House of Sand and Fog

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• AC-3; Anamorphic; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; DTS Surround Sound; Dubbed; DVD; Subtitled; Widesc

CAREER OPPROTUNITIES - DVD MovieIf you're a lifetime member of the Jennifer Connelly fan club, you'll be in the passionate minority of people (100% male) who won't care that this 1991 comedy is wallowing in its own oily puddle of lameness. The gorgeous Ms. Connelly is conspicuously put on display in this typically lightweight fluff from writer-producer John Hughes. Frank Whaley does his best to liven up the male-fantasy plot about a semi-nerdy teen who gets a night-watchman job in a variety store, only to find himself locked in overnight with the local knockout (Connelly), who's as rich as she is beautiful. She's also really unhappy with her home life and her bully boyfriend (Dermot Mulroney), so it's Frank's big opportunity to make his move as a symp! athetic Romeo. Shallow and contrived, the movie does have its standard moments of John Hughes delicacy, and a cameo by the late John Candy scores bonus points for comedy. Still, it's clear that the movie exists primarily to satisfy adolescent lust--and with Connelly as the object of desire, this otherwise tiresome comedy is a triumph of wish-fulfillment casting. --Jeff Shannon Hot Hollywood stars Antonio Banderas (SPY KIDS) and Jennifer Connelly (A BEAUTIFUL MIND) heat up this sexy and intriguing thriller! Francisco Leal (Banderas) is an on-the-edge photographer whose work with a beautiful magazine reporter (Connelly) uncovers a government's nightmare: a secret so deadly the military will stop at nothing to eliminate them! Now, as they are thrown together into danger ... and drawn closer by passion ... they must risk everything for a chance at freedom! It's an exciting story of courage and compassion that's captivated critics and moviegoers everywhere!WAKING THE DEAD! - DVD MovieActor-turned-director Keith Gordon has crafted a t! ouching love story that transcends time, political ideology, and even death. The movie opens in 1974 as Fielding Pierce (Billy Crudup) watches a TV news report announcing the death in Chile of three American activists, including Sarah Williams (Jennifer Connelly), his one true love. The story flashes back to when they first met, showing how he was always more conservative, with grand political aspirations, but the relationship worked because they both shared dreams of making the world a better place, one from inside the system and the other from outside. The movie also flashes forward to his life in the early '80s, when he gets tapped to run for Congress. He starts having visions of her, but he is never quite sure if she's a hallucination arising out of his stress, a manifestation of his political consciousness, an out-and-out ghost, or maybe she's still alive somehow. Whatever she is, his deep longing for her is making him crack up. Gordon smartly jumps the story back and forth in ! time, forgoing an "objective" reality in favor of a more subjective and emotional one. It is a structure based on memory, and that in tandem with the content is what makes Waking the Dead a very powerful film indeed.--Andy SpletzerAcademy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. What begins as a struggle over a rundown bungalow spirals into a clash that propels everyone involved toward a shocking resolution. "The surprise ending will leave you breathless!" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood)Jennifer Connelly followed up her Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind with this dark but moving story of small mistakes that escalate, with tragic necessity, to disaster. In House of Sand and Fog, Kathy (Connelly) gets evicted from her house for failing to pay a tax she never should have b! een charged in the first place. The house is swiftly put up fo! r auctio n and bought by a former military officer from Iran named Behrani (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast). When legal efforts fail her, Kathy turns to a sympathetic cop (Ron Eldard, Bastard Out of Carolina), who wants out of a loveless marriage and who's willing to step over legal boundaries if it might give him a fresh start. Topnotch performances by the entire cast make House of Sand and Fog a compelling psychological drama; your sympathies will be pulled in all directions. --Bret Fetzer