Anderson, Michael

The Martian Chronicles

From the mind of science-fiction giant Ray Bradbury springs what is perhaps his most epic vision. Capturing mankind s first venture into the colonization of another planet and its tragic first contact with another species The Martian Chronicles is a stunning achievement that will take you from the edge of your seat to the stars.Earth is on the verge of extinction. To survive mankind must find another place to live. But when three expeditions to Mars headed by Col. John Wilder (Oscar®-nominee* Rock Hudson) find suitable conditions for relocation humans pour in by the shipload bringing the old evils of Earth with them! As Wilder begins to heed the lessons of the dying Martian civilization can he save humanity from repeating its doom?System Requirements: Running Time 293 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 027616911278 Manufacturer No: 1006989

With each passing year, this 1980 miniseries becomes more for those who have read Ray Bradbury's landmark novel. The three-part, nearly five-hour series keeps its brainy science fiction roots; this story (and the 1940s novel) is not about laser battles and exciting action pieces. Bradbury's novel is galvanized by the cold war nightmare: at the end of the 20th century, an earth teetering on world war begins to colonize Mars without much knowledge of the new world. Hard science is left for other stories, and director Michael Anderson (Logan's Run) keeps this retrofitting: for example, astronauts arrive on a breathable Mars in leisure suits. The space travel effects are clunky, but the action on Mars--with Assheton Gorton's geometric sets and simple props--are far more effective. There are Martians there, as the unprepared first Earthlings learn. Later, as the planet is quickly colonized, the remaining Martians are near specters--bringing awe and fear to those they encounter. Master sci-fi writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) smartly streamlines Bradbury's episodic stories, giving a central role to Col. John Wilder (played by Rock Huston, leading a plethora of solid, yet B-list actors). For those in love with cerebral science fiction, they can enjoy this dated but curious sci-fi miniseries; for those of think sci-fi began with Star Wars, beware. --Doug Thomas

The Dam Busters

It was one of the most daring and controversial missions in WWII history: On May 17th 1943 an elite RAF squadron flew deep into Germany s Ruhr Valley carrying five-ton experimental spinning bombs that needed to be dropped from a height of exactly 60 feet at precisely 240 mph in order to destroy three key dams in the Nazi industrial heartland. Oscar® nominees Michael Redgrave and Richard Todd star in this gritty docudrama that depicts the infamous Ruhr Raid from drawing board to attack hailed by critics as among the greatest war movies of all time. Robert Shaw co-stars in this still-influential action classic directed by Oscar® nominee Michael Anderson (AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHT DAYS) and based on the international bestseller by Paul Brickhill (THE GREAT ESCAPE) presented here in its uncut UK version featuring footage not seen in the original American theatrical release.System Requirements:Running Time: 125 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 013131494198 Manufacturer No: DV14941

Something of a cult item among British war movies, The Dam Busters turns a minor World War II incident into a heroic saga in the classic British style. A bombing raid is proposed on a strategically vital dam, but its position is inaccessible. Enter eccentric inventor Dr Barnes Wallis (Michael Redgrave in best daffy professor mode) who comes up with a genius idea--a bomb that will bounce on water like a skimmed pebble. Naturally the top brass dismiss it, but gallant Wing Commander Guy Gibson (Richard Todd) is persuaded, and he and Wallis forge ahead. The touches of carefully understated emotion now verge on self-parody, but it's hard not to get caught up in the narrative sweep, especially when the bombers take off on their mission and Eric Coates' stirring march hits the soundtrack. The model work, state-of-the-art for its early 1950s period, still looks impressive, and a moment involving a pet rivals the shooting of Bambi's mother. --Philip Kemp

Logan's Run

If you can stifle the urge to laugh at its pastel unisex costumes and futuristic shopping-mall décor, this extravagant science fiction film from 1976 is still visually fascinating and provocatively entertaining. Set in the year 2274, when ecological disaster has driven civilization to the protection of domed cities, the story revolves around a society that holds a ceremonial death ritual for all citizens who reach the age of 30. In a diseaseless city where free sex is encouraged and old age is virtually unknown, Logan (Michael York) is a "sandman," one who enforces this radical method of population control (but he's about to turn 30 and he doesn't want to die). Escaping from the domed city via a network of underground passages, Logan is joined by another "runner" named Jessica (Jenny Agutter), while his former sandman partner (Richard Jordan) is determined to terminate Logan's rebellion. Using a variety of splendid matte paintings and miniatures, Logan's Run earned a special Oscar for visual effects (images of a long-abandoned Washington, D.C., are particularly impressive), and in addition to fine performances by Jordan and Peter Ustinov, the film features '70s poster babe Farrah Fawcett in a cheesy supporting role. Jerry Goldsmith's semi-electronic score is still one of the prolific composer's best, and Logan's Run remains an interesting example of '70s sci-fi that preceded Star Wars by less than a year. --Jeff Shannon

