OnVideo DECEMBER Video Reviews

OnVideo DECEMBER Video Reviews

ART OF WAR, THE
Fast-paced, exciting actioner with great stunts and a James Bond story line, about a secret United Nations task force that carries out covert ops against its member nations in order to keep world peace. Here, against the background of a trade treaty that will open China to world markets, the U.N. force's chief operative (Wesley Snipes) is framed for the assassination of the Chinese U.N. ambassador and must go on the run -- with the aid of a U.N. translator -- to clear himself and discover the real killer. Hunted by the FBI, the cops and the Chinese Tongs, Snipes uses his skills and wits to keep one step ahead of death. Director: Christian Duguay. Stars: Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Biehn, Donald Sutherland.
Director: Christian Duguay. Stars: Wesley Snipes, Anne Archer, Maury Chaykin, Marie Matiko, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Michael Biehn, Donald Sutherland. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 119 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $30.006 million, (Warner), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/26, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

CELL, THE
Jennifer Lopez plays a psychologist who helps her patients with the aid of something called a Neurological Cartography and Synaptic Transfer System, allowing her to enter their severely emotionally damaged minds. But she gets more than she bargained for when she enters the mind of a serial killer -- fond of videotaping his victims as they drown in a water-filled glass cage -- to find the whereabouts of his latest victim before it's too late. Both Lopez -- and the audience -- get stuck in a weird, ethereal world that's kind of a music video-inspired "Silence of the Lambs." Not surprisingly, director Tarsem Singh (just call him Tarsem, please) comes from the world of music videos. Vince Vaughn plays an FBI agent who saves the day.
Director: Tarsem Singh. Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Vince Vaughn, Vincent D'Onofrio, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Jake Weber, Dylan Baker. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 108 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $54.985 million, (New Line), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

CHUCK & BUCK
When childhood pals Buck and Chuck reunite at (now-called) Charlie's mother's funeral, infantile and emotionally needy Buck fixates on the now rich music executive. Following him and his stylish fiancee back to L.A., Buck stalks the pair, trying to i nsinuate himself into Charlie's life. Failing that, he writes a play about himself and Charlie, putting it on at a local theater. When Charlie and his girl attend the play, there's a final confrontation between the men: Buck loves Chuck. Get it?
Director: Miguel Arteta. Stars: Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz Unsatisfying indie film:. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 95 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $1.015 million, (Artisan), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

EXORCIST, THE
The highlight of the month has to be the video re-release of 1973's "The Exorcist" (starring Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow and Lee J. Cobb), which garnered more than $40 million at the box office in its theatrical re-release this fall. Director William Friedkin has added in 11 minutes of footage to bring this version in line with writer William Peter Blatty's original vision, sharpening some of the characters, deepening the spiritual foundation of the film and adding some more truly terrifying moments. The film's mono soundtrack has been digitally remastered into six-track surround and has been enriched with new special sound effects, new atmospheric sounds and some new music. The DVD has audio commentary by Friedkin, cast/director film highlights and trailers. The DVD is priced at $19.98 and the VHS will be for rental.
Director: William Friedkin. Stars: Linda Blair, Ellen Burstyn, Jason Miller, Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 132 min.), Horror, 1973, (Warner), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/26, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

GODZILLA 2000
Killed off in 1995, Godzilla here mysteriously returns to battle invaders from outer space. Ya gotta love this 170-foot high monster (still played by a man in a latex suit) even though the story line waxes and wanes, and is oh, so predictable. It starts out with the Godzilla Prediction Network tracking the big guy (or is it girl?) as it lumbers back to the city, stumbles when a 60-million year-old UFO is unearthed, and starts up again as Godzilla comes to the rescue of an embattled city. For Godzilla diehards only. Dubbed in English.
Director: Takao Okawara. Stars: Takehiro Murata, Shiro Sano, Hiroshi Abe, Naomi Nishida, Mayu Suzuki, Godzilla. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 99 min.), Science Fiction, 2000, Box office gross: $9.794 million, (Columbia TriStar), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/26, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

