Science-Fiction/Fantasy

An ancient book opens the doorway to a magical world that leads an unlikely hero on a quest to save the land of fantasia from the evil nothing. When 12-year-old Bastian stumbles upon a... More

An ancient book opens the doorway to a magical world that leads an unlikely hero on a quest to save the land of fantasia from the evil nothing. When 12-year-old Bastian stumbles upon a mysterious book in a curious bookshop he is forever changed. Within its pages Bastian is swept into a world where dragons fly, a dark city floats and an ivory tower stretches to the sky. It is up to Bastian and his Fantasian alter ego, Atreyu, to battle demon forces to save the Childlike Empress and in turn. . . the existence of imagination. Less

Most of this second volume of stories from the 1985-87 television anthology series is a middling offering from former Steven Spielberg protégé Robert Zemeckis, who later won an Oscar for... More

Most of this second volume of stories from the 1985-87 television anthology series is a middling offering from former Steven Spielberg protégé Robert Zemeckis, who later won an Oscar for directing Forrest Gump. (Spielberg was the creator of Amazing Stories.) Zemeckis's episode is a bit of schlock horror called Go to the Head of the Class, and while it stars Christopher Lloyd in a fiendish role as a decapitated teacher, and an atypical part for Mary Stuart Masterson as a manipulative teenage babe, there isn't much that sticks to the ribs. The real treat on Book 2, however, is the animated Family Dog, directed by the little-known Brad Bird but supervised by Tim Burton long before he became a household name. A witty and observant satire on family dysfunction as seen through the eyes of a pet pooch and perennial scapegoat, Family Dog follows the misadventures of a sweet-natured mutt just trying to fit in with his human housemates but betrayed at every turn. Tormented by a bratty boy, prodded by an exuberant toddler, and an easy target for an unhappy mom and duplicitous dad, the dog can't get a break. Burton's dark sensibilities are certainly in play, and the animation--while owing something to Warner and Disney--is novel and expressive. One needn't worry about young viewers watching this one: there's no physical brutality and the comedy always prevails. Plus, the ending proves, definitively, that every dog does indeed have his day. --Tom Keogh Less

The Ambassadors of Death was the third story from Jon Pertwee's first Doctor Who season, slotting between Doctor Who and the Silurians and Inferno. Capitalizing on the then- contemporary... More

The Ambassadors of Death was the third story from Jon Pertwee's first Doctor Who season, slotting between Doctor Who and the Silurians and Inferno. Capitalizing on the then- contemporary Apollo moon landings, the ambitious seven-part adventure told of a space capsule returning from Mars under radio silence, and of the alien occupants eventually retrieved by a space rescue mission. The elaborate government cover-ups and hints of high level conspiracy not only took Doctor Who in a more adult direction, but harked back to the classic BBC Quatermass dramas of the 1950s. The action is particularly elaborate, with a prolonged gun battle in the tense opening episode, a well-shot chase across a river in episode 3, and an especially notable set-piece hi-jacking involving a helicopter in episode 2. It all goes on an episode too long, but Pertwee makes a convincing action hero and the story is interesting for showing the development of UNIT, even if they are depicted as the world's most inept security force. Fans should note The Ambassadors of Death uniquely split each week's main titles into two separate sections. The video presents the episodes in a mixture of color and black and white, as not all the material survived in color. --Gary S Dalkin Less

Devoted Trekkies and Trekkers will probably consider this tape indispensable. Otherwise, give it a pass, unless you're interested in the reminiscences of people you've never heard of or... More

Devoted Trekkies and Trekkers will probably consider this tape indispensable. Otherwise, give it a pass, unless you're interested in the reminiscences of people you've never heard of or don't care about (or both) who worked behind the scenes on Star Trek: on the show itself, at Desilu Productions, and at NBC. These are the kind of players who would be filler in a written biography; here, they're given center stage. And talk about revisionism: to hear Grant Tinker tell the story, NBC was the real hero for putting this forward-thinking show on the air in the first place. The attempts to cancel it? The time-slot shifts that threatened to kill it? You won't hear about them here. Neither will you hear from anyone major from the show: neither creator Gene Roddenberry nor William Shatner nor Leonard Nimoy, except in clips from the show. On the other hand, if you wanted to settle a bet about who came up with the opening intro to the show (Space: the final frontier!), this is the video to own. --Marshall Fine Less

