estate developer and his bullying son in a sailing regatta. For Savage Steve, the "revenge of the misfits" story is merely an excuse to unleash his arsenal of gags. Think of it as an Airplane for the teen set, punctuated by wacky twists (hyperactive Bobcat Goldthwait rampaging in a Godzilla suit), demented animated interludes, and the world's ugliest dog. The cartoonish punchlines don't always deliver, but the rat-a-tat delivery keeps them coming so fast it doesn't matter, and Cusack holds it all together with his winning presence. And, refreshingly, this is one PG rating that actually means no foul language or sex. --Sean Axmaker

An aspiring artist and the aspiring singer he loves join the most berserk brood of sun-and-funners on nantucket island in new england.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (Special Edition)

You know exactly what you're getting in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation: another goofball, slapstick comedy of chaos and catastrophe with Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) and family. This time, there's no traveling involved: Clark and Ellen (Beverly D'Angelo) prepare for a nice Christmas with the kids (played by none other than Juliette Lewis and Roseanne star Johnny Galecki), when their home is invaded by backwoods cousin Eddie (Randy Quaid) and his brood, along with assorted other crazy and/or stuffy relatives. Complications, of course, are inevitable. The film is preceded by National Lampoon's Vacation (1983) and National Lampoon's European Vacation (1985) and followed by National Lampoon's Vegas Vacation (1997). Directed by Jeremiah Chechik, who went on to do Benny & Joon and the Sharon Stone remake of Diabolique. --Jim Emerson

Make merry as Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid and an ensemble of comedy favorites strive to gift-wrap the "perfect Christmas" for the Griswold family. The most successful of the three vacations. Year: 1989 Director: Jeremiah S. Chechik Starring: Chevy Chase, Beverly D'Angelo, Randy Quaid,