Library

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: Every dream has a price.

Summary: Michael Douglas won an Oscar for perfectly embodying the Reagan-era credo that "greed is good." As a Donald Trump-like Wall Street raider aptly named Gordon Gecko (for his reptilian ability to attack corporate targets and swallow them whole), Douglas found a role tailor-made to his skill in portraying heartless men who've sacrificed humanity to power. He's a slick, seductive role model for the young ambitious Wall Street broker played by Charlie Sheen, who falls into Gecko's sphere of influence and instantly succumbs to the allure of risky deals and generous payoffs. With such perks as a high-rise apartment and women who love men for their money, Charlie's like a worm on Gecko's hook, blind to the corporate maneuvering that puts him at odds with his own father (played by Sheen's offscreen father, Martin). With his usual lack of subtlety, writer-director Oliver Stone drew from the brokering experience of his own father to tell this Faustian tale for the "me" decade, but the movie's sledgehammer style is undeniably effective. A cautionary warning that Stone delivers on highly entertaining terms, "Wall Street" grabs your attention while questioning the corrupted values of a system that worships profit at the cost of one's soul. --"Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Sound: AC-3

Comments: An Adventure Beyond the Ordinar-E

Summary: Pixar genius reigns in this funny romantic comedy, which stars a robot who says absolutely nothing for a full 25 minutes yet somehow completely transfixes and endears himself to the audience within the first few minutes of the film. As the last robot left on earth, Wall-E (voiced by Ben Burtt) is one small robot--with a big, big heart--who holds the future of earth and mankind squarely in the palm of his metal hand. He's outlasted all the "Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth-Class" robots that were assigned some 700 years ago to clean up the environmental mess that man made of earth while man vacationed aboard the luxury spaceship Axiom. Wall-E has dutifully gone about his job compacting trash, the extreme solitude broken only by his pet cockroach, but he's developed some oddly human habits and ideas. When the Axiom sends its regularly scheduled robotic EVE probe (Elissa Knight) to earth, Wall-E is instantly smitten and proceeds to try to impress EVE with his collection of human memorabilia. EVE's directive compels her to bring Wall-E's newly collected plant sprout to the captain of the Axiom and Wall-E follows in hot pursuit. Suddenly, the human world is turned upside down and the Captain (Jeff Garlin) joins forces with Wall-E and a cast of other misfit robots to lead the now lethargic people back home to earth. Wall-E is a great family film with the most impressive aspect being the depth of emotion conveyed by a simple robot--a machine typically considered devoid of emotion, but made so absolutely touching by the magic of Pixar animation. Also well-worth admiring are the sweeping views from space, the creative yet disturbing vision of what strange luxuries a future space vacation might offer, and the innovative use of trash in a future cityscape. Underneath the slapstick comedy and touching love story is a poignant message about the folly of human greed and its potential effects on earth and the entire human race. Wall-E is preceded in theaters by the comical short Presto in which a magician's rabbit, unfed one too many times takes his revenge against the egotistical magician. (Ages 3 and older) --Tami Horiuchi>




Stills from Wall-E (Click for larger image)




 

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: Choose your destiny.

Summary: As the impresario behind gravity-defying Russian blockbuster "Night Watch", it's inevitable that Hollywood would come calling for Timur Bekmambetov. With a studio budget and an international cast, including two Oscar winners, Timur cooks up a Hong Kong-styled actioner bursting with fast cars and big guns. Our unlikely hero is mild-mannered Chicago accountant Wesley Gibson ("Atonement's" James McAvoy), whose father died when he was a tot. Wesley never learned to stand up for himself, and his girlfriend, boss, and best buddy all take advantage until the seductive Fox (Angelina Jolie) rescues him from a sharpshooter named Cross ("The Pianist’s" Thomas Kretschmann). After which, she whisks him away to a mansion on the edge of town to meet the other members of the Fraternity, where leader Sloan (Morgan Freeman) informs Wesley that Cross, a rogue agent, executed his father. Sloan believes Wesley has the goods to take him out, so he undergoes the Fraternity's brutal training regimen (Marc Warren and Common dish up some of the abuse). When he's ready, Sloan sends him out to fulfill his duty, but matters become complicated when Wesley finds out someone isn't telling the truth, leading our former milquetoast to exact an elaborate revenge. For those who've been following McAvoy's career to date, Wanted will surely come as a surprise. In adapting Mark Millar's comic series, Timur offers buckets of blood and a smidgen of depth, but fans of "The Matrix" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" will want to give this one a look. --"Kathleen C. Fennessy"




Stills from "Wanted" (Click for larger image)

Languages: English, Japanese

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Vengence is the ultimate weapon.

