Martial arts genius Jet Li explodes onto the screen with an intensity not seen since Bruce Lee. "Kiss of the Dragon" is not merely a thriller but a shocker. (San Francisco Chronicle) China's top secret agent visits Paris on a pleasure trip only to encounter government espionage at the highest level. "Li's action sequences are like an oil fire, spilling from one room into the next and lighing up in the interiors with heat and wreakage"! (The New York Times) Let's face it: No one is usually checking a Jet Li movie for the verbal sparring. In Kiss of the Dragon, Chinese undercover agent Li chops his way through Paris after he's framed in some sketchily defined drug sting operation. The fight sequences are tough and quite brutal, and the over-the-top finale is arguably worth the price of admission, wherein an implacable Li takes on the entire Paris Police Bureau, working his way up toward police chief Tchéky Karyo's office through cops, a pair of peroxide-blond twin henchmen, and a whole class of kung fu cadets. Co-screenwriter Luc Besson (La Femme Nikita) should know by now what makes for a nifty genre piece, but the woeful dialogue is a shame, and there aren't nearly enough action sequences to get your blood boiling. Poor Bridget Fonda gives it the old school try in a thankless role as an ex-junkie prostitute from the Midwest whose young daughter is being held captive by duplicitous police chief/drug lord/pimp Karyo (who fairly inhales the scenery). Director Chris Nolan might have pushed further the strangers-in-a-strange-land camaraderie between Li and Fonda, but the script still would've sunk him. -Steve Wiecking.

Chazz Palminteri wrote the script for this excellent story of an Italian American boy (Lillo Brancato) who grows up in the 1960s caught between the strong influences of his blue-collar, straight- arrow father (Robert De Niro) and a Mafia chieftain (Palminteri) who is his all-purpose mentor. De Niro makes his directorial debut with this production and, except for a little stiffness, does very well by the characters and their world. The story does not go precisely where one might expect it to go: Palminteri knows better than to force the central figure to choose between the two most important men in his life, and he doesn't fill time with stock drama about crime or family conflict. Joe Pesci makes an extremely effective and uncredited appearance at the end as a man who doesn't have to do more than speak softly to communicate how dangerous he is. -Tom Keogh.

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet first entered service in May of 1951 and continued in service with the U. S. Air Force's Strategic Air Command untill December of 1967. A total of 2,041 B-47's of all varations were built during the twenty years it saw service during the Cold War. The B-47 served in various roles. Using archival film, you will witness this outstanding aircraft and it's early desigrn history, training, and introduction into squadron service with SAC.

An impressively rigorous, unsentimental, and harrowing look at combat during World War II, Band of Brothers follows a company of airborne infantry-Easy Company-from boot camp through the end of the war. The brutality of training takes the audience by increments to the even greater brutality of the war; Easy Company took part in some of the most difficult battles, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the failed invasion of Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the liberation of a concentration camp and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. But what makes these episodes work is not their historical sweep but their emphasis on riveting details (such as the rattle of a plane as the paratroopers wait to leap, or a flower in the buttonhole of a German soldier) and procedures (from military tactics to the workings of bureaucratic hierarchies). The scope of this miniseries (10 episodes, plus an actual documentary filled with interviews with surviving veterans) allows not only a thoroughness impossible in a two-hour movie, but also captures the wide range of responses to the stress and trauma of war-fear, cynicism, cruelty, compassion, and all-encompassing confusion. The result is a realism that makes both simplistic judgments and jingoistic enthusiasm impossible; the things these soldiers had to do are both terrible and understandable, and the psychological price they paid is made clear. The writing, directing, and acting are superb throughout. The cast is largely unknown, emphasizing the team of actors as a whole unit, much like the regiment; Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston play the central roles of two officers with grit and intelligence. Band of Brothers turns a vast historical event into a series of potent personal experiences; it's a deeply engrossing and affecting accomplishment. -Bret Fetzer.

Short of Top Gun, this could be the definitive boys movie of the 1980s. An 18-year-old (Jason Gedrick) gets instruction from an old vet (Louis Gossett Jr. ) in how to fly an F-16 jet and kick butt in the Middle East, all while listening to his Walkman and-oh, yeah-saving his father from terrorist clutches. Gossett wears his tough-love face while the kids run rampant. Speaking of kids, young guys must like this comic-book movie, as its success spawned three sequels. But watch out for the Reagan-era jingoism and political reductiveness. -Tom Keogh.

The British superspy with a license to kill takes on his dark underworld double, a classy assassin who kills with golden bullets at $1 million a hit. Roger Moore, in his second outing as James Bond, meets Christopher Lee's Scaramanga, one of the most magnetic villains in the entire series, in this entertaining but rather wan entry in the 007 sweepstakes. Bond's globetrotting search takes him to Hong Kong, Bangkok, and finally China, where Scaramanga turns his island retreat into a twisted theme park for a deadly game of wits between the gunmen, moderated by Scaramanga's diminutive man Friday Nick Nack (Fantasy Island's Hervé Villechaize). Britt Ekland does her best as the most embarrassingly inept Bond girl in 007 history, a clumsy, dim agent named Mary Goodnight who looks fetching in a bikini, while Maud Adams is Scaramanga's tough but haunted lover and assistant (she returns to the series as the title character in Octopussy). Clifton James, the redneck sheriff from Live and Let Die, makes an embarrassing and ill-advised appearance as a racist tourist who briefly teams up with 007 in what is otherwise the film's highlight, a high-energy chase through the crowded streets of Bangkok that climaxes with a breathtaking midair corkscrew jump. Bond and company are let down by a lazy script, but Moore balances the overplayed humor with a steely performance and Lee's charm and enthusiasm makes Scaramanga a cool, deadly, and thoroughly enchanting adversary. -Sean Axmaker.

A boy (Jesse Bradford) and his yellow Labrador are marooned on a wilderness island in British Columbia and must find their way home through uncharted forests. This is a story about friendship and personal strength, focusing on the relationship between a boy and his dog as they battle the elements, the terrain and, of course, wild animals in their effort to find their way home and survive their harsh surroundings. Director Philip Borsos has a nice eye for those Ansel Adams-like moments-but scenery only carries a movie so far and this movie asks too much. Though relatively short at 81 minutes, it still feels long. -Marshall Fine.