Dune [Blu-ray]

• Condition: New
• Format: Blu-ray
• AC-3; Color; Dolby; Dubbed; Subtitled; Widescreen

The all-time science fiction masterpiece...now in a special hardcover edition.

"Unique...I know nothing comparable to it except Lord of the Rings."--Arthur C. Clarke

Here is the novel that will be forever considered a triumph of the imagination. Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, who would become the mysterious man known as Maud'dib. He would avenge the traitorous plot against his noble family--and would bring to fruition humankind's most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction. Frank Herbert's death in 1986 was a tragi! c loss, yet the astounding legacy of his visionary fiction will live forever.This Hugo and Nebula Award winner tells the sweeping tale of a desert planet called Arrakis, the focus of an intricate power struggle in a byzantine interstellar empire. Arrakis is the sole source of Melange, the "spice of spices." Melange is necessary for interstellar travel and grants psychic powers and longevity, so whoever controls it wields great influence.

The troubles begin when stewardship of Arrakis is transferred by the Emperor from the Harkonnen Noble House to House Atreides. The Harkonnens don't want to give up their privilege, though, and through sabotage and treachery they cast young Duke Paul Atreides out into the planet's harsh environment to die. There he falls in with the Fremen, a tribe of desert dwellers who become the basis of the army with which he will reclaim what's rightfully his. Paul Atreides, though, is far more than just a usurped duke. He might be th! e end product of a very long-term genetic experiment designed! to bree d a super human; he might be a messiah. His struggle is at the center of a nexus of powerful people and events, and the repercussions will be felt throughout the Imperium.

Dune is one of the most famous science fiction novels ever written, and deservedly so. The setting is elaborate and ornate, the plot labyrinthine, the adventures exciting. Five sequels follow. --Brooks Peck

It is eighty-three years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. Great changes are brewing that will shape and twist all of humankind.

The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their fortunes. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School on the! jungle planet Rossak as the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built Venport Holdings, using mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. Gilbertus Albans, the ward of the hated Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentats…and hiding an unbelievable secret.

The Butlerian movement, rabidly opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” is led by Manford Torondo and his devoted Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. And it is this group, so many decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, which begins to sweep across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.

Every one of these characters, and all of these groups, will become enmeshed in the contest between Reason and Faith. All of them will be forced to choose sides in the inevitable crusade that could destroy humankind forever….

Dazzling special effects, unforgettable images and powerfu! l performances highlight David Lynch’s stunning film version! of Fran k Herbert’s classic science-fiction epic about an intergalactic warrior’s messianic rise. Starring Kyle MacLachlan, José Ferrer, Max von Sydow, Oscar® winner Linda Hunt and Sting, Dune is the ultimate adventure experience that goes beyond the imagination.Even more than most of David Lynch's deliberately bizarre and idiosyncratic movies, Dune is a "love-it-or-hate-it" affair. An ambitious, epic, utterly mind-boggling--and, let's admit it, all-out weird--adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic science fiction novel, Dune remains one of the most controversial films in the director's exceedingly provocative career. The story (if Dune can be said to have just one story) is complex and convoluted in the epic tradition; it has something to do with political intrigue and a planet that is home to a precious spice and gigantic sand worms. Think Shakespeare's Henry IV with a dash of Tremors, and set in another galaxy. But despite plenty of strange! ly whispered voice-overs that explain the characters' thoughts (and endlessly detailed exposition), storytelling is not really among the film's strong points. There are, however, a lot of memorably fantastic/grotesque images, an extraordinary cast, and a soundtrack featuring Toto. I told you it was weird. Among the stars are Kyle MacLachlan, José Ferrer, Dean Stockwell, Brad Dourif, Sting, Kenneth McMillan, Patrick Stewart, Sean Young, and Linda Hunt. --Jim Emerson

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The Gravedancers - After Dark Horrorfest

• Commentary with Director Mike Mendez and Composer Joseph Bishara
• "A Grave Undertaking" Featurette with Optional Commentary
• "Making the Ghosts" Featurette
• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
• Storyboard Galleries * Original Trailer with Optional Commentary

