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- THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE WEIRDBLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Good, the Bad, the Weird [Blu-ray]
BagHead
- EACH COPY IS SIGNED AND DATED by Author/Illustrator
- Independently Published
- For ages 3-8
In their indie sensation The Puffy Chair, writer/directors Mark and Jay Duplass used the retrieval of a piece of furniture to explore the relationship between a close-knit trio. Their studio follow-up represents s! omething both fresh and familiar. Not to be confused with the children's book of the same name, Baghead retains their emphasis on character over plot mechanics, but this time they infuse their humorous approach with horror overtones. Matt (Ross Partridge), Chad (Steve Zissis), Catherine (Elise Muller), and Michelle (Greta Gerwig, who appears with Mark Duplass in Hannah Takes the Stairs) work as extras in Los Angeles. Matt convinces them to accompany him to his family cabin to write a script in which they all get to star. As they collaborate, it becomes apparent that Chad has eyes for Michelle and that Matt and Catherine have been an on-and-off thing for years. The screenplay becomes an excuse to organize their personal and professional lives, until Michelle spots a man with a brown paper bag on his head skulking in the woods. Is he a manifestation of the emotions roiling between the quartet, a psychotic killer, or a friend playing a cruel trick? Baghea! d turns into a frisky take on The Blair Witch Project! , e xcept the Duplass Brothers have more than thrills in mind, since it takes a spooky dude to remind these self-absorbed actors about the importance of friendship. The concept may be slight and the execution rudimentary, but the makers of Baghead have devised an unexpectedly poignant romp. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
Amazon.com
What does one make of a movie whose plot revolves around second-rate actors who scare each other by wearing bags on their heads? This conundrum and more are exploited to strong effect by young directing team Mark and Jay Duplass, in their low-budget, grade Z cult comedy, Baghead. This follow up to their debut effort, The Puffy Chair, stars two couples who head to their parents’ cabin in an attempt to make their own horror film free from the constraints of the film industry. Brothers, Matt (Ross Partridge) and Chad (Steve Zissis), host bimbos Michelle (Greta Gerwig) and Catherine (Elise Muller) on a weekend adv! enture that is less than intellectually stimulating. As sexual tensions increase, brown paper bags are busted out and the characters seek revenge upon each other by pretending to be masked peeping toms. This meta-narrative of a movie about the making of the movie is further confused when the bunch suspects that there is an extra baghead on the scene, a really psychotic one. A few actually scary moments add gusto to this film that mostly feels like a po’ man’s rendition of Blair Witch Project, with its hand-held camera stylings. Highlights throughout involve Chad, the nerdier, uglier brother who manages many funny lines and boosts the humor bigtime. That Baghead is a fairly terrible film, with slow, moronic dialogue and long scenes in which little or nothing happens, may well be intentional. It’s impossible to judge. Baghead is so ripe with irony that it bags the idea that it’s cool to strive towards making a fine film, and the story gives up on ! trying to be good before it even tries. The characters start w! ashed-up and stay washed-up, as does the movie. But this strange resignation that makes Baghead awful is also what makes it conceptually unique; the Duplass brothers did, after all, complete the film and release it. One wonders why directors bother making a movie that presumes itself worthy of wearing a baghead? This is Baghead’s virtueâ€"it left me feeling as if I had a bag over my head, dumb for missing some bit of subversive genius. --Trinie Dalton
Filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass have written a celebrity blog for us to promote their new film, Baghead. 
I’m still not quite sure. When I look back, what we should have done is clear… we should have made another relationship movie to cash in on Puffy’s success. But, we were compelled to make Baghead, so we did it. And then something really interesting happened. We discovered that we are hopelessly and helplessly ourselves on set. For example, even if something terrifying was happening in the horror plot, we couldn’t help training the camera on all of the little personal dynamics happening a! mong the 4 lead characters, just like we did on The Puffy ! Chair. No matter how eerie or cool-looking our lighting got, we were infinitely more obsessed with the chubby guy whose advances were being rejected by the hottie girl.
About a week into filming, we realized we had something VERY different on our hands. We had a horror movie shell… “guy with bag on head comes to get 4 people in a cabin in the woods.†We all know this set-up, right? Not too original. But, we were making a highly sensitive relationship dramedy inside of this horror film because, in the end, that’s what Jay and I know how to do best and that’s what we love showing.
