April 2006 DVD & Blu-rays

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", the first in an exciting series of films in the making and based on the phenomenal bestselling novels, concerns a war between good and evil, pitting the magnificent lion Aslan against the forces of darkness in the magical world of Narnia. A White Witch has used her dark powers to keep Narnia in winter for 100 years, but it is foretold that four humans will be able to help Aslan break the spell. When the Pevensie siblings - Lucy, Susan, Edmund, and Peter - discover the magic of Narnia by entering the enchanted world through a wardrobe, the stage is set for a classic battle of epic proportions.

Set against the sweeping vistas of Wyoming and Texas, the film tells the story of two young men—a ranch-hand and a rodeo cowboy—who meet in the summer of 1963, and unexpectedly forge a lifelong connection, one whose complications, joys, and tragedies provide a testament to the endurance and power of love. Early one morning in Signal, Wyoming, Ennis Del Mar (Heath Ledger) and Jack Twist (Jake Gyllenhaal) meet while lining up for employment with local rancher Joe Aguirre (Randy Quaid). The world which Ennis and Jack have been born into is at once changing rapidly and yet scarcely evolving. Both young men seem certain of their set places in the heartland—obtaining steady work, marrying, and raising a family—and yet hunger for something beyond what they can articulate. When Aguirre dispatches them to work as sheepherders up on the majestic Brokeback Mountain, they gravitate towards camaraderie and then a deeper intimacy.

At summer's end, the two must come down from Brokeback and part ways. Remaining in Wyoming, Ennis weds his sweetheart Alma (Michelle Williams), with whom he will have two daughters as he ekes out a living. Jack, in Texas, catches the eye of rodeo queen Lureen Newsome (Anne Hathaway). Their courtship and marriage result in a son, as well as jobs in her father's business. Four years pass. One day, Alma brings Ennis a postcard from Jack, who is en route to visit Wyoming. Ennis waits expectantly for his friend, and when Jack at last arrives, in just one moment it is clear that the passage of time has only strengthened the men's attachment. In the years that follow, Ennis and Jack struggle to keep their secret bond alive. They meet up several times annually. Even when they are apart, they face the eternal questions of fidelity, commitment, and trust. Ultimately, the one constant in their lives is a force of nature—love.

New York City is the most romantic place in the world – even if you're only 10 years old and falling in love for the first time. That's what young Gabe discovers as he pursues the object of his affections, his classmate Rosemary, in "Little Manhattan". The romantic comedy is about life, love and the Big Apple, as seen through the eyes of a fifth-grader.

In a city ravaged by violent crime, the police department's anti-gang task force uses any means at its disposal to get the bad guys off the streets, with cops often acting as judge, jury and executioner. As the unit's self-justifying brutality and corruption spiral further out of control, gang member-turned-cop Armando Sancho (Clifton Collins Jr.) begins to question the life he and his partner Salim Adel (Cuba Gooding Jr.) have chosen. So when Internal Affairs agents investigating the division's abuses offer him a deal to come clean about the unit's misdeeds, Sancho must decide whether to heed his conscience or his loyalty to his fellow officers. On the hot, smoggy day Salim and Sancho are scheduled to testify to IA, the two rogue cops agree to run a lucrative, illegal operation for the station's top brass (Keith David and Cole Hauser). As their increasingly bloody mission takes them from one end to the other of the sprawling city they've sworn to protect and serve, Salim and Sancho learn that getting clean isn't nearly as easy as being "Dirty".

In the customarily closed world of ultra-Orthodox Jews, Moshe and Malli, a married couple, are suffering through a financial crisis. They pray for help, but instead of a miracle two suspect strangers with criminal pasts appear on their doorstep.

Eliza Naumann (Flora Cross) has no reason to believe she is anything but ordinary. Her father Saul (Richard Gere), a beloved university professor, dotes on her talented elder brother Aaron (Max Minghella). Her scientist mother, Miriam (Juliette Binoche), seems consumed by her career. When a spelling bee threatens to reaffirm her mediocrity, Eliza amazes everyone: she wins. Her newfound gift garners an invitation not only to the national competition, but an entrée into the world of words and Jewish mysticism that have so long captivated her father's imagination. But Eliza's unexpected success hurls the Naumann family dynamic into a tailspin, long-held secrets emerge and she is forced to depend upon her own divination to hold the family together.

Jennifer Lopez stars in this drama about a struggling mother who must move in with her father-in-law (Robert Redford), with whom she has an icy relationship, in order to take care of her young daughter. By living together, the woman and older man learn to get along and put the past behind them.

Based on Robert Baer's memoir "See No Evil: The True Story of a Foot Soldier in the CIA's War on Terror." A drama showing how the CIA lost funding and let its guard down in the Middle East after the end of the Cold War.

Ellie Parker, a young Australian actress, must audition for the part of a southern belle for a German director, Smash. His only direction for her is, "Be more raw! Remember we are shooting this on digital video." After this humiliating experience, she has only minutes to get across Los Angeles to Paramount for her next audition, for the part of a Brooklyn junkie whore. As she drives, she literally transforms herself, changing her clothes, putting on makeup, practicing her lines, and fighting with her boyfriend on her cell phone, all while speeding along Los Angeles freeways.

