All of Me

• DVD

ALL ABOUT STEVE - DVD MovieA hunky TV news cameraman named Steve (Bradley Cooper, hot off of surprise hit The Hangover) gets stalked by a lonely crossword puzzle creator named Mary (Sandra Bullock, in a career resurgence after The Proposal) in the comedy All About Steve. Although only one screenwriter is credited, All About Steve feels like it's been clumsily patched together from a dozen different versions of itself. The story makes no sense and there's very little that resembles recognizable human behavior...and yet, for that very reason, the movie exerts a perverse fascination. Some parts are actually funny--Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), as a reporter hungry for an anchor position, unleashes arias of manipulative babble--but most of the movie is just baffling. The filmmakers seem to think they're sending a heartwarming message about embrac! ing yourself, no matter how out of the mainstream you may be. Unfortunately, all of the "quirky" people come across as brain-damaged because they're not really people, they're emblems of "uniqueness." Mary is meant to be endearingly eccentric, yet her social ineptness verges on schizophrenia or severe autism. At every turn, All About Steve unintentionally reminds the viewer that someone wrote this, that someone thought this bit of behavior or this turn of phrase would somehow make us like this character or find them charming. Unfortunately, that someone was very, very off the mark. The result--seeing the bald intentions under the failed result--is a jarring yet oddly compelling experience. Also featuring DJ Qualls (Hustle & Flow) and Katy Mixon (Eastbound & Down). --Bret Fetzer

Stills from All About Steve (Click for larger image)

ALL ABOUT STEVE - Blu-Ray MovieA hunky TV news cameraman named Steve (Bradley Cooper, hot off of surprise hit The Hangover) gets stalked by a lonely crossword puzzle creator named Mary (Sandra Bullock, in a career resurgence aft! er The Proposal) in the comedy All About Steve. Although only one screenwriter is credited, All About Steve feels like it's been clumsily patched together from a dozen different versions of itself. The story makes no sense and there's very little that resembles recognizable human behavior...and yet, for that very reason, the movie exerts a perverse fascination. Some parts are actually funny--Thomas Haden Church (Sideways), as a reporter hungry for an anchor position, unleashes arias of manipulative babble--but most of the movie is just baffling. The filmmakers seem to think they're sending a heartwarming message about embracing yourself, no matter how out of the mainstream you may be. Unfortunately, all of the "quirky" people come across as brain-damaged because they're not really people, they're emblems of "uniqueness." Mary is meant to be endearingly eccentric, yet her social ineptness verges on schizophrenia or severe autism. At every ! turn, All About Steve unintentionally reminds the vie! wer that someone wrote this, that someone thought this bit of behavior or this turn of phrase would somehow make us like this character or find them charming. Unfortunately, that someone was very, very off the mark. The result--seeing the bald intentions under the failed result--is a jarring yet oddly compelling experience. Also featuring DJ Qualls (Hustle & Flow) and Katy Mixon (Eastbound & Down). --Bret Fetzer

Stills from All About Steve (Click for larger image)

Comic wizard Bill Murray (CRADLE WILL ROCK, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) teams up with Academy Award(R)-winner Richard Dreyfuss teams up with (Best Actor, 1978, THE GOODBYE GIRL) in an outrageously wild comedy that's sure to drive you off the deep end! Murray plays Bob Wiley, a troubled but lovable therapy patient who fears everything! After seeking help from noted psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Dreyfuss), Bob feels revived. But when the good doctor skips town to go on a quiet family vacation, Bob, afraid of being alone, follows -- showing up unexpectedly at the! therapist's lakeside retreat. That's when the fun really begi! ns! Bob innocently becomes the houseguest who just won't leave -- endearing himself to the other family members ... and, in the end, driving the stressed-out shrink absolutely crazy!dvd

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Bent: The Play

• Published by Applause Books 80 Pages
• The Play by Martin Sherman
• Author: Martin Sherman

