For those who never thought Disney would release a film in which Santa Claus is kidnapped and tortured, well, here it is! The full title is Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, which should give you an idea of the tone of this stop-action animated musical/fantasy/horror/comedy. It is based on characters created by Burton, the former Disney animator best known as the director of Pee-wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and the first two Batman movies. His benignly scary-funny sensibility dominates the story of Halloweentown resident Jack Skellington (voice by Danny Elfman, who also wrote the songs), who stumbles on a bizarre and fascinating alternative universe called ... Christmastown! Directed by Henry Selick (who later made the delightful James and the Giant Peach), this PG-rated picture has a reassuringly light touch. As Roger Ebert noted in his review, "some of the Halloween creatures might be a tad scary for smaller children, but this is the kind of movie older kids will eat up; it has the kind of offbeat, subversive energy that tells them wonderful things are likely to happen." —Jim Emerson

Only Joel and Ethan Coen, the fraternal director and producer team behind art-house hits such as The Big Lebowski and Fargo and masters of quirky and ultra-stylish genre subversion, would dare nick the plot line of Homer's Odyssey for a comic picaresque saga about three cons on the run in 1930s Mississippi. Our wandering hero in this case is one Ulysses Everett McGill, a slick-tongued wise guy with a thing about hair pomade (George Clooney, blithely sending up his own dapper image) who talks his chain-gang buddies (Coen-movie regular John Turturro and newcomer Tim Blake Nelson) into lighting out after some buried loot he claims to know of. En route they come up against a prophetic blind man on a railroad truck, a burly, one-eyed baddie (the ever-magnificent John Goodman), a trio of sexy singing ladies, a blues guitarist who's sold his soul to the devil, a brace of crooked politicos on the stump, a manic-depressive bank robber, and—well, you get the idea. Into this, their most relaxed film yet, the Coens have tossed a beguiling ragbag of inconsequential situations, a wealth of looping, left-field dialogue, and a whole stash of gags both verbal and visual. O Brother (the title's lifted from Preston Sturges's classic 1941 comedy Sullivan's Travels) is furthermore graced with glowing, burnished photography from Roger Deakins and a masterly soundtrack from T-Bone Burnett that pays loving homage to American '30s folk styles—blues, gospel, bluegrass, jazz, and more. And just to prove that the brothers haven't lost their knack for bad-taste humor, we get a Ku Klux Klan rally choreographed like a cross between a Nuremberg rally and a Busby Berkeley musical. —Philip Kemp

There's no other band in the world like this flea-market chic indie rock performance art slideshow family! The first live Trachtenburg Family Slide Show Players DVD, filmed Off Broadway at Lambs' Theater in the band's hometown (NYC). Off and On Broadway features live performances of TFSP classics including "Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959" & "Look at Me"; footage of this delightful musical family in their daily lives; interviews with comedians David Cross, Eugene Mirman & many other pop-culture celebrities, & bonus features including rare acoustic performances & TFSP Music Videos.

TRACK LISTING

LIVE PERFOMANCES:
1. MOUNTAIN TRIP TO JAPAN, 1959
2. LOOK AT ME
3. BEAUTIFUL DANDELION
4. WENDY'S, SAMBO's & LONG JOHN SILVER'S
5. DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN?
6. WORLD'S BEST FRIEND
7. TOGETHER AS A SYSTEM WE ARE UNBEATABLE
8. MIDDLE AMERICA
9. (END CREDITS) SINGING A SONG

BONUS FEATURES:
1. MOUNTAIN TRIP TO JAPAN, 1959 - MUSIC VIDEO
2. EGGS - MUSIC VIDEO
3. SLIDESHOWERS IN PARADISE
4. UNTITLED (WHEN YOU SEE A SLIDE, SING IT)
5. EAST VILLAGE ROCKER WITH A MISSED CONNECTION
6. OPNAD CONTRIBUTION STUDY REPORT JUNE, 1977
7. WHAT WILL THE CORPORATION DO?
8. LET'S NOT HAVE THE SAME WEIGHT IN 1978
9. WHY DID WE DECIDE TO TAKE THIS DECISION TO YOU?
10. SUPER D
11. DVD BOOTLEG TIMES SQUARE

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/27/2005 Run time: 450 minutes

Ever spend eight hours in a "Productivity Bin"? Ever had worries about layoffs? Ever had the urge to demolish a temperamental printer or fax machine? Ever had to endure a smarmy, condescending boss? Then Office Space should hit pretty close to home for you. Peter (Ron Livingston) spends the day doing stupefyingly dull computer work in a cubicle. He goes home to an apartment sparsely furnished by IKEA and Target, then starts for a maddening commute to work again in the morning. His coworkers in the cube farm are an annoying lot, his boss is a snide, patronizing jerk, and his days are consumed with tedium. In desperation, he turns to career hypnotherapy, but when his hypno-induced relaxation takes hold, there's no shutting it off. Layoffs are in the air at his corporation, and with two coworkers (both of whom are slated for the chute) he devises a scheme to skim funds from company accounts. The scheme soon snowballs, however, throwing the three into a panic until the unexpected happens and saves the day. Director Mike Judge has come up with a spot-on look at work in corporate America circa 1999. With well-drawn characters and situations instantly familiar to the white-collar milieu, he captures the joylessness of many a cube denizen's work life to a T. Jennifer Aniston plays Peter's love interest, a waitress at Chotchkie's, a generic beer-and-burger joint à la Chili's, and Diedrich Bader (The Drew Carey Show) has a minor but hilarious turn as Peter's mustached, long-haired, drywall-installin' neighbor. —Jerry Renshaw