The third volume of collected episodes from Steven Spielberg's mid-1980s television series Amazing Stories includes three memorable stories. First up is The Amazing Falsworth, a... More

The third volume of collected episodes from Steven Spielberg's mid-1980s television series Amazing Stories includes three memorable stories. First up is The Amazing Falsworth, a cat-and-mouse thriller starring Gregory Hines as the title character, a nightclub psychic whose act includes reading the minds of audience members by merely touching them. During a performance Falsworth comes into physical contact with a serial killer; he sees the monster's most recent victims in his mind and grows terrified for his own safety. Enter a skeptical police detective (Richard Masur) whose real identity is so obvious that director Peter Hyams doesn't bother to mask it well. One complaint: the episode begins with some truly grisly and gratuitous violence that, in retrospect, had no place in a fantasy series squarely aimed at families and boasting Spielberg's involvement. Kids should not see The Amazing Falsworth--or anything else on Book 3, for that matter. The second episode is certainly one of the most thoughtful in the series: Life on Death Row, starring Patrick Swayze in an interesting performance as a convicted murderer. Scheduled to die imminently in the electric chair, Swayze's character, Eric Peterson, joins an escape effort and is hit by lightning during a storm. The freak accident bestows on him the power to heal the sick and wounded--a cruelly ironic development, given Peterson's foreshortened destiny. The final story, No Day at the Beach, begins the day before the D-Day invasion of Normandy by allied forces, and concentrates on a handful of soldiers as they ready themselves psychologically for this turning point in the battle. Charlie Sheen is the best-known name among the cast in this black-and-white, Twilight Zone-like drama directed by Lesli Linka Glatter. Sheen's character stands out as the one guy in his company refusing to taunt a simple-minded GI who later becomes a hero at Normandy--or is it someone else besides that poor sap boldly taking out Germans left and right? --Tom Keogh Less

In 1985, Steven Spielberg launched the anthology TV series Amazing Stories, directing one of the early episodes, The Mission, a taut, emotional story set during a World War II combat... More

In 1985, Steven Spielberg launched the anthology TV series Amazing Stories, directing one of the early episodes, The Mission, a taut, emotional story set during a World War II combat flight. Kevin Costner plays the pilot of an American bomber running raids into German airspace. During a dogfight with Nazis, a piece of enemy aircraft wedges itself into the hull of Costner's rig and jams the hatch of the ball turret gunner. The shootout cripples the landing mechanism, and the net effect is that the gunner (Casey Siemaszko) is stuck in his transparent shell, unable to get back up into the body of the plane and certain to die horribly during an imminent, emergency landing. Spielberg keeps tightening the screws, brilliantly directing a handful of good actors (Kiefer Sutherland is in the mix) in a tight space rapidly filling with dread and grief. While it has to be said that the resolution of The Mission may well be the most improbable turn of events in television history, everything up to that point is as exciting as TV can get. Also on Book 1 is The Wedding Ring, starring real-life spouses Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman as a married couple who spice up their 10th year together after DeVito, playing a costumer in a wax museum, gives his mousy bride a ring that belonged to a black-widow killer. Perlman, cast as a beleaguered waitress exploited by a callous boss, gets a personality makeover whenever she dons the ring, becoming insatiable in bed and a convincing femme fatale everywhere else. The only problem is that she's soon chasing her terrified husband around with a large kitchen knife, imbued with more than the sexy spirit of the ring's previous owner. Directed by DeVito, this cute episode works best as a different kind of vehicle for Perlman, who really does make the screen sizzle. --Tom Keogh Less