Yahoo! Movies: New Biopic DVD Releases

Scarface

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:47 -0000

Brian De Palma's blood-and-sun-drenched saga of a Cuban deportee�s rise to the top of Miami's cocaine business has become something of a popular classic since its release; it's been referenced in rap songs and subsequent gangster movies and quoted the world over. Despite this lovefest with the dialogue, the film�s brutal violence and lack of positive characters still make it controversial and disliked by certain critics. Al Pacino stars as Tony Montana, whose intelligence, guts, and ambition help him skyrocket from dishwasher to the top of a criminal empire but whose eventual paranoia and incestuous desire for his kid sister (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio) prove his undoing. Michelle Pfeiffer plays Tony�s neglected coke-addicted trophy wife, and Steven Bauer is his concerned friend. F. Murray Abraham, Robert Loggia, and Paul Shenar are some of Tony�s sleazy business partners and potential killers. Oliver Stone wrote the expletive-packed screenplay, based on Howard Hawks�s 1932 version--which was ostensibly about Al Capone and starred Paul Muni and George Raft. The synth-heavy Giorgio Moroder score expertly evokes the drug-fueled decadence of 1980s Miami, and De Palma provides several of his elaborate set pieces, including a horrific showstopper in a motel room with a chain saw.

RERELEASE: September 19th, 2003 (New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., Detroit, Dallas, Miami and San Francisco) (2 hrs. 50 min.) Release date: Nov 1, 2009

Boys Don t Cry

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:46 -0000

Follow Teena Brandon as she becomes Brandon Teena and claims a new male identity in the rural town of Falls City, Nebraska. There, Brandon successfully pulls off portraying a man unbeknownst to the women he's dating, eventually falling in love with Lana. He also befriends Lana's friends John and Tom. At First, Brandon's new friends like him and treat him as a buddy. But when Brandon's sexual identity is revealed, the deception triggers a spiral of horrific violence that ends in homicide. (1 hr. 54 min.) Release date: Oct 13, 2009

Amadeus

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:45 -0000

In a lavish 18th Century parlor in Austria, an elderly man is found, by his servant, with his throat slashed. The wound is self-inflicted, and the man is the little-known composer Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), contemporary and adversary of the now-famed, but once reviled, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). Later. from his cell in an insane asylum, Salieri tells a priest (Herman Meckler) the story of his association with Mozart, confessing that he actually killed the brilliantly gifted but troubled young man. Based on the award-winning play by Peter Shaffer, Milos Forman's riveting, brilliant, Oscar-winning AMADEUS is a fictionalized account of the real-life mysterious death of Mozart. Abraham, in the role that won him the Best Actor Oscar, is the celebrated court composer to Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones)--his confidence and religious dedication shaken when he meets the boorish 26-year-old Mozart as he chases his future wife (Elizabeth Berridge) around a party while making obscene remarks. Furious that this clownish boy can produce such beautiful music, Salieri determines to keep Mozart's talent from lasting recognition and sets himself on a course for Mozart�s destruction that leads to his own as well. Mozart continues to mount beautiful, moving operas (incredibly staged in the film), but becomes obsessed with writing a Requiem as his friends, family, health, and resources waste away, Salieri�s manipulating presence always there. It is hard to imagine anyone--whether they are knowledgeable about classical music or not--who would not be held captive by this superb feast for the eyes and ears, a film whose excellence can be felt in every detail.

The director's cut includes new footage that was not used in the 1984 original, as well as improved sound. (2 hrs. 38 min.) Release date: Nov 3, 2009

Young Guns II

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:44 -0000

Billy, Doc and Chavez find themselves jailed in the same place and plan an escape. Together with new recruits, they head for the Mexican border not knowing that Billy's one-time friend Pat Garrett now wears a badge and is leading a posse with one mission - get Billy the Kid. Academy Award nominations: Best Song ("Blaze of Glory", by Jon Bon Jovi). (1 hr. 45 min.) Release date: Nov 3, 2009

Antwone Fisher

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:43 -0000

Based on a true story, a biographical drama centering upon Antwone "Fish" Fisher who--once a Sony Pictures security guard--eventually gained fame as an acclaimed writer and a Hollywood producer. In the earlier part of his life, he was a sailor prone to violent outbursts. On the verge of being kicked out of the Navy for repeated fighting, he is sent to a naval psychiatrist for help. Refusing at first to open up, the young man eventually breaks down and reveals a horrific childhood rife with abuse. With the help of a Navy psychiatrist, he turns his life around and decides to embark on a search to find the family that abandoned him as a baby. Through the guidance of his doctor, he confronts his painful past and begins a quest to find the family he never knew. In the course of that search, his life changes dramatically. (1 hr. 57 min.) Release date: Oct 13, 2009

Il Divo

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:42 -0000

Director Paolo Sorrentino's audacious and inventive biopic of Italian parliamentarian (and "Senator for Life") Giulio Andreotti doesn't make the Byzantine world of modern Italian politics any less confusing (non-Italian viewers may want to brush up on the topic beforehand), but the film illuminates, in great emotional detail, important events surrounding an early-1990s investigation in which the perpetual statesman was accused of having Mafia ties. The case was appealed and overturned several times, and Andreotti never served prison time, but it effectively marked the end of his centrist Christian Democratic party and forever changed the age-old relationship between the Mafia and the Italian government.

Sorrentino's fanciful use of titles, quick edits, multiple-perspective flashbacks, slow motion, extreme close-ups, and sublime musical accents--as well as star Toni Servillo's brilliantly stylized acting--convert this airless and sinister piece of world history into a dynamic tale of moral ambiguity and seemingly invulnerable political power. Servillo plays Andreotti as an arrogant, deadpan Puck--an Italian Richard Nixon replete with easily mimicable physical tics and the conviction of his own rightness. In the film's most memorable scene, Servillo allows his ironic veneer to crack just once, in a molten monologue where, spit flying, he justifies "perpetrating evil to guarantee good." Another chilling sequence intercuts a crucial Mafia hit with shots of a particularly tense and triumphant horse race, while a punky blues number roars in the background. Sorrentino's controlled and masterly storytelling won the 2008 Prix du Jury at Cannes. (1 hr. 57 min.) Release date: Oct 27, 2009

Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers & Their Times

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:41 -0000

This insightful PBS documentary looks back at the founding of the Los Angeles Times, and chronicles the various generations of the Chandler family who have served as publisher. (1 hr. 56 min.) Release date: Oct 6, 2009

Callas assoluta

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:40 -0000

This intimate biography of the incomparable soprano uses archival footage to reveal a Maria Callas unknown to her fans. By using elements such as costumes from a rarely seen performance and paparazzi footage from Cannes shortly after she lost her baby son, Philippe Kohly�s CALLAS ASSOLUTA evokes the life of the diva. (1 hr. 37 min.) Release date: Sep 29, 2009

Celia the Queen

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:25:39 -0000

No description available (1 hr. 24 min.) Release date: Sep 29, 2009