Kaplan, Jonathan

Over the Edge

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 09/20/2005 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: Pg

Return to the pre-Internet days of 1979, when teens had KISS on their T-shirts and Led Zeppelin on their walls (wait, other than the high-waisted pants, that could be today). Richie (Matt Dillon in an electrifying debut) and Carl (Michael Kramer) are two such teens stuck in the planned community of New Granada (rural Colorado). Richie is a two-bit hood in Jackie Earle Haley (Bad News Bears) mode. Carl, his partner in mischief (breaking curfew, setting off firecrackers), comes from a more stable environment. Once a gun enters the picture, petty crime leads to tragedy and then apocalyptic revenge. Over the Edge gets the details right: the kids, the era, and their frustration with an uncomprehending adult world. At times, it almost feels like documentary, except for a few moments of high Kubrick-meets-Walter Hill drama, as when Carl gets jumped by a couple of hoods, including Vincent Spano (Baby It's You). Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused) and shot by Andrew Davis (The Fugitive), Over the Edge was unavailable for too long and deserves to find the same audience as other teen rebellion classics like co-writer Tim Hunter's River's Edge. The period-perfect soundtrack ups the ante with potent tracks from Cheap Trick, the Ramones, and the Cars. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Heart Like a Wheel

In the 1950s, Shirley Muldowney (Bonnie Bedelia, Presumed Innocent) was a young mother with a jones for motor sports. Waitressing, however, was how she earned her keep. By the 1960s, Muldowney had ditched the day job for full-time racing. Then in 1977, she won the National Hot Rod Association world championship--and not for the first time. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (The Accused), Heart Like a Wheel traces the trailblazer's path from Schenectady housewife to "The First Lady of Racing." Along the way, her marriage to mechanic Jack Muldowney (Leo Rossi) hits the skids, but she finds new love with (married) driver Connie "The Bounty Hunter" Kalitta (Beau Bridges in a performance as boisterous as it is sweet). He helps her to become the first woman licensed by the NHRA to drive a Top Fuel dragster, but son John (Anthony Edwards) proves to be more trustworthy. Extras for this special edition include commentary from Kaplan and the featurette Shirley Muldowney: Behind the Wheel, which combines film clips, archival footage, and interviews with technical advisor Tommy Ivo, drivers Kalitta and "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, and "Cha Cha" herself. Feisty as ever, Muldowney admits that she wanted Jamie Lee Curtis for the role and that Bedelia, who garnered a Golden Globe nomination, could be "difficult." Kaplan, meanwhile, who would go on to direct Edwards on E.R., claims he's a real-life racing fan. As he puts it, the Top Gun actor really does have "the need for speed." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Shirley Muldowney is determined to be a top-fuel drag racer, although no woman has ever raced them before. Despite the high risks of this kind of racing and the burden it places on her family life, she perseveres in her dream.

Brokedown Palace

Alice (Claire Danes) and Darlene (Kate Beckinsale) are best friends on their post-high-school whirlwind vacation. Telling their parents they're off for Hawaii, they head instead to Thailand, where they stay at a $6-a-night dive and sneak drinks at a posh hotel. They both fall sway to the charms of a handsome Australian (Daniel Lapaine), who invites them to Hong Kong. Off they go, although unbeknownst to them (or is it? this question is never fully answered), one of them has heroin in her backpack. Sentenced to 33 years in a Thai jail, they find their friendship begins to deteriorate as their trust in each other fades. They enlist the help of Yankee Hank (Bill Pullman), a greedy but knowledgeable American lawyer living in Asia.

The main flaws of this film are the capital-L lessons: friendship is powerful, don't trust strangers, nice girls shouldn't drink and sleep around. The film's bleakest moments, in the jail, aren't all that bad, and in this respect Brokedown Palace has nothing on the intensity of films such as Midnight Express or even Return to Paradise. Yet Danes and Beckinsale prove they are strong actresses, and their characters' friendship is suitably complex and believable. --Jenny Brown

Two best friends dream vacation abroad becomes a nightmare when they are seduced and framed by a mysterious stranger. Now they must prove their innocense before its too late. Bonus features: original theatrical trailer cast bios subtitles in english and spanish widescreen and more. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 05/02/2006 Starring: Clair Danes Bill Pullman Run time: 100 minutes Rating: Pg13 Director: Jonathan Kaplan

The Accused

Jodie Foster won her first Oscar for her role in this drama, based on an actual incident. She plays a girl out for a night of fun at a poolroom. Before she knows what's happening, the men she's been flirting with have pinned her down for a gang rape. The story centers on the efforts of a district attorney (Kelly McGillis) to press her case, in spite of a wall of silence by the participants--and then to take the unusual step of going after the witnesses as accomplices. Foster is outstanding as a tough, blue-collar woman who persists in what seems like an unwinnable case, despite the prospect of character assassination for standing up for herself. --Marshall Fine

