They call themselves "The Goonies." The secret caves. The old lighthouse. The lost map. The treacherous traps. The hidden treasure. And Sloth... Join the adventure.
Dating from 1969, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid has never lost its popularity or its unusual appeal as a star-driven Western that tinkers with the genre's conventions and comes up with something both terrifically entertaining and--typical of its period--a tad paranoid. Paul Newman plays the legendary outlaw Butch Cassidy as an eternal optimist and self-styled visionary, conjuring dreams of banks just ripe for the picking all over the world. Robert Redford is his more level-headed partner, the sharp-shooting Sundance Kid. The film, written by William Goldman (The Princess Bride) and directed by George Roy Hill (The Sting), basically begins as a freewheeling story about robbing trains but soon becomes a chase as a relentless posse--always seen at a great distance like some remote authority--forces Butch and Sundance into the hills and, finally, Bolivia. Weakened a little by feel-good inclinations (a scene involving bicycle tricks and the song "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head" is sort of Hollywood flower power), the film maintains an interesting tautness, and the chemistry between Redford and Newman is rare. (A factoid: Newman first offered the Sundance part to Jack Lemmon.) --Tom Keogh, Amazon.com On the DVD: This anamorphic widescreen print of the 2.35:1 Panavision original looks marvellously crisp, highlighting the sepia tinting and washed-out, over-exposed look of the film nicely and making the best of the deep focus cinematography. The mono soundtrack sounds clean and clear in Dolby 2.0. The commentary track is hosted by documentary-maker Robert Crawford with contributions from George Roy Hill, cinematographer Conrad Hall, and lyricist Hal David (who chips in during the "Raindrops" sequence). The 40-minute documentary dates from 1968 and is narrated by director Hill, who talks in detail about the making-of process, comments on his relationship with the three principals (Katharine Ross was the difficult one apparently), and adds little nuggets such as how they sprayed the bull's testicles to make him charge at the end of the bicycle scene. Also included are a series of absorbing 1994 interviews with all the main players: Newman, Redford, Ross, writer William Goldman, and composer Burt Bacharach. Trailers, Production Notes and an Alternate Credit Roll complete an attractive package. --Mark Walker
They call themselves "The Goonies." The secret caves. The old lighthouse. The lost map. The treacherous traps. The hidden treasure. And Sloth... Join the adventure.
The dark, brooding tone of Conan the Barbarian is replaced in this rousing sequel by a lighter, more humorous tone and one of the campiest casts ever assembled. In Conan the Destroyer, our massively muscular hero (Arnold Schwarzenegger) is assigned by a duplicitous queen (Sarah Douglas) to escort a virgin princess (Olivia d'Abo) on a treacherous trek to a crystal palace where they will retrieve a priceless gemstone. Basketball champ and self-described Lothario Wilt Chamberlain plays Bombaata, a warrior sent on a secret mission to kill Conan, and the androgynous Grace Jones plays Zula, a wild woman who becomes Conan's loyal ally. Some consider this sequel a disappointment but the film makes no apologies for its silliness, and that's the key to its success as gloriously pulpy entertainment. --Jeff Shannon
In Cold Blood is Richard Brooks' stylish and powerful 1967 drama adapted from Truman Capote's novel about a shocking real-life murder case. This daring cinematic portrait employs flashbacks to fully examine what drives an individual to commit thoughtless and brutal crimes while using a highly innovative jazz score by Quincy Jones to capture the moody atmosphere. A prosperous and respected Kansas farmer his wife and his two teenage children are wantonly and brutally slaughtered. The murderers are two mindless ex-convict drifters. Neither man is sane enough to regret their crime. The story penetrates the inner workings of the criminals' minds as it follows their purposeless meandering through Mexico and the United States in evasion of the law...
John Wayne hams it up as a one-eyed, broken-down marshal in this 1969 adaptation of Charles Portis's bestselling novel. Kim Darby plays the formal-speaking adolescent who goes to Wayne for help tracking down her father's killer, and singer Glen Campbell straps on his guns to join the quest. Directed by old lion Henry Hathaway (Rawhide), True Grit is largely a showcase for Wayne (who finally won an Oscar), but it is also a decent Western with a particularly stirring final act. --Tom Keogh
A decade-defining classic from the imagination of Steven Spielberg and Chris Columbus, The Goonies follows a tight-knit group of young friends desperate to save their homes from a greedy real-estate developer. After discovering a mysterious treasure map, they find themselves being chased by a family of fugitives through an underground realm full of twisting passages ad booby traps. Their quest: to find the hidden gold of legendary pirate One-Eye'd Willy. When all seems lost, the Goonies never say die in the beloved, generation-crossing adventure. Special Features: Commentary (with Hidden Video Treasures) by director Richard Donner and Select Cast Members The Making of The Goonies Featurette Cyndi Lauper The Goonies 'r' Good Enough Music Video Deleted Scenes Theatrical Trailer
Disney sets a record for bringing out a direct-to-video sequel after the initial film. Stitch: The Movie arrives only a year after the enjoyable Lilo & Stitch and reunites the title character (otherwise known as Experiment 626) with his earth-bound family in the warm Hawaiian sun. The story has a nice set-up: since Stitch is Experiment 626, where are the first 625 invented by Dr Jumba Jookiba? Odds are the island paradise will soon be spaceport central for many more aliens. As with other made-for-video Disney titles, the animation is not as complex or rich. This hurts this sequel even more since the original film had such a unique, pastel beauty. Unfortunately, the other elements of the film are just as flat. Even though most of the original voice cast returns, the entire production lacks the same spirit and charm, and the story's theme is recycled (get ready for more "Ohana means family"). On the plus side, the film starts with an Elvis Presley song ("Slicin' Sand") and is only 64 minutes long. The movie sets up the Disney TV series The Adventures of Lilo & Stitch. --Doug Thomas
The mythical world starts a rebellion against the human realm in order to rule the Earth, so Hellboy and his team must save the world from the myriad creatures.
In this second Conan epic warrior is asked by the evil Queen Taramis to accompany a beautiful young princess to find a magic treasure. If he returns with the treasure and the virgin the Queen promises to bring Conan's beloved Valeria back from the dead. But little does he know that she plans to kill them both or that the return of the treasure will mean the extinction of mankind...
Though promoted as a "full-length holiday movie", Mickey's Magical Christmas is more of a Christmas special spin-off from Disney's House of Mouse TV series. The premise is something like an animated Muppet Show: Mickey, Goofy and Donald run a nightclub for an audience of Disney characters, with plenty of songs, skits and cartoons. There's not much story to this holiday special--Mickey whips up an impromptu party for stranded guests and instils a "Humbug" quacking Donald with the holiday spirit--but it's full of sight gags and comic bits with dozens of Disney characters, from Ludwig von Duck to Pumba and Timmon. The special begins with the short Pluto's Christmas Tree and ends with the entire 1983 short film Mickey's Christmas Carol. However, the highlight is a comic retelling of The Nutcracker with Donald as a reluctant Mouse King (complete with phony Mickey Mouse ears) and John Cleese as the exasperated narrator. The special is utterly unmemorable as a whole, but nonetheless bright, light, cute and sure to keep the attentions of young tots. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com
In this sweeping epic that swings from high comedy to drama, Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman gives a virtuoso performance (The Hollywood Reporter) as the 121-year-old sole survivor of Custer's Last Stand. Narrating his colourful life story, he tells about everything from his adoption by Cheyenne Indians to his marriages and his friendship with Wild Bill Hickok. His tall tales indicate he just may be one of the biggest liars who roamed the West. Academy Award-winner Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam and Richard Mulligan co-star.
This action-comedy from 1990 makes the critical mistake of trying to mix a potentially suspenseful plot with the kind of humour that Mel Gibson can only get away with in his Lethal Weapon movies. It doesn't work here because the movie's supposed to be a Hitchcockian thriller and Mel's wisecracking--not to mention some implausible plot twists and ridiculous chase scenes--makes it impossible to take any of this movie seriously. It works best as a lightweight vehicle for Gibson and Goldie Hawn, who bring their own established appeal to their roles as old lovers who are reunited under unexpectedly dangerous circumstances. After testifying against some drug-running killers, Mel's been safe under the protection of the FBI's witness relocation program, and Goldie coincidentally enters his life again just as the bad guys are hot on Mel's trail. They join up and go on the run from the villains and ... well, let's just say director John Badham doesn't have any big surprises up his sleeve. Goldie and Mel are enjoyable, as always, but you'd have to be their biggest fan to watch this movie more than once. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Truman Capote's best seller, a breakthrough narrative account of real-life crime and punishment, became an equally chilling film in the hands of writer-director RICHARD BROOKS (Cat on a Hot Tin Roof). Cast for their unsettling resemblances to the killers they play, ROBERT BLAKE (Lost Highway) and SCOTT WILSON (The Great Gatsby) give authentic, unshowy performances as Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, who in 1959 murdered a family of four in Kansas during a botched robbery. Brooks brings a detached, documentary-like starkness to this uncompromising view of an American tragedy and its aftermath; at the same time, stylistically In Cold Blood is a filmmaking master class, with clinically precise editing, chiaroscuro black-and-white cinematography by the great CONRAD L. HALL (American Beauty), and a menacing jazz score by Quincy Jones. Special Features New 4K digital restoration, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack New interview with cinematographer John Bailey on the film's cinematography New interview with film historian Bobbie O'Steen on the film's editing New interview with film critic and jazz historian Gary Giddins on the film's music by Quincy Jones New interview with writer Douglass Daniel on director Richard Brooks Interview with Brooks from 1988 from the French television series Cinéma cinemas Interview with actor Robert Blake from 1968 from the British television series Good Evening with Jonathan King With Love from Truman, a short 1966 documentary featuring novelist Truman Capote, directed by Albert and David Maysles Two archival NBC interviews with Capote: one following the author on a 1966 visit to Holcomb, Kansas, and the other conducted by Barbara Walters in 1967 Trailer PLUS: An essay by critic Chris Fujiwara
In Arthur Penn's adaptation of Thomas Berger's novel Little Big Man, Dustin Hoffman stars as Jack Crabb, the only white survivor of the Battle of Little Big Horn. Giving a bravura performance, Hoffman plays Jack from teen years into old age in this picaresque fable of the Old West. Jack's story is a fantastic one: captured by Indians as a boy, reared as an Indian, shuttling back and forth between the white and Indian worlds. In the process, he befriends everyone from Wild Bill Hickock to George Armstrong Custer and is a gunslinger, a snake-oil salesman and an Army scout. This is a solid blend of comedy and tragedy, making a strong statement about America's treatment of Native Americans without sermonising. A terrific cast includes Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam and Richard Mulligan, but this show is all Hoffman's. --Marshall Fine
New York psychologist Dr Bill Capa (Bruce Willis) is stunned when an old friend and colleague is brutally stabbed to death. Capa believes the vicious murderer to be one of the members of a therapy group. While all around him falls apart he finds Rose (Jane March) and they embark on a reckless and passionate affair of erotic sexual discovery. But is there more to Rose than meets the eye? He will only know if he survives long enough to find out...
Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn star in this action-packed comedy directed by John Badham about two old flames who meet by accident and are plunged into a cross-country run for their lives.
Richard Brooks's In Cold Blood is a faithful 1967 screen adaptation of Truman Capote's extraordinary non-fiction book about the course of two killers in this world--their lives, their senseless slaughter of an entire family, and their executions. Robert Blake and Scott Wilson are remarkable as the murderers, but what has kept this film special over the decades is Brooks's blunt, clearheaded, and non-sensational approach to the story. (The term "semi-documentary" has been applied to Brooks's style on this film, and it's an entirely fair description.) The experience of watching In Cold Blood is naturally unsettling, but the director--as with Capote--leaves final judgments about justice to the beholder. --Tom Keogh
Capote (Dir. Bennett Miller ): In November 1959 the shocking murder of a smalltown Kansas family captures the imagination of Truman Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman) famed author of Breakfast at Tiffany's. With his childhood friend Harper Lee (Catherine Keener) writer of the soon-to-be published To Kill a Mockingbird Capote sets out to investigate winning over the locals despite his flamboyant appearance and style. When he forms a bond with the killers and their execution date nears the writing of In Cold Blood a book that will change the course of American Literature takes a drastic toll on Capote changing him in ways he never imagined. In Cold Blood (Dir. Richard Brooks 1967): Richard Brooks' stylish and powerful 1967 drama adapted from Truman Capote's novel about a shocking real-life murder case. This daring cinematic portrait employs flashbacks to fully examine what drives an individual to commit thoughtless and brutal crimes while using a highly innovative jazz score by Quincy Jones to capture the moody atmosphere. A prosperous and respected Kansas farmer his wife and his two teenage children are wantonly and brutally slaughtered. The murderers are two mindless ex-convict drifters. Neither man is sane enough to regret their crime. The story penetrates the inner workings of the criminals' minds as it follows their purposeless meandering through Mexico and the United States in evasion of the law...
Mickey's House of Mouse Villains seeks to do for Halloween what Mickey's Magical Christmas: Snowed In at the House of Mouse (2001) did for Yuletide. It's an anthology set on Halloween in the titular house, a nightclub where characters--including Donald Duck, Goofy, Jafar, Cruella de Vil, and Captain Hook--gather to watch Disney cartoons. There's a perfunctory framing plot with the villains taking over the House, but the 65 minutes is almost entirely filled by eight short cartoons. Five are very recent, with clinically clean computer animation, and three are vintage gems glowing with the warm detailed look of Golden Age Disney. These are Trick or Treat (1952), Donald Duck and the Gorilla (1944), and Lonesome Ghosts (1937), in which Mickey, Donald and Goofy star in what was surely the inspiration for Ghostbusters. The best of the new adventures is Mickey's Mechanical House, in which the mouse moves into a futuristic house which goes disastrously wrong. It's made all the more entertaining by a poetic rhyming narration delivered by John Cleese. Young children will love it all, while older fans may prefer a compilation of vintage Disney shorts. On the DVD: Mickey's House of Mouse Villains DVD contains a well-designed animated quiz game, "Wheel of Misfortune", that should entertain young fans for a while. Otherwise, the extras consist of three trailers and a "Fright Reel": a three-minute compilation of Disney clips with two Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks. The choice amounts to the same sound effects with or without music. The sound is good, except for the three vintage animations, which are in mono. The picture is 4:3 and is generally very sharp, though varies a little with the source material. --Gary S Dalkin
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