A light farce dressed up as a lush 18th century costume drama, Casanova gives a fictional spin to the exploits of history's most rakish seducer of women. As played by Heath Ledger, this Casanova bears no resemblance to Donald Sutherland's unrepentant portrayal in Fellini's Casanova, filmed 30 years earlier. Instead, the great ladies' man of Venice is just biding time by bedding women, waiting for true love (and the return his long-absent mother) to settle down into blissful monogamy.
Daniel Day-Lewis stars as Tomas, the happily irresponsible Czech lover of Milan Kundera's novel, which is set in Prague just before and during the Soviet invasion in 1968. Lena Olin and Juliette Binoche are the two vastly different women who occupy his attention and to some extent represent different sides of his values and personality. In any case, the character's decision to flee Russian tanks with one of them--and then return--has profound consequences on his life.
The dominant themes of director Sidney Lumet's distinguished career are in full force in this moral melodrama involving a young district attorney (Andy Garcia) who takes on a career-making case only to uncover his father's possible involvement in pervasive police corruption. Balancing personal ethics and political compromise in a high-wire act of power and its abuse, Lumet relies on dialogue and superb performances (including those by Ron Leibman, Richard Dreyfuss, and Lena Olin) to achieve a devastating impact.
Gary Oldman delivers "an uncanny performance" (The New York Times) and Lena Olin is "the most astoundingly vicious and sexy female villain in movie history" (Variety) in this spine-tingling, erotic film about a crooked cop and the sadistic hit woman who lures him into a lethal dance of deceit. Co-starring Annabella Sciorra, Juliette Lewis and Roy Scheider, Romeo is Bleeding is "a mind-blowing, crazy, outrageous movie" (WNBC-TV)! Jack Grimaldi (Oldman) leads more than a double life: He's a veteran cop,ia two-timing husband and a corrupt mob informant.
When Havana was released in 1990, a lot of reviewers unfavorably compared it to Casablanca, and those comparisons (in addition to audience indifference) turned the film into a box-office disaster. It deserved a better fate, because, while this is certainly no masterpiece, it's an intelligent and lavishly produced film about a chapter of history--the final days of Cuba under the collapsing Batista regime--that remains largely unfamiliar to the American mainstream.
With movies like Chocolat, it's always best to relax your intellectual faculties and absorb the abundant sensual pleasures, be it the heart-stopping smile of chocolatier Juliette Binoche as she greets a new customer, an intoxicating cup of spiced hot cocoa, or the soothing guitar of an Irish gypsy played by Johnny Depp.
The action explodes in Alias' phenomenal fourth season. When Sydney leaves the CIA to join a powerful new Black Ops unit, she has no idea of the reunion in store for her. Family secrets are revealed and old adversaries come together for a year of betrayal, suspense, and breathtaking surprises. It's nonstop excitement -- from the spectacular two-hour first episode to the stunning impact of the season's final seconds. Experience all 22 heart-stopping episodes of season four in a sensational six-disc set.
Jennifer Garner returns as secret agent Sydney Bristow to settle the score once and for all. Experience all the stunning action of the show's final year as Sydney discovers that she is pregnant with Agent Vaughn's baby, and tragedy strikes before he can reveal more about his secret past. From the mind-blowing opening episode, through each twist and turn, join Sydney as she completes the journey she set out on five years ago. This sensational set contains every heart-stopping episode of season five plus hours of bonus material you can't see anywhere else.
The action gets even hotter in ALIAS' sensational second season. Double agent Sydney Bristow faces the greatest challenge of her life when her mother, an enemy long thought dead, turns herself in to the CIA. As family relationships change and Sydney's friends take on new roles, her life becomes even more tangled and dangerous. It's "like watching a 2,000-piece puzzle assembled before your eyes," says Entertainment Weekly. Experience all 22 scintillating episodes of season two with exclusive bonus features that take you inside the world of ALIAS.
The third season of Alias found super spy Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) waking up in Hong Kong with a monster hangover and two years in the future with nary a memory. What's worse, her world has been turned upside-down with the evil Sloane (Ron Rifkin) now a world-famous humanitarian and philanthropist, and, even worse, her true love Vaughn (Michael Vartan) married to a seemingly great gal. Nice way to go back to work, eh?
