CliffsNotes on Wharton's The House of Mirth (Cliffsnotes Literature Guides)

• ISBN13: 9780764537165
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

ENDURING LITERATURE ILLUMINATED BY PRACTICAL SCHOLARSHIP

An incisive portrait of New York high society and the somber economics of marriage during the late nineteenth century, Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth tells the story of beguiling socialite Lily Bart’s ill-fated attempt to find happiness.

THIS ENRICHED CLASSIC EDITION INCLUDES:

• A concise introduction that gives the reader important background information

• A chronology of the author’s life and work

• A timeline of significant events that provides the book’s historical context

• An outline of key themes and plot points to guide the reader’s own interpretations

• Detailed explanatory notes

•! Critical analysis and modern perspectives on the work

• Discussion questions to promote lively classroom and book group interaction

• A list of recommended related books and films to broaden the reader’s experience

Simon & Schuster Enriched Classics offer readers affordable editions of great works of literature enhanced by helpful notes and insightful commentary. The scholarship provided in Enriched Classics enables readers to appreciate, understand, and enjoy the world’s finest books to their full potential."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opulence and frivolity for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was s! omething else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gild! ed Age.

One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on the verge of "good" marriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.

! Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, Simon Rosedale, date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard ca! sh, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of hers! elf: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery."The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth," warns Ecclesiastes 7:4, and so does the novel by Edith Wharton that takes its title from this call to heed. New York at the turn of the century was a time of opule! nce and frivolity for those who could afford it. But for those who couldn't and yet wanted desperately to keep up with the whirlwind, like Wharton's charming Lily Bart, it was something else altogether: a gilded cage rather than the Gilded Age.

One of Wharton's earliest descriptions of her heroine, in the library of her bachelor friend and sometime suitor Lawrence Selden, indicates that she appears "as though she were a captured dryad subdued to the conventions of the drawing room." Indeed, herein lies Lily's problem. She has, we're told, "been brought up to be ornamental," and yet her spirit is larger than what this ancillary role requires. By today's standards she would be nothing more than a mild rebel, but in the era into which Wharton drops her unmercifully, this tiny spark of character, combined with numerous assaults by vicious society women and bad luck, ultimately renders Lily persona non grata. Her own ambivalence about her position! serves to open the door to disaster: several times she is on ! the ve rge of "good" marriage and squanders it at the last moment, unwilling to play by the rules of a society that produces, as she calls them, "poor, miserable, marriageable girls.

Lily's rather violent tumble down the social ladder provides a thumbnail sketch of the general injustices of the upper classes (which, incidentally, Wharton never quite manages to condemn entirely, clearly believing that such life is cruel but without alternative). From her start as a beautiful woman at the height of her powers to her sad finale as a recently fired milliner's assistant addicted to sleeping drugs, Lily Bart is heroic, not least for her final admission of her own role in her downfall. "Once--twice--you gave me the chance to escape from my life and I refused it: refused it because I was a coward," she tells Selden as the book draws to a close. All manner of hideous socialite beasts--some of whose treatment by Wharton, such as the token social-climbing Jew, S! imon Rosedale, date the book unfortunately--wander through the novel while Lily plummets. As her tale winds down to nothing more than the remnants of social grace and cold hard cash, it's hard not to agree with Lily's own assessment of herself: "I have tried hard--but life is difficult, and I am a very useless person. I can hardly be said to have an independent existence. I was just a screw or a cog in the great machine I called life, and when I dropped out of it I found I was of no use anywhere else." Nevertheless, it's even harder not to believe that she deserved better, which is why The House of Mirth remains so timely and so vital in spite of its crushing end and its unflattering portrait of what life offers up. --Melanie RehakThis book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

The tragic fall of one of the most heartbreaking character! s in Ame rican literature, a beautiful socialite who loses her footing in the savage social-climbing world of 19th century New York high society

 

Lily Bart has no fortune, but she possesses everything else she needs to make an excellent marriage: beauty, intelligence, a love of luxury, and an elegant skill in negotiating the hidden traps and false friends of New York's high society. But time and again Lily cannot bring herself to make the final decisive move: to abandon her sense of self and a chance of love for the final soulless leap into a mercenary union. Her time is running out, and degradation awaits. Edith Wharton's masterful novel is a tragedy of money, morality, and missed opportunity.

