Sports

Le Mans

A classic auto-racing movie starring Steve McQueen, Le Mans puts the audience in the driver's seat for what is often called the most grueling race in the world. The French auto race Le Mans is a 24-hour affair through the French countryside, a demanding ordeal for any driver. McQueen (Bullitt, The Great Escape) plays the American driver, locked in an intense grudge match with his German counterpart even as he wrestles with the guilt over causing an accident that cost the life of a close friend. McQueen is his usual stoic magnetic self, and the racing sequences are among the best ever committed to film. A solid character-driven story combines with raw visceral power to make Le Mans a rich tapestry of action and thrills. --Robert Lane

Almost in breadth and depth of a documentary, this movie depicts an auto race during the 70s on the world's hardest endurance course: Le Mans in France. The race goes over 24 hours on 14.5 kilometers of cordoned country road. Every few hours the two drivers per car alternate - but it's still a challenge for concentration and material. In the focus is the duel between the German Stahler in Ferrari 512LM and the American Delaney in Gulf Team Porsche 917. Delaney is under extraordinary pressure, because the year before he caused a severe accident, in which his friend Lisa's husband was killed.

Iron Will

A complete lack of imagination is what qualifies this as a B movie. Thankfully, this snowy adventure about a boy and his dogs is charming enough to entice the kiddies. Charismatic MacKenzie Astin plays a teenager trying to save the family farm by entering a 522-mile sled-dog marathon. Except for Astin, the lusciously scenic background has more depth than most of the characters. This is so predictable you could take a nap and miss nothing except a few rousing scenes in the 1917 Winnipeg-to-St.-Paul sled race. Although this is visually more appealing than most family fare, one wishes more attention had been paid to the script. --Rochelle O'Gorman

A young man enters a dangerous cross-country dog sled race in an attempt to win the grand prize that will save his family from financial ruin.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 11-NOV-2003
Media Type: DVD

Rocky Balboa

Rocky Balboa' examines one of America's greatest icons at a vulnerable period in his life--middle age. A former heavyweight boxing champion, known and renown throughout the world for going the distance, Rocky finds a new venture: giving back to his community. This is where he, once more, finds himself at the opposing side of opportunity, not unlike the one he has seen decades ago. Heavyweight champ Mason Dixon and his representation offer Rocky a shot for the title. For Balboa, it'll be one last hurrah he'll never forget.....but with his glory days far behind him can he withstand the inevitabilities of what's to come? A look at going full circle and wanting more, when life turns out how you least expect it and then some.

The sixth installment of the Rocky series picks up the story of the Italian Stallion 16 years after the morose Rocky V. And sure, at his advanced age, Sylvester Stallone now looks like one of those sides of beef his character used to pound on. No matter. Somehow you buy the premise after all these years, even if it takes forever for Rocky Balboa to stop wallowing in self-pity (Adrian is dead, his old haunts are demolished) and get down to the business of drinking raw eggs and running up staircases. The business at hand is an unlikely exhibition fight with champion Mason Dixon (Antonio Tarver), which the near-sexagenarian Mr. Balboa has no business accepting. Of course, just as sure as the horns of Bill Conti's theme music are even now trumpeting through your head, the ol' Rock might have a punch or two left in him. Stallone wrote and directed, and there isn't much to say except that the movie steps in its pre-determined paces with a canny sense of what has come before (it's practically an homage to all the previous Rocky pictures, complete with fleeting flashbacks). Burt Young is around again, and Geraldine Hughes makes an appealing, rather chaste female companion for Rocky. Stallone's Rocky has gotten suspiciously articulate over the years, but he still knows how to slouch. If Stallone never forgets that, he can probably keep the franchise rolling. --Robert Horton

Stills from Rocky Balboa (click for larger image)

Beyond Rocky Balboa on Amazon.com

On Blu-ray

The Amazon.com Rocky Store

The Films of Sylvester Stallone

Best of the Best

Eric Roberts (Academy Award® Nominee Best Actor in a supporting Role Runaway Train 1985 National Security TV's "Less Than Perfect") Philip Rhee Christopher Penn (Starsky and Hutch Reservoir Dogs) John Dye and David Agresta play five young men who are selected as members of the U.S. National Karate Team. Each teammate has his own reason for competing. However they soon discover that in order to function as a team they must pit aside their differences and learn to depend upon each other. James Earl Jones (Academy Award® Nominee Best Actor The Great White Hope 1970 Field of Dreams Hunt for Red October) is their unorthodox coach and Sally Kirkland (Anna The Sting The Way We Were A Star I Born) their trainer teach them that winning is not a sometime thing- it's an all-time thing. Together they enter an exhausting training period that puts their mental and physical skills to the ultimate endurance test. After three months of grueling workouts and personal conflicts they are ready to face the highly skilled Korean team and become true champions. In an unexpected and climactic ending these men come to understand what it takes to be the BEST OF THE BEST.System Requirements:Running Time: 97 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG-13 UPC: 043396064751 Manufacturer No: 06475

Biker Boyz (Full Screen Edition)

When it's revved up to maximum rpm's, Biker Boyz qualifies as an adequate knockoff of The Fast and the Furious. Both films were inspired by magazine articles about speed-freak outlaws on the streets of California, only this time the nitrous-enhanced "rice rockets" are of the two-wheeled variety, and Smoke (Laurence Fishburne) is the reigning "King of Cali," leading a predominantly African American subculture that schedules illegal motorcycle races with high stakes and potentially lethal outcomes. Kid (Derek Luke, the promising newcomer from Antwone Fisher) is the latest challenger, facing off against Dogg (Kid Rock) and others before coming to terms with his own familial destiny. Following his incisive HBO debut, Dancing in September, director Reggie Rock Bythewood approached Biker Boyz as a modern Western, but it's really just a strutter's ball with polished chrome and tailpipes. Meagan Good, Lisa Bonet, and Vanessa Bell Calloway provide sexy feminine wisdom, badly needed in a movie that's all flash and precious little substance. --Jeff Shannon

