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People have overlooked actress Alexandra Barreto's performance in this series. She is an up and coming actress with an amazing acting ability!

I haven't watched every episode of this Hispanic family drama that takes place in Los Angeles, California, but every episode i have watched has me wondering why CBS passed on this show. Then again CBS would have probably cancelled and basically I thank PBS for making this into a series. The show stars Edward James Olmos as the head of the Hispanic family. In an early episode, his wife dies. The drama focuses on many characters including the two sons and two daughters and the grandson and the eccentric aunt played by Raquel Welch. one of the sons (Esai Morales who is most known as teh captain on NYPD Blue)is an ex-con trying to put his life back together by being a firefighter and one episode focuses on him teaching gang members how to be firefighters. One of the daughters is played by Rachel Tichton who is married and with children while the other daughter is a lawyer working for a non-profit group. The youngest is a teenage boy and he is always videotaping the family and putting the video up on a family website which leads to one episode where the family members aren't happy at what he done and also it is shown many people visit the website. The grandson is in the care of Edward HJames Olmos (and the woman who plays his wife). The kid is the son of the ex-con and the mom is a junkie. Anyway, the head of the family (Olmos) is a local barber. One episode focuses on his experiences in the Korean War while a couple of episodes tell the tale of how his wife came to the USA. The episodes in this series cover many different stories including the housekeeper who gets deported and can't get back to her son to the lawyer daughter going into a Latin America country searching for a friend only to discover what the military is doing to the women there (and it isn't pretty and that is why there are rebels).

American Family is one of the best and most complex and well written family dramas I have seen in a long time. It tells about the Hispanic community in LA for one and it is refreshing to see a drama with Hispanic characters instead of your usual white family and black family dramas. It is shame that network TV didn't pick this series up, but I'm glad PBS saw how great a show this would be. If you want a series that is worth getting on DVD, this is the one.

This show really surprised me. It's funny, sad, heartbreaking, hip, beautiful, but always very powerful and never something that shoves you away or keeps you at a distance. The show is immediately endearing and you fall in love with the characters. It hardly seemed like TV to me as much as it seemed like another one of PBS' experiments in television, which, ultimately, it turned out to be (had a very short hiatus, came back for a short second season and finished off. Leaving me wondering if it was even a real "series"). Something akin to film, but with more storytelling power, a lot of confidence in it's purpose, and a sometimes subtle, sometimes strong poli-social message, sometimes a satirical and humerous look at family and/or Mexican-American life, but always celebrating the culture and ties of this family, the Gonzales', and always entertaining.

The show boasted a powerful cast of actors: Sonia Braga as Berta, who dies in the first episode but is a crucial part of the series and comes back in flashbacks and memories and influences the physical and emotional journeys of her family (all of whom go through a revelation and transformation in the course of the show). Edward James Olmos as Jess, who is a dysfunctional yet loving father. Esai Morales as the long suffering son Esteban; Raquel Welch as the always humerous Diva of an aunt; and the list goes on and on and on (this show has a LARGE cast) with cameos and a solid plethora of extremely talented character actors.

The atmosphere of the show is incredibly colorful. Filmed in East LA on High definition digital, the show has a very energetic and passionate feel to it, and the art design helps along.

But best of all is the incredibly powerful and very creative writing and execution. Lucky for buyers of this DVD, in my opinion at least, the first season contains the best episodes (the second season was very short, though it included some zingers of episodes).

This show has enormous potential as a college classroom tool for social studies; as entertainment, as a urgent social message, as deep powerful art, as what TV can and should be.

Yes, this show is hilarious! Each episode has a few good one liners. and you cant but help and laugh at all the people. Kim, (wish i had a job like hers, an assistant who does nothing but follow anna around), and her lawyer howard who is constantly kissing her ass. some of my favorite epsidoes are the xmas party (how can anyone forget shelley) and where they go to magic mountain. and is nt that dog psychic amelia kinkade the one who played in all three Night of the Demons movies? Howard is just bad as Bobby about egging each other on. anna ,youre so outrageous! and so is this dvd!

