Amazon.com

It's hard to believe, but for the first three seasons nobody really knew that Seinfeldwas about, well, you know. It wasn't until season 4--unleashed here in a four-disc set that's equal in scope, quality, and quantity of bonus material to its predecessors--that the show really became something. In a series which can claim every installment as classic, the two-parter on disc 1 titled "The Pitch/The Ticket" truly stands out as a defining episode and, in retrospect, marked Seinfeld 4 as the breakthrough season. It's the one where (fake) NBC executives express their interest in working with Jerry Seinfeld on a TV show, then moves to the who's-on-first shtick of George successfully pitching Jerry on creating "a show about nothing." Scattered throughout the discs in commentaries by cast and creators and in numerous "Inside Look" documentaries, nearly everyone expresses some anxiety about the season having a story "arc" depicting Jerry and his "real" life becoming a sitcom. The show had been only marginally successful up to that point anyway, and with the edict, "no hugging, no learning," still in place, maybe messing with nothing was a bad idea. What makes the arc so arch is the self-reflexive way it details the reality of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David coming up with the concept and pitching it to (real) NBC executives as a show that really was about, well, you know. In one of the many informally informative interview segments, Jerry remembers hitting a stride during this time when a lot of crazy ideas started to make sense. "Everything was just a wild guess," he says, "and it takes a while to get confident that you're guessing pretty good. I think sometime in season 4 we realized we were guessing pretty good." Oh, that we could all be so good at nothing.

Season 4 also gave us the episodes "The Bubble Boy" ("He lives in a bubble!"), "The Pick" ("There was no pick!"), and, perhaps most memorably, "The Contest." Recalling how nervous he thought NBC might be about a show based on how long a person can remain--ahem--master of his domain, Larry David says that he kept the idea hidden for a long time. He may have had NBC sweating, but the episode goes by without anyone uttering the word that it's really about. The curmudgeonly David also observes that another famous season 4 episode, "The Outing," only made it on the air due to a network "note" about making sure it wouldn't be offensive to homosexuals. Hence we have the addition of another standard to the Seinfeld lexicon of American pop culture: "Not that there's anything wrong with that!" Not only wasn't there anything wrong with it, the episode won a GLAAD Media Award. Season 4 also brought Seinfeldits first Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series. Stay tuned for season 5 (and a move to the coveted Thursday-at-9 slot) when the volcano we now know was always brewing really blew its comedic top. --Ted Fry ... Read more

Reviews (56)

Breakout Season
Seinfeld season 4 is definately the breakout season. Season 1-3 were good, but don't even come close to touching season 4. With episodes like the emmy award winning episode "The Contest", "The Bubble Boy" and "The Smelly Car" Seinfeld showcases their creative genius. This is a must have gift for any seinfeld lover. To the customer who reviewed this show one star. Seinfeld may not be your comedy, you have to keep in mind everyone has different types of comedy. If a sitcom were completely realistic they wouldn't be as funny. Alot of the episodes are based on things that actually happened to the writers. I don't know if it was a joke that you don't like seinfeld or you really don't, but don't review the show to be incredibly stupid. You are obviously a very serious person and don't like to laugh thats all I can say

AWESOME!!!!!!!
OH MY GOD!! I LOVE THE 4th SEASON! This is one of the funniest Seinfeld seasons ever!! I have pros and cons about this season, I'll share them with you.

PROS: This season had more Kramer appearences!! For all you Kramer lovers, that must have been the best part of the season! (I admit it...I LOVE Kramer!)

Jerry's stand-up has gotten funnier than seasons one, two, and three.

This season has more "surprise humor" (the unexpected). Example: Jerry and George write a sitcom pilot for ABC, and both of them don't really think it's funny enough, but they bring it in to show the ABC producers anyway. But when Jerry and George show it to the producers, they end up roaring!! They love it! I wasn't expecting that!!

Another pro is, Jerry was so funny, that I'm starting to imitate his material!! (Not stealing, imitating.) Like, I'm starting to say things like, "Not like there's anything wrong with that", and things like that.

Now for the cons.

Cons: This season was too mature. I didn't like all the sexual stuff, and all the cussing.

