The Naked Jungle
by Byron Haskin
from Paramount
In THE NAKED JUNGLE, Charlton Heston plays the powerful, brooding owner of a plantation in the wild and treacherous South American jungle, while Eleanor Parker plays his charming American mail order bride. He is wary of this beautiful and talented woman, and wonders why she would leave America for the rigors of jungle life. But with the advance of relentless killer ants making their way across the jungle, the two find their relationship changing as they fight to save the jungle.
Tarzan (Special Edition)
by Kevin Lima
from Walt Disney Home Entertainment
Tarzan was raised by apes since birth, but after he is discovered living in the jungle by humans, he must decide which world he belongs in.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: DISNEY
Title: TARZAN
Street Release Date: 09/18/2007
Genre: CHILDREN'S VIDEO
After viewing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote to Walt Disney about adapting his novel of an ape-man into a feature animated cartoon. Sixtysome years later, the tale is finally told with brilliant design work that looks unlike any previous animated film. The story is a natural for Disney since the themes of misunderstood central figures have been at the heart of its recent hits. Disney's Tarzan doesn't wander far from the familiar story of a shipwrecked baby who is brought up by apes in Africa. What gives the film its zing is its clever use of music (the songs are sung by Phil Collins himself rather than onscreen characters) and the remarkable animation. Deep Canvas, a 3-D technology, was developed for the film, creating a jungle that comes alive as Tarzan swings through the trees, often looking like a modern skateboarder racing down giant tree limbs. The usual foray of sidekicks, including a rambunctious ape voiced by Rosie O'Donnell, should keep the little ones aptly entertained. The two lead voices, Tony Goldwyn as Tarzan and Minnie Driver as Jane, are inspired choices. Their chemistry helps the story through the weakest points (the last third) and makes Tarzan's initial connection with all things human (including Jane) delicious entertainment. Disney still is not taking risks in its animated films, but as cookie-cutter entertainment, Tarzan makes a pretty good treat. (Ages 5 and up) --Doug Thomas
The Ghost and the Darkness
by Stephen Hopkins
from Paramount
A renowned big game hunter joins forces with an engineer to kill the lions which threaten completion of a bridge in 1896 East Africa.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 29-DEC-2004
Media Type: DVD
Val Kilmer stars as Lt. Col. John Patterson, a 19th-century Irish engineer drafted by Britain's railroad bosses to build a trestle bridge over an African river, thus expanding the empire a tiny bit more. In Tsavo, Patterson is instantly hailed for killing a man-eating lion that had been making life hell for native workers. But morale sinks when a pair of unstoppable big cats devour more men and destroy the project. Along comes an Ahab-like, expatriate American hunter (Michael Douglas) to help Patterson face the almost preternatural powers of the two killers. The script by William Goldman (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) is based on fact, though the film owes more to Spielberg (specifically to Jaws) than history. There are also suggestive echoes of Kipling and Conrad in the material and characters, and there are hints of emotional complexity and psychological nuance that make one wish this could have been a great film instead of a merely fun one. --Tom Keogh
Tears of the Sun (Special Edition)
by Antoine Fuqua
from Sony Pictures
Loyal veteran Navy S.E.A.L. Lt. A.K. Waters (Bruce Willis) is sent into the heart of war-torn Africa on a hazardous mission to rescue Dr. Lena Hendricks (Monica Bellucci) a U.S. citizen who runs a missionary. When the beautiful doctor refuses to abandon the refugees in her care Lt. Waters finds himself having to choose between following orders and the dictates of his own conscience. Together they begin a dangerous trek through the deadly jungle all the while being pursued by a rebel militia group with only one goal in mind: to assassinate Lt. Waters unit and the refugees in his care.System Requirements:Starring: Bruce Willis Monica Bellucci Cole Hauser Fionnula Flanagan Eamonn Walker Johnny Messner and Nick Chinlund. Directed By: Antoine Fuqua. Running Time: 121 Min. Color. Copyright 2003 VPD Inc.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: R UPC: 043396097513 Manufacturer No: 09751
While it offers nothing new to the military action genre, Tears of the Sun distinguishes itself with fine acting, expert craftsmanship, and seriousness of purpose. Its familiar "extraction mission" plot is essentially similar to that of Black Hawk Down, involving a crack team of U.S. Special Ops commandos struggling to rescue innocent missionaries amidst the bloody horror of Nigerian ethnic cleansing. With Bruce Willis as their grizzled, no-nonsense commander, the skillful team enters a hot zone that gets even hotter when their "package"--an American national (Monica Bellucci) who runs the isolated mission--demands that 70 Nigerian villagers be included in the rescue. Willis's uneasy conscience leads him to defy orders and expand his mission, and in an ambitious follow up to Training Day, director Antoine Fuqua escalates tension and strike-force with considerable emotional impact. Originally considered as a potential entry in Willis's Die Hard series, and released on the eve of America's war with Iraq, Tears of the Sun admirably avoids jingoism with its rousing story of personal good vs. political evil. --Jeff Shannon
King Kong (Widescreen Edition)
from Universal
Movies don't come any bigger than Peter Jackson's King Kong, a three-hour remake of the 1933 classic that marries breathtaking visual prowess with a surprising emotional depth. Expanding on the original story of the blonde beauty and the beast who falls for her, Jackson creates a movie spectacle that matches his Lord of the Rings films and even at times evokes their fantasy world while celebrating the glory of '30s Hollywood. Naomi Watts stars as Ann Darrow, a vaudeville actress down on her luck in Depression-era New York until manic filmmaker Carl Denham (a game but miscast Jack Black) entices her with a lead role. Dazzled by the genius of screenwriter Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), Ann boards the tramp steamer S.S. Venture, which she--and most of the wary crew--believes is headed for Singapore. Denham, however, is in search of the mythic Skull Island, hoping to capture its wonders on film and make a fortune. What he didn't count on were some scary natives who find that the comely Darrow looks like prime sacrifice material for a mysterious giant creature....