GONE IN 60 SECONDS
Exciting remake of the 1974 cult movie of the same name. Nicolas Cage plays a reformed car thief dragged back to his craft in order to save the life of his brother (Giovanni Ribisi) -- also a car thief but one who has botched a big order. Cage has one night in which to steal 50 cars, and he must face off against a rival gang, a police detective hot on his trail, and a key-eating canine. Not as much road carnage as the original, but nevertheless a slick, high-speed production. The film focuses on Cage to the detriment of the rest of the cast.
Director: Dominic Sena. Stars: Nicolas Cage, Giovanni Ribisi, Angelina Jolie, Robert Duvall, Delroy Lindo, Will Patton, Christopher Eccleston. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 119 min.), Action, 2000, Box office gross: $96.926 million, (Buena Vista), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/05, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

LOSER
From the director of "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and "Clueless" comes this meek college comedy about a pair of outsiders at a private New York City college: Jason Biggs as a geeky small towner out of his league with the hip crowd, and Mena Suvari as a hard-working student who needs a night job to make ends meet. He gets kicked out of his room by his pot-smoking roommates and lives in a veterinary hospital; she has an affair with a snotty professor. Do these unlikely people meet? Only the scriptwriter knows for sure.
Director: Amy Heckerling. Stars: Jason Biggs, Mena Suvari, Zak Orth, Tom Sadoski, Greg Kinnear, Dan Aykroyd, Jimmi Simpson. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 98 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $15.248 million, (Columbia TriStar), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

NUTTY PROFESSOR II: THE KLUMPS
Eddie Murphy returns in eight roles in this sequel of sorts to the remake of Jerry Lewis' "The Nutty Professor." This outing -- so obviously made to cash in on 1996's remake that it's painful -- has Professor Klump isolating the Buddy Love DNA (that causes him to turn from a 400-pound fattie to a svelte, lady-chasing lothario) but accidentally creating Buddy as a separate person. While the plot ostensibly has the Professor and Buddy fighting it out for a youth serum, it takes off in all direction as it focuses on the weird Klump family. Too many bodily function jokes. Director: Peter Segal.
Director: Peter Segal. Stars: Eddie Murphy times 8, Janet Jackson, Larry Miller, Richard Grant. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 105 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $112.000 million, (Universal), $22.98 SRP, Available: 12/05, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

ROAD TO EL DORADO, THE
Disappointing animated outing about a pair of bumbling adventurers in the early 16th century who travel to the New World -- one step ahead of Cortes and his Conquistadors -- in search of the mythical city of El Dorado and its gold. It's a buddy movie in the vein of the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby "Road to ..." flicks (but with Rosie Perez thrown in as a way-too-sexy-for-the-kids version of Dorothy Lamour) lacking the great one-liners. Music by Elton John and Tim Rice.
Director: Eric Bibo Bergeron, Don Paul. Stars: Voices of Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, Rosie Perez, Armand Assante, Edward James Olmos, J. Cummings. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 98 min.), Animated, 2000, Box office gross: $50.802 million, (DreamWorks), TBD SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/12, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

