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Us Weekly, 2002 Home Video & DVD Reviews: 2002 By Bruce Kluger A.I.: The double-disk Special Edition of Steven Spielberg’s eerily unsettling Pinocchio chronicle—all about a robot boy (Haley Joel Osment) who learns to love— boasts an onslaught of extras, including a making-of featurette, a glimpse at production design drawing boards, musical notes from composer John Williams, and cool behind-the-wiring forays into the film’s dazzling special effects. PG-13 (DreamWorks) Absolutely Fabulous: Series Four: Those trampy, vampy, deliciously campy bad girls of Britain—Patsy and Edina—land with a boozy thump on DVD, in six new episodes from their new season on Comedy Central. Extras include commentary, riotous outtakes and a pair of Ab Fab specials entitled “Mirrorball” and “Lets Get Celebritied Up.” Marianne Faithfull and Twiggy log in guest gigs. NR (BBC) All in the Family: The Complete First Season: Carroll O’Connor left us last year, but his beloved alter-ego still dwells at 704 Hauser Street in Queens—and on this three-disk collection of the first 13 episodes from Norman Lear’s landmark sitcom. Included: “Meet the Bunkers” (the pilot), “Archie Gives Blood,” “Edith Has Jury Duty,” “Gloria’s Pregnancy” and “Mike’s Hippie Friends Come to Visit.” NR (Columbia/TriStar) American Pie 2: What did you expect—a trenchant white-paper on today’s youth? Lesbianism, Krazy Glue and a naughty trumpet dominate the hormonally charged gags in this harmless sequel, in which the bumbling horndogs—now collegians— congregate in a summer rental. The unrated version includes six bonus minutes of raunch, none of it involving pastry-shtupping. R; 105 minutes (Universal) The Anniversary Party: Co-writers/directors/stars Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming soar in this unflinchingly candid study of the pill-popping, back-stabbing, empty-headed lifestyles of the Hollywood Hills elite. Gwyneth Paltrow, Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates provide flawless turns as vapid hangers-on, in what is arguably the year’s most painfully funny pot-shot. R; 115 minutes (New Line) Atlantis: The Lost Empire: The two-disk Collector’s Edition of Disney’s animated adventure about the intrepid search for the mythical underwater continent includes virtual tours of the film’s computer-generated submarines, a two-hour “submersive” making-of documentary, deleted scenes, filmmaker commentary and a crash tutorial in “How to Speak Atlantean.” Michael J. Fox and James Garner star. PG (Disney) Bandits: Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton charm as likeable bank robbers whose ingenious heist routine (kidnapping the bank prez the night before a job) is complicated by an unlikely moll: a bored housewife they picked up in their travels (Cate Blanchett). Barry Levinson’s nutty crime frolic is immensely enjoyable to watch—then, somehow, instantly forgettable. PG-13; 123 minutes (MGM) Bubble Boy: Encased in a clear plastic globe, a teen suffering from an immunity disorder (Jake Gyllenhaal) sets out on a cross-country trek to stop his true love from marrying. Bikers, cultists and carnival freaks lend the script a nice subtext about misfitism, while Gyllenhaal radiates boyish buoyancy as the shrink-wrapped kid. PG-13; 84 minutes (Buena Vista) Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season One: The undead live on—on DVD, that is. Sarah Michelle Gellar kicks fanged fanny in this three-volume rerun of all 12 episodes from the cult series’ freshman season, including the pilot, “Hellmouth,” and the climactic “Angel,” in which Buff and her vampire hunk suck face. Also on disk: commentary, trailers and DVD-ROM links to the BVS website. NR (Fox) Bull Durham: In 1988, Kevin Costner burst onto the scene as the quietly studly minor-league wash-up who brought vampy baseball groupie Susan Sarandon to her knees (and, along with her, 100 million American women). This Special Edition DVD of the pitch-perfect romantic comedy includes commentary from the cast’s starting lineup (including Tim Robbins) and a new making-of doc. Play ball. R (MGM) Captain Corelli’s Mandolin: In this soggy saga, Nicolas Cage is an opera-loving Italian soldier who falls for a Greek beauty (Penelope Cruz) while stationed in the Mediterranean during WWII. Alas, director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love) is ambushed by scenery-chewing scenery, plodding plotting and foreign accents that slip like a tank on a mudhill. Pass. R; 124 minutes (Universal) The Curse of the Jade Scorpion: Writer-director-star Woody Allen sleep-walks through another lightweight crime caper, this time about an insurance investigator who turns jewel thief after being entranced by a nefarious hypnotist. Helen Hunt cracks wise as Woody’s officious co-worker, who despite despising him somehow falls under his spell. Great Forties detailing, though, PG-13; 102 minutes (Dreamworks) Don’t Say a Word: When his daughter is kidnapped by jewel thieves, New York shrink Michael Douglas is told he can retrieve her by deprogramming an institutionalized mental patient—by sundown. Wacko premise (and Brinks truckloads of plot contrivances) notwithstanding, it’s stylishly taut and decently acted, especially by Brittany Murphy as the pretty psychotic. R; 113 minutes (Fox) Fatal Attraction: Fifteen years ago, this heart-stopping thriller scared the pants back onto philandering men everywhere, as straying hubby Michael Douglas runs for his life from psycho, bunny-boiling, ex-lover-from-hell Glenn Close. The DVD edition includes a featurette on the film’s cultural fallout, rehearsal footage, an alternate ending and commentary from cast and crew. Watch your back. R (Paramount) A Fool There Was (1915): Part of Kino’s “Vamps, Vixens and Virgins” series, this “scandalous” pre-Production Code silent established Theda Bara as cinema’s premiere “vamp,” here going through men like cashews aboard a luxury liner. On- disk extras include a scrapbook of stills, as well as the Rudyard Kipling poem, “The Vampire,” on which Bara’s character was based. Color-tinted. NR (Kino) Friends: The Complete First Season: Who needs a date on Saturday night when you’ve got 10 straight hours of Joey, Ross and Chandler? This four-disk replay of the blockbusting series’ freshman year includes all 24 episodes (including Joey’s stint as Al Pacino’s butt-double), plus previously unseen footage, an interactive tour of Central Perk, and a “How Well Do You Know Your Friends?” trivia challenge. Guest stars include George Clooney and Noah Wyle. NR (Warner) Ghost World: Based on the underground comic book, this tartly offbeat critics’ darling stars Thora Birch (American Beauty) as a brutally cynical teen who blazes a curmudgeonly trail through empty-headed L.A. with fellow misfit Scarlett Johansson. Steve Buscemi sulks up a masterpiece as a record-collecting loner who matches Birch’s sour misanthropy pound for cranky pound. R; 111 minutes (MGM) Glitter: Mariah Carey’s murky roman à crap follows a young girl’s skyrocket from welfare kid to superstar crooner, and the clichéd characters and hackneyed plot twists she encounters along the way. Co-stars include Max Beesley as the singer’s volatile svengali-lover (can you say Tommy?) and her voice and cleavage, both of them clearly ample. PG-13; 104 minutes (Columbia TriStar) Hearts in Atlantis: Anthony Hopkins is an eccentric stranger with mystic powers who enters the life—and head—of a fatherless boy in small-town Fifties America. Director Scott Hicks (Shine) brings gentle urgency to Stephen King’s story of a child’ s search for magic and love, and Sir Anthony is mind-blowing as the mind-reader with a secret. PG-13; 101 minutes (Warner) Heist: Oily stolen goods kingpin Danny DeVito taps master crook Gene Hackman to orchestrate a complex gold theft, only to face off with his safe-cracking posse in a deadly game of double-cross. Writer-director David Mamet doles out the clues with pinpoint precision in this deliciously deceptive crime caper. Delroy Lindo and Rebecca Pidgeon co-star. R; 109 minutes (Warner) The Hunchback of Notre Dame II: In this perfectly enchanting direct-to-vid sequel to Disney’s 1996 musical fable, Quasimdo is quasi stud, vanquishing the bad guy and falling in love. The chimes-and-whistles DVD includes an interactive puppet theater, a musical bell tower, and “A Gargoyle’s Life,” a smirky confessional by cathedral “pigeon perch” Jason Alexander. Tom Hulce and Jennifer Love Hewitt star. G (Disney) Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back: Arrested-adolescence auteur Kevin Smith takes another toke on his Jersey boys saga, this time sending his weed-addled heroes on a cross-country trek to stop Miramax from filming their life story. As usual, Smith infests the antics with star-studded cameos (Affleck, Damon, Rock) and showbiz send-ups—from Charlie’s Angels to Scooby Doo. For fans only. R; 104 minutes (Dimension) Jerry Maguire Special Edition DVD: Forget “Show me the money”—it ’s more like “Show me the Tommy.” This two-disk reissue of Cameron Crowe’s 1998 romantic comedy pumps up Tom Cruise’s dashing turn as a down-and-out sports agent with deleted scenes, rehearsal footage and up-close commentary by the ex-Mr. Kidman himself. Co-stars includes Oscar-winner Cuba Gooding, Jr. and the pre-Bridget Jones Renée Zellweger. R (Columbia TriStar) Joy Ride: This DVD's got drive. The disk edition of director John Dahl’s overlooked creeper—about three college freshmen on the run from a psycho trucker during a cross-country jaunt—is souped-up with extensive commentary, audio auditions for the CB-voice of the film’s menacing villain and four different high-octane endings. The ride never stops. Leelee Sobieski stars. R (Fox) K-Pax: When a loner in shades (Kevin Spacey) materializes at Grand Central Station claiming he’s from another galaxy, it’s up to mental ward shrink Jeff Bridges to determine if he’s a bona fide E.T.—or just bonkers. Spacey trots out his quirky best in this engaging paean to outer space, the inner mind and fresh produce. PG- 13; 121 minutes (Universal) The Larry Sanders Show: Season One: This three-disk flashback to year one of Garry Shandling’s brilliant cable-chronicle of late night TV’s most neurotic talk show host features all 13 episodes, commentary by the dependably arch star himself, and an engaging overview entitled, “Garry Shandling Talks: No Flipping.” Guest stars include Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Mimi Rogers. NR (Columbia TriStar) The Last Castle: Robert Redford dons prison togs as a questionably court- martialed three-star General bent on reforming the system—from the inside—and provoking his spiteful warden (James Gandolfini). Despite the timeworn premise, Bob injects the righteous-jailbird formula with patriotic fervor, especially in the mucho macho, star-bangled finale. Rod Lurie (The Contender) directed. R; 133 minutes (DreamWorks) Life as a House: Dying architect Kevin Kline hopes to mend fences with his estranged son and ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) by enlisting their help in the construction of a cliffside dream home. Soapy scripting keeps the floorboards creaking, though Kline hits the nail squarely as a man desperately seeking salvation. Mary Steenburgeen delights as a horny neighbor. R; 124 minutes (New Line) Lisa Picard is Famous: Two talentless actors—a grating ingénue and her gay monologist pal—shoot for stardom in this biting mockumentary that shines a klieg on the emptiness of fame. Griffin Dunne directs traffic with an appropriately arched brow, while Buck Henry, Carrie Fisher and Sandra Bullock log in wonderfully wry cameos. PG-13; 90 minutes (First Look) M*A*S*H: Five Star Collection: Director Robert Altman supervised this spotless double-disk restoration of his 1970 Korean War opus, which includes documentary featurettes, extensive commentary and footage from the film’s 30th Anniversary reunion. Also available: a separate three-DVD compilation of all 24 episodes from the TV series’ inaugural season. Fans will flip. Film rated R; TV show NR (Fox) Mark Twain: Facts is facts: Ken Burns is an American treasure. This time, the tireless documentarian zooms in on the country’s beloved humorist, yarn-spinner, curmudgeon-commentator and, above all, gifted scribe, tracing Sam Clemens’ storied journey from Huckish Missouri boy to puckish elder statesman. An effusive army of Twain scholars provides insight, among them Hal Holbrook and Arthur Miller. NR; 220 minutes (Warner/PBS) Mulholland Drive: Don’t sweat the plot. David Lynch’s dark and brilliant travelogue through Hollywood’s thorny underbrush brashly detours off into a hallucinogenic dreamscape, in which a freshly-scrubbed, would-be starlet (Naomi Watts) stumbles into a thicket of intrigue and murder, populated by mobsters, moguls and a mysterious amnesiac (Laura Elena Harring). A confounding masterpiece. R; 147 minutes (Universal) The Musketeer: Call it Crouching Swashbuckler, Hidden Screenplay. Airborne chop-socky abounds in this all-brawn-no-brains update on Dumas, in which D'Artagnan (Justin Chambers) enlists the help of France’s legendary plumed trio to avenge his parents’ death. Tim Roth sears as the murderous villain, but gets lost somewhere between 1600s Paris and 2002 Hong Kong. Mena Suvari (American Beauty) co-stars. PG-13; 105 minutes (Universal) No Man’s Land: Winner of an Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film, this darkly comic combat chronicle finds two fog-addled soldiers—one Serb, one Croat— trapped in the same trench during the 1993 Bosnian conflict. Wry observations and barbed banter fly like bullets in Danis Tanovic’s boldly cheeky peek at the absurdity of war. R; 98 minutes (MGM) Nostradamus: After accurately forecasting Henry II’s death in 1559, Michel de Nostredame became the world’s poster boy for prophecy, racking up more than 1300 predictions, from the French Revolution to JFK’s assassination. This compact spin through the life of the astrologer-physician-mathematician is especially eerie in the wake of this year’s global calamities—and downright compelling. NR; 60 minutes (BFS) O: Call it Shakespeare in Air-Jordans. Loosely based on the Bard’s Othello, this gripping basketball drama follows a fiery high school hoops star (Mekhi Phifer) whose sky-rocketing game plan—and off-court love life—is sabotaged by a sadistic white teammate (Josh Hartnett). Martin Sheen delivers a slam-dunk as the boys’ rabid coach. R; 94 minutes (Lions Gate) Ocean’s 11: Before George, Brad and Julia came Frank, Sammy and Dino. This hipper-than-hip reissue of the 1960 casino-heist caper that inspired Soderbergh’s hit remake includes commentary by Frank Sinatra, Jr. and Angie Dickenson (who appeared in the original), a now-and-then interactive map of Las Vegas, and clips from a Tonight Show episode guest-hosted by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself. Vintage cool. NR (Warner) Ocean’s Eleven: Sorry, doll-face—it ain’t a finger-snappin’, cool-cat, back slap to Vegas like the original. But Steven Soderbergh’s slick remake of the Rat Pack’s 1960 casino crime caper still hits the jackpot, led by the hunkathon ensemble of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Andy Garcia. Julia Roberts holds her own with the boys as Clooney’s long-suffering and (sigh) still smitten ex-wife. PG-13 (Warner) Original Sin: Antonio Banderas is a Cuban coffee magnate whose American mail- order bride (Angelina Jolie) is everything’s he’s longed for—beautiful, smart and sexy. Too bad she’s also psycho imposter. Despite the overwrought scripting, Tony and Angie’s erotic chemistry keeps the blood pumping, especially in an extended love scene, available only on the DVD. R; 116 minutes (MGM) The Others: Nightmares, anyone? Stylishly nerve-wracking, this goth creeper stars Nicole Kidman as a wigged-out, widowed mother of two who shares a gloomy English manor with things that go clank and thump in the night. Director Alejandro Amenábar’s fog-draped haunted house story is a true heart-stopper, highlighted by an “I get it!” finale, à la The Sixth Sense. Keep the porch light on. PG-13 (Dimension) Rat Race: Eccentric casino mogul John Cleese stages a Vegas-to-New Mexico treasure hunt for two million bucks, handpicking a batch of oddball contestants, including a warm-hearted mom (Whoopi Goldberg), compulsive gambler (Jon Lovitz) and narcoleptic Italian (Rowan Aktinson). Directed by Jerry Zucker (Airplane), this Mad, Mad World-wannabe is terminally silly, yet somehow a hoot. PG; 112 minutes (Paramount) Riding in Cars With Boys: In Penny Marshall’s poignant, if overlong, dark comedy, Drew Barrymore skillfully steers her way through the speed-bumpy memoir of writer Beverly Donofrio—from pregnant teen to struggling mom to budding writer. Steve Zahn shuffles and shrugs as Bev’s deadbeat husband, while James Woods logs in another grouchy turn as her disapproving dad. PG-13; 131 minutes (Columbia TriStar) Rock Star: Mark Wahlberg is a garage band wannabe who finally lands his big break; Jennifer Anniston is the spunky girlfriend with a front row seat to his inevitable crash-and-burn. Despite a thin script and familiar characters, this baby rocks, thanks mainly to the pulsing soundtrack and the comely stars’ heart- quickening chemistry. R; 106 minutes (Warner) Roots 25th Anniversary Edition: It’s about time. The landmark 1977 TV miniseries, based on Alex Haley’s prize-winning ancestral African memoir, comes to disk in a handsome three-volume set that includes extensive video and audio commentary by cast and crew, as well a complete “Roots” family tree. LeVar Burton, Ben Vereen and Louis Gosset, Jr. star. NR (Warner) Serendipity: Beautiful but attached singles John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale spar over a pair of gloves at Bloomies, drink hot chocolate, part company—then spend the rest of the flick playing a game of cutesy-cat-and-mouse. Both stars glow beneath the halo of true love, but the screenplay is as hopelessly airy as cotton candy—and just as sticky-sweet. PG-13; $30 (Miramax) Sex and the City: The Complete Third Season: Charlotte gets engaged, Miranda gets an STD (and braces), Samantha fulfills her fireman fantasy, and Carrie discovers that her new boyfriend swings both ways. This bawdy, boxed set replays all 18 episodes from year three of cable TV’s sassiest series, with guest appearances by, among others, Matthew McCanaughey, Vince Vaughn and Hugh Hefner. NR (HBO) Sexy Beast: Oscar nominee Ben Kingsley spits, twitches and rants as a violently bonkers gangster trying to recruit underwater safecracker Ray Winstone—now retired to a Spanish villa—for one last heist. Kingsley’s emotional pyrotechnics serve as a depth charge for this knotty, hallucinogenic crime story—but be warned: the cast’s cockney is nearly indecipherable. R; 88 minutes (Fox Searchlight) Spy Game: Robert Redford is a CIA sleuth on the eve of his retirement, racing to save rogue protégé Brad Pitt from execution in a Chinese prison. Tony Scott’s knotty espionage yarn is a slick and frantic exercise in screenplay skullduggery, though the characters remain a mystery long after the plot neatly unfolds. Catherine McCormack so-stars. R; 127 minutes (Universal) Thir13en Ghosts: When the widowed father of two inherits a glass house from his dead uncle (F. Murray Abraham), the family moves in, only to discover that cranky spooks run the joint. Disastrously updated from William Castle’s 1960 B-movie fave, it’s a crash-and-clatter fiasco that, despite the glass mansion’s eye-popping splendor, is beyond the help of Windex. R; 91 minutes (Warner) Tortilla Soup: In this Latin variation on the Chinese confection, Eat Drink Man Woman, Hector Elizondo is a Mexican-American widower and master chef, struggling to hang onto his culinary genius and three restless daughters. Like the title recipe, it’s spicy and satisfying—and the food scenes are divine. Raquel Welch plays the delicious widow down the lane. PG-13; 103 minutes (Columbia TriStar) Training Day: The plot has more holes than the Hollywood Freeway. But Denzel Washington electrifies as a jacked-up, Caddy-cruising L.A. narcotics detective putting rookie dick Ethan Hawke through the paces—and holy hell—on his first mean streets outing. Both actors deservedly earned Oscar noms (and Denzel won his) for their gritty, combustible portrayals of men on the edge. R; 122 minutes (Warner) Tron: 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition: Two decades before Pixar and PlayStation made computer animation an art form, Disney broke ground with this eye-popping, effects-laden adventure about a hapless hacker sucked into a video game. The two-disk birthday release pours on the extras, including an exhaustive making-of featurette, deleted scenes and pre-production animation tests. PG (Disney) The Usual Suspects: Thank God for DVD. The disk edition of Bryan Singer’s 1995 crime thriller (starring Kevin Spacey) boasts enough extras to help unravel the flick’s maddeningly knotty plot, among them, “Keyser Soze: Lie or Legend?”—a featurette devoted solely to the story’s nefarious linchpin. Also included: commentary by Oscar-winning screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie and an amusing gag reel. R (MGM) Wynton Marsalis: Blues & Swing: This DVD salute to the jazz artistry of Pulitzer Prize-winning trumpeter Wynton Marsalis be-bops from the concert hall (Westwood Playhouse, 1988) to the classroom (Harvard University), where the peerless horn- blower demonstrates his classy brassiness on such faves as "J Mood" and "(Do You Know What It Means To Miss) New Orleans." Also on disk: a Marsalis discography. NR (Pioneer) Zoolander: Writer-director-star Ben Stiller pouts, preens—and soars—as a dumber-than dirt coverboy who becomes tangled in a global assassination plot hatched by a deranged fashion mogul (Will Ferrell). Wickedly written and hilariously performed, this through-the-heart skewer of runway world moronics features sashay-on cameos by real life supermodels Heidi Klum and Claudia Schiffer. PG- 13; 89 minutes (Paramount) |