Owen, Rena

Once Were Warriors

An urban Maori family deals with great difficulties in adjusting to normalcy in urban New Zealand.Running Time: 103 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 794043637025

New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori (The Edge) directed this brutal but powerful story drawn from the culture of poverty and alienation enveloping contemporary Maori life. Rena Owen plays the beleaguered mother of two boys--one of whom is already in prison while the other contemplates membership in a gang--and a daughter whose potential is being smothered at home. Temuera Morrison gives an outstanding and sometimes shocking performance as the violent head of the household, more adept at keeping up his social stature within his community of friends than holding down a job. The film pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, but despite the rough going, Tamahori gives us a rare and important insight into a disenfranchised people digging down deep to find their pride. --Tom Keogh

The Crow - Wicked Prayer

Tara Reid (AMERICAN PIE, MY BOSS'S DAUGHTER), David Boreanaz (TV's BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, ANGEL), and Edward Furlong (TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY, AMERICAN HISTORY X) star in the latest chilling chapter of THE CROW: WICKED PRAYER -- an epic tale of death, revenge, and redemption. Just as ex-con Jimmy Cuervo (Furlong) tries to straighten out his life, he and his girlfriend Lily are brutally murdered in a satanic ritual by a renegade biker gang. But payback is at hand when Cuervo rises from the dead -- with the power of The Crow -- to avenge Lily's death and reunite with her in the afterlife! Also starring Dennis Hopper (TRUE ROMANCE), Danny Trejo (FROM DUSK TIL DAWN), and recording star Macy Gray!

Mee-Shee: The Water Giant

Mac a fun loving nine-year old will have the adventure of a lifetime when he uncovers the world s biggest secret: Mee-Shee a loveable water giant. Together Mac and his enormous new friend will have to outsmart a team of evil hunters who threaten to take Mee-Shee away forever. With incredible monsters and amazing special effects from Academy Award winning Jim Henson s Creature Shop Mee-Shee the Water Giant will swim into the hearts of your whole family!System Requirements:Running Time: 95 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: PG UPC: 025193061423 Manufacturer No: 68030614

A crackling good family adventure, Mee-Shee: The Water Giant stars Bruce Greenwood as a New York City oil-company engineer who interrupts a vacation with his young son, Mac (Daniel Magder), to rescue valuable equipment from the bottom of a British Columbia lake. The effort is somewhat complicated by Mee-Shee, a playful and benevolent cousin of the Loch Ness monster but presumed to be fiction by the local community. Mac, however, encounters Mee-Shee (constructed by the late Jim Henson's Creature Shop) and they become friends, but a pair of industrial saboteurs looking for the biggest score of all have other ideas. The nice cast includes Phyllida Law as the prim landlady of a boarding house (she's ever-so-reminiscent of daughter Emma Thompson in Nanny McPhee), Rena Owen as the lone adult who has seen Mee-Shee and regularly feeds it salmon, and Luanne Gordon as an environmental cop. Director John Henderson, who visited this territory once before in the Ted Danson vehicle, Loch Ness, makes a very crisp drama—with real villains and passions—out of material that might have been quite mawkish in someone else's hands. --Tom Keogh

When Love Comes

Six different friends. Three kinds of love. In this cutting-edge drama from award-winning New Zealand filmmaker Garth Maxwell (Jack Be Nimble), washed up singer Katie ("Once Were Warriors'" Rena Owen) struggles to create a new life for herself while coping with yearning admirer Eddie and living with her best friend, Stephen, who's in love with sexually confused ex-hustler Mark. Meanwhile uninhibited band members Fig and Sally yearn for success--and each other! Funny, touching, and insightful, this honest and sometimes twisted tale exposes the complication brought about by love, friendship, and desire--not necessarily in that order.

Nemesis Game

Soul Assassin

When Kevin Burke a young ambitious security agent employed by a powerful multinational banking firm finally secures an important promotion on the company's top internal security team he has reached the pinnacle of his career. Intending to ask his beautiful girlfriend Rosalind to marry him he plans the perfect romantic evening. But his perfect plan ends in a deadly tragedy when Rosalind is suddenly and brutally murdered by a hit man. Suddenly Kevin's world begins to collapse around him and he swears to avenge Rosalind's death. Now trained as a dangerous killer Kevin is primed to guard the only thing he has left - the bank. Prepare for a murderous game where everything has a price and paranoia is a virtue.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 043396094185

Players

Mac (Freddie Rodriguez of "Six Feet Under") and his high school gangster buddies try to take over the world of sports betting in seamy Carson City Nevada a city filled withcrime prostitution and gambling.System Requirements:Running Time: 90 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 025193200921 Manufacturer No: 32009

Once Were Warriors [IMPORT]

New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori (The Edge) directed this brutal but powerful story drawn from the culture of poverty and alienation enveloping contemporary Maori life. Rena Owen plays the beleaguered mother of two boys--one of whom is already in prison while the other contemplates membership in a gang--and a daughter whose potential is being smothered at home. Temuera Morrison gives an outstanding and sometimes shocking performance as the violent head of the household, more adept at keeping up his social stature within his community of friends than holding down a job. The film pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, but despite the rough going, Tamahori gives us a rare and important insight into a disenfranchised people digging down deep to find their pride. --Tom Keogh

Asian only All Code / NTSC DVD. A 1994 New Zealand film starring, Rena Owen & Temuera Morrison. Directed by Lee Tamahori (Along Came A Spider, Mulholland Falls, The Edge, The Sopranos). Leonard Maltin says, 'Shattering drama about a poor, urbanized Maori family, and the wife's growing realization that she can no longer endure her ``macho'' husband's abuse--both physical and psychological. Striking and powerful film marks Tamahori's directing debut; trenchant script by Riwia Brown, based on Alan Duff's novel, a best-seller in New Zealand. Not to be missed.' Please note this DVD carries un-removable / burned-in Chinese subtitles.

I'll Make You Happy

A comedy set in Auckland's red light district about a feisty, teenage prostitute, Siggy, who has big plans. Motivated by love, greed and anger, she comes up with a plan to highjack her sleazy pimp Lou's money-making scheme. Siggy convinces her friends to break out of their mundane lives and join in on her plan. With a team of unlikely thieves, including agoraphobic Lester, mild-mannered Drew, dominatrix Fran and sex workers Mickie and Mel, Siggy pulls off a heist involving sexual distractions, decoy cops, misleading code words and a few narrow escapes. Bringing together an unlikely couple Siggy and Lester, who reach a new understanding and discover that they may have a future together. Special guest appearance by Lucy Lawless.

Once Were Warriors [Region 2]

New Zealand filmmaker Lee Tamahori (The Edge) directed this brutal but powerful story drawn from the culture of poverty and alienation enveloping contemporary Maori life. Rena Owen plays the beleaguered mother of two boys--one of whom is already in prison while the other contemplates membership in a gang--and a daughter whose potential is being smothered at home. Temuera Morrison gives an outstanding and sometimes shocking performance as the violent head of the household, more adept at keeping up his social stature within his community of friends than holding down a job. The film pulls no punches, literally and figuratively, but despite the rough going, Tamahori gives us a rare and important insight into a disenfranchised people digging down deep to find their pride. --Tom Keogh