Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Invictus

  • Format: DVD
  • Rating: PG-13
  • Release Date: 5/18/10
  • Run Time: 133 min
  • Director: Clint Eastwood
A troubled young rugby player is given the choice between jail or playing for a rival team coached by a man known for building not only championship teams, but championship boys. Based on a true story, Forever Strong offers stand up and cheer sports drama combined with the consequences of a strong ethical code to achieve victory on and off the field

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG-13
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 113 minutes
If you get caught up in the sweaty fight scenes in Never Back Down--and, despite the formulaic plot, you very likely will--it will be due to the sheer kinetic pleasure of muscular bodies in motion. Jake (Tom Cruise look-alike Sean Faris, Yours, Mine, and Ours), full of anger after his father's deat! h, starts to find a place for himself at his new Florida high school--until Ryan, the head of an underground mixed-martial arts (Cam Gigandet, The O.C.), picks Jake out as a prime opponent. After being trounced by Ryan in front of everyone in school, Jake begins training under the firm, moral guidance of a martial arts master with a hidden past (Djimon Hounsou, a long way from Blood Diamond, but still bringing his essential gravitas to the screen). Basically, Never Back Down boils down to a cross between The Karate Kid and Fight Club, minus the sociopolitical commentary. The story and characters are a bundle of featherweight cliches, but that won't stop the aggressively edited fight sequences from stoking a viewer's adrenaline. Also starring Amber Heard (All the Boys Love Mandy Lane) as the very blonde love interest, who (along with an abundance of girls in bikinis--'cause, y'know, it's Florida) is there to assure everyone that thes! e handsome, chiseled boys are strictly heterosexual. --Bret! Fetzer< /I>What does Nelson Mandela do after becoming president of South Africa? He rejects revenge, forgives oppressors who jailed him 27 years for his fight against apartheid and finds hope of national unity in an unlikely place: the rugby field. Clint Eastwood (named 2009's Best Director by the National Board of Review) directs an uplifting film about a team and a people inspired to greatness. Morgan Freeman (NBR's Best Actor Award winner and Oscar nominee for this role) is Mandela, who asks the national rugby team captain (Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Matt Damon) and his squad to do the impossible and win the World Cup. Prepare to be moved--and thrilled.After South Africa elected Nelson Mandela president, the racially divided country could've easily erupted into civil war. In Clint Eastwood's determinedly populist, yet heartfelt look back at that time, the director examines one of the more ingenious steps Mandela (Morgan Freeman in a performance of sly charm) took to prev! ent that from happening. Knowing that his country was set to host the Rugby World Cup in 1995, Mandela believed the national team could provide an example of reconciliation in action. Led by François Pienaar (an unbelievably buff Matt Damon), the mostly white Springboks inspired devotion among Afrikaners and disgust among native Africans. Instead of changing their name or colors, Mandela encouraged them to win for the sake of their homeland. During the year leading up to the event, the team learns to work together as never before, just as Mandela's newly integrated security detail, a combination of cops and activists, finds a way to bridge their ideological differences. By the time of the big day, the poorly ranked Springboks are well equipped to hold their own against New Zealand's All Blacks (so named for their uniforms, not their racial composition). Drawing from John Carlin's Playing the Enemy, Anthony Peckham's script takes its title, Latin for "unconquerable,"! from a British poem Mandela held close to his heart during th! e 27 yea rs he spent in prison. If Damon's accent is more convincing, Freeman serves as the film's heart--and as a timely reminder that reconciliation is never easy, but that it will always trump revenge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Grindhouse (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) [Blu-ray]

  • GRINDHOUSE SPECIAL BLU-RAY ED. (BLU-RAY DISC)
Together for the first time the Rodriguez/Tarantino Double Feature Grindhouse is back and better than ever! These rip-roaring and adrenaline-pumping films are now featured in the original theatrical exhibition format. Loaded with over 2 hours of bonus content, including the fan favorite Rodriguez's 10 Minute Cooking School this 2-disc Blu-Ray will deliver a new experience like never before!Loud, fast, and proudly out of control, Grindhouse is a tribute to the low-budget exploitation movies that lurked at drive-ins and inner city theaters in the '60s and early '70s. Writers/directors Quentin Tarantino (Kill Bill) and Robert Rodriguez (Sin City) cooked up this three-hour double feature as a way to pay homage to these films, and the end result manages to evoke the down-and-dirty vibe of the original films fo! r an audience that may be too young to remember them. Tarantino's Death Proof is the mellower of the two, relatively speaking; it's wordier (as to be expected) and rife with pulp/comic book posturing and eminently quotable dialogue. It also features a terrific lead performance by Kurt Russell as a homicidal stunt man whose weapon of choice is a souped-up car. Tarantino's affection for his own dialogue slows down the action at times, but he does provide showy roles for a host of likable actresses, including Rosario Dawson, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rose McGowan, Sydney Poitier, and newcomer Zoe Bell, who was Uma Thurman's stunt double in Kill Bill. Detractors may decry the rampant violence and latch onto a sexist undertone in Tarantino's feature, but for those viewers who grew up watching these types of films in either theaters or on VHS, such elements will be probably be more of a virtue than a detrimental factor. Rodriguez's Planet Terror is a rol! licking horror/sci-fi/action piece about a plague outbreak tha! t turns citizens into cannibalistic murderers; it's heavy on the gore and explosions but also features a terrific cast of A players (Freddy Rodriguez, Naveen Andrews, Marley Shelton) and B-movie vets (Michael Biehn, Jeff Fahey, Tom Savini) and the indelible image of Rose McGowan as a stripper whose torn-off leg is replaced by a high-powered machine gun.- Paul Gaita

Druids

Hitman Blood Money

  • Blood Money system - The cleaner the hit, the more money you receive -- spend it on equipment, weapon upgrades, information and bribing witnesses to reduce your notoriety
  • Improved AI makes the game more challenging -- guards will follow blood trails, investigate suspicious items and behavior
  • Agent 47 has a number of new moves and can now climb, hide, scale ledges and automatically pass low obstacles
  • Customizable weapons - Modify for sound, rate of fire, damage, reload speed, accuracy and zoom
  • New gameplay techniques - Distract enemies, make your kills look like accidents, dispose of bodies in various ways, use human shields & plant decoy weapons
HITMAN - DVD MovieIt’s hard not to feel like one has entered a certain dimension of video-game logic while watching Hitman, a lightly enjoyable action-suspense movie indeed based on a popular and bloody game ab! out a mysterious hired gun with a bar-code tattoo on his bald head and a number (47) in lieu of a name. Living like a chaste monk while slipping past borders to kill his targets, 47 (Timothy Olyphant of Deadwood) moves like a determined shark and speaks softly to his contact at the enigmatic "the Organization," which raises cast-off children to become well-paid assassins. Fruitlessly pursued by an Interpol cop (Dougray Scott) who can never get sovereign governments to cooperate, 47 has no trouble slipping in and out of countries to ply his trade. Until, that is, he’s set up to take a fall in Russia by shooting a national leader who is promptly replaced by a lookalike double. Suddenly on the run, 47 has to retrace his steps and formulate a lethal plan for extricating himself from a trap. Caught in the chaos is the lovely Nika (Olga Kurylenko), forced into sex slavery by 47’s new enemies and the one person who seems uniquely qualified to break through 47’s many p! ersonal barriers. Directed by France’s Xavier Gens, Hitma! n fe atures loads of bloody mayhem and unabashed moments of pulp absurdity, such as a scene in which 47 and three other Organization killers agree to fight one another respectfully, then proceed to pulverize each other with swords and fists. As fodder for gamers, however, Hitman is packed with visuals and dramatic moments that seem so odd on the big screen until one realizes they are basically placemarkers for the video-game edition. --Tom Keogh

Beyond Hitman


Hitman Video Games

Hitman Books and Game Guides

More from Timothy Olyphant



Stills from Hitman







Disc 1: Widescreen Feature **Forced Trailers - Alien vs. Predator: Requi! em, Hitman Teaser Trailer, Hitman Theatrical Trailer

**In ! the Cros shairs Featurette **Digital Hits Featurette **Instruments of Destruction Featurette **Para-Ordnance P18.9 Featurette **Blaser R93 LRS2 Featurette **M16 Featurette **FN F2000 Featurette **Micro Uzi Featurette **M240 Featurette **Settling the Score Featurette

