Audio commentary

You will never find a more chillingly suspenseful, perversely funny, or viciously satirical political thriller than The Manchurian Candidate, based on the novel by Richard Condon (author of Winter Kills). The film, withheld from distribution by star Frank Sinatra for almost a quarter century after President Kennedy's assassination, has lost none of its potency over time. Former infantryman Bennet Marco (Sinatra) is haunted by nightmares about his platoon having been captured and brainwashed in Korea.

Now here's a switcheroo: In a movie about a mild-mannered police photographer who is befriended by a swaggering gangster, Bill Murray plays the gangster and Robert De Niro plays the photographer. Directed by John McNaughton from a script by Richard Price, this comedy-drama has its moments but never quite lifts off. De Niro plays a shy type nicknamed Mad Dog who accidentally saves Murray's life. In gratitude, Murray "gives" him a girl, Glory (Uma Thurman), who is supposed to satisfy his needs and make him feel good. Instead, the photographer falls in love with her.

One of the world's most acclaimed comedies, M*A*S*H focuses on three Korean War Army surgeons brilliantly brought to life by Donald Sutherland, Tom Skerritt and Elliott Gould. Though highly skilled and deeply dedicated, they adopt a hilarious, lunatic lifestyle as an antidote to the tragedies of their Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, and in the process infuriate Army bureaucrats. Robert Duvall, Gary Burghoff and Sally Kellerman co-star as a sanctimonious Major, an other-worldly Corporal, and a self-righteous yet lusty nurse.

Akira Kurosawa's rousing Seven Samurai was a natural for an American remake--after all, the codes and conventions of ancient Japan and the Wild West (at least the mythical movie West) are not so very far apart. Thus The Magnificent Seven effortlessly turns samurai into cowboys (the same trick worked more than once: Kurosawa's Yojimbo became Sergio Leone's A Fistful of Dollars). The beleaguered denizens of a Mexican village, weary of attacks by banditos, hire seven gunslingers to repel the invaders once and for all.

On a remote stretch of deserted highway, a band of violent bikers has taken over, attacking anyone unlucky enough to cross their savage path. Racing up and down the seemingly endless miles of asphalt, the crazed outlaws blaze through small towns, plowing into vehicles and pedestrians alike with reckless abandon. Bringing a sense of law to this lawlessness are the mobile police force, led by Max and Goose, who are as fast and mean as their adversaries and are willing to do whatever it takes to cut the enemy down.

This terrific Walter Hill Western follows the careers of the James and Younger brothers--and uses the nifty idea of casting actual clans of acting siblings in the roles. Thus, the James brothers are played by James and Stacy Keach; the Youngers by David, Keith, and Robert Carradine; the Millers by Randy and Dennis Quaid; and the Fords by Christopher and Nicholas Guest. Hill, working with an evocative Ry Cooder score, creates a film that is at once breathtakingly exciting and elegiac in its treatment of these post-Civil War outlaws.

Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington ignites a masterpiece of mayhem in this "powerful" (Los Angeles Times) action-thriller. Hard-drinking, burned-out CIA operative John Creasy (Washington) has given up on life - until his friend Rayburn (Oscar winner Christopher Walken) gets him a job asia bodyguard to nine-year-old Pita Ramos (Dakota Fanning). Bit by bit, Creasy begins to reclaim his soul, but when Pita is kidnapped, Creasy's fiery rage is released and he will stop at nothing to save her.

Pure dynamite! The Lethal Weapon team has done it again, putting the match to the fuse and putting the WOW! back on screen for Lethal Weapon 4. Mel Gibson and Danny Glover return as buddy cops Riggs and Murtaugh, with Joe Pesci riding comedy shotgun as chatterbox Leo. Murtaugh is still the family man. Riggs is still the gonzo loose cannon - what's this? - family man. His will he/won't he marriage to Cole (Russo) is one of the new wrinkles in this powerhouse crowd-pleaser that also stars comedy favorite Chris Rock and international action star Jet Li.

The characters, action and comedy are back - plus something new. Riggs meets someone he never expected to find: his female alter ego, Lorna Cole (Rene Russo). With this director's cut of Lethal Weapon 3, something newer is added: three minutes of never-before-seen footage! Remember the marina slugfest between Riggs and Murtaugh (Danny Glover)? New scenes between Riggs and Murtaugh's daughter Dianne (Traci Wolfe) add subtext to his fighting-mad protectiveness.

With over seven minutes of previously unavailable scenes, the director's cut of Lethal Weapon is a long overdue present for fans. Riggs' solitary homelife and the tragic loss spurring him to a reckless disregard for his own safety now come into greater focus. We see that recklessness in new scenes underlining the differences between the two cops. Murtaugh, just 50, needs reassurance about his skills at a firing range. Riggs, not caring if he sees another birthday, coolly walks into a schoolyard sniper's field of fire.