Pryor, Nicholas

The List

The List, a supernatural thriller, begins at the close of the Civil War, when a cabal of Southern businessmen formed a secret pact to preserve their personal wealth. A century and a half later, a frustrated young lawyer named Renny Jacobsen (Chuck Carrington, JAG) discovers he's been cut out of his estranged father's will--but when he opens a locked box, he discovers a far more complicated inheritance that leads him to meet an attractive woman named Jo Johnston (Hilarie Burton, One Tree Hill) and the charming but mephistophelean Desmond Larochette (played by the charming but mephistophelean Malcolm McDowell), who leads the descendants of the original cabal. As Jacobsen learns how his history is tied up in this ominous list of names, he finds himself torn between his morals and his craving for money. Based on the Christian novel by Robert Whitlow, The List does its best to make the most of a low budget, focusing on character and story rather than special effects or visual style. Ultimately it's more about the power of prayer than being scary, though McDowell does his best to foster a sinister atmosphere. While Christian viewers may find the ending affirming, nonbelievers may find it a bit anticlimactic. --Bret Fetzer

Beyond The List on DVD

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Stills from The List (Click for larger image)

Renny Jacobson is shaken by the news of his father's mysterious death and mystified by the reference in his will to an obscure entity called "The Covenant List of South Carolina Ltd." He sets out on a quest to learn the truth about "The List" and finds that he must fulfill a prophecy spoken in 1863 or risk losing the true treasure that has changed his life.System Requirements:Running Time: 107 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/COMING OF AGE Rating: PG UPC: 024543518075 Manufacturer No: 2251807

Less Than Zero

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 7-JUN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Dreary, pointless late-'80s novel by literary poseur Bret Easton Ellis focused on listless, shiftless, drug-sniffing, sex-swapping, dead-end California teens with too much money and time on their hands. Which just about sums up this movie, though it's not nearly as interesting as that. This is mostly due to the ridiculously cleaned-up script and lifeless direction, which whitewashes the baser depravity and replaces it with perversion-lite and fashion shows. It doesn't help that director Marek Kanievska is saddled with Brat Pack lesser (make that least) lights Andrew McCarthy and Jami Gertz. The only things that lift this film above the muck are the performances by James Spader as a particularly heinous drug dealer and Robert Downey Jr. as a rich-kid addict with no self-control. --Marshall Fine

Risky Business

Little did Tom Cruise know that he would become a box-office superstar after he cranked up some Bob Seeger and played air guitar in his underwear. But there's more to this 1983 hit than the arrival of a hot young star. Making a stylish debut, writer-director Paul Brickman crafted a subtle satire of crass materialism wrapped in an irresistible plot about a crafty high schooler named Joel (Cruise) who goes into risky business with the beguiling prostitute Lana (Rebecca De Mornay) while his parents are out of town. Joel turns his affluent Chicago-suburb home into a lucrative bordello and forms a steamy personal and professional partnership with Lana, but only as long as the two can avoid the vengeful pimp Guido (Joe Pantoliano) and keep their customers happy. A signature film of the 1980s, Risky Business still holds up thanks to Cruise's effortless charm and the movie's timeless appeal as an adolescent male fantasy. --Jeff Shannon

High school senior is tired of being Mr. All-American and facing such traumatic decisions as which Ivy League college to attend. His life gets turned around when he meets a sexy call girl who transforms his house into a brothel while his parents are away.

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Murder at 1600

There were two movies about murder and the U.S. presidency released in 1997, and when you compare it to Absolute Power, this one is clearly the lesser of the two. That doesn't mean it's a bad movie, but it does make it a mildly disappointing one, and it illustrates the hazards of crafting a film to fit the persona of its leading man. In this case, you've got Wesley Snipes, a young, savvy man of action, playing a Washington, D.C., police detective assigned to investigate the murder of a woman in the White House. The president's son is a prime suspect, but there's a cover-up underway that forces Snipes to intensify his investigation beyond normal parameters. For a while at least, this makes Murder at 1600 a sharp and interesting film, and while the national security advisor (Alan Alda) seems highly cooperative (but don't be so sure), Snipes meets a secret service member (Diane Lane) who shares his belief in a high-level conspiracy. Unfortunately, that's when the film takes a downward plunge, resorting to a series of thriller clichés including an unlikely chase through secret tunnels beneath the White House. We're not suggesting this couldn't happen, but it's the kind of thing you typically see in movies that have run out of original ideas before they're over. Kinda makes you want to watch Absolute Power again, doesn't it? --Jeff Shannon

