Glory Road (Widescreen Edition)

• Very Black

COACH CARTER tells the inspiring true story of controversial high school basketball coach Ken Carter (Jackson). Making headlines for his emphasis on the importance of academics over athletics, Carter requests all the members of the team to sign contracts, promising to maintain a certain grade point average. When the players fail to live up to this agreement, Carter benches the entire team, locking the gym and forfeiting games to prove his point. This infuriates the community who sees this as a hindrance to the future professional athletic careers of the players. Through hard work and dedication, Carter eventually gets his point across to his team and the community, going above and beyond to ensure a solid academic future for his team.Based on a true story of the man who locked his boys out of the gym until they focused on their schoolwork, this by-the-numbers crowd-pleaser hold! s together because a steely Samuel L. Jackson refuses to notice the parade of clichés he's trumpeting (the dialogue sticks to platitudes like, "Success in here is the key to success out there"). Coach Ken Carter (Jackson) takes over an unruly team of Richmond, California basketball players and teaches them how to play--and behave--like champions. His plight, which pits him against an uncooperative school board and parents who've given up hope, holds some interest, but the film is too concerned with giving us a Big Game every twenty minutes or so. The teens all have the spark of life in them (including pop star Ashanti, who features in a surprisingly well-handled teen pregnancy subplot), though the film's plodding familiarity means it's never really rousing, adding up to simply a good-natured amalgam of Stand and Deliver, Hoosiers, Dangerous Minds, and even Dead Poet's Society (one of the tougher players actually recites some inspirational poetry! ).--Steve WieckingCOACH CARTER tells the inspiring true! story o f controversial high school basketball coach Ken Carter (Jackson). Making headlines for his emphasis on the importance of academics over athletics, Carter requests all the members of the team to sign contracts, promising to maintain a certain grade point average. When the players fail to live up to this agreement, Carter benches the entire team, locking the gym and forfeiting games to prove his point. This infuriates the community who sees this as a hindrance to the future professional athletic careers of the players. Through hard work and dedication, Carter eventually gets his point across to his team and the community, going above and beyond to ensure a solid academic future for his team.Based on a true story of the man who locked his boys out of the gym until they focused on their schoolwork, this by-the-numbers crowd-pleaser holds together because a steely Samuel L. Jackson refuses to notice the parade of clichés he's trumpeting (the dialogue sticks to platitudes li! ke, "Success in here is the key to success out there"). Coach Ken Carter (Jackson) takes over an unruly team of Richmond, California basketball players and teaches them how to play--and behave--like champions. His plight, which pits him against an uncooperative school board and parents who've given up hope, holds some interest, but the film is too concerned with giving us a Big Game every twenty minutes or so. The teens all have the spark of life in them (including pop star Ashanti, who features in a surprisingly well-handled teen pregnancy subplot), though the film's plodding familiarity means it's never really rousing, adding up to simply a good-natured amalgam of Stand and Deliver, Hoosiers, Dangerous Minds, and even Dead Poet's Society (one of the tougher players actually recites some inspirational poetry).--Steve WieckingAcademy Award nominee Samuel L. Jackson stars in the inspiring true story of controversial high school basketball c! oach Ken Carter, who benched his entire undefeated team for po! or acade mic performance, in order to teach his players the importance of education.Based on a true story of the man who locked his boys out of the gym until they focused on their schoolwork, this by-the-numbers crowd-pleaser holds together because a steely Samuel L. Jackson refuses to notice the parade of clichés he's trumpeting (the dialogue sticks to platitudes like, "Success in here is the key to success out there"). Coach Ken Carter (Jackson) takes over an unruly team of Richmond, California basketball players and teaches them how to play--and behave--like champions. His plight, which pits him against an uncooperative school board and parents who've given up hope, holds some interest, but the film is too concerned with giving us a Big Game every twenty minutes or so. The teens all have the spark of life in them (including pop star Ashanti, who features in a surprisingly well-handled teen pregnancy subplot), though the film's plodding familiarity means it's never really rousing,! adding up to simply a good-natured amalgam of Stand and Deliver, Hoosiers, Dangerous Minds, and even Dead Poet's Society (one of the tougher players actually recites some inspirational poetry).--Steve WieckingThe studio that brought you REMEMBER THE TITANS now delivers another winner with this exciting and inspirational true story of the team that changed college basketball -- and the nation -- forever! Josh Lucas (SWEET HOME ALABAMA) stars as future Hall of Fame coach Don Haskins of tiny Texas Western University, who bucks convention by simply starting the best players he can find: history's first all-African American lineup. In a turbulent time of social and political change, their unlikely success sends shock waves through the sport that follow the underdog Miners all the way to an epic showdown with all-white, #1 ranked Kentucky for the National Championship!One of the greatest basketball games in NCAA history is immortalized in Gl! ory Road, an engaging sports movie that dramatizes a pivot! al miles tone in the racial integration of college athletics. While it may not be as rousing as similar movies like Hoosiers or Friday Night Lights, this fact-based drama gains depth and substance from the groundbreaking achievement of Don Haskins (well-played by Josh Lucas), who coached the 1965-66 team from Texas Western University to the NCAA championship, using the first-ever all-black lineup in the championship game and forever changing the rules of college basketball. Texas Western's underdog season is followed from anxious start to glorious finish, as Haskins recruits many of his black star players from the North, including Bobby Joe Hill (Derek Luke) and Willie Cager (Damaine Radcliff), and this typically wholesome Disney film doesn't flinch from the harsh realities of racial tension (including player beatings and vandalized motel rooms) that Texas Western's black players had to struggle against as their victories began to draw national attention. Jon Voight (un! der heavy makeup) makes a memorable cameo appearance as legendary Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp, whose favored all-white team was no match for Texas Western, and Haskins' unforgettable achievement is celebrated in an end-credits sequence that demonstrates the positive ripple-effect of his color-blind coaching. Glory Road relies a bit too heavily on sports-movie clichés, but its shortcomings are easily overlooked in favor of its greater historical significance. --Jeff Shannon

