title: Extreme Measures function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Hugh Grant, Gene Hackman, Sarah Jessica Parker, David Morse, Bill Nunn, John Toles-Bey, Paul Guilfoyle, Debra Monk, David Cronenberg release year: 1996 film rating: Two and a half stars reviewed by: Bill Warren "Extreme Measures" is a well-made, well-cast medical thriller very (VERY) much in the "Coma" vein. Hugh Grant makes as an appealing a hero in a suspense movie as he does a leading man in romantic comedies, and we're engaged by his personality from the beginning. (The movie was produced by Elizabeth Hurley, his longtime girlfriend.) Michael Apted knows how to contrast suspenseful scenes with action, taut sequences with comic ones, and maintains a tight focus on the story from beginning to end -- there are no side issues in Tony Gilroy's script at all.

title: Dead Calm function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: Warner Bros. Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, Billy Zane release year: 1989 film rating: Four Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren This Australian thriller was released in the United States with little fanfare -- but to acclaim and a lot of jangled nerves. It helped establish Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman as boxoffice names (though it didn't do the same for Billy Zane), and brought director Philip Noyce to the U.S. Up here from Down Under, Noyce has alternated good with less-good movies; his first American-financed movie was the little-known BLIND FURY, with Rutger Hauer, but that was followed by PATRIOT GAMES. But then that was followed by SLIVER, a mediocre flop -- but he bounced back with CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER in 1994. Since then, his footing has been somewhat slippery, although 1999's THE BONE COLLECTOR wasn't bad. He's scheduled to direct the next in the Jack Ryan series.

title: Running Time function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: Anchor Bay Home Entertainment MPAA rating: Unrated starring: Bruce Campbell, Jeremy Roberts, Anita Barone, Stan Davis, Gordon Jennison, Art LeFleur, Dana Craig, Curtis Taylor. release year: 1997 film rating: Four stars reviewed by: Bill Warren Movies are occasionally designed to take place in "real time;" that is, the story takes place in the same time it takes to watch it. Two obvious examples are "Twelve Angry Men" and "Nick of Time". Far rarer are those movies that also seem to be taking place without any editing at all, as if the movie was one long take.

title: Bird With the Crystal Plumage function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); studio: VCI Home Video MPAA rating: Unrated Version starring: Tony Musante, Suzy Kendall, Enrico Maria Salerno, Eva Renzi, Umberto Raho, Raf Valenti, Mario Adorf, Reggie Nalder release year: 1970 film rating: Four stars reviewed by: Bill Warren This was the first movie from Dario Argento as a director, and remains probably his most successful movie on an international scale. Intensely suspenseful, beautifully photographed (by the great Vittorio Storaro), with strong violence and a surprising twist, 'Bird with the Crystal Plumage' established Argento with one stroke, and, outside of Italy at least, introduced the giallo subgenre of suspense. Giallo, which simply means "yellow," came from the covers of a series of thriller novels on which that color predominated. The term carried over to this string of vivid, stylish suspense/horror movies. Argento himself did several more, such as 'Four Flies on Gray Velvet' and the outstanding 'Deep Red' (numbers turn up in the titles of many of ...

title: Poison Ivy 3: The New Seduction function popUp(URL,NAME) { amznwin=window.open(URL,NAME,'location=yes,scrollbars=yes,status=yes,toolbar=yes,resizable=yes,width=380,height=450,screenX=10,screenY=10,top=10,left=10'); amznwin.focus();} document.open(); document.write(""); document.close(); <br> studio: New Line Home Video MPAA rating: Unrated & R Versions starring: Jaime Pressly, Michael Des Barres, Megan Edwards, Greg Vaughan release year: 1997 film rating: Two Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein Quality in films can be a relative thing. Take, for example, ‘Poison Ivy: The New Seduction,’ the third in the ‘Poison Ivy’ series. Judged by normal standards, it’s a predictable, substandard sexploitation thriller. However, compared to its immediate predecessor ‘Poison Ivy 2,’ ‘The New Seduction’ looks like Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho.’