Orca - The Killer Whale

When its pregnant mate is killed by shark hunters, a male killer whale stops at nothing to get revenge.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 14-SEP-2004
Media Type: DVD

The Shoes of the Fisherman

If you find during the 160-minute running time of The Shoes of the Fisherman that you don't like the plot, wait 10 minutes. It will surely change and there will be another story thread to entice you. The screenplay is literally all over the map: Siberia, where Archbishop Kiril Lakota, played splendidly by Anthony Quinn, has been exiled to a work camp in the oppressive Soviet regime; Moscow, where a genially scene-chewing Laurence Olivier plays a Soviet ruler with history with Lakota; China, where famine threatens to bring the world of the late '60s to the brink of World War III; and Rome, where Lakota travels after being freed (and where dissolute reporter David Janssen does his best to groove on the Swinging Sixties). Yet despite its flaws, the movie's central drama is riveting: the current Pope dies suddenly, and for a good bit of the film, viewers are treated to the Vatican's inner workings on the election of a new Pope. The events unfold at a leisurely pace, which allows you to drink in the spectacle and wonder of the ancient traditions. The Alex North Oscar-nominated score is lovely, and Quinn's performance is the somber-with-a-humble-twinkle glue that holds the film together. Anyone interested in the traditions and rituals of the Vatican will find plenty to savor. --A.T. Hurley

All eyes are focused on the Vatican hoping to see the traditional puffs of white smoke that signal the selection of the next Pope. But this time much more is at stake. The new pontiff may be the only person who can bring peace to a world hovering on the edge of nuclear nightmare. Year: 1968 Director: Michael Anderson Starring: Anthony Quinn Oskar Werner David Janssen Vittorio De Sica Leo McKern Sir John GielgudRunning Time: 162 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA UPC: 012569517424 Manufacturer No: 65174

Films of Faith Collection (The Nun's Story / The Shoes of the Fisherman / The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima)

Fred Zinnemann's epic 1959 drama The Nun's Story is a splendid showcase for Audrey Hepburn, who stars as the young nun Sister Luke, who is deeply spiritual yet conflicted about whether or not she can conform to convent life. Though the film is a mesmerizing--and quite leisurely--two and a half hours, its plot is fairly simple--young Gabrielle (Hepburn) enters the convent pledging her life to God, learns the disciplines associated with the life, receives her dream assignment of going to the Congo as a missionary nurse, and once there, is forced to face whether she is meant for the rigorous life of poverty, chastity, and most difficult of all, obedience. The film does a marvelous job of portraying the challenges of cloistered life without being either off-putting or overly romantic. And Hepburn, sometimes with only her eyes, communicates all the drive, faith, and conflict of a young woman so torn.

If you find during the 160-minute running time of The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) that you don't like the plot, wait 10 minutes. It will surely change and there will be another story thread to entice you. The screenplay is literally all over the map: Siberia, where Archbishop Kiril Lakota, played splendidly by Anthony Quinn, has been exiled to a work camp in the oppressive Soviet regime; Moscow, where a genially scene-chewing Laurence Olivier plays a Soviet ruler with history with Lakota; China, where famine threatens to bring the world of the late '60s to the brink of World War III; and Rome, where Lakota travels after being freed (and where dissolute reporter David Janssen does his best to groove on the Swinging Sixties). Yet despite its flaws, the movie's central drama is riveting: the current Pope dies suddenly, and for a good bit of the film, viewers are treated to the Vatican's inner workings on the election of a new Pope. The events unfold at a leisurely pace, which allows you to drink in the spectacle and wonder of the ancient traditions. The Alex North Oscar-nominated score is lovely, and Quinn's performance is the somber-with-a-humble-twinkle glue that holds the film together. Anyone interested in the traditions and rituals of the Vatican will find plenty to savor.

The Miracle of Our Lady of Fatima tells the story--through an admittedly Hollywood prism--of one of the most beloved Catholic legends of the 20th century. Three young shepherd children in the remote Portuguese mountain town Fatima reported seeing a vision in 1917 of "a beautiful lady" who spoke to them of strife, war and peace and the love of Jesus. Soon the word spread, and throngs, teetering on mobs, gathered near the site for a glimpse of what they believed to be Mary, mother of Jesus. The children remained steadfast in their account, despite threats from the church and the government, and the final appearance of the lady, on Oct. 13, 1917, was accompanied by strange apparitions in the sky that have yet to be explained by science. The movie is well-made and -acted, especially by a radiant Susan Whitney, who plays the oldest child, Lúcia Abóbora dos Santos. The screenplay takes some liberties with the facts: the lovable jokester-sidekick character of Hugo is fictitious, and one wonders if perhaps a few of Our Lady's cautions about the multitude of evil things happening in 1917 Russia might have been heard through a Cold War filter. But the 1952 film is moving and is a reminder that big studios once routinely, and profitably, released religious-themed movies, to audiences who surely would appreciate some of the same today. --A.T. Hurley

MIRACLE OF OUR LADY OF FATIMA: This story recreates the events that began in May 1917 when three shepherd children witness a vision of a beautiful lady in a grotto just outside the village of Fatima Portugal. At a time when World War I rages across Central Europe and Portugal is locked in the grip of a repressive anti-religious government their report ignites the religious fervor of the villagers--and foreshadows a dangerous confrontation with government officials.THE NUN'S STORY: A young nun dedicated to medical work in the African Congo and in World War II Belgium struggles to reconcile her independent spirit to the rigors and humility of a religious life.THE SHOES OF THE FISHERMAN: The world's first duly elected Russian Pope tries to prevent not only an atomic war but starvation in Red China as well. Based on Morris l. West's best-selling novel.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MISCELLANEOUS/SPECIAL INTEREST Rating: NR UPC: 012569756229 Manufacturer No: 75622

Sword of Gideon

Captains Courageous (REGION 1) (NTSC) (1996)

Operation Crossbow

No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 19-DEC-2006
Media Type: DVD

Operation Crossbow was one among many '60s films aiming, in the wake of The Guns of Navarone, to cash in on nostalgia for "the Good War" of 20 years earlier, plus snag a share of the spy-movie market stoked by James Bond. A decent-enough stiff-upper-lip thriller in its day, it's yet more enjoyable now. The nostalgia has deepened to include affectionate enjoyment of a fine, big cast now mostly departed, dependably hitting their marks in a jolly good yarn.

The tale begins around the midpoint of the war, with Hitler aspiring to hurl a second Blitz against London using "flying bombs" and rockets. The British War Office starts recruiting officers fluent in the necessary technical fields, as well as German, Dutch, and/or French--the languages of the Nazi-occupied countries from which the Germans are recruiting technical personnel. The screenplay follows two tracks: the Germans' progress with their new aerial weaponry, and the progress of the Allied infiltrators--chiefly Yank George Peppard, chirpy Englishman Jeremy Kemp, and Dutchman Tom Courtenay--sent to penetrate the V2 project.

Despite the resemblance between the Navarone caves and the underground V2 launch center, Crossbow is something of an anti-Navarone. Its heroes are resolutely small-scale, and the mission is fraught with more opportunities for horrible miscues and moral-ethical murkiness than commando derring-do. The most memorable, indeed disturbing, part of the film involves Sophia Loren as the apolitical wife of a collaborator she doesn't know has been killed (and his identity assumed by Peppard). John Mills and Trevor Howard are deliciously deadpan trading war-council flapdoodle at the highest echelon, and Anthony Quayle (the spiritual leader of the Navarone mission) does yeoman service in a tricky role. Time--or rather, the transfer to video--has also been kind to the film's thin, overlit Metrocolor and last-reel special effects, which looked feebler on theater screens. The writers include Michael Powell's longtime partner Emeric Pressburger (under the pseudonym Richard Imrie). --Richard T. Jameson

The Quiller Memorandum

George Segal Alec Guinness and Max von Sydow square off against each other in this espionage thriller adapted by Harold Pinter from the novel by Adam Hall aka for writer Elleston Trevor.Ace spy Quiller is lured away from holiday to replace a British agent who died while essaying a most challenging assignment: infiltrating the Neo-Nazi ranks.Now Quiller must find the group's station in Germany. Along the way however he is abducted tortured reprogrammed doped and almost blown up.The resilient prober though will show the evil Neo-Nazi leader Oktober that he has more lives than a cat and more tricks up his sleeve than anyone this side of James Bond.System Requirements:Running Time 105 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 024543381440 Manufacturer No: 2238144