Nucci, Danny

The Rock

Between his high-octane debut, Bad Boys, and 1998's wannabe blockbuster Armageddon, hotshot director Michael Bay forged his dubious reputation with this crowd-pleasing action extravaganza. In it a psychotically disgruntled war hero (Ed Harris) seizes the island prison of Alcatraz and threatens to wage chemical warfare against nearby San Francisco unless the government publicly recognizes the men who were killed under Harris's top-secret command. Nicolas Cage plays the biochemist who teams up with the only man ever to have escaped from Alcatraz (Sean Connery) in an attempt to foil Harris's terrorist scheme. As one might expect, what follows is an action-packed barrage of bullets, bodies, and climactic confrontations, replete with enough plot contrivances to give even the most jaded action fan cause for alarm. It's a load of hooey, but the cast is obviously having a grand old time, and there's enough wit to make the recycled action sequences tolerable. If you're ordering this movie on DVD, be careful with the volume knobs on your home-theater sound systems, because The Rock could cause partial hearing loss and structural damage to your home. --Jeff Shannon

An FBI chemical weapons expert joins forces with a former British spy to rescue the hostages held on Alcatraz island by a group of Marines who have missiles loaded with poison gas.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 25-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Explorers

It's only in retrospect that one can see that Joe Dante's Explorers is an awful lot like Robert Zemeckis's Contact. An alien race, determined to make contact with earthlings, feeds some unsuspecting individuals the blueprints for space travel. Instead of the big gyroscope that Jodie Foster was strapped into in Contact, the three kids in Explorers make their intergalactic trip in crystalline blue Flubber. River Phoenix looks shockingly prepubescent (which he was) as Wolfgang, the brains of the trio, while Ethan Hawke looks like a young lady-killer as Ben. Fitting into the "whatever happened to?" category is Jason Presson as Darren, an outcast who joins the two eggheads. Joe Dante's career, cruising after Gremlins was a smash, faced a serious "hitch in the giddyup" when this film sputtered through the 1985 summer season without much of an impact. The effects still hold up nicely, as does Dante's incessant need to pay homage to other, older sci-fi films. The whole thing seems like a lot of trouble for some smackingly bland and silly results, but it's a harmless, initially involving diversion. --Keith Simanton

EXPLORERS are the inventive story about three idealistic and thrill-seeking boys who combine their wits and astuteness to build their own spaceship. Accordingly, the boys blast-off into the galaxy and embark on journeys both whimsical and weird.

Titanic

When the theatrical release of James Cameron's Titanic was delayed from July to December of 1997, media pundits speculated that Cameron's $200 million disaster epic would cause the director's downfall, signal the end of the blockbuster era, and sink Paramount Studios as quickly as the ill-fated luxury liner had sunk on that fateful night of April 14, 1912. Some studio executives were confident, others horrified, but the clarity of hindsight turned Cameron into an Oscar-winning genius, a shrewd businessman, and one of the most successful directors in the history of motion pictures. Titanic would surpass the $1 billion mark in global box-office receipts (largely due to multiple viewings, the majority by teenage girls), win 11 Academy Awards including best picture and director, produce the best-selling movie soundtrack of all time, and make a global superstar of Leonardo DiCaprio. A bona fide pop-cultural phenomenon, the film has all the ingredients of a blockbuster (romance, passion, luxury, grand scale, a snidely villain, and an epic, life-threatening crisis), but Cameron's alchemy of these ingredients proved more popular than anyone could have predicted. His stroke of genius was to combine absolute authenticity with a pair of fictional lovers whose tragic fate would draw viewers into the heart-wrenching reality of the Titanic disaster. As starving artist Jack Dawson and soon-to-be-married socialite Rose DeWitt Bukater, DiCaprio and Kate Winslet won the hearts of viewers around the world, and their brief but never-forgotten love affair provides the humanity that Cameron needed to turn Titanic into an emotional experience. Present-day framing scenes (featuring Gloria Stuart as the 101-year-old Rose) add additional resonance to the story, and although some viewers proved vehemently immune to Cameron's manipulations, few can deny the production's impressive achievements. Although some of the computer-generated visual effects look artificial, others--such as the sunset silhouette of Titanic during its first evening at sea, or the climactic splitting of the ship's sinking hull--are state-of-the-art marvels. In terms of sets and costumes alone, the film is never less than astounding. More than anything else, however, the film's overwhelming popularity speaks for itself. Titanic is an event film and a monument to Cameron's risk-taking audacity, blending the tragic irony of the Titanic disaster with just enough narrative invention to give the historical event its fullest and most timeless dramatic impact. Titanic is an epic love story on par with Gone with the Wind, and like that earlier box-office phenomenon, it's a film for the ages. --Jeff Shannon

Nothing on Earth can rival the epic spectacle and breathtaking grandeur of Titanic the sweeping love story that sailed into the hearts of moviegoers around the world ultimately emerging as the most popular motion picture of all time.Leonardo DiCaprio and Oscar-nominee Kate Winslet light up the screen as Jack and Rose the young lovers who find one another on the maiden voyage of the "unsinkable" R.M.S. Titanic. But when the doomed luxury liner collides with an iceberg in the frigid North Atlantic their passionate love affair becomes a thrilling race for survival.From acclaimed filmmaker James Cameron comes a tale of forbidden love and courage in the face of disaster that triumphs as a true cinematic masterpiece.System Requirements:Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. Directed By: James Cameron. Running Time: 194 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 Paramount Pictures.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG-13 UPC: 097361552248 Manufacturer No: 155224