**Deleted Scenes - Ovie's Pool Scene, Hospital Scene, A Different Train Platform, Udre's Death

**Alternate Ending **Gag Reel

Disc 2: Digital Copy **Portable Digital Copy of HitmanIt’s hard not to feel like one has entered a certain dimension of video-game logic while watching Hitman, a lightly enjoyable action-suspense movie indeed based on a popular and bloody game about a mysterious hired gun with a bar-code tattoo on his bald head and a number (47) in lieu of a name. Living like a chaste monk while slipping past borders to kill his targets, 47 (Timothy Olyphant of Deadwood) moves like a determined shark and speaks softly to his contact at the enigmatic "the Organization," which raises cast-! off children to become well-paid assassins. Fruitlessly pursued by an Interpol cop (Dougray Scott) who can never get sovereign governments to cooperate, 47 has no trouble slipping in and out of countries to ply his trade. Until, that is, he’s set up to take a fall in Russia by shooting a national leader who is promptly replaced by a lookalike double. Suddenly on the run, 47 has to retrace his steps and formulate a lethal plan for extricating himself from a trap. Caught in the chaos is the lovely Nika (Olga Kurylenko), forced into sex slavery by 47’s new enemies and the one person who seems uniquely qualified to break through 47’s many personal barriers. Directed by France’s Xavier Gens, Hitman features loads of bloody mayhem and unabashed moments of pulp absurdity, such as a scene in which 47 and three other Organization killers agree to fight one another respectfully, then proceed to pulverize each other with swords and fists. As fodder for gamers, however, ! Hitman is packed with visuals and dramatic moments that! seem so odd on the big screen until one realizes they are basically placemarkers for the video-game edition. --Tom Keogh

Beyond Hitman


Hitman Video Games

Hitman Books and Game Guides

More Action and Adventure on Blu-ray



Stills from Hitman







Martin Scorsese's The Departed barely touched on his story. Now radio talk-show sensation, crime reporter, and Boston Herald columnist Howie Carr takes us into the heart of the life of Johnny Martorano.
 
For two decades, Martorano struck fear into anyone even remotely connected to his world. His partnership with Whitey Bulger and the infamous Winter Hill Gang ! led to twenty murders... for which Johnny would serve twelve y! ears in prison. Carr also looks at the politicians and FBI agents who aided Johnny and Whitey, and at the flamboyant city of Boston, which Martorano so ruthlessly ruled.
 
A plethora of paradoxes, Johnny Martorano was Mr. Mom by day and man-about-town by night. Surrounded by fast-living politicians, sports celebrities, and showbiz entertainers, Johnny was charismatically colorful--as charming as he was frightening. After all, he was, in the end... a hitman.
 
 
 
Hitman: Blood Money brings back the world's greatest assassin, Agent 47. A series of hits have eliminated a number of assassins from the ICA, Agent 47's contract killing firm. Sensing that he may be the next target, he travels to America where he attempts to carry on with business as usual. That means killing -- a lot of it. New to the world of getting paid for killing? Prepare to become a hitman with an all-new training mode Pathfinder engine provides im! proved tracking and movement with realistic enemy behavior and interaction Soundtrack by BAFTA-winning composer Jesper Kyd

Everybody's Nuts California Pistachios Salt & Pepper 3 lbs

  • 3 pounds of delicious California Pistachios
  • Perfectly seasoned with salt and pepper
  • Kosher with the "circle U" symbol
Funny and inspiring, this widely acclaimed comedy takes an original look at just how far some people will go for fame! Jean is an ordinary family man and factory worker who is certain that his only child, Marva, is destined to become a famous singing star. If only Jean could catch a break ... and if only Marva could be discovered! A truly hilarious treat honored with an Academy Award(R) nomination as Best Foreign Language Film (2000) -- you'll be delighted to follow the unexpectedly outrageous steps Jean takes to make his dream a reality!This terrific, heartfelt Belgian comedy won a much-deserved Academy Award® nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. Jean dreams of giving his daughter Marva a better life than the endless slog in the factory for whic! h he fears she's destined. He does everything he can to launch her to singing stardom, but Marva, shy and overweight, finds the contests she enters humiliating and can barely conceal her contempt for Jean (as well as the songs he composes for her). Then fate comes along in the guise of beautiful singing star Debbie and a few sleeping pills Jean has handy. For all its broad comedy plotting, Everybody's Famous has a shining, gentle spirit and offers a touching portrait of proud fatherhood, including moving little moments such as Jean sitting on the concrete and listening through a window just to hear his daughter sing. This movie is so charming you can't help but enjoy it. --Ali DavisThis terrific, heartfelt Belgian comedy won a much-deserved Academy Award® nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 2000. Jean dreams of giving his daughter Marva a better life than the endless slog in the factory for which he fears she's destined. He does everything he can to ! launch her to singing stardom, but Marva, shy and overweight, ! finds th e contests she enters humiliating and can barely conceal her contempt for Jean (as well as the songs he composes for her). Then fate comes along in the guise of beautiful singing star Debbie and a few sleeping pills Jean has handy. For all its broad comedy plotting, Everybody's Famous has a shining, gentle spirit and offers a touching portrait of proud fatherhood, including moving little moments such as Jean sitting on the concrete and listening through a window just to hear his daughter sing. This movie is so charming you can't help but enjoy it. --Ali DavisGifted artist Gerald Murphy and his elegant wife, Sara, were icons of the most enchanting period of our time; handsome, talented, and wealthy expatriate Americans, they were at the very center of the literary scene in Paris in the 1920s. In Everybody Was So Young--one of the best reviewed books of 1995--Amanda Vaill brilliantly portrays both the times in which the Murphys lived and the fascinating fr! iends who flocked around them. Whether summering with Picasso on the French Riviera or watching bullfights with Hemingway in Pamplona, Gerald and Sara inspired kindred creative spirits like Dorothy Parker, Cole Porter, and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Nicole and Dick Diver in Tender is the Night were modeled after the Murphys). Their story is both glittering and tragic, and in this sweeping and richly anecdotal portrait of a marriage and an era, Amanda Vaill "has brought them to life as never before" (Chicago Tribune).Gerald and Sara Murphy were the golden couple of the Lost Generation. Born to wealth and privilege, they fled the stuffy confines of upper-class America to reinvent themselves in France as legendary party givers and enthusiastic participants in the modernist revolution of the 1920s. He became an important painter; she made everyday life a work of art. Their friends F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and John Dos Passos all based fictional chara! cters on the Murphys; Picasso painted them; and Calvin Tomkin! s rekind led their glamour for a younger generation in his affectionate 1971 portrait, Living Well Is the Best Revenge. Amanda Vaill's vivid new biography builds on Tomkins's work to provide a full-length account of the Murphys' remarkable life together.

