Related Resources • New Releases • Best DVDs by Month

by Ivana Redwine

Here's a selection of new releases on DVD for September, 2005.

September 6, 2005

"Crash"
Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, and Sandra Bullock are among the actors in this drama centering around the theme of racism. A black police detective (Cheadle) and his Latina girlfriend (Jennifer Esposito) have a car accident. A racist white cop (Dillon) gets into a hassle with an African-American HMO administrator. The D.A.'s wife (Bullock) has her S.U.V. stolen at gunpoint by black thugs (one of whom is played by Ludacris). These and other interconnected incidents are used to explore racial prejudice.

"Lost -- The Complete First Season"
This seven-disc set contains 24 episodes of the television drama series "Lost" that originally aired on ABC in 2004-2005. The premise is that four dozen people survive when the jetliner they are in crashes on a Pacific island. But with no civilization in sight, the survivors struggle to deal with their predicament. As they try to come to terms with the hostile environment, back stories for about 14 regular characters emerge. Among the key cast members are Matthew Fox and Evangeline Lilly.

September 13, 2005

"Fever Pitch"
Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon are paired in this romantic comedy directed by the Farrelly brothers and based on a book by Nick Hornby. Lindsey (Barrymore) is a high-powered businesswoman who enters into a relationship with Ben (Fallon), a Boston high school teacher. Things go well between them at first, but then baseball season rolls around. That's when Ben, a longtime Red Sox fanatic, becomes obsessed with his team during their championship season of 2004.

"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
Based on the book by Douglas Adams, this is a goofy sci-fi comedy movie. The protagonist is Arthur Dent (Martin Freeman), an ordinary man who goes on a strange journey when extraterrestrial aliens destroy Earth. Aided by his pal (Mos Def), Arthur escapes by hitching a ride on an alien spaceship. Eventually Arthur encounters the galaxy president (Sam Rockwell) and his female companion (Zooey Deschanel), a religious leader (John Malkovich), and a supercomputer (voice of Helen Mirren).

September 20, 2005

"The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl"
This kids' adventure movie was shown in 3-D on the big screen. The story was developed from ideas suggested to director Robert Rodriguez by his seven-year-old son Racer. In the film, ten-year-old Max imagines a boy who is part shark and a girl who can control lava living in a place called Planet Drool. Then Max goes with Sharkboy and Lavagirl to their world, where they battle villains who look exactly like Max's teacher at school and Max's bullying classmate.

"Born Into Brothels"
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary, this movie tells the stories of a few of the children who live in Calcutta's red light district. Filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman give the kids cameras and teach them how to use them, and one talented boy travels to Amsterdam for a competition. Also, Briski tries to help some of the youngsters escape their squalid world by getting them into boarding schools, but she runs into problems with both parents and government bureaucracy.

"The Longest Yard"
Adam Sandler stars in this comedy, a remake of the 1974 film that starred Burt Reynolds. Sandler portrays former NFL quarterback Paul "Wrecking" Crewe, who ends up in prison and puts together a team of inmates which will play the guards in a game of football. Chris Rock takes the role of a wheeler-dealer prisoner who becomes Crewe's right-hand man, and Burt Reynolds appears in the new film as the coach of the convicts' team. Nelly portrays a running back, and James Cromwell plays the warden.

"Mindhunters"
Directed by Renny Harlin, this thriller has a cast that includes Kathryn Morris, LL Cool J, Val Kilmer, and Christian Slater. Seven F.B.I. agents and a policeman have gathered on a remote, uninhabited island for a training exercise. An instructor sets up a scenario for them where they are to profile a serial killer called the Puppeteer. But soon the trainees are being killed off, one by one, and with no way to get off the island, the survivors find themselves struggling to save their lives.

September 27, 2005

"Lords of Dogtown"
In the 1970s, young guys in Southern California transformed America's view of skateboarding by popularizing showy and dangerous stunts. Years later, one of those guys, Stacy Peralta, made a documentary about that era titled "Dogtown and Z-Boys" (2001). Peralta went on to write a screenplay for a docudrama re-creating the milieu that was released as "Lords of Dogtown" (2005) with actors playing the young men. The docudrama was directed by Catherine Hardwicke ("Thirteen").

"Robots"
This computer-animated film takes place in a futuristic world inhabited by robots and features the voices of many well-known actors, including Ewan McGregor, Robin Williams, Mel Brooks, Halle Berry, Greg Kinnear, Drew Carey, Jim Broadbent, Amanda Bynes, and Jennifer Coolidge. The hero is young Rodney Copperbottom (McGregor), who learns of a diabolical plot to stop making replacement parts. Realizing many robots will be done away with so their parts can be recycled, he does what he can to set things right.

Important product disclaimer information about this About site.