Collection ID 1632
Director: Emile Ardolino
Starring: Jennifer Grey, Patrick Swayze, Jerry Orbach, Cynthia Rhodes, Jack Weston
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Studio: Great American Films Limited Partnership   Release date: 1987   Rated: PG-13   
Language (Country): English (USA)
Summary: In 1963, Frances "Baby" Houseman, a sweet daddy's girl, goes with her family to a resort in upstate New York's Catskill Mountains. Baby has grown up in privileged surroundings and all expect her to go on to college, join the Peace Corps and save the world before marrying a doctor, just like her father. Unexpectedly, Baby becomes infatuated with the camp's dance instructor, Johnny Castle, a man whose background is vastly different from her own. Baby lies to her father to get money to pay for an illegal abortion for Johnny's dance partner. She then fills in as Johnny's dance partner and it is as he is teaching her the dance routine that they fall in love. It all comes apart when Johnny's friend falls seriously ill after her abortion and Baby gets her father, who saves the girl's life. He then learns what Baby has been up to, who with and worse, that he funded the illegal abortion. He bans his daughter from any further association with "those people". In the first deliberately willful ...
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My Review:

Collection ID 578
Director: Robert Aldrich
Starring: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Warner Studios   Release date: 1967   Rated: Unrated   
Language (Country): English, French (UK)
Summary: The mission: Train twelve military convicts to go behind enemy lines. The objective: Destroy a French chateau and kill the Nazi officers occupying it, causing a major disruption in the German Army ranks. If mission is successful, prisoners will be pardoned for all crimes under the Visiting Forces Act in Britain.Easier said than done. However, for U.S. Army Major John Reisman, it is a task that he will accomplish by any means necessary. And that sets in motion one of the greatest World War II films ever made for the cinema screen. Released in 1967 by MGM, The Dirty Dozen changed the way we looked at soldiers and war heroes. Instead of the clean-cut types we have been used to watching in war films, we are introduced to the most psychopathic, anti-social bunch of soldiers ever to take on the Third Reich.Nevertheless, the film is still entertaining, and explosive to boot. With a cast that includes Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, the great Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, and the late John Cassavetes (in a hateful role that earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor), The Dirty Dozen proves that you can find heroes in the most unlikely of all places. These twelve men fight like twelve hundred when it comes to taking on the Imperial German Army, and in the end, it becomes an explosive confrontation between two forces that are bent on annihilating each other. If you enjoy war movies, you'll enjoy The Dirty Dozen.Trivia note: The movie was filmed on location at MGM British Studios in Borhamwood, England. Lee Marvin appeared in another classic WWII movie thirteen years later. The 1980 classic The Big Red One.Both Jim Brown and Ernest Borgnine appeared in the classic 1968 Cold War Thriller Ice Station Zebra. Like in The Dirty Dozen, Brown's character gets killed off. Apparently, some execs were a bit racist.
My Rating:
My Review: The dirty dozen: What a classic! A great war movie. Directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker and Robert Webber. The mission: Train twelve military convicts to go behind enemy lines and destroy a chateau filled with Nazi military leaders. Sure it's a suicide mission, but if they make it out alive they're sentence is commuted. A fantastic action flick with some terrific acting. The pacing is very good. The camera and sound work were excellent, the sets, the costumes, the locations, the supporting cast, all fitting of a top notch production. I'm sure I'll watch it over and over. Give em' hell boys! This one was on my must 'buy' list.

Collection ID 1279
Director: Robert Aldrich
Starring: Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Warner Studios   Release date: 1967   Rated: Unrated   
Language (Country): English, French (UK)
Summary: The mission: Train twelve military convicts to go behind enemy lines. The objective: Destroy a French chateau and kill the Nazi officers occupying it, causing a major disruption in the German Army ranks. If mission is successful, prisoners will be pardoned for all crimes under the Visiting Forces Act in Britain.Easier said than done. However, for U.S. Army Major John Reisman, it is a task that he will accomplish by any means necessary. And that sets in motion one of the greatest World War II films ever made for the cinema screen. Released in 1967 by MGM, The Dirty Dozen changed the way we looked at soldiers and war heroes. Instead of the clean-cut types we have been used to watching in war films, we are introduced to the most psychopathic, anti-social bunch of soldiers ever to take on the Third Reich.Nevertheless, the film is still entertaining, and explosive to boot. With a cast that includes Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, the great Donald Sutherland, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, Telly Savalas, Clint Walker, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Ryan, George Kennedy, and the late John Cassavetes (in a hateful role that earned him an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor), The Dirty Dozen proves that you can find heroes in the most unlikely of all places. These twelve men fight like twelve hundred when it comes to taking on the Imperial German Army, and in the end, it becomes an explosive confrontation between two forces that are bent on annihilating each other. If you enjoy war movies, you'll enjoy The Dirty Dozen.Trivia note: The movie was filmed on location at MGM British Studios in Borhamwood, England. Lee Marvin appeared in another classic WWII movie thirteen years later. The 1980 classic The Big Red One.Both Jim Brown and Ernest Borgnine appeared in the classic 1968 Cold War Thriller Ice Station Zebra. Like in The Dirty Dozen, Brown's character gets killed off. Apparently, some execs were a bit racist.
My Rating:
My Review: The dirty dozen: What a classic! A great war movie. Directed by Robert Aldrich, starring Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, Richard Jaeckel, George Kennedy, Trini Lopez, Ralph Meeker, Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland, Clint Walker and Robert Webber. The mission: Train twelve military convicts to go behind enemy lines and destroy a chateau filled with Nazi military leaders. Sure it's a suicide mission, but if they make it out alive they're sentence is commuted. A fantastic action flick with some terrific acting. The pacing is very good. The camera and sound work were excellent, the sets, the costumes, the locations, the supporting cast, all fitting of a top notch production. I'm sure I'll watch it over and over. Give em' hell boys! This one was on my must 'buy' list.

Collection ID 65
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Genre: Drama, Western
Studio: The Weinstein Company   Release date: 2012   Rated: R   
Language (Country): English, German, French, Italian (USA)
Summary: In 1858, a bounty hunter named Schultz seeks out a slave named Django and buys him because he needs him to find some men he is looking for. After finding them, Django wants to find his wife, Brunhilde, who along with him were sold separately by his former owner for trying to escape. Schultz offers to help him if he chooses to stay with him and be his partner. Eventually they learn that she was sold to a plantation in Mississipi. Knowing they can't just go in and say they want her, they come up with a plan so that the owner will welcome them into his home and they can find a way.
My Rating:
My Review: Starring Jamie Foxx as Django, Christopher Waltz as Dr. King Schultz, Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie, Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen and many others. This movie shouldn't be confused as a successor to the Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Westerns featuring a character named Django. In this film Quentin Tarantino takes the Django to heart as he transforms the character by transforming him into a black slave who escapes the bonds of tyranny in a transformative epic. Jamie Foxx plays Django a freed slave as he accompanies a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz. The two trek across America to free Django's wife from some sadistic SOB played by Leonardo Di Caprio. The characters are as rich as the tradition of Django and the action as brutal as a Tarantino directed war movie. The violence - Which I detest - is a signature Tarantino element. Without it, this film would be far less memorable, far less powerful. The movie is polarizing. Set during the mid 1800s. Slavery is in full effect in the south, and white southerners have reached the height of arrogance and self-aggrandizement. They are the Nazis of America. Having conquered the black man, they saw themselves as the pinnacle of human achievement. This movie is confrontational, racist, edgy and brilliant. If it weren't for the abhorrent and excessive violence (a Tarantino signature) I would give this movie higher marks.

