Race Against Time

Run Lola Run

It's difficult to create a film that's fast paced, exciting, and aesthetically appealing without diluting its dialogue. Run Lola Run, directed and written by Tom Tykwer, is an enchanting balance of pace and narrative, creating a universal parable that leaps over cultural barriers. This is the story of young Lola (Franka Potente) and her boyfriend Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu). In the space of 20 minutes, they must come up with 100,000 deutsche marks to pay back a seedy gangster, who will be less than forgiving when he finds out that Manni incompetently lost his cash to an opportunistic vagrant. Lola, confronted with one obstacle after another, rides an emotional roller coaster in her high-speed efforts to help the hapless Manni--attempting to extract the cash first from her double-dealing father (appropriately a bank manager), and then by any means necessary. From this point nothing goes right for either protagonist, but just when you think you've figured out the movie, the director introduces a series of brilliant existential twists that boggle the mind. Tykwer uses rapid camera movements and innovative pauses to explore the theme of cause and effect. Accompanied by a pulse-pounding soundtrack, we follow Lola through every turn and every heartbreak as she and Manni rush forward on a collision course with fate. There were a variety of original and intelligent films released in 1999, but perhaps none were as witty and clever as this little gem--one of the best foreign films of the year. --Jeremy Storey

Red Dragon (Widescreen Collector's Edition)

A lot could've gone wrong in Red Dragon, but the movie exceeds expectations. Replacing the acclaimed Manhunter as an "official" entry in the Hannibal Lecter trilogy, this topnotch thriller--the second adaptation of Thomas Harris's first Lecter novel--returns to the fertile soil of The Silence of the Lambs, serving as both prequel and heir to the legacy of Lecter as portrayed, with mischievous menace, by the great Anthony Hopkins. Familiar faces and locations reappear (along with Lambs screenwriter Ted Tally) as Lecter coaches FBI profiler Will Graham (Edward Norton) in tracking the horrific "Tooth Fairy" killer (Ralph Fiennes), whose transformative killing spree is inspired by a William Blake painting. By dutifully serving Harris's potent material, Tally and director Brett Ratner craft a suspenseful film worthy of its predecessors, bringing Hopkins full circle as one of the cinema's all-time greatest villains. With overtones of Psycho and a superb supporting cast, Red Dragon succeeds against considerable odds. --Jeff Shannon

Seven Days in May

John Frankenheimer's follow-up to The Manchurian Candidate is as intimate and subdued as its predecessor is flamboyant and energetic. Burt Lancaster is calm and calculating as the steely-eyed military hawk General Scott, who opposes the president's (Fredric March) plan to end the cold war with a bold nuclear disarmament plan. Lancaster's longtime friend and frequent costar Kirk Douglas is his smiling, joking right-hand man, Colonel "Jiggs" Casey, whose easygoing manner is jolted by evidence of a possible plot to overthrow the American government. Scripted by Rod Serling from the novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey, the film plays much like a classic live TV drama (the medium that spawned both Frankenheimer and Serling), with the drama arising from conversations and confrontations and the action largely limited to scenes within the Pentagon and the White House. An ominous undercurrent of danger seeps through the realistic (and often real) settings of the film, conveyed chiefly through the intensity of the excellent ensemble performances. Notable among the supporting cast are Ava Gardner as a lonely Washington socialite who was once the general's mistress, Edmond O'Brien as an amiable alcoholic senator, Martin Balsam as the president's shrewd but skeptical secretary, and underrated character actor George Macready as the wily presidential advisor. --Sean Axmaker

Fail-safe (Special Edition)

One of the greatest anti-war thrillers ever Fail-Safe stars Henry Fonda Walter Matthau Dan O Herlihy Larry Hagman and Fritz Weaver (in his film debut) as a group of military men on the verge of World War III.When a military computer deploys a squadron of SAC bombers to destroy Moscow the American President (Fonda) tries to call them back. But their sophisticated fail-safe system prevents him from aborting the attack so he must convince the Soviets not to retaliate. In desperation the President offers to sacrifice an American city if his pilots succeed in their deadly mission over Moscow. A four-star techno-thriller that builds tension and suspense with every tick of the nuclear clock.System Requirements:Starring: Dan O Herlihy Walter Matthau Frank Overton Ed Binns Fritz Weaver Henry Fonda Larry Hagman and William Hansen. Directed By: Sidney Lumet. Running Time: 111 Min. B&W. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2000 Columbia TriStar Home Video.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: G UPC: 043396054240 Manufacturer No: 5424

