Release date: 2002-12-12
Run time: 60 min.
List Price: $24.99
Price: $24.99
Review Navy Seals: Combat Pistol:
Release date: 2002-01-01
Run time: 60 min.
List Price: $24.99
Price: $24.99
Review Navy Seal - Red Cell:
Actors & Directors
- John Flynn
- Theresa Saldana
- Rudy Ramos
- Danny Aiello
- Jan-Michael Vincent
- Lenny Montana
List Price: $7.99
Price: $24.99
Review Defiance (Amazon.com Exclusive) / MGM/UA Video:An out of work merchant seaman single-handedly tames a powerful street gang that has been terrorizing his neighborhood on New York's Lower East Side.
Actors & Directors
- Paul Sanchez (II)
- Robert Zemeckis
- Leonid Citer
- David Allen Brooks
- Jelena Papovic
- Lari White
Run time: 143 min.
List Price: $34.98
Price: $28.28
Review Cast Away / 20th Century Fox:Tom Hanks "gives one of the towering screen performances of all time" (New York Post) as Chuck Noland, a FedEx systems engineer whose ruled-by-the-clock existence abruptly ends when a harrowing plane crash leaves him isolated on a remote island. As Chuck struggles to survive, he finds that his own personal journey has only just begun. Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act. It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend. " Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave. [+]It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene-which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise-offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. -Jeff Shannon Cast Away is a good movie that wants to be much better. While director Robert Zemeckis's earlier film Contact achieved a kind of mainstream spiritual significance, Cast Away falls just short of that goal. That may explain why the film's most emotionally powerful scene involves the loss of an inanimate object, even as it presents a heart-rending dilemma in its very human final act. It's three movies in one, beginning when punctuality-obsessed Federal Express systems engineer Chuck Noland (Tom Hanks) departs on Christmas Eve to escort an ill-fated flight of FedEx packages. Following a mid-Pacific plane crash, movie number two chronicles Chuck's four-year survival on a remote island, totally alone save for a Wilson volleyball (aptly named "Wilson") that becomes Chuck's closest "friend. " Movie number three leads up to Chuck's rescue and an awkward encounter with his ex-girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt, in a thankless role), for whom Chuck has seemingly risen from the grave. It's fascinating to witness Chuck's emerging survival skills, and Hanks's remarkable physical transformation is matched by his finely tuned performance. With slow, rhythmic camera moves and brilliant use of sound, Zemeckis wisely avoids the postcard prettiness of The Black Stallion and The Blue Lagoon to emphasize the harshness of Chuck's ascetic solitude, and this stylistic restraint allows Cast Away to resonate more than one might expect. Even the final scene-which feels like a crowd-pleasing compromise-offers hope without shoving it down our throats. You may not feel the emotional rush that you're meant to feel, but Cast Away remains a respectable effort. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- D.W. Griffith
- John Dillon
- Walter Long
- William Christy Cabanne
- Alfred Paget
- Alfred D. Sears
- Alfred D. Sears
Run time: 75 min.
List Price: $14.95
Price: $24.98
Review Martyrs of the Alamo (1915):
Release date: 2002-04-09
Run time: 255 min.
List Price: $42.98
Price: $24.99
Review Mummy Collection (2pc) / Universal Studios:
Release date: 1987-03-24
Price: $49.95
Review Return to Treasure Island: Vol. 4 Fugitives and in Chains / Baker & Taylor Video:
Actors & Directors
- Richard Lang
- William Lucking
- Mako
- Kerrie Keane
- Luke Askew
- David Carradine
Run time: 89 min.
Creator: Durrell Royce Crays
List Price: $14.98
Price: $39.99
Review Kung Fu / Warner Home Video:
Actors & Directors
- David Morse
- Peter Strauss
- Connie Sellecca
- Robert Mitchum
- James Sikking
- Marvin J. Chomsky
Run time: 240 min.
