Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Fuel

American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us

  • ISBN13: 9781616082147
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 06/30/2009 Run time: 135 minutes Rating: RWhat is it about director Richard Donner that Mel Gibson enjoys so much that he's appeared in five of Donner's films? Is it the on-set pranks? Could it be the big-budget perks and $20-million paychecks? Or is it just a well-stocked catering table? Whatever the case, the Lethal Weapon star and director teamed up again, along with fellow superstar Julia Roberts, for this typically glossy, entertaining but ultimately hokey thriller. Gibson plays New York cab driver Jerry Fletcher, whose wacky belief in conspiracies finally hits on a coincidental truth involving an evil figure named Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and a sec! ret program of government-funded mind control. Roberts plays the Justice Department attorney who finally believes in Jerry's paranoid ramblings. With a plot (from LA. Confidential cowriter Brian Helgeland) that's a lot of fun as long as you don't think about it too critically, Conspiracy Theory benefits immeasurably from the charisma of its high-magnitude stars. --Jeff ShannonWhat is it about director Richard Donner that Mel Gibson enjoys so much that he's appeared in five of Donner's films? Is it the on-set pranks? Could it be the big-budget perks and $20-million paychecks? Or is it just a well-stocked catering table? Whatever the case, the Lethal Weapon star and director teamed up again, along with fellow superstar Julia Roberts, for this typically glossy, entertaining but ultimately hokey thriller. Gibson plays New York cab driver Jerry Fletcher, whose wacky belief in conspiracies finally hits on a coincidental truth involving an evil figure n! amed Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and a secret program of governmen! t-funded mind control. Roberts plays the Justice Department attorney who finally believes in Jerry's paranoid ramblings. With a plot (from LA. Confidential cowriter Brian Helgeland) that's a lot of fun as long as you don't think about it too critically, Conspiracy Theory benefits immeasurably from the charisma of its high-magnitude stars. --Jeff ShannonA CONSPIRACY OBSESSED CABDRIVER NAMED JERRY FLETCHER BELIEVES HEHAS AN INEXPLICABLE CONNECTION TO A JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ATTORNEY,ALICE SUTTON. HE KEEPS TRYING TO WARN HER ABOUT IMPENDING CONSPIRACIES EVEN THOUGH SHE GENTLY BUT FIRMLY DISMISSES HISCONCERNS.What is it about director Richard Donner that Mel Gibson enjoys so much that he's appeared in five of Donner's films? Is it the on-set pranks? Could it be the big-budget perks and $20-million paychecks? Or is it just a well-stocked catering table? Whatever the case, the Lethal Weapon star and director teamed up again, along with fellow superstar Julia Rober! ts, for this typically glossy, entertaining but ultimately hokey thriller. Gibson plays New York cab driver Jerry Fletcher, whose wacky belief in conspiracies finally hits on a coincidental truth involving an evil figure named Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and a secret program of government-funded mind control. Roberts plays the Justice Department attorney who finally believes in Jerry's paranoid ramblings. With a plot (from LA. Confidential cowriter Brian Helgeland) that's a lot of fun as long as you don't think about it too critically, Conspiracy Theory benefits immeasurably from the charisma of its high-magnitude stars. --Jeff ShannonWhat is it about director Richard Donner that Mel Gibson enjoys so much that he's appeared in five of Donner's films? Is it the on-set pranks? Could it be the big-budget perks and $20-million paychecks? Or is it just a well-stocked catering table? Whatever the case, the Lethal Weapon star and director teamed up again, a! long with fellow superstar Julia Roberts, for this typically g! lossy, e ntertaining but ultimately hokey thriller. Gibson plays New York cab driver Jerry Fletcher, whose wacky belief in conspiracies finally hits on a coincidental truth involving an evil figure named Jonas (Patrick Stewart) and a secret program of government-funded mind control. Roberts plays the Justice Department attorney who finally believes in Jerry's paranoid ramblings. With a plot (from LA. Confidential cowriter Brian Helgeland) that's a lot of fun as long as you don't think about it too critically, Conspiracy Theory benefits immeasurably from the charisma of its high-magnitude stars. --Jeff Shannon
The one hundred conspiracy theories of all time-from Harold Wilson as a Soviet agent to Princess Diana's death, from the attacks on 9/11 in the U.S. and on 7/7 in London. This volume presents research and plausible cover-up theories for the reader to judge.
set of 4 dvd's

Seven weeks on the New York Times bestseller list: Jesse Ventura tel! ls it like it is, and this time he tackles our government’s biggest secrets.