It's Dr. Strangelove, but without the laughs. Fail Safe, made within a year of Strangelove and at the height of cold war atomic anxiety, posits a similar nightmare scenario. A U.S. bomber is accidentally ordered toward Moscow, ready to drop its load. The U.S. president (Henry Fonda) and various military and congressional leaders must then scramble to deal with the disaster. The built-in suspense is well maintained by director Sidney Lumet, working from a script by former blacklisted writer Walter Bernstein. The solemn, serious approach doesn't begin to touch the brilliance of Strangelove's inspired take on the nuclear nightmare, but Fail Safe is absorbing and well acted (a memorable role for Walter Matthau, for instance). The movie enters unexpected territory in its final minutes; conditioned for feel-good endings, viewers are still genuinely shocked by the plot turns in the final reels. The climax comes as a sobering slap in the face, intriguingly staged by Lumet. Now that the cold war has passed on into history, Fail Safe stands as--thank goodness--an interesting period piece. --Robert Horton

Outbreak

When Warner Brothers was unable to secure the rights to Richard Preston's terrifying nonfiction book The Hot Zone (purchased by a rival studio), they took the basic idea of a fatal virus on the loose in the U.S., added Dustin Hoffman and director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot), and produced an unusual thriller--a surprise hit--called Outbreak. The other picture, slated to star Robert Redford and Jodie Foster, fell through. The premise of Outbreak, which owes something to Elia Kazan's 1950 plague-scare movie, Panic in the Streets, is as terrifying as it is timely. As developers slash their way deeper into the previously unexplored tropical rainforests, they are exposed to radically new forms of life, including diseases, that in these days of commonplace international travel could turn into deadly epidemics almost before we know it. Hoffman's character and his estranged wife (Rene Russo) are disease experts called in to identify the unknown killer, which was carried into the country by an illegally smuggled monkey. The best sequence shows the disease spreading--through recycled air on a passenger jet, or a sneeze in a crowded movie theater. The final chase is pretty conventional, but the cast is terrific, including Morgan Freeman, Kevin Spacey, Donald Sutherland, Cuba Gooding Jr., J.T. Walsh, and Zakes Mokae. --Jim Emerson

Catch the fever of "one of the great scare stories of our time" (Roger Ebert) as Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo and Morgan Freeman race to save life on earth when an unstoppable killer virus hits our shores.

The Sum of All Fears (Special Collector's Edition)

It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to The Sum of All Fears, reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller Sneakers was sorely underrated) with a stellar supporting cast, and adapted with abundant humor, humanity, and thrills by Donnie Brasco screenwriter Paul Attanasio and cowriter Daniel Pyne. Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve. --Jeff Shannon

Night of the Twisters

05-51489 Night Of The Twister The people of sleepy Blainsworth, Nebraska, have no idea of the deadly, unpredictable storms heading toward them—rogue tornadoes that will change their lives forever. There are already storms brewing between young Danny Hatch (Devon Sawa) and his father, Jack (John Schneider), a former football star who is disappointed in his irresponsible son. Danny is home alone, babysitting his baby brother when the monster twisters suddenly whirl through the unsuspecting town! Now, Danny must begin a long struggle to survive the night and rescue his family... through downed electrical wires, broken gas lines, and a heart stopping final escape from the twisters' fury! Based on actual events and packed with terrifying tornado footage and special effects, this gripping film is both a thrilling look at nature's deadliest force and a testament to one family's struggle to survive against the odds. Approximately 91 Minutes Color

Kiss the Girls

Coming after The Silence of the Lambs and Seven, this thriller about a collaboration between two serial killers feels like a pale attempt to cash in on the success of those earlier, better films. That's a pity, because this film certainly has its strengths--particularly in the central performances of Morgan Freeman as a forensic detective and Ashley Judd as a would-be victim who escaped from one of the killers. Director Gary Fleder demonstrates visual flair and maintains an involving undercurrent of tension, but as this adaptation of James Patterson's novel approaches its climax, familiar elements combine to form a chronic case of thriller déjà vu. It's altogether competent filmmaking in the service of a moribund story of competing psychopaths, and by the time the serial killers reach the home stretch of their twisted contest, the movie's dangerously close to Freddy Kruger territory, with a finale that could've been borrowed from any dozen similar thrillers. --Jeff Shannon

