DVD & Blu-rays Released April 20, 2004

Tuesday, April 20

The Haunted Mansion PG

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.
Eddie Murphy, Rob Minkoff, Terence Stamp, Jennifer Tilly, Marsha Thomason, Nathaniel Parker
Action Adventure Comedy Horror Family Kids

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World PG-13

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.
Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Samuel Goldwyn, Duncan Henderson, Peter Weir, John Collee, Billy Boyd, Ian Mercer
Drama Action Adventure War Historical

The Big Empty

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?
Sean Bean, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Favreau, Rachael Leigh Cook, Adam Beach, Steve Anderson, Daryl Hannah, Joey Lauren Adams
Drama Comedy
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The Flower of Evil

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.
Yvon Crenn, Jean-Pierre Marin, Claude Chabrol, Nathalie Baye, Benoît Magimel, Suzanne Flon, Bernard Lecoq, Mélanie Doutey
Drama Crime

Taking Sides

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.
R. Lee Ermey, Ulrich Tukur, István Szabó, Harvey Keitel, Stellan Skarsgard, Moritz Bleibtreu, Birgit Minichmayr, Oleg Tabakov
Drama War Historical

Step Into Liquid

"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.
Darrick Doerner, Peter Mel, Mike Parsons, Dana Brown, Rochelle Ballard, Layne Beachley, Laird Hamilton, Keala Kennelly
Sports Documentary

Tuesday, April 20