Movie List
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Disk # |
Title |
Movie Release Year |
Running Time |
Genre |
Plot |
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201 |
2 Fast 2 Furious |
2003 |
108
mins |
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Despite
several other sequels on his plate (The Chronicles of Riddick, XXX2), Vin
Diesel opted to not appear in the sequel to the film the shot him to stardom
in the first place, The Fast and the Furious. With the character of Dominic
Toretto out of the picture, 2 Fast 2 Furious concentrates exclusively on the
latest exploits of undercover agent Brian O'Connor, played by Paul Walker. In
addition, with director Rob Cohen passing, producers have added a dash of
credibility to the sequel by hiring John Singleton to helm. What does
completely remain from the first film is the presence of fast-living
underground street-racing gangs. Moving from Los Angeles to Miami, O'Connor
is looking to redeem himself after the events of the first movie, so he again
goes undercover to infiltrate another group of thuggish car enthusiasts. This
time around he's enlisted the help of ex-con Roman Pierce (Tyrese) and fellow
agent Monica Celemente (Eva Mendes) to bring down Carter Verone (Cole Hauser),
an importer/exporter who heads up a massive drug trafficking operation.
Heading up the supporting cast are hip-hop stars Ludacris and Fabolous. —
Matthew Tobey |
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72 |
8 Mile |
2002 |
110
mins |
|
Controversial
rap star Eminem makes his acting debut in this hard-edged urban drama,
inspired in part by incidents from the musician's own life. Jimmy Smith
(Eminem), known to his friends as Rabbit, is a young man trying to make his
way out of the burned-out shell of inner-city Detroit. Rabbit's entire life
has been a hard climb, and it certainly hasn't gotten any easier lately;
Rabbit has just been dumped by his girlfriend, forcing him to move back in
with his emotionally unstable mother, Stephanie (Kim Basinger), and he's
getting along especially poorly with Stephanie's new boyfriend. Rabbit has a
factory job that's tough, demeaning, and doesn't pay especially well, and
he's convinced his skills as a rapper are his only real hope at a better
life. Rabbit makes music with a crew of DJ's and MC's who call themselves
Three One Third, among them his close friend Future (Mekhi Phifer), but his
status as a white kid making music in a predominantly African-American
community and culture is extremely intimidating, and after Rabbit freezes up
in the midst of an MC battle, he's convinced he's missed his chance and that
he's doomed to lead a marginal life as a factory rat for the rest of his
days. With the help of his friends, and his new girlfriend Alex (Brittany
Murphy), Rabbit struggles to work up the courage and the confidence to take
one more shot at making his dream a reality. 8 Mile was shot on location in
Detroit; the name refers to 8 Mile Road, a thoroughfare along the city's
perimeter which effectively separates the middle-class suburban neighborhoods
from the lower-class inner-city. — Mark Deming |
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65 |
A Beautiful Mind |
2001 |
134
mins |
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The
true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of
this biographical drama from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the
brilliant but arrogant professor Nash, who seems guaranteed a rosy future in
the early '50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly)
and makes a remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game
theory," taking him to the brink of international acclaim. When he is
recruited by a CIA agent (Ed Harris) to provide assistance to the military
with top-secret code-breaking duties, however, the stress of Nash's demanding
new covert activities leads to the shattering of his fragile grip on reality,
and he becomes a paranoid schizophrenic. Battling decades of illness with the
loyal Alicia by his side, Nash is ultimately able to recover his mental
health and eventually goes on to triumphantly win the Nobel Prize. Based
loosely on the book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind (2001)
co-stars Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Christopher Plummer, and
Judd Hirsch. — Karl Williams |
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250 |
A Bug's Life |
1998 |
96
mins |
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John
Lasseter, director of Pixar's movie phenomenon Toy Story, has set new
standards in computer animation with this effort, another Disney-released
children's epic entitled A Bug's Life. Blending classic Disney storytelling
characters and the mysterious underground world of bugs, Lasseter has created
a film that can be enjoyed by all audiences, and another franchise in the
process. A Bug's Life is a computerized retelling of the Aesop fable The Ant
and the Grasshopper, made as a cartoon-short by the one-and-only, Walt
Disney, in the mid-'30s. However, A Bug's Life has modernized the story with
many new twists and celebrity voices. The story focuses on a colony of ants
who seasonally gather food for themselves and a wild gang of rowdy
grasshoppers. When bumbling worker ant Flik (David Foley) destroys the food
supply, the angry grasshoppers, lead by the maniacally warped Hopper (Kevin
Spacey), threaten to kill the ants if they don't produce a new supply of food
by the time they return — an impossible feat. Flik leaves the anthill in
search of help in the form of bigger bugs, and to wage war against the grasshoppers.
What he doesn't know is he has actually discovered a group of
down-on-their-luck traveling circus insects in need of a job. When the ants
realize that their heroes are really circus performers (and the circus bugs
realize these grasshoppers are really big and mean), the situation goes from
bad to worse. Ultimately, the ants use their large numbers to overcome the
grasshoppers. — Chris Gore |
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179 |
A Christmas Carol |
1938 |
70
mins |
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For
a generation of radio fans, Lionel Barrymore was the definitive Ebeneezer
Scrooge. Alas, Barrymore was crippled by arthritis by the time MGM got around
to filming Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol in 1938, so the Scrooge role
went to contract player Reginald Owen - who, though hardly in the Barrymore
league, does a splendid job. Hugo Butler's screenplay must make some
adjustments from the source material. The Ghost of Christmas Past, for
example, is played not by a robust middle-aged man but by a beautiful young
woman (Ann Rutherford). Impeccably cast, the film includes such reliable
character players as Leo G. Carroll (Marley's Ghost), Barry McKay (Scrooge's
nephew Fred) and Gene and Kathleen Lockhart (Bob and Mrs. Cratchit). the
Lockhart's teenaged daughter June makes her screen debut as one of the
Cratchit children, while Terry Kilburn is a fine, non-sentimental Tiny Tim.
Commenably short for a major production (69 minutes), MGM's Christmas Carol
is one of the best adaptations of the oft-filmed Dickens Yuletide classic,
and definitely on equal footing with the more famous 1951 Alastair Sim version.
— Hal Erickson |
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62 |
A.I. Artificial
Intelligence |
2001 |
145
mins |
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Based
on the 1969 short story Super-Toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldiss, this
science fiction fantasy bears similarities to Pinocchio (1940) and originated
as a long-gestating project of director Stanley Kubrick that passed to his
friend Steven Spielberg after Kubrick's death. Haley Joel Osment stars as
David, a "mecha" or robot of the future, when the polar ice caps
have melted and submerged many coastal cities, causing worldwide starvation and
human dependence upon robotic assistance. The first mecha designed to
experience love, David is the "son" of Henry (Sam Robards), an
employee of the company that built the boy, and the grief-stricken Monica
(Frances O'Connor). David is meant to replace the couple's hopelessly
comatose son, but when their natural child recovers, David is abandoned and
sets out to become "a real boy" worthy of his mother's affection.
Along the way, David is mentored by a pleasure-providing mecha named Gigolo
Joe (Jude Law) and a talking "super toy" bear named Teddy. His
adventures take him to the Roman Circus-style "Flesh Fair," where
mechas are destroyed for the amusement of humans; Rouge City, where Gigolo
Joe narrowly avoids capture by police; and finally a submerged New York City,
where David's creator William Hurt reveals the secrets of the boy's creation.
Brendan Gleeson and narrator Ben Kingsley co-star in A.I., which was adapted
from Kubrick's treatment by Spielberg, in his first crack at screenwriting
since Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). — Karl Williams |
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46 |
American Pie 2 |
2001 |
90
mins |
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The
horny teen heroes of American Pie (1999) return for further raunchy antics in
this comedy sequel written by the first film's creator, Adam Herz. Returning
home following their freshman year of college, old friends Jim (Jason Biggs),
Kevin (Thomas Ian Nicholas), Oz (Chris Klein), Finch (Eddie Kaye Thomas), and
Stifler (Seann William Scott) rent a summer house on Lake Michigan where they
hope to score romantically. However, complications ensue due to Jim's
relative lack of experience, requiring an interlude with a fellow student and
a visit to his old friend Michelle (Alyson Hanigan), who's now a band camp
counselor, all in preparation for the return of Nadia (Shannon Elizabeth). In
the meantime, Oz is separated from Heather (Mena Suvari) by a trip abroad,
Finch has another encounter with Stifler's mom (Jennifer Coolidge), and Jim's
dad (Eugene Levy) is as clueless as ever about his son's love life. Director
J.B. Rogers served as first assistant director on the first film and made his
directorial debut with Say It Isn't So (2001). — Karl Williams |
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104 |
Antwone Fisher |
2002 |
120
mins |
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The
directorial debut of Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington, Antwone
Fisher is an autobiographical drama written by the real-life Antwone Fisher.
Played by newcomer Derek Luke, Antwone is a volatile young sailor in the
Navy, getting into trouble for his constant fighting. When he gets appointed
to see naval psychiatrist Dr. Jerome Davenport (Denzel Washington), he begins
to reveal the emotional problems behind his rage. Through an introduction to
anger management, Antwone is able to confront some secrets of his past and
eventually search out his family for a confrontation. Also starring model-turned-actress
Joy Bryant as Antwone's girlfriend, Cheryl, and Salli Richardson as
Davenport's wife. Antwone Fisher's memoir, Finding Fish, was released to book
stores right before the film's theatrical release. — Andrea LeVasseur |
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61 |
Any Given Sunday |
1999 |
162
mins |
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Oliver
Stone takes on professional football, a sport whose grace and delicacy are a
good match for his filmmaking style. Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), the head coach
of the Miami Sharks, won back-to-back championships four years ago. But new
team owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) has little enthusiasm for the
finer points of the game and is concerned only with the bottom line. The
longtime strongman of Tony's team has been "Cap" Rooney (Dennis
Quaid), a 39-year-old quarterback, but Christina balks at renewing his
contract. When Cap is injured during a game, third-string rookie quarterback
Willie Beaman (Jamie Foxx) goes on in his place and becomes a major star. But
Beaman is mostly interested in fame and money, and he has little regard for
Tony and his teammates. Any Given Sunday also stars James Woods as the team's
doctor, LL Cool J as a star running back, Jim Brown as a former football
great turned Sharks' defensive coordinator, Ann-Margret as Christina's
alcoholic mother, Bill Bellamy as a wide receiver, Elizabeth Berkley as
Tony's favorite prostitute, and Charlton Heston as the football commissioner.
— Mark Deming |
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79 |
As Good As It Gets |
1997 |
139
mins |
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James
L. Brooks (Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News) directed this $50
million-plus romantic comedy, set in Manhattan. Dysfunctional, acid-tongued
romance novelist Melvin Udall (Jack Nicholson), who suffers from an
obsessive-compulsive disorder, takes pride in his ability to offend. At a
nearby cafe, the only waitress willing to stand up to his sarcastic tirades
is Carol Connelly (Helen Hunt), a single mother struggling to raise her
chronically asthmatic son. In Melvin's West Village apartment building,
talented contemporary artist Simon Nye (Greg Kinnear) lives across the hall
from Melvin. Simon is the current darling of the New York art world, reason
enough to draw Melvin's verbal fire, but Simon's gay lifestyle is further
grist for the novelist's malicious mill. These three New Yorkers, none of
whom appears to have a chance in hell at finding true happiness, discover
their fates intertwined because of the fourth complicated character in the
piece, Verdell, a tiny Brussels Griffon dog (played by newcomer Jill, after a
15-week training program). Melvin seems to have no friends or family, and he
lives alone, working on his 62nd book. When Simon goes into the hospital
after a brutal mugging, Melvin has to take care of Verdell, and the dog
actually warms Melvin's cold heart — to the degree that he sets up
unsolicited medical care for Carol's son. Eventually, Melvin is cornered into
driving Simon and Carol to Baltimore, and during a hotel stopover, Melvin
confesses to Carol, "You make me want to be a better man." The trip
becomes an odyssey of self-realization for all three. Locations included
Brooklyn's Prospect Park (Carol's neighborhood) and Greenwich Village (where
Melvin's building is on 12th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues). Other
exteriors were shot in downtown Los Angeles, where a dilapidated transient
hotel at the corner of 4th Street and Main was transformed into the chic cafe
where Carol works. Sets for the Simon/Melvin apartment interiors were erected
on a soundstage at the Sony Pictures lot. Simon's paintings were created for
the film by New York artist Billy Sullivan, whose work is part of the modern
art collection at NYC's Metropolitian Museum of Art and the New Orleans
Museum of Art. — Bhob Stewart |
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1 |
Back to the Future |
1985 |
116
mins |
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Contemporary
high schooler Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) doesn't have the most pleasant of
lives. Browbeaten by his principal at school, Marty must also endure the
acrimonious relationship between his nerdy father (Crispin Glover) and his
lovely mother (Lea Thompson), who in turn suffer the bullying of middle-aged
jerk Biff (Thomas F. Wilson), Marty's dad's supervisor. The one balm in
Marty's life is his friendship with eccentric scientist Doc (Christopher
Lloyd), who at present is working on a time machine. Accidentally zapped back
into the 1950s, Marty inadvertently interferes with the budding romance of
his now-teenaged parents. Our Hero must now reunite his parents-to-be, lest
he cease to exist in the 1980s. It won't be easy, especially with the loutish
Biff, now also a teenager, complicating matters. Beyond its dazzling special
effects, the best element of Back to the Future is the performance of Michael
J. Fox, who finds himself in the quagmire of surviving the white-bread 1950s
with a hip 1980s mindset. Back to the Future cemented the box-office
bankability of both Fox and the film's director, Robert Zemeckis, who went on
to helm two equally exhilarating sequels. — Hal Erickson |
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2 |
Back to the Future Part
II |
1989 |
107
mins |
|
Things
have barely settled from the excitement and resolve of the original Back to
the Future, when in pops that crazy inventor Dr. Emmett Brown (Christopher
Lloyd) with news that in order to prevent a series of events that could ruin
the McFly name for posterity, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox ) and his
girlfriend are whisked into the future to the year 2015 where McFly must
tangle with a teen rogue named Griff, who's obviously the descendant of Biff,
the first Future film's bully. Marty foils Griff and his group when he jumps
on an air-foil skateboard that flies him through town at rakish speeds with
the loser bullies beaten again. McFly gets a money-making brainstorm before
hopping in the time-traveling DeLorean and he purchases a sports almanac. He
figures that back in 1985 he'll be able to place sure-fire bets using the
published sports scores of the games that are yet to happen. Unfortunately
for Marty, Dr. Brown disapproves of his betting scheme —(he feels too much
messing with time is very dangerous — and he tosses the almanac. A hidden
Biff overhears the discussion about the almanac, sees it get tossed out, and
grabs it. Thus begins a time traveling swirl to make the head spin. Biff
swipes the DeLorean, heads back to 1955, and with the help of the unerring
almanac, bets his way to power. The now-altered "Biff world" has
turned into a nightmarish scene with Biff the mogul, residing in a
Vegas-styled pleasure palace and running everything. It's all our hero McFly
can do to pull the pieces together this time, as he must jump between three
generations of intertwined time travel. The end of Back to the Future, Part 2
introduces its sequel as the zany Professor has already time-dashed away to
the Wild West of the late 1800s and invites Marty into a new adventure. — All
Movie Guide |
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3 |
Back to the Future Part
III |
1990 |
118
mins |
|
The
final installment in the Back to the Future trilogy picks up where the second
film left off, but it casts off the dizzying time travel of the first two
films for mostly routine comedy set in the Old West. Marty McFly (Michael J.
Fox) receives a seventy-year-old letter from his inventor friend, Doc Brown
(Christopher Lloyd), who tells Marty that he has retreated a century in time
to live out a relatively quiet life in the Old West. Doc Brown reveals that
he hid his DeLorean car/time machine in an abandoned mine outside town, and
when Marty does some research and discovers that the Doc died shortly after
writing the letter, he decides to find the car, travel back in time, and warn
the Doc about his demise. Meanwhile, the Doc, who has fallen in love with a
local woman (Mary Steenburgen), realizes he can't hide in the past from the
problems he has caused to the timeflow in the previous two adventures. He
reluctantly decides to return to the present with Marty, but first, they have
to find a way to get the DeLorean up to time-travel velocity with a broken
fuel line and no gasoline. — Don Kaye |
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25 |
Bad Boys |
1995 |
118
mins |
|
Former
video director Michael Bay had his first big hit with this action comedy,
which also returned producers Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson to the
big-budget, high-violence movies that they successfully churned out in the
Eighties. Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence) are
two Miami cops who watch as $100 million in heroin, from the biggest drug
bust of their careers, is stolen out of the basement of police headquarters.
This puts them hot on the trail of French drug lord Fouchet (Tcheky Karyo),
who leaves a trail of bodies in his wake and only one witness, Julie Mott
(Tea Leoni), who quickly teams up with our heroes. Comic hijinks ensue when
plot complications force Mike to impersonate the married Marcus, to the point
of moving in with his wife and children, while Marcus takes over Mike's
bachelor pad and lifestyle. Car chases, snappy one-liners, and nonstop pacing
fuel this umpteenth variation on the cop "buddy" formula. — Don
Kaye |
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26 |
Bad Boys II |
2003 |
146
mins |
|
Stars
Martin Lawrence and Will Smith return along with director Michael Bay and
producer Jerry Bruckheimer for this sequel to the 1995 sleeper hit Bad Boys,
the film that sparked the careers of both actors, as well as Bay. Once again,
Lawrence and Smith play hotshot, wisecracking Miami narcotics officers Marcus
Burnett and Mike Lowry. This time around, Burnett and Lowry have been
assigned to head up a task force to investigate the illegal trafficking of
ecstasy into the city. They discover that an underground gang war has been
instigated by drug kingpin Johnny Tapia (Jordi Molla). In order to cut off
the flow of the designer drug, they have to take down Tapia. Unfortunately,
there's a wrench thrown into the gears in the form of Burnett's sister Syd,
whom Lowry takes a liking to and begins a relationship with. Tensions rise
between the partners, threatening both their friendship and the investigation
and putting Syd in harm's way. Also returning from the first film are Joe
Pantoliano as Captain Howard, Theresa Randle as Bennett's wife Theresa, and
former-NBA star John Salley as 'Hacker' Fletcher. Among the supporting
players new to this entry in the series are Peter Stormare and musician,
spoken-word artist, and sometimes-actor Henry Rollins. — Matthew Tobey |
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67 |
Black Hawk Down |
2001 |
144
mins |
|
A
quickly forgotten chapter in United States military history is relived in
this harrowing war drama from director Ridley Scott, based on a series of
Philadelphia Inquirer articles and subsequent book by reporter Mark Bowden.
On October 3rd, 1993, an elite team of more than 100 Delta Force soldiers and
Army Rangers, part of a larger United Nations peacekeeping force, are dropped
into civil war-torn Mogadishu, Somalia, in an effort to kidnap two of local
crime lord Mohamed Farah Aidid's top lieutenants. Among the team: Staff Sgt.
Matt Eversmann (Josh Hartnett), Ranger Lt. Col. Danny McKnight (Tom
Sizemore), the resourceful Delta Sgt. First Class Jeff Sanderson (William
Fichtner), and Ranger Spec. Grimes (Ewan McGregor), a desk-bound clerk
getting his first taste of live combat. When two of the mission's Black Hawk
helicopters are shot down by enemy forces, the Americans — committed to
recovering every man, dead or alive — stay in the area too long and are
quickly surrounded. The ensuing firefight is a merciless 15-hour ordeal and
the longest ground battle involving American soldiers since the Vietnam War.
In the end, 70 soldiers are injured and 18 are dead, along with hundreds of
Somalians. Black Hawk Down was voted one of the top ten films of the year by
the National Board of Review prior to its limited Oscar-qualifying release.
On the basis of his work in this film, co-star Eric Bana, a relatively
unknown Australian actor playing Delta Sgt. First Class "Hoot"
Gibson, won the lead in director Ang Lee's version of The Hulk (2003). — Karl
Williams |
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230 |
Blue Collar Comedy Tour |
2002 |
105
mins |
|
This
performance video is a collection of highlights from standup comedy routines
made during a tour across America during the summer of 2002. Directed by C.B.
