Category: Drama

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

I'll Sleep When I'm Dead VHS cover art. Movie starring Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Malcolm McDowell, Jamie Foreman. Directed by Mike Hodges. 2003.

I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead on VHS. Starring Clive Owen, Charlotte Rampling, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Malcolm McDowell, Jamie Foreman. Directed by Mike Hodges. 2003.

From the box:

The hypnotic thriller from the director of Croupier and the classic Get Carter

“One of the best crime movies of the year” — Roger Ebert, Ebert & Roeper

Ex-gangster Will Graham (Clive Owen) thought he had gained back his soul by leaving the hard-boiled life of the criminal underworld behind him and taking on the life of a drifter. When he learns that his younger brother is found dead of a gruesome suicide, Will comes back to town and discovers that his death was motivated by a shocking event involving a local car dealer with a violent habit.

To get vengeance against the man responsible, Will must deal with the unfinished business of his old life which includes a feud with the local crime boss and lingering feelings for an old flame.

DVD Upgrade: I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead

Instant Rental: I’Ll Sleep When I’M Dead

Frida, Naturaleza Viva

Frida, Naturaleza Viva aka Frida, Still Life VHS cover art. Biography starring Ofelia Medina, Juan José Gurrola, Max Kerlow. Directed by Paul Leduc. 1986.

Frida, Naturaleza Viva aka Frida, Still Life on VHS. Starring Ofelia Medina, Juan José Gurrola, Max Kerlow. Directed by Paul Leduc. 1986.

From the box:

She risked her life for her art, and became one of the greatest painters of the 20th century.

First Prize — Havana Film Festival

On her deathbed artist Frida Kahlo conjures up images and memories of her life as a painter, revolutionary and woman of the world. Her stormy relationship with muralist Diego Rivera, her tender hospitality for an exiled Leon Trotsky, her struggle for acceptance as an artist, her affairs with David Siquerios and others, and the travail of her illness and injuries are all recalled in a style reminiscent of her own work, simultaneously sophisticated and primitive, flamboyant and delicate.

DVD Upgrade: Frida – Naturaleza Viva

Drowning By Numbers

Drowning By Numbers VHS cover art. Movie starring Bernard Hill, Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson, Joely Richardson. With Jason Edwards. Written and directed by Peter Greenaway. 1988.

Drowning By Numbers on VHS. Starring Bernard Hill, Joan Plowright, Juliet Stevenson, Joely Richardson. With Jason Edwards. Written and directed by Peter Greenaway. 1988.

From the box:

Three women who have the same name methodically rid themselves of unwanted husbands in Peter Greenaway’s visually dazzling mixture of metaphors and murder. When Cissie 1 (Joan Plowright) finds her husband with another woman, she impulsively drowns him in a bathtub. Her daughter, Cissie 2 (Juliet Stevenson), later drowns her husband at sea, and Cissie 3 (Joely Richardson) ultimately dispatches hers in a community swimming pool. The local coroner, Madgett (Bernard Hill), who’s an obsessive game player, agrees to declare the deaths accidental drownings in return for sexual favors. But when things don’t go exactly as planned, Madgett devises a final game that could be the undoing of them all, in the surprising climax of this fascinating film from the director of “The Thief, The Cook, His Wife and Her Lover.”

DVD Upgrade: Drowning By Numbers

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)

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.

DVD Upgrade: Slap Shot (25th Anniversary Special Edition)

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!

DVD Upgrade: Enemy of the State (Special Edition Unrated Extended Cut)

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)

The Searchers

The Searchers VHS cover art. Movie starring John Wayne. With Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood. Directed by John Ford. 1956.

The Searchers on VHS. Starring John Wayne. With Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond, Natalie Wood. Directed by John Ford. 1956.

From the box:

Wayne plays ex-Confederate soldier Ethan Edwards, a believer more in bullets than in words. He’s seeking his niece, captured by Comanches who massacred his family. He won’t surrender to hunger, thirst, the elements or loneliness. And in his obsessive, five-year search, Ethan encounters something he didn’t expect to find: his own humanity.

DVD Upgrade: John Wayne: The Searchers

Instant Rental: The Searchers