Ontkean, Michael

Slap Shot (25th Anniversary Special Edition)

Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh

Twin Peaks - The Second Season

Twin Peaks was created by David Lynch and Mark Frost. The show was set in the fictional town of Twin Peaks in northeast Washington state and tells the story of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper and his investigation of the murder of a popular local teenage schoolgirl Laura Palmer. System Requirements:Run Time: 1081 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097360383447 Manufacturer No: 038344

"Don't search for all the answers at once," says a giant appearing to FBI Agent Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) in a vision. "A path is formed by laying one stone at a time." In Twin Peaks, that's easier said than done. Over the course of two seasons, that path went nowhere and everywhere. "Bureau guidelines, deductive technique, Tibetan method, and luck" don't cut it here. It also takes a little magic, which is what makes David Lynch and Mark Frost's bracingly original serial drama one of TV's ultimate trips, and still the stuff that fever dreams are made of. With the DVD release of season 2, die-hard Peakers can rekindle their obsession with this macabre, maddening, sinister, and surreal series set in the rural Pacific Northwest community whose bucolic surroundings hide "things dark and heinous." (If you're new to Twin Peaks, best to get the lay of the land by watching the brilliant feature-length pilot and the instant-cult-classic first season, which capture Twin at its peak. Neither is widely available on DVD, however.) Three main mysteries drive season 2. First, there's the still (!) unresolved murder of Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee). Then, there's the question of who shot Cooper in the season 1 cliffhanger. And finally, ultimately: What about Bob? With its dream logic, bizarre behavior, and nightmare imagery, much of what transpires goes right by you. Some subplots (Sherilyn Fenn's sexpot Audrey held captive at the bordello, One-Eyed Jacks) are easier to latch on to than others (amnesiac Nadine believes she's an 18-year-old high schooler) And, yes, that's a pre-X-Files David Duchovny as Dennis/Denice, a transsexual DEA agent.

In Twin Peaks' second season, the truth is out there, but we are entering A Few Good Men territory. When Laura's killer is at last revealed in episode 16, no doubt many will not be able to handle the truth. The teases, red herrings, and out-and-out gonzo looniness will try the patience of viewers with a more conventional bent. But, as Cooper observes at one point, "All in all, [it's] a very interesting experience," with enough doppelgangers, allusions, pop-culture references, and in-jokes to keep bloggers buzzing. If, for example, you get any pleasure from recognizing Hank Worden, who played Mose in The Searchers, as "the world's most decrepit room service waiter," then Twin Peaks may just make you feel right at home. --Donald Liebenson

Beyond Twin Peaks

Essential DVDs by Director David Lynch

The Soundtrack

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

Postcards from the Edge

As its title might suggest, this movie based on Carrie Fisher's Hollywood struggle works better as a snapshot than as a complete film. Meryl Streep plays Suzanne Vale, a successful actress who is lost in her addictions. Her episodes are never as bombastic as Clean and Sober or other antidrug movies of the 1990s, however. Vale's a more lovable person, and as with all lovable people in Hollywood, other Hollywood people care for her: an understanding director (Gene Hackman), a philandering boyfriend (Dennis Quaid), and a bemused doctor (Richard Dreyfuss). But if you are going to talk about Fisher, you are going to mention her mom, Debbie Reynolds. And here Vale's mom is the die-hard Doris Mann, played with appropriate virtuosity by Shirley MacLaine. The love-hate mother-daughter relationship takes over the film in an entertaining way, with Fisher's sharp comic writing coming into play. You nearly forgive Vale's troubles for having to live under a hurricane like Mann (who goes into her nightclub act at the drop of a hat). The film's sweetest pleasure is seeing Streep loose and modern, nary a drab outfit or an accent in sight. Streep and director Mike Nichols make a risky--and rewarding--finale (fueled by the Oscar-nominated "I'm Checking Out" by Shel Silverstein) work effortlessly. --Doug Thomas

A Chance of Snow

After finalizing their divorce, sportswriter Michael Ontkean and wife JoBeth Williams head to a Minnesota airport for separate trips to Florida. A blizzard prevents their plane from taking off, and while stranded in and around the airport, they reconsider their marriage. Offering help are Charles Durning and Barbara Barrie, an older couple. With Dey Young, Dina Merrill. 87 min. Standard; Soundtrack: English mono.