Renowned British stage director Sean Mathias directs Martin Sherman's "powerful and provocative" (The New York Times) screenplay about one man's struggle to maintain his dignity while imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. Featuring exceptional performances by Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe), Clive Owen (Gosford Park), Brian Webber, Ian McKellen (The Lord of the Rings: TheFellowship of the Ring) and Mick Jagger, Bent will "grab filmgoers by the heart" (Rex Reed)! Max (Owen) is a handsome young man who, after a fateful tryst with a German soldier, is forced to run for his life. Pursued and captured, Max is placed in a concentration camp where he pretends to be Jewishbecause in the eyes of the Nazis, gays are the lowest form of human being. But it takes a forbidden relationship with an openly! gay prisoner to teach Max that without the love of another, life is not worth living.Bent debuted onstage in 1979 with Ian McKellen starring in the London production and Richard Gere in its later Broadway version. The film version is adapted by the playwright, Martin Sherman, and closely follows his play's story of two gay concentration camp victims who are sent to Dachau and who fall in love, using their relationship as an emotional crutch in their efforts to rebuff the horror of the Holocaust. Max (Clive Owen), would rather wear a yellow star and proclaim himself a Jew than be lanced with the pink triangle that designates homosexuality. Horst, (Lothaire Bluteau) chastises him for his homophobia. Later the tables turn on Max, who finds--through Horst--the strength both to keep alive indefinitely and to ultimately embrace his sexual identity.

Initially set in a war-ravaged Berlin, Bent is directed by Sean Mathias, who first directed Jude Law in Indiscretions, and he has crafted a film that reminds on! e of Ian McKellen's Richard III with its spare, stylized, and stark world bombed into rubble and chic theatrical disarray. There are many poignant as well as harrowing scenes, and the result is a somber work that stands as a reminder that intolerance cannot overtake individualism and love. While Bent received an NC-17 rating for depicting Berlin's decadent, anything-goes-for-a-price nightlife, MGM opted not to edit out the tone-setting prelude and pushed to preserve the film's integrity despite a rating that is itself a kind of death for any film that bears it. --Paula NechakMartin Sherman's worldwide hit play Bent took London by storm in 1979 when it was first performed by the Royal Court Theatre, with Ian McKellen as Max (a character written with the actor in mind). The play itself caused an uproar. "It educated the world," Sherman explains. "People knew about how the Third Reich treated Jews and, to some extent, gypsies and political prisoners. But ver! y little had come out about their treatment of homosexuals." Gays were arrested and interned at work camps prior to the genocide of Jews, gypsies, and handicapped, and continued to be imprisoned even after the fall of the Third Reich and liberation of the camps. The play Bent highlights the reason why - a largely ignored German law, Paragraph 175, making homosexuality a criminal offense, which Hitler reactivated and strengthened during his rise to power.

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Russ Berrie Curious George In Pajamas 12" Plush

• Curious George, the beloved, mischievous monkey was created by margret and h.a. Rey and brought to America during world war ii
• Curious George is dressed in his striped pajamas and ready for bed
• The perfect companion for your child at night
• The whole doll is plush; even under his clothing
• It is 12" tall

