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by
Ivana Redwine
Take a look at a selection of new movies on DVD and video for March, 2004. March
2, 2004 - New Video and DVD Releases "Cold
Creek Manor"
Dennis Quaid and Sharon Stone star in this thriller. Fed up with city life,
Cooper Tilson (Quaid) and his wife Leah (Stone) move with their two kids to a
rundown country house situated on several hundred acres. The property's former
owner (Stephen Dorff), who recently got out of prison, drops by, and the Tilsons
hire him to do renovations. But soon things begin going horribly wrong, and the
Tilsons find themselves in grave danger. "Duplex"
Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore star in this comedy directed by Danny DeVito.
Alex (Stiller) and Nancy (Barrymore) buy a Brooklyn duplex, but rent control laws
permit the old lady who rents the upper floor to remain there indefinitely. When
it turns out the old lady continually bugs the young couple and blares her TV
all night, Alex and Nancy try to get rid of her. They become so frustrated they
seriously consider resorting to murder. "Good
Boy!"
Aimed at kids, this comedy features talking dogs. After young Owen (Liam
Aiken) adopts a pooch, he discovers that dogs originated in outer space and were
sent to Earth thousands of years ago to rule the planet. But it turns out Owen's
dog was recently dispatched to Earth to check up on the progress of the canines,
and unless Owen is able to do something quickly, all dogs on Earth will be recalled
to their ancestral extraterrestrial homeland. "Looney
Tunes: Back in Action"
This comedy mixes live action with animation. The movie features actors
(Brendan Fraser, Jenna Elfman, Steve Martin) interacting with Warner Bros. cartoon
characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Elfman portrays a studio VP who fires
a security guard (Fraser), and Martin plays the nefarious head of a monstrous
corporation. Meanwhile, Daffy and Bugs travel to Las Vegas and Paris, where they
jump into paintings in the Louvre. "School
of Rock"
Jack Black stars in this rock 'n' roll comedy that appeals to viewers
over a wide age range. Black portrays down-on-his-luck rocker Dewey Finn, who
fakes his way into substitute teaching fifth-graders. He abandons the regular
curriculum and teaches nothing but rock 'n' roll. Musically inclined students
play instruments, while others do lighting, costumes, etc. But Dewey's day of
reckoning looms, and it all comes down to a Battle of the Bands. March
9, 2004 -
New
Video and DVD Releases "Croupier"
This 1998 film finally comes out on DVD. A casino-based thriller, the
movie's strengths are atmosphere and character. The title character is Jack Manfred
(Clive Owen), an aspiring writer who narrates this tale while he's employed at
a posh London casino. Jack gets romantically involved with two women and is pulled
into a risky scheme by a third. But in his cool, detached way, he's always trying
to figure out the odds. "Mona
Lisa Smile"
Julia Roberts stars as Katherine Watson, a free-spirited Californian who goes
to Massachusetts in 1953 to teach art history at Wellesley, an elite women's college.
At that time, Wellesley still viewed its primary mission as training young women
to be wives who would give their husbands a big boost up the corporate ladder,
but Watson manages to shakes things up a bit. Kirsten Dunst, Julia Stiles, and
Maggie Gyllenhaal play Wellesley students.
March
16, 2004 -
New
Video and DVD Releases "21
Grams"
Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and Benicio Del Toro star in this powerful
drama directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu ("Amores
perros"). The film intercuts three intertwined stories, unfolding them out
of chronological order. An accident links the lives of a college professor (Penn),
a former party girl (Watts), and a born-again ex-con (Del Toro). The title comes
from the claim that when you die, your body loses 21 grams, the weight of the
soul. "Dr.
