October 2004 DVD & Blu-rays

"Good girl" Mary (Jena Malone) can't believe it when she gets pregnant by her newly-gay boyfriend. She also can't believe the actions of her popular, relentlessly devout best friend, Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore), who's looking after her wheelchair-bound brother Roland (Macaulay Culkin), attempting to convert adamantly Jewish Cassandra (Eva Amurri), and trying to snag cute newcomer Patrick (Patrick Fugit), a hip skateboarding missionary. By the time Mary's secret is revealed, Hilary Faye has gone to extremes to get the outsiders expelled from school, with spectacular results, and Mary is forced to decide what's worth believing in the first place. In this dark comedy, a young, talented cast comes together to get "Saved".

A rebellious rich boy reluctantly lands in the Marine Corps and falls for a beautiful but crazy young musician while on leave. Against the wishes of family and friends and under strict regulations of military life, the two find romance and solace within each other - facing obstacles that may force them apart.

In this heartwarming comedy from director Garry Marshall ("Runaway Bride", "The Princess Diaries"), Helen Harris (Kate Hudson) is living the life she always dreamed of. Her career at a top Manhattan modeling agency is on the rise; she spends her days at fashion shows and her nights at the city's hottest clubs. But her carefree lifestyle comes to a screeching halt when one phone call changes everything. Helen soon finds herself responsible for her sister's children -- 15-year-old Audrey (Hayden Panettiere), 10-year-old Henry (Spencer Breslin), and 5-year-old Sarah (Abigail Breslin). No one doubts that Helen is the coolest aunt in New York, but what does this glamour girl know about raising kids? The fun begins as Helen goes through the transformation from super hip to super mom, but she quickly finds that dancing at 3 a.m. doesn't mix with getting kids to school on time, advice that Helen's older sister, Jenny (Joan Cusack), is only too quick to dish out. Along the way, Helen finds support in the most unusual place with Dan Parker (John Corbett), the handsome young pastor and principal of the kids' new school, and realizes the choice she has to make is between the life she's always loved and the new loves of her life.

"Valentin" is a coming of age story told through the eyes of a precocious 10-year old boy who lives with his grandmother in turbulent 1969 Argentina. Estranged from his eccentric parents, young Valentin yearns for a real family and dreams about being an astronaut. He befriends a recluse neighbor, forms an unlikely friendship with one of his father's many ex-girlfriends and sets out to discover the harsh realities about his parents, all the while bringing joy and wisdom into the lives of the adults around him.

A high-concept big-budget movie from director Roland Emmerich ("Independence Day"), it's about a climatological disaster that ravages the world beyond recognition. As millions of terrified survivors flee south, Professor Adrian Hall (Dennis Quaid), a brilliant paleoclimatologist, heads to New York City — now a frozen wasteland — in search of his son Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who may still be alive.

Jamie Foxx stars in "Breakin' All the Rules", a romantic comedy about a man who, after being unceremoniously dumped by his fiancée, pens a "how to" book on breaking up and becomes a best-selling author on the subject. Not wanting his male friends to suffer the same fate, he gives them advice on dumping their mates. What ensues is a hilarious comedy of errors.

Anne Reid stars as May, an ordinary grandmother from the North of England. When her husband dies on a family visit to London, she recedes into the background of her busy, metropolitan children's lives. Stuck in an unfamiliar city, far from home, May fears that she has become another invisible old lady whose life is more or less over. Until, that is, she embarks on a passionate affair with Darren (Daniel Craig), a man half her age who is renovating her son's house and sleeping with her daughter.

This is the story of Noi (Tomas Lemarquis), an intelligent 17-year-old boy who dreams of escaping from his hometown in the remote fjord regions of Northern Iceland with Iris, a girl from the city who works at the local gas station, because he is bored and frustrated with the limitations that small town life impose on him. Meanwhile, the locals perceive Noi's lack of ambition within their framework as a sign that he's just their next village idiot in training...

Life couldn't be sweeter for Garfield. Parked on a comfortable barcolounger in front of the TV, feasting on his favorite dish—lasagna—he's the master of his universe. That is, until his owner, Jon, takes in sweet but dimwitted pooch Odie, turning Garfield's perfect world upside down. Now, Garfield wants only one thing: Odie out of his home and life! But when the hapless pup disappears, Garfield, maybe for the first time in his life, feels responsible. With an uncharacteristic amount of energy and courage, Garfield manages to pull himself away from the TV, and spring into action. He's on a mission to save Odie....and get back to his beloved barcolounger!

Something sinister is lurking under the surface of 10-year-old Michele's (Giuseppe Cristiano) idyllic summer in 1978. While the days in his remote sourthern Italian village are filled with the familiar routines of childhood, a chance discovery leads to a shocking revelation. Now, suddenly beyond the point-of-no-return, Michele digs further to find that even his own parents may be behind what's quickly becoming the country's most nefarious crime.

Set in the late 19th century, monster hunter Dr. Gabriel Van Helsing (Jackman) is summoned to a mysterious land in East Europe to vanquish evil forces... like Count Dracula (Richard Roxburgh), the Wolf Man (Will Kemp), and Frankenstein's Monster (Shuler Hensley). Assisting him once he gets there is Anna (Kate Beckinsale), the heir of a long-running family committed to hunting down and destroying Dracula.

