- GUNNIN' FOR THAT #1 SPOT 2 DISC SET (DVD MOVIE)
Stills from Changeling (Click for larger image)
The soundtrack follows th! e cast a lbum pretty faithfully, except that the whole thing somehow feels turbocharged. Fast numbers like "Angry Inch" (with fab backup vocals by Miriam Shor) and "Exquisite Corpse" rock harder; ballads like "The Long Grift" and "Midnight Radio" are more poignant. The original off-Broadway cast recording was good, but now everything feels sharper, better defined. Even Hedwig's backing band, the Angry Inch, is beefed up by exÂHüsker Dü Bob Mould on guitar, while Girls Against Boys contribute to "Freaks," a track that would be right at home on an old David Bowie album. Even your punk pals will approve when they catch you listening to this musical. --Elisabeth VincentelliOne record producer, the creators of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and top indie rock artists come together to create a tribute album benefiting the Hetrick-Martin Institute, home of the Harvey Milk High School-the first accredited high school in the country for LGBTQ youth.
Follow My Voice: Wit! h the Music of Hedwig weaves the compelling, courageous stories of four students at this controversial school with a unique chronicle of the yearlong creation of Wig in a Box, the album whose songs poignantly echo these teens struggles and aspirations. Audiences around the world became instant Hed Heads as Hedwig, like everyone who was ever young, questions TheOrigin of Love, dreams of a Sugar Daddy, feels like a Freak and curses a Wicked Little Town.
Meanwhile, the little known Harvey Milk School for at-risk youth, operating for 20 years in New York City s East Village quickly became the subject of international news when it received accreditation and financial support from NYC. A furious controversy over public funding ignite passionate self-determination from the kids and a deeper commitment from the artists who them-selves know what it s like to be outside the mainstream.
Through a dramatic and vibrant combination of verité documentation, s! tudent video diaries, and rare in-studio scenes of artists rec! ording t racks, Follow My Voice offers a powerful look at this unlikely intersection of youth, gender and rock. Includes Yoko Ono, Rufus Wainwright, Cyndi Lauper, Ben Folds, The Breeders, Yo La Tengo, John Cameron Mitchell, They Might Be Giants and more.
What elevates She's All That above the realm of standard teen fare is its mixture of good-natured fairy-tale romance and surprisingly clear-eyed view of high school social strata. The lines of class are demarcated as clearly as if in a Jane Austen novel, but the satire is equally deflating and affectionate. Sure, high school could be bad sometimes, but it was lots of fun too; this is a movie good-natured enough to take time out for an extended hip-hop dance number at the prom. Director Robert Iscove (who also helmed the Brandy-starring TV adaptation of Cinderella) has also assembled a great young cast, including a scene-stealing Anna Paquin as ! Zach's no-nonsense sister, Kieran Culkin as Laney's geeky brother, and a stupidly goofy Matthew Lillard as a Real World cast member whose arrival shakes things up a little too much. And amidst all the comedy and prom drama, you'd be hard-pressed to find two teen stars as talented, attractive, and appealing as Prinze and Cook. Prinze is an approachable and sensitive jock, though it's Cook who's the true star, investing Laney with confidence, humor, and heart. Like Zach, you'll be hard-pressed not to fall in love with her. By the story's end, both Cook and the film will have charmed the socks off of you. --Mark EnglehartThis conflicted teen comedy can't decide what it wants to be. Is Drive Me Crazy a mainstream piffle about a popular girl who turns her grungy next-door neighbor into a dream date? Or is it a sneaky critique of high school conformity? Melissa Joan Hart (TV's Sabrina, the Teenage Witch) is angling to get asked to an upcoming ! dance by a basketball star, but when her plans go awry, she tu! rns to a childhood friend (Adrian Grenier from The Adventures of Sebastian Cole) in the hopes of avoiding total humiliation. Grenier wants to win back his recently lost girlfriend, so he agrees to Hart's total makeover plan to induce jealousy. Naturally, the scam turns into something sparky. Teen flicks always make things too glossy and upscale, but Drive Me Crazy somehow fumbles its design and ends up looking false and square. The movie initially presents Grenier's transformation as unqualified good, with no sense that anything he was doing before--political protests, alternative music, rebellious pranks--had any value. But as the plot unfolds, a few barbed twists undercut the good cheer, sneakily commenting on school spirit and popularity. These themes wrestle uncomfortably with the movie's production values, resulting in a curiously provocative jumble. This confusion is probably why the movie was only a modest success in theaters, but it's actually what makes Dri! ve Me Crazy worth looking at now. --Bret FetzerIn Drive Me Crazy, Kate, Sierra, and Alexis kick off the summer with an unforgettable road trip. But when Adam, Alexisâs cousin, happens to tag along, it could mean jeopardy for the all-girls trip. Adam turns out okay, and Kate even takes a liking to him. So what does this mean for Lucas, the boy Kate was driving out to