| New Video and DVD Releases | |
| Part 1: This Week's Releases on Video/DVD |
by Ivana Redwine
There are some interesting video/DVD releases for September 17, 2002, including "Monsters, Inc.," "40 Days and 40 Nights," "Death to Smoochy," and "Panic Room." Let's take a look at these films, along with a few additional releases of interest, and take a sneak peek at next week's movies on video/DVD.
"40
Days and 40 Nights" (2002)
Tagline: "One man is about to do the unthinkable. No sex. Whatsoever. For... 40 days and 40 nights."
Length:
96 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for strong sexual content, nudity and language.
Josh Hartnett and Shannyn Sossamon are paired in this romantic comedy about
abstaining from sex. After Matt (Hartnett) is dumped by his great-looking girlfriend
(Vinessa Shaw), he goes through several months of being unable to relate properly
to women. He decides he will avoid all forms of sexual behavior for the 40 days
of Lent in the hope that this will help him come to terms with his problems.
During Lent, Matt meets the good-looking Erica (Sossamon), and they become attracted
to each other. However, Matt doesn't tell Erica about his self-imposed abstention,
leading to a very strange romance. Meanwhile, a pool is started on the Internet
where people bet on how long Matt can hold out. Will Matt be able to reach his
goal, and even if he does, will Erica still be around?
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Death
to Smoochy" (2002)
Tagline: "Get ready for an unexpected hit."
Length:
109 minutes
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language and sexual references.
Robin Williams, Danny DeVito, and Edward Norton star in this unpleasant comedy
that satirizes the behind-the-scenes world of kids' TV. Rainbow Randolph (Williams)
is the biggest star on a children's television network, but he gets fired when
he is caught taking bribes to put kids on his show. Scrambling to find a replacement,
network executives settle on Sheldon Mopes (Norton), who plays drug rehab clinics
dressed in a rhino outfit and calling himself Smoochy. Soon Smoochy is a big
hit on TV, and Mopes is thrown into a totally corrupt environment, where he
gets a conniving agent (DeVito) to represent him. Meanwhile, Rainbow Randolph
is doing everything he can to ruin Mopes and Smoochy. While there are some laughs
in "Death to Smoochy," many found it to be too irritating.
Selected Special DVD Features:
- DVD Available in Widescreen Anamorphic and Full-Screen Formats
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Frailty"
(2001)
Tagline: "No soul is safe."
Length:
99 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for violence and some language
This thriller is about a religious fanatic who kills in the name of God and
involves his young sons in the murders. The central character is a Texas man
known simply as Dad (Bill Paxton), a widower who is raising a 12-year-old
son Fenton and a 9-year-old son Adam. Dad is a loving, caring father, and
the boys are relatively happy until he has a vision where an angel tells him
that the three of them have been chosen by God to kill demons posing as humans.
As Dad carries out a series of murders in which Adam and Fenton participate,
the boys are emotionally scarred for life. But all of this is told years later
by a grown-up Fenton (Matthew McConaughey) to an F.B.I. agent (Powers Boothe)
investigating the "God's Hand" serial murders. "Frailty"
goes through many twists and turns as its story unreels.
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Hollywood
Ending" (2002)
Tagline: " It's going to be a shot in the dark!"
Length:
114 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some drug references and sexual material.
Woody Allen wrote, directed, and stars in this comedy, which also features
Tea Leoni and Debra Messing. Val Waxman (Allen) was once an Oscar-winning
director, but he hasn't directed a successful movie in years and has wound
up shooting commercials in Canada. Then Waxman's ex-wife (Leoni) manages to
convince her fiancé (Treat Williams), the head of Galaxie Studios,
to choose Waxman to direct a big-budget film titled "The City That Never
Sleeps." After casting his current lover (Messing) in the movie, Waxman
is preparing to start shooting when he suddenly goes blind. Nevertheless,
Waxman begins the shoot, concealing his blindness from everyone except the
cinematographer's Chinese translator, who gives the director muddled verbal
descriptions of what's going on.
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Kissing
Jessica Stein" (2001)
Tagline: "When it comes to love, sometimes she just can't think straight."
Length:
96 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for sexual content and language
Open-minded audiences have been charmed by this girl-meets-girl romantic
comedy, and 85 percent of the Rotten Tomatoes critics liked it. Jessica
Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) is a neurotic Manhattan copy editor who despairs
of ever finding the right man. She answers a personal ad placed by Helen
Cooper (Heather Juergensen), a SoHo art gallery employee who has much more
sex with men than she has with women. As the attraction between the two
women grows, Helen is very patient with the skittish Jessica during a prolonged
courtship. There are lots of big laughs as the uneasy relationship develops,
and the movie seems to be at least partly about the difficulty in separating
the erotic from the platonic. The two lead actresses wrote the screenplay,
which they adapted from their own Off Broadway play.
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Monsters,
Inc." (2001)
Tagline: "You won't believe your eye."
Length:
92 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
This animated comedy is aimed at kids, but most adults find it reasonably
entertaining. Voices heard include those of Billy Crystal, John Goodman,
James Coburn, and Jennifer Tilly. "Monsters, Inc." confirms a
belief held by many children: Sometimes there really are monsters in their
bedroom closets. But those monsters are just doing their job. They work
for a company called Monsters, Inc., which is responsible for the energy
supply in Monstropolis, the place where monsters live. Monstropolis is powered
by screams, and the monsters come to the closets to collect kids' screams
to use as a power source. But Monsters, Inc. has a big problem: Kids are
getting harder to scare, and Monstropolis is facing an energy shortage.
Ninety-five percent of the Rotten Tomatoes critics liked "Monsters,
Inc."
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
- Two-Disc Set
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Panic
Room" - (2002) Superbit Deluxe Collection
Tagline: "It was supposed to be the safest room in the house."
Length:
112 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for violence and language
This thriller stars Jodie Foster and Forest Whitaker. After a divorce,
Meg Altman (Foster) moves with her teenage daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart)
into a large Manhattan brownstone. The house includes a "panic room,"
a special room that is very hard to break into and has its own supplies
of air, water, and electricity. On their first night in the house, Meg
and Sarah lock themselves in the panic room when they become aware there
are intruders, who have come to take something they believe the previous
occupant left behind. There are three burglars, including Burnham (Whitaker),
who has been building panic rooms for the last several years. Soon a tense
standoff develops, with Burnham trying to get into the panic room while
Meg attempts to summon help and/or get the housebreakers to leave.
Selected Special DVD Features:
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
- Superbit Deluxe DVD
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
Additional Releases of Interest:
"Earth
vs. the Flying Saucers" (1956)
- Photo Gallery
- Documentary: "The Harryhausen Chronicles"
- Featurettes: "This Is Dynamation" and "The Making of Earth vs. the Flying Saucers"
- Widescreen Letterbox Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Flirting"
(1992)
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"John
and Yoko's Year of Peace" (2002)
- Full-Screen Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Little
Nikita" (1988)
- Closed-Captioned
- Widescreen and Full-Screen Presentations
- Theatrical Trailers
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"Snatch"
(2002) - Superbit Deluxe Collection
- Superbit Deluxe DVD
- Widescreen Anamorphic Format
Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD. Check for availability on VHS.
"The
Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988)
- Widescreen
Anamorphic Format
Next Page - Next Week's Movies on Video/DVD
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