Action & Adventure

Hal Foster's Sunday-comics saga of a young Viking prince in the service of King Arthur is brought to the screen in CinemaScope and Technicolor in Prince Valiant. Despite the fact that he sports a dutch bob that makes him look like actress Phyllis Kirk, Robert Wagner is quite virile and convincing as the title character. Trained for the Round Table by Sir Gawain (Sterling Hayden), Valiant takes time out to fall in love with the beautiful Princess Aleta (Janet Leigh). The villain of the piece is The Black Knight, aka Sir Brack (top-billed James Mason), who intends to topple King Arthur (Brian Aherne) from his throne, then conquer Valiant's people in Scandia. But Prince Valiant proves a fearsome opponent to the usurping Sir Brack. Sadly, most currently available prints of Prince Valiant have been panned-and-scanned, denying viewers the opportunity to revel in Henry Hathaway's creative utilization of the CinemaScope format. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the most popular and influential video games ever makes its way to the big screen in this sci-fi thriller. A coalition of Earth's scientific and military interests have established a research colony called Olduvai on the planet Mars, but one day all communication from the outpost stops and no one can tell what has happened -- though the final messages suggest it's not good. Believing foul play may have overtaken Olduvai's crew, the Rapid Response Tactical Squad, a team of specially trained military personnel, are deployed to investigate the situation and, if necessary, eliminate the invaders. But Sarge (Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock) and Reaper (Karl Urban), leaders of the RRTS team, soon discover the situation is far more grim than they could have imagined. An experiment on Olduvai has very literally opened a portal to Hades, and a variety of savage and demonic creatures have overtaken the colony. Now the RRTS must seal off Olduvai, close off any access to Earth, and exterminate the satanic beasts before they can kill again. Doom also stars Rosamund Pike (as Dr. Grimm), Dexter Fletcher, Ben Daniels, and Deobia Oparei. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Another entry into the "cheer for the most likeable bad guy" series of Hong Kong action flicks, Full Contact tells the oft-told tale of betrayal and revenge, but serves it up as a potent cocktail of Western convention mixed with the trademarked Hong Kong style. When Jeff's (Hong Kong superstar Chow Yun Fat in true hard-case form) friend Sam (Anthony Wong) steps on the feet of a local loan shark, Jeff comes to his rescue, creating a powerful enemy in the vengeful gangster. Seeking to skip town and make good, the two hatch a plan to hijack an arms shipment with the help of Sam's flamboyant and malicious cousin Judge (a delightfully sleazy Simon Yam) and his gang of dysfunctional thugs. What Jeff doesn't know is that he's being double-crossed by the wild group of brutal killers, who plan to bury him as they make their getaway. Judge forces Sam to off his loyal friend Jeff, but Sam botches the job, leaving Jeff to return for bitter revenge after dealing with an emotionally painful betrayal and a physically challenging rehabilitation. Director Ringo Lam foregoes the melodrama of Hong Kong counterpart John Woo and goes straight for the jugular with unremittingly stark and graphic violence. At the same time, the characters retain a certain amount of sympathy, keeping their relationships and reactions realistic and identifiable.
~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Released from prison after serving seven years of hard time, taciturn ex-con Eddie Castillo finds his quest for post-incarceration tranquility violently shattered when his younger brother David becomes involved with the same kind of illegal, underground fights that once landed Eddie in the pen. As a young boy, David idolized his older brother. Eddie was tough, and he could always take care of himself. Realizing that the only way to save his little brother is to help steer him away from the same violent path that he once walked, Eddie quickly learns that David has to learn from his own mistakes. Later, when David is killed in an especially brutal underground brawl, Eddie resolves to find the man who killed his brother by venturing back into the same world he once swore off for good. Now, as Eddie becomes hopelessly torn between redemption and revenge, he finds that there is no escaping his one true fate. Armand Assante and Flavor Flav star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Escape from L.A. finds Kurt Russell once again in the role of Snake, which he played in the 1981 film, Escape from New York. Los Angeles has finally had the really big earthquake everyone was afraid of, and what remains is now an island. Because the country's ultra-righteous President-for-Life (Cliff Roberton) wants it that way, all the weirdos and freaks that previously inhabited New York in large numbers, and the rest of the U.S. in smaller concentrations, have been quarantined on the island of L.A. The president has Snake taken from the nice, decent prison he was living in for a special mission in L.A. The president's daughter has joined the resistance movement determined to overthrow his one-man rule, and has stolen his secret "black box" (a doomsday machine) to boot. Snake is given a poison which will kill him in a few hours unless he returns to the president for the antidote. His mission is to recover the black box and kill the president's daughter. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide