American Beauty - BLU-RAY

Experience the celebrated film the Insider on Blu-ray for the first time with an all-new digital restoration. Nominated for 7 Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, and best actor, this gripping true-life drama features an astonishing cast, including Oscar-winners Al Pacino (best actor, 1992, Scent of a Woman), Russell Crowe (best actor, 2000, Gladiator) and Christopher Plummer (best supporting actor, 2010, Beginners). Witness the incredible chain of events that pitted an ordinary man against the tobacco industry and dragged two people into the fight of their lives. When former tobacco executive Dr. Jeffrey Wigand agrees to blow the whistle on the alleged unethical practices within the industry, and forms an alliance with veteran 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman, he starts an all-out war that could cost both men their reputations... and much, much more. Relive every unbelievable twist and turn like never before on Blu-ray.

AMERICAN BEAUTY tells the story of Lester Burnham (Kevin Spacey), a suburban father who snaps when he becomes disgusted with his stale, repetitive existence. Burnham let's us know in voice-over from the film's opening that this is the day he dies (using the SUNSET BOULEVARD flashback approach), a technique that adds an inevitable tension to the proceedings and keeps the story moving forward at all times. On a whim, Lester quits his job and begins a regression into young adulthood, lifting weights, smoking pot, doing nothing, and discovering the overflowing sexuality of his 16-year-old daughter's best friend, Angela (Mena Suvari). His wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening), has her own midlife crisis of sorts. A real estate agent, she experiences a youthful awakening when super-agent Buddy Kane (Peter Gallagher) seduces her repeatedly. Meanwhile, Jane (Thora Birch), the Burnhams' daughter, is pursued by Ricky (Wes Bentley), the mysterious boy next door who carries a video camera around with him at all times. When Ricky's militaristic father, Colonel Fitts (Chris Cooper), discovers something potentially horrifying on one of his tapes, and when Carolyn's rage for Lester's actions boils over, the time bomb finally explodes.

The search for rare diamonds found only near a dormant volcano in central Africa leads an eclectic team of adventurers-an electronics expert, a Romanian mogul, a primatologist returning a sign language-fluent gorilla to the wild, and their guide-on a danger-filled odyssey deep into the jungle, where a mysterious lost city guarded by killer apes awaits. Laura Linney, Dylan Walsh, Tim Curry, and Ernie Hudson star in this thrilling actioner based on the Michael Crichton novel. 109 min. Widescreen; Soundtrack English; Subtitles English (SDH); audio commentary; featurettes; image gallery; theatrical trailers.