Spread

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Color; DVD; Subtitled; Widescreen; NTSC

In the battle between good and evil, only the strong survive! From visionary director Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct) comes this "vivid and muscular" (Variety) epic adventure of medieval bravery and blood lust starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh! In the chaotic, morally bankrupt Europe of 1510, a cold-hearted warrior named Martin (Hauer) leads his motley crew of mercenaries into battle to reclaim the castle of an ousted nobleman. But when the despot betrays them, Martin and his band of ruffians strike back by kidnapping the innocent young maiden (Leigh) betrothed to the nobleman's sona fearless Renaissance man who must risk life and limb to rescue the woman he loves!A rarely screened cult favorite from Paul Verhoeven, this story of medieval war and revenge should please action fans and admirers of ! the director and his semi-regular leading man, Rutger Hauer, but its graphic scenes of sexual violence earmark it for mature viewers only. Hauer stars as a 16th-century mercenary hired by a Western European ruler (Fernando Hilbeck) to assault a neighboring kingdom; when the king reneges on his promises to Hauer and his men, they kidnap his son's fiancee (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and hole up in a nearby castle. Hauer and Leigh are standouts in a strong cast that includes Tom Burlinson, Bruno Kirby, the late Brion James, and Susan Tyrrell; Verhoeven's realistic approach to the down-and-dirty facts of medieval life and the bloody aftermath of warfare offers a refreshing alternative to most Hollywood period films, but a pair of brutal rape scenes may be too much for some audiences. MGM's DVD is widescreen. --Paul GaitaCritics everywhere raved about this motion picture and its outstanding stars, Jennifer Jason Leigh (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, RUSH) and Academy Award(R)-nominee Ma! re Winningham. It's the story of two sisters -- one talented, ! the othe r passionate -- and the rivalry that binds them together. Sadie (Leigh) is a rebel who aspires to rock stardom while her sister, Georgia (Winningham), is a gifted and already successful musician. Sadie -- unwilling to give up her dreams -- struggles to make a name for herself in the shadow of her talented sister. Acclaimed as one of the year's 10 best films -- you'll find this powerful story of ambition and rock 'n' roll dreams absolutely riveting!Jennifer Jason Leigh's fearless performance in this film by Ulu Grosbard (True Confessions) is reminiscent of the young De Niro. Leigh plays a talentless junkie with a jealous fixation over the success of her singer-songwriter sister (Mare Winningham). The script by Leigh's mother, Barbara Turner, basically follows her slow descent so deep into a hell of disappointment and smack she almost comes out the other side partially redeemed. Whatever Grosbard may lack as an exciting visualist (he doesn't make many films anymore) is ! made up in the freedom he affords actors to let it all hang out. With fine performances by Winningham, Ted Levine, John C. Reilly, and John Doe. --Tom Keogh What happens when two cops stop loving their job...and start living it? This 'emotionally riveting,powerful and unsparing film (Variety) exposes the plight of two narcotics officers who cross the line...and become enmeshed in the dangerous but intoxicating underbelly of the drug world. Jason Patric (Your Friends and Neighbors) and Golden Globe nominee* Jennifer Jason Leigh (Dolores Claiborne) give rich, full-blooded performances (Entertainment Weekly) as undercover officers Jim Raynor and Kristen Cates, partners who become loversand addictsas they infiltrate the local drug scene in order to bring down a suspected druglord (Greg Allman). But as their relationship intensifies and their drug use turns to abuse, the fine line between the good guys and the bad guys becomes as blurry as their drug-induced vision. ! *1994: Actress - Drama, Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle"It'! s an ugl y world," warns brooding undercover cop Jason Patric to his naive rookie partner Jennifer Jason Leigh. "You get ugly with it." First-time director Lili Fini Zanuck brings both accomplished style and three-days-without-a-shower grit to this tough adaptation of Kim Wozencraft's book, the real-life story of two undercover narcotics agents who succumb to the rush of the drugs and the danger while building a case in rural Texas in 1974. This isn't an action film, but a harrowing, tense drama in which sudden death hangs over every drug deal and the so-called rules no longer exist. Patric and Leigh give riveting performances as the compromised cops trying to survive the self-destructive spiral into