Saturday, December 31, 2011

Fame

  • Sevenes a day and a hot lunch. That's what New York City's High School for the Performing Arts guarantees. Stardom? That's something the school's teenage musicians, actors, dancers and dreamers strive for.Fame sings the body electric, celebrating the growing-up process of honing talent, confronting realities, finding love, living life. Director Alan Parker (Evita, The Commitments) brings an energe
Seven classes a day and a hot lunch. That's what New York City's High School for the Performing Arts guarantees. Stardom? That's something the school's teenage musicians, actors, dancers and dreamers strive for. Fame sings the body electric, celebrating the growing-up process of honing talent, confronting realities, finding love, living life. Director Alan Parker (Evita, The Commitments) brings an energetic style to the crisscrossing stories of students (including future Academy Award winner Iren! e Cara, Paul McCrane (ER), Barry Miller (Saturday Night Fever) and two who returned in the later TV series, Gene Anthony Ray and Lee Curreri). Nominated for six Academy Awards, Fame won Oscars for its dynamic score and title tune.This early effort by director Alan Parker is lively but jagged as it follows four students through their years in the New York City High School for the Performing Arts. Rather predictably, the kids fall into four clearly defined stereotypes: brazen, gay and hypersensitive, prickly, shy. It makes up for a disjointed presentation with a lot of heart and a great soundtrack (for which it won two Academy Awards). The hopes and disappointments, failures and successes of these teens are fodder for emotional scenes and exuberant dancing in the streets. It also turned out to be the first of many imitators and spawned a popular television series. (It was the breakout film for the short-lived feature film career of Irene Cara, who sang the title song.) --R! ochelle O'Gorman

Fears of the Dark

Buzby Breakin' All The Rules Hermie and Friends

  • Join Hermie and friends in an interactive adventure based on the hit video, BUZBY the Misbehaving Bee. In five engaging activities, children help Lucy match flowers, load the Ferris wheel with the right type of bugs, add scores in the bowling alley, sort items from the Roach Coach, and spell words in Buzby's honeycomb. They'll also collect seeds for an art garden where they can color scene
The game is on and the rules are out as Jamie Foxx, Morris Chestnut, Jennifer Esposito and Gabrielle Union star in this outrageous comedy that rewrites the book of loveJamie Foxx proves a winning romantic lead in the surprisingly subtle Breakin' All the Rules. When Quincy (Foxx, Ali, Collateral) gets brutally dumped by his fiancee, he researches the psychology of firing employees to create a break-up guide--a guide to a kinder, gentler break-up. His cousin Evan (Morris Chestnut, The! Brothers) is afraid that his girlfriend is going to dump him, so he asks for Quincy's help, setting in motion a web of mistaken identities that snares Evan's girlfriend Nicky (Gabrielle Union, Bring It On), Quincy's boss Philip (a wonderfully squirmy Peter MacNicol), and a blithe gold digger named Rita (Jennifer Esposito, Dracula 2000). Writer/director Daniel Taplitz gives his characters, if not three dimensions, then two and a half--comedy comes out of their personalities instead of lame gags. Add in some unpredictable plot twists, genuine chemistry between Foxx and Union, and the result is genuinely fun. --Bret FetzerStudio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/29/2009Jamie Foxx proves a winning romantic lead in the surprisingly subtle Breakin' All the Rules. When Quincy (Foxx, Ali, Collateral) gets brutally dumped by his fiancee, he researches the psychology of firing employees to create a break-up guide--a guide to a ki! nder, gentler break-up. His cousin Evan (Morris Chestnut, T! he Broth ers) is afraid that his girlfriend is going to dump him, so he asks for Quincy's help, setting in motion a web of mistaken identities that snares Evan's girlfriend Nicky (Gabrielle Union, Bring It On), Quincy's boss Philip (a wonderfully squirmy Peter MacNicol), and a blithe gold digger named Rita (Jennifer Esposito, Dracula 2000). Writer/director Daniel Taplitz gives his characters, if not three dimensions, then two and a half--comedy comes out of their personalities instead of lame gags. Add in some unpredictable plot twists, genuine chemistry between Foxx and Union, and the result is genuinely fun. --Bret FetzerQunicy Watson, 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. A comedy of errors ensues.Jamie Foxx proves a winning romantic lead in the surprisingly su! btle Breakin' All the Rules. When Quincy (Foxx, Ali, Collateral) gets brutally dumped by his fiancee, he researches the psychology of firing employees to create a break-up guide--a guide to a kinder, gentler break-up. His cousin Evan (Morris Chestnut, The Brothers) is afraid that his girlfriend is going to dump him, so he asks for Quincy's help, setting in motion a web of mistaken identities that snares Evan's girlfriend Nicky (Gabrielle Union, Bring It On), Quincy's boss Philip (a wonderfully squirmy Peter MacNicol), and a blithe gold digger named Rita (Jennifer Esposito, Dracula 2000). Writer/director Daniel Taplitz gives his characters, if not three dimensions, then two and a half--comedy comes out of their personalities instead of lame gags. Add in some unpredictable plot twists, genuine chemistry between Foxx and Union, and the result is genuinely fun. --Bret FetzerJoin Hermie and friends in an interactive adventure base! d on the hit video, BUZBY the Misbehaving Bee. In five engagin! g activi ties, children help Lucy match flowers, load the Ferris wheel with the right type of bugs, add scores in the bowling alley, sort items from the Roach Coach, and spell words in Buzby's honeycomb. They'll also collect seeds for an art garden where they can color scene

Femme Fatale

  • Femme Fatale is a contemporary film noir about an alluring seductress (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) suddenly exposed to the world -- and her enemies -- by a voyeuristic photographer (Antonio Banderas) who becomes ensnared in her surreal quest for revenge.Running Time: 115 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R Age: 085392446124 UPC: 085392446124 Manufac
Britney Spears announces her seventh studio album is titled Femme Fatale. The iconic global superstar’s title Femme Fatale is a tribute to bold, empowered, confident, elusive, fun, flirty women and men. It’s not a conceptual album, Spears is letting the music speak for itself. She’s worked hard on it for two years and she considers it to be her “best album to date,” true to where she is now personally and professionally. Femme Fatale (Jive Records) is executive produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke. Few artists ha! ve earned the distinction of having five No.1 debut albums, and 24 Top 40 hits. She most recently set a new one-day precedent for single sales with her current No. 1 hit song, “Hold It Against Me.”. Jonas Åkerlaund shot the video for the song. Spears is peerless among her contemporaries. Throughout the years, Britney has consistently released hit after hit for over a decade, selling close to 70 million albums cumulatively worldwide. During her 12-year career, Britney has had five albums debut in the No. 1 position on Billboard 's Top 200 Albums chart and she's had 24 Top 40 hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart. Globally, Britney Spears is one of the top-selling artists of the past decade, dominating charts with her albums, selling an astonishing 67 million albums worldwide. Her previous albums include: …Baby One More Time (1999); Oops!... I Did It Again (2000); Britney (2001); In The Zone (2003); Blackout (2007); Circus (2008); and The Singles! Collection (2009). Studio: Sony Music Release Date: 11/2! 2/2011Br itney Spears announces her seventh studio album is titled Femme Fatale. The iconic global superstar’s title Femme Fatale is a tribute to bold, empowered, confident, elusive, fun, flirty women and men. It’s not a conceptual album, Spears is letting the music speak for itself. She’s worked hard on it for two years and she considers it to be her “best album to date,” true to where she is now personally and professionally. Femme Fatale (Jive Records) is executive produced by Max Martin and Dr. Luke. Few artists have earned the distinction of having five No.1 debut albums, and 24 Top 40 hits. She most recently set a new one-day precedent for single sales with her current No. 1 hit song, “Hold It Against Me.”. Jonas Åkerlaund shot the video for the song. Spears is peerless among her contemporaries. Throughout the years, Britney has consistently released hit after hit for over a decade, selling close to 70 million albums cumulatively worldwide. During ! her 12-year career, Britney has had five albums debut in the No. 1 position on Billboard 's Top 200 Albums chart and she's had 24 Top 40 hits on Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 chart. Globally, Britney Spears is one of the top-selling artists of the past decade, dominating charts with her albums, selling an astonishing 67 million albums worldwide. Her previous albums include: …Baby One More Time (1999); Oops!... I Did It Again (2000); Britney (2001); In The Zone (2003); Blackout (2007); Circus (2008); and The Singles Collection (2009). Femme Fatale is a contemporary film noir about an alluring seductress (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) suddenly exposed to the world -- and her enemies -- by a voyeuristic photographer (Antonio Banderas) who becomes ensnared in her surreal quest for revenge. The sheer pleasure of watching movies is celebrated in Brian De Palma's dazzling Femme Fatale. Working from his own intricate screenplay, De Palma indulges all of his trademark ! obsessions, upping the ante on Hitchcock (again) with a Ver! tigo -like plot that begins with an audacious heist at the Cannes film festival (another sexy, violent tour de force for De Palma). From there, the stunning thief Laure (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) assumes a new identity, marries a U.S. senator (Peter Coyote), and returns to Paris where a tenacious paparazzo (Antonio Banderas) becomes a patsy in her multilayered scheme. De Palma's weaving a web of nonsense, but his plotting is so exuberantly absurd--and his frame so full of visual clues and relevant detail--that Femme Fatale becomes a joyous thrill ride at first encounter, and a crazily logical (and grandly rewarding) movie on subsequent viewings. In her best role to date, Romijn-Stamos is everything you'd want a femme fatale to be, in a thriller that constantly challenges you to question what you're seeing. --Jeff Shannon
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