- DISNEY'S A CHRISTMAS CAROL - 2-DISC BD COMBO PACK (BLU-RAY DISC)
The year is 2008, and U.S. President Walter Emerson (Kevin Pollak) has something to prove. He wasn't elected (he took office upon the death of the previous president), and he needs a pivotal boost in a current primary election. While he and his entourage are trapped under heavy snowfal! l in a tiny Colorado diner, Emerson must decide whether to unleash a nuclear arsenal on the son of Saddam Hussein, who has invaded Kuwait and taken hundreds of American lives. With his chief of staff (Timothy Hutton), top advisers, and a cluster of terrified diners, Emerson sorts through his options as tensions come to a boil.
This all works well on the surface, and Deterrence gains depth by depicting a president who is potentially as evil as his unseen enemy. But the film is almost fatally vague (clearly Lurie wants viewers to bring their own interpretation to these events) and ends with a twist that's too contrived to be dramatically satisfying. Until that point, however, Deterrence will certainly keep you engaged. --Jeff ShannonAs a concept, deterrence has launched a thousand books and articles. It has dominated Western strategic thinking for more than four decades. In this important and groundbreaking new book, Lawrence Freedman develops a disti! nctive approach to the evaluation of deterrence as both a stat! e of min d and a strategic option. This approach is applied to post-cold war crisis management, and the utility and relevance of the concept is addressed in relation to US strategic practice post-9/11, particularly in the light of the apparent preference of the Bush Administration for the alternative concept of pre-emption.
The study of deterrence has been hampered by the weight of the intellectual baggage accumulated since the end of the Second World War. Exaggerated notions of what deterrence might achieve were developed, only to be to knocked down by academic critique. In this book, Freedman charts the evolution of the contemporary concept of deterrence, and discusses whether - and how - it still has relevance in today's world. He considers constructivist as well as realist approaches and draws on criminological as well as strategic studies literature to develop a concept of a norms-based, as opposed to an interest-based, deterrence. This book will be essential reading ! for students of politics and international relations as well as all those interested in contemporary strategic thought.RECKONING/DETERRENCE - DVD Movie
As the costs of a preemptive foreign policy in Iraq have become clear, strategies such as containment and deterrence have been gaining currency among policy makers. This comprehensive book offers an agenda for the contemporary practice of deterrenceâ"especially as it applies to nuclear weaponsâ"in an increasingly heterogeneous global and political setting.
Moving beyond the precepts of traditional deterrence theory, this groundbreaking volume offers insights for the use of deterrence in the modern world, where policy makers may encounter irrational actors, failed states, religious zeal, ambiguous power relationships, and other situations where the traditional rules of statecraft do not apply. A distinguished group of contributors here examines issues such as deterrence among the Great Powers; the problems of ! regional and nonstate actors; and actors armed with chemical, ! biologic al, and nuclear weapons. Complex Deterrence will be a valuable resource for anyone facing the considerable challenge of fostering security and peace in the twenty-first century.
The first snow has fallen.
The mice children go sledding
with Grandma and Grandpa.
But at the top of the hill,
who will go first?
Bitty, the smallest mouse,
is scared.
When she tries,
WHEEEEEE,
she finds that sledding is the best!
Caldecott Medalist Emily Arnold McCully captured the chills and thrills of a first sled ride when first snow was published in 1985. She has added words and created new pictures for this handsome larger edition, a compani! on to picnic.
KNOCKED OUT OF THE SKY BY A PASSING PLANE, SEAN HAS MISSED HISBIG FLIGHT SOUTH. BUT WINTER IS SCHEDULED TO ARRIVE ON TIME, SO THE LITTLE DUCK WILL HAVE TO PREPARE. LUCKILY, SEAN MEETS VOLEY,A GOODHEARTED FRIEND WHO TAKES SEAN UNDER HIS WING, TEACHING HIMHOW TO GATHER FOOD AND WARMTH AND STEER CLEAR OF THE CRAFTY FOX.The winter adventures of an errant young Irish duck who loses track of his family on their annual southbound flight make for a charming tale voiced in accents from the British Isles with appealing animation reminiscent of the Little Bear series. If our hero Sean were human, he would probably be diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. But he's fowl, so his mother (Carol Kane) makes her own diagnosis: he's "a duck running amok." So it's no surprise when he strays from the family formation and gets knocked back to earth to face winter alone. He is ably tutored by a good-natured, riverdancing vole (Tim Curry) who imparts some handy survi! val wisdom before he hibernates. The last 10 minutes of this 2! 7-minute story are crammed with a series of short-lived perils involving a storm, a fox, and Sean's inability to find his parents as the ducks return in the spring. It all ends well, but very young and/or sensitive children may have a few anxious moments along the way. --Kimberly Heinrichs
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games," a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
It's been three months since all the adults disappea! red. Gone.
food ran out weeks ago and starvation is imminent. Meanwhile, the normal teens have grown resentful of the kids with powers. And when an unthinkable tragedy occurs, chaos descends upon the town. There is no longer right and wrong. Each kid is out for himself and even the good ones turn murderous.
