February 2006 DVD & Blu-rays

The film tells the story of a young computer systems analyst, who is thrown into turmoil when, after arriving in Istanbul to start a new job, she finds her credit cards useless, her bank account empty, and her identity stolen.

In the tradition of "National Lampoon's Animal House" and "National Lampoon's Van Wilder" comes this wildly hilarious comedy about a guy who wants to date a girl who wants to wait. Adam (Cameron Douglas) is a typical college-aged guy, which is to say he wants sex 24 hours a day. But when he meets, and falls for, Eve (Emmanuelle Chriqui) a scorchingly hot co-ed who's still very attached to her virginity, the waiting game is on! While his college buddies score right and left, and campus hotties make tempting passes, Adam ponders an explosive question: Will Eve say "it's the right time," before he goes completely out of his mind?

"Eros" is an anthology of three short films on the subject of eroticism and love, from a trio of the world's most extraordinary directors, Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Michelangelo Antonioni. Wong Kar Wai's "The Hand" is the story of a young tailor's (Chang Chen) long-time unrequited love for a beautiful Hong Kong courtesan (Gong Li). Over many years, he lovingly crafts the clothes that she wears for other men. Over time, the seemingly unattainable fantasy woman loses everything, just as the tailor prospers in his career. Then the unexpected happens... Steven Soderbergh's "Equilibrium" is about a stressed-out 1950's advertising man (Robert Downey, Jr.) who has been suffering from a series of recurring erotic dreams. During his session with psychiatrist Dr. Pearl (Alan Arkin), he describes his dream of a woman who is familiar to him—but he can't recall who she is when he wakes up. Through the course of a very offbeat hour of therapy, we discover why that is. Michelangelo Antonioni's "The Dangerous Thread of Things" follows a fortyish married couple (Christopher Buchholz and Regina Nemni) that no longer have anything to say to one another. At an impasse, the man has a passionate one night stand with a free-spirited young girl (Luisa Ranieri), but this experience also fails to satisfy him. Later on, the wife and the girl meet....

Millions of devoted fans worldwide have been spellbound by the dark invention of its adventures . . . have awaited its every incarnation with urgent anticipation . . . and have devoted countless hours, days and weeks to conquering its hidden mysteries: Doom. When the home-computer game "Doom" was first launched in 1993, no one could have foreseen the legion of fans it would create and the mania surrounding its every new permutation. "Doom" and its successive installments have transfixed gamers worldwide for over a decade and have sold millions of copies (while chalking up an unprecedented tens of millions of downloads as shareware). It is, simply, the most explosive home-computer game franchise phenomenon in history. Now, the game that made history is jumping from computer screens to the motion picture screen: get ready for "Doom". Set countless years in the future and told in the hyper- kinetic, kamikaze style that made its gaming predecessor a global phenomenon, the science fiction action adventure "Doom" takes the viewer to the far corners of the galaxy with a fully-realized vision of a dark and disturbing future.

A waiter for four years since high school, Dean (Justin Long) has never questioned his job at Shenanigan's. But when he learns that Chett, a high school classmate, now has a lucrative career in electrical engineering, he's thrown into turmoil about his dead-end life. Dean's friend Monty (Ryan Reynolds) is in exactly the same boat, but he couldn't care less. More concerned with partying and getting laid by underage girls, Monty is put in charge of training Mitch (John Francis Daley), a shy new employee. Over the course of one chaotic shift, Mitch gets to know the rest of Shenanigan's quirky staff: Monty's tough-talking ex-girlfriend, Serena (Anna Faris), Shenanigan's over-zealous manager, Dan (David Koechner), and head cook Raddimus (Luis Guzman), who's obsessed with a senseless staff-wide competition known only as "The Game"...

A one-time golf mogul (Johnny Knoxville) works to maintain his failing business when his 14-year-old daughter, a talented musician whom he hasn't seen in years, comes to live with him.

The new film is a 'midquel', the story taking place in the middle of the first "Bambi" movie. It is your basic teenage angst tale, dealing with Bambi coping with his Father, the Great Prince, and his finding of a new mate while an orphaned Bambi comes to terms with his Mother's death.

After his invention causes the Oregon shoe corporation he works for to lose millions of dollars, Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom) is fired for his mistake, and then dumped by his girlfriend, Ellen. Hopelessly depressed, Drew decides to end his life when he gets a phone call. His father has died, and Drew has to go back to his family's small Kentucky hometown of Elizabethtown to make sure his father's dying wishes are fulfilled. On his trip home, Drew meets a flight attendant, Claire Colburn (Kirsten Dunst), with whom he falls in love, and it seems as if Drew's life may be back on track.

