Comedy

Californication - Season One

Sophisticated and unique this comedy centers on novelist Hank Moody (David Duchovny) who struggles to raise his 13-year-old daughter while still carrying a torch for his ex-girlfriend. His obsession with truth-telling and self destructive behavior -- drinks drugs and relationships -- are both destroying and enriching to his career.System Requirements:Running Time: 340 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097368920941 Manufacturer No: 892094

"You can't always get what you want." The Rolling Stones may have said it best, and it seems to be writer Hank Moody's theme song. David Duchovny (X Files) was born to play this sly, sarcastic, self-loathing, and--despite all the meaningless sex, booze, and fist fights--kind character. Writer Moody hates the Los Angeles world he lives in; a world that turned his sharp best-seller into a cheesy date movie, where his young daughter and should-have-been wife (Natascha McElhone) are slipping away into the hands of a rich play-it-safe guy, and where everything he truly wants seems just out of his reach. But the man hasn't lost all hope. "Happy endings may get a bad rap, but they do happen," he assures his daughter. "And when they do, they're just as true as the unhappy ones." One can't help but hope Hank finds his happy ending, because it's with his family that his soft side surfaces. Hank takes no shame in trying to woo back his "wife" Karen, even if it is in front of her new fiancé. He knows he's meant to be with her--plain and simple--and there's a glint in her eye that always makes you wonder if she's really thinking the same thing. And his daughter Becca? Well, any guy would melt against this guitar-wielding cutie (played by the adorable Madeleine Martin), but Hank really captures the "I'll kick a lot of ass for my daughter" mentality that so many dads harbor. He's also fully prepared to drop a gorgeous woman at a moment's notice to heed his daughter's call.

The rest of the cast, including Evan Handler (Sex and the City) and Pamela Adlon (Lucky Louie), provide some surprisingly interesting and hilarious side stories. Just when it seems situations in this show can't get any more ludicrous or disgusting, they most certainly do. That's the beauty of it. Californication is a dark, coarse, edgy adult comedy. It's also very real, and quite intelligent. --Jordan Thompson

Happy Days - The Complete First Season

The daily lives of the Cunningham family in 1950s Milwaukee, their friends, and their greaser tenant Arthur \""Fonzie\"" Fonzarelli.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: HAPPY DAYS
Title: SEASON 1
Street Release Date: 08/17/2004
Domestic
Genre: TELEVISION

Less than a year after Ron Howard played a college-bound adolescent enjoying a final, summer-of-1962 romp with old friends in American Graffiti, he turned up as high school innocent Richie Cunningham in the memorable, ABC television network debut of Happy Days, set a few years earlier in Milwaukee. The show would last a decade and go through many changes in tone, cast, and character development, but that first season got a boost from the natural perception that it had some things in common with Graffiti: Howard, of course, but also fumbling teenage sex, drag races, drive-in food, pesky little sisters, and laconic greasers.

Happy Days: The Complete First Season is a sweet trip back to the Garry Marshall-produced sitcom's 1974 entry in primetime television, before political correctness would make stories about clean-cut boys fixated on seducing girls unthinkable, and long before older kids were defined by angst on the WB and Fox TV. At least in its first year, before Happy Days developed more of a comic-book feel and energy, the show was about Richie's all-too-human inclination to grow up too fast, to bite off more than he could chew and learn poignant lessons in the process. He was a sympathetic naif, not the charming braggart he later became, and major characters appear to have been created to provide both ballast and motivation. Among them is best friend Potsie (Anson Williams), a superficial hustler who typically incites Richie's enthusiasm for booze, reputed nymphomaniacs, and sophisticated, older girls, and fast-talking Ralph Malph (Donny Most), owner of a fantastic, yellow hot rod. More important are counterparts Arthur "Fonzie" Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), a vaguely dangerous drop-out, and Richie's exasperated father, Howard Cunningham (Tom Bosley), each of whom provides Richie the validation of an experienced male: Fonzie's raw worldliness versus Mr. C's seasoned view of a man's responsibilities. First-season highlights include the pilot episode (co-written by Rob Reiner), "All the Way," in which Richie's typical decency allows him to see past the sex-mad reputation of an amiable girl from school. Season closer "Be the First on Your Block" finds the Cunninghams' plans to build a bomb shelter turning into a popularity contest as Richie's friends vie for a guaranteed spot in the event of nuclear war. --Tom Keogh

