Vieluf, Vince

Rat Race (Special Collector's Edition)

Modeled after 1963's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, Jerry Zucker's Rat Race lacks the irreverence of Zucker's 1980 hit Airplane! but has enough chuckles to make it an agreeable time-killer. Like Mad, Mad, Mad..., it employs a huge ensemble of comedy stalwarts, assembled by an eccentric hotelier (pearly-toothed John Cleese) to race from Las Vegas to New Mexico for a $2 million jackpot. With a backstage gambling subplot, Rowan Atkinson's Italian-geek lunacy, Seth Green's slacker antics, and some nicely understated work from SCTV alumnus Dave Thomas, the movie has almost as many highlights as clunkers, and Zucker's embrace of easy gags and traditional slapstick will tickle anyone's old-fashioned funny bone. Other ingredients are hopelessly stale: Whoopi Goldberg's frantic mugging, Cuba Gooding's latter-day Stepin Fetchit, "mature" humor that compromises the movie's broad appeal, and the assumption that crashing vehicles are inherently hilarious. Lamentable decisions, perhaps, but Rat Race maintains a pleasantly altruistic spirit. --Jeff Shannon

An all-star comedy cast brings laughs from start to finish when a casino tycoon gives six money-crazed contestants the chance to win $2 million in a race from Las Vegas to New Mexico. Who will win this dash for the cash is anybody's guess but one thing is for sure - it's going to be a hilarious ride.System Requirements:Starring: Rowan Atkinson John Cleese Whoopi Goldberg Cuba Gooding Jr. Seth Green John Lovitz Breckin Meyer Kathy Najimy Amy Smart. Directed By: Jerry Zucker. Running Time: 112 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 Paramount Pictures.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 097363368441 Manufacturer No: 336844

Grind

A hilarious road trip comedy. Four skaters follow the summer tour of a skateboard star pulling tricks and tearing it up in their wild attempts to get noticed and grab a sponsor.Running Time: 104 min.System Requirements:Running Time 104 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG-13 UPC: 085392468225

Firewall (Widescreen Edition)

Harrrison Ford brings his reliable brand of focused intensity to Firewall, a family-in-peril thriller that fits Ford like a comfortable old sweater. The venerable action star is visibly growing older now, but he's got a quiet, simmering quality here that perfectly suits his role as Jack Stanfield, Vice President of security at a large Seattle bank that's recently upgraded to a state-of-the-art computer security system (resulting in conspicuous Dell product placement throughout the film). Jack's the only one who can safely crack the system, so he's targeted by a would-be robber (Paul Bettany) whose jittery crew of thugs and hackers kidnaps Jack's wife (Sideways star Virginia Madsen), daughter, and young son, threatening to kill them if Jack doesn't transfer $100 million into the robber's secret offshore account. Like Bruce Willis in 2005's Hostage, Ford rises above the film's familiar generic trappings, and British director Richard Loncraine maintains a low-key escalation of tension that keeps Firewall on track toward a routine but satisfying conclusion. Supporting roles for Alan Arkin, Robert Forster and Robert Patrick add little to the film's turnabout plotting, but fans of Mary Lynn Rajskub (better known as ace computer nerd "Chloe" on the hit series 24) will enjoy her performance here as a loyal secretary who factors into Stanfield's bid to outsmart his captors. Firewall may not be an instant Ford classic like The Fugitive, but it's comparable to Ford's 2000 thriller What Lies Beneath in terms of overall intelligence and crowd-pleasing suspense. --Jeff Shannon

Firewall stars Harrison Ford as bank security expert Jack Stanfield whose specialty is designing infallible theft-proof financial computer systems. But there's a hidden vulnerability in the system he didn't account for - himself. When a ruthless criminal mastermind (Paul Bettany) kidnaps his family Jack is forced to find a flaw in his system and steal $100 million. With the lives of his wife and children at stake and under constant surveillance he has only hours to find a loophole in the thief's own impenetrable system of subterfuge and false identities to beat him at his own game.Running Time: 104 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 012569594104 Manufacturer No: 59410

