Noseworthy, Jack

U-571 (Collector's Edition)

Taut and gripping, U-571 follows the exploits of a fictional team of World War II U.S. submariners who undertake a secret mission to capture a German Enigma machine to decode German documents. Writer-director Jonathan Mostow (Breakdown) tells an intense, economical tale, reminiscent of the best classic war films, while infusing it with modern sentiments.

Spring 1942: A crew of young submarine sailors are on a much-needed 48-hour liberty when they're suddenly called together and engaged in an expedition. At the helm are Lieutenant Commander Mike Dahlgren (Bill Paxton), Lieutenant Andrew Tyler (Matthew McConaughey), and Chief Klough (Harvey Keitel). Other pivotal crew members include Tyler's Annapolis pal Lieutenant Pete Emmett (Jon Bon Jovi, proving his acting mettle) and Lieutenant Hirsch (Jake Weber), who, along with Marine Major Coonan (David Keith), organizes the mission. As much of the movie takes place in a submarine during WWII, there are inevitable comparisons with the technical masterpiece Das Boot, but Mostow's masterfully shot tale can hold its own.

McConaughey's Tyler is believably earnest as he comes to grips with the reality, tragedy, and consequence of being in command. While this explosion-filled film consistently maintains its tense pace (as did the underrated Breakdown), it also presents with surprising restraint a genuine human story--and the remarkable journey of an unexpected hero. --N.F. Mendoza

U-571 is an action-packed white-knuckle story about an American submarine crew s battle against time - and their own fears - while carrying out a daring mission to capture a top secret encrypting device from a Nazi U-boat.System Requirements:Starring: Bill Paxton Matthew McConaughey Harvey Keitel Jack Noseworthy Jon Bon Jovi and Matthew Settle. Directed By: Jonathan Mostow. Running Time: 117 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Universal Distribution Corp.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 025192078521 Manufacturer No: 20785

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

Alive

In 1972 a chartered plane carrying a Uruguayan rugby squad and various family members crashed in the Andes. If that sounds dry and matter-of-fact, you haven't seen director Frank Marshall's harrowing re-creation Alive, an adrenaline-pounding, heart-in-your-mouth spectacle that kicks off this famous story of survival. The real-life against-all-odds odyssey made worldwide headlines when it became known that the survivors ate their own dead to survive. What could have easily become sensationalistic exploitation is treated with compassion and dignity by Marshall as he explores their moral and spiritual struggles as well as their physical ordeal. As team captain and base-camp cheerleader Vincent Spano slowly collapses under the stress and Ethan Hawke rouses from mourning his dead family to taking charge of saving himself, it also becomes a portrait in leadership, hope, and emotional courage. --Sean Axmaker

Witness ALIVE, the thrilling true-life adventure of challenge and survival! In this action-packed hit, a team of tough rugby players survive a plane crash deep in the desolate, snow-covered Andes. Stranded there, they must overcome incredible odds to stay alive! See for yourself the unforgettable story of ordinary young men who find courage in the face of disaster and test the very limits of human endurance! It's an astonishing death-defying triumph that will both entertain ... and inspire you!

Unconditional Love

Despite the success of My Best Friend's Wedding, Aussie director P.J. Hogan certainly hasn't gone Hollywood. Unconditional Love, co-written with his wife and fellow filmmaker Jocelyn Moorhouse, is a deeply eccentric concoction that ranges from campy comedy to murder mystery. If the whole thing doesn't really come off, it does have much that is funny, giddy, or simply weirder than all-get-out. Kathy Bates enjoys herself as a discarded wife who impulsively flies to England to attend the funeral of her idol, a beloved singer--Jonathan Pryce, in glorious sequined form. Meeting his "valet" (read: secret gay lover), Rupert Everett, she determines to find the dead man's murderer. It's hard to get the tone right on this kind of movie, but it's also easy to like a film that finds time for tributes to Barry Manilow (hey, Hogan rehabilitated ABBA in Muriel's Wedding) and the reassuring spirit of Julie Andrews. --Robert Horton

It's never too late to start living! Kathy Bates Rupert Everett and Dan Aykroyd star in this hilarious comedy about a woman who learns to live life to the fullest after her husband leaves her and her favorite crooner is murdered.Running Time: 122 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 794043631627