"MirrorMask" centers on Helena, a 15 year old girl in a family of circus entertainers, who often wishes she could run off and join real life. After a fight with her parents about her future plans, her mother falls quite ill and Helena is convinced that it is all her fault. On the eve of her mother's major surgery, she dreams that she is in a strange world with two opposing queens, bizarre creatures, and masked inhabitants. All is not well in this new world - the white queen has fallen ill and can only be restored by the MirrorMask, and it's up to Helena to find it. But as her adventures continue, she begins to wonder whether she's in a dream, or something far more sinister.

When David (Mark Ruffalo) sublet his quaint San Francisco apartment, the last thing he expected—or wanted—was a roommate. He had only begun to make a complete mess of the place when a pretty young woman named Elizabeth (Reese Witherspoon) suddenly shows up, adamantly insisting the apartment is hers. David assumes there's been a giant misunderstanding…until Elizabeth disappears as mysteriously as she appeared. Changing the locks does nothing to deter Elizabeth, who begins to appear and disappear at will—mostly to rebuke David for his personal living habits in her apartment. Convinced that she is a ghost, David tries to help Elizabeth cross over to the "other side." But while Elizabeth has discovered she does have a distinctly ethereal quality—she can walk through walls—she is equally convinced that she is somehow still alive and isn't crossing over anywhere. As Elizabeth and David search for the truth about who Elizabeth is and how she came to be in her present state, their relationship deepens into love. Unfortunately, they have very little time before their prospects for a future together permanently fade away.

It's 'vege-mania' in Wallace and Gromit's neighborhood, and our two enterprising chums are cashing in with their humane pest-control outfit, "Anti-Pesto." With only days to go before the annual Giant Vegetable Competition, business is booming, but Wallace & Gromit are finding out that running a "humane" pest control outfit has its drawbacks as their West Wallaby Street home fills to the brim with captive rabbits. Suddenly, a huge, mysterious, veg-ravaging "beast" begins attacking the town's sacred vegetable plots at night, and the competition hostess, Lady Tottington, commissions Anti-Pesto to catch it and save the day. Lying in wait, however, is Lady Tottington's snobby suitor, Victor Quartermaine, who'd rather shoot the beast and secure the position of local hero—not to mention Lady Tottingon's hand in marriage. With the fate of the competition in the balance, Lady Tottington is eventually forced to allow Victor to hunt down the vegetable chomping marauder. Little does she know that Victor's real intent could have dire consequences for her and our two heroes.

The film tells the story of four friends who believe that the key to winning over their true loves is to place themselves in extreme situations. They plot a fake kidnapping, but the plan goes awry when the kidnappers turn out to be ex-cons with plans of their own.

"The Thing About My Folks", starring Peter Falk and Paul Reiser, is a semi- autographical film that Reiser wrote specifically for Falk, his all-time favorite actor. A sudden family crisis throws a befuddled writer and his "loose cannon" dad together for an unexpected road trip. Family secrets are uncovered and in a few surprising days, the two men learn more about each other—and have more fun—than either imagined possible.

While investigating the bloody aftermath of a grizzly murder, Detective Eric Mason (Donnie Wahlberg) has the feeling that it is the work of Jigsaw, the notorious killer who disappeared leaving a trail of bodies—and parts—behind.

And Mason is right.

Jigsaw is at work again. But instead of two people locked in a room with only one unthinkable way out, there are eight. Eight strangers—unaware of their connection to each other—forced to play out a game that challenges their wits and puts their lives in jeopardy.

Two brothers discover an oblong box in the park, which they dismiss as just some dumb old game. The boys turn their attention away from the game's jungle adventure board to discover a second game board inside with an outer-space theme and a colored path leading to the purple planet, Zathura. Mayhem ensues each time one of the boys draws a game card or rolls the dice. Facing meteors and giant robots, the brothers begin to appreciate each other and their sibling rivalry dissolves.

A devoted daughter comes to terms with the death of her father, a brilliant mathematician whose genius was crippled by mental insanity, forcing her to face her own long-harbored fears and emotions. She adjusts to his death with the help of one of her father's former mathematical students, who searches through her father's notebooks in the hope of discovering a bit of his old brilliance. While she comes to terms with the possibility that his genius, which she has inherited, may come at a painful price, her estranged sister arrives to help settle their father's affairs.

Captives of the very relationships that define and sustain them, nine women resiliently meet the travails and disappointments of life.

The docu-drama "First Descent" chronicles the rebellious, inspiring and sometimes controversial rise of snowboarding--as seen through the eyes of the snowboarders setting the standards and breaking the boundaries of this worldwide phenomenon.

"First Descent" spotlights a handful of snowboarding's early pioneers (including Shawn Farmer, Nick Perata and Terje Haakonsen) and some of the ultra-sponsored superstar phenoms at snowboarding's current cutting edge (Shaun White and Hannah Teter) and literally takes them to the edge--the snow blanketed mountains of Alaska—where these five icons face some of the most challenging and hard-core natural terrain on the planet. The five come for different reasons—Perata and Farmer to see if they still have what it takes, Haakonsen to add another credit to his Big Mountain resume, and White and Teter to undertake their first Big Mountain ride ever—and yet all seek to challenge themselves to accomplish the best snowboarding feat of their lives down peaks of powder no rider has ever descended.

