Saturday, July 23, 2011

Donations added to the collection:

(Yes, we always take donated DVDs. If we want them, we keep them for the collection. If we don't want them they go to the booksale. Just bring them to the Reference desk. We take CDs too!)

Beat the Devil
1953. Directed by John Huston. Starring Humphrey Bogart, Jennifer Jones, Gina Lollabrigida and Peter Lorre. Screenplay by Truman Capote.
Beat the Devil is a witty, dry-humored, and well-plotted spoof of the classic capers popular at the time. The film, written by famed author Truman Capote, is centered on a group of four crooks, all of whom are traveling to Africa under the guise of selling vacuum cleaners. Their true motivation for the trip is to get rich off uranium by smuggling it out of East Africa.

Entrapment
1999. Directed by Jon Amiel. Starring Sean Connery, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Ving Rhames.
When a priceless Rembrandt is stolen in New York, the evidence points to a solitary master thief (Connery), who is about to meet the insurance company's most cunning - and seductive - investigator (Zeta-Jones). Following a nerve-racking game of cat and mouse, the two join forces, or so it seems, to attempt a daring multibillion-dollar heist tied to the dawn of the new millennium.

The Fifth Element
1997. Directed by Luc Besson. Starring Bruce Willis, Gary Oldman, Chris Tucker, and Milla Jovovich.
Ancient curses, all-powerful monsters, shape-changing assassins, scantily-clad stewardesses, laser battles, huge explosions, a perfect woman, a malcontent hero--what more can you ask of a big-budget science fiction movie? Luc Besson's high-octane film incorporates presidents, rock stars, and cab drivers into its peculiar plot, traversing worlds and encountering some pretty wild aliens. Bruce Willis stars as a down-and-out cabbie who must win the love of Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) to save Earth from destruction by Jean-Baptiste Emmanuel Zorg (Gary Oldman) and a dark, unearthly force that makes Darth Vader look like an Ewok.

Grand Canyon
1991. Directed by Lawrence Kasdan. Starring Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker and Alfre Woodard.
When a lawyer's (Kevin Kline) car breaks down in a dangerous Los Angeles neighborhood, a tow-truck driver (Danny Glover) arrives just in time to save his life. The two men begin a deep friendship that sets off a chain of unsettling and surprising events involving their families and friends for years to come. Lawrence Kasdan's powerful, uplifting film about the harsh realities of contemporary urban life co-stars Steve Martin, Mary McDonnell, Mary-Louise Parker and Alfre Woodard.

Guilty Conscience
1985. Directed by David Greene. Starring Blythe Danner, Anthony Hopkins and Swoosie Kurtz.
Anthony Hopkins stars in this mystery revolving around a successful criminal lawyer who decides to bump off his wife due to the sizable alimony demands she made in their divorce proceedings.

The Jackal
1997. Directed by Michael Caton-Jones. Starring Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier and Diane Venora.
Russian mobster Terek Murad has declared open season on the Russian militia and the United States FBI over the shooting of his brother in a Moscow nightclub. He hires "The Jackal" -- an elusive, nasty assassin -- to kill FBI Director Donald Brown. Present at the shooting of Murad's brother were FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston and Major Valentina Koslova of the Russian militia. Nearly no one has ever seen The Jackal, save for Declan Mulqueen, an imprisoned IRA sniper. Upon learning that the Director Brown is a target, Preston and Koslova enlist the services of the reluctant Mulqueen to track down the Jackal before he can assassinate Brown.

Murder on the Orient Express
1974. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave and Michael York.
Just the name "Orient Express" conjures images of a bygone era. Add an all-star cast (including Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, and Lauren Bacall, to name a few) and Agatha Christie's delicious plot and how can you go wrong? Particularly if you add in Albert Finney as Christie's delightfully persnickety sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Someone has knocked off nasty Richard Widmark on this train trip and, to Poirot's puzzlement, everyone seems to have a motive--just the setup for a terrific whodunit. Though it seems like an ensemble film, director Sidney Lumet gives each of his stars their own solo and each makes the most of it. Bergman went so far as to win an Oscar for her role. But the real scene-stealer is the ever-reliable Finney as the eccentric detective who never misses a trick.

The Peacemaker
1997. Directed by Mimi Leder. Starring George Clooney, Nicole Kidman and Armin Mueller-Stahl.
Two trains crash somewhere in Russia, one carrying a nuclear payload. A nuclear explosion follows the crash and the world is on alert... However, White House nuclear expert Dr. Julia Kelly doesn't think it was an accident... Special Operations Intelligence Officer Colonel Thomas Devoe doesn't think so either... Together they must unravel a conspiracy that goes from Europe to New York, to stop a terrorist who has no demands...

Presumed Innocent
1990. Directed by Alan J. Pakula. Starring Harrison Ford, Brian Dennehy and Raul Julia.
After his former girlfriend is killed and he becomes the prime suspect, D.A. Rusty Sabich goes on a search to find the real killer and finds out he/she may be closer to him than he thinks.

Ramblin’ Man
1979. Directed by Burt Kennedy. Starring Tom Selleck, Jerry Reed, Morgan Fairchild, Barbara Mandrell and Claude Akins.
Two adventure-seeking Montana cowboys find themselves in Nashville. To make some extra money, they pose as private investigators and accept a case searching for a woman's missing sister. The case becomes more than they bargained for when they are caught in the middle of murder, blackmail, and extortion.

The Thomas Crown Affair
1999. Directed by John McTiernan. Starring Pierce Brosnan, Rene Russo and Denis Leary.
Thrill-seeking billionaire Thomas Crown (Brosnan) loves nothing more than courting disaster and winning! So when his world becomes too stiflingly safe, he pulls off his boldest stunt ever: stealing a priceless painting in broad daylight from one of Manhattan's most heavily guarded museums. But his post-heist excitement soon pales beside an even greater challenge: Catherine Banning (Russo). A beautiful insurance investigator hired to retrieve the artwork, Catherine's every bit as intelligent, cunning and hungry for adventure as he is. And just when Thomas realizes he's finally met his match, she skillfully leads him into a daring game of cat and mouse that's more intoxicating and dangerous than anything either of them has ever experienced before!

A View to a Kill
1985. Directed by John Glen. Starring Roger Moore, Grace Jones and Christopher Walken.
An investigation of a horse-racing scam leads 007 to a mad industrialist who plans to create a worldwide microchip monopoly by destroying California's Silicon Valley.

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