ROAD TRIP
Sex comedy about a New York college student (Breckin Meyer) whose long-distance romance with an Austin, Texas co-ed is jeopardized by a videotaped tryst with another woman -- one of his dumber friends mails the tape to the girlfriend. Sooner than you can say Food Fight ("Road Trip" is a direct descendent of "Animal House") we've embarked on a road trip to Austin to intercept the tape, with all sorts of "funny" events unfolding on the 800-mile jaunt. Some inspired lunacy.
Director: Todd Phillips. Stars: Breckin Meyer, Seann William Scott, Amy Smart, Paul Costanzo, DJ Qualls, Rachel Blanchard. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 93 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $68.525 million, (DreamWorks), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: 3. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SAVING GRACE
Delightful comedy, set in a small English village, about middle-aged Grace (Brenda Blethyn), who discovers that her recently deceased husband not only was a philanderer but a scoundrel as well: he squandered the family wealth and left his wife with more debts than she could ever hope to repay. Her saving grace comes in the form of Matthew (Craig Ferguson), who works at the local vicarage and has a crop of marijuana plots in need of a home. Grace -- who has a green thumb of her own -- takes on the chore, and soon the pair are dope entrepreneurs, on their way to making enough money to pay off her bills. The dichotomy of a pair of middle-aged small-villagers raising pot and hustling their high quality wares in London is one of many fine set pieces in this charming film.
Director: Nigel Cole. Stars: Brenda Blethyn, Craig Ferguson, Martin Clunes, Tcheky Karyo. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 92 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $9.690 million, (New Line), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SCARY MOVIE
Spoof of all those teen slasher horror films that have captured the box office ("Scream," "I Know What You Did Last Summer," etc.) in recent years. Here a group of high school kids try to solve the murder of one of their friends, discovering that the killer is among them. Jokes range from the raunchy to the disgusting, with every kind of toilet, gay-baiting and sexual bit thrown in for good measure.
Director: Keenen Ivory Wayans. Stars: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Cheri Oteri, Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Regina Hall. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 85 min.), Horror Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $149.348 million, (Dimension), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/12, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SHAFT
Director John Singleton and Samuel L. Jackson definitely score big with "Shaft," an homage/sequel of sorts to the 1971 and 1972 blaxploitation films starring Richard Roundtree. Jackson plays the ultra-cool and hip John Shaft, nephew of the original Shaft, trying to nail an ultra-rich white racist (Christian Bale) for the murder of a black man. Naturally Shaft has to fight corrupt cops and judges before he gets his man.
Director: John Singleton. Stars: Samuel L. Jackson, Vanessa Williams, Jeffrey Wright, Christian Bale, Busta Rhymes, Dan Hedaya, Toni Collette, Richard Roundtree. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 98 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $69.498 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/12, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

SMALL TIME CROOKS
Woody Allen comedy about a crew of bumbling, dimwitted crooks whose attempts to rob a bank meet all kinds of frustrations -- including a burst water main when Allen drills into a wall and hits a pipe. But the crew does strike it rich, when the front for their operation -- Allen's wife's cookie store -- hits it big and the money comes rolling in. The Allen-esque comedy doesn't end here, of course, as the slapstick continues despite a move to wealthier digs uptown. A bit too vulgar and not one of his best outings.
Director: Woody Allen. Stars: Woody Allen, Tracey Ullman, Elaine May, Hugh Grant, Michael Rapaport, Jon Lovitz, Elaine Stritch. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 94 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $17.071 million, (DreamWorks), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

VIRGIN SUICIDES, THE
Off-beat film written and directed by Sofia Coppola, about the five beautiful Lisbon sisters who, 25 years ago, committed suicide rather than continue living life in the repressive home afforded them by their hysterical mom (Kathleen Turner) and weirded-out math teacher dad (James Woods). The film is narrated by an adult who looks back and speaks for all the boys who lusted after the perfect sisters and who, unwittingly, set off the disastrous chain of events leading to the girls' deaths. Based on the novel of the same name.
Director: Sofia Coppola. Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Josh Hartnett, James Woods, Kathleen Turner, Hanna R. Hall, Chelse Swain, D, DeVito. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 97 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $4.859 million, (Paramount), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

WHERE THE MONEY IS
Paul Newman is in rare form here as an infamous bank robber who feigns a stroke to "break out" of prison, landing at a nursing home and falling under the charm of Linda Fiorentino. Fiorentino plays an ex-prom queen working at the home, and she instinctively knows that Newman is faking it. She soon hatches a robbery plot of her own, and Newman is all too happy to oblige. Add in Dermot Mulroney as Fiorentino's loser-of-a-husband who joins in the caper as an odd-man-out and this film really takes off for a delightful romp through criminal mischievousness.
Director: Marek Kanievska. Stars: Paul Newman, Linda Fiorentino, Dermot Mulroney, Susan Barnes, Anne Pitonaik, Bruce MacVittie. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 89 min.), Caper comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $5.658 million, (USA), No SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 12/19, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount

All films are screened using the DVD version, when available, on a reference Rotel RDV-995 DVD player.

| Contents/Site Map | Home | Resources | VidNews | KidVid | Calendar | Sell-Through | DVD | Reviews |

E-mail: mail@onvideo.org
© 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 OnVideo. All rights reserved

November 15, 2000