DVDpedia : Library : Title : A

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Dreamworks Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 146

Summary: History will place an asterisk next to "A.I." as the film Stanley Kubrick "might" have directed. But let the record also show that Kubrick--after developing this project for some 15 years--wanted Steven Spielberg to helm this astonishing sci-fi rendition of "Pinocchio", claiming (with good reason) that it veered closer to Spielberg's kinder, gentler sensibilities. Spielberg inherited the project (based on the Brian Aldiss short story "Supertoys Last All Summer Long") after Kubrick's death in 1999, and the result is an astounding directorial hybrid. A flawed masterpiece of sorts, in which Spielberg's gift for wondrous enchantment often clashes (and sometimes melds) with Kubrick's harsher vision of humanity, the film spans near and distant futures with the fairy-tale adventures of an artificial boy named David (Haley Joel Osment), a marvel of cybernetic progress who wants only to be a real boy, loved by his mother in that happy place called home.
Echoes of Spielberg's "Empire of the Sun" are clearly heard as young David, shunned by his trial parents and tossed into an unfriendly world, is joined by fellow "mecha" Gigolo Joe (played with a dancer's agility by Jude Law) in his quest for a mother-and-child reunion. Parallels to "Pinocchio" intensify as David reaches "the end of the world" (a Manhattan flooded by melted polar ice caps), and a far-future epilogue propels "A.I." into even deeper realms of wonder, even as it pulls Spielberg back to his comfort zone of sweetness and soothing sentiment. Some may lament the diffusion of Kubrick's original vision, but this is Spielberg's "A.I." (complete with one of John Williams's finest scores), a film of astonishing technical wizardry that spans the spectrum of human emotions and offers just enough Kubrick to suggest that humanity's future is anything but guaranteed. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Art House & International

Duration: 101

Summary: A box-office smash in England, "About a Boy" went on to charm the world as another fine adaptation (following "High Fidelity") of a popular Nick Hornby novel. While "High Fidelity" transplanted its London charm to Chicago, this irresistible comedy was directed by Americans Chris and Paul Weitz ("American Pie") with its British pedigree intact. Better yet, Hugh Grant is perfectly cast as Will, a self-absorbed trust-fund slacker who tries to improve his romantic odds by preying on desperate single mothers. His cynical strategy backfires when he recruits the misfit son (Nicholas Hoult) of a suicidal mother (Toni Collette) to pose as his own son, thus proving his parental prowess to his latest single-mom target (Rachel Weisz). The kid has a warming effect on this ultimate cad, and what could have been a sappy tearjerker turns into a subtle, frequently hilarious portrait of familial quirks and elevated self-esteem. From start to finish, it's a genuine treat. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: New Line Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 125

Summary: While confirming Jack Nicholson's status as an American national treasure, "About Schmidt" is sure to provoke polarized reactions. Stoked by the success of "Election", director Alexander Payne and cowriter Jim Taylor have altered Louis Begley's novel to suit their comedic agenda, turning Nicholson's titular character into a 66-year-old, newly retired Omaha insurance actuary, weary from decades of drudgery and passionless marriage. When his wife suddenly dies, he attempts to reclaim his life in a king-sized Winnebago, desperate to convince his daughter (Hope Davis) not to marry the Denver dimwit (Dermot Mulroney) whose mother (Kathy Bates) has her own baggage of peculiar peccadilloes. Nicholson perfectly (and often hilariously) nails the seething anger beneath his character's façade of resignation, but Payne and Taylor convey cold-hearted contempt for these Midwestern malcontents. Think of this as "Ikiru" with bleaker humanity, until Schmidt finds meaning--and some small reward--in a quiet gesture of goodwill. Love it or hate it, "About Schmidt" is a movie you won't soon forget. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1989

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 138

Summary: Meticulously crafted but also ponderous and predictable, James Cameron's 1989 deep-sea close-encounter epic reaffirms one of the oldest first principles of cinema: everything moves a lot more slowly underwater. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, as formerly married petroleum engineers who still have some "issues" to work out, are drafted to assist a gung-ho Navy SEAL (Michael Biehn) with a top-secret recovery operation: a nuclear sub has been ambushed and sunk, under mysterious circumstances, in some of the deepest waters on earth, and the petro-techies have the only submersible craft capable of diving down that far. Every image and every performance is painstakingly sharp and detailed (and the computerized water creatures are lovely) but the movie's lumbering pace is ultimately lethal. It's the audience that ends up feeling waterlogged. For a guy who likes guns as much as Cameron (his next film after all, was the body-count masterpiece "Terminator 2: Judgment Day"), it's interesting that the moral balance here is weighted heavily in favor of the can-do engineers; the military types are end-justifies-the-means amoralists, just like the weasely government bureaucrats in "Aliens". "--David Chute"

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 90

Summary: Justin Long has been hovering on the edges of movies like "The Break-Up" and "Dodgeball", providing little comic bursts that are often funnier than the rest of the movie. In "Accepted", Long plays Bartleby Gaines, a fast-talking slacker who, when he gets rejected by every college he applied to, invents a phony college to get his parents off his back. Unfortunately, the website his best friend creates is too effective--hundreds of other rejects apply and are accepted. Instead of revealing the hoax, Gaines decides to forge ahead and let the students create their own curriculum, little suspecting that their school is obstructing the expansion plans of the nearby snobbish college. "Accepted" is much better than you might expect, given the low bar set by most campus comedies; it aims for, and sometimes achieves, the blend of slapstick and social satire that "Animal House" embodied. Long proves to be a charming leading man without losing his quirky comic sense and the supporting cast is consistently entertaining, particularly stand-up comedian Lewis Black, who delivers a variety of sardonic rants about society. "Accepted"'s critique of conformism is glib--you wish they'd given it a little more bite--but it's still valid and a pleasant sliver of substance in an otherwise vapid genre. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1994

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 86

Summary: The 1994 box-office hit that turned comedy maniac Jim Carrey into Hollywood's first $20-million man, this gag-filled no-brainer stars Carrey as the titular rubber-faced gumshoe who tracks down lost pets for his heartbroken clients. Ace's latest case involves the apparent kidnapping of the Miami Dolphins' team mascot, Snowflake the dolphin (natch). His investigation is a source of constant aggravation for Miami police lieutenant Lois Einhorn (Sean Young), who turns out to be packing more than a pistol under her skirt. "Friends" fans will appreciate the presence of Courtney Cox, who remains admirably straight-faced as the Dolphins' publicist and Ace's would-be girlfriend, but of course it's Carrey who steals the show with shameless abandon. One viewing may suffice for a lot of people, but Carrey's hyper antics have made "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective" one of the bestselling videos of the 1990s. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 100

Summary: Actor-director Griffin Dunne made his filmmaking debut with this ethically ambiguous and not-very-funny movie about a pair of jilted lovers (Meg Ryan and Matthew Broderick) who conspire to break up a relationship between their ex-sweethearts (Tchéky Karyo and Kelly Preston). Part classic screwball comedy, part nightmare along the lines of Martin Scorsese's "After Hours" (in which Dunne starred), part tribute to Hitchcock's "Rear Window", "Addicted to Love" is all over the map and seriously hampered by the sheer, unwarranted nastiness aimed at the innocent characters played by Karyo and Preston. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 2011

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Thrillers

Duration: 106

Summary: Matt Damon is doing things a lot of top movie stars are sometimes scared to do: spreading his image thin among a range of roles, directors, and material. His forays away from the huge successes of, say, the "Bourne" movies or the "Ocean's" series which have highlighted his fully realized strengths as a buff action hero who can also slip effortlessly into natural comic charm aren't exactly risky. His image as a leading-man movie star is pretty much sealed, but in movies like "The Informant", "Invictus", "Hereafter", "True Grit", and others, he's stretching some different muscles that take him closer to character-actor territory. That has largely been a good thing for his fans, if not for his box-office stats. "The Adjustment Bureau" takes him somewhere in between--he's in leading-man territory with the Damon charisma in full bore and giving his all to a story that needs the toned actorly muscle he provides.
Based on a novelette by science-fiction icon Philip K. Dick, "The Adjustment Bureau" exposes a cadre of people who are either superhuman or nonhumans and control the world by magically influencing the fate of every single person in it. Damon plays David Norris, an aspiring politician who rose from working-class roots in Brooklyn (a not-so-closeted skeleton that sometimes comes back to haunt him) to wealth and the likely promise of high office. Unfortunately, David takes some liberties with his fate that don't correspond with the narrative laid out by "the Chairman," the entity in charge of the Adjustment Bureau autocrats whose matching fedoras are none-too-subtle symbols for wings. The movie evades any mention of religion, but those hats and references to the Chairman are huge winks. Emily Blunt is the equally appealing presence who screws up the Chairman's plan in concert with Norris. They fall for each other hard again and again, constantly thwarting and confounding the bureau's best-laid adjusting tricks at every turn. Though it is often simplistic in its plot contrivances, the movie is nifty, clever, nimbly paced, and filled with ingenious special effects. Especially impressive is the recurring motif of doors that are virtual wormholes--a closet that leads to the middle of Yankee stadium, an Escher-like maze of conference rooms that constantly double back on themselves (shades of the dizzying door sequence in "Monsters, Inc."). Another cool visual prop are the plain bound books bureau functionaries carry that are filled with intricate, animated schematic diagrams that chart the course of a life and how it interacts with others. John Slattery, Anthony Mackie, and Terence Stamp round out the uniformly excellent cast headed by Damon and Blunt, and with the slick production design and inventive effects, the glossy performances go a long way in adjusting up any dramatic shortcomings "The Adjustment Bureau" may have improperly calibrated. "--Ted Fry"

Theatrical: 1989

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 126

Summary: Monty Python's Terry Gilliam ("Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas") directs this wild, wild version of the stories of Baron Munchausen, pushing the limits of 1989 special effects technology to bring us such sights as a horse divided in half and running around in two parts, and a giant Robin Williams with his head flying off his shoulders. Basically, this is a treat for Gilliam fans, as the sustaining idea of the film runs out of steam, and manic energy alone keeps the momentum going. Casual viewers might find it tedious after awhile. There are nice parts for fellow Python Eric Idle, as well as Sting, Alison Steadman, and Uma Thurman as a dazzlingly beautiful Venus on a half-shell. Gilliam had greater artistic and commercial success with "Brazil", "The Fisher King", and "12 Monkeys". "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 1984

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 102

Summary: "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension" is one of the most agreeably insane movies ever made. Peter Weller stars as Buckaroo, an acclaimed neurosurgeon, particle physicist, and, of course, rock star. He travels with the Hong Kong Cavaliers, a band of hard-rocking scientists who are also really good dressers. Buckaroo's interdimensional experiments with his Operation Overthruster throw him (and the Earth) straight into the middle of an alien war, and before you know it, he's got just a few hours to save the world. Confused? Hang on, we're only 10 minutes into the movie. "Buckaroo Banzai" hurls you right into the middle of its comic-book universe and keeps going at a breakneck pace. It's chock-full of overlapping jokes (even as we're trying to make sense of Dr. Lizardo's hospital room, a voice calmly announces that "lithium is no longer available on credit" over the PA system), hilarious throwaway dialogue ("You're like Jerry Lewis: you give me hope to carry on."), and weirdness just for the sheer joy of it ("Why is there a watermelon there?" "I'll tell you later."). You'll want to watch it at least twice--there's just no way to catch everything the first time around. Ellen Barkin has a terrific time doing a dead-on film noir moll parody as Penny Priddy, and John Lithgow turns in a brilliant manic performance as Dr. Lizardo/John Whorfin. There is no reason not to own this movie unless you are cold and dead inside. Laugh while you can, Monkey Boys. "--Ali Davis"

Theatrical: 1990

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 104

Summary: The fast-paced and often seamy world of rock 'n' roll is his beat, but even detective Ford Fairlane (Andrew Dice Clay) is stunned when the king of shock-jocks, Johnny Crunch (Gilbert Gottfried), is electrocuted on the air. After all, Crunch was his only paying client! Crunch had hired Ford to track down a mysterious teenage groupie name Zuzu Petals - a search which quickly finds Ford tangled up, and trading insults, with a ruthless record executive (Wayne Newton) and merciless hit man (Robert Englund).

