Rusler, Robert

Shag

It's not too surprising that Shag flopped on its 1989 release but found a devoted cult following on cable TV and home video. This featherweight comedy looked like a waste of space on the big screen, but it plays very cozily on the tube, where it lends itself to popcorn breaks and pajama parties. (The lousy title must have had something to do with the movie's initial failure, a problem worsened by the film being marketed as Shag: The Movie, a truly dumb idea.) Shag is in the tradition of Spring Break pictures, a thoroughly formulaic stroll through the conventions of the minigenre: beachside romance, a wild party, one tender deflowering, and lots of rock & roll. The time is 1963, as three gal friends trick their soon-to-be-married pal (Phoebe Cates) into one final all-girl fling in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cates is engaged to a local well-bred stick (Tyrone Power Jr.), but soon she's tempted by a beach boy (Robert Rusler) bound for Yale (mm-hmm). The so-so material is buoyed by lovely Annabeth Gish, as the supposedly pudgy one in the group, and Bridget Fonda, as a prematurely sophisticated sexpot. After a while it's easy enough to relax and enjoy the girls' breezy adventures, which are served up without the soap opera melodrama of the similarly tooled Where the Boys Are. Oh, and Austin Powers notwithstanding, the title refers to the dance, not something else. --Robert Horton

What do you get when you mix T-Birds, Bermuda shorts, bubble-flip dos and incredible dancing? You get Shag, The Movie a comic free-for-all (The New York Times) that Variety calls fun and breezy and you'll call a blast! Carson (Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is all set to marry respectable but boring Harley (Tyrone Power, Jr., Cocoon) until her best friends Melaina (Bridget Fonda, Single White Female), Pudge (Annabeth Gish, MysticPizza), and Luanne (Page Hannah, TV's Fame ) whisk her off for a last-fling beach party where all the girls have the time of their lives! A charming bad boy throws Carson's marriage plans intothe spin cycle. His nerdy sidekick whirls Pudge through some dazzling dance steps. Sultry Melaina learns some sexy moves from an Elvis-like teen idol. And even straight-laced Luanne whips off her horn-rimmed glasses and tosses her innocence to the wind!

Weird Science (High School Reunion Collection)

Yes, that is Bill Paxton as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's militaristic big brother. And that's Robert Downey Jr. as one of the in-crowd jerks who makes nerds Mitchell-Smith and Hall's lives miserable. Fortunately, this is a John Hughes comedy and our smart nerds create the perfect woman, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), using a computer and voodoo. Lisa is a willing sex toy, has magical powers, and just wants to help the boys get even and meet nice babes. She even cleans up. The fantasy ebullience of Hughes is given full rein here and that's good and bad (mostly good). It's all aimed at a certain kind of hormone-addled, 16-year-old sensibility; but who doesn't have a little bit of that in them? --Keith Simanton

Thrashin'

An action-adventure that depicts young love pitted against a backdrop of fast paced skateboard competition and feuding teen gangs.System Requirements:Starring: Josh Brolin Robert Rusler Pamela Gidley Brooke McCarter David Wagner Directed By: David Winters Running Time: 92 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616888464 Manufacturer No: 1004816

Sometimes They Come Back

Desperate for work, troubled high school teacher Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) relocates his family to his rural hometown after procuring a much-needed job there. Once home he must relive and confront a childhood nightmare: the high school hoodlums who murdered his older brother in a tunnel ambush, and were killed themselves by an oncoming train, are slowly rising from the grave to finish the job by killing Norman. The ghostly hooligans, who appear as flesh and blood to students, start "transferring" into school when some of Norman's students mysteriously perish; however their phantom, fire-spitting car is invisible to all but their victims. Suspicion for the inexplicably rising student-body count soon falls squarely on Norman, who must find a way to protect his wife and son from danger, vanquish the supernatural hoods, and cast off the shackles of his past. It's a fairly straightforward plot with some obvious elements, but Matheson and his supporting cast (including wife Brooke Adams) create a suspenseful, fear-inducing atmosphere under the able direction of Tom McLoughlin from a screenplay adaptation by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. --Bryan Reesman

Stephen Kingâ??s scariest short story is now a terrifying movie classic! Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) is haunted by a nightmarish recollection. He is unable to cope with the horrific memory of the murder of his nine-year-old brotherâ??s murder three decades earlier by teen-age hoodlums, even though the guilty thugs perished in a gory accident. Seeking closure, Norman takes a teaching job at his home-town high school. But his homecoming becomes a supernatural nightmare when the deceased assassins also returnâ?¦seeking vengeance for their demise! Suddenly, Jim Norman has to fight for his lifeâ?¦against a gruesome cadre of ghoulish enemies who cannot die!