Harding (The Osbournes), The Blue Collar Comedy Tour Movie also incorporates
behind-the-scenes segments with the individual comedians. Along the same
lines as The Original Kings of Comedy, but marketed toward a radically
different crowd, this comedy concert headlines the top names in so-called
"redneck" humor: Jeff Foxworthy, Bill Engvall, Ron White, and Larry
the Cable Guy. This film arrives after the four performers spent two years on
the road and released the best-selling comedy record Blue Collar Comedy Tour
Live. — Andrea LeVasseur |
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20 |
Bourne Identity |
2002 |
118
mins |
|
The
best-selling suspense novel by late author Robert Ludlum comes to the screen
for a second time, following a 1988 made-for-TV movie. Matt Damon stars as
Jason Bourne, a barely alive amnesiac with a pair of bullet wounds in his
back, pulled from the Mediterranean by Italian fishermen. Bourne's only clue
to his own identity is a bank account number etched on a capsule implanted in
his body. He quickly finds the Zurich bank where money, a gun, and a few
identification documents await, but after he's pursued by security goons at
the American consulate, Bourne realizes he can trust no one and offers a
German gypsy named Maria (Franka Potente) ten thousand dollars for a ride to
Paris. Encountering more professional killers bent on his destruction, Bourne
discovers that he possesses a surprising degree of skill in combat, martial
arts, and linguistics — handy talents that clearly indicate his past includes
work as a spy and assassin, but for whom? With Maria's reluctant help, Bourne
edges closer to the truth, something CIA officials want concealed at all
costs. The Bourne Identity co-stars Chris Cooper, Clive Owen, Brian Cox, and
Julia Stiles. — Karl Williams |
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21 |
Bourne Supremacy (Full
Screen Edition) |
2004 |
120
mins |
|
The
second chapter in the "Bourne Trilogy," based on Robert Ludlum's
best-selling espionage novels, reaches the screen in this sequel to the 2002
thriller The Bourne Identity. Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) has abandoned his
life as a CIA assassin and has been traveling beneath the agency's radar,
eventually reconnecting with Marie Kreutz (Franka Potente), the woman he
loves. But Bourne is haunted by vivid dreams and troubling memories of his
days as a killer, and he's not certain how much really happened and how much
is a product of his imagination. When Bourne is led out of hiding by
circumstances beyond his control, he must reconcile his past and present as
he struggles to keep Marie out of harm's way and foil an international
incident with dangerous consequences. The Bourne Supremacy also features Joan
Allen as one of Webb's superiors, while Julia Stiles and Brian Cox reprise
their roles as intelligence agents from the first film. — Mark Deming |
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49 |
Bringing Down the House |
2003 |
105
mins |
|
A
man looking for a woman just like himself ends up with someone quite
different in this farcical comedy. Peter Sanderson (Steve Martin) is a lawyer
who is having trouble getting his life back on track after his wife, Kate
(Jean Smart), divorces him; he's also adjusting to his new status as a single
father. Looking for companionship, Peter tries an internet dating site and
virtually meets "lawyer-girl," an attractive and single fellow
attorney. Peter makes a date with her, but the woman who arrives at his door
turns out to be Charlene Morton (Queen Latifah), who not only isn't a lawyer,
she turns out to be an escaped convict. Charlene is also a brash and brassy
African-American, while Peter is perhaps the most tightly wound white guy in
L.A. Charlene explains to Peter that she's strung him along because she's
innocent of the crime for which she was convicted, and she needs a top-notch
attorney to help prove her case. Peter isn't the least bit interested at
first, but Charlene isn't the sort of woman to take "no" for an
answer, and in time she wears him down and agrees to help. As Charlene moves
into Peter's home, she helps him to loosen up and unleash his inner groove,
which quite surprises Kate, and her down-to-earth advice comes in handy for
Peter's son and daughter. But Charlene may end up going too far when Peter is
asked to entertain Mrs. Arness (Joan Plowright), a wealthy woman looking for
a new law firm. Bringing Down the House also features Eugene Levy as Howie,
one of Peter's friends who takes a keen interest in Charlene, and Betty White
as one of Peter's neighbors. — Mark Deming |
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50 |
Cast Away |
2000 |
143
mins |
|
An
exploration of human survival and the ability of fate to alter even the
tidiest of lives with one major event, Cast Away tells the story of Chuck
Noland (Tom Hanks), a Federal Express engineer who devotes most of his life
to his troubleshooting job. His girlfriend Kelly (Helen Hunt) is often
neglected by his dedication to work, and his compulsive personality suggests
a conflicted man. But on Christmas Eve, Chuck proposes marriage to Kelly
right before embarking on a large assignment. On the assignment, a plane
crash strands Chuck on a remote island, and his fast-paced life is slowed to
a crawl, as he is miles removed from any human contact. Finding solace only
in a volleyball that he befriends, Chuck must now learn to endure the
emotional and physical stress of his new life, unsure of when he may return
to the civilization he knew before. Cast Away reunites star Hanks with
director Robert Zemeckis, their first film together since 1994's
Oscar-winning Forrest Gump. — Jason Clark |
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73 |
Catch Me If You Can |
2002 |
140
mins |
|
A
gifted forger and confidence man attempts to stay one step ahead of the
lawman determined to bring him to justice in this comedy-drama from Steven
Spielberg, based on a true story. Frank W. Abagnale Jr. (Leonardo DiCaprio)
is a 16-year-old high school student who finds himself emotionally cut adrift
when his mother, Paula (Nathalie Baye), leaves his father, Frank Abagnale Sr.
(Christopher Walken), after Frank Sr. falls into arrears with the Internal
Revenue Service. One day at school, Frank Jr. attempts to pass himself off as
a substitute teacher, and easily makes the subterfuge work. His small-scale
success gives Frank some ideas, and he soon discovers bigger and more
profitable ways of hoaxing others, passing himself off as an airline pilot, a
doctor, and an attorney. Along the way, Frank learns how to become a master
forger, and uses his talent and charm to pass over 2.5 million dollars in
phony checks. Frank's increasingly audacious work soon attracts the attention
of Carl Hanratty (Tom Hanks), an FBI agent who is determined to put Frank
behind bars. Frank seems to enjoy being pursued by Carl, and even goes so far
as to call Carl on the phone to chat every once in a while. While posing as a
doctor, Frank falls in love with Brenda Strong (Amy Adams), a sweet girl
working as a candy striper. When Frank asks Brenda to marry him, he decides
to assume a new identity to impress her father, Roger (Martin Sheen) — who
happens to be the District Attorney of New Orleans, LA. Catch Me If You Can
was based on the autobiography of the real Frank W. Abagnale Jr., who has a
cameo in the film and today works on the side of the law as a top consultant
on preventing forgery and designing secure checking systems. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
259 |
Cats and Dogs |
2001 |
87
mins |
|
This
talking-animal action comedy from Lawrence Guterman, the co-director of Antz
(1998), follows on the heels of the Babe and Dr. Dolittle films. Unknown to
humans, a secret war has been raging between cats and dogs for eons, but a
fragile truce has long held the order of the animal kingdom in place. Now the
balance of power has tipped, as a researcher, Professor Brody (Jeff
Goldblum), is about to invent a vaccine that will erase all human allergies
to dogs. This is too much for the autocratic Mr. Tinkles (Sean Hayes), a
white Persian kitty bent on world domination. The Brody home becomes ground
zero for the renewed conflict between feline and canine, with a young Beagle
puppy named Lou (Tobey Maguire) caught in the middle as the new point man for
his species' cause. Cats and Dogs co-stars Elizabeth Perkins and Alexander
Pollock, as well as the vocal talents of Susan Sarandon, Alec Baldwin, Jon
Lovitz, Michael Clarke Duncan, and Joe Pantoliano. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
80 |
Charlie's Angels |
2000 |
99
mins |
|
They're
beautiful, they're brilliant, and they can kick your butt — the most
glamorous private eyes in the world are back in action in this big-screen
adaptation of the popular '70s television series. Natalie (Cameron Diaz) is
the smart but silly one, Dylan (Drew Barrymore) is the tough but fun-loving
one, and Alex (Lucy Liu) is the classy but hard-as-nails one, and they work
for a man named Charlie (voice of John Forsythe), who never meets his
employees face to face. Along with their helper Bosley (Bill Murray), the
Angels are sent into action when electronics genius Eric Knox (Sam Rockwell)
is kidnapped, with the nefarious Roger Corwin (Tim Curry) as the prime
suspect. But they soon learn even bigger danger is afoot — the kidnappers
have gotten their hands on Knox's latest invention, a system that can monitor
voice communication from anywhere in the world, virtually ending the notion
of private conversation. Charlie's Angels also stars Crispin Glover, Luke
Wilson, Kelly Lynch, and Tom Green. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
113 |
Cheaper by the Dozen |
2003 |
98
mins |
|
Shawn
Levy directs the family-oriented comedy Cheaper by the Dozen, a loose remake
of the 1950 film starring Clifton Webb and Myrna Loy, which was itself based
on a novel. Tom (Steve Martin) and Kate Baker (Bonnie Hunt) have made many
sacrifices in their professional lives in order to raise their 12 children.
When Tom is offered a job as a Division I college football coach, he moves
the entire pack to a suburb of Chicago. This move shakes up the whole family,
especially when Kate's memoirs get published and she takes off on a book
tour. The lack of parental guidance creates problems for all the Baker kids,
particularly handsome jock Charlie (Tom Welling), fashion plate Lorraine
(Hilary Duff), and grown child Nora (Piper Perabo). Ashton Kucher stars in a
cameo role as Nora's actor boyfriend, Hank. — Andrea LeVasseur |
|
|
|
301 |
Coldplay |
2003 |
120
mins |
|
This
two-disc set from Capitol captures the Brit-pop rock band Coldplay live in
concert during their Rush of Blood to the Head tour. Recorded in July of
2003, the 90-minute film is compliled from Super 16 mm footage shot during
their shows at the Horden Pavilion in Sydney, Australia. The DVD also
includes web links, a 40-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, and a tour
diary with multiple angle options. Presented with a widescreen anamorphic
transfer and Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound in English. The second disc is
an audio CD containing the 70-minute live concert with 12 tracks. Includes
the previously unreleased tracks "Moses" and "The One I
Love." — Andrea LeVasseur |
|
|
|
57 |
Contact |
1997 |
153
mins |
|
The
search for life outside our solar system becomes a personal and spiritual
quest for a young researcher. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster) is a scientist who
lost her faith in God after her parents died when she was a child. However,
Ellie has learned to develop a different sort of faith in the seemingly
unknowable: working with a group that monitors radio waves from space, Ellie
hopes that some day she will receive a coherent message from another world
that will prove that there is a world beyond our own. Ellie's hard work is
rewarded when her team picks up a signal that does not appear to be of
earthly origin. Ellie decodes the message, which turns out to be plans for a
space craft, which she takes as an invitation for a meeting with the aliens.
Ellie and her fellow researchers soon run into interference from a White
House scientific advisor, David Drumlin (Tom Skerritt), who cuts off their
funding and tries to take credit for their achievements. However, Ellie
receives moral support from Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey), a spiritual
teacher who advises President Clinton and tries to persuade her to accept the
existence of a higher power, and financial backing from S.R. Hadden (John
Hurt), a multi-millionaire willing to fund her attempts to contact the source
of the message. Contact was based on a novel by Carl Sagan, who advised
director Robert Zemeckis during the film's production until his death in
1996. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
255 |
Daddy Day Care |
2003 |
92
mins |
|
Two
fathers get a crash course in caring for kids other than their own in this
family-friendly comedy. Charlie Hinton (Eddie Murphy) is an advertising
executive whose job monopolizes his time, making it difficult for him to stay
in touch with his young son, Ben (Khamani Griffin). However, after Charlie
and his partner, Phil (Jeff Garlin), are given their pink slips in the wake
of a disastrous campaign for a new breakfast cereal, Charlie's wife, Kim
(Regina King), goes back to work, and with the family budget tighter than
before, Charlie becomes a stay-at-home dad. After pulling Ben out of an
expensive and exclusive daycare center run by the humorless Gwyneth Harridan
(Anjelica Huston), Charlie comes up with a brainstorm — since he and Phil
watch their own children every day, how much harder could it be to watch a
few more kids and open their own day care center? Charlie and Phil discover
there's much more to running a daycare center than they ever imagined, but
after a very rough start, with the help of likable slacker Marvin (Steve
Zahn) their new business becomes a success — so much so that Harridan finds
herself losing customers to the upstart fathers, and she starts searching for
a way to shut them down. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
44 |
Dances with Wolves |
1990 |
181
mins |
|
A
historical drama about the relationship between a Civil War soldier and a
band of Sioux Indians, Kevin Costner's directorial debut was also a
surprisingly popular hit, considering its length, period setting, and often
somber tone. The film opens on a particularly dark note, as melancholy Union
lieutenant John W. Dunbar attempts to kill himself on a suicide mission, but
instead becomes an unintentional hero. His actions lead to his reassignment
to a remote post in remote South Dakota, where he encounters the Sioux.
Attracted by the natural simplicity of their lifestyle, he chooses to leave
his former life behind to join them, taking on the name Dances with Wolves.
Soon, Dances with Wolves has become a welcome member of the tribe and fallen
in love with a white woman who has been raised amongst the tribe. His
peaceful existence is threatened, however, when Union soldiers arrive with
designs on the Sioux land. Some detractors have criticized the film's
depiction of the tribes as simplistic; such objections did not dissuade
audiences or the Hollywood establishment, however, which awarded the film
seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture. — Judd Blaise |
|
|
|
112 |
Daredevil |
2003 |
104
mins |
|
One
of Marvel Comics' most popular characters comes to the screen for the first
time in this sci-fi action-thriller. Matthew Murdock (Ben Affleck) is a
lawyer whose father, a prizefighter, was killed by gangsters when Murdock was
just a boy. Since then, Murdock has devoted his life to bringing wrongdoers
to justice and is willing to help others by taking on cases no other attorney
will touch. Murdock is also blind, after being struck down by a truck while
trying to save a man from being hit. What no one knows is that Murdock was
also doused with an unusual radioactive isotope which had a strange effect on
him — while Murdock's sight may be gone, his other senses have been raised to
such a keen pitch that they act like radar, allowing him to tell where he's
going and what happens around him, both near and far away. Murdock puts his
gifts to use at night as the costumed crime-fighter Daredevil, whose pursuit
of justice has earned him the wrath of underworld leader Kingpin (Michael
Clarke Duncan). Kingpin wants Daredevil out of his way once and for all, and
hires Bullseye (Colin Farrell), a super-assassin with an uncanny ability to
throw blades, to do the job. Daredevil also makes the acquaintance of Elektra
Natchios (Jennifer Garner), a woman with super-heroic talents who is also on
Kingpin's bad side, though it remains to be seen if she has aligned herself with
the forces of good as Daredevil has done. Jon Favreau, Joe Pantoliano, and
David Keith highlight Daredevil's supporting cast. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
115 |
Dr. Dolittle 2 |
2001 |
87
mins |
|
Eddie
Murphy returns as a doctor with a gift for talking to animals in this sequel
to a box-office blockbuster. Murphy is John Dolittle, who this time around
attempts to save an endangered Pacific forest from lumber industry forces by
reintegrating an endangered species of bear back into the wild.
Unfortunately, Dolittle's candidate is a performing bear (voice of Steve
Zahn) with a taste for junk food and no natural skills in the wild. If
Dolittle is going to save the species and its habitat, he must get him to
mate with a fussy female (Lisa Kudrow) by providing lessons in winning the
heart of the opposite sex. Dr. Dolittle's problems are compounded by a local
animal work stoppage and furry woodland creatures who have organized their
own version of the Mafia. Norm Macdonald returns as the voice of Lucky the
Dog, co-starring with Kevin Pollak, Jeffrey Jones, Michael Rapaport, Molly
Shannon, Reni Santoni, and Kristen Wilson. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
178 |
Dr. Seuss's How the
Grinch Stole Christmas |
2000 |
105
mins |
|
He's
mean, he's green, and he's doesn't like the Yuletide season one bit — Jim
Carrey stars in this live-action adaptation of the classic children's story
by Dr. Seuss (aka Theodore Geisel). High atop Mt. Crumpet, the Grinch
(Carrey) observes the residents of Whoville joyously preparing to celebrate
Christmas. The Grinch was born in Whoville years ago, but was shunned due to
his scary appearance, and his unrequited love for Martha May Whovier has
turned him bitter; the good cheer of the Whos has been a thorn in his side
ever since. Finally the Grinch decides he's had enough of all this happiness,
and with the wary aid of his dog Max, the Grinch conspires to steal Christmas
from Whoville, making off with their presents, holiday decorations, Christmas
trees, and everything else used to enjoy the holiday. Molly Shannon, Christine
Baranski, Jeffrey Tambor, and Clint Howard play several of the citizens of
Whoville, while Anthony Hopkins narrates (taking over from the late Boris
Karloff, who memorably read Dr. Seuss' story in Chuck Jones' 1966 animated
adaptation of the story). Ron Howard directs. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
56 |
Erin Brockovich |
2000 |
131
mins |
|
Julia
Roberts stars in this legal drama based on the true story of a woman who
helped win the largest settlement ever paid in a direct-action lawsuit. Erin
Brockovich (Roberts) is a single mother of three who, after losing a personal
injury lawsuit, asks her lawyer, Ed Masry (Albert Finney), if he can help her
find a job. Ed gives her work as a file clerk in his office, and she runs
across some information on a little-known case filed against Pacific Gas and
Electric. Erin begins digging into the particulars of the case, convinced
that the facts simply don't add up, and persuades Ed to allow her to do
further research; in time, she discovers a systematic cover-up of the
industrial poisoning of a city's water supply, which threatens the health of
the entire community. Erin Brockovich was directed by Steven Soderbergh;
Julia Roberts earned a $20 million payday for her work on the film, the
highest salary paid to a female film star up to that time. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
82 |
Ferris Bueller's Day
Off |
1986 |
103
mins |
|
Teenaged
Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) is a legend in his own time thanks to his
uncanny skill at cutting classes and getting away with it. Intending to make
one last grand duck-out before graduation, Ferris calls in sick,
"borrows" a Ferrari, and embarks on a one-day bacchanal through the
streets of Chicago. Dogging Ferris' trail at every turn is high school
principal Rooney (Jeffrey Jones), determined to catch Bueller in the act of
class-cutting. Writer/director John Hughes once again tries to wed satire,
slapstick, and social commentary, as Ferris Bueller's Day Off starts like a
house afire and goes on to make "serious" points about
status-seeking and casual parental cruelties. It brightens up considerably in
the last few moments, when Ferris' tattletale sister (Jennifer Grey) decides
to align herself with her merry prankster sibling. A huge moneymaker, Ferris
Bueller's Day Off eventually spawned a TV sitcom. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
114 |
Finding Nemo |
2003 |
100
mins |
|
Andrew
Stanton, who helped write Toy Story and Monsters, Inc., co-wrote and directed
this computer-animated comedy-adventure about finding a very small fish in a
very large ocean. Marlin (voice of Albert Brooks) is a more-than-slightly
paranoid Clown Fish who is extremely devoted to his young son, Nemo (voice of
Alexander Gould), the only survivor after a hungry shark swallowed up Nemo's
mother and her other offspring. It's not Marlin's nature to explore
unfamiliar waters, but when he and Nemo are accidentally separated near the
Great Barrier Reef en route to Nemo's first day of fish school, Marlin
gathers his courage and sets out to find his son. What Marlin doesn't know,
however, is that while Nemo was looking at a boat passing on the surface, he
was caught in a net and given a new home in a dentist's aquarium. As Marlin
searches for his son, he makes friends with a friendly but absent-minded
Regal Blue Tang named Dory (voice of Ellen DeGeneres), a Great White Shark
named Bruce (voice of Barry Humphries) who is trying to cut fish out of his
diet, a beach-rat Sea Tortoise named Crush (voice of Andrew Stanton), and
Nigel (voice of Geoffrey Rush), a Pelican who can take Marlin's search from
the ocean to dry land. Finding Nemo's impressive voice cast also includes
Willem Dafoe, Allison Janney, Eric Bana, Stephen Root, and Brad Garrett. —
Mark Deming |
|
|
|
88 |
Frantic |
1988 |
120
mins |
|
Following
the disastrous Pirates (1986), director Roman Polanski got back on creative
track with this finely-wrought thriller that, while failing to impress at the
box office, was nevertheless his most critically well-received film of the
decade. Harrison Ford stars as Richard Walker, an American doctor who has
come to Paris, where he's scheduled to deliver a paper to a medical
conference. Richard has brought along his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley),
because Paris was the site of their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Sondra picks
up the wrong suitcase at the airport, which leads to her kidnapping and an
ever-more complicated quest that takes Richard into the seedy and dangerous
underworld of European drug smuggling and terrorist arms sales. Along the way,
he is rebuffed by skeptical officials at the American Embassy and meets
Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner), a sexy courier who agrees to help him in
exchange for the money she's owed for trafficking in narcotics. Playing
cleverly on American fears about Europe's Byzantine politics and
"decadent" society, Frantic received, from many observers, perhaps
the greatest compliment possible for a thriller, comparison to the work of
Alfred Hitchcock. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
118 |
Freaky Friday |
2003 |
96
mins |
|
A
high-strung mom and her punky daughter learn what it's like to walk in each
other's shoes — literally — in Disney's second update of their 1977 teen
fantasy comedy. The new-millennium Freaky Friday has disgruntled teen Anna
Coleman (Lindsay Lohan) living, sans father, with her uptight
therapist-author mom Tess (Jamie Lee Curtis) and bratty brother Harry (Ryan
Malgarini). The angst between the two reaches a fever pitch on the eve of
Tess' wedding rehearsal: Anna wants to ditch the proceedings for an all-important
band audition, but Tess sees the conflict as a show of resentment toward
imminent step-dad Ryan (Mark Harmon). When the whole clan goes out to dinner
at their favorite Chinese restaurant, their sage waitress (Lucille Soong)
picks up on the tension between the mother and daughter and casts a spell on
them via two magic fortune cookies. The next day, Tess and Anna must put up
with life in each other's bodies — until, as the fortune says, they can come
to a greater understanding of one another. Freaky Friday was previously
remade for TV in 1995 with Shelley Long and Gaby Hoffman in the leads. —
Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
110 |
Frequency |
2000 |
117
mins |
|
Known
more for his dark, psychological crime thrillers Primal Fear (1996) and
Fallen (1998), director Gregory Hoblit surprisingly created this Frank
Capra-meets-Rod Serling-style fantasy that mixes several genres of
storytelling into a likable stew. James Caviezel stars as John Sullivan, a
New York police detective who has never recovered from the death of his
father Frank (Dennis Quaid), a firefighter who died heroically when John was
a boy. Experimenting with his dad's beloved ham radio one summer night, extreme
sunspot activity allows John to contact Frank 30 years in the past. Since
he's able to warn Frank away from danger, his father's death never occurs.
Then the unthinkable happens: John's altered future is one in which his
mother Julia (Elizabeth Mitchell) has been murdered by a serial killer. Now
John in the present and Frank in the past must try to solve the riddle of the
killer's identity and change the time line again. Frequency was written by
Toby Emmerich, the brother of actor Noah Emmerich, who appears in a
supporting role created specifically for him. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
27 |
From Here To The Moon
Disk 1 |
|
|
Documentary |
|
|
|
|
28 |
From Here To The Moon
Disk 2 |
|
|
Documentary |
|
|
|
|
29 |
From Here To The Moon
Disk 3 |
|
|
Documentary |
|
|
|
|
30 |
From Here To The Moon
Disk 4 |
|
|
Documentary |
|
|
|
|
111 |
Ghost |
1990 |
127
mins |
|
An
interesting hybrid of popular film genres, Ghost showcases the talents of its
entire cast. While out on the town one evening, New York couple Sam (Patrick
Swayze) and Molly (Demi Moore) are confronted by a mugger. After submitting
to his demands, Sam is murdered anyway. He then finds himself a disembodied
spirit, invisible to the living world, wandering without hope until he finds
a spiteful spirit aboard the subway (Vincent Schiavelli) who gives him some
helpful pointers on how to co-exist. Soon Sam comes back into contact with
those he knew in life, and he begins to learn piece-by-piece of his close
friend and co-worker Carl's (Tony Goldwyn) embezzling plot which caused his
death; the apparent mugging was, in fact, a premeditated murder. In the
meantime, Carl has designs on Molly, and Sam is determined to extract
revenge. He contacts a psychic (Whoopi Goldberg), and together, the two set
out to serve justice and stop the maniacal Carl from getting to Molly.
