Theater Release Date: 2003 Format: Widescreen 2-Disc Set Length: 132 minutes Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 11/25/2003 Director: Bryan Singer Cast: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, Shawn Ashmore, Aaron Stanford, Kelly Hu, Daniel Cudmore, Bruce Davison, Michael Reid MacKay
Plot: X2: X-Men United, the remarkable sequel to X-Men, picks up shortly after the first film's finale. At the White House, a would-be assassin--the acrobatic, teleporting blue mutant Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming)--menaces the president. Meanwhile, in the Canadian Rockies, Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) searches for answers to his mysterious past at the top-secret facility where he received his metallic skeleton and claws. Back at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters, Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) and Storm (Halle Berry) instruct students Rogue (Anna Paquin), Iceman (Shawn Ashmore), and Pyro (Aaron Stanford), while Professor Xavier (Patrick Stewart) and Cyclops (James Marsden) pay a visit to the imprisoned Magneto (Ian McKellen). However, Magneto has a secret weapon in the shape-shifting Mystique (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos). Soon allies and enemies alike will unite to defeat the hate-filled military scientist William Stryker (Brian Cox), who wants to rid the world of mutants. When Stryker launches a ruthless two-pronged attack that leaves the school under siege and Xavier and Cyclops captured, Wolverine and the remaining X-Men must spring to action to save their friends and prevent all-out genocide. Even better than its excellent precursor, X2 delves deeper into the X-Men mythology, introducing new characters and touching on essential storylines from the decades-long run of the Marvel comic book series. Providing larger action-packed set pieces and more advanced special effects, director Bryan Singer further develops the characters of Jean Grey, Storm, Nightcrawler, Rogue, Iceman, Pyro, and Mystique. Yuriko Oyama is played by Kelly Hu. Each member of the cast breathes vitality into their mutant characters with Wolverine, perfectly portrayed by Jackman, once again the wild heart at the center. A love letter to longtime fans of the comic and an amazingly entertaining movie for everyone else, X2: X-Men United is that rare breed of sequel that manages to improve on the original in every way.
Theater Release Date: 2003 Format: Widescreen Length: 101 minutes Distributor: Warner Home Video DVD Release Date: 08/12/2003 Director: Andrzej Bartkowiak Cast: Jet Li, DMX, Anthony Anderson, Kelly Hu, Tom Arnold, Mark Dacascos, Gabrielle Union
Plot: Jet Li once again joins up with a musical costar in Andrzej Bartkowiak's thrill-a-minute Cradle 2 The Grave. Li was introduced to American audiences as the villain in Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon 4, which featured former Crystals lead singer Darlene Love. Li got his first English-language starring role in Bartkowiak's Romeo Must Die, with the late Aaliyah and rapper Dmx. The director has reteamed Li and Dmx as men on opposite sides of the law who are forced to work together in Cradle. Dmx plays Fait, a powerful man with a deep love for black diamonds but a deeper love for his daughter (who gets kidnapped). Li is Su, a Taiwanese agent--Fait calls him the Kung Fu James Bond--who has come to Los Angeles to find the stones and capture his former partner, Ling (Mark Dacascos), who is after the gems as well. The action is fast and furious as Su sides with Fait to battle helicopters, trains, fancy cars, motorcycles, tanks, and flying ATVs in rings of fire and pouring rain. High-tech heists and heavy heat send the action quotient soaring while Tom Arnold supplies comic relief and karate hottie Kelly Hu adds mystery and romance along with awesome martial arts stunts.
Theater Release Date: 2002 Format: Widescreen Length: 92 minutes Distributor: Universal Studios Home Video DVD Release Date: 10/01/2002 Director: Chuck Russell Cast: The Rock, Michael Clarke Duncan, Grant Heslov, Rock, Kelly Hu, Steven Brand, Bernard Hill
Plot: Wrestler-turned-actor The Rock gets his first starring role with The Scorpion King. A prequel to Stephen Sommers' wildly successful The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001), The Scorpion King tells the action-packed story of Mathayus (Rock), an Akkadian assassin who is the only man strong enough to destroy the vile Memnon (Steven Brand). Memnon, a power hungry warlord, uses the prescience of Cassandra (Kelly Hu), a beautiful seer, to ensure an endless succession of victories. Understanding that to defeat Memnon one must first eliminate Cassandra, Mathayus journeys to Gomorrah to infiltrate Memnon's palace and kill Cassandra. But when he lays eyes on the sultry beauty, he is unable to take her life. It is not long before sparks begin flying and Cassandra is using her powers to aid Mathayus and his cohorts, including the bumbling Arpid (Grant Heslov), and Balthazar (Michael Clark Duncan), a powerful tribe leader who is also looking for a way to end Memnon's reign. Ignoring a vision from Cassandra that predicts his death, Mathayus charges into battle nonetheless, hoping to silence Memnon once and for all. Playing the sensitive, courageous hero, The Rock proves that his appeal is not only relegated to the small screen.
