Author: King of the Island

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.

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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.

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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.”

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The Hunt For Red October

The Hunt For Red October VHS cover art. Movie starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin. With Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Gates McFadden, Tim Curry. Directed by John McTiernan. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1990.

The Hunt For Red October on VHS. Starring Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin. With Scott Glenn, Sam Neill, James Earl Jones, Gates McFadden, Tim Curry. Directed by John McTiernan. From a Tom Clancy novel. 1990.

From the box:

A new, technologically-superior Soviet nuclear sub, the Red October, is heading for the U.S. coast under the command of Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery). The American government think Ramius is planning to attack. A lone CIA analyst (Alec Baldwin) has a different idea: he thinks Ramius is planning to defect, but he has only a few hours to find him and prove it–because the entire Russian naval and air commands are trying to find him, too. The hunt is on!

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Read The Novel: The Hunt for Red October (Jack Ryan)

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.

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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.

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Foul Play

Foul Play VHS cover art. Movie starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith. With Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Dudley Moore. Written and directed by Colin Higgins. 1978.

Foul Play on VHS. Starring Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, Burgess Meredith. With Rachel Roberts, Eugene Roche, Dudley Moore. Written and directed by Colin Higgins. 1978.

From the box:

“Beware of the Dwarf”, whispers the hitchhiker to the beautiful librarian (Goldie Hawn) as he dies midway through a screening of This Gun Is Mine. Suddenly Hawn is propelled into a world of wild chases, bizarre attempts on her life, and deadly encounters with an assortment of weird underworld characters. Academy Award winner Hawn teams with Chevy Chase (in his first starring motion picture assignment) — and with hilarious results. Chase plays the handsome San Francisco detective who becomes personally and professionally involved with all the odd things happening to Hawn. Costarring a pre-Arthur Dudley Moore in one of his most delightful comic turns.

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Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman

Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman VHS cover art. Video starring Super Dave Osborne aka Bob Einstein. 1996.

Super Dave Ultimate Stuntman on VHS. Starring Super Dave Osborne (Bob Einstein). 1996.

He’s brave. He’s fearless. And although his crack crew does everything possible to prepare him to face the most challenging and life threatening stunts ever devised, sometimes he has an accident.

Replace: Super Dave – Ultimate Stuntman!

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.

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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.

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