see? In Love Off-Limits, Natalie has the perfect boyfriend, or so everyone thinks. But Natalie knows she wants more. When she discovers that more equals Matt, her boyfriendâs best friend, Natalie finds herself in quite the dilemma.10 THINGS I HATE ABOUT YOU - DVD MovieIt's, like, Shakespeare, man! This good-natured and likeable update of The Taming of the Shrew takes the basics of Shakespeare's farce about a surly wench and the man who tries to win her and transfers it to modern-day Padua High School. Kat Stratford (Julia Stiles) is a sullen, forbidding riot grrrl who h! as a blistering word for everyone; her sunny younger sister Bi! anca (La risa Oleynik) is poised for high school stardom. The problem: overprotective and paranoid Papa Stratford (a dryly funny Larry Miller) won't let Bianca date until boy-hating Kat does, which is to say never. When Bianca's pining suitor Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) gets wind of this, he hires the mysterious, brooding Patrick Verona (Heath Ledger) to loosen Kat up. Of course, what starts out as a paying gig turns to true love as Patrick discovers that underneath her brittle exterior, Kat is a regular babe. The script, by Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith, is sitcom-funny with peppy one-liners and lots of smart teenspeak; however, its cleverness and imagination doesn't really extend beyond its characters' Renaissance names and occasional snippets of real Shakespearean dialogue. What makes the movie energetic and winning is the formula that helped make She's All That such a big hit: two high-wattage stars who look great and can really act. Ledger is a hunk of promise ! with a quick grin and charming Aussie accent, and Stiles mines Kat's bitterness and anger to depths usually unknown in teen films; her recitation of her English class sonnet (from which the film takes its title) is funny, heartbreaking, and hopelessly romantic. The imperious Allison Janney (Primary Colors) nearly steals the film as a no-nonsense guidance counselor secretly writing a trashy romance novel. --Mark Englehart
After exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the most remarkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission's sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world's most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is "powerful fun" (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Horn! blower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and her hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel! (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the! "how di d we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, invisibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but Pixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi
On the DVD
The principal extra on the DVD is a spirited commentary track by Jessica Alba, Michael Chiklis, and Ioan Gruffud. Self-avowed FF fan Chiklis explains why the Thing doesn't have a craggy brow, Alba recalls which things were "cool," and they talk about looking fo! rward to the sequel. There are three short deleted scenes (including a goofy Wolverine reference), 20 minutes of barely watchable hand-held video footage from the press tour, music videos, and some short featurettes including an appearance by FF creator Stan Lee. --David Horiuchi
The Fantastic Four at Amazon.com
| Comics and Graphic Novels | Disney animated series | The classic comic book |
| Movie tie-in graphic novel | The Xbox game | Fantastic Four Soundtrack |
The Fantastic Cast
Jessica Alba as Sue Storm | Michael Chiklis as The Thing |
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Ric! hards | Chris Evans as Johnny Storm |
Stills from Fantastic Four (click for larger images)
Jessica Alba, Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis head a sexy, star-powered cast in this explosive adventure about a quartet of flawed, ordinary human beings who suddenly find themselves with extraordinary abilities.
Af! ter exposure to cosmic radiation, four astronauts become the m! ost rema rkable, if dysfunctional, superheroes of all time. Unfortunately, the mission's sponsor has also been transformed ? into the world's most lethal supervillain ? setting the stage for a confrontation of epic proportions. Packed with nonstop action, big laughs and awesome special effects, Fantastic 4 is "powerful fun" (The Baltimore Sun) from start to finish!Marvel Comics' first family of superherodom, the Fantastic Four, hits the big screen in a light-hearted and funny adventure. It begins when down-on-his-luck genius Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd, Horatio Hornblower) has to enlist the financial and intellectual help from former schoolmate and rival Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon, Nip/Tuck) in order to pursue outer-space research into human DNA. Also on the trip are Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis, The Shield); his former lover, Sue Storm (Jessica Alba, Dark Angel, Sin City), who's now Doom's employee and love interest; and h! er hotshot-pilot brother, Johnny Storm (Chris Evans, Cellular). Things don't go as planned, of course, and the quartet becomes blessed--or is it cursed?--with superhuman powers: flexibility, brute strength, invisibility and projecting force fields, and bursting into flame. Meanwhile, Doom himself is undergoing a transformation.
