Unanimously hailed as one of the greatest masterpieces in the history of the motion picture, Seven Samurai has inspired countless films modeled after its basic premise. But Akira Kurosawa's classic 1954 action drama has never been surpassed in terms of sheer power of emotion, kinetic energy, and dynamic character development. The story is set in the 1600s, when the residents of a small Japanese village are seeking protection against repeated attacks by a band of marauding thieves.
The nuts and bolts of the irresistibly danceable music called Tejano are pop, rock, polka, R&B and Latin influences. To millions of fans there's another vital ingredient: the dynamic singer Selena. Selena is the vibrant story of the Grammy-winning singer whose life ended at its creative peak. Pulsating with Selena's voice on the soundtrack, the film is powerfully authentic. In the title role, Jennifer Lopez captures the warmth and electricity of a beloved entertainer.
After a career slump that plagued him through most of the 1980s, Al Pacino made a stellar comeback in this taut 1989 thriller, playing a weary New York police detective who falls in love with the woman (Ellen Barkin) who is the prime suspect in the murder case he's investigating. Expertly written by Richard Price and directed by Harold Becker, the story is designed to keep its central characters (and the viewer) in a state of constant suspicion and arousal--an emotional combination that sends dangerous sparks flying between Pacino and Barkin.
Al Percolo is the scout who'd do anything to sign a prospect. Unfortunately, things weren't going his way, and Al found his career heading south--until he discovered Steve Nebraska, the greatest ballplayer who ever lived. Now, Al thinks he's back on top, and Steve believes he's found a new friend. And they're both about to discover how much they need each other.
Set 5000 years ago in the infamous city of Gomorrah, The Scorpion King is a head-on confrontation between good and evil. Warlord Memmon (Steven Brand) has created a reign of terror across the desert using a sorceress (Kelly Hu), who envisions all his victories. Only a few free tribes remain and in order to defeat Memmon they reluctantly hire Mathayus (The Rock) to kill the beautiful sorceress. Instead he kidnaps her to lure Memmon into a trap.
Brought back from his dead mouldering remains with blood drooled on them by one of the bats he commands, Count Dracula once again spreads his evil from his mountaintop castle. When libertine Paul Carlson disappears one night, his more sober brother Simon and his girlfriend trace him to the area, discovering a terrified populace. Thrown out of the inn, they make their way, like Paul before them, towards the sinister castle and its undead host.
This sprawling epic of bloodshed and excess, Brian De Palma's update of the classic 1932 crime drama by Howard Hawks, sparked controversy over its outrageous violence when released in 1983. Scarface is a wretched, fascinating car wreck of a movie, starring Al Pacino as a Cuban refugee who rises to the top of Miami's cocaine-driven underworld, only to fall hard into his own deadly trap of addiction and inevitable assassination.
The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming looks overly cute now, but really, it was pretty hip for 1966. The cold war was in full deep-freeze when this well-meaning comedy tried to thaw things out a little: a Soviet submarine beaches on the New England coast, sending the locals into a paranoid frenzy. The chief pleasure of the film is Alan Arkin as the sub captain; this was Arkin's first major film role, and he had already mastered his exasperated, slow-burning frown (to say nothing of mastering his Russian dialogue).
Rush Hour 2 retains the appeal of its popular predecessor, so it's easily recommended to fans of its returning stars, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan. The action--and there's plenty of it--starts in Hong Kong, where Detective Lee (Chan) and his L.A. counterpart Detective Carter (Tucker) are attempting a vacation, only to get assigned to sleuth a counterfeiting scheme involving a triad kingpin (John Lone), his lethal henchwoman (Zhang Ziyi, from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), and an American billionaire (Alan King).
After creating many of the innovative special effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey, Douglas Trumbull tried his hand at directing, and 1971's Silent Running marked an impressive debut.