Since its publication in 1905 The House of Mirth has commanded attention for the sharpness of Wharton's observations and the power of her style. A lucid, disturbing analysis of the stifling limitations imposed upon women of her genera! tion, Wharton's tale of Lily Bart's search for a husband of position in New York Society, and betrayal of her own heart, transformed the traditional novel of manners into an arrestingly modern document of cultural anthropology. With incisive contemporary analysis, the introduction by a leading scholar of American literature updates this increasingly important work.This collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdit! h Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner Sist! ersThe C ustom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of the MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneThe Valley of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at PrayerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKerfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandTh! e ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThis collection was designed for optimal navigation on Kindle and other electronic devices. It is indexed alphabetically, chronologically and by category, making it easier to access individual books, stories and poems. This collection offers lower price, the convenience of a one-time download, and it reduces the clutter in your digital library. All books included in this collection feature a hyperlinked table of contents and footnotes. The collection is complimented by an author biography. Table of Contents List of Works by Genre and TitleList of Works in Alphabetical OrderList of Works in Chronological OrderEdith Wharton Biography Novels:The Age of InnocenceThe Bunner SistersThe Custom of the CountryEthan FromeThe Fruit of the TreeThe Glimpses of th! e MoonThe House of MirthThe ReefSanctuarySummerThe TouchstoneT! he Valle y of Decision Non-Fiction:Fighting FranceIn Morocco Short Stories Collections:Crucial InstancesThe Descent of Man and Other StoriesThe Greater InclinationThe Hermit and the Wild WomanTales of Men and Ghosts Short Stories:AfterwardThe Angel at the GraveAutres TempsThe Best ManThe Blond BeastThe Bolted DoorThe ChoiceComing HomeThe Confessional"Copy" A DialogueA CowardA Cup of Cold WaterThe Daunt DianaThe DebtThe Descent of ManThe DilettanteThe Duchess at PrayerThe EyesExpiationFull CircleThe Fulness of LifeThe Hermit and the Wild WomanHis Father's SonThe House of The Dead HandIn TrustA JourneyKerfolThe Lady's Maid's BellThe Last AssetThe LegendThe LetterThe LettersThe Long RunMadame de TreymesThe Mission of JaneThe Moving FingerMrs. Manstey's ViewThe Muse's TragedyThe Other TwoThe PelicanThe PortraitThe Pot-BoilerThe PretextThe QuicksandThe ReckoningThe RecoveryThe RembrandtSouls BelatedThe Triumph of NightThe Twilight of the GodA Venetian Night's EntertainmentThe VerdictXingu! Poetry:Artemis to Actaeon, and Other VersesBotticelli's Madonna in the LouvreThe SonnetThe original CliffsNotes study guides offer expert commentary on major themes, plots, characters, literary devices, and historical background. The latest generation of titles in this series also feature glossaries and visual elements that complement the classic, familiar format.

CliffsNotes on The House of Mirth takes you into the waning years of the Gilded Age and the moral bankruptcy of New York City's elite class. Edith Wharton's story of a woman â€" whose beauty causes men to desire to possess her and women to be jealous of her â€" reflects the complicated struggle of the individual against the social strictures of a powerful, and triumphant, moneyed class.

This concise supplement to the satirically critical The House of Mirth, helps you understand the overall structure of the novel, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives! of the author. Features that help you study include

• Ch! apter-by -chapter summaries and commentaries
• A character map that outline key characteristics and relationships
• Insightful character analyses
• A critical essay about the opulence and emptiness of the Gilded Age
• A review section that tests your knowledge

Classic literature or modern modern-day treasure â€" you'll understand it all with expert information and insight from CliffsNotes study guides.

Hatchet (Unrated Director's Cut) [Blu-ray]

• HATCHET BLU-RAY (BLU-RAY DISC)

MARYBETH RETURNS TO THE LOUSIANA SWAMPS ALONG WITH AN ARMY OF HUNTERS TO RECOVER THE BODIES OF HER FAMILY AND EXACT HER REVENGE AGAINST VICTOR CROWLEYThere's probably no better visceral creep-out than a close-up eye gouging (just ask Luis Buñuel). Director Adam Green learned this well by using the old thumb-in-socket shot as the climax of his 2006 cult hit Hatchet, and he repeats it as the opener of Hatchet II. This micro-budget sequel picks up just as the original ends, with the aforementioned eye still belonging to the deformed swamp monster Victor Crowley (again played by ace stuntman and Friday the 13th alumni Kane Hodder). The thumb belongs to demure Marybeth (Danielle Harris), who turns out to be the sole survivor of the first film's tour-boat cruise through Louisiana's most disgusting swamp. She escapes Crowley's one-eyed clutches an! d finds her way back to New Orleans and the lair of voodoo conman Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd, of Candyman fame), where a posse of redneck morons is quickly assembled to return to the swamp and squash the innards and legend of Victor Crowley for good.

