Rubinstein, John

The Boys From Brazil

Gregory Peck hams it up big time in this 1978 thriller based on Ira Levin's bestselling novel. Peck plays an old German Nazi behind a mysterious series of murders, the investigation of which leads to an astonishing plot to create the Fourth Reich. Laurence Olivier is equally outrageous as a Nazi hunter who stumbles onto the scheme. Director Franklin Schaffner (Planet of the Apes) doesn't make any bones about the preposterousness of the story or of his legendary stars' performances, and a viewer is advised not to push too deeply into this tall tale for cautionary meaning. The film is a bit bloody--particularly unnerving in a climactic scene involving some attack dogs under the command of a young but familiar-looking monster. --Tom Keogh

Alive and hiding in South America the fiendish Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele (Geregory Peck) gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project - he wants to clone Hitler. Barry Kohler (Steve Guttenberg) gets wind of the project and informs fames Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman (Laurence Olivier) but before he can relay the the evidence Kohler is killed. Mengele continues his murderous plot creating 94 young Hitlers and killing their fathers to simulate the madman s own boyhood. As Mengele moves closer to producing global terror Lieberman alone must discover the terrifying extent of his plan and stop it.System Requirements:Starring: Gregory Peck Laurence Olivier James Mason and Lilli Palmer. Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner Running Time: 127 Mins. Color This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 1999 Artisan Home Entertainment Inc.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 012236607489 Manufacturer No: 60748

21 Grams

The story of three families whose lives interconnect due to tragic events.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 24-AUG-2004
Media Type: DVD

Sean Penn and Benecio Del Toro, two of the most gripping actors around, play wildly different men linked through a grieving woman (Naomi Watts, Mulholland Drive, The Ring) in 21 Grams. Del Toro (Traffic, The Usual Suspects) delves deep into the role of an ex-con turned born-again Christian, a deeply conflicted man struggling to set right a terrible accident, even at the expense of his family. Penn (Mystic River, Dead Man Walking) captures a cynical, philandering professor in dire need of a heart transplant, which he gets from the death of Watts' husband. 21 Grams slips back in forth in time, creating an intricate emotional web out of the past and the present that slowly draws these three together; the result is remarkably fluid and compelling. The movie overreaches for metaphors towards the end, but that doesn't erase the power of the deeply felt performances. --Bret Fetzer

Norma Jean and Marilyn

Two of Hollywood's hottest young actresses Mira Sorvino (1995's Academy Award Winner: Best Supporting Actress for her performance in "Mighty Aphrodite") and acclaimed stage and screen star Ashley Judd star as two sides of the woman America loved but who struggled to love herself: Marilyn Monroe. To the world Marilyn was a vivacious star the epitome of sexuality sensuality and frolicsome fun. Every man wanted her- every woman wanted to be her. But behind the enticing smile beneath the tight fitting dresses there was a dark secret- one Marilyn couldn't bury in her past the child inside called Norma Jean. Everything Norma Jean dreams of Marilyn achieves. Every man she struggles to resist Marilyn succumbs to. And while Marilyn climbs the ladder of success Norma Jean waits beneath it almost willing her to fall. Sensuous shocking sensational this is the secret life and loves of the girl called Norma Jean and the woman who became Marilyn.Running Time: 138 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 026359131622

The Streets of San Francisco - Season 1, Vol. 2

These 13 chronological episodes that concluded season 1 were just the ticket to launching one of the 1970s' most arresting cop shows. The first season of The Streets of San Francisco was nominated for an Emmy for Best Drama Series and its stars, Karl Malden and Michael Douglas, were nominated for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. But as this inaugural season unfolded, the veteran cop/rookie cop dynamic that charged the first 14 episodes matured into a more paternal mentor/student relationship (Malden's Mike Stone refers to Douglas's Steve Keller, throughout as "the boy" and "buddy-boy"). These episodes are particularly engrossing, and provide Malden with some of his finest primetime hours. In "Trail of the Serpent," a street gang bent on freeing their captured leader takes Stone hostage. Stone plays it cool, appealing to the humanity of one of the more sensitive gang members, while the more hotheaded Keller almost jeopardizes his rescue. In "Legion of the Lost," Stone goes undercover on skid row to investigate the murders of three homeless men. In two episodes, Stone does not allow personal relationships to compromise his sense of duty. In "Deadline," a newspaper editor tries to cover up the murder of his mistress, and in the process, unwittingly implicates his own son, who was also the victim's lover. In "Shattered Image," a woman from Stone's old neighborhood is now the socialite wife of a murdered senatorial candidate. "Beyond Vengeance" echoes Cape Fear as a vengeful sociopath, freed on parole, seems to be stalking Stone's daughter.

