An evil gang takes over an amusement park only to be foiled by three Ninja-trained brothers and a TV action star in 3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain, a smartly-paced, if by-the-numbers, kiddie action flick. Medusa (Loni Anderson) and Lothar (Jim Varney) head up the gang with ransom money and mayhem on their minds. But they don't count on the young trio, taught by their Asian grandfather, and Dave Dragon (Hulk Hogan), making a live appearance at the park. What follows is campy humour, lots of Karate-style action and plenty of Home Alone-type boy vs foolish bad-guy high jinks. And girls aren't left out: the brothers' neighbour, a brainy techno girl, is on hand to hack into the computer and override the gang's murderous plans, while also providing 007-style gadgets for hand-to-hand combat. While there is plenty of gunplay in the 90-minute film, no one is killed or even significantly hurt, making it appropriate for ages five and up. -Kimberly Heinrichs, Amazon. com.

The intriguing cross-pollination of rap and kung-fu continues with Cradle 2 the Grave, co-starring high-profile rapper DMX and Hong Kong superstar Jet Li. Master thief Fait (DMX) hits a diamond exchange but comes away with a bag of black gems of mysterious origin. When a crime kingpin steals the gems from Fait, an international arms dealer kidnaps Fait's beloved daughter-and Fait can only get her back with the help of Su (Li), a Taiwanese intelligence agent tracking the gems himself. A summary of the plot doesn't do Cradle 2 the Grave justice; while the basic story elements suggest a dozen generic action flicks, the cast (including Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union and Kelly Hu) has genuine charisma and the movie layers action on top of action to strong effect. All in all, it's a much more engaging thrill ride than you'd expect. -Bret Fetzer.

Legendarily chintzy "event" producer Irwin Allen (The Towering Inferno) went out with a gargantuan buzz-on with this jaw-droppingly goofy disaster flick. No cliché is left unturned, as a hyperactive strain of hallucination-inducing killer bees get it into their microscopic brains to derail a commuter train, destroy a nuclear power plant and otherwise decimate a veritable cornucopia of washed-up actors (Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda, Richard Widmark, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens and narcoleptic dreamboat Richard Chamberlain are just a few of the legendary has-beens to get fatally stung by what appears to be airborne coffee grounds). Be sure to stay tuned through the closing credits for a (lawsuit-preventing?) coda absolving the good ol' hardworking American honeybee of any and all sinister charges depicted herein. The Swarm is an irresistibly hilarious chunk of honey-roasted cheese-70s style. -Andrew Wright The Swarm was one of many 1970s disaster epics masterminded by producer Irwin Allen. Unfortunately, it comes from the tail end of the public's fascination with the genre, a fact not unreasonably attributed at the time to this also being Allen's first full-length directorial debut. In retrospect, it's perhaps understandable that the threat of killer bees was never going to seem as spectacular as The Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure. Nevertheless, there's plenty to admire in the concept, which at least went so far as to research its subject matter, even if the explanation for how the bad-tempered little critters came to be in the vicinity of Houston is a little shaky. Michael Caine heads a typically all-star cast. Ironically, the first thing Richard Chamberlain's character says is that he's arrived under protest. [+]

It is a time of great danger and uncertainty in the world. Cities are full of orphaned, homeless children. Disease and sickness spread a dark shadow over the land. Roads are unsafe, overrun by criminals who seek out young people for the slave masters. Rulers appear obsessed with overseas adventure and war while spirituality and kindness have become forgotten virtues. Into this bleak vision comes hope and deliverence for these oppressed chiildren - a crusade led by an unusual group of young people who join forces in a perilous search for the legendary King Richard The Lionheart.

After the drudgery of Sudden Impact, the third and worst sequel to Dirty Harry, no one could have expected the fourth to have any signs of life. But The Dead Pool is fairly inspired, even playful-check out a "chase" scene between Clint Eastwood's Harry Callahan character and a remote-controlled toy car wielding a bomb-and it ended the long-running series on an unexpectedly positive note. This time, Callahan investigates a series of murders that appears to be on a "death list," while becoming romantically involved with a television reporter (Patricia Clarkson). Jim Carrey has a small but memorable part as a doped-up rock star, and Liam Neeson is on board, too. IT is directed by Eastwood-surrogate Buddy Van Horn (Any Which Way You Can). -Tom Keogh.