AFTER DARK HORRORFEST - DVD MovieMonsters are on the minds of the eight directors whose films comprise the 2007 After Dark HorrorFest, which arrives on DVD in an eight-disc set as well as single-disc editions. And it's interesting to note that while there are plenty of traditional monsters on display, from the vengeful spirits of Crazy Eights and Nightmare Man to the rampaging alien in Unearthed, the majority of the creatures causing havoc in the 2007 HorrorFest are all too human, which underscores one of the key functions of the horror genre: to give a face to society's darkest and mos! t pressing fears. The best showcase for these human beasts is Jim Mickle's urban creepshow Mulberry Street, which details the outbreak of a rat-borne virus that turns New York City residents into rodent-like mutants. The monsters themselves are actually the least effective part of the film; rather, it's Mickle's ability to create both a slow-boiling panic and believable characters on a shoestring budget that gives his picture the advantage over the others in the fest. Less agreeable is Borderland, a well-photographed but mildly xenophobic splatterfest about American college students who run afoul of bloodthirsty Mexican Satanists, while Lake Dead and Tooth and Nail recycle overly familiar horror tropes (mutant hillbillies vs. city folk in , and cannibals vs. apocalypse survivors in Tooth). Of the two, Tooth is the more appealing thanks to its name cast (Michael Madsen, Robert Carradine, Vinnie Jones), while Lake offers little more than unrelieved sadism and sexual violen! ce.

< i>The Deaths of Ian Stone offers the fest's most intriguing premise--after a terrible accident, a young man (Mike Vogel of Cloverfield) discovers that he is being reborn as different people, only to suffer an even worse fate with each reincarnation--though the reasons for his condition and the introduction of monsters to the story are ill-conceived and ill-advised. As for the remaining titles, Unearthed is simply Alien in the desert (ground already covered with panache by Feast), while Nightmare Man is a HD-lensed supernatural slasher from the usually reliable Rolfe Kanefsky (The Hazing) that's enlivened only by the presence of B-movie stalwart Tiffany Shepis. With so much varying quality in the entries, what the 2007 HorrorFest needed was a rock-solid entry by an established talent, like Nacho Cerda's The Abandoned and Takashi Shimuzi's Reincarnation, which gave some spark to the 2006 festival. Judging by the tepid! box office response to this series, stronger names or more careful selection of titles will be necessary for the HorrorFest to remain an annual event. Unlike the 2006 HorrorFest DVD releases, only a handful of the 2007 festival's discs offer extras. It seems odd that two of the weakest entries--Borderland and Nightmare Man--are the only discs to feature substantial supplemental features, including director and cast commentary, deleted scenes, and making-of featurettes, as well as a short documentary on Borderland about the true-life crimes that inspired the film. However, Nightmare Man's extras have a distinct edge thanks to the participation of Shepis, who brings a salty sense of humor to the commentary and also directs an amusing making-of featurette that elicits funny (and honest) responses from the cast and crew. Included on every disc are The Miss HorrorFest Webisodes, a wan collection of reality show-style vignettes that follow a contest t! o find the festival's new, scantily clad spokesmodel. -- P! aul Gait aA group of friends' lives are invaded by a trio of hostile ghosts after they engage in a drunken bout of gravedancing during a wake for an old chum.

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Audiovox Sirius SCV1 Backseat TV Audio/Video Tuner (Black)

• Universal backseat TV system with SCV1 tuner
• Video screen required for TV viewing
• Integrated FM transmitter and audio output supply signal to your car's stereo
• Two included remote controls
• SIRIUS Satellite Radio programming (subscription required), plus three channels of programming from Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network

The SCV1 is built for use in a car's backseat and revolves around a breakout display controller safe enough for children that lets them pick from Sirius' traditional radio stations as well as TV from the Cartoon Network, Disney, and Nickelodeon. Listeners in the front are also free to tune their own radio via an FM transmitter that broadcasts a separate audio signal to the main system.

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Dawn of the Dead (Widescreen Unrated Director's Cut)

• The Lost Tape - 15 minutes of terrifing footage
• Special Report - Zombie Invasion
• 12+ minutes of deleted scenes
• Commentary with director Zack Snyder and producer Eric Newman

Packed with more blood, more gore, and more bone-chilling, jaw-dropping thrills, Dawn of the Dead Unrated Director's Cut is the version too terrifying to be shown in theaters! Starring Mekhi Phifer, Ving Rhames and Sarah Polley in an edgy, electrifying thrill-ride.