Among the many entries in the comic-book-movie frenzy, Fantastic Four is refreshing because it doesn't take itself too seriously. Characterization isn't too deep, and the action is a bit sparse until the final reel (like most "first" superhero movies, it has to go through the "how did we get these powers and what we will do with them" churn). But it's a good-looking cast, and original comic-book cocreator Stan Lee makes his most significant Marvel-movie cameo yet, in a speaking role as the FF's steadfast postal carrier, Willie Lumpkin. Newcomers to superhero movies might find the idea of a family with flexibility, strength, inv! isibility, and force fields a retread of The Incredibles, but P ixar's animated film was very much a tribute to the FF and other heroes of the last 40 years. The irony is that while Fantastic Four is an enjoyable B-grade movie, it's the tribute, The Incredibles, that turned out to be a film for the ages. --David Horiuchi
The Fantastic Four at Amazon.com
| Comics and Graphic Novels | Disney animated series | The classic comic book |
| Movie tie-in graphic novel | The Xbox game | Fantastic Four Soundtrack |
The Fantastic Cast
Jessica Alba as Sue Storm | Michael Chiklis as The Thing |
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richar! ds | Chris Evans as Johnny Storm |
Stills from Fantastic Four (click for larger images)
Catch a wave of "terrific adventure" and "non-stop action" (CBS-TV) in this fun and fantastically entertaining smash-hit! "Invisible Woman: Sue Storm and "Mr. Fantastic" Dr. Reed Richards are about to be married when a mysterious a! lien... the Silver Surfer... crashes the proceedings and heralds Earth's impending destruction. With time running out, the Fantastic Four reluctantly teams up with the nefarious Dr. Doom in a thrilling effort to save our planet!Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer is another entertaining romp for the Marvel-superhero franchise. Reed Richards, Mr. Fantastic (Ioan Gruffudd), is treading on thin ice when his fiancée, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), thinks he's more interested in a series of cosmic phenomena occurring around the earth than in the preparations for their upcoming wedding. Sorry, ladies, but Reed is right. The disturbances are caused by a surge of cosmic power from a mysterious being called the Silver Surfer (an all-CGI creation, modeled by Doug Jones and voiced by Laurence Fishburne), who not only zooms around the skies on his board, but also has enough power to fight the FF, sometimes by turning their own power against them, not only ! mixing up Sue and Reed, but also Johnny Storm, the Human Torch! (Chris Evans), and Ben Grimm, the Thing (Michael Chiklis). But that's not the worst of it. The Surfer is only an opening act, a herald looking for planets that his master, Galactus, can consume for his sustenance.
With its initial installment, Fantastic Four established itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself too seriously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal superhero franchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out war with Galactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metallic, more like! a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer Extras
View exclusive clips (including interviews with Fantastic Four Creator Stan Lee and Screenwriter Don Payne), download AIM icons and wallpapers and browse the extensive photo gallery at our Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer minisite.
| Fantastic Four Toys & Games | Fantastic Four Paperb ack Series | Fantastic Four Comics & Graphic Novels | Fantastic Four Video Games | Fantastic Four Posters, Stickers and More | Fantastic Four Apparel |
More of the Four on DVD
| Fantastic Four Extended Cut | The Fantastic Four Animated Series | Fantastic Four on Blu-Ray |
|
With its initial installment, Fantastic Four establi! shed itself as the superhero franchise that didn't take itself! too ser iously, and that continues here. There are numerous moments of laugh-out-loud humor, and the most angst they suffer is whether Sue and Reed will ever be able to live a normal family life. (That, and whether they'll ever really get married, of course.) If Fantastic Four were a normal superhero franchise, the ending would be a knock-down drag-out war with Galactus, featuring the FF in a colossal battle for the planet Earth and the lives of everyone on it. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer⦠just doesn't do that, and we don't quite get the payoff we expected. Effects are dazzling, but the Surfer looks too metallic, more like a skyriding T-1000 robot. --David Horiuchi
View Stills from the Blu-Ray's Exclusive Games (Click for larger image):
| | ||
Even before they were heroes, the members of the Fantastic Four were a family. The accident that granted them their incredible powers only drew their bonds of friendship tighter, making them inseparable. Each member is a powerful force for good on his or her own. Together, they are unstoppable.
This 4-pack of figures has all the heroes you need to defeat evil in all its guises. Your Thing figure will provide the brute force, the Invisible Woman and Mr. Fantastic figures provide ! the guile and the H.E.R.B.I.E. robot figure will help out howe! ver he c an. It's a universe of action with these Fantastic 4 figures.