In 1962 Lawrence of Arabia scooped another seven Oscars for David Lean and crew after his previous epic, The Bridge on the River Kwai, had performed exactly the same feat a few years earlier. Supported in this Great War desert adventure by a superb cast including Alex Guinness, Jack Hawkins and Omar Sharif, Peter O'Toole gives a complex, star-making performance as the enigmatic TE Lawrence. The magnificent action and vast desert panoramas were captured in luminous 70mm by Cinematographer Freddie Young, here beginning a partnership with Lean that continued through Dr Zhivago (1965) and Ryan's Daughter (1970). Yet what made the film truly outstanding was Robert (A Man For All Seasons) Bolt's literate screenplay, marking the beginning of yet another ongoing collaboration with Lean. The final partnership established was between director and French composer Maurice Jarre, who won one of the Oscars and scored all Lean's remaining films, up to and including A Passage to India in 1984. Fully restored in 1989, this complete version of Lean's masterpiece remains one of cinema's all-time classic visions. -Gary S Dalkin On the DVD: This vast movie is spread leisurely across two discs, with Maurice Jarre's overture standing in as intermission music for the first track of disc two. But the clarity of the anamorphic widescreen picture and Dolby 5. 1 soundtrack justify the decision not to cram the whole thing onto one side of a disc. The movie has never looked nor sounded better than here: the desert landscapes are incredibly detailed, with the tiny nomadic figures in the far distance clearly visible on the small screen; the remastered soundtrack, too, is a joy. [+]

It's a pity this ocean-going adventure wasn't fully appreciated during its theatrical release in 1996, if only because its climactic storm sequence (hence the movie's title) was awesome on the big screen and inevitably less impressive on video. Mixed reviews also curtailed its box-office potential, but as you might expect from Ridley Scott-the director of Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise-this is a beautifully photographed movie that will thrill anyone who is drawn to the romance and danger of the open sea. The story is a rite-of-passage adventure for a group of high school boys, who spend their senior year as the crew-in-training on the Albatross, a sailing vessel skippered by an experienced sailor and schoolmaster (Jeff Bridges) who teaches hard lessons of teamwork and individual responsibility. As they sail to the tip of South America and back, the young men face many challenges that will shape their character, in addition to the carnal pleasures of shore leave in exotic ports of call. It's a traditional story, and Scott doesn't bring anything particularly new to this sailboat variation of Dead Poets Society and Scent of a Woman. But as a coming-of-age drama White Squall is professionally crafted and filled with vital energy, featuring a talented cast of newcomers (led by Scott Wolf of TV's Party of Five) who rise to the demands of this rousing and life-changing adventure. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

A rash of daring bank robberies erupts, in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys-former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a crime-busting fed instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season, and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. He goes undercover with just such a group, led by a very spiritual, very guru-type guy played by Patrick Swayze, who has some muddled philosophies when it comes to materialism. If you can buy all that, this efficiently directed (by Kathryn Bigelow) action flick has some diverting moments (credit it, for example, for anticipating the extreme-sports fad). But Reeves's intelligent-sounding lines don't make him seem remotely intelligent, and that plot makes him look positively brilliant. -David Kronke Efficiently directed by Kathryn Bigelow and featuring some diverting action scenes, 1991's Point Break can be credited with anticipating the extreme-sports fad. A rash of daring bank robberies erupt in which the bad guys all wear the masks of worse guys-former presidents (nice touch). Johnny Utah (Keanu Reeves), an impossibly named former football star who blew out his knee and became a crime-busting federal agent instead, figures out that none of the heists occur during surfing season and all of them occur when, so to speak, surf's down. So obviously, he reasons, we're dealing with some surfer-dude bank robbers. [+]

A photographer for a men's magazine is disturbed by a recurring dream he has that he is killing his models by various gruesome means. Then he discovers that his city is being terrorized by a slasher who is stalking and murdering women on the streets. He begins to suspect that he may actually be the killer.

A stupendous historical saga, Braveheart won five Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director for star Mel Gibson. He plays William Wallace, a 13th-century Scottish commoner who unites the various clans against a cruel English King, Edward the Longshanks (Patrick McGoohan). The scenes of hand-to-hand combat are brutally violent, but they never glorify the bloodshed. There is such enormous scope to this story that it works on a smaller, more personal scale as well, essaying love and loss, patriotism and passion. Extremely moving, it reveals Gibson as a multitalented performer and remarkable director with an eye for detail and an understanding of human emotion. (His first directorial effort was 1993's Man Without a Face. ) The film is nearly three hours long and includes several plot tangents, yet is never dull. This movie resonates long after you have seen it, both for its visual beauty and for its powerful story. -Rochelle O'Gorman Mel Gibson's birth-of-a-nation epic Braveheart does for England what Spartacus did for Rome: every Englishman in this film is weak or nasty or a fool, or all three. Gibson plays William Wallace, the highland warrior whose fierce fighting spirit prompted Robert the Bruce's memorable victory over the English at Bannockburn. [+]