Transporter 2/Die Hard (DVD)
TRANSPORTER 2: A former Special Forces agent, Frank (Jason Statham) now works as a driver for a family in Miami. But when their young son is kidnapped, Frank will stop at nothing to find the criminals who are holding the boy for ransom and to get him back. This high-action adventure is directed by Louis Leterrier and written by Luc Besson.DIE HARD: One of the greatest action movies of the late 1980s, DIE HARD ushered in a new standard for the genre. With the dissolution of the Cold War, both the stereotypical Russian threat (represented in movies such as TOP GUN and RED DAWN) and the destructive egoist (as seen in OCTOPUSSY) became less fearful. With DIE HARD, director John McTiernan introduced Hollywood to a new type of villain: the terrorist entrepreneur. Alan Rickman stars as Hans Gruber, a relentless businessman whose lethal tactics achieve his goals. Unlike most `80s film villains who committed globally dangerous acts for liberty, genocide, or megalomania, DIE HARD s Gruber uses guns, explosives, and cunning to storm the Takagi Corporation s Christmas party and heist millions of dollars from the company. In addition, DIE HARD also saw the development of the clumsy or bad-luck hero with John McClane (Bruce Willis), a man in the wrong place at the wrong time who chooses to intervene. Action fans would see this misfit hero archetype again in UNDER SIEGE (Steven Segal) and THE PHANTOM MENACE (Jar Jar Binks). Although DIE HARD contains many action-movie cliches (one-liners, pyrotechnics), it also broke new ground in its genre.
In the 12th V. I. Warshawksi mystery, the private detective returns to her old South Chicago neighborhood, a visit littered with unpleasant memories, plus present-day sabotage, murder, and disappearing teenagers. After her former high-school basketball coach becomes ill with cancer, V. I. agrees to volunteer-coach the girls` team. An attempt to drum up corporate support for the team from local high-school alum Buffalo Bill Bysen, the elderly CEO of the By-Smart big-box discount store, proves a dismal failure; ironically, the Bysen family ends up appealing to V. I. instead when Bysen`s great-grandson Billy and one of the basketball team members run off together.
Headstrong young Amanda Cynster plunges into London's underworld in search of adventure, and the disgraced nobleman Martin Fulbridge becomes her protector, and then her lover.