All this Victor Crowley and innards-squashing business will be familiar to fans of Hatchet, of which there are legions. Indeed, it feels as though Green has made Hatchet II as a love letter to them, raising the bloody-disgusting body count and creative means of murder--outboard motor, super-size chainsaw, belt sander--strictly to satisfy an urge felt only by the supremely devoted. Billed as an unrated director's cut, the DVD version will surely send them swooning with even more latex guts and buckets of Kool-Aid-colored blood than they might remember from midnight theatrical shows. Even the commentary tracks and making-of documentary are filled with backslaps dedicated to the exclusive Hatchet g! roupie club. Green is intentionally riffing on slasher films n! ot only with the comic dialogue and dopey characters, but also by employing icons of the genre as actors. In addition to Hodder and Todd, Tom Holland, director of fanboy favorites Fright Night and Child's Play, turns up in another key role. Unfortunately, Green's sense of insider humor and commitment to a limited demographic seems to have clouded what could have been a more interesting movie. But you're probably not watching Hatchet II to see an interesting movie. You're watching to see a giddy homage to the glory days of practical gore effects and enjoy the goofy fun of howling at senseless characters that lose their heads and countless other body parts in ever more creative ways. --Ted FryStudio: Mpi Home Video Release Date: 02/01/2011 Rating: NrThere's probably no better visceral creep-out than a close-up eye gouging (just ask Luis Buñuel). Director Adam Green learned this well by using the old thumb-in-socket shot as the climax of his 2006 cult hit! Hatchet, and he repeats it as the opener of Hatchet II. This micro-budget sequel picks up just as the original ends, with the aforementioned eye still belonging to the deformed swamp monster Victor Crowley (again played by ace stuntman and Friday the 13th alumni Kane Hodder). The thumb belongs to demure Marybeth (Danielle Harris), who turns out to be the sole survivor of the first film's tour-boat cruise through Louisiana's most disgusting swamp. She escapes Crowley's one-eyed clutches and finds her way back to New Orleans and the lair of voodoo conman Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd, of Candyman fame), where a posse of redneck morons is quickly assembled to return to the swamp and squash the innards and legend of Victor Crowley for good.

All this Victor Crowley and innards-squashing business will be familiar to fans of Hatchet, of which there are legions. Indeed, it feels as though Green has made Hatchet II as a love letter to the! m, raising the bloody-disgusting body count and creative means! of murd er--outboard motor, super-size chainsaw, belt sander--strictly to satisfy an urge felt only by the supremely devoted. Billed as an unrated director's cut, the DVD version will surely send them swooning with even more latex guts and buckets of Kool-Aid-colored blood than they might remember from midnight theatrical shows. Even the commentary tracks and making-of documentary are filled with backslaps dedicated to the exclusive Hatchet groupie club. Green is intentionally riffing on slasher films not only with the comic dialogue and dopey characters, but also by employing icons of the genre as actors. In addition to Hodder and Todd, Tom Holland, director of fanboy favorites Fright Night and Child's Play, turns up in another key role. Unfortunately, Green's sense of insider humor and commitment to a limited demographic seems to have clouded what could have been a more interesting movie. But you're probably not watching Hatchet II to see an interesting! movie. You're watching to see a giddy homage to the glory days of practical gore effects and enjoy the goofy fun of howling at senseless characters that lose their heads and countless other body parts in ever more creative ways. --Ted FryGet ready for one of the most talked-about, red- blooded American horror movies of the past 20 years: When a group of New Orleans tourists take a cheesy haunted swamp tour, they slam face-first into the local legend of deformed madman Victor Crowley. What follows is a psycho spree of seat-jumping scares, eye- popping nudity, skull-splitting mayhem and beyond. Joel David Moore (DODGEBALL), Deon Richmond (SCREAM 3) and Mercedes McNab (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) star â€" along with horror icons Tony ‘Candyman’ Todd, Robert ‘Freddy Krueger’ Englund and Kane ‘Jason’ Hodder â€" in this screamingly funny carnage classic that Fangoria hails as “a no-hold-barred homage to the days when slasher films were at their reddest and wet! test!”Adam Green's Hatchet is a goofy, gory gas that ! pays tri bute to the slasher boom of the 1980s by placing more hapless teens in the path of an indestructible maniac. Said killer is Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder, Jason in many of the later Friday the 13th entries), a deformed Louisiana swamp dweller who returns from an apparent fiery death to lay waste to a mixed bag of tourists and Mardi Gras revelers who've wandered into his turf on a "haunted swamp" tour. Hatchet doesn't exactly surpass the movies it's spoofing; Green's characters are dopey ciphers, and Crowley's indiscriminate killing spree negates his sympathetic origins. But the dialogue is glib and the performances funny (especially Parry Shen as the tour's unlikely guide and Joel David Moore as the lovelorn hero), and '80s horror aficionados will appreciate John Carl Buechler's outrageously gross effects (which get more screen time in this unrated cut). There are also cameos by genre vets Robert Englund and Tony Todd, as well as Joshua Leonard from The Blair ! Witch Project. The widescreen DVD includes commentary by Green and several of his players, as well as featurettes on the making of the film, its villain and his elaborate makeup, and a scene breakdown of one of the film's most jaw-dropping effects. A gag reel and a conversation between Green and Twisted Sister frontman and horror fan Dee Snider rounds out the commentary. -- Paul GaitaStudio: Tcfhe/anchor Bay/starz Release Date: 09/07/2010 Run time: 84 minutes Rating: NrAdam Green's Hatchet is a goofy, gory gas that pays tribute to the slasher boom of the 1980s by placing more hapless teens in the path of an indestructible maniac. Said killer is Victor Crowley (Kane Hodder, Jason in many of the later Friday the 13th entries), a deformed Louisiana swamp dweller who returns from an apparent fiery death to lay waste to a mixed bag of tourists and Mardi Gras revelers who've wandered into his turf on a "haunted swamp" tour. Hatchet doesn't exact! ly surpass the movies it's spoofing; Green's characters are do! pey ciph ers, and Crowley's indiscriminate killing spree negates his sympathetic origins. But the dialogue is glib and the performances funny (especially Parry Shen as the tour's unlikely guide and Joel David Moore as the lovelorn hero), and '80s horror aficionados will appreciate John Carl Buechler's outrageously gross effects (which get more screen time in this unrated cut). There are also cameos by genre vets Robert Englund and Tony Todd, as well as Joshua Leonard from The Blair Witch Project. The widescreen DVD includes commentary by Green and several of his players, as well as featurettes on the making of the film, its villain and his elaborate makeup, and a scene breakdown of one of the film's most jaw-dropping effects. A gag reel and a conversation between Green and Twisted Sister frontman and horror fan Dee Snider rounds out the commentary. -- Paul Gaita