After his wife leaves him, a man (Jean-Pierre Bacri) hires an unqualified but lovely suburban girl to clean his Paris apartment. The two become close as they chat while she's working, but can the lonely older guy sweep her off her feet?

A chronicle of presidential candidate John Kerry's career, from his Navy duty in Vietnam followed by the years of peace advocacy that shaped his political life.

In this twisted and hilarious update of the classic fairy tale, high school senior Sam Montgomery (Hilary Duff) lives at the beck and call of her self-obsessed step-mother Fiona (Jennifer Coolidge) and her sinfully wicked step-sisters. Sam finds her less-than-sparkling social life wonderfully complicated when she meets her prince charming online. But when her anonymous cyber soul mate turns out to be her high school's uber-popular quaterback Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray), Sam makes a mad dash back to reality, leaving her cell phone behind just before the clock strikes midnight. Fearing rejection if her secret is revealed, Sam dodges Austin's efforts to discover the identity of his princess. Will Sam let fear hold her back or will she find the courage to be herself and claim the life she's always wanted? Her chance at happily ever after depends on it.

This ensemble comedy of 11 interwoven stories set in Dublin shows how the breakup of one relationship has repurcussions on the lives of the people around them. One of those people is Lehiff (Colin Farrell), a thief trying to set his life straight by pulling off one last big heist before retiring, while Detective John Lynch (Colm Meaney) is trying to bring Lehiff down. There's also John (Cillian Murphy), who quits his job at a supermarket to join Lehiff in his plot as an effort to win back the love of Deirdre (Kelly MacDonald), who has recently moved in with a married bank manager, Sam (Michael McElhatton), whose bank Lehiff is targeting, and whose wife, Noeleen (Deirdre O'Kane) ends up being a crucial element in the heist.

As adults, best friends Julien and Sophie continue the odd game they started as children -- a fearless competition to outdo one another with daring and outrageous stunts. While they often act out to relieve one another's pain, their game might be a way to avoid the fact that they are truly meant for one another.

This documentary is an intimate portrayal of several months at a one-room elementary schoolhouse in a small village (Saint-Etienne Sur Usson) in rural France, where a single teacher, Georges Lopez, gives his small class of thirteen students, ages 3-10, the sort of attention that is dwindling in many other schools in France (and elsehwere), where crowded classrooms are the norm.

Based on the novel by Anne Tyler, "A Slipping Down Life" is the story of the peculiar courtship of an awkward young woman and a charismatic singer/songwriter, and the profound effect that their unlikely relationship has on eachother's lives and futures. Evie Decker (Lili Taylor) is a painfully timid young woman whose monotonous life consists of living with her reclusive widower father (Tom Bower) and working a dead-end job dressed in a rabbit costume at a rundown amusement park. Evie's quiet existence is shattered when she hears a late-night radio interview with struggling musician Drumstrings Casey (Guy Pearce). Evie is fascinated with his seductive voice and sultry lyrics and convinces her best friend Violet (Sara Rue) to go with her to the local roadhouse to see him perform. Seeing him in person, Evie becomes even more mesmerized by the handsome and brooding musicians. During one of Drum's shows, Evie's growing infatuation blends with obsession when she becomes so entranced by his singing that she actually cuts his name into her forehead with a piece of glass. Instead of regretting her action, she considers this her first step towards taking more control of her life. The stunt brings her to Drum's attention and he and his manager David Elliot (John Hawkes) decide to use her as a marketing gimmick at future shows. Evie's total faith in Drum's talent inspires and intrigues him while her role as his "muse" imparts Evie with uncharacteristic self-assurance. The physical attraction between Evie and Drum increases as their emotional need for one another becomes more and more apparent. The inspiration they find together to break out from the confines of low expectations and the ordinariness of small town life begins to conflict with the pursuit of their individual dreams. Together or apart they must decide which path will lead to the fulfillment of their newfound strength.

Two ambitious, but unlucky, black FBI agents, Kevin and Marcus, go deep undercover as white high society debutantes, and infiltrate the sophisticated world of the Hamptons to investigate a kidnapping ring.

Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Webber and Mekhi Phifer head an ensemble cast in a re-envisioning of George Romero's apocalyptic horror classic, "Dawn of the Dead". An unexplained plague has decimated the world's population and yet...the dead aren't dying. They've become zombies, stalking endlessly in a constant quest to feed on the flesh and blood of the few remaining living. A ragtag group of desperate survivors in a Wisconsin town seek refuge in a large indoor mall, where they must learn not only to protect themselves from the ever-increasing zombie horde, but also to co-exist with each other as a last bastion of humanity. Sealed off from the rest of what used to be the world, the group uses every available resource—both within and without—in their against-all-odds fight to remain alive and human.

This documentary is aimed at refuting the content of Michael Moore's 2004 feature, "Fahrenheit 9/11" while providing a full deconstruction of Senator John Kerry, the Democrat presidential nominee.