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OnVideo JULY Video Reviews

BROTHERS, THE Run of the mill comedy about four young professional men and their pretty much failed love lives. Their main problem: they're ultimately too self-involved to understand the opposite sex, instead preferring to hang together and shoot hoops and complain about women. They're hard to like -- as is the film. Director: Gary Hardwick. Stars: Morris Chestnut, Bill Bellamy, D.L. Hughley, Shemar Moore, Gabrielle Union, Jenifer Lewis, Susan Dalian. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 98 min.), Romantic Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $22.488 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/31, DVD: Day & Date. DOWN TO EARTH Chris Rock vehicle directed by the team behind "American Pie" is a remake of two previous box office successes: 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" and 1978's "Heaven Can Wait." Both were about a man who dies before his allotted time on Earth -- by the manipulations of an inept Angel -- and who is given a chance to come back to life ... but in the body of another. Here the gag is that Rock comes back in the body of a middle-aged, rich white man, setting up all kinds of wonderful black and white jokes. One of Rock's better outings, with good pacing by the Weitz brothers and scorching soundtrack. For the most part this comedy clicks for a surprisingly satisfying viewing experience ... but the repeated white vs. black gags do get tiresome after awhile. Director: Chris and Paul Weitz. Stars: Chris Rock, Regina King, Chazz Palminteri, Eugene Levy, Mark Addy. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 87 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $63.095 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/10, DVD: Day & Date. DRACULA 2000 The Dracula legend updated for the 21st century. This version starts out where the original "Dracula" left off -- save with one change -- vampire hunter Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) was never able to kill Count Dracula -- he just entombed him in the vault of his antique store. To make sure that he never gets out, Van Helsing decides to live forever, injecting himself with a little of the Count's blood, to watch over the undead. But now its 2000, and the Count's coffin is stolen and he disappears, only to show up in New Orleans, where Van Helsing and his assistant follow. It's Mardi Gras time: What better occasion for a goth to have fun and suck a little blood. Can the spoilsports stop him? Director: Patrick Lussier. Stars: Gerald Butler, Christopher Plummer, Jonny Lee Miller, Justine Waddell, Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Espositio, Omar Epps, Sean Patrick Thomas. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 100 min.), Horror, 2000, Box office gross: $33.000 million, (Dimension), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/03, DVD: Day & Date. FAMILY MAN, THE Thirteen years ago Jack Campbell (Nicolas Cage) left for London for a prestigious financial internship, promising his girlfriend Kate (Tea Leoni) that they would be apart for only a year. Now Jack is a slick, high-powered Wall street broker who never looked back. But as Christmas rolls around, Jack is in for a surprise -- he wakes up one morning in suburban New Jersey next to Kate, in a world at the end of a path he might have taken 13 years earlier. His bachelor pad has been replaced by a modest house and his Ferrari is now a minivan. And, to his horror, his real life has been obliterated. Now he gets a glimpse of what might have been -- with two kids and diapers -- hoping it's just temporary. "It's a Wonderful Life" for the 21st century. Director: Brett Ratner. Stars: Nicolas Cage, Tea Leoni, Don Cheadle. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 126 min.), Comedy, 2000, Box office gross: $75.764 million, (Universal), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/17, DVD: Day & Date. GIFT, THE Psychological thriller about a young woman (Cate Blanchett) with the "gift" of psychic visions who plies her trade in a small town in Georgia. When the fiance and father of a missing young woman come to her for help, she leads the police to her body --in the yard of the local wife beater (Keanu Reeves). But is the hothead really the murderer? The psychic begins to have doubts about the clarity of her visions. The Southern grit is courtesy of screenwriter Billy Bob Thornton and the chills courtesy of Sam Raimi. Director: Sam Raimi. Stars: Cate Blanchett, Hilary Swank, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi, Greg Kinnear, Katie Holmes, Michael Jeter, Kim Dickens. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 105 min.), Thriller, 2000, Box office gross: $11.835 million, (Paramount), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/17, DVD: Day & Date. HEAD OVER HEELS Monica Potter plays an unlucky-at-love art restorer in New York who finally meets the man of her dreams (Freddie Prinze Jr.). She's just moved in with four models whose apartment overlooks her new boyfriend's and, one day, she thinks she sees him murdering a young woman. So she starts to snoop around with her roommates in search of a body. Should she keep dating him? Should she call the cops? Should she rent a copy of "Rear Window"? A low-rent comedy that has its shares of laughs and twists and turns. Director: Mark Waters. Stars: Monica Potter, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah O'Hare, Shalom Harlow, China Chow, Ivana Milicevic, Tomiko Fraser. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 86 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $10.397 million, (Universal), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/31, DVD: Day & Date. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wei has established himself as one of the most stylish filmmakers to come out of Asia in recent years and this outing should up the demand for his directorial talent. His cinema is one of loneliness -- the modern loneliness one can feel even in a crowded room or street. This film -- as in 1994's "Chungking Express" -- is shot in the oppressive closeness of Hong Kong (the better to heighten the aloneness his characters feel) and follows the emotional rollercoaster of a man and woman -- neighbors in the same building -- who come to know each other when they suspect that their respective spouses are having an affair. Director: Wong Kar-Wei. Stars: Maggie Cheung Man-yuk, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Rebecca Pan, Lai Chen, Siu Ping-lam. CC, (MPAA rating: PG, 100 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $2.632 million, (USA), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/31, DVD: Day & Date. MONKEYBONE Offbeat live/stop motion animation from director Henry Selick ("Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas") has Brendan Fraser playing a cartoonist whose comic strip is on its way to a national TV show ... until a freak accident puts him in a coma on the verge of death. His soul winds up in the nightmare world of Downtown, where he must struggle to awaken before his body dies. But when his body does awake, it's not the cartoonist inside -- it's his comic strip alter-ego, Monkeybone -- and the character is rude, crude and ready to wreak havoc on the world. There's so much more going on here -- including an organ donor who escapes the hospital with innards leaking out -- that a capsule description can't do it justice. It's surreal eye candy for altered states. Director: Henry Selick. Stars: Brendan Fraser, Bridget Fonda, Chris Kattan, John Turutto, Giancarlo Esposito, Rose McGowan, David Foley, Whoopi Goldberg. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 91 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $5.409 million, (Fox), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/10, DVD: Day & Date. POLLOCK Dutiful biodrama of the life of Jackson Pollock, arguably America's first internationally famous painter, brought to the screen by Ed Harris, who struggled for years to get it made. Harris plays Pollock (he devoted himself to studying Pollock's style so that he could paint like him on camera) and Marcia Gay Harden plays Lee Krasner, Pollock's fellow artist, lover and eventually wife. The film is unremitting in its exploration of the demons behind this creative giant. Director: Ed Harris. Stars: Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Amy Madigan, Jennifer Connelly, Jeffrey Tambor, Bud Cort, John Heard, Val Kilmer. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 122 min.), Biodrama, 2000, Box office gross: $6.755 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/24, DVD: Day & Date. SUGAR & SPICE Empty-headed comedy about a group of high school cheerleaders who decide to rob a bank to get money for their leader, who has gotten herself pregnant by the school's hot shot quarterback. Faster than you can say Sis! Boom! Rah! the youngsters become national folk heroes. Ugh! Director: Francine McDougall. Stars: Marla Sokoloff, Marley Shelton, Mena Suvari, James Marsden. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 80 min.), Comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $12.353 million, (New Line), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/17, DVD: Day & Date. SWEET NOVEMBER Fluff of a love story -- a remake of sorts of the Sandy Dennis-Anthony Newley 1968 film -- about a good woman who makes over a bad man. Here the baddie is a super ad executive (Keanu Reeves) who thinks he's God's gift to the world while the sweet woman is played by Charlize Theron. Through an odd set of circumstances the pair meet and she gets one month to turn him around to regain his humanity. Guess who falls in love? Cut to a happy ending. Director: Pat O'Connor. Stars: Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Jason Isaacs, Greg Germann, Liam Aiken, Robert Joy, Lauren Graham. CC, (MPAA rating: Pg-13, 119 min.), Romance, 2001, Box office gross: $17.787 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/24, DVD: Day & Date. THIRTEEN DAYS Ensemble cast in a tight, lush retelling of the events surrounding the Cuban Missile Crisis in October, 1962, and the anguish and anger over the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse. Director: Roger Donaldson. Stars: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker, Michael Fairman, Kevin Conway. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 145 min.), Drama, 2000, Box office gross: $30.654 million, (New Line), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/10, DVD: Day & Date. VALENTINE Typical teen slasher film about the revenge of a high school nerd who was humiliated 13 years earlier at a Valentine's Day Dance. All the pretty girls and boys get their comeuppance. Case closed. Director: Jamie Blanks. Stars: David Boreanaz, Denise Richards, Narley Shelton, Katherine Heigl, Jessica Capshaw, Jessica Cauffiel, Daniel Cosgrove. CC, (MPAA rating: R, 95 min.), Horror Thriller, 2001, Box office gross: $19.755 million, (Warner), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/24, DVD: Day & Date. WEDDING PLANNER, THE By-the-numbers comedy about a young woman (Jennifer Lopez) whose career as a wedding planner is a success but her personal love life is a mess. Into her life comes a handsome young pediatrician (Matthew McConaughey) who rescues her from the path of a runaway dumpster. Naturally they hit it off -- but he forgets to tell her one important fact -- he's engaged to be married. And guess who's supposed to be their wedding planner? The stage has been set for all sorts of lies of the heart and misunderstandings -- if you can take it. Director: Adam Shankman. Stars: Jennifer Lopez, Matthew McConaughey, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, Justin Chambers, Alex Rocco, Judy Greer, Kevin Pollack, Joanna Gleason, Charles Kimbrough. CC, (MPAA rating: PG-13, 100 min.), Romantic comedy, 2001, Box office gross: $54.471 million, (Columbia TriStar), No VHS SRP, Priced for rental, Available: 7/3, DVD: Day & Date. 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 June 15, 2001