In this explosive account of wrongful acts and ensuing cover-ups, Jesse Ventura takes a systematic look at the wide gap between what the government knows and when the government knows it, and what is revealed to the American people and when it is revealed. The media is complicit in these acts of deception, often refusing to consider alternate possibilities and dismissing voices that diverge from public opinion. In American Conspiracies, Ventura looks closely at the theories that have been presented over the years and examines the truth, as well as the lies.

The assassinations of Abraham Lincoln, the Kennedys, and Martin Luther King Jr.â€"these cases and more need to be re-examined in Ventura’s eyes. Was Watergate presented honestly, or was the CIA involved? Did the Republican Party set out to purposefully steal two elections? Has all of the evidence on 9/11 b! een presented, or is there another angle that the media is afr! aid to e xplore? And finally, is the collapse of today’s financial order and the bailout plan by the Federal Reserve the widest-reaching conspiracy ever perpetrated? Nothing gets by Jesse Ventura in American Conspiracies.

Casino Jack and the United States of Money

  • This portrait of Washington super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, from his early years as a gung-ho member of the GOP political machine to his final reckoning as a disgraced, imprisoned pariah, confirms the adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction.  A tale of international intrigue involving casinos, spies, sweatshops and mob-style killings, this is a story of the way money corrupts our polit
Two-time Academy Award® Winner Kevin Spacey delivers a “bravura performance” (The New Yorker ) in this “uproarious, riveting and wickedly hilarious” (Elle ) film inspired by a true story. Spacey stars as Jack Abramoff, the real-life Washington power player who resorted to jaw-dropping levels of fraud and corruption. High-rolling excess and outrageous escapades are all in a day’s work for Abramoff, as he goes to outrageous lengths to promote the Indian gambling industry, earning him the nickna! me “Casino Jack.” But when Jack and his womanizing protégé Michael Scanlon (Barry Pepper) enlist a dimwitted business partner (Jon Lovitz) for an illegal scheme, they find themselves ensnared in a web of greed and murder that explodes into a worldwide scandal.The sordid tale of lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his greedy, felonious power plays during the glory days of the W. presidency are fine fuel for the antic romp Kevin Spacey turns out in Casino Jack. Spacey's signature twist of smug sincerity and self-satisfaction perfectly suits the portrait of a man whose morals are so corrupt and ego so glorified that he truly believes he's doing God's work at the same time he's swiping cash from every opportunistic situation he can wrangle. As a companion piece to Alex Gibney's equally entertaining documentary Casino Jack and the United States of Money, this comic rendering of a political life led with such impolitic indiscretion ramps the ridiculousness of Abramoff'! s schemes up several notches thanks to a liberal dose of drama! tic lice nse. Nevertheless, the events portrayed are real--the ploys to defraud Indian tribes, the bumbling forays of entrepreneurship, the ballsy attempts at misdirection once misdeeds spiral out of control--as are many of the major players. Director George Hickenlooper (who died at age 47 just days before the film's opening in late 2010) has no compunction about magnifying the ethical warts of historical players such as Tom DeLay, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, and Karl Rove as they act out the real-life sketch comedy of what really happened in the corridors of the Capitol and the conference rooms of K Street. Because it does come off as high-end sketch comedy, Casino Jack sometimes feels a little sketchy in its execution, but the cast is uniformly excellent in making scenes crackle with hilariously vituperative flair. Especially good are Barry Pepper as Abramoff's oily cohort, Jon Lovitz as a doltish, mobbed-up mattress salesman, and the late Maury Chaykin as a seemingly harm! less mafia functionary who's way more dangerous than his clownish exterior betrays. But the movie belongs to Spacey as a man obsessed with his own importance. This Abramoff, who worked as a C-list producer early in his career, still fancies himself a Hollywood-type player even as the A-list plots he scripts in Washington end up filled with holes. Spacey apes and mugs with typically borderline-manic panache, giving masterful insight into the master of a universe that exists almost entirely in his own avaricious mind. --Ted FryThis portrait of Washington super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, from his early years as a gung-ho member of the GOP political machine to his final reckoning as a disgraced, imprisoned pariah, confirms the adage that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. A tale of international intrigue involving casinos, spies, sweatshops and mob-style killings, this is a story of the way money corrupts our political process. Oscar®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney illu! minates the way politicians' desperate need to get
elected ! and the millions of dollars it costs may be undermining the basic principles of American democracy. Infuriating, yet undeniably eye-opening and entertaining, CASINO JACK is a saga of greed and corruption with a cynical villain audiences will love to hate.As he proved in Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney knows how to transform creative bookkeeping into compelling drama without dumbing things down. In his follow-up to Gonzo, a portrait of rabble-rouser Hunter S. Thompson, Gibney takes on disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff (Stanley Tucci provides his voice in readings). Gibney begins with the Mob-style murder of a one-time associate before backtracking to Abramoff's days as chairman of the College Republicans, where he rubbed shoulders with Karl Rove and Ralph Reed--and impressed Ronald Reagan. Even as a student, however, there were signs of trouble as he laundered money through charities, a pattern he would repeat throughout the d! ecades, always on the lookout for new loopholes. Gibney proceeds through his dealings with the Contras, an Angolan dictator, Saipan sweatshops, and Indian casinos (the debacle in Angola led him to produce the right-wing shoot-'em-up Red Scorpion). Along the way, Abramoff ensnared lawmakers and government officials in his web as they traded political favors for campaign financing. As Bob Ney's chief of staff, Neil Volz, puts it, Abramoff "could talk a dog off a meat truck." When his house of cards finally came crashing down, Reed, Ney, Volz, Tom DeLay, and numerous others fell with him (all but Reed appear in the film). As in his other documentaries, Gibney juices the action with music cues that keep things lively, even if some of his choices are a little too on the nose, like Howlin' Wolf's "Back Door Man." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Days of Glory / Indigenes (Blu-ray)

