Author: King of the Island

The Hunt For Red October

The Hunt For Red October VHS cover art. Movie starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin. With Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Gates McFadden, Tim Curry. Directed by John McTiernan. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1990.

The Hunt For Red October on VHS. Starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin. With Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Gates McFadden, Tim Curry. Directed by John McTiernan. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1990.

From the box:

A new, technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery). The American government think Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst (Alec Baldwin) has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it–because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!

DVD Upgrade: The Hunt for Red October

Read The Novel: The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan)

The Abyss

The Abyss VHS cover art. Movie starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn. With Leo Burmester, Todd Graff. Written and directed by James Cameron. 1989.

The Abyss on VHS. Starring Ed Harris, Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Michael Biehn. With Leo Burmester, Todd Graff. Written and directed by James Cameron. 1989.

From the box:

When divers from a deep-sea oil rig are called in to help with the rescue of a nuclear submarine, their perilous mission becomes a wondrous odyssey into the unknown after they make contact with a mysterious force living on the ocean floor.

DVD Upgrade: The Abyss (Special Lenticular Cover Edition)

Falling Down

Falling Down VHS cover art. Movie starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall. With Barbara Hershey, Tuesday Weld, Rachel Ticotin, Frederic Forrest. Directed by Joel Schumacher. 1993.

Falling Down on VHS. Starring Michael Douglas, Robert Duvall. With Barbara Hershey, Tuesday Weld, Rachel Ticotin, Frederic Forrest. Directed by Joel Schumacher. 1993.

From the box:

The freeways are clogged. Terror stalks our cities. And at shops and restaurants, the customer is seldom right. The pressures of big-city life can anger everyone. But Bill Foster is more than angry. He’s slipping over the edge. And ready to get even.

DVD Upgrade: Falling Down (Deluxe Edition)

Foul Play

Foul Play VHS cover art. Movie starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith. With Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Dudley Moore. Written and directed by Colin Higgins. 1978.

Foul Play on VHS. Starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith. With Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Dudley Moore. Written and directed by Colin Higgins. 1978.

From the box:

“Beware of the Dwarf”, whispers the hitchhiker to the beautiful librarian (Goldie Hawn) as he dies midway through a screening of This Gun Is Mine. Suddenly Hawn is propelled into a world of wild chases, bizarre attempts on her life, and deadly encounters with an assortment of weird underworld characters. Academy Award winner Hawn teams with Chevy Chase (in his first starring motion picture assignment) — and with hilarious results. Chase plays the handsome San Francisco detective who becomes personally and professionally involved with all the odd things happening to Hawn. Costarring a pre-Arthur Dudley Moore in one of his most delightful comic turns.

DVD Upgrade: Foul Play

Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman

Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman VHS cover art. Video starring Super Dave Osborne aka Bob Einstein. 1996.

Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman on VHS. Starring Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein). 1996.

He’s brave. He’s fearless. And although his crack crew does everything possible to prepare him to face the most challenging and life threatening stunts ever devised, sometimes he has an accident.

Replace: Super Dave – Ultimate Stuntman!

Slap Shot

Slap Shot VHS cover art. Movie starring Paul Newman. With Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, M. Emmet Walsh, Jerry Houser, David Hanson, Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson. Directed by George Roy Hill. 1977.

Slap Shot on VHS. Starring Paul Newman. With Strother Martin, Michael Ontkean, Jennifer Warren, Lindsay Crouse, M. Emmet Walsh, Jerry Houser, David Hanson, Steve Carlson, Jeff Carlson. Directed by George Roy Hill. 1977.

From the box:

This irreverent and outrageously funny look into the world of professional ice hockey has Paul Newman as the coach of the Chiefs, a third-rate minor league hockey team. To build up attendance at their games, management signs up three odd-looking players whose job it is to literally attack and demolish the opposition, to the delight and cheers of a steadily increasing throng of fans. Slap Shot‘s hockey sequences, reminiscent of the football games in MASH and The Longest Yard, offer a freewheeling mixture of slapstick humor and grisly physical violence.

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Read The Book From A Hanson Brother: Slap Shot Original: The Man, the Foil, and the Legend

Read The Making Of: The Making of Slap Shot: Behind the Scenes of the Greatest Hockey Movie Ever Made

Hoosiers

Hoosiers VHS cover art. Movie starring Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper. Directed by David Anspaugh. 1986.

