Richard Roundtree

Seven (Single Disc Edition)

The most viscerally frightening and disturbing homicidal maniac picture since The Silence of the Lambs, Seven is based on an idea that's both gruesome and ingenious. A serial killer forces each of his victims to die by acting out one of the seven deadly sins. The murder scene is then artfully arranged into a grotesque tableau, a graphic illustration of each mortal vice. From the jittery opening credits to the horrifying (and seemingly inescapable) concluding twist, director David Fincher immerses us in a murky urban twilight where everything seems to be rotting, rusting, or molding; the air is cold and heavy with dread. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are the detectives who skillfully track down the killer--all the while unaware that he has been closing in on them, as well. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey are also featured, but it is director Fincher and the ominous, overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere of doom that he creates that are the real stars of the film. It's a terrific date movie--for vampires. --Jim Emerson

No Description Available.
Genre: Suspense
Rating: R
Release Date: 27-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD

Seven (New Line Platinum Series)

The most viscerally frightening and disturbing homicidal maniac picture since The Silence of the Lambs, Seven is based on an idea that's both gruesome and ingenious. A serial killer forces each of his victims to die by acting out one of the seven deadly sins. The murder scene is then artfully arranged into a grotesque tableau, a graphic illustration of each mortal vice. From the jittery opening credits to the horrifying (and seemingly inescapable) concluding twist, director David Fincher immerses us in a murky urban twilight where everything seems to be rotting, rusting, or molding; the air is cold and heavy with dread. Morgan Freeman and Brad Pitt are the detectives who skillfully track down the killer--all the while unaware that he has been closing in on them, as well. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kevin Spacey are also featured, but it is director Fincher and the ominous, overwhelmingly oppressive atmosphere of doom that he creates that are the real stars of the film. It's a terrific date movie--for vampires. --Jim Emerson

A retiring cop and his replacement track a psychotic killer who's using the seven deadly sins as a guide. Starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Earthquake

The disaster-movie trend of the early and mid-1970s was starting to wear out its welcome when Earthquake was released in 1974. It's another one of those enjoyably mindless all-star marathons, and the title tells you all you need to know about the plot. Charlton Heston offers his trademark brand of macho courage as the citizens of Los Angeles brace for the Big One--an earthquake that rattles the city to its crumbling foundation. It's got all the sophistication of a Love Boat episode, but the movie's momentum scores high marks (at least on the Richter scale), and the Oscar-winning sound design and special visual effects are still impressive, especially when you consider that advanced computer-graphics effects were still two decades in the future. Genevieve Bujold adds a touch of class to the all-star ensemble, and of course, what self-respecting disaster flick would be complete without a role for George Kennedy? In more ways than one, this cheesy movie rocks! (If you want to re-create the movie's original sound process known as "Sensurround," you'll just have to crank up the bass and subwoofer on your home theater system until plaster cracks and windows shatter!) --Jeff Shannon

This essential 1970s disaster epic with a script co-authored by Mario Puzo (THE GODFATHER) centers around a devastating earthquake in Los Angeles and the shocking aftermath it causes. The all-star cast is led by Charleton Heston as a construction engineer whose marital problems supply him with plentiful stress before the quake even hits. The film was presented theatrically with a sound process known as "Sensurround" which caused cinemas to physically vibrate during quake sequences.System Requirements:Running Time 123 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: PG UPC: 025193046925 Manufacturer No: 30469

Shaft

Samuel L. Jackson makes a gleefully updated John Shaft in John Singleton's homage to (not remake of) the early '70s action classic, picking up where Richard Roundtree's legendary Shaft left off. The Manhattan-set film is highlighted by excellent performances, dynamic action scenes, and witty one-liners (Jackson's Shaft: "It's my duty to please the booty"--although the line's deceptive: there's a surprising lack of sex in the film). Unfortunately, it's offset by a surprisingly uninspired, predictable, one-dimensional story, penned by Singleton, Richard Price, and Shane Salerno. The story, in which Shaft investigates the murder of a young African American, is without suspense, since from the start the audience knows that rich white boy Walter Wade (Christian Bale) did the deed, and that Shaft is going to kick his ass, big time. That said, charismatic performances--from Jackson (who, in keeping with the times, is more volatile and fiery than his predecessor), Toni Collette (as a frightened witness), the villainous Bale, and the utterly amazing Jeffrey Wright (Basquiat)--make the film enticing and watchable. Look for a cameo by the original Shaft's director, the legendary Gordon Parks, and fans of the original should note that a still stunningly handsome Roundtree briefly appears as Jackson's uncle. --N.F. Mendoza

Antitrust

The term suspension of disbelief was invented for the idea that Ryan Phillippe could be a computer genius. As Milo, a slacker brainiac recruited by smilingly ominous software giant Gary Winston (Tim Robbins) to help build a global communications system, Phillippe still looks like a million bucks. He is also still doing the clenched, pouty grown-up voice that he always uses to show that he means business in this acting stuff (he's nothing if not earnest), and a pair of designer glasses completes the transformation. He's well matched in Antitrust by Claire Forlani, who, in turn, spends time pursing her lips and squinting her dewy eyes as Milo's troubled girlfriend, an artist who proves to be a liability when Milo discovers that Winston is killing off clever competitors like a dot-com führer. Robbins, looking like David Letterman, seems willing to either take his role dead seriously or goof around a bit, but director Peter Howitt doesn't know how to play any of it (the actor was better used as a grinning madman in another flawed paranoid thriller, the underseen Arlington Road). Without any underlying menace or enough satirical bite to keep it interesting, the whole thing slips by passively in a mindless matinee kind of way until the over-the-top finale. Production designer Catherine Hardwicke has had some big, glossy fun creating Winston's campus and ornate private kingdom, and there's the cheapest of kicks in seeing Robbins's Bill Gates taken down publicly, but the film is definitely junior league. --Steve Wiecking