Creator: Gy Waldron
Price: $5.99
Review Brotherhood of the Rose / Starz / Anchor Bay:
Actors & Directors
- Jerry O'Connell
- Wil Wheaton
- Kiefer Sutherland
- River Phoenix
- Corey Feldman
- Rob Reiner
Review Stand by Me:A sleeper hit when released in 1986, Stand by Me is based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" (from the book Different Seasons); but it's more about the joys and pains of boyhood friendship than a morbid fascination with corpses. It's about four boys ages 12 and 13 (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell) who take an overnight hike through the woods near their Oregon town to find the body of a boy who's been missing for days. Their journey includes a variety of scary adventures (including a ferocious junkyard dog, a swamp full of leeches, and a treacherous leap from a train trestle), but it's also a time for personal revelations, quiet interludes, and the raucous comradeship of best friends. Set in the 1950s, the movie indulges an overabundance of anachronistic profanity and a kind of idealistic, golden-toned nostalgia (it's told in flashback as a story written by Wheaton's character as an adult, played by Richard Dreyfuss). But it's delightfully entertaining from start to finish, thanks to the rapport among its young cast members and the timeless, universal themes of friendship, family, and the building of character and self-esteem. Kiefer Sutherland makes a memorable teenage villain, and look closely for John Cusack in a flashback scene as Wheaton's now-deceased and dearly missed brother. A genuine crowd-pleaser, this heartfelt movie led director Rob Reiner to even greater success with his next film, The Princess Bride. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Joe Penny
- Dori Brenner
- Kathleen Quinlan
- Lisa Hartman
- Jason Beghe
- Thomas J. Wright
Run time: 100 min.
Creator: Mike Moder
Price: $9.95
Review Bodily Harm / Triboro/American Home:
Actors & Directors
- Sam Elliott
- Jennifer Connelly
- Josh Lucas
- Ang Lee
- Nick Nolte
- Eric Bana
Review Hulk:When the Hulk gets angry, his movie gets good, so you wish he'd get angry more often. Accepting this challenge after the triumphant Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, director Ang Lee has created an ambitious film, based on the Marvel comic created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, that succeeds as a cautionary tale about mad science and traumatized children coping with legacies of pain. That's the Hulk's problem: After accidental exposure to gamma radiation, scientist Bruce Banner (Eric Bana) turns into the huge, green, and indestructible Hulk when provoked, and repressed childhood memories fuel his fury. Hobbled by the obligatory "origin story" (to acquaint neophytes with the character's Jekyll-and-Hyde-ish fate), there's room for little else in a sluggish film that struggles to reconcile Lee's stylistic flair (evident in his visual interpretation of comic-book technique) with the razzle-dazzle of a megabudget franchise. What's good is good (Jennifer Connelly essentially echoes her role from A Beautiful Mind, and Nick Nolte is righteously tormented as Banner's father), but the movie's schizoid intentions remain largely unclear. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Lenny Montana
- John Flynn
- Jan-Michael Vincent
- Rudy Ramos
- Danny Aiello
- Theresa Saldana
List Price: $7.99
Price: $24.99
Review Defiance (Amazon.com Exclusive) / MGM/UA Video:An out of work merchant seaman single-handedly tames a powerful street gang that has been terrorizing his neighborhood on New York's Lower East Side.
Actors & Directors
- Brad Pitt
- Wolfgang Petersen
- Brian Cox
- Eric Bana
- Orlando Bloom
- Julian Glover
Run time: 163 min.
Creator: Homer
Price: $58.97
Review Troy (2004) (Spanish) (P&S Sub Dol Slip) / Warner Home Video:No doubt about it, the 196-minute unrated director's cut of Troy represents a significant improvement over the film's original 162-minute theatrical release-and not just because it has more sex and violence. As director Wolfgang Petersen notes in his new "Troy Revisited" video introduction to this 2-disc special edition, he didn't have the time or directorial discretion (prior to Troy's release in 2004) to present a cut that more closely matched his vision for the film. Three years later, Petersen approached the film with a more relaxed perspective, and the result is a well-crafted expansion on a film that was previously underrated, with 30 minutes of previously unseen material. Character dynamics have been improved and intensified; the epic-scale narrative is now easier to follow, with greater emphasis on the inner turmoil of Achilles (well played by Brad Pitt) and