In the midst of an international crisis, a young woman is found murdered at the White House. A Washington DC homicide cop must determine if the coverup is meant to protect the President or to make him look guilty.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 16-JUL-2002
Media Type: DVD

Ruffian

(Sports / Doc) Based on the story of the great filly who was undefeated until suffering a fatal breakdown in a match race against Foolish Pleasure at Belmont Park in 1975 . Only lasting two short seasons on the track Ruffian was unbeaten through her first ten starts shattering records at nearly every race. It was the much anticipated 11th race on July 7 1975 in front of a packed house at Belmont and a television audience of 18 million viewers that proved to be her last. Hailed as the battle of the sexes Ruffian went head-to-head with Kentucky Derby winning colt Foolish Pride in what became the last match race in professional horse racing. Just short of the one mile marker Ruffian went down hard with a broken leg ultimately leaving doctors with no other option than to put the horse to sleep. The next day she was buried at Belmont and to this day remains the only horse granted that honor. System Requirements:Running Time: 89 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SPORTS/GAMES Rating: NR UPC: 796019802840 Manufacturer No: 80284

The Gumball Rally

It's fast funny outrageously illegal - and the granddaddy of the cross-country speed spectacles that have raced across movie screens in the past two generations. Put your pedal to the metal for The Gumball Rally. New York City is the starting point and this supersonic contest ends 2900 miles later in Los Angeles. In between director Chuck Bail (coordinator of many classic movie stunt sequences) and a crew of actors and stuntpersons treat you to a truly breakneck road comedy. Gary Busey plays a daredevil in a 600-horsepower Camaro. Raul Julia portrays an Italian Grand Prix champ who's also an incurable romantic in a fast Ferrari. Michael Sarrazin as the race's crafty overconfident organizer pilots a classic Cobra. Ready set zoom!Running Time: 107 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 012569708600

The Chamber

A top cast consisting of veteran aces Gene Hackman and Faye Dunaway can't rescue this way-too-long, dreadfully earnest version of John Grisham's equally gimpy novel. There are several problems in this story of an intertwined Southern family who must disentangle themselves from the past and the dark shadow of a 1967 bombing. That terrorist attack led to the deaths of two Jewish children and was pinned on the black-sheep patriarch of the family, a racist, card-carrying Klansman named Sam Cayhall (Hackman), who is now serving time on death row for the hate crime. Years later, the savior grandson cometh. Young-buck lawyer Adam Hall--played with righteous determination and limited range by Chris O'Donnell--pulls out all the stops to save his client from the Mississippi gas chamber. As is usual in Grisham country, the poor lawyer becomes embroiled in a plan more diabolical, corrupt, and layered than he could guess and the truth spirals out of control, endangering lives, and opening old wounds. The Chamber attempts to twist and turn through its plodding story, but there is no gray area in which to force the viewer to weigh his or her conscience against the skewed facts. Everything that occurs in The Chamber is black or white, good or bad, and there is no crisis of conflict to make us question the morality and stance of the two sides in play. The bad guys are awful, the politicians are bought off, the cops are either corrupt or apathetic, and only one puny guy is left to bring down a house of cards that's been standing solidly for decades. O'Donnell is quickly put to shame by Hackman, who even manages to suffer through a sadistically long, melodramatic stroll down death row with his dignity intact. --Paula Nechak

