Action & Adventure

The Adventures of Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark/ Temple of Doom/ Last Crusade) - Widescreen Edition

As with Star Wars, the George Lucas-produced Indiana Jones trilogy was not just a plaything for kids but an act of nostalgic affection toward a lost phenomenon: the cliffhanging movie serials of the past. Episodic in structure and with fate hanging in the balance about every 10 minutes, the Jones features tapped into Lucas's extremely profitable Star Wars formula of modernizing the look and feel of an old, but popular, story model. Steven Spielberg directed all three films, which are set in the late 1930s and early '40s: the comic book-like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the spooky, Gunga Din-inspired Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the cautious but entertaining Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Fans and critics disagree over the order of preference, some even finding the middle movie nearly repugnant in its violence. (Pro-Temple of Doom people, on the other hand, believe that film to be the most disarmingly creative and emotionally effective of the trio.) One thing's for sure: Harrison Ford's swaggering, two-fisted, self-effacing performance worked like a charm, and the art of cracking bullwhips was probably never quite the iconic activity it soon became after Raiders. Supporting players and costars were very much a part of the series, too--Karen Allen, Sean Connery (as Indy's dad), Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Denholm Elliot, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies among them. Years have passed since the last film (another is supposedly in the works), but emerging film buffs can have the same fun their predecessors did picking out numerous references to Hollywood classics and B-movies of the past. --Tom Keogh

Indiana Jones - The Adventure Collection (Special Editions of Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark / Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom / Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)

Includes:Indiana Jones And The Raiders Of The Lost Ark: Special EditionIndiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom: Special EditionIndiana Jones And The Last Crusade: Special EditionThe Raiders Of The Lost ArkArcheologist and university professor Indiana Jones must retrieve the mythic Lost Ark of the Covenant before the it gets into the hands of Adolf Hitler who plans on using its power to guarantee his global conquest.The Temple Of DoomIndiana Jones finds himself on a new adventure trekking across Asia with a gold-digging woman and a young child to rescue a village's missing children and find a magic stone. But along the way he must contend with an evil cult.The Last CrusadeRenowned archeologist and expert in the occult Dr. Indiana Jones returns for the 3rd and final Indy film. Teaming up with his father Indiana sets out to try and find the Holy Grail. Once again the Nazis are after the same prize and try to foil Indiana's plans.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/THRILLERS UPC: 097361370743 Manufacturer No: 137074

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Special Edition)

It's said that the original is the greatest, and there can be no more vivid proof than Raiders of the Lost Ark, the first and indisputably best of the initial three Indiana Jones adventures cooked up by the dream team of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Expectations were high for this 1981 collaboration between the two men, who essentially invented the box office blockbuster with `70s efforts like Jaws and Star Wars, and Spielberg (who directed) and Lucas (who co-wrote the story and executive produced) didn't disappoint. This wildly entertaining film has it all: non-stop action, exotic locations, grand spectacle, a hero for the ages, despicable villains, a beautiful love interest, humor, horror… not to mention lots of snakes. And along with all the bits that are so familiar by now--Indy (Harrison Ford) running from the giant boulder in a cave, using his pistol instead of his trusty whip to take out a scimitar-wielding bad guy, facing off with a hissing cobra, and on and on--there's real resonance in a potent storyline that brings together a profound religious-archaeological icon (the Ark of the Covenant, nothing less than "a radio for speaking to God") and the 20th century's most infamous criminals (the Nazis). Now that's entertainment. --Sam Graham

Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford) is no ordinary archeologist. When we first see him, he is somewhere in the Peruvian jungle in 1936, running a booby-trapped gauntlet (complete with an over-sized rolling boulder) to fetch a solid-gold idol. He loses this artifact to his chief rival, a French archeologist named Belloq (Paul Freeman), who then prepares to kill our hero. In the first of many serial-like escapes, Indy eludes Belloq by hopping into a convenient plane. So, then: is Indiana Jones afraid of anything? Yes, snakes. The next time we see Jones, he's a soft-spoken, bespectacled professor. He is then summoned from his ivy-covered environs by Marcus Brody (Denholm Elliott) to find the long-lost Ark of the Covenant. The Nazis, it seems, are already searching for the Ark, which the mystical-minded Hitler hopes to use to make his stormtroopers invincible. But to find the Ark, Indy must first secure a medallion kept under the protection of Indy's old friend Abner Ravenwood, whose daughter, Marion (Karen Allen), evidently has a "history" with Jones. Whatever their personal differences, Indy and Marion become partners in one action-packed adventure after another, ranging from wandering the snake pits of the Well of Souls to surviving the pyrotechnic unearthing of the sacred Ark. A joint project of Hollywood prodigies George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, with a script co-written by Lawrence Kasdan and Philip Kaufman, among others, Raiders of the Lost Ark is not so much a movie as a 115-minute thrill ride. Costing 22 million dollars (nearly three times the original estimate), Raiders of the Lost Ark reaped 200 million dollars during its first run. It was followed by Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1985) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989), as well as a short-lived TV-series "prequel."

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Special Edition)

Not as good as the first one, but better than the second. That's been the consensus opinion regarding Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, the final installment in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' original adventure trilogy, throughout the nearly two decades since its 1989 theatrical release. It's a fair assessment. After the relatively dark and disturbing Temple of Doom (1984), The Last Crusade (1989) recalls the sheer fun of Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). With its variety of colorful locations, multiple chase scenes (the opening sequence on a circus train, with River Phoenix as the young Indy, is one of the best of the series, as is the boat chase through the canals of Venice), and cloak-and-dagger vibe, it's the closest in tone to a James Bond outing, which director Spielberg has noted was the inspiration for the trilogy in the first place; what's more, it harkens back to Raiders in its choice of villains (i.e., the Nazis--Indy even comes face to face with Hitler at a rally in Berlin) and its quest for an antiquity of incalculable value and significance (the Holy Grail, the chalice said to have been the receptacle of Christ's blood as he hung on the cross). Add to that the presence of Sean Connery, playing Indy's father and having a field day opposite Harrison Ford, and you've got a most welcome return to form.

Special features include a six-minute introduction by Spielberg and Lucas, who discuss the grail as a metaphor for bringing Indy and his estranged father together and agree that Crusade is the funniest of the three films; "Indy's Women," an American Film Institute tribute with leading ladies Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw, and Alison Doody each discussing her character (Capshaw candidly describes Temple of Doom's Willie Scott as "whiny, petulant, and annoying"); "Indy's Friends and Enemies," a look at the films' various villains and sidekicks; plus storyboards and photo galleries. --Sam Graham

The third installment in the widely beloved Spielberg/Lucas Indiana Jones saga begins with an introduction to a younger Indy (played by the late River Phoenix), who, through a fast-paced prologue, gives the audience insight into the roots of his taste for adventure, fear of snakes, and dogged determination to take historical artifacts out of the hands of bad guys and into the museums in which they belong. A grown-up Indy (Harrison Ford) reveals himself shortly afterward in a familiar classroom scene, teaching archeology to a disproportionate number of starry-eyed female college students in 1938. Once again, however, Mr. Jones is drawn away from his day job after an art collector (Julian Glover) approaches him with a proposition to find the much sought after Holy Grail. Circumstances reveal that there was another avid archeologist in search of the famed cup — Indiana Jones' father, Dr. Henry Jones (Sean Connery) — who had recently disappeared during his efforts. The junior and senior members of the Jones family find themselves in a series of tough situations in locales ranging from Venice to the most treacherous spots in the Middle East. Complicating the situation further is the presence of Elsa (Alison Doody), a beautiful and intelligent woman with one fatal flaw: she's an undercover Nazi agent. The search for the grail is a dangerous quest, and its discovery may prove fatal to those who seek it for personal gain. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade earned a then record-breaking $50 million in its first week of release.