I love this DVD set! Anna Nicole is a comedic goddess and the laughs never grow stale with this show. We first see Anna house hunting with Kimmie, Howard & Sugar Pie! It really is a hoot watching her make herself at home in each place they visit. Later we get a visit from hillbilly trash-queen, Cousin Shelly! You'll roll in the floor laughing talking about giving birth to her kid and the doctor not being able to keep his fingers to himself. After punching the OB, Shelly tells the nurse, "what's he gonna sue me for? A food stamp?" Too funny. Not to mention her lines like, "I want to see her! Tell her I LOVE her!" The Halloween Party is fun too. It also just happens to be Kimmie's birthday so Anna buys her a used VW Beetle (wish I had friends like this!) and they celebrate by puking into Howard's Dracula hat. Cousin Shelly later returns for the big Christmas Party with other such greats as Rip Taylor, WWF's Chynna and Margaret Cho attending! Everyone gets drunk and Shelly gets into a fist fight after exclaiming, "well how do I get upstairs?!?" You do not want to miss this. Another added plus is these DVDs are uncut & unedited. We get every cuss word, every bit of nudity and Anna being her fabulous self in all its glory!

The Anna Nicole Show was lambasted by reviewers and I didn't see it lasting that long. But like the ingenius theme song says, Anna does just fine with what she's got- and that's a lot! This show is pure trashy fun and on a boring night, or any night it's fun to pop in an episode and watch as Kimmie- (the assistant) tries to pretend she doesn't want Anna's ass and Howard- (the lawyer) pretend he actually has balls and a life outside of catering to Anna's every whim and need.

The quotes you and your friends can get watching this show are endless, "Somtimes, I like to pretend Kimmie is a bouncy ride and I drop a quarter down her shirt and she bounces me." Oh Anna, what would we do without you???

Well written, acted and produced movie with a wonderful cast that really moves along. Hysterical references (love the slimy agent paraphrasing star wars) and lots of jokes within jokes... you don't have to live in hell-A to get them. Check it out, it's worth the 93 minutes!

A fun look behind the scenes of the real independant film market. The caracters were funny and had great interaction. I enjoyed Art House and anyone who likes comedys will also.

This movie is genius! This movie makes fun of the independent film genre while at the same time ahering to it's guidelines. There are a lot of insider Hollywood jokes, but most people with any pop culture savvy will enjoy the witty barbs. This is the type of film that has some very subtle humor and references that may be missed upon first viewing. The performances are truly inspired - anyone recognize MTV's Chris Hardwick with the pretentious British accent and outlandish outfits? Adam Carolla doesn't disappoint either! This movie is very funny and truly entertaining. It has a great mix of clever dialogue and outright hysterical physical jokes. What it may lack in big budget financing, it more than makes up for with it's intelligent insights and truly memorable characters.

Potentially the most "boring" of Blue Planet subsets, the Seasonal Seas and Coral Seas grouping is, as a TV-produced documentary, one of few elitist, educational fares that not only disdains other attempts at the same ambitions but will, in posterity, probably continue to stand at the impregnable apex of undersea filmography. I'm not dismissing this offering from Blue Planet-----it's simply that, comparably, by the perversely intimidating standards of some of the other offerings in this series, such as 'Coasts'; 'The Deep'; 'Ocean World' and 'Frozen Seas'----this examination of decidedly less rigorous environments (inlets from the ocean and beaches) and decidedly less majestic animals (seadragons and pufferfish) lowers the consistency, but only by a grudging bit.

As always in this series, aggressive proximity of close-up detail is so harsh, it's perverse. For instance, in 'Seasonal Seas' is contained a piece about the elusive salmon shark, which, heretofore, I had never ever heard of, much less seen. This segues into another beneficial aspect of Blue Planet. Complementing its unholy vivid cinematography is the rare find of being exposed to something utterly new and unprecedented, which may have been completely stagnated in the dark of unenlightenment for you. A smaller relative of the Great White (the shark, not the nightclub-fire setting band) that measures 10 feet long, these fish fit well under a "seasonal" heading because every year they return to the same Alaskan inlets to attack salmon, as the producer of this episode described at the end of this show's regular insights into the filming of these episodes.

Or how about another segment, concerning female spawning lobsters which move to warm shallows to look for a place to incubate their eggs in, wherein attention to the minutest detail is so hardened, it's perverse. They followed one particular lobster that, upon it's arrival, discovered that many craters in the sand had already been occupied by rivals. Blue Planet shows the fearsomely overlookable fight between the two, which is more of the smaller lobster yielding to the larger female with her eggs. Not to mention the preceding, yet torturously brief, feature relating to the basking shark. They have such an impressive shot of the fish, with it's mouth wide agape as it just propels itself through the water collecting plankton, almost like a loathsomely colossal sieve. This was after Attenborough had established that the plankton was some of the most microscopic ocean life.

