DVDs: if you're looking to give something that people can never get enough of, the vast array of DVDs available this holiday season will please the most persnickety of home theater buffs.AND SO THIS IS CHRISTMAS Show your loved ones there's more to Christmas-themed entertainment than It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street Miracle on 34th Street film featuring benevolent old gentleman named Kris Kringle. [Am. Cinema: Halliwell, 493] See : Christmas Miracle on 34th Street Santa Claus comes to New York. [Am. . The latest, entry in the holiday must-see pantheon, 1983's A Christmas Story (Warner Home Video Warner Home Video is the home video unit of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group, a division of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc. It was founded in 1978 as WCI Home Video (for Warner Communications, Inc.). It was re-named Warner Home Video in 1980. , $26.99) has a gorgeous 20th anniversary edition set complete with commentaries and a documentary narrated by Peter Billingsley. Christmas With the Simpsons (Fox Home Entertainment, $14.98) features five yuletide episodes with everyone's favorite dysfunctional family dysfunctional family Psychology A family with multiple 'internal'–eg sibling rivalries, parent-child– conflicts, domestic violence, mental illness, single parenthood, or 'external'–eg alcohol or drug abuse, extramarital affairs, gambling, (and that big queen Smithers Smithers is a surname, and may refer to: People People with the surname Smithers
There's also the very funny 2002 TV film It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie (MGM MGM in full Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Inc. U.S. corporation and film studio. It was formed when the film distributor Marcus Loew, who bought Metro Pictures in 1920, merged it with the Goldwyn production company in 1924 and with Louis B. Mayer Pictures in 1925. Home Entertainment, $19.98), and for musical lovers Angela Lansbury singing a Jerry Herman score in Mrs. Santa Claus
Mrs. Santa Claus is a 1996 television musical starring Angela Lansbury as the wife of Santa Claus. The musical score for Mrs. (Artisan Home Entertainment, $14.98) or the wonderful and underrated Leslie Bricusse musical Scrooge (Paramount Home Video, $14.99), starting Albert Finney, Alec Guinness, and Edith Evans. YOU ARE WATCHING YOUR TV, AFTER ALL Great television gets a new lease on life with DVDs to please a broad variety of couch potato tastes. Fans of British comedy will go gaga ga·ga adj. Informal 1. Silly; crazy. 2. Completely absorbed, infatuated, or excited: They were gaga over the rock group's new album. 3. Senile; doddering. for the cult hit The Office: The Complete First Season (BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. Home Video, $29.98), along with Absolutely Special (BBC Home Video, $24.98), featuring the DVD DVD: see digital versatile disc. DVD in full digital video disc or digital versatile disc Type of optical disc. The DVD represents the second generation of compact-disc (CD) technology. debuts of Ab Fab's Last Shout and New York specials. For reality TV junkies, there are the heretofore unseen adventures of gay Irish cutie-pie Simon on The Real World You Never Saw: Paris (Paramount Home Video, $19.99), not to mention the interior-design wackiness of The Best of Trading Spaces (Artisan Home Entertainment, $19.98). Adult animation, from the potty-mouthed to the downright Dada, takes center stage on South Park: The Complete Third Season (Paramount Home Video, $49.99) as well as on Space Ghost Coast to Coast Space Ghost Coast to Coast (often abbreviated as SGC2C) is an animated spoof talk show on the cable TV channel Cartoon Network in the United States, Adult Swim in Australia, Bravo in the UK, and Teletoon in Canada. It began in 1994. : Volume One and Aqua Teen Hunger Force: Volume One (both Warner Home Video, $29.98 each). Those who like their sitcoms with explicit gay content--or at least, with Billy Crystal playing prime time's first out gay series regular--will want Soap: The Complete First Season (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, $29.95), while fans of arch queer subtext are best steered toward The Best of Designing Women (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, $19.95). THEY LOOK SO GOOD ON THE SHELF Nothin' says lovin' like a big package under the tree, so check out these wonderful boxed sets for your nearest and dearest. The sophisticated Billy Wilder DVD Collection (MGM Home Entertainment, $129.96) contains two of the legendary writer-director's queerest--Some Like It Hot and The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes--along with seven other classics, while Warner Home Video's Barbra Streisand Collection ($69.92) offers up the exquisite What's Up, Doc? alongside three of La Babs's also-rans. The thrill-seeking lesbian in your life will no doubt appreciate The Adventures of Indiana Jones (Paramount Home Video, $49.95) or Sigourney Weaver kicking ass in the Alien Quadrilogy (Fox Home Entertainment). And one of today's leading gay documentarians collects three of his best in The Arthur Dong Collection: Stories From the War on Homosexuality (Deep Focus Productions). IF YOU MISSED THEM AT THE MULTIPLEX The ever-shrinking window between theatrical and video releases means that some of 2003's biggest titles are already available for holiday giving. Keira Knightley's performances in Bend It Like Beckham (Fox Home