Director: Clark Johnson
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell swagger through "S.W.A.T.", a guns-and-big-trucks macho extravaganza based on the 1970s TV show of the same name, about the police teams brought in to take care of extremely dangerous situations. Jackson plays a sergeant brought out of retirement to form a new squad, which includes rebellious Farrell ("The Recruit") and tough babe Michelle Rodriguez ("Girlfight", "Blue Crush"). After a lot of training and head-butting with a smarmy police captain, the squad gets assigned to transfer the head of a European crime cartel (Olivier Martinez, "Unfaithful") who's declared on television that he'll give $100 million to anyone who gets him out. Every scumbag in Los Angeles descends to claim the money, turning a routine transfer into a bullet-filled gauntlet. Despite some gaps in logic and a generic flavor, "S.W.A.T." will satisfy most action-movie junkies. Also featuring LL Cool J and Josh Charles. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Katja Raganelli
Genre: Music Video & Concerts
Studio: Steamhammer Us [Spv]
Rated: NR

This DVD features a fully interactive menu including soundbytes and a mini-movie running in the background, live Show footage totalling at least one hour taken from a variety of their best live shows, including venues in Montreal, Alma Quebec, London etc. All show footage will range from 1984-2001, 30 minutes of live bootlegged film of Saga, from fans for fans; also a 20-minute mini-documentary consisting of interviews shot in L.A. and Canada, band photos, weblinks too.

Director: L.A. Johnson, ,
Genre: Music Video & Concerts
Studio: Steamhammer
Rated: NR

The legendary Saga, filmed live in Bonn, Germany 2002, to commemerate their 25th Anniversary. Sixteen tracks from their only European date in 2002. Bonus features include a Saga discography, photo gallery, the making of, Saga gear and S.1 Audio.

Director: Michael McGowan (II)
Genre: Drama
Rated: PG-13

A sweet and silly story that becomes increasingly poignant as the minutes tick by, "Saint Ralph" is the fictional tale of a wayward 9th grader, Ralph (Adam Butcher), who is secretly living on his own while his widowed, hospitalized mother remains immersed in a coma. Frequently in trouble with Father Fitzpatrick (Gordon Pinsent), the principal of his all-boys, Catholic school, Ralph is considered something of a joke among peers until he decides to pull off the miracle that could save his mother, i.e., winning the Boston Marathon. Coached by a younger priest and former runner, Father Hibbert (Campbell Scott), whose cynicism has been lifted by the boy's pure hope, Ralph applies himself to his unlikely mission, fending off naysayers and getting help along a very challenging path from sundry allies and friends. A touching movie featuring a startlingly knowing performance from the young lead. Jennifer Tilly and Tamara Hope co-star, and the film was written and directed by Michael McGowan ("My Dog Vincent"). "--Tom Keogh"

Director: Tobe Hooper
Genre: Horror
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: PG

The DVD contains the 184-minute version of the film.

Director: Bryan Ortiz, Bryan Ramirez, Kerry Valderrama
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Rated: Unrated

"SANITARIUM" is an anthology that consists of three tales based on particular patients of a mental institution. Each tale begins with Dr. Stenson (Malcolm McDowell), the primary physician at the Sanitarium, commenting on the recent arrival of a new patient. As Dr. Stenson speaks, the individual’s story begins. SANITARIUM explores the different narratives of the insane patients – tales which led to their crazed states of minds. Starring Malcolm McDowell, Lou Diamond Phillips, John Glover, David Mazouz, Lacey Chabert, Chris Mulkey and Robert Englund.

Director: Tim Skousen
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: PG-13

When fantasy/sci-fi aficionado Gavin (Jeremy Sumpter) ventures into the woods he stumbles onto some mammoth footprints and a large turd. Could this be the infamous Sasquatch or just another one of Zerk's (Justin Long) ludicrous pranks? The Sasquatch Gang is a fantastical weird and absurdly funny comedy with medieval sword fighting mythic beasts and young love full of Big Foot and big laughs!System Requirements:Running Time: 88 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY/UNLIKELY HEROES Rating: PG-13 UPC: 025195032070 Manufacturer No: 68103967

Director: Brian Dannelly
Genre: Comedy
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Rated: PG-13

Classic teen comedy mixes with cunning satire in "Saved!". Fervent Christian Mary (Jena Malone, "Donnie Darko") believes God wants her to save her gay boyfriend by sleeping with him. But he gets sent to an anti-gay indoctrination camp while she ends up pregnant--which starts to drive a wedge between Mary and her snotty best friend Hilary Faye (Mandy Moore, "How to Deal"). Meanwhile, they're both interested in the son (Patrick Fugit, "Almost Famous") of their Christian school principal (Martin Donovan, "Trust"). "Saved!" respects faith but gleefully mocks the excesses and absurdities of contemporary organized religion, particularly its suburban, let's-speak-the-language-of-the-kids manifestations. The actors, including Macaulay Culkin (yes, from "Home Alone") and Mary Louise Parker ("Fried Green Tomatoes"), play their parts with sincerity, which makes the fusion of humor and heart succeed. A delightful movie. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: James Wan
Genre: Horror
Studio: Lions Gate
Rated: R

Adam (Leigh Whannell) wakes up in a dank room across from Dr. Lawrence Gordon (Cary Elwes) and the body of a guy who has blown his own brains out. Not a happy place, obviously, and it gets worse when both men realize that they've been chained and pitted against one another by an unseen but apparently omniscient maniac who's screwing with their psyches as payment for past sins. Director James Wan, who concocted this grimy distraction with screenwriter Whannell, has seen "Seven" and any number of other arty existential-psycho-cat-and-mouse thrillers, so he's provided "Saw" with a little flash, a little blood, and a lot of ways to distract you from the fact that it doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense. Wan and Whannell (who's not the most accomplished actor, either) pile on the plot twists, which after some initially novel ideas become increasingly juvenile. Elwes works hard but looks embarrassed, and the estimable Danny Glover suffers as the obsessed detective on the case. The denouement will probably surprise you, but it won't get you back the previous 98 minutes."--Steve Wiecking"

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Genre: Horror
Studio: Lions Gate
Rated: R

"Saw II" brings back many features of the original "Saw": elaborate sadistic scenarios designed to "test" the victims' will to live; Tobin Bell as the Machiavellian (yet doomed) serial killer Jigsaw; Shawnee Smith as Amanda, a survivor of one of Jigsaw's "games", forced to play again; Dina Meyer ("Starship Troopers"), whose role as a detective is considerably expanded; and the stunningly godawful dialogue of screenwriter Leigh Whannel. The set-up this time is even more preposterous than before, as a rough-and-tumble cop named Eric (Donnie Whalberg, "Band of Brothers") watches, on video monitors, his son trapped in a house filled with nerve gas and a handful of other victims, all of whom are mysteriously connected. Eric has captured Jigsaw, but the implacable killer refuses to reveal where the cop's son is being held... unless Eric will play by Jigsaw's rules. Fans of "Saw" will love "Saw II", as the tortures are more gruesome than before; viewers who found "Saw" either detestable or laughable won't like "Saw II" either, as the characters rarely behave like actual people (even when a moment's explanation would solve a conflict, no one bothers to communicate, even though their lives are on the line). It's a festival of body fluids, agonized grimaces, and shrieks of pain--and if that's your thing, this is your movie. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Genre: Horror
Studio: Lions Gate
Rated: Unrated

Jigsaw has disappeared. With his new apprentice Amanda (Shawnee Smith), the puppet-master behind the cruel, intricate games that have terrified a community and baffled police has once again eluded capture and vanished. While city detectives scramble to locate him, Doctor Lynn Denlon (Bahar Soomekh) and Jeff (Angus Macfadyen) are unaware that they are about to become the latest pawns on his vicious chessboard

Director: Darren Lynn Bousman
Genre: Horror
Studio: Lions Gate
Rated: Unrated

Even death itself can't bring the savage games of Jigsaw to an end, as "Saw IV" proves; if anything, the fiendishly clever serial killer (once again played by Tobin Bell) is equally capable of dealing out violent death while lying on a morgue slab as he was in life. "Saw IV" also offers a class reunion of characters from the previous three films, each once again up to their necks in Jigsaw's schemes. Chief among them is Sgt. Rigg (Lyriq Bent) from "Saw II", who must place himself in Jigsaw's shoes in order to rescue Detective Matthews (Donnie Walhberg), who was abducted by the killer at the end of "Saw II", and Forensic Hoffman (Costas Mandylor from Saw "III"), from another elaborate murder device. Meanwhile, FBI agents led by Scott Patterson ("Gilmore Girls, Aliens in America") attempt to track Rigg as he carries out Jigsaw's horrific notion of justice from beyond the grave. Casual horror fans may find the endless puzzles and relentless nihilism of the Saw series wearing thin with this fourth entry, but the franchise's key selling points--the Sadean excesses of Jigsaw's macabre creations--remain as bloody and unsettling as ever. "--Paul Gaita"

Director: Todd Douglas Miller
Genre: Drama
Studio: Headball Films LLC

A trifecta on the subject of love. Set primarily on the bank of a secluded mountain lake, the story begins when two office workers from the city are the first to arrive on a company fishing trip. But when only one other person shows up, suspicions and accusations lead to confrontation and turmoil. Revealing the opportunities lost and taken in the lives of three young men.

Director: Wes Craven
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Dimension
Rated: R

If you've seen "Scream" and "I Know What You Did Last Summer", then you know the entire plot of "Scary Movie". That's okay, though, because this is a parody, and it helps to know the story in order to be able to get the jokes. No, the biggest surprise here is not the story as much as the amount of full-frontal male nudity. Really, in addition to all the dick jokes (and the ass jokes and fart jokes), there's a couple of shots of the male member, one of which is erect and used as a weapon. "Scary Movie" somehow ended up with an R rating, which in a sense is groundbreaking; perhaps our ratings board is loosening up after all.
But is it funny? That's the most important question, and the answer to that is yes. In the vein of "Airplane!", with a dash of the Farrelly brothers, "Scary Movie" keeps throwing jokes at you one after another. The law of averages says some of them have to hit, and enough of them do to keep the movie entertaining. Unlike the makers of "Airplane!", however, the Wayans brothers aren't making this movie out of a love of the genre, and unlike the Farrelly brothers, they don't make fun of retarded people with any sort of respect, so the humor throughout feels a lot uglier. Still, there are enough funny scenes in "Scary Movie" to make the viewing experience worthwhile. Special credit must go to Lochlyn Munro as Greg, the over-the-top jock, who steals the movie up until the time he's gotta die."--Andy Spletzer"

Director: David Zucker
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Miramax Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13

This freewheeling parody tosses horror movies, Eminem, "The Matrix", and much more into a cinematic blender. "Scary Movie 3" centers around Cindy (Anna Faris, "Lost in Translation"), a bubble-headed young newscaster who believes that a deadly videotape has some mysterious connection to the aliens who've been making crop circles in the cornfield of a local farmer (Charlie Sheen, "Young Guns"), whose brother (Simon Rex) hopes to win a local rap contest. Along for the ride are Queen Latifah, George Carlin, Anthony Anderson, Pamela Anderson, Jenny McCarthy, Jeremy Piven, Camryn Manheim, Ja Rule, dozens of rap stars, and Leslie Nielsen as the President of the U.S. No need to have seen the first two "Scary Movie" flicks--though a few of the characters recur, the movie leapfrogs from gag to goofy gag, plundering "The Ring", "Signs", and "The Others" as needed. Silly and slapdash, but with a decent dose of laughs. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Marcus Gautesen
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Live / Artisan
Rated: R

I must admit, the plot to the movie is kind of weak, and so is the acting, but if you are a fan of Jimmy Fallon then you would LOVE this movie. Not only do you get to see him without a shirt, but you get to see him before he was on SNL! He was just so adorable and hilarious. He definitely out-shined the other actors in the movie. Take the time to rent this movie!

-- Heather WWW.LUVTHEFALLON.NET -- Your #1 Source for Jimmy Fallon

Director: Richard Linklater
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13

Turbo-charged comic Jack Black shakes "School of Rock" to its foundations, wailing with born-again metalhead passion as Dewey Finn, a guitarist who gets kicked out of a band because he grandstands too much--or, to put it another way, enjoys himself. Through an intercepted phone call, Finn gets a job as a substitute teacher for a fifth grade class at a private grade school. Neither students nor teacher quite know what to do with each other until Finn discovers that some of his young charges can play instruments; at once he starts turning them into a blistering rock & roll troupe that can crush his former band at an upcoming competition. "School of Rock" is silly and formulaic, but director Richard Linklater ("Dazed and Confused"), writer Mike White ("The Good Girl"), and especially Black and co-star Joan Cusack invest the formulas with such glee that the movie is irresistibly fun. "--Bret Fetzer"

Genre: Music Video & Concerts
Studio: Island / Mercury
Rated: NR

This time-capsule snapshot of '80s pop metal brings together live performances and videos that show how the Scorpions used to hit hard musically. It's unlikely this disc will win new fans, although longtime Scorpions fans will be sated; yet there's a nagging feeling this set skimps on more material. All of the German quintet's biggest and best videos are present--"Rhythm of Love," "Rock You Like a Hurricane," "Still Loving You," and "Wind of Change"--with four bonus videos--"Alien Nation," "Holiday," "No One Like You," and "I'm Leaving You." But the concert footage is alarmingly skimpy: 12 songs, 55 minutes; where's the rest of the performance? What's here is good, with a revved-up band playing in front of a home-turf crowd in Berlin in 1991, but the rest of the show is inexplicably missing. "--Kevin Filipski"

Director: Gerd F. Schultze
Studio: Sony Legacy
Rated: NR

Track Listing
1.Ladies And Gentlemen (Live in 3D 2011)
2.Sting In The Tail (Live in 3D 2011)
3.Make It Real (Live in 3D 2011)
4.Bad Boys Running Wild (Live in 3D 2011)
5.The Zoo (Live in 3D 2011)
6.Coast To Coast (Live in 3D 2011)
7.Loving You Sunday Morning (Live in 3D 2011)
8.The Best Is Yet To Come (Live in 3D 2011)
9.Send Me An Angel (Live in 3D 2011)
10.Holiday (Live in 3D 2011)
11.Raised On Rock (Live in 3D 2011)
12.Tease Me, Please Me (Live in 3D 2011)
13.Dynamite (Live in 3D 2011)
14.Kottak Attack (Live in 3D 2011)
15.Blackout (Live in 3D 2011)
16.Six String Sting (Live in 3D 2011)
17.Big City Nights (Live in 3D 2011)
18.Still Loving You (Live in 3D 2011)
19.Wind Of Change (Live in 3D 2011)
20.Rock You Like A Hurricane (Live in 3D 2011)
21.When The Smoke Is Going Down (Live in 3D 2011)
22.Behind The Scenes

Director: Pit Weyrich
Genre: Music Video & Concerts
Studio: Eagle Rock Ent
Rated: NR

Shot at Germany’s Expo 2000 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, The Scorpions give a unique performance marrying their brand of hard rock with an orchestra. In this 85-minute performance, the band rocks through some of their biggest hits, including "Rock You Like A Hurricane", "Big City Nights" (featuring ex-Genesis frontman Ray Wilson), "Wind of Change" and "Still Loving You".
The Scorpions have sold over 22 million albums worldwide, and have had 12 Top 20 hits in the United States.
Tracklisting:
1. Hurricane 2000
2. Moment of Glory
3. You and I
4. We Don’t Own The World
5. Here In My Heart
6. We’ll Burn The Sky
7. Big City Nights
8. Deadly Sting Suite
I. Crossfire
II. He’s A Woman, She’s A Man
III. Dynamite
9. Wind of Change
10. Still Loving You
11. Moment of Glory (encore)
DVD Bonus Features:
·Interviews with the band
·Director’s Cuts of "Hurricane 2000", "Moment of Glory" and "Here In My Heart"

Director: Billy Morrissette
Genre: Comedy, Crime
Studio: Abandon Pictures
Rated: R

Joe McBeth is a hard-working but unambitious doofus who toils at a hamburger stand alongside his wife Pat, who has a significant edge in the brains department. Pat is convinced she could do a lot better with the place than their boss Norm Duncan is doing, so she works up a plan to usurp Norm, convincing Mac to rob the restaurant's safe and then murder Norm, using the robbery as a way of throwing the police off their trail. Though two stoners and a would-be fortune teller warn Mac that bad luck awaits him, he gathers his courage and goes through with his wife's scheme. At first, things seem to have gone just as Pat hoped, and after Norm's sons sell the restaurant to the McBeths (they pay for it with the money they stole from Norm), business takes off. But vegetarian police detective McDuff is convinced there's foul play at the new center of the fast food universe, and when the McBeths fear that fry cook Banco knows more than he's letting on, Mac takes charge in the plotting department ...

Director: Christopher Landon
Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror
Studio: Broken Road Productions
Rated: R

A reckless janitor accidentally releases a zombie from a laboratory of research. Meanwhile, the teenagers scouts Ben Goudy and Carter Grant decide to camp for the last time since they are too old to be scouts. The problem is that they do not want to harm the feelings of their friend Augie Foster and the Scout Leader Rogers. They have a flat tire after hitting a deer on the road and Carter's sister Kendall Grant, her boyfriend and her friend Chloe stop their Jeep to see whether they need a ride. They invite Ben and Carter to go to a party in the night. The two scouts leave the camping during the night to go to the party. When they drive through the town, they do not see a living soul and they decide to visit a night-club since the bouncer is not at the door. They discover that people have turned into zombies and they team-up with Ben's recent acquaintance Denise Russo, who is bartender in the nightclub, and Augie that was left alone at the camp and came to the town. Soon they discover ...

Director: Jack Smight
Genre: Horror

Director: John Bell (XI), Jim Drake (II), John Blanchard
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Shout Factory
Rated: NR

At long last, "SCTV" is on the air... or at least on DVD! While it never reached the ratings heights or pop culture cachet of "Saturday Night Live", "SCTV" did garner critical buzz and a devoted cult following. As with the Python boys, the ensemble members, and the characters they created to populate the fictional Melonville TV network, are revered in hipper comedy circles. In this respect, "SCTV" is Letterman to "SNL"'s Leno. This essential five-disc set collects the first nine episodes of the series' "Network 90" incarnation, which brightened NBC's Friday late-night lineup in 1981. While original cast member Harold Ramis had since left the show, and Martin Short would join the following year, John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara, and Dave Thomas were "SCTV"'s definitive ensemble ("SNL"-bound Robin Duke and Tony Rosato, we hardly knew ye). These inaugural episodes are comprised mostly of "the golden classics" (so dubbed by Flahrety's wheelchair-bound station manager Guy Caballero) linked by some new material. Included are such series benchmarks as "The Great White North" segments, featuring Moranis and Thomas as the stereotypically Canadian, parka-wearing, beer-swilling McKenzie brothers; "Play It Again, Bob," starring Moranis as Woody Allen and Thomas as Bob Hope; the ill-fated made-for-SCTV "Polynesiantown" starring Candy's Johnny LaRue; "The Sammy Maudlin Show," starring Joe Flahrety as the most sincerely insincere talk show host, with O'Hara as Lola "I want to bear your children" Heatherton, and "Indira," with Andrea Martin in her signature "Evita" spoof.
And that's just on disc 1! "SCTV" could parody "Leave It to Beaver" and "Fantasy Island" with the best of them, but anticipating the future "Ben Stiller Show", its genius lay in its show business savvy to subvert television and movie convention. When Levy's comedian Bobby Bittman arrives on a talk show, he brings "bloopers" from his congressional testimony. And you don't need to have seen "The Oscar" to appreciate "The Nobel", but it certainly helps. The price is steep, but don't be a hoser. This is the comedy release of the year. And it blows up real good. "--Donald Liebenson"

Director: Alan Clarke
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Blue Underground
Rated: R

The son of a bricklayer who also spent some time as a laborer before studying acting and directing in Canada, Alan Clarke (who died in 1990) got his start at the BBC in the 1960s. By 1977, he had directed his explosive and controversial television feature, "Scum", starring Ray Winstone ("Sexy Beast") as a survivor at a corrupt and brutal juvenile prison. Harrowing, claustrophobic, and deeply tragic, "Scum" was banned by the BBC for graphic brutality (and, quite likely, criticism of the justice system), leading Clarke to remake it with Winstone and the same script as a 1979 theatrical release. Both versions are included on this disc, and each is a unique experience. The earlier "Scum" is a lean, low-budget, relentlessly nightmarish drama while its second take is moodier, slower, and intermittently shocking. "--Tom Keogh"

Director: Duncan McLachlan
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG

Rudyard Kipling himself couldn't have imagined scenes more stunning than the ones captured by the creators of "The Second Jungle Book: Mowgli and Baloo". The film, a live-action follow-up to Disney's 1994 "Jungle Book" feature, attaches itself to the loincloth of young wolf-raised Mowgli as he leads a gang of greedy grown-ups on a wild goose chase through the jungles of India, circa 1890. In the course of this breathless caper, a visual delicacy is cooked up. Eyes of all ages will be loath to wander from the screen as it shifts from one color-drenched, wildlife-rife scene to the next. The animals, more than the wilderness, are what give this film its Eden-like quality--Mowgli protectors Bagheera the panther and Baloo the bear, as well as wolves, tigers, a pack of prowling monkeys, and even exotic snakes of the deadly variety all mix and mingle to gorgeous effect. And that's not to give the tale unraveling all the while short shrift. Kipling, of course, never once spun a second-rate story, and this adaptation doesn't tinker with way-off ideas of its own. Bill Campbell is fully believable as an Indiana Jones-like circus scout, and Roddy McDowall is at his eccentric best as a cave-dwelling monkey commander. "--Tammy La Gorce"

Director: Tim McCanlies
Genre: Comedy
Studio: New Line Home Video
Rated: PG

If you can get past its thick layer of syrup and molasses, "Secondhand Lions" reveals itself as a thoroughly decent family film that anyone can enjoy. It gets a little sappy sometimes, but there's something to be said for a movie in which Michael Caine and Robert Duvall play eccentric old brothers who take the easy approach to fishing: instead of a peaceful rod and reel, they use 12-gauge shotguns. When 14-year-old Walter (Haley Joel Osment, teetering on puberty) spends an eventful summer with his great-uncles on their vast Texas farmland (he's been dumped there by his delinquent mom, played by Kyra Sedgwick), he soon discovers they've lived lives full of adventure, excitement, passion, and mystery. Either that or they're old-time bank robbers with a long criminal record, and writer-director Tim McCanlies (who invested similar warmth into "The Iron Giant") does a nice job of concealing the truth until the very end. Full of enriching lessons and homespun humor, "Secondhand Lions" has more substance than most family films. If you enjoyed "Holes", you'll probably enjoy this movie, too. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Chris Renaud, Yarrow Cheney
Genre: Animation, Adventure, Comedy, Family
Studio: Universal Pictures
Rated: PG

Taking place in a Manhattan apartment building, Max's life as a favorite pet is turned upside down, when his owner brings home a sloppy mongrel named Duke. They have to put their quarrels behind when they find out that an adorable white bunny named Snowball is building an army of lost pets determined to take revenge

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG

Ben Stiller directs and stars in this classic story of a daydreamer who escapes his anonymous life by disappearing into a fantasy world filled with heroism, romance and adventure. When his job, along with that of a co-worker (Kristen Wiig), is threatened, Walter takes action in the real world, embarking on a journey more extraordinary than anything he could have imagined.

Director: David Koepp
Genre: Horror
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Johnny Depp gets high off another acting challenge in this tricky adaptation of a Stephen King yarn. Although the mood is too sinister to allow for the mischief of his "Pirates of the Caribbean" turn, Depp still manages to embroider his role here with plenty of quirky business. He plays a writer, depressed and nearly divorced, who's stuck in an isolated cabin (shades of "The Shining") when a stranger (John Turturro) arrives, accusing him of plagiarism. Writer-director David Koepp ("Stir of Echoes") does his best to make the rickety material compelling--he gets the maximum out of the cabin set, for instance--but the problems inherent in the King story eventually win out. The climactic scenes are particularly unpleasant, especially in contrast to the cleverness of Depp's performance. A Philip Glass score adds class, but this one ultimately feels like a disappointment. "--Robert Horton"

Director: Arthur Hiller
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Rated: R

It was murder! The blind guy couldn't see it. The deaf guy couldn't hear it. But now they're both wanted for it in the drop-dead comedy, "See No Evil, Hear No Evil", that reunites the outrageous comedy duo Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder ("Silver Streak", "Stir Crazy"). Meet Wally and Dave. Wally is blind, Dave is deaf. When a man is murdered outside the newsstand where they work, the police collar these two unlikely buddies as their main suspects. A hilarious chase ensues as Wally and Dave hightail it from the New York Police Department to snag the real bad guys— the wickedly beautiful Eve (Joan Severance, "Black Scorpion") and her cold-blooded cohort, Kirgo (Kevin Spacey, "American Beauty"). From director Arthur Hiller ("Silver Streak") comes this zany comedy caper you won't want to miss.

Director: Eric Henry
Genre: Gay Cinema
Studio: Amber Lens Production

Evan is a hot young, gay newspaper writer - and he's just had his heart broken. Attempting to shake off his melacholy, he takes on an assignment profiling Hunter, an alluring gay club promoter. Around the guys are a host of other twenty-something urbanites, all longing for the same thing approval. Whether it s by the in-crowd, the hottie across the bar or in the industry they work, all strive for something greater, failing to appreciate what they already have. Seek explores fresher territory in gay cinema, and is all the more tender and heart-wrenching for it.

Director: Peter Yates
Genre: Drama
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R

Based on the novel by John Knowles, A SEPARATE PEACE tells the coming-of-age story of the students attending an all-boys prep school. With the possibility of being drafted for World War II, the boys try their best to graduate before the draft and encounter many obstacles along the way.

Director: Wes Craven
Genre: Horror
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: R

Eight years before he scored a phenomenal hit with "Scream", horror master Wes Craven made a worthy effort to "legitimize" horror with this chilling supernatural thriller, based on the best-selling book by Wade Davis. More ambitious than most horror films, this one allowed Craven to generate compelling plausibility with the fact-based story of a Harvard researcher (Bill Pullman) who travels to Haiti to procure a secret voodoo powder that places people into a state of simulated death. His investigation into the hidden world of black magic grows increasingly dangerous until he's caught in a living nightmare--a potentially deadly predicament that inspired the film's advertising tag line: "Don't bury me... I'm not dead!" Craven pays particular attention to authentic details of Haitian society and the role voodoo plays in Haitian culture, and the film gains additional atmosphere from location shooting in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Craven would, of course, continue to thrive by making more "conventional" horror films including "Scream", but this remains a fascinating departure for one of the genre's most celebrated directors. "- -Jeff Shannon"

Director: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Genre: Drama
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

If it hadn't been for Brad Pitt signing on to play the lead role of obsessive Austrian mountain climber Heinrich Harrer, there's a good chance this lavish $70 million film would not have been made. It was one of two films from 1997 (the other being Martin Scorsese's exquisite "Kundun") to view the turmoil between China and Tibet through the eyes of the young Dalai Lama. But with Pitt onboard, this adaptation of Harrer's acclaimed book focuses more on Harrer, a Nazi party member whose life was changed by his experiences in Tibet with the Dalai Lama. Having survived a treacherous climb on the challenging peak of Nanga Parbat and a stint in a British POW camp, Harrer and climbing guide Peter Aufschnaiter (nicely played by David Thewlis) arrive at the Tibetan city of Lhasa, where the 14-year-old Dalai Lama lives as ruler of Tibet. Their stay is longer than either could have expected (the "seven years" of the title), and their lives are forever transformed by their proximity to the Tibetan leader and the peaceful ways of the Buddhist people. China looms over the land as a constant invasive threat, but "Seven Years in Tibet" is more concerned with viewing Tibetan history through the eyes of a visitor. The film is filled with stunning images and delightful moments of discovery and soothing, lighthearted spirituality, and although he is somewhat miscast, Pitt brings the requisite integrity to his central role. What's missing here is a greater understanding of the young Dalai Lama and the culture of Tibet. Whereas "Kundun" tells its story purely from the Dalai Lama's point of view, "Seven Years in Tibet" is essentially an outsider's tale. The result is the feeling that only part of the story's been told here--or maybe just the wrong story. But Harrer's memoir is moving and heartfelt, and director Jean-Jacques Annaud has effectively captured both sincerity and splendor in this flawed but worthwhile film. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Lee Daniels
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Code Black Ent
Rated: R

Shadowboxer is an emotionally-charged, full-throttle thriller, which delves deep into the harsh underworld of organized crime and uncovers the complex lives of trained assassins, Mikey (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and Rose (Helen Mirren). But when a brutal crime boss wants his wife dead, Rose decides against killing the pregnant woman. Instead, the three begin a harrowing life on the run. Driven by fierce love, Rose and Mikey protect their adopted family from present danger - looking to redeem their tragic past.

Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Rated: PG

In the taut thriller The Shallows, when Nancy (Blake Lively) is surfing on a secluded beach, she finds herself on the feeding ground of a great white shark. Though she is stranded only 200 yards from shore, survival proves to be the ultimate test of wills, requiring all of Nancy's ingenuity, resourcefulness, and fortitude.

Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13

A dream getaway becomes a blood-soaked nightmare for seven scantily clad college students in this terrifying action-thriller from the director of The Final Destination and Snakes on a Plane. When Sara and her friends arrive at her family's Louisiana lake house, they quickly strip down to their swimsuits for a weekend of sexy fun in the sun. But they soon discover the lake is infested with hundreds of flesh-eating sharks - and a few equally dangerous human predators - that turn their killer vacation into a bone-crunching battle to stay alive!

Director: Philip Leacock
Genre: Drama
Studio: Legacy Entertainment
Rated: NR

Oh sure, I was only a year old when this movie came out on ABC but it has periodically been re-aired on A&E every once in a blue moon. It was then that I watched it.

This is one of those wonderful ghost story movies that some of us were lucky enough to grow up with as children--short on the gore but long on the suspense and a decently developed storyline.

Originally, this movie was aired under the title "When Michael Calls" but inexplicably it has since been reissued on VHS and DVD under the title "Shattered Silence."

The only real issue I have with this DVD reissue is the poor transfer. The colors are badly washed out and faded, there is a bit of a synchronization problem with the audio/video in a few spots and the movie in general shows its age. But, with such a low price, it is hard to quibble over the quality control.

I think this would be an excellent candidate for a remake, much as "The Fog" recently has.

Director: Ron Oliver
Studio: Regent Releasing
Rated: R

(Gay Thriller) When private eye Donald Strachey finds his latest client dead, he decides to take matters into his own hands. Strachey’s investigation leads him on a dark and dangerous trail into the world of "gay conversion therapy" - a twisted mix of psychology and religion designed by a doctor to turn homosexuals "straight." Based on the best-selling series of novels by Richard Stevenson

Director: Antoine Fuqua
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R

A movie that would not have been out of place in the run of paranoid-political thrillers of the 1970s, "Shooter" works an entertaining variation on the assassination picture. Mark Wahlberg, carrying over good mojo from "The Departed", slides neatly into the character of Bob Lee Swagger, master marksman. Swagger has retreated from his duty as an off-the-books hired gun for the military, having become disillusioned with his government (switching on his TV at his remote mountain cabin, he mutters, "Let's see what kind of lies they're trying to sell us today."). Ah, but the government needs Swagger to scope out the location of a rumored attempt on the life of the president, so a shadowy government operative (Danny Glover) begs Swagger to use his sniper's skills to out-fox the assassin. From there--well, spoilers are not fair, since the movie has a few legitimate shocks and a very nice wrong-man scenario about to unfold.
A novel by the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Stephen Hunter gives the movie a logical spine, even if the premise itself is the stuff of conspiracy theorists. Wahlberg gets support from Michael Pena, as a skeptical FBI agent; Kate Mara, as a trustworthy widow; and Ned Beatty, trailing along memories of "Network", as a supremely cynical Senator. Along with the well-executed action sequences (the previously unreliable director Antoine Fuqua gets it in gear here), the movie includes a few potshots at the Bush administration. No, that doesn't put "Shooter" at the level of "The Parallax View" or "All the President's Men", but it provides some tang along with the flying bullets. "--Robert Horton"

Beyond "Shooter"
More Sniper / Hit Man Movies on DVD
More DVDs with Mark Wahlberg
The Novel Stills from "Shooter" (click for larger image)

Director: Robert M. Young
Genre: Drama
Studio: Fox Lorber
Rated: R

Though time and HBO's "Oz" have eclipsed its ground-breaking impact, "Short Eyes" remains a milestone of American independent film, and a vital entry in the prison-film genre. Adapted by Miguel Piñero from his acclaimed play, this gritty drama was filmed in Manhattan's infamous Men's House of Detention (better known as "the Tombs"), giving a rough, authentic edge to Piñero's unflinching portrait of men trapped in legal-system limbo. Inmate tensions intensify when an alleged pedophile ("Short Eyes" in prison slang, played by Bruce Davison) is dropped into detention, and instantly ostracized by white, Latino, and black inmates alike. Under the documentary-like direction of Robert M. Young, this claustrophobic, emotionally raw study of hopelessness was a real eye-opener for its time (1977), revealing depths of anguish, danger, and cruelty that had never before been dramatized on film. Paving the way for harsher prison dramas that followed, "Short Eyes" features Piñero in a supporting role, and look closely for "Traffic"'s Luis Guzmán in his screen debut. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Duccio Chiarini
Genre: Comedy
Studio: La Régle Du Jeu

Since childhood Edoardo has been suffering from phimosis, a penis malformation which prevents him from experiencing sexual satisfaction. Now seventeen, he starts to feel some pressure from the outside world. Apparently everyone around him talks and thinks about sex: his friend Arturo, so obsessed with losing his virginity that is wanting to pay for it, his parents, encouraging him to declare his love to Bianca, even his little sister Olivia, looking for a good partner for the family dog Teagan. Edoardo's lack of confidence starts changing with the casual meeting of a new girl, Elisabetta, and the unexpected approach of Bianca. Forced to come out of the shadow he was hiding in, Edoardo tries first to solve his problem with clumsy strategies, finding finally the courage to face his fears.

Director: Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: PG

A young boy's discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it.

Director: Lindy Heymann
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Wolfe Video
Rated: NR

With dry humor, the mockumentary "Showboy" turns a portrait in self-delusion into the pursuit of a dream. A British documentarian wants to make a short movie about Christian Taylor, a writer on the cable series "Six Feet Under"--only she arrives just as Christian is abruptly fired while the show is shooting in Las Vegas. Humiliated and depressed, Christian stays in Vegas and starts pursuing jobs as a chorus boy; he tells the documentarian that he's doing research for a screenplay. "Showboy" plays its cards very close to the chest; the agents, dance teachers, and casting directors that Christian meets with could well be genuine--the deadpan performances never wink at the camera. The humor springs from a mixture of embarrassing awkwardness and the fundamental absurdity of life in Las Vegas. With cameos by Whoopi Goldberg, Siegfried and Roy, and Alan Ball (creator of "Six Feet Under"). "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Martin Scorsese
Genre: Drama
Studio: Paramount
Rated: R

Martin Scorsese puts Leonardo DiCaprio through the wringer again in "Shutter Island", a gothic adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel. Leo's character, a Federal Marshal named Teddy Daniels, is first seen vomiting and jittery aboard a ferry; he and his new partner (Mark Ruffalo) are being taken across the water to investigate an escape from a prison for the criminally insane, located on a forbidding rock called Shutter Island. From the first, Scorsese treats the place as though it were Skull Island in "King Kong", worthy of ominous music cues and portentous camera angles. This might not be an easy assignment for the sweaty, anxious Daniels, who is haunted by his memories of German concentration camps and the loss of his wife (Michelle Williams, appearing in ghostly hallucinations). The audience will likely feel just as unnerved as Daniels, given the destabilizing nature of Robert Richardson's swooping cinematography and Thelma Schoonmaker's crazy-making editing scheme (it feels as though fractions of seconds have been removed from the timing of simple conversations, giving the movie a strung-out edginess--it's like watching Ray Liotta's cocaine meltdown sequence from "GoodFellas" for 138 minutes). Ben Kingsley and Max von Sydow are staff psychiatrists, suspiciously eager to talk about lobotomies, and Ted Levine and Patricia Clarkson appear for small but potent turns. Scorsese appears to be "doing a genre picture" here, borrowing happily from influences such as Val Lewton and Samuel Fuller, and the film has a resultingly put-on atmosphere: a great deal of old-dark-house Sturm und Drang whipped up in service of a gimmicky little premise. The fade-out achieves some measure of real eeriness, and the whole shebang is certainly a kicky night out at the movies--if you can shake the sense that a talented filmmaker is working a couple of rungs beneath his level. "--Robert Horton"

Director: David Greene
Genre: Horror
Studio: Seven Arts Pictures
Rated: See all certifications

In a small island off the American coast, the Whateleys live in an old mill where a mysterious bloody being creates an atmosphere of horror. After her parents get killed by lightning, young Susannah is sent to New York by her aunt Agatha, who wants her to avoid the family curse. Years later Susannah, now married, persuades her husband to spend a holiday in the abandoned mill. Once on the island, Susannah and Mike soon find themselves exposed to the hostility of a gang of thugs led by Ethan, Susannah's brutal cousin...

Director: Denis Villeneuve
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
Studio: Black Label Media
Rated: R

When drug violence worsens on the USA Mexico border, the FBI sends an idealistic agent, Kate Macer (Emily Blunt) on a mission to eradicate a drug cartel responsible for a bomb that had killed members of her team.

Director: Dan Bush, David Bruckner, Jacob Gentry
Studio: Magnolia
Rated: R

This film is the horrific journey toward discovering that the most brutal monster might actually be within each of us. A sci-fi/horror/thriller that imagines a world where everyday anxieties become the catalyst for inhuman terror. All forms of communicati

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Horror
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Rated: PG-13

This B movie with noble aspirations is the work of a gifted filmmaker whose storytelling falls short of his considerable stylistic flair. While addressing crises of faith in the framework of an alien-invasion thriller, M. Night Shyamalan (in his follow-up to "The Sixth Sense" and "Unbreakable") favors atmospheric tension over explanatory plotting. He injects subtle humor into expertly spooky scenes, but the story suffers from too many lapses in logic. The film's faults are greatly compensated by the performance of Mel Gibson as a widower whose own crisis of faith coincides with the appearance of mysterious crop circles in his Pennsylvania cornfield... and hundreds of UFOs around the globe. With his brother (Joaquin Phoenix) and two young children (Rory Culkin, Abigail Breslin), the lapsed minister perceives this phenomenal occurrence as a series of signs and portents, while Shyamalan pursues a spookfest with "War of the Worlds" overtones. It's effective to a point, but vaguely hollow at its core. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Peter Anthony Fields

On his 14th birthday, Ian Foster (Daniel Sovich) reaches a critical point in his life where he realizes that he can no longer withstand the burden of his self-denial that he is gay. But he feels he cannot come out to his mother, Linda (Kimberly J. Mahoney), who has strong views against the gay community and takes great pride in believing that her son is a “ladies man”. Believing that his best friend, Jessica (Dani Apple), is the only person in whom he can confide, Ian fears that revealing his true self to his family and friends will mean losing their love and acceptance forever.
"This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply."

Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Genre: Drama
Studio: Hollywood Pictures
Rated: PG

Director: David Silverman
Genre: Comedy
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13

"The Simpsons" had already ruled TV land for many years by the time they finally attempted to conquer the movie world as well. It was never any big secret that a "Simpsons" movie was in the works: Fox registered the domain name "Simpsonsmovie.com" in 1997, a full nine years before the film was finally greenlighted. When creator/producer Matt Groening's creation finally made it to the big screen in 2007, it only turned out to be the biggest hit of the summer, raking in over $100 million gross in box-office receipts in its first week, before heading on to do over $500 million worldwide, proving that the best joke in the movie was actually played on the audience: "Why pay for something when you can see it for free?" asks Homer at the movie's start. Naturally, all the trouble starts with him. When he adopts a pig ("Sir Oinks-A-Lot") destined for Krusty's slaughterhouse, it triggers an environmental catastrophe, forcing the government to seal Springfield into a dome and destroy the city. While the family manages to escape and flee to Alaska, they eventually decide to return and help save the city in more-or-less classic Simpson fashion. As Homer's joke about the audience shows, Groening and producer Al Jean are keenly aware that their franchise is first and foremost a TV show. Maybe a little too aware, as the movie fails to ever rise above anything more than an extended episode, and not even one of its best episodes at that. True, there are plenty of good jokes; the animation has been kicked up a notch to be particularly sharp and detailed; and there are some truly memorable moments such as Bart's nude skateboard ride and the "Spider-Pig" song. But when the film finally materialized, the payoff for long years of anticipation turned out to be small as the movie failed to live up to its potential; it's amusing but not truly funny. "The Simpsons Movie" leaves the impression that maybe the show's writers and producers had already spent their best ideas on the best years of the TV show. Had it been made years earlier… well, we can only wonder what could have been. "--Daniel Vancini"

Get to Know "The Simpsons"
"Oh, so they have internet on computers now!" -- Homer Simpson
"I'd like to visit that Long Island Place, if only it were real." -- Marge Simpson (drinking a Long Island Iced Tea)
"Aren't we forgetting the true meaning of Christmas? You know, the birth of Santa." -- Bart Simpson
"If cartoons were meant for adults, they'd put them on in prime time." -- Lisa Simpson
"Daddy" -- Maggie Simpson
> More Simpsons Characters Beyond "The Simpsons Movie"
"The Simpsons" Toys & Games
"The Simpsons" Video Games
"The Simpsons" Books & Comics Store
"The Simpsons" Automotive

More of the "The Simpsons" on DVD
"The Simpsons" TV Series
"The Simpsons Movie" on Blu-Ray
"The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror"
"The Simpsons Christmas"
"The Simpsons Gone Wild"
"The Simpsons Kiss and Tell: The True Story of Their Love"


Stills from "The Simpsons Movie"

Director: Frank Miller, Robert Rodriguez
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Dimension
Rated: R

Brutal and breathtaking, "Sin City" is Robert Rodriguez's stunningly realized vision of Frank Miller's pulpy comic books. In the first of three separate but loosely related stories, Marv (Mickey Rourke in heavy makeup) tries to track down the killers of a woman who ended up dead in his bed. In the second story, Dwight's (Clive Owen) attempt to defend a woman from a brutal abuser goes horribly wrong, and threatens to destroy the uneasy truce among the police, the mob, and the women of Old Town. Finally, an aging cop on his last day on the job (Bruce Willis) rescues a young girl from a kidnapper, but is himself thrown in jail. Years later, he has a chance to save her again.

Read our interview with Frank Miller. Based on three of Miller's immensely popular and immensely gritty books ("The Hard Goodbye", "The Big Fat Kill", and "That Yellow Bastard"), "Sin City" is unquestionably the most faithful comic-book-based movie ever made. Each shot looks like a panel from its source material, and director Rodriguez (who refers to it as a "translation" rather than an adaptation) resigned from the Directors Guild so that Miller could share a directing credit. Like the books, it's almost entirely in stark black and white with some occasional bursts of color (a woman's red lips, a villain's yellow face). The backgrounds are entirely digitally generated, yet not self-consciously so, and perfectly capture Miller's gritty cityscape. And though most of Miller's copious nudity is absent, the violence is unrelentingly present. That may be the biggest obstacle to viewers who aren't already fans of the books and who may have been turned off by "Kill Bill" (whose director, Quentin Tarantino, helmed one scene of "Sin City"). In addition, it's a bleak, desperate world in which the heroes are killers, corruption rules, and the women are almost all prostitutes or strippers. But Miller's stories are riveting, and the huge cast--which also includes Jessica Alba, Jaime King, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson, Benicio Del Toro, Elijah Wood, Nick Stahl, Michael Clarke Duncan, Devin Aoki, Carla Gugino, and Josh Hartnett--is just about perfect. (Only Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen, while very well-suited to their roles, seem hard to separate from their established screen personas.) In what Rodriguez hopes is the first of a series, "Sin City" is a spectacular achievement. "--David Horiuchi"
More "Sin City" at Amazon.com
The Graphic Novels and Books
Films by Robert Rodriguez
From Graphic Novel to Big Screen
The Soundtrack
Films by guest director Quentin Tarantino
Crime on DVD

Director: Leopoldo Laborde
Genre: Art House & International
Studio: Tla
Rated: NR

Inspired by Luis Buuel's Los Olvidados, Mexican writer-director Leopoldo Laborde's haunting, engrossing film shows Mexico City at its darkest. Fifteen-year-old Frank (Francisco Rey) sells his body to men to survive, but still can't afford his own drug habit. His best friend (and dealer) David (David Valdez) helps him out with "loans" and offers advice on how to bed a woman, something the young gay hustler knows nothing about. Frank's obsession with the pretty blonde Angelica (Mariana Gaja) blossoms, but when an older man from Frank's past (Roberto Cobo, Los Olividados, A Place Without Limits) turns up again, the young boy becomes even more sexually confused.

Studio: Summit Inc/Lionsgate
Rated: R

A scary movie that understands the value of a slow burn, "Sinister" stands as an unsettling hybrid between old-school horror jolts and newfangled found-footage creepiness. Beginning with a hackle-raising 16mm film clip, the story follows a disgraced true-crime author (Ethan Hawke) who, in hopes of regaining his writerly mojo, moves his unsuspecting family into a house where a grisly murder took place. After discovering a projector and collection of home movies in the attic, he finds evidence of a series of unsolved crimes, all centering around an ancient supernatural presence with an appetite for children. What's worse, said Presence seems to be aware of the attention. Director-cowriter Scott Derrickson ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") does a fine job in amping up the tension, cannily placing ominous shadows in the background while ladling out the overt jump scares in sensible qualities. The cast also contributes to the film's tangibly bad vibes, with Hawke's deepening twitchiness bolstered by small yet notable contributions from old pros Fred Dalton Thompson and Vincent D'Onofrio--the latter, in a witty nod to the film's techno-horror themes, seen entirely via Skype. What ultimately puts "Sinister" over the top, however, are the home movies themselves, which get under the skin in a way that eludes the more polished shocks. Featuring innocuous titles like "Pool Party", "BBQ", and "Lawn Work", and sporting a Fotomat's worth of crackles and pops, they lend a realism to the supernatural events that proves hard to shake. You'll never yawn through a vacation slideshow again. --"Andrew Wright"

Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Genre: Horror
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Rated: PG-13

"I see dead people," whispers little Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), scared to affirm what is to him now a daily occurrence. This peaked 9-year old, already hypersensitive to begin with, is now being haunted by seemingly malevolent spirits. Child psychologist Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is trying to find out what's triggering Cole's visions, but what appears to be a psychological manifestation turns out to be frighteningly real. It might be enough to scare off a lesser man, but for Malcolm it's personal--several months before, he was accosted and shot by an unhinged patient, who then turned the gun on himself. Since then, Malcolm has been in turmoil--he and his wife (Olivia Williams) are barely speaking, and his life has taken an aimless turn. Having failed his loved ones and himself, he's not about to give up on Cole.
This third feature by M. Night Shyamalan sets itself up as a thriller, poised on the brink of delivering monstrous scares, but gradually evolves into more of a psychological drama with supernatural undertones. Many critics faulted the film for being mawkish and New Age-y, but no matter how you slice it, this is one mightily effective piece of filmmaking. The bare bones of the story are basic enough, but the moody atmosphere created by Shyamalan and cinematographer Tak Fujimoto made this one of the creepiest pictures of 1999, forsaking excessive gore for a sinisterly simple feeling of chilly otherworldliness. Willis is in his strong, silent type mode here, and gives the film wholly over to Osment, whose crumpled face and big eyes convey a child too wise for his years; his scenes with his mother (Toni Collette) are small, heartbreaking marvels. And even if you figure out the film's surprise ending, it packs an amazingly emotional wallop when it comes, and will have you racing to watch the movie again with a new perspective. You may be able to shake off the sentimentality of "The Sixth Sense", but its craftsmanship and atmosphere will stay with you for days. "--Mark Englehart"

Director: Iain Softley
Genre: Drama
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: PG-13

Steeped in rain, humidity, and eerie bayou atmosphere, "The Skeleton Key" is an entertaining supernatural thriller that makes excellent use of its Louisiana locations. New Orleans and the rural environs of Terrebonne Parish are crucial in setting up the creepy circumstances that find compassionate caregiver Caroline Ellis (Kate Hudson) newly employed at the backwater plantation home of Violet (Gena Rowlands) and her invalid husband Ben (John Hurt), who's been rendered mute and seemingly helpless by a recent stroke. The place is rife with mystery, shrouded in the secrets of a suspicious past and, under Violet's stern supervision, plagued by superstition involving the use of Hoodoo magic spells (not to be confused with Voodoo, as explored in the similarly suspenseful "Angel Heart") intended to protect the house from harm. But Caroline soon discovers the source of the mystery, and why Ben (who can barely utter a word) is so desperate to escape his seemingly comfortable domesticity. There are a few loopholes in the screenplay by prolific horror writer Ehren Kruger ("The Ring" and "The Brothers Grimm"), but director Iain Softley ("Wings of the Dove") expertly emphasizes the edgy air of mystery, pushing some effective shocks while encouraging fine work from Hudson, Peter Sarsgaard (as Violet's lawyer) and especially Rowlands, who's genuinely disturbing as "Skeleton Key" nears a twist ending that's undeniably effective. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Rob Cohen
Genre: Horror
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: PG-13

Think of the Skulls as a collegiate Freemason's society--an ultrasecret organization that opens the doors of power to a few lucky Ivy League students, including school rowing star Luke McNamara (Joshua Jackson), a poor kid with a misspent youth. "If it's secret and it's elite, it can't be good," cautions his journalist roommate, but the lure of lavish gifts and cabal-like ceremonies in torch-lit stone chambers is too much to resist--until his roomie is murdered and his own Skull "soulmate" Caleb Mandrake (Paul Walker) is the number one suspect.
There's a campy kick to the initiation ceremonies, ancient rituals in dungeonlike alcoves filled with haze and shadow, performed by enthralled frat boys, but as Jackson flounders at the center of a Skull conspiracy it spins into ludicrous melodrama. See the college president become a thug for the Skull godfather! See street punks become high-tech criminal masterminds! See the conspiracy collapse under its own absurdity!
Jackson is pretty much a dud as the well-meaning hero, but Walker, with flashing eyes under furrowed brow, is mesmerizing as a haunted rich kid torn between a ruthless, overbearing father (Craig T. Nelson) and his conscience. Director Rob Cohen drives the film at a galloping pace and fills it with foreboding images, but his humorless solemnity finally buries "The Skulls" in a heap of clichés. "--Sean Axmaker"

Director: Mike Mitchell (VI)
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Rated: PG

The idea of a high school for superheroes will appeal to teens and preteens, who struggle powerlessly with petty authoritarians, bullying peers, and their own rampant hormones, and "Sky High" spotlights young Will Stronghold (Michael Angarano, "Lords of Dogtown"), the son of top-of-the-heap superheroic couple the Commander (Kurt Russell, "Tango & Cash") and Josie Jetstream (Kelly Preston, "View from the Top"). Unfortunately, though he's about to be dropped into the midst of kids who can stretch, turn to living stone, or shoot fire, Will has yet to develop any powers at all--and may never develop them. His development anxieties (and some entertaining metaphors for high school social hierarchies) contrast with a bubbling plot by an old foe of the Commander's to destroy Sky High and all of superhero-dom. "Sky High" has a great supporting cast (including Bruce Campbell, "Army of Darkness"; Dave Foley, "NewsRadio"; Lynda Carter, "Wonder Woman"; and Cloris Leachman, "Young Frankenstein") and a handful of funny, offhand bits, but the bulk of the movie is bland and obvious. Younger kids may not mind the clumsy action scenes, generic dialogue, and tacky production design, but even comic-book-loving teenagers will label "Sky High" bargain-basement. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Dewey Nicks
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

Dewon Sawa is the impish leader of a trio of higher-education shysters who are blackmailed by deranged nerd Jason Schwartzman ("Rushmore") into playing cupid in this latest twist on the college prank comedy. It starts playfully enough and winds through some clever test-taking shell games and commando-style operations to cheat the system, but soon enough falls into a familiar formula of teen sex, outrageous pranks, and gross-out gags. If that's your bag, this film rings the bell with a mind-boggling scene involving Schwartzman, '60s sex bomb Mamie Van Doren, and a sponge bath. Sawa's crooked smile is loaded for charm, James King is adorable as the angelic beauty, and Schwartzman is perhaps too convincing as a stalker with a raging psychosis, but this has nothing on "Animal House", the original college rebel film of sex, scams, and the celebration of bad taste. "--Sean Axmaker"

Director: Barry Levinson
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller
Studio: Astoria Films
Rated: R

Four boys growing up in Hell's Kitchen play a prank that leads to an old man getting hurt. Sentenced to no less than one year in the Wilkenson Center in upstate New York, the four friends are changed by the beating, humiliation and sexual abuse by the guards sworn to protect them. Thirteen years later and a chance meeting lead to a chance for revenge against the Wilkenson Center and the guards.

Director: Andrew Cividino
Genre: Adventure, Drama
Studio: Film Forge Productions
Rated: Not Rated

The Hudsons - husband and wife William and Linda, and their fifteen year old son Adam - are spending the summer, like they have the several recent past summers, at their cottage on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior. William and Linda are still trying to perpetuate them being the perfect family, which they have been able to do as Adam is still closer emotionally to childhood than he is to adulthood and still largely follows parental rules. However, William wants to be both Adam's father and best friend as he is encouraging Adam to pursue Taylor, a similarly aged girl Adam has known forever at the lake. Adam doesn't want to admit to anyone that he does like Taylor in that way, he justifying his non-action by not wanting to ruin their friendship. This summer for the first time, Adam hangs out with cousins Riley and Nate, who are a little rougher around the edges than him. They are spending the summer with their permissive grandmother, Riley living with her permanently since the ...

Director: Tim Burton
Genre: Horror
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Rated: R

The films of Tim Burton shine through the muck like a jack-o-lantern on a foggy October night. After such successes as "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Edward Scissorhands", it should come as no surprise that "Sleepy Hollow" is a dazzling film, a delicious reworking of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". Dark and moody, the film is a thrilling ride back to the turn of the 19th century. Johnny Depp stars as Ichabod Crane, a seemingly hapless constable from New York City who is sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to solve the mystery of the decapitations that are plaguing the town. Crane is a bumbling sort, with a tremendous faith in science over mysticism, and he comes up against town secrets, bewitching women, and a number of bodies missing heads. Christina Ricci, as beautiful as ever, is Katrina Van Tassel, the offbeat love interest who alternately charms and frightens Crane.
The film, while occasionally gory (as one should expect from a movie about a headless horseman), is not terribly frightening, although it is suspenseful. Both Depp and Ricci are convincing, and the art direction and production values give the village its harsh feel. Toward the end, once the secrets are revealed, the film does slow down; however, this stylistic horror film provides many tricks and even more treats. "--Jenny Brown"

Director: Anthony Hopkins
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

For years, George Lucas has talked about going back to directing avant-garde films with limited commercial potential that would be bound to confound audiences. Venerable actor Sir Anthony Hopkins, 70, went ahead and did it with this daring, provocative dream-within-a-dream, movie-within-a-movie. Part David Lynch, part Pirandello, it throws viewers into the deep end of this "looking glass world" and "mad hatter's tea party." This much we know: Hopkins (who wrote, directed, and even composed the musical score) stars as a screenwriter, Felix Bonhoeffer. Most everything else is up for grabs. "Slipstream" unfolds in fractured fits and starts. Christian Slater and Jeffrey Tambor portray two actors in a wildly troubled movie ("the whole thing is going to hell in a hand basket" someone proclaims). John Turturro appears as a manic producer in a performance that makes his turn in "Transformers" look like a model of understatement. There is a Dolly Parton look-alike who introduces herself as "Dolly Parton Look-alike." Kevin McCarthy, star of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"), turns up as a dottering incarnation of himself. There is an in-joke about "Hopkins" doing "Hannibal 4". Fantasy and reality become interchangeable as Felix is visited by his characters ("You killed me in Scene 23," one protests. "I've got the script"). But that's only the beginning… or maybe the end, as the case may be. "Slipstream" is thrilling in a "what the what?" sort of way, and repeated viewings will reward adventurous viewers trying to plumb its secrets. "--Donald Liebenson"

Studio: Tla
Rated: Unrated

A witty, sexy comedy which cleverly balances gay cynicism with old-fashioned romance, Slutty Summer tells of one young gay guy's adventures in steamy New York City. Lanky blond Marcus (writer-director Casper Andreas) gets a sudden reality check in gay fidelity after catching his lover in bed with another. Picking up the pieces, Marcus gets a job at a restaurant where he is befriended by a group of lovelorn waiters who school him on re-entering the dating scene. Taking the advice of "sleeping around" as the best medicine, Marcus tries his luck but quickly falls for pouty-lipped coworker Tyler, who's definitely not good dating material.