So, basically, we started panicking. How do you make a movie work that’s scary, funny, and (ultimately) endearing and touching as we understand the nature of our desperate, sweet, tragically flawed lead characters? The answer was… I hope we don’t @&*# it up.
On week 2, we happened to catch a glimpse of the film Saw on TV, and it became clearer! to us how Baghead could be a really interesting film for this time frame in cinema. Saw is great in its own right, but it’s mean, it’s gory, and it’s not really scary. Somehow, the crazy sound design, gore, and effects, took the film further and further away from being actually scary. Whereas, with Baghead, we somehow stumbled into something genuinely frightening, with our $50,000 budget, no sound f/x, no score, no make-up… just a ridiculous paper bag and the question of “who the hell is under that bag?†So, we started to feel smart. Confident. Inspired in new ways. We even waxed philosophical about how brilliant we were to “come up with his concept†(that we totally lucked into, btw)…
On week 3, we finished the shoot and all looked at each other a little shell shocked. What did we just do? Is this movie even gonna work? Cut to a year later. We’re opening the film at the Sundance Film Festival and every buyer is ca! lling us, making insanely inflated offers, asking us how we ca! me up wi th such a brilliant, genre-smashing concept.
I guess it kinda comes down to the old adage our dad used to tell us… “I’d rather be lucky than good.â€
--Mark & Jay Duplass
One day Josh had a big, brown bag idea: to wear a paper bag over his head. He thought it was a good idea. His mother did not. Neither did his bus driver, his teacher, or his soccer coach. What could Josh possibly be hiding?
A surprise ending will keep kids gigglingâ€"and from taking haircuts into their own hands!
From the Hardcover edition.PUFFY CHAIR - DVD MovieA little boy learns that wearing a bag on his head when he gets nervous doesn't solve the problem.
An Affair Without End
- ISBN13: 9781439117996
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
When Oliver, Earl of Stewkesbury, asks the dashing Lady Vivian Carlyle to ensure that his American cousins meet the cream of London society, he doesn’t anticipate the danger she will pose to his own self-control. Thrown into intimate contact with the lovely lady, Oliver finds he cannot stop thinking of Vivianâ€"of her wit, of her smile . . . of her lips. And when Vivian, who has sworn never to subject herself to the! bonds of matrimony, boldly suggests that she and Oliver become lovers instead, her scandalous proposal is temptation indeed! But with an alarming series of jewel thefts rocking London, the ever-outrageous Vivian insists on trying to discover the perpetrator despite Oliver’s admonitions. And when a bold lady steps into danger, it is a gentleman’s duty to protect her at all costs. What neither Oliver nor Vivian can anticipate, however, is that the ultimate cost may be both their hearts. . . .
Dear Wendy
- Directed by Thomas Vinterberg (The Celebration) and written by Lars von Trier (Dogville), Dear Wendy is an audacious and stylish exploration of guns and violence in America. When a young loner named Dick (Jamie Bell) discovers a vintage handgun, he finds himself strangely drawn to it in spite of his pacifist views. Soon he forms a secret club with other misfits in his town who collect and revere a
Thomas And Friends Wooden Railway - Harold The Helicopter
- Handmade from REAL WOOD
- Moving propeller
- Durable paint job
- Realistic details
- Recommended Age Range 2 to 5 Years
Thomas and his friends bring personality and fun to woode! n train play. All aboard for adventure on the Island of Sodor! Good-hearted Harold brings welcome but noisy visits to the quiet Sodor landscape. For use with Thomas and Friends Wooden Railway System sets (sold separately).Kindhearted but noisy, Harold the Helicopter likes to drop in on the Island of Sodor to visit his railway friends. This 4-inch sturdy wood helicopter is white with a sleek red racing stripe above his name. With a rotating propeller and plastic landing pontoons, Harold is ready for action. Based on the popular Thomas the Tank Engine series by Reverend W. Awdry and the PBS television show Shining Time Station, this flying fellow is part of the much-loved wooden railway system, which is compatible with other magnetic train sets. You can reenact all the exciting stories in the series or make up new ones. Thomas fans won't want to miss out on any of these fun, well-built railway characters. --Emilie Coulter
Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (Unrated Two-Disc Special Edition)
- On their flight to Amsterdam Harold and Kumar are mistaken for terrorists and sent to Guantanamo Bay. but not for long. They bust out and go on a cross-country road trip to clear their names and win over their hotties! But first they'll have to outsmart the Feds outrun the Klan and enlist the help of a hallucinating Neil Patrick Harris. It's one wild ride with America's most wanted - and most was
