Lawrence Kasdan

French Kiss

Kate flies to Paris to keep her fiance from running off with a French woman, but becomes involved with a sexy French thief who assures her he will help.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 11-JAN-2005
Media Type: DVD

Meg Ryan emerges bloodied but unbowed from this botched comedy by Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill). Ryan plays a woman whose fiancé (Timothy Hutton) leaves her for a Parisian beauty. She jets over to the City of Lights to fight for her man, but an incapacitating fear of flying forces her to seek help from a fellow passenger, a French thief played by Kevin Kline, who then tutors her in the ways of getting her beau back. Kasdan seems incapable of pacing the story, let alone getting a firm grip on its comic tone and intentions. The production sputters and regroups and stalls repeatedly, forcing Ryan, particularly, to find the boundaries of her own screwball performance. --Tom Keogh

The Big Chill

Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 big-budget variation on John Sayles's The Return of the Secaucus Seven finds a cluster of old college radicals--who have since gone on to sundry professions and various degrees of materialism--reuniting over the death of a friend. Both playful and thoughtful, the film represents Kasdan (Body Heat) at his most astute. The attractive cast meshes perfectly into a group of characters for which a former closeness is out of synch with their current lives, yet their warmth is enviable and inviting. The script may be a bit too glib, with many one-liners, but it is still a perfectly designed story with telling irony and no little passion. --Tom Keogh

Spend some time with a few good friends... as they reunite for the funeral of a college pal. During the weekend that follows these friends compare their 60s ideals with the harsh reality of their lives in the 80s and discover that in a cold world you need your friends to keep you warm. System Requirements:Starring: Kevin Kline William Hurt Glenn Close Tom Berenger Jeff GoldblumMary Kay Place JoBeth Williams Meg Tilly Director: Lawrence Kasdan Copyright: 1983 Columbia/Tristar Produced by Michael Shamberg; written by B. Benedek L. Kasdan; DVD released on 01/26/1999; running time of 105 minutes. Widescreen 1.85:1 aspect ratio enhanced for 16X9 TVs Closed captioned 56-minute documentary featuring new interviews with the cast and director behind-the-scenes footage and deleted scenesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 043396026322 Manufacturer No: 02632

Silverado (2 Disc Superbit Gift Set)

Get ready for some horse-ridin' gun-totin' whiskey-drinkin' fun in this digitally remastered collector's edition of Lawrence Kasdan's SILVERADO featuring a never-before-seen featurette with interviews from the cast and the filmmakers! The spirited Western stars Kevin Kline Scott Glenn Kevin Costner and Danny Glover as four unwitting heroes who cross paths on their journey to the sleepy town of Silverado. Little do they know the town where their family and friends reside has been taken over by a corrupt sheriff and a murderous posse. It's up to the sharp-shooting foursome to save the day but first they have to break each other out of jail and learn who their real friends are. Thanks to its authentic look and spectacular cast which also includes Rosanna Arquette John Cleese Brian Dennehy Jeff Goldblum and Oscar®-winner Linda Hunt (1983 Best Supporting Actress The Year of Living Dangerously) this exciting Old West adventure created a whole new generation of Western fans and earned its "modern classic" status.System Requirements:Running Time: 132 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396067097 Manufacturer No: 06709

Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) clearly set out to make an old-fashioned Western, but he couldn't help bringing a hip, self-conscious attitude to the proceedings. Silverado thus finds its own funky tone--sometimes rousing, sometimes winking. Four cowpokes converge on a little Western burg called Silverado; they're played by Kevin Kline (a distinctly modern kind of Western hero), Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and the rowdy young Kevin Costner. Kasdan peppers the somewhat generic action with smart dialogue and a parade of quirky supporting players, including John Cleese as a sheriff who seems to have stepped straight from a Monty Python sketch into an Old West saloon. Bruce Broughton supplies the music, a real throwback to the glory days of thundering Western themes. One thing's for sure: Silverado's a lot more fun than the later Kasdan-Costner Western, Wyatt Earp. --Robert Horton