Entertainment, $27.98) and Pirates of the Caribbean This article is about the franchise. For other, more specific uses, see Pirates of the Caribbean (disambiguation). For real pirates, see Piracy in the Caribbean. Pirates of the Caribbean : The Curse of the Black Pearl (Walt Disney Home Video, $29.99) have made her one of this year's favorite lesbian icons, but it's really Johnny Depp who waltzes away with the latter movie thanks to his openly fey performance as a heroically mincing sea dog. Women who love action would love getting Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (Paramount Home Video, $19.95) or the unhinged Charlie's Angels 2: Full Throttle (Columbia TriStar Home Video, $27.94); women who love women getting some action will want to unwrap the lesbian surf comedy Wave Babes (Wolfe Video, $19.99), starting comedian Georgia Ragsdale. If your man can quote Pillow Talk chapter and verse chapter and verse n. 1. Full, detailed information on a subject or issue: recited the client's complaints by chapter and verse. 2. Bible A specific passage. , then he should probably have the Doris-and-Rock homage Down With Love (Fox Home Entertainment, $27.98) in his collection. And anyone with a gay pet has probably already made a hero of Bruiser bruis·er n. Informal A large, heavyset man. bruiser Noun Informal a strong tough person, esp. a boxer or a bully Noun 1. Woods, the canine star of the wonderfully dippy dip·py adj. dip·pi·er, dip·pi·est Slang Not sensible; foolish. [Origin unknown.] Legally Blonde 2: Red White & Blonde (MGM Home Entertainment, $27.98). ALL AGES ADMITTED For your kids, for your friends' kids, for your friends who have the taste of kids, family-friendly doesn't have to equal dull. The folks at Disney have gone all out with the deluxe two-disc sets The Lion King: Special Edition and Sleeping Beauty: Special Edition (Walt Disney Home Video, $29.99 each), and the studio provided one of the year's best movies with the PG-rated Freaky Friday (Walt Disney Home Video, $29.99). Two musicals that don't quite work as well as they should but still have a certain ragged charm are this year's goofy delight From Justin to Kelly (Fox Home Entertainment, $27.98)--with director and star commentary, no less--and the downright oddball 1968 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang magical car helps track down criminals. [Children’s Lit.: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang] See : Fantasy (MGM Home Entertainment, $29.98). And finally, since the star of Cher Live: The Farewell Tour (Image Entertainment, $24.99) is ageless, shouldn't her audiences be as well? KEEPING IT REAL Documentaries are among the most exciting and provocative films around, despite their reputation as being akin to those awful classroom movies about the mating life of the boll weevil. And giving them makes you look oh, so smart and media-savvy. For the gay movie geek A technically oriented person. It has typically implied a "nerdy" or "weird" personality, someone with limited social skills who likes to tinker with scientific or high-tech projects. The origin of the term dates back to the late 1800s. in your life. Water Bearer Films offers two documentaries from provocative queer filmmaker Mark Rappaport. Both Rock Hudson's Home Movies and The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender ($29.95 each) decipher the hidden gay messages that vintage Hollywood movies were apparently sending out all along. And for someone who doesn't think docs can be sexy, prove him wrong with Daddy and the Muscle Academy (Zeitgeist Video, $29.99), a sizzling look at the life and art of erotic artist Tom of Finland Tom of Finland (May 8, 1920 – November 7, 1991) (born Touko Laaksonen in Kaarina, Finland) was a fetish artist notable for his stylized homoerotic art and his influence on late twentieth century gay culture. . Greta Schiller's acclaimed Paris Was a Woman (Zeitgeist Video, $29.99) brings the bohemian lesbians of post-World War I Paris to life, while the moving Silverlake Life: The View From Here (Docurama, $24.95) is a powerful, first, person look at life and death and AIDS. And any day of Hanukkab is a good time to give. Sandi Simcha Simcha (שׂמְחָה) is a Hebrew word with several meanings. Literally, the word "simcha" means gladness, or joy. It comes from the root word "sameyach," which means glad or happy. Dubowski's already legendary Trembling Before G-d (New Yorker Home Video, $39.95), which examines the lives of gays and lesbians tom between their sexuality and their devotion to Orthodox Judaism. CLASSICS ... AND NOT-SO-CLASSICS Pay tribute to the great gay director John Schlesinger, who passed away this year, with two of his best films, Darling and Sunday Bloody Sunday (MGM Home Entertainment, both $19.98). For your friend who can't get enough of Heathers, Election, and other pitch-black teen comedies, give him the new-to-DVD cult favorite Lord Love a Duck (MGM Home Entertainment, $14.95), one of gay actor Roddy McDowall's strangest and funniest movies. Those who are expecting Santa to leave them something campy and bizarre will love the ridiculous Margaux Hemingway revenge fantasy Lipstick (Paramount Home Video, $19.99) or perhaps Tallulah Bankhead running amok and terrorizing Stefanie Powers in Die! Die! My Darling! (Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment, $24.95)--because nothing says "Merry Christmas" like an unhinged Tallulah. |
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