When a mysterious virus turns people into mindless, flesh-eating zombies, a handful of survivors wage a desperate, last-stand battle to stay alive…and human.Are you ready to get down with the sickness? Movie logic dictates that you shouldn't remake a classic, but Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead defies that logic and comes up a winner. You could argue that George A. Romero's 1978 original was sacred ground for hor! ror buffs, but it was a low-budget classic, and Snyder's action-packed upgrade benefits from the same manic pacing that energized Romero's continuing zombie saga. Romero's indictment of mega-mall commercialism is lost (it's arguably outmoded anyway), so Snyder and screenwriter James Gunn compensate with the same setting--in this case, a Milwaukee shopping mall under siege by cannibalistic zombies in the wake of a devastating viral outbreak--a well-chosen cast (led by Sarah Polley, Ving Rhames, Jake Weber, and Mekhi Phifer), some outrageously morbid humor, and a no-frills plot that keeps tension high and blood splattering by the bucketful. Horror buffs will catch plenty of tributes to Romero's film (including cameos by three of its cast members, including gore-makeup wizard Tom Savini), and shocking images are abundant enough to qualify this Dawn as an excellent zombie-flick double-feature with 28 Days Later, its de facto British counterpart. --Jeff S! hannon

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Focus: A simplicity manifesto in the Age of Distraction

• ISBN13: 9781434103079
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Bestselling author Mike Schmoker describes a plan for radically improving student learning that is built on three core elements: a focused and coherent curriculum (what we teach); clear, prioritized lessons (how we teach); and purposeful reading and writing, or authentic literacy.

With this "less is more" philosophy, educators can help students learn content at a deeper level, develop greater critical thinking skills, and discover more clearly how content-area concepts affect their lives and the world around them.

Both a call to action and a blueprint for creating more effective classrooms, Focus: Elevating the Essentials for Radically Improved Student Learning will cha! llenge your assumptions about schooling and show how educators who have embraced this approach quickly achieved spectacular results.

Meet Emily and Paul: The parents of two young children, Emily is the newly promoted VP of marketing at a large corporation while Paul works from home or from clients' offices as an independent IT consultant. Their lives, like all of ours, are filled with a bewildering blizzard of emails, phone calls, yet more emails, meetings, projects, proposals, and plans. Just staying ahead of the storm has become a seemingly insurmountable task.

In this book, we travel inside Emily and Paul's brains as they attempt to sort the vast quantities of information they're presented with, figure out how to prioritize it, organize it and act on it. Fortunately for Emily and Paul, they're in good hands: David Rock knows how the brain works-and more specifically, how it works in a work setting. Rock shows how it's possible for Emily and Paul, and thus the r! eader, not only to survive in today's overwhelming work enviro! nment bu t succeed in it-and still feel energized and accomplished at the end of the day.

YOUR BRAIN AT WORK explores issues such as:

- why our brains feel so taxed, and how to maximize our mental resources

- why it's so hard to focus, and how to better manage distractions

- how to maximize your chance of finding insights that can solve seemingly insurmountable problems

- how to keep your cool in any situation, so that you can make the best decisions possible

- how to collaborate more effectively with others

- why providing feedback is so difficult, and how to make it easier

- how to be more effective at changing other people's behavior

The author writes, "At the heart of this simple book lies the key to many of the struggles we face these days, from being productive and achieving our goals, to getting healthy and fit in the face of fast food and inactivity, to finding simplicity and peace amidst chaos and confusion.! That key is itself simple: focus. Our ability to focus will allow us to create in ways that perhaps we haven't in years. It'll allow us to slow down and find peace of mind. It'll allow us to simplify and focus on less-on the essential things, the things that matter most.

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Aquamarine

• Deleted Sceens
• Both Widescreen and FULL movie versions
• Director Comnmentary and more

14K White Gold Plated 925 Sterling Silver Heart Created Aquamarine Earring Studs crafted in 14k White Gold Plated Silver Dimensions: Width: 7.00 mm Length: 7.00 mm. 2 Stones 3.00 Carats Heart Shaped 7x7 Color: Light Blue Clarity: Clean . FREE GIFT BAG! FREE GIFT CARD! Finejewelers Style Number: 302300.Two best friends get exactly what they fish for in Aquamarine, a laugh-out-loud hilarious comedy about friendship! Emma Roberts, Sara Paxton and pop sensation JoJo star in an adventure that's "the sweetest treat since Princess Diaries!" (Yahoo! Movies)

