CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

Prefontaine

starring: Jared Leto, R. Lee Ermey, Ed O'Neill, Breckin Meyer, Lindsay Crouse
directed by: Steve James (II)

Release Date September 03, 2002
A longtime runner, myself, who'd forgotten about this rising star in the runner's world, can testify to "Prefontaine" being the best athlete bio-pic of recent memory that surprises, informs and inspires in the best sense of the word.You'll lace up the running shoes after this film. The script was generous to all the supporting people who nurture greatness in the form of Steve Prefontaine. Special mention should go to the casting and artistic control of this looking back upon the start of the jogging era. Jared Leto plays Prefontaine like a glove, at first running on brashness to finish on unselfish awareness. Certainly, there are parallels to James Dean here, but when actual Munich footage enters effectively, Leto's portrayal ascends with the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

Prime Suspect 4

starring: Helen Mirren, Beatie Edney, Robert Glenister, Lesley Sharp, Tracy Keating
directed by: John Madden, Paul Marcus, Sarah Pia Anderson

Release Date April 20, 2004
As for the DVD: Helen Mirren is just tops as an actress. Beyond her acting, the entire cast does a fantastic job,with a great story line.

However, the container, carrying the two disc set was damaged beyon repair. The two disc were not, however, damaged. I reported the damage to Amazon and they forwarded a case with a one disc. compartment----not a biggee. P.S.---We are now located in Fernley, NV, not Merced, CA. Don

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

Iron Maiden - Rock In Rio (2DVD)

starring: Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris (IV), Dave Murray (III), Adrian Smith (II), Janick Gers
directed by: Dean Karr

Release Date August 20, 2002
While I have never been the hugest Maiden fan (like listening to them, but never I guess totally appreciated them), this is making me more of a Maiden fan. They rock on this. I'm already feeling like I'm back in H.S. LOL This is a good performance from the boys, and the second disc isn't too bad either. Put this on and rock out!

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

WWE Wrestlemania - The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1 - 1985-1989 (I-V)

starring: Hulk Hogan, King Kong Bundy, Fred Blassie, Randy Savage, George 'The Animal' Steele
directed by: Jack Simon

Release Date November 01, 2005
These DVDs, despite their flaws (which any diehard professional wrestling fan will either find or create), are definitely worthwhile. The battle royal alone is worth the price. Other highlights include Paul Orndorff's politically incorrect villification of Mr. Fuji and wrestling fans chanting "GO BACK TO THE NWA!!!" to the Funk Brothers. I'd fast forward through the main event, though...Hulkster's a bloody bore.

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

Herbie Goes Bananas

starring: Cloris Leachman, Charles Martin Smith, John Vernon, Stephen W. Burns, Elyssa Davalos
directed by: Vincent McEveety

Release Date May 04, 2004
This is what happens when you make one too many sequels of a popular family movie. Eventually, there's the temptation to dumb it down.

The nephew of Herbie's original owner goes to Mexico to pick up the little car with a friend, hoping to take it down to Brazil to enter a race. Unfortunately, they run into a young pickpocket, Paco (Joaquin Garay III), and end up too broke to get to the race.

So on the cruise ship, they befriend a woman (Cloris Leachman) and her studious daughter, and the woman agrees to sponsor them.

Unfortunately, that's the closest Herbie gets to the racetrack in this movie.

Meanwhile, Paco's gotten into worse trouble, picking the wrong pocket, and Herbie befriends him, and most of the movie ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

Mercenary for Justice

starring: Steven Seagal, Jacqueline Lord, Roger Guenveur Smith, Luke Goss, Michael K. Williams
directed by: Don E. FauntLeRoy

Release Date April 18, 2006
We, Sid the Elf, are worried that Steven Segal, the early favorite for a 2008 woody, will take a reduced acting role in the new B he's now producing. Don't do it Segal! Sid needs you in Unintentional Comedies like fans of your smooth ballads need you to keep pumping out albums. Yeah, albums. Segal actually took time away from his lucrative film and competitive eating careers to make sweet sweet baby-making music.

This is why Mercenary for Justice fell short of Sid's lofty expectations for a Segal flick. He just wasn't in it enough. This movie had a killer ending, which was the only part of the plot that revolved around Segal, of course that might be because the man has his own gravitational pull at this point. There is one point when they show him from ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

Just Ask My Children

starring: Virginia Madsen, Jeffrey Nordling, Graham Beckel, Robert Joy, Barbara Tarbuck
directed by: Arvin Brown

Release Date December 24, 2002
When history passes over it is people who are forgotten. Looking back on any period in history it is difficult, but not hard, to see the faces of individuals and how they felt about the defining moments of their lives. When the Kniffens and McCuans were tried and convicted in Kern County, Califoria of crimes of child abuse it couldn't have been a more perfect time for it to happen.
At that time in the early 1980s no one knew just how life-threatening one allegation of child abuse could be. All it took was an allegation by a paranoid schizophrenic and highy mentally unstable woman who could not tell fact from fantasy and two families were torn apart and used as scape-goats for the government's inability to end child molestation.
There are some similarities between this case ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

12 Days of Terror

starring: Colin Egglesfield, Mark Dexter, Jenna Harrison, John Rhys-Davies, Jamie Bartlett
directed by: Jack Sholder

Release Date April 25, 2006
I thought this movie was well made, more realistic than JAWS.
It wasn't a Spielberg summer time blockbuster like JAWS.
This was the story that Peter Benchley used for the inspiration
to write the book & then make the movie JAWS.
Plus I'm sure they put more money into making JAWS, Than 12 Days
of Terror, but the shark in this movie looks a little more realistic
than JAWS.
The shark they built for JAWS looks like a submarine not a real shark.
I thought this story was easier to swallow than JAWS as far as realism.
I rate this DVD a 8 from 1to10!!

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

Body Melt

starring: Gerard Kennedy, Andrew Daddo, Ian Smith, Regina Gaigalas, Vincent Gil
directed by: Philip Brophy

Release Date November 25, 2003
Given the right combinations of vitamins/cognitive enhancers, there's no telling what the human body is capable of. Of course, if the formulas of such super vitamins aren't exactly right, you could be in for one bloody mess - and Body Melt is Exhibit A all the way. Some critics see the film as some sort of satire of suburban life, but all I saw was a really weird movie with bad - albeit gross - special effects. It would certainly be possible to impart some kind of actual message into this type of storyline, but I don't think the writers and director of Body Melt set out to do anything like that. I don't even think the movie is all that gross, but that's partly due to the fact that the special effects are so unrealistic.

Let the opening of the film be a lesson to you. ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

200 American

starring: Matt Walton, Sean Matic, Anthony Ames, John-Dylan Howard, Mark Ford (IV)
directed by: Richard LeMay

Release Date December 21, 2004
200 American 2 1/2 *'s

I admit; it was the eye candy that made this film for me and what a shock there was no nudity (had there been, I am sure I would have given it another 1/2 star). Hustler films always have an element of hotness (I am not sure why that is), this one even had a plausible plot (though a little coincidental at time) and some decent characters. The story was a love triangle (more like a square), with some predictable elements and few surprises; though filmed on a no budget the film had a very polished, manicured look with some very well done cinematic scenes. Though the film was visually pleasing, I felt it was lacking a bit in depth (dramatic tension), the storyline was a bit trite and predictable and I really didnt find the character of Conrad passionate ... Read More: