Creation [Blu-Ray]

• UK Import
• Region-Free
• Blu-ray

From director Jon Amiel ("The Singing Detective," ENTRAPMENT) and writer John Collee (MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD) comes CREATION. A psychological, heart-wrenching love story starring Paul Bettany (A BEAUTIFUL MIND, MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD) as Charles Darwin, the film is based on “Annie’s Box,” a biography penned by Darwin’s great-great-grandson Randal Keynes using personal letters and diaries of the Darwin family. We take a unique and inside look at Darwin, his family and his love for his deeply religious wife, played by Jennifer Connelly (A BEAUTIFUL MIND, REQUIEM FOR A DREAM), as, torn between faith and science, Darwin struggles to finish his legendary book “On the Origin of Species,” which goes on to become the foundation for evolutionary biology. The film co-stars Toby Jones (FROST/NIX! ON, INFAMOUS) and Jeremy Northam (GOSFORD PARK, AMISTAD), and was produced by Jeremy Thomas (THE LAST EMPEROR, SEXY BEAST) at Recorded Picture Company with BBC Films and Ocean Pictures.More than 150 years after its publication, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and its theory of natural selection remain the subject of much debate; the divide between those who accept Darwin's ideas as incontrovertible science and those who consider them blasphemous may be wider now than ever. Released in 2009, director Jon Amiel's Creation goes right to the heart of the matter--indeed, right to the heart of Darwin himself. As portrayed by Paul Bettany, the Darwin who has returned to England following his voyage aboard HMS Beagle is a man for whom "deeply conflicted" is a barely adequate description. Well aware his theory is "perhaps the most powerful idea ever to occur to a human mind," he is caught between the scientists who insist that he has "killed God" and t! he religious conservatives, including his wife Emma (Jennifer ! Connelly ), who counter that his very soul will be in peril if he finishes and publishes his book. What's more, he is haunted, sometimes literally, by the death of his favorite child, Annie (seen in frequent flashbacks), and its effect on his marriage--in fact, it is this personal angle that dominates the film. But while the toll his work has taken on his health, his faith, his family, and his very sanity is obvious, he also knows that it is far too important to ignore. Creation is not a documentary; liberties have been taken, and there are multiple sequences, including Darwin's nightmarish fever dreams, that are clearly the invention of the filmmakers. But Bettany and Connelly, who are a real-life couple, are both superb; the cinematography is gorgeous; and various scenes illustrating the notion of "survival of the fittest" in nature are riveting (there won't be a dry eye in the house when Darwin tells his dying daughter about the fate of an orangutan captured in Borneo). And! while the tone of the film would seem to favor science over religion, the DVD includes numerous bonus features in which both sides have their say. This one is not to be missed. --Sam Graham

Stills from Creation (Click for larger image) Real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly star as Charles Darwin and his wife in this biographical drama. Set before the publication of "On The Origin Of Species", 'Creation' finds Darwin grieving over the death of his daughter and feeling far away from his wife.More than 150 years after its publication, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species and its theory of natural selection remain the subject of much debate; the divide between those who accept Darwin's ideas as incontrovertible science and those who consider them blasphemous may be wider now than ever. Released in 2009, director Jon Amiel's Creation goes right to the heart of the matter--indeed, right to the heart of Darwin himself. As portrayed by Paul Bettany, the Darwin who has returned to England following his voyage aboard HMS Beagle is a man for whom "deeply conflicted" is a barely adequate descr! iption. Well aware his theory is "perhaps the most powerful idea ever to occur to a human mind," he is caught between the scientists who insist that he has "killed God" and the religious conservatives, including his wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly), who counter that his very soul will be in peril if he finishes and publishes his book. What's more, he is haunted, sometimes literally, by the death of his favorite child, Annie (seen in frequent flashbacks), and its effect on his marriage--in fact, it is this personal angle that dominates the film. But while the toll his work has taken on his health, his faith, his family, and his very sanity is obvious, he also knows that it is far too important to ignore. Creation is not a documentary; liberties have been taken, and there are multiple sequences, including Darwin's nightmarish fever dreams, that are clearly the invention of the filmmakers. But Bettany and Connelly, who are a real-life couple, are both superb; the cinematog! raphy is gorgeous; and various scenes illustrating the notion ! of "surv ival of the fittest" in nature are riveting (there won't be a dry eye in the house when Darwin tells his dying daughter about the fate of an orangutan captured in Borneo). And while the tone of the film would seem to favor science over religion, the DVD includes numerous bonus features in which both sides have their say. This one is not to be missed. --Sam Graham

Stills from Creation (Click for larger image)

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Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization

• ISBN13: 9781583227305
• Condition: New
• Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Greece isn't the only country drowning in debt. The Debt Supercycleâ€"when the easily managed, decades-long growth of debt results in a massive sovereign debt and credit crisisâ€"is affecting developed countries around the world, including the United States. For these countries, there are only two options, and neither is goodâ€"restructure the debt or reduce it through austerity measures. Endgame details the Debt Supercycle and the sovereign debt crisis, and shows that, while there are no good choices, the worst choice would be to ignore the deleveraging resulting from the credit crisis. The book:

• Reveals why the world economy is in for an extended period of sluggis! h growth, high unemployment, and volatile markets punctuated by persistent recessions
• Reviews global markets, trends in population, government policies, and currencies

Around the world, countries are faced with difficult choices. Endgame provides a framework for making those choices.

Q&A with Authors John Mauldin and Jonathan Tepper

Author John Mauldin

What is the debt supercycle?
Over a period of about sixty years, debt levels grew faster than incomes. This increase in debt became particularly pronounced in the 1980s, 90s a! nd finally went parabolic after the Federal Reserve lowere! d intere st rates to 1% after the Nasdaq crash. The increase in debt was not just a US phenomenon. As interest rates fell structurally with the fall in inflation from 1982 onwards, people took on more debt because it became more manageable. However, by 2008 the burden of debt became too much to bear and the debt supercycle came to an end. People started deleveraging and banks started collapsing due to low levels of capital and large losses from loans people couldn't pay back.

How does the sovereign debt crisis play into this?
The rapid contraction in debt levels due to default and deleveraging lead to a fall in economic activity as people started saving and cutting spending. Governments immediately stepped in and backed bank debt with explicit guarantees. Governments also started borrowing and spending to transfer money to the private sector, for example via unemployment insurance. So in a very real sense, private borrowing was replaced wit! h public borrowing. Debt was added onto more debt. Rather than free itself of debt, the system now has more debt. The sovereign debt crisis is the recognition that most of this debt will not be paid back, and governments are making promises to pay debt and other obligations, for example general spending and pensions, that they simply lack the ability to fulfill.

What is the impact of the end of the debt supercycle?

Author Jonathan Tepper

The end of the debt supercycle and the beginning of the sovereign debt crisis present problems and challenges for investors and governments. Governments will need to either 1) inflate, 2) default or 3) d! evalue, which is similar to inflate. That is the way governme! nts have historically dealt with too much debt. Some countries will experience deflation and others inflation, depending on what choices governments make. Currently governments have only bad and worse choices. Let's hope they can choose wisely.

What do you predict for the next ten years?
Central banks globally have shown a predisposition to print money to solve problems. We forsee rising inflation in many parts of the world, reductions in real income as people lose purchasing power due to higher food and fuel prices and more macroeconomic volatility. Some countries that do not control their own money supply or are running pegs may experience deflation as they are forced to delever and cannot increase the money supply to counteract the weight of deleveraging.

You cite the events in Greece as an example of a country continuing to run massive deficits. Is there an example of a country making a better choice?
The UK is making some of the right steps to control spending, but even the UK could be more draconian. In nominal and real terms, government spending in aggregate will not be cut in the UK. Also, Iceland has made positive steps by defaulting on its debt effectively. Default is a good way to cure too much debt.
Endgame is acclaimed biographer Frank Brady’s decades-in-the-making tracing of the meteoric ascentâ€"and confounding descentâ€"of enigmatic genius Bobby Fischer.  Only Brady, who met Fischer when the prodigy was only 10 and shared with him some of his most dramatic triumphs, could have written this book, which has much to say about the nature of American celebrity and the distorting effects of fame.  Drawing from Fischer family archives, recently released FBI files, and Bobby’s own emails, this account is unique in that it limns Fischer’s entire lifeâ€"an odyssey that took the Brooklyn-raised chess champion from a! n impoverished childhood to the covers of Time, Life an! d New sweek to recognition as “the most famous man in the world” to notorious recluse.
 