Hoosiers on VHS. Starring Gene Hackman, Barbara Hershey, Dennis Hopper. Directed by David Anspaugh. 1986.

From the box:

It’s 1951 in Hickory, Indiana–a place that takes its basketball as seriously as religion. Into this tiny town strolls Norman Dale, a once-hailed, now-failed college coach taking up the unenviable task of coaching Hickory High’s eight-man hoop squad. Dale has been down on his luck for the last ten years, and hopes this could be a fresh start… but several people have something to say about his suspicious training methods and unorthodox bench manner. The school’s vice-principal, who is keeping his best player in the classroom; the town drunk, who is ruffling midwestern feathers as the new assistant coach, and Dale’s team, who are short on both height and discipline.

The school and the town want him fired. But Coach Dale believes in two things–himself and his team. Amazingly, kids become captains…players become a team…losers become winners…has-beens become once-agains. Together they make history in Hoosiers.

DVD Upgrade: Hoosiers (2-Disc Collector’s Edition)

Enemy Of The State

Enemy Of The State VHS cover art. Movie starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight. With Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Jamie Kennedy, Jack Black. Directed by Tony Scott. 1998.

Enemy Of The State on VHS. Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman, Jon Voight. With Lisa Bonet, Regina King, Jamie Kennedy, Jack Black. Directed by Tony Scott. 1998.

From the box:

Robert Clayton Dean (Will Smith) is a successful Washington, D.C. attorney who–without his knowledge–is given a video that ties a top official of the National Security Agency (Jon Voight) to a political murder! Instantly, every aspect of Dean’s once-normal life is targeted by a lethal team of skilled NSA surveillance operatives, who wage a relentless, ultrahigh-tech campaign to discredit him and retrieve the incriminating evidence!

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The Groundstar Conspiracy

The Groundstar Conspiracy VHS cover art. Movie starring George Peppard, Michael Sarrazin, Christine Belford. With Cliff Potts, James Olson. Directed by Lamont Johnson. 1972.

The Groundstar Conspiracy on VHS. Starring George Peppard, Michael Sarrazin, Christine Belford. With Cliff Potts, James Olson. Directed by Lamont Johnson. 1972.

From the box:

George Peppard and Michael Sarrazin engage in a monumental battle of wills in this critically-acclaimed espionage thriller from the early 1970’s. The riveting suspense yarn begins when an explosion smashed Groundstar, a top secret government space installation. Only one scientist, a spy placed withing the organization to steal the plant’s secrets, survives. But the blast has left him seriously burned and unable to recall anything that happened. It’s then up to Peppard, an overbearing government security head, to do whatever is necessary to get the spy’s memory back. Failing that, the investigator plans to use the impaired scientist as human bait to bring those behind The Groundstar Conspiracy to the surface. The terrifying drama, fashioned in the Hitchcock tradition, makes spectacular use of the breathtaking scenery shot on location at Vancouver Island.

DVD Upgrade: The Groundstar Conspiracy

Replace: Groundstar Conspiracy [VHS]

Patriot Games

Patriot Games VHS cover art. Movie starring Harrison Ford. With Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Thora Birch, James Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, Richard Harris. Directed by Phillip Noyce. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1992.

Patriot Games on VHS. Starring Harrison Ford. With Sean Bean, Anne Archer, Patrick Bergin, Thora Birch, James Fox, Samuel L. Jackson, James Earl Jones, Richard Harris. Directed by Phillip Noyce. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1992.

From the box:

Harrison Ford stars as Jack Ryan in this explosive thriller based on Tom Clancy’s international best-seller.

His days as an intelligence agent behind him, former CIA analyst Jack Ryan has traveled to London to vacation with his wife (Anne Archer, Fatal Attraction) and child (Thora Birch, All I Want For Christmas). Meeting his family outside of Buckingham Palace, Ryan is caught in the middle of a terrorist attack on Lord Holmes (James Fox, The Russia House), a member of the Royal Family. Ryan helps to thwart Holmes’ assailants and becomes a local hero. But Ryan’s courageous act marks him as a target in the sights of the terrorist (Sean Bean, Stormy Monday) whose brother he killed. Now Ryan must return to action for the most vital assignment of his life: to save his family.

DVD Upgrade: Patriot Games (Special Collector’s Edition)

Read The Novel: Patriot Games (Jack Ryan)