Summary: If you are expecting a flat out martial arts film you will be disappointed. This movie is more of a cops vs bad guys with a slight tinge of martial arts. Once you get past that aspect, I thought the movie as well as the story was decent. The mystery behind who Rogue (Jet Li's character) is and why he is playing the triads against the yakuza accompanied with the action will keep you entertained from the beginning of the film to the end. The story also has a twist that makes the movie even more interesting. This is definitely a movie worth checking out.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: Once in a lifetime comes a motion picture that makes you feel like falling in love all over again. This is not that movie.

Summary: Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner, and Danny DeVito reunited for a third time to fabulous effect in this dark, disturbing comedy of martial trauma and revenge, which couldn't be more different from their sunnier outings in "Romancing the Stone" and "The Jewel of the Nile". Douglas and Turner, in career-best performances, are the materialistic, consumer-driven Roses of the title (Oliver and Barbara) whose seemingly perfect marriage has soured beyond repair; their only point of contact, aside from their two college-bound kids, is their meticulously maintained dream house, which Douglas bought and Turner decorated to perfection. When Turner gets a taste of financial independence, she asks Douglas for divorce--all she wants is the house and everything in it (aside from his clothes and shaving kit). He laughs at her and she punches him in the face. Things only get worse from there, as nasty divorce proceedings (with DeVito as Douglas's lawyer) give way to insults, threats, ruined dinner parties, and pet abuse. And through it all, the Roses begin destroying their beloved home and its contents, just to spite each other. DeVito, who also directed, takes Michael Leeson's blacker-than-black screenplay and gives it a hyperstylized spin, complete with skewed camera angles and wonderfully expressionistic cinematography (by Stephen Burum) as Douglas and Turner barricade themselves in their house, both refusing to give an inch. Shocking for a mainstream studio picture, with its unsympathetic protagonists, escalating bitterness, and disturbing finale, "Roses" is a poisonously funny valentine to both marriage and '80s materialism, tempered only by its framing device as a cautionary tale. Definitely "not" a date movie. "--Mark Englehart"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: They're already here.

Summary: Despite super effects, a huge budget, and the cinematic pedigree of alien-happy Steven Spielberg, this take on H.G. Wells's novel is basically a horror film packaged as a sci-fi thrill ride. Instead of a mad slasher, however, Spielberg (along with writers Josh Friedman & David Koepp) utilizes aliens hell-bent on quickly destroying humanity, and the terrifying results that prey upon adult fears, especially in the post-9/11 world. The realistic results could be a new genre, the grim popcorn thriller; often you feel like you're watching Schindler's List more than Spielberg's other thrill-machine movies ("Jaws", "Jurassic Park"). The film centers on Ray Ferrier, a divorced father (Tom Cruise, oh so comfortable) who witnesses one giant craft destroy his New Jersey town and soon is on the road with his teen son (Justin Chatwin) and preteen daughter (Dakota Fanning) in tow, trying to keep ahead of the invasion. The film is, of course, impeccably designed and produced by Spielberg's usual crew of A-class talent. The aliens are genuinely scary, even when the film--like the novel--spends a good chunk of time in a basement. Readers of the book (or viewers of the deft 1953 adaptation) will note the variation of whom and how the aliens come to Earth, which poses some logistical problems. The film opens and closes with narration from the novel read by Morgan Freeman, but Spielberg could have adapted Orson Welles's words from the famous Halloween Eve 1938 radio broadcast: "We couldn't soap all your windows and steal all your garden gates by tomorrow night, so we did the best next thing: we annihilated the world." "--Doug Thomas"
"War of the Worlds" at Amazon.com
The Soundtrack
"The War of the Worlds" (1953)
"War of the Worlds - The Complete First Season" (TV series)
Classic Sci-Fi Movies and Their Remakes
Aliens Invade on DVD
The Prog-rock Opera (no kidding)

Languages: English

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: When it comes to war...America means business

Summary: A wobbly mix of violence and sentiment, "War, Inc." takes up where "Grosse Pointe Blank" left off. A conscience-stricken killer in the previous film, producer/co-writer Cusack now plays an international assassin. In Joshua Seftel's political satire, corporations operate like governments. In the volatile nation of Turaqistan, Cusack's hot sauce-addicted Brand Hauser sets his sights on Omar Sharif--the oil baron, not the actor (it's never clear why this is meant to be funny). As a cover, Hauser passes as the producer for an economic trade show with fellow operative Marsha (Joan Cusack) acting as his assistant. Trained by Southern smoothie Walken (Ben Kingsley) in his CIA days (depicted though flashbacks), Hauser now takes orders from an oily CEO ("Grosse Pointe" co-star Dan Aykroyd). Offing Sharif, however, turns out to be harder than expected. Hauser's obstacles include left-wing journalist Natalie Hegalhuzen (Marisa Tomei) and foul-mouthed pop tart Yonica Babyyeah (Hilary Duff, erasing innocent images of "Lizzy McGuire"). Cusack and his crew come up with a few clever ideas, but too many crass gags blunt their thesis about military contractors run amok. Pitched somewhere between Stanley Kubrick’s "Dr. Strangelove" and Mike Judge’s "Idiocracy", "War, Inc." registers as more of a miss than a hit. On the plus side, Cusack and Tomei have a snappy rapport; it's the more over-the-top performers who look out of place, especially Ms. Cusack and Kingsley, though the latter's deft turn as a boozy hit man in the overlooked "You Kill Me" almost makes up for this misfire. "--Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl.

Summary: TV's "Saturday Night Live" has been like the evil twin of the legendary alchemist's stone, which supposedly could turn lead into gold. "SNL" usually does the opposite, taking rich comic premises from short skits and extrapolating them into overblown and unfunny full-length films. ("The Coneheads"? Puh-leeze!) But this film proved to be the exception, thanks to Mike Myers's wonderfully rude lowbrow humor and his full-bodied understanding of who his character is. Wayne Campbell (Myers) and his nerdy pal Garth (Dana Carvey) are teens who live at home and have their own low-rent cable-access show in Aurora, Illinios, in which they celebrate their favorite female movie stars and heavy-metal bands. When a Chicago TV station smells a potential youth-audience ratings hit, the station's weasely executive (Rob Lowe) tries to coopt the show--and steal Wayne's new rock & roll girlfriend (Tia Carrere) at the same time. It's filled with all kinds of knowing spoofs of movie conventions, from Wayne talking to the camera (and forbidding other characters to do so) to hilariously self-conscious product placements and labeling a moment a "Gratuitous Sex Scene." Dumb--and very funny. "--Marshall Fine"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll hurl.

Summary: This DVD includes both films in widescreen format but omits the directors' commentary tracks, trailers, and cast info that was available on the separate DVDs. With these films, I really don't miss those extras. Great, funny stuff.

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1

Comments: He's gonna party like it's 1985.

Summary: Robbie Hart is singing the hits of the 1980s at weddings and other celebrations. He also can keep the party going in good spirit, he knows what to say and when to say it. Julia is a waitress at the events where Robbie performs. When both of them find someone to marry and prepare for their weddings, it becomes clear that they've chosen wrong partners.

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: Bob's a special kind of friend. The kind that drives you crazy!

Summary: Comic wizard Bill Murray (CRADLE WILL ROCK, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS) teams up with Academy Award(R)-winner Richard Dreyfuss teams up with (Best Actor, 1978, THE GOODBYE GIRL) in an outrageously wild comedy that's sure to drive you off the deep end! Murray plays Bob Wiley, a troubled but lovable therapy patient who fears everything! After seeking help from noted psychiatrist Dr. Leo Marvin (Dreyfuss), Bob feels revived. But when the good doctor skips town to go on a quiet family vacation, Bob, afraid of being alone, follows -- showing up unexpectedly at the therapist's lakeside retreat. That's when the fun really begins! Bob innocently becomes the houseguest who just won't leave -- endearing himself to the other family members ... and, in the end, driving the stressed-out shrink absolutely crazy!

Languages: English

Subtitles: Spanish, French

Sound: Dolby

Comments: After life there is more. The end is just the beginning.

Summary: Robin Williams and Annabella Sciorra star in this visually stunning metaphysical tale of life after death. Neurologist Chris and artist Annie had the perfect life until they lost their children in an auto accident; they're just starting to recover when Chris meets an untimely death himself. He's met by a messenger named Albert (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and taken to his own personal afterlife--a freshly drawn world reminiscent of Annie's own artwork, still dripping and wet with paint. Meanwhile a depressed Annie takes her own life, compelling Chris to traverse heaven and hell to save Annie from an eternity of despair.
The multitextured visuals seem to have been created from a lost fairy tale. Heaven recalls the landscape paintings of Thomas Cole and Renaissance architecture complete with floating cherubs, while hell is a massive shipwreck, an upside-down cathedral overgrown with thorns and a sea of groaning faces popping out of the ground (one of those faces is German director Werner Herzog). Williams is the perfect actor to play against the imaginative computer-generated imagery--he himself is a human special effect. But the lack of chemistry between Williams and Sciorra is painfully apparent, and the flashback plot structure flattens the story's impact despite its deeply felt examinations of the heart and the spirit. Still, there's no denying Eugenio Zanetti's triumphant production design and the Oscar-winning special effects, which create a fully formed universe that is at once beautiful, eerie, and a unique example of movie magic. "--Shannon Gee"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: He has the power to hear everything women are thinking. Finally... a man is listening.

Summary: It must've made for a great pitch meeting: Male chauvinist advertising executive gains the ability to hear the thoughts of any woman around him. Add Mel Gibson--as Nick, the divorced "man's man" who can charm almost any woman into bed--and you've got high-concept comedy made in Hollywood heaven, right? Not necessarily. The smartest thing director Nancy Meyers did with "What Women Want" is dispose of this ludicrous plot contrivance before it wears out its welcome. It's fun to see Mel react to a deafening chorus of female thoughts, but his dubious "gift"--courtesy of an accidental electro-shock in his bathtub--is a mixed blessing for the audience. The women in Nick's life conveniently think in complete sitcom-friendly sentences, and the novelty quickly wears thin.
The movie improves by focusing on the fallout of Nick's predicament. Exploiting his unfair advantage, he sabotages the career of his new boss (Helen Hunt) even as he's falling in love with her; says all the right things to the aspiring actress (Marisa Tomei) who previously spurned his advances; and uses mind reading to curry favor with his 15-year-old daughter (Ashley Johnson). This two-faced scheming isn't malicious, however, and "What Women Want" is blessed by Gibson's amiably nuanced performance. His graceful riff on Fred Astaire is a dazzling surprise, and as Nick reforms, Gibson takes major credit for whatever depth this movie achieves. After a bit of nonsense, "What Women Want" has a lot to say about male "and" female behavior, be it noble or unappealing. It's both amusing and truthful, and that's almost as fun as a glimpse into someone else's brain. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: Arnie knows a secret. His big brother Gilbert is the greatest person on the planet.

Summary: This is the movie that Leonardo DiCaprio received an Oscar nomination for, five years before "Titanic". And, in fact, this is the movie that should have made him a star, he's so good in it. Based on the novel by Peter Hedges (who adapted his own book) and directed by Lasse Hallström ("My Life as a Dog"), this is the funny, moody tale of a young man named Gilbert Grape (Johnny Depp) who lives at home in a small town with his 500-pound Momma (beautifully played by nonpro Darlene Cates), his mentally retarded younger brother Arnie (DiCaprio, utterly convincing), and his sisters. Not a lot happens--Arnie keeps climbing a water tower and getting stuck; Gilbert is involved with a married woman (Mary Steenburgen), then meets a nice new girl in town who's closer to his age (Juliette Lewis). And that's exactly what makes this movie so much more than your run-of-the-mill Hollywood product: it's not about some mechanical, formulaic plot; it's about these characters, and it allows you to spend some time with them and get to know them. Depp may have started out as a TV teen idol on "21 Jump Street", but his feature film choices since then--in such wonderfully offbeat and diverse movies as "Cry-Baby", "Edward Scissorhands", "Benny & Joon", "Donnie Brasco"--have made him one of the most interesting, unpredictable, and risk-taking young actors in American movies. "--Jim Emerson"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: It's the story of a man, a woman, and a rabbit in a triangle of trouble.

