My Blue Heaven (DVD)
Flamboyant mobster Vinnie (Steve Martin) is relocated by the Witness Protection Program from New York City to suburban California until it is time for him to testify against his former associates. But he quickly bores of life in middle-class America and starts up his own little racket. These shenanigans cause Vinnie to run afoul of the local authorities, which makes life difficult for the straitlaced FBI agent (Rick Moranis) assigned to protect him. Soon the agent is struggling to keep Vinnie out of the clutches of a tough-as-nails assistant D.A. (Joan Cusack) who wants to see him behind bars.PG-13"
Director: Herbert Ross
ACTORS: Steve Martin, Rick Moranis, Joan Cusack, Carol Kane, Melanie Mayron
Late Last Night (DVD)
The distinct setting for this darkly comic ramble is a snow-free Christmas in decadent LA, where an affluent young Century City entertainment attorney (Estevez) has just broken up with his wife of one year. Emotionally reeling through a City that Never Thinks, he`s mistaken for a vagrant, solicited as a male prostitute, brutalized by the fascistic cops, ripped off by strippers, mugged outside a police station, and generally put through the wringer over the next 24 hours. Estevez brings a great deal of sympathy to a selfish character who rightfully ought to grow progressively less likeable the more we get to know him. The plot`s flippant preoccupation with recreational drugs seems like something out of the early 80s. For a similar urban nightmare, flavored with the East Coast rather than the West, see what befalls Griffin Dunne in AFTER HOURS.R"
Director: Steven Brill
ACTORS: Emilio Estevez, Steven Weber, Catherine O`Hara, Bobby Edner, Lisa Robin Kelly
Forget-Me-Not-Lane (DVD)
The Broadway Theatre Archive presents another program in its series of televised plays from the 60s to the 80s. Frank is a college professor who remembers back to his childhood in World War II Britain and remembers the humor and the sorrow of the people around him. Starring Geraldine Fitzgerald and Tom Hulce (AMADEUS, ANIMAL HOUSE.)NR"
ACTORS: Geraldine Fitzgerald, Tom Hulce, Joseph Maher, Donald Moffat
The Transporter (DVD)
Jason Statham stars in this fast-paced and very loud thriller that was written specifically for him by French filmmaker Luc Besson. Statham (SNATCH) plays Frank Martin, a former Special Forces operative who is now a high-priced courier paid a lot of money to deliver packages he would rather know nothing about. His creed: Never change the deal, use no names, and never look in the package. But when he finds out that his latest delivery is a beautiful young woman (Shu Qi), everything changes, and he is off on a wild chase, in his specially made BMW, that includes plenty of explosions, bare-knuckle fighting, cool weaponry, and tongue-in-cheek humor. Hong Kong director Corey Yuen, who has previously worked with Jet Li, lets the action tell the story as Frank battles the bad guys in the streets of France. The score is by renowned jazz great Stanley Clarke.PG-13"
Director: Corey Yuen
ACTORS: Jason Statham, Qi Shu, Matt Schulze, Francois Berleand, Richard Young
El Seqor de Sinaloa (VHS)
This Mexican drama tells the story of an ordinary man who ends up in a conflict with one of the most powerful men in town. While doing everything he can to get out of the clutches of the dispute, he meets a mysterious woman who eventually changes the destines of both men.NR"
