New Videos Coming Out This Week
This week's selection of new releases scheduled for May 22, 2001, includes films such as Requiem for a Dream, Vertical Limit, and Dungeons & Dragons. But there are two releases that I am particularly excited about: Before Night Falls and the Special-Edition DVD release of Billy Wilder's comic masterpiece Some Like it Hot.
Before Night Falls
Length: 125 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, some language and brief violence
Julian Schnabel directed this visually stunning biopic about Cuban poet and novelist Reinaldo Arenas (Javier Bardem). The film shows Arenas as a young adult enjoying life in various homoerotic situations, particularly at the beach, and the combination of his open homosexuality and his writings eventually gets Arenas in trouble with the Castro government. Arenas is thrown in jail, where he spends several years before being deported as an undesirable. Ultimately, an embittered Arenas makes his way to New York, where he contracts AIDS and commits suicide.
Formats Available: DVD, VHSDungeons & Dragons
Tagline: "This is no game."
Length: 107 minutesMPAA Rating: PG-13 for fantasy action violence
Inspired by the game of the same name, the action/adventure movie Dungeons & Dragons takes place in a mythical land where all the work is done by commoners for a privileged class called the Mages. The young Empress Savina (Thora Birch) seeks equality for all segments of society, but she is opposed by the elitist Profion (Jeremy Irons), who intends to seize power and maintain the Mages’ favored status. Control of the kingdom is determined by the possession of a large gem and a magic scepter, and Savina’s supporters must secure these items before they fall into the hands of Profion’s followers.
Formats Available: DVD, VHSRequiem for a Dream - Director’s Cut
Length: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: Unrated
In this downbeat drama, writer-director Darren Aronofsky captures the psychological outlook of the drug addict. Ellen Burstyn gives a brilliant performance as Sara Goldfarb, a middle-aged woman who becomes hooked on amphetamines by way of diet pills. Sara’s son (Jared Leto), his girlfriend (Jennifer Connelly), and his buddy (Marlon Wayons) are young people who are addicted to drugs like heroin and cocaine. The film is unrelenting in showing the appalling prices paid by these four dreamers for the brief highs the drugs give them.
Selected Special Features on the Director’s Cut DVD
Formats Available: The above information refers to the Requiem for a Dream - Director’s Cut DVD. There is also an edited version of Requiem for a Dream available on VHS and DVD. The edited version is 100 minutes long and has an MPAA rating of R.
Next page Some Like It Hot - Special Edition and More New Releases Page 1, 2
