- DVD Details: Actors: Helen Hunt, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Wilkinson, Milena Vukotic, Stephen Campbell Moore
- Directors: Mike Barker
- Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC. Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only)
- Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1; Number of discs: 1; Studio: Lions Gate
- DVD Release Date: November 9, 1999; Run Time: 83 minutes
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING (2003): Seventeen-year-old Griet must work to support her family and becomes a maid in the house of Johannes Vermeer, where she gradually attracts the master painter's attention. Johannes and Griet must hide their inspiration of each other from his vo latile wife Catharina. The wealthy and troublemaking Master van Ruijven senses the intimacy between the artist and his maid and cont rives a commission for Vermeer to paint Griet alone. The result will be one of the greatest painting! s ever created, but at what cost? A GOOD WOMAN (2006): A notorious seductress enters a gossipy society and entices the husband of a faithful young woman, delighting the gossips and prompt ing a series of unexpected consequences. AN AMERICAN RHAPSODY (2001): Nastassja Kinski and Tony Goldwyn star as a hungarian couple persecuted by an oppresive Communist government. Forced to flee their country, the leave their baby girl with Hungarian foster parents. Several years later, the girl, Suzanne Scarlett Johansson), reunited with her mother and father in California. But as Suzanne gros, so do the questions about her mysterious past and heritage, as she embarks on an unforgettable journey of self-discovery.Blockbuster action director Michael Bay delivers a striking look at a strange world of the future in this sci-fi action drama. Midway through the 21st century, Lincoln Six Echo (Ewan McGregor) lives in a confined indoor community after ongoing abuse of the Earth has rendered most! of the planet uninhabitable. One of the only places in the ou! tside wo rld still capable of sustaining life is an idyllic island where citizens are chosen to live through a lottery. Or at least that's what Lincoln and his fellow citizens are taught to believe; the truth is that Lincoln, like everyone he knows, is actually a clone who is kept under wraps to provide needed organs when the person who supplied his or her DNA falls ill. When he becomes aware that his existence is a fraud, Lincoln escapes to the outside world with a fellow clone, Jordan Two Delta (Scarlett Johansson), though the powers that be are determined to see that no one gets away alive.
The Island also stars Steve Buscemi, Djimon Hounsou, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Sean Bean.When you add up all the best things about
The Island, you might just conclude that there's hope yet for Hollywood's most critically reviled hit-maker, Michael Bay. Recruited by Steven Spielberg to direct this lavish and often breathtaking sci-fi action thriller, Bay rises to the occasion wi! th an ambitious production that is, by his standards (and compared to Bay's earlier hits like
The Rock and
Armageddon), surprisingly intelligent as it explores the repercussions of cloning in a sealed-off society where humans are cultivated for spare parts, surrogate parenthood, and full-body replacements for wealthy clientele. But when two of the clones (Ewan McGregor, Scarlett Johanssen) begin to question their fate and the motives of their keepers, they escape into the real world and
The Island becomes just another Michael Bay action extravaganza, albeit an impressively exciting one. With elaborate chase scenes and a high-tech feast of CGI to dazzle the eye,
The Island recycles much of the plot from 1979's
Clonus while borrowing elements from
Logan's Run,
Gattaca and
Minority Report, and while it's not as smartly conceived as those earlier films, there's no denying that, in many ways, it's Bay's best film to date. --Jeff ShannonMatch Point is "a winning combination of s! ex, myst ery, brilliant writing and first-rate acting that all adds up to one of the most erotic and exhilarating movies in years." (Maxim). Chris (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is being torn apart by his desire for two very different women. Marrying Chloe (Emily Mortimer) will bring him a life of wealth and success, but his true passion lies with his brother-in-law's fiancee, the stunningly sensuous but unpredictable Nola (Scarlett Johansson). Pulsing with tension, Match Point rides the dangerous line between ambition and obsession to an ending as surprising as it is chilling.The passion of mad love and the cold calculations of social climbing collide in Woody Allen's
Match Point. Former tennis pro Chris Wilton (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers,
Velvet Goldmine) stumbles into good fortune when Chloe Hewett (Emily Mortimer,
Lovely & Amazing), the daughter of a wealthy businessman, falls in love with him. But when Chris meets Nola Rice (Scarlett Johansson,
Lost in Translation! ), a much deeper passion is stirred--and his desire isn't deterred when he discovers that Nola is already dating Chloe's brother. But when their affair threatens Chris's increasingly cozy lifestyle, Chris begins to consider a drastic solution.
