SwapaDVD Recently Posted DVDs

Super Size Me

2009-11-23T19:48:29-05:00

First-time director Morgan Spurlock takes a look at the subject of obesity in the United States, specifically zeroing in on the business and culture surrounding the nation's fast-food industry in this 2004 documentary. In addition to studying the marketing of fast food to American children and unsuccessfully attempting to gain an interview with McDonald's executives, Spurlock attempts to become one of his own subjects by documenting a one-month binge during which he survived only on items from the McDonald's menu, forcing himself to eat three meals a day and try every offering at least once. Super Size Me premiered at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Fahrenhype 911

2009-11-23T14:11:51-05:00

Wildest Street Brawls Vol 3

2009-11-23T13:53:00-05:00

Get as close to a street fight as you're likely to come without catching a stray punch in this release from Fall Through Entertainment that brings the violence of the brawl into your living room without the painful bruises and black-eyes. From gang-fights to cat-fights to an unbelievable confrontation in a church parking lot, this shocking footage is uncut, unedited, and completely out of control. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Sacred Planet

2009-11-22T23:26:24-05:00

Directed by Jon Long, this 45-minute IMAX production travels across the globe not only in an attempt to instill a proper sense of awe, but also to encourage the preservation of the environment as a whole. Among the locations highlighted are the mountains of Vancouver, New Zealand's white sand beaches, the deserts of Namibia, the canyons of Arizona and Utah, and the Alaskan wilderness. In addition to the landscapes, animals and people indigenous to the areas are highlighted in an effort to showcase the ecological and biological diversity of the planet. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Super Size Me

2009-11-22T19:09:43-05:00

Bowling for Columbine

2009-11-22T18:09:53-05:00

Filmmaker, author, and political activist Michael Moore trains his satirical eye on America's obsession with guns and violence in his third feature-length documentary, which gets its title from a pair of loosely related incidents. On April 20, 1999, shortly before they began their infamous killing spree at Columbine High School in Littleton, CO, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold attended their favorite class, a no-credit bowling course held at a bowling alley near the school, the same bowling alley which would become the scene of a robbery and triple homicide two years later. While pondering these events, Moore humorously considers the link between random violence and the game of ten pins; along the way, Moore calls on the Michigan Militia (and gets to know some of the models for their "Militia Babes" calendar); spends some time with James Nichols, brother of Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols; visits K-Mart's corporate offices with two teenagers injured in the Columbine massacre as they ask the retail chain to stop selling bullets for handguns; investigates the media's role in the American climate of fear and anger; compares crime statistics in the United States with those of Canada (which, despite higher unemployment and a larger number of guns per capita, manages to rack up a small fraction of the homicides committed in the United States), and questions actor and National Rifle Association president Charlton Heston regarding his appearance at a pro-gun rally held in Littleton a few days after the Columbine massacre, and a similar rally in Flint, MI, after a six-year-old boy killed a classmate with a gun he took from his uncle's house. Bowling for Columbine received its first public screening at the 2002 Ann Arbor Film Festival; the film's official premiere took place a few months later at the Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

My Date with Drew Special Edition

2009-11-22T17:59:15-05:00

For years, Brian Herzlinger has had a crush on a pretty girl. There's nothing so strange about that, or even that the girl in question is the famous actress Drew Barrymore. What is unusual is that Herzlinger decided to do something about it. Herzlinger was flat broke and out of work when he won 1,100 dollars on a game show, and decided it was time to make his dream come true -- and make a movie about it at the same time. Herzlinger and a friend bought a high-end video camera at an electronics store with a 30-day, "no questions asked" return policy, and with his 1,100-dollar bankroll, they set out to find a way to meet Drew Barrymore and have Brian take her out on a date before they ran out of cash and had to return the camera. My Date With Drew is the document of Herzlinger's struggle to live out a regular guy's dream. My Date With Drew won the Audience Award at the 2004 HBO Comedy Arts Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The Aristocrats

2009-11-21T19:20:51-05:00

"A family walks into a talent agent's office..." So begins "The Aristocrats," a joke kept mostly secret by stand-up comedians for decades. An intentionally "bad" joke, the laughs in The Aristocrats aren't in the punch-line (one of the only elements that's the same every time), but in the set-up, made unique by each comedian who tells it in an attempt to fashion the world's dirtiest joke. The cat was finally let out of the bag by Penn Jillette and Paul Provenza, the seasoned funnymen who gathered together a hundred people to tell a hundred different renditions of the bit. Among those presenting their personal take on The Aristocrats in this film of the same name are Jason Alexander, Robin Williams, Gilbert Gottfried, Jon Stewart, Emo Philips, and Chris Rock. The Aristocrats premiered at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Nobelity

2009-11-21T14:11:02-05:00

Filmmaker Turk Pipkin sets out on a global journey to probe the minds of nine Nobel Laureates in this documentary that seeks to find answers to some of the most pressing issues currently facing mankind. Everyone wants the world to be a better place for our children and the future generations that will follow, but how do we work to improve a world where famine, warfare, and strife seem to be more widespread than ever before? Follow Pipkin to the far corners of the globe as he poses this question, and many others concerning the future of our troubled planet to such great minds as Rick Smalley, Steven Weinberg, Dr. Harold Varmus, Desmond Tutu, Sir Joseph Rotblat, Jody Williams, Amartya Sen, and Ahmed Zewail. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The Yes Men

2009-11-21T08:46:01-05:00

Filmmakers Chris Smith and Sarah Price (the production team behind American Movie) direct the bizarre documentary The Yes Men. The film follows Andy and Mike, two regular guys who pretended to be corporate bigwigs in order to expose powerful corporate evil doing and have a bit of fun in the process. In 1999, they created a parody of the World Trade Organization website that mocked the harshest ideas about globalization. However humorous its intent, the website earned them invitations to important business trade meetings around the world. Companies and organizations actually thought they were the real WTO. Andy and Mike played along, impersonating despicable executives in order to publicly humiliate them. The guys refer to their pranks as "identity correction." The Yes Men premiered at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival and was shown as part of a special screening at the2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Mad Hot Ballroom

2009-11-20T14:35:23-05:00

Every year, the New York Public School system sponsors a dance competition for youngsters in fifth grade; in this contest, boys and girls ages 10 and 11 learn traditional ballroom dancing styles such as the fox trot, the rumba, and the tango, and then pit their skills against other students from around the Big Apple. Mad Hot Ballroom is a documentary which offers an inside look at this event, as well as the teachers and students who take part, with a particular emphasis on three schools: P.S. 112, in a Bensonhurst neighborhood dominated by Italian and Asian families; P.S. 150, located in the wealthy and fashionable Tribeca district; and P.S. 115, a Washington Heights school where the vast majority of families live below the poverty line. Filmmaker Marilyn Agrelo follows the young dancers as they gain confidence and skill and grow into "little ladies and gentlemen," as one teacher puts it, while also examining how cultural differences impact the competition for some students and how the boys and girls feel about the opposite sex as they begin to make friends with one another. Mad Hot Ballroom received a wildly enthusiastic world premiere at the 2005 Slamdance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

My Date with Drew Special Edition

2009-11-19T23:37:00-05:00

The Unexplained Hauntings

2009-11-19T23:06:18-05:00

The History Channel talks to a variety of experts specializing in the paranormal in this search for the truth about so-called haunted houses. From New Video, Unexplained: Hauntings offers viewers glimpses of psychics trying to contact the other side as well as alleged photographic evidence for the existence of ghosts. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Control Room

2009-11-19T20:12:00-05:00

Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim (Startup.com) directs Control Room, a documentary investigating the ethics of media-managed wars. This film particularly focuses on the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Noujaim and her film crew travel to the headquarters of Al-Jazeera, the media leader in the Arab world, to find out what the news looks like in Iraq. She interviews several journalists and producers involved in war reporting for Al-Jazeera, including senior producer Sameer Khader, journalist Hassan Ibrahim, and producer Deema Khatib. Noujaim also interviews American correspondents David Shuster from NBC and Tom Mintier from CNN. Control Room premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2004 as part of the American Spectrum program. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Iraq for Sale The War Profiteers

2009-11-19T16:57:02-05:00

Join documentary filmmaker Robert Greenwald (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, Outfoxed) in assessing the damage done to average Americans when corporations decide to wage war. For critics of the current administration, the connection between the war in Iraq and the private corporations who profit from the fighting is plain to see. For those who may not be so easily convinced, however, Greenwald and company not only explore the questionable motivations of the corporate decision-makers whose wartime profiteering has affected the lives of countless soldiers and their families, but also the increasingly negative international reputation of the United States as a result. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide