Classics

Quo Vadis (Two-Disc Special Edition)

"Welcome to Nero's House of Women" greets a concubine to a slave girl, Lygia (Deborah Kerr). Later this self-same greeter reveals that she, too, like Lygia, is really a fellow Christian neophyte. And it's that mixture of tawdry Hollywood sex and a strong Christian message that makes this film an enjoyable "gentiles and gladiators" flick. Marcus Vinicius returns home after conquering the Britons to find that Rome is infected with a crazy new sect called Christians and that his beloved emperor Nero (Peter Ustinov, roly-poly and wicked) has become increasingly wacky. Marcus tries his centurion wiles on Lygia, and she's smitten, but she's also a Christian convert and begs Marcus not to force her to choose between him and her god. The Christians have a tough go of it, with martyrdom in the Coliseum as punishment for belonging to the new religion in town. Though three hours long, director Mervyn LeRoy's film always has something going on. It could help you enjoyably kill any rainy Sunday afternoon. --Keith Simanton

Zulu

A towering cinematic achievement. An astonishing true story. And "a battle film in the grand tradition of Four Feathers and Gunga Din" (Time)! Filmed against the exotic locales of Africa and starring Stanley Baker (The Guns of Navarone) Jack Hawkins (Lawrence of Arabia) and Michael Caine (in his first major motion picture role) Zulu is a thrilling account of one of history's fiercest battles!As a terrifying war chant echoes across the majestic African plains 4000 Zulu tribesmen rise up from the tall grass that hides them. Furiously beating their swords against their shields the warriors descend upon a small garrison of English soldiers. "Usuto! Usuto! (Kill! Kill!)" they cry as they launch into a battle with the vastly outnumbered English militia... who must manifest incredible skill and incomparable bravery just to survive.System Requirements:Starring: Stanley Baker Michael Caine Jack Hawkins James Booth Ulla Jacobsson Directed By: Cy Endfield Running Time: 138 Min. Color Copyright 2003 MGM Studios.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 027616885807 Manufacturer No: 1004529

"Sentries have come in from the hill, sir.... They report Zulus to the southeast. Thousands of them." One of the best pure action movies ever made, this rousing adventure recounts the true story of a small 18th-century regiment of British troops (including a very blue-blooded turn by a young Michael Caine) endlessly besieged by an seemingly unceasing number of fierce attackers. Although the basic premise has since been executed with more technical skill and panache (most notably by Aliens and Michael Mann's The Last of the Mohicans), it's unlikely that anything will ever top the utter spectacle and, above all, sheer unbelievable size of the combat scenes that almost wholly comprise the last half of this film. A gloriously exhilarating essential for anyone looking to get lost in the heat of cinematic battle, topped off with a healthy dose of gallows humor. Not to be missed. Richard Burton voiced the stirring narration. Zulu was followed by a slightly dry but still recommended prequel, Zulu Dawn. --Andrew Wright

Rio Bravo (Two-Disc Special Edition)

John Wayne stars as the sheriff of a small western town who arrests a murderer and then must contend with the aggressive efforts of the killer's brother to free him before the state marshall arrives. Surrounding the town the villains make repeated runs at the tiny jailhouse where their comrade is incarcerated. The sheriff is left to defend the territory almost single-handedly -- his only aid being a rag-tag crew of misfits including a drunk an old cripple a saloon woman and a singing teenager. The plot's tensions build to one of the most explosive finales in cinema history.System Requirements:Running Time: 247 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: WESTERN/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 085391145349 Manufacturer No: 114534

When it comes down to naming the best Western of all time, the list usually narrows to three completely different pictures: John Ford's The Searchers, Howard Hawks's Red River, and Hawks's Rio Bravo. About the only thing they all have in common is that they all star John Wayne. But while The Searchers is an epic quest for revenge and Red River is a sweeping cattle-drive drama ("Take 'em to Missouri! Yeeee-hah!"), Rio Bravo is on a much more modest scale. Basically, it comes down to Sheriff John T. Chance (Wayne), his sobering-up alcoholic friend Dude (Dean Martin), the hotshot new kid Colorado (Ricky Nelson), and deputy-sidekick Stumpy (Walter Brennan), sittin' around in the town jail, drinkin' black cofee, shootin' the breeze, and occasionally, singin' a song. Hawks--who, like his pal Ernest Hemingway, lived by the code of "grace under pressure"--said he made Rio Bravo as a rebuke to High Noon, in which sheriff Gary Cooper begged for townspeople to help him. So, Hawks made Wayne's Sheriff Chance a consummate professional--he may be getting old and fat, but he knows how to do his job, and he doesn't want amateurs getting mixed up in his business; they could get hurt. This most entertaining of movies also achieved some notoriety in the '90s when Quentin Tarantino (director of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, and Jackie Brown) revealed that he uses it as a litmus test for prospective girlfriends. Oh, and if the configuration of characters sounds familiar, it should: Hawks remade Rio Bravo two more times--as El Dorado in 1967, with Wayne, Robert Mitchum, and James Caan; and as Rio Lobo in 1970, with Wayne, Jack Elam, and Christopher Mitchum. --Jim Emerson

The Thomas Crown Affair - New Transfer

This sexy and stylish caper stars Steve McQueen as the ice cool gentleman thief who plots the perfect bank robbery. Faye Dunaway costars as the suspicious insurance investigator. The song, \""\""The Windmills of Your Mind\""\"" won an Academy Award.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 17-MAY-2005
Media Type: DVD

Millionaire businessman Thomas Crown (Steve McQueen) is also a high-stakes thief; his latest caper is an elaborate heist at a Boston bank. Why does he do it? For the same reason he flies gliders, bets on golf strokes, and races dune buggies: he needs the thrill to feel alive. Insurance investigator Vicky Anderson (Faye Dunaway) gets her own thrills by busting crooks, and she's got Crown in her cross hairs. Naturally, these two will get it on, because they have a lot in common: they're not people, they're walking clothes racks. (McQueen looks like he'd rather be in jeans than Crown's natty three-piece suits.) The Thomas Crown Affair is a catalog of '60s conventions, from its clipped editing style to its photographic trickery (the inventive Haskell Wexler behind the camera) to its mod design. You can almost sense director Norman Jewison deciding to "tell his story visually," like those newfangled European films; this would explain the long passages of Michel Legrand's lounge jazz ladled over endless montages of the pretty Dunaway and McQueen at play. (The opening-credits song, "Windmills of Your Mind," won an Oscar.) It's like a "What Kind of Man Reads Playboy?" ad come to life, and much more interesting as a cultural snapshot than a piece of storytelling. --Robert Horton

Bullitt

San Francisco has been the setting of a lot of exciting movie car chases over the years, but this 1968 police thriller is still the one to beat when it comes to high-octane action on the steep hills of the city by the Bay. The outstanding car chase earned an Oscar for best editing, but the rest of the movie is pretty good, too. Bullitt is a perfect star vehicle for cool guy Steve McQueen, who stars as a tenacious detective (is there any other kind?) determined to track down the killers of the star witness in an important trial. Director Peter Yates (Breaking Away) approached the story with an emphasis on absolute authenticity, using a variety of San Francisco locations. Jacqueline Bisset and Robert Duvall appear in early roles, and Robert Vaughn plays the criminal kingpin who pulls the deadly strings of the tightly wound plot. --Jeff Shannon

Lawrence of Arabia (Single Disc Edition)

There's no getting around a simple, basic truth: watching Lawrence of Arabia in any home-video format represents a compromise. There's no better way to appreciate this epic biographical adventure than to see it projected in 70 millimeter onto a huge theater screen. That caveat aside, David Lean's masterful "desert classic" is still enjoyable on the small screen, especially if viewed in widescreen format. (If your only option is to view a "pan & scan" version, it's best not to bother; this is a film for which the widescreen format is utterly mandatory.) Peter O'Toole gives a star-making performance as T.E. Lawrence, the eccentric British officer who united the desert tribes of Arabia against the Turks during World War I. Lean orchestrates sweeping battle sequences and breathtaking action, but the film is really about the adventures and trials that transform Lawrence into a legendary man of the desert. Lean traces this transformation on a vast canvas of awesome physicality; no other movie has captured the expanse of the desert with such scope and grandeur. Equally important is the psychology of Lawrence, who remains an enigma even as we grasp his identification with the desert. Perhaps the greatest triumph of this landmark film is that Lean has conveyed the romance, danger, and allure of the desert with such physical and emotional power. It's a film about a man who leads one life but is irresistibly drawn to another, where his greatness and mystery are allowed to flourish in equal measure. --Jeff Shannon

Batman - The Movie (Special Edition)

When Batman (Adam West) and Robin (Burt Ward) get a tip that Commodore Schmidlapp (Reginald Denny) is in danger aboard his yacht they launch a rescue mission. But the tip is a set-up by four of the most powerful villains ever who seek to defeat the Dynamic Duo once and for all! Armed with a dehydrator that can turn humans into dust the fearsome foursome intends to take over the world! Can the Caped Crusaders use their high-flying heroism and groovy gadgetry to declaw Catwoman (Lee Meriwether) ice the Penguin (Burgess Meredith) upstage the Joker (Cesar Romero) and stump the Riddler (Frank Gorshin) in time?System Requirements:Running Time: 105 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CLASSICS Rating: PG UPC: 024543534327 Manufacturer No: 2253432

Holy camp site, Batman! After a fabulously successful season on TV, the campy comic book adventure hit the big screen, complete with painful puns, outrageous supervillains, and fights punctuated with word balloons sporting such onomatopoeic syllables as "Pow!," "Thud!," and "Blammo!" Adam West's wooden Batman is the cowled vigilante alter ego of straight-arrow millionaire Bruce Wayne and Bruce Ward's Robin (a.k.a. Dick Grayson, Bruce's young collegiate protégé) his overeager sidekick in hot pants. Together they battle an unholy alliance of Gotham City's greatest criminals: the Joker (Cesar Romero, whooping up a storm), the Riddler (giggling Frank Gorshin), the Penguin (cackling Burgess Meredith), and the purr-fectly sexy Catwoman (Lee Meriwether slinking in a skin-tight black bodysuit). The criminals are, naturally, out to conquer the world, but with a little help from their unending supply of utility belt devices (bat shark repellent, anyone?), our dynamic duo thwarts their nefarious plans at every turn. Since the TV show ran under 30 minutes an episode (with commercials), the 105-minute film runs a little thin--a little camp goes a long way--but fans of the small-screen show will enjoy the spoofing tone throughout. Leslie H. Martinson directs Lorenzo Semple's screenplay like a big-budget TV episode minus the cliffhanger endings. --Sean Axmaker

Taras Bulba

Set in the 16th century Ukraine two Cossack brothers find themselves battling each other when one wants to recover land from the treacherous Poles and the other falls in love with a Polish girl. Breathtaking scenes. Academy Award Nominations: Best (original) Score.System Requirements:Running Time; 122 mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883904103073 Manufacturer No: M110307

"I will kiss the devil before my son wears a Polish collar!" declares Cossack warrior Taras Bulba, thus laying down the fundamental conflict of this epic film, based on the classic book by Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol. After the Polish army and the Cossacks defeat the Turks, the Poles betray their fierce collaborators in order to claim the Cossacks' ancestral home, the Steppes. Scattered, the Cossacks bide their time, and Bulba (Yul Brynner) sends his son Andrei (Tony Curtis) to a Polish college to learn the secrets of their culture. Though Andrei faces cruelty and prejudice, he falls in love with a Polish noblewoman, Natalia (Christine Kaufmann, a lovely German actress in one of her few English-language roles). Andrei, torn by love and loyalty to his people, risks everything in a desperate attempt to win Christine, even if it pits him against his own father. Taras Bulba is far from a great film--there are some laughable special effects, the battle scenes are confused and sluggish, and Curtis never quite loses his Bronx accent. Despite that, Curtis' star power comes through, and Yul Brynner tears up the screen with his amazing physical presence and emotional intensity; the man was truly a unique and compelling actor, who found only a few roles that suited him--this was one. By the end, Gogol's muscular plot catches you in its grip. The hypnotically gripping final scenes overcome all the cheesiness that came before. --Bret Fetzer

The Longest Day (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)

This special collector's commemorative edition has been issued in honor of the June 6 1944 Allied invasion of France which marked the beginning of the end of Nazi domination over Europe. The attack involved 3000000 men 11000 planes and 4000 ships comprising the largest armada the world has ever seen.The Longest Day is a vivid hour-by-hour recreation of this historic event. Featuring a stellar international cast and told from the perspectives of both sides it is a fascinating look at the massive preparations mistakes and random events that determined the outcome of one of the biggest battles in history. Winner of two 1962 Oscars® (Special Effects and Cinematography) The Longest Day ranks as one of Hollywood's truly great war films.System Requirements:Running Time: 263 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE Rating: NR UPC: 024543234647 Manufacturer No: 2233464

After seeing Saving Private Ryan, this epic tale about the Normandy invasion will look sanitized. But in its re-creation of events leading to the epochal battle, the film is captivating and grand, and the parade of famous actors who cross the screen naturally give the already charged action even more of a boost. Three directors worked on it: Ken Annakin (Battle of the Bulge), Andrew Marton (Crack in the World), and Bernhard Wicki (this film being his only credit). --Tom Keogh

Captain Horatio Hornblower

Screen legend Gregory Peck brings to life C.S. Forester's classic nautical hero Horatio Hornblower. Hornblower battles the French and the Spanish forces during the Napoleonic wars but also finds time for romance in this story from director Raoul Walsh.Running Time: 117 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE UPC: 085391108023 Manufacturer No: 110802

The much-loved novels of C.S. Forester come to life in Captain Horatio Hornblower, a solid, engrossing seafaring tale. Forester himself worked on the script for the 1951 film, which mines its plot from three Hornblower books. Set during the Napoleonic era, the movie kicks off by steering British captain Hornblower (Gregory Peck) into the middle of a nimble cat-and-mouse game with anti-Spanish rebels in the New World--only to find that in the months since he set sail from Old Blighty, national alliances have changed, causing a reversal in his original mission. The action later shifts to Europe, and throughout there is a love story involving a noblewoman (Virginia Mayo) who takes unexpected lodging aboard Hornblower's ship. The film has an intelligence that keeps it watchable, although it's definitely not one of the more buoyant films of the robust director Raoul Walsh. Perhaps the movie falls short of classic status because of the casting: its sober nature might stem from the personality of Gregory Peck, who looks marvelous but remains stolid throughout, while Virginia Mayo is, well, Virginia Mayo, a league away from British aristocracy. The sea battles don't have the technical dazzle of Master and Commander but they look acceptable for their time, and the movie's fondness for detail is gratifying. Forester's tales later became a series of British TV programs, with Ioan Gruffud as Hornblower. --Robert Horton