Attal, Yvan

Rush Hour 3 (Widescreen and Full-Screen)

When a Chinese criminal mastermind flees to Paris there?s only one culture-clashed crime fighting duo for the job. Ready to raise hell in the city of lights Chief Inspector Lee (Chan) and Detective Carter (Tucker) instead get caught in an explosive battle between French police the Triad gang and two gorgeous femmes fatales! With everybody kung-fu fighting to the top of the Eiffel Tower this one-two punch of hilarious action doesn?t let up to the final heart-stopping au revoir!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CRIMINALS UPC: 794043109300 Manufacturer No: N10930

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker head for the City of Lights in the somewhat threadbare but sporadically exciting Rush Hour 3, the second sequel to director Brett Ratner's 1998 cop-buddy hit. Chan's Inspector Lee and Tucker's Detective Carter hop from Los Angeles to Paris in pursuit of a Chinese triad only to find a mixed reception, including a brutal warning from a French cop (Roman Polanski) and anti-American sentiments from a cab driver (Yvan Attal) who eventually becomes an important and funny ally. Lee and Carter, when not fighting their way out of rooms full of martial arts gangsters and crazed assassins (Sun Ming Ming), follow a trail to a beautiful woman (Noemie Lenoird) who literally carries a vital clue on her person. Lee also holds secret meetings with a United Nations authority (Max Von Sydow), but his personal struggles with a criminal mastermind (Hiroyuki Sanada)--who happens to be an important figure in his life—are at the heart of this movie.

The aging Chan still seems to defy the laws of physics with some of his more spectacular stunts. But it's true those stunts take a little more time than they used to, and judicious editing makes Chan look spry as ever. He frets charmingly in Rush Hour 3, while Tucker revives his brash character's motormouth guile and whiny womanizing. There isn't a lot left to be discovered about Lee and Carter's compatibility, and even with a minor crisis over their loyalty to one another in Rush Hour 3, their all-important relationship is almost too easy to take for granted now. Fortunately, the film's biggest thrills come from several wild fight scenes, especially a climactic battle on the Eiffel Tower that is rich in imagination. --Tom Keogh

Munich (Widescreen Edition)

Inspired by real events Munich reveals the intense story of the secret Israeli squad assigned to track down and assassinate the 11 Palestinians believed to have planned the 1972 Munich massacre of 11 Israeli athletes and the personal toll this mission of revenge takes on the team and the man who led it. Hailed as "tremendously exciting" (Peter Travers Rolling Stone) Steven Spielberg s explosive suspense thriller garnered five Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Director.System Requirements:Running Time: 164 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 025192182327 Manufacturer No: 21823

At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it's built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It's physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team's handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn't want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family's safety may be in jeopardy.

By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success--it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America's greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only "inspired by true events," and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, "There is no peace at the end of this." --Daniel Vancini

The Interpreter (Widescreen Edition)

Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn's sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. --Jeff Shannon

Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn star in the action-packed thriller, The Interpreter. In one of the hidden corridors of power at United Nations headquarters, translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a potentially explosive secret about a planned assassination attempt. But when federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn) investigates her claim and digs deeper into Silvia's dangerous past, he begins to question whether she is a victim - or a suspect. From Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack comes the riveting, edge-of-your-seat story of international intrigue that Ebert & Roeper give "Two thumbs up!"

Munich (Full Screen Edition)

Mossad agents are recruited to find and kill the Palestinian terrorists responsible for the kidnapping and murder of a group of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: MUNICH
Title: MUNICH
Street Release Date: 05/01/2007
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE

At its core, Munich is a straightforward thriller. Based on the book Vengeance: The True Story of an Israeli Counter-Terrorist Team by George Jonas, it's built on a relatively stock movie premise, the revenge plot: innocent people are killed, the bad guys got away with it, and someone has to make them pay. But director Steven Spielberg uses that as a starting point to delve into complex ethical questions about the cyclic nature of revenge and the moral price of violence. The movie starts with a rush. The opening portrays the kidnapping and murder of Israeli athletes by PLO terrorists at the 1972 Olympics with scenes as heart-stopping and terrifying as the best of any horror movie. After the tragic incident is over and several of the terrorists have gone free, the Israeli government of Golda Meir recruits Avner (Eric Bana) to lead a team of paid-off-the-book agents to hunt down those responsible throughout Europe, and eliminate them one-by-one (in reality, there were several teams). It's physically and emotionally messy work, and conflicts between Avner and his team's handler, Ephraim (Geoffrey Rush), over information Avner doesn't want to provide only make things harder. Soon the work starts to take its toll on Avner, and the deeper moral questions of right and wrong come into play, especially as it becomes clear that Avner is being hunted in return, and that his family's safety may be in jeopardy.

By all rights, Munich should be an unqualified success--it has gripping subject matter relevant to current events; it was co-written by one of America's greatest living playwrights (Tony Kushner, Angels in America) and an accomplished screenwriter (Eric Roth); it stars an appealing and likeable actor in Eric Bana; and it was helmed by Steven Spielberg, of all people. While it certainly is a great movie, it falls just short of the immense heights such talent should propel it to. This is due more to some questionable plot devices than anything else (such as the contrived use of a family of French informants to locate the terrorists). But while certain aspects ring hollow, the movie as a whole is a profound accomplishment, despite being only "inspired by true events," and not factually based on them. From the ferocious beginning to the unforgettable closing shot, Munich works on a visceral level while making a poignant plea for peace, and issuing an unmistakable warning about the destructive cycle of terror and revenge. As one of the characters intones, "There is no peace at the end of this." --Daniel Vancini

Rush Hour 3 (Two-Disc Platinum Series)

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker star in this Brett Ratner film. This 2 DVD edition includes 4 behind-the-scenes featurettes deleted scenes and more.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/CRIMINALS UPC: 794043111617 Manufacturer No: N11161

Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker head for the City of Lights in the somewhat threadbare but sporadically exciting Rush Hour 3, the second sequel to director Brett Ratner's 1998 cop-buddy hit. Chan's Inspector Lee and Tucker's Detective Carter hop from Los Angeles to Paris in pursuit of a Chinese triad only to find a mixed reception, including a brutal warning from a French cop (Roman Polanski) and anti-American sentiments from a cab driver (Yvan Attal) who eventually becomes an important and funny ally. Lee and Carter, when not fighting their way out of rooms full of martial arts gangsters and crazed assassins (Sun Ming Ming), follow a trail to a beautiful woman (Noemie Lenoird) who literally carries a vital clue on her person. Lee also holds secret meetings with a United Nations authority (Max Von Sydow), but his personal struggles with a criminal mastermind (Hiroyuki Sanada)--who happens to be an important figure in his life—are at the heart of this movie.

The aging Chan still seems to defy the laws of physics with some of his more spectacular stunts. But it's true those stunts take a little more time than they used to, and judicious editing makes Chan look spry as ever. He frets charmingly in Rush Hour 3, while Tucker revives his brash character's motormouth guile and whiny womanizing. There isn't a lot left to be discovered about Lee and Carter's compatibility, and even with a minor crisis over their loyalty to one another in Rush Hour 3, their all-important relationship is almost too easy to take for granted now. Fortunately, the film's biggest thrills come from several wild fight scenes, especially a climactic battle on the Eiffel Tower that is rich in imagination. --Tom Keogh

Bon Voyage

Occupied France the subject of a deft, breezy comedy? Believe it. Bon Voyage gathers a collection of romantics, fools, and survivors, and puts them together in Bordeaux in 1940. Loosely arranged around the ditzy figure of a famous grand-dame actress (Isabelle Adjani), these hapless creatures trip over each other very amusingly during the course of a couple of frantic days. The central character is actually a young writer (the winning Gregori Derangere), who's torn between panting after the actress or aiding the pretty daughter (Virginie Ledoyen, 8 Women) of an important scientist trying to escape to England. It would be hard to say that any of this amounts to anything substantial, but director Jean-Paul Rappeneau whips it together very attractively, and the Bordeaux location offers luscious views of a pre-war city. Rappeneau's delightful 1966 comedy La Vie de Chateau, set in Normandy just before D-Day, treads some of the same turf. --Robert Horton

The Interpreter (Full Screen Edition)

Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn's sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. --Jeff Shannon

Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn star in the action-packed thriller, The Interpreter. In one of the hidden corridors of power at United Nations headquarters, translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a potentially explosive secret about a planned assassination attempt. But when federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn) investigates her claim and digs deeper into Silvia's dangerous past, he begins to question whether she is a victim - or a suspect. From Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack comes the riveting, edge-of-your-seat story of international intrigue that Ebert & Roeper give "Two thumbs up!"

Portraits Chinois

And Now Ladies & Gentlemen

Claude Lelouch may never be the most profound director in the world, but he sure knows how to whip up a catchy distraction. And Now Ladies & Gentlemen finds Lelouch in a skippy, unpredictable mode. Jeremy Irons, who seems to be enjoying himself enormously, is a thief who sets out on a sailing voyage, only to fetch up in Morocco after he blacks out at the helm. There he meets sultry singer Patricia Kaas (her first acting role); it turns out they both might have brain tumors. Did someone say this is a romantic comedy? It is, complete with musical numbers (Kaas glides through a cozy cross-section of French pop music, including the theme from A Man and a Woman, Lelouch's '60s smash). The movie's all over the place, and it spins its wheels for the final half-hour, but there are certain kinds of romantics who will find this sort of thing irresistible. --Robert Horton

The Criminal

The claustrophobic British crime thriller gets a twist of international conspiracy in Julian Simpson's The Criminal. Steven Mackintosh is Jasper Rawlins, the innocent whose one-night stand thrusts him headfirst into a nightmarish murder mystery where he's the patsy. Hounded by a relentless dinosaur of a detective (Bernard Hill) and shadowed at every step by a gang of crooks, Rawlins plunges into the urban underworld to clear his name and succeeds only in tightening the noose around his neck. One of the more ingenious films to sprout up in a crop of British gangster films at the turn of the century, this paranoid thriller has a cynical, sharp style. Think North by Northwest updated to the modern world of free-market espionage and set in a gloomy world of moral twilight. The cleverness seems contrived at times, but Simpson's style and attitude never falter. --Sean Axmaker