Body Heat (Deluxe Edition)

While scoring high-profile credits as a screenwriter (including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark), Lawrence Kasdan made his directorial debut with this steamy, contemporary film noir in the tradition of Double Indemnity and other classics from the 1940s. In one of his most memorable roles, William Hurt plays a Florida lawyer unwittingly drawn into a web of deceit spun by Kathleen Turner (in her screen debut) as a married socialite who plots to kill off her husband with Hurt's assistance. Kasdan's dialogue is a hoot (sometimes it borders on satire), and the sultry atmosphere is a perfect complement to the perspiration-soaked chemistry between Hurt and Turner, whose love scenes caused quite a stir when the film was released in 1981. John Barry's score sets the provocative mood, and both Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are splendid in memorable supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon

William Hurt and Kathleen Turner strike sparks in Lawrence Kasdan's Body Heat a sexy haunting tale of desire and skullduggery that echoes 1940s film noirs but is charged with an energy and passion that could only flare in the '80s. Aided by a sultry John Barry score Kasdan's assured directorial debut foreshadowed the emotional textures he would bring to later films The Big Chill The Accidental Tourist and Grand Canyon. Sit back and bask in this contemporary classic's wicked warmth.Running Time: 113 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569813786 Manufacturer No: 81378

Dreamcatcher (Widescreen Edition)

Regardless of its critical roasting, Dreamcatcher is a must-see for Stephen King fans. In adapting King's epic novel (itself an amalgam of familiar King plotlines), director Lawrence Kasdan and cowriter William Goldman sacrificed much of the character depth that gave the story its crucial humanity, resulting in a tame frightfest about four longtime friends (Damian Lewis, Jason Lee, Thomas Jane, Timothy Olyphant) whose past--and a shared gift of telepathy--connects them to a present-day alien invasion in the snowy forests of Maine. Like an ambitious episode of The X-Files, this slick production offers slimy "weasels" that gestate in human bowels; ominous aliens who seize control of bodies and minds; a secret military strike (led by Morgan Freeman) against the invaders; and enough gross-out humor to satisfy jaded horror buffs. Unfortunately, it just isn't scary. Despite its A-list advantages, Dreamcatcher works best as a glorified B-movie, likely to benefit from lowered expectations. --Jeff Shannon

Four young friends perform a heroic act and are changed forever by the uncanny powers they gain in return. Years later, on a hunting trip in the Maine woods, they are overtaken by a blizzard, a vicious storm in which something much more ominous moves. Challenged to stop a deadly alien force, they confront an unparalleled horror, with the fate of the world in the balance.

I Love You to Death

This spotty black comedy from Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill)--based on a true story--stars Kevin Kline as a womanizing pizzeria owner whose mousy wife (Tracey Ullman) tries multiple ways of murdering him with the aid of sundry friends and hired hands. The film never picks up the necessary momentum or develops the necessary tone to drive it, and one is left picking and choosing which of the performers is at least adequately entertaining. Kline is good but perhaps a bit too theatrical, and Joan Plowright is hilarious as his mother-in-law. The funniest joke in the whole thing belongs to William Hurt and Keanu Reeves as deeply-stoned, would-be-killers who emerge from a taxi and look as if they can't remember what planet they're on. --Tom Keogh

Academy Award® Winner Kevin Kline (1988 Best Actor in a Supporting Role - A Fish Called Wanda) Tracey Ullman Academy Award® Winner William Hurt (1985 Best Actor in a Leading Role - Kiss of the Spider Woman) River Phoenix Academy Award® Winner Joan Plowright (1992 Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Enchanting April) and Keanu Reeves star in this bawdy comedy based on the true story of a woman who tried to kill her husband ... four times! Comedienne Tracey Ullman is Rosalie Boca the devoted wife of a philandering pizza maker (Kline). When Rosalie learns that he's been squeezing more than just tomatoes her homicidal instincts take over. With the help of a New Age busboy (Phoenix) drug-addled cousins Harlan and Marlon (Hurt and Reeves) and her own mother (Plowright) Rosalie attempts to send Joey to that big bed in the sky. But love ultimately triumphs in this stranger-than-fiction comedy from the director of THE BIG CHILL and THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST.System Requirements:Running Time 97 MinsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 043396103399 Manufacturer No: 10339

Grand Canyon

This murky rumination on keeping faith in our troubled times was an early sign that writer-director Lawrence Kasdan (Silverado) was losing his once-powerful grasp on the art of storytelling. Set in modern Los Angeles--with all its random violence, venality, ubiquitous police presence, earthquakes, and dreams--the film concerns an unusual intersection of lives and chance occurrences that alter everyone's perspective on destiny. Kasdan, very understandably, is attempting to create an experience for viewers as intuitive as the undefined forces propelling his characters. But from the outside looking in, there isn't enough internal logic in the story to help us connect the dots. Steve Martin has an interesting part as a garish film producer who undergoes a change in priorities after being assaulted on the street. --Tom Keogh

When a lawyer's (Kevin Kline) car breaks down in a dangerous Los Angeles neighborhood, a tow-truck driver (Danny Glover) arrives just in time to save his life. The two men begin a deep friendship that sets off a chain of unsettling and surprising events involving their families and friends for years to come. Lawrence Kasdan's powerful, uplifting film about the harsh realities of contemporary urban life co-stars Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker and Alfre Woodard.

The Accidental Tourist

Lawrence Kasdan adapted Anne Tyler's novel into this mopey comedy which, oddly enough, took the New York Film Critics Circle's best picture award (a case of strategic voting getting out of hand). William Hurt plays a depressed travel writer struggling to come to terms with his son's death. He buys a dog for companionship, then hires an eccentric dog trainer (Geena Davis, who won an Oscar for her role) to teach it to behave. She, in turn, teaches him to reconnect to life. But as he is beginning to admit his feelings for her to himself, he is blindsided by the return of his estranged wife (Kathleen Turner), who attempts to rekindle their marriage. A muffled, low-key affair--so low-key that it sometimes seems positively stationary. --Marshall Fine

Silverado

Director Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill) clearly set out to make an old-fashioned Western, but he couldn't help bringing a hip, self-conscious attitude to the proceedings. Silverado thus finds its own funky tone--sometimes rousing, sometimes winking. Four cowpokes converge on a little Western burg called Silverado; they're played by Kevin Kline (a distinctly modern kind of Western hero), Scott Glenn, Danny Glover, and the rowdy young Kevin Costner. Kasdan peppers the somewhat generic action with smart dialogue and a parade of quirky supporting players, including John Cleese as a sheriff who seems to have stepped straight from a Monty Python sketch into an Old West saloon. Bruce Broughton supplies the music, a real throwback to the glory days of thundering Western themes. One thing's for sure: Silverado's a lot more fun than the later Kasdan-Costner Western, Wyatt Earp. --Robert Horton

Body Heat

While scoring high-profile credits as a screenwriter (including The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, and Raiders of the Lost Ark), Lawrence Kasdan made his directorial debut with this steamy, contemporary film noir in the tradition of Double Indemnity and other classics from the 1940s. In one of his most memorable roles, William Hurt plays a Florida lawyer unwittingly drawn into a web of deceit spun by Kathleen Turner (in her screen debut) as a married socialite who plots to kill off her husband with Hurt's assistance. Kasdan's dialogue is a hoot (sometimes it borders on satire), and the sultry atmosphere is a perfect complement to the perspiration-soaked chemistry between Hurt and Turner, whose love scenes caused quite a stir when the film was released in 1981. John Barry's score sets the provocative mood, and both Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke are splendid in memorable supporting roles. --Jeff Shannon