The Anti-Christ

• ISBN13: 9781936594269
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Lars von Trier (Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) shook up the film world when he premiered Antichrist at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and womanâ€"a searing Willem Dafoe (Platoon, The Last Temptation of Christ) and Cannes best actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Jane Eyre, 21 Grams)â€"retreat to a cabin deep in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son, only to find terror and violence at the hands of nature and, ultimately, each other. But this most confrontational work yet from one of contemporary cinema’s most controversial artists is no mere provocation. It is a visually sublime, emotionally ravaging journey to the darkest! corners of the possessed human mind; a disturbing battle of the sexes that pits rational psychology against age-old superstition; and a profoundly effective horror film.Lars von Trier's notorious Antichrist is a fascinating and extremely gruesome experiment that combines B-horror tropes with art film concepts and cinematography to question differences between high horror and low horror, if there are such categories. Like the best of Argento, namely Suspiria, Antichrist follows a strictly formulaic, minimalist, almost operatic script structure in which the story of a couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, grieve their dead son. The highly organized story, like a poem, has ample space for metaphors to form, dwell, and transform into overgrown mysteries, such as the decadent forest, Eden, where the couple retreat to their cabin to face demons. When the camera zooms in on a flower vase's murky water on the nightstand beside a bereft Gains! bourg, one senses the ensuing downward spiral.

While the ! film's p lot, marked by chapters named after stages of grief, like "Pain" and "Despair," is rooted in absolute realism, the film's glorious moments are in its fantasy. There is a talking fox, subtle hints at ghostly occurrences, and many scenes that express the uncanny. Moreover, Gainsbourg's character, obsessed with witchcraft as it relates to historical gynocide and misogyny, adds much to the film's depressing sensibility that wallows unapologetically in decrepitude and faulty, negative reasoning. Dafoe, who plays the psychologist treating his hallucination-plagued wife, does a remarkable job depicting a person struggling through loss with logic. Antichrist works because Dafoe and Gainsbourg create archetypal characters, functioning symbolically as Logic and Psychosis in a Freudian maze with no exit. That said, the violent conclusions in the film's third chapter, "Despair (Gynocide)," are grim, graphic, and very difficult to watch. Antichrist, like its sister film in ! violence portrayed artfully, Irreversible, has all the more shock value because of the archetypal symbolism it successfully establishes. --Trinie DaltonLars von Trier (Europa, Breaking the Waves, Dancer in the Dark) shook up the film world when he premiered Antichrist at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival. In this graphic psychodrama, a grief-stricken man and womanâ€"a searing Willem Dafoe (Platoon, The Last Temptation of Christ) and Cannes best actress Charlotte Gainsbourg (Jane Eyre, 21 Grams)â€"retreat to a cabin deep in the woods after the accidental death of their infant son, only to find terror and violence at the hands of nature and, ultimately, each other. But this most confrontational work yet from one of contemporary cinema’s most controversial artists is no mere provocation. It is a visually sublime, emotionally ravaging journey to the darkest corners of the possessed human mind; a disturbing battle of the sexes that pits rational psychology against ag! e-old superstition; and a profoundly effective horror film.Lar! s von Tr ier's notorious Antichrist is a fascinating and extremely gruesome experiment that combines B-horror tropes with art film concepts and cinematography to question differences between high horror and low horror, if there are such categories. Like the best of Argento, namely Suspiria, Antichrist follows a strictly formulaic, minimalist, almost operatic script structure in which the story of a couple, played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg, grieve their dead son. The highly organized story, like a poem, has ample space for metaphors to form, dwell, and transform into overgrown mysteries, such as the decadent forest, Eden, where the couple retreat to their cabin to face demons. When the camera zooms in on a flower vase's murky water on the nightstand beside a bereft Gainsbourg, one senses the ensuing downward spiral.

While the film's plot, marked by chapters named after stages of grief, like "Pain" and "Despair," is rooted in absolute realism, t! he film's glorious moments are in its fantasy. There is a talking fox, subtle hints at ghostly occurrences, and many scenes that express the uncanny. Moreover, Gainsbourg's character, obsessed with witchcraft as it relates to historical gynocide and misogyny, adds much to the film's depressing sensibility that wallows unapologetically in decrepitude and faulty, negative reasoning. Dafoe, who plays the psychologist treating his hallucination-plagued wife, does a remarkable job depicting a person struggling through loss with logic. Antichrist works because Dafoe and Gainsbourg create archetypal characters, functioning symbolically as Logic and Psychosis in a Freudian maze with no exit. That said, the violent conclusions in the film's third chapter, "Despair (Gynocide)," are grim, graphic, and very difficult to watch. Antichrist, like its sister film in violence portrayed artfully, Irreversible, has all the more shock value because of the archetypal symbol! ism it successfully establishes. --Trinie DaltonHere is! Friedri ch Nietzsche's great masterpiece The Anti-Christ, wherein Nietzsche attacks Christianity as a blight on humanity. This classic is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand Nietzsche and his place within the history of philosophy. "We should not deck out and embellish Christianity: it has waged a war to the death against this higher type of man, it has put all the deepest instincts of this type under its ban, it has developed its concept of evil, of the Evil One himself, out of these instincts-the strong man as the typical reprobate, the 'outcast among men.' Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched; it has made an ideal out of antagonism to all the self-preservative instincts of sound life; it has corrupted even the faculties of those natures that are intellectually most vigorous, by representing the highest intellectual values as sinful, as misleading, as full of temptation. The most lamentable example: the corruption of Pascal, who beli! eved that his intellect had been destroyed by original sin, whereas it was actually destroyed by Christianity!" -Friedrich Nietzsche

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10 pack MAXELL AG13 LR44 357 button cell battery

• 1.5V, 138mAh
• D:11.60mm H:5.40mm

A casual athletic trainer designed to meet today's lifestyle needs. This heritage upper, combined with our heel tenCELL unit (the ultimate in cushioning) is perfect to wear before, during, and after a run. Outsole: Rubber Midsole: EVA and Bubble Tech Upper: Perfed LeatherMAXELL AG13 LR44 357 A76 button cell battery. Factory sealed in blister pack. 10 batteries per card.

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Boogie Nights (New Line Platinum Series)

• From Hollywood's hottest new director comes the outrageous epic that throws the covers back on California's adult entertainment industry in the swinging seventies. It's a touching and often humorous portrait of a most unusual family of filmakers, broughtRunning Time: 155 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R Age: 794043503320 UPC: 794043503320 Manufacturer

From Hollywood's hottest new director comes the outrageous epic that throws the covers back on California's adult entertainment industry in the swinging seventies. It's a touching and often humorous portrait of a most unusual family of filmakers, broughtEven if the notorious 1970s porn-filmmaking milieu doesn'texactly turn you on, don't let it turn you off to this movie's extraordinary virtues, either. Boogie Nights is one of the key movies of the 1990s, and among the most ambitious and exuberantly alive American movies ! in years. It's also the breakthrough for an amazing new director, whose dazzling kaleidoscopic style here recalls the Robert Altman of Nashville and the Martin Scorsese of GoodFellas. Although loosely based on the sleazy life and times of real-life porn legend John Holmes, at heart it's a classic Hollywood rise-and-fall fable: a naive, good-looking young busboy is discovered in a San Fernando Valley disco by a famous motion picture producer, becomes a hotshot movie star, lives the high life, and then loses everything when he gets too big for his britches, succumbs to insobriety, and is left behind by new times and new technology. Of course, it ain't exactly A Star Is Born or Singin' in the Rain. Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson (in only his second feature!) puts his own affectionately sardonic twist on the old showbiz biopic formula: the ambitious upstart changes his name and achieves stardom in porno films as "Dirk Diggler." Instead of drink! ing to excess, he snorts cocaine (the classic drug of '70s hed! onism); and it's the coming of home video (rather than talkies) that helps to dash his big-screen dreams. As for the britches ... well, the controversial "money shot" explains everything. And the cast is one of the great ensembles of the '90s, including Oscar nominees Burt Reynolds and Julianne Moore, Mark Wahlberg (who really can act--from the waist up, too!), Heather Graham (as Rollergirl), William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, and Ricky Jay. --Jim Emerson

