Jones, Richard Timothy

Vantage Point (Single-Disc Edition)

During an historic counter-terrorism summit in Spain the President of the United States is struck down by an assassin's bullet. Eight strangers have a perfect view of the kill but what did they really see? As the minutes leading up to the fatal shot are replayed through the eyes of each eyewitness the reality of the assassination takes shape. But just when you think you know the answer the shattering final truth is revealed. VANTAGE POINT is a mindbending political action-thriller starring Dennis Quaid Matthew Fox Academy Award® Winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor 2006 The Last King of Scotland) with Sigourney Weaver and Academy Award® winner William Hurt (Best Actor 1985 Kiss of the Spider Woman).System Requirements:Running Time: 90 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396216167 Manufacturer No: 21616

Vantage Point, which aspires to be a cunningly twisted thriller, comes equipped with plenty of hurtling action, handheld camerawork, what-was-that? editing, and a plot that has multiple, contradictory agendas writhing like a nest of snakes. It's all set a-boil within a few blocks of a town square in Spain where a U.S. President is targeted for assassination. Although the movie lasts 90 minutes, the events it depicts are mostly over with in a quarter-hour or so--but seen, rewound, and reseen from half a dozen different (you guessed it) vantage points. The first line in the credits reads "Original Film," apparently the name of the production company. "Gimmick Movie" would be more accurate; the opening reel, effectively jolting, affords an initial overview of the events through the eyes, lenses, monitors, and dueling sensibilities of a TV news producer (Sigourney Weaver), her activist-minded reporter (Zoe Saldana) and crew. Everybody's in Salamanca (actually, Mexico City) for the start of an international conference to reaffirm Arab-Western commitment to the fight against terrorism. Terrorism, of course, sees this as an ideal moment to break out. As gunshots and explosions reduce everything to chaos, the clock is reset to zero and we proceed to revisit the scene as experienced by several Secret Service agents (namely Dennis Quaid and Matthew Fox), an American tourist with camcorder (Forest Whitaker), sundry locals--including three who may be caught up in a love triangle or a conspiracy or both--and even the President himself (William Hurt).

For a while, this is mildly diverting: that guy, or that gesture, so sinister when glimpsed across the plaza in one run-through, now appears harmless in close-up--or vice versa. But there's no real ambiguity (so stop with the careless comparisons to Kurosawa's Rashomon)--this is a shell game in which the peas aren't worth tracking. Despite decent actors, the characters might as well be holograms (although poor Forest Whitaker is saddled with "motivation" of surpassing sappiness), and the casting telegraphs several twists: one redoubtable good guy practically gives a wink-wink, nudge-nudge that he's really bad, etc. The movie declines to specify which nutjob philosophy the terrorists espouse, and their numbers are multi-ethnic. There's also a laborious suggestion that they have bloodthirsty, reactionary counterparts among the President's inner circle, which perhaps qualifies as redeeming socio-political comment and prompts a meaningless declaration of deep meaning from the Prez. The whole megilleh finally comes down to an extended car chase through impassably claustrophobic streets that would mark a lurch into unintentional self-parody--if only that point hadn't been passed a couple of rewinds earlier. --Richard T. Jameson

Stills from Vantage Point (click for larger image)

Collateral (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Collateral offers a change of pace for Tom Cruise as a ruthless contract killer, but that's just one of many reasons to recommend this well-crafted thriller. It's from Michael Mann, after all, and the director's stellar track record with crime thrillers (Thief, Manhunter, and especially Heat) guarantees a rich combination of intelligent plotting, well-drawn characters, and escalating tension, beginning here when icy hit-man Vincent (Cruise) recruits cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) to drive him through a nocturnal tour of Los Angeles, during which he will execute five people in a 10-hour spree. While Stuart Beattie's screenplay deftly combines intimate character study with raw bursts of action (in keeping with Mann's directorial trademark), Foxx does the best work of his career to date (between his excellent performance in Ali and his title-role showcase in Ray), and Cruise is fiercely convincing as an ultra-disciplined sociopath. Jada Pinkett-Smith rises above the limitations of a supporting role, and Mann directs with the confidence of a master, turning L.A. into a third major character (much as it was in the Mann-produced TV series Robbery Homicide Division). Collateral is a bit slow at first, but as it develops subtle themes of elusive dreams and lives on the edge, it shifts into overdrive and races, with breathtaking precision, toward a nail-biting climax. --Jeff Shannon

Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Drawing from Andrei Tarkovsky's heady science fiction meditation Solaris by way of Alien and Hellraiser, this visually splendid but pulpy piece of science fiction schlock concerns a mission in the year 2047 to investigate the experimental American spaceship Event Horizon, which disappeared seven years previously and suddenly, out of nowhere, reappeared in the orbit of Neptune. Laurence Fishburne stars as mission commander Captain Miller and Sam Neill is Dr. Weir, the scientist who designed the mystery ship. Miller's T-shirt- and army-green-clad crew of smart-talking pros finds a ship dead and deserted, but further investigations turn up blood, corpses, dismembered body parts, and a decidedly unearthly presence. It turns out that the ship is really a space-age haunted house where spooky (and obviously impossible) visions lure each of the crew members into situations they should know better than to enter. The ship is gorgeously designed, borrowing from the dark, organic look of Alien and adding the menacing touch of teeth sprouting from bulwark doors and clawlike spikes inexplicably shooting out of the engine room floor. Unfortunately the film is not nearly as inventive as the production design--it turns into a woefully inconsistent psychic monster movie that sacrifices mood for tepid shocks--but the special effects are topnotch, and ultimately the movie has a trashy B movie charm about it. --Sean Axmaker

A search and rescue space mission leads to a realm of unimaginable terror in this electrifying mix of action and edge of your seat suspense.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: R UPC: 097360313246 Manufacturer No: 031324

Kiss the Girls

Coming after The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, this thriller about a collaboration between two serial killers feels like a pale attempt to cash in on the success of those earlier, better films. That's a pity, because this film certainly has its strengths--particularly in the central performances of Morgan Freeman as a forensic detective and Ashley Judd as a would-be victim who escaped from one of the killers. Director Gary Fleder demonstrates visual flair and maintains an involving undercurrent of tension, but as this adaptation of James Patterson's novel approaches its climax, familiar elements combine to form a chronic case of thriller déjà vu. It's altogether competent filmmaking in the service of a moribund story of competing psychopaths, and by the time the serial killers reach the home stretch of their twisted contest, the movie's dangerously close to Freddy Kruger territory, with a finale that could've been borrowed from any dozen similar thrillers. --Jeff Shannon

Renaissance Man

Penny Marshall directed this well-intentioned drama-comedy about a middle-aged advertising executive (Danny DeVito) whose heart has never been in his work. Fired for incompetence, DeVito's character is on the skids; but then comes an unusual job offer: Teach a bunch of boot-camp army recruits to read and think. The first-time teacher leads the uniformed men and women to an appreciation of Shakespeare, but he still has to grapple with his own problems with commitment and responsibility. Watching this film is like staring at a pool of broken eggs that never quite becomes an omelet. The story's promise is always there, but the satisfaction never quite comes. Still, there are some nice moments, and the whole thing works better on video than it did in the theaters. --Tom Keogh

Expect big, big laughs when funnyman Danny DeVito (TWINS, RUTHLESS PEOPLE) joins forces with talened director Penny Marshall (A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN, BIG) to deliver a lively five-star comedy you're going to love! DeVito plays a down-on-his-luck businessman who desperately takes the only job offered -- a teaching position in the U.S. Army. His mission: keep a ragtag bunch of underachieving misfits from flunking out of basic training! Be on alert for laughter as this unlikely new teacher and his underdog class unexpectedly inspire one another to be all that they can be!

