Lawrence Kasdan

Undeclared - The Complete Series

From The Producer of Freaks And Geeks®College life as seen through the eyes of Steven Karp a freshman determined to reinvent himself at a new school. Faced with dilemmas as miserable as being "sexiled" to the rec room while roommates use the bedroom and as dire as confronting a girlfriend s jealous stalker-ex-boyfriend Steven and his new friends tackle the challenges of higher education. Named one of Time Magazine's top ten television shows of 2001 and praised for its "pitch perfect" casting. Undeclared is "one of the cum laude comedies of the new season... sneaky funny hoot with endearingly offbeat characters." (Los Angeles Times)All 17 episodes are included!System Requirements:Length: 375 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 826663124590 Manufacturer No: D4D31245

"Only the good die young," a certain piano man once sang. He could've been talking about Undeclared, the hilarious, yet heartfelt college comedy from Judd Apatow (The Larry Sanders Show). Alas, FOX had even less patience than NBC and cancelled it after 16 episodes, rather than the 17 granted Apatow's other fan favorite, Freaks and Geeks.

Directed by Jake Kasdan (The Zero Effect), the pilot ("Prototype") sets the scene. Steven Karp (Jay Baruchel, Million Dollar Baby) is a nerdy 18-year-old who grew seven inches over the past year and is looking to make a new start at the University of North Eastern California. Well, good news, bad news. At his first party, he makes it with Lizzie (Carla Gallo, Carnivàle), the bubbly girl down the hall--then finds out she has a boyfriend. Worse yet, Steven's dad, Hal (singer/songwriter Loudon Wainwright III), crashes it to announce he's getting divorced. Fortunately, Hal hits it off with Steven's roommates: Marshall (Timm Sharp, Six Feet Under), Ron (Seth Rogen, Freaks and Geeks), and Brit chick magnet Lloyd (Charlie Hunnam, Nicholas Nickleby). Other regulars include Lizzie's boyfriend, Eric (Jason Segel, Freaks and Geeks), and roommate Rachel (Monica Keena, Entourage).

Steven's freshman year will be an eventful one. Aside from the loss of his virginity, he'll get his first job ("Jobs, Jobs, Jobs "), he'll meet Adam Sandler ("The Assistant"), he'll hire a speed freak (Will Ferrell) to write a term paper ("Addicts"), and his RA (Amy Poehler) will have a fling with his dad ("Hal and Hillary"). Other guests include Fred Willard ("So You Have a Boyfriend"), Mary Kay Place ("Parent's Weekend"), and Ben Stiller (the Jon Favreau-directed "Eric's POV"). This set includes all 16 episodes, plus one that wasn't broadcast ("God Visits") and an alternate, Ted Nugent-ified version of the second ("Full Bluntal Nugetry"). --Kathleen C. Fennessy

French Kiss

Meg Ryan emerges bloodied but unbowed from this botched comedy by Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill). Ryan plays a woman whose fiancé (Timothy Hutton) leaves her for a Parisian beauty. She jets over to the City of Lights to fight for her man, but an incapacitating fear of flying forces her to seek help from a fellow passenger, a French thief played by Kevin Kline, who then tutors her in the ways of getting her beau back. Kasdan seems incapable of pacing the story, let alone getting a firm grip on its comic tone and intentions. The production sputters and regroups and stalls repeatedly, forcing Ryan, particularly, to find the boundaries of her own screwball performance. --Tom Keogh

Kate flies to Paris to keep her fiance from running off with a French woman, but becomes involved with a sexy French thief who assures her he will help.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 11-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

The Big Chill

Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 big-budget variation on John Sayles's The Return of the Secaucus Seven finds a cluster of old college radicals--who have since gone on to sundry professions and various degrees of materialism--reuniting over the death of a friend. Both playful and thoughtful, the film represents Kasdan (Body Heat) at his most astute. The attractive cast meshes perfectly into a group of characters for which a former closeness is out of synch with their current lives, yet their warmth is enviable and inviting. The script may be a bit too glib, with many one-liners, but it is still a perfectly designed story with telling irony and no little passion. --Tom Keogh

Spend some time with a few good friends... as they reunite for the funeral of a college pal. During the weekend that follows these friends compare their 60s ideals with the harsh reality of their lives in the 80s and discover that in a cold world you need your friends to keep you warm. System Requirements:Starring: Kevin Kline William Hurt Glenn Close Tom Berenger Jeff GoldblumMary Kay Place JoBeth Williams Meg Tilly Director: Lawrence Kasdan Copyright: 1983 Columbia/Tristar Produced by Michael Shamberg; written by B. Benedek L. Kasdan; DVD released on 01/26/1999; running time of 105 minutes. Widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio enhanced for 16X9 TVs Closed captioned 56-minute documentary featuring new interviews with the cast and director behind-the-scenes footage and deleted scenesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396026322 Manufacturer No: 02632

Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Two-Disc Special Edition)

The Pixar-like roll of Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad) continues with another sure-fire hit. In charting the meteoric rise, catastrophic fall and Lazarus-like rise of rocker Dewey Cox, Walk Hard parodies the classic Hollywood bio-pic, cashing in mostly on Walk the Line. John C. Reilly, one of Hollywood's most solid character actors, makes the most of his Golden Globe-nominated star turn as Dewey, whose road to stardom is paved with a childhood tragedy that claims the life of his prodigiously talented brother ("The wrong kid died," is his father's mantra), instant stardom (his first record is a hit just 35 minutes after it was recorded), sex and drugs, and the inevitable "dark (effen) period" that leads him to rehab. Reilly gets solid backup from current and former Saturday Night Live alumni, including Kirsten Wiig as his incredibly fertile first wife who has no faith in his musical aspirations ("You're never going to make it," she cheerily ends one phone call); Tim Meadows, never better, as Dewey's drummer, who, in one of the film's best scenes, does a poor job of dissuading him from trying marijuana); and Chris Parnell as his bass player. Jenna Fischer leaves Pam back at The Office as Darlene, Dewey's virtuous duet partner. Hilarious cameos give Walk Hard a great "Hey!" factor: Hey, that's Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly. Hey, that's "Kenneth" from 30 Rock. Hey, there's Jack Black and Paul Rudd as--no kidding--Paul McCartney and John Lennon revealing "a rift in the Beatles." Some of the jokes are obvious (come on; the guy's last name is Cox), others inspired. But the decades-spanning music, echoing the styles of gritty Johnny Cash, romantic Roy Orbison, obtuse Bob Dylan, trippy Brian Wilson, and even a bit of anachronistic punk rock, is as pitch perfect and affectionately observed as in The Rutles, This Is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. Walk Hard earns its R-rating, particularly for a sure-to-be-talked-about scene of hotel-room debauchery. But: Hilarious? Outrageous? Twisted? To quote the title of one of Dewey's hit songs, "Guilty as Charged." --Donald Liebenson

On the DVD
Though an unaccountable box office disappointment, Walk Hard is poised for discovery and cult status on DVD. You'd think the film had pretty much exhausted all the puns and double-entendres you could get out of Dewey Cox's last name, but the Elvis-inspired "A Christmas Song from Dewey Cox," the "Cox Sausage Commercial" and "The Real Dewey Cox," which are among this two-disc set's extra features, manages to get even more mileage out of that juvenile joke. Speaking of which, there is a "cockumentary" devoted to actor Tyler Nilson, who provides the film with its most shocking laugh during the hotel orgy scene, The Unbearably Long, Self-Indulgent Director's Cut contains, ahem, extended footage of that scene and features the deleted setups for some of the theatrical cut's more inexplicable gags (a deleted montage reveals just how Dewey and band member Theo wound up in bed together). Better than a gag reel is the "Line-O-Rama," a hit-and-miss compilation of improv outtakes. Full song performances give this film's Oscar-worthy music its due. The Daily Show's John Hodgman gets "The Last Word" in a celebrity profile spoof that was originally broadcast on Comedy Central. With a more traditional "Making of" featurette and entertaining audio commentary by writer Judd Apatow, director Jake Kasdan, and star John C. Reilly, Walk Hard walks even harder on DVD. --Donald Liebenson

