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DVD Two-Minute Warning
Unfairly dismissed by a number of critics, Two Minute Warning is an absorbing contemplation of the phenomenon of violence. Based on a novel by George LaFountaine, the story concerns an anonymous (and, until the very end, faceless) sniper perched above the scoreboard at a championship football game in Los Angeles. His lack of identity and unstated motivation is key to the film's air of cautionary fable, in which the killer's rage is one end of a continuum that includes many different kinds of violence among numerous characters: emotional withdrawal, police brutality, subtle racism, chips on various shoulders. Produced in 1976, the movie has all the hallmarks of the decade's vogue for disaster flicks: an ensemble cast, a web of story lines, and a lot of people contained in one place where something awful happens. But it is also something more: a successful exercise in plastic storytelling, a clever interweaving of a dozen discrete subplots with a mix of documentary and original action footage. The explosiveness of the football game itself becomes a refrain of ritualized mayhem in director Larry Peerce's patchwork film, but without beating us over the head with its metaphorical obviousness. Two Minute Warning may not be a great or classic work, but it is far more than the sum of its many parts and does leave a lasting impression. --Tom Keogh
It only takes one sniper to cause mayhem at a jam-packed Los Angeles Coliseum in this terribly underrated film that was wrongly tagged as an assembly-line disaster pic or a violent big-budget exploitation film. TWO-MINUTE WARNING gets good performances from leading actors Charlton Heston, Martin Balsam, and John Cassavetes in this well-made suspense thriller of police forces trying to stop a mysterious psychotic sniper from shhoting into a crowd of between ninety and one hundred thousand at a championship football game in the Coliseum. The film concludes with a horrible stampede of panic and horror that has all too accurately been repeated in real life in European soccer violence.
Although it has certain melodramatic elements and an all-star lineup (Brock Peters, Gena Rowland, David Janssen, Jack Klugman, etc.), TWO-MINUTE WARNING mostly avoids the pratfalls common to the disaster genre. And the climax, while indisputably violent (earning the film its 'R' rating) is never strictly speaking an overt case of blood and gore. And like Steven Spielberg with the psychotic trucker in DUEL, here director Larry Peerce decides to keep the sniper's identity a secret (until the end).
Since TWO-MINUTE WARNING is on both DVD and VHS, there is now no longer any need to see the butchered, watered-down version that ended up on television. It is in the original director's version that this film should be seen; it is well worth it.
One of the best disaster movies from the 1970s
This 1976 release is hugely suspenseful and very realistic indeed, largely due to the photography(the stadium footage works a treat!), direction and good strong cast of familiar faces. Charlton Heston plays Captain Pete Holly, a hard-boiled cop whose initial investigation of a random shooting(seen at the start) leads him to a championship football game at the LA Coliseum - a sniper is perched above the scoreboard! When the time comes, the sniper will kill a target - or several? WHo is he after? In the crowd are a noisy family(DYNASTY's PAmela Bellwood is the mom, Beau Bridges is the dad and sniper witness brutalised by over-zealous cops and there are two mischievous brats!), a gambler facing loan sharks(QUINCY's Jack Klugman) and prayers from a priest sitting next to him for LA to win! Add to that the President visiting at half time, a pickpocket(Walter Pidgeon), and the TV crews being commandeered by SWAT captain JOHN CASSAVETES and keeping it quiet from the public, and you have a killer of a movie(no pun intended) which will have you hooked from beginning to end. The original 115 minute cinema release is the best way to see this classic - forget the awful network TV doctored version which in my view ruined a great story. THe pace moves along well and there are moments which will genuinely give you mild shocks or two! Overall, a superb thriller and a movie which explores the theme of random killing quite well, especially in the wake of recent real-life massacres such as Dunblane and Hungerford in the UK. One could also say that the climax might have inspired Jean-Claude Van Damme's similarly superb SUDDEN DEATH. which came about 21 years later. Recommended.
GREAT S.W.A.T TUTORIAL
What is there not to like about this film? Merv Griffin sings the national anthem, Joe Kapp shows why his acting career went nowhere, Howard Cosell with the play by play.TWO MINUTE WARNING was released during the decline of the disaster film craze and the start of America's (at the moment) fascination with S.W.A.T. (the TV show, 2 classic episodes of POLICE STORY, the SLA Gunfight). As a disaster film, TMW is mislabled and unfairly bashed. TMW is a mover, there are few slow spots. As a S.W.A.T tutorial, it's great. John Cassavettes as Sgt. Chris Button, is dogged, sullen, realistic. When he arrives in the sea green AMC Matador, it's a minor highlight. I would have gladly suited up and followed him and the platoon into the kill zone.
Palestinian terrorists attempt to wipe out a Super Bowl crowd in this 1976 thriller directed by John Frankenheimer (Seconds). Frankenheimer's unique facility with action--the unusual breadth of his view of violence, which stresses sustained drama over escalating thrills--makes this taut movie engrossing from start to finish. The lengthy cat-and-mouse stuff during the big game--much of which was shot at a real Super Bowl--is quite exciting. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Robert Shaw - Bruce Dern Director(s): John Frankenheimer DVD Release Date: Released the 01 March 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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very good on delivery i ordered the week before and it arrived the next week wonderful. in the pack airport is the only one which had 5.1 surround decoding. the rest of the films were decoded in 2.1 which was dissapointing. the picture quality was acceptional wouldnt say it was great.
having said that it was amazing to find the pack in the first place as it is not available in uk at all. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jack Lemmon DVD Release Date: Released the 10 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Based on the title, I had originally thought Rollercoaster (1977) was going to be a disaster type movie that were popular in the 70's like Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), or The Towering Inferno (1974), but it turned out to be something a lot different. I guess it was for the best, as a film about a rollercoaster that was running out of control, throwing stars of old off at various points, probably wouldn't have worked too well and would have been like scraping the bottom of the disaster-venue barrel.
The film stars George Segal as Harry Caulder, a government safety inspector who's thrown into a situation having to deal with a terrorist (Timothy Bottoms) bent on blowing up rollercoasters, harming and killing innocent amusement park patrons unless his demands are met.... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George Segal - Richard Widmark - Timothy Bottoms Director(s): James Goldstone DVD Release Date: Released the 06 January 2004 Usually ships within 24 hours
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"One gasbag meets another" is how critic Pauline Kael described the "flatulent seriousness" that director Robert Wise brought to this 1975 thriller about the ill-fated German zeppelin which exploded while landing in New Jersey in 1937. The great air disaster is speculatively depicted here as an act of sabotage, and the airship's trans-Atlantic journey gives the saboteur's plot plenty of time to unfold while the story introduces a variety of characters aboard for the luxurious flight. While the anti-Nazi message is delivered loud and clear, Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott lead an illustrious cast in what amounts to a pre-World War II episode of The Love Blimp, only there's not much romance and precious little suspense. It's all rather flatly intriguing, but aviation buffs will... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): George C. Scott - Anne Bancroft Director(s): Robert Wise DVD Release Date: Released the 27 October 1998 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With a tantalizing "what-if?" scenario and a respectable cast of Hollywood veterans, The Final Countdown plays like a grand-scale episode of The Twilight Zone. It's really no more than that, and time-travel movies have grown far more sophisticated since this popular 1980 release, but there's still some life remaining in the movie's basic premise: What if a modern-era Navy aircraft carrier--in this case the real-life nuclear-powered U.S.S. Nimitz--was caught in an anomalous storm and thrust 40 years backwards in time to the eve of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor? Will the ship's commander (Kirk Douglas) interfere with history? Will the visiting systems analyst (Martin Sheen) convince him not to? Will a rescued senator from 1941 (Charles Durning) play an unexpected role... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Kirk Douglas - Martin Sheen - Katharine Ross Director(s): Don Taylor DVD Release Date: Released the 30 March 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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