September 2004 DVD & Blu-rays

Why just fly when you can soar with soul! After a humiliating experience on an airplane, Nashawn Wade sues the airline and is awarded a huge settlement. Determined to make good with the money, he creates the full-service airline of his dreams, complete with sexy stewardesses, funky music, a hot onboard dance club, and a bathroom attendant. Departing from all-new Terminal X in Los Angeles, "Soul Plane" gives "fly" a whole new meaning, taking its passengers on a maiden voyage full of comedy.

The exquisitely beautiful and very human drama "Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring", from director Kim Ki-Duk, is entirely set on and around a tree-lined lake where a tiny Buddhist monastery floats on a raft amidst a breath-taking landscape. The film is divided into five segments with each season representing a stage in a man's life. Under the vigilant eyes of Old Monk, Child Monk learns a hard lesson about the nature of sorrow when some of his childish games turn cruel. In the intensity and lushness of summer, the monk, now a young man, experiences the power of lust, a desire that will ultimately lead him, as an adult, to dark deeds. With winter, strikingly set on the ice and snow-covered lake, the man atones for his past actions, and spring starts the cycle anew...

Frank Castle (Thomas Jane) is a man who has seen too much death in his life, first as a Delta Force Op and later as an FBI special agent. He has managed to beat considerable odds, and is finally moving out of the field and into a normal life with his wife and son. On his final assignment, Castle plays his undercover role perfectly, but the operation spins out of control. This places the FBI on the wrong side of Tampa businessman Howard Saint (John Travolta) and his glamorous wife Livia (Laura Harring). Notwithstanding their glossy social profile, the Saints are no genteel Florida couple; behind their copious wealth are violent beginnings, underworld ties – and a chilling capacity for brutality. Castle's worst nightmare is about to come true, as Howard Saint and his lieutenants unleash hell at the Castle family reunion. But Castle, to his everlasting torment, survives. Drawing upon all he has learned in 20 years, Castle sets in motion a brilliant plan to punish the murderers. He takes up residence among in a dilapidated tenement building on Tampa's industrial waterfront, where his fellow tenants include Joan (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos), a waitress at a nearby diner who is trying to put her life back on track. Castle's neighbors become his last link to the idea of human community and warmth. It is this makeshift family – forgotten men and women with no one to protect them - who enable Castle to find the one thing he least expects: redemption.

This is the story of a sensitive teenager, Leland (Ryan Gosling), faced with issues of morality and hope under difficult circumstances, who is arrested and sent to juvenile hall, after he kills an autistic child out of sympathy. Once there, he meets a teacher, Mr. Pearl (Don Cheadle), who helps him figure out the reasons for why he committed the crime, as we also see the ramifications of the murder have on his community, his family, and that of the victim.

Set on an American Army Base in 1989, as the Berlin Wall is about to fall, "Buffalo Soldiers" takes a satiric look as these men steal, drink, fight, and make, take, and sell drugs. Elwood (Joaquin Phoenix) is the brains behind the operation, easily duping his superior (Ed Harris) and sleeping with his wife (Elizabeth McGovern). But with the arrival of the new Sergeant (Scott Glenn), everything changes. The Sergeant cracks down; Elwood retaliates by dating his daughter (Anna Paquin) and attempting a big "weapons for drugs" deal, with the Sergeant in closer pursuit.

Set in the world's holiest city during the dawn of the new century as fanatical Christians from across the globe arrive in hopes of provoking a confrontation between the many extremist Arabs and Jews, the plot of "The Holy Land" focuses on Menachem Weinbaum ("Mendy"),a young rabbinical student who is restless to learn about the bigger world. On the advice of his slightly demented teacher, Mendy visits a brothel in Tel Aviv so he can be rid of his 'madness' and return tohis studies. There he meets Sasha, a nineteen-year-old Russian prostitute, whose dire situation and immense beauty captivates him. But Mendy's world really opens up when he discovers Mike's Place, a real-life magnet for the lost souls who flock to Jerusalem. A place where Arabs, Christians and Jews drink side by side, Mike's Place introduces Mendy to a gun-toting American-born settler, a shady entrepreneurial Arab and a slew of American expatriates, forever changed by the sixties, who act out biblical roles. As Mendy becomes more immersed in this culture of the millennium he begins to wonder if Mike and his band of misfits are as harmless as they seem? Or are they intent on provoking Armageddon? A story of doomed, passionate love and coming of age in troubled times -- set in a world-famous place not unlike Rick's Cafe American or the Cantina in "Star Wars" -- "The Holy Land" explores the underbelly of real life in Jerusalem after the sun goes down and the tourists and Orthodox families go to sleep.

