About this product: Winner of the 2007 Tony Award! Sweeping all the major theater awards for Best Revival of a Musical, a beloved era-defining classic is stunningly reinvented in this powerful Broadway production, featuring an explosive starring performance by Raul Esparza. Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, Company is a funny, sophisticated exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends. With a wise and witty Stephen Sondheim score including "Another Hundred People," "Side by Side by Side," "The Ladies Who Lunch" and "Being Alive," Company offers musical comedy at its finest.
About this product: Winner of the 2007 Tony Award®!
Sweeping all the major theater awards for Best Revival of a Musical, this beloved Stephen Sondheim-George Furth classic is more relevant today than ever before. Far ahead of its time with its unconventional look at love and commitment in modern Manhattan, Company is an honest, funny and sophisticated portrayal of the pros and cons of marriage as seen through a 35-year-old confirmed bachelor and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends. With a wise and witty score including "Another Hundred People," "Side by Side by Side," "The Ladies Who Lunch" and "Being Alive," this Broadway production of Company offers musical comedy at its finest.
About this product: While a proposed series of original cast recording sessions for documentary filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back) never materialized, Original Cast Album: Company survives as the first and only entry, and it was fortuitous that its subject was the 1970 musical Company. Groundbreaking in its use of a series of vignettes rather than a conventional plot, it was also one of the earliest major works for composer-lyricist Stephen Sondheim, the most important figure in musical theater over the last quarter-century. Unlike films, theater productions rarely have a permanent record, so a musical is preserved for posterity by the cast recording. This puts all the pressure on the recording session, as cast member Susan Browning explains during the recording of "You Could Drive a Person Crazy": a live performance can be imperfect, but "this is different. This is the definitive, it's the end-all and the be-all of this song, and... God, that could drive a person crazy!"
For this film, Pennebaker and his crew took three hand-held cameras into the studio and filmed the singers, the orchestra, and the control booth, then condensed the 18.5-hour recording session into a fast-moving 60 minutes. You can see the intensity and sheer enjoyment on the faces of the cast, and record producer Thomas Z. Shepard, show producer-director Harold Prince (both frequent Sondheim collaborators), and Sondheim (a notorious perfectionist) become alternately exhilarated and exasperated as they listen and try to solve various problems. Other interesting moments include an emphasis on the orchestra rather than the lead vocal in "Another Hundred People," and Elaine Stritch's exhausting take after take of "The Ladies Who Lunch." This is a rare look at an important moment in Broadway history, and obviously, it's highly recommended for Broadway fans. --David Horiuchi
Handsomely mounted, epic in scope, and featuring an outstanding cast, TNT's The Company might restore some much-needed luster to the image of the Central Intelligence Agency (then again, perhaps not). Based on Robert Littell's popular historical novel of the same name, the show commingles real and invented characters as it traces the CIA's role in several major events, from the earliest days of the Cold War through the collapse of the Soviet Union, with particular attention given to the division of Berlin into East and West in the 1950s, the anti-Communist uprising in mid-'50s Hungary, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation in the early '60s.
The first of the miniseries' three parts introduces us to Yale graduates Jack McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), Leo Kritzky (Alessandro Nivola), and Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane); the first two are recruited by the CIA, but the Russian-born Tsipin sides with the KGB. The initial focus is on the CIA's efforts to find a Soviet mole who's been interfering with the agency's work and putting many American lives at risk. Working with mentor Harvey "The Sorcerer" Torriti (Alfred Molina), who calls him "Sport" and delights in pointing out that such matters are nothing less than a life-and-death struggle between good and evil and right and wrong, McAuliffe skulks around Berlin, where his principal informant and soon-to-be love interest is a lovely young ballerina (Alexandra Maria Lara) with a few secrets of her own. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the colorfully-named CIA counter-intelligence expert James Jesus Angleton (a real guy portrayed with low-key intensity by Michael Keaton) slowly realizes that the mole in question is one of his old pals. And it doesn't stop there. Turns out there's another double agent (codename "Sasha") working for the Reds; this one's deeply embedded in the CIA, and Angleton, a chain-smoking obsessive whose behavior becomes increasingly cold and peculiar, devotes years (and most of the series' third installment) to outing him. The process by which he does just that, culminating in some fairly excruciating interrogation scenes, provides The Company's best moments--especially because we don't know until the very end whether Angleton has fingered the actual Sasha or not.
