Deceived
by Damian Harris
from Walt Disney Video
Goldie Hawn delivers a critically acclaimed performance as Adrienne Saunders, someone whose perfect life as a wife, mother, and career woman disintegrates into a confusing world of betrayal and deception. After her husband (John Heard -- HOME ALONE, AWAKENINGS) apparently dies in a mysterious auto accident, Adrienne discovers a series of shocking truths about him -- and chilling evidence of a deadly scheme that threatens her life! From the first startling plot twist to the heart-stopping climax, DECEIVED is a riveting suspense-filled thriller that will entertain you in the spirit of Hitchcock's best!
Dead Ringers
from Warner Home Video
Like many other films by Canadian director David Cronenberg (especially Crash), Dead Ringers presents the cinematic and psychological equivalent of an automobile accident--you dare not look, but you can't turn away. The film marked a directorial breakthrough for Cronenberg, who was able to continue some of the themes explored in his earlier horror films while graduating to a higher, more critically "respectable" level of artistic sophistication. The film is loosely based, amazingly enough, on a true story about twin gynecologists who routinely traded each others' identities, lives and even lovers. Utilizing innovative split-screen technology (years before computer manipulation made such trickery much easier), the film stars Jeremy Irons in flawless dual roles as the identical brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle. Their ability to instantly switch identities leads them to a shared relationship with a well-known actress (Genevieve Bujold) and, ultimately, a physical and psychological tailspin that sends them both to the brink of madness and death. The scenario suggests that both men are halves of a whole, and that one cannot exist without the other. But when Beverly pursues a kinky, drug-addicted affair with the actress, his more self-controlled brother is helpless to prevent their mutual decline. In this way Dead Ringers becomes a fascinating and stylistically clinical study of duality, and Cronenberg doesn't shy away from the dark and unpleasant aspects of the story. (One look at the movie's display of bizarre gynecological instruments and you'll know why women find this film particularly--and unforgettably--disturbing.) --Jeff Shannon
Claire Niveau is in love with Beverly. Or does she love Elliot? It's uncertain because brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle are identical twins sharing the same medical practice apartment and women - including unsuspecting Claire. In portrayals that won the New York Film Critics Best Actor Award Jeremy Irons plays twin gynecologists whose emotional dependency collapses into mind games madness and murder. Genevieve Bujold the Los Angeles Film Critics Best Supporting Actress choice is Claire. And David Cronenberg (The Fly) won Los Angeles Film Critics Best Director honors for melding split-screen techniques body doubles and Irons' uncanny acting into an eerie fact-based tale - unnerving but also enthralling. (Desson Howe The Washington Post).Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 085392143320
Strip Search
by Rod Hewitt (II)
from Simitar
Robby Durrel (Michael Pare) is a police detective who crosses the line with a sexy and cunning woman. The temptations of easy money and cheap sex lead Robby into the exotic and shocking subculture of sex clubs and underworld gangs where he may not make it back. The line between good cop and bad cop blurs as a web of lies ensnares Robby and everyone around him. Explosive violence peppers the screen in bullet-filled showdown in a "Donnie Brasco" meets "Face/Off" movie experience.
Dead Ringers - Criterion Collection
by David Cronenberg
from Criterion
Like many other films by Canadian director David Cronenberg (especially Crash), Dead Ringers presents the cinematic and psychological equivalent of an automobile accident--you dare not look, but you can't turn away. The film marked a directorial breakthrough for Cronenberg, who was able to continue some of the themes explored in his earlier horror films while graduating to a higher, more critically "respectable" level of artistic sophistication. The film is loosely based, amazingly enough, on a true story about twin gynecologists who routinely traded each others' identities, lives and even lovers. Utilizing innovative split-screen technology (years before computer manipulation made such trickery much easier), the film stars Jeremy Irons in flawless dual roles as the identical brothers Beverly and Elliot Mantle. Their ability to instantly switch identities leads them to a shared relationship with a well-known actress (Genevieve Bujold) and, ultimately, a physical and psychological tailspin that sends them both to the brink of madness and death. The scenario suggests that both men are halves of a whole, and that one cannot exist without the other. But when Beverly pursues a kinky, drug-addicted affair with the actress, his more self-controlled brother is helpless to prevent their mutual decline. In this way Dead Ringers becomes a fascinating and stylistically clinical study of duality, and Cronenberg doesn't shy away from the dark and unpleasant aspects of the story. (One look at the movie's display of bizarre gynecological instruments and you'll know why women find this film particularly--and unforgettably--disturbing.) --Jeff Shannon
In Dead Ringers, David Cronenberg tells the chilling story of identical twin gynecologists-suave Elliot and sensitive Beverly, bipolar sides of one personality-who share the same practice, the same apartment, the same women. When a new patient, glamorous actress Claire Niveau, challenges their eerie bond, they descend into a whirlpool of sexual confusion, drugs, and madness. Jeremy Irons' tour-de-force performance-as both twins-raises disturbing questions about the nature of personal identity.
Choices of the Heart: the Margaret Sanger Story (True Stories Collection)
Choices of the Heart: The Margaret Sanger Story is the dramatic story of public heroism, personal passion, and the private sacrifice of one woman's historic fight to promote family planning and sex education in the early part of this century. New York City, 1914. Modern progress confronts the oppressive prohibitions of the past. Moral crusaders enforce rigid laws banning "obscene" materials - including literature on safe sex and family planning. The result: desperate women with too little money and too many children risking their lives to end unwanted pregnancies. Working as a nurse in New York's poorest neighborhoods, Margaret Sanger (Dana Delany, China Beach) boldly fights to end this epidemic of ignorance. However, zealots led by the formidable Anthony Comstock (Rod Steiger, On the Waterfront), Chairman of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, are determined to stop her rebellious campaign. Facing prison - and making headlines - for daring to voice her opinions, Sanger is forced to part with her loving husband (Henry Czerny, The Ice Storm), three children and flee the country. Yet, public support for her becomes so strong that she overcomes the attacks of her puritanical opponents.
A Hole in One
by Richard Ledes
from Fox Lorber
Michelle Williams (Brokeback Mountain) delivers a stunning performance as Anna, a young woman in the 1950s obsessed with mental health. When her brother returns home from the war changed and depressed and her gangster boyfriend, Billy (Meat Loaf Aday) kills someone in front of her, it becomes more than she can take and she looks for a way to relieve her pain. She becomes convinced that the only way she can be happy is by having a transorbital lobotomy, the latest technique in brain surgery. Billy hires Tom, a sympathetic Korean War vet to pose as doctor and dissuade her from getting a lobotomy. An attraction between the two develops and eventually she becomes caught between these two men who must then decide her fate.
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