Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition)

  • The next installment in the Harry Potter series finds young wizard Harry Potter (DANIEL RADCLIFFE) and his friends Ron Weasley (RUPERT GRINT) and Hermione Granger (EMMA WATSON) facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they try to uncover a dark force that is terrorizing the school. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating:&nb
The next installment in the Harry Potter series finds young wizard Harry Potter (DANIEL RADCLIFFE) and his friends Ron Weasley (RUPERT GRINT) and Hermione Granger (EMMA WATSON) facing new challenges during their second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as they try to uncover a dark force that is terrorizing the school.First sequels are the true test of an enduring movie franchise, and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets passes with flying colors. Expanding upon the lavish sets, sp! ecial effects, and grand adventure of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Harry's second year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry involves a darker, more malevolent tale (parents with younger children beware), beginning with the petrified bodies of several Hogwarts students and magical clues leading Harry (Daniel Radcliffe), Ron (Rupert Grint), and Hermione (Emma Watson) to a 50-year-old mystery in the monster-laden Chamber of Secrets. House elves, squealing mandrakes, giant spiders, and venomous serpents populate this loyal adaptation (by Sorcerer's Stone director Chris Columbus and screenwriter Steve Kloves), and Kenneth Branagh delightfully tops the supreme supporting cast as the vainglorious charlatan Gilderoy Lockhart (be sure to view past the credits for a visual punchline at Lockhart's expense). At 161 minutes, the film suffers from lack of depth and uneven pacing, and John Williams' score mostly reprises established themes. The young, fast! -growing cast offers ample compensation, however, as does the ! late Ric hard Harris in his final screen appearance as Professor Albus Dumbledore. Brimming with cleverness, wonderment, and big-budget splendor, Chamber honors the legacy of J.K. Rowling's novels. --Jeff Shannon

The Cat in the Hat

  • Hardcover
  • Juvenile beginning reading
  • Stories with verses
  • Rhymed verses.
  • English


Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 82 minutes
The Cat in the Hat is a marketing ploy disguised as a wildly designed movie for hyperactive kids, and it could use a dose of Ritalin. It hardly matters, though, because kids will surely enjoy the rampant romp that occurs when the top-hatted feline convinces young Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) to wreak havoc in the home their mother (Kelly Preston) has neatly prepared for an upcoming party. It's all in the name of fun, and while Seuss's classic rhymes are relegated to voice-over narration, director Bo Welch capitalizes on his background as one of Hollywood's most gifted production designers (with credits including Edward Scissorhands and! Men in Black), turning the Seussian town of "Anville" into a playful pastiche of pastels. As played by Mike Myers under layers of fur and latex, Dr. Seuss's mischievous Cat is mayhem personified, and the movie suffers from his anything-goes approach to getting a laugh. And though Myers delivers a few laughs while channeling voices from his own comedic repertoire (including "Coffee Talk" maven Linda Richman), a little of this Cat goes a long way, and he nearly wears out his welcome. --Jeff ShannonPoor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process! Written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 in response to the concern that "pallid primers [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls' were leading to growing illiteracy among children, The Cat in the Hat (the first Ra! ndom House Beginner Book) changed the way our children learn h! ow to re ad.
He may be an old standby, but he never lets us down. When in doubt, turn to the story of the cat that transformed a dull, rainy afternoon into a magical and just-messy-enough adventure. There's another, hidden adventure, too: this book really will help children learn to read. With his simple and often single-vowel vocabulary, the good Doctor knew what he was doing: hear it, learn it, read it--laughing all the way. The Cat in the Hat is a must for any child's library.