Idle Hands

Despite all the pot-smoking in Idle Hands, the message here seems to be that too many bong hits will take you on a one-way trip to the devil's playground. That's what happens to Anton (Devon Sawa), a wasted teen who's so perpetually zonked on weed that he doesn't notice his parents have been slaughtered by an evil force that then possesses Anton's right hand, taking on a wildly homicidal life of its own after Anton chops it off with a butcher knife. The first victims are Anton's pals Mick (teen-movie stalwart Seth Green), who gets a beer bottle embedded in his skull, and Pnub (Elden Henson), whose head is lopped off by a rotary saw blade, and later reattached with a barbecue fork and duct tape. (Did we mention that Mick and Pnub turn into undead jokesters? It's that kind of movie.) This unoriginal idea is little more than an excuse for gross-out effects and easy one-liners, and then Vivica A. Fox appears as the demon-buster who knows how to kill the hand once and for all. It's fun to a point, and certain to be a popular Halloween hit with its intended teenage audience, but you can't help wishing this movie had tried harder to be something more than a collection of crude and gory gags. --Jeff Shannon

Undercover Brother (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

Blaxploitation movies deserve a good spoofing, and Undercover Brother tweaks the subgenre with a few good laughs. But what might have been an Afro-centric Austin Powers (adapted by John Ridley from his Internet film series) is instead a lackluster comedy with one basic joke: "Whitey"--personified as a faceless corporate despot known as "the Man"--has the power, but black folks have soul. With enough funk to make Shaft look passé, Eddie Griffin plays "U.B." with an oversized 'fro and a firm grasp of comedic possibilities. He's recruited by the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. (an all-black justice league) to foil the Man's plan to derail a Colin Powell-like presidential candidate (Billy Dee Williams), and U.B.'s undercover exploits keep the slim plot moving. Denise Richards and Neil Patrick Harris are gamely ridiculed as token white allies, and it's all in good fun as director Malcolm D. Lee (Spike's cousin) finds room for mild jolts of relevant social commentary. --Jeff Shannon

With clothes and music from the 1970s, a super-secret agent thwarts a plan to brainwash all humanity.
Genre: Feature Film Urban Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 28-MAR-2006
Media Type: DVD

Breakdown

Tautly directed and superbly photographed, this crowd-pleasing thriller from 1997 is indebted to Steven Spielberg's Duel, but more closely resembles Dead Calm in its strengths and weaknesses. Kurt Russell plays a stressed-out husband whose wife (Kathleen Quinlan) disappears after their car breaks down in the desert. Tracking her whereabouts leads to an interstate theft and kidnapping ring, and as Russell pursues--and is pursued by--a vicious redneck played to perfection by J.T. Walsh (in one of his final film roles), the movie succumbs to several tense, but utterly conventional action sequences. That doesn't stop the movie from being an above-average nail-biter. It is so effectively directed by co-writer Jonathan Mostow that even the more surreal situations seem plausible and altogether unsettling. Russell's performance is key to the film's success--he's smart enough to be admirable, and we can readily identify with his frustration, confusion, and torment. Through him, Breakdown takes on the edgy quality of a wide-awake nightmare. --Jeff Shannon

Jeff and Amy are driving to a new life in California when their car's engine dies. Amy accepts a ride from a helpful trucker while Jeff waits in the car and when she doesn't return Jeff begins a frantic search to find her.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-JAN-2003
Media Type: DVD

Phat Girlz

Superstar comedienne Mo'Nique is "hilarious" (San Francisco Chronicle) as a sassy plus-sized fashion designer who's tired of taking no for an answer in this "delightful" (Boston Globe) comedy about living life to the fullest. Jazmin Biltmore (Mo'Nique) has big plans for large ladies she's designed a sexy line of clothes for curvaceous women like herself. But when she can't get funding for her designs or meet a man who appreciates her unique physique Jazmin's patience starts running thin. That is until she wins an all-expense-paid trip to a resort in Palms Springs where she just might just meet the man of her dreams.System Requirements:Running Time: 99 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 024543254928 Manufacturer No: 2235492