As well as good times, that life included suffering endured with great courage. The Murphys' teenage sons died within two years of each other in the mid-1930s--one suddenly, one after a long battle with tuberculosis--and the Depression forced Gerald to resume the uncongenial work of managing his family's business. Vaill's sensitive rendering reveals the moral substance that enabled this stylish couple to survive heartbreak. But it's her marvelous evocation of those magical expatriate years that lingers in the memory. The wit and imaginative panache with which the Murphys lived sparkles again, recapturing a splendid historical moment. As Sara later said, "It was like a great fair, and everybody was so young." ! --Wendy Smith Spicy, but not too overwhelming. It might be your most addictive flavor. From Lost Hills California. Kirkland Signature

Evolution (DK Eyewitness Books)

  • ISBN13: 9780756650285
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
"Coyne's knowledge of evolutionary biology is prodigious, his deployment of it as masterful as his touch is light." -Richard Dawkins

In the current debate about creationism and intelligent design, there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned-the evidence. Yet the proof of evolution by natural selection is vast, varied, and magnificent. In this succinct and accessible summary of the facts supporting the theory of natural selection, Jerry A. Coyne dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms the scientific truth that supports this amazing process of change. Weaving together the many ! threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin, Why Evolution Is True does not aim to prove creationism wrong. Rather, by using irrefutable evidence, it sets out to prove evolution right.

OUTRAGEOUS AND HILARIOUS. YOU'LL LAUGH OUT LOUD AND ENJOY THE FUN ACTION AND OUT-OF-THIS-WORLD SPECIAL EFFECTS AS THESE UNLIKELY HEROES BATTLE THE MOST UNECPECTED GROUP OF ALIENS YOU'LL EVER SEE.Based on the evidence in Evolution, one thing is perfectly clear: special effects have evolved, but director Ivan Reitman has reverted to primitive pandering. Equally obvious is the fact that Evolution is a de facto rip-off of Reitman's 1984 classic Ghostbusters, but this time there's no Bill Murray to deliver the best punch lines (we have to settle for fellow ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd in a broad supporting role), and the comedy has devolved i! nto a grossfest including deep-rectal extraction of alien inse! cts, fir e-hose enemas into a giant alien sphincter, and a full-moon display of David Duchovny's naked posterior. Whereas Ghostbusters was a shrewd, irreverent mainstream comedy that combined gooey spectral ectoplasm with something resembling genuine wit, Evolution is a crude, juvenile romp in which all things slimy are elevated to comedic supremacy.

