Kove, Martin

Rambo Trilogy (Ultimate Edition DVD Collection) (3-Disc Collector Set) - (First Blood/Rambo: First Blood Part II/Rambo III)

Three films featuring Rambo, an angry Vietnam veteran.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-AUG-2007
Media Type: DVD

The Karate Kid (Special Edition)

A fatherless teenager faces his moment of truth in The Karate Kid. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in Los Angeles from the east coast and faces the difficult task of making new friends. However, he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobras, a menacing gang of karate students, when he strikes up a relationship with Ali (Elisabeth Shue), the Cobra leader's ex-girlfriend. Eager to fight back and impress his new girlfriend but afraid to confront the dangerous gang, Daniel asks his handyman Miyagi (Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita), whom he learns is a master of the martial arts, to teach him karate. Miyagi teaches Daniel that karate is a mastery over the self, mind, and body and that fighting is always the last answer to a problem. Under Miyagi's guidance, Daniel develops not only physical skills but also the faith and self-confidence to compete despite tremendous odds as he encounters the fight of his life in the exciting finale to this entertaining film.

John G. Avildsen not only directed Rocky, he tried remaking it over the years in a dozen different ways. One of them was this popular 1984 drama about a new kid (Ralph Macchio) in town targeted by karate-wielding bullies until he gets a new mentor: the handyman (Pat Morita) from his apartment building, who teaches him self-confidence and fighting skills. The screen partnership of Macchio's motor-mouth character and Morita's reserved father figure works well, and the script allows for the younger man to develop sympathy for the painful memories of his teacher. But the film's real engine, as with Rocky, is the fighting, and there's plenty of that. Elisabeth Shue is on board as the girl the klutzy Macchio dreams of winning. --Tom Keogh

Death Race 2000

No doubt about it, Death Race 2000 is one of the greatest B-movies ever made. A crown jewel in the career of B-movie king Roger Corman, it's a sublime example of exploitative filmmaking from a time when Corman's low-budget quickies were about to be swept aside by the blockbuster success of Jaws and Star Wars, and all of its outrageous ingredients combined to create a schlock-movie masterpiece. Liberally infused with director Paul Bartel's macabre sense of humor, Corman's mandatory formula for success (R-rated violence and nudity, served up at least once every 15 minutes) is zanily applied to a near-future scenario (similar to Rollerball, also released in 1975) in which a fascist empire appeases its oppressed citizens with "Death Race 2000," an automotive spectacle in which five costumed racers drive wacky race cars cross-country from New York to "New Los Angeles," scoring points with hit-and-run killings awarded on a sliding scale, with highest points for hitting children and the elderly! In addition to "Calamity Jane" (played by former Andy Warhol acolyte Mary Woronov), "Matilda the Hun" (Roberta Collins), and "Nero the Hero" (Martin Kove), the hottest contestants are "Machine Gun" Joe Viturbo (Sylvester Stallone, on the verge of Rocky stardom) and the reigning champion "Frankenstein" (David Carradine), whose "Death Race" prowess has reached near-mythic proportions.

Filmed for $300,000 on desert-road and freeway locations throughout California's San Fernando Valley, Death Race 2000 packs more entertainment into 78 minutes than most movies can muster in two hours or more. Although it originated as a serious short story by Ib Melchior (best known as the writer-director of The Angry Red Planet), Corman took a cue from Dr. Strangelove and gave the material a satirical spin, resulting in non-graphic road-kills that are more hilarious than horrific, especially with the play-by-play race commentary by legendary disc jockey "The Real Don Steele," whose priceless performance (along with Carradine's deadpan drollery) turns Death Race 2000 into a low-comedy classic. The deadly car bodies were designed by Dean Jeffries (who also customized the "Monkeemobile") and fitted onto Volkswagen chassis, and Bartel's ingenious use of a meager budget epitomized the Corman aesthetic, reaping impressive box-office profits on its way to becoming one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. --Jeff Shannon

The Karate Kid II

Literally picking up about five minutes after the conclusion of the 1984 The Karate Kid, this 1986 sequel, also directed by John G. Avildsen, sends Ralph Macchio's and Pat Morita's characters to the latter's home turf in Japan, where the older man is confronted by an old rival, and Macchio's newly confident fighter gets a tougher challenge than the punks back home. Sillier than its predecessor, this follow-up at least has some distracting soap opera elements in Morita's coming to terms with an old flame, while Macchio woos a lovely local girl. Ironically, it's the action that evokes laughter, particularly a climactic fight that gets over the top quickly. --Tom Keogh

Rambo: First Blood, Part 2

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 23-NOV-2004
Media Type: DVD