The desultory comedy strikes a lowbrow tone from its opening scene (Harold takes a shower while Kumar has a diarrhea attack) and doesn't get much more interesting than that. If there's a bodily fluid that doesn't rate a joke in Guantanamo Bay, it doesn't exist. The persistent sight gags about weed (including! a smoky visit with President Bush) never reach the kind of gi! ddy pitc h that pot humor requires, leaving a lot of the film's comedy just hanging like dead space. The sequel's attempt to say something, albeit in a gross way, about the state of the country during the Bush years is obvious and empty. Really, there isn't a lot of reason for Guantanamo Bay to have been made, except to print money. --Tom Keogh
The Deep End of the Ocean
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Whoopi Goldberg, High School Reunion, Treat Williams, Jonathan Jackson, Cory Buck
Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful story--a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother's worst nightmare--the disappearance of a child--as it explores a family's struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.
"Riveting . . . twists that will spin you arou! nd." --Newsweek
"A drama with the tension of a thriller that moves deeply into the emotional territory of family ties." --People
"Take a deep breath. . . . This riveting story won't let you come up for air." --US magazine Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1996: The horror of losing a child is somehow made worse when the case goes unsolved for nearly a decade, reports Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Jacquelyn Mitchard in this searing first novel. In it, 3-year-old Ben Cappadora is kidnapped from a hotel lobby where his mother is checking into her 15th high school reunion. His disappearance tears the family apart and invokes separate experiences of anguish, denial, and self-blame. Marital problems and delinquency in Ben's older brother (in charge of him the day of his kidnapping) ensue. Mitchard depicts the family's friction and torment--along with many gritty realities of family life--with the candor of a j! ournalist and compassion of someone who has seemingly been th! ere. Int ernational publishing and movie rights sold fast on this one: It's a blockbuster.Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful storyâ€"a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother's worst nightmareâ€"the disappearance of a childâ€"as it explores a family's struggle to endure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion, humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.Oprah Book Club® Selection, September 1996: The horror of losing a child is somehow made worse when the case goes unsolved for nearly a decade, reports Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel columnist Jacquelyn Mitchard in this searing first novel. In it, 3-year-old B! en Cappadora is kidnapped from a hotel lobby where his mother is checking into her 15th high school reunion. His disappearance tears the family apart and invokes separate experiences of anguish, denial, and self-blame. Marital problems and delinquency in Ben's older brother (in charge of him the day of his kidnapping) ensue. Mitchard depicts the family's friction and torment--along with many gritty realities of family life--with the candor of a journalist and compassion of someone who has seemingly been there. International publishing and movie rights sold fast on this one: It's a blockbuster.Few first novels receive the kind of attention and acclaim showered on this powerful storyâ€"a nationwide bestseller, a critical success, and the first title chosen for Oprah's Book Club. Both highly suspenseful and deeply moving, The Deep End of the Ocean imagines every mother's worst nightmareâ€"the disappearance of a childâ€"as it explores a family's struggle to en! dure, even against extraordinary odds. Filled with compassion,! humor, and brilliant observations about the texture of real life, here is a story of rare power, one that will touch readers' hearts and make them celebrate the emotions that make us all one.Elmer Bernstein's moody piano complemented by an alternately somber and lighthearted symphony is the musical equivalent to boilerplate. So many scores contain these same properties that one is tempted to overlook the beautiful orchestration and just fault the composer for being too unoriginal. In keeping with the film's story of family dysfunction and an abducted child, Bernstein uses his instruments to stress what he calls "childhood memories," accented by a competent fusion of harps, bells, and often skip-happy arrangements intended to be unobtrusive. A departure from the humdrum side of soundtrack art it is not, but Bernstein deserves kudos for opting for traditional instruments (instead of a synthesizer) to complement this sensitive story of the "delicate balance" in human relationships.