Seuss' The Cat in the Hat"
Mike Myers stars as The Cat in this live-action adaptation of Dr. Seuss'
beloved children's book. Spencer Breslin and Dakota Fanning play the kids, Conrad
and Sally, siblings who live with their single mom. One day Conrad and Sally are
visited by the large talking feline who wears a tall striped hat, and he leads
them on a series of merry, illogical adventures. The movie has lots of pop culture
references and is not faithful to the spirit of Dr. Seuss. "Veronica
Guerin"
Cate
Blanchett plays the title role in this docudrama based on the life of a Dublin
newspaper journalist who was married and had a young son. In the mid-1990s, Guerin
writes a series of articles exposing the increasing drug sales to youths in the
Irish capital. Despite threats and warning injuries, she digs ever deeper into
the narcotics world. Her anti-drug crusade captures the attention of law enforcement
and legislators, but ultimately she is murdered. March
23, 2004 -
New
Video and DVD Releases "Beyond
Borders"
Angelina Jolie stars in this drama intended to call attention to the plight
of refugees around the world, and the leading lady is romantically paired with
Clive Owen. Jolie plays a society woman who becomes heavily involved in humanitarian
aid, while Owen portrays a physician who provides medical services to refugees
in troubled places. Jolie's and Owen's characters carry on a romance at relief
camps in Ethiopia, Cambodia, and Chechnya. "Dirty
Pretty Things"
This drama centers around illegal immigrants who perform menial labor at one of
London's luxury hotels. One of the key characters is Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor),
a Nigerian man who drives a taxi by day and works at the hotel at night. Another
key character is Senay (Audrey Tautou), a chambermaid who comes from Turkey. Okwe
and Senay uncover a human organ black market operation and try to deal with that
while avoiding immigration officials. "Gothika"
This thriller stars Halle Berry as Miranda Grey, a psychiatrist at a
women's prison. Driving through a storm, Miranda comes upon a girl in the middle
of the road. When the psychiatrist goes to help her, the girl bursts into flames.
Miranda passes out and later wakes up to find herself incarcerated in the very
institution where she used to work, accused of murdering her husband. Also appearing
in the movie are Robert Downey Jr. and Penélope Cruz. "Honey"
Set against a hip-hop backdrop, this drama is about Honey Daniels (Jessica
Alba), a young woman who longs to dance in music videos. She's working boring
jobs and teaching dancing at a community center when she's hired by a video director
who has the hots for her. As Honey's career begins to take off, the community
center is shut down, and her suitor (Mekhi Phifer), a barber, fears she is forgetting
all about him and her old neighborhood. "The
Magdalene Sisters"
This docudrama chronicles a dark chapter in Ireland's history. For decades, Irish
women were used as slave labor in the so-called Magdalene laundries, run by the
Sisters of Mercy and producing a stream of income for the Catholic Church. The
movie focuses on a few of the tens of thousands of victims, including: (1) a girl
who had a child out of wedlock; (2) a girl who shamed her family by being raped;
and (3) a girl who was too flirtatious. "The
Rundown"
The Rock stars in this lighthearted action movie, which also features
Seann William Scott, Rosario Dawson, and Christopher Walken. Beck (The Rock) travels
to the Amazon jungle to bring back Travis (Scott), who has gotten himself in trouble
there. Travis is after a legendary gold relic, as is Mariana (Dawson). But the
evil Hatcher (Walken) is pursuing his own agenda, and everyone gets caught up
in a series of perilous adventures and action sequences. "Shattered
Glass"
In the 1990s, the highly regarded magazine "The New Republic"
was publishing some fascinating articles, including more than two dozen by a hot
young journalist named Stephen Glass. But eventually an editor at the magazine
named Chuck Lane discovered that Glass was falsifying much of the information
he presented as factual. This movie dramatizes that story, with Hayden Christensen
playing Glass and Peter Sarsgaard as Lane. March
30, 2004 -
New
Video and DVD Releases "Brother
Bear"
This Disney animated drama is set thousands of years ago in the Pacific Northwest.
A bear called Kenai, guided by the bear cub Koda, makes a long journey to a magical
place. But this all began earlier when Kenai was one of three human brothers.
After a bear killed one of the brothers, Kenai retaliated by killing that bear.
Then human Kenai was transformed into a bear, against which Kenai's surviving
brother mistakenly seeks revenge. "House
of Sand and Fog"
Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley star in this powerful drama set in California.
While Kathy Nicolo (Connelly) is distraught over a marital breakup, she fails
to respond to tax bills on her family home, and it is auctioned off. The buyer
is Iranian exile Massoud Amir Behrani (Kingsley), who needs the property to preserve
his dignity. Kathy and Behrani both claim the house, but the legal system moves
slowly, leading to tragedy. "Something's
Gotta Give"
Jack Nicholson and Diane Keaton are paired in this romantic comedy that
was written and directed by Nancy Meyers. Sixty-something Harry (Nicholson), who
has dated only 20-something women for decades, goes to a beach house with nubile
Marin (Amanda Peet). Marin's middle-aged mom Erica (Keaton) shows up there, Harry
has a heart attack, and he and Erica spend time together while he convalesces,
falling in love along the way. "The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre"
This horror movie is the 2003 remake of the 1974 cult favorite. The new
version has much higher production values, the gore is much more explicit, and
the evil Sawyer clan of the original is renamed the Hewitts in the remake. Still,
the story remains more or less the same: a group of young people (one of whom
is played by Jessica Biel) gets lost in Texas and runs into a chainsaw-wielding
homicidal maniac wearing a mask of human skin. More
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