Olds, Gabriel

Without Limits

Since audiences are inclined to F/X spectacle, it was easy to understand the 1998 box-office battle between Armageddon and Deep Impact, which shared almost exactly the same premise. But two films about the now-obscure long-distance runner Steve Prefontaine? Without Limits and Prefontaine were in production at the same time, with the cheaper Prefontaine rushed into theaters in 1997 while Without Limits was held back until the fall of '98. As it turned out, neither movie scored a deep impact at the box office, but Without Limits is much more satisfying as a competent, heartfelt slice of sports history. Billy Crudup (a rising star who strongly resembles the film's producer, Tom Cruise, in both looks and intensity) plays Prefontaine, or "Pre," the mustachioed runner who blazed out of Coos Bay, Oregon, in the late 1960s. The movie grazes across the major events of Pre's career at the University of Oregon, where he blew away the competition and positioned himself as the leading American runner (and a charismatic hunk) going into the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich--that star-crossed competition at which Arab terrorists kidnapped and killed members of the Israeli team. Though the film suffers from some of the built-in problems of the true-life biopic, director Robert Towne (who earlier made a remarkable track-and-field picture, Personal Best) captures the texture of the athletes' world. Acting honors go to Donald Sutherland, turning in an emotional performance as coach Bill Bowerman; while tutoring Pre, Bowerman was tinkering with some waffle-soled running shoes, a hobby that later became a little company called Nike. --Robert Horton

Andersonville

They left the nightmare...and entered Hell. Captured Union soilders cope with life inside the Civil War's most notorious prisoner-of-war camp. A powerful, compeling tale of war and will, with Emmy Award-winning direction by John Frankenheimer and a cast including Frederic Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and William H. Macy (ER, Fargo) Year: 1996 Director: John Frankenheimer Starring: Jarrod Emick, Frederic Forrest, Ted Marcoux

Now and Forever

From the moment they meet despite their clashing cultures Native American John Myron (Adam Beach) and Angela Wilson (Mia Kirshner) form an unbreakable bond. One fateful night John rescues Angela from a wicked act of betrayal. Faced with its aftermath Angela flees town unaware that she has set in motion a chain of events that will alter the course of both their futures in this life& and the next. A timeless tale of love combined with all the power and mystery of "The Sixth Sense" Now & Forever defies reason and re-defines the boundaries of the human heart and soul. System Requirements:Running Time 105 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 783722733622 Manufacturer No: ARD27336

Urbania

Jon Shear's film, one of the overlooked gems of 2000, simmers under a tense, disturbing air of inevitability. Charlie (Dan Futterman) wanders the nighttime streets of the city, a mournful lost soul determinedly pursuing a mysterious stranger whom he is convinced holds the key to his redemption. He encounters chatty bartenders, pompous pickups, and dying friends (including a biting Alan Cumming), and before long you are treated to that rare, great surprise of realizing that you have no idea where any of it is headed. Some of Shear and Daniel Reitz's play-based dialogue is stagy, but the mercurial Futterman, both subtly sympathetic and unstable, is superlative. The film surrounds him with loopy urban legends (the poodle in the microwave, the AIDS-infected one-night-stand, etc.), then cunningly lifts the veil on such stories to reveal the fear motivating them. Uncertainty and isolation create the need for fantastic terrors. Shear hauntingly suggests here how much more horrifying and heartbreaking real life can be. --Steve Wiecking

Life of the Party

Michael Elgin (Eion Bailey) former high school track star now in his thirties keeps reality at bay by having a few too many cocktails. His wife (Ellen Pompeo) is ready to leave him and his career is hanging by a thread. When he crashes his friend's car and emerges unscathed he scares those who care into organizing an intervention. Michael comes home to find his friends co-workers parents wife and new girlfriend waiting. When the psychiatrist who was supposed to guide them never shows up Michael takes over and turnd the event into another party. When secrets are revealed emotions erupt relationships unravel and Michael must find a way to pull his life back together and save his marriage.Runtime: 87 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: NR UPC: 821575551854 Manufacturer No: TF-55185

Mambo Cafe

Nydia's (Thalia) college career may soon be over if her family's business, The Mambo Café, doesn't get back on track. While on summer break, Nydia and her brother cook up a scheme to bring in the customers. The only problem is? it requires the mob, a murder and plenty of mayhem. A hilarious serious of near disasters brings in the customers but also a spicy buffet of trouble. Ay Caramba! Now, it's clean up time. The Mambo Cafe, where comedy and murder are the main ingredients!

Stealing Time

Sightings - Heartland Ghost

Animal Room

Town Has Turned to Dust

More of a frontier Western with futuristic trappings than a science fiction film, you can see why this made-for-cable morality play from the pen of the late Rod Serling remained unproduced for 40 years. Infused with the strong character writing and inventive details that enlivened his best Twilight Zone scripts, it nonetheless suffers from Serling's key weakness--playing his allegories so close to the surface that it overpowers the story. Earth in the future becomes so polluted that the human race has left save for two communities: the "dwellers," a ragtag group of off-worlders who mine the planet for its only resource (scrap metal), and the "drivers," a tribe of Native Americans living on the outskirts of the dwellers' rusting city, Carbon. As Carbon's ambitious entrepreneur Ron Perlman (playing the populist leader to the hilt) makes his bid for power by appealing to the mob instincts of his racist township, principled but weak-willed sheriff Stephen Lang faces his fears and the secret that keeps him trapped in inertia. Director Rob Nilsson shoots this drama of racism and mob violence in the murky colors of junkyard, giving the town an appropriately overwhelming ambiance of rust and dust. More importantly, he grounds the film in the personalities of its cast. The film creaks under the overwrought symbolism of Indians and settlers to explore the politics of hate, but the dramatic clash between Perlman and Lang resonates with their excellent performances. --Sean Axmaker