It's the end of summer and Claire (Roberts) and Hailey (JoJo) have a major problem. In just five days, Hailey's family is moving halfway around the world! These girls need a major miracle, and they get one in the form of Aquamarine, a beautiful! mermaid who washes ashore in a late summer storm. Sweet but clueless to the ways of romance, she offers to grant the girls one wish if they help her find the boy of her dreams. But when they attempt to reel in the cute local lifeguard, the result is something none of them expect and they discover that sometimes what you wish for isn't what you really want after all!The sun, the sand, and a sweet sassy mermaid--what more could any young girl want from summer? Claire (Emma Roberts, Nancy Drew: The Mystery in Hollywood Hills) and Hailey (JoJo, R.V.) go giddy at the sight of hunky lifeguard Raymond (Jake McDorman). When a storm washes a mermaid named Aquamarine (Sara Paxton, Sleepover) into a swimming pool, Claire and Hailey agree to help her find love--even if it's with Raymond--because Aquamarine will grant them a wish that will keep Hailey from having to move away to Australia. Parents of preteen girls may approach Aquamarine with dread, but the ! movie's formulaic beginnings are given a heartening twist; the! movie s tarts by wallowing in Cosmogirl-fueled boy-craziness, but finishes as an unexpectedly touching paean to friendship (with some surprisingly down-to-earth suggestions about romance). Roberts and JoJo are a charming duo, eager to be older than they are, but in the end growing up no faster than they need to. Also featuring Bruce Spence, known to some viewers as the Gyro Captain from The Road Warrior and to others as the voice of a shark in Finding Nemo. --Bret Fetzer

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Armageddon

• When an asteroid the size of Texas is headed for Earth, the worlds best deep core drilling team is sent to nuke the rock from the inside.Starring: Ben Affleck, Steve Buscemi, Keith David, Will Patton, PeterStormare, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, and Bruce Willis.Directed By: Michael BayRunning Time: 2 hrs. 31 mins.This film is presented in "Widescreen" format.Copyright 1999 Buena Vista Format

In DEEP IMPACT, Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood), joins a field study for his high school's Astronomy Club and discovers a new comet that unfortunately is headed for Earth. While scientists build a cave to prevent the extinction of the human race, they estimate that only 800,000 people can be selected to survive the "Deep Impact." The threat of a comet ending the world quickly sends Americans into a panic until the president announces a plan to send astronauts on a mission to destroy the comet before it rea! ches earth.A great big rock hits the earth, and lots of people die. That's pretty much all there is to it, and most of that was in the trailer. Can a major Hollywood movie really squeak by with such a slender excuse for a premise? The old disaster-movie king, cheese-meister Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake), would have made a kitsch classic out of this, with Charlton Heston, rather than a resigned and mumbly Robert Duvall, as the veteran astronaut who risks several lives trying to blow up the comet that's headed right this way! As stiffly directed by Mimi Leder, this thick slice of ham errs on the side of solemnity. It may the be most earnest end-of-the-world picture since Stanley Kramer's atomic-doom drama On the Beach. There are a couple of classic melodramatic flourishes: an estranged father and daughter who share a tearful reconciliation as a Godzilla-sized tidal wave looms on the horizon; and an astronaut, communicating on vi! deo with his loved ones back on Earth, who follows whispered i! nstructi ons from a buddy lurking just off camera--so that his little boy won't realize that he's been struck blind. With Morgan Freeman as the president of the United States. --David ChuteDEEP IMPACT - Blu-Ray MovieA great big rock hits the earth, and lots of people die. That's pretty much all there is to it, and most of that was in the trailer. Can a major Hollywood movie really squeak by with such a slender excuse for a premise? The old disaster-movie king, cheese-meister Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake), would have made a kitsch classic out of this, with Charlton Heston, rather than a resigned and mumbly Robert Duvall, as the veteran astronaut who risks several lives trying to blow up the comet that's headed right this way! As stiffly directed by Mimi Leder, this thick slice of ham errs on the side of solemnity. It may the be most earnest end-of-the-world picture since Stanley Kramer's atomic-doom drama On the Beach. There are a! couple of classic melodramatic flourishes: an estranged father and daughter who share a tearful reconciliation as a Godzilla-sized tidal wave looms on the horizon; and an astronaut, communicating on video with his loved ones back on Earth, who follows whispered instructions from a buddy lurking just off camera--so that his little boy won't realize that he's been struck blind. With Morgan Freeman as the president of the United States. --David ChuteA great big rock hits the earth, and lots of people die. That's pretty much all there is to it, and most of that was in the trailer. Can a major Hollywood movie really squeak by with such a slender excuse for a premise? The old disaster-movie king, cheese-meister Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake), would have made a kitsch classic out of this, with Charlton Heston, rather than a resigned and mumbly Robert Duvall, as the veteran astronaut who risks several lives trying to blow up the comet that's ! headed right this way! As stiffly directed by Mimi Lede! r, this thick slice of ham errs on the side of solemnity. It may the be most earnest end-of-the-world picture since Stanley Kramer's atomic-doom drama On the Beach. There are a couple of classic melodramatic flourishes: an estranged father and daughter who share a tearful reconciliation as a Godzilla-sized tidal wave looms on the horizon; and an astronaut, communicating on video with his loved ones back on Earth, who follows whispered instructions from a buddy lurking just off camera--so that his little boy won't realize that he's been struck blind. With Morgan Freeman as the president of the United States. --David ChuteFrom the blockbuster-making team who produced and directed PEARL HARBOR and THE ROCK (Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay) comes the biggest movie of 1998 -- ARMAGEDDON! Starring the explosive talents of Bruce Willis (DIE HARD), Academy Award(R)-winners Ben Affleck (GOOD WILL HUNTING) and Billy Bob Thornton (SLING BLADE), Liv Tyler (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS! ), Steve Buscemi (CON AIR), and Will Patton (INVENTING THE ABBOTTS), ARMAGEDDON is a meteor storm of action-adventure moviemaking that has you on the edge of your seat forgetting to breathe! When NASA's executive director, Dan Truman (Thornton), realizes the Earth has 18 days before it's obliterated by a meteor the size of Texas, he has only one option -- land a ragtag team of roughneck oil drillers on the asteroid and drop a nuclear warhead into its core. Spectacular special effects, laugh-out-loud humor, great characters, riveting storytelling, and heartfelt emotion make ARMAGEDDON an exhilarating thrill ride you'll want to experience like there's no tomorrow.The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences wa! nt in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping spe! cial eff ects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since ! Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? --Dave McCoyThe 1998 testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay (The Rock, Bad Boys) continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successfu! l duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in t! heir blo ckbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid- fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when Armageddon tackl! es humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since Mississippi Burning have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white male America; the film features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? --Dave McCoy

