Wright, Michael

V - The Original TV Miniseries

In its day, V was a monumental event that for one generation remains a pop-culture touchstone. Close Encounters of the Third Kind may have reassured us that perhaps we have nothing to fear from alien visitors and E.T. introduced us to a benign extraterrestrial who only wanted to go home, but Kenneth Johnson's 1983 television miniseries knew better. Visitors who claim to come in peace are revealed to be nothing but human-looking reptilians on human conversion and conquest. As in the dark days of fascism, some collaborate with the enemy; others form the resistance.

At the time, the epic scale of this production was unprecedented. Those 50 motherships that hover over Earth's major cities anticipate Independence Day by more than a decade. The special effects and makeup are still awesome. Less so is the often-hackneyed dialogue. But thanks to their signature roles, the mostly no-star cast, most of whom would be reunited for a sequel and subsequent television series, have ensured themselves standing invitations to sci-fi conventions. Marc Singer is cameraman-turned-freedom-fighter Mike Donovan. Julie Parrish is a medical student-turned-rebel. Richard Herd is the aliens' supreme commander. Jane Bradler is Diana, the ravishing but ruthlessly ambitious alien science officer. Leonardo Cimino lends dignity to his heavy-handed allegorical role as a Holocaust survivor. Look for a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund as one of the aliens.

The DVD is presented for the first time in widescreen format. Supplemental features include an amiable and enlightening director's commentary and a brief "making of" segment. --Donald Liebenson

Aliens pretending to be friendly come to Earth and are received openly. The aliens have masqueraded themselves to look just like humans. When it is discovered that the aliens' planet is dying and that they have come to rape the Earth of its natural resources, the war for Earth begins. An important key to the humans' success is distinguishing the their own from the aliens.

V - The Final Battle

Though followers of current science fiction television series may dismiss V: The Final Battle as a quaint relic from the pre-computer animation days, the six-hour miniseries about an alien invasion of Earth was a ratings juggernaut for NBC in 1984 and should still provide some entertainment for hard-bitten devotees and fans of '50s-style sci-fi. The Final Battle picks up four months after the shock conclusion of the 1983 prequel miniseries, with a small group of humans known as the Resistance struggling to convince their fellow humans that a fleet of seemingly friendly visitors from space are in fact bent on world domination.

Executive producer Kenneth Johnson (who oversaw most aspects of the first series) only supervised the sequel's script (which underwent several changes before its airing), and the writing occasionally suffers due to the lack of his attention. But the series still delivers its share of action and intrigue, as well as one showstopping gruesome moment involving the birth of interspecies twins. Acting is again a stumbling block, with leads Marc Singer and Faye Grant as bland as any performers from the American International Pictures stable; character actor Michael Ironside makes the strongest impression as a tough Resistance member, and a pre-Freddy Krueger Robert Englund is amusing as a kind-hearted alien. The miniseries was followed by an inevitable weekly series featuring most of the same cast, which was demolished in the ratings by Dallas, but a faithful Resistance-like following remains to this day. --Paul Gaita

Marc Singer, Robert Englund and Michael Ironside in the thrilling sequel miniseries about human resistance to alien invaders - from the birth of the first interspecies child to a harrowing countdown to nuclear doomsday.

DVD Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access

The Wanderers

Tully High School seniors Richie, Joey and Perry run with a gang called the Wanderers in the Bronx. The time is fall 1963 but their experiences are universal: falling in love, surviving in school and defending turf against rivals like the Fordham Baldies, the Del Bombers and the Ducky Boys.

Sugar Hill (1994)

Roger Ebert tagged Sugar Hill as one of the best of 1994. Leon Ichaso's film is not an action flick; no, this stylish drama wants to be a small gangster epic. Call it Roemello's Way: a thoughtful drug lord (Wesley Snipes) wants to get out of his business but takes forever to do so. A Shakespearean tragedy slowly--far too slowly--evolves. While it has a definite street-smart sense, no new ground is covered. Snipes is worth watching, though, and Clarence Williams III (seen far too seldom on screen) is terrific as his doomed father. --Doug Thomas

A life of crime has earned Roemello Skuggs and his brother, Raynathan money, power and respect. Now Roemello, weary of the destructive world, wants to start a new life with a sophisticated woman from a respectable family. But Raynathan needs his help in a bloody war, as the mob tries to mob in on their territory. The harder roemello tries to walk away, the more he's pulled back into the only world he's ever known and the more determined he becomes to bury the past.

The Principal

Pinero

A biographical film about poet Miguel Pinero who began his writings in prison.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-MAR-2005
Media Type: DVD

The euphoria of controlled chaos that courses through Benjamin Bratt's portrayal of poet, playwright, and actor Miguel Piñero comes as a welcome surprise. Known primarily as a television actor, Bratt burns his way through what could have easily been an overwrought performance with the surety of a skilled improviser. Piñero begins with the sudden success of the playwright, whose play goes from a prison workshop in Sing Sing to the toast of 1970s New York seemingly overnight, and the requisite fall from grace is expected (Piñero died in 1988 of cirrhosis of the liver). Yet the self-aware cool of Bratt's Piñero--who helps found the still vibrant Nuyorican Poets Café and pens highly successful film and television scripts, all the while ingesting a suicidal dose of alcohol, heroin, and cocaine--lends the film an honesty lacking in most depictions of edgy characters. Highly committed as author, social activist, and con man for the cool, Piñero sums it up with characteristic pith when he tells a television crew, "I have to keep doing bad to keep the writing good." Piñero is at once defiant and defeated, clichéd and transcendent. --Fionn Meade

The Interpreter (Full Screen Edition)

Director Sydney Pollack delivers megawatt star power, high gloss, and political passion to The Interpreter, his first thriller since The Firm. With Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn delivering smooth, understated performances, the film more closely recalls Pollack's 1975 Robert Redford/Faye Dunaway paranoid thriller Three Days of the Condor, trading conspiratorial politicians for potential assassination in the United Nations General Assembly (this being the first film ever granted permission to use actual U.N. locations). Kidman plays a U.N. interpreter who inadvertently overhears hints of a plot to kill the reviled, tyrannical leader of her (fictional) African homeland; Penn is the Secret Service agent assigned to protect her, or to determine her role (if any) in the assassination scenario. By distancing itself from real-life politics, The Interpreter softens its potential impact as a thriller about contemporary globalization and threats to international peace, but the Penn/Kidman personal drama (between two people who gain a deep appreciation for shared anguish, without being artificially forced into romance) adds a richly human dimension to Pollack's expert handling of the thriller elements of a complex yet easily-followed plot. Indie-film stalwart Catherine Keener shines in her supporting role as Penn's sarcastic by sympathetic Secret Service partner. --Jeff Shannon

Academy Award winners Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn star in the action-packed thriller, The Interpreter. In one of the hidden corridors of power at United Nations headquarters, translator Silvia Broome (Kidman) overhears a potentially explosive secret about a planned assassination attempt. But when federal agent Tobin Keller (Penn) investigates her claim and digs deeper into Silvia's dangerous past, he begins to question whether she is a victim - or a suspect. From Oscar-winning director Sydney Pollack comes the riveting, edge-of-your-seat story of international intrigue that Ebert & Roeper give "Two thumbs up!"

The Five Heartbeats

Few things can be more noble than a wholehearted effort to tell the story of black secular music in America, especially through the eyes of a mid-20th century rhythm-and-blues vocal group breaking through race barriers to popular success. Comedian and filmmaker Robert Townsend's The Five Heartbeats (1991) is one such ambitious effort. If its story frequently sags under epochal burdens, the film makes up for it with a surprisingly tough look at the music business and classy appearances by Diahann Carroll and hoofer Harold Nicholas. Townsend plays one-fifth of the titular act, whose collective life and times we follow from 1965 to the 1990s, through friendships, break-ups, and re-groupings. The director's script, cowritten with Keenen Ivory Wayans, is wobbly and short on good material for the women in the cast. But several of the male actors are quite strong, particularly John Canada Terrell as an original Heartbeats replacement. --Tom Keogh

Get ready to be rocked to your soul by The Five Heartbeats! This Motown-flavored masterpiece is the story of five young friends drawn together by music. Their dream of success takes them from amateur nights in ghetto clubs to the pinnacle of show business success and personal tragedy.

Light and the Sufferer

Point Blank

The most dangerous criminals in Texas have just been set loose. They're heavily armed and totally out of control. A shopping mall has fallen victim to their psychotic outbursts and they're unwilling to negotiate.Now one renegade cop is going in to get one man out. It's brother against brother on opposites of the law on opposite sides of a gun.System Requirements:Running Time 90 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 658149710528 Manufacturer No: 7105

Strictly for late-night laughs, this ultraviolent action flick fails to make sense even of its own premise. A busload of Texas convicts are freed when heavily armed commandos open fire on them. The survivors and commandos take over a shopping mall, gathering numerous hostages together, shooting them when the mood strikes, or just to thin the acting herd. One mall guard shouts hysterically into his walkie-talkie until a compassionate squib puts him out of his misery. Behind this bold prison break is an infamous money launderer (Paul Ben-Victor), whom we may thank for all the weaponry, and Joe Ray (Kevin Gage), whose brother Ruby Ray (Mickey Rourke), a former Texas Ranger, has infiltrated the mall stronghold in order to get his brother out. What follows is plenty of violence, with big guys like Danny Trejo refusing to die no matter how many bullets hit him. Should be rated R for excessive use of improbabilities and gratuitous voiceover narration.--Jim Gay