Now for my recommendations.

I would recommend this season of Seinfeld for Kramer lovers. I would also recommend this for anyone who likes to just let loose and laugh 'til the cows come home...ok, not THAT long, but it sounds good! Or maybe laugh 'til you fall off your seat!

I would NOT recommend this season for people younger then 13, or people who don't approve of cussing and sexuality.

OK, overall, this is one of the best seasons of Seinfeld ever!! BUY IT TODAY!!

the best season ever
widely regarded as the best season ever in the history of TV- seinfeld season 4 changed our lives

Excellent!
This is THE BEST TV box set I have EVER purchased.High quality media, packaging, and special features make this something that I've been watching on a day to day basis since its release.The second I opened the box I had to sit through and watch every episode at once before I could rest.

Seinfeld has been around for ages and has always been one of the greatest shows, but this season really jump started the program and gave viewers something new to get a better understanding of the show and its focus on...well, nothing.

If you plan on purchasing any season of Seinfeld, but are not sure about quality, or the show itself, start with Season 4, and I guarantee you will immediately own Season's 1-3 as well.

Question de goût!
Au contraire de notre ami au commentaire accerbe qui aimerait bien frapper les amateurs de Seinfeld, j'ai moi adoré la saison 4, celle ou vraiment le show commence a s'affirmer! L'humour de Seinfeld est particulier, et la question ici n'est pas de savoir si on tolererait une personne qui agit comment eux agissent, mais plutot de realiser la justesse avec laquelle les auteurs de cette série dédramatisent la vie quotidienne. ... Read more

Amazon.com

An elite U.S. counter-terrorism squad loses a member while decimating half of Paris in the reckless pursuit of Middle Eastern maniacs; a Broadway actor with a traumatic childhood secret is naturally hired to replace him. Oh--and they're all marionettes. South Park maestros Trey Parker and Matt Stone (along with co-writer Pam Brady) came up with this shameless satire of pea-brained Hollywood action flicks and even smaller-minded global politics, so don't expect subtlety or even a hint of good taste. Team America is soon on the trail of North Korea's evil Kim Jong Il, who treats us to a tender song about his loneliness before ensnaring Alec Baldwin and the rest of the oblivious Film Actors Guild (F.A.G. for short) in a plot to blow up every major city on the planet. Just as the mindless squad cheerfully demolishes everything in sight, so do director Parker and company. Throwing punches Left, Right, and in-between, the movie's politics leave no turn un-stoned; there's even time to bludgeon the musical Rent. It's offensive, irresponsible comic anarchy seemingly made by sniggering little boys. Painfully funny sniggering little boys.--Steve Wiecking ... Read more

Reviews (249)

"Team America"....f*ck yes.
Alot of people will dig this movie. It's accessable to mainstream audiences whether or not they get beyond the surface humor that might have linked "Team America" back to "Basketball", but it's also damn smart on so many different levels. There's the obvious connotations of the marionettes, but they've done so much more than strip bare the Hollywood blockbusters that too many people can watch with a straight face while the rest of us stand outside the theater gagging; they've displayed the cheesiness that seeped out of michael bay movies into the modern American mentallity. During no other 20th century war has cliche fiction had so many striking similarities to our hero-enemy soap opera ideas of what liberty is. But is the patriotism of the right really reminiscent of the hot blooded Reagan-era action flicks this film spoofs? Is the media role-playing of the left the result of Hollywood refusing to leave childish namecalling and immature ideology to elementary school playgrounds? Well, it's never seemed so familiar and never felt so much like there's been a mudslinging contest with the tactics and wit of a simple puppet show going on right under our noses.