Viewers unfamiliar with the CIA's history and methods aren’t likely to be very encouraged by what's depicted here--especially in the second part, in which the agency's misadventures in Hungary and Cuba reveal it (as well as the U.S. government overall) to be not merely ineffective but disastrously inept, as well as shockingly callous and hypocritical when it comes to lending material support to the causes it claims to espouse. Still, the series does a good job with many of the elements common to such fare (Robert De Niro's 2006 film The Good Shepherd covers some of the same ground). Codes are written and deciphered. Secrets are kept… and revealed. Shots are fired, and some of them connect. People die, good and bad alike. And even if some of the scenes are a bit overheated and melodramatic, all in all, The Company (which was written by Ken Nolan, directed by Mikael Salomon, and produced by John Calley and Ridley and Tony Scott) is smart and entertaining. And some of it's even true. --Sam Graham
Stills from The Company (click for larger image)
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Amazon.com DVD editors listmania: The CIA on Film and TV
About this product: An elegant portrait of artists in the act of creation, The Company is also a ballet lover's dream come true. While this intimate study of the onstage and backstage world of dance may appeal to a limited audience with its casually plotless structure, it's still a unique, accomplished film by one of the greatest American directors. As critic Roger Ebert observed, Robert Altman's film is also an autobiographical reflection of Altman's working methods, in which an ensemble (in this case, Neve Campbell and the dancers of Chicago's celebrated Joffrey Ballet Company) is casually choreographed in an atmosphere of spontaneity that's both dramatically charged and effortlessly authentic. A classically trained dancer, Campbell also coproduced the film, and stars with James Franco (as her easygoing boyfriend) and Malcolm McDowell as the Joffrey's delightfully diva-like artistic director. Featuring stellar performances of the Joffrey's best-known dances, this soothing, hypnotic film is devoid of conventional dialogue, and yet Barbara Turner's screenplay provides a precise roadmap for Altman's masterful choreography of dance, music, and human interaction. --Jeff Shannon
About this product: Starring: AJAY DEVGAN, VIVEK OBEROI, MANISHA KOIRALA, ANTRA MALI
Synopsis: A man gets a profitable idea. He puts it in motion. It picks up speed. Other men join in. And a Company is born. It employs people, conducts business and makes profits. And sometimes, it gets to be so good at its business that it becomes bigger than the men who formed it, bigger than the business itself. So big, that it starts threatening its own existence. This is a story of one such Company. Its business is crime. A Company which you can join anytime, but never leave. A Company that knows no borders and recognizes no taxes. A Company that uses countries as offices and distances as protection. Where managers are trained to use the most effective management technique ever fear. Where switching jobs can mean switching worlds. Where the only rule is profit. And the only enemy is the man who breaks it.Welcome to the Company that will make the corporate world look like a bunch of innocent kids playing cricket on a Sunday. Company is the now touching, now intimidating, now moving saga of the rise and fall of a criminal empire, and the lives of the men and women who ran it.
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About this product: Handsomely mounted, epic in scope, and featuring an outstanding cast, TNT's The Company might restore some much-needed luster to the image of the Central Intelligence Agency (then again, perhaps not). Based on Robert Littell's popular historical novel of the same name, the show commingles real and invented characters as it traces the CIA's role in several major events, from the earliest days of the Cold War through the collapse of the Soviet Union, with particular attention given to the division of Berlin into East and West in the 1950s, the anti-Communist uprising in mid-'50s Hungary, and the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation in the early '60s.
The first of the miniseries' three parts introduces us to Yale graduates Jack McAuliffe (Chris O'Donnell), Leo Kritzky (Alessandro Nivola), and Yevgeny Tsipin (Rory Cochrane); the first two are recruited by the CIA, but the Russian-born Tsipin sides with the KGB. The initial focus is on the CIA's efforts to find a Soviet mole who's been interfering with the agency's work and putting many American lives at risk. Working with mentor Harvey "The Sorcerer" Torriti (Alfred Molina), who calls him "Sport" and delights in pointing out that such matters are nothing less than a life-and-death struggle between good and evil and right and wrong, McAuliffe skulks around Berlin, where his principal informant and soon-to-be love interest is a lovely young ballerina (Alexandra Maria Lara) with a few secrets of her own. Meanwhile, back in Washington, the colorfully-named CIA counter-intelligence expert James Jesus Angleton (a real guy portrayed with low-key intensity by Michael Keaton) slowly realizes that the mole in question is one of his old pals. And it doesn't stop there. Turns out there's another double agent (codename "Sasha") working for the Reds; this one's deeply embedded in the CIA, and Angleton, a chain-smoking obsessive whose behavior becomes increasingly cold and peculiar, devotes years (and most of the series' third installment) to outing him. The process by which he does just that, culminating in some fairly excruciating interrogation scenes, provides The Company's best moments--especially because we don't know until the very end whether Angleton has fingered the actual Sasha or not.
