When young Alan Parrish discovers a mysterious board game, he doesn't realize its unimaginable powers, until he is magically transported before the eyes of his friend, Sarah, into the untamed jungles of Jumanji! 26 years later he is freed from the game's spell by two unsuspecting children.
Clint Eastwood stars as former bounty hunter turned hired gunslinger Joe Kidd, who finds himself in the middle of a range war in rough and rugged New Mexico. Following an armed uprising by local Mexican revolutionaries who claim they've been cheated out of their land, Kidd is hired to quell the rebellion by a wealthy land baron (Robert Duvall) with interests in the disputed territory. But Kidd's and his employer's interests are soon at odds when he falls for a beautiful Hispanic rebel in this top-notch action-adventure from acclaimed veteran western director John Sturges.
This 1979 comedy is absolutely indispensable for fans of Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, or Andrew Bergman, who wrote the film's screenplay and went on to direct The Freshman and Honeymoon in Vegas. (Let's forgive him for Striptease.) Arkin is extraordinarily funny as a dentist who quickly grows skeptical about the wild claims of his daughter's future father-in-law (Peter Falk) that he is a CIA agent. When he is drawn into a bizarre adventure in a banana republic, however, he takes a different view.
Hot newcomers Josie (Rachael Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid) and Val (Rosario Dawson) are three small town musicians with big dreams but little future. Then fate gives the Pussycards the chance of a lifetime when band manager Wyatt (Alan Cumming) of MegaRecords signs them overnight to an awesome recording contract. Suddenly, Josie and the Pussycats are living life in the fast lane with sold out concerts, a number one single and global stardom. But it's not all limousines and private jets.
Multimillionaire John Hammond (Richard Attenborough) has a plan for a spectacular new theme park: a secluded island where visitors can observe actual dinosaurs. With the latest development in DNA technology, scientists can clone brachiosaurs, tricerotops, velociraptors and a Tyrannosaurus Rex, using the blood preserved in amber from insects that bit the dinosaurs long ago. Paleontologists Dr. Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Dr. Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) are duly impressed with the living results during an advance visit.
Clint Eastwood's second film as a director finds the celebrated action star returning to his familiar Old West stomping grounds and his internationally acclaimed role of "The Man With No Name". This time, The Stranger (Eastwood) mysteriously appears out of the heat waves of the desert and rides into the lawless, sin-ridden town of Lago. After making a name for himself with a string of blazing gun battles, The Stranger is hired by the townspeople to provide protection from three ruthless gunmen just out of jail.
Gary Oldman, Jeroen Krabbe, Isabella Rossellini and Valeria Golino star in Immortal Beloved, a mesmerizing mystery based on the tumultuous real life of Ludwig van Beethoven. Oldman gives a tour de force performance as the passionate, volatile genius who inspired love and hatred in equal measure. Whether seducing regal followers or criticizing the ruling class, Beethoven made many enemies. But he also had one true love -- the unnamed Immortal Beloved mentioned in an enigmatic letter discovered upon his death.
Val Waxman (Allen) was big-time movie director in 1970's and 1980's but is washed up now and just gets commercial directing jobs. He gets another chance at a directing a big film but goes temporarily blind from paranoia. Instead of losing the job, Val and his friends try to make the movie without the executives finding out about the blindness.
Halloween is as pure and undiluted as its title. In the small town of Haddonfield, Illinois, a teenage baby sitter tries to survive a Halloween night of relentless terror, during which a knife-wielding maniac goes after the town's hormonally charged youths. Director John Carpenter takes this simple situation and orchestrates a superbly mounted symphony of horrors. It's a movie much scarier for its dark spaces and ominous camera movements than for its explicit bloodletting (which is actually minimal).
Gremlins is a whee of a film (if you don't mind the occasional gross-out) from producer Steven Spielberg, writer Chris Columbus, and director Joe Dante. Zach Galligan is the young man whose inventor father (Hoyt Axton) gives him an odd Christmas present: a tiny, furry creature that comes with a set of rules: don't get him wet, don't feed him after midnight, and keep him away from direct sunlight. But Galligan breaks the first rule and the damp little critter pops out a dozen little offspring.
