Ayres, Leah

Bloodsport

Kung Fu expert Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a martial arts master who arrives in Hong Kong to compete in the Kumite a violent championship fighting contest.Running Time: 92 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085393774424

A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. A guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon), and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright

The Player (Special Edition) (New Line Platinum Series)

A wicked satirical fable about corporate backstabbing--and actual murder--in the movie business, The Player benefits from director Robert Altman's long and bitter experience working within, and without, the Hollywood studio system. Rising young executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is tormented by threats from an anonymous writer. The pressure and paranoia build until Griffin loses control one night and semi-accidentally kills screenwriter David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), who may or may not be the source of the threats. From that point, Griffin's life and career begin to fall apart. In keeping with the ironic spirit of the film itself, Altman's scathingly funny attack on the moral bankruptcy of Hollywood was embraced by many of the same people it was intended to savage, and restored the director to commercial and critical favor. Michael Tolkin adapted the screenplay from his own novel, and the movie is studded with cameos by famous faces, many of whom appear as themselves. The digital video disc includes a commentary track with Altman and Tolkin, some deleted scenes, a documentary about Altman, and a key to help identify more than 50 of the picture's big-name cameos. --Jim Emerson

Showdown in Little Tokyo/Bloodsport

No wimps! Get ready for a knock-down shake-down Showdown in Little Tokyo (Side A) when Dolph Lundgren and Brandon Lee team in the "smart fast-moving martial-arts action-adventure" (Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times). L.A.'s colorful Little Tokyo is the setting as buddy cops Lundgren and Lee battle an entrenched cadre of Japanese gangsters (and try to avoid being filleted into sashimi by Yakuza swordsmen!). Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his first headlining role one to remember in Bloodsport (Side B) a stirring brawlfest about the first Westerner ever to win the Kumite Hong Kong's fierce single-elimination world championship of full-contact fighting. This is action that connects again and again!Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569767584 Manufacturer No: 76758

The Player [Region 2]

A wicked satirical fable about corporate backstabbing--and actual murder--in the movie business, The Player benefits from director Robert Altman's long and bitter experience working within, and without, the Hollywood studio system. Rising young executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is tormented by threats from an anonymous writer. The pressure and paranoia build until Griffin loses control one night and semi-accidentally kills screenwriter David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), who may or may not be the source of the threats. From that point, Griffin's life and career begin to fall apart. In keeping with the ironic spirit of the film itself, Altman's scathingly funny attack on the moral bankruptcy of Hollywood was embraced by many of the same people it was intended to savage, and restored the director to commercial and critical favor. Michael Tolkin adapted the screenplay from his own novel, and the movie is studded with cameos by famous faces, many of whom appear as themselves. The digital video disc includes a commentary track with Altman and Tolkin, some deleted scenes, a documentary about Altman, and a key to help identify more than 50 of the picture's big-name cameos. --Jim Emerson

The Burning [Region 2]

Oh, those crazy days of slasher films, when every summer camp became a potential slaughterhouse. The Burning was one of the flood of movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it's more notable today for an unexpected roster of talent than for its success as a horror movie. You will note that the opening titles feature the unusual credit of "Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein," and sure enough, this is the first feature film bearing the name of the future Hollywood mogul. Let's acknowledge that Weinstein's instincts were shrewd, since this junky thing fit right into the kill-the-teenagers trend after Friday the 13th, and thus a safe way to get a return on investment. We're at Camp Blackstone, where a disfigured loony, still sizzling after getting burned by unhappy campers years earlier, exacts his revenge on the empty-headed current crop. Among the campers are future Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and (in a smaller part) Holly Hunter. There's a vintage early-'80s synthesizer score by Rick Wakeman, but the real star of the movie is effects whiz Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead), who does his bloody best with the murders. We don't care much about the teenagers, but students of gore will savor the throat-cuttings and the finger-loppings. --Robert Horton

The Player

A wicked satirical fable about corporate backstabbing--and actual murder--in the movie business, The Player benefits from director Robert Altman's long and bitter experience working within, and without, the Hollywood studio system. Rising young executive Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins) is tormented by threats from an anonymous writer. The pressure and paranoia build until Griffin loses control one night and semi-accidentally kills screenwriter David Kahane (Vincent D'Onofrio), who may or may not be the source of the threats. From that point, Griffin's life and career begin to fall apart. In keeping with the ironic spirit of the film itself, Altman's scathingly funny attack on the moral bankruptcy of Hollywood was embraced by many of the same people it was intended to savage, and restored the director to commercial and critical favor. Michael Tolkin adapted the screenplay from his own novel, and the movie is studded with cameos by famous faces, many of whom appear as themselves. The digital video disc includes a commentary track with Altman and Tolkin, some deleted scenes, a documentary about Altman, and a key to help identify more than 50 of the picture's big-name cameos. --Jim Emerson

The Burning

Oh, those crazy days of slasher films, when every summer camp became a potential slaughterhouse. The Burning was one of the flood of movies that followed the success of Friday the 13th, and it's more notable today for an unexpected roster of talent than for its success as a horror movie. You will note that the opening titles feature the unusual credit of "Created and Produced by Harvey Weinstein," and sure enough, this is the first feature film bearing the name of the future Hollywood mogul. Let's acknowledge that Weinstein's instincts were shrewd, since this junky thing fit right into the kill-the-teenagers trend after Friday the 13th, and thus a safe way to get a return on investment. We're at Camp Blackstone, where a disfigured loony, still sizzling after getting burned by unhappy campers years earlier, exacts his revenge on the empty-headed current crop. Among the campers are future Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, Fisher Stevens, and (in a smaller part) Holly Hunter. There's a vintage early-'80s synthesizer score by Rick Wakeman, but the real star of the movie is effects whiz Tom Savini (Dawn of the Dead), who does his bloody best with the murders. We don't care much about the teenagers, but students of gore will savor the throat-cuttings and the finger-loppings. --Robert Horton

Bloodsport [Region 2]

A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. A guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon), and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright

Bloodsport [Region 2]

A well-oiled Jean-Claude Van Damme makes his starring debut in what may be one of the few kickboxing films to be based on a true story. The Muscles from Brussels plays Frank Dux, the first Westerner ever to win the extreme "whupfest" known as the Kumatai (a long-running, no-holds-barred fighting tournament in Hong Kong). While a bit deficient in the script department (to say the least), this undeniably exciting flick succeeds by letting Van Damme play to his strengths: namely, minimal acting and a lot of impossibly acrobatic splits while kicking people in the head. A guilty-pleasure testosterone blast of the highest order, with a memorable villain (the massive Bolo Yeung from Enter the Dragon), and a multitude of well-choreographed fight scenes. An embarrassed-looking Forest Whitaker cameos as a hapless (and non-kickboxing) cop. --Andrew Wright

Bloodsport / Romeo Must Die