Mork & Mindy - The Complete First Season

Children who love Robin Williams as the voice of Aladdin or as Mrs. Doubtfire will get a blast out of the show that blasted him into the stratosphere, and made "Nanoo, Nanoo" a national catch-phrase. Mork & Mindy, a spin-off of a season 5 Happy Days episode, was a tailor-made star vehicle for Williams, who won a Golden Globe for this inaugural 1978 season. The role of extraterrestrial Mork from Ork gave free reign to Williams's stream-of-consciousness riffing as Mork observed life on Earth and reported back to his leader, Orson, on all that he learned about friendship, love, family, and emotions. As Mindy, the down-to-Earth Boulder, Colorado, girl who takes the stranded alien under her roof, fresh-faced Pam Dawber does her best to keep up. When Williams is really in the (Twilight?) zone, it's not acting: she does seem like she's dealing with someone from another planet.

The highlight of this first season is "Mork's Mixed Emotions," a tour-de-force that TV Guide ranked among the top 100 TV episodes of all time (#94, to be exact). Mork believes that emotions are bad, and tries to lock them inside himself, but they are unleashed in a lusty, happy, weepy, angry, envious torrent. Helping to launch Williams as a primetime player in the series pilot are Henry Winkler and Penny Marshall in their iconic roles as the Fonz and Laverne. Another notable guest star in season 1 is David Letterman as an abusive EST-like guru in "Mork Goes Erk." Mork & Mindy rapidly jumped the shark, and much of the '70s sitcom trappings have not aged well, but this first season is a giddy time capsule record of Williams at his most spontaneous and out of this world. Shazbot--the set contains no extras. --Donald Liebenson.

A spin-off from the hit show "Happy Days," MORK & MINDY stars Robin Williams as the lovable alien from the planet Ork. Sent to Earth by his fellow Orkans who see him as a misfit, Mork is assigned to observe the customs of the crazy Earthlings. Landing in a giant eggshell in Boulder, Colorado, Mork is soon befriended by Mindy McConnell (Dawber) a music store clerk, and allowed to stay in the attic of her apartment.

Forrest Gump (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

The Academy Award winner for Best Picture, Best Director Robert Zemeckis, and Best Actor Tom Hanks, this unlikely story of a slow-witted but good-hearted man somehow at the center of the pivotal events of the 20th century is a funny and heartwarming epic. Hanks plays the title character, a shy Southern boy in love with his childhood best friend (Robin Wright) who finds that his ability to run fast takes him places. As an All-Star football player he meets John F. Kennedy; as a soldier in Vietnam he's a war hero; and as a world champion Ping-Pong player he's hailed by Richard Nixon. Becoming a successful shrimp-boat captain, he still yearns for the love of his life, who takes a quite different and much sadder path in life. The visual effects incorporating Hanks into existing newsreel footage is both funny and impressive, but the heart of the film lies in its sweet love story and in the triumphant performance of Hanks as an unassuming soul who savors the most from his life and times. --Robert Lane

A sweet natured man with an IQ of 70 personally experiences all of the important events of three decades of American life.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: HANKS/FIELD/WRIGHT/WILLIAMSON/
Title: FORREST GUMP
Street Release Date: 08/28/2001
Domestic
Genre: DRAMA

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, very dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right.

