Director:
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Image Entertainment   Theatrical: 1999   Rated:
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: Tastefully designed for both beginning and advanced home-theater enthusiasts, the "AVIA Guide to Home Theater" is a terrific gateway to system set-up and integration--perfect for either planning or upgrading your home-entertainment system. "AVIA", which was written by David Ranada of "Stereo Review's Sound & Vision", takes full advantage of the nonlinear DVD-Video format. It lays out simply and clearly the basics of home theater: source components, video setup, and audio setup. Its seven chapters range in topics from home-theater components to viewing environments to system tools, and the disc features a host of professional-quality test signals for complete system calibration. Handy "hot buttons" give more depth on a range of subjects for those who want it. The disc gives insufficient weight to the importance of audio cable (and it recommends optical digital connections over the better-sounding coaxial type), but by and large "AVIA" is a trustworthy and extremely informative presentation. "--Michael Mikesell"

Director: Mark Birnbaum and Jim Schermbeck
Starring: Tom DeLay; Ronnie Earle
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Brave New Films   Theatrical:   Rated:
Languages (Country): ()
Summary: "By the time we finish this poker game, there may not be a federal government left! Which would suit me just fine." -Tom DeLay, 1994
In a stunning 1994 interview, shortly after the now infamous Republican revolution, Tom DeLay sat down and laid out his vision for America: to destroy the Department of Education, HUD, OSHA, the NEH, the NEA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. His self-stated goal was to "completely redesign government."
The Big Buy: Tom DeLay's Stolen Congress is the story of how he did just that. It's the story of one of the most blatant power grabs in American history, and how a District Attorney in Texas turned out to be the biggest threat to the national DeLay Machine. The film is a warning about how easy it is for American democracy to be hijacked by a combination of relentless ambition and corporate millions. It makes the case that DeLay built a "custom-made Congress" that is still providing votes for his agenda.

Director: Michael Moore
Starring: Michael Caldwell, Dick Cheney, Dick Clark, Bill Clinton, Byron Dorgan
Genre: Documentary
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)   Theatrical: 2002   Rated: R
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: Michael Moore's superb documentary (following in the footsteps of "Roger & Me" and "The Big One") tackles a meaty subject: gun control. Moore skillfully lays out arguments surrounding the issue and short-circuits them all, leaving one impossible question: why do Americans kill each other more often than people in any other democratic nation? Moore focuses his quest around the shootings at Columbine High School and the shooting of one 6-year-old by another near his own hometown of Flint, Michigan. By approaching the headquarters of K-Mart (where the Columbine shooters bought their ammo) and going to Charlton Heston's own home, Moore demands accountability from the forces that support unrestricted gun sales in the U.S. His arguments are conducted with the humor and empathy that have made Moore more than just a gadfly; he's become a genuine voice of reason in a world driven by fear and greed. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Alex Gibney
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Magnolia   Theatrical: 2005   Rated: NR
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: One of the greatest scandals in American corporate history is chronicled in the riveting documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". Based on the bestselling book by "Fortune" magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin, and directed by Alex Gibney (who also produced "The Trials of Henry Kissinger"), the film is an epic morality tale, drawing upon a wealth of insider interviews and archival material to show how Enron, once the nation's seventh largest corporate entity, essentially faked its bookkeeping to report profits that never existed. The corrupt and closely-guarded mismanagement by Enron executives (including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, later placed on criminal trial) is revealed through such heinous concepts as "Hypothetical Future Value" (a way of reaping fortunes based on false profit projections) and the use of offshore "shell" companies to hide the massive losses that eventually toppled the company (along with the venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm) and left 20,000 employees jobless. As a maddening portrait of hubris and white-collar crime, "Enron" transcends political and corporate boundaries by showing how smart and powerful men grew blinded by greed and brought ruin upon themselves, along with thousands of otherwise innocent victims. For better and worse, it's a perfect double-feature with eye-opening 2004 documentary "The Corporation". "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: S.R. Bindler
Starring: Paul Prince (II), Raul Martinez, Greg Cox (II), Brent Baskin, Blake Long
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Ideal   Theatrical: 1998   Rated: PG
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: How far would you go for a brand-new, fully loaded pickup truck? Would you go as far as the 23 contestants in "Hands on a Hard Body", who entered a contest in which the last one standing with his or her hand on the car drove off with it?
S.R. Bindler documents the contest that takes place each year at a Nissan dealership in Longview, Texas. And what a contest it is. Twenty-three names are drawn at random and these lucky folks get the opportunity to participate. The rules are simple: one hand must remain on the truck at all times; no leaning or squatting allowed; if the hand is raised even momentarily, the contestant is out. One 5-minute break is permitted every hour, and one 15-minute break every 6 hours. The last three survivors--excuse us, contestants--must be tested for drugs. The results are hilarious. The gloves irritate hands (sweat could ruin the truck's finish), legs go numb, people get on each other's nerves. Strategy is involved, cheaters are accused, competition is fierce. "It's a contest, they say, of stamina, but it's who can maintain their sanity the longest," we're told by 1992 winner Benny Perkins, who competes once again. This offbeat film shows the quirkier side of human nature while providing a thoroughly entertaining watch. Each contestant represents something, but which will win out: desperation (a woman tired of riding her bike everywhere but who can't afford car payments), determination (a toothless woman who "tr[ies] to finish everything I start"), God (a woman's church holds a prayer chain for her as she communes with Jesus by the truck), endurance (a former Marine who once stayed awake for five days), or experience (Perkins is sure he knows all the tricks)? Who finally makes it through the 78-hour ordeal? You'll have to watch this comical film to find out. "--Jenny Brown"