The Wood (Back in the Day Edition)

Lots of guys have second thoughts about marriage. Three hours before his wedding Roland (Taye Diggs) is having third fourth and fifth thoughts. Good thing he's got best buddies Slim (Richard T. Jones) and Mike (Omar Epps) around to help sort those feelings out and to remember their coming-of-age days in "The Wood" (Inglewood California). From the big dance to first love the rites of passage that are part of everyone s growing up are winningly chronicled in this unforgettable tale of laughs and friendship that's set to the most memorable musical grooves of the '80s.DVD Features: Commentary: Commentary by Director Rick Famuyiwa Actors Taye Diggs and Richard T. Jones Other: Making the Wood Trailers: Theatrical Trailer Other: TV Spots Other: Photo GallerySystem Requirements:Running Time: 106 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 097361223445 Manufacturer No: 122344

Book of Love: The Definitive Reason Why Men Are Dogs

BOOK of LOVE: The Definitive ReasonWhy Men Are Dogs delivers a humorouslook at the tribulations of unrequited loveand sour relationships. The film's story linefocuses on Jay Will and Ben - three menliving dating and loving in Los Angelesduring the 90's - who struggle with theresultant heartbreak and insecurity fromtheir failed relationships. Their storiesunfold through therapy sessions which areoften as comedic as they are insightful.System Requirements: Running Time 91 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 602498842515 Manufacturer No: CM4251DVD

Twisted (Special Collector's Edition)

With a tawdry plot and a short list of suspects, Twisted gives armchair detectives an easy chance to figure out whodunit. Critics roasted this pulpy potboiler, in which Ashley Judd (attempting to repeat the thriller success she had with Double Jeopardy and High Crimes) plays a San Francisco homicide detective who is her own prime suspect in an ongoing serial murder case, in which all of the victims are men she recently slept with. These one-night stands, and a problem with alcoholic blackouts, make Judd's wine-drinking character the loose cannon on the case, and her partner (Andy Garcia) and police commissioner mentor (Samuel L. Jackson) have their own reasons for wanting the case to close. Apparently nobody bothered to point out numerous weaknesses in Sarah Thorp's B-movie screenplay, and with no apparent interest in the proceedings, director Philip Kaufman (The Right Stuff) allows Judd to look silly, Garcia to overact, and the whole movie to unfold in murky darkness and dimly lit rooms. Kaufman, Judd, and her costars are capable of better. --Jeff Shannon

Phone Booth

By some lucky quirk of fate, Phone Booth landed on Hollywood's A-list, but this thriller should've been a straight-to-video potboiler directed by its screenwriter, veteran schlockmeister Larry Cohen, who's riffing on his own 1976 thriller God Told Me To. Instead it's a pointless reunion for fast-rising star Colin Farrell and his Tigerland director, Joel Schumacher, who employs a multiple-image technique similar to TV's 24 to energize Cohen's pulpy plot about an unseen sniper (maliciously voiced by 24's Kiefer Sutherland) who pins his chosen victim (a philandering celebrity publicist played by Farrell) in a Manhattan phone booth, threatening murder if Farrell doesn't confess his sins (including a potential mistress played by Katie Holmes in a thankless role). In a role originally slated for Jim Carrey, Farrell brings vulnerable intensity to his predicament, but Cohen's irresistible premise is too thin for even 81 brisk minutes, which is how long Schumacher takes to reach his morally repugnant conclusion. --Jeff Shannon

A single phone call can change a man's life…or possibly end it. Colin Farrell delivers a captivating, off-the-hook performance as Stu Shepard, a self-centered New York City publicist who suddenly finds himself on the deadly end of a high-powered rifle scope. Now it's a real-time race against the clock as Stu must outwit a psychotic sniper in a frantic scramble from phone booth to freedom. Directed by Joel Schumacher, this groundbreaking "tightly-made thriller" (Sidekick Magazine) co-stars Forest Whitaker, Katie Holmes, and Kiefer Sutherland as the crazed gunman calling the shots, literally.

Jury Duty

The wheels of justice have just spun out of control! Pauly Shore stars in this riotous comedy of disorder in the court as a jobless freeloader who gets appointed to a sensational murder trial and will stop at nothing to keep the deliberations going as long as possible. Tia Carrere Shelley Winters and Abe Vigoda co-star.System Requirements:Running Time: 87 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396103689 Manufacturer No: 10368