At first all one noticed was how gifted Fischer was.  Possessing a 181 I.Q. and remarkable powers of concentration, Bobby memorized hundreds of chess books in several languages, and he was only 13 when he became the youngest chess master in U.S. history.   But his strange behavior started early.  In 1972, at the historic Cold War showdown in Reykjavik, Iceland, where he faced Soviet champion Boris Spassky, Fischer made headlines with hundreds of petty demands that nearly ended the competition.
 
It was merely a prelude to what was to come.
 
Arriving back in the United States to a hero’s welcome, Bobby was mobbed wherever he wentâ€"a figure as exotic and improbable as any American pop culture had yet produced.  No player of a mere “board game” had ever ascended to such heights.  Commercial sponsorship offers poured in, ultimately topping $10 mil! lionâ€"but Bobby demurred.  Instead, he began tithing his limited money to an apocalyptic religion and devouring anti-Semitic literature. 
 
After years of poverty and a stint living on Los Angeles’ Skid Row, Bobby remerged in 1992 to play Spassky in a multi-million dollar rematchâ€"but the experience only deepened a paranoia that had formed years earlier when he came to believe that the Soviets wanted him dead for taking away “their” title.  When the dust settled, Bobby was a wanted manâ€"transformed into an international fugitive because of his decision to play in Montenegro despite U.S. sanctions.  Fearing for his life, traveling with bodyguards, and wearing a long leather coat to ward off knife attacks, Bobby lived the life of a celebrity fugitive â€" one drawn increasingly to the bizarre.  Mafiosi, Nazis, odd attempts to breed an heir who could perpetuate his chess-genius DNAâ€"all are woven into his late-life tapestry.
 
And yet, as B! rady shows, the most notable irony of Bobby Fischer’s strang! e descen t â€" which had reached full plummet by 2005 when he turned down yet another multi-million dollar paydayâ€"is that despite his incomprehensible behavior, there were many who remained fiercely loyal to him.  Why that was so is at least partly the subject of this bookâ€"one that at last answers the question: “Who was Bobby Fischer?”Amazon Best Books of the Month, February 2011: There may be no one more qualified than Frank Brady to write the definitive biography of Bobby Fischer. Brady's Profile of a Prodigy (originally published in 1969) chronicled the chess icon's early years, a selection of 90 games, and (in later editions) his 1972 World Championship match with Boris Spassky. With Endgame, published two years after Fischer's death, Brady's on-and-off proximity to Fischer lends new depth to the latter's full and twisted life story. Though Fischer's pinnacle artistry on the chessboard may often be discussed in the same br! eath with his eventual paranoia and outspoken anti-Semitism, the particular turns and travels of his post-World Championship years (half his life) lend his story most of its vexing oddity: the niggling insistence on seemingly arbitrary conditions for his matches, the years on the lam after flagrantly disregarding U.S. economic sanctions, his incarceration in Japan, his eventual citizenship and quiet demise in Iceland. All told, Fischer's life was like none other, and told through the lens of Brady's personal familiarity and access to new source material, results in an utterly engaging read. --Jason Kirk

Guest Reviewer: Dick Cavett

Dick Cavett is the host of ! “The Dick Cavett Show”---which aired on ABC from 1968 to 1! 975 and on public television from 1977 to 1982---Dick Cavett is the author, most recently, of Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets. The co-author of Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), he has also appeared on Broadway in Otherwise Engaged and Into the Woods, and as narrator in The Rocky Horror Show, and has made guest appearances in movies and on TV shows including Forrest Gump and The Simpsons. His column appears in the Opinionator blog on The New York Times website. Mr. Cavett lives in New York City and Montauk, N.Y.

Even if you don’t give a damn about chess, or Bobby Fischer, you’ll find yourself engrossed by Frank Brady‘s book about Fischer, which reads like a novel.

The facts of Bobby’s life (I knew him from several memorable appearances on “The Dick Cavett Show” on both sides of the Big Tournament) are presented in page-turne! r fashion. Poor Bobby was blessed and cursed by his genius, and his story has the arc of a Greek tragedy---with a grim touch of mad King Lear at the end.

The brain power and concentrated days and nights Bobby spent studying the game left much of him undeveloped, unable to join conversations on other subjects. Later in his life, unhappy with his limited knowledge of things beyond the chess board, he compensated with massive study---applying that same hard-butt dedication to other fields: politics, classics, religion, philosophy and more. He found a hide-away nook in a Reykjavic bookstore---barred from his homeland, Iceland had welcomed him back---where he read in marathon sessions. (After he was recognized, he never went back to his cozy cul de sac.)

In Brady’s telling the high drama of the Spassky match quickens the pulse; the contest that made America a chess-crazed land was seen by more people than the Superbowl. People skipped school and played sick ! in vast numbers, glued to watching Shelby Lyman explain what w! as happe ning. The fanaticism was worldwide. The match was seen as a Cold War event, with the time out of mind chess-ruling Russian bear vanquished.

Arguably the best known man on the planet at his triumphant peak, Bobby is later seen in this account riding buses in Los Angeles, able to pay his rent in a dump of an apartment only because his mother sent him her social-security checks. The details of all this are stranger than fiction, as is nearly everything in the life of this much-rewarded, much-tortured genius.

I liked him immensely, knowing only the tall, broad-shouldered, athletically strong and handsome six-foot-something articulate and yes, witty, youth that Bobby was before the evil times set in, with deranged anti-Semitic outbursts and other mental strangeness preceding his too early end at age 64.

I can’t ever forget the moment on the show when in amiable conversation I asked him what, in chess, corresponded to the thrill in another sort of event;! like, say, hitting a homer in baseball. He said it was the moment when you “break the other guy’s ego.” There was a shocked murmur from the audience and the quote went around the world.

Frank Brady’s Endgame is one of those books that makes you want your dinner guests to go the hell home so you can get back to it.

The long-awaited companion piece to Derrick Jensen's immensely popular and highly acclaimed works A Language Older Than Words and The Culture of Make Believe. Accepting the increasingly widespread belief that industrialized culture inevitably erodes the natural world, Endgame sets out to explore how this relationship impels us towards a revolutionary and as-yet undiscovered shift in strategy. Building on a series of simple but increasingly provocative premises, Jensen leaves us hoping for what may be inevitable: a return to agrarian communal life via the disintegration of civilization itself.

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Medicom Ultra Detail Figure: Hostel Action Figure

• Based off of Eli Roth's sensational film, Hostel
• Imported from Japan
• Measures nearly 7" tall
• Includes variant parts
• Includes detailed helmet and apron

No Description Available.
Genre: Horror
Rating: UN
Release Date: 23-OCT-2007
Media Type: DVDWith repulsion levels at least comparable to Cannibal Holocaust, Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast, and other gory slasher landmarks, Eli Roth's Hostel 2 reconfigures ideas of violence to test how down and dirty a horror film can get. The film raises the stakes, leaving those who wish to make a sicker film out in the lurch for the time being. This sequel, like the first Hostel, is set in and around a Slovakian factory where European students are kidnapped, tortured, and killed by rich businessmen who pay enormous sums to experience death firsthand. An in! ternational elite, all tattooed with a bulldog insignia, bid on young people to slaughter in a mob-organized, high-end, sex-slave trade catering to those with a death fetish. In Hostel 2, three girls from Rome, Beth (Laura German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), are lured to Slovakia by a sultry, vampiric hottie (Vera Jordonova) who modeled for them in figure drawing class. Sidetracked and disoriented by some Pagan Slovakian festivals and luxurious hot springs, the girls slip away one by one, until the film moves inside the torture chambers. One client sits in a bathtub beneath her victim, who she slices with a scythe to bathe in blood, Elizabeth Bathory-style. Body parts fly as clients entering the facilities select their weapons of choice in a room full of knives, power tools, and rubber clothing. As ridiculous as it sounds, haunting soundtrack and cinematography set a disturbing mood. Morbid humor, for example when a chainsaw unplugs cent! imeters from a victim's face, pays homage to Hostel 2's! schlock y predecessors. Fortunately, one survivor remains, providing an ounce of vengeful, and sexy, satisfaction. As in the best exploitation films, gratuitous sex and violence are the norm here. What will be a warning to some to avoid this gruesome movie will be to others a cue to head straight to the theater. --Trinie DaltonHephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We believe books such as this represent a new and exciting lexicon in the sharing of human knowledge. This particular book contains chapters focused on Films set in Slovakia, and Hostel films.HOSTEL PART II - Blu-Ray MovieWith repulsion levels at least comparable to Cannibal Holocaust, Herschell Gordon Lewis' Blood Feast, and other gory slasher landmarks, Eli Roth's Hostel 2 reconfigures ideas of violence to test how down and dirty a horror film can get. The film raises the stakes, leaving those who wish to make a sicker film out in the lurch for the time being. This sequel, like the first Hostel, is set in and around a Slovakian factory where European students are kidnapped, tortured, and killed by rich businessmen who pay enormous sums to experience death firsthand. An international elite, all tattooed with a bulldog insignia, bid on young people to slaughter in a mob-organized, high-end, sex-slave trade catering to those with a death fetish. In Hostel 2, three girls from Rome, Beth (Laura German), Whitney (Bijou Phillips), and Lorna (Heather Matarazzo), are lured to Slovakia by a sultry, vampiric hottie (Vera Jordonova) who modeled for them in figure drawing class. Sidetracked and disoriented by som! e Pagan Slovakian festivals and luxurious hot springs, the gir! ls slip away one by one, until the film moves inside the torture chambers. One client sits in a bathtub beneath her victim, who she slices with a scythe to bathe in blood, Elizabeth Bathory-style. Body parts fly as clients entering the facilities select their weapons of choice in a room full of knives, power tools, and rubber clothing. As ridiculous as it sounds, haunting soundtrack and cinematography set a disturbing mood. Morbid humor, for example when a chainsaw unplugs centimeters from a victim's face, pays homage to Hostel 2's schlocky predecessors. Fortunately, one survivor remains, providing an ounce of vengeful, and sexy, satisfaction. As in the best exploitation films, gratuitous sex and violence are the norm here. What will be a warning to some to avoid this gruesome movie will be to others a cue to head straight to the theater. --Trinie DaltonImported from Japan! From Medicom of Japan comes this latest release in their "Ultra Detail Figure" series, the helme! ted torturer from Eli Roth's cult horror sensation, Hostel! Measuring nearly 7" tall, this figure features realistic detailing, including a detailed Helmet and Apron, plus variant parts!