Academy Award winner Tom Hanks teams up for the first time with Academy Award–winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen ("O Brother, Where Art Thou?") for this retelling of the critically acclaimed 1955 comedy, "The Ladykillers". Hanks stars as Goldthwait Higginson Dorr III, Ph.D., a charlatan professor who's assembled a gang of "experts" for the heist of the century. The thieves: experts in explosions, tunneling, and muscle, and the critical "inside man." The base of operations: the root cellar of an unsuspecting, church-going little old lady named Mrs. Munson (Irma P. Hall). The ruse: the five need a place to practice their church music. The problem: it quickly becomes evident that Dorr's thieves lack the mental capacity to do the job. The bigger problem: they all have seriously underestimated their upstairs host.

Ollie Trinke (Ben Affleck) is at the top of his game. A smooth, Manhattan music publicist, Ollie has just married the love of his life (Jennifer Lopez) and has a child on the way. It's a perfect life that is tragically upended when he suddenly finds himself a single father unqualified for his new role. Before long Ollie's big city lifestyle clashes head on with fatherhood. After losing his job, he's forced to move back in with his father (George Carlin) in the New Jersey Suburb where he was raised. With the help of a beautiful young friend (Liv Tyler) who opens him up to love again, and the daughter (Raquel Castro) who gives him the courage to keep going, he begins to realize that sometimes, you have to forget about what you thought you were and just accept who you are.

Set in a world where a giant tree called Axis rises 100 miles above the planet surface, this is an adventure story about a spirited, young woman, Kaena (Kirsten Dunst), who leaves her tree village hoping to discover why the plant's sap is disappearing, thus threatening her people's way of life. Against the wishes of her village elders, she climbs down past the cloud level, and encounters the Selenites, a race that is trying to keep the tree from dying by enslaving another species. Richard Harris plays Opaz, an elderly sage, Anjelica Huston is the evil Queen of the Selenites, Keith David plays her second-in-command, while Greg Proops and Michael McShane are comic relief characters, the Worms.

In "Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed", Scooby and the gang confront an anonymous masked villain who is plotting to take over the city of Coolsville by wreaking mayhem with a monster machine that creates Mystery Inc.'s classic foes like The Pterodactyl Ghost, The Black Knight Ghost and The 10,000 Volt Ghost. Meanwhile, the gang's detecting abilities are scrutinized by relentless reporter Heather Jasper-Howe (Alicia Silverstone), aided by museum curator Patrick Wisely (Seth Green) and thwarted by nasty Jeremiah Wickles (Peter Boyle).

Denzel Washington stars as a government operative/soldier of fortune who has pretty much given up on life. In Mexico City, he reluctantly agrees to take a job to protect a child (Dakota Fanning) whose parents are threatened by a wave of kidnappings. He eventually becomes close to the child and their relationship reawakens and rekindles his spirit. When she is abducted, his fiery rage is unleashed on those he feels responsible, and he stops at nothing to save her.

"Young Adam" is David McKenzie's adaptation of Alexander Trocchi's novel, a romantic murder mystery set on a barge in the canals of Scotland. Lovely photography by Giles Nuttgens, complemented by a lonely score by David Byrne, provides a picturesque backdrop for what is otherwise a seedy story of morality gone far astray and hopelessness taking hold of everyday life, with sex as the only outlet. Ewan McGregor and Tilda Swinton both lend excellent performances to the film, acting out a strained relationship of carnal misgiving that is their mutual respite. Working on a barge that travels to ports between Glasgow and Edinburgh, Joe (McGregor) is a randy ol' chap. He befriends Les (Peter Mullen) as they labor hard days shoveling coal and pass their evenings over pints and darts in the local pubs. But Joe is simply positioning himself to seduce Les' wife, Ella (Swinton), who he easily and frequently beds. A steamy affair with a heavy dose of on-screen coitus eventually leads to trouble for all three. A subplot concerns Joe's past romance with a girl (Emily Mortimer) whose mysterious death is reported in local papers, with flashbacks to raunchy sexual interludes representing his fondest memories of her.