"From the Guys who brought you SouthPark"...
That says it all right there, if you are unfamiliar with the now infamous landmark of the Comedy Central channel on cable, 'Southpark' are basically poorly drawn children characters that curse and make bodily function jokes at each other all day. The aim of it's creators is to basically smash every barrier of good taste and offend every group in society that they can, but where do you go from there? Team America functions along the same lines. The puppets in here are amazingly filmed, and I would recommend you see the way they look on screen. However, only see this film if you are a liberal and have a healthy sense of humor. There are a lot of infantile jokes, gross out humor and some very, very offensive material, often in poor taste. There's plenty of harsh language and this film is definitely not for children. I don't offend easily, but I even turned away during the puppet making love scene, in which they mimic all sexual positions and then go too far I feel, in showing the puppets deficate and urinate on each other. The premise of the film is obviously poking fun at Bush and the war on terror and a thinly veiled way of saying that we often poke our nose in other countries affairs. No one is left unoffended in this film. I would mainly say that if you like that Southpark
type of humor, this is your film. If that type of humor offends you, stay far away from this film.

Disgusting!
I thought this movie was going to be very funny, but I should have known better, being created by the people of south park. This was one of the worst things I have ever seen. The movie was filthy, the language grotesque, extremely perverse and total garbage!
The creators, producers and anyone involved in this movie should be extremely ashamed of themselves.
This movie should have been rated X or XXX.
If this is your version of what America should be then i feel terribly sorry for you.
Even if this IS your type of movie, it wasn't even funny.
Don't subject yourself to watching this blight on humanity.
0 starts!

I have not laughed as hard all year as I did at the scene...
...involving all the vomit. The sex scene got all the attention from critics and pundits but for my money, the extended regurgitation scene took the prize.I realize some people probably found it disgusting but they were probably watching the wrong movie.

And maybe I'm just jaded but I actually didn't think it was as raunchy as it's rep proclaimed.There's actually kind of a sweet undercurrent to the whole thing, despite the fact that it's basically making fun of the left, right and everyone in between.

Another highlight: Kim Jong Il's musical number.In fact, all the songs were dead-on parodies.You really have to pay attention to pop country anthems to nail them the way Parker and Stone did.

The extra features on the disc are pretty good, too.I never thought watching puppeteers could be so interesting.

Kinda Funny
3 and a half stars for me, please. There is no real reason for this to be uncensored, but it just did not turn out to be as funny as I hoped. Don't get me wrong...it's still entertaining. This is how things are when you mix terrorism with celebrities and Kim Jong Il with marionettes. That's it. All I can really say is that I'm at a total loss to describe this movie. I can relate most to Kim Jong Il's feelings............


"MATT DAMON!!" ... Read more

Amazon.com

From Hollywood's legendary Cocoanut Grove to the pioneering conquest of the wild blue yonder, Martin Scorsese's The Aviator celebrates old-school filmmaking at its finest. We say "old school" only because Scorsese's love of golden-age Hollywood is evident in his approach to his subject--Howard Hughes in his prime (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his)--and especially in his technical mastery of the medium reflecting his love for classical filmmaking of the studio era. Even when he's using state-of-the-art digital trickery for the film's exciting flight scenes (including one of the most spectacular crashes ever filmed), Scorsese's meticulous attention to art direction and costume design suggests an impassioned pursuit of craftsmanship from a bygone era; every frame seems to glow with gilded detail. And while DiCaprio bears little physical resemblance to Hughes during the film's 20-year span (late 1920s to late '40s), he efficiently captures the eccentric millionaire's golden-boy essence, and his tragic descent into obsessive-compulsive seclusion. Bolstered by Cate Blanchett's uncannily accurate portrayal of Katharine Hepburn as Hughes' most beloved lover, The Aviator is easily Scorsese's most accessible film, inviting mainstream popularity without compromising Scorsese's artistic reputation. As compelling crowd-pleasers go, it's a class act from start to finish. --Jeff Shannon

DVD Features
In his commentary track, director Martin Scorsese offers his own impressions of Howard Hughes and rattles off his memories of experiencing Hughes's films.He mentions how he made Cate Blanchett watch every Katharine Hepburn film from the '30s on the big screen, and observes that Kate Beckinsale had "a real sense of the stature of a Hollywood goddess."But in general he doesn't talk much about the craft of making the film.That area is covered better by editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who also appears on the commentary track, and producer Michael Mann makes a few appearances (all were recorded separately).The picture is brilliant, but the 5.1 sound is not as aggressive in the rear speakers and subwoofer as one might expect, other than some nice surround effects in the Hell's Angels flying sequence.

The second disc collects almost three hours of features.There's one unnecessary