Making Love

The studio marketed Making Love as "one of the most honest and controversial films we have ever released," adding that "it may be too strong for some people." That was then, and what once seemed shocking now seems tame. Still, it's hard to imagine the more sexually explicit Brokeback Mountain without it. On the surface, Beverly Hills physician Zack (Michael Ontkean, Twin Peaks) and his TV producer wife, Claire (Kate Jackson, Charlie's Angels), are the ideal couple. A smartly-dressed Gilbert and Sullivan fan, Zack appears to have little in common with denim-clad, openly-gay novelist Bart (Harry Hamlin, L.A. Law). They meet when Bart makes an appointment for a check-up, and the two hit it off. Turns out they share a love of "corny old movies." Afterwards, Zack can't stop thinking about his vain, if affectionate patient. Lunch leads to dinner, which leads to physical intimacy (sex is suggested rather than shown). Zack is falling in love, but Bart has no interest in commitment, and Claire suspects another woman. Making Love is narrated by Claire and Bart, who speak directly to the camera. It's unclear whether Arthur Hiller, best known for Love Story, is going for documentary-style realism or foreign film-style sophistication, but the technique does differentiate Making Love from your average soap opera (story credit goes to Pulitzer Prize-winning author A. Scott Berg). Though Hamlin has maintained the highest profile since, it's the sensitive performances of Ontkean and Jackson that anchor this no longer groundbreaking, but still relevant romantic drama. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

A successful young L.A. doctor and his equally successful television-producer wife find their happily-ever-after life torn assunder when he suddenly confronts his long-repressed attraction for other men. Zach and Claire live a comfortable life secure in their love for one another when Bart a swinging L.A. novelist walks into Zach's office and awakens unfamiliar feelings in him. In a move which leaves him wracked with guilt Zach cancels dinner with his wife in order to go out with Bart. He is inexplicably drawn to this man who seems intent on keeping him at arms distance. Why can't Bart allow their relationship to grow? he wonders. Exasperated he asks Bart "Do you snore? Does anybody ever get a chance to find out?" As Zach's absences become more and more frequent Claire's concern manifests itself in the suspicion that he is having an affair with another woman. Jilted by Bart and feeling alone for the first time in his married life Zach resolves to tell Claire the truth about himself. Predictably Claire is shocked that she could have known so little about the man she has loved for so many years and accuses him of deceiving her from the very start.System Requirements:Running Time 113 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 024543224761 Manufacturer No: 2232476

Danielle Steel's: Family Album Parts 1 & 2

Part I: Faye and Ward Thayer live through enough ups and downs for several lifetimes. A whirlwind courtship leads to a comfortable life fueled by Ward's family fortune. But as the fortune vanishes, Ward's drinking and cheating compel Faye to throw him out. Faye builds a film directing career and later takes on an unlikely partner: Ward, now reformed. But the strain of raising their four rebellious children threatens to split the marriage again. Part II: The Thayer children face the challenges of the tumultuous 1970s: Vietnam, drugs, dropping out and more. Thanks to a part in her parents' film, Valerie makes the transition from low-budget film actress to rising star. Lionel rediscovers a friend from the past, while Anne's affair with a friend's father leads to a large family of her own. During a heartwarming weekend surrounded by family, Faye's extraordinary life comes to a close.

Summer of the Monkeys

An adolescent farmboy's otherwise humdrum summer is livened up considerably by the arrival to the woods near his home of four trained performing chimpanzees. The animals fled from the chaos when the train on which they were travelling (with their kindly trainer) violently derailed. Our young hero learns of the generous reward being offered by the chimps' trainer for their safe return and sets himself to the task. His charm dedication ingenuity and support from his loving family aid him as he researches monkey behavior at the town library and thwarts the efforts of his rivals the local bullies who are attempting to catch the chimps using less-than-humane practices. He also encounters the fabled spooky old hermit of the woods and learns some valuable lessons about the different paths one's life can take and how every choice we make is an opportunity to determine one's own course.System Requirements:Running Time: 101 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 787364786893

Maid to Order

The All Nighter

Slap Shot

Paul Newman and his Butch Cassidy director, George Roy Hill, made a very original comedy in this 1977 story of an over-the-hill player/coach (Newman) for a lousy hockey team who gets results when he teaches his players to get dirty. One of the most hilariously profane movies ever to come out of Hollywood, this is the kind of film that makes its own rules as it goes along. Newman is very good, and while Hill goes for the gusto in terms of capturing the violence of this world, his instinct for comedy has never been sharper. Great support from Strother Martin, Paul Dooley, and the rest. --Tom Keogh