Blending comedy, romance, action, and horror, Ghost was a box-office smash
and managed to garner five Academy Award nominations, including "Best
Picture," "Best Supporting Actress" (Goldberg), "Best
Original Screenplay," "Best Editing," and "Best Score";
Goldberg won her first Oscar. — Jeremy Beday |
|
|
|
89 |
Gladiator |
2000 |
154
mins |
|
A
man robbed of his name and his dignity strives to win them back, and gain the
freedom of his people, in this epic historical drama from director Ridley
Scott. In the year 180, the death of emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris)
throws the Roman Empire into chaos. Maximus (Russell Crowe) is one of the
Roman army's most capable and trusted generals and a key advisor to the
emperor. As Marcus' devious son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) ascends to the
throne, Maximus is set to be executed. He escapes, but is captured by slave
traders. Renamed Spaniard and forced to become a gladiator, Maximus must
battle to the death with other men for the amusement of paying audiences. His
battle skills serve him well, and he becomes one of the most famous and
admired men to fight in the Colosseum. Determined to avenge himself against
the man who took away his freedom and laid waste to his family, Maximus
believes that he can use his fame and skill in the ring to avenge the loss of
his family and former glory. As the gladiator begins to challenge his rule,
Commodus decides to put his own fighting mettle to the test by squaring off
with Maximus in a battle to the death. Gladiator also features Derek Jacobi,
Connie Nielsen, Djimon Hounsou, and Oliver Reed, who died of a heart attack
midway through production. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
258 |
Good Boy! |
2003 |
89
mins |
|
For
his debut feature, John Robert Hoffman wrote and directed this effects-heavy
family film based on the story Dogs from Outer Space by Zeke Richardson.
Produced by Jim Henson Productions, Good Boy! presents the idea that dogs are
actually an intelligent alien species sent to earth thousands of years ago to
spy on humans in preparation for a full-scale invasion and takeover. But when
the spies stop reporting back to the home planet, Canid 3942 (voiced by
Matthew Broderick) is sent to earth to investigate. Once there, Canid 3942
encounters Owen Baker (Liam Aiken), a young boy who runs a dog-walking
service. Owen befriends the space-dog, renaming him Hubble. When it becomes
obvious that the dogs of earth have forgotten their mission, Hubble enlists
the help of Owen to get them all into shape before The Great Dane arrives to
inspect. If they fail, all of earth's dogs will be recalled to their home
planet of Sirius. With Kevin Nealon and Molly Shannon as Owen's parents, Good
Boy! also features the voice talents of Brittany Murphy, Carl Reiner, Megan
Mullally, and Donald Faison. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
18 |
Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets |
2002 |
161
mins |
|
Youthful
wizard Harry Potter returns to the screen in this, the second film adaptation
of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular series of novels for young people. Harry
Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and
Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) return for a second year at Hogwarts School of
Witchcraft and Wizardry, where Headmaster Dumbledore (Richard Harris),
Professor Snape (Alan Rickman), Professor McGonagall (Maggie Smith), and
Hagrid the Giant (Robbie Coltrane) are joined by new faculty members Gilderoy
Lockhart (Kenneth Branagh), a self-centered expert in Defense against the
Dark Arts, and Sprout (Miriam Margolyes), who teaches Herbology. However, it
isn't long before Harry and company discover something is amiss at Hogwarts:
Students are petrified like statues, threats are written in blood on the walls,
and a deadly monster is on the loose. It seems that someone has opened the
mysterious Chamber of Secrets, letting loose the monster and all its
calamitous powers. As Harry, Ron, and Hermione set out to find the secret
chamber and slay the beast, speculation is rife that one of the heirs of
Salazar Slytherin, the co-founder of the school, opened the chamber as a
warning against the presence of "mudbloods" (magic-users of impure
lineage) at the school — and that the culprit may be fellow student Draco Malfoy
(Tom Felton). Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets featured Richard
Harris' second and final appearance as Headmaster Dumbledore; he died less
than a month before the film was released in the United States. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
19 |
Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban (Full Screen Edition) |
2004 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
17 |
Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone |
2001 |
142
mins |
|
The
best-selling novel by J.K. Rowling becomes this hotly anticipated fantasy
adventure from Chris Columbus, the winner of a high-stakes search for a
director to bring the first in a hoped-for franchise of Potter films to the
screen by Warner Bros. Upon his 11th birthday, Harry Potter (Daniel
Radcliffe), who lives in misery with an aunt and uncle that don't want him,
learns from a giant named Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) that he is the orphaned
son of powerful wizards. Harry is offered a place at prestigious Hogwarts, a
boarding school for wizards that exists in a realm of magic and fantasy
outside the dreary existence of normal humans or "Muggles." At
Hogwarts, Harry quickly makes new friends and begins piecing together the
mystery of his parents' deaths, which appear not to have been accidental
after all. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) was released under
the original title of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone in the U.K.
The film even features alternate-version scenes for every mention of the
titular rock. Richard Harris, Alan Rickman, Maggie Smith, John Cleese, and
Fiona Shaw co-star. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
117 |
Holes |
2003 |
118
mins |
|
A
boy being punished for a crime he didn't commit learns there's more going on
at a juvenile correctional facility than meets the eye in this comedy drama.
Stanley Yelnats IV (Shia LaBeouf) is a teenager who has been told all his
life that the men in the Yelnats family are cursed, thanks to a false promise
his great, great grandfather made to a fortune teller. Given his frequent bad
luck, and that which follows his father (Henry Winkler), Stanley has no
trouble believing this. Stanley's bad luck hits a new low when a pair of
sneakers literally falls out of the sky on him — and turn out to be stolen. A
judge sentences Stanley to a stay at Camp Green Lake, a juvenile correctional
facility stuck in the middle of the desert, where he finds himself sharing a
tent with a gang of misfits, including ringleader X-Ray (Brenden Jefferson),
pushy Squid (Jake M. Smith), small but wiry Zero (Khleo Thomas), tough and
stinky Armpit (Byron Cotton), paranoid Zig Zag (Max Kasch), and
thief-in-training Magnet (Miguel Castro). Camp Green Lake's Warden (Sigourney
Weaver) has her own ideas about rehabilitation, which consist of having the
boys spend their days digging holes five feet deep under the desert sun.
While well-mannered counselor Pendanski (Tim Blake Nelson) tries to help the
boys however he can, Mr. Sir (Jon Voight), the Warden's right hand man, is a
heartless creep who enjoys making Stanley and his friends suffer. Before
long, Stanley wonders if there's a good reason why the Warden seems so
curious about what (if anything) the boys find during their digging, and in
time he suspects there's something they haven't been told which might be
connected to the Yelnats family curse. Holes was based on the award-winning
book for young people by Louis Sachar, who also wrote the film's screenplay.
— Mark Deming |
|
|
|
105 |
Hollow Man |
2000 |
112
mins |
|
In
this sci-fi thriller, a man and a woman must fend off a killer whom they
cannot see. Scientist Sebastian Caine (Kevin Bacon) is working with a secret
military research team headed by Dr. Kramer (William Devane), assigned to
create new intelligence technology. With the help of his colleagues Linda
McKay (Elisabeth Shue) and Matt Kensington (Josh Brolin), Sebastian has been
developing a serum that makes people invisible. The formula is new and
unstable, but after a risky but successful test on an ape, an impatient
Sebastian, under pressure from Kramer, decides to try it on himself. It
works, but no one counted on the side effects; unable to reverse the serum's
effects, an invisible Sebastian goes insane, and begins pursuing Linda (his
former girlfriend) and Matt (Linda's current beau) in a fog of homicidal
rage. Directed by Paul Verhoeven, Hollow Man also features Kim Dickens, Mary
Randle, Joey Slotnick, and Greg Grunberg. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
77 |
How Stella Got Her
Groove Back |
1998 |
124
mins |
Drama |
Based
on Terry McMillan's best-selling novel, <I>How Stella Got Her Groove
Back</I> stars Angela Bassett as a 40-year-old, Manhattan stock trader
and single mom whose static life gets a jolt during a vacation with her pal
(Whoopi Goldberg) in Jamaica. Sparks fly when Bassett meets a 20-year-old
stud (Taye Diggs) who has an ambivalent career path but a great body and lots
of sexual energy to burn. After some prodding by Goldberg's warm-funny
secondary character, Bassett gets it on with the fellow--and proceeds to
worry about what she's doing with a man half her age. The film is most
enjoyable in its sunny, exotic early scenes and becomes more formulaic once
the unlikely couple transports their will-we-stay-together-or-won't-we
tensions back to the Big Apple. But director Kevin Rodney Sullivan goes out
of his way to make a movie unabashedly thick with fantasy and
wish-fulfillment for female audiences (it's Diggs who reveals a lot more
flesh than the regal Bassett). This is a Saturday-night movie all around. <I>--Tom
Keogh</I> |
|
|
|
41 |
I, Robot |
2004 |
110
mins |
|
Director
Alex Proyas (Dark City, The Crow) helmed this sci-fi thriller inspired by the
stories in Isaac Asimov's nine-story anthology of the same name. In the
future presented in the film, humans have become exceedingly dependent on
robots in their everyday lives. Robots have become more and more advanced,
but each one is preprogrammed to always obey humans and to, under no
circumstances, ever harm a human. So, when a scientist turns up dead and a
humanoid robot is the main suspect, the world is left to wonder if they are
as safe around their electronic servants as previously thought. Will Smith
stars as Del Spooner, the robot-hating Chicago cop assigned to the murder
investigation. Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, and Chi
McBride also star. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
256 |
Ice Age |
2002 |
85
mins |
|
A
team of "sub-zero heroes" band together to save a human infant in
this digitally animated feature from Oscar-winning director Chris Wedge,
whose unique lighting software (called "Ray Tracing") sets his
visual style apart from earlier CGI efforts. Twenty thousand years ago, the
Earth is overrun by freezing temperatures in an Ice Age that is sending all
manner of critters scattering in the path of encroaching glaciers. When a
lost human infant is discovered, an unlikely quartet of misfits forms to
return it to its mother: Manny, a depressed woolly mammoth (Ray Romano); Sid,
a fast-talking sloth (John Leguizamo); an acorn-crazed squirrel named Scrat
(Wedge); and the devilish saber-toothed tiger named Diego (Denis Leary).
Before they can complete their mission, the reluctant compatriots will brave
pits of boiling lava, dangerous caverns of ice, and even a traitorous plot
within their midst. Ice Age (2002) also features the voices of Jack Black,
Jane Krakowski, and Goran Visnjic. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
107 |
Independence Day |
1996 |
145
mins |
|
A
group of intrepid humans attempts to save the Earth from vicious
extraterrestrials in this extremely popular science-fiction adventure.
Borrowing liberally from War of the Worlds, Aliens, and every sci-fi invasion
film inbetween, director Roland Emmerich and producer and co-writer Dean
Devlin present a visually slick, fast-paced adventure filled with expensive
special effects and large-scale action sequences. The story begins with the
approach of a series of massive spaceships, which many on Earth greet with
open arms, looking forward to the first contact with alien life.
Unfortunately, these extraterrestrials have not come in peace, and they
unleash powerful weapons that destroy most of the world's major cities.
Thrown into chaos, the survivors struggle to band together and put up a
last-ditch resistance in order to save the human race. As this is a Hollywood
film, this effort is led by a group of scrappy Americans, including a
computer genius who had foreseen the alien's evil intent (Jeff Goldblum), a hot-shot
jet pilot (Will Smith), and the President of the United States (Bill
Pullman). While some critics objected to the film's lack of originality and
lapses in logic, the combination of grand visual spectacle and crowd-pleasing
storytelling proved irresistable to audiences, resulting in an international
smash hit. — Judd Blaise |
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|
|
4 |
Indiana Jones |
1981 |
115
mins |
|
Indiana
Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he
is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet
(complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid gold idol. He
loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq
(Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many
serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane.
So, then: Is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we
see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned
from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the
long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for
the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his
stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a
medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood,
whose daughter Marion (Karen Allen) evidently has a "history" with
Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners
in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the
snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of
the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and
Steven Spielberg, with a script cowritten by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip
Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a
115-minute thrill ride. Costing $22 million (nearly three times the original
estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped $200 million during its first run.
It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."
— Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
5 |
Indiana Jones and the
Last Crusade |
1989 |
126
mins |
|
The
third installment in the widely beloved Spielberg/Lucas Indiana Jones saga
begins with an introduction to a younger Indy (played by the late River
Phoenix), who, through a fast-paced prologue, gives the audience insight into
the roots of his taste for adventure, fear of snakes, and dogged
determination to take historical artifacts out of the hands of bad guys and
into the museums in which they belong. A grown-up Indy (Harrison Ford)
reveals himself shortly afterward in a familiar classroom scene, teaching
archeology to a disproportionate number of starry-eyed female college
students in 1938. Once again, however, Mr. Jones is drawn away from his day
job after an art collector (Julian Glover) approaches him with a proposition
to find the much sought after Holy Grail. Circumstances reveal that there was
another avid archeologist in search of the famed cup — Indiana Jones' father,
Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery) — who had recently disappeared during his
efforts. The junior and senior members of the Jones family find themselves in
a series of tough situations in locales ranging from Venice to the most
treacherous spots in the Middle East. Complicating the situation further is
the presence of Elsa (Alison Doody), a beautiful and intelligent woman with
one fatal flaw: she's an undercover Nazi agent. The search for the grail is a
dangerous quest, and its discovery may prove fatal to those who seek it for
personal gain. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade earned a then
record-breaking $50 million in its first week of release. — Tracie Cooper |
|
|
|
6 |
Indiana Jones and the
Temple of Doom |
1984 |
118
mins |
|
The
second of the George Lucas/Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones epics is set a year
or so before the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1984). After a brief
brouhaha involving a precious vial and a wild ride down a raging Himalyan
river, Indy (Harrison Ford) gets down to the problem at hand: retrieving a
precious gem and several kidnapped young boys on behalf of a remote East
Indian village. His companions this time around include a dimbulbed, easily
frightened nightclub chanteuse (Kate Capshaw), and a feisty 12-year-old kid
named Short Round (Quan Ke Huy). Throughout, the plot takes second place to
the thrills, which include a harrowing rollercoaster ride in an abandoned
mineshaft and Indy's rescue of the heroine from a ritual sacrifice. There are
also a couple of cute references to Raiders of the Lost Ark, notably a funny
variation of Indy's shooting of the Sherpa warrior. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
177 |
It's a Wonderful Life |
1946 |
125
mins |
|
This
is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George
Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the
typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it's
Christmas Eve, 1946, and George, who has long considered himself a failure,
faces financial ruin and arrest and is seriously contemplating suicide. High
above Bedford Falls, two celestial voices discuss Bailey's dilemma and decide
to send down eternally bumbling angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), who
after 200 years has yet to earn his wings, to help George out. But first,
Clarence is given a crash course on George's life, and the multitude of
selfless acts he has performed: rescuing his younger brother from drowning,
losing the hearing in his left ear in the process; enduring a beating rather
than allow a grieving druggist (H.B. Warner) to deliver poison by mistake to
an ailing child; foregoing college and a long-planned trip to Europe to keep
the Bailey Building and Loan from letting its Depression-era customers down;
and, most important, preventing town despot Potter (Lionel Barrymore) from
taking over Bedford Mills and reducing its inhabitants to penury. Along the
way, George has married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), who has
stuck by him through thick and thin. But even the love of Mary and his
children are insufficient when George, faced with an $8000 shortage in his
books, becomes a likely candidate for prison thanks to the vengeful Potter.
Bitterly, George declares that he wishes that he had never been born, and
Clarence, hoping to teach George a lesson, shows him how different life would
have been had he in fact never been born. After a nightmarish odyssey through
a George Bailey-less Bedford Falls (now a glorified slum called Potterville),
wherein none of his friends or family recognize him, George is made to
realize how many lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence;
and, just as Clarence had planned, George awakens to the fact that, despite
all its deprivations, he has truly had a wonderful life. Capra's first
production through his newly-formed Liberty Films, It's a Wonderful Life lost
money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of
small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and
became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday
classic. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
120 |
James Bond: Die Another
Day |
2002 |
130
mins |
|
Pierce
Brosnan makes his fourth appearance as suave super-spy James Bond in this
espionage thriller, the 20th film in the official Bond series. While on
assignment in North Korea, Bond is captured by government agents, where he's
imprisoned and tortured for over a year. When Bond finally wins his freedom,
not everyone is certain 007 is still capable of doing the job, but after Zao
(Rick Yune), the North Korean operative who snared Bond, is discovered to be
in cahoots with unscrupulous entrepreneur Gustav Graves (Toby Stephens), Bond
is back on the case, and he finds the two men have sinister plans which could
decide the fate of the world. As Bond hops from England to Cuba to Korea to
Iceland in pursuit of his quarry, he (as usual) makes the acquaintance of two
beautiful and mysterious women, Jinx (Halle Berry) and Miranda Frost
(Rosamund Pike). Judi Dench and John Cleese return in Die Another Day as,
respectively, Bond's superior M and gadget-master Q; Madonna contributes the
film's theme song and makes a cameo appearance as a fencing instructor. —
Mark Deming |
|
|
|
119 |
James Bond: The World
is Not Enough |
1999 |
125
mins |
|
James
Bond, the world's greatest secret agent, is sent once more into the breach in
the name of Queen, Country, and a dry martini. In the 19th Bond adventure,
007 (Pierce Brosnan) must resolve a potentially deadly power struggle between
two unstable nations, with control of the world's oil supply as the ultimate
prize. Bond is assigned as bodyguard to Elektra King (Sophie Marceau), the
daughter of a petroleum magnate who was brutally murdered, and is trying to
foil the fiendish plot of Renard (Robert Carlyle), a villain who was shot in
the head with an unusual result: he cannot feel physical pain, an apparent
failing that proves to be a considerable asset. Denise Richards appears as
Dr. Christmas Jones, an expert on nuclear weapons, alongside Desmond Llewelyn
as Q, Judi Dench as M, Samantha Bond as Miss Moneypenny, and John Cleese as
R. Alternative rock band Garbage performs the theme song. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
90 |
Jaws |
1975 |
130
mins |
|
Based
on Peter Benchley's best-selling novel, Steven Spielberg's 1975 shark saga
set the standard for the New Hollywood popcorn blockbuster while frightening
millions of moviegoers out of the water. One early summer night on fictional
Atlantic resort Amity Island, Chrissie decides to take a moonlight skinny dip
while her friends party on the beach. Yanked suddenly below the ocean
surface, she never returns. When pieces of her wash ashore, Police Chief
Brody (Roy Scheider) suspects the worst, but Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton),
mindful of the lucrative tourist trade and the approaching July 4th holiday,
refuses to put the island on a business-killing shark alert. After the shark
dines on a few more victims, the Mayor orders the local fishermen to catch
the culprit. Satisfied with the shark they find, the greedy Mayor reopens the
beaches, despite the warning from visiting ichthyologist Hooper (Richard
Dreyfuss) that the attacks were probably caused by a far more formidable
Great White. One more fatality later, Brody and Hooper join forces with
flinty old salt Quint (Robert Shaw), the only local fisherman willing to take
on a Great White—especially since the price is right. The three ride off on
Quint's boat "The Orca," soon coming face to teeth with the enemy.
— Lucia Bozzola |
|
|
|
78 |
John Q. |
2002 |
118
mins |
|
A
national health care crisis in the United States yields this tense drama from
screenwriter James Kearns and director Nick Cassavetes, who experienced a
real-life dilemma with his daughter's congenital heart disease that mirrors
the one in this film. Denzel Washington stars as John Q. Archibald, a factory
worker facing financial hardship as a result of reduced hours in his
workplace. When his young son, Michael (Daniel E. Smith), is stricken during
a baseball game, Smith and his wife, Denise (Kimberly Elise), discover that
their child is in need of an emergency heart transplant. Although the
Archibalds have health insurance, they are informed by hospital administrator
Rebecca Payne (Anne Heche) that their policy doesn't cover such an expensive
procedure. Unable to raise the money himself, John persuades the hospital's
compassionate cardiac surgeon, Dr. Raymond Turner (James Woods), to waive his
lofty fee, but is still left with too much of a financial burden to bear.
With no recourse but to take his son home to die, John snaps and holds the
staff and patients of the hospital's emergency room hostage at gunpoint. John
is soon a media hero, the focus of intense news coverage, even as police
chief Gus Monroe (Ray Liotta) and hostage negotiator Frank Grimes (Robert
Duvall) try to resolve the situation before it leads to bloodshed. — Karl
Williams |
|
|
|
7 |
Jurassic Park |
1993 |
126
mins |
|
Steven
Spielberg's phenomenally successful sci-fi adventure thriller is graced by
state-of-the-art special effects from the team of Stan Winston, Phil Tippett
and Michael Lantieri from George Lucas's Industrial Light &sMagic. The
film follows two dinosaur experts — Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill) and Dr. Ellie
Sattler Laura Dern) — as they are invited by eccentric millionaire John
Hammond (Richard Attenborough) to preview his new amusement park on an island
off Costa Rica. By cloning DNA harvested from pre-historic insects, Hammond
has been able to create living dinosaurs for his new Jurassic Park, an immense
animal preserve housing real brachiosaurs, dilophosaurs, triceratops,
velociraptors, and a Tyrannosaur Rex. Accompanied by cynical scientist Ian
Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum), who is obsessed with chaos theory, and Hammond's two
grandchildren (Ariana Richards and Joseph Mazzello), they are sent on a tour
through Hammond's new resort in computer controlled touring cars. But as a
tropical storm hits the island, knocking out the power supply, and an
unscrupulous employee (Wayne Knight) sabotages the system so that he can
smuggle dinosaur embryos out of the park, the dinosaurs start to rage out of
control. Grant then has to bring Hammond's grandchildren back to safety as
the group is pursued by the gigantic man-eating beasts. — Paul Brenner |
|
|
|
9 |
Jurassic Park III |
2001 |
92
mins |
|
Director
Joe Johnston takes over the creative reins from Steven Spielberg for this
third installment in the thriller franchise. Sam Neill returns as Dr. Alan
Grant, a scientist who's tricked by wealthy couple Paul and Amanda Kirby
(William H. Macy and Tea Leoni) into a fly-over of Isla Sorna. The object of
their sightseeing tour is one of the Costa Rican islands populated by
ferocious, genetically bred dinosaurs and the "site B" setting of
Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World (1997). After their plane crash-lands, it's
revealed that the Kirbys are actually seeking their teenage son, lost on the
island after a paragliding accident. Trapped on Isla Sorna, Grant and his
companions discover some painful truths the hard way. Among their
discoveries: some of the scaly monsters possess more advanced communicative
abilities than previously believed, the dreaded Tyrannosaurus Rex has a
larger and more lethal competitor, and flying Pteranodons pose an even graver
threat than some of their land-locked brethren. Jurassic Park III is the
first in the series not to be based upon a novel by original author Michael
Crichton. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
8 |
Jurassic Park: The Lost
World |
1997 |
134
mins |
|
Just
when you'd think that scientists would realize dinosaurs and humans don't mix,
along comes The Lost World: Jurassic Park to prove you wrong. In this sequel,
John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) summons chaos theorist and onetime
colleague Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) to his home with some startling
information — while nearly everything at his Jurassic Park had been
destroyed, engineers were also operating a second site, where other
dinosaurs, resurrected through DNA cloning technology, had been kept in
hiding. Hammond has learned the dinosaurs on the second island are alive and
well and even breeding; Hammond wants Malcolm to observe and document the
reptiles before Hammond's financiers can get to them. Malcolm declares he had
enough of the dinosaurs the first time out, but decides to make the trip when
he finds out that his girlfriend, paleontologist Sarah Harding (Julianne
Moore), is already there. However, Ian and Sarah aren't the only visitors
expected on the island; a camera crew led by ecological activist Nick Van
Owen (Vince Vaughn) is on the way, as is Roland Tembo (Pete Postlethwaite), a
world-class wild game hunter who is supposed to round up the dinosaurs and
who hopes to bag a prehistoric trophy for himself in the process. This sequel
to Jurassic Park boasted even more impressive special effects than the first
film, though the acting and screenplay aren't always at the same level. —
Mark Deming |
|
|
|
68 |
K-PAX |
2001 |
123
mins |
|
The
1995 novel by Charles Brewer becomes this drama from director Iain Softley.
After a mugging incident at New York's Grand Central Station, Prot (Kevin
Spacey), a man who claims to be an alien from the planet K-PAX, is turned
over to a public mental hospital and the care of Dr. Mark Powell (Jeff
Bridges). When medication fails to alter Prot's insistence that he is
visiting from another world on a fact-finding mission, Powell gets more
involved with his patient, who seems to have a calming effect on the other
residents of his ward. At first convinced that Prot is a delusional who can
be treated, Powell begins to wonder if his bizarre patient's story is true,
particularly after the hospital's doctors find that Prot possesses the
baffling ability to see ultraviolet light. As the date grows nearer when Prot
claims he must leave Earth (a "class BA-III planet"), Powell
becomes increasingly concerned that a psychiatric breakthrough must occur by
then. K-PAX (2001) co-stars Alfre Woodard and Mary McCormack. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
263 |
Lady And The Tramp II |
2001 |
70
mins |
|
From
the impeccable pedigree of Disney's beloved classic <I>Lady And The
Tramp</I> comes an all-new story -- <I>Lady And The Tramp II:
Scamp's Adventure</I> -- told with the same stunning animation,
charming musical style and purebred fun.<br><br> Along with their
well-behaved girl puppies, Lady and Tramp are busy raising mischievous Scamp
-- who's always in the doghouse. Longing for freedom, Scamp ventures far from
home and meets a lovely, reluctant stray named Angel. She introduces him to
the Junkyard Dogs, led by streetwise Buster. When Buster challenges Scamp to
the ultimate test of a collar-free life, Scamp finds himself torn between a
world of adventure and love for the family he's left
behind.<br><br> All-new music and star-studded voice talent
headed by Scott Wolf and Alyssa Milano make this irresistible, heartwarming
tale a whole new breed of Disney magic. |
|
|
|
60 |
Lethal Weapon 4 |
1998 |
127
mins |
|
Detectives
Martin Riggs (Mel Gibson) and Roger Murtaugh (Danny Glover) reteamed for
their fourth foray together in this buddy-cop action-comedy series based on
characters created by Shane Black. With the passage of years, Murtagh's
daughter Rianne (Traci Wolfe) is now about to upgrade Murtagh to grandfather
status, while Riggs' relationship with Internal Affairs officer Lorna Cole
(Rene Russo) means he'll become a proud papa. Elsewhere on the family front,
Chinese triad members in Los Angeles smuggle families from the mainland, but
this is only one item on the criminal agenda of triad leader Wah Sing Ku (Jet
Li), who executes balletic martial arts maneuvers with blinding speed (fight
sequences were staged by Hong Kong director Corey Yuen). The film opens with
fire (when Riggs and Murtaugh encounter a flame-thrower in a bulletproof
suit) and travels an entertaining popcorn plot path to a frightening, watery
climax (which we won't reveal here). In between, Riggs and Murtaugh tackle
the troublesome triads with an assist from wickedly witty, sharp-edged
newcomer Lee Butters (Chris Rock) and private detective Leo Getz (Joe Pesci),
the character first seen as a mob accountant in the second film of this
highly popular series. — Bhob Stewart |
|
|
|
253 |
Lilo &sStitch |
2002 |
85
mins |
|
A
lonely little girl makes a very unusual friend — a ukulele-playing alien who
likes to toss around small automobiles — in this antic animated comedy from
Walt Disney Studios. Lilo (voice of Daveigh Chase) is a young Hawaiian girl
being raised by her teenaged sister Nani (voice of Tia Carrere) after the
unexpected death of their parents in an auto accident. While Nani tries to
hold their household together, Lilo is a child with unusual interests and a
distinctive sense of humor, which makes it hard for her to bond with her
peers, as well as her big sister. Nani decides Lilo might be happier if she
had a pet, so the sisters go to the animal shelter to adopt a dog; however,
the critter which catches Lilo's fancy is a fuzzy blue creature she names
Stitch (voice of Chris Sanders). Nani isn't so sure Stitch is really a dog,
and it turns out she's right; Stitch is actually "Genetic Experiment
626," a mutation created by extraterrestrial mad scientist Dr. Jumba
(voice of David Ogden Stiers) to be used a weapon. Stitch is an intelligent
but gleefully destructive little creature with superhuman strength who has
escaped to Earth and crash-landed in the Hawaiian islands, but Lilo sees him
simply as a fellow misfit and attempts to teach him to behave like her
favorite American icon, Elvis Presley. Meanwhile, Nani struggles to keep Lilo
and Stitch on their best behavior as stern social worker Cobra Bubbles (voice
of Ving Rhames) tries to determine if Nani is fit to raise a child, while Dr.
Jumba and Pleakley (voice of Kevin McDonald) attempt to capture
"Experiment 626" and bring him back home. Chris Sanders, who
provides the voice of Stitch, also co-wrote and co-directed the film, which
features numerous Elvis Presley tunes on the soundtrack, as well as a new recording
of "Burning Love" by country star Wynonna. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
40 |
Master and Commander |
2003 |
139
mins |
|
Director
Peter Weir's first turn behind the camera since 1998's critically acclaimed
The Truman Show, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World is based on
one of the 20 Napoleanic War-era adventure novels in author Patrick O'Brian's
Master and Commander series. Russell Crowe stars as Captain Jack Aubrey, a
high-seas adventurer who maintains a strong bond with ship-surgeon Stephen
Maturin (Paul Bettany). After conquering much of Europe already, Napoleon's
forces have set their sights on taking Britain, so Aubrey and the crew of his
ship, the HMS Surprise, take to the Pacific to intercept any attacking ships
from the French fleet. When Aubrey eyes a renegade French super-frigate, the
Surprise pursues, leading to an adrenaline-charged chase through the distant
reaches of the sea. Edward Woodall, James D'Arcy, and Lee Ingleby also star
as members of the Surprise's crew. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
12 |
Matrix |
1999 |
136
mins |
|
What
if virtual reality wasn't just for fun, but was being used to imprison you?
That's the dilemma that faces mild-mannered computer jockey Thomas Anderson
(Keanu Reeves) in The Matrix. It's the year 1999, and Anderson (hacker alias:
Neo) works in a cubicle, manning a computer and doing a little hacking on the
side. It's through this latter activity that Thomas makes the acquaintance of
Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne), who has some interesting news for Mr. Anderson
— none of what's going on around him is real. The year is actually closer to
2199, and it seems Thomas, like most people, is a victim of The Matrix, a
massive artificial intelligence system that has tapped into people's minds
and created the illusion of a real world, while using their brains and bodies
for energy, tossing them away like spent batteries when they're through.
Morpheus, however, is convinced Neo is "The One" who can crack open
The Matrix and bring his people to both physical and psychological freedom.
The Matrix is the second feature film from the sibling writer/director team
of Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski, who made an impressive debut with the
stylish erotic crime thriller Bound. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
13 |
Matrix Reloaded |
2003 |
138
mins |
|
After
creating an international sensation with the visually dazzling and
intellectually challenging sci-fi blockbuster The Matrix, the Wachowski
brothers returned with the first of two projected sequels that pick up where
the first film left off. Neo (Keanu Reeves) and Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss)
have been summoned by Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) to join him on a voyage
to Zion, the last outpost of free human beings on Earth. Neo and Trinity's
work together has been complicated by the fact the two are involved in a
serious romantic relationship. Upon their arrival in Zion, Morpheus locks
horns with rival Commander Lock (Harry J. Lennix) and encounters his old
flame Niobe (Jada Pinkett Smith). Meanwhile, Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving) has
returned with some surprises for Neo, most notably the ability to replicate
himself as many times as he pleases. Neo makes his way to The Oracle (Gloria
Foster), who informs him that if he wishes to save humankind, he must unlock
"The Source," which means having to release The Key Maker (Randall
Duk Kim) from the clutches of Merovingian (Lambert Wilson). While Merovingian
refuses to cooperate, his wife, Persephone (Monica Bellucci), angry at her
husband's dalliances with other women, offers to help, but only in exchange
for a taste of Neo's affections. With The Keymaker in tow, Neo, Trinity, and
Morpheus are chased by Merovingian's henchmen: a pair of deadly albino twins
(Neil Rayment and Adrian Rayment). Filmed primarily in Australia and
California (the extended chase scene was shot on a stretch of highway build
specifically for the production outside of San Francisco), The Matrix
Reloaded was produced in tandem with the third film in the series, The Matrix
Revolutions, which is to be released in late 2003. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
14 |
Matrix Revolutions |
2003 |
128
mins |
|
Shot
back-to-back with The Matrix Reloaded, the third and final installment of
Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski's sci-fi action saga picks up where the
second film left off. Neo (Keanu Reeves) remains unconscious in the real
world, caught in a mysterious subway station that lies between the machine
world and the Matrix, and Bane (Ian Bliss) is still a conduit for Agent Smith
(Hugo Weaving), who continues to grow out of control, threatening to destroy
both worlds. Meanwhile, as the sentinels get closer and closer to Zion, the
citizens of the earth's last inhabited city prepare for the inevitable
onslaught. By bargaining with The Merovingian (Lambert Wilson), Trinity
(Carrie-Anne Moss) and Morpheus (Laurence Fishburne) are able to free Neo
who, after meeting with The Oracle (Mary Alice stepping in for the late
Gloria Foster), decides that he must leave Zion and head for the machine
mainframe. As Neo and Trinity venture into the dangerous machine world, with
hopes of stopping both the machines and Agent Smith, their comrades in Zion
attempt to fight off the attacking sentinels with the odds stacked greatly
against them. Other cast members returning include Monica Bellucci, Ngai
Sing, and Harold Perrineau Jr. — Matthew Tobey |
|
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|
206 |
Meet The Parents |
2000 |
108
mins |
|
In
this comedy from Austin Powers director Jay Roach, Ben Stiller plays a young
man who endures a disastrous weekend at the home of his girlfriend's parents.
Greg Focker (Stiller) is completely in love with Pam Byrnes (Teri Polo), and
views their upcoming trip to her parents' house on Long Island (where her
sister is to be married during the weekend) as a perfect opportunity to ask
her to marry him. Once Greg is introduced to Pam's parents, however, things
stampede steadily downhill. Pam's father Jack (Robert De Niro) takes an
instant and obvious dislike to his daughter's boyfriend, lambasting him for
his job as a nurse and generally making Greg painfully aware of the
differences between him and Pam's family. Where Greg is grubby, relatively
unambitious, and Jewish, Pam comes from a long line of well-mannered,
blue-blooded WASPs. Things go from bad to worse in less time than it takes to
spin a dreidel, with Greg incurring the wrath of both Pam's father — who, it
turns out, worked for the CIA for 34 years — and the rest of her family, and
almost single-handedly destroying their house and the wedding in the process.
— Rebecca Flint |
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|
|
10 |
Men in Black |
1997 |
98
mins |
|
For
his fifth effort as a feature-film director, one-time cinematographer Barry
Sonnenfeld brought his cartoonish visual style and darkly humorous
sensibilities to this adaptation of, appropriately enough, a tongue-in-cheek
sci-fi comic book. Will Smith stars as James Darrel Edwards, a New York City
cop with an athletic physique and a flippant, anti-authoritarian attitude
toward law enforcement. After chasing down a mysterious perpetrator one night
who turns out to be an alien, James is recruited by "K" (Tommy Lee
Jones), a veteran of a clandestine government agency secretly policing the
comings and goings of aliens on planet Earth. Nicknamed the "men in
black" for their nondescript uniform of black suit, shoes, tie, and
sunglasses, the agents are assigned to recover a bauble that's been stolen by
an intergalactic terrorist (Vincent D'Onofrio). It seems the item is none
other than the galaxy itself, and its theft has plunged humanity into the
center of what's shaping up to become an interstellar war, unless K and his
new wisecracking partner, now renamed "J," can stop the bad guy. On
their side but somewhat in the dark is a pretty, unflappable city medical
examiner (Linda Fiorentino) who has been zapped one too many times by K's
ingenious memory-sapping device. Men in Black was a box office smash,
inspiring an animated children's television series and a hit soundtrack album
that featured a performance by star (and rapper) Smith. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
11 |
Men in Black II |
2002 |
88
mins |
|
Otherworldly
villains are on the loose again, and it's up to Earth's interstellar police
force to bring them to justice in this sequel to the sci-fi comedy
blockbuster Men in Black. Agent Jay (Will Smith) has become a high-ranking
member of the Men in Black, the secret government task force designed to deal
with unruly visitors from other worlds, while his former cohort, Agent Kay
(Tommy Lee Jones), had his memory wiped clean and now lives a simple but
contented life as a mailman. However, an especially nasty alien threat has
reared its not-so-ugly head; Serleena (Lara Flynn Boyle) is a shape-shifting
Kylothian alien who is in pursuit of another escaped visitor who holds the
key to powers that would allow her to destroy the world. Making Serleena all
the more dangerous is the fact she's taken on the appearance of a lingerie
model, making her irresistible to most men. When the rampaging Serleena takes
control of the MIB offices, Jay is forced to turn to the only man who can
help him save the world — the former Agent Kay. After restoring Kay's memory,
the two remaining Men in Black set out to conquer Serleena with a motley band
of friendly aliens, including a handful of worm creatures and a talking dog
named Frank (voice of Tim Blaney). Jay, meanwhile, has his head turned by
Laura (Rosario Dawson), an attractive waitress who was an unwitting witness
to an alien attack. Men in Black 2 also features Rip Torn, Tony Shalhoub,
David Cross, Patrick Warburton, and Johnny Knoxville. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
101 |
Men of Honor |
2000 |
129
mins |
|
This
military drama is based on the true story of Carl Brashear, who was the first
African-American to serve as a diver in the United States Navy. Brashear
(played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) was born to a poor farming family in the deep
South, and joined the Navy in hopes of bettering himself. When Brashear
applies for diving school, he first encounters Master Chief Billy Sunday
(Robert De Niro), a gruff and tyrannical diving instructor who holds absolute
sway over his charges. Sunday does little at first to encourage Brashear's
ambitions, and the would-be diver discovers racism in the military is an ugly
fact of life when his white comrades refuse to share barracks with him. But
Brashear's courage and determination make an impression on Sunday, and the
two men become allies as Brashear must fight prejudice, military bureaucracy,
and even a crippling injury in order to realize his dreams. Originally
announced under the title Navy Diver, Men of Honor also features Hal
Holbrook, David Keith, Michael Rapaport, Charlize Theron, and Powers Boothe;
Bill Cosby served as an executive producer for the project. — Mark Deming |
|
|
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262 |
Mighty Joe Young |
1998 |
114
mins |
|
This
1998 version of Mighty Joe Young begins with a Gorillas in the Mist-type
prologue and then jumps forward twelve years to find Bill Paxton leading a
safari expedition to capture the legendary giant (two-ton) gorilla, the
subject of the film's title. Paxton's intentions are admirable; he wants to
remove the majestic beast from the imminent danger of poachers and set him up
on a posh nature reserve in California. The x-factor comes in the form of
Charlize Theron's beautiful jungle girl, Jill Young. Jill has been Joe's soul
mate from birth and is the only human who can communicate with him. She is
also the reason Paxton's maverick-on-the-run lingers at the reserve after his
task is completed. From there, the plot is spurred on by the nefarious
actions of a poacher with an Ahab complex and a battery of money hungry
scientists who want to exploit Joe. Naturally, all of this puts a burr under
the towering simian's skin, causing him to break free and go ape in L.A.'s
concrete jungle. — Tom Meek |
|
|
|
94 |
Minority Report |
2002 |
144
mins |
|
Based
on a short story by the late Philip K. Dick, this science fiction-thriller
reflects the writer's familiar preoccupation with themes of concealed
identity and mind control. Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, a Washington,
D.C. detective in the year 2054. Anderton works for "Precrime," a
special unit of the police department that arrests murderers before they have
committed the actual crime. Precrime bases its work on the visions of three
psychics or "precogs" whose prophecies of future events are never
in error. When Anderton discovers that he has been identified as the future
killer of a man he's never met, he is forced to become a fugitive from his
own colleagues as he tries to uncover the mystery of the victim-to-be's
identity. When he kidnaps Agatha (Samantha Morton), one of the precogs, he
begins to formulate a theory about a possible frame-up from within his own
department. Directed by Steven Spielberg, who hired a team of futurists to
devise the film's numerous technologically advanced gadgets, Minority Report
co-stars Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, and Neal McDonough. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
92 |
Mission Impossible II |
2000 |
123
mins |
|
Director
John Woo brings Hong Kong-style martial arts action to this comic
book-flavored sequel that eschews the complicated plot and political
maneuverings of its predecessor in favor of pure, adrenaline-charged thrills.
Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt, an operative for the top-secret government
agency IMF (Impossible Missions Force). Fellow agent Sean Ambrose (Dougray
Scott) has gone rogue, stealing a sample of a deadly synthetic virus named
Chimera that could rapidly wipe out the world's population. Ambrose's plan is
to sell Chimera to the highest bidder in exchange for shares of stock in the
winner's company. Summoned by the new IMF chief (Anthony Hopkins in an
uncredited cameo role), Ethan is assigned to recruit the help of Ambrose's
former lover Nyah Nordoff-Hall (Thandie Newton), a gorgeous woman who left
Ambrose broken-hearted and who may be able to quickly regain his confidence.
Once he meets and spends a night with Nyah, however, Ethan is smitten, and
now must both capture Ambrose and keep Nyah alive as she infiltrates a nest
of vipers. Sophisticated disguises, gun battles, and high-speed chases are
the order of the day, very much in the James Bond mold. Mission: Impossible 2
is based on a story by Star Trek: The Next Generation writers Ronald D. Moore
and Brannon Braga, with a script polish by Robert Towne. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
51 |
Moby Dick |
1998 |
240
mins |
|
Director
Franc Roddam and co-scripter Anton Diether adapted Herman Melville's 1851
classic for this four-hour TV miniseries sea adventure. Ishmael (Henry
Thomas) ignores the warnings of dockside prophet Elijah (Bruce Spence) and
joins the crew of the whaling ship Pequod. Ismael befriends Polynesian
harpooner Queequeg (Maori actor Piripi Waretini), hears a sermon by Father
Mapple (Gregory Peck, star of the 1956 Moby Dick), and meets the obsessed
Captain Ahab (Patrick Stewart), who lost his leg to the great white whale
Moby Dick and now seeks vengeance on the looming leviathan. For effects,
Roddam used a three-sectioned Moby Dick, added computer graphics, and shot
Pequod footage in a tank at an Australian military base. TV Guide described
Stewart's performance as "mesmerizing and passionate." The $20
million production aired March 15-16, 1998 on the USA Network. — Bhob Stewart |
|
|
|
251 |
Monsters, Inc. |
2001 |
92
mins |
|
After
exploring the worlds of toys and bugs in the two Toy Story films and A Bug's
Life, the award-winning computer animation company Pixar delves into the
realm of monsters with its fourth feature. Hulking, blue-furred behemoth
James P. "Sully" Sullivan (John Goodman) and his one-eyed assistant
Mike Wazowski (Billy Crystal) are employed by Monsters, Inc., a scream
processing factory. It seems that the denizens of their realm thrive on the
screams of kids spooked by monsters lurking under their beds and in their
closets. It's the job of Sully, Mike, and their co-workers, including
sarcastic Randall Boggs (Steve Buscemi), crab-like CEO Henry J. Waternoose
(James Coburn), and lovely snake-headed receptionist Celia (Jennifer Tilly)
to keep the frights flowing. When Sully and Mike are followed back into the
monster world by a very unafraid little human girl named Boo (Mary Gibbs),
they are exiled to her universe, where they discover that such a modern-day
mythological specimen as the Abominable Snowman is a fellow refugee. — Karl
Williams |
|
|
|
180 |
National Lampoon's
Christmas Vacation |
1989 |
97
mins |
|
Chevy
Chase, star of National Lampoon's Vacation and its sequel, is back as the
paterfamilias of the Griswold family (including Beverly D'Angelo as his
missus) to skewer the Yuletide season. Chevy mugs, trips, falls, mashes his
fingers and stubs his toes as he prepares to invite numerous dysfunctional
relatives to his household to celebrate Christmas. Amidst the more outrageous
sight gags (including the electrocution of a cat as the Christmas tree is
lit) the film betrays a sentimental streak, with old wounds healing and
long-estranged relatives reuniting in the Griswold living room. National
Lampoon's Christmas Vacation was still capable of attracting an audience five
years after its release: It was one of the top-rated seasonal TV specials of
1994, outrating even the first network telecast of It's a Wonderful Life. —
Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
195 |
Ocean's Eleven |
2001 |
120
mins |
|
A
rag-tag group of con artists and ex-cons team up for the heist to end all
heists in this high-profile remake of the 1960 Rat Pack favorite. As with its
predecessor, Ocean's Eleven opens with its titular hero Danny Ocean (George
Clooney stepping into the Frank Sinatra role) eager for a new challenge. The
similarities to the original end there, as Ocean conspires with his old pal
Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) to rob 150 million dollars from an underground vault
that serves three of Las Vegas' biggest casinos. Between the two of them,
they recruit nine other men, each with his own criminal specialty, to assist
in the mission: moneyman Reuben Tishkoff (Elliot Gould), card dealer Frank
(Bernie Mac), pickpocket Linus (Matt Damon), aging con artist Saul (Carl
Reiner), British explosives pro Basher (Don Cheadle), techie Dell (Eddie
Jemison), rude-boy brothers Virgil (Casey Affleck) and Turk (Scott Caan), and
professional acrobat Yen (Shaobo Qin). What Ocean doesn't tell the group is
that there's another reason he's coordinating the heist: the three casinos
they're robbing are all owned by ruthless gambling mogul Terry Benedict (Andy
Garcia), who just happens to be married to Ocean's former love Tess (Julia
Roberts). Ocean's Eleven was updated by scribe Ted Griffin and marked the
third feature shot by director Steven Soderbergh under the alias Peter
Andrews. — Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
150 |
Open Range |
2003 |
138
mins |
|
Kevin
Costner stars in and directs the Western Open Range. Robert Duvall stars as
Boss Spearman, a rugged old-timer who free-grazes cattle. He and Charley
Waite (Costner) have been partners for ten years. As the film opens in the
1880s, the pair and their employees — the beefy, rugged, likable Mose
(Abraham Benrubi) and the impetuous Mexican teenager Buttons (Diego Luna) —
are driving cattle across the West. Mose is attacked and thrown in jail
during a visit to a town. The local cattle rancher Baxter (Michael Gambon)
wants the free grazers off his land and warns Charley and Boss when they
retrieve Mose that they have until the next day to be out of the area. Boss decides
to fight back, especially after Baxter's men do harm to the foursome. Charley
confesses his past as a killer during the Civil War and strikes up a
tentative romance with Sue Barlow — the sister of the town doctor. The film's
centerpiece is an extended gunfight between the duo (with some assistance
from sympathetic townsfolk) and Baxter's hired gunmen. — Perry Seibert |
|
|
|
257 |
Osmosis Jones |
2001 |
98
mins |
|
Peter
Farrelly and Bobby Farrelly, the impish impresarios of gross-out comedy, take
their body function-inspired humor to new extremes in this mixture of live
action and animation. Bill Murray stars as Frank, a zoo worker suffering from
the effects of an unknown malady he contracted after eating an egg
contaminated with simian saliva. Unknown to Frank, the inside of his body is
actually a city (the City of Frank) teeming with cellular life, where the
mysterious illness he's fighting is an invading enemy that must be defeated
at all costs. It's up to Osmosis Jones (voice of Chris Rock), a white blood cell
cop, and Drix (voice of David Hyde Pierce), a rookie over-the-counter
medication, to hunt down and stop a lethal virus (Laurence Fishburne) who's
got an inferiority complex. Along the way, the partners visit Frank's runny
nostrils (Booger Dam) and a bar called, appropriately enough, the Zit.