Theatrical: 1984

Studio: Paramount Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 546

Summary: As with "Star Wars", the George Lucas-produced "Indiana Jones" trilogy was not just a plaything for kids but an act of nostalgic affection toward a lost phenomenon: the cliffhanging movie serials of the past. Episodic in structure and with fate hanging in the balance about every 10 minutes, the "Jones" features tapped into Lucas's extremely profitable "Star Wars" formula of modernizing the look and feel of an old, but popular, story model. Steven Spielberg directed all three films, which are set in the late 1930s and early '40s: the comic book-like "Raiders of the Lost Ark", the spooky, "Gunga Din"-inspired "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom", and the cautious but entertaining "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade". Fans and critics disagree over the order of preference, some even finding the middle movie nearly repugnant in its violence. (Pro-"Temple of Doom" people, on the other hand, believe that film to be the most disarmingly creative and emotionally effective of the trio.) One thing's for sure: Harrison Ford's swaggering, two-fisted, self-effacing performance worked like a charm, and the art of cracking bullwhips was probably never quite the iconic activity it soon became after "Raiders". Supporting players and costars were very much a part of the series, too--Karen Allen, Sean Connery (as Indy's dad), Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Denholm Elliot, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies among them. Years have passed since the last film (another is supposedly in the works), but emerging film buffs can have the same fun their predecessors did picking out numerous references to Hollywood classics and B-movies of the past. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 95

Summary: "The Adventures of Pluto Nash" was shelved for nearly two years, and when it was finally released, hardly anyone noticed. In the interim, Eddie Murphy made the marginally better "Showtime" and started fishing for a career revival that wasn't a sequel to his previous hits. In the satirical, lunar-colony hash of "Pluto Nash", Murphy's a variant of "Casablanca"'s Rick Blaine in the year 2087, happily running the moon's hottest nightclub, refusing a buyout offer from a greedy gambler, and suffering the consequences with his sidekick robot (Randy Quaid in yet another thankless role) and newest employee (Rosario Dawson, before doing similar time in "Men in Black II"). A visual hybrid of "Total Recall" and "A.I.", this nearly laughless comedy would be a total write-off if it weren't for Murphy's stalwart attempt to jump-start the flagging humor. He's got the chops of a superstar, but only when his collaborators are on the same page. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 88

Summary: The problem with live-action movies based on beloved cartoon characters is that humans are never as flexible, as unpredictable, or just plain as goofy as their animated counterparts. So it is with this blend of animation and live action. Rocky and Bullwinkle remain animated characters (trapped in our reality), while Boris and Natasha (Jason Alexander and Rene Russo), along with their boss, Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro), are transformed from cartoons to human reproductions when they escape from rerun land. They've come to our world to take it over; the FBI springs Rocky and Bullwinkle from the second dimension to stop them. But the writing in Kenneth Lonergan's script lacks the throw-away flair of the jokes that characterized Jay Ward's much-beloved animated series of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Part of the problem is that Russo, Alexander, and De Niro are so obviously working at acting cartoonish, instead of simply being cartoons. And part is that the script rarely comes up with the kind of wonderful wordplay in which Ward specialized. The moose, as usual, gets all the best lines, but they're too few and far between to salvage this underachieving summer film. "--Marshall Fine"

Theatrical:

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Duration: 115

Summary:

Theatrical: 1995

Studio: Paramount / MTV

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 224

Summary: Aeon Flux, the sexy secret agent extraordinaire that took MTV by storm is back on DVD! Follow the deftly skilled Aeon on her adventures through a futuristic world brimming with chaos and corruption. Experience every gripping episode of this cutting edge animated series like never before, as each episode has been digitally restored and has been bolstered with a 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound audio track. Every aspect in the creation of The Complete Aeon Flux has been overseen and endorsed by original creator Peter Chung making this the definitive Aeon Flux collection.
Utopia or Deuteranopia
Trevor has an obsession with Aeon and tries to create a space in the ambassador's body (whose gone missing) for several days now. A Breen named Gildemere teams up with Aeon and tries to bring down Trevor and his evil ways, but instead Aeon turn on Gildemere as he is charged with the murder of the ambassador.
Thanatophobia
Aeon and Trevor play with two peoples life, Sybil and Onan, who are a couple trying to get to Monica, where it has more freedom. They are currently in Brenga, in which Trevor runs. When they both try to escape Onan is successful but Sybil is not. She breaks one of her spinal column and keeping her from falling apart or upright, she needs a device in which Trevor provides. Sybil decides she had enough of Aeon, Trevor and Onan and decides to try her jump into Monica again. Only to see a new device, that she help make, was planted there, cutting her legs off instead.
A Last Time For Everything
Aeon teams up with a double agent named Scafandra, who has hands on her feet. Trevor manages to create a cloning device and he manages to clone Aeon. Aeon then, we think, switch places with her clone but Trevor knows this. The "real" Aeon falls for Trevor, the "clone" Aeon tries to carry on. In the end things get too complicated to explain to the clone and the real Aeon allows herself to get killed as the "clone" runs away.
Ether Drift Theory
Aeon decides to help someone named Lindze, who is trying to get to Bargeld, the man she loves. Who was working with Trevor in a lab somewhere in the middle of a fluid. The fluid puts you in suspend. Bargeld managed to find a "cure" for the fluid, turning it to water. In the end things get complicated and Aeon gets taken over by the fluid as the lab surroundings decays.
The Purge
Aeon tries to stop a criminal named Bambara. Trevor has a new robot looking thing, called the custodian that gives you a conscience. It enters in though your naval. Aeon teams up with a group of people wanting to stop Trevor as well.
The Demiurge
Aeon is afraid of a thing that Trevor managed to acquire. This things acts as a god with peaceful intentions but Aeon wants to destroy it.
Isthmus Crypticus
Aeon is trying to free two bird like creatures (a male and female). The thing is Trevor feels for the female one but she ends up dying. The male on the other hand ends up with Aeon's friend Una, as they soar into the sky.
Reraizure
There is a creature called Narghile that produces a pellet that erases human memories. Rorty and Muriel vows to get rid of these creatures by launching them into the sun. Muriel ends up dying and Aeon, out of guilt, takes her place as Rorty and her try to finish it out. Rorty finds out (from Aeon) that Muriel was cheating on him with Trevor, which he doesn't believe at first. He gets proof himself and can't deal with it. So, he takes the pellet erasing all of his human memories about Aeon, the pellet and Muriel.
Chronophasia
Aeon is caught in a time loop, in a lab in the jungle somewhere. The reason she was going to the lab was, she was planning to save a test subject but go more than she bargined for. She encounters a little boy, who seems to be the cause of all of this. He wants her, but not in a sexual way, in a motherly figure way. We end the episode, as if they are in another dimesion (in the past) as Aeon drives this little boy (presumbaly her son) to baseball practice.
End Sinister
Trevor encounters a device that could wipe out the entire world but Aeon stops him. They both encounter an alien in which Trevor is very interested in. Trevor decides to go back with the alien to their planet and Aeon decides to wait for him, (Trevor) in the very same pod the alien had travel in. Years, (presumably hundreds) past and Aeon wakes up. She notices that the "aliens" had taken over earth and that Trevor is still alive. She then uses the device, (from the beginning) killing the entire race. What Aeon later finds out is that these alien creatures were actually humans. We end as the final words are spoken by Trevor, "It's the evolution of the revolution... may the best man win.
Runtime: 224
# of Discs: 3

Theatrical: 1990

Studio: Lions Gate

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 113

Summary: "Air America" is one of those movies that could have been great, and now maintains its low-key reputation as a typical Mel Gibson film in the wake of his first two "Lethal Weapon" hits. Originally conceived as a biting black comedy about the CIA's top-secret smuggling operation in Laos during the Vietnam war, "Air America" lost most of its political sting when it was transformed into an action comedy for Gibson and costar Robert Downey Jr. The film is entertaining as far as it goes, with a few action sequences that explain where a lot of the budget went. If you're in the mood for some Mel, this one is a little off the beaten path, and still contains a percentage of its original potential. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 124

Summary: You know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director Wolfgang Petersen ("Das Boot") keeps the action moving so fast you won't be sweating the details. Don't forget your parachute! "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1982

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 85

Summary: The 1982 sequel to "Airplane!" is basically more of the same class-clown ironies but with a more forced feeling to the jokes. In the first film, veterans such as Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Lloyd Bridges were feeling their way through self-parody, and the air of experimentation was part of the fun. By this film, however, everybody knows what's up, and the assuredness of new cast members Raymond Burr, William Shatner, and Chuck Connors is almost counterproductive. Still, there's lots to laugh about. "--Tom Keogh"

Theatrical: 1980

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 88

Summary: The quintessential movie spoof that spawned an entire genre of parody films, the original "Airplane!" still holds up as one of the brightest comedic gems of the '80s, not to mention of cinema itself (it ranked in the top 5 of "Entertainment Weekly"'s list of the 100 funniest movies ever made). The humor may be low and obvious at times, but the jokes keep coming at a rapid-fire clip and its targets--primarily the lesser lights of '70s cinema, from disco films to star-studded disaster epics--are more than worthy for send-up. If you've seen even one of the overblown "Airport" movies then you know the plot: the crew of a filled-to-capacity jetliner is wiped out and it's up to a plucky stewardess and a shell-shocked fighter pilot to land the plane. Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty are the heroes who have a history that includes a meet-cute à la "Saturday Night Fever", a surf scene right out of "From Here to Eternity", a Peace Corps trip to Africa to teach the natives the benefits of Tupperware and basketball, a war-ravaged recovery room with a G.I. who thinks he's Ethel Merman (a hilarious cameo)--and those are just the flashbacks! The jokes gleefully skirt the boundaries of bad taste (pilot Peter Graves to a juvenile cockpit visitor: "Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?"), with the high (low?) point being Hagerty's intimate involvement with the blow-up automatic pilot doll, but they'll have you rolling on the floor. The film launched the careers of collaborators Jim Abrahams ("Big Business"), David Zucker ("Ruthless People"), and Jerry Zucker ("Ghost"), as well as revitalized such B-movie actors as Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, and Leslie Nielsen, who built a second career on films like this. A vital part of any video collection. "--Mark Englehart"

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Geneon [Pioneer]

