Library

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: The cop who won't stop is back. But this time he's chasing down a lot more than a fugitive.

Summary: An ultimately futile attempt to make lightning strike twice, this so-called spinoff from 1993's blockbuster "The Fugitive" avoids the label of "sequel" by forging ahead without the first film's star, Harrison Ford. The idea is to showcase the return of Tommy Lee Jones in his Oscar-winning role as tenacious U.S. Marshal Sam Gerard, this time testing his mettle against a covert government operative (Wesley Snipes) accused of murdering two secret service attachés. Unfortunately, Jones and the entire cast have been trapped in a rambling plot, and the underdog status that made Ford such a compelling hero is sacrificed to an evenly matched and eventually tiresome game of cat and mouse, with a villain whose identity is far too predictable. With no dramatic buildup and several superfluous characters to distract its focus, the film's momentum plays out like a rote exercise compared to the high stakes of the earlier film. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: Dolby

Comments: The Blood War is On

Summary: As an overdose of eye candy, "Ultraviolet" can be marginally recommended as the second-half of a double-feature with "Aeon Flux". Both films are disposable adolescent fantasies featuring a butt-kicking babe (in this case, the svelte and sexy Milla Jovovich) in a dystopian future, and both specialize in the kind of barely-coherent, video-game storytelling that's constantly overwhelmed by an over-abundance of low-budget CGI. Director Kurt Wimmer fared much better with his earlier film "Equilibrium", but he's trying for a lively comic-book vibe here (beginning with "Hulk"-like opening credits) with a digitally enhanced, "Tron"-like color palette. It largely suits this late-21st century story of a "blood war" between the ultra-violent Violet (Jovovich), member of a vampire-like group of resistance fighters infected with a man-made virus called the Hemophage, and the human Vice Cardinal Daxus (Nick Chinlund), who's determined to eliminate Violet's kind once and for all. Wimmer takes all of this way too seriously, crafting a plot involving Violet's rescue of a human clone boy (Cameron Bright) that's intended as an homage to John Cassevetes' 1980 drama "Gloria", but Wimmer's good intentions are mostly lost in a repetitive series of chaotically choreographed fight scenes, mostly involving the tight-bodied Jovovich wiping out dozens of armor-clad enemies. It's all too numbingly hectic to qualify as a satisfying movie, but sci-fi buffs should give it a look anyway, if only to see how locations in Shanghai and Hong Kong contribute to the film's futuristic design."--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, Spanish

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Are You Ready For The Truth?

Summary: When "Unbreakable" was released, Bruce Willis confirmed that the film was the first in a proposed trilogy. Viewed in that context, this is a tantalizing and audaciously low-key thriller, with a plot that twists in several intriguing and unexpected directions. Standing alone, however, this somber, deliberately paced film requires patient leaps of faith--not altogether surprising, since this is writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's daring follow-up to "The Sixth Sense". While just as assured as that earlier, phenomenal hit, "Unbreakable" is the work of a filmmaker whose skill exceeds his maturity, its confident style serving a story that borders on juvenile. However, Shyamalan's basic premise--that comic books are the primary conduit of modern mythology--is handled with substantial relevance.
Willis plays a Philadelphia security guard whose marriage is on the verge of failing when he becomes the sole, unscathed survivor of a devastating train wreck. When prompted by a mysterious, brittle-boned connoisseur of comic books (Samuel L. Jackson), he realizes that he's been free of illness and injury his entire life, lending credence to Jackson's theory that superheroes--and villains--exist in reality, and that Willis himself possesses extraordinary powers. Shyamalan presents these revelations with matter-of-fact gravity, and he draws performances (including those of Robin Wright Penn and Spencer Treat Clark, as Willis's wife and son) that are uniformly superb. The film's climactic revelation may strike some as ultimately silly and trivial, but if you're on Shyamalan's wavelength, the entire film will assume a greater degree of success and achievement. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English, Italian, French

Subtitles: English, French

Sound: Dolby

Comments: An immortal battle for supremacy.

Summary: "Blade" meets "The Crow" and "The Matrix" in "Underworld", a hybrid thriller that rewrites the rulebook on werewolves and vampires. It's a "cuisinart" movie (blend a lot of familiar ideas and hope something interesting happens) in which immortal vampire "death dealers" wage an ancient war against "Lycans" (werewolves), who've got centuries of revenge--and some rather ambitious genetic experiments--on their lycanthropic agenda. Given his preoccupation with gloomy architecture (mostly filmed in Budapest, Hungary), frenetic mayhem and gothic costuming, it's no surprise that first-time director Len Wiseman gained experience in TV commercials and the art departments of "Godzilla, Men in Black", and "Independence Day". His work is all surface, no substance, filled with derivative, grand-scale action as conflicted vampire Selene (Kate Beckinsale, who later became engaged to Wiseman) struggles to rescue an ill-fated human (Scott Speedman) from Lycan transformation. It's great looking all the way, and a guaranteed treat for horror buffs, who will eagerly dissect its many strengths and weaknesses. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: Serve No Master

Summary: Luc Besson wrote and directed the stylish thrillers "La Femme Nikita" and "The Professional"; though he didn't direct "Unleashed", the script has his trademark fusion of outrageous sentimentality and over-the-top violence. Hong Kong action superstar Jet Li ("Romeo Must Die", "Hero") stars as Danny, a man raised to be a brutal attack dog by a nasty gangster named Bart (Bob Hoskins, "Mona Lisa")--when Bart removes Danny's collar, Danny pulverizes everyone in the room. But a chance encounter with a blind piano tuner (Morgan Freeman, "Million Dollar Baby") reveals to Danny the possibility of a less brutal life, and when a retaliation attack gives him the chance to escape, he does--but Bart won't let him go that easily. The fighting in "Unleashed" is effectively jolting; Li and fight choreographer Yuen Wo Ping ("The Matrix") have purposefully stripped away the smoothness of most movie combat (especially with a genuine martial artist like Li) with raw, unnerving results, especially when juxtaposed with the sweet and earnest scenes of Li regaining his humanity with Freeman and his step-daughter (Kerry Condon). This freewheeling cocktail of bloody noses and ice-cream cones isn't for everyone, but fans of both Besson and Li will leave satisfied. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: The Chicago Dream is that big

Summary: As noted critic Pauline Kael wrote, the 1987 box-office hit "The Untouchables" is "like an attempt to visualize the public's collective dream of Chicago gangsters." In other words, this lavish reworking of the vintage TV series is a rousing potboiler from a bygone era, so beautifully designed and photographed--and so craftily directed by Brian De Palma--that the historical reality of Prohibition-era Chicago could only pale in comparison. From a script by David Mamet, the movie pits four underdog heroes (the maverick lawmen known as the Untouchables) against a singular villain in Al Capone, played by Robert De Niro as a dapper caesar holding court (and a baseball bat) against any and all challengers. Kevin Costner is the naive federal agent Eliot Ness, whose lack of experience is tempered by the streetwise alliance of a seasoned Chicago cop (Sean Connery, in an Oscar-winning performance), a rookie marksman (Andy Garcia), and an accountant (Charles Martin Smith) who holds the key to Capone's potential downfall. The movie approaches greatness on the strength of its set pieces, such as the siege near the Canadian border, the venal ambush at Connery's apartment, and the train-station shootout partially modeled after the "Odessa steps" sequences of the Russian classic Battleship Potemkin. It's thrilling stuff, fueled by Ennio Morricone's dynamic score, but it's also manipulative and obvious. If you're inclined to be critical, the movie gives you reason to complain. If you'd rather sit back and enjoy a first-rate production with an all-star cast, The Untouchables may very well strike you as a classic. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: It Happened To Someone Who Knows Someone You Know... You're Next.

Summary: An attractive young woman is driving her car on a dark country road and singing along to the radio. She's running out of gas and so she pulls into a gas station (run by a jittery, stuttering Brad Dourif), but then flees what seems to be an attack, only to find the real threat in her backseat: a hooded killer with an ax who takes her head off with a well-aimed swing. You've heard the story before? Not surprising, given that it's one of the more famous urban legends borrowed for "Urban Legend", a post-"Scream" exercise in self-referential horror. The students at an ivy-covered New England college are turning up dead, the victims of a serial killer who murders in the fashion of the "apocryphal" modern myths. It's all for the benefit of good girl with a dark secret Alicia Witt, the sole witness to most of the killings. Doe-eyed Rebecca Gayheart, as her gullible best friend, and Jared Leto, the ambitious campus journalist who tracks down the secret that hangs over the school, lead a cast of pretty young women, hunky guys, and campus characters, notably the suspicious professor Robert Englund, a genre legend in his own right as the star of seven "Nightmare on Elm Street" films. Take away the cheeky remarks and self-awareness and it's a throwback to the 1970s' rash of teen slasher movies, where sexually active teens are sliced, diced, and otherwise slaughtered in elaborate and ingenious ways. The increasingly preposterous film is no "Scream", but the modestly stylish production has its moments. "--Sean Axmaker"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: French

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: It was an urban legend that started it all. Now it continues on the Alpine University campus...

Summary: While "Urban Legends: Final Cut" is not nearly as terrifying or inventive as some of its predecessors, the film does offer up a fairly suspenseful whodunit that fans of the teen horror genre will likely appreciate. Amy Mayfield, the film's heroine (played by fresh-faced Jennifer Morrison), is the daughter of an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker trying to make a name for herself at Alpine University, "the greatest film school that ever existed." Along with several other students she is competing for the coveted Hitchcock award, which virtually guarantees the winner a successful career in Hollywood. When the film school's resident genius and likely winner of the award is found dead, suspicions arise. As other film students are killed off one by one, everyone becomes a suspect. Would someone kill to win the prestigious award?
While striving to be Hitchcockian in theme (as evidenced by its multiple references to the director himself), the film never quite moves beyond cliché. Many scenes are a little too reminiscent of other popular teen horror flicks like "Scream" (the anonymous masked killer, though not nearly as frightening), "The Blair Witch Project" (Amy is chased through desolate woods by her stalker), and "Friday the 13th" (Amy hides from the killer in a lake setting eerily similar to the one where Jason died so many years ago). These elements seem just a little worn out. Morrison gives a serviceable performance, and Loretta Devine, from the original "Urban Legend", adds humor as a Foxy Brown-worshiping security guard. The film manages to keep you guessing until its conclusion, and a sequence set in an abandoned amusement park is truly creepy. But ultimately "Urban Legends: Final Cut" lacks the originality to make a name for itself among the many films of its genre. "--Mindy Ruehmann"

Languages: English, Portuguese

Subtitles: Chinese, English, French, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: Mary's Evil is Beyond Legend

Summary: From director Mary Lambert (Pet Sematary, The In Crowd), the terrifying Urban Legend trilogy comes full circle with URBAN LEGENDS: BLOODY MARY, delivering enough hair-raising scares to rival The Grudge and The Ring. On a prom-night dare, a trio of high-school friends chant an incantation, unleashing an evil spirit from the past with deadly consequences. That same night, the girls are abducted by a gang of high-school jocks. Once rescued, their tormentors receive their just desserts, dying one by one in a chain reaction of gruesome murders, each with a bizarre "Urban Legend" twist. Is it all just a high-school prank taken to grisly extremes - or has "Bloody Mary" returned from the grave to wreak her own vengeance?

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Five Criminals . One Line Up . No Coincidence

Summary: Ever since this convoluted thriller dazzled audiences and critics in 1995 and won an Oscar for Christopher McQuarrie's twisting screenplay, "The Usual Suspects" has continued to divide movie lovers into opposite camps. While a lot of people take great pleasure from the movie's now-famous central mystery (namely, "Who is Keyser Söze?"), others aren't so easily impressed by a movie that's too enamored of its own cleverness to make much sense. After all, what are we to make of a final scene that renders the entire movie obsolete? Half the fun of "The Usual Suspects" is the debate it provokes and the sheer pleasure of watching its dynamic cast in action, led (or should we say, misled) by Oscar winner Kevin Spacey as the club-footed con man who recounts the saga of enigmatic Hungarian mobster Keyser Söze. Spacey's in a band of thieves that includes Gabriel Byrne, Stephen Baldwin, Kevin Pollak, and Benicio Del Toro, all gathered in a plot to steal a large shipment of cocaine. The story is told in flashback as a twisted plot being described by Spacey's character to an investigating detective (Chazz Palmintieri), and "The Usual Suspects" is enjoyable for the way it keeps the viewer guessing right up to its surprise ending. Whether that ending will enhance or extinguish the pleasure is up to each viewer to decide. Even if it ultimately makes little or no sense at all, this is a funny and fiendish thriller, guaranteed to entertain even its vocal detractors. "--Jeff Shannon"