Where is 'Outwith' and who is Bruno? How is he connected? Soon he will meet the boy in striped pyjamas and befriend him. But why must the boy stay behind the wire?From Miramax Films, the studio that brought you the Academy Award winning Life is Beautiful (Best Foreign Language Film, 1998) comes The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Based on the best selling novel by John Boyne, it's an unforgettable motion picture experience powerful and moving beyond words (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com). Bored and restless in his new home, Bruno, an innocent and naive! eight year old, ignores his mother and sets off on an adventure in the woods. Soon he meets a young boy, and a surprising friendship develops. Set during World War II, this remarkable and inspiring story about the power of the human spirit will capture your heart and engage your mind.
Bonus Features include Deleted Scenes With Optional Commentary by Writer, Director Mark Herman and Author John Boyne, Friendship Beyond the Fence Featurette, Feature Commentary by Writer, Director Mark Herman and Author John BoyneThe innocence of childhood savagely collides with the Holocaust in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Bruno (Asa Butterfield) knows that his father is a soldier and that they have to move to a new house in the country... a house near what he thinks is a farm. But his father isn't just a soldier; he's a high-ranking officer in Hitler's elite SS troops who's just been placed in command of Auschwitz. As Bruno explores the woods around the house, he discovers! the concentration camp's perimeter fence. On the other side s! its a bo y his own age, with whom Bruno strikes up a friendship--a friendship that will have tragic consequences. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is most powerful in the details: The casual brutality of a Nazi lieutenant; the uncomfortable juxtaposition of the family's domestic life with glimpses of the treatment of the imprisoned Jews; a ghastly propaganda film suggesting that life at Auschwitz was like a holiday. But more than anything else, Butterfield's performance makes this film compelling. The young actor perfectly conveys Bruno's limited perspective even as the film carefully unveils the larger, darker reality. The movie's ending will undoubtedly spark arguments, but only because of the emotional complexity of what happens--The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is made with great skill and compassion. Also featuring David Thewlis (Naked) and Vera Farmiga (The Departed) as Bruno's parents. --Bret FetzerBased on the best-selling novel by Joh! n Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is the tale of curious 8 year-old Bruno. Bored in his new home, Bruno wanders off into the nearby woods where he discovers an unusual fence, behind which is a boy strangely dressed in “black- and-white pajamas.” Bruno embarks in a most unusual friendship with the boy, one that proves both ordinary and remarkable, both inspiring and tragic in this “unforgettable motion picture experience” (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com).The innocence of childhood savagely collides with the Holocaust in The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Bruno (Asa Butterfield) knows that his father is a soldier and that they have to move to a new house in the country... a house near what he thinks is a farm. But his father isn't just a soldier; he's a high-ranking officer in Hitler's elite SS troops who's just been placed in command of Auschwitz. As Bruno explores the woods around the house, he discovers the concentration camp's perimeter fence. On the othe! r side sits a boy his own age, with whom Bruno strikes up a fr! iendship --a friendship that will have tragic consequences. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is most powerful in the details: The casual brutality of a Nazi lieutenant; the uncomfortable juxtaposition of the family's domestic life with glimpses of the treatment of the imprisoned Jews; a ghastly propaganda film suggesting that life at Auschwitz was like a holiday. But more than anything else, Butterfield's performance makes this film compelling. The young actor perfectly conveys Bruno's limited perspective even as the film carefully unveils the larger, darker reality. The movie's ending will undoubtedly spark arguments, but only because of the emotional complexity of what happens--The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is made with great skill and compassion. Also featuring David Thewlis (Naked) and Vera Farmiga (The Departed) as Bruno's parents. --Bret FetzerBased on the best-selling novel by John Boyne, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is the ! tale of curious 8 year-old Bruno. Bored in his new home, Bruno wanders off into the nearby woods where he discovers an unusual fence, behind which is a boy strangely dressed in “black- and-white pajamas.” Bruno embarks in a most unusual friendship with the boy, one that proves both ordinary and remarkable, both inspiring and tragic in this “unforgettable motion picture experience” (Pete Hammond, Hollywood.com).Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While explori! ng his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and ci! rcumstan ces are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.


From the Hardcover edition.Book Description

This work was set in Berlin, 1942. When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance. But, Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than what meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences. --This text refers to an out of print or unavai! lable edition of this title.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is now a major motion picture (releasing in November 2008). Enjoy these images from the film, and click the thumbnails to see a larger image in a new browser window.

Berlin 1942

When Bruno returns home from school one day, he discovers that his belongings are being packed in crates. His father has received a promotion and the family must move from their home to a new house far far away, where there is no one to play with and nothing to do. A tall fence running alongside stretches as far as the eye can see and cuts him off from the strange people he can see in the distance.

But Bruno longs to be an explorer and decides that there must be more to this desolate new place than meets the eye. While exploring his new environment, he meets another boy whose life and circumstances are very different to his own, and their meeting results in a friendship that has devastating consequences.


From the Hardcover edition.Russ Berrie Curious George 12" Plush Toy in Pajamas Curious George, the beloved, mischievous monk! ey created by Margret and H.A. Rey and brought to America when the Reys escaped from Paris in 1940 during World War II, is now available in several soft plush versions from Russ. This cuddly 12" Curious George is ready for bedtime in his soft blue-and-white pinstriped cotton PJs, with his cute little monkey teddy ready to help him fall asleep. Curious George and related characters, created by Margret and H.A. Rey, are copyrighted and trademarked by Houghton Mifflin Company and used under license. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing LLLP. All rights reserved.

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