Summary: This zany, eye-popping, knee-slapping landmark in combining animation with live-action ingeniously makes that uneasy combination itself (and the history of Hollywood) its subject. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" is based on classic L.A. private-eye movies (and, specifically, "Chinatown"), with detective Eddie Valiant (Bob Hoskins) investigating a case involving adultery, blackmail, murder, and a fiendish plot to replace Los Angeles's once-famous Red Car public transportation system with the automobiles and freeways that would later make it the nation's smog capital. Of course, his sleuthing takes him back to the place he dreads: Toontown, the ghetto for cartoons that abuts Hollywood and that was the site of a tragic incident in Eddie's past. In addition to intermingling cartoon characters with live actors and locations, "Roger Rabbit" also brings together the greatest array of cartoon stars in the history of motion pictures, from a variety of studios (Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, Fleischer, Universal, and elsewhere): Betty Boop, Bugs Bunny, Mickey Mouse, Woody Woodpecker, Droopy Dog, and more! And, of course, there's Maroon Cartoon's greatest star, Roger Rabbit (voice by Charles Fleischer), who suspects his ultracurvaceous wife, Jessica Rabbit (voice by Kathleen Turner: "I'm not bad; I'm just drawn that way"), of infidelity. Directed by Robert Zemeckis ("Back to the Future", "Forrest Gump", "Contact"), not since the early Looney Tunes' "You Oughtta Be in Pictures" has there been anything like "Roger Rabbit". "--Jim Emerson"

Languages: English

Subtitles: French

Sound: Dolby

Comments: In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline...........Ten years later, these cars were destroyed.

Summary: It begins with a solemn funeral for a car. By the end of Chris Paine's lively and informative documentary, the idea doesn't seem quite so strange. As narrator Martin Sheen notes, "They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline." Paine proceeds to show how this unique vehicle came into being and why General Motors ended up reclaiming its once-prized creation less than a decade later. He begins 100 years ago with the original electric car. By the 1920s, the internal-combustion engine had rendered it obsolete. By the 1980s, however, car companies started exploring alternative energy sources, like solar power. This, in turn, led to the late, great battery-powered EV1. Throughout, Paine deftly translates hard science and complex politics, such as California's Zero-Emission Vehicle Mandate, into lay person's terms (director Alex Gibney, Oscar-nominated for "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room", served as consulting producer). And everyone gets the chance to have their say: engineers, politicians, protesters, and petroleum spokespeople--even celebrity drivers, like Peter Horton, Alexandra Paul, and a wild man beard-sporting Mel Gibson. But the most persuasive participant is former Saturn employee Chelsea Sexton. Promoting the benefits of the EV1 was more than a job to her, and she continues to lobby for more environmentally friendly options. Sexton provides the small ray of hope Paine's film so desperately needs. "Who Killed the Electric Car?" is, otherwise, a tremendously sobering experience. --"Kathleen C. Fennessy"

Languages: English

Sound: Dolby Digital

Comments: This summer, it's the street vs. the elite

Summary: Antwan Andre "Big Boi" Patton of OutKast proves himself an ingratiating leading man in the rambunctious rap comedy "Who's Your Caddy". High-powered rap mogul C-Note wants to get a membership at an exclusive country club run by a racist snob named Cummings. When he's rebuffed, C-Note and his pugnacious entourage stir up trouble until Cummings' sleek lawyer Shannon (Tamala Jones, "Daddy Day Camp") advises Cummings to accept C-Note, so that if he breaks the rules, he can be legally ousted. But it turns out that C-Note has deeper issues on his mind and isn't so easily gotten rid of--especially when he starts to woo Shannon. This slapdash hybrid of "Caddyshack" and "The Brothers" feels silly and features far too much flatulence, homophobia, blows to the testicles, and buxom flygirls shaking their booties--but that makes it no different from the output of the Farrelly Brothers ("Kingpin", "There's Something About Mary") or the Wayans family ("Scary Movie", "Little Man"). Cummings hams up his villainous role with professional vigor, Sherri Shepherd ("The View") camps it up as C-Note's assistant, while cameos and brief bits by Garrett Morris ("Saturday Night Live") and Tony Cox ("Bad Santa") give the movie some added energy. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Some Sacrifices Must Be Made