Another curious facet was when they showed California otters surrounded by seaweeds. To sleep, these sea otters use the strands of kelp, coming up from 100 meters beneath them from the ocean's floor, as anchors to wrap around themselves to keep themselves from drifting off with the current. Successively, Blue Planet showed the otters' hunting methods, which consisted of diving down for shellfish, then bringing them back to the surface for consumption while swimming. Additionally, interesting was the sight of dolphin----in early autumn----appearing in B.C. to "play" with seaweed, as the crew caught them. It's doubtful whether this really was a game----one dolphin would carry the seaweed by its mouth or flipper and then desert it for the next dolphin to take, who promptly resumes this----because when animals move, they don't possess any dexterity.

In 'Coral Seas', again citing the grudging let down of the theme of much sadder animals in this pack, it starts off exploring corals, catastrophically predictably. However, what's quite fascinating in this piece is the time-motion camera they use to illustrate the narrator's points concerning coral survival of the fittest. Namely that as coral beds grow atrociously, increasingly near each other, they tend to fight for space by one consuming the other, rival coral, because of overcrowding. They do this at night.

Other aspects are consistently the same warring mix of inferior animals together with the most obscurely witnessed, and probably heretofore, filmed, perversely specific acts of nature. Such as threats to corals, like the crown-of-thorns starfish, that attempts to eat corals live by sucking them outrightly through it's stomach, on it's outside. Blue Planet particularly shows this harshly magnified, as do they the next pertaining scene, where small crabs that inhabit the coral will emerge to defend their home, by pinching the thorns of the starfish, causing it's retreat. Also factually immaterial, yet new to me, was the revelation of parrotfish having jaws so ornery, they'll not only eat coral but also rocks. Parrotfish erode corals, yet surprisingly, they aid in the development of beaches----by defecating this coral and rock they ingest as the fine sand on beaches.

They also cover how nighttime in reefs is supplanted by nocturnal hunters like Moray eels and Whitetip sharks, which hunt using electrical senses. When their prey (fish) are hiding in the dark inside the corals, they use these senses to detect movement of these fish, since Whitetips are impeded visually because of the dark. In another one of this series' closing features where they interview camera people for their techniques, the divers disclosed their methods for shooting the feeding frenzy, once the Whitetips found their prey, occurring in what would be cloudily black water, at night. They created artificial lighting using colossal floodlights connected to a portable generator they took underwater with them, in turn connected to miles of cable going to the surface. The divers confessed they were distraught that their imposing lighting would disrupt the natural occurrence of the Whitetips' feeding, but then explained that the instinct of them was grievously powerful, that they would single-mindedly focus on their kills, and nothing else.

Closing 'Coral Seas' out romantically is talk of turbulent ocean storms. Intimidating footage of the most tumultuous tempests is delivered severely close-up, with the animosity of waves and winds crashing in full fury to highlight the fact that, supposedly, in just such chaos, coral reefs hundreds of years old can be wiped out in hours. Contrastingly, out of such devastation emerge new coral larvae to re-colonize the ruined landscape where the storm just hit.

Just like I said, out of our usual world. Is it really like that under the water. The Blue Planet team not just filmed it, but brought it to life for all those of us who don't spend their lives under the sea. Excellent script, perfect photography, flawless sound mixing, magical music. A multiple thumbs up.

The photography was the best I've seen,the story line was highly interesting and informative,I was awed by the ability of the film crews to capture scenes that must rarely occur...one of the best series I have ever seen

This really is a good set, since every movie in it had great success during the eighties. I shopped for individual titles and they are all still available at around fifteen dollars each, so if you pick up the set , you really are getting a great value. Both Grease and Saturday Night Live Fever have sequels that really never reached the same kind of acclaim as the originals, but they are not in this set. Stayin Alive can be bought separately, and Grease 2 is due out in mid June 2003. OK here was my problem with this set, the Dance PACK? With three of the five movies running with Travolta as the star, it would seem more of a Travolta pack. How about dropping the Grease and including Dirty Dancing (oops different company, that's why, my bad, sorry Paramount)? While Footloose, Flashdance, and Saturday Night Live, really do capture dancing aspects of American culture, Urban Cowboy and Grease gives us a Travolta marathon while a drama and musical begin to stretch the dance envelope. Hehe, oh well, small complaint, but they are all great movies. Anyway more importantly, I think all the movies are Widescreen, and here is a synopsis.