But a larger problem looms. The Darkness, a sinister creature that has lived buried deep in the hills, begins calling to some of the teens in the FAYZ. Calling to them, guiding them, manipulating them.
The Darkness has awakened. And it is hungry.
Stills from The Bridge on the River Kwai (click for larger image)
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Beyond The Bridge on the River Kwai
The David Lean Collection | WWII 60th Anniversary Collection | The True Story of the Bridge on the River Kwai (History Channel) |
The story centers on a Japanese prison camp isolated deep in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where the remorseless Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) h! as been charged with building a vitally important railway bridge. His clash of wills with a British prisoner, the charismatic Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness), escalates into a duel of honor, Nicholson defying his captor's demands to win concessions for his troops. How the two officers reach a compromise, and Nicholson becomes obsessed with building that bridge, provides the story's thematic spine; the parallel movement of a team of commandos dispatched to stop the project, led by a British major (Jack Hawkins) and guided by an American escapee (William Holden), supplies the story's suspense and forward momentum.
Shot on location in Sri Lanka, Kwai moves with a careful, even deliberate pace that survivors of latter-day, high-concept blockbusters might find lulling--Lean doesn't pander to attention deficit disorders with an explosion every 15 minutes. Instead, he guides us toward the intersection of the two plots, accruing remarkable character details through extr! aordinary performances. Hayakawa's cruel camp commander is gra! dually r evealed as a victim of his own sense of honor, Holden's callow opportunist proves heroic without softening his nihilistic edge, and Guinness (who won a Best Actor Oscar, one of the production's seven wins) disappears as only he can into Nicholson's brittle, duty-driven, delusional psychosis. His final glimpse of self-knowledge remains an astonishing moment--story, character, and image coalescing with explosive impact.
Like Lean's Lawrence of Arabia, The Bridge on the River Kwai has been beautifully restored and released in a highly recommended widescreen version that preserves its original aspect ratio. --Sam SutherlandLed in great part by Mitch Miller's recording of "The River Kwai March/Colonel Bogey March," this soundtrack became part of the mass-consciousness of the 1950s and following decades. The infectious and defiant whistling of the British prisoners of war is only one aspect of the film, though, standing alongside a score by Malcolm Arnold t! hat (although winning an Academy Award) became overshadowed by Miller's commercial success. Often wading in folly as much as doom, Arnold views the adversities and will of the POWs in a way akin to Mickey's battle with the brooms in Fantasia. "Shear's Escape" floats in the life-and-death realism of the situation yet seems to find the playfulness and romantic abandon of a walk through a forest. "Overture," in its simultaneously laborious and stirring tones, prefers the stark representation of menace and captivity, orchestral sections battling one another as they search for a means of escape yet, in the end, find they must submit. And standing among it all is K. Alford's "Colonel Bogey March," the whistling tribute to another Disney film score that has always seemed to alleviate even the worst days of drudgery at a cruel job. --James StockstillThe incredible life and times of Hollywood's most iconoclastic producer, the miracle worker who went from penniless ref! ugee to show biz legend, and made possible "The African Queen,! On the Waterfront, The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "Lawrence of Arabia," not to speak of many more, including movies as distinct as "Suddenly, Last Summer; Nicholas and Alexandra; The Last Tycoon; " and "Betrayal; " all of them sharing the unique vision that earned Spiegel twenty-five Oscars: star-filled, bigger-than-life, conceived on a vast scale, intensely dramatic, and overwhelmingly ambitious.
In this rich and brilliant biography, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni, who had the advantage of knowing and working for Spiegel, brings into sharp focus a Hollywood legend who was at once crafty, unscrupulous, mendacious, and equally capable of great charm and petty meanness, who was sentimental and ruthless, a shrewd judge of talent, a gambler on a colossal scale, a man of almost unique artistic vision and courage who was, in the final analysis, that most elusive and rare of movie producers, a genius.
The story of a how a Jewish refugee without a penny to his name managed to produce seve! ral of the greatest films of all time is alone worth telling, but Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni has done more; she has drawn the definitive portrait of the man himself -- the elusive, witty, cynical adventurer who, like so many refugees, was able to live, succeed, and raise money everywhere, but who was at home nowhere. Spiegel surrounded himself with luxury and beautiful women but remained a loner despite his countless friends.