Tart, talented, and plus-size, Jazmin (Mo'Nique, The Parkers) lives in a world that insults and rejects her because she's fat--or is the emotional abuse she heaps on herself the real problem? A department store employee with fashion designer dreams, Jazmin flounders until she wins a Palm Springs vacation and meets a handsome Nigerian doctor named Tunde who cherishes a full figure as a mark of beauty. But can Jazmin overcome her self-loathing and accept Tunde's love? This plot summary doesn't capture the freewheeling style of Phat Girlz, a low-budget feature that proves that slick production values can't compare with spunky rhythmic editing, rough and ready wit, and an honest heart. The movies takes some broad but accurate shots at American culture's crazed body fascism (though the unchivalrous might point out that the movie's male romantic objects all have a pretty studly physique). Mo'Nique throws herself into her part, capturing the mix of self-deprecating humor and bitter anger that many heavy women turn brutally on themselves. Phat Girlz may end up as a fairy tale, but along the way it delves into the sharp, dark edges that make a happy ending well-earned. --Bret Fetzer

Elvis: The Mini-Series

Produced with the cooperation of the Elvis Presley estate this miniseries is the first and only biographical film to use master recordings of Elvis' biggest hits for a daring new look at the legend as you've never seen or heard him before. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars.System Requirements:Running Time: 173 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 013131493290 Manufacturer No: DV14932

Elvis: The Miniseries was produced with the cooperation of the Presley empire, and it shows: this 173-minute opus uses Elvis's original recordings and real Graceland locations. The official imprimatur might also account for the movie's emphasis on the good years: what we get here is the early rise to fame, the Army interlude, then a run through the increasingly dispiriting movie career. It climaxes with the 1968 comeback TV special, leaving Elvis's addled final decade undetailed (but foreshadowed, to be sure). The story of the Mama-lovin' Tupelo boy who ascended to the throne of rock has been told so many times it has taken on the contours of Greek myth: we know everything that's coming, but we gain reassurance from hearing the familiar anecdotes anyway (and then Elvis and the boys started fooling around with "That's Alright, Mama" and Sam Phillips rolled the tape, etc.). In this telling of the myth, the villain is an easy find: it's Colonel Tom Parker, the big-talking and short-sighted manager who reaped big profits from Presley's movies but kept the King out of projects such as West Side Story. Randy Quaid gives the movie's best performance as the cunning Colonel.

An intelligent script helps the movie over the episodic nature of biopics, and Camryn Manheim and Robert Patrick are nice casting as Elvis's parents. But the whole thing hinges on the central E-casting, and here Jonathan Rhys Meyers proves a mixed bag. He appears a little intimidated by the role, and never quite owns it, even if he's very good as the dewy, more-or-less innocent Elvis. Having to lip-synch to the original recordings makes Rhys Meyers look outmatched at times: how's that big sound coming out of that spindly guy? Kurt Russell's performance in John Carpenter's classic TV-movie remains the gold standard. This take on Elvis makes him out to be a pawn in a crazy game, rather than a self-directed musician with a very distinct vision of his own. --Robert Horton

The Brady Bunch Movie

The big-screen version of the hugely popular 1970s television sitcom takes an original angle: instead of simply re-creating the old series, the film spoofs it by presenting the merged family as blithely unaware that fashions and customs have changed in the '90s. Shelley Long and Gary Cole are hilarious as the ultra-square yet libidinous Mr. and Mrs. Brady, Christopher Daniel Barnes is an ideal Greg, and Christine Taylor seems practically cloned from the original Marcia. But director Betty Thomas (Private Parts) shifts the emphasis away from comparisons between old and new Bradys and concentrates on quasi-surreal parodies and set pieces featuring the Brady kids doing their spirited, singing thing for a disbelieving public. Smart, sharp, and happy to share its conspiratorial mood with an appreciative audience, The Brady Bunch Movie is a kick. --Tom Keogh

THE BRADY BUNCH MOVIE brings the lovable family of the 1970's into the modern world, to see how their good old-fashioned values pan out in the streets of Los Angeles. The Brady's house still sparkles with the same orange and olive green furniture as the original show, but the surrounding area has changed drastically. Confronted by carjackers, new fashion trends and popular culture in general, the Brady's remain perky and pleasant to the world around them. When their next-door neighbors try to buy the Brady's home in an attempt to raze the neighborhood and develop a mini-mall, the Brady family must unite and find a solution.