Palance, Jack

The Swan Princess (Special Edition)

A heartwarming story of the beautiful princess Odette who is transformed into a swan by an evil sorcerer's spell. Held captive at an enchanted lake she befriends Jean-Bob the frog Spped the turtle and Puffin the bird. Despite their struggle to keep the princess safe these good-natured creatures can do nothing about the sorcerer's spell which can only be broken by a vow of everlasting love. Universally cheered and revered by audiences around the world THE SWAN PRINCESS is bursting with color dazzling animation beautiful music and features the vocal talents of Jack Palance John Cleese Steven Wright and Sandy Duncan. It's a rousing adventure you'll want to relive again and again!System Requirements:Running Time: 89 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY Rating: G UPC: 043396094000 Manufacturer No: 09400

This excellent theatrical feature is loosely based on the Swan Lake story. Princess Odette, having been turned into a swan by a sorcerer's spell, is held captive at the enchanted lake with friends Jean-Bob the frog, Speed the turtle, and Puffin the bird. Along comes Prince Derek, who becomes involved in liberating her by taking on the villain. The movie has been criticized for being too similar to Sleeping Beauty, but once you're watching it--with its strong characters, entertaining vocal performances (John Cleese and Steven Wright are particularly funny), fine artwork, and action--such complaints are negligible. --Tom Keogh

Batman (Two-Disc Special Edition)

Thanks to the ambitious vision of director Tim Burton, the blockbuster hit of 1989 delivers the goods despite an occasionally spotty script, giving the caped crusader a thorough overhaul in keeping with the crime fighter's evolution in DC Comics. Michael Keaton strikes just the right mood as the brooding "Dark Knight" of Gotham City; Kim Basinger plays Gotham's intrepid reporter Vicki Vale; and Jack Nicholson goes wild as the maniacal and scene-stealing Joker, who plots a takeover of the city with his lethal Smilex gas. Triumphant Oscar-winning production design by the late Anton Furst turns Batman into a visual feast, and Burton brilliantly establishes a darkly mythic approach to Batman's legacy. Danny Elfman's now-classic score propels the action with bold, muscular verve. --Jeff Shannon

Jack Nicholson is the Joker, who emerged from a horrible accident as a maniacal criminal. Michael Keaton is the Caped Crusader, who emerged from a childhood trauma to become a masked crimefighter. Kim Basinger is Vicki Vale, the talented photojournalist desired by both men. And Batman is the movie, the all-out spectacular directed by Tim Burton, set to songs by Prince and a music score by Danny Elfman, and an Academy AwardO winner* for Best Art Direction/Set Decoration (Anton Furst and Peter Young).

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by director Tim Burton
Documentaries:Legends of the Dark Knight Shadows of the Bat: The Cinematic Saga of the Dark Knight Parts 1-3 Beyond Batman Documentary Gallery
Featurette:On the Set with Bob Kane Shadows of the Bat Pts. 1-3 Batman: The Heroes and Villains Gallery
Music Video:Partyman by Prince Batdance by Prince Scandalous by Prince
Theatrical Trailer

Young Guns (Special Edition)

The year is 1878 Lincoln County. John Tunstall a British ranchowner hires six rebellious boys as "regulators" to protect his ranch against the ruthless Santa Fe Ring. When Tunstall is killed in an ambush the Regulators led by the wild-tempered Billy the Kid (Estevez) declare war on the Ring. As their vendetta turns into a bloody rampage they are branded outlaws becoming the objects of the largest manhunt in Western history.System Requirements:Starring: Emilio Estevez Kiefer Sutherland Lou Diamond Phillips Charlie Sheen Dermot Mulroney and Casey Siemaszko. Running Time: 102 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2003 Artisan Entertainment.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: R UPC: 012236125945 Manufacturer No: 13850

Part of what was touted as a late-1980s revival of Westerns (and you can see how long that lasted), this good-looking, empty-brained film was like a spurs-and-chaps version of a Joel Schumacher movie, filled with pretty faces, prettier imagery, and absolutely no new ideas. The idiotically grinning Emilio Estevez is cast as Billy the Kid, who slowly accumulates a gang of Brat Pack buddies (Lou Diamond Phillips, Kiefer Sutherland, Dermot Mulroney) and fashions them into a group of male models with six-guns. The action is confused and the script is trite, though Terence Stamp is intriguing as the old reprobate who helps the gang get its act together. Followed by an even worse sequel. --Marshall Fine

City Slickers

Three middle-age buddies (Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby) facing personal crises decide to sign up for a two-week cattle run for a change of pace. The trail proves a tougher place than anyone thought, and the boss (Jack Palance) is a grizzled taskmaster who doesn't cotton to tenderfoot urbanites. Popular in theaters, the film is both funny and moving, with Crystal giving one of his most complete performances and Palance (who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) a lot of colorful fun. Director Ron Underwood (Heart and Souls) subtly shifts the tone of the film from broad comedy to poignancy over its running time, and he makes the story's end a bittersweet victory that feels like life as most people know it. --Tom Keogh