Osmosis Jones costars Molly Shannon and Chris Elliott, and features the vocal
talents of William Shatner, producer Joel Silver, and singer Brandy Norwood.
— Karl Williams |
|
|
|
42 |
Out of Time |
2003 |
114
mins |
|
Director
Carl Franklin and actor Denzel Washington team up again (following 1995's
Devil in a Blue Dress) for the crime thriller Out of Time. Washington stars
as Matt Lee Whitlock, the well-respected chief of police in a quiet Florida
community. While in the process of getting a divorce from fellow detective Alexandra
(Eva Mendez), Matt engages in an affair with his high school sweetheart Anne
(Sanaa Lathan). Unfortunately, Anne is married to the extremely jealous Chris
(Dean Cain), a former pro football player who works as a security guard.
After a major murder occurs in the community, Matt finds himself the main
suspect. With the help of his medical examiner pal Chae (John Billingsley),
Matt must solve the case before he is found guilty himself. Out of Time
premiered at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival. — Andrea LeVasseur |
|
|
|
87 |
Panic Room |
2002 |
112
mins |
|
A
well-regarded spec script by A-list screenwriter David Koepp became this
stylish thriller from director David Fincher. Jodie Foster stars as Meg
Altman, a single mother of an diabetic preteen daughter, Sarah (Kristen
Stewart). Meg's going through an unhappy divorce that forces her and Sarah to
move into a new home. They choose a deluxe New York brownstone that
coincidentally boasts an unusual feature: a "panic room," a
vault-like hidden space capable of literally sealing itself off from the rest
of the building. With its thick steel door on springs, separate ventilation
and communications systems, and video monitors linked to cameras mounted
throughout the home, the room is an impregnable fortress. It quickly comes in
handy when the Altmans' new residence is invaded by a trio of thieves: Junior
(Jared Leto), Burnham (Forest Whitaker), and Raoul (Dwight Yoakam). Meg and
Sarah are able to secure themselves in the panic room before the robbers can
get to them, but it turns out that Sarah's medication is still on the
outside, the phone's not yet connected, and the loot the gang's seeking is
inside the panic room with them. A cat-and-mouse battle of wits ensues, with
Meg trying to outwit their captors over the course of one very long night, as
her daughter's health dissipates. Panic Room (2002) co-stars Ann Magnuson,
Patrick Bauchau, and Koepp's fellow screenwriter, Andrew Kevin Walker, in a
cameo role. — Karl Williams |
|
|
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52 |
Patriot Games |
1992 |
117
mins |
|
In
Patriot Games, Harrison Ford plays former CIA agent Jack Ryan, taking over
from Alec Baldwin, who had played author Tom Clancy's brainy protagonist in
Hunt for Red October. This time around, Ryan foils an attempted
assassination, thereby incurring the wrath of maniacal Irish radical (Sean
Bean). After several complex plot convolutions (including a nailbiting
sequence involving a satellite reconnaissance photograph), the villains seem
to be neutralized, and Ryan decides to celebrate the occasion with his wife
(Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch), whose own lives have been imperiled
throughout the picture. At this point, all logic flies out the window with an
unbelievable terrorist assault on Ryan's seacoast home, followed by an even
sillier speedboat chase. As stupidly as Ryan behaves in failing to provide
adequate protection for his family (is Archer condemned for life to play
victimized wives?), the villains are even more foolhardy, with one terrorist
virtually begging to be killed by facing down the well-armed Bean and
shouting "You're insane!" Author Tom Clancy himself bemoaned the
liberties taken with his novel in the final sequences; in addition, Ford is
not as ideally suited for the role of Jack Ryan as Alec Baldwin had been. But
who cared? Patriot Games made a fortune, and inspired a far better followup,
A Clear and Present Danger (1994). — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
300 |
Paul Simon |
1982 |
87
mins |
|
In
1986, Paul Simon released his album Graceland, a ground-breaking
collaboration with some of South Africa's finest musicians that brought the
sensuous and expressive sounds of "Township Jive" to an
international mass audience for the first time. Simon then mounted an
international concert tour with several of the musicians that appeared on the
album, and this home video release captures the final date of the tour in
1987, in which Simon, singer Miriam Makeba, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and
vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo brought the music back to Africa for a
massive outdoor concert in Zimbabwe. Selections include "The Boy in the
Bubble," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," "You Can
Call Me Al," "Homeless," "I Know What I Know,"
"Graceland," "Gumboots," and 11 more. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
47 |
Pearl Harbor |
2001 |
182
mins |
|
At
the time of its release, this lavish period war drama from hyperkinetic
director Michael Bay became the most expensive motion picture ever
green-lighted by a studio. Ben Affleck stars as Rafe McCawley, a military
pilot stationed under Jimmy Doolittle (Alec Baldwin) in New Jersey, along
with his best friend from childhood, Danny Walker (Josh Hartnett). Rafe is
chomping at the bit to get involved in World War II, but America has not
entered the conflict, so he is forced to fight on loan to the Royal Air Force
in Britain, leaving behind his beautiful girlfriend Evelyn (Kate Beckinsale).
After Rafe goes overseas, both Danny and Evelyn are transferred to the naval
base in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, where word arrives that Rafe has been killed in
action. A grief-stricken Evelyn and Danny become romantically attached, a
situation that becomes a lit powder keg when Rafe suddenly reappears, having
survived his ordeal in the European war. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
puts the romantic triangle on hold, as the best friends are ordered to
undertake a top-secret and highly dangerous retaliatory mission to bomb
Tokyo, once again under the command of Doolittle. Although the trio of leads
are entirely fictional, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, and Jon Voight (as
FDR) co-star in the roles of real-life historical figures. Pearl Harbor is
based on a script by Randall Wallace, writer of Braveheart (1995) and The Man
in the Iron Mask (1998). Taking a page from the production history of James
Cameron's Titanic (1997), many of the actors and filmmakers involved with
Pearl Harbor deferred their usual salaries until the film "broke
even" at the box office. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
63 |
Phenomenon |
1996 |
124
mins |
|
Director
Jon Turteltaub followed up the hit While You Were Sleeping (1995) with this
fantasy similar to Charly (1968) and a film from the previous year, Powder
(1994). John Travolta stars as George Malley, a humble mechanic in a rural
California town. On his 37th birthday, George celebrates at a pub with
friends Nate (Forest Whitaker) and Doc (Robert Duvall), the local physician.
When he steps outside, George observes a bright light in the sky that knocks
him briefly unconscious. When he awakens, George has incredible intellectual
powers. He checks books out of the library in armfuls, becomes an inventor, a
psychic, has telekinetic powers, predicts an earthquake, and memorizes
Portuguese in minutes. Using his newfound powers, George becomes a hero, but
he can't totally win over the spooked townsfolk or the standoffish Lace (Kyra
Sedgwick), a single mom burned by love once too often. As George's kindness
breaks down Lace's reserve and a romance begins, his fame spreads, bringing
him to the attention of the FBI and curious university scientists.
Similarities between George's powers and the alleged benefits of Travolta's
religion, Scientology, led to charges that the film was veiled
pro-Scientology propaganda. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
55 |
Philadelphia |
1993 |
125
mins |
|
At
the time of its release, Jonathan Demme's Philadelphia was the first
big-budget Hollywood film to tackle the medical, political and social issues
of AIDS. Tom Hanks, in his first Academy Award-winning performance, plays
Andrew Beckett, a talented lawyer at a stodgy Philadelphia law firm. Andrew
has contracted AIDS but fears informing his firm about the disease. The
firm's senior partner, Charles Wheeler (Jason Robards), assigns Andrew a case
involving their most important client. Andrew begins diligently working on
the case, but soon the lesions associated with AIDS are visible on his face.
Wheeler abruptly removes Andrew from the case and fires him from the firm.
Andrew believes he has been fired because of his illness and plans to fight
the firm in court. But because of the firm's reputation, no lawyer in
Philadelphia will risk handling his case. In desperation, Andrew hires Joe
Miller (Denzel Washington), a black lawyer who advertises on television,
mainly handling personal injury cases. Miller dislikes homosexuals but agrees
to take the case for the money and exposure. As Miller prepares for the courtroom
battle against one of the law firm's key litigators, Belinda Conine (Mary
Steenburgen), Miller begins to realize the discrimination practiced against
Andrew is no different from the discrimination Miller himself has to battle
against. — Paul Brenner |
|
|
|
116 |
Pirates of the
Caribbean |
2003 |
143
mins |
|
Following
his surprise-hit American remake of The Ring in 2002, director Gore Verbinski
took on Pirates of the Carribean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the second of
recent films to be based upon Disney theme-park rides (the first being The
Country Bears). When Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), the daughter of
Governor Swann (Jonathan Pryce) is kidnapped by a group of pirates led by
Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and taken aboard their ship, The Black
Pearl, Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), the young man who loves Elizabeth despite
the fact that she is promised to another, sets out to rescue her. But he
can't do it alone, so he enlists the help of swashbuckling ship captain Jack
Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Together the two chase after The Black Pearl, but they
soon discover that the captain and crew aren't your average pirates. Cursed
to remain between the living and the dead, Barbossa and his men look like
skeletons when basked in the moonlight. When it is revealed that the only
thing that can break the curse is Elizabeth's blood, Jack and Will are faced
with a race against time and a battle against the undead to save the
Governor's daughter. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
176 |
Planes, Trains and
Automobiles |
1987 |
93
mins |
|
Were
it not for the profanity-laden opening scenes, John Hughes' Planes, Trains
and Automobiles might have been suitable family entertainment: certainly it's
heaps less violent and mean-spirited than Hughes' Home Alone. En route to
Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family, easily annoyed businessman
Steve Martin finds his first-class plane ticket has been demoted to coach,
and he must share his flight with obnoxious salesman John Candy. A sudden
snowstorm in Chicago forces the plane to land in Wichita. Unable to find a
room in any of the four-star hotels, Martin is compelled to accept Candy's
invitation to share his accommodations in a cheapo-sleazo motel. Driven to
distraction by Candy's annoying personal habits, the ungrateful Martin lets
forth with a stream of verbal abuse. That's when Candy delivers the
anticipated (but always welcome) "I don't judge-why should
you?"-type speech so common to John Hughes flicks. The shamefaced Martin
tries to make up to Candy, but there's a bumpy time ahead as the mismatched
pair make their way back to Chicago, first in a balky train, then by way of a
refrigerator truck. We know from the outset that the oil-and-water Martin and
Candy will be bosom companions by the end of Planes, Trains and Automobiles,
but it's still a fun ride. Best bit: A half-asleep Candy thinking that he's
got his hand tucked between two pillows-until his bedmate Martin bellows
"Those AREN'T PILLOWS!" — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
43 |
Radio |
2003 |
109
mins |
|
Hollywood
filmmaker Michael Tollin directs the sports drama Radio, based on a true
story and adapted for the screen by Mike Rich (The Rookie). Set in a small
South Carolina town during the '60s, the film stars Ed Harris as Harold
Jones, a high school football coach who barely has time to spend with his
daughter, Mary Helen (Sarah Drew), or his wife, Linda (Debra Winger). When
Coach Jones meets the mentally challenged student who goes by the name of
Radio (Cuba Gooding Jr.), he allows him to help out with his football team.
While the townsfolk just aren't sure about Radio hanging around the team, the
star player Johnny Clay (Riley Smith) is downright mean about it.
Nevertheless, Radio continues to support the team for the next three decades.
Also starring Alfre Woodard as the principal. — Andrea LeVasseur |
|
|
|
69 |
Remember the Titans |
2000 |
113
mins |
|
A
high school football coach finds himself fighting for stakes much higher than
the State Championship in this drama based on actual events. In 1971, a court
order forces three high schools in Alexandra, Virginia (two white, one
African-American), to integrate their student bodies and faculties for the
first time. As a result, Coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton), longtime head coach
of the T.C. Williams High School football team, is asked to step down, and
Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) is appointed to replace him as the school's
first black faculty member. The new coach is hardly welcomed with open arms,
either by the school's staff or the students, and the newly integrated team
is full of players (both black and white) who have little trust or respect
for one another. But Boone is determined to put a winning team on the field —
it's how he approaches the game, and his future depends on it. Against long
odds, Boone helps his team overcome distrust and misunderstanding of their
coach (and each other) as they become a gridiron force to be reckoned with.
Remember the Titans also features Nicole Ari Parker, Kate Bosworth, and Jerry
Brandt, and was produced by action-film kingpin Jerry Bruckheimer. — Mark
Deming |
|
|
|
203 |
Rush Hour 2 |
2001 |
90
mins |
|
A
surprise box-office smash spawns this inevitably action-packed buddy comedy
follow-up that reunites director Brett Ratner with stars Jackie Chan and
Chris Tucker. Chan is Chief Inspector Lee of the Royal Hong Kong Police, who
travels back to China with his American colleague, Los Angeles detective
James Carter (Tucker). The men intend to take some vacation time but are
quickly pulled into the case of two murdered U.S. customs agents, who were
investigating an illegal counterfeiting scam involving Ricky Tan (John Lone),
one of the most powerful Triad gangsters in Asia and an old enemy of Lee's.
Lee and Carter are soon embroiled in a dangerous mystery that also involves a
sexy secret-service agent (Roselyn Sanchez), a billionaire hotel owner (Alan
King), a dangerous femme fatale (Zhang Ziyi) and a finale set in a lavish Las
Vegas casino. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
135 |
S.W.A.T. |
2003 |
117
mins |
|
Clark
Johnson's big-screen adaptation of the 1970s television series S.W.A.T. stars
Colin Farrell as Jim Street, a young special weapons and tactics team member
who, in the film's opening sequence, is demoted after his hothead partner Jeremy
Renner shoots a hostage while trying to kill her captor. In need of good
press, the higher-ups call in SWAT expert Hondo Harrelson (Samuel L. Jackson)
to put together an elite team that can bring some luster back to the badge.
He chooses Street, veteran T.J. (Josh Charles), and tough single mother Chris
Sanchez (Michelle Rodriguez). The new team survives a series of tests before
hitting the streets. Their first big assignment involves transporting an
international criminal (Olivier Martinez) to federal authorities. The
criminal had offered a hundred million dollars to anyone who can bust him
out. — Perry Seibert |
|
|
|
83 |
Saving Private Ryan |
1998 |
170
mins |
|
Steven
Spielberg directed this powerful, realistic re-creation of WWII's D-day
invasion and the immediate aftermath. The story opens with a prologue in
which a veteran brings his family to the American cemetery at Normandy, and a
flashback then joins Capt. John Miller (Tom Hanks) and GIs in a landing craft
making the June 6, 1944, approach to Omaha Beach to face devastating German
artillery fire. This mass slaughter of American soldiers is depicted in a
compelling, unforgettable 24-minute sequence. Miller's men slowly move
forward to finally take a concrete pillbox. On the beach littered with bodies
is one with the name "Ryan" stenciled on his backpack. Army Chief
of Staff Gen. George C. Marshall (Harve Presnell), learning that three Ryan
brothers from the same family have all been killed in a single week, requests
that the surviving brother, Pvt. James Ryan (Matt Damon), be located and
brought back to the United States. Capt. Miller gets the assignment, and he
chooses a translator, Cpl. Upham (Jeremy Davis), skilled in language but not
in combat, to join his squad of right-hand man Sgt. Horvath (Tom Sizemore),
plus privates Mellish (Adam Goldberg), Medic Wade (Giovanni Ribisi), cynical
Reiben (Edward Burns) from Brooklyn, Italian-American Caparzo (Vin Diesel),
and religious Southerner Jackson (Barry Pepper), an ace sharpshooter who
calls on the Lord while taking aim. Having previously experienced action in
Italy and North Africa, the close-knit squad sets out through areas still
thick with Nazis. After they lose one man in a skirmish at a bombed village,
some in the group begin to question the logic of losing more lives to save a
single soldier. The film's historical consultant is Stephen E. Ambrose, and
the incident is based on a true occurance in Ambrose's 1994 bestseller D-Day:
June 6, 1944. — Bhob Stewart |
|
|
|
210 |
Scary Movie 3 |
2003 |
88
mins |
|
While
star Anna Faris returns for the third film in the Scary Movie series, the
power behind the camera has shifted from the Wayans brothers to one of the
Zucker brothers. The Zucker in question is David Zucker, and he's brought
along his partner in movie-parody crime, Leslie Nielsen. This time around,
aim is taken at such horror blockbusters as Signs and The Ring, while films
of other genres, including Independence Day, 8 Mile, and The Matrix, are also
lampooned. The plot finds Cindy (Faris) trying to help the president
(Nielsen) thwart an alien attack while also facing crop circles and a
mysterious video tape. In the spirit of the two Matrix sequels, Scary Movie 3
was shot back-to-back with Scary Movie 4. Queen Latifah, Charlie Sheen, and
Eddie Griffin also star. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
109 |
School of Rock |
2003 |
108
mins |
|
The
world's least-employable heavy metal guitarist is entrusted with the minds of
upstate New York's best and brightest in this fish-out-of-water comedy. Jack
Black plays Dewey Finn, axe-bearer for a fitfully successful bar band
determined to win a regional battle-of-the-bands competition. There's only
one thing standing in their way: the self-indulgent solos and crowd-diving
antics of their "embarrassing" lead guitarist. When his band votes
him out in favor of a would-be rock god, Dewey has to make the rent somehow,
and after intercepting a call for his substitute-teacher roomie Ned (Mike
White), the pot-bellied slacker finds himself in front of a class of elite
elementary school students. At a loss for a lesson plan, Dewey takes offense
at the pre-teen prodigies' staid musical regimen and makes it his goal to
preach them the gospel of the Who, Led Zeppelin, and AC/DC — with the
ulterior motive of getting them to compete against his former band for a cash
prize. But no matter how willing his pupils, Dewey runs up against the
consternation of the school's stern headmistress Principal Mullins (Joan
Cusack), the battle-of-the-bands' promoter (Frank Whaley), and not least, his
identity-deprived roomie Ned. — Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
265 |
Scooby-Doo |
2002 |
86
mins |
|
The
long-running cartoon from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera that began life in
1969 as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? becomes this live-action, tongue-in-cheek
comedy-adventure featuring a computer-generated version of the easily
frightened, mush-mouthed Great Dane. Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as Fred, the
blonde, confident, ascot-sporting leader of Mystery Inc., a ghost-busting
service that exposes phony supernatural phenomena as the work of shysters.
Working with Fred are: his rich, beautiful girlfriend, Daphne (Sarah Michelle
Gellar), who has a bad habit of getting kidnapped by villains; Velma (Linda
Cardellini), the real brains of the group who pines secretly for Fred;
cowardly slacker and dog's best friend Shaggy (Matthew Lillard); and the
snack-gobbling pet pooch Scooby. However, after solving its latest case
involving a beleaguered toy company owner (Pamela Anderson), the group
fractures over Fred's habit of grabbing credit for everyone's hard work,
despite the pleas of Shaggy and Scooby. Two years later, they are reunited at
Spooky Island, a theme park and teen spring break destination that owner
Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson) claims is plagued with ghosts. Suspicious
as usual of any claims involving the paranormal, the Mystery Inc. clan is
soon probing a scheme involving ancient rites, summoned spirits, and
brainwashed college students, forcing the group members to resolve their
differences and uncover the truth. Directed by Chris Columbus protégé Raja
Gosnell, Scooby-Doo features the voice of Scott Innes as the title character.
— Karl Williams |
|
|
|
103 |
Seabiscuit |
2003 |
140
mins |
|
For
his sophomore effort, director Gary Ross re-teams with Tobey Maguire and
William H. Macy, stars of his directorial debut Pleasantville, for this
depression-era sports drama about the legendary racehorse, Seabiscuit. Unlike
1949's fictionalized The Story of Seabiscuit starring Shirley Temple, this
version attempts to present a factual account of the story, which centers
around the three men who saw the famed horse to victory. Jeff Bridges stars
as Charles Howard, an entrepreneur who owns the unlikely racehorse. Howard
teams with partially blind boxer-turned-jockey Red Pollard (Maguire in his
first performance since annihilating the 2002 box-office in Spider-Man) and
horse trainer Tom Smith (Chris Cooper fresh off his best-supporting actor
Oscar for Adaptation). Together, the three work to help the famed horse to
several symbolic victories that helped to inspire a downtrodden 1930s
America. The supporting cast, headed by Macy, includes Elizabeth Banks
(Spider-Man) and real-life jockeys Gary Stevens and Chris McCarron. — Matthew
Tobey |
|
|
|
38 |
Secondhand Lions (New
Line Platinum Series) |
2003 |
109
mins |
|
In
this family-friendly comedy drama, Walter (Haley Joel Osment) is a shy and
bookish boy just short of his teens whose mother impulsively decides to leave
him for the summer with his eccentric grand-uncles, Hub (Robert Duvall) and
Garth (Michael Caine). Walter isn't especially happy about being left in the
middle of Texas with two old men, while Hub and Garth aren't too pleased to
be stuck minding a boy, especially one who isn't accustomed to hunting,
fishing, or firearms. When Walter starts hearing local gossip about his
uncles' wild and wooly pasts, he begins asking a few questions, and while Hub
and Garth don't enjoy having the boy poking into their pasts, as they start
telling tales of their youthful adventures, they find themselves itching for
some new adventures in their lives. Soon Walter is a semi-willing accomplice
as his elderly guardians rediscover the wild, impulsive spirit of youth.
Secondhand Lions was produced in part by the well-respected visual effects
house Digital Domain, who also helped create the imagery for the film's
flashback sequences. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
31 |
Shrek |
2001 |
89
mins |
|
In
this fully computer-animated fantasy from the creators of Antz, we follow the
travails of Shrek (Mike Myers), a green ogre who enjoys a life of solitude.
Living in a far away swamp, he is suddenly invaded by a hoard of fairy tale
characters, such as the Big Bad Wolf, the Three Little Pigs, and Three Blind
Mice, all refugees of their homes who have been shunned by the evil Lord
Farquaad (John Lithgow). They want to save their homes from ruin, and enlist
the help of Shrek, who is in the same situation. Shrek decides to offer Lord
Farquaad a deal; he will rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona (Cameron Diaz),
who is intended to be Farquaad's bride. Accompanying Shrek on his adventure
is the faithful but loquacious Donkey (Eddie Murphy), who has a penchant for
crooning pop songs. The two must face various obstacles in order to locate
the Princess, but they find their world challenged when she reveals a dark
secret that will affect the group. Shrek is based on the children's book by
William Steig, and features additional voice-work by Vincent Cassel, Cody
Cameron, and Kathleen Freeman. — Jason Clark |
|
|
|
32 |
Shrek 2 |
2004 |
93
mins |
|
The
cranky beast with a heart of gold returns to the big screen in this sequel to
the computer-animated smash hit Shrek. After massive green ogre Shrek (voice
of Mike Myers) and his new bride, Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz),
return from their honeymoon, they receive an invitation to visit Fiona's
parents, King Harold (voice of John Cleese) and Queen Lillian (voice of Julie
Andrews), who are the monarchs of The Land Far, Far Away. However, the king
and queen are more than a bit alarmed to discover their new son-in-law is a
monster the color of algae, and that their daughter's little problem with a
magical spell gone wrong has turned into a full-time skin condition. Certain
this isn't the sort of "happily ever after" they dreamed of for their
daughter, King Harold decides to take Shrek out of the picture and return
Fiona to her former beauty with the help of Prince Charming (voice of Rupert
Everett), the Fairy Godmother (voice of Jennifer Saunders), and ogre-slaying
feline Puss in Boots (voice of Antonio Banderas). Shrek 2 also features the
voice of Eddie Murphy returning as Donkey, as well as Larry King as an Ugly
Stepsister. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
99 |
Signs |
2002 |
106
mins |
|
Following
the smash hit The Sixth Sense (1999) and the under-performing follow-up
Unbreakable (2000), directing phenom M. Night Shyamalan returns to the summer
box office landscape that served as the backdrop for his cinematic
breakthrough. In Signs, another paranormal outing for the writer-director,
Shyamalan explores the eerie implications of a 500-foot crop circle that
mysteriously appears on the Bucks County, PA farm of reverend Graham Hess
(Mel Gibson). As Hess and his family (Joaquin Phoenix, Rory Culkin, Abigail
Breslin) try to take stock of what the sign means, and how its message
incorporates into their faith, they start to get the feeling they are not
alone in the fields behind their house. Shyamalan re-teams with producers
Frank Marshall, Sam Mercer and Kathleen Kennedy, and produces the project in
association with his Blinding Edge Pictures banner and Touchstone Pictures. —
Derek Armstrong |
|
|
|
152 |
Silverado |
1985 |
132
mins |
|
Lawrence
Kasdan's Silverado is a fond hark back to the all-star, big-budget westerns
of the 1950s and 1960s. The various plotlines converge at the town of
Silverado, held in thrall by crooked sheriff Brian Dennehy and his behemoth
"deputies." The four disparate heroes—Kevin Kline, Kevin Costner,
Scott Glenn and Danny Glover—prepare to do battle against Dennehy for
personal reasons ranging from mercenary to altruistic. Sidelines characters
include duplicitous, dandified gambler Jeff Goldblum, frontier widow Rosanna
Arquette and gimlet-eyed saloon owner Linda Hunt. The film is stolen
hands-down by Kevin Costner, playing an irresponsible young gunslinger who
never speaks when hootin' and hollerin' will do. A classic, High Noon-style
showdown caps this rousing retro western. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
54 |
Sling Blade |
1996 |
140
mins |
|
Sling
Blade was a remarkably accomplished debut as writer and director for Billy
Bob Thornton, who also delivered a striking performance as Karl Childers, a
mildly retarded man who spent most of his life in a mental institution. When
Karl was 12 years old, he discovered his mother making love with a man he'd
never seen before; he snapped and killed them both. Released from the
institution as a result of budget cuts, Karl says he has learned his lesson
and adds, "I reckon I got no reason to kill no one." Karl ends up
in a small town where he's befriended by Frank (Lucas Black), the son of a
widowed mother who sees the eccentric but open-hearted Karl as a kindred
spirit. Frank's mother, Linda (Natalie Canerday), also takes a liking to Karl
and lets him stay with them after he gets a job at a fix-it shop. However,
Karl also meets Doyle (Dwight Yoakam), Linda's boyfriend, a cruel,
narrow-minded drunk who tosses casual abuse at Frank, treats Linda like dirt,
and doesn't trust Karl. In addition to his own performance as Karl, Thornton
draws remarkable work from his entire cast, especially country star Yoakam as
the vicious coward Doyle and John Ritter as Linda's friend Vaughan, a
mild-mannered homosexual who owns the neighborhood dollar store. Robert
Duvall has a brief but memorable role as Karl's father, and musicians Col.
Bruce Hampton and Vic Chesnutt appear as Doyle's party guests. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
106 |
Space Cowboys |
2000 |
129
mins |
|
In
this adventure drama, four men passed over by the space program get one last
chance to be heroes and live out their dreams. Frank Corvin (Clint Eastwood),
Hawk Hawkins (Tommy Lee Jones), Jerry O'Neill (Donald Sutherland), and Tank
Sullivan (James Garner) were top pilots within an elite Air Force squadron
and on the fast track to becoming the first Americans in space in the early
1950s. However, when NASA was established, the pilots were cut out of the
loop; Corvin went on to become an aerospace engineer, Hawkins continued on as
a freelance pilot, O'Neill became an astrophysicist with a sideline in
designing roller coasters, and Sullivan took up preaching as a Baptist
minister. Years later, a Russian satellite's guidance system has started to
malfunction, and it is expected to crash into the Earth within a matter of
weeks. The system is identical to the one Corvin designed for Skylab, so NASA
head Bob Gerson (James Cromwell) asks Corvin to help him with the emergency
mission to repair the satellite. Corvin agrees under one condition — that he
be sent up to do the repairs himself, with Hawkins, O'Neill, and Sullivan as
his crew. Clint Eastwood directed Space Cowboys while also starring as Frank
Corvin; his supporting cast includes Marcia Gay Harden, Courtney B. Vance,
Loren Dean, and William Devane. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
15 |
Spider-Man |
2002 |
121
mins |
|
After
incorporating elements of comic book style and design into many of his films,
director Sam Raimi helms this straight-ahead, big-budget comic book
adaptation, which also marks acclaimed young actor Tobey Maguire's first dip
into live-action blockbuster filmmaking. Spider-Man follows the template of
the original Stan Lee/Steve Ditko source material, with hero Peter Parker an
orphaned, intellectual teen loner living in Queens with his aunt (Rosemary
Harris) and uncle (Cliff Robertson), and dreaming of the girl next door, Mary
Jane (Kirsten Dunst). On a field trip to a Columbia University lab, Peter is
bitten by a genetically altered spider and overnight he gains superhuman
strength, agility, and perception. At first, Peter uses his powers for
material gain, winning a wrestling match with a purportedly lucrative prize.
But when Peter apathetically fails to stop a burglar from robbing the
wrestling arena, a tragedy follows that compels him to devote his powers to
fighting crime — as the superhero Spider-Man. When he's not busy fighting
crime in a spider suit, Peter moves into an apartment with his best friend,
Harry (James Franco), and begins work as a photographer at the Daily Bugle.
Meanwhile, his do-gooder alter ego finds a nemesis in the form of the Green
Goblin (Willem Dafoe), a super-powered, megalomaniacal villain who happens to
be the alter ego of the Harry's father, weapons-manufacturing mogul Norman
Osborn. Spider-Man was written by the prolific blockbuster scribe David Koepp
(Jurassic Park, Panic Room). — Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
16 |
Spider-Man 2 |
2004 |
124
mins |
|
Stan
Lee's all-too-human superhero returns to the screen in this highly
anticipated sequel to 2002's blockbuster hit Spider-Man. Peter Parker (Tobey
Maguire) is attempting to juggle college classes and his job as a
photographer with the Daily Bugle while maintaining his secret life as
costumed crime-fighter Spider-Man. Parker is also struggling to hold on to
his relationship with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), who is beginning to
enjoy success as a model and actress, and both Mary Jane and Peter have noticed
he's beginning to buckle under the strain. Parker's friendship with Harry
Osborne (James Franco) is also beginning to fray due to Peter's seeming
alliance with Spider-Man, whom Harry blames for the death of his father, the
nefarious Norman Osborne. As Parker weighs his responsibilities to himself
and those around him against the obligations that come with his special
powers, Spider-Man is faced with a new nemesis — Dr. Otto Octavius (Alfred
Molina), a deranged scientist whose latest project has turned him into the
near-invincible cyborg Doctor Octopus. Spider-Man 2 was directed by Sam
Raimi, who helmed the first film, and much of the original cast has also
reunited for this sequel, including Rosemary Harris, J.K. Simmons, and Bruce
Campbell. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
181 |
SpongeBob SquarePants |
2000 |
26
mins |
|
|
|
|
|
91 |
Spy Game |
2001 |
127
mins |
|
Brad
Pitt is reunited as a co-star with his A River Runs Through It (1992)
director Robert Redford for this espionage thriller from Tony Scott. On the
verge of retirement from the Central Intelligence Agency, veteran spy Nathan
Muir (Redford) learns that his one-time protégé Tom Bishop (Pitt) has gone
rogue and been taken prisoner in Beijing after attempting to smuggle a
prisoner out of China. Although Muir and Bishop had once been close friends,
sharing adventures from Vietnam to Berlin, bad blood and resentment developed
between them, and the two men haven't seen each other in years. As his
memories of their friendship come flooding back, Muir agrees to take the most
dangerous mission of his career — the rescue of his old friend from a
Communist jail. Spy Game (2001) co-stars Catherine McCormack as a human
rights activist and Bishop's love interest. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
266 |
Spy Kids 2 |
2002 |
99
mins |
|
The
prepubescent, globetrotting, super-spy sibling duo from director Robert
Rodriguez's surprise 2001 hit Spy Kids is back to save the world for a second
time in this bigger-budget, larger-scale sequel. Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost
Dreams opens with our heroes Carmen and Juni (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara),
now official OSS agents, in the midst of another crisis situation: They have
to reclaim to the powerful Transmooker Device from the clutches of those who
might try to use it to permanently disable energy on Earth. Their quest leads
them to the tropical lair of Romero (Steve Buscemi), an unhinged scientist
who retreated into seclusion after a daring experiment backfired on him — as
well as on a whole breed of mutant creatures. As if finding the Transmooker
weren't enough, Carmen and Juni have to contend with another set of
mini-spies, Gary and Gerti Giggles (Matt O'Leary and Emily Osment), who are
eager to one-up the world's most-respected spy kids. Returning to Spy Kids 2
are parents Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, as well as the evil-doers of
the first film, Alan Cummings and Tony Shalhoub. — Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
108 |
Star Trek - Nemesis |
2002 |
117
mins |
|
The
tenth film in Paramount's highly lucrative sci-fi franchise is also
positioned as the last for the entire original Next Generation crew. En route
to the honeymoon of William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) to Deanna Troi (Marina
Sirtis) on her home planet of Betazed, Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick
Stewart) and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise receive energy readings
identical to those uniquely emitted by the positronic brain of android crew
member Data (Brent Spiner). Upon investigation, they discover the
disassembled parts of an identical android named B4, an early prototype of
Data himself, now scattered on the surface of a remote world. As they
reassemble B4, the crew receives word from Starfleet that a coup has resulted
in the installation of a new Romulan political leader, Shinzon (Tom Hardy),
who claims to seek détente with the human-backed United Federation of
Planets. As commander of the closest starship to Romulus, Picard is ordered
there to negotiate with Shinzon. Once in enemy territory, the captain and his
crew make a startling discovery: Shinzon is human, a slave from the Romulan
sister planet of Remus (the residents of which are vampire-like creatures
that dwell on the perpetually dark side of their home world), and has a
secret, shocking relationship to Picard himself. It soon becomes clear that
Shinzon has lured the Enterprise to Romulus using B4 as bait and that his
sinister ulterior motives include the destruction of Earth. A vicious battle
between the Enterprise and Shinzon's powerful warship ensues, resulting in
heartbreaking heroics and a devastating casualty. Star Trek: Nemesis was
written by long-time Trek fan and Oscar-nominated screenwriter John Logan.
Regular cast members Michael Dorn, LeVar Burton, Gates McFadden, and Whoopi Goldberg
co-star with Ron Perlman, Dina Meyer, and Steven Culp. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
215 |
Star Wars: Episode II -
Attack of the Clones |
2002 |
143
mins |
|
The
second prequel to the original Star Wars trilogy takes place ten years after
the events depicted in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Now 20, young
Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) is an apprentice to respected Jedi
Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Unusually powerful in the Force,
Anakin is also impatient, arrogant, and headstrong, causing his mentor a
great deal of concern. The pair are ordered to protect Padme Amidala (Natalie
Portman), the former queen of the planet Naboo, now representing her world in
the Galactic Senate. Someone is trying to assassinate her on the eve of a
vote enabling Supreme Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) to build a
military force that will safeguard against a growing separatist movement led
by mysterious former Jedi Count Dooku (Christopher Lee). After another attempt
on Padme's life, Obi-Wan and Anakin separate. The young Jedi and Padme fall
in love as he escorts her first to the security of Naboo and then to his home
world of Tatooine, where the fate of his mother leads him to commit an
ominous atrocity. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan travels to the secretive planet Kamino
and the asteroid-ringed world of Geonosis, following bounty hunter Jango Fett
(Temuera Morrison) and his son, Boba (Daniel Logan), who are involved in an
operation to create a massive army of clones. A vicious battle ensues between
the clones and Jedi on one side and Dooku's droids on the other, but who is
really pulling the strings in this galactic conflict? Star Wars Episode II:
Attack of the Clones marks the first major motion picture to be filmed
entirely in digital video, with director George Lucas using cameras modified
for him by the manufacturer. In late 2002, the movie was released in IMAX
theaters as "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones: The IMAX
Experience," with a pared-down running time of 120 minutes in order to
meet the technical requirements of the large-screen format. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
254 |
Stuart Little 2 |
2002 |
77
mins |
|
This
sequel to a family hit based on the popular children's book by E.B. White
again mixes live action actors with computer-animated cartoon characters.
Michael J. Fox returns as the voice of Stuart Little, a three-inch tall
talking mouse adopted by a human family in New York City. When his older
"brother", George (Jonathan Lipnicki), starts spending more time
with his other friends, playing games that Mom (Geena Davis) feels are too
dangerous for the diminutive Stuart, the lonely fellow goes in search of companionship
and finds it when he makes the acquaintance of Margalo (voice of Melanie
Griffith), a tiny bird wounded by a sinister falcon (voice of James Woods)
that is relentlessly pursuing her. While Margalo's busted wing heals up the
Littles' house, Stuart grows closer to her and falls in love, but his new pal
is hiding a secret that involves the villainous falcon and jewelry theft. In
order to save his friend and their friendship, Stuart must call upon the
assistance of the dreaded Snowbell (voice of Nathan Lane), the Little family
cat with a Catskills comic delivery and no great love of Stuart. — Karl
Williams |
|
|
|
264 |
Tarzan and the Lost
City |
1998 |
84
mins |
|
Carl
Schenkel directed this Tarzan film "based on the stories by Edgar Rice
Burroughs." In England of 1913, Tarzan (Casper Van Dien) is due to marry
Jane (Jane March), but he suddenly chooses to return to the jungle to prevent
villainous explorer Nigel Ravens (Steve Waddington) from burning and killing
in his quest for the lost city of Opar. Jane's pursuit of the vine-swinging
Lord of the Apes forces her to confront snakes and other jungle perils. The
film's inane dialogue is heard amid magnificent South African locations. —
Bhob Stewart |
|
|
|
22 |
Terminator |
1984 |
108
mins |
|
Endlessly
imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James
Cameron — who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic — and solidified the
stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic
2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the
thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member
of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to
rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the
21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated
before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator
(Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructable cyborg who has
been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah
Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his
gunsights at the genuine article. This is the film in which Schwarzenegger
declared "I'll be baaaack" — and back he was, in "kinder and
gentler" form, in the even more successful Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(1991). — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
23 |
Terminator 2 |
1991 |
139
mins |
|
A
sequel to the low-budget science fiction action thriller that made him and
star Arnold Schwarzenegger A-list Hollywood names, writer-director James
Cameron upped the ante with this follow-up by employing a more sweeping storyline
and cutting-edge special effects. Linda Hamilton returns as Sarah Connor, now
a single mother to rebellious teen John Connor (Edward Furlong). Having been
informed by a time-traveling soldier in the first film that John will one day
grow up to become humanity's savior from a computer-controlled Armageddon,
Sarah has responded by becoming a muscle-bound she-warrior bent on educating
John in survival tactics and battle strategies. Her ranting about mankind's
future has landed Sarah in an insane asylum and John in the foster care
system. The rebellious John has responded to his situation by getting into
scrapes with the law. When a new and improved Terminator android called the
T-1000 (Robert Patrick) arrives from the future to eliminate John, an older model
T-800 (Schwarzenegger) is sent to protect the boy. The T-1000, however, has
the ability to morph itself into any shape it desires, allowing it
chameleon-like powers and near indestructibility. The T-800 saves John's life
and helps breaks Sarah out of the institution. Staying only one step ahead of
the dogged T-1000, Sarah leads her son and the T-800 to the headquarters of
Cyberdyne Systems, the company that will invent a robotic intelligence that
will eventually take over the world. There, they attempt to convince inventor
Miles Dyson (Joe Morton) to help them stop the future from ever occurring by
destroying his work. Dyson sacrifices himself in an explosion to save the
world, leading to a final showdown between the two Terminators at a steel
foundry. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), which won four Oscars in
technical categories for its groundbreaking effects, was followed by a short
sequel filmed exclusively as an attraction for theme parks, Terminator 2: 3D
Battle Across Time (1996). — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
24 |
Terminator 3 |
2003 |
110
mins |
|
The
second sequel to the 1984 sci-fi action classic, Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines is the first film without the involvement of director James Cameron.
Instead, Jonathan Mostow, the man behind Breakdown and U-571, has stepped in
to fill the shoes left vacant by Cameron. In addition, the role of John
Connor from the second film has been recast, with In the Bedroom's Nick Stahl
taking over for Edward Furlong. Set ten years after the events of 1991's
Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the film finds Connor living on the streets as a
common laborer. Sarah Connor, his mother, has since died, and their efforts
in the second film have not stopped the creation of SkyNet artificial
intelligence network. As he will still become the leader of the human
resistance, Connor is once again targeted by a Terminator sent from the
future by SkyNet. This new Terminator, T-X (Kristanna Loken), is a female and
is more powerful than any of her predecessors. To protect Connor, the human
resistance sends a new T-101 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) back from the future.
Also starring Claire Danes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines had its world
premiere when it showed out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
— Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
100 |
The Abyss |
1989 |
140
mins |
|
The
crew of an experimental, high-tech submersible is called into action to
investigate a mysterious nuclear submarine crash. A series of strange
encounters leads the crew to suspect the accident was caused by an
extraterrestrial craft, and that they may be participating in an encounter
with an alien species. However, in order to make contact, they must not only
brave the abyss, an exceedingly deep underwater canyon, but also deal with
the violent actions of one of their own crew members, an increasingly paranoid
Navy SEAL officer. Approved by director James Cameron, The Abyss: Special
Edition is an extended director's cut of the 1989 underwater science fiction
epic, reinstating nearly a half hour of footage removed from the original
release under studio pressure. Much of the restored footage places the film's
events in a grander political context, as the crew's mission becomes a factor
in the dangerous escalation of nuclear tension between the U.S. and the
Soviet Union. The largest change involves the film's ending, which provides
further information on the aliens' mission on Earth, bringing the film to
closer to Cameron's intention: a modern remake of Robert Wise's The Day the
Earth Stood Still. — Judd Blaise |
|
|
|
39 |
The Day After Tomorrow
(Widescreen Edition) |
2004 |
123
mins |
|
Directed
by Roland Emmerich, this mega-budget, special-effects-laden epic revolves
around the onset of an international series of crises brought on by the
long-term results of the greenhouse effect. At the eye of the storm is
paleoclimatologist (a professor dedicated to the study of weather patterns
throughout the ages) Professor Adrian Hall (Dennis Quaid), who voluntarily
takes on the preservation of the world in the dawn of the next ice age and
all the disaster that comes along with it — violent hurricanes, tornadoes,
earthquakes, tidal waves, massive floods, etc. Hall must also contact his
son, Sam (Jake Gyllenhaal), who was in the middle of an academic competition
in New York City when the chaos begun. In addition to facing the
largest-scale onslaught of natural catastrophes in the history of humankind,
Professor Hall, in his journey north, must contend with the masses fleeing
south in an attempt to resettle in a warmer climate. The Day After Tomorrow
also features Emmy Rossum, Sela Ward, and Joe Cobden. — Tracie Cooper |
|
|
|
81 |
The Family Man |
2000 |
125
mins |
|
In
this whimsical romantic comedy that recalls It's a Wonderful Life, Nicolas
Cage plays Jack Campbell, a workaholic bachelor who gets to see what his life
might have been like had he stayed with his old sweetheart, Kate (Tea Leoni).
Thirteen years before, Jack accepted a brokerage internship that marred his
relationship with Kate, under the promise that they would only be separated
one year. But much later, Jack has become an urban Wall Street exec with no
wife or family of his own, and a mysterious proxy (Don Cheadle) offers him
the opportunity to step into the life he left behind. After falling asleep in
his posh New York apartment, Jack awakens to find himself in bed with his
now-wife Kate, daughter Annie (Makenzie Vega), and a new baby, none of which
he has ever experienced in his fast-paced single life. After discovering his
"real" life has been eliminated, he begrudgingly tries to fit in
with his newly appointed life as a family man. The Family Man also stars Saul
Rubinek and Jeremy Piven. — Jason Clark |
|
|
|
102 |
The Green Mile |
1999 |
187
mins |
|
Director
Frank Darabont, who made an acclaimed feature film debut with The Shawshank
Redemption (1994), based on a Stephen King novel set in a prison, returns for
a second feature, based on King's 1996 serialized novel set in a prison. In
1935, inmates at the Cold Mountain Correctional Facility call Death Row
"The Green Mile" because of the dark green linoleum that tiles the
floor. Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) is the head guard on the Green Mile when a
new inmate is brought into his custody: John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan),
convicted of the sadistic murder of two young girls. Despite his size and the
fearsome crimes for which he's serving time, Coffey seems to be a kind and
well-mannered person who behaves more like an innocent child than a hardened
criminal. Soon Edgecomb and two of his fellow guards, Howell (David Morse)
and Stanton Barry Pepper), notice something odd about Coffey: he's able to
perform what seem to be miracles of healing among his fellow inmates, leading
them to wonder just what sort of person he could be, and if he could have
committed the crimes with which he was charged. The Green Mile also stars
James Cromwell as the warden; Michael Jeter, Sam Rockwell, and Graham Greene
as inmates awaiting dates with the electric chair; and Harry Dean Stanton as
a clever trustee. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
58 |
The Hurricane |
1999 |
146
mins |
|
In
1966, Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was a top-ranked middleweight boxer
whom many fight fans expected to become world champion. When three people
were shot to death in a bar in Paterson, New Jersey, Carter and his friend
John Artis, driving home from another club in Paterson, were stopped and
questioned by police. Although the police asserted that Carter and Artis
"were never suspects," a man named Alfred Bello, himself a suspect
in the killings, claimed that Carter and Artis were present at the time of
the murders. On the basis of Bello's testimony, Carter and Artis were
convicted of murder, and Carter was given three consecutive life sentences.
Throughout the trial, Carter proclaimed his innocence, saying that his
African-American race and work as a civil rights activist were the real
reasons for his conviction. In 1974, Bello and Arthur Bradley, who also
claimed that Carter was present at the scene of the crimes, recanted their
testimony, but Carter and Artis were reconvicted. In the early 1980s,
Brooklyn teenager Lesra Martin worked with a trio of Canadian activists to
push the State of New Jersey to reinvestigate Carter's case; in 1985, a
Federal District Court ruled that the prosecution in Carter's second trial
committed "grave constitutional violations" and that his conviction
was based on racism rather than facts. Carter was finally freed, and he
summed up his story by saying, "Hate got me into this place, love got me
out." The Hurricane is based on Carter's incredible true story and stars
Denzel Washington as Carter, Vicellous Shannon as Lesra Martin, and John
Hannah, Liev Schreiber and Deborah Unger as the Canadian activists. Veteran
filmmaker Norman Jewison directed. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
267 |
The Iron Giant |
1999 |
86
mins |
|
A
boy's best friend is his robot in this animated adventure from Brad Bird,
best known for his TV work on such series as The Simpsons, King of the Hill,
and The Critic. Set in 1957, The Iron Giant focuses on Hogarth (voice of Eli
Marienthal), an imaginative nine-year-old boy who daydreams of alien
invasions and doing battle with Communist agents. One day, Hogarth hears a
local fisherman talk about something that surpasses anything he could dream
up: a fifty-foot robot that fell from the sky into a nearby lake. Needless to
say, Hogarth's mom, Annie (voice of Jennifer Aniston) finds this a little
hard to swallow, but when Hogarth finds the robot (voice of Vin Diesel) and
fishes him out of the water, his pal Dean (voice of Harry Connick Jr.), a
beatnik sculptor who also runs a junkyard, offers to help by hiding the robot
with his salvage. A government agent named Kent Mansley (voice of Christopher
McDonald) soon gets wind that there's a mechanical invader of unknown origins
in the neighborhood and wants to wipe out the potential threat. However, the
robot (which loves to eat metal and is learning to talk) turns out to be
friendly, and the boy in turn tries to teach his new pal the ways of humans.
The Iron Giant is loosely based on the book The Iron Man by late British poet
Ted Hughes, previously adapted for the stage by rock musician Pete Townshend,
who executive produced the film. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
35 |
The Lord of the Rings |
2002 |
179
mins |
|
The
second film in Peter Jackson's series of screen adaptations of J.R.R.
Tolkien's internationally popular Lord of The Rings trilogy, The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers literally begins where The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring ended, with the Fellowship splitting into three groups
as they seek to return the Ring to Mordor, the forbidding land where the
powerful talisman must be taken to be destroyed. Frodo (Elijah Wood), who
carries the Ring, and his fellow Hobbit Sam (Sean Astin) are lost in the
hills of Emyn Muil when they encounter Gollum (Andy Serkis), a strange
creature who once carried the Ring and was twisted by its power. Gollum
volunteers to guide the pair to Mordor; Frodo agrees, but Sam does not trust
their new acquaintance. Elsewhere, Merry (Dominic Monaghan) and Pippin (Billy
Boyd) are attempting to navigate Fangorn Forrest where they discover a most
unusual nemesis — Treebeard (voice of John Rhys-Davies), a walking and
talking tree-shepherd who doesn't much care for Hobbits. Finally, Aragorn
(Viggo Mortensen), Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and Legolas (Orlando Bloom)
arrive in Rohan to discover that the evil powers of Saruman (Christopher Lee)
have robbed King Theoden (Bernard Hill) of his rule. The King's niece Éowyn
(Miranda Otto) believes Aragorn and his men have the strength to defeat
Saruman, his henchman Wormtongue (Brad Dourif), and their minions. Éowyn soon
becomes infatuated with Aragorn, while he struggles to stay faithful to the
pledge of love he made to Arwen (Liv Tyler). Gandalf (Ian McKellen) offers
his help and encouragement as the Rohans, under Aragorn's leadership, attempt
to face down Saruman's armies, but they soon discover how great the task
before them truly is when they learn that his troops consist of 10,000 bloodthirsty
creatures specially bred to fight to the death. Most of The Lord of the
Rings: The Two Towers was shot in tandem with The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
during a marathon 18-month shooting schedule, overseen by Peter Jackson. —
Mark Deming |
|
|
|
36 |
The Lord of the Rings -
The Fellowship of the Ring (Widescreen Edition) |
2001 |
|
|
As
the triumphant start of a trilogy, <I>The Lord of the Rings: The
Fellowship of the Ring</I> leaves you begging for more. By necessity,
Peter Jackson's ambitious epic compresses J.R.R. Tolkien's classic
<I>The Lord of the Rings</I>, but this robust adaptation
maintains reverent allegiance to Tolkien's creation, instantly qualifying as
one of the greatest fantasy films ever made. At 178 minutes, it's long enough
to establish the myriad inhabitants of Middle-earth, the legendary Rings of
Power, and the fellowship of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and humans--led by the
wizard Gandalf (Ian McKellen) and the brave hobbit Frodo (Elijah Wood)--who
must battle terrifying forces of evil on their perilous journey to destroy
the One Ring in the land of Mordor. Superbly paced, the film is both epic and
intimate, offering astonishing special effects and production design while
emphasizing the emotional intensity of Frodo's adventure. Ending on a perfect
note of heroic loyalty and rich anticipation, this wondrous fantasy continues
in <I>The Two Towers</I> (2002). <I>--Jeff
Shannon</I> |
|
|
|
37 |
The Lord of the Rings:
The Return of the King |
2003 |
200
mins |
|
The
Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King brings Peter Jackson's mammoth
adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's classic to a close in suitably epic fashion.
Instead of starting just where the previous film left off, however, it goes
far back in time to the moment the tormented creature Gollum first came to
possess the One Ring. In this flashback, actor Andy Serkis (who voiced Gollum
and performed his movements onset prior to the final CGI effects) finally
gets to appear onscreen, portraying Gollum's former self, Sméagol. This
disturbing scene serves as a potent reminder that the Ring seeks to corrupt
even the well-intentioned Frodo (Elijah Wood), who is increasingly struggling
with the dark power of the Ring himself. Thus, the film returns to the
present, following Frodo, Sam (Sean Astin), and Gollum as they journey ever
closer to the foreboding land of Mordor. They pass by the terrifying dark
city of Minas Morgul, watching as the dreadful army of the Witch King sets
out for the human strongholds in Gondor, and move on to the rocky stairs to
Cirith Ungol, where an even darker enemy lies in wait. Meanwhile, the rest of
the Fellowship reunites in Rohan, having defeated the wizard Saruman on two
different fronts, at Helm's Deep and Isengard. They are not together for
long, though, since the hobbit Pippin (Billy Boyd) gets into trouble, making
it necessary for him and Gandalf (Ian McKellan) to hastily depart for Minas
Tirith, capital of Gondor. Once there, they find the steward of Gondor,
Denethor (John Noble), in an unstable mental state and the city preparing for
battle against the amassing forces of Sauron. Denethor unwisely sends his
only remaining son, Faramir (David Wenham), back into bloody battle to prove
himself. He returns nearly dead, sending Denethor over the edge of sanity.In
another realm, elf Arwen (Liv Tyler) begins her journey to immortal life in
the Grey Havens, on her way to leave Middle-earth — and Aragorn (Viggo
Mortensen) — forever, but has a vision that causes her to once again
reconsider her decision. Back in Rohan, the men are preparing to ride to
Gondor's aide. Éowyn (Miranda Otto) desperately wants to join the men in
battle, but her uncle, King Théoden (Bernard Hill), orders her to stay and
defend Rohan if necessary. The hobbit Merry (Dominic Monaghan) also desires
to ride with the men, but is denied due to his small size and inexperience.
Aragorn is met there by the elf Elrond (Hugo Weaving), who brings him the
re-forged Sword that was Broken (in the ancient battle with Sauron) and urges
him to take a different route to Gondor. Heeding Elrond's advice, Aragorn,
along with elf Legolas (Orlando Bloom) and dwarf Gimli (John Rhys-Davies),
takes a cavernous path through the mountains, where they meet ghoulish ghosts
who betrayed Aragorn's ancestors and are doomed to eternal unrest unless they
fulfill their broken oaths by aiding him. All but Frodo, Sam, and Gollum will
meet on the massive battlefield of the Pelennor before the gates of Minas
Tirith. The former three instead engage in a battle of wills between each
other and the One Ring as they head toward the fires of Mount Doom to destroy
it. Released in December 2003, The Return of the King topped even its
massively successful trilogy predecessors at the box office, and went on to
garner a whopping 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture — winning in all
the categories in which it was nominated and tying the record of total awards
won with Ben-Hur and Titanic. — Dana Rowader |
|
|
|
59 |
The Mexican |
2001 |
123
mins |
|
A
clumsy criminal is put in a position where he not only has to save his own
skin, but that of his girlfriend in this comedy with strong undercurrents of
romance. Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) is a low-level Mafia "mechanic"
whose ineptitude is countered by frequent (but unpredictable) bursts of dumb
luck. Jerry's girlfriend Samantha (Julia Roberts) wants him to get out of the
business, and after his latest blunder lands capo Arnold Margolese (Gene
Hackman) in jail, so does mid-level crime kingpin Bernie Nayman (Bob
Balaban). But Bernie insists that Jerry do one last errand for the mob before
they let him find employment elsewhere — he has to go to Mexico and recover a
rare and very valuable pistol, which is said to be cursed. While Samantha
objects to Jerry taking the assignment, he isn't in much of a position to
argue; Jerry heads south of the border, while Samantha, in a huff, sets out
for Las Vegas. Once in Mexico, Jerry finds the pistol easily enough, but
making his way back to the States proves to be an unexpected challenge.
Meanwhile, Jerry's superiors want insurance that he'll return with the goods,
so they hire Leroy (James Gandolfini), a hitman, to kidnap Samantha and hold
her hostage until Jerry comes back. However, Samantha and Leroy quickly
strike up a friendship, and she soon learns the gunman has a sensitive side he
doesn't show to the world — along with a few other secrets. The Mexican
marked the first screen pairing for mega-stars Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt —
though, given the film's narrative arc, they play only a handful of scenes
together. The film was directed by Gore Verbinski, who won awards for his
work in commercials before breaking through with the quirky family comedy
Mouse Hunt. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
205 |
The Mummy Returns |
2001 |
129
mins |
|
This
big-budget sequel from writer/director Stephen Sommers navigates much of the
same cliffhanger territory as George Lucas and Steven Spielberg's Indiana
Jones franchise. It is 1933, eight years after the events of The Mummy
(1999). Legionnaire Rick O'Connell Brendan Fraser has married his
Egyptologist girlfriend Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) and the couple has
settled in London, where they're raising their young son Alex (Freddie
Boath). The family's domestic tranquility is shattered when the
3,000-year-old mummified corpse of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), which has been
shipped to the British Museum, is resurrected once again to resume his evil
quest for immortality. In the meantime, another ancient threat emerges in the
form of the Scorpion King (professional wrestler Dwayne Johnson, aka. the
Rock), a mighty warrior frozen in time with his supernatural army. In order
to save his family, Rick is forced to seek a mythical pyramid of gold, facing
marauding bands of pygmy skeletons, among other hazards. The Mummy Returns
co-stars John Hannah, Oded Fehr, and Patricia Velasquez. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
95 |
The Patriot |
2000 |
165
mins |
|
Roland
Emmerich and Dean Devlin, the director/producer team responsible for such
sci-fi blockbusters as Independence Day, Stargate, and Godzilla, take a step
back in time with this drama set during the American Revolution. Farmer
Benjamin Martin (Mel Gibson) was born and raised in South Carolina, and
fought bravely during the French-Indian wars. But since the death of his
wife, Benjamin has renounced violence and quietly tends his crops, raising
his seven children alone. In 1776, over Benjamin's objections, his oldest son
Gabriel (Heath Ledger) joins the fight against the British. Gabriel returns
from battle seriously wounded, with Lord General Cornwallis (Tom Wilkinson)
calling for his arrest. A skirmish breaks out on Benjamin's plantation, and
one of his children is killed as Gabriel is captured by Col. Tavington (Jason
Isaacs) and sentenced to hang. Benjamin sets aside his vow of pacifism and
rescues Gabriel; with the help of his former comrade-in-arms Harry Burwell
(Chris Cooper), the father and son form a regiment of Carolina patriots whose
cunning and ruthlessness make them heroes among the colonists — and wanted
men by British troops. Loosely adapted from the true story of Francis Marion
and filmed on location in South Carolina, The Patriot was the first feature
film made with the cooperation of the Smithsonian Institute, who advised the
producers on historical accuracy. Joely Richardson also stars as Charlotte,
Benjamin's sister-in-law who helps him care for the children. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
96 |
The Perfect Storm |
2000 |
129
mins |
|
In
October 1991, a dying tropical hurricane from Bermuda collided with a cold
front from the Great Lakes, resulting in a "perfect storm" of
previously unknown destructive impact that resulted in 100-foot waves;
tragically, the crew of a fishing boat was lost in the midst of the fearsome
storm. Based on the best-selling book by Sebastian Junger, The Perfect Storm
tells the story of the ship's brave and hard-working crew. Billy Tyne (George
Clooney), captain of the Andrea Gail, hasn't had much luck finding catch on
his most recent trips to sea, and with money short, he and his crew — Bob
Shatford (Mark Wahlberg), Dale Murphy (John C. Reilly), and David Sullivan
(William Fichtner) set out again when they hear that the fish are running.
Billy's hunch proves correct, but when the ship's refrigeration system goes
haywire, they have to return to shore as quickly as possible before the fish
spoil, sending them into the middle of the worst storm in history. The
supporting cast includes Mary Elziabeth Mastrantonio, Diane Lane, Bob Gunton,
and Karen Allen; Wolfgang Petersen, whose breakthrough film was the aquatic
wartime drama Das Boot, directed. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
98 |
The Ring |
2002 |
109
mins |
|
A
disturbing videotape appears to hold the power of life and death over those
who view it in this offbeat thriller. A strange videotape begins making the
rounds in a town in the Pacific Northwest; it is full of bizarre and haunting
images, and after watching it, many viewers receive a telephone call in which
they are warned they will die in seven days. A handful of teenagers who
watched the tape while spending a weekend at a cabin in the mountains scoff
at the threat, but as predicted, they all die suddenly on the same night.
Rachel Keller (Naomi Watts), the aunt of one of the ill-fated teens, is a
journalist who has decided to investigate the matter and travels West with
her young son, Aidan (David Dorfman), a troubled child who has been drawing
pictures of strange and ominous visions. Rachel managed to find the cabin in
the woods and watches the video herself; afterward, she receives the same
phone call, and realizes she must solve the puzzle of the video and the
person or persons behind it within a week. Rachel turns to her ex, Noah
(Martin Henderson), an expert in video technology, who at first is convinced
the story is a hoax until he digs deeper into the mystery. The Ring was
adapted from a 1996 Japanese film by Hideo Nakata, which became a massive
box-office success in Asia and spawned two sequels. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
97 |
The Sixth Sense |
1999 |
105
mins |
|
In
this tense tale of psychological terror, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is
a child psychologist whose new patient has a problem far outside his usual
area of expertise. Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) is six-years-old and claims
to see the spirits of dead people all around him. It seems that Cole has
psychic powers and can channel the ghosts of those who were troubled. Cole
doesn't understand his powers, and he has little control over them; he's
constantly terrified by what he sees, and Dr. Crowe is the only one with whom
he feels he can share this secret. However, as the doctor digs deeper into
Cole's strange powers, it leads to strange and unexpected consequences for
both of them. M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed the film, has a
small role as Dr. Hill. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
71 |
The Sum of All Fears |
2002 |
118
mins |
|
The
successful franchise of Paramount motion pictures based on novelist Tom
Clancy's techno-thrillers featuring heroic CIA intelligence analyst Jack Ryan
stages a much-publicized "do-over" with this action-adventure that
recasts the character of Ryan as a rookie to the complex game of geopolitical
warfare. Ben Affleck takes the reins from Harrison Ford as Ryan, a greenhorn
CIA historian and analyst who finds himself thrust front and center into the
spy community's spotlight when Nemerov (Ciaran Hinds), a Russian politician
on whom Ryan is an expert, suddenly becomes the leader of the former Soviet
Union upon the current president's unexpected demise. Attached to the
director of the CIA, Cabot (Morgan Freeman), Ryan insists — contrary to the
opinions of many high-ranking White House officials — that Nemerov is not a
warmonger. Meanwhile, a cadre of neo-fascists, led by Dressler (Alan Bates),
plots the detonation at the Super Bowl in Baltimore, MD, of a nuclear device
recovered from a long-ago Israeli fighter jet crash, a terrorist incident
they intend to spark a war between the super powers, leaving them to conquer
the world in the conflict's post-apocalyptic vacuum. The Sum of All Fears
co-stars James Cromwell, Bridget Moynahan, and Liev Schreiber as covert
operative John Clark, a character central to another series of Clancy's
best-selling tomes. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
225 |
The Thin Man |
1934 |
90
mins |
|
Filmed
on what MGM considered a B-picture budget and schedule (14 days, which at
Universal or Columbia would have been considered extravagant) The Thin Man
proved to be "sleeper," spawning a popular film, radio and
television series. Contrary to popular belief, the title does not refer to
star William Powell, but to Edward Ellis, playing the mean-spirited inventor
who sets the plot in motion. The recently divorced Ellis discovers that his
new girl friend (Natalie Moorhead) has stolen $50,000 and is carrying on with
other men. Not long afterward, he disappears. Anxious to locate her father,
Ellis' daughter Maureen O'Sullivan goes to private detective Nick Charles
(William Powell) for help. Having just married the lovely and wealthy Nora
(Myrna Loy), Nick has no desire to return to sleuthing, but the
thrill-seeking Nora eagerly talks him into taking O'Sullivan's case. Shortly
thereafter, Ellis' lady friend is murdered; so far as police detective Nat
Pendleton is concerned, the still-missing Ellis is the guilty party. Nick is
unsatisfied with this deduction, and with the help of his wire terrier Asta
he manages to uncover several vital clues—including a decomposed corpse. At a
fancy dinner party, between cocktails and the first course, Nick solves the
mystery and exposes a hidden murderer. The story itself, lifted almost
verbatim by scenarists Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from the Dashiell
Hammett novel on which The Thin Man is based, hardly matters. The film's
strong suit is the witty repartee between Nick and Nora Charles, who managed
to behave like saucily illicit lovers throughout the film even though they're
married. The chemistry between William Powell and Myrna Loy would be adroitly
exploited by MGM in several subsequent films, including five additional Thin
Man mysteries produced between 1936 and 1948. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
75 |
The Usual Suspects |
1995 |
105
mins |
|
Near
the end of The Usual Suspects, Kevin Spacey, in his Oscar-winning performance
as crippled con man Roger "Verbal" Kint, says, "The greatest
trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
This may be the key line in this story; the farther along the movie goes, the
more one realizes that not everything is quite what it seems, and what began
as a conventional whodunit turns into something quite different. A massive
explosion rips through a ship in a San Pedro, CA, harbor, leaving 27 men
dead, the lone survivor horribly burned, and 91 million dollars' worth of
cocaine, believed to be on board, mysteriously missing. Police detective Dave
Kujan (Chazz Palminteri) soon brings in the only witness and key suspect,
"Verbal" Kint. Kint's nickname stems from his inability to keep his
mouth shut, and he recounts the events that led to the disaster. Five days
earlier, a truckload of gun parts was hijacked in Queens, NY, and five men
were brought in as suspects: Kint, hot-headed hipster thief McManus (Stephen
Baldwin), ill-tempered thug Hockney (Kevin Pollak), flashy wise guy Fenster
(Benicio Del Toro), and Keaton (Gabriel Byrne), a cop gone bad now trying to
go straight in the restaurant business. While in stir, someone suggests that
they should pull a job together, and Kint hatches a plan for a simple and
lucrative jewel heist. Despite Keaton's misgivings, the five men pull off the
robbery without a hitch and fly to Los Angeles to fence the loot. Their
customer asks if they'd be interested in pulling a quick job while out West;
the men agree, but the robbery goes horribly wrong and they soon find
themselves visited by Kobayashi (Pete Postlethwaite), who represents a
criminal mastermind named Keyser Soze. Soze's violent reputation is so
infamous that he's said to have responded to a threat to murder his family by
killing them himself, just to prove that he feared no one. When Kobayashi
passes along a heist proposed by Soze that sounds like suicide, the men feel
that they have little choice but to agree. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
182 |
The Wizard of Oz |
|
|
|
Not
to be confused with the 1939 cinematic classic The Wizard of Oz starring Judy
Garland, this 1991 adaptation of L. Frank Baum's beloved story is an animated
short directed by Jim Simon, one of the people behind the Care Bears and
Smurfs animated series. The film follows the adventures of Dorothy, Toto,
Scarecrow, Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion as they journey through the magical
land of Oz. — Matthew Tobey |
|
|
|
74 |
There's Something About
Mary |
1998 |
118
mins |
|
The
Farrelly Brothers set this romantic comedy in their home state of Rhode Island.