addiction, and Gregg Allman is memorable in an almost wordless performance as a shady bar owner. Eric Clapton's bluesy score and a soundtrack of well-chosen roadhouse tunes perfectly set the time and the tone. --Sean Axmaker Its new years eve and oleg a russian mob boss has invite! d family and friends over to celebrate the end of the year and the end of his career with his retirement from the enterprise that has made him wealthy. Everyones in high form but behind the scene olegs empire is crumbling. Studio: Monarch Video Assoc. Release Date: 08/30/2005 Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh Vladimir Mashkov Run time: 95 minutes Rating: R Director: Sergei BodrovA reporter protects her disabled sister from a psychopathic killer. From the producers of "Friday the 13th" comes this terrifying suspense thriller, featuring "Love Boat" star Lauren Tewes as a newscaster who stalks a brutal killer. A nerve jangling film audiences will never forget. Also starring a young Jennifer Jason Leigh ("Single White Female," "Rush").Riveting performances from an all-star cast highlight this passionate tale of a young heiress who must choose between love or money! Jennifer Jason Leigh (SINGLE WHITE FEMALE) is Catherine, a lonely young woman in search of happiness ... until ! she is swept off her feet by the handsome Morris Townsend (Ben! Chaplin -- MURDER BY NUMBERS, THE THIN RED LINE). Suspicious of the young man's true intentions, however, her controlling father (Albert Finney -- ERIN BROCKOVICH, TRAFFIC) threatens to disown Catherine if she follows her heart and marries against his wishes! You're sure to find this timeless story both powerful and entertaining.In biographies written before 1990, Jennifer Jason Leigh claims to have been born in 1958. Recently, she's changed that to 1962. In either case, she definitely looks a bit odd in this 1998 release playing a 20-year-old opposite the youthful Ben Chaplin. Even stranger is the fact that she's been cast as the ugly girl; after all, she was voted one of America's 10 most beautiful women by Harper's Bazaar. Still, this film captures to a T the Henry James novel on which it is based. The story concerns Catherine Sloper, a 19th-century heiress whose father disapproves of the man she loves. In a twisty plot, questions are raised about both her father's and he! r suitor's motives, and Catherine must untangle the connections between love and money. This provides fodder for Henry James's critiques of the shallowness and sexism of his society. Some find James's work stiff, self-important, and a bit dull, while others see him as the most astute social critic of his time, so your enjoyment of this film may be a matter of taste. But it's definitely a period piece done right, which is to say that it fully captures its era, and never stoops to anachronisms that would interrupt the viewer's sense of an older, crueler world. --James DiGiovannaBrace yourself'this intoxicating cocktail with rum and cyanide (Time) is at once brutal, funny, unpredictable and a bit unhinged (Newsweek)! Fred Ward, Alec Baldwin and Jennifer Jason Leigh star in this offbeat black comedy about a murdering thief, his simple-minded wife and the denture-wearing cop closing in on his trail. Veteran criminal Junior Frenger (Baldwin) has moved to Miami to get ! a fresh start at robbing a whole new set of people. But when h! is stree twalker-gone-straight wife (Leigh) begins to suspect his criminal behavior, and an obsessed cop (Ward) begins to close in, Junior will need a lot more than luck and a bogus badge to escape a crossfire hotter than the barrel of a smoking gun!Alec Baldwin should have had an Oscar nomination for his cunning performance as Frederick J. Frenger Jr., the sleek sociopath and master of quicksilver improvisation who sets the pace for this deceptively breezy crime comedy. Junior's a genius in his fashion, yet not especially bright. In moments of repose, his mouth has a way of falling open slightly, like that of an animal panting in the shade, or Marilyn Monroe thinking. Miami Blues, written and directed by George Armitage, from the novel by Charles Willeford, divides its attention among Junior and two other characters who, in their respective ways, are as eccentric as he: Susie (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a room-service hooker enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College who dreams of ! acquiring middle-class stability (say, a Burger King franchise); and Hoke Moseley (Fred Ward), a Miami P.D. detective with false choppers who gets on Junior’s trail. Junior and Susie set up housekeeping in Coral Gables, and when Hoke catches up to his quarry, he sits down in the couple's newly rented kitchen and joins them in a meal of pork chops and beer. At which point--well, see for yourselves.

Jonathan Demme coproduced Miami Blues, and the movie operates as a companion piece to Demme's black-comedy meditation on the elusiveness of contentment in these United States, Something Wild ('86). The three principal actors are all terrific, but it's through Susie--and by all means Jennifer Jason Leigh's complex portrait of this down-to-earth creature--that Miami Blues finally touches a deep, abiding sadness, and the bruised tenaciousness of the American Dream. --Richard T. JamesonA rarely screened cult favorite from Paul Verhoeven, this story o! f medieval war and revenge should please action fans and admir! ers of t he director and his semi-regular leading man, Rutger Hauer, but its graphic scenes of sexual violence earmark it for mature viewers only. Hauer stars as a 16th-century mercenary hired by a Western European ruler (Fernando Hilbeck) to assault a neighboring kingdom; when the king reneges on his promises to Hauer and his men, they kidnap his son's fiancee (Jennifer Jason Leigh) and hole up in a nearby castle. Hauer and Leigh are standouts in a strong cast that includes Tom Burlinson, Bruno Kirby, the late Brion James, and Susan Tyrrell; Verhoeven's realistic approach to the down-and-dirty facts of medieval life and the bloody aftermath of warfare offers a refreshing alternative to most Hollywood period films, but a pair of brutal rape scenes may be too much for some audiences. MGM's DVD is widescreen. --Paul GaitaAcademy Award® winner Sean Penn stars as the unforgettable Jeff Spicoli in the film that defined the outrageous and bold teen comedy genre Fast Times at Ridgem! ont High. Follow a group of Southern California high school students as they explore their most important subjects: sex drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Directed by Amy Heckerling (Clueless) and written by Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous) this hilarious portrait of 1980s American teen life features film debuts of future stars Nicolas Cage and Forest Whitaker plus decade-defining music from The Go-Go’s Oingo Boingo and The Cars.Starring: Sean Penn Jennifer Jason Leigh Judge Reinhold Phoebe Cates Ray Walston Brian Backer Robert Romanus Scott Thomson Vincent Schiavelli Forest Whitaker Eric Stoltz Nicolas Cage Anthony Edwards Lana ClarksonDirected by: Amy HeckerlingBefore he became an overrated filmmaker, Cameron Crowe (Jerry Maguire) was a reporter for Rolling Stone who was so youthful looking that he could go undercover for a year at a California high school and write a book about it. He wrote the script for this film, based on that book, and it launched the careers ! of several young actors, including Jennifer Jason Leigh, Judge! Reinhol d, Phoebe Cates, and, above all, Sean Penn. The story line is episodic, dealing with the lives of iconic teen types: one of the school's cool kids, a nerd, a teen queen, and, most enjoyably, the class stoner (Penn), who finds himself at odds with a strict history teacher (a wonderfully spiky Ray Walston). This is not a great movie but very entertaining and, for a certain age group, a seminal movie experience. --Marshall FineFresh, funny and racy, Spread is a look at the trials and tribulations of sleeping your way to a life of privilege in Los Angeles. Nikki (Ashton Kutcher) is a fun-loving, freeloading hipster who understands his greatest assets are his looks and sexual prowess. His latest conquest, Samantha (Anne Heche), a stunning middle-aged lawyer, gives Nikki more than he’s ever had before. But when Heather (Margarita Levieva), a gorgeous waitress playing the same game, catches his eye, their lifestyles force a choice between love and money. Nikki has to de! cide whether he can live on his own once and for all in the hopes of finding something real.Director David Mackenzie trades the Scottish Highlands for the Hollywood Hills in this darkly comic fable about a male hustler. While Julia Roberts famously portrayed a hooker with a heart of gold, Nikki (producer Ashton Kutcher) suffers from Tin Man Syndrome: he doesn't seem to have a heart at all. As he boasts in his opening narration, "I don't wanna be arrogant here, but I'm an incredibly attractive man." (He has a point, but those suspenders have gotta go.) With his finances in disarray, he sets his sights on Samantha (Anne Heche), a high-powered attorney with an amazing abode overlooking Los Angeles. For such a sophisticated woman, she's surprisingly quick to fall for his patter. Aside from attending to her physical needs, Nikki cooks, runs errands, and makes himself so indispensable he gains the use of her Amex and Mercedes. Then he meets the more age-appropriate Heather (Marga! rita Levieva), who doesn't find his talk quite so cute, but sh! e gets h im in a way Sam doesn't because she's a player, too. Through Heather, Nikki finds his heart, but a real relationship proves far more challenging than a fake one. If the characters in Mackenzie's first American feature, much like the gang on TV's Gossip Girl, are too vain to inspire much sympathy, they're still fun to watch. Kutcher's ladies' man may not be as iconic as the studs in Midnight Cowboy and American Gigolo, but then Mackenzie (Young Adam, Mister Foe) isn't going for tears or fears, but rather for escapism with a sexy, slightly cynical edge. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Spread (Click for larger image)

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