Comic genius Billy Crystal (When Harry Met Sally) stars in this hilarious film about cowboys, careers and mid-life crises. Co-starring Daniel Stern, Bruno Kirby and Jack Palance in an Academy AwardÂ(r)-winning* role, City Slickers is "the rowdiest western jokefest since Blazing Saddles" (Rolling Stone). It'll rope you in...and keep you laughing from first frameto last! New Yorker Mitch Robbins (Crystal) is 39 and miserable. He's tired of his job andbored with his life. And his two best friends Ed, (Kirby) and Phil (Stern), aren't doing much better. So when they all decide to chase their troubles away with a fantasy vacation, Mitch and his pals trade their briefcases for saddlebags and set out to find freedom and adventure herding cattle underthe wide New Mexico sky. But what they discover instead is scorching sun, sore backsides...and moreinsight into themselvesand each otherthan they ever thought possible! *1991: Supporting Actor

The Professionals (Special Edition)

Before The Wild Bunch, there was The Professionals, Richard Brooks's marvelous ode to friendship, loyalty, and disillusionment. It may not have the stylistic bravado or fatalistic doom of the legendary Sam Peckinpah film, but Brooks's storytelling is simple and steady and just as insightful. The difference is Brooks is a lot more optimistic. Lee Marvin and Burt Lancaster are buddies who have drifted into oblivion after fighting together in the Mexican Revolution. Marvin, the principled loyalist and munitions expert, lost his wife and his heart. Lancaster, the dynamite expert and unprincipled adventurer, keeps losing his pants. They team up with wrangler Robert Ryan and archer Woody Strode to rescue the beguiling Claudia Cardinale, who has been kidnapped by their old revolutionary buddie Jack Palance. So it's back into bloody Mexico they go on a "mission of mercy" for railroad tycoon Ralph Bellamy, who's paying handsomely for the return of his wife.

But nothing is what it seems in this exciting, existential adventure, which was beautifully shot by Conrad Hall. Sarcastic quips, philosophical musings, and heart-rending reversals underlie Brooks's humanistic sentiments. These are tired, world-weary men who somehow find the strength and the will to pull together for the sake of love and commitment. Through it all, Brooks seems to be lamenting a decline in professionalism much deeper than his story. He's decrying Hollywood and the society at large, anticipating Peckinpah's later strategy. --Bill Desowitz

Barabbas

Starring Anthony Quinn in the title role, Barabbas was released in 1961 in the midst of a wave of widescreen epics based on biblical characters. The screenplay, by playwright Christopher Fry (who also contributed to Ben-Hur), is an unusually intelligent one. Further assets are the imaginative, sparingly orchestrated score by Mario Nascimbene and a handsome production design by art director Mario Chiari that is so rewarding to the eye in Aldo Tonti's often dazzling cinematography.

Many scenes, such as Christ's crucifixion, are shot and staged like tableaux in a style reminiscent of the great masters of art. And director Richard Fleischer surpasses anything Ridley Scott achieved years later in Gladiator: he fills the huge arena--a vast Roman amphitheatre--with a gladiatorial school of hand-to-hand combat, a parade of elephants, and a den of lions, and then caps his production with a riveting and thrillingly mounted duel between Jack Palance, careering round the circumference of the arena in his chariot, and Barabbas dodging him on foot. --Adrian Edwards

City Slickers 2 - The Legend of Curly's Gold

Urban cowboy Mitch Robbins, played by Billy Crystal, is at it again in this adventure-comedy film. After discovering a treasure map in the band of Curly's hat, he and his good pal Phil (Daniel Stern) and his mooching brother (Jon Lovitz) set out on an adventure to find the lost treasure. Jack Palance co-stars. Year: 1994 Director: Paul Weiland Starring: Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz, Jack Palace

The Mystery Science Theater 3000 Collection, Vol. 2 (Angels' Revenge / Cave Dwellers / Pod People / Shorts, Vol. 1)

Chato's Land

Charles Bronson (The Magnificent Seven) and Academy Award(r) winner* Jack Palance (City Slickers) star in a magnificent western as wild and untamed as the Old West itself. Bristling with dynamic action sequences and riveting performances, Chato's Land is a bold, sweeping tale of passion, vengeance and cold-blooded murder. Chato (Bronson) is a half-breed Apache Indian who treads the line between two cultures, balancing allegiance to his tribe with the allure of the white man's world. But when Chato kills a vicious sheriff in self-defense, he finds himselfhunted by a posse led by the ruthless Quincey Whitmore (Palance), a former Confederate soldier who is determined to see him hang. It's 13 men against one, but the odds shift in Chato's favor when he leads his pursuers into Apache territory, where the harsh, cruel countryside can kill as surely as agunman's bullet. *1991: Supporting Actor, City Slickers

Contempt - Criterion Collection

With his aptly titled Contempt, Jean-Luc Godard embraced the widescreen splendor of Hollywood while thumbing his nose at Hollywood itself. A rebel with a cause, Godard pursues an iconoclast's agenda, using the Franscope format (expertly controlled by cinematographer Raoul Coutard) to undermine the grandeur of widescreen melodramas. The story ostensibly concerns an innovative production of Homer's Odyssey and the struggle of a respected screenwriter (Michel Piccoli) to please a pugnacious producer (Jack Palance), a veteran director (Fritz Lang, essentially playing himself), and a petulant wife (Brigitte Bardot) who's grown tired of their turbulent relationship. It's all pretense, however, for Godard's mischievous (and yes, contemptuous) deconstruction of commercial Hollywood filmmaking, potently infused with film-buff in-jokes, astute observations about love, stardom, and artistry, and enough glossy style to suggest that Godard had mastered the craft he so willfully rejects. Contempt is one of his most accessibly fascinating films. --Jeff Shannon

Jean-Luc Godard's subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le M pris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot) as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey.