Where dead media lives.
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)
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 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)
So I Married An Axe Murderer on VHS. Starring Mike Myers, Nancy Travis, Anthony LaPaglia, Brenda Fricker, Amanda Plummer, Charles Grodin, Phil Hartman, Debi Mazar, Steven Wright. Directed by Thomas Schlamme. 1993.
From the box:
Comedy sensation Mike Myers stars with Nancy Travis in this hatchet-driven romantic comedy about a wedlock-shy coffee house poet who finally meets the perfect woman. When it comes to love, Charlie MacKenzie (Myers) has had his share of bad luck… When Charlie meets Harriet Michaels (Travis) everything changes. Harriet’s not like the others. She’s smart, sexy and crazy about Charlie. This time Charlie is determined to overcome the fears that sabotaged his past relationships. This time, he’s ready for some commitment. Sure, Harriet may have her shortcomings–but so what? After all those other women, what’s the worst she could be? An axe murderer?
DVD Upgrade: So I Married An Axe Murderer
RoboCop on VHS. Starring Peter Weller, Nancy Allen. With Dan O’Herlihy, Ronny Cox, Kurtwood Smith, Miguel Ferrer. Directed by Paul Verhoeven. 1987.
From the box:
Part Man, Part Machine, All Cop.
The Future Of Law Enforcement.
A sadistic crime wave is sweeping across America, In Old Detroit, the situation is so bad that a private corporation, Security Concepts, Inc. has assumed control of the police force.
The executives at the company think they have the answer–until the enforcement droid they create kills one of their own. Then an ambitious young executive seizes the opportunity. He and his research team a law enforcement cyborg from the body of a slain officer. They program RoboCop to 1) Serve the public trust. 2) Uphold the law. 3) Protect the innocent.
All goes well at first, RoboCop stops every sleaze ball he encounters with deadly, piercing, and sometimes gruesome accuracy. But there are forces on the street–and within Security Concepts itself–that will stop at nothing to see this super cyborg violently eliminated.
DVD Upgrade: Robocop Trilogy
John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 on VHS. Starring Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West, Kim Richards. With Henry Brandon, Peter Bruni, Tony Burton, Charles Cyphers, Frank Doubleday. Written, directed and music by John Carpenter. 1976.
From the box:
Los Angeles. The Ghetto. Four gang members swear a Blood Oath of Vengeance after a brutal police ambush.
Precinct 13 comes under siege as hordes of gang members erupt in an all out war. Blood is spilled as numbers of the force dwindle. A second onslaught is underway and prisoners are released to help defend the station and their lives. Down to their last bullets they make a last ditch effort against the nearly invisible evil marauders who will bring the building and all inside to certain destruction.
DVD Upgrade: Assault On Precinct 13 (Collector’s Edition) [Bluray/DVD Combo] [Blu-ray]
Laserdisc: Assault on Precinct 13 / Widescreen Collector’s Edition / (Laserdisc)
Or Get The 2005 Remake: Assault on Precinct 13 (Widescreen Edition)
Heathers on VHS. Starring Winona Ryder, Christian Slater, Shannen Doherty. Directed by Michael Lehmann. 1988.
From the box:
Life at Westerburg High is a rat race–where getting ahead is more important than getting along. Life here is no game… it’s a full-scale war for popularity. And like the saying goes, all’s fair in love and war. All’s fair, that is, until students start dying.
DVD Upgrade: Heathers
Instant Rental: Heathers
Raising Arizona on VHS. Starring Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, Trey Wilson. With John Goodman, William Forsythe, Frances McDormand. Written and directed by The Coen Brothers. 1987.
From the box:
Nicolas Cage, Holly Hunter, John Goodman star in Ethan and Joel Coen’s acclaimed screwball love story filled with mad chases, unexpected plot twists and wild pyrotechnics. Vowing to go straight, a convenience store bandit (Cage) proposes marriage to the police department’s photographer (Hunter). All is well in wedded bliss until they discover she’s unable to get pregnant and are turned down by every adoption agency in town. It doesn’t take long before they realize the only solution is to kidnap one of the town’s celebrated quintuplets and hit the road!
DVD Upgrade: Raising Arizona
Instant Rental: Raising Arizona
The Man They Could Not Hang on VHS. Starring Boris Karloff, Lorna Gray, Robert Wilcox. Directed by Nick Grinde. 1939.
From the box:
Filmdom’s Master of Horror, Boris Karloff, stars in this thriller in which a brilliant scientist is transformed into an insane killer. Doctor Savaard, who has invented a mechanical heart designed to restore life to the dead, kills a student volunteer in order to test the device. Midway through the experiment, the police break into Savaard’s lab and discover the dead body.
Bonus back cover scan:
Continue reading “The Man They Could Not Hang”
Ruthless People on VHS. Starring Bette Midler, Danny DeVito, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater. With Bill Pullman, Frank Sivero. Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker. 1986.
From the box:
In this fiendishly funny comedy from the creators of Airplane!, loathsome millionaire Sam Stone is RUTHLESS. How ruthless? When his shrill wife Barbara is nabbed by inept kidnappers. Sam cries tears of joy… and refuses to pay the ransom. And when the abductors threaten to kill the abrasive heiress, Sam takes immediate action–he celebrates! Ruthless People. Raucous… outlandish… one of the top box office hits of the year!
DVD Upgrade: Ruthless People