Summary: Nicolas Cage stars in "The Wicker Man" as a traumatized police officer investigating a lost girl on a mysterious, mist-shrouded island of imperious women and dimwitted men. Summoned by his ex-fiancee (Kate Beahan, "Flightplan", who seems to have borrowed her lips from Angelina Jolie), Edward Malus (Cage, "Adaptation.") blusters his way into a closed religious community by flashing his out-of-state badge around and insulting everyone he meets. To describe "The Wicker Man" any further would deprive viewers of enjoying the staggering ineptness of this absurd remake of the fairly creepy 1973 original. Despite a talented cast (including Ellen Burstyn, "Requiem for a Dream", Molly Parker, "Deadwood", and Leelee Sobieski, "Joy Ride"), the performances are uniformly awful, with Cage leading the pack; his overwrought cries of "How'd it get burned?!?" will provoke barks of laughter. Arbitrary wierdness abounds--ranging from animal masks to a body-stocking of bees--in a flailing effort to distract the audience from the narrative running madly off the rails. Maybe writer/director Neil LaBute ("In the Company of Men", "The Shape of Things") aspired to create a fever dream of male fears about women, but the result is a deformed hybrid of "Invasion of the Bee Girls" and "The Village". A future camp classic. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Subtitles: French, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: A lot can happen on the road to nowhere.

Summary: A coming-of-age story starring a bunch of fiftysomething stars rather than teenage actors, "Wild Hogs" is a well-intentioned comedy starring John Travolta (Woody), Tim Allen (Doug), Martin Lawrence (Bobby), and William H. Macy (Dudley) as a group of Midwesterners facing their own versions of mid-life crises. They decide to escape their frazzled personal lives and rejuvenate themselves by taking a road trip on their slick hogs. But their journey is less "Easy Rider" than it is "Three Amigos" (plus one). As individual actors, each lead is a formidable star. But throw them all together into one crammed screenplay full of scatological humor and uncomfortable homosexual gags and it doesn't quite work. The actors spend so much time trying to outdo each other on screen that they aren't believable as friends, much less comrades. Walt Becker ("National Lampoon"'s Van Wilder) offers minimal direction on a film that could've used some reining in, especially during scenes between Macy and Marisa Tomei (as a diner owner who inexplicably falls for him). There are promises of some interesting vignettes when Ray Liotta shows up as Jack, the leader of a real motorcycle gang. When Jack threatens to break Dudley's legs, Dudley counters, "I'm a computer programmer! I don't need my legs." Without missing a beat, Jack says, "Fine, we'll break his hands." It's not that the lines are so funny, but they way Liotta delivers them that adds some life to this flailing comedy. Unfortunately, his scenes with the rest of the cast are all too few. "--Jae-Ha Kim"
Stills from "Wild Hogs" (click for larger image)

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby

Comments: It's a whole new west. July '99.

Summary: One of the box-office smashes of the summer of 1999, this film by director Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men in Black", "Get Shorty") was raked by critics but embraced by audiences. Based on the 1960s TV adventure show that starred Robert Conrad, this film reimagined Secret Service agent James West as Will Smith, adding Oscar-winner Kevin Kline as his sidekick, agent-inventor Artemus Gordon. President Ulysses S. Grant puts West and Gordon on the trail of malign genius (and former Confederate soldier) Dr. Arliss Loveless (Kenneth Branagh) in a story about racism, partnership, and world domination. The special effects are lavish, even garish, but not all that special; they're not enough to elevate a mundane and familiar plot. Even Branagh, playing a man who only exists from the waist up--literally--can't find the juice in this lumbering affair. Still, the fast-talking team of Smith and Kline is a nimble one. Smith's affable charm and Kline's subversive wit win many points, though not nearly enough. "--Marshall Fine"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: AC-3

Comments: A new breed of friendship

Summary: As accomplished as it is superfluous, "Willard" is a stylish horror film with plenty of style and precious little horror. Genre buffs will appreciate it as a visually superior sequel/remake of its popular 1971 predecessor, giving Crispin Glover a title role perfectly suited to his uniquely odd persona, in the same league as "Psycho"'s Norman Bates. This time, Willard's the psychotically lonely son of the original film's now-deceased protagonist; a milquetoast introvert who befriends an army of obedient rats--lethal allies when Willard's pushed to his emotional breaking point by his abusive boss (R. Lee Ermey). In keeping with his memorably macabre episodes of "X-Files", writer-director Glen Morgan excels with dreary atmosphere and mischievously morbid humor (including an ill-fated cat named Scully), and Glover gives his best performance since "River's Edge". But even the furry villain Ben--an oversized rat with attitude--is more funny than frightful... so really, what's the point? With some justification, Glover's fans will appreciate the open door to a sequel. "--Jeff Shannon"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English

Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround

Comments: At the edge of our universe, all hell is about to break loose.