Collection ID 1462
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson
Genre: Drama, Western
Studio: The Weinstein Company   Release date: 2012   Rated: R   
Language (Country): English, German, French, Italian (USA)
Summary: In 1858, a bounty hunter named Schultz seeks out a slave named Django and buys him because he needs him to find some men he is looking for. After finding them, Django wants to find his wife, Brunhilde, who along with him were sold separately by his former owner for trying to escape. Schultz offers to help him if he chooses to stay with him and be his partner. Eventually they learn that she was sold to a plantation in Mississipi. Knowing they can't just go in and say they want her, they come up with a plan so that the owner will welcome them into his home and they can find a way.
My Rating:
My Review: Starring Jamie Foxx as Django, Christopher Waltz as Dr. King Schultz, Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie, Samuel L. Jackson as Stephen and many others. This movie shouldn't be confused as a successor to the Sergio Corbucci spaghetti Westerns featuring a character named Django. In this film Quentin Tarantino takes the Django to heart as he transforms the character by transforming him into a black slave who escapes the bonds of tyranny in a transformative epic. Jamie Foxx plays Django a freed slave as he accompanies a German bounty hunter named Dr. King Schultz. The two trek across America to free Django's wife from some sadistic SOB played by Leonardo Di Caprio. The characters are as rich as the tradition of Django and the action as brutal as a Tarantino directed war movie. The violence - Which I detest - is a signature Tarantino element. Without it, this film would be far less memorable, far less powerful. The movie is polarizing. Set during the mid 1800s. Slavery is in full effect in the south, and white southerners have reached the height of arrogance and self-aggrandizement. They are the Nazis of America. Having conquered the black man, they saw themselves as the pinnacle of human achievement. This movie is confrontational, racist, edgy and brilliant. If it weren't for the abhorrent and excessive violence (a Tarantino signature) I would give this movie higher marks.

Collection ID 387
Director: Michael Pressman
Starring: Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Géraldine Pailhas, Bob Dishy
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Universal Studios   Release date: 1983   Rated: R   
Language (Country): English (USA)
Summary: A timid college professor, conned into posing as a flamboyant pimp, finds himself enjoying his new occupation on the streets.
My Rating:
My Review:

Collection ID 1028
Director: Michael Pressman
Starring: Marlon Brando, Johnny Depp, Faye Dunaway, Géraldine Pailhas, Bob Dishy
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Universal Studios   Release date: 1983   Rated: R   
Language (Country): English (USA)
Summary: A timid college professor, conned into posing as a flamboyant pimp, finds himself enjoying his new occupation on the streets.
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My Review:

Collection ID 646
Director: David Lean
Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness
Genre: Art House & International
Studio: Turner Home Ent   Release date: 1965   Rated: PG-13   
Language (Country): English, Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and the director's wife Sandra Lean, French, Dolby Digital 5.1 (USA)
Summary: David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like "Gone with the Wind" before it and "Titanic" after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, "Lawrence of Arabia", mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. "--Robert Horton"
My Rating:
My Review: With a cast consisting of Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay, it's no wonder that this movie contained some brilliant acting. Astonishingly, this movie, set in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution, isn't much of a political statement. What it is however, is a brilliant dramatic epic set in the midst of a war ravaged nation. Full of character development, love, hate, death, war, and a search for reconciliation keep this movie moving forward at a pace akin to the Russian revolution. This movie contains some fantastic music, locations, sets, and costumes. The writing, directing and acting are unequaled. Deserving of the five oscars that it won and so much more. It's may be a long movie, but it's well worth it. I'm going to buy a copy and watch it over and over.