Beyond Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

On Blu-ray

The Soundtrack

UMD for PSP

Stills from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (click for larger image)

One of the most iconic figures in rock history Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) had it all: the women (over 411 served) the friends (Elvis The Beatles) and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle (a close and personal relationship with every pill and powder known to man). But most of all he had the music that transformed a dimwitted country boy into the greatest American rock star who never lived. A wild and wicked send-up of every musical biopic ever made WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY is gut-busting proof that when it comes to hard rocking living and laughing a hard man is good to find.System Requirements:Running Time: 216 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SATIRE Rating: UNRATED UPC: 043396250789 Manufacturer No: 25078

Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2-Disc Unrated Edition) [Blu-ray]

The Pixar-like roll of Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad) continues with another sure-fire hit. In charting the meteoric rise, catastrophic fall and Lazarus-like rise of rocker Dewey Cox, Walk Hard parodies the classic Hollywood bio-pic, cashing in mostly on Walk the Line. John C. Reilly, one of Hollywood's most solid character actors, makes the most of his Golden Globe-nominated star turn as Dewey, whose road to stardom is paved with a childhood tragedy that claims the life of his prodigiously talented brother ("The wrong kid died," is his father's mantra), instant stardom (his first record is a hit just 35 minutes after it was recorded), sex and drugs, and the inevitable "dark (effen) period" that leads him to rehab. Reilly gets solid backup from current and former Saturday Night Live alumni, including Kirsten Wiig as his incredibly fertile first wife who has no faith in his musical aspirations ("You're never going to make it," she cheerily ends one phone call); Tim Meadows, never better, as Dewey's drummer, who, in one of the film's best scenes, does a poor job of dissuading him from trying marijuana); and Chris Parnell as his bass player. Jenna Fischer leaves Pam back at The Office as Darlene, Dewey's virtuous duet partner. Hilarious cameos give Walk Hard a great "Hey!" factor: Hey, that's Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly. Hey, that's "Kenneth" from 30 Rock. Hey, there's Jack Black and Paul Rudd as--no kidding--Paul McCartney and John Lennon revealing "a rift in the Beatles." Some of the jokes are obvious (come on; the guy's last name is Cox), others inspired. But the decades-spanning music, echoing the styles of gritty Johnny Cash, romantic Roy Orbison, obtuse Bob Dylan, trippy Brian Wilson, and even a bit of anachronistic punk rock, is as pitch perfect and affectionately observed as in The Rutles, This Is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. Walk Hard earns its R-rating, particularly for a sure-to-be-talked-about scene of hotel-room debauchery. But: Hilarious? Outrageous? Twisted? To quote the title of one of Dewey's hit songs, "Guilty as Charged." --Donald Liebenson

Beyond Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

On 2-disc Widescreen

The Soundtrack

UMD for PSP

Stills from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (click for larger image)

One of the most iconic figures in rock history Dewey Cox (John C. Reilly) had it all: the women (over 411 served) the friends (Elvis The Beatles) and the rock 'n' roll lifestyle (a close and personal relationship with every pill and powder known to man). But most of all he had the music that transformed a dimwitted country boy into the greatest American rock star who never lived. A wild and wicked send-up of every musical biopic ever made WALK HARD: THE DEWEY COX STORY is gut-busting proof that when it comes to hard rocking living and laughing a hard man is good to find.System Requirements:Running Time: 216 minutesFormat: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: COMEDY/SATIRE Rating: UNRATED UPC: 043396215276 Manufacturer No: 21527