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Uncertainty

• UNCERTAINTY (DVD MOVIE)

Loud music. Pornography. Lighting fires. These are a few of Hesher’s favorite things. And they are what Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) brings into the lives of TJ (Devin Brochu) and his father Paul (Rainn Wilson) when he takes up residence in the garage uninvited. Grief stricken by the loss of TJ’s mother, Paul can’t muster the strength to evict the strange squatter and soon the long-haired, ta ttooed Hesher becomes a fixture in the household. Like a force of nature, Hesher’s anarchy shakes the family out of their grief and helps them embrace life once more.As the title character in Hesher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears a grungy fright wig and anarchic death-metal attitude to match. He's worlds away from the suave, immaculately groomed covert operative he played in Inception. But what's consistent in both performances and the thing that gives the übe! r-indie and perhaps overly nihilistic Hesher its punch is Gordon-Levitt's sleek, leonine physicality. Hesher is a mysterious, violent, rude, yet affectingly empathetic drifter who appears in the life of 13-year-old T.J., his depressed father, and ailing grandmother, all of whom are grieving the recent death of the boy's mother. Hesher drives a beat-up black van and sleeps in vacant houses (until he moves uninvited into T.J.'s garage), popping in and out of the action at random and seemingly just to bring more chaos into the life of T.J. and his family. Whether Hesher is what the family needs to unscrew itself from the funk of extreme dysfunction caused by their communal tragedy is something first-time writer-director Spencer Susser tries hard to work out, and not always with complete success. It's a tough and very messy narrative that runs dangerously close to mawkishness, but for the vicious outbursts of brutality, aggression, and deep-seated emotional pain lying ju! st beneath everyone's surface. Hesher is the catalyst, and for! tunately Gordon-Levitt's physical grace is extraordinarily compelling as he pushes and punishes his lithe body in complete commitment to the role. This is a severely damaged soul who's probably beyond redemption himself, but understands that he still has something to give that might be of aid to someone else. As the primary beneficiary of the salvation on offer, Devin Brochu is an impressive little brother-like match as T.J., even as he's constantly exposed to the physical danger that's a by-product of being in proximity to Hesher (kudos to the tiny stunt double who gets tossed around like a rag doll). The rest of the cast do their best to keep up with the bedlam. Rainn Wilson is stretching some little-used actorly muscles as the near-catatonic dad for whom something must change, and Natalie Portman looking positively frumpy as a down-and-out ragamuffin who crosses paths with both T.J. and Hesher seems also to be trying to put a shine on her indie cred. Piper Laurie's turn as the ob! ese, uncomprehending grandmother is a poignant peak in her long career and a character that's integral to the changes everyone else experiences, most especially Hesher himself. --Ted FryLoud music. Pornography. Lighting fires. These are a few of Hesher’s favorite things. And they are what Hesher (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) brings into the lives of TJ (Devin Brochu) and his father Paul (Rainn Wilson) when he takes up residence in the garage uninvited. Grief stricken by the loss of TJ’s mother, Paul can’t muster the strength to evict the strange squatter and soon the long-haired, tattooed Hesher becomes a fixture in the household. Like a force of nature, Hesher’s anarchy shakes the family out of their grief and helps them embrace life once more.As the title character in Hesher, Joseph Gordon-Levitt wears a grungy fright wig and anarchic death-metal attitude to match. He's worlds away from the suave, ! immaculately groomed covert operative he played in Inceptio! n. B ut what's consistent in both performances and the thing that gives the über-indie and perhaps overly nihilistic Hesher its punch is Gordon-Levitt's sleek, leonine physicality. Hesher is a mysterious, violent, rude, yet affectingly empathetic drifter who appears in the life of 13-year-old T.J., his depressed father, and ailing grandmother, all of whom are grieving the recent death of the boy's mother. Hesher drives a beat-up black van and sleeps in vacant houses (until he moves uninvited into T.J.'s garage), popping in and out of the action at random and seemingly just to bring more chaos into the life of T.J. and his family. Whether Hesher is what the family needs to unscrew itself from the funk of extreme dysfunction caused by their communal tragedy is something first-time writer-director Spencer Susser tries hard to work out, and not always with complete success. It's a tough and very messy narrative that runs dangerously close to mawkishness, but for the vicious o! utbursts of brutality, aggression, and deep-seated emotional pain lying just beneath everyone's surface. Hesher is the catalyst, and fortunately Gordon-Levitt's physical grace is extraordinarily compelling as he pushes and punishes his lithe body in complete commitment to the role. This is a severely damaged soul who's probably beyond redemption himself, but understands that he still has something to give that might be of aid to someone else. As the primary beneficiary of the salvation on offer, Devin Brochu is an impressive little brother-like match as T.J., even as he's constantly exposed to the physical danger that's a by-product of being in proximity to Hesher (kudos to the tiny stunt double who gets tossed around like a rag doll). The rest of the cast do their best to keep up with the bedlam. Rainn Wilson is stretching some little-used actorly muscles as the near-catatonic dad for whom something must change, and Natalie Portman looking positively frumpy as a down-and-o! ut ragamuffin who crosses paths with both T.J. and Hesher seem! s also t o be trying to put a shine on her indie cred. Piper Laurie's turn as the obese, uncomprehending grandmother is a poignant peak in her long career and a character that's integral to the changes everyone else experiences, most especially Hesher himself. --Ted FryThe Choice is Theirs

Every choice has a consequence. But what if the flip of a coin could trigger two separate but parallel destinies? Joseph Gordon-Levitt (500 DAYS OF SUMMER) and Lynn Collins (WOLVERINE) star as Bobby and Kate, a young New York couple at a crossroads whose lives are about to take very different heads/tails directions: A visit to Brooklyn leads them to gentle discoveries about family, loss and each other, while a day in Manhattan plunges them into an urban nightmare of pursuit, suspense and murder. Olivia Thirlby (JUNO) co-stars in this uniquely powerful thriller written, produced and directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, the award-winning filmmakers behind SUTURE, BEE SEASON and T! HE DEEP END.

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Multi Voice Changer by Toysmith: Change your voice with 10 different voice modifiers - Kids Toy (Colors May Vary)

• 10 different voice modifiers in one 6.5" voice changer
• Use the side levers to create hundred of combinations
• Features flashing LED lights
• Requires 1-9 Volt battery-INCLUDED
• Fun voice effects

This uniquely poignant and funny film focuses on the rekindling of a school relationship that has taken on a new twist."This book, the first in the Learning about sex series for girls, aids parents in the often difficult task of introducing and explaining human sexuality. The simple, age-appropriate text and pictures in this book teach girls ages 4 to 6 that the similariti"This multi voice changer is lots of fun for children, yes even for adults! Ten different voice modifiers in one 6.5 inch voice changer! Use the side levers to create even more variations. Features flashing LED lights. Requires one 9V battery, included. Comes in assorted colors, yours will be chosen at ran! dom from stock.

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The Cat in the Hat

• Hardcover
• Juvenile beginning reading
• Stories with verses
• Rhymed verses.
• English

Features include:

•MPAA Rating: PG
•Format: DVD
•Runtime: 82 minutes
The Cat in the Hat is a marketing ploy disguised as a wildly designed movie for hyperactive kids, and it could use a dose of Ritalin. It hardly matters, though, because kids will surely enjoy the rampant romp that occurs when the top-hatted feline convinces young Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) to wreak havoc in the home their mother (Kelly Preston) has neatly prepared for an upcoming party. It's all in the name of fun, and while Seuss's classic rhymes are relegated to voice-over narration, director Bo Welch capitalizes on his background as one of Hollywood's most gifted production designers (with credits including Edward Scissorhands and! Men in Black), turning the Seussian town of "Anville" into a playful pastiche of pastels. As played by Mike Myers under layers of fur and latex, Dr. Seuss's mischievous Cat is mayhem personified, and the movie suffers from his anything-goes approach to getting a laugh. And though Myers delivers a few laughs while channeling voices from his own comedic repertoire (including "Coffee Talk" maven Linda Richman), a little of this Cat goes a long way, and he nearly wears out his welcome. --Jeff ShannonPoor Dick and Sally. It's cold and wet and they're stuck in the house with nothing to do . . . until a giant cat in a hat shows up, transforming the dull day into a madcap adventure and almost wrecking the place in the process! Written by Dr. Seuss in 1957 in response to the concern that "pallid primers [with] abnormally courteous, unnaturally clean boys and girls' were leading to growing illiteracy among children, The Cat in the Hat (the first Ra! ndom House Beginner Book) changed the way our children learn h! ow to re ad.
He may be an old standby, but he never lets us down. When in doubt, turn to the story of the cat that transformed a dull, rainy afternoon into a magical and just-messy-enough adventure. There's another, hidden adventure, too: this book really will help children learn to read. With his simple and often single-vowel vocabulary, the good Doctor knew what he was doing: hear it, learn it, read it--laughing all the way. The Cat in the Hat is a must for any child's library.

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