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 124

Summary: Artist-writer Katsuhiro Ôtomo began telling the story of Akira as a comic book series in 1982 but took a break from 1986 to 1988 to write, direct, supervise, and design this animated film version. Set in 2019, the film richly imagines the new metropolis of Neo-Tokyo, which is designed from huge buildings down to the smallest details of passing vehicles or police uniforms. Two disaffected orphan teenagers--slight, resentful Tetsuo and confident, breezy Kaneda--run with a biker gang, but trouble grows when Tetsuo start to resent the way Kaneda always has to rescue him. Meanwhile, a group of scientists, military men, and politicians wonder what to do with a collection of withered children who possess enormous psychic powers, especially the mysterious, rarely seen Akira, whose awakening might well have caused the end of the old world. Tetsuo is visited by the children, who trigger the growth of psychic and physical powers that might make him a superman or a supermonster. As befits a distillation of 1,318 pages of the story so far, "Akira" is overstuffed with character, incident, and detail. However, it piles up astonishing set pieces: the chases and shootouts (amazingly kinetic, amazingly bloody) benefit from minute cartoon detail that extends to the surprised or shocked faces of the tiniest extra; the Tetsuo monster alternately looks like a billion-gallon scrotal sac or a Tex Avery mutation of the monster from "The Quatermass Experiment"; and the finale--which combines flashbacks to more innocent days with a destruction of Neo City and the creation of a new universe--is one of the most mind-bending in all sci-fi cinema. "--Kim Newman"

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 175

Summary: For better or worse (and in this case, it's mostly for better), Oliver Stone's "Alexander Revisited" should stand as the definitive version of Stone's much-maligned epic about the great Asian conqueror. Following the DVD release of his previous Director's Cut, Stone offers a video introduction here, explaining why he felt a "third" and final attempt at refining his film was necessary. Essentially, he's using this opportunity to re-create the "road show" format of the Biblical epics of the 1950s and '60s, with a three-and-a-half-hour running time (with an intermission at the two-hour mark) including 45 minutes of previously unseen footage. Stone has also significantly restructured the film, resulting in substantial (if not exactly redemptive) improvements in its narrative flow. Alexander (played in a torrent of emotions by Colin Farrell) is dying as the film opens, his final moments serving to bookend the film's epic story, which incorporates flashback sequences to flesh out the Macedonian king's back-story involving the turbulent battle of fate between his father, King Philip (Val Kilmer) and his scheming sorceress mother Olympia (Angelina Jolie, ridiculous accent and all), who insists that Alexander is literally a child of the gods.
In Stone's final cut, epic battles remain chaotic (although Alexander's strategy is somewhat easier to follow, with on-screen titles indicating left, right, and center during his army's greatest maneuvers) and the ultra-violent battles are more graphically gory than ever (hence their "unrated" status). The animalistic lovemaking of Alexander and his barbarian bride Roxana (Rosario Dawson) is slightly extended (with Dawson as ravishing as ever), and Stone's additional footage also improves the overall arc of Alexander's relationship with his closest generals and male companions, although his most intimate homosexual encounters remain mostly discreet. As "Alexander Revisited" makes clear, the film's weaknesses remain unavoidable, but Stone deserves credit for recognizing how a longer running time, and more disciplined narrative structure, would bring "Alexander" closer to the respect it never earned from critics and filmgoers alike. This is unquestionably a better film than it used to be, leaving us to wonder why it took three separate efforts to shape "Alexander" into its best possible presentation. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2005

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Duration: 94

Summary: "A spacecraft from another solar system invades the night sky. But this is not our sky, and we are the invaders. The search for alien life has begun." So begins "Alien Planet", a Discovery Channel production that combines cutting-edge computer animation and video technology, interspersed with interviews of top scientists and filmmakers (Stephen Hawking and George Lucas, among others), to examine what life might really be like on another planet. Darwin IV, the subject of this interstellar journey, is home to a wild variety of dinosaur-like creatures, bizarre beasts, and exotic vegetation of every kind. The idea is human beings have sent an unmanned spacecraft, packed with computer-driven droids--something right out of "Star Wars"--to a planet 6.5 light years away. We follow along as the probes explore the planet and encounter aliens and situations of every kind, as the scientists weigh in on what they think we might really find there, and why. It’s all motivated and informed by real missions being undertaken today. While it’s all speculative, the story itself is still fascinating and events unfold according to the laws of physics, just as they would here on earth. The viewer experiences Darwin IV through the eyes of the probes; the spectacular computer animation offers stunning recreations of their explorations, and the creatures the writers have come up with are highly imaginative. The scientists’ insights add to the experience by explaining the thinking behind the moments in the story, and by being appropriately relatable (one contributor compares sending the unmanned probes to the planet to watching your child at a spelling bee, hoping they make the right choice). While it’s obvious that "Alien Planet" is a great show for students and educators, its appeal is far wider,this is a highly entertaining program that should feed the imagination of anyone who’s ever wondered about life on other planets.
"--Daniel Vancini"

Theatrical: 1986

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 145

Summary: The "Alien Quadrilogy" is a nine-disc boxed set devoted to the four "Alien" films. Although previously available on DVD as the "Alien Legacy", here they have been repackaged with vastly more extras and with upgraded sound and picture. For anyone who hasn't been in hypersleep for the last 25 years, this series needs no introduction, though for the first time each film now comes in both original and "special edition" form.
"Alien" (1979) was so perfect it didn't need fixing, and Ridley Scott's 2003 director's cut is fiddling for the sake of fiddling. Watch it once, then return to the majestic, perfectly paced original. Conversely, the special edition of James Cameron's "Aliens" (1986) is the definitive version, though it's nice to finally have the theatrical cut on DVD for comparison. Most interesting is the alternative "Alien 3" (1992). This isn't a "director's cut"--David Fincher refused to have any involvement with this release--but a 1991 work-print that runs 29 minutes longer than the theatrical version, and has now been restored, remastered, and finished off with (unfortunately) cheap new CGI. Still, it's truly fascinating, offering a different insight into a flawed masterpiece. The expanded opening is visually breathtaking, the central firestorm is much longer, and a subplot involving Paul McGann's character adds considerable depth to story. The ending is also subtly but significantly different. "Alien: Resurrection" (1997) always was a mess with a handful of brilliant scenes, and the special edition just makes it eight minutes longer.
The "Alien Quadrilogy" offers the first and fourth films with DTS soundtracks, the others having still fine Dolby Digital 5.1 presentation. All four films sound fantastic, with much low-level detail revealed for the first time. Each is anamorphically enhanced at the correct original aspect ratio, and the prints and transfers are superlative. Every film offers a commentary track that lends insight into the creative process--though the Scott-only commentary and isolated music score from the first "Alien" DVD release are missing here.
Each movie is complemented by a separate disc packed with hours of seriously detailed documentaries (all presented in full-screen with clips letterboxed), thousands of photos, production stills, and storyboards, giving a level of inside information for the dedicated buff only surpassed by the "Lord of the Rings" extended DVD sets. A ninth DVD compiles miscellaneous material, including an hourlong documentary and even all the extras from the old "Alien" laserdisc. "Exhaustive" hardly beings to describe the "Alien Quadrilogy", a set that establishes the new DVD benchmark for retrospective releases and looks unlikely to be surpassed for some time. "--Gary S. Dalkin"

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 94

Summary: For those who found 2004's "Aliens vs. Predator" too lightweight in the gore-and-guns department, "Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem" offers a marked improvement in both categories, as well as a respectable amount of rumbles between the title extraterrestrials. Set in the 21st century (which predates the story to all of the "Alien" features), "Requiem" sends a crippled Predator ship crashing to Earth in a small Colorado town; unbeknownst to the locals, the craft is loaded with H.R. Giger's insectoid monsters, which make quick work of most of the population. As the human cast is slowly whittled to a few hardy (if unmemorable) souls, a Predator warrior also arrives to complicate matters and do battle with the Aliens, as well as a ferocious alien-Predator hybrid (dubbed a Predalien by the sci-fi and horror press). Visual-effects designers and music-video helmers The Strause Brothers (who make their feature directorial debut here) keep the action on frantic throughout, which is wise, since the dialogue and characters are threadbare at best; that should matter little to teenage male viewers, who are inarguably the film's key audience. Fans of the "Alien" franchise, however, may find the offhanded nod to the series' mythology given during the finale its sole saving grace. --"Paul Gaita"


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Stills from "Alien vs. Predator: Requiem"

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Mystery & Suspense

Duration: 104

Summary: After an obligatory prologue in which its detective hero suffers a tragic professional setback, "Along Came a Spider" sets about its business of luring the viewer into its nefarious plot, relying on the magician's technique of misdirection to reveal a double-whammy surprise. The clever, late-coming plot twist is a bit too mechanical but effectively unexpected, making this a satisfying prequel to the hit thriller "Kiss the Girls"--based on the first of James Patterson's Alex Cross detective novels--and a welcomed addition to a promising movie franchise. It's no better or worse than a good vintage episode of Peter Falk's "Columbo", adhering closely to the mystery-thriller's time-honored traditions, but with Morgan Freeman settling comfortably into his role as seasoned sleuth Alex Cross, familiar formula is given fresh vitality.
When a senator's daughter is kidnapped from her high-security private school, the kidnapper (nicely played by the underrated Michael Wincott) draws Cross into the case, knowing that the psychologist-detective's involvement will bring high-profile publicity. Cross partners with the Secret Service agent (Monica Potter) who botched her assignment, but wait... the movie's got a rabbit in its hat... and that rabbit has an ace up its sleeve... and director Lee Tamahori (who brought similar intensity to "The Edge") handles the sleight-of-hand with slick precision, dispensing just enough information to keep the viewer off guard without resorting to cheap manipulation. Don't look for much depth of character here, but "Along Came a Spider" is well served by everyone involved. It's the movie equivalent of a bestseller you'd impulsively buy at the grocery-store checkout, and on those terms it succeeds. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 90

Summary: Opposites are forced to attract in "Along Came Polly", a dose of featherweight fluff that could've been better and could've been worse--surely no pairing of Ben Stiller and Jennifer Aniston can be a complete waste of time, right? Faint praise indeed, but fans of these mainstream funny-folk will enjoy this movie as a lazy-weekend distraction. Ben's a newlywed insurance risk-assessment analyst whose wife (Debra Messing, in a throwaway role) betrays him on their honeymoon. His uptight, play-it-safe lifestyle (which includes acute aversion to germs and irritable bowel syndrome) makes him seemingly incompatible with the spontaneous, free-spirited Polly (Aniston), but writer-director John Hamburg (whose writing credits include the previous Stiller hits "Meet the Parents" and "Zoolander") is determined to give them at least the "appearance" of romantic potential. No such luck. You will, however, get a few laughs from supporting players Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bryan Brown, and Alec Baldwin. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1984

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 180

Summary: The satirical sensibilities of writer Peter Shaffer and director Milos Forman ("One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest") were ideally matched in this Oscar-winning movie adaptation of Shaffer's hit play about the rivalry between two composers in the court of Austrian Emperor Joseph II--official royal composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham), and the younger but superior prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Tom Hulce). The conceit is absolutely delicious: Salieri secretly loathes Mozart's crude and bratty personality, but is astounded by the beauty of his music. That's the heart of Salieri's torment--although he's in a unique position to recognize and cultivate both Mozart's talent and career, he's also consumed with envy and insecurity in the face of such genius. That such magnificent music should come from such a vulgar little creature strikes Salieri as one of God's cruelest jokes, and it drives him insane. "Amadeus" creates peculiar and delightful contrasts between the impeccably re-created details of its lavish period setting and the jarring (but humorously refreshing and unstuffy) modern tone of its dialogue and performances--all of which serve to remind us that these were people before they became enshrined in historical and artistic legend. Jeffrey Jones, best-known as Ferris Bueller's principal, is particularly wonderful as the bumbling emperor (with the voice of a modern midlevel businessman). The film's eight Oscars include statuettes for Best Director Forman, Best Actor Abraham (Hulce was also nominated), Best Screenplay, and Best Picture. "--Jim Emerson"