Includes: "Saturday Night Fever" (1977, 118 min) - Gradually, Tony becomes disillusioned with the life he is leading and he and Stephanie decide to help one another to start afresh. "Grease" (1978, 110 min.) - The quintessential hit movie musical about the fabulous '50s. "Flashdance" (1983, 94 min.) - Alex Owens is a female dynamo: steel worker by day, exotic dancer by night. "Footloose" (1984, 107 min.) - A big city kid learns that his town has outlawed dancing, he sets out to correct what he sees as unjust. "Urban Cowboy" (1984, 134 min.) - A country boy moves to the city, and meets and marries a cowgirl. When she allegedly meets with a con man who teaches her to ride the mechanical bull, the country boys signs up for a bull-riding contest in hopes of winning her back. (5 disc)

Cualquiera de las películas que incluye este paquete valdría la pena por el precio pagado por todas juntas. Especialmente Fiebre de Sábado por la Noche resulta espectacular, totalmente remasterizada y con un sonido que te hará revivir esas épocas en que peinabas tu cabello con pistola para el pelo y salías a la calle a "ligar" creyéndote TONY, desempolva tu antiguo traje de Poliester y tus zapatos en dos tonos y muévete al ritomo del "Disco".

I have been looking for 4 of the 5. 1 extra is great. The stars are great and I really enjoy all the muscials. I actually ordered 3 of them before but now I will give them to my daughter for XMAS and I will keep the 5 pack. What more can I say?
Awesome choices.

I purchased this collection and all of the movies are terrific. They are well acted, beautifully portrayed, and the transfer to DVD in most cases is very good. One drawback is that only Pride & Predjudice comes in Widescreen, however. All of the other films are in Full Screen. There are not a lot of extras included with this set, save a few documentaries, but the movies themselves are so well done and enjoyable to watch that the set is very much worth having. If you enjoy grand period films of classic literature, then you will probably very much enjoy this excellent collection of A&E films. I especially enjoyed Pride & Predjudice, Lorna Doone,and Tom Jones.

Loved them all ... found Victoria & Albert and Lorna Doone a bit lacking. Wondered about having more of The Scarlet Pimpernel offered - he's so smooth! Tom Jones is very special - loved Sophie's father, he truly made the film. As much as I liked him - hated Lizzie's mother in P & P - what a ninny! This is a great collection, would have liked to see Vanity Fair and Persuasion offered also!

Pride and Prejudice makes it worth it... The ability to watch and rewatch Colin Firth on DVD; simply wonderful... Lorna Doone is an extremely good story... Victoria and Albert was great... However, Tom Jones isn't the best and if you are used to Jeremy Northam in Emma, then it is a bit hard to watch. Jane Eyre is very well done too. Looking forward to finding the time to watch the rest!!! This collection is great for long weekends or when you are sick. Well worth it.

What a nice jewel in the dirt that i've found. Watching late night HBO television and "Final" comes on and simply put, blows me away. Excellent movie, I've always loved everything Denis Leary did but this i would say is some of his best work. Lots of thumbs up to Director/Writer/Producer. Strongly recommended.

It is low budget, and borderline "sci-fi". BUT, it's also got an incredible story, excellent acting and intangible qualities that may make you want to cry in the end. With that said, it's not a chick-flick either (it's just that, I think I'm in love with Hope Davis after seeing this). And Leary totally saved the movie from obscurity for me. He is cast perfectly for this role. I won't tell any details, the less you know the better. Not for everyone, but if you like drama, sci-fi, and don't mind a bit of a slow start, you'll be glad you saw this movie. I can't wait to watch it again.

Leary's, Davis's and Scott's best work, bar none. The screenwriter, Bruce McIntosh, also did a brilliant job. I've seen Leary miscast in so many films that it was wonderful finally seeing him in one that showed all facets of his talent. He should not be in light, frothy romantic comedies, which he's done, and this certainly is not a light, frothy, romantic comedy. I'm not even sure he should be in gangster films and I've seen him in several of those (ok at best). He and Hope Davis are great together here and come together better as a couple than he has come together with any other actress in a film. I've seen him in romance vehicles with other actresses, like Sandra Bullock, that were just dismal. He needs to do biting satire like he did in "The Ref" or outright layered, nuanced drama, like he does here. (I also loved his standup comedy act.) Leary's character, Bill, wakes up from a coma in a psychiatric hospital with delusions that he is about to be executed by some futuristic society which has unfrozen him from the past. However, under Hope Davis's care as Ann, his psychiatrist, he starts remembering trauma from his pre-coma life, including the death of his father, a break up with his fiance, and a drunken binge while driving. He starts to recover from his mental breakdown yet his delusions don't entirely disappear, surprisingly enough. Or are they delusions? Great blues music throughout. I'd heard nothing about this film and tried it out simply based on what I read on the box and Leary's, Scott's and Davis's involvement. I wasn't expecting a perfect 10 of a film but I sure got it! Hubby absolutely loved it too.

