Selected July Releases on Video/DVD

JULY 3

Dracula 2000

In England in the year 2000, Dracula escapes from over 100 years of imprisonment by the now ancient Van Helsing, who has prolonged his own life by using leeches that have sucked on vampire blood. Van Helsing’s daughter Mary, who now lives in New Orleans, also has vampire blood mixed with her human blood, and Dracula finds this irresistibly attractive. Dracula travels to New Orleans to seek out Mary, but the aged Van Helsing follows to try to save his daughter. As the story unfolds, we’re astonished to learn that there is some sort of relationship between Dracula and Judas Iscariot!

Snatch

As in his Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1999), writer-director Guy Ritchie builds his energetic new movie Snatch around a complicated plot, jump cuts, visual tricks, and pop music. Set in the London underworld, the film stars Brad Pitt, Benicio Del Toro, and Dennis Farina. The story involves the theft of a huge and valuable diamond, corruption in the boxing world, and the feeding of human cadavers to pigs. Offering up an unconventional mix of action and comedy, the fast-paced Snatch is more about style than substance.

The Wedding Planner

In this romantic comedy, Jennifer Lopez stars as Mary Fiore, a single woman who is a professional wedding planner. When Mary is almost hit by a runaway trash dumpster, she is saved by Dr. Steve Edison (Matthew McConaughey), and they are immediately attracted to each other. But soon Mary begins planning a wealthy client’s elaborate wedding, and she learns that the groom will be none other than Dr. Steve Edison. As the planning proceeds, Mary must sort through her feelings about her job and Steve, and Steve must decide between Mary and his fiancee.

JULY 10

Down to Earth

Chris Rock stars in this comedy based on the 1978 movie Heaven Can Wait. Lance Barton (Rock), a young black man who aspires to be a stand-up comic, is called to heaven by mistake. Upon discovering the error, the angels return Lance to earth, but the only body available for Lance to occupy is that of millionaire Charles Wellington, an older white man. Most of the film’s humor then derives from the older, white Wellington behaving like the younger, black Lance, particularly when Lance (in Wellington’s body) becomes smitten with an attractive young activist played by Regina King.

Malena

From writer-director Giuseppe Tornatore (Cinema Paradiso) comes the Italian-language film Malena, a reminisce by an older man of his boyhood in a small town in Sicily in the early 1940s. Renato (Giuseppe Sulfaro) is a teenage boy who becomes obsessed with a sexy-looking schoolteacher named Malena Scordia (Monica Bellucci). The early part of the movie lightheartedly shows how every male in town is captivated by Malena, whose husband is overseas in the military. But when Malena’s husband is killed in the war, the film takes a dark turn, and Malena is eventually forced to trade on her ability to attract men just to survive.

Monkeybone

This comedy, which relies heavily on special effects and bizarre images, stars Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, and Whoopi Goldberg. Fraser plays Stu Miley, a cartoonist who has created a popular simian character named Monkeybone. Miley falls into a coma after an automobile accident, and in his mind descends to a weird nether world. While Miley’s girlfriend (Fonda) tries to help him recover, he must contend with the denizens of that nether world, which include the cartoon character Monkeybone come to life (voice of John Turturro) and Death (Goldberg).

Thirteen Days

Starring Kevin Costner, Thirteen Days is a well-crafted docudrama about the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The story is told as seen through the eyes of Kenny O’Donnell (Costner), a trusted assistant to President John F. Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood) and close friend of the President’s brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (Steven Culp). When the White House learns that the Soviet Union has installed nuclear missiles in Cuba, the Kennedy administration tries to intimidate the Soviets into removing them. As tension mounts between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., the lives of millions hang in the balance.

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