This 1989 rouser is apocalyptic pulp-the bloodiest, showiest, most shamelessly sentimental specimen of Hong Kong's gangster melodramas. A torch singer named Jennie (Sally Yeh) is accidentally blinded during a slaying in a night club, and Chow Yun-fat's sad-eyed Jeff, a self-lacerating assassin, drags himself out of retirement to take on one last job-rubbing out a major mobster for major bucks-so he can pay for the singer's cornea transplant operation. But Jeff pauses to ferry a wounded child to the hospital during this final outing, and because of this a cop finally gets a good look at him: "He was seen on the job," snarls a saturnine Mr. Big, "and I want him wasted. " Armies of thugs converge on the saintly slayer. Some of writer-director John Woo's flourishes are kitsch classics (doves flying upward in a candlelit church), while the action sequences are rapturous. "Life's cheap," a character opines. "It only takes one bullet," but in this case it actually takes about a dozen spewing bullet hits to kill anyone, as soulful triads in mirror shades and duster overcoats blaze away with high-tech weaponry. (A favorite trick involves grasping an enemy by the lapels, pulling him into a waltz embrace, and pumping several slugs into his duodenum. ) Danny Lee, Chow's costar in City on Fire, is the intense, young officer who fixates on the killer's contradictory personality. [+]

The ever-limber Jean-Claude Van Damme stars in the entertainingly over-the-top action flick Derailed. The plot has to do with a deadly virus on a runaway train, but that's hardly the point-what makes the movie fly along is the ridiculous yet entirely enjoyable escalation of plot devices: not only is Van Damme on the train to protect a beautiful high-tech thief (Laura Elena Harring, Mulholland Drive), not only is the train hijacked by terrorists, not only is the virus actually released into the train's ventilation system, not only is the engine on fire, but Van Damme's family came on board to surprise him on his birthday and are now being used as pawns by the terrorists. Derailed is also loaded with spectacle: car chases, shootouts, explosions, a train collision, hand-to-hand combat, and Van Damme riding a motorcycle on top of the train-you really couldn't ask for more. Sheer trashy fun. -Bret Fetzer.

Point of No Return is one of those Hollywood remakes of a European hit in which one can visualize a committee of studio executives sitting around and saying, "Okay, we know what made the original film unique and different and fun. How can we make that same movie and do exactly the opposite?" For-hire director John Badham (Saturday Night Fever) took La Femme Nikita, Luc Besson's undeniably sexy, original, and kitschy French film about a female assassin, and translated it into a calculating, mechanistic American thriller with no distinctive style. Bridget Fonda gamely plays the willowy street punk who becomes a high-society killer, but once that provocative irony is in place, the movie is pretty much a series of by-the-numbers action set pieces. Until, that is, Dermot Mulroney shows up as a love interest; but even that twist can't save this film. You're much better off with the original, subtitles and all. -Tom Keogh.

Paramount Black Rain (Widescreen, Special Collector's Edition) Blu-rayFrom Oscar(R)-nominated director Ridley Scott ("Gladiator") comes this stylish, star-powered crime thriller that crackles with heart-pounding action and taut suspense. Academy Award(R)-winner Michael Douglas is electrifying as Nick Conklin, a rough-and-tumble NYC detective under investigation for corruption. Ordered to escort a cold-blooded killer named Sato back to his native Japan. Nick and his partner Charlie (Oscar(R)-nominee Andy Garcia) unwittingly deliver Sato into the handsof his own gang. With assistance from a by-the-book Japanese cop (Ken Takakura) and a beautiful club hostess (Kate Capshaw), the American cops chase Sato through Osaka's seamy underworld, as Nick fights to recapture something as important as the criminal he lost: his honor. A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who-along with his partner (Andy Garcia)-goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. When the latter escapes, Douglas's brand of gonzo crime fighting rubs his Japanese hosts the wrong way. Slick, mechanistic, and absurd, the film is all surface action and attitude (not to mention Scott's incredibly busy, trademark art direction); and one can get lost in the sheer indulgence of it. However, if you can buy Douglas as an iconoclastic lawman, you can buy anything else here, including the notion of Kate Capshaw as a blonde escort highly desired by Japanese businessmen. -Tom Keogh A guilty pleasure if ever there was one, Black Rain is a ridiculously entertaining thriller by Ridley Scott (Alien), starring Michael Douglas as a tough New York cop who-along with his partner (Andy Garcia)-goes to Japan to deliver a local mobster. [+]

Vin Diesel is no James Bond, and he doesn't want to be. That's why XXX announced Diesel as the adrenalin-junkie Bond of the PlayStation generation, copying the Bond formula so shamelessly that this action-packed silliness would be a Bond movie if it starred Pierce Brosnan. Reuniting Diesel with his Fast and the Furious director Rob Cohen, XXX has an attitude (if not a brain) all its own, plucking Diesel's Xander Cage from his celebrity as an extreme sports renegade, recruited by a National Security Agency big shot (Samuel L. Jackson) to foil a nasty Czech villain (Marton Csokas) who's eager to depopulate Prague with remote-controlled biological weaponry. Toss in a sulky, sultry Russian agent (Asia Argento) and you've got extreme Bond-age for anyone who thinks tuxedos are passé. With a handful of eye-popping action sequences, XXX launched a movie franchise with a cool guy, another cool muscle car, and plenty of box-office sizzle. -Jeff Shannon.