title: Mercury Rising 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: Universal Studios/Imagine Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Bruce Willis, Alec Baldwin, Chi McBride, Kim Dickens film rating: Three Stars release year: 1998 reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein ‘Mercury Rising’ got an undeserved bad rap in its theatrical release. It is actually a proficient, personable and swift-flowing thriller that makes time for grace notes without sacrificing pacing. Bruce Willis stars as FBI Agent Art Jeffries, who lands a seemingly routine (albeit sad) assignment: tracking down an autistic nine-year-old boy, Simon Lynch (Miko Hughes), who is missing from the scene of what looks like the murder/suicide of his parents. What we know that Art doesn’t -- yet -- is that little Simon, almost entirely trapped inside his own mind, has managed to crack the NSA Mercury code. U.S. Government security honcho Kudrow (Alec Baldwin) sees Simon’s code-deciphering ability as an intolerable threat. When Art locates Simon, the child cannot communicate what happened, much less who’s responsible. Soon enough, Art realizes that ...

title: Mean Streets 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: Warner Bros Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson release year: 1973 film rating: Five Stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein When I told a friend I'd been asked to review 'Mean Streets' on DVD, she was incredulous. "What can you say about 'Mean Streets' at this late date? It's a fantastic movie, it's seminal, watch it, the end?' "   She has a point. Although all three had worked before, 'Mean Streets' launched the careers of director Martin Scorsese and actors Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. Along with 'The Godfather,' it is one of the most influential, written-about gangster films ever. Actually, since "The Godfather" is opulent and operatic and 'Mean Streets' is set in working- (and stealing-) class Little Italy, New York and is laced with the rock music of its day, the latter is the more accessible of the two. Since most budding filmmakers have relatively limited ...

title: Fletch 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: Universal Home Video MPAA rating: PG starring: Chevy Chase, Dana Wheeler-Nicholson, Joe Don Baker, Tim Matheson, Richard Libertini, M. Emmet Walsh, Geena Davis, George Wendt release year: 1985 film rating: Four Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren Gregory McDonald held back selling Hollywood the rights to his "Fletch" until Chevy Chase and others began coaxing him with the promise that the film would be faithful to the novel. And surprisingly enough, Fletch (but not Fletch Lives) really does follow the McDonald style reasonably closely. Even Chase plays about two-thirds of the movie straight, keeping the wisecracks in line with Fletch's ironically playful character. In the other third, Chase insists on trotting out his clumsy gags -- completely out of character for Fletch -- and tossing in lame, off-target wisecracks. Enjoy the film for what it does right, which is most of it, and forgive it for the blunders -- which, unfortunately, dominated the sequel. (A planned third in ...

title: The War Wagon 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: Universal Home Video MPAA rating: NR starring: John Wayne, Kirk Douglas, Howard Keel, Robert Walker, Keenan Wynn, Bruce Cabot, Joanna Barnes, Bruce Dern, Gene Evans. release year: 1967 film rating: Three and a half stars reviewed by: Bill Warren For a while, it looked like Burt Kennedy might become one of the major Western figures; a few he wrote for Randolph Scott are still considered some of the best A-minus Westerns of the 1950s. He began directing in 1961, and his THE ROUNDERS (1964) showed real promise. He did a good, workmanlike job with THE WAR WAGON, an entertaining but hardly innovative adventure of the sort that John Wayne turned out for several decades. However, Kennedy never really worked on this level again, and THE WAR WAGON tends to be undeservedly overlooked by Western buffs.

title: The Four Musketeers 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: Fox Lorber Home Video MPAA rating: PG starring: Michael York, Oliver Reed, Richard Chamberlain, Frank Finlay, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch, Christopher Lee, Charlton Heston, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Kinnear, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Simon Ward release year: 1974 film rating: Four stars reviewed by: Bill Warren When director Richard Lester and screenwriter George Macdonald Fraser (author of the Flashman books) turned Alexandre Dumas' classic The Three Musketeers into a movie for the Salkinds (a father and son producing team), the original intent was to make a lengthy epic. They followed the original novel faithfully, adding more overt comedy elements and lots of period gadgetry. Like Dumas' novel, the film was to evolve naturally from a lighthearted swashbuckler to a much more serious adventure. A spirited, talented cast was hired, and location work in Spain took advantage of the countryside, castles and old cities. So far so good.