Parenting Teenagers: Systematic Training for Effective Parenting of Teens

• ISBN13: 9780979554216
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

In this edgy thriller, Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways) flees his hometown after a horrendous tragedy and vows never to return. But 25 years later he comes back to find a dark menace looming over the town. As he attempts to rekindle his romance with an old high school girlfriend (Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas), Don is pulled into a malevolent world from which he may never escape.There's urban noir, like Night and the City, and suburban noir, like Double Indemnity. With Don McKay, Jake Goldberger puts his stamp on the latter, offering a sad-sack janitor (producer Thomas Haden Church), who returns to his East Coast hometown when he learns that his old girlfriend, Sonny (! Elisabeth Shue), has a terminal illness. Sonny, who spends her days in shiny negligees, wants to get back together, which suits Don just fine, though he has his doubts about Dr. Pryce (James Rebhorn), and Marie (Melissa Leo, stealing every scene), Sonny's live-in nurse, who both act more like jealous lovers than medical professionals. When Pryce tries to strangle Don, he kills the man in self-defense and hides the body, turning to his friend, Otis (Keith David), for help, since the police aren't likely to believe him due to the events of the past (Goldberger withholds the details until the end). In the meantime, Don puts up with Sonny's tempestuous seduction act until he can't take it anymore, but escaping her clutches proves unexpectedly difficult, especially once blackmailer Mel (Pruitt Taylor Vince) enters the scene. As in the melodramas of yore, characters say the most preposterous things, but Goldberger keeps you guessing as to their real motives. If he casts Church an! d Shue against type, that only deepens the central mystery, th! ough the star comes off better than his leading lady, who sometimes seems lost. Still, their talents ensure that the writer-director's debut doesn't slide into farce--though it sure comes close. --Kathleen C. FennessyIn this edgy thriller, Don McKay (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways) flees his hometown after a horrendous tragedy and vows never to return. But 25 years later he comes back to find a dark menace looming over the town. As he attempts to rekindle his romance with an old high school girlfriend (Elisabeth Shue, Leaving Las Vegas), Don is pulled into a malevolent world from which he may never escape.There's urban noir, like Night and the City, and suburban noir, like Double Indemnity. With Don McKay, Jake Goldberger puts his stamp on the latter, offering a sad-sack janitor (producer Thomas Haden Church), who returns to his East Coast hometown when he learns that his old girlfriend, Sonny (Elisabeth Shue), has a terminal illness. Sonny, who spends her! days in shiny negligees, wants to get back together, which suits Don just fine, though he has his doubts about Dr. Pryce (James Rebhorn), and Marie (Melissa Leo, stealing every scene), Sonny's live-in nurse, who both act more like jealous lovers than medical professionals. When Pryce tries to strangle Don, he kills the man in self-defense and hides the body, turning to his friend, Otis (Keith David), for help, since the police aren't likely to believe him due to the events of the past (Goldberger withholds the details until the end). In the meantime, Don puts up with Sonny's tempestuous seduction act until he can't take it anymore, but escaping her clutches proves unexpectedly difficult, especially once blackmailer Mel (Pruitt Taylor Vince) enters the scene. As in the melodramas of yore, characters say the most preposterous things, but Goldberger keeps you guessing as to their real motives. If he casts Church and Shue against type, that only deepens the central mystery, th! ough the star comes off better than his leading lady, who some! times se ems lost. Still, their talents ensure that the writer-director's debut doesn't slide into farce--though it sure comes close. --Kathleen C. FennessyOffers parents a realistic and practical approach to meeting the challenges of raising children today. Teaches effective and enjoyable ways to relate to children.An informative best-seller-updated with a new format and illustrations--with proven techniques for better parent-teen relationships.

Blade Collection: 4 Film Favorites

• BLADE, BLADE II, BLADE: TRINITY, and BLADE: HOUSE OF CHTHON Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR Age: 794043132223 UPC: 794043132223 Manufacturer No: 1000095187

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/29/2009 Run time: 438 minutes Rating: Nr

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

• Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. Hes the nations most notorious criminal, hunted by the law in 10 states. Hes also the lands greatest hero, lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. Hell befriend Jesse, ride with his gang. And if that doesnt bring Ford fame, hell find a deadlier way.Friendship become

Jesse James was a fabled outlaw, a charismatic, spiritual, larger-than-life bad man whose bloody exploits captured the imagination and admiration of a nation hungry for antiheroes. Robert Ford was a young upstart torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy, the "dirty little coward" who coveted Jesse's legend. The powerful, strange, and unforgettable story of their interweaving pathsâ€"and twin destinies that would collide in a rain of blood and betrayalâ€"is a story of America in all ! her rough, conflicted glory and the myths that made her.

Hansen re-creates the real West with his imaginative telling of the life of the most famous outlaw of them all, Jesse James, and of his death at the hands of the upstart Robert Ford. James, a charismatic, superstitious, and moody man, holds sway over a ragged gang who fear his temper and quick shooting. Robert Ford, a young gang member torn between worshipping Jesse and taking his place, guns him down in cold blood and lives out his days tormented by the killing.

Jesse James was a fabled outlaw, a charismatic, spiritual, larger-than-life bad man whose bloody exploits captured the imagination and admiration of a nation hungry for antiheroes. Robert Ford was a young upstart torn between dedicated worship and murderous jealousy, the "dirty little coward" who coveted Jesse's legend. The powerful, strange, and unforgettable story of their interweaving pathsâ€"and twin destinies that would collide in a rain of blood ! and betrayalâ€"is a story of America in all her rough, conflic! ted glor y and the myths that made her.