Leading up to their first descent, the crew of five share their stories, comparing viewpoints, individual lifestyles, and unedited opinions on the evolution of snowboarding that began as a delinquent child of skiing and now stands as an international cultural movement that has permanently changed the face of winter sports.

Intercutting footage from the snowboarding revolution of the '80s and '90s, real-life accounts from both notorious and famed riders, and dramatic, newly-filmed scenes from the biggest winter contests and experiences these riders undergo on their way to and in Alaska, "First Descent" creates a fast-paced portrait of a snowsport that has quickly evolved from a fringe hobby to a full-fledged global event.

Charlize Theron plays single mom Josey Aimes, who rallies her female coworkers to rise above unfair treatment they face at a local mining company. Frances McDormand plays Glory, Josey's closest friend; Sissy Spacek and Richard Jenkins are Josey's parents, Alice and Hank; Sean Bean plays Glory's boyfriend Kyle; Woody Harrelson is Josey's lawyer, Bill White; Jeremy Renner is Bobby, a mineworker and Josey's former classmate; and Michelle Monaghan plays Sherry, Josey's fellow mineworker.

The directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who also penned the script, features characters played by Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson and Rupert Everett trapped in a moral maze with no exit in sight. Anne and James (Watson and Wilkinson) seemingly have an ideal marriage until the arrival of Bill (Everett) and a tragic accident in their idyllic country village threaten to unravel their lives forever.

Described as being in the vein of "About Schmidt" and "American Beauty". The story follows a divorced Chicago weatherman who is up for a new job on a network morning show in New York. As he is preparing to leave for the Big Apple, he must make peace with his ex-wife and kids.

An undercover agent discovers the crime-ridden, seedy underbelly of Brooklyn in "Blood on a Happy Face". When the woman he loves double-crosses him as part of an elaborate scheme to steal a large sum of money, he's left wondering whom he can trust.

Keira Knightley stars in the wild action thriller "Domino", the latest project from director Tony Scott. A trademark Scott film, "Domino" presents an entertaining mix of gritty action, biting comedy and sharp visuals.

The film tells the true story of Domino Harvey, daughter of legendary actor Laurence Harvey and a former Ford model who rejected her privileged Beverly Hills life to become a bounty hunter.

Louis may be brilliant and he may be suicidal, but he has the keys to the car. Hilary may be seductive and she may be falling apart, but she is his sister. These two are as far from average as any middle-class Phoenix siblings can get. Louis and Hilary combine the vulgar and the poetic as they badger, berate and bewitch each other. Louis has something Hilary desperately needs, and Hilary has something Louis cannot live without. Both will fight to the death not to give it to each other. And it all takes place with company in the house.

In "Where the Truth Lies", based on Rupert Holmes' acclaimed novel of the same name, Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth star as Lanny Morris and Vince Collins, the country's hottest entertainment duo. Lanny and Vince are knee deep in all the wealth and power that comes with such fame. That is, until a beautiful girl (Rachel Blanchard) turns up naked and dead in the pair's hotel suite after a night of wild partying. Years later, an intrepid reporter (Alison Lohman) sets out to discover what happened that night, only to be lured into the seductive games of these men.

This is a compilation of three different short films entitled 'Cut,' 'Box' and 'Dumplings' by directors from Japan, Korea and China. Each deals with the theme of human monstrosity.

"The Ice Harvest" is a wickedly funny thriller about thick thieves and thin ice. It's Christmas Eve in rainy, icebound Wichita, Kansas, and this year Charlie Arglist (John Cusack) just might have something to celebrate. Charlie, an attorney for the sleazy businesses of Wichita, and his unsavory associate, the steely Vic Cavenaugh (Billy Bob Thornton), have just successfully embezzled $2,147,000 from Kansas City boss Bill Guerrard (Randy Quaid). Even so, the real prize for Charlie would be the stunning Renata (Connie Nielsen), who runs the Sweet Cage strip club. Charlie's fondest Christmas wish is to slip out of town with Renata. But, as daylight fades and a storm whirls, everyone from Charlie's drinking buddy Pete Van Heuten (Oliver Platt) to the local police begin to wonder just what exactly is in Charlie's Christmas stocking. For Charlie, the 12 hours of Christmas Eve are filled with nonstop twists and turns, both on the ice and off.

Based on Jonathan Larson's award-winning Broadway musical, "Rent" chronicles a group of New York village artists struggling with identity and artistic integrity in an HIV-positive world. Roommates Roger and Mark, a songwriter-recovering addict and a guerrilla filmmaker, respectively, must find a way to pay their former roommate-turned-landlord when he decides to reneg on his promise to provide them rent-free living.