Theatrical: 1987

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 85

Summary: Contrary to popular rumor, this 1987 collection of comedy skits is not about a group of female employees from Amazon.com on a mission to the lunar surface. It's a series of unrelated spoofs and sketches designed to resemble an aimless night of TV channel-surfing, and the satirical targets include grade-Z science fiction films of the 1950s, sex films of the 1930s, hospital soap operas, and Playboy video centerfolds. There's a charity drive in which legendary bluesman B.B. King pleas for donations to help "Blacks Without Soul," and Ed Begley Jr. thinks he's the son of the Invisible Man, which would be fine if he weren't as visible as everyone else. The various sketches feature an all-star cast including Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Carrie Fisher, Michelle Pfeiffer, the late Phil Hartman in an early role, and many others. It's strictly hit-or-miss, and many of the sketches fall flat, especially since the subjects being spoofed (the title sketch is a send-up of the actual 1954 movie "Cat Women on the Moon") are funny enough without being satirized. Even though Leonard Maltin's "Movie & Video Guide" describes most of the sketches as "astonishingly unfunny," this can be a very amusing movie if you're in the mood for a no-brainer with a lot of familiar Hollywood faces. Now a modest little cult film, it's the kind of disposable entertainment that maintains its appeal almost in spite of itself. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 102

Summary: "America's Sweethearts" is just the kind of romantic froth that makes for pleasant viewing on a lazy, rainy day. While Julia Roberts, John Cusack, and Catherine Zeta-Jones offer high-wattage marquee value, costar and cowriter Billy Crystal reworks "Singin' in the Rain" for latter-day Hollywood, where estranged superstars Gwen (Zeta-Jones) and Eddie (Cusack) reluctantly promote their latest movie by pretending their messily disputed relationship is still going strong. The studio chief (Stanley Tucci) is desperate for a hit, so he hires a seasoned publicist (Crystal) to orchestrate a press junket that will cast everyone in a profitable light. The catch: The director (Christopher Walken) has abducted his own film in an act of artistic extortion, and Gwen's sister and longtime assistant Kiki (Roberts) is the true object of Eddie's desire.
Chaos ensues at the luxury hotel where the junket is scheduled, and "America's Sweethearts" pokes easy fun at the cynical machinery that keeps Hollywood running. Quotable quips are delivered in abundance, and while Zeta-Jones is readily convincing as a bitchy narcissist, Roberts effortlessly steals the show with her trademark charms. All of which makes "America's Sweethearts" lightly entertaining, even though it never rises (like Roberts's earlier "Notting Hill") to the level of classic romantic comedy, hampered by a script that too often substitutes easy laughs for ripe satirical invention, flashing a phony grin when it should be baring its fangs. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Dreamworks Video

Genre: Art House & International

Duration: 122

Summary: From its first gliding aerial shot of a generic suburban street, "American Beauty" moves with a mesmerizing confidence and acuity epitomized by Kevin Spacey's calm narration. Spacey is Lester Burnham, a harried Everyman whose midlife awakening is the spine of the story, and his very first lines hook us with their teasing fatalism--like "Sunset Boulevard"'s Joe Gillis, Burnham tells us his story from beyond the grave.
It's an audacious start for a film that justifies that audacity. Weaving social satire, domestic tragedy, and whodunit into a single package, Alan Ball's first theatrical script dares to blur generic lines and keep us off balance, winking seamlessly from dark, scabrous comedy to deeply moving drama. The Burnham family joins the cinematic short list of great dysfunctional American families, as Lester is pitted against his manic, materialistic realtor wife, Carolyn (Annette Bening, making the most of a mostly unsympathetic role) and his sullen, contemptuous teenaged daughter, Jane (Thora Birch, utterly convincing in her edgy balance of self-absorption and wistful longing). Into their lives come two catalytic outsiders. A young cheerleader (Mena Suvari) jolts Lester into a sexual epiphany that blooms into a second adolescence. And an eerily calm young neighbor (Wes Bentley) transforms both Lester and Jane with his canny influence.
Credit another big-screen newcomer, English theatrical director Sam Mendes, with expertly juggling these potentially disjunctive elements into a superb ensemble piece that achieves a stylized pace without lapsing into transparent self-indulgence. Mendes has shrewdly insured his success with a solid crew of stage veterans, yet he's also made an inspired discovery in Bentley, whose Ricky Fitts becomes a fulcrum for both plot and theme. Cinematographer Conrad Hall's sumptuous visual design further elevates the film, infusing the beige interiors of the Burnhams' lives with vivid bursts of deep crimson, the color of roses--and of blood. "--Sam Sutherland"

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 108

Borrowed By: Katie Ford

Summary: Thinly disguised versions of "American Idol" and the Bush presidency collide in the satire "American Dreamz". Bored and self-loathing, Martin Tweed (Hugh Grant, "About a Boy") wants to give his hugely popular reality show "American Dreamz" an extra boost by courting political controversy--but suspects he may find personal redemption in the form of scheming contestant Sally Kendoo (Mandy Moore, "Saved!"), who manipulates her boyfriend (Chris Klein, "Election") to give herself a vote-winning backstory. Meanwhile, equally desperate to court popularity, the President's chief of staff (Willem Dafoe, "Spider-Man", looking suspiciously Dick-Cheney-esque) gets Tweed to let the President (Dennis Quaid, "The Rookie") be a guest judge on the show. But unbeknownst to all, a privately conflicted terrorist (Sam Golzari) has been selected as a contestant, and his sleeper cell wants him to blow up the President in the final competition. This complicated storyline doesn't quite have the bite it's reaching for; the political edge is particularly blunted--even diehard Republicans are unlikely to be offended. But sharp and funny lines are sprinkled throughout and the cast is uniformly excellent; the relationship between Grant and Moore is oddly touching, and Marcia Gay Harden ("Pollock") makes an amazing First Lady--is this satire, or what we all wish Laura Bush was really like? An uneven movie, but with some delicious tidbits. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Universal Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 95

Summary: Anyone who's watched just about any teenage film knows that the greatest evil in this world isn't chemical warfare, ethnic cleansing, or even the nuclear bomb. The worst crime known to man? Why, virginity, of course. As we've learned from countless films--from "Summer of '42" to "Risky Business"--virginity is a criminal burden that one must shed oneself of as quickly as possible. And while many of these films have given the topic a bad name, "American Pie" quietly sweeps in and gives sex some of its dignity back. Dignity, you may say? How can a film that highlights intercourse with fruit pies, premature ejaculation broadcasted across the Internet, and the gratuitous "gross-out" shots restore the dignity of a genre that's been encumbered with such heavyweights as "Porky's" and "Losin' It"? The plot may be typical, with four high school friends swearing to "score" by prom, yet the film rises above the muck with its superior cast, successful and sweet humor, and some actually rather retro values about the meaning and importance of sex. Jason Biggs, Chris Klein, Thomas Ian Nicholas, and Eddie Kaye Thomas make up the odd quartet of pals determined to woo, lie, and beg their way to manhood. The young women they pursue are wary girlfriend Vicky (Tara Reid), choir girl Heather (Mena Suvari), band geek Michelle (Alyson Hannigan), and just about any other female who is willing and able. Natasha Lyonne as Jessica, playing a similar role as in "Slums of Beverly Hills", is the general adviser to the crowd (when Vicky tells her "I want it to be the right time, the right place," Jessica responds, "It's not a space shuttle launch, it's "sex""). The comedic timing hits the mark--especially in the deliberately awkward scenes between Jim (Biggs) and his father (Eugene Levy). And, of course, lessons are learned in this genuinely funny film, which will probably please the adult crowd even more than it will the teenage one. "--Jenny Brown"

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 108

Summary: To the horror of prudes everywhere, "American Pie 2" is even funnier than its popular predecessor, pushing the R rating with such unabashed ribaldry that you'll either be appalled or surprised by its defiant celebration of the young-adult male libido. Females will be equally shocked or delighted, because like "American Pie" this appealing, character-based comedy puts the women in control while offering a front-row view of horny guys in all their dubious glory. Which is to say, "American Pie" is mostly about sex--or, to be more specific, breasts, genitalia, "potential" lesbianism, blue silicone sex toys, crude methods of seduction, "the rule of three" (just watch the movie), a shower of "champagne," phone sex, tantric sex, and, oh yeah... superglue.
In the case of college freshman Jim (Jason Biggs), performance anxiety plagues his upcoming reunion with sexy Czech exchange student Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth), but his buddies from "American Pie" have a solution: rent a Lake Michigan beach house for the summer, throw wild parties to lure the local "hotties," and score big-time. "Beach Party" this ain't: blessed with a complete cast reunion from "AP1" (including Eugene Levy as Jim's dad), this sequel is anything but innocent, and with the exception of drugs (which are conspicuously absent), pretty much anything goes. The gags are almost nonstop, and director J.B. Rogers (recovering from his debut debacle "Say It Isn't So") handles them with laudable precision, allowing his young cast (particularly Biggs, who epitomizes comedic good sportsmanship) to run with lines that most people wouldn't dare utter aloud. The result is a liberating and eminently good-natured comedy that needn't apologize for its one-track mind. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 96

Summary: The producers of the "American Pie" movies pushed their luck with a third slice of their lucrative raunchy comedy franchise, and "American Wedding" cooked up surprisingly well. It's the sourest serving of "Pie", with half of the original cast missing, and there's something undeniably desperate about comedic highlights (involving dog poop, a lusty old lady, two strippers to offset the absence of Shannon Elizabeth, and the ill-advised use of a trimming razor) that arise more from obligation than inspiration, on the assumption that "another" penile mishap is guaranteed to please. And yet, that's just what this movie does for devoted "Pie"-munchers: It gives 'em what they want, especially when the notorious Stifler (Seann William Scott) nearly ruins the frantic nuptials of Jim (Jason Biggs) and his band-camping sweetheart Michelle (Alyson Hannigan). Eugene Levy and Eddie Kaye Thomas also return for some reliable comic relief, but the one who's laughing most is three-time "Pie" writer Adam Herz--laughing loudly and often, all the way to the bank. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Walt Disney Video

Genre: Art House & International

Duration: 105

Summary: On the strength of his Hitchcockian-thriller debut, "Mute Witness", writer-director Anthony Waller was hired to direct this belated sequel to the 1981 horror comedy "An American Werewolf in London", but lycanthropy in the City of Light just ain't what it used to be. The movie offers plenty of gruesome makeup and special wolf-transformation effects, and there are some effectively spooky moments in the plot involving an underground population of hungry Parisian werewolves. One of them is seductively played by Julie Delpy, who is rescued from attempted suicide by an American tourist (Tom Everett Scott, from "That Thing You Do!") but ultimately can't hide her dual identity when darkness falls and the full moon shines. The movie begins well, but gradually succumbs to nonsense and mayhem, prompting critic Roger Ebert to observe that "here are people we don't care about, doing things they don't understand, in a movie without any rules." In other words, you'd have to be a die-hard horror buff to give this one the benefit of the doubt. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 96