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Bobby (Widescreen Edtion)

• (Drama) A re-telling of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968. The film follows 22 individuals who are all at the hotel for different purposes but share the common thread of anticipating Kennedy's arrival at the primary election night party, which would change their lives forever. This historic night is set against the backdrop of the cultural issues gr

(Drama) A re-telling of the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in 1968. The film follows 22 individuals who are all at the hotel for different purposes but share the common thread of anticipating Kennedy's arrival at the primary election night party, which would change their lives forever. This historic night is set against the backdrop of the cultural issues gripping the country at the time, including racism, sexual inequality and class differences.In the final quarter o! r so of Bobby, writer-director-actor Emilio Estevez finally starts tightening his grip on the viewer as we head inexorably toward the film's climax: the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in a Los Angeles hotel kitchen. In the course of these scenes--among them Kennedy's acceptance speech after winning the California Democratic presidential primary (the senator is seen only in file footage), his death at the hands of gunman Sirhan Sirhan, and the chaos and despair that ensued--Estevez steadily ratchets up the sense of tension and dread. Knowing exactly what's coming, while the characters onscreen don't, is excruciating, as is our grief at hearing RFK's own words, so eloquent, so hopeful and inspiring, as we watch the horrible events unfold and wonder what might have been (sure it's manipulative--but it works). But the rest of Bobby isn't nearly as compelling. Nor is it really about Kennedy, despite its obvious adulation of the man whom many thought would ! defeat Richard Nixon in the '68 general election. In the tradi! tion of, say, an Irwin Allen disaster flick, we're invited into the lives of nearly two dozen folks, most of them at least partly fictional, who were at the Ambassador Hotel that June day, including guests, staff (kitchen workers, switchboard operators, management, etc.), campaign workers, reporters, and more. There are lots of movie stars in the cast, and some of them (Sharon Stone, Helen Hunt, William H. Macy) are very good. But caring about the quotidian minutiae of these people's existences is a chore, and Estevez crams so many issues into his story (the Vietnam war, drugs, alcoholism, voting irregularities, adultery, racism, immigration, communism… even L.A. Dodgers pitcher Don Drysdale's streak of consecutive shutouts) and tries so obviously to establish parallels between then and now that too much of the movie feels gratuitous and forced. A warts-and-all film about Robert Kennedy's extraordinary life and career would be welcome. Unfortunately, Bobby isn't it. --Sa! m Graham

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