Director: Rupert Sanders
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13

Definitely not your average retelling of the classic Snow White fairy tale, "Snow White and the Huntsman" is a dark, action-fantasy film that's based more on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale than the well-known Disney version of the story. It features intriguing concepts, impressive special effects, and some disappointingly lackluster acting. The essence of the "Snow White" story is preserved in this recounting: the queen's beautiful daughter Snow White, who is heir to the throne, is displaced and persecuted by an evil stepmother after her mother dies. Here, the evil stepmother Ravenna possesses a disturbing power to maintain her own perpetual youth by stealing youthfulness from the hearts of the young and beautiful, but her magic mirror warns that Snow White's innocence and purity as she comes of age will destroy Ravenna's chance at immortality. When Snow White escapes from the castle prison, Ravenna hires a downtrodden Huntsman to bring her back so that Ravenna can steal her youth and achieve personal immortality. But Snow White runs into a dark and sinister forest where mushrooms disperse hallucinogenic spores, trees come to life, flocks of bats spring from inanimate objects, and dwarves lurk in the shadows. The roles of the seven dwarves and the Huntsman in this version of the story prove to be quite different from the original, but what remain steadfast are Snow White's inner strength and absolute goodness, and her stepmother's innate evilness. This film is full of fascinating imagery that's brought to life through powerful special effects, great costuming, and captivating cinematography--the scenes in the dark forest and the fairy-filled wilderness beyond are reason enough to see it. Unfortunately, the story moves a bit slowly and the acting by Kristen Stewart (Snow White) and Chris Hemsworth (Huntsman) is rather stoical and passionless and lacks chemistry, though Charlize Theron does stand out as a particularly disturbing Ravenna. "--Tami Horiuchi"

Director: Oliver Stone
Genre: Biography, Drama, Thriller
Studio: Endgame Entertainment
Rated: R

SNOWDEN stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and is written and directed by Oliver Stone. The script is based on the books The Snowden Files: The Inside Story of the World's Most Wanted Man by Luke Harding and Time of the Octopus by Anatoly Kucherena.

Director: Rene Villar Rios
Genre: Drama
Studio: York Home Video
Rated: R

I sit here and read these reviews one after one for this film. Some gave the most horrible rviews from people who went to school with one of the actors to the most amazing reviews who saw the movie's potential. I can't believe people saw this as horrible and cheesy writing. In my eyes and opinion, I saw this as great writing. The actors did an incredible job acting out their parts as as some has already said, young adults can relate to these kids characters. I myself have shown this movie to others and all can relate to it...all can see themselves in certain characters.

If you look at the emotions and concentrate of the mood of this film, you will like it for the most part. If you want any action in your films, this would not be the movie for you...a lot of talking going on to make you relate with each character.

I for one picked this movie up on the east coast at a local Big Lots store...didn't take long before this became my favorite film...I cried three times during my first view...I def. reccomend for anybody to pick this up with an open mind!!

Director: David Fincher
Genre: Biography, Drama
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Rated: PG-13

On a fall night in 2003, Harvard undergrad and computer programming genius Mark Zuckerberg sits down at his computer and heatedly begins working on a new idea. In a fury of blogging and programming, what begins in his dorm room soon becomes a global social network and a revolution in communication. A mere six years and 500 million friends later, Mark Zuckerberg is the youngest billionaire in history... but for this entrepreneur, success leads to both personal and legal complications.

Director: Brian Yuzna
Genre: Horror
Studio: Anchor Bay
Rated: R

Poor Bill Whitney! He's a high school kid who lives in a marble mansion in Beverly Hills. His family is filthy rich and super connected. When they're not buzzing around LA in the Maserati they're having the chauffeur warm up the Bentley.

Whitney is all-American, captain of the football team, soon to be President of the Student Body. With a Washington DC internship in the works and a Harvard acceptance letter in the hopper, what could be better for a teenager in love?

Everything. Bill Whitney is going through an awkward stage: he's got to contribute to Society, after all, but he doesn't fit in. He doesn't feel he belongs.

Worse, Whitney is convinced something is deeply, frighteningly wrong: how to explain the night terrors he has of walking through his own house, a house dark but hardly empty, the halls and rooms filled with whispers and shuffling? How to explain his sleepwalking, only to wake huddled at the base of the stairs clutching a butcher knife? How to fathom his surprise and revulsion when something---only for a fleeting instant---shifts beneath the ridge of his sister's shoulder blade, too sluggish for doubt, too quick for certainty?

How to dismiss his conviction that there are secrets being passed behind closed doors, deals being struck, sacraments carried out?

The rabid Brian Yuzna made his film debut with "Society", which takes teen angst anxiety, loads it up with cordite, and lights the fuse with a charming little message that will appeal identity-wrestling teens the world over: if you feel you're always on the outside looking in, then you could always turn yourself inside out. Literally.

Things take a turn for the worse when Whitney's schoolmate Blanchard produces a tape suggesting Whitney's sister Jenny is demonstrating considerably more than filial piety towards the folks. Blanchard's subsequent "death", increasingly bizarre behavior on the part of his friends and family, and the violent death---and subsequent rosy reappearance---of a school rival suggest that something is seriously wrong with the Upper Crust of Beverly Hills, and it's not just because the rich are getting richer.

It could, however, have something to do with the rich getting hungrier. And the more Whitney (played like a champ by eighties character actor Billy Warlock) finds out, the more it occurs to him he might end up making a far greater---and more lasting---contribution than he ever dreamed possible.

F. Scott Fitzgerald once remarked that "the rich are different from us: they have more money". In less talented hands, "Society" might have languished as nothing more than a tedious feature-long riff on an old theme. Not so with Yuzna, who invests it with every atom of the bloodthirsty, ferocious, and downright scary creativity that flows through his other directorial work: "Return of the Living Dead 3", "The Dentist" films, and the "Herbert West: Re-Animator" trilogy.

The glory of "Society" is that for all its perversity, the movie functions very much in the realm of quirky eighties psychological thriller, and for the bulk of its running time, there's hardly a drop of blood or a gobbet of gore. Certainly Bill Whitney has a strained and awkward relationship with his glossy, preening, patrician parents, but at his age who doesn't?

Sure, Blanchard's tape makes it sound like something incestuous might be brewing at Chez Whitney, but it's easy to take a conversation out of context---heck, this is the eighties, the entire situation comedy lineup of the day---Three's Company, Cheers, Diff'rent Strokes---was founded on that routine!

In the meantime, "Society" is a stylish, severely debauched, possibly mentally insane little romp that entertains in spades. Chiefly due to Yuzna's skill with the camera, sense of pacing, spooky use of lighting and color, and lavish set-pieces (the mansion, the car wreck), "Society" entertains on its own terms as a stylishly creepy horror film.

Cinematographer Rick Fichter wields one mean camera! On its own terms, this is a lush and frankly gorgeous film, and the remastered DVD treatment makes it look like it was shot yesterday. Fichter captures the high society ghoulishness with high style, using colored lighting in a fashion reminiscent of Dario Argento. The acting is competent, the casting inspired: all the principals (Warlock, Patrice Jennings as Sis, the parents) work like troopers, while Ben Slack as the silver-tongued society shrink and David Wiley as the cigar-chomping Judge Carter (who has a talent for getting to the `bottom' of any problem, quite literally) steal every scene they're in.

And then, of course, Society has something of a special effects nuke up its Armani sleeve, trotted out in the final, convulsive Big Reveal: effects served up the old-fashioned way (no CGI---everything done with latex and gallons of fake blood and goop and slime), which show how Screamin' Mad George got his nickname, and which---frankly---are nothing short of jaw-dropping, sincerely repulsive, and genuinely disturbing. Think what you'd get if you moved the hankey-pankey in the husky pens of "The Thing" into a Beverly Hills boudoir, then ratchet up the goop and messiness factor by a power of 100.

Jaded creature that I am, I was completely floored by the finale, where it would appear that social mobility in Beverly Hills is less about shinnying up the greasy pole than having the greasy pole do some shinnying of its own---and revealing some latex-inspired sexual positions that would have baffled (or inspired) the authors of the Kama Sutra.

Class warfare? Not really. In the end, as Judge Carter might say, it's all about finding your niche.

JSG

Director: Patrice Chéreau
Genre: Art House & International
Studio: Strand Releasing
Rated: Unrated

Thomas and Luc are brothers. Thomas is straight; Luc is gay. Unable to accept his brother`s homosexuality, Thomas distances himself. When Thomas contracts a terminal illness, he intrudes into Luc`s contented life and asks him to be his caretaker. Luc begrudgingly sacrifices his lover, his job and his comfortable life to care for his dying brother. Through the rounds of doctors and the demanding challenges of catastrophic illness, the brothers are forced to examine the meaning of their existence, and their powerlessness in the face of impending doom. They return to their childhood home on the beach, reconnect with their past, and ultimately forge a new and vital relationship. From Patrice Chéreau, director of "The Queen Margot," "Intimacy," and "L`Homme blessé."

Director: Del Shores
Genre: Comedy
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: R

If you've got a taste for big hair, broad Texas accents, and gay rights, this mixture of white-trash comedy and coming-out melodrama is for you. "Sordid Lives" starts out as chicken-fried farce, as a funeral is prepared for a woman who died when she tripped over her adulterous lover's wooden legs; about midway the emphasis shifts to a drag queen unfairly held in a mental institution and the dead woman's grandson, an actor in Los Angeles who hasn't come out to his mother. The tone shifts wildly, and the humor depends on your fondness for the white-trash genre--if you like it, this will tickle your ribs; if you don't, it'll fall flat as the panhandle landscape. But it must be said that the cast (including Bonnie Bedelia, Beau Bridges, Delta Burke, and Olivia Newton-John) dives right in, no matter how over-the-top their characters get. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Peter Hyams
Genre: Horror
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: PG-13

"A Sound of Thunder" earns itself a special place in the hearts of understanding sci-fi movie fans. It's an ambitious yet ultimately cheesy techno-adventure, and genre buffs won't be surprised that it was directed by Peter Hyams, the once-promising sci-fi specialist (c'mon, "2010" wasn't so bad) who delivers glorified B movies like "The Relic" every few years or so. (After several release-date postponements it was eventually dumped into theaters in late summer 2005.) This poorly written but otherwise sensible end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario borrows its premise from a classic Ray Bradbury short story which warned about the catastrophic consequences of traveling backwards in time and accidentally altering the course of the future (and in this case, the entire course of evolution on Earth). It's the year 2055, and Travis (Ed Burns) leads the "Time Safari" team financed by a greedy corporate shark (Ben Kingsley), and time-machine inventor Sonia (Catherine McCormack) gets involved when a hapless time-tourist sends the future into a cataclysmic state of evolutionary disarray, turning Chicago into a feeding ground for ravenous baboon-o-sauruses, pterodactyl-sized vampire bats, man-eating sewer serpents and other hybrid by-products of temporal disruption. The special effects are cheap-looking and the time-travel scenario is a bit rickety, but somehow "A Sound of Thunder" remains surprisingly entertaining as an alternative to over-hyped blockbusters. And hey... it's better than 2003's "Timeline", so cut it some slack, OK? "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

All fourteen episodes from South Parks out-of-control eighth season are now available for the first time in this exclusive 3-disc collectors set. Stan, Kyle, Kenny and Cartman find themselves in the middle of hot-button political issues and celebrity sh

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

Comedy, Lenny Bruce once said, is tragedy plus time. Less than two months--hardly any time at all--had elapsed after September 11 when "South Park" broadcast an episode that addressed the tragedy. Wit and satire have their place, of course, but in the aftermath of epochal upheaval, sometimes good old-fashioned ridicule can diminish an enemy and help to heal a grieving nation. The Emmy-nominated episode "Osama Bin Laden Has Farty Pants" does the cathartic trick, as Cartman plays Bugs Bunny to Osama's Elmer Fudd with a series of humiliating pranks, one of which reveals Osama's miniscule Bin Laden. "This is how we deal with stuff," creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone remark during the "commentary-mini," a listening option on each episode. In this fifth season, "It Hits the Fan," to quote the title of the notorious season-opening episode, in which the "S" word is uttered a staggering 162 times. In another series milestone, "Kenny Dies," and actually stays dead (at least until season 6). One of "South Park"'s best characters gets his own half hour in "Butters' Very Own Episode," while one of the series' absolute worst, "Towelie," also gets his. Over the course of these 14 episodes, many life lessons are learned about sex education ("Proper Condom Use"), prejudice ("Here Comes the Neighborhood") and stereotypes ("The Entity"). But perhaps the most valuable lesson is: "Don't tick off Cartman," as witness his diabolical revenge against the unfortunate ninth grader who rips him off in "Scott Tenorman Must Die."
The genius of "South Park" is its uncanny ability to make satiric hay with such otherwise sure-fire comedy killers as aborted fetuses, concentration camps, and cancer (which becomes instantly funny when the words "up the a**" are added to it, and funnier still when spoken by actual members of Radiohead). 2001 was a rough year for America, and while this country's "problems" provide Stone and Parker with a fount of material (most of it objectionable), we can take odd comfort that they remain vigilant in rooting for their "team." "--Donald Liebenson"

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

"South Park" exploded on the pop culture landscape like a dirty bomb in 1997, and the 13 episodes that comprise the groundbreaking first season have lost none of their subversive impact. If "Seinfeld" was a show about nothing, then "South Park" is a show about everything, from important moral lessons in compassion and tolerance to good old-fashioned animated character assassination (Kathie Lee Gifford in "Weight Gain 4000" and Barbra Streisand in "Mecha-Streisand"). Like an After School Special gone quite mad, profanity-spewing third-graders Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and the ill-fated Kenny navigate childhood in their mountain town. Nothing in "South Park" is sacred, and each episode has something to offend, from "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride" (featuring George Clooney as the voice of Sparky, the homosexual dog), to the Halloween episode "Pink Eye," in which Cartman dresses up as Adolph Hitler. Best not to even get started on Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Pooh, or the season finale cliffhanger, "Cartman's Mom Is a Dirty Slut."
Each episode is preceded by a faux introduction by creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone, who proclaim every episode to be their favorite. Their incarnations as Rootin'-Tootin' Trey Parker and Pistol-Slingin' Matt Stone indicate that after "South Park" runs its course, they'd be great hosts of their own children's show, which--and this cannot be stressed strongly enough--"South Park" is "not". Other extras include the "South Park" boys' appearance on the CableAce awards and "A South Park Thanksgiving," featuring Jay Leno, which aired exclusively on "The Tonight Show". A minor annoyance is the slapdash packaging that mislabels the episodes ("Damien," for example, is on disc 3, not 2 as indicated). "--Donald Liebenson"

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

In the episode "Chef Goes Nanners," Cartman is left standing alone in the snow after Wendy blithely proclaims her improbable attraction for him to has suddenly vanished. Cartman heaves a heavy sigh, and exits Chaplinesque stage right. But any concerns that "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had gone soft, or that Cartman would undergo a more sympathetic, Louie De Palma-like makeover are abated in nearly every other episode of "South Park"'s pivotal fourth season. From the "downright immature" trashing of Phil Collins (whose "You'll Be in My Heart" from "Tarzan" had emerged victorious Oscar night over Parker and Stone's "Blame Canada") to an episode in which Cartman becomes the unwitting poster child for NAMBLA, "South Park" gave its viewers much shock value for its basic cable dollar. This was the season that introduced the show's most unlikely breakout star, the wheelchair-bound Timmy, who, despite being only able to say his own name (or perhaps because of it), carried the pathos in his own holiday special, "Helen Keller! The Musical." This was the season in which Parker and Stone somehow were able to comment with "Daily Show" immediacy on the Elian Gonzales incident ("Quintuplets 2000") and the presidential election debacle ("Trapper Keeper") within days of the actual events. This was the season in which other "statement shows" skewered the South Carolina confederate flag controversy ("Chef Goes Nanners") and hate-crime legislation ("Cartman's Silly Hate Crime 2000"). This was also the season in which the "South Park" kids graduated to the fourth grade, we got a harrowing look inside Cartman's brain ("Helen Keller!"), and estranged lovers Saddam Hussein and Satan were reunited (in a two-parter, no less!).
Episodes not appreciated in their time can now be seen with fresh eyes. "Pip," hosted by Malcolm McDowell, and featuring none of the "South Park" regulars, is a faithful abridgement of Charles Dickens's "Great Expectations", monkey robots notwithstanding. As in the season 3 set, Parker and Stone provide brief, "fun-size commentary" that address their censorship skirmishes with Comedy Central and illuminate the inspiration and backstory for each episode. To quote the pro-commercialism holiday episode, "A Very Krappy Christmas," "If we all buy presents, everyone benefits." For "South Park" fans, this boxed set is an excellent start. "--Donald Liebenson"

Director: Trey Parker, Matt Stone
Genre: Television
Studio: Comedy Central
Rated: NR

A lot can happen in the middle of nowhere. The tiny mountain town of South Park, Colorado has proven that beyond a doubt for the last eight seasons. Fortunately for fans of this Comedy Central pillar, series creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker obviously had no lack of ideas for their ninth season. Over the course of fourteen episodes, Mr. Garrison gets a sex change, Cartman thwarts a hippie music festival that threatens to destroy the town, the boys (Cartman, Kyle, Stan, and Kenny) start a talent agency, Kenny leads angelic forces in an epic battle against Satan's minions at the gates of heaven, and the boys become really bad at losing at baseball. And that's just the first half of the season. The most notable episode from this season is definitely the controversial "Trapped in the Closet," where Stan is "recognized" as the reincarnation of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, and a dejected Tom Cruise locks himself in Stan's closet. Naturally, over the course of the episode, TV reporters get to decry that "Tom Cruise still won't come out of the closet." It's funny enough on its own, but when John Travolta and R. Kelly end up in the closet as well (all singing together "Now I'm trapped in the closet. I'm trapped in the closet too"), that's worth the price of the set on its own.
After nine seasons it's also nice to see that one of the series key running gags, the perpetual cluelessness of the adults, still isn't getting old. It's as if the adult townspeople only know how to behave based on movies they've seen (this season's cinematic targets include "Rocky" (in "The Losing Edge"), "The Day After Tomorrow" ("Two Days Before the Day After Tomorrow"), and "Pet Cemetery" ("Marjorine"), and their inevitably clichéd over-reactions still provide many of the show's best moments. The commentaries from Parker and Stone are once again typically short; they usually last only a few minutes into each show before they end it with "Ok, onto the next show now" not even trying to conceal that they really want to get through the recording session as quickly as possible. That might seem lame on other shows, but on "South Park"--a show where 8-year-olds send a talking killer whale to the moon through the Mexican Space Agency for $200,--somehow it's totally fitting. "--Daniel Vancini"
Stills from " South Park: The Complete Ninth Season " (click for larger image)

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

Now that enough time has lapsed, we can all have a good laugh over "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone's amusing little April Fools prank, in which they kicked off the show's second season not with the conclusion to season one's cliffhanger that would reveal the identity of Cartman's father, but with an all-Terrance, all-Phillip, all-farting episode, "Not Without My Anus." The ensuing outcry illustrated just how seriously its devoted fans take "South Park". There is little evidence of sophomore slump in this three-disc collection of 18 episodes that continue the coming-of-age trials of third graders Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. There is considerable shock value just in the episode titles alone, among them "Cojoined Fetus Lady," "Merry Christmas, Charlie Manson," and the infamous "Cartman's Mom Is Still a Dirty Slut." But mostly, the episodes are just--in Cartman's words--hella funny. "Spookyfish" is a creepfest about a killer fish, possessed animals, and alien alter egos (in which the so-called Evil Cartman is much nicer than the real Cartman) presented in Spookyvision, with pictures of Barbra Streisand framing the screen. "Chef's Salty Chocolate Balls" is a hilarious send-up of the Sundance Film Festival and the indie film scene that marks the return of Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo, and ends with the burial of Robert Redford in excrement.
As always, hard-earned life lessons provide "South Park" with fertile territory for skewed and subversive social commentary. In "Chicken Lover," Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged" is an argument against literacy. "Underwear Gnomes" makes a strong case for corporate takeover of local family business. It is difficult to respect Warner Bros.' "authoritah" with the scant DVD extras. There are no commentaries, but Parker and Stone are present to introduce most of the episodes, each of which they proclaim to be their favorite. But their incarnations as abusive retirement center entertainers and as the hosts of an all-bacon cooking show fall flat. Bring back Rootin'-Tootin' Trey Parker and Pistol-Slingin' Matt Stone from the "Season One" set! "--Donald Liebenson"

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount Home Video
Rated: NR

There is nothing in "South Park"'s seventh season to offend Tom Cruise (nothing about Scientology, at any rate; that will come in season 9). However, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, Rob Reiner, the Queer Eye guys, Christopher Reeve (!), war supporters and anti-war protesters, and Mormons, do not get off so easy. But, "Who cares?" as the townspeople sing in "I'm a Little Bit Country." What matters is that with this particular episode, "South Park" attained the precious, syndication-ready 100-episode mark! Another milestone: "Raisins," in which Wendy breaks up with Stan, who falls under the influence of the "Goth kids" ("If you want to be one of the non-comformists, all you have to do is dress just like us and listen to the same music we do").
Even by "South Park" standards, season 7 is pretty hardcore. In "Christian Rock Hard," Cartman is so determined to attain platinum album status before Kyle and his band that he forms a Christian rock group. The band's repertoire makes Tom Lehrer's once-scandalous "Vatican Rag" sound like "Oh, Happy Day." But mostly, "South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone take Cheney-like potshots at pop-culture notables. In "South Park Is Gay!", we discover what is really behind the "metrosexual" phenomenon and the true identity of the "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" quartet. In "Butt Out," Rob Reiner is portrayed as a corpulent goo-filled "fascist" willing to the sanction murder (of Cartman) to further his anti-"Big Tobacco" agenda. As you can guess from the title, "Fat Butt and Pancake Head" is a merciless deconstruction of "Bennifer," as Cartman's Jennifer Lopez hand puppet dethrones the real thing, and attracts the amorous attention of Ben Affleck. "All About Mormons" anticipates the Scientology episode, "Trapped in the Closet" (not included here, and if lawyers have anything to say about it, might not be included in a season 9 set, either) with a straight-faced musical dramatization of the Joseph Smith story. "Everyone thought we were making stuff up to be funny," Parker and Stone relate in their mini commentary (optional for each episode). "But we're not. We're not making this stuff up in this show." Which is perhaps why the episode "Cancelled," which posits that Earth exists only as reality-TV fodder for aliens, doesn't seem so farfetched. "--Donald Liebenson"

Director: Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Adrien Beard, Toni Nugnes, Eric Stough
Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

INTRO: The 6th season of SP set a new directon for the series. For instance, they killed off Kenny for good (until Red Sleigh Down) and replaced him with Butters.

This season has some great moments. Cartman and Butters being on the Maury show, Professer Chaos, "Rob Schneider is...", and Mr. Garrison and Mr. Slave, to name a few.

EPISODE LIST:

1. Jared Has Aides: Jared, that annoying Subway guy, admits he had aides, people who helped him, to lose weight. Of course, people think he means AIDS. Meanwhile, the boys try to make their own Jared, by making Butters fat, do lyposuction on him, then say he lost it while eating City Wok.

2. Asspen: In this 80's-style episode, the boys head to Aspen while their parents go to a Time Share meeting. Also, Stan "Darsh" gets challanged to a ski race.

3. Freak Strike: The boys send Butters to the Maury show as a freak with balls on his chin to get a prize. After he wins a trip to the largest puttputt golf course, Cartman goes on the show as an out-of-control teen, with hilarious results. Meanwhile, the freaks are having a strike for better prizes.

4. Fun With Veal: The boys, after taking a trip to the slaughterhouse and learning that veal is a tortured baby cow, calfnap the calves and hide them in Stan's room.

5. The Terrance and Phillip Movie Trailer: The boys have to watch Russell Crowe: Fightin' 'Round the World, to see the new T&P movie trailer. Too bad they can't find a TV.

6. Professer Chaos: After firing Butters as their 4th friend, the boys start a contest for a new friend. Meanwhile, Butters' rejection reveals his evil alter ego: Professer Chaos!

7. The Simpsons Already Did It: Classic episode about Trey and Matt's fustration with original ideas that the Simpson's have not done. P. Chaos returns with some new schemes, too bad the Simpsons have already done them. Also, the boys, along with the new 4th friend Tweek, think that Cartman's Sea People killed their teacher, Ms. Choksondik.

8. Red Hot Catholic Love: Father Maxi has to change the rules so that Catholics can't molest boys anymore, even if it means going through a Pitfall course. Also, Cartman craps out of his mouth.

9. Free Hat: The boys have to stop Steven Speilberg and George Lucas from "improving" Raiders of the Lost Ark. But the own cares only about freeing a baby killer.

10. Bebe's Boobs Destroy Society: Bebe develops (really small) boobs and the boys go ape, and kick Cartman out of the gang. Jealous, Wendy tries to get implants.

11. Child Abduction is Not Funny: The parents will stop at nothing to keep their children safe, even if it means building a Great Wall around he city and putting trackers on the kids' heads.

12. A Ladder to Heaven: The boys win a candy shopping spree, too bad they gave Kenny the ticket stub needed. So they build a ladder to heaven to get the stub back. It becomes a national sensation, and even Alan Jackson writes a few horrible "Where Were You" songs about it. Meanwhile, Cartman drinks Kenny's ashes thinking it's chocolate milk mix, and gets Kenny's soul in his body.

13. The Return of the Fellowship of the Ring to the Two Towers: Classic episode. The boys bring Butters a copy of LOTR to watch, but it is actually Randy and Sharon's hardcore porno tape! After watching it, Butter's becomes Gollum. After Stan's parents tell them to retrieve "LOTR", the boys think the tape's evil and they embark on a quest to return it to the video store. On the way, they are pursued by an army of 6th graders, and Butters. Also, Token has a classic line.

14. The Death Camp of Tolerance: Mr. Garrison tries to get fired from being gay as his new job as the boys' 4th grade teacher so he can sue for millions of bucks. He tries many things, including shoving the gerbil Lemmiwinks up his new assisstant Mr. Slave's ass, but when the boys tell their parents, they think they are intolerant homophobes and send them to a camp of tolerance. Meanwhile, Lemmiwinks embarks on an epic quest to get out of Mr. Slave's ass. Another classic episode.

15. The Biggest Douche in the Universe: Hilarious episode. Cartman needs to exorcise Kenny's spirit from his body. He tries John Edward, a fake douchey psychic, but when that doesn't work, he tries Chef's parents. Meanwhile, Stan tries to expose John Edward's doucheyness. This episode also features the infamous Rob Schneider trailers.

16. My Future Self and Me: A 32-year-old druggie claiming to be Stan's future self shows up. Meanwhile, Cartman tries the business of revenge.

17. Red Sleigh Down: The 6th season ends with a bang as Cartman has to score one big "nice" to get any Christmas presents. So he teams up with Santa, Mr. Hanky, and Jesus to bring Christmas to Iraq. But when Santa gets kidnapped by Iraqi terrorists, it's up to Jesus and Cartman to rescue him. Also Kenny returns (he was just over there the whole time) and a great character gets killed off.

OVERALL: A great season that brings new life back to the series. Pick it up and enjoy.

Genre: Television
Studio: Paramount
Rated: NR

The third time's the, for want of a better word, charm for "South Park" on DVD. Instead of mere episode intros as on the first two boxed sets, Trey Parker and Matt Stone finally oblige us with actual episode commentary, or, as they call it, "commentary-mini." On this optional audio track, Trey and Matt goof for about five minutes or so at the top of each episode, certifying some as favorites ("Tweek vs. Craig," "Jewbilee," and "Worldwide Recorder Concert," which is described as "a reverse after-school special from hell"), championing others popularly dismissed by "South Park"'s otherwise loyal fans ("Jakovasaurs," "Sexual Harassment Panda"), and provocatively dismissing all of season 2.
The third season was frantically produced simultaneously with the feature film, "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut". This was the season, Trey proclaims, "where "South Park" turned the corner... and became good (as far as we were concerned)." Among their most inspired conceits is the so-called "Meteor Shower Party" trilogy, three episodes that unfold over the course of one night, each focusing on a different kid. "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery" pays homage to Hanna-Barbera-style animation and "Scooby-Doo", recasting Korn as the Mystery Inc gang. "Rainforest Shmainforest," featuring a game Jennifer Aniston, cuts rainforest crusaders down to size. "Mr. Hankey's Christmas Classics" takes its irreverent cue from the album of the same name, and contains an outrageously obscure reference to the 1978 made-for-TV "Star Wars Holiday Special". Throughout the season, "South Park" is, as usual, a gleeful equal-opportunity offender, but the show's true gonzo spirit is truly illustrated in such surreal touches as the employment of live action in "Tweek vs. Craig," the singing of "The Morning After" backwards to save Chef from the spell of "The Succubus," and the "Seinfeld"-worthy argument over whether the term should be "pirate ghosts" or "ghost pirates" in "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery." "--Donald Liebenson"

Director: Peter Chelsom
Genre: Adventure, Drama, Romance, Sci-Fi
Studio: Los Angeles Media Fund (LAMF)
Rated: PG-13

In this interplanetary adventure, a space shuttle embarks on the first mission to colonize Mars, only to discover after takeoff that one of the astronauts is pregnant. Shortly after landing, she dies from complications while giving birth to the first human born on the red planet - never revealing who the father is. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Gardner Elliot - an inquisitive, highly intelligent boy who reaches the age of 16 having only met 14 people in his very unconventional upbringing. While searching for clues about his father, and the home planet he's never known, Gardner begins an online friendship with a street smart girl in Colorado named Tulsa. When he finally gets a chance to go to Earth, he's eager to experience all of the wonders he could only read about on Mars - from the most simple to the extraordinary. But once his explorations begin, scientists discover that Gardner's organs can't withstand Earth's atmosphere. Eager to find his father, Gardner escapes the team...

Director: Clint Eastwood
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: PG-13

This slice of cornball Americana is so much fun you'll be tempted to stand up and salute. Director and costar Clint Eastwood manages to turn what might have been ludicrous into a jubilant tribute to age and experience, and "Space Cowboys" succeeds as two movies in one--a comedy about retired pilots given one last shot at glory and an "Apollo 13"-like thriller with all the requisite heroics. With a dream cast of Hollywood vets playing old farts described in tabloids as "The Ripe Stuff," the movie jumps from a 1958 prologue (establishing their lost bid for space travel) to 40-plus years later, when the retired Air Force aces (Eastwood, James Garner, Donald Sutherland, Tommy Lee Jones) volunteer to rescue a falling Russian satellite that only Eastwood's character can repair.
It turns out that Russky bird is a cold war leftover equipped with live nuclear warheads, and "Space Cowboys" revs up to a rousing climax in which our heroes prove their mettle. But first the comedy: watching these codgers struggle to pass NASA's physical tests is a total hoot, with running gags about wrinkles, dentures, and oysters for sagging libidos. (Sutherland is the scene-stealer, but they're all having a blast.) Once in space, the movie gets down to business, and the visual-effects wizards at Industrial Light and Magic provide stunning vistas from Earth's orbit; a shot looking down at the boot of Italy is particularly beautiful. A subplot involving a weasely NASA administrator (James Cromwell) is rather perfunctory, but it hardly matters. "Space Cowboys" earns its wings, once again demonstrating Eastwood's comfort with any genre he chooses. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: John Bradshaw
Genre: Horror
Studio: Ardustry
Rated: R

Mark Paul Goesselaar fans won't be disappointed with "Specimen". They're probably too young to remember "Firestarter" or "The Terminator" so they won't recognize where most of the plot came from. Mike (played by Goesselaar, who was the blonde kid on the original TV show "Saved by the Bell") starts fires with his mind and is probably a spawn from an alien species. He is tracked down by Eleven, a bounty-hunter/racial-cleanser/clean-up-janitor--who knows?--but Eleven really wants to destroy Mike. Most of this chase takes place in the largest community center in the free world. For all its plot and scene pilfering, there's an attempt at originality (Mike has to sleep in the bathtub to keep from burning down the house), but most of the time, this film can barely produce a spark. "--Keith Simanton"

Director: James Ponsoldt
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Studio: Andrew Lauren Productions (ALP)
Rated: R

Sutter Keely lives in the now. It's a good place for him. A high school senior, charming and self-possessed, he's the life of the party, loves his job at a men's clothing store, and has no plans for the future. A budding alcoholic, he's never far from his supersized, whiskey-fortified thirst-master cup. But after being dumped by his girlfriend, Sutter gets drunk and wakes up on a lawn with Aimee Finecky hovering over him. She's different: the "nice girl" who reads science fiction and doesn't have a boyfriend. While Aimee has dreams of a future, Sutter lives in the impressive delusion of a spectacular now, yet somehow, they're drawn together.

Director: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Genre: Action, Family, Sport
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures
Rated: PG

The story begins with Speed Racer who is a young man with natural racing instincts whose goal is to win The Crucible, a cross-country car racing rally that took the life of his older brother, Rex Racer. Speed is loyal to the family business, run by his parents Pops and Mom. Pops designed Speed's car, the Mach 5. The owner of Royalton Industries makes Speed a lucrative offer, Speed rejects the offer, angering the owner. Speed also uncovers a secret that top corporate interests, including Royalton, are fixing races and cheating to gain profit. With the offer to Speed denied, Royalton wants to ensure that Speed will not win races. Speed finds support from his parents and his girlfriend Trixie and enters The Crucible in a partnership with his one-time rival, Racer X, seeking to rescue his family's business and the racing sport itself.

Director: Nickolas Perry
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Wolfe Video
Rated: R

This compelling portrait of Las Vegas subculture stars Jesse Bradford ("Bring It On", "Clockstoppers") as Johnny, a teenager who aspires to be a racecar driver but gets stuck hustling on the Vegas strip. "Speedway Junky" centers around Johnny's friendship with Eric (Jordon Brower, "Texas Rangers"), a gay hustler who's in love with Johnny, even though he knows Johnny is straight. But the movie also captures snapshots of various fringe dwellers and people whose lives seem to be hitting a dead end, deftly drawn portraits that mix hope and despair in equal measures. The well-written script and strong performances from an eclectic cast--including appearances by Daryl Hannah, Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas, all of whom are excellent--make "Speedway Junky" more than a voyeuristic walk through the Vegas gutter. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

Internal madness is hypnotically externalized in David Cronenberg's "Spider", a disturbing portrait of schizophrenia. Adapted by Patrick McGrath from his celebrated novel, this no-frills production begins when "Spider" Cleg (Ralph Fiennes, in a daring, nearly nonverbal role) returns to his childhood neighborhood in London's dreary East End, where a traumatic event from his past percolates to the surface of his still-erratic consciousness. Released from a mental institution and left to fend for himself, he pursues elusive memories while staying in a halfway house run by a stern matron (Lynn Redgrave), unable to distinguish between past, present, and psychological fabrication. The distorting influence of Spider's mind is directly reflected in Cronenberg's cunning visual strategy, presenting a shifting "reality" that's deliberately untrustworthy, until the veracity of nearly every scene is called into question. With an impressive dual-role performance by Miranda Richardson, "Spider" falls prey to its own lugubrious rhythms, but like the acclaimed 1995 indie film "Clean, Shaven", it's a compelling glimpse of mental illness, seen from the inside out. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Sam Raimi
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

For devoted fans and nonfans alike, "Spider-Man" offers nothing less--and nothing more--than what you'd expect from a superhero blockbuster. Having proven his comic-book savvy with the original "Darkman", director Sam Raimi brings ample energy and enthusiasm to Spidey's origin story, nicely establishing high-school nebbish Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) as a brainy outcast who reacts with appropriate euphoria--and well-tempered maturity--when a "super-spider" bite transforms him into the amazingly agile, web-shooting Spider-Man. That's all well and good, and so is Kirsten Dunst as Parker's girl-next-door sweetheart. Where "Spider-Man" falls short is in its hyperactive CGI action sequences, which play like a video game instead of the gravity-defying exploits of a flesh-and-blood superhero. Willem Dafoe is perfectly cast as Spidey's schizoid nemesis, the Green Goblin, and the movie's a lot of fun overall. It's no match for "Superman" and "Batman" in bringing a beloved character to the screen, but it places a respectable third. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Sam Raimi
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

More than a few critics hailed "Spider-Man 2" as "the best superhero movie ever," and there's no compelling reason to argue--thanks to a bigger budget, better special effects, and a dynamic, character-driven plot, it's a notch above "Spider-Man" in terms of emotional depth and rich comic-book sensibility. "Ordinary People" Oscar®-winner Alvin Sargent received screenplay credit, and celebrated author and comic-book expert Michael Chabon worked on the story, but it's director Sam Raimi's affinity for the material that brings "Spidey 2" to vivid life. When a fusion experiment goes terribly wrong, a brilliant physicist (Alfred Molina) is turned into Spidey's newest nemesis, the deranged, mechanically tentacled "Doctor Octopus," obsessed with completing his experiment and killing Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire) in the process. Even more compelling is Peter Parker's urgent dilemma: continue his burdensome, lonely life of crime-fighting as Spider-Man, or pursue love and happiness with Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst)? Molina's outstanding as a tragic villain controlled by his own invention, and the action sequences are nothing less than breathtaking, but the real success of "Spider-Man 2" is its sense of priorities. With all of Hollywood's biggest and best toys at his disposal, Raimi and his writers stay true to the Marvel mythology, honoring "Spider-Man" creators Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, and setting the bar impressively high for the challenge of "Spider-Man 3". "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Sam Raimi
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13


How does "Spider-Man 3" follow on the heels of its predecessor, which was widely considered the best superhero movie ever? For starters, you pick up the loose threads from that movie, then add some key elements of the Spidey comic-book mythos (including fan-favorite villain Venom), the black costume, and the characters of Gwen Stacy and her police-captain father. In the beginning, things have never looked better for Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire): He's doing well in school; his alter ego, Spider-Man, is loved and respected around New York City. And his girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), has just taken a starring role in a Broadway musical. But nothing good can last for Spidey. Mary Jane's career quickly goes downhill; she's bothered by Peter's attractive new classmate, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard); and the new "Daily Bugle" photographer, Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), is trying to steal his thunder. Enter a new villain, the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), who can transform his body into various forms and shapes of sand and who may be connected to Peter's past in an unexpected way. There's also the son of an old villain, Harry Osborne (James Franco), who unmasked Spidey in the previous movie and still has revenge on his mind. And a new black costume seems to boost Spidey's powers, but transforms mild-mannered Peter into a mean and obnoxious boor (Maguire has some fun here).
If that sounds like a lot to pack into one 140-minute movie, it is. While director Sam Raimi keeps things flowing, assisted on the screenplay by his brother Ivan and Alvin Sargent, there's a little too much going on, and it's inevitable that one of the villains (there are three or four, depending on how you count) gets significantly short-changed. Still, the cast is excellent, the effects are fantastic, and the action is fast and furious. Even if "Spider-Man 3" isn't the match of "Spider-Man 2", it's a worthy addition to the megamillion-dollar franchise. --"David Horiuchi "

Director: Jon Watts
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Our friendly neighborhood Super Hero decides to join his best friends Ned, MJ, and the rest of the gang on a European vacation. However, Peter's plan to leave super heroics behind for a few weeks are quickly scrapped when he begrudgingly agrees to help Nick Fury uncover the mystery of several elemental creature attacks, creating havoc across the continent.

Director: Jon Watts
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Studio: Columbia Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Thrilled by his experience with the Avengers, Peter returns home, where he lives with his Aunt May, under the watchful eye of his new mentor Tony Stark, Peter tries to fall back into his normal daily routine - distracted by thoughts of proving himself to be more than just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man - but when the Vulture emerges as a new villain, everything that Peter holds most important will be threatened.

Director: Mark Waters
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG

SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES SPECIAL EDITION - DVD Movie

Director: Jamie Yerkes
Genre: Comedy
Studio: TLA Releasing
Rated: NR

Five friends in their twenties gather at the remote lakeside lodge where they spent their summers as teenagers. Life hasn't changed them much: sweethearts Bev and Ted are now engaged; Alex is still a bitchy vamp; and Rachel still has a screw loose. Only Jonah has changed - the former wimp is now a sexy hunk.

Director: Vincenzo Natali
Genre: Horror
Studio: Warner Bros.
Rated: R

Director: Tony Scott
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: R

A thinking person's thriller, "Spy Game" employs dense plotting without sacrificing the kinetic momentum that is director Tony Scott's trademark. The film has the byzantine scope of a novel, focusing on veteran CIA operative Nathan Muir (Robert Redford), whose protégé Tom Bishop (Brad Pitt) is scheduled for execution in a Chinese prison. It's Muir's last day before retiring (cliché alert!), and Bishop is being deliberately sacrificed by oily CIA officials to ensure healthy trade with China. Muir has 24 hours to rescue Bishop and his perfunctory love interest (Catherine McCormack), and "Spy Game" connects the mentor's end-run strategy to flashbacks of his student's exploits in Berlin, Beirut, and beyond. Ambitious but emotionally bland--and not as exciting as Scott's "Enemy of the State"--"Spy Game" offers pass-the-torch humor between leather-faced Redford and pretty boy Pitt, and although their dialogue is occasionally limp, the movie compensates with efficient style and substance. "--Jeff Shannon"

Studio: Miramax Lionsgate
Rated: PG

SPY KIDS 3: The Spy Kids are back again! This time Carmen (Alexa Vega) and Juni (Daryl Sabara) are on a mission that takes them inside a living video game where awe-inspiring graphics and creatures come dangerously to life. As they face more and more challenges through each level of the game this brother-sister superhero duo must rely on their gadgets and each other to defeat the super-villain Toymaker (Sylvester Stallone) and save the world yet again. Don't miss this super fun totally exciting follow-up to Robert Rodriguez's action franchise for kids of all ages! ADVENTURES OF SHARK BOY AND LAVA GIRL: From Robert Rodriguez the hit-making director of SPY KIDS comes a fun family adventure starring Taylor Lautner (THE TWILIGHT SAGA) in his first lead role alongside Hollywood favorites David Arquette Kristin Davis and George Lopez. Everyone always knew that Max had a wild imagination . . . but no one believed that his wildest creations - a boy raised by watchful great white sharks and a girl with the force of a volcano - were real! Now these two pint-sized action heros will show Max that even an ordinary kid has what it takes to be extraordinary!

Director: Martin Weisz
Genre: Drama
Studio: Kelly
Rated: R

In Venice, California, Kelley Tanner and Jonas Trumball are homeless teenagers that live on the beach and spend the day using drugs, drinking booze and shoplifting to survive. One day, Jonas overhears a conversation in a parking area between a woman named Evelyn and her housekeeper, and Evelyn tells that she will travel for one month with her husband David and she gives the alarm code to her servant. Jonas sees the chance to rob the house and brings Kelley with him. Kelley is needy of family love since she was a foster girl that left her foster house to live on the streets, and she spend the days watching to home videos of Evelyn, David, their son Michael, who has a poster of "The Kid" in his room, and their deceased daughter Stephanie. But Jonas is interested in robbing as much as possible to start a new life in Mexico. He meets a dangerous criminal to deal the jewelry and the Porsches of the family. But the family returns and Kelley and Jonas need to flee from the house. When Kelley...

Director: Noah Baumbach
Genre: Drama
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

"The Squid and the Whale" follows the divorce of Joan (Laura Linney, "You Can Count on Me") and Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels, "The Purple Rose of Cairo") as it wreaks havoc on the emotional lives of their two sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg, "Roger Dodger") and Frank (Owen Kline, "The Anniversary Party"). Though there's no plot in the usual sense, the movie progresses with growing emotional force from the separation into the bitter fighting between Joan and Bernard and the hapless, floundering behavior of Walt and Frank, who act out through plagiarism, sexual acts, and drinking. Some viewers may find the ending too diffuse; others will appreciate that writer/director Noah Baumbach ("Mr. Jealousy") doesn't wrap up the messiness of life in a false cinematic package. Either way, viewers will appreciate how the specificity of the personalities makes "The Squid and the Whale" so compelling, as Baumbach has drawn the characters with such detail, both engaging and off-putting, that they leap off the screen. Naturally, he's greatly helped by the cast: Linney, Eisenberg, Kline, and especially Daniels bite into these often unsympathetic portraits and give fearlessly honest performances, interlocked in both painful and funny ways--rarely have family dynamics been captured so vividly. If there was an ensemble Oscar, this cast would deserve it. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Bernard L. Kowalski
Genre: Horror
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: PG

A relic from the 70s, SSSSSS is one of those mad scientist movies where the doctor's intentions may seem humane, but the results grossly horrifying. Veteran character actor Strother Martin had probably his only starring role as the gentle herpetologist who wants to create the next step in man's evolution----snakes!
Dirk Benedict (BATTLESTAR GALACTICA, THE A-TEAM) is the all-American boy who volunteers to help Martin, not knowing the doctor's real intentions. Heather Menzies (LOGAN'S RUN) is his nerdish daughter; Reb Brown is the jock whose bad attitude dooms him.
While the make up effects are pretty shoddy by today's standards, the real snakes are pretty creepy and the whole thing is enjoyable in a guilty fashion. Ssssssoo sit back and have some fun.

Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

A sleeper hit when released in 1986, "Stand by Me" is based on Stephen King's novella "The Body" (from the book "Different Seasons"); but it's more about the joys and pains of boyhood friendship than a morbid fascination with corpses. It's about four boys ages 12 and 13 (Wil Wheaton, River Phoenix, Corey Feldman, Jerry O'Connell) who take an overnight hike through the woods near their Oregon town to find the body of a boy who's been missing for days. Their journey includes a variety of scary adventures (including a ferocious junkyard dog, a swamp full of leeches, and a treacherous leap from a train trestle), but it's also a time for personal revelations, quiet interludes, and the raucous comradeship of best friends. Set in the 1950s, the movie indulges an overabundance of anachronistic profanity and a kind of idealistic, golden-toned nostalgia (it's told in flashback as a story written by Wheaton's character as an adult, played by Richard Dreyfuss). But it's delightfully entertaining from start to finish, thanks to the rapport among its young cast members and the timeless, universal themes of friendship, family, and the building of character and self-esteem. Kiefer Sutherland makes a memorable teenage villain, and look closely for John Cusack in a flashback scene as Wheaton's now-deceased and dearly missed brother. A genuine crowd-pleaser, this heartfelt movie led director Rob Reiner to even greater success with his next film, "The Princess Bride". "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: D.J. Caruso
Genre: Drama
Studio: AR Films
Rated: PG

Based on one of the most beloved Young Adult novels of all time: Two kids are stripped naked and left together on an island in a lake - victims of a vicious summer camp prank; But rather than have to return to camp and face the humiliation, they decide to take off, on the run together. What follows is a three day odyssey of discovery and self-discovery.

Director: Kyle Patrick Alvarez
Genre: Biography, Drama, History, Thriller
Studio: Coup d'Etat Films
Rated: R

Twenty-four male students out of seventy-five were selected to take on randomly assigned roles of prisoners and guards in a mock prison situated in the basement of the Stanford psychology building.

Director: J.J. Abrams
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rated: PG-13

On the day of James Kirk's birth, his father dies on his ship in a last stand against a mysterious alien vessel. He was looking for Ambassador Spock, who is a child on Vulcan at that time, disdained by his neighbors for his half-human nature. Twenty years later, Kirk has grown into a young troublemaker inspired by Capt. Christopher Pike to fulfill his potential in Starfleet even as he annoys his instructors like young Lt. Spock. Suddenly, there is an emergency at Vulcan and the newly commissioned USS Enterprise is crewed with promising cadets like Nyota Uhura, Hikaru Sulu, Pavel Chekov and even Kirk himself thanks to Leonard McCoy's medical trickery. Together, this crew will have an adventure in the final frontier where the old legend is altered forever even as the new version of it is just beginning.

Director: Justin Lin
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG-13

After docking at Starbase Yorktown, the USS Enterprise, halfway into their five-year mission, ventures into new dangerous uncharted territory. There, the Enterprise is destroyed by a new ruthless enemy with a deep hatred of the Federation, and strands Kirk and his crew on a remote planet with no means of communication. Kirk must then work with the elements to reunite his crew and get back to save Starbase Yorktown from this dangerous menace.

Director: J.J. Abrams
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13

A good portion of Trekkies (or Trekkers, depending on one's level of "Star Trek" obsession) have special affection for episodes of the original TV series that related to Earth and other-Earth cultures visited by the crew of the "Enterprise", version 1.0. Some of the shows unfolded in distorted forms of the past, some in the present day of "Star Trek"'s future reality. Director J.J. Abrams recognized the importance of this relationship in his origin-story reboot of the franchise in 2009, and in "Star Trek Into Darkness" he has made it an even greater touchstone to the roots of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's defining philosophy from nearly 50 years ago. The human home world is key to the plot of this spectacularly bold leap into "Star Trek" lore, which cleverly continues along the alternate path that was established as separate from the "original" "Star Trek" universe in Abrams's first whiz-bang crack at advancing the mythology. But it's not just Earth that is cool and imperiled in this rendering of adventure in the 23rd century; "Into Darkness" also plays with the original conceit that Earthlings were member to a multi-species United Federation of Planets ruled by a "Prime Directive" of noninterference with other civilizations. The conflict comes when rogue elements in the Earth-based Starfleet Command hunger to shift focus from peaceful exploration to militarization, a concept that is anathema to the crew of the "Enterprise" and her ongoing mission. The new cast is again inventively reunited, each of them further investing their characters with traits that reveal novel acting choices while staying true to the caricatures that are ingrained in our popular culture. The interplay between Chris Pine as Kirk and Zachary Quinto as Spock is deeper, and Zoe Saldana as Uhura is a solid third in their relationship. John Cho (Sulu), Simon Pegg (Scotty), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), and Karl Urban (McCoy) all have standout roles in the overall ensemble mystique as well as the plot-heavy machinations of this incarnation's narrative. Fortunately, the burdens of the story are well served by some important additions to the cast. Benedict Cumberbatch's Shakespearean aura, ferociously imperious gaze, and graceful athleticism make him a formidable villain as the mysterious Starfleet operative John Harrison. Harrison has initiated a campaign of terror on Earth before leading the "Enterprise" to even greater dangers in the enemy territory of Klingon-controlled space. That his background may make dedicated Trekkies/Trekkers gasp is just one acknowledgment of the substantial and ingrained legacy "Star Trek" has borne. There are many references, nods and winks to those with deep reverence for the folklore (some of them perhaps a little too close to being inside-baseball), though the fantastical and continually exciting story stands as an expertly crafted tale for complete neophytes. Another new face is Peter Weller--iconically famous in sci-fi-dom as "RoboCop"--here playing a steely, authoritative Starfleet bigwig who may also be following a hidden agenda. Not only is he running a covert operation, he's also at the helm of a fearsome secret starship that looms over the "Enterprise" like a shark poised to devour its prey. Which brings us to the awesome CGI effects driving the dazzling visual style of "Into Darkness" and the endlessly fascinating cosmos it makes real. The wow factor extends from the opening set piece on an alien world of primitive humanoids, garish vegetation, and a roiling volcano to the finale of destruction in a future San Francisco that is elegantly outfitted with gleaming-spired skyscrapers and all manner of flying vehicles. (London also gets a breathtaking 23rd-century makeover). With a coolness that glistens in every immaculately composed shot, the movie never forgets that humanism and creativity make the myriad design details and hyper-technology pop out as much more than eye candy. The biggest achievement of "Star Trek Into Darkness" is that it hews to the highest standard of a highly celebrated tradition. Though Kirk and co. may bend it a little, the Prime Directive remains unbroken. "--Ted Fry"

Director: Jonathan Frakes
Genre: Horror
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG

"Star Trek" fans were decidedly mixed in their reactions to this, the ninth big-screen feature in Paramount's lucrative "Trek" franchise, but die-hard loyalists will appreciate the way this "Next Generation" adventure rekindles the spirit of the original "Trek" TV series while combining a tolerable dose of New-Agey philosophy with a lighthearted plot for the "TNG" cast. This time out, Picard (Patrick Stewart) and his executive crew must transport to a Shangri-la-like planet to see why their android crewmate Data (Brent Spiner) has run amuck in a village full of peaceful Ba'ku artisans who--thanks to their planet's "metaphasic radiation"--haven't aged in 309 years.
It turns out there's a conspiracy afoot, masterminded by the devious, gruesomely aged Ru'afo (F. Murray Abraham, hamming it up under makeup resembling a cosmetic surgeon's worst nightmare), who's in cahoots with a renegade Starfleet admiral (Anthony Zerbe, in one of his final screen roles). They covet the fountain-of-youth power of the Ba'ku planet, but because their takeover plan violates Starfleet's Prime Directive of noninterference, it's up to Picard and crew to stop the scheme. Along the way, they all benefit from the metaphasic effect, which manifests itself as Worf's puberty (visible as a conspicuous case of Klingon acne), Picard's youthful romance with a Ba'ku woman (the lovely Donna Murphy), the touching though temporary return of Geordi's natural eyesight, and a moment when Troi asks Dr. Crusher if she's noticed that her "boobs are firming up."
Some fans scoffed at these humorous asides, but they're what make this "Trek" film as entertaining as it is slightly disappointing. Without the laughs (including Data's rousing excerpt from Gilbert & Sullivan's "HMS Pinafore"), this is a pretty routine entry in the franchise, with no real surprises, a number of plot holes, and the overall appearance of a big-budget TV episode. As costar and director, Jonathan Frakes proves a capable carrier of the "Star Trek" flame--and it's nice to see women in their 40s portrayed as smart and sexy--but while this is surely an adequate "Trek" adventure, it doesn't quite rank with the best in the series. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nicholas Meyer, Robert Wise
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG

Star Trek I : The Original Motion Picture
Back when the first Star Trek feature was released in December 1979, the Trek franchise was still relatively modest, consisting of the original TV series, an animated cartoon series from 1973-74, and a burgeoning fan network around the world. Series creator Gene Roddenberry had conceived a second TV series, but after the success of Star Wars the project was upgraded into this lavish feature film, which reunited the original series cast aboard a beautifully redesigned starship U.S.S. Enterprise. Under the direction of Robert Wise (best known for West Side Story), the film proved to be a mixed blessing for Trek fans, who heatedly debated its merits; but it was, of course, a phenomenal hit. Capt. Kirk (William Shatner) leads his crew into the vast structures surrounding V'Ger, an all-powerful being that is cutting a destructive course through Starfleet space. With his new First Officer (Stephen Collins), the bald and beautiful Lieutenant Ilia (played by the late Persis Khambatta) and his returning veteran crew, Kirk must decipher the secret of V'Ger's true purpose and restore the safety of the galaxy. The story is rather overblown and derivative of plots from the original series, and avid Trekkies greeted the film's bland costumes with derisive laughter. But as a feast for the eyes, this is an adventure worthy of big-screen trekkin'. Douglas Trumbull's visual effects are astonishing, and Jerry Goldmith's score is regarded as one of the prolific composer's very best (with its main theme later used for Star Trek: The Next Generation). And, fortunately for Star Trek fans, the expanded 143-minute version (originally shown for the film's network TV premiere) is generally considered an improvement over the original theatrical release. --Jeff Shannon

Star Trek II :The Wrath of Khan
Although Star Trek: The Motion Picture had been a box-office hit, it was by no means a unanimous success with Star Trek fans, who responded much more favorably to the "classic Trek" scenario of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Inspired by the "Space Seed" episode of the original TV series, the film reunites newly promoted Admiral Kirk with his nemesis from the earlier episode--the genetically superior Khan (Ricardo Montalban)--who is now seeking revenge upon Kirk for having been imprisoned on a desolated planet. Their battle ensues over control of the Genesis device, a top-secret Starfleet project enabling entire planets to be transformed into life-supporting worlds, pioneered by the mother (Bibi Besch) of Kirk's estranged and now-adult son. While Mr. Spock mentors the young Vulcan Lt. Saavik (then-newcomer Kirstie Alley), Kirk must battle Khan to the bitter end, through a climactic starship chase and an unexpected crisis that will cost the life of Kirk's closest friend. This was the kind of character-based Trek that fans were waiting for, boosted by spectacular special effects, a great villain (thanks to Montalban's splendidly melodramatic performance), and a deft combination of humor, excitement, and wondrous imagination. Director Nicholas Meyer (who would play a substantial role in the success of future Trek features) handles the film as a combination of Moby Dick, Shakespearean tragedy, World War II submarine thriller, and dazzling science fiction, setting the successful tone for the Trek films that followed. --Jeff Shannon

Star Trek III : The Search for Spock
You didn't think Mr. Spock was really dead, did you? When Spock's casket landed on the surface of the Genesis planet at the end of Star Trek II, we had already been told that Genesis had the power to bring "life from lifelessness." So it's no surprise that this energetic but somewhat hokey sequel gives Spock a new lease on life, beginning with his rebirth and rapid growth as the Genesis planet literally shakes itself apart in a series of tumultuous geological spasms. As Kirk is getting to know his estranged son (Merritt Butrick), he must also do battle with the fiendish Klingon Kruge (Christopher Lloyd), who is determined to seize the power of Genesis from the Federation. Meanwhile, the regenerated Spock returns to his home planet, and Star Trek III gains considerable interest by exploring the ceremonial (and, of course, highly logical) traditions of Vulcan society. The movie's a minor disappointment compared to Star Trek II, but it's a--well, logical--sequel that successfully restores Spock (and first-time film director Leonard Nimoy) to the phenomenal Trek franchise...as if he were ever really gone. With Kirk's willful destruction of the U.S.S. Enterprise and Robin Curtis replacing the departing Kirstie Alley as Vulcan Lt. Saavik, this was clearly a transitional film in the series, clearing the way for the highly popular Star Trek IV. --Jeff Shannon

Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home
Jumping on to the end-of-the-century bandwagon a little early, Paramount Pictures released 10 of their top films in one 10-pack, the Millennium Collection, in 1998. All the films are presented in their widescreen editions; one, Breakfast at Tiffany's, is offered in this format for the first time. The set includes 5 Best Picture Oscar winners and films that took home an additional 33 Academy Awards. All the tapes are available to buy individually. The pack, with a handsome mosaic of faces from the movies, also features collector gift cards (a movie version of baseball cards) and a commemorative booklet detailing the productions of all 10 films. The collection is oddly weighted toward the last 25 years, offering only one film from the 1950s and one from the 1960s. Your taste in current cinema will define the value of the set. Besides Tiffany's, one of Audrey Hepburn's finest films, the collection contains: The Ten Commandments with Charlton Heston, Grease with John Travolta, Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now and The Godfather, the funny, whale-saving Star Trek IV--The Voyage Home, Tom Cruise's hit Top Gun, the smash hit Ghost with Demi Moore, Mel Gibson's Celt fest Braveheart, and Forrest Gump with Tom Hanks. --Doug Thomas

Star Trek V :The Final Frontier
Movie critic Roger Ebert summed it up very succinctly: "Of all of the Star Trek movies, this is the worst." Subsequent films in the popular series have done nothing to disprove this opinion; we can be grateful that they've all been significantly better since this film was released in 1989. After Leonard Nimoy scored hits with Star Trek III and IV, William Shatner used his contractual clout (and bruised ego) to assume directorial duties on this mission, in which a rebellious Vulcan (Laurence Luckinbill) kidnaps Federation officials in his overzealous quest for the supreme source of creation. That's right, you heard it correctly: Star Trek V is about a crazy Vulcan's search for God. By the time Kirk, Spock, and their Federation cohorts are taken to the Great Barrier of the galaxy, this journey to "the final future" has gone from an embarrassing prologue to an absurd conclusion, with a lot of creaky plotting in between. Of course, die-hard Trekkies will still allow this movie into their video collections; but they'll only watch it when nobody else is looking. After this humbling experience, Shatner wisely relinquished the director's chair to Star Trek II's Nicholas Meyer. --Jeff Shannon

Star Trek VI : The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek V left us nowhere to go but up, and with the return of Star Trek II director Nicholas Meyer, Star Trek VI restored the movie series to its classic blend of space opera, intelligent plotting, and engaging interaction of stalwart heroes and menacing villains. Borrowing its subtitle (and several lines of dialogue) from Shakespeare, the movie finds Admiral Kirk (William Shatner) and his fellow Enterprise crew members on a diplomatic mission to negotiate peace with the revered Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner). When the high-ranking Klingon and several officers are ruthlessly murdered, blame is placed on Kirk, whose subsequent investigation uncovers an assassination plot masterminded by the nefarious Klingon General Chang (Christopher Plummer) in an effort to disrupt a historic peace summit. As this political plot unfolds, Star Trek VI takes on a sharp-edged tone, with Kirk and Spock confronting their opposing views of diplomacy, and testing their bonds of loyalty when a Vulcan officer is revealed to be a traitor. With a dramatic depth befitting what was to be the final movie mission of the original Star Trek crew, this film took the veteran cast out in respectably high style. With the torch being passed to the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation, only Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov would return, however briefly, in Star Trek: Generations. --Jeff Shannon

Director: J.J. Abrams
Genre: Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
Studio: Lucasfilm
Rated: PG-13

30 years after the defeat of Darth Vader and the Empire, Rey, a scavenger from the planet Jakku, finds a BB-8 droid that knows the whereabouts of the long lost Luke Skywalker. Rey, as well as a rogue stormtrooper and two smugglers, are thrown into the middle of a battle between the Resistance and the daunting legions of the First Order.

Studio: Lions Gate
Rated: Unrated

Before they unleashed the idiotic mayhem of "Independence Day" and "Godzilla", the idea-stealing team of director Roland Emmerich and producer-screenwriter Dean Devlin concocted this hokey hit about the discovery of an ancient portal capable of zipping travelers to "the other side of the known universe." James Spader plays the Egyptologist who successfully translates the Stargate's hieroglyphic code, and then joins a hawkish military unit (led by Kurt Russell) on a reconnaissance mission to see what's on the other side. They arrive on a desert world with cultural (and apparently supernatural) ties to Earth's ancient Egypt, where the sun god Ra (played by Jaye Davidson from "The Crying Game") rules a population of slaves with armored minions and startlingly advanced technology. After being warmly welcomed into the slave camp, the earthlings encourage and support a rebellion, and while Russell threatens to blow up the Stargate to prevent its use by enemy forces, the movie collapses into a senseless series of action scenes and grandiose explosions. It's all pretty ridiculous, but Stargate found a large and appreciative audience, spawned a cable-TV series, and continues to attract science fiction fans who are more than willing to forgive its considerable faults. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Byron Werner
Genre: Crime, Drama, Horror
Studio: Velocity / Thinkfilm
Rated: R

Before bundy before dahmer charles starkweather accompanied by his 14 year old girlfriend caril terrorized america with a brutal killing spree. Their serial killing resulted in 11 horrific human slaughters in nebraska and wyoming. Charlies life inspired such films as bad lands and natural born killers. Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 02/22/2005 Starring: Brent Taylor Staphany Huckaby Run time: 92 minutes

Director: Paul Verhoeven
Genre: Science Fiction & Fantasy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: R

In the first and finest "RoboCop" movie, director Paul Verhoeven combined near-future science fiction with a keen sense of social satire--not to mention enough high-velocity violence to satisfy even the most voracious bloodlust. In "Starship Troopers", Verhoeven and "RoboCop" cowriter Ed Neumeier take inspired cues from Robert Heinlein's classic sci-fi novel to create a special-effects extravaganza that functions on multiple levels of entertainment. The film might be called "Melrose Place in Space," with its youthful cast of handsome guys and gorgeous women who look like they've been recruited (and in some cases they were) from the cast of "Beverly Hills 90210". Viewers might focus on the incredible, graphically intense action sequences (definitely "not" for children) in which heavily armed forces from Earth go to off-world battle against vast hordes of alien "bugs" bent on planetary conquest. The attacking bugs are marvels of state-of-the-art special-effects technology, and the space battles are nothing short of spectacular. But "Starship Troopers" is more than a showcase for high-tech hardware and gigantic, flesh-ripping insects. Recalling his childhood in Holland during the Nazi occupation, Verhoeven turns this epic adventure into a scathingly funny satire of fascist propaganda, emphasizing Heinlein's underlying warning against the hazards of military conformity and the sickening realities of war. It's an action-packed joy ride if that's all you're looking for, but Verhoeven has a provocative agenda that makes "Starship Troopers" as smart as it is exciting. The DVD includes an above-average commentary by the director and Neumeier, several deleted scenes, a behind-the-scenes documentary and promotional featurette, cast bios, production notes, and more. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: William Brent Bell
Genre: Horror
Studio: Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Hollywood
Rated: PG-13

Straight from the set-'em-up and knock-'em-down school of teen-horror filmmaking, "Stay Alive" gives literal meaning to the parental lament, "Those games will kill you someday." Not that you'll find any parents in this gimmicky thriller set in New Orleans; they're conspicuously absent when Hutch (Jon Foster) and his hardcore gamer pals discover "Stay Alive," a mysterious next-generation computer game that has a nasty way of precipitating mayhem, horror, and death. If your character dies in the game, you're doomed to die in identically grisly fashion in real life. So, just don't play the game, right? WRONG. This being a teen horror flick with a screenplay that makes no sense whatsoever, the gamer pals (including victim #2, Hutch's boss, played with game-addicted fervor by Adam Goldberg) obsessively investigate the game and its creepy "Ring"-like origins in the 17th century murder spree of a woman known as "The Blood Countess." Because movies like this are best viewed on a steady diet of Pop Tarts and Ritalin, Jimmi Simpson earns top honors as the gamer pal with the creepiest behavior, and "Malcolm in the Middle" fans will enjoy the presence of Frankie Muniz as a gamer geek whose primary fashion statement consists of grimy T-shirts and green plastic poker-visors. While not nearly as fun or clever as the "Final Destination" movies, "Stay Alive" delivers a few good deaths while blatantly stealing most of its horror highlights from "Ju-On" and other Japanese horror hits. It's junk from start to finish, but its target audience of mallrats and gamers (especially those with attention deficit disorder, which helps to ignore the plot holes) won't mind a bit."--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Bradley Kaplan
Genre: Drama
Studio: Leverage Management
Rated: R

A rebellious teenager navigates his way through the juvenile court system.

Director: Frank Oz
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13

An all-star cast remakes the 1975 socio-political horror flick, "The Stepford Wives". After being fired as president of a television network, Joanna (Nicole Kidman, "Moulin Rouge") has a nervous breakdown, prompting her husband Walter (Matthew Broderick, "Election") to take her to a simple Connecticut town called Stepford to recuperate. But Stepford is a little strange: The schlubby husbands congregate at a closed-doors men's club, while the wives--all in bright summer frocks and air-brushed smiles--exercise to keep their hourglass figures and cook endless pastries. Joanna, along with new arrivals Bobbie (Bette Midler, "Beaches") and Roger (the very funny Roger Bart), soon discover that the mastermind of Stepford (Christopher Walken, "Communion") has used cybernetics to "perfect" womankind. "The Stepford Wives" has some satirical zingers (from sneaky screenwriter Paul Rudnick, "Addams Family Values"), but the basic idea has lost a lot of gas since 1975. Also featuring Glenn Close ("Fatal Attraction"). "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Drama
Studio: DreamWorks Home Entertainment

Taken spans five decades and four generations, centering on three families: the Keys, Crawfords, and Clarkes. World War II veteran Russell Keys is plagued by nightmares of his abduction by aliens during the war; the Roswell incident transforms Owen Crawford from ambitious Air Force captain to evil shadow government conspirator; the unhappily married Sally Clarke is impregnated by an alien visitor. As the decades go by, the heirs of each are affected by the machinations of the aliens, culminating with the birth of Allie Keys, who is the final product of the aliens' experimentation and holds the key to their future.

Director: Jon Artigo
Genre: Drama
Studio: Uncovered Productions
Rated: Unrated

The summer of their senior year, ten best friends rent a beach house for one last week before separating for college. A tragic accident in the ocean changes and tests their friendship. In this dark teen drama, everything can change in an instant. "Still Green" follows each character through the three days in the house before and after the accident. The plot unfolds as their personal stories interweave, overlap, and often directly conflict with one another. In the midst of an ideal teen vacation and lush tropical landscape, the characters are developed. Beautiful free spirited Kerri is still coping with the loss of her father, and her mother's refusal to honor his last wish. A recent break-up has unearthed these feelings, triggering spontaneous and unhealthy relationships with her friends. Alan struggles with his conflicting feelings about Kerri and about his girlfriend. Sean is a talented but disturbed artist. He is haunted by a frightening breakdown which has rendered him unable to draw. "Still Green" is a story of secret crushes, crippling insecurities, excitement for the future, rumors and secrets, and crossing the line between friendship and sexual attraction. But a darker theme drives the plot of "Still Green"; how death changes absolutely everything between a group of friends, at a time when every second of life seemed vitally important and every emotion felt like the end of the world.

Director: Sidney Poitier
Studio: IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT
Rated: R

Sidney Poitier directed--without much distinction, sorry to say--this 1980 comedy teaming Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor as New York knuckleheads who try their luck in California and are accused of robbing a bank. Most of the laughs concern their survival strategies in prison (at one point, Wilder decides to "reach out and talk" to some hulking murderer) and their plans to escape. Both performers are so brilliant in any situation that they give this film plenty of funny moments (one or two of which became instantly classic), but this is not exactly a film for the ages. "--Tom Keogh"

Director: Kimberly Peirce
Studio: Paramount / MTV
Rated: R

Decorated Iraq war hero Sgt. Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe) makes a celebrated return to his small Texas hometown following his tour of duty. He tries to resume the life he left behind with the help and support of his family and his best friend, Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), who served with him in Iraq. Along with their other war buddies, Brandon and Steve try to make peace with civilian life. Then, against Brandon's will, the Army orders him back to duty in Iraq, which upends his world. The conflict tests everything he believes in: the bond of family, the loyalty of friendship, the limits of love and the value of honor.

Director: Marc Forster
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Sony Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Much was written about Will Ferrell's first "dramatic role" as Harold Crick, an IRS auditor who begins hearing a voice narrating his life. But "Stranger Than Fiction" is hardly a drama. However, what Ferrell does--like Jim Carrey before him in "The Truman Show"--is handle a toned-down character with genuineness and affection: you believe he is this guy. Crick leads a lonely life filled with numbers and routines. While at first he considers the voice a nuisance, Crick decides more action is needed when it speaks of "his demise." Enter Professor Jules Hilbert (Dustin Hoffman), who takes on the absurd notion with revelry, trying to find out what kind of book Crick's life is leading. It turns out that the voice Crick is hearing belongs to Kay Eiffel (Emma Thompson), a very real--and troubled--author who is writing a book in which Crick is a fictional character. As usual with these things, the stuffed shirt learns to live a better life--Crick even falls for one of his audits, a brash baker named Ana (Maggie Gyllenhaal). Marc Foster ("Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland") has the right tone for the film, using great urban scenes (the unnamed city is Chicago) with interesting visualizations of Crick's world of numbers. He also directs Ferrell, Hoffman, and Gyllenhaal to their most charming performances (plus Linda Hunt and Tom Hulce pop up in two funny scenes). Ferrell succeeds in being a romantic lead you can root for; a scene where he eats Ana's freshly baked cookies is totally delightful without a hint of sarcasm. Screenwriter Zach Helm has two personal traits with his story: like Crick he followed his heart (he stopped rewriting scripts and only worked on his own) and like Eiffel, the final results are not a masterpiece, but good, and entertaining enough. Britt Daniel of the band Spoon worked on the dynamite soundtrack."--Doug Thomas"















Extras from " Stranger Than Fiction "



"Counting Brush Strokes," A featurette
on the filming of "Stranger Than Fiction"high bandwidth


Tax Man!:

A clip from the film
high bandwidth

Queen Latifah on working with Emma Thompson
high bandwidth
Stills from " Stranger Than Fiction" (click for larger image)

























































Beyond " Stranger Than Fiction " on Amazon.com










Comic Actors Go Dramatic





CD Soundtrack








Emma Thompson Essentials

Director: Bryan Bertino
Genre: Westerns
Studio: Universal Studios
Rated: Unrated

A lean, briskly paced and exceptionally creepy thriller, "The Strangers" earns its scares the old-fashioned way: through atmosphere, sound design, and a simple yet undeniably upsetting central premise that allows for maximum tension throughout its running time. Attractive young lovers Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman are already having a bad day--she's turned down his marriage proposal--before a knock on the door in the middle of the night announces a full-fledged siege on their remote vacation home by a trio of masked assailants. The film's first third delivers the most consistent shivers as the visitors make their presence and intentions known to Tyler; the second half grows more frantic and bloody before a gruesome finale that may leave viewers either rattled to their core or bothered by its empty nihilism. Speedman is fine as the downtrodden male lead (who's seen tucking into a carton of ice cream after being rejected), but it's Tyler who impresses the most by shouldering the lion's share of the terror. First-time writer/director Bryan Bertino impresses by forsaking the current passion for over-the-top violence (save for the finale) in favor of more traditional means of generating fear, and if his project borrows heavily from other films, most notably the French chiller "Them" (which shares its "inspired by a true story" origin) and Michael Haneke's "Funny Games", at least he's taking from the best. The sound design is among the many technical standouts, and the unsettling score by tomandandy ("The Hills Have Eyes") pleasantly evokes Ennio Morricone's fuzztone-heavy work for Dario Argento in the early '70s. On a completely unrelated note, LP fanatics should appreciate how both the film's heroes and villains share an affinity for folk and country music on vinyl. --"Paul Gaita"

Director: David Ayer
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: R

"Street King"s is a pungent bouquet of corruption, violence, multi-ethnic mayhem, macho glee laced with macho angst, and fluorescently obscene dialogue from the mind of James Ellroy. Its hero, though he'd scarcely consent to be called one, is L.A. police detective Tom Ludlow (Keanu Reeves), for whom life is a wound that won't heal and dealing out retribution to scumbags is the ongoing treatment. Ludlow's the star player--"the tip of the [expletive] spear"--on a team of detectives headed by Capt. Jack Wander (Forest Whitaker). Coach Wander relies on his boys to keep breaking lurid cases, usually through deeply darkside underground work, and raising his profile with the media and the department. In pursuit of these goals, nothing is forbidden except failure, and the truth is what you make it look like. This is familiar Ellroy territory, most effectively translated to the screen in "L.A. Confidential" (which should have won the 1997 Oscar, and would have if "Titanic" hadn't launched that year). If you know Ellroy's ground game, you can pretty much guess where Street Kings is going, and where it's been. Still, the twists and torques of its urban road-rage course maintain the centrifugal force needed to hold us in our seats (a tactical highlight: refrigerator adapted as rolling barricade), and the movie keeps bopping us with oddball casting coups: comic Jay Mohr and "Northern Exposure/Sex and the Cit"y veteran John Corbett as two members of Coach Warden's gonzo detective squad; Cedric the Entertainer doing a nicely nuanced turn as a street creature; Hugh Laurie doing a less-hyper version of "House", if House worked Internal Affairs.

The problem is that director David Ayer keeps everything intense. Dialogues are shot too close-up, line readings are too strident, the action is too nonstop slam. Recall Curtis Hanson's "L.A. Confidential" and the mind's eye summons up a whole spectrum of existence, mood, place, historical period, emotional investment; there's an amplitude to the picture and the sensibility bringing it to us, something besides the whodunit and the endless rap sheet of nasty what-they-done. Everything in Street Kings is one-note, and with Keanu Reeves playing it implosive and Forest Whitaker locked in crazier-than-an-outhouse-rat mode, that's no way to stay the course. --"Richard T. Jameson "
Beyond "Steet Kings " on DVD
"Jumper" on DVD
"Shutter" on DVD
"Untraceable" on DVD


Stills from "Street Kings" (Click for larger image)

Director: Brian Dannelly
Studio: Tribeca
Rated: Unrated

Chris Colfer (Carson Phillips)
-As a high school senior, Carson Phillips was destined for bigger things than his close-minded small town could offer, but destiny had a different plan when he was suddenly killed by a bolt of lightning.
-Struck By Lightning is the film and screenwriting debut for the Golden Globe-winning star of Glee.

Sarah Hyland (Claire Mathews)
-Claire Mathews is the queen bee head cheerleader at Clover High with a stellar reputation, despite the fact that she has secret meetings with the football coach after practice.
-Sarah Hyland stars in ABC’s hit comedy series Modern Family.

Rebel Wilson (Malerie Baggs)
-Malerie Baggs is never far from her video camera as she captures the highs and lows of high school, including the mischievous events in between.
-Rebel Wilson has starred in top comedies including Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids, and Bachelorette.

Dermot Mulroney (Neal Phillips)
-Neal, Carson’s absentee father, tries to move on and get a fresh start with a new fiancée and a baby on the way.
-Dermot Mulroney has been in over 65 films and television series with credits that include My Best Friend’s Wedding, The New Girl, and J. Edgar.

Christina Hendricks (April)
-A pregnant April tries to do what’s right when she finds herself in a hairy situation after discovering her fiancé, Carson's father, is still married with a 17-year-old son.
-Christina Hendricks is best known for her portrayal of ‘Joan Harris’ on AMC’s Mad Men.  She was also seen recently in the critically acclaimed thriller Drive.

Allison Janney (Sheryl Phillips)
-Never having realized her dreams, Carson’s defeated mother worries about her son’s ambitious future plans.
-Allison Janney has starred in The Help and the Academy Award-winning drama American Beauty.

Director: Larry Cohen
Genre: Comedy
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
Rated: R

B movie maverick Larry Cohen always enjoyed slipping a little social commentary into his genre pictures, and the satirical sci-fi/horror comedy "The Stuff" is no exception. A mix of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and "The Blob", "The Stuff" is an insidiously addictive, low-calorie dessert sensation that soon wins the hearts and minds of the nation, but mostly the minds. You see, to borrow a title from another Cohen classic, it's alive.
Michael Moriarty is an industrial spy with questionable ethics and a certain moral flexibility behind his disarming drawl. "No one is as dumb as I appear to be," he informs his newest client, a snack food CEO who wants the secret of The Stuff. Needless to say he becomes the film's hero, a smart-talking everyman battling a compromised FDA and a corporate baddie who sees dollar signs in every Stuff snarfing zombie he converts. Cohen's satirical swipes at consumerism, advertising, and the ethics of corporate profit come fast and furious, if not exactly focused, and help drive the film past his--at times--sloppy direction. Moriarty's energetic performance is hilarious, and his rag-tag crew includes Andrea Marcovicci as an advertising wunderkind (who improbably falls in love with Moriarty), "Saturday Night Live" alum Garrett Morris as "Famous Amos" parody "Chocolate Chip Charlie," and Paul Sorvino as a commie-hating, conspiracy-spewing militia leader.
The DVD features commentary by Larry Cohen along with trailers and detailed biographies. "--Sean Axmaker"

Director: Tony Krantz
Genre: Horror
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: R

Family man George Grieves (Tom Cavanagh of TV's Ed and Love Monkey) checks into Mt. Abadon Hospital for a routine procedure. When he awakens from his anesthesia, something is terribly wrong...with George...with the hospital...and especially with the shuttered East Ward, an eerie lair of secrets, sex and surgical terrors. Raw Feed presents the fear-drenched psychological thriller Sublime, directed by Tony Krantz (executive producer of 24) from a screenplay by Emmy Award winner Erik Jendresen (Band of Brothers). In the tradition of cinema's classic tales of suspense, Sublime will keep you guessing as its puzzle pieces fall into place, and leave you stunned by its astounding conclusion. Graphic, bold, sexual and utterly horrifying, Sublime explores what happens when what you fear becomes real.

Director: John Palmer
Genre: Comedy
Studio: TLA Releasing
Rated: Unrated

Based on several short stories by writer Bruce LeBruce, Sugar is a provocative and funny coming of age love story. Cliff, a gay teen, is restless in his sheltered suburban life, and anxious to have his first sexual experience. One night, while downtown, he meets a tough street hustler, Butch, who introduces him to a world of sex, drugs, prostitution and life on the streets. Romance blossoms between the two until drugs begin to pull them apart. Realistic and challenging, Sugar is about coming out and coming of age.

Director: David Ayer
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
Studio: Atlas Entertainment
Rated: PG

It feels good to be bad...Assemble a team of the world's most dangerous, incarcerated Super Villains, provide them with the most powerful arsenal at the government's disposal, and send them off on a mission to defeat an enigmatic, insuperable entity. U.S. intelligence officer Amanda Waller has determined only a secretly convened group of disparate, despicable individuals with next to nothing to lose will do. However, once they realize they weren't picked to succeed but chosen for their patent culpability when they inevitably fail, will the Suicide Squad resolve to die trying, or decide it's every man for himself?

Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Paramount
Rated: PG-13

It's not easy replacing Harrison Ford as a beloved screen hero, but Ben Affleck brings fresh vitality to "The Sum of All Fears", reviving Paramount's Tom Clancy franchise in the role Ford made famous. As CIA agent Jack Ryan, Affleck is a rookie in the covert ranks, unraveling a plot that lures Russian and American superpowers into a nuclear standoff, while a neofascist faction turns most of Baltimore into an atomic wasteland and holds the world in the grip of a terrorist nightmare. Affleck combines sharp intelligence with a new-guy's perspective, while a senior agent (Morgan Freeman) passes the torch of back-channel authority. The result is one of the best Clancy films to date, ably helmed by Phil Alden Robinson (whose comic thriller "Sneakers" was sorely underrated) with a stellar supporting cast, and adapted with abundant humor, humanity, and thrills by "Donnie Brasco" screenwriter Paul Attanasio and cowriter Daniel Pyne. Even the typically reticent Clancy would approve. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Julian Richards
Studio: TLA
Rated: Unrated

This confrontational coming-of-age thriller is a haunting look into the destruction of innocence and the depths of fear. When a gang of raucous teens play hooky in the woods, they cross paths with a mysterious drifter. Preying on their adolescent curiosity and naiveté, the sadistic vagabond easily wins them over only to inflict humiliating and torturous mind games with a rusty switchblade and a gun. Trembling and desperate these kids realize that their only chance at survival is to embrace the darkness within and fight back with some wicked games of their own.

Director: Marco Kreuzpaintner
Studio: Liberation Ent
Rated: R

Tobi and Achim have been best friends for years. As cox and oarsman, they have helped their team win several rowing cups and are now looking forward to the important regatta in the countryside. As Achim's relationship with his girlfriend grows more seriou

Director: J.J. Abrams
Genre: Mystery, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: Paramount Pictures
Rated: PG-13

Few filmmakers have ever had a run at the tables like Steven Spielberg, whose output from 1971's "Sugarland Express" to, say, 1982's "E.T." displayed an amazingly unforced melding of huge set pieces and small human gestures. Even at their most chaotic, they somehow felt organic. "Super 8", writer-director J.J. Abrams's authorized tribute to classic Spielbergisms, hits all of the marks (Lived-in suburbia backdrop, check. Awestruck gazes upwards, check. Parental discord, check. Lens flares, amazingly huge check), but its adherence to the formula squelches much of its own potential. Appealing as it is to see a summer movie that retro-prioritizes character development over jittery quick-cut explosions, the viewer is always aware at how furiously it's working to seem effortless. Set in 1979, Abrams's script follows a group of movie-crazy kids attempting to make a zombie flick, only to have their plans cut short by a close encounter with a train derailment. As the military pours over the wreckage and neighbors start disappearing, the gang realizes that their footage contains a cameo appearance by an extremely grumpy guest star. For a film whose promotional campaign hinged so strongly on creating an air of mystery, "Super 8" is a fairly straightforward melding of "E.T." and "Jurassic Park", albeit one featuring an oddly schizophrenic monster (he eats people… until he doesn't). Abrams makes his young cast shine (particularly when developing a hint of romance between leads Joel Courtney and Elle Fanning), while also providing a nice character arc for Kyle Chandler, as a widowed deputy who can see his relationship with his son slipping away. Aside from a few primo early jolts, however, the creature-feature aspects feel increasingly shoehorned in alongside the more assured coming-of-age elements. Abrams's film has more than enough bright spots to warrant a viewing, but its insistence on worshipfully following the master's playbook is a bit of a bummer. Imitation isn't always flattering. "--Andrew Wright"

Director: Craig Mazin
Genre: Action, Comedy, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Studio: Dimension Films
Rated: PG-13

Adolescent fantasy meets sophomoric humor in the latest cuisinart comedy, "Superhero Movie". The story of how frustrated loser Rick Riker (Drake Bell of "Drake & Josh") becomes the superpowered Dragonfly is largely poking fun at "Spider-Man", but there are a handful of digs at "X-Men", "Fantastic Four", and other Marvel Comics superhuman flicks. What's disappointing is how few of the jokes are specific to the genre--the abundance of gags about urine, feces, horniness, and especially flatulence (long, drawn-out gags about flatulence) could have been shoehorned into a parody of pretty much anything. The strong point of "Superhero Movie" is the above-average cast; while there are the obligatory cameos by the likes of Pamela Anderson, the cast is mostly filled out with actual actors like Marion Ross ("Happy Days"), Christopher McDonald ("Thelma & Louise"), Brent Spiner ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"), Jeffrey Tambor ("Arrested Development"), and Leslie Nielsen, who trots out his trademark deadpan one more time. As Dragonfly's love interest, Sara Paxton ("Aquamarine") does a flawless and subtle imitation of Kirsten Dunst's sultry vocal mannerisms. And for fans of "Airplane!" (the movie that started the whole everything-but-the-kitchen-sink genre of comedy), there's an appropriate cameo by Robert Hays as Rick Riker's father. "Superhero" is a step above such recent tripe as "Date Movie" and "Meet the Spartans"... but sadly, that's not saying much. "--Bret Fetzer"

Director: Bryan Singer
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: PG-13

If Richard Donner's 1978 feature film "Superman: The Movie" made us believe a man could fly, Bryan Singer's 2006 follow-up, "Superman Returns", lets us remember that a superhero movie can make our spirits soar. Superman (played by newcomer Brandon Routh) comes back to Earth after a futile five-year search for his destroyed home planet of Krypton. As alter ego Clark Kent, he's eager to return to his job at the Daily Planet and to see Lois Lane (Kate Bosworth). Lois, however, has moved on: she now has a fiancé (James Marsden), a son (Tristan Leabu), and a Pulitzer Prize for her article entitled "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." On top of this emotional curveball, his old archrival Lex Luthor (Kevin Spacey) is plotting the biggest land grab in history.
Singer, who made a strong impression among comic-book fans for his work on the X-Men franchise and directed Spacey in "The Usual Suspects", brings both a fresh eye and a sense of respect to the world's oldest superhero. He borrows John Williams's great theme music and Marlon Brando's voice as Jor-El, and the story (penned by Singer's "X-Men" collaborators Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris) is a sort-of-sequel to the first two films in the franchise (choosing to ignore that the third and fourth movies ever happened). The humorous and romantic elements give the movie a heart, Singer's art-deco Metropolis is often breathtaking, and the special effects are elegant and spectacular, particularly an early airplane-disaster set-piece. Of the cast, Routh is excellent as the dual Superman/Clark, Spacey is both droll and vicious as Luthor, and Parker Posey gets the best lines as Luthor's moll Kitty. But at 23, Bosworth seems too young for the five-years-past-grizzled Lois. It's nice to see Noel Neill, Jack Larson (both from the classic "Adventures of Superman" TV series), and Eva Marie-Saint on the screen as well. Superman Returns is one of those projects that was in development for seemingly forever, but it was worth the wait -- it's the most enjoyable superhero movie since "Spider-Man 2" and "The Incredibles". "--David Horiuchi"

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Director: Jason Southwell
Genre: Drama
Studio: Warner Home Video
Rated: Unrated

Call it "Kolchak: The Night Stalker, The College Years" or "Buffy the Vampire Slayer for Boys", but the horror series "Supernatural" delivers some of the most satisfying small-screen scares in recent memory. The premise is deceptively simple: brothers Sam and Dean (Jared Padalecki from "Gilmore Girls" and Jensen Ackles, both appealing) travel the darker corners of the American landscape in search of their father, who's gone missing while hunting the malevolent forces that lead to the death of their mother. In the course of their search, the siblings encounter a host of otherworldly creatures, including vampires, ghosts, and witches, as well as such distinctly American phenomena as the urban-legend favorite the Hook ("Hookman"), monsters from Native American mythology ("Wendigo"), and fearful figures from children's games ("Bloody Mary"). "Supernatural"'s integration of elements from American pop culture and folklore, combined with its skilled cast and crew (creator/co-writer Erik Kripke delivered 2005's "Boogeyman", while director/executive producer David Nutter is a veteran of "The X-Files" and "Millennium"), and better-than-average attempts at atmosphere and suspense place the series well above the other spookshow programs that arrived on networks at about the same time ("Invasion", "Night Stalker"), and should hold considerable appeal for fans of frightful fare.
The six-disc set contains all 22 episodes of the debut season, with commentary by Ackles and Padalecki on "Phantom Traveler" and Nutter, Kripke, and producer Peter Johnson on the pilot episode; two making-of documentaries (one on the show itself, and the other on its stars), as well as a brace of unaired scenes and a gag reel round out the set. For those with DVD-ROM capabilities, the set also includes a link to a web site which offers a sneak preview at season 2 and the pilot script, among other bonus features. "--Paul Gaita"

Director: Jerry Turner
Studio: Ariztical Entertainment
Rated: Unrated

A closeted TV star, Den (Travis Michael Holder), and his much younger disabled lover's lives take an unexpected twist when they are confronted by the troubled teenaged son Den never knew he had. David (Lucas Elliot)-a swaggering 16-year-old homophobe-arri

Director: Jonathan Mostow
Genre: Action & Adventure
Studio: Touchstone Home Entertainment
Rated: PG-13

Intriguingly scaled more along the lines of a good sci-fi short story than a steroid-enhanced action picture, Surrogates proposes a variation on spectatorship-run-amok. In the near future, human beings need no longer leave their homes: mechanical surrogates, similar in appearance (but younger looking, fitter, with fewer wrinkles and more hair) can move about in the world on the user's behalf, following commands and absorbing physical wear and tear. A cop (Bruce Willis) begins investigating a mystifying case of a user who died when his surrogate got blasted by a fancy ray-gun in the street--that's a definite violation of the company guarantee. In the course of a trim, sub-90-minute running time, the Willis character himself is forced to enter the mean streets in his own flesh-and-blood version, not his surrogate, a move that puzzles both his wife (Rosamund Pike) and partner (Radha Mitchell). In the movie's scheme of perfect surrogates and digitally-smoothed faces, the grizzled humanity of Bruce Willis comes blazing through; what a relief to see a battered human in the midst of the beautiful people. Director Jonathan Mostow (Terminator 3) gets the world right, but one waits in vain for a fuller picture of the effects of this surrogate population, or a deeper study of the creator (James Cromwell) of the technology, or a reason to get involved in the rebel leader (Ving Rhames in a fright wig) and his reservation populated by defiant non-surrogates. Sprinting along as it does, Surrogates doesn't find time for these presumably crucial details, and the result feels just a little skin-deep. --Robert Horton

Stills from Surrogates (Click for larger image)

Director: John Polson
Genre: Mystery & Suspense
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Rated: PG-13

Best enjoyed as unintentional comedy, "Swimfan" is "Fatal Attraction" in high school, with a modest trick up its sleeve. Pay close attention to the opening minutes and you'll understand why new student Madison Bell (Erika Christensen) is so obsessed with swim-team star Ben Cronin (Jesse Bradford), but the movie's nearly over before that early clue is fully explained. By that time anyone with a pulse will be ahead of the hackneyed screenplay, so Madison's fatal attraction turns increasingly, and hilariously, predictable. Poor Ben has to suffer her suffocating manipulations, assuring his girlfriend (Shiri Appleby) that his quickie with Madison was a one-time mistake. Too late! Madison conned him into saying "I love you," and she's determined to be his girl... no matter what it takes. Credit Bradford and especially Christensen for keeping a straight face, and Aussie director John Polson for milking tension out of this trashy take on psychotic jealousy. Against all odds, it's garishly entertaining. "--Jeff Shannon"

Director: Dan Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy
Studio: Blackbird
Rated: R

Hank, stranded on a deserted island and about to kill himself, notices a corpse washed up on the beach. He befriends it, naming it Manny, only to discover that his new friend can talk and has a myriad of supernatural abilities...which may help him get home.