Malden and Douglas are a terrific team, and they are aided and abetted by literate scripts ("Room with a View" alludes to Hemingway's story "The Killers"), with clever twists. In "The Albatross," a killer is freed when it turns out he wasn't wearing his hearing aid and did not hear Keller when he read him his rights. In the Emmy-nominated "The House on Hyde Street," an elderly recluse becomes the prime neighborhood suspect in the death of a young boy. Guest stars in these episodes read like a Hollywood's Most Wanted List, with veteran character actors (Joseph Cotten, Jack Albertson, Leslie Nielsen, Barbara Rush) and future TV Land favorites (Victor French from Little House on the Prairie and Highway to Heaven, a pre-Cheers Nicholas "Coach" Colasanto, Jamie Farr, and Clint Howard). Of course, the real star is San Francisco, an intriguing backdrop with its roller coaster hills and funky neighborhoods. For series fans who left their hearts here, Streets still calls to you. --Donald Liebenson

Twenty year veteran Detective Lt. Mike Stone is partnered with young college educated Inspector Steve Keller who has a lot to learn about being a police detective on the Streets of San Francisco.System Requirements:TRT: 675 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 097361227641 Manufacturer No: 122764

Red Dragon - Collector's Edition

A lot could've gone wrong in Red Dragon, but the movie exceeds expectations. Replacing the acclaimed Manhunter as an "official" entry in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, this topnotch thriller--the second adaptation of Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel--returns to the fertile soil of The Silence of the Lambs, serving as both prequel and heir to the legacy of Lecter as portrayed, with mischievous menace, by the great Anthony Hopkins. Familiar faces and locations reappear (along with Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally) as Lecter coaches FBI profiler Will Graham (Edward Norton) in tracking the horrific "Tooth Fairy" killer (Ralph Fiennes), whose transformative killing spree is inspired by a William Blake painting. By dutifully serving Harris's potent material, Tally and director Brett Ratner craft a suspenseful film worthy of its predecessors, bringing Hopkins full circle as one of the cinema's all-time greatest villains. With overtones of Psycho and a superb supporting cast, Red Dragon succeeds against considerable odds. --Jeff Shannon

Someone to Watch Over Me

This stylish, smart 1987 movie stars Tom Berenger as a New York cop and family man who falls for the rich and beautiful witness (Mimi Rogers) he's assigned to protect. Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) does something here he should be doing a lot more often: directing contemporary film noir with his eye for extraordinary art direction. Berenger and Rogers rise to the occasion, seemingly aware that they're making something special. --Tom Keogh

Stakeout / Another Stakeout

STAKEOUT: Convinced that a danerous escaped convict (Aidan Quinn) is headed for his ex-girlfriend's (Madeleine Stowe) a pair of Seattle detectives (Richard Dreyfuss Emilio Estevez) stakeout her apartment. The watch remains routine until one of the detectives begins a high-risk romance with the woman under surveillance -- jeopardizing not only the partners' careers ... but also their lives! ANOTHER STAKEOUT: Academy Award(R)-winner Richard Dreyfuss and Emilio Estevez are back as hilarious hard-charging Seattle detectives -- this time forced to go undercover with an inexperienced Assistant D.A. (comedian Rosie O'Donnell ). With Dreyfuss and O'Donnell posing as husband and wife and Estevez charading as their grown son chaos and calamity prevail as they spy on neighbors suspected of hiding an escaped Mafia witness on the run from the feds and a mob hit man! This crowd-pleasing favorite delivers edge-of-your-seat excitement and nonstop laughsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/BUMBLING COPS UPC: 786936758467 Manufacturer No: 05674800