After Rocky and its sequels, Sylvester Stallone cast about for another character that would bring him the same kind of box-office hit--and found it in disillusioned Vietnam vet John Rambo in First Blood, a solid little action thriller. So when all else failed, Stallone went back to the same well in hopes of recapturing the same commercial success. Which this film did. But where First Blood was a no-nonsense thriller that pitted Stallone against a worthy (and not necessarily bad) Brian Dennehy, this one is a sadistic chest-thumper in which Rambo gets to go back to Vietnam: ostensibly, he's there to rescue missing POWs, but in fact the movie was a lame excuse for him to refight the Vietnam War--and win. Audiences ate up the cruel Vietcong (and their Russian manipulators) and Stallone's bogus heroics, but it was strictly by-the-numbers action. --Marshall Fine

The Last House on the Left

Future Nightmare creator and Scream weaver Wes Craven's film debut is a primitive little production that rises above its cut-rate production values and hazy, grainy patina via its grimly affecting portrait of human evil infiltrating a middle-class household. The story is adapted from Ingmar Bergman's The Virgin Spring, but the film has more in common with Sam Peckinpah's Straw Dogs as it charts the descent of a harmless married couple into methodical killers. A quartet of criminals--a distorted version of the nuclear family--kidnaps a pair of teenage girls and proceeds to ravage, rape, torture, and finally brutally murder them in the woods, unwittingly within walking distance of their rural home. The killers take refuge in the girls' own home, but when the parents discover just who they are and what they've done, they plot violent retribution.

Along with George Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Tobe Hooper's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Craven helped redefine American horror with this debut--all three movies portray modern society crumbling into madness and horror. But, unlike his fellow directors, Craven gives his film an uncomfortable verisimilitude, setting it squarely in the heartland of modern America. While at times it's awkward and inconsistent, with distracting comic interludes, his handling of the brutal horror scenes is unsettling, and the death of the daughter is an unexpectedly quiet and lyrical moment. --Sean Axmaker

Bold, powerful and starkly realistic, this chilling cinematic debut of horror master Wes Craven (Scream) is a shocking journey into the heart of evil. Written and directed with almost unbearable dramatic tension (Chicago Sun-Times), The Last House on the Left will make you deadbolt your doors and frantically mutter: It's only a movie it's only a movie it's only a movie! Easy-going Mari Collingwood and her fun-loving friend Phyllis are on their way to a Bloodlust concert to celebrate Mari's 17th birthday when three escaped convicts kidnap and torture them. But Mari and Phyllis are fighters, and although they are drugged and beaten into unconsciousness, stuffed into a car trunk and driven into the woods for even more brutality, they are still alive...but for how long?

The Karate Kid Part III

The Gambler V - Playing for Keeps / The Gambler Returns

The Gambler V: Playing For Keeps: Kenny Rogers is Brady Hawkes, a famous gambler whose only game in life is to find his son, Jeremiah, who has left a prestigious university and has been spotted running with Butch and Sundance's "Wild Bunch," the wanted gang of thieves on the run from the Pinkerton detective agency. On a tip from a convicted associate of Butch and Sundance, Hawkes heads to Ft. Worth to see Fanny Porter -- the city's most prominent madam and friend of the gang. At an opera house filled with Pinkertons, Brady confronts his son and begs him to go back to a straight life before it's too late. With the lead detective Frank Dimaio and his agents present, the only future for Jeremiah is prison. When Brady returns to Fanny's, Butch and Sundance head for the jail, helping Jeremiah escape and once again the gang is on the run. In a desperate race to find his son before the Pinkertons award the bounty on the bandits -- dead or alive -- Brady's trek spans from Galveston to South America with the Pinkertons close behind. Jeremiah's fate rests on Brady's gamble to save his son's life. The Gambler Returns: Luck Of The Draw: Hawkes, Jones and Cassidy are on their way to the biggest poker game in history. But a few folks want to see them fold before they even get there. Heroes and villains, sharpshooters and card sharks. Fistfights and shootouts, dusty trails and wild saloons. That's right: The Gambler's back! Kenny Rogers saddles up for his most spectacular ride as Brady Hawkes, better known as The Gambler. This time, he's got a wagon full of fabulous co-stars in a great gun-slinging adventure. The Gambler's headed from Mexico to San Francisco to test his skills in the richest poker game ever. It's a rip-roaring adventure with your favorite card shark -- so come along for the ride as THE GAMBLER RETURNS!

Gentle Ben: The Movie

Dean Cain and two-time Golden Globe nominee Corbin Bensen star in thei family adventure featuring everyone's favorite bear, the mighty and lovable Gentle Ben.

Gentle Ben 2