Monday, November 14, 2011

Exit Wounds

NOVA - Galileo's Battle for the Heavens

  • At a time when heretics were burned alive for dissent, scientist Galileo Galilei risked his life to advance his revolutionary concepts of the universe. British actor Simon Callow (Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral) brings Galileo to life, humanizing the great thinker s passion, intelligence, and arrogance while depicting his frustrations with fellow philosophers and scientists, and
Marcos (Marcos Hernandez) is the middle-aged chauffeur of Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz), daughter of a Mexican general who amuses herself by working as a prostitute in a high-end brothel. Marcos and his wife (Berta Ruiz) have kidnapped a baby for ransom but it went tragically wrong when the infant died. When he confesses his guilt to Ana, a bond of secrecy consecrated by the flesh unites them. As the police draw closer, she urges him to turn himself in but instead he seeks redemption from a higher power.Battle In Heaven, Carlos Reygadas’ follow-up to Japón, opens with a controversial oral sex scene involving beauty, Ana (Anapola Mushkadiz), and the beast, Marcos (Marcos Hernández). Marcos is Ana’s chauffeur, who has kidnapped and accidentally killed a baby. Ana, a general’s daughter by day and a prostitute by night, confides in Marcos and performs sexual favors for him in order to persuade him to turn himself in. She is too young, however, to understand Marcos’s confused mental state, and her sensitive position with him puts her in peril. Set in Mexico City, this tragic drama is as much about failed intimacy as it is about Mexican class structure, as Ana and Marcos attempt to bridge the class gap. A few explicit sex scenes show Marcos in bed with Ana or his wife (Bertha Ruiz), thus garnering it reviews that compare it to The Brown Bunny. In fact, the slow pacing and artsy, self-consciously composed shots do remind one of The Brown Bunny,! in that both films are initially interesting but grow dull as! their p lots take forever to unfold. An intriguing plot is buried under seemingly eternal panoramic shots of the city, painfully slow conversation between characters, and constant close-ups of Marcos’ face that are meant to capture his angst but only deter narrative. Nevertheless, this film’s merit is based in its experimental energy, and any director who follows up a graphic sex scene with a cut to the waving of the country’s flag (in this case Mexico’s) has my respect. --Trinie DaltonSpain released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: Spanish ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Deleted Scenes, Film Credits, Interactive Menu, SYNOPSIS: Marcos and his wife kidnap a baby for ransom money, but it goes tragically wrong when the infant dies. In another world is Ana, the daughter of the general he drives for,! who prostitutes herself for pleasure. Marcos confesses his guilt to her in his troubled search for relief. And then finds himself on his knees amidst the multitude of believers moving slowly towards the Basilica in honor of the Lady of Guadalupe. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Cannes Film Festival, European Film Awards, ...Battle in Heaven ( Batalla en el cielo )The Brown Bunny is both a love story and a haunting portrait of a lost soul unable to forget his past. After finishing a motorcycle race in New Hampshire, Bud Clay (Vincent Gallo) loads his racing bike into the back of his van and begins a cross-country odyssey to Los Angeles, where he is to compete in another race. During his trip, he meets three very different women: Violet, a wholesome all-American gas station attendant; Lilly (Cheryl Tiegs), a fellow lost soul he connects with at a highway rest stop; and Rose, a Las Vegas prostitute. Throughout his journey, Bud can never escape his intense feelings for the love of his li! fe, Daisy (Chloë Sevigny), so he plans to reconcile with her ! when he reaches Los Angeles. Arriving in Los Angeles, Bud checks into a motel before visiting the abandoned home he once shared with Daisy. He leaves a note, hoping she will turn up at his motel room . . .Building to a notorious climax, the film presents one of the frankest portrayals of male sexuality ever seen in American cinema.After its scandalous screening at the 2004 Cannes film festival, Vincent Gallo's The Brown Bunny was cut from 118 to 92 minutes, and that made all the difference. The film that critic and long-time Cannes attendee Roger Ebert originally called "the worst film in the history of the festival" was transformed, by Gallo's judicious editing, into a perfectly acceptable if not universally respected art-house curio, widely criticized yet ripe for cult status, able to stand beside Gallo's Buffalo 66 as the work of a genuine artist with a singular vision. Yes, that vision is self-indulgent, narcissistic, and likely to turn off a majority of viewers wi! th its glacial pace and endless shots of Gallo driving, driving, and driving some more. But in portraying a melancholy motorcycle racer who drives cross-country while mourning a private loss that remains secret until the final scenes, Gallo gives us a character, and a film, that feels spiritually akin to such early '70s classics as Five Easy Pieces and Two-Lane Blacktop. It's a flawed yet ultimately moving example of maverick, unconventional cinema, and while Chloe Sevigny's explicit oral sex scene with Gallo is completely unnecessary, it's just one more element that places The Brown Bunny firmly, and refreshingly, out of the mainstream. --Jeff ShannonAt a time when heretics were burned alive for dissent, scientist Galileo Galilei risked his life to advance his revolutionary concepts of the universe. British actor Simon Callow (Shakespeare in Love, Four Weddings and a Funeral) brings Galileo to life, humanizing the great thinker’s passion, int! elligence, and arrogance while depicting his frustrations with! fellow philosophers and scientists, and with Roman Catholic church leaders.

