An archaeologist travels to the Egyptian pyramids to search for treasure and finds herself embroiled in a murder mystery. A sudsy second cousin to exotic-locale thrillers like Charade, Franklin J. Schaffner's Sphinx offers a pleasant popcorn blend of old-school serial excitement and paperback-novel romance. Lesley-Anne Down (looking lovely as always) is top-billed as an archaeologist searching for the lost (and cursed, naturally) tomb of a king in Egypt. After witnessing the murder of a local expert (John Gielgud), Down becomes the target of assassins; Frank Langella is on hand as a handsome stranger who generates sparks with the good doctor as he attempts to help her locate the tomb. The Egyptian locations provide a picturesque backdrop for this film adaptation of the serviceable novel by Robin Cook; the cast (which includes John Rhys-Davies, who returned to the region that same year in Raiders of the Lost Ark) is also attractive and definitely game to navigate the story's pulpy machinery. -Paul Gaita.

Philo Beddoe (Clint Eastwood) is back in this sequel to Every Which Way but Loose, once again brawling to make ends meet and just trying to manage his life with a crazy mother (Ruth Gordon), a dimwitted best friend (Geoffrey Lewis) and, of course, Clyde the Orangutan. He's had enough of this life, but when a mobster (Harry Guardino) comes along to make him an offer he can't refuse, Philo must use his wits as well as his fists to get himself out of yet another jam. The humor is thin and sporadic (though Gordon is in fine form), and Eastwood has since gone on to better things; but a film that features a brawl with a monkey and a motorcycle gang can't be all bad. -Robert Lane.

Band of the Hand was executive-produced by Miami Vice creator Michael Mann, but this violent relic of the '80s begs for a smarter script and Mann's directorial flair. Instead it's got TV's "Starsky"-Paul Michael Glaser-seemingly asleep at the wheel, barely controlling a rainbow coalition of bad actors as punky Florida jailbirds, given a second chance when they're dropped into the treacherous everglades and whipped into a crack unit of urban warriors by a gruff marine (Stephen Lang) who supervises their juvenile "reform. " One of the reluctant recruits has a girlfriend (fresh-faced newcomer Lauren Holly) who's tied up with local drug lords (Larry Fishburne, James Remar), and the inevitable showdown offers guerilla warfare in pastel shades. Wretched dialogue and lackluster action don't stop this from being a Vice-like guilty pleasure, populated by garishly costumed stereotypes and ending like the pilot for a TV series that never happened. Even the DVD liner notes admit the movie is "infamous"; accepted on those terms, it's a hoot. -Jeff Shannon.

It took 11 years for the sequel to The Blue Lagoon to materialize. In the naturalistic, romanticized world conjured by the films, however, one begins where the other ended. Although Emmeline and Richard die at sea, their son is rescued by a passing ship and taken in by widowed mother Sarah (Lisa Pelikan). When the crew comes down with cholera, Sarah leaves the ship with daughter Lilli and Richard Jr. They wash up on a familiar island in the South Pacific-the "blue lagoon" of the earlier film. Sarah raises the urchins as best she can but succumbs to illness after a few years on the island. The story line then echoes that of the original film. The cute kids become attractive teenagers (model-turned-actress Milla Jovovich and Brian Krause) and friendship turns to wariness, eventually blossoming into love. That love is tested when they're-finally-granted the opportunity to return to civilization. -Kathleen C. [+]

One is compelled to say, in these Politically Correct times, that Northwest Passage takes a distinctly "unenlightened" view of the 18th-century American colonists' Indian neighbors. Then again, everything about the world portrayed in this early-Technicolor production is harsh: the repressive policies of the Crown-backed Boston magistrates, the expectations Maj. Robert Rogers (Spencer Tracy) has for his guerrilla warrior band, the bloodthirsty war-making by the Abenagi Indians (reciprocated in kind by the colonials), the ferocity of flood-swollen wilderness rivers, and the breathtaking, unforgiving vastness of the virgin forest in which, surrounded by beauty, Rogers's Rangers very nearly starve to death. As an action film, Northwest Passage peaks early with a predawn, retaliatory raid on an Indian village-horrific choreography by the master filmmaker who made The Big Parade. But the grim march back from this mission is too harrowing to call anticlimactic. Robert Young and Walter Brennan costar. -Richard T. Jameson.

Paul Schrader had established his reputation as a screenwriter (The Yakuza and Taxi Driver, among others) before embarking on his directorial debut. Blue Collar is the story of three working-class guys at the Checker auto plant who run their local union office. Richard Pryor delivers a funny, passionate, seething performance in one of his rare dramatic roles as a rabble-rousing union man. Trapped by family worries and crippling back taxes, he dreams up the robbery after scoping out the joint and enlists his coworker and buddies, family man Harvey Keitel and high-living bachelor Yaphet Kotto, who are in similar financial straits. This is a strictly amateur-hour heist, and their successful getaway is the last bit of good luck in store for the trio. The robbery turns up no cash, only incriminating files, and the inept thieves are soon blackmailing the powerful union, which fights back with force, seduction, and murder. Schrader's first film has little of the polish or style he developed by American Gigolo, but his portrait of lower middle class families in 1970s Detroit, interracial relations, and male camaraderie is sharp and insightful. His attention to detail shows in every frame and adds to the edgy material, which balances the thriller plot with social commentary about corruption, labor relations, and the lure of power. Schrader's later films show more subtlety and cinematic confidence, but time hasn't dimmed the power he unleashes in this angry working class drama. The DVD features commentary by Paul Schrader, his first such audio track, guided and prodded by critic Maitland McDonagh, who does her best to draw the director out of his long silences and launch him into his fascinating production stories. [+]