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OnVideo FEBRUARY Video Reviews

ADVENTURES OF ROCKY AND BULLWINKLE, THE Jay Ward's famous animated heroes make it to the big screen with mixed results. When baddies Natasha Fatale (Rene Russo), Boris Badenov (Jason Alexander) and Fearless Leader (Robert De Niro) somehow morph from animated characters into the real world -- with a mission of world domination and destruction of moose and squirrel -- Rocky and Bullwinkle are called back into action to save the planet. Joined by a rookie FBI agent (Piper Perabo) the dynamic duo blunder their way on a wild cross-country journey to New York to foil the evil plot. The uneven humor is generously spiced with inside-Hollywood jokes. Director: Des McAnuff. Stars: Voice of June Foray (Rocky), Keith Scott (Bullwinkle), Rene Russo, Jason Alexander, Piper Perabo, Robert De Niro, Kenan Thompson, Kel Mitchell, Randy Quaid. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 86 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $26.000 million, (Universal), Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount BEAUTIFUL Off-kilter look at beauty pageants, with Minnie Driver as a professional beauty contestant who has entrusted her daughter to a friend so that she can enter the contests. Joey Lauren Adams plays the lifelong friend, who pretends to be the mother of Driver's daughter. Unlikable characters in unlikely situations. Director: Sally Field. Stars: Minnie Driver, Joey Lauren Adams, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Kathleen Turner, Leslie Stefanson. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 112 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $2.834 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/20, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount BEDAZZLED Remake of 1967 British comedy of the same name created by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, pales in comparison to the original. Social misfit Brendan Fraser is hopelessly in love with co-worker Frances O'Connor and strikes a bargain with the devil (played vampishly by Elizabeth Hurley) for seven wishes in which to win his girl. Naturally all his wishes go disastrously haywire. Director: Harold Ramis. Stars: Brendan Fraser, Elizabeth Hurley. Frances O'Connor, Orlando Jones, Miriam Shor, Paul Adelstein. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 92 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $37.319 million, (Fox), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/27, DVD: March 13. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount BLESS THE CHILD Kim Basinger is a working-class nurse who raises the "special" daughter of her junkie sister -- the child, born on Christmas Eve, is "special" because she appears to be autistic but really has paranormal powers (she can heal the sick, scare off bad guys with just a stare, etc.). But one day the sister returns -- supposedly cured and bringing along her new husband, the evil leader of a devil-worshipping cult -- to claim the girl. Is the girl a Christ child? Is she about to be abducted by satan's crew? Will FBI investigator Jimmy Smits help Kim save the day? The "Omen" this ain't. Director: Mace Neufeld. Stars: Kim Basinger, Jimmy Smits, Rufus Sewell, Christina Ricci, Ian Holm, Holliston Coleman, Angela Bettis. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 113 min.), Horror Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $29.374 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2 Lackluster sequel to smash indie hit has five youngsters obsessed with the original traveling into the woods of Burkittsville, Md., where they encounter all sorts of terrible things, including strange visions, a mass murder of another group of Blair Witch tourists, and a lapse of story line and true horror thrills. Director: Joe Berlinger. Stars: Jeffrey Donovan, Tristen Skyler, Stephen Barker Turner, Erica Leerhsen, Kim Director. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 90 min.), Horror, 2000, Box office gross: $26.378 million, (Artisan), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/20, DVD: March 13. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount BRING IT ON High school cheerleading comes to the fore in this fluff piece on behind-the-scenes rivalries, competitions and antics of pompon twirlers. Director: Peyton Reed. Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union, Clare Kramer, Nicole Bilderback. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 98 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $64.749 million, (Universal), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount DR. T AND THE WOMEN Robert Altman ensemble comedy about a doctor (Richard Gere) who appears to have it all: a thriving practice frequented by adoring, good-looking women; a loving wife and a cheerleading daughter. But things begin to unravel as his wife has a nervous breakdown, the soon- to-be-married daughter has a thing for her maid of honor and he falls for a local female golf pro. Oh yes -- there's a typical big Altman crazy-quilt wedding and a Texas twister on the way. Director: Robert Altman. Stars: Richard Gere, Helen Hunt, Farrah Fawcett, Laura Dern, Shelley Long, Tara Reid, Kate Hudson, Liv Tyler. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 122 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $13.022 million, (Artisan), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/6, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount GET CARTER Remake of 1971 movie (starring Michael Caine) about a small time gangster who investigates his brother's death, here with Sylvester Stallone as a cool-customer Las Vegas loan shark collector who travels to Seattle when he finds out that his brother's death was not accidental. Aging Stallone perks up in this role that allows him to beat up a lot of people. Violent and oppressive. Director: Stephen Kay. Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Miranda Richardson, Rachael Leigh Cook, Michael Caine, Alan Cumming, Mickey Rourke. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 102 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $14.967 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount LOST SOULS It's 666 time again in this horror thriller that stars Winona Ryder as a demon hunter hot on the trail of the latest Antichrist -- who in this case is a famous but mild-mannered author who will become the devil's own on his fast-approaching 33rd birthday. The ringer here is that Ryder's character had once been possessed herself -- she was saved by a priest, played by John Hurt -- so her hunt is tainted by her own demonic background. Will she stop the devil in time or will the ending be downbeat? Director: Janusz Kaminski. Stars: Winona Ryder, Ben Chaplin, Sarah Wynter, Philip Baler Hall, John Hurt, Elias Koteas. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 98 min.), Horror, 2000, Box office gross: $16.779 million, (New Line), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/27, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount URBAN LEGENDS: FINAL CUT Sequel to "Urban Legends" -- in which a series of murders are committed based on contemporary folk tales -- pretty much jettisons the original conceit and keys in on the killings of kids who worked on a student film at Alpine University, where the Alfred Hitchcock Award is to die for, so to speak. Director: John Ottman. Stars: Jennifer Morrison, Mathew Davis, Hart Bochner, Lorette Devine, Joseph Lawrence, Anson Mount. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 98 min.), Horror, 2000, Box office gross: $21.428 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount WATCHER, THE All too familiar thriller about criminal duality: the interactions between a serial killer and the man who must track him down. Keanu Reeves is the black-leather clad murderer who stalks lonely women (his m.o.: he identifies them a day in advance) and James Spader is the emotionally destroyed FBI agent who hunts him. It's a non-stop bloodfest for the gore-inclined. Soundtrack features, appropriately, music by Rob Zombie. Director: Joe Charbanic. Stars: Keanu Reeves, James Spader, Marisa Tomei, Ernie Hudson, Chris Ellis. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 97 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $28.927 million, (Universal), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/20, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount WHIPPED Sex comedy about three friends -- would-be lotharios who meet every Sunday at a diner to discuss their real and imagined conquests with women -- who all fall for the same woman (Amanda Peet). Unbeknownst to them -- or despite the truth facing them -- the young woman plays them all for chumps. The three men are painted with broad strokes of loathsome salaciousness so that you can't help but relish their ultimate comeuppance. Director: Peter M. Cohen. Stars: Amanda Peet, Brian Van Holt, Judah Domke, Zorie Barber, Jonathan Abrahams, Callie Thorner. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 85 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $4.095 million, (Columbia TriStar), VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount WOMAN ON TOP Modern-day fable about a woman with a rare motion sickness that forces her to constantly be in control of her physical movement -- from dancing to making love -- who is blessed by a Brazilian sea goddess with the ability to make food imbued with the magic of aphrodisiacs. When her husband -- tired of being on the bottom -- has an affair, the woman flees to San Francisco, where she gets her own cooking show. Meantime, her husband tracks her down, hoping to break her spell on other men and win her back. A delightful, if inconsequential, love story, imbued with gorgeous colors and catchy Brazilian music, reaffirming the belief that love conquers all. Director: Fina Torres. Stars: Penelope Cruz, Murilo Benicio, Harold Perrineau Jr., Mark Feuerstein, John De Lancie. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 85 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $5.018 million, (Fox), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 2/13, DVD: Day & Date. Buy or preorder this title at up to 40% discount All DVDs are screened on a reference system consisting of a Rotel RDV-1080 DVD Audio/Video Player, a Rotel RSX-972 Surround Sound Receiver, and Phase Technology 1.1 (front), 33.1 (center), and 50 (rear) speakers and Power 10 subwoofer. | Contents/Site Map | Home | Resources | VidNews | KidVid | Calendar | Sell-Through | DVD | Reviews | E-mail: mail@onvideo.org © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 OnVideo. All rights reserved January 15, 2001