| All-Natural Genuine 6x4 mm, Pear Shape Ruby pendant set in 14k White Gold | | Posted Tuesday, January 23, 2007 12:33:40 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | A masterfully crafted 14k White Gold setting securely holds a splendid 6x4 mm Pear shaped all natural Ruby gemstone. The stone is hand set in a wonderful basket setting allowing for a light reflection that is matched by no other setting style. The pendant hangs from an 18 inch chain also crafted in smooth 14k White Gold. This hand selected, high quality, all-natural genuine stone consists of a deep color and pure clarity that is simply dazzling. Your purchase comes with a Manufactures Certificate of Guarantee assuring the natural authenticity of all materials used to craft your custom necklace.... | |
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| | | Bring It On - All Or Nothing (Widescreen) | | Posted Thursday, September 07, 2006 7:51:26 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Bring It On: All or Nothing is the idealized version of what happens when a rich girl from an elite California school is forced to transfer to an urban setting for her senior year of high school. Former head cheerleader Britney (Hayden Panettiere, Ice Princess) finds herself with a quandary--does she join the new squad, or does she stick to the promise she made to her old teammates that she'll never cheer again? Given that this is the second sequel to the Bring It On franchise, which started with Kirsten Dunst's 2000 flick, and that there's really no reason for this movie to exist without a match-up between Britney's old and new squads, of course she must bring her pompoms out of retirement. In between routines, she manages to land the hottest male cheerleader, Jesse (Gus Carr), and befriend Camille (Beyonce's little sis Solange Knowles-Smith), the feisty head of the squad. She even excuses Britney from practice when the latter lies and says her family pet has died: "Who am I to stand between a white girl and her dead dog?" Beyond the inclusion of a few broad stereotypes dealt for laughs, this straight-to-DVD movie doesn't dwell on any real racial issues that a spoiled white girl actually might face at a predominantly ethnic school. Unlike Dunst's film, which was mindless but well-crafted, this sequel asks nothing of its actors but to look good and leap high. Bring It On: All or Nothing has already been brought. Twice. --Jae-Ha Kim... | |
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| | | All of Me | | Posted Wednesday, September 06, 2006 7:51:51 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | This 1984 Carl Reiner comedy is one of the best film showcases of Steve Martin and Lily Tomlin's sundry talents. Tomlin plays a sickly spinster who is given the chance to transfer her soul to the body of another woman, and thus go on living. But the magic man who is supposed to make this happen goofs up and locks her spirit inside a bachelor lawyer (Martin)--or, more accurately, within the right half of the poor fellow's body. Suddenly, the swinging man-about-town is literally at odds with himself, unable to make a self-determining decision without a huge internal struggle. Martin's physical comedy, always remarkable, is absolutely inspired this time around, as he convincingly portrays a man split down the middle between opposing sensibilities. This is also one of the best films by Reiner, a filmmaker whose novel ideas are sometimes more striking than their execution. --Tom Keogh... | |
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| | | A Man for All Seasons | | Posted Monday, September 04, 2006 1:52:15 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Robert Bolt's successful play was not considered a hot commercial property by Columbia Pictures--a period piece about a moral issue without a star, without even a love story. Perhaps that's why Columbia left director Fred Zinnemann alone to make A Man for All Seasons, as long as he stuck to a relatively small budget. The results took everyone by surprise, as the talky morality play became a box-office hit and collected the top Oscars for 1966. At the play's heart is the standoff between King Henry VIII (Robert Shaw, in young lion form) and Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield, in an Oscar-winning performance). Henry wants More's official approval of divorce, but More's strict ethical and religious code will not let him waffle. More's rectitude is a source of exasperation to Cardinal Wolsey (Orson Welles in a cameo), who chides, "If you could just see facts flat on without that horrible moral squint." Zinnemann's approach is all simplicity, and indeed the somewhat prosaic staging doesn't create a great deal of cinematic excitement. But the language is worth savoring, and the ethical politics are debated with all the calm and majesty of an absorbing chess game. --Robert Horton... | |