The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, Sweeney Todd should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. --David Horiuchi

Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's award-winning musical thriller "Sweeney Todd." Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge not only for that cruel punishment but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who "shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again." Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett Sweeney's amorous accomplice who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman who portrays the evil Judge Turpin who sends Sweeney to prison and Timothy Spall as the Judge's wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli.System Requirements:Running Time: 116 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR/PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER Rating: R UPC: 097363500643 Manufacturer No: 350064

Drillbit Taylor (Unrated Extended Survival Edition)

Ryan (Troy Gentile) Wade (Nate Hartley) and Emmit (David Dorfman) attend their first day at high school and they re pumped until they meet up with Filkins (Alex Frost) a school bully who comes off like a little Hannibal Lecter. Before they become completely engulfed in Filkins reign of terror they seek out some protection by placing an ad in Soldier of Fortune magazine. Their best response and the cheapest comes from Drillbit Taylor (Owen Wilson) a down-on-his luck soldier of fortune who lives a homeless he likes to say home-free existence on the beach. He enrolls them in some physical and mental training.System Requirements:Running Time: 101 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SCREWBALL COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 097363440628 Manufacturer No: 344062

Like Owen Wilson himself, Drillbit Taylor has a loose, shaggy-dog appeal. Wilson plays a homeless ex-soldier who wants to emigrate illegally to Canada--and when three misfit high-school students hire him to protect them from bullies, he sets out to fleece them for the money he needs to get away. Naturally, this being a formulaic crowd-pleaser, he bonds with the kids and discovers that maybe his life isn't so worthless after all. Fortunately for moviegoers, the creators of Drillbit Taylor (including co-writer Seth Rogen, star of Knocked Up) have the wit to tweak the formula and give what could have been prefabricated and bland some grit, surprises, and genuine laughs (as well as an allusion to this movie's obvious inspiration, the 1980 teen-movie classic My Bodyguard). While nowhere near as funny (or as rude) as Rogen's previous co-writing effort, the dorkily sublime Superbad, Drillbit Taylor benefits from a similar grasp of the genuine cravings and frustrations of adolescence. Still, it's Wilson's movie, and his slacker-romantic rhythm gives the hmor its swing. Also featuring Leslie Mann (The 40-Year-Old Virgin), who is woefully underutilized as Wilson's love interest. One sneaky bit of casting: The main bully is played by Alex Frost, who played an unhappy teen driven to shoot up his school in director Gus Van Sant's Elephant. --Bret Fetzer

Laverne & Shirley - The Complete First Season

As a spin-off from Happy Days, Laverne & Shirley was an instant hit and one of the most popular sitcoms of the '70s. It's a bit quaint by contemporary standards, and its light-hearted sentiment is strictly old-school, due to the crowd-pleasing influence of producer and cocreator Garry Marshall, a veteran of The Dick Van Dyke Show whose subsequent film career peaked early with Pretty Woman. As working-class roommates in mid-1950s Milwaukee, Laverne De Fazio (Penny Marshall, future director and Garry's sister) and Shirley Feeney (Cindy Williams) were a classic case of opposites: Laverne was relatively saucy and cynical, while Shirley was cheerfully naive and eternally optimistic. As bottle-cappers at the Shotz brewery, they regularly associated with colleagues (and eventual neighbors) Lenny (Michael McKean) and Squiggy (David L. Lander), and as an inaugural ratings-booster, Happy Days superstar Henry Winkler (as "Fonzie") appears in the first three episodes including "Bowling for Razzberries," later named by TV Guide as a classic episode. As Shirley's crooning would-be beau, Carmine "The Big Ragoo" Rugusa (Eddie Mekka) provided a touch of romance to Shirley's otherwise lackluster love life.

Despite personal rancor that later erupted between its energetic costars, Laverne & Shirley was always a showcase for polished, professional comedy and effortless chemistry between characters, giving it the same widespread appeal later enjoyed by Friends. A mid-season replacement with a prime time-slot (following Happy Days at 8:30 Tuesdays on ABC) the show placed its good-natured characters in a variety of standard sitcom predicaments, typically set in L&S's apartment, the "Pizza Bowl" diner run by Laverne's father Frank (Phil Foster), or the Shotz brewery, where some of the show's funniest slapstick humor emerged. These 15 episodes are guaranteed to please longtime fans on a stroll down memory lane, but bonus features are nonexistent, and newcomers may not relate to the clean-cut humor of a bygone era. Still, Laverne & Shirley started strong and continued to improve, at least for another season or two, with a variety of popular guest stars. This three-disc set represents the best of times for everyone involved. --Jeff Shannon

Getting its start as a spin-off from "Happy Days," LAVERNE & SHIRLEY takes place in Milwaukee in the 1950's and features Laverne, an outspoken, hot-headed woman who would love more than anything to be rescued from her job by a nice man, and Shirley, a naïve young woman who worries about her reputation and often finds herself assuming the role of Laverne's conscience in an effort to keep her best friend out of trouble. The two quirky friends have many fun times with Lenny and Squiggy, two greasers who share an apartment above Laverne and Shirley and always seem to have some kind of scheme up their sleeves.

