New Videos Coming Out This Week

Here's what you need to know to plan your next trip to the video store. There are some interesting releases slated for Tuesday, November 13, 2001, including "America's Sweethearts," The Closet," and "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider." 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 videos and DVDs.

"America's Sweethearts"

Tagline: "The Crew's Here. The Camera's Are Rolling. And the Directors Got a Problem!"

Length: 102 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for language, some crude and sexual humor

Julia Roberts, Billy Crystal, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and John Cusack star in this comedy about the business of marketing movies. Eddie (Cusack) and Gwen (Zeta-Jones) are a husband-and-wife acting team who have made many popular films together, and they have become known as "America's sweethearts." But Gwen's affair has their marriage on the skids just as their latest movie -- an expensive production that can make or break the studio -- is about to be released. Lee (Crystal) is assigned the task of handling publicity for the film, and he tries desperately to keep the press from finding out the couple is headed for divorce court. But things get complicated when Eddie and Kiki (Roberts), who is Gwen's sister and assistant, start to fall for each other.

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"The Closet"

Length: 84 minutes
MPAA Rating: R for a scene of sexuality

"The Closet" is a French-language comedy starring Gerard Depardieu and Daniel Auteuil. Francois Pignon (Auteuil) is an accountant at a condom company who learns he's about to be fired. Pignon, a divorced heterosexual, comes up with a scam that convinces the company he is gay, and they decide not to fire him to avoid the possibility of a lawsuit based on discrimination because of sexual orientation. Immediately everyone at the company starts to treat Pignon with careful political correctness, and a homophobic coworker (Depardieu) suddenly finds it expedient to be nice to Pignon. But to keep his job, Pignon must at all times keep up the pretense of being gay, even to the point of riding the condom company's float in a gay pride parade.

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"crazy/beautiful"

Length: 95 minutes; director's cut runs 135 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for mature thematic material involving teens, drug/alcohol content, sexuality & language.

In this romantic drama, Kirsten Dunst and Jay Hernandez portray high school students who fall for each other. Nicole (Dunst), who is the daughter of a liberal white U.S. Congressman, is a troubled girl who skips school a lot and mixes drinking and driving. Part of her problem is that she doesn't get along well with her stepmother. Carlos (Hernandez) comes from a hard-working Latino family and is a model student who aspires to go to the U.S. Naval Academy. He endures long bus rides to an upscale part of Los Angeles to attend school, where Nicole is also a student. Nicole and Carlos become involved in a romantic and sexual relationship, and both families become concerned when Jay starts to be influenced by Nicole's self-destructive ways.

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"Lara Croft: Tomb Raider"

Tagline: "Who Is Lara Croft?"

MPAA Rating: PG-13 for action violence and some sensuality

Length: 100 minutes

Angelina Jolie stars as the title character, a major babe who kicks butt, in this action-adventure movie based on a video game. Lara Croft is a martial arts expert and collector of artifacts who becomes aware that there is an talisman known as the Triangle of Light which has been broken into two pieces. A secret society called the Illuminati is trying to find the two pieces and put them together at the moment when the nine planets come into alignment, which will give the Illuminati the ability to control time. But the movie is really about the action sequences that result as Lara fights to keep the evil Illuminati from being successful. Lara's father is played by Jon Voight, who is Angelina Jolie's father. Eighty-five percent of the critics on Rotten Tomatoes didn't like "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider."

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Cast and Crew interviews
• Commentary by Director Simon West
• Deleted Scenes
• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"Osmosis Jones"

Tagline: "He's one cell of a guy."

Length: 95 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG for bodily humor.

Parts of this comedy are live-action and star Bill Murray, while other parts are animated and feature the voices of several celebrities. Bill Murray plays Frank Detorri, a zoo worker who is careless about what he eats. In one case Frank gets sick from eating a tainted hard-boiled egg, and in another he vomits on his daughter's teacher when he eats an improperly cleaned oyster. For the animated parts of the film, we are taken inside Frank's body, where we meet a white blood cell named Osmosis Jones (voice of Chris Rock) and a cold capsule named Drix (voice of David Hyde Pierce), who fight against a nasty virus (voice of Laurence Fishburne). Other voices heard are those of William Shatner, Ron Howard, and Brandy Norwood.

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Full-screen and Widescreen Anamorphic Formats
• Commentary by Animation Directors, Producer, and Writer

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"Under the Sand"

Tagline: "Can love vanish without a trace?"

Length: 96 minutes
MPAA Rating: Unrated

Cowritten and directed by Francois Ozon, "Under the Sand" is a haunting French-language art-house drama that stars Charlotte Rampling. Rampling portrays Marie Drillon, an attractive woman in her mid-fifties who teaches English at a university in Paris. One summer day Marie and her somewhat older husband Jean (Bruno Cremer) go to the seashore. Marie opts for a nap while Jean takes a swim, but when she awakes, he has disappeared. Marie eventually returns to her job, works out at the gym, sometimes sees friends, and even takes a lover (Jacques Nolot), but she also continues to see and talk to her vanished husband as if he were still with her. But this movie isn't really about the mystery surrounding Jean's disappearance -- it's about the grief experienced by Marie.

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

Additional Releases of Interest:

"The Blue Angel" (1931)

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Original and Restored German Version of the Feature with English Subtitles
• Concert Footage from Dietrich Performances

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"Bride of the Wind" (2001)

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Letterbox Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"A Room With a View" (1986)

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"That Obscure Object of Desire" (1977)

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format
• Interview with Screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"What's Eating Gilbert Grape" (1993)

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory" (1971) - 30th Anniversary Edition

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Widescreen Anamorphic Format
• Documentary: "Pure Imagination"

Formats Available: The above information on special features refers to the DVD; this film is also available on VHS.

"The X-Files" - The Complete Fourth Season

Selected Special DVD Features:

• Deleted and Extended Scenes
• Special Effects With Commentary by Paul Rabwin
• 7-Disc Boxed Set

Formats Available: Only Available on DVD.

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