Everyone in 1880s America knows Jesse James. He’s the nation’s most notorious criminal, hunted by the law in 10 states. He’s also the land’s greatest hero, lauded as a Robin Hood by the public. Robert Ford? No one knows him. Not yet. But the ambitious 19-year-old aims to change that. He’ll befriend Jesse, ride with his gang. And if that doesn’t bring Ford fame, he’ll find a deadlier way. Friendship becomes rivalry and the quest for fame becomes obsession in this virile epic produced in part by Ridley Scott and featuring gripping portrayals by Brad Pitt (winner of the Venice Film Festival Best Actor Award) as Jesse and Casey Affleck as the youth drawn closer to his goal…and farther from his own humanity.Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fasci! nating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony.

The film--only the second to be made by New Zealandâ€"born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, Chopper (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robb! ery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, ! not gall antry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise.

Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelisti! c backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" The Proposition, suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title.

Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. --Richard T. Jameson

PS3 Eagle Eye Mouse and Keyboard Converter

• Converts your USB keyboard and mouse into a Playstation 3 controller
• Easy Plug and Play setup. Fully customize your keys and start playing in minutes
• Designed with first person shooter games in mind. Aim better and move more accurately, move faster. Ownage never becomes easier!
• Equipped with a high-capacity CPU resulting in fluid mouse movement, no delays or dead zones!

Genre: Action/Adventure
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 27-DEC-2008
Media Type: DVDThe "cell phone thriller" is becoming a genre unto itself, and Eagle Eye should be considered a key example of the form. Frankly preposterous but compulsively watchable, this movie puts Shia LaBeouf in a mess of trouble instigated by a mysterious telephone voice. If he doesn't follow orders, dire things will happen--although when he does follow orders, the consequences are pretty! dire, anyway. Also being blackmailed is a single mom (Michelle Monaghan) receiving similar phone calls. Why are they being jerked around by the purring female voice, and why is the road leading to Washington, D.C.? Actually, you won't have time to contemplate these questions, because director D.J. Caruso (who guided LaBeouf in Disturbia) keeps the action going at the customary breakneck pace. This is a wise move, because the real questions you'd likely be asking have to do with the plausibility of events on a minute-by-minute basis (most notably: how could Mysterious Phone Voice possibly know that the two pigeons would survive the hoops she makes them fly through, each one more death-defying than the last?). The actors tumble through this mayhem like scattering bowling pins, including Billy Bob Thornton and Rosario Dawson as government agents. Nobody has time to make much of an impression, and LaBeouf has much less room for puppydog charm than he did in Disturbia! . Even that would be all right within the movie's berserk ! paramete rs, but the really irritating thing is the way the tacked-on final scenes reverse what would have been a heroic climax. No guts, no glory. --Robert Horton




Stills from Eagle Eye (Click for larger image)

Aim better, move faster, ownage never comes easier. The Eagle! Eye Con verter lets you use a keyboard and mouse to control the game instead of a traditional PS3 hand-held controller. Customize your keys and start playing within minutes. The Eagle Eye is equipped with high-capacity CPU, making the mouse movement fluid with no delay and no dead-zone. Remember how easy it was to play first person shooters on a PC? Bring that experience to your PS3!

Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo (Little Black Book Edition)

• Schneider is Deuce Bigalow, a bumbling fish tank cleaner. When Antoine, a successful gigolo with a sick fish, has to leave the country for a few weeks, he offers Deuce the opportunity to housesit for him. Predictably, Deuce manages to trash the place and must enlist the aid of pimp TJ (Griffin) to help him pay for the damages. TJ turns him, in a series of absurd preparations, into a prostitute. Th