William Shakespeare's Hamlet (Two-Disc Special Edition)

  • Hamlet has the kind of power, energy and excitement that movies can truly exploit,' award-winning actor/director Kenneth Branagh says. In this first-ever full-text film of William Shakespeare's greatest work, the power surges through every scene. The timeless tale of murder, corruption and revenge is reset in an opulent 19th-century world, using sprawling Blenheim Palace as Elsinore and st
The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark - A Study with the Text of the Folio of 1623 is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by George MacDonald is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of George MacDonald then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection.Treachery. Madness. Murder. The story of Hamlet has been told for 400 years...but it's never been told like this! ! Mel Gibson (the Mad Max and Lethal Weapon films) takes on his richest part to date, the title role in a dynamic new version of Shakespeare's Hamlet. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli (Romeo and Juliet, Jesus of Nazareth), the location-shot production has a sumptuous look that won Academy Award nominations for Art Direction and Costume Design. Gibson plays the prince of medieval-era Denmark, who senses treachery behind his royal father's death. Glenn Close (Fatal Attraction, Dangerous Liaisons) plays Hamlet's mother Gertrude, all too dangerously entangled in that treachery. A brilliant supporting cast, including Alan Bates as Claudius, Paul Scofield as the ghost of Hamlet's father, Ian Holm as Polonius and Helena Bonham-Carter as Ophelia, adds its powerful presence to this immortal tale of high adventure and evil deeds. Big, bold and heroic, this is a vivid and virile Hamlet for the modern age and all time.Franco Zeffirelli's stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespear! e's play stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the am! bivalent Danish prince. Gibson is much better in the part than many critics have admitted, his powers of clarity doing much to make this particular Hamlet more accessible than several other filmed versions. The supporting cast is outstanding, including Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, Ian Holm as Polonius, and Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia. Zeffirelli's vigorous direction employs a lively camera style that nicely alters the viewer's preconceptions about the way Hamlet should look. --Tom KeoghThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.
Each edition includes:

• Freshly edited text! based on the best early printed version of the play

• Full explanatory notes conveniently placed on pages facing the text of the play

• Scene-by-scene plot summaries

• A key to famous lines and phrases

• An introduction to reading Shakespeare's language

• An essay by an outstanding scholar providing a modern perspective on the play

• Illustrations from the Folger Shakespeare Library's vast holdings of rare books

Essay by Michael Neill

The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., is home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare's printed works, and a magnet for Shakespeare scholars from around the globe. In addition to exhibitions open to the public throughout the year, the Folger offers a full calendar of performances and programs. For more information, visit www.folger.edu.

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: UN
Release Date: 14-AUG-2007
Me! dia Type: DVDIt's the greatest work of literature, but nob! ody had ever filmed Hamlet uncut--until Kenneth Branagh went about the task for his lavish 1996 production. The result is a sumptuous, star-studded version that scores a palpable hit on its avowed goal: to make the text as clear and urgent as possible. Branagh himself plays the melancholy son of the Danish court, caught in a famous muddle about whether to seek revenge against his royal father's presumed slayer… the man who now sits on the throne and shares the bed of Hamlet's mother. (Or, as the song "That's Entertainment" summarizes the plot: "A ghost and a prince meet / And everyone winds up mincemeat.") As a director, Branagh (who shot the movie in 70 mm.) uses the vast, cold interiors of a vaguely 19th-century manor to gorgeous effect; the story might scurry down this hallway, into that back chamber, or sprawl out into the enormous main room. With its endless collection of mirrors, the place is as big and empty as Citizen Kane's Xanadu.

That all works; what ! doesn't work is Branagh's tendency to over-direct the big dramatic moments. He indulges in quick cutting and flashbacks as though to fend off the audience's objections to the four-hour running time, and the style sometimes looks like wasted energy. The experienced Shakespearians in the cast come off nicely; Derek Jacobi's Claudius, Richard Briers' Polonius, and Michael Maloney's Laertes are just terrific. Julie Christie is a suitably attractive Gertrude, and Kate Winslet makes the most of Ophelia's mad scenes. Branagh's habit of folding in unexpected American performers is on the mark, too: Billy Crystal is surprisingly good as the Gravedigger, Robin Williams predictably camps up Osric, and Charlton Heston is an inspired choice as the grandiloquent Player King. The biggest irony here is that Branagh himself is not quite spot-on as Hamlet. Of course he speaks the lines beautifully, but Branagh's screen personality radiates certainty and clarity of vision; there's little of ! the doubt that might make him Hamlet-esque. Still, tremendous ! credit f or fending off slings and arrows to get the movie made. --Robert Horton

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Chandni Chowk to China

  • Have you ever dreamed of being more than your circumstances? Sidhu (Askay Kumar) longs to escape his dreary existence cutting vegetables at a road-side food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, India. When two strangers from China proclaim he is the reincarnation of a Chinese war hero, Sidhu envisions fame, fortune and adventure. Journeying with them back to Chin
Have you ever dreamed of being more than your circumstances? Sidhu (Askay Kumar) longs to escape his dreary existence cutting vegetables at a road-side food stand in Chandni Chowk, one of the oldest and busiest markets in Delhi, India. When two strangers from China proclaim he is the reincarnation of a Chinese war hero, Sidhu envisions fame, fortune and adventure. Journeying with them back to China, Sidhu meets the alluring Sakhi (Deepika Padukone) and love blossoms. But can it survive the vicious s! muggler, Hojo (Gordon Liu) and his cadre of kung-fu assassins? Megalomaniacal villains, crazy inventors, Chinese mystics and outlandish kung-fu assassins all get thrown together in this joyful, uplifting adventure full of beautiful landscapes, attention-grabbing songs, and high energy dancing. Featuring top Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone and produced by acclaimed father and son duo, Ramesh and Rohan Sippy, Chandni Chowk to China promises to excite.It's a rare Bollywood show that gets a healthy stateside push, but in 2009 Chandni Chowk to China invaded U.S. theaters with its crackpot blend of music, slapstick, and melodrama. The plot itself couldn't be clearer. (Just kidding.) Akshay Kumar, leading light of Bollywood, plays Sidhu, a Delhi nitwit who slices potatoes at a food store in the chaotic Chandni Chowk neighborhood. After discovering the unmistakable image of the god Ganesh in the skin of a spud, Sidhu is proclaimed the reincarnation of a ! legendary Chinese hero. A trip to the Great Wall and a job def! ending t he much-abused population of a small town can't be far behind. Mix in a pretty TV-commercial spokesmodel (Deepika Padukone) visiting China to bring closure to a childhood tragedy, plus martial-arts goofiness, a villain (legendary Kill Bill star Gordon Liu) with a razor-edge bowler hat--take that, Goldfinger--and the occasional musical number, and you've got yourself a thoroughly entertaining piece of absurdity. Kumar is spirited, Padukone is gorgeous, and Ranvir Shorey and Mithun Chakraborty provide amusing support. Arguments can certainly be made about whether Warner Bros. could have thrown their weight behind some other Bollywood offering for a U.S. push (this film's chopsocky similarities to Kung Fu Hustle, which rang up tidy profits, might explain the choice), but taken on its own zany terms, Chandni Chowk is a good time. --Robert Horton

Derailed (Unrated Widescreen)

  • A clandestine love affair may claim a terrible price from two desperate people in this intelligent thriller. Charles Schine (Clive Owen) is an advertising executive who is happily married to Deana (Melissa George) and has a young daughter. However, that begins to change when Charles meets Lucinda Harris (Jennifer Aniston) on a commuter train. Lucinda, who is also married with a daughter, keep bump
Some lines should never becrossed.ProductInformationIn Derailed married man Charles Schine (Clive Owen) meets LucindaHarris (Jennifer Aniston) a high powered businesswoman on a commutertrain one morning.  An innocent conversation leads to anevening drink.  Before either one can stop it their arousedpassions lead to a sizzling one-night stand.  Suddenly astranger explodes into their world threatening to expose their secretand lures them into a terrifying game with more surprises than they sawcomin! g.Product Features Deleted Scenes The Making of DerailedSpecifications Stars:  Clive Own JenniferAniston Vincent Cassel Format:  Color DVD-VideoWidescreen Language:  English French Subtitles:  English Spanish Number of Discs: 1 Rating:  Unrated/Not Rated Run Time:  112 minutes Directed By:  Mikael H?fstr?mWith a nasty villain and a plot twist that will take many viewers by surprise, Derailed is the kind of potboiler that's enjoyable in spite of its flaws. It's basically two-thirds of a good movie, with a convincing set-up and a barely plausible payoff that... well, you've just got to see it and decide for yourself. Like Fatal Attraction, it's a good-enough thriller that turns infidelity into every man's nightmare, beginning when Charles (Clive Owen), a well-to-do Chicago advertising director with a sickly, diabetic daughter and a slightly troubled marriage, has a chance encounter with Lucinda (Jennifer Aniston), a lovely and quick-witted financial advis! or who's also stuck in a marital rut. Their chemistry is insta! nt (betw een both characters and stars), but their eventual hotel tryst is interrupted by a mugger (French actor Vincent Cassel at his vile, despicable best) who's out to milk Charles for every dollar he's got. Of course, one phone call to the police would solve everyone's problems, but as he did with Collateral (albeit more convincingly), screenwriter Stuart Beattie turns up the tension with such manipulative skill that you're willing to skate past the plot holes and go along for the ride. With lively supporting performances by rappers Xzibit and RZA, Derailed marks a commercially slick American debut for Swedish director Mikael Håfström, whose 2003 thriller Evil was a Best Foreign Film Oscar®-nominee. --Jeff Shannon

The Encyclopedia of Small Business Forms and Agreements: A Complete Kit of Ready-to-Use Business Checklists, Worksheets, Forms, Contracts, and Human Resource Documents With Companion CD-ROM

  • ISBN13: 9781601382481
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Those who wish they had a resource in which every possible small business form and agreement they have ever encountered was located can breathe a sigh of relief. The Encyclopedia of Small Business Forms and Agreements is the answer, as it will provide small business owners with ready-to-use checklists, worksheets, forms, contracts, and human resource documents. Inside these pages you will find over 250 essential documents for all your hiring, firing, intellectual property, Internet, technology, legal, merger, acquisition, money, fundraising, sales, marketing, and starting a business needs. In essence, this book is a small business survival kit packed with materials you can use for every aspect of yo! ur job.

This encyclopedia and companion CD-ROM focuses on the issues, situations, and tasks that you, as a small business owner, face every day when running your business, such as incorporation, board and shareholder resolutions, partnership agreements, business plans, insurance, employee applications, employment policies, termination, job descriptions, employee benefits, sales and service contracts, bills of sale, invoices, press releases, raising capital, venture capital, license agreements, confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements, letters of intent, term sheets, domain names, e-commerce contracts, release forms, demand letters, litigation, and arbitration.

Included in this comprehensive book are hundreds of easy-to-implement tools, contracts, forms, and checklists that will help you organize your business and make it easier to manage while increasing your bottom line. With its professionally organized format, this book takes you step by step through t! he valuable forms, which may be easily printed out and customi! zed, tha nks to the convenient companion CD-ROM. <\p>

Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore

  • In the eternal battle between cats and dogs, one crazed feline has taken things a paw too far
  • Former elite agent Kitty Galore has gone rogue and plans to unleash a diabolical device designed to
  • Faced with this dire threat, cats and dogs must work together for the first time ever to save
  • This fantastically fun adventure features the voice talent of Christina Applegate, Michael Clarke
In the eternal battle between cats and dogs, one crazed feline has taken things a paw too far. Former elite agent Kitty Galore has gone rogue and plans to unleash a diabolical device designed to not only bring her canine enemies to heel but also to take down her former kitty comrades and make the world her scratching post. Faced with this dire threat, cats and dogs must work together for the first time ever to save themselves and their beloved humans from global cat-astrophe. This fantastic! ally fun adventure features the voice talent of Christina Applegate, Michael Clarke Duncan, Neil Patrick Harris, Sean Hayes, James Marsden, Bette Midler and Nick Nolte and stars Chris O'Donnell and Jack McBrayer.A definite improvement over the original 2001 Cats & Dogs, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore is a brand-new story about an underground world of animal intelligence, featuring cat spy agency M.E.O.W.S., a dog intelligence agency, and even a pigeon. They find themselves in the unlikely position of joining forces against renegade M.E.O.W.S. agent Kitty Galore as she seeks revenge against dogs and humans in a plan that will destroy the human race and allow her to rule the world. This 3-D film is a blend of live action, puppetry, and animation, and the combination of better writing and a cast of talented voice artists makes the animal spies in this sequel much more believable than in the previous film. Kitty Galore is unlikable to the core and Bette ! Midler is absolutely perfect in the role. Neil Patrick Harris ! is highl y effective as Lou, head of the dog agency; James Marsden plays the conflicted police-dog-turned-new-recruit Diggs; Nick Nolte plays fellow canine agent Butch; Christina Applegate is M.E.O.W.S. agent Catherine; and Katt Williams as Seamus does a great pigeon. The unlikely cooperation between canine, feline, and bird leads to an action-adventure that takes the agents from dark back alleys to a cat house run by a cat lady pushing catnip and even a local carnival. The action scenes will hold the interest of most children ages 6 to 12, though many of the adults in the crowd may find them rather on the slow side, and kids and adults alike will chuckle at the silly jokes and slapstick comedy that pop up throughout the film. A notable laugh for the adults in the audience comes in an extended scene that clearly invokes Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs. Add in a robot cat, some silly magician tricks--including Kitty Galore zipped into a rabbit suit--a squirrel robot! that self-destructs after a quick dance, and the requisite 3-D effects and you've got a perfectly adequate action comedy that kids will enjoy and their parents can stomach without too much complaining. --Tami Horiuchi

Flawless

  • From director Michael Radford (THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, IL POSTINO) comes FLAWLESS, a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn, a bright, driven and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment, as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater expe
From director Michael Radford (THE MERCHANT OF VENICE IL POSTINO) comes FLAWLESS a clever diamond-heist thriller set in swinging 1960s London. Demi Moore plays Laura Quinn a bright driven and beautiful executive at the London Diamond Corporation who finds herself frustrated by a glass ceiling after years of faithful employment as man after man is promoted ahead of her despite her greater experience. Michael Caine is Hobbs the nighttime janitor at London Diamond who is virtually invisible to the exec! utives that work there but over the years has amassed a startling amount of knowledge about how the company runs. Hobbs has his own bone to pick with London Diamond. Observing Laura s frustration he convinces her to help him execute an ingenious plan to steal a hefty sum in diamonds. But unbeknownst to Laura Hobbs plans go even farther than he s let on and together they set in motion a thrilling heist of dizzying proportions the likes of which London has never seen.System Requirements:Running Time: 109 mintuesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/PSYCHOLOGICAL DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 876964001038 Manufacturer No: 10103It would be overpraise to propose that Flawless reviews itself with its title, but... how about "supremely decorous"? It is, at any rate, a film that merits a grateful salute from audiences weary of being beaten about the head and shoulders in pursuit of an engrossing caper movie. A plot to make off with a fortune in gems from England's premier diamond co! mpany unfolds without explosions, vrooming vehicles, or rapid-! fire sho otouts. It's like a feature-length variation on those sly, soft-spoken Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes of the '50s, with the patient accumulation of mood, detail and character leading to wry twists and satisfying revelations. We are in 1960 and a London not yet disposed to swing. Laura Quinn (Demi Moore), the lone female officer of London Diamond Corporation, is smarter and more capable than her male colleagues, but that doesn't deter the company from promoting them over her while profiting from her talents. This has long since gotten old, so when Mr. Hobbs (Michael Caine), the mild-mannered night janitor, enlists her in a scheme to fill his thermos with two million pounds' worth of diamonds from the vault, she listens. Suffice it to say that the vault is penetrated according to plan--and then the real tension sets in. Things are not what they seem, even to those supposedly in the know (us, for instance), and distrust springs up between the conspirators as they fin! d themselves under close scrutiny by a steely investigator (Lambert Wilson).

All this is intelligently scripted by Edward A. Anderson (a maiden effort) and directed by Michael Radford with a crisp, unostentatious eye; the cold interiors of the Lon Di headquarters, generically oppressive on first sight, take on a nuanced familiarity as the place where, for the most part, Laura Quinn spends her life. Demi Moore--scarlet lips in a black-and-grey world--admirably catches Laura's not-quite-smothered ambition and frustration without breaking her cover, as it were. Michael Caine couldn't be better as Hobbs, an invisible man in plain sight (how many viewers fail to notice his first appearance in the film?); he's the master of his trade, but you knew that. There's a framing story, set more or less in the present, which seems to be an obligatory bow to feminism but sets up a tease or two of its own, then adds yet another twist to the proceedings. --Richard T. Jameson

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