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The Anna Nicole Show: The First Season
By James Keast
Like Anna Nicole herself, descriptions seem too cheap and easy: compelling like a car wreck. Addictive like potato chips. Others, like Anna Nicole herself, seem self-evidently contradictory: unwatchably compelling. Disgustingly delightful. Whatever your reaction to the phenomenon of celebrity-hounding reality TV shows, The Anna Nicole Show is in a class all its own. From its subject-baiting promotions (what could be meaner than “it’s not supposed to be funny, it just is”?) to its clearly staged “accidents,” Anna Nicole represents the end game for pop culture. Worship at the alter of the rich and famous, regardless of how they got there? This painfully stupid, giant former model, her sexually ambiguous assistant, her cloying lawyer, annoying dog and even more annoying decorator are what you’re left with. This is the detritus of our obsessions washing up on our shores to pollute once-beautiful beaches. Or it’s just really fun guilty pleasure TV. For those just emerging from the biosphere, Anna Nicole Smith is a former Playboy Playmate of the Year; that peak of accomplishment is now a decade past and she’s more famous for marrying a billionaire who croaked, then fighting with his estranged family for her share of the loot. Now a camera crew follows her around capturing her “life” (though there’s clearly a contractual rule against filming her eating, which we never see but which she clearly does) and the wackiness that ensues. Her dog humps stuffed animals. Anna Nicole is horny. Her lawyer fights with her decorator. They get drunk in Las Vegas. They get ill-advised tattoos. They all call each other mama (especially clearly-in-love assistant Kim and Anna Nicole). It’s all an excuse to revel in how dim Smith is. This 14-episode DVD — which features a good-sized handful of deleted scenes of even more wacky hi-jinks — only provides one hint that there’s more going on than we see. That comes in a commentary by Anna Nicole herself on the final “Holiday” episode, where she blithely points out what was staged and that the “famous” arriving guests weren’t invited by her but by the network. It’s a brief glimpse behind the curtain, and while sure, it’s a stretch to call any of these dimwits Machiavellian, for a second there, you think there’s a glimmer of self-awareness. Then, like Kayser Soze, it’s gone. Was it all an illusion? Is there actually more going on behind the clown make-up, pouting and whining? Such complex questions remain the unravel-able enigma wrapped in the oversized candy bar that is Anna Nicole. (Lions Gate)
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The Indiana Jones Trilogy - Dir. by Steven Spielberg
In the mid-’70s, then experimental filmmaker George Lucas wanted to tackle two different ideas: a morality tale in space, and a period recreation of the ’50s weekly adventure serials he grew up on. Space became Star Wars in 1977; when it was complete, Lucas and his friend Steven Spielberg decided to resurrect the treasure hunter idea as The Raiders of the Lost Ark.
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Whale Rider - Dir. by Niki Caro
“When I was born, my twin brother died and took our mother with him.” And so begins Nikki Caro’s wrenching, resplendent second film, Whale Rider, a coming of age story of a young Maori girl, Pai, who goes to great lengths to convince her grandfather that, in the absence of a male heir, the ch
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28 Days Later - Dir. by Danny Boyle
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Battlestar Galactica / Battlestar Galactica: The Complete Epic Series - Dir. by Richard Colla
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Better Luck Tomorrow - Dir. by Justin Lin
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Finding Nemo - Dir. by Andrew Stanton
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Hulk - Dir. by Ang Lee
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JFK: The Director’s Cut - Dir. by Oliver Stone
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Kaiju Big Battel - Terebi Sento
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Kiss Symphony: The DVD
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Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life - Dir. by Jan de Bont
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Looney Tunes Golden Collection
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Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Special Extended Edition - Dir. by Peter Jackson
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Mush Tour DVD
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Ninja Scroll - Dir. by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
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Owning Mahoney - Dir. by Richard Kwietniowski
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Saturday Night Live: The Best Of Chris Farley
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Saturday Night Live: The Best Of Dana Carvey
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Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines - Dir. by Jonathan Mostow
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The Dancer Upstairs - Dir. by John Malkovich
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The Matrix Reloaded - Dir. by Larry and Andy Wachowski
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The Sopranos: Season Four
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To Live and Die in L.A. - Dir. by William Friedkin
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Trembling Before G-d - Dir. by Sandi Simcha Dubowski
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X2: X-Men United - Dir. by Bryan Singer
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Before the release of 2009's Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear stood at a career watershed of sorts. Critical darlings without much mainstream success, they could very well have continued in the direction set with 2007's Friend EP and become perennial indie overachievers, in the vein of the Li...
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In an interesting twist of Hollywood fate, Chris and Paul Weitz have entered the final stretch of 2009 each in control of a major vampire franchise built from the pages of popular young adult fiction.
From one half of the brotherly team who brought us American Pie and About ...
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