Summary: Video games are interesting because they're interactive, and movies because they aren't. In a video game, you're the actor; moviegoing depends on your connecting with those people up on the screen;. There's really no easy crossover.
That's the problem with "Wing Commander", based on the bestselling computer game series created by Chris Roberts. Roberts helms the film, too, having previously directed "cinematic" sequences for the game, starring Mark Hamill from "Star Wars", no less. But a feature-length story is something else again. Maybe gamers will find something to enjoy here, but that sets the rest of us adrift.
There's war between the Terran Confederation and the evil Kilrathi, who are so evil they want to destroy the whole universe. (They probably aren't thinking that through very clearly. But then they're evil.) They've stolen the Pegasus Navicom A.I. device that enables them to "jump" behind enemy lines and destroy the Earth part of the universe. Freddie Prinze Jr. stars as Blair, a Pilgrim, which means he's hated by everybody for having this film's answer to the Force. His pal Matthew Lillard plays Maniac (his usual role). So you've got two guys with a "Top Gun" complex, bent on preventing the Kilrathi from destroying Earth. You'd expect lots of action from these combat-ready flyboys. But there's scant little of that, and lots of static dialogue scenes, including one cinematic quote of Howard Hawks's classic "Only Angels Have Wings" to explain how pilots handle the death of one of their own. Presumptuous. All it would have taken to make this film a success is a series of action set pieces and a thin plot to hang them from. What director Roberts needed was a Navicom device to help him "jump" behind Hollywood lines. That and a decent script. "--Jim Gay"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, French, Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Something wicked this way comes.

Summary: Jack Nicholson was born to play the devil, and in George Miller's adaptation of John Updike's novel he plays it for all he's worth. As a wolfish womanizer summoned by three bored women in a picturesque New England town, he's sating all of his appetites with a rakish grin. Cher, Susan Sarandon, and Michelle Pfeiffer play the women who discover their untapped magical powers by accident. The smart and sexy singles, out of place in the conservatism of their village, find happiness, however briefly, in the arms and bed of the libidinous devil, but he's got his own ulterior motives. Miller revels in the sensual display of sex, food, and magic, whipping up a storm of effects that finally get out of hand in an overblown ending. It's a handsome film with strong performances all around, but the mix of anarchic comedy and supernatural horror doesn't always gel and Miller seems to lose the plot in his zeal for cinematic excitement. The performances ultimately keep the film aloft: the hedonistic joy that Nicholson celebrates with every leering gaze and boorish vulgarity is almost enough to make bad form and chauvinism cool. "--Sean Axmaker"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: The call of the wild, the thrill of adventure. The mistake of a lifetime.

Summary: To honor a childhood oath, three friends (Seth Green from "Austin Powers" and "Party Monster", Matthew Lillard from "SLC Punk" and "Scooby Doo", and newcomer Dax Shepard) head into the Oregon wilderness in search of lost treasure. After grappling with a bear, whitewater rapids, backwoods psychopaths, beautiful eco-terrorists, homophobia, and a very hairy Burt Reynolds, the boys face their fears and learn valuable life lessons about treasuring friendship and stuff. Dude, it's totally, like, "Deliverance" for the Gen-Y slacker set! Admittedly, it falls a bit short as a meditation on masculinity, but teen audiences will find plenty to enjoy. The interplay among Green, Lillard, and Shepard has a rambunctious enthusiasm that overcomes the predictability of the script. "--Bret Fetzer"

Languages: English

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: AC-3

Comments: Protecting America's assets.

