331
Taxi Driver
Martin Scorsese |
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Studio: Sony Pictures
Theatrical: 1976
Genre: Suspense, Drama
Rated: R
Writer: Paul Schrader
Duration: 128
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Georgian, Chinese, Thai
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0075314
Starring: Diahnne Abbott, Frank Adu, Gino Ardito, Victor Argo, Garth Avery, Peter Boyle, Albert Brooks, Harry Cohn (II), Copper Cunningham, Robert De Niro, Brenda Dickson-Weinberg, Harry Fischler, Jodie Foster, Nat Grant, Leonard Harris (II), Richard Higgs, Beau Kayser, Harvey Keitel, Cybill Shepherd
Summary: Taxi Driver is the definitive cinematic portrait of loneliness and alienation manifested as violence. It is as if director Martin Scorsese and screenwriter Paul Schrader had tapped into precisely the same source of psychological inspiration ("I just knew I had to make this film," Scorsese would later say), combined with a perfectly timed post-Watergate expression of personal, political, and societal anxiety. Robert De Niro, as the tortured, ex-Marine cab driver Travis Bickle, made movie history with his chilling performance as one of the most memorably intense and vividly realized characters ever committed to film. Bickle is a self-appointed vigilante who views his urban beat as an intolerable cesspool of blighted humanity. He plays guardian angel for a young prostitute (Jodie Foster), but not without violently devastating consequences. This masterpiece, which is not for all tastes, is sure to horrify some viewers, but few could deny the film's lasting power and importance. --Jeff Shannon
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332
Tenant
Roman Polanski |
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Studio: Paramount
Theatrical: 1976
Genre: Drama
Rated: R
Writer: Woody Allen
Duration: 125
Languages: English, French
Subtitles: English
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0457513
Starring: Isabelle Adjani, Patrice Alexsandre, Jean-Pierre Bagot, Josiane Balasko, Michel Blanc, Florence Blot, Romain Bouteille, Jacques Chevalier, Jacky Cohen, Claude Dauphin, Melvyn Douglas, Bernard Fresson, David Gabison, Louba Guertchikoff, Lila Kedrova, Jacques Monod, Claude Piéplu, Rufus, Jo Van Fleet
Summary: After the triumph of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's The Tenant marked an unsettling return to the horrifying psychodrama of Repulsion and Rosemary's Baby. As in those previous films, Polanski explores a descent into madness with subtle, deliberate pacing and keen attention to accumulating details. Cannily casting himself in the title role, Polanski plays the mild-mannered occupant of a Parisian flat previously rented by a woman who committed suicide by leaping from her upper-floor balcony. The woman's leftover belongings and the harsh attitudes of disapproving neighbors (including Melvin Douglas and Shelley Winters) begin to grate on the new tenant's psyche; his paranoia shifts from simmering anxiety to full-blown psychosis, until fate itself seems to run in a complete, tragically tormenting circle. Polanski masters the material as only he could, and despite some critical drubbing at the time of its release, The Tenant has earned a place among Polanski's finest films. --Jeff Shannon
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333
The Terminal
Steven Spielberg |
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Studio: Dreamworks Video
Theatrical: 2004
Genre: Comedy
Rated: PG-13
Writer: Sacha Gervasi
Duration: 128
Languages: Bulgarian, English, French
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0362227
Starring: Tom Hanks, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Stanley Tucci, Chi McBride, Diego Luna, Barry Shabaka Henley, Kumar Pallana, Zoe Saldana, Eddie Jones, Jude Ciccolella, Corey Reynolds, Guillermo Díaz, Rini Bell, Stephen Mendel, Valeri Nikolayev, Michael Nouri, Ana Maria Quintana, Bob Morrisey, Sasha Spielberg, Susan Slome
Summary: Like an airport running at peak efficiency, The Terminal glides on the consummate skills of its director and star. Having refined their collaborative chemistry on Saving Private Ryan and Catch Me if You Can, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks mesh like the precision gears of a Rolex, turning a delicate, not-very-plausible scenario into a lovely modern-age fable (partly based on fact) that's both technically impressive and subtly moving. It's Spielberg in Capra mode, spinning the featherweight tale of Victor Navorski (Hanks, giving a finely tuned performance), an Eastern European who arrives at New York's Kennedy Airport just as his (fictional) homeland has fallen to a coup, forcing him, with no valid citizenship, to take indefinite residence in the airport's expansive International Arrivals Terminal (an astonishing full-scale set that inspires Spielberg's most elegant visual strategies). Spielberg said he made this film in part to alleviate the anguish of wartime America, and his master's touch works wonders on the occasionally mushy material; even Stanley Tucci's officious terminal director and Catherine Zeta-Jones's mixed-up flight attendant come off (respectively) as forgivable and effortlessly charming. With this much talent involved, The Terminal transcends its minor shortcomings to achieve a rare degree of cinematic grace. --Jeff Shannon
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334
Terminator 2 - Judgment Day
James Cameron |
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Studio: Artisan
Theatrical: 1991
Genre: Action & Adventure
Rated: R
Writer: William Wisher Jr.