An American Werewolf in Paris

On the strength of his Hitchcockian-thriller debut, Mute Witness, writer-director Anthony Waller was hired to direct this belated sequel to the 1981 horror comedy An American Werewolf in London, but lycanthropy in the City of Light just ain't what it used to be. The movie offers plenty of gruesome makeup and special wolf-transformation effects, and there are some effectively spooky moments in the plot involving an underground population of hungry Parisian werewolves. One of them is seductively played by Julie Delpy, who is rescued from attempted suicide by an American tourist (Tom Everett Scott, from That Thing You Do!) but ultimately can't hide her dual identity when darkness falls and the full moon shines. The movie begins well, but gradually succumbs to nonsense and mayhem, prompting critic Roger Ebert to observe that "here are people we don't care about, doing things they don't understand, in a movie without any rules." In other words, you'd have to be a die-hard horror buff to give this one the benefit of the doubt. --Jeff Shannon

This hip, edgy thriller -- in the electrifying tradition of SCREAM, SCREAM 2, and FROM DUSK TILL DAWN -- delivers a howling good time with a hot young cast of stars! On the loose in Europe, three wild college grads from America bring their "Daredevil Tour" to Paris in search of some serious fun. There, Andy (Tom Everett Scott -- THAT THING YOU DO!) falls for the beautiful and mysterious woman of his dreams (Julie Delpy -- THE THREE MUSKETEERS). The only problem is ... when the moon is full, Andy's dream girl turns into a total nightmare! Rocking with a cool soundtrack featuring today's hottest cutting-edge recording artists, AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN PARIS is an outrageously thrilling adventure you don't want to miss!

Clay Pigeons

Set in Montana's Big Sky country, shot in Utah, lensed by Eric Alan Edwards (cinematographer of My Own Private Idaho)--no wonder it's hard to tell where Clay Pigeons lives, or where it's going. A Ridley Scott protégé previously at home in commercials and videos, debuting director David Dobkin aims to deliver us into the blackly comedic badlands of neo-noir, territory mined by the likes of Red Rock West and Fargo. Pigeons launches strongly, with several cruel turns of the screw. Out target-shooting, Clay Birdwell (Joaquin Phoenix) is hit with the news that his best pal knows he's been boffing his ur-slut wife (Georgina Cates) and could take Clay out on the spot, but chooses a creepier revenge--committing suicide in order to frame the guy who's cuckolded him. Naturally, Clay covers up the mess, thereby opening the film's can of very nasty worms. A slick, fast-talking cowboy (Vince Vaughn)--the funhouse-mirror-opposite of Phoenix's sweet, slow farmboy--turns up, and a string of ugly murders begins to play out. Once Vaughn's Lester Long is on the scene, spreading his psychotically giggling bonhomie, Dobkin's skin-deep riff on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train pretty much belongs to him. The rest of the cast looks more or less like clay pigeons set up by a scattershot script: exceptions include the always-estimable Scott Wilson who transforms his caricature-prone Sheriff Mooney into a character of nuanced humanity, and Janeane Garofalo, as an urban-hip FBI agent, whose single-chick sarcasm goes down in flames when Lester unholsters those big guns of come-hither charm. John Lurie of Lounge Lizards fame contributes a distinctive score, but Elvis Presley acts as the film's patron saint in more ways than one: Clay Pigeons' sexiest, scariest wet work is choreographed to "It's Now or Never." --Kathleen Murphy

National Lampoon's Barely Legal

In the tradition of National Lampoon humor comes the story of Deacon, Matt and Fred who will do anything for even a glimpse of sex and spend their mornings pirating porno movies from Fred's after school job at the video store. But when Fred is fired the well runs dry, and our heroes come up with a new plan: make their own adult film.

Firewall (Full Screen Edition)