I consider myself an intermediate to advanced exerciser and have been doing The Firm for a few months now and LOVE THIS. I borrowed the BBS 2 from a friend but from the 3 workouts, this was my fave so I bought it separately. It really is the classic combination of aerobics then weights then aerobics which is what I look for. I loved the kickboxing moves and the slightly different use of the fanny lifter with legs out to the side - a nice twist on the typical up down move. I was sweating within the first 10 mins, getting a thorough workout. A fantastic ab section too. Definitely one of my favourites.

I have been using the firm for 2 years and this is the absolute best video they have made. Emily makes the video fun and easy to follow. She switches from weights to cardio a few times and then to the arms and abs. It is a great one hour workout and I recommend this video to people who need that extra visible result they have been looking for, this one covers all the bases. Don't forget to purchase your firm fanny lifter and sculpting stick, you need 3, 5 and 8 pound dumb bells. The firm by far is a great program for me and I hope that you give any firm video a try because it's great for your heart and their cardio routines are fun, the fanny lifter makes you work your thighs and butt it's really a great system I actually recommend the whole program, hoping that it will work for you.

This is a great workout! Never boring and very thorough. It's tough enough but not so much that I can't complete it. Emily's enthusiasm is infectious.

In 1995s FRIDAY Craig (Ice Cube), and Smokey (Chris Tucker),Two pot heads who get into a lot of trouble because Smokey is supposed to sell bully Big Worms (Faizon Love)weed,while Craig is dealing with another bully named Deebo(Tommy "tiny" Lister).In 2000s NEXT FRIDAY,Craig moves to the suberbs with his cousin Day Day(Mike Epps),and his Uncle Elroy(Don "DC" Curry) to hide from Deebo,who he ends up getting in another fight with,also with 3 guys called the joker brothers,who end up going to prison with Deebo. And than around Christmas 2002,he introduced the world to FRIDAY AFTER NEXT,where Craig,and Day Day,get robbed by "Santa Claus",who they get in a fight with at the end. They also get jobs at a mall as Christmas top flight unarmed security guards,and end up getting fired,this movie introduces a new bully named Damon and a small pimp named Money Mike(Katt Williams)and his girlfriend Donna(KD Aubert),and Elroy,and Willie(Craigs Dad)(John Witherspoon)have thier own BBQ chicken and ribs reastraunt. Get theese three movies now.
You definetly wont be dissapointed with these 5 star hit movies.

it's a great day for da hood. i loved all three of em but unfortunately only own friday.

These movies are excellent. Classics in the eyes of some people. Friday was more serious than the other 2, but it was still a hilarious movie. Next Friday changed things up a little bit and took Craig into the suberbs to live with his cousin Day-Day. This one introduced Mike Epps, instead of Chris Tucker, but it was still a great movie. Then in Friday After Next, Craig and Day-Day get their own place in the hood. It was a very funny movie no matter what the critics say. These 3 movies are definetely worth the buy, especially the DVD's. I have all 3, and they have some very interesting extras, as well as superb audio and video quality. Get this collection! You won't be disappointed

All 36 B&W episodes of the amazing series on on dvd boxset, althoguh I would like more info (cover artwork, features, etc.)

Finally, The First Season of Gilligan's Island on DVD.
There has been no report as to whether it will be colorized or not yet. We'll see...

Gilligan's Island is without a doubt one of the most recognizable classic television shows. Gilligan's island helped paved the way for many of todays great sitcoms. With the popularity of putting television shows on TV it is no wonder that Gilligan is going to be digitized. At the time of this review the DVD has not yet been released but I will give my input on the show. The first season of Gilligan's Island was in black and white. Later seasons are in color. The first season's theme song is slightly different because it never mentions Russel Johnson (The Proffessor) or Mary Ann. Gilligan's island today is still one of the most syndicated show in reruns and I will be glad to own a piece of television history. I am really hoping that the studio releasing this DVD will be kind enough to add some Bonus Features. Maybe show the E! True Hollywood story or Commentaries with the remaining cast members.