Sublime (Unrated Edition)

Family man George Grieves (Tom Cavanagh of TV's Ed and Love Monkey) checks into Mt. Abadon Hospital for a routine procedure. When he awakens from his anesthesia something is terribly wrong...with George...with the hospital...and especially with the shuttered East Ward an eerie lair of secrets sex and surgical terrors. Raw Feed presents the fear-drenched psychological thriller Sublime directed by Tony Krantz (executive producer of 24) from a screenplay by Emmy Award winner Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers). In the tradition of cinema's classic tales of suspense Sublime will keep you guessing as its puzzle pieces fall into place and leave you stunned by its astounding conclusion. Graphic bold sexual and utterly horrifying Sublime explores what happens when what you fear becomes real.Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR UPC: 012569838161 Manufacturer No: 83816

Zachariah

Firepower meets flower power in this outrageous western (Motion Picture Herald) about two thrill-seeking cowboys who rock the range! Starring John Rubinstein Don Johnson and Dick Van Patten and featuring legendary musicians Country Joe and the Fish and White Lightnin this psychedelic trip through the Wild West is an utterly unique film experience (Variety)! Two cowboys (Rubinstein and Johnson) set out for adventure and join up with a band of rock n roll outlaws. But as the two friends are seduced by their own quick-draw ambitions a deadly rivalry grows between them and they must struggle to find a path to peace before they lose more than their reputations and kill more than their friendship!System Requirements: Running Time 92 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 027616909060 Manufacturer No: 1006757

Advertised in 1970 as "the first electric Western," Zachariah is an endearingly pretentious effort that prefigures such genre oddities as Jodorowsky's El Topo and Alex Cox's Straight to Hell. The story is the archetypal one about two friends who become gunslingers and must inevitably face off against each other in the finale. But it's treated here as if it meant something deeper, which means that after enjoying 75 minutes of violence we can all agree that peace and love and harmony is on the whole better for children and other living things. Curly haired farm boy Zachariah (John Rubinstein) and eternally grinning apprentice blacksmith Matthew (Don Johnson) are the fast friends who run away from home to join up with a gang of outlaws known as the Crackers (played by hippie folk-rock collective Country Joe and the Fish). These apparent 19th-century Westerners tote electric guitars and are given to staging free festival freak-outs at one end of town to distract from the bank robbery at the other. The boys soon hook up with Job Cain (Elvin Jones), an all-in-black master gunfighter who is also an ace drummer (his solo is impressive), but then drift apart as Zachariah has a liaison with Old West madam Belle Starr (Patricia Quinn) in a town that consists of fairground-style brightly painted wooden cut- out buildings (a gag reused in Blazing Saddles), then gets rid of his outrageous all-white cowboy outfit to settle down on a homestead and grow his own dope and vegetables. Matthew, of course, goes for the black-leather look after outdrawing Cain, and comes a-gunning for the only man who might be faster than he, but the hippie-era message is that once these kids have killed everyone else, they can still make peace with each other and the desert or something, man.

Aside from a Beatle-haired teenage Johnson making a fool of himself by overly emoting to contrast with Rubinstein's nonperformance, the film offers a lot of beautiful "acid Western" scenery and excellent prog rock and bluegrass music from the James Gang, White Lightnin', and the New York Rock Ensemble. Comedy troupe the Firesign Theatre (huge on album in 1970) provided the script, which explains satirical touches like the horse-and-buggy salesman (Dick Van Patten) spieling like a used car dealer and the madam's claim to have had affairs with gunslingers from Billy the Kid to Marshall McLuhan. --Kim Newman

Another Stakeout

A comic battle of wills and an outrageous test of endurance ensues when this trio is grudgingly assigned to keep vigil -- as unobtrusively as possible -- in a small, upscale resort community. Pretending to be an average American family on vacation, it's an unlikely domestic arrangement at best. But, like a typical family, they're stuck with one another. Trying to convincingly play house while keeping an eye on the home of their unsuspecting neighbors, this dysfunctional clan of incompatible companions is at one another's throats as they await the appearance of a missing witness for the state's case against a Las Vegas mob boss. And if they'd call a truce for a minute, and get off one another's case, they just might solve this one.