Summary: "Analyze That" has more bada bing than its lukewarm reception would lead you to expect. "Analyze This" (1999) had the advantage of a then-fresh idea--Robert De Niro as a neurotic mob boss seeking therapy with reluctant shrink Billy Crystal--but that idea's stale (and has been handled more authentically in "The Sopranos"), so this sequel relies on established chemistry and zesty dialogue that matches the original. There's nothing wrong with a retread when it's this funny, and De Niro's latter-day penchant for comedy suits him well when, as kingpin Paul Vitti, he lures Dr. Sobel (Crystal) into a prison breakout scheme involving faked catatonia and "West Side Story" show tunes. The contrived plot involves Vitti's criminal comeback. Unfortunately, there's little room for Lisa Kudrow as Sobel's sarcastic wife, but De Niro's "Raging Bull" costar Cathy Moriarty-Gentile is welcomed as a rival mob queen. You want a comedy masterpiece? Fuhgeddaboudit. You want 95 minutes of easy fun? It's right here... and don't miss those obligatory outtakes. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 104

Summary: Cast Robert De Niro and Billy Crystal together in a film and it should be a sucker's bet as to who's going to be funnier and who's going to give the more nuanced performance. Somehow, though, De Niro walks away with most of the laughs in "Analyze This", a buddy action-comedy about a mob boss (De Niro, natch) suffering from panic attacks who makes a nebbishy shrink (Crystal, natch) an offer he can't refuse--actually, it's not really an offer, it's a command. The good doctor is forced to help the gangster get in touch with his feelings. Had the brilliant TV series "The Sopranos" not underscored how thin and watery and shticky director-cowriter Harold Ramis's approach to such potentially rich material actually is, the movie--a hit in theaters and De Niro's biggest film ever--would seem more fresh and kicky. De Niro's definitely a hoot as the ever milder menace, and Crystal actually concentrates on giving a credible performance opposite the acting legend (alas, he doesn't turn his character's fear of his patient into inspired comedy, as Alan Arkin did in "Grosse Pointe Blank"). The conclusion devolves into the requisite gunplay, and Chazz Palminteri and Lisa Kudrow are criminally wasted as an opposing mob boss and Crystal's fiancée, respectively, but overall, it's breezy fun. "--David Kronke"

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: A.D.V. Films

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 60

Summary: Based on an idea by Gene Roddenberry, "Andromeda" confidently wears its debt to "Star Trek" on its sleeve, recalling the best sci-fi of Roddenberry's heyday. The two-part premiere "Under the Night" and "An Affirming Flame" make for a terrific introduction to the lead character, Captain Dylan Hunt, played by Kevin (ex-"Hercules") Sorbo. He's a sympathetically flawed idealist in command of the "Andromeda Ascendant", a massive starship of the now-disbanded Systems Commonwealth. The fall of civilization has meant that although she ought to be a relic she remains the zenith of technological advancement.
In the series opener we see Captain Hunt in battle against 10,000 enemy ships, winning a bout of fisticuffs with a close friend turned enemy traitor, wrestling with the shock of being frozen in time for 300 years and then diplomatically negotiating his way out of a salvage rights battle for his ship. The "Andromeda Ascendant"'s emotionally driven, life-like computer is desired by the "Eureka Maru" salvage vessel, and feisty Captain Beka Valentine can barely stop her engineer Harper from drooling about tinkering with her. The "Maru"'s shipmates are similarly driven: Rev Bem (from another sworn enemy race) has a spiritual calling, while cutesy-pie Trance Gemini's motivations are part of her winning mysteriousness. One final addition is the show's muscle, Tyr, the enemy with a conscience who would later get the spotlight in such episodes as "All Neptune's Great Oceans" and "Music of a Distant Drum."
"The Pearls That Were His Eyes" was one of the first conceived episode ideas, but was delayed until the availability of a "Star Trek" regular. That eventually turned out to be John (Q) de Lancie, who gives a brilliant turn as Beka's long-lost Uncle Sid. "Star-Crossed" is the first-season episode that caused more gossip than any other. "Stargate" regular Michael Shanks guest stars, falls in love with Rommie on screen (and with Lexa Doig off screen), and then suddenly quits "SG-1". There's certainly a spark between them in the show to support the gossip. The secondary cause for talk was its broadcast rescheduling in sympathy with the events of September 11 since it opens with a terrorist attack. Criticized by some for its extreme violence, the season finale "Its Hour Come 'Round at Last" will stay with you one way or another. Maybe for the sight of an alternate Rommie turning uncharacteristically nasty to everyone and seriously kicking butt. Or maybe the mind-blowing Magog Worldship, made up of 20 planets and their sun. Or maybe just the seemingly impossible scenario each major character is faced with as the show ends. "--Paul Tonks"

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: A.D.V. Films

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 60

Summary: Andromeda is a fun show. It doesn't have characters in the sense of "character study", it has characters in the sense of "Boy, that guy is a character". Dylan, Beka, purple Trance, Rommy and Tyr are all fascinating to me, and Harper makes me smile every time he opens his mouth. There isn't really a lot of introspection or moral dilemmas going on here. Everyone knows what they want, and they are all trying to out-maneuver each other into getting it. Andromeda is the anti-Buffy.



Season 2 adds a bit of wire-fu to the show (to great effect in the Matrix-y episode "All Too Human") and the special effects team seem to have gotten a great deal on sparklers. There are still lots of Nietzschian machinations, and Tyr and Dylan go head to head a few times, including in what is probably the best episode of the series, "The Prince". There is also quite a bit of continuity in the episodes, and minor points in one show becomes the focus of another.



Trance makes a change for the serious, and the writers finally figure out what to do with Rev (ship him out).



ADV perpetually overcharges for all their single-episode disks. I have long given up buying them, and instead wait (and wait...) for the box sets. Note that in this set, you get 5 double-sided disks instead of the 10 single sided disks you would have if you bought them individually. It doesn't match the first season set, but it does save a bit of shelf space. The user interface is a lot better, but now the disk is front-loaded with commercials.

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: A.D.V. Films

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 60

Summary: Andromeda chronicles the adventures of Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) and his crew on the starship Andromeda Ascendant as they search the galaxies in an effort to rebuild the Systems Commonwealth, a community of worlds strewn across the universe working together for peace.

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: Adv Films

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 60

Summary: Follow the adventures of Captain Dylan Hunt and the crew of the intergalactic starship Andromeda as they search the cosmos for aid in rebuilding their way of life. Get ready for the entire fourth season of the popular syndicated television in a new box set.

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: A.D.V. Films

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 60

Summary: Follow the adventures of Captain Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo) and the crew of the starship Andromeda as they search the cosmos for a way to rebuild their way of life. The fifth and final season of the popular syndicated television series in a new box set.

Theatrical: 1971

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 131

Summary: The best-selling novel by Michael Crichton was faithfully adapted for this taut 1971 thriller, about a team of scientists racing against time to destroy a deadly alien virus that threatens to wipe out life on Earth. As usual with any Crichton-based movie, the emphasis is on an exciting clash between nature and science, beginning when virologists discover the outer-space virus in a tiny town full of corpses. Projecting total contamination, the scientists isolate the deadly strain in a massive, high-tech underground lab facility, which is rigged for nuclear destruction if the virus is not successfully controlled. The movie spends a great deal of time covering the scientific procedures of the high-pressure investigation, and the rising tensions between scientists who have been forced to work in claustrophobic conditions. It's all very fascinating if you're interested in scientific method and technological advances, although the film is obviously dated in many of its details. It's more effective as a thriller in which tension is derived not only from the deadly threat of the virus, but from the escalating fear and anxiety among the small group of people who've been assigned to save the human race. The basic premise is still captivating; it's easy to see how this became the foundation of Crichton's science-thriller empire. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2008

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy

Duration: 177

Summary: Acclaimed filmmakers Ridley and Tony Scott shepherded this widely-seen, four-hour adaptation of Michael Crichton's novel about a devastating alien plague spread by a fallen satellite. The Scotts and director Mikael Salomon update the novel's technology and push this production's tone closer to medical thriller than science fiction; a capable cast led by Benjamin Bratt, Christa Miller and Andre Braugher are the clock-racers who must find a way to stop the lethal virus from spreading beyond the borders of a small desert town. Fast-paced and at times surprisingly violent, the "Andromeda Strain" miniseries also suffers from bad cases of giggle-worthy dialogue and performances, especially Eric McCormick ("Will and Grace") as a reporter in recovery, and subplots involving the President and Bratt's romantic history bog down the action. Though the suspense makes the miniseries involving at times, the 1971 theatrical adaptation by Robert Wise was more effective in creating an unsettling sense of slow-building doom. The two-disc DVD includes commentary by Salomon and his production team, as well as a making-of documentary which chronicles the Scotts' attempts to develop the project for the big screen before turning to television, as well as extensive looks at the miniseries' special effects. A gallery of production sketches and photos round out the extras. " -- Paul Gaita"

Theatrical: 2009

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 138

Summary: If the devil is in the details, there's a lot of wicked fun in Angels & Demons, the sequel (originally a prequel) to The Da Vinci Code. Director Ron Howard delivers edge-of-your-pew thrills all over the Vatican, the City of Rome, and the deepest, dankest catacombs. Tom Hanks is dependably watchable in his reprised role as Professor Robert Langdon, summoned urgently to Rome on a matter of utmost urgency--which happens to coincide with the death of the Pope, meaning the Vatican is teeming with cardinals and Rome is teeming with the faithful. A religious offshoot group, calling themselves the Illuminati, which protested the Catholic Church's prosecution of scientists 400 years ago, has resurfaced and is making extreme, and gruesome, terrorist demands. The film zooms around the city, as Langdon follows clues embedded in art, architecture, and the very bone structure of the Vatican. The cast is terrific, including Ewan McGregor, who is memorable as a young protégé of the late pontiff, and who seems to challenge the common wisdom of the Conclave just by being 40 years younger than his fellows when he lectures for church reform. Stellan Skarsgard is excellent as a gruff commander of the Swiss Guard, who may or may not have thrown in with the Illuminati. But the real star of the film is Rome, and its High Church gorgeousness, with lush cinematography by Salvatore Totino, who renders the real sky above the Vatican, in a cataclysmic event, with the detail and majesty of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. --A.T. Hurley


Stills from Angels & Demons (click for larger image)

Theatrical: 2003

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 106

Summary: The irresistible pairing of Jack Nicholson and Adam Sandler is the best reason to see "Anger Management", a comedy that might loosely be called "The Funny and the Furious". Nicholson and especially Sandler have screen personas that partially rely on pent-up anxieties, so there's definite potential in teaming them as a mild-mannered designer of pet clothing for chubby cats (Sandler) who's been ordered to undergo anger-management therapy with a zany counselor (Nicholson) prone to occasional tantrums and devious manipulation. Surely this meandering comedy looked better on the page; director Peter Segal scores a few lucky scenes (particularly Sandler's encounter with a Buddhist monk, played by John C. Reilly), but a flood of cameos (Heather Graham, Woody Harrelson, Rudolph Giuliani, and others) can't match the number of laughs that fall flat. As Sandler's understanding girlfriend, Marisa Tomei plays a pivotal role in a happy ending that leaves everyone smiling, with the possible exception of the audience. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1990

Studio: Paramount

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 93

Summary: The boys are back in town, but they're wearing their carbon-paper suits in this frantic but not nearly as funny sequel to the action-comedy hit. The first time around, the combination of Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte had the element of surprise going for it: Who expected these two to have chemistry? This time, chemistry is virtually all they have in a veritable rehash of the first film. What plot there is has to do with Nolte's needing Murphy (who is just out of jail) to help him clear his own name and save his job on the police force. Director Walter Hill is back in place, but this time the script is the work of action hack Jeb Stuart and the movie barely gives Murphy room to unleash his comic riffs; when he does, we're expecting them (though he's still entertaining). "--Marshall Fine"

Theatrical: 1993

Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 108

Summary: A comic battle of wills and an outrageous test of endurance ensues when this trio is grudgingly assigned to keep vigil -- as unobtrusively as possible -- in a small, upscale resort community. Pretending to be an average American family on vacation, it's an unlikely domestic arrangement at best. But, like a typical family, they're stuck with one another. Trying to convincingly play house while keeping an eye on the home of their unsuspecting neighbors, this dysfunctional clan of incompatible companions is at one another's throats as they await the appearance of a missing witness for the state's case against a Las Vegas mob boss. And if they'd call a truce for a minute, and get off one another's case, they just might solve this one.