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| | | All in the Family - The Complete First Season | | Posted Sunday, September 03, 2006 5:51:41 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Boy, the way the Beaver played. Ricky Nelson made the hit parade. Voices they were seldom raised. Those were the days. And then, on January 12, 1971, America met the Bunkers, and sitcoms would never be the same. The Bunkers were TV's first dysfunctional family: blue-collar bigot Archie (the late Carroll O'Connor in his iconic role), his long-suffering but loving wife Edith (Jean Stapleton), "little goil" Gloria (Sally Struthers), and her liberal husband "Meathead" Mike (Rob Reiner). Series creator Norman Lear broke near every rule and taboo in adapting the British series "Till Death Do Us Part" for American television. The series pilot, "Meet the Bunkers," was a bracing shocker that dared to find humor in prejudice. Archie dispenses racial epithets and ethnic slurs. Mike and Gloria clearly have an active sex life, while Edith, in the pilot at any rate, is more "pip" than "dingbat." In its first season, the series refused to, in Archie's words, "stifle" itself, tackling such hot-button topics as homophobia ("Judging Books by Covers"), racism ("Lionel Moves into the Neighborhood"), feminism ("Gloria Discovers Women's Lib"), and the generation gap (the touching "Success Story," with William Windom as Archie's former army buddy, a successful man who is revealed to be estranged from his son). All in the Family was a rich human comedy. Brought to life by a peerless ensemble, these characters would come to feel like family. Their foibles produced some of television's biggest laughs. They could also make us cry, as with the heartbreaking "Gloria's Pregnancy." Another series landmark is the season finale, "The First and Last Supper," in which we meet Isabel Sanford's Louise Jefferson (but, hilariously, not her husband, George). All in the Family was an instant lightning rod for controversy but went on to earn the comedy Emmy Award in its first year. This three-disc set has no extras (future sets will hopefully contain commentary by Lear or surviving cast members), but each episode is presented complete and uncut, restoring the funny, sometimes touching codas that were cut for syndication. --Donald Liebenson... | |
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| | | Bring It On - All Or Nothing (Full Screen) | | Posted Saturday, September 02, 2006 9:51:52 AM by BlogJeeves Team | | Bring It On: All or Nothing is the idealized version of what happens when a rich girl from an elite California school is forced to transfer to an urban setting for her senior year of high school. Former head cheerleader Britney (Hayden Panettiere, Ice Princess) finds herself with a quandary--does she join the new squad, or does she stick to the promise she made to her old teammates that she'll never cheer again? Given that this is the second sequel to the Bring It On franchise, which started with Kirsten Dunst's 2000 flick, and that there's really no reason for this movie to exist without a match-up between Britney's old and new squads, of course she must bring her pompoms out of retirement. In between routines, she manages to land the hottest male cheerleader, Jesse (Gus Carr), and befriend Camille (Beyonce's little sis Solange Knowles-Smith), the feisty head of the squad. She even excuses Britney from practice when the latter lies and says her family pet has died: "Who am I to stand between a white girl and her dead dog?" Beyond the inclusion of a few broad stereotypes dealt for laughs, this straight-to-DVD movie doesn't dwell on any real racial issues that a spoiled white girl actually might face at a predominantly ethnic school. Unlike Dunst's film, which was mindless but well-crafted, this sequel asks nothing of its actors but to look good and leap high. Bring It On: All or Nothing has already been brought. Twice. --Jae-Ha Kim... | |
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| | | All In the Family: The Complete Third Season | | Posted Friday, September 01, 2006 1:52:10 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | The enduring appeal of one of television's best and most controversial programs comes through loud (literally) and clear on All in the Family: The Complete Third Season, some 10 hours of compelling, entertaining viewing that serve as a timely reminder that even as TV in the new millennium has seemingly become more diverse and inclusive, with its many gay-themed shows and, gasp, proliferation of all manner of minorities, it has lost the kind of bite that the beloved (well, by some folks, anyway) bigot Archie Bunker used to bring to the small screen. All 24 episodes (there