The hit-making producers of BIG DADDY now deliver DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO -- a hilarious, must-see smash starring the always outrageous Rob Schneider (THE HOT CHICK, THE ANIMAL) in his funniest role yet! A professional fish tank cleaner, Deuce (Schneider) finds himself in desperate need of cash to quickly repair the damage he's done to a client's luxurious Malibu apartment! Then the fun really takes off when Deuce decides the only way out of this jam is to switch to the world's oldest profession ! -- and offer his services to ladies everywhere as a lover for hire! A wild and raunchy comedy that always aims to please -- you won't be able to resist this sidesplitting laugh riot!Saturday Night Live alum and Adam Sandler sidekick Rob Schneider plays the title character of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a miserable fish-tank cleaner who stumbles onto a new and different lifestyle when he looks after the fish of a high-priced male prostitute (Oded Fehr from The Mummy). Deuce teams up with a man-pimp (Eddie Griffin), gets harassed by a crazed cop (William Forsythe), and of course falls in love with a cute client (Arija Bareikis). The nonsensical plot is festooned with gags about wet T-shirts, foul-mouthed senior citizens, flatulence, Tourette's syndrome, narcolepsy, and just about everything else you might imagine. More surprising is that, by and large, the movie works. It's a combination of bad taste and goodheartedness, similar to There's Something A! bout Mary, which Deuce Bigalow is clearly emulating! . It's n ot the pat "people should learn to accept themselves for who they are" theme or the formulaic happy ending; it's that the movie understands that sex is not the same thing as happiness or contentment. For all its crassness, Deuce Bigalow actually treats its characters as people, and the result is silly, obnoxious, and enjoyable. --Bret FetzerComedy superstar Rob Schneider is back once more as Deuce Bigalow, the big-hearted male gigolo with the least down below. Fleeing to Europe following a near run-in with the Malibu PD, Deuce finds himself thrust back into the pleasure-for-pay profession when his former pimp (Eddie Griffin) is wrongly accused of murdering Europe's highest-priced man-whores. Working under-the-covers, Deuce seduces a bevy of super-freaky female clients (as well as Dutch supermodel Hanna Verboom) to learn the identity of the real killer in this outrageous laugh-orgy that will have you screaming with delight from start to finish!If the repeated us! e of the phrase "man-whore" is your recipe for hilarity, Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo is your movie. Rob Schneider (The Hot Chick, The Animal) returns as the hapless male prostitute, in this case lured back into the man-whore lifestyle in order to investigate the killings of European man-whores. His former pimp T.J. (Eddie Griffin, Undercover Brother) has set up shop in Amsterdam, where he finds himself accused of both the man-whore murders and of being a homosexual. From this slender, ridiculous premise springs dozens of gags about flatulence, breasts, and male sexual organs--in fact, the number of phallus stand-ins (noses, swords, man-whore of the year awards) would seem excessive to Aristophanes. And yet, despite all things crass and tawdry, Schneider remains bizarrely innocent, and this movie, like the first one, feels inexplicably sweet. The fundamental ethos of Deuce Bigalow is that everyone, no matter how they look, deserves to be loved.! Such a downright Christian sentiment is rarely packaged in a ! movie fe aturing a cat biting a man's testicles or a woman gushing wine out of her tracheotomy hole, yet that's all part of the ineffable mystery of Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo. Also featuring Jeroen Krabbe (The 4th Man, The Living Daylights). --Bret FetzerThe hit-making producers of BIG DADDY now deliver DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE GIGOLO: THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK EDITION -- with hilarious, never-before-seen footage starring the outrageous Rob Schneider (THE HOT CHICK, THE ANIMAL) in his breakout role! A professional fish tank cleaner, Deuce (Schneider) finds himself in desperate need of cash to quickly repair the damage he's done to a client's luxurious apartment! The fun really takes off when Deuce decides the only way out of this jam is to switch to the world's oldest profession and offer his services as a lover for hire! Don't miss a new peek inside this sidesplitting laugh riot -- now with new irresistible and irreverent bonus features!Saturday Night Live! alum and Adam Sandler sidekick Rob Schneider plays the title character of Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a miserable fish-tank cleaner who stumbles onto a new and different lifestyle when he looks after the fish of a high-priced male prostitute (Oded Fehr from The Mummy). Deuce teams up with a man-pimp (Eddie Griffin), gets harassed by a crazed cop (William Forsythe), and of course falls in love with a cute client (Arija Bareikis). The nonsensical plot is festooned with gags about wet T-shirts, foul-mouthed senior citizens, flatulence, Tourette's syndrome, narcolepsy, and just about everything else you might imagine. More surprising is that, by and large, the movie works. It's a combination of bad taste and goodheartedness, similar to There's Something About Mary, which Deuce Bigalow is clearly emulating. It's not the pat "people should learn to accept themselves for who they are" theme or the formulaic happy ending; it's that the movie unders! tands that sex is not the same thing as happiness or contentme! nt. For all its crassness, Deuce Bigalow actually treats its characters as people, and the result is silly, obnoxious, and enjoyable. --Bret Fetzer