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (Special Edition)

It's hard to imagine that a film with worldwide box office receipts topping $300 million worldwide could be labeled a disappointment, but some moviegoers considered Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the second installment in Steven Spielberg and George Lucas' 1980s adventure trilogy, to be just that. That doesn't mean it's a bad effort; any collaboration between these two cinema giants (Spielberg directed, while Lucas provided the story and was executive producer) is bound to have more than its share of terrific moments, and Temple of Doom is no exception. But in exchanging the very real threat of Nazi Germany for the cartoonish Thuggee cult, it loses some of the heft of its predecessor (Raiders of the Lost Ark); on the other hand, it's also the darkest and most disturbing of the three films, what with multiple scenes of children enslaved, a heart pulled out of a man's chest, and the immolation of a sacrificial victim, which makes it less fun than either Raiders or The Last Crusade, notwithstanding a couple of riotous chase scenes and impressively grand sets. Many fans were also less than thrilled with the new love interest, a spoiled, querulous nightclub singer portrayed by Kate Capshaw, but a cute kid sidekick ("Short Round," played by Ke Huy Quan) and, of course, the ever-reliable Harrison Ford as the cynical-but-swashbuckling hero more than make up for that character's shortcomings.

A six-minute introduction by Lucas and Spielberg is the prime special feature, with both men candidly addressing the film's good and bad points (Lucas points out that the second Star Wars film, The Empire Strikes Back, was also the darkest of the original three; as for Spielberg, the fact that the leading lady would soon become his wife was the best part of the whole trip). Also good are "The Creepy Crawlies," a mini-doc about the thousands of snakes, bugs, rats and other scary critters that populate the trilogy, and "Travels with Indy," a look at some of the films' cool locations. Storyboards and a photo gallery are included as well. --Sam Graham

The second of the George Lucas/Steven Spielberg Indiana Jones epics is set a year or so before the events in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1984). After a brief brouhaha involving a precious vial and a wild ride down a raging Himalyan river, Indy (Harrison Ford) gets down to the problem at hand: retrieving a precious gem and several kidnapped young boys on behalf of a remote East Indian village. His companions this time around include a dimbulbed, easily frightened nightclub chanteuse (Kate Capshaw), and a feisty 12-year-old kid named Short Round (Quan Ke Huy). Throughout, the plot takes second place to the thrills, which include a harrowing rollercoaster ride in an abandoned mineshaft and Indy's rescue of the heroine from a ritual sacrifice. There are also a couple of cute references to Raiders of the Lost Ark, notably a funny variation of Indy's shooting of the Sherpa warrior.

The Adventures of Indiana Jones - The Complete DVD Movie Collection (Full Screen Edition)

As with Star Wars, the George Lucas-produced Indiana Jones trilogy was not just a plaything for kids but an act of nostalgic affection toward a lost phenomenon: the cliffhanging movie serials of the past. Episodic in structure and with fate hanging in the balance about every 10 minutes, the Jones features tapped into Lucas's extremely profitable Star Wars formula of modernizing the look and feel of an old, but popular, story model. Steven Spielberg directed all three films, which are set in the late 1930s and early '40s: the comic book-like Raiders of the Lost Ark, the spooky, Gunga Din-inspired Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and the cautious but entertaining Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Fans and critics disagree over the order of preference, some even finding the middle movie nearly repugnant in its violence. (Pro-Temple of Doom people, on the other hand, believe that film to be the most disarmingly creative and emotionally effective of the trio.) One thing's for sure: Harrison Ford's swaggering, two-fisted, self-effacing performance worked like a charm, and the art of cracking bullwhips was probably never quite the iconic activity it soon became after Raiders. Supporting players and costars were very much a part of the series, too--Karen Allen, Sean Connery (as Indy's dad), Kate Capshaw, Ke Huy Quan, Amrish Puri, Denholm Elliot, River Phoenix, and John Rhys-Davies among them. Years have passed since the last film (another is supposedly in the works), but emerging film buffs can have the same fun their predecessors did picking out numerous references to Hollywood classics and B-movies of the past. --Tom Keogh

Into the Wild

This is the true story of Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch). Freshly graduated from college with a promising future ahead McCandless instead walked out of his privileged life and into the wild in search of adventure. What happened to him on the way transformed this young wanderer into an enduring symbol for countless people -- a fearless risk-taker who wrestled with the precarious balance between man and nature.System Requirements:Running Time: 148 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: ACTION/ADVENTURE/COMING OF AGE Rating: R UPC: 097363481249 Manufacturer No: 348124