is no bonus material or extra features) from the '72-'73 season of executive producer Norman Lear's sitcom are contained here, and those unfamiliar with the show may well find them a bit startling. The language is part of it; Archie's frequent use of terms like "gook" and "fag" would never pass muster in these politically correct times. Yet even more striking is All in the Family's subject matter. Again and again, serious themes like politics (the '72 presidential race, pitting Richard Nixon against George McGovern, is mentioned frequently), racism ("Archie in the Hospital" is just one episode dealing with that issue), the death penalty and violence in the name of religion ("Archie Is Branded"), sexual assault ("Gloria, the Victim"), and gun control ("Archie and the Editorial") are handled with remarkable frankness. At the center of it all, of course, is Carroll O'Connor's Archie, who remains belligerent, boorish, and downright mean to the bitter end. Whether he's bribing an IRS agent, cheating an insurance company, or just being pig-headed in general, Archie is utterly unrepentant; basically, he never does the right thing, a trait that's somehow both irritating and refreshing. All in the Family is hardly perfect; the dysfunctional family's ceaseless squabbling and shouting--usually involving Archie and liberal son-in-law Mike Stivic (Rob Reiner), although wife Edith (the brilliant Jean Stapleton) and daughter Gloria (Sally Struthers) aren't immune--eventually becomes tiresome and shrill. But for the most part, the show's acting, writing (which manages to be very funny as well as incisive), and point of view make this set a must-have. --Sam Graham... | |
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| | | The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things | | Posted Thursday, August 31, 2006 5:51:47 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | Asia Argento's adaptation of JT Leroy's short story collection, The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things, still has the heartbreaking urgency of a tale about child abuse, regardless of Leroy's proven fraudulent identity. Weaving plots together from Leroy's two books, Sarah, and The Heart Is Deceitful, Argento relays the history of orphaned Jeremiah (Jimmy Bennett/Cole Sprouse), whose mother Sarah (Asia Argento) abandons him as a baby to work as a truck-stop lot lizard for her methamphetamine habit. Sarah tears Jeremiah away from a stable foster home to pathetically attempt mothering her seven-year old son. Jeremiah instantly grows up in strip clubs, drug dealers' homes, big rigs, and in the hot rod that he and his mother call home. His sadomasochistic sexual psychology also develops prematurely, informed by men who rape and beat him, and a mother whose work as a hooker requires Jeremiah's dressing up as a girl to pass as her younger sister. Enter a born again, psychotically zealous Grandfather (Peter Fonda) who takes temporary custody of Jeremiah, and the viewer begins to understand Sarah's severe rebelliousness, sensing that the punk, 23-year old prostitute may be a better parent for Jeremiah, simply because she loves him. Shot by Eric Alan Edwards (Kids, My Own Private Idaho), and with a soundtrack including Sonic Youth, Subhumans, Billy Corgan, and Hasil Adkins, the film has a raunchy, Southern appeal similar to that of Leroy's books. Cameos appearances by Winona Ryder and Marilyn Manson add rock star power. Argento keeps it sexy, as this is as much a story of the mother-child bond as it is about the malformation of a boy's sexual identity. True or not, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things is a sincere yet stylized rendition of a terribly sad story. --Trinie Dalton... | |
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| | | All the President's Men (Two-Disc Special Edition) | | Posted Wednesday, August 30, 2006 9:51:46 PM by BlogJeeves Team | | It helps to have one of history's greatest scoops as your factual inspiration, but journalism thrillers just don't get any better than All the President's Men. Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford are perfectly matched as (respectively) Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, whose investigation into the Watergate scandal set the stage for President Richard Nixon's eventual resignation. Their bestselling exposé was brilliantly adapted by screenwriter William Goldman, and director Alan Pakula crafted the film into one of the most intelligent and involving of the 1970s paranoid thrillers. Featuring Jason Robards in his Oscar-winning role as Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, All the President's Men is the film against which all other journalism movies must be measured. --Jeff Shannon ... | |
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