Set in London, this is the story of Dr. Adrian Strother (Goran Visnjic), an American insomniac hypnotherapist with telepathic powers, who gets caught up in the pursuit of a ritualistic serial killer, when Scotland Yard enlists his help in talking to a young mute girl who escaped.

A young woman, Diane, works for a multinational corporation run by Henri-Pierre Volf. In the logic of the diversification of its activities - from real estate to clothing design - the Volf Group is negociating the acquisition of TokyoAnime, a Japanese company which produces a new form of manga and their pornographic version, hentaï, in digital 3D images that will outdate and destroy the competition in this extraordinarily lucrative market. Two companies battle to obtain exclusive diffusion of Volf's new images on the Web: Mangatronics and Demonlover. Mangatronics has recruted Diane as a sort of industrial spy to serve its interests by torpedoing the Demonlover contract from within. The links between Demonlover and various violent and illegal pornographic sites dangerously weakens the relationship with the Volf Group, unaware of the existence of those secret sites. Diane discovers that they also have their strategy and their spies in the form of her seemingly neutral, naive colleagues. She ends up knowing too much and becomes a danger to Demonlover. Soon there is no way out, except fading into the cyber-reality of which she was perhaps a part from the start.

A family farm inhabited by a widow (Sarah Jessica Parker), her young daughter, and various and sundry farm animals. The widow owes $1,000 mortgage on the farm and has no way to pay for it, and the cows get wind of the trouble. Fearing that they'll be sold to the local meat- packing plant, the cows seek to find a way to earn the money. Enter the family horse, played by Cuba Gooding, Jr. He used to belong to a bounty hunter, and knows a great way to save the farm. You see, he's heard that in the nearby town, there's a bandit afoot (Randy Quaid), with a $1,000 bounty on his head.

Made in 1971, 'THX 1138' marked the George Lucas's filmmaking debut. Francis Ford Coppola and his American Zoetrope studios produced the film at the height of the American independent movement. It is a thought-provoking and visually rich exploration of a theme that would repeat itself throughout Lucas's career: One man's quest to realize his own potential amid an oppressive society. 'THX 1138' is a chilling look at a 25th-century totalitarian state where mankind is stripped of any individuality. People are numbered drones, and a government-enforced program of sedating drugs controls the populace. The story's title character, THX, is a factory worker whose life is irrevocably changed when he stops taking his mind-numbing drugs.

A young photographer (David Wissack) from Los Angeles takes his girlfriend (Katerina Golubeva) with him while looking for locations in the Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California for a photography shoot, where they find their lives changed by something horrible that happens in the desert...

In "Mean Girls", Cady Heron (Lindsay Lohan) is raised in the African wilderness by her zoologist parents but finds life gets a lot rougher when she moves to the city and begins high school. After dating the ex-boyfriend of the school's most popular girl, forces align against her.

The story of the life of artist Ray Johnson is cloaked in mystery not only at the moment of his death, but also throughout a career that was difficult to know and understand. As one of the seminal figures of the Pop Art era, he is known as "the founding father of mail art" and as a "collagist extraordinaire." But, overshadowed by those like Warhol who manipulated the world in a very dissimilar manner, he was also a reclusive and sometimes enigmatic figure who has been called "New York's most famous unknown artist" that challenged the commercial and critical establishment.

