New Videos Coming Out This Week
There are some particularly interesting new releases this week, including The Pledge, Proof of Life, and State & Main. But there are other movies coming your way, including some exciting DVD releases: Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960) and Swedish writer-director Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers (1972). Let’s take a look at these films and also take a sneak peek at the videos/DVDs coming out next week.
The Pledge
Tagline: "Detective Jerry Black has made a promise he can't break, to catch a killer he can't find."
Length: 124 minutesMPAA Rating: R for strong violence and language
Jack Nicholson stars in this unconventional crime drama directed by Sean Penn. On his last day working for the Reno, Nevada, police department, Jerry Black (Nicholson) investigates the rape and murder of a young girl and pledges to the victim’s mother that he will bring the killer to justice. In retirement, Black becomes so obsessed with fulfilling his promise that he is unable to resist using his girlfriend’s young daughter as bait to catch the murderer. Although the film seems at first to be a conventional thriller, it eventually turns out to be an involving, but gloomy, character study.
Formats Available: DVD, VHS
Proof of Life
Length: 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for violence, language and some drug material
Proof of Life is a political thriller that stars Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan. Peter Bowman (David Morse) is working in Latin America when he is kidnapped and held for ransom. Although Peter and his wife Alice (Ryan) are not getting along at the time of the kidnapping, she is nevertheless quite concerned about him. Soon Terry Thorne (Crowe), an expert in kidnapping and ransom, is brought in to free Bowman. But as Thorne works on the case, he and Alice start to fall in love. The movie then goes on to show what happens to Bowman and how the budding romance works out.
Formats Available: DVD, VHS
Save the Last Dance
Tagline: "The Only Person You Need To Be Is Yourself."
Length: 112 minutesMPAA Rating: PG-13 for violence, sexual content, language, and brief drug references
Sara (Julia Stiles) is a white teenager who lives in the suburbs and studies ballet. When Sara’s mother is killed, she must move in with her estranged father and attend a predominantly black inner-city high school. Sara has trouble adjusting at first, but things improve for her when she meets Derek (Sean Patrick Thomas). Sara and Derek share an interest in dance, and soon they become romantically involved. But some are not happy with their interracial relationship, and Sara and Derek face important decisions about where they want their lives to go.
Formats Available: DVD, VHS
State & Main
Tagline: "When a film crew came to Waterford, Vermont they shot first and asked questions later."
Length: 105 minutesMPAA Rating: R for language and brief sexual images
Written and directed by David Mamet, State & Main is a comedy about what happens when a Hollywood movie called The Old Mill is shot in a Vermont town. The production is plagued with problems: The male lead (Alec Baldwin) gets romantically entangled with a local teenage girl (Julia Stiles); the female lead (Sarah Jessica Parker) unexpectedly refuses to do a topless scene; and the writer (Philip Seymour Hoffman) must write around the fact that the town’s old mill no longer exists. Meantime, the harried director (William H. Macy) must struggle to get his movie made any way he can.
Formats Available: DVD, VHS
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