Spiegel was mysterious about his origins, prompting Arthur Miller to refer to him as "The GreatGatsby." In reality, he was born of middle-class Jewish parents in the last years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Raised in Jaroslav, in western Galicia, Spiegel left home in his late teens and quickly became a hero of the Hashomer Hatzair, a Zionist youth movement.
Step by step, with immense research and a vast number of interviews, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni recreates the world of Sam Spiegel's childhood and youth, separating often self-serving fiction from! fact. She follows Spiegel's dramatic flight from the Nazis in! Berlin, a prison sentence in London, problems with the police in Paris and Mexico City, and finally his arrival in Los Angeles. In America his career languished for a time, though he acquired a reputation for being a supreme "fixer," a brilliant luftmensh on the fringes of Hollywood power, the ultimate party-giver who knew everybody's secrets and was always quick to charm women and take advantage of men. Billy Wilder called him "a modern day Robin Hood, who steals from the rich and steals from the poor."
With a brilliant sense of time and place and a deep understanding of Spiegel's complex personality, Fraser-Cavassoni traces his disasters, successes, romances, friendships, and tangled finances in a narrative that is rich with colorful Spiegel stories, scandals, and bon mots.
The cast of characters in Spiegel's life includes Lauren Bacall, Humphrey Bogart, Marlon Brando, Montgomery Clift, Robert De Niro, Barry Diller, David Geffen, Katharine Hepburn, John Huston, Elia Kazan, Da! vid Lean, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Mike Nichols, Harold Pinter, Otto Preminger, Elizabeth Taylor, Gore Vidal, Orson Welles, Billy Wilder, Darryl F. Zanuck, bevies of beautiful women, three wives, countless members of high society, and, most important, Sam Spiegel himself -- the last of the great independent film producers who, in the swashbuckling tradition of David O. Selznick and Sam Goldwyn, operated alone, aimed high, and believed, above all, in their own star.
More than a major book about the movie business, "Sam Spiegel" is an intricate and engrossing biography, comparable in its richness, depth, and attention to detail to A. Scott Berg's acclaimed biography of Samuel Goldwyn. It is a marvelous, once-in-a-lifetime reading experience and an astonishing debut for Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni.
Prior to this meticulously researched biography, legendary producer Sam Spiegel had loomed large in countless Hollywood memoirs, but was rarely the subject of close examination. Prais! eworthy for negotiating a maze of apocryphal stories and unver! ified de tails, Sam Spiegel solves many of the mysteries resulting from the falsehoods of "Spiegelese," for the renowned producer--whose crowning achievements included The Bridge on the River Kwai and Lawrence of Arabia--was perhaps the most inventive liar to gain prominence in Hollywood. With a refreshing absence of judgment, this unflinching study portrays Spiegel as a consummate manipulator, hedonist, philanderer, absentee father, sexaholic (a foot fetishist who favored young girls well into his '70s), and globetrotting entertainer of the social elite, "incapable of guilt" and so charming that he could achieve miracles (and numerous faked heart attacks, to disarm his detractors) while producing some of the greatest films of Hollywood's post-Golden era.
As a first-time biographer, Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni (a French journalist who worked as an assistant on Spiegel's final film, 1983's Betrayal) fails to plumb the depths of Spiegel's enigmatic charac! ter (so effectively hidden behind his luxurious lifestyle), offering little insight into Spiegel's unique combination of intellect and roguish insincerity. She compensates with a journalist's greatest assets: exacting research and seemingly limitless access to Spiegel's surviving contemporaries, from the late Billy Wilder to On the Waterfront director Elia Kazan and many, many others. The result is a fair and balanced portrait of one of Hollywood's classiest scoundrels, a master thief with impeccable taste and an uncanny instinct for cinematic prestige. --Jeff ShannonAt Moviestore we have an incredible library of celebrity photography covering movies, TV, music, sport and celebrity. Our exclusive photographs are professionally produced by our in-house team; we perfect bright vibrant colors or wonderful black and white tones for our photographic prints that you can display in your home or office with pride. All our images are produced from genuine original nega! tives and slides held in our vast library. We have been in bus! iness fo r 16 years so you can buy with confidence. Our guarantee: if you are not fully satisfied with any print from Moviestore we will gladly refund your money!
Beyond Doomsday on DVD
More from Universal Studios | Doomsday on Blu-ray | More from Director Neil Marshall |
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Beyond Doomsday on DVD
More from Universal Studios | Doomsday on Blu-ray | More from Director Neil Marshall |
| | |
Beyond Doomsday on DVD
More from Universal Studios | Doomsday on Blu-ray | More from Director Neil Marshall |
| | |