Pacific Heights

Ever a had neighbor from hell? You know, the one who never cleans, makes too much noise at night with his jigsaw, and breeds cockroaches and pumps them into your apartment? Never have? Well, pump up your paranoia with this outlandish if mildly enjoyable thriller starring Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine as San Francisco yuppies-cum-landlords who rent out an apartment in their Pacific Heights house to mild-mannered Michael Keaton in order to make the mortgage payment. What seems like a happy arrangement all around turns hellish when: (a) Keaton refuses to pay the rent; (b) firmly entrenches himself in the apartment thanks to some legal maneuvering; and (c) starts playing with the cockroaches. Ostensibly, Keaton wants to drive Griffith and Modine to bankruptcy and then pick up their fab Victorian house for cheap, but as is the way of all thrillers, he's got a sadistic and homicidal bent to back up his real-estate envy. Director John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) manipulates the thrills somewhat effectively, if not gratuitously, especially with Griffith's damsel-in-distress character, turning on the tension in the don't-go-to-the-attic/garage/basement set pieces. Part of the problem of the film lies in its schizophrenic tone: one moment it's a what's-in-the-dark? thriller, at other times a nifty cat-and-mouse game of psychological wills between Keaton and his landlords. Both sides of the movie are effective in their own right, and Keaton is a great psycho, but Schlesinger doesn't quite bring it together, despite a considerably amped-up climax. Still, if the sight of a beautiful house being slowly destroyed is your idea of the ultimate horror, you'll be chilled to the bone. Look for Griffith's mother, Tippi Hedren of The Birds fame, in a small role. --Mark Englehart

Executive Decision

Despite Steven Seagal's imposing presence in this enjoyable thriller, Kurt Russell turns out to be the real star as an American intelligence expert who finds himself leading a strike force against Islamic terrorists who have seized in-flight control of a 747 jetliner with 400 passengers. It's not all that different from Air Force One, but the formula story perks right along with considerable suspense as Russell's cohorts (Oliver Platt, Joe Morton) try to defuse a chemical bomb that could wipe out (you guessed it) the entire Eastern seaboard. John Leguizamo plays one of the U.S. commandos attempting to stop the violent hijackers, and Halle Berry costars as a flight attendant who risks her life to assist Russell's rescue team. As action movies go, Executive Decision marked an impressive directorial debut for veteran film editor Stuart Baird. --Jeff Shannon

The Falcon and the Snowman

Timothy Hutton and Sean Penn play two young men from wealthy families who sell government secrets to the Russians. Based on the true story of Christopher Boyce (Hutton) and Daulton Lee (Penn), this is sometimes edgy, occasionally humorous, and ultimately heartbreaking. Boyce, whose job it is to guard top-secret government papers, becomes disillusioned with the United States and decides to make a deal with the Soviets. His partner in espionage is propelled by less-ideal reasons for his acts, as Penn plays a grungy drug addict in it for the money. An intelligent script is matched on two counts: by John Schlesinger's tight direction and by provocative performances by both actors. --Rochelle O'Gorman

Academy AwardÂ(r) winners* Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People) and Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking) deliver "superb performances" (Variety) in a true-story spy thriller that is "scathing, arresting" (The New York Times) and laced with white-knuckle excitement. From OscarÂ(r) winners** John Schlesinger (Midnight Cowboy) and Steven Zaillian (Schindler's List), the film blows the lid off the modern-day American dream with its riveting story of twoyoung men of privilege, money and ambition who end up selling out their country, ruining their families and destroying their lives. Chris Boyce (Hutton) works a low-level job at a defense plant where he uncovers documents that prove that the CIA is secretly coercing foreign governments. Heconfides in his conniving, fast-talking friend, Andrew Daulton Lee (Penn), a reckless drug dealer and user, who convinces him to sell this information to the Soviets for big bucks. Lee boldly cuts a deal with the KGB, but soon the stakes spin out of control as the Soviets up the ante, Lee descends further into drug abuse and the CIA prepares to take the informants down! *Hutton: 1980, Supporting Actor, Ordinary People; Penn: 2003, Actor, Mystic River **Schlesinger: Director, Midnight Cowboy (1969); Zaillian: Writing, Schindler's List (1993)