April 2004 DVD & Blu-rays

When Tom Baker (Steve Martin) gets a job offer to coach football at Northwestern University in Chicago, he and his wife, Mary, move to the big city, which is a big change for them and their 12 children, who range from preschool-age twins Kyle and Nigel all the way up to 22-year-old Anne who has already left home. With the recent publication of her long-in-the-works book, Mary feels demands outside the home taking away as much time as Tom's new job does, so the two are forced to try to find new ways of parenting their massive tribe, but they find their parenting styles aren't always completely compatible...

In this third installment that concerns itself with death, Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus--along with the rest of their battling posse--continue to come against the machines that have systematically enslaved the human race in the Matrix. Now displaying a greater confidence in his own power, Neo fully realizes that he is a superhuman figure capable of amazing feats, and is totally aware that he's able to see the codes of people and things with which he comes into contact. Simultaneously more humans, who are struggling to live in the real world, have awoken out of the Matrix. As their numbers increase, the machines invade Zion, the center of human resistance--considered the last real-world city.

A Portuguese woman is convinced by her teen daughter to become romantically involved with a businessman who has become wealthy in the fishing industry. The woman becomes more and more attached to him, little knowing that her paramour is really a professional gambler pretending to be a legitimate businessman.

In this romantic comedy, British artist Colin Ware (Colin Firth) discovers that his fiance, Vera (Minnie Driver), the love of his life, is going to marry another man. Distraught and despondent, he gets on a plane for America and ends up in the tiny town of Hope in New England. At first, Colin is depressed, but he soon finds more than a shoulder to cry on when his innkeepers introduce him to Mandy (Heather Graham), a beautiful nurse. All's going well and Colin has almost forgotten his old flame until Vera suddenly shows up with a surprise of her own. "Hope Springs" is about finding happiness where you least expect it.

A mystery suspense thriller based on Michael Crichton's best-selling novel about a team of student archaeologists on a dig at a medieval site in France. When Professor Johnston, their team leader, disappears, they suddenly find themselves in 14th century feudal France on a perilous journey beyond their wildest dreams. Now, to find their missing professor and avoid a potentially catastrophic event, they won't be excavating the past, they'll be living it.

Two male soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces fall in love, which is forbidden in the army. They hide their love while stationed at an outpost during the Lebanon war.

Uma Thurman's character, a pregnant assassin named the Bride, is shot by her boss, Bill, and her co-workers at her wedding (the wedding guests are also shot). She survives, though, waking up exceedingly angry after a five-year coma, and decides to hunt down and kill every single one of the assassins who were responsible, saving Bill for last.

Posey plays a district attorney in New York investigating a series of unexplained deaths in the gay community. As she digs deeper, she discovers some shocking facts behind the cases.

When a man (Eddie Murphy) and his family encounter a ghost while visiting a haunted house during a job interview, he learns the value of family, and the lesson that he should make sure he never neglects them. Based upon the popular Disney theme park attraction.

"Step Into Liquid" is a personal glimpse into the world of surfing from the original family of surf films. It's a film for surfers as well as non-surfers alike because it is a film about people with a passion for life. "Step Into Liquid" is a collection of stories about people who live for surfing. The cross-section of characters featured in this film come from many walks of life, but share one thing in common, the need to surf. For many of them, surfing is merely a hobby. For others, surfing is an identity and maybe even a lifestyle. For a fortunate and talented few, it is a profession. And, for one, it is a salvation.

Set shortly after World War II in Berlin, this is the story of an American officer's (Harvey Keitel) prosecution of German conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler (Stellan Skarsgard) as part of the Allied Forces' de-Nazification trials. As the investigation progresses, the American, wanting to convict a man he sees as a Jew-killing Nazi is brought face-to-face into conflict with a man consumed entirely by his art, not politics.

Russell Crowe is Lucky Jack Aubrey, the Navy's greatest fighting captain and Paul Bettany is ship's doctor Stephen Maturin. The ship, the Surprise, is suddenly attacked by a superior enemy. With the Surprise badly damaged and much of his crew injured, Aubrey – the "Master" of the Surprise and "Commander" of his men – is torn between duty and friendship as he sets sail in a high-stakes chase across two oceans, to the far side of the world, to intercept and capture their foe. It's a mission that can decide the fate of a nation – or destroy Lucky Jack and his crew. The film is based on the narrative outline of the tenth book in Patrick O'Brian's legendary "Aubrey/Maturin" series of high seas novels about the British navy during the Napoleonic Wars.

John Person (Jon Favreau), a struggling actor on the verge of eviction from his Hollywood studio apartment, goes against his better judgement -- and that of his pretty neighbor Grace (Joey Lauren Adams) -- and accepts an offer from his strange neighbor Neely (Bud Cort) to courier a blue suitcase up to the desert truck stop of Baker, California. His instructions are simple: deliver the suitcase to a trucker called Cowboy (Sean Bean) and collect $27 thousand. Oh yeah, and he has to defend the suitcase with his life. Naturally, nothing goes according to plan once John arrives. The Cowboy is nowhere to be found, John meets with some kooky alien-obsessed locals and Special Agent Banks (Kelsey Grammer) questions John about the mysterious decapitation of Neely and about other missing persons. When the final showdown approaches, John is faced with a choice that could change his life forever. Has the whole town gone mad? Or are the loony locals, who he dismissed as crazy, the only sane ones in this strange parallel universe called The Big Empty?

The film follows the story of a respected upper middle class family whose high social stature is burst following a murder. Chabrol reexamines the individual family members' lives in the time period leading up to the crime unveiling their secrets and probing their character.

Set in contemporary London in the weeks before Christmas, "Love Actually" tells one story which weaves together a spectacular number of love stories-sometimes romantic, sometimes sad, sometimes stupid-all funny in their own way. Everywhere you look, love is causing chaos. From the new bachelor Prime Minister who falls in love 30 seconds after entering Downing Street to a loser sandwich delivery guy who doesn't have a hope with the girls in the UK, so heads for Wisconsin; from a jilted writer who escapes to the south of France to nurse his broken heart to an aging rock star trying to make a comeback at any price; from a bride having problems with her husband's best man to a married woman having trouble with her husband; from a schoolboy with a crush on the prettiest girl in the school to his architect step-father with a crush on Claudia Schiffer. These London lives and loves collide, mingle and finally climax on Christmas Eve-again and again and again-with romantic, poignant and funny consequences for all.

Bernie Lootz (William H. Macy) is the unluckiest man in Las Vegas... he's so unlucky, it's contagious. Looking to knock out their highest rollers, one of the last mob-run casinos in town, the Shangri-La Hotel and Casino downtown, decides to use Bernie as a "cooler" to defuse their lucky streaks. The scheme goes fine until Bernie falls in love with a cocktail waitress, Natalie (Maria Bello), who becomes his "lady luck", much to the chagrin of the casino's crooked director (Alec Baldwin) who aims to break up the romance, and Bernie's newfound luck...

A 12-year-old Afghan girl and her mother lose their jobs when the Taliban closes the hospital where they work. The Taliban have also forbidden women to leave their houses without a "legal companion." With her husband and brother dead there is no one left to support the family, and without being able to leave the house the mother is left with nowhere to turn. Feeling she has no other choice, she disguises her daughter as a boy. Now called Osama, the girl embarks on a terrifying and confusing journey as she tries to keep the Taliban from finding out her true identity. Inspired by a true story, "Osama" is the first entirely Afghan film shot since the rise and fall of the Taliban.

In this modern update of the classic 1987 teen comedy "Can't Buy Me Love", our hero is high-school senior Alvin Johnson (Nick Cannon), a brilliant, likable outcast who has come to regret the years of intellectual endeavors that prevented him and his un-hip friends from socializing, getting girlfriends and hanging out with the super-cool "Elite" kids. When queen of the Elites, Paris Morgan (Christina Milian) wrecks her mother's car, Alvin steps in and mortgages his future to help her out. The catch: In exchange for $1500 in car parts and Alvin's automotive expertise, Paris agrees to "fake a front" with him to convince the school that they're dating. The question is: can Alvin rein in his newfound ego before he loses his true friends, his chance for a scholarship and a shot at a real relationship with Paris?

Shortly after both his brother died and his girlfriend left him, Bruce (Rodolphe Marconi), a young filmmaker attending a year-long seminar in Rome, finds himself becoming the subject of obssession by a mostly straight Italian tour guide, Matteo (Andrea Necci), after the two end up sleeping together. Matteo continues to hang around Bruce, sometimes lurking in the darkness, stalking him, even as a new American girl (Echo Danon) with a fascination with serial killers enters their lives.

A comedy about the oppositional relationship that evolves between a set of Siamese twins--conjoined at the torso--named Bob and Walt. They have used their "disability" throughout life to great advantage; for example, they excelled in High School by using the fact that they are joined at the hip to their advantage in sports, where they were a great hockey goalie and wrestling champion. Unfortunately, their different life goals may begin to threaten their happy union, as they vowed they would never split up. So, after graduation Walt wants to go to Hollywood to pursue an acting career, and although Bob opposes the move, he begrudgingly goes along. When the twins get to Los Angeles, the duo soon finds themselves landing a job on a TV show starring Cher, which results in quick fame and fortune, but will the new changes in their lives ultimately drive the twins apart?

In the heartwarming film "Big Fish", director Tim Burton brings his inimitable imagination on a journey that delves deep into a fabled relationship between a father and his son. Edward Bloom (Albert Finney) has always been a teller of tall-tales about his oversized life as a young man (Ewan McGregor), when his wanderlust led him on an unlikely journey from a small-town in Alabama, around the world, and back again. His mythic exploits dart from the delightful to the delirious as he weaves epic tales about giants, blizzards, a witch and conjoined-twin lounge singers. With his larger-than-life stories, Bloom charms almost everyone he encounters except for his estranged son Will (Billy Crudup). When his mother Sandra (Jessica Lange) tries to reunite them, Will must learn how to separate fact from fiction as he comes to terms with his father's great feats and great failings.