  • Days of Glory (Blu-ray)
  • Indigenes blu-ray
  • Days of Glory
  • Jamel Debbouze,Roschdy Zem
  • Sami Bouajila,Samy Naceri
(War/Action) Set during WWII, North African soldiers enlist in the French army and battle their way across Europe to liberate the "fatherland" and confront discrimination.Hype can be a dangerous thing, and the newspaper ads touting Days of Glory (aka Indigenes, French for "Indigenous") as "so powerful it changed the world" are nigh on impossible for any movie to live up to. This one doesn't, but director Rachid Bouchareb's World War II drama still makes for compelling viewing. Confronting the Nazis both in Italy and at home in 1943, the French Army recruits men from Algeria, then a French colony, and other North Africans to help out. Of the film's two principal themes, one, the horrors of war, is nothing new. But the battle scenes are w! ell done; the first major clash, on a bleak Italian hillside, effectively conveys the young Muslims' confusion and abject terror. The second theme is clearly the one that inspired Bouchareb in the first place: the eternal issue of race and discrimination (also explored in 1989's Glory, about black soldiers in the Civil War). Focusing in particular on four Algerians, including Jamel Debbouze as the naïve Saïd and Roschdy Zem as the lovestruck Messaoud, the films depicts how they are denied basics like food, mail delivery, time off, and such, effectively rendering meaningless the French ideal of liberty, equality, and brotherhood. It all culminates in a small town in Alsace, where the four find brief respite before having to face a much larger and better equipped German force (this scene, as well as a final bit in a cemetery, carry heavy echoes of Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan). Bouchareb apparently made Days of Glory at least in part to shame ! the French government into handing over long-frozen pensions t! o surviv ing soldiers and their kin. French president Jacques Chirac finally approved the funds in 2006--apparently after seeing this film. So maybe it did change the world a little after all. --Sam GrahamThe critically acclaimed and Oscar« nominated* war epic Days of Glory (Indigènes) is "a chronicle of courage and sacrificeàtold with power, grace and feeling and brought alive by first-rate acting" (A.O. Scott, The New York Times). Telling the true story of a band of World War II soldiers who heroically fought their way across Europe while battling discrimination within their own ranks, the film was hailed for its "eloquent performances and potent action sequences" (Jan Stuart, Newsday). The Los Angeles Times' Kenneth Turan called it "a North African Saving Private Ryan, a taut, involving film that delivers all the things we look for in war movies."

Ghoulies IV