A chilling, factually-based, story of three road-trippers in remote Australia who are plunged into danger when they accept help from a friendly local.

Taking a much more macabre tone than did Eli Roth's feature debut "Cabin Fever", "Hostel" is an amalgamation of many of the most terrifying things about human nature and the world at large, culled from lots of pulpy-but-true stories of international organized crime, human trafficking, and sex tourism. Relentlessly graphic and deeply disturbing, the film is rife with explicit sex and brutal violence that is sure to delight hard core genre fans, and prove difficult to stomach for general audiences.

Set in the 1960s and 1970s, "Breakfast on Pluto" follows Patrick "Kitten" Brady (Cillian Murphy), a kid who escapes from his foster home in Ireland and becomes a transvestite and performer in London.

"Americano" centers around Chris McKinley (Joshua Jackson), a recent college graduate backpacking through Europe who savors his last three days of freedom before boarding the career fast track back in the United States. In Pamplona with two friends (Timm Sharp and Ruthanna Hopper), Chris meets an Australian thrill-seeker (Phil Barantini), a quintessential Spanish beauty (Leonor Varela) and an enigmatic provocateur (Dennis Hopper), all of whom encourage him to rethink his life. As the minutes and seconds until his departure tick away, Chris struggles with an age-old question: Should he follow the beaten path or risk it all on the road less traveled?

An eccentric widow (Judi Dench) buys an old London theater and opens it up as the Windmill, a performance hall which goes down in history for, among other things, its all-nude revues; also starring Christopher Guest and Bob Hoskins.

Heath Ledger plays the fabled romantic as a man who, after failing to win the affection of a particular Venetian woman, strives to discover the real meaning of love.

This is the epic tale of a pair of doomed lovers from warring nations, Tristan (James Franco) of Britain and Isolde (Sophia Myles) of Ireland, set during the time soon after the fall of the Roman Empire. Orphaned as a child, Tristan is raised by Lord Marke (Rufus Sewell), a friend of his family, and as he matures, Tristan becomes a brave knight who leads successful attacks against the forces of the Irish King Donnchadh (David O'Hara). When he is poisoned during one of these battles, however, Tristan is placed upon a funeral boat which eventually washes up on the Irish shores, where it is found by the Irish king's daughter, Isolde, who cures Tristan's ailment, as the two fall in love, unaware of who the other one really is. Tristan eventually returns to Britain, where he learns that the Irish king has offered up his daughter's hand in marriage under the guise of bringing the two countries together. Tristan eagerly volunteers to be Lord Marke's champion in the competition, and he wins, but his heart is soon crushed when he discovers that the woman he loves is actually the Irish princess whose hand in marriage he just handed to the man who has been his best friend his whole life...

"Match Point" represents a departure for native New Yorker Woody Allen, the majority of whose films lovingly depict New York and—not always so lovingly—New Yorkers. Crossing the Atlantic for the first time in his film career, Allen set "Match Point" in London, where it was also filmed. The film is described as a melodrama about many things -- ambition, the seduction of wealth, love, sexual passion and, most importantly, the huge part luck plays in events as opposed to the comforting misconception that more of life is under our control than it really is.

Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "selling things that nobody buys anymore..." Slightly lost, slightly off-kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self-aggrandizing. Still, there is something about her that is irresistible. Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love - with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking.

Kal Penn, Donald Faison and Jonathan Bennett star in this outrageous comedy about a group of guys who send their best friend into uncharted territory--marriage. But in order to properly bid farewell to their best friend's life as a single man, they must send him out in style ' with an extravagant bachelor party in Sin City

Limousines, paint ball, strippers, sex toys, alcohol, debauchery and gambling are on the program'until they discover that Mr. Kidd, their Bachelor Party Planner, is a bank robber planning to heist the casino setting off a chain of events that turns their night into living hell. Running away from the police, the casino security, and murderous Hell's Angels, the five friends are falsely accused of robbing a casino, stalked by a porn star's prize-fighter boyfriend, mugged by a female Elvis impersonator, arrested, thrown in jail, and survive many other misadventures, until finally, it seems that their own deaths are in the cards'

A melancholy, depressed and jaded television reporter assumes the identity of a dead man while at a hotel in a north African country, not knowing that the man was a renowned arms smuggler. The newsman sees this switch as a last desperate chance to escape his old life and start anew. However, as he begins to take on the characteristics of his new persona and understand his shady involvements, the decision becomes a risky one, which leads to an inevitable showdown.

It's Dr. Dolittle – the next generation! Maya Dolittle, the Doctor's youngest daughter, has inherited her father's gift for talking to animals, but so far it's brought her nothing but trouble. So, Maya heads to Durango summer camp to get in touch with her abilities. To save the financially-troubled camp, Maya realizes that she must use her gift with the animals to help the ranch train to win the rodeo. Along the way, she finds love with a handsome camp counselor.