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Chaos: Making a New Science

• ISBN13: 9780143113454
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

The study of chaotic systems has become a major scientific pursuit in recent years, shedding light on the apparently random behaviour observed in fields as diverse as climatology and mechanics. InThe Essence of Chaos Edward Lorenz, one of the founding fathers of Chaos and the originator of its seminal concept of the Butterfly Effect, presents his own landscape of our current understanding of the field.
Lorenz presents everyday examples of chaotic behaviour, such as the toss of a coin, the pinball's path, the fall of a leaf, and explains in elementary mathematical strms how their essentially chaotic nature can be understood. His principal example involved the construction of a model of a board slid! ing down a ski slope. Through this model Lorenz illustrates chaotic phenomena and the related concepts of bifurcation and strange attractors. He also provides the context in which chaos can be related to the similarly emergent fields of nonlinearity, complexity and fractals.
As an early pioneer of chaos, Lorenz also provides his own story of the human endeavour in developing this new field. He describes his initial encounters with chaos through his study of climate and introduces many of the personalities who contributed early breakthroughs. His seminal paper, "Does the Flap of a Butterfly's Wing in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?" is published for the first time.CHAOS THEORY - DVD MovieRyan Reynolds’ exceptional performance as an efficiency expert off his game is the best reason to see Chaos Theory, a drama-comedy full of surprises. Reynolds plays Frank, a compulsive list-maker and paragon of punctuality who gets behind schedule one day by a mere ten minutes! and watches his world fall down around him. Arriving late for! one of his own seminars, the rattled Frank becomes vulnerable to a serial seducer (Sarah Chalke) of married men, and drawn into a baby-delivery emergency. The ensuing confusion causes a rift between Frank and his suspicious wife (Emily Mortimer), which is nothing compared to what happens after Frank--trying to resolve his problems--discovers he’s not the father of his daughter, Jesse (Elisabeth Harnois). Daniel Taplitz’s screenplay feels a little random in its first act, though there is a lot to enjoy, particularly a preface that finds Frank around age 50, a wily observer of human nature advising his future son-in-law on how to survive tough times in marriage. (The film’s story proper is actually told in flashback.) Reynolds co-stars, including Stuart Townsend as Frank’s best friend, are all very good. But Reynolds has lately been perfecting such rising-toward-clarity roles as Frank (see also The Nines), and he is superb at conveying competing emotions under extreme ! stress. Equally ludicrous and sympathetic, Frank gives Chaos Theory an absurdist soul. --Tom KeoghThe twentieth-anniversary edition of the million-copy-plus Bestseller

THIS EDITION of James Gleick’s groundbreaking bestseller introduces to a whole new readership the story of one of the most significant waves of scientific knowledge in our time. By focusing on the key figures whose genius converged to chart an innovative direction for science, Gleick makes the story of chaos theory not only fascinating but also accessible, and opens our eyes to a surprising new view of the universe.

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The Busy World of Richard Scarry: Every Day There's Something New

• RICHARD SCARRY: BUSY WORLD 30 EPISODES (DVD MOVIE)

Liev Schreiber (Salt) heads an all-star cast in this warm and wise comic drama as Ned, a loving husband and devoted father dealing with life's curveballs. He's got a stressed-out wife (Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets) an independent teenage son (Ezra Miller, City Island), and an embittered father-in-law (Brian Dennehy, Silverado) who's turning his home upside down. Ned's job writing a scandalous TV series for a demanding boss (Eddie Izzard, Valkyrie) is unfulfilling, and late night rewrites with a sexy co-worker (Carla Gugino, Entourage) might just push him over the deep end. This modern family story by Nip/Tuck producer/writer Richard Levine is filled with heart, humor and life's unexpected twists that teach Ned that marriage and parenthood don’t always go according to the script.Liev Schreiber (Salt) heads an all-star cast in this warm and! wise comic drama as Ned, a loving husband and devoted father dealing with life's curveballs. He's got a stressed-out wife (Helen Hunt, As Good As It Gets) an independent teenage son (Ezra Miller, City Island), and an embittered father-in-law (Brian Dennehy, Silverado) who's turning his home upside down. Ned's job writing a scandalous TV series for a demanding boss (Eddie Izzard, Valkyrie) is unfulfilling, and late night rewrites with a sexy co-worker (Carla Gugino, Entourage) might just push him over the deep end. This modern family story by Nip/Tuck producer/writer Richard Levine is filled with heart, humor and life's unexpected twists that teach Ned that marriage and parenthood don’t always go according to the script.The title comes from research that shows people are happiest on Fridays. Pastor Joel Osteen writes how we can generate this level of contentment and joy every day of the week.
Known as a man who maintains a constant positive outlook in spite of cir! cumstances, Osteen has described this message as a core theme! of his ministry. Combining his personal experiences with scriptural insights and principles for true happiness, he shows readers how every day can hold the same promise and opportunities for pure joy that they experience at five o'clock on Friday.This 70-minute documentary follows the final days of freedom for Wendy Maldonado's fateful decision to protect her family from abuse at all costs, even her own freedom. Wendy, an Oregon Mother of four who pleaded guilty, along with her oldest son Randy for murdering her husband Aaron in his bed using a hammer and hatchet in May 2005.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.\r\n