When Milo (Ryan Phillippe) graduates from college and lands his dream job writing software at a multi-billion dollar computer company he couldn't be more thrilled. The company's magnetic founder (Tim Robbins) that he worshiped as a child is now his personal mentor. As he settles into his new position Milo uncovers some dark secrets about the firm and soon learns that he can't trust anyone but himself in the high stakes world of computer technology.System Requirements:Starring: Ryan Phillippe Ned Bellamy Tyler Labine David Lovgren Jonathon Young Scott Bellis Zahf Hajee Rachael Leigh Cook Claire Forlani Tim Robbins Douglas McFerran Richard Roundtree Tygh Runyan Yee Jee Tso and Nate Dushku. Directed By: Peter Howitt. Running Time: 108 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MYSTERY/SUSPENSE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 027616861436 Manufacturer No: 1001867

Shaft

Gordon Parks (The Learning Tree) directed this 1971 detective story about John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), an African American private eye who has a rocky relationship with cops, an even rockier one with Harlem gangsters, and a healthy sex life. The script finds Shaft tracking down the kidnapped daughter of a black mobster, but the pleasure of the film is the sum of its attitude, Roundtree's uncompromising performance, and the thrilling, Oscar-winning score by Isaac Hayes. Parks seems fond of certain detective genre clichés (e.g., the hero walking into his low-rent office and finding a hood waiting to talk with him), but he and Roundtree make those moments their own. Shaft had a couple of sequels and a follow-up television series, but none had the impact this movie did. --Tom Keogh

An Eye for an Eye

This 1981 Chuck Norris movie straddles the transition from the gritty police dramas of the '70s (like The French Connection and Serpico) to the heroic revenge fantasies of the '80s (like Sylvester Stallone's Rambo movies). Norris plays reckless cop Sean Kane; after Kane's partner is killed in suspicious circumstances, Kane turns in his badge. When his partner's newscaster wife gets killed after turning up some crucial evidence, her father, who is Kane's teacher in the martial arts, teams up with Kane to track down the criminals responsible. An Eye for an Eye gets a substantial lift from head villain Christopher Lee's silky, effortless menace, as well as from Richard Roundtree as a hardnosed police captain. The early scenes of tension and suspense are surprisingly textured; the rest of the movie features a lot of impressive high kicks. --Bret Fetzer

International superstar Chuck Norris stars in this pulse-pounding revenge thriller that pulls out all the stops for explosive, edge-of-your-seat excitement. Crackling with unbridled energy and suspense, it's an electrifying adventure that's as fast and hard-hitting as its unstoppable hero.Police detective Sean Kane (Norris) is any criminal's worst nightmare: a cop who's just as lethal with his lightning-quick martial arts moves as he is with his service revolver. But when his partner is brutally murdered, Kane quits the force and goes beyond the law to seek vengeance against the ruthless Morgan Canfield (Christopher Lee), a powerful and well-connected drug lord who destroys any man who stands in his way. But Kane has never been more ready for a fight. He's bold, ferocious and has an ace up his sleeve: his mentor, Chan (Mako), a martial arts wizard who will join him in a thrilling, no-holds-barred final assault against Canfield and his criminal empire.

City Heat

In Kansas City 1933 wisecracking detective Murphy (Burt Reynolds) tracks the killer of his partner. Police Lt. Speer (Clint Eastwood) doesn't have much tolerance for the local mob war's body count. Neither guy likes each other so that makes them a dream team. And it provides the ideal scenario as they clean up the town with slugfests and shoot-'em-ups that parody Reynolds' and Eastwood's macho screen images.Running Time: 97 min.System Requirements:Running Time 97 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: PG UPC: 085392753222

This was supposed to be a blockbuster: the 1984 meeting of then-box-office icons Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood. Instead, the result was surprisingly flat, though Reynolds and Eastwood have their moments. The plot is a mishmash about bootleggers, gangsters, and kidnapping in the 1930s, with Reynolds as a free-wheeling private eye and Eastwood as a jaded cop who doesn't like Reynolds's style. The two stars exaggerate their well-established screen personas, which, in Reynolds's case, was already exaggerated enough. Directed by Richard Benjamin, it's weak stuff, despite a cast that includes Rip Torn, Madeline Kahn, Tony Lo Bianco, and Jane Alexander. The big running gag is about the size of Eastwood's gun. --Marshall Fine

Maniac Cop

Shaft's Big Score

When a pal of detective John Shaft is murdered in a bombing (and $250,000 in cash turns up missing), New York's coolest private eye finds himself caught in the middle of a power struggle between black and white gangsters over the numbers racket in Queens. Directed by Gordon Parks (who does a brief cameo as a croupier in an illegal casino) and written by Ernest Tidyman (both of whom did the original Shaft), this film lacks the pacing of its progenitor. Roundtree is at his best when he's questioning a woman he's just met about a suspect while at the same time beguiling her into the sack (ah, those lazy, crazy days of the sexual revolution). The finale--a shootout in a cemetery, followed by a car-boat-helicopter chase through Queens and up the Harlem River--is preposterously drawn-out: Shaft, impervious to machine-gun fire, winds up tripping, spraining his ankle, and limping while running from the chopper; two shots later, he's sprinting like a halfback. Look for late Muhammad Ali trainer Drew Bundini Brown as a wise-cracking mobster. --Marshall Fine