Eraser

If you're going to submit yourself to a dazzling example of mainstream action, this thriller is as good a choice as any. Eraser is a live-action cartoon, the kind of movie in which Arnold Schwarzenegger can survive nail bombs, hails of bullets, an attack by voracious alligators ("You're luggage," he says, after killing one of the beasts), and still emerge from the mayhem relatively intact. Arnold plays an "eraser" from the Federal Witness Protection Program, so named because he can virtually erase the existence of anyone he's been assigned to protect. His latest beneficiary is an FBI employee (Vanessa Williams) who stumbled across a secret government group involved in the sale and export of an advanced weapon capable of shooting rounds at nearly the speed of light. Fantastic action sequences are handled with flair by director Charles Russell (The Mask), so it's easy to forgive the fact that this movie is almost completely ridiculous. --Jeff Shannon

Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as Eraser, an elite federal marshal who "erases" the pasts of jeopardized informers and relocates them into safe anonymity.

Crimson Tide

You can almost hear the studio pitch meeting echoing throughout Crimson Tide like the sonar on the soundtrack: "It's The Cain Mutiny on a nuclear submarine!" When radio communications problems aboard the USS Alabama prevent the sub from receiving its orders clearly during a tense confrontation with Russian warships, Navy officer Denzel Washington faces a huge ethical dilemma: countermand the orders of legendary Captain Ramsey (Gene Hackman) to fire nuclear missiles, or follow his command and risk launching an unprovoked nuclear war. It's really an actors' picture, and the fun is in the fireworks between Washington and Hackman, each of whose characters articulates solid reasoning behind his decision. There are no easy villains, and there's no easy way to tell right from wrong--that's what makes the nuclear stakes so terrifying. Director Tony Scott (who directed Quentin Tarantino's True Romance script) called in Tarantino to punch up the dialogue, which is why, for example, the sailors talk about Silver Surfer comic books. The digital video disc is in anamorphic widescreen; the sonorous underwater rumblings on the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack will provide you with a good opportunity to show off your system's bass response. --Jim Emerson

The captain of a nuclear submarine struggles with his second in command about ambiguous orders to fire warheads at a Russian rebellion.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

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!

The Sandlot 3 - Heading Home

If good things happen to good people, does it follows that bad things happen to bad people or do bad things happen to help people become better? In this third movie of the Sandlot trilogy, the famous and very egocentric baseball player Tommy Santorelli of the Los Angeles Dodgers is knocked unconscious during batting practice and wakes up 29 years in the past. As a 12-year-old boy with the intellect and memories of a 41-year-old, Tommy finds himself surrounded by old friends at a long-forgotten sandlot and completely confused about whether it's all some kind of trauma-induced dream or a second chance to re-live his life. His initial fury is gradually replaced by a grudging acceptance and the realization that he's been given a rare opportunity to spend time with his dying mother. Tommy's disdain for the local sandlot players and his conceited attitude put him at odds with his old friends, but his top-notch baseball skills eventually win their admiration and secure him a place on the team. As Tommy unwillingly assumes a teaching role, he begins to understand the importance of teamwork and mentorship and the Sandlot team improves dramatically. In the end, Tommy is forced to make a personal choice between friendship and fame; a choice that will impact the team's ability to win the Little League Tournament, determine the very fate of the local sandlot, and greatly affect Tommy's own future. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Take the field with a new lineup of scrappy sandlot sluggers! Starring Luke Perry as a pampered pro athlete who rediscovers his love for the game The Sandlot: Heading Home is a pulse-pounding and heartwarming tale about losing your ego putting your friends first...and winning it all!Major league baseball superstar Tommy Santorelli (Perry) racks up great numbers at the plate but his "me-first" attitude drags his team down. But Tommy gets a second chance when he's knocked unconscious by a pitch and wakes up as a 12-year-old on his childhood playing field...the sandlot! Now with a greedy developer Earl Needman threatening to bulldoze the sandlot unless Tommy's ragtag friends can beat Needman's much-better team Tommy must decide whether to put his own interests first by switching teams...or stay true to his friends by leading them to their greatest victory yet!System Requirements:Runtime: 96 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: PG UPC: 024543434573 Manufacturer No: 2243457

Totally Baked (Unrated) (Ws)

Totally Baked is the hilarious totally offbeat cannabis comedy in the tradition of Half Baked guaranteed to give you the munchies.Totally Baked spoofs the legalization of Marijuana with a uproariously funny tone guaranteed to please audiences. It s hysterical and informative at the same time A Cult Classic! John Merriman from the Austin Film Festival. Featuring some of today s biggest stoner comedians who will do anything to save their bud including Craig Shoemaker Doug Benson Mark Cohen Dan Gabriel Jason Gillearn Rich Hardesty Al Madrigal Jackie The Joke Man Martling Henry Phillips Jasper Redd Tom Rhodes Ron Schock. System Requirements:Run Time: 70 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/SCREWBALL COMEDY UPC: 883476000787 Manufacturer No: SM0078DVD

That Old Feeling

Carl Reiner made this enjoyable romantic farce about a divorced couple who commence an affair at their daughter's wedding. Reiner lets the idea bounce around the story's setting and characters so that the full comic effect of the illicit relationship can be felt more chaotically, building on its own irony. Bette Midler and Dennis Farina are quite believable and likable as the not-so-estranged-anymore couple, and Paula Marshall is very good as their exasperated daughter. Not a masterpiece, but one of Reiner's best films in years, with a distinctively European flavor to the comedy. The DVD release has a widescreen presentation, production notes, cast and crew bios, theatrical trailer, Dolby sound, optional Spanish and French soundtracks, and optional Spanish subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Firestarter Movie Collection