This disc is expected to play back in DVD Video "play only" devices, and may not play in other DVD devices, including recorders and PC drives. \r\nEvery Day with Rachael Ray is every busy home cook?s go-to-guide for great food; good fun; and inspiring ways! to relax, laugh and enjoy life. Help yourself to 30-minute meals and menu planners, Rach?s faves for fun, beauty, style and home, plus 100s of food and entertaining tips.WHEN EVERY DAY WAS THE FOURTH OF JULY "Go out of your way to see it. It's pretty wonderful." - Los Angeles Times The summer of 1937 in Bridgeport, Connecticut was a time of innocence and adventure for 12-year-old Daniel Cooper and his 10-year-old sister Sarah. It was the year that Sarah's friend Snowman, a brain-damaged veteran of World War I, was accused of murder. Believing him to be innocent, Sarah convinces her attorney father, Ed Cooper (Dean Jones), to defend Snowman -- a decision that leads to an explosive and unforgettable courtroom drama. A Dan Curtis Production starring DEAN JONES, LOUISE SOREL, KATY KURTZMAN, CHRIS PETERSEN, HARRIS YULIN, GEOFFREY LEWIS, SCOTT BRADY, BEN PIAZZA, RONNIE CLAIRE EDWARDS AND HENRY WILCOXIN Music Composed by WALTER SCHARF Film Editor DENNIS VIRKLER Director of Pho! tography FRANK STANLEY Art Director JACK DeGOVIA Screenplay LE! E HUTSON Story by DAN CURTIS & LEE HUTSON Produced & Directed by DAN CURTIS. THE LONG DAYS OF SUMMER "Extraordinarily good...a captivating storyline, a sensitive and intelligent script, a marvelous cast..." - Los Angeles Herald Examiner During the summer of 1938, Jewish attorney Ed Cooper and his family are faced with a growing sense of bigotry in the community, mixed with awareness of the increasing menace overseas in the form of Adolf Hitler. The talk of Bridgeport, however, centers around the pending rematch between boxing heavyweight champ Joe Lewis and his German challenger -- a controversy that fuels the smoldering conflict about to erupt in this powerful sequel to When Every Day Was the Fourth of July.The title comes from research that shows people are happiest on Fridays. Pastor Joel Osteen writes how we can generate this level of contentment and joy every day of the week.
Known as a man who maintains a constant positive outlook in spite of circumstances, Osteen has! described this message as a core theme of his ministry. Combining his personal experiences with scriptural insights and principles for true happiness, he shows readers how every day can hold the same promise and opportunities for pure joy that they experience at five o'clock on Friday.The title comes from research that shows people are happiest on Fridays. Pastor Joel Osteen writes how we can generate this level of contentment and joy every day of the week.
Known as a man who maintains a constant positive outlook in spite of circumstances, Osteen has described this message as a core theme of his ministry. Combining his personal experiences with scriptural insights and principles for true happiness, he shows readers how every day can hold the same promise and opportunities for pure joy that they experience at five o'clock on Friday.Make Time for a Song and a Smile!

Favorite characters come to life in these enchanting animated tales! This fully animated serie! s is based on the books by Richard Scarry which parents worl! dwide re ly on to teach valuable lessons. Busytown is an enchanting place that s abuzz with energy and life. Young audiences love to sing and laugh along, as Huckle Cat and Lowly Worm make their way through the day. Always concerned for each other, the residents of Busytown make time for a song and a smile.

Featuring the beloved characters from the worldwide bestselling book series from acclaimed author Richard Scarry, young audiences will love to sing and laugh along as Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Mr. Fixit, Hilda Hippo, Sgt. Murphy and Bananas Gorilla make their way through the day exploring their happy and lively world.

This special DVD collection features 30, half-hour television episodes filled with fun stories, inventive slapstick and colorful animation to delight children of all ages!

Also included: 3 BONUS EPSIODES!

• Busytown Mysteries
• Wimzie's House
• Simon in the Land of Chalk.