Summary: It's official; Larry the Cable Guy is the new Ernest, and critics be damned. You want smart and sophisticated? Buy "The Noel Coward Collection". Larry's a populist from the "I'd rather keep my fans happy" school, and his loyal following will be ecstatic with this film's broad slapstick, what one initially offended character calls "feeble, juvenile, and bigoted" humor, and gross-out bodily function gags (nude body-cavity search, anyone?). Larry portrays a small-town deputy with dreams of becoming an FBI special agent. "I know a criminal when I see one, a rat when I smell one, and a bad moon when it rises," he drawls. When he spies a woman (Ivana Milicevic) in the company of sinister-looking, "Men in Black" types, he rescues the "damsel in dee-stress." However, she is a government-protected witness en route to Chicago to testify in a sensational trial of Enron proportions. "Are you insane?" she asks him. "No," he replies, "I'm Larry." The film gets plenty of mileage out of their odd coupleness. Her cell-phone ringtone is classical music; his is the theme from "Green Acres". She eats salads; he gorges himself on sausage. She's a liberal (who gets off an "impeach Bush" joke) and he bleeds U.S. Red (at one point, the action pauses for a small-town "Support Our Troops" parade).
"Witless Protection" also benefits from some oddball casting. Yaphet Kotto costars as FBI Agent Alonzo Mosely (the name of his character in the classic "Midnight Run"). Peter Stormare, the silent, creepy kidnapper in "Fargo", portrays a corrupt businessman with an unaccountable British accent. In a baffling cameo, Joe Mantegna seems to be channeling Strother Martin, while Jenny McCarthy serves up some sass as Larry's waitress girlfriend, nuff said, and a game Eric Roberts is a goon who butts heads with Larry in an epic fight scene. Some jokes are stale (Larry dredges up Regis Philbin's "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" catch-phrase), while others are current enough to reference Michael Vick and Angelina Jolie. It is a sign of artistic growth that Larry does not utter his own signature catch-phrase, so we won't either. "Witless Protection" was released theatrically during Oscar weekend, when Hollywood celebrates supreme achievement in film. This is what is known in the business as counter-programming. "--Donald Liebenson"

Languages: English, Swedish

Subtitles: Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: Based on true events

Summary: "Wolf Creek", written and directed by Greg McClean, is the "Blair Witch Project" of the Australian outback. Capitalizing on the human fear of becoming lost in the wilderness, in this case a desert crater called Wolf Creek National Park, this graphic horror film exploits the handheld camera to capture the grotesque actions of Mick Taylor (John Janatt), a sadistic serial killer. When a hip twenty-something guy, Ben Mitchell (Nathan Phillips), and two hippie-ish girls, Cassandra (Liz Hunter) and Kristy (Kestie Morassi), take a road trip and their car breaks down, they have no choice but to accept help from Mick, an eccentric rural Aussie, who, like a spider, tows them into his nightmarish lair. Mick hunts kangaroos and hates tourists, translating his fetish for knives, shotguns, and other torture devices into a need to kill humans as if they're vermin infesting his majestic landscape. Ample blood and gore leave the viewer feeling nearly as sick as the girls who are forced to watch each other die. Like Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs", Mick Taylor is a savvy, calculating killer, despicable but psychologically fascinating. "--Trinie Dalton"

Languages: English, French

Subtitles: English, Spanish

Sound: Dolby

Comments: For anyone who's ever won. For anyone who's ever lost. And for everyone who's still in there trying.

Summary: Melanie Griffith had a fling with stardom in this Mike Nichols comedy about an executive secretary (Griffith) who can't get her deserved shot at upward mobility in the brokerage industry. Hardly taken seriously by male bosses, things aren't really any better for her once she starts working for a female exec (Sigourney Weaver, never more delightful), a narcissist with a boy-toy banker (Harrison Ford) and a tendency to steal the best ideas from her underlings. When Weaver's character is laid up with a broken leg, Griffith poses as a replacement wheeler-dealer, flirting with Ford and working on a new client who doesn't suspect the deception. Nichols brings a lot of snap and sass to Kevin Wade's smart script about chafing against class restrictions and perceptions. Sundry scenes are played quite charmingly, especially those of Griffith and Ford's mutual pickup in a bar and Joan Cusack's championing of Griffith's crusade. Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Actress (Griffith), and two Supporting Actress awards (Weaver, Cusack); Carly Simon's song "Let the River Run" won the Oscar. "--Tom Keogh"