A superb cast and an even-handed treatment of a true story buoy Into the Wild, Sean Penn's screen adaptation of Jon Krakauer's bestselling book. Emile Hirsch stars as Christopher McCandless, scion of a prosperous but troubled family who, after graduating from Atlanta's Emory University in the early 1990s, decides to chuck it all and become a self-styled "aesthetic voyager" in search of "ultimate freedom." He certainly doesn't do it halfway: after donating his substantial savings account to charity and literally torching the rest of his cash, McCandless changes his name (to "Alexander Supertramp"), abandons his family (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden as his bickering, clueless parents and Jena Malone as his baffled but loving sister, who relates much of the backstory in voice-over), and hits the road, bound for the Alaskan bush and determined not to be found. For the next two years he lives the life of a vagabond, working a few odd jobs, kayaking through the Grand Canyon into Mexico, landing on L.A.'s Skid Row, and turning his back on everyone who tried to befriends him (including Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker as two kindly, middle-aged hippies and Hal Holbrook in a deeply affecting performance as an old widower who tries to take "Alex" under his wing). Penn, who directed and wrote the screenplay, alternates these interludes with scenes depicting McCandless' Alaskan idyll--which soon turns out be not so idyllic after all. Settling into an abandoned school bus, he manages to sustain himself for a while, shooting small game (and one very large moose), reading, and recording his existential musings on paper. But when the harsh realities of life in the wilderness set in, our boy finds himself well out of his depth, not just ill-prepared for the rigors of day to day survival but realizing the importance of the very thing he wanted to escape--namely, human relationships. It'd be easy to either idealize McCandless as a genuinely free spirit, unencumbered by the societal strictures that tie the rest of us down, or else dismiss him as a hopelessly callow naïf, a fool whose disdain for practical realities ultimately doomed him. Into the Wild does neither, for the most part telling the tale with an admirable lack of cheap sentiment and leaving us to decide for ourselves. --Sam Graham

Mission Impossible - The Fourth TV Season

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE:THE FOURTH TV SEASON (DVD MOVIE)

Foil the invasion of a democratic country? No problem. Rescue members of a royal family from their would-be usurper? Piece of cake. Replace the irreplaceable Martin Landau and thrice-Emmy-winner Barbara Bain, who departed Mission after its third season? Now that's impossible! But in this classic series' fourth season, the veteran and rookie members of the Impossible Mission Force still put on a good show. The most prominent new addition to the IMF dossier is Leonard Nimoy as Paris, magician and master of disguise. Lee "Catwoman" Meriwether appears in several episodes as Tracey. Other guest stars make less of an impression; Alexandra Hay makes her only appearance on the show in the season opener as Lynn, who, in the course of an elaborate plot to shatter an alliance between two would-be dictators is caught, strip-searched, and thrown into prison (she disappears mid-episode and is never seen again; viewers never do get to see her sprung). An unintentionally hilarious moment that would have made Mad magazine proud comes in the three-parter, "The Falcon," in which IMF leader Jim Phelps' (Peter Graves) dossier of agents at his disposal includes the eponymous trained animal! Lending Mission: Impossible its international intrigue are the villains from such exotic sounding countries as Nueva Tierra. Great character actors, including John "Dean Wormer" Vernon, Harold Gould and Pernell Roberts portray accented bad guys to the hilt. Each bafflingly complex mission unfolds precisely to plan. Everything must go like clockwork, and usually does, even a lame bit in "The Falcon" in which strongman Willy (Peter Lupus) disguised as a peasant, delays a priest from a coronation by transporting him via horse-driven cart in a roundabout route. Like the previous season's "The Exchange," one mission hits closer to home. In "Death Squad" electronics expert Barney (Greg Morris) is arrested by a brutal and corrupt police chief who also happens to be the brother of the man who was killed while attacking Barney's girlfriend (Cicely Tyson, by the way). Mission: Impossible has yet to self-destruct, but this season doesn't exactly deliver on Paris's promise to his audience to deliver "excitement you haven't seen before." We have seen this before, but watching the IMF in episode after episode pull off the impossible is still smart and suspenseful fun. --Donald Liebenson

Top Gun (Widescreen Special Collector's Edition)

Jingoism, beefcake, military hardware, and a Giorgio Moroder rock score reign supreme over taste and logic in this Tony Scott film about a maverick trainee pilot (Tom Cruise) who can't follow the rules at a Navy aviation training facility. The dogfight sequences between American and Soviet jets at the end are absolutely mechanical, though audiences loved it at the time. The love story between Cruise's character and that of Kelly McGillis is like flipping through pages of advertising in a glossy magazine. This designer action movie from 1986 would be all the more appalling were it not for the canny casting of good actors in dumb parts. Standouts include Anthony Edwards--who makes a nice impression as Cruise's average-Joe pal--and the relatively unknown Meg Ryan in a small but memorable appearance. --Tom Keogh

Jingoism, beefcake, military hardware, and a Giorgio Moroder rock score reign supreme over taste and logic in this Tony Scott film about a maverick trainee pilot (Tom Cruise) who can't follow the rules at a Navy aviation training facility. The dogfight sequences between American and Soviet jets at the end are absolutely mechanical, though audiences loved it at the time. The love story between Cruise's character and that of Kelly McGillis is like flipping through pages of advertising in a glossy magazine. This designer action movie from 1986 would be all the more appalling were it not for the canny casting of good actors in dumb parts. Standouts include Anthony Edwards--who makes a nice impression as Cruise's average-Joe pal--and the relatively unknown Meg Ryan in a small but memorable appearance. --Tom Keogh

In TOP GUN, Tom Cruise stars as Maverick, a talented training pilot in an elite U.S. school for fighter pilots. When he stumbles upon some MiG's over the Persian Gulf, and his wingman panics, Maverick cleverly talks him through the situation to safety. Consequently, he is moved up in rank and sent to the Top Gun Naval Flying School. There he has several conflicts with other students while trying to live up to his deceased father's reputation. Unable to cope with the death of his best friend, and fellow pilot, Goose, Maverick contemplates dropping out, but follows through with his dream and ultimately becomes one of the "best of the best."

Cloverfield [Blu-ray]

One of the first things a viewer notices about Cloverfield is that it doesn't play by ordinary storytelling rules, making this intriguing horror film as much a novelty as an event. Told from the vertiginous point-of-view of a camcorder-wielding group of friends, Cloverfield begins like a primetime television soap opera about young Manhattanites coping with changes in their personal lives. Rob (Michael Stahl-David) is leaving New York to take an executive job at a company in Japan. At his goodbye party in a crowded loft, Rob's brother Jason (Mike Vogel) hands a camcorder to best friend Hud (T.J. Miller), who proceeds to tape the proceedings over old footage of Rob's ex-girlfriend, Beth (Odette Yustman)--images shot during happy times in that now-defunct relationship. Naturally, Beth shows up at the party with a new beau, bumming Rob out completely. Just before one's eyes glaze over from all this heartbreaking stuff (captured by Hud, who's something of a doofus, in laughably shaky camerawork), the unexpected happens: New York is suddenly under attack from a Godzilla-like monster stomping through midtown and destroying everything and everybody in sight. Rob and company hit the streets, but rather than run with other evacuees, they head toward the center of the storm so that Rob can rescue an injured Beth. There are casualties along the way, but the journey into fear is fascinating and immediate if emotionally remote--a consequence of seeing these proceedings through the singular, subjective perspective of a camcorder and of a story that intentionally leaves major questions unanswered: Who or what is this monster? Where did it come from? The lack of a backstory, and spare views of the marauding creature, are clever ways by producer J.J. Abrams and director Matt Reeves to keep an audience focused exclusively on what's on the screen. But it also makes Cloverfield curiously uninvolving. Ultimately, Cloverfield, with its spectacular effects brilliantly woven into a home-video look, is a celebration of infinite possibilities in this age of accessible, digital media. --Tom Keogh