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Prefontaine
Price: $9.99
(From Marty in Wisconsin): A surprisingly unvarnished portrait of one of
America's greatest distance runners. Critics agreed that this uncommonly frank sports film showed all sides of this intensely competitive man
who came back from disappointment at the 1974 Olympics to break every important distance record, only to die at age 24 in a crash of his gold
MGB. Jared Leto is fantastic to look at as he does a fine job in the title role.
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The Rookie (Widescreen Edition)
Price: $22.49
Jim Morris, the real-life hero of The Rookie,
has an inspirational story all but guaranteed to put a smile on anyone's face.
Happily, this G-rated Disney drama, based on Morris's published memoir of the
same title, is suitable for an all-ages audience. Blessed with an awesome
fastball, Morris nursed dreams of pitching for Major League Baseball during his
20s; injuries and bad luck, however, forced him to give up hope and become a
teacher and coach. Years later, pressed by students and colleagues to try out
for "the Show" one more time, Morris discovered he still had a
powerful arm, and he was signed by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. The Rookie
is at its best throughout this first chapter in Morris's midlife adventure,
though the rest of the film finds fresh angles on more familiar baseball-movie
conventions. Dennis Quaid is soulful and charismatic as Morris, perfect in his
depiction of a man both thankful and startled that destiny has given one of the
good guys his due.
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The Karate Kid
Price: $16.99
John G. Avildsen not only directed Rocky, he tried
remaking it over the years in a dozen different ways. One of them was this
popular 1984 drama about a new kid (Ralph Macchio) in town targeted by
karate-wielding bullies until he gets a new mentor: the handyman (Pat Morita)
from his apartment building, who teaches him self-confidence and fighting
skills. The screen partnership of Macchio's motor-mouth character and Morita's
reserved father figure works well, and the script allows for the younger man to
develop sympathy for the painful memories of his teacher. But the film's real
engine, as with Rocky, is the fighting, and there's plenty of that.
Elisabeth Shue is on board as the girl the klutzy Macchio dreams of winning.
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Remember the Titans (Widescreen Edition)
Price: $25.49
With only one major star (Denzel Washington), an appealing
cast of fresh unknowns, and a winning emphasis of substance over self-indulgent
style, Boaz Yakin's Remember the Titans is, like Rudy before it, a
football movie that will be fondly remembered by anyone who sees it.
Set in Alexandria,
Virginia, in 1971, the fact-based story begins with the integration of black and
white students at T. C. Williams High School. This effort to improve race
relations is most keenly felt on the school's football team, the Titans, and
bigoted tempers flare when a black head coach (Washington) is appointed and his
victorious predecessor (Will Patton) reluctantly stays on as his assistant. It's
affirmative action at its most potentially volatile, complicated by the mandate
that the coach will be fired if he loses a single game in the Titans' 13-game
season. The players represent a hotbed of racial tension, but as the team
struggles toward unity and gridiron glory, Remember the Titans builds on
several subplots and character dynamics to become an inspirational drama of Rocky-like
proportions.
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61*
Price: $16.99
61* is an endearing ode to the baseball days of yore
when the press was the enemy, salaries were in check, and breaking records with
bat and glove took on Ruthian proportions. In 1961 baseball expanded its season
from 154 games to 162, allowing weaker pitching into the major leagues and two
New York Yankees teammates--the colorless Roger Maris and golden boy Mickey
Mantle--to make an assault on the sport's ultimate record: Babe Ruth's 60 home
runs. To add to the stew, baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced any record
set in the last eight games of the season wouldn't count toward the official
record; records had to be achieved in 154 games.
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Field of Dreams
Price: $16.99
A phenomenal hit when it was released in 1989, Field of
Dreams has become a modern classic and a uniquely American slice of cinema.