Viewers unfamiliar with the CIA's history and methods aren’t likely to be very encouraged by what's depicted here--especially in the second part, in which the agency's misadventures in Hungary and Cuba reveal it (as well as the U.S. government overall) to be not merely ineffective but disastrously inept, as well as shockingly callous and hypocritical when it comes to lending material support to the causes it claims to espouse. Still, the series does a good job with many of the elements common to such fare (Robert De Niro's 2006 film The Good Shepherd covers some of the same ground). Codes are written and deciphered. Secrets are kept… and revealed. Shots are fired, and some of them connect. People die, good and bad alike. And even if some of the scenes are a bit overheated and melodramatic, all in all, The Company (which was written by Ken Nolan, directed by Mikael Salomon, and produced by John Calley and Ridley and Tony Scott) is smart and entertaining. And some of it's even true. --Sam Graham
About this product: Stephen Sondheim's landmark 1984 musical Sunday in the Park with George is a fictional representation of maverick French Impressionist painter Georges Seurat's efforts to create his masterpiece, Sunday Afternoon on the Isle of La Grande Jatte. Seurat, played by Mandy Patinkin, is obsessed with his work, to the frustration of his mistress, Dot (Bernadette Peters). Along the way, we meet many other characters--whoever happens to be in the park that Sunday--who eventually become part of the canvas.
Act 2 fast-forwards 100 years. Patinkin now plays Seurat's great-grandson, George, himself a frustrated artist. (Peters plays his grandmother--Seurat and Dot's daughter.) In the score's best-known song, "Putting It Together," George (and Sondheim himself) explains the hazards of trying to create art while also confronting the reality of having to pay for it. In a search for inspiration, George travels to the original island where Seurat created the painting. As with Sondheim and cocreator James Lapine's next collaboration, Into the Woods, Sunday is often criticized for redirecting its focus in the second act instead of letting the first act stand by itself as a complete work. The second act, however, is the emotional core of the show, as George confronts all the feelings his great-grandfather had repressed so many years ago.
Stephen Sondheim's brilliant score is remarkable for its combination of vivid colors (listen to his dots of sound that represent Seurat's pointillistic style of painting), character pieces, and sheer beauty. The cast is terrific, and the show, aced out of most of the 1984 Tony Awards by La Cage aux Folles, won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
Recorded before a live audience, Sunday is especially entertaining on video, as the staging elements bring out the full humor and inventiveness of the show, and it is astonishing to see the disparate characters form themselves into the elements of the familiar painting. So many great musicals are banished to the memories of those who attended live or--even worse--immortalized as inferior movies. Sunday in the Park with George is an absolute must-see for anyone interested in musical theatre, and a must-own for anyone with a passion for it. The DVD includes an audio track with commentary by Sondheim, Lapine, Patinkin, and Peters. --David Horiuchi
About this product: Experience a magical adventure, filled with friendship, fun and "paws-itively" cool music in the new 20th Anniversary Edition DVD of Walt Disney's Oliver and Company -- featuring tail-wagging bonus and new digital mastering! Oliver, a feisty young cat, explores New York in this thrilling animated classic cleverly based on Charles Dickens' timeless story, Oliver Twist -- featuring unforgettable songs performed by musical greats Billy Joel, Huey Lewis and Bette Midler! Joined by a pack of hilarious characters -- dogs Dodger, Tito and their pals -- Oliver knows he's found a lifelong friend and a real home. The new 20th Anniversary Edition includes the all-new Oliver's Big City Challenge Game, the Academy Award(R)-winning animated short "Lend A Paw" (1941, Short Subject, Cartoon) and much more! Hightail it to your home theater for a fun and exciting movie-watching experience your family will enjoy again and again!
About this product: The DVD release of Three's Company's first season should be a cause for celebration for fans of the wildly popular sitcom; it arrives, however, just two months after the September 2003 death of star John Ritter, and so the DVD serves as a memorial to his comic talents as well as a long-awaited collectible. Launched on a six-episode trial run in the spring of 1977, Three's Company's first season immediately won over viewers with its racy scenario--a single man (Ritter) moves in with two single women (Joyce DeWitt and Suzanne Somers) and avoids the wrath of his landlords (Norman Fell and Audra Lindley) by pretending to be gay--and double entrendre-laden gags. Regardless of whether you think it was one of TV's funniest or most puerile series, Three's Company did bring Ritter to deserved stardom and gave choice roles to veteran scene-stealers Fell and Lindley (later replaced by Don Knotts), and therefore deserves its place in television history. Anchor Bay's DVD includes unedited versions of all six episodes, as well as a featurette on Ritter. --Paul Gaita
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