In 1985, when teen-nerd Ted Stroehmann (Ben Stiller) challenges a
high-schooler who's bullying retarded Warren Jenson (W. Earl Brown), his
concern prompts Warren's sister, the dazzling and desirable Mary Jenson
(Cameron Diaz) to choose Ted as her senior prom date, a fact Ted's pals find
hard to believe. However, on prom night, Ted gets his penis caught in his
zipper, so the much-desired date never happens. Living in Providence and
waxing nostalgic 13 years later, Ted hires Pat Healy (Matt Dillon) to locate
Mary, and the creepy private investigator finds her in Miami, where she lives
with her tan-shriveled roommate Magda (Lin Shaye). After Pat develops a
stalker-style fixation on the lovely, unattached Mary, he lies to Ted,
telling him that she's now an overweight mother confined to a wheelchair.
Employing professional eavesdropping equipment, Pat gathers a dossier on
Mary's life and future plans, information that forms the basis for more lies
when Pat begins dating her. Sure enough, Mary falls for Pat, although her
friend Tucker (Lee Evans) is very suspicious of Pat's claim to be a
Harvard-educated architect. Meanwhile, Ted learns the truth but continues to
encounter offbeat obstacles as he accelerates to Miami in hopes of finding
happiness with his true love. Former Modern Lovers singer Jonathan Richman
vocalizes a narrative ballad of onscreen commentary in the Cat Ballou (1965)
tradition. Most of the cast sings and frolics to Build Me Up, Buttercup
during the closing credits. — Bhob Stewart |
|
|
|
261 |
Titan A.E. |
2000 |
95
mins |
|
Titan
A.E. combines cel and CG imagery in this science fiction saga. In 3028, after
the Earth is destroyed by an invading alien race, a tiny number of surviving
humans roam the universe in ragtag spaceships, trying to find each other and
maintain some sense of community. Shortly before the final destruction of the
planet, Cale (voice of Matt Damon) was given a map that would guide him to a
space station called Titan, secretly constructed as a last hope in the event
of alien Armageddon. Cale sets out in search of Titan and the fabled Ice
Planet with the help of his friend Korso (voice of Bill Pullman), the
beautiful Akima (voice of Drew Barrymore), and a crew of friendly aliens.
Titan A.E. was directed by noted animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman and
scripted by Ben Edlund, creator of the comic book series The Tick. Other
members of the voice cast include Nathan Lane, Janeane Garofalo, John
Leguizamo, and Tone Loc. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
151 |
Tombstone |
1993 |
135
mins |
|
A
high-energy action adventure based on legend rather than historical fact
finds Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) desiring to retire from law enforcement. With
brothers Virgil (Sam Elliot) and Morgan (Bill Paxton), he arrives in
Tombstone, Arizona intending to build his fortune. He discovers that
long-time friend Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) is there and that the town is run
by a group of brutal outlaws called the Cowboys. Earp, frustrated with his
laudanum-addicted wife, begins a romance with traveling stage actress
Josephine Marcus (Dana Delany). Meanwhile, the Cowboys terrorize the citizens
of Tombstone unchecked. When the town marshal is killed by a Cowboy, Earp
steps in to prevent a lynching by an angry mob. He also refuses to hand the
killer over to his fellows, beginning the enmity between the Cowboys and the
Earp brothers. Virgil, overcome with guilt at doing nothing to help the
Tombstone citizens, accepts the position of town marshal. With Wyatt and
Morgan as his deputies, and the help of Doc, Virgil attempts to arrest
several Cowboys, resulting in the famous OK Corral shoot-out. The Cowboys
take revenge by ambushing two of the brothers and injuring Virgil and killing
Morgan. The Earps leave town, apparently cowed. Wyatt returns, wearing the
badge of a U.S. marshal, vowing to destroy every last Cowboy. He hunts them
mercilessly, until the leader, Johnny Ringo (Michael Biehn) challenges Wyatt
to a duel. While not regarded as an artistic masterpiece,
"Tombstone" is considered the best of director George P. Cosmatos'
prolific films. The all-star cast delivers solid performances. Both William A
Fraker's cinematography and Bruce Broughton's stirring musical score are
expertly designed for dramatic effect. Blood is shown liberally in several
key scenes, but seems intended to show that there is nothing glorious in
Wyatt Earp's actions, only necessity. He and his deputies take on the
symbolism of the horsemen of the apocalypse — dispensing judgement, and the
Biblical references form a symmetry at the beginning and end of the film. —
Lucinda Ramsey |
|
|
|
84 |
Top Gun |
1986 |
109
mins |
|
Devil-may-care
navy pilot Pete Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is sent to Miramar Naval Air Station
for advanced training. Here he vies with Tom Kasansky (Val Kilmer) for the
coveted "Top Gun" award. When not so occupied, Mitchell carries on
a romance with civilian consultant Charlotte Blackwood (Kelly McGillis).
Shaken up by the death of a friend, Mitchell loses the Top Gun honor to
Kasansky. Worried that he may have lost his nerve, Mitchell is given a chance
to redeem himself during a tense international crisis involving a crippled US
vessel and a flock of predatory enemy planes. The story wasn't new in 1986,
but Top Gun scored with audiences on the strength of its visuals, especially
the vertigo-inducing aerial sequences. The film made more money than any
other film in 1986 and even spawned a 1989 takeoff, Hot Shots. An Academy
Award went to the Giogio Moroder-Tom Whitlock song "Take My Breath
Away." — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
33 |
Toy Story |
1995 |
80
mins |
|
Toy
Story was the first feature-length film animated entirely by computer. If
this seems to be a sterile, mechanical means of moviemaking, be assured that
the film is as chock-full of heart and warmth as any Disney cartoon feature.
The star of the proceedings is Woody, a pull-string cowboy toy belonging to a
wide-eyed youngster named Andy. Whenever Andy's out of the room, Woody revels
in his status as the boy's Number One toy. His supremacy is challenged by a
high-tech, space-ranger action figure named Buzz Lightyear, who, unlike Woody
and his pals, believes that he is real and not merely a plaything. The
rivalry between Woody and Buzz hilariously intensifies during the first half
of the film, but when the well-being of Andy's toys is threatened by a nasty
next-door neighbor kid named Sid — whose idea of fun is feeding stuffed dolls
to his snarling dog and reconstructing his own toys into hideous mutants —
Woody and Buzz join forces to save the day. Superb though the computer
animation may be, what really heightens Toy Story are the voiceover
performances by such celebrities as Tom Hanks (as Woody), Tim Allen (as
Buzz), and Don Rickles (as an appropriately acerbic Mr. Potato Head).
Director John Lasseter earned a special achievement Academy Award, while Randy
Newman landed an Oscar nomination for his evocative musical score. — Hal
Erickson |
|
|
|
34 |
Toy Story 2 |
1999 |
92
mins |
|
Woody
the Cowboy, Buzz Lightyear, and the rest of their friends from the toy box
return in this computer-animated sequel to the 1995 hit Toy Story. This time
around, Andy, the young boy who is the proud owner of most of our cast of
characters, is off at summer camp, giving the toys a few weeks off to do as
they please. Woody (voice of Tom Hanks) is unaware that in the years since
his model went out of production, he's become a rare and valuable collector's
item. An avid toy collector (voice of Wayne Knight) decides that he wants
Woody for his collection and swipes him, so Buzz Lightyear (voice of Tim
Allen), Hamm (voice of John Ratzenberger), Rex (voice of Wallace Shawn),
Slinky Dog (voice of Jim Varney), and Mr. Potato Head (voice of Don Rickles)
venture forth to rescue their kidnapped friend before Andy returns. Along
with most of the original voice cast, composer Randy Newman returns with a
new score and new songs. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
76 |
Traffic |
2000 |
147
mins |
|
Described
by director Steven Soderbergh as "Nashville meets The French
Connection," this multi-character drama explores the effects of
international drug trafficking on all fronts: from their source, to the U.S.
border, to the federal government, to the private lives of users. Based upon
a miniseries originally aired on Britain's Channel 4, Traffic divides its
time among three main storylines and almost a dozen locales. The first and
primary plot thread, set in Ohio and Washington, D.C., concerns freshly-appointed
drug czar Robert Wakefield (Michael Douglas), whose enthusiasm for his new
prestige position is quickly offset when he realizes his 16-year-old daughter
Caroline (Erika Christensen) is graduating from recreational drug use to
habitual abuse — a secret that his wife, Barbara (Amy Irving), has kept from
him. South of the border, Mexican cop Javier Rodriguez (Benicio Del Toro)
attempts to wage his own war on drugs, heading off a cocaine shipment in the
middle of the desert with his less-than-virtuous partner Manolo Sanchez
(Jacob Vargas). Surrounded by corruption, Javier approaches the drug war with
an attitude of patience and compromise, which opens him up to investigation
from General Arturo Salazar (Tomas Milian), the country's dubious
drug-enforcement liaison to the U.S. Meanwhile, San Diego drug kingpin Carlos
Alaya (Steven Bauer) is caught in a sting operation spearheaded by DEA agents
Montel Gordon (Don Cheadle) and Ray Castro (Luis Guzman), leaving behind his
very pregnant and very oblivious wife, Helena (Catharine Zeta-Jones). At the
behest of Carlos' lawyer and shady confidante, Arnie Metzger (Dennis Quaid),
Helena decides to carry on the family business — with tragic consequences.
Adapted by Rules of Engagement scribe Stephen Gaghan, Traffic marked
Soderbergh's second major release in 2000 after the critical and box-office
success of Erin Brockovich, as well as his second feature as cinematographer
(credited under the pseudonym Peter Andrews). A favorite with various guild
and critics' awards, Traffic won four Academy Awards in 2001, including
statues for Best Supporting Actor (Del Toro) and Best Adapted Screenplay
(Gaghan), and surprise wins for Steven Mirrone's editing and Soderbergh's
direction. — Michael Hastings |
|
|
|
86 |
Training Day |
2001 |
120
mins |
|
The
Fast and the Furious (2001) screenwriter David Ayer follows up that
fast-paced action hit with this gritty cop drama from director Antoine Fuqua.
Ethan Hawke stars as Jake Hoyt, a fresh-faced Los Angeles Police Department
rookie anxious to join the elite narcotics squad headed up by 13-year veteran
Detective Sergeant Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington). Harris has agreed to
give Hoyt a shot at joining his team with a one-day ride-along during which
Hoyt must prove his mettle. As the day wears on, however, it becomes
increasingly clear to the greenhorn that his experienced mentor has blurred
the line between right and wrong to an alarming degree, enforcing his own
morally compromised code of ethics and street justice. As he struggles with
his conscience, an increasingly alarmed Hoyt begins to suspect that he's not
really being given an audition at all; he's being set up as the fall guy in
an elaborate scheme. Training Day co-stars Tom Berenger, Scott Glenn, and
recording artists Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and Macy Gray. — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
260 |
Treasure Planet |
2002 |
95
mins |
|
Robert
Louis Stevenson's classic tale of adventure Treasure Island gets a science
fiction update in this animated feature from Walt Disney Pictures. Jim (voice
of Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a young man who grew up reading tales of pirates
and adventures on the high seas, and longs for similar excitement in his own
life. One day, Jim happens upon a dying man who hands him a map and warns him
to "Beware the cyborg" shortly before he passes on. Upon careful
examination, Jim realizes the map charts the course to Treasure Planet, a
distant world where hundreds of space pirates have stashed their loot. Jim is
certain this is the adventure he's been dreaming off, and joins the crew of
the spaceship R.L.S. Legacy and Captain Amelia (Emma Thompson) as they set
out to find the fabled Treasure Planet. While Jim signs on along with his
friend Dr. Doppler (voice of David Hyde Pierce), he soon becomes close
friends with John Silver (voice of Brian Murray), who works in the galley but
has big plans. Jim discovers just how big his plans are when Silver reveals
he's part cyborg and all pirate, instigating a mutiny and attempting to take
control of the ship. Despite his friendship with Silver, Jim refuses to take
part in the mutiny, and soon finds himself attempting to defend law and order
against a spacecraft full of reckless men. Treasure Planet's voice cast also
includes Michael Wincott and Martin Short; Johnny Rzeznik from the rock group
The Goo Goo Dolls contributed new music for the soundtrack. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
45 |
True Lies |
1994 |
141
mins |
|
Borrowing
liberally from the French film La Totale, this is an action picture, domestic
comedy, and political thriller rolled into a crowd-pleasing ball of
entertainment. Producer James Cameron wrote and directed the film. Henry
Tasker (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is a workaholic computer salesman neglecting
his mousy wife Helen (Jamie Lee Curtis), a legal secretary. Simon (Bill
Paxton) seduces Helen with the lie that he is a secret agent; he's really a
used car salesman. Harry suspects that Helen is cheating on him, and he sends
a few colleagues to kidnap them. Helen then discovers that Harry is a secret
agent by night, working for a shadowy group called the Omega Sector. Harry
and his partner Gib (Tom Arnold) are trying to find four nuclear warheads
that have disappeared from a former Soviet republic. — Michael Betzold |
|
|
|
85 |
Twister |
1996 |
114
mins |
|
This
special effects extravaganza, which recreates nature's most violent storms,
opens with a scene in which the young Jo Harding watches helplessly as a
monster tornado rips her father right out of a storm cellar. Jo grows up to
become a university scientist who heads a storm-chasing research team. Played
by Helen Hunt, Jo is married to co-researcher Bill Harding (Bill Paxton). But
their marriage is on the rocks, and he plans on leaving the university to
become a television weatherman — and on leaving Jo to hook up with Melissa
(Jami Gertz), who has served in vain as the Hardings' fertility counselor.
New high-tech instruments Bill has designed to record the intensity of
twisters have been stolen by Dr. Jonas Miller (Cary Elwes), a corporate
henchman horning in on the storm-chasing game. Miller's team and Jo's team
compete in chasing storms across the Oklahoma springtime landscape. The
screenplay is by blockbuster writer Michael Crichton with direction by Jan De
Bont, who also helmed the thriller Speed. — Michael Betzold |
|
|
|
53 |
Unbreakable |
2000 |
107
mins |
|
Actor
Bruce Willis and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan reunite after the
surprise success of The Sixth Sense for this supernatural thriller. David
Dunne (Willis) is taking a train from New York City back home to Philadelphia
after a job interview that didn't go well when his car jumps the tracks and
collides with an oncoming engine, with David the only survivor among the 131
passengers on board. Astoundingly, David is not only alive, he hardly seems
to have been touched. As David wonders what has happened to him and why he
was able to walk away, he encounters a mysterious stranger, Elijah Prince
(Samuel L. Jackson), who explains to David that there are a certain number of
people who are "unbreakable" — they have remarkable endurance and
courage, a predisposition toward dangerous behavior, and feel invincible but
also have strange premonitions of terrible events. Is David
"unbreakable"? And if he is, what are the physical and
psychological ramifications of this knowledge? Unbreakable also stars Robin
Wright-Penn as Megan, David's wife; the supporting cast includes Spencer
Treat Clark and Joey Perillo. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
175 |
Uncle Buck |
1989 |
100
mins |
|
In
this cheerful, lightweight comedy, excruciatingly clumsy, disorganized, and
messy Uncle Buck Russell (John Candy) becomes the screens most unlikely
babysitter since Clifton Webb in Sitting Pretty. While their parents are
away, eight-year old Miles (Macaulay Culkin), six-year old Maizy (Gaby
Hoffman) and their teen-aged sister, Tia (Jean Kelly) are left in the care of
Buck. Surprisingly, the very inept Uncle Buck entertains the younger children
who come to love him and earns the respect of Tia when he rescues her from
her worthless boyfriend. However, in doing so, Buck nearly loses his
long-time girlfriend Chanice (Amy Madigan). John Candy is delightful in the
leading role giving a touching and notable comic performance. Directed by
John Hughes in his typical broad style, this youth-oriented comedy is perhaps
the best role of John Candy's regrettably brief career. — Linda Rasmussen |
|
|
|
64 |
We Were Soldiers |
2002 |
137
mins |
|
Screenwriter
Randall Wallace, a specialist in sweeping historical epics, steps behind the
camera for this fact-based Vietnam War drama that reunites him with his
Braveheart (1995) star Mel Gibson. Gibson is Lt. Col. Hal Moore, commander of
the First Battalion, Seventh Cavalry, the same regiment fatefully led by
George Armstrong Custer. As part of the Pleiku Campaign of late 1965, Moore is
assigned to an action at Landing Zone X-Ray in the Drang Valley, an area that
would come to be known as the "The Valley of Death." Moore soon
finds himself and his men contained to an area about the size of a football
field, surrounded by more than 2,000 enemy troops and engaged in the first
major battle of the war. Heroism becomes the order of the day as men like
Moore, chopper pilot Bruce Crandall (Greg Kinnear), and Lt. Henry Herrick
(Marc Blucas) refuse to yield, in spite of heavy losses of life. The film
co-stars Madeleine Stowe, Chris Klein, Keri Russell, and Sam Elliott. We Were
Soldiers is based on the book We Were Soldiers Once...and Young by Lt. Gen.
Harold G. Moore (retired) and UPI reporter Joe Galloway (played in the film
by Barry Pepper). — Karl Williams |
|
|
|
93 |
What Lies Beneath |
2000 |
126
mins |
|
In
this supernatural thriller, a woman believes that a visitor from another
dimension is trying to guide her into a sinister mystery. Feeling lonely
after her daughter leaves home for college, Claire (Michelle Pfeiffer) begins
to sense that something is wrong in her house, and feels a spirit is trying
to contact her. At first her husband Norman (Harrison Ford), a scientist
doing research in genetics, attributes her paranormal beliefs to stress or
possibly a nervous breakdown, and sends her to a psychiatrist (Joe Morton)
who puts no more stock in Claire's stories than does Norman. While Claire's
contention that someone or something sinister is afoot leads her down a
number of blind alleys, in time she becomes convinced that the mysterious
happenings at her home are somehow connected to the disappearance of a woman
who was a student at the nearby college — and bore a striking resemblance to
Claire. What Lies Beneath marked the debut of screenwriter Clark Gregg, whose
script is based on a story by himself and Sarah Kernochan; the supporting
cast includes Diana Scarwid as Claire's best friend Jody, and James Remar and
Miranda Otto as a contentious couple living next door. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
66 |
What Women Want |
2000 |
126
mins |
|
A
man finds himself getting an unexpected crash course in the psychology of
contemporary women in this romantic comedy. Nick Marshall (Mel Gibson) is a
successful advertising executive living in Chicago who has long fancied
himself a ladies' man, though he has precious little understanding of women
beyond figuring out how to seduce them. One day, Nick is electrocuted in an
accident in his bathroom; while he's not seriously injured, when he comes to,
he discovers something remarkable has happened — he can suddenly hear what
women are thinking. At first, Nick finds himself learning all sorts of things
he didn't want to know, but he also realizes how this can be used to his
advantage — especially after his old boss, Dan Wanamaker (Alan Alda) is
replaced by a woman, Darcy Maguire (Helen Hunt). But Nick begins to feel differently
about his unusual gift when he discovers Darcy is infatuated with him, and he
finds himself falling for her. What Women Want also features Bette Midler as
Nick's analyst, Delta Burke and Valerie Perrine as two of his co-workers, and
Marisa Tomei as one of Nick's significant others. — Mark Deming |
|
|
|
252 |
Who Framed Roger
Rabbit? |
1988 |
104
mins |
|
In
Robert Zemeckis's trailblazing combination of animation and live-action,
Hollywood's 1940s cartoon stars are a subjugated minority, living in the
ghettolike "Toontown" where their movements are sharply monitored
by the human power establishment. The Toons are permitted to perform in a
Cotton Club-style nightspot but are forbidden to patronize the joint. One of
Toontown's leading citizens, whacked-out Roger Rabbit, is framed for the
murder of human nightclub owner Marvin Acme (Stubby Kaye). Private detective
Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins), whose prejudice against Toons stems from the
time that his brother was killed by a falling cartoon piano, reluctantly
agrees to clear Roger of the accusation. Most of the sociopolitical
undertones of the original novel were weeded out out of the 1988 film
version, with emphasis shifted to its basic "evil land developer"
plotline —and, more enjoyably, to a stream of eye-popping special effects.
With the combined facilities of animator Richard Williams, Disney, Warner
Bros., Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, and George Lucas's Industrial
Light and Magic, the film allows us to believe (at least for 90 minutes) that
"toons" exist, and that they are capable of interacting with
3-dimensional human beings. Virtually every major cartoon character of the
late 1940s shows up, with the exceptions of Felix the Cat and Popeye the
Sailor, whose licensees couldn't come to terms with the producers. Of the
film's newly minted Toons, the most memorable is Roger Rabbit's curvaceous
bride Jessica (voiced, uncredited, by Kathleen Turner). The human element is
well-represented by Hoskins, Christopher Lloyd, and Joanna Cassidy; also
watch for action-film producer Joel Silver as Roger Rabbit's Tex Avery-style
director. — Hal Erickson |
|
|
|
70 |
You've Got Mail |
1998 |
120
mins |
|
Sleepless
In Seattle director Nora Ephron originally made a name for herself as the
writer of romantic comedies such as When Harry Met Sally and This is My Life.
She continues the genre with You've Got Mail, marking her second
collaboration with actors Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. The story brings romance
and courtship into the electronic age of the World Wide Web via e-mail and
chat rooms. Joe Fox and Kathleen Kelly live and work blocks from each other
on New York City's Upper West Side. Their lives are practically intertwined.
They both shop at the same place, frequent the same coffee shop, and even own
competing bookstores on the same street. They also both have significant
others of their own. Joe has the overly hyper book editor Patricia Eden
(Parker Posey), while Kathleen lives with the scholarly newspaper columnist
Frank Navasky (Greg Kinnear). Then they meet in a chat room. Though they keep
their identities secret (they're known only by screen names NY152 and
Shopgirl), they tell each other everything about their lives, including their
private feelings, which slowly turn into affection for each other. When Joe
decides to expand his "Foxbooks" bookstore into a superchain,
Kathleen, with her "Shop Around the Corner," is doomed. Surely her
boutique business will be lost to the conglomerate with a built-in newsstand
and coffee bar. When Kathleen confides her work woes to her e-mail buddy, Joe
puts two-and-two together. How can he reveal himself to her now, knowing that
he is the cause of her misery? Hopefully, love will conquer all. — Chris Gore |
12/27/2004
9:39:51 AM