Theatrical: 2001

Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 109

Summary: The term "suspension of disbelief" was invented for the idea that Ryan Phillippe could be a computer genius. As Milo, a slacker brainiac recruited by smilingly ominous software giant Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) to help build a global communications system, Phillippe still looks like a million bucks. He is also still doing the clenched, pouty grown-up voice that he always uses to show that he means business in this acting stuff (he's nothing if not earnest), and a pair of designer glasses completes the transformation. He's well matched in "Antitrust" by Claire Forlani, who, in turn, spends time pursing her lips and squinting her dewy eyes as Milo's troubled girlfriend, an artist who proves to be a liability when Milo discovers that Winston is killing off clever competitors like a dot-com führer. Robbins, looking like David Letterman, seems willing to either take his role dead seriously or goof around a bit, but director Peter Howitt doesn't know how to play any of it (the actor was better used as a grinning madman in another flawed paranoid thriller, the underseen "Arlington Road"). Without any underlying menace or enough satirical bite to keep it interesting, the whole thing slips by passively in a mindless matinee kind of way until the over-the-top finale. Production designer Catherine Hardwicke has had some big, glossy fun creating Winston's campus and ornate private kingdom, and there's the cheapest of kicks in seeing Robbins's Bill Gates taken down publicly, but the film is definitely junior league. "--Steve Wiecking"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Dreamworks Animated

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 83

Summary: Woody Allen as a worker ant with an inferiority complex? Sylvester Stallone as an affable soldier ant who discovers that digging tunnels is cool? The animation playground we all knew so well is turning into a theme park full of in-jokes for grownups. "Antz" explores age-old topics (one person--err, insect--can make a difference, individuality and social responsibility must exist side by side, war is hell) with comic asides and Woody Allen's funniest quips this side of PG (adults will chuckle at the socialist slogans bandied about as he campaigns for workers' rights). Sharon Stone voices the rebellious princess with a fun-loving streak that doesn't quite overcome her royal bearing and court training, but she can learn. Gene Hackman is all teeth (ants have teeth?) and menacing grins as the Army general plotting insect-icide. This bug's-eye view of life on Earth gives Allen's neurotic nonconformist an epic adventure of microscopic proportions: a devastating war with a termite colony, an odyssey to the fabled land of plenty (a picnic ground), and a race to save his fellow workers from certain death. Other voices include Anne Bancroft as the Queen, Christopher Walken, Jennifer Lopez, Danny Glover, Dan Aykroyd, Jane Curtin, and John Mahoney. The computer animation isn't exactly realistic but feels as solid and contoured as puppet animation with the smoothness and slickness of traditional cel cartoons, and the character designs and animation offer a marvelous range of expressions. The PG rating includes a gritty battle sequence that may frighten youngsters. "--Sean Axmaker"

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 139

Summary: Forget any off-screen impressions you may have of Mel Gibson, and experience "Apocalypto" as the mad, bloody runaway train that it is. The story is set in the pre-Columbian Maya population: one village is brutally overrun, its residents either slaughtered or abducted, by a ruling tribe that needs slaves and human sacrifices. We focus on the capable warrior Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), although Gibson skillfully sketches a whole population of characters--many of whom don't survive the early reels. Most of the film is set in the dense jungle, but the middle section, in a grand Mayan city, is a dazzling triumph of design, costuming, and sheer decadent terror. The movie itself is a triumph of brutality, as Gibson lets loose his well-established fascination with bodily mortification in a litany of assaults including impalement, evisceration, snakebite, and bee stings. It's a dark, disgusted vision, but Gibson doesn't forget to apply some very canny moviemaking instincts to the violence--including the creation of a tremendous pair of villains (strikingly played by Raoul Trujillo and Rodolfo Palacias). The film is in a Maya dialect, subtitled in English, and shot on digital video (which occasionally betrays itself in some blurry quick pans). Amidst all the mayhem, nothing in the film is more devastating than a final wordless exchange of looks between captured villager Blunted (Jonathan Brewer) and his wife's mother (Maria Isabel Diaz), a superb change in tone from their early relationship. Yes, this is an obsessive, crazed movie, but Gibson knows what he's doing. "--Robert Horton"

Theatrical: 1995

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 140

Summary: NASA's worst nightmare turned into one of the space agency's most heroic moments in 1970, when the "Apollo 13" crew was forced to hobble home in a disabled capsule after an explosion seriously damaged the moon-bound spacecraft. Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, and Bill Paxton play (respectively) astronauts Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise in director Ron Howard's intense, painstakingly authentic docudrama. The "Apollo 13" crew and Houston-based mission controllers race against time and heavy odds to return the damaged spacecraft safely to Earth from a distance of 205,500 miles. Using state-of-the-art special effects and ingenious filmmaking techniques, Howard and his stellar cast and crew build nail-biting tension while maintaining close fidelity to the facts. The result is a fitting tribute to the "Apollo 13" mission and one of the biggest box-office hits of 1995. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Drama

Duration: 117

Summary: It's easy to understand why "Arlington Road" sat on the studio shelf for nearly a year. No, the film isn't awful; rather, it's an extremely edgy and ultimately bleak thriller that offers no clear-cut heroes or villains. In other words, Hollywood had no idea how to sell it. Director Mark Pellington's underrated directorial debut, "Going All the Way," suffered the same fate, essentially because the filmmaker's presentation of suburban America often shifts dramatically within the same film. Characters are usually miserable and bordering on meltdown, no situation is straightforward, and things usually end badly. "Arlington Road" begins as an astute study of suburban paranoia. Michael Faraday (a face-pinched Jeff Bridges, who spends most of the film on the brink of tears) is a college professor who teaches American history courses on terrorism. He's been a conspiracy freak since his wife, an FBI agent, was killed during a botched raid that feels like a thinly fictionalized reference to the Waco tragedy. After saving the life of his next-door neighbor's child, he initially befriends the family (Tim Robbins and Joan Cusack), but soon believes the husband is a terrorist. The first half of the film mocks Faraday: he has no real evidence and is not the most stable of protagonists. Despite the fact that it was government paranoia that got his wife killed, Faraday repeats the same type of behavior. Pellington shifts gears in the second half, however, and for awhile, it seems that the film has simultaneously sunk into a cheap, high-octane brand of Hollywood entertainment and undermined its own point. "Arlington Road", though, possesses a stunning ending that's a real gut punch, one that may leave you needing a second viewing to catch all of its smartly executed setup. "--Dave McCoy"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Touchstone / Disney

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 150

Summary: The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay ("The Rock", "Bad Boys") continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid- fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when "Armageddon" tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since "Mississippi Burning" have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white "male" America; the film features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? "--Dave McCoy"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Touchstone / Disney

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 150

Summary: The latest testosterone-saturated blow-'em-up from producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Michael Bay ("The Rock", "Bad Boys") continues Hollywood's millennium-fueled fascination with the destruction of our planet. There's no arguing that the successful duo understands what mainstream American audiences want in their blockbuster movies--loads of loud, eye-popping special effects, rapid-fire pacing, and patriotic flag waving. Bay's protagonists--the eight crude, lewd, oversexed (but lovable, of course) oil drillers summoned to save the world from a Texas-sized meteor hurling toward the earth--are not flawless heroes, but common men with whom all can relate. In this huge Western-in-space soap opera, they're American cowboys turned astronauts. Sci-fi buffs will appreciate Bay's fetishizing of technology, even though it's apparent he doesn't understand it as anything more than flashing lights and shiny gadgets. Smartly, the duo also tries to lure the art-house crowd, raiding the local indie acting stable and populating the film with guys like Steve Buscemi, Billy Bob Thornton, Owen Wilson, and Michael Duncan, all adding needed touches of humor and charisma. When Bay applies his sledgehammer aesthetics to the action portions of the film, it's mindless fun; it's only when "Armageddon" tackles humanity that it becomes truly offensive. Not since "Mississippi Burning" have racial and cultural stereotypes been substituted for characters so blatantly--African Americans, Japanese, Chinese, Scottish, Samoans, Muslims, French ... if it's not white and American, Bay simplifies it. Or, make that white "male" America; the film features only three notable females--four if you count the meteor, who's constantly referred to as a "bitch that needs drillin'," but she's a hell of a lot more developed and unpredictable than the other women characters combined. Sure, Bay's film creates some tension and contains some visceral moments, but if he can't create any redeemable characters outside of those in space, what's the point of saving the planet? "--Dave McCoy"

Theatrical: 1993

Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 81

Summary: A movie that only true horror buffs could love, "Army of Darkness" is officially part 3 in the wild and wacky "Evil Dead" trilogy masterminded by the perversely inventive director Sam Raimi, who would later serve as executive producer of the popular syndicated TV series "Hercules: The Legendary Journeys". Raimi's favorite actor, Bruce Campbell, returns as Ash (hero of the first two "Evil Dead" flicks), a hardware-store clerk who is magically transported--along with his beat-up Oldsmobile and a chainsaw attachment for his severed left forearm--to the brutal battlefields of the 14th century. He quickly assumes power (who else in the Middle Ages packs a shotgun and a chainsaw?), and unites his band of medieval knights against the dreaded Army of the Dead. Raimi gleefully subverts almost every horror-movie cliché as he serves up a nonstop parade of blood, gore, and vicious sword-bearing skeletons--an affectionate homage to animator Ray Harryhausen's classic "Jason and the Argonauts". The frantic action is fun while it lasts, but even at 80 minutes "Army of Darkness" nearly wears out its welcome. You know that Raimi can maintain the mayhem for only so long before it grows tiresome, and fortunately this madcap movie quits while it's ahead. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Walt Disney Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 120

Summary: The 2004 version of "Around the World in 80 Days" is an entertaining hodge-podge of adventure, comedy, and scenery from across the globe. Phileas Fogg (Steve Coogan, "24 Hour Party People"), an obsessively precise inventor, bets that he can circumnavigate the planet in 80 days--considered impossible in the Victorian era. In this version, Jackie Chan plays a Chinese peasant who retrieves a stolen idol from the Bank of England, then convinces Fogg to hire him as a French valet so that Chan can get back to his village. Chan supplies numerous spectacular fights against the forces trying to stop Fogg or get the idol, while Coogan is both funny and a surprisingly appealing romantic lead (he flirts with a fetching French painter who joins them). The various episodes--featuring cameos by Arnold Schwarzenegger, John Cleese, Owen Wilson, and Sammo Hung--are uneven, but a goofy good cheer prevails. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1998