Duration: 137
Languages: English (Original Language)
Spanish (Subtitled)
Subtitles: Spanish
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0103064
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, Robert Patrick, Earl Boen
Summary: Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 01/24/2008 Rating: R
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335
Thelma & Louise
Ridley Scott |
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Studio: MGM
Theatrical: 1991
Genre: Action & Adventure
Rated: R
Writer: Callie Khouri
Duration: 129
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French, Portuguese
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0103074
Starring: Susan Sarandon, Geena Davis, Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, Christopher McDonald, Stephen Tobolowsky, Brad Pitt, Timothy Carhart, Lucinda Jenney, Jason Beghe, Marco St. John, Sonny Carl Davis, Ken Swofford, Shelly Desai, Carol Mansell, Stephen Polk, Rob Roy Fitzgerald, Jack Lindine, Michael Delman, Kristel L. Rose
Summary: Thelma & Louise is a feminist manifesto writ large on the big screen, a smart and funny gender reversal of the standard Hollywood buddy formula, a road movie extraordinaire, with characters who became instant cultural icons. No matter how you define it, Ridley Scott's 1991 box-office hit pinched a nerve and made the cover of national news magazines for tweaking gender politics like no movie before or since. Callie Khouri's screenplay overhauls the buddy formula with its story about two best friends (Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis) who embark on a liberating adventure that turns into an interstate police chase after a traumatic incident makes both women into fugitives; they are en route to a destiny they could never have imagined. The perfect casting of Sarandon and Davis makes Thelma & Louise a movie for the ages, and Brad Pitt became an overnight star after his appearance as the con-artist cowboy who gives Davis a memorable (but costly) night in a roadside motel. --Jeff Shannon
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336
THX 1138
George Lucas |
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Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical: 1971
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rated: R
Writer: Walter Murch
Duration: 88
Languages: English, French, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0120784
Starring: Robert Duvall, Donald Pleasence, Don Pedro Colley, Maggie McOmie, Ian Wolfe, Marshall Efron, Sid Haig, John Pearce, Irene Forrest, Gary Alan Marsh, John Seaton, Eugene I. Stillman, Raymond Walsh, Mark Lawhead, Robert Feero, Johnny Weissmuller Jr., Claudette Bessing, Susan Baldwin, James Wheaton, Henry Jacobs
Summary: Two-Disc Special Edition:
* Digitally remastered with THX certified sound * Commentary by George Lucas and co-writer/sound effects editor Walter Murch * Theatre of Noise sound-effects track with branching segments to 13 master sessions with Walter Murch * 2 New documentaries: "A Legacy of Filmmakers: The Early Years of American Zoetrope" and "Artifacts from the Future: The Making of THX 1138" * George Lucas's original student film "THX-11384EB" * "Bald": 1971 production featurette * Five new trailers from the 2004 theatrical release * Original theatrical trailer |
337
To Catch a Thief
Alfred Hitchcock |
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Studio: Paramount
Theatrical: 1955
Genre: Suspense
Rated: Unrated
Writer: David Dodge, John Michael Hayes
Duration: 106
Languages: English, French
Subtitles: English
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0048728
Starring: Cary Grant, Grace Kelly, Jessie Royce Landis, John Williams, Charles Vanel
Summary: This minor 1955 work by Alfred Hitchcock, one of the lighter entries of his creative peak in the 1950s, is still imbued with the master's stock themes of shared guilt and romantic ambivalence. It is also hardly lacking in Hitchcockian cinematic inventiveness, such as a famous, often-imitated sequence in which some smooching between stars Cary Grant and Grace Kelly is intercut with a fireworks show that just happens to be going on outside in a Riviera setting. Grant plays a reformed cat burglar who is suspected of reviving his trade, though he knows someone else is using his old methods. A very enjoyable experience, but don't get this confused with Hitchcock's other Cary Grant film of that decade, which was a masterpiece: North by Northwest.--Tom Keogh
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338
To Kill a Mockingbird
Robert Mulligan |
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Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical: 1962
Genre: Classics
Rated: NR
Writer: Horton Foote
Duration: 130
Languages: English, French
Subtitles: Spanish, French
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0056592
Starring: Gregory Peck, John Megna, Frank Overton, Rosemary Murphy, Ruth White (II)
Summary: Ranked 34 on the American Film Institute's list of the 100 Greatest American Films, To Kill a Mockingbird is quite simply one of the finest family-oriented dramas ever made. A beautiful and deeply affecting adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Harper Lee, the film retains a timeless quality that transcends its historically dated subject matter (racism in the Depression-era South) and remains powerfully resonant in present-day America with its advocacy of tolerance, justice, integrity, and loving, responsible parenthood. It's tempting to call this an important "message" movie that should be required viewing for children and adults alike, but this riveting courtroom drama is anything but stodgy or pedantic. As Atticus Finch, the small-town Alabama lawyer and widower father of two, Gregory Peck gives one of his finest performances with his impassioned defense of a black man (Brock Peters) wrongfully accused of the rape and assault of a young white woman. While his children, Scout (Mary Badham) and Jem (Philip Alford), learn the realities of racial prejudice and irrational hatred, they also learn to overcome their fear of the unknown as personified by their mysterious, mostly unseen neighbor Boo Radley (Robert Duvall, in his brilliant, almost completely nonverbal screen debut). What emerges from this evocative, exquisitely filmed drama is a pure distillation of the themes of Harper Lee's enduring novel, a showcase for some of the finest American acting ever assembled in one film, and a rare quality of humanitarian artistry (including Horton Foote's splendid screenplay and Elmer Bernstein's outstanding score) that seems all but lost in the chaotic morass of modern cinema. --Jeff Shannon
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339
Torremolinos 73
Pablo Berger |
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Studio: First Run Features
Theatrical: 2003
Genre: Comedy
Rated: Unrated
Writer: Pablo Berger
Duration: 91
Languages: Danish, Spanish
Subtitles: English
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0339806
Starring: Javier Cámara, Candela Peña, Juan Diego, Fernando Tejero, Mads Mikkelsen
Summary: The sexual revolution meets a bumbling door-to-door salesman and his beautician wife in the form of "educational" sex films in this satiric comedy, set in Spain in 1973. Alfredo Lopez (Javier Cámara) is an encyclopedia salesman whose work has not been going especially well lately, which is worrisome to his wife, Carmen (Candela Peña), who is eager to have a baby. As it happens, encyclopedia sales have been dismal overall, and publisher Don Carlos (Juan Diego) strikes upon an idea for a more lucrative product line -- an "audiovisual encyclopedia of human reproduction," consisting of 8 mm movies demonstrating different ways for couples to make love. Don Carlos sets up a meeting between his sales staff and Dennis (Thomas Bo Larsen), a pornographer from Denmark who likes to tell people he once worked with Ingmar Bergman. While most of the salesmen refuse to have anything to do with Don Carlos' new scheme -- especially since pornography is strictly illegal under the Franco regime -- Alfredo grudgingly goes along, and despite his misgivings Carmen is drafted to star in the first film in the series. As the films become an underground success in Spain and earns a more high-profile reputation in Denmark, Carmen is recognized in public as a glamorous porn star, and Alfredo deludes himself into believing he and Dennis are making art films. But Alfredo's ambitions get the better of him when he begins writing a screenplay for a serious feature film and Carmen becomes increasingly obsessed with having a child. Special Features: o Alternative Footage o Biographies o Deleted Scenes o Filmographies o Interactive Menu o Making Of o Music Video o Photo Gallery o Scene Access o Trailer(s)
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340
Touch of Evil
Orson Welles |
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Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical: 1958
Genre: Classics
Rated: Unrated
Writer: Orson Welles, Whit Masterson
Duration: 111
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0052311
Starring: Joe Basulto, Joseph Calleia, Ray Collins, Marlene Dietrich, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Phil Harvey, Charlton Heston, Billy House, Joi Lansing, Janet Leigh, Victor Millan, Mort Mills, Joanna Cook Moore, Lalo Rios, Michael Sargent, Harry Shannon, Akim Tamiroff, Dennis Weaver, de Vargas, Valentin
Summary: Considered by many to be the greatest B movie ever made, the original-release version of Orson Welles's film noir masterpiece Touch of Evil was, ironically, never intended as a B movie at all--it merely suffered that fate after it was taken away from writer-director Welles, then reedited and released in 1958 as the second half of a double feature. Time and critical acclaim would eventually elevate the film to classic status (and Welles's original vision was meticulously followed for the film's 1998 restoration), but for four decades this original version stood as a testament to Welles's directorial genius. From its astonishing, miraculously choreographed opening shot (lasting over three minutes) to Marlene Dietrich's classic final line of dialogue, this sordid tale of murder and police corruption is like a valentine for the cinematic medium, with Welles as its love-struck suitor. As the corpulent cop who may be involved in a border-town murder, Welles faces opposition from a narcotics officer (Charlton Heston) whose wife (Janet Leigh) is abducted and held as the pawn in a struggle between Heston's quest for truth and Welles's control of carefully hidden secrets. The twisting plot is wildly entertaining (even though it's harder to follow in this original version), but even greater pleasure is found in the pulpy dialogue and the sheer exuberance of the dazzling directorial style. --Jeff Shannon
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341
Traffic
Steven Soderbergh |
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Studio: Universal Studios
Theatrical: 2001
Genre: Drama
Rated: R
Writer: Stephen Gaghan
Duration: 147
Languages: English, Spanish
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0181865
Starring: Benicio Del Toro, Jacob Vargas, Andrew Chavez, Michael Saucedo, Tomas Milian, Jose Yenque, Emilio Rivera, Michael O'Neill, Michael Douglas, Russell G. Jones, Lorene Hetherington, Eric Collins (III), Beau Holden, Peter Stader, James Lew, Jeremy Fitzgerald, Russell Solberg, Luis Guzmán, Don Cheadle, Don Snell
Summary: Featuring a huge cast of characters, the ambitious and breathtaking Traffic is a tapestry of three separate stories woven together by a common theme: the war on drugs. In Ohio, there's the newly appointed government drug czar (Michael Douglas) who realizes after he's accepted the job that he may have gotten into a no-win situation. Not only that, his teenage daughter (Erika Christensen) is herself quietly developing a nasty addiction problem. In San Diego, a drug kingpin (Steven Bauer) is arrested on information provided by an informant (Miguel Ferrer) who was nabbed by two undercover detectives (Don Cheadle and Luis Guzmán). The kingpin's wife (Catherine Zeta-Jones), heretofore ignorant of where her husband's wealth comes from, gets a crash course in the drug business and its nasty side effects. And south of the border, a Mexican cop (Benicio Del Toro) finds himself caught between both his home country and the U.S., as corrupt government officials duke it out with the drug cartel for control of trafficking various drugs back and forth across the border.
Bold in scope, Traffic showcases Steven Soderbergh at the top of his game, directing a peerless ensemble cast in a gritty, multifaceted tale that will captivate you from beginning to end. Utilizing the no-frills techniques of the Dogme 95 school, Soderbergh enhances his hand-held filming with imaginative editing and film-stock manipulation that eerily captures the atmosphere of each location: a washed-out, grainy Mexico; a blue and chilly Ohio; and a sleek, sun-dappled San Diego. But Traffic is more than a film-school exercise. Soderbergh and screenwriter Stephen Gaghan (adapting the British TV miniseries Traffik to the U.S.) seamlessly weave the threads of each separate plotline into one solid tale, with the actions of one plot having quiet repercussions on the other two. And if you needed more proof that Soderbergh takes unparalleled care with his actors, practically all the members of this cast turn in their best work ever, the standout being an Oscar-worthy Del Toro as the conflicted moral conscience of the film. While no story is fully resolved in the film, you'll be haunted by these characters days after you've seen the film. By far one of the best movies of 2000. --Mark Englehart |
342
Training Day
Antoine Fuqua |
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Studio: Warner Home Video
Theatrical: 2001
Genre: Action & Adventure
Rated: R
Writer: David Ayer
Duration: 122
Languages: English
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0139654
Starring: Denzel Washington, Ethan Hawke
Summary: A powerhouse performance by Denzel Washington fuels this brutal urban police drama, in which a rookie narcotics cop learns the hard way that even good cops can go very, very bad. Washington plays veteran detective Alonzo Harris, a self-proclaimed "wolf among wolves," eager to teach his rookie partner Jake (Ethan Hawke) that normal rules don't apply on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Caught in a web of deception, Jake watches with escalating horror as Alonzo uses his badge (and the support of his superiors) to justify a self-righteous policy of corruption. In stark contrast to most of his previous work, Denzel unleashes his dark side with fearlessness and fury, and the result is excellence without compromise. Director Antoine Fuqua (The Replacement Killers) won't score any points for subtlety, but gritty details (including actual L.A. gang members as extras) and Hawke's finely tuned performance are perfectly matched to Washington's frightening volatility. --Jeff Shannon
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343
Trainspotting
Danny Boyle |
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Studio: Miramax
Theatrical: 1996
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Rated: R
Writer: John Hodge
Duration: 94
Languages: English
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0117951
Starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Jonny Lee Miller, Kevin McKidd, Robert Carlyle
Summary: With its hallucinatory visions of crawling dead babies and a grungy plunge into the filthiest toilet in Scotland, you might not think Trainspotting could have been one of the best movies of 1996, but Danny Boyle's film about unrepentant heroin addicts in Edinburgh is all that and more. That doesn't make it everybody's cup of tea (so unsuspecting viewers beware), but the film's blend of hyperkinetic humor and real-life horror is constantly fascinating, and the entire cast (led by Ewan McGregor and Full Monty star Robert Carlyle) bursts off of the screen in a supernova of outrageous energy. Adapted by John Hodge from the acclaimed novel by Irving Welsh, the film was a phenomenal hit in England, Scotland, and (to a lesser extent) the U.S. For all of its comedic vitality and invigorating filmmaking, the movie is no ode to heroin, nor is it a straight-laced cautionary tale. Trainspotting is just a very honest and well-made film about the nature of addiction, and it doesn't pull any punches when it is time to show the alternating pleasure and pain of substance abuse. --Jeff Shannon
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344
Tropic Thunder
Ben Stiller |
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Studio: Paramount Home Entertainment
Theatrical: 2008
Genre: Comedy
Rated: 16 years and older
Writer: Justin Theroux, Ben Stiller, Etan Cohen
Duration: 107
Languages: English
Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
IMDb: 0942385
Starring: Brandon T. Jackson, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Kahn, Matthew McConaughey, Tom Cruise, Steve Coogan
Summary: A film crew is in Southeast Asia filming a Vietnam-war memoir. It's early in the shooting, but they're already behind schedule and over budget. On the day an accident befalls the novice director, the cast and crew are attacked by a gang of poppy-growing local drug dealers, except the cast and crew don't realize these aren't actors who are stalking them. The thugs kidnap Tugg Speedman, an actor whose star seems on the decline, and it's up to the rest of the ragtag team to band together long enough to attempt his rescue. But will Tugg want to leave?
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345
Tropic Thunder [Director's Cut]
Ben Stiller |
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Studio: Dreamworks Video
Theatrical: 2007
Genre: Comedy
Rated: Unrated
Writer: Etan Cohen
Duration: 107
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Picture Format: Widescreen
IMDb: 0942385
Starring: Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Robert Downey Jr., Nick Nolte, Steve Coogan
Summary: Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 11/18/2008 Run time: 120 minutes Rating: Ur
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346
The Twilight Zone: The Complete Definitive Collection
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Studio: Image Entertainment
Theatrical: 1959
Genre: Television
Rated: Unrated
Duration: 4524
Languages: English
IMDb: 0052520
Starring: Burgess Meredith
Summary: For the first time ever, find all 156 complete episodes of Rod Serling's groundbreaking series in one box set, packed with exciting extras! Travel to another dimension of sight and sound again and again through these stellar remastered high-definition film transfers. Extras include the fascinating Serling bio-documentary Submitted for Your Approval, compelling interviews with the show's writers, the series' unaired pilot, audio commentaries with Martin Landau, Leonard Nimoy, Cliff Robertson and much, much more!
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