Grosse Pointe - The Complete Series

Like Fox's Action, Grosse Pointe is a single-camera, behind-the-scenes comedy that didn't get the chance to find the audience it deserved. With the success of HBO's Entourage a few years later, it's possible that the timing was simply off as this devilishly entertaining melodrama should've been a hit with fans of Darren Star's Beverly Hills 90210 and Sex and the City. It's essentially a spot-on satire of the former, as well as the actors who made it into a cultural touchstone in the 1990s. Created by Star, the show-within-a-show played the game while breaking the rules. In other words, the five attractive leads, all actors on high school soap Grosse Pointe, aren't exactly model citizens (and the occasional in-jokes at the WB's expense can't have won Star many points with the network brass). There's dumb stud Johnny (ex-model Al Santos), terminally insecure Marcy (Lindsay Sloane, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch), fresh-faced Courtney (Bonnie Somerville, NYPD Blue), scheming Hunter (Irene Molloy, Andy Richter Controls the Universe), and 30-year-old teen Quentin (Kohl Sudduth channeling Luke Perry).

Plot developments include a shoplifting arrest for Hunter ("Thieves Like Us"), opportunistic boyfriend for Marcy ("Halloween"), gay fan for Johnny ("Boys on the Side"), and Japanese beer commercial for Courtney ("Star Wars" with George Takei). Short run aside, Grosse Pointe attracted name directors, like Jake Kasdan, Peyton Reed, Allison Anders, and 90210 alum Jason Priestley, who plays himself. In addition, Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh composed the jazzy score. Recurring characters include writer/producers Rob (William Ragsdale) and Hope (Joely Fisher) and perennial second bananas, Dave the Stand-In (Kyle Howard) and Kevin the PA (Nat Faxon). This two-disc set includes an interview with Star, plus commentary on four episodes. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

The onscreen melodrama is nothing compared to what happens when the cameras stop rolling on the fictitious primetime soap Grosse Pointe. The comedy follows the lives of six young actors trying to adjust to the demands of instant stardom as their hit show launches them into the world of premieres paparazzi and power. There s the two-faced diva her insecure best friend the wide-eyed newcomer who threatens the offscreen balance of power the surfer stud the show s heartthrob and his stand-in/gofer. Guiding these "innocents" through the savage world of network presidents and last-minute rewrites are the producers who live in constant fear of the one misstep that would send ratings plummeting and their careers into oblivion.System Requirements:Run Time: 416 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 043396120976 Manufacturer No: 12097

Orange County

Shaun Brumder dreams of attending Stanford but when his guidance counselor sends the wrong transcripts with his application, he is rejected and must use any method necessary to get accepted.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 30-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD

While it invites charges of Hollywood nepotism, Orange County overcomes that stigma with a delightful cast of newcomers and veterans alike. It's no better or worse than many teen comedies, but director Jake Kasdan (son of director Lawrence Kasdan) astutely combines teen-flick staples (stoner gags, raucous parties) with a biting undercurrent of southern California absurdity. This comedic texture helps Colin Hanks (son of Tom) and Schuyler Fisk (daughter of Sissy Spacek) to prove their big-screen promise. They play (respectively) an Orange County teen and aspiring writer named Shaun who yearns for admission to Stanford, and his sensible girlfriend who knows just how to nurture his dreams. Much of the comedy arises from the foibles of Shaun's dysfunctional family (played to perfection by Jack Black, Catherine O'Hara, and John Lithgow), while unbilled cameos by Ben Stiller and Kevin Kline add zest to a movie that tries to be different, and mostly succeeds. --Jeff Shannon

Walk Hard - The Dewey Cox Story (Widescreen Edition)

The Pixar-like roll of Judd Apatow (The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Knocked Up, Superbad) continues with another sure-fire hit. In charting the meteoric rise, catastrophic fall and Lazarus-like rise of rocker Dewey Cox, Walk Hard parodies the classic Hollywood bio-pic, cashing in mostly on Walk the Line. John C. Reilly, one of Hollywood's most solid character actors, makes the most of his Golden Globe-nominated star turn as Dewey, whose road to stardom is paved with a childhood tragedy that claims the life of his prodigiously talented brother ("The wrong kid died," is his father's mantra), instant stardom (his first record is a hit just 35 minutes after it was recorded), sex and drugs, and the inevitable "dark (effen) period" that leads him to rehab. Reilly gets solid backup from current and former Saturday Night Live alumni, including Kirsten Wiig as his incredibly fertile first wife who has no faith in his musical aspirations ("You're never going to make it," she cheerily ends one phone call); Tim Meadows, never better, as Dewey's drummer, who, in one of the film's best scenes, does a poor job of dissuading him from trying marijuana); and Chris Parnell as his bass player. Jenna Fischer leaves Pam back at The Office as Darlene, Dewey's virtuous duet partner. Hilarious cameos give Walk Hard a great "Hey!" factor: Hey, that's Frankie Muniz as Buddy Holly. Hey, that's "Kenneth" from 30 Rock. Hey, there's Jack Black and Paul Rudd as--no kidding--Paul McCartney and John Lennon revealing "a rift in the Beatles." Some of the jokes are obvious (come on; the guy's last name is Cox), others inspired. But the decades-spanning music, echoing the styles of gritty Johnny Cash, romantic Roy Orbison, obtuse Bob Dylan, trippy Brian Wilson, and even a bit of anachronistic punk rock, is as pitch perfect and affectionately observed as in The Rutles, This Is Spinal Tap and A Mighty Wind. Walk Hard earns its R-rating, particularly for a sure-to-be-talked-about scene of hotel-room debauchery. But: Hilarious? Outrageous? Twisted? To quote the title of one of Dewey's hit songs, "Guilty as Charged." --Donald Liebenson

Beyond Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story

On Blu-ray

The Soundtrack

UMD for PSP

Stills from Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (click for larger image)

Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: R
Release Date: 8-APR-2008
Media Type: DVD

The Accidental Tourist

Lawrence Kasdan adapted Anne Tyler's novel into this mopey comedy which, oddly enough, took the New York Film Critics Circle's best picture award (a case of strategic voting getting out of hand). William Hurt plays a depressed travel writer struggling to come to terms with his son's death. He buys a dog for companionship, then hires an eccentric dog trainer (Geena Davis, who won an Oscar for her role) to teach it to behave. She, in turn, teaches him to reconnect to life. But as he is beginning to admit his feelings for her to himself, he is blindsided by the return of his estranged wife (Kathleen Turner), who attempts to rekindle their marriage. A muffled, low-key affair--so low-key that it sometimes seems positively stationary. --Marshall Fine

The TV Set

An all-star cast bites the hand that feeds them in The TV Set, a sneaky satire of network programming. As a writer named Mike (David Duchovny, The X-Files) struggles to shepherd his semi-autobiographical sitcom into development, his vision--of a guy who's brought back to his home town by his brother's suicide and rediscovers his joy in life--is slowly eroded by a domineering network executive named Lenny (Sigourney Weaver, Aliens) who favors trashy reality programming like Slut Wars. The rub, of course, is that every crass suggestion Lenny makes improves the show's response from test audiences and brings the show a step closer to getting on the air. Almost everyone in The TV Set has connections to television--Judy Greer (Arrested Development), Justine Bateman (Family Ties), Ioan Gruffudd (the Horatio Hornblower TV-movies), Lucy Davis (the original British version of The Office)--and so have a keen grasp on the behavior and lingo of the media industry. Sometimes the satire is so close to the naked reality of TV development that it isn't even funny--but Weaver (whose own father was a television producer) gives an inspired performance that skirts truth and satire so adroitly it makes your skin tingle. --Bret Fetzer

An insightful and fast-moving comic look at the world of network television development. The story follows a TV pilot as it goes through the network TV process of casting production and finally airing while showing that there is as much entertainment behind the cameras as there is in front.System Requirements:Running Time: 87 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 024543460596 Manufacturer No: 2254690