Director: Robert Greenwald
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Brave New Films   Theatrical:   Rated:
Languages (Country): ()
Summary: Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers is the story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war.
Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed, and Uncovered) takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

Director: Luc Jacquet
Starring: Morgan Freeman, Charles Berling, Romane Bohringer, Jules Sitruk, Amitabh Bachchan
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Warner Home Video   Theatrical: 2005   Rated: G
Languages (Country): English, French, Spanish ()
Summary: "March of the Penguins" instantly qualifies as a wildlife classic, taking its place among other extraordinary films like "Microcosmos" and "Winged Migration". French filmmaker Luc Jacquet and his devoted crew endured a full year of extreme conditions in Antarctica to capture the life cycle of Emperor penguins on film, and their diligence is evident in every striking frame of this 80-minute documentary. Narrated in soothing tones by Morgan Freeman, the film focuses on a colony of hundreds of Emperors as they return, in a single-file march of 70 miles or more, to their frozen breeding ground, far inland from the oceans where they thrive. At times dramatic, suspenseful, mischievous and just plain funny, the film conveys the intensity of the penguins' breeding cycle, and their treacherous task of protecting eggs and hatchlings in temperatures as low as 128 degrees below zero. There is some brief mating-ritual violence and sad moments of loss, but "March of the Penguins" remains family-friendly throughout, and kids especially will enjoy the Antarctic blue-ice vistas and the playful, waddling appeal of the penguins, who can be slapstick clumsy or magnificently graceful, depending on the circumstances. A marvel of wildlife cinematography, this unique film offers a front-row seat to these amazing creatures, balancing just enough scientific information with the entertaining visuals. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Robert Greenwald
Starring: Linda Vester, Steve Doocy, Alan Colmes, Peter Jennings, Eric Alterman
Genre: Documentary
Studio: The Disinformation Company   Theatrical: 2004   Rated: Unrated
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: "Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism" uses the inflammatory tactics of the Fox News Channel to demonstrate the conservative bias that's handed down by Fox's owner, media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The documentary gathers interviews from media watchdogs and former Fox employees (including a former anchor, Jon Du Pre, who describes his flailing efforts to create a celebration for Reagan's birthday when the one he was sent to cover never materialized), but their overwhelming condemnation of Fox's skewed news practices isn't half as effective as footage taken directly from Fox itself--an appalling montage of pundit Bill O'Reilly telling guests to shut up; repeated efforts to paint Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry as weak and waffling, while President Bush is captured in respectful, reverent images; and management memos dictating language, subject matter, and point of view. "Outfoxed" is unlikely to persuade Fox News fans to change their views, but it may spur outraged liberals to take action. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Simon Schama
Starring:
Genre: Documentary
Studio: 2 Entertain Video   Theatrical: 2000   Rated: Exempt
Languages (Country): English ()
Summary: Stretching from the Stone Age to the year 2000, Simon Schama's "Complete History of Britain" does not pretend to be a definitive chronicle of the turbulent events which buffeted and shaped the British Isles. What Schama does do, however, is tell the story in vivid and gripping narrative terms, free of the fustiness of traditional academe, personalising key historical events by examining the major characters at the centre of them. Not all historians would approve of the history depicted here as shaped principally by the actions of great men and women rather than by more abstract developments, but Schama's way of telling it is a good deal more enthralling as a result.
Schama successfully gives lie to the idea that the history of Britain has been moderate and temperate, passing down the generations as stately as a galleon, taking on board sensible ideas but steering clear of sillier, revolutionary ones. Nonsense. Schama retells British history the way it was--as bloody, convulsive, precarious, hot-blooded and several times within an inch of haring off onto an entirely different course. Schama seems almost to delight in the goriness of history. Themes returned to repeatedly include the wars between the Scots and the Irish and the Catholic/Protestant conflicts--only the Irish question remains unresolved by the new millennium. As Britain becomes a constitutional monarchy, Schama talks less of Kings and Queens but of poets and idea-makers like Orwell. Still, with his pungent, direct manner and against an evocative visual and aural backdrop, Schama makes history seem as though it happened yesterday, the bloodstains not yet dry.
On the DVD: "The Complete History of Britain" extras are generously packaged on a separate disc and include the original score and a Simon Schama biography. There's an interesting "promotional message" to camera in which Schama explains the role of a cab driver, Wally, in inspiring the series, along with an interview with Mark Lawson in which Schama stresses the deliberate subjectivity of these programmes and an inaugural BBC History lecture in which he defends TV's ability to transpose history to camera. --"David Stubbs"

Director: Jeffrey Blitz
Starring: Angela Arenivar, Ubaldo Arenivar, Jorge Arenivar, Mr. Scott McGarraugh, Mrs. Lindy McGarraugh
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Sony Pictures   Theatrical: 2002   Rated: G
Languages (Country): English, French ()
Summary: Who would have thought that a documentary about spelling-bee contestants could be as suspenseful as a Hitchcock thriller? "Spellbound", which follows eight kids from their early victories in regional spelling bees to the national competition in Washington, D.C., is an out-and-out nail-biter. Each of the kids--who range from a quietly driven African American girl from a run-down D.C. neighborhood, to a genial Connecticut girl who talks about bringing her "au pair" to a previous competition, to an almost zombie-like boy whose immigrant father has paid 1,000 people back in India to pray for the boy's success--gets captured so vividly that you can't help but get emotionally immersed in their brave, nerve-wracking struggle to spell slippery, treacherous words. Along the way, "Spellbound" contrasts the crazily different populations that make up the U.S. and shows how this facet of intelligence truly makes everyone equal on the podium. A riveting, wrenching, must-see movie. "--Bret Fetzer"