his rivalry with Hector (Eric Bana); and viewers will feel a more satisfying escalation of tension and suspense from battle to battle. The film's enormous battle scenes (impressively enhanced with CGI) are bloodier and gorier, but they're also more effectively integrated into the political story, which goes beyond Homer's The Iliad and the death of Hector to incorporate elements of Virgil and a more revealing study of the differences between Trojan king Priam (Peter O'Toole) and his megalomanical Greek rival, king Agamemnon (Brian Cox), whose lust for revenge is now one of the film's most powerful ingredients. Some of Troy's original weaknesses remain (such as Orlando Bloom's wimpy performance as Paris), but overall, this director's cut easily justifies its existence, regardless of the film's overblown and historically inaccurate depiction of Troy as a gigantic city of massive columns and statuary. The good parts are better, and the not-so-good parts are more easily forgiven. And no matter how you cut it, Troy is a lavish feast for the eyes. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Melvin Van Peebles
- Hubert Scales
- Simon Chuckster
- West Gale
- Melvin Van Peebles
- John Dullaghan
Review Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song / Cinemation Industries:Raw, jagged, and explosively angry, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song is a landmark in American independent cinema. Melvin Van Peebles directed, wrote, produced, edited, scored, and stars as Sweetback, a passive bouncer raised in a brothel. Shot guerrilla style on a starvation budget on the streets of Los Angeles, it's a violent tale of Sweetback's journey from passive acceptance to political awareness and active defiance. He becomes the target of a manhunt when he kills two cops who beat up a young black activist, and he bounces from hideout to hideout before running for the border, all the while getting more booty than Shaft and Superfly put together. The movie was so inflammatory by conservative industry standards that it was "Rated X by an All White Jury," which the ads proudly touted. The unusual mix of agitprop and exploitation is directed in a jagged style that recalls Godard and set to a funky score performed by Earth, Wind & Fire, which Van Peebles intercuts with chanting Greek chorus-like slogans. Released independently, it was a huge hit and effectively spawned the blaxploitation genre, but none of the films that followed ever recaptured the energy, the anger, and the social politics of this breakthrough in independent cinema. -Sean Axmaker.
Actors & Directors
- Jack Donohue
- Frank Sinatra
- Richard Conte
- Alf Kjellin
- Anthony Franciosa
- Virna Lisi
Run time: 106 min.
Creator: Rod Serling
List Price: $14.95
Price: $64.50
Review Assault on a Queen / Paramount:
Actors & Directors
- Matthew Modine
- D.B. Sweeney
- Tate Donovan
- Michael Caton-Jones
- Eric Stoltz
- Billy Zane
Review Memphis Belle / Warner Bros. Pictures:If you've never seen an aviation movie before in your entire life, you'll be blissfully ignorant of the fact that Memphis Belle shamelessly (and yet gloriously) incorporates just about every cliché in the flight-movie handbook. If you're a big fan of aviation movies-especially movies about World War II bomber crews-you'll be glad that the genre's clichés have been handled with such professional flair. As it follows the crew of a B-17 bomber on its final and most dangerous mission over Germany, Memphis Belle may be little more than a slick and highly authentic presentation of familiar thrills and characters, but it's a rousing piece of entertainment. Featuring an ensemble cast of fresh faces who've since enjoyed thriving careers (including Billy Zane, Sean Astin, Eric Stoltz, D. B. Sweeney, and Harry Connick Jr. ), the movie exists as a fitting tribute to the men who fought and often died in the air over hostile territory. It's the Hollywood version of a 1944 wartime documentary made by legendary director William Wyler (whose daughter served as one of this film's producers), and as such it's a bit contrived and melodramatic. And yet, this exciting movie is almost certain to grab and hold your attention, offering an honorable reminder of the bravery and integrity that were crucial ingredients of any bomber's crew. -Jeff Shannon.
Actors & Directors
- Ali Pérez
- Nelson Pena
- Frank Molina
- Mickey Albuquerque
- Rafael Decena
- Felix Solis
Creator: Peter C. Frank
Price: $49.95
Review Circulo Vicioso (Spanish) (Sp) / Ground Zero:
Actors & Directors
- Harry Fraser
- Rex Lease
- Lane Chandler
Run time: 75 min.
List Price: $14.95
Price: $24.98
Review Heroes of the Alamo (1937):
Release date: 1993-11-15
Run time: 90 min.
