Davidson, Martin

Eddie and the Cruisers

Perhaps best known for its faux Springsteen soundtrack, the 1983 Eddie and the Cruisers is a rock lover's fantasy run wild. The story finds a reporter (Ellen Barkin) tracking down rumors of an unreleased album by a band whose charismatic leader (Michael Paré) allegedly died years before. As she approaches surviving members--who have since gone on to other things--she gets different points of view on Eddie's life and artistic drive, and the mystery about that album deepens. The trouble with the film is simple: it's impossible to accept. Michael Paré is far from suitable to play a Jersey shore rocker with thematic pretensions toward Rimbaud that go back to the '60s, and the soundtrack by John Cafferty sounds like a hack's rendition of E Street Band magic. An all-around embarrassment. --Tom Keogh

They say rock 'n' roll never dies, but one dark night in 1963, Eddie Wilson's car took a dive off aJersey bridge with the troubled rock idol at the wheel. His body was never found. Tom Berenger (Platoon), Michael ParÃ(c) (Streets of Fire) and Ellen Barkin (Sea of Love) star in this cool, compelling classic that really rocks! Twenty years after the lead singer (ParÃ(c)) of"Eddie and the Cruisers" disappeared, the band's songs are hotter than ever. And renewed interest in the band leads TV reporter Maggie Foley (Barkin) to pursue a tantalizing mystery: What if Eddie isstill alive? The circumstances surrounding his death are just shadowy enough to make it a distinct possibility, and someone (could it be Eddie?) has been ransacking the homes of surviving band members in a desperate search for tapes of the group's visionary, never-released album. As Maggie interviews the former "Cruisers," the pieces of the puzzle start to fit...but only until still deeper mysteries begin to surface.

Looking for an Echo

Follow the River

Hard Promises

Joey Coalter (William Petersen TV's "C.S.I.: Crime Scene Investigation") is a restless adventurer who's been married for nearly thirteen years to his high-school sweetheart Christine (Sissy Spacek Coal Miner's Daughter) but has been working odd jobs that have kept him away from home nearly the whole time. Fed up with her husband's wandering ways Chris files for divorce and makes plans to marry a local and reliable businessman. Completely stunned when he receives a wedding invitation (secretly sent by their daughter Beth) Joey rushes home to try to win back his wife in this true-to-life romantic comedy.System Requirements: Running Time 95 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 027616125408 Manufacturer No: 12540

Hero at Large

He's a superhero - with the tights and cape to prove it! Steve (John Ritter) a struggling New York actor costumed for a job posing as Captain Avenger at a movie premiere walks into a corner market...and into a holdup. One smash! boom! pow! later and the Big Apple is hailing Steve. Not as a hero. As a superhero. Reel life turns real for Steve in this comic charmer celebrating the hero in all of us. One of the most likable stars ever to grace large or small screens Ritter is hilarious and touching as a workaday guy who discovers righting wrongs is a whole lot of fun. So much that corrupt politicians want to cut in on the action and use Steve's fame to their own advantage. Will Steve cave to their scheme?This is a job for a superhero who knows right from wrong!Running Time: 115 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY UPC: 012569675575

Heart of Dixie

Follow the River

Looking for an Echo

Looking for an Echo

Long Gone

Kevin Costner might have had a hammerlock on baseball movies in the late 1980s with Bull Durham and Field of Dreams, but this 1987 HBO film with a few mid-level stars was (and still is) very good in its own way. William L. Petersen (Manhunter) is a player-manager for a 1950s minor-league team whose fortunes and hopes turn around during their battle for a championship. As with Bull Durham, this comedy has the feeling of taking place in a world larger than that of baseball, and thus provides useful perspective into why the game is so central in people's lives each spring. Another similarity is the farm-team milieu, a life of abridged hopes and stardom outside the Show--the thematic implication being that most of us have some kind of Show we can only admire from a distance. (Underscoring the point is a nice performance by Virginia Madsen as a small-town beauty queen.) But hope does come in Long Gone, and because of its sharp dialogue and enjoyable acting (by Dermot Mulroney, Larry Riley, Henry Gibson, Katy Boyer, and Teller) this film deserves to be included in anyone's collection of baseball features. --Tom Keogh