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Dial M for Murder

• When American writer Mark Halliday visits the very married Margot Wendice in London, he unknowingly sets off a chain of blackmail and murder. After sensing Margot's affections for Halliday, her husband, Tony Wendice, fears divorce and disinheritance, and plots her death. Knowing former school chum Captain Lesgate is involved in illegal activities, Tony blackmails him into conspiring to kill Margot

DIAL M FOR MURDER - DVD MovieA suave tennis player (Ray Milland) plots the perfect murder, the dispatching of his wealthy wife (Grace Kelly), who is having an affair with a writer (Robert Cummings). Amazingly, the wife manages to stave off her attacker, a twist of fate that challenges the hubby's talent for improvisation. Alfred Hitchcock wisely stuck to the stage origins of Dial M for Murder, ignoring the temptation to "open up" the material from the home of the unhappy couple. The result ma! y not be one of Hitchcock's deepest films, but it's a thoroughly engaging chamber movie. It also features Grace Kelly at her loveliest, the same year she made Rear Window with Hitchcock. Dial M for Murder was filmed in the briefly trendy 3-D process, and Hitchcock shot some scenes to bring out the depth of the 3-D field; it's especially good for the nail-biting attempted murder of Kelly, and her desperate reach for a pair of scissors that seems to be just outside her grasp. However, the film was rarely shown with the proper 3-D projection, going out "flat" instead (a 1980 reissue restored the process for a limited theatrical release). Dial M was remade in 1998 as A Perfect Murder, a film that changed and expanded the material, with no improvement on the clean, witty original. --Robert Horton

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Heat [Blu-ray]

• When Al Pacino and Robert De Niro squarer off, HEAT sizzles. A tale of a brilliant L.A. cop (Pacino) following the trail from a deadly armed robbery to a crew headed by an equally brilliant master thief (De Niro). Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman co-star. Format: BLU-RAY DISC Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 883929073337 UPC:&nb

COLLATERAL - Blu-Ray MovieCollateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jami! e Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff ShannonVincent is a cool calculating cont! ract killer at the top of his game. Max is a cabbie with big d! reams lo oking for his next fare. This fateful night max will transport vincent on his next mission - one night 5 stops 5 hits & a perfect getaway. Together they find themselves in a non-stop race against time. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/22/2006 Starring: Tom Cruise Jada Picket Smith Run time: 120 minutes Rating: RCollateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay! deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff ShannonCollateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, a! fter all, and the director's stellar track record with crime t! hrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a b! it slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff ShannonStudio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/07/2011 Run time: 351 minutesStudio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 11/15/2011
Collateral

Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will ! execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie'! s screen play deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon


Days of Thunder

With Days of Thunder, director Tony Scott tried to do for the Indy 500 what he did for ! the U.S. Air Force with Top Gun. But without Top Gun's go-go soundtrack and visual feats, Scott merely ends up with a Tom Cruise vehicle that's out of gas.

Cruise plays (what else?) a cocky, upstart stock-car racer who faces down ruthless racing opponents. Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Cary Elwes, and Randy Quaid do the laps around this movie's tiresome track with Cruise, while director Scott attempts to propel the action along with his trademark visceral, gritty but glamorous visual style.

Days of Thunder is notable, however, as a turning point in Cruise's then one-dimensional career. After this film--having tired even his most devoted fans by playing a bartender, an air force pilot, and a stock-car driver--Cruise was forced to take on real character parts. --Ethan Brown

Minority Report

Set in the chillingly possible future of 2054, Steven Spielberg's Minority Re! port is arguably the most intelligently provocative sci-f! i thrill er since Blade Runner. Like Ridley Scott's "future noir" classic, Spielberg's gritty vision was freely adapted from a story by Philip K. Dick, with its central premise of "Precrime" law enforcement, totally reliant on three isolated human "precogs" capable (due to drug-related mutation) of envisioning murders before they're committed. As Precrime's confident captain, Tom Cruise preempts these killings like a true action hero, only to run for his life when he is himself implicated in one of the precogs' visions. Inspired by the brainstorming of expert futurists, Spielberg packs this paranoid chase with potential conspirators (Max Von Sydow, Colin Farrell), domestic tragedy, and a heartbreaking precog pawn (Samantha Morton), while Cruise's performance gains depth and substance with each passing scene. Making judicious use of astonishing special effects, Minority Report brilliantly extrapolates a future that's utterly convincing, and too close for ! comfort. --Jeff Shannon


Top Gun

Jingoism, beefcake, military hardware, and a Giorgio Moroder rock score reign supreme over taste and logic in this Tony Scott film about a maverick trainee pilot (Tom Cruise) who can't follow the rules at a Navy aviation training facility. The dogfight sequences between American and Soviet jets at the end are absolutely mechanical, though audiences loved it at the time. The love story between Cruise's character and that of Kelly McGillis is like flipping through pages of advertising in a glossy magazine. This designer action movie from 1986 would be all the more appalling were it not for the canny casting of good actors in dumb parts. Standouts include Anthony Edwards--who makes a nice impression as Cruise's average-Joe pal--and the relatively unknown Meg Ryan in a small but memorable appearance. --Tom Keogh


