Ryan, John P

Batman - Mask of the Phantasm (Keepcase)

Unmasking the Phantasm is just one of the twists in Batman: Mask of Phantasm "one of the most imaginative films of the past year" (Chuck Rich Westwood One). Only here will you discover all-new revelations about Batman's past his archrival the Joker and the most grueling battle of Batman's life - the choice between his love of a beautiful woman and his vow to be the defender of right. Batman: Mask of Phantasm is a "mystery that is genuinely absorbing suspenseful and moving" (Cincinnati Enquirer) and a film no fan should be without! Can the Dark Knight elude the police capture the Phantasm and clear his name? Year: 1993 Director: Eric Radomski Starring: Kevin Conroy Mark Hamill Dana Delany Hart Bochner Abe VigodaRunning Time: 76 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: CHILDREN/FAMILY UPC: 012569717275

Although the live-action Batman franchise faltered artistically after Tim Burton gave up control, the slack was taken up by the Saturday morning cartoon show, whose creators are responsible for this feature film. Though a cartoon, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm is less cartoonish than the popular '60s TV show (which spawned its own movie, Batman: The Movie). Mask of the Phantasm combines the noir of the original comic book, the violence and dark humor of the Dark Knight comic book revision, and Burton's two movies.

In Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, everyone's favorite schizophrenic billionaire crime fighter is investigating the murders of several prominent gangsters. Meanwhile, his ex-fiancée and her father are back in town. Through flashbacks, these two death-obsessed kids are shown falling in love (she lost her mother; he lost both parents--of course, they meet in a graveyard), until she leaves quickly and mysteriously. Along the way, there's a short course in the origins of the Batman costume and the origins of the Joker (voice of Star Wars' Mark Hamill!), a big fight with the smoke-enshrouded Phantasm character, who is suspected of killing the gangsters, and an even bigger fight with the Joker at the abandoned Gotham World's Fair grounds. Altogether, a good ride. --Andy Spletzer

Five Easy Pieces

This subtle, existential character study of an emotionally distant outcast (Nicholson) forced to confront his past failures remains an intimate cornerstone of American '70s cinema. Written and directed with remarkable restraint by Bob Rafelson, the film is the result of a short-lived partnership between the filmmaker and Nicholson--the first was the zany formalist exercise, Head, while the equally impressive King of Marvin Gardens followed Five Easy Pieces. Quiet and full of long, controlled takes, this film draws its strength from the acutely detailed, nonjudgmental observations of its complex protagonist, Robert Dupea--an extremely crass and frustrated oil worker, and failed child pianist hiding from his past in Texas. Dupea spends his life drinking beer and sleeping with (and cheating on) his annoying but adoring Tammy Wynette-wannabe girlfriend, but when he learns that his father is dying in Washington State, he leaves. After the film transforms into a spirited road movie, and arrives at the eccentric upper-class Dupea family mansion, it becomes apparent that leaving is what Dupea does best--from his problems, fears, and those who love him. Nicholson gives a difficult yet masterful performance in an unlikable role, one that's full of ambiguity and requires violent shifts in acting style. Several sequences--such as his stopping traffic to play piano, or his famous verbal duels with a cranky waitress over a chicken-salad sandwich--are Nicholson landmarks. Yet, it's the quieter moments, when Dupea tries miserably to communicate and reconcile with his dying father, where the actor shows his real talent--and by extension, shows us the wounded little boy that lurks in the shell of the man Dupea has become. --Dave McCoy

Returning home to his father's deathbed, a gifted pianist who has been living a wasted life is forced to face issues which will change his life forever.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 28-AUG-2001
Media Type: DVD

Bound

Destined for cult status, this provocative thriller offers a grab bag of genres (gangster movie, comedy, sexy romance, crime caper) and tops it all off with steamy passion between lesbian ex-con Corky (Gina Gershon) and a not-so-ditzy gun moll named Violet (Jennifer Tilly), who meets Corky and immediately tires of her mobster boyfriend (Joe Pantoliano). Desperate to break away from the Mob's influence and live happily ever after, the daring dames hatch a plot to steal $2 million of Mafia money. Their scheme runs into a series of escalating complications, until their very survival depends on split-second timing and criminal ingenuity. Simultaneously violent, funny, and suspenseful, Bound is sure to test your tolerance for bloodshed, but the film is crafted with such undeniable skill that several critics (including Roger Ebert) placed it on their top-ten lists for 1996. --Jeff Shannon

Best of the Best

Eric Roberts (Academy Award® Nominee Best Actor in a supporting Role Runaway Train 1985 National Security TV's "Less Than Perfect") Philip Rhee Christopher Penn (Starsky and Hutch Reservoir Dogs) John Dye and David Agresta play five young men who are selected as members of the U.S. National Karate Team. Each teammate has his own reason for competing. However they soon discover that in order to function as a team they must pit aside their differences and learn to depend upon each other. James Earl Jones (Academy Award® Nominee Best Actor The Great White Hope 1970 Field of Dreams Hunt for Red October) is their unorthodox coach and Sally Kirkland (Anna The Sting The Way We Were A Star I Born) their trainer teach them that winning is not a sometime thing- it's an all-time thing. Together they enter an exhausting training period that puts their mental and physical skills to the ultimate endurance test. After three months of grueling workouts and personal conflicts they are ready to face the highly skilled Korean team and become true champions. In an unexpected and climactic ending these men come to understand what it takes to be the BEST OF THE BEST.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396064751 Manufacturer No: 06475

The Postman Always Rings Twice

In The Postman Always Rings Twice Jack Nicholson teamed up again with his Five Easy Pieces and King of Marvin Gardens director Bob Rafelson for this 1981 version of James M. Cain's hardboiled novel of lust and murder. This version takes a much grittier (and sexually explicit) approach to the material than the slick 1946 MGM version starring John Garfield and Lana Turner. Nicholson plays Frank Chambers, a drifter who happens upon a roadside diner run by Cora Papadakis (Jessica Lange) and her swarthy Greek husband, Nick (John Colicos). Sparks fly, and before you can say l'amour fou, Frank and Cora are making the beast with two backs on the kitchen table. One thing leads to another and they conspire to murder Nick. The movie is still a little too cold and distant to fully convey a hot-blooded passion that leads to murder, but it is a strangely haunting and disturbing film nevertheless. The screenplay is by David Mamet, the photography is by the great Sven Nykvist (Ingmar Bergman's cinematographer), and watch for Anjelica Huston in a supporting role. --Jim Emerson

Batman Collection DVD 3-Pack (Mask of the Phantasm / SubZero / Return of the Joker)

The Cotton Club

Oscar®-winners* Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo rejoin forces to create a mesmerizing (L.A. Weekly) homage to 1930s gangster films and musicals. Nominated** for three Oscars® The Cotton Club is a genuine vision (Newsweek) of the golden age of jazz you won t soon forget!1928 New York. Spirits are high and sultry jazz lively dancing and ruthless gangsters rule supreme. In the center of it all is Harlem s Cotton Club. Playing on stage is cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Gere) who dreams of the big time but he s too mixed up with the club s owner (Hoskins) -- and his sexy moll (Lane) -- to get anywhere fast. Add the frustration of tap sensation Sandman Williams (Hines) who can t touch his girl the lovely lounge singer Lea Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee) and you ve got a short fuse ready to go. As tensions rise so do tempers and the legendary nightclub becomes a pressure cooker of jilted loves and mob jobs that blows the lid off one of the most shocking showdowns ever staged.System Requirements: Running Time 129 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616864369 Manufacturer No: 1002205

The Cotton Club is routinely eclipsed by the controversies that surrounded its tumultuous production, but the film itself offers abundant pleasures that should not be overlooked. If Apocalypse Now represents the triumph of director Francis Coppola's perilous ambition, then The Cotton Club represents the ungainly glory of uncontrolled genius, as brilliant as it is out of its depth. As an upscale homage to classic gangster films it's frequently astonishing, cramming a thick novel's worth of plot and characters into 129 minutes, gloriously serviced by impeccable production design, elegant cinematography, and stylistic flourishes that show Coppola at the top of his game.

What The Cotton Club lacks is cohesion. As written by Coppola and novelist William Kennedy (then enjoying the peak of his critical acclaim), the movie struggles to exceed the narrative scope of The Godfather, but its multiple early-'30s plot lines fail to form any strong connective tissue. It's three (or four) movies in one, with cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own jazzy solos) drifting from one story to the next--loving a young, ambitious vamp (Diane Lane, with whom Gere shares precious little chemistry), enjoying the success of a hotshot hoofer (Gregory Hines), and protecting his brazen bother (Coppola's then-newcomer nephew, Nicolas Cage) from the deadly temper of mob boss Dutch Schultz (James Remar). Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne also score big in grand supporting roles, but The Cotton Club is perhaps best appreciated for its meticulous re-creation of Harlem's Cotton Club heyday, and the brilliant music (Ellington, Calloway, etc.) that brought rhythm to gangland's rat-a-tat-tat. --Jeff Shannon

The Missouri Breaks

A rancher a rustler and a regulator face off in Arthur Penn's eccentric western. As a cover for their horse thievery a gang of Montana rustlers led by the laid-back Tom Logan (Jack Nicholson) buys a small farm adjacent to the ranch of their latest target/nemesis Braxton (John McLiam). When the gang leaves Tom on the farm and heads to Canada for another score Tom takes a shine both to farming and Braxton's rebellious strong-willed daughter Jane (Kathleen Lloyd). The slightly loco Braxton however hires the psychopathic regulator Lee Clayton (Marlon Brando) to root out the rustlers. With a series of unorthodox methods (and costumes) Clayton hunts down Logan and his gang one by one even after Braxton fires him but Logan isn't about to let Clayton (or Braxton) make him obsolete.System Requirements: Running Time 126 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG UPC: 027616125293 Manufacturer No: 12529

Three O'Clock High

Runaway Train

Manny (Jon Voight) is the toughest convict in a remote Alaskan prison who along with fellow inmate Buck (Eric Roberts) makes a daring breakout. Hopping a freight train they head full-steam for freedom but when the engineer dies of a heart attack they find themselves trapped alone and speeding toward certain disaster. Until that is they discover a third passenger a beautiful railroad worker (Rebecca DeMornay) who is just as desperate--and just as determined to survive--as they are!Starring: Jon Voight Eric Roberts and Rebecca DeMornayDirector: Andrei KonchalovskyProduced by Menahem Golan & Yoram Globus; written by Djordje Milicevic Paul Zindel; Running time of 112 minutes; Closed Captioned. Copyright: 1985 MGM Home EntertainmentSystem Requirements:Trivia and Production Notes Original Theatrical Trailer Scene Access Screen Formats: Widescreen--Theatrical release format; Standard--Modified to fit your screen Dolby Digital Stereo Surround Languages: English & French Subtitles: English French & Spanish Interactive Menus Interactive Film Trivia Video Format: Widescreen (no AR specified) Standard 1.33:1 (4.3) English: Dolby Digital Surround French: Dolby Digital Surround Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 027616701824