Driven

Motorsport movies have a lousy track record, so it's not surprising that Driven joins the ranks of previous race-car clunkers like Grand Prix, Le Mans, Bobby Deerfield, and Days of Thunder. To varying degrees, all of these films offer spectacular racing footage (especially Le Mans), but what is surprising is that Driven was written by its star and coproducer Sylvester Stallone, who shows virtually no sign of the talent that created Rocky over a quarter-century earlier. Under the tepid direction of Renny Harlin, this superficial speedfest fulfills its primary obligation--the racing sequences are adequately exciting, despite the Cuisinart editing and a glaring lack of kinetic continuity. But whenever this adrenaline-pumped drama gets off the track, well... let's just say it's a hybrid of Top Gun and Days of Thunder, but makes those Tom Cruise vehicles look masterful by comparison.

Stallone's a retired Grand Prix champion, called back into action by his disabled crew chief (Burt Reynolds) to boost the career of a hotshot driver (Kip Pardue, the pretty-boy from Remember the Titans) who's trailing a German ace (charismatic Til Schweiger) in the current 20-race season. The female contingent consists of a reporter (Stacy Edwards, too talented for this tripe) who's writing about "male domination in sports"; Stallone's embittered, remarried ex-wife (Gina Gershon, parodying her bitchy persona); and the requisite kewpie doll (Estella Warren) who comes between Boy Wonder and the reigning champ. It's airhead melodrama all the way, so you'd better enjoy the breakneck racing scenes--including a ludicrous prototype-racer joyride through downtown Chicago--or you'll blow a piston on your straightaway sprint to the bad-movie finish line. --Jeff Shannon

Talented rookie race-car driver Jimmy Bly (Kip Pardue) has started losing his focus and begins to slip in the race rankings. It's no wonder, with the immense pressure being shoveled on him by his overly ambitious promoter brother as well as Bly's romance with his arch rival's girlfriend Sophia. With much riding on Bly, car owner Carl Henry (Burt Reynolds) brings former racing star Joe Tanto (Sylvester Stallone) on board to help Bly. To drive Bly back to the top of the rankings, Tanto must first deal with the emotional scars left over from a tragic racing accident which nearly took his life.

Biker Boyz (Widescreen Edition)

When it's revved up to maximum rpm's, Biker Boyz qualifies as an adequate knockoff of The Fast and the Furious. Both films were inspired by magazine articles about speed-freak outlaws on the streets of California, only this time the nitrous-enhanced "rice rockets" are of the two-wheeled variety, and Smoke (Laurence Fishburne) is the reigning "King of Cali," leading a predominantly African American subculture that schedules illegal motorcycle races with high stakes and potentially lethal outcomes. Kid (Derek Luke, the promising newcomer from Antwone Fisher) is the latest challenger, facing off against Dogg (Kid Rock) and others before coming to terms with his own familial destiny. Following his incisive HBO debut, Dancing in September, director Reggie Rock Bythewood approached Biker Boyz as a modern Western, but it's really just a strutter's ball with polished chrome and tailpipes. Meagan Good, Lisa Bonet, and Vanessa Bell Calloway provide sexy feminine wisdom, badly needed in a movie that's all flash and precious little substance. --Jeff Shannon

The leader of a gang of street-racing bikers faces a challenge from a young new member.
No Track Information Available
Media Type: DVD
Artist: FISHBURNE/LUKE/TATE/BECKFORD
Title: BIKER BOYZ
Street Release Date: 02/14/2006
Domestic
Genre: ACTION / ADVENTURE

The Last American Hero (AKA Hard Driver)

Based on Tom Wolfe's magazine article, this film follows the unlikely career of race car driver Junior Johnson. Jeff Bridges stars.

Crossover

Marketing aside, Crossover is more concerned with off-court melodrama than on-court action. Tech (Anthony Mackie, Half Nelson) and Noah (Wesley Jonathan, Roll Bounce) are best friends and streetball stars. Their base of operations is the Detroit of 8 Mile and Four Brothers. Tech, who has a record, just wants to get his GED and make a decent living, while Noah plans to use his college scholarship to become a doctor. Their lives take a turn when Vaughn (Wayne Brady in a rare dramatic turn), a sports agent-turned-promoter, leans on Noah to defer his dream and turn pro. Vaughn pays his b-ball team to play, but that doesn't mean, of course, that he actually cares about his players. To him, it's business. Along the way, Tech gets involved with Eboni (promising newcomer Alecia Fears) and Noah with her social-climbing friend, Vanessa (America's Next Top Model Eva Pigford, who should probably stick with the catwalk), who used to go with their arch-rival Jewelz (real-life streetball player Phillip "Hot Sauce" Champion). Just as the movie questions whether the men's friendship is built to last, it questions whether their romantic entanglements are the real deal. Writer/director Preston A. Whitmore II shoots Crossover like a rap video. The post-production effects are flashy, but there isn't a lot of substance behind the style. Mackie and Jonathan, however, get the job done. The film may be formulaic, but their natural charisma makes it worth watching. Just be forewarned that there isn't much roundball playing going on here. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Crossover (click for larger image)

The clock strikes midnight money changes hands the crowd is on their feet and the court is alive with fast-paced razzle-dazzle basketball. These players don't play for a school or a pro team. They play for the street and it's underground...way underground. Features: Audio commentary (with Director Preston A. Whitmore II and Actor Wesley Jonathan)System Requirements:Run Time: 95 minsFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: PG - 13 UPC: 043396161498 Manufacturer No: 16149

Thrust