Call the fbi. Alert the president. Tell the press. Pee-wee hermans bicycle the keenest in the world is missing. Its his most prized possession and hes just gotta get it back. Special features: commentary with paul reubens and tim burton premiere party footage original theatrical trailer and more. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 08/09/2005 Starring: Pee-wee Herman Run time: 92 minutes Rating: Pg

Given the presence of both Steve Martin and John Candy, one would expect this John Hughes comedy to be much, much funnier than it is. Certainly it's not for lack of effort on the part of its stars. Martin is an uptight businessman trying to get home from New York for the holidays. But one thing after another gets in his way—most of it having to do with Candy, a boorish but well-meaning boob who takes a liking to him. Together they travel all over the map; no matter how hard Martin tries to shake him, he can't. But Hughes's writing is never as sharp as it should be and this film winds up being only intermittently humorous. —Marshall Fine

WIDE-SCREEN EDITION ISSUED IN 2004/5 BY WARNER BROS. DUEL-LAYER FORMAT, ZONE1, CC, LETTERBOX IN ENGLISH FRENCH & SPANISH, RATED 'G'.

Jane Austen's classic novel of 1813, Pride and Prejudice, still wins the hearts of countless schoolgirls with its romantic story of Elizabeth Bennet and her Mr. Darcy. Now, the 1996 BBC miniseries is winning over adults, with its faithful adaptation, gorgeous scenery, and superb acting.

The essence of the story is the antagonism between Mr. Darcy, a wealthy single man who believes Elizabeth to be beneath him, and Elizabeth, who upon being insulted at a dance by the aloof Darcy refuses to associate with him in any manner. Austen evokes incredible tension with the wit and flirtation of the two characters, and director Simon Langton (who also directed Upstairs Downstairs) successfully translates the repartee and conflict in this six-hour miniseries. Dialogue, for the most part, is painstakingly replicated, except when fleshing out and smoothing for modern sensibilities was necessary. Darcy, for instance, is drawn out, giving his personality significantly more depth. The acting sweeps you away to Regency England: Jennifer Ehle (of Wilde) is convincing as the obstinate Elizabeth, who, despite her mother's attempts to marry her off, spurs the attentions of Darcy. And Colin Firth (of The English Patient) will have women everywhere longing for a Mr. Darcy of their own.

For those who have been on an Austen binge—enjoying such excellent adaptations as Sense and Sensibility and Persuasion—this miniseries will round out the ultimate Austen video library. For those new to these romantic period pieces, this version of Pride and Prejudice will have you hooked and longing for more. One caveat, however: plan to watch it in an entire day, because very few have the self-control to not watch all six hours in a single sitting. —Jenny Brown

With the knockout one-two punch of 1992's Reservoir Dogs and 1994's Pulp Fiction writer-director Quentin Tarantino stunned the filmmaking world, exploding into prominence as a cinematic heavyweight contender. But Pulp Fiction was more than just the follow-up to an impressive first feature, or the winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival, or a script stuffed with the sort of juicy bubblegum dialogue actors just love to chew, or the vehicle that reestablished John Travolta on the A-list, or the relatively low-budget ($8 million) independent showcase for an ultrahip mixture of established marquee names and rising stars from the indie scene (among them Samuel L. Jackson, Uma Thurman, Bruce Willis, Ving Rhames, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Walken, Tim Roth, Amanda Plummer, Julia Sweeney, Kathy Griffin, and Phil Lamar). It was more, even, than an unprecedented $100-million-plus hit for indie distributor Miramax. Pulp Fiction was a sensation. No, it was not the Second Coming (I actually think Reservoir Dogs is a more substantial film; and P.T. Anderson outdid Tarantino in 1997 by making his directorial debut with two even more mature and accomplished pictures, Hard Eight and Boogie Nights). But Pulp Fiction packs so much energy and invention into telling its nonchronologically interwoven short stories (all about temptation, corruption, and redemption amongst modern criminals, large and small) it leaves viewers both exhilarated and exhausted—hearts racing and knuckles white from the ride. (Oh, and the infectious, surf-guitar-based soundtrack is tastier than a Royale with Cheese.) —Jim Emerson

Barry egan is a small business owner with seven sisters whose abuse has kept him alone and unable to fall in love. When a harmonium and a mysterious woman enter his life his romantic journey begins. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 09/20/2005 Starring: Adam Sandler Philip Seymour Hoffman Run time: 95 minutes Rating: R

Hunter and cage star as a childless couple who really really want a baby in this wildly original comedy from the coen brothers. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 04/10/2007 Starring: Nicolas Cage Holly Hunter Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg

The tenenbaum kids were all once child prodigies despite growing up with an ineffective father. Determined to make things right that he has a estranged family. Royal tenenbaum announces years later that he has a terminal illness and moves back into his wifes house where their children are also living. Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 09/07/2004 Starring: Ben Stiller Gwyneth Paltrow Run time: 109 minutes Rating: R

Studio: Uni Dist Corp (music) Release Date: 11/07/2006