This visceral Southeast Asian battle drama is the film John Woo completed just before his commercial breakthrough with A Better Tomorrow in 1987. It was shelved for almost two years and then hastily released, to cash in on that film's startling success. Although not a fully coherent work, it is the film in which the director tried out the operatic, slo-mo approach to action that he perfected in his later pictures, so it's must viewing for Woo-philes. The setup is polished off in a quick prologue, as a squad of Chinese commandos is dispatched to smash a heroin ring in Thailand. The movie is pretty much nonstop action from that point on. The commandos find and kidnap the top drug smuggler, and then flee, pursued by an army of murderous goons. There are several long comic gambling scenes; it's the Deer Hunter's Russian roulette number played with dice instead of guns. Woo has always been a bold borrower of trope he admired in other movies. In this case the best sequence is lifted almost shot-for-shot from one of the Japanese Lone Wolf and Cub samurai movies: a plucky kid digging in the ground for safety when the baddies try to burn him out of his concealment in a grain field. -David Chute.

Brother Bear has a dramatic story-after he kills a bear, a young hunter named Kenai (voiced by Joaquin Phoenix, Gladiator) in prehistoric North America is turned into a bear himself and hunted by his own brother-but the animated movie's tone is more earnest and warm than tragic, focusing on the unfolding relationship between Kenai and an orphaned bear cub named Koda (voiced by Jeremy Suarez). However, it's often the comic supporting characters who prove the most popular, and a pair of moose voiced by Rick Moranis and Doug Thomas in their McKenzie brothers/Canadian dude mode (from SCTV and the movie Strange Brew) will win many fans. The songs by Phil Collins are typically negligible, but the hand-drawn animation is lush (occasional flashes of computer-generated animation clash with the movie's overall look). Kids will also enjoy the mammoths; no sabre-toothed tigers, unfortunately. -Bret Fetzer.

The Falcon's Brother: Gay Lawrence, amateur detective known as The Falcon, learns that his brother Tom has been reported murdered on a ship arriving from South America. Gay pursues the murderers, despite the fact that he knows his brother is still alive. When he is disabled, his brother Tom takes over the case, investigating a fashion magazine involved in secret activities with German infiltrators. The Saint In London: The Saint, newly back in London, is tipped by a friend in the Secret Service to a mystery involving one Bruno Lang, seemingly a Society card-sharp, but really involved in a plot to print and pass a million pounds worth of foreign currency. Also involved are various sinister characters; innocent victim Count Duni; the Saint's attractive admirer Penny Parker; and his old nemesis Inspector Teal.