A Cry in the Dark

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DVD; Widescreen; NTSC

Welcome to the Blues and mystery of Dark Streets. Chaz Davenport (Gabriel Mann) is a dashing playboy who has it all: a hot nightclub, two glamorous singers (Bijou Phillips, Izabella Miko) and the most seductive music ever created playing from his stage. But when he enlists help to look into the sinister circumstances surrounding his father's death, Davenport's life spirals out of control. Dark, sexy and sensuous, this music-driven journey smolders with a smoking hot score and a soundtrack that includes 9 original songs with vocal performances by Solomon Burke, Natalie Cole, Etta James, Dr. John, Aaron Neville, Bijou Phillips, Richie Sambora, Toledo and More!No Description Available.
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Release Date: 18-MAR-2008
Media Type:! DVDAfter an FBI agent is shot, his friend must handle the caseload and avenge his death.

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

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An Australian woman stands trial for the murder of her child, which she claims was stolen by a dingo. Based on a true story.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 3-FEB-2004
Media Type: DVDJulia Louis-Dreyfus's Elaine on Seinfeld once offered a non sequitur at a party just to relieve her own boredom: "The dingo ate your baby," she blurted in a bad Australian accent. It was a reference to this harrowing film by director Fred Schepisi, based on a true story. Meryl Streep and Sam Neill play a married couple on a camping trip whose baby disapp! ears. Streep maintains that the baby was carried off by a ding! o--a wil d dog--but she winds up as the victim of a hard-hearted prosecutor and the target of a nationwide hate campaign, in part because she was a religious fundamentalist who seemed unsympathetic and, thus, became an easy target for the tabloid press. Streep and Neill are both outstanding in this fierce, realistic drama about the ways faith can bolster even in the face of outrageous persecution. --Marshall Fine

Matthew Barney: No Restraint

• From 1995 to 2002, avant-garde artist Matthew Barney wrote, directed, and starred in the Cremaster Cycle, five offbeat films featuring unusual situations and bizarre characters. Since 1987, he has also been working on the Drawing Restraint series, in which he uses physical weights and barriers to make the creation of his art more difficult--and more rewarding in the end. In 2005 he released DRAWIN

Japanese only SHM-CD (Super High Material CD - playable on all CD players) paper sleeve pressing. Universal. 2008.When Björk became romantically involved with art-world darling Matthew Barney, the universe seemed to be uniting two of the most idiosyncratic artistic temperaments of the 21st century. The first major artistic product of this union, Drawing Restraint 9, music composed by Björk for Barney's film of the same name, finds their sensibilities eerily complementary. Barney's previous ! films, the megaton, five-part Cremaster Cycle, astounded audiences with a personal mythology inspired by the biological process of prenatal sexual differentiation, touching themes as unsettlingly diverse as speed metal, auto racing, Freemasonry, and Harry Houdini. Barney, a former model and football player, has always been interested in expressions of physical strain and release. This coincides quite nicely with the work Björk has produced lately, namely her album Medúlla, which was composed entirely of human voices--singing, coughing, grunting, and beatboxing. The intersection of these two artistic geniuses comes at precisely the right time, when Björk has cast off the last vestiges of her dance-floor self. To understand how remarkable a transformation this is, one might try to imagine what it would have been like if Donna Summers had turned into Yoko Ono.

There are instances of Björk's vocal soundscapes on this album, in the unsettling "Pearl" and th! e rainy and overdubbed opening of "Storm." Other tracks, fille! d to ove rflowing with bells and chimes, recall her most beautiful work on Vespertine. It used to be that Björk could chill the spine with a howl. Now she does it with a whisper, and these soft and haunting moments are what reward repeat listenings. With the music she produced for the soundtrack to Dancer in the Dark, Björk followed a more or less traditional narrative thread, stringing the songs together in such a way that one could follow a story even without having seen the movie. It's not quite that simple with Drawing Restraint 9. Without seeing the film, the music suggests a fascination with oceans, Japanese ritual, and the hidden powers of nature. It's spellbinding and confusing music, hinting at greater art to come from two artists of intense creativity and passion. --Ryan Boudinot

More Björk and Matthew Barney at Amazon.com

Medúlla	Vespertine	Selmasongs: Dancer in the Dark
The Cremaster Cycle: The Order (DVD)	Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle (hardback book)	Matthew Barney: The Cremaster Cycle (paperback book)

Documentary ) World renowned artist and filmm! aker, Ma tthew Barney plowed the waters off the coast of Nagasaki to film his massive endeavor, DRAWING RESTRAINT 9. This documentary journeys with Barney and his collaborator Björk, as the visual artist creates a "narrative sculpture" telling a fantastical love story of two characters.

Formula 51 : Widescreen Edition

• Widescreen

THIS IS THE STORY OF ELMO MCELROY, A STREETWISE AMERICAN MASTER CHEMIST, WHO HEADS TO ENGLAND TO SET UP HIS LAST BIG DEAL - TOINTRODUCE A NEW DESIGNER DRUG TO THE EURPOEAN MARKET.MCELROYSOON BECOMES EMBROILED IN A WAR OF DOUBLE-DEALING AS HE'S ESCORTED AROUND LIVERPOOL'S UNDERWORLD.Wildly entertaining but riddled with as many plot holes as bullets, Formula 51 (a.k.a. The 51st State) is a love-it-or-hate-it action comedy that plays like Tarantino on the Thames. It's a raucous hash, highlighted by the sheer pleasure of Samuel L. Jackson--in a kilt, no less--strutting his stuff among denizens of the British underworld. As freelance chemist Elmo McElroy (whose tartan attire remains glibly unexplained), Jackson is perfectly teamed with The Full Monty's Robert Carlyle in a scam involving Elmo's latest pharmaceutical concoction, which promises to yield a fortune on th! e rave scene. This attracts a loopy British kingpin (the outrageous Rhys Ifans), Elmo's vengeful ex-boss (Meat Loaf), a corrupt cop (Sean Pertwee), and a lovely assassin (Emily Mortimer) with a soft spot for Carlyle. They're all given generous helpings of Stel Pavlou's profanely zesty dialogue, and director Ronny Yu strikes a breezy balance between rampant hilarity and blood-splattering violence. If that's your cup of tea, Formula 51 guarantees a satisfying buzz. --Jeff ShannonWildly entertaining but riddled with as many plot holes as bullets, Formula 51 (a.k.a. The 51st State) is a love-it-or-hate-it action comedy that plays like Tarantino on the Thames. It's a raucous hash, highlighted by the sheer pleasure of Samuel L. Jackson--in a kilt, no less--strutting his stuff among denizens of the British underworld. As freelance chemist Elmo McElroy (whose tartan attire remains glibly unexplained), Jackson is perfectly teamed with The Full Monty's Robert Carlyle in a scam involving Elmo's latest pharmaceu! tical co ncoction, which promises to yield a fortune on the rave scene. This attracts a loopy British kingpin (the outrageous Rhys Ifans), Elmo's vengeful ex-boss (Meat Loaf), a corrupt cop (Sean Pertwee), and a lovely assassin (Emily Mortimer) with a soft spot for Carlyle. They're all given generous helpings of Stel Pavlou's profanely zesty dialogue, and director Ronny Yu strikes a breezy balance between rampant hilarity and blood-splattering violence. If that's your cup of tea, Formula 51 guarantees a satisfying buzz. --Jeff ShannonFORMULA 51: THIS IS THE STORY OF ELMO MCELROY, A STREETWISE AMERICAN MASTER CHEMIST, WHO HEADS TO ENGLAND TO SET UP HIS LAST BIG DEAL - TOINTRODUCE A NEW DESIGNER DRUG TO THE EURPOEAN MARKET.MCELROYSOON BECOMES EMBROILED IN A WAR OF DOUBLE-DEALING AS HE'S ESCORTED AROUND LIVERPOOL'S UNDERWORLD. *** - **** S.W.A.T: An arrested drug kingpin is transported by a Los Angeles Police Department S.W.A.T. team, led by Jackson's character, out of the city and into federal custody. Plans go awry when the kingpin offers $100 million to anyone who can free him. Starring: Samuel L. Jackson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Rodriguez, LL Cool J, Oliver Martinez.Wildly entertaining but riddled with as many plot holes as bullets, Formula 51 (a.k.a. The 51st State) is a love-it-or-hate-it action comedy that plays like Tarantino on the Thames. It's a raucous hash, highlighted by the sheer pleasure of Samuel L. Jackson--in a kilt, no less--strutting his stuff among denizens of the British underworld. As freelance chemist Elmo McElroy (whose tartan attire remains glibly unexplained), Jackson is perfectly teamed with The Full Monty's Robert Carlyle in a scam involving Elmo's latest pharmaceutical concoction, which promises to yield a fortune on the rave scene. This attracts a loopy Bri! tish kingpin (the outrageous Rhys Ifans), Elmo's vengeful ex-boss (Meat Loaf), a corrupt cop (Sean Pertwee), and a lovely assassin (Emily Mortimer) with a soft spot for Carlyle. They're all given generous helpings of Stel Pavlou's profanely zesty dialogue, and director Ronny Yu strikes a breezy balance between rampant hilarity and blood-splattering violence. If that's your cup of tea, Formula 51 guarantees a satisfying buzz. --Jeff Shannondvd