We come to know the rapist Gilson, tried and sentenced by the Law Behind Bars; Zico and Deusdete, inseparable half brothers who, in jail, become each other's assassins; Highness and his shrewd balancing act between women and heists; Old Chico, a Zen master in the ways of the dungeon, at last on the brink of his long-awaited freedom; Warden Pires, who oversees the prison with the perspicacity of a tightrope walker; Ebony, the true leader of the inmate community and the arbiter of all its contentions; the religious conversion of the assasin, Dagger, the rise and fall of the surfer Ezequiel; Antonio Carlos, Claudiomiro and, coming between them like a knife, and depraved Dina; the existentialist philosopher No Way and his love affair with the divine lady Di. The narrative of the film is crafted like a puzzle with one story giving way to another for of surrealist, uniquely Brazilian collage of tragedy.

Jim Jarmusch's ensemble comedy is a series of vignettes, all revolving around discussions held over coffee and cigarettes. Starring a diverse cast, including Bill Murray, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett, and others, the film has been in production since the 1980s and is in black and white. Topics of conversation include Nicola Tesla, alternative medicine, Paris, the movie industry, and more.

In "Walking Tall", Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays Chris Vaughn, a retired soldier who returns to his hometown to make a new life for himself, only to discover his wealthy high school rival, Jay Hamilton (Neal McDonough), has closed the once-prosperous lumber mill and turned the town's resources towards his own criminal gains. The place Chris grew up is now overrun with crime, drugs, and violence. Enlisting the help of his old pal Ray Templeton (Johnny Knoxville), Chris gets elected sheriff and vows to shut down Hamilton's operations. His actions endanger his family and threaten his own life, but Chris refuses to back down until his hometown once again feels like home.

The roads cross at San Antonio de Bexar at a small, ruined mission called The Alamo—a place where myth meets history and legend meets reality. In the spring of 1836 nearly 200 Texans—men of all races who believed in the future of Texas—held the fort for thirteen days under siege by General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, ruler of Mexico and commander of its forces. Led by three men—the young, brash Colonel William Travis; the violent, passionate James Bowie; and the larger-than-life living legend Davy Crockett—the Texans and their deeds at the Alamo would pass into history as General Sam Houston's rallying cry for Texas independence. As well, their actions would become legend for their symbolic significance.

Joel (Jim Carrey) is stunned to discover that his girlfriend Clementine (Kate Winslet) has had her memories of their tumultuous relationship erased. Out of desperation, he contracts the inventor of the process, Dr. Howard Mierzwaik (Tom Wilkinson), to have Clementine removed from his own memory. But as Joel's memories progressively disappear, he begins to rediscover their earlier passion. From deep within the recesses of his brain, Joel attempts to escape the procedure. As Dr. Mierzwiak and his crew (Kristen Dunst, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood) chase him through the maze of his memories, it's clear that Joel just can't get her out of his head.

Why are Americans so fat? Find out in "Super Size Me", a tongue in-cheek—and burger in hand—look at the legal, financial and physical costs of America's hunger for fast food. Ominously, 37% of American children and adolescents are carrying too much fat and 2 out of every three adults are overweight or obese. Is it our fault for lacking self-control, or are the fast-food corporations to blame? Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock hit the road and interviewed experts in 20 U.S. cities, including Houston, the "Fattest City" in America. From Surgeon Generals to gym teachers, cooks to kids, lawmakers to legislators, these authorities shared their research, opinions and "gut feelings" on our ever-expanding girth. During the journey, Spurlock also put his own body on the line, living on nothing but McDonald's for an entire month with three simple rules: 1) No options: he could only eat what was available over the counter (water included!); 2) No supersizing unless offered; 3) No excuses: he had to eat every item on the menu at least once. It all adds up to a fat food bill, harrowing visits to the doctor, and compelling viewing for anyone who's ever wondered if man could live on fast food alone. The film explores the horror of school lunch programs, declining health and physical education classes, food addictions and the extreme measures people take to lose weight and regain their health. "Super Size Me" is a satirical jab in the stomach, overstuffed with fat and facts about the billion-dollar industry besieged by doctors, lawyers and nutritionists alike. "Would you like fries with that?" will never sound the same!

An exploration of a sustained and well-funded effort to discredit and defeat Bill Clinton, dating from his gubernatorial days in Arkansas and eventually leading to his impeachment trial.