There's no point in rehashing the entire plot, as every movie aficionado is more than familiar with the trajectory of King Kong; the challenge facing Jackson, his screenwriters, and the phenomenal visual-effects team was to breathe new life into an old, familiar story. To that degree, they achieve what could be best called a qualified success. Though they've assembled a crackerjack supporting cast, including Thomas Kretschmann as the Venture's hard-bitten captain and young Jamie Bell as a plucky crewman, the first third of the movie is rather labored, with too much minute detail given over to sumptuous re-creations of '30s New York and the unexciting initial leg of the Venture's sea voyage. However, once the film finds its way to Skull Island (which bears more than a passing resemblance to LOTR's Mordor), Kong turns into a dazzling movie triumph, by turns terrifying and awe-inspiring. The choreography and execution of the action set pieces--including one involving Kong and a trio of Tyrannosaurus Rexes, as well as another that could be charitably described as a bug-phobic's nightmare--is nothing short of landmark filmmaking, and a certain Mr. Spielberg should watch his back, as Kong trumps most anything that has come before it.
Despite the visual challenges of King Kong, the movie's most difficult hurdle is the budding romance between Ann and her simian soulmate. Happily, this is where Jackson unqualifiedly triumphs, as this unorthodox love story is tenderly and humorously drawn, by turns sympathetic and wondrous. Watts, whose accessibility balances out her almost otherworldly loveliness, works wonders with mere glances, and Andy Serkis, who digitally embodies Kong here much as he did Gollum in the LOTR films, breathes vibrant life into the giant star of the film without ever overplaying any emotions. The final, tragic act of the film, set mostly atop the Empire State Building, is where Kong earns its place in movie history as a work that celebrates both the technical and emotional heights that film can reach. --Mark Englehart
Academy Award-winning director Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings Trilogy) brings his sweeping cinematic vision to King Kong. Naomi Watts, Jack Black and Adrien Brody star in this spectacular film filled with heart-pounding action, terrifying creatures and groundbreaking special effects unlike anything you've seen before! Get ready for breathtaking action in this thrilling epic adventure about a legendary gorilla captured on a treacherous island and brought to civilization, where he faces the ultimate fight for survival. Experience the movie that critics are hailing as a "rousing, exciting cinematic adventure!" (Scott Mantz, Access Hollywood)
The Rundown (Widescreen Edition)
by Peter Berg
from Universal Studios
A bounty hunter and his intended quarry team up to hunt a priceless treasure.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: ROCK/WALKEN
Title: RUNDOWN
Street Release Date: 02/06/2007
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE
Professional wrestling star the Rock, who was such a lump of flesh in The Scorpion King, proves surprisingly light on his feet in The Rundown, demonstrating charm and humor as well as the requisite toughness. Beck (the Rock), a repo-man for deadbeats, is sent to South America to find a treasure hunter (Seann William Scott) who's seeking a priceless golden idol--which the local head honcho (Christopher Walken) would like to get his hands on as well. Add in the lovely but dangerous barmaid with a secret (Rosario Dawson), and Beck has some obstacles to overcome. The plot of The Rundown isn't anything special, but the script is enjoyably clever and reasonably coherent; the capable cast keeps things lively; and the movie's relaxed but sinewy pace sets it apart from the frantic floundering of recent action flicks--kudos to director Peter Berg (Very Bad Things). A surprisingly fun flick. --Bret Fetzer
Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan
by Hugh Hudson
from Warner Home Video
One of those legendary missed opportunities, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes is a movie that should have been great but wound up the victim of conflicting egos and wrong-headed choices. Based on a screenplay by Robert Towne (who took his name off it when he wasn't allowed to direct) and directed by Hugh Hudson (riding high on the basis of Chariots of Fire), the film tried to rethink the Tarzan legend of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and boy, did it have to: By casting French-accented Christopher Lambert as Tarzan, the filmmakers had to transform his white-hunter mentor Ian Holm into a Frenchman to explain those inflections in Tarzan's monosyllabic speech. The film has some amazing jungle footage and a truly touching relationship between Tarzan and the apes--but it gets pretty silly when Tarzan gets to London and hooks up with Sir Ralph Richardson, as his grandfather. --Marshall Fine
An infant raised to manhood among savage apes, living by his wits and the law of the jungle, returns to society to claim his inheritance of humanity and privilege. This collision of "wild" and "civilized" worlds is the extraordinary saga of Tarzan, chronicled in Edgar Rice Burroughs' popular book series. Starring: Christopher Lambert, Andie MacDowell, Ian Holm
Congo
by Frank Marshall