Harrrison Ford brings his reliable brand of focused intensity to Firewall, a family-in-peril thriller that fits Ford like a comfortable old sweater. The venerable action star is visibly growing older now, but he's got a quiet, simmering quality here that perfectly suits his role as Jack Stanfield, Vice President of security at a large Seattle bank that's recently upgraded to a state-of-the-art computer security system (resulting in conspicuous Dell product placement throughout the film). Jack's the only one who can safely crack the system, so he's targeted by a would-be robber (Paul Bettany) whose jittery crew of thugs and hackers kidnaps Jack's wife (Sideways star Virginia Madsen), daughter, and young son, threatening to kill them if Jack doesn't transfer $100 million into the robber's secret offshore account. Like Bruce Willis in 2005's Hostage, Ford rises above the film's familiar generic trappings, and British director Richard Loncraine maintains a low-key escalation of tension that keeps Firewall on track toward a routine but satisfying conclusion. Supporting roles for Alan Arkin, Robert Forster and Robert Patrick add little to the film's turnabout plotting, but fans of Mary Lynn Rajskub (better known as ace computer nerd "Chloe" on the hit series 24) will enjoy her performance here as a loyal secretary who factors into Stanfield's bid to outsmart his captors. Firewall may not be an instant Ford classic like The Fugitive, but it's comparable to Ford's 2000 thriller What Lies Beneath in terms of overall intelligence and crowd-pleasing suspense. --Jeff Shannon

Firewall stars Harrison Ford as bank security expert Jack Stanfield whose specialty is designing infallible theft-proof financial computer systems. But there's a hidden vulnerability in the system he didn't account for - himself. When a ruthless criminal mastermind (Paul Bettany) kidnaps his family Jack is forced to find a flaw in his system and steal $100 million. With the lives of his wife and children at stake and under constant surveillance he has only hours to find a loophole in the thief's own impenetrable system of subterfuge and false identities to beat him at his own game.Running Time: 104 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 012569594098 Manufacturer No: 59409

Everything Put Together

An idyllic suburban life has never been portrayed to more queasy effect than in Marc Forster's Everything Put Together. Angie (Radha Mitchell, High Art) seems to have it all--a loving husband, a close circle of friends, a baby on the way. But when her newborn dies of SIDS, the isolated grief that quickly intervenes presents an alarming portrait of modern-day tribal outcasting as the American dream gets turned inside-out to reveal a cruel undertow. Treated as though she might taint their own families with bad luck, Angie's girlfriends abandon Angie to her grief and increasingly unstable behavior. Forster (Monster's Ball) shuttles artfully between the intimate handheld camera commotion of communal activities--neighborly barbecues, shopping excursions, rap sessions among friends--and the motionless scenes of Angie's unhinged state when alone, to create an atmosphere of suburban suffocation matched only by Todd Haynes's Safe. Everything Put Together was shot entirely on digital video, and its innovative direction and excellent cast subvert the familiarity of the home video to chilling effect. --Fionn Meade

Clay Pigeons

Set in Montana's Big Sky country, shot in Utah, lensed by Eric Alan Edwards (cinematographer of My Own Private Idaho)--no wonder it's hard to tell where Clay Pigeons lives, or where it's going. A Ridley Scott protégé previously at home in commercials and videos, debuting director David Dobkin aims to deliver us into the blackly comedic badlands of neo-noir, territory mined by the likes of Red Rock West and Fargo. Pigeons launches strongly, with several cruel turns of the screw. Out target-shooting, Clay Birdwell (Joaquin Phoenix) is hit with the news that his best pal knows he's been boffing his ur-slut wife (Georgina Cates) and could take Clay out on the spot, but chooses a creepier revenge--committing suicide in order to frame the guy who's cuckolded him. Naturally, Clay covers up the mess, thereby opening the film's can of very nasty worms. A slick, fast-talking cowboy (Vince Vaughn)--the funhouse-mirror-opposite of Phoenix's sweet, slow farmboy--turns up, and a string of ugly murders begins to play out. Once Vaughn's Lester Long is on the scene, spreading his psychotically giggling bonhomie, Dobkin's skin-deep riff on Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train pretty much belongs to him. The rest of the cast looks more or less like clay pigeons set up by a scattershot script: exceptions include the always-estimable Scott Wilson who transforms his caricature-prone Sheriff Mooney into a character of nuanced humanity, and Janeane Garofalo, as an urban-hip FBI agent, whose single-chick sarcasm goes down in flames when Lester unholsters those big guns of come-hither charm. John Lurie of Lounge Lizards fame contributes a distinctive score, but Elvis Presley acts as the film's patron saint in more ways than one: Clay Pigeons' sexiest, scariest wet work is choreographed to "It's Now or Never." --Kathleen Murphy

Billabong Odyssey / Grind