Studio: Live / Artisan

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 210

Summary: "The Arrival" was underrated when it was first released, and, as with all good, underrated movies, it has since become a cult favorite. Clever and imaginative, a lot was done on a limited budget to make it into a top notch sci-fi thriller. It has an intelligent and well reasoned story, and the special effects are imaginative.
Charlie Sheen, clean and sober, plays radio astronomer, Zane Zaminski, who picks up radio signals that are not earthly. When he takes a copy of the tape of these signals, which he believes to be indicative of intelligent, alien life, to his boss, chillingly played by Ron Silver, he is summarily fired from his job. Suddenly, all is not right with the world.
Smelling something real fishy, Zane sets up a home satellite and tries to zero in on the signal. He gets lucky, or unlucky, depending upon how one looks at it, and he picks up the same signal he previously had picked up. It crosses a signal given off by a Mexican radio station, which motivates him to go to Mexico and check it out.
While in Mexico, he meets a fellow scientist (Lindsay Crouse), who is there on her own investigation, as she has noted major atmospheric changes, which indicate that global warming is occurring at an alarming rate, almost as if there were a greenhouse effect. Unbeknownst to Zane at the time, her concerns are connected to his.
While at a power plant with her, he comes across a doppelganger for his former boss, which sets off alarms in his head. Returning undercover at night, he discovers that the entire plant is operated by aliens, and they are not here just to say hello. There, a series of events transpire to reveal to him an immense, alien plot. Yes, it's the old alien conspiracy story rearing its ugly head. Only this time, it is handled with surprising intelligence. Zane is now on a mission to convey what he knows to the world, but the aliens will stop at nothing to silence him. Will he make it? Watch the film and find out. If you love sci-fi films, you will not be disappointed.
"Arrival II", the sequel to "The Arrival", is not in the same league. None of the original cast are in it. Instead,, the viewer gets handsome Patrick Muldoon in the role of Jack Addison, Zane's estranged brother, picking up where Zane left off in the fight against alien invasion. Jack teams up with investigative reporter Bridget Riordan, played with energetic enthusiasm by Jane Sibbert. Together they seek to foil the sinister alien conspiracy that threatens mankind.
Lacking the more intelligent script and better production values of "The Arrival", the sequel still manages to entertain. Borrowing some of the original themes and types of special effects, it is played out as more of an action film with a lot of chase scenes. While I did not enjoy it as much as the original, I forgave it some of its faux pas and enjoyed it, nonetheless. All in all, it is an entertaining, sci-fi film.
This DVD is really value priced for what one gets. One gets two full length, feature films, both of which are enjoyable. The DVD also gives the viewer the standard production notes, cast and crew bios, as well as a theatrical teaser and trailer. Moreover, the quality of picture and sound is excellent for both films. This is a DVD well worth having in one's collection, if one is a sci-fi fan.

Theatrical: 2000

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 116

Summary: "The Art of War" is the first action movie with a hero who works for the United Nations--the U.N. Covert Operations Unit, to be specific. Who knew there was such a thing? Wesley Snipes plays Shaw, their top operative, who's unafraid of dropping several stories from one ledge of a skyscraper to another. When the Chinese ambassador is assassinated, it threatens the stability of an impending trade agreement that the secretary-general (played by Donald Sutherland) has worked so hard to achieve. Shaw gets arrested for the assassination, but who's really responsible? Is it the wily Chinese capitalist? A seemingly affable FBI agent? Only a lovely U.N. interpreter (Marie Matiko) believes he's innocent, especially when someone tries to knock her off and Shaw is the only person she can turn to... well, you get the idea. The script is neither original nor comprehensible, but that's not why you'd want to watch a movie like "The Art of War"--it's the action. And the action is pretty good, particularly earlier on when the confusions of the plot don't matter as much. Michael Biehn ("The Terminator", "The Rock") does a serviceable job as one of Shaw's associates, Anne Archer ("Fatal Attraction", "Clear and Present Danger") tries to seem complicated as the head of the Covert Operations Unit, and Maury Chaykin ("The Mask of Zorro", "Devil in a Blue Dress") is dependable as ever as the FBI guy. "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 2006

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 102

Summary: Bitter, misanthropic, yet sometimes blisteringly funny, "Art School Confidential" is not a movie for everyone. Jerome (Max Minghella, "Bee Season") goes to art school in the hopes of having his genuine ability recognized and cherished--but instead, finds his teachers to be self-obsessed has-beens, his peers jaded and floundering, and himself being investigated for a series of gruesome stranglings. He becomes obsessed with a lovely student named Audrey (Sophia Myles, "Tristan and Isolde"), but she's more interested in hunky Jonah (Matt Keeslar, "Splendor"), whose crude yet acclaimed paintings of cars and tanks make Jerome want to tear his own eyes out. The crime-thriller plot of "Art School Confidential", however, is merely a contrivance to string together a series of caustic digs at the shallow, narcissistic, talentless hacks who go to art school in the vain hope of achieving fame, wealth, and sexual abundance with little or no effort. For most viewers, who want to think that people are largely well-intentioned and decent, this will seem snide and cruel; but for some viewers, who believe people are foolish and blinkered, "Art School Confidential" will seem like an oasis in the arid desert of lies and propaganda about the good side of human nature. If this is your movie, you know who you are, and I encourage you to seek it out as soon as possible. Directed by Terry Zwigoff ("Bad Santa") and based on the work of cartoonist Dan Clowes; their previous collaboration was the much warmer "Ghost World". Also featuring sharp turns from John Malkovich ("Being John Malkovich"), Anjelica Huston ("Prizzi's Honor"), and Jim Broadbent ("Moulin Rouge!"). "--Bret Fetzer"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: Sony Pictures

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 139

Summary: For all of its conventional plotting about an obsessive-compulsive curmudgeon (Jack Nicholson) who improves his personality at the urging of his gay neighbor (Greg Kinnear) and a waitress (Helen Hunt) who inspires his best behavior, this is one of the sharpest Hollywood comedies of the 1990s. Nicholson could play his role in his sleep (the Oscar he won should have gone to Robert Duvall for "The Apostle"), but his mischievous persona is precisely necessary to give heart to his seemingly heartless character, who is of all things a successful romance novelist. As a single mom with a chronically asthmatic young son, Hunt gives the film its conscience and integrity (along with plenty of wry humor), and she also won an Oscar for her wonderful performance. Greg Kinnear had to settle for an Oscar nomination (while cowriter-director James L. Brooks was inexplicably snubbed by Oscar that year), but his work was also singled out in the film's near-unanimous chorus of critical praise. It's questionable whether a romance between Hunt and the much older Nicholson is entirely believable, but this movie's smart enough--and charmingly funny enough--to make it seem endearingly possible. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 160

Summary: Of all the movies made about or glancingly involving the 19th-century outlaw Jesse Woodson James, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" is the most reflective, most ambitious, most intricately fascinating, and indisputably most beautiful. Based on the novel of the same name by Ron Hansen, it picks up James late in his career, a few hours before his final train robbery, then covers the slow catastrophe of the gang's breakup over the next seven months even as the boss himself settles into an approximation of genteel retirement. But in another sense all of the movie is later than that. The very title assumes the audience's familiarity with James as a figure out of history and legend, and our awareness that he was--will be--murdered in his parlor one quiet afternoon by a backshooting crony.
The film--only the second to be made by New Zealand–born writer-director Andrew Dominik--reminds us that Dominik's debut film, "Chopper" (2000), was the cunningly off-kilter portrait of another real-life criminal psychopath who became a kind of rock star to his society. The Jesse James of this telling is no Robin Hood robbing the rich to give to the poor, and that train robbery we witness is punctuated by acts of gratuitous brutality, not gallantry. Nineteen-year-old Bob Ford (Casey Affleck) seeks to join the James gang out of hero worship stoked by the dime novels he secretes under his bed, but his glam hero (Brad Pitt) is a monster who takes private glee in infecting his accomplices with his own paranoia, then murdering them for it. In the careful orchestration of James's final moments, there's even a hint that he takes satisfaction in his own demise.
Affleck and Pitt (who co-produced with Ridley Scott, among others) are mesmerizing in the title roles, but the movie is enriched by an exceptional supporting cast: Sam Shepard as Jesse's older, more stable brother Frank; Sam Rockwell as Bob Ford's own brother Charlie, whose post-assassination descent into madness is astonishing to behold; Paul Schneider, Garret Dillahunt, and Jeremy Renner as three variously doomed gang members; and Mary-Louise Parker, who as Jesse's wife Zee has few lines yet manages with looks and body language to invoke a wellnigh-novelistic backstory for herself. There are also electrifying cameos by James Carville, doing solid actorly work as the governor of Missouri; Ted Levine, as a lawman of antic spirit; and Nick Cave, composer of the film's score (with Warren Ellis) and screenwriter of the Aussie "Western" "The Proposition", suddenly towering over a late scene to perform the folk song that set the terms for the book and movie's title.
Still, the real costar is Roger Deakins, probably the finest cinematographer at work today. The landscapes of the movie (mostly in Alberta and Manitoba) will linger in the memory as long as the distinctive faces, and we seem to feel the sting of its snows on our cheeks. Interior scenes are equally persuasive. Few Westerns have conveyed so tangibly the bleakness and austerity of the spaces people of the frontier called home, and sought in vain to warm with human spirit. "--Richard T. Jameson"

Theatrical: 2005

Studio: Universal Studios

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 109

Summary: Action buffs will have a fine time with the spray of bullets, shattering glass, and pyrotechnic silliness that makes up the bulk of "Assault on Precinct 13". Updated from the little-known cops-and-robbers classic John Carpenter made in 1976 (two years before he made his name with "Halloween"), this high-concept thriller is mostly a lowbrow kill-fest, and is very happy with itself for being so efficient in both categories. A decrepit police station on its last night before retirement--New Year's Eve, no less--plays unexpected home to a gang of criminals who become snowbound in the basement lockup. Another mysterious gang of people who stealthily gather in the blizzard outside want one of the particularly nasty criminals (Laurence Fishburne) dead, and they'll take the rest of the precinct down too, by golly. The odd lot of characters trapped inside include a burned-out sergeant (Ethan Hawke), a sexpot secretary (post-"Sopranos" Drea de Matteo), an even sexier police psychologist (Maria Bello), and various other good guys and bad guys who variously go down in blazes of guts, glory, bullets, and fire. Hawke and Fishburne are opposite sides of the coin: the law, and the bathroom scale. Their need to partner in order to survive the guns outside is the movie's moral conflict, and both actors chew on "Precinct 13"'s peeling walls and scuffed floors to drive the point home every chance they get. Obvious filmmaking fakery abounds in everything from the irksome snowstorm, frequent gunshots to the head, and a shadowy forest that conveniently presents itself in an industrial section of Detroit for the climactic showdown. No matter, this "Assault" is for non-thinkers who want blood and gunpowder, with no messy slowdowns for logic, please."--Ted Fry"

Theatrical: 2007

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Drama

Duration: 104

Summary: If you can give "The Astronaut Farmer" the big, bounding leap of faith it requires, you'll probably enjoy this good-natured film about the importance of holding on to your dreams. The title character (and the dreamer in question) is Charlie Farmer (Billy Bob Thornton), a Texas ranch owner and former aeronautics engineer who's got a homemade rocket in his barn and a dream to blast into space. Even though Charlie's deeply in debt and threatened with foreclosure, his wife (Virginia Madsen) and kids are deeply supportive of Charlie's Earth-orbit mission, even when he attracts the glaring attention of a seasoned Air Force colonel (played by Bruce Willis, in an uncredited role), the FAA, the FBI, and the national media. "If we don't have our dreams, we have nothing," says Charlie at a particularly desperate impasse, and this loopy, offbeat, and unabashedly sentimental drama embraces that message with disarming sincerity.
Suspension of disbelief is a challenge when the movie glosses over so many of its logistical details (like, where does one buy an old NASA space capsule?), and in trying for a kind of Capra-esque, eccentrically Western spin on the American dream, the Polish twins--director Michael and cowriter/actor Mark (making their mainstream debut after such indie hits as "Twin Falls, Idaho" and "Northfork")--are only marginally successful in making Charlie's ambition genuinely believable. The film works much better as a kind of post space-age fable for families, and it's just involving enough to make its climax emotionally rewarding, mostly because Thornton, Madsen, and their costars (including Bruce Dern and Tim Blake Nelson) handle the delicate material with the earnestness it needs to be marginally convincing. Elton John's "Rocket Man" is predictably heard over the closing credits (accordingly, Charlie's launch-time is "zero hours, nine a.m."), and at a time when several adventurous entrepreneurs (including Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos) are gradually developing a civilian space-flight industry, "The Astronaut Farmer" is an admirable yet forgivably flawed reminder that we should never stop reaching for the stars. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1997

Studio: New Line Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 94

Summary: If you don't think "Austin Powers" is one of the funniest movies of the 1990s, maybe you should be packed into a cryogenic time chamber and sent back to the decade whence you came. Perhaps it was the 1960s--the shagadelic decade when London hipster Austin Powers scored with gorgeous chicks as a fashion photographer by day, crime-fighting international man of mystery by night. Yeah, baby, yeah! But when Powers's arch nemesis, Dr. Evil, puts himself into a deep-freeze and travels via time machine to the late 1990s, Powers must follow him and foil Evil's nefarious scheme of global domination. Mike Myers plays dual roles as Powers and Dr. Evil, with Elizabeth Hurley as his present-day sidekick and karate-kicking paramour. A hilarious spoof of '60s spy movies, this colorful comedy actually gets funnier with successive viewings, making it a perfect home video for gloomy days and randy nights. Oh, be"have"! "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 1999

Studio: New Line Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 95

Summary: "I put the grrr in swinger, baby!" a deliciously randy Austin Powers coos near the beginning of "The Spy Who Shagged Me", and if the imagination of Austin creator Mike Myers seems to have sagged a bit, his energy surely hasn't. This friendly, go-for-broke sequel to 1997's "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" finds our man Austin heading back to the '60s to keep perennial nemesis Dr. Evil (Myers again) from blowing up the world--and, more importantly, to get back his mojo, that man-juice that turns Austin into irresistible catnip for women, especially American spygirl Felicity Shagwell (a pretty but vacant Heather Graham). The plot may be irreverent and illogical, the jokes may be bad (with characters named Ivana Humpalot and Robin Swallows, née Spitz), and the scenes may run on too long, but it's all delivered sunnily and with tongue firmly in cheek.
Myers's true triumph, though, is his turn as the neurotic Dr. Evil, who tends to spout the right cultural reference at exactly the wrong time (referring to his moon base as a "Death Star" with Moon Units Alpha and Zappa--in 1969). Myers teams Dr. Evil with a diminutive clone, Mini-Me (Verne J. Troyer), who soon replaces slacker son Scott Evil (Seth Green) as the apple of the doctor's eye; Myers and Troyer work magic in what could plausibly be one of the year's most affecting (and hysterically funny) love stories. Despite a stellar supporting cast--including a sly Rob Lowe as Robert Wagner's younger self and Mindy Sterling as the forbidding Frau Farbissina--it's basically Myers's show, and he pulls a hat trick by playing a third character, the obese and disgusting Scottish assassin Fat Bastard. Many viewers will reel in disgust at Mr. Bastard's repulsive antics and the scatological bent Myers indulges in, including one showstopper involving coffee and--shudder--a stool sample. Still, Myers's good humor and dead-on cultural references win the day; Austin is one spy who proves he can still shag like a minx. "--Mark Englehart"

Theatrical: 2002

Studio: New Line Home Entertainment

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 94

Summary: Despite symptoms of sequelitis, "Austin Powers in Goldmember" is must-see lunacy for devoted fans of the shagadelic franchise. Unfortunately, the law of diminishing returns is in full effect: for every big-name cameo and raunchy double-entendre, there's an equal share of redundant shtick, juvenile scatology, and pop-cultural spoofery. All is forgiven when the hilarity level is consistently high, and Mike Myers--returning here as randy Brit spy Austin, his nemesis Dr. Evil, the bloated Scottish henchman Fat Bastard, and new Dutch disco-villain Goldmember--thrives by favoring comedic chaos over coherent plotting. Once they've tossed Austin into the disco fever of 1975 (where he's sent to rescue his father, gamely played by Michael Caine), Myers and director Jay Roach seem vaguely adrift with old and new characters, including Verne Troyer's Mini-Me and pop star Beyoncé Knowles as Pam Grier-ish blaxpo-babe Foxxy Cleopatra. A bit tired, perhaps, but Powers hasn't lost his mojo. "--Jeff Shannon"

Theatrical: 2009

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 162

Summary: After 12 years of thinking about it (and waiting for movie technology to catch up with his visions), James Cameron followed up his unsinkable Titanic with Avatar, a sci-fi epic meant to trump all previous sci-fi epics. Set in the future on a distant planet, Avatar spins a simple little parable about greedy colonizers (that would be mankind) messing up the lush tribal world of Pandora. A paraplegic Marine named Jake (Sam Worthington) acts through a 9-foot-tall avatar that allows him to roam the planet and pass as one of the Na'vi, the blue-skinned, large-eyed native people who would very much like to live their peaceful lives without the interference of the visitors. Although he's supposed to be gathering intel for the badass general (Stephen Lang) who'd like to lay waste to the planet and its inhabitants, Jake naturally begins to take a liking to the Na'vi, especially the feisty Neytiri (Zoë Saldana, whose entire performance, recorded by Cameron's complicated motion-capture system, exists as a digitally rendered Na'vi). The movie uses state-of-the-art 3D technology to plunge the viewer deep into Cameron's crazy toy box of planetary ecosystems and high-tech machinery. Maybe it's the fact that Cameron seems torn between his two loves--awesome destructive gizmos and flower-power message mongering--that makes Avatar's pursuit of its point ultimately uncertain. That, and the fact that Cameron's dialogue continues to clunk badly. If you're won over by the movie's trippy new world, the characters will be forgivable as broad, useful archetypes rather than standard-issue stereotypes, and you might be able to overlook the unsurprising central plot. (The overextended "take that, Michael Bay" final battle sequences could tax even Cameron enthusiasts, however.) It doesn't measure up to the hype (what could?) yet Avatar frequently hits a giddy delirium all its own. The film itself is our Pandora, a sensation-saturated universe only the movies could create. --Robert Horton

Stills from Avatar (Click for larger image)

 
   

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: Warner Home Video

Genre: Drama

Duration: 170

Summary: From Hollywood's legendary Cocoanut Grove to the pioneering conquest of the wild blue yonder, Martin Scorsese's "The Aviator" celebrates old-school filmmaking at its finest. We say "old school" only because Scorsese's love of golden-age Hollywood is evident in his approach to his subject--Howard Hughes in his prime (played by Leonardo DiCaprio in his)--and especially in his technical mastery of the medium reflecting his love for classical filmmaking of the studio era. Even when he's using state-of-the-art digital trickery for the film's exciting flight scenes (including one of the most spectacular crashes ever filmed), Scorsese's meticulous attention to art direction and costume design suggests an impassioned pursuit of craftsmanship from a bygone era; every frame seems to glow with gilded detail. And while DiCaprio bears little physical resemblance to Hughes during the film's 20-year span (late 1920s to late '40s), he efficiently captures the eccentric millionaire's golden-boy essence, and his tragic descent into obsessive-compulsive seclusion. Bolstered by Cate Blanchett's uncannily accurate portrayal of Katharine Hepburn as Hughes' most beloved lover, "The Aviator" is easily Scorsese's most accessible film, inviting mainstream popularity without compromising Scorsese's artistic reputation. As compelling crowd-pleasers go, it's a class act from start to finish. "--Jeff Shannon"

DVD Features
In his commentary track, director Martin Scorsese offers his own impressions of Howard Hughes and rattles off his memories of experiencing Hughes's films. He mentions how he made Cate Blanchett watch every Katharine Hepburn film from the '30s on the big screen, and observes that Kate Beckinsale had "a real sense of the stature of a Hollywood goddess." But in general he doesn't talk much about the craft of making the film. That area is covered better by editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who also appears on the commentary track, and producer Michael Mann makes a few appearances (all were recorded separately). The picture is brilliant, but the 5.1 sound is not as aggressive in the rear speakers and subwoofer as one might expect, other than some nice surround effects in the "Hell's Angels" flying sequence.
The second disc collects almost three hours of features. There's one unnecessary deleted scene, and an 11-minute making-of featurette that's basically the cast and director heaping praise on each other. More interesting are the short featurettes on visual effects (including the XF-11 scene, of course), production design, costumes, hair and makeup, and score, and Loudon Wainwright discusses his and his children's musical performances. Historical perspective is provided by spotlights on Hughes's role in aviation and his obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a 43-minute Hughes documentary from the History Channel (part of the Modern Marvels series, it focuses on his mechanical innovations and spends less than a minute on his movies). More unusual are DiCaprio and Scorsese's appearance on an OCD panel, and a half-hour interview segment DiCaprio did with Alan Alda. "--David Horiuchi"
The Personalities of "The Aviator"
Click the links to explore more movies by these stars.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes
"Sometimes I truly fear that I... am losing my mind. And if I did it... it would be like flying blind." Cate Blanchett as Katharine Hepburn Howard Hughes: "You're the tallest woman I have ever met."
Katharine Hepburn: "And all sharp elbows and knees. Beware." Kate Beckinsale as Ava Gardner
Howard Hughes: "Does that look clean to you?"
Ava Gardner: "Nothing's clean, Howard. But we do our best, right?" Gwen Stefani as Jean Harlow
Jean Harlow in "Hell's Angels": "Would you be shocked if I put on something more comfortable?" Jude Law as Errol Flynn
Errol Flynn in "Captain Blood": "Up the riggings, you monkeys! Break out those sails and watch them fill with the wind that's carrying us all to freedom!" Director Martin Scorsese
"You get a sense of Howard Hughes being Icarus with the wax wings. Those wings were great for a while, but he flies too close to the sun." --Martin Scorsese
Other Movies by "The Aviator"'s Oscar® Winners

Production Designer Dante Ferretti
Film Editor Thelma Schoonmaker
Costume Designer Sandy Powell
Cinematographer Robert Richardson
See all the Oscar® winners at Oscar Central

"The Aviator" at Amazon.com


"The Aviator" soundtrack

The Screenplay

"Howard Hughes: The Real Aviator"


Howard Hughes movies

Great movies of the 1930s

The films of Martin Scorsese

Theatrical: 2004

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action & Adventure

Duration: 101

Summary: In delivering PG-13-rated excitement, "Alien vs. Predator" is an acceptably average science-fiction action thriller with some noteworthy highlights, even if it squanders its opportunity to intelligently combine two popular and R-rated franchises. Rabid fans can justifiably ask "Is that all there is?" after a decade of development hell and eager anticipation, but we're compensated by reasonably logical connections to the "Alien" legacy and the still-kicking "Predator" franchise (which hinted at "AVP" rivalry at the end of "Predator 2"); some cleverly claustrophobic sets, tense atmosphere and impressive digital effects; and a climactic "AVP" smackdown that's not half bad. This disposable junk should've been better, but nobody who's seen "Mortal Kombat" or "Resident Evil" should be surprised by writer-director Paul W.S. Anderson's lack of imagination. As a brisk, 90-minute exercise in generic thrills, however, Anderson's work is occasionally impressive... right up to his shameless opening for yet another sequel. "--Jeff Shannon"