Roman Holiday (Special Collector's Edition)

A princess on an official visit to Rome slips away without notice and falls in love with a newspaperman.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: NR
Release Date: 2-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Maybe it doesn't quite live up to its sterling reputation, and maybe the leading man and director were slightly miscast. But who cares? Roman Holiday is the film that brought Audrey Hepburn to prominence, and the world movie audience went weak at the knees. The endlessly charming Hepburn had her first starring role in this sweet romance, playing a European princess on an official tour through Rome. Frustrated by her lack of connection to the real world, she slips away from her protective handlers and goes on a spree, aided by a tough-guy news reporter (Gregory Peck). Director William Wyler, more at home with such heavy-going, Oscar-winning classics as The Best Years of Our Lives and Ben- Hur, doesn't always keep the champagne bubbles afloat, and the Peck role would have fit Cary Grant like a silk glove. But the film is great fun, the location shooting is irresistible, and Hepburn embodies an image of chic style that would rule for the rest of the fifties. No coincidence: she won an Oscar, and so did veteran costume designer Edith Head. --Robert Horton

Sweeney Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Genre: Musicals
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-APR-2008
Media Type: DVD

After years of rumors, it turns out that Tim Burton was the perfect visionary to film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Stephen Sondheim's Broadway masterpiece, and the result is a macabre and moving musical movie as enthralling as anything Burton has ever done. The show's mix of gothic horror, Grand Guignol, very dark humor, and witty and beautiful music never was the stuff of traditional musical comedy, but it's a powerful work, and perhaps the richest of the late 20th century. In the movie, Burton's frequent collaborator, Johnny Depp, plays Todd, a wronged man whose lust for revenge drives him to murder (an 19th-century legend who has been traced to a real-life barber). Helena Bonham Carter, another Burton mainstay, is Mrs. Lovett, the barber's partner-in-unspeakable-crime. It's no surprise that Depp is an excellent choice to convey Todd's brooding intensity and volcanic rage, but he can also sing a score that is so challenging it has often played in opera houses (though not with the same style as the Broadway original, Len Cariou, and he occasionally lapses into pop style). Bonham Carter is small of voice and lacks the humor of the original Broadway Lovett, Angela Lansbury, but she sings on pitch, in rhythm, and in character at the same time, which is no small feat for a Sondheim show. Aficionados will regret the loss of certain musical passages--"The Ballad of Sweeney Todd" is just an instrumental overture and the chorus is gone altogether, among others--but the reassuring presence of orchestrator Jonathan Tunick and conductor Paul Gemignani ensures that the music feels right and sounds great. And the film's depiction of a Victorian London hellhole--with cinematography by Dariusz Wolski and costumes by Colleen Atwood--also looks and feels right.

The excellent cast is filled out by Alan Rickman as the villainous Judge Turpin, Timothy Spall as his seedy Beadle, Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) as a rival barber, Jamie Campbell Bower as the young lover Anthony, Jayne Wisener as his object of affection, and Ed Sanders as the young Toby. For fans of Tim Burton and Johnny Depp who don't think they like musicals, Sweeney Todd should be a revelation (though not for the squeamish, as the gore is intense and completely appropriate). For fans of Broadway and Sondheim, it's hard to imagine getting a better adaptation than this. The fact that there's no newly composed Oscar-bait song sung by a Josh Groban-type over the end credits only makes it better. --David Horiuchi

Evening Shade - Season One

Wood Newton (Burt Reynolds) is a retired pro American Football player who has returned to his childhood home - the small town of Evening Shade Arkansas. He's now the coach of the local high school Football team which brings him closer to the other residents of the town.System Requirements:Running Time: 586 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097368920842 Manufacturer No: 892084