House of Wax (Widescreen Edition)

• House of Wax tells the story of a group of friends who fall prey to a sinister plot while passing through a small town on their way to a college football game.Running Time: 113 min. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: R Age: 085393894528 UPC: 085393894528 Manufacturer No: 38945

Museum fire turns handsome man into human monster who steals bodies from morgue to create lifelike images in wax.House of Wax brought Vincent Price into the horror genre, where he fit as snugly as a scalpel in a mad scientist's hand. A remake of the 1933 film Mystery of the Wax Museum, this entertaining Gothic shocker casts Price as a sculptor of wax figures; his unwilling victims--er, "models"--lend their bodies to his lifelike depictions of Marie Antoinette and Joan of Arc. The film was one of the top 10 moneymakers of its year, thanks in part to the 3-D gimmick, which explains why so many thin! gs are aimed at the camera (why else would the paddleball man be there?). Footnote to history: director Andre De Toth was blind in one eye, and thus could not see in three dimensions.

Not at all a musty relic of the early-sound era, the original Mystery of the Wax Museum (shot in a soft, trial version of Technicolor) is saucy, pre-Code fun. As corpses disappear from the morgue, Lionel Atwill's wax museum adds to its displays. Coincidence, or the work of the hideously deformed fiend stalking the Manhattan night? Most of the snappy dialogue comes courtesy of reporter Glenda Farrell, a vintage wisecracking dame. --Robert HortonHouse of Wax tells the story of a group of friends who fall prey to a sinister plot while passing through a small town on their way to a college football game.You know the one about the group of horny kids who get offed one by one? Yeah, so do director Jaume Collet-Serra and his screenwriters, who have updated an old Vincent Price fli! ck and sandwiched it between hearty slices of The Blair Wit! ch Proje ct and various Friday the 13th films. Lots of WB and Fox network hotties--including 24's Elisha Cuthbert, One Tree Hill's Chad Michael Murray, and, well, Paris Hilton--have car trouble and stumble onto a town populated by real killer personalities. The R-rated result is fairly gruesome and, though no one ever quite looks frightened enough, Collet-Serra knows his way around a jolting suspense sequence or two. Cuthbert and an unintentionally funny Murray (striking ludicrous poses as some kind of real toughie) act more like angry ex-lovers than the fraternal twins they're supposed to be; Hilton acts bored while her real-life video scandal is exploited for ironic kicks; and the film heads shamelessly over-the-top with each new twist. As an exercise in bloody mayhem, it has a few novel touches, but you can easily find better scares. --Steve Wiecking

Close Your Eyes

• ISBN13: 9780374313821
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

2011 album from the Texas-based melodic Hardcore band.In Close Your Eyes, the author of the bestselling How to Be Lost spins another mesmerizing tale of buried family secrets.

For most of her life, Lauren Mahdian has been certain of two things: that her mother is dead, and that her father is a murderer.

Before the horrific tragedy, Lauren led a sheltered life in a wealthy corner of America, in a town outside Manhattan on the banks of Long Island Sound, a haven of luxurious homes, manicured lawns, and seemingly perfect families. Here Lauren and her older brother, Alex, thought they were safe.

But one morning, six-year-old Lauren and eight-year-old Alex awoke after a ni! ght spent in their tree house to discover their mother’s body and their beloved father arrested for the murder.

Years later, Lauren is surrounded by uncertainty. Her one constant is Alex, always her protector, still trying to understand the unraveling of his idyllic childhood. But Lauren feels even more alone when Alex reveals that he’s been in contact over the years with their imprisoned fatherâ€"and that he believes he and his sister have yet to learn the full story of their mother’s death.

Then Alex disappears.

As Lauren is forced to peek under the floorboards of her carefully constructed memories, she comes to question the version of her history that she has clung to so fiercely. Lauren’s search for the truth about what happened on that fateful night so many years ago is a riveting tale that will keep readers feverishly turning pages. A Letter from Author Amanda Eyre Ward
I grew up in Rye, New York, a small town outside of New York City. In 1988, I was sixteen years old. I smoked cigarettes in my room, thinking Trident gum would mask the scent. I made a fake ID and laminated it at the library, then used the ID to visit bars in nearby towns: Bumper’s, Streets, Tammany Hall.