Match Point starts deftly and ends with cunning; though the middle bogs down in banal plot mechanics, Woody Allen fans have justly hailed it as a comeback after Allen's last few cinematic stumbles. Despite weaknesses (Allen still seems to have lost touch with the mundane realities of life; his characters operate in a strange, weightless world of wealth and privilege), the strong performances and clean direction carry the movie through. Also featuring Brian Cox (
X-Men 2,
Adaptation).
--Bret Fetzer2009 collaboration between the singer/songwriter and actress/vocalist. Includes eight original compositions by Pete/Scarlett in the spirit of Serge Gainsbourg's recording with Brigitte Bardot. The album re-enacts th! e tempestuous course of a love affair on the rocks. The album ! had its genesis in the aftermath of a breakup in 2006. After Yorn was unable to sleep for a week, he finally dozed off, only to wake with a start just minutes later. What had awakened him was a dream. "I sat up in bed, and the whole thing was in my head, fully formed," Yorn says, sounding as if he still doesn't quite believe it. "I suddenly felt like I really needed to make a record in the style of Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot. Not that it had to sound like that, but it had to be a guy-and-girl conceptual thing. So then I asked myself, 'Who's Brigitte Bardot today? It's Scarlett Johansson.'" Featuring an interpretation of the classic 'I Am the Cosmos' by the late Chris Bell co-founder of Big Star. Scarlett Johansson and Hugh Jackman star in this hilariously twisted tale of murder and mystery. When an inquisitive college journalist (Johansson) stumbles upon new clues to a string of murders, her investigation leads directly to a handsome businessman (Jackman), who draws he! r in with his mysterious charm. Could a whirlwind romance with the subject of her search also become the most dangerous scoop of a lifetime? Experience the laughs in this witty new comedy that will have you guessing until the very end.Light and charming,
Scoop blends murder, ghosts, and falling in love. While inside of a magician's magic cabinet, aspiring journalist Sondra Pransky (Scarlett Johansson,
Lost in Translation) is visiting by the ghost of a dead reporter (Ian McShane,
Deadwood) who has gotten a hot tip in the afterlife: A rising young politician named Peter Lyman (Hugh Jackman,
X-Men) may be the notorious serial killer who leaves tarot cards by his victims. With the magician (writer-director Woody Allen) in tow, Sondra sneaks her way into Lyman's life--and, despite increasing evidence that the tip is true, finds herself falling in love with him.
Scoop is stronger than Allen's last film, the overrated
Match Point; moment t! o moment, scene to scene, it's his most zippy and entertaining! movie i n years. It still suffers from laziness--Allen seems unwilling to look at the plot's holes and find a way to sew them up--and Allen's own persona, with his now-rote comic stutterings and hesitations, drags on the film's momentum. Despite this,
Scoop has flashes of suspense and wit that, in an unknown filmmaker, would be cause for celebration. Also featuring Charles Dance (
White Mischief) and Romola Garai (
I Capture the Castle), one of the few actresses who can compete with Johansson in lusciousness.
--Bret FetzerGOOD WOMAN - DVD MovieScarlett Johannson and Helen Hunt give Oscar Wilde's popular play
Lady Windermere's Fan a lavish jazz-age treatment in
A Good Woman. An adventuress (Hunt,
As Good as It Gets) flees scandal in New York and lands in Italy, where she crosses paths with a young businessman (David Hasselhoff look-alike Mark Umbers) and his very upright young wife (Johansson,
Lost in Translation). Before long, t! ongues are wagging about the adventuress and the businessman, possibly driving the wife to a rash act.
A Good Woman retains Wilde's plot--though its 19th century moral concerns don't have the same punch in 1930s Italy--and tosses aside most of his impeccable dialogue, sprinkling his clever epigrams here and there in the otherwise undistinguished dialogue. Johansson, perhaps the most physically sensual actress since Brigitte Bardot, is miscast as the moral prig; Hunt, looking pinched and austere, is miscast as the jaded courtesan. The movie's great saving grace is Tom Wilkinson as a rich man who hopes Hunt will warm his older years. Wilkinson brings a worldly benevolence to every moment he's on screen, making the lines that weren't written by Wilde sound as crisp and wise as if they were.
--Bret Fetzer
10:38 PM
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