Collection ID 1342
Director: David Lean
Starring: Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness
Genre: Art House & International
Studio: Turner Home Ent   Release date: 1965   Rated: PG-13   
Language (Country): English, Dolby Digital 5.1, Commentary by Omar Sharif, Rod Steiger and the director's wife Sandra Lean, French, Dolby Digital 5.1 (USA)
Summary: David Lean focused all his talent as an epic-maker on Boris Pasternak's sweeping novel about a doctor-poet in revolutionary Russia. The results may sometimes veer toward soap opera, especially with the screen frequently filled with adoring close-ups of Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, but Lean's gift for cramming the screen with spectacle is not to be denied. The streets of Moscow, the snowy steppes of Russia, the house in the country taken over by ice; these are re-created with Lean's unerring sense of grandness. The movie is so lush and so long that it becomes an irresistible wallow, even when logic suffers--like "Gone with the Wind" before it and "Titanic" after. Sharif, who achieved stardom in Lean's previous film, "Lawrence of Arabia", mostly looks noble, but the supporting cast is spiky: Rod Steiger as a fat-cat monster, Tom Courtenay as a self-righteous revolutionary, and Klaus Kinski and Alec Guinness in smaller roles. Geraldine Chaplin, in her adult debut, plays the doctor's compliant wife. Robert Bolt's screenplay won one of the film's five Oscars, with another going to perhaps the most immediately recognizable element of the movie: Maurice Jarre's romantic music, with its hugely popular "Lara's Theme" weaving in and out of a swooning score. "--Robert Horton"
My Rating:
My Review: With a cast consisting of Omar Sharif, Julie Christie, Geraldine Chaplin, Rod Steiger, Alec Guinness and Tom Courtenay, it's no wonder that this movie contained some brilliant acting. Astonishingly, this movie, set in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution, isn't much of a political statement. What it is however, is a brilliant dramatic epic set in the midst of a war ravaged nation. Full of character development, love, hate, death, war, and a search for reconciliation keep this movie moving forward at a pace akin to the Russian revolution. This movie contains some fantastic music, locations, sets, and costumes. The writing, directing and acting are unequaled. Deserving of the five oscars that it won and so much more. It's may be a long movie, but it's well worth it. I'm going to buy a copy and watch it over and over.

Collection ID 618
Director: Stacy Peralta
Starring: Sean Penn, Jay Adams, Tony Alva, Jeff Ament, Bob Biniak
Genre: Documentary
Studio: Sony Pictures   Release date: 2001   Rated: PG-13   
Language (Country): English (USA)
Summary: In the early 1970s, a group of young surfers from a tough neighborhood south of Santa Monica took up skateboards and offhandedly changed the world. At least it appears so after watching "Dogtown and Z-Boys", a documentary about how twelve "Z-Boys" (including one girl) resuscitated a dead sport and created a lifestyle that spread infectiously to become a worldwide counterculture phenomenon, namely high-flying "vert" (i.e. vertical) skateboarding and punk rock abandon. Director Stacy Peralta, one of the original Z-Boys, and Craig Steyck, the photographer whose publicity first made them famous, would have you believe that with empty pools as their springboard, the clan single-handedly carved a niche that grew into what is now referred to as "extreme sports" (snowboarding seems particularly implicated). Degrees of accuracy aside, the hoard of original footage Peralta and Steyck have access to makes for an engaging portrait of "accidental revolutionaries" whose mythology as expressed by themselves (all but one of the original crew give extensive interviews) and those they influenced (including Henry Rollins, Jeff Ament of Pearl Jam, and Sean Penn, who narrates) is far more entertaining than any evenhanded version could ever hope to be. "--Fionn Meade"
My Rating:
My Review: A documentary about surfers turned skaters. The revolutionary Zephyr team and how they created the Skate culture in America. A great documentary. Well directed, great narration, excellent music, and a visual style that complements the rebellious nature of the subject. The video production contained some really good fades, cuts and scene effects. Very well done. Mixing live interviews, vintage film footage, stills and narration - You don't have to be a skate punk to enjoy this documentary. These innovators tore up the pavement with more than polyurethane. This was a documentary about boys who would be kings. Alpha males one and all. They lived the life, became the legends and led a revolution.