Based on Dava Sobel’s best-selling biography Galileo’s Daughter, this two-hour film offers a vivid re-imagining of Galileo’s incredible achievements that forever changed the way we view our place in the universe. It also investigates the momentous personal and spiritual conflicts Galileo faced- most especially in defending the controversial theory that the earth revolves around the sun.

Join noted Galileo authorities and experience the remarkable life behind the discoveries, and see letters from his illegitimate daughter, Maria Celeste, a cloistered nun, have shed new light on Galileo’s pioneering telescopic observations, his fateful Inquisition trial for heresy, and life in the seventeenth century.

THE AMITYVILLE HORROR ORIGINAL MOVIE POSTER

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FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY.There's no place like home...for bloodcurdling horror! James Brolin, Margot Kidder and Academy AwardÂ(r) winner* Rod Steiger fall prey to the powers of darkness in this spine-tingling tale ofa house possessed by unspeakable evil. One of the most talked-about haunted-house stories of all time, The Amityville Horror will hit you where you live. For George and Kathy Lutz, the colonial home on the river's edge seemed ideal: quaint, spacious and amazingly affordable. Of course, six brutal murders had taken place there just a year before, but houses don't have memories...ordo they? Soon the Lutz dream house becomes a hellish nightmare, as walls begin to drip blood! and satanic forces threaten to destroy them. Now the Lutzes must try to escape or forfeit their livesand their souls! *1967: Actor, In the Heat of the NightBased on a bestselling, allegedly nonfiction book about haunted goings-on in a Long Island house (The Amityville Horror Conspiracy), this rather cheesy horror movie is more silly than unsettling. James Brolin and Margot Kidder star as newlyweds who move into the empty home and are gradually affected by the legacy of a murder committed on the premises. Rod Steiger is a priest who can tell what's up and gets dispatched in a rather ugly way. Director Stuart Rosenberg can't lift the action above a certain level of tawdriness, and the audience ends up watching the horror from a distance instead of feeling involved. In the wake of The Exorcist, this 1979 spooker seemed like a no-brainer knockoff--and still does. --Tom Keogh From Michael Bay, the producer of "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," comes the true s! tory of Amityville. In November 1974, a family of six was brut! ally mur dered. Now, a year later, an unsuspecting young couple, George (Ryan Reynolds, "Blade: Trinity," "The In-Laws") and Kathy Lutz (Melissa George, TV's "Alias"), and their children move into the house that was the site of the horrific event and is now haunted by a murderous presence. What follows is 28 days of unimaginable terror. With demonic visions of the dead and relentless screams of terror, this is the haunted house story that isn't just a movie - it's real.House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories

The tread on the landing outside the door, when you know you are the only one in the house. The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house.

Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christop! her Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.
House of Fear: An Anthology of Haunted House Stories

The tread on the landing outside the door, when you know you are the only one in the house. The wind whistling through the eves, carrying the voices of the dead. The figure glimpsed briefly through the cracked window of a derelict house.

Editor Jonathan Oliver brings horror home with a collection of haunted house stories by some of the finest writers working in the horror genre, including Joe R. Lansdale, Sarah Pinborough, Lisa Tuttle, Christopher Priest, Adam L. G. Nevill, Nicholas Royle, Chaz Brenchley, Christopher Fowler, Gary Kilworth, Weston Ochse, Eric Brown, Tim Lebbon, Nina Allan, Stephen Volk, Paul Meloy and more.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION: At Moviestore we have an unbeatable range of both original and classic high q! uality reproduction movie posters. Movie poster art is a wonde! rful col lectible item and great for home or office decor. We have been in business for 16 years so you can buy with confidence. Our guarantee - if you are not fully satisfied with your purchase from Moviestore we will gladly refund your money.

Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion

  • ISBN13: 9780061914171
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Fresh off the most challenging case of her career, The 7th Victim heroine and renowned FBI profiler Karen Vail returns in an explosive thriller set against the backdrop of California’s wine country.

Hoping to find solace from the demons that haunt her, Vail makes her first trip to the Napa Valley. But shortly after arriving, a victim is found in the deepest reaches of an exclusive wine cave, the work of an extraordinarily unpredictable serial killer. From the outset, Vail is frustrated by her inability to profile the offenderâ€"until she realizes why: the Behavioral Analysis Unit has not previously encountered a killer like him.

As Vail and the task force work around the clock ! to identify and locate him, they’re caught in a web knotted with secretive organizations, a decades-long feud between prominent wine families, and widespread corruption that leads Vail to wonder whom, if anyone, she can trust. Meanwhile, as the victim count rises, Vail can't shake the gnawing sense that something isn't right.

With the killer’s actions threatening the Napa Valley’s multi-billion dollar industry, the stakes have never been greater, and the race to find the killer never more urgent.

And through it all, a surprise lurks…one that Karen Vail never sees coming.

Meticulously researched during years of work with the FBI profiling unit and extensive interviews with wine industry professionals, bestselling author Alan Jacobson delivers a high-velocity thriller featuring the kind of edge-of-your-seat ending that inspired Nelson DeMille to call him "a hell of a writer."

Richard Siken’s Crush, selected as the 2004 winner of the Y! ale Younger Poets prize, is a powerful collection of poems dri! ven by o bsession. Siken writes with ferocity, and his reader hurtles unstoppably with him. His poetry is confessional, gay, savage, and charged with violent eroticism.

In her introduction to the book, competition judge Louise Glück hails the “cumulative, driving, apocalyptic power, [and] purgatorial recklessness” of Siken’s poems. She notes, “Books of this kind dream big. . . . They restore to poetry that sense of crucial moment and crucial utterance which may indeed be the great genius of the form.”
This funny and touching story centers on Kate a forty-year-old respectable and successful headmistress in a small English village who gets together with her single friends Molly a doctor and Janie a local police detective every Monday to drink eat chocolate and decide who is the Saddest of the Week. Things start to turn displeasing between the three friends when Kate begins an affair with Jed a sexy 25-year old ex-pupil and is no longer the Saddest of th! e Week!System Requirements: Running Time 122 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: R UPC: 043396079021 Manufacturer No: 07902At first Crush seems to be merely the latest film to portray a clique of boozy, trash-talking women as part of a larger, liberated sisterhood worthy of celebration if not admiration. The lighthearted comedy abruptly detours, however, to expose vicious jealousies with brutal, unexpected consequences. A trio of single women in their 40s, Kate, Janine, and Molly (Andie MacDowell, Imelda Stanton, and Anna Chancellor) engage in a weekly ritual of gin, cigarettes, and joyous male sniping that despite its occasional glimpses of bare insecurity is all good "girl" fun. But when Kate, headmistress at the local school, takes up with a former student (Kenny Doughty) nearly 20 years younger and falls wildly in love, her closest friends, rather than embrace a true departure from social mores, plan instead to sabotage Kate's happiness and b! ring her to her senses. In one of the most inexplicable twists! you're likely to see in a comedy, Janine and Molly's ploy takes an unexpectedly lethal turn, and Crush goes from amusing, if predictable, to downright nasty, and then back to end on a happy note. The effect is provocative, though perhaps unintended. --Fionn Meade Readers will fall head over heels for this nostalgic and irreverent collection.

Twenty-six bestselling authors return to the teenage bedrooms, school hallways and college dorms of their youth to share passionate essays of love lost and found and lessons learned along the way. Whether heartbreaking or hilarious, their soul-baring honesty reminds us to keep reaching for true love wherever we can find it and for as long as it takes. Their intimate reflections will fascinate and move any reader who remembers her first love.Some people flirt, others admire from afar, but one thing's for sure--there's nothing hotter than a crush that tempts you to take a chance. . . .