from Paramount
No Description Available.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG13
Release Date: 2-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD
This is a terrible movie. Frank Marshall (Arachnophobia) demonstrates no control over story, actors, effects, or general presentation in this adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel about an expedition into deep, dark Africa that runs into an unknown race of killer apes. The big monkeys attack and attack and attack and have to be fought off with machine guns and lasers--that's pretty much the story, except there's probably an even better one behind "fourth Ghostbuster" Ernie Hudson's bizarre decision to speak with a British accent. While Marshall wants us to root for the human characters, they're all so obnoxious and unbelievable you can't help but feel lousy for the poor apes when they get chopped to bits just for defending their homes against these twerps. If you're not feeling enough environmentalist ire these days, watch this and get angry. --Tom Keogh
Fitzcarraldo
by Werner Herzog
from Starz / Anchor Bay
An Irishman, Fitzgerald (Fitzcarraldo to the Indians), struggles to bring his dream, an opera house in the Amazon jungle, to reality.
Genre: Feature Film-Drama
Rating: PG
Release Date: 2-NOV-1999
Media Type: DVD
Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald (Klaus Kinski), known as Fitzcarraldo to the native Peruvians, is an avid opera lover and rubber baron who dreams of building an opera house in the Peruvian jungle. To accomplish this, he plans to reach an isolated patch of rubber trees and make his fortune. But these trees are not directly accessible by river because of dangerous rapids, so Fitzcarraldo runs his ship as close as possible via an alternate river and then enlists the aid of the native Peruvians to drag his ship over a mountain to the desired area. However, the natives seem to have their own agenda in so mysteriously acceding to Fitzcarraldo's wishes. The results manage to both mock and affirm the dreams of determined figures like Fitzcarraldo, making absurdity out of the stuff of human endeavor without negating the beauty of that effort. There is hardly a more awe-inspiring or arresting image than that of Fitzcarraldo's ship pulling itself up the mountain with cables and pulleys, or of the ship resting in mid-ascent as seen through the thick morning fog of the jungle.
The tortured production history of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo (ably recorded in Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams) tends to take the spotlight away from this deeply mesmerizing film. And that's unfortunate, because the film itself is even more fascinating than the trials and tribulations, amazing though they might be, that led to its being made. Part of the problem is the film's deliberate, some might say ponderous, pace, which invites the viewer to experience the slow immersion into the jungle that Fitzcarraldo and company experience. Herzog did something similar in Aguirre, the Wrath of God, sometimes aiming his camera at the river rapids for extended periods of time, with hypnotic results. This could never happen in a Hollywood film, and it should be treasured. --Jim Gay
Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold
by Gary Nelson
from MGM (Video & DVD)
Based on H. Rider Haggard s 1887 novel this swaggering action-adventure reteams Richard Chamberlain ("The Thorn Birds") and Oscar® nominee* Sharon Stone (Casino) as explorers immersed in perpetual jungle jeopardy. Also starring Oscar® nominee** James Earl Jones (The Lion King) Allan Quatermain and the Lost City of Gold is a safari you don't want to miss!When his brother disappears in Africa stalwart explorer Allan Quatermain (Chamberlain) postpones his wedding and sets off on a trek to find him. Joined by his feisty archeologist fianc e (Stone) a towering warrior (Jones) and a greedy mystic (Robert Donner) Quatermain leads the way through the perilous jungle until he finally makes it to the Lost City of Gold...where the road to his brother s salvation is paved with the greatest dangers yet!*1995: Actress Casino**1970: Actor The Great White HopeSystem Requirements:Running Time: 100 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG UPC: 027616902047 Manufacturer No: 1005973
Despite the critical drubbing and box-office failure of King Solomon's Mines (1985), Cannon Films released this sequel two years later, again featuring Richard Chamberlain as adventurer Allan Quatermain and a pre-Basic Instinct Sharon Stone; the result is marginally better than its predecessor, and may please "bad film" fans. This time around, Quatermain is seeking his brother (Martin Rabbett), who has disappeared while on an expedition to locate a legendary white tribe in Africa. Quatermain's search leads him to the title city, which is controlled by evil Henry Silva (overacting with relish). Director Gary Nelson and returning writer Gene Quintano achieve a few more half-hearted laughs here than in its predecessor, and the cast, which includes James Earl Jones and Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, do their best with the material, but this can't hold a candle to the 1937 and 1950 film versions of King Solomon's Mines. --Paul Gaita
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