A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 - Freddy's Revenge

Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund) is back in the dreams of a Springwood teen as he uses the youth to bring him more souls. This sequel adds a psychological dimension to the Nighmare series.

DVD Features:
DVD ROM Features:Read the screenplay while you watch the film; New Dream World trivia game - test your Nightmare knowledge; Up-to-the-minute cast, crew trivia info and more
DVD ROM exclusive web site
Full Screen Version:Widescreen and fullscreen versions of the film
Interactive Menus:Original animated menus
Scene Access:"Jump to a Nightmare" scene navigation
Theatrical Trailer:Original theatrical trailer

Vamp

Weird Science

Yes, that is Bill Paxton as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's militaristic big brother. And that's Robert Downey Jr. as one of the in-crowd jerks who makes nerds Mitchell-Smith and Hall's lives miserable. Fortunately, this is a John Hughes comedy and our smart nerds create the perfect woman, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), using a computer and voodoo. Lisa is a willing sex toy, has magical powers, and just wants to help the boys get even and meet nice babes. She even cleans up. The fantasy ebullience of Hughes is given full rein here and that's good and bad (mostly good). It's all aimed at a certain kind of hormone-addled, 16-year-old sensibility; but who doesn't have a little bit of that in them? --Keith Simanton

Teen life is full of mysteries, but nothing is more hilarious or more fun than Weird Science, the out-of-this-world comedy that helped define a generation! Join two socially challenged computer whizzes (Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith) as they set out to create the “perfect woman” (supermodel Kelly LeBrock). Like a computer-generated fairy godmother, the duo's heavenly creation guides the pair through the pleasures and pitfalls of teenage life. From writer/director John Hughes (The Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles), Weird Science: Flashback Edition is digitally remastered and includes all-new bonus features and is ready for re-discovery all over again!

Stephen King's: Sometimes They Come Back

Desperate for work, troubled high school teacher Jim Norman (Tim Matheson) relocates his family to his rural hometown after procuring a much-needed job there. Once home he must relive and confront a childhood nightmare: the high school hoodlums who murdered his older brother in a tunnel ambush, and were killed themselves by an oncoming train, are slowly rising from the grave to finish the job by killing Norman. The ghostly hooligans, who appear as flesh and blood to students, start "transferring" into school when some of Norman's students mysteriously perish; however their phantom, fire-spitting car is invisible to all but their victims. Suspicion for the inexplicably rising student-body count soon falls squarely on Norman, who must find a way to protect his wife and son from danger, vanquish the supernatural hoods, and cast off the shackles of his past. It's a fairly straightforward plot with some obvious elements, but Matheson and his supporting cast (including wife Brooke Adams) create a suspenseful, fear-inducing atmosphere under the able direction of Tom McLoughlin from a screenplay adaptation by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal. --Bryan Reesman

Sometimes They Come Back / Sometimes They Come Back Again

And sometimes they come back... for the franchise! Aaaaaaaaargh! Though a TV movie franchise is a somewhat subliminal thing. This double-feature DVD contains one movie based on a story by Stephen King, and another movie based loosely on the first movie. More of a variations on a theme than a continuance. In Sometimes They Come Back, Tim Matheson is made to relive a boyhood tragedy that claimed the life of his brother when the group of bullies who waylaid him in a train tunnel way back when come back from the dead to settle an old score. Convincingly scary as this is, side B is even better, having upped the ante from the demonic bullies of the first movie to the satanic worshippers of the second. This time it's Michael Gross who needs to learn that you can't escape your past, having as a kid thwarted the satanists who claimed the life of his sister, and who lately have returned to kill his mother and are now after his daughter. The effects are great here, with a standout being the formation of a demon from a pool of blood. One of the Arquette clan, Alexis Arquette, as head of the satanic ritualists (Vinnie Barbarino meets Marilyn Manson), is a kind of special effect all by himself, grinning and mugging with uncontained glee at the most splatter-heavy moments. Followed by a sequel, Sometimes They Come Back... for More. --Jim Gay

Weird Science

Yes, that is Bill Paxton as Ilan Mitchell-Smith's militaristic big brother. And that's Robert Downey Jr. as one of the in-crowd jerks who makes nerds Mitchell-Smith and Hall's lives miserable. Fortunately, this is a John Hughes comedy and our smart nerds create the perfect woman, Lisa (Kelly LeBrock), using a computer and voodoo. Lisa is a willing sex toy, has magical powers, and just wants to help the boys get even and meet nice babes. She even cleans up. The fantasy ebullience of Hughes is given full rein here and that's good and bad (mostly good). It's all aimed at a certain kind of hormone-addled, 16-year-old sensibility; but who doesn't have a little bit of that in them? --Keith Simanton

The Frankenstein legend takes an uproarious twist in this outrageous special effects-laden comedy from John Hughes, director of "Sixteen Candles" and "The Breakfast Club."