Bovie Movie

The Jewel of the Nile takes up where Romancing the Stone left off, with romance novelist Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) traveling around the world with her boyfriend, Jack Colton (Michael Douglas). But Joan is becoming bored with Jack and all the romantic attention; as she asks, “How much romance can one woman take?” Invited by Omar (Spiros Focas), a wealthy Arabian potentate, to travel with him to his homeland, Joan readily accepts. Jack decides to pass on the trip, preferring instead to sail through the Mediterranean. It turns out that Omar wants to usurp the role of an Arab holy man known as “The Jewel of the Nile” (Avner Eisenberg), and Joan finds herself thrown in prison with the hapless spiritual leader. Jack comes to the rescue, teaming up with the slapstick bad guy from Romancing the Stone, Ralph (Danny DeVito). Together, the foursome have to cross North Africa in order to escape Omar’s minions.

Director David Fincher followed the success of his dark and atmospheric crime thriller Seven (1995) with another exercise in stylish film noir, this time lifting the pallid atmosphere a notch to indulge in a fast-paced trip through the cinematic funhouse. Michael Douglas plays Nicholas Van Orton, a Scrooge-like San Francisco investment banker following in his father’s Scrooge-like footsteps. On Nicholas’s 48th birthday (the age at which his father committed suicide), his younger, free-spirited brother Conrad (Sean Penn) blows into town and gives Nicholas a special gift for “the man who has everything” — a ticket to CRS (Consumer Recreation Services), a company that constructs games custom-fit for each participant to provide, as CRS salesman Jim Feingold (James Rebhorn) cryptically puts it, “whatever is lacking.” Nicholas’s secure life begins a downhill slide as CRS masterminds a series of elaborate pranks, harmless at first, that quickly become malicious and life-threatening. Stripped of financial resources and convinced that he can trust no one, Nicholas begins to wonder if CRS is a front for a more covert operation, and if the game is in fact an attempt to steal his fortune and leave him for dead. Determined to fight back alone, Nicholas infiltrates CRS in order to “pull back the curtain and meet the wizard.

Dentist Sheldon Kornpett (Alan Arkin) is a respectable man. He has a daughter who is about to marry the son of a very suspicious character, Vince Ricardo (Peter Falk). They are practically relatives already, the wedding is so near. Certainly, Sheldon already despises Vince as if he were already a well-known relative. Nontheless, Vince calls on Sheldon and convinces him to go with him on a series of wild and hilarious adventures, claiming all the while that he is a CIA agent, and that what he is doing is in the national interest. Sheldon follows Vince to a South American country ruled by a very odd man, General Garcia (Richard Libertini), who talks to his hand (which talks back). It seems that the dictator is involved in a scheme to counterfeit and undermine U.S. currency.

Michael Douglas runs afoul of a treacherous supervisor in this film version of Michael Crichton’s novel. Douglas plays Tom Sanders, an executive at DigiCom, a leading computer software firm. DigiCom is about to launch a new virtual reality-based data storage system that is expected to revolutionize the industry, and Bob Garvin (Donald Sutherland), the owner of the company, is in the midst of negotiating a merger that could bring $100 million into the firm. However, while Tom is expecting a promotion, he discovers the position has been given instead to a new hire, Meredith Johnson (Demi Moore), with whom Tom had an affair years ago, before he was married. After her first day of work, Meredith invites Tom up to her office and makes a concerted attempt to seduce him; while Tom doesn’t fight off her advances with very much gusto at first, eventually he decides things have gone too far and leaves in a huff. The next morning, Meredith accuses Tom of sexual harassment, and he realizes this was merely a power ploy to get him out of DigiCom for good; Tom, determined to fight, files a counter-suit, which makes him no friends at the company, since rocking the boat too hard could very well scotch the merger. Dennis Miller also appears as one of Tom’s wise-cracking co-workers.

Tense thrills and action mix in the gritty suspense drama Don't Say a Word starring Michael Douglas and Brittany Murphy. Fox has done a very good job on this 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. All aspects of this transfer look very good, from the evenly saturated color schemes to the deep, dark black levels. No edge enhancement, shimmer, or digital artifacting is spotted anywhere on this disc. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 in English (as well as 2.0 in French) and DTS Surround in English. Both the DTS and Dolby 5.1 soundtracks are full and bombastic with surround sounds utilized during much of the film. All aspects of these tracks are clear and free of any excessive hiss or distortion. Also included on this disc are English subtitles. This edition of Don't Say a Word is chock-full of extra features. Starting off the disc are two commentaries: one feature-length commentary with director Gary Felder; and a second with actors Michael Douglas, Sean Bean, Famke Janssen, Oliver Platt, and Brittany Murphy. While the director's commentary is insightful and runs the length of the film, the actor's commentaries are broken up in sections so each actor can give some information about their character or thoughts on the film separately. Taken as a whole, these commentary tracks are very thorough and informative. Next up are three sections: "Preproduction," "Production," and "Post-production." In the "Preproduction" section there is a screen test for actress Brittany Murphy and two insightful storyboard-to-scene comparisons. In the "Production" section is a featurette called "You Are There" which takes a behind-the-scenes look at three separate sequences narrated by the director. Also included are some screening room dailies which show how a scene is comprised of multiple takes or shots, and a set tour with production designer Nelson Coates that features Coates walking the viewer through many of the sets used in the film. In the "Post-production" section, there is an interview with director Gary Felder discussing filmmaking and what works best as a director, "Thriller Themes" which is a short spot about the music in the film (featuring composer Mark Isham in a few brief scenes), and "Inside a Scene: Trench Sequence," a feature that looks at how the end scenes was filmed and why the use of computer graphics was necessary. Also included on this disc are some deleted scenes which don't add much to the proceedings, a short making-of featurette that includes many clips from the film, and some vital statistics on the cast and crew. Finally, there is a DVD trailer for the Michael Douglas drama Wall Street. Strangely, there is no theatrical trailer available for Don't Say a Word anywhere on this disc. This DVD is filled to the brim with special features and should leave fans speechless.

This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the heart of the film’s appeal, as it mixes perverse sexuality and erotic bloodshed in a manner common to European thrillers (director Paul Verhoeven had done it himself in 1979’s marvelous De Vierde Man) but mostly taboo in America. The plot concerns Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a successful bisexual mystery writer who may also be a ruthless murderer. Everyone close to Catherine dies, and troubled policeman Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) must find out why. In the process, Nick becomes sexually involved with both Catherine and police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), while the bodies begin piling up and Catherine turns the cat-and-mouse game around on Nick. Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas — who was paid $3 million for the script — keep the tension ratcheted up throughout, even during the frequent sex scenes, which carry a violent edge reminiscent of the Italian thrillers of Dario Argento. The film’s most notorious scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots out of her captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear, became a cultural touchstone and was widely imitated and parodied. Sharon Stone, meanwhile, was embarrassed to the point that she claimed Verhoeven had aimed lights on strategic locations without her knowledge. George Dzundza and Dorothy Malone co-star.

The title refers to the radioactive fallout which descended upon ruined city of Hiroshima after the dropping of the first atomic bomb. Young bride-to-be Yoshiko Tanaka has the misfortune to be visiting Hiroshima on the day of the explosion. Incredibly, she is unhurt; she returns to her own village, across the bay from Hiroshima. Unfortunately, her townsmen have been profoundly affected by the “black rain”; over the next five years, the poison in their systems slowly but surely erodes their souls. In a tragic state of denial, Yoshiko’s former friends insist that they can’t be sick-it must be the girl who is bringing sickness to them. Now a pariah, Yoshiko’s life is shattered as surely as if the bomb had disintegrated her upon impact. Director Shohei Imamaura, a onetime assistant to the great Ozu and the director of such Japanese classics as The Insect Woman and The Ballad of Narayama, never sensationalizes his material; the story is effective told in a muted, subdued fashion, allowing the horror to arise from the inner torment of the characters rather than being artificially imposed by camera trickery or “shock” cutting. Based on a novel by Masuji Ibuse, the black-and-white Black Rain won the Japanese equivalent of the Academy Award, along with several other honors.

In the wake of such Satanic-themed thrillers as Rosemary’s Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen comes The Sentinel. When New York fashion model (Cristina Raines) splits with her fiance (Chris Sarandon) and moves into an old brownstone, she soon discovers she has more than she bargained for in the lease. As luck would have it, a mysterious blind priest (John Carradine) who lives upstairs happens to be guarding the doorway to Hell, and she has been chosen as his replacement. Incidentally, when the door is finally opened, out spills an assortment of deformed humans whom director Michael Winner hand-picked from hospital wards and circus sideshows.

Divorce lawyer Danny De Vito warns his prospective client that the story he’s about to tell isn’t a pretty one, but the client listens with eager intensity — as do the folks out there in the movie in the audience. The War of the Roses can best be described as a slapstick tragedy concerning the decline and literal fall of a marriage. After 17 years, Oliver (Michael Douglas) and Barbara (Kathleen Turner) Rose want a divorce. Not for this couple is there anything resembling a “civilized understanding”: Barbara wants their opulent house, and Oliver isn’t about to part with the domicile. Barbara nails the basement door shut while Oliver is downstairs, Oliver disrupts Barbara’s fancy party by taking aim at the catered dinner, Barbara lays waste to Oliver’s sports car….and so it goes, culminating in a disastrous showdown around, about and under the living room’s fancy chandelier. DeVito and screenwriter Michael Leeson never let us forget that the couple’s self-indulgent imbroglio exacts an awful price upon their children (Sean Astin and Heather Fairfield). The War of the Roses was adapted from the novel by Warren Adler.

A Perfect Murder is based on Frederick Knott’s play Dial M for Murder, filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954. Married to commodities trader Stephen Taylor (Michael Douglas), Emily Bradford (Gwyneth Paltrow) is romantically involved with artist David Shaw (Viggo Mortensen). Aware of this affair, Stephen researches David’s past, visits his loft studio, and informs David that he knows about his aliases, jail sentences, and various cons and scams directed at rich women. Then Stephen offers David $500,000 to murder Emily, and David agrees. The plan is calculated to make the murder look like an accident, but events soon go on an unscheduled course. Enter Detective Mohamed Karaman (David Suchet). Knott’s original play opened June 1952 in London, followed by a New York run that began October 1952. Several books and sources describe how Hitchcock’s film was made in 3-D but neglect to mention that, despite trade screenings in 3-D, Dial M for Murder was originally released in 1954 with ordinary, flat 2-D prints. It was finally shown to audiences in 3-D during the mid-’80s.