Winner — American Violet

Ken Robinson gets to add American Violet to his DVD library, congratulations!American Violet DVD[1]

Based on a true story, American Violet is a look at the harsh reality of injustice.

American Violet has been described as “AMAZING! The first must-see film for African-Americans in 2009,” by BET.com and Jeffrey Lyons of NBC Reel Talk has said “A powerful, compelling true story of a woman of courage.” The movie is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

Inspired by a true story, American Violetfollows the struggle of a young African-American mother to clear her name after being wrongly arrested for dealing drugs in an impoverished Texas town. An honest woman with no hard evidence to justify the accusation, she is forced to risk everything in order fight unfair prosecution. The film stars touted newcomer Nicole Beharie, Academy Award nominee Alfre Woodard, Will Patton, Academy Award nominee Michael O’Keefe, Tim Blake Nelson, Emmy Award winner Charles S. Dutton and Xzibit.

It is truly a compelling story that must be watched about survival and the persistence to never give up for your god-given right to be free.  

“EXCELLENT performances by Beharie, Woodard, Nelson and Patton”- The Washington Post 

“POWERFUL performance by newcomer Nicole Behaire” – B+, Entertainment Weekly 

“IDEAL MOVIE for an ideal time” -San Francisco Chronicle

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Tracy P.  is our winner of The Next Iron Chef Prize Package Giveaway — Congratulations!

The Next Iron Chef :

Sunday nights 9:00 P.M./8:00 P.M. Central

THe Finale is November 22, 2009

The ten contestants include: Nate Appleman (Chef/Butcher, New York, NY), Dominique Crenn (Chef de Cuisine, Luce at InterContinental San Francisco, San Francisco, CA), Brad Farmerie (Executive Chef, Double Crown, Madam Geneva, PUBLIC and The Monday Room, New York, NY), Amanda Freitag (Executive Chef, The Harrison, New York, NY), Jose Garces (Executive Chef & Owner, Amada, Tinto, Distrito, Chifa, Philadelphia, PA), Eric Greenspan (Executive Chef & Owner, The Foundry on Melrose, Los Angeles, CA), Jehangir Mehta (Executive Chef & Owner, Graffiti, New York, NY), Seamus Mullen (Executive Chef & Partner, Boqueria Flatiron and Boqueria Soho, New York, NY), Holly Smith(Chef & Owner, Cafe Juanita and Poco Carretto Gelato, Kirkland, WA) and Roberto Treviño (Executive Chef & Owner, Budatai, San Juan, PR).

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Michael Capp is our winner — congratulations!!

Sam Raimi does a great job with this movie. I’d watch but I am too chicken.  Enjoy the movie Michael!

Screenhead has joined Universal Studios in the celebration of director Sam Raimi returning to the horror genre with a vengeance by directing the critically acclaimed Drag Me to Hell available on DVD and Blu-ray. This movie is a spine-tingling tale of a young woman’s desperate quest to break an evil curse and save her soul from eternal damnation.  

Raimi’s work on this film is brilliant. He doesn’t miss a beat of pulsating horror.  I am glad he’s back doing what he does best – horror movies. 

The story follows Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) is on her way to having it all: a devoted boyfriend (Justin Long), a hard-earned job position, and a bright future. But when she’s forced to make a tough decision that evicts an elderly woman from her house, Christine becomes the victim of an evil curse. Now she has only three days to dissuade a dark spirit from stealing her soul before she is dragged to hell for an eternity of unthinkable torment. 

Both the Blu-ray Hi-Def and DVD releases of Drag Me to Hell will contain the frightening, never-before-seen unrated director’s cut deemed too terrifying for theaters, as well as the theatrical version of the film.  The Blu-ray release also contains a digital copy of the film for a limited time only.  The perfect entertainment for horror fans and suspense addicts from the master of mayhem, Drag Me to Hell is the perfect entertainment for the Halloween season.

foreigneralbumStephanie N. (48) is the lucky winner! 

Foreigner, one of the world’s most popular and enduring rock bands, released a new three-disc collection, including a CD album of all new music, a CD album of the band’s original hit recordings, and a DVD of the band in concert and beyond. Can’t Slow Down is the name of the album available from Rhino Entertainment, exclusively through Wal-Mart.

The title track, Can’t Slow Down, was written by Mick Jones, Kelly Hansen, and Marti Frederiksen as a tribute to NASCAR in celebration of Foreigner’s appearance at the Samsung 500 at the Texas Motor Speedway earlier this year. NASCAR fans bought so many CDs that day that Foreigner’s 2008 release No End In Sight: The Very Best Of Foreigner was propelled back into the Billboard Top 200.

The collection’s second disc contains 10 remixes by Marti Frederiksen and Anthony Focx of some of the band’s most well known songs, including “Feels Like The First Time,” “Cold As Ice,” “Urgent,” “Hot Blooded,” and “I Want To Know What Love Is.” The remixes bring a new energy and sound definition to these classic songs.

Happily, I was able to talk with Tom Gimbel, who plays rhythm guitar, keyboards, sax, and flute. Tom hits those high-notes during “Urgent” when he performs his solo with the sax. 

Tom is a very, cool upbeat guy who’s been with Foreigner for over 17 years, ‘longest band member other than the original guys.”  Tom has seen the group change and grow while still being its “vibrant force.”

I asked Tom about the remixing of the older rock songs for the second disc, and he stressed that it’s really remastering, “cleaning up the sound, so it jumps out of the speakers.” 

I couldn’t image these great-old songs jumping out of the speakers anymore than they do now, but I listened to the new sounds…yes, the songs jump out even more and sound fantastic! Even my nine-year old daughter loves their music.

Tom and I talked a little bit about Foreigner’s music being played in movies, of course, we knew it had been done, but couldn’t name any movies until my daughter mentioned “I Want to Know What Love Is” plays on Alvin and the Chipmunks Squeakquel teaser trailer.  Then…yes of course.

What was life like for this rock and roll star growing up? Tom got his ear for music by listening to Broadway show tunes instead of watching television. He’s mother would take a big stack of LPs, place them on the console to play and all four children, including Tom would sing and dance the afternoon away. 

So, after I talked with Tom, my daughter and I sat down and watched the DVD. It captures the band performing many of its hits live in 5.1 surround sound. The DVD also contains performances filmed during the band’s recently completed European tour. We were amazed at how vibrant the band could be, even though some of them look a little older – I am being kind, but it’s obvious, they are not slowing down. The performances were fantastic!

Also featured is a behind-the-scenes, but we didn’t look at that part of the DVD. But it contains the creation of Can’t Slow Down, from writing sessions in New York, Nashville, and Los Angeles to the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting where the exclusive partnership behind this project was finalized.

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Jimm Etters (38) is the winner!

I have been listening to this album since the giveaway started and I just love it.  Stephen Stills has influenced generations with his powerful voice, song writing artistry, and passionate guitar playing, both as a solo artist and as a member of Buffalo Springfield, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Manassas. The album Pieces reveals snapshots of Stills’ early days with a 15-song collection of unreleased recordings from sessions for both of the band’s albums. After recording his second solo album, Stills formed Manassas in 1971 with a talented group of musicians that included Chris Hillman, a former member of the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers. Manassas released two albums, 1972’s eponymous double-album debut and the 1973 follow-up, Down The Road. The album Pieces features alternate versions of two songs from Down The Road: “Do You Remember The Americans” and “Lies” (featuring guitarist Joe Walsh). The collection also includes the legendary group’s unreleased performances of “Sugar Babe” and “Word Game,” a pair of songs Stills recorded in 1971 for his second solo album. The remaining tracks include “Like A Fox,” a song recorded with blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt on background vocals and the Latin-tinged “Tan Sola Y Triste” (Spanish for ‘So Alone and Sad’).

I find the album easy to listen to while working or driving.  The Stephen Stills songs bring back memories of my youth and the pleasant times of being with friends.

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Brian E. (20) is the luck winner!!!  This is a great movie that we will hear about while the award programs begin formulating toward the end of the year.