On January 1, 1989, my friends and I woke up, heads pounding, in the living room of a stranger’s apartment in Manhattan. We walked to Grand Central and rode the Stamford local back to Rye. By mid-day, we heard that during the midnight hours of New Year’s Eve, there had been a murder in Larchmont, a neighboring town.

An Indian couple, both doctors, had been stabbed to death in their bedroom, throats slashed, their bodies mutilated. It seemed impossible that something like ! this could happen in the suburbs. Fear travelled silently along the Boston Post Road, past Baskin Robbins and the Smoke Shop, to Dogwood Lane, where I lived with my family in a stunningly beautiful home. To me, the message was clear: danger was everywhere.

The murder was not solved. Four-and-a-half years went by. My parents split up, and I went to college. I thought about the murder from time to time, trying to understand how a stranger had broken the spell of Rye, smashed through the safety we had all thought money could buy.

In 1993, we found out that the murderer was one of us, a teenage boy, a local. The son of a bank president. He had been blind drunk, he told a room full of people at an AA meeting. He was afraid he may have broken a door pane, entered his childhood home, where his family no longer lived, taken a knife from a kitchen drawer, and savagely attacked the strangers sleeping in his parents’ bedroom. He later said he didn’t remember anything! about it. He had been in an alcoholic blackout, but now he ha! d nightm ares.

At his trial, a psychiatrist said, "Probably the most typical behavior during a blackout is finding the way home....It's almost as if he were going back in time and eliminating the people that he sought to blame for all his problems back when he was seven years old."

He is now in jail.

The story of the New Year’s Eve murder has always stayed with me, and eventually evolved into Close Your Eyes. I think, in writing the book, I wanted not only to understand what happened to a boy who was one of us, what made him into a murderer, but also to create a world where this wrong was righted, and a broken town was sewn back together. I wanted to imagine a town that was loving and safe, a place that might never have existed in real life.

CD We Will Overcome

A little tiger takes an imaginative journey

The little tiger lay on his back in the tall grass.
"Close your eyes, little tiger," said his mother, "and go to ! sleep."

But the little tiger is worried about what sleep might bring.
His mother reassures him that once he closes his eyes, he will dream of magical places. And when he awakens, she will be right there, waiting for him.

Alternating between real-life scenes with the baby tiger and his mother and enchanted dream scenes of sleep's possibilities, Kate Banks's simple, comforting text and Georg Hallensleben's bright, colorful illustrations make this a charming bedtime story for small children.

 

Close Your Eyes is a 2002 New York Times Book Review Best Illustrated Book of the Year and a 2003 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.

A mother tiger wants her baby to go to sleep, but the little tiger resists. "'If I close my eyes,' he said, 'I can't see the sky.'" She assures him that he will not only see the sky when he sleeps, but will float among clouds and be cradled by the moon. Not in t! he least assured, the little tiger complains that if he clos! es his e yes, he will miss seeing the tree and the bird with blue feathers. With each concern, his mother consoles him with a comforting thought. If this gentle give-and-take were not calming enough for a bedtime story, Hallensleben's lovely dreamscapes (And If the Moon Could Talk) will surely do the trick. Double-page paintings of cloud animal shapes (with the little tiger cozying up with the moon), the "big mountains where the rain lives," and of mother tiger licking her baby are utterly hypnotic. Young children who are afraid to go to sleep will learn that "Dark is just the other side of light. It's what comes before dreams" and that mom is never very far away. (Ages 3 to 6) --Karin Snelson

Kevin Smith Boxed Set (Clerks / Chasing Amy / Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back) [Blu-ray]

• CLERKS: CLERKS is one wild day in the life of a pair of overworked counter jockeys whose razor-sharp wit and on-the-job antics give a whole new meaning to customer service. CHASING AMY: Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, CHASING AMY offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality. JAY AND SILENT

Chasing Amy is the third installment in the "New Jersey Trilogy" from award-winning writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma). Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by her sexuality, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee), and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, Chasing Amy offers a thoughtful, funny! look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality. Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh Chasing Amy is the third installment in the "New Jersey Trilogy" from award-winning writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Dogma). Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fello! w artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by he! r sexual ity, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee), and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, Chasing Amy offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality.Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh CHA! SING AMY, the third installment in the New Jersey Trilogy from award-winning writer/director Kevin Smith becomes more intimate and alive than ever on Blu-ray. Cult comic-book artist Holden (Ben Affleck) falls in love with fellow artist Alyssa (Joey Lauren Adams), only to be thwarted by her sexuality, the disdain of his best friend Banky (Jason Lee) and his own misgivings about himself. Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, CHASING AMY offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality -- now with the pristine picture and theater-quality sound of Blu-ray High Definition.

Bonus Features Include: Audio Commentary With Writer/Director/Actor Kevin Smith And Producer Scott Mosier, Tracing Amy: The CHASING AMY Doc, Was It Something I Said? -- A Conversation With Kevin & Joey, 10 Years Later Q & A -- With Kevin Smith And The Cast, Deleted Scenes, Outtakes, TrailerWriter-director ! Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophisticat! ion with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom KeoghStudio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 05/17/2011 Run time: 113 minutes Rating: RWriter-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, ! by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the! high price of growing up enough to truly care for someone mak! e this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh BOTH DUMPED BY THEIR GIRLFRIENDS, TWO BEST FRIENDS SEEK REFUGEIN THE LOCAL MALL.Sophomore jinx hit hard in this second film by Kevin Smith, whose debut Clerks transcended the limits of its setting and budget to become something memorably funny. (Smith followed Mallrats with the wonderful Chasing Amy, so Mallrats definitely had the old curse.) A ramshackle comedy set in a mall, the film follows several story lines involving lovers, enemies, friends, goofballs, and Smith's own "silent" character, who also appeared in Clerks and Chasing Amy. A heavy self-consciousness weighs on everything, as if Smith forgot how to make obscenity funny instead of tedious. Still, it's nice to see some of the director's film family on screen, among them Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams. --Tom Keogh CLERKS is one wild day in the life of a pair of overworked counter jockeys whose razor-sharp wit and on-the-j! ob antics give a whole new meaning to customer service.

CHASING AMY: Filled with Smith's unique ear for dialogue and insight into relationships, CHASING AMY offers a thoughtful, funny look at how perceptions alter lives, and how obsession and self-doubt skew reality.

JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK: Wildly irreverent and packed with stars, including Ben Affleck, Chris Rock, Jason Lee and more, the hilarious conclusion of Jay and Silent Bob's story is big entertainment.Clerks
Before Kevin Smith became a Hollywood darling with Chasing Amy, a film he wrote and directed, he made this $27,000 comedy about real-life experiences working for chump change at a New Jersey convenience store. A rude, foul-mouthed collection of anecdotes about the responsibilities that go with being on the wrong side of the till, the film is also a relationship story that takes some hilarious turns once the lovers start revealing their sexual historie! s to one another. In the best tradition of first-time, ultra-l! ow budge t independent films, Smith uses Clerks as an audition piece, demonstrating that he not only can handle two-character comedy but also has an eye for action--as proven in a smoothly handled rooftop hockey scene. Smith himself appears as a silent figure who hangs out on the fringes of the store's property. --Tom Keogh

Chasing Amy
Writer-director Kevin Smith (Clerks) makes a huge leap in sophistication with this strong story about a comic-book artist (Ben Affleck) who falls in love with a lesbian (Joey Lauren Adams) and actually gets his wish that she love him, too. Their relationship is attacked, however, by his business partner (Jason Lee), who pulls a very unsubtle Iago act to cast doubt over the whole affair. The film has the same sense of insiderness as Clerks--this time, Smith takes us within the arcane, funny world of comic-book cultism--but the themes of jealousy, deceit, and the high price of! growing up enough to truly care for someone make this a very satisfying movie. --Tom Keogh

Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
With sidesplitting dialogue and rampant profanity, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back reunites Kevin Smith's dynamic duo in supreme lowbrow style. It's the fifth comedy in Smith's celebrated New Jersey "trilogy." Here Quick-Stop potheads Jay (Jason Mewes) and Silent Bob (Smith) wreak vengeance on Hollywood, where Miramax is making a "Bluntman & Chronic" feature inspired by J. and S.B., but without their permission. En route from Jersey to La La Land, Jay and his "hetero life mate" encounter sexy jewel thieves (including the delightful Shannon Elizabeth), a precocious orangutan, a dimwit wildlife marshal (Will Ferrell), and a nonstop parade of in-jokes, harmless (yet controversial) gay jokes, and splendid celebrity cameos. While gently biting the Miramax hand that feeds him, and paying affectionate! homage to the Star Wars saga, Smith sheds all inhibi! tions to give Jay and Silent Bob a stellar sendoff that's nasty, sassy, and undeniably hilarious. --Jeff Shannon