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by Ivana Redwine

Here's a selection of new movies on DVD for April, 2005.

April 5, 2005

"The Corporation"

This documentary is based on Joel Bakan's book "The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power." The film's thesis is that corporations, by their very nature, tend to behave in ways that exploit workers, subvert good government, harm the environment, and upset the ecology. The argument is buttressed by a number of specific examples, and the movie features talking heads, including Noam Chomsky and Milton Friedman.

"Elektra"

Jennifer Garner was a supporting actress in "Daredevil," playing the Marvel Comics character Elektra, and now she reprises her role, becoming the main star in this action-adventure movie. Here she ends up as the protector of her love interest (Goran Visnjic) and his daughter. But Elektra faces big problems when she runs afoul of a malevolent Asian group known as The Hand. A character quirk is that Elektra suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder.

"Sideways"
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Winner of the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, "Sideways" was nominated for four additional Oscars, including Best Picture. This bittersweet comedy involves two guys (Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church) journeying to the wine country north of Santa Barbara, and while there they become romantically involved with two women (Virginia Madsen and Sandra Oh). The film's principals won the Screen Actors Guild award for best ensemble performance.

"Spanglish"

Written and directed by James L. Brooks, this dramedy is about what happens when a Mexican immigrant goes to work as a housekeeper for an upscale, dysfunctional Anglo family. The family consists of husband (Adam Sandler) and wife (Téa Leoni), their kids, and the wife's mother (Cloris Leachman). The live-in housekeeper (Paz Vega) brings along her daughter, and the movie shows how the characters are affected when their lives intersect.

April 12, 2005

"Bad Education"

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar, this Spanish-language gay-themed drama starring Gael García Bernal was liked by an overwhelming majority of critics. The setup is that a man (García Bernal) who does a stage act in drag comes to a filmmaker with a story based on when they were boys together in Catholic school. As "Bad Education" moves back and forth in time, we get different versions of events, and gradually we begin to figure out what is going on.

"Hotel Rwanda"

Don Cheadle gives an outstanding performance in this inspiring fact-based drama set in the African nation of Rwanda. Cheadle plays Paul Rusesabagina, manager of a luxury hotel in the capital city. In 1994 one of the country's main tribes, the Hutu, went on a rampage that slaughtered roughly a million people in another, the Tutsi. Amid the chaos, Paul, a Hutu, undertook a course of action that saved the lives of some 1200 Tutsis.

"Ocean's Twelve"

This glossy caper film is the sequel to "Ocean's Eleven" (2001), and the original cast is back, including George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon. This time around, Danny Ocean (Clooney) and the gang are faced with a compelling need to come up with millions in two weeks and decide to raise the money by pulling heists in Paris, Amsterdam, and Rome. Catherine Zeta-Jones appears in "Ocean's Twelve" as a European policewoman.

"The Woodsman"

Kevin Bacon gives a strong performance in this audacious drama, which is the first feature-length film directed by Nicole Kassell. The movie takes an objective look at a child molester named Walter (Bacon) after he completes a 12-year jail term. As he struggles with his yen for young girls, he gets a job in a lumberyard and begins dating a co-worker (Kyra Sedgwick). But his past eventually becomes known, and he has lots of problems to deal with.

April 19, 2005

"Birth"

Nicole Kidman stars in this psychological drama. Kidman plays Anna, a widow whose husband died 10 years earlier. She's preparing to remarry when a 10-year-old boy named Sean (Cameron Bright) surfaces, claiming to be her late husband. Anna is extremely skeptical about reincarnation, yet the boy seems to know things only her dead husband would know. But the boy causes big problems, particularly when he comes between Anna and her fiancé.

"House of Flying Daggers"

This Mandarin-language martial arts film was directed by Zhang Yimou. The story is set in 9th-century China when insurgents are trying to bring down the Tang Dynasty. The government sends two male deputies (Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau) to deal with the Flying Daggers rebel group. The deputies use a blind female dancer (Zhang Ziyi) to guide them, leading to romantic complications. But the movie is mostly about visual beauty and kinetic action.

"Meet the Fockers"


Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman, and Barbra Streisand star in this comedy, a sequel to "Meet the Parents" (2000). In the earlier movie, male nurse Greg Focker (Stiller) met his girlfriend's quirky father and mother, and in "Meet the Fockers" it's time for everyone to meet Greg's nutty parents (Hoffman and Streisand). The open-mindedness of one set of parents clashes with the uptightness of the other, and there's lots of silliness.

April 26, 2005

"Blade: Trinity"

This is the third action horror movie in the series beginning with "Blade" (1998) and "Blade II" (2002), and Wesley Snipes again plays Blade, the half-human, half-vampire who leads the fight against the multitudinous vampires that prey upon humans. Also, Kris Kristofferson returns as Blade's mentor Whistler. This time around, Blade must battle the resurrected Dracula, now called Drake. The cast includes Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, and Parker Posey.

"Darkness"

Anna Paquin and Lena Olin star in this horror film. An ordinary American family of four, with the mother played by Olin and the teenage daughter by Paquin, move to a creepy house in Spain. Soon strange things begin happening, and the daughter and her boyfriend find out that 40 years earlier six kids disappeared during an eclipse. Now, with another eclipse approaching, the daughter fears her younger brother is in grave danger.

"Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events"

Jim Carrey stars in this darkly comic movie based on a series of children's books ostensibly written by a man named Lemony Snicket, but actually by Daniel Handler. The three Baudelaire kids are orphaned and taken to live with their closest relative Count Olaf (Carrey), but he wants to kill them so he can have their inheritance. They get away and embark on a series of adventures, but Count Olaf pursues, with Carrey donning a number of disguises.

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