Two people I know rave about An Education, a Lone Sherfig ’s  film.  They saw the movie last June and still talk about how it gets them thinking more and more about the two main characters Jenny and David  played brilliantly by Carey Mulligan and Peter Sarsgaard.  Thus, I am drawn into the film as well and have done a couple of posts about the movie.

An Education won two awards at the Cannes Film Festival 2009:  Audience Award, World Cinema Dramatic Competition and Cinematography Award, World Cinema Dramatic Competition.

My friends strongly believe that both actors will be apart of the Oscar conversations that start rolling out about now.  One even believes SAG will give the movie an Ensemble Cast nod.

All in all, it is a movie worth seeing if it comes to your town. It opens on a limited release October 18, 2009.

Winner — Shrink

shrinkOn behalf of Lionsgate, Screenhead is excited to announce the DVD release of Shrink

We held a giveaway for the Shrink and DeeAnn S.(20) is the winner!!! Congratulations!

Two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey (American Beauty, Best Actor in a Leading Role, 1999; The Usual Suspects, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, 1995) stars in Shrink, a sharp-witted film about the courage it takes to admit you have failed and face the issues honestly… even in Hollywood. 

After watching Shrink one can understand why psychiatry is such an unpopular profession that holds the highest suicidal rate than any other profession. Henry Carter (Kevin Spacey) is L.A.’s top celebrity psychiatrist with an A-list clientele, including a famous actress (Saffron Burrows), a wildly insecure young writer (Mark Webber), and an obsessive-compulsive super-agent (Dallas Roberts). Robin Williams has a small role he plays brilliantly as a sex-driven superstar alcoholic. 

Drugged out and close to unintentional suicide Henry’s life is full of patients whom he knows he will never be able to help but only treat.  It could be that Henry is the Everyman for all psychiatrists like when he blatantly tells the public at large during a television interview that he is a fraud. I say bravo Hollywood for showing the base of the profession. 

Ironically, I enjoyed this movie and hope more people watch it because there’s some fine acting by Spacey and his cast. The ending is played out with a quick fix to these tragic lives and obviously the method doesn’t work.

Shrink DVD contains a host of special features including deleted scenes, audio commentary and on-camera interviews with the director Jonas Pate and producer Braxton Pope, along with the music video “Here” by Jackson Browne.   “Here,” a new original song by legendary singer-songwriter Jackson Browne runs over the end title credits, beginning when the screen goes dark at the narrative’s conclusion.  Browne is regularly cited as contemporary music’s quintessential confessional singer-songwriter, making his contribution to Shrink an ideal fit.   

Jean Hupke (65) is the winner of iCarly Season 2 Vol. 1 — congratulations!

Cover3DMy daughter loves watching iCarly on Nickelodeon. The show is hilarious.  She really enjoyed the movie iGo to Japan, which is included in this DVD.

iCarly Season 2 Vol. 1 DVD  contains brand-new web segments, special guest star appearances and exciting episodes from Season 2, including iCarly’s first web award nomination and the kiss that shocked the world!

iCarly Season 2 Vol 1 is a 2-Disc Set with 11 episodes including the iGo to Japan TV movie and more!

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Wanda Munsinger (45) is the winner!  Everyone loves SpongeBob SquarePants, so Wanda you are one lucky winner.

Nickelodeon is proud to bring you SpongeBob SquarePants: To SquarePants or Not to SquarePants is now available on DVD! My daughter watched the new DVD and said “it was okay.”

But SpongeBob is still as wacky and carefree as any sponge I have ever met.  With this particular DVD you get to follow SpongeBob on 8 episodes from “Squid’s Visit” to “Grooming Gary” tales plus an exclusive animation art gallery!!

Winner — Goodbye Solo

Goodbye_Solo_ BoxArtAnne Taylor (42) is the winner — We hope you enjoy the movie!

Goodbye Solo won International Critics Prize at the 2008 Venice Film Festival. It’s a thought provoking movie that leans on immortality and responsibility.

The story is about two very different men from very different cultures, they meet and become friends.  The men embark on a journey of self-discovery that changes them forever.
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