Theater Release Date: 1996 Length: 91 minutes Distributor: Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 11/28/2000 Director: Frank Cappello Cast: Russell Crowe, Helen Slater, Etsushi Toyokawa, Michael Lerner, Ian Ziering, Kelly Hu
Plot: When mob thugs kidnap his son, a wild-card FBI agent departs from procedure and begins his own frantic one-man investigation, incurring the rage of the Mafia, the Yakuza, and the Feds themselves.
Theater Release Date: 1995 Length: 145 minutes Distributor: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 05/21/2002 Director: Kathryn Bigelow Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Angela Bassett, Juliette Lewis, Tom Sizemore, Michael Wincott, Vincent D'Onofrio, Glenn Plummer, Richard Edson, Kelly Hu
Plot: A virtual-reality pusher sells escapist clips of other people's experiences to image-addled junkies in this punishing, darkly stylish cyberpunk thriller set during the final 48 hours of 1999.
Theater Release Date: 1991 Format: Movie Time Length: 104 minutes Distributor: MGM Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 02/06/2001 Director: Simon Wincer Cast: Mickey Rourke, Don Johnson, Chelsea Field, Tom Sizemore, Vanessa Williams, Kelly Hu
Plot: A lawless world of two renegades who rob a bank to help save their friend and favorite hangout, which is about to be repossessed. When they learn they confiscated drugs instead of money, they find themselves fighting their way out of a million dollar drug swindle.
Theater Release Date: 1991 Format: Special Edition Length: 138 minutes Distributor: Artisan Entertainment DVD Release Date: 01/28/2003 Director: Oliver Stone Cast: Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan, Kyle MacLachlan, Frank Whaley, Michael Madsen, Billy Idol, Kathleen Quinlan, Kevin Dillon, Mimi Rogers, Michael Wincott, Kelly Hu
Plot: Covers the period from 1965-1971; Produced and released in 1991. Val Kilmer stars as Jim Morrison in Oliver Stone's electrifying profile of the Doors, which takes the group from its inception to its demise with the death of the "Lizard King" in a Paris hotel room in 1971. In the early days of the group's formation, Morrison is at his most benign; he's just a guy hanging out at the beach writing poetry. But soon the Doors' fame begins to spread--with Morrison as the focus of attention. Capable of an eerily correct vocal imitation of Morrison, Kilmer makes manifest the talent and charisma, as well as the confusion and despair, of the complex man who was the focal point of the group. As Morrisson's drug consumption and erratic behavior increase exponentially, the rest of the band--Ray Manzarek (Kyle McLachalan), John Densmore (Kevin Dillon), and Robby Krieger (Frank Whaley)--begins to grow tired of his late arrivals, the increasing number of cancellations, and the drunken recording sessions requiring infinite retakes. But no one can help Morrison as he spirals downward into an inferno of drugs, alcohol, public obscenity, and depression, bringing the music to an untimely close. Stone's intimate familiarity with SoCal in the 1960s provides the film with a high degree of surface verisimilitude, though the film is as much a tribute to the enduring power of the Doors' music as it is a cautionary tale about the perils of both celebrity and substance abuse.
Theater Release Date: 1989 Length: 100 minutes Distributor: Paramount Home Entertainment DVD Release Date: 09/03/2002 Director: Rob Hedden Cast: Kane Hodder, Jensen Daggett, Scott Reeves, Peter Mark Richman, Barbara Bingham, V.C. Dupree, Kelly Hu
Plot: After an electricity from a torn cable revives him on the river bottom where his body lies, masked slasher Jason Voorhees stows away on a cruise ship carrying a graduating class of Crystal Lake teens to the Big Apple. Along the way, the ship braves a storm, which is nothing compared to the violence that the hockey mask-wearing psychopath inflicts on the passengers. Upon arriving in New York (in the film's final twenty minutes), Jason's murderous ways don't seem out of place, and the locals hardly pay him any mind.