Granted, that's not always a bad thing. As latter-day ghostbuster equivalents, Duchovny, Orlando Jones, and Seann William Scott make a fine comedic trio, and Julianne Moore is equally amusing as a clumsy scientist and Duchovny's obligatory love interest. Despite the meddling of clueless military buffoons, they join forces to eradicate a wild variety of rapidly evolving alien creatures that arrived on Earth via meteor impact, and the extraterrestrial beasties (courtesy of effects wizard Phil Tippet and crew) are outrageously designed and marvelously convincing. For anyone who prefers lowbrow humor, Evolution will! prove as entertaining as Ghostbusters (or at least Galaxy Quest), while others may lament Reitman's shameless embrace of crudeness. One thing's for certain: after seeing this movie, you'll gain a whole new appreciation for Head & Shoulders shampoo. --Jeff Shannon Evolution, Second Edition is a comprehensive treatment of contemporary evolutionary biology that is directed toward an undergraduate audience. It addresses major themes including the history of evolution, evolutionary processes, adaptation, and evolution as an explanatory framework at levels of biological organization ranging from genomes to ecological communities. Throughout, the text emphasizes the interplay between theory and empirical tests of hypotheses, thus acquainting students with the process of science. Teachers and students will find the list of important concepts and terms in each chapter a helpful guide, and will appreciate the dynamic figures and lively photographs. The content o! f all chapters has been updated. Contributors Scott V. Edwards! and Joh n R. True have once again provided authoritative chapters on, respectively, Evolution of Genes and Genomes and Evolution and Development, two of the most rapidly developing subjects in evolutionary biology. A final chapter on Evolutionary Science and Creationism treats such topics as the nature of science and the practical applications of evolutionary biology.Evolution is the process that created the terrible teeth of Tyrannosaurus rex and the complex human brain, clever enough to understand the workings of nature. Young readers will learn how a British naturalist named Charles Darwin studied nature and developed his now-famous concepts of natural selection and survival of the fittest. And how modern-day science has added to our understanding of the theory of evolution.

Can something as complex and wondrous as the natural world be explained by a simple theory? The answer is yes, and now Evolution explains how in a way that makes it easy to understand.This book was con! verted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.Evolution offers a groundbreaking and definitive view of the extraordinary impact the evolutionary process has had on our understanding of the world around us. Beginning with Darwin s revolutionary theory, this seven-part series explores all facets of evolution the changes that spawned the tree of life, the power of sex, how evolution continues to affect us every day, and the perceived conflict between science and religion. Includes:

Darwin s Dangerous Idea: Interweaving key moments of drama in Darwin's life with current research, Darwin s Dangerous Idea explores why his theory of evolution might ! matter even more today than it did in his own time.

Gre! at Trans formations: From the development of the four-limbed body plan, the journey of animal life from water to land, and the emergence of humans, Great Transformations focuses on the important evolutionary changes that triggered the earth s incredible diversity.

Extinction!: Some 99.9 percent of all species that have ever lived on earth are now extinct. Extinction! explores why, then confronts a frightening notion: Are humans causing the next mass extinction the sixth in the history of life on earth?

The Evolutionary Arms Race: Survival of the fittest: Is it raw competition, a level of cooperation indispensable to life, or both? Explore our own spiraling arms race with microorganisms the only real threat to our existence and trace the alarming spread of resistance among pathogens that cause disease.

Why Sex?: Investigate the endless variety of sexual expression and the powerful hold sex exerts over almost all living things. And discover why, in evolutionary ter! ms, sex is more important than life itself.

The Mind s Big Bang: Between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago, something happened that triggered a creative, technological, and social explosion, allowing humans to dominate the planet. What forces may have contributed to the emergence of the modern human mind?

What About God?: Of all the species on earth, only humans try to explain who they are and how they came to be. Encounter real human stories of people struggling to find a balance between religion and science, realms that play very different roles in assigning order to the universe and a purpose to life.The long, long story of evolution is told very well in this extensive eight-hour series originally shown on PBS. The production begins with a dramatization of the struggles of Charles Darwin in a two-hour film aptly titled "Darwin's Dangerous Idea." Scenes of actors portraying Darwin and his contemporaries are supplemented by interviews with experts such as S! tephen Jay Gould. In further installments, various topics rela! ted to e volution, such as major transformations of species, the intellectual development of humans, the phenomenon of animal extinction, and even the organized opposition to evolutionary theory by religious fundamentalists, are discussed with considerable depth. Interview segments with scholars (and their opponents) are accompanied by extraordinary visuals, including some computer-generated sequences (such as one illustrating how whales left land and evolved in the oceans) that are dazzling. This series, which is narrated by actor Liam Neeson, is a remarkably intelligent and entertaining approach to a fascinating topic. --Robert J. McNamara

All of us are part of an old, old family. The roots of our family tree reach back millions of years to the beginning of life on earth. Open this family album and embark on an amazing journey. You'll meet some of our oldest relatives--from both the land and the sea--and discover what we inherited from each of them along the many! steps of our wondrous past.
Complete with an illustrated timeline and glossary, here is the story of human evolution as it's never been told before.
The most trusted nonfiction series on the market, Eyewitness Books provide an in-depth, comprehensive look at their subjects with a unique integration of words and pictures.
Eyewitness Evolution is DK's classic look at Charles Darwin and the theory of natural selection, now reissued with a CD and wall chart.