Zabka, William

Just One of the Guys

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 04/24/2007 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13

Though marketed as a raunchy teen sex comedy à la Porky's, Just One of the Guys is an amusing and well-acted comic riff on gender roles. Believing that she's lost a journalism contest because she's a woman, high school student Joyce Hyser disguises herself as a boy in order to see how the other half lives. Her investigation leads her to discover some interesting truths about how men and women treat each other in social and romantic situations. The screenplay by coproducers Jeff Franklin (a veteran TV scribe) and Dennis Feldman nicely balances the sex-driven gags with more character-driven material, which is well delivered by Hyser, Clayton Rohner as her eccentric pal, and especially Billy Jacoby as her perpetually aroused brother; the capable cast also includes Sherilyn Fenn and Arye Gross. Eighties music fans should also appreciate the soundtrack, which features tracks by Berlin, Lindsay Buckingham, and the Stooges. --Paul Gaita

The Karate Kid (Special Edition)

John G. Avildsen not only directed Rocky, he tried remaking it over the years in a dozen different ways. One of them was this popular 1984 drama about a new kid (Ralph Macchio) in town targeted by karate-wielding bullies until he gets a new mentor: the handyman (Pat Morita) from his apartment building, who teaches him self-confidence and fighting skills. The screen partnership of Macchio's motor-mouth character and Morita's reserved father figure works well, and the script allows for the younger man to develop sympathy for the painful memories of his teacher. But the film's real engine, as with Rocky, is the fighting, and there's plenty of that. Elisabeth Shue is on board as the girl the klutzy Macchio dreams of winning. --Tom Keogh

A fatherless teenager faces his moment of truth in The Karate Kid. Daniel (Ralph Macchio) arrives in Los Angeles from the east coast and faces the difficult task of making new friends. However, he becomes the object of bullying by the Cobras, a menacing gang of karate students, when he strikes up a relationship with Ali (Elisabeth Shue), the Cobra leader's ex-girlfriend. Eager to fight back and impress his new girlfriend but afraid to confront the dangerous gang, Daniel asks his handyman Miyagi (Noriyuki 'Pat' Morita), whom he learns is a master of the martial arts, to teach him karate. Miyagi teaches Daniel that karate is a mastery over the self, mind, and body and that fighting is always the last answer to a problem. Under Miyagi's guidance, Daniel develops not only physical skills but also the faith and self-confidence to compete despite tremendous odds as he encounters the fight of his life in the exciting finale to this entertaining film.

Smiley Face

Studio: First Look Home Entertain Release Date: 04/01/2008 Run time: 85 minutes Rating: R

Back To School (Extra-Curricular Edition)

Studio: Tcfhe/mgm Release Date: 06/10/2008 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg13

In the mid-1980s, standup comic Rodney Dangerfield underwent a renewed wave of popularity, finding a surprisingly enthusiastic baby-boomer audience. What else to do but make a movie that shows off Dangerfield's alternately knowing and boorish humor? This may not be on the AFI list of great films, but it delivers laughs aplenty in its story of a rough-edged tycoon who made his fortune in clothes for the stout and tall and decides to attend college in order to be closer to his son (Keith Gordon). There's not much plot, but lots of room for Dangerfield's one-line riffs. The goggle-eyed comic veteran displays surprising charm, enough to make his romance with professor Sally Kellerman believable. Look for cameos by late comedian Sam Kinison and author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. --Marshall Fine

National Lampoon's European Vacation

Europe has survived famines plagues and wars but it hasnt got a chance when the griswalds invade the continent. Enjoy the sequel to chevy chases national lampoon vacation as they leave chaotic calling cards from country to country. Special features: subtitles in eng fr sp port chi thai and korean. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 04/05/2005 Starring: Chevy Chase Beverly Dangelo Run time: 94 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Amy Heckerling

After winning a tour package in a game show, the bickering Griswald family carve a trail of destruction through England (where they knock over Stonehenge), France, Germany, and Italy. Somehow Ellen (Bevery D'Angelo), the mom, gets kidnapped by gangsters, leading to a car chase that reunites the family, despite their differences. It's hard to believe that National Lampoon's European Vacation is only the second of the Vacation movies; it has the exhausted pallor of the last of a long series of sequels, drained of all zest or original ideas. The charmless smirk of Chevy Chase, mechanical in its idiocy, hangs over European Vacation like a death mask. It's hard to believe that this hack was once the funny and sexy hero of Foul Play. D'Angelo keeps her chin up and gives the movie whatever class it may have; she deserves better. --Bret Fetzer

Back to School

In the mid-1980s, standup comic Rodney Dangerfield underwent a renewed wave of popularity, finding a surprisingly enthusiastic baby-boomer audience. What else to do but make a movie that shows off Dangerfield's alternately knowing and boorish humor? This may not be on the AFI list of great films, but it delivers laughs aplenty in its story of a rough-edged tycoon who made his fortune in clothes for the stout and tall and decides to attend college in order to be closer to his son (Keith Gordon). There's not much plot, but lots of room for Dangerfield's one-line riffs. The goggle-eyed comic veteran displays surprising charm, enough to make his romance with professor Sally Kellerman believable. Look for cameos by late comedian Sam Kinison and author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. --Marshall Fine

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Comedy
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 24-JUN-2003
Media Type: DVD

The Karate Kid

In this exhilarating drama an elderly karate expert teaches his art to a teen being threatened by a vicious gang of toughs in his new town. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 07/24/2001 Starring: Ralph Macchio Run time: 127 minutes Rating: Pg

John G. Avildsen not only directed Rocky, he tried remaking it over the years in a dozen different ways. One of them was this popular 1984 drama about a new kid (Ralph Macchio) in town targeted by karate-wielding bullies until he gets a new mentor: the handyman (Pat Morita) from his apartment building, who teaches him self-confidence and fighting skills. The screen partnership of Macchio's motor-mouth character and Morita's reserved father figure works well, and the script allows for the younger man to develop sympathy for the painful memories of his teacher. But the film's real engine, as with Rocky, is the fighting, and there's plenty of that. Elisabeth Shue is on board as the girl the klutzy Macchio dreams of winning. --Tom Keogh

Epoch

High Voltage

Python II

When an American cargo plane carrying a top-secret anti-personnel device is shot down over war-torn Chechnya, Russian scientists are eager to investigate. But their curiousity leads to horrific death and destruction as they inadvertently unleash the most terrifying "weapon" the world has even known: a massive, biogenitically enhanced python with lightening-fast reflexes and voracious appetite for human flesh.