Review
Features:Widescreen 1.85:1 enhanced for 16x9. Dolby Digital 5.1 surround and mono, French 5.1 surround, Spanish mono, French and Spanish subtitles. Commentary by director John Avildsen, producers Robert chartoff and Irwin Winkler, actors Talia Shire, Burt Young, carl Weathers, and Steadicam inventor Garrett Brown. Video commentary by Sylvester Stallone. Three featurettes: Behind the scenes with John Avildsen, Tribute to Burgess Meredith, Tribute to cinematographer James Crabe. Collectible booklet. Original theatrical trailers. Original advertising materials.

The Movie
The "Rocky" boxed set offers all five films in the "Rocky" saga, and that means you get all the blessings and curses of a great film that was sequeled to death. What's surprising, upon viewing these films in rapid succession, is that they're all better than you might have remembered. The stories ge...Read the entire review

Review
Features:Full-frame 1.33: aspect ratio. Dolby Digital (English Mono).

The Movie
If you're at all interested in studying the films and history of Hollywood's "Poverty Row" period of the 1930's and '40s, "Bowery of Midnight" offers a fine (relatively speaking!) example of the kind of ultra-low-budget thrillers that were routinely cranked out by Monogram Pictures, one of Poverty Row's busiest studios. Better yet, it's got Bela Lugosi in a dual role, as a mild-mannered New York University professor who runs a mission in the city's Bowery section, and as a sadistic criminal mastermind who lures low-rent criminals into his underworld scheme, recruiting them as accomplices and then killing them after they've served their purpose. The bodies are buried in the mission's basement, and this nefarious activity ultimately draws the attention of the police. There's just enoug...Read the entire review

Review
Features:Widescreen 1.66:1 enhanced for 16x9 TVs. Dolby Digital (Mono), in Dutch with optional English subtitles. Audio commentary by director Paul Verhoeven. Teaser trailer. Still gallery. Talent bios.

The Movie
The best of Paul Verhoeven's Dutch films, "Soldier of Orange" ranks with "Das Boot" as one of the finest European World War II films of the 1970s, focusing on a lesser-known chapter of the war that contains painful truths for the people of Holland while resonating with universal themes about the personal and epic costs of warfare. While establishing Rutger Hauer as an international star (he appeared in "Blade Runner" three years later), the film is an exceptional ensemble piece, about a half-dozen wealthy Dutch college students who think "a spot of war might be exciting," only to learn harsh lessons when Holland is occupied by the Nazis in 1940. Thus be...Read the entire review

Review
Features:Anamorphic Widescreen, aspect ratio 2.35:1. Interactive menus. Scene Selection. Original Theatrical Trailer. Audio: Remastered English (Stereo), Original English (Mono), French Mono. Subtitles: English, Spanish.

The Movie
Though not as well known as some of the other World War II action dramas of the 1960's, "Von Ryan's Express" is a superbly crafted, tautly plotted, and thoroughly enjoyable production from start to finish. Frank Sinatra is excellent in the title role of Col. Joseph Ryan, who's given the nickname "Von Ryan" after his plane is shot down over Italy and he's held in a Nazi prison camp, where his fellow captives initially think he's sucking up to the camp's untrustworthy Italian commandant. Before long, however, Ryan earns the trust of the other prisoners and masterminds an escape involving the takeover of a German prison transport train. W...Read the entire review

Review
Features:Digitally remastered widescreen (approx. 1.85:1). Audio: English (2.0 mono). Theatrical trailer. Director's commentary, cast biographies, Peter Bogdanovich interview, coming attractions

The Movie
One of Peter Bogdanovich's finest films, "Saint Jack" brought the acclaimed director back from erratic success in Hollywood to his economical roots with producer Roger Corman – back to filmmaking inspired by Bogdanovich's idols and mentors, Orson Welles and John Cassavetes, who had always encouraged the young Bogdanovich to make films that were substantial but inexpensive. Based on the Paul Theroux novel and shot entirely on location in Singapore, the film is a sublte, engrossing character study about Jack Flowers (a perfect role for Ben Gazzara), an American pimp in Singapore in 1973, who lives by an unspoken code of honor; he's not your typical sleaze, and ...Read the entire review

Review
Features:Standard format (preserving the film's original 1.33:1 Academy aspect ratio). Audio tracks: English (mono). Subtitles: English and French. Production notes and two theatrical trailers.

The Movie
This was the seventh film to match the great romantic comedy team of Hollywood's golden age, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, who were reuniting with director George Cukor and screenwriters Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, the team responsible for Tracy & Hepburn's popular "Adam's Rib" just three years earlier. And while this delightful comedy falls just a little short of "Adam's Rib," it's still one of the smoothest of the Tracy-Hepburn films, and puts a marvelous spin on the emergence of women in sports in the post-war era. Hepburn, of course, had defied Hollywood fashion for years by sporting pants in many of her roles and off-screen life, so she's perfe...Read the entire review

Review

Features:Widescreen aspect ratio 1.85:1, enhanced for 16x9. Audio Tracks: English (mono). Subtitles: French & Spanish. Theatrical trailer.

The Movie
Based on an actual incident, "River's Edge" was released the same year as "Blue Velvet" (1986) and in addition to sharing the same cinematographer (Frederick Elmes) and a wickedly unsettling supporting role for Dennis Hopper, both films were cited by critics as equally disturbing and superior explorations of the dark underbelly of American society. Here, a bleak and astonishing screenplay by Neal Jiminez (using some of his own high school classmates as inspiration) is carefully handled by underrated director Tim Hunter, whose previous film "Tex" provided good rehearsal for a film about troubled and troubling youth.

When one of these aberrant teens (Daniel Roebuck) strangles his girlfriend and leaves ...Read the entire review

Review:

Features:Widescreen aspect ratio 1.78:1. Audio tracks: Dolby 5.1 Surround, Dolby 2.0 Stereo. Descriptive narratiion by Paddy Maloney. Features: Two additional performance scenes.

The DVD
The subtitle "Love Over ireland" is, thankfully, a bit of a misnomer, because this isn't another one of those helicopter fly-over videos in which sytunning scenery is accompanied by soothing Celtic new-age muzak. No, this is something much better: An affectionate and gorgeously photographed record of The Chieftains' travels throughout Ireland in 1999, as they stop in various significant places to record "Water from the Well," the group's magnificent album of all-Traditional Irish music. There's plenty of beautiful Irish scenery along the way, but what makes this DVD special is the inclusion, from each member of the Chieftains, of anecdotal history about the band and each me...Read the entire review