War of the Worlds

Despite super effects, a huge budget, and! the cin ematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies (Jaws, Jurassic Park). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The alie! ns are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." --Doug Thomas ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER DELIVERS A NAIL-BITING EXCITEMENT AND BOLD ONE-MAN HEROICS AS A LOS ANGELES FIREMAN WHO SEEKS REVENGE AFTER HIS WIFE AND SON ARE KILLED IN A TERRORIST BOMBING. SCHWARZENEGGER TRACKS THE MAN RESPONSIBLE FROM COLOMBIA TOWASHINGTON, D.C. IN A RACE TO STOP HIM BEFORE HE STRIKES AGAIN.Arnold Schwarzenegger's loyal fans get what they want i! n this routine but rousing revenge thriller, which pits the ag! ing acti on star against a Colombian guerrilla terrorist. Schwarzenegger plays a Los Angeles fireman who witnesses the killing of his wife and young son, caused by the terrorist's bombing in a crowded L.A. pavilion. Despite intense scrutiny by FBI and CIA officials, Arnie infiltrates the terrorist's remote jungle compound, enlists the aid of the villain's seemingly trustworthy wife (Francesca Neri), and plots to foil another bombing in Washington, D.C. Director Andrew Davis (The Fugitive) maintains adequate plausibility even when Schwarzenegger's survival grows absurdly unlikely, and lively roles for John Turturro and John Leguizamo add welcomed spice to the movie's impressive display of military ordnance. Despite its formulaic plot and Arnold's advancing seniority, Collateral Damage still manages to pack an entertaining punch. --Jeff Shannon When Al Pacino and Robert De Niro squarer off, HEAT sizzles. A tale of a brilliant L.A. cop (Pacino) following the trail f! rom a deadly armed robbery to a crew headed by an equally brilliant master thief (De Niro). Val Kilmer, Jon Voight, Tom Sizemore, Ashley Judd and Natalie Portman co-star.Having developed his skill as a master of contemporary crime drama, writer-director Michael Mann displayed every aspect of that mastery in this intelligent, character-driven thriller from 1995, which also marked the first onscreen pairing of Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. The two great actors had played father and son in the separate time periods of The Godfather, Part II, but this was the first film in which the pair appeared together, and although their only scene together is brief, it's the riveting fulcrum of this high-tech cops-and-robbers scenario. De Niro plays a master thief with highly skilled partners (Val Kilmer and Tom Sizemore) whose latest heist draws the attention of Pacino, playing a seasoned Los Angeles detective whose investigation reveals that cop and criminal lead similar lives.! Both are so devoted to their professions that their personal ! lives ar e a disaster. Pacino's with a wife (Diane Venora) who cheats to avoid the reality of their desolate marriage; De Niro pays the price for a life with no outside connections; and Kilmer's wife (Ashley Judd) has all but given up hope that her husband will quit his criminal career. These are men obsessed, and as De Niro and Pacino know, they'll both do whatever's necessary to bring the other down. Mann's brilliant screenplay explores these personal obsessions and sacrifices with absorbing insight, and the tension mounts with some of the most riveting action sequences ever filmed--most notably a daylight siege that turns downtown Los Angeles into a virtual war zone of automatic gunfire. At nearly three hours, the film qualifies as a kind of intimate epic, certain to leave some viewers impatiently waiting for more action, but it's all part of Mann's compelling strategy. Heat is a true rarity: a crime thriller with equal measures of intense excitement and dramatic depth, g! iving De Niro and Pacino a prime showcase for their finely matched talents. --Jeff Shannon

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Adrift: Seventy-six Days Lost at Sea

• ISBN13: 9780618257324
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Before The Perfect Storm, before In the Heart of the Sea, Steven Callahan’s dramatic tale of survival at sea was on the New York Times bestseller list for more than thirty-six weeks. In some ways the model for the new wave of adventure books, Adrift is an undeniable seafaring classic, a riveting firsthand account by the only man known to have survived more than a month alone at sea, fighting for his life in an inflatable raft after his small sloop capsized only six days out. Â"Utterly absorbing” (Newsweek), Adrift is a must-have for any adventure library.

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