List Price: $9.99
Price: $39.99
Review Deadline:Assault / Mntex Entertainment:
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Navy Seals: Combat Pistol, Navy Seal - Red Cell, Defiance (Amazon.com Exclusive), Cast Away, Martyrs of the Alamo (1915), Mummy Collection (2pc), Return to Treasure Island: Vol. 4 Fugitives and in Chains, Kung Fu, Brotherhood of the Rose, Stand by Me, Bodily Harm, Hulk, Defiance (Amazon.com Exclusive), Troy (2004) (Spanish) (P&S Sub Dol Slip), Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Assault on a Queen, Memphis Belle, Circulo Vicioso (Spanish) (Sp), Heroes of the Alamo (1937), Deadline:AssaultTop headlines: NYT: Daschle poses conflict-of-interest test: The choice of Tom Daschle for secretary of health and human services poses questions about how broadly Barack Obama will apply campaign promises to limit conflicts of interest among appointees. ›15:55 20 Nov, Thu Study: Fast-food ad ban may cut obesity in kids: Banning fast-food advertising on television in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, researchers said on Wednesday. ›23:32 19 Nov, Wed Holder's likely nomination revives pardon furor: Eric Holder is in line for nomination by President-elect Barack Obama to the attorney general's job that Holder has long wanted, but a 2001 episode with fugitive financier Marc Rich is stirring partisan acrimony. ›16:36 20 Nov, Thu FDA panel: Superbug-fighting antibiotic is safe: Federal health advisers said an antibiotic developed by Theravance appears safe and effective for fighting "superbug" bacteria, despite potential risks for pregnant women. ›20:15 19 Nov, Wed Bum nominations hard to avoid, history shows: No matter how careful he is, sooner or later President-elect Barack Obama is likely to make a bum nomination or two. ›19:36 20 Nov, Thu Drilling platforms near national parks?: The view of Delicate Arch natural bridge an unspoiled landmark so iconic it's on Utah's license plates could one day include a drilling platform under a proposal that environmentalists call a Bush administration "fire sale" for the oil and gas industry. ›22:05 16 Nov, Sun Pill as good as chemo against lung cancer: Some advanced lung cancer patients already treated with chemotherapy might be able to skip some of the bad side effects of another series of chemo by taking a pill instead. ›00:09 U.S. intel office adds warming to warnings: A major U.S. intelligence report coming out Thursday is adding climate change to the "traditional" mix of factors expected to destabilize the world into the near future. ›21:33 19 Nov, Wed Attorney General Mukasey collapses: U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, the no-nonsense ally in President George W. Bush's war on terror, was hospitalized Thursday after he collapsed during a late-night speech and lost consciousness. ›08:36 No sweat: Obamas work fitness into daily routine: Many women recoil at the thought of baring their arms in sleeveless dresses or blouses, but not Michelle Obama half of the fabulously fit new first couple. ›17:21 19 Nov, Wed Ted Stevens gives last Senate speech: In a painfully poignant moment reminiscent of the fall of yesteryear's Senate giants, Republican Ted Stevens has spoken and yielded the floor for the last time. ›17:24 20 Nov, Thu Brazil cops blame 10 for deadly air crash: A police investigation found that 10 government and airline officials were to blame for Brazil's worst air disaster, saying they failed to properly train pilots, authorities said Wednesday. ›13:18 20 Nov, Thu Got photos of polar bears in the wild?: If you have taken photos of polar bears in the wild, noting the date and location of the images, you can be part of the largest study to identify individual bears by their "whisker prints." ›22:27 17 Nov, Mon Climate crusader to chair House energy panel: Rep. Henry Waxman a liberal ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take over the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee in January. ›16:20 20 Nov, Thu eHarmony agrees to provide same-sex matches: Online dating service eHarmony said Wednesday it will launch a new Web site which caters to same-sex singles as part of a discrimination settlement with New Jersey's Civil Rights Division. ›14:38 20 Nov, Thu A traveler's guide for a stress-free holiday trip: With the economy in a tizzy, everyone is cutting back on just about everything, including travel. But dont let that lull you into thinking everyone but you will be staying home this holiday season. ›15:52 19 Nov, Wed Newsweek: The recession means bargains: Newsweek: The recession means bargains ›14:21 20 Nov, Thu Stocks fall to levels not seen in five years: Stocks plunged for a second straight day Thursday, falling to levels not seen in at least five years as financial and energy stocks tumbled. ›23:21 20 Nov, Thu Obama pledged change, picks insiders: President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts. ›12:42 20 Nov, Thu Michigan shocks No. 4 UCLA: ›05:10 Obama: Warming must be tackled now: President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday delivered a surprise message to a climate change summit convened by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, vowing to take action once in office. ›23:41 17 Nov, Mon Sweden: Transvestism is not a disease: Swedish health officials say they will remove transvestism, fetishism and sadomasochism from the country's official list of diseases and mental disorders. ›19:06 19 Nov, Wed Organ policy leaves some with subpar livers: An organ allocation policy that puts the sickest patients first in line to receive available donor livers has created unintended consequences for those low on the organ wait list. ›22:54 20 Nov, Thu Waxman topples Dingell for key panel chair: Rep. Henry Waxman a liberal ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi will take over the chairmanship of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee in January. ›16:20 20 Nov, Thu |
