title: Nothing to Lose 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: Touchstone Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Martin Lawrence, Tim Robbins, John C. McGinley, Giancarlo Esposito, Kelly Preston release year: 1997 reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein If the tale a man rendered suicidal by his wife's adultery and another apparently responsible fellow reduced to armed robbery by financial need doesn't exactly strike you as a knee-slapper, you're right, but still, 'Nothing To Lose' deserves a chance. Director/writer Steve Oedekerk is far too playful to let anything get very heavy. Forget the fact that we don't see the wife's face--the cheery tone alone is a tip-off as to what the finale will be.

title: L.A. Confidential 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 Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, James Cromwell, David Strathairn, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito release year: 1997 reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein Okay, 'Titanic' was the most financially successfully, logistically complicated movie released in 1997. However, the best film of 1997--at least from this perspective--is still 'L.A. Confidential.' You know the magician's stunt of pulling a tablecloth off a table while leaving the plates and cups undisturbed? Director Curtis Hanson and his co-screenwriter Brian Helgeland have managed the same feat in adapting James Ellroy's massive novel into a juicy, intricate and volcanically active thriller populated by riveting characters and terrific performances. The underlying mystery has been changed around, but they've preserved Ellroy's dense, layered style, finding telling details in even minor events and creating a sense of real unpredictability.

title: Boogie Nights 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: New Line Home Video MPAA rating: R starring: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Don Cheadle, John C. Reilly, William H. Macy, Heather Graham, Nicole Parker, Philip Seymour Hoffman release year: 1997 film rating: Four stars sound/picture: Four stars reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein If you start out with your sound system cranked to a decent level, 'Boogie Nights' will give you a jolt the instant the opening titles start. Something that's a taste of what's to come--if you came of age in the '70s, the soundtrack is wall-to-wall nostalgia. Writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson has created a kind of intimate epic with 'Boogie Nights.' It's an oddly endearing and nonjudgmental comedy/drama set in the L.A. porno film industry of the mid-'70s and early '80s; a soap opera that is alternately funny and sad about an extended family-by-choice of skin flick makers and stars. Their biggest collective sin, in the film's view, may be their chronic inability to comprehend how the world works ...

title: The Great Escape 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: MGM Home Entertainment MPAA rating: NR starring: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn release year: 1963 film rating: Four Stars reviewed by: Bill Warren Maybe the success of Saving Private Ryan, which in content, if not style, is a classic war movie, will prompt the revival of some war-movie subgenres, such as the prisoner-of-war movie. Billy Wilder's Stalag 17 of 1953 set very high standards -- but The Great Escape comes close dramatically, and in terms of scale and scope, surpasses Wilder's great entry. And unlike Wilder's sardonic tale, The Great Escape is one of the best-loved war movies ever made. Even today, more than 35 years after it was made, it's easy to find people who will declare it their favorite movie. Seeing it again shows why it has achieved such long-lasting fame.

title: Trainspotting 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: Miramax Home Entertainment MPAA rating: R starring: Ewan McGregor, Ewen Bremner, Kevin McKidd, Jonny Lee Miller, Robert Carlyle, Kelly McDonald release year: 1996 reviewed by: Abbie Bernstein If you want a working definition of the phrase "hit the ground running," you need look no further than Chapter Two, the opening of 'Trainspotting.' The image of four young junkies hurtling down an Edinburgh, Scotland street fleeing pursuit is accompanied by a prompt blast of hard rock that will give your audio system something fierce to play with.