Category 7: The End of the World

Who doesn't enjoy watching big things fall to pieces? Category 7: The End of the World wreaks havoc on the Eiffel Tower, Mt. Rushmore, the Pyramids, and a midwestern trailer park, among other things. More or less a sequel to Category 6: Day of Destruction (presumably the latest in a series that began with Category 1: Don't Forget Your Umbrella), Category 7 offers the reassuring sight of Gina Gershon, skilled with disasters like Showgirls, taking control of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Confronted with city-destroying weather, she calls in rebel meteorologist Ross Duffy (Cameron Daddo, star of such classics as Pterodactyl and Anthrax), who runs the Extreme Weather Lab and harbors theories that threaten the political status quo. Ross brings in Tommy Tornado (Randy Quaid, the sole returning actor from Category 6), Faith Clavell (Shannen Doherty, Charmed), and Col. Mike Davis (Tom Skerritt, Alien) to gather data...which isn't the most dramatic of activities (even when it involves souped-up cars and superjets), so the movie adds a subplot about a religious zealot (Nicholas Lea, The X-Files) who wants to unleash the plagues of Egypt so that everyone will realize it's the End of Days. What does it all add up to? A lot of over-the-top hooey (and that's not including the assorted family turmoils), but pretty entertaining nonetheless. It's like a lesser Michael Crichton novel: Take an inflammatory vaguely scientific premise, add two-dimensional characters, cheesy but spectacular effects, and a full-throttle if nonsensical plot, and presto! Over three hours of silly yet utterly watchable television. For added fun, drink a shot every time one character tells another "You're the most important person on the planet right now." --Bret Fetzer

The Ultimate Superstorm is Back -- And This Time it's Deadler...The hair-raising sequel to the highly-rated TV event, "Category 6: Day of Destruction".

Left Behind - World at War

Third in a series of films based on the bestselling novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, Left Behind: World at War finds the post-Rapture Earth an even bleaker place than in the previous movies. As the Antichrist himself, Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie), uses his newfound powers as head of the world government to bring war and plague on every nation, the American president (Louis Gossett Jr.) teams with a Christian resistance fighter (Jessica Steen) to try to stop him. Meanwhile, series hero Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron) discovers that Carpathia's biological front in a coming apocalypse is particularly devious: Freshly published Bibles are carrying a deadly disease ravaging thousands--and may very likely claim Buck's new bride. Buck's father-in-law, pilot Rayford Steele (Brad Johnson), has problems of his own facing the not-inconsiderable temptations of former flight attendant Hattie Daniels (Chelsea Noble), now one of Carpathia's many lovers. Directed by Craig R. Baxley (Rose Red), Left Behind: World at War is particularly crisp and effective drama, even when the action stops, as it often does, for many of the principals to pray for guidance. Charles Martin Smith (The Untouchables), not seen often enough these days, has a brief but powerful part as the U.S. vice-president. --Tom Keogh

In the prophesied world of the Book of Revelation, global icon and world leader Nicolae Carpathia (Gordon Currie - Left Behind) has finally done the unimaginable - he has managed to unite the world in peace - and bring an end to the bloodshed that has ruled the world since the beginning of time. American president, Gerald Fitzhugh (Academy Award winner Lou Gossett, Jr.- An Officer and a Gentleman- Best Supporting Actor 1981), has shared that dream, and has dedicated his Presidency to making sure that the world's most powerful nation didn't stand in the way of that dream. But when a failed assassination attempt opens his eyes to an underground world and a horrifying glimpse into a sinister conspiracy, Fitzhugh must come to terms with the agonizing truth - World War III is pounding at the door- and his dedication to the dream of peace has left America powerless to defend herself. With the help of investigative reporter Buck Williams (Kirk Cameron - Left Behind, TV's "Growing Pains") and his underground Tribulation Force, Fitzhugh battles against a ticking clock, insurmountable odds, and his own closed mind, to try to find a way to stop the death of millions of people, and perhaps the end of history itself.