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The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Movie (Holding Guns) Poster Print - 24x36 Poster Print, 24x36

• Poster Title: The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Movie (Holding Guns) Poster Print - 24x36
• Size: 24 x 36 inches

From Troy Duffy, writer and director of The Boondock Saints, comes the much anticipated sequel to the tough, stylized cutting edge saga of the MacManus brothers (Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery). The two have been in deep hiding with their father, Il Duce (Billy Connolly), in the quiet valleys of Ireland, far removed from their former vigilante lives. When word comes that a beloved priest has been killed by sinister forces from deep within the mob, the brothers return to Boston to mount a violent and bloody crusade to bring justice to those responsible. With a new partner in crime (Clifton Collins Jr., Star Trek) and a sexy FBI operative (Julie Benz, TV's Dexter) hot on their trail…the Saints are back!A cult phenomenon returns with The Boondock Sai! nts II: All Saints Day. The vigilante MacManus brothers (Sean Patrick Flanery and Norman Reedus, reprising their roles from the first movie) have retired to Ireland, but a copycat killing of a Boston priest brings them back to dish out their unique brand of quasi-spiritual justice. The story line doesn't differ much from the first movie; the brothers have a new sidekick (Clifton Collins Jr., Capote) and a new pursuer, FBI agent Eunice Bloom (Julie Benz of Dexter, striving to take the place of Willem Dafoe from the original), but it's basically a series of shootouts in which the brothers pop up "unexpectedly" and blast a bunch of cartoonish criminals to pieces. The Boondock Saints was not a good movie, but it had a weird, unique energy--you couldn't tell if the movie took itself so seriously that it was ludicrous or if it was mocking itself while reveling in its absurd extravagances. All Saints Day has the same ridiculous swagger and baroque m! acho dialogue, but this time the spark is missing (with the ex! ception of Collins, who brings all his dependable live-wire energy). Some cult fans will be disappointed, but others will still find things to enjoy. Also featuring Scottish comedian Billy Connolly (reprising his role as the elder MacManus), Judd Nelson (The Breakfast Club), and Peter Fonda (Easy Rider). --Bret Fetzer


Stills from Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day (Click for larger image)

Decorate your home or office with high quality posters. The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day Movie (Holding Guns) Poster Print - 24x36 is that perfect piece that matches your style, interests, and budget.

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