A lawyer crusades for her client victim of a barroom gang rape. Best actress oscar for foster. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 04/11/2006 Starring: Jodie Foster Tom Obrien Run time: 110 minutes Rating: R Director: Jonathan Kaplan

Bad Girls (Extended Cut)

Viewers of this Hollywood-processed movie should prepare to suspend disbelief: the four prostitutes turned outlaws will have flimsy excuses for being adept in gun slinging, stunt riding, and world knowledge. But this Western trips over a poor script of laughable plot points (secret plans are left out for wandering eyes, loot is taken without resistance) and a story that sticks forever in second gear. Never better or worse than Young Guns, with these intelligent actresses only part of the scenery. Drew Barrymore comes off the best, along with James LeGros as a meek rancher. --Doug Thomas

In 19th-century colorado four prostitutes end up on the run after they ring leader kills an abusive customer. They ride out of town with plans for a new life and become gunfighters to win back their money their rights and their dignity. Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 02/01/2005 Starring: Madeleine Stowe Andie Macdowell Run time: 100 minutes Rating: R

Project X

Matthew Broderick, in one of his first grownup roles after years of playing teen heroes, stars as an air force foul-up, a pilot who, as punishment, is assigned to care for the chimps in military medical experiments. He's indignant at first but gradually warms up to his simian charges (who wouldn't?). The more time he spends with them, the more he realizes just what thinking, feeling creatures they are--which sticks him squarely in the center of a moral dilemma when he realizes that the outcome of the experiments involves putting all the chimps to sleep. Director Jonathan Kaplan, no stranger to ethically complex melodrama, gives what might otherwise be a predictable tale a jolt of both adrenaline and real emotion--and it doesn't hurt that most of his actors are lovable scene-stealers. --Marshall Fine

Executive Decision/Unlawful Entry

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 01/02/2007 Rating: R

Truck Turner

After he sang the praises of a certain black private dick named Shaft (but before he started slinging hash in the little town of South Park), mega-baritone crooner Isaac Hayes got a chance to personally bust some heads in this little known but ultra-cool blaxploitation classic. Hayes (who would later spoof his rock-solid performance in I'm Gonna Get You Sucka) is the titular ex-linebacker and bounty hunter who's determined to clean up the savage streets--with extreme prejudice. A sadly neglected, primo slice of '70s guilty pleasure that boasts a dream supporting cast including Scatman Crothers, Yaphet Kotto as an evil crime boss named Harvard Blue, and Trek's Nichelle Nichols as a very un-Uhura-like, foul-mouthed lady of the evening. Fans who can't get enough of Isaac should also check out his riotous turn as the villain in Escape from New York. --Andrew Wright

Academy Award® winner* Isaac Hayes and Yaphet Kotto (Alien) star in this powerful pull-out-the-stops crime thriller from director Jonathan Kaplan (Unlawful Entry). It s a gritty action-packed tale of the streets pulsating with ultra-smooth soul high-octane energy and nonstop suspense. Truck Turner (Hayes) is a football star-turned-bounty hunter who s tracking a sadistic pimp on the mean streets of Los Angeles. Armed with his brute strength and ace cool partner (Alan Weeks) Truck closes in on his mark. But a tragic accident soon changes all the rules and suddenly the hunter finds himself being hunted by the city s deadliest hired killers! Truck strikes back in a series of wild car chases shootouts and bone-crunching fistfights knowing that the battles can lead to only one place: an intense struggle to the death against Harvard Blue (Kotto) the brutal leader of L.A. s organized crime syndicate. *1971: Original Song ShaftSystem Requirements:Running Time: 91 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 027616857910 Manufacturer No: 1001471

In Cold Blood

Dick and perry decide to break on the clutter home to steal money from a safe. Going with their previously established no witness policy they stick with their plan. This is their story from when their plan was hatched to when they were apprehended. Studio: Platinum Disc Llc Release Date: 10/26/2004 Starring: Anthony Edwards Sam Neill Run time: 140 minutes

Love Field

On November 22, 1963, America lost a president and a generation lost its innocence. Michelle Pfeiffer (What Lies Beneath) is superb (The Hollywood Reporter) in this 'thoroughly captivating (Rex Reed) film about an interracial friendship set against the back drop of a nation both divided by prejudice and united by sorrow. Dallas housewife Lurene Hallett (Pfeiffer) feels such a strong personal connection to her idol, Jackie Kennedy, that when JFK is assassinated, she defies her husband and takes an eastbound bus, determined to be there for Jackie at the funeral. On board she meets a mysterious black man traveling with a sad, silent little girl. But when Lurene realizes thathe's given her a false name, she fears she's uncovered a kidnapping plot! As a result of her well-intentioned meddling, the trio end up on the run from the police and, ultimately, on the road to a deep friendship that defies racial boundaries and changes each of them forever.