It functions effectively as a moving drama about the power of dreams, a fantasy
ode to our national pastime, and a brilliant adaptation of W.P. Kinsella's
exquisite baseball novel Shoeless Joe. Kinsella himself found the film a
delightful surprise, differing greatly from his novel but benefiting from its
own creative variations. It is the film that cemented Kevin Costner's status as
an all-American screen star, but the story resonates far beyond Costner's
handsome appeal. As just about everyone knows by now, Costner stars as Iowa
farmer Ray Kinsella, who hears the mysterious words "If you build it, he
will come," and is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of
his cornfield. His wife (Amy Madigan) supports the wild idea, but a reclusive
novelist (modeled after J.D. Salinger and played by James Earl Jones) is not so
easily persuaded. The idealistic farmer is either a visionary or a deluded fool,
but his persistence is rewarded when spirits from baseball's past begin
appearing on the ball field. Past and present intermingle in the person of
"Moonlight Graham" (superbly played by Burt Lancaster), an unknown
player who sacrificed his dreams of baseball glory for a dignified life as a
small-town physician ... but what all of this means is unclear until the film's
memorably heartfelt conclusion. A meditation on family, memory, and faith, the
film balances humor and magic to strike just the right chord of thoughtful
emotion, affecting audiences so deeply that the baseball field created for the
production has now become a mecca of sorts for dreamers around the world.
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Youngblood
Price: $13.46
Handsome young men whack each other in the face with sticks
and learn about life in this enjoyably silly hockey movie. Rob Lowe stars as
Dean Youngblood, an American rookie who's been given a shot on a Canadian Junior
League hockey team. Sure, he can skate, but can he take a punch? This
coming-of-age story is about learning the beauty of vicious hockey fights. No,
really. Containing both young-bucks-in-the-locker-room shots and plenty of
hockey violence, Youngblood is a surprisingly entertaining cupcake of a
movie--there's not much nourishment, but it sure tastes good. Watch for Patrick
Swayze as the team's leader and Keanu Reeves in his first film role as the
French-Canadian goalie.
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Raging Bull
Price: $39.99
Martin Scorsese's brutal black-and-white biography of
self-destructive boxer Jake LaMotta was chosen as the best film of the 1980s in
a major critics' poll at the end of the decade, and it's a knockout piece of
filmmaking. Robert De Niro plays LaMotta (famously putting on 50 pounds for the
later scenes), a man tormented by demons he doesn't understand and prone to
uncontrollably violent temper tantrums and fits of irrational jealousy. He
marries a striking young blond (Cathy Moriarty), his sexual ideal, and then
terrorizes her with never-ending accusations of infidelity. Jake is as
frightening as he is pathetic, unable to control or comprehend the baser
instincts that periodically, and without warning, turn him into the rampaging
beast of the title. But as Roman Catholic Scorsese sees it, he works off his
sins in the boxing ring, where his greatest athletic talent is his ability to
withstand punishment. The fight scenes are astounding; they're like barbaric
ritual dance numbers. Images smash into one another--a flashbulb, a spray of
sweat, a fist, a geyser of blood--until you feel dazed from the
pummeling. Nominated for a handful of Academy Awards (including best picture and
director), Raging Bull won only two, for De Niro and for editor Thelma
Schoonmacher.
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Also check out these DVDs and tapes,
offered by Amazon:
BASEBALL
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Baseball - A Film by Ken Burns
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Angels in the Outfield
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Major League Baseball - All Century Team
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When it Was a Game
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The Sandlot
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2001 World Series -
Diamondbacks vs. Yankees
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Rookie of the Year
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Eight Men Out
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A League of Their Own
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For Love of the Game
BASKETBALL
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Michael Jordan to the Max (Large Format)
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Greatest NBA Finals Moments
BOXING
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When We Were Kings
FOOTBALL
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Any Given Sunday
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Brian's Song
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Super Bowl XXXVI - New England
Patriots Championship Video
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Greatest Moments in Super Bowl History
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NFL - 50 Greatest Quarterbacks
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21st Century NFL Follies
GOLF
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Caddyshack
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The Legend of Bagger Vance
HOCKEY
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Slap Shot (25th Anniversary
Special)
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Mystery, Alaska
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NHL - All Access!
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Lord Stanley's Cup - Hockey's Ultimate...
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Mark Messier - Leader, Champion & Legend
OLYMPICS
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Do You Believe in Miracles? The Story
of the 1980 U.S. Hockey Team
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1998 Olympic Skating Competition...
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The 2002 Olympic Games
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Chariots of Fire
RUNNING
SURFING
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Surf Crazy
XTREME GAMES
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Tony Hawk's Gigantic Skatepark Tour 2001
Further (Extreme Skiing)
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