White Mocha Michele Grant

Jayla ha! s always played it safe, personally and professionally. Finding the perfect cup of coffee is about the most exciting thing in her life. But one look at free-spirited café owner Jason, and she's suddenly inspired to venture out of her comfort zone. . .

Wanted: You Lutishia Lovely

Chaz Covington is the guy every man wants to be and every woman wants to have. So when a series of anonymous erotic letters begin arriving at his office, he is only mildly surprised. His prudish assistant, Lois, is shocked. But before it's all over, she won't be the only one. . .

From One Lover to Another Cydney Rax

Lorraine Eafford is done with bad boys. She's ready for someone nice and reliable--someone just like her new co-worker, Wendell. But her ex won't take no for an answer, and Lorraine is about to show him just how bad this good girl can be. . .

"Vibrant characters, artful storytelling, and an original voice make Lutishia Lovely worth every moment."--Donn! a Hill

"Talented Grant entices, captivates and mesmerizes he! r reader s." --Romantic Times on Heard It All Before

". . .you'll find yourself drawn to Rax's juicy tale of out-of-order Buppies in love and lust." --Essence® on My Husband's GirlfriendJulian, an exchange student and disgraced martial arts champion, is seduced by a mysterious and beautiful woman, Anna, while house-sitting a lavish mansion. Anna's infatuation and obsessive behavior soon turns Julian's life into a living hell where not even his martial arts skills can save him.

Do you have a hobby you wish you could do all day? An obsession that keeps you up at night? Now is the perfect time to take those passions and make a living doing what you love. In CRUSH IT! Why NOW Is The Time To Cash In On Your Passion, Gary Vaynerchuk shows you how to use the power of the Internet to turn your real interests into real businesses. Gary spent years building his family business from a local wine shop into a national industry leader. Then one day he turned on a! video camera, and by using the secrets revealed in this book, transformed his entire life and earning potential by building his personal brand. By the end of this book, any reader will have learned how to harness the power of the Internet to make their entrepreneurial dreams come true. Step by step, CRUSH IT! is the ultimate driver′s manual for modern business.

Gary Vaynerchuk has captured attention with his pioneering, multi-faceted approach to personal branding and business. After primarily utilizing traditional advertising techniques to build his family′s local retail wine business into a national industry leader, Gary rapidly leveraged social media tools such as Twitter and Facebook to promote Wine Library TV, http://tv.winelibrary.com, his video blog about wine. Gary has always had an early-to-market approach, launching Wine Library′s retail website in 1997 and Wine Library TV in February of 2006. His lessons on social media, passion, transparency, and ! reactionary business are not to be missed!

! The Story Behind Crush it!

Everything has changed. The social media revolution has irreversibly changed the way we live our lives and conduct our business. There are billions of dollars in advertising moving online, waiting to be claimed by whoever can build the best content and communities. Despite this change, most people keep working at jobs that don’t make them happy and businesses continue to ignore the major marketing and public relations benefits that can be found online.

Myth #1: I’m not passionate about something sexy or popular like wine so these lessons don’t apply to me.

The internet has drastically decreased the costs of building communities around niche subjects, allowing! for even the most obscure subjects to draw enough eyeballs to command advertising attention. Starting a video blog about tortilla chips may seem farfetched until Doritos gives you a call and offers 40,000 a year to sponsor and advertise on your blog.

Myth #2: My business already has a Twitter account and a Facebook page, we’re set in the social media department.

This is the equivalent of claiming twenty years ago that just because your business bought a TV spot and a few ads in the newspaper, you didn’t need to pay attention to your advertising department. Social media isn’t about joining in, it’s about being involved.

Myth #3: I’m happy at my job so this book is irrelevant to me.

First of all, congratulations on finding work that makes you happy! However, the lessons in this book are valuable to anyone, regardless of! their employment status. Crush It will show you ! how to u tilize high level and platform specific social media and marketing strategies that will improve your work. It will also show you how to build a personal brand so that even if you’re forced to leave your job, a situation that’s especially relevant today, you’ll be able to easily find employment elsewhere in a field you’re passionate about.

Myth #4: I need to quit my job to take advantage of this book’s entrepreneurial lessons.

While the entrepreneurial strategies in this book do take time, it’s completely reasonable to start the effort as an after-work project to build up until you’re able to replace your current income with the income from your online presence. While you may have to fall behind on the current season of Lost or let your Madden 2010 game suffer, because you’ll be doing something you love you won’t mind putting in the extra effort.

In! Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk shows how anyone can build a career around what they’re passionate about. He also delivers both high-level and platform specific strategy and analysis, allowing you to take advantage of the current business environment while preparing you to succeed as it changes and evolves.

This book isn’t interested in making unrealistic promises while glossing over the work involved. Making a living by building content around your passion isn’t simple and it doesn’t happen overnight. What it is, however, is fulfilling and in most cases just as profitable, if not more so, than your previous job.

Furthermore, a business can’t just pay lip service to social media and expect it to return results. The transparency and accountability inherent in its structure necessitates a comprehensive and dedicated strategy in order to reap its tremendous benefits.

By combining practic! al analysis and strategy with the same passion and humor thatâ! €™s made Gary one of the most in demand keynote speakers in the U.S. as well as network television’s go to wine expert, Crush It is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand and harness the future of business and work.

Learn: Why social media has evened the playing field, destroying the “gate-keepers” who had previously dictated the distribution of content.

Learn: How to beat unemployment and create wealth-building opportunities by building and maintaining a personal brand.

Learn: Why storytelling is the most important business concept in the current marketplace.

Learn: How you can build an online business around your passion without quitting your day job.

Learn: Why Twitter and Facebook are just tools and not a social media strategy.

Learn: Ho! w to take advantage of the half-billion dollars in advertising that are moving to the internet.

Learn: Why transparency and being true to yourself are now winning marketing formulas.

Learn: How to build and maintain an online community around your passion and brand.

Learn: Strategies for turning attention into money.

Learn: Why the legacy element of the internet era is so underrated.


Climate of Corruption: Politics and Power Behind The Global Warming Hoax

  • ISBN13: 9781608320837
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Blood pressure drugs guarantee you will get worse, for they actually deplete the nutrients that cause high blood pressure, making sure you will need even more medications. They also shrink the brain and raise your risk of heart attack, senility and blindness. High blood pressure is not a deficiency of blood pressure-lowering drugs. But there are dozens of ways you can permanently cure your high blood pressure without drugs. And since healthy blood vessels determine the longevity of every organ in the entire body, you need this book even if you don't have high blood pressure, for vascular health is key to total body health and longevity. First of all every single cell of your body depends on the health of your blood vessels that supply them. If you don't want to get Alzheimer's, then you need a healthy brain, but it is only as healthy as its blood supply. Likewise, if you don't want cancer (or you are trying to heal it), it starts (and spreads) in areas of poor circulation. The High Blood Pressure Hoax will show you that for every ailment even one as simple as high blood pressure, there are multiple causes and multiple cures. You have a lot to choose from. In fact, I would suggest you read the entire book before you chose your program. For by understanding how the various causes work, you (who know your body and medical history better than anyone else) have the optimum opportunity for choosing the best solution for you. This is the ultimate plan for vascular health, but it doesn't stop there. It also continues on from where Detoxify or Die left off and takes you to more powerful levels of detoxification. I can't wait to empower you! So let's get started.Foreword written by S. Fred Singer, former director of the U.S. Weather Satellite Service and coauthor of Unstoppable Global Warming.

Melting glaciers, suffering polar bears, rising oceans- these are just a few of the climate change crisis myths debunked by noted aerospace expert Larry Bell in this explosive new book. With meticulous research, Bell deflates these and other climate misconceptions with perceptive analysis, humor, and the most recent scientific data. Written for the laymen, yet in-depth enough for the specialist, this book digs deep into the natural and political aspects of the climate change debate, answering fundamental questions that reveal the all-too-human origins of "scientific" inquiry. Why and how are ! some of the world s most prestigious scientific institutions cashing in on the debate? Who stand to benefit most by promoting public climate change alarmism? What true political and financial purposes are served by the vilification of carbon dioxide? How do climate deceptions promote grossly exaggerated claims for non-fossil alternative energy capacities and advance blatant global wealth redistribution goals? With its devastating portrayal of scientific and government establishments run amok, this book is an invaluable addition to the tremendously popular literature attacking the scientific status quo. Climate of Corruption will bring welcome relief to all those who are fed up with climate crisis insanity.

Adventures of Power

  • ADVENTURES OF POWER (DVD MOVIE)
Combining the hilarious satire of Spinal Tap and School of Rock, ADVENTURES OF POWER is a Sundance Film Festival & audience favorite starring the real Ari Gold, Jane Lynch (Glee), Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Michael McKean (Spinal Tap), Shoshannah Stern (Jericho), and Chi Chiu Ling (Kung Fu Hustle), about a air-drummer who saves his hometown by listening to his heartbeat. With a totally awesome (LA Times) soundtrack of 80's hits & hilarious originals. Adventures of Power is an epic comedy about a mine-worker named Power whose love of drums and lack of musical skill has turned him into the ridiculed air drummer; of his small town. But when Power's union-leader father calls a strike at the mine, Power discovers an underground subculture of air-drummers who just might hold the key to changing the world. Power's journey across America brings him face-to-face with h! is town's greatest enemy, and allows him to discover the beat within his own heart. Over 60 Minutes of Bonus Material including: Exclusive interview & drum-off with Rush Drummer Neil Peart Music video starring Adrian Grenier -Entourage- as Dallas! Deleted scenes featuring Jane Lynch Glee - Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim - Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, Nick Kroll - The League - and more! Postcards from the set. Award winning short films by Ari Gold. Audio Commentary with Ari Gold. 3 trailers. All bonus materials and feature have been close captioned for the deaf & hard of hearing. Audio Commentary featured optional subtitles for the deaf & hard of hearing. DVD includes limited edition foil packaging.

Fracture (Widescreen Edition)

  • Academy Award? winner Anthony Hopkins and Academy Award? nominee Ryan Gosling are brilliant in this "exceptionally suspenseful nail-biter" (Rex Reed) that's so smart it "doesn't let go, even after the final twist" (Gene Shalit, "Today"). Ted Crawford (Hopkins) brutally murders his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy D.A., Will
Academy Award® winner Anthony Hopkins and Academy Award® nominee Ryan Gosling are brilliant in this "exceptionally suspenseful nail-biter" (Rex Reed) that's so smart it "doesn't let go, even after the final twist" (Gene Shalit, "Today"). Ted Crawford (Hopkins) brutally murders his wife and calmly waits for the police to arrest him. With the weapon and a signed confession in hand, Deputy D.A., Willy Beachum (Gosling), believes a conviction is a slam dunk; that is until the case completely unrav! els. Now, with little evidence, Beachum goes head to head with the cunning Mr. Crawford in a desperate search for the truth and the answer to one burning question: How is this guy getting away with murder?Anthony Hopkins plays a brilliant, pathologically serene killer outwitting the good guys at every turn and taking a shine to a twentysomething law enforcer who can’t conceal a rural accent and rugged origins. Could it be...? No, not The Silence of the Lambs, but an original mystery, Fracture, which plays a little like Lambs as an episode of Columbo, minus Columbo. Which means the film tells us from the get-go that Hopkins’ character, a wealthy engineer, shoots his philandering wife (Embeth Davidtz) and leaves her in a vegetative state. From there, it should be a simple matter for young, assistant District Attorney Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling) to nail Crawford, who provides a full confession and even eschews counsel. That’s good for Beachum! , a slick winner with a vague background of deprivation, rapid! ly on hi s way out of public service after attracting the attention of a deep-pocket, private firm. What he doesn’t know, however, is that Crawford has masterminded more than vengeance against his wife, and that the state’s case against him is full of pre-arranged holes and a huge time-bomb that will send Beachum scrambling to keep the pieces together.

The story, conceived and co-scripted by Daniel Pyne (Doc Hollywood), goes down easily with a minimum of blood and violence, and should easily appeal to mystery buffs as well as old fans of Hopkins and new admirers of Oscar nominee Gosling (Half Nelson). The latter holds his own in multiple, two-character scenes with the masterful portrayer of Hannibal Lecter, pacing Beachum’s reactions to Crawford’s polite provocations so everything spills onto his youthful face: torn loyalties, confusion, gullibility. Director Gregory Hoblit (Hart’s War), still best-known for decades of distinguished television wor! k (NYPD Blue), brings the necessary intimacy to make the stars’ chemistry work effectively. His noirish atmosphere is a little over the top, sometimes pushing the audience to a level of expectation that the film isn’t really ready to deliver, but this, overall, is an enjoyable work. --Tom Keogh

Friday the 13th, Part VI: Jason Lives (Deluxe Edition)

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