The Quick and the Dead 1995

The Quick and the Dead is a 1995 western film directed by Sam Raimi and starring Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio. The story focuses on "The Lady" (Stone), a gunfighter who rides into the frontier town of Redemption, controlled by John Herod (Hackman). The Lady joins a deadly dueling competition in an attempt to exact revenge for her father's death.
Simon Moore's script was purchased by Sony Pictures Entertainment in May 1993, and actress Sharon Stone signed on as both star and co-producer. Development was fast tracked after director Sam Raimi's hiring, and principal photography began in Old Tucson Studios in Arizona on November 21, 1993. The film was distributed by TriStar Pictures and Columbia Pictures, and was released in the US on February 10, 1995 to a dismal box office performance, and received mixed reviews from critics.
      An unnamed gunslinger, referred to as The Lady, enters the Old West town of Redemption circa 1881 where she enters a single elimination gunfighting contest held by Redemption's ruthless leader, John Herod, a former outlaw. She meets Cort, a former Herod henchman turned reverend, whom Herod captures and forces to enter the contest, and Fee "The Kid" Herod, a brash young gun shop owner who hopes to impress Herod, whom he believes to be his father, by winning the contest. Though now a preacher, Cort is an amazingly fast and talented gunfighter, and the only man that Herod truly respects and fears. Herod covers this by treating Cort cruelly, denying him water, beating him and keeping him chained to an old fountain.
The first duels of all three go well, as does Herod's duel where he kills braggart Ace Hanlon, who had taken credit for some of Herod's own accomplishments. The Lady's duel goes well as she defeats an old enemy she left shackled to a wagon. Cort's duel also goes well, as he defeats one of Herod's men who thought he was getting an easy kill. Herod later learns that the townspeople have secretly hired a bounty hunter, Clay Cantrell, to enter the contest and kill him, but he kills Cantrell instead. Herod then angrily informs the townspeople that since they had so much money to hire Cantrell, he's going to raise taxes.
Initial release: February 10, 1995
Director: Sam Raimi
Running time: 108 minutes
Initial DVD release: September 29, 1998
Screenplay: Simon Moore

GoldenEye 1995

GoldenEye (1995) is the seventeenth spy film in the James Bond series, and the first to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 officer James Bond. The film was directed by Martin Campbell and is the first film in the series not to take story elements from the works of novelist Ian Fleming. The story was conceived and written by Michael France, with later collaboration by other writers. In the film, Bond fights to prevent an arms syndicate from using the GoldenEye satellite weapon against London in order to cause a global financial meltdown.GoldenEye was released in 1995 after a six-year hiatus in the series caused by legal disputes, during which Timothy Dalton resigned from the role of James Bond and was replaced by Pierce Brosnan. M was also recast, with actress Judi Dench becoming the first woman to portray the character, replacing Robert Brown. GoldenEye was the first Bond film made after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, which provided a background for the plot.
       In 1986 MI6 officers James Bond—agent 007—and Alec Trevelyan—agent 006—infiltrate an illicit Soviet chemical weapons facility at Arkhangelsk and plant explosive charges. Trevelyan is shot by Colonel Arkady Ourumov, but Bond steals an aeroplane and flees from the facility as it explodes.
Nine years later, Bond arrives in Monte Carlo to follow Xenia Onatopp, a suspected member of the Janus crime syndicate, who has formed a suspicious relationship with a Royal Canadian Navy admiral. She murders the admiral to allow Ourumov (now a General) to steal his identity. The next day they steal a prototype Eurocopter Tiger helicopter that can withstand an electromagnetic pulse. They fly it to a bunker in Severnaya, where they massacre the staff and steal the control disk for the dual GoldenEye satellite weapons. They program one of the GoldenEye satellites to destroy the complex with an electromagnetic pulse, and escape with programmer Boris Grishenko. Natalya Simonova, the lone survivor, contacts Boris and arranges to meet him in St. Petersburg, where he betrays her to Janus.
Initial release: November 17, 1995 (USA)
Director: Martin Campbell
Featured song: GoldenEye
Screenplay: Bruce Feirstein, Jeffrey Caine
Story by: Michael France, Ian Fleming

Mission: Impossible 1996

Mission: Impossible (also known in the Blu-ray release as M:I) is a 1996 American spy film directed by Brian De Palma, produced by and starring Tom Cruise. Based on the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his mission to uncover the mole who has framed him for the murders of his entire IMF team. Work on the script had begun early with filmmaker Sydney Pollack on board, before De Palma, Steven Zaillian, David Koepp, and Robert Towne were brought in. Mission: Impossible went into pre-production without a shooting script. De Palma came up with some action sequences, but Koepp and Towne were dissatisfied with the story that led up to those events.
         Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is part of an Impossible Missions Force (IMF) team led by Jim Phelps (Jon Voight) to prevent the theft of the non-official cover (NOC) list from the American embassy in Prague. The mission goes hopelessly wrong, with several team members killed and the NOC list stolen. Hunt sees Phelps, via Phelps' video glasses, being shot, and Phelps' wife Claire (Emmanuelle Béart) die in a car bomb, leaving him the only living member. Hunt later regroups with IMF director Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) to debrief, but learns that the job was a setup and the NOC list a fake by IMF to lure out a mole within IMF, who IMF believed would sell the NOC list to an arms dealer known as "Max" as part of "Job 314". As Hunt is the only member left, Kittridge suspects him of being the mole, but Hunt creates a distraction to flee before his capture.
Release date: May 22, 1996 (USA)
Director: Brian De Palma
Adapted from: Mission: Impossible
MPAA rating: PG-13
Music composed by: Danny Elfman

The Basketball Diaries 1995

The Basketball Diaries is a 1995 American drama film directed by Scott Kalvert, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Lorraine Bracco, James Madio, and Mark Wahlberg. It is based on the autobiographical book of the same name by Jim Carroll.The film was shot in New York City.
        The film is an adaptation of poet and memoirist Jim Carroll's (Leonardo DiCaprio) juvenile diaries chronicling his kaleidoscopic free-fall into the harrowing world of drug addiction. As a member of a seemingly unbeatable high school basketball squad, Jim's life centers around the basketball court and the court becomes a metaphor for the world in his mind. A best friend who is dying of leukemia, a coach ("Swifty") who takes unacceptable liberties with the boys on his team, teenage sexual angst, and an appetite for cocaine and heroin all begin to encroach on young Jim's dream of becoming a basketball star.
Soon, the dark streets of New York become a refuge from his mother's mounting concern for her son. He cannot go home and his only escape from the reality of the streets is heroin for which he steals, robs and prostitutes himself. Only with the help of Reggie, an older neighborhood friend with whom Jim "picked up a game" now and then, is he able to begin the long journey back to sanity, which ultimately ends with Jim's incarceration in a state penitentiary. After months in the hospital, he gets out and later does a talk show about his drug life, but before that he turned down free drugs given to him by his old friend, Pedro. The film is set in the early 1990s, while Carroll's actual book recounts experiences from growing up in the 1960s. Jim started out as a practice basketball player, and moved on to writing his Basketball Diaries.
^{Initial release: April 21, 1995 (USA